Russia Begins Operations in Syria: End Game for the US Empire?

[angelburst29]

Pentagon report: Iran took SIM cards from detained U.S. sailors' phones
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-navy-iran--20160118-story.html

Iranian soldiers removed two SIM cards from two handheld satellite phones but otherwise returned all weapons, ammunition and equipment when they released 10 U.S. sailors and their two boats last week, the Pentagon said Monday.

The first public report from U.S. Central Command into the incident provided that and other new details but did not answer the key question of why the U.S. Navy crews deviated from their course in the Persian Gulf and entered Iranian waters.

Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said the two Navy crews departed Kuwait Tuesday at shortly after noon local time en route to Bahrain, more than 300 miles away.

They were supposed to follow a course that would keep them in international waters. They were scheduled to refuel at a rendezvous with the Monomey, a Coast Guard cutter, at about 5 p.m.

But the two boats veered off course into Iranian waters.

“The command investigation will determine what caused the change in course and why the [boats] entered into Iranian territorial waters in the vicinity of Farsi Island,” the report said.

The crews then stopped to try to fix a mechanical problem in one boat’s diesel engine.

“This stop occurred in Iranian territorial waters, although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location,” the report said.

At about 5:10 p.m., one of the boats apparently sent a brief radio report that Iranian boats were approaching. A second message was garbled. All communications were cut off by 5:45 p.m., the report said.

U.S. commanders launched search and rescue aircraft from the Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier then 40 miles southeast of Farsi Island. French and British warships in the region also participated.

The Navy attempted to contact Iranian military units by broadcasting details of the search and rescue effort over marine radio, and notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone, the report said.

The sailors left Farsi Island at 11:43 a.m. on Jan 13, aboard the two riverine boats, and met up with the Anzio, a Navy cruiser. They were later transferred ashore and are being debriefed at a U.S. Base in Qatar.

An inventory showed that nothing was missing from the sailors or the two boats except for SIM cards from two satellite phones. The report did not say if the loss involved classified information or was significant.

Other sailors then took charge of the two riverine boats and arrived in Bahrain early Thursday morning.

The preliminary timeline was based on operational reports received in the first 48 hours after the incident, the report said.

Central Command said it will provide more details as the Navy works to complete a more thorough investigation.


Central Command Report: Events Surrounding Iranian Detainment of U.S. Sailors
http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-report-events-surrounding-iranian-detainment-of-us-sailors-20160118-story.html

January 18, 2016

RELEASE # 20160118-03
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. Central Command Statement on Events Surrounding Iranian Detainment of 10 U.S. Navy Sailors on Jan. 12-13, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. - The following preliminary timeline of the events surrounding the Iranian detainment of 10 U.S. Navy Sailors from January 12-13, 2016, is based upon multiple operational reports received by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in the first 24-48 hours after the incident. A Navy command investigation initiated on Jan. 14, will provide a more complete accounting of events.

On Jan. 12, two NAVCENT Riverine Command Boat (RCB) crews were tasked with the mission of relocating two RCBs from Kuwait to Bahrain, with a planned refueling en route alongside the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy. The two RCBs were traveling together since they train and deploy in two-boat elements. They departed Kuwait at 9:23 a.m. (GMT). The planned transit path for the mission was down the middle of the Gulf and not through the territorial waters of any country other than Kuwait and Bahrain.

The two RCBs were scheduled to conduct an underway refueling with the USCGC Monomoy in international waters at approximately 2 p.m. (GMT). At approximately 2:10 p.m. (GMT) NAVCENT received a report that the RCBs were being queried by Iranians. At approximately 2:29 p.m. (GMT) NAVCENT was advised of degraded communications with the RCBs. At 2:45 p.m. (GMT) NAVCENT was notified of a total loss of communications with the RCBs. Immediately, NAVCENT initiated an intensive search and rescue operation using both air and naval assets including aircraft from USS Harry S. Truman and the U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Coast Guard, U.K. Royal Navy and U.S. Navy surface vessels. At the time of the incident, two carrier strike groups were operating nearby. USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group was 45 miles southeast of Farsi Island and Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group was 40 miles north of Farsi Island. NAVCENT attempted to contact Iranian military units operating near Farsi Island by broadcasting information regarding their search and rescue effort over marine radio, and separately notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone about the search for their personnel. At 6:15 p.m. (GMT), U.S. Navy cruiser USS Anzio received a communication from the Iranians that the RCB Sailors were in Iranian custody and were "safe and healthy."

NAVCENT's initial operational reports showed that while in transit from Kuwait to Bahrain the RCBs deviated from their planned course on their way to the refueling. The command investigation will determine what caused the change in course and why the RCBs entered into Iranian territorial waters in the vicinity of Farsi Island.

At some point one RCB had indications of a mechanical issue in a diesel engine which caused the crews to stop the RCBs and begin troubleshooting. As the RCBs travel together, the second RCB also stopped. This stop occurred in Iranian territorial waters, although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location. While the RCBs were stopped and the crew was attempting to evaluate the mechanical issue, Iranian boats approached the vessels.

Based upon initial operational reports, the first boats on scene were two small craft with armed personnel on board. Soon after, two more Iranian military vessels arrived on scene also with armed personnel on board.

Initial operational reports indicate there was a verbal exchange between the Sailors and the Iranians but no exchange of gun fire. Armed Iranian military personnel then boarded the RCBs, while other Iranian personnel aboard the Iranian vessels conducted armed over-watch of the boats with mounted machine guns. At gunpoint, the RCBs were escorted to a small port facility on Farsi Island where the U.S. Sailors disembarked and were detained for approximately 15 hours. At this point there are no indications that the Sailors were physically harmed during their detainment. The Navy command investigation will focus on the Sailors' treatment while in Iranian custody, including any interrogation by Iranian personnel. All indications are that the RCB crews were detained by Iranian military personnel operating from Farsi Island.

The Sailors departed Farsi Island at 8:43 a.m. (GMT) Jan. 13, aboard the two RCBs. The Sailors were later transferred ashore by U.S. Navy aircraft from the cruiser USS Anzio and the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. Other Sailors took charge of the RCBs and continued transiting toward Bahrain, the boats' original destination. The RCBs arrived in Bahrain at 10:38 p.m. (GMT) Jan. 13.

A post-recovery inventory of the boats found that all weapons, ammunition and communication gear are accounted for minus two SIM cards that appear to have been removed from two handheld satellite phones.

The Sailors are in good health and continue to go through the reintegration process. The Navy command investigation continues and more details will be provided when it is completed.

Note: Time differences in both reports. Is "GMT" a 3 hour difference?

1st article - Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said that the two Navy crews departed Kuwait Tuesday at shortly after noon local time en route to Bahrain more than 300 miles away.

2nd article - They departed Kuwait at 9:23 a.m. (GMT).


1st article - They were supposed to follow a course that would keep them in international waters. They were scheduled to refuel at a rendezvous with the Monomey, a Coast Guard cutter, at about 5 p.m.

2nd article - The two RCBs scheduled to conduct an underway refueling with the USCGC Monomoy in international waters at approximately 2 p.m. (GMT).


1st article - At about 5:10 p.m., one of the boats apparently sent a brief radio report that Iranian boats were approaching. A second message was garbled. All communications were cut off by 5:45 p.m., the report said.

2nd article - At approximately 2:10 p.m. (GMT) NAVCENT received a report that the RCBs were being queried by Iranians. At approximately 2:29 p.m. (GMT) NAVCENT was advised of degraded communications with the RCBs.


1st article - The sailors left Farsi Island at 11:43 a.m. on Jan 13 , aboard the two riverine boats, and met up with the Anzio, a Navy cruiser.

2nd article - The Sailors departed Farsi Island at 8:43 a.m. (GMT) Jan. 13, aboard the two RCBs.

 

[angelburst29]

Russia refuses to pay for political slaps from Europe
http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/18-01-2016/133081-russia_political_slaps-0/

Russian delegates will not take part in the first session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2016, chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin said. The session is to take place on January 25-29 in Strasbourg.

According to sources in the Russian government, the decision is final.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry delivered a report about the plans of going to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. For the time being, there is no guarantee that Russia will again receive the rights and powers that the country used to have in the organization. We do not want to go to Strasbourg to be politically slapped again," the source said.

However, should PACE reinstate Russia in its rights and powers in the organization before January 25, the Russian delegation will go to Strasbourg, albeit the number of delegates will be cut. On January 18, Russian lawmakers will condemn the practice of using sanctions against parliamentary delegations. Thus, the Russian delegation will be able to return to the PACE only if its powers are fully recovered.

The leaders of the Russian delegation also said that Russia may either suspend or cut the fee that it pays for its PACE membership. This is a reasonable decision to make, given the current state of affairs in the field of cooperation with the PACE.

Russia has been paying the PACE, the Council of Europe and the European Court for Human Rights for years. It just so happens that all these payments were made to receive criticism and listen to anti-Russian remarks, Russian officials said. In April 2014, the PACE administration stripped Russia of its powers in the organization because of the crisis in Ukraine and following Russia's reunification with the Crimea.

In 2015, the Assembly considered the question of reinstating the rights of the Russian delegation twice, but the sanctions still remain in force. Russia is denied the right to vote and participate in the work of the governing bodies of the Assembly and its mission to monitor elections in the Council of Europe.

Russia suspended its participation in the PACE until the end of 2015. Many Russian officials believe that Russia should not pay the organization for receiving spits in the face in return.



Will Damascus's Enemies Use Their Proxies to Disrupt Syrian Peace Talks?
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160118/1033334211/syria-peace-talks-prospects.html

With the winds of fortune blowing in Damascus's favor for a change, and government forces launching a series of offensives to liberate the country from jihadist militants, Syria's regional enemies may attempt to frustrate the Geneva III talks on Syrian peace, Russian political analyst Gevorg Mirzayan warns.

On January 25, UN-led talks on intra-Syrian peace are scheduled to take place between the Syrian government and representatives of the country's opposition in the Swiss city of Geneva.

But as the date moves ever-closer, and some opposition groups begin to cast doubts on the timing of the talks, some analysts are starting to wonder whether it is Syria's regional enemies, rather than local opposition forces, which may be seeking to disrupt the talks. Russian analyst Gevorg Mirzayan is among them.

In an analysis published in the online edition of the Russian business magazine Expert, Mirzayan recalled that at the moment, "without a doubt, the advantage is on the side of the so-called 'Baghdad Four' – the anti-terrorist coalition of Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran, plus Hezbollah. In recent weeks, the Syrian army, backed by Russian aircraft and Iranian volunteers, has racked up a series of victories, taking control of large areas in central and northwestern Syria."

Furthermore, the analyst explained, the Syrian government "has managed to liberate some areas not by military force, but through negotiations with local commanders who realized the futility of further resistance."

"The problem," Mirzayan argues, "is that the talks scheduled for January 25 may not start, and not by the fault of the US, Russia or Syria."

Ultimately, in Mirzayan's words, "the problem is not only that Turkey and Saudi Arabia will provide the militants money and weapons. The problem is that these states may sabotage the negotiation process, using their clients in the ranks of the Syrian opposition."



Russia plays key role in stability of the world, Qatar Emir tells Putin
http://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/russia-plays-key-role-in-stability-of-the-world-qatar-emir-tells-putin

Moscow // President Vladimir Putin and the Emir of Qatar on Monday discussed the Syrian crisis, as global powers seek to push the warring sides towards the negotiating table.

“Russia plays a main role when it comes to stability in the world,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said at the start of the meeting at the Kremlin.

“We very much want to develop relations with Russia and find a solution to a number of problems related to stability in some countries of our region,” he added.

The two countries also agreed to ramp up economic cooperation, with Mr Putin telling Sheikh Tamim that Russia is keen to coordinate efforts in energy, “especially in the gas sphere”.

“I am hoping that all the efforts we’ve made over the past years to build our ties will serve a good basis for further steps,” Mr Putin said.

“Investment cooperation is deemed to be very important,” the Qatari ruler said.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Full Disclosure: How Russian Forces Battle Daesh in Syria (VIDEO)

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160119/1033389823/syria-russian-aircraft-missions.html

The Russian Defense Ministry publishes videos depicting the exploits of Russian military personnel in Syria.

Seeking to make the ongoing Russian airborne campaign against Daesh forces in Syria as transparent as possible, Russia’s Defense Ministry regularly posts videos of its operations to its official Youtube channel.

Here you can see how a Russian Su-24M attack aircraft takes off from the Hmeymim airbase in Latakia and proceeds to drop bombs on terrorist assets in the country.

Here, a tank belonging to Daesh militants attempts to flee from the incoming airstrike to no avail.

This Daesh terrorist strongpoint in the Idlib province stood no chance against some well-placed airborne munition.

However, not all of the aircraft deployed to Syria are used to rain death upon Daesh terrorists. Here, a cargo plane airdrops vital supplies to the civilian population of the Deir ez Zor province.

Russia launched its airborne campaign against Daesh in Syria on September 30, 2015 at the behest of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Since then, Russian warplanes have carried out over 5,600 sorties against the terrorists, wiping out hundreds of Daesh assets within the country.

 

[angelburst29]

Baghdad kidnappings: Were American civilians working for US defence giant on ‘critical’ Iraq special forces programme?
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2016/01/19/baghdad-kidnappings-us-civilians-worked-for-general-dynamics-defence-giant-on-critical-iraq-special-forces-deal/?

Two of three missing US civilians kidnapped by Shiite militia forces in Baghdad at the weekend are believed to have been working on a “critical” multimillion dollar deal to train Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces in the fight against the so-called Islamic State.

The Bureau has learned that a contract for US defence giant General Dynamics to provide services to Iraq’s government was quietly renewed by Washington without any formal tendering process towards the end of last year.

The deal had to be rushed through, according to a Federal procurement document, which stated: “Time is critically short due to the nature and complexity of international negotiations and agreement.”

The value of the renewed contract, which started last month, is not yet known but the previous 12-month deal that expired in November was worth $4.4million.

The question of using American contractors to train Iraq’s special forces has now been thrown into sharp focus.

A senior Iraqi military official told the Wall Street Journal yesterday yesterday that two of the three contractors kidnapped by Iran-backed forces from a private home in Baghdad over the weekend were military trainers working for General Dynamics.

The Journal reported their names as Amro Mohammed, an Egyptian-American, and Wael al-Mahdawy, an Iraqi-American. It also cited a police official naming the third as Russel Furat, an Iraqi-American woman.

It is not known whether she also works for General Dynamics, which is headquartered in Virginia. The US State Department has confirmed the abductions as searches continue.

General Dynamics had not at the time of publication responded to the Bureau’s request for comment.

The rise of Islamic State has undermined confidence in Iraq’s police and security system, with Shiite militias becoming increasingly aggressive in an unstable environment.

It was this fragile situation which formed the backdrop to negotiations about the special forces training contract last year.

Iraq’s Special Operations Force (ISOF) is part of the country’s Counter Terrorism Service, and it was Baghdad which asked Washington to help arrange a training provider.

The company’s 2014 contract was due to expire at the end of November 2015, but delays by Baghdad in requesting a new deal meant the Pentagon had to scramble to avoid a period in which there would be no cover.

The procurement document unearthed by the Bureau said General Dynamics “possesses both the manpower and resources to continue providing critical sustainment training to the ISOF to improve their capacity deter, prevent, disrupt, capture and prosecute known terrorists and terrorist organisations in Iraq”.

According to the document, General Dynamic contractors are providing “sustainment training” for ISOF’s 1st Brigade and subordinate units. They work in the ISOF compound near Baghdad International Airport but “may be required to operate at other locations on a temporary basis”.

The ISOF was a key frontline force in the recent defeat of Islamic State in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi.

Iraq’s Special Operations Forces were created by the Americans in 2003. They were trained by the US military, but continuing this training became more complicated after the agreement granting US forces in Iraq immunity from prosecution lapsed in 2011.

The American military presence in Iraq is fraught with controversy.

Last month, Iraqi prime minister Haider al Abadi declined the White House’s offer of Apache helicopters and extra US military advisers in the fight for Ramadi.

There was much less publicity accompanying the US offer of contractors however.

As well as the General Dynamics contractors, there are 3,500 uniformed US personnel in Iraq who are reported to be in training or advisory roles.

In the absence of a formal agreement granting them immunity from prosecution, these troops are protected by an exchange of diplomatic notes.



US Officers Killed in Yemeni Missile Attack Saudi Coalition
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941029000403

"The Yemeni army missile unit fired a Tochka missile at the operations room of the Saudi-led forces in Ma'rib (on Sunday) and killed over 120 mercenaries with different nationalities," Ali al-Houthi, an Ansarullah Movement Leader, told FNA on Tuesday.

"46 Saudi mercenaries, 11 UAE and 9 Saudi officers and 11 foreign commanders of the US Blackwater company were among those killed in the attack," he added.

Houthi said that 6 Apache and 4 Black Hawk helicopters and 4 drones armed with missiles were also destroyed in the attack.

The command room of communications with the spying satellites and airplanes was also destroyed completely.



Russia Leads Organic Revolution as US Embraces GMOs, Drops Meat Regulations
http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-leads-organic-revolution-us-embraces-monsanto-drops-meat-regulations/ri12293

Russia made a bold ecological and civilizational choice when, in September, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich announced that "as far as genetically-modified organisms are concerned, we have made the decision not to use any GMO in food productions."

In layman's terms: This means that Russians don't need to worry about headlines such as "Monsanto Pressures WHO and California Not to List Glyphosate as a Carcinogen" or "59 Indigenous Corn Varieties at Risk as Monsanto Eyes Mexico".

But Russia's decision to embrace organic food is not just about keeping its people healthy: Putin declared last month that Russia wants to become the world's largest exporter of non-GMO produce:

“We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resources—Russia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing,” he said.

Putin also said that in the last decade, Russia has gone from importing half of its food to becoming a net exporter. Putin claims that Russia now makes more money from selling food than from selling weapons and fuel.

Meanwhile, in deregulated, GMO America:

The way meat is produced in the US is already highly shrouded in mystery: from corporations that to laws that prevent people from exposing what slaughterhouses even look like.

But a recently repealed law has made American meat even more mysterious: Americans no longer have the right to known where their meat comes from. So much mystery meat, so little time:

According to the Associated Press, Congress at the end of 2015 repealed a labeling policy, the Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) law, that required retailers to explicitly state the country of origin on all red meat. In other words, beef and pork packages in the US will no longer be required to bear a label saying where the animal originally came from—meaning that consumers will have less information about the product they are buying.

The bill was called a "a holiday gift to the meatpacking industry from Congress," according to Food and Water Watch.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

U.S Pushes Iran out of Iraq, Leaves Syria to Russia

http://fortruss.blogspot.mk/2016/01/us-pushes-iran-out-of-iraq-leaves-syria.html

The split within the “Shia house” is coming out into the public domain in Iraq, adding to dissatisfaction from Sunnis towards the central government’s performance. Moreover, the Marjaiya in Najaf is also frustrated with the Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi due to the lack of economical and social reforms. For the Kurds, the will for an independent state is overwhelming. Oil is exported to several countries and a natural gas deal was signed off with Turkey without asking Baghdad’s opinion. Last but not least, the Turkish “occupation” troops are still north of Mosul, while Baghdad threatens. “We shall force a pull out, if all diplomatic means are exhausted“, the Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said to me.

Amid all these facts, the influence of the “Islamic State” (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) group on the ground is in decline, as well as the Iranian impact among the Iraqi decision-makers in Baghdad for the benefit of the United States of America. The Russian influence in Syria has been acknowledged by the USA. While in Iraq, the Americans made it clear to everyone that their influence will expand and remain (Baqiya wa tatamaddad) and they won’t tolerate competitors. Experts on Iraq expressed their views on what is happening in Iraq and the possibility of a split in Mesopotamia. Nevertheless, the main question remains: Did Iran say its last word and turn a page on Iraq, accepting to give up on Iraq, and, like Russia, is content with its influence in Syria?

The United States came back to Mesopotamia from the same wide door that was asked to withdraw from by the Vice-President and former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who favoured the Iranian influence. ISIS occupation of part of the country and the slow American reaction after July 2014 allowed Iran to increase and expand its influence through arming directly secondary Iraqi groups, and extend its support to Baghdad and Erbil. But the support was not enough to stop the expansion of ISIS. Iran soon realised its inability to reach a Shia – Shia, Shia – Sunni and Shia – Kurdish unity or reconciliation. It has failed to stop the tiresome requests for an American intervention in Iraq by the Iraqi administration. Iran took advantage of the formation of al-Hashd al-Sha’bi (Popular Mobilisation Units – PMUs). Iran turned to Russia and asked the Kremlin to intervene in Iraq similar to its intervention in Syria, to balance the US intervention or slow the reaction to ISIS' advance.

“A common intelligence operational room that includes Iraq, Iran, Russia, Syria and Hezbollah is operational in Baghdad but limited in involvement and action. It is offering intelligence information, which is a key to defeat ISIS”, said the Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

A source in the office of the Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said, “The United States' delay of its support to Baghdad was not a coincidence or an unintentional lazy reaction. It was a strategic decision to: teach Iraq a lesson for rejecting U.S military bases; To observe the Iranian military capability and inability of Tehran to use air power and intelligence gathering to defeat ISIS; To submit Baghdad to its will and dictate conditions to it”.

What embarrassed Baghdad further was the Turkish forces breaking into the North of Mosul, in Ba’shiqa, imposing a new de-facto, threatening the unity of the Iraqi territory. At the moment, as priority is given to fight ISIS, it is obvious that no one but the United States could force Turkey to pull out of Iraq. The U.S has the power to attain the withdrawal of the Turkish forces without the use of force. Moreover, it has the power to close an eye or reject a Kurdish state and a partition of Iraq in three provinces (Sunni – Shia – Kurds).

The USA may turn a blind eye on Syria but Iraq is a red line. “Prominent members of the political administration and military commanders were quick to intimidate us if Russia were to be allowed to play a role in Iraq similar to the one in Syria ”, said the source.

“The United States retained Kurdistan’s possible independency declaration, as well as the Turkish presence in Iraq, as cards to play if Washington doesn’t see Iran and its fingers far away from the Iraqi administration. A request to change high-ranking officers and key figures within the Iraqi administration has been clearly formulated to us. We were also asked to keep the PMUs away from Anbar and Mosul. Moreover, in order to reduce any military presence of independent groups, all PMU will be proposed to join the regular security forces otherwise they will be considered outlaws”, according to the source.

That’s not all what is happening in Iraq: There is a sharp division between the Shiite parties that represent the majority in the country, The Majlis al-A’la leader Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim has asked most pioneers members to step down and allow the youth to guide the Majlis leadership, creating a backfire and the serious possibility of a split. The Da’wa Party, led by Nuri al-Maliki, is internally struggling between those who support him and others within the same the party who support the PM Abadi. Muqtada al-Sadr has appointed Walid Zamili for ten years as an administrator of the highest political offices giving him full powers but dismissed him after 10 days and accused the inner circle of his movement of theft and split. Mr. al-Abadi is criticised by both the Marjaiya in Najaf and the Sunni for lack of reforms and improvement of the socio-economic situation. He is also failing to fulfil his financial commitments to Kurdistan.

On the military side, there is a slow advance inside the city of Ramadi, in Anbar province, against the ISIS group. The Iraqi Counter Terrorist units recovered al-Soufiyah, north of the city and are engaged in Sajariya. It is far from being over in Anbar province. Still there is the bordering area west of Ramadi, Fallujah in the East and north toward Hiit to Hawijah before reaching Mosul. Military sources in Baghdad have serious doubt that the northern city of Mosul will be freed soon or even this year.

But the main question remains: Will Iraq be divided?

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told me “Iraq worries about its relationship with the neighbouring countries, but won’t accept the infringement on its sovereignty. If Turkey does not order a total withdraw of its troops, all options will be available. The Iraqi people will defend the country if and when all diplomatic means are exhausted. If Iraqi sovereignty will be at risk, the liberation of Iraq becomes a national and legitimate duty. The Iraqi government did not give any permission or exception to Turkey to break into our territory and violate our sovereignty. As of today, all the rumours about a withdrawal of Turkish forces from Ba’shiqah are untrue. Even the information regarding ISIS bombing Ba’shiqa camp is unfounded and the claim is coordinated with ISIS. All what the Turkish President (Recep T.) Erdogan said is not true“.

Source in the office of the Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi told me “Iraq is going through a critical phase that the country has not seen in a hundred years. Multiple risks are facing the nation. The risk of Da’esh (ISIS), the internal unity is at stake and the economic burden is heavy on everybody. The Turkish presence is also an important factor and Kurds are enthusiastic about a separation. The United States is not far from what is happening and has enough power to exert on both the Kurds and the Turks, willingly”.

Facts on the ground are showing more than a Kurdish enthusiasm to create a distance from Baghdad. Kurdistan is already building a Kurdish – Turkish natural gas pipeline. Gas will be extracted from the Bay Hassan gas fields in Dibis. It is expected to be constructed in 3 years and 20 billion cubic meters of gas are expected to be delivered into the Turkish market, without Baghdad’s approval.

Joel Wing, an expert on Iraqi affairs said, ” Kurdistan is following its own independent energy policy because it no longer trusts Baghdad to follow through on its promises about the budget and exports. It’s common knowledge that the Kurds want independence and President Masoud Barzani talks about a referendum on the issue all the time. I think the split is still far off but this is another step for the Kurds to build up their own economic base”.

Wladimir Van Wilgenburg, a journalist in Erbil following closely the Kurdish development in Iraq and Syria said “the Kurds are trying to become financially independent from Baghdad by exporting oil and gas independently to Turkey and even to Iran (and other countries). This is one of the main reasons why Baghdad opposes this Kurdish-Turkish natural gas deal.

Kurdistan (KRG) is also building a 440km trench all along its territory, from Zummar to Rabi’a, including contested but also non-contested areas, like Sinjar.

Joel Wing commented, “This is a strengthening of the Kurdish defenses that already exists in northern Iraq which consists of a series of trenches and set battle lines with the Islamic State. It also creates facts on the ground for the Kurds to further establish their control over the disputed areas of Iraq, which they claim as historically belonging to them. When the Kurds do declare independence it will probably involve long negotiations with Baghdad over who gets what and this trench will help the KRG with its case that the territory is theirs. The Kurds are thinking about Iraq after IS and have taken the opportunity to take many of the disputed areas that they wish to annex. They have even taken areas that they probably don’t want in the long term, but can be used as bargaining chips with Baghdad in the future. Mosul would be an example of the latter. The Kurds want to be involved in the liberation of the city so that they can use it in future deals with the central government. Kirkuk is a special case because the governor there does not want the KRG to step in and take over and is much more conciliatory towards the different communities in the province”.

Wladimir Van Willgenburg believes “This is probably an attempt to demarcate the territories of a possible future independent Kurdistan, or to further entrench the Kurdish positions in the disputed territories for the future. These trenches are also being created in PUK-frontlines in Kirkuk. Baghdad refused to implement article 140 of the constitution, that’s why the KRG moved towards de-facto establishing facts on the ground in June 2014. The alternative? ISIS controlling oil-rich disputed territories weren’t good either, since Baghdad was busy defending Baghdad in 2014 and most of its forces fled from the disputed territories (both Iraqi army and police). The Kurds worked with Baghdad and Shia militias to expel ISIS from large parts of Diyala. It's unlikely that Baghdad will regain some of its influence back in the disputed territories, but it must be said that even before ISIS, the Kurds dominated most of the disputed areas. Iraq was already sort of ‘divided’, when the Kurds gained control of the three Kurdish provinces in 1991, and established the KRG. However, the KRG is still part of Iraq”.

In regards to the Turkish presence in Mosul and ISIS in Iraq, Wing said “The Turks see Ninewa as being in their sphere of influence and want to be involved in the liberation of Mosul as an outgrowth of that world view. The sending of extra troops to the Ba’shiqa camp was meant to increase their influence in the area and with ex-Governor Atheer al-Nujafi who ran the camp and who is under their patronage. That blew up on Ankara as many of the leading Shiite parties and some Sunni leaders see the Turkish influence as unwanted. The Turks had to pull out the extra troops from the camp but there are still trainers there and Ankara is still focused upon playing a role in Mosul and Ninewa in general despite this setback. The defeat of ISIS is still a very long way off especially with the civil war in Syria not close to any resolution. It’s also important to remember that even when IS loses territory, it is not defeated as it has networks throughout Iraq that allow it to carry out insurgent and terrorist attacks every day”.

Van Wilgenburg said, “Historically, in 1923, Mosul was part of Turkey. Since 2004, Turkey worked hard to gain influence among Sunni Arabs, who used Turkey as a counterbalance to the Shia-dominated Baghdad government. When ISIS occupied Mosul in July 2014, Ankara lost its influence. Powerful Sunni Arab politicians – among these the former governor of Mosul Nujaifi – were expelled from the province by ISIS. Moreover, the Turkish options in Syria are now limited due to the Russian intervention backing the Syrian government and hitting its proxies. Therefore, Turkey still considers Mosul as part of its sphere of influence and wants to play a role in the liberation of the city from ISIS. On the other hand, ISIS is not yet defeated. The battle of Ramadi is not over and still many territories to conquer. Yet, there is a possibility that ISIS could be defeated within a year or more. But still, the Iraqi army lacks manpower and forces, and Shia militias play a major role”.

But has Iran said the last word and left Iraq to the United States of America?

The highest Iranian official in charge of the Iraqi dossier told me “America’s role is currently dominant, politically and militarily over the Iraqi administration and in Kurdistan. The Iranian influence is in decline at the moment, true. The weaker ISIS becomes, the stronger the American influence in the country. President Barack Obama will end his mandate victorious in Iraq with no losses, conducting a very clean war. But Iran has a lot of patience and the ground in Iraq does not belong to the Americans, neither do they have a society that can protect them in the future. The priority is to finish off ISIS in the first place. After that, like the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid said, when he saw the cloud outside his palace (indicating the vast lands under his control): “Go and rain wherever you wish. Your water will always fall on my land.”

Playing Kurdish Card: Israeli Minister Urges to Create Kurdistan, Again

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160120/1033404151/israel-supports-kurdistan.html

Tel Aviv top-level politicians have resurrected the idea of an independent Kurdish state, after years of direct and indirect support for the cause.

The Minister of Justice of the Jewish State, Ayelet Shaked, has stated that he strongly supports a Kurdish state, seen to be a way to weaken Israeli rivals in the Middle East, local media reported on Tuesday.

“We should promote steps that would correct the injustice that made Kurds the biggest nation without a state. We must call on nations to set up a [Kurdish] state,” Shaked announced, as quoted by BasNews.

The new country would be between Turkey and Iran, she suggested.

​“We have cultural global ties and they are strategic partners on a mutual front,” Shaked explained, referring to the Kurdish standoff with Daesh and other jihadist groups.
Shaked showed sympathy toward the Kurdish people by appealing to them as “a peace seeking nation.”

“The Kurds have a perfect democracy and give equal rights to women,” she added.

In the past, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu advocated the establishment of Kurdistan, but did not specify boundaries.

“We should… support the Kurdish aspiration for independence,” Netanyahu stated, calling the Kurds “a nation of fighters [who] have proved political commitment and are worthy of independence.”

Netanyahu’s statement was made when Daesh seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in a blitzkrieg 2014 campaign. Kurdish units were the only ground force that stopped the violent extremists.

Kurds in Iraq call loudly for independence. Kurds in the war-torn Syria constitute some 10% of the population and have formed what they call Rojava, a self-governing autonomous area. Turkey’s Kurds, who represent 20% of the population, have been immersed in bloody clashes with the current government. Kurds in Iran are seen to easily become a destabilizing factor within that country.

In light of the current state of affairs, Israel is thought to have chosen the right time to call for the creation of Kurdistan. A moderate Sunni Kurdish state in the heart of the Middle East could be seen to become the sole Muslim ally of the Jewish state of Israel.

The Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq has been reportedly supplying Israel with three quarters of its crude oil. Israeli special forces’ trainers have been present in the region for over a decade, advising the Kurdish military in Iraq, according to local media. Moreover, multiple reports suggest that there is a constant flow of arms from Tel Aviv to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Adding to this, Kurdish authorities have expressed religious freedom in their region, allowing Kurdish Jews to return to their homeland unmolested.

Kurdish animosities with the Arabs are well-known, and Israel will benefit from the diplomacy of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

 

[sitting]

And the ruble nearing 80 (presently at 78.)

Ruble struck 80 this morning. And some form of forceful confrontation is becoming more and more likely I think.

http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/USDRUB:CUR

Financial markets in turmoil today -- both Asia and in Europe. U.S. markets (futures) following same. From chart point of view, key previous bottoms (last Aug & Oct) have been violated. While this may portent a "triple bottom" formation, I think not.

Important to note there were 2 key triggers for these movements downward (generally speaking.)

The first was the Chinese devaluation on 811. The second, and most recent, was the surprise expanded yuan trading limit on Jan 6. Both coming from the Chinese ... and both had to do with dollar/yuan. The reaction in the financial markets to each, was immediate & severe. (This btw, may be the hidden meaning of the C's remark regarding China: still waters run deep. Hitting where it really hurts.)

My best guess is 811 indeed will prove to be the important marker.

I could be very very wrong.

FWIW.

 

[angelburst29]

Retired Syrian General: US Playing Political, Military Games in Region through ISIL
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941030000491

A prominent retired Syrian general and analyst blasted the US for its double-standard human rights approach towards different countries, and said Washington is using the ISIL terrorist group to attain its political and military goals in the region.

The al-Nusra Front and ISIL militants started leaving Southern Damascus under a deal with the Syrian government that was signed and was due to go into effect last month but came to a halt after Jeish al-Islam top commander Zahran Alouch was killed in a Syrian air raid.



ISIL, Al-Nusra Evacuating Southern Damascus
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941030000763

The al-Nusra Front and ISIL terrorists are now evacuating the neighborhood of al-Hajar al-Aswad,Yarmouk refugee camp and al-Qadam regions on Wednesday.

Under the agreement between the Syrian government and militants, over 4,000 terrorists are due to leave the Southern parts of Damascus and the Palestinian refugee camp.

The websites of the Syrian opposition had quoted the terrorists stationed in Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk camp as saying that the militants coming from Yalda, Babila and Beit Saham districts have joined them and therefore, the grounds have been prepared for the evacuation of the ISIL militants.

The evacuation operations in these regions had been postponed some weeks ago after the Syrian Air force carried out airstrikes on gathering centers and command posts of terrorist groups in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Countryside in December, killing Zahran Aloush, the leader of the so-called Jeish al-Islam terrorists group and a large number of senior commanders of al-Rahman brigade and Ahrar al-Sham.

Yarmouk is a camp for Palestinian refugees in the Southern parts of Damascus. The camp has been the scene of clashes among various terrorist groups and also crossfire between the militants and government troops for the last three years.

Ceasefire treaties to launch evacuation and relocation plans have started across Syria since the November.

In early December, militants began evacuating Homs city in Central Syria under a deal signed with the government in late November, known as the Al-Wa'ar Agreement.

Large convoys of retreating rebels left Homs City for Idlib in Northwestern Syria.

Al-Wa'ar was the only remaining base of the militants in the city of Homs.

"The ISIL is still the main pawn of the US political-military chess game in the region," Brigadier General Kamal Ali Aizauq told FNA on Tuesday.

He referred to the ISIL crimes in the region, specially the recent massacre of children, women and the elderly in Deir Ezzur, Syria, and the UN and other international bodies' indifference to such crimes, and said, "This is the result of the US double-standard policy which dictates its will on the western world and the UN."

In relevant remarks late December, Qais Khazali, a leader of Iraqi Shiite fighters, said that the US doesn’t want to resolve the crisis and put an end to the ISIL. On the contrary, it’s eager to exploit the jihadists “to achieve its projects in Iraq”.

"We believe the United States of America does not want to resolve the crisis, but rather wants to manage the crisis,” Qais Khazali, a leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), an Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group, said.

According to Khazali, Washington “does not want to end Daesh (an Arabic term for ISIL/ISIS).”

“(The US) wants to exploit Daesh to achieve its projects in Iraq and in the region. The American project in Iraq is to repartition the region," he added.



Kremlin: Tough disagreements between Russia, US on "white and black" lists in Syria
http://tass.ru/en/politics/850785

"Not everything goes smoothly" in negotiations between Russia and the United States on Syria, and "tough disagreements" persist on "white and black" lists of organizations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. "A lot of work still needs to be done," Peskov said adding that the sides "are working hard" to reach a compromise. "[The sides] are working hard, and our Foreign Minister [Sergey Lavrov] and US Secretary of State [John Kerry] will hold a meeting. [The sides] are working in other spheres as well but not everything goes smoothly," the Kremlin spokesman noted. He said the lists of Syrian organizations was an example of that. "There are still problems about the lists. Tough disagreements persist on who should be included in the ‘white’ and ‘black’ lists," Peskov said.

Lavrov and Kerry will hold first talks this year in Switzerland’s Zurich later today. The situation on the Korean Peninsula was added to the traditional agenda that includes Syria, Ukraine and Iran. The agreement to hold the meeting was reached after telephone talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama.



Russian airstrikes are working in Syria — enough to put peace talks in doubt
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-airstrikes-are-working-in-syria--enough-to-put-peace-talks-in-doubt/2016/01/19/64127084-beb2-11e5-98c8-7fab78677d51_story.html

Russia’s military intervention in Syria is finally generating gains on the ground for Syrian government forces, tilting the battlefield in favor of President Bashar al-Assad to such an extent that the Obama administration’s quest for a negotiated settlement to the war suddenly looks a lot less likely to succeed.

The gains are small-scale, hard-won and in terms of territory overall don’t add up to much, in keeping with the incremental nature of war.

But after 3½ months of relentless airstrikes that have mostly targeted the Western-backed opposition to Assad’s rule, they have proved sufficient to push beyond doubt any likelihood that Assad will be removed from power by the nearly five-year-old revolt against his rule. The gains on the ground are also calling into question whether there can be meaningful negotiations to end a conflict Assad and his allies now seem convinced they can win.

“The situation on the ground in Syria is definitely not conducive to negotiations right now,” said Lina Khatib of the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative think tank.

Peace talks scheduled to start in Geneva next week are already in doubt because of disputes between Russia and the United States, their chief sponsors, over who should be invited.

Russia and the Syrian government are objecting to a U.S.-backed list of opposition delegates drawn up in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh last month that includes representatives of some of the main rebel groups, saying that they won’t negotiate with people they term “terrorists.” Russia is pushing instead for the inclusion of a group of government-approved opposition figures who have remained loyal to Assad and also of Syria’s Kurds, who are fighting a somewhat different war on their own behalf in northeastern Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are expected to try to hammer out the differences at a meeting Wednesday in Zurich, five days before the scheduled start of the talks.



ISIS Razes the Oldest Christian Monastery in Iraq (Photo - Video)
http://time.com/4186469/isis-christian-monastery-iraq/

Satellite photos confirm that St. Elijah's has been completely wiped out

(IRBIL, Iraq) — The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State’s relentless destruction of ancient cultural sites.

For 1,400 years the compound survived assaults by nature and man, standing as a place of worship recently for U.S. troops. In earlier centuries, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches and prayed in the cool chapel. The Greek letters chi and rho, representing the first two letters of Christ’s name, were carved near the entrance.

Now satellite photos obtained exclusively by The Associated Press confirm the worst fears of church authorities and preservationists — St. Elijah’s Monastery of Mosul has been completely wiped out.

In his office in exile in Irbil, Iraq, the Rev. Paul Thabit Habib, 39, stared quietly at before- and after-images of the monastery that once perched on a hillside above his hometown of Mosul. Shaken, he flipped back to his own photos for comparison.

“I can’t describe my sadness,” he said in Arabic. “Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically leveled. We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land.”

The Islamic State group, which broke from al-Qaeda and now controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, has killed thousands of civilians and forced out hundreds of thousands of Christians, threatening a religion that has endured in the region for 2,000 years. Along the way, its fighters have destroyed buildings and ruins historical and culturally significant structures they consider contrary to their interpretation of Islam.

Those who knew the monastery wondered about its fate after the extremists swept through in June 2014 and largely cut communications to the area.

Now, St. Elijah’s has joined a growing list of more than 100 demolished religious and historic sites, including mosques, tombs, shrines and churches in Syria and Iraq. The extremists have defaced or ruined ancient monuments in Nineveh, Palmyra and Hatra. Museums and libraries have been looted, books burned, artwork crushed — or trafficked.

“A big part of tangible history has been destroyed,” said Rev. Manuel Yousif Boji. A Chaldean Catholic pastor in Southfield, Michigan, he remembers attending Mass at St. Elijah’s almost 60 years ago while a seminarian in Mosul.

“These persecutions have happened to our church more than once, but we believe in the power of truth, the power of God,” said Boji. He is part of the Detroit area’s Chaldean community, which became the largest outside Iraq after the sectarian bloodshed that followed the U.S. invasion in 2003. Iraq’s Christian population has dropped from 1.3 million then to 300,000 now, church authorities say.

The destruction of the monastery is a blow for U.S. troops and advisers who served in Iraq and had tried to protect and honor the site, a hopeful endeavor in a violent place and time.

Suzanne Bott, who spent more than two years restoring St. Elijah’s Monastery as a U.S. State Department cultural adviser in Iraq, teared up when the AP showed her the images.

“Oh no way. It’s just razed completely,” said Bott. “What we lose is a very tangible reminder of the roots of a religion.”

Army reserve Col. Mary Prophit remembered a sunrise service in St. Elijah where, as a Catholic lay minister, she served communion.

“I let that moment sink in, the candlelight, the first rays of sunshine. We were worshipping in a place where people had been worshipping God for 1,400 years,” said Prophit, who was deployed there in 2004 and again in 2009.

“I would imagine that many people are feeling like, ‘What were the last 10 years for if these guys can go in and destroy everything?'” said Prophit, a library manager in Glenoma, Washington.

This month, at the request of AP, satellite imagery firm DigitalGlobe tasked a high resolution camera passing over the site to grab photos, and then pulled earlier images of the same spot from their archive of pictures taken globally every day. Imagery analyst Stephen Wood, CEO of Allsource Analysis, reviewed the pictures for AP and identified the date of destruction between Aug. 27 and Sept. 28, 2014. Before it was razed, images show a partially restored, 27,000-square-foot religious building. Although the roof was largely missing, it had 26 distinctive rooms including a sanctuary and chapel. One month later, “the stone walls have been literally pulverized,” said Wood.

“Bulldozers, heavy equipment, sledgehammers, possibly explosives turned those stone walls into this field of gray-white dust. They destroyed it completely,” he said. “There’s nothing to rebuild.”

The monastery, called Dair Mar Elia, is named for the Assyrian Christian monk — St. Elijah — who built it between 582 and 590 A.C. It was a holy site for Iraqi Christians for centuries, part of the Mideast’s Chaldean Catholic community.

In 1743, tragedy struck when as many as 150 monks who refused to convert to Islam were massacred under orders of a Persian general, and the monastery was damaged. For the next two centuries it remained a place of pilgrimage, even after it was incorporated into an Iraqi military training base and later a U.S. base.

Then in 2003 St. Elijah’s shuddered again — this time a wall was smashed by a tank turret blown off in battle. Iraqi troops had already moved in, dumping garbage in the ancient cistern. The U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division took control, with troops painting over ancient murals and scrawling their division’s “Screaming Eagle,” along with “Chad wuz here” and “I love Debbie,” on the walls.

A U.S. military chaplain, recognizing St. Elijah’s significance, kicked the troops out and the Army’s subsequent preservation initiative became a pet project for a series of chaplains who toured thousands of soldiers through the ruin.

“It was a sacred place. We literally bent down physically to enter, an acquiescence to the reality that there was something greater going on inside,” remembered military chaplain Jeffrey Whorton. A Catholic priest who now works at Ft. Bragg, he had to collect himself after viewing the damage. “I don’t know why this is affecting me so much,” he said.

The U.S. military’s efforts drew attention from international media outlets including the AP in 2008. Today those chronicles, from YouTube videos captured on the cell phones of visiting soldiers to AP’s own high resolution, detailed photographs, take on new importance as archives of what was lost.

One piece published in Smithsonian Magazine was written by American journalist James Foley, six years before he was killed by Islamic State militants.

St. Elijah’s was being saved, Foley wrote in 2008, “for future generations of Iraqis who will hopefully soon have the security to appreciate it.”

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Israeli Defense Minister: In Syria, ISIS Is Preferable to Iran

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/israeli-defense-minister-syrian-conflict-isis-preferable-iran/ri12302

Israel is rooting for ISIS in Syria because "Iran is our greatest enemy"

Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has just admitted that Israel can coexist with a UN-condemned terrorist group.

According to Ya'alon, if the choice is between ISIS or Iran in Syria, Israel prefers ISIS. We're not making this up:

“In Syria, if the choice is between Iran and the Islamic State, I choose the Islamic State. They don’t have the capabilities that Iran has,” Ya’alon told a conference held by the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Right. So the logic here is that Iran is more evil and capable than ISIS. Ergo, an ISIS-controlled terrorist caliphate in Syria would be better for the whole world. Is this real life?

Let's be honest, here: Israel prefers ISIS because it's the main buyer of ISIS-smuggled oil. And who doesn't like delicious, cheap oil? Especially when you factor in that a Swiss court just ruled that Israel owes Iran $1.1 billion from an oil pipeline joint venture that dates back to before the Islamic Revolution. (Israel says it won't pay, of course.)

The US provides Israel with more than $10 million in military aid every day. Who needs enemies when you give billions of dollars to "friends" who are rooting for terrorists that you are allegedly bombing?

Perhaps another reason Israel prefers ISIS is because the Mossad shares a common acronym with them:

http://_https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDVwobzfR8s

 

[sToRmR1dR]

BREAKING:

Reports of major ISIS attack on pipeline near Ras Lanuf port in northern Libya

https://www.rt.com/news/329644-libya-attack-isis-port/

Militants affiliated with Islamic State have reportedly attacked a major Libyan oil pipeline and set on fire several crude storage tanks near the port of Ras Lanuf.

Photos posted on social media show huge plumes of black smoke rising from the ground.

The previous attack happened last week when an explosion hit an oil pipeline south of the port town.

Ras Lanuf is one of Libya’s biggest oil terminals and also has a large refinery. Militants loyal to Islamic State have staged several attacks on pipelines and other oil sites in the area over the past few weeks.

Last week Libya’s National Oil Corporation, which operates the Ras Lanuf terminal, said it had emptied storage tanks at the port as a precaution against further attacks.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) is gaining ground in Libya, which remains in a state of chaos after the toppling of its leader Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising of 2011.

The group has taken responsibility for, or is suspected of being behind, several attacks apparently aimed at seizing control of oil infrastructure.

 

[sitting]

Ruble struck 80 this morning.

That was yesterday. And this morning ... it's over 84.

http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/USDRUB:CUR

In trade parlance, the chart pattern has now entered a "blow-off" phase. (But keep in mind this numerical upthrust is really a down thrust in ruble value -- due to the specifics of quotation system. Most who are not traders will tend to have trouble with these conventions ... hence the often mistaken commentary of an imminent dollar collapse.)

These "blow-off" phases have their own unique characteristics. And reflects extremes in sentiment (both greed AND fear.) Wild gyrations are common, and there's usually a point of exhaustion. An end point. Then it goes the other way -- in a hurry.

Whether that (dollar/ruble) exhaustion point is in the 80's, 90's or 100's is anybody's guess. But I do think the time frame for this exhaustion point, may not be very far away -- even if the precise level is unknown. Blow-off's are usually not long lasting events (like months.)

The trading becomes very messy, next to impossible (errors, fails, etc.) And in the end, the whole economic situation falters, with the common people bearing the brunt of misfortune. But this time around, according to C's, not too good for Rockefeller and his ilk as well. We can only hope.

I could be very very wrong.

FWIW.

 

[kalibex]

One possible cause of the recent US sailor capture/detainment by Iran:

The airwaves in the United States were filled with images of sailors on their knees while a US Navy vessel was searched. Unjustified outrage swept the nation. The US Secretary of Defense blamed the incident on a simple navigation error, however a chain of events leading back to 2009 demonstrates the facts are a little more complicated than first appear. The chain of events leads defense analysts to one unmistakable conclusion: Iran has the ability to disrupt US GPS systems. For western military analysts, the thought is terrifying. The West uses GPS for much more than replacing a compass and a map.

_http://theantimedia.org/the-story-you-arent-being-told-about-iran-capturing-2-american-vessels/_

 

[angelburst29]

NATO neither confirms nor denies the latest reports on possible resumption of formal talks with Russia, a NATO official told Sputnik on Thursday.

NATO Gives No Details on Reports of Possible Formal Talks With Russia
http://sputniknews.com/world/20160121/1033481786/nato-comment-relations-russia.html

On Wednesday, media reported, citing unnamed sources, that NATO was currently discussing possible invitation of Russia to the first formal talks since the deterioration of NATO-Russia relations in 2014.

Answering a question whether NATO could confirm the discussions of possible formal talks with Russia, the NATO official referred to the December 2 statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg when he announced that the alliance had decided to keep channels for political contact open.

"We have nothing to add to this statement," the official said.

On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was in favor of renewing the Russian-NATO Council, even only at the level of ambassadors.

The NATO-Russia Council's work was suspended on April 1, 2014, after the alliance's foreign ministers issued a statement condemning Crimea's reunification with Russia, which the West largely regards a "annexation."

The peninsula rejoined Russia as a result of a referendum in which over 96 percent of Crimeans voted in favor of seceding from Ukraine and reunifying with Russia.



Sources: NATO Considers First Formal Talks With Russia Since 2014
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2016/01/20/sources-nato-considers-first-formal-talks-russia-since/79092044/

BRUSSELS — NATO is discussing whether to invite Russia to their first formal talks since 2014, aiming to put ties damaged by the Ukraine crisis back on an even keel, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

Despite their differences both sides recognized the need for “transparency,” the sources said, against a backdrop of a series of crises including Ukraine and the war in Syria.

“The meeting will not take place before the NATO defense ministers meeting (on Feb. 10-11) but it is likely at the end of February or early March,” one of the sources told AFP.

The sources stressed that resuming contact with Russia in the NRC was not meant to signal any softening in NATO’s stance but rather to better manage what is likely to be a difficult relationship for years to come.

“The aim of this new dialogue is two-fold — deterrence and transparency,” one of the sources said.



Russia's Investigative Committee head: Nemtsov murder solved
http://rbth.com/news/2016/01/21/russias-investigative-committee-head-nemtsov-murder-solved_561163

Russia's Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin considers the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov killed in Moscow last year solved.

"In 2015 the Boris Nemtsov murder was solved, as well as the murder of Coca Cola industrial enterprise director Dmitry Soshnev, the murders of motorists committed by the [GTA] band; we exposed the gang led by Inesssa Tarverdieva that used to operate in the territory of the Rostov region and Stavropol Krai and was involved in the murder of policeman Dmitry Chudakov, his spouse and two small children on the Federal motorway 'Don'," Bastrykin said in an interview due to be published in the weekly Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Nedelya on Jan. 21.

Opposition activist Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on Moscow's Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge on February 27, 2015. A criminal investigation was launched into the murder under Russian Criminal Code Articles 105 ('Murder') and 222 ('Illegal Turnover of Weapons'). The investigation is being conducted by the Russian Investigative Committee's main investigating department.

The period of the pretrial investigation has been extended until February 28, 2016.

Investigators presented the indictment in its final version back in December, presenting charges against Zaur Dadayev, Khamzat Bakhayev, Shadid Gubashev and Temirlan Eskerkhanov, the four defendants in the case.

The criminal case instituted against another accomplice - Beslan Shavanov - was closed in November 2015 on non-rehabilitating grounds, due to the death of the suspect as a result of detonation of the explosives he owned when police attempted to arrest him in Grozny, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

"It is planned to severely further investigate the case of Ruslan Mukhudinov, the person who ordered and masterminded the crimes and who has been on the international wanted list since November 2015, as well as the cases against some unidentified persons," Markin said.

Investigators plan to complete the investigation into the main criminal case in January 2016 and submit all collected evidence to the victims and their agents and afterwards, to the defendants and their lawyers, for reading, Markin said.

Meanwhile, Vadim Prokhorov, lawyer for the Nemtsov family, has repeatedly said that he does not consider the case closed. The lawyer believes that Ruslan Mukhudinov, the member of the Sever battalion of the Chechen Interior Ministry, who has been named as the organizer and paymaster of the assassination, could not act as such.

"Yes, [he could be] an organizer at a lower end. But paymasters are high-ranking people," he told Interfax on December 29.

Prokhorov filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights over an ineffective investigation last Summer.



Several dozen foreign reporters visiting Hmeimim base in Syria
http://rbth.com/news/2016/01/21/several-dozen-foreign-reporters-visiting-hmeimim-base-in-syria_561179

At least 57 foreign journalists, among them representatives of major television companies from the United States, the UK, France, Norway, Armenia, Belarus and Syria, came to the Hmeimim airbase in Syria's Latakia on Jan. 20, Russian Defense Ministry press service and information department head Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

"They have an opportunity to study the routine and daily life of servicemen stationed at the airbase, and to watch aircraft being prepared for missions and departing for the accomplishment of combat tasks," Konashenkov told reporters.

The foreign reporters witnessed the loading of another shipment of humanitarian aid, which would be delivered to Syrian districts and populated localities besieged by the militants, he said.

"The journalists were very interested to know to whom the cargo was sent and what it was. The Russian servicemen demonstrated that the cargo mostly consisted of food and, partially, of medicines. The Russian aid is prepared directly at the Hmeimim base by the servicemen," Konashenkov said.

Most of the foodstuffs are dry rations delivered to needy people in such cities as Deir ez-Zor, he said.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Russia Says US Expanding Bioweapons Labs in Europe

http://russia-insider.com/en/military/russia-says-us-expanding-bioweapons-labs-europe/ri12322

The US state department denied the claim outlined in the new Russian foreign policy strategy document

Russia recently charged the Pentagon with expanding a network of biological weapons laboratories in Europe, a charge the State Department denies.

A new Russian national security strategy document describes the United States and NATO as threats and warns of the “uncertainty about instances of foreign states’ possession of biological weapons and their potential for developing and producing them.”

“The network of U.S. military-biological laboratories on the territory of states adjacent to Russia is being expanded,” says the strategy, made public Dec. 31.

U.S. officials and arms analysts said the Russian charge is false.

Blake Narendra, a spokesman for the State Department’s arms control, verification and compliance bureau, said the United States is in full compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans production and stockpiling of germ weapons.

“The United States government supports public and animal health laboratories around the world whose mission it is to safely and securely detect and report the outbreaks of diseases,” Narendra told the Washington Free Beacon.

“There is no research or storage at these facilities involving biological or any other kind of weapon,” he said.

“Activities for peaceful purposes, to include the prevention of disease, are explicitly permitted under the BWC,” he continued, using an acronym for the Biological Weapons Convention.

Russian Embassy press spokesman Yury Melnik said the strategy does not accuse the United States of developing bioweapons.

“Paragraph 19 of the document mentions our concern related to the Pentagon’s bioactivities in neighboring countries,” Melnik said, noting a laboratory in the Republic of Georgia near Tbilisi.

“U.S. military professionals conduct research there,” he said.

Melnik said “press reports” did not specify identified Pentagon laboratories in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, West Africa and other states.

“That is obviously concerning,” Melnik said. “There is absolutely no transparency in U.S. biological activity abroad. Mere involvement of the military personnel raises questions whether [the] U.S. government’s actions are consistent with the BWC.”

Moscow’s charge appears based on Foreign Ministry accusations in June that the Pentagon is covertly researching the weaponization of diseases.

That claim, in a ministry statement, followed the disclosure in May that a Defense Department laboratory in Utah mistakenly sent live samples of anthrax, a contagious bacteria found in sheep and cattle that is deadly in humans, to numerous laboratories in the United States and several abroad.

The ministry stated that the Richard G. Lugar Center for Public and Animal Health Research, set up under the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program near Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi, is a secret U.S. research facility.

“American and Georgian authorities are trying to cover up the real nature of this U.S. military unit, which studies highly dangerous infectious diseases,” the ministry said, according to state-run Russian press reports.

“The Pentagon is trying to establish similar covert medico-biological facilities in other countries [in Russia’s neighborhood],” the ministry said.

Those charges also appeared to be a Russian response to the State Department’s charges that Moscow is violating the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Force Treaty with development of a new long-range cruise missile.

The State Department’s annual arms compliance report said Russia has not fully disclosed its past biological weapons programs.

During a House hearing in May 2014, Christopher Davis, a biological weapons expert and former member of the British Defense Intelligence Staff, testified that Russia covertly has maintained a biological arms program he called “the elephant in the room.”

“The elephant has remained in the room for 18 years, but just because we choose not to see him does not mean he is no longer there,” Davis said.

Davis stated that “Russia did not admit to the real size and capability of its biological weapons systems, that it did not get rid of all of them.”

According to Davis, Russian leader Vladimir Putin “like all his antecedents, would never give up such a key strategic military and diplomatic card.”

The Russians also have accused the U.S. government of undermining the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

A Pentagon report issued in July on the improper anthrax lab transfers stated that the samples are part of defense research into countering anthrax bioweapons. “It is critical for the department to have a strong countermeasures program to protect our warfighters against this dangerous organism,” the report said.

Former Pentagon strategic analyst Mark Schneider said the Russian assertions border on paranoia.

“The Russian claim of a ‘network of U.S. military-biological laboratories’ in NATO Europe is absurd and paranoid even by Russian standards,” Schneider said.

“We have not had an offensive biological weapons program since Richard Nixon,” he added.

Schneider said he agrees with the State Department that the claim is a distortion of the Threat Reduction program.

“Russian paranoia is dangerous,” Schneider said. “Overall, their new National Security Strategy signed by Putin on December 31, 2015, reads like a blueprint for a militaristic authoritarian state. NATO has finally recognized the significance of the Russian threat, particularly the Russian nuclear threat, but we are still doing little about it.”

The strategy also states that Russia’s “independent foreign and domestic policy” has prompted opposition for the United States and its allies that are “seeking to retain their dominance in world affairs.”

“The policy of containing Russia that they are implementing envisions the exertion of political, economic, military, and informational pressure on it,” the strategy says.

Russia has annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and is covertly destabilizing eastern Ukraine. Additionally, Moscow is aggressively building up its nuclear forces while Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, have issued unprecedented threats to use nuclear arms against NATO and the United States.

Russian defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer says the biological weapons claims contained in the Russian strategy document may seem bizarre, “but for Russia’s rulers, such threats seem real.”

Felgenhauer wrote in a report Jan. 7 that Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Kremlin security council, alleged in October that U.S. “bio-war labs” had increased “20-fold,” and that the Pentagon is “deploying bio-weapon production labs in some [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries.”

“Today, Putin has underwritten into law these and other similar threat evaluations,” he stated in a report published by the Jamestown Foundation. “Russian countermeasures are surely forthcoming.”

The strategy “correctly reflects the overall Kremlin notion of Russia being besieged on all sides by the U.S. and its proxies, which purportedly seek to isolate, subvert, and cause internal political and social upheaval to bring about regime change in other countries,” Felgenhauer stated.

“In turn, Putin’s Russia is ready to defy and push back on all fronts — in Syria, in Ukraine, in the Arctic — and by all means available.”

 

[sToRmR1dR]

BREAKING:

Two Egyptian police officers killed and 12 others injured in Giza explosion

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/185597/Egypt/Politics-/BREAKING-Two-Egyptian-police-officers-killed-and--.aspx

A police officer and a low-ranking policeman were killed and 12 others were injured in an explosion Thursday evening in Giza’s Haram area, reported Ahram Arabic news website.

A security source said that the policemen were killed when a bomb exploded during a police raid at an apartment where suspected Islamist militants were believed to be staying.

The injured were transferred to hospital by ambulance.

More to follow.

 

[goyacobol]

One possible cause of the recent US sailor capture/detainment by Iran:

The airwaves in the United States were filled with images of sailors on their knees while a US Navy vessel was searched. Unjustified outrage swept the nation. The US Secretary of Defense blamed the incident on a simple navigation error, however a chain of events leading back to 2009 demonstrates the facts are a little more complicated than first appear. The chain of events leads defense analysts to one unmistakable conclusion: Iran has the ability to disrupt US GPS systems. For western military analysts, the thought is terrifying. The West uses GPS for much more than replacing a compass and a map.

_http://theantimedia.org/the-story-you-arent-being-told-about-iran-capturing-2-american-vessels/_

kalibex,

That is a really interesting article. When you consider that the downing of the drone by Iran on December 4, 2011 was before Russia's intervention who knows what capabilities Iran has now with Russian support. The GPS jamming is a potent weapon I think.

Thanks