Thursday, July 31, 2014

Headlines of note for July 2014...

ZeroHedgeBRICS Announce $100 Billion Reserve To Bypass Fed, Developed World Central Banks

Boiling Frogs Post (Engdahl): Putin and BRICS form Seed Crystal of a New International Monetary Pole

Not a challenge but a complement?...

Philosophy of Metrics: The Days of July – BRICS Still Seek SDR Solution

A new "New World Order"?...

NHK: BRICS leaders want to create new global order

"...a new world order, led by emerging economies..." says the NHK reporter. Whether as a challenge or as a complement, it remains the case that the BRICS are introducing a financial order backed by tangible assets (these nations, particularly China, are reputed to be accumulating massive gold reserves in recent years, as well as developing infrastructure for the facilitation of their physical economies), as opposed to the Malthusian "new world order" of western construct, borne of the decadence of financial fiat, austerity regimen, and beset by crumbling infrastructure.

And how does the childish U.S. and its hapless allies react?

ZeroHedge: US Kicks The Growling Bear, Issues More Russian Sanctions; Restricts Debt Market Access

Ukrinform: Europe, U.S. agree on new sanctions against Russia

+

America surrenders...

CBSMysterious white flags appear atop Brooklyn Bridge

NYPost: Stoner - I surrendered Brooklyn Bridge


But the Donetsk People's Republic fights on...



No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. MolotovDonbass Situation Report, July 27, 2014

Инфо корпус: Одна из сбитых из ПЗРК СУ-25 силами ПВО ДНР с.Дмитровка 23.07.2014 - репортаж icorpus.ru

Anti-MaidanUkraine Crisis | Militia is Going on Offense | English Subtitles

Militia Tanks firing on Ukr. Positions, Donetsk | English Subtitles

Why they fight...

18+ GRAPHIC | Horlivka Afthermath of Ukr. Army Grad Shelling | English Subtitles

18+ Ukraine Crisis | Kiev Junta Keeps Killing Civilians, Luhansk | English Subtitles

18+ | Genocide Continues. Strikes on Luhansk Private Sector | English Subtitles


FOOTAGE Claims to Show Unexploded BM30 SMERCH Missile in Living Room. Lisicansk

Lysychans'k - Phosphorus Mines Used | English Subtitles

Fascists Troopers Dropped from An-26 | English Subtitles

RT: Over 30 civilians killed during two days of shelling in Gorlovka, E. Ukraine (VIDEO)

+

Highlights of Putin's public comments during the July 22 Security Council Meeting (Anti-Maidan translation). Noting the independence of Russian Federation from the constraints of alliance...

"...Russia is fortunately not a member of any alliance. This is also a guarantee of our sovereignty. Any nation that is part of an alliance gives up a part of its sovereignty."

Apparently a veiled reference to Poland...

Polska Agencja PrasowaPolish, U.S. presidents discuss Ukraine, NATO

"This does not always reflect their best interest. But it is their sovereign decision..."

RT: European rights court condemns Poland for hosting secret CIA prisons

On Russia's response to recent NATO activities...

"We will act appropriately and proportionately to the approach of NATO's military infrastructure towards our borders, and we will not fail to notice the expansion of global missile defense systems, and increases in the reserves of strategic non-nuclear precision weaponry..."

NATO Poland base may be prepared for blitz against Russia

"...Regardless of what our foreign colleagues say, we can clearly see what is actually happening: groups of NATO troops are clearly being reinforced in Eastern European states, including in the Black and Baltic seas. And the scale and intensity of operational and combat training is increasing..."

Reuters (April 8): NATO to triple Baltic air patrol from next month

Новости Новороссии: Польша вступает в войну (Poland enters the war)

On July 16 of this year in the port of Odessa in an atmosphere of high secrecy was made unloading twelve (12) self-propelled wheeled guns - 152mm gun-howitzer vz. 77 "Dana" Czech production, the armament of the Armed Forces of Poland, as well as staff buses and trucks.

After unloading the artillery battalion (presumably from the 1st Artillery Brigade Mazury), fully stocked Polish soldiers followed their progress on railway Separate station for loading on the platform.

I do not know whether that is the most "unpleasant surprise for the militia", which said Poroshenko, but with an open entry into the civil war in Ukraine, the regular armed forces of a foreign country (and, incidentally, a member of NATO), the military-political situation changed radically . [Google translation]

The day following Poland's military arrival in Odessa, Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 crashes near the Donetsk (Ukraine)/Russian border. Initial Flight Aware tracking suggests that the MH 17 flight path of July 17 was diverted first by Warsaw air traffic control, sending it on a trajectory towards the war zone, followed by another diversion (according to Russian Defense Ministry on July 21) in its approach to Donetsk, where Donetsk forces have had recent success in shooting down Kiev's military transport flights.

RT: Why was MH17 flying through a war zone where 10 aircraft have been shot down?


Note the "kink" in the flight path near Warsaw - where its path intersected with Putin (on his return journey from the BRICS conference) in the Russian Presidential IL-96 according to...

RT: Reports that Putin flew similar route as MH17, presidential airport says 'hasn't overflown Ukraine for long time'

“I can say that Putin’s plane and the Malaysian Boeing intersected at the same point and the same echelon. That was close to Warsaw on 330-m echelon at the height of 10,100 meters. The presidential jet was there at 16:21 Moscow time and the Malaysian aircraft – 15:44 Moscow time,” a source told the news agency on condition of anonymity. 

“The contours of the aircrafts are similar, linear dimensions are also very similar, as for the coloring, at a quite remote distance they are almost identical“, the source added.


Discussed on WMR MH 17 thread: traces of flight paths on Flight Aware have since been altered, showing more northerly routes over Donetsk on July 14th, 15th and 16th)

As for the diversion immediately before the crash, this appears to have been directed from Dnipropetrovsk air traffic control...

Times of India: Air India flight was 90 seconds away when missile struck Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17


Initial reports of the shoot-down of two military craft suggests the possibility of a case of mistaken identity. Taking the following at face value, it would appear that, altogether, three planes were shot down that day: two Ukrainian military by the rebel militias and one commercial by ?...

Eurasian Union: AN-26 and SU-25 indeed downed on 17.7.2014

Телеканал “Звезда”Ополченцы сообщили о двух сбитых украинских самолетах (Militias reported two downed Ukrainian aircraft)

On June 18, DPR spokeswoman described Ukrainian military planes closely following commercial aircraft, dropping in altitude to conduct bombings, then returning to follow commercial flights...

Anti-MaidanMilitia Soldier - Elena, from Sloviansk English Subs

There is evidence, presented by the Russian Defense Ministry, that this kind of maneuver occurred with the Su-25...

RT: Ukrainian Su-25 fighter detected in close approach to MH17 before crash - Moscow

Global ResearchDeleted BBC Report. “Ukrainian Fighter Jet Shot Down MHI7″, Donetsk Eyewitnesses

Aviationist“All flights, including Malaysian B777, were being escorted by Ukrainian Su-27 Flanker jets over Eastern Ukraine”

If a Buk missile system was used, it may be that the Su-25 (or Su-27?) reported to have been shot down was in fact missed and the 777 hit instead. One DPR militiaman of the Oplot unit interviewed by Italian press suggests that this could have occurred...

Corriere della Sera: How Malaysian Plane was Shot Down

“We shot down a Kiev plane, our superiors told us. We thought we were looking for baled-out Ukrainian pilots but instead we found dead civilians”...

This is not necessarily a confession, however...

The Oplot unit has been at the site ever since. They were the first to be tasked with identifying the bodies and then kept watch over the wreckage of the Malaysian jet before guarding the mortuary wagons. Yet the militiamen showed no sense of guilt, contradicting their commander who supplied the official version. “Obviously, it wasn’t us that shot the jet down. We haven’t got missiles that reach that high. This crime was committed by the bandits who take orders from the Kiev government. One of their fighters could easily have shot down the Malaysian Airlines plane”, they point out.

Indeed the message coming from the militias is not unified. According to Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the Vostok Battalion...

Reuters: Ukraine rebel commander acknowledges fighters had BUK missile

"I knew that a BUK came from Luhansk. At the time I was told that a BUK from Luhansk was coming under the flag of the LNR," he said, referring to the Luhansk People’s Republic, the main rebel group operating in Luhansk, one of two rebel provinces along with Donetsk, the province where the crash took place.

"That BUK I know about. I heard about it. I think they sent it back. Because I found out about it at exactly the moment that I found out that this tragedy had taken place. They probably sent it back in order to remove proof of its presence," Khodakovsky told Reuters on Tuesday....

Khodakovsky is a former head of the "Alpha" anti-terrorism unit of the security service in Donetsk, and one of the few major rebel commanders in Donetsk who actually hails from Ukraine rather than Russia.

There has been friction in the past between him and rebel leaders from outside the region, such as Igor Strelkov, the Muscovite who has declared himself commander of all rebel forces in Donetsk province.

Khodakovsky said his unit had never possessed BUKs, but they may have been used by rebels from other units.

"The fact is, this is a theatre of military activity occupied by our, let’s say, partners in the rebel movement, with which our cooperation is somewhat conditional," he said.

"What resources our partners have, we cannot be entirely certain. Was there (a BUK)? Wasn’t there? If there was proof that there was, then there can be no question."...


Moon of Alabama: Reuters Interviews Benedict Arnold: "Rebels Had BUK, Downed MH17"

Benedict or not, Khodakovsky is now denying the contents of the interview...

РИА Новости: Ходаковский опровергает, что говорил про применение "Бука" ополченцами


In any case, Russia's presentation of evidence on July 21 - while not airtight proof of Kiev forces shooting down MH 17 - has had the noticeable effect of modifying the accusations and muffling the hysterics of western officials.

Washington's BlogU.S. Officials - The Missile May Have Been Launched By a “Defector from The Ukrainian Military Who Was Trained To Use Similar Missile Systems”

Washington Post: U.S. discloses intelligence on downing of Malaysian jet

The U.S. intelligence officials, who included experts on Russia’s military and its relationship with separatists in Ukraine, said they do not know the identities or even the nationalities — whether Russian or possibly defectors from Ukraine’s military — of those who launched the missile from an SA-11 surface-to-air battery.  

Nor have U.S. spy agencies reached any conclusions on the motive for the attack, except to say that the reaction among separatists recorded on social media indicates they believed they were targeting a Ukrainian military transport plane.

July 29...

RT: Kiev declares cease-fire at MH17 crash site amid Russia’s numerous calls

Interfax-Ukraine: Poroshenko hopes OSCE will persuade militants to cease fire in 20-km radius from Boeing crash site

T-Room: Senior U.S. Intelligence Officers: Obama Should Release Ukraine Evidence


Wrapping up on the 17th...

Reuters: Seven NATO countries end Black Sea war games

Strategic-Culture (Wayne Madsen): MH-17 - Beware of the «Chameleon»

The 10-day NATO exercise code named «BREEZE 2014» has ended in Black Sea. The exercise, which included the use of electronic warfare and electronic intelligence aircraft such as the Boeing EA-18G Growler and the Boeing E3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), coincided with the shootdown of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, some 40 miles from the Russian border. NATO ships and aircraft had the Donetsk and Luhansk regions under total radar and electronic surveillance...

 The U.S. Army has revealed that the 10-day exercise involved «commercial traffic monitoring». Because of the sophistication of the electronic warfare and intelligence used during SEA BREEZE, it can be assumed that commercial traffic monitoring included monitoring the track of MH-17.

Past NATO-Ukraine exercises in Crimea were called «SEA BREEZE». This year's annual SEA BREEZE exercise with Ukraine, approved by the rump Ukrainian Parliament, is clouded in mystery with the Pentagon saying it was only «in the planning stage and we can't announce dates yet». However, 200 U.S. Army personnel normally assigned to bases in Germany were in Ukraine during the time of the MH-17 fly-over. They were participating in NATO exercise RAPID TRIDENT II. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense led the exercise.

BREEZE included the AEGIS-class guided missile cruiser USS Vela Gulf.  AEGIS cruisers' AN/SPY 1 radar has the ability to track all aircraft over a large region. For example, the AEGIS test center in Moorestown, New Jersey, was able to see the Boeing 747 TWA Flight 800 when it disappeared from radar screens in 1996 near East Moriches Bay, Long Island. According to Lockheed Martin personnel who operated the AEGIS test center in New Jersey, the Navy ordered the SPY 1 radar turned off for «maintenance» shortly before the downing of TWA 800...


Eighteen years to the day after that ill-fated flight, reports as they came on the day of...

RT: Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine LIVE UPDATES

Highlights from Interfax feed of July 17...

18:01
18:12 Over 15 rockets reach Russia from Ukraine where battle under way near border


18:33
Kyiv's claims alleging Russian plane brings down Ukraine's Su-25 absurd - Russian Defense Ministry

19:11
MALAYSIAN BOEING CRASHES NOT FAR FROM DONETSK WHERE FIGHTING TAKES PLACE BETWENE UKRAINIAN ARMY, MILITIAMEN - SOURCE

19:17 MALAYSIAN AIRLINER CRASHES NEAR SHAKHTARSK IN DONETSK REGION -UKRAINIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT SOURCE

19:18
PLANE EN ROUTE FROM AMSTERDAM TO KUALA LUMPUR DISAPPEARED FROM RADARS AT 10,000-METER HEIGHT - SOURCE IN UKRAINIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES

19:25
Militia claim to have shot down two Ukrainian planes near Russian border

19:34
DPR SAYS MILITIA DOES NOT HAVE ARMS, WHICH COULD BRING DOWN BOEING AT 10,000-METER HEIGHT - DPR FIRST DEPUTY PM

19:45
FIRST DEPUTY PM OF DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC: MALAYSIAN AIRLINER MAY HAVE BEEN SHOT DOWN BY UKRAINIAN ARMY

19:55

20:03
MALAYSIAN AIRLINER MIGHT HAVE BEEN SHOT DOWN, UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES NOT INVOLVED - POROSHENKO

20:04
DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC PM SAYS MALAYSIAN AIRLINER CRASH IN UKRAINE PROVOCATION BY UKRAINIAN MILITARY

20:14

20:31
PUTIN EXPRESSES DEEP DISAPPOINTMENT TO OBAMA OVER ANOTHER UNCONSTRUCTIVE DECISION OF WASHINGTON TO INTRODUCE SO-CALLED "SECTORAL" SANCTIONS - KREMLIN

20:32
PUTIN INFORMS OBAMA ON AIR TRAFFIC SERVICE REPORT ON MALAYSIAN PLANE CRASHING IN UKRAINE, WHICH CAME RIGHT BEFORE THE TELEPHONE CONVERSATION - KREMLIN

20:43
Russian military planes had no flights over Russian territory bordering Ukraine on Thursday -source


20:50
DPR leadership promises to give up flight recorders of crashed Boeing in Ukraine for tests

21:04 Malaysian plane flew above no-fly zone - source

21:54
Putin extends birthday wishes to Merkel, discusses Ukraine with her

Highlights of 7/17 ITAR-TASS feed...


The following raises the question: why the hell not?...






RIANovosti: Ukrainian Army Buk Missile Likely Downed Malaysian Plane - Source

Russia Says Ukraine Responsible for Flight Safety in Boeing Crash Air Space

Wayne Madsen Report...

Qatar News Agency: Court Rulings to Arrest Ukrainian Interior Minister

Within several hours of MH 17 downing...

Jerusalem Post: IDF starts Gaza ground invasion

Six months ago...

Al Monitor: Russia preparing to develop Gaza gas field

(More below on the Gaza front)

The view from Kiev...

Ukraine-Interfax: Pro-Russian rebels discuss the shooting down of the Malaysian Airlines airliner

Authenticity of intercept is yet to be determined. The Kyiv Post unsurprisingly has already fingered the culprits...

Russian Involvement Suspected In Crash Killing 295

Telegraph: Fear and resentment at MH17 crash site as fighting advances


In the days and hours preceding downing of MH 17, Ukraine's state news feeder, Ukrinform (which we note is oddly silent in the hours following the tragedy), reported...

Residents of Rostov region confirm Russian Grad launchers shell Ukrainian territory

NSDC: Russian aircraft shot down Ukrainian Su-25 plane

July 14: Ukrainian plane shot down in Luhansk region, missile probably launched from Russia

Russia denied these Kiev government claims - indeed it is a government with zero credibility - however these incidents were preceded by the Ukraine civil war crossing border, and claiming first casualty on Russian side - highlights from Interfax feed of July 13...

10:34 One killed in Russia's Rostov region by shell flying from Ukrainian territory

13:45
SHELLING OF RUSSIAN TERRITORY FROM UKRAINIAN SIDE IS INDICATION OF DANGEROUS ESCALATION OF TENSION IN BORDER AREA AND MAY HAVE IRREVERSIBLE CONSEQUENCES - RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY

14:36

17:52

20:05
PUTIN EXPRESSES EXTREME CONCERN IN TALKS WITH MERKEL ABOUT UKRAINIAN FORCES' CONTINUING OFFENSIVE - PESKOV

July 14...

13:39

16:12 Rostov region attack inquiry will involve satellite data - investigators

RIANovosti: Russia Considering ‘Surgical Strike’ on Ukraine - Report

July 24...

Anti-Maidan: Artillery fire on Ukr. Armor positions | English Subtitles

Remains of 79th Ukr. Brigade recently destroyed | English Subtitles

July 25...

RT: Over 40 mortar shells ‘fired to kill’ into Russia from Ukraine

Good riddance Yatz?...

Kyiv Post: Yatsenyuk resigns as parliament elections likely to be held in fall

Yatsenyuk accuses parliament of 'sabotaging' Ukraine's IMF, World Bank programs; seeks to impose 'war tax'

July 31 - Reports of the creep's departure were woefully premature...

Interfax-Ukraine: Rada expresses confidence in PM Yatseniuk


Earlier in the month...

Interfax: Self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic confirms that militia has left Slovyansk

LiveLeak: Very intense fighting - Video from the front line on Donetsk militia side

RT: 'At least 30' Ukrainian military killed as militia shell convoy with Grad rockets

How Poroshenko gets his revenge...

30 civilians killed, orphanage destroyed as Kiev forces hit town near Donetsk – local militia


Courtesy Wayne Madsen Report, download PDF of...

WHITE BOOK ON VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW IN UKRAINE (NOVEMBER 2013 — MARCH 2014)

RIANovosti: Russian Foreign Ministry Continues to Record Humanitarian, War Crimes in East Ukraine

Lavrov Expresses Concern About Lack of Foreign Media Attention to Ukrainian Refugees

According to the recent estimates by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) about 110,000 people have fled Ukraine to Russia since the beginning of the crisis.


Segue to another refugee influx on the U.S. southern border, and the open question of who is planting "misinformation"...

Breitbart: White House Admits 'Rumors' of Amnesty Motivating Illegal Border Crossings

Officials said they are pushing back against “misinformation,” noting that Vice President Biden’s trip to Guatamala to meet with the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico is part of that effort.

“[They will] outline ways in which we will be working together to deal with this problem, again the source, to make sure we are doing everything possible both to support countries in stemming the tide of this migration but also to deal with the misinformation that is being deliberately planted by criminal organizations, by smuggling networks, about what people can expect if they come to the United States,” White House Director of Domestic Policy Cecilia Muñoz said on a conference call with reporters Friday.

Amarillo Globe newsImmigrant surge fueled by rumors

The First Lady of Honduras attributes the misinformation as originating with "coyotes" (people smugglers) who reap a profit, and then take sexual advantage of the vulnerable children...

La Prensa (Honduras): Denuncian que el 70% de niñas migrantes son abusados sexualmente

Según García de Hernánde, la migración de estos menores se debe a la mala información de muchos familiares que viven en Estados Unidos y en Honduras; también de muchos "coyotes" que les dicen que si sus hijos están antes de determinada fecha serán reunificados con sus familias.

En ese sentido pidió a los padres que en vez de pagar a los "coyotes" mejor inviertan ese dinero.


The sheer volume and suddenness of the influx has many north of the border, including the governor of Texas, attributing the source of the crisis to the Obama administration...

Texas Tribune: Perry Talks Border Crisis on ABC News

"The federal government is just absolutely failing. We either have an incredibly inept administration, or they're in on this somehow or another. I mean, I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean, how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?"

Town HallMexican Military Helicopter Flies Into U.S., Shoots at Border Patrol Agents, Flies Back

WorldNetDaily: Mexicans blame Americans for 'Death Train

All this further spurring a growing insurgency in America's SW...

American Power: Packed #Murrieta Town Hall Meeting Sounds Warning Against Illegal Alien Invasion!

WND: Town won't welcome illegals without a fight

LATimes: Murrieta immigrant detainee protests keep growing

Prison PlanetFeds Threaten Journalist With Prison Over Report On Illegal Immigration

Infowars: La Raza Members Vow to Aid Illegal Immigrants in Murrieta

Town Hall: Border Patrol Warns MS-13 Using Nogales Processing Center as Recruitment Hub

Houston Chronicle: Anti-government citizen militia groups want to 'secure the border' in Texas

Photos show border militias moving across Texas

Washington Times: Armed militia sets up Texas command center to ‘fight for national sovereignty’

Breitbart: 'Our Citizens are Under Siege' - Perry Sends National Guard to Border

WND: Congressman at border - 'Obama begging to be impeached'

 +

Among those questioning the ontology of borders...

Eagle Rising: Pelosi Says that US and Mexico are “One Community with a border going through it”

LiveLeak: ISIS movie - The End of Sykes-Picot, (in English)

Al Monitor (translation of As-Safir, Lebanon): ISIS announces Islamic caliphate, changes name

BBC: Iraq rebels 'seize nuclear materials'

Aangirfan: AL-BAGHDADI REVEALED AS A FAKE

Voltairenet: Islamic State tracks down Christians

DailyMail: 'Bucket full of heads any1 in aus want some organs please dont be shy to ask': Smirking Australian terrorist poses with decapitated heads in sickening pictures posted online

LiveLeak: 50 Soldiers Beheaded And Their Heads Put On Poles


Independent: Iraq crisis - How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country

A new Bandar to replace the old Bandar...

ReutersSaudi king appoints new spy chief as regional crisis spreads

Old Bandar not out of the loop...

Wayne Madsen Report: "Bandar Bush" is back calling the shots on ISIL advance through Iraq

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the godfather behind the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now called the "Islamic State" or "Islamic Caliphate," has returned to an influential position advising King Abdullah after being sacked as Saudi intelligence chief last April. Bandar's new title is "adviser to the King and his special envoy." Bandar had never actually left the Saudi inner circle. After being dismissed as intelligence chief in April, he retained his position as secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council, a position similar to that held by Susan Rice as the White House National Security Adviser and director of the National Security Council.

Bandar's restoration to favor within the House of Saud came as King Abdullah appointed the recently-fired deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, as the new chief of Saudi intelligence. It took only two days for Khaled from being fired as deputy defense minister, a job he held for only 45 days, to being named as Saudi intelligence chief. The shuffle came about to ensure that key Saudi defense and intelligence officials are on the same page when it comes to reasserting control over ISIL as it continues to advance toward Baghdad.

However, the House of Saud has been a major bank roller of ISIL since the beginning of their roles in Syria's civil war. The Al Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), on the other hand, has been mainly funded by Qatar. However, the Al Nusra Front, far from being a rival to ISIL, has pledged its support for the group as its forces spread across northern and western Iraq.

The actual aim of Saudi Arabia is to destabilize Iraq and Syria, hoping that the Nouri al-Maliki and Bashar al Assad governments, respectively, will be overthrown and replaced with radical Sunni regimes beholden to the Saudis.

Bandar, who is widely credited for arming and financing radical jihadists in the Syrian opposition rebel army against so-called "moderate" Syrian opposition forces, was forced out as Saudi intelligence chief after President Barack Obama met with King Abdullah in Riyadh on March 28. Bandar's duties as the chief Saudi interlocutor with Syria's rebels was transferred to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Those duties will now be assumed by Prince Khaled. Prince Mohammed helped steer Saudi support to the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has become a second-tier and weak player in the Syrian civil war. FSA officials, many of whom are exiled former government officials in the Assad government, are more comfortable in Istanbul hotels and restaurants than on the front lines in Syria. However, after the success of ISIL in eastern Syria and Iraq, the Saudis decided to bring back ISIL's main interlocutor, Prince Bandar, to bring the group's leadership under firmer Saudi control...


CIA director John O. Brennan, a Saudophile and former CIA station chief in Riyadh, is, according to our sources, behind the restoration of Bandar to a key position in the Saudi government. Some 1000 U.S. troops and advisers have been dispatched to Iraq not to prevent the Maliki government from falling but to assist in the transition to a post-Maliki government that will have strong pro-Saudi and Sunni representation. The U.S. military personnel are also in Iraq to protect U.S. assets in the country, including the massive U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad and U.S. oil industry interests.

There were varying unsubstantiated reports at the time of Bandar's dismissal that he had been assassinated or wounded while visiting rebel-held positions in Syria. Other reports stated that Bandar, affectionately known by the Bush family as "Bandar Bush" because of his close ties to the American political dynasty, was poisoned in an internal Saudi feud aimed at eliminating the influence of Bandar, the chief of the Sudairi clan within the House of Saud. The clan also includes Prince Turki, also a former Saudi intelligence chief, and Crown Prince Salman, the heir apparent to the throne after King Abdullah dies.

Bandar was brought back into a significant position as adviser to King Abdullah in order to carry out the Saudi and Israeli master plan for the region. The Riyadh-Jerusalem axis has agreed that Iraq as a nation must cease to exist. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently publicly endorsed an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The advance of ISIL forces into Iraq has convinced Turkey, long opposed to Kurdish statehood in Iraq, to support the idea or possibly face ISIL in charge of Kurdistan. The Turkish government has also started negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Turkey but now seen as a potential partner for Turkey against an ISIL takeover of Iraqi Kurdistan.

An ISIL on the move also gives Israel a powerful argument for why it must remain in charge of the West Bank. With ISIL changing its name from "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" to the more all-encompassing "Islamic State," there is a belief, backed by recent public statements by ISIL leader and self-proclaimed "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that ISIL's plans for an Islamic caliphate include Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and beyond. Baghdadi has called for an Islamic revolt from the Central African Republic to Myanmar. For Netanyahu, ISIL's offensive gives him political ammunition for not only maintaining control over the West Bank but in sabotaging the new Palestinian unity government of Fatah and Hamas.

Bandar's goal is to eliminate the current governments of Syria and Iraq, thus depriving Iran of its only two allies in the region. With a radical Sunni caliphate in charge in Baghdad, ISIL will be poised to cross the Iranian border and start a rebellion among Iran's Arab minority in Khuzestan province, the center of Iran's oil industry. With ISIL gaining control of Iraq's southern oil fields as well as part of the fields bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, the takeover by a Saudi proxy of Iran's oil province would give Saudi Arabia effective control over much of the Middle East's oil reserves. The shift of political and economic clout to Riyadh would also eliminate Qatar and its Muslim Brotherhood-aligned government as a serious rival to Saudi regional hegemony...



Middle East Monitor: Israeli settlers kidnap, burn and kill Palestinian boy in Jerusalem

Who got the latest round in this blood-feud going?...

Global Research: “Justified Vengeance”, The Pretext for Bombing Gaza: Was the Netanyahu Government behind the Killings of the Three Israeli Teenagers?

...leading to another Israeli crackdown in Gaza...

RT: Buildings in ruins in Palestine after Israel's tit-for-tat airstrikes

Cryptome: Gaza Bombing 1 and 2

Israel Prepares to Invade Gaza Photos

ZeroHedge: Israel Launches Ground Operation In Gaza - Special Forces Raid Alleged Rocket Compound 

Eurasia Review: Israeli Offensive Hits 56 Mosques, 7 Hospitals

MondoWeiss: Israeli strike kills four Palestinian children playing soccer on Gaza beach

The Intercept: NBC News Pulls Veteran Reporter from Gaza After Witnessing Israeli Attack on Children

Greenwald's twitter blitz was too much - Mohyeldin is back (report in video embed)...

NBC NewsIsrael Ramps Up Gaza Offensive After 13 IDF Soldiers Killed

July 22 - Major U.S. carriers temporarily suspend flights to Tel Aviv after Hamas rocket breaches "Iron Dome" near Ben Gurion Airport...

Moon of AlabamaHamas Win Leaves Netanyahoo and U.S. Position In Shambles

Aangirfan: ISRAEL'S STRATEGY REVEALED

Steve Pieczenik: Persistent Psychological Warfare: Israel vs. Hamas!

MondoWeiss: The deafening silence around the Hamas proposal for a 10-year truce


CBS-DC: Kerry, Aides Undergo Metal Detector Screening Before Meeting With Egyptian President

One airport Kerry will definitely not be passing through...

Reuters: Heavy fighting breaks out near Libya's Tripoli airport, seven dead

We'll let the hipster R2P propagandists of three years ago report this one...

Vice: US Evacuates Libya Embassy Amid Spiraling Violence


Needless to say, there is great incentive for the official explanation of the downing of Air Algeri Flight 5017 to be chalked up to "lightning strike" or the like...

WMR: Libyan BUK missile unit may have been used by AQIM to down Algerian passenger plane

+

July 1 at midnight was to be the moment, when Glenn Greenwald would publish 'the biggest Snowden revelations yet'... Midnight came and went, no dice...

Twitter @ggreenwaldAfter 3 months working on our story, USG today suddenly began making new last-minute claims which we intend to investigate before publishing

Eight days later...

The InterceptMeet the Muslim-American Leaders the FBI and NSA Have Been Spying On

A curious aside: interviewed for this article (as a defender of the surveillance) is one...

John Guandolo, a former FBI counterterrorism official who takes credit for developing a training program for agents on the “Muslim Brotherhood and their subversive movement in the United States,” told The Intercept that he participated in investigations of some of the individuals whose email accounts were monitored. Echoing the “red under every bed” hysteria of the McCarthy era, Guandolo believes that “hundreds” of covert members of the Muslim Brotherhood are active in the United States, that some of them have succeeded in infiltrating the Pentagon, and that CIA director John Brennan is a secret Muslim...

Such far-fetched accusations don’t bear serious scrutiny, given Guandolo’s increasingly bizarre and paranoid views since leaving the FBI. (Last year, for instance, he told a talk-radio host that CIA director John Brennan secretly converted to Islam and is a tool of Saudi intelligence.)

Guandolo's accusations as reported in the above linked World Net Daily and The Blaze may indeed be far-fetched and McCarthyite in tone, yet other related allegations that have come to light elsewhere: Wayne Madsen for instance has reported not that Brennan is a Muslim, but that...

Brennan can also be legally referred to as "Al Hadj John Brennan." While he was station chief in Riyadh, Brennan made the Islamic "hadj" or pilgrimage to Mecca. Although entry into Mecca is forbidden to non-Muslims, Brennan went as the personal guest of the King of Saudi Arabia who also has the title "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" of Mecca and Medina. The King can grant, in special circumstances, access to Mecca by non-Muslims, although the practice is rare.

As for his being "a tool of Saudi intelligence," see the above mirrored WMR article on Prince Bandar along with details aggregated in our own profile of Brennan. Greenwald then, in characterizing such allegations as ridiculous, is here effectively covering for Brennan; an interesting development given what has also been reported at Wayne Madsen Report (mirrored in our February 2014 headlines summary) regarding Snowden's assistance from CIA employees in leaking the NSA document trove.

Another case of Greenwald (in his July 25 Intercept article) downplaying - by not mentioning - Brennan's relationship with the Saudis; but highlighted by...

LaRouchePAC: Obama's Crony John Brennan Partnered the NSA with Saudi Torturers


By Cryptome's tally update, as of...

25 July 2014. Add 4 pages to The Intercept. Tally now *2,107 pages of The Guardian first reported 58,000 files; caveat: Janine Gibson, The Guardian NY, said on 30 January 2014 "much more than 58,000 files in first part, two more parts" (no numbers) (tally now less than ~3.5%). DoD claims 1,700,000 files (~.012% of that released). ACLU lists 525 pages released by the press. However, if as The Washington Post reported, a minimum of 250,000 pages are in the Snowden files, then less than 1% have been released.

And we would add, the names of domestic surveillance targets released by Greenwald are only five among hundreds or even thousands, consisting of "202 email addresses as belonging to “U.S. persons,” 1,782 as belonging to “non-U.S. persons,” and 5,501 as “unknown” or simply blank."

An any case, an analysis (based on what little Greenwald has given us) shows that the NSA may be falsely accused...

Top Level Communications: Document shows that it was not NSA, but FBI that monitored 5 Americans


The calls to release all Snowden documents continue, citing rumors of war aversion...

@Cryptomeorg: Only way war can be avoided. Warmongerers are on a rampage. So, yes, citizens holding Snowden docs will do the right thing.

CryptomeVocativ Interviews Cryptome on Snowden Releases

A recurring theme @Cryptomeorg: July Is Extremist Release of All Snowden Files Time: NSA Hacks TOR in Germany, Calls Users Extremists: via

It was wishful thinking... @Cryptomeorg July 10: Gaza bombing would not be happening if NSA technical docs on how US aids Israel spying-armaments had been released. July war not averted. Also: ISIS war would not be happening if NSA technical docs on US Mid-East spying and armaments were released. July war not averted. Aspen joyful.

Also an ad campaign in D.C...

Voice of Russia: Whistleblower Counteroffensive Against the Feds Shakes Up Washington


Another leaker leaking?...

Schneier on Security: NSA Targets the Privacy-Conscious for Surveillance

Or not...

CPunks: XKeyscore rules probably are from Snowden, after all

There has been some speculation that the recent XKeyscore rule leaks
[1] do not come from Snowden — particularly, by Schneier [2]. I
believe that there is a good case that the leaks do come from Snowden,
since it is possible to pinpoint the date range when the rule sources
[3] have been last updated... [the rest is fairly technical]
 
[1] http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/aktuell/nsa230_page-1.html
[2] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/nsa_targets_pri.html
[3] http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/xkeyscorerules100.txt

OpEdNews: Second NSA Whistleblower Confirms Snowden Allegations, and adds more (Video Interview)

DW: NSA 'totalitarian,' ex-staffer tells German parliament

NYTimes: German Accused of Passing Secrets, and Fingers Point at U.S.

DW: German paper reports second German spy working for US

Reuters: CIA had role in Germany spy affair

Spiegel: Retaliation for Spying - Germany Asks CIA Official to Leave Country

Bild am Sonntag: Bundesregierung bläst zur Agenten-Jagd

Independent: Germany begins spying on Britain and America for the first time since 1945

+

Miscellania...

ZeroHedge: How Argentina Became A Bad Debtor


Bloomberg: Goldman Sachs Managing Director Nicholas Valtz Found Dead


WMR: July 31-August 1, 2014 -- White House finally responds to Ebola warning and Obama's Africa Summit

Mirror: Ebola - Spider's web of infection is growing as hunt continues for 30,000 'victims' of outbreak

Reuters: As Ebola stalks West Africa, medics fight mistrust, hostility

Telegraph: Ebola outbreak - Victim who sparked fears of global epidemic was on way home to US

AFP: China Seals Off Town After Man Dies of Bubonic Plague

BloombergFour Cases of Life-Threatening Plague Found in Colorado

RT: Maryland smallpox storage also held 300 vials with dengue, influenza

Journal-Sentinel: UW puts worst-case-scenario planning for biosafety to the test


Guardian: Facebook reveals news feed experiment to control emotions

US military studied how to influence Twitter users in Darpa-funded research

ZeroHedge: Meet The "Minerva Research Initiative" - The Pentagon's Preparation For "Mass Civil Breakdown"

Infowars: Dozens More Military Programs To Control Social Media Revealed

The Intercept: Hacking Online Polls and Other Ways British Spies Seek to Control the Internet


Strategic-Culture: Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark


Perhaps a decoy...

RT: Russian gecko satellite unresponsive in transit orbit

Gecko sex satellite back online as Russia restores contact


New York Post: Religious group flies swastika banner over city beaches

Al MonitorErdogan's Hitler comments take their toll

Taz.de: Forscher über Antisemitismus „Hitler steht nicht wieder vor der Tür“

Jerusalem Post: Anti-Israel protesters attack Paris synagogue

Times of Israel: Residents of small Guatemalan town want Jews to leave

Indigenous residents of San Juan La Laguna, a small town of under 10,000 in the Guatemalan state of Sololá, have asked members of the Jewish community — comprising 10 ultra-Orthodox families, most of whom arrived only recently — to identify themselves in a municipal registry and leave within the next few months...

Residents have filed complaints with the municipality that the community of ultra-religious Jews have used a public body of water as a mikveh (ritual bath), practiced unhygienic rituals like kaparot (where a chicken is swung around a rabbi’s head before being slaughtered), and made disparaging comments about immodesty to tourists.  

According to the mayor, the indigenous population has also been suspicious since a Canadian couple accused of child abuse reportedly moved to San Juan La Laguna with their six children...

Aangirfan: 'CHILD SEX' USED TO CONTROL THE WORLD

CHILD ABUSE - VAST NUMBERS OF TOP PEOPLE INVOLVED

Suspected pedophile...

BBCWilliam Hague quits as foreign secretary in cabinet reshuffle

Spared from the dragnet...


Not Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck...

CNN: Theme park employees caught in sex stings, child porn arrests


Memory Hole: Sandy Hook’s Disappearing Witnesses

Veterans TodayWolfgang Halbig - 11,000 page Sandy Hook “script”/ CT State Police gave false affidavits


FOX2Now (St. Louis): Federal agents swarm Livingston, Ill.


RT: Senate committee passes CISA cybersecurity bill that could broaden NSA powers

Pando: Why’s Google aligning itself with hated ISPs? It plans on being one of them

Hidden From Google: A list of search results omitted, erased, or censored due to the "Right to be forgotten"

DefenseOne: How the CIA Partnered With Amazon and Changed Intelligence

WaPo: And minder makes three - For White House interviews, it’s never just one-on-one

In the future, D.C. press corp will have their "minders" implanted...

33rd Square: DARPA Provides New Funding To Develop Brain Implants


ENENews: ‘Puzzling’ quake hits next to NYC-area nuclear plant — “Not along any known fault lines” — Many reports of ‘loud boom’ echoing through area — Residents ‘startled into streets’ — Professor: “They tend to come in bursts… I’m concerned, let’s put it that way… Significant hazard… We don’t understand why these occur”


Cornell Chronicle: Arecibo captures its first 'fast radio burst

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

FEMEN Lustmord

A May the 2nd photo just outside the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine shows FEMEN activist Ievgeniia Kraizman giving a victorious salute as the camp of pro-Russian rebels was burning, at a point when the atrocities within the building were likely occurring, and just as arson upon it was about to be committed. For a thorough compendium of videos and accounts of the massacre...

MyFireDogLake ("operationmindcrime"): The Odessa Massacre – detailed video analysis – one month later.

As Ievgeniia posed for the photo, a pregnant woman inside the building was about to be or was in the process of being strangled to death, while at least one other woman was about to be or was being raped, her scorched remains left as evidence. Kraizman's photo was originally posted (since removed) on her Instagram account, then shared on the Facebook page of The Junsae, before receiving its widest circulation in this critical Steven Argue article...

Santa Cruz IMC: Fake “Feminists” of Femen Participated in the Odessa Massacre

FEMEN, as covered in the western media - with a focus on their protest of issues beholden to the feminist left - would seem incongruous with the milieu in which we here find Miss Kraizman. A three part series by French blogger Oliver Pechter on the history of FEMEN however surprisingly puts them firmly - for a time at least - in association with members of the Ukrainian far right. We have here translated excerpts and summarized the contents of this series...

Olivier PechterCommunistes et rouge-bruns, les premiers alliés. L’histoire cachée des FEMEN (1/3)

Born in the crucible of communist and anti-fascist Ukraine, FEMEN is no less associated, in a repeating fashion, to reactionary movements or even ultra-nationalists (2/3). Before taking refuge in France, thanks to the benevolence of certain neo-conservative movements (3/3)

...some years ago, one sees of the foundations of FEMEN passing abruptly from one camp to another. A turnaround signifying imposture. This earned FEMEN to be qualified as "political technology" by Ukrainian specialists...

Political technology? It is political manipulation pushed to the extreme. The tools for doing this are familiar to us: storytelling, disinformation, "triangulation"... But it's extends and intensifies in the areas of the ex-USSR, where it stirs as a veritable small industry, to us unknown. In most cases, it is the maneuvers of a powerful authority for maintaining its place, through trickery. FEMEN has long been considered as a provider of this type of service. But in this case, they have developed their position at the discretion of the media and by their financial/political support of the moment. It would therefore be false to say that they have been created by a puppeteer whose interests they have defended all along. They have defended their own before. Nevertheless, we reveal some political/financial acquaintances not mentioned up till now, able to shed new light on some of their positions.

Pechter recounts the pre-history of FEMEN beginning in the city of Khmelnytsky in the early naughts where Anna Hutsol (the hidden face of Femen) and Viktor Sviatski (the reported manipulator behind FEMEN) meet in the "circle of marxist street" and the Komsomol, or communist youth movement. They form the student movements "Centre perspectives of youth" and "New Ethics," while Hutsol campaigns for the communist party. Following dismal election returns, however, they align with "Grande Ukraine" - a red-brown party being a political alliance of the left with nationalists. Grand Ukraine is under the direction of businessman and alleged spy Igor Berkut, one reputed to employ "political technology". In their early association with these parties, Hutsol and Sviatski were then Russophilic and anti-NATO.

In part 2 of the series, Immigration, peine de mort, alliés néofascistes… L’histoire cachée des FEMEN, Pechter follows the inception of FEMEN in its opportunistic fellow-travelling with certain unsavory far-right groups and figures...

In a Ukrainian political context as tense as it is confused, FEMEN will engage in all alliances and friendships, up to having hosted the web-site of a former skin-head, or demonstrating with the Svoboda party.

When FEMEN is launched in Kiev in the Spring of 2008, André Kolomiets ("Andrew Kolomyjec"), one of the executives of the Grande Ukraine, quickly comes back to the administrative council. It will become one of the "most constant sources of financial support" for the activists. "To assure their independence" he says very seriously... 

Pechter lists certain issues that are shared between Grande Ukraine and FEMEN, such as an anti-immigration stance directed particularly against Turks (the Turkish embassy was the location of one of the first FEMEN protests) and advocacy of the death penalty in the case of sadists. FEMEN would moreover seem to advocate a sort of nationalist, or ethnocentric feminism, where listed in a mission statement we find: "construct a national image of femininity, of maternity and of beauty based on the experience of the Euro-atlantic women's movement." Here then, as Pechter notes, the geo-political tilt of FEMEN has turned towards the West.

Other nationalist and far right groups with which FEMEN has had a rapprochement include "Coalition parties of the Orange Revolution," the "Confraternity of Saint Luke," and the "Black Committee". Members of the latter have been sentenced for setting fire to a residence of African students and attacking a Jewish community center.

Pechter produces numerous photographs illustrating FEMEN activists and leaders associating with far-right elements and individuals not only in demonstrations (for instance with Svoboda and the paramilitary UNA-UNSO in a January 2011 protest against the Belarusian regime) but apparently in more social settings as well, where we find FEMEN's Anna Hutsol in a group photograph with Anna Sinkova of the Confraternity of Saint Luke and Bogdan Titsky of the Black Committee. Other figures on the extreme right that FEMEN is shown to be on friendly terms with include Edouard Iholnikov and Sergey Didkovsky

Continuing in part 3, Islamophobie et réseaux néoconservateurs. L’histoire cachée des FEMEN, Pechter charts FEMEN's move to Paris, and with it, a neo-conservative turn...

By 2009, FEMEN intend to become Europe's premier feminist movement. They are on their way. Yet they have successfully drawn attention to themselves on the world stage (at the Venice Biennial for example). In France they are received with honors (2012) and even inspire the new stamp, Marianne (2013).

On the latter, see Inna Shevchenko's tweetFEMEN is on French stamp.Now all homophobes,extremists,fascists will have to lick my ass when they want to send a letter. As her choice of targets indicates, with the move to Paris, FEMEN had adapted to a new activist milieu. Pechter continues...

A sign of opportunism of the organism, in establishing themselves in France, they abandon their more reactionary positions (anti-immigration and pro-death penalty) in favor of the easy combat with Islam and the Church, or even in favor of gay marriage...

Abreast of the French left [or "Within the.." but we cannot resist the double entendre of the French expression, Au sein de la gauche française], FEMEN drew the support of the Greens, the Left Party, but also of the PS [center-left Parti socialiste of French president François Hollande]. It must be added that with their installment in Paris, they have made a media opponent of the Catholic right wing.

However, it is on the basis of the islamophobia that they have in common with fundamentalists that they have aroused their strongest support. In particular in the pro-American movement. Figure of this current, Caroline Fourest, veritable guardian angel. At the crossroads in the milieu of these associations, journalistic and political, she is a weighty ally. 

Fourest will be unfamiliar to most English speakers. She is a prominent feminist in France, an author and film-maker. Her beneficence towards FEMEN comes primarily with the film, "Nos seins, nos armes !" (Our breasts, our weapons), and a biography of Inna Shevchenko, Inna, published earlier this year. As Fourest has been a strong critic of the treatment of women within Islam, this puts her into common cause with certain French neo-conservatives, such as François Zimeray and Bernard-Henri Lévy. These associations alone would not make FEMEN a neo-conservative or Zionist movement. Pechter however suggests that a neo-conservative bias is evident in the plagiarizing of an Islamophobic rant by Inna Shevenko in an interview with the Huffington Post (fr)...

We are at war. A war between two epochs. A war between a retrograde mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and a progressive mentality ingrained in the 21st Century. A war between liberty and oppression. A war between democracy and dictatorship. A war between those who treat women like dogs and those who cry "we are women, we are human beings!"  A war between those who believe in superstitions and those who have a clear mind.

This rant is nearly word for word that of "Ultra-Zionist" Wafa Sultan in 2006 on Al Jazeera in answering a question about Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations". As Pechter notes, the rant was to be found on Caroline Fourest's website, Prochoix.

Now that FEMEN has a chapter in Israel, should we anticipate protests against illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and against the treatment of Palestinians as second class citizens? Doubtful. Thus far they have chosen rather easy and inconsequential targets. At their first protest at a gay pride parade, they were heard shouting, "End discrimination within the community!” (Is the problem that gay men are not attracted to women?)...

Times of IsraelTopless protesters make Israel debut


Supplemental to Pechter's research...

MetaTVLes Femen - leurs liens avec l’extrême droite ukrainienne et les think tanks américains

A trans-Atlantic source of support for FEMEN is to be found in the Open World Leadership Center, of which Anna Hutsol is listed as an alumna. Inasmuch as the president of the board of directors, James H. Billington, is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and is a recipient of the Presidential Citizen Medal from George W. Bush, this raises the question of whose interests FEMEN's activism truly serves. Is it about the liberation of femininity or is it about furthering a neo-conservative agenda and of besetting the Russian sphere of influence with the hackles of FEMEN as "soft-power" shock-troupes?