Syria Sitrep – Cleanup Around Damascus – WMD Rumors Prepare For New U.S. Attack

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Syria Sitrep – Cleanup Around Damascus – WMD Rumors Prepare For New U.S. Attack

[source: http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/04/syria-cleanup-around-damascus-continues-wmd-rumors-prepare-for-new-us-attack.html]

After the Syrian army liberated Douma, the next Takfiri held areas near the capital Damascus fell in short order. The Jaish al-Islam militants in Dumayr, north-east of Damascus, gave up without a fight. As usual by now the Takfiris were transferred to the north-western Idleb governorate held by al-Qaeda and other Turkish supported forces. The town of Dumayr controls the Damascus Baghdad highway. Capitulation negotiations in the nearby Eastern Qalamoun are ongoing.

The former Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk is an upbuild suburb south of Damascus. One part is in the hands of al-Qaeda and another was controlled by an Islamic State group. Offers to evacuate the groups were made but rejected. Yesterday the Syrian army launched a massive artillery barrage and the Russian and Syrian air force dropped bombs onto the quarter. Today, just twenty-four hours later, the Takfiris gave up. The al-Qaeda aligned militants will be evacuated to Idleb, the Islamic State aligned group to the eastern Syrian desert.

With each elimination of a ‘rebel’ pockets Syrian army is gaining strength. Ten-thousands of soldiers who were needed to hold the Takfiri held areas around Damascus surrounded and under control are now free to attack elsewhere. Some of the militants who did not evacuate also joined the government forces.

The evacuation of many militants to the north-west might later turn up to be problematic. They will eventually come under Turkish control and could be used in another Turkish attempt to take Aleppo. But for now they are infighting. Al-Qaeda in Syria, now renamed to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is fighting with other groups over control of the area. Over the last months about one thousand of the militants have killed each other, 3,000 were wounded and many of their heavy arms were destroyed. The Syrian government hopes that such infighting will continue for a while.

When all the surrounded areas within the government realm are consolidated the Syrian army will move towards the borders in the south. The area around Deraa up to the Israeli occupied Golan heights and the Jordan border is in the hands of various groups of militants. Like in the north rebel infighting is a frequent occurrence. Two days ago an Islamic State aligned group tried to wrest control over some villages east of Deraa from some other local militant group. Fighting has been ongoing since and both sides are losing strength. One wonders how many of these fights between rebels are instigated by undercover Syrian intelligence agents.

The greatest difficulty for the Syrian army operation in the south is the Israeli supply and support for a number terrorist groups in that area. Should Israel intervene in any form in the Syrian operation to liberate the area the fight can easily escalate into a larger war.

The destroyed city of Raqqa in the east is becoming a headache for the U.S. occupation force. The U.S. used unwilling Kurdish ground troops to attack the city. It was not much of an infantry fight. Anything that moved was simply bombed from the air or ground. The one U.S. artillery battalion that covered the city fired more than 35,000 155mmm rounds during the five month operation. Now some 80% of the buildings in Raqqa are completely destroyed. The rest is inhabitable.

The city has no water and no electricity. The U.S. claimed that 2,500 ISIS militants were in the city when the fighting started. In the end the U.S. let at least 500 of those leave the city and move further east to fight the Syrian army. It also said that only 30 civilians were killed in its attack. That is of course nonsense. At least 2,000 dead bodies have been recovered so far and 6,000 more dead are recorded as still lying under the ruins. There will be more. The city administration has no equipment and money to recover them. The U.S. is unwilling to spend any money for the city it destroyed and the Kurdish warlords who now occupy the city are incompetent and have no interest to help its Arab inhabitants. The population that has returned is hostile towards the U.S. and the Kurds. It wants to get back under Syrian government control.

Further east at the Syrian Iraqi border and north of the Euphrates some 3-5,000 ISIS fighters live unmolested by U.S. air or ground attacks. The U.S. prevented Syrian government troops who control the area south of Euphrates from attacking the ISIS forces. But neither Syria nor Iraq can allow that ISIS pocket to survive. Yesterday a high level meeting was held in the operation room in Baghdad where Russian, Iranian, Syrian and Iraqi commanders arrange common operations against ISIS. Shortly thereafter an Iraqi jet attacked a ISIS command meeting near Hajin in Syria. The strike had Syrian government approval. Syrian government forces have rebuild a military bridge that will allow them to cross the Euphrates in a future operation. Several battalions, including auxiliary troops under Iranian command, are ready to attack. Will the U.S. bomb them when they cross the river? Or will it hold back and allow Iraqi air support for the Syrian troops?

The neo-conservatives are busy insinuating that Syria still has chemical weapon program and that it is distributed throughout the country.

U.S. assessments following the U.S., British and French missile strikes on Syria show they had only a limited impact on President Bashar al-Assad’s ability to carry out chemical weapons attacks, four U.S. officials told Reuters.

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the available intelligence indicated that Assad’s stock of chemicals and precursors was believed to be scattered far beyond the three targets.

This is of course just nonsense. Syria gave up its chemical weapons in 2013 and the OPCW confirmed that all weapon and precursor stocks were destroyed and all laboratories and production facilities dismantled.

This new fairytale of Assad’s chemical weapons is designed to create a pretext for a another, more extensive bombing campaign against Syria. A fake pretext build on fake ‘chemical attack’ in Douma.

There is no evidence that any ‘chemical attack’ occurred in Douma. All the U.S., French and British government have are some videos created by known propagandists like the White Helmets who work for  those governments. The State Department’s spokesperson finally acknowledged that:

MS NAUERT: Yeah. … We recognize and appreciate and are very grateful for all the work that the White Helmets continues to do on behalf of the people of their country and on behalf of the U.S. Government and all the coalition forces.

I’ve just exchanged emails with him the other day. My understanding is that their work is still going on, and we’re proud to work with them.

Republican Representative Massie remarked today:

Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie – 14:03 UTC- 19 Apr 2018In briefing to Congress, DNI, SecDef, and SecState provided zero real evidence. Referenced info circulating online. Which means either they chose not to provide proof to Congress or they don’t have conclusive proof that Assad carried out gas attack. Either way, not good.

After being stalled for five days the OPCW fact finding mission finally reached the area in Douma where the alleged ‘chemical attack happened. It entered under protection of Russian military police.

The scientific research service of the German Bundestag published a report (pdf, German) today which concludes that the U.S. led attack on Syria on April 13 was evidently in violation of international law.

Posted by b on April 20, 2018 at 03:06 PM | Permalink

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PCR:
“The Russian government is captured by delusion if the Russians believe that the US government, in which Nikki Haley is Trump’s choice to be America’s spokesperson to the world, in which the crazed neoconservative war monger John Bolton is a principal influence over US military and foreign policy, and in which the President himself is under threat of indictment for wanting to normalize relations with Russia, has any prospect of avoiding war.”

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 20, 2018 3:41:10 PM | 1

Thank you so much for providing such a brilliant and intelligent analysis. Il faut inlassablement exposer les menteurs, rendre leur honte, plus honteuse encore.

Posted by: Alain | Apr 20, 2018 3:43:18 PM | 2

Time is running out for the iFUKUS faster then they can comprehend. All that is going on is just a road-map for a wider, more brutal conflict. I read the situation as the Resistance have played it out for Syria to be the place where to corner the Anglo-Zionist empire and slit it’s throad ruthlessly in broad-daylight. A very dangerous game played by The Resistance and apparently a successful one.

Posted by: Fantome | Apr 20, 2018 3:49:53 PM | 3

thanks b.. excellent overview on where the world is at with syria at present.. the usa, israel and the west are going to continue.. i see no end in sight based on their approach to date..

it is such a shame what the usa has done to raqqa, and the msm will not be holding them accountable.. kind of like usa presidents.. none of them ever held accountable for their actions on the world stage.. meanwhile the usa openly supports isis east of the euphrates.. what else is new?

in the south, israel will continue to supply ‘moderate headchoppers’, or worse – think they can bomb syria without any consequences.. they are so used to no consequences for their warmongering, it is going to come as a shock to them when they get more of a response..

in the northwest, erdogan will find a way to use the moderate headchoppers for his own designs on syria.. hopefully russia can has some sway over him, but they really haven’t so far..

bottom line.. russia continues on and have to continue to draw lines in the sand for all these warmongers.. it is a difficult task, but russia has shown the ability to do this… when the usa finally messes up with russia, we will be in war… it is not that russia wants war, but that the usa-israel and all the sycophants in this same corner – are all too stupid to realize how they have pushed russia too far with the countless lies and destruction of syria.. this will be where russia is forced to take a stand.. they have been all along, while trying to avoid war… so much for the stupidity driven west, who are incapable of seeing or wanting to acknowledge any of it..

Posted by: james | Apr 20, 2018 4:07:39 PM | 4

Lavrov says that the unlawful attack on Syria gives Russia the right to supply Syria with S-300:

The President spoke about this. We have no moral obligations now. We used to have moral obligations, we promised not to do that some 10 years ago, as far as I remember, at the request of our known partners, and we took their argument into account, that it would lead to destabilization, although (these air defense systems are) purely defensive. We nevertheless heeded their requests, but we don’t have this moral obligation now.

According to EurAsia Daily, today at Tartus a Russian cargo ship has unloaded something under the cover of a smokescreen (presumably, to avoid observation by drones/satellites): https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2018/04/20/smi-v-siriyskiy-tartus-iz-novorossiyska-vozmozhno-pribyli-s-300 (in Russian).

Posted by: S | Apr 20, 2018 4:21:26 PM | 5

The offloading of Russian supply ships in Syria has recently been masked from satellites through the use of smoke, which is the first time I’ve heard such reports.

Western Propaganda attempt to bash social media users as Russian Bots and Assad/Putin Apologists has encountered severe push back and extreme embarrassment–particularly when the Twitter platform was caught colluding with the effort. It’s hoped that in its desperation the May government has finally overreached and ultimately discredited itself along with the great majority of UK media which will finally allow Corbyn to gain a majority.

Unfortunately, not knowing French or German limits my ability to observe and remark about the overall direction of European social media. Hopefully, the Bundestag’s report b linked to will help. I’ve seen no reports of German media deliberately lying to viewers by falsely translating interviews with Syrians unlike Swedish, Dutch, and Danish media.

@Partisangirl Tweeted it best: “If British intelligence can’t even confirm the fact I’m not a robot, how can we believe anything they say about #Skripal #Syria or #Russia?”

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 4:29:35 PM | 6

What would change in the second attack from the attack that just took place? They tried 103 pot shots the first day. To no avail. Then Israel tried another six shots the next day. That too, to no avail. So what would they try this time? A thousand?

Elijah Magnier sums it up very pointedly in his recent article <\a>


Iran didn’t make any effort to hide its military preparations: targets were set against all US military bases in the Middle East and against the US’s closest Arab allies. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah coordinated the preparation of immediate counter attack on that same evening which would unleash hundreds of missiles against selected objectives. This war plan, ready and updated, was presented to Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. During the course of his leadership he has always looked into the minute details of every single movement of officers, plans of defence and indeed all military plans related to warfare preparation. The Secretary General of Hezbollah is thus not only a political leader but the effective commander of his organised-irregular, well equipped army. So the Syrian command and Hezbollah turned their missiles towards one single objective: Israel.
<\blockquote>
After the third round of missle barrage, The launch platforms started to get lit up by Russian radar. The signal was: Enough is enough guys, stop right now. And sure enough the firing stopped. As a direct fight between Russia and the US was never on the agenda.

So what can the Zionist lobby do now? The neo-neocons can huff, and they can puff untill they fart themselves out to oblivion.

As for Trump, he will conjure out a way to pull his forces out. He has his reasons. And the deep state may not find the depth to stand against him. Is America finally trying to ditch the Anglo_Zionist empire in a very non-American fashion?

Posted by: meme | Apr 20, 2018 4:39:57 PM | 7

@5,
See @194, @195 on prior thread.

James @4,

“it is such a shame what the usa has done to raqqa, and the msm will not be holding them accountable.” Indeed. Syria clears Ghouta with a fraction of the civilian casualties the US inflicts upon Raqqa, and the imperial press depicts the former as an ethnic cleansing with a chemical on top, and hardly deigns to mention the latter at all. We deserve to suffer a very severe justice.

I would not be surprised if an insurgency develops in Raqqa.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 20, 2018 4:42:55 PM | 8

Woops. Made an HTML typo in the above reply. Jin on the rocks can really work some tomes.

Posted by: meme | Apr 20, 2018 4:43:11 PM | 9

I wonder if Raqqa as it is were best left abandoned as an open-air museum and reminder of the devastation caused by a particular 21st-century brand of scorched-earth war policy favoured by the US since the late nineteenth century in its wars against its native peoples and its war against the breakaway Confederate states. (I confess no love or admiration for the Confederacy, in case anyone jumps to conclusions about the previous sentence.)

A new city could be built close by the destroyed city for former Raqqa residents. The old city could be a source of funding for the new city, as a museum and site of study by forensic experts and military historians. The old city could also be open to tourists once the dead and all possible booby trap bombs and mines have been removed.

Posted by: Jen | Apr 20, 2018 4:52:52 PM | 10

Seems German media will not follow BBC into the Bear Trap: “#Douma chemical attack is most likely staged. A great many people here seem very convinced.”

Is a Sea Change about to occur?

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 4:54:08 PM | 11

What would change in the second attack from the attack that just took place? Posted by: meme | Apr 20, 2018 4:39:57 PM | 7

What could change is a lot as the Eisenhower and its entourage have 1500 missiles: The IKE CSG consists of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3, guided-missile cruisers USS San Jacinto (CG 56) and USS Monterey (CG 61), and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 26 with its associated guided-missile destroyers USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), USS Mason (DDG 87), USS Nitze (DDG 94) and USS Stout (DDG 55).
That number of missiles is a game changer and this latest run at Syria may have been to assess defenses for a further attack. BTW their stated mission is to defeat ISIS as well as to protect Europe.

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 4:57:51 PM | 12

meme @7,

In the first strike, Pantsir + Buk2 + EWS + an integrated Iranian/Syrian/Russian tracking radar neutralized roughly 70 missiles out of 100 fired.

Do we know whether on the basis of this data the Russians are able more or less accurately to project the success rate of the integrated system above + S-300 + S-400 for a given number of missiles fired? Does the US know how many missiles must be fired in one wave to saturate the capacities of this more sophisticated integrated system? Does Russia?

Forgive me if this is a stupid question. I just don’t know much about it.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 20, 2018 5:03:05 PM | 13

In follow-on to my 12 post:
They used 103 missiles this time. It’s approximately equivalent to:
the amount used in the entire Libya War 2011.
⅓ of what they used in entire Gulf War 1991.
⅛ of what they used in entire Iraq invasion 2003.
Twice the amount used in the entire Afghanistan war 2001-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.
You can do a lot of damage with 1500 missiles. My hope is Russia is expediting delivery of a bunch of S-300s.

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 5:06:10 PM | 14

@meme: I don’t think Israel will give up so easily. The slow-motion, decades-long land grab and the creation of a buffer against Iranian forces are among its primary goals. What better time than now to “slice another piece of salami” off of Syria? Also, Assad and Putin only offered a 5 km “no Iranians” buffer along the border, while Israelis demanded 40 km.

Posted by: S | Apr 20, 2018 5:10:01 PM | 15

Adam Garrie on the Bot Plot rightly asks the question, why should we believe anything published/portrayed by major media when it’s clear they lie so often?

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 5:13:21 PM | 16

Adam Garrie on the Bot Plot rightly asks the question, why should we believe anything published/portrayed by major media when it’s clear they lie so often?

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 5:13:54 PM | 17

b- I apologize for an off-topic post, but does anyone know why Tucker Carlson has not been hosting his show the last few days?

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 5:14:24 PM | 18

For our German speakers, the news I alluded to @11 above.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 5:17:54 PM | 19

frances @14,

Am I wrong in assuming that the amount of missiles used during those wars (Libya, Iraq I, Iraq II, Afghanistan) is a direct reflection of the relative weakness of these countries’ respective militaries? I mean, the US hasn’t fought a real military in a really, really long time, no? Or is it more complex than this.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 20, 2018 5:18:07 PM | 20

@12 Frances, what would likely change is these ships and their crews would be lying on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea…

Posted by: kgw | Apr 20, 2018 5:27:33 PM | 21

@frances: S-300 would be an overkill against cruise missiles. The rule of thumb is: use Buk and Pantsir against cruise missiles and aircraft at short range, S-300 against aircraft at long range, S-400 against stealth aircraft and ballistic missiles.

Posted by: S | Apr 20, 2018 5:35:07 PM | 22

@frances 12
What could change is a lot as the Eisenhower and its entourage have 1500 missiles: . . .
Last I heard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) ws in Portsmouth for overhaul. Do you have better information?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 20, 2018 5:44:58 PM | 23

@ 22 Overkill! ???

Why do you think the RF Military guys suggested S-300 for Syria?

Would S-300 not deter Israel IDF striking Syria from Lebanon’s airspace? Certainly Syria requires full defensive capability, especially from IsraHell.

Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 20, 2018 5:45:25 PM | 24

Am I wrong in assuming that the amount of missiles used during those wars (Libya, Iraq I, Iraq II, Afghanistan) is a direct reflection of the relative weakness of these countries’ respective militaries? I mean, the US hasn’t fought a real military in a really, really long time, no? Or is it more complex than this.
Posted by: WJ | Apr 20, 2018 5:18:07 PM | 20
I do not have a military background, I do recall in Iraq II the US bought off a lot of the generals, so my uneducated guess is the answer is yes and no. Again my uneducated guess is the number of missiles used reflects the level of difficulty to some degree, plus the number of key targets and takes into account to what degree the target has been softened up by bribes, etc.

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 5:45:57 PM | 25

@12 Frances, what would likely change is these ships and their crews would be lying on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea…
Posted by: kgw | Apr 20, 2018 5:27:33 PM | 21

Which would probably be the end of us all,except for any number of the Russians:) I am afraid the US is too stupid, too arrogant, too much a believer in its own fluff to back down.

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 5:49:33 PM | 26

“….S-300 against aircraft at long range, S-400 against stealth aircraft and ballistic missiles.”
Posted by: S | Apr 20, 2018 5:35:07 PM | 22
I agree, they would be overkill in a basic off shore shelling, but the fleet has a number of fighter jets, so they could be useful if they could be deployed in time.

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 5:51:16 PM | 27

That German correspondent used the word “Provokation”. I think that will inevitably remind Germans of a certain age of the Gleiwitz incident.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 20, 2018 5:52:12 PM | 28

I ve spent five days looking, peeping out deep into various sources what in fact had happened in Gouhta & Douma. And only stop when results turn out a satisfactory
explanation.
Yes, people all over the world MUST study case by case on those war triggering episodes and so the logic of the empire will transparently appear in all its crudeness.

Posted by: augusto | Apr 20, 2018 5:53:15 PM | 29

@8 wj / 10 jen… it’s this approach that it’s okay to make the planet uninhabitable that really gets me.. depleted uranian was discussed on the previous thread…raqqa and mosul are more of the same… the us and it’s ‘might makes right’ philosophy is really sickening.. when will it ever end?

Posted by: james | Apr 20, 2018 5:54:36 PM | 30

Last I heard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) ws in Portsmouth for overhaul. Do you have better information?
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 20, 2018 5:44:58 PM | 23
I read it was to arrive on May 14th, let me locate that article, I read it about a week ago.

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 5:55:43 PM | 31

@frances 31
Okay, I was a bit harsh on you, it was the Truman not the Ike.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 20, 2018 5:58:40 PM | 32

@Likklemore, @frances: Oh, absolutely. Syria needs S-300 against fighter jets and bombers. My “overkill” comment was related to cruise missiles only.

Posted by: S | Apr 20, 2018 6:04:51 PM | 33

karlof1 5:17:54 PM | 19
Uli Gack is still talking nonsense. He is talking about IS in Douma, there wasn’t any. He is talking about a gas release – not an attack but still a release, some sort of trap for the Syrian army, there most probably wasn’t any. The interviewer in the studio asks if its not a contradiction – no attack then, Russian postponing fact finding mission by the OPCW now – Gack answers, it seems like one, but bla bla. Fact is, not the Russian were hindering the OPCW work, it was the U.N. Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS)- this was acknowledged by the OPCW boss himself. In short; what Gack and the interviewer are talking about is an alternative ‘reality’ which has barely something to do with what really happened.

Posted by: Pnyx | Apr 20, 2018 6:14:09 PM | 34

frances @18–

I’d guess that Mr. Carlson told too much Truth and thus became–or was made–ill. His last Twitter entry’s for 12 April, making his current tweet gap the largest recently. Or, given who his colleagues are, maybe they fit him with cement shoes and sent him swimming.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 6:16:09 PM | 35

RT Arabic interviews the boy again, this time right in the hospital room where the filming took place; also, RT finally addresses the “barrel bomb in the bed” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaZRZo9FGQI

Posted by: S | Apr 20, 2018 6:16:41 PM | 36

reply to Don Bacon 23
Last I heard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) ws in Portsmouth for overhaul. Do you have better information?
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 20, 2018 5:44:58 P
Still looking for the article saying they were scheduled to arrive in the Med on May 14th; I did find that it is scheduled to return to service (after its overhaul) in 9 months which would be May. I also found this link; scroll down for the Med’s 6th fleet current status:
https://www.navysite.de/navy/fleet.htm

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 6:19:30 PM | 37

re Tucker Carlson absence
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 6:16:09 PM | 35
I am worried, but if he is alright and just on double secret probation; I hope he puts his resume in at RT:) would hate to see his voice silenced.

Posted by: frances | Apr 20, 2018 6:25:00 PM | 38

Pnyx @34–

Thanks for your reply. I guess the German-English speakers I follow on Twitter overplayed the importance of what was actually being said. Sigh!! Tried following the twitter thread generated by the tweet through Yandex translation which seemed to agree with the attack being staged despite the arguing.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 6:30:08 PM | 39

Dear Frances,

Don’t forget to factor in physical geography in your war-gaming scenario. Western Syria and Lebanon may be mountainous. (That accts for why the area is a refuge for small and diverse religious groups.) At some stage in the next attack the US and allies must put boots on the ground.

Posted by: Jen | Apr 20, 2018 6:45:06 PM | 40

Amazingly BBC newsnight just started preparing viewers for the possibility that there was no sarin attack, and the missile strikes might just have been for show, i plying Trump did it for political reasons. Narrative changing a bit.

Posted by: Paul Cockshott | Apr 20, 2018 6:56:29 PM | 41

Aside from the propaganda aspect, this is OT but important. Something remarkable and actually critical to the proper functioning of the Rule of Law within the USA occurred Wednesday that I just learned about thanks to Ray McGovern of VIPS and Tom at ICH:

“Wednesday’s criminal referral by 11 House Republicans of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as several former and serving top FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials is a giant step toward a Constitutional crisis.

“Named in the referral to the DOJ for possible violations of federal law are: Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey; former Attorney General Loretta Lynch; former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe; FBI Agent Peter Strzok; FBI Counsel Lisa Page; and those DOJ and FBI personnel “connected to” work on the “Steele Dossier,” including former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente.

“With no attention from corporate media, the referral was sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John Huber. Sessions appointed Huber months ago to assist DOJ Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz. By most accounts, Horowitz is doing a thoroughly professional job. As IG, however, Horowitz lacks the authority to prosecute; he needs a U.S. Attorney for that. And this has to be disturbing to the alleged perps.”

The content McGovern writes about is provocative to say the least given the rank of those being targeted for their criminality. But will anything of substance finally come about? IMO, it must absolutely. But the media blackout must be overcome, and People Power via Social Media may be the only answer to seeing justice finally done and Russiagate finally buried.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 7:07:20 PM | 42

It’ll be interesting to see how Russia plays this when the US starts blustering. Putin knows AmeriKKKa bloviates above its weight. He also knows that they know they’ll be lucky if they can limp home after a direct, hot, confrontation. So, however their next ploy unfolds, it’ll be a provocation aimed at getting Russia bogged down in (??) to ‘bleed them out.’ But they can’t afford to forget the Ru promise to retaliate against launch platforms.
I’m predicting that the Full Spectrum Dumbinance crowd will shoot themselves in the foot. There’s one helluva thick concentration of self-absorbed, Colonial Christian brainlessness bobbing around in the Med at present. Something’s gotta give…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 20, 2018 7:12:24 PM | 43

The problem, as always, is with Israel. The very UN resolution which recognised the artificial construction of their state has willfully not been followed up by a fair and just settlement for the people who were kicked out to form that state. As far as I am concerned Israel ceases to be a recognised state and should be dismantled.

Posted by: Bill | Apr 20, 2018 7:20:24 PM | 44

re: USS Harry S. Truman CV-75 may be on its way to the Med
I’ve posted before why carriers are obsolete, but I guess some carrier fans think that a carrier in the neighborhood is a big deal. We’ve long been told that, so it must be true, right? And worth the investment of circa twenty billion for each carrier group, total eleven? Wrong.

Look at it this way. The US has had a carrier parked in the Persian Gulf most of the time, sometimes two (none right now). They were mainly used to fly sorties of destruction over Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. But they were also a part of the stupid US foreign policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was frequently summed up as “all options on the table.” Did Iran quake at the sight of a carrier continuously off its shore? No, because Tehran knew and Washington knew too that the carrier was a sitting duck if the balloon went up. It was a potential easy target for missiles, torpedoes and mines. Actually the carrier presence was an insurance policy AGAINST a US attack on Iran. Sending five thousand swabbies to Davy Jones’s locker is not an option for the Pentagon, no matter what some smart-ass politicians think.

By the way expensive obsolete carriers are high-maintenance ‘way beyond Stormy Daniels territory. Of the eleven US carriers only two are currently deployed, which is about average.

There’s a bigger point here, and that is that the US military is pretty much useless for anything important, which it has fully demonstrated, and one reason is that corruption in military acquisition has only provided the troops with a bunch of expensive complex useless crap. So you can bet your booties that the arrival of the Truman probably (my guess) portends some agreement between Russia and the US, in Russia’s favor. The US can claim that it was the carrier’s presence that pressured Russia and the carrier won’t have to do a damned thing, which is in its favor.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 20, 2018 7:42:40 PM | 45

@45 I’m not so sure. I think the Truman is either on a routine cruise or Donald got goaded into a knee-jerk reaction. And I can’t imagine what kind of deal Russia is supposed to agree to at this stage. They may hold off on the S-300 deployment I suppose so that Donald can score a couple of points.

Posted by: dh | Apr 20, 2018 8:33:10 PM | 46

Guess the “mission accomplished” statement was, in fact, true. The empire and their minions have made another target in their cross-hairs, a failed state, like Libya.

Syria will never be again, what it was.

This monstrous empire continues……

Posted by: ben | Apr 20, 2018 8:34:06 PM | 47

@ S 33

Thanks for clarifying.

If you haven’t read John Helmer’s “Bear and sitting Duck suggest it be added to your weekend read.

A few snips:

US President Donald Trump didn’t mean to start a revolution. President Vladimir Putin tried persuading him not to. But on April 14 the revolution was launched by American warplanes, surface ships and a submarine.The outcome is that the US can no longer count on air superiority anywhere in the world where Russian air defences operate, backed by Russian command-and-control systems. Without air superiority, the US has no force multiple on the ground of the magnitude required for the Pentagon to attack; that is, the ratio of American men and firepower the Pentagon calculates for making sure their enemies on their ground can be defeated.

This is revolutionary, and has spread instantly to every war front — the Russian lines with NATO; the Korea-Japan front; the Taiwan Straits and South China Sea for China; and the Indian Ocean for India and Pakistan.

The treaties which promise US allies that an attack on them will draw US military support for their collective defence – Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), Article 4 of the Australia New Zealand US Treaty (ANZUS), Article 3 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio), and the Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and Israel defence treaties – are dead letters.

So long, shock and awe – that was the American warfighting doctrine against people who lack Russian-standard defences. [.]

The S-300, which Iran and Greece operate, and the S-400, which guards the Russian naval and air bases in Syria and which Turkey is acquiring, are capable of striking both aircraft and missiles. This is the game-changer for Syrian defence against Israel if the S-300 is delivered, as the Russian Defence Ministry is now proposing. [.]


LINK

Oh my, NuttyYahoo is on the phone.

Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 20, 2018 8:46:38 PM | 48

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Posted by: gmail login | Apr 21, 2018 12:16:24 AM | 49

..arg, DNS, not dsn..

Posted by: Lozion | Apr 21, 2018 12:25:52 AM | 50

Re: Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20, 2018 4:29:35 PM | 6

I hope Corbyn realises that if he wins Government without first purging the Labour Party of the despicable Blairites, they will bring down his Government to destroy him.

This is painfully obvious to anyone with a functioning brain. So has he purged or disendorsed these backstabbers yet??

Unfortunately I see no evidence he has done this.

Posted by: Julian | Apr 21, 2018 12:47:15 AM | 51

@ Lozion with the DNS error

Me too. MoA was on Maint mode with Cloudflare from 6:30 PDT to some time after 9 pm for me

Thanks for the Syria status update b.

Unfortunately the folks that own my country will probably direct my government to kill more people and cause more global grief by extending the war crimes committed in Syria….what is the next bullet going to be that humanity has to dodge like the latest Syria attack?

At the pace we are watching the world spin lately I suspect we won’t have to wait long for more “movement” to occur. Given the truth-out on both the Skripal event and the Syria chemical accusations, the price of obfuscation is quite high.

Onward! Into the breech or some such wording….

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 21, 2018 12:49:57 AM | 52

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