Saudi Aramco refineries were hit hard in a drone attack, claimed by Yemeni Houthis, crippling Saudi crude output for several days. In the wake of the attack, US military command for the Middle East suggested sending more air defence missile systems to Saudi Arabia after existing ones failed to foil the strike.

Some 88 Patriot systems deployed in Saudi Arabia failed to repel attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities, letting dozens of drones and guided missiles get through defences, a high-ranking source in the Russian Defence Ministry said. The source dismissed the excuse that the US Secretary of State gave to explain the Patriot fiasco, noting that in fact the American air defence system simply has low efficiency

SOURCE: RT
n a somewhat disturbing case of deja vu, the emergency warning sirens sounded in several parts of Hawaii early Wednesday evening, evoking memories of January’s false ballistic missile alert.
The alarm was inadvertently set off during Honolulu Police Department dispatcher training, which for some bizarre reason was being done on live equipment rather than with training software.

“I just want to apologize [to] the public,” Police Chief Susan Ballard said in an interview with Hawaii News Now. “It was just a very [simple] mistake. We need to do better.”

In this instance, it took 12 minutes for state agencies to confirm to the public that it was a false alarm, compared with the 28-minute delay in January.

***NO TSUNAMI THREAT*** We have received phone calls about sirens going off across Oahu, but we have confirmed with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center that there is NO TSUNAMI THREAT. #hiwx #tsunami

— NWSHonolulu (@NWSHonolulu) September 19, 2019

How are you with numbers? I can deal with $1.5 million. I think I can even imagine $1.5 billion, a sum a thousand times greater. But how about a million times greater: $1.5 trillion? That happens to be the estimated cost of the Pentagon’s program to build, deploy, and maintain the no-longer-so-new F-35 jet fighter over its lifetime. How can any people invest so much in a technology whose fundamental purpose is dominance through destruction — and which reportedly doesn’t even work particularly well?

Robert O’Brien might be just as hawkish as John Bolton, but he is "certainly not as pugilistic," according to people close to the president's new adviser.

There will be no speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly that opens next week, as Tuesday’s inconclusive election results has forced him to cancel plans to fly to New York, address the world body, and meet US President Donald Trump.

Instead, Netanyahu will be in the thick of coalition negotiations. This will be the first time in nine years that he will not address the parley. Foreign Minister Israel Katz will do so instead.

According to the UN schedule, Netanyahu was listed as the 12th speaker on September 26, the third and final day of speeches by world leaders. He was scheduled to come to the podium to speak just three slots after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Saudi Arabia revealed yesterday that, contrary to its initial estimates, Aramco should be able to restore oil production to 100% capacity by the end of the month. And on Wednesday morning, the kingdom's Defense Ministry said it was planning a press conference to present "material evidence" purportedly linking Tehran to the unprecedented attack on the Kingdom's oil infrastructure.

The country's defense ministry will hold a news conference later in the day laying out new evidence. This follows reports from the US claiming that the roughly 20 missiles and drones used in the attack had been traced back to a 'launch site' in southern Iran.

Tehran has denied involvement in the Sept. 14 attacks, while the Houthi rebels in nearby Yemen have claimed credit. But Washington and Riyadh have adamantly blamed Iran, whom they have blamed for several 'attacks' in the region since the start of the year.

Both Channel 12 and Channel 13 exit polls foresee yet another stalemate, and granted Blue and White the highest amount of seats.

Netanyahu, Gantz and other candidates spent the day pleading with voters to leave their homes and the beaches and malls to cast ballots. All the party heads, except for Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, warned constantly that their voters’ turnout was too low and that the results would be a crisis tor their party.

"If this will continue we will lose these elections," Blue and White’s co-candidate for prime minister Yair Lapid said. "We need to vote or we are heading to disaster."

Lapid, Gantz and Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked went to the beach to ask sunbathers to vote. Gantz went to the Grand Canyon Mall in Haifa. Netanyahu went to the Jerusalem central bus station and the Mahane Yehuda market.

“The turnout in Tel Aviv is sky high and in Jerusalem it has hit the floor,” he told vendors at the market.

Both Channel 12 and Channel 13 exit polls foresee yet another stalemate, and granted Blue and White the highest amount of seats.

Netanyahu, Gantz and other candidates spent the day pleading with voters to leave their homes and the beaches and malls to cast ballots. All the party heads, except for Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, warned constantly that their voters’ turnout was too low and that the results would be a crisis tor their party.

"If this will continue we will lose these elections," Blue and White’s co-candidate for prime minister Yair Lapid said. "We need to vote or we are heading to disaster."

Lapid, Gantz and Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked went to the beach to ask sunbathers to vote. Gantz went to the Grand Canyon Mall in Haifa. Netanyahu went to the Jerusalem central bus station and the Mahane Yehuda market.

“The turnout in Tel Aviv is sky high and in Jerusalem it has hit the floor,” he told vendors at the market.

If we consult a map, we discover Israel is situated to the northwest of Saudi Arabia. Iran is in the east and Iraq to the north. Because cruise missiles and drones have the capability of changing direction, we do not have a good idea where the missiles came from and the party responsible for launching them.

For the US, this is not a problem. It is now habituated to telling lies, releasing misinformation, and disseminating propaganda associated with false flag attacks. Much of what it reports is believed without question by millions of Americans. The state describes this mass credulity and inability to question authority as “patriotism.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday said it looked like Iran was behind attacks on oil plants in Saudi Arabia but stressed he did not want to go to war, as the attacks sent oil prices soaring and raised fears of a new Middle East conflict.

Iran has rejected U.S. charges it was behind the strikes on Saturday that damaged the world’s biggest crude-processing plant and triggered the largest jump in crude prices in decades.

Relations between the United States and Iran have deteriorated since Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear accord last year and reimposed sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic programs.

How were low-tech drones able to pierce Saudi Arabian security? Defence system called into question despite country spending $65bn on arms last year including US radar and Patriot missiles - as mocking Putin says they should have bought Russian.

Deliberately missing from the BBC's history lesson are several key facts, leaving readers to draw conclusions that conveniently propel the West's agenda versus Iran forward.

The US and Saudi Arabia vs. MENA

The war in Yemen was a result of US-backed regime change operations aimed at Yemen - along with Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Syria, and Egypt - starting in 2011.

Major hostilities began when the client regime installed by the US was ousted from power in 2015. Since then, the US and its Saudi allies have brutalized and ravaged Yemen triggering one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century.

The UN's own news service in an article titled, "Humanitarian crisis in Yemen remains the worst in the world, warns UN," would admit:

SOURCE: GLOBAL RESEARCH

Syrian families held captive by Trump Regime Forces and their ISIS affiliates of Maghaweer Thawra terrorists at al-Rukban Concentration Camp went out of their tents in the high heat of the desert to protest for food the day before yesterday, 11th of September, they were faced with live bullets by the US occupation forces.

Russian Coordination Center called on the US occupation forces in Rukban Concentration Camp to exert pressure on US-sponsored Maghaweer Thawra terrorists to stop their terrorist acts against the displaced Syrians held in the camp, these terrorist acts have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation of the families there.

SOURCE: SUMMIT.NEWS
China has warned President Trump that he is being manipulated by warhawks into believing “conspiracy theories” that Tehran was behind the attack on Saudi oil facilities and that any “revenge attack” on Iran could cause the Middle East to “spiral out of control.”

The warning was contained in an editorial posted by the Global Times, which is widely recognized as a Communist Party mouthpiece.

A drone strike against two Saudi oil facilities by Houthi rebels on Saturday took out 5% of the world’s oil supply, but U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo immediately blamed Tehran for the attack.

In the Global Times piece, Beijing asserts that there is no evidence Iran was responsible and that, “US military revenge against Iran will lead the Middle East to spiral out of control.”

The United States has issued satellite images and cited intelligence to back its allegation Iran was behind attacks on major Saudi oil facilities.

Iran denies involvement in Saturday's air attacks, which were claimed by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen.

But unnamed US officials speaking to US and international media say the direction and extent of the attacks cast doubt on Houthi involvement.

The incident has cut global oil supplies by 5% and prices have soared.

Incoming National Security Advisor, Charles Kupperman, made the claim Nuclear War With USSR Was Winnable.

He made those statements in the 1980s. I do not know his views today, but let's review what he said then.

President Donald Trump’s acting national security adviser, former Reagan administration official Charles Kupperman, made an extraordinary and controversial claim in the early 1980s: nuclear conflict with the USSR was winnable and that “nuclear war is a destructive thing but still in large part a physics problem.”

Kupperman, appointed to his new post on Tuesday after Trump fired his John Bolton from the job, argued it was possible to win a nuclear war “in the classical sense,” and that the notion of total destruction stemming from such a superpower conflict was inaccurate. He said that in a scenario in which 20 million people died in the U.S. as opposed to 150 million, the nation could then emerge as the stronger side and prevail in its objectives.

Jerusalem Post Middle East

Attack on Saudi was large and sophisticated, satellite images show, and involved numerous drones.

Satellite images released by US officials on Sunday showed the extent of damage on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing facility and at Khurais oil field. The images show 17 impact points on key petroleum infrastructure, including four hits on liquefied natural gas storage tanks.

The images reveal extreme precision by the drones or cruise missiles which struck the oil facilities. ABC News reported on Monday that officials have ascertained that a dozen cruise missiles and 20 drones were fired in the attack. This degree of sophistication is beyond the ability of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, notwithstanding their claim of responsibility.

Yemen's military has warned foreigners in Saudi Arabia to leave Aramco's oil processing plants, saying they are still a target and can be attacked "at any moment."

The warning came after Houthis and their allies in the Yemeni army deployed as many as 10 drones to bomb Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by the Saudi state-owned oil company before dawn Saturday.

Spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, General Yahya Sare'a, said in a tweet Monday that the attacks in the kingdom's eastern region had been carried out by drones with normal and jet engines.

He said Saudi Arabia should stop its "aggression and blockade on Yemen," or see the Yemeni army hit the kingdom "anywhere and anytime" it chooses.

For many of the national security teams that monitor threats on the U.S., the apparent drone strike Saturday on the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil production facilities was the realization of their worst fears.

Based on early reports, multiple relatively inexpensive drone devices were able to pierce Saudi defenses in a way that a traditional air force could not: flying long distances to drop potent bombs that apparently set vast portions of the Saudi petroleum infrastructure ablaze.

The attack, for which Houthi rebels battling Saudi Arabia in Yemen took credit, underscored the fears raised by U.S. security officials and experts in terrorism about the rapid evolution of technologies allowing expanded unmanned flight.

Washington has blamed Iran for this weekend's attack on Saudi Arabia's oil production facilities, which are expected to cut Saudi oil output in half until repairs can be completed. The attack was purportedly carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have a long history of launching attacks on Saudi soil. But President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have placed blame for the attacks squarely on the Iranians. As we noted over the weekend, the timing of the attack is suspicious, coming as the kingdom renews its push to float 5% of Aramco in what's expected to be the largest-ever IPO. The offering would benefit from higher oil prices. Many have questioned why Saudi Arabia's missile defense capabilities failed to stop the attack.

Iran has denied any responsibility for the attack.

This weekend's attack wiped out 5% of the world's oil supplies.

Just as the price of oil was settling down from its record surge, it spiked once again, following a tweet by president Trump which has made war with Iran virtually inevitable.

Just before 7pm, Trump tweeted that "Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!"

Setting aside the implicit admission that US foreign policy in the middle-east is now inexplicably run by Saudi Arabia, what is far more troubling is Trump's statement that the US military is "locked and loaded", and set to attack the country which instigated the attack on Saudi facilities, which according to Mike Pompeo was not Yemen, and its Houthi rebels, but rather Iran.

When asked if Pakistan would hit India with nuclear weapons in case of a large-scale conflict, Khan first ruled out his country initiating the attack.

“Pakistan would never start a war, and I am clear: I am a pacifist. I am anti-war,” he said.

However, Khan added that when two nuclear-armed states “fight a conventional war, there is every possibility that it is going to end up in a nuclear war.”

“If say Pakistan, God forbid, we are fighting a conventional war, we are losing, and if a country is stuck between the choice: either you surrender or you fight ‘til death for your freedom – I know Pakistanis will fight to death for their freedom,” said Pakistan’s PM.

Khan has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that foreign powers, along with the UN, need to intervene in the standoff between India and Pakistan over disputed Kashmir.

Two key oil processing plants in Saudi Arabia were attacked by drones on Saturday causing the interruption of about half of the company's total daily oil output. The attacks were claimed by the Houthi movement of Yemen.

The United States is ready to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve if necessary in order to rebalance the global energy supply in the wake of the drone attacks on major Saudi oil facilities, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday."

Conway hinted at the possibility of a meeting between President Donald Trump and the Iranian leadership on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. But she added that the chances of such a meeting happening are now in doubt due to the drone attacks.

The statement comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday blamed Iran for recent drone attacks on Saudi Aramco's oil fields, urging the international community "to publicly and unequivocally condemn Iran’s attacks".

Tehran has always been prepared for a full-fledged war, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force Chief Amirali Hajizadeh said in a statement on Sunday, just a day after two drone attacks on oilfields in Saudi Arabia, which were claimed by Houthis and blamed by the US and Saudi Arabia on Tehran.

“Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers, at a distance of up to 2,000 kilometres around Iran, are within the range of our missiles,” Hajizadeh said.

According to Hajizadeh, the Iranian military are ready to target two US bases and one carrier in the event of an armed conflict.

According to reports in both Israeli and Arabic regional media, Israel this past week was preparing to expand major airstrikes against "Iran-backed" targets in Syria, but Moscow imposed its red line. The Independent has published a story describing that Russia's military in Syria threatened to shoot down any invading Israeli warplanes using fighter jets or their S-400 system.

The Jerusalem Post, citing sources in the UK Independent (Arabia), writes just after the latest meeting in Sochi between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin:

According to reports in both Israeli and Arabic regional media, Israel this past week was preparing to expand major airstrikes against "Iran-backed" targets in Syria, but Moscow imposed its red line. The Independent has published a story describing that Russia's military in Syria threatened to shoot down any invading Israeli warplanes using fighter jets or their S-400 system.

The Jerusalem Post, citing sources in the UK Independent (Arabia), writes just after the latest meeting in Sochi between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin:

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Questioning “mutual assured destruction,” Charles Kupperman called nuclear conflict “in large part a physics problem.”

He made those statements in the 1980s. I do not know his views today, but let's review what he said then.

President Donald Trump’s acting national security adviser, former Reagan administration official Charles Kupperman, made an extraordinary and controversial claim in the early 1980s: nuclear conflict with the USSR was winnable and that “nuclear war is a destructive thing but still in large part a physics problem.”

SOURCE: CNN.COM
(CNN)An Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam and was living his final days at a US Department of Veterans Affairs assisted-living facility was twice found covered in ants and photos show scores of bites on his body, his daughter said Thursday.

Laquana Ross said her father, Joel Marrable, died Saturday at the Eagles' Nest Community Living Center in the Atlanta VA Medical Center.
Ross said she is not upset with the VA over the ants, but wants her father's story to prompt change.

"Maybe this can move the needle and improve the process," she said. "The VA is busy. They have a lot of patients and huge needs they have to address."

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA.COM
US Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Friday he will meet the new Saudi energy minister on Monday and likely discuss plans Saudi Arabia has to build nuclear reactors.

Perry did not say where he would meet Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who took over from Khalid al-Falih on Sunday. But a US official said the meeting would likely take place on the sidelines of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna next week.

The kingdom has so far resisted agreeing to standards that would block its ability to enrich uranium and reprocessing of plutonium, possible pathways to making an atomic weapon. On Monday, Prince Abdulaziz said the kingdom wanted to enrich uranium for its nuclear power programme, potentially complicating talks with the Trump administration on the atomic pact and the role of US companies.

This is not the first time "secret" American bases have accidentally been revealed to the public and their possible opponents as a result of a mishap. Last year, a popular fitness smartphone app published global "hotspots", some of which could only be explained by soldiers stationed at such bases using the app in their training sessions.

The attacks began around four in the morning; video showed massive fires, billowing smoke and locals reported explosions. Iranian media implied that the attacks were carried out by Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been backed by Theran. However the facilities that were struck are in northeastern Saudi Arabia, closer to Bahrain and Qatar. A drone would have to fly 1,000 km. to reach the facilities.

But the attack was also a serious escalation. This is the third attack of this kind, a long-range strike on key oil infrastructure. It shows that ability of the drone operator to carry out precision attacks. It also shows they have improve the ordnance carried by the drones, and that the drones can fly long-distances.

Ships from the Navy's Harry S. Truman Strike Group are deploying from the East Coast this week, but one thing is missing -- the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman.

Four ships -- the guided-missile cruiser Normandy and guided-missile destroyers Lassen, Forrest Sherman and Farragut -- will form a surface action group (SAG) as the Truman continues undergoing repairs.

Just 18 years after the terrible events of September 11, 2001, The FBI has agreed to provide a key piece of new information about alleged official Saudi involvement following intense efforts by the victims families.

While the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, remains at Guantanamo Bay (trial date set for January 2021!), he opened the door in July to helping victims of the attacks in their lawsuit against Saudi Arabia if the U.S. government spares him the death penalty.

And, as The Wall Street Journal reports, victims’ families have urged the government to make more information public, telling President Trump in a letter recently that it would help them “finally learn the full truth and obtain justice from Saudi Arabia.”

New Delhi (Sputnik): A day ahead of a big rally by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in Muzaffarabad - the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir - India has made a strong statement about retrieving Kashmir from Islamabad.

With some Indian ministers underlining the need to discuss Pakistani-administered Kashmir, the Indian Army chief has said the troops always remain ready mode whenever the government wants them to go ahead and retrieve that side of Kashmir.

General Bipin Rawat’s remark came days after two key ministers including the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, touched upon the issue of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

"The government takes action in such matters. Institutions of the country will work as per the orders of the government. The army is always ready", said General Rawat while replying to the media on Thursday.

A new poll shows that American voters favor a series of policies which, if enacted, would radically reshape U.S. foreign policy around the world–especially when it comes to the use of military force.

The poll, from progressive group Data for Progress and YouGov, shows that nearly half of Americans voters want to change the Authorization of Use of Military Force, Congress’s 2001 decision to authorize the president to use military force against those responsible for the September 11 attacks. Only 33 percent want to keep it in place.

It also shows that 62 percent of American voters strongly or somewhat support reducing U.S. aid to alleged human rights abusers, and that 52 percent of voters support or strongly support ending weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, which has used U.S. weapons and support to inflict thousands of civilian casualties in Yemen.

Raytheon is expecting a boom in international sales of its counter-UAS system already battle-tested with the U.S. Army.

The Howler system, which includes a Ku-Band Radio Frequency Sensor (KURFS), a command and control system and its Coyote unmanned aircraft system designed to take out enemy drones, should see an abundance of buyers soon. The system could also include a high energy laser defeat solution and a high-powered microwave capability to provide a non-kinetic approach to knocking drone threats out of commission, according to company officials.

A FLIR System that deploys tiny unmanned aerial vehicles from a ruggedized container affixed to the front of a vehicle is helping to shape how advanced teaming can be used on the tactical edge against near peer threats.

At DSEI — a major defense exposition in London — the system that deploys Black Hornet UAVs, which is the system chosen by the U.S. Army for the Soldier Borne Sensor program, made its appearance in several variations around the showroom floor.

Rheinmetall had it built onto the front of its Mission Master Unmanned Ground System representing a surveillance variant.

At Kongsberg, the system is integrated with a remote weapon station. The idea is that the package of tiny UAVs can be forward deployed from a combat vehicle while soldiers stay inside and maintain standoff from enemy forces. The UAVs can perform reconnaissance and possible targeting assistance so the vehicle knows where it can shoot.

Authored by Whitney Webb via MintPressNews.com,

Today the event that defined the United States’ foreign policy in the 21st century, and heralded the destruction of whole countries, turns 18. The events of September 11, 2001 remains etched into the memories of Americans and many others, as a collective tragedy that brought Americans together and brought as well a general resolve among them that those responsible be brought to justice.

While the events of that day did unite Americans in these ways for a time, the different trajectories of the official relative to the independent investigations into the September 11 attacks have often led to division in the years since 2001, with vicious attacks or outright dismissal being levied against the latter.

SOURCE: PAULCRAIGROBERTS.ORG
There is no one to support your website but you

9/11 After 18 Years

Paul Craig Roberts

I would appreciate hearing from readers whether they have come across a report in the print, TV, or NPR media of the highly professional four-year investigation of WTC Building 7’s demise. The international team of civil engineers concluded that the official story of Building 7’s destruction is entirely false. I reported their findings here: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/09/04/the-official-story-of-the-...

On the basis of the known evidence, knowledgeable and informed people have concluded that 9/11 was an inside job organized by Vice President Dick Cheney, his stable of neoconservatives, and Israel for the purpose of reconstructing the Middle East in Israel’s interest and enriching the US military/security complex in the process.

An important new consensus is forming against America’s endless wars, shaped by an important constituency: the military veterans who have sacrificed so much to fight them. A Pew Research poll of veterans released contained results that contradict the cherished talking points of the bipartisan Washington foreign policy blob that sees “leadership” and “engagement” as being synonymous with bombing and regime change.

Sixty-four percent of veterans said the war in Iraq was not worth fighting when the costs to America are weighed against the ostensible benefits to the region and our national security. Just 33 percent concluded that George W. Bush’s Baghdad democracy adventure was worthwhile in retrospect.

On Tuesday Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) introduced bipartisan legislation that would allow service members to sue the government for military medical malpractice.

The SFC Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019, a companion bill to the House version introduced earlier this year by Reps. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), would allow military personnel to sue the government for negligence or wrongdoing that occurred during medical care at a military hospital outside of a combat zone.

It’s better not to be a “more normal country” if that means being as prone to invasions and coups as the United States, top Russian ministers have said, firing back at bizarre remarks by a new Pentagon chief.
It would be “great” if the West “could get Russia to behave like a more normal country,” Mark Esper, the newly appointed defense secretary, was reported to have claimed while visiting Paris this week.

That remark did not go down well with Moscow, however.

“If he said so, he called upon us to act as a normal country [as such] and not like the United States,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press briefing in the Russian capital, where he and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu had a face-to-face meeting with French counterparts.

SOURCE: ALETHO NEWS

BY SARAH ABED | SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
Denmark is recognized as one of the most socially and economically developed countries in the world, which enjoys a high standard of living as well as high metrics in national performance, protection of civil liberties, and the lowest perceived level of corruption in the world, has announced that it will be boosting military contributions to missions around the world, including joining the United States in its illegal and unauthorized deployment in northeastern Syria.

The sovereign and proud nation of Syria has neither invited nor does it accept any foreign invaders on its land and has repeatedly demanded that all foreign forces leave on their own before they are forced out. Syria is highly committed to liberating every inch of its land from terrorist control whether that be domestic or foreign, and protecting its territorial integrity.

SOURCE: KURTNIMMO.BLOG

Thanks to “public” education (indoctrination) and the corporate media, far too few Americans understand the founders designed a constitutional republic. Instead, we’re told America is a “democracy”—the ideal of mob rule—and we all have a role to play in deciding who will lead the nation.

This is, of course, nonsense. We are spectators in the bleachers of the three-ring circus of national elections. The state is run by and for the sake of the financial class and transnational corporations. The election of handpicked yesmen (and women) every four and eight years is routinely portrayed as the will of the people.

This is why Donald Trump is a big problem—he went around the political class and made grandiose promises (deep-sixed after the election) and this is why so many Americans voted for him and why the state and its professional careerist class of politicians hate him and want him impeached, even dead.

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA.COM
Iran was clandestinely developing nuclear weapons but destroyed a secret site after Israel discovered it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged on Monday.

Tehran had been developing atomic arms at a facility in Abadeh, south of Iranian city of Isfahan, said Netanyahu. It was the first time the prime minister identified the site after publicly accusing Iran of building a bomb last year while citing a trove of Iranian documents allegedly stolen by Israeli agents from an Iranian warehouse.

"In this site, Iran conducted experiments to develop nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said, adding after Israeli intelligence found out about it, "they destroyed the site. They just wiped it out".

The prime minister did not provide further details on the alleged experiments, or say when they purportedly were held.

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE
Among the most underreported but explosive stories of the past six months has been growing signs of Saudi Arabia's nuclear ambitions. But now there are new questions over whether the kingdom's future planned two nuclear power reactors will be limited to purely energy-related and peaceful purposes.

On Monday the kingdom's nuclear energy minister said Saudi Arabia wants to enrich uranium for its nuclear power program, Reuters reports — an announcement likely to hinder talks with Washington over American companies' potential help in establishing its atomic energy program.

"The world’s top oil exporter says it wants to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix, but enrichment also opens up the possibility of military uses of uranium," Reuters noted.

Always working a little harder than most to stay a step below reality, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper made especially candid remarks this week that America’s INF pullout was timed for a targeting of forces against China.

Speaking to Fox on August 21st, Esper said:

“We want to make sure that we, as we need to, have the capability to deter Chinese bad behavior… China is the number one priority for this department. It’s outlined in the national defense strategy, why we think it’s a long term strategic competitor and one that is pursuing a maximization campaign, if you will, throughout the indo-Pacific theater, whether its politically, economically or militarily…”

Echoing a little Dr. Strangelove, Esper stated that there is “a coming shift” from “low intensity conflict that lasts 18 years to high intensity conflicts against competitors such as Russia and China.”

Hypersonic missiles, stealthy cruise missiles, and weaponized artificial intelligence have so reduced the amount of time that decision makers in the United States would theoretically have to respond to a nuclear attack that, two military experts say, it’s time for a new US nuclear command, control, and communications system. Their solution? Give artificial intelligence control over the launch button.

The US government’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty arms control mechanism and its push towards upgrading its nuclear weapons shows it is planning to take on Russia and China militarily, an American scholar has warned.

Dennis Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in California, made the remarks after the US Navy test-fired four Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

The test launches were carried out by the Ohio class ballistic missile submarine USS Nebraska this week from an unspecified location off the coast of Southern California.

The USS Nebraska received the first series of improved Trident missiles in 2013. Dubbed D5 Life Extension, the missiles have improved range and electronics and would remain in service until 2040s, the report said.

Saudi Arabia's new energy minister has said he favours cutting oil production in order to shore up prices amid a global over-supply, according to reports.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who was appointed by father King Salman Sunday, is said to have made the remark at the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi Monday.

Oil prices have been falling as America ramps up supply using fracking techniques, while fears of a global recession amid its trade war with China has caused a slump in demand.

Because both of these factors are outside of OPEC's direct control, analysts have voiced doubts over how effective cutting production would be in bottoming-out the market.

However, Prince Abdulaziz appeared to swing his support behind further output reductions at the summit.

'Cutting output will benefit all members of OPEC,' he reportedly said.

New elections were called after Netanyahu failed to cobble together enough support for reelection as prime minister. He remains interim PM.

On September 17, Israelis go to the polls again to elect a prime minister and Knesset members.

Ten parties are competing for seats. Polls show Netanyahu-led Likud and Benny Gantz/Yair Lapid’s Blue and White party are each projected to win 31 of 120 Knesset seats, according to polls.

Throughout Jewish state history, Israeli coalitions governed, no single party ever winning a majority on its own.

Today extremist right-wing parties dominate Israel’s political landscape, reflecting hardline rule, democracy pure fantasy as in the West.

Netanyahu is desperate to retain power ahead of an October pre-indictment hearing on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges, strong evidence against him.

TAYYIP ERDOGAN claimed he "will not accept" the status quo and believes Turkey should have nuclear weapons after accusing Donald Trump, NATO and Israel of hypocrisy over their outcry at missiles recently delivered to Turkey from Russia.

The Turkish President said it was unacceptable that nations boasting missiles of their own are attempting to restrict Turkey's military operations. Erdogan said: "Some nations have missiles with nuclear warheads — not just one or two. But (they say) I should not have missiles with nuclear warheads. I don't accept this. "There is is almost no developed country in the world that does not have nuclear warheads."

Turkey's pro-government newspaper, Sabah, added fuel to the fire by declaring: "We are carrying out work for nuclear missiles."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also involved in Erdogan's outburst, claiming that the Middle Eastern state tries to intimidate with its own weapons.

Via AlmasdarNews.com

Hundreds of Russian troops are being sent to the Idlib Governorate in northern Syria, the Russian publication Lenta.Ru reported this weekend.

According to the publication, hundreds of Russian troops belonging to the Yevgeny Prigoshin private military contractors were deployed to the Idlib Governorate, despite a pause in offensive operations.

“The plan is for groups of 50 people each, with the support of Russian aviation, to take part in street battles necessary to clear the populated city from thousands of militants associated with Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia),” Lenta.Ru reported.