When the Commander of NATO says he is a fan of flexible first strike at the same time that NATO is flexing its military muscle on Russia’s border, the risk of inadvertent nuclear war is real.
US Air Force Gen. Tod D Wolters told the Senate this week he “is a fan of flexible first strike” regarding NATO’s nuclear weapons, thereby exposing the fatal fallacy of the alliance’s embrace of American nuclear deterrence policy.

The Pentagon is taking care to prevent a slip in national security and readiness following the steady global spread of the coronavirus that has the Department of Defense (DOD) holding off on a military exercise, quarantining fleets and curtailing troop movement.

As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, DOD in the last week has canceled a joint military exercise with South Korea, restricted access to public areas at Army installations in Italy and ordered all ships that have visited countries in the Pacific region to remain at sea for 14 days, essentially a self-quarantine.

U.S. Central Command has also ordered a stop to all nonessential travel in the Persian Gulf region.

It’s common in British courtrooms to have something called a “dock”, a place where defendants sit separately from court proceedings. Not all UK courtrooms have docks, and not all docks are the “secure” glass cabinet type which Assange is kept in; they can also be open wooden enclosures. Because Assange is being kept without explanation in a maximum security prison normally reserved the most dangerous violent offenders and terrorism convicts, his trial is taking place in a cage that is very much the “secure” type (so much so that he’s been complaining that he can’t hear the proceedings in his own trial through the bulletproof glass), and there is an expectation that he remain there. The magistrate has ruled that this nonviolent offender shall be kept in his sound-resistant enclosure throughout the duration of his trial, bizarrely asserting that Assange poses a danger to the public.

SOURCE: STEVEN GUINNESS
A couple of years ago I posted an article that gave a brief overview of the Trilateral Commission, quoting directly from numerous former members of the institution and how their overarching goal was for the integration of nation states at the expense of self determination.

As noted in the brochure, one of the purposes of creating the Trilateral Commission back in 1973 was to ‘buttress a beleaguered trading order.’ When considering the rise in political protectionism, trade is at the forefront of the discussion. As well as the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU, and the ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and China, there is now the added element of the Coronavirus which threatens to restrict global supply chains. Taken together, it is a melting pot of developing crises.

SOURCE: MOON OF ALABAMA
The last three days of the Idleb campaign were quite eventful.

The Turkey supported Jihadis threw everything they had against Saraqib where the M4 and M5 highways join. This enabled the Syrian army to take some 40 towns and cities at the southern front. The whole Ghab plain is now in liberated and the frontline has been massively shortened.

Saraqib fell to the Jihadis but they paid a very bloody price for it as the Syrian and Russian air force continued to intensively bomb the approaches to the city. A new defensive line has now been established around Saraqib and the Syrian army is preparing to recover it.

To take the large area in the south in difficult terrain and against little resistance was more important than the temporary loss of Saraqib.

"The United States will use this opportunity to bring both Russia and China into the international arms control framework and head off a costly arms race", Reuters reported

Scott Ritter
is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer. He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. Follow him on Twitter @RealScottRitter

Having been hit by the Syrian Air Force in Idlib, Turkey has called on NATO’s protection, but as much as the alliance would like a fight with Assad and his ally Russia, it’s refused to back Ankara’s questionable adventure.
Turkey engaged NATO in Article 4 consultations, seeking help regarding the crisis in Syria. The meeting produced a statement from NATO condemning the actions of Russia and Syria and advocating for humanitarian assistance, but denying Turkey the assistance it sought.

A failed gamble

The statement was made during a hearing devoted to the US plans to modernise American weapons and to possible ways the US can respond to the new cutting-edge weapons Russia rolled out in last two years.

US Navy Admiral Charles Richard has admitted that existing American air defences were not designed to counter modern hypersonic glide weapons, like the one recently deployed by Russia, and currently developed by China, and hence these weapons "challenge" the US, during an open hearing at the US House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. He added that the Pentagon even has trouble determining the capabilities of modern weapons, although it still can make a reliable guess on what threat these weapons pose.

Ankara has linked a new refugee crisis with renewed hostilities in Syria’s Idlib Province, where the Syrian Army has been repelling militant attacks, some of which began under the cover of Turkish artillery fire, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.

Hundreds of refugees coming from Syria, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq are currently moving towards Turkey’s borders with Europe following reports that Ankara will no longer prevent migrants from crossing them, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported. According to the media outlet, these refugees have been moving in large groups on foot and using vehicles via the cities of Istanbul, Edirne, Izmir, and Aydin.

The leaders of Russia and Turkey held crisis talks Friday after 33 Turkish soldiers died in a regime air strike in Syria, prompting President Donald Trump to urge an end to the Moscow-backed Syrian offensive against rebel holdouts.

The attack by Syrian forces took place late Thursday in the northwestern province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a fierce campaign to oust rebels from their last stronghold.

Trump "condemned" the attack on Turkey's troops and joined his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in calling jointly on Russia and Syria to "halt" the Idlib operation, the White House said.

The Modi Mob Might Be Planning A Massive Anti-Muslim Massacre

The return of the M5 should lower costs of shipments of goods between Aleppo and Hama, Homs and Damascus at a time the Syrian economy is in crisis due to nearly nine years of warfare and US and European sanctions. Jamil’s journey shows that travel has been eased for civilians who save time as well as rationed petrol.

The capture of the M5 by the Syrian army is one of the most celebrated prizes in Damascus’ campaign to regain territory lost to takfiris and rebels since unrest erupted in 2011. The 450-kilometre M5 links Syria’s main cities, Deraa, Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, and was the main artery for both commercial and personal travel before the war. The government began to lose control of the highway when diverse rebel and takfiri groups seized different sectors.

Huge Advances by Syrian Army Transform Syrian War

Sources within the “Axis of the Resistance” believe the next battle between Hezbollah and Israel, if ever it takes place, would be “controlled and not sporadic, with a focus on specific military objectives without damaging the infrastructure, on both sides”.

The sources consider Gaza as a precedent. In Gaza Palestinians and Israelis have fought many recent battles that lasted only a few days in which the objectives bombed were purely military. This is a new rule of engagement (ROE) regulating conflict between the belligerents. When Israel hits a non-military target, the Palestinian resistance responds by hitting a similar non-military target in Israel. The lesson extracted from the new ROE between Israel and the Palestinians is that every time exchanges of bombing go out of control, both sides understand they have to bring it back to an acceptable and equitable level, to limit damage and keep such mutual attacks from targeting civilians.

Under the First Amendment, affirmed by the Supreme Court in the Pentagon Papers case, analogous to the Trump regime v. Assange, no one may be lawfully punished for truth-telling — not journalists or anyone else.

In wanting Julian Assange extradited to the US for prosecution under the long ago outdated Espionage Act relating to WW I, the Trump regime aims to reverse the landmark Supreme Court Pentagon Papers ruling.

Arguing to uphold speech and press freedoms when the case was heard by the High Court, Justice Hugo Black said the following:

The government’s injunction to prohibit publication by the NYT and Washington Post “should have been vacated without oral argument when the cases were first presented,” adding:

“(E)very moment’s continuance of the injunctions…amounts to a flagrant, indefensible, and continuing violation of the First Amendment.”

- U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged Saudi Arabia on Thursday to uphold freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly and review convictions of activists, religious leaders and journalists as it prepares to host a G20 summit this year.

Bachelet, in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, called on Riyadh to release several Saudi women activists jailed for demanding “reforms of discriminatory policies”.

“I also call for full transparency in the ongoing judicial proceedings, and comprehensive accountability, regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” she added, referring to the U.S.-based journalist killed by Saudi agents at its Istanbul consulate in October 2018

If you asked the Pentagon, they would tell you in no uncertain terms that the US is not engaged in any sort of nuclear arms race. At the same time, the US is spending heavily on new nuclear weapons, and is particularly scrambling to get weapons designed to target Russia.

Here’s a word that essentially dropped out of Washington’s dictionary in this century: peace. It used to be part of the rhetoric, at least, of politicians there, but in the era of the war on terror it’s barely made an appearance. In election year 2020, however, it’s back, not as a global phenomenon or as a general term, but very specifically connected to the more than 18-year-old American war in Afghanistan. News reports now regularly refer to a “peace deal” or “peace agreement” that’s been secretly (and yet half-publicly) negotiated between the Trump administration and the Taliban and that will reportedly be signed at the end of this month; if, that is, it doesn’t collapse the way the last version of it did when Donald Trump canceled a meeting with Taliban officials at Camp David.

One of the most memorable parts of the 2020 State of the Union was President Trump’s surprise reunification of a military family. “For the past seven months, her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Townsend Williams, has been in Afghanistan on his fourth deployment,” the president said, introducing Amy Williams and her two young children before revealing to thunderous applause that Sgt. Williams was present in the House chamber. A happy moment, but why shouldn’t all military families experience the same joy?

Reuniting one family is good, but what about the tens of thousands of other families still separated by wars Trump could end at any moment? The president talks a good talk about ending “endless wars,” to use a phrase from last year’s SOTU, but he has failed to extricate the United States from a single conflict. The incongruity is indefensible.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must be channeling the spirit of Houdini as he continues to plot his escape from one of the most convoluted political dilemmas in Israel’s history.

It is no secret that Netanyahu’s political behavior is almost entirely shaped by his desire to survive in office for as long as possible in order to avoid possible jail time. But how long will the Israeli escape artist manage to survive, now that a date for his trial has already been set?

After months of bargaining with the country’s political elite, on one hand, and pleading to his own right-wing constituency on the other, Netanyahu has failed to create the necessary momentum that would render him immune from prosecution and secure his position at the helm of Israeli politics.

After failing to form a government following the April elections, Netanyahu has masterfully linked his fate as a Prime Minister to all of Israel’s affairs, internal and external.

Al-Qaeda was very publicly using the presence of US ground troops in Saudi Arabia as a recruiting tool in the period around 9/11. Suggesting that many lessons have not been learned, some 2,500 US troops are back in the kingdom, and readying for a long stay.

Hype surrounding military tensions with Iran are driving this US deployment back into the region. More and more ground troops are being sent every time there is even a little tension, nominally to “deter” Iran from attacking the Saudi kingdom.

These deployments began in earnest when Yemen’s Houthis fired at missile at Saudi oil producing regions, and the Saudis blamed Iran for it. US military tensions in Iraq led to many more troops being sent, since Iraq made clear they didn’t want more US troops there, and the US wanted them somewhere near Iran.

US hostility toward Iran isn’t getting better, so a decision to leave seems unlikely.

Weeks of threats by Turkish President Erdogan to retake Syria’s Idlib Province by force went extremely poorly on Thursday, when Turkish forces moved into an observation post south of Idlib City, and were immediately hammered by airstrikes from both Russia and Syria.

At least 34 Turkish soldiers were reported killed in this strike, a major number of casualties. Turkey’s Hatay Governor reported casualties were still flowing into his province from Idlib.

Turkey has put thousands of troops in Idlib recently, and Erdogan had promised to reclaim all 10 of the observation posts, while ultimately expelling Syria from Idlib. They negotiated with Russia on getting Syria to surrender, but that failed.

Turkey seemed to be under the assumption that they could overrun Syria’s military, still taxed by a long civil war, with little problem.

Moscow's military has received its latest anti-air system and tested its ability to take on incoming aircraft at a time when Russia and the United States were competing for cutting-edge warfighting capabilities.

Russia's aerospace forces commissioned the new S-350 Vityaz surface-to-air missile system on Wednesday. The system was delivered to the Air and Space Defen?e Academy in the Leningrad region and underwent training "to detect and destroy a mock air enemy."

"The S-350 combat crew demonstrated their skills, hit a mock enemy with electronic missile launches, and marched to a new position area," the Russian Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in a press release.

Israeli authorities will establish a joint defence agency tasked with "supressing Palestinian resistance", if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with plans to annex West Bank settlements, according to a Haaretz report.

Composed of state institutions - including the army and police - the new agency is drawing up contingency plans for a range of possible scenarios, including mass popular uprisings in cities across the West Bank.

Intelligence assessments fear mass unrest among Palestinians in the event of Netanyahu's victory in next week's elections, which will likely pave the way for Israel to impose full sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The Knesset caretaker government's attempts to adopt the measure in December drew criticism from Israel's security establishment due to its timing.

Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, who emerged as kingmaker in Israel's two previous elections this year, said on Wednesday that he is ruling out the possibility of forming a unity government with Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud after the March 2 ballot.

Speaking at the Ma'ariv Business Conference 2030 in Herzliya, Lieberman said: "Gantz and Netanyahu together reached 65 seats [in the last election], and I told them to form a government, but they preferred to argue over who would be first and who would be second," Lieberman said.

"There is no more unity government. It's clear that nothing can be built with those two, so we're preparing ourselves," the former defense chief added. "We're ready for the day after the election. We will have 61 Knesset seats without Netanyahu, Dery and Litzman," referring to the heads of the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism.

urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised Turkey will risk “all kinds of sacrifices” in its upcoming military conflict with Syria, promising to see Syria ousted from Idlib Province, and not accepting the smallest step back.

Erdogan in particular is focusing on wanting to reclaim military posts ion Syrian territory, but it’s clear his war is going to go beyond that, as he’s repeatedly talked of retaking towns for the rebels.

Erdogan has said the offensive is still coming this week, with the goal of having all the posts reconquered by week’s end. That’s very ambitious, particularly with Russia backing Syria. Thousands of Turkish troops are in Idlib in anticipation of this fight.

A lot of this depends on how willing Turkey is to take this fight into a full-scale war, with the risk of Russian involvement looming large.

Just one week before elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his approval of 3,500 new illegal settler homes in the highly contested ‘E1’ area of the central occupied West Bank.

“I have given instructions to immediately publish for deposit the plan to build 3,500 housing units in E-1,” Netanyahu said in a speech on Tuesday, adding that the plans “had been delayed for six or seven years.”

Israel’s plans for the E1 corridor, which has been in the works since 1995, has been consistently delayed due to pressure from the international community, including the EU and former US administration.

The E1 plan seeks to create a settlement bloc connecting the mega settlement of Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem, effectively splitting the West Bank in two, cutting off the north from the south.

The Navy's newest fast-attack submarine was recently spotted with structural damage to its stealth coating after returning from its first deployment, which brings into question the manufacturing process of the shipbuilder, reported Forbes.

The USS Colorado (SSN 788), a nuclear-powered US Navy Virginia-class attack submarine, was recently photographed with large sections of its stealth coating, known as anechoic coating, missing on its starboard side. The layer is an outer skin, consisting of a sonar-absorbing material that makes the vessel virtually undetectable.

While tangible evidence is not available, the new Coronavirus, (2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) one in a line of many that could have been produced by man in laboratories, is affecting almost exclusively the Chinese at this point. This has seemingly opened the floodgates to speculation as to its exact origin. This virus has unique characteristics that have happened before with SARS and MERS, and has genetic material that has never been identified, and is not tied to any animal or human known virus. This should be troubling to all, because if this is manmade, it was manufactured as a weapon of war. So who is responsible for its release in China? It is possible that this virus was created in China and was “accidentally” released into the population, but that does not sound credible at any level. Do any think that the Chinese government would create a Chinese race specific virus and release it in their country?

Both right wings of the US war party support ISIS, Al-Qaeda, its offshoots, and likeminded terrorist groups in Syria and other countries where their fighters are deployed as Pentagon/CIA proxy troops.

Instead of explaining reality on the ground in US war theaters, establishment media blame nations victimized by its aggression for high crimes committed against them.

Syria is Exhibit A, US aggression ignored, government forces, greatly aided by Russian airpower, vilified for liberating cities, towns and villages from US-supported “jihadists” — what’s currently ongoing in Idlib province, the last stronghold in the country of these elements.

On Monday, Trump’s envoy for regime change in Syria James Jeffrey indirectly expressed support for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the al-Qaeda offshoot al-Nusra by another name.

Israel will stop at nothing to ensure its security and may well launch a broad military campaign against Gaza if the local armed groups continue with missile strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Air raid sirens were heard across southern Israel for the second straight day on Monday. The IDF said that some 50 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israeli territory, with 90 percent of them intercepted.

The missile strikes were met with a harsh response, with the Israeli Defense Forces confirming on Twitter that multiple strikes against targets in Gaza have been carried out.

SOURCE: MINT PRESS
The extradition trial of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange got underway at Woolwich Crown Court in London today. Assange, 48, is wanted by the U.S. government on 18 charges of hacking and breaches of the Espionage Act, specifically for the publication of evidence leaked by Pvt. Chelsea Manning that detailed evidence of American war crimes in the Middle East. If found guilty he faces up to 175 years in prison.

The prosecution, led by James Lewis, Q.C., began by reading out a damning statement from five leading media organizations, The Guardian, The New York Times, El País, Der Spiegel and Le Monde, all of whom had partnered with Wikileaks, gratefully publishing the group’s revelations but now condemned them, helping his prosecution.

Today we bring you an important article about Prof. Francis Boyle, authored by Sherwood Ross. This article / interview ties together the coronavirus outbreak with the bioweapons program run by the NIH and funded by U.S. taxpayers, mostly without their knowledge.

I am currently scheduled to interview Francis Boyle this Wednesday, Feb. 26th, at noon central time, on InfoWars.com. Be sure to tune in to InfoWars to catch that interview (I’m hosting the first half of the show, followed by Alan Keyes who takes over).

We are reprinting the article with permission:

At the behest of Donald Trump and Chrystia Freeland, the Lima Group met in Ottawa on February 20th, 2020. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne dutifully mouthed their set lines and good Samaritan posturing in the pretense of democracy, humanitarianism and the rule of law. Ostensibly, the purpose of this meeting was to devise and orchestrate ways to oust the vile, murderous dictator, as Washington has sought to cast the duly elected President Nicolás Maduro.

Progressive chroniclers and activists have almost exclusively been concerned with the notion that a dismembered Venezuela is the main, or even the only, labor of love of this nefarious little band of economic fundamentalists, death-incanting, democratically-challenged member regimes of the Lima Group. I fear that we may not fully appreciate what this cartel is up to.

This article was originally published in 2018.

A leaked Hillary Clinton email confirms that the Obama administration, with Hillary at the helm, orchestrated a civil war in Syria to benefit Israel.

The new Wikileaks release shows the then Secretary of State ordering a war in Syria in order to overthrow the government and oust President Assad, claiming it was the “best way to help Israel”.

Newobserveronline.com reports:

The document was one of many unclassified by the US Department of State under case number F-2014-20439, Doc No. C05794498, following the uproar over Clinton’s private email server kept at her house while she served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.

Although the Wikileaks transcript dates the email as December 31, 2000, this is an error on their part, as the contents of the email (in particular the reference to May 2012 talks between Iran and the west over its nuclear program in Istanbul) show that the email was in fact sent on December 31, 2012.

So, to hit only the highest of the highlights: let’s review just what’s (sequentially) in, the security section of SIGAR-46 – with particular attention to what it says, doesn’t say, and says it doesn’t say. The darn think begins with a instructive admission from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, in which he admits the Afghan War is "still" in "a state of strategic stalemate." Not too comforting, that – especially after 19 years of killing and dying. Then, it quotes a January 22, 2020 White House statement that President Trump’s goal is for the Taliban to demonstrate "a significant and lasting reduction in violence…that would facilitate meaningful negotiations on Afghanistan’s future."

The hardest part is yet to come.

Skeptics of the Trump administration's peace efforts have long said the most difficult part will be intra-Afghan talks.

It's also the most critical part, they say, because peace won't happen without political reconciliation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has previously resisted talks with the Afghan government, which it sees as a puppet of the United States.

Political turmoil within the Afghan government could also complicate talks by giving Afghan President Ashraf Ghani a weakened hand.

Ghani was just declared the winner of the September 2019 presidential elections this past week. But he got only 50.64 percent of the vote, just a smidge above the 50 percent needed to win.

And his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, is still disputing the election results, claiming victory himself and pledging to form a government of his own.

Lawmakers remain skeptical.

The Defense Department is asking for tens of billions of dollars this year to maintain and modernize U.S. nuclear capabilities, while at the same time checking in with personnel at the remote bases maintainers and operators call home.

In recent years, issues like cheating on exams and marijuana use have plagued Air Force bases in Montana, North Dakota and Nebraska, calling into question whether the quality of life in those areas was taking a toll on troops.

On Friday, the Pentagon reported that it had staged a “mini-exercise” in which Russia dropped a low-yield nuke on a European NATO member. The drill followed a recent House Armed Services Committee hearing in which a senior Pentagon official said that the US needed a plan to be able to “fight and win” wars in a nuclear-contaminated environment.

Russian lawmakers have reacted to the Pentagon’s fantastical scenario involving Russia’s alleged plans to use low-yield nukes on the battlefield, calling the exercise outrageous and offering various ways that Moscow can respond.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper played himself in a drill at the US Strategic Command HQ in Nebraska, which featured a bizarre scenario of America nuking Russia in response to its own nuclear strike against a ‘NATO ally’.

US military exercises simulating various crises are not that uncommon, yet, out of all plausible scenarios, this particular drill apparently simulated a highly unrealistic one. The classified exercise conducted at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha on Thursday focused on an imaginary nuclear conflict between the US and Russia in Europe.

Is it Coincidental? The Bush family had close links with Nazi Germany, the bin Laden family and the Mexican Drug cartel.

Two members of the Bush dynasty acceded to the White House.

Had the US public been fully informed by the media, who in America would have voted for George W. Bush?

On this date in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt signed the infamous executive order 9066, authorizing the War Department to establish military zones that would serve as internment camps for mostly Japanese and Italian Americans.

After the United States entered World War II, the president felt that the presence of foreign nationals could not be tolerated in time of war, and would produce seditious and rebellious behavior:

Saudi Arabia’s state media has reported that they intercepted several missiles Friday which were fired from northern Yemen. They say the missiles were deliberately aimed at civilians, accusing the Houthis of turning the Yemeni capital of Sanaa into a hub for missiles.

The Houthis confirmed their strikes, saying they hit targets in Saudi Arabia “with precision” and that Saudi Aramco was struck. Aramco made no comments on the incident, and Saudi reports similarly made no mention of them being hit.

In the past, successful Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have been blamed more or less entirely on Iran. Saudi coalition officials this time are trying to emphasize the Houthi “threat” to civilians to justify the ongoing war.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been on a world tour that brought him to Munich, parts of Africa and, most recently, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Not surprisingly, Pompeo’s visit to the two Gulf countries was mostly focused on countering Iran, although he was forced to address the issue of imprisoned US citizens inside Saudi Arabia.

Before traveling to Saudi Arabia, Pompeo talked to reporters in Ethiopia on Wednesday about the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. “The pressure campaign continues. It’s not just an economic pressure campaign, it’s diplomatic pressures, isolation through diplomacy, as well,” Pompeo said.

Turkey continues to step up fighting in northern Syria, running up against Russian forces, and giving the appearance of an imminent war in the Idlib Province. Turkey’s willingness to escalate seems to have been picked up by US encouragement, and now Turkey seems to be leading the call to get the US dragged into this conflict as well.

US interests in the Idlib Province are virtually non-existent. Any US-backed rebels that were once there have been wiped out, or aligned to some Islamist group long ago. Arguments for intervention are that Idlib is becoming a flashpoint between Russia and Turkey.

The ongoing final battle for Idlib could unleash the biggest refugee exodus the nine-year war has seen, United Nations officials are warning.

Recent statements from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs puts the latest wave of civilian displacement since December 1 at 700,000.

Turkey's Erdogan is now petitioning the US and NATO to given military assistance against the rapidly advancing Syrian Army backed by Russian air power. International reports suggest up to one million internally displaced persons are now surging toward the Turkish border.

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Families in northwestern Syria are trapped between the advancing Syrian military — backed by Russian airstrikes and pro-Iranian militias — and Turkey."

The report notes Turkey has sealed the border using its military:

"The border is closed to refugees, secured by walls, trenches and guards who have shot people trying to cross without permission," according to the WSJ.

The Turkish, Russian, German and French leaders will meet on March 5 to try to find a solution to the crisis in the city of Idlib as Turkey and Russian-backed Syrian forces risk confrontation in the region.

Following phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he will meet them all on March 5, without disclosing the location. As Turkey slides toward war, Ankara has appealed to the U.S. and its European allies for support in a conflict that risks undermining the friendly ties he’s built with Moscow.

READ: Turkey and Russia Near Breaking Point in Syrian Standoff

SOURCE: CHRIS MENAHAN, INFORMATION LIBERATION
President Donald Trump on Wednesday appointed US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as the acting director of national intelligence, making him the first openly gay person to serve in a cabinet-level position.

Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
Thank you to our great US Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, for stepping in to serve as acting DNI. I will be nominating a terrific candidate for the job very soon. Stay tuned!

As The Jerusalem Post reports, Grenell is known for his "pro-Israel and anti-Iran" stances.

"For Israel's security and defense establishment, Grenell's hawkish views towards Iran's regime will be welcomed with open arms," Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Benjamin Weinthal said.

Though Grenell officially serves as the US' ambassador to Germany, one might assume by looking at his Twitter feed that he was Israel's ambassador to America.

SOURCE: MOON OF ALABAMA

Russia has called Turkey's bluff of a wide ranging attack on Syrian government forces. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will now have to find a way out of the Idleb trap he set himself in. His excellent Syria adventure is coming to an end.

Meanwhile we learn that the British military intelligence ran another large dis-information campaign that brought 'Syrian voices' into the 'western' press.

Erdogan continues with his wild rhetoric over Syria.

#ERDOGAN: "#Turkey cannot be confined within the 780,000 km2 border. #Misrata, #Aleppo, #Homs & #Hasaka are outside our actual borders, but they are within our emotional & physical limits, we will confront those who limit our history to only 90yrs."
The Turkish talks with Russia have not gone well. Russia had proposed the following points:

1- 16-km border strip in Idlib under Turkey control
2- Russia controls crossing between Idlib strip and Afrin

SOURCE: MINT PRESS
TEL AVIV — Since the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it would investigate war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank last December, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been attempting to rally Israel’s allies in a multilateral effort to stop the ICC’s probe.

Those efforts have now left Netanyahu “optimistic,” with the embattled Prime Minister reportedly telling members of his cabinet that Israel’s efforts to lobby other countries against the ICC case is paying off, according to a recent report published by Reuters. “We are struggling against this [proceeding] and, at our side, I must say, are many friends around the world [which] joined the U.S. in a steadfast stand alongside Israel,” Reuters quoted Netanyahu as saying.

The US Navy is expected to make public unclassified documents associated with the 1963 implosion of the USS Thresher (SSN-593), which claimed the lives of nearly 130 individuals and was the catalyst for the service’s Submarine Safety Program (SUBSAFE).

On February 10, US District Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the US Navy to begin releasing unclassified documents on the sinking of the Thresher on April 10, 1963, while the nuclear-powered vessel was conducting deep dive exercises.

According to US Naval Institute News, the service has been ordered to finish a review of 300 documents by April 30 and release them to the public by May 15.