The Trump administration is pushing ahead with its withdrawal from the INF Treaty. Speaking to Sputnik, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan, shared his views on the apparent motives and driving forces behind the latest US gambit.

"This is yet another concession to the military-security complex, which is feeding its huge profits with orchestrated fear of Russia, which is then used to secure support from the American people and Congress for more military spending to counter the 'Russian threat'," said Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, commenting on Donald Trump's intention to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The American economist and author served as the US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan.

There is one big and glaring sign that the United States seeks to thrust the globe back into an arms race. John Bolton is in Moscow to discuss the United States’ intent to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

There is one big and glaring sign that the United States seeks to thrust the globe back into an arms race. John Bolton is in Moscow to discuss the United States’ intent to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

These types of weapons would have the ability to travel at five times the speed of sound or more. They could strike at a target while evading missile defenses and hit almost anywhere without any warning deep inside enemy territory.

In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his nation had successfully tested a hypersonic weapon known as the Kinzhal, the Russian word for “dagger.” The video below shows the Russian “Dagger” which is one of the hypersonic weapons currently being developed.

There is one big and glaring sign that the United States seeks to thrust the globe back into an arms race. John Bolton is in Moscow to discuss the United States’ intent to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

The end of the 31-year-old treaty signifies that potentially, world powers will return to an arms race mentality. But there are some that believe the arms race is already upon us. According to NPR, over the past year, the U.S., China, and Russia have all stepped up efforts to develop a new kind of missile; a weapon that can fly faster and farther than almost anything in existence. This kind of missile is known as a hypersonic weapon.

These types of weapons would have the ability to travel at five times the speed of sound or more. They could strike at a target while evading missile defenses and hit almost anywhere without any warning deep inside enemy territory.

Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the INF treaty will have a multilateral negative impact. Earlier, Trump committed to withdraw from the accord citing violations on the part of Moscow.

Sputnik discussed whether President Trump will actually go through with his plan to pull out the US from the treaty with Dr. George Szamuely, political analyst and author of "Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia."

It Is Like A Western Movie: A Showdown Is In The Making

Paul Craig Roberts

It has taken the US military/security complex 31 years to get rid of President Reagan’s last nuclear disarmament achievement—the INF Treaty that President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev achieved in 1987.

Tensions in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia seem to be ramping up to a potentially pre-war level. The increasingly thought diplomatic rhetoric of both Moscow and Washington as well as hostile US actions against Russia and an active pro-war propaganda campaign within the US military are openly signaling that the sides may posslby soon find themselves on the verge of open regional war.

On October 20, US President Donald Trump declared that the US would be abandoning the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty claiming that the decision comes as response to multiple Russian violations of the treaty, which had put a stop to the development of nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, with ranges of 500–1,000 and 1,000–5,500 km.

US President Donald Trump threatned Russia and China that Washington intends to build up its nuclear arsenal until “people come to their senses.”
The president said his words were directed towards Moscow and Beijing, as he prepared to unilaterally leave the Intermediate Nuclear Forces in Europe (INF) treaty. The US president implied China should be part of any new nuclear arms control treaty.

“Russia has not adhered to the agreement,” neither in form or in spirit, Trump told reporters outside the White House on Monday, before departing for a campaign rally in Texas.

Until people come to their senses, we will build it up

If the US ditches the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), it could collapse the entire nuclear non-proliferation system, and bring nuclear war even closer, Russian officials warn.

By ending the INF, Washington risks creating a domino effect which could endanger other landmark deals like the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and collapse the existing non-proliferation mechanism as we know it, senior lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said on Sunday.

The current iteration of the START treaty, which limits the deployment of all types of nuclear weapons, is due to expire in 2021. Kosachev, who chairs the Parliament’s Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that such an outcome pits mankind against “complete chaos in terms of nuclear weapons.”

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was preparing to exit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as soon as next week.

Speaking to The Financial Times, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has made it plain that London will support Washington's decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and Russia.

"Our close and long-term ally, of course, is the United States, and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the [INF] Treaty obligation that it signed," Williamson pointed out.

Washington’s planned withdrawal from the international Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, announced by President Trump on Saturday, has been slammed by Russia as "a very dangerous step" which is ultimately part of "continuing attempts to achieve Russia’s concessions through blackmail" in statements made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Sunday.

And Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, who chairs the Russian Parliament’s Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned the move could create a domino effect endangering other landmark deals like the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The lawmaker said such an outcome pits mankind against “complete chaos in terms of nuclear weapons.”

By scrapping the crucial Cold War era nuclear agreement Trump is destabilizing global security, even if his ultimate goal is to negotiate a ‘better deal’ and to include other parties like China, geopolitical experts have told RT.

“The United States would rather pull out because of China. Right now it cannot develop new intermediate-range missiles to confront China, even though China is not a signatory to that agreement,” former Pentagon official Michael Maloof said, after Donald Trump announced the US intention to scrap the INF treaty.

“The US is engaged in an arms race with China in the Pacific Ocean, and China has a whole bunch of those missiles that are not covered,” Iranian political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi added, calling Trump's announcement a “giant leap backward to the Cold War era.”

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was preparing to exit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as soon as next week.

Speaking to The Financial Times, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has made it plain that London will support Washington's decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and Russia.

"Our close and long-term ally, of course, is the United States, and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the [INF] Treaty obligation that it signed," Williamson pointed out.

Moscow's offer to Washington to exchange written guarantees about non-interference in each other’s affairs earlier this year was rejected by the US. That’s what the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of North America Georgy Borisenko told Sputnik in an interview. Sputnik discussed it with independent political analyst Stephen Ebert.

The White House administration, which is pursuing a quite aggressive nuclear arsenal modernization strategy, has already authorized plans to develop what it initially called an ‘INF-compliant’ medium-range missile as outlined in the Trump Nuclear Posture Review, and now seems to look for excuses to pull out of the cornerstone nuclear arms agreement.

READ MORE: US defense bill authorizes development of ‘INF treaty-compliant’ mid-range missile

Claiming the move is crucial to counter the alleged growing threat from both Russia and China, US President Donald Trump stressed the situation was “unacceptable” and that the US will “have to develop those weapons.” Announcing his intention to scrap the INF commitments, Trump boasted:

“So we have a tremendous amount of money to play with our military.”

National security adviser John Bolton is traveling to Russia for talks early next week with top Russian officials that are likely to cover a variety of high-priority issues for the administration.

The trip is Bolton’s first to Moscow since he went to broker the details of the now infamous Helsinki summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last July.

The visit comes amid high tensions with Moscow on several fronts, including the conflict in Syria and the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain earlier this year.

Bolton is expected in his meetings with Russian officials next week to further discussions on issues that Putin and Trump discussed in July, including Syria, where Moscow says it has delivered a S-300 missile defense system — in defiance of warnings from the Trump administration and Israel.

The talks are also likely to cover Iran, efforts to denuclearize North Korea, Israeli security and nuclear arms treaties.

The USS Ronald Reagan has resumed flight operations Friday morning after a mysterious incident where a MH-60R Seahawk helicopter crashed while making an emergency landing on the ship's flight deck shortly after taking off at 9 am on Oct. 19. The Navy said it is investigating the crash after the helicopter, a member of the "Saberhawks" Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron, crash landed shortly after lifting off from the ship's deck at approximately 9 am on Oct. 19.

The carrier, a member of the Navy's 7th fleet, was situated off the coast of the Philippines at the time of the crash.

Meanwhile, Stars and Stripes reported Friday in a different article that the Navy is investigating the cause of another crash involving a HH-60H Seahawk helicopter, which crashed into another helicopter on an Okinawa runway on Oct. 9.

Years of US allegations that Russia is violating the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) may be coming to a head, with John Bolton reportedly pushing hard for President Trump to withdraw outright from the pact.

Instead of negotiating over the questions, Bolton wants the US to just withdraw outright, despite that being a major escalation on tensions with Russia. State Department and Pentagon officials are both opposed to this.

The administration was to have talks on Monday to discuss Bolton’s idea, but this has been postponed, at least for now. Still, Congress is also pushing for action on Russia, as part of general hostility toward Russia.

US Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison suggested that the US was preparing to preemptively attack Russia and “take out” the missiles they consider a violation. Bolton’s pullout, while intended as a provocation, appears to be at least somewhat less-so than attacking Russia outright.

Neither the White House, nor Bolton himself has commented on the reported recommendation letter.

John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s third national security adviser, has issued a formal recommendation for withdrawal from the 1987 intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty referred to as INF, according to sources briefed on the initiative and cited by The Guardian.

Bolton reportedly said Russia has been violating the treaty by developing a new cruise missile.

Meanwhile, neither the White House, nor John Bolton has commented on the issue yet.

Russia's nuclear doctrine does not stipulate a preemptive strike, but Moscow is determined to respond to any first strike by a potential aggressor, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"…about whether we are ready, whether I am ready, to use the weapons at our disposal, including weapons of mass destruction, to protect our interests. I will remind you what I said, and I said that in our concept of nuclear weapons use there is no notion of a preemptive strike," Putin said speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club forum.

If any nation decides to attack Russia with nuclear weapons, it may end life on Earth; but unlike the aggressors, the Russians are sure to go to heaven, President Vladimir Putin has said.

“Any aggressor should know that retribution will be inevitable and he will be destroyed. And since we will be the victims of his aggression, we will be going to heaven as martyrs. They will simply drop dead, won’t even have time to repent,” Putin said during a session of the Valdai Club in Sochi.

Israel and the US sent secret military delegations to Ukraine to train against the Russian S-300 missile defence system which was shipped to Syria last month.us

The Israeli and US delegations arrived in Ukraine, where members of the Ukrainian military allegedly instructed them on “the capabilities of the [S-300] system, as well as running through various possible scenarios,” the Times of Israel reported.

The claim was first reported by Israel’s Hadashot TV yesterday, which cited Syrian and Russian news outlets as its source. The Times of Israel added that “one Russian report said F-15 planes are training in Ukraine against the S-300 as part of an international exercise that includes Israeli pilots.” Neither Israel nor the US were willing to comment on the reports.

The US-led coalition used white phosphorus (WP) munitions while delivering air strikes against the Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zor on Oct. 13. The attack resulted in civilian casualties. Last month, WP munitions were also used by two US Air Force (USAF) F-15s in an attack on the town of Hajin in Deir-ez-Zor. The Syrian government has repeatedly condemned the US-led coalition, which claims that the need to fight ISIS justifies its military actions, while denying the fact it is using white phosphorous projectiles.

The Biological Technologies Office, created in 2014, is the newest of DARPA’s six main divisions. This is the office headed by Justin Sanchez. One purpose of the office is to “restore and maintain warfighter abilities” by various means, including many that emphasize neurotechnology—applying engineering principles to the biology of the nervous system. For instance, the Restoring Active Memory program develops neuroprosthetics—tiny electronic components implanted in brain tissue—that aim to alter memory formation so as to counteract traumatic brain injury. Does DARPA also run secret biological programs? In the past, the Department of Defense has done such things. It has conducted tests on human subjects that were questionable, unethical, or, many have argued, illegal. The Big Boy protocol, for example, compared radiation exposure of sailors who worked above and below deck on a battleship, never informing the sailors that they were part of an experiment.

Ottawa will keep its $15bn arms deal with Riyadh despite concerns over Saudi involvement in the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the diplomatic row over human rights, Prime Minister Trudeau said.
"We respected that contract," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Friday, adding that his cabinet has put forward measures to make the arms sales more transparent.

"We are making sure Canadians' expectations and laws are always being followed," he said.

The contract was signed in 2014 by the previous conservative government, and has since been upheld by Trudeau. The specifics of the sales were originally not disclosed by the parties.

According to documents obtained by CBC News last month, a Canadian company is to ship 742 LAV-6 light armored vehicles to Riyadh. The same outlet revealed in March that hundreds of the LAV-6s will be outfitted as "heavy assault" and "anti-tank" types.

The only promise that is new about the promised peace plan is the way it will be forced on the Palestinians: no one has promised that the plan itself will be new. With Saudi Arabia and Egypt—the outside—brought onside with the promise of continued military aid despite their crimes against humanity and violations of international law and the Palestinians weakened by being silenced, economically crushed and stripped of any friends to help them, the United States and Israel are now free to attempt to impose a peace plan on the Palestinians.

Adding to a growing list of UN reports released recently all showing a surge in Afghan civilian casualties in different manners, a Wednesday report was released showing that civilian deaths are surging from US and Afghan government airstrikes.

This has been ongoing through the year, with a decrease in US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria leading to more warplanes committed to bombings in Afghanistan. More US strikes means more civilians getting hit, meaning the casualty figures are at multi-year highs.

The UN figures show 649 civilian casualties in the US and Afghan airstrikes in 2018’s first nine months. This is 39% more than the same period in 2017, as well as more than the whole of last year. 60% of the casualties are women and children.

All these reports on all these different sorts of civilian casualties caused by the war show a general increase in violence against civilians on all fronts, with no signs of the violence slowing down any time soon.

The Richard Lugar Lab is fast becoming a topic of household conversation in both Georgia and the Russian Federation, because increasing numbers of people care that it is not a public health facility, as claimed, but a threat to the population and humanity as we know it.

The Caucasus region is an ideal location for the United States to outsource its ‘grey zone’ research to. Many of the most ‘attractive’ viruses and bacteria for weaponisation occur naturally in this region, so they can be studied in their natural habitat. The region is also known for its thriving black market economy and trafficking, as the lack of democracy and a civil society makes it easier to hide things from the world.

The Russian military has tested components of its nuclear deterrence, including land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-armed submarines and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs, intended for retaliation against enemy attack.

All three components of the Russian nuclear triad were involved in the exercise on Thursday.

General Igor Kirillov is the lead for the biological, chemical and nuclear fight in the Russian Ministry of Defence. He considers that the strains found in the animals that died from the “porcine plague” epidemic in Russia in 2007-18, are identical to those of the Richard Lugar Centre known by the name Georgie-2007.

The “porcine plague” epidemic has spread during the decade from Georgia to China on the one hand and Russia and the Baltic countries on the other. It could therefore originate, intentionally or by chance, from the experiments carried out by Gilead Sciences.

European geneticists and legal scholars last week accused the U.S. military of funding research that could help adversaries develop biological weapons. But Defense Department officials say their work is necessary to protect crops, and is proceeding with appropriate safeguards and oversight.

The controversial two-year-old program, called Insect Allies, seeks “plant transformation technologies” — essentially, bespoke viruses that can be spread by insects to change plant genes on an unprecedented scale.

“Plant viruses hold significant promise as carriers of gene editing circuitry and are a natural partner for an insect-transmitted delivery platform,” officials of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, wrote in a 2016 broad agency announcement. Since then, the program has awarded $27 million in research grants.

The same creative thinking that produced the bomb with its lit fuse had come up with a different kind of delayed action joke that Bibi knew would confuse his audience before being revealed for what it was, trumping Trump’s attempt at humor, so to speak.

Netanyahu produced a series of large photos taken near Tehran by Israeli intelligence showing a wall and a gate. He said it was an Iranian “secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material for Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.”

The audience gasped, clearly impressed by Bibi’s unexpected rollout of a hitherto unknown top secret installation, but the joke came the next day when it was revealed that the complex inside the wall actually contained a number of businesses, including a scrap metal dealership and a carpet cleaning service.

Secretary of State Mike Pomepo confirmed to reporters in Seoul that Kim Jong Un has agreed to allow international inspectors to visit Punggye-ri, the dismantled nuclear teting site. A date has not yet been set, but Pompeo says that is just a question of logistics.

Punggye-ri was a hollowed up series of tunnels under a mountain, wherein the North Korean government conducted several successful nuclear weapons tests over the past 12 years. The site was dismantled in April and May, as part of a deal to move toward denuclearization.

While reporters were welcomed to oversee the collapsing of the site, some critics complained that international inspectors were never allowed to conduct close-up inspections to confirm the site was totally unusable. Ironically, many of those same critics are now dismissing the invitation for inspectors as meaningless, since the site was already dismantled months ago.

The delivery of Russia's S-300s to Syria has prompted US media to speculate that the US Air Force may deploy its F-22 stealth fighters to take out the country's air defenses. Meanwhile, Washington also promised to supply Israel with more F-35s. But will the 5th gen planes be able to evade the Russian air defense system? Not likely, analysts say.

Referring to the S-300 deployment as a "token capability" and suggesting that the Pentagon might employ its F-22s and F-16CJ Vipers to suppress or destroy Syria's air defenses, as they were prepared to do at the start of the US campaign of airstrikes in Syria and Iraq in 2014, The Drive argued that the US "may have to return to such tactics" after the delivery of the Russian air defense system.

Multiple blasts and an ensuing fire at an ammunition depot in northern Ukraine has prompted the compulsory evacuation of nearly 10,000 people in the area.

The fiery incident occurred early Tuesday morning at a Ukrainian Defense Ministry depot near the city of Chernigov, about 180 kilometers east of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, officials said.

The area was placed on lockdown for air and land travel immediately following the explosions, they added.

No casualties have so far been reported as a result of the incident, and it was not instantly clear whether the blasts were the outcome of an accident or sabotage.

According to a statement by Ukraine’s emergency services, the airspace within a 20-kilometer radius of the military site has been closed and road and rail transport in the immediate vicinity has also been suspended.

The British Defense Secretary announced that 800 commandos are being deployed into Norway starting next year, and continuing every winter for at least a decade. The troops will join US and Dutch troops there, and are targeting Russia.

Speaking before travelling to Birmingham to make the speech, Mr Williamson said:

“We see Russian submarine activity very close to the level that it was at the Cold War, and it’s right that we start responding to that.

“If we could turn back the clock 10 years many people thought that the era of submarine activity in the High North, in the North Atlantic, and the threat that it posed did disappear with the fall of the Berlin Wall. This threat has really come back to the fore.”

The program is built around claims of Russian aggression, and the idea that global warming will lead Russia to stake out new claims in the far north, near where old Soviet-era bases exist, for natural resources.

India’s not cowed by US threats of sanctions for buying Russia’s S-400 missile systems, as it follows an “independent policy,” an army chief said, adding that his country had to think of what is “strategically important.”
General Bipin Rawat implied that his country is no vassal state, and it has every right to go ahead with a $5.4 billion purchase of five surface-to-air missile systems from Russia.

He spoke at the General K V Krishna Rao inaugural memorial lecture in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

“When Russians asked about the American sanctions, my reply was, ‘yes, we do appreciate that there could be sanctions on us, but we follow an independent policy,’” the general said after a six-day visit to Russia, during which he met a string of top Armed Forces officials.

A new Pentagon report calls China the main threat to the US military-industrial complex, sounding alarm over the decline of some “critical defense functions,” due to Beijing’s actions, workforce shortages and “unstable” funding.
“While multiple countries pursue policies to bolster their economies at the expense of America’s manufacturing sector, none has targeted our industrial base as successfully as China,” the report, titled ‘Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States,’ says.

The commander of US forces in Vietnam had devised a secret plan to use nuclear warheads against the communist North during the Vietnam War, before President Johnson halted the ongoing preparations, declassified documents reveal.

General William Westmoreland, who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968 had authorized a nuclear weapons transfer to the Southeast Asian nation, before national security advisor, Walt W. Rostow, notified the White House, prompting President Lyndon Johnson to immediately cancel the secret deployment of weapons, which could have sparked World War III, the New York Times reports, citing declassified documents.

Experts have brought to the public’s attention that ebola is a genetically modified organism developed in US biowarfare laboratories in Africa.

In the two articles below reproduced from Tom Feeley’s Information Clearing House (a good site worthy of your support), Dr. Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois and Dr. Cyril Broderick of the University of Liberia and the University of Delaware provide their fact-based assessments. Dr. Boyle drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the US implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

For speaking out, both Boyle and Broderick will be viciously attacked by the US print and TV media. Remember the case of Gary Webb who exposed the CIA’s drug-running that supported the Contras in Nicaragua. The cocaine that launched the War on Drugs was brought in by the CIA.

Just days after US Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison threatened to start a war against Russia by preemptively destroying a certain type of Russian missiles over a perceived violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, Defense Secretary James Mattis is continuing the saber-rattling.

Mattis claimed Russia is “in blatant violation” of INF, and that the US will not allow the “cavalier disregard” to continue. He says the US is reviewing a series of potential diplomatic and military options to be taken about it, and that not taking action is “untenable.”

The INF treaty issue has been ongoing for years, with the US objecting to a certain Russian test. Russia insists the missiles in no way violate INF, and there appears to have been little attempt to discuss the matter at all between the two countries, with the US just claiming violations in increasingly desperate terms, and threatening to take what would seem to be very reckless actions in response.

Russia has filed an official information request with the United States to explain experiments with biological and chemical weapons in Georgia, with Russian officials giving an ultimatum to Washington that Moscow will not tolerate the housing or experimentation of such weapons near its borders.

A research arm of the U.S. military is exploring the possibility of deploying insects to make plants more resilient by altering their genes. Some experts say the work may be seen as a potential biological weapon.

In an opinion paper published Thursday in the journal Science, the authors say the U.S. needs to provide greater justification for the peace-time purpose of its Insect Allies project to avoid being perceived as hostile to other countries. Other experts expressed ethical and security concerns with the research, which seeks to transmit protective traits to crops already growing in the field.

That would mark a departure from the current widely used procedure of genetically modifying seeds for crops such as corn and soy, before they grow into plants.

In his latest comments to reporters, US Central Commander Gen. Joseph Votel confirmed that the Afghan military and police and facing increasingly high numbers of battlefield casualties, following what he termed a “difficult and bloody summer.”

This has been well-documented in recent months, with the Afghan military losing ground significantly to the Taliban. The casualties are further exacerbating Afghan military shortfalls, caused by poor recruiting, and large numbers of “ghost troops” who exist only on paper.

Gen. Votel sought to downplay this to the reporters, however, saying Afghan officials have acknowledged the casualties but have said they “will not deter them.” Votel is also keen to see the Afghan military abandon attempts to defend territory and hold military checkpoints.

The activists filed the suit last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, arguing that the system violates their free speech rights and constitutes an unconstitutional seizure of their electronic devices…

…Wireless phone users have the ability to opt out of most alerts sent under the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. While some users can choose not to receive regional messages and so-called Amber Alerts regarding missing or endangered children, under federal rules, receipt of the top-level “presidential alerts“ is mandatory.

In the new lawsuit, J.B. Nicholas, Kristine Rakowsky and Liane Nikitovich contend that the system will effectively turn them into “government loudspeakers” that would allow Trump or others to disseminate propaganda. (source)

A new technology in which insects are used to genetically modify crops could be converted into a dangerous, and possibly illegal, bioweapon, alleges a Science Policy Forum report released today. Naturally, the organization leading the research says it’s doing nothing of the sort.

The report is a response to a ongoing research program funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Dubbed “Insect Allies,” the idea is to create more resilient crops to help farmers deal with climate change, drought, frost, floods, salinity, and disease. But instead of modifying seeds in a lab, farmers would send fleets of insects into their crops, where the genetically modified bugs would do their work, “infecting” the plants with a special virus that passes along the new resilience genes.

Russia is facing new multiple wide-ranging charges of hacking as Western officials on Wednesday alleged its intelligence agencies conducted four high profile cyber attacks, including an attempt to spy on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is the independent body responsible for investigating chemical attacks in Syria and in the UK.

The OPCW is headquartered the Netherlands, and according to breaking reports a group that the Dutch government has alleged are Russian operatives may have been caught red-handed in the act.

Moscow has dismissed the charges as but more "Western spy mania" while leveling its own accusations that the Pentagon is conducting an illegal and dangerous germ and bio-weapons research program near Russia's borders.

The four suspects identified by Dutch officials had diplomatic passports and included two IT experts and two support agents, officials said.

Following a dramatic close call between US and Chinese destroyers in the South China Sea, the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet wants to put on a major show of force in the body of water before the end of the year.

Military officials told CNN Wednesday that the Navy wanted to send warships and aircraft through the South China Sea — and close to Chinese-claimed islands — in November to send a message to Beijing.

Sanctions against Russia and the information war carried out by the West are not helping to resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Foreign

US, UK and Dutch authorities levied heavy accusations against Russian intelligence officials Thursday, alleging that seven Russians had hacked various agencies, organizations and institutions. The accusations come just one day after the US announced it would share offensive cyberwar technology with NATO allies “if asked.”

"We announce an indictment charging seven Russian military officers with violation of several US criminal laws for malicious cyber activities against the United States and its allies," US Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers told reporters Thursday. Four of the accused are allegedly GRU agents, Russian military intelligence, who were previously expelled from the Netherlands, the Los Angeles Times reported.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis, at a meeting with NATO allies in Brussels, said Russia would "have to be held to account."

Timing of UK, Dutch Accusations Against Russia Point to 'Closely Coordinated Action' – Scholar

US, UK and Dutch authorities levied heavy accusations against Russian intelligence officials Thursday, alleging that seven Russians had hacked various agencies, organizations and institutions. The accusations come just one day after the US announced it would share offensive cyberwar technology with NATO allies “if asked.”

"We announce an indictment charging seven Russian military officers with violation of several US criminal laws for malicious cyber activities against the United States and its allies," US Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers told reporters Thursday. Four of the accused are allegedly GRU agents, Russian military intelligence, who were previously expelled from the Netherlands, the Los Angeles Times reported.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis, at a meeting with NATO allies in Brussels, said Russia would "have to be held to account."

Timing of UK, Dutch Accusations Against Russia Point to 'Closely Coordinated Action' – Scholar

A US-funded biomedical laboratory in Georgia may have conducted bioweapons research under the guise of a drug test, which claimed the lives of at least 73 subjects, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The question of what really might have taken place at the secretive US-sponsored research facility hosted by Russia’s southern neighbor was raised by the Russian military on Thursday after they studied files published online by a former Georgian minister.

The documents record the deaths of 73 people over a short period of time, indicating a test of “a highly toxic chemical or biological agents with high lethality rate,” said Igor Kirillov, commander of the Russian military branch responsible for defending troops from radiological, chemical and biological weapons.

Israeli stealth fighters will be able to avoid being hit by the S-300 missile systems that have just been supplied to Syria by Russia and can possibly destroy them right on the ground, an Israeli official said.

“You know that we have stealth fighters, the best planes in the world. These batteries are not even able to detect them," Tzachi Hanegbi, the country's regional cooperation minister and a non-voting member of its security cabinet, said on Wednesday, referring to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that Israel has been getting from the US.

"The operational abilities of the air force are such that those (S-300) batteries really do not constrain the air force's abilities to act," Hanegbi told Israel's Army Radio.

On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow had delivered S-300 missile systems to Syria in order to increase the security of Russian military personnel in the country.

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday plans to accuse China of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic, and foreign policies.

In a speech to the Hudson Institute, Pence will say China is using its power in “more proactive and coercive ways to interfere in the domestic policies and politics of the United States.”

“China wants a different American president,” Pence will say, according to excerpts of prepared remarks from his office.

Pence’s speech comes a week after the Republican president accused China during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council of interfering in American elections to help his Democratic rivals.

by Justin Raimondo Posted on October 04, 2018
How crazy-stupid do you have to be to get up there on the podium and openly threaten Russia with a “preemptive” first strike? You don’t have to be Kay Bailey Hutchison, but it helps.

Our “Ambassador” to NATO – as if NATO is an actual country rather than a supra-national parasite – claims that Moscow is in violation of the INF treaty, and that, while she’s willing to give diplomacy a try, she is “prepared to consider a military strike if development of the medium-range system continued.”

So now the “Ambassador” to NATO is empowered to start World War III. Next we’ll have the Postmaster General ordering an invasion of Iran. The Ambassadress has exceeded her authority and caused an international incident that may come to haunt us: certainly she has endangered us all. In a civilized country like Japan, she would literally fall on her sword, but I’ll settle for her resignation.

It will take three months to train Syrian specialists to use Russian S-300 air defense systems, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday at a Russian Security Council meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin.

"We have finished personnel recruitment and have begun to train them," he said.

So far, Russia has supplied Syria with 49 equipment pieces as part of delivery of the S-300 air defense system, Shoigu said.

"In conformity with the presidential decision, we have begun to carry out a number of measures to reinforce Syria’s air defense systems in order to ensure better protection for our servicemen. We have completed the delivery of S-300 systems. It included 49 pieces of equipment, including radars, control vehicles and four launchers," he told a Russian Security Council meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin.

According to the minister, the delivery was finished a day ago.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison on Tuesday warned that the U.S. could be forced to "take out" missiles Russia is developing that violate a Cold War-era treaty. If completed, the 9M729 Russian missile system could give it the capability to launch a missile strike on Europe with little or no notice, the Associated Press reported.

"It is time now for Russia to come to the table and stop the violations," Hutchison told reporters in Brussels, where US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis would later meet his NATO counterparts. She added that if the system became operational, the U.S. "would then be looking at the capability to take out a missile that could hit any of our countries in Europe and hit America."

On September 27, during a speech to the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran has a secret “atomic warehouse” near Tehran, which has contained as much as whopping 300 tons of “nuclear-related material.”

Netanyahu also stated that Hezbollah has established three precision missile sites near the Beirut airport.

“In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 meters,” he stated.

Following the statement, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released photos showing alleged Hezbollah sites in Beirut that the IDF said are being used to hide underground precision missile production facilities. The IDF claimed that these sites are currently being constructed with Iranian assistance.

According to the Israeli version, Hezbollah began working on these surface-to-surface missile facilities last year.

There are a number of things exaggerated or incorrect in Trump’s description of Iran as well as in the conclusions he draws. The Middle East and other adjacent Muslim countries are in chaos because the United States has destabilized the region starting with the empowering of the Islamist Mujaheddin in the war against Soviet Afghanistan in the 1980s. It then invaded Afghanistan in 2001 followed by Iraq in 2003, enabling the rise of ISIS and giving local al-Qaeda affiliates a new lease on life, before turning on Damascus with the Syria Accountability Act later in the same year and then destroying the Libyan government under Barack Obama. These were, not coincidentally, policies promoted by Israel that received, as a result, bipartisan support in Congress.

Friday marked one of the deadliest days at the fence that divides the Gaza Strip from Israel since protests began in Gaza last March, as Israeli forced killed seven including two children.

Four of the seven were shot dead east of Gaza City in circumstances where it appears the demonstrators posed no threat to Israeli soldiers. “Amateur videos showed them kneeling down and kissing the ground on the Israeli side as gunfire could be heard,” the AP reported.

The youngest casualties on Friday were Mohammed al-Houm, 14, and Nasser Mosabeh, 12.

The Israeli military estimated around 20,000 Palestinians protested on Friday at multiple sites along the fence. At least 509 were injured, three in serious condition, according to Gaza’s ministry of health. Additionally four paramedics, four journalists and 90 children were shot with live ammunition.

President Ghani says Afghan forces have enough potential and have managed to save the country from “collapse”.

In reaction to the possibility of privatizing the Afghan war, President Ashraf Ghani said he will not allow “foreign mercenaries” to operate in Afghanistan.

Addressing the 3rd Mayors National Conference, the president said the Afghan government forces have enough potential and have managed to save the country from “collapse”.

“You should know that the work which is done by Afghans cannot be done by any foreign mercenary and foreign mercenaries will never be allowed in this soil,” Ghani said.

Ghani’s remarks come days after Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater security company, in an interview with TOLOnews, insisted the Afghan war will end “a few months” using his plan to send in few thousand contracted mentors to Afghanistan.

Addressing the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Monday with respect to the massive civilian death toll in the Saudi invasion of Yemen, Saudi officials made rare admissions of fault, saying that they had made “mistakes” in targeting and were working hard to rectify the problem.

Saudi officials were clearly trying to use this to get a pass on the ten thousand-plus killed civilians, insisting that the internal investigations note the “mistakes,” and that perpetrators will be “held to account,” despite little evidence that this ever happened.

The UN committee didn’t appear to be sold on this idea either, with members noting the war has been going on since 2015 with no sign of prosecutions for civilian deaths. Panel chairwoman Renate Winter noted that an awfully large number of these “mistakes” had hit the same civilian targets, with several schools and hospitals hit myriad times. She asked how many times the Saudis could possibly keep making that same mistake.

The nuclear war doomsday clock maintained on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists website has advanced to two minutes before midnight, the closest point to possible atomic apocalypse since the end of the Cold War. In 1995 the clock was at fourteen minutes to midnight, but the opportunity to set it back even further was lost as the United States and its European allies took advantage of a weakened Russia to advance NATO into Eastern Europe, setting the stage for a new cold war, which is now underway.

It is difficult to imagine how the United States might avoid a new war in the Middle East given the recent statements that have come out of Washington, and, given that the Russians are also active in the region, a rapid and massive escalation of something that starts out as a minor incident should not be ruled out.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Friday rejected Israeli prime minister’s claims that Tehran has developed a secret nuclear site, Anadolu Agency reports.

Israel is only regime in our region with a secret and undeclared nuclear weapons program – including an actual atomic arsenal.

“Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors,” Zarif wrote on Twitter in response to Netanyahu’s claims.

Iran has issued a number of threats on Friday following official charges made by leaders in Tehran that Saudi Arabia and the UAE funded a terrorist attack on a military parade in a southwest district last Saturday which killed 25 people, including members of the elite Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

Iranian military officials declared "red lines" against the two Gulf countries, threatening war, while in a separate statement a senior cleric said US regional bases will not be safe if "America does anything wrong".

"If America does anything wrong, their bases around Iran would not remain secure,"Ayatollah Mohammadali Movahedi Kermani was quoted as saying by Mizan news agency while leading Friday prayers in Tehran.

And simultaneously the Fars news agency quoted Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the IRGC, as saying in reference to the Saudis and Emirates: “If you cross our red lines, we will surely cross yours. You know the storm the Iranian nation can create.”

Netanyahu's Thursday UN General Assembly speech predictably included the familiar props and visuals condemning Iran over what the Israeli prime minister says is a continuing nuclear program it is hiding from the world's view.

Like pretty much all prior Netanyahu speeches focusing on Iran, he held up a physical "evidence" to illustrate his points as he spoke — this time it was a "proof" that Iran has yet another secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material in the form of an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow pointing to a large building.

Though this was perhaps a step up from the cartoon bomb performance at the UNGA in 2012, the act is now a fixture and entirely predictable after many others spanning years, barely eliciting much media excitement compared to six years ago.

But unlike the last number of similar speeches, US intelligence officials have told Reuters that the claims are not true.

The former founder and CEO of Blackwater says he needs just six months and roughly 3,600 men to make the Afghan War look far different from the shitshow it is now.

In an interview with Afghanistan’s TOLO News, Erik Prince once again pitched his idea to privatize the nearly-17-year-old conflict, offering up a force of “contracted veteran mentors” from the United States and NATO countries to serve alongside Afghan security forces.

“Well, I would say six months after the program is fully ramped up, you have a very different situation on the ground, I will commit to that,” Prince said, outlining a plan to provide 36 contractors for each unit of Afghan security forces, who would serve for two to four years at a time.

Yes, you read that right: Erik Prince says he can turn the war around in six months while suggesting his contractors could be there for at least four years.

Trump deviated from the script during his UN address.

He declared the solution to the “Israeli Palestinian conflict” is the establishment of two separate states, something the Likudniks not only in Israel but the United States certainly will not consider, let alone tolerate. It is plainly and painfully obvious what the Likudniks want—the expulsion of every last Palestinian, a process that should be called ethnic cleansing but never is by the corporate media.

There isn’t an “Israeli Palestinian conflict” that requires a peace deal brokered by Jared Kushner, a personal friend of Bibi Netanyahu. The conflict was long ago manufactured by the Israelis for the explicit purpose of either forcing Palestinians to emigrate or stay behind and risk snipers murdering their children.

The effort to establish a purely racist and religious state—where only Jews are allowed to live as citizens—was nudged along by Israel’s “National Home” law passed in the Knesset in July.

The same day that Russian diplomats struck a deal with Turkey over a demilitarized zone in Syria’s last rebel-run region, dozens of Russian businessmen were flying home from Damascus, contracts in hand for trade with a postwar Syria.

Whatever happens to the rebels in Idlib province, Russia is determined to keep Syria solidly anchored in its sphere of influence over the long term — both as a foothold in the Middle East and as a warning to the U.S. and its allies against future interference.

“Russia wants … a new Mideast security order,” said Emile Hokayem, Middle East security expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

While Russia is blamed for widespread death and destruction as it supports Syrian President Bashar Assad, its forces have proven decisive in the international struggle against the Islamic State group, giving Moscow a credibility that Western powers lack. “Their intervention yielded much better returns than anyone expected,” Hokayem said.

IN CONGRESS, FRUSTRATION with the U.S. role in Yemen is nearing a breaking point. Sen. Bob Menendez — the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — is holding up a $2 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over concerns that the two countries routinely bomb civilian targets. Meanwhile, in the House, U.S. assistance to the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition is about to face another major hurdle.

On Wednesday, California Democrat Ro Khanna introduced a resolution invoking the 1973 War Powers Act, declaring that Congress never authorized U.S. support for the coalition in Yemen and directing President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from “hostilities” against the Houthis, the Iranian-backed rebel group at war with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The resolution would not affect U.S. forces who are on the ground in Yemen fighting Al Qaeda.

An Iranian media outlet close to the hard-line Revolutionary Guard published a video Tuesday threatening missile attacks on the capitals of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, further raising tensions after a weekend militant attack on an Iranian military parade.

The video, in a tweet by the semi-official Fars news agency that was later deleted, comes as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed Riyadh and Abu Dhabi for the attack in the city of Ahvaz on Saturday, which killed at least 24 people and wounded over 60.

The threat amplifies the unease felt across the Persian Gulf, as Iran’s economy reels in the wake of America’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and Saudi and Emirati forces are bogged down in their war against Iran-aligned rebels in Yemen.

But there is another dimension to the story that the international media has largely chosen to ignore. And that is that Israel is now carrying out almost daily air attacks on Syria, over 200 in the past 18 months, a country with which it is not at war and which has not attacked it or threatened it in any way. It justifies the attacks by claiming that they are directed against Iran or Hezbollah, not at Syria itself. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that any peace settlement in Syria include the complete removal of Iranians, a demand that has also been repeated by the United States, which is also calling for the end to the Bashar al-Assad government and its replacement by something more “democratic.”

Speaking to reporters on Monday, National Security Adviser John Bolton slammed Russia for the announced sale of S-300 air defense systems to the Syrian government, demanding that they “reconsider” and warning that the US would view this as a “significant escalation” of the Syrian war.

Russia announced the move after a recent attack on the Syrian coast by Israel, during which a Russian Il-20 was shot down. Russia says the more advanced S-300s will be safer. Israel had insisted Syria deliberately attacked the Russian plane, while Russia says the Israeli jets were under fire from Syria and “hid” behind the larger Russian plane, getting it caught in the fire.

Bolton dismissed both of those explanations, however, saying that “really the party responsible for the shooting down of the Russian plane is Iran,” even though Iran had no involvement in the incident whatsoever.

Though it's hardly surprising, given President Trump's stridently anti-China rhetoric during the campaign, relations between the US and China have deteriorated to a dramatic degree since the beginning of 2018. And with the US and China trading threats following the US's decision to sanction a branch of the Chinese military for buying arms from Russia (as China threatened the US with unspecified "consequences" if it didn't undo its "mistake"), the US has thrown gasoline on the fire by moving ahead with a planned sale of F-16 fighter jets and other weaponry to Taiwan in defiance of China's warnings, per Reuters and Bloomberg.

The arms sale follows China's participation in joint military drills with Russia earlier this month, as well as drills in the Strait of Taiwan earlier this year that were intended to simulate an invasion.

The coalition’s strategy seems to be to seal the Houthis into Hodeida and squeeze.

On rare occasion a story is unearthed in the mainstream media which demonstrates in stunning clarity how major foreign policy decisions are really made in Washington, especially when it comes to waging perpetual war in the Middle East often under the official rhetorical guise of “protecting civilians”.

A bombshell Wall Street Journal report details a leaked classified memo which shows Secretary of State Mike Pompeo decided to continue US military involvement in the Saudi war on Yemen in order to preserve a massive $2 billion weapons deal with Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Russia has revealed his hope that the US will not impose sanctions on his country for its plans to buy the S-400 missile defence system from Moscow, AlKhaleejonline.com reported on Friday.

Raed Ben Khalid Qarmali made his comment when asked if Saudi Arabia is going ahead with its plan to purchase the system, just one day after America imposed sanctions on China for a similar deal with the Russians.

“I hope that no one imposes sanctions on us,” said Qarmali. He noted that 14 memorandums were signed during the visit of Saudi King Salman to Moscow, including four military deals. “The implementation of three has just started,” the ambassador added.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on China after Beijing bought aircraft and other military equipment from Russia. The Chinese government described the American move as a “flagrant violation of the rules of international relations.”

Just hours after Beijing called off trade talks with the US in the biggest escalation of the trade feud between the two nations, the war of words between China and the US ratcheted up on Saturday, when Beijing lashed out again at Washington, saying that China’s decision to buy fighter jets and missile systems from Russia is "a normal act of cooperation between sovereign countries" and the United States has "no right to interfere", defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Saturday.

"The U.S. approach is a blatant violation of the basic norms of international relations, a full manifestation of hegemony, and a serious breach of the relations between the two countries and their two militaries," Wu said in a notice posted on the Chinese defense ministry’s official Wechat account according to Reuters.

He also warned that the US would face "consequences" if it did not immediately revoke the sanctions.

More than five million children are at risk of famine in Yemen as the ongoing war causes food and fuel prices to soar across the country, charity Save the Children warned Wednesday.

Disruption to supplies coming through the embattled Red Sea port of Hodeida could "cause starvation on an unprecedented scale," the British based NGO said in a new report.

Save the Children said an extra one million children now risk falling into famine as prices of food and transportation rise, bringing the total to 5.2 million.

A Saudi-led alliance intervened in 2015 in a bid to bolster the president, accusing Iran of backing the Huthis, but nearly 10,000 people have since been killed.

Deadly clashes resumed around the Huthi-held port city of Hodeida following the collapse of talks in Geneva earlier this month.

"Millions of children don't know when or if their next meal will come," said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International.

With Saudi Arabia forever escalating their war in Yemen, the growing calls by human rights groups to stop selling them arms with which to commit war crimes are struggling to compete with the vast sums of money the Saudis are offering for those arms.

Germany is the latest to renege on promises to ban weapons sales for use in the Yemen War, announcing Wednesday that the Economy Minister has greenlit a new round of artillery systems for sale to the Saudis.

The systems are designed for precise counterattack, and are clearly being bought explicitly to use in Yemen. Yet the Merkel government, as part of its coalition deal, announced a full export ban to “any sides fighting in Yemen,” including the Saudis.

The US Embassy to Tbilisi transports frozen human blood and pathogens as diplomatic cargo for a secret US military program. Internal documents, implicating US diplomats in the transportation of and experimenting on pathogens under diplomatic cover were leaked to me by Georgian insiders. According to these documents, Pentagon scientists have been deployed to the Republic of Georgia and have been given diplomatic immunity to research deadly diseases and biting insects at the Lugar Center – the Pentagon biolaboratory in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

This military facility is just one of the many Pentagon biolaboratories in 25 countries across the world. They are funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $ 2.1 billion military program – Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP), and are located in former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa.