WORLD_IN_FIRE

2021-05-18 22:02:38 The United States and Turkey swore, but still, in the end, the Turks received permission to export T129 ATAK combat helicopters with American engines to the Philippines. Serious success of the Turkish military-industrial complex! Open / Comment

2021-05-18 20:03:02 An al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades armed militants rally at night in Ramallah, West Bank, calling for war with Israel. Open / Comment

2021-05-18 18:02:21 OLE asks the EU and Russia to condemn Zelensky's pressure on the Ukrainian opposition

The Ukrainian parliamentary party Opposition Platform - For Life (OLLP) has appealed to the leaders of the EU and Council of Europe member states, including Russia, the leaders of influential international organizations and G7 ambassadors to condemn the pressure of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the opposition in Ukraine, the MP from the OLLP said Renat Kuzmin.

“This morning, the OPSL addressed the leaders <...> with a statement about the political situation in Ukraine, which has long gone out of the legal field and turned into a massive political persecution of dissent. One of the consequences of Kiev's criminal policy was the escalation of the conflict in Donbass, which is potentially capable of escalating into a major war in Europe and towards which certain forces in Ukraine are deliberately leading the case, "Kuzmin wrote.

The deputy noted that "official Kiev views the conflict in Donbass as an exclusively aggression of the Russian Federation, while the PLO believes that this conflict is largely due to the internal policy of the Ukrainian government."

A little later, he wrote that “in the conditions of military hysteria and the arbitrariness of the authorities, the PLO has the courage to assert that the presence of a conflict in Donbass does not give the Ukrainian authorities grounds to oppress the Russian language and Russian culture inside the country, to propagandize the war, to encourage the growth of extreme right-wing movements and violence from their parties, to infringe on freedom of speech, assembly ”. Open / Comment

2021-05-18 16:02:22 Open / Comment

2021-05-18 14:02:17 USA has created a secret army of many thousands, whose members carry out various tasks of the Pentagon - Newsweek

According to the newspaper, in total, the secret network includes at least about 60 thousand people, while the real number of such agents may turn out to be even greater.

The program involves about 130 private organizations, as well as dozens of little-known and secret government organizations.

More than $ 900 million is spent annually on the maintenance of the secret army, the publication calculated. Funds are used, inter alia, to produce false documents for agents operating under assumed names, pay bills and taxes on their behalf, and create special tracking devices and camouflage equipment.

It is noted that about half of all employees of the secret network are agents from the Special Operations Forces. Some of them work in war zones, for example, in Pakistan and West Africa, tracking terrorists, but most often they are used to carry out missions in countries unfriendly to the United States, such as Iran and North Korea.

The secret army also includes military intelligence specialists working undercover in various countries.

The clandestine network also has thousands of cybersecurity and intelligence specialists available online. The members of this unit are involved in, among other things, ensuring the security of the entire network, helping to hide information about all people and organizations taking part in the secret missions of the Pentagon.

Thus, notes Newsweek, the spies working for the Pentagon act in much the same way as the agents of Russia and China, whom official Washington regularly accuses of conducting similar criminal operations. Open / Comment

2021-05-18 12:02:17 The Spanish court found no fault of Russia in the Catalan separatist crisis. The case was dismissed for lack of any evidence.

In November 2019, a judge at the Spanish National Court of Justice opened an investigation into possible activities at the height of the Catalan crisis by a group allegedly linked to the Russian secret services.

The outcome of this case was eloquently summed up by the prosecutor of the national judicial collegium, who reproached the Spanish law enforcement officers for the fact that at that time they provided the testimony of only one informant and dubious information from the media. Open / Comment

2021-05-18 10:06:36 Erdogan has "bombed":

“I curse the Austrian government, which has hung the Israeli flag on the Chancellor’s administration building. Raising the flag of a terrorist state on your state building means identifying yourself with terror. Apparently, Austria is trying to force Muslims to pay for the genocide of Jews committed by it. " Open / Comment

2021-05-18 10:02:07 RUBIO: US SENATE "STIGMATED" BY THE THEME OF UFO

In an interview with CBS '60 Minutes, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the US Congress is still "stigmatized" by the UFO theme. According to him, on the one hand, everyone is concerned about "unidentified atmospheric phenomena", on the other hand, it is still considered "frivolous" to speak on this topic seriously by political "old people".

Rubio, in particular, said: “There is stigma on Capitol Hill. Some of my colleagues are very interested in this [UFO] topic, but somehow giggle when you bring it up. I don’t think we can let stigma get in the way of getting an answer. to a very fundamental question. Anything that enters the airspace that should not be there is a threat. Perhaps there is a very simple answer. Or maybe not. "

Well, waiting for the June intelligence and Pentagon report to Congress ...
https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1394074037891092481 Open / Comment

2021-05-18 08:39:48 The European Union has begun to draft the first European military concept. The foreign ministers of the 27 member states of the European Union instructed the head of the EU foreign policy service Jean Borrell to present the draft by November. The project, dubbed the "Strategic Compass", can be adopted as early as March 2022. It is known that Russia will be struck off the list of EU partner countries, and in the new strategic concept being developed by NATO, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, Russia will be called not a partner, but "the main military threat." NATO believes that Russia is undermining and destabilizing the situation in its neighboring countries, including Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, as well as spreading disinformation and acting aggressively in cyberspace.

In addition, a Euro-Atlantic defense center will be established in Romania as part of NATO activities. After the summit of the "Bucharest Nine" this was stated by the President of Romania K. Johannis. According to him, during the discussion of the presidents, it was emphasized that Russia's actions in the region cause "concern and a feeling of an insufficient level of security." Open / Comment

2021-05-18 01:02:20 Iran has concentrated significant forces on the border with Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, showing its readiness to intervene at any time if Turkey and Azerbaijan start a war to close the Armenian-Iranian border. A full-scale war scenario is unlikely, but it still remains on the agenda.

Tehran is confident that the corridor through Syunik is being prepared exclusively for this purpose. If Baku and Ankara start a military operation in Syunik, then Iran will send troops to Armenia. The Persians will not ask anyone: neither Yerevan, nor Moscow, nor bureaucrats from the CSTO, nor Baku, and even less Ankara and London. The issue of the security of the whole of Iran is at stake here. Open / Comment