Pentagon Considers Launching Limited Military Action Against Assad

Reuters ^ | October 8, 2016 | Mike Theiler

[Strategy]

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is considering carrying out limited attacks in Syria that don't drag U.S. President Barack Obama to an embarrassing situation, along with several U.S. security bodies holding meetings since weeks to figure out a solution to the rising crisis in Aleppo amid potential U.S. attacks against the Syrian regime.

Officials in the Pentagon and the White House told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that these airstrikes will not be disclosed and the U.S. won't claim them publicly.

Some analysts expressed concerns over the mounting tension between Russia and the U.S. as this might drift the Syrian war and spur a military conflict. However, the Pentagon source seems certain that a U.S. decisive military step can be taken without any risk or real danger.

[ETL]

"Over the next six years, Litvinenko became an anti-Kremlin journalist, accusing the Russian government of abuses during their battles with Chechen separatists in the 1990s, and the FSB's alleged 1999 bombing of 300 people in explosions at apartments in Russia that was used to justify its second war against Chechnya.

He also claimed two of the Chechen separatists who took hostages at a theater in Moscow in October 2002 during which 162 people died were working for the FSB. He also pointed the finger at the FSB for having trained al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/237045/long-awaited-investigation-alexander-v-litvinenkos-arnold-ahlert

Or,

https://web.archive.org/web/20150924180509/http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/237045/long-awaited-investigation-alexander-v-litvinenkos-arnold-ahlert
___________________________________________________

Litvinenko: A deadly trail of polonium [poisoned by Putin?...case now concluding]
BBC - Magazine ^ | July 28, 2015

"The polonium trail started on 16 October 2006 when Litvinenko met Lugovoi and Kovtun in London. ..."

"When Lugovoi and Kovtun's movements were mapped against the sites of polonium contamination, there was an exact match. The evidence of guilt was strong. In May 2007, the then Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald announced that Andrei Lugovoi was to be charged with murder and his extradition would be sought from Russia. Kovtun was charged in 2010. ..."

Prof Norman Dombey, a physicist who has a deep knowledge of Russian nuclear sites, gave evidence at the public inquiry.

Dombey says there is only one place where it can be produced in the quantities used in the murder - a military nuclear reactor at the Avangard plant in the closed city of Sarov. Sarov was where Russia produced its first nuclear bomb in the days of Joseph Stalin. This is a clear link to the Russian state.

But why would the Russian state want him dead? ..."

It is clear that Alexander Litvinenko had powerful enemies in Russia. ..."

The first red line concerns a book he co-wrote called Blowing Up Russia about a terrorist attack in Moscow in September 1999. Chechen separatists were blamed.

"Litvinenko claimed that Russia's own security services carried out the attack to give Putin the cover to launch a new Chechen war. Some 300 people had died. ..."

His co-author, Felshtinsky, stands by their conclusions and says: "This [attack] helped Putin...the reaction of the population was we now have to have a strong leader. ..."

The inquiry will now hear secret evidence from intelligence agencies in special closed sessions. It will report back at the end of the year and, until then, the mystery will rumble on."

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...

Or,

https://web.archive.org/web/20150809080905/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33678717
___________________________________________________

BBC, 27 July 2015

Litvinenko inquiry: Key suspect 'cannot testify'

"UK officials believe Dmitry Kovtun and another man, Andrei Lugovoi, poisoned Mr Litvinenko in 2006, which they deny.

Mr Kovtun had been due to appear by videolink from Moscow on Monday, but said he had been unable to get permission from Russian authorities.

Mr Litvinenko's family lawyer said it seemed the case was being manipulated."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33674469

Or,

https://web.archive.org/web/20160603104658/http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33674469
___________________________________________________

Jan 21 2016...

Vladimir Putin Likely Approved Murder of Alexander Litvinenko: Inquiry

by Alastair Jamieson and Alexey Eremenko

LONDON - Russian President Vladimir Putin "probably" personally sanctioned the nuclear murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, a British judge ruled Thursday.

The dissident died in 2006 after drinking green tea poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in a London hotel. Litvinenko had predicted that Russia would assassinate him and claimed on his deathbed that Putin likely ordered his killing.

After a six-month public inquiry, a British judge ruled that the one-time KGB agent was murdered on the orders of Russia's FSB security agency - and that the action was "probably approved" by Putin. ..."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-likely-approved-murder-alexander-litvinenko-inquiry-n500996

Or,

https://web.archive.org/web/20160205154202/http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-likely-approved-murder-alexander-litvinenko-inquiry-n500996

[ETL]

Mr Putin, what do you think of your "useful idiot"
supporters on Free Republic?

____________________________

Useful idiots

Thomas Sowell
May 20, 2003

"The term 'useful idiots' has been attributed to Lenin, as a description of those mindless people in the Western democracies who would always find ways to excuse whatever the Soviet Union did. Columnist Mona Charen's new book Useful Idiots shows that such people are still with us.

Long after the Soviet Union's horrors had become too widely known around the world for their sympathizers in the West to be able to get away with whitewashing the USSR, new Communist dictatorships arose to become the new objects of the affections of the Western intelligentsia and of like-minded people in the media and in politics. ..."

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2003/05/20/useful_idiots

[RFEngineer]

These people are insane.

What is in our national interest in starting a war with Russia over syria?

What will we do if Russia starts downing our planes? Do not doubt that they have the capacity to do this.

All for.......what?

[little jeremiah]

Your eeeeeevil Russia fixation is evidence of psychological problems.

[ETL]

Your eeeeeevil Russia fixation is evidence of psychological problems.

You have s___ for brains. It's all laid out there for you to see and learn, yet you're apparently too dumb to understand, and/or too screwed up in the head to care. You apparently have no capacity to get the complexity of how Russia operates, both then and now. People like you are loved by the Russian propagandists. Lenin even had an expression to describe you. He referred to people like you as Russia's "useful idiots". If you've never heard the expression before, I posted something earlier about it.

[Mariner]

"Are you unable to perceive how this fits into the larger picture of overall Russian expansionism and aggressiveness elsewhere, such as in eastern Europe. "

Of course I can. Putin would own the world if he could and all of his generals are enthusiastically behind him.

But they don't have the power projection capabilities to do that as long as the US exists.

They do have the ability to drive us out of their traditional sphere of influence...and by that I mean the old Russian Empire, not the Soviet Union and the client states of the Warsaw Pact.

And if they did, I don't see how it represents an existential threat to the US. In fact it might produce a more stable and rational world.

[ETL]

And if they did, I don't see how it represents an existential threat to the US. In fact it might produce a more stable and rational world.

You can't see how Russia ultimately grabbing control of the oil-rich Middle East, in addition to their threatening to retake former Soviet states in Eastern Europe, including the invasion of Crimea, threats to Ukraine, Poland, etc, etc, plus his arming of hostile-to-us Marxist dictatorships in Latin America, their close alliance with nut-job, Israel/America hating Iran, their support of nuclear-armed North Korea, and the American hating nut case there, Russia's closer than ever military alliance with the increasingly aggressive ChiComs, represents an existential threat to the US? Good friggin grief! All this while we have a POS saboteur like Obama in the White House. Don't know what else I can say to you then.

[Fitzy_888]

Bernie Sanders honeymooned in the USSR.

Bill Debasio honeymooned in Cuba when travel there was forbidden.

If...in the name of the Prolateriate...they could have shot someone in the nape of the neck in the basement of a prison it would have been the highlight of their lives.

I put Obama in the same category.

However, I don’t think he’s any friend to Putin, Putin knowns communism and is allow free market anarchy and flat taxes in Russia. I think Obama wants the mutual destruction of both the US and Russia.

To that end, I think he might allow the Russian to nuke us and not respond other than conventially -until that ability is completely spent and destroyed.

They’ll give him another Peace Prize.

[ETL]

I put Obama in the same category. However, I don’t think he’s any friend to Putin

Why then did he bend over backwards to hand Putin everything he want on missile defense and nukes, including the very dangerous Iran deal that Putin loves and claims to have played a major role in?

Rather, what I think is happening is that, Putin never actually liked or respected Obama, and so after he got what he wanted from him, told him to go ____ himself and get out of his way.

[Fitzy_888]

Your saying Obama (Statesmen hat) emboldened our enemies?

Yes, I completely agree.

Now Obama’s policy is scortched earth...against us.

[SkyPilot]

But, God defends Israel. If you don’t believe it, hang around and you will see it.

Amen brother, and I see it coming, perhaps soon.

[SaveFerris]

[ Pentagon Considers Launching Limited Military Action Against Assad ]

Great. What could possibly go wrong?

October Surprise.

Duck and Cover.

[SaveFerris]

[Now he’s pushing for a world war, for what? To cover his and Hillary’s crime and the fact he’s spent us into oblivion? We allowed ourselves to be taken over in a silent coup 8 years ago, and I don’t think we’re coming back.]

First part is absolutely correct. The last part is too - Trump may buy us some time. If we get HilLiary, it’s game over.

[SaveFerris]

Yes, very troubling. Been prepping what little I can for several years now. I’ve already seen the ugly side of this “economy”. Frankly, most people wouldn’t survive being on the wrong end of it.

[SaveFerris]

a lovesick world that swoons to the antichrist spirit did it, by nominating him before he ever took office and awarding it after only days in office.

You’d think is some sort of sad, pathetic, dangerous joke. And you’d be correct. The joke is on us. Who knows what the punchline is going to be? One thing for certain, it does not bode well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c81XKXaKULU

[SaveFerris]

[A war with Russia will make everything going on in politics moot.]

And maybe that is the October Surprise.

[SaveFerris]

[ Most are too stupid or ignorant to even understand the evilness of Obama and his death-to-America agenda. ]

That is correct.

[SaveFerris]

yep

[SaveFerris]

[Surely even you would concede the Russians would not have forces in Syria if the US had not attempted regime change there.]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with that, too. Hillary’s and Obama’s Libya set the stage for their weapons given to rebels who went after Syria.

The Middle East aflame is their goal and they are well on their way. HRC’s commercial attacking Trump as is he could wake up in the night and push “the button” (a la Martin Sheen in “The Dead Zone”) is ridiculous. Especially, ESPECIALLY when Obama is trying to take us into a serious war with the Russkies over the mess they have created.

Sighs at the stupidity of 1/2 of America.

[NFHale]

Well, after all, Assad DID attack us and .... wait.. oh, he DIDN’T?

Never mind...