Russia Releases Photos Showing US Special Ops At ISIS Positions In Syria

 

The aerial photos of ISIS' territory north of #Deir_ez_Zor where #USA special operation troops are seen https://t.co/lH6u8H9bvZ pic.twitter.com/gjqlQubi9o

— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) September 24, 2017

 

The Russian Defense Ministry has released aerial images allegedly showing ISIS, the SDF, and US special forces working side-by-side on the battlefield against Syrian and Russian forces in Dier ez-Zor, Syria.

As Adam Garrie reports, via The Duran, it has long been thought that the US proxy militia SDF is operating in collusion with ISIS in various parts of Syria. This has especially been the case in respect of Deir ez-Zor. In Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry has previously stated that the Syrian Arab Army and their allies are fired on most intensely from positions known to be held by the SDF.

Furthermore, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov recently stated,

“SDF militants work to the same objectives as Daesh terrorists. Russian drones and intelligence have not recorded any confrontations between Daesh and the ‘third force’, SDF”.

He added that Russia will not hesitate to target SDF forces that threaten the battle field progress and personal safety of Russia’s allies, namely the Syrian Arab Army.

Report: Hezbollah-Linked Company Exporting Millions to U.S. Despite Sanctions

Hezbollah fighters hold their party flags / AP

 

Hezbollah financiers circumvent sanctions to export Congolese lumber to U.S., Europe

A new report says that an African lumber company owned by major financiers of the Hezbollah terror group has circumvented sanctions and managed to export millions of dollars worth of timber to U.S. companies.

The investigation by Global Witness, a D.C.-based group that aims to uncover global corruption, focused on an African-based company called Congo Futur, which was targeted by sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department because the Tajideen family, which gives millions of dollars to Hezbollah, owns it.

China has cyber capability to take down U.S. power grid, warns NSA

(NaturalNews) The U.S. is vulnerable to cyber attacks from China and other countries capable of shutting down the power grid and disabling vital infrastructure, according to Admiral Michael Rogers, head of both the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command.

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Cybersecurity firm Mondiant confirmed that China had hacked into U.S. utility systems and has the knowledge potential to exploit vulnerabilities and shut down or disrupt them. Rogers says this could allow Chinese hackers “to shut down very segmented, very tailored parts of our infrastructure that forestall the ability to provide that service to us as citizens.”

Joint Russian-Iranian intervention in Syria will allow the government to hold territory and likely expand into Iraq

Key Points

• Russian airstrikes have targeted areas controlled by various opposition factions on the borders of government-held territory in Latakia and Hama but they have focused far less on their stated target of the Islamic State. This coincides with Hizbullah media on 12 October claiming an increase in ground forces being supplied by Iran to support the Syrian government.
• Russia and Iran are jointly expanding their role in Syria and Iraq against the proxies of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, in order to preserve the allied governments in Baghdad and Damascus.
• Saudi Arabia and Turkey are in effect being offered influence in areas of Syria and Iraq that are not strategically important, reducing the likelihood that they would acquiesce to an agreement that is in line with Russia and Iran’s interests.

Iran Rapidly Building Cyber Warfare Capabilities

Highlighted in teal below is a perfect example of grey terror during the ‘overture’ phase, as described in Soviet defector Viktor Suvorov’s book “Spetsnaz. The Story Behind the Soviet SAS” in chapter 15, Spetsnaz’s First World War.

Here’s a lengthy exerpt:

In Washington, as the President’s helicopter is taking off, several shots are fired at it from sniper’s rifles. The helicopter is only slightly damaged and the crew succeed in bringing it down again safely. No one in the craft is hurt. Responsibility for the attack is claimed by a previously unknown organisation calling itself ‘Revenge for Vietnam’.

There is a terrorist explosion at Vienna airport.

A group of unidentified men attack the territory of the British military base in Cyprus with mortars.

A serious accident takes place on the most important oil pipeline in Alaska. The pumping stations break down and the flow of oil falls to a trickle.

In West Germany there are several unsuccessful attempts on the lives of American generals.

In the North Sea the biggest of the British oil rigs tips over and sinks. The precise reason for this is not established, although experts believe that corrosion of main supports is the culprit.

In the United States an epidemic of some unidentified disease breaks out and spreads rapidly. It seems to affect port areas particularly, such as San Francisco, Boston, Charleston, Seattle, Norfolk and Philadelphia.

There are explosions practically every day in Paris. The main targets are the government districts, communication centres and military headquarters. At the same time terrible forest fires are raging in the South of France.

All these operations — because of course none of these events is an accident — and others like them are known officially in the GRU as the ‘preparatory period’, and unofficially as the ‘overture’. The overture is a series of large and small operations the purpose of which is, before actual military operations begin, to weaken the enemy’s morale, create an atmosphere of general suspicion, fear and uncertainty, and divert the attention of the enemy’s armies and police forces to a huge number of different targets, each of which may be the object of the next attack.

The overture is carried by agents of the secret services of the Soviet satellite countries and by mercenaries recruited by intermediaries. The principal method employed at this stage is ‘grey terror’, that is, a kind of terror which is not conducted in the name of the Soviet Union. The Soviet secret services do not at this stage leave their visiting cards, or leave other people’s cards. The terror is carried out in the name of already existing extremist groups not connected in any way with the Soviet Union, or in the name of fictitious organisations.

The GRU reckons that in this period its operations should be regarded as natural disasters, actions by forces beyond human control, mistakes committed by people, or as terrorist acts by organisations not connected with the Soviet Union.

The terrorist acts carried out in the course of the ‘overture’ require very few people, very few weapons and little equipment. In some cases all that may be needed is one man who has as a weapon nothing more than a screwdriver, a box of matches or a glass ampoule. Some of the operations can have catastrophic consequences. For example, an epidemic of an infectious disease at seven of the most important naval bases in the West could have the effect of halving the combined naval might of the Soviet Union’s enemies.

 

Cyber attacks on banks, casino highlight growing threat

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“Iranian hackers have been suspected in multiple incidents that inflicted damage on various entities in the private sector, including finance and energy firms,” according to the five-page report, “Pistachios and Saffron: Investigating the Iranian Cyber Threat.”

“Current analysis indicates Iran may intend to use its growing cyber force to attack global critical infrastructure,” the report added.

Once limited to website defacements and other less damaging attacks, Tehran’s hacker forces are now capable of using customized malicious software designed for use against specific victims.

In Flames (II)

SANAA/RIYADH/BERLIN (Own report) – Saudi Arabia is using German fighter planes to wage its aerial warfare in Yemen. This has been reported in several Arabian Peninsula news articles independently from one another. According to these articles, the Eurofighter, which German arms manufacturers have played a significant role producing, are being used to carry out so-called precision bombing of the Houthi rebels. The Saudi-led aggression coalition, which is receiving military and intelligence aid from the USA, is also politically supported by Berlin. This war, causing a humanitarian catastrophe, is geostrategic in nature. Saudi Arabia’s ruling clan and the West are seeking to prevent Iran from gaining influence through the Houthis on the Arabian Peninsula. However, it is unclear whether the Houthis are even acting in Iran’s interests. But, according experts, it is clear that the Al Qaeda network, whose Yemeni wing claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Paris last January, will be the main beneficiary of this war. The West – Germany included – is deliberately risking al Qaeda’s reinforcement.

Report: Hezbollah, Iran Would Lead Syrian Counter-Attack

European report shows Assad has transferred key military posts to fighters from Lebanon, Iran.

An intelligence report prepared by a European country has found that Syrian President Bashar Assad has handed control of missile installations over to foreign fighters, Lebanon’s A-Nahar reports.

Assad has reportedly put control into the hands of Hezbollah and Iranian units.

Iran builds up its ‘foreign legion’ in Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) — Western intelligence services have made much of Hezbollah’s military support for the embattled Damascus regime in Syria’s civil war, but there’s another, less well-known threat emerging there.

That’s the growing force of Iraqi Shiite fighters who’re also fighting to keep Syrian President Bashar Assad in power.

Many of them were trained by Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to fight the Americans in Iraq, and now form a major element in Iran’s new “foreign legion,” intelligence officers and military experts say.

Veteran fears ‘beginning of the end’ for Japan as bond market buckles

Yields on 10-year Japanese bonds (JGBs) have doubled in a month and spiked dramatically to 1pc on Thursday, triggering a 7.3pc crash in the Nikkei stock index. It was the biggest one-day fall since the tsunami two years ago, comparable with wild moves seen at the height of the Asian crisis in 1998.

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Richard Koo from Nomura, an expert on Japan’s Lost Decade, said the sell-off in recent days has shown that the BoJ may not be able to hold down yields “no matter how many bonds it buys”. This could lead to a “loss of faith in the Japanese government” and the “beginning of the end” for its economy, if handled badly.

Seized Chinese Weapons Raise Concerns on Iran

An Iranian dhow seized off the Yemeni coast was carrying sophisticated Chinese antiaircraft missiles, a development that could signal an escalation of Iran’s support to its Middle Eastern proxies, alarming other countries in the region and renewing a diplomatic challenge to the United States.

Among the items aboard the dhow, according to a review of factory markings on weapons and their packing crates, were 10 Chinese heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles, most of them manufactured in 2005.

The missiles were labeled QW-1M and bore stencils suggesting that they had been assembled at a factory represented by the state-owned China National Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation, sanctioned by the United States for transfers of missile technology to Pakistan and Iran.