US Anti-Aircraft Missiles for Syrian Jihadis. "No-Fly Zone"?

[MacCruiskeen]

Has this been widely reported? In the article below, Mike Whitney worries that these anti-aircraft missiles will be used against US airliners. But they're going to Syria, where no US airliners fly - only Syrian and Russian planes.

The implication is: President Hillary Clinton's promised "no-fly zone" will be imposed on Syria after all, even though she was not elected. And this, as she was warned by at least one US general, will amount to "a declaration of war on Russia".

Meanwhile, there's a growing campaign to sway the Electoral College to overturn the election result, while the "PUTIN HACKED THE ELECTION" propaganda-drive gathers pace

How will the Russians respond if their planes are shot down by US missiles?

Is there an actual coup-attempt underway in the US?

Congress Votes To Give Jihadists Anti-aircraft Missiles

By Mike Whitney

December 14, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - On Thursday, the Senate passed a bill that puts every American who travels by plane at risk. It is among the stupidest pieces of legislation ever written and it explains-- to a great extent-- why the US Congress has a public approval rating of 13 percent and is among the most loathed institutions in America.

The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the House last Friday in a 375-34 vote. On Thursday, it cleared the senate with a 92 to 7 margin. The bill will now be sent to Obama where it is expected to be signed into law. According to an article on SOFREP titled "Congress authorizes anti-aircraft missiles for Syrian opposition":

"Congress for the first time authorized the Department of Defense to provide vetted-Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles. The provision is contained within the $619 billion Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the Senate on Dec. 8 and the House on Dec. 2.

Under the bill, the Secretaries of Defense and State must submit a report to Congress explaining why they determined Syrian groups need man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS)."
(SOFREP: Trusted News and Intelligence From Spec Ops Veterans, "Congress authorizes anti-aircraft missiles for Syrian opposition"

You read that right, Congress just passed a bill that will provide shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles to lunatic jihadists who will undoubtedly use them to take down American or Israeli jetliners. The argument that these Islamic militants are fully vetted is complete nonsense as both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have repeatedly shown. According to a recent article in the New York Times, rebel groups supported by the USG "have entered into battlefield alliances with the affiliate of al Qaida in Syria formerly known as al Nusra." The Wall Street Journal reports that rebel groups are "doubling-down on their alliance with al Qaida. This alliance has rendered the phrase 'moderate rebels' meaningless."

Everyone who has followed developments on the ground in Syria knows that the distinction between the "good" terrorists and the "bad" terrorists is pure bunkum. The various militias are merely the many heads of the same homicidal anti-government hydra that has killed over 400,000 Syrians and decimated a large part of the country. The CIA should not be assisting any of these madmen let alone providing them with lethal state-of the-art weapons that will inevitably be used to take down US aircraft. Here's more from the same article:

"The inclusion of the provision represents a departure from previous versions of the NDAA. The original House bill specifically prohibited the transfer of MANPADS to “any entity” in Syria, while the Senate bill did not address it."

So, the original bill forbid "the transfer of MANPADS" to Syrian militants because it was considered too dangerous. But now that Obama's proxy-army is getting pulverized in Aleppo, Congress has taken off the gloves and gone into full-revenge mode. Isn't that what's really going on?

And it looks like Obama has already given this crazy policy a big thumbs up. Check out this "Presidential Determination and Waiver ....on the Arms Export Control Act to Support U.S. Special Operations to Combat Terrorism in Syria" that the White House issued late Thursday:

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2249a of title 10, United States Code, sections 40 and 40A of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) (22 U.S.C. 2780 and 2781), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby:


determine that the transaction, encompassing the provision of defense articles and services to foreign forces, irregular forces, groups, or individuals engaged in supporting or facilitating ongoing U.S. military operations to counter terrorism in Syria, is essential to the national security interests of the United States." (Presidential Determination and Waiver)

It looks to me like our Nobel prize-winning president just gave Congress's idiot plan his ringing endorsement.

Fortunately, there's one member of congress who has spoken out forcefully against the NDAA . Representative Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii released the following statement following the voting on December 2:

“This bill contains the same deeply concerning and dangerous Syria train and equip measures that I’ve fought against since the program’s inception.

“First, it creates the potential for dangerous ground-to-air missiles getting in the hands of ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups. ....

“Second, the bill reauthorizes and extends the Syria train and equip program for two years. When the Department of Defense brought this program to Congress two years ago, I strongly opposed it due to a weak vetting process,...instead of fighting against ISIS, al-Qaeda, or other terrorist groups—(the vetted militants) ended up joining these terrorist groups in their battle to overthrow the Syrian government.

“Over the past 2 years, the Department of Defense has made several improvements to the vetting process and clarified the program’s objectives. These improvements have helped to ensure that we work solely with forces that share our common goal of defeating ISIS. However, the bill that passed today leaves out all of these improvements, allowing these authorizing provisions to be used once again to further the illegal, counterproductive regime change war against the Syrian government. If successful, this war will strengthen groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, worsen the humanitarian crisis, and cause even greater destruction and suffering in Syria. I will continue to do all I can to end this devastating war, focus our resources on nation building here at home, and defeat terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS who threaten the American people.” ("Rep. Gabbard votes against Defense Authorization Bill", Hawaii 24/7)

Rep. Gabbard has authored a "Stop Arming Terrorists bill" that "prohibits U.S. government funds from being used to support al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. ... It would also prohibit the Federal government from funding assistance to countries that are directly or indirectly supporting those terrorist groups." ("Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Legislation to Stop Arming Terrorists", Tulsi Gabbard)

Booyah, Tulsi. You are the lone voice of sanity in a country that has gone stark raving mad.

________________________________________________

Mike lives in Washington state. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

http://www.mikewhitneysgraspingatstraws.blogspot.com

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House editorial policy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46036.htm

[stefano]

Is there an actual coup-attempt underway in the US?

The thing about the White House urging action against Russia, with 33 days left of Obama's term, is really bizarre, hey. Don't think it will have any effect, though. Anything the president does the next president can undo. These votes in the missiles are very bipartisan - maybe the plan is to have Trump be the clown everyone looks at to distract from the business of empire going on on Capitol Hill.

lunatic jihadists who will undoubtedly use them to take down American or Israeli jetliners.

I have my doubts!

[MacCruiskeen]

The thing about the White House urging action against Russia, with 33 days left of Obama's term, is really bizarre, hey. Don't think it will have any effect, though. Anything the president does the next president can undo.

Can he (or she?) undo a war with Russia? More to the point: Will he or she even want to undo a war with Russia? That will depend on who he or she is.

I am seriously wondering who the next president will be. It may well depend on whether a pretext for war on Russia can be found in the next 33 days.

Setting the president-elect up as Traitor Trump and Evil Vlad as his puppetmaster might well do the trick. And that's going according to plan.

Now the US is sending American-made anti-aircraft missiles to jihadis in Syria, so that they can fire them at Russian aircraft there. Russia has already made it crystal-clear that it will not abandon Syria to the US Empire. Putin has drawn a line in the sand.

Less than five weeks to go until the Inauguration. I wonder if there'll be a White House left for President X to reside in.

[tapitsbo]

You don't really think there will be a hot war against Russia, right?

The agenda I see is more along the lines of impeaching Trump, interfering in the French and German elections, legitimating no-fly zones/u.s. military attacks on "Shia militias" including hezbollah, radically censoring social media, beginning a "war crimes" trial of putin and assad even if they are absent, and so on...

Honestly though I don't think more than one or two items on this agenda will be pulled off...

[MacCruiskeen]

You don't really think there will be a hot war against Russia, right?

The agenda I see is more along the lines of impeaching Trump, interfering in the French and German elections, legitimating no-fly zones/u.s. military attacks on "Shia militias" including hezbollah, radically censoring social media, beginning a "war crimes" trial of putin and assad even if they are absent, and so on...

Honestly though I don't think more than one or two items on this agenda will be pulled off...

I think anything could happen in the next 33 days. And see this thread, which I started in July 2014:

The build-up to war on Russia

So yes, I think a hot war is a very distinct possibility. Russia will not step back from Syria, because it simply cannot afford to cede that ground to the US Empire. Putin has made that clear. Syria was the last straw: so far and no further.

And the USA is currently going mental.

[tapitsbo]

Right, but considering the US military isn't on board with the hysterical anti-Russian agenda (which is apparently being driven by incompetent, threatened institutional fiefdoms...)

I'm worried too but it's hard for me to buy the idea that "hot war" is about to break out.

What do you think it would look like?

Attempts to install a clinton-style regime in the US or Russia would face counter-coups at this point...

[MacCruiskeen]

I'm worried too but it's hard for me to buy the idea that "hot war" is about to break out.

Well, I think it's hard for everyone, tapitsbo. And I really don't want to come across as a scaremonger. I hope sanity will prevail over, y'know, derangement.

And what the hell do I know, anyway? I'm just gonna shut up about it.

- I'm off out now anyway. I wish you a good evening and leave you with a dancing banana. :

[MacCruiskeen]

- Gordon White offers better food for thought than the dancing banana:

The Overt War Is As Fake As The Covert Is Real

We need to revisit and double-down on a very important notion that will contribute to your coherence no end:

Nothing going on in the media is about you.

We are no longer the targets in the Mind War. We are its battlefield. The pro-Empire faction of the Deep State has the pro-US faction as its target and vice versa.

With the caveat that the following organisations are not monolithic and so on, let me list some of the crucial weapons of the Empire's team:

The DOJ
The CIA
Homeland Security

This is how you saw Hillary skate on those numerous email charges when the DOJ was in her pocket and Bill had that completely illegal meeting for forty five minutes on the plane to talk about 'grandchildren'. It took a completely different part of the FBI to trigger laptop-gate -one that is further from DOJ operations- and one that spends most of its time tracking predators using their digital footprint and thus has the NSA on speeddial. (I call them the laptop faction, as you know.)

Hence it is from the CIA that we get the entirely-imaginary conspiracy theory about the Russians stealing Hillary's election. And it is the CIA that has promised to 'brief' the electors on their conspiracy theory but refuses to brief Congress on it.

That is the same CIA whose formation was shot-through with Nazis and has spent the last half century stealing election, raising private armies, collapsing countries and expanding the Empire.

In the pro-US corner we have:

The FBI (or at least the corners of it that can hide from the DOJ's Sauron eyebeams)
The NSA (with similar eyebeam caveats)
A lot more of the top military brass than you might believe and a considerable majority of the rank and file

And so it has been from this group that we got laptop-gate in the first place and it is where we are getting the entirely-justified observations that there is no proof the Russians were involved 'hacking' the election.

Who else gets access to and releases the emails of the most powerful people on earth and gets away with it? With complete impunity? As dozens of credible people right up to Director Comey have said, there is no evidence of a hack. This is a leak. Who has the skills to do that?

Who -As Catherine Fitts observed during the election- has the skills to systematically isolate and neutralise the imperial lieutenants in the Hillary campaign?

And so we come to that 'conscience voting' elector who will not be voting for Trump. Who is sufficiently skilled to pull out just the right amount of Chris Suprun's digital footprint -revealing that he was paying for Ashley Madison while bankrupt and married with three children- with the assumption left hanging that there is more to come?

The laptop faction. You know who knows that?

All of the other electors. All the other electors who -like the rest of us- have digital footprints cohered into relational databases by... oh yeah. The NSA and FBI.

(Incidentally, the Empire's goal with the electoral college is not to thwart the incoming President's election -or at least that's simply the moonshot- but to further muddy and delegitimise the whole process. It is a continuation of colour revolution tactics that we should expect to see sustained long into next year.)

The "fake news" idea virus we spoke about last week is squid ink that the Empire is going to try to hide in because they made a classic, rookie internet mistake: they underestimated the nerds. Now Facebook will have an 'independent team' of 'fact checkers' -save me from that Orwellian word- because it was on social platforms that the narrative got away from them. They are gearing up for a really rough fight: Trying to retake the Empire is going to result in a lot of dirty, imperial laundry being aired. (And consider that it was the part of the intelligence community responsible for tracking child abusers that landed the final blow in the pre-election round of the war. That laundry could be hella dirty.)

So the Empire faction is using fear and lies to sway the electors and the laptop faction sets up a Sword of Damocles above them should any of them step out of line. You do not enter into this battle at any point. And you won't for some time.

That is really good news. It tells you how little mental and emotional energy you should put into getting angry about the rocks these mountain giants are throwing at each other -and the correct answer is zero- versus how much you should put into maintaining and spreading coherence -and the correct answer there is all of it.

Just be aware that between now and the end of January most of the overt stuff is going to be completely false. In the last week:

The New York Times had to write about how the New York Times was Russian propaganda.
Merkel is talking about how Putin is going to manipulate her election so you should all vote for Merkel.
A British MP and Remain campaigner has said that Putin "probably" swayed the Brexit vote.
The CIA said that Putin personally hacked the election. Personally. He did it with his team of nerds. The guy on the horse and in the submarine and all that. He sat down, put on his headset and hacked away like in the movies.

We've been subjected to a barrage of entirely staged and otherwise swapped images as Assad retakes Aleppo from ACTUAL AL-QAEDA and we are supposed to feel sad about actual Al Qaeda losing.

This last one is particularly dangerous. Remember when I said if we can get to the inauguration without World War 3 starting then it probably won't? 'Escalating' (ie faking) the situation in Aleppo is the outgoing Empire's last ditch attempt to get their land invasion. Touch wood it does not work.

I appreciate -boy, do I appreciate- the compelling need to get involved, to help. You cannot do this by getting angry or yelling at the mind controlled. That just swings the dialectic pendulums more vigorously.

You help by recognising that you are emotionally reacting to rocks being thrown in a spy war, consuming fewer of these rocks, take all necessary steps to maintain your coherence and only then look to the coherence of others. It is not something that can be forced. People cohere in their own time because -almost by definition- the only components involved in cohesion belong to them.

So if you want to help and you can spare it, you can and should wrap coherence and put it under the family Christmas tree. But know that your recipients will only unwrap it when they are ready.