OPCW Fact Finding Mission Visits Douma, Syria

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 21 April 2018 —

The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team of the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) visited one of the sites in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic today to collect samples for analysis in connection with allegations of chemical weapons use on 7 April 2018. The OPCW will evaluate the situation and consider future steps including another possible visit to Douma. 
 
The samples collected will be transported to the OPCW Laboratory in Rijswijk and then dispatched for analysis to the OPCW’s designated labs. Based on the analysis of the sample results as well other information and materials collected by the team, the FFM will compile their report for submission to the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention for their consideration.

Syrian Army Secures Damascus South: US Still Paying Fraud NGO White Helmets

First the reports regarding the locale south of Damascus
LA Times

Syrian state TV broadcast images of the government assault targeting an arc of four militant-held areas ringing Damascus' southern flank, including the Yarkmouk camp, once home to the world's largest Palestinian refugee community.

By Thursday, a deal giving the militants safe passage had broken down before Islamic State's refusal to leave, activists said.

Syrian and Russian warplanes were soon crisscrossing Damascus' skies on their way to bomb the rebel-held territories. They were joined by the pounding of artillery and rockets.

"The Syrian army is now smashing the defensive line of the armed terrorist groups and conducting attacks inside," a state TV correspondent, said in a live broadcast Friday from what was said to be the outskirts of the Islamic State-held Al Hajar Al-Aswad district.

Later, he said there were reports that a ceasefire was about to be put in place but was waiting on the rebels to submit fully to the terms of a deal that would see most of them depart to the opposition-controlled province of Idlib in Syria's northwest or to the eastern desert region still under Islamic State's sway.

Those who chose to lay down their arms could stay, he added.

  SOHR reports that the terrorists laid down their arms and took the opportunity for free passage

“The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition watchdog monitoring the violence in Syria using a network of activists, reported on Friday that Islamic State representatives had relented and had accepted the evacuation agreement.”

The UN sheds it’s usual crocodile tears for civilians- I’m quite certain they don’t care at all.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement Friday that the agency was "deeply concerned about the fate of civilians"

Onto that NGO- or as I always like to call them No Good Organzation- The White Helmets

Fraudsters

At a Thursday press briefing, journalists asked US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert for an update on the late-March freeze of $200 million earmarked for the recovery of Syria – and if that means Washington will be withholding payments to the White Helmets.
Nauert opened her response with a gushing comment about the organization. "We recognize and appreciate and are very grateful for all the work that the White Helmets continues to do on behalf of the people of their country and on behalf of the US Government and all the coalition forces. They're doing incredible work in rescuing in some cases, and in other cases it's recovery efforts. They're an incredible group of individuals," she said.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert yesterday: we "are very grateful for all the work the White Helmets continue to do.. on behalf of the US government and coalition forces.. I just exchanged emails with them the other day... peoples bills are still being paid..' pic.twitter.com/zOoFH9vVYw

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 20, 2018

Moreover, she said she "just exchanged emails with them the other day." Finally cornered into giving a direct answer, she said "As far as I'm aware, all of the work still continues. Peoples' bills are still being paid."

You can, of course, watch the State Department talking head Heather Nauert make her statement at the twitter link - She made it very clear US contributions to the group are still being paid

Flashback to last friday's post: Russia accuses UK of organizing alleged Syria gas attack

The White Helmets are officially (but not really) neutral in the Syrian conflict, but they receive funding from several western governments, including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. The British government was initially the group's largest source of funding.

 Related to the earlier interview from today and last week:

• Fake Democracy: The CIA NGO's target China & Yugoslavia

• Fake Democracy: How Washington Destroyed Russia and Poland

From earlier today:

• S-300s' Syria, Russia & Israeli Spin

 Interesting Reads you might have missed from this past week?

• Why (do) US forces remain near Manbij while ISIS has moved elsewhere in Syria?

• Syria Hands Over 2 Unexploded Cruise Missiles to Russia After US Strike

• Wind Energy Takes a Toll On Bird Population- Now There’s Help?

• Incirlik Air Base Not Used for Trio of Terror Attacks on Syria

Fake Democracy: The CIA NGO's target China & Yugoslavia

This is the second part of a two part interview discussing E William Engdahl's latest book- Manifest Destiny: Democracy as Cognitive Dissonance ( I love that title!)
The interview is approximately an hour in length- same as the first part. Time well spent. In my opinion, that is.

 

The First part is available here: 

• Fake Democracy: How Washington Destroyed Russia and Poland

From earlier today:

• S-300s' Syria, Russia & Israeli Spin

 Interesting Reads you might have missed from this past week?

• Why (do) US forces remain near Manbij while ISIS has moved elsewhere in Syria?

• Syria Hands Over 2 Unexploded Cruise Missiles to Russia After US Strike

• Wind Energy Takes a Toll On Bird Population- Now There’s Help?

• Incirlik Air Base Not Used for Trio of Terror Attacks on Syria

S-300s' Syria, Russia & Israeli Spin

Israel is presenting the idea that S-300's are headed to Syria as a reality. As if it's guaranteed. 
From what I've seen/read so far this is NOT the case

That said Israel's claim gets me thinking about why Israeli talking heads may be presenting this transfer as a statement of fact?

 Is it because they need a pretext to move on Syria in a much more aggressive manner?

Kremlin mum on Russia's possible deliveries of S-300 air defense systems to Syria

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has preferred to refrain from any further comments if the Kremlin supports the idea of providing S-300 air defense systems to Syria. Instead, he advised the media to read President Vladimir Putin’s statement on Syria once again.

"Please read again the president’s statement made several hours after the attack and aggression against Syria. Read it attentively," he said.

 Putin made zero reference to the S-300

Putin’s statement contained no direct reference to the possibility of providing defense systems to Syria. However, on April 16 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was prepared to consider all necessary steps for strengthening Syria’s defenses, including the supplies of air defense systems S-300. Lavrov said "this outrageous act of aggression" by the United States, France and Britain was forcing Russia to give thought to ways of maintaining Syria’s security.

Lavrov’s statement:

“Several years ago we decided not to supply S-300 systems to Syria at our partners’ request. Now, we will consider options to ensure the Syrian state’s security after this outrageous act of aggression from the United States, France and Great Britain,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC.

Lavrov did not state, clearly, concisely or definitively that Russia would supply Syria with the
S-300. He didn't rule it out, but, he definitely did not state that the S-300 was headed to Syria.

Bloomberg presents the Israeli/US perspective  with some very honest admissions about Israeli involvement in the destabilization of Syria

Angered by last week’s U.S. attack on Syria, Russia warned that there would be consequences. Only one of them was spelled out: The Kremlin said it may supply its Syrian ally with state-of-the-art air defenses.

If the prospect rings alarm bells among President Bashar al-Assad’s enemies, they’re likely to be loudest in Israel, not the U.S. Israel carries out airstrikes in Assad-controlled Syrian territory much more frequently than the U.S., as it seeks to prevent a military buildup near Israeli borders by Assad’s other key backer, Iran.

Yes, Israel does carry out more strikes, more frequently on Syria then the US. And yet, the Israeli involvement in attacking Syria goes largely unnoticed. Turkey is often promoted as a more egregious attacker of Syria. But that's not actually the case. Israel has been the single biggest regional destabilizer of Syria- From the get go! I would like to take a moment to remind readers here that when the destabilization of Syria began it was Israel the 'protestors' called out to. Yes, there are posts here covering that fact.

Excerpts:

Israeli analysts and former defense officials say there’s only one likely response from the Jewish state if the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems are delivered to Syria: An immediate attempt to blow them up.

That would upend the delicate relationship between Israel and Russia, who’ve kept channels open despite supporting opposite sides in Syria. And it could create another dangerous moment with the potential to escalate the seven-year civil war into a wider conflict.

.In the skies, Israel has for the most part enjoyed freedom of maneuver, thanks to its air superiority -- and an implicit green light from Moscow. Both conditions may now change.

Amos Yadlin has firsthand experience of how Israel responds to such threats -- and no doubts about how it would handle this one.

A former military intelligence chief, Yadlin ...The deployment of S-300s in Syria has been a concern for two decades, and “at the end of the day, it will happen,’’ he said. “If I know the air force well, we have already made proper plans to deal with this threat. After you remove the threat, which is basically what will be done, we’re back to square one.”

Russia already has sold S-300 systems to Iran over American and Israeli objections. Syria was on track to get them too -– until 2013, when Russian President Vladimir Putin froze the contract in response to pleas from Israel. But Putin said at the time that if the U.S. attacked, Moscow would “think how we should act in the future.”

Israel has carried out at least 150 bombing raids in Syria since the civil war began in 2011, according to Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador in Moscow. The latest, on April 9, hit an air base used by the Iranian military; other targets have included arms convoys bound for Hezbollah, the Iranian-armed Shiite group in Lebanon that’s repeatedly fought with Israel.

"Israel has carried out at least 150 bombing raids in Syria since 2011"- think about that.

S-300s can fire missiles at six targets simultaneously, and have a range of 200 kilometers (120 miles). That would extend into the airspace of Lebanon, sometimes used by Israeli planes to strike Syria -- and even into Israel itself.

‘Exceptionally Advanced’

“It’s an exceptionally advanced system that can cover large swaths of territory,” said Michael Oren, Israel’s deputy minister for public diplomacy and an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Given Israel’s likely response, some analysts in Moscow say it makes more sense to use the threatened deployment as a bargaining chip.

I suspect the s-300 is being spoken of as a bargaining chip- rather then being actually transferred. But we'll see

Actually delivering the weapons “would fuel tensions in the region and cause major friction with Israel,” said Elena Suponina, a Middle East expert at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, which advises the Kremlin. “It’s enough to provide Syria with other air-defense systems that won’t provoke such a response.”

Even Syria’s current Soviet-designed systems, which have been upgraded over the last 18 months, have inflicted some damage. In February an F-16 was shot down, said to be the first Israeli aircraft lost in action since the early 1980s. And while the Pentagon says that all of the more than 100 missiles fired in last week’s strike reached their targets, Russia says that two-thirds of them were intercepted. A pro-opposition Syrian monitoring group, citing aerial defense officers, made a similar estimate.

Not Invincible

“Syria already has some good short and medium-range systems,’’ said Jeremy Binnie, Middle East and Africa editor at Jane’s Defence Weekly. Add the S-300s, and “they would be able to form a fairly comprehensive, multi-layered air defense umbrella over their country.”

In any attempt to destroy the new weapons, Israel would probably use U.S.-built F-35 stealth aircraft and electronic warfare, he said.

Russian military experts say that while the S-300 is very powerful, it isn’t foolproof.

“There’s no invincible air-defense system,’’ said Viktor Murakhovsky, a former army colonel who’s now a government adviser. “Just like there are no invincible aircraft.’’

Why (do) US forces remain near Manbij while ISIS has moved elsewhere in Syria?

A picture taken on April 3, 2018, shows vehicles of US-backed coalition forces driving in the northern Syrian town of Manbij

  Instead of using the headline “Why US forces remain near Manbij while ISIS has moved elsewhere in Syria”,  as employed by Military Times, as a statement of fact. Pentagon propagandist Tara Copp, who is the "Pentagon Bureau Chief for Military Times" is telling you what to think about this strangeness. US Forces not pursuing ISIS? 
  I’m going to use the same wording but present this post as a question by adding the word "do"& the question mark to the title of my post. Which I will then answer with the information from the armytimes article.
 

A US military base in the al-Asaliyah village, between the city of Aleppo and the northern town of Manbij, is seen April 2, 2018

 Question: Why do US forces remain near Manbij while ISIS has moved elsewhere in Syria? 
As openly admitted/acknowledged in this article- See below 

My Answer:  Targeting Turkey with an eye to annexing more Syrian territory for Kurdistan aka Israel 2.0- As you will see this is in fact the correct answer. The Pentagon propagandist admits that once we get through the spin of impeding ISIS

“The final pockets of Islamic State fighters in Syria are hundreds of miles from the northern Syrian town of Manbij, but U.S. forces will remain there to prevent ISIS fighters from returning, the Pentagon said Tuesday

While most ISIS fighters are located farther south and along the Syria-Iraq border, Manbij is still vulnerable to ISIS resurgence, Dillon said. 

The bulk of the remaining ISIS fighters are located in two areas: along the Syria-Iraq border around the town of Haijin, in the Euphrates River Valley north of Abu Kamal, and just west of Deir ez-Zoir”

Very clearly, ISIS has no presence in Manbij. It's admitted. But the US has to stay in Manbij just in case ISIS returns? Gibberish!

1- ISIS is located hundreds of miles away, as admitted, meaning US presence is not required in Manbij.

2- The whole reason for US presence in Syria is to rid the globe of the ISIS scourge. If that is true, then the US should be relocating to undertake their alleged duty.  But they are not.

3- Since the US has got their ‘best ISIS fighters” already present in Manbij, that would be SDF/PKK/YPG, as has been stated so many times. We should be confident that these fierce brave men and women can prevent ISIS from returning. Which shouldn't require US presence, right?

 “Dillon would provide no figures on the numbers of ISIS fighters remaining in the country”

Typical.

 Military Times  then goes on to recall that incident that occurred in Manbij as  proof  of the ISIS intent to relocate. Which, of course it wasn't.  This  claim is also a contradiction to the initial claim. Presence must remain in Manbij to keep ISIS away- because ISIS is not present: deterred by the US presence which must remain in Manbij

“On March 30, Master Sgt. Johnathan Dunbar, 36 and a British service member were killed by an IED near Manbij. The patrol was tracking an “ISIS high-value target” in the area at the time, said Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon.”

Spot the contradiction? ISIS is hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Manbij according to the Pentagon. So, how would they be tracking an "ISIS high value target"? Of course nothing like that was reported at that time. I covered the special ops soldiers, blowing themselves up,  while on "presence patrols" aka perping a false flag- and yah, that’s my opinion on that incident!

Flashback: Syria's North: Is the US Readying A Provocation Or Deterrent for Turkish Forces?

Flashback:  2 Coalition Forces Killed by IED In Syria. In The Process of Deploying Them?

When going back to re-read these posts it's clear the US obfuscated the incident, obviously, so it could be spun for future use - The spin direction is clear in the Military Times article.

Finally one nugget of fact/truth in the entire article that explains the US presence in Manbij-

"Turkish president Recep Erdogan has repeatedly challenged the coalition’s presence in Manbij and vowed to remove many of the same fighters the U.S. has worked with from the border region"

And there it is. Turkey. Challenging the presence of the US military and their proxy force. Usrael Kurds want to keep hold of  the stolen territory with a plan to annexing still more.

From earlier

• Syria Hands Over 2 Unexploded Cruise Missiles to Russia After US Strike

• Wind Energy Takes a Toll On Bird Population- Now There’s Help?

 

Syria Hands Over 2 Unexploded Cruise Missiles to Russia After US Strike

TASS

Two cruise missiles found unexploded by the Syrian military after the US missile strike on April 14 have been handed over to Russia, a source in the Syrian defense ministry told TASS on Thursday.

"Two cruise missiles that did not detonate during the US missile strike on Syria overnight to April 14 were found by the Syrian military. Both are in rather good condition. These missiles were handed over to Russian officer the day before yesterday (April 17)," the source said, adding that both "were sent to Russia by plane yesterday (April 18)."

TASS has no official confirmation of this information from the Russian defense ministry.

Interesting.

Wind Energy Takes a Toll On Bird Population- Now There’s Help?

This news is for the fake greens. Greenwashers  Those who push an elitist agenda to the detriment of everything else. Including bird populations. I’ve written on this topic previously. 

Thinking about all these articles that suggest AGW is killing birds. Such as 'warming temperatures" via carbon....  (which isn’t proven) The reality is the god awful monstrosities known as wind turbines are killing birds on a mass scale. That’s demonstrable. Provable. Well documented.
Notice from the article linked above blaming AGW we see this?

“Species that depend on high-elevation forest habitat, long-distance migrants, and coastal breeders are most at risk from climate change”

Euronews

Long Distance migrators and coastal breeders- both types of species are greatly harmed by wind turbines- but let’s just gloss over that fact, ok, phony greens?! 

Migratory birds with a giant wind turbine stuck in the middle of their migration paths

I'm a huge fan of birds.

But all that clean, renewable energy comes with a high cost to the nation's wildlife. Researchers estimate that 140,000 to 328,000 birds are killed every year in collisions with the turbines' spinning rotor blades and support towers. The risk to birds is highest at night, when the blades and towers are cloaked in darkness.

Is it clean, green, earth loving energy if it results in mass bird killing?
 That estimate is 140,000 to 328,000 dead birds every year. Year after year. 
Using a medium of 250,000 and to my mind that's low balling the figures. That tells us roughly one million birds would die in 4 years. Two and a half million birds in 10 years. For so called ‘clean green’ earth friendly renewable energy
Massive numbers

On any given night during the peak of the spring migration — from the end of April to the beginning of May — up to 520 million migrating birds are on the wing, says Dr. Kyle Horton of Cornell's famed ornithology lab and one of the researchers involved in the project.

Wing Severed by a Wind Turbine

According to keepers, a wind turbine near the Altamont Pass severed a portion of this 14-year-old golden eagle\'s left wing in 2000, leaving him unable to fly or survive in the wild.

Now researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, have hit upon what could prove to be a simple way to protect birds from wind turbines. They've used the "signatures" of birds that are visible in raw weather radar data to generate bird maps and live migration forecasts designed to alert wind farm operators to the presence of birds at peak times.

Most are small birds at risk from predators. (Big birds tend to migrate in daylight, although they too sometimes fall afoul of the turbines.)

In other words, since large birds, like the golden eagle shown above will not show up on radar they have zero chance of being saved via this idea

"Our measures are dominated by small songbirds, things like warblers and tanagers, thrushes and grosbeaks — those are the dominant signatures we're getting," says Horton.

It's long been known that migrating birds are easily detected by the Doppler radar systems used to monitor rainfall in the U.S.

 This plan is limited to large flocks of birds.  (Not eagles, hawks etc.,) The plan is dependent on wind turbine operators actually HEEDING the information and either stopping or slowing their wind turbines to save the birds-  
Think they’ll do this? 
Will it cut into their profits? 
Answer that question and you’ll know the answer. 
Fake greens need not think about the reality of this situation and all these bird deaths.

For weather forecasting purposes, of course, the radar signals caused by bird flocks are filtered out. But the Cornell researchers, including Horton and Benjamin Van Doren, a zoologist who recently moved to Oxford University in the U.K., realized that birds' nighttime flights could be used to generate real-time maps that could help save birds' lives.

After working for several years to integrate the signals from a network of weather radar systems across the U.S., the scientists a few weeks ago started posting automated bird migration forecasts and real-time tracking maps at the lab's website, BirdCast.info.

Van Doren and Horton hope wind farm operators will heed the forecasts and maps — which are drawn from 143 weather radar systems across the country — and stop or slow their wind turbines temporarily when large numbers of birds are flying through the area. 

One solution to the bird-strike problem might be to raise the turbines' so-called "cut-in speed." That's the wind speed above which it makes economic sense to run the turbines. Wind turbines operate more efficiently at the high wind speeds, Horton says, while birds tend to avoid flying on windy nights.

"If we're getting large pulses of [migrating birds] coming through on a handful of nights, then altering their strategies for just, say, five nights versus doing nothing, then it may have a big impact," he says of wind farm operators.

The bird migration maps could also make it possible to switch off some of the lights on tall buildings and communication towers at peak times. The lights on such structures are known to confuse birds flying at night, and result in many fatal collisions, according to Horton. 

Given the short period of time that the maps and forecasts have been online, it's too soon to tell whether they're having a beneficial impact. But the researchers are hoping for good results. Says Horton, "We really want to see some conservation come out of this, hopefully to reduce some of the mortality."

Large cities, with excessively tall buildings, also kill lots of birds... Like in Toronto
But the street cleaner can clean them up before anybody really sees them.  

Which is another issue the phony greens gloss over- building taller buildings to pack more people into, factory human farming style, present many issues that go ignored. 

Image from Gary- Taken at Leslie Spit, Toronto

Incirlik Air Base Not Used for Trio of Terror Attacks on Syria

In case anyone wondered?
And I've seen some news that indicates the US may be moving out of Incirlik.

Airbase not used in Syrian strikes

Reuters

The Incirlik air base in southern Turkey was not used in the U.S.-led airstrikes on Assad regime targets in Syria, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Saturday.
 

"May be" indicates  can't be certain, but, it's certainly curious.

Link

The United States has transported the Armag weapons vault from Turkey’s Incirlik Air base to another facility, YeniSafak reported.
According to the source, a 40-ton portable weapons vault was transported to another country via a C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft.
There has been no official explanation over the transfer yet.

Maybe heading for Greece?

Amidst tensions between Washington and Ankara on a series of issues, the US military is reportedly harbouring thoughts about developing in Greece a regional alternative to the use of the crucial Incirlik base in Turkey.

These considerations, which were reported in the Vimatodotis (pacemaker) column in the To Vima newspaper and website, would be a major shift for the regional military presence of the US.

“There is another issued that draws American interest to our country, and that is none other than military bases,” the column reported.

Naturally, the Americans have use of the huge, geostrategically invaluable Souda Bay naval base, which features the only deep water port in southern Europe and the Mediterranean, able to accommodate the largest aircraft carriers.

But Washington is reportedly eyeing the possibility of establishing a second base on Greek territory, in the event that it decides that it is time to pull out of Incirlik.

According to a report on the foreign policy website OmegaPress.gr, US Assistant Secretary of State Wes Mitchell broached the issue of a Greek backup for Incirlik, in the event of a possible rupture of relations with Turkey, during his recent visit to Athens.

Though Germany relocated its forces from Incirlik to Jordan last year, after Ankara refused to allow a German delegation to visit the facility, Washington in the past has dismissed rumours of a pullout from Incirlik.

But amidst mounting tensions with Ankara, the US military has already begun to bare pack its forces at the Turkish base.

Among the Greek bases reportedly being considered are Andravida - where a multi-national air exercise, with the participation of American F-15 fighter jets, earlier this week was attended by UD Ambassador to Athens Geoffrey Pyatt – the air base at Nea Anchialos air base near Volos, and the air base of Kalamata, in the Peloponnese.

Something else to just keep under our hats. 
Surely there is lots ongoing we can't discern at this time. 

From earlier today:

Airstrike or Cyber Attack on Syria?

Airstrike or Cyber Attack on Syria?

Conflicting reports abound. 

Reports of multiple airstrikes:

Link & Link

(Qasioun) – The Syrian regime media announced on Tuesday's dawn that unknown missiles hit Shuairat airbase in the eastern countryside of Homs and Dumair airbase in Damascus countryside.

The Syrian regime authorities said that it could intercept the missiles and down it in Homs and Damascus airspaces, without revealing any further details or the side responsible for the attack.

In details, Shuairat airbase was targeted with 6 cruise missiles, while sources in the Syrian oppoisition suggested that attack launched by Israel.

Dumair airbase, moreover, was targeted with 3 Cruise missiles and were intercepted by Surface-to-Air missiles, people in Eastern Qalamon area witnessed the interception of missiles, while the Pentagon denied launching any attack last night on Syrian regime positions.

Several media sources said cruise missiles could also hit Nayrab airbase in Aleppo and an airbase in Keswa area in Damascus countryside, but the Syrian regime denied it.

 Cyberattack?: 

Times of Israel- Israel-US cyberattack triggered missile defenses

Pro-regime commander says Russian experts brought in to deal with incident initially thought to have been a missile strike

A false alarm caused by a “joint electronic operation” carried out by Israel and the US led to the firing of air defenses missile over Syria overnight Monday, a commander of militia forces supporting the regime said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters on Tuesday, the commander said that the Syrian radar system had been targeted in the alleged cyberattack and that Russian experts were brought in to resolve the issue.
Syrian state news originally reported overnight that missiles targeting government air bases had been shot down over the western city of Homs, but later said the air defense systems had been triggered by a false alarm.

Large explosions were heard near Al Shayrat Air base in Homs province, and in eastern Qalamoun near Damascus, where two other air bases are located, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights reported.
Following initial reports that a strike had been carried out by Israel, an IDF spokesman said he was “not aware of such an incident.”
In Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Heather Babb said that “there are no US or coalition operations in that area.”

 RT: reporting false alarm

 Several sources in Syria said the overnight deployment of anti-aircraft weapons at a military base was triggered by a false alarm, not an actual missile attack, as previously claimed by some media outlets.

Airstrikes? Cyber Attack? False Alarm?
Cyber Attack Leading to a False Alarm? 
Not sure, but, it's good to keep it under our hat.

It's so "Hot" We're IN the Midst of an Ice Storm- Day 2

Yup, April 15/2018. And there is TWO inches or 5 centimetres + of ice/slush/snow on the ground as the "winter" storm, that's still hitting us, continues. Oh and it's a month into spring. Temperatures are well below seasonal  norms. We've had maybe one or two days of 'seasonal' temps. That's it. Next month starts traditional gardening season... Just 5 weeks away.

Shovelling in Toronto

Tribune

"Southern Ontario is bracing for a second round of snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain that forecasters say will begin later this morning.
The huge weather system is affecting an area stretching west to east from Windsor to Ottawa and north to south from North Bay to Lake Ontario.
On Saturday police reported well over 500 crashes on icy roads around the Greater Toronto Area — fortunately none involving fatalities.
Thousands of people also lost power, but Hydro One and other utilities were working round the clock to reconnect customers.
Today's stormy weather could be even more severe because Environment Canada says the precipitation will be intensified by howling winds.
Wind warnings have been issued with gusts up to 90 km/h expected in the Hamilton area this morning — strong enough to cause property damage and more power outages"

‘Potentially historic’ ice storm arrives in southern Ontario; closures, crashes reported"

 Historic, probably because this is the first ice storm I can recall this late in the 'winter' 
Oh wait, make that spring! I can recall another ice storm in February, better then 25 years ago- We had no electricity for two days. Others I knew, in town, were without electricity even longer. But that was February. We've had other more limited in damage ice storms too. In the Winter. 
This is April. Mid April.

Not what you want to see with significant ice on the way – a wind warning for #Oakville #Burlington #Hamilton #Niagara 90 km/h gusts possibly reaching 100 km/h into Sunday a.m. #onstorm pic.twitter.com/tbCdc00b6s

I thought 'carbon' was supposed to be warming the planet-  Ya know AGW? 
I know where I live it was supposed to be sweltering and the great lake levels were supposed to drop-  none of which has come to pass.

How about that sun cycle?- Looks like, maybe, solar cycle 24 has passed and was very weak- Perhaps this explains the long stretch of cooler temps I've experienced? 

Cycle 25 has already begun http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/wiki/index.php/A_Sunspot_from_Cycle_25_for_sure

It looks to me that SC25 will be a bit stronger than SC24, so probably no Grand Minimum this time

http://www.leif.org/research/Prediction-of-SC25.pdf http://www.leif.org/research/comparative-study-solar-prediction.pdf
(ignore the 2014 in the top line – it is just a place holder).

As my furnace turns on to warm the house, still. Sigh.

This ice storm is also affecting the US

April 06/2018: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.... in April

Swiss lab says ‘BZ toxin’ used in Salisbury, not produced in Russia, was in US & UK service

This news should NOT go unnoticed in the aftermath of the terror trio strike on Syria.
And please read straight through to the very end- because the substance used in the Skripal incident, according to the Swiss lab, may connect back to the false flag chemical incidents in Syria.

RT

The substance used on Sergei Skripal was an agent called BZ, according to Swiss state Spiez lab, the Russian foreign minister said. The toxin was never produced in Russia, but was in service in the US, UK, and other NATO states. 
The Swiss center sent the results to the OPCW. However, the UN chemical watchdog limited itself only to confirming the formula of the substance used to poison the Skripals in its final report without mentioning anything about the other facts presented in the Swiss document, the Russian foreign minister added. He went on to say that Moscow would ask the OPCW about its decision to not include any other information provided by the Swiss in its report.

The Swiss center mentioned by Lavrov is the Spiez Laboratory controlled by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection and ultimately by the country’s defense minister. The lab is also an internationally recognized center of excellence in the field of the nuclear, biological, and chemical protection and is one of the five centers permanently authorized by the OPCW.

 A bit of background on BZ- It's not deadly, it's highly intoxicating

• *BZ was invented by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffman-LaRoche in 1951
•  
• *At this time the United States military investigated it along with a wide range of possible nonlethal, psychoactive incapacitating agents 
•  
• *By 1959 the United States Army showed significant interest in deploying it as a chemical warfare agent.^[2] It was originally designated "TK", but when it was standardized by the Army in 1961 it received the NATO code name "BZ"
•  
• *The U.S. Army tested BZ as well as other "psycho-chemical" agents on human subjects at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland from 1955 to 1975, according to declassified documents.^[13][14]
•  

• Mechanism of action

• *The characteristic that makes BZ an incapacitating rather than a toxic chemical warfare agent is its high safety margin (ICt₅₀/LCt₅₀) of around 40-fold (range 32 to 384 fold). It has an ID₅₀ of 0.00616 mg per person (i.v.) with a probit slope of 9.2. The respiratory ICt₅₀ (median incapacitating dosage) for BZ is 110 mg·min/m³ (mild activity—15 l/min rate of breathing), whereas the LCt₅₀ is often estimated to be around 3,800–41,300 mg·min/m³.^[17]

• Detection and protection

• *BZ is odorless and nonirritating with delayed symptoms several hours after contact.^[1]

 
 Let's go back to some of the false flag chemical attacks in Syria

In January 2013, an unidentified U.S. administration official, referring to an undisclosed U.S. State Department cable, claimed that "Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15, a hallucinogenic chemical similar to BZ,^[9] was used in Homs".^[10]

However, in response to these reports U.S. National Security Council spokesman stated "The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program".^[8][11] The chemical was also allegedly used in the August 2013 Ghouta attacks.^[12]

The claim by the US National Security Council is interesting- In a nutshell they are saying since Syria didn't have Agent 15/BZ that the chemical weapons attack could not have been conducted with this substance-  

BUT, that's an obfuscation,  with the built in assumption that the Assad government was the perpetrator. The reality being if the Usrael backed rebels had been given or provided with this substance, they could have used it themselves to create a false flag chemical attack scenario to blame on the Assad government. BZ could explain the incapacitation seen in many of the videos- along with the difficulty breathing.

Updating with some additional information on the 2013 Homs BZ attack:

Brookings

The State Department is publicly discounting claims made by its own diplomats about a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

But less than a day later, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland has denied the report, (and that the chemical attack even occurred) saying that the Foreign Policy story ”did not accurately convey the anecdotal information that we had received from a third party regarding an alleged incident in Syria in December.”

 Victoria Nuland “At the time we looked into the allegations that were made and the information that we had received, and we found no credible evidence to corroborate or to confirm that chemical weapons were used,” she added.

And the incident was summarily dismissed.  But was it anecdotal? Of course I can't say because that's a loaded judgement call that could be employed for any number of reasons. One of the reasons I've mentioned for this potentially be discounted as anecdotal is because this was NOT a chemical weapon known to have been in Syria's arsenal. Read on

Wired

“We can’t definitely say 100 percent, but Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15 (BZ) was used in Homs on Dec. 23,” an unnamed U.S. official tells Rogin.

Agent 15 is similar to 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate or BZ, a powerful hallucinogen that the American military tested out on its own soldiers during the Cold War. Its emergence on the Syrian battlefield would be nothing short of bizarre. While Syria is well-known to have a massive supply of chemical weapons, international observers haven’t ordinarily included BZ on that list

Telegraph January 2013

The White House's doubt may relate to the fact that Syria's known chemical weapons stocks include substances like sarin and VX which are far more deadly than Agent 15. The State Department made clear it believes those stocks are still secure.

Again BZ/Agent 15 NOT in Syria- However, go back to Wired for this bit of information

Over the years, there have been rumors of BZ being used on a battlefield — including one that Iraqi insurgents were dosing themselves with the drug to pump up their aggressiveness

So we have reports of BZ as NATO calls it, in the hands of Iraqi "insurgents".... And we know Iraqi insurgents passed into Syria. And it appears BZ was used in two infamous 'chemical attacks' in Syria- Homs and Ghouta.   I have to conclude that BZ was most probably employed by the Usrael backed rebels, then denied by the US so they couldn't be connected to the chemical intoxicants use.

Update on the use of BZ in Ghouta: 

August 2013: 

Some opposition activists say the toxin used may have been "Agent 15," also known as BZ. Its full name is 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, and it affects both the peripheral and central nervous systems.

The opposition claimed that BZ was used in tank shells fired in the city of Homs last December.


So ends the update on the BZ as it applies to the Skripals and it's use in Syria for rebel perpetrated attacks/false flags. The BZ definitely belonged to the UK/Usrael backed rebels

It's been a busy couple of days so don't miss these posts from just yesterday

Breaking! TRUMP/US/France are STRIKING SYRIA

Khalifa Haftar Has Died in Paris. Maybe?

Russia accuses UK of organizing alleged Syria gas attack

Fake Democracy: How Washington Destroyed Russia and Poland

 

Breaking! TRUMP/US/France are STRIKING SYRIA

 The US, France and Britain are hitting Syria right now and will continue with sustained bombing!

Link

President Donald Trump decided to strike Syria on Friday, according to several reports. The news comes following last week’s chemical attack in the city of Douma, a rebel-held city near the capital of Damascus.

Link

President Donald Trump is addressing the nation on the situation in Syria Friday evening.
Trump has decided to bomb the country, according to U.S. administration officials who spoke to Pentagon correspondent Joe Tabet.
“US administration official confirmed to me that a decision to strike #Syria has been taken,” he tweeted.

I'm listening to the monster right now as he blathers on- Disgusting!

U.S., France and Britain launch strikes against Syria

The U.S., the United Kingdom and France launched strikes against Syria to retaliate for a chemical weapons attack. "Chemical weapons are uniquely dangerous," President Trump says in announcing the attack. Syria's use of them are ‘crimes of a monster.’

"A short time ago" @potus says, he ordered "precision strikes" in a mission shared by France and the United Kingdom.

— Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) April 14, 2018

Explosions Heard in Damascus Region - Reports

According to reports, explosions have been heard within Syria's Damascus region as US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he was ordering to "launch precision strikes on Syria."

Netizens on social media have reported hearing "big explosions."

— Majd Fahd 🇸🇾 (@Syria_Protector) April 14, 2018

— Within Syria (@WithinSyriaBlog) April 14, 2018

​Video footage has also surfaced with sounds of explosions.

https://twitter.com/MIG29_/status/984965588652036096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


Nothing on SANA as of 9:29 EST

The Drive is Live Updating- let's see what they have so far! 

So far not much, but, I'll be checking back-  


RT: so far

Partisan Girl:

BREAKING: Syrian air defence systems firing at US missiles. Russian air defence systems now also firing. Narrator "#GodBless you" #Syria #SyriaStrike


Apparently the US, France/UK are staying out of Syrian airspace
Firing from the Med or from Lebanese airspace.



Britain, used the bases at Cyprus, as had been expected! 

Daily Mail

Britain, the US and France today unleashed a salvo of cruise missiles against Syrian regime forces. Four RAF Tornados took off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus in the early hours and struck regime facilities linked to the production and use of chemical weapons.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed they fired Storm Shadow cruise missiles at a military facility – a former missile base – some fifteen miles west of Homs.

Jordan Times

Huge blasts heard in Syria's capital

By Agencies - Apr 14,2018 - Last updated at Apr 14,2018

Damascus- Several huge explosions were heard in Syria's capital early today, AFP's correspondent there said, as US President Donald Trump announced strikes on the country were under way.

Syrian state television also reported a US attack on Syria, in coordination with France and Britain, Agence France Presse reported.

Pentagon Press Briefing- They are saying this is, so far, going to be a one off - Unless "Assad uses chemical weapons, again"
 

Khalifa Haftar Has Died in Paris. Maybe?

This is very early reporting-

anonymous commenter - I realize now this may have been what you were alluding to yesterday?


Libyan Express - Libya warlord Khalifa Haftar has died in Paris

RT- Reported death of Libya strongman sends shockwaves through Arab world 

Unconfirmed reports that General Khalifa Haftar, a key figure in Libya’s political landscape, has died in Paris hospital are fueling speculation about the country's future. Haftar had suffered a stroke earlier this week. 

Haftar, 74, was reportedly admitted to hospital in France in serious condition. His office denied the reports by outlets such as Le Monde and France 24, however, branding them "fake news."

The Tripoli-based Libyan Observer, considered close to the UN-recognized Government of National Accord, reported Haftar's passing on Friday, and posted photos of people in Tripoli celebrating his death.

Libyan Express

Libya eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar has already allowed the C.I.A. to establish a base in Benghazi — a low-key American return to the city after Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed there in 2012 — and a handful of American Special Forces operators are present at an air base near the city, American officials said, reported New York Times.

NYT added that the nomination of the C.I.A. director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state could further align General Haftar with the United States. Mr. Pompeo, whose confirmation hearing took place Thursday, and Haftar, a onetime C.I.A. asset, are avowedly hostile to all forms of political Islam.

If the reports of Haftar's death turn out to be correct- Libya and the entire region are going to take a turn for the much worse. If anyone can even imagine that possibility?!

Link

The situation will become even more unstable should Mr Haftar die or become too incapacitated to lead the LNA. The LNA is a patchwork of tribal militias that have pledged loyalty to Mr Haftar allied with some former Libyan army units, rather than a singular force. As such, Mr Haftar is the unifying factor at present—and he has no obvious successor. In this context, rifts would probably emerge within the LNA and a power struggle for its leadership and key resources, such as oil infrastructure, could lead to internal fighting. In addition, the ensuing chaos would facilitate the strengthening of jihadi forces, such as Islamic State. Although Mr Haftar has often proved a hindrance to peace talks, a break-up of the LNA in any form would inevitably make negotiations more difficult, with a greater number of factions to deal with, thereby putting attempts at political unification on hold in the short term.

Impact on the forecast

We will leave our long-term political forecast that Mr Haftar will gain a role as head of the national army at some point in 2019 unchanged for now. However, if there is confirmation that he can no longer lead the LNA, we would scrap that forecast and highlight greater violence and instability, particularly in eastern and central Libya in 2018‑19.

Russia accuses UK of organizing alleged Syria gas attack

We're supposed to be"outraged" about this accusation. Oh my goodness. Imagine me hand wringing?  I for one, am not outraged, in the least. It's quite a sensible and entirely plausible claim to have made. 

DW:

Why is Russia blaming the UK?

Russia has repeatedly accused the White Helmets and opposition groups of staging or spreading false information about chemical attacks — but the claims of British involvement are new.

The claims are not new- The UK has been long demonstrated to be connected to UK's intelligence machine- This is NOT new

The White Helmets are officially (but not really) neutral in the Syrian conflict, but they receive funding from several western governments, including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. The British government was initially the group's largest source of funding.

The allies pay the White Helmets making them not neutral at all. 

 

The group that processes donations for the organization is based in the UK, and is headed by Sawsan Asfari, the wife of British billionaire Ayman Asfari.

The White Helmets were also founded by James Le Mesurier, a former British officer and ex-security consultant.

Russia and the Syrian government have frequently accused the group of impartiality in the Syrian conflict.

That's because they are not impartial- They don't even pretend to be. 

The accusation from Russia has ZERO to do with the Skripal psychological operation.
White Helmets are paid to do and say and act as they do.  

The White Helmets are what I like to call a No Good Organization 

NGO's live large in the William Engdahl interview posted just a short time ago.
This tactic of employing fake do gooders,  has been used for decades to fool the masses and obfuscate the evil deeds of the psychopaths in charge. Be sure to catch that interview.

• Fake Democracy: How Washington Destroyed Russia and Poland

 

Fake Democracy: How Washington Destroyed Russia and Poland

E William Engdahl  Interview- Mr Engdahls talks about the banksters and the oligarchs. 
Boris Yeltsin and more. There was new information, some of it startling, even to me.

 Of course I tried to embed it, but, no dice! Click the link below and it will take you right there.

 

Fake Democracy: How Washington Destroyed Poland and Russia in the 1990s - F. William Engdahl, #385

Still More Syria News- Trump Dumps Homeland Security Head On Advice of Bolton

I've got a bunch of saved news articles- just going to do them as a list

1- Theresa May gets the OK

The Prime Minister has won the backing of her Cabinet for action to prevent further chemical attacks by Syria's President Bashar al Assad.

Following an emergency meeting lasting more than two hours on Thursday, Theresa May's top ministers agreed Britain should continue to work with the US and France on a coordinated response.

The Cabinet's approval for action raised the likelihood of Britain joining France and the US in a military response against Syria's government.

It also suggested the Prime Minister is set to defy calls from opposition parties for Parliament to be recalled in order for MPs to vote on authorising intervention.

:: What are the military options in Syria?

US President Donald Trump was due to speak with Mrs May and French President Emmanuel Macron later on Thursday, with the White House revealing he is still yet to make a "final decision" on action.

The Cabinet agreed with the Prime Minister's assertion it is "highly likely" President Assad's regime carried out a "shocking and barbaric" suspected gas attack in the Syrian city of Douma on Saturday.

After the meeting, in which every minister present spoke, Downing Street also revealed the Cabinet "agreed it was vital that the use of chemical weapons did not go unchallenged".

In addition, ministers were said to have "agreed on the need to take action to alleviate humanitarian distress and to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime".

2- Mr Macron claimed on Thursday he had "evidence" that chemical weapons were used in Douma by the Syrian government, including chlorine gas.

France claims they have proof- but do not elaborate on how or what that “proof”  is ?

Macron told the broadcaster that France had obtained proof that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons in its attack on the city of Douma on April 7, including chlorine gas. More than 150 people were killed in the attack, including many women and children.

Macron did not elaborate on the nature of the proof.

So we should assume that Macron has nothing since he can't elaborate. 

3- RAF Jets Ready to Go from Cyprus- May just has to give the word

 RAF jets have been pictured ready to launch air strikes on Syria at a moment’s notice in retaliation for the suspected chemical attack in Douma last week. 

The jets will speed to Syria if Theresa May gives air strike action the go-ahead, after ministers backed her during an emergency cabinet meeting this evening.

Engineers were spotted checking the RAF planes

4- Trump's tweets run far ahead of US military's readiness to hit Syria

Despite Donald Trump’s tweet suggesting that a US strike on Syria was imminent – and warning Russia to “get ready” – the US naval and other forces in the region suggest his rhetoric may have outpaced military readiness for anything but the most limited action.
Trump’s tweet – which he appeared to row back on on Thursday – appears to have given Syrian forces ample warning to move key assets, suggesting that any strike now would be largely symbolic and have little meaningful impact on the conduct of the war in Syria.

Crucially, there is currently no US aircraft carrier strike force in the region. This is significant as the Pentagon is likely to prefer to rely on ship-launched cruise missiles against a Syrian airspace heavily defended by recently installed Russian anti-aircraft missile systems.

There is a US aircraft carrier strike force on it's way to the region - Should arrive next week. Covered in a previous post. Syrian News Round Up- Warnings Issued for Eastern Mediterranean

5- Erdoğan, Putin discuss latest developments in Syria over phone

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin talked about the latest developments in Syria in a phone call Thursday, according to the Turkish presidency.

The two leaders exchanged views on the recent developments in Syria.

Erdoğan also spoke with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump over the phone about the Syrian crisis earlier on Wednesday.

 The dialog is good. I'd rather everyone talks, then the potential for  full blown, all out, WW3.

6- Chemical weapons watchdog: fact finders to start work in Syria on Saturday

AMSTERDAM, April 12 (Reuters) - Fact finders from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are travelling to Syria and will start work on Saturday, the agency said.

The OPCW decided to send the team this week to investigate alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian town of Douma - a mission requested by the Syrian and Russian governments.

The attack on Syria will take place, most probably, after the OPCW team travels to Syria- Evidence doesn't matter at all in this case. As stated repeatedly- It's trial by media in the court of perception managment- And it's that way because most people simply don't care!

7- An interesting aside: Trump fired the head of Homeland Security on the advice of John Bolton

 Bolton wants to assemble his own team- Frightful!

Tom Bossert

Tom Bossert was an ideal Trump administration official – a man with the résumé of an Establishment Republican, and the capacity for sycophancy of a Trump crony.

A former fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of the George W. Bush administration’s 2007 National Strategy for Homeland Security, Bossert brought genuine policy expertise and management experience to his role as Homeland Security adviser. But he also brought a willingness to enthusiastically defend Trump’s most controversial actions — including his recent deployment of the National Guard to the southern border — as well as to parrot Trump’s views on Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a West Wing beset by chaos and dysfunction, Bossert was regarded as one of the few competent aides still standing.

And John Bolton just got him fired. As Homeland Security adviser, Bossert would have been a subordinate of the incoming, mustachioed White House national security adviser; and Bolton would prefer to assemble his own team.

 My other thought ? 

Israel will kick this off. Then the US will be forced to 'rescue' it's perpetual victim in the region.
Could be a false flag type action. Could just be that Israel starts firing missiles. Israel is always suspect because they so desire this war!