Winter Patriot Community Blog

(They are there to help the Kurds bust off a piece of Syria for the Greater Kurdistan project. Don’t worry… Turkey and Iran are next)

from 21st Century Wire

Yesterday reports emerged of a US heavy armoured convoy heeding through northern Syria, heading towards a forward position near the flashpoint city of Manbij, near the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.

Not surprisingly, this news – which would normally be strewn across all headlines and TV news leader boards – has been completely blacked-out by the US media, aside from some website mentions.

Naturally, Americans have to go to RT to get news about what the US military is doing in far-flung destinations. Here is a video report by RT’s Ruptly News Agency which shows the US servicemen leading a convoy of Stryker armoured vehicles in the Syrian countryside:

[read more here]

I will tell you, its nice to hear people talking about the One Party System, the Business Party, that I have been writing about for the past ten years. No, the fake Dems don’t want to articulate a new New Deal platform for their party when someone asks them straight out “what do you stand for?” because… they’re republicans. That’s pretty simple, right? It’s not even their donors making them avoid saying it… they don’t believe it. They’re neoliberal republicans… just like Oprah Winfrey is … and she’ll head the unDemocratic Party ticket in 2020… you just watch.

from Moon of Alabama

…Wikileaks acquired and published a large stash of documents from the CIA’s internal hacking organization. Part of the CIA hacking organization is a subgroup named UMBRAGE:

The CIA’s Remote Devices Branch‘s UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ‘stolen’ from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.

With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the “fingerprints” of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.

UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers, password collection, webcam capture, data destruction, persistence, privilege escalation, stealth, anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques.

Hacking methods are seldom newly developed. They are taken from public examples and malware, from attacks some other organization once committed, they get bought and sold by commercial entities. Many attacks use a recombined mix of tools from older hacks. Once the NSA’s STUXNET attack on Iran became public the tools used in it were copied and modified by other such services as well as by commercial hackers. Any new breach that may look like STUXNET could be done by anyone with the appropriate knowledge. To assert that the NSA must have done the new attack just because the NSA did STUXNET would be stupid.

The CIA, as well as other services, have whole databases of such ‘stolen’ tools. They may combine them in a way that looks attributable to China, compile the source code at local office time in Beijing or “forget to remove” the name of some famous Chinese emperor in the code. The CIA could use this to fake a “Chinese hacking attack” on South Korea to raise fear of China and to, in the end, sell more U.S. weapons…

[read more here]

by Scott Creighton

It’s funny isn’t it? Watching all the complicit talking heads and op-ed writers for the propaganda rags screech about how Trump “lied” when he said that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during the run-up to the general election, hearing them say the CIA and the FBI doesn’t spy on US civilians… doesn’t intercept their calls… doesn’t read their emails… and that the president simply can’t order surveillance on a US citizen even if he wanted to.

It’s funny like watching Steven Colbert USED to be funny back in the good old Cheney White House days. Before he became a shill for Shillery.

The Obama administration was all in during the campaign. The First Couple gave more campaign speeches than Hillary did toward the end… about the same time Trump says they were simultaneously spying on his campaign… kinda like Watergate.

And what would they fear doing so? They knew they had the “election” in the bag and Killary would take over after Obama to continue his foreign policy agenda and guard over the evidence that Obama broke the law on her behalf. Hell, the DNC cheated for her.The California state attorney general cheated for her. The press cheated for her. Everyone cheated for Hillary’s coronation.

And we’re supposed to think the establishment of the intelligence community didn’t? The same intel community who collects everything from everyone and has been doing so for a decade or so? The same intel community that backed Hillary Clinton’s candidacy (see this, this and this)? The same intel community that are steadily doing their best to de-legitimize the presidency of Donald Trump (see this, this and this)? Really?

Of course Trump Tower was Watergated. We all are. It was called ‘total information awareness’ but now it’s just the world we live in. Here, have a look:

Pre-1978

• ECHELON
• MINARET
• SHAMROCK
• PROMIS

Since 1978

• Upstream collection
• BLARNEY
• FAIRVIEW
• Main Core
• ThinThread
• Genoa

Since 2001

• OAKSTAR
• STORMBREW
• Trailblazer
• Turbulence
• Genoa II
• Total Information Awareness
• President’s Surveillance Program
  • Terrorist Surveillance Program

Since 2007

• PRISM
• Dropmire
• Stateroom
• Bullrun
• MYSTIC
• MonsterMind (alleged)

Databases, tools etc.

• PINWALE
• MARINA
• MAINWAY
• TRAFFICTHIEF
• DISHFIRE
• XKeyscore
• ICREACH
• BOUNDLESSINFORMANT

GCHQ collaboration

• MUSCULAR
• Tempora

That’s just a Wikipedia taste of the one’s we know of. There were/are more. And now, after the Snowden psyop, Big Business routinely collects and distributes everything from everyone. They process it, use it, sell it, as they see fit.

So you don’t need new treasure troves of ‘leaks’ from Wikileaks to tell you what’s been going on… you don’t need them to show you the CIA hacks and influences elections all over the world to make sure their Business First ideology is served (like they did in France in 2012)… you’ve been awake for decades and you know what’s up.

Hell, they spied on the senate intelligence committee when congress was investigating their spying on us … and then Brennan lied about it.

• Inquiry by C.I.A. Affirms It Spied on Senate Panel – New York Times 2014
• CIA director John Brennan lied to you and to the Senate. Fire him – Guardian 2014

They spied on congress during a congressional investigation, got caught… and then LIED ABOUT IT… and then they sheepishly admitted it when they got caught lying about it.

What’s the question here folks? I’m serious. What is the question? Do you think they would consider spying on Trump Tower a bigger no-no than spying on CONGRESS?

Of course Trump was Watergated. We all are.

At about the same time as Trump says they were spying on them, the FBI gave her a seal of approval regarding that Weiner laptop that you and I both know was his ticket to freedom and her backup from her days in the State Department. He had her unedited collection of emails (including all the ones she illegally deleted so the American people would never know the level of her criminality) and what did Comey do with it? He buried it then he gave her a clean bill of health right before the election. So who knows how far Comey would have gone back then to help her out. And now Comey says the wiretapping never happened? Oh no wait, an anonymous spokesperson for Comey says Comey says it never happened. Hmmm…

“It is not clear why Comey, who is the senior-most law enforcement officer who has been overseeing the FBI investigation from its inception in the Obama administration, did not himself issue a statement to refute Trump’s claims. Nor is it clear to whom he made his request” Washington Post

It’s not “clear” why Comey wouldn’t come out and make that statement himself? Who is it not clear to? That person shouldn’t have a job as a journalist, that’s for sure.

And what about the statement from James Clapper everyone is touting as “proof positive” this never happened?

First of all… James Clapper LIED ABOUT SPYING ON US CITIZENS…. !… doesn’t anyone remember that?

• Darrell Issa: James Clapper lied to Congress about NSA and should be fired – Washington Post 2014
• Attorney: Spy chief had ‘forgotten’ about NSA program when he misled Congress – The Hill 2015

(anyone else notice a pattern developing here?)

Secondly, Clapper didn’t ever say “it didn’t happen” across the board. What he said was:

“I can’t speak for other authorised entities in the government or a state or local entity.” BBC

So what we have here is this:

• a history of the intel communities using surviellence systems within the borders of the United States targeting civilians and senators alike
• a history of the heads of those intelligence communities lying about spying on us and the senate
• James Clapper saying he cant speak for other agencies potentially spying on Trump Tower during the run-up to the election
• James Comey essentially pleading the 5th by sending out an anonymous source to deny for him
• and everyone cheated for Hillary back then. It was just the thing to do for people in the know.

We know at the time the intel community was in the bag for Hillary Clinton. That they all thought she would be coronated as scheduled. And we also know the service providers are now collecting and peddling your info, emails and phone calls like they were hot-cakes.

My conclusion is pretty simple and I will repeat myself for effect:

Of course Trump was Watergated. We all are. Congress is. The French are. We all are. Everyone is Watergated. It’s total informational awareness.

Here is a REAL whistleblower, William Binney, talking about this very subject on Lou Dobbs Tonight. Pay attention to what he says. It’ll probably sound a little similar to what I just wrote.

by Scott Creighton

Hello again all.

I am back home and in considerably less pain than I have been this past weekend and yesterday. As best as I can tell, I had another clotting event on Saturday which caused me some pain on that day but which led to something much worse Sunday and Monday.

My guess is it was a clot in the Great Saphenous which runs up the back of your leg and which all the lesser veins from the muscle groups in you thigh feed into.

At the hospital they checked my previous clot locations (Poplitieal and femoral) and found nothing new of any significance. Therefore my attending decided I had no new event and was suffering no real pain. I took exception to that conclusion but I could not explain what the cause of the massive pain was so I left against doctor’s orders.

Let me also say that this past weekend I had taken extra Cumadin in order to combat what I thought, what I knew, was new clotting. My INR was 8.12 when I entered the hospital. This doctor who decided there was no new significant event in my previous clot locations ordered a lot of Vitamin K be pumped into me in order to bring down my INR quickly.

He dismissed the primary evidence that I was suffering from massive pain and made a determination based on that.

Again, without understanding what the pain was coming from, I knew I could not continue with the “K” treatment and so I left.

Last night was extremely distressing. The pain was horrible. I could not sleep. I could not move. I couldn’t hardly stand without screaming. It was horrible.

But then something happened. I remembered what my previous cardiologist explained to me about what causes pain with relation to blot clots.

The pain comes from Lactic Acid. It’s the stuff that you feel when you work out hard or run. It’s a by-product of using your muscles. When they say “feel the burn”, that’s Lactic Acid.

Your body cleanses the muscles of Lactic Acid naturally. It does that through the blood and removes it through the veins.

That’s what was happening. That’s why it burned so badly to move my leg or to try to stand or to walk or even after I re-positioned my leg trying to sleep. The pain would subside for a moment and then return with a flush through the muscle.

The new clot was preventing my system from removing the Lactic Acid so my muscles would burn when I moved or shifted my weight or just re-positioned my leg.

Over the years doctors have told me about patients who suffer chronic excruciating pain from blot clots. I had no idea what they were talking about. Now I do. It’s unbelievable. Imagine running 10 miles and getting that burning in your legs and sides and it never goes away. I had not experienced it to that degree up until this weekend and it is something I never want to know again.

If I had come into the hospital and they had looked in a different location in my leg for a new clot and found one, if my INR had been 2.5 at the time, then standard procedure would have been to put me on Lovenox immediately and get my INR much higher to try to let my body break down the clot. They would have done this in a controlled environment.

Essentially what I did over the weekend.

When I left the hospital because I knew the Vitamin K was going to harm me, I was right. And though I suffered a great deal last night having to come home and do this sans pain control, it was the best decision I could have made.

I could not have sat here at this desk last night and I wondered if I would again.  Today I am in a greatly improved condition. The swelling on my thigh is gone and there is considerably less pain from Lactic Acid in my leg. Still some, but much less.

I have no idea what to do at this point but I am better. And I think it’s important to say to folks you have to trust that little angry voice inside your head every now and again.

I also think it’s important to say this is what happens when you have no healthcare coverage plan. Right now I have no doctor to see for a follow up and no real way to garner confirmation of my conclusion but I will try.

It’s horrifying to know you have no access to treatment when something like what happened to me this weekend happens to you. Something has to be done to fix our healthcare system and it’s certainly not ObamaCare or this thing the rethulicans have come out with to replace it.

I haven’t comments on the previous article. I will after I post this. Just wanted to let you guys know what is going on. Thanks for your concern.

by Scott Creighton

Hi everyone. I’m going to have to go back to the ER today. I’ve been having some pain in my left leg, about where my popliteal vein is. That’s one of the ones that suffers from post thrombotic syndrome. The problem started Saturday and has gotten to the point where I can’t sleep. I am hoping to be back later today so I can write about the soft power coup being run against the Trump administration by the complicit media but right now I can’t really think straight.

I’m hoping I wont be admitted. If so, I will get someone to post you guys an update in the comment section.

As much as I dislike Trump and what he stands for, what’s happening to him at the hands of the Deep State is sickening. Watching the fake left and the complicit media fall in line and regurgitate what they are feed by the like of the CIA and others (just like they did with the lies about 1. WMDs in Iraq 2. Putin during the elections a couple years ago 3. Gaddafi 4. Assad 5. Erdogan 6. Aahmadinejad) is almost demoralizing when you know their trade craft and the tools they use to delegitimize unfriendly governments in preparation for regime change.

There is nothing I would rather be doing than writing about all the breathless hyperbole being spouted by the likes of Morning Joe and CNN right now, but I have to get ready in case I am admitted for a stay at the house of “medicine”

If they do lock me down for a day or so, I’ll miss you little “conspiracy theorists”. Even the trolls.

Have a good one. Hope to see you in a couple hours.

by Finian Cunningham, from RT

Western irrational fear of Russia – Russophobia – is no longer a random prejudice. It has become endemic pathological thinking among Western states.

Divorced from reality this mindset has become psychotic.

Western politicians, military leaders and corporate news media increasingly blame Russia for all manner of perceived transgressions. Whether it is alleged interference in national elections or alleged aggressive military maneuvers, the unremitting demonizing of Russia is astonishing.

It is all the more astounding because the anti-Russia accusations are leveled with such high-handedness and yet with so little evidence to support.

This week saw outlandish claims in British media of Russia sponsoring a coup in the Balkan state of Montenegro and of trying to assassinate the country’s prime minister. No evidence provided. Just sensational, irresponsible innuendo. The gravity of this slander is enough to start a war, and yet it is spouted with reckless abandon. Only a few weeks ago, US media were also calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “killer”.

Then we have American lawmakers intensifying investigations into unfounded allegations of Russian hacking of the US presidential election and of “treasonous” contacts with the new Trump administration. Rabid US politicians have even labelled the alleged Russian misconduct an “act of war”.

That has in turn led to British, French and German claims that Russia is interfering in their elections. Similar fears of Russian hacking and “influence campaigns” have been issued for elections in the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Estonia, among other places.

Sometimes, reality intrudes on fantasy, when for example German state intelligence concluded recently that there was actually no evidence that Russia was involved in any kind of subversive hacking.

Most of the time, however, the impetuous accusations and feverish speculation continue unbridled.

Britain’s Independent this week ran the headline: “Clear evidence Russia interfered in 2015 UK election, says former minister”.

But on reading the article, there is no “clear evidence” presented to back up the tendentious anti-Russian claims. Indeed, no evidence at all. The whole allegation was based on claims made by anonymous “security sources” and reference to other unproven stories, such as the alleged hacking of the US election.

This kind of fake, unethical journalism that has become a staple in Western media with regard to Russia. Whether it is allegations of Russia probing electoral processes or probing territorial air space and waters, the entire thrust of the Western media relies on innuendo, prejudice and disinformation. All told in a relentless, unquestioning fashion by the gamut of Western mainstream media outlets.

In plain language, this is nothing but anti-Russian propaganda disguised as public information.

When such propaganda becomes a systematic form of public discourse then it can be said that the mindset has moved dangerously beyond a condition of reprehensible Russophobia, to one of collective psychosis…

[read more here]

I watched Rachel Maddow go full-on Joe McCarthy last night. With slimy innuendo and absolutely zero evidence she suggested Putin tried to poison some Russian opposition a-hole who had made a propaganda documentary about a shooting a couple years ago and was running around in Russia showing to all his opposition friends. The guy ODed while he was partying and tried to say Putin poisoned him. It’s ridiculous that Maddow would have this idiot’s story on her show, but she will promote anything as long as it tries to make America’s liberals hate leftists. Because that is what she is doing with this New McCarthyism bullshit.

This is what we do with corporate media in all sorts of countries we aim to regime change. And when the targeted government take action against the lying, instigating corporate owned media in their countries, we call them “dictators” and “tyrants” and then use that as “proof” they must be regime changed. the chickens have come home to roost I suppose.

Debbie did a video talking about this same crazy shit coming from the fake left. It’s worth watching.

by Scott Creighton

In the interest of full disclosure, I covered this phony journalist a year ago when he was fired from the Intercept for making up fake stories. I pointed out the hypocrisy of Glenn Greenwald firing him while the entire purpose behind the Intercept was to publish the fake “leaks” from the manufactured hero story of “Edward Snowden”

Juan Thompson was a race-baiting Mockingbird of a “journalist” a couple years ago working for the Intercept. He made up stories that were designed to help the race-based destabilization campaign that was going on back then. In one he tried to help manufacture a motive in the “Dylan Storm Roof” psyop by saying “Scott Roof”, Dylan’s cousin, said Dylan did it because he liked a white girl and she ended up with a black man. That is the most primitive of race-baiting stories you could possibly come up with. “Da black man be stealin the white womens” or “Jungle fever” or whatever you want to call it.

It was a total lie. There was no “Scott Roof”. Juan made him up. But the story stuck for a while and served it’s purpose. Tensions between the races were at an all time high for a while and it answered the question “why would he do it?”

But it was a total and complete fabrication and the Intercept eventually fired him for it, though they left the race-baiting story on their website for some BS reason (right along beside their BS “Edward Snowden” stories)

In fact, all of his BS stories are still up on their website with a few “corrections” and as you can see, they are all based on race-baiting.

Retracted:
Retracted: Dylann Roof’s Cousin Claims Love Interest Chose Black Man Over Him

Corrected:
Corrected: Footage of Police Violence Puts Heat on Chicago Officials
Corrected: Black Lives Matter Activists Blocked From Entering Trump Campaign Rally
Corrected: St. Louis Grapples — and Fails to Grapple — With the Matter of Murdered Black Women
Corrected: St. Louis Residents Fight to Keep Spy Agency From Taking Their Homes

Yesterday the New York Times came out with a story about this new rash of anti-Semetic bomb threats targeting Jewish schools, synagogues and other Jewish community centers in which they said that Juan Thompson had been arrested and accused of making many of these phony threats.

Here is the official Federal Complaint filed against Thompson on March 1, 2017.

It’s a 9-page complaint which seems to list only one count, or charge, leveled at Thompson which is for “cyberstalking”

The complaint goes on to list a number of times Juan Thompson made phony bomb threats against Jewish schools and centers. My question is, why are they only charging him with one count of cyberstalking when he made all those bomb threats? Maybe I’m reading the complaint wrong, but that seems kinda odd to me.

According to the story, Thompson got rejected by a girl he was dating so he went off and started cyberstalking her. He sent false information about her to her employer, tried to blackmail her with nude photos and eventually started making false bomb threats “in her name” to various Jewish organizations.

One of the false claims he supposedly made about her to her employer was that she was anti-Semetic. She works for a social services organization in New York.

He apparently also contacted the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and told them she liked child porn and showed him pictures on her cell phone of kids engaged in sexual acts. He apparently also contacted the NYPD and tried to make the same claim anonymously and when they called him at his home and said the anonymous email was sent from his IP address he stated he didn’t know anything about her and child porn and that his email account “had been hacked”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, on or about January 28th, long after the “Jewish threats” thing was a thing, it is said in the complaint that Juan Thompson started making a series of threats against JCC (Jewish community center) targets. He made 8 of them in all, some in her name, some in his own.

Keep in mind, Thompson was already under investigation long before this part of the story even began.

On Jan. 28th someone called the Jewish History Museum in Manhattan and said “Juan Thompson has placed two bombs in the History museum to go off Sunday” … Sunday was Juan’s birthday.

On Feb. 1st, in Farmington Hills Michigan, a bomb threat was sent to a Jewish school via email which read “Juan Thompson put two bombs in your school last night. He is eager for a Jewish newtown (sic)”

On the same day the same email was sent to a Jewish school in Manhattan.

On Feb. 7th and email was sent to a JCC in Manhattan which said “Juan Thompson put two bombs in your center today. He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow. Look at his Twitter account”

Then there is this: in this complaint (which remarkably, doesn’t charge Thompson with making terrorist threats against the JCC’s or the schools) the investigator states Thompson’s Twitter account had a message dated Feb. 24th which stated:

Yep. Race-baiting again. Here’s his Twitter account. It reads like its run by a infowarrior from Ft. Dix.

Know any good lawyers? Need to stop this nasty/racist #whitegirl I dated who sent a bomb threat in my name & wants me to be raped in jail. pic.twitter.com/B1IU0RkNCZ

— Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 24, 2017

The New York Times article suggests Thompson was “charged” with making the bomb threats against the JCCs. That’s not what he’s charged with. According to the official complaint, he is only charged with cyberstalking right now. That may change.

Juan Thompson has a public defender and was arrested yesterday.

The Intercept has released a statement saying they were “horrified” to learn their race-baiting and lying former “journalist” (whose work is STILL published on their website) is STILL a race-baiting and lying psychopath.

 

from RT

A pop-up music concert in New York’s Grand Central station, promoting the work of the Oscar-winning Syrian “humanitarian” group White Helmets, was disrupted by anti-war protesters.

While a full orchestra and choir, some wearing white helmets, pounded out Beethoven’s Ode to Joy against the backdrop of Grand Central Station in Manhattan on Friday, about a dozen anti-war activists protested the group’s presence.

Standing among the orchestra, anti-war activists held aloft signs that read “White Helmets are US Propaganda,”“No US bases in Syria,” and “This is US war agenda.”

Several activists carried a massive white banner with red lettering stating “US out of Everywhere,” and as the orchestra stopped playing, video shows activists chanting “US out of Syria.”

“We were there because the White Helmets are a PR effort for the US government to drum up support for intervention in Syria. We are opposed to US intervention in Syria and everywhere else, we thought it was important to protest this event,” an activist with Hands Off Syria told RT…

[read more here]

In last monologue, Israeli comedy show host implores Israelis to wake up and smell the "apartheid" pic.twitter.com/pv7f9xPJwh

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) March 1, 2017

THE REAL REASON AFRICA IS POOR & WHY GADDAFI WAS ASSASSINATED. #WakeTheFuckUpAmerica@Icon99558924

pic.twitter.com/D1aYTVqu0Z

— Brentano emotion (@Brentano_only) March 3, 2017

 

Godfrey Bloom European Parliment
The banking system is a criminal scandal#FractionalReserveBanking@Icon99558924
pic.twitter.com/0yr7J2Xkj6

— Brentano emotion (@Brentano_only) March 3, 2017

(Could you imagine a course like this being offered here in the states?)

from Tele Sur

Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, FSLN, party is launching a new program at the country’s National Autonomous University dedicated to former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

The program, named after the founder of the Bolivarian Revolution, will begin on Friday, two days before the fourth anniversary of his death.

“Students will study different aspects of the thought, legacy, practice and above all that path that illuminated the great Commander Hugo Chavez,” Nicaraguan Vice President and FSLN leader Rosario Murillo said, Prensa Latina reports.

Socialism, Bolivarianism, liberation theology, Afro-Indigenous history, and anti-colonial history are among the many topics students of the Chavez program will undertake. They will also collaborate with scholars from the Bolivarian and Central universities of Venezuela on projects related to Latin American integration.

Nicaragua isn’t the only Central American country that’s honoring Chavez’s legacy through education…

[read more here]

(The new spin on the botched Yemen raid is that it produced intel from cell phones harvested from the dead bodies of the women they killed during the raid. I guess they will locate those women’s friends and contacts, declare them “terrorists” as well and schedule black bag ops to go get them sometime in the future.)

from Press TV

The Pentagon has carried out its first major military operation in Yemen since a botched raid in January that killed women and children as well as an American commando.

US forces conducted more than 20 airstrikes involving a mix of manned and unmanned aircraft early on Thursday, the Pentagon said.

Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the airstrikes targeted al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in three south-central provinces of Abyan, Shabwah and al-Bayda.

“The strikes will degrade the AQAP’s ability to coordinate external terror attacks and limit their ability to use territory seized from the legitimate government of Yemen as a safe space for terror plotting,” the Pentagon spokesman said.

The US military did not share a casualty estimate, but local officials said at least nine suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed.

Davis said the operation was coordinated with resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a strong ally of Saudi Arabia that has been engaged in its own military campaign against Yemen…

[read more here]

from SANA

The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces announced on Thursday that units of army re-established control over the city of Tadmur (Palmyra) after inflicting heavy losses upon ISIS terrorist organization in personnel and equipment.

The Army’s Command said in a statement that the army units, in cooperation with the allied and backing forces, re-established control over the city of Tadmur (Palmyra) and the areas surrounding it following a series of successful military operations, supported by the Syrian and Russian air forces…

[read more here]

by Scott Creighton

On Jan. 29th 2017, Seal Team 6 launched a dusted-off raid plan in Yemen that had been devised under the previous Obama administration and ultimately rejected for reasons unknown. More than likely it was because the previous administration and their high level military advisors didn’t foresee a high enough “risk/reward” coefficient to justify the raid in a country we aren’t actually at war with.

That raid produced: one wrecked Osprey, 3 wounded servicemen, one deceased Navy Seal (Ryan Owens) and about 40 or so dead women and children, one which I wrote about yesterday, Nawar “Nora” al-Awlaki. It also produced one of the most off-putting moments in State of the Union addresses (I know it wasn’t technically a State of the Union address) when Ryan Owens’ wife Carryn Owens emoted for 3 long minutes as the gathered congress-critters applauded for way too long.

Many are arguing that Owens was used by Trump as a political prop. The fact that he seated her right next to his daughter so she would be in the photos and videos as well leads one to believe that is a definite possibility as does the decidedly “performance” feel of Carryn’s drawn out moment in the spotlight.

That night Trump said Ryan was a “hero” and that he had been “told” the raid produced invaluable intel that we would use against “the enemy” which is supposedly al-Qaeda… who, by the way, just won an Academy Award for their White Helmets propaganda.

Last night CNN held some town-hall thing with a bunch of carefully selected “townsfolk” asking per-approved questions of war-mongers Lindsey Graham and John “bomb Iran” McCain. One of the first questions dealt with that awkward moment from the Trump address to congress and both McCain and Graham emphasized repeatedly that the mission didn’t have to be “successful” for Ryan Owens to be viewed as a “hero”. Graham actually used the word “hero” about 40 times in his one minute response to the question.

So even though they disagree about the ultimate success or failure of the mission, everyone has to be on the same page when it comes to defining Seal Team 6 as “heroes” and by extension, the whole of the military and our interventionist policies in the Middle East. Don’t forget, while Trump is pushing for massive cuts in domestic spending to get our budget under control, he is also pushing for a massive increase in military spending for this adventurism. Ever since the phony raid that supposedly killed Osama bin Laden, Seal Team 6 has been the unofficial face of the Global War OF Terror and a raid in a country we aren’t even supposed to be in that ended so badly and killed so many women and children isn’t really helpful right now when it comes to glorifying the military and all the new money the MIC demands from Trump.

Military.com produced a bit of spin the day after the raid in which they tried to justify the large number of women and kids being killed by saying the women were combatants and attacked the Seals.

The New York Times wasn’t subtle when they spun the story of Carryn’s moment: With Nation Watching, Widow of Fallen SEAL Becomes a Face of Bravery

From CNN to ABC News to the Washington Post and Fox, the stories are all basically the same: Carryn and Ryan are the new faces the military industrial complex wants plastered on their foreign policy agenda because, quite frankly, who could possibly be derogatory about a fallen hero and his emotionally distraught white Anglo-saxon wife?

But there was a totally different face being exposed by the Intercept’s Matthew Cole on Jan. 10th 2017 that was quietly becoming the standard image of our war machine in certain informed circles across the country. And that face was quite disturbing.

Cole’s 4-year study of the practices of Seal Team 6 culminated in a 14,000 word expose titled quite simply and directly: The Crimes of Seal Team 6. The article itself received a good deal of attention. Here’s how the Daily Mail summed up the findings:

• Bombshell expose quotes SEAL Team 6 members and military officials as saying that the celebrated unit tolerated culture of lawlessness
• SEAL Team 6 operators were said to have mutilated the corpses of dead insurgents and were not punished by their superiors
• SEAL officers had allegedly disregarded rules of engagement, resulting in the deaths of civilians
• SEAL Team members involved in bin Laden raid tried to take credit for killing the 9/11 mastermind and inflate their roles in the raid

As bad as that is, the report from Cole is absolutely brutal. This is how it starts:

“Officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, SEAL Team 6 is today the most celebrated of the U.S. military’s special mission units. But hidden behind the heroic narratives is a darker, more troubling story of “revenge ops,” unjustified killings, mutilations, and other atrocities — a pattern of criminal violence that emerged soon after the Afghan war began and was tolerated and covered up by the command’s leadership.” Matthew Cole

Cole goes on to tell a rather disturbing story. He doesn’t come right out and say it, but the implication, along with that quote above, “revenge ops”, leaves a distinct impression in the mind of the reader.

The story is about a “mistake” attack launched by the Seals in Afghanistan where they took two teams, some helicopters and a couple bombers and attacked a convoy they said someone had thought bin Laden might be in. There were no weapons seen by the “intel” guys who gave them the target and bin Laden was identified as a guy wearing long white robes.

It turns out it was a wedding party, men women and children. Not one of them in military garb and only a few “family rifles” in the vehicles.

They dropped two bombs on the convoy which killed many of the wedding party members instantly and then went “weapons free” on the gunners on the helicopters who ended up “mopping up” survivors as they ran. One group was a man trying to get several women and children away from the slaughter. They were all mowed down.

Then the Seals hit the ground and some more shooting and head-cleaving took place.

All of this Cole tells from the perspective of a number of Seals, retired of course, who explain some of it was pretty horrible:

“According to this source, after shooting the man, who turned out to be unarmed, Hyder proceeded to mutilate his body by stomping in his already damaged skull. When Heath, who witnessed Hyder’s actions, reported them to his team leader in the presence of other members of the team, “several of the guys turned and walked away,” said the retired SEAL. “They were disgusted.” He quoted Heath as saying, “I’m morally flexible but I can’t handle that.” Heath refused to comment for this article.” Matthew Cole

Then Cole goes on in the very next paragraph and explains what happened in that little area just prior to this “accidental”  mistaken identification of a wedding party as being Osama bin Laden:

“Less than 48 hours before Objective Bull commenced, a small reconnaissance group from SEAL Team 6’s Red Team had tried to establish an observation post on the 10,000-foot peak of Takur Ghar, overlooking the Shah-i-Kot valley, where forces from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division intended to strike the last redoubt of al Qaeda forces massed in Afghanistan. Neil “Fifi” Roberts, a member of the SEAL recon team, fell 10 feet from the back of a Chinook and was stranded as the helicopter took fire from foreign al Qaeda fighters who were already on the snow-covered mountaintop. Two hours passed before the SEALs in the damaged helicopter were able to return. They didn’t know it, but Roberts was already dead, shot at close range in the head shortly after his helicopter departed the mountaintop. A Predator drone video feed filmed an enemy fighter standing over Roberts’s body for two minutes, trying to behead the dead American with a knife.” Matthew Cole

The mission that took out the wedding party was not a mistake. It was a message. That’s the implication from Cole.

The message was as simple as it was savage: you do something to horrible to one of ours, we’ll do something much worse to you.

This goes beyond “revenge ops”. It’s a tactic typically used by occupying armies against growing insurgencies. When their guerilla fighters kill a member of the occupying force, they then target civilians in response in order to send a clear message to the insurgency and also to the civilian population that resistance will come at a terrible price. This kind of thing has gone on forever.

What’s new is the fact that the story was told.

After Roberts was killed, Seal Teams came in and fought the insurgents for several hours to retrieve his body. That story has been told.

“The battle of Roberts Ridge, as it came to be known, has been frequently described in books and press accounts. But what happened during Objective Bull, the assault on the convoy in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, has never been previously reported.” Matthew Cole

And now the massacre in the Shah-i-Kot Valley has also been told.

Without going into all the details of the Matthew Cole expose suffice too say it was not a glowing picture of the face of the Global War OF Terror. It was quite the opposite in fact.

And make no mistake, neither I nor Matthew Cole are trying to assert that all Seal Team members behave in this manner or serve this specific function. But the fact remains that over the years certain Seal Teams and certain members have become decidedly more brutal in places like Afghanistan and Iraq to the point where previous administrations were getting some blow back of sorts from out puppet regimes regarding the bloody trail they leave in their wake. This motivated various JSOC leaders to issue special orders in order to try to curb the ultra-violence being used by some Seals.

“The 14,000-word report describes a gradual erosion of the rules of engagement whereby SEALs became less scrupulous in shooting people who were perceived as enemy combatants.

Furthermore, it quotes SEAL Team 6 members as saying that senior commanders not only failed to discipline wrongdoing but also swept many details under the rug so as to avoid legal entanglements…

As the SEALs’ reputation for lawlessness began to gain traction and as complaints mounted from local Afghan government officials over nighttime raids and civilian deaths, the new head of the Joint Special Operations Command, Vice Admiral William McRaven, is reported to have to tried to rein in the outfit.

To the SEALs’ dismay, McRaven instituted a new set of regulations that required commandos to do ‘call outs’ before beginning an assault on a compound so as to allow women and children to escape.” Daily Mail

My article here is not about re-hashing the disclosures of the Matthew Cole piece. My article is about what happened on Jan. 29th this year and why it happened.

William Owens, the father of Ryan Owens who was killed during the raid in Yemen (a raid which once again produced a large number of women and children casualties), refused to meet with President Trump prior to that address before the members of congress where Carryn had her moment. He said he was angry about the mission and wanted an investigation into why President Trump authorized it in the first place.

“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him”, Mr Owens told The Miami Herald.

The father, who served in the military himself, called for a full investigation into the circumstances that led to his son’s death. 

“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration?”, he said. “Why?” The Independent

That’s a good question and a valid one when someone offers up their child’s life overseas.

Especially considering the fact that this particular mission had been passed up by the previous administration when they deemed it wasn’t worth the risk and when you consider the end result which can’t by anyone’s standards be considered a success.

No, your mission doesn’t have to be successful to be considered a hero for your actions during it. It helps if scores of unarmed women and children aren’t slaughtered in the process. But all that morality stuff aside… it’s a fair question to ask why your son died in some little obscure patch of hell-hole on the other side of the world.

And if your son died because someone thought we needed a makeover for the face of our MIC adventures in the Middle East, I think it’s also fair to say that’s just not good enough.