Category Archives: Russia

One Year Later, Russia Still Spinning Shooting MH17 out of Sky

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It has been one year since Soviet loyalists shot MH 17 out of the sky killing over Ukraine with a BUK missile. Reuters has a summary background here.

Since that time, Russia has denied any involvement while only recently has Putin referred to a ‘kinda-sorta’ maybe position.

From WSJ in part: MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin says he won’t accept a proposal for the U.N. Security Council to set up a criminal tribunal over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, casting doubt on the prospect of bringing those responsible to justice under international law.

In a phone call Thursday with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Mr. Putin called the proposal “untimely and counterproductive,” according to a Kremlin statement. He said a “thorough and objective” international investigation had to finish before countries took any decisions on how to punish those guilty of the crime.

Russia holds a veto in the U.N. Security Council, giving it the final say on any of the council’s efforts. A year after the crash in eastern Ukraine, there are other avenues to pursue a prosecution, but the challenges are deep.

There were cell phone videos that were taken by the ‘separatists’ and they have finally surfaced telling a disgusting story.

From Buzzfeed: Two days after MH17 was shot down over east Ukraine — turning a simmering separatist conflict into a crisis of global proportions — the crash site remains a hideous mess that will make it harder for investigators to establish what happened — and for relatives to get peace. As Ukraine, Russia, and Moscow-backed rebels trade barbs over which side fired the missile that brought the Boeing 777 jet down, the bodies of the 298 passengers and crew killed instantaneously were still strewn across a field, decomposing in the 85-degree heat.

 Nobody seemed to know where the bodies would be taken. Ukraine wants them stored 185 miles north in Kharkiv, the only nearby city with the facilities to take them, but claims that rebels have already spirited 38 corpses to their nearby stronghold in Donetsk and conducted their own autopsies. With the wreckage from the crash spread out over a 10-square-mile radius, the many bodies still at the scene may fare worse. Ukraine claims to have found 186, and BuzzFeed counted 82 in Hrabove alone, many of them unmoved since the crash. Local firemen and police officers, some of whom had clearly spent the night drinking moonshine, listlessly shoveled body parts into black garbage bags and left them to broil at the roadside.

The wreckage of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 is shown after it crashed near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine, on July 17, 2014

   

In part from Australia: The plane was shot down during a bout of heavy fighting last year between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists, sparking global condemnation.

Kiev and the West point the finger at the separatists, saying they may have used a BUK surface-to-air missile supplied by Russia. But Moscow denies involvement and instead accuses Ukraine’s military.

A criminal probe by a joint investigation team consisting of Australian, Belgian, Dutch, Malaysian and Ukrainian detectives is currently underway.

The five countries have also asked the United Nations Security Council to establish an international criminal tribunal to try those responsible for crimes connected to the plane’s downing.

 

Iran Agreement Celebrated by WH, What Others are Doing

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While no one has paid much attention beyond Obama spiking the football, it is important to keep a keen eye on those countries affected and the other secret maneuvers the White House is still doing.

1. The National Security Council, the White House and the State Department have delivered the JPOA already to the United Nations before Congress received it, much less can debate it.

2. Those pesky inspections that likely will not happen at all, they certainly wont happen by ANY U.S. personnel. Iran has banned U.S. Inspectors.

3. An Iranian police chief has now been put in charge of Yemen with the West’s approval.

4. There are several additional parts to the JPOA that are under negotiation now, so a full understanding of the whole agreement cannot even be accessed nor achieved.

5. The deal with Iran includes elements to destroy Israel’s ability to defend itself.

6. Saudi Arabia made a decision to NOT wait until Iran get their big cash payload, they are moving ahead in matters with Yemen, Syria and offensive measures with Iran.

7. The White House is now meeting with Saudi Arabia and Israel to re-gen the relationship. A Saudi envoy is in Washington DC for talks and Secretary of Defense has been dispatched to Israel.

8. There are talks to provide Israel with the B-52 bombers and the Bunker Busters have already been upgraded and delivered.

9. Investigations are underway to determine what Iran will buy and stockpile with respect to their missile inventory given that concession.

10. Due to unforeseen future actions by Iran, the Pentagon has war-planners determining all military responses against Iran.

11. Several concerned countries have offered alternative plans to the signed Iran P5+1 deal yet they are being dismissed and or rejected, spelling out larger allied separation from the United States.

12. Future Middle East unrest and attacks are forecasted.

13. Russia is fully empowered with the Iran deal but may have to take a short term financial hit on oil prices.

14. Bashir al Assad of Syria remains in power, gets a financial boost from Iran and the civil war in Syria continues.

15. Allies are at odds over the Iran deal as noted by the clash between the UK and Israel.

16. The arms race in the Middle East has begun such that it includes missiles and purchasing nuclear weapons.

17. The continued divided between the White House and Congress is now permanently broken where Joe Biden has been dispatched to sell it.

18. The Iran lobby money and operations will escalate in Washington DC.

19. By Iran receiving billions, the plotting of future terrorism around the globe is probable.

20. Iran is already threatening those who opposed the deal.

21. Iran is now open for global business and Europe is delighted where they will fund additional aggressions by a rogue country leaving the United States to track covert money, agreements and relationships.

22. Iran and Cuba human rights abuses will continue to be noticed and checked yet will go without consequence.

 

Iran, Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela, Nuclear Program and a Dead Body

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This is likely going to be the longest and wordiest post on this website, but it is germane to events today when it comes to Barack Obama spiking the football on the Iran nuclear deal.

Alberto Nisman is dead.

I have been tracking this event in Argentina for several months and thanks to New Yorker magazine, several more items are now in better perspective.

After hanging around in WikiLeaks cables, more truth bubbles to the surface with regard to Barack Obama, Iran and inspections but more so, Iran’s further covert operations in Latin America, in our own hemisphere.

GW Bush, told Iran, there will be NO negotiations.

The IAEA could not get access to sites for inspection, yet Barack Obama well full throttle with talks, paying to get Iran to the table and to keep them there. The White House knew quite well about Iran’s black market actions in Cuba, Venezuela and in Argentina and embassy officials put out cables for a call to action.

In 1994, there was a truck bomb at a Jewish Center in Argentina that killed 85 and injured hundreds. Prosecutor Alberto Nisman worked years to prove it was at the request of Nasrallah with the orders given by the top officials in the Iranian regime. The investigation by Nisman led him around the globe to perform interviews, work with the FBI who did the forensic investigation and even Interpol issued ‘red-sheets’.

Alberto Nisman is DEAD. He was shot a day before he was to present his full case to an Argentinian panel of judges.

This WikiLeaks cable explains in short form the events and the complicity of the top government officials in Argentina to cover up the whole history which brings in the White House, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran.

Who knew that Argentina had a nuclear program and was enriching uranium? Well those in the Obama administration did, Iran did, Venezuela did as well as Cuba and the United Nations. Ahmadinejad needed all 3 Latin American country’s cooperation and he got it willingly.

Oh and Reuters knew as well.

Did Venezuela begin a nuclear program? Not yet, but they had uranium and the discussion began as well as clandestine deals including cooperation with Iran.

Alberto Nisman is still dead and no one is paying attention to who killed him, except Iran and Argentina’s President Kirchner, she is paid and is an agent of Iran to cover for Iran’s guilt in the death of Nisman but more on the 1992 AIMA bombing.

Do the Saudis know about all of this? Yes, they are more concerned about Iran than Israel due to the hate going back many more years so they keep pace with all actions of Iran. The Saudis even warned several intelligence services in Latin America.

If you are inclined to see the Iranians in Argentina and who played several nefarious roles there. click here.

Several in President Kirchner’s administration have traveled to the White House to ask Obama and the Department of Justice to influence Interpol to remove sanctions on key Iranian players in exchange for additional information on Iran’s nuclear weapons program in country and in Latin America. The WH said no, the inner circle during the WH lead P5+1 talks was a tight and highly controlled group and those Iranians on the Interpol list may be needed during the negotiations until Iran said NO to John Kerry.

For a full yet shorter explanation of the murder of Alberto Nisman, click here.

As for the New Yorker story which as written should be a Hollywood thriller, click here and enjoy some popcorn during the long read.

Defeat of ISIS in Iraq Remains Elusive

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From the Department of Defense:

Coalition Airstrikes Destroy Vehicle Bomb Factory in Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 15, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

“In the past 48 hours, coalition airstrikes hit five vehicle-borne [improvised explosive devices] and a factory producing these weapons in Ramadi,” said Army Lt. Col. Thomas Gilleran, task force spokesman. “Removing these weapons from the battlefield is a high priority for the coalition.”

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Airstrikes in Syria

Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 16 airstrikes in Syria:

— Near Hasakah, six airstrikes struck an ISIL large tactical unit and five ISIL tactical units destroying two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL bunker, an ISIL tunnel entrance, an ISIL vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, an ISIL anti-aircraft artillery weapon, an ISIL artillery piece and two ISIL checkpoints.

— Near Aleppo, six airstrikes struck 27 ISIL staging areas.

— Near Raqqah, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

— Near Dayr Az Zawr, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

— Near Kobani, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

— Near Tal Abyad, an airstrike struck an ISIL large tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions.

ISW: ‘ISIS will benefit’ from the Iran nuclear deal

The United States and other world powers struck a landmark deal with Iran over its nuclear program this week, and the agreement might benefit one group that the US hadn’t counted on — the Islamic State.

Hassan Hassan, an associate fellow at the think tank Chatham House and co-author of the recent book “ISIS: Inside The Army of Terror,” told The Wall Street Journal that the nuclear deal could make already-disaffected Sunnis feel even more like the US and Iran are conspiring against them.

“ISIS will benefit a lot from this deal; segments of the Sunni community in the region will see Iran as having won and brought in from the dark,” Hassan said.

The Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh), a Sunni terror group, already capitalizes on Sunni grievances for recruitment and support. ISIS presents itself as the sole protector of Sunni populations in Iraq and Syria, where Shiite-aligned regimes dominate.

And conspiracy theories about US collusion with Iran, a Shiite theocracy, add fuel to the flames as Iran expands its influence across the Middle East.

“ISIS has already convinced a number of Sunni tribes that the Iranians are already establishing the Shia crescent” and Sunni interests won’t be protected, Christopher Harmer, a senior naval analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told Business Insider last month.

View gallery

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isis control

(The Institute for the Study of War)

Allowing Iran to maintain its nuclear program, albeit a curtailed and controlled version of it, isn’t likely to make Sunnis rest easy. While the deal is designed to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, some are skeptical about whether Iran will hold up its end of the bargain.

There’s also concern about the sanctions relief that comes with the deal — Iran is already pouring billions of dollars into proxy conflicts in Iraq and Syria, and the extra money that will come with an easing of western sanctions might be used to ramp up Iran’s participation in these conflicts.

President Barack Obama has assured skeptics that the money from sanctions relief will be spent on growing the Iranian economy, but Eli Lake reported last month that Iran is spending much more to support the embattled regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad than the Obama administration has ever acknowledged.

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iran assad Khamenei

(REUTERS/Stringer (IRAN)) Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad meets Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran February 18, 2007.

Iran also puts significant resources into fighting ISIS in Iraq. The Shia militias Iran supports and, in some cases, controls have become one of the most effective ground forces against the Sunni extremists.

Even though the militias are fairly effective at driving ISIS terrorists out of cities, the militia fighters themselves have been accused of burning down Sunni villages and committing atrocities against civilians, which only serves to widen the gulf between Sunnis and Shiites.

And even in some cases where there isn’t outright violence against Sunni civilians, militia members have reportedly refused to let many Sunnis back into their homes after ISIS has left their cities.

This is all what ISIS wants. The group thrives on sectarian chaos and hopes to drive Shias to commit atrocities so that Sunnis who might have previously turned against ISIS will be forced to live with the extremists, lest they make enemies of both ISIS and the militias.

“Much of Iran’s funding in Syria has gone toward arming predominantly Shia proxies—notably the so-called National Defense Force, an IRGC-QF-built super-militia—which fight Sunnis on behalf of Assad,” Michael Weiss and Nancy Youssef wrote for The Daily Beast. “An outgrowth of the sectarianism inherent in the Iranian and Syrian regime’s counterinsurgency has been ISIS, which draws thousands of Sunnis seeking to shield themselves from what they view as Shia jihadists.”

 For a full summary of White House policy to date, click here.

 

 

Iran’s Nuclear Program was Illegal Until it Wasn’t

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There have been several UN resolutions with declarations against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

There have been global sanctions on Iran, until the JPOA was signed on July 14, 2015 where they are being lifted not only by the United Nations and the United States but other nations as well.

Iran was rogue and isolated worldwide until it wasn’t. Iran is now wealthy and will fund future terror around the globe by using the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and dispatched militia teams.

While many are in shock with the text of the JPOA, the matter does not end there, in fact there is a secondary agreement underway.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cannot perform inspections unless nations involved sign off on reasons as to why, where evidence has to be presented to request and inspection. Then a formal application for inspections in writing must be presented to Tehran where up to one month is granted to Iran for approval and may only apply to one or two of the several nuclear sites.

The roadmap or second agreement is being drafted now for presentation, negotiations and approval and this is the core of the matter of the JPOA. Iran wins still but read one.

IAEA Director General’s Statement and Road-map for the Clarification of Past & Present Outstanding Issues regarding Iran’s Nuclear Program

IAEA Director General’s Statement:

“I have just signed the Road-map between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IAEA for the clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear programme. The text has been signed on behalf of Iran by the country’s Vice-President, and President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mr Ali Akbar Salehi. This is a significant step forward towards clarifying outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Road-map sets out a process, under the November 2013 Framework for Cooperation, to enable the Agency, with the cooperation of Iran, to make an assessment of issues relating to possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme by the end of 2015.

It sets out a clear sequence of activities over the coming months, including the provision by Iran of explanations regarding outstanding issues. It provides for technical expert meetings, technical measures and discussions, as well as a separate arrangement regarding the issue of Parchin.

This should enable me to issue a report setting out the Agency’s final assessment of possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme, for the action of the IAEA Board of Governors, by 15 December 2015. “I will keep the Board regularly updated on the implementation of the Road-map.

Implementation of this Road-map will provide an important opportunity to resolve the outstanding issues related to Iran’s nuclear programme.”

 

Road-map for the Clarification of Past and Present Outstanding Issues regarding Iran’s Nuclear Program:

1. On 14 July 2015, the Director General Yukiya Amano and the Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi signed in Vienna a “Road-map for the clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program”. The IAEA and Iran agreed, in continuation of their cooperation under the Framework for Cooperation, to accelerate and strengthen their cooperation and dialogue aimed at the resolution, by the end of 2015, of all past and present outstanding issues that have not already been resolved by the IAEA and Iran.

Joint Statement

by the IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and the Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and the Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi agreed on 14 July 2015 the following

Road-map for the clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) agree, in continuation of their cooperation under the Framework for Cooperation, to accelerate and strengthen their cooperation and dialogue aimed at the resolution, by the end of 2015, of all past and present outstanding issues that have not already been resolved by the IAEA and Iran.

In this context, Iran and the Agency agreed on the following:

1. The IAEA and Iran agreed on a separate arrangement that would allow them to address the remaining outstanding issues, as set out in the annex of the 2011 Director’s General report (GOV/2011/65). Activities undertaken and the outcomes achieved to date by Iran and the IAEA regarding some of the issues will be reflected in the process.

2. Iran will provide, by 15 August 2015, its explanations in writing and related documents to the IAEA, on issues contained in the separate arrangement mentioned in paragraph 1.

3. After receiving Iran’s written explanations and related documents, the IAEA will review this information by 15 September 2015, and will submit to Iran questions on any possible ambiguities regarding such information.

4. After the IAEA has submitted to Iran questions on any possible ambiguities regarding such information, technical-expert meetings, technical measures, as agreed in a separate arrangement, and discussions will be organized in Tehran to remove such ambiguities.

5. Iran and the IAEA agreed on another separate arrangement regarding the issue of Parchin.

6. All activities, as set out above, will be completed by 15 October 2015, aimed at resolving all past and present outstanding issues, as set out in the annex of the 2011 Director General’s report (GOV/2011/65).

7. The Director General will provide regular updates to the Board of Governors on the implementation of this Road-map.

8. By 15 December 2015, the Director General will provide, for action by the Board of Governors, the final assessment on the resolution of all past and present outstanding issues, as set out in the annex of the 2011 Director General’s report (GOV/2011/65). A wrap up technical meeting between Iran and the Agency will be organized before the issuance of the report.

9. Iran stated that it will present, in writing, its comprehensive assessment to the IAEA on the report by the Director General.

10. In accordance with the Framework for Cooperation, the Agency will continue to take into account Iran’s security concerns.

 

For the International Atomic Energy Agency:

(signed)

Yukiya Amano

Director General

 

For the Islamic Republic of Iran:

(signed)

Ali Akbar Salehi

Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran

 

Place: Vienna

Date: 14 July 2015