Category Archives: Geopolitics

A few IFD tweets from the past few days

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Geopolitics. Local kinetic events with wider meaning

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1. Greece to lease French warships amid Aegean tensions with Turkey

Greece to lease French warships amid Aegean tensions with Turkey
A 2012 file photo of “L’Aquitaine”, a French FREMM multipurpose Aquitaine class stealth frigate. Photo: AFP
Greece will this summer lease two state-of-the-art French warships, the defence ministry said Friday, as Athens seeks to bolster its defences in the Aegean Sea amid growing tensions with Turkey.

Confirming a report by the daily Kathimerini, Greece’s deputy defence minister, Fotis Kouvelis, told Skai radio that France “has made two frigates available to us in a leasing agreement.”

 

The deal was finalised in a telephone call between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and French President Emmanuel Macron, Kouvelis said.

2. 4,254 militants ‘neutralized’ in Afrin operation: Turkish military

The number of “neutralized” militants in Turkey’s operation in northwestern Afrin, Syria has risen to 4,254, while 37 militants were also neutralized in operations over the past week in northern Iraq and eastern Turkey, the Turkish army said on April 21.   

   

In a written statement, the Turkish General Staff announced the latest number of “neutralized” militants since the Jan. 20 start of Operation Olive Branch.       

 

Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralized” in their statements to imply that the militants in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.       

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on Jan. 20 to clear the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Afrin in northwestern Syria.

3. China takes Pakistan’s side on issues of terrorism and foreign policy against India.

4. Four Saudi officers killed in gun attack

RIYADH: 

Four Saudi officers were shot dead and four others wounded Thursday when their checkpoint came under gunfire in southern Asir province, state media said citing the interior ministry.

 

PM Abbasi reaches Saudi Arabia

Three officers were instantly killed when the outpost came under attack, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported, without specifying who was behind it.

 

“Security officials have succeeded in identifying a number of suspects involved in the crime and arrested two of them, both Saudi nationals,” SPA said. “In the interest of the investigation, their names cannot be revealed.” A third Saudi suspect opened fire as he tried to escape, killing another officer and wounding four others, SPA added.

There is a great deal more titbits in the Reader’s Links post for today that qualifies as geopolitics and indications of many regional conflicts escalating into kinetic warfare, and with a high probability of linking up to form larger, and probably heinously complex wars, as is often the case when islam is involved.

Thank you M., Wrath of Khan, and Richard and all who are sending in these materials.

 

A theory on the chemical attack on Damascus

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H/T MissPiggy

From Oz-Rita

Interesting interview of Former head of British Armed Forces UK

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There has to be six links leading to this video in the comments.

I do not think there is an innocent explanation for it, even though I have no solid personal opinion as to why the US formed a coalition to attack specific targets in Syria. I would need to know what the US military knows about those targets to have an idea of why they were attacked in any meaningful way.

But I do not believe this was was cut off for a reason of simple scheduling.

Let’s hope this is a plot to defang Iran

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RT article

“US President Donald Trump has approved military strikes in Syria in retaliation for the alleged chemical attack by the Assad government in Douma, near Damascus, last week.

“A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,” Trump said in a televised address from the White House. He added that a combined military operation by the US, the UK and France is already underway in Syria.

Explosions Heard in Damascus Region – Reports (sputniknews, Apr 14, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/world/201804141063539038-explosions-heard-damascus-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.”

Multiples unconfirmed reported have surfaced of Syrian military bases being struck by US, UK and French airstrikes.

Netizens on social media have reported hearing “big explosions.”

Syrian Army Uncovers Chemical Lab in Eastern Ghouta – State Media (sputniknews, Apr 13, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/news/201804131063535441-syrian-army-uncovers-lab-ghouta/

“The Syrian Army has discovered a facility in Eastern Ghouta used for making toxic biochemical weapons, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported Friday.

The “Syrian Arab army units found a large lab for making toxic materials” and a workshop for producing artillery shells of various sizes while inspecting towns where terrorists were recently evacuated from in Eastern Ghouta, located just east of Damascus, SANA noted.

Thank you M., Wrath of Khan and all.

Chemical weapons attack, maybe, by someone possibly

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The first casualty of war is truth. And we are pretty much always at war. So… yeah.

Here is a clip from the Syrian Army showing a chemical weapons factory they found belonging to the terrorists in Ghouta.

The Russians claim not to have found any trace of a chemical weapons attack at all, and are making rather clear threats to retaliate against a US strike on Syria to any platform that launches the strike. This would mean US naval assets. The US takes that sort of attack rather seriously with the notable exception of Barack Obama who seemed to encourage them.

From Iranian propaganda outlet, Farsnews:

The Arabic service of RT news channel quoted a Russian military diplomatic source as warning that any increased military build-up in the Mediterranean will intensify tensions, adding that Moscow is pursuing and assessing the developments.

 

He stressed that the Russian A-50 reconnaissance planes have been monitoring the guided-missile destroyer the USS Donald Cook’s voyage in the past few days, saying, “The Russian warships are able to give a rapid response if necessary.”

 

The source noted that the Russian navy also has deployed submarines in the Mediterranean equipped with torpedoes and missiles to destroy marine and ground targets.

Meantime, Russia’s Humeimim airbase in Syria’s Lattakia province is equipped with anti-ship cruise missiles of Kh-35 type.

 

The US newspaper, Wall Street Journal, reported earlier that the US already has one guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, in the eastern Mediterranean, where it could take part in any strike on Syria, according to US defense officials. A second, the USS Porter could get there in a few days.

 

Russia has maintained that there has been no evidence of any chemical attack in Douma and sees Washington’s threats to “punish” Syria with military force as a pretext for intervention.

 

On March 13, Russia’s military chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, said that Moscow had intelligence about militants in Eastern Ghouta preparing a false-flag chemical attack in the area.

The senior official added that the US could use the fake attack as a pretext for striking out at government quarters in Damascus.

Mirror.UK: Russia will shoot down US missiles fired at Syria and target launch sites, warns ambassador

US missiles fired at Syria will be shot down, and launch sites targeted, a Russian ambassador warned today.

The measures threatened by Alexander Zasypkin, Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, could trigger a major escalation in the Syrian conflict.

 

In comments broadcast on Tuesday evening, said he was referring to a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian armed forces chief of staff.

The Russian military said on March 13 that it would respond to any U.S. strike on Syria, targeting any missiles and launchers involved in such an attack. Russia is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally.

 

The United States and its allies are considering whether to hit Syria over a suspected poison gas attack that medical relief organisations say killed dozens of people in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus on Saturday.

Many years ago, this site posted videos taken by the pre-Islamic state groups, Al-Qaeda or Nusra front or whatever Muslim Brotherhood front group of jihadis you want to name in the region, where they were developing chemical weapons and testing them on rabbits with grotesque success. Those videos are likely scrubbed off the internet but in an emergency can likely be found and reposted.

Shortly after the Islamic State was declared, there were other videos of Islamic terrorist groups using fairly crude home made or adapted weapons systems to launch chemical weapon containers into neighbourhoods. So the evidence of these groups using these weapons against civilians is very strong. While the likelihood of the optometrist, Assad, leader of Syria, launching a pointless WMD attack against his own population hours or days after the US president announces he is planning a troop withdrawal seems counter-intuitive.

Clearly it would result in an undesirable outcome for Syria.

Unless it doesn’t.

The only thing that fits the puzzle to me would be if the US hit Iranian assets in the area, freeing Al Assad from the yoke of that tyranny using the weapons attack as a false flag to do that.

Its possible that Assad could be a good partner in the region if he was free of the pressure from Iran which I am certain is large and undesired.

But then again, the first casualty of war, right? Just speculating really.

Looking forward to all your reasoned responses.

Eeyore for VladTepesBlog.

Viktor Victorious!!!!

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The following is an email from our Hungarian translator and corespondent, CrossWare with much thanks and even more relief.

Right now, just hours after the polls closed (with about 70-80% of the votes processed), Viktor Orbán’s party, the Fidesz-KDNP, won more than 40 percent of the seats in the parliament, which at this moment is projected to translate into at least 133 seats in the final tally. That’s a 2/3 majority, and will give Fidesz the ability to change the Basic Law (Constitution) itself. This could help in the resistance against the EU, because their basic treaty specifies that they cannot do anything against it. If this holds, then we can say Viktor Orbán got the ultimate permission from the people of Hungary. It was a record turnout: 68.13%, the highest for decades.

The only shameful spot is Budapest, where the opposition’s strongest spots are clearly visible.

Note: I always knew there was a reason why Communists and Globalists are trying to push the population into crowded cities. Once there, most of them lose their wholesome system of values and become an easily manipulable mob. For me, this result is a clear proof of that.

Now the process will continue till morning, when more complete results will be published. The counting process will be finished in a couple of weeks.

As my Dad was part of one of the local voting committees, I can describe the process of how the counting occurs (to avoid claims that “the Russians hacked it”):

Voting is done on paper. One piece of paper is for the individual candidate, another for the parties.

The people make their Xs on two spots, which constitute a valid vote. After the voting place closes, the committee, which is composed of representatives of all the interested parties, will start counting. They count the votes multiple times, at least twice, by different people. Once the results are reliably achieved, they create an official record of it and report it to the central office in Budapest. All votes are preserved, and in another book, each citizen’s signature, too. Electronic calculations are made in Budapest, but manual calculations of the results are made as well, and compared to the electronic results. (That’s why it is a slower process than a full electronic one, but it is not possible to hack it.)

Links with stats:

 

Congratulations Hungary. We knew you would do the right thing. The question was if you could prevent the organized left-Islam alliance from doing the wrong thing.

Eeyore for VladTepesBlog.

 

 

French politician: “Migratory Invasion”: €5,000 fine of suspended sentence required against Dupont-Aignan

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An original translation by Ava Lon with much thanks

From this French News site:

April 4, 2018

[Photo caption: 5,000 euros fine against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for provocation to hatred or discrimination. — Agence France-Presse. The prosecutor’s office in Paris has requested a fine of €5,000 suspended, against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for having evoked a “migratory invasion” in a tweet in 2017.]

The prosecutor’s office in Paris on Wednesday ordered a fine of €5,000 against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the president of Debout La France, who was tried for calling for hatred or discrimination, for evoking a “migratory invasion”.

“The Population Replacement is now!”

On January 17, 2017, the MP for the Essonne, then a candidate for the presidential election, tweeted the following words: “In 2016 the socialists compensated for the decline in birth rate by the migratory invasion. “The [Great] Population Replacement is [happening] now!”

The prosecution began the process after a report by the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra).

“Uninhibited racist speech”

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was not present to face the 17th chamber of the Criminal Court. His lawyers have asserted his parliamentary immunity, which, according to the prosecution and Licra, cannot enable him to escape prosecution in this particular case.

“We have a leading politician, a declared candidate for the presidential election, who quietly repeats, publicly, of his own accord, a conspiracy and racist theory born in the bowels of the French far right at the beginning of the previous decade,” the thesis of the “great replacement” of Renaud Camus, denounced the prosecutor.

“Not condemning him would mean to permit opening wide the floodgates of the uninhibited racist speech,” “pointing out all those who don’t belong to the national community”, migrants and immigrants, continued the representative of the prosecution.

He requested a €5,000 suspended fine, against the MP, “a first and, I hope, last warning”.

“For once, when a politician tells the truth”

For their part, lawyers for Nicolas Dupont-Aignan pleaded for his release, arguing the “truth” of his remarks and insisting that the politician was targeting the Socialist Party rather than immigration.

This is a somewhat “nasty” parody of the slogan of former President François Hollande’s “Change is now,” said Philippe Prigent, and “the purpose of this tweet is to call people not to vote for the Socialist candidate, that’s all.” “For once” when a politician “is telling the truth, we might not want to punish him,” he pleaded.

The civil party, Licra, asked for €5,000 euros in damages. The case will be decided on June 6th.

Below, a video of the politician who was fined.

Trump Tweet

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This is the single best decision in terms of a change of administration one could possibly have hoped for.

Congratulations to both Mr. Bolton and President Trump.

A few fascinating tweets from Julian Assange

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Go check his timeline. This is just a smattering.

Thanks Xanthippa

PEGIDA Founder Lutz Bachmann Banned from UK After Officials Find Speakers’ Corner Speech in Baggage

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From Breitbart.UK:

PEGIDA founder Lutz Bachmann has been prevented from entering Britain to deliver a speech at Speakers’ Corner, partly on the grounds that he “knows” identitarian activist Martin Sellner.

Bachmann had planned on delivering a speech written by the Generation Identity leader, who was recently detained along with YouTube political pundit Brittany Pettibone and then ejected from the country, partly on the grounds that GI is “viewed in the UK as a right wing organization” and partly on the grounds that Pettibone intended to “interview Tommy Robinson — a far right leader whose materials and speeches incite racial hatred”, according to seemingly official documents.

 

Bachmann also shared a picture of a document which he claims is from the officials who stopped him, which asserts that PEGIDA is “involved in the promotion and incitement of racial hatred and division of communities” and notes that “[by] your own admission during interview you have known [Sellner] well for some years” as grounds for denying his Free Movement rights.

Please click through for the rest: