Foreign Affairs
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@ForeignAffairs
Pipelines are the continuation of war by other means.
http://ow.ly/OH1F305shk3
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Foreign Affairs
✔
@ForeignAffairs
Pipelines are the continuation of war by other means.
http://ow.ly/OH1F305shk3
REALLY worth rereading and rereading...
@peterpomeranzev: In his post-fact world, #Putin’s web of lies is entangling the West | Comment in The Sunday Times
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/in...ies-vf523h5mr#
AND the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH has fully bought into them......
SINCE the advent of the Russian info warfare starting for the West with the Russian military annexation of Crimea and then on to the Russian military invasion of eastern Ukraine and now in Syria....Peter Pomeranzev has been one of the leading voices of what Russian propaganda really looks like....
Russia and the West have 'entered a new Cold War' - good nuggets in this from @RolandOliphant
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...new-cold-war/#
Mr. Putin plays troublemaker on nuclear security - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini....8e99313871ce#
Syria Fact: #SDF & #FSA block each other to move on al-Bab.
#IS & #Assad happy about that
A24 reporter denied #SDF controlling of TalMaled N #Aleppo & it is not near of the line of fire between #EuphratesShield & SDF.
Blitz attack of #Assad forces on rebels near #KhanTouman S #Aleppo. And taking control of "Missiles hill".
Rebels are trying to take re-control of the area
Assad forces attack failed last night and they lost at least 15 members
SDF spokesperson says, his forces are advancing on #Marea, not rebels there on #SheikhIsa.
http://qasioun.net/ar/news/show/40390#…
It seems indeed, #Turkey underestimated the "SDF" / #YPG forces in the area.
They are getting armed by the regime since February ...
Pro-#Assad media confirms air strikes on besieged #Aleppo city happening now (#SheikhSaeed area) as well as #KahnTuman.
4 people were killed in a #Russian air strike on the Marjah quarter in besieged #Aleppo city some 50 minutes ago.
Another Russian info warfare vodka moment......
Astonishing 15 mins on Russian TV as news anchor Kiselev uses Wikileaks & Mark Twain as 'proof' that US election is rigged against Trump.
Ahrar al-Sham hits the terminal area of ALP / 100% militarily used Neirab airport with Grad missiles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-M0...ure=youtu.be#…
Also in #Hama province, #AssadPutin bombed several towns, showing no mercy for the civilian population.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg9RFRdv4CY#…
Aleppo city today (the besieged E part)
#AssadPutin resumed air strikes on innocent men, women & children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApgbNzbid1w#…
Fred Hof: territory vacated by #IS in #Syria should be the basis of a new government that can negotiate with Assad.
http://bit.ly/2f6SKlQ
The proverbial "Pandora's box" has been now truly opened and it will never be closed for the next two decades and the Obama WH has contributed greatly to this...."non action" is in fact "action".....
EXACTLY what IS wants...fits their narrative to the letter.....
Kurdish authorities have issued an order of deportation of all the Arab refugees from Kirkuk.
السلطات الكردية في...
http://fb.me/31vjgCB3W
If true, exactly the sort of political impact #IS was hoping to have on the way down, lays the ground for recovery.
IS claims it will ride out "defeat" in the desert and return. Not an empty boast
http://bit.ly/2euqHMs#
"The [Shia militia] flags are rankling Sunnis as well as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters taking part in [#MosulOp]."
http://on.wsj.com/2dU3hg5
Sectarianism which has been unleashed by the FULL Obama/Rhodes/Kerry tilt to Iran as the next regional hegemon is going to haunt the US for the next 20-30 years in the ME....
CIA Director & Secretary of Defense back arms expansion to CIA-vetted FSA factions in #Syria.
White House says no.
http://wpo.st/5xu72
Political chief of U.S-backed Liwa al-Mu’tassem survived an IED assassination attempt earlier today in #Antakya. He’s uninjured.
Amusing…
Major #Russia publication uses image of U.S carrier group (L) instead of their own (R).
To be fair though, you can see why.
Looks like all those memes hit home and embarrassed the "new Russian Blue Water Navy"......
Well worth reading....
Hassan Hassan @hxhassan
New:
Will ISIS defend Mosul or will it live to fight another day? The binary is misleading. A third choice exists:
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/co...o-retake-mosul
The dangers of a protracted battle to retake Mosul
Hassan Hassan
October 23, 2016 Updated: October 23, 2016 05:23 PM
ISIS can't afford a quick loss in Mosul. Its focus will likely be the "soft underbelly" of the operation: divisionsQuote:
The thing about military strategies, an American general said recently, is that they tend to crumble once soldiers begin to engage the enemy. This can apply to the Mosul strategy: protracted fighting could lead to the collapse of a relatively promising strategy to expel the group from its most significant stronghold.
As the battle for Mosul began last Monday, many wondered whether ISIL would stay to defend the city or choose to live to fight another day. After all, the determination of Iraqi forces and their international allies to expel the group from the country’s second largest city means the outcome is almost certain, even if the stronghold is a symbolic and strategic priority for ISIL.
The group chose to withdraw in Fallujah when it became apparent it was overwhelmed militarily, while it fought until the end in Ramadi and Manbij.
The binary choice, however, may not apply to Mosul. ISIL will, most likely, choose to fight until the end. But even if it does not do so, the alternative will not be withdrawal to preserve its forces. Instead, it will probably fight in the hope that the current strategy – built on delicate sectarian, ethnic and political balances – unravels.
The group will choose this path because the stakes for it in this battle are too high. If the current composition of Iraqi forces fighting ISIL expel it from Mosul with relative speed and minimal damage to the city, the win could be a true game-changer for the country and the future of the group. If we know one thing about ISIL, it is that it will not allow this to happen. Typically, it excels at political tradecraft rather than military operations. This ability will be brought to bear in the defining battle for Mosul.
So far, Iraqi forces appear to have the upper hand. The division of labour in the battle and the demand for Kurdish and Shia militias to stay out of Mosul proper are encouraging signs that a victory will have far-reaching consequences for the group. Yet, will the current strategy hold? What happens if the battle drags on for several months? Will the forces continue to show restraint? What if professional forces inside the city feel compelled to seek the help of militias fighting in the vicinity?
The forces fighting on different fronts against ISIL around Mosul are the definition of strange bedfellows. Competing agendas in an area seen as vital for each side to ensure their long-term interests mean that it will be only a matter of time before rivalries start to cause trouble. This trouble might be minor for the overall battle, but it could be disruptive.
Iraqi forces expect the fight to end soon. If the battle drags on, overconfidence can turn into frustration and overreaction. As The Washington Post reported on Friday, Iraqi forces on the front lines are complaining about the slow and sparse close-air support provided by the United States-led coalition. Tal Afar, north-west of Mosul, could become a flashpoint. Turkey continues to insist on having a role in the battle, as Shia militias operating under the banner of Hashd Al Shaabi seem set to launch an attack to retake the city.
Hawija is emerging as another issue for the international coalition. The city is an ISIL stronghold that many wanted liberated before Mosul given its location west of Kirkuk. There are disagreements between Kurdish and Shia militias over who fights in the city. Leaders of Hashd Al Shaabi visited Kirkuk on Saturday to discuss the issue with Kurdish officials, especially after ISIL stormed into Kirkuk and clashed with the Kurdish peshmerga in half a dozen locations inside the city.
Continued......
BUT on the other sectarian side of this conflict....the Shia.....
Maliki: "Coming, Nineveh!" operation also means "Coming, Raqqa", "Coming Aleppo" & "Coming, Yemen".
Maliki: Coming everywhere where Muslims are fighting those wanting to apostatise from Islamic teachings.
This is the same Maliki who called the Anbar campaign in 2013-2014 "a fight between the followers of Hussian against the followers of Yazid"
REMEMBER this is being driven by the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry FULL tilt to Iran as the regions main new hegemon ALL via the IRAN DEAL...think about that for a moment....
Turkey's President Erdogan: Turkey is 'obliged' to press on to al-Bab city, Syria - Reuters
Russian non linear warfare hard at work.......Crimea, eastern Ukraine, Syria, US elections and Artic......
In #Russia military covert operations /w mini-subs are called Arctic Research. Legit!
https://twitter.com/Kostian_V/status...9470054375424#
…
Is #Russia shipping nuclear-capable cruise missiles to the Baltic while saying they’re headed for the Mediterranean?
https://medium.com/@DFRLab/missile-m...43#.t9k7s4axt#
…
THINK Russian info war got it wrong again...they meant MANPADs but stated RPGs......
Russian TV claims 32 US officers are in E.Aleppo working "against Russia", says US giving "terrorists" RPGs, like in Afghanistan in 1980s
A Brave New World is coming straight at the US and the internet ........ALL because of the consumer manufacturers drive for "smart everything". AND yet we hear nothing out of the Obama WH.....BUT we do see that the Obama WH does not want to retaliate in kind...WH is that?
We worry about the election....here comes the next generation of extortion and blackmail against virtually anyone/business having an internet presence...they no longer have to hack into you network...all they have to do is effectively block say your online shopping portal to cause millions in loses just in several days of outage....Quote:
The security firm RSA revealed to have discovered in early October, hackers advertising access to a huge IoT botnet on an underground criminal forum.
Last week, a massive DDoS attack against the#Dyn DNS service,#one of the most authoritative#domain name system (DNS), caused an extended Internet#outage. A large portion of internet users was not able to reach most important web services, many websites including Twitter, GitHub, PayPal, Amazon, Reddit, Netflix, and Spotify were down for netizens in the US.
The Dyn DNS Service was flooded by a devastating wave of requests originated by million of compromised#IoT devices. The Dyn company reported a huge army of hijacked Internet of Things devices has been abused by attackers to power the massive DDoS attack.
The security intelligence firm Flashpoint#published an interesting post on the massive DDoS in which confirm that its experts have observed the#Mirai#bots driving the attack against DynDNS.
“Flashpoint has confirmed that some of the infrastructure responsible for the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Dyn DNS were botnets compromised by Mirai malware. Mirai botnets were previously used in DDoS attacks against security researcher Brian Krebs’ blog “Krebs On Security” and French internet service and hosting provider OVH.” reads the analysis published by#Flashpoint#“Mirai malware targets Internet of Things (IoT) devices like routers, digital video records (DVRs), and webcams/security cameras, enslaving vast numbers of these devices into a botnet, which is then used to conduct DDoS attacks. “
Below the Key Findings of the#report#published by Flashpoint
Flashpoint has confirmed that some of the infrastructure responsible for the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Dyn DNS were botnets compromised by Mirai malware.
Mirai botnets were previously used in DDoS attacks against the “Krebs On Security” blog and OVH.
As of 1730 EST, the attacks against Dyn DNS are still ongoing. Flashpoint is coordinating with multiple vendors and law enforcement to track the infected devices that constitute the botnet being used to conduct these attacks.
Unfortunately, the situation could be worse because#hackers are selling access to a#huge botnet#composed of compromised#Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
The security firm RSA revealed to have discovered in early October, hackers advertising access to a huge IoT botnet on an#underground criminal#forum.
“This is the first time we’ve seen an IoT botnet up for rent or sale, especially one boasting that amount of firepower. It’s definitely a worrying#trend seeing#the DDoS capabilities grow,” Daniel Cohen, head of the#RSA’s FraudAction business unit,#told Forbes.
According to RSA the#hackers advertised an IoT botnet that is able to power DDoS attack with a#1 Tbps of traffic, the same volume of traffic that flooded the#French hosting provider OVH. It is not clear if the botnet was composed of devices infected by the Mirai malware.
The hackers were offering a botnet composed of 50,000 devices for $4,600, meanwhile 100,000 bots#the price is $7,500.
What about the day to day critical infrastructure that makes up our daily lives...power, water, gas....traffic lights....you need no longer to hack into their networks...just block their internet servers....
DDoS has evolved into a serious threat with dark net firms offering their services for hire....
BreakingNews
Multiple #AssadPutin air strikes on towns in #Idlib province.
Kufr-Takharim and Khan Shaykhun hit by heavy bombardment.
Turkish army says hits Islamic State, Kurdish YPG targets in Syria
http://reut.rs/2dBbkT0
ProAssad and Putin commenters this morning...heavy Russian info warfare in play now..previously seen at this scale in eastern Ukraine against the UAF
The terrorists have targeted the nunnery of Kremlin in #Aleppo with a missile this morning.
Luckily the missile did not explode.
BUT WAIT......from open source analysis media
BM-30 launched missile, no known examples of rebel factions using this, only pro-Assad groups
BTW...this is the second Assad friendly fire mistake in less than48 hours on his own western Aleppo...appears to be a deliberate attempt to pose the anti Assad forces as also involved in "war crimes" to deflect the global attention for war crimes on Assad and Putin....
WHAT are Iranian forces inside Syria doing fighting FSA not IS....which is what they claim to their people that they are doing to "protect them from IS".....
Picture
Iranian-led forces south west of #Aleppo use the Toophan-1 vs. Syrian rebels.
Russian Embassy, UK
Verified account
@RussianEmbassy
Power&control at the heart of West.intern.policy. Russia intervened in Syria to save the day for all,when nobody else could face terrorists down
WHAT the heck can I say...a complete rewrite of the Russian view of world events since 9/11 contained in a single Russian FM posted comment....
"The #Hezbollah Threat: From the Marine Barracks Bombing to Today" -
http://bit.ly/2f5kgAb
Assad AF taking the treat of MANPADS seriously it appears now.....
Assad air force Su-22, bombing #Rastan city in #Homs province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GikNA4C1LOo#…
Same in #Hama of course.
#Morek, #Lataminah hit by #AssadPutin bombers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF5fXodGnk4#…
Footage
Intensive #AssadPutin air strikes on civilians south west of #Damascus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiS7HLEt_bY#…
Also besieged #Homs province is under heavy air strikes by #AssadPutin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjd0lQ1Pfd0#…
Barrel bombs being dropped by Assad on civilians...
As no one challenges #Assad's killers around #Damascus,they keep bombing the hell out of civilians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42f7tQo0JN0#…