Clinton email reveals: Google sought overthrow of Syria's Assad

Washington Examiner | By RUDY TAKALA | March 19, 2016

Google in 2012 sought to help insurgents overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to State Department emails receiving fresh scrutiny this week.

Messages between former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's team and one of the company's executives detailed the plan for Google to get involved in the region.

"Please keep close hold, but my team is planning to launch a tool ... that will publicly track and map the defections in Syria and which parts of the government they are coming from," Jared Cohen, the head of what was then the company's "Google Ideas" division, wrote in a July 2012 email to several top Clinton officials.

"Our logic behind this is that while many people are tracking the atrocities, nobody is visually representing and mapping the defections, which we believe are important in encouraging more to defect and giving confidence to the opposition," Cohen said, adding that the plan was for Google to surreptitiously give the tool to Middle Eastern media.

"Given how hard it is to get information into Syria right now, we are partnering with Al-Jazeera who will take primary ownership over the tool we have built, track the data, verify it, and broadcast it back into Syria," he said.

"Please keep this very close hold and let me know if there is anything [else] you think we need to account for or think about before we launch. We believe this can have an important impact," Cohen concluded.

The message was addressed to deputy secretary of state Bill Burns; Alec Ross, a senior Clinton advisor; and Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Jake Sullivan. Sullivan subsequently forwarded Cohen's proposal to Clinton, describing it as "a pretty cool idea."

Cohen worked as a low-level staffer at the State Department until 2010, when he was hired to lead Google Ideas, but was tied to the use of social media to incite social uprisings even before he left the department. He once reportedly asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to hold off of conducting system maintenance that officials believed could have impeded a brief 2009 uprising in Iran.

The unusual involvement by Google in foreign affairs highlights the difficulty of involvement in the internal politics of foreign states. While Cohen seemed to consider his company's effort as helpful to American interests, the effort to overthrow Assad helped spur the rise of the Islamic State, which eventually filled a vacuum resulting from Assad's loss of control over of Syria.

The exchange on Syria was highlighted by Wikileaks on Saturday. Earlier in the week, the secret-leaking website posted more than 30,000 emails that Clinton sent or received during her tenure leading the State Department.

ISIS’ Crimes Against Christians Detailed in New Report

Kristiana Mork | Daily Signal - MARCH 13, 2016

The 278-page report includes lists of crimes against Christians

“‘How is the life there in Iraq?’”

That’s what people ask, said Father Douglas al-Bazi, a priest at the Mar Elia refugee camp in Erbil, Iraq.

“Actually, the easy answer is, there are no life in Iraq.”

Al-Bazi, a former ISIS hostage, talked about his own treatment at the hands of ISIS. He said he saw his church and car blow up in front of him. He was shot by an AK-47 in his leg, he said, and his captors broke his teeth, nose, and back with a hammer.

“I still keep my shirt when they kidnapped me, and still I look to my blood every day and I remember, and this is what happen even to my people every day,” he said.

Read more

At Least 5 Dead After Massive Explosion In Turkish Capital, Military Dormitory Targeted

Zero Hedge | February 17, 2016

With Turkey on the brink of going to war with Russia and, implicitly, Iran, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is looking for an excuse to invade Syria.

The rebels Turkey and Saudi Arabia back are staging what amounts to a last stand at Aleppo and the Kurdish YPG is moving to cut the Azaz corridor, which would effectively mean that Turkey has no way of resupplying the insurgency.

For the past five days, Ankara has been shelling the YPG in a futile attempt to stop their advance.

The only thing that can save the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad is an outright ground operation by the rebels' Sunni benefactors, including Turkey.

All Erdogan needs is a pretext and he may have just gotten one as reports indicate there's been a huge explosion in Ankara near parliament and at least 5 people are dead.

Early indications are that military barracks were targeted. A "large number of casulaties" are rumored. Expect this to be pinned on either ISIS or the PKK. If it's the latter, Ankara will once again claim that the group is working in concert with the YPG and that will be all the evidence Erdogan needs to march across the border.

• EXPLOSION REPORTED IN TURKISH CAPITAL ANKARA, AHABER SAYS
• ANKARA EXPLOSION OCCURRED NEAR MILITARY RESIDENCES: OFFICIAL
• 5 PEOPLE KILLED IN ANKARA BLAST: T24 CITES ANKARA GOVERNOR
• ANKARA BLAST WAS SUSPECTED CAR BOMB: CNN-TURK CITES GOVERNOR

Radioactive material stolen in Iraq raises security fears

Reuters | BY AHMED RASHEED, AREF MOHAMMED AND STEPHEN KALIN | February 17, 2016

A sign indicating radioactive material is shown in Anaheim, California March 17, 2011.
REUTERS/LUCY NICHOLSON

Iraq is searching for "highly dangerous" radioactive material stolen last year, according to an environment ministry document and seven security, environmental and provincial officials who fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State.

The material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, went missing in November from a storage facility near the southern city of Basra belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford (WFT.N), the document obtained by Reuters showed and officials confirmed.

A spokesman for Iraq's environment ministry said he could not discuss the issue, citing national security concerns. A Weatherford spokesman in Iraq declined to comment, and the company's Houston headquarters did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The material, which uses gamma rays to test flaws in materials used for oil and gas pipelines in a process called industrial gamma radiography, is owned by Istanbul-based SGS Turkey, according to the document and officials.


An SGS official in Iraq declined to comment and referred Reuters to its Turkish headquarters, which did not respond to phone calls.

The document, dated Nov. 30 and addressed to the ministry's Centre for Prevention of Radiation, describes "the theft of a highly dangerous radioactive source of Ir-192 with highly radioactive activity belonging to SGS from a depot belonging to Weatherford in the Rafidhia area of Basra province".

A senior environment ministry official based in Basra, who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak publicly, told Reuters the device contained up to 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of Ir-192 "capsules", a radioactive isotope of iridium also used to treat cancer.

The material is classed as a Category 2 radioactive source by the International Atomic Energy Agency, meaning if not managed properly it could cause permanent injury to a person in close proximity to it for minutes or hours, and could be fatal to someone exposed for a period of hours to days.

How harmful exposure can be is determined by a number of factors such as the material's strength and age, which Reuters could not immediately determine. The ministry document said it posed a risk of bodily and environmental harm as well as a national security threat.

DIRTY BOMB FEAR

Large quantities of Ir-192 have gone missing before in the United States, Britain and other countries, stoking fears among security officials that it could be used to make a dirty bomb.

A dirty bomb combines nuclear material with conventional explosives to contaminate an area with radiation, in contrast to a nuclear weapon, which uses nuclear fission to trigger a vastly more powerful blast.

"We are afraid the radioactive element will fall into the hands of Daesh," said a senior security official with knowledge of the theft, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"They could simply attach it to explosives to make a dirty bomb," said the official, who works at the interior ministry and spoke on condition of anonymity as he is also not authorized to speak publicly.

There was no indication the material had come into the possession of Islamic State, which seized territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 but does not control areas near Basra.

The security official, based in Baghdad, told Reuters there were no immediate suspects for the theft. But the official said the initial investigation suggested the perpetrators had specific knowledge of the material and the facility: "No broken locks, no smashed doors and no evidence of forced entry," he said.

An operations manager for Iraqi security firm Taiz, which was contracted to protect the facility, declined to comment, citing instructions from Iraqi security authorities.

A spokesman for Basra operations command, responsible for security in Basra province, said army, police and intelligence forces were working "day and night" to locate the material.

The army and police have responsibility for security in the country's south, where Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias and criminal gangs also operate.

POLLUTION RISK

Iraqi forces are battling Islamic State in the country's north and west, backed by a U.S.-led coalition. The militant group has been accused of using chemical weapons on more than one occasion over the past few years.

The closest area fully controlled by Islamic State is more than 500 km (300 miles) north of Basra in the western province of Anbar. The Sunni militants control no territory in the predominantly Shi'ite southern provinces but have claimed bomb attacks there, including one that killed 10 people in October in the district where the Weatherford facility is located.

Besides the risk of a dirty bomb, the radioactive material could cause harm simply by being left exposed in a public place for several days, said David Albright, a physicist and president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

"If they left it in some crowded place, that would be more of the risk. If they kept it together but without shielding," he said. "Certainly it's not insignificant. You could cause some panic with this. They would want to get this back."

The senior environmental official said authorities were worried that whoever stole the material would mishandle it, leading to radioactive pollution of "catastrophic proportions".

A second senior environment ministry official, also based in Basra, said counter-radiation teams had begun inspecting oil sites, scrap yards and border crossings to locate the device after an emergency task force raised the alarm on Nov. 13.

Two Basra provincial government officials said they were directed on Nov. 25 to coordinate with local hospitals. "We instructed hospitals in Basra to be alert to any burn cases caused by radioactivity and inform security forces immediately," said one.



(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Pravin Char)

SYRIAN REFUGEES ADMITTED TO US SINCE PARIS ATTACK: 602 MUSLIMS, 2 CHRISTIANS

Patrick Goodenough | CNS News - FEBRUARY 16, 2016

IMAGE CREDITS: FLICKR, SYRIAFREEDOM.

The government has admitted 605 Syrian refugees for resettlement in the United States since last November’s Paris terrorist attack, two of whom are Christians.

The rest are 589 Sunni Muslims, 10 Shia Muslims, three other Muslims, and one refugee identified in State Department Refugee Processing Center data as “other religion.”

At the same time, the proportion of Christians among the total cohort of Syrian refugees admitted into the U.S. since the conflict began five years ago has now dropped below two percent.

Just 55 Christians (1.9 percent) are among the 2,769 Syrian refugees admitted since March 2011, while a large majority – 2,594 (93.6 percent) – has been Sunni Muslims.

Christians accounted for about 10 percent of Syria’s population when the civil war began and Sunni Muslims for an estimated 74 percent.

Christians and other non-Muslim minorities have been targeted specifically by ISIS and other radical groups, and monitoring group estimate that more than 700,000 Christians have fled Syria since then.

Other non-Muslims among the Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. since the war began include small numbers of Baha’i (2), Yazidis (1), Jehovah’s Witnesses (8), Zoroastrians (6), atheists (3) and Syrians who have self-identified as having no religion (7).

The administration has rejected calls by some Republican lawmakers, andsome GOP presidential candidates, for Syrian Christians to be prioritized in the refugee admission process.

The ISIS terrorist attack in Paris on November 13 fueled concerns that the terrorist group was exploiting the flow of refugees and migrants as cover to send jihadists into the West to carry out attacks.

French authorities said two of the attackers had been carrying fake Syrian passports and warned European Union partners that “some terrorists are trying to get into our countries and commit criminal acts by mixing in with the flow of migrants and refugees.”

Last Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper affirmed during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that ISIS has done so.

“Isn’t it already proven that Mr. Baghdadi is sending people with this flow of refugees that are terrorists that – in order to inflict further attacks on Europe and the United States?” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked him, referring to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“That’s correct,” Clapper replied. “That’s one technique they’ve used is taking advantage of the torrent of migrants to insert operatives into that flow.”

In addition, he continued, ISIS has become “pretty skilled at [producing] phony passports, so they can travel ostensibly as legitimate travelers as well.”

In December, House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the U.S. intelligence community “has identified already individuals tied to terrorist organizations in Syria that want to exploit and get into the United States through the refugee process.”

CIA director says IS group has used, can make chem weapons

AFP | February 12, 2016

CIA director John Brennan testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats to America and its allies, in Washington, DC on February 9, 2016 (AFP Photo/Molly Riley)

Washington (AFP) - CIA director John Brennan has said that Islamic State fighters have used chemical weapons and have the capability to make small quantities of chlorine and mustard gas, CBS News reported.

"We have a number of instances where ISIL has used chemical munitions on the battlefield," Brennan told CBS News, which released excerpts of an interview to air in full on the "60 Minutes" news program on Sunday.

The network added that he told "60 Minutes" the CIA believes that the IS group has the ability to make small amounts of mustard or chlorine gas for weapons.

"There are reports that ISIS has access to chemical precursors and munitions that they can use," Brennan said.

Brennan also warned of the possibility that the Islamic State group could seek to export the weapons to the West for financial gain.

"I think there's always the potential for that. This is why it's so important to cut off the various transportation routes and smuggling routes that they have used," he said.

When asked if there were "American assets on the ground" searching for possible chemical weapons caches or labs, Brennan replied: "US intelligence is actively involved in being a part of the efforts to destroy ISIL and to get as much insight into what they have on the ground inside of Syria and Iraq."

- 'Toxic chemicals in Iraq, Syria' -

The release of the interview excerpts comes two days after similar comments from spy chief James Clapper before a congressional committee.

"ISIL has also used toxic chemicals in Iraq and Syria, including the blister agent sulfur mustard," Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told lawmakers on Tuesday.

He said it was the first time an extremist group had produced and used a chemical warfare agent in an attack since Japan's Aum Supreme Truth cult carried out a deadly sarin attack during rush hour in the Tokyo subway in 1995.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebel forces have accused each other of using chemical agents in the nearly five-year war that has killed more than 250,000 people.

After an August 2013 sarin attack outside Damascus that much of the international community blamed on Assad's government, the regime agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) -- which oversaw the dangerous removal and elimination of Syria's avowed stockpile -- now says that declared arsenal has been completely destroyed.

But the global arms watchdog has still warned of the continued use of mustard, sarin and chlorine gas in the conflict, without blaming the regime, the rebels or the IS group for use of the weapons, which are banned under international law.

Last year, officials in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan said blood tests had shown that IS fighters used mustard agent in an attack on Kurdish peshmerga forces in August.

Thirty-five peshmerga fighters were exposed and some taken abroad for treatment, officials said.

At the time of the attack, The Wall Street Journal cited US officials as saying they believed IS had used mustard agent.

U.S. Allies Now Fighting CIA-Backed Rebels

Daily Beast | Nancy Yousef | February 12, 2016

Not long ago, U.S. jets and Shia militias worked together to battle ISIS. Today, those militias are trying to take down American proxies in Syria.

Iraqi militias who once fought ISIS with U.S. help are now working with Russian and Iranian forces to crush American-backed rebels in the strategic Syrian city of Aleppo, two defense officials have told The Daily Beast.

At least three Shia militias involved in successful battles against ISIS in Iraq—the Badr Brigade, Kata’ib Hezbollah, and the League of the Righteous—have acknowledged taking casualties in fighting in south and southeast Aleppo province. U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Daily Beast that they believe “at least one” unit of the Badr Brigade is fighting in southern Aleppo alongside other Iraqi militia groups. Those groups are backed by Russian airpower and Iranian troops—and all of whom are bolstering President Bashar al Assad’s Syrian Arab Army.

Reports on social media say the Iraqi militias in Syria are armed with U.S. tanks and small arms they procured on the Iraqi side of the border. Those reports could not be independently confirmed.

The presence of militias fighting on behalf of Assad—a dictator that the U.S. has pledged to depose—is yet another reminder of the tangled alliances that the United States must thread as it pursues seemingly contradictory policies in its battles against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. In Iraq, these Shia militias were battling on behalf of the U.S.-backed government. In Syria, they are fighting against an American-supported rebel coalition that includes forces armed by the CIA.

In other words: The forces the U.S. once counted on to take back Iraq’s cities are the same ones the Russians now are counting on to get Aleppo back. And those militias are fighting units of the American-backed Free Syrian Army—including the 16th Division, elements of Jaish al Nasr, and Sultan al Murad—according to Nicholas Heras, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security.

U.S. officials claim not to be alarmed. “On our list of problems, one Badr brigade in Syria is way down there,” one U.S. official explained.

But the role of the Shia militias continues to be controversial. The militias are backed and funded by Iran—Badr, in fact, was created as a branch of the Iranian military. But in Syria, their role is part of the increasingly effective one-two punch of the Russian/Iranian alliance that has given the Syrian government the upper hand in the battle for Aleppo.

U.S. officials agree that without those Iraqi militias, the Syrian Army would be too weak to hold territory on their own.

It is perhaps because of these dynamics that both Russia and the U.S agreed to a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria late Thursday, to begin in one week. Even if Aleppo fell, Assad forces’ hold on the city and the country would be tenuous, at best, and would depend on unending Russian/Iranian support, an unappealing proposition for two states with fragile economies. For the U.S., the deal offered hope for ending uncomfortable alliances that had militias that once served it interests fighting opposition forces it was no longer willing to back militarily.

In the last week, Russia has launched hundreds of punishing, largely indiscriminate strikes in Aleppo. That’s allowed forces loyal to Assad—including the Iraqi militias—to move in and reclaim parts of Aleppo, cutting off the main supply route to the city. According to the Red Cross, at least 50,000 refugees have sought to flee to Turkey since the Russian assault began.

“Without the Russian airstrikes the Shiite militias would not have been as successful,” said Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland who studies Shiite militias. At the same time, “It is clear that Iran is routing as many fighters as possible to Syria, particularly on the Aleppo front.”

To make matters worse for the U.S. effort in Syria, among the opposition groups now losing territory in Aleppo are groups once backed by the United States. Unfortunately, those groups are also intermingled with Jabhat al Nusra, al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and a member of the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. The great irony of Aleppo is that U.S. strikes against the Islamic State have the perverse effect of benefiting al Qaeda.

It was Nusra forces who, in 2013 and 2014, were key in pushing ISIS out of Aleppo.

Today Nusra and its allies now are largely fighting back the Russian/Iranian offensive alone.

The fall of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, would be a major win for Assad supporters and potentially leave Syria with two major rival forces—ISIS and the Assad regime.

In Iraq, the Shiite militias, known as Popular Mobilization Forces, were key to important wins against the Islamic State in Amiri and Tikrit, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s hometown. With the help of U.S. airstrikes, the militias were able to claim those cities from ISIS and end the jihadist group’s land grab across Iraq.

Fighting in Syria is a more lucrative undertaking, however. During the battle for the Iraqi cities of Amerli and Tikrit, militia members earned roughly $720 a month, according to Iraqi government officials. In Syria, the militiamen earn as much as $1,500 a month, Smyth said. The pay increase is a powerful incentive to join the battle—as if the appeal to sectarian loyalty were not enough.

U.S. officials are quick to say that they have never directly coordinated with the militias—small wonder, given that the Badr Brigade, for one, targeted hundreds of American troops in Iraq with Iranian-provided explosively formed projectile bombs, one of that war’s deadliest weapons.

But U.S. officials also acknowledged that the pro-Iranian militias benefited from U.S. airstrikes in Amerli and Tikrit, something the militias themselves refused to acknowledge. Only “weak people like the Iraqi army” wanted U.S. help, Haider al Amiri, the head of the Badr Brigade, said of the battle for Tikrit. He publicly celebrated Iranian support.

Either way, the fall of Amerli and Tikrit last year paved the way for the coalition and Iraqi forces to reclaim the city of Ramadi, the biggest prize to be taken back from ISIS so far. That, in turn, allowed the militias to increase their influence over Iraqi security matters.

The U.S. has been notably silent on the role of its erstwhile Iraqi allies in the ongoing battle in Syria, though it no longer predicts that Russia will become bogged down in the conflict as the Russian airstrikes provide the cover needed for the Iranian-backed forces to advance.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Kurdish forces captured a military base in Aleppo, near the Turkish border.

—with additional reporting by Michael Weiss

 

REPORT: CHRISTIANS, GAYS, WOMEN FLEEING ASYLUM CENTRES DUE TO PERSECUTION BY MUSLIM MEN

Breitbart | CHRIS TOMLINSON - FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Christians, homosexuals and women are fleeing asylum centres in Germany in ever growing numbers due to acts of violence, intolerance and crime perpetrated by Muslim men.

According to German newspaper Die Welt, the violence toward ethnic minorities, religious minorities and women continues to skyrocket across German asylum centres. Muslim men tear up Bibles and assault Christians, sexually abuse women and children, and beat up homosexuals. The news has led to calls from human rights campaigners to say enough is enough.

In Stuttgart a case of abuse toward an Assyrian Christian by a Muslim roommate led to a petition for separate housing that was signed by over 17,000 people online. The petition, organised by the Central Oriental Christians, asked the City of Stuttgart to, “please accommodate the displaced Christians in Stuttgart-Neugereut and keep them from further distress and persecution to which they are exposed in a decentralised accommodation.”

The matter was brought to the city and a separate asylum centre for 30 Christians was approved by the council. Spokesman for Stuttgart Sven Matis told the paper that after speaking to the district assistant they would be able to approve accommodation for the 30 Christians in Neugereut by the end of April.

Martin Lessenthin, CEO of the International Society for Human Rights also commented on the systematic persecutions of Christians all across German asylum homes. He said it was common to see both Christians and Yazidis subject to torment and beatings and while it is not desirable to accommodate migrants separately, it may be inevitable for the safety of the minorities.

Separation of migrants has been a policy when it comes to extremely vulnerable minorities. Yazidi girls who were used as sex slaves by the Islamic State are housed in secret locations in Germany so as not to attract unwanted attention from migrants sympathetic to the Islamic State or Muslims who view them as nothing more than sexual objects. A purported 1,100 of these women live in various special shelters across Germany.

One victim of sexual abuse is said to have been only eight years old at the time of her abuse by ISIS. Another girl had to be treated by specialist burn victim doctors because the constant sexual torment drove her to try and light herself on fire in a failed attempt at suicide.

In Freibeurg, some 200 women live in secret. The head of the Baden-Wurttemberg state chancellery Klaus-Peter Murawski warns that ISIS militants may be actively monitoring the project in hopes of getting revenge against the women. This warning was proven accurate when an ISIS commander was found at an asylum home earlier this week.

Breitbart London has reported on migrant violence within asylum homes with cases of Christians, homosexuals and others being beaten in asylum centres across Germany,reports of asylum centres as breeding grounds for extremism, and even young children being brutally raped by fellow migrants.

In today’s Guardian newspaper, columnist Owen Jones blames the “far right” for instability across Europe, lumping thousands of criminal migrants sparking a crime wave across the continent with Jews who fled Nazi Germany. He writes: “And who is waiting, preparing and consolidating? Europe’s far right, already feeding off the despair of economic crisis and a backlash against refugees fleeing violence from the Middle East. Where once the principal target was Jews, now it’s Muslim”.

SAUDI ARABIA PREPARES TO INVADE SYRIA

Kurt Nimmo | Infowars - FEBRUARY 8, 2016

CNN’s Arabic division in Dubai reports Saudi Arabia is planning to invade Syria and has mobilized 150,000 troops in the kingdom.

Two sources cited by CNN say “trainees” preparing for the effort are from Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Turkey. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei will also participate.

The invasion scheduled for March will be led by the Saudis and Turks and will originate in Turkey, according to CNN.

Last week the US Defense boss Ash Carter said he welcomed a Saudi offer to participate in ground operations. “That kind of news is very welcome,” he told reporters while on a visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Carter will meet in Brussels this week with the Saudis. The Saudis confirmed they will also be in Brussels to discuss details of the invasion.

Last week Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmad Asiri told the United States his country is willing to send troops into Syria. On Friday Saudi officials announced the formation of the Sunni coalition and said military exercises will be held in preparation for an invasion.

Iran mocked the Saudi plan. “They claim they will send troops (to Syria), but I don’t think they will dare do so,” Maj. Gen. Ali Jafari told reporters in Tehran, according to Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency. “They have a classic army and history tells us such armies stand no chance in fighting irregular resistance forces.”

Middle East experts believe the move by Saudi Arabia is not about defeating the Islamic State but confronting Iran.

Iranian security and intelligence services are advising and assisting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in his fight against US and Gulf Emirate proxies. In addition to sending the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Quds Force to fight on the ground in Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah has taken on a direct combat role. Iraqi Shi‘a brigades are also involved in the fighting.

“Saudi Arabia’s strategic goals in Syria are very different from ours. And any new introduction of foreign ground troops into Syria would be greatly complicating efforts to focus attention on ISIS as the threat,” Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, told US News & World Report. “The Saudis know what their goal is. They want to overthrow Assad. Period.”

“I would consider any introduction of foreign ground troops [into Syria] to be destabilizing. You’re pushing Saudi Arabian power closer and closer to Iran,” Kinzer added. “That kind of ground deployment would certainly undermine the already weak efforts toward peaceful resolution of this conflict.”

Last week UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura postponed Syria peace talks brokered by the internationalist organization. The State Department has blamed Russia “in part” for the failure of the talks.

The proxy forces have refused to participate in talks unless the al-Assad government stops attempting to regain territory overtaken by al-Nusra, IS and other jihadist groups.

Pentagon orders commanders to prioritize climate change in all military actions

By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times - Sunday, February 7, 2016

The Pentagon directive, “Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience,” is in line with President Obama’s view that global warming is the country’s foremost national security threat, or close to it. (Associated Press)

The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies.

A new directive’s theme: The U.S. Armed Forces must show “resilience” and beat back the threat based on “actionable science.”

It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed. It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy — a wide array of “climate change boards, councils and working groups” to infuse climate change into “programs, plans and policies.”

The Pentagon defines resilience to climate change as: “Ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.”

To four-star generals and admirals, among them the regional combatant commanders who plan and fight the nation’s wars, the directive tells them: “Incorporate climate change impacts into plans and operations and integrate DoD guidance and analysis in Combatant Command planning to address climate change-related risks and opportunities across the full range of military operations, including steady-state campaign planning and operations and contingency planning.”

The directive, “Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience,” is in line with President Obama’s view that global warming is the country’s foremost national security threat, or close to it. Mr. Obama says there is no debate on the existence of man-made global warming and its ensuing climate change. Supporters of this viewpoint label as “deniers” any scientists who disagree.

But there are stubborn doubters. A climate center in Colorado has said its researchers looked at decades of weather reports and concluded there has been no uptick in storms. The United Nations came to a similar finding, saying there is not enough evidence to confirm an increase in droughts and floods.

A previous Pentagon report on climate change attributed Super Storm Sandy to climate change.

Dakota Wood, a retired Marine Corps officer and U.S. Central Command planner, said the Pentagon is introducing climate change, right down to military tactics level.

“By equating tactical actions of immediate or short-term utility with large-scale, strategic-level issues of profound importance, the issue of climate change and its potential impact on national security interests is undermined,” he said. “People tend to dismiss the whole, what might be truly important, because of all the little silly distractions that are included along the way.”

He said climate change is typically measured in long stretches of time.

“The climate does change over great periods of time, typically measured in millennia, though sometimes in centuries,” he said. “But the document mentions accounting for such down to the level of changes in ‘tactics, techniques and procedures’ as if reviewing how a squad conducts a patrol should be accorded the same level of importance and attention as determining whether the naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, might have to be relocated as sea levels rise over the next 100 years.”

Multipoint strategy

The directive originated in the office of Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Final approval came from Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work.

The directive is loaded with orders to civilian leaders and officers on specifically how counter-climate change strategy is to permeate planning.

“This involves deliberate preparation, close cooperation, and coordinated planing by DoD to provide for the continuity of DoD operations, services and programs,” it states.

“The DoD must be able to adapt current and future operations to address the impacts of climate change in order to maintain an effective and efficient U.S. military,” it adds. “Mission planning and execution must include anticipating and managing any risks that develop as a result of climate change to build resilience.”

Climate change must be integrated in:

• Weapons buying and testing “across the life cycle of weapons systems, platforms and equipment.”

• Training ranges and capabilities.

• Defense intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance.

• Defense education and training.

• Combatant commander joint training with allies to “assess the risks to U.S. security interests posed by climate change.”

• Joint Chiefs of Staff collaboration “with allies and partners to optimize joint exercises and war games including factors contributing to geopolitical and socioeconomic instability.”

Mr. Wood, now a military analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said the directive is muddled.

“I understand the motivation behind and intent for such guidance,” he said. “The problem is that it includes such a wide variety of issues with no explication or context that enables the offices mentioned to differentiate and prioritize activities and efforts across time or intensity.”

‘A lack of evidence’

The Department of Defense last issued a broad directive on climate change in July. It declared climate change an “urgent and growing threat to our national security” and blamed it for “increased natural disasters.”

The report also told commanders there are “more frequent and/or severe extreme weather events that may require substantial involvement of DoD units, personnel and assets in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

This assertion is not supported by the U.N.’s most recent global warming predictions.

Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the Center for Science and Technology Police Research at the University of Colorado, also has come to conclusions at odds with the Obama administration. He has testified on Capitol Hill, clashing with liberals who say his data are wrong.

“Current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century,” he wrote in 2013. “No robust trends in annual numbers of tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes counts have been identified over the past 100 years in the North Atlantic basin.

“In summary, there continues to be a lack of evidence and thus low confidence regarding the sign of trend in the magnitude and/or frequency of floods on a global scale.”

Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Democrat, tried to silence Mr. Pielke by unleashing allegations and starting an investigation.

Fellow scientists have come to Mr. Pielke’s defense and accused Democrats of violating academic freedom.

“Congressman Grijalva doesn’t have any evidence of any wrongdoing on my part, either ethical or legal, because there is none,” Mr. Pielke wrote on a blog. “He simply disagrees with the substance of my testimony — which is based on peer-reviewed research funded by the U.S. taxpayer, and which also happens to be the consensus of the IPCC.”

The IPCC is the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“I have no funding, declared or undeclared, with any fossil fuel company or interest. I never have. Rep. Grijalva knows this too, because when I have testified before the U.S. Congress, I have disclosed my funding and possible conflicts of interest,” Mr. Pielke said. “So I know with complete certainty that this investigation is a politically motivated ‘witch hunt’ designed to intimidate me [and others] and to smear my name.”

House bill requires women to sign up for draft

By Travis J. Tritten | Stars and Stripes | February 4, 2016

Female Marine recruits practice rear hand punches during training at Parris Island, S.C., in July 2011.JAVARRE GLANTON/U.S. MARINE CORPS

Two House Republicans introduced a bill Thursday requiring eligible women in the United States to sign up for the military draft, just days after it was recommended by the Marine Corps and Army.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine veteran, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Minn., a retired Navy SEAL, filed the Draft American’s Daughters Act to stoke debate over the military’s historic move to fully integrate female troops into all combat roles. If passed, women from 18-26 years old would for the first time have to join men in registering with the Selective Service program and potentially be forced to fight in future wars.

“If this administration wants to send 18, 20-year-old women into combat, to serve and fight on the front lines, then the American people deserve to have this discussion through their elected representatives,” Hunter said in a released statement.

On Tuesday, Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified to the Senate that they believe there no longer should be an exemption in the draft for half of the country’s population now that the military is all inclusive.

The Marines and Army, along with the other service branches, were ordered by Defense Secretary Ash Carter to open about 225,000 combat jobs to women candidates – the last remaining occupational specialties that had barred female troops.

The decision was made despite research and reservations from the Marine Corps and special operations community, and without adequate debate among lawmakers, according to the two congressmen sponsoring the bill.

“My daughter is a damn good Navy diver. I know women play an invaluable role in war. Many times women can gain access to strategic sites that men never could,” Zinke said in a released statement. “However, this administration’s plan to force all front-line combat and Special Forces to integrate women into their units is reckless and dangerous.”

The Marines completed a study last summer that found women get injured more often and perform below males in combat. During an oversight hearing in the Senate on Tuesday, lawmakers repeatedly referenced the study and said they are worried the military could lower standards to accommodate more women in combat occupational specialties.

Zinke said the decision now means the country must contemplate changes to the draft. His bill requires women to register beginning 90 days after it is signed into law.


“This is a very important issue that touches the heart of every family in America, and I believe we need to have an open and honest discussion about it,” Zinke said.

Men, who historically filled combat roles, are required to register with Selective Service when they turn 18 years old in case a draft is again needed. The Supreme Court had in the past backed the exemption for women, but only because they were not expected to fill crucial combat ranks.

Millions of women might now suddenly and unexpectedly be required to register due to the Pentagon decision on combat roles.

Neller, who initially requested exemptions for women in some combat positions, said he thinks it is fair that women now face being called up to wartime service.

“Every American that is physically qualified should register for the draft,” said Neller, who had requested but was denied the exclusion of women in some Marine combat jobs.

OBAMA SETTING UP AN INVASION HAVEN

Jon Bowne | Infowars | FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Recently, Obama stirred the pot of intolerance at a Baltimore Mosque.

The Obama administration would have us all believe his speech is a needed effort to assure Muslim Americans that they will not be subjected to bigotry, while he shepherds in Syrian refugees into small towns to fuel sharia no go areas akin to the rape and murder invasion being waged on Europe.

Obama depicted as murderous devil in downtown Moscow

By Andrew Blake - The Washington Times - February 5, 2016

United States President Barack Obama, right, and Russia’s President President Vladimir Putin pose for members of the media before a bilateral meeting Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A video depicting President Obama feasting on the souls of a half-million people was reportedly projected onto buildings in downtown Moscow early Friday along with a message calling for him to be tried in international court.

Video footage uploaded to YouTube shows a computer-generated version of Mr. Obama picking up little spheres colored in the national flags of several countries and placing them in his mouth.

The president’s face gradually turns red and horns sprout from his head as he begins to chew and symbolically destroys the populations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine and Libya.

A death toll next to Mr. Obama’s face rises to 561,832 as the video concludes with a caption reading: “Obama, welcome to the Hague tribunal in 2016.”

The footage was projected onto a building in Moscow’s Pushking Square next to Russia’s first-ever McDonald’s location, then on a nearby wall not far from the British Embassy, according to the video clip uploaded by 60sec, a Russian documentary project.

RSN, a Russian news agency that first reported the projection, said that “many experts” believe coups, civil wars and civilian slayings in the countries shown in the clip were “organized by a direct or indirect participation of American political consultants … and NGOs, as well as directly on the orders of the U.S. president,” according to an English translation.

Late last month, activists unfurled a three-story banner across from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that showed Mr. Obama above the word “KILLER,” then projected the words “Obama killer” onto the American statehouse.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who is running to succeed Mr. Obama, said Thursday that Russia is the “greatest threat” to U.S. national security, even more so than North Korea and China.

“Russia is trying to move the boundaries of the post-World War II Europe,” she said. “The way that [Russia] is trying to set European countries against one another, seizing territory, holding it in Crimea, beginning to explore whether they could make some inroads in the Baltics.”

German police arrest three 'Islamist terrorists' during raids at buildings including asylum seeker centres after tip-off of planned 'severe acts of violence'

Allan Hall, Simon Tomlinson | Daily Mail - FEBRUARY 4, 2016

IMAGE CREDITS: FLICKR, SYRIAFREEDOM.

Massive raids against suspected Islamist militants were carried out by hundreds of officers in Germany today, including two refugee homes.

The raids were carried out to prevent 'severe acts of violence', according to police.

Experts say Germany is long overdue a terrorist attack by jihadists because of its support for military operations against the group in Iraq and Syria.

Two of the addresses searched were an asylum seeker's centre in Hanover and another in Attendorn in the Sauerland region.




Hunted down: Police officers escort an Islamist terror suspect from a flat during a raid in Berlin. German police have carried out raids as part of an investigation into four Algerian men suspected of planning attacks



Police said four Algerians were being sought for their suspected links with ISIS terrorists in Syria



A suspect is detained by plain-clothes police during a raid at a house in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin



A view of an apartment building where police arrested a man during a morning raid in Berlin

One of the arrested men in Berlin had registered his address as an asylum seeker's residence.

Critics have long argued that Chancellor Merkel's open door policy towards refugees could allow terrorists to come into Germany posing as refugees from war and terror.

If the suspects registered in the centres are indeed ISIS sympathisers or supporters, the pressure on her to reverse her policies will only increase.

Berlin was the centre of the operation where police swooped on four apartments and two business premises.

Police spokesman Stefan Redlich said four Algerians were being sought for their suspected links with ISIS terrorists in Syria.

Berlin police said the four 'from the jihad scene are under investigation over suspicions that they are planning a serious act threatening the security of the state.'



German anti-terror police officers leave an apartment following a raid in Hanover, Germany, as part of an investigation into four Algerian men suspected of planning attacks in Germany and having ties to ISIS



Police walk out after a raid on a flat in Hanover. German police have arrested two Algerians they suspect of links to the Islamic State group and are hunting for two others in operations in Berlin and other regions

A woman and two Algerian men for whom there were existing arrest warrants, have been taken into custody.

One of the men arrested is wanted for belonging to ISIS by the Algerian authorities who say he was trained at a terror camp in Syria.

'Investigations show that he has been trained militarily in Syria,' police said in a statement.

The second Algerian was arrested for having falsified identity documents.

During the searches computers, mobile phones and records were seized.

A total of 450 police officers were deployed in the operation.



German police enter an apartment building in Hanover. Experts say Germany is long overdue a terrorist attack by jihadists because of its support for military operations against the group in Iraq and Syria

Apartments in the heavily immigrant areas of Kreuzberg, Tempelhof and Berlin-Mitte were ransacked in the hunt for clues tying the suspects to ISIS.

'Before we can draw more conclusions, we have to wait for the investigation of the public prosecutor's office and the evaluation of the seized objects', said Berlin's interior senator Frank Henkel.

'We have still every reason to be vigilant and careful.'

Since the November Paris attacks in which IS gunmen and suicide bombers attacked Paris nightspots, killing 130 people, German authorities have issued terrorism alerts on several occasions.

In November, a Germany-Netherlands football match was called off and on New Year's Eve, several Munich subway stations were closed over such threats.

Russia Releases Video Of Turkey Shelling "Syrian Civilian Settlements", Demands "Immediate Explanation"

Zero Hedge - FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Last week, tempers flared anew between Ankara and Moscow after Turkey accused Russia of violating its airspace near the Syrian border.

This time around, Turkey summoned the Russian ambassador – a much more prudent course of action than shooting down a Russian warplane, which is what Ankara decided to do back in November.

Of course every geopolitical action has an equal and opposite reaction. Russia’s response to the downing of its Su-24 by Turkish F-16s was to tarnish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s international image by linking his government to Islamic State’s illicit crude trade. The Kremlin’s anti-Erdogan PR campaign came complete with dozens of videos depicting oil tankers barreling across Turkey’s border with Syria unimpeded and the Russian Defense Ministry delighted in broadcasting footage of airstrikes that turned hundreds of the tankers to dust.

Now, Russia is hitting back at Turkey after the latest spat over Moscow’s alleged incursion into Ankara’s airspace and once again, The Kremlin is breaking out the videos.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Turkey is shelling civilian areas in Syria from a border outpost. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov showed video footage depicting the attacks at a press conference.

“This facility is a Turkish border outpost, which did not have any firing points a few months ago,” he said, adding that “This is called fact. This is irrefutable proof that the Turkish Armed Forces are shelling settlements on the Syrian border from heavy artillery systems.”

So why is Turkey shelling Syria you ask? Well that’s an open question but there are two rather obvious possibilities. First, Ankara could be hitting the YPG, who Erdogan deeply distrusts and equates with the PKK.

It’s also possible Turkey is attempting to assist the opposition as Russia and Iran bear down on the rebels and militants. Sputnik said on Monday that one Syrian soldier was killed in shelling from Turkey in norther Latakia. “At present, it is the region where the Syrian Armed Forces are carrying out an offensive against the Nusra Front militants and a number of other extremists,” Sputnik notes. “The jihadists aim to establish full control over the Turkish border, through which they regularly receive reinforcements such as equipment and fighters.”

So Turkey, it would appear, is now actively involved in the ground battle – on the side of the terrorists.

“We expect an immediate reaction and explanations of the actions of Turkish military by NATO and the Pentagon,” Gen. Konashenkov says.

Good luck with that.

WHY IS OBAMA FLOODING SMALL TOWNS IN THE MOST CONSERVATIVE PARTS OF AMERICA WITH REFUGEES?

Michael Snyder | Economic Collapse | FEBRUARY 1, 2016

IMAGE CREDIT : INFOWARS.COM

Why are small towns in conservative states being specifically targeted for refugee resettlement? 

Of course the Obama administration will never publicly admit that this is happening, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on. Just look at the uproar that refugee resettlement is now causing in small communities in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Kansas. The Obama administration has deemed large cities such as Washington D.C. to be “too expensive” for the refugees, and so large numbers of them are being dispersed throughout smaller communities all over the nation. If you drop a few hundred refugees into a major city of several million people, it isn’t going to make much of a difference. But if you drop a few hundred refugees into a small town that has only a few thousand people living there, you can start to fundamentally alter the character of the whole area. Could it be possible that this is yet another way that Barack Obama is attempting to “fundamentally transform” America?

You would think that there would be more employment opportunities, cultural attractions and government services available for refugees in major metropolitan areas. So it would seem natural to resettle them in those areas. But instead, there seems to be a major push to resettle large numbers of them in small towns.


Needless to say, this is creating a huge uproar in many areas. In fact, on Monday there is a major protest planned in Missoula, Montana. The following comes from Leo Hohmann of WND…

Another big battle is brewing over Syrian “refugees” sweeping into small-town America.

Rural folks in Montana are pushing back against plans by urban elites to plant hundreds of Muslims from the Third World into Helena and Missoula. They plan a protest rally at 10 a.m. Monday in front of the county courthouse in Missoula. And if the pattern holds of similar rallies in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Fargo, North Dakota, a contingent of pro-refugee people will show up to counter protest.

Well funded pro-immigrant NGOs have been searching out local politicians that are willing to work with them to invite the Obama administration to resettle large numbers of Islamic refugees in their areas. Unfortunately for residents of Missoula, politicians there seem quite willing to open the door…

Here in “Big Sky Country” local politicians in Missoula, working with pro-immigrant NGOs, are inviting the federal government to begin sending Syrians, comparing them to the Hmong refugees who fled Vietnam’s communists in the late 1970s. They have not been deterred by the fact that 98 percent of Syrian refugees are Sunni Muslims, the vast majority of whom FBI Director James Comey admits are impossible to vet for ties to terrorism.
Despite Comey’s warnings, the Missoula Board of County Commissioners sent a letter on Jan. 13 to the U.S. State Department requesting Syrian refuges. “We look forward to seeing approximately 100 refugees per year resettled in Missoula,” the letter states.
“Missoula is an ideal city for resettling refugees,” the letter continues. “Our community enjoys good schools, incredible natural beauty, and a low unemployment rate, among other factors.”

We have all seen the chaos that has erupted in Europe as massive waves of Islamic immigrants have been allowed in and resettled in large numbers in small communities. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about the epidemic of rape that is sweeping across formerly peaceful countries like Norway and Sweden.

And I am sure most of you have already read about the extremely alarming sexual crimes that Germany is dealing with now. But many of us don’t seem to be connecting the dots. What is happening over there could someday happen to our own wives and daughters.

Fortunately, there are some communities that are still willing to step up and take a stand against what the social engineers in Washington D.C. are trying to do. One of those communities is Sandpoint, Idaho…

Sandpoint City Council members voted Wednesday night to withdraw a resolution supporting refugee resettlement, bringing an end to a heated, month-long controversy.
Cheers erupted from the audience when newly elected Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad asked the council to withdraw the resolution from consideration. A measure meant to counter statements from Bonner County commissioners and Sheriff Darryl Wheeler opposing the resettlement of refugees, the resolution was intended to restate Sandpoint’s commitments to human rights, according to Rognstad.
“This resolution has only served to divide us and this community,” said Rognstad, as he requested the withdrawal. “That saddens me.”

Once again, anti-refugee activists turned out in force to oppose the resolution and, once again, the council meeting procedure was punctured by applause and shouts. When Rognstad called for order, the crowd responded with catcalls.

But other small communities in Idaho are not so fortunate.

Just consider what is happening in Twin Falls…

Beginning the next fiscal year (October 1), some 300 Muslim refugees, primarily from Syria, will arrive in Twin Falls, Idaho, the Twin Falls Times reports.
But this miniature exodus from the Middle East to the small southern Idaho town of 45,000 people is believed to be just the tip of the iceberg, according to WND, which indicates that many more refugees from Iraq, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and likely Syria, are on their way. The conservative news site received reports that community leaders were told at a recent Boise State University conference held for “stakeholders” — including church groups and social service providers — that a couple thousand refugees are planned to a arrive statewide soon.

Look, I am all for assisting people that need our help.

In particular, I would love for our country to take in Christians from Iraq and Syria. The things that ISIS has been doing to those that believe in Jesus Christ are almost too horrible to put into words, and yet Barack Obama has been almost totally silent on the matter.

Instead of taking in persecuted Christians, it has been estimated that well over 90 percent of the refugees from Syria are Sunni Muslims, and surveys have found that a significant percentage of them actually have a favorable view of ISIS.

In the mainstream media, we are told quite often that the number of refugees being brought in is 10,000 a year. But that simply is not accurate. In a previous article, I documented the fact that the White House has admitted that the number of refugees being resettled in this country has been increased to 100,000 per year. The following is a message that was tweeted by the official White House Twitter account on September 28th…



I don’t see how there could be any confusion. Barack Obama himself says that we are bringing in 100,000 refugees a year for the next two years.

Not all of these refugees are coming from Syria, but the vast majority of them are coming from countries where a radical version of Sunni Islam is practiced as a way of life.

When large numbers of refugees are injected into a small community, the character of that community can be fundamentally altered. And at this point, it appears that there is a concentrated effort to funnel large numbers of these refugees into small towns in some of the most conservative states in the country.

If you are concerned about what is going on in places like Missoula, Sandpoint and Twin Falls, you might want to check on what your own local politicians are doing.

An insidious agenda is at work, and I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

HACKERS ALLEGEDLY HIJACK DRONE AFTER MASSIVE BREACH AT NASA

Mikael Thalen | Infowars | JANUARY 31, 2016

IMAGE CREDIT: INFOWARS.COM

Members of the AnonSec hacking group have released more than 276GB of data after allegedly spending months inside NASA’s internal network.

The collection of files, provided to Infowars by AnonSec admin Dêfãult Vírüsa prior to being made public Sunday, include 631 videos from aircraft and weather radars, 2,143 flight logs as well as the names, email addresses and phone numbers of 2,414 NASA employees.

A “zine,” or self-published paper detailing the hack, dubbed “OpNasaDrones,” reveals everything from AnonSec’s motives to the specific technical vulnerabilities that enabled the extensive breach.



“NASA has been breached more times than most people can honestly remember… However, this hack into NASA wasn’t initially focused on drones [sic] data and upper atmosphere chemical samples. In fact the original breach into NASA systems wasn’t even planned, it was caught up in a gozi virus spread,” the hackers write, referring to an infamous Trojanthat has infected more than 1 million computers to date.

The Hack

After purchasing an “initial foothold” from a hacker with knowledge of NASA servers over two years ago, the group says it began testing how many machines it could “break into” and “root” – a term referring to an account with complete control over a computer or network.

Brute forcing an administrator’s SSH password, which reportedly only took “0.32” seconds due to the credentials being left as default, AnonSec gained further access inside – allowing them to grab even more login data with a hidden packet sniffer (tcpdump).

The hackers say while some members mapped the network, others analyzed the “different missions, airbases and aircraft” listed by the agency. Public missions like “OIB – Operation Ice Bridge” and drones such as the “Global Hawk“ were among those mentioned.

Deleting records of their presence as they hacked deeper into the agency’s system, AnonSec, who even hacked security cameras and uncovered the schematics to one base’s camera layout, then infiltrated the networks at “Glenn Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center and Dryden Flight Research Center.”

Once inside, the group says it began noticing numerous systems and networked devices “popping up in scans that were not previously visible…”

After sniffing a password belonging to the system administrator, the hackers say they were eventually able to gain full root access to three network-attached storage (NAS) devices tasked with compiling backups of aircraft flight logs.

“Now we had all 3 NAS devices automatically making copies of the logs as they are uploaded from the drones and renaming them to look like semi ordinary index files,” the group writes, mocking the system administrator responsible for protecting the data.

Hackers Attempt to Crash Drone into Pacific Ocean

As the information began flowing unsuspectingly to an AnonSec-controlled server outside of the NASA network, analysis of the data yielded what the hackers described as “weird traffic.”

According to the group, the traffic consisted of “pre-planned route option” files which allow NASA to upload specific flight paths prior to take off.

After protest from several hackers, the group says it decided to carry out a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack several months later that replaced the drone route file with one of their own in an attempt to crash the aircraft into the ocean.

“Several members were in disagreement on this because if it worked, we would be labeled terrorists for possibly crashing a $222.7 million US Drone… but we continued anyways lol,” the zine states.

A screenshot from the hackers shows their intended flight path, which they say was cut short after drone pilots on the ground likely noticed the aircraft’s unusual behavior, forcing NASA to restore manual control.



“This recreated flight is from our attempt to crash the GlobalHawk [sic] into the Pacific Ocean but seemed to have been taken off of the malicious pre-planned route and was controlled via SatCom [sic] by a pilot once GroundControl [sic] realized,” the hackers write.

Soon after the alleged drone episode, the group says it was completely shut out from NASA’s networks.

“Whether it was the high amount of traffic sending drone logs across their compromised network or the attempted crashing of a GlowbalHawk [sic] that caused them to FINALLY inspect their networks, we don’t know. But it went down for a while soon after.”

“When they came back up several days later, we had completely lost access.”



Despite NASA’s ability to boot the hackers by changing passwords and patching critical vulnerabilities, vast amounts of information had already been exfiltrated.

“People might find this lack of security surprising but its [sic] pretty standard from our experience,” the group says. “Once you get past the main lines of defense, its [sic] pretty much smooth sailing propagating through a network as long as you can maintain access.”

Aircraft Footage & Flight Logs

The 631 videos siphoned out, filmed during 2012 and 2013, feature footage of weather radar readings as well as both manned and unmanned aircraft in multiple stages of flight.

One 59-minute video from May of 2012 shows one such drone taking off from a NASA runway before cutting out 30 minutes into its mission.



Other videos appear to be above large bodies of ice, likely related to the agency’s climate studies.



Flight logs which seem to coincide with some of the video files include the location of take off, aircraft model, mission name, sensor readings and GPS coordinates.

A screenshot showing a small portion of one log file, possibly from 2014, details the flight of a DC-8 involved in the public “Alternative-Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise EmiSSions” project.

The Dox

After examining the list of 2,414 employee names, emails and phone numbers, Infowars was able to confirm the legitimacy of several entries.



Although no calls were answered, names mentioned on each answering machine matched those listed in the hack.

At the time of publishing, Infowars did not receive calls back from any employees on the list or representatives at the Glenn Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Dryden Flight Research Center and the NASA Media Room.

Infowars briefly spoke to NASA’s IT Security Division but did not receive a call back for comment.

Infowars did not receive comment from the FBI after both calling and emailing the agency.

Method Behind the Madness

AnonSec’s zine specifically cites climate engineering methods such as cloud seeding and geoengineering as the main driver behind the hack.

“One of the main purposes of the Operation was to bring awareness to the reality of Chemtrails/CloudSeeding/Geoengineering/WeatherModification, whatever you want to call it, they all represent the same thing. NASA even has several missions dedicated to studying Aerosols [sic] and their affects on the environment and weather, so we targeted their systems.”

Cloud seeding, a weather modification method that uses silver iodide to create precipitation in clouds, was most famously used by the U.S. military under “Operation Popeye” during the Vietnam war. After seeding clouds in the northern part of the country, U.S. forces were able to thwart Viet Cong supply lines by creating heavy rain over the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Geoengineering, according to NASA’s Erik Conway, involves “injecting sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere – essentially mimicking a large volcanic eruption,” in an attempt to reflect sunlight away from the planet.

A poll conducted by the Independent in 2009, outlined in the article “Climate scientists: it’s time for ‘Plan B,'” states that more than 50 percent of climate scientists support looking into geoengineering.

“Just over half – 54 per cent – of the 80 international specialists in climate science who took part in our survey agreed that the situation is now so dire that we need a backup plan that involves the artificial manipulation of the global climate to counter the effects of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.”

The hackers link to several mainstream reports and patents as evidence of current weather modification programs.

A 2013 article from Slate entitled, “Climate Intelligence Agency: The CIA is now funding research into manipulating the climate,” examines a 21-month, $630,000 project carried out by The National Academy of Sciences.

“The goal of the CIA-backed NAS study is to conduct a ‘technical evaluation of a limited number of proposed geoengineering techniques,’ according to the NAS website,” the article reads. “Scientists will attempt to determine which geoengineering techniques are feasible and try to evaluate the impacts and risks of each (including ‘national security concerns’).”

Another article from The Telegraph listed by the hackers mentions how “The Chinese government covered Beijing in snow… after meteorologists seeded clouds to bring winter weather to the capital in an effort to combat a lingering drought.”

The hackers argue that if cloud seeding, geoengineering and weather modification “are all publicly acknowledged as real, why are Chemtrails [sic] discredited when its [sic] literally the same exact thing just with a different name?”

“We find it staggering how many people still dont [sic] believe the federal government is doing this when its [sic] already public knowledge that the CIA is funding studies, certain states and countries already have WeatherModification [sic] programs in place for the past several years, not to mention all the government whistleblowers,” the zine says.

AnonSec’s Dêfãult Vírüsa, who spoke with Infowars over encrypted communications, stated that no one involved in the NASA breach has been apprehended by law enforcement.