Brainwashed zombies and hypocrites

So up to 3 million people took to the streets of Paris, including 40 heads of state, to denounce the murders of 17 victims of a streak of Takfiri terror attacks this past week.

Where were they?

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Afghanistan?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the Shia of Saudi Arabia? Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against Shia of Bahrain?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Chechnia?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the Serbian people?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against Libyan people?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the Syrian people? Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Iraq?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Kurdistan?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Lebanon? Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Nigeria?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Pakistan?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of India? Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Russia?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Somalia?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Kenya? Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Yemen? Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Algeria? Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Indonesia?  Nowhere.

Where were these 3 millions and 40 heads of state when abject Takfiri terror was unleashed against the people of Iran?  Nowhere.

Why not?

More questions

Did they not crucify babies in Algeria?  Did they not torture hostages on video in Chechnia?  Did they not spray weddings with bullets in Bosnia?  Did they not blow up bombs in Indonesia?  Did they not skin people alive in Afghanistan?  Did they not keep hostages with live wolves in holes in Chechnia?  Did they not torture to death and crucify people in Syria?

Or is it that some innocent victims are more equal then others?

Why is it that when all of Europe supported the Syrian Takfiris AND the Ukrainian Nazis 3 million of people did not take to the streets?

How many of those 3 million people and 40 heads of state really do not know that Takfirism has been lovingly and carefully nurtured, organized, financed, trained, federated, directed, supported, armed and protected by the AngloZionist Empire?

How many of those 3 million people and 40 heads of state really do not know that Takfirism is a golem which has two functions - to be unleashed against those who dare disobey the Empire and to terrify the people of the West into accepting a police state?

Will we ever learn?

We have already seen all that.  On 9/11 the American people were literally conditioned to react with fear and hysteria.  It worked perfectly and we all know how that ended: with many major wars and millions (Iraq!) of dead people.  Most Americans simply stopped thinking and substituted a panic reaction to careful analysis.  Today Europe is doing exactly the same thing.  The same causes will yield the same results.  Will we ever learn?

And who is the enemy anyway?

Oh sure, they are being oblique about it.  "We are not against Islam!!", "Islam is a religion of peace!!" , "we have nothing against Muslims!!!".

Yeah, right!

The truth is while "they" have nothing against "Islam" and "good Muslims" they ALSO "just happen" to think that "multiculturalism has failed" and that "Islam is incompatible with western societies". Not only that, but since "bad Muslims" tend to hide amongst "good Muslims", let's just stay on the "safe side" and keep a very VERY "close eye" on all "them Muslims" just in case one of them happened to suddenly turn into a  crazed Jihadi suicide bomber.  Right?

Wrong!

Did you notice how ALL these Takfiri freaks "just happen" to have had PLENTY of contacts of all sorts with western security services?  It's like a Ku Klux Klan meeting in the USA: for 10 hooded participants you have 2 morons and 8 Federal Agents working undercover.  Same exact deal for these Takfiris.  And then the two morons do something really really bad, and the 8 Federal Agents "just happen" to vanish in thin air (or commit suicide).  Does that have anything to do with Islam?  Of course not.  It has everything to do with the deep state and the covert manipulation of probably every single terrorist group on the planet.

So what would make more sense: to fear Muslims or the western security services which carefully manipulate the Takfiri freaks?

The truth is what the very same western security agencies which control the Takfiri freaks want us all to hate Muslims.  Why?  Simply to create an atmosphere if social chaos, civil strive and even civil war.   So while we are busing hunting down those "evil Muslims" they can continue to exploit us all.

So what can we do?

Simple!  Our imperial overlords want us to do exactly three things:

• Be terrified
• Hate
• Stop thinking

So all we need to do is to

• Reject fear, endorse courage
• Love
• Think

It is really that simple.  If we fear, hate and stop thinking - they win. If we refuse to fear, if we love and if we think - we win.  Their entire Empire has been built on fear, hate and stupidity.  Let' bring it down by courage, love and intelligence!

What we saw today in Paris was 3 millions and 40 heads of state demonstrating for two basic reasons: some were brainwashed by the media frenzy, others did so for political reasons.  3 million brainwashed zombies and hypocrites.  Let them.  But let us also proclaim loud and clear that we are NOT falling into their trap, that they will NOT pollute our souls with hatred and our brains with stupidity, that if there are millions of brainwashed and zombified people, there are billions who see through the lies and who reject this entire "mental landscape" of hate, fear and stupidity.

The Saker

Two very good articles, one in Russian and one in French

Dear friends,

While I work on the next SITREP I wanted to share with you two very good articles, one in Russian and one in French.

The first article, sent to me by 'D' and entitled "Почему нет военной интервенции РФ на Украину" (Why there is no intervention of the Russian Federation in the Ukraine) provides a detailed and extremely well-written explanation of why Russia is not intervening in the Ukraine.  Until somebody translates it, which I really hope happens, you might be able to use Google or Yandex translators to get a general idea of the points made by the author.  I consider this analysis as a "must read", especially for those who are angry and frustrated by Russia's *apparent* passivity.

If somebody had the time and energy to translate this article into English I would be immensely grateful!

The second article sent to me by 'L' is, believe it or not, a discussion of my alleged "anti-Semitism" (sigh, rolleyes) by what is certainly one of the best French language websites on issues of international security, Dedefensa.org.  Normally, I absolutely *hate* wasting my time trying to prove a negative to the inevitable garden variety "enforcer of political correctness" which pops-up on a regular basis to accuses me of being anti-Jewish just because I use the expression "AngloZionist Empire".  Frankly, replying to such accusations truly depresses me not because I care about what idiot thinks, but because such stupidity makes me lose hope in mankind (if they are really so stupid, what is the point?!).  The great joy for me is that the folks at Dedefensa actually did come to their own correct conclusions about my worldview in an article entitled A Propos de Saker and they did so simply by paying attention to what I actually wrote.  I am very grateful to Dedefensa for setting the record straight and reminding me how many good and smart people are still out there fighting the good fight!  It also proves to me that those who pretend to have "sincere doubts" about my views about racism are simply intellectually dishonest, they don't care at all about the truth and they are just looking for a pretext to slander and bully me into surrendering to their ideology.

That's it for now.  I hope to have the next SITREP ready in a few hours.

Kind regards,

The Saker

The Chairman of the US JCS makes some completely irresponsible threats (UPDATED!)

This from Zero Hedge:

With diplomacy having failed miserably to resolve the Russian annexation of Crimea, and soon East Ukraine (and with John Kerry in charge of it, was there ever any doubt), the US is moving to the heavy artillery. First, moments ago, the US DOE announced in a shocking announcement that it would proceed with the first draw down and sale of crude from the US strategic petroleum reserve, the first since June 2011, in what it said was a "test sale to check the operational capabilities of system infrastructure", but is really just a shot across the bow at Putin for whom high commodity prices are orders of magnitude more important than how the Russian stock market performs. And now, as Bloomberg just reported, the US has escalated even further, citing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, who "has claimed that in the case of an escalation of unrest in Crimea, the U.S. Army is ready to back up Ukraine and its allies in Europe with military actions."

So much for those peaceful hour long phone calls between Obama and Putin.

From Bloomberg:

According to the Web site of the Atlantic Council, Dempsey said that "he's been talking to his military counterparts in Russia, but he's also sending a clear message to Ukraine and members of NATO that the U.S. military will respond militarily if necessary."

"We're trying to tell [Russia] not to escalate this thing further into Eastern Ukraine, and allow the conditions to be set for some kind of resolution in Crimea. We do have treaty obligations with our NATO allies. And I have assured them that if that treaty obligation is triggered [in Europe], we would respond," Dempsey said.

According to the General, the incursion of Russian troops into the Crimea creates risks for all the countries of Europe and NATO allies.

"If Russia is allowed to do this, which is to say move into a sovereign country under the guise of protecting ethnic Russians in Ukraine, it exposes Eastern Europe to some significant risk, because there are ethnic enclaves all over Eastern Europe and the Balkans," Dempsey said.

I have to say that I am appalled by the sight of a Chairman of the Joint Chief seriously implying that NATO has treaty obligations towards a country which is not even member of NATO, seriously implying that Russia is a threat to NATO or seriously suggesting that NATO forces could be used against Russia.  Yes, Dempsey did put quite a few "ifs" around this statements, but the general impression is, of course, of a direct military threat to Russia.

How is Russia likely to respond?

There is a Russian popular saying which exactly covers this kind of situation.  It goes like this: "Пугать ежа голой задницей" which can roughly be translated as "to scare a hedgehog with a naked butt". 

If anything, Dempsey's threats will only serve to make the US and NATO look weaker to the Russians.  Culturally, Russians have always looked down on threats which they typically see as a sign of weakness.  If you are strong - why would you need to make threats?  Did you notice that during the first 10 days of the crisis in the Ukraine Putin did not make a single TV appearance?  And then, he took action before he decided to speak (sending the Polite Armed Men in Green to Crimea).  In the Russian mentality a barking dog is far less dangerous than a quiet one and all that Dempsey will achieve with his latest outburst is to trigger even more contempt for the western elites than before.

The Kremlin already knows that Obama is a clown.  Now they have a confirmation that Dempsey is another clown.  Who does this leave?  Biden?  He is a complete buffoon.  Kerry?  Smart man, but a pathological liar who simply cannot be trusted.  Not Susan Rice - she is a warmongering maniac (see her track record on Syria).  And EU politicians are, frankly, no better.

So, in my opinion, this is one of the biggest dangers the world faces today: the western leader are not only evil and immoral, they are also hopelessly stupid, incompetent and arrogant.  As a result - there is really nobody in the western capitals which Russia can talk to.  Having put their full political credibility and weight behind a sad and nauseating gang of neo-Fascist insurgents, the western leaders are now stuck with the consequences of their own actions and not a single one of them has the courage or moral probity to admit that they completely FUBARed the situation.  

As I have written recently, the US and NATO have no rational military options in the Ukraine.  But a combination of arrogance stupidity can trigger clearly unwinnable wars as was the case in the 2006 Israeli attack on Hezbollah and in the 2008 Georgian attack on Russia (both of which were 100% backed and even directed from the USA). 

Is there really nobody who can stop these maniacs?

Frankly, this is as sad as it is frightening.

The Saker 

UPDATE: "S.E."  has just contributed a very interesting comment (thanks!) which I think is important enough to be placed here in-extenso.  He wrote:

Dempsey: this is actually from his interview on friday with PBS Newshour, but with a slight twist from Bloomberg that makes it seem like he threatens military intervention in Crimea. On Sic Semper Tyrannis, which might be well known to some of the readers of this blog, the interview was interpreted at a push AGAINST war fever, see http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2014/03/dempsey-pushes-back-against-war-fever-harper.html#more

I will ignore the fact that Dempsey seems to think that its the Russians which are reneging on the February 21st agreement, and point out the real key sentence here:

"Our role, as the military, is to seek ways to influence this without it being escalatory. And, by the way, I do have this open line with my Russian  counterpart. So, everything that we have done, I tell him, here's what were doing. Here's why were doing it. We disagree fundamentally about your claim of legitimacy, but, as militaries, let's try to avoid escalating this thing."

That is *exactly* what I would hope the top US and Russian military commanders to do.   So it appears that Bloomberg took Dempsey's statements at least out of context and that Zero Hedge and myself should have been far more cautious about this.  Well, all I can say is "kudos to SE!!" for pointing this out to me.  At the very least, this makes me breathe easier :-)

Guys, please make sure to read the post on Sic Semper Tyrannis.  I will to find a video link to the full interview (if you have it - please post it in the comments section).

Thanks and kind regards,

The Saker

Justice "European style" or how EU politicians have lost any sense of self-respect

The EU is really terminally degenerate.  These two pearls come off the BBC website at the same time:

EU imposes Ukraine sanctions after deadly Kiev clashes (which the EU blames entirely on the government, nevermind that 13 unarmed cops were murdered by sniper fire overnight)
Germany arrests three suspected Auschwitz guards (the three arrested men are 88, 92 and 94 and had therefore to be brought to a prison hospital)

I honestly don't know what to think about European politicians.  Are they just completely insane?  Have they lost any remaining drop of common sense?   Do they really not see how ridiculous and despicable they are?  How can they even look at themselves in the mirror and not die of shame?

Every time I hear or see any of these self-enamored pompous asses I feel like flushing a toilet and forgetting what I just saw.

Yeah, I agree with Mrs. Nuland - fuck the EU!

The Saker

"CF->CYA" - the magic formula of the Empire of Illusions

Well, it sure looks like the United States of Amnesia have rapidly recovered from the use of a so-called "weapon of mass destruction" (a pressure cooked) in Boston and has turned to more important topics like Angelina Jolie's breasts.

And yet, the official narrative is being challenged by so many facts that it is really worth at taking a short look at it.

There was already the Hollywood-like one billion dollar per day lockdown of Boston which managed not to find a severely wounded and bleeding teenager which, as soon as the neighborhood he was in was declared "checked", was found by a private citizen. There was the photos of the naked but otherwise totally healthy Tamerlan Tsarnaev formally recognized by his mother which were shot in the exact location which the cops were searching and which were dismissed by the FBI as "coincidence".  Instead, the cops declared that Tamerlan had been shot and run over by, no, not by cops, but by his younger brother Dzhokhar.  There was the "yes, the Russians did warn us "zig" followed by the "but they gave us no actionable intelligence "zag" episode.  Then, after the eventual capture of the young Dzhokhar, there was the "he has confessed" statement by the FBI contradicted by Dzhokhar's parents ("he cannot speak, how can he confess?!").

Then the action shifted to Orlando, Florida, where a friend of the Tsarnaev brothers - Ibragim Todashev - who, after being interrogated by 4 armed FBI agents suddenly attacked them with his bare hands and got shot six times, including one bullet in the back of his head.  Unsurprisingly, his father now claims that he son was executed.

In the meantime, the two FBI agents who arrested Tsarnaev were taken by helicopter 12 miles off the US coast were they both "fell out" of the FBI helicopter and died.  Later, official sources denied that these two special agents had participated in the Tsarnaev arrest.  (They did not explain what exactly the FBI special agents were doing right on the limit of the US territorial waters though or how they "fell out"...).

Still, bad luck seems to strike "arresting" agents of the US government.  Remember how 22 of the 23 members of the SEAL team who "killed" Bin Laden then all died in a helicopter accident in Afghanistan? That would leave one alive?  Nope - Nicolas D. Checque died in combat December 2012, also in Afghanistan.  That is 23/23.

Ok, some of the info above might be false, based on rumors, uncorroborated or outright fabricated.  That is the problem when everything is classified "secret" - it does not leave the general public many means to find out the truth other than, of course, simply accepting the official narrative.

As for Uncle Shmuel and his hyper-subservient corporate media, they simply deny it all, but without giving any substantiation to their denials.

Take the (immediately forgotten) case of the "lost nuclear warheads and series of  mysterious deaths in the USAF".  Or the most convenient death of the most inconvenient WTC7 witness, Barry Jennings.  I won't even go into the Kennedy assassinations.

Personally, and unlike in the case of the 9/11 events which were clearly the result of an 'inside job" and  controlled demolitions, I don't necessarily see a big conspiracy in the Boston bombings case.  This looks to me like an all-American specialty: a "CF" (clusterf**ck) followed by a desperate attempt to "CYA" (cover your *ss).  In the case of the SEAL team which supposedly killed Bin Laden, this looks more suspicious to me, if only because I am convinced that OBL died in 2004 (several Russian officials - including the very well-informed head of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Sergei Pushkov,  - have confirmed this).  And yet it looks that something or somebody was involved in a firefight in Abbottabad.  Probably not OBL himself, but somebody did return fire and was killed.  And the assault team did make a determined effort to clean up the place from key evidence before leaving the place.  So something happened that night, and all (most?) the key witnesses are dead.  Maybe just to protect them from retaliation, but maybe not.  I don't know.

The same "CF->CYA" model is now being implemented in preparation of the (very partial) US withdrawal from Afghanistan.  If that topic interests you, I highly recommend the superb documentary "This Is What Winning Looks Like" in three parts on Youtube.

None of this is very surprising, really, the USA has truly become an "Empire of Illusions" (to borrow Chris Hedges excellent expression).  Or think of recent Presidents: if beyond any doubt the Presidency of Baby Bush could be summarized as a massive "CF", is Obama's presidency an endless exercise in "CYA"?

Now think of the situation in Syria?  Remember how, two years ago, Uncle Shmuel have Assad just a couple of month?  And then how all the Takfiri crazies from Libya naturally moved from "conquered" Libya into Mali and, mostly, Syria.  And now that the situation looks really dangerous, Kerry is coming to Moscow with a contrite smile on his face, and speaks about the Geneva Accords while the insurgency, the EU and Congress want nothing to do with any peace conference at all.  What is this if not a grand "CF->CYA" operation?

This "CF->CYA" is literally all over the policies of Uncle Shmuel and his corporate nightmare.  Nothing works out as planned and, just as a person stuck in quicksands, each effort to "CYA" only makes the situation worse and worse and worse and worse again.

This model really extends far beyond the borders of the USA, it also is the key formula to understand the policies of the USA's western colonies (aka "Europe).  There is, of course, the iconic example of Mr. Hollande, the most incompetent, passive or, to use a most appropriate expression, flaccid French President ever.  I have no idea where they found this guy, but I don't think I have ever seen somebody so comprehensively clueless at the helm of a country with a 1'500 year old history and nuclear weapons.  And what does Mr. Hollande do with this time?  Yup, "CF-CYA" of course!  And its not only him.  It is the entire EU which looks like The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.  Having "successfully" mugged Cyprus, they are now seriously considering using the same trick elsewhere in the EU.

This would all be funny if it did not spread death and chaos all over the planet.  For an Empire fully centered on illusions, consequences on the ground really don't matter.  As long as CNN says it is a success, it is a success.  The illusion becomes the goal.  And as long as the consequences of these illusions are not shown on TV, they do not really exist.  Simple and neat.

Orwell would be proud.

The Saker

The Boston bombing as a symptom of the terminal decline of the US Empire

Do you remember how crowds on Boston cheered and celebrated their "victory" when, after a week-long manhunt, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was finally arrested? 


When I saw these videos I marveled at how stupid American crowds can get, but I decided not to post anything about it since, after all, stupidity is not something worth posting about, I think.

Still, I though, what a pathetic display of incompetence and ignorance, what a total over-reaction.  First, the entire city was put on lock down something which never happened elsewhere, not in Israel, not in Ulster, not in the Russian Caucasus, not in India, not in any other city affected by a rather minor wannabe terror event.  Yes, this was a *MINOR* attack, executed by completely incompetent amateurs.   And don't take my word for it, read the excellent analysis of Israeli Haaretz reporter Chemi Shalev in his article "The Boston bombers have already scored a tremendous victory for terror" in which he mentions the "amateurish" terror of the two Chechens.

Keep in mind that according to some estimates each day of the Boston lock down cost up to 1 billion dollars to the US economy.  Yes, that is 1'000'000'000 dollars.  This is what one billion dollar look like:

One Billion Dollar is stacked on 12 standard pallets, altogether 10 million 100 USD notes

And what did the cheering Bostonians get for that?

Here is the official version of how Dzokhar Tsarnaev was arrested:

First, the cops put an entire city block in total lock down and flooded it with cops and SWAT teams.  Then they went from house to house and checked every single house, every room, everything.  Then, eventually, they declared the area safe.  Then at 5AM some guy got out of his house to smoke a cigarette or something, and he saw some blood on his boat, he looked inside and found Dzokhar Tsarnaev lying in a pool of his own blood.  He called the cops, who came and arrested Tsarnaev (that is all from memory, correct me if I missed something).

Now, if that is true, why is nobody asking why the super-dooper Boston cops and SWAT teams, assisted by many K-9 units, did not find Tsarnaev the first time around?  Did *any* reporter or commentator wonder about this, or is this just me?

Maybe the BPD deserves some rotten tomatoes tossed at them in disgust, rather than the standing ovation they got?

But that is just a beginning.

Then we learn that the BPD arrested a Tamerlan Tsarnaev look-alike, stripped him naked, and packed him away, and then they released him but nobody knows where this Tsarnaev look-alike is now.  The BPD denies any connection.  Too bad that Tsarnaev's mother categorically states that this is her son (Russian TV news station Rossia 1 report). 

Mrs Tsarnaeva on Russian TV

Now, it really would be a bad thing if this turned out to be true, would it not?

But things get even better.

Now, it turns out that the Russians warned not only the FBI but even the CIA.  The Americans are now saying that this was too little.  But that is patently false.  If the Russians did not give enough evidence to the FBI/CIA to take action against the Tsarnaev brothers, they gave them plenty enough actionable intelligence to put them under tight surveillance.  Guess what?  It turns out that the FBI did put them under some kind of surveillance which included wiretapping (again, we know that through the mother) and an interview with the two brothers.  Well, even after that the FBI/CIA folks managed to miss not only the entire preparation of the bombing but it also took them many precious hours to pinpoint the two brothers as likely suspects (after parsing the various video recordings of the bombing).

That's not all folks, it gets even sexier than that!

Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has now declared to the Georgian TV channel Rustavi-2 that it was possible that Chechen terrorists had received terrorism training in Georgia during the Presidency of US-hyperally Mikheil Saakashvili.  The latter, of course, emphatically denies any such accusations.  Now, since we know who trains the Georgians (the very same FBI/CIA/etc), it is not hard to figure out that if the Tsarnaev brothers were linked to any "Georgian" (aka "US") Chechen terror network, any reports from the Russians to the FBI/CIA would only confirm what they already knew since they, themselves, were the folks running the Chechen networks.

So what is there to celebrate, my dear Bostonians?

That your cops and SWAT teams could not find their own butts in the dark?
That your security services are unable to keep an eye even on amateurish wannabe terrorists?
That your politicians are spending billions of dollars on nothing?
That your government pays, trains and support terrorist organizations abroad?
That your absurd and paranoid laws make it possible to consider a pressure-cooker as a "weapon of mass destruction"

American "weapon of mass destruction"

This would all be very funny if it was not all deeply symptomatic of a regime in complete moral and intellectual decline.  Under the Presidency of Barak "Yes we can" "Change we can believe in" Obama the USA has become even more incompetent and at the same type evil than under his (already pathetic) predecessors.

And its not only the White House, the Congress or the cheering boneheads in Boston.  How is that for a typically American over-reaction:

Williams-Sonoma Pulls Pressure Cookers Off Shelves in Massachusetts

Following the Boston Marathon bombing last Monday in which pressure cookers were used for the explosion, the cookware giant has decided to temporarily stop selling the items in their Massachusetts stores.

Williams-Sonoma, the specialty retailer of home furnishings and gourmet cookware with over 250 stores in the United States, has pulled pressure cookers from their shelves following the Boston Marathon bombing.

"It's a temporary thing out of respect," said Kent, who is the Store Manager of the Williams-Sonoma at the Natick Mall. He referred Patch to corporate for further questions. Williams-Sonoma also has a local branch at Legacy Place in Dedham.

Pressure cookers will still be available on the Williams-Sonoma website (...)

I have a great idea:  Why not outlaw pressure cookers altogether?!  After all, there is no 2nd Amendment protecting pressure cookers.  Or is there?  Since pressure cookers are now considered as weapons of mass destruction, maybe they ought to be protected under the 2nd Amendment?

Seriously,  all these otherwise point into the same direction: a (former? actual?) super-power which shows all the signs of the mental age of a 6 year old combined with the infinite arrogance of a pimply teenager.  Think of it - in terms of "government performance" the entire Boston bombing episode is just one long and never ending FUBAR/SNAFU kind of cluster****.  They did *everything* wrong and they did *nothing* right.  Worse, that abject failure at all levels did not take their imperial arrogance down at all, not even by one modest notch.  And its all the same, presidency after presidency.  If the previous moron brought us the "freedom fries" this one brings us the "pressure cooker" as WMD.  And nobody laughs, nobody protests, there are no riots, no demonstrations.  Nothing.  Nothing at all.  Why?  Because Americans got used to this, because that absolute rule by crass stupidity on all levels has now become "business as usual", it has become normal.

All I can think of saying to the cheering idiots in Boston is this:"if you like your present, you will love your future!"

The Saker

Newsflash for the intellectually challenged: guns are completely irrelevant!

There are certain topics which I really hate.  I hate them not inherently, not because they make me feel somehow uncomfortable, but because both sides of the issue are equally repulsive, self-righteous, ideological and totally stupid.  One such topics is "abortion rights".  Oh how much I hate both pro-lifers and pro-choicers!  But today I am going to vent about another topic which fills me with an overwhelming desire to, maybe, "shoot them all!"?

Gun control.

Rather than going into some fancy analysis (after all, I am only venting, not analyzing), I will just tell each side why I hate them so much.

Gun controllers - I hate you because:

a) You are totally obsessing over a completely irrelevant topic.  Yes, guns don't matter one bit in our society. They matter far less than cars, phones or computers.  And if you are going to give me that crap about guns killing people, I will ask you about "car control" or "obesity control".  Bottom line: you are like dumb sheep who follow the purely ideological agenda of your political leaders who instead of looking at the real issues want to have you all get upset about a topic which they, the "One Percenters", don't give a shit about.

b) Your entire outlook is predicated on a total fallacy: that regulating or banning guns will reduce violence.  In fact, it won't even reduce *gun* violence for a simple reason: gun violence is only legal when engaged in by representatives of the state, all other form of gun violence are illegal.  And since the action itself is illegal, it is hardly going to be controlled by making illegal the acquisition of the implement needed for the illegal action.  Got it?

c) You are confusing everything and anything: automatic weapons with semi-auto, clips sizes with calibers, hollow-point rounds with "cop killer" ammo, assault rifles with submachine guns, submachine guns with machine guns, and I won't even go to hunting rifles or knives (which most of you also want to regulate/ban).   Most of you see an AR-15 semi-auto and think of it as an "military assault rifle".  The fact is you don't care one bit about the "firearms" or "guns" you want to ban, as long as you get to "disarm the brutes" (or so you think).  You always begin with "military weapons" (whatever that means) and you end up banning knives and box cutters!

Gun righters - I have you because:

a) You are actually dumb enough to say with a straight face that giving guns to people will protect them from tyranny.  Let me break it to you: not only have their been plenty of tyrannical regimes which were more than happy to distribute guns, a single platoon of well-trained government goons will easily wipe-out several hundred of gun-toting civilians who would be dumb enough to challenge them.

b) For all your "concealed carry license" and gun magazines, you fail to realize that 99% of all folks out there cannot defend themselves with a gun.  Not with a handgun, not with a rifle, not with an assault rifle.  Most folks can only miss and freak out. If you had any common sense you would realize that a dog is far, *FAR* better defense against violence (including gun violence) than a frigging gun.  Let me break it to you again: there is a darn good reason why cops regularly go to the shooting range - guns are hard to use.  And then, look at how often even trained cops end up doing God knows what (mostly miss, run and duck) when in a shoot-out.

c) Most of you cretins think that guns are somehow patriotic.  They are not.  They are just tools, implements, devices.  They are no more "American" than knives or even fly-swatters.  The only thing truly American about guns is the mental dysfunction which consists of thinking of guns are patriotic.  In other, civilized, countries guns are simply no big deal.

A couple of days ago I saw this cretin Obama standing with is VP offering a new set of gun control measures.  Half of the morons reacted with delight, half with outrage.  And ever since the airwaves are filled with a deluge of imbecilic statements about guns.  What is really happening, of course, is this:

The USA is ruled by a tiny plutocracy which holds total power over society.  There are no liberals here, and no conservatives.  All I see is *serfs* who must toil in increasingly worsening conditions to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.  And in order to create the ILLUSION of a political life, the One Percenters simply toss in the "gun control" issue, so the pseudo-liberals can "feel liberal" and the pseudo-conservatives can "feel conservative".  And as long as you morons keep on taking that kind of nonsense seriously, you are doing exactly what the One Percenters want you do to: arguing about a completely irrelevant topic while your masters are laughing at you.

Wake up guys,  you are being conned!  Stop it!

The Saker

France is walking straight into a disaster of epic proportions

Francois Hollande, already one of the most hated Presidents in French history, is clearly desperate to try to change his image of being Mr "couille molle" (literally: limp dick), a nickname he got from within his own political party.  Like Sarkozy, he wants to flex some military muscle to prove that he is also a great man.

Nevermind that the French soldiers are underpaid, under-equipped, and that most their promotions have been put on indefinite hold.  Hollande has clearly tried to show some good old machismo, and the results are a total disaster.

a) In Somalia, the French botched a commando rescue operation to save one of their operatives who had been kidnapped 3 years ago.  Result: dead hostage, one killed commando, one missing in action.

b) In Mali, the French have embarked on a major military operation to try to somehow prop up the collapsing Bamako government.

c) In Algeria, French hostages have been taken by Islamist insurgents.

In the first case, the French have been on the wrong side of history since many years already, but in the second and third cases, this is a direct result of "blowback" form the French war on Libya to topple and murder Muammar Gaddafi.

It is sadly ironic that the forces which the French Rafales are bombing today in Mali are the very same forces on whose behalf the French Rafales bombed Libya.  This time, however, the French are engaged in a war they simply cannot win. Take a look at the size of the real theatre of operations:

This territory is *huge*.  Just the size of the newly declared state of Azawad (in red in the picture above) is twice the size of Germany.  The actual theatre of operations is far bigger as this map shows in green.  One could wonder what in the world the French were thinking before taking on such an insane task?

The sad reality is that France has a long history of engaging in insanely stupid military operations.  Most of you probably heard of the Dien Bien Phu disaster.  But very few people know that under President Jacques Chirac the French proposed a copycat of the Dien Bien Phu operation to the NATO command, but this time in the mountains of eastern Bosnia: the French offered to send paratroopers into the Bosnian-Muslim city of Gorazde which was surrounded on all sides by mountains controlled not by the Viet Minh forces, but by the Bosnian-Serbs.  Take a look at where the French wanted to send their troops:

All they wanted from the Americans was to have US helicopters transport the French troops into Gorazde.  Needless to say, the Americans categorically refused.  In disgust, Holbrooke even called this crazy idea ‘Dien Bien Gorazde’!  Anglo pragmatism and sense of history really saved a lot of lives on this occasion!

This time around, the French don't want to send their paratroopers into a surrounded "rice bowl bottom" as in Dien Bien Phu or Gorazde, this time they want to control most of the Sahara desert with roughly 1'400 men and airstrikes.  Brilliant no?

Nevermind that there are no good targets to strike there.  The best the French aviation can provide is reconnaissance and close air support to its contingent on land.  Useful, yes, but most definitely not enough to make a real difference.  Desert warfare is very similar to naval warfare in which the battlefield constantly changes, with no real lines of defense, no key objectives to control, and an environment which basically cannot be "held" in any meaningful way.  Logistics, however, are always a nightmare.

According to the BBC these are the forces available to the French right now:

• Some 1,400 French troops in Mali, 900 troops involved elsewhere in Africa
• French Mirage and Rafale jets, Gazelle helicopters
• Chad to send 2,000 troops
• Nigeria to send 900 troops; Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo expected to send 500 each, and Benin 300
• Ghana, Guinea and Chad also to send troops
• UK providing two C17 cargo planes for French effort
• Belgium and Denmark also sending transport planes
• US to provide communications help

You can immediately forget the cosmetic contributions in forces from Chad, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana and other African "military superpowers".  They will not fire a single shot and most of what they will do is provide some (mostly symbolic) security in populated areas.

As for the transport planes provided by NATO allies, they are not sufficient and this is why Russia is "helping" France by transporting heavy equipment in AN-124 heavy lift transporters (for money, of course).  Needless to say, the Western corporate media is not reporting this rather embarrassing need for Russian assistance.

The USA has secret bases inside Mali, even in Azawad, mostly special forces deployed as part of the GWOT and the US hunt for al-Qaeda, but they are staying well clear from the French operation.  For all practical purposes, the French are very much on their own, at least as far as real, boots on the ground, combat is concerned.

The French will enjoy better mobility, better communications, better electronic intelligence and superior firepower.  None of that will make any damn difference.  The Tuaregs, whom the French are now fighting have been at this war literally for years, and now they have benefited from an absolutely huge influx from fighters and military equipment from Libya, courtesy of France's war on Libya.

As for the Islamists, as the attack in Algeria has shown, they can strike anywhere they want, even in Senegal, Ivory Coast or even Cameroon.  Heck, they can easily strike even in France itself, which now has something in the range of 25% of all of its population immigrants from northern Africa.

Bottom line: France is walking straight into a disaster of epic proportions, and it is doing that at a time when the French economy has come to a practical standstill and under the rule of a clueless President whose only distinguishing characteristic is his formidable mediocrity and absolute lack of imagination.

This is an explosive situation which could explode into a real social crisis very rapidly.

The Saker

This is becoming boooooring

Syrian WMD now.  Nevermind that the only case of use of chemical weapons "against his own people" was by Saddam under the high patronage of, what else, the USA.  Nevermind that it is also nonsense.  Nevermind that it would make no sense.

The US "patriotic crowd" seems to be buying this one too...

Palestinians are now reaping the bitter fruits of their own miscalculations

Amongst the many calamities which have befallen the Palestinian people one of the worst ones is being systematically led by incompetent and corrupt leaders with no strategic vision and a true knack for always choosing the wrong side in a conflict.  From their misguided alliance with all kinds of unsavory terrorist groups in the 1970s, to their support for Saddam, to their naive participation in the Oslo Accords, to today completely misguided support for the NATO-Wahabi insurgents in Syria - the Palestinian leaders seem to never miss an opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot.

The fact that the Israelis have successfully split the Palestinians into three separate groups (Israeli citizens vs West Bank residents vs Gaza residents) is certainly the most glaring example of how easily the Palestinian elites can be manipulated.  And each time, there is hell to pay by the Palestinian people for such mistakes by their leaders.

Look at the situation in Syria.  What have the Palestinians done to themselves this time?  By siding with the NATO-Wahabi insurgency, they have essentially turned against Hezbollah and Iran, their only true friends in the region.  In contrast, the Israelis have carefully succeeded in completely isolating Hamas and now they can afford to safely bomb and kill as many people of the Gaza strip as they want.

And what can Hamas do in retaliation?  Fire some rather useless rockets at Israel and hype the rhetoric about "opening the Gates of Hell" for Israel which, of course, is utter nonsense.  The truth is that the Israeli Iron Done does a halfway decent job shooting down many Palestinian missiles and even when the Palestinian missiles actually succeed in killing a Israeli family (like what happened today), it only serves the political agenda of the Israeli government.

In May of this year I wrote a piece I entitled Clueless Arab and Palestinian leaders and pundits: "¡Que se vayan todos!" expressing my despair and disgust with the Palestinian leadership.  Since May, things only got worse, and innocent Palestinians are dying again as a direct consequence of the mistakes and miscalculations of the Palestinian leaders.  And this really begs the following question: how many more Palestinians will have to die before the Palestinian people realize that they are led by a clique of completely incompetent leaders which do not make things better for the Palestinian people, but only worse, much worse.

The Saker

French magazing to publish "shocking caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed"

Amazing. According to Ha'aretz,

A French satirical weekly magazine announced Tuesday it would publish caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed, a move that could spark further protests by Muslims already enraged at an internet video insulting Islam.   Stephane Charbonnier, editor of the weekly Charlie Hebdo, told broadcaster iTele that the caricatures to appear Wednesday "would shock those who wanted to be shocked." He said the decision was aimed at defending freedom of the press

Worthy of the Darwin Awards, if you ask me.

Excellent, the "gene pool" of the French "caviar-Left" badly needs some cleaning :-)

The Saker

Fars News Agency get the prize for the most delusional version of "The Russians Are Coming"

I don't have much respect for the corporate media and, for that matter, very little for most of the alternative media.  But the prize for stupid, delusional, or even outright psychotic reporting goes to the Iranian Fars news agency which managed to print the following:

"Russian atomic submarines" and "1000" tanks will soon come to Syria. Right.  I don't know what the hell the folks at Fars are smoking, but they all should be fired and get a job at the National Enquirer or DEBKAfile.

Just to be absolutely clear, let me repeat:

==>>The Russians are NOT, repeat, NOT coming<<==

The Saker

Kindergarten false flag ops and other nonesense (UPDATED)

Remember the ridiculous fairytale about the  "Iranian terrorist' arrested in the USA"?  Well, it looks like these kinds of "kindergarten false flag operations" are picking up pace.  After the clueless Iranian 'terrorist' in the USA, we were told about a clueless bomber in Delhi (who only managed to wound a few people) and a homemade toy bomb in Georgia (it used a regular hand grenade).  Now it get even better: we have "Iranian bomber blows himself up" in Thailand.

This reminds me of The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight comedy: if that is all the terrorism the world is facing, we can all safely sleep and just wait for these wannabe terrorists to blow themselves up to smithereens...

And to think that deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage called Hezbollah the "A-Team of terrorists" only to have the Iranians and Hezbollah act like teenage wannabe terrorists who cannot get a single attack to produce even one fatality!

Seriously, one can wonder what is going on here.  After all, the US/Israeli Empire has the world for most experts on false flag terrorism!  The people who organized Operation Gladio in Europe and who did 9/11 at home are not teenagers, but world-class experts with an impressive record of extremely well executed complex false flag operations.

And yet, the nonsense does not stop here.

Turns out, the Yanks are have sent an aircraft carrier into the Strait of Hormuz for a second time already.  Now what are they trying to prove to the Iranians?  How stupid they really are?  Seriously, if there is one place on earth were you do not want to put an aircraft carrier it is a strait, any strait (nevermind an enemy controlled one!).

All this talk about the Iranians sinking a US carrier is utter nonsense unless, of course, the USN is dumb enough to actually put a carrier into the SoH!   That is about the only spot in the world oceans were the Iranians really could sink a US carrier, rather rapidly and easily in fact.

But the USN is not dumb, not at all, and it fully understands that an aircraft carrier is a blue-water beast, that has to be keep hundreds of miles away from its potential targets. This is why USN air operations doctrine does not call for sticking a carrier in any strait, much less so an enemy-controlled one.   In fact, I predict that the USN will flush all its major surface vessels out of the Persian Gulf before any strike on Iran (that would be a good 'indicator and warning' of an imminent attack) as any USN ship trapped inside the Persian Gulf when the missiles start flying would be a sitting duck for the Iranian military.

So unless some super secret (and skilled!) Iranian-Hezbollah bioterror attack force has managed to infect the Empire's leaders with an infantile stupidity inducing virus, I don't really understand what all this means.

It all looks like a bad B-series slapstick comedy movie and it all would be hilarious indeed if many thousands of innocent lives were not potentially at stake.

The Saker

UPDATE: good article here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30543.htm

911 truth: Israel, Jews, Neocons and the ADL - now that you mention it...

In preparation for the 10th anniversary of September 11th attacks, the Anti-Defamation League went on the offensive with a long article entitled "Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later", a very interesting piece indeed which I urge you call to carefully read.  FYI, on of the persons the ADL mentions, wrote a reply in the form of an open letter to Abe Foxman, the ADL director.  Anyway, Abe's article has an interesting structure.

He begins by saying how bad the "anti-Semitic faction of the 9/11 Truth movement" is.  Then, he goes on listing all the "bad things" these folks say.  What he does not do, however, is in any way shape or form try to dispute or, much less so, disprove the claims these folks make.  I guess in his logic if "bad, bad, really bad" people says XYZ, then XYZ is self-evidently wrong.  Either that or, and I am inclined to believe the latter, he is training his audience of doubleplusgoodthinking Israel-fanboys to reject as crimethink any and all forms of arguments XYZ without any need to actually *think* about them.

Clearly, Abe thinks that we are all idiots and he wants to train us like Pavlov's dogs, to have a unconscious conditioned response rejecting whatever it is that the ADL finds objectionable.

Think about it: if "conspiracists" is bad, and "anti-Semite" is superlatively loathsome, then just imagine how absolutely unspeakably abominable an "anti-Semitic conspiracist" will be!

Seriously, the Imperial Establishment is clearly "pushing back" with all its power propagandistic power.  Alas, it's not only the ADL, its the entire propaganda machine which is barraging us with propaganda, from the BBC, to Alexander Cockburn - the anti Truther campaign is in full swing.

How stupid does the US regime think that we all are?

A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama Bin Laden and took custody of his body (...) We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country

Barak Obama

All this totally smacks of a "Jessica Lynch v2" kind of operation.  Remember Jessica Lynch? 

In "version one" of her story the blond, blue eyed all-American Private First Class heroically fought hordes of Iraqis manning a 50mm gun all by herself; she was then captured by evil Iraqis, raped, tortured, and eventually freed in a totally brilliant rescue operations by a hodgepodge of US special forces including the glorious and invincible Navy SEALs.  That was all lies, of course.  Turns out that "version two" of her account is like so:  she had been hiding in a truck and wounded, she was taken to a hospital, treated, then the Iraqis put her in an ambulance and tried to deliver her to US troops only to end up being shot at by the latter.  When the US supermen came into the hospital the Iraqis were quite delighted at handing her over.  Our glorious rescuers then staged a fake battle for cameras which was shown the the public.  In fact, their entire "rescue operation" was as easy as a UPS package pickup.

Well, sure looks to me that the "best soldiers in the world" did it again.  This time "version one" was supposed to go like this: after a 40min firefight the glorious and super-dooper hyper-secret SEAL Team 6 (aka "DEVGRU") cornered the evil Osama Bin Laden who was hiding behind a woman cowardly using her as a human shield.  Evil Osama then opened fire with a Kalashnikov and our Navy supermen then had to shoot him down.

We know are finding out that "version two" really  went something like this: OBL, assuming it was really him and that he was still alive, was with his private doctor (the shot female).  There were no weapons or explosives anywhere in the house.  There never was a firefight since not a single round was ever fired at the glorious in invincible SEAL Team Six who having easily take OBL into custody simply shot him in front of his family and carried his body away.  The glorious and invincible SEAL Team Six did manage to have such a mechanical breakdown in their super-dooper, specially modified, helicopter that one crashed practically on site and they had to blow it up and abandon it.

So we can only surmise that when Obama speaks about 'extraordinary courage and capability' he is referring to the extraordinary courage needed for a group of 20-25 heavily armed men to shoot point-blank one unarmed and sick man (OBL had major kidney problems) who opposed no resistance whatsoever.

And then comes the totally surreal issue of OBL's body.  It was dumped, Mafia-style, in the sea out of a deep desire to "respect Islamic law" and to avoid ending up with some kind of shrine built (if he was buried on land).  Except.  Except that the only Muslims who would have enough sympathy to go on a pilgrimage to OBL's hypothetical place of burial on land would have be a Wahabi (most Muslims hate OBL and what he stands for).  And Wahabism forbids the making of shrines from tombs, so that entire concern with OBL shrines is silly.  As for the disposal at sea, once the "shrine" argument falls aside, there is no rationale left for not burying him on land.  Except, of course, if you are afraid that somebody might found out something about the body or the circumstances of its death.  In fact, Obama is so afraid of OBL's body that he does not even want to publish a photo of it.  Because it might 'hurt sensitivities'.  Nevermind that Saddam Hussein was infinitely more popular than OBL and that, in his case, his execution was filmed (and numerous photos of his dead bodies released).  Saddam's sons also where shown dead.  No need for extra 'sensitivity' in this case I suppose.

The entire business of OBL's alleged death is a uniquely American mixture of Disney-like story telling, a Mafia-style lack of decency or honor, and a Clinton-like inability to say even a single word of truth.

Instead of chanting the "USA! USA! USA!" mantra, Americans would be well advised to think just a little of how utterly disgraceful this entire episode is for the USA and how dreadfully this reflects on the USA's image.

My personal belief is that OBL was a US agent until his very last day on earth (hence the total lack of any security measures at his compound in Pakistan) and that a cynical decision was taken to off him just on time to help out the now universally hated Obama to work on his image, and to push the so-called GWOT (Global War on Terror) into yet another phase which will go something like this: (a totally mythical) "al-Qaeda" will commit some atrocity in "revenge" for OBL assassination, the USA will have another major panic attack, domestic issues will be forgotten, a more fascist laws and policies will be immediately implemented as a "defensive measure" against the "new global threat".  Hey, it's going to be 10 years since 9/11.  Maybe we all need another "9/11" to rekindle our ability to switch off any critical thinking and to cheerfully agree to more "defensive" laws and wars.

Are we really as stupid as our leaders think we are?

The Saker