Tag: Islamic State

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Dozens of social media accounts operating for years in an attempt to influence people in the Middle East and Asia have been shut down. Now a major new study believes the US is likely behind it

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Related:

CONOPs

Evaluating Five Years of Pro-Western Covert Influence Operations

The US government got caught using sock puppets to spread propaganda on social media

The data analyzed came from 146 Twitter accounts (which tweeted 299,566 times), 39 Facebook profiles, and 26 Instagram accounts, along with 16 Facebook pages and two Facebook groups. Some of the accounts were meant to appear like real people and used AI-generated profile pictures. Meta and Twitter didn’t specifically name any organizations or people behind the campaigns but said their analysis led them to believe they originated in the US and Great Britain.

For anyone who’s ever been within 15 feet of a history book, the news that the US is using covert action to push its interests in other countries won’t come as a surprise. It is, however, interesting that these operations were uncovered just as social media companies are gearing up to deal with a wave of foreign interference and misinformation in our own elections.

The report also comes right on the heels of a bombshell whistleblower report from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, which accused the company of lax security practices and misrepresenting the number of bots on its platform (something the US government is investigating and that Twitter has strongly denied).

Did the Syrian Revolution Have Popular Support?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

by William Van Wagenen | Aug 3, 2022

In the mainstream view, the armed groups fighting the Syrian government since 2011, collectively known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), were part of a Syrian revolution that represented the Syrian people. At the same time, the Syrian government, or Assad regime, allegedly represented only a small number of loyalists, in particular from President Assad’s minority Alawite community. Such a view undergirded demands by Western and Gulf-funded think tank scholars, who claimed that the Syrian people wished for FSA groups to be armed, and even for Western military intervention on behalf of the FSA, whose fighters they sympathetically described as rebels.

Did the Syrian Revolution Have Popular Support?

Biden Authorizes Additional $550 Million Military Aid for Ukraine + Are There Enough Guided Rockets For HIMARS To Keep Up With Ukraine War Demand?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Biden Authorizes Additional $550 Million Military Aid for Ukraine

The new aid was authorized by the presidential drawdown authority, which allows Biden to send Ukraine weapons and ammunition directly from US military stockpiles. The funds were pulled from the $40 billion Ukraine aid bill that Biden signed back in May, which is meant to last through September 30.

Related:

Are There Enough Guided Rockets For HIMARS To Keep Up With Ukraine War Demand?

So in essence, at a pace suggested by Hertling, Ukraine’s GMLRS monthly burn rate would equal about 29% of the entire planned U.S. procurement for the next five years, not withstanding production rates of the ER GMLRS which have yet to be set.

Given those numbers, what does Ukraine’s use of HIMARS portend for that nation, and the U.S., which might find itself needing these systems in case of a future fight with China, Russia or some other adversary?

…

“If each of 16 HIMARS fires three rockets per day, that’s 48 a day or 1,440 per month. 10,000 rockets would last well into 2023 at that rate. On the other hand, if the Ukrainians get the 100 HIMARS they are requesting and each one fires three rockets per day, that’s 300 per day or 9,000 per month.”

“These are animals, not people”: Zelensky frees convicted child rapists, torturers to reinforce depleted military

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Photo presented during the trial of Tornado members shows a torture victim whose arm was etched with the shape of male genitals (translation via Yandex)

by Esha Krishnaswamy, The Grayzone, Jul 30 2022

Once condemned by Ukrainian officials and imprisoned for sadistic torture and the rape of minors, leaders of the notorious Tornado Battalion are free under Volodymyr Zelensky’s orders.

“These are animals, not people”: Zelensky frees convicted child rapists, torturers to reinforce depleted military

Related:

Rape, Torture, Robbery: Victim Testimonies Against Ukrainian Tornado Battalion (ENG SUBS)

Kiev Court Sentenced 8 “Tornado” Battalion Members to Long Prison Terms

Did the jihadist who was killed near Aleppo serve in the Ukrainian police?

Daniil Lyashuk in uniform of Ukrainian police
Daniil Lyashuk was awarded the Ukrainian Medal “For Military Service.”
Daniil Lyashuk poses with ISIS flag
Source.

Conflicting reports on Islamic State leader arrested in US operation in north Syria

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The US-led coalition has revealed the identity of the Islamic State leader it arrested during an airdrop operation in northern Syria, saying he was a prominent bombmaker. But some Syrian opposition sources say they got the wrong man.

Conflicting reports on Islamic State leader arrested in US operation in north Syria

Related:

The operations of the international coalition against ISIS west of the Euphrates: significance and importance (machine translation of link by Al-Monitor)

Disclosure of arrested ISIS leader identity | ISIS top leader and son of top sharia official, but not the “Wali” of Al-Raqqah (English article linked by Al-Monitor)

U.S. Forces Have Captured Another Daesh Senior Leader During Night Helicopter Raid

Oopsie! 🤷🏼‍♀️