Information Warfare

If you enter "opcw" as a search term now in Google News the three top stories that pop up are

• Reuters, "Russia presents unharmed Syrians at OPCW, Western allies stay away"
• AP, "Russia chided for "obscene masquerade" on alleged Syria chemical attack"
• Reuters, "UK envoy: Russian briefing at OPCW chemical arms body is stunt"

The "breaking news" is not the Ghouta residents who can bear witness to being used as players in a chemical weapons theater staged by the White Helmets. The breaking news are the denunciations by the French and British envoys to the OPCW. This is basic rudimentary information warfare.

Russia is making this move no doubt because the OPCW is stacked against it and some ruse is afoot to skew the Douma investigation to find traces of chlorine and hence blur the conclusion that there was no chemical attack.

Darkness is descending over the neoliberal West. Craig Murray's latest post, "Blocked By Facebook and the Vulnerability of New Media," speaks to this:

I am among those who argue that the strength of the state and corporate media is being increasingly and happily undermined by our ability to communicate via social media. But social media has developed in such a way that the channels of communication are dominated by corporations – Facebook, Twitter and Google – which can in effect turn off the traffic to a citizen journalism site in a second. The site is not taken down, and the determined person can still navigate directly to it, but the vast bulk of the traffic is cut off. What is more this is done secretly, without your being informed, and in a manner deliberately hard to detect. The ability to simply block the avenues by which people get to see dissenting opinions, is terrifying.

Furthermore neither Facebook nor Twitter contact you when they block traffic to your site to tell you this is happening, let alone tell you why, and let alone give you a chance to counter whatever argument they make. I do not know if I am blocked by Facebook as an alleged Russian bot, or for any other reason. I do know that it appears to have happened shortly after I published the transcript of the Israeli general discussing the procedures for shooting children.

Likely "shadow banning" will become the norm. All web sites will be filtered. The cat will be put back in its bag.

The Accelerated Western Information War on Syria

The week ends on a high note for Herr Trump. Unemployment is at a ten-year low. House Republicans finally succeeded in repealing Obamacare. And there is even a report of a U.S. plot to assassinate North Korea's Kim Jong-un. No doubt a delicious morsel for the Tweeter-in-Chief.

But what caught my eye is the continuing drip-drip-drip of allegations that Syria is an active chemical weapons state. The latest, from this morning's Situation Report, is a BBC story from an "unnamed Western intelligence agency":

Syria. An unnamed Western intelligence agency tells the BBC that the Assad regime is still producing chemical weapons, despite a 2013 deal struck by the Obama administration for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons capabilities. An intelligence report shared with the news outlet says production is continuing at three separate facilities in Hama province and near Damascus. Inspectors for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons visited two of the sites recently but intelligence officials believe weapons work is still continuing in secret sections of the sites. 

This is part of the reborn information war meant to soften up the subjects for another go at regime change in Syria. Western air forces will declare a no-fly zone (better yet, a "free-fire zone") over the country based on Assad's secret chemical weapons capacity.

It interesting that the Russian no-fly proposal emerging from talks in Astana would ground all military aircraft, U.S. included, in the designated "safe zones," which is probably why the rebels (jihadists) won't agree (because the goal, as always, is for the U.S. to bomb Damascus). According to SitRep:

No fly? Under a plan agreed to by Russia, Iran and Turkey on Thursday, U.S. aircraft would be barred from flying over four “safe zones” in Syria, save for carrying out operations against ISIS or al Qaeda-affiliated groups. The memorandum would also ban flights by the Syrian air force. 

Russian official Alexander Lavrentyev added on Friday in televised remarks that all military aircraft -- including those from Russia and Turkey -- would also be banned from the designated zones. Lavrentyev added, “the operation of aviation in the de-escalation zones, especially of the forces of the international coalition, is absolutely not envisaged, either with notification or without. This question is closed.” The U.S. Central Command has not yet commented on the proposal, which the United States was not a party to.

A new wrinkle in the info wars is the argument that Assad is acting against Russian wishes. Anand Gopal mentioned it in his Democracy Now! interview. The idea that Russia is a rational actor and knows and signs off on much of what the Syria government does (for instance, Robert Fisk wrote that if Syria did use sarin at Khan Sheikhoun, the Russians had to know about it) is an impediment to U.S. regime change efforts because Russia would clearly not invite Western intervention by needlessly using chemical weapons. Hence the need to establish that Syria is operating without Russian warrant.

Situation Report includes the latest installment in this bit of info warfare. Russia has Muslim special forces on the ground to curtail "any action taken by the Assad regime that would undermine Moscow’s wider interests in the Middle East":

Kremlin has a new weapon in Syria. Russia has kept its ground presence in Syria relatively low-key up to this point, insisting that most troops are maintaining aircraft, or training and advising Syrian forces. But that might be changing. FP contributor Neil Hauer notes that the Kremlin has now “deployed an unprecedented Russian weapon to Syria: several units of Chechen and Ingush commandos hailing from Russia’s restive North Caucasus region.”

More: “The ongoing deployment of the Chechen and Ingush brigades marks a strategic shift for the Kremlin: Russia now has its own elite ground personnel, drawn from its Sunni Muslim population, placed across Syria. This growing presence allows the Kremlin to have a greater role in shaping events on the ground as it digs in for the long term. Such forces could prove vital in curtailing any action taken by the Assad regime that would undermine Moscow’s wider interests in the Middle East while offering a highly effective method for the Kremlin to project power at a reduced political cost.”

Russia Will Not Allow Any Putschist Victories in the Donbass

Yesterday ended with a lot of crowing in the Western media about the potent, measured display of force by the Ukrainian military in securing an airfield at Kramatorsk. The good news this morning is that "victory" by the putschists has already been reversed. This from a story this morning from Andrew Kramer reporting from Slovyansk, "Ukraine Is Said to Suffer a Setback in Bid to Confront Pro-Russian Militias":

The opening phase of what the Ukrainian government has called a military operation to confront pro-Russian militants suffered a setback Wednesday morning when six armored personnel carriers flying a Russian flag drove into town here and parked in the central square, Ukrainian news media reported. 

Pro-Russian militias commandeered the vehicles from the Ukrainian Army and went to the central square in Slovyansk, about 120 miles from the Russian border, according to the news reports. A crowd gathered to gape at the squat, tracked vehicles and at a red, white and blue flag flapping in the breeze. 

About 100 soldiers in unmarked green uniforms and bearing the equipment of professional infantry guarded the vehicles, but they showed no signs of allegiance other than the single flag. Some of the soldiers had grenade launchers slung over their shoulders.

If the vehicles were indeed seized from the Ukrainian Army, it was not immediately clear whether they had been taken by force or with the collusion of defecting Ukrainian troops. Either possibility, however, would signal an escalation by Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine.

Tsenzor.net, a Ukrainian news website, reported that militants seized the vehicles in a neighboring town, Kramatorsk, where the Ukrainians landed paratroopers Tuesday to secure an airfield, in what was intended to be a show of force. 

The Ukrainian general who commanded the military operation, Vasily Krutov, stood near armored personnel carriers outside the town and warned loudly that gunmen who did not surrender their weapons would be “destroyed.”

I must admit I went to bed last night feeling ill at ease, thinking that possibly Russia would stand aside as Ukrainian troops backed by neo-fascist irregulars would roll up the uprising in the Donbass. Sure, it was obvious what was going on -- a small, inconsequential action at a small, inconsequential airfield was being blown up out of all proportion to herald the legitimacy of the illegitimate putsch regime in Kiev. Nonetheless, I felt agitated; that is what information war is designed to do.

The presence of the "100 soldiers in unmarked green uniforms and bearing the equipment of professional infantry" is a clear statement that Russia is not going to allow even the smallest display of potency by the putschists in the east.

So it is to be expected -- though still a little surprising giving its vehemence and lock-step coordination with NATO pronouncements -- that you get a frontpage attack by David Herszenhorn, "Russia Is Quick to Bend Truth About Ukraine." It is not labeled "analysis," as is the protocol for the Gray Lady when she prints opinion pieces outside the editorial page; we are to accept Herszenhorn's attack on the Russian media as straight-up fact. (Elites in the West are obviously upset by Prime Minister Medvedev taking to Facebook to declare, as he did yesterday, that "Blood has been spilled in Ukraine again.")

What is going on here is the West's media monopoly is not what it once was. Daily newspapers, except for a few behemoths like the Gray Lady and Wall Street Journal, are dying if not already dead. Television network news is fading fast. It is a splintered informational world, and in this world Russia has proved an adept player. Hence the attacks on the Russian media by the New York Times. The same thing happened last month during the Crimea vote to join the Russian Federation. These attacks are necessary for the West because it cannot defend a violent, unconstitutional uprising in Kiev at the same time reject the same kind of uprising by pro-Russian Ukrainians in the Donets Basin.

NATO did its part by proclaiming that a military buildup will commence on its eastern boundary. According to Kramer:

In Brussels, the head of NATO said Wednesday that the alliance would strengthen its military presence along its eastern border in response to the developments in Ukraine. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance’s secretary general, said that NATO would immediately send forces to the region as a deterrent. He did not specify how many troops or aircraft would be involved or what kind of assets would be deployed. 

Earlier this month, the alliance ordered an end to most military cooperation with Russia because of the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea and its threatening military posture near eastern Ukraine.

Add to this a story, "General and Former Defense Official Urge Nonlethal Military Aid for Ukraine," by Michael Gordon published today and the horizon of the New Cold War stands clearly before us:

“Implementation of U.S. nonlethal military aid is seriously flawed and needs immediate correction,” Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Phillip A. Karber wrote in a copy of the report that The New York Times obtained on Tuesday. General Clark, who is retired, is the former NATO commander who led the alliance’s forces during the 1998 Kosovo conflict, and Mr. Karber is a former strategy adviser to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.

***

“The most important assistance currently needed to make the existing Ukrainian force as defensible as possible in the current crisis (between now and the elections of 25 May) is nonlethal equipment from the U.S.,” they wrote after a recent visit to Ukraine. 

The visit of General Clark, who ran for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, and Mr. Karber took place in late March and early April. They traveled at the invitation of Ukrainian officials, and the trip was paid for by the Potomac Foundation, an American nonprofit research center. 

General Clark and Mr. Karber met with Ukrainian generals and defense officials, and Mr. Karber visited Ukrainian armored, mechanized and light infantry brigades on their northern, eastern and southern fronts. 

According to their assessment, which has been provided to Obama administration officials and lawmakers, Ukraine’s forces are facing a formidable military challenge. “The 1,000-mile-long front is three times the frontier that Ukraine’s modest armed forces are designed to handle,” they wrote. “Moreover, decade-long corruption has left their Air Force ill equipped, vulnerable and unready for modern air combat. 

“Russian occupation of Crimea has virtually destroyed Ukraine’s coastal defense from the south,” they wrote, adding that threats from other directions “divert Ukrainian political attention and disperse badly needed forces to the southwest and northwest.” 

Ukraine, they say, needs more aircraft, and more antiaircraft and antitank missiles. But it also has a dire need for nonlethal assistance.

Michael Gordon fails to mention that Wesley Clark, as NATO commander during the the Kosovo war, almost started WWIII when he ordered troops to attack Russia forces occupying Pristina airport. Fortunately for all of us British General Mike Jackson refused to comply with the order, saying, famously, "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you."

Direct military support and consultation will begin with nonlethal assistance and take off from there. The United States and Europe now have another Afghanistan. This one one is being called Banderastan.