United States

We were surprised by how contained China was this morning after yesterday's confirmation hearing of Rex Tillerson, in which the former Exxon CEO said that a failure to respond to China had allowed it to “keep pushing the envelope” in the South China Sea and added that “we’re going to have to send China a clear signal that first the island-building stops and second your access to those islands is also not going to be allowed” and that putting military assets on those islands was "akin to Russia’s taking Crimea” from Ukraine."

Submitted by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko is once again warning about the long-standing problems of corruption in Afghanistan, and the amount of US “reconstruction aid” disappearing down black holes over the course of the years. As always, the discussion came around to “ghost soldiers.”

Russia has declared a state of emergency over the increasingly hostile U.S. military build-up in Poland, calling the presence a “threat to national security.” The Kremlin have expressed concern that the 2,700 troops arriving on their border as part of operation Atlantic Resolve is secretly intended to incite a nuclear war between Russia and the West. Yahoo News reports: The Kremlin, which has previously criticised NATO for its reinforcement in Eastern Europe, said on Thursday the deployment was an aggressive step along its borders.

Just hours after NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden urged President Obama to "save [Chelsea Manning's] life by granting her clemency," Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange says he will agree to be extradited to the United States if the president grants clemency to the former US soldier Chelsea Manning, who is currently serving a 35-year sentence for leaking documents.

Ten Aircraft Carriers Aligned in a Row

Paul Craig Roberts

Readers have asked me why 10 of 11 US aircraft carriers are lined up in a row in dock allegedly for maintanence. It reminds them of the battleships at Pearl Harbor. Readers ask if this could be an indication that the Deep State is planning a false flag attack on the carriers, as was carried out on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in order to get the US at war with the independent Muslim world, this time in order to get the US at war with Russia before Trump can restore normal relations.