United States

According to Iceland’s former minister of interior, the US sent a “planeload of FBI agents” to Iceland in June 2011 in an attempt to frame WikiLeaks and its co-founder Julian Assange. In an interview with the Katoikos publication, Ogmundur Jonasson who was the interior minister at the time, said the Obama administration implied to Icelandic authorities that they had knowledge of hackers who wanted to destroy software systems in their country and offered help. However, Jonasson became suspicious and refused to cooperate with the agents and asked them to cease their activities.

Back in October we noted a scheme, linked to the Hillary Clinton campaign, to tie Julian Assange and WikiLeaks to a pedophilia ring (see "Hillary Clinton Linked To Mysterious Front Associated with Julian Assange Pedophile Smear").  Of course, the scheme was revealed amid daily dumps by WikiLeaks of John Podesta's emails leaving the Clintons, and their many "friends in high places", scrambling for anyway possible to shut Assange down.

In a move that is certain to infuriate those who see Trump as nothing more than a puppet of the Kremlin, moments ago NBC reported that Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil and late entrant into the SecState race after his first meeting with the president elect this past Tuesday at the Trump Tower, has been picked by Trump to serve as his next Secretary of State.

JUST IN: Trump to name Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, sources say https://t.co/kthwSkGc0j pic.twitter.com/vZmWztv0qn

Submitted by Glenn Greenwald via The Intercept,

With Assad on the verge of retaking Aleppo, and with it, regaining full control in the ongoing Syrian proxy war, we asked last week in "With Assad On Verge Of Historic Victory, Syrian Rebels Request A Ceasefire" how long before the US intervenes in an attempt to derail the sudden Syrian (and Russian) momentum.  We got the answer this morning, when US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday that the US is sending 200 additional military personnel to Syria to help drive Islamic State from its de facto capital of Raqqa.