On Tuesday November 3rd, U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Laura Seal told The Daily Beast that twelve F-15C air-to-air combat planes are being sent to the Incirlik Turkey Air Base for deployment in Syria against Russia’s Su-30 air-to-air combat planes. Neither the F-15C nor the Su-30 can destroy ground-targets, only air-targets — enemy planes.

In other words: U.S. President Barack Obama is telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that unless Putin is willing to go to war against the United States, he must stop what he’s now doing in Syria. Obama is saying this in the only language whose meaning cannot be denied or misinterpreted: sending in counter-force to specifically what Russia has already sent into Syria.

If it were not the case that both the F-15C and the Su-30 are equipped only for air-to-air-combat, then the meaning of Obama’s move here wouldn’t be so clear and unambiguous. Ms. Seal made her point even clearer by volunteering to tell The Daily Beast’s reporter David Axe, “I didn’t say it wasn’t about Russia.” Axe then commented in his article, that this statement of hers “hinted at its the deployment’s true purpose.” But one would need to be a fool in order to deny it. The only real question here is why Obama has made this decision, which is quite likely to be fateful. So: that’s the subject: Why did he do this?

On 11 October 2015, CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired a segment, “Steve Kroft questions President Obama on topics including Russia’s incursion in Syria”, and the U.S. President was challenged there by Mr. Kroft regarding whether he’s “weak” on the Syria matter:

Steve Kroft: A year ago when we did this interview, there was some saber-rattling between the United States and Russia on the Ukrainian border. Now it’s also going on in Syria. You said a year ago that the United States — America leads. We’re the indispensible nation. Mr. Putin seems to be challenging that leadership.

President Barack Obama: In what way? Let — let’s think about this — let — let —

Steve Kroft: Well, he’s moved troops into Syria, for one. He’s got people on the ground. Two, the Russians are conducting military operations in the Middle East for the first time since World War II —

President Barack Obama: So that’s —

Steve Kroft: — bombing the people — that we are supporting.

President Barack Obama: So that’s leading, Steve? Let me ask you this question. When I came into office, Ukraine was governed by a corrupt ruler who was a stooge of Mr. Putin. Syria was Russia’s only ally in the region. And today, rather than being able to count on their support and maintain the base they had in Syria, which they’ve had for a long time, Mr. Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally. And in Ukraine —

Steve Kroft: He’s challenging your leadership, Mr. President. He’s challenging your leadership —

President Barack Obama: Well Steve, I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership. My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change, an international accord that potentially we’ll get in Paris. My definition of leadership is mobilizing the entire world community to make sure that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon. And with respect to the Middle East, we’ve got a 60-country coalition that isn’t suddenly lining up around Russia’s strategy. To the contrary, they are arguing that, in fact, that strategy will not work.

Steve Kroft: My point is — was not that he was leading, my point is that he was challenging your leadership. And he has very much involved himself in the situation. Can you imagine anything happening in Syria of any significance at all without the Russians now being involved in it and having a part of it?

President Barack Obama: But that was true before. Keep in mind that for the last five years, the Russians have provided arms, provided financing, as have the Iranians, as has Hezbollah.

Steve Kroft: But they haven’t been bombing and they haven’t had troops on the ground —

President Barack Obama: And the fact that they had to do this is not an indication of strength, it’s an indication that their strategy did not work.

Steve Kroft: You don’t think —

President Barack Obama: You don’t think that Mr. Putin would’ve preferred having Mr. Assad be able to solve this problem without him having to send a bunch of pilots and money that they don’t have?

Steve Kroft: Did you know he was going to do all this when you met with him in New York?

President Barack Obama: Well, we had seen — we had pretty good intelligence. We watch —

Steve Kroft: So you knew he was planning to do it.

President Barack Obama: We knew that he was planning to provide the military assistance that Assad was needing because they were nervous about a potential imminent collapse of the regime.

Steve Kroft: You say he’s doing this out of weakness. There is a perception in the Middle East among our adversaries, certainly and even among some of our allies that the United States is in retreat, that we pulled our troops out of Iraq and ISIS has moved in and taken over much of that territory. The situation in Afghanistan is very precarious and the Taliban is on the march again. And ISIS controls a large part of Syria.

President Barack Obama: I think it’s fair to say, Steve, that if —

Steve Kroft: It’s — they — let me just finish the thought. They say your —

President Barack Obama: You’re —

Steve Kroft: — they say you’re projecting a weakness, not a strength–

President Barack Obama: — you’re saying “they,” but you’re not citing too many folks. But here —

Steve Kroft: No, I’ll cite — I’ll cite if you want me, too.

President Barack Obama: — here — yes. Here —

Steve Kroft: I’d say the Saudis. I’d say the Israelis. I’d say a lot of our friends in the Middle East. I’d say everybody in the Republican party. Well, you want me to keep going?

President Barack Obama: Yeah. The — the — if you are — if you’re citing the Republican party, I think it’s fair to say that there is nothing I’ve done right over the last seven and a half years.

Apparently, the U.S. President is taking this matter so much to heart, he’s now willing to start World War III over it, so as to prove that he’s not “weak.”

The Cold War was never this hot except at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. But in that particular instance, the U.S. faced a potential Soviet nuclear attack upon the United States, by Soviet missiles being placed near the U.S. in Cuba. This time around, it’s starting very differently: there is no danger that Russia is posing to the United States. Indeed, Putin had repeatedly requested the U.S.’s cooperation with the war against jihadists in Syria, but Obama has repeatedly refused.

Now, Obama is going farther than merely refusing to cooperate: he’s ordering Putin to stop. Obama is doing this by his action, demanding that Putin allow Sunni jihadists to take control in Syria, a nation that under Assad has a secular non-sectarian government, most of whose chief officials are Shiites (though the Prime Minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, is Sunni), and where the Constitution is entirely non-religious and keeps a wall of separation between church-and-state (the only one like that in the entire Middle East) — which all of the opposition-organizations that are warring against it oppose, because they’re all jihadist Sunni organizations.

Obama is, in effect, now telling Putin that the United States is willing to go to war against Russia in order to be able to eliminate Syria’s non-jihadist government — a government that was founded not only as anti-jihadist but as entirely non-religious. He’s saying this in the clearest language possible, but Putin could simply ignore it. What then will be the response when American and Russian fighter-pilots fire at each other in a Syrian sky, and one of them gets killed in the process, and his plane goes down, perhaps in flames? Will the loser (either Obama or Putin) of that battle, simply quit World War III immediately after it started, before it goes nuclear? Or, will he not? And, if not, then what will his response be? And when would that mutual test of “strength” end — and how would it end?

This could get interesting. It might even get catastrophic.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Russia, Egypt dismiss US, UK claims bomb brought down jet

By Dmitry Lovetsky and Nataliya Vasilyeva, Associated Press10 hours ago

VELIKY NOVGOROD, Russia (AP) -- Russia and Egypt on Thursday dismissed suggestions by Britain and the United States that a bomb was likely to have brought down a Metrojet flight packed with Russian vacationers leaving an Egyptian resort, saying the claim was premature.

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A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, insisted that aviation investigators were working on all possible theories as to why the Airbus A321-200 carrying 224 people crashed Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing everyone on board. He said naming just one possibility was mere speculation.

"One cannot rule out a single theory, but at this point there are no reasons to voice just one theory as reliable — only investigators can do that," Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond spoke Wednesday of a "significant possibility" the crash was caused by a bomb and Britain immediately suspended all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where the flight originated. The move stranded hundreds of tourists in Egypt.

In London on Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said the crash was "more likely than not" caused by a bomb. He said he had "every sympathy" with the Egyptians, who rely so on heavily on tourism, but that he had to "put the safety of British people first."

He says British officials are not yet certain the plane was bombed, but it's a "strong possibility."

Cameron said he would call Putin later in the day to discuss the crash.

Egyptian officials have condemned Britain's travel ban as an overreaction. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was in London on a visit Thursday.

Egypt insists still no "evidence" of bom …Play video

Russia's top aviation official, Alexander Neradko, said in televised remarks Thursday that investigators are pursuing several theories as to why the plane crashed. He said they are looking for traces of explosives on the victims' bodies, their baggage and the plane debris as well as studying other "aspects linked to a possible terrorist attack onboard."

Neradko said the probe is likely to take several months and called for caution in speculation about the likely causes of the crash.

Asked about Hammond's statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that if Britain had information about the bomb, it's "really shocking" that it hasn't shared it with Russia. Zakharova urged Britain to immediately provide any such information to the investigators.

Russia state television has skirted the bomb theory, not mentioning the British and U.S. report. Other popular media in Russia are full of speculation about the crash and reports about signs they believe point to foul play.

The plane crashed in the northern Sinai, where Egyptian forces have been battling an Islamic insurgency for years. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for downing the plane but offered no proof. El-Sissi has called the IS claim "propaganda" designed to embarrass his government.

In the ancient city of Luxor on Thursday, Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty rejected the U.S. and British allegations outright.

"(The crash) is not a terror act. It was an accident," he declared as authorities opened three tombs to the public for the first time in an effort to encourage tourism. "(It's) very sad what happened, but we have to wait for the result of the investigation."

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A military investigator from Russia stands near the debris of a Russian airliner at its crash site a …

Egypt's minister of civil aviation, Hossam Kamal, insisted Thursday that the country's airports comply with international security standards.

He said that in light of U.S. and British allegations that the Russian flight may have been downed by a bomb, "the investigation team does not have yet any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis."

Metrojet suspended all flights of Airbus A321 jets in its fleet after the crash, the Russian Federal Transport Agency said Thursday. The company has ruled out a pilot error or a technical fault as a possible cause of the crash, drawing criticism from Russian officials for speaking with such certainty too soon.

Intercepted communications played a role in the tentative conclusion that the Islamic State group's Sinai affiliate planted an explosive device on the plane, said a U.S. official briefed on the matter. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss intelligence matters publicly.

The official and others said there had been no formal judgment rendered by the CIA or other intelligence agencies, and that forensic evidence from the blast site, including the airplane's black box, was still being analyzed.

The official added that intelligence analysts don't believe the operation was ordered by Islamic State leaders in Raqqa, Syria, but possibly planned and executed by the Islamic State's affiliate in the Sinai, which operates autonomously.

Britain sent a team of security and defense experts to Sharm el-Sheikh, where thousands of British tourists are stranded by the British ban on flights. Hammond says he expects British tourists to be flown back starting Friday, after measures are taken to tighten security at the resort's airport.

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A portrait of 10 month old Darina Gromova, daughter of young family of Alexei Gromov, 27, his wife …

"The airline industry is indicating that they expect by tomorrow to be in a position to start bringing people out," Hammond said.

In Sharm el-Sheikh, British tourists said they understand their government's move to suspend flights but were worried about the future of Egyptian tourism. Paul Modley, a 49-year-old Londoner, has travelled to Sharm el-Sheikh seven times in the last nine years.

"We understand why the government have done it, but I am really worried for the Egyptian people because — particularly in the Red Sea resorts — they are so dependent on tourism," said Modley.

On the ground in the Sinai, rescue teams have retrieved 140 bodies from the scene and more than 100 body parts. Russian rescue workers, combing a 40 square kilometer (15.4 sq. mile) area, should be finishing their search for remains and wreckage by Thursday evening, according to Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov.

Egypt has said the cockpit voice recorder of the Russian plane is partially damaged and a lot of work is going to be required to extract data from it.

Grief continued to roil St. Petersburg and its suburbs, as mourners brought more flowers, candles and paper planes to the city's imperial-era square and the airport where the crashed Metrojet flight had been due to land.

In the ancient Russian city of Veliky Novgorod, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of St. Petersburg, the first crash victim was buried Thursday after a church service in a whitewashed 16th-century church overlooking the Volkhov River.

Family and friends said goodbye to Nina Lushchenko, 60, who worked in a school canteen, remembering her as a good mother and grandmother.

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This version corrects the crashed plane to an A321-200, instead of A320-200.

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Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Brian Rohan from Luxor, Egypt, Ken Dilanian in Washington, Jill Lawless in London and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow also contributed.

Beirut (AFP) - Mustard gas was used during summer fighting in Syria but it was not clear by whom, the global chemical weapons watchdog said, while jihadists seized a key town from regime forces.

The deadly gas was used in the flashpoint town of Marea in the northern province of Aleppo on August 21, a source from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) told AFP.

"We have determined the facts, but we have not determined who was responsible," the source said.

Allegations that jihadist militants have been using chemical arms have been increasing in recent months in both Iraq and Syria.

Syrian rebels and aid groups said that at the end of August dozens of people were affected by a chemical attack on Marea, where moderate opposition rebels and militants from the Islamic State (IS) group were battling.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had treated four civilians from one family. Patients at an MSF hospital in Aleppo said they saw a "yellow gas" when a mortar round hit their house.

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Syrian pro-regime forces patrol a highway leading to Aleppo, on Novembre 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/George O …

Meanwhile, bolstered by a Russian air campaign launched in September, President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been fighting to retake territory lost to rebels in the country's brutal four-year war but have failed to score significant gains.

On Thursday a jihadist faction, Jund al-Aqsa, was reported to have seized the last government-held town on the main highway between Syria's second city Aleppo to the north and the city of Hama to the south.

They "seized full control of the town of Morek after a fierce offensive", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

Jund al-Aqsa boasted of victory in Morek on its Twitter account but a Syrian security source insisted fighting was ongoing and denied a major setback.

Morek has changed hands several times in the conflict, with government troops last retaking it in October 2014.

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Syrians gather at a vegetable market at the entrance of the government-held side of Aleppo, on Novem …

- Major fightback -

Last month, Syrian troops launched a major fightback in Hama province with Russian air support, with the main Aleppo highway a main objective.

It was one of a number of counter-offensives the Damascus regime has launched since Moscow intervened.

Regime forces scored a rare win Wednesday, recapturing from IS an alternative route further east that provides the government's sole link to neighbourhoods of Aleppo under its control.

Advancing IS forces had severed the road last month, cutting off food and supplies to tens of thousands of civilians in the west of Aleppo city.

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Syrians gather at a vegetable market at the entrance of the government-held side of Aleppo, on Novem …

For the first time since IS had cut the road, trucks of fruits and vegetables arrived in regime-held neighbourhoods of the city, residents said.

IS has continued advancing in various parts of Syria, despite the Russian strikes and more than a year of air raids targeting the group by a US-led coalition.

On Thursday the Observatory said that at least 22 civilians were killed along with several IS fighters in air raids on the Syrian town of Bukamal, near the Iraqi border, but did not say which nation carried out the strikes.

Russia said its air force carried out strikes near the IS-held ancient city of Palmyra, bringing to 263 the number of targets Russian jets have hit in the past two days.

And France, which joined coalition operations in Syria last month after previously carrying out strikes in Iraq, said on Thursday it would deploy its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to better fight the jihadists.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in the war, which began in 2011 and has frequently spilled across the border.

On Thursday, six people were killed in a suicide attack at a meeting of Muslim clerics in the Lebanese town of Arsal, a security source told AFP.

Arsal is a Sunni Muslim enclave in mainly-Shiite eastern Lebanon and hosts many Syrian refugees as well as rebel fighters in the surrounding countryside.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack.

The UN envoy for Syria, meanwhile, will brief the Security Council next week after holding talks in Damascus, Moscow and Washington.