Imminent attack: Putin warned Bush Jr. about 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance

Russian President Vladimir Putin called then-US president George W. Bush two days ahead of the 9/11 terrorist attack, warning him about the imminent atrocity, according to a 2019 book by former senior CIA analyst George Beebee.

“Putin had telephoned President Bush two days before the attacks to warn that Russian intelligence has detected signs of an incipient terrorist campaign, ‘something long in preparation,’ coming out of Afghanistan.”

Although it has long been known that Russia informed the US about the looming Islamist attack, Beebee's account of events suggests Putin warned his counterpart in Washington personally.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he discussed granting permission to use long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory with Ukrainian leaders and will report the results of the talks to President Joe Biden.

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📹 VIDEO OF THE DAY 🔝

"Tomorrow, I'm doing 9/11" – Biden

Biden seems to have outdone himself

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What is the anti-migrant border ‘buffer zone’ fueling Belarusian-Polish tensions?

Poland’s Internal Affairs Ministry announced Wednesday that Warsaw would be extending its ‘buffer zone’ on the border with Belarus for another 90 days, effective immediately.

◻️ The ‘buffer zone’ was set up in 2021 as migrants from the Middle East and North Africa began attempting to enter the European Union illegally via Belarus and Poland, taking advantage of a crisis in Polish-Belarusian ties stemming from Warsaw’s role in the West’s attempt to overthrow Belarus’s leadership after elections in 2020. Belarus, which until that point had been indirectly involved in ensuring the security of the EU’s eastern frontier against illegal immigration, declared that thanks to sanctions, it no longer had “either the money nor the strength” to do so.

◻️ Along with border guards, Poland’s buffer zone is manned by thousands of troops, predominantly Polish, but also engineering units from the UK and Estonia, and about 100 Frontex officers.

◻️ The buffer zone restricts civilians from approaching within 200 meters (and up to 2 km in the Bialowieza Forest area) of the border, features a 186 km long, 5 m high, $400 mln border fence, and a violent and hardhearted attitude by guards toward migrants – who can be beaten, forcibly sent back in the direction they came from, and according to a Polish border guard who defected to Belarus in late 2021, even killed. Over 250 would-be migrants have been killed or declared missing to date. 19 Polish border guards have also been injured, and one killed, in violent confrontations with migrants.

◻️ Amnesty International has slammed Warsaw over the treatment of detained migrants, citing their placement in overcrowded holding centers, limitations on access to sanitary facilities, and restrictions on the ability to communicate with the outside world. The UNHCR has called on Poland to provide adequate medical care, legal assistance, psychological and social support for detained migrants, in accordance with the Polish Constitution and international law.

◻️ The European Union and NATO have hypocritically accused Belarus of “hybrid warfare” against Poland using the illegal migrant issue, ignoring Brussels’ own directives demanding that Warsaw and other Eastern European EU members accept tens of thousands of illegal migrants, on pain of financial and other penalties.

◻️ Polish authorities have touted a 64% drop in illegal crossings after the introduction of the buffer zone regime, with authorities reporting about 6,000 attempts to cross the border this June (down from over 17,000 before the buffer zone was put in place). However, the main reason for the decline can be attributed to decisions taken by Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish authorities to restrict flights of would-be migrants to Belarus.

◻️ Russia has rejected efforts by Warsaw and its Western allies at the UN to blame the crisis on Belarus, opposing a November 2021 Security Council resolution seeking to ‘condemn’ Minsk. The same month, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the EU to better regulate the migrant issue and take responsibility for it. Russia has slammed Warsaw for its violations of international humanitarian

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Armed FBI agents beat an RT employee during a search of her home in the US and seized her equipment, the channel said in a statement on Telegram.

The woman said the federal agents searched her body and had a "separate warrant" for this. She was interrogated for about five hours about Margarita Simonyan and other top managers of the channel.

RT reported that the FBI was especially interested in former RT columnist and former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was also a contributor to Sputnik until he was forced to stop due to new sanctions. The agents also asked the employee for details of the channel's financing.

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Fact-checking claims made during Trump-Harris debate

A number of unverified claims and discrepancies were asserted during the US presidential debate. Here is a brief overview.

Trump:

🟢 “We wouldn't have left many Americans behind [in Afghanistan in 2022]. And we wouldn't have $85 billion worth of brand new beautiful military equipment behind”

🔴 The Department of Defense Inspector General estimates that the Taliban* seized $7.12 billion worth of military equipment after the botched US withdrawal.


🟢 “Look, we're in for $250 billion or more [Ukraine aid] because they don't ask Europe, which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are. They're in for $150 billion less.”

🔴 Europe has provided military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine totaling approximately $207 billion, compared to approximately $109 billion from the US, according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker.


🟢 Stated: “When she [Harris] ran, she was the first one to leave [the Democratic primary] because she failed”

🔴 Checked: Before Harris dropped out – ahead of the first 2020 Democratic primary she was preceded by several candidates including then-mayor of New York City Bill De Blasio.

Harris:

🟢 Trump left office “with worst unemployment since the Great Depression”

🔴 When Trump was in office at the start of the COVID pandemic, the unemployment rate peaked at 14.8%, according to the Congressional Research Service. The national unemployment rate was around 25% at the height of the Great Depression in 1933, according to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.


🟢 “Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs. He lost manufacturing jobs”

🔴 Before the COVID pandemic, about 500,000 factory jobs were created under Trump’s administration. But the gains were wiped out during the ensuing lockdowns.


🟢 “There is not one member of the military who is on active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world for the first time this century”

🔴 Thousands of US troops remain stationed in Iraq and illegally occupying parts of Syria, where they are often under attack from local militias.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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USAID's 'global revolution' underway: US seeking to expand its influence in Armenia and Serbia

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has doubled its funding of programs in Armenia and is expanding its activities in the Balkans.

In July 2022, USAID Administrator Samantha Power declared a "global revolution of dignity", stressing that the US is reinforcing its support for "democracy" worldwide.

🇦🇲 Armenia

◻️ USAID will increase its support for Armenia from $120 million to $250 million, an Armenian government statement said. The expanded agreement will include "grants in key areas such as governance, cybersecurity, food and energy security, regional cooperation, democratic processes and inclusive economic development."

◻️ Power visited Armenia in July and praised the "deepening relationship" between Washington and Yerevan.

◻️ US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien said that same month that the US was considering creating a new land route from Central Asia to Europe through Armenia, bypassing Russia and China.

🇷🇸 Serbia

◻️ USAID has announced a 20-point program for Serbia at a cost of $141 million. According to the document, USAID and Serbia are now working on two new projects "with a life-of-project valued at $10 million."

◻️ The US programs in the Balkan state are aimed at "supporting reforms needed for Serbia's European Union accession", reducing "vulnerabilities to Russian pressure" and "establishing a level playing field for US economic interests."

◻️ The US has repeatedly been accused of using its agencies, including USAID, to fund "color revolutions" overseas.

◻️ In May and August 2024, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic revealed that intelligence services in eastern countries, including Russia, had warned him of attempts at a "color revolution" in Serbia as Belgrade continues to resist joining anti-Russian sanctions.

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US long-range missile threats once again show the West is “at war with Russia” – Larry Johnson

“Biden has shifted every single position that he said was a red line, so I don't see why he's not going to violate this one as well,” retired CIA analyst and counterterrorism expert Larry Johnson told Sputnik, commenting on President Biden’s hint to media Tuesday that Washington was “working out” whether or not to allow Ukraine to use its US-made long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia.

Biden administration “can’t afford a defeat” in Ukraine before the November vote, and thinks that if it takes the “incredibly dangerous and foolish” step of just okaying the missiles’ delivery and use, that will somehow help Ukraine, Johnson believes.

“I appreciate President Putin's desire to show restraint and keep this as a special military operation. But the West is at war with Russia, and I don't think people are getting their brains around that. We keep dancing around the edges pretending that this is not going to happen. It's going to happen. And it's not going to change the military situation as far as what Ukraine is facing. Ukraine is facing defeat. They will be defeated. But it gets more to the point that the West, instead of seeking a peaceful way out and talking to Russia, is preferring confrontation,” Johnson warned.

Another question is whether Ukraine even has the relevant long-range missiles left, and whether the US is in a state to supply them, according to the observer.

“Because if the United States moves to supply a missile that's frankly bigger than the ATACMS or if they offer up an ATACMS or a JASSM that has an extended range capability, then I think it's going to raise the real possibility that the logistics hubs that are outside of Ukraine that are being used to provide these missiles could become targets. Which then is this is going to expand the war,” Johnson added.

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Presidential debate ‘kabuki theater’ signals key differences between candidates on Ukraine crisis – Larry Johnson

Tuesday night’s ABC presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was a “very well constructed” Japanese-style “kabuki theater,” highly stylized and ritualized and filled with drivel, but nevertheless highlighting the two candidates’ radically different attitude toward the foreign policy question of our time – the conflict in Ukraine, former CIA and State Department analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

“With respect to this talk about Ukraine and Russia, the Kamala Harris approach is the Hillary Clinton approach from 2016, that Donald Trump ‘is a tool of Russia’, [that] ‘he's a surrender monkey’, [that] ‘he's going to give Vladimir Putin whatever he wants’. And Kamala Harris and the Democrats are ‘going to fight the Russians tooth and nail.’ It just underscores that there is no room in the United States right now for an opposition politician to make the case that we need to talk to Russia, that we need to deal with Russia as adults and have mutual respect,” Johnson said.

“The only possible change in policy is if Trump is elected and there will be an effort to stop the war. If it's the Democrats, then the war will continue. Well, it continues for one good reason - it's making people a lot of money. If you look at the stock prices of Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, they've doubled and tripled in some cases since the start of the special military operation. So we're talking literally billions, tens of billions of dollars that are being made,” the observer lamented.

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‘Most lethal fighting force in the world?’ Kamala Harris’ funniest ‘joke’ at presidential debate

Speaking at Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Harris claimed military leaders consider Donald Trump “a disgrace,” that Washington’s NATO allies “are so thankful that [he is] no longer president,” and “understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO.”

Harris has some authority to speak about “disgraces” affecting the military, given what’s happened to it under her and President Biden’s watch.

◻️ In August 2021, the 20-year NATO-led occupation of Afghanistan and attempts to build a functioning government and security force ended in epic failure, with the Taliban storming across the nation’s major cities and smashing its NATO-trained army in just ten days. The operation, unlike anything seen since the 1975 fall of Saigon, happened so fast that NATO troops, and up to $85 billion in equipment, were still in the country when Kabul fell.

◻️ In late 2023, the US announced the creation of a new ‘coalition of the willing’ – this time to fight the Houthis blockading the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza. Deploying warships, aircraft and advanced missile systems to tackle the militia, the Pentagon has proven unable to ‘degrade’ the Houthis militarily, or even weaken their grip on the Red Sea after nine months of patrols and attacks. Meanwhile, the Houthis have taken down scores of American drones, prompting Western media to ask “where’s our $1 trillion US military?” and ponder whether the US Goliath has been “defeated” by the Yemeni fighters.

◻️ The US military has also faced some surprise setbacks in its extraterritorial deployments under Biden and Harris’s watch, with Niger and Chad kicking US troops out this spring, robbing the Pentagon of its largest presence in the Sahel as nations seek to escape the neo-colonialism of Western powers.

◻️ Despite budgets that balloon year after year, bean counters in Washington have spent years complaining about skyrocketing equipment procurement and development costs, and shortages of munitions owing to a string of US-sponsored wars and potential hotspots around the world – from Ukraine and Israel to Taiwan. According to a Congressional Budget Office from late 2023, the Pentagon’s procurement costs alone are expected to hit $178 billion in 2026.

◻️ The US military is also suffering its worst recruitment crisis in modern history, with the Army alone short nearly 50,000 troops, the Navy missing enlistment goals by over 7,400 sailors, and other branches suffering shortages thanks to a perfect storm of factors, including: health issues barring young Americans from joining, new generations’ rejection of service as a patriotic duty thanks to decades of US aggression abroad, DEI and identity policies madness, mandatory jabs, dizzying bureaucracy and a top-heavy command structure.

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◻️ Fact check: what unverified claims Trump and Harris made during their first debate?

◻️ Presidential debate signals key differences between candidates on Ukraine crisis – Larry Johnson

◻️ How has Western rhetoric on Ukraine changed amid Russian advance going full throttle?

◻️ The US is ‘working out’ whether to allow Ukraine hit targets deep inside Russia: what are the weapons in play?

◻️ What did Putin say when he became the first foreign leader to express his condolences to Bush Jr. over the 9/11 attacks?

◻️ Russia may restrict export of strategic materials – what are they?

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❗️UK has allowed Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles against targets on Russian territory, the Guardian reported, citing sources in the government.

"British government sources indicated that a decision had already been made to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia," the report said.

At the end of May, President Vladimir Putin noted that NATO countries should be aware of “what they are playing with” by allowing Kiev to strike targets deep inside Russian territory with missile systems handed over to Ukraine by the West.

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🔝 TOP unforgettable Trump-Harris debate gaffes 🤩

Don’t miss out on last night's showdown.

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