CI-6 Take Center Stage as NATO Bows Out
From London to Vladivostock via Ramstein, Kursk and the Donbas
Published: 2024-09-10
A Ramstein Friday
The Friday September 6th meeting at the US foreign military base in Ramstein, Germany, between expired President of Ukraine, Zelensky, and his Western suppliers (of funding, intelligence, military hardware and political support) concluded with a whimper of defeat.
In response to Kiev's repeated pleading for a new supply of US long range precision missiles and the permission to target even further into the Russian Federation, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated after the meeting that "There's no one capability that will in and of itself be decisive in this campaign". He noted that Russia had moved the bombers used to deliver its devastating FAB glide bombs to beyond the limits of the requested missiles. Ukraine should try some of its drones, if it wishes to target these remote air fields, suggested Austin. Or, to paraphrase, Austin told the former actor to "go suck eggs".
For air defense, the Spanish offered the lone token gift, a HAWK. The MIM-23 Hawk is a surface to air missile system first used in 1959 (upgraded in 1971). Ze Germans, Danes and Dutch came up with 77 1970's tanks (Leopard 1A4's) to be delivered in stages. Their metal fatigue might not be as bad as the recently gifted F-16s. Za Brits flung in a few multipurpose short range missile trinkets (newish 8Km range Martlets).
A few odds and sodds parts for the 5 remaining ancient F-16 air frames made the list, though nobody as yet has raised their hand for providing trained service crews to employ them to maintain the old jets "on the ground" in Ukraine. This caution might be because of the total lack of air defense, with NATO air service crews asking "Are you crazy?" The main air field in Lvov, Galicia (western Ukraine) was struck with a Russian missile attack on the weekend following the meeting, proving the already understood risk to air maintenance crews.
Notably absent from the donations inventory were much needed 155mm artillery rounds.
The results of the petitioning in Ramstein are none of military items Ukraine needs for defence, to hold its lines or launch even more provocations at Russia. NATO either has nothing meaningful to provide or the "never-ending" support has ended. The list of ancient hand-me-downs instead equipped Western media with a list of acronyms to publish.
Just outside of Ramstein, German Chancellor Scholz is pushing for talks after his Finance Minister said that the funding drawer is barren.
Kursk and Donbas
In the fizzled to disastrous Ukrainian invasion of Russia in Kursk, open source news remains scant. The Russian Ministry of Defense reports that around 10 000 invading Ukrainian and other (Poles, French, mercenaries etc.) soldiers sacrificed themselves beside a graveyard of machinery. Wherever they got to, is as far as it went. Whoever is left has dwindling supplies and tens of thousands of highly trained, armed Russians looking for them and not asking questions.
Dima from Military Summary has been following one area of interest to the nor'nor'east of the initial incursion.
Russian forces halted an early invading advance in a town with a women's prison, defeating repeated assaults. Invaders to the west pushed past them and threatened that flank, with the town holding, pressured then on two fronts. To their east another invading force pushed past them to the north. A pincer envelopment was developing.
The invading and potentially enveloping eastern flank was long and thin and relied on a single road in the north of a village before it crossed an important bridge to connect with the northern part of that eastern "pincer".
This past weekend, new Russian forces counter attacked, capturing the northern part of the village, thus denying the road and bridge for resupply. The result was reminiscent of a play from the classic Chinese strategy game of Go. By placing that "move" (capturing that road and bridge), suddenly the northern part of that "pincer" was itself surrounded.
On the autumnal fields of the Donbas open source news is still at a minimum. The Friday meeting in Ramstein had partially explained the recent lull, as it did the CNN interview with Ukrainian military leader Syrski. The quietude and interview were “information space” preparations. The rapid Russian advances east and southeast of Pokrovsk have dramatically slowed. An explanation is the returned of capable command and defense troops from the reserves in Sumy which have not been sent into the Kursk graveyard. The battles for the mining strip south of Pokrovsk are now more heavily contested.
Just further southeast, the cauldron Russia has been developing continues with a consolidation on the southern flank. Further south, the Russian advances on the flanks of Vugledar are in an unknown state, though all expect a continuation of the envelopment of the town as the coal mine to the northeast, and settlement north of that are captured by Russia. Similarly, it is expected that Russia will consolidate the capture of the village to Vugledar's east.
Alex Christoforou delivered a collection of partially true and confused headlines about the incident in Nui-York. Russian forces had surrounded a group of Ukrainian soldiers in the citadel (high rise complex) in the centre north of the town where they were trapped for about a fortnight. By Sunday evening, the 12th "special" group of the Nazi Azov unit fought into the town from the north to reach the citadel and create a route of escape for the trapped Ukrainian soldiers. Just to the east of Nui-York a large area of ground of unknown status is now acknowledged to be under Russian control. Russian forces will soon complete the re-take of the northern hole punched towards the citadel and then have completed the capture of both Nui-York and the fields to its east.
Russia continues its targeted bombing campaigns in Chasiv Yar, and further north to the east and southeast of Kupiansk. Minor Russian advances continue towards the Oskol river south of Kupiansk. Reports of engagements in the two salients north of Kharkiv have been very rare for weeks. All of the political noise about Ukraine telling Belarus what to do with its troops on their side of the border amounted the exactly the hot air predicted.
A CI-6 Weekend in London
A dramatic move was played, this weekend past, by the spymasters of the US and UK. Burns and Moore headlined an event hosted by the Financial Times which published an op-ed with their names written in the place for the authors. In a first ever publication by any pair of Anglo-Alliance Spy Masters, the Chiefs of Secrets of "CI-6" left their best joke to the end, lauding their "trust" and "openness".
The FT text was largely a backslapping sales pitch in which they blurred the lines of history and praised their use of "AI, including generative AI, to enable and improve intelligence activities — from summarisation to ideation". If AI has enabled "intelligence activities", one must ask what CI-6 has been doing this last three-quarter century? Based upon the generated intelligence used by these agencies two decades ago to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq based on pure lies, we can hope that their "generative AI" can do a better job than the humans to generate their "intelligence". Perhaps their hand in sock agencies are working on some "ideation" towards it.
It was helpful of Moore to have his ghostwriter inform us that there is a normative phrase for MI-6, "the UK Secret Intelligence Service". A leaked US Defense Intelligence Agency report listed potential risks in the Syrian Dirty War, which CI-6 funded and ran. One of those risks was the rise of a group which may declare an Islamic Caliphate. The acronym for that organisation, ISIS, perhaps fittingly echoes the friendly name of Moore's, SIS. Perhaps alarmingly the two secret agents reassured us that "counterterrorism remains core to our partnership". The core problem with this is that a counterterrorist is out of a job without terrorists. They informed us of where there efforts are likely to be placed with "We will continue to aid our ... Ukrainian intelligence partners".
One expects that the attack at Crocus Hall, and those in Dagestan were a foretaste of the terror menu to come. This is certainly the impression they gave to former, senior Indian diplomat M. K. Bhadrakumar:
Burns and Moore hinted that covert (terrorist) operations by Krylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, are the option left now in the proxy war.
The admission of defeat by Austin, followed by the joint lead role played by the intelligence and covert operations chiefs, seemed a laying down of cards.
On the Eastern Front
On his way to Vladivostok, the Russian Federation President visited Mongolia, "timed to coincide with the September 2-3 observance of the end of WWII in the Pacific", noted Gilbert Doctorow.
The visit featured wide-ranging discussions of possible new joint Russian-Mongolian infrastructure projects, including the long-delayed construction of a Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline across Mongolia to facilitate deliveries of natural gas to China’s western regions.
All that Western audiences learned was that Mongolia looked down its nose at the ludicrous ICC arrest warrant for their guest. There was no comment in Western media that the same court has not issued a warrant for the Prime Minister of Israel who is still running a genocide and has demonstrated that he has no intention to stop by constantly undermining talks to end hostilities and exchange hostages. On the one hand, a charge is against the Russian president for saving children from a war zone, while on the other no charge is laid against the Israeli Prime Minister who is forcing children to stay within a war zone where he is murdering them. The ICC is thus inconsistent or subject to political control, or both, undermining its legitimacy.
Putin took his place at the Far Eastern Economic Forum in Valdivostok and described policies that the Federation has chosen to encourage economic growth in the region. Subsidized low mortgage rates are being provided for long term internal migrants with additional incentives being provided for medical and teaching professionals. The nation is also investing in transport and education infrastructure.
To entertain the guests and provide a vacuous topic for the Western journalists who have been banned from talking about US President-in-Hiding Biden, Vladimir Vladimirovich gave a master class in trolling by "endorsing" Biden's masters' new puppet. Liz Cheney would not be outdone and confirmed that her warmongering father would vote for Hope & Change 2.0, indicating he understood who controlled her.
A few seasons back, Julian Assange described choosing between US presidential candidates as akin to choosing between Gonorrhea and Syphilis. Perhaps we have moved on to Dysentery and Typhoid.
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Sources
Ukraine - CIA/MI-6 Chiefs Push For New Terror Campaign Against Russia, b., Moon of Alabama, 2024-09-08
Russia offsets Ukraine’s Kursk offensive, M. K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, 2024-09-08
Bill Burns and Richard Moore: Intelligence partnership helps the US and UK stay ahead in an uncertain world, Bill Burns and Richard Moore, Financial Times, 2024-09-07
Russia, China, ASEAN Weave Their Eastern Magic, Pepe Escobar, The Unz Review, 2024-09-10
Far Eastern Economic Forum: perhaps the least covered international event by Western major media this week, Gilbert Doctorow, Gilbert Doctorow, 2024-09-06
Germany's Scholz Calls for Push Toward Peace in Ukraine, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-09-09
Germany to halt new Ukraine military aid: Report, Giovanna Coi, Politico, 2024-08-17
Victoria Nuland Admits US Discouraged Ukraine From Signing Peace Deal With Russia in 2022, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-09-09
Martlet (missile), Wikipedia
MIM-23 Hawk, Wikipedia
As Ukrainian Lines Crumble, Kiev Asks For, ＂Receives＂ Non-Existent Missiles [H9shO5qegMo], Brian Berletic, The New Atlas, 2024-09-08
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They are not winning this needless war and it's one month to election time. Brace yourself for an outbreak of horrific terrorism - it's surely imminent from them any time soon.