Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on Fox News last night for a discussion of current geopolitical events.  The segment starts with an open-ended question about updates to the terror plot surrounding RAF Fairford base in the U.K against U.S. military targets.

Secretary Rubio was very measured in his response, noting he could not discuss too much and did not want to get out ahead of the investigation; however, he did confirm the terrorism plot “clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor.”   People in American and the U.K are puzzled by the British authority position to release the suspects on bail, less than 24 hours after they were arrested.  Everything surrounding this event is very weird.  WATCH:

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This sounds absolutely nuts to me, but the U.K police have released on bail the five suspected terrorists caught outside RAF Fairford military base.  Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor delivered a statement outside Scotland Yard explaining the current status.  WATCH:

“We have, as you would expect, ensured that our protective security advice and posture remain commensurate to the threat. But be assured, we are considering this from every possible angle, including that this may be actively committed by proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state.“

According to the UK Daily Mirror, “The farmer who told police about the suspected RAF Fairford terror plot has claimed she saw up to 10 masked people by the base – as police said five men arrested will be bailed. The woman, in her 50s, from Whelford, alerted police after seeing three vans blocking a road near the base, which has been used by the US to bomb missile sites in Iran, while on her way back from a party. Five British nationals were then arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning on suspicion of explosives offences and later terrorism. The farmer who dialed 999 has now claimed there were “definitely more than five” and estimated she saw between eight and 10 people with their faces covered and wearing “slim-fitting clothes”. {source}

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Royal Airforce base Fairford, is a U.K-owned base operated by the United States under an agreement that goes back to the 1950’s cold war era. However, recently Airbase Fairford has been used by American strategic bombers for strikes against Iranian missile sites under an agreement with former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Overnight, at 12:45 a.m British police received a warning about three suspicious vans traveling toward RAF Fairford, with a tip that a coordinated terrorist attack was planned against the American base.

U.K police alerted the base, which immediately triggered threat alerts, then police intercepted the vans and arrested five males on suspicion of terrorism.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. police said Sunday that five men arrested in the middle of the night near an air base used by the United States during its war against Iran are being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act that appeared to involve three trucks.

London’s Metropolitan Police, which takes the lead on potential terrorist activities, said police received a call at 12:45 a.m. related to the three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be traveling toward RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base that is operated by the U.S. under an agreement dating back to the Cold War.

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Today the CIA released an unprecedented 71 Presidential Daily Briefs given to the Executive Branch before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  You can review the material [HERE – CIA LINK]

I would remind readers, in 2010 George W Bush’s campaign manager, aide and senior staff, Karl Rove, revealed [“Courage and Consequence“] that then CIA Director George Tenet had been trying for several weeks to get a personal meeting with President Bush to outline an intelligence concern about an international terror threat.

According to Rove, White House National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, had been blocking Tenet from meeting with President Bush.  Director Tenet sent several requests using alternate channels to reach Bush.  Eventually, in the late spring or early summer 2001, Tenet overcame the Rice block and was given time to brief President Bush.

CIA Director George Tenet then told President Bush the CIA had intercepted telephone “chatter” pointing to an al-Qaeda terrorist threat that somehow involved airlines.  However, the details and the specifics of the threat were unknown.  The only thing Tenet knew with certainty was that some type of plot was underway and airlines were involved.

George W Bush responded to Tenet by saying it appeared the CIA director was just trying to “cover his ass” in case something happened.  Bush was angered at the vagueness of the warning and told Tenet to consider his ass covered, but essentially the information was useless without specifics.

The rest, as they say, is history.  The matter did not surface again until after the 9/11/01 plot was carried out.

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Earlier today, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump participated in the 25th Anniversary 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon.

Participating speakers included Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and former National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice.   President Trump begins his remarks at 1:08:03 of the video below.

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The 25th anniversary of the attacks on 9-11 present a day to reflect, remember and pay tribute to those we lost.   I am sure most of us remember exactly where we were at the moment when we found out our nation was under attack.  Our nation was forever changed by those moments on September 11th, 2001.

Perhaps we can share our memories together as we think about the anniversary of this date.

Where were you on that day?  And what memories are most vivid for you?

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This is one spectacular impromptu presser by Secretary of State Marco Rubio following discussions with Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa at Carondelet Palace.  All of it is direct, deliberate, targeted and without any reserved remarks held back due to regional sensibilities.

Secretary Rubio emphatically outlined how the United States is going to work with Latin-America officials to remove narco-terrorism in all its forms from the region like “cutting out a cancer.”  Rubio walks through the issues and the importance of direct confrontation, including the use of the U.S. military, the U.S. intelligence agencies and every element of power at our disposal to help leaders like President Daniel Noboa fight the corrupt gangs and domestic terrorist networks within the region.  Rubio’s strength of statements is exceptional.

These remarks come on the heels of the State Dept today designating corrupt Ecuadorian officials as facilitators of Foreign Terrorist Organizations [SEE HERE]. He also praised the government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa as being “the most involved and aggressive partner” the US has had in its work dismantling criminal networks and “bringing people to justice that have never been brought to justice before”.  Rubio outlined all of it, soup to nuts. This is a must watch presser:

STATE DEPT – […] Pablo Ramírez Erazo, former director of Ecuador’s Prison Authority; Wilman Terán Carillo, former judge on Ecuador’s National Court of Justice; and Ronaldo Xavier Guerrero Cruz, former criminal judge on Ecuador’s Judicial Council, each significantly abused their former government positions by accepting bribes from gangs linked to narco-terrorist organizations.  In exchange for bribes, these officials interfered with judicial, electoral, or public processes on behalf of Ecuadorian gangs linked to designated FTOs Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Los Choneros, and Los Lobos.  

Pablo Bolívar Muentes Alarcón, former member of the Ecuadorian National Assembly; María Fabiola Gallardo Ramia, former President of the Guayas Provincial Court; Johann Marfetán Medina, former criminal judge of the Guayas Provincial Court; and Mayra Carolina Salazar Merchán, former public relations officer of the Guayas Provincial Court, each abused their former public positions by accepting bribes in exchange for interfering with judicial processes to benefit narco-terrorist organizations like Los Choneros and the Sinaloa Cartel, and their criminal facilitators. (SOURCE)

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Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has been remarkably reserved and selective in his targeting, considering the scale and capability of the massively armed nation to obliterate Ukraine metropolitan areas.

Russia absorbed all the Ukraine attacks on Wildberries warehouses for all the reasons CTH previously noted.  Ukraine was convinced by western intelligence analysis that destroying the roughly 200 Wildberries distribution centers would cripple the Russian consumer economy.  However, increased strikes did not yield the desired results. Duh.

Ukraine then added Ozon to the target list, another online retailer for everyday items similar to Amazon (even with similar name).

Ukraine began targeting Ozon warehouse and distribution centers shortly before they began more parcel and car bomb attacks against strategic Russian military officers.

It’s almost like Western intelligence do not understand how resilient Russian consumers are.  Russia is considerably analog in an almost exclusively western digital world.  Perhaps that’s the disconnect, but I would think with the cultural connections between both nations, Ukraine would know better.

Then again, is it really Ukraine strategizing the war?

Regardless, Vladimir Putin has now taken the restrictions away from dual use infrastructure in/around Kyiv, and for the past two days Russia has continued to launch relentless volleys of missiles and drones at Kyiv warehouses.  Overall, during the two days of Russian attacks, 17 warehouse facilities, 16 private houses, three apartment buildings and 16 vehicles were damaged in Kyiv region. {source} It’s the retaliatory version of FAFO.

Western Ukraine (Kyiv region) is very ‘western’, very western.  Eastern Ukraine, not so much.  Suddenly the nightclubs, dance clubs and entertainment districts in/around Kyiv (Kiev) are empty.

What is now beginning to be shared on background alternative media is the scope of exodus from Ukraine (picture above left).  Thousands of Ukrainians are now fleeing every day.

KYIVPOST -Russian forces struck Nova Poshta warehouse facilities in the Kyiv region early Friday, Aug. 28, then hit the same site twice more as firefighters were battling the resulting blaze, local authorities said.

The initial strike targeted warehouses in the Bilohorodka community, damaging a nearby production facility in Sviatopetrivske, according to Anton Ovsiienko, head of the Bilohorodka village council.

Nearly an hour later, while emergency crews were still fighting the fire, Russian forces launched two more strikes at the same location. Firefighters and other specialists managed to move to a safer area before the additional impacts, Ovsiienko said.

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Deep breath.  Yesterday, CTH noted to pay close attention to the Finland-Russia border region and the areas in/around St Petersburg.  There has been a visible coordination between Finland and Ukraine in the attacks against Russia.  I would not be surprised to hear this terrorist crossed that border region.

A Lt Col in the Russian Airforce was killed immediately when a car bomb exploded that also severely injured his wife.  As you are reading this there are also reports of thousands of Ukraine civilians fleeing Kiev ahead of Russia’s predicted retaliation.  The serviceman was killed in an area heavily occupied by military personnel and their families.

This is the fourth car bomb in the past few months and the seventh Ukraine car/parcel bombing in the last few years. Zelenskyy is in Moldova today organizing new attacks against Russia.

RUSSIA – A senior Russian officer has been killed by a car bomb in St Petersburg, Russian media reported.

Footage posted on Telegram showed emergency workers and police flooding a street littered with the debris of an exploded vehicle and cordoning it off from the public.

An explosion sounded at around 10am near a Magnit supermarket in the suburban neighbourhood of Shushary, killing the lieutenant colonel and badly injuring his wife, according to Fontanka, a St Petersburg news publication, which cited eyewitnesses.

The outlet claimed that both had lost their legs in the blast, which took place as they began driving away from their home. (read more)

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The Canadian state media outlet, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), responds to the tensions of the Canada-USA relationship by telling all state funded journalists: “Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

According to the internal communication: “The memo instead described the 9-11 events as hijackings that led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. It also said the World Trade Center was destroyed. {citation}

CANADA – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday defended an internal memo directing its reporters and editors to refrain from describing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as “terrorist attacks,” telling Fox News Digital the guidance reflected its longstanding practice of attributing terms it considers politically and emotionally loaded.

“It is the practice of the CBC to exercise extreme caution before using the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism,'” CBC Public Affairs Director Kerry Kelly said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The memo was a reminder of the longstanding practice that favours the use of these terms with attribution in our reporting.”

The memo was authored by Basem Boshra, CBC News’ senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, and surfaced ahead of the attacks’ 25th anniversary. The directive was first reported by Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella, who said it was addressed to CBC News staff. “Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” the memo said.

The memo instead described the events as hijackings that led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. It also said the World Trade Center was destroyed. (read more)

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