Turkish Defense Minister Calls for Halt of Military Operations in Idlib

ANKARA (Sputnik) - While the Syrian government has regained control over most of the country's territories following several years of armed conflicts with the opposition and militant groups, including terrorist organizations, the Idlib de-escalation zone remains a stronghold of insurgency and is still being cleared of terrorists.

Meanwhile, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Monday that Ground and air operations in the Syrian province of Idlib should be stopped immediately. "Attacks from the air and land in Idlib should be stopped immediately, the ceasefire regime must be secured and extended," Akar told reporters in Ankara.

While the Syrian government has regained control over most of the country's territories following several years of armed conflicts with opposition and militant groups, including terrorist organizations, the Idlib de-escalation zone remains a stronghold of insurgency and is still being cleared of terrorists.

According to the Kremlin, the terrorism hotbed in Idlib destabilizes the situation in Syria and undermines the work toward the political settlement of the conflict. Moreover, Russian officials have repeatedly warned that terrorists were planning a false-flag chemical weapons attack in Idlib with an aim to provoke Western retaliation against the Syrian government.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201809111067912366-turkey-syria-idlib-military-operation/

U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds

The United States Army’s finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced.

The Defense Department’s Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up.

As a result, the Army’s financial statements for 2015 were “materially misstated,” the report concluded. The “forced” adjustments rendered the statements useless because “DoD and Army managers could not rely on the data in their accounting systems when making management and resource decisions.”

Disclosure of the Army’s manipulation of numbers is the latest example of the severe accounting problems plaguing the Defense Department for decades.

The report affirms a 2013 Reuters series revealing how the Defense Department falsified accounting on a large scale as it scrambled to close its books. As a result, there has been no way to know how the Defense Department – far and away the biggest chunk of Congress’ annual budget – spends the public’s money.

The new report focused on the Army’s General Fund, the bigger of its two main accounts, with assets of $282.6 billion in 2015. The Army lost or didn’t keep required data, and much of the data it had was inaccurate, the IG said.

“Where is the money going? Nobody knows,” said Franklin Spinney, a retired military analyst for the Pentagon and critic of Defense Department planning.

The significance of the accounting problem goes beyond mere concern for balancing books, Spinney said. Both presidential candidates have called for increasing defense spending amid current global tension.

An accurate accounting could reveal deeper problems in how the Defense Department spends its money. Its 2016 budget is $573 billion, more than half of the annual budget appropriated by Congress.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-house/house-republicans-target-more-tax-cuts-as-elections-near-idUSKCN1LQ15L

Not sure of the angle being pushed here, but the figures don't look good for Hussein's gov

Staged Gas Attacks & US Shortcomings: US Senator Tells Sputnik About Syria Trip

US Senator Richard Black in an exclusive interview with Sputnik, revealed how the Syrian people see their president, what went wrong with the US policy in the Mideast and also expressed his admiration for the state of human rights in the country, as "Syria has the greatest women’s rights and the greatest religious freedoms of any Arab country."

Black, a Republican member of the Virginia State Senate, has recently returned from Syria, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and discussed recent developments in the country.

Sputnik: You recently met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. What was your general opinion of the man and how accurately is he represented in Western media?

Richard Black: This is the second time that I've met with President Assad. We had a 45-minute schedule and we ended up talking for three hours. The last time he was optimistic, he was determined. This time there was almost a spring in his step. He was quite joyous and happy.

I think, like all Syrians, he realizes that unless the West gets involved in a very malign fashion, the War will end rather soon. I think all Syrians are ready for that, but he seemed very upbeat and very happy.

You asked about how he is portrayed in the media. People in Syria know that he is a very humble individual. There is almost a touch of shyness about him. Incredibly intelligent and very devoted to his people.

for the tensions with Russia.

The Deep State were terrified Michael Flynn might remain the national security adviser. For this reason they ousted him and successively put in bellicose people like John Bolton and they probably couldn't find a greater advocate of war than John Bolton. So at this point I think it is quite questionable if the president will be capable of changing and shifting American policy.

Much more:

https://sputniknews.com/interviews/201809101067877625-us-senator-black-syria-interview/

>>2963749

>>2963702

Right you are!

Correction

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-audit-army-idUSKCN10U1IG