S-400 and Turkey: A Middle Eastern Perspective

4 August 2019 — New Eastern Outlook

2S400

Middle Eastern media outlets have been actively reporting on the delivery of Russia’s S-400 Triumph missile systems purchased by Turkey.

The authors of these articles have tried to assess the significance of this deal for Turkey, the reaction of Ankara’s NATO allies and the possible consequences in terms of the regional and global balance of power. The headlines of a number of these stories are quite telling: “Could Turkey swing over to the Russian camp?”, “Will Turkey leave NATO?”.

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Venezuela: Another Coup Attempt – and Why it Failed By Keith Brooks

4 August 2019 — Off Guardian

How come we’re not at war with Venezuela? They have all that oil”.
Donald Trump

I was in Caracas Venezuela on April 30th, the day of the failed coup. There were eight of us, five from NYC, one Vermonter and one Canadian, along with the leader of our group, a Venezuelan with whom I had traveled to Venezuela once before, in 2012 when Hugo Chavez was still alive.

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Rejecting Politics of Fear, Marginalized Puerto Ricans Led the Uprising By Oscar Oliver-Didier

3 August 2019 — Truthout

De Puntas por Puerto Rico group poses in front of the Puerto Rico governor's mansion. The De Puntas por Puerto Rico group poses in front of the Puerto Rico governor’s mansion.Alexandra Rodríguez-Jusino and Angélica Jiménez of De Puntas por Puerto Rico.

On July 17, 2019, a massive protest of approximately 100,000 people convened in San Juan’s historic center to call for the immediate resignation of Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. A few days later, more than 500,000 people went on a national strike concentrated along one of the main highways of the San Juan metropolitan area.

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More British complicity exposed in latest ‘CIA Torture Unredacted’ report

4 August 2019 — True Publica

The latest report about kidnappings, rendition, ‘black sites’ and torture is a remarkable piece of investigative work. It provides us with nothing less than a litany of shocking evidence and testimony and at 403 pages it makes for truly grim reading. This article is made up of a very brief set of extracts from the just-released  CIA Torture Unredacted report. It presents the findings from a four-year joint investigation by The Rendition Project and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism into the use of rendition, secret detention and torture by the CIA and its partners in the ‘War on Terror’. 

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Movements denounce massacre of activists in Barinas, Venezuela

2 August 2019 — Peoples Dispatch

On July 27 in Barinas, Venezuela, six activists belonging to the movement the Corriente Revolucionaria Bolívar y Zamora (CRBZ) were shot and killed by unidentified gunmen. This incident is part of the rising violence perpetrated by the right-wing large landowning class in the region. The massacre has been widely denounced by movements across Latin America, with the Venezuelan government expressing solidarity and willingness to investigate the violence.

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