Coup attempt in Jordan leaves a trail

5 April 2021 — Indian Punchline

By M.K. Bhadrakumar

“What happens in the Middle East has a way of making itself felt everywhere around the world,” Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein while addressing the European Parliament, Strasbourg, 15th January 2021

A coup attempt is an orphan unless it succeeds. Therefore, all we can say is that a coup was in the making in Jordan. In a televised news conference on Sunday in Amman, all that Deputy Prime Minister Ayman al-Safadi would admit was that “These were efforts that threatened Jordan’s security and stability, and these efforts were foiled.”

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Inside the Gorbachev-Bush “Partnership” on the First Gulf War 1990

10 September 2020 — The National Security Archive

New Documents Show Soviet Leader Scrambling to Stay in Sync with Americans, But Ultimately Aiming for Non-Use of Force

Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait 30 Years Ago Posed First Test for Post-Cold War Superpower Cooperation

Soviet transcripts of Gorbachev conversations with Mitterrand, Cheney, Baker, and Saudis published for the first time in English

Washington, D.C., September 9, 2020 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev quickly decided that joint action with the United States was the most important course for the USSR in dealing with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait 30 years ago, rather than the long-standing Soviet-Iraq alliance, and built what he explicitly called a “partnership” with the U.S. that was key to the international condemnation of Iraq’s actions, according to declassified Soviet and American documents published today by the National Security Archive.

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The Destruction of Freedom: Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange And The Corporate Media

19 March 2019 — Media Lens

In 2010, US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning was given a 35-year prison sentence after she had leaked more than 700,000 confidential US State Department and Pentagon documents, videos and diplomatic cables about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks. Perhaps the most notorious of the releases was a US military video that WikiLeaks titled ‘Collateral Murder’. It showed the indiscriminate slaying of up to eighteen people in Baghdad on 12 July, 2007. The footage, taken from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, showed the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters journalist and his rescuers. A second Reuters staff member, employed as a driver and camera assistant, was also killed. Two young children, whose father was among those killed, were seriously wounded.

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Trump’s visit to Iraq and Washington’s never-ending war in the Middle East

28 December 2018 — WSWS

Donald Trump’s brief, unannounced visit to Iraq on the day after Christmas was staged with a patent political motive. His appearance with assembled troops—for a grand total of 45 minutes—was aimed at shoring up support within the Pentagon as well as among rank-and-file soldiers in the wake of the resignation in protest of his defense secretary, Gen. James Mattis, following Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.

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Trump’s Troop Pullout Not Peace, More Imperialist Reconfiguration

28 December 2018 — Strategic Culture Foundation

President Trump’s sudden call for US troops to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan has left many observers scratching their heads.

Yes, in general, it is to be welcomed that American forces are leaving Syria. They have been there illegally, in contravention of Syria’s sovereignty, for the past four years. US troops getting out of the Arab country potentially allows for a political settlement to take hold after nearly eight years of war.

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Media Lens: The Filter Bubble – Owen Jones And Con Coughlin

14 November 2018 — Media Lens

There is something dreamlike about the system of mass communication sometimes described as ‘mainstream media’. The self-described ‘rogue journalist’ and ‘guerrilla poet’ Caitlin Johnstone tweeted it well:

‘The Iraq invasion feels kind of like if your dad had stood up at the dinner table, cut off your sister’s head in front of everyone, gone right back to eating and never suffered any consequences, and everyone just kind of forgot about it and carried on life like it never happened.’

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Media Lens: The Syrian Observatory – Funded By The Foreign Office

4 June 2018 — Media Lens

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, journalist Peter Hitchens commented last month on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR):

‘Talking of war, and Syria, many of you may have noticed frequent references in the media to a body called the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”, often quoted as if it is an impartial source of information about that complicated conflict, in which the British government clearly takes sides. The “Observatory” says on its website that it is “not associated or linked to any political body.”

‘To which I reply: Is Boris Johnson’s Foreign Office not a political body? Because the FO just confirmed to me that “the UK funded a project worth £194,769.60 to provide the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights with communications equipment and cameras.” That’s quite a lot, isn’t it? I love the precision of that 60p. Your taxes, impartially, at work.’

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Perpetual war: UK’s armed drones to stay deployed beyond campaign against ISIS By Chris Cole

6 November 2017 — Drone Wars

A Ministry of Defence press conference has revealed that as the war against ISIS ends, British Reaper drones are to stay deployed in the Middle East after other UK aircraft return home.  As The Times reported

‘Air Commodore Johnny Stringer, who led the British air campaign against the terrorist group until last month, said that drones and other surveillance aircraft would continue to fly over Iraq and Syria to help local forces guard against the militants returning.,

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Middle East and Asia Geopolitics: Shift in Military Alliances? By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

30 September 2017 — Global Research 

A profound shift in geopolitical alliances is occurring which tends to undermine US hegemony in the broader Middle East Central Asian region as well as in South Asia. 

Several of America’s staunchest allies have “changed sides”. Both NATO and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are in crisis. 

Turkey and NATO

NATO is characterized by profound divisions,  largely resulting from Ankara’s confrontation with Washington.

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Media Lens: Mass Media Siege: Comparing Coverage Of Mosul and Aleppo

17 July 2017 — Media Lens

When Russian and Syrian forces were bombarding ‘rebel’-held East Aleppo last year, newspapers and television screens were full of anguished reporting about the plight of civilians killed, injured, trapped, traumatised or desperately fleeing. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, both Official Enemies, were denounced and demonised, in accordance with the usual propaganda script. One piece in the Evening Standard described Assad as a ‘monster’ and a Boris Johnson column in the Telegraph referred to both Putin and Assad as ‘the Devil’.

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Audio: Vijay Prashad on Displaced People

7 July 2017 — FAIR

Syrian refugees arriving on Lesbos (cc photo: Ggia)

(cc photo: Ggia)

This week on CounterSpin: AP reports hundreds of civilians fleeing Mosul’s Old City, climbing over rubble as explosions rock the streets, as government forces battle the Islamic State. Cameroonian officials deny UN reports they’ve driven out at least 5,000 Nigerian refugees in recent weeks, rounding them up in trucks, often separating parents and children, taking them back to the danger they thought they’d escaped. Suicides are up alarmingly among Myanmar refugees in a camp in Thailand. Meanwhile, Austrian defense officials say they will use armored vehicles and troops to keep refugees from crossing the border from Italy.

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US Military Sent over $1 Billion Worth of Light Weapons To “Multiple Armed Groups” in Iraq By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

4 June 2017 — Global Research

Report of Amnesty International

Management and Logistical Failure? Quoting a recently declassified US government audit, Amnesty International reports that the US Army “has failed to keep tabs on more than $1 billion worth of arms and other military equipment” channelled to Iraq under the Iraq Train and Equip Fund (ITEF).

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Terror in Britain: What Did the Prime Minister Know? By John Pilger

1 June 2017 — John Pilger

The unsayable in Britain’s general election campaign is this. The causes of the Manchester atrocity, in which 22 mostly young people were murdered by a jihadist, are being suppressed to protect the secrets of British foreign policy.

Critical questions – such as why the security service MI5 maintained terrorist “assets” in Manchester and why the government did not warn the public of the threat in their midst – remain unanswered, deflected by the promise of an internal “review”. Continue reading

New Report: British Drone Operations Against ISIS, 2014-2016 By Chris Cole

27 February 2017 — Drone Wars

feb-17-report-coverbDrone Wars UK is today publishing a new report detailing UK armed drone and air operations against ISIS.  The report contains data on UK operations in Iraq and Syria gained through Freedom of Information requests since 2014 as well as background and a timeline of UK air operations.  In addition, the report highlights continuing issues of concern about the use of armed drones reflected through the lens of UK drone operations.

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FAKE NEWS And FALSE FLAG: Pentagon Paid $540mn For FAKE ‘Al Qaeda’ Videos By Crofton Black and Abigail Fielding-Smith

4 October 2016 — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

The Pentagon gave a controversial UK PR firm over half a billion dollars to run a top secret propaganda programme in Iraq, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal.

Bell Pottinger’s output included short TV segments made in the style of Arabic news networks and fake insurgent videos which could be used to track the people who watched them, according to a former employee.

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Sign the petition – Blair must be held to account

20 August 2016

Well, clearly not that many people feel it’s important enough to haul the sociopath and war criminal Tony Blair into court for his crimes against humanity, as almost a month later and the count is now only around 16,800 people. A depressing reflection on our times don’t you think?

A new petition has been launched to bolster the campaign to hold Tony Blair to account by obtaining a House of Commons’ vote holding him in contempt of Parliament. Get 10,000 then Parliament has to respond (no response so far). Get 100,000 signatures and they have to debate it in Parliament.

Blair must be held to account! Sign the petition

28 July 2016

Update: There are now 14,43o signatures. Government has to respond to all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures but so far, three days in, there’s no sign of a response.

A new petition has been launched to bolster the campaign to hold Tony Blair to account by obtaining a House of Commons’ vote holding him in contempt of Parliament. It doesn’t get the murderer in court but at least it’s something. Get 100,000 signatures and they have to debate it in Parliament.

U.S., Britain Developed Plans to Disable or Destroy Middle Eastern Oil Facilities from Late 1940s to Early 1960s in Event of a Soviet Invasion

23 June 2016 — NSA

British Plans Envisioned Using Nuclear Weapons as an Option in Iran and Iraq, According to Declassified Documents

Regional Allies Were Apparently Never Informed Out of Concern for “Unfavorable” Consequences, Though Some U.S. Officials Thought Host Countries Would Approve the Plugging of Oil Wells

Secret Oil Denial Policy Lasted at Least until the Kennedy Administration

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 552

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