Syria
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What is NATO’s New Mission in Iraq? By Salman Rafi Sheikh
The new NATO Mission in Iraq is thus a plan according to which the US is going to shift its base of regional geo-politics from Syria, where the Russians, Turks and Iranians have already established their own stronghold, to Iraq, a country that has still not recovered from the damages inflicted on it first by… Continue reading
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The U.S. Has Venezuela in Its Crosshairs By VJ Prashad
Last Thursday—on January 10—Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as president of Venezuela. “I tell the people,” Maduro said, “this presidential sash is yours. The power of this sash is yours. It does not belong to the oligarchy or to imperialism. It belongs to the sovereign people of Venezuela.” These two terms—oligarchy… Continue reading
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The resignation of General Mattis and America’s crisis of class rule By Bill Van Auken
Thursday’s resignation of US Defense Secretary James Mattis has provoked a reaction of panic and near hysteria from leading members of both major political parties, the media and former top military and intelligence officials. Continue reading
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Lost in the Memory Palace: US Leads, But No One Follows By Patrick Lawrence
Team Trump missed the summit on Syria. In that, Patrick Lawrence sees another sign of Washington’s failure to accept its loss of diplomatic primacy. Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Filter Bubble – Owen Jones And Con Coughlin
The nightmare version of ‘news’ is maintained by a corporate ‘filter bubble’ that blocks facts, ideas and sources that challenge state-corporate control of politics, economics and culture. It is maintained by a mixture of ruthless high-level control and middle- and lower-level compromise, conformity and self-serving blindness. Continue reading
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Can Trump, Israel, and Gulf Allies Get Putin to Turn On Iran?
Days after Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow, Trump will meet with Putin in Helsinki. But despite talk of a “grand bargain” that enlists Russia in helping the US-Israel-Saudi-UAE front against Iran, don’t expect it to happen, says professor and syndicated columnist Rami Khouri (inc. transcript) Continue reading
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Trashing the Planet for Profit By William Bowles
For the most part, us lefties are optimists. We believe in the future, in progress, that things will get better, eventually. That the ludicrous idea that capitalism is the ‘end of history’, that in spite of its relentless propaganda, and notwithstanding the defeat of the first socialist experiments, that there is a future beyond capitalism,… Continue reading
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Video: Saudi Financial Crisis at Heart of Princely Rage
The severe financial crisis and foreign policy failures are making Prince Mohammed bin Salman increasingly belligerent, says Vijay Prashad Continue reading
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Perpetual war: UK’s armed drones to stay deployed beyond campaign against ISIS By Chris Cole
The ongoing drone deployment by the UK will no doubt not be viewed as pragmatic or sensible by the majority in the Middle East, but as provocative and threatening. It will be seen that the UK is continuing to partner with the US in an endless drone war in the Middle East and beyond. Continue reading
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Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu Is Leading US President Trump to War with Iran By Prof. James Petras
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Presidents of the 52 Major Jewish American Organizations are leading President Trump, like a puppy on a leash, into a major war with Iran. The hysterical ’52 Presidents’ and ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu are busy manufacturing Holocaust-level predictions that a non-nuclear Iran is preparing to ‘vaporize’ Israel, The buffoonish US… Continue reading
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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 Continue reading
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Media Lens: Mass Media Siege: Comparing Coverage Of Mosul and Aleppo
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… Continue reading
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Where are Britain’s armed drones? Why Drone Wars is going to court to seek answers By Chris Cole
Drone Wars UK will be in court next week seeking to overturn the refusal of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to release how many of the UK’s fleet of ten armed Reaper drones are deployed and where they are located. The MoD currently releases such deployment details about its other armed aircraft, but has insisted… Continue reading
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Terror in Britain: What Did the Prime Minister Know? By 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… Continue reading
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Media: Arms Deal Stories Omit War Crimes Arms Will Be Used For
The Trump administration wrapped up a weapons deal with the Saudi Arabian government this week that will be worth up to $350 billion over the next ten years. News of the deal came as Trump visited Riyadh and paid fealty to one of the United States’ most enduring allies in the Middle East. The vast… Continue reading
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Media Lens: A Response To George Monbiot’s ‘Disavowal’
Guardian columnist George Monbiot has responded to our recent media alert on the alleged gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib, Syria, on April 4: ‘Here’s a response to the latest attempt by @medialens to dismiss the mounting evidence on the authorship of the #KhanSheikhoun attack’ This is a very serious misrepresentation of what we have… Continue reading
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Foreign Policy and “False Flags”: Trump’s “War and Chocolate” Reality Show By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
21 April 2017 — Global Research Who is the Butcher, Mr. Trump? What kind of president do we have? Cynical and diabolical? The plush dinner event with China’s president Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago on the evening of April 6 was carefully planned to coincide with Trump’s missile strikes against Syria. Xi and Trump were accompanied by their wives; Continue reading
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Media: Thomas Friedman’s Perverse Love Affair With ISIS
For the second time in as many years, Thomas Friedman has explicitly advocated that the United States use the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as a proxy force against Syria, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. The New York Times foreign affairs columnist made this suggestion in his Wednesday column, “Why Is Trump Fighting ISIS… Continue reading
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Video: Trump Attack on Syria a Deadly Political Game and Reflection of Deep Systemic Crisis
Gerald Horne and Paul Jay discuss the cynical politics behind the attack and the decay and dysfunctionality of the American state Continue reading
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New Report: British Drone Operations Against ISIS, 2014-2016 By Chris Cole
Drone 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… Continue reading