17 November 2018 — Strategic Culture Foundation
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.
Tag: Syria
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.’
Can Trump, Israel, and Gulf Allies Get Putin to Turn On Iran?
15 July 2018 — TRNN
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
Trashing the Planet for Profit By William Bowles
8 January 2018 — investigatingimperialism
Introduction
Before I began this essay I read through some of my past forays that mentioned climate change and capitalism, the first I think, being in 2006 where I opined in a piece on the ‘War on Terror’:
Perhaps the impending climate catastrophe as well as the genocidal actions of the US will force us to finally start thinking and acting ‘outside of the box’ but without a clear idea of where we are heading or how to get there, currently the situation looks dire. — WOT is to be done? 2 November, 2006
Video: Saudi Financial Crisis at Heart of Princely Rage
20 November 2017 — TRNN
The severe financial crisis and foreign policy failures are making Prince Mohammed bin Salman increasingly belligerent, says Vijay Prashad (inc. transcript)
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.,
Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu Is Leading US President Trump to War with Iran By Prof. James Petras
27 October 2017 — Global Research
Can Generals James Mattis (US Secretary of Defense) and John Hyten (Head of US Strategic Command) Prevent a Disaster?
Introduction
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 President Trump has swallowed this fantasy wholesale and is pushing our nation toward war for the sake of Israel and its US-based supporters and agents. We will cite ten recent examples of Israeli-authored policies, implemented by Trump in his march to war (there are scores of others).
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.
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’.
Where are Britain’s armed drones? Why Drone Wars is going to court to seek answers By Chris Cole
7 July 2017 — Drone Wars
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 since late 2014 that such information cannot be released about its armed drones.
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
Media: Arms Deal Stories Omit War Crimes Arms Will Be Used For
24 May 2017 — FAIR
Reports on the Trump/Saudi arm deals focused on who would get paid–and ignored who it would cost.
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 majority of the reports on the topic, however, omitted a rather key piece of context—namely, whom the weapons will be used to kill.
Media Lens: A Response To George Monbiot’s ‘Disavowal’
4 May 2017 — Media Lens
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 argued in two media alerts. We made our position crystal-clear in the latest alert:
‘We have no idea who was responsible for the mass killings in Idlib on April 4; we are not weapons experts. But it seems obvious to us that arguments and evidence offered by credible sources like Postol should at least be aired by the mass media.’
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; guests, family members and high-level officials from both countries were in attendance at the Palm Beach Mar-a Lago “replicate” of Rome’s Palazzo Chigi 16th Century dining room. Continue reading
Media: Thomas Friedman’s Perverse Love Affair With ISIS
13 April 2017 — FAIR
Thomas Friedman urges Donald Trump to be “utterly cynical”–not unlike a Thomas Friedman column.
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 in Syria?” (4/12/17):
Why should our goal right now be to defeat the Islamic State in Syria? Of course, ISIS is detestable and needs to be eradicated. But is it really in our interest to be focusing solely on defeating ISIS in Syria right now?…
We could simply back off fighting territorial ISIS in Syria and make it entirely a problem for Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Assad. After all, they’re the ones overextended in Syria, not us. Make them fight a two-front war—the moderate rebels on one side and ISIS on the other. If we defeat territorial ISIS in Syria now, we will only reduce the pressure on Assad, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah and enable them to devote all their resources to crushing the last moderate rebels in Idlib, not sharing power with them.
Video: Trump Attack on Syria a Deadly Political Game and Reflection of Deep Systemic Crisis
9 April 2017 — TRNN
Gerald Horne and Paul Jay discuss the cynical politics behind the attack and the decay and dysfunctionality of the American state
New Report: British Drone Operations Against ISIS, 2014-2016 By Chris Cole
27 February 2017 — Drone Wars
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 of concern about the use of armed drones reflected through the lens of UK drone operations.
Media Lens: Undermining Democracy – Corporate Media Bias on Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and Syria
6 February 2017 — Media Lens
Are we able to prove the existence of a corporate media campaign to undermine British democracy? Media analysis is not hard science, but in this alert we provide compelling evidence that such a campaign does indeed exist.
Compare coverage of comments made on Syria by a spokesman for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in October 2016 and by UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson in January 2017. Continue reading
Provoking Nuclear War by Media: Selected Articles
23 August 2016 — Global Research
Provoking Nuclear War by Media
By John Pilger, August 23 2016
The exoneration of a man accused of the worst of crimes, genocide, made no headlines. Neither the BBC nor CNN covered it. The Guardian allowed a brief commentary. Such a rare official admission was buried or suppressed, understandably. It would explain too much about how the rulers of the world rule. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has quietly cleared the late Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, of war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including the massacre at Srebrenica.
US-Led Airstrikes Kill as Many Civilians as Nice Attack–but Get No Front-Page Headlines in Major US Papers
21 July 2016 — FAIR
The Intercept (7/19/16) illustrated its article on a deadly airstrike in Syria with a photo of a victim receiving medical attention. (Photo: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images)
A coalition airstrike reported on Tuesday that killed at least 85 civilians—one more than died in the Nice attack in France last week—wasn’t featured at all on the front pages of two of the top US national newspapers, the New York Times and LA Times, and only merited brief blurbs on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, with the actual stories buried on pages A-16 and A-15, respectively.
According to the London Telegraph (7/19/16), the airstrike killed “more than 85 civilians” after the “coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.” Eight families were represented among the dead, with victims “as young as three.” The Intercept (7/19/16) reported the death toll could end up being well over 100.
The New Dark Age 