National Bird, a new documentary by filmmaker Sonia Kennebeck, co-produced with Errol Morris and Wim Wenders, is a deep, multilayered, look into America’s drone wars, a tactic which became a strategy which became a post-9/11 policy. To many in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the world, America’s new national symbol is not the bald eagle, but a gray shadow overhead armed with Hellfire missiles. read on...
Citing the Arab language Al Masirah TV news site, 20th Century Wire is reporting that some 100 US Army Special Forces have landed recently at the Anad air base in Lahij, Yemen. This deployment is said to augment other Arab forces currently engaging with al-Qaeda in its strongholds in southern Yemen. It was only just over a year ago that the US was forced to evacuate its forces from Yemen as fighting increased between the deposed Saudi-backed government and a Houthi-led insurgency.
The Saudi war on Yemen which began just over a year ago has not only claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and destroyed what little infrastructure existed in the Arab world's poorest country, it also created perfect conditions for the expansion of al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP). read on...
Many pundits are saying former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has the Democratic presidential nomination sewn up. Not so fast, counters Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst and former New Jersey State Judge Andrew Napolitano. The investigation of Clinton’s handling of classified government information may end up depriving Clinton of the nomination even if she escapes criminal indictment, says Napolitano. read on...
Torture comes in many forms. In comes in the form of waterboarding, in which an individual is made to believe he will drown. It comes in the form of pain-inducing, humiliating, and disfiguring treatment. Torture can also take the form of solitary confinement, the widespread use of which in American prisons has spilled over into use on so-called unlawful enemy combatants in wars overseas. read on...
The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that NATO is preparing to deploy four battalions -- approximately 4,000 troops -- to Russia's western border. US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work was in Brussels today to announce the Western military escalation on Russia's border, which he claimed was in response to Russian military exercises near the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
According to Deputy Secretary of Defense Work, two of the battalions would come from the United States, with one each coming from the UK and Germany. This announcement might come as news to German lawmakers, as such a significant German military presence on Russia's borders has not been approved by Germany. Although German Chancellor Angela Merkel has given Washington every reason to believe that Germany would join the escalation, the move is considered highly controversial in a Germany growing weary of following US foreign policy dictates. In fact, according to recent polling, only one in three Germans supports the idea of the German military defending the Baltics even if there were a Russian attack. A clear majority of Germans oppose NATO military bases on Russia's border. read on...
A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted today. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud. read on...
The total muddle that is US policy toward Syria continues to astonish. This week we saw the spectacle of a State Department Spokesman telling us that President Obama's promise to not put US boots on the ground in Syria, was never a promise not to put boots on the ground in Syria. Yes, it was funny to see him squirm, but there is nothing funny about the past five years of disastrous policy in Syria. Particularly considering the thousands killed once the US decided that "Assad must go" and began sending in fighters to make that happen.
Now we see the extraordinary situation where the US government admits that the militia groups Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham are fighting alongside and are "intermingled with" al-Qaeda's Nusra Front, but resoundingly rejects the Russian request to therefore classify these two groups terrorist. read on...
Watching State Department Spokesman John Kirby spar with one of Washington's last real journalists, AP diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee, is one of the best tickets in town. From his claims that "the entire international community" is demanding that Syria's Assad step down -- which earned a guffaw from Lee -- to his claim that the Syrian people have the right to live any way they choose as long as Washington agrees with their choice, John Kirby is the absolute epitome of the clueless Washington foreign policy establishment. He is the Baghdad Bob of the US State Department. read on...
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that tomorrow (Monday) President Obama will announce that he is quintupling the number of US troops inside Syria. From the current 50 troops the US admits are operating in Syria, the US will raise the total to 300 under the guise of increasing efforts against ISIS in the country.
The Journal reports that Obama has been "persuaded by his top military advisers and others that additional U.S. personnel would allow the Pentagon to extend recent gains against Islamic State." He will make the announcement while in Germany. read on...
A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted today. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud. read on...
