Posts From The Saker
In the US of A it is often considered “de bon ton” to trash the United Nations and all the other international institutions which were created after World War II to replace the rule of the jungle with the rule of law in international affairs. Ignorant inbred rednecks hate the UN because they fear that the “Black Helicopters” will invade their villages, libertarians hate the UN because they hate anything
The so-called ‘Surge’, and its alleged success, are based on two fundamental tactics: the first one is the so-called ‘Redirection‘ which consists of buying off the Sunni resistance, including all those groups who only yesterday were called ‘terrorists’; the second new tactic is massive increasing in the use of airpower. The blog Lenin’s Tomb has just published an excellent analysis which proves that the occupation forces are now truly engaged
Maybe it is because I did my basic training in the mountains, or maybe its because I just love them; the fact is that I have always been fascinated by how mountains totally change the face of presumably ‘modern’ warfare. In the mountains, a horse if much better than an APC, helicopters are sometimes very useful and at times utterly useless, a platoon can stop a regiment, air strikes are
I just saw this really interesting piece of news from Reuters. Reporting about the air and artillery strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan Reuters wrote: Dismissing reports the raids hit villages, Turkey’s General Staff said its targets were fixed “after it was established that they were definitely not civilian residential areas.” The three-hour offensive, reported to involve 50 fighter jets, also included ground forces shelling suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party
On December 8th of this year Dahr Jamail made an interesting in Vancouver, Canada. His speech was recorded by Radio Ecoshock and made available for download here (I have also uploaded a copy of this presentation here). I highly recommend Dahr Jamail’s excellent presentation which totally debunks all the nonsense about the ‘Surge’ which the corporate media sheepishly repeats day after day. To anyone wanting to hear the truth about
According to the BBC: “Turkey’s air strikes against Kurdish rebels in Iraq on Sunday were approved by the United States in advance, the Turkish military says. The country’s top general, Yasar Buyukanit, said the US opened northern Iraqi airspace for the operation. Jets targeted the Kurdish rebel PKK in areas near the border. The Turkish media said up to 50 planes were used. Iraqi officials say bombs hit 10 villages,
With all the talk about the Neocon’s fabulously evil and incompetent foreign policy one might forget that it did not all begin with Dubya and his administration. The first elective war which was fought in blatant and clear violation of international law, the UN charter and even basic decency was the US-lead NATO aggression on Yugoslavia. It all really began with the joint US-Croatian attack on the UN protection areas
By Pervez Dastoor for “Information Clearing House“ Fascist! A word that is thrown around all too commonly in today’s political debates and partisan quibbling that is common among the cable “news networks.” A flip of the channel on any night to CNN, FOX, Headline News or other similar programs reveals time slots devoted to the latest celebrity scandal or any other unimportant story. When not emphatically debating the latest celebrity
December 13th 2007, by Chris Carlson for Venezuelanalysis.com Government authorities from both Venezuela and Argentina accused the United States of carrying out a smear campaign against them yesterday after US officials arrested four individuals accused of being agents of the Venezuelan government. US officials alleged that the arrested individuals were involved in trying to cover up an “international scandal” between Venezuela and Argentina, but both countries have rejected the claims.
Prison interrogation techniques in Israel: Now you are paralyzed, as we promised by Gideon LevyGlobal Research, December 14, 2007Haaretz “We have to make you do a little sports,” the Shin Bet interrogator said, launching four successive days of questioning accompanied by brutal physical torture. The result: Luwaii Ashqar can no longer stand on his feet. He sits in his wheelchair, dressed in a fashionable quasi-military suit, super-elegant, new Caterpillar-brand shoes
Introduction: the latest assassination – Al-Manar reports: Two years to the day to a bombing that killed Lebanese journalist Jibran Tueini, an explosion occurred in the Baabda area east of Beirut and claimed the life of Brigadier General Francois Hajj who heads the Lebanese Army Operations department. Four others were killed, presumably soldiers. The army command issued a statement confirming that Hajj had been killed in the explosion. “This morning,
Remember this next time you see a “Support our troops” sticker:
No comment needed, just listen to these guys…
One of the most worrying trends in the US society since 911 has been the grotesque bloating of the power of the various intelligence, police and security forces in the USA. Even the TSA goons at the airport randomly yell at people not immediately obeying them. The ‘trademark’ of the new post 911 US is that those in authority now want to be obeyed immediately and if the citizen does
By Jason Szep BOSTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Standing on the deck of an oil tanker in Massachusetts Bay on Monday, Venezuelan energy officials kicked off the third year of a controversial program of delivering subsidized home-heating oil for the U.S. poor. A Houston unit of a state-owned company backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a foe of the Bush administration, will supply oil at 40 percent below market prices
It has been over a week since the publications on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran and a number of observations about ti can now be made with some confidence. First and foremost, this NIE is clearly the product of long and protracted negotiations between the UN intelligence community and the Administration. It appears that the office of the VP finally agreed to release this NIE as a way,
I have recently posted an interesting piece by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich entitled “Iran Intelligence Report: Another Psychological Warfare?“. This was not the first time I had read Soraya’s very interesting and insightful articles about Iran and this latest piece prompted me to contact Soraya and ask her for an interview. Soraya kindly agreed to my request and it is my real pleasure today to resume my “Saker interviews” series with a
Rory McCarthy for the Guardian Unlimited Senior Israeli officials warned today they were still considering the option of a military strike against Iran, despite a fresh US intelligence report that concluded Tehran was no longer developing nuclear weapons. Although Israel argues that it wants to see strong diplomatic pressure put on Iran, it is reluctant to rule out the threat of a unilateral military attack. Matan Vilnai, Israel’s deputy defence
Press TV reports: Iran abandons dollar in oil dealsIran has completely stopped carrying out its oil deals in dollar following the OPEC proposal to trade crude in non-dollar currencies. “The dollar is no longer a reliable currency, considering its devaluation and the loss suffered by oil exporters,” said Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari. “Iran proposed in the last OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) summit that member states use a
(RIA Novosti) – Russia has no information on Iranian attempts to develop nuclear weapons before 2003, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. His statement came following a Monday publication by the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) stating that Tehran had halted weapons production in 2003, although it was continuing to enrich uranium. “We have no data that such work was conducted before 2003, although our American colleagues have claimed
