2018.10.18 Link Blog

And remember, this happened during the Obama Admin.
/jd

Investigation: As U.S.-Backed War in Yemen Raged, UAE Hired U.S. Mercenaries to Kill Yemeni Leaders

Investigation: As U.S.-Backed War in Yemen Raged, UAE Hired U.S. Mercenaries to Kill Yemeni Leaders

‘A shocking new investigation has revealed that the United Arab Emirates hired U.S. mercenaries to carry out assassinations of political and clerical leaders in Yemen. The former elite U.S. special operations fighters were paid to take part in missions to kill those deemed to be “terrorists” by the UAE. The UAE worked with the U.S. company Spear Operations Group, founded by an Israeli-American man named Abraham Golan, who told BuzzFeed, “There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen. I was running it.” The group’s first target in Yemen was a local leader of al-Islah, a political party whose members include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkul Karman. We speak with journalist Aram Roston of BuzzFeed News, who broke the story. His new piece is titled “A Middle East Monarchy Hired American Ex-Soldiers to Kill Its Political Enemies. This Could Be the Future of War.”’

‘…ARAM ROSTON: Indeed, it did happen under Obama, yes. The period of time was after the war—I mean, an interesting point was, after the war started in March, the U.S. pulled its forces directly out of Yemen, during the chaos of that war, when the war first started. The UAE, of course, still stayed there. They were the ones on the ground. And the Yemen war is a very complex war. People see that the UAE and the Saudis are in the same coalition, but the UAE and the Saudis have kind of different aims there, or traditionally had different aims there. The Saudis were bombing the Houthis, fighting the Houthis, which they believed are proxies for Iran, and the UAE, most experts will confirm, was really trying to consolidate control over the south. They want the south to separate, to secede. They want control of the ports in the south. And they want to control the political space there, because the UAE and Yemen are very close.

AMY GOODMAN: So they were trying to get the head of the al-Islah party. This is the party of Tawakkul Karman, who was sitting here a few years ago, right at the time the Nobel Peace Prize—the Nobel committee announced she was winning the Nobel Peace Prize. UAE can call them terrorists. UAE can hire a mercenary firm, the State Department would approve, to attack anyone they consider unfriendly to them?…’

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/10/17/investigation_as_us_backed_war_in

original Buzzfeed article…: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-assassination-us-yemen-uae-spear-golan-dahlan


No, the US didn't create ISIS – but it did help to create the circumstances from which it emerged. The conspiritorial Left fails and fails again to understand the difference between intent and unintended consequences, and also of taking advantage of a situations that which the US is not fully in control of.

That said, the US does tend to support the worst of the worst because it thinks it can with with them and rarely the people who want democracy and human rights - because how could the US ever control people with that agenda??
/jd

The ISIS Conspiracy That Ate the Web

‘…The intelligence report about Syria is just that — a report, It’s not a policy directive and there’s no proof that any action was taken based on its analysis. Nevertheless, people across the political spectrum are taking it as if it were a presidential order. Anti-Muslim bigot Pamela Geller thinks it’s a scandal because it proves President Obama knew about ISIS and chose to do nothing. Geller’s outrage is the inverse of the indignation expressed by far-leftists like the Guardian’s Seumas Milne who takes the report as proof that the U.S. abetted ISIS to sow discord in the Middle East, part of a grand divide and conquer strategy. Neither one seems to understand what they’re actually looking at.

Milne’s Guardian piece is subtler than its headline. It grants that the DIA report, “doesn’t mean the US created Isis, of course,” and adds caveats likes, “the report isn’t a policy document. It’s heavily redacted and there are ambiguities in the language.” But it assumes, ambiguities aside, that the report reveals some level of collusion with ISIS as a tenet of U.S. policy seeking to inflame sectarianism…’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-isis-conspiracy-that-ate-the-web



The Empire gets fucked back
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Moldova Grudge Could Cost U.K. Access to $1.7 Trillion Projects

‘…The U.K.’s post-Brexit access to $1.7 trillion in public projects relies on the good will of its European neighbors. Too bad Moldova holds a grudge.

The tiny country wedged between Romania and Ukraine is joining half a dozen nations in blocking the U.K.’s re-entry to the World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement, an accord that smooths the bidding process on public contracts, including in the $837 billion U.S. market.

Why the hold-up? Corina Cojocaru, Moldova’s economic counselor to the WTO, and her team were denied entry to the U.K. last year when they wanted to discuss their future relationship with Britain after it leaves the European Union.

And Cojocaru has a good memory.

“I couldn’t get a visa and a diplomatic passport to go to London to negotiate on government procurement,” Cojocaru said in a telephone interview. “Nobody listened to us for six to seven months.”…’

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-17/how-tiny-moldova-s-brexit-grudge-could-cost-u-k-1-7-trillion


Big BDS legal win in Germany

‘…On 27 September, the administrative court of the northwestern German city of Oldenburg ruled that the municipality’s decision to cancel a 2016 BDS event had been unlawful.

It determined that the city council had “undermined the fundamental right of the applicant’s freedom of assembly” as well as freedom of expression, which, it added, “was (and is) severely interfered with.”

“The fundamental right to freedom of expression is, as the most direct expression of the human personality in society, one of the most distinguished human rights of all.”

The ruling, the first of its kind in Germany, could have broader political implications for BDS activism, said Ahmed Abed, the lawyer who represented event organizers in court. “This ruling could have a great impact because it is the first time an administrative court has said it is unlawful to disallow a BDS event.”…’

https://electronicintifada.net/content/big-bds-legal-win-germany/25741


Nationalist rabbi: European Right no longer anti-Semitic

‘…Rabbi Melamed – who heads the Har Bracha Yeshiva in Samaria – explained that for many years, Israel’s Foreign Ministry was wary of the European right wing parties, because they harbored Nazi supporters and Holocaust deniers.

“But in recent years, the extreme right wing movements have been undergoing a process of change,” he added. “Leaders have emerged who want nothing to do with the racist Nazi heritage, and who openly support the state of Israel.”

These leaders “have distilled the movements’ nationalist positions, and now they express a proper position, which demands maintaining the European people’s national, religious and cultural identity,” the rabbi insisted.

Rabbi Melamed went on to say that “[j]ust as it is forbidden to steal the property of a private individual, as the communists did in the countries that they took over, so it is forbidden to steal from people their national and religious identity, as the communists’ successors – the extreme liberals on the Left, like the British Labor party – seek to do.”…’

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/253164


If he wins, his brother Jack can take his place.
/jd

everything wrong and surreal about today’s #Murica Republican Party contained in one screenshot ????​

source: https://www.facebook.com/TheHill/posts/10156481355824087

everything wrong and surreal about today's #Murica Republican Party contained in one screenshot ????​


How restrictive voting requirements is the USA target minorities

Carol Anderson: ‘…And that’s one of the great ways the way voter suppression works, is that it sounds reasonable, until you see how it’s operationalized, and when you also understand, for instance, that the issue of voter I.D. is based on the lie of voter fraud.

And what I mean by that is that Justin Levitt, a professor out of California, did a study. And from 2000 to 2014, he counted up all of the votes in all of the elections and came to one billion votes. Out of that, he identified 31 cases of voter fraud, 31 cases out of one billion votes…’

transcript: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-restrictive-voting-requirements-target-minorities


There are so few refugees left in #Hungary these days that PM Viktor Orbán has selected a new scapegoat,,,,, the danger posed by Gender Studies ????​
/jd

‘…On October 12, 2018, without any public statement or explanation, gender studies Master degrees were removed from the list of accredited subjects in Hungary. Students currently enrolled can finish their course of studies as usual and with both Hungarian and US accreditation, but no new students enrolled from September 2019 will be able to earn a Hungarian accredited degree in the field of Gender Studies…’

https://gender.ceu.edu/statement-annulment-gender-studies-ma-degree-accredited-hungary


music starts at 1:10
/jd

2018.09.17 LinkBlog

#ListeningTo
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The Anarchists Who Ignited Occupy Wall Street Seven Years Ago Are Now Calling For
#OCCUPYSILICONVALLEY

‘…On Monday, September 17th, millions of people around the world, in millions of different ways, will unleash a one-day flood of memes, posts, pranks, tweets, and statuses—each of them overflowing with everything Silicon Valley wants to keep offline…’

http://abillionpeople.org/osv-press-release.html


What is Orientalism? Here's one pervasive but unobvious example...
/jd

Forging Islamic science

‘…These contemporary images are in fact not ‘reproductions’ but ‘productions’ and even fakes – made to appeal to a contemporary audience by claiming to depict the science of a distant Islamic past.

From Istanbul’s tourist shops, these works have ventured far afield. They have have found their way into conference posters, education websites, and museum and library collections. The problem goes beyond gullible tourists and the occasional academic being duped: many of those who study and publicly present the history of Islamic science have committed themselves to a similar sort of fakery. There now exist entire museums filled with reimagined objects, fashioned in the past 20 years but intended to represent the venerable scientific traditions of the Islamic world…’

https://aeon.co/essays/why-fake-miniatures-depicting-islamic-science-are-everywhere


Capital will be capital
/jd

‘…Ten days after Nike announced that Colin Kaepernick would be the face of its “Just Do It” 30th anniversary ad campaign, the sports apparel behemoth’s stock price closed at an all-time high on Thursday at $83.47, according to a report from Bloomberg…’

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/15/1795753/-What-Was-Nike-Thinking


Historical nonsense underpins UK’s Brexit floundering
From Hastings to Dunkirk a past that blinds Britain to reality has been peddled

By Christopher Kissane

‘…In the British mind, that history remains centred on the second World War, the ‘darkest’ and ‘finest’ hour in which Britain imagines it stood alone in defiance of Nazism, not as a global imperialist allied to emerging superpowers.

[….] From the beginning of the European project, British opposition has rested on Powell’s assertion that the defining feature of Britain – “and above all of England” – is its “separateness from the history of continental Europe”.

[….] Superiority, antagonism and a fear of betrayal are not healthy historical lessons; instead they encourage Britain’s worst tendencies…’

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/historical-nonsense-underpins-uk-s-brexit-floundering-1.3630936


War is a racket, and the endless war means endless cash – but not for the Afghans.
/jd

Pentagon says war in Afghanistan costs taxpayers $45 billion per year

‘…the $45 billion total for the year includes $5 billion for Afghan forces and $13 billion for U.S. forces inside Afghanistan. Much of the rest is for logistical support. Some $780 million goes toward economic aid.

The costs now are still significantly lower than during the high point of the war in Afghanistan. From 2010 to 2012, when the U.S. had as many as 100,000 soldiers in the country, the price for American taxpayers surpassed $100 billion each year. There are currently around 16,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

[….] “Why do the Taliban want a political settlement? They now control more territory than they did since 2001,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said…’

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/pentagon-says-afghan-war-costs-taxpayers-45-billion-per-year


Alternative museum tours explore colonial loot, biased narratives

‘…”It is no longer possible for Britain to present itself as a world power, and people aren’t willing to pretend any more,” says Procter. “They are interested in the stories that aren’t being told.”

Admiral Nelson’s lifelong opposition to the abolition movement, the English Crown’s financial involvement with slavery and the lack of evidence to support lurid tales of cannibalism all come as a bit of a shock.

“Museums provide almost a Trojan horse type of space to confront the official narratives we’re told,” says Procter, who started the tours in 2013.

“I started them out of a sense of frustration over the lack of self-awareness that white British people have over their pasts and history – and that lack of attention is part of the shadow of white supremacy and racism that’s hanging over our heads right now.”…’

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/alternative-museum-tours-explore-colonial-loot-biased-narratives-180915213140176.html


The Corporate Media finally gets it – post-Obama.
/jd

https://www.facebook.com/time/photos/a.470156966490/10156010810521491


White People.


Slaves taken from regions of Africa
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/9g5how/slaves_taken_from_regions_of_africa_1229_x_869/

Map: Slaves taken from regions of Africa


Michael Bloomberg for President?

Whether it be Hillary, Trump or Bloomberg, or even Sanders, certainly what #Murica wants most is someone from NYC to fight the elites.

/jd


#FYI, sometimes the NYT prints the truth.
/jd

‘…The United States controls roughly 800 military bases in dozens of countries around the world. This is far more than any other power. The United States also spends more on its military than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Britain and Japan combined. American Special Operations forces were deployed to 149 countries as of last year…’

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/opinion/democratic-party-cortez-foreign-policy.html


Where in the World Is the U.S. Military?

Where in the World Is the U.S. Military? (2015)

‘…By my calculation, maintaining bases and troops overseas cost $85 to $100 billion in fiscal year 2014; the total with bases and troops in warzones is $160 to $200 billion.

These costs have heightened debate over whether the United States needs so many bases abroad: What effect do they have around the world, and are they really making us safer?

The first step is looking at where U.S. bases are, and where they’re most prevalent. For my forthcoming book, Base Nation, I compiled a near-comprehensive list of overseas U.S. bases, including smaller cooperative security locations (“lily pads”) and suspected but unconfirmed sites (“unconfirmed lily pads”).

Mapped all together, this data, which comes from the Pentagon’s annual Base Structure Report and additional government, news or academic sources, helps to show just how far America’s reach is…’

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321