Bas Spliet

Last Monday, NATO held its yearly summit in Brussels, where heads of state and Foreign and Defense Ministers gathered to discuss the general outlines of the alliance’s common policy. Precisely on that morning, I crossed a digital poster in the metro station of Brussels-South. "NATO works to protect our future," the message read. A hula-hooping … Continue reading “The NATO Summit: Front for Democracy or Return to the Cold War?”

Ever since NATO’s "humanitarian" bombing campaign unseated Muammar Qadhafi’s dictatorship in 2011, the media has largely ignored the chaos they helped create in the North African country. When there is a brief flare-up in media attention, however, Western complicity in creating the devastation is downplayed – or worse, ignored. An investigation from Fairness & Accuracy … Continue reading “How NATO’s War Crimes Brought Chaos to Libya”

This week, the United States is hitting new sanctions on Syria. Compounding existing EU and American sanctions on state assets as well as hundreds of companies and individuals, these are set to become the toughest sanctions yet throughout the entire conflict. Given the falling apart of the "Assad gasses his own people" narrative, American lawmakers … Continue reading “Syria: Old Pretexts, New Sanctions, Still Counterproductive”

In April, an exclusive report published on Mintpress News laid bare an "unholy alliance" between al-Qaeda and the displaced government of Abdurabbuh Mansur Hadi that a coalition led by Sunni Gulf monarchies has been unsuccessfully seeking to reinstall with the help of the West since 2015. These revelations come on top of previous investigations that … Continue reading “In Yemen, Western Foreign Policy Is Empowering al-Qaeda”

Last week, the UAE-backed separatists of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) declared self-rule in Yemen’s south after seizing Aden, the port city that is supposed to serve as the temporary capital of what the press usually calls the "legitimate" or "internationally-recognized" government of the Saudi-backed Abdurabbuh Mansur Hadi. Saudi Arabia derided the move as a … Continue reading “After Another ‘Coup’ in Aden, Which Government in Yemen Is ‘Legitimate’?”

On April 7, 2018, horrifying images of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria flooded the internet. Appalled, the media jumped on the story and resolutely pointed the finger at the regime of Assad. One week later, yesterday exactly two years ago, the United States, Britain and France launched rocket attacks in retaliation, and the … Continue reading “Two Years On, Time To Pull the Douma ‘Gas Attack’ Out of the Memory Hole”