Following the widely reported Iranian government plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington and alarming new reports of civilian deaths in Syria, the White House has issued several findings to the intelligence community authorizing stepped-up covert action against both Damascus and Tehran. A “finding” is top-level approval for secret operations considered to be particularly …
Continue reading “Washington’s Secret Wars”
Turkish and Iraqi leaders met today to discuss relations between the two countries, particularly the question of Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Separately, Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr came out supporting the current government of another Iraqi neighbor, Syria. Meanwhile, Iraqis are still suffering attacks. At least 11 were killed and 10 more were wounded in them. Also, the government executed 11 men who were found guilty of participating in terrorist activities.
I recently attended a conference where a speaker commented that the Obama administration has seemingly become addicted to war and conflict, finding itself unable to turn down any opportunity to intervene militarily in a new country or region. I might have added that where an actual U.S. military presence is lacking, the White House frequently …
Continue reading “Will Washington Thump the Syrian Domino?”
NATO’s “victory” in Libya has sown many seeds of possible future calamity. But none is fraught with as much danger as providing a new “war on the cheap” model for Western nations that have fallen on hard economic times. Although the very real possibility of civil war, tribal conflict, or an Islamist state in Libya …
Continue reading “Libya Victory Portends Endless Intervention”
Peeved at Russia’s Security Council veto derailing a Western-sponsored resolution against Syria last week, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice implicitly accused the Russians of protecting the beleaguered government of President Bashar al-Assad primarily to safeguard their lucrative arms market in the Middle Eastern country. But around the same time, the United States was evaluating a $53 …
Continue reading “US Arms Bahrain While Decrying Russian Weapons in Syria”
Call for regime change signals Libya replay, says Justin Raimondo
In Mosul, police shot and wounded
two men who were tossing grenades at them. The provincial governor’s cousin
was kidnapped.
Police
in Hilla liberated
a female kidnap victim.
The
Iraqi Army has surrounded
a police directorate in Amara following the possibly illegal sacking of
the director-general. Last night, dozens protested in support of Major General Ismail Arrar.>
Three rockets targeting a U.S. target
near Muqdadiya were found and dismantled.
Seven suspects were arrested
in Diyala province.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at it again last week. She was in Turkey attending a NATO gathering dealing with what to do about the succession in Libya, based on the perhaps erroneous assumption that Muammar Gadhafi is on his way out. Clinton and NATO decided, based on their own admittedly partial view of …
Continue reading “Hillary Cracks the Whip”
How many Americans would be able to find Belarus on a map? I fancy myself as pretty well informed on foreign affairs, but it took me two tries to locate it. Yet Belarus is apparently so important that the United States Congress is currently preparing to pass a Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2011 in …
Continue reading “Apparently, We Are All Belarusians”
Escalating its rhetoric against Bashar al-Assad, the White House declared Tuesday that the Syrian president had “lost his legitimacy” but declined to call explicitly for his resignation or removal. The statement, which echoed similar remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday, followed what appeared to be orchestrated attacks by pro-Assad demonstrators on the U.S. …
Continue reading “US Hardens Tone Against Assad” 
