US News President Joe Biden said he is considering a temporary gas tax holiday. The tax reduction would cut gas prices by 18.4 cents per gallon. [Link] Biden said rebate cards are also being considered. [Link] Miami police were offering $50 for handguns, $100 for shotguns and $150 for “high-powered” rifles such as AK-47s or AR-15s in a gun buyback drive. The city says it will transfer the weapons to Ukraine to aid the war effort. [Link] Space X is working with the Department of Defense on a rocket-launched troop movement system that can deploy forces anywhere in the work within hours....
Raqqa
Ambassador Ford Lied About Giving TOW Missiles to Al-Qaeda in Syria
In September 2017, U.S. official Brett McGurk expressed concern that Syria’s northwest Idlib province had become “the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11.” Idlib had fallen to al-Qaeda, in the form of a jihadist coalition led by the group’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, in March 2015. Despite acknowledging that Idlib, the last bastion of the supposedly democratic and secular Syrian opposition, was dominated by al-Qaeda, McGurk failed to also note that U.S. planners themselves had played a key role in the terror group’s successful capture of the province. Specifically, he failed to...
Salafis Throwing Bombs: How American and British Planners Partnered With Al-Qaeda Affiliated Groups At the Start of the Syrian Civil War
Introduction In the mainstream view, al-Qaeda did not play a role in the Syria conflict until Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dispatched his deputy, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, to Syria in August 2011 to establish a wing of the group there, called Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front. Additionally, al-Qaeda allegedly did not carry out any military operations until December 2011 and did not announce its establishment until January 2012. However, there is evidence that al-Qaeda affiliated militants were involved in the Syrian conflict much earlier. Saudi intelligence...
News Roundup 9/24/20
US News A grand jury charged one of the three police officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor. The officer was charged for wanton endangerment for firing into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment. [Link] Kentucky’s governor announces the National Guard will enter Lexington to retain order. [Link] Maine will be the first state to use rank-choice voting in a presidential election. [Link] Hunter Biden received $3.5 million from Russian billionaire Elena Baturina while his dad was vice president. The transfers were uncovered in a Congressional probe but did not determine the reason for the...
News Roundup 12/27/19
Latin America Riots in a Honduran prison leave 18 dead. [Link] A military facility in Venezuela was raided. One soldier was killed in the attack. The Venezuelan government claims to have captured the assailants and recovered the weapons. [Link] Ukraine/Russia Ukraine will make a second bulk purchase of Javelin anti-tank missiles from the US. [Link] Russia extends American Paul Wheelen’s detention another three months. Wheelen is accused of espionage by Russia. [Link] India The Indian government will conduct a census in 2020. [Link] India revokes the visa of two Europeans for taking part...
The 2020 NDAA: A Rubber Stamp for War
The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act is a monster that could only have been birthed by a conference committee deep in the DC swamp. The 2020 version of the annual Department of Defense funding bill provides $738 billion to the Pentagon, a $30 billion increase over last year. Maybe worse than the giant pile of money to be wasted on failing weapons projects and growing bureaucracy, the 2020 NDAA exacerbates humanitarian crises and gives de facto authorization to endless wars. While early versions of the 2020 NDAA still approved hundreds of billions of dollars for the Pentagon, there...
News Roundup 12/11/19
US News As Chicago and New York police officers cut back on proactive policing, the crime rate fell. [Link] The number of substantiated claims of sexual and personal misconduct in the Army increased over the past year. [Link] At a private fundraising dinner in Florida, Trump had two war criminals he pardoned as special guests. [Link] 175 Saudi flight training in the US has been grounded. [Link] 2020 NDAA The 2020 NDAA will increase defense spending by $30 billion. The bill gives a 3% raise to soldiers and 12 weeks of paid parental leave for federal employees. Earlier versions of the bill...
8/19/19 Trevor Aaronson on the Case of Hamid Hayat
The Intercept's Trevor Aaronson joins the show to talk about the travesty of justice in the trial of Hamid Hayat, who has finally been released after nearly 15 years in prison. Hayat was an alleged terrorist, convicted based on a coerced confession he gave to FBI agents under duress, as well as recordings from his conversations with an FBI informant who had pretended to befriend Hayat's family. Hayat is just one of many such cases of U.S. government entrapment, which make up the majority of supposed terrorism prosecutions. Discussed on the show: "Reporters Questioned His Terror...
5/10/19 Chris Woods on the Civilian Casualties in Raqqa from US-led Airstrikes
Airwars' Chris Woods joins the show to discuss the recent findings that coalition airstrikes recently killed over a thousand civilians in Raqqa. The UN also estimates that although most residents were able to escape the city, 70% lost all their property in the bombings. The casualty numbers are 10 times higher than what U.S. officials have admitted. Discussed on the show: "Syria: Unprecedented investigation reveals US-led Coalition killed more than 1,600 civilians in Raqqa ‘death trap’" (Amnesty International) Chris Woods is the author of Sudden Justice: America’s Secret Drone Wars and...
US-Led Bombing Campaign in Syria Killed 1,600 Civilians and Left Raqqa ‘Most Destroyed City in Modern Times’: Study
Julia Conley at Common Dreams reviews the results from a study conducted by Amnesty International and Airwars. The report—"Rhetoric vs. Reality: How the 'Most Precise Air Campaign in History' Left Raqqa the Most Destroyed City in Modern Times"—is detailed on the interactive website created by investigative news organization Airwars and the human rights group Amnesty International*-USA which carried out what they call the "most comprehensive investigation into civilian deaths in a modern conflict."* The research collated almost two years of investigations into the assault on Raqqa, the...