PDF-Version: selected 08.11.2019
Selected articles (November 8, 2019)
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1)
Free Julian Assange. Do not extradite him.
Petition to the Government of the United Kingdom
https://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=13776
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2a)
Bolivia: Leaked Audios Confirm Involvement of Opposition Leaders, Ex-Military and US in Coup Plans
Opposition politicians held talks with U.S. senators to destabilize Bolivia and organize a general strike after Evo Morales‘ victory.
November 6, 2019
https://www.globalresearch.ca/bolivia-audios-linking-civic-ex-military-us-coup-plans/5694142
2b)
Western progressives and the imperialist Inquisition
By Stephen Sefton
October 27, 2019
https://mronline.org/2019/10/27/western-progressives-and-the-imperialist-inquisition/
2c)
URGENT CALL TO ACTION: Support the UN Resolution Against Unilateral Coercive Measures
[…]This proposed resolution is currently being discussed at the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly and the Second Committee will be taking the final vote on it on November 14.
We consider it our paramount responsibility to mobilize massive support for the passage of this resolution by the UN General Assembly. To this end, we have drafted a public letter of support for the resolution to be signed by a massive number of organizations and individuals in the U.S. and around the world to be delivered to the voting session of the UN Second Committee on November 14.[…]”
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3a)
Syria: The Launch of a Constitutional Committee – A Sign of Hope for Syrian People
By Peter Koenig
October 30, 2019
https://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-launch-constitutional-committee-hope-syrian-people/5693438
“[…]Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Pedersen said that the creation of the Constitutional Committee is a shared promise to the Syrian people to try in earnest to agree on new constitutional arrangements for Syria’s future.
Russia, Iran and Turkey have stressed that Syrian constitutional committee must work independently from any foreign intervention to gain maximum support from the people in the Arab country.
Sergey Lavrov was reading a joint statement made by Moscow, Tehran and Ankara ahead of a meeting of Syria’s constitutional committee in Geneva. Lavrov also highlighted the importance of Syria’s unity and territorial integrity. He expressed the readiness of Russia, Iran and Turkey to cooperate with the United Nation’s special envoy for Syria to facilitate the work of the constitutional committee. Lavrov urged the volunteer and safe return of Syrian refugees to their homeland. The Russian foreign minister also described the presence of the U-S troops in Syrian oil fields as illegal.[…]”
3b)
Sorting facts from fiction about US withdrawal from Syria
By Rick Sterling
October 17, 2019
By Rick Sterling
https://www.mintpressnews.com/facts-fiction-us-withdrawal-from-syria/262431/
3c)
Russian Defense Ministry publishes evidence of US oil smuggling from Syria
October 27, 2019
http://thesaker.is/russian-defense-ministry-publishes-evidence-of-us-oil-smuggling-from-syria/
3d)
Former British Ambassador to Syria: UK complicit in Trump’s in Syria Oil Grab
By Peter Ford
November 7, 2019
By Peter Ford
“The cat is out of the bag. The UK is potentially complicit in a war crime. With typical insouciance the U.S. military dropped this bombshell by tweet and apparently without realizing the implications for U.S. partners:[…]”
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4)
The empire, Trump and intra-ruling class conflict
By Gary Olson
November 2, 2019
https://mronline.org/2019/11/07/the-empire-trump-and-intra-ruling-class-conflict/
“[…] All his predecessors took pains or were coached to conceal their imperialist actions behind declarations of humanitarian interventionism but Trump has pulled the curtains back to reveal the ugly truths about U.S. foreign policy. As such, the carefully calibrated propaganda fed to the public in endless reiterations over a lifetime is jeopardized whenever Trump utters a transparent truth. This is intolerable. […]”
“[…] Now, lest I be misunderstood, nothing I’ve written here should be construed as support for Donald Trump or that I believe he’s antiwar. Trump is aberration only in that his brand of Western imperialism means that the victims remain foreigners while U.S. soldiers remain out of harm’s way. He knows that boots on the ground can quickly descend into bodies in the ground and unlike his opponents, coffins returning to Dover Air Base are not worth risking his personal ambitions. This is clearly something to build upon. We don’t know if Trump views drones, cyber warfare and proxies as substitutes but his intra-elite opponents remain extremely dubious. In any event, that’s another dimension to expose and challenge.
Finally, we know the ruling class in a capitalist democracy — an oxymoron — expends enormous time and resources to obtain a faux “consent of the governed” through misinformation conveyed via massive, lifelong ideological indoctrination. For them, citizen’s policing themselves is more efficient than coercion and precludes raising questions that might delegitimize the system. Obviously force and fear are hardly unknown — witness the mass incarceration and police murder of black citizens — but one only has to look around to see how successful this method of control has been.
Nevertheless, as social historian Margaret Jacoby wisely reminds us, “No institution is safe if people simply stop believing the assumptions that justify its existence.”(4) Put another way, the system simply can’t accommodate certain “dangerous ideas.”
Today, we see promising political fissures developing, especially within the rising generation, and it’s our responsibility to help deepen and widen these openings through whatever means at our disposal.”
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5)
The Palestinian Christian Population Is Dwindling at an Alarming Rate
The number of Christian inhabitants of Palestine has dropped by nearly ten-fold in the last 70 years
By Ramzy Baroud
October 29, 2019
“The world’s most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere, and the reason for this is Israel. Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on October 15. Their gathering was titled: “The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective.”[…]”
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6a)
Camp Bucca, Abu Ghraib and the Rise of Extremism in Iraq
By Kathy Kelly
October 28th, 2019
https://dissidentvoice.org/2019/10/camp-bucca-abu-ghraib-and-the-rise-of-extremism-in-iraq/
6b)
Leadership Failure
Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division
By Human Rights Watch
September 22, 2005
6c)
Senate Select Comittee on Intelligence
Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency ’s Detention and Interrogation Program
Foreword by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Bianne Feinstein
Findings and Conclusions
Approved December 13, 2012; updated for release April 3, 2014; declassification revisions December 3, 2014
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7a)
Yemen Runs Out of Fuel and Last Hospitals Close
By Randi Nord
October 31, 2019
https://www.globalresearch.ca/yemen-runs-out-fuel-last-hospitals-close/5693530
“While the mainstream media focuses on condemning President Trump for pulling US troops out of Syria, Yemen faces a national health crisis. The last functioning hospitals across multiple major cities in Yemen will shut their doors and stop providing services to patients. Geopolitics Alert spoke with Yemen’s Ministry of Health spokesman Yousuf Al-Haidari to discuss the repercussions of this crisis.[…]”
7b)
Five Years On, Saudi Attacks on Yemen’s Farmers Are Pushing the Whole Country into Famine
November 01st, 2019
By Ahmed Abdulkareem
November 01st, 2019
https://www.mintpressnews.com/saudi-arabia-attacks-yemen-famine/262620/
“Between March 2015 and March 2019, the Saudi-led Coalition launched at least 10,000 airstrikes in Yemen that struck farms, 800 that struck local food markets, and about 450 airstrikes that hit silos and other food storage facilities.[…]”
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8)
Lebanon and Iraq Protestors: The US, Israel and Saudi Arabia are fed up with Iran
By Elijah J Magnier
November 7, 2019
“The United States of America, Israel and Saudi Arabia are fed up with Iran and its allies in the Middle East. But despite waging war against Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon, by inviting the Iraqi government to dilute al-Hashd al-Shaabi, by attempting to submit Gaza and to curb the Houthis in Yemen, it was not possible to break the strong alliances of Iran spread throughout the Middle East. Moreover, through democratic elections, Iran’s allies in Lebanon and Iraq managed to be part of the Parliament and have ministers in the cabinets of their respective countries. Also, in Syria, Iran’s strong ally President Bashar al-Assad is still leading the country notwithstanding years of war, and the attempts, through foreign and domestic intervention, to remove him from power. But civilian protestors- with legitimate demands against corruption and wealth mismanagement of the elite in Iraq and Lebanon throughout the years – are causing havoc in these countries, shaking the stability and therefore putting Iran and its allies on alert. Meetings are continuously held by the “Axis of the Resistance” to evaluate the situation, the possible threats, and the degree of involvement of foreign powers in the streets in attempting to curb this Axis.[…]”
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9a)
As ‚Maximum Pressure‘ Fails To Move Iran Dirty Tricks Become More Likely
Moon of Alabama
November 07, 2019
“[…] As the ‚maximum pressure‘ campaign fails to achieve its objective we will now probably see a phase of more dirty tricks from the CIA and Mossad side. In mid 2017 the CIA, then under Pompous, created an Iran taskforce of which so far was little heard: […]”
9b)
The ‘war’ for the future of Middle East
By Alastair Crooke
November 4, 2019
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/04/the-war-for-the-future-of-middle-east/
[…] Why now? Because what happened to Aramco on 14 September has shocked both Israel and America: the former Commander of the Israeli Air Force wrote recently, “recent events are forcing Israel to recalculate its path as it navigates events. The technological abilities of Iran and its various proxies has reached a level at which they can now alter the balance of power around the world”. […]”
9c)
Nuclear Outlaw Israel Slams Iran’s Legitimate Uranium Enrichment
By Stephen Lendman
November 07, 2019
https://www.globalresearch.ca/nuclear-outlaw-israel-slams-iran-legitimate-uranium-enrichment/5694212
“On Tuesday, Iranian President Rouhani announced his nation’s 4th JCPOA pullback — permitted under the deal’s Articles 26 and 36 when other signatories breach their obligations. That’s precisely what happened. The Trump regime illegally abandoned the internationally binding agreement. Europe followed suit by breaching its JCPOA obligations. At the same time, the US and Brussels slammed Iran’s legitimate rollbacks while continuing to ignore their own obligations. Double standards define Western and Israeli policies, a do as we demand, not as we do agenda.[…]”
9d)
U.S. Maximum Pressure Meets Iranian Maximum Pressure
By Ali Vaez and Naysan Rafati
International Crisis Group
November 05, 2019
“[…] A senior Iranian official told Crisis Group that “we are in a full-fledged economic war. Even during the oil-for-food program, Iraq, which had invaded another country [Kuwait], was allowed to export its oil. The U.S. can’t strangle us and expect us to do nothing”. As the government in Tehran sees it, responding on the nuclear front serves three objectives: pushing the JCPOA participants, particularly the Europeans, to step up what have thus far been faltering efforts toward relieving the burden of U.S. sanctions; signalling to Washington that the cost of its sanctions will continue to rise unless it provides Tehran with some economic relief; and satisfying public opinion at home. As such, the Trump administration, which was concerned about the sunsets on Iran’s nuclear restrictions, has in practice moved forward the deadline for testing advanced centrifuges from 2026 and resumption of enrichment activities at Fordow from 2031 to 2019.[…]”
9e)
Iran has ‚military advantage over US and allies in Middle East‘
Thinktank says third parties such as Shia militias are more important to Tehran than nuclear plans
By Patrick Wintour (Diplomatic editor)
November 07, 2019
“Iran now has an effective military advantage over the US and its allies in the Middle East because of its ability to wage war using third parties such as Shia militias and insurgents, according to a military thinktank.
In one of the most detailed assessments of Iran’s strategy and doctrine across Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) concludes Iran’s “third party capability” has become Tehran’s weapon of choice.[…]”
9f)
“Maximum Pressure”. US Economic Sanctions Harm Iranians’ Right to Health
Human Right Watch Report
October 29, 2019
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/29/iran-sanctions-threatening-health
“[…]The 47-page report, “‘Maximum Pressure’: US Economic Sanctions Harm Iranians’ Right to Health,” documents how broad restrictions on financial transactions, coupled with aggressive rhetoric from United States officials, have drastically constrained the ability of Iranian entities to finance humanitarian imports, including vital medicines and medical equipment. While the US government has built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanctions regime, Human Rights Watch found that in practice these exemptions have failed to offset the strong reluctance of US and European companies and banks to risk incurring sanctions and legal action by exporting or financing exempted humanitarian goods. The result has been to deny Iranians access to essential medicines and to impair their right to health. Under international law, the US should monitor the impact of its sanctions on Iranians’ rights and address any violations sanctions cause.[…]”
See also:
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/iran1019sanctions_web_0.pdf
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/iran_sanctions1019_appendix.pdf
9g)
The Humanitarian Impact of US Sanctions on Iran
Atlantic Council
October 30,2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6scvMApcltc
9h)
Saudi Arabia and Israel – an overdue embrace
With expanding competitors and severe domestic challenges, the time has come for Saudi Arabia to publicly engage Israel in order to confront shared opponents and protect mutual interests.
By Jonathan Honigman
Foreign Policy News
November 1, 2019
https://foreignpolicynews.org/2019/11/01/saudi-arabia-and-israel-an-overdue-embrace/
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10a)
Free-Rider Redux
NATO Needs to Project Power (and Europe Can Help)
By David Gompert and Richard Kugler
Foreign Affairs 74, no. 1: 7-12
January/February 1995
10b)
Joint Vision 2020 (Full Spectrum Dominance)
US Joint Chiefs of Staff
U.S. Department of Defense
2000
http://www.pipr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/jv2020-2.pdf
Amir Mortasawi (alias Afsane Bahar) (امیر مرتضوی (افسانه بهار 