During its last session prior to last year’s parliamentary elections, the German cabinet chose to establish diplomatic relations with the Sovereign Order of Malta, thereby ostensibly valorizing this Catholic organization. The Order disposes of no genuine sovereign territory, is seen as an archconservative association of aristocrats, and has been repeatedly suspected of involvement in dubious financial transactions in Germany and elsewhere. It has proven, however, to be a useful tool for Berlin’s foreign policy – with its medical emergency missions accompanying NATO operations or in regions of German interests, such as Syria and Northern Iraq
Archive
Iraq, Russia, Iran, Syria military chiefs discuss security, intel cooperation
The commanders from the four countries, which have joint operation rooms to coordinate the fight against the Daesh terror group, attended the conference on Saturday.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry said it had received delegations led by deputy chiefs of staff to „strengthen cooperation and coordination in terms of security and intelligence among these countries.“
CentCom’s Votel: U.S. will stay in Syria to fight ISIS and keep an eye on Iran
(22.5.2018) In March, President Donald Trump said he would be pulling U.S. troops out of Syria „very soon.“ But they’re still there, and will stay there, to defeat what’s left of the so-called Islamic State, says the man in charge of military efforts in the region.
Despite the commander-in-chief’s comments, Army Gen. Joseph Votel said it didn’t require much pushback to convince Trump to stay the course.
ISIS 2.0: Islamic State Launches Massive Attack in Syria, Resurging in Iraq
(24.7.2018) Seven months after routing ISIS from large swaths of Iraq and Syria, the Department of Defense says a coalition of 77 nations and numerous international organizations remains determined to keep the terror group from resurfacing.
Analysis: The Islamic State’s push for a new caliphate
(16.8.2018) According to findings by the Lead Inspector General of Operation Inherent Resolve, the United States-led military coalition against the Islamic State, the terror group is much larger than previously thought and still poses a significant threat.
I Was a Mercenary. Trust Me: Erik Prince’s Plan Is Garbage.
(31.8.2017) Mercenaries are back, a dangerous trend occurring in the shadows. Their very lack of accountability is their main selling point; they offer plausible deniability and brute force to those too weak or squeamish to wage war. Customers are buying too, with mercenary proliferation in Afghanistan, Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. Clients include countries, extractive industry and even terrorists. This trend may one day alter international relations: When anyone can rent a military, then super-rich and large corporations can become a new kind of superpower. Worse, mercenaries can start and elongate conflicts for profit, breeding endless war. A world with more mercenaries means a world with more war, which is why Prince’s proposal is so dangerous.
Pentagon Spokesman: US to Stay in Iraq as Long as Needed
It’s not unusual for President Trump not to see eye to eye with the military brass on long-term troop deployments. Iraq seems to be unusual, in that instead of openly disagreeing with the president, the Pentagon’s comments appear to totally discount his opinion, and present their own plans as a foregone conclusion.
Iraq condemns Turkish airstrike killing a PKK leader, denies coordination
He also renewed Baghdad’s call for the withdrawal of Turkish forces in Bashiqa, calling their presence a „violation of international conventions“ and of Iraqi „sovereignty.“
John Brennan was CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia when the Khobar Towers were bombed. He was deputy exec. director of the agency on 9/11. He was CIA chief of staff during the Iraq WMD debacle. And he ran the CIA when it spied on Congress (which he lied about under oath).
Iraq will not abide by US sanctions against Iran: Abadi
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says his government will only refrain from using the dollar in transactions with Iran without complying with the full scope of US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Jordan and Iraq sign security cooperation pact
Iraq’s border crossing with Jordan at Treybil was reopened in August 2017 after the Iraqi army secured the road from Baghdad to the frontier.
Canada ends training mission with Peshmerga, turns focus to Mosul
Canada had promised the delivery of arms – that included grenade launches, sniper rifles, anti-tank weapons – over two years ago, but the shipment was held up for months by a Baghdad reluctant to sign off on the transfer. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in March that the weapons could go to Iraqi forces or to support a NATO training mission.
Iraq receives dozens of more T-90 battle tanks from Russia to boost ground force
The T-90 features a smoothbore 2A46M 125mm main gun, which can fire both armor-piercing shells and anti-tank missiles.
UN ready and willing to help resolve Kirkuk dispute: Jan Kubis
The United Nations mission in Iraq is equipped, ready, and willing to help resolve the problem of the disputed areas in Iraq, the head of the mission told Rudaw’s Majeed Gly in an exclusive interview at the UN headquarters in New York.
The United Nations has already begun preparatory steps and is talking with all the relevant parties – in Baghdad, Erbil, Sulaimani, and the civil society in Kirkuk, testing the waters, said Jan Kubis, special envoy of the Secretary-General to Iraq and head of the UN mission in Iraq (UNAMI).
John Bolton has been wrong about every foreign policy decision in the last 25 years. He killed Clinton’s deal with North Korea in the 2000s. He helped lead us into Iraq. And now he’s influenced Trump to withdraw from NK talks. Few Americans have done as much damage to our nation.
Pentagon Concludes America Not Safe Unless It Conquers The World — Paul Craig Roberts
(10.7.2015) The Pentagon has released its “National Military Strategy of the United States of America 2015,” June 2015.
The document announces a shift in focus from terrorists to “state actors” that “are challenging international norms.” It is important to understand what these words mean. Governments that challenge international norms are sovereign countries that pursue policies independently of Washington’s policies. These “revisionist states” are threats, not because they plan to attack the US, which the Pentagon admits neither Russia nor China intend, but because they are independent. In other words, the norm is dependence on Washington.
Global Warfare: “We’re Going to Take out 7 Countries in 5 Years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan & Iran..”
(14.5.2018) Originally published in March 2007.
GR Editor’s Note:
This interview serves as a reminder regarding the diabolical timeline of America’s hegemonic project.
It is worth noting that 6 out of these 7 countries (with the exception of Lebanon) identified by General Wesley Clark “to be taken out” are now the object of President Trump’s ban on Muslims’ entry to the US: Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Iran and Yemen.
All of these countries are on the Pentagon’s drawing board. These countries have been directly or indirectly been the object of US aggression.
Sadr urges friendship in meeting with regional diplomats
According to a statement from his office, Sadr welcomed ambassadors of Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Kuwait.
UK PM’s ‘Kurdish terrorism’ remark angers social media users
Full text: North Korea calls John Bolton repugnant and threatens to bail on summit with Trump
(16.5.2018) High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton, White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization”, “total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons”. etc, while talking about formula of “abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards”.
This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue. It is essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister move to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers.
Denmark pulls special forces out of Iraq
Denmark will still have around 180 military personnel posted to the al-Asad air base in Iraq, and contribute to radar surveillance as part of an international coalition fighting the Islamist militant group.
Trump’s envoy on ISIS holds intensive talks with Iraqi political leaders
McGurk is expected to hold discussions with Iraqi political leaders, including Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi, in addition to Muqtada al Sadr, Ayad Allawi, Osama al Nujaifi and Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani.
JCPOA lost 1 out of 5+1/I instructed FM to meet with other 5 countries soon/JCPOA to stand if other sides meet Iran’s goals/People mustn’t worry; we knew from long ago that Trump isn’t trustable
Speaking in a televised address to the people on the JCPOA, President Hassan Rouhani said: “As verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has lived up to all its commitments and tonight, it was revealed who the unfaithful is”.
He continued: “Today, we saw what we were reiterating from 40 years ago, and that is Iran is a country that lives up to its commitments and the United States is a country that has never done so”.
“In the past 40 years or even before that, history tells that Americans have had a hostile approach towards the great Iranian nation and the nations of the region; from the coup in Iran against the legal government of Dr Mosadeq to their interference in the affairs of the past regime, supporting Saddam and attacking Iran’s passenger plane and killing innocent people and what they have done against the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and the Middle East and North Africa and against other peoples of the world”.
He also referred to the US’ withdrawal from the JCPOA and continued: “In fact, this was a confirmation of what they have been doing in the past months in another way”.
There’s no stopping the American forever war
Trump has championed American hard power and his ability to launch punitive missile strikes on enemy targets, be they militant redoubts in Afghanistan or the airfields of the Syrian regime.
Under his watch, coalition forces unleashed a relentless air campaign against the Islamic State, pulverizing the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa. Months later, volunteers are still digging bodies out of the rubble, while rights groups point to an untallied civilian death toll that may number in the hundreds, perhaps thousands.
The Endless War – Iraq 15 Years Later
The American legacy in Iraq and the Middle East is one of blood, oil & endless tyranny.
Iraq and Qatar agree on new maritime line
Umm Qasr port is in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
German intelligence document reports Iraq approved funding of Mitterrand campaign
In 1974, the Ba’ath party regime in power in Iraq approved a payment of 1 million dollars to fund the presidential election campaign that year of the late French socialist leader François Mitterrand, according to a document from the intelligence services of the former West Germany, the BND, obtained by Mediapart and German weekly Der Spiegel.
„#US said it had proof of #WMDs, 1mn people died.“ – #Bolivia envoy at #UNSC meeting on #Syria strike. 04 07 2017 Bolivian Ambassador to #UN Llorenti addresses UNSC on US illegal attack on Syria. #Douma #Ghouta #Iraq
Our unfortunate and brutal history of waging regime change wars has failed. Interventions in Iraq and Libya caused death, destruction, and human suffering. We have neglected our own communities. Military action should be the last resort, not our first.
Al-Jaafari: Western threats to attack Syria will not dissuade it from confronting any aggression regardless of its source
New York, SANA – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari stressed that the threats by Western states to launch an aggression on Syria and their maneuvers, misdirection, lies, and terrorism will not dissuade Syria from preserving its sovereignty and territorial integrity and from confronting any aggression regardless of its source, adding that Syria will not allow any of the permanent or non-permanent member states to do in Syria what they have done in Iraq or Libya.
Speaking during a session of the Security Council on the situation in Syria on Tuesday, al-Jaafari said “The US representative said that there is a single monster today which stands in the face of the whole world, and it is a monster which has armed and financed terrorists for more than seven years in Syria, and I say that this monster is the US, Britain, and France who sponsored terrorism in Syria and before it in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.”
Automatic voting machines arrive in Kurdistan for Iraqi election
Iraqi parliamentary elections will be held on May 12. Election campaigns will start on April 14 across Iraq, but will be delayed by one day in the Kurdistan Region, as the Region is going to commemorate the Anfal Campaign on April 14.
Iraqi and Kurdish entities will compete for 325 seats in parliament. Of this number, 43 seats are entitled to the Kurdistan Region and 13 for Kirkuk.
15 years later, the Iraq War is often called a „mistake“. It wasn’t. It was a methodically planned crime against humanity.
The elites who planned it are still highly influential in both war parties. And they’re not done planning wars – you can be sure of that.
A Syria War?
(13.3.2007) Syria is surrounded by unfriendly forces. Turkey, a close ally to Israel in the north, Jordan in the south, the U.S.-occupied Iraq east and Lebanon west of it.We know from Seymour Hersh (and in fact, „we“ does mean „6 Billion Jurors in the Court of Puplic Opinion“), that the Bush Administration and the royal dynasty of Saudi Arabia, in coordination with the Israeli Government, are funding Sunni islamists and terrorist militias in the north of Lebanon and all over the middle east, allegedly to prevent the so-called „Shiite crescent“.
We know, that the Lebanese Leader of the Druze, Walid Jumblatt, met with Dick Cheney in Washington last fall and advised him, if the United States does try to move against Syria, members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood would be „the ones to talk to“.
We also know by the New Yorker journalist, that „there is evidence that the Administration`s redirection strategy has already benefitted the Brotherhood,“ that there is Saudi money and American involvement.