Archiv: Washington Post (media)


10.11.2024 - 14:30 [ Washington Post ]

TOP SECRET AMERICA: National Security Inc.

(July 20, 2010)

The Post investigation uncovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America created since 9/11 that is hidden from public view, lacking in thorough oversight and so unwieldy that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

It is also a system in which contractors are playing an ever more important role. The Post estimates that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. There is no better example of the government‘s dependency on them than at the CIA, the one place in government that exists to do things overseas that no other U.S. agency is allowed to do.

(…)

Contractors kill enemy fighters. They spy on foreign governments and eavesdrop on terrorist networks. They help craft war plans. They gather information on local factions in war zones. They are the historians, the architects, the recruiters in the nation‘s most secretive agencies. They staff watch centers across the Washington area. They are among the most trusted advisers to the four-star generals leading the nation‘s wars.

18.10.2024 - 21:30 [ Washington Post ]

The United States can’t just stand by as Israel starves northern Gaza

The Biden administration needs to push its ally with more than just empty threats.

11.09.2024 - 12:00 [ Fox News ]

Top 5 moments during Trump-Harris presidential debate: ‚I‘m talking now‘

„Do you believe you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?“ Harris was asked by a moderator.

„Well, I will tell you, I agreed with President Biden‘s decision to pull out of Afghanistan.“ she said.

„Four presidents said they would and Joe Biden did.“

During the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, 13 U.S. service members were killed in a terrorist attack.

11.09.2024 - 12:00 [ Washington Post ]

4 takeaways from the first Trump-Harris presidential debate

If Democrats were concerned about anything amounting to a repeat of Biden’s shoddy debate performance in late June, which led to his dropping out, it was quickly erased. Harris returned to the form that made her the runaway winner of the early 2020 Democratic primary debates.

More than that, though, with a premium on Trump defining the lesser-known Harris, she made sure the debate was overwhelmingly about Trump and his less-appealing traits.

19.04.2024 - 19:23 [ Washington Post ]

Isfahan, apparent site of Israeli strike, is home to Iranian nuclear facilities

(today)

The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center is Iran’s largest nuclear research complex and employs approximately 3,000 scientists, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative. It was built with Chinese assistance and opened in 1984. It operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors, the NTI says, adding that the facility is also the target of both U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

26.03.2024 - 20:50 [ Washington Post ]

U.S. allows U.N. cease-fire vote, but it’s too late for many in Gaza

We are already halfway through Ramadan, a month-long holy period marked by pronounced grief and suffering in the Palestinian territories. The Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, including many women and children, forced the overwhelming majority of people in Gaza to flee their homes and plunged more than half of Gaza’s population into a de facto famine. Small children are dying of malnutrition in what U.N. officials describe to be the broadest and most severe food crisis in the world.

07.03.2024 - 22:06 [ Common Dreams ]

Just Two US Lawmakers Sign International Statement Demanding Arms Embargo on Israel

(02.03.2024)

The statement‘s signatories include legislators from Israel‘s top allies and weapons suppliers, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada. Just two U.S. lawmakers—Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—backed the statement.

The statement includes six signatories from Germany, which is facing an International Court of Justice (ICJ) case alleging complicity in genocide against Palestinians.

The lawmakers argued that an arms embargo on Israel is both „a moral necessity“ and „a legal requirement,“ given the ICJ‘s interim ruling in late January.

07.03.2024 - 21:00 [ Washington Post ]

U.S. floods arms into Israel despite mounting alarm over war’s conduct

Washington has approved more than 100 separate military sales to Israel since its invasion of Gaza, even as officials complain Israeli leaders have not done enough to protect civilians

23.01.2024 - 04:21 [ Washington Post ]

Israel is still floating a plan for Gaza island. And now there’s a video.

He has estimated the cost of the project to be around $5 billion and has indicated in the past that Saudi Arabia or the Chinese might be interested in investing in the venture.

All sounds good until one factors in Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

24.12.2023 - 12:00 [ Washington Post ]

Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza

The Washington Post analyzed satellite imagery, airstrike data and U.N. damage assessments, and interviewed more than 20 aid workers, health-care providers, and experts in munitions and aerial warfare. The evidence shows that Israel has carried out its war in Gaza at a pace and level of devastation that likely exceeds any recent conflict, destroying more buildings, in far less time, than were destroyed during the Syrian regime’s battle for Aleppo from 2013 to 2016 and the U.S.-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.

22.12.2023 - 22:12 [ jeremy scahill / Twitter ]

This was a pernicious lie that was promoted by Biden and his administration to justify Israel’s attacking of hospitals. Those of us who warned that this was a lie at the time were accused of being Hamas propagandists.

22.12.2023 - 21:58 [ Washington Post ]

The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital

The Post’s analysis shows:

– The rooms connected to the tunnel network discovered by IDF troops showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas.
– None of the five hospital buildings identified by Hagari appeared to be connected to the tunnel network.
– There is no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards.

Hours before IDF troops entered the complex, the Biden administration declassified U.S. intelligence assessments that it said bolstered Israel’s claims. In the aftermath of the raid, Israeli and U.S. officials have stood firm behind their initial statements.

22.12.2023 - 21:52 [ Rolling Stone / Twitter ]

A Washington Post investigation has found no proof of a Hamas command center under al-Shifa Hospital following Israel’s attack on the medical complex

22.12.2023 - 21:44 [ Huffington Post ]

Evidence Doesn‘t Support Israeli Claims That Hospital Was Hamas Command Center: Report

The Israeli raid on al-Shifa Hospital last month, which was preceded by an evacuation order aimed at thousands of people sheltering at the hospital and hundreds of sick patients, produced one of the grisliest scenes in the country’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip: a “death zone” that included a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and dozens of desperate patients inside, according to the World Health Organization, whose aid workers arrived at the facility on Nov. 18 as part of a humanitarian mission.

Forty patients, including four premature babies, died in the hospital due to a lack of electricity in the days surrounding the raid, hospital administrators told the United Nations.

04.12.2023 - 08:03 [ Washington Post ]

New York Times report says Israel knew about Hamas attack over a year in advance

(01.12.2023)

Netanyahu has stopped short of apologizing for the attack, and has said that determining blame will have to come after the war is waged. Critics say he is attempting to escape responsibility for myriad intelligence failures leading to the deadliest day in Israeli history.

04.11.2023 - 11:40 [ Washington Post ]

Here’s what to know about the pro-Palestinian rally in D.C. on Saturday

Thousands of people are expected to rally Saturday in Washington, joining a push from people across the world to demand both a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

Brian Becker, the executive director of the ANSWER Coalition, one of the organizers of the march, said he hopes this gathering will be “the largest demonstration in support of the Palestinian people in the history of the United States.”

16.09.2023 - 00:05 [ Glenn Greenwald / Locals.com ]

EU and The Washington Post Escalate Their Censorship Campaign with a New Fraudulent “Disinformation Study” About Twitter and Russia. Plus: The John McCain Institute Used to Promote Neocon Dogma on War

(September 08, 2023)

The way this typically works is that groups claim to employ “disinformation experts” – a brand new and fake expertise they created overnight – and then produce studies that purport to document who is either circulating harmful disinformation or who is permitting it to be heard. This latter accusation, permitting dangerous disinformation to be heard, always means that one social media company or another is failing to censor in accordance with the demands of the group and its funders. They then get corporate media outlets who crave censorship to melodramatically trumpet their accusatory studies using flamboyant headlines that claim a disobedient technology platform has the blood on their hands, knowing that it will spread virally, but very few people actually read the study to determine if the accusations have any validity.

06.09.2023 - 02:59 [ Reuters ]

Obama-era veteran Kurt Campbell to lead Biden‘s Asia policy

(Jan 13, 2021)

Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia under Democratic President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is considered an architect of their “pivot to Asia” strategy, a vaunted but so far still limited rebalancing of resources to the region.

06.09.2023 - 02:52 [ Washington Post ]

Why Biden Skipping the Asean Summit Is a Mistake

The deliberate cherry picking of allies and partners is the brainchild, insiders tell me, of Biden’s key Asia policy czar, Kurt Campbell. It is likely to continue, as Campbell has pointed out in a discussion earlier this year at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

02.09.2023 - 20:15 [ Washington Post ]

U.S. presses Saudi Arabia on reported migrant massacres

(Updated August 31, 2023 at 6:22 p.m.)

The United States has voiced public concern about the reports of violence against civilians, which circulated among diplomats and U.N. officials for more than a year before being thrust into wider public view, and called for a Saudi investigation.

U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic conversations, say they are also pushing the Saudis to identify the units who, according to eyewitnesses and victims, used mortars, small-arms fire and close-range executions to kill hundreds or possibly thousands of people, many of them women and children.

31.08.2023 - 18:53 [ Mike Cohen and Neil Munshi, Bloomberg / Washington Post ]

What’s Driving the Coups in Gabon and Across West Africa?

Four days after the central African nation held disputed presidential elections that incumbent Ali Bongo was reported to have won, army officers appeared on state television to announce they’d canceled the Aug. 26 vote and dissolved the country’s institutions. Bongo first took office in 2009, succeeding his late father, who had held power since 1967. While the oil producer hasn’t had to deal with the jihadist attacks or spreading insecurity that’s dogged much of West Africa, the ruling family’s grip on power has come under pressure in recent years.

23.08.2023 - 09:07 [ Washington Post ]

A tanker believed to hold sanctioned Iran oil starts offloading near Texas despite Tehran‘s threats

(August 20, 2023)

Iran has been trying to evade sanctions and continue selling its oil abroad, while the U.S. and its allies have been seizing cargoes since 2019 after the country’s nuclear deal allowing the trade collapsed.

22.08.2023 - 15:14 [ Washington Post ]

A Saudi-Israeli Peace Deal? Who Wants What and Why

The main thing the Saudis would get in exchange — security guarantees — wouldn’t come from Israel but from its closest ally — the US. Israel, a high-tech power, would play a major role in ambitious Saudi plans to move its economy beyond oil. It would also be expected to make concessions to the Palestinian self-ruling authority in the West Bank. The US would regain some of its influence over Saudi Arabia, stemming efforts by China to expand its sway in the Middle East. The deal offers significant rewards to all four governments, not least of them additional ways of dealing with Iranian military activity in the region. But the prospect of the pact stirs populist forces among all of their constituencies, posing risks to those in power.

13.08.2023 - 14:56 [ Washington Post ]

Slow counteroffensive darkens mood in Ukraine

(August 10, 2023)

In Smila, a small city in central Ukraine, baker Alla Blyzniuk, 42, said she sells sweets for funeral receptions daily as parents prepare to bury their children killed on the front hundreds of miles away. (…)

Blyzniuk also lives in fear that her husband or two sons of fighting age will be mobilized. She has already noticed that far fewer men walk the streets of her city than before. Ukraine does not disclose its military casualty counts, but everyone shares stories, she said, of new soldiers at the front lasting just two to three days.

09.08.2023 - 12:05 [ Washington Post ]

Why Israel Is Bitterly Split Over a Judiciary Overhaul

(August 8, 2023 at 10:09 a.m. EDT)

4. What else is planned?

• Changing the way judges are chosen. Currently, Supreme Court justices are selected by a committee made up of two ministers, two lawmakers (one of whom is traditionally from the opposition), two members of the bar association and three justices. The government wants to increase the role of politicians in picking judges but the details are still being debated. Some suggestions are to shift the balance of legal professionals and politicians on the committee, others to remove the judges and bar members entirely, replacing them with a mix of coalition and opposition politicians. Netanyahu says he will seek consensus and will wait till November before making his next move.

29.07.2023 - 07:25 [ Washington Post ]

Biden faces renewed pressure to embrace Supreme Court overhaul

(04.07.2023)

As Democrats reel from another painful set of defeats at the Supreme Court in recent weeks, President Biden is facing renewed pressure from a range of elements in his party, from liberal lawmakers to abortion rights activists, to more forcefully embrace far-reaching changes to the high court.

24.07.2023 - 19:39 [ Washington Post ]

Israel faces an ongoing constitutional crisis — without a constitution

In practice, constitutions can: achieve near-unalterable status, as in the United States; be frequently rewritten, as in many other countries in the Western hemisphere; be used to justify authoritarian forms of rule; or come to be entirely disregarded.

Israel, Britain and New Zealand are outliers, as they do not have constitutions, said Hanna Lerner, the author of “Making Constitutions in Deeply Divided Societies.” The United Kingdom and New Zealand rely on common law, bodies of legal thinking and precedent developed over centuries, which serve a de facto constitutional role.

24.07.2023 - 11:58 [ Washington Post ]

In photos: The battle at the Knesset

As Israeli lawmakers prepare to vote on the judicial overhaul plans backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demonstrators are blocking the entrance to parliament, and security forces are using water cannons to disperse them

24.07.2023 - 11:49 [ Washington Post ]

Protesters face off with police at the Israeli parliament

Protesters chained themselves to fences, linked arms and lay down in roads to block access to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament in central Jerusalem.

Police dragged prone demonstrators from the pavement and deployed water cannons to clear routes to the compound.

09.07.2023 - 11:06 [ Patrick Leahy and Jeff Merkley / Washington Post ]

Here’s why supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions would be a terrible mistake

We voted for billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine and strongly believe we must continue to help the Ukrainian people defend themselves against Russian aggression. But supplying Kyiv with cluster munitions would come at an unsupportable moral and political price. Knowing that these weapons cause indiscriminate terror and mayhem, both of us — like many others in the international community — have worked for years to end their use.

05.07.2023 - 12:12 [ Washington Post ]

Biden faces renewed pressure to embrace Supreme Court overhaul

As Democrats reel from another painful set of defeats at the Supreme Court in recent weeks, President Biden is facing renewed pressure from a range of elements in his party, from liberal lawmakers to abortion rights activists, to more forcefully embrace far-reaching changes to the high court.

25.06.2023 - 17:55 [ ChildrensHealthDefense.org ]

Part 2: The Belly of The Daily Beast and Its Perceptible Ties to the CIA

Part 2 of a two-part series takes a deep dive into the history of the CIA’s central role in orchestrating news and editorial coverage in America’s most influential liberal national media outlets — and its continued hold today.

25.06.2023 - 16:41 [ ChildrensHealthDefense.org ]

Part 1: CIA’s Extraordinary Role Influencing Liberal Media Outlets Daily Kos, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone

Part 1 of a two-part series takes a deep dive into the history of the CIA’s central role in orchestrating news and editorial coverage in America’s most influential liberal national media outlets — and its continued hold today.

18.06.2023 - 15:45 [ New York Post ]

Mainstream news outlets want to end Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s primary challenge

Kennedy’s positions on many other issues also cut against the media grain. His most controversial stance is on the war in Ukraine, where he strongly opposes American involvement (though his son volunteered to serve alongside Ukrainians). Back home, he believes transgender athletes should not participate in female sports; and, at time when the media itself seems to be hiring directly out of Langley, he’s harshly critical of America’s intelligence community, and particularly the CIA, which he believes is responsible for the assassination of his uncle, John F. Kennedy.

16.06.2023 - 15:40 [ Washington Post ]

Citing cyber investigations, officials ask Congress to renew surveillance powers

(14.06.2023)

In a joint written testimony from the Biden administration witnesses, the NSA, FBI and CIA all cited Section 702’s usefulness for cybersecurity.

10.06.2023 - 16:07 [ Washington Post ]

U.S. had intelligence of detailed Ukrainian plan to attack Nord Stream pipeline

(June 6, 2023)

Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022. (…)

The source’s information could not immediately be corroborated, but the CIA shared the report with Germany and other European countries last June, according to multiple officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence operations and diplomatic discussions.

09.06.2023 - 04:30 [ Washington Post ]

Biden and Sunak reaffirm support for Ukraine amid counteroffensive

Earlier this week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the House has no plans to take up legislation that would boost military aid to Ukraine above levels included in the recent debt ceiling legislation, a position that put him at odds with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

08.06.2023 - 02:11 [ Washington Post ]

Inside the Ukrainian counteroffensive that shocked Putin and reshaped the war

(December 29, 2022)

Kovalchuk considered flooding the river. The Ukrainians, he said, even conducted a test strike with a HIMARS launcher on one of the floodgates at the Nova Kakhovka dam, making three holes in the metal to see if the Dnieper’s water could be raised enough to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages.

The test was a success, Kovalchuk said, but the step remained a last resort. He held off.

05.06.2023 - 19:33 [ Washington Post ]

Shelling hits Russia’s Belgorod region as militias mount cross-border attack

Belgorod’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, blamed the attacks on Ukraine’s military, but two anti-Putin paramilitary groups have claimed credit for them. (…)

The pro-Ukrainian militias, which claimed to have carried out a series of cross-border incursions in recent days, said their forces had mounted another attack on government facilities and taken Russian soldiers prisoner over the weekend.