Endgame: Putin Plans To Strike ISIS With Or Without The U.S.

On Sunday, we noted that Washington’s strategy in Syria has now officially unravelled. John Kerry, speaking from London following talks with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, essentially admitted over the weekend that Russia’s move to bolster the Assad regime at Latakia effectively means that the timing of Assad’s exit is now completely indeterminate. Here’s how we summed up the situation: Moscow, realizing …

David Swanson – Bernie Sanders Insists Saudi Arabia Should Kill More People

Senator Bernie Sanders taped a PBS show at the University of Virginia on Monday. I had corresponded with the host Doug Blackmon beforehand, and offered him ideas for questions on military spending and war, questions like these: 1. People want to tax the rich and cut military spending, which is 54% of federal discretionary spending according to National Priorities Project, …

Eric Draitser – Western Media Hype ‘Russian Aggression’ in Syria

From Washington to the western media, everyone has been talking about reports of potential Russian ‘intervention’ in Syria. On the one hand, the proliferation of this meme is a case study in the western propaganda system, as one report is then repeated ad nauseam from thousands of sources, then built upon by subsequent reports, thereby manufacturing the irrefutable truth from …

Noam Chomsky – “The Iranian Threat”

Throughout the world there is great relief and optimism about the nuclear deal reached in Vienna between Iran and the P5+1 nations, the five veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. Most of the world apparently shares the assessment of the U.S. Arms Control Association that “the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action establishes a strong and effective formula …

Black Agenda Radio – 08.17.15

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations holds its national conference in Philadelphia, this weekend, under the theme, “Black Power Matters: Black Community Control of the Police.” The Milwaukee chapter of the Black National Defenders is part of the Black Is Back Coalition. Organizer Amerikus Luvene says the Black National Defenders, or BND, envision one day replacing the police, altogether.

Demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri, mark a year of intense struggle since the death of Michael Brown, but, what is the State of the Movement?

A U.S. Embassy opens in Havana, Cuba.

Haiti holds its first elections in four years.

F William Engdahl – US’s Saudi Oil Deal from Win-Win to Mega-Loose

Who would’ve thought it would come to this? Certainly not the Obama Administration, and their brilliant geo-political think-tank neo-conservative strategists. John Kerry’s brilliant “win-win” proposal of last September during his September 11 Jeddah meeting with ailing Saudi King Abdullah was simple: Do a rerun of the highly successful State Department-Saudi deal in 1986 when Washington persuaded the Saudis to flood …

Peter Van Buren – U.S.-Iranian Relations Emerge from a 30-Year Cold War

Don’t sweat the details of the July nuclear accord between the United States and Iran. What matters is that the calculus of power in the Middle East just changed in significant ways. Washington and Tehran announced their nuclear agreement on July 14th and yes, some of the details are still classified. Of course the Obama administration negotiated alongside China, Russia, …

Gareth Porter – Obama Buys False Iran Narrative

I’m glad that the United States and Iran reached an agreement in Vienna after nearly two years of negotiations and 35 years of enmity. A failure to do so under present political conditions would certainly have left a festering conflict with unpredictably bad consequences. And the successful negotiation of such a far-reaching agreement in which both sides made significant concessions …

U.N. Remains Barred from Visiting U.S. Prisons Amid Abuse Charges By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 22 2015 (IPS) – When U.S. President Barack Obama visited the El Reno Correctional Facility in Oklahoma last week to check on living conditions of prisoners incarcerated there, no one in authority could prevent him from visiting the prison. Obama, the first sitting president to visit a federal penitentiary, said “in too many places, black boys and black …

China Blasts US for ‘Brazen’ Human Rights Abuses at Home and Abroad – Deirdre Fulton

In a report that covers everything from police violence to income inequality to government surveillance, China has blasted the United States for its “grim problems of racial discrimination,” use of “cruel tortures indiscriminately,” and “terrible human rights record.” The lengthy report, carried by the official Xinhua news agency and issued on Friday in response to U.S. criticism of China’s human rights record, …