PATRICK COCKBURN – Why Everything You’ve Read About Syria and Iraq Could be Wrong

The Iraqi army, backed by US-led airstrikes, is trying to capture east Mosul at the same time as the Syrian army and its Shia paramilitary allies are fighting their way into east Aleppo. An estimated 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo by government artillery and bombing in the last fortnight, and in Mosul there are reportedly some 600 civilian dead over a month. Despite …

PATRICK COCKBURN – This is What Will Happen to Mosul After ISIS is Evicted

I visited Mosul on the day it fell to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and a small detachment of US Special Forces on 11 April 2003. As we drove into the city, we passed lines of pick-up trucks piled high with loot returning to the Kurdish-controlled enclave in northern Iraq. US soldiers at a checkpoint, over which waved the Stars and Stripes, …

Mohammad Javad Zarif: Let Us Rid the World of Wahhabism

Tehran — Public relations firms with no qualms about taking tainted petrodollars are experiencing a bonanza. Their latest project has been to persuade us that the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, is no more. As a Nusra spokesman toldCNN, the rebranded rebel group, supposedly separated from its parent terrorist organization, has become “moderate.” Thus is fanaticism from the Dark Ages …

Anti-Wahhabism spreading in Muslim world

Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, the Saudi grand mufti and head of the Council of Senior Scholars, spoke to Makkah newspaper Sept. 6, saying, “We must understand that those are not Muslims. They are Majus [Zoroastrians], and their enmity to Muslims — specifically to the Sunni community — goes way back.” Although Sheikh was addressing the Iranian political regime, his choice of words and …

Glenn Greenwald – Two Former U.S. Presidents Simultaneously Advocate for a Close Family Member as the Next U.S. President

Americans love to mock the British for choosing — in the 21st century — to live under a monarchy and honor the hereditary succession of a royal family. I enthusiastically participate in that derision. Few concepts are as antithetical to reason and democratic liberty as anointing families that are vested with an entitlement to wield power through dynasty and lineage. The U.S. officially has no formal royal families, …

Eric ZUESSE – US Now Overtly at War Against Russia

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on February 2nd that he approves of US ‘Defense’ Secretary Ash Carter’s proposal to quadruple US armaments and troops in Europe, against ‘Russian aggression’. Secretary Carter said earlier that same day, in his announcement of America’s arming for war against Russia: «We are reinforcing our posture in Europe to support our NATO allies in the face of Russia’s aggression. …

Islamist fighters in Syria, got reinforcements from Turkey – Russian Foreign Ministry

Terrorists have increased their activities ahead of the next week’s inter-Syrian talks, with insurgents in the Syrian province of Aleppo receiving reinforcements from Turkey, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The much-anticipated talks between the Syrian government and different opposition groups are scheduled to take place in the Swiss city of Geneva on January 25. “Unfortunately, in recent days, it’s especially noticeable …

Eric Zuesse – America’s Subservience to Saud Family

The Saud royal family are by far the world’s largest buyers of US weapons. The King of Saudi Arabia is by far the world’s richest person, with a net worth well over a trillion dollars; and, when his (Aramco’s) 260 billion barrels of oil reserves were valued at $100 per barrel, his net worth was over $15 trillion. The King …

Tobin Harshaw – Saudi Arabia Has Bigger Problems Than Iran

http://Shia IslamSunni IslamBashar al-AssadSaudi ArabiaSyriaBarack ObamaCentral Intelligence Agency John KerryMiddle EastSyrian oppositionSaudi Arabia’s feud with Iran over the beheading of a prominent Shiite cleric led to a lot of overwrought speculation about Sunni-Shiite tensions rising to tear up the Middle East. Those more steeped in regional affairs point to the other 46 men beheaded, almost all of whom were Sunnis …