Tag Archives: Iraq

Critics Call Upcoming Pentagon Visit by Indonesian Defense Minister—Accused of Horrific Atrocities—a ‘Human Rights Catastrophe’

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Prabowo Subianto—who led a notorious commando unit implicated in genocidal violence—was invited to Washington by Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-15-2020

Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto. Photo: Prabowo Subianto / CC BY-SA

Human rights advocates this week sounded the alarm on a meeting scheduled for Friday between American Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, a former U.S.-trained general in an elite army unit implicated in genocidal violence and other atrocities in East Timor, West Papua, Jakarta, and elsewhere in the archipelago nation in the late decades of the last century.

Since 2000, Prabowo has been banned from entering the United States by the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. However, Esper last week invited the 68-year-old to Washington as the Trump administration seeks closer relations with the nation of 268 million people in a bid to counter China’s growing clout. Continue reading →

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‘Horrifically Catastrophic’: Report Finds So-Called US War on Terror Has Displaced as Many as 59 Million People

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“We need a reckoning. We can’t simply move on.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-8-2020

Raghed, 7, stands among rubbish at an informal refugee settlement in Qab Elias in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Photo: Sam Tarling/CRS

The ongoing U.S. “war on terror” has forcibly displaced as many as 59 million people from just eight countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia since 2001, according to a new report published Tuesday by Brown University’s Costs of War Project.

Titled “Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by the United States’ Post-9/11 Wars” (pdf), the new report conservatively estimates that at least 37 million people have “fled their homes in the eight most violent wars the U.S. military has launched or participated in since 2001.” Continue reading →

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Shadow armies: how the West wages war but keeps its soldiers at home

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ISIS is enjoying a renaissance and the West is fighting back with a shadow war, free of public debate or political scrutiny.

By Paul Rogers  Published 9-3-2020 by openDemocracy

Others do the dirty work. Screenshot: CNN

In the run-up to November’s US election, a sub-plot of the Trump campaign will be his claimed success at “bringing our boys back”. And indeed there will have been substantial troop withdrawals from Afghanistan as well as a more modest drawdown in Iraq, although that will still involve a reduction from 5,200 to 3,500.

Some of the Iraqi changes are redeployments to neighbouring states but there has certainly been an overall decrease in Afghanistan, even if few figures are available about the thousands of private security personnel operating under various government contracts. Continue reading →

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How Trump is opening the way for the Taliban to take Afghanistan back

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Trump’s eagerness to ‘bring our boys home’ is leaving the Afghan government with little power to resist the Taliban afterwards.

By Paul Rogers. Published 7-31-2020 by openDemocracy

Goodbye Afghanistan | US Air Force photo by Clay Lancaster. Public domain.

One of Donald Trump’s main election pledges back in 2016 was to ‘bring our boys home’. Alongside this came criticism of Germany and other NATO states for not paying their way on military spending. He has followed up on both themes this week, by starting to reduce the US presence in Germany, albeit shifting some to Poland and leaving all the mechanisms of a rapid return in place, so that the extent of the ‘back home’ is far from what it appears.

Extricating US forces from Middle East is another matter. Many army units are consolidating in fewer bases in Iraq or moving to nearby Kuwait. The US Navy is holding on, too, mainly because of the confrontation with Iran. It currently has two carrier battle groups within reach of the region. Continue reading →

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ACLU Files Historic Lawsuit to Stop Surveillance Planes Above Baltimore

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“If this wide-area aerial surveillance program is allowed to move forward, we can expect mass surveillance to spread in cities across the country.”

By Derrick Broze. Published 4-15-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the city of Baltimore from rolling out a disturbing aerial surveillance program.

The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of a group of Baltimore community activists who have raised concerns about the introduction of a controversial technology known as wide-area aerial surveillance which involves stationing an aircraft equipped with ultra-high-resolution cameras over a city to track all visible pedestrians and vehicles within that city. Continue reading →

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US Reportedly Bombs Iran-Backed Militias Just as House Passes Resolution to Prevent Unauthorized War

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“Yet again, U.S. and Iranian-backed forces appear to be exchanging fire in Iraq, despite the American people’s desires to avoid yet another war of choice in the Middle East.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-12-2020

A protester holds a sign calling for ”No War With Iran” at a rally organized by MoveOn.org and other groups on January 9, 2020.. Photo: Pinterest

The United States on Wednesday reportedly launched deadly airstrikes against Iran-backed militias on the border of Syria and Iraq just after the House of Representatives passed a War Powers Resolution aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from launching an unauthorized war with Iran.

Reports of U.S. airstrikes came after two Americans and one British soldier were killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on Camp Taji, an Iraqi base north of Baghdad that houses U.S. troops. Continue reading →

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US Military Building Presence in Saudi Arabia for First Time in 17 Years

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Some 2,500 US troops have arrived at their new home for the foreseeable future, the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

By Alan Macleod   Published 2-28-2020 by MintPress News

Royal Saudi Air Force’s Maj. Gen. Khaled Al-Shablan, Prince Sultan Air Base installation commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Brent Chadick, 378th Air Expeditionary Wing command chief, escort U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a tour of Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Feb. 20, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael Charles)

Amid rising tensions with Iran, the United States is increasing its military presence in Saudi Arabia- separated from the Islamic Republic by only the Persian Gulf. Some 2,500 troops have arrived at their new home, the Prince Sultan Air Base, some 60 km southeast of Riyadh. On Iran, General John Walker, commander of the 378th Air Expeditionary Wing at the base, said: “We face a thinking enemy that is playing a real regional conflict for keeps, and they’re very good.”

While the U.S. government has not given any indication of how long it expects its forces to be there, temporary structures are being replaced with more substantial ones, and the arrival of fighter jets suggests they are there for the long haul. Roads are also being resurfaced to and from the base. Continue reading →

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Former Air Force Drone Operator Says US Military is “Worse Than Nazis”

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“I knew in my soul I had become a murderer.”

By Aaron Kesel. Published 2-9-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

A former drone operator has claimed that the U.S. military is worse than the Nazis in a recent interview during which he revealed that his superiors told him “it’s just a dog” when he killed a child in Afghanistan.

The drone operator turned whistleblower, Staff Sergeant Brandon Bryant, gave an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail detailing the horrors of his job deciding who lives or dies from the comfort of bases in Nevada, New Mexico, and Iraq. Bryant described how he spent six years in the U.S. Air Force operating Predator drones where he controlled multiple camera systems and was responsible for using the targeting system while a co-pilot navigated the drone. Continue reading →

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‘Bombshell’: Iraqi Officials Say ISIS—Not Iran—Likely Behind Rocket Attack Trump Used to Justify Soleimani Assassination

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“Al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11 and we went to war with Iraq. If this report is true, ISIS attacked the U.S. and we nearly went to war with Iran.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-7-2020

Screenshot: CNBC

In a “bombshell” revelation that calls into question one of the Trump administration’s stated justificiations for assassinating Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani—a move that nearly sparked a region-wide military conflict—Iraqi intelligence officials told the New York Times that they believe ISIS, not an Iran-linked militia, was likely responsible for the Dec. 27 rocket attack that killed an American contractor at an air base near Kirkuk, Iraq.

The Times reported Thursday that “Iraqi military and intelligence officials have raised doubts about who fired the rockets… saying they believe it is unlikely that the militia the United States blamed for the attack” was responsible. Continue reading →

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Soleimani Was in Iraq on Peace Mission When US Assassinated Him, Trump Lied About “Imminent Attacks”

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The revelation is leading some to accuse Trump of setting a trap for Soleimani that resulted in his assassination.

By Emma Fiala Published 1-6-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi revealed on January 5 that the late General Qassem Soleimani was in Baghdad on request from Iraq in order to respond to Saudi Arabia regarding de-escalation proposals, in what can be considered a peace mission rather than one aimed at planning attacks on Americans, as U.S. media and government sources have continued to repeat.

Abdul-Mahdi was scheduled to meet with Soleimani on Friday, the same day he and six others were killed at the Baghdad airport. Continue reading →

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