There are features of how the United States makes and executes foreign policy that help to explain why Washington is repeatedly thrown into confusion by unforeseen developments. Most significant is a certain linearity of thinking and action. It takes literally the proposition that since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line…
Defense & Security
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7,000 Syrian Refugees and AQ Fighters Return Home from Lebanon…
More than a hundred buses carrying thousands of al-Qaeda-linked fighters and Syrian refugees drove down a dirt road from Lebanon into Syria on Wednesday, in what was the last phase of an exchange deal between Syria’s al-Qaeda branch and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. The departure of al-Qaeda fighters from the Lebanon-Syria border…
No, Channel 4: Islam Is Not Responsible for the Islamic State…
Unlike most historians, Tom Holland writes books which bring the past to life. This makes him a national treasure. But I am baffled by his recent documentary about Islamic State (IS), Isis: The Origins of Violence. It argues that the extreme violence of self-proclaimed IS should be interpreted in significant ways as a manifestation of […]
Reports of HR McMasters Letter to Susan Rice Presented to Deceive…
CTH gave several warnings to be cautious and careful when reviewing political media as there are obvious attempts to push specific agenda narratives. We could tell something was up in the DC proletariat. The signals are often subtle but also follow a familiar pattern. The latest round of anti-McMasters stories are transparently part of that […]
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John Kelly Pushed Obama’s Jihad Policy Chief Out of DHS…
George Selim headed the now-defunct CVE program which tried to offer federal support and legal autonomy to Islamic political groups if they redirected Islamic immigrants and youths away from Islamic militancy and jihad. His resignation spotlighted Kelly’s decision to replace Obama’s failed policy with more direct government involvement in Islamic…
Gorka on Developing Afghan Strategy: ‘We Want to Start from Scratch’…
“First the question is: what is the U.S. national interest in Afghanistan? When we understand that, then we can tell you what our presence in Afghanistan will be like,” explained Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president in the office of the chief strategist. “Is it going to be small special forces outposts? […]
Foggy Bottom Begins Self-Draining as “Desperate” Career Diplomats Quit…
Oh, this is almost too much winning… almost. A pearl-clutching op-ed in the New York Times declares the hurt sensibilities within the State Department are leading to multiple people quitting. Specifically citing the different managerial strategy of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and the priorities of the entire Dept. of State mission…
The Syrian Army Were Standing Up to Islamic State Long Before Americans Fired a Missile by Robert Fisk (Part 2/3)…
I don’t like armies. They are dangerous institutions. Soldiers are not heroes just because they fight. And I’ve grown tired of saying that those who live by the sword sometimes die by the sword. But in an age when the Americans and the Iraqis and Isis can account for 40,000 civilian deaths in Mosul in […]
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CNN Crashes and Burns with ‘Exclusive’ Report on Russia Arming the Taliban…
On July 25, CNN published an alarming report: Two videos obtained exclusively by the cable news network appear to suggest that the Russian government is covertly arming the Taliban fighters that have slowly returned to Afghanistan since the end of NATO combat operations there in 2014. The report, authored by Nick Paton Walsh and Masoud […]
4 Counterterrorism Programs Slated to be Axed by House Intel Committee…
Four Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) counterterrorism programs — including a component created to investigate the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leaks — are slated to be “eliminated or re-aligned” by the House Intelligence Committee after a comprehensive review and complaints of mismanagement arose, Circa has learned. The committee’s review of the 70-year-old military intelligence apparatus led […]
Joint Chiefs: No Change in Transgender Policy until Trump Sends Pentagon Direction…
The highest-ranking military officer in the country said that the military’s transgender policy won’t actively change until President Trump sends specific directions to the Pentagon. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the president’s direction has been received by the secretary of defense and the secretary has issued implementation guidance,” Joint Chiefs […]
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The Trillion-Dollar National Security Budget by William Hartung…
You wouldn’t know it, based on the endless cries for more money coming from the military, politicians, and the president, but these are the best of times for the Pentagon. Spending on the Department of Defense alone is already well in excess of half a trillion dollars a year and counting. Adjusted for inflation, that […]
Are America’s Wars Just and Moral? by Patrick Buchanan…
“One knowledgeable official estimates that the CIA-backed fighters may have killed or wounded 100,000 Syrian soldiers and their allies,” writes columnist David Ignatius. Given that Syria’s prewar population was not 10 percent of ours, this is the equivalent of a million dead and wounded Americans. What justifies America’s participation in this slaughter?…
Secret Russian-Kurdish-Syrian Military Cooperation Is Happening in Syria’s Eastern Desert…
After a sweeping Syrian military advance to the edge of the besieged Isis “capital” of Raqqa, the Russians, the Syrian army and Kurds of the YPG militia – theoretically allied to the US – have set up a secret “coordination” centre in the desert of eastern Syria to prevent “mistakes” between the Russian-backed and American-supported […]
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Jordan Releases Video Showing U.S. Soldiers Surrendering Before Deadly 2016 Shooting…
Jordan’s military released security camera footage Monday of a shooting in which a Jordanian soldier killed three U.S. military trainers at an air base in the kingdom. The video had previously been shown to the families of the U.S. Army Green Berets by U.S. law enforcement but had not been made public until Monday. The […]
U.S. Navy Ship Fires Warning Shots Near Iranian Ship…
A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots Tuesday near an Iranian vessel that came close to it during a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf, an American defense official said. Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard later blamed the American ship for provoking the incident. The encounter involving the USS Thunderbolt, a Cyclone-class patrol ship based […]
A Shameful Silence: Where is the Outrage Over the Slaughter of Civilians in Mosul?…
The catastrophic number of civilian casualties in Mosul is receiving little attention internationally from politicians and journalists. This is in sharp contrast to the outrage expressed worldwide over the bombardment of east Aleppo by Syrian government and Russian forces at the end of 2016. Hoshyar Zebari, the Kurdish leader and former Iraqi finance and foreign […]
ICE Chief Lists Worst Sanctuary Cities: Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, Philadelphia…
In a broadside on sanctuary cities that harbor criminal illegal immigrants, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement called them “un-American” and cited the worst: Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Sanctuary cities, in my opinion, are un-American,” said Thomas D. Homan in an interview with Secrets. By harboring criminal illegal immigrants, […]
Say Goodbye to Regime Change in Syria by Scott Ritter…
President Donald Trump has ordered that the CIA begin to phase out its covert train-and-equip program in support of so-called “moderate” rebels fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The program represented the tip of the spear of a larger goal of regime change that had been the official policy of the United […]
U.S. Urges All Nationals In North Korea To “Depart Immediately”, Bans Tourists From Visiting…
Dennis Rodman will be disappointed to learn that the US is set to ban all citizens from traveling to North Korea, according to two agencies that operate tours there. Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours said the ban would be announced on 27 July to come into effect 30 days later, the BBC reported. “After […]
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