Professor Isa Blumi joins me for part 2 of our series on Yemen. We pick up in the late 90’s after Ali Abdullah Saleh has come to power in a unified Yemen. Isa discusses Saleh’s strategy of sowing chaos all over the country in order to maintain absolute power. Isa talks about Saleh’s use of extreme violence, and his reliance on US power. We then explore how the so called Arab Spring played out in Yemen. We discuss the orchestrated nature of the movement, and how is sought to control the very real desires of the Yemeni public. Isa touches on people like Tawakkol Karman and her role as a US proxy during the Arab Spring. Isa brings us all the way to Saleh’s assassination and the current state of Yemen.
Later we talk about the role that Al Qaeda plays on Yemen as a bogey man. We discuss how the US used Yemen as playground for their eventual global drone program. We address the fight going on between Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen. Isa also explains the political history of Ansar Allah (Houthis) and how they are not an Iranian proxy force.
On this months episode Christoph and I take an in-depth look at the recent “Four Day War” between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Nagorno Karabhak region. We discuss the causes for this latest outbreak of violence, and the various regional and global actors involved. Christoph also breaks down the history of this long-forgotten, frozen conflict.
In our second segment we look into a variety of spy-games being played between Turkey and Russia. We begin with the recent reversal by the FSB that Turkey was involved in the downing of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt and what this may mean. Christoph and I discuss the political situation within NATO. We focus on NATO’s hesitancy to get further entrenched in a military situation with Russia, and how NATO members are responding to this .
Next we discuss the recent interview that the reclusive Fethullah Gulen gave to a Russian newspaper, in which she attacks Turkey for shooting down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border. Christoph and I both offer our theories and analysis as to why Gulen is speaking now, and what it means that he is speaking out against Erdogan.
Next we discuss the recent arrest of Grey Wolf fighter Alparslan Celik. Faithful listeners will remember that Celik was the “Turkmen” rebel leader that took credit for the killing of a Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov. Then we turn to the recent arrest of two Russian spies by the MIT in Turkey for their role in the murder of Chechen militant Abdulvakhid Edelgireyev. We finish off this section by taking a look at the rising influence of Grey Wolves inside Germany, using the recent clashes between Grey Wolves and PKK supporters in the city of Aschaffenburg as an example.
For our weird terrorism section Christoph and I give a final farewell to our favorite Georgian Jihadi, Tarkhan Batirashvili aka Omar al-Shishani. We talk about the Pentagon operation that killed him, and why this time they may actually be speaking the truth. We also take a closer look at the Panama Papers and the telltale signs that this was a CIA operation.
I know it has been awhile since the last PPR Political Cartoon but we are back! If you enjoy the PPR Political Cartoon please check out Porkins Policy Review contributor Emma Redmond’s art at Red House.
According to a new book by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heileman Obama told aides that he’s “he’s really good at killing people.” This was allegedly discussed in connection to Obama’s illegal drone program. The question I am posing here is; should we believe something written by the mainstream corporate news that reinforces our beliefs?
Almost all if not everyone in the alternative media distrust the propagandists in the mainstream corporate media. Yet anytime we see a story in the MSM that is conspiratorial, or reinforces our assertions, we instantly proclaim it to be true. Now to some degree it is true that MSM gets it right every once in a while. There are journalists that work for big corporate news outlets that actually do speak truth to power on occasion. Nonetheless, we should still question the authenticity of reports like ones about Obama openly talking to aides about how great he is at murdering people. For a president obsessed with secrecy to be brazenly talking about how good he is at obliterating human beings to aides, who then talked to some mainstream reporters should sound alarm bells to those claiming to be in the truth movement. Now perhaps Obama did say this. Clearly he has no regards for human life so it’s not at all implausible that he would say this. My only issue with this is that we already know this. We don’t need some Time magazine writers to tell us that. The alt media needs to stop looking for the approval of the mainstream to justify their existence. Think for your self. Don’t listen to Mark Halperin or John Heileman, or Russia Today, or me for that matter. Instead free your own mind and discover the truth that is out there.
It is really no surprise that in the very near future New York City will have military style drones flying all over the place as the New York Post just reported. Unfortunately New York has fast become one of the least free cities in the US when it comes to privacy and basic civil rights. It is even less surprising that the Dear Leader of New York, Kim Jong Bloomberg, is so flippant about the whole affair. Speaking on his weekly radio show the dictator of New York had these wonderful things to say about the prospect of the completion of the security state in New York City:
“You can’t keep the tides from coming in…”
Yes you can. That is in effect why your are mayor. To stop the tides of oppression and surveillance of the citizens of new York City.
“We’re going to have more visibility and less privacy. I just don’t see how you could stop that”
You could do your job and protect the good people of New York and not let drones monitor everything we do.
“It’s scary. What’s the difference if a drone is up in the air or on a building”
There isn’t much of a difference except that drones can be outfitted with missiles designed to obliterate people. But at least he admits its scary.
“I mean, intellectually, I have trouble making a distinction. And you know you’re going to have face recognition software. People are working on that.”
Again really horrifying.
“The argument against using automation, it’s this craziness– oh, it’s big brother. Get used to it. When there’s a murder, a shooting, a robbery of something the first thing the police do is go to every single building in the neighborhood and say let’s see your security camera,”
With this statement the Dear Leader basically shows his true colors. Stop whining about having no privacy and submit to the power of the security state. This is all to help victims of murder, robbery, and shootings (presumably shootings of either cops or white people in New York) These drones flying are not going to be for spying on Muslims or political dissidents such as those in the Occupy movement. This is the classic “we are just doing this for your safety” excuse. When the drones do come to New York, those pushing for them will assure us that all the proper oversight will be followed and no abuses will take place. And of course if your not doing anything wrong then you don’t have anything to worry about. Right?
According to the government stenographers at the LA Times the CIA is in the process of setting up a drone program in Syria. You can basically hear the CIA officers dictating what to say to the “journalists”. This marks the third such “exclusive” by a western news outlet purporting to show the links between the rebels/foreign terrorists in Syria and America and Europe. The Guardian recently reported that the the French, British and American government were arming and training rebels in Jordan to go and fight in Syria. Of course anyone who reads the alternative media already knew that this was the case a long time ago. Sibel Edmonds and James Corbett reported on the West training and arming militants in Jordan 15 months before the Guardian and Der Spiel were instructed by foreign intelligence agencies to report it. True to form as a collaborator in the Western imperialist campaign, the LA Times frames the new drone program as a contingency plan to safeguard America from Al Qaeda and “extremists” operating in Syria. Alas this is just cover for America and Western Europe’s imperialist crusade against the rest of the world.
For an article without western spin I would read this one from RT.
Obama’s re-colonization of Africa continues to march on. The imperialist president has alerted Congress that he has sent 100 armed troops to Niger helping to set up the newest drone base in Africa. Supposedly the drone base is there to help the French imperialists fight Al Qaeda militants in neighboring Mali, but this is just cover for AFRICOM’s conquest of west Africa. Even though this is being reported in the mainstream media the general public doesn’t seem to care. For the political right this is totally fine and justifiable in their unending fight against Islamic terrorists, where as the cowardly left is completely fine with this provided the person implementing it has a “D” next to their name. The African people, who will suffer the blowback of such policies, are of course never consulted on wether or not they would like an American special forces operating an assassination drone base in their country. Obama relies on the support of authoritarian African leaders who will sell out their own country for money and military hardware from America. With all of the discussion in the past few weeks on drones, thanks in part to the Senate confirmation hearings of the assassination czar John Brennan, you might think that Americans would at the very least question the perceived benefit of yet another drone base in a foreign country. But alas the general public doesn’t bat an eye. What’s to worry about? It’s not like an influx of American military personal and advisers has ever had a negative effect on a foreign countries politics or internal conflicts.
The cold war between America and Iran has just gotten a whole lot hotter. CNN has reported that Iran shot at an unarmed US drone. According to CNN, which never quotes Iranian officials and instead relies entirely on unnamed US officials, the drone was in international waters near Kuwait on a routine mission when it was fired upon. But as John Glasser points out
The claim that the drone was in international airspace cannot be confirmed, but it is dubious considering the difficulty Iran would have of firing on a small drone far from its own territory.
The claim that the unarmed Predator drone was engaged in “routine maritime surveillance” is also very dubious. First of all, just because it was “routine” has no bearing on whether its activity could justly be seen as hostile.
And if it was routine, and the Pentagon has nothing to hide, then the surveillance mission should not have been classified, as it was.
Thankfully there are still media organizations like Antiwar.com and the Christian Science Monitor who are questioning CNN’s reporting on this incident. For a great take on how CNN is merely acting as a PR firm for the White House read Glenn Greenwalds piece from yesterday.
All of this comes on the heels of Patrick Clawson’s disturbing comments on how the US could provoke a war with Iran. Clawson is the head of the Israeli funded pro-Israel think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
