Imminent Vagaries: Extra-territorial Assassination via the 'Bethlehem Doctrine"

Lies, the Bethlehem Doctrine, and the Illegal Murder of Soleimani  

by Craig Murray

Jan, 4, 2020

In one of the series of blatant lies the USA has told to justify the assassination of Soleimani, Mike Pompeo said that Soleimani was killed because he was planning “Imminent attacks” on US citizens. It is a careful choice of word. Pompeo is specifically referring to the Bethlehem Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Self Defence.

Developed by Daniel Bethlehem (above) when Legal Adviser to first Netanyahu’s government and then Blair’s, the Bethlehem Doctrine is, states have a right of “pre-emptive self-defence” against “imminent” attack.

That is something most people, and most international law experts and judges, would accept. Including me.

What very few people, and almost no international lawyers, accept is the key to the Bethlehem Doctrine – that here “Imminent” – the word used so carefully by Pompeo – does not need to have its normal meanings of either “soon” or “about to happen”.

Soleimani Assassination Another Act of Psychological Warfare

Soleimani’s Assassination Act of Psychological Warfare: American Author

by Mostafa Afzalzadeh  - Parsi Policy 

January 4, 2020

Douglas Valentine believes that assassination of Iran's General Qassem Soleimani is an act of psychological warfare which allows Trump to deflect attention from the impeachment scandal and appease his American and Israeli followers.

Douglas Valentine is the author of “The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World”. His rare access to CIA officials has resulted in portions of his research materials being archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center and John Jay College. He has written three books on CIA operations, including the Phoenix Program: America’s Use of Terror in Vietnam, which documented the CIA’s elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture, and assassination in Vietnam.

His new book describes how many of these practices remain operational today. in an extensive interview with Parsi policy, Valentine explained that assassination of Iran's General Qassem Soleimani is an act of psychological warfare. 

Iranian Reaction to Soleimani Killing

Iranians gather outside UN office in Tehran to protest U.S.’ assassination of Gen. Soleimani

by PressTV

January 3, 2019

A Media "Olé!" for Assassination of Soleimani

In Redux of Iraq War Run Up, Media Cheers on Assassination of Soleimani

by Alan Macleod  - MintPress News

January 03rd, 2020

With echoes of Iraq, media are once again cheering an attack against a Middle Eastern country on the grounds of a supposedly imminent strike against the United States.

Gen. Qassim Soleimani, center, attends a meeting of a group of the 

Guard members with Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, 

Iran on Oct. 2, 2019. Photo | AP

Early Friday morning, a U.S. airstrike assassinated Iranian Lt. General Qassem Soleimani as he traveled from Baghdad’s international airport. A charismatic and capable military figure, Soleimani was widely considered to be one of the most powerful and influential individuals in Iran. Two years to the day since MintPress News reported that the U.S. government had given the green light to assassinate him, Soleimani’s convoy was struck from the air.

First Resorts: US Torture Alleged in Attempt to Stitch Up Assange Case

UN Rapporteur: US Using Coercion By Torture Against Manning

by RT

via  21wire

January 3, 2020

On New Year’s eve, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, released a letter accusing the US justice system of submitting whistleblower Chelsea Manning to coercive treatment which equates to torture.

21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen spoke with RT International this week about the case and how it indicates a collapse in western justice standards.

Who Does General Qassem Suleimani Assassination Benefit?

The USA Doubles Down on its Saudi Allegiance

by Craig Murray

3 Jan, 2020

For the United States to abandon proxy warfare and directly kill one of Iran’s most senior political figures has changed international politics in a fundamental way. It is a massive error. Its ramifications are profound and complex.

General Qassem Suleimani (right)

There is also a lesson to be learned here in that this morning there will be excitement and satisfaction in the palaces of Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh and Tehran. All of the political elites will see prospects for gain from the new fluidity. While for ordinary people in all those countries there is only the certainty of more conflict, death and economic loss, for the political elite, the arms manufacturers, the military and security services and allied interests, the hedge funds, speculators and oil companies, there are the sweet smells of cash and power.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Andre Vltchek, Janine Bandcroft January 2, 2020

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

January 2, 2020

Welcome to our 2020 inaugural show. Today, an interview I recorded just before Christmas with Andre Vltchek. Andre's been on the show a number of times over the years, but no matter how many times I've introduced him - listing his many accomplishments as a writer of plays, poetry, novels, documentary film scripts, or his many, many articles on the conditions for the poorest of the poor - I never feel I've credited enough this remarkable and intrepid witness to the state of the World and his times.

Andre's many book titles include: 'China Belt and Road Initiative: Connecting Countries, Saving Millions of Lives'. 'Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism', 'The Great October Socialist Revolution', 'Fighting Against Western Imperialism', and, with Noam Chomsky, 'On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare'.

Listen. Hear.

Andre is Hong Kong now, working on his latest book, a compendium of sorts of these tumultuous last few years of political unrest from Europe and West Asia, to the Americas and Far East.

Andre Vltchek in both the first and second segments.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to do in and around our town this week. But first, Andre Vltchek and ...A World So Fragmented!, live to tape from Hong Kong.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

A Year of Resistance

A Year of Growing Revolution: A Retrospective on 2019

by Kim Ives - Haiti Liberte

December 31, 2019

If 2018 was the year that the uprising against President Jovenel Moïse and his Haitian Bald Headed Party (PHTK) began, 2019 was the year that it grew to become a full-scale revolution in the making.

Thousands of Haitians demonstrated almost non-stop for three months, demanding, not just Jovenel Moïse’s resignation, but “system change.”

But What About Others' Oppression?

Why I Don’t Criticize Russia, China, Or Other Unabsorbed Governments

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

December 30, 2019

“You’re not anti-war, you’re only anti-AMERICAN wars!” they say, as though they’re delivering some kind of devastating slam-dunk point.

“If you’re so antiwar, why don’t you criticize Assad’s war in Syria? If you’re such an anti-imperialist, show me where you’ve ever once criticized Russian imperialism, or Chinese imperialism?”

Depending on whose political echo chamber I happen to be arguing with on a given day, one common criticism I run into a fair bit which many of my readers have surely also encountered is that I put all my energy into criticizing the foreign policy of the United States and its allies.

Bathing the Babes in Bullsh*t: From Denial to Youthwashing

Fossil Fuel Industry Shifts from Climate Denial to “Youthwashing”

by TRNN

December 31, 2019

For decades, the fossil fuel industry funded climate change denial campaigns aimed toward young people to sow seeds of doubt on climate science. As the climate crisis has worsened, it has made a subtle shift to what critics call "youthwashing."

Youth climate activism is on the rise. But as more young people push for radical climate action, big oil is ramping up efforts to channel that energy into its own ends. Youth climate activist Greta Thunberg called out these dynamics at the United Nations Climate Action Summit held this past September.

Year of the Conspirator: Reviewing 2019's Top Ten (Real) Villainies

Year in Review: 2019 Top Ten (Real) Conspiracies

by 21st Century Wire

December 31, 2019

SPECIAL FEATURE

It’s New Year’s Eve again, which means it’s time for our annual wrap-up, looking at some of the most important and unusual, and dare we say conspiratorial event of 2019. 

This past year was built on the back of a highly polarizing 2018, which saw the post-World War II world order coming apart at the seams, and the 20th century religions of neoliberalism and globalization being relegated to the ideological depths in the face of an evolving nationalist and mercantilist Anglo-American-dominated transatlantic order.

Erdogan's Second Front: Turkey Recruiting Libya Expeditionary Force from Syria "Militant" Ranks

Turkish Intervention in Libya – Has Ankara Split its Militants’ Ranks in Northern Syria?

Khaled Iskef - 21st Century Wire

December 30, 2019

The issue of uncovering the Turkish move to withdraw its loyal armed factions from Syria and transfer them to Libya to participate in the conflict there with the UN aligned Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, remains at the forefront of successive events and news in northern Syria.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets Libya's "internationally recognised"

 Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in Istanbul Nov. 27, 2019. 

Photo: Presidential Press Office

Recently, a number of interactions and events accompanying revelations of the Turkish plan and its interference in Libya were revealed. The pro-Turkey “Syrian National Army,” formerly known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), had issued a statement which denied such a plan, but the Turkish statements that appeared a few days later contradicted the alleged denial, but would not specify exactly which of Turkey’s ‘forces’ would be transferred to Libya.

Empire's End of Days Preview: The Year That Was Not Great for America

Annual Review of 2019: The State of the Empire at the End of a Decade 

by Maximilian C. Forte - ZeroAnthropology

December 31, 2019

This year marks the end of the second decade of the 21st-century, and as we enter the third decade one prediction seems to be warranted: the 2020s will see the most marked and unambiguous signs of the final decline of the US empire, with multipolarity rising to its greatest height yet. 

This will not be the same thing as the end of capitalism, especially as state-capitalism appears to be renewed as the dominant form of economic and political development worldwide. In order to stave off or stall the US’ inevitable decline, the US will do everything in its power (as it is already doing).

Palestine's New Year

A Year in Review: Will 2020 Be a Game Changer in Palestine?

by Ramzy Baroud - PalestineChronicle.com

December 30, 2019

This has been a defining year for Palestine and Israel. Despite the usual political stagnation of the Palestinian leadership, two factors contributed to making 2019 particularly eventful and, looking ahead, consequential as well: The unprecedented political power struggle in Israel, and the total US retreat from its own self-proclaimed role as an “honest peace broker”.

Since his first day in office, US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to embrace fully the right-wing agenda of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Although the process started earlier, 2019 has witnessed the complete collapse of traditional US foreign policy which was, for nearly three decades, predicated on the principle of a negotiated political solution.

This year delivered the final American assault on Palestinian rights.

A Future So Bright: The Best of Times and...

Can Now Really Be The Best Time To Be Alive?

by George Lakey and Yotam Marom - Waging Nonviolence 

via Popular Resistance

December 29, 2019

A dialogue across generations

A worried young organizer confronts a movement elder who believes that now — in the midst of deep crisis — is our best chance to make big progressive change.

Above photo: A 2013 wildfire in Colorado. 

(NASA/Master Sgt. Christopher DeWitt, U.S. Air Force) 

Editor’s note: The following exchange is between 33-year-old organizer Yotam Marom and 82-year-old George Lakey, whose activism, organizing and training spans over 50 years.