ISIS Thanks Trump

Official ISIS Newspaper ‘Thanks God’ for Trump Killing Iran’s General Soleimani

by Patrick Henningsen - 21st Century Wire

January 11, 2019

It was only a matter of time before US President Donald Trump got the recognition he deserved for America’s military exploits these past two weeks. Yesterday, Trump received glowing praise from the official international ISIS newspaper, Al Naba, highlighting Washington’s assassination of Iranian IRGC’s General Qasem Soleimani on January 3rd.

In an ideal world, this latest endorsement by ISIS for Trump’s actions should really put to rest the well-worn Washington and Israeli propaganda talking point that Soleimani was an “evil and deadly terrorist.” Unfortunately, the current American political discourse is so thoroughly coated in layers of political fiction that this might take a while to sink in.

Going Off Half-Cocked: Canada's Trudeau Quick to Second Air Crash Conspiracy

Canadian PM Steps Into the Mud of Slander Blaming Iran For Boeing Crash 

by Matthew Ehret - Canadian Patriot

January 10, 2019

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent claim that Ukraine’s flight PS752 was shot down by Iranian rockets according to “secret intelligence” has provoked the Iranian government to respond by calling out the bluff which has spread like wildfire in the recent 48 hours.

On Wednesday, Trudeau stated: “We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence. The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. This may well have been unintentional.” Canadians represented 63 of the 176 victims who died in the crash and so the words of the Canadian government obviously carries more emotional weight than other nations in this matter.

Little Resistance to Trump Assassination Program from Big Media

From Resistance to Assistance: Little Pushback to Trump’s Iran Assassination

by Alan MacLeod - FAIR

January 9, 2020

After Donald Trump’s election, both the New York Times and Washington Post saw huge jumps in subscribers, all hoping that the outlets would hold the president to account. Both papers tapped into this sentiment: In February 2017, the Post adopted the motto “Democracy Dies in Darkness” on its masthead; Times ads have used the slogan, “The truth is more important now than ever.” 

Trump has played his part, attacking media that bother him as “failing,” and reportedly telling all federal agencies in October to cancel their Times and Post subscriptions.

Yet when the president does indeed carry out dangerous, aggressive actions, such as the assassination of Iranian general and political leader Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3, “resistance” turns to assistance from the corporate press.

Led Again to a War Based on Lies

AND WE ALLOW THIS MADNESS TO CONTINUE

by Cathy Breen - VCNV.org

January 10, 2020

Try as I did, I found it impossible to send New Year’s greetings to friends in Iraq given the unthinkable and shameless actions of Trump and his regime in the last weeks.

His decision to assassinate Iranian Major General Qasim Soleimani at the Baghdad airport led to the Iraqi Parliament voting to expel all foreign troops from Iraq. Trump’s quick response to that was,

“If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Alan MacLeod, John Helmer, Janine Bandcroft January 9, 2020

This Week on GR

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

January 9, 2020

Last week, America came closer to accomplishing its long-sought Clash of Civilizations magnum opus. Where George Bush and Barack Obama failed, despite years of financial sanctions, support for terror attacks, and covert assassination operations, Donald Trump has succeeded in goading finally Iran into direct military retaliation.

But, Mr. Trump's real fight is just beginning; not to be conducted on some obscure battlefield in a distant land, but instead played out between the ears of every citizen in a concerted effort to woo the heart while beguiling the mind of a war-weary America.

Dr. Alan MacLeod is an educator, essayist, and author whose research interests include media theory, propaganda, social media and South American politics.

        Listen. Hear.

His first book is, ‘Bad News From Venezuela, 20 Years of Fake News and Misreporting', and he served as editor of 'Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent', described as “a collaborative volume which updates Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model for the twenty-first-century media landscape”.

MacLeod's a MintPress News staff writer, whose articles too appear at CounterPunch.org, and FAIR.org, and his latest is, 'In Redux of Iraq War Run Up, Media Cheers on Assassination of Soleimani'.

Alan MacLeod in the first half.

And; though America and its allies have worked diligently to foster instability in West Asia for decades, the real chaos is only now beginning to peak. With everyone armed and fighting, largely through proxies, it seems all that's needed to set this metaphorical tinder box aflame is a spark struck by accident or design to embroil local and regional powers alike into a potentially global conflagration.

John Helmer is a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to governments, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. He’s also one of the most widely read Russian specialists in the business world for his news-breaking stories on Russian base and precious metals, diamonds, mining, shipping, insurance, food trade, and business policy. Helmer’s book titles include: ‘The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society’, ‘The Jackal’s Wedding – American Power, Arab Revolt’, (co-authored with Claudia Wright) and his latest is the political memoir, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’.

John Helmer and a dangerous quickening in the second half.

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 in the coming week. But first Alan MacLeod and tuning the media orchestra for an Iranian danse macabre.

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/

Soleimani Was On Peace Mission When Assassinated

Iraqi PM Reveals Soleimani Was On Peace Mission When Assassinated, Exploding Trump’s Lie Of ‘Imminent Attacks’

by Max Blumenthal - Thegrayzone.com 

via Popular Resistance

January 6, 2020
 

The Trump administration claimed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on US interests when it assassinated him. That lie was just destroyed, but not before countless corporate media outlets transmitted it to the public.

 Photo: From Thegrayzone.com

Desperate to justify the US drone assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that Washington had made an “intelligence-based assessment” that Soleimani was “actively planning in the region” to attack American interests before he was killed.

President Donald Trump justified his fateful decision to kill the Iranian general in even more explicit language, declaring that Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on US diplomatic facilities and personnel across the Middle East.

“We took action last night to stop a war,” Trump claimed. “We did not take action to start a war.”

UN Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Weighs In on Suleimani Assassination

Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Demands Official UN Probe of Soleimani Assassination

by Jake Johnson, staff writer - Common Dreams

January 7, 2020

The United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions on Monday called for an impartial probe into the legality of the U.S. assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, warning that strongly worded denunciations from the international community are far from a sufficient response. 

 

Agnes Callamard, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions

"Messages and bilateral exchanges are not enough," Agnes Callamard tweeted in response to U.N. Secretary General António Guterres' call for deescalation of military tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Scomo's Slo-Mo Response to Australia On-Fire

The Hottest Day on Earth: the Politics of Australia’s Bushfires 

by Thomas Klikauer - CounterPunch

January 7, 2020 

Just before Christmas and in excessive secret, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, known as Scomo, tried to escape the nightmare of bushfires he left behind. Scomo flew 8,000km to Hawaii. Meanwhile the bush firestorm was ravaging Australia. 

Unforeseen by Scomo and his entourage, a Facebook storm was also ravaging his approval ratings. Hence, reluctantly and perhaps on the advice of his political spin-doctors, Scomo returned to Sydney. Once back in Australia, former marketing/PR manager and spin-doctor Scomo tried to make up lost ground.

Milestones Along the Endless War Road: Was Thursday the Day That Will Live in Infamy?

On Being Led to War by a Madman

by Rob Slane - The Blogmire

January 7, 2020

It is hard to fathom which group of people are the most foolish: The present occupant of the White House and the deranged group of warmongers he has surrounded himself with, or those who are cheering them on for the assassination of another country’s top general, who most of them had never heard of less than a week ago, on the grounds that he was apparently about to launch an attack on US interests, and that this has somehow made Americans safer.

Assassinated General Qassam Soleimani

On the issue of the imminent attack, evidence for this would be nice, but for some reason the State Department doesn’t appear to think it necessary. In fact, as their spokesperson’s response to a questioner’s reasonable request for evidence shows, they believe that it to be sheer audacity to even ask for it:

“Jesus, do we have to explain why we do these things?” they said in exasperation.

Hollywood, Hitler, and Looking Twice at the Cultural Roots of Propaganda

From Hollywood to Hitler: Rethinking the Cultural Politics of Propaganda

by Maximilian C. Forte - ZeroAnthropology

January 6, 2020

What is propaganda? What does cinema reveal about the Third Reich and its people? What are German films about during the Third Reich? What do they reveal? And what are they hiding? What does cinema know that we don’t? What is it that Germans dreamed about? What does German cinema tell that we have forgotten? How much of this cinema lives on in films after 1945, or in today’s films? Does German cinema still dream the old dreams, but in different form? What does cinema know, that we don’t?

These are the questions that are posed in the documentary film, Hitler’s Hollywood: German Cinema in the Age of Propaganda, 1933–1945, a film by Rüdiger Suchsland, produced by Martina Haubrich, and narrated by the actor, Udo Kier. This is yet another major work produced by Europe’s Arte. The film runs for a total of 105 minutes—a heavy film, loaded with references to numerous German films, actors, directors, and dominated by a non-stop lecture under the guise of narration.  

Operation (Democratic) Blackout: Doing for Elections What False Flag Exercises Do for Terrorism

Why a Shadowy Tech Firm With Ties to Israeli Intelligence Is Running Doomsday Election Simulations

by Whitney Webb - MintPress News

January 5, 2019

A shadowy tech firm with deep ties to Israeli intelligence and newly inked contracts to protect Pentagon computers is partnering with Lockheed Martin to gain unprecedented access to the heart of America’s democracy.

Graphic by Claudio Cabrera for MintPress News

Election Day 2020: 32 Americans dead, over 200 injured, martial law declared and the election itself is canceled. While this horrific scenario seems more like the plot of a Hollywood film, such was the end result of a recent simulation examining the preparedness of U.S. officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Secret Service against “bad actors” seeking to undermine the upcoming presidential election.

Yet, this simulation was not a government-organized exercise but was instead orchestrated by a private company with deep ties to foreign and domestic intelligence services, a company that is also funded by investors with clear connections to individuals who would stand to benefit if such a catastrophic election outcome were to become reality.

Gen II: Tracking America's Continuing Forever Wars

An eyewitness to the horrors of the US 'forever wars' speaks out

by Kathy Kelly - VCNV.org

via NCR

Jan 3, 2020

NCR Editor's note: Kathy Kelly, a co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, renamed Voices for Creative Nonviolence, is a peace activist who, from the start of the first Gulf War in 1991, has traveled to U.S. war zones. From Baghdad and Basra in Iraq to Kabul in Afghanistan, she sought to bridge the language of enemies and counter the violence with personal witness, often writing accounts that countered the misleading appraisals of U.S. officials. In light of the recent release of the Afghanistan Papers, NCR asked if she would reflect on her experience of America's "forever wars."

Kathy Kelly and Maya Evans walk with children at the Chamin-E-Babrak
 refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 2014. (Abdulhai Darya)

The 2003 "shock and awe" bombing of Iraq had finally stopped. From the balcony of my room in Baghdad's Al Fanar Hotel, I watched U.S. Marines moving between their jeeps, armored personnel carriers, and Humvees. They had occupied the street immediately in front of the small, family-owned hotel where our Iraq Peace Team had been living for the past six months. Looking upward, a U.S. Marine could see enlarged vinyl photos of beautiful Iraqi children strung across balconies of our fifth-floor rooms. We silently stood on those balconies when the U.S. Marines arrived in Baghdad, holding signs that said "War = Terror" and "Courage for Peace, Not for War."