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“The Real Reason for Turkey’s Shoot-Down of the Russian Jet”
“Close analysis of both the Turkish and Russian images of the radar path of the Russian jets indicates that the earliest point at which either of the Russian planes was on a path that might have been interpreted as taking it into Turkish airspace was roughly 16 miles from the Turkish border – meaning that it was only a minute and 20 seconds away from the border.”
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Turkish Shootdown: “Planned Provocation”?
“Turkey claims it warned the Russian plane ten times, but the maps they released indicate that the Russian planes flew into a very small area of Turkey that juts into Syria. So, if Turkey is telling the truth, the fastest way for the Russian plane to get out would have been to keep going straight ahead. So that part of the Turkey story and justification for shooting down the Russian planes doesn’t add up.”
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“Myth of Thanksgiving” and Mideast Policy Today
“This origin story of the United States, repeated in the militaristic march across North America, as well as overseas, forms the core of U.S. counterinsurgency, regeneration through violence, which produces responses that allows the aggressor to assume the mantel of the aggrieved. Anyone who questions this stance and brings up history, especially since 9/11, is slapped down and stomped on.”
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Debunking Trump — and his Critics — on 9/11 and Torture
“Torture techniques have been used in a way to force detainees to compel them to give false confessions. The techniques would get captors full control, including getting the captives to say things that the captors wanted to hear, like ‘Iraq has WMDs’ or ‘al-Qaeda is looking to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge’ — to use these techniques to justify going into war. It’s called exploitation.”
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Tweets in a Time of Terror: Clinton and Carson Target Free Speech
“Advocating for privately-enforced domestic censorship in response to foreign attacks shows a fundamental proclivity for using external events to limit the freedoms of American citizens. One shudders to think of what response these candidates would advocate in the case of a terror attack on the American homeland. Any serious presidential candidate needs to show the American people how they would address the root causes of terrorism — not violate the integrity of the civil liberties of its own citizens.”
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Saudi Arabia: * Death for “Apostasy” * U.S. Weapons Fueling Wars
“The Obama administration’s push for more Mideast arms sales has been a bonanza for U.S. weapons contractors, who have made increased exports a primary goal as Pentagon spending levels off. Not only do foreign sales boost company profits, but they also help keep open production lines that would otherwise have to close due to declining orders from the Pentagon.”
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Hollande and Obama: Doubling Down on “Imperialism”?
“The UN Security Council resolution passed over the weekend was not a Chapter 7 resolution, so legally it doesn’t authorize the use of force, but the U.S. and France will use it to give legal cover for their illegal bombing of Syria, which has gone on for more than a year now. It appears that British Prime Minister Cameron will now be doing the same. The Russian bombing of Syria is technically legal because they have the explicit permission of the Syrian government, but of course Putin will ultimately act in accord with his interests, not what is best for…
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Mali: Libya Bombing and Saudi Power as Sources of Instability
“We were able to, with these proxies — which is the preferred method of warfare on the African continent — arrest the Islamists’ advance, but now Mali has descended into a low-level insurgency. And it’s been like this for several years now. The weapons that the Tuaregs originally had were taken by the Islamists and have now spread across the continent. You can find those weapons in the hands of Boko Haram now, even as far away as Sinai in Egypt. So, now, the U.S. has seen this as a way to stop the spread of militancy, but I think…
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“What I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters”
“They are children of the occupation, many with missing fathers at crucial periods (through jail, death from execution, or fighting in the insurgency), filled with rage against America and their own government. They are not fueled by the idea of an Islamic caliphate without borders; rather, ISIS is the first group since the crushed Al Qaeda to offer these humiliated and enraged young men a way to defend their dignity, family, and tribe.”
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Drone Whistleblowers: U.S. Assassination Program Ignites Terrorism
““The four are represented legally by Jesselyn Radack, director of national security and human rights at the nonprofit ExposeFacts [a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy]. ‘This is the first time we’ve had so many people speaking out together about the drone program,’ she said, pointing out that the men were fully aware that they faced possible prosecution for speaking out.”
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn