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John Pilger on Afghanistan: US military a killing machine & how the Taliban went from ally to enemy

Going Underground Legendary journalist and filmmaker John Pilger on the takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan. He calls the US military a killing machine and discusses why the Afghanistan War must be viewed through the lens of Western imperialism, the scale of civilian casualties and destruction of Afghanistan by NATO countries, how the US created today’s situation by supporting Afghan jihadist forces against the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War, the social progress and progressive reform lost to history with the fall of the Soviet-backed PDPA government in Afghanistan. Pilger also discusses the anniversary of the Pinochet coup in Chile and the trial of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

US media exposed as Pentagon mouthpiece on Afghanistan

The Grayzone    Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with investigative journalist Gareth Porter about his recent article in The Grayzone which analyses the media's coverage of the Biden Administrations withdrawal from Afghanistan. Porter explains how major outlets from The New York Times to PBS regurgitated talking points from US military without question in order to undermine support for the withdrawal. 

Day 880: Julian Assange still in prison

failed evolution   World's number one political prisoner, Julian Assange, still in high security prison for exposing horrendous war crimes carried out by the US imperialists and their allies.      

Exposed: Plot to kill Bolivian President Evo Morales during US-backed coup

Moderate Rebels   Ben Norton discusses Mexico's revelation that, during the US-backed coup in Bolivia in November 2019, traitorous soldiers fired a rocket at the plane being used to evacuate democratically elected President Evo Morales. 

Επιβεβαίωση: Επιχείρηση προβοκάτσιας του δεξιού παρακράτους η τραγωδία στο Μάτι!

globinfo freexchange  Σε προηγούμενο άρθρο στις αρχές Ιουλίου, είχαμε αναφερθεί στους περίφημους διαλόγους με τα "πακιστανικά τηλέφωνα", που προκάλεσαν σάλο. Είχαμε επισημάνει ότι η αδιανόητη απάντηση του επικεφαλής της υπηρεσίας του αεροδρομίου σχετικά με το Μάτι, σχολιάστηκε έντονα μόνο από μερικούς χρήστες στα σόσιαλ μίντια. Ενώ είναι χαρακτηριστικό ότι ορισμένα συστημικά ΜΜΕ απέκρυψαν επιμελώς αυτό το κομμάτι του διαλόγου. Ο επικεφαλής, λοιπόν, φέρεται να λέει: " Σιγά μην μπλέξουμε, οι άλλοι έκαψαν 100 άτομα και πήραν και βαθμό ... " και αναφέρεται προφανώς στους υπεύθυνους αξιωματικούς για τη διαχείριση της φωτιάς στο Μάτι, οι οποίοι πήραν προαγωγή από την κυβέρνηση της ΝΔ.  Συμπεράναμε ότι η ωμή κυνικότητα των διαλόγων και το ότι επιβεβαιώνουν το γεγονός ότι κάποιοι υπεύθυνοι αντί να ξηλωθούν προάγονται (προφανώς επειδή έκαναν τη βρόμικη δουλειά), έχουν έντονη οσμή δεξιού παρακράτους. Ενώ, αναρωτηθήκαμε αν ο εισαγγελέας θα σταθεί (ως οφείλει) και στο κομμάτι

Afghanistan collapse reveals Beltway media’s loyalty to permanent war state

Biden’s popular and long overdue withdrawal from Afghanistan triggered a big media meltdown that exposed its de facto merger with the military.   by Gareth Porter  Part 1 In the wake of a remarkably successful Taliban offensive capped by the takeover of Kabul, the responses of corporate media provided what may have been the most dramatic demonstration ever of its fealty to the Pentagon and military leadership.    The media did so by mounting a full-throated political attack on President Joe Biden’s final withdrawal from Afghanistan and a defense of the military’s desire for an indefinite presence in the country. Biden’s failure to establish a plan for evacuating tens of thousands of Afghans seeking to the flee the new Taliban regime made him a soft target for the Beltway media’s furious assault. However, it was Biden’s refusal last Spring to keep 4,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan on an indefinite basis – flouting an aggressive Pentagon lobbying campaign – that initially triggered the ra

Freezing Afghanistan’s wealth: US scrambles to hit hard with “soft” power

The U.S. may not have a physical presence inside of Afghanistan in the future, but the fear is that its economic sanctions may end up being more deadly than its armed forces. by Robert Inkalesh  Part 3 - Taliban talking the talk as U.S. trips the trip The Taliban now seems to be taking a more pragmatic approach to politics, showing themselves to be more calculated than they previously were, yet skepticism is still high as to whether the group will carry through with pledges to maintain peace and to respect the rights of women. Earlier this February, Taliban officials made a surprise visit to neighboring Turkmenistan, a country with the planet’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves, where they made the pledge to support the construction of a gas pipeline through their country and to provide stability. Further plans for railway infrastructure in Afghanistan were also discussed. As the U.S. government is left scrambling, watching its 2.2 trillion dollar war effort turn out to have meant no

Will Taliban victory mark the beginning of the end of the Western empire?

To count the cost of the West's intervention in Afghanistan in US and UK military lives alone is the ultimate proof that we are a civilization in decay by David Hearst   Part 3 - The implications of defeat   This was a disaster that no less than four US presidents had a hand in making. It's a truly bipartisan effort. So it is not an exaggeration to say that defeat in Afghanistan has implications way beyond that battered country’s borders. If the Soviet defeat, 32 years ago, spelt the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire, and certainly the end of all expeditionary Russian forces until 2015 when they sent troops to Syria, this defeat marks the beginning of the end of the western empire, as the dominant organising military and economic world order. This order did not collapse because it faced mighty enemies. It collapsed from hubris, arrogance, an inability to analyse and understand the people whose land it occupied. It collapsed at precisely the moment that no other power ch

How a network of UK intel-linked operatives helped sell every alleged Syrian chemical weapons attack

While Western media covers up their credibility issues, these pseudo-experts and spooks have helped drive the dirty war on Syria.    by Kit Klarenberg   Part 5 - ‘They Could’ve Escaped’   On April 10th, long-time chemical weapons researcher Alastair Hay, then-member of the OPCW’s Education and Outreach board, and recipient of the organization’s Hague Award in 2015, forcefully dismissed the notion that corpses featured in the White Helmets-supplied footage could have been afflicted by chlorine, as their symptoms were “ much, much more consistent with nerve-agent-type exposure. ” “ It’s just bodies piled up…There’s a young child with foam at the nose and a boy with foam on its [sic] mouth. Chlorine victims usually manage to get out to somewhere they can get treatment, ” he said. “ Nerve agent kills pretty instantly…People have pretty much died where they were when they inhaled the agent. They’ve just dropped dead. ” A consequent Washington Post article reinforced Hay’s analysis, report