Foreign Policy Category Archive

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Paranoia Strikes U.S. Intelligence

The drive to "do something" pushes the NSC and FBI to take extreme responses to Charlie Hebdo

Philip Giraldi •ï¿½February 20, 2015

•ï¿½600 Words •ï¿½Leave a Comment

It was said of the French Revolution that it ended up devouring its own children. Something similar is occurring within the United States national-security establishment, as extreme responses surface in the wake of the Charlie Hebdomassacre in Paris. In the National Security Council (NSC) there has been serious consideration of â€œtemporarilyâ€ eliminating visa waivers for... Read More

Behind the Great Western Firewall Is the Ugly Truth

Jeff J. Brown •ï¿½February 15, 2015

•ï¿½6,500 Words •ï¿½120 Comments • Reply

The Great Western Firewall vs. the Great Firewall of China: different methodologies, identical results. (www.guardian.co.uk) A truth untold is a lie. A fact hidden is censorship. â€“ The Author When I recently signed off of Reflections in Sinoland, saying I was not going to do any more columns for the time being, so as to... Read More

The Camel-Ate-My-Homework Theory of Culpability

Ilana Mercer •ï¿½January 30, 2015

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The Fourth Estate has moved the country into the Third Dimension. The media lie so much, that when stuff happens that scares them, they no longer know where to turn for the truth. For now, mainstream media have stopped meditating on Charlie Hebdo, and moved on to the weather and other woes. But something changed... Read More

Waving the "False Flag"

You are who you aren't

Philip Giraldi •ï¿½January 27, 2015

•ï¿½1,400 Words •ï¿½116 Comments • Reply

As it remains unclear who might have actually sponsored the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, if indeed anyone did, a great deal of speculation about motives and resources is perhaps inevitable. If one goes by the traditional â€œcui bonoâ€ standard, who benefits, there are perhaps two possible beneficiaries. One would be a terrorist sponsoring group... Read More

John Feffer: Europe's End?

Tom Engelhardt •ï¿½January 27, 2015

•ï¿½600 Words •ï¿½4 Comments • Reply

Remember the glory days of the 1990s, when our interconnectedness -- the ever-tighter embrace of Disney characters, the Swoosh, and the Golden Arches -- was endlessly hailed? It was the era of â€œglobalization,â€ of Washington-style capitalism triumphant, and the planet, we were told, would be growing ever â€œflatterâ€ until we all ended up in the... Read More

Charlie Hebdo, A Free Press, and Social Security

Paul Craig Roberts •ï¿½January 24, 2015

•ï¿½1,900 Words •ï¿½15 Comments

Puzzled by the title? It will all come clear. Europeans have written to me with more information that raises questions about the Charlie Hebdo affair. Some point out the strange emptiness of the street on which the professional killers depart. Others point out the film has hallmarks of orchestration or staging. Still others point out... Read More

Against Terrorism -- But for What?

Pat Buchanan •ï¿½January 23, 2015

•ï¿½900 Words •ï¿½10 Comments • Reply

Following the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that France "is at war with terrorism, jihadism and radical Islamism." This tells us what France is fighting against. But what is France fighting for in this war on terror? For terrorism is simply a tactic, and arguably the most effective tactic of the national... Read More

Trolling Russia

Israel Shamir •ï¿½January 19, 2015

•ï¿½2,000 Words •ï¿½41 Comments • Reply

The edifice of the post-1991 world order is collapsing right before our eyes. President Putinâ€™s decision to give a miss to the Auschwitz pilgrimage, right after his absence in Paris at Charlie festival, gave it the last shove. It was good clean fun to troll Russia, as long as she stayed the course. Not anymore.... Read More

Where Are the 'Je Suis Nigeria' Banners?

Al-Qaeda-type jihadis killed 2,000 people in a few days, which the world largely ignored

Patrick Cockburn •ï¿½January 18, 2015

•ï¿½1,100 Words •ï¿½13 Comments • Reply

President Obama is being criticised for not joining the 40 other world leaders at the mass march in Paris in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. But, by playing down rather than playing up the terrorist killings, Obama may have shown a surer instinct about how to deal with such attacks, however horrific, than... Read More

Lucky Francois

Eric Margolis •ï¿½January 17, 2015

•ï¿½700 Words •ï¿½6 Comments • Reply

My father, Henry Margolis, was a Broadway producer, industrialist, gourmet and man about town. Instead of wasting time taking me to play ball in the park, we would go each Saturday to an interesting new restaurant. One afternoon, we went to lunch at a just-opened place on West 55th called â€œLucky Pierre.â€ Pierre told us... Read More

Charlie Hebdo: Report from Europe

Paul Craig Roberts •ï¿½January 17, 2015

•ï¿½1,000 Words •ï¿½25 Comments

Here is a video of the execution of Amedy Coulibaly. It is a German website with the actual live French video of the police assault on the deli. There are three videos. The first one repeatedly shows Coulibaly with tied hands containing no weapons shot downand killed when he could easily have been captured. It... Read More

To Die for Charlie Hebdo?

Pat Buchanan •ï¿½January 16, 2015

•ï¿½800 Words •ï¿½9 Comments • Reply

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it." That maxim of Voltaire was among those most invoked by the marching millions in Sunday's mammoth "Je Suis Charlie" rally in Paris. This week, in the spirit of Voltaire, French authorities arrested and charged... Read More

Heresies About the Hebdo Headache

Ilana Mercer •ï¿½January 16, 2015

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WINNING IN THE WEST. A French "documentary maker"â€”a title everyone with a camera assumes these daysâ€”told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the West was winning. The docu-dude felt that the people of Europe were displaying a winning resistance to the imposition of Islamic blasphemy laws. How was the West vanquishing the enemies of free speech? In... Read More

Everybody Wants Their Own Stasi

Peter Lee •ï¿½January 14, 2015

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When it comes to intelligence, everybody, be they democracies, dictatorships, or in between, wants it all. That includes the intelligence agencies--who treasure data as the wellspring of their effectiveness, influence, and leverage--and the presidents and prime ministers at the top of the heapâ€”who are supposedly looking out for Joe Sixpack and his rights. No leader... Read More

Charlie Hebdo

Paul Craig Roberts •ï¿½January 13, 2015

•ï¿½1,300 Words •ï¿½13 Comments

The Charlie Hebdo affair has many of the characteristics of a false flag operation. The attack on the cartoonistsâ€™ office was a disciplined professional attack of the kind associated with highly trained special forces; yet the suspects who were later corralled and killed seemed bumbling and unprofessional. It is like two different sets of people.... Read More

A Triumph of Terrorism

Pat Buchanan •ï¿½January 13, 2015

•ï¿½900 Words •ï¿½17 Comments • Reply

Western media are declaring the million-man march in Paris, where world leaders paraded down Boulevard Voltaire in solidarity with France, a victory over terrorism. Isn't it pretty to think so. Unfortunately, the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, its military-style execution, the escape of the assassins, and their blazing end in a shootout Friday was a triumph... Read More

Hating the Haters

But the Xenophobes Have a Point

Philip Giraldi •ï¿½January 13, 2015

•ï¿½2,100 Words •ï¿½112 Comments • Reply

There are two things that I really dislike about Islam. How can anyone forbid drinking a nice bottle of wine and consider dogs to be unclean? But, on the other hand, in practice I know quite a few Muslims whom I consider friends who drink alcohol and who have owned and loved dogs, so as... Read More

Lessons from Paris

Ron Paul •ï¿½January 11, 2015

•ï¿½600 Words •ï¿½7 Comments • Reply

After the tragic shooting at a provocative magazine in Paris last week, I pointed out that given the foreign policy positions of France we must consider blowback as a factor. Those who do not understand blowback made the ridiculous claim that I was excusing the attack or even blaming the victims. Not at all, as... Read More

Paris Attacks: Don't Blame These Atrocities on Security Failures

The causes of last week's carnage are political, a blowback from wars in the Middle East

Patrick Cockburn •ï¿½January 11, 2015

•ï¿½1,200 Words •ï¿½17 Comments • Reply

Did the massacre at Charlie Hebdo succeed, in terms of furthering the interests of extreme jihadi al-Qaeda-type Islamic movements? The incident itself is over with the deaths of the murderers, but the degree of their success will only become clear when we see how far French political leaders are lured into an over-reaction. It was... Read More

Murder in Paris

Eric Margolis •ï¿½January 10, 2015

•ï¿½900 Words •ï¿½29 Comments • Reply

Have the long-feared lone wolf attacks, possibly threatened by al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, begun? The twin massacres in Paris suggest that the Mideastâ€™s mayhem and mass killings are again spilling over into Europe. Paris remains in chaos. Its Peripherique ring highway is still closed, producing traffic madness across the capitol. Some 60,000 troops... Read More

A burning car during the 2005 riots. Credit: Strologoff at Wikimedia Commons

French Lesson

Peter Frost •ï¿½January 10, 2015

•ï¿½1,800 Words •ï¿½91 Comments • Reply

The gruesome attack on Charlie Hebdo has earned condemnation around the world. It has been called "cowardly" and "evil" by Barack Obama, "a barbaric act" by Stephen Harper, and an "infamy" by FranÃ§ois Hollande. Yes, violence is serious. It's a crime when done by an individual and war when done by a country. It's a... Read More

The Paralysis of Europe

Pat Buchanan •ï¿½January 9, 2015

•ï¿½800 Words •ï¿½44 Comments • Reply

The massacre in Paris of the staff of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo was an act of terrorism, but also a successful act of war in the clash of civilizations between Islamism and the West. Nor were we lacking for warning signs. In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, a license to kill author Salman... Read More

Charlie Hebdo and Tsarnaevâ€™s Trial: Cui Bono?

Paul Craig Roberts •ï¿½January 8, 2015

•ï¿½1,500 Words •ï¿½8 Comments

There are two ways to look at the alleged terrorist attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. One is that in the English speaking world, or much of it, the satire would have been regarded as â€œhate speech,â€ and the satirists arrested. But in France Muslims are excluded from the privileged category, took offense... Read More

Who Profits from Killing Charlie?

Pepe Escobar •ï¿½January 8, 2015

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Putin did it. Sorry, he didn't. In the end, it was not Russia "aggression" that attacked the heart of Europe. It was a pro-style jihadi commando. Cui bono? Careful planning and preparation; Kalashnikovs; rocket-propelled grenade launcher; balaclavas; sand-colored ammunition vest stuffed with spare magazines; army boots; piece of cake escape in a black Citroen. And... Read More

Charlie Hebdo Attack

Taking the heat out of the conflict with Assad may help to turn the jihadi tide

Patrick Cockburn •ï¿½January 7, 2015

•ï¿½600 Words •ï¿½14 Comments • Reply

There is a feeling of inevitability about the attack in Paris. The likelihood must be that the killers were Islamic fanatics, the murder of the journalists and police underlining the degree to which the ferocious religious war being waged in Iraq and Syria now affects all of the world. Regardless of whether or not those... Read More

"Charlie Hebdo" Items Across Entire Archive

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