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October 7th, 2020

OPCW: Investigation Into Two Alleged Syria Chemical Attacks Inconclusive

The international chemical weapons watchdog said on Friday that two investigations into alleged attacks in Syria could not establish whether or not chemicals were used. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) reports on two alleged attacks, one in Saraqib, Syria, on August 1, 2016, and one in Aleppo, Syria, on November 24, 2018.

— By Dave DeCamp

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State Department Approved $83.5 Billion in Arms Sales For 2020

The US State Department cleared $83.5 billion in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) for the fiscal year 2020. This amount is the highest in a single year for the Trump administration and is an increase of $15 billion from the 2019 fiscal year.

The $83.5 billion is spread out over 65 FMS cases notified to Congress. The number does not represent the total of actual arms sales for the year, just the total amount the State Department has approved. After Congress approves of the sales, negotiations begin, and the final dollar amount is agreed to.

— By Dave DeCamp

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Is America Fit To ‘Lead’ the World?

America’s most fervid cheerleaders sometimes make the most devastating criticisms of the U.S.

Although usually inadvertently.

For instance, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently took to twitter to declare that "The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a normal state." He listed several of Tehran’s illicit activities, including "Normal states do not attack embassies and military installations in peacetime."

— By Doug Bandow 

Two Years After Khashoggi’s Brutal Murder, Why Is America Still an Accomplice to MBS’s Crimes?

So long as U.S. leaders continue to coddle the Saudis, it’s difficult not to ask who is more evil – the maniacal Saudi crown prince or the mendacious Western governments and business people who support him?

— By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies

Driven By Delusions: The West’s Nagorno-Karabakh Hypocrisy

Something stands out in recent U.S. and most Western reporting on the ongoing bloodletting in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK). Well, two things actually: ignorance and hypocrisy. Having shuttered most of their foreign bureaus long ago, there’s a distinct lack of expertise in the mainstream press on this – and many other – regional hot spots. That’s translated to a series of Nagorno-Karabakh "explainers” that read like Wikipedia-ripoffs hastily filtered through Washington’s built-in "blame Russia” conflict-colander.

— By Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)Camp