Your source for US foreign policy.
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October 30, 2019
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The Pentagon intends to retain control of Syria’s oilfields going forward, and says they will repel anyone else trying to take that oil with “overwhelming force.” This has become the chief, and materially only, military goal of the US military operation in Syria.
Since President Trump announced his intention to control the oil, and conceivably to try to take some of it on behalf of the US, the Pentagon has been revising the Syria mission around controlling the oil. This has included sending more troops and tanks.
— By Jason Ditz
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No doubt, US foreign and military policy since the 1970s has focused on access to and control over the vast oil reserves in the Middle East. Uncritical support of Saudi Arabia (home base for jihadi terrorism and the women-oppressing form of Islam practiced by the Taliban) and the Shah of Iran (oppressive dictator who led to the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1978) are/were countenanced due to the huge oil reserves these two countries possess. Gulf War I in 1990-91 involving Kuwait and Iraq was entirely about Middle East oil. Gulf War II in Iraq was initiated in 2003 for many yet unclear reasons. But sustaining this war of choice for eight years (through 2011) was done in part to get Iraq’s oil production and export sales back up to the country’s prewar level of 4.5 million barrels/day (b/d).
— By Ronald Enzweiler
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I was deeply shaken while witnessing yesterday’s events in Westminster Magistrates Court. Every decision was railroaded through over the scarcely heard arguments and objections of Assange’s legal team, by a magistrate who barely pretended to be listening.
Before I get on to the blatant lack of fair process, the first thing I must note was Julian’s condition. I was badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated aging. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight
— By Craig Murray
What is Trump really up to? It’s almost unknowable. At the same time that the president was pulling (some) troops out of Northeast Syria, giving an antiwar speech, and then sending other troops back into Syria to "secure the oil," he also quietly sent another 1800 service members into Saudi Arabia.
— By Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)
Visiting Israel, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that the US intention is to just keep escalating the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran with “more, more, more” sanctions.
Mnuchin said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s team had give him a series of “very specific ideas” that the US will implement. He provided no indication as to what that would entail.
— By Jason Ditz
Russian gun-rights activist Maria Butina was released from a Florida prison on Friday and is expected to arrive in Russia on Saturday morning.
Butina was released into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and has already boarded a plane in Miami bound for Moscow.
— By Dave DeCamp
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