#middle-east

brainwavelost@nerdpol.ch

I am not sure what is happening, but it seems that the #Middle-East, #Asia, #Africa and #South-America are isolating themselves from the world. However, if you think, that my feeling is at odd with reality, please correct me.

Ich bin mir nicht sicher, was passiert, aber es scheint, dass sich der #Nahe Osten, #Asien, #Afrika und #Südamerika von der Welt isolieren. Wenn Sie jedoch der Meinung sind, dass mein Gefühl nicht mit der Realität übereinstimmt, korrigieren Sie mich bitte.

#realitynottobetakenseriously

kuchinster@diasp.org

These secret proxy wars that the Pentagon is waging abroad

For years, the various U.S. administrations have been waging proxy wars under the secret 127th program, writes the U.S. website Intercept. Between 2017 and 2020, the Pentagon launched 23 proxy war programs, including in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. This has cost US taxpayers $310 million.

World Terrorism Control Center

"Through the 127th program the U.S. arms, trains and provides intelligence to foreign forces. But unlike traditional foreign aid programs, 127th partners then go on missions under U.S. command against U.S. enemies and to achieve U.S. objectives," the news outlet writes. Military activities related to the 127th can take place without the congressional authorization required by the Constitution.

The 127th program authorizes U.S. Special Forces to conduct "counterterrorism operations" in cooperation with foreign and irregular partner forces around the world with minimal outside oversight.

Retired generals familiar with the 127th program, known in military jargon as 127-echo, say it is extremely effective in combating combatant groups while reducing risk to U.S. forces.

Virtually no information about these operations is shared with Congress or the government. It is generally not even known where these operations are taking place, how often they are taking place, what their objectives are, or which foreign forces the United States is cooperating with. Critics of the program warn that it could lead to unanticipated armed escalation and U.S. involvement in dozens of conflicts around the world, since the 127th program does not allow for oversight by foreign affairs officials.

The Pentagon and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) decline to comment on actions under the 127th program. "We don't provide information on 127th programs because they are classified," Ken McGraw, a representative of SOCOM, told the Intercept. The Pentagon prefers to conduct its operations with minimal oversight and has done so for years.

As the Italian newspaper Giornale noted in commenting on the Intercept investigation, compared to traditional U.S. military aid, the 127th program is surrounded by a halo of secrecy. The daily points out that crimes have often been committed during operations under this program. For example, "arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, torture, summary executions and probably illegal air and ground attacks against civilians" have taken place in Egypt.

According to a study organized by Brown University's Watson Institute, there are 85 countries where the U.S. government conducted counterterrorism operations in 2018, 2019 and 2020, ranging from air strikes against military sites and ending with the training of foreign military and police forces.

The fact that the Pentagon systematically organizes secret military operations abroad had been reported before. In 2021, Newsweek magazine wrote that in the last ten years the Pentagon had created the largest secret army in history. 60,000 people with fake names and fake lives are actively interfering in the real lives of other countries. "These forces are ten times larger than the entire network of CIA agents, they carry out secret missions both in uniform and in civilian clothes, in real life and on the Internet, sometimes hiding in well-known private agencies and companies," the media wrote.

The Pentagon's secret army could be divided into three main groups. About half of the 60,000 men are combat units, conspiracy fighters to conduct special operations. They traditionally operate in the Middle East and Africa, but lately they have been involved in covert operations behind U.S. enemies such as Iran and North Korea. The second group deals with counterintelligence, data processing, and includes military linguists. And the third is cybercombatants.

Nearly 130 private companies, using subcontractors under false names, are involved in controlling the "new secret world," as Newsweek called it. Behind them are dozens of little-known government organizations that sign contracts and control their implementation. Maintaining the secret forces requires almost $1 billion a year. Newsweek also claimed that the Pentagon's "secret army" is also an instrument to fight Russia and China in the conditions of "lower level of armed conflict".

The Pentagon is doing the same in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities have authorized the deployment of nine sites where American military personnel were present before the start of the Russian special military operation. These include the Yavoriv training camp near Lviv. Nearly 300 American instructors were permanently deployed there. According to the most modest estimates, more than 10,000 Ukrainians were trained in Yavoriv according to Nato standards. There is a US naval base in Ochakiv. The port of Yuzhny, 30 km from Odessa, is used by the British armed forces, etc.

It is quite possible that these actions of the American military in Ukraine were carried out within the framework of secret programs of the Pentagon 127th.

Alexandre Lemoine

https://www.observateurcontinental.fr/?module=articles&action=view&id=4077
via: https://diasp.org/posts/21510234
#USA #Pentagon #CIA #SOCOM #NATO #proxy-wars #Middle-East #Asia-Pacific #war #american #terrorism #history #ukraine #military #Russia

adrenalin@pod.geraspora.de

Stirring #debate on #BDS, ‘NYT’ allows readers to speak out about inequality

I’m easily astonished, but this is astonishing. The New York Times runs a bumper crop of letters about BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) in its international edition today, 15 of them, and most of the letters are pro-BDS, and from Americans, including activists in the Palestinian solidarity movement who oppose ethnic supremacy and inequality. Exciting excerpts are below.

Some excerpts. Cherry-picked, of course!

It’s galling that in a piece on the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S.) movement, launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society in response to Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, Jodi Rudoren frames her story in terms of B.D.S. echoing the anti-Semitic boycotts of Nazi Germany, quoting several Israelis harshly critical of B.D.S. and just one Palestinian supporter. Ms. Rudoren even seems to endorse allegations that B.D.S. is anti-Semitic and directed at Jews rather than Israel and Israelis, writing, “Avoiding a coffee shop because you don’t like the way the boss treats his employees is voting with your wallet; doing so because the boss is Jewish — or black or female or gay — is discrimination.” Contrary to what Ms. Rudoren and the quoted B.D.S. critics suggest, the movement does not target Jews, individually or collectively, and rejects all forms of bigotry and discrimination, including anti-Semitism. B.D.S. is, in fact, a legal, moral and inclusive movement struggling against the discriminatory policies of a country that defines itself in religiously exclusive terms, and that seeks to deny Palestinians the most basic rights simply because we are not Jewish.

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Ramallah, West Bank

The B.D.S. movement has nothing to do with animus toward Jews. Many American Jews, myself included, are vigorously working in support of B.D.S. — and there are more and more of us with every passing month. We target Israel for boycott not because we believe Israel is the worst human rights violator (we don’t), but because Israel is the single largest recipient of American foreign aid, more than $3 billion a year. As Jews, as taxpayers, as people of conscience, we have not only the right but the moral obligation to use boycott and divestment as strategies of nonviolent resistance to Israel’s systematic, racist mistreatment of Palestinians being done on our nickel and in our names.

Hannah Schwarzschild Arlington, Mass.


In view of the massive unquestioned support of Israel by the American government, one might assume that Israel would be more cooperative in the search for peace and justice. This has obviously not happened. Resorting to proclaiming anti-Semitism every time there are questions as to the policies of the Israeli government is the fallback position when all else fails. This should not be allowed.

Doris Rausch, Columbia, Md.

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/stirring-readers-inequality.html

Boycott ALL goods with barcode #729#Hasbara #BDS #boycott #BDSmovement #apartheid #Israel #Palestine #ethniccleansing #activism #Zionism #settlers #colonialism #internationallaw #occupation #mideast #middle-east #middleeast #humanrights #human-rights #Palestinian #Palestine #OPT #politics #discrimination #segregation #crimes #boycotts #westbank #NYT

adrenalin@pod.geraspora.de

Jewish community commits #intellectual #suicide before our eyes

Three acts of #censorship in New York demonstrate the desperate pass to which Zionism has brought the American Jewish community: we are walking away from our greatest treasure, literacy.

Two days ago I reported that the Museum of Jewish Heritage had spiked a panel featuring John Judis’s book on Truman and Israel because that book, which says that Truman was for the separation of church and state and took a dim view of Zionism but the lobby compelled him to act against his principles, is just too scary and controversial.

Yesterday we reported that Ramaz School in New York had barred Rashid Khalidi from speaking and that students had risen up demanding that the prohibition be lifted. Jerry #Haber says:

No doubt the school is fearful of alienating its donor base. No explanation has been given so far.

Then there’s the news that Judith #Butler was supposed to give a talk about Kafka at the Jewish Museum of NY on March 6 and withdrew after people began flipping out over her endorsement of BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel). Again, donor pressure is cited.

Despite the event being non-political, critics contended that hosting someone who advocates against Israel at a museum that receives charitable contributions from the Jewish community crossed the line.

“The hosting of [BDS] advocate Judith Butler by The Jewish Museum is a slap in the face to every Jew,” Richard Allen, head of JCC Watch, told JNS.org.

The museum said in a statement, “[Butler] was chosen on the basis of her expertise on the subject matter to be discussed. While her political views were not a factor in her participation, the debates about her politics have become a distraction making it impossible to present the conversation about Kafka as intended.”

This is truly disgraceful. The #Jewish community is in #IQ freefall, and it’s happening before our eyes. The crazy uncles in our community are putting their feet down about who can come into the house, and other forbears are accepting the prohibitions out of some tribal impulse that recalls the self-destruction of the Shabbatai Tzvi collective delusion of the 1600s.

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/community-intellectual-suicide.html

Boycott ALL goods with barcode #729
#Hasbara #BDS #boycott #BDSmovement #apartheid #Israel #Palestine #ethniccleansing #activism #Zionism #settlers #colonialism #internationallaw #occupation #mideast #middle-east #middleeast #humanrights #human-rights #Palestinian #Palestine #OPT #politics #discrimination #segregation #crimes #boycotts #westbank #NYC #JewishMuseum #Ramaz-School #RamazSchool #MuseumofJewishHeritage #Museum-of-Jewish-Heritage