US Strikes Two Syria Bases Used by Iran-linked Groups - BBC News

Oct 27, 2023 | The US has carried out air strikes against two weapons and ammunition storage facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the strikes were in response to recent attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups.

The US strikes were "separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas," he said in a statement.

Iran did not immediately comment. It is not yet known if there were any casualties from the attacks.

US Steps Up Pressure on Saudi over Khashoggi's Disappearance l Inside Story

A week after his mysterious disappearance at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Turkey, US leaders are voicing their fears for Jamal Khashoggi.

Donald Trump says he's concerned, the Vice President says he's 'troubled' by his disappearance. And America's top diplomat is urging Saudi allies to be open about what happened.

The mystery puts the spotlight on the Trump administration's close relations with Riyadh.

Presenter: Hoda Abdel-Hamid | Guests: Richard Murphy - Former U.S. envoy to Saudi Arabia; Khalil Jahshan - Exective Director, Arab Center, Washington; Marwan Kabalan - Director of Policy Analysis, Arab Centre for Research & Policy Studies, Doha

Pompeo Lays Out US List of Demands for Iran

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out a list of demands for the Iranian regime for the country to achieve relief from sanctions and reach a new international agreement.

Petro-Euro? Tensions between EU & US Grow over Sanctions against Iran

The European Commission launched a process to prevent EU firms from being hit by US sanctions on Friday. European firms would also be able to get compensation and loans if they are affected. Shabbir Razvi, director of International Finance Solutions Associates shares his view on the possible outcome of tensions between EU & US.

Nikki Haley’s Hypocrisy: US Strikes Out with New War-Mongering on Iran

US Ambassador Nikki Haley's speech on alleged Iranian violations was even less convincing than Colin Powell's fraudulent UN presentation on Iraqi WMDs, says Trita Parsi

US Criticizes Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for Lack of Religious Freedom

US criticizes Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for lack of religious freedom. US President Donald Trump's administration says the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant group remains the biggest threat to religious freedom around the world. The US State Department says the murders of Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims at the hands of ISIL amounted to genocide.

The annual report says almost 80 percent of the world's population continues to live under threats limiting freedom to worship.

The countries criticised include US allies Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Al Jazeera's Mohammad Vall reports.

Theresa May Rebukes US for Attack on Israel

THE TELEGRAPH: Theresa May has attacked the current US administration over its condemnation of the Israeli government, in comments which appeared to align her with Donald Trump.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman criticised John Kerry, the outgoing US Secretary of State, after he described the Israeli government as the “most Right-wing in history”.

Mrs May does “not believe that it is appropriate” for Mr Kerry to attack the make-up of the democratically elected Israeli government, the spokesman said. » | Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor | Thursday, December 29, 2016

Trump's Election Is 'Bad News for the US, Europe and the World in General' | November, 2016

KT McFarland: Russia Is Running Circles around the US

Sep. 05, 2016 - 1:56 - Fox News national security analyst says the US has lost its global leverage under the current administration

Christian Preacher Sparks Outrage after Praising Orlando Shooting

Reality Check: Saudi Arabia Terrified of Release of "28 Pages" in 9/11 Report

LIVE: 9/11 Anniversary - US Remembers Victims

Government officials and ordinary citizens are gathering across the US to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The suicide attacks claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people when four hijacked airplanes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and a field in Shanksville.

Isil Calls On Supporters to Fight 'Traitor' Turkey

The Turkish-speaking jihadist, flanked by two others, accuses
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan of permitting the U.S.
to "bombard the people of Islam"

THE TELEGRAPH: Call to arms in Islamic State video comes after Ankara allied itself with Washington against the extremist group

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has publicly called on its supporters to attack Turkey for the first time, after Ankara allied itself with Washington against the jihadist group.

In a video issued on Monday, an Isil spokesman calls Turkish president Recep Tayep Erdogan a "tyrant traitor" and exhorts its followers inside the country to rise up “wherever they are and however they can” against the government.

In the video, entitled “A Message to Turkey”, Isil accuses Mr Erdogan of being allied to the “American Crusaders, the caretakers of the Jews,” and the “criminal atheists” of the Kurdish militant faction the Kurdistan Workers’ Union, or PKK. » | Nabih Bulos | Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Egyptian TV Host Ahmed Moussa: The US, Turkey, and Qatar Constitute the Axis of Evil

In a February 16, 2015 address on the Egyptian Sada Al-Balad TV channel, TV host Ahmed Moussa said that the U.S., Turkey, and Qatar constituted the axis of evil, because they were countries that supported terrorism.

Fatah Central Committee Member, Nabil Shaath: The U.S. Created ISIS and Occupied the Middle East

U.S. and EU Fail to Isolate Iran
LOS ANGELES TIMES: China, Russia, India and Turkey move into the lucrative void left by U.S. and EU sanctions that aim to halt Iran's nuclear program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a 2007 ceremony celebrating nuclear technology at the nuclear plant in Natanz. Photograph: Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington — Efforts by the United States and its European allies to build a united front to halt Iran's nuclear program are facing increasingly bold resistance from China, Russia, India and Turkey, which are rushing to boost their economies by seizing investment opportunities in defiance of sanctions imposed by the West.

The Obama administration and the European Union opted to try to toughen United Nations sanctions against Iran with their own unilateral restrictions on foreign companies that do business with Tehran's energy sector, hoping that squeezing the country's most lucrative industry can force the Islamist government to bend on its nuclear program.

But the four countries condemned the additional sanctions, and in recent weeks went further: Since the new U.S. sanctions took effect July 1, all four have moved ahead with trade and investment deals that violate the sanctions or threaten to do so in the future.

The countries say they will honor the weaker set of sanctions imposed on Iran in June by the U.N. Security Council, but are under no obligation to follow the more stringent rules that the United States and European Union tacked on in July.

The U.S. sanctions prohibit petroleum-related sales to Iran, yet China and Turkey have sold huge cargoes of gasoline to Tehran, and Russian officials say they will begin shipping gasoline as well later this month, according to industry officials. The four countries also have signed deals or opened talks on investments worth billions of dollars in Iran's oil and gas fields, petrochemical plants and pipelines.

The countries "are making it very clear they are not going to go along with the new American and European efforts to ratchet up pressure on Iran," said Ben Rhode, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Continue reading and comment >>> Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times | Sunday, August 08, 2010

Ahmadinejad Says U.S., Israel to Attack
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the U.S. and Israel will launch attacks against two new countries in the Middle East.

Iraqi LGBT organisation. Image: Google Images
US and UK Failing to Take Iraq's Gay Pogrom Seriously
THE GUARDIAN: Both countries deny any Iraqi state involvement in anti-gay militias, but LGBT supporters suggest otherwise

Last week, 12 Iraqi police officers burst into a house in Karbala, beat up and blindfolded the six occupants and bundled them off in three vans, taking the computers they found with them. The house was then burned down by unknown people.

The house was a new "emergency shelter" run by the Iraqi LGBT organisation.

Two days later, one of the men turned up in hospital with a throat wound saying he'd been tortured. Iraqi LGBT has ordered those in its other two safe houses to move immediately.

The group says the police action is consistent with other state attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Iraq. It has information that the other five – two gay men, one lesbian and two transgender people – have been transported 100 miles north to the interior ministry in Baghdad, where they'll be interrogated (ie tortured) to find out more about the group. Then, going on past experience, they'll probably be handed to militias loyal to Shi'a clerics Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani and Muqtada al-Sadr (both of whom have called for homosexuals to be put to death) and their mutilated bodies will turn up later.

But it is also clear from past experience that there is unlikely to be a sustained international outcry from gay people, governments or others about this latest incident. >>> Paul Canning | Wednesday, June 23, 2010

American Bloggers Forced to Declare Interests
TIMES ONLINE: American bloggers will be forced to declare any interest in products reviewed or discussed in their blogs under new rules announced on Monday by the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC’s revisions to its existing guidance are intended as an aid to advertisers to keep their work within the FTC Act, part of which covers endorsements by consumers, experts, organisations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. They will come into force on December 1 this year.

In a statement, the FTC said that its revised rules “also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that ‘material connections’ (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed… while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.” >>> Nigel Kendall, Technology Editor | Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Seltene Ehre: Merkel spricht im November vor dem US-Kongress
WELT ONLINE: In vier Wochen hat die Bundeskanzlerin in den USA einen großen Auftritt: Angela Merkel soll vor beiden Kammern des US-Kongresses sprechen. Diese Ehre wird ausländischen Politikern nur selten zuteil. Das letzte Mal, dass ein deutsches Regierungsoberhaupt dort eine Rede hielt, ist mehr als 50 Jahre her.

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) reist im November in die USA. Am 3. November werde Merkel vor beiden Häusern des US-Kongresses – dem Senat und dem Repräsentantenhaus – sprechen, sagte Vize-Regierungssprecher Thomas Steg in Berlin. Die Sprecherin des US-Repräsentantenhauses, Nancy Pelosi, hatte die Kanzlerin bei deren Besuch im Juni in Washington eingeladen, eine Rede vor beiden Häusern zu halten.

Es handele sich um eine „seltene Ehre“ für ausländische Staatsgäste, sagte Steg. Unter den deutschen Bundeskanzlern habe bislang nur Konrad Adenauer (CDU) im Mai 1957 vor beiden Häusern gesprochen. >>> ddp/cn | Montag, 05. Oktober 2009