#waronterror — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #waronterror, aggregated by home.social.
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A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#Books #BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#Books #BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#Books #BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#Books #BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#Books #BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights -
What does it cost to keep a nation's secrets? The Art of Betrayal answers that question with honesty and heart. A must-read for history lovers.
#books #SpyHistory #BritishIntelligence #WarOnTerror #Nonfiction
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/british-mi6-spy-secrets-art-of-betrayal-review/ -
آرمی چیف عاصم منیر کا کرم کا دورہ، عید فوجی جوانوں کے ساتھ منائی، دہشتگردی کے خلاف عزم کا اعادہ۔
https://kaynewsurdu.com/2026/03/21/asim-munir-eid-with-troops-kurram-operation-ghazab-ul-haq/
#AsimMunir #PakistanArmy #EidWithTroops #Kurram #OperationGhazabUlHaq #WarOnTerror #PakistanSecurity #ISPR #BreakingNews #Defense
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آرمی چیف عاصم منیر کا کرم کا دورہ، عید فوجی جوانوں کے ساتھ منائی، دہشتگردی کے خلاف عزم کا اعادہ۔
https://kaynewsurdu.com/2026/03/21/asim-munir-eid-with-troops-kurram-operation-ghazab-ul-haq/
#AsimMunir #PakistanArmy #EidWithTroops #Kurram #OperationGhazabUlHaq #WarOnTerror #PakistanSecurity #ISPR #BreakingNews #Defense
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آرمی چیف عاصم منیر کا کرم کا دورہ، عید فوجی جوانوں کے ساتھ منائی، دہشتگردی کے خلاف عزم کا اعادہ۔
https://kaynewsurdu.com/2026/03/21/asim-munir-eid-with-troops-kurram-operation-ghazab-ul-haq/
#AsimMunir #PakistanArmy #EidWithTroops #Kurram #OperationGhazabUlHaq #WarOnTerror #PakistanSecurity #ISPR #BreakingNews #Defense
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A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights #books -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights #books -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights #books -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights #books -
A CIA veteran says the U.S. is fighting the War on Terror the wrong way — and explains why. Imperial Hubris is a tough, eye-opening read that still hits hard today.
#BookTokHistory #WarOnTerror #CIAInsights #books -
Somali Communities Are Building Collective Power in the Face of Trump’s Attacks
Minnesota’s Somali community has organized mutual aid and neighborhood patrols amid Trump’s campaign to crush them. -
This has happened before in our history — in fact, it’s a pretty predictable reaction to fear. We get so rattled by some big Scary Thing — communism or crime or drugs or illegal aliens or terrorism — something that scares us so much, we think we can make ourselves safer by giving up some of our freedom. Now, not only does that not hold a drop of water as a logical proposition but it has consistently proved to be an illusion as a practical matter. Empirically, when you make yourself less free, you are not safe, you are just less free.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Bill of Wrongs, Introduction (2007) [with Lou Dubose]More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/81677/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #mollyivins #crime #fear #freedom #immigration #liberty #overreaction #RedScare #safety #scare #security #terrorism #waronterror -
Trump Is Betting MAGA Fans Will Relish an Expanded War on Drugs
Trump’s invasion of Venezuela fuses the “war on drugs” with the “war on terror.”https://murica.website/2026/01/trump-is-betting-maga-fans-will-relish-an-expanded-war-on-drugs/
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Trump Is Betting MAGA Fans Will Relish an Expanded War on Drugs
Trump’s invasion of Venezuela fuses the “war on drugs” with the “war on terror.”https://murica.website/2026/01/trump-is-betting-maga-fans-will-relish-an-expanded-war-on-drugs/
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From Terror to Valor follows Jack Debaut, a former U.S. Army Ranger, as he enters the dangerous world of espionage, covert operations, and betrayal.
As global threats escalate, Jack faces elusive enemies, hidden agendas, and political intrigue. In a race against time, he must unravel a web of deception before it’s too late.
🔗 https://books2read.com/fromterror2valor#MilitaryFiction #Thriller #EspionageFiction #WarOnTerror #ActionThriller #VeteranStories #BookRelease #IndieAuthor #AmReading #WritingCommunity
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UK and French warplanes carried out a joint airstrike on an ISIS underground weapons facility near Palmyra, Syria, targeting tunnels used to store arms and explosives. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/world/uk-france-airstrike-isis-underground-weapons-facility-palmyra-syria-smea0xyp?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #ISIS #SyriaAirstrike #UKFrance #Palmyra #WarOnTerror
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a #NexaCenter oggi ho detto:quando #WarOnTerror aveva prodotto feroci atrocità,Julian #Assange non ha perso tempo a riformare #FOIA, ha usato il #coraggio e la #tecnologia per inventare la rivoluzione di #WikiLeaks.
Dobbiamo fare lo stesso, perché situazione oggi ANCORA PIU' GRAVE -
a #NexaCenter oggi ho detto:quando #WarOnTerror aveva prodotto feroci atrocità,Julian #Assange non ha perso tempo a riformare #FOIA, ha usato il #coraggio e la #tecnologia per inventare la rivoluzione di #WikiLeaks.
Dobbiamo fare lo stesso, perché situazione oggi ANCORA PIU' GRAVE -
a #NexaCenter oggi ho detto:quando #WarOnTerror aveva prodotto feroci atrocità,Julian #Assange non ha perso tempo a riformare #FOIA, ha usato il #coraggio e la #tecnologia per inventare la rivoluzione di #WikiLeaks.
Dobbiamo fare lo stesso, perché situazione oggi ANCORA PIU' GRAVE -
a #NexaCenter oggi ho detto:quando #WarOnTerror aveva prodotto feroci atrocità,Julian #Assange non ha perso tempo a riformare #FOIA, ha usato il #coraggio e la #tecnologia per inventare la rivoluzione di #WikiLeaks.
Dobbiamo fare lo stesso, perché situazione oggi ANCORA PIU' GRAVE -
a #NexaCenter oggi ho detto:quando #WarOnTerror aveva prodotto feroci atrocità,Julian #Assange non ha perso tempo a riformare #FOIA, ha usato il #coraggio e la #tecnologia per inventare la rivoluzione di #WikiLeaks.
Dobbiamo fare lo stesso, perché situazione oggi ANCORA PIU' GRAVE -
Don't worry, Millennials. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung said life really begins at the age of 40.
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/carl-jung-shadow-work
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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗨𝗦-𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
The events in Afghanistan over the past two decades have left a complex legacy, marked by the rise of US-trained militias, their subsequent migration to the United States, and the haunting echoes of abandonment by the very forces that once armed and empowered them. From the corridors of power in Kabul to the streets of American cities, the story of Afghanistan's "boys" is one of betrayal, irony, and unintended consequences.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗜𝗔-𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘀
For two decades, the United States trained and funded Afghan security forces, including units like NDS Special Unit 03 (Kandahar Strike Force) and the Kandahar Provincial Police (KPP), as part of its strategy to combat the Taliban. These groups, however, became entangled in a web of human rights abuses. Raziq, a former Taliban commander turned Afghan police chief, exemplified this dark chapter. Under his leadership, the KPP was accused of systematic torture, extrajudicial killings, and war crimes, with reports of detainees being subjected to brutal treatment, including beatings and sexual violence.
These militias were not only tools of counterinsurgency but also symbols of the US's reliance on local allies—many of whom were later abandoned when the US withdrew in 2021.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 "𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀"
As the US withdrew from Afghanistan, it expedited the migration of thousands of Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) members and their allies to the United States under special visas. This policy, framed as a humanitarian effort, was also a calculated move to protect American interests. However, the irony is stark: US-trained killers, who had served for years alongside American troops, were now granted safe passage to the US, while the very people they had oppressed—Afghans—were left to face the Taliban's retribution.
The "Fairfax traffic stop" video, which went viral, highlighted the tensions: a former Afghan soldier, now in the US, was seen aggressively confronting a police officer, a stark reminder of the trauma and instability that followed the US withdrawal.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘁: 𝗔𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆
The US's departure from Afghanistan was not just a geopolitical shift but a betrayal of trust. Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan president, was left to watch as his allies—many of whom had been instrumental in the US's counterterrorism efforts—were either killed, imprisoned, or fled. The message was clear: "Come get your boys," as one post starkly put it, a call to accountability that remains unanswered.
Yet, the consequences of this abandonment extend beyond Afghanistan. The US's policy of expediting the migration of its allies has raised questions about karma and justice. As one post warned, "Karma is indeed a bitch," a sentiment echoing the chaos that followed the collapse of the Afghan government.
𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗹𝘀
The story of Afghanistan is not isolated. The same pattern of training, abandonment, and potential backlash is now playing out in Ukraine, where the US and its allies have pledged support to a nation on the brink of war. As one post ominously noted, "Wait until the trained Ukrainian refugees act up after the US abandons Ukraine." The parallels are chilling.
Even more provocatively, the comment about Israel—"Israel will absolutely nuke the US if we manage to pull the plug on them"—underscores the precariousness of global alliances and the potential for unintended consequences in a world where power is wielded with little regard for long-term repercussions.
𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗔 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀
The tale of US-backed militias in Afghanistan is a cautionary one. It is a story of power, betrayal, and the cost of empire. The men and women who once fought alongside American forces now live in the shadows of their former allies, their actions a haunting reminder of the complexities of foreign intervention.
As the dust settles in Kabul and the world watches Ukraine's fate, one question lingers: What happens when the US pulls the plug on its allies? The answer, perhaps, lies in the faces of those who were trained to kill, now seeking refuge in a land that once promised them safety—but may now be haunted by the ghosts of their own making.
"I don't know what happened." But the truth is clear: the US shaped Afghanistan's fate, and now, it must reckon with the shadows it has cast.
qwen3:14b-q4_K_M
#Lakanwal #Afghanistan #USForeignPolicy #WarOnTerror #Geopolitics #Militias #AfghanWar #Abandonment #CIA #NDS #ANDSF #Kandahar #Taliban #RefugeeCrisis #USWithdrawal #Accountability #ForeignIntervention #FailedState #GlobalPolitics #MilitaryHistory #PostWarTrauma
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From training to the raid — No Easy Day shows the real mission that killed Osama Bin Laden.
#NavySEALs #BookReview #WarOnTerror #TrueStory
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/mission-that-killed-osama-bin-laden/ -
Aftershock: The #WarOnTerror | Ep 1: With Us or Against Us
The 1st ep of a 6-part series looking at the evolution of Western politics, esp #USpolitics & #UKpolitics, in the aftermath of #9_11 and the onset of the #GlobalWarOnTerror, examining as well the effects on #media & public debate.
The series uses the prism of #LRB's coverage of the #GWOT
https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/aftershock-the-war-on-terror/episode-1-with-us-or-against-us
#régimeChangeWars #ForeverWars #militarism #USforeignPolicy #USpol #UKpol #stateRepression #WeTorturedSomeFolks -
What’s Left Of The FBI Gets Back To Turning Teens Into Terrorists
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"Dick Cheney litt seit Jahrzehnten an seinem kranken Herzen." – Nicht nur er selbst. 💔 🖤
#herzlos #Irakkrieg #Lügen #DickCheney #Massenvernichtungswaffen #Golfkrieg #WarOnTerror #Kriegsverbrechen #Kriegsverbrecher #WarCriminal
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Alt Text for Pete Hegseth’s November 1st Boat Strike Video
Like many of the boat strike videos posted to social media by Trump, Hegseth, and the White House, the video of the attack conducted in the Caribbean on November 1st was edited and heavily redacted before its release. Like the other videos, it masquerades as “unclassified” public disclosure, but it discloses almost nothing at all.
We are being asked to rely on the stories Hegseth and other administration figures tell when they post these videos on social media. These accounts have been a problem for me since I first started looking at these boat strike videos — not because I am an expert in military affairs, or South American drug trafficking, but because I can claim some expertise when it comes to the make-believe work of telling stories on video or film.
Moving through these videos shot by shot, and sometimes frame by frame, shows Hegseth to be, at best, an unreliable narrator. (The fancy term for this is proven liar, or, in American idiom, Fox News host.) So, since I’m on a slow New Jersey Transit train with some time on my hands, I thought I’d try a description of my own, and offer alt text for the November 1st video.
The first (low-res, highly pixelated. black and white) shot shows the point of view of the attacker, already in position over the boat. We can make out the wake of the boat, but the vessel itself, the purported target of the strike, is fully redacted. So is the EO/IR interface, and so are any location coordinates. The attacker can see things we can’t.
While it lasts a full six seconds and would seem intended to set the scene, situate the viewer, and show drug smugglers in flagrante delicto, this first shot does nothing of the sort. There is no approach or discovery, no reveal, no new intelligence; the decision to strike has already been taken.
In other words, any visual evidence arguing for the strike, any proof that these are, in fact, the bad guys, the “narcoterrorists,” is being withheld, or perhaps can’t be produced. (And even if these were the bad guys or, what’s more likely, a few desperate mules working for the bad guys,* intercepting the boat would make a lot more sense in terms of interdiction and carry the added benefit of not violating international law.) As Representative Adam Smith remarked after an Armed Services briefing, the Pentagon is “telling us is you need less evidence to kill somebody than you do to hold them.”
Then at 00:16:15, two munitions or pieces of ordnance fall from the sky and strike the redacted target. The blast radiates out from the center, but only for a single frame.
Everything goes white, for three frames. The redactions are the only features we can make out against the white.
In the (infrared) shot of the explosion that follows — the one that looks like a camera negative — the camera begins to move off the annihilated target. This shot runs nearly three seconds, from 00:06:17 to 00:09:20, revealing a black sea.
Then something curious happens. At 9 seconds (00:09:21, to be precise), the video returns to the blown-out, hot-white, three-frame post-strike moment shown at 00:06:14.
It’s a rewind of the narrative.
The final shot is a re-telling, an instant replay, a photo-realistic, searchlight-on-the-water view of the strike’s aftermath. It lasts seven seconds. Four seconds longer than the first telling. It’s repetition with a difference.
What’s the difference? In this second version, the camera moves off the annihilated target, as it does at 00:06-00:09, but then reveals that move to have been a mere feint. The camera drops back to show flames and columns of thick smoke rising from the sea.
At 00:14, we regain some orientation, with the reveal of the [N] or North marker. There are about a dozen redacted areas in these frames, but the extra four seconds make a distinct impression.
The impression is of report from a war zone, a helicopter pulling away from a sea strewn with burning wreckage. It’s an image deeply ingrained in the American psyche. The Ride of the Valkyries. But Wagner would be all out of proportion to what we’re seeing. It’s not just that the image is degraded. We might expect that from a war zone. It’s that we’re not in a war zone at all.
There is no threat of attack or counterattack. No enemy fleet. No other boats rushing to the aid of the vessel under attack. Instead, the world’s most powerful military, funded by $900 billion in taxpayer dollars, the erstwhile leader of the historic NATO alliance, is using state-of -the-art technology and sophisticated American firepower to target small, individual vessels off the South American coast and kill whomever happens to be on board.
“No country should go to war so that the leader’s inner circle can make Tiktoks,” quipped Tom Pepinsky this morning. But it looks as if that’s what’s about to happen. Hegseth’s conduct online — and off, if he’s ever offline — carries real risks, as military, legal, and policy experts are warning.
(On this point, I recommend reading Pepinsky’s article published today on East Asia Forum. And Elizabeth N. Saunders’ new piece on Venezuela that’s up today on Good Authority, where she observes that Hegseth is the embodiment of “incompetent risk.”)
It’s shabby and undisciplined conduct. It discredits the office of the Secretary of Defense, illustrating only the smallness of the man, his moral depravity, the dereliction of Southern Command and the international humiliation of the United States on his watch.
*As this 7 November 2025 AP report on the victims of the September strikes would seem to confirm.
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#belligerence #boatStrikes #EOIR #ethics #gamification #humanRights #lawlessness #risk #Venezuela #WarOnTerror #westernHemisphere
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All the Boat Strike Videos, To Date, in Chronological Order
In my last couple of posts (here and here), I’ve been trying to look closely at some of the latest boat strike videos, call out some of their features, and discuss the information they offer as well as the information they withhold.
It might also be helpful to look at all the boat strike videos in a single chronological sequence. So, using the Associated Press timeline of the strikes, and the media downloader at xdownloader.org, I’ve assembled all the boat strike videos into a single sequence. The work here is quick and dirty: the videos are not gussied up (and are best watched in full screen mode); the only thing I’ve done is add a date before each video. I’ve tried to stick with the date of the strike; sometimes videos are posted a day later.
I put this sequence together for myself because I couldn’t find it elsewhere. I thought it might help me see patterns and make some new sense of these videos. I’m sharing it here on the chance others might find it useful.
I’ve seen a few TV news clips reporting the boat strikes that use the videos posted by Hegseth, Trump, and the White House as b-roll: videos from September are used to report a strike in late October, or the boat strike footage is assembled into a kind of montage, the strikes and locations conflated, one strike standing in for all of them, boats moving through the water, boats targeted, boats blown up, while the anchor introduces or interviews a guest. The strike videos themselves become part of the backdrop, or just background noise; the punditry gets foregrounded.
I get it. This approach allows people on TV to generalize about the strikes, which they should do. The strikes are illegal and immoral, degrading and corrupting; they bring the “war on terror” and its atrocities to our own hemisphere; they re-allocate forces and resources, altering the risk landscape; they are an international outrage. The strikes can be understood as part of a larger political project, a “primacist” project championed by Marco Rubio, which uses drug-trafficking as a pretext for belligerence.
The boat attack videos promote this project while serving other propagandistic functions as well. They tick the adolescent edgelord box that everyone in this administration seems desperate to tick, and which is apparently part of the warrior ethos Hegseth touts. They misrepresent lawlessness as law enforcement, as ICE does in its own videos promoting kidnapping and other abuses, and allow powerful people to boast of their own impunity. They masquerade as (“unclassified”) public disclosure, even as the administration stonewalls Congress and keeps the military lawyers out of the hearing room.
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#belligerence #boatStrikes #corruption #EOIR #gamification #humanRights #lawlessness #primacist #Propaganda #risk #war #WarOnTerror #westernHemisphere
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The U.S. is—again—running around, killing people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvsQdZLwbMY
https://piped.video/watch?v=pvsQdZLwbMY
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=pvsQdZLwbMY
#uspol #politics #WarOnTerror #WarOnDrugs #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #PeteHegseth #SecretaryOfWar #SecretaryOfDefense #DepartmentOfDefense #DefenseSecretary #DefenseDepartment #DepartmentOfWar #MSNBC #MargaretDonovan #TheWeekendPrimetime
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CNN reports talks between the #US and the Afghan #Taliban government began in March to retake #Bagram Air Base.
Washington views the base strategically vital to monitor the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, which is where #China has deployed most of its military research and development, as well as its nuclear program.
PS: FIRST AL-QAEDA AND NOW TALIBAN.
THE WAR ON TERROR WAS A LIE -
It's been a shadow at the back of my mind since the #WarOnTerror. Looking at #PaulKagame, #Congo, #Rwanda and #Palestine today, it is ever clearer #TonyBlair has been a #Genocide sponsor from the very outset.
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#British #mainland #airbases directly used by #IDF cargo and #MidAirRefueling aircraft throughout the #genocide, including since the #Starmer administration took office.
The #UK government and establishment are in on this genocide to the hilt. Literally a principal sponsor of the destruction of the #Palestinian people.
As the #WarOnTerror was enabled by #Reagan era neo-cons (#Cheney, #Rumsfeld, #Perle, #Wolfowitz) and the Project for a New American Century, so Starmer's #Labour participation in this genocide was devised, insured, foreshadowed and the precursors put in place by #Blair, #Mandelson and #Blunkett right down to the #terrorism legislation now used to silence and persecute dissent.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/revealed-uk-labour-israeli-military-planes-land-gaza
h/t
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VICTORY! #Maine Increases Transparency and Accountability for its #FusionCenter
By Matthew Guariglia
June 26, 2023"In a major step for reigning in the unaccountable power of #FusionCenters, the Maine state House and Senate have passed HP 947, An Act to Increase the Transparency and Accountability of the Maine Information and Analysis Center. The bill creates an Auditor position within the Office of the Attorney General whose job it is to conduct regular reviews of the Main Information and Analysis Center’s (MIAC) activities, to keep records, and to share information with the public. The bill also makes any information MIAC shares with private entities a public record and therefore accessible to the public.
"This bill comes after a years-long concerted effort by Maine activists and concerned citizens who have been fighting for accountability in how MIAC collects, shares, and utilizes information about Mainers. In June 2021, a bill that would have defunded the fusion center entirely passed 88-54 out of the Maine House of Representatives before being defeated in the state senate.
"Fusion centers are yet another unnecessary cog in the surveillance state—and one that serves the intrusive function of coordinating surveillance activities and sharing information between federal law enforcement, the national security surveillance apparatus, and local and state police, with little to no oversight. Across the United States, there are at least 78 fusion centers that were formed by the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the War on Terror and the rise of post-9/11 mass surveillance. Since their creation, fusion centers have been hammered by politicians, academics, and civil society groups for their ineffectiveness, dysfunction, mission creep, and unregulated tendency to veer into policing political views. As scholar Brendan McQuade wrote in his book Pacifying the Homeland: Intelligence Fusion and Mass Supervision:
"'On paper, fusion centers have the potential to organize dramatic surveillance powers. In practice however, what happens at fusion centers is circumscribed by the politics of law enforcement. The tremendous resources being invested in counterterrorism and the formation of interagency intelligence centers are complicated by organization complexity and jurisdictional rivalries. The result is not a revolutionary shift in policing but the creation of uneven, conflictive, and often dysfunctional intelligence-sharing systems.”
"An explosive 2023 report from Rutgers University’s Center for Security, Race and Rights also provides more evidence of why these centers are invasive, secretive, and dangerous. In the report, researchers documented how New Jersey’s fusion center leveraged national security powers to spy almost exclusively on Muslim, Arab, and Black communities and push an already racially biased criminal justice system into overdrive through aggressive enforcement of misdemeanor and quality of life offenses.
"After a series of leaks that revealed communications from within police departments, fusion centers, and law enforcement agencies across the country, MIAC came under particular scrutiny for sharing dubious intelligence generated by far-right wing social media accounts with local law enforcement. Specifically, MIAC helped perpetuate disinformation that stacks of bricks and stones had been strategically placed throughout a Black Lives Matter protest as part of a larger plan for destruction, and caused police to plan and act accordingly. This was, to put it plainly, a government intelligence agency spreading fake news that could have deliberately injured people exercising their First Amendment rights. This controversy unfolded shortly after a whistleblower lawsuit from a state trooper that alleged the fusion center routinely violated civil rights.
"When it comes to fighting these dangerous relics of the War on Terror, activists in Maine are leading the way for the rest of the country. EFF will continue to support organizations and local groups willing to take on fusion centers in their legislatures. Congratulations to the hard-working activists and concerned residents in Maine."
#ACAB #Surveillance #EFF #MIAC #Transparency #FirstAmendment #DHS #WarOnTerror
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#ACLU: President #Obama Signs #IndefiniteDetentionBill Into Law
December 31, 2011
WASHINGTON – "President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (#NDAA) into law today. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had 'serious reservations' about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations. The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill.
"'President Obama's action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,' said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. 'The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and FUTURE PRESIDENTS to militarily #detain people captured far from any battlefield. The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.'
"Under the #BushAdministration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again. The ACLU believes that any military detention of #AmericanCitizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA. In addition, the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war.
"'We are incredibly disappointed that President Obama signed this new law even though his administration had already claimed overly broad detention authority in court,' said Romero. “Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back the constitutional excesses of George Bush in the #WarOnTerror was extinguished today. Thankfully, we have three branches of government, and the final word belongs to the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on the scope of detention authority. But Congress and the president also have a role to play in cleaning up the mess they have created because no American citizen or anyone else should live in fear of this or any future president misusing the NDAA’s detention authority.'"
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/president-obama-signs-indefinite-detention-bill-law
#NDAA #ExpandedPowers
#USPresidency #HR9495 #Terrorists #Activists #Trump -
:youtube: #CBS #FaceTheNation
🔸Henry #Kissinger discusses #ISIS, #Ukraine, and #russia🔸
📝 In this short interview clip from Sept.7th, 2014, former Secretary of State Henry #Kissinger analyzed the then current crop of problems plaguing #US foreign policy, from #Ukraine to #Iraq and the global #WarOnTerror...but what he does reveal is his view of the policy advisors of the #Obama administration - key amongst those was Jake Sullivan
https://youtu.be/B9FO77vlqto?si=cX0-92cQ3FKtWLar #Geopolitics #History #News
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Contrary to the #ColdWarrior #PopeJohnPaulII,who made the #HolySee a U.S. ally in the #ColdWar and in the #WarOnTerror,#PopeFrancis has an uncompromising #pacifist stance on the #Ukraine and #Gaza wars
(Italian)
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The "Costs of War" project, based at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, estimates that the total death toll in post-9/11 wars – including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen – could be at least 4.5-4.7 million:
Stephanie Savell (2023) https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2023/IndirectDeathsBlair is one of the Western leaders who shares complicity for this appalling death toll: https://mondediplo.com/2003/07/01ramonet
State lying has been thrown down the memory hole by media outlets who welcome him with open arms.
(to be continued)
#Post911Wars #WarOnTerror #unjustWars #warCriminals #Blair #Bush #Sarkozy #entitlement #presumption #fragility #insecurity #stats #mortality #wars #diseases #starvation #costing #internationalLaw #costBenefit #IHL #casualties #collateralDamage #warCrimes #terrorism #counterTerrorism #war #warfare #civilians #ethics #grievability #StateViolence #violence #anthropology #epidemics #pollution #statistics #mortality #demography #diseases #injuries #conflicts #USWars #deaths #politics
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On #entitlement, #presumption, #fragility:
"For Jewish Zionists, the shock induced by Hamas’ breakout and attack is compounded by a sense of rage and indignation that Palestinian fighters momentarily turned the tables, piercing through Israel’s years of military siege and occupation. This [is] “the loss of the prerogative, only and always, to be the one who transgresses the sovereign boundaries of other states, but never to be in the position of having one’s own boundaries transgressed” — arguably explains why Israelis were so quick to describe Hamas’ attack as Israel’s 9/11. It explains why the reflexive response, like the U.S. after 9/11, was to exact revenge not only for the Israelis killed or held hostage but for the colonized and the occupied to dare to fight back against the oppression; to dare to transgress the besieged boundaries of Gaza and claim freedom and life."Randa Abdel-Fattah: https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/on-zionist-feelings/ @israel
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Osama bin Laden was born #OTD in 1957. His 9/11 attack targeted the core of US imperialism; finance and military leadership; yet the US state was able to seduce a willing population into feeling personally attacked, leading to a cancerous and potentially terminal growth of the military industrial complex, which might ultimately fulfill bin Laden’s objectives.
Today's art is by Priscilla Bracks: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-08-30/jesus-osama-piece-not-meant-to-offend-artist/655124
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@Moon
We partly define aggressor as selling weapons to a country for the signature #colourRevolutions, including for supporting extreme rightWing factions and for surrounding nations with bases, and bombing said nations, under a #phonyWar, a fake #WarOnTerror that is *****far***** from being #history, dear friend.
@clacke -
Glenn Greenwald: Liberals CHEER New Domestic War On Terror
https://youtu.be/Npcr5KIS95U
'Journalist and co-founding editor of The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald, argues that media censorship, in an effort to prevent domestic terrorism, has gone too far.'