(ANTIMEDIA) Following the Trump administration’s decision to strike the Syrian government (in what was, by all accounts, a quite ineffective strike), a new report is raising serious concerns, claiming ISIS would be a prime benefactor of the fall of the Assad government.
(ANTIWAR) US officials have made much of Kurdish YPG forces attacking the town of Tabqa, which is at least somewhat under ISIS control. Locals are trying to flee the fighting, however, and that seems to be where the US is most involved, attacking and killing a family of eight outside of Tabqa as they tried to get away.
(ANTIWAR) Visiting Riyadh, Defense Secretary James Mattis continued to play up the idea of deeper US involvement in the Saudi war in Yemen, suggesting the US would substantially increase aide to Saudi Arabia, while playing up the idea that the deeper US involvement would be against Iran.
(ZHE) A third US citizen has been arrested and remains in custody in North Korea, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
(ANTIMEDIA) Nicky Hager is a ground-breaking investigative journalist and best-selling author. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh once said of him: “Nicky Hager has more knowledge and understanding of the American intelligence world in Afghanistan — both its good and its very bad points — than any reporter I know.”
(ANTIWAR) With the US seeking to slow the mounting losses by the Afghan military in the southern Helmand Province, the Pentagon has announced a deployment of roughly 300 US Marines to the province, with the fighters expected to arrive by the end of the month.
(ZHE) The U.S. Air Force scrambled two F-22 stealth fighters on Monday night to intercept a pair of Russian nuclear-capable bombers which came as close as 100 miles from Alaska’s Kodiak Island, Fox reports. This was the first time since President Trump took office that Moscow has sent bombers so close to the U.S.
(ANTIMEDIA) Turkey — Turkey’s President Erdogan is firing back against those accusing him of trying to become a dictator. From a Reuters report on Monday:
“A defiant Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the West’s ‘crusader mentality’ Monday after European monitors criticized a referendum to grant him sweeping new powers, won with a narrow victory laying bare the nation’s divisions.”
(RPI) Audit the Fed recently took a step closer to becoming law, when it was favorably reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This means the House could vote on the bill at any time. The bill passed by voice vote without any objections, although Fed defenders did launch hysterical attacks on the bill during the debate as well as at a hearing on the bill the previous week.
