Author: Steven Sahiounie

Despite US President Donald Trump’s repeated declarations of victory over Daesh, the US has – once again – announced a resumption in operations against the group. While the tug-of-war between the commander-in-chief and the Pentagon is apparent, one expert points out that there is one thing both parties can agree on: oil. In a Saturday press conference, US Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric Hill announced that, following operations on November 22, a US-led coalition was able to not only capture a “significant amount” of small arms, ammunition and explosives, but also detained over a dozen Daesh soldiers. “As long as Daesh…

The Lebanese armed forces have detained four men, who broke a window of a bank and attacked the offices of a political party in the western city of Tripoli during ongoing anti-government protests, the army said in a statement. “Due to the group attacking the offices of a political party and a bank branch, the army patrol has detained four people in Tripoli. One man threw a grenade at the servicemen, but it did not detonate”, the statement said. One serviceman was injured as a result of the men throwing stones at them during the time of the arrest. The…

by Oleg Burunov In an interview with Syria TV earlier in November, Bashar Assad remained downbeat about US President Trump’s announcement on the elimination of Daesh* leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Syrian President suggested that the operation to kill al-Baghdadi was nothing but a trick, since US policymaking “is no different from Hollywood”. In an interview with the French magazine Paris Match published on Wednesday, Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed his sceptical stance on the destruction of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by US special forces, also quipping at President Trump’s words of thanks to Damascus for its alleged contribution to the operation.…

By Robert Fantina It has been interesting to watch the slow-moving arc of justice, or some semblance of it, at play in Israel and the United States. The trajectories of both nations has been somewhat astounding. In the United States, the past several decades, at least since the administration of Ronald Reagan, have seen the country move to a position of less tolerance for minorities, less care for the poor, more governmental policies to benefit the rich, and an ever-increasing reliance by politicians on corporate donations. Let this writer hasten to explain that the U.S. was never a place of tolerance and care…

By Simon Watkins From the moment that the U.S. re-imposed sanctions in earnest on Iran late last year, Pakistan has been looking at ways to resuscitate a deal that had been agreed in principle before the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last May. This deal involved moving as much gas as Pakistan needs from Iran’s Asalouyeh into Pakistan’s Gwadar and then on to Nawabshah for further transit if required. At the same time, China has been in long-running discussions with Pakistan over the specific projects that Beijing wanted to place in Pakistan as part of…

By Philip Giraldi Recently The New York Times featured two op-eds by resident hacks Bret Stephens and Tom Friedman as well as a featured editorial, all on the subject of Syria and how the Trump administration has betrayed the American people. The pieces were published back-to-back over the course of three days, clearly an attempt on the part of the editorial page staff to establish the paper’s “message” on what the war in Syria was and is all about. All the pieces were riddled with inaccuracies and out-and-out fabrications to support the false assertion that the U.S. intervention in Syria was…

Steven Sahiounie, political commentator Note: this is part 1 of a 2 part investigation of the FSA, Turkey and their connection to the murder of a Syrian Priest and his father. Father Hovsep Bedoyan, the head of the Armenian Catholic community in Qamishli, and the priest’s father, Abraham Bedoyan, were killed November 11, on the road leading from Qamishli to Deir Ez Zor, were they were headed to check on the rebuilding of the Forty Martyr’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Deir Ezzor, which was destroyed in 2014 by terrorists who targeted Christians and churches.  Deacon Fati Sano of the Al-Hasakeh…

The US State Department and Pentagon are investigating reports that American-made armored vehicles may have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups in Yemen via Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a newly published letter to a lawmaker showed. “The Department of State takes these allegations very seriously and is working closely with partner nations to determine whether there were any such unauthorized transfers”, Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Mary Elizabeth Taylor wrote to Senator and presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren in a letter published on Tuesday. Taylor said that since allegations were limited to Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected…

By Philip Giraldi A story has been circulating suggesting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will soon be resigning because he needs to focus on planning for his campaign to become a Senator from Kansas in 2020. This is good news for the United States, as Senator Lindsey Graham has had no one he is able to talk to about exporting democracy by blowing up the planet since Joe Lieberman retired and John McCain died. And the tale even has a bit of palace intrigue built into it, with an interesting back story as Pompeo is apparently considering his move because he fears that staying in harness with Donald Trump for too long…

By James A. Lucas Let us put this in historical perspective: the commemoration of the War the End All Wars acknowledges that 15 million lives were lost in the course of World War I (1914-18). The loss of life in the second World War (1939-1945) was on a much large scale, when compared to World War I: 60 million lives both military and civilian were lost during World War II. (Four times those killed during World War I). The largest WWII casualties were China and the Soviet Union, 26 million in the Soviet Union, China estimates its losses at approximately 20,000,000 deaths. Ironically, these two countries (allies of the…