U.S. Navy sources report to WMR that the Navy is heading into familiar cover-up mode in the official investigation of the collision of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) with the ACX Crystal, a Philippines-flagged container ship manned by a Filipino crew of 20. The collision, which killed seven U.S. Navy sailors who drowned in a flooded below-water line berthing compartment, took place near Japan’s Izu Peninsula on June 17 at 2:20 a.m. local time. The Crystal was under charter to a Japanese firm, Nippon Yusen KK (NYK), and was en route from Nagoya to Tokyo. The Crystal’s registration holder is Sinbanali Shipping, Inc. based in Manila, and its actual owner is Dainichi-Invest Corporation of Kobe, Japan. Continue reading →
Ever since the end of World War II, the United States, rightly or wrongly, but most of the time wrongly, has fancied itself as the “world’s policeman.” Even a disastrous and costly military intervention in Southeast Asia did not deter the United States from acting as the chief arbiter of what governments were “in” and which were “out” as evidenced by the Central Intelligence Agency interloping in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Angola, Haiti, and Colombia. Two military interventions in Iraq and a U.S.-led military campaign directed against Yugoslavia were not enough to pry the United States from its self-appointed role as the chief “global cop.” In fact, American neoconservatives continued to fanaticize about the United States leading the world into a post-Cold War “new American century.” Continue reading →
Arising from a combination of Donald Trump’s tweets and statements about subjects from Qatar to Taiwan and NATO to Palestine, old border disputes and diplomatic rivalries are beginning to flare up. The Trump administration also appears to be unwilling to fill a number of vacancies in the State Department, a development that has added to a de facto American hands-off approach to many simmering international disputes. Continue reading →
While the West’s corporate media were fixated on NATO adding tiny Montenegro to its membership roster, the Chinese- and Russian-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) added India and Pakistan as full members. The flags of India and Pakistan were raised at SCO headquarters in Beijing, following the June 8–9 SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan. Continue reading →
Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has emerged as a significant influence within the policy-making apparatus of the White House. After a rather public imbroglio with Trump’s strategic policy adviser Stephen Bannon over the U.S. cruise missile attack on the Shayrat airbase in Syria, Kushner is “in”, as they often say in Washington, and Bannon is “out”. In any case, the anti-globalist faction, which is led by Bannon, has received verbal “thumbs down” on several fronts from Trump. Continue reading →
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Israeli interests he funds are behind a series of computer hacking incidents that have resulted in a serious split between Qatar, the home of the U.S. Central Command’s massive Al-Udeid airbase, and a bloc of Qatar’s erstwhile Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) allies that include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Continue reading →
Every time the secretive Bilderberg Group has met at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia, U.S. policy has been at the forefront of discussions between the government and corporate gurus who gather behind tight security. In 2002, the hotel hosted the Bilderbergs as President George W. Bush was leading the United States into a war with Iraq. And in 2008 and 2012, the major items for discussion at the Chantilly venue were the U.S. presidential elections, both of which saw wins for Barack Obama. Continue reading →
US sinking into irrelevancy
While Donald Trump displayed his immaturity by tweeting threats and sniffling during televised interviews, the world’s grown-up leaders were meeting in Beijing to plan major and ambitious global projects foreseen by China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) recreation of the ancient Silk Road. Continue reading →
A civil RICO (Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organization) lawsuit exposing Donald Trump’s associates’ criminal business practices was filed in the U.S. Court in the Southern District of Manhattan on June 20, 2016. The suit was filed by two principals of Bayrock Group, LLC, which developed the Trump SoHo condominium-hotel complex in Manhattan. Continue reading →
Donald Trump has showcased in Latin American policy by forging close relationships with two of Latin America’s most dishonest leaders: neoconservatives Mauricio Macri of Argentina and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru. After visiting Trump at the White House in April, Trump called the neo-fascist Macri his “regional ally,” adding that the Argentine is doing a “fantastic job.” Continue reading →
During the 2016 presidential campaign, disreputable websites attempted to tie Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff to a fantasy tale about a network of pedophiles who trafficked in child sex slaves using, of all things, pizzerias. Members of Donald Trump’s inner circle trafficked in the “Pizzagate” myth using such social media networks as Twitter. Continue reading →
Google’s now-infamous censorship programs and algorithms, built into the firm’s search engine software, are not merely suppressing alternate news sites, but also ignoring or diverting search results away from important news stories being reported by conventional news organizations. In an attempt to prioritize “reliable” news sites, Google News searches have been found to return as top stories links to a number of non-critical news subjects, including sports, travel, weather, and popular entertainment. Continue reading →
North Korea was not the first power on the Korean peninsula to pursue the acquisition of nuclear weapons. That distinction goes to U.S. ally South Korea under the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee. Ironically, as the U.S. corporate media joins the Pentagon in rattling war sabers against North Korea, the daughter of the South Korean leader who gave the green light to a South Korean nuclear arsenal, Park Geun-hye, was recently placed in prison on criminal fraud charges following her impeachment and removal from the South Korean presidency. Continue reading →
An Egyptian Constitutional Court case and protests in Egypt and Maldives are the results of a Saudi Arabian initiative to acquire islands near and far from the radical Wahhabist-ruled kingdom. Last year, the Egyptian government agreed to transfer to the Saudis sovereignty over the Egyptian islands of Tiran and Sanafir, located at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. The move came after an official visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to Cairo. Observers believe the deal was a result of a large infusion of Saudi cash—estimated to be billions of dollars—into Egypt in order to bolster a sagging economy. Continue reading →
Like a scene out of a Hollywood epic movie, Saudi Arabian King Salman journeyed to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, with an entourage of 1000 aides and servants, including ten Cabinet ministers and 25 Saudi princes traveling aboard four Boeing 747s and two Boeing 777s. Indonesian president Joko Widodo termed the visit part of a “strategic partnership” between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Salman also visited Malaysia, which has been embroiled in a major political scandal arising from the acceptance by its prime minister, Najib Razak, of a $1 billion “gift” from a stated-owned Saudi company. Political opponents of Razak have termed the gift a bribe. Continue reading →
The 24/7 cable “news” networks are giving air time to any “national security experts,” regardless of their credentials and backgrounds, to bash Russia. The current political firestorm over Trump campaign officials meeting with Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak has taken on the aura of the “Red baiting” of the 1950s and Senator Joe McCarthy looking for Communists in every nook and cranny inside the federal government. MSNBC has been the worst network regarding the mole hunt for modern-day Alger Hisses burrowed within the Trump inner circle. However, CNN follows a close second in the resurrection of a version of the John Birch Society among Democrats and Russia-bashing Republicans like Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Ben Sasse. Continue reading →
Democrats keep missing the election boat
Posted on June 23, 2017 by Wayne Madsen
In the wake of Georgia’s 6th U.S. House district Democratic Party hopeful Jon Ossoff’s loss to Donald Trump-endorsed Republican Karen Handel, Democrats are crying in their cups of Starbuck’s latte and chai. In what was the most expensive House races in American history, Handel beat Ossoff by 3.8 percentage points. Continue reading →