30+ Afghans Killed In Drone Strike While CIA Celebrates 18 Years Of War On Afghanistan

From the abstract of a (paywalled) piece about the never ending U.S. war on Afghanistan: Slow failure: Understanding America’s quagmire in Afghanistan The United States government has no organised way of thinking about war termination other than seeking decisive military...

The Crisis Over The Attack On Saudi Oil Infrastructure Is Over - We Now Wait For the Next One

The crisis about the Yemeni drone and cruise missile attack on two Saudi oil installations is for now over. The Saudis and the U.S. accuse Iran of being behind the "act of war" as Secretary of State Pompeo called it....

14,000 Words Of "Blame The Pilots" That Whitewash Boeing Of 737 MAX Failure

The New York Times Magazine just published a 14,000 words piece about the Boeing 737 MAX accidents. It is headlined: What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max? But the piece does not really say what brought the Boeing 737...

How Russian And Iran Beat Their Opponents' Strategies

Over the last decades Russia and Iran both needed to develop means to protect themselves against an ever growing threat from the United States and its allies. Both found unique ways to build deterrence that fit their situation. Neither the...

Damage At Saudi Oil Plant Points To Well Targeted Swarm Attack

Saturday's attack on the Saudi oil and gas processing station in Abqaiq hit its stabilization facility: The stabilization process is a form of partial distillation which sweetens "sour" crude oil (removes the hydrogen sulfide) and reduces vapor pressure, thereby making...

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-54

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama: September 9 - A Small Reminder Of The Lower-Than-Zero Value Of Partisan 'Analysts' September 10 - Trump Fires Yosemite Sam - Bolton Leaves the National Security Council in Ruins - Foreign Policy September...

Attacks On Major Saudi Oil Installations Show Urgent Need For Peace With Yemen

Ten drones controlled by Yemeni Houthi forces hit two major Saudi oil installations last night and caused several large fires. bigger - video The Abqaiq (also Babqaiq) oil processing facility is 60 km (37 miles) southwest of Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters....

How The BBC's Quentin Sommerville Created Fairytales Of Underground Hospitals In Syria

In August 2013 the BBC produced a fake video headlined "Saving Syria’s Children" about an alleged chemical weapon attack in Syria which it claimed was caused by the Syrian government. Robert Stuart has since pressed the BBC to admit the...

Boeing Foresees Return Of The 737 MAX In November - But Not Everywhere

The Boeing 737 MAX was expected to be flying again in October. Yesterday Boeing's CEO Dennis Muilenburg pushed that date to November: Boeing chairman and chief executive Dennis Muilenburg on Wednesday reiterated his projection that, despite concerns publicly expressed by...

Open Thread 2019-53

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Obama And Brennan Burned A Very Useful Spy And Now CNN Outs Him

A sensational CNN story claimed yesterday that Trump caused the extraction of a U.S. spy from Moscow. The story was false but had the effect of outing the spy and where he now lives: In a previously undisclosed secret mission...

Trump Fires Yosemite Sam

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 17:58 UTC · 10 Sep 2019 I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in...

A Small Reminder Of The Lower-Than-Zero Value Of Partisan 'Analysts'

Avi Issacharoff is an Israeli 'Middle East analyst' who writes for the Times of Israel and other such outlets. On August 27 he asserted that the drones which attacked Hizbullah in Beirut were not from Israel and that Hizbullah leader...

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-52

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama: September 2 - Hong Kong Rioters Wage Sabotage Campaign To Press Congress Into Punishing China September 3 - 737 MAX - Boeing Insults International Safety Regulators As New Problems Cause Longer Grounding Related:...

To Leave Afghanistan Just Leave Afghanistan

AP reports: Trump calls off secret meeting with Taliban, Afghan leaders President Donald Trump said Saturday he canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders after a bombing in the past week in Kabul that...

Media Make False "Russian Prisoners" Claims To Blame Russia, Hide Ukraine's Civil War

Fakenews: Reuters: Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners in first sign of thawing relations On the same day, a group of 35 Russian prisoners held in Ukraine landed in Moscow as part of the deal. CNN: Film director Oleg Sentsov and...

State Department 'Swagger' Means Offering Bribes

U.S. Secretary of State "we lie, we cheat, we steal" Mike Pompeo said that U.S. diplomats must have "swagger". This is what he meant: Four days before the US imposed sanctions on an Iranian tanker suspected of shipping oil to...

Putin Trolls Trump

This is some high class trolling by Russia's President Vladimir Putin: Putin said he offered U.S. President Donald Trump in a recent phone call the chance to buy one of the hypersonic nuclear weapons Moscow is developing. He said Trump...

A Brexit Thread

I give way to the Leader of The House of Commons the right honorable Jacob William Rees-Mogg. source (vid) - bigger The Parliament of the UK just voted 329-300 for the preliminary approval of a bill aimed at preventing a...

737 MAX - Boeing Insults International Safety Regulators As New Problems Cause Longer Grounding

United Airline and American Airlines further prolonged the grounding of their Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. They now schedule the plane's return to the flight line in December. But it is likely that the grounding will continue well into the next...

Hong Kong Rioters Wage Sabotage Campaign To Press Congress Into Punishing China

The Associated Press is doing its best to make the Hong Kong police look bad by describing an incident without its context: Late at night Saturday, video from Hong Kong broadcaster TVB showed police on the platform of Prince Edward...

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-51

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama: August 28 - Boris Johnson Seizes Power August 29 - Saudi Arabia Acknowledges Defeat In Yemen - Starts To Sue For Peace Last night Saudi Arabia bombed a Houthi run detention center in...

Syria - Coordinated Foreign Airstrike Kills Leaders Of Two Al-Qaeda Aligned Groups

Some three hours ago an air- or missile strike in Syria's Idleb governorate hit a meeting of leaders of the al-Qaeda aligned Haras-al-Din and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) aka Jabhat al-Nusra. Both were killed. It is likely that leaders of...

Syrian 'Rebels' Feel Left Behind - Burn 'Traitor' Erdogan's Picture

Since 2011 the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used Syrian 'rebels' and Islamist Jihadis as proxy forces against the Syrian government. These forces are now mostly confined to Idleb governorate next to the Turkish border. The Syrian army has...

Saudi Arabia Acknowledges Defeat In Yemen - Starts To Sue For Peace

Two weeks ago we wrote that war on Yemen will soon end. The Saudis lost their ally, they lost the war and would have to sue for peace. They are now doing so. But they fighting in Yemen will continue...

Boris Johnson Seizes Power

The British Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson wants to lead Britain to an exit from the European Union without a specific agreement that would regulate the various details. A majority in Parliament is against leaving the EU without...

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-50

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama: August 19 - Which Hong Kong Protest Size Estimate is Right? The black block in Hong Kong, which consists of just a few hundred youth, is now back at rioting. Subway stations get...

U.S. Decoupling From China Forces Others To Decouple From U.S.

The U.S. is decoupling itself from China. The effects of that process hurt all global economies. To avoid damage other countries have no choice but to decouple themselves from the U.S. Today's Washington Post front page leads with a highly...

U.S. Says Israel Bombed Iraq - With Update

Updated below: On July 30 we wrote No, Israel Did Not Attack Iranian Targets In Iraq. We MAY have been wrong with this: Israeli newspaper repeat a report which claims that Israeli planes hit Iranian targets in Iraq. Haaretz: In...

Open Thread 2019-49

Reminder: No personal attacks No spiffy one-liners No sock-puppetry Off-topic comments belong into the open threads Those who insist on breaking these rules will get banned. Their comments will be deleted. --- News & views ...

Anti-China Cult Gets U.S. Government Money - Runs Large Pro-Trump Ad Campaign

Falun Gong is a cult which claims to have millions of followers. It was founded in China by Li Hongzhi who thinks of himself as a higher being. Falun Gong mixes some Taoism and Buddhism with nutty ideas, conservative politics...

Syria - Army Cuts Off Khan Shaykhun - Russia Bombs Turkish Reinforcement

This is an update to last weeks post Syria - Frontline Breach Opens Door To A Deep Battle For Idlib. Today the Syrian army gained fire control over the M5 highway north of Khan Shaykhun. Map by Peto Lucem -...

Which Hong Kong Protest Size Estimate is Right?

The New York Times further promotes the protests in Hong Kong by quoting an extravagant crowd size estimate of yesterday's march. Hong Kong Protesters Defy Police Ban in Show of Strength After Tumult A sea of Hong Kong protesters marched...

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-48

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama: August 13 - The Man Who Weaponizes And Loses Everything August 14 - Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage The violence led to a backlash. Today was another pre-approved protest...

Long Range Attack On Saudi Oil Field Ends War On Yemen

Today Saudi Arabia finally lost the war on Yemen. It has no defenses against new weapons the Houthis in Yemen acquired. These weapons threaten the Saudis economic lifelines. This today was the decisive attack: Drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels...

Epstein Suicided - Thread 2

There are nearly 550 comments on the Epstein Suicided thread. A second one is thus justified. As I did not follow the development of that case as diligently as some commentators here I have, for now, little to add. The...

Syria - Frontline Breach Opens Door To A Deep Battle For Idlib

During the last months the Syrian government made some progress in the norther part of Hama governorate on the border to the jihadi held Idlib governorate. The breach of the jihadi defense lines must now be used to develop a...

Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage

The riots in Hong Kong are about to end. The protests, as originally started in June, were against a law that would have allowed criminal extraditions to Taiwan, Macao and mainland China. The law was retracted and the large protests...

The Man Who Weaponizes And Loses Everything

Many news outlets documented that Putin's Russia weaponizes everything, including humor, health information, giant squids, robotic cockroaches, tedium and postmodernism. At the same time these outlets tell us that Putin is losing many things, or already lost them. Which bears...

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-47

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama: August 5 - India Will Come To Regret Today's Annexation Of Jammu And Kashmir Related: Inside Kashmir, Cut Off From the World: ‘A Living Hell’ of Anger and Fear - NYT Imran Khan...

Epstein Suicided

Unsurprisingly Jeffrey Epstein was found dead, presumably by suicide, as that is what 'officials' claim: Jailed multimillionaire financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has died by suicide, according to two law enforcement sources. He was taken from New York's...

North Korea Dislikes U.S. Plans To Occupy It

The borg in Washington DC will not be happy about Trump siding with the North Korean chairman Kim Jong Un: US President Donald Trump told reporters Friday he agreed with Kim Jong Un's opposition to US-South Korea war games, after...

No, There Will Be No Russian Base In Iran

A somewhat weird report published at Oilprice.com claims that Russia will station troops, ships and fighter jets in Iran. The piece was reproduced at Yahoo.com and Zerohedge even as it is obviously bonkers. The headline: Russia Gains Stranglehold Over Persian...

Open Thread 2019-46

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China Considers Protecting Its Ships From ... U.S. Piracy

Will China join the U.S. led 'coalition' to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz? It sounds unlikely but this Reuters piece claims that China is thinking about it: China might escort ships in Gulf under U.S. proposal: envoy: China...

India Will Come To Regret Today's Annexation Of Jammu And Kashmir

The right-wing nationalist Hindutva government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi just revoked autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir. This will create a civil war that could easily evolve into new conflict between the nuclear armed India and Pakistan....

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-45

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama: July 30 - No, Israel Did Not Attack Iranian Targets In Iraq Related: Some outlets fell for the Israeli propaganda: Tinderbox: Israeli military attacks in Iraq could complicate US strategy in Middle East...

Why The End Of The INF Treaty Will Not Start A New Arms Race

Yesterday the U.S. left the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The end of this and other treaties that eliminated or restricted the deployment of nuclear systems is seen by some as the beginning of a news arms race: William J....

Open Thread 2019-44

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State Department Issues Manipulated Photo As B-Team Pushes Trump Towards War On Iran

An old propaganda trick is to paint one's enemies in darker colors than oneself. Carl Zha @CarlZha - 1:25 UTC · Jul 31, 2019 Dark skinned Hong Kong cops vs white skinned Hong Kong protesters 👇🏼 I completely missed it,...