The truth behind US' Operation Just Cause in Panama

Al Jazeera English

On January 31, 1990, the US invasion of Panama - dubbed Operation Just Cause - officially came to a close. While the US military has consistently lowballed the Panamanian death count of the short-lived affair, other observers have put the number of fatalities at several thousand.

As media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) noted at the time, Just Cause saw the impoverished Panama City neighbourhood of El Chorillo pulverised to the point of being referred to by ambulance drivers as "Little Hiroshima". In other words, no surgical strikes here.

Indeed, the foray into Panama was the largest US combat operation since the Vietnam War. The US government trotted out various noble justifications for the operation, such as improving the lot of the Panamanians by hauling their dictator, General Manuel Noriega, off to the US to face drug trafficking charges.

This was the same Noriega, of course, who had for years been a US favourite, occupying a prominent position on the CIA's payroll despite common knowledge of his involvement in the international drug trade.

When the general began to show signs of less-than-obsequiousness to US regional designs, however, he was rendered persona non grata by the self-appointed chaperones of the hemisphere. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.

Just how bright is Iran's new dawn?

Al Jazeera English

Imagine 10 Iranian soldiers aboard Iranian military vessels had turned up off the coast of the United States.

It's safe to assume that, whatever course of action was selected by US officials in response to the incursion, it would not have involved briefly detaining the visitors and then sending them on their merry way without a disproportionate amount of bellicose rhetoric and conspiracy theories launched by the sectors of US and international society that specialise in such things.

In recent years, Iran has hardly needed to raise a finger to get neoconservative and other panties in a bunch. Back in 2011, for example, a congressional subcommittee heard testimony regarding the alleged threat to US homeland security posed by Iranian actions in Latin America.

Among these actions was a reported request from the Iranian embassy in Bolivia for more than two dozen spaces at the international school in La Paz for the offspring of diplomatic personnel. Frightening stuff.

La Paz, mind you, is no fewer than 6,225 kilometres from Washington, DC - in other words, a much longer distance than that between the Iranian homeland and the US military boats that appeared last week in Iranian territorial waters.

And while Iran releasedthe 10 detained US soldiers in expedited fashion, various Western politicians and media couldn’t help but exploit the opportunity to cast the Islamic Republic as the aggressor in this case, as well. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.

Happy Birthday, Guantánamo

TeleSUR English

2015 was supposed to be the year I visited Guantánamo Bay.

I was meant to attend pretrial hearings in April for the five “HVDs”—high-value detainees—held at the prison. The HVDs are accused of involvement in 9/11; topping the list is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks.

I booked a flight from Beirut to Washington, D.C., and badgered the army official in charge of allocating seats on the plane from Andrews Air Force Base to Guantánamo until I was assured a spot. When I arrived to D.C., however, I was informed that the hearings had been canceled due to complications arising from the FBI’s infiltration of one of the defense teams the previous year.

As defense lawyer Ramzi Kassem had remarked a few months earlier: “The imperatives and mechanics of justice and intelligence gathering are, to a significant extent, incompatible. Nowhere is that contradiction sharper than at Guantánamo, where those two worlds collide.”

This particular observation had been made in response not to the FBI infiltration but rather to the news that one of the interpreters at Guantánamo client was an ex-employee of a CIA black site.

As the prison complex now celebrates its fourteenth birthday—more than seven years after Barack Obama promised to shut it down—worldly collision continues apace. And while it may be clear to any objective observer that “justice” does not exist within the realm of possible outcomes at a U.S. detention camp-cum-torture chamber operated on occupied Cuban territory, the U.S. makes every effort to distract from the bigger picture by cultivating a façade of fairness and respect for human dignity in day-to-day procedures at Guantánamo. READ MORE AT TeleSUR ENGLISH.

Hezbollah in Syria: The Daily Beast Strikes Again

TeleSUR ENGLISH

The popular American news website The Daily Beast has long been known for its scoops.

Back in December 2011, for example, it alerted the world to concerns emanating from U.S. intelligence circles and Congress about the threat posed to the homeland by Iranian machinations in Latin America.

According to one Juan Carlos Muñoz Ledo interviewed by the outlet, Iranian designs on the hemisphere involved a plot “to attack the mainframes and computers associated with government agencies and major businesses in the United States.”

Muñoz Ledo, a former computing instructor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, had collaborated in the making of a sensational Univision documentary titled La amenaza iraní—“The Iranian Threat”—that fueled the notion of a predatory Islamic Republic setting up shop in America’s backyard.

As The Daily Beast noted, Muñoz Ledo had supplied “hidden footage” he’d filmed during a 2007 encounter with then-Iranian ambassador to Mexico Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri. As I’ve pointed out before, the incriminating footage consisted of things like the ambassador sitting in a chair. Ghadiri, for his part, claimed that a group from the university had proposed the idea of a cybernetic attack on the U.S. to his embassy but that “we refused… They seemed to me to be C.I.A. agents.”

Fast forward to July 2014 and The Daily Beast was once again at the vanguard of the news industry with the catchy headline: “Hezbollah Profits From Hash as Syria Goes to Pot.” READ MORE AT TeleSUR ENGLISH.

Opinion > Articles
Hezbollah in Syria: The Daily Beast Strikes Again
By: Belén Fernández 

Hezbollah members mourn during the funeral of a comrade who was killed in combat alongside Syrian government forces in the Qalamun region, on May 26, 2015, in the southern Lebanese village of Ghaziyeh. | Photo: AFP
Previous
Next
Published 6 January 2016 (1 hours 36 minutes ago)
0
Comments
101
We Recommend

The news site is carrying out "psychological warfare" through the propaganda it publishes.
The popular American news website The Daily Beast has long been known for its scoops.

Back in December 2011, for example, it alerted the world to concerns emanating from U.S. intelligence circles and Congress about the threat posed to the homeland by alleged Iranian machinations in Latin America.

According to one Juan Carlos Muñoz Ledo interviewed by the outlet, Iranian designs on the hemisphere involved a plot “to attack the mainframes and computers associated with government agencies and major businesses in the United States.”

Muñoz Ledo, a former computing instructor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, had collaborated in the making of a sensational Univision documentary titled La amenaza iraní—“The Iranian Threat”—that fueled the notion of a predatory Islamic Republic setting up shop in America’s backyard.

As The Daily Beast noted, Muñoz Ledo had supplied “hidden footage” he’d filmed during a 2007 encounter with then-Iranian ambassador to Mexico Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri. As I’ve pointed out before, the incriminating footage consisted of things like the ambassador sitting in a chair. Ghadiri, for his part, claimed that a group from the university had proposed the idea of a cybernetic attack on the U.S. to his embassy but that “we refused … They seemed to me to be C.I.A. agents.”

Fast forward to July 2014 and The Daily Beast was once again at the vanguard of the news industry with the catchy headline: “Hezbollah Profits From Hash as Syria Goes to Pot.”

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Hezbollah-in-Syria-The-Daily-Beast-Strikes-Again-20160106-0021.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Opinion > Articles
Hezbollah in Syria: The Daily Beast Strikes Again
By: Belén Fernández 

Hezbollah members mourn during the funeral of a comrade who was killed in combat alongside Syrian government forces in the Qalamun region, on May 26, 2015, in the southern Lebanese village of Ghaziyeh. | Photo: AFP
Previous
Next
Published 6 January 2016 (1 hours 36 minutes ago)
0
Comments
101
We Recommend

The news site is carrying out "psychological warfare" through the propaganda it publishes.
The popular American news website The Daily Beast has long been known for its scoops.

Back in December 2011, for example, it alerted the world to concerns emanating from U.S. intelligence circles and Congress about the threat posed to the homeland by alleged Iranian machinations in Latin America.

According to one Juan Carlos Muñoz Ledo interviewed by the outlet, Iranian designs on the hemisphere involved a plot “to attack the mainframes and computers associated with government agencies and major businesses in the United States.”

Muñoz Ledo, a former computing instructor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, had collaborated in the making of a sensational Univision documentary titled La amenaza iraní—“The Iranian Threat”—that fueled the notion of a predatory Islamic Republic setting up shop in America’s backyard.

As The Daily Beast noted, Muñoz Ledo had supplied “hidden footage” he’d filmed during a 2007 encounter with then-Iranian ambassador to Mexico Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri. As I’ve pointed out before, the incriminating footage consisted of things like the ambassador sitting in a chair. Ghadiri, for his part, claimed that a group from the university had proposed the idea of a cybernetic attack on the U.S. to his embassy but that “we refused … They seemed to me to be C.I.A. agents.”

Fast forward to July 2014 and The Daily Beast was once again at the vanguard of the news industry with the catchy headline: “Hezbollah Profits From Hash as Syria Goes to Pot.”

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Hezbollah-in-Syria-The-Daily-Beast-Strikes-Again-20160106-0021.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Opinion > Articles
Hezbollah in Syria: The Daily Beast Strikes Again
By: Belén Fernández 

Hezbollah members mourn during the funeral of a comrade who was killed in combat alongside Syrian government forces in the Qalamun region, on May 26, 2015, in the southern Lebanese village of Ghaziyeh. | Photo: AFP
Previous
Next
Published 6 January 2016 (1 hours 36 minutes ago)
0
Comments
101
We Recommend

The news site is carrying out "psychological warfare" through the propaganda it publishes.
The popular American news website The Daily Beast has long been known for its scoops.

Back in December 2011, for example, it alerted the world to concerns emanating from U.S. intelligence circles and Congress about the threat posed to the homeland by alleged Iranian machinations in Latin America.

According to one Juan Carlos Muñoz Ledo interviewed by the outlet, Iranian designs on the hemisphere involved a plot “to attack the mainframes and computers associated with government agencies and major businesses in the United States.”

Muñoz Ledo, a former computing instructor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, had collaborated in the making of a sensational Univision documentary titled La amenaza iraní—“The Iranian Threat”—that fueled the notion of a predatory Islamic Republic setting up shop in America’s backyard.

As The Daily Beast noted, Muñoz Ledo had supplied “hidden footage” he’d filmed during a 2007 encounter with then-Iranian ambassador to Mexico Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri. As I’ve pointed out before, the incriminating footage consisted of things like the ambassador sitting in a chair. Ghadiri, for his part, claimed that a group from the university had proposed the idea of a cybernetic attack on the U.S. to his embassy but that “we refused … They seemed to me to be C.I.A. agents.”

Fast forward to July 2014 and The Daily Beast was once again at the vanguard of the news industry with the catchy headline: “Hezbollah Profits From Hash as Syria Goes to Pot.”

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Hezbollah-in-Syria-The-Daily-Beast-Strikes-Again-20160106-0021.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

2016: It's deportation time

Al Jazeera English

On the final page of my friend Juan's Mexican passport are two words, handwritten in English and in capital letters: "ORDERED REMOVED."

Following are 43 numbers, letters, parentheses, and other marks, courtesy of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which deported him from Newark Airport in May 2015 when he was attempting to visit his American wife's family for two weeks.

The reason Juan was "removed", like faulty merchandise or a pile of rubbish, was that he had once entered the US without papers to work as a waiter - as so many Mexicans have been forced to do thanks in part to the pernicious economic falloutof the US-imposed North American Free Trade Agreement.

Of course, Juan was luckier than most people on the receiving end of DHS "removal" services - not to mention the countless Latin American migrants that perish along the border, as recently happened to Juan's own cousin. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.