Let's start with Friday's snapshot:
REUTERS notes, "Iraqi security forces have killed Abu Yaser al-Issawi, an Islamic State commander who had claimed to be the leader of the group in Iraq and its 'deputy caliph', Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said on Thursday." Said? Well he Tweeted:
And while Tweeted is more accurate than "said," even more accurate would be "claimed."
Claimed.
That's the right term. Another would be? Lied.
Ghassan Adnan and Jared Maslin (WALL ST. JOURNAL) note, " A joint U.S.-Iraqi military strike killed the top leader of Islamic State in Iraq this week, setting back the extremist group’s local leadership as it attempts to stage a bloody resurgence, American and Iraqi officials said Friday." Howard Altman (MILITARY TIMES) adds that the spokesperson for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, Col Wayne Marotto, Tweeted that Abu Yasir al-Issawi was killed in a US "during a US air strike."
"Our heroic armed forces"? Really, Mustafa, really?
Are the US forces not your heroic armed forces?
No.
Mustafa lied and grabbed credit for the Iraqi ground force while it was a US air strike that killed someone. Maybe they killed Abu Yasir al-Issawi, maybe they didn't. Who knows what we'll find out in another day.
Meanwhile, Joe's nest of War Hawks includes War Profiteers. Jesse Ward (MALAYSIA SUN) notes:
For Secretary of State, Biden has chosen Antony Blinken, who served as Deputy Secretary of State under Obama and was a hard-line advocate for the war in Libya. Despite Biden campaigning to end the war in Yemen, Blinken - under Obama - sped up shipments of weapons to Saudi Arabia to wage its war in Yemen and was Biden's closest foreign policy adviser when Biden championed and voted for the Iraq war.
Continuing the trend of Obama foreign policy alumni, Jake Sullivan has been chosen as National Security Adviser. He served as a top adviser to war hawk Hilary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. Hilary's disastrous hawkishness was a key element that made her unelectable in 2016 and Sullivan was her right-hand man throughout her tenure.
Avril Haines, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Deputy Director under Obama and a key architect of the drone programs' legal framework, has been tapped for Director of National Intelligence. Haines also played a key role in covering up the U.S. torture program by failing to discipline the CIA agents who illegally hacked the computers of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to destroy evidence of the detention and interrogation program.
According to former CIA whistleblower, John Kiriakou, Haines would later not only shield these individuals from accountability but awarded them Career Intelligence Medals.
Then we have former general Lloyd Austin, Biden's choice for Secretary of Defense. Despite Democrats voicing fierce rejection in 2016 toward Trump breaking U.S. law - stipulating that no recent military official can hold this civilian post - when he appointed retired general ("Mad Dog") James Mattis, Biden has shown his own fluid attitude toward such laws by elevating Austin to the role.
Following his time with the army, Austin immediately joined the board of military contractor Raytheon Technologies - a company in which he now has roughly US$500,000 (AU$654,332) of stock holdings. Recently, Austin announced that he will recuse himself from any decisions involving his current employer while in office. He might also have to relinquish any stock holdings he has in Raytheon if Biden is to follow the ethical guidelines laid out by Obama.
As William J. Astore (LA PROGRESSIVE) observes, "Joe Biden is America’s new president, but nothing has changed on the war front."
The following sites updated:
