By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump keeps tweaking his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in press interviews and on twitter, complaining bitterly that Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, which started in motion the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. Trump seems to imagine that if only he could get […]
Trump: Aid to Syrian Rebels was ‘Massive,’ ‘Dangerous;’ slams Post
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump trashed the Washington Post on Monday, calling it the Amazon Washington Post and implicitly complaining about a July 19 article on his halt to funding Syrian rebels. Trump tweeted: The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to […]
Screwdriver Attack at Israeli Embassy in Jordan over Aqsa Mosque Tensions
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Sunday in Amman, the capital of Jordan, two workers arrived at the Israeli Embassy in the tony Rabiyeh neighborhood. One of them attacked the Israeli security guard with a screwdriver, lightly injuring him. The guard appears to have shot his assailant. Somehow the building’s landlord […]
Top Five Rogues Pardoned by Presidents; will Trump try to be 6th?
By Juan Cole |. (Informed Comment) | – – Trump has been tweeting again, this time about his unlimited ability to pardon people according to the Constitution. That part is correct. He seems to be talking about pardoning himself, though, which the Constitution does not allow him to do. Also, what is he guilty about […]
How our Intel Agencies Screwed us by Letting Sessions, Trumpies get away with Russia Scheme
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller at WaPo report from a US intelligence source that former Russian ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, told Moscow that he had discussed campaign-related matters with Jeff Sessions twice in the summer of 2016. This revelation directly contradicts Sessions’ […]
Top 4 Lessons Trump can Learn from Napoleon in Russia
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump’s New York Times interview can only be understood, to the extent that it can be understood, as the ramblings of someone suffering from delusions of grandeur. It is rambling, full of non sequiturs, and of bizarre allegations. Trump said that he regretted appointing Jeff Sessions […]
Empire of Destruction: Mosul reveals Myth of Precision Bombing
By Tom Engelhardt | (Via Tomdispatch.com ) | – – You remember. It was supposed to be twenty-first-century war, American-style: precise beyond imagining; smart bombs; drones capable of taking out a carefully identified and tracked human being just about anywhere on Earth; special operations raids so pinpoint-accurate that they would represent a triumph of modern […]
Trump hands Putin gift, cancels Support for Syrian Rebels
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Greg Jaffe and Adam Entous at WaPo report that Trump cancelled the CIA program to support the remnants of the Free Syrian Army a month ago. The decision was made in a meeting of Trump with CIA director Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser H. R. […]
Saudi, slamming Qatar for Extremism, arrests Model for wearing Skirt in Public
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The intrepid Yaroslav Trofimov of WSJ said it all: Good luck to the Saudi PR campaign about how Qatar is the source of religious extremism in the Middle East. https://t.co/cgGW7ytMiu — Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) July 18, 2017 Saudi Arabia is leading a propaganda campaign falsely accusing […]