The State Department offers US$15 million bounties for Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Regardless of the human costs that the economic blockade causes the Venezuelan people, the U.S. Attorney General William Barr Thursday announced that his country will designate Venezuela as a state sponsoring terrorism.
MATTHEW EHRET—After 33 Turkish troops were killed in a Syrian army offensive on February 27 amidst the current Russia-backed campaign to liberate Idlib, Erdogan responded by laying the blame entirely on Russia and Syria – successfully avoiding all mention of the uncomfortable fact that Turkey has been protecting radical terror networks not only in Idlib but across Syria as a whole for years. During this time, Islamist forces within Turkey favorable to Assad’s overthrow have been attempting to play a complex game of geopolitics for which they are totally unqualified.
DAVID GOLDMAN—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly remonstrated with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his decision to permit Huawei to build part of Britain’s 5G networks, and President Trump personally intervened with the British Prime Minister to no avail. The Financial Times reported on February 6 that President Trump was “apoplectic” in a call to Johnson. On February 14 Johnson postponed a planned White House visit in response.
NATYLIE BALDWIN—We’re constantly hearing U.S. politicians crow about NATO being so essential and how Trump was an apostate for even suggesting during one of his transitory moments of lucidity some time back that maybe NATO was no longer necessary. You’ve heard this shibboleth trotted out several times during the Democratic primary debates. It would be unthinkable to question NATO and the U.S. commitment to it – all for one and one for all – especially in light of that dastardly Putin who’s just waiting for the right moment to swallow up the Baltics, Poland, Germany, France and maybe the eastern seaboard of the United States for dessert.
CHRISTIAN STOCKER—In truth, things are like this: At the time of the Snowden revelations, NSA and GCHQ, with their superior capabilities and huge shadow network, were probably far ahead of what the GCHQ once called “mastering the Internet” . Chinese and other state hackers , although very busy and no less ruthless, could only dream of the same level of power. The United States and its Five Eyes partners have turned the Internet into a weapon system that even a U.S. president named Obama did not want to give up.