WESTERN EXCEPTIONALISM

ERIC ZUESSE—At long last, Syria’s army and Russia’s air force are no longer being threatened with World War III by the U.S. and its allies if they proceed to destroy the tens of thousands of Al-Qaida-led jihadists whom the U.S. had helped to train and arm (and had been protecting in Syria ever since December 2012) in order to overthrow Syria’s non-sectarian Government and replace it by a fundamentalist-Sunni Government which the royal Sauds who own Saudi Arabia would appoint. All throughout that war, those Al-Qaeda-led ‘moderate rebels’ had been organized from the governate or province of Idlib (or Idleb). But now, most (if not all) of their leadership are dead.

JIMMY DORE—LEE CAMP— The two activists discuss how Facebook and other social media giants are trying to strangle free voices telling it like it is by blocking their communications with their followers and also aggressively demonitising their sites. Their main offfence is of course that Camp and Dore are antiwar, and anti-capitalism. Lee Camp accurately describes the situation as a drip drip approach to the strangling of free speech. It reminds us of the legendary frog in the pot, who is boiled to death so slowly he never realises he must jump out immediately to avoid certain death. As stated in our pages many times and seen on similar anti-establishment orgs, the corporate system, like ghouls scared of the daylight, is frightened by truth. The water keeps getting hotter and hotter in the pot, but the animals are not taling remedial action.

MoA—The Wahhabi Saudis want a Yemeni government that is not controlled by the Zaydi-Shia Houthi with whom they fought dozens of wars over two provinces that Saudi Arabia once annexed. They also want to control Yemen’s oil and a pipeline from the Saudi oil region to a harbor in Yemen. It would help Saudi oil exports to avoid the Iran controlled Strait of Hormuz.

PEPE ESCOBAR—The real story confirms what Lula said in the interview. On August 10, a group of 70 wealthy farmers, all Bolsonaro voters, organized on WhatsApp a “Day of Fire” in the Altamira region in the vast state of Pará. This happens to be the region with the highest number of wildfires in Brazil – infested with aggressive rural developers who are devoted to massive, hardcore deforestation; they’re invested in land occupation and a no-quarter war against landless peasants and small agricultural producers. “Day of Fire” was supposed to support Bolsonaro’s drive to finish off with official monitoring and erase fines over one of the “Bs” of the BBB lobby that elected him (Beef, Bullet, Bible).

THE SAKER—Russia and Malaysia were denied the right to participate in the investigation. Can you outline what the legalities are to decide which countries do or do not get the chance to participate? Do Russia and Malaysia not have any legal instruments to invoke to challenge the absolutely ridiculous way the official inquiry was constituted and, even more so, the way this commission of inquiry operated (such as using social media sites, but not official Russian data)? Russia is an IATA member, so is Malaysia. Can they not sue?