Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger + More

Let us travel back in time to April 9, 1999. It was the middle of hot season in the West African country of Niger and 120 degrees in the shade. Jocelyn, one of the authors, was a newly minted Peace Corps volunteer and had recently arrived in a rural community 60 miles south of Niamey, the capital, where she would spend the next two years. That day, President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara and five other people were shot dead at the airport, a mutiny by his presidential guard. But there was no international outcry, no evacuation of Americans and Europeans. Jocelyn was told to stay put in the small community where she was living. Life went on as usual.

Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger | Opinion

Related:

“Divide and Rule”: Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni Is Biden’s “Political Asset”. U.S. Behind Niger Coup d’Etat. America’s Hegemonic Wars Against Europe and Africa

Niger’s Crisis: Why is Mohamed Bazoum Calling for Western Intervention?

Niger’s deposed president wrote an article in the Washington Post. It read as if it was prepared to fit the agenda of the US military interventionists. Mohamed Bazoum is either ignorant of history or he is not the one puling the strings. Here is my latest.

Niger’s Crisis: Why is Mohamed Bazoum Calling for Western Intervention? via Ramzy Baroud

Related:

President of Niger: My country is under attack and I’ve been taken hostage

Niger’s Detained President Pleads With U.S. and Others for Help

I don’t think he wrote the opinion article! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Leading liberal Zionist voices call for ending U.S. aid to Israel

The damage Israel is causing to its support base in the United States is becoming more apparent. A very bright warning flare went up this weekend, appearing once again in the New York Times. This time, it was columnist Nicholas Kristof who took a much bolder and far less speculative step than his colleague, Tom Friedman did last week by suggesting that the very heart of AIPAC’s mission—annual military aid to Israel—should be phased out.

Friedman, you might recall, floated the idea that a “reassessment” of the United States’ relationship with Israel might be on the horizon, if not already starting. As I noted, that was meant as a warning to Israel, not a reflection of any actual steps by Joe Biden’s White House to launch a policy process of reassessment. Indeed, as subsequent events confirmed, and as was indicated by the fact that Friedman cited no sources, even anonymous ones, this was the columnist trying to use his column to get Israel to back off because political winds are shifting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not heed the warning, instead moving forward uncompromisingly on his domestic agenda and misleading the media about his conversation with Biden. Needless to say, that didn’t sit well in Washington.

Leading liberal Zionist voices call for ending U.S. aid to Israel

Why Does The Financial Times Care That An Indian Think Tank Is No Longer Tax-Exempt?

Screenshot from Wikipedia.

The UK’s Financial Times (FT) is attempting to artificially manufacture a scandal after complaining in an article on Sunday about the removal of an Indian think tank’s tax-exempt status last month. The “Centre for Policy Research” (CPR) was one of several organizations last September that were audited by income tax officials, after which its license to raise money abroad was suspended in February. Prior to then, the FT revealed that the CPR received a whopping 75% of its funds from foreign sources.

Why Does The Financial Times Care That An Indian Think Tank Is No Longer Tax-Exempt?

Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams?

Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams?

The United States owes other nations something different, something new. Democracy is in peril at home and abroad partly because of the impunity that keeps Abrams employed. Though his latest role may be somewhat ceremonial, his appointment is out of step with the demands of our time. There should be consequences for someone like Elliott Abrams. At minimum, it ought to be possible to fail out of public service, but for that to happen, we have to change the way we define failure. The massacre in El Mozote was one such failing — not a regrettable historical footnote but a catastrophic atrocity that indicts the administration Abrams served. His reward must be ignominy. The world deserves nothing less.

Previously:

Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams to Public Diplomacy Commission

Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams to Public Diplomacy Commission

Abrams led the Trump administration’s failed regime change effort in Venezuela and covered up atrocities in Latin American in the 1980s

Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams to Public Diplomacy Commission

Waiting to see if Abrams’ nomination is resisted as much as it was back when Trump nominated him! ☠️

Related:

Like a bad Pennywise, Elliott Abrams could bring a taste of Iran-Contra to Venezuela

‘Why are we tempting nuclear annihilation?’ — Transcript of Max Blumenthal’s address UN Security Council

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal addressed the UN Security Council on the role of US military aid to Ukraine in escalating the conflict with Russia and the real motives behind Washington’s support for Kiev’s proxy war.

‘Why are we tempting nuclear annihilation?’ Watch Max Blumenthal address UN Security Council

Previously:

All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

In the absence of official scrutiny of Washington’s spending spree on Ukraine, The Grayzone conducted an independent audit of US funding for the country. We discovered a series of wasteful, highly unusual expenditures the Biden administration has yet to explain.

All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

Threats to international peace and security – Security Council, 9364th meeting