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This evening's music features jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong. Enjoy!

"The US hates al-Qaeda, then loves al-Qaeda, then hates al-Qaeda, then loves al-Qaeda. They split up, they get back together, they split up again. “We were on a break!” “We were not on a break!” Will they or won’t they? Keep watching and find out!"

-- Caitlin Johnstone

“The apparel oft proclaims the man”

-- William Shakespeare

News and Opinion

How the West Rebranded Al-Qaeda’s Jolani

Corporate media is heralding the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the emergence of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani as the new leader of Syria, despite his deep ties to both Al-Qaeda and ISIS. “How Syria’s ‘diversity-friendly’ jihadists plan on building a state,” runs the headline from an article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph that suggests that Jolani will construct a new Syria, respectful of minority rights. The same newspaper also labeled him a “moderate Jihadist.” The Washington Post described him as a pragmatic and charismatic leader, while CNN portrayed him as a “blazer-wearing revolutionary.”

Meanwhile, an in-depth portrait from Rolling Stone describes him as a “ruthlessly pragmatic, astute politician who has renounced ‘global jihad’” and intends to “unite Syria.” His “strategic acumen is apparent,” writes Rolling Stone, between paragraphs praising Jolani for leading a successful movement against a dictator.

CNN even scored an exclusive, sit-down interview with Jolani, even as his movement was storming Damascus. When asked by host Jomana Karadsheh about his past actions, he responded by saying, “I believe that everyone in life goes through phases and experiences … As you grow, you learn, and you continue to learn until the very last day of your life,” as if he were discussing embarrassing teenage mistakes, not establishing and leading the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s franchise in Syria. ...

While both journalists and politicians in the U.S. are scrambling to change their opinions on Jolani and HTS, the reality is that, for much of its existence, Washington has enjoyed a very close relationship with al-Qaeda. The organization was born in Afghanistan in the 1980s, thanks in no small part to the C.I.A. Between 1979 and 1992, the C.I.A. spent billions of dollars funding, arming, and training Afghan Mujahideen militiamen (like Osama bin Laden) in an attempt to bleed the Soviet occupation dry. It was from the ranks of the Mujahideen that bin Laden built his organization.

During the 1990s, bin Laden’s relationship with the U.S. soured, and it eventually became a principal target for al-Qaeda, culminating in the infamous Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. The Bush administration would use these attacks as a pretext to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq, claiming that America could never be safe if al-Qaeda were not thoroughly destroyed. Bin Laden became perhaps the most notorious individual in the world, and American society was turned upside down in a self-described effort to rout Islamic extremism.

And yet, by the 2010s, even as the U.S. was ostensibly at war with al-Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was secretly working with it in Syria on a plan to overthrow Assad. The C.I.A. spent around $1 billion per year training and arming a wide network of rebel groups to this end. As Jake Sullivan, now the U.S. national security adviser, told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a leaked 2012 email, “AQ [al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.” Thus, while many casual observers may be shocked to see the media and political class embrace the leader of al-Qaeda in Syria as a modern, progressive champion, the reality is that the U.S. relationship with the group is merely reverting to a position it has previously held. Consequently, it appears that the War on Terror will come to an end with the “terrorists” being redesignated as “moderate rebels” and “freedom fighters.”

Aaron Maté : US Media and Syrian Terrorists

Russian bases in Syria. Erdogan in control

Trump And Israel Can’t Wait To Start Bombing Iran

Both Israel and the incoming Trump administration are reportedly eager to start bombing Iran ASAP now that Assad’s out of the way.

Israeli media reports that the IDF now sees airstrikes on Iran as much easier to execute now that its pilots don’t have to worry about Syrian air defenses along the way, while The Wall Street Journal reports that the Trump team is weighing its options for airstrikes on Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon (which there’s no evidence Iran is currently trying to do).

A new article from The Washington Post titled “Syria’s collapse and Israeli attacks leave Iran exposed” reports that “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled a desire to capitalize on gains against Hamas and Hezbollah and take on Tehran more aggressively under a new U.S. administration.” The article notes that Trump has expressed openness to war with Iran, saying that “anything can happen”.

This comes as the al-Qaeda affiliates who captured Damascus assure the world that Syria will no longer allow itself to be used as a launchpad for attacks against Israel.

"Obey the Law": Palestinians Sue State Dept. over Israeli Arms Transfers Despite Human Rights Abuses

US violating law to fund Israel despite alleged human rights abuses, lawsuit says

The state department is facing a new lawsuit brought by Palestinians and Palestinian Americans accusing the agency of deliberately circumventing a decades-old US human rights law to continue funding Israeli military units accused of widespread atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, marks the first time that victims of alleged human rights abuses are challenging the state department’s failure to ever sanction an Israeli security unit under the Leahy Law, a 1990s-era law that prohibits US military assistance to forces credibly implicated in gross human rights violations.

The plaintiffs include Amal Gaza, a pseudonym for a mathematics teacher from Gaza who has lost 20 family members; Shawan Jabarin, the director of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, who endured six years of arbitrary detention in the West Bank; and Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American with relatives in Gaza who have been repeatedly displaced by the ongoing Israeli offensive. (Moor has written opinion pieces for the Guardian.) Along with two other plaintiffs, they are demanding judicial intervention to force the US to comply with the law.

With the death toll in Gaza since last October reportedly approaching 45,000 and humanitarian aid to the territory severely restricted, the legal challenge represents an attempt to force the administration to implement a law that has been seen as effective in helping the US to stem human rights violations by foreign military units in central America, Colombia, Nepal, and other countries.

The Leahy Law was designed to prohibit foreign governments from providing US assistance to any security forces that the US identifies as being ineligible due to a gross violation of human rights. But, as one former state official told the Guardian earlier this year: “The rules were different for Israel.” The lawsuit was filed in Washington DC district court.

Justice for Ayşenur Eygi: Family of U.S. Citizen Killed by Israel Meets with Blinken Demanding Probe

Gaddafi Predicted Syria’s Destruction Exactly!

Israeli army settles in for 'long term occupation' of Syria's Mt. Hermon

Israel is deepening its occupation of Syrian territory, including making plans to retain control of the strategic summit of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights, in addition to most of the water sources in Quneitra, in the wake of the fall of the Syrian government led by president Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Akhbar reports on 16 December that according to local sources, Israeli troops have carried out intensive searches and systematic destruction in some occupied areas, including drinking water pipes in a number of villages, with the aim of forcing residents to flee.

On Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered Israeli troops to prepare to stay over the winter on the 2,800-meter-high snow-capped Mount Hermon, a strategic location overlooking Damascus. According to Reuters, Katz's declaration is a sign that “Israel's presence in Syria is set to continue for a prolonged period.”

“This is the highest place in the region, looking upon Lebanon, upon Syria, Israel,” said Efraim Inbar, director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). “It’s strategically extremely important. There is no substitute for mountains.” Israeli forces plan to install extensive SIGINT (SIGINT eavesdropping and interception) facilities there.

NYT HOAXED With FAKE Hamas Docs

Matt Hoh : Assassination in Moscow

Russian forces destroy more Ukrainian Patriot launchers – MOD

Russian forces have destroyed four Patriot anti-aircraft missile launchers provided to Ukraine by Western nations, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Saturday.

Russian Air Force jets, along with drones and artillery groups, “destroyed a combat control vehicle, an AN/MPQ-65 radar station and four launchers of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system made in the US,” the military said in a statement.

In addition, over the past 24 hours Russian troops have liberated two villages in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). One of them, Vesely Gai, is located 10 km south of the embattled town of Kurakhovo, and the other village – Pushkino – is 15 km south of Pokrovsk.

Kurakhovo in Russia’s DPR has been heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces and is one of the few major populated areas still under their control in southwestern Donbass. The largest settlement controlled by Kiev is Pokrovsk (also known as Krasnoarmeysk), located approximately 30 km north of Kurakhovo. Last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky described the two locations as “the most difficult” for Kiev’s forces.

Amnesty Welcomes Release of Uncharged Guantánamo Detainee, Urges Biden to Free Others

Human rights defenders led by Amnesty International on Tuesday welcomed the Pentagon's announcement that a Kenyan man imprisoned in the notorious Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba for nearly 18 years without charge or trial has been released and repatriated to Kenya, while imploring U.S. President Joe Biden to transfer other uncharged Gitmo inmates before leaving office next month.

"We welcome the news that Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, who has been indefinitely detained without charge at Guantánamo for more than 17 years, is finally being transferred out of the prison," Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement. "The U.S. government now has an obligation to ensure that the government of Kenya will respect and protect his human rights."

Twenty-nine men now remain imprisoned at Guantánamo, which became a symbol of deadly torture, extraordinary rendition, illegal indefinite detention, and an allegedly "rigged" military commissions regime during the so-called War on Terror launched after 9/11 by the George W. Bush administration and ongoing to this day.

"Transferring Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu is certainly a move in the right direction, but it isn't enough," Eviatar stressed. "We hope to see more transfers in the coming days. Fifteen men remain who have never been charged with any crimes and have long been cleared by U.S. security agencies to leave Guantánamo, some for more than a decade. As a matter of justice, they should be transferred as soon as possible."

"President Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government," Eviatar added. "It has been 23 years; President Biden can, and must, put an end to this now."

Warrant issued for Bolivian ex-president over alleged relationship with minor

Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales has claimed he is the victim of a “brutal judicial war” orchestrated by the current president, Luis Arce, after prosecutors issued an arrest warrant over his alleged relationship with a minor.

On Monday, public prosecutor Sandra Gutiérrez revealed that a warrant for Morales’s arrest has been active since October. He is accused of “human trafficking” involving a 15-year-old girl with whom he allegedly fathered a child in 2016.

Gutiérrez said the warrant has yet to be executed because of a “risk to the lives of police officers” attempting to enforce it since Morales has been under the protection of coca growers in the rural region of Cochabamba, where he lives.

In a post on the social media platform X, Morales, 65, who governed from 2006 to 2019, accused Arce – a former ally turned bitter rival – of engaging in “lawfare” against him in order to hand him over to the United States as a “trophy of war”.

Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, has denied the allegations, calling them a strategy by Arce to block him from running in the 2025 presidential elections.

Family of ‘Cop City’ activist shot dead by Georgia police sue officers involved

Lawyers for the family of the environmental and social justice activist Manuel Paez Terán, known as Tortuguita, have filed a federal lawsuit against three officers involved in the killing of the “Stop Cop City” protester in a forested public park south-east of Atlanta nearly two years ago.

The complaint alleges Paez Terán’s fourth amendment rights were violated during the early morning raid on the forest on 18 January 2023, when officers from two agencies threatened to arrest them as they camped in protest against a controversial police training center known as “Cop City”. It also alleges a violation of the activist’s first amendment rights, in retaliation for opposing the training center.

The suit, announced by Atlanta law firm Spears & Filipovitz, is the most prominent among many legal filings surrounding the protest movement against Cop City to zero in on a key fact: that dozens of officers in Intrenchment Creek Park that day were under orders to clear out “criminal trespassers”. However, the park in question was public land, with no publicly-posted schedule, curfew or prohibition on camping, and is about a mile from the future police-training center that activists were protesting against. DeKalb county owns the park, while Atlanta owns the Cop City site. These facts form the basis for the complaint’s “false arrest” fourth amendment claim. ...

The second fourth amendment claim named in the suit alleges excessive use of force by two of the three officers, when they shot pepper balls into the tent where Paez Terán had been sleeping. “Any person trapped inside a tent that is filled with [pepper balls] would reasonably believe that they were going to die,” the complaint says. “At the time … [the officer] shot pepper balls into Manuel’s tent, Manuel had not engaged in any crime.”

Finally, the complaint alleges “retaliation in violation of the first amendment”. It says that the activist’s “participation in the activities in Intrenchment Creek Park, including camping […] constituted core political speech”, and that “the operation to clear Intrenchment Creek Park followed from a months-long effort by state and local law enforcement agencies to portray those opposed to the construction of the police training center as domestic terrorists”.

UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect charged with first-degree murder

The alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, has been indicted by a New York grand jury on charges of murder. Mangione, 26, has been charged with one count of murder in the first degree and two counts of murder in the second degree. He is also charged in Manhattan supreme court with multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon and a single count of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

After Mangione’s arrest earlier this month, prosecutors had filed a criminal complaint against him charging him with second-degree murder, criminal possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a silencer and possession of a forged instrument. This indictment supersedes that complaint. ...

Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told CNN that Mangione does not plan to fight his upcoming extradition to New York. He is being held without bail and expected in a Blair county court in Pennsylvania on Thursday for an extradition hearing.

A conviction of second-degree murder in New York would see Mangione serving 15 years to life in prison; a first-degree murder conviction would see a sentence of 20 years to life.

The New York City police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, lambasted Mangione’s supporters at a news conference on Tuesday. “Let me say plainly: there is no heroism in what Mangione did,” Tisch said. “We don’t celebrate murders.”

Young People APPROVE Of CEO Assassination

Luigi Mangione Charged With Murder as 'An Act of Terrorism' for Killing of Insurance CEO

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect arrested last week in connection to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was indicted on charges including murder in the first degree in furtherance of terrorism and murder in the second degree as an act of terrorism, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. ...

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office previously filed paperwork charging Mangione, an Ivy League graduate and Maryland native, with murder, but the terror allegation is new, according to The Associated Press.

A day after Luigi Mangione was arrested and first charged, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published what he said was Mangione's manifesto, which read in part: "I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming."

In addition, Mangione has been charged with a second count of murder in the second degree, "pertaining to the fact that the killing was intentional," said District Attorney Alvin Bragg during a press conference on Tuesday.

All told, Mangione is facing an 11-count indictment, which also include two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. He has also been charged with Pennsylvania gun and forgery offenses and is currently being held in a Pennsylvania jail.

Bragg called Thompson's killing "brazen, targeted, and premeditated shooting" and said the terrorism charges were warranted because the slaying was "intended to evoke terror."

Bragg noted that the "maximum penalty possible for murder in first degree and murder in the second degree as an act of terrorism is life without parole. The maximum penalty for murder in second degree is 25 years to life."

Worth a click and a peek. This is the first time this has crossed my radar:

From Marine Reserve to Military Base: Washington and Ecuador’s Quiet Plans for the Galapagos Islands

Last week, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa government issued a decree that not only violates article five of the national constitution, which prohibits the establishment of foreign bases on Ecuadorian soil, but makes a complete mockery of the basic concept of environmental conservation. The decree in question effectively hands over the Galapagos islands, one of the world’s most important marine reserves, to the US military as a base — with not the slightest whiff of protest from Western governments or media!

On December 10, the Governing Council of the Special Regime of the Galápagos (CGREG) approved the "Comprehensive Security Project in the Island Region" and the "Instructions for the Application of Cooperation Agreements between Ecuador and the United States," two resolutions that seek "to address shared security challenges" in the province of Galapagos. With a few strokes of a pen, the US military cooperation treaties with Ecuador signed on February 15, 2024, came into force for the island archipelago.

As such, the US will now be able to install military personnel, weapons and other equipment on the island chain, which has been recognised as a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site since 1978 — in a country whose constitution expressly prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases.

Of greatest concern to the islands’ residents is the resolution’s admission that implementing the project will require adapting or building additional facilities in local ports or airports. US war ships and submarines will also be able to dock at the islands’ ports. In fact, according to Radio Pichincha, Ecuadorian government officials are already on their way “to receive the first ships and crews from the US, scheduled to arrive in the coming days.”

The ostensible purpose of all this military activity is to combat drug trafficking, illegal fishing and other illicit maritime activities in the region. These are, I believe, primarily pretexts for public consumption. The real goal, as I endeavour to explain later, is to combat China’s rising economic influence in Latin America as well as project and protect US power in the southern Pacific. This is not the first time the US has used the Galapagos islands in this way.

Pollution exposure linked to mental health hospital admissions

Exposure to air pollution is linked to an increased risk of hospital admission for mental illness, according to the most comprehensive study of its kind.

The research, involving more than 200,000 people in Scotland, found an increase in exposure to nitrogen dioxide in particular was associated with a higher number of people being admitted to hospital for behaviour disorders and mental illnesses.

Previously published research on the health effects of long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has tended to emphasise deaths rather than hospital admissions, and physical, rather than mental, ill health, the researchers said.

The study found that air pollution was linked to increased risks of hospital admission for mental health, as well as physical illness. ...

Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad of the University of St Andrews, who led the study, said policies to tackle air pollution and a shift to renewable energy could help ease the burden on hospitals of people with both physical and mental illnesses in the long term.

Biden administration warns natural gas expansion would drive up domestic costs

The Biden administration has released a long-awaited analysis on the economic and environmental effects of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, concluding any further expansion would drive up costs for domestic consumers and hamper efforts to curtail the climate crisis.

In January Joe Biden paused the Department of Energy’s approvals of fossil gas exports to big consumers in Asia and Europe in order to conduct the review, in a move welcomed by climate scientists, environmental justice advocates and public health experts but decried by the oil and gas industry.

The analysis published showed rising LNG exports risk dramatically raising greenhouse gas emissions and could also trigger price hikes for US energy consumers, said the US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, in a letter summarizing the research’s findings.

Granholm told reporters that a business-as-usual approach to LNG export permits was neither sustainable nor advisable, and that the findings underscored the need for a cautious approach to new permits.

The Department of Energy analysis was welcomed by environmental groups. “The study makes it clear that expanding fossil-fuel exports would greatly harm the economy, climate and environment,” said Dr Rachel Cleetus, the policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “At a time when the world should be increasingly committed to moving away from fossil fuels, the US must adopt a forward-looking view to ensure the public is not saddled with the costs and consequences of short-sighted decisions that pander to the narrow interests of polluting corporations.”

Biden Admin Confirms Dangers of LNG Exports But Won't Act to Block Them

Approving more liquefied natural gas exports would raise domestic energy prices, increase the pollution burden placed on local communities, and exacerbate the climate crisis, the Biden administration concluded in a long-awaited report released Tuesday.

However, the Department of Energy (DOE) stopped short of denying any pending or future approvals, passing the buck to the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vocally supported the LNG boom.

"This study mirrors the Biden administration's entire four-year approach to advancing a clean energy future: weak and half-hearted," Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said in a statement. "Liquid natural gas exports systematically poison the most vulnerable frontline communities, pollute our air and water, and drive up domestic energy prices. We cannot continue to be victimized by the profit-driven agenda of fossil fuel corporations. President Biden must listen to the warnings of his own government by banning further LNG exports and rejecting pending LNG permits before he leaves office."

U.S. LNG exports have tripled in the last five years, making the country the leading gas exporter in the world. At the same time, the latest climate research has shown that—due to methane leaks across the LNG life cycle—the so-called "bridge fuel" is in fact worse for the climate than coal.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

The Day the Media Decided Militant Jihadism Was Respectable

Russia - Agree To Be Provoked Or Fall For Lucy's Football?

Why CEOs and the Very Rich Should Receive Enhanced Protection

How The Resource Squeeze Will Play Out

NYT Panics Over Outrage at Insurance Companies

History Repeats in Catalonia, As Rent Strike Begins

The Head of Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price Makes the Scary Case for the 10-Year Treasury to Spike to 6 Percent

Galaxies, auroras and a cosmic bat: Southern Sky astrophotography exhibition 2024

Bibi PARADES In Syria Amid Gaza Ceasefire Talks

Piers Morgan SCHOOLED About CIA False Flags!

Dr. GOES OFF On What They Don’t Teach In Medical Schools! - Dr. Casey Means

Macron's new Prime Minister, die hard EU believer

A Little Night Music

Louis Armstrong - West End Blues

Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven - Willie The Weeper

Billie Holiday & Louis Armstrong - New Orleans

Louis Armstrong - Black And Blue

Louis Armstrong - Basin Street Blues

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - Duke's Place

Dizzy Gillespie & Louis Armstrong - Umbrella Man

Louis Armstrong - Ain't Misbehavin'

Louis Armstrong - Skokiaan