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Category: Politics

With a new weapon in Trump’s hands, the Iran crisis risks going nuclear

With a new weapon in Trump’s hands, the Iran crisis risks going nuclear

William Arkin writes: Ten days before Donald J. Trump was elected president in 2016, the United States nuked Iran. The occasion: a nuclear war exercise held every year in late October. In the war game, after Iran sank an American aircraft carrier and employed chemical weapons against a Marine Corps force, the Middle East commander requested a nuclear strike, and a pair of B-2 stealth bombers, each loaded with a single nuclear bomb, stood by while the president deliberated. “Testing…

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How Soleimani exploited the power of Middle Eastern militias

How Soleimani exploited the power of Middle Eastern militias

Hassan Hassan writes: The Iranian general Qassem Suleimani is dead, and tensions with Iran appear to be simmering down. But the landscape he helped build is still very much a problem for the United States. Since his killing in a U.S. drone strike last week, experts have been rushing to explain just why Soleimani mattered so much to Iran’s ambitions—and what consequences his death really holds for the region. One simple way to think about it: He was the one…

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William Barr’s mission to maximize executive power and protect Trump

William Barr’s mission to maximize executive power and protect Trump

David Rohde writes: Last October, Attorney General William Barr appeared at Notre Dame Law School to make a case for ideological warfare. Before an assembly of students and faculty, Barr claimed that the “organized destruction” of religion was under way in the United States. “Secularists, and their allies among the ‘progressives,’ have marshalled all the force of mass communications, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values,” he said. Barr, a conservative…

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Sanders surges as progressives flock to him over Warren

Sanders surges as progressives flock to him over Warren

Politico reports: Something’s happening with Bernie Sanders that looked unlikely to many a few months ago: Progressive leaders and organizations are lining up behind him, not Elizabeth Warren, in the lead-up to voting. Two groups run by young people — the Sunrise Movement, which seeks to combat climate change, and Dream Defenders, which advocates for people of color — endorsed him last week. He’s also won the backing of People’s Action and the Center for Popular Democracy, which together claim…

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Trump’s Iran problem

Trump’s Iran problem

Robin Wright writes: On September 19, 1983, during Lebanon’s long civil war, the Reagan Administration ordered Marine peacekeepers in Beirut to open fire on Muslim militias in the mountains overlooking the city. The marines had been deployed for more than a year, after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, to help hold together one of the world’s most fractured states. Colonel Tim Geraghty, their commander, warned that an attack would cost the United States its neutrality and its mission; nevertheless, U.S….

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Iran deploys riot police as anti-government backlash grows

Iran deploys riot police as anti-government backlash grows

The Guardian reports: Riot police have been deployed in parts of Tehran the morning after tear gas was used to clear the streets of protesters angry at the government’s having mistakenly shot down a passenger jet killing all 176 people on board. Images of dozens of demonstrators taking to the streets in the capital and other cities including Esfahan were circulating on social media on Sunday morning and activists were calling for mass mourning rallies, raising the possibility of fresh…

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Esper says he didn’t see specific evidence Iran planned to attack 4 embassies

Esper says he didn’t see specific evidence Iran planned to attack 4 embassies

The New York Times reports: Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said on Sunday that he never saw any specific piece of evidence that Iran was planning an attack on four American embassies, as President Trump had claimed last week as a justification for the strike on an Iranian general that sent the United States and Iran to the brink of war. “I didn’t see one with regard to four embassies,” Mr. Esper said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” But he…

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Pelosi does not rule out possibility of subpoenaing testimony if Senate skips witnesses

Pelosi does not rule out possibility of subpoenaing testimony if Senate skips witnesses

ABC News reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday did not rule out the possibility of a House subpoena for testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and other witnesses sought by Democrats, depending on whether the Senate seeks testimony in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. “It’s not excluded, but we’ll see what they do,” she told ABC Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” She also did not rule out the possibility of additional articles of impeachment against…

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It’s tempting to see India as a place apart. But it offers lessons for us all

It’s tempting to see India as a place apart. But it offers lessons for us all

Kenan Malik writes: It’s the largest democracy in the world. It’s also one of the most fragile, one in which dissent has often been curtailed and communal divisions inflamed. At no time have the vulnerabilities of India’s democracy seemed more exposed than they are now. The return to power last year of the Hindu nationalist BJP, under the leadership of prime minister, Narendra Modi, has polarised politics. Modi clearly now feels empowered to pursue unyieldingly reactionary policies. The revocation of…

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Furor in Iran and abroad after Tehran admits shooting down Ukrainian jetliner

Furor in Iran and abroad after Tehran admits shooting down Ukrainian jetliner

The New York Times reports: Iran’s stunning admission that its forces errantly downed a Ukrainian jetliner — reversing three days of denial — did little to quell growing fury inside the country and beyond on Saturday as the deadly tragedy turned into a volatile political crisis for Tehran’s leaders and overshadowed their struggle with the United States. Ukrainian officials criticized Iran’s conduct, suggesting that the Iranians would not have admitted responsibility if investigators from Ukraine had not found evidence of…

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Saudis close to crown prince discussed killing other enemies a year before Khashoggi’s murder

Saudis close to crown prince discussed killing other enemies a year before Khashoggi’s murder

The New York Times reports: Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked a small group of businessmen last year about using private companies to assassinate Iranian enemies of the kingdom, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The Saudis inquired at a time when Prince Mohammed, then the deputy crown prince and defense minister, was consolidating power and directing his advisers to escalate military and intelligence operations outside the kingdom. Their discussions, more than…

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Iranian jet crash has eerie historical parallel

Iranian jet crash has eerie historical parallel

The New York Times reports: The timing of the jet crash near Tehran on Wednesday — coming just hours after Iran fired missiles at Iraqi military bases housing American troops — immediately led to suspicion that the plane had been downed by a missile. Those suspicions were confirmed on Saturday, when Iranian officials accepted responsibility for the downing of the jet, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Ukraine International Airlines, saying it was an accident caused by human error. The 176…

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Trump’s rationale for killing Soleimani is falling apart

Trump’s rationale for killing Soleimani is falling apart

Jonathan Chait writes: Why did the United States kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani? President Trump, in remarks to the nation the morning after the attack, gave a clear rationale. Soleimani “was planning new attacks on American targets, but we stopped him.” That information has not been made public. But the glimpses behind the curtain have not inspired confidence that Trump’s story is on the level. The most damning assessment is indirect. When the administration shared its intelligence with select members…

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Trump’s talent for telling the masses on the right what they want to hear

Trump’s talent for telling the masses on the right what they want to hear

Michael Kruse writes: Sometime soon, Donald Trump, the third president in the history of the United States to be impeached, is expected to face a trial in the Senate, charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Traced back to its roots, this is a crisis entirely of his own creation: He came across a sketchy scrap of information, a debunked piece of Russian propaganda relating to Ukraine, and he saw it as something he could use, to help…

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Michael Bloomberg is open to spending $1 billion to defeat Trump

Michael Bloomberg is open to spending $1 billion to defeat Trump

The New York Times reports: Michael R. Bloomberg on Saturday did not rule out spending a billion dollars of his own money on the 2020 presidential race, even if he does not win the Democratic nomination, and said he would mobilize his well-financed political operation to help Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren win in November if either is the party nominee, despite their sharp policy differences. Mr. Bloomberg’s plans would effectively create a shadow campaign operation for the general election,…

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Rick Wilson on how to dump Trump

Rick Wilson on how to dump Trump

Martin Pengelly writes: Democratic voters should read Rick Wilson’s new book, he says, and heed his advice about how to beat Donald Trump. Why? “Unless your candidate is a generational superstar like Barack Obama or Bill Clinton” – and it’s not a push to say there is no such Democrat this year – “we know all the tricks to beating them and we’ve used them over and over again.” By “we” he means the Republican party. Wilson is a top…

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