DANNY HAIPHONG—U.S. Marine Corps Officer Scott Ritter SHATTERS the myth of Israel’s superiority in a scathing analysis of its ongoing war on Iran and Hezbollah. Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern also joined the show to discuss how Israel with U.S. help is digging itself deeper into the abyss as the IDF loses on all fronts.
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EDITORS—Nima and Prof. Marandi explore the potential for improvement or rapid degradation of the situation in the Middle East and beyond, depending on how Donald Trump and his likely cabinet of Neocons decide to play their cards. Iran’s rapid development of advanced weapons capable of neutralising the West and Israel itself, have changed the equation in West Asia, and rendered much of America’s global strategic power virtually dubious if not obsolete. Besides, Israel’s intransigence leaves little room for manoeuvring, and Tehran may be forced to act.
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STANSFIELD SMITH—“Compatible left” was a term used by the CIA to describe those on the left it has deemed compatible with maintaining imperialist world rule. This left has dominated the US left since the end of World War II, in large part a result of government operations repressing the communist or anti-imperialist left. Historically, this compatible left that the CIA worked to cultivate rejects actually existing socialism and formed a “third camp” or “plague on both houses” left between capitalist and socialist countries. Providing a “respectable” alternative to the anti-imperialists, it used its progressive flavor to lure in radical youth, activists, workers, and intellectuals.
The CIA is correctly seen as a ruthless organization that overthrows democratic governments considered a threat to US domination. But this overlooks the CIA’s “gentler” work: underwriting and encouraging a compatible left, one which looks to the Democratic Party for political leadership. The CIA has secretly funded and managed a wide range of these groups and individuals.
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OLIVER BOYD-BARRETT—Considerable controversy continues to swirl over the issue of whether Israel did or did not inflict significant damage on Iran on October 26. I trust the voices of Crooke, Ritter, Macgregor, McGovern and Johnson more than I trust Israeli claims or those of the Pentagon. Iran is a technologically advanced entity, a country of 100 million people with powerful alliances and major historical grievances with the rules-based order. Its enemies do not seem to understand that.
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EDITORS—This narrative of a “softening” does not stand up to analysis, masking police excess when faced with protesters. A freelance journalist was injured thus and had a testicle removed after being struck with a baton by a policeman during a protest on January 19 in Paris. Moreover, the apparent change in strategy after the appointment of Laurent Nuñez did not stop the unjustified beatings of a few dozen people protesting peacefully during police charges (January 19, January 31, and February 11).
In particular, from March 16 on, and after the government forced through its pension reform without a vote by using Article 49.3 of the Constitution, journalists and observers have documented widely how police forces have used physical violence against protesters. They have employed arbitrary arrest, and tactics of humiliation during the night-time marches (which unions didn’t declare) after the recourse to Article 49.3.
