Antiwar.com Blog

Sunday’s suspension and banning of antiwar and libertarian Twitter users Peter Van Buren (whistleblower), Scott Horton (Antiwar.com Editorial Director), and Daniel McAdams (Ron Paul Institute Director) is all over the media today, including on Drudge and Zero Hedge. In today’s Ron Paul Institute special report we bring all three together to tell what really happened… and more importantly, what it means to the future of social media and free speech.

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

The independent press has long reported the seeming collusion between the US and al-Qaeda in the war on the Houthis in Yemen. Now the most mainstream of mainstream media outlets – AP – has concluded a blockbuster report that reaches the same findings. The US and its allies in the war on Yemen are so focused on curbing “expansionist” Iran that they are actually looking the other way – and even in some cases funding – al-Qaeda. More on this in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Some readers are aware I have been permanently suspended from Twitter as @wemeantwell.

This followed exchanges with several mainstream journalists over their support for America’s wars and unwillingness to challenge the lies of government. After two days of silence, Twitter sent me an auto-response saying what I wrote “harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence someone else’s voice.”

I don’t think I did any of that, and I wish you didn’t have to accept my word on it. I wish instead you could read what I wrote and decide for yourself. But Twitter won’t allow that. Twitter says you cannot read and make up your own mind. They have in fact eliminated all the things I have ever written there over seven years, disappeared me down the Memory Hole. That’s what censorship does; it takes the power to decide what is right and wrong away from you and gives it to someone else.

Hate what I write, hate me, block me, don’t buy my books, but please don’t celebrate handing over those choices to some company.

I lost my career at the State Department because I spoke out as a whistleblower against the Iraq War. I’ve now been silenced, again, for speaking out, this time by a corporation. I am living in the America I always feared.

Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during Iraqi reconstruction in his first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. His latest book is Hooper’s War: A Novel of WWII Japan. Reprinted from the his blog with permission.

If we’re still quietly hoping that wars would end and people all over the world would get along peacefully, the dreams and demands of the Helmand Peace Convoy would give us courage and evidence.

When Amanullah Khateb joined the Convoy, now called the People’s Peace Movement (PPM), he didn’t know that he would not see his wife again. With poor access to healthcare services, she recently died of appendicitis, leaving behind Khateb and three children.

But Khateb wants peace so intensely that he rejoined the PPM after his wife’s funeral. This desire is shared by each of the members of the PPM. They want all groups involved in the Afghan war to stop fighting, including the Taliban and the U.S./NATO/Afghan forces.

Continue reading “Can Afghans Convince Us That the Method of War Isn’t Effective?”

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

The Associated Press reports on the Saudi coalition’s cooperation with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen:

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States has cut secret deals with al-Qaida fighters, paying some to leave key cities and towns the militants had seized across Yemen and letting others retreat with weapons, equipment and wads of looted cash, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Hundreds more were recruited to join the coalition itself.

It isnot news that the Saudi coalition has sometimes worked with and fought alongside AQAP, but it is good to see more coverage of this important aspect of the war. The AP previously covered this in May 2017. The coalition’s war has wrecked Yemen and empowered AQAP, and the two have been on the same side in the war. Because the U.S. has backed the coalition from the start, that puts our government in the absurd position of supporting the governments and proxies working with AQAP at the same time that it is combating AQAP. The report states:

The AP found that coalition-funded militia commanders actively recruit al-Qaida militants – considered to be exceptional fighters – or fighters who until very recently were members of the group.

Continue reading “How the War on Yemen Helps al-Qaeda”

Starting tonight, US sanctions on Iran and anyone who does business will kick in. Did Iran attack someone? Threaten someone? No. President Trump has unilaterally pulled the US out of the nuclear agreement and now demands that all US allies follow suit and, de facto, abrogate the treaty. The Europeans are making a lot of noise, claiming that they will back up any EU businesses that remain in Iran. That won’t hold. Brussels will cave. But no one seems to be thinking about unintended consequences. Who stands to benefit the most from Washington’s obsession with regime change in Iran? China, which is already rapidly expanding its economic presence in Iran. More on this colossal Trump blunder in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.