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CCI Friends,
We are posting Natylie Baldwin’s assessments of the latest happenings regarding the U.S., Iraq, Iran, Russia and China. This extremely dangerous situation could escalate. Hopefully saner heads will quickly emerge in Washington.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear CCI Readers,
More suspicion is being raised about the caliber of our U.S. mainstream media. This time it’s Newsweek, considered one of the best of our news magazines over many decades. It started reporting in 1933 and has continued up to today. Natylie Baldwin reports on Tareq Haddad, an accomplished British journalist who resigned at Newsweek last week, due to being blocked from accurate reporting on the Syrian war.
I believe in 2020 we will be seeing more pushback by the public and journalists as more Internet news sources are revealing truths not being covered in the mainstream media. This combined with the fact that few Americans trust our media may be forcing a much needed honesty in our daily news. Let’s hope so.
Meanwhile best wishes to you now that the Holiday Season is just around the corner!
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Newsweek Journalist Resigns and Exposes Editors’ Blocking of Accurate Syria Reporting; More Docs Leaked Confirming 2 OPCW Whistleblowers’ Accounts of Douma Report
December 16, 2019
By Natylie Baldwin
This past weekend saw two more major blows to the years-long establishment narrative of the Syrian war in general and the chemical weapons attacks allegations against the Assad government in particular.
First, Tareq Haddad, an accomplished British journalist who began working for Newsweek earlier this year, resigned last week, telling his Twitter followers that he had done so as the result of his editors attempting to block him from accurate reporting on the Syria war and the OPCW whistleblowers. He also said that in the coming days he would be sharing a write-up on what had happened, despite threats of legal action by Newsweek:
Yesterday I resigned from Newsweek after my attempts to publish newsworthy revelations about the leaked OPCW letter were refused for no valid reason.
I have collected evidence of how they suppressed the story in addition to evidence from another case where info inconvenient to US govt was removed, though it was factually correct.
I plan on publishing these details in full shortly. However, after asking my editors for comment, as is journalistic practice, I received an email reminding me of confidentiality clauses in my contract. I.e. I was threatened with legal action.
I am seeking legal advice on how to proceed and whether I may be entitled to some type of whistleblower protection due to possibly fraudulent behaviour. At very least, I will publish the evidence I have without divulging the confidential information.
Dear CCI Readers,
We are proud to present America’s quintessential Ambassador, Jack Matlock, as he speaks out on the very issues that cripple today’s US foreign policy and our country itself. This piece was written eighteen months ago and is even more relevant as 2019 ends. Read and weep … and act! This is an authoritative piece that we can send to business colleagues, friends and even family members without hesitation. No one can question Jack Matlock’s grasp of these issues that are still paramount today.
Dear CCI Followers,
Please scan the New York Times article below. Dmitri Trenin has long been the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank, a position that likely has encouraged him, a former Soviet military officer, to see Russia from the American perspective. However, he’s done a great job of straddling the divide.
Trenin’s also done a service to the existing truth of today in writing this article, “Russia’s Comeback Isn’t Stopping with Syria.” One wonders if this isn’t being printed now to offset the NYT American University article on November 6 which brought much distain from readers.
Historically and even today, Russia has much in common with Ukraine—the United States, almost nothing.
The Nation
November 14, 2019
By Stephen F. Cohen
For centuries and still today, Russia and large parts of Ukraine have had much in common—a long territorial border; a shared history; ethnic, linguistic, and other cultural affinities; intimate personal relations; substantial economic trade; and more. Even after the years of escalating conflict between Kiev and Moscow since 2014, many Russians and Ukrainians still think of themselves in familial ways. The United States has almost none of these commonalities with Ukraine.
Which is also to say that Ukraine is not “a vital US national interest,” as most leaders of both parties, Republican and Democrat alike, and much of the US media now declare. On the other hand, Ukraine is a vital Russian interest by any geopolitical or simply human reckoning.