Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:
- March 4 – Venezuela – Random Guyaidó Returns Only To Again Be Ignored
- March 6 – Venezuela – Guaidó Planned To Use Arms – Frustration Over Stalemate Sets In
- March 9 – Venezuela – Three Total Blackouts In Three Days – Government Presumes U.S. Cyberattack
Electricity is again available in Caracas. Some parts of the country are still off the grid. Marco Rubio got egg on his face.
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The New York Times walks back a false propaganda claim it made against Venezuela: Footage Contradicts U.S. Claim That Maduro Burned Aid Convoy. Unmentioned in the Times piece is that this was already know and reported on February 24. The NYT may believe that this very late confession makes its other propaganda claims more believable. It doesn't.
Gideon Levy in Haaretz: Keep It Up, Ilhan Omar
Other stuff:
Peter Obone debunks a book written to smear Jeremy Corbyn as anti-semite: Jeremy Corbyn and the truth about Tom Bower's book. See also Medialens: The Fake News Nazi – Corbyn, Williamson And The Anti-Semitism Scandal
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Craig Murray: Pure: Ten Points I Just Can’t Believe About the Official Skripal Narrative. Kit Klarenberg looks at the connection between the shady Integrity Initiative and the Skripal affair. Was II involved in initiating the incident? Integrity Initiative: The Sinister Chain of Events Leading Up to Salisbury.
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Anyone remember Mullah Omar, the deceased leader of the Taliban? The U.S. military and intelligence services claimed over and over again that he was hiding in Pakistan. Bette Dam finds (pdf) that he wasn't:
After 2001, Mullah Omar never stepped foot in Pakistan, instead opting to hide in his native land—and for eight years, lived just a few miles from a major U.S. Forward Operating Base that housed thousands of soldiers.
In late 2001, after the U.S. invasion, Mullah Omar resigned as leader of the Taliban and the movement officially surrendered to Hamid Karzai who promised them reconciliation. The U.S. did not like that and launched a vengeful campaign against all former Taliban member. Eighteen years later the U.S. is suing for peace.
Mullah Omar lived quietly, meditated and studied religious text. Allah remarked on his death:
On April 23, 2013, Mullah Omar passed away. That day, Jabbar Omari told me, the hot, dry lands of southern Afghanistan experienced something he’d never seen before: a hail storm. I assumed it was hagiographic bluster, but later I found a U.S. army publication referring to that day: “More than 80 Task Force Falcon helicopters were damaged when a sudden unprecedented hailstorm hit Kandahar Airfield April 23, where nearly half of the brigade’s helicopters were parked.”
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Use as open thread …