Tag: massacre

Sen. Graham Admits The Syrian Jihadists He Once Supported Are Now Massacring Civilians

After a decade-long American effort to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power in Damascus, Senator Lindsey Graham says the US-backed jihadists that now control the country are causing more concern than ever.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Graham explained that he had “never been more worried about the deterioration of Syria than I am now.” The senator was discussing an outbreak of violence in the country, where forces aligned with the new government are conducting mass executions targeting the Alawites and other religious minorities.

Under President Barack Obama, Washington provided training and arms for Assad’s opposition, hoping to remove him from power and undermine Iran’s regional influence. However, the most powerful rebel factions were violent jihadists, a fact acknowledged in a 2012 internal memo circulated by Obama’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

During Trump’s first administration, he ended US support for the Sunni opposition, but enforced sweeping sanctions on Damascus that prevented the government from crushing Syrian al-Qaeda, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani and then concentrated in the country’s Idlib province.

At least some support for the rebels resumed during the Joe Biden presidency. In 2024, equipped with Ukrainian drones, Jolani’s forces went on the offensive, capturing Damascus and forcing Assad to flee the country.

Jolani and his organization – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist umbrella group – then seized control of the country. After dubbing himself the new Syrian leader, Jolani was embraced by Washington and its allies. Last week, when violence broke out in Syria’s coastal region, HTS responded by killing hundreds of Alawite civilians.

The events of the past weekend left Senator Graham questioning whether the US could still work with Jolani and HTS. “Is this al-Qaeda or ISIS-light or is this some new form of Islam that we can all live with?” he asked, adding that before any sanctions were removed, Jolani must comply with unspecified conditions.

Graham has supported the regime change operations against Assad for well over a decade. In 2012, he argued, “We need to form a coalition to help arm the rebels, as well as create no-fly and no-drive zones to stop the slaughter by the Assad regime. I cannot say with certainty what will follow Assad but I can say with certainty that Assad must go, sooner rather than later.”

“If America is seen as being helpful in ending the slaughter of the Syrian people, it will allow us to have a stronger, future relationship with Assad’s eventual successor,” he continued. “Replacing Assad in Syria is critical to regional stability, a major blow to the Iranian regime and will bolster our national security interests.”

The next year, the senator acknowledged that “radical Islamists are hijacking [the Syrian] revolution.” However, that did not sway Graham’s support for regime change.

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Israel perpetrated Nuseirat massacre to ‘block’ ceasefire deal: Hamas

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas movement’s political bureau, says Israel launched its bloody massacre and captive rescue operation in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp Saturday to block a ceasefire deal.

Speaking with Al Jazeera Arabic on 10 June about the US-proposed ceasefire deal and prospects for ending the war, Haniyeh said Israel attacked the Nuseirat camp, killing at least 274 Palestinians and retrieving four Israeli captives to block any agreement that would end the war.

Israeli forces bombed various civilian areas of Gaza from the air to create chaos and pave the way for Saturday’s operation while executing Palestinians in cold blood in their homes where no Israeli captives were present.

Haniyeh also accused the US of being a part of the attack, saying the Biden White House is “no less criminal” than the Israeli leadership.

A video posted by an Israeli soldier showed the captives being extracted by helicopter from the beach in Gaza where the US built a floating port, allegedly to deliver humanitarian aid.

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Logic of a Forgotten American Atrocity Is Alive Today

In March 1906, U.S. forces attacked a group of Moros and killed more than 900 men, women, and children at the top of Mt. Dajo on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines.

Even though the death toll was higher than at well-known massacres committed by American soldiers at Wounded Knee and My Lai, the massacre at Bud Dajo has been all but forgotten outside the Philippines.

Recovering the history of this event is the subject of an important new book by historian Kim Wagner, Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History. The book is a masterful reconstruction of the events leading up to the lopsided slaughter on the mountain, and Wagner sets the massacre in its proper historical context during the age of American overseas colonialism at the start of the 20th century. It also offers important lessons about how the dehumanization of other people leads to terrible atrocities and how imperial policies rely on the use of brutal violence.

In the years leading up to the massacre, the U.S. had been extending its control over the southern Philippines after it had annexed the northern islands and defeated local pro-independence forces in the Philippine-American War (1899-1902). U.S. relations with the Sultanate of Sulu were initially regulated by the Bates Treaty of 1899, but within a few years the U.S. abrogated that treaty and sought to impose direct rule. The U.S. tossed the treaty aside on the recommendation of Gen. Leonard Wood, who was the local military governor based on Mindanao at the time.

The massacre was part of a larger history of violent American expansionism, and it was the result of an imperial policy that sought to impose colonial rule on the Philippines. The U.S. effort to collect the cedula tax provoked significant resentment and opposition among the Moros. (The Moro name was the one given to the Muslim Tausugs of the Sulu archipelago by the earlier Spanish colonizers, and it was the one that the Americans continued to use.)

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Biden ATF Nominee Deleted Thousands Of Tweets, Prompting Speculation Of Prior Posts

President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)  has purged thousands of tweets from his Twitter profile, while still permitting communications on Facebook, raising flags over his prior hearing response that he made his account private due to “violent threats” that were forwarded to the Department of Justice.

In writing to Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, David Chipman said he “decided to set my Twitter account to private because of violent threats I had received in the past and anticipated receiving once my nomination was made public. I notified officials at the Department of Justice that I intended to make my account private.”

In addition, it appears Chipman has deleted the vast majority of his tweets. Whereas there were 1,815 tweets in October 2016, there are now a mere 115 as of Wednesday. It is unclear why his Facebook posts remain public and why he can be freely messaged if Chipman is legitimately worried about being threatened through social media. Surely, those threatening the ATF nominee would be smart enough to use other platforms. The contradiction was flagged by American Accountability Foundation.

Sen. Cotton told The Federalist Chipman’s behavior is suspicious and that he seems to be trying to conceal past information.

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Bing Censors Image Search for ‘Tank Man’ Even in US

Bing, the search engine owned by Microsoft, is not displaying image results for a search for “Tank man,” even when searching from the United States. The apparent censorship comes on the anniversary of China’s violent crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

“There are no results for tank man,” the Bing website reads after searching for the term. “Tank man” relates to the infamous image of a single protester standing in front of a line of Chinese tanks during the crackdown.

China censors and blocks distribution of discussion of tank man and Tiananmen Square more generally. This year, anniversary events in Hong Kong have dwindled in size after authorities banned a vigil.

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The June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre: 5 Truths That Still Aren’t Widely Known

Following the sudden death of a beloved political reformer, Hu Yaobang, 200,000 students gathered at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on April 22, 1989, to await the hearse carrying Hu’s body—but it never arrived. The mass of students were angered, and their burning desire for freedom could be contained no more.

For the next few weeks, Tiananmen Square was occupied by these student protesters, who aimed at making their dream of ridding the country of communist tyranny and bringing democratic reform to China a reality

Their nonviolent demonstration perhaps brought a glimmer of hope—until the army moved in. Martial law had been declared on May 20 that year, but what caused the army to suddenly go on a killing rampage on June 4?

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100 Years Ago Today, Cops Helped Terrorists Kill 300 of the Most Successful Blacks in America

On June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a horrific act of racial terrorism took place, and the perpetrators were actually assisted by the local police and the national guard. The site of the attack was a region of Tulsa known as “Black Wall Street” in a neighborhood called “Greenwood,” which was a thriving center of culture and commerce for African Americans.

At the time, the community was a symbol of black success in America, which unfortunately made it the target of constant hostility from media, politicians and local racists who saw it as an economic threat. The attacks on the community were sparked by an accusation that a black man attempted to rape a white woman. Although the man accused of the crime was arrested and awaiting judgment, a mob of angry racists did not want to wait for the suspect to see a fair trial, and instead wanted the whole black community to pay for the alleged crimes of this one man.

At the courthouse, innocent black bystanders were attacked by a mob and forced to retreat back to Greenwood. The mob then descended on “Black Wall Street,” setting fires to buildings and shooting people indiscriminately, creating a night of terror throughout the city. Airplanes circled the sky dropping kerosene and nitroglycerin on the buildings and people below, according to survivors of the attack.

Authorities did nothing to stop the violence, and in fact, they actually assisted the mob by only arresting blacks, and some reports have even indicated that they also engaged in violence, possibly even flying some of the planes that were responsible for the bombings. These events came to be known as the “Tulsa Race Riots,” but as many survivors have pointed out, calling them “riots” just serves to take responsibility from the mob and the police that protected them.

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Biden’s Anti-Gun ATF Nominee Lied About Cult Members Shooting Down Helicopters at Waco

The man President Joe Biden wants to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has made false statements about the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

During a 2019 “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit, a user self-identified as David Chipman falsely claimed that members of the sect had shot down two helicopters during the Waco massacre.

“At Waco, cult members used 2 .50 caliber Barretts to shoot down two Texas Air National Guard helicopters,” he wrote. “Point, it is true we are fortunate they are not used in crime more often.”

As noted in the New York Post, it is largely known that Branch Davidian members did indeed shoot at helicopters, however, none were shot down.

Further, no Barretts were recovered at the scene of the massacre.

“Although all of the three helicopters sustained damage from weapons fire, none of the National Guard crews or ATF aboard were injured,” a 1996 House report on the incident concluded.

Four ATF agents and 82 Branch Davidian members died in the 51-day siege.

In the same Reddit thread, Chipman defended the FBI’s role in the Waco disaster.

“I worked for the government for 25 years and I understand how trust in government has been harmed. Please remember, however, that it was agents on the ground who let the public know the truth about these incidents when some sought to cover-up inconvenient truths,” he wrote.

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