Author: MoonOfAlabama.org

The fall out from the unprecedented grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes keeps growing. The return of the planes to the sky will need to be delayed again and again. The Wall Street Journal writes (also here) that the MAX…

Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama: July 8 – “Pretty Please” – Trump Asked Iran To Allow Him To Bomb It July 11 – Iran Keeps Calm While U.S. And Britain Continue Their Provocations Related: US-Iran escalation: It’s message-sending,…

The first Jeffrey Epstein thread has grown a bit long. Here is a follow up. For an introduction to the Epstein case please read this. A question that no one could so far answer is how Epstein got as rich…

Today first parts of the Russian S-400 air defense systems arrived in Turkey. The Russian Ministry of Defense posted a video of the arrival on Facebook. The Turkish Ministry of Defense video showed the unloading of six support vehicles belong…

Great Britain has joined the U.S. pressure and provocation campaign against Iran. It is creating incidents to put Iran into a defensive position and to provoke into a violent reaction. Early today ‘two U.S. officials’ spread a scare story about…

It seems necessary to give some room to the discussion of the Epstein case. Vicky Ward, who wrote a 2002 portrait of Epstein for Vanity Fair, has a short recap of the case at the Daily Beast: Jeffrey Epstein’s Sick…

Michael Isikoff was the first reporter who peddled the fake Steele dossier about alleged Russian influence over Donald Trump. He later admitted that the claims therein were ‘likely false’. Today Isikoff came up with a new fake story about ‘Russian…

On June 20 Iran shot down a U.S. spy drone. U.S. President Trump decided not to retaliate. The White House and the media claimed that Trump had ordered a strike on Iran but pulled it back at the last minute….

Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama: July 1 – No, Iran Does Not Break The Nuclear Deal (Updated) July 2 – No, Iran Is Not Rushing To Build A Nuclear Weapon July 3 – On Eve Of 4th Of…

Boeing hopes to have the 737 MAX back in the air by December. But a list of five major requirements issued by the European aviation regulator EASA lets one doubt that the time frame can be kept. EASA’s checklist includes…

From the Washington Post homepage a few minutes ago: bigger This scheme isn’t uncommon. Sensational headline claims X, text says the opposite is a well established practice in main stream journalism. Its rare that it is so obvious. But cursory…

An excerpt from a long piece by Aaron Maté who points at the huge holes in the Mueller Report about alleged Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election. CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller’s Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims At a May…

News & views …

Today a manned U.S. reconnaissance plane entered Iranian airspace in a clear attempt to provoke Iran into shooting it down. Such an incident would have created an occasion for Trump to give the American people a special 4th of July…

John Mearsheimer is a political science scholar who adheres to the realist school of thought. He developed a theory of offensive realism that at times produces valid predictions of the behavior of some states. But his theory does not account…

This blog so far ran on New York time and displayed the time in a U.S. (AM/PM) format. It made it increasingly difficult to keep in sync with various time displays in other media quoted here. These often have ambiguities….

Here is some fakenews from the Guardian which falsely claims that Iran breaks the nuclear deal. Iran today announced that its stockpile of low enriched uranium now exceeds the 300 kilogram of enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6) level set out as…

Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama: June 24 – Trump Seeks ‘Coalition Of The Willing’ Against Iran So far Trump had no luck with finding coalition partners. The attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman were understood as…

Today the Financial Times published a long and wide ranging interview with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. A full transcript is currently available through this link. The talk is making some waves: Putin: Russian president says liberalism…

The Boeing 737 MAX continues to be a troublesome airplane. Two crashes of the plane type, which cost the lives of 346 people, revealed a significant problem not only with the messed up Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). It then…

The mainstream media seem to judge the Democratic primary debate last night quite differently than the general public. Quartz cites multiple polls which show that Tulsi Gabbard won the debate: [T]wo candidates seemed to pique a lot of interest among…

Yesterday the news agencies Associated Press and Reuters mistranslated a speech by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani. They made it sound as if Rouhani insulted U.S. President Donald Trump as ‘mentally retarded’. Rouhani never said that. The agencies previously made a…

Today is the 69th anniversary of the Korea War. The war has not ended. It is the U.S. that rejects to sign a peace treaty. The continued state of war is the reason why North Korea acquired nuclear weapons and…

After a somewhat quiet weekend the Trump administration today engaged in another push against Iran. Today the Treasury Department sanctioned the leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It also sanction Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and his office!…

Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama: June 17 – Iran To Exceed Some Nuclear Deal Limits – EU Under Pressure To Fulfill Its Commitments June 18 – Trump Fires Shanahan. Pompeo For Sec Def? Bolton To State? June 19…

Iran will continue to put Trump under pressure. As he wants to avoid a war that would hurt his re-election chances, Iran will use other means to pressure him. The discussion about Trump’s decision not to ‘retaliate’ for the shoot…

Last night U.S President Trump allegedly pulled back from a military strike against Iran after it had already been ordered. That is the official story but there are doubts that it is true. The Iranian campaign of “maximum pressure” against…

Early this morning Iranian air defense shot down a U.S. high attitude reconnaissance drone: DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have shot down a U.S. “spy” drone in the southern province of Hormozgan, which is on the Gulf, the…

Jeff Bezos’ blog, the Washington Post, has some bits on the discussion and infighting in the Trump administration about the march towards war on Iran. The piece opens with news of a new redline the Trump administration set out: Secretary…

Trump just fired his acting Secretary of Defense. Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump -16:59 UTC· 18 Jun 2019 Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who has done a wonderful job, has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so…

The conflict U.S. President Donald Trump ignited by leaving the nuclear deal with Iran is escalating at multiple fronts. U.S. sanctions on Iranian im- and exports are devastating its economy. A new tanker war is brewing. Iran will soon exceed…

Sorry for posting only four pieces this week. There was family visiting here who deserved a bit of attention. Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama: June 11 – Cuban Doctors Provide Healthcare To Those In Need – The U.S….

There is no evidence that Iran was behind Friday’s attack on tankers in the Gulf of Oman. There are many parties in the Middle East and in the United States who are interested in goading the U.S. into a military…

Thirteen month ago the United States launched a total economic war against Iran. It demands its capitulation. Now Iran decided to respond in kind. It will wage a maximum pressure campaign on U.S. economic interests until the Trump administration concedes…

UPDATED below — Early this morning, around 6:00 UTC, two tankers in the Gulf of Oman were attacked by surface weapons. Both ships were some 50 kilometers south-east of Bandar-e Jask, Iran, and some 100+ kilometers east of Fujairah. bigger…

The accident prone U.S. 7th fleet is again in trouble. CNN sensationally reports of a near collision of a U.S. navy ship with a Russian navy one: The United States and Russian navies are at odds over an apparent near…

Each D-Day anniversary the same question comes up. Who defeated Germany and its allies? The answer is, without any doubt, the Soviet Union. But after decades of western propaganda the claims that the U.S. defeated the Reich has taken over…

Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama: May 27 – New York Times Supports False Trump Claims About An “Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program” That Does Not Exist May 28 – U.S. Government Seeks NGO Help For Removing Iran From Syria…

Early this morning, around 6:00 UTC, two tankers in the Gulf of Oman were attacked by surface weapons. Both ships were some 50 kilometers south-east of Bandar-e Jask and some 100+ kilometers east of Fujairah. bigger The Front Altair, a…

I’ve got nothing. — News & views …

The Trump administration wants to reassert hegemony over Latin America. Cuba is one of its main targets. Through right wing allies and by its own means it targets Cuba’s most successful export program – the provision of Cuban doctors to…

Last week saw our biannual request to you, dear readers, to support our efforts with a donation. Many of you thankfully do so. But many more seem to have missed the chance. If you are one of those sinners please…

Western media currently publish glorifying obituaries for a Syrian ‘rebel’ who is know for extreme sectarianism and for being a member of a Jihadi group that is aligend with al-Qaeda. The Associated Press, the BBC, the Guardian and analysts all…

Over the last week there were several meta-post about the Moon of Alabama blog itself. This is another happy one. A week ago we announced some minor renovations of this blog’s functionality. Smaller linking issues were fixed and the ‘search’…

CNN sensationally reports of a near collision of a U.S. navy ship with a Russian navy one: The United States and Russian navies are at odds over an apparent near collision in the Pacific Friday with each side blaming the…

In one of the interviews Seymour Hersh gave last year about his life as a reporter he was asked to give advice for other writers. He had three tips: Read before you write. Know more than you write. Get yourself…

A piece in the New York Times showed how in March 2018 Trump was manipulated by the CIA and MI6 into expelling 60 Russian diplomats. Eight weeks after it was published the New York Times ‘corrects’ that narrative and exculpates…

Each D-Day anniversary the same question comes up. Who defeated Germany and its allies? The answer is, without any doubt, the Soviet Union. But after decades of western propaganda the claims that the U.S. defeated the Reich has taken over…

The Swiss Propaganda Research group is an independent nonprofit organization investigating geopolitical propaganda in international media. Its major articles are available in English language. One of its recent projects is the Media Navigator. It classifies more than 70 English language…