Anarchists

11,024 views Jul 19, 2021 Steve Coll described his book as a "narrative of the history of the antecedents of September 11 as they were located in Afghanistan beginning in 1979 and ending on Sept 10, 2001." According to Coll, he placed a special emphasis on the role of the CIA and Pakistani and Saudi intelligence—all three principal actors in Afghanistan over those 20 years. His book was based almost entirely on 200 interviews with American, Pakistan, Saudi and Afghan participants. He also tried to draw on documents as much as he could but this proved difficult as there is very little documentation during this period. He describes the book as a piece of journalism where he attempted to bring multiple and balanced points of view to bear on controversial episodes. The story is written in 3 parts. The first section covers the anti-Soviet Jihad of 1979-89, a time when the U.S. collaborated with Pakistani and Saudi intelligence to aid the Afghan Mujahadeen battling Soviet occupying forces. The second phase he covers in the book begins in 1989 with the Soviet pullout and goes through late 1997, early 1998. Here he tells the story of the "American retreat form Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban, the full radicalization of Bin Laden, the maturation of Al Qaeda into a global terrorist organization, and the erosion of common cause among CIA, ISI (Pakistani), and Saudi intelligence." The third and final part of this story begins in the Spring of 1998 and runs right up to Sept 10, 2001. Here Coll focuses on the return of CIA covert action to Afghanistan and the Clinton Administration's mandate to capture, disrupt, or kill Bin Laden, and his lieutenants.

US nuclear weapons are stored across Europe but their presence is neither confirmed nor denied, so Foeke Postma from Bellingcat went looking for them. Along with Editor Maxim Edwards, they discovered that US soldiers had been leaking highly confidential locations of these nuclear weapons via flashcard apps, for years and years as well as hundreds of other secrets that were not meant to be in the public domain at all. It has been described as “one of the most monumental security breaches” in recent years. And all of it was online and available at the click of a button. This is the story of this unique investigation, conducted entirely through open source techniques, harnessing the power of google searching and social media stalking to expose a massive failure of the US military. “US Soldiers Expose Nuclear Weapons Secrets Via Flashcard Apps” by Foeke Postma for Bellingcat is available to read here; https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2021/...

"The coronavirus pandemic has no parallel in modern history. It is our defining moment." Those are the words of Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum (WEF), in COVID-19: The Great Reset, the 2020 book he co-authored with Thierry Malleret. "Many of us are pondering when things will return to normal," they write in the book's introduction. "The short response is: never." At the latest WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this January, Schwab set the tone for the conference with his glowing introduction of the opening speaker: Xi Jinping, China's president and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party "Major economies should see the world as one community… and should coordinate the objectives, intensity, and pace of fiscal and monetary policies," said Xi in his address to the WEF. This vision of a united globe with a coordinated economy managed by experts captures Schwab's vision of the post-COVID world. "We have to redefine the social contract," said Schwab at a 2020 WEF book launch event for The Great Reset. These grand proclamations, the ominous book title, and Schwab's odd personal style have led many people to speculate that the "great reset" is part of a conspiracy of global financial elites and politicians to depopulate the planet so that they can more easily institute one-world government, or even that COVID was engineered to that end. I don't buy it. Far-reaching, global conspiracies require levels of coordination and shared purpose likely to be quickly exposed and fall apart, especially in the networked age. Instead of spinning our wheels searching for a secret agenda, take a look at the one right out in the open. "I think we are moving from short-term to long-term, from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism," said Schwab at his 2020 book event. What Xi, the WEF, and people like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) have in common is that they favor so-called stakeholder capitalism, which is a euphemism for making companies answer first to special interests. They want to reorganize corporate boards to include representatives from labor, environmental, and social justice groups. Warren proposed a bill to require 40 percent of large corporate board seats be elected by workers. In China, the state simply owns or controls a majority stake in most of the country's largest firms. Written and produced by Zach Weissmueller, animation by Tomasz Kaye, additional graphics by Nodehaus Photos: CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Newscom; CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Newscom; Li Tao / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Ken Cedeno / Pool via CNP / SplashNews; Ahmad Abdo/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Ed Lefkowicz / VWPics/Newscom; Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa USA/Newscom; Li Xiang / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Kyodo/Newscom; CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Newscom; Li Tao / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Lan Hongguang / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom Stock footage: Timo Volz from Pexels; Alexander Bobrov from Pexels Music: "Thunder" by straget licensed under Creative Commons Attribution; "Aqueous Pulse" by thatjeffcarter licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. License: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)