John Allan

Avatar is reporter Maya Naser from Damascus killed by sniper in 2012. RTs/links/follows aren't endorsements.

[John Allan @johnnallan]

Maya Naser

https://t.co/UmAxT9h2AS

https://t.co/ZCn9WrbqRG

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

Most people have forgotten about Russiagate and the limitlessly insane claims that were constantly made for almost 3 years by the most mainstream media and political figures.

That's because most liberals now pretend they never really bought into it or took it all seriously even though all those fabricated conspiracies -- and the creepy worship of Robert Mueller -- were close to a unanimous religious-type conviction among every faction in the Democratic Party and their media allies.

[John Allan @johnnallan]

Oof...

[Gad Saad @GadSaad]

This Wood Cricket Jew, @jonstewart, is the epitome of a castrated smug imbecile. Knows nothing. Understands nothing. Experienced nothing. But because he is a progressive "comedian," he has a platform to spew his self-loathing shite.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇹🇷🇪🇬 Mecca Alliance already expanding?

Turkish FM Hakan Fidan said Egypt is a “natural partner” and could soon join the new defense pact with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan.

“Once some technical matters are sorted, there’s no reason Egypt shouldn’t be part of it”

This comes after a decade of sharp tensions between Ankara and Cairo over Libya, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Relations have warmed fast in recent years with joint military drills, defense deals, and high level visits.

A bigger Sunni bloc forming as the region realigns amid the Iran conflict.

Writer: Lucas

[Mohammad Ali Shabani @mashabani]

The Iranian government's apparent response to the trilateral pact announced in Mecca:

"When Muslims stand together, we can face every challenge by malicious outsiders head-on.

Time to rely only on ourselves and embrace true brotherhood."

[Patricia Marins @pati_marins64]

In a Defeat for Trump, Saudis Seek Defense Pact with Turkey and Pakistan

The trilateral pact signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, officially named the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, contains a collective defense clause: an armed attack against one member state will be considered an attack against all. 

According to official statements from Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry and Turkish authorities, the agreement aims to strengthen collective deterrence and promote regional stability.

They claim it is not directed against any specific nation.
In practice, this is a formal upgrade of the bilateral Saudi-Pakistani pact signed last year, now expanded to include Ankara. The terms provide for intelligence sharing, combined training, and joint defense-industry projects. 

Saudi Arabia brings financial weight, Turkey contributes advanced military technology, and Pakistan offers a battle-hardened army.

Interestingly, the technological exchange between Pakistan and Turkey is already a source of concern for China, particularly in the drone sector, where the these countries compete directly.

The Saudi-Pakistani alliance is longstanding, but it has always been highly volatile. In 2015, Riyadh expected Islamabad to send troops to fight the Houthis in Yemen, but the Pakistani parliament voted for neutrality.

This decision deeply irritated the Saudi monarchy, leading to a diplomatic freeze and the temporary suspension of credit facilities and subsidized oil supplies.
Another critical issue is that the Saudis are about to restart the civil war in Yemen, which will inevitably trigger retaliations.

Does receiving retaliatory strikes for waging war through proxies and allies activate the collective defense clause? I have a strong impression that we will face serious deadlocks here.

The 2025 bilateral treaty was designed by Islamabad as a straightforward transactional swap: Pakistan would provide formal military security guarantees to Saudi Arabia in return for massive, immediate investments into its battered economy.

Months after the signature, however, frustration simmered in Islamabad. Pakistan complained that despite formalizing the pact and deploying around 8,000 troops, fighter aircraft, and air-defense systems to Saudi soil, Riyadh’s promised productive investments never materialized.

The Saudis continued to withhold transfers, limiting themselves to bureaucratic deposits tied to strict IMF conditions.

What changed now?

The full-scale military escalation in the Middle East completely altered Riyadh’s survival calculus. To repair the broken trust with Pakistan and persuade it to sign a new strategic joint-defense treaty, Saudi Arabia had to concede on the economic front.

Read more:
https://t.co/AXAQ0yW2HL

[courtneybonneauimages @cbonneauimages]

These are armed Israeli surveillance drones flying over Lebanon right now. Not only are they used for data collection, they’re also used as a form of psychological terrorism. The sound you hear in the video is from inside my apartment.

The persistent buzzing of military drones can inflict severe psychological trauma on civilians, especially children, causing anxiety, sleep deprivation, hypervigilance, and PTSD. The omnipresent sound creates a constant sense of being surveilled and an ever-present threat of sudden death. Anyone can be killed or injured in a drone strike at any time, or witness another person being murdered in front of them.

Americans, your tax dollars are paying for this terrorism.

Imagine armed drones flying over your city 24/7. Would you accept that?

[Joshua Landis @joshua_landis]

According to a Wall Street Capitalist that I spoke to, President Sharaa of #Syria is making a big mistake in his approach to reviving the economy.

"By offering Syrians zero safety net and zero subsides, he is providing Syrians zero ability to survive," he insisted.

I asked, "How can Sharaa establish a safety net with no money? Didn't subsidies on food, education, and oil bankrupt the Assad regime? Isn't his only choice to lure big investors into Syria?

Answer: "The purchasing power of the median income Syrian is too low for capitalism to work. The new rulers must have one goal: to increase the purchasing power of the middle class.

Question: How do you get money to Syrians to build a middle class?

Answer: You have to create jobs. You have to have an industrial policy that forces Europe and America into a tax-free trading deal. Negotiate free trade agreements and offer massive incentives to create manufacturing jobs and increase exports.

Question: How do you get that? Sharaa has no money and no leverage. His only strategy is to give very favorable privileges to rich companies and hope that they invest and create jobs?

Answer: Ask everyone not for hotels and stupid resorts but electricity capacity. Send delegations to Europe and the US and explain that to get Syrians to return, we need free trade agreements with you. We need jobs, which will serve as a powerful magnet to draw Syrians back home.

We don’t need handouts. We don’t need resorts. We need electric capacity and 20-year free-trade agreements to help us lift our middle class back up.

Screw Resorts. Sharaa's team is misguided. They are going about economic development all wrong. They bring idiotic UAE guys to set up fancy towers and resorts while the population is dying of hunger. Screw the resorts.

Raising the median income should be the only job of the economic planners. And for that they need help from the outside.

Sharaa needs to form very high caliber group that can sell the case in foreign capitals.

Syria needs to argue that it needs a 20-year plan to get the average income of a Syria up to a certain figure. We can only do this if you give us a chance. Exempt our products from import duties and let it expire in 20 years.

First build Syria's electric capacity and basic infrastructure because without that, no company will set up shop in Syria. Then offer corporate tax incentives to Turks, Lebanese, and to anyone who wants to manufacture in Syria and export abroad.

The goal is to offer employment to Syrians and raise the median income. Once the median income rises to the goal you set only then should you build the towers and resorts that are being planned now. Importing fancy cars and other luxury stuff will only increase social tensions. You don't start with the high end stuff. You need to start with jobs and building a strong middle class.

Maybe what I am saying is utopian, but it is the only way for sustainable growth that will avoid future revolutions and social strife. Syria has done through destructive revolutions too many times and each time, we lose all our talented and educated professional abroad. This is what happened with Nasser, the Baath, and most recently the revolution against Assad. It could happen again if Sharaa and his crew isn't careful.

[Amberin Zaman @amberinzaman]

Updated our story on the 🇸🇦🇹🇷🇵🇰 defense pact
📌Israel, Iran & Houthis feel targeted
📌Egypt stayed out
📌Turkey Pakistan will expand military footprint in Gulf, benefit financially but posture will remain fully defensive

Read on for more analysis on this unprecedented pact between 3 Sunni heavyweights https://t.co/ge3kWnyP60 via @AlMonitor

[John Allan @johnnallan]

Wow.

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

An incredible expose by Ronen Bergman shows how Israel invents quotes from Iranian officials in order to manufacture "evidence" that Iran is building nuclear weapons. This event took place on August 5th, when it was reported globally that Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the IRGC had admitted that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. The only problem? It wasn't true:

1) Netanyahu's pet network in Israel, Channel 14 spent months building Vahedi up as "the strongest man in Iran," priming audiences to treat any dramatic quote from him as coming from Iran itself. In reality, he is one power player among several.

2) An Indian Hindu nationalist account posts an earlier fabricated quote from Vahedi that says that nuclear weapons are a "necessity" for Iran. It does not get much traction.

3) The same account publishes a quote saying that Vahedi stated that Vahedi said that Iran will keep developing nuclear weapons as long as the US and Israel have them. There was no source.

4) The Mossad Commentary account, a large account with no affiliation to the actual Mossad posted the quote in English.

5) Channel 14, a mere 33 minutes later, covers this and claims that this is "the first time" an Iranian official directly admitted to building a nuclear bomb.

6) Three minutes later Yair Netanyahu, son of the Prime Minister, retweets Mossad Commentary, then three minutes later retweets Channel 14 English, followed later by Israel War Room.

7) Two hours later, Netanyahu senior cites the fabricated quote in an official speech at Mount Herzl, now the made up Tweet had become state policy.

8) The Tweet makes it to the US, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz shares it saying that Iran is "finally admitting what was clear for years," then deletes it without explanation.

9) Mark Levine shares it and then Fox News reports it as fact, including an on-screen headline.

10) Channel 14 now reports this again with FOX and Netanyahu as the source. Mossad Commentary, the original source of the English version, now cites Channel 14 as its source, completing a circular citation loop.

11) Israel's Foreign Ministry spreads Netanyahu's remarks to Persian-speaking audiences.

12) Indian news agency ANI reports the story back in India, attributing it to "Israeli media," completing the round trip.

This is a well oiled machine of disinformation emanating from Netanyahu and his circle designed to create a false narrative which will destroy negotiations with Iran and renew the war. Similar frauds have been perpetrated in the past like the Jewish Chronicle/Bild affair, when a made up journalist planted stories in the press to justify blowing up a hostage deal with Hamas. But this time he is dragging the entire world into endless war and not just Israel.

[John Allan @johnnallan]

Who is hiring the shooters?

Toronto police in June said they believed multiple shootings, including the March incident, could be linked to “multilayered” gun-for-hire networks that have also targeted synagogues in the city.

https://t.co/5fRDWPihkf

[Patricia Marins @pati_marins64]

The Saudis sign a trilateral security agreement with Pakistan and Turkey.
There is no other image that more clearly symbolizes Trump’s failure than the Gulf states seeking regional security arrangements.

[Emma Ashford @EmmaMAshford]

Didn't think I could dislike the Free Press more, but they're trying really hard to push all my buttons.

[Isi Breen @isaiah_bb]

You know what it means when the IDF has good enough optics to pick out the forelocks on individual people’s heads?

It means they know the toddlers are toddlers when they murder them.

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

Finkelstein: "Israel has become a nation of child killers. From Daniella Weiss to Benny Morris-from settlers urinating on children to soldiers filming a dying boy and blocking aid."

This is not a few bad apples. This is a citizen army.

When the entire spectrum-from extreme to mainstream-treats Palestinian children as subhuman, it's not an aberration. It's a national character

[Matt Stoller @matthewstoller]

1. After Abdul El-Sayed's win in Michigan, a DC-based advocacy group Third Way will now spend $15 million to attack 'the left.' They frame themselves as moderate Democrats. Why aren't they that spending money attacking the GOP?

The answer requires explaining who they are.

[John Allan @johnnallan]

Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, Turkey's defense industry, and Saudi money, tied together

[Levent Kemal @leventkemaI]

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan Set to Sign Defense Pact Amid Regional Security Concerns

The planned agreement comes as Gulf states seek new security partnerships following a period of heightened regional uncertainty. https://t.co/4MToPVfKdI

[John Allan @johnnallan]

For a few fleeting days, there was a deal which would have disarmed Hamas and secured an Israeli withdrawal from the strip.

[Responsible Statecraft @RStatecraft]

Trump is also undercutting his own peace plan more broadly, jeopardizing one of his few concrete foreign policy achievements. @elgindy_

https://t.co/F8HMlLjXJ1

[Responsible Statecraft @RStatecraft]

So, is Robert Kagan now reconsidering his past hawkishness? @MartinDiCaro interviewed him to find out.
https://t.co/gUX7bT3sLm

[HalifaxCB aka GammaRat @HalifaxCB]

@ForeignPolicy The book sounds good. Judging by the Zionist outrage here, it's probably worth buying.
Here's the archive copy of the review:
https://t.co/URKbtreaEz

[Foreign Policy @ForeignPolicy]

A new book by the British Israeli architect and political activist Eyal Weizman tells the story of Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza street by street, farm by farm, and hospital by hospital.
https://t.co/3RhE7YbFWA