Tuesday, March 2, 2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 2, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)


Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (/kəˈʃoʊɡʒi, kəˈʃɒɡʒi/Arabic: جمال أحمد خاشقجي‎, romanizedJamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, Hejazi pronunciation: [dʒaˈmaːl xaːˈʃʊɡ.(d)ʒi]TurkishCemal Ahmet Kaşıkçı; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi Arabian dissident, author, columnist for The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government. It was confirmed that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself gave the go ahead.[8][9][10][11] He also served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives.[12]

Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He said that the Saudi government had "banned him from Twitter",[13] and he later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government. Khashoggi had been sharply critical of the Saudi rulers, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.[14] He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[15]

On 2 October 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents related to his planned marriage, but was never seen leaving. Amid news reports claiming that he had been killed and dismembered inside, an inspection of the consulate, by Saudi and Turkish officials, took place on 15 October. Initially, the Saudi government denied the death, but following shifting explanations for Khashoggi's death, Saudi Arabia's attorney general eventually stated that the murder was premeditated.[16][17] By 16 November 2018, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's assassination.[18][19]


On 11 December 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was named Time magazine's person of the year for his work in journalism, along with other journalists who faced political persecution for their work. Time referred to Khashoggi as a "Guardian of the Truth".[20][21][22]      source from Wikipedia
Al Asad Air Base Tactical Ballistic Missile Attack By Iran
Mar 2, 2021
Unclassified footage of tactical ballistic missile (TBM) strikes on Al Asad airbase 08 Jan. 2020. Video used for 60 Minutes piece that aired on 28 Feb. 2021
US soldiers inspect the site where an Iranian missile hit an air base in Iraq in January 2020. 
New video shows US forces getting hammered by a barrage of Iranian missiles after Trump had a top general killed


Mar. 2 - The US has released previously unseen video footage of the Iranian missile attack on US and coalition forces in Iraq last year — retaliation for the death of a top Iranian general.

A drone recorded the attack as a barrage of Iranian short-range ballistic missiles carrying 1,000- to 2,000-pound munitions rained down on Al Asad Air Base on January 8, 2020.

The never-before-seen footage of the attack was obtained and aired by "60 Minutes" on Sunday.
—Zero Blog Thirty (@ZeroBlog30) March 1, 2021US Central Command released a longer, more detailed video on Monday.

Just days into 2020, President Donald Trump ordered the US military to kill Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military officer and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who the Department of Defense said was responsible for "the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more."     continue to read

The Real Reason Why Iraq Paused Its Major Oil Deal With China

Mar. 2 - With a new man in the White House, Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, appears to believe that Iraq can begin a completely new cycle of playing off the U.S. against China and Russia, as it has been doing since the first U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The game is very simple but nonetheless very effective: Baghdad sends a signal that it may move even closer to Iran or to Russia and China through various oil field awards or other contracts and the U.S. feels compelled to counter with the offer of more funding directly or indirectly through massive deals between U.S. firms and Iraqi ones. Iraq then takes the money and the contracts and continues to do what it was going to do anyway, which is to remain firmly on the side of neighbour Iran whose grip over the country is interwoven into its very fabric through political, economic, and military elements. In any event, Iraq’s announcement last week that it has put on hold its controversial and massive oil prepayment deal with China’s state-owned Zhenhua Oil Co. falls precisely into this long-established game with the U.S.

The US$2 billion five–year prepayment oil supply deal between the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) in Baghdad and China’s Zhenhua Oil deal was announced with great care and attention to timing just after former President Donald Trump had lost the 2020 Presidential Election. Trump and his team had started his tenure out playing the usual game with Iraq, granting the country waivers to continue to import electricity and gas for power generation from Iran – despite U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic – for periods of two, three or even four months each time. These lengthy waivers were granted in the hope of bringing Baghdad back towards the U.S.’s side in the geopolitical power play with China and Russia going on across the Middle East, an opportunity Washington looked to leverage when al-Kadhimi visited Washington last August.     continue to read

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