Articles by Bill Van Auken
We found 40 results.
US Imperialism’s Criminal Debacle in Afghanistan
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jul 2021
7 Jul 2021 – US troops pulled out of the sprawling Bagram Air Base at three in the morning last Friday [2 Jul], without notifying the Afghan government forces meant to replace them, and cutting off the power on the way out, an act that triggered an invasion of the base by a small army of looters. This ignoble retreat is a fitting symbol of the debacle wrought by 20 years of US war and occupation in Afghanistan.
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US Brands Yemen’s Houthi Rebels “Terrorists,” Paving Way for Mass Starvation
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2021
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday [11 Jan] that Washington will designate the Houthi rebels, who govern territory containing 70 percent of the Yemeni population, as a “foreign terrorist organization.” This cynical and potentially catastrophic measure is being taken by the ostensibly “lame-duck” secretary of state as part of an unrelenting “maximum pressure” campaign of punishing economic sanctions and continuous military provocations against Iran.
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US Mercenary Exposes Trump Administration Links to Abortive Venezuela Invasion
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2020
3 Nov 2020 – Senior Trump administration officials were in on the planning of and offered assistance to the abortive May 3, 2020, invasion of Venezuela carried out by a mercenary band that included at least two former US special forces operatives, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami, Florida, last Friday [30 Oct].
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In Act of High Seas Piracy, US Hijacks Iranian Oil Bound for Venezuela
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
19 Aug 2020 – The US interdiction of oil shipments bound from Iran to Venezuela represents a dangerous escalation, raising the threat of armed conflict. The Department of Justice issued a statement Friday [14 Aug] bragging that “approximately 1.116 million barrels of petroleum” had been stolen “with the assistance of foreign partners.” There has been no indication of what “foreign partners” were involved in this act of piracy, but US officials claim that the seizure did not involve military force.
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Amid War Threats, Washington Blocks UN Resolution Demanding End to Sanctions
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Apr 2020
4 April 2020 – Washington and its allies on 2 April killed a UN resolution calling for the lifting of unilateral sanctions that are severely impeding efforts to combat the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Joining the US in blocking the resolution were the European Union and the United Kingdom, along with the right-wing governments of Ukraine and Georgia.
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The “Afghanistan Papers”: The Criminality and Disaster of a War Based upon Lies
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – The documents published by the Washington Post constitute a damning indictment of both major parties as well as the media for lying to the world for two decades. The Post obtained the raw interviews after a three-year Freedom of Information Act court battle. The Obama administration moved to classify the documents after the newspaper sought to obtain them.
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US Carries out Fresh Massacre in Afghanistan, Killing Entire Family with Drone Strike on 29 Nov
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Dec 2019
3 Dec 2019 – A US drone strike in Afghanistan last Friday [29 Nov] wiped out an entire family after they were leaving a clinic, including a woman who had just given birth to a child.
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US Seizure of Oil Fields Escalates Tensions in Syria
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2019
8 Nov 2019 – The US has deployed hundreds of troops backed by armored vehicles into oil fields located in Syria’s northeastern Deir Ezzor province, where they are reportedly building two new bases… Asked whether the US forces were going to take over all of Syria’s oil fields or only a portion of them, the naval officer suggested that this would be left to “commanders on the ground.”
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CIA Death Squads Responsible for Spike in Afghan Civilian Casualties
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Nov 2019
2 Nov 2019 – Civilian casualties have reached a record high in the 18-year-old US war in Afghanistan as the Trump administration has broken off talks with the Islamist insurgents of the Taliban and ordered a sharp escalation in US airstrikes and night raids by CIA-backed death squads. In Afghanistan, as in Syria, Trump’s promise to end Washington’s “forever wars” has amounted to empty demagogy.
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US-Backed Saudi Regime Beheads 37 Political Prisoners
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 May 2019
25 Apr 2019 – The monarchical dictatorship of Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday [23 Apr] that it had carried out another killing spree, publicly executing 37 people. One of the headless corpses was then crucified and left hanging in public as a hideous warning to anyone who would even contemplate opposing the absolute power of the ruling royal family admired by Pres. Trump.
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Mass Murder in Gaza
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
15 May 2018 – The Israeli military slaughtered dozens of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators and wounded thousands more in Gaza today. As this atrocity was being carried out, a grotesque ceremony was unfolding 50 miles away to mark the opening of a US embassy in Jerusalem. The number of unarmed Palestinian protesters shot dead by IDF snipers rose to at least 58, with over 2,700 wounded.
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The Slaughter in Gaza and the Crisis of Israel on Its 70th Anniversary
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
24 Apr 2018 – As of today, the number of nonviolent, unarmed demonstrators murdered by Israeli army snipers firing into Gaza has risen to at least 40, with another 5,000 wounded, 1,600 by live ammunition.
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Israeli Army Kills Four More Nonviolent Gaza Protesters
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
21 Apr 2018 – For the fourth Friday in a row, the Israeli military responded to unarmed Palestinian demonstrators on Gaza’s eastern border with live ammunition, killing four and wounding hundreds. Among those killed Friday was a 15-year-old boy, Mohammad Ibrahim Ayyoub. The three others murdered by Israeli snipers were identified as Ahmed Rashad, 24, Ahmed Abu Aqil, 25, and Saad Abdul Majid Abdul-Aal Abu Taha, 29.
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Washington Prepares to Deploy “Usable” Nuclear Weapons
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jan 2018
12 Jan 2018 – The US President’s State of the Union address later this month will introduce a significant break with past policy in proposing the development of a new class of low-yield, “usable” nuclear weapons.
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Pentagon Admits Presence of US Troops in Yemen as Cholera Cases Top One Million
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Dec 2017
23 Dec 2017 – The Pentagon admitted for the first time this week that it has “conducted multiple ground operations” in Yemen, the impoverished and war-ravaged country whose humanitarian crisis was underscored this week by the Red Cross: the number of cholera cases in Yemen had reached one million, making the ongoing epidemic by far the worst in recorded human history.
→ read full articleYemen’s Cholera Outbreak Surpasses 600,000
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Sep 2017
The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yemen—the worst in the world—is product of the Saudi-led, US-backed war of aggression, the UNHCHR stated on Tuesday [5 Sep]. The war assumed near-genocidal proportions and has killed at least 14,000 civilians, maimed many thousands more, displaced 2 million and left at least 7.3 million on the brink of famine. The country is confronting the worst cholera epidemic on record, with 612,703 people infected.
→ read full articleUnderstanding the Geopolitics of Terrorism
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
If the mass media refuses to state what has become obvious after more than a decade and a half of these incidents, it is a measure of how fully the linkage between terrorism, the Western intelligence agencies and the unending wars in the Middle East has become institutionalized. Innocent men, women and children, whether in London, Manchester, Paris, Tehran, Baghdad or Kabul, are paying the terrible price for these imperialist operations, which leave a trail of blood and destruction everywhere.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Reveals Vast CIA Spying, Cyberwar Operation
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
Amid Democrats’ claims of Russian hacking in support of Trump and Trump’s charge that he was bugged by Obama, WikiLeaks has revealed a vast CIA operation directed against the people of the US and the world.
→ read full articleThe Political Legacy of Fidel Castro
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2016
Castro’s legacy cannot be evaluated solely through the prism of Cuba, but must take into account the impact of his politics internationally and, above all, in Latin America.
→ read full articleUS Arms Syrian Islamists with Surface-to-Air Missiles
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2016
23 Nov 2016 – A US-backed Islamist militia has been armed with portable surface-to-air missiles, so-called manpads. These weapons are capable of shooting down Syrian as well as Russian warplanes. This marks a major escalation of the US-backed war for regime-change that has devastated the country, leading to the deaths of some 300,000 Syrians.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Hurricane Devastation: A Tragedy Rooted in Capitalist Oppression
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
In the wake of the 2010 earthquake, international donors pledged $10.4 billion for Haiti, including $3.9 billion from the US. The chief figure overseeing this relief effort was Bill Clinton, whose previous “gift” to the people of Haiti was a trade deal that eliminated tariffs on rice imports from the US subsidized by the American government, bankrupting Haiti’s own rice producers and leaving the country unable to feed itself.
→ read full articleLeaked Clinton email Admits Saudi, Qatari Governments Funding ISIS in Syria
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
An email exchange between Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta, posted Monday [10 Oct] by WikiLeaks, frankly acknowledges that the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) is funded and supported by Washington’s chief allies in the Arab world.
→ read full articleRio 2016: The “Olympic Ideal” and the Reality of Capitalism
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
The Olympics are being held under conditions of military occupation in Brazil, one of the world’s must unequal countries, wracked by economic, social and political crises.
→ read full articleBrazil’s Interim President Temer Named in Petrobras Kickback Scandal
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2016
With the surfacing Wednesday [15 Jun] of charges that Brazil’s interim president, Michel Temer, solicited bribes in return for contracts with the state-run oil conglomerate Petrobras, the right-wing regime installed through the drive to impeach Workers Party (PT) President Dilma Rousseff has been thrown into deeper crisis.
→ read full articleObama’s War Summit in Europe
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2016
President Barack Obama ended his six-day trip through Saudi Arabia, Britain and Germany Monday [25 Apr 2016] with what amounted to a mini-war summit. The American president’s message to his European counterparts was that they must stop being “complacent” and work to build up their own military forces for interventions in the Middle East, North Africa and against Russia to the east. Obama’s host, Chancellor Merkel, proudly declared, “We are ready and willing to be militarily engaged,” citing the German military’s participation in ongoing interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Mali.
→ read full articleThe Drive to Impeachment and the Dangers Facing the Brazilian Working Class
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Apr 2016
If today the predominant layers of both domestic and foreign capital are pushing for Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, it is because they see a radical change in government as the means to dramatically accelerate reactionary capitalist policies already being pursued.
→ read full articleThe Mass Beheadings in Saudi Arabia
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
4 Jan 2015 – Washington’s closest ally in the Arab world, the dictatorial monarchy of Saudi Arabia, ushered in the New Year with a torrent of blood, simultaneously executing 47 prisoners. This wave of state murders unfolded at 12 separate prisons across the kingdom. The barbaric killing spree was a calculated political act driven by both domestic and international objectives.
→ read full articleSaudi Arabia and the “War on Terror”
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Dec 2015
A more fundamental question is what does the Saudi regime mean by “terrorism”? Clearly, it is not referring to the various Al Qaeda-linked groups fighting in Syria, all of which get substantial funding as well as large numbers of fighters and their religious-ideological inspiration from the Wahhabist Saudi kingdom.
→ read full articlePentagon Provocation on Russia’s Border
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2015
US armored vehicles flying American flags were paraded Tuesday [24 Feb 2015] through the Estonian city of Narva, just a few hundred yards from the Russian border. The provocative action, coming on the heels of the first anniversary of the US-orchestrated coup in Kiev, underscores the potentially catastrophic implications.
→ read full articleMexican Government Rushes to Close Case of Disappeared Students
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Feb 2015
Peña Nieto told Mexicans to get over the fate of the 43 students so he can move ahead with a “reform” agenda backed by Washington.
→ read full articleThe New York Times and Washington’s “Propaganda Bubble” on Ukraine
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jan 2015
In 2002–2003, the stable of State Department propagandists at the Times played a crucial role in paving the way for a war that claimed the lives of over a million Iraqis and some 4,500 US troops. Now they are involved in an even more sinister propaganda operation that threatens to ignite a Third World War.
→ read full articleUS Army Drafts Blueprint for World War III
Bill Van Auken and David North, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Oct 2014
The Pentagon is preparing for unlimited global warfare and military dictatorship within the United States. The document was formally released at this week’s Association of the United States Army conference.
→ read full articleObama in Talks with “Rebel” Leader on Escalating Syrian War
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 May 2014
9 May 2014 – The Obama administration has entered into direct talks with the leader of the political front for Syria’s Western-backed “rebels” on arming them with US surface-to-air missiles, amid fresh confirmation that these forces are dominated by Al Qaeda-linked militias.
→ read full articleBrazil Marks 50 Years since US-Backed Coup
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Apr 2014
Brazil marks the 50th anniversary of the April 1, 1964, military coup that subjected Latin America’s largest country to 21 years of brutal dictatorship. The events were orchestrated by the CIA, the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
→ read full articleTwo Years after US-NATO War, Torture Rampant in Libya
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
Two years after the end of the US-NATO war in Libya, thousands in the North African country remain imprisoned without charges and are being subjected to systematic torture, according to a report released Tuesday [1 Oct 2013] by the United Nations.
→ read full articleNSA Casts Massive Surveillance Net Over Latin America
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
According to Rio de Janeiro-based daily O Globo, the most intensive surveillance has been conducted against US allies Brazil, Colombia and Mexico—and against Venezuela. Also subjected to the NSA surveillance net have been Argentina, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and El Salvador, according to the O Globo report.
→ read full articleUS-Backed “Rebels” Carry Out Sectarian Massacre in Syria
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jun 2013
At least 60 people, including women, children and the elderly, were killed in a massacre of Shia Muslims by US-backed “rebels” in eastern Syria Tuesday [11 June 2013]. The slaughter in the village of Hatlah was reported by both the Syrian government and by a London-based human rights group that supports the Western-backed terrorist militias trying to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
→ read full articleThe Brutal Face of Neocolonialism in Afghanistan
Bill Van Auken – World Socialist Web Site,
22 Apr 2013
US Secretary of State John Kerry has made a series of public statements in mourning for the 25-year-old Foreign Service officer Anne Smedinghoff, killed in a Taliban car bomb attack in Afghanistan on Saturday [6 Apr 2013]. The same day that she lost her life, a US airstrike killed at least 18 people, including 11 children ranging from a few months to eight years old.
→ read full articleWashington Steps Up Africa Intervention
Bill Van Auken – World Socialist Web Site,
11 Mar 2013
The Obama administration is “markedly widening its role” in the escalating French-led war in Mali, according to a report published Monday [4 Mar 2013] in the Wall Street Journal where it quoted that the US role in Mali represented a “rare North African success story,” in a new “counterterrorism strategy of working by, with and through’ local forces.” In other words, US imperialism is counting on the region’s servile national elites to provide African troops as a proxy force.
→ read full articleEX-CLINTON AIDES ADVISING HONDURAN COUP REGIME
Bill Van Auken,
16 Jul 2009
Ever since the military abducted President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint on June 28 and expelled him from the country, the Obama administration has cast itself as a steadfast defender of “democracy” in Honduras. The real nature of that defense has become somewhat clearer with the news that key former aides to Secretary of State Hillary […]
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