Iraqi Kurdistan PM discusses disputes with Iraq’s Sudani

A high-ranking Kurdish delegation led by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani met with officials in Baghdad over energy, security and finance disputes — but no resolution is expected.

Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani received the prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Masrour Barzani, on Wednesday in Baghdad where they discussed ongoing disputes, bilateral energy ties and security issues.

CIA director Bill Burns arrives in Libya on surprise visit

Burns visit is most senior for a US official to Libya since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns arrived in Libya on Thursday on a surprise visit, where he is meeting with the country’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in the capital Tripoli, and other senior political and military leaders. 

Russia And Africa: Who Is Courting Whom? – OpEd

The South African Institute of International Affairs has put into circulation its latest policy report on Russia-African relations. In the introductory chapter, Steven Gruzd, Samuel Ramani and Cayley Clifford – have summarized various aspects of the developments between between Russia and Africa over the past few years and finally questioned the impact of Russia’s policy on Africa.

The War on Russia in its Ideological Dimension

The coming war as concept
 
The war against Russia is currently the most discussed issue in the West. At this point it is only a suggestion and a possibility, but it can become a reality depending on the decisions taken by all parties involved in the Ukrainian conflict – Moscow, Washington, Kiev, and Brussels.
 
I don’t want to discuss all the aspects and history of this conflict here. Instead I propose to analyze its deep ideological roots. My conception of the most relevant events is based on the Fourth Political Theory, whose principles I have described in my book under the same name that was published in English by Arktos Media in 2012.
 
Therefore I will not examine the war of the West on Russia in terms of its risks, dangers, issues, costs or consequences, but rather in an ideological sense as seen from the global perspective. I will therefore meditate on the sense of such a war, and not on the war itself (which may be either real or virtual).
 
Essence of liberalism
 
In the modern West, there is one ruling, dominant ideology – liberalism. It may appear in many shades, versions and forms, but the essence is always the same. Liberalism contains an inner, fundamental structure which follows axiomatic principles:
 

U.S. Strategic Aim: Break and Dismember Russia; Or Maintain U.S. Dollar Hegemony? Or a Muddled ‘Both’?

The West cannot relinquish the sense of itself at the centre of the Universe, albeit no longer in a racial sense, Alastair Crooke writes.

A strategic aim would require a unitary purpose that could be succinctly outlined. It would require additionally a compelling clarity about the means by which the aim would be achieved and a coherent vision about what a successful outcome would actually look like.

Destruction-oriented narratives from nontraditional Islam as a tool of U.S. foreign policy

“Terrorism is when the United States implants a dictatorial regime somewhere, relying on bayonets and using terror against its own people.” Former CIA officer F. Agee.

Intervention in the internal affairs of foreign states became a major direction of U.S. foreign policy soon after the end of World War II. The key instrument for achieving these goals was an agency with virtually unlimited powers, approved under the National Security Act of 1947, called the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

‘Allahu Akbar’ – ‘Allah Is The Greatest’ – A Jihadi Battle Cry

Introduction

This report will discuss jihadis’ use of the phrase Allahu akbar – meaning “Allah is the greatest” – as a battle cry during terror attacks. This subject has been discussed in previous MEMRI analyses, but there have been many attacks since carried out by jihadis in the West in which this battle cry was repeated.[1] In two recent examples, an Islamist named Trevor Bickford shouted “Allahu akbar” as he lunged at New York Police Department officers with a machete on New Year’s Eve near Times Square,[2] and a man who stabbed six people in a January 11, 2023 attack at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris also shouted the phrase during his attack.[3] This report will provide more than three dozen additional examples from recent years of the use of the term as a jihadi battle cry (see Appendix).

Projets et institutions britanniques intervenant dans les affaires d’autres États

Le Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d’Irlande du Nord mérite une attention particulière et des recherches approfondies sur l’organisation et l’exécution d’opérations psychologiques et l’utilisation de technologies de manipulation, car il possède une longue et considérable expérience dans la réalisation de telles actions dans les régions les plus dissemblables du monde.

Appel à la réunion de toutes les résistances

Nous venons d’entrer dans une nouvelle année et, comme il est de coutume, nous nous sommes présentés les uns les autres nos meilleurs vœux. Pourtant le cœur n’y était peut-être pas. Après ce que nous avons subi au cours des trois dernières années, l’année 2023 s’annonce en effet comme celle de tous les dangers – mais aussi heureusement de tous les possibles.