US military attack on Venezuela mulled by top Trump advisors and Latin American officials at private DC meeting
Away
from the public eye, the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) think tank hosted a top-level, off-the-record meeting
to explore US military options against Venezuela.
by
Max Blumenthal
Part
2
- ‘We Talked About Military Options in Venezuela’
The
CSIS meeting on “Assessing the Use of Military Force in Venezuela”
suggests that the Trump administration is exploring military options
more seriously than before, possibly out of frustration with the fact
that every other weapon in its arsenal has failed to bring down
Maduro.
On
April 10, I obtained a check-in list containing the names of those
invited to the meeting. It was apparently incorrectly dated as April
20, but had taken place earlier that day, at 3 PM.
I
confirmed that the meeting had taken place with Sarah Baumunk, a
research associate at CSIS’s Americas Program who was listed as a
participant.
“We
talked about military… uh… military options in Venezuela. That
was earlier this week though,”
Baumunk told me, when The
Grayzone
asked her about the meeting that was wrongly listed for April 20.
When
The
Grayzone
asked if the event took place on April 10, Baumunk appeared to grow
nervous. “I’m
sorry, why are you asking these questions? Can I help you?”
she replied.
After
I asked again about the meeting, Baumunk cut off the conversation.
“I’m
sorry I don’t feel comfortable answering these questions,”
she stated before hanging up.
The
Grayzone
received additional confirmation of the meeting from Santiago
Herdoiza, a research associate at Hills & Company, who was also
listed as an attendee. “I’m
sorry, that was a closed meeting. Good evening,”
Herdoiza commented when asked for details on the event.
Democracy Now! Eleven peace activists and one journalist on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship, the "Madleen," were detained by Israeli soldiers as their ship carrying vital humanitarian aid for starving Palestinians approached Gaza. The ship was intercepted by Israeli forces in the middle of the night in international waters. Its supplies were seized and communications jammed. The unarmed activists will likely be transported to Israeli detention or "immediately deported," says Ann Wright, a U.S. military veteran who has participated in four Freedom Flotilla journeys and now serves on the steering committee of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. She calls on citizens of countries around the world to push for the activists' release and an end to Israel's war on Gaza.
BreakThrough News As Israel commits a live-streamed genocide in Gaza, Western media and political elites continue to center one narrative: Jewish fear. But what about the actual victims of this genocide—Palestinians? Journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman joins Rania Khalek on Dispatches for a fearless conversation on Zionist indoctrination in the Jewish diaspora, how antisemitism is being weaponized to silence critics of Israel, and how Jewish identity politics has been manipulated to cover for unspeakable crimes. From the media blackout on Israeli war crimes to the erasure of anti-Palestinian hate crimes—even in the diaspora—Nora lays bare the contradictions and power structures behind it all.
The EU sanctioned me and my media outlet for covering Palestine protests in Germany. It’s part of Europe’s growing authoritarianism and militarism, cloaked in language of fighting disinformation and defending democracy. by Hüseyin Dogru Part 2 - How the EU uses anti-Russian hysteria to smear Palestine solidarity journalism The official rationale for sanctioning me hinges on red .’s alleged links to Russian influence. The EU sanctions listing cited just two pieces of “evidence”: that some red. staff had previously worked for Russian-funded media, and that we covered “politically controversial subjects” – specifically: Palestine. That’s it. The listing accuses me, through my work with red ., of “facilitating violent demonstrations”, amplifying “radical Islamic terrorist narratives” and claims our staff “coordinated with occupiers”. Not a single piece of evidence is cited, apart from the fact that we published footage of a pro-Palestine student occupation in Berlin. I...
Israeli attacks on educational, religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, UN Commission says. globinfo freexchange Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip, part of a widespread and relentless assault against the Palestinian people in which Israeli forces have committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, said in a new report [yesterday]. While the Commission paid special attention to the situation in Gaza, the report focuses on attacks in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole, and in Israel. “We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” said Navi Pi...
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), allowed the IAEA to be used by the United States and Israel—an undeclared nuclear weapons state in long-term violation of IAEA rules—to manufacture a pretext for war on Iran, despite his agency’s own conclusion that Iran had no nuclear weapons program. by Medea Benjamin - Nicolas J. S. Davies On June 12th, based on a damning report by Grossi, a slim majority of the IAEA Board of Governors voted to find Iran in non-compliance with its obligations as an IAEA member. Of the 35 countries represented on the Board, only 19 voted for the resolution, while 3 voted against it, 11 abstained and 2 did not vote. The United States contacted eight board member governments on June 10th to persuade them to either vote for the resolution or not to vote. Israeli officials said they saw the U.S. arm-twisting for the IAEA resolution as a significant signal of U.S. support for Israel’s war plans, revealing how much Isra...
globinfo freexchange Explosions in Tel Aviv as sirens sound across Israel amid Iranian missile attacks in response to Israeli strikes. The Israeli military continues to launch waves of strikes against Iranian military and nuclear sites, as well as major cities. Updates: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/6/13/live-explosions-reported-in-iran-amid-israel-tensions
globinfo freexchange It seems that the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, is rushing to accelerate the decline of the US empire by forcing Donald Trump into an utterly devastating war with Iran. Trump shot himself in the foot during his first term by killing the Iran nuclear deal just because he wanted to erase everything from the Obama legacy. His insane narcissism pushed him into crazy acts and made him believe that he could make another deal with Iran credited solely on him. But now he is in big trouble because he has to deal with a corrupted psychopath who won't hesitate to burn the entire planet just to save himself. As if the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza was not enough, the out-of-control psychopath Netanyahu, is doing whatever he can to drag the US into a war with Iran. As he realized that the Iranians are approaching the negotiating table again, (rather surprisingly with the man that killed the first deal and assassinated Qasem Soleimani), he decide...
Danny Haiphong Putin & China just gave Trump a rude BRICS awakening, and this bombshell will change everything for generations to come. Geopolitical analyst Ben Norton details the truth about Trump's biggest failure against the rising power of BRICS led by Russia and China, and why the US's role as super power is now in serious question. Related: Trump's tariffs: A unique opportunity for BRICS and the Global South to fully escape from dollar tyranny
Comments
Post a Comment