The Relatively Free Press: News Sources for Conflicts in the West Asia/Eurasia Zone

Originally published 27 August 2014; last updated 10 November 2014.

(You can search just the web sites listed on this page via https using a Google Custom Search Engine at U.S. Foreign Wars. Note that this search omits the sources whose titles below are preceded by an asterisk (*).)

I have a perhaps morbid fascination with U.S. foreign wars because of my involuntary 27-month participation in one of them, in Viet Nam, which was the defining experience of my adult life. The kid who went over there never came back, and all that jazz.

So keeping up with America's many ongoing foreign wars of aggression (most being fought by proxy) and what leads to such wars is one of my abiding interests.

Finding accurate information about those wars is problematic for many reasons, principally: [i] those who engage in war crimes tend to conceal their motives behind a smokescreen of secrecy and false propaganda ("humanitarian" reasons are in vogue right now, as though there were such a thing as a "humanitarian war," which there is not); and [ii] sources inside government who leak accurate information generally want anonymity to protect themselves from criminal charges; but [iii] the world is awash with misinformation deliberately leaked anonymously by U.S. and allied government officials.

This is an annotated collection of links to news sources I've found most reliable for the purpose regarding U.S. activities in the Northern Africa, Western Asia, and Eastern Europe areas.

U.S. and European mainstream media are nearly worthless for the purpose because of their tendency to simply recite government propaganda rather than question it. So mainstream media tends to be useful only for learning what the latest propaganda is. If one wishes to arrive at an understanding of U.S. foreign wars that approaches the truth, it's necessary to identify the journalists and publishers that share your quest for truth.

This is not to suggest that every word ever published on the linked websites is accurate. One must still evaluate the information they provide and it takes time and study to develop sufficient knowledge to do such an evaluation. But these are the key sites I most often visit in my personal quest.

I tend to favor sources that practice investigative journalism, with lots of extra points for thorough referencing or referencing hyperlinks to source materials when possible.

I may update this list from time to time.

If you don't want to take the deep dive but want to keep your eye on U.S.-instigated foreign conflicts with the least effort, I recommend subscribing to the Information Clearinghouse email service, which provides more or less once-daily annotated link collections on this and other interesting (to me) topics.

Al Jazeera English

Al Jazeera English, https://aljazeera.com. (Note that it's no longer necessary to use an anonymizing proxy service to evade redirection to the Al Jazeera America web site from within the U.S.) Although owned by the Qatar government, Al Jazeera English is remarkably independent in that light and features excellent journalism in the hard-hitting British tradition. That is in stark contrast to the American variant, which was forced by U.S. cable television service providers to originate all content in the U.S. as a condition of the channel being carried into U.S. homes.

Angry Arab News Service

Angry Arab News Service, http://angryarab.blogspot.com/, is the blog of Cal State Stanislaus Professor As'ad AbuKhalil. See Wikipedia article. An excellent source for Mideast News, particular on Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. Prof. AbuKhalil keeps up a running critique of mainstream media political reporting on Arabic culture and Western violence there.

Asia Times

Asia Times, http://www.atimes.com/. Covers eastern Asia too but has a strong focus on the Mideast and central Asia. A strong haven for excellent and independent investigative reporters.

Boiling Frogs Post

Boiling Frogs Post, http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/. Boiling Frogs has grown a stable of writers and broadcasters with a keen interest in what the American Dark State is up to and has done globally. Boiling Frogs was pulled together by the famed former FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. Don't look for official government policy here except when its follies are being outed.

*Cockburn, Patrick

Patrick Cockburn, http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/patrick-cockburn. "Patrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, presently, The Independent." Seymour Hersh has singled him out as the best investigative reporter in the world. I think there are other contenders, including Hersh himself, but Cockburn unmistakably ranks very high. At the same time, I keep in mind that Cockburn works for an elderly mainstream media institution that could well influence what he is allowed to publish. Cockburn seems to pull his punches at times, most notably when it comes to Israel's role as a major source of violence in Arabic nations and direct U.S. involvement with fighting forces in the Mideast that are on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations.

Consortium News

Consortium News, http://consortiumnews.com/ was the first investigative news magazine on the Internet, founded in 1995 by Robert Parry, who originally broke the Iran/Contra scandal. The site frequently features investigative pieces relating to U.S. foreign conflicts. Quality varies, depending on the author. Many fine investigative writers use Consortium News as their publishing outlet. Parry himself frequently publishes on U.S.-instigated conflicts.

Council for the National Interest

Council for the National Interest, http://www.councilforthenationalinterest.org/new/category/featured/. Non-profit aimed at monitoring and dismantling the Israel Lobby's influence over Congress in the U.S. Most articles originate elsewhere and quality is spotty. But this is where to find out what the Israel lobby is up to.

CounterPunch

CounterPunch, http://www.counterpunch.org/. Began as a print magazine, added an electronic version, and publishes a blog at the above address reprinting many articles from the magazine. Somewhat of a Progressive bent, albeit not enamored of either major political party in the U.S. Large stable of top-notch writers, often dealing in depth with news you won't find in mainstream media regarding the areas of interest. Most articles deal with historic context as well as the events of interest.

Electronic Intifada

Electronic Intifada, http://electronicintifada.net/. Strong, unashamed pro-Palestinian bent but very careful about its fact-checking. This blog has many contributing writers. Its focus is just about anything in the world that affects Palestinians, so Israeli-Palestinian relations get a lot of coverage here. All content that is not original is clearly identified as such.

Empty Wheel

Empty Wheel, http://www.emptywheel.net/. Blogger Marcy Wheeler has an intimate familiarity with government surveillance activities and capabilities in the U.S. She occasionally debunks GWOT ("Global War on Terror") nonsense along the way.

*Escobar, Pepe

Pepe Escobar is the only independent investigative reporter I know of who walks the Pipelinestan oil/natural gas beat in Eurasia. He publishes at several sites. Escobar is an unusually astute observer of the interrelationships among events on his beat. I've encountered no writer on that beat with his global view of events. He also mixes his reporting with a sometimes hilarious sarcasm.

The best way I know to track his articles is with a Google Alert that takes advantage of the fact that invariably his articles are accompanied by the information that he is a correspondent for Asia Times. So the query for the alert to distinguish him from the other Pepe Escobars of the world is:

"Pepe Escobar" AND "Asia Times"

EurasiaNet

EurasiaNet, http://www.eurasianet.org/. New to this list; still evaluating. Publishes in Russian and English, has regional news sections for the various "stans," Georgia, and Mongolia.

Global Research

Global Research, http://www.globalresearch.ca/. Published by the Montreal-based Centre for Research on Globalization. Article quality varies, but some of the most important articles on the subject areas have been published here, including several vitally important articles by former director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare Yossef Bodansky regarding the false flag nature of the sarin gas attack in Ghouta, Syria. Global Research tends to be the go-to publisher for several occasional reporters whose information is too hot to touch by mainstream media, e.g., Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity open letters to George W. Bush and Barack Obama warning that they were acting on false intelligence in regard to, respectively, the invasion of Iraq and the aborted-at-the-last minute missile and bombing attack on Syria.

*Google Alerts

Google Alerts, https://www.google.com/alerts. Excellent tool for tracking breaking events and long-term interests. You enter what would be the equivalent of a Google search query using standard Google query syntax and Alerts notifies you when a new page is published on the web that satisifies the query limiters. Lots of options, e.g., how often to send you alerts, what kinds of sources, etc.‌ You may find yourself needing to refine the query, for example if Alerts sends you alerts on web pages that aren't what you're really after. See related: Google Search Operators (syntax), Google Search Help Center.

History Commons

History Commmons, http://www.historycommons.org/timelines.jsp. When you want to take the deep dive into a conflict in which he U.S. has played a role. History Commons is a collaborative effort tracking the history of significant events as they unfold as well as retrospectively. Published in the form of timelines with annotated links to source materials on each event. Lots of subtopical timelines as well. All resulting from some innovative software and some very sustained work by contributors. Several U.S. wars and related issues are covered.

Information Clearinghouse

Information Clearinghouse, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/. This is a one-man operation by Tom Feeley. Seldom publishes original content. Mostly briefly-annotated links, although frequently republishes articles on its web site originally published elsewhere with scant to zero attribution. Has a more or less daily email service with the summaries and links. More importantly, this is the best one-stop service for conflict news in the Eurasian/northern to central Africa zone and for the politics surrounding those conflicts. Editor Tom Feeley mixes his war and government skulduggery news with a dash of eclectica.

International Mideast Media Center

International Mideast Media Center, founded in 2003 by the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People, http://www.imemc.org/about. Israel-Palestine conflict news. When things go hot in Gaza, this is where you find the Palestinian view of things.

Jadiliyya

Jadiliyya, http://www.jadaliyya.com/. High quality journalism with an Arabic citizen bias that often runs counter to Arabic (and U.S.) government positions. I find contributing editor Noura Erakat's articles on international humanitarian law of particular interest. She's an international humanitarian law prof. at Temple University, of Palestinian descent.

Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook: The blog from Nazareth. Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist who says that he is the only foreign correspondent based in Nazareth, the capital of the Palestinian minority in Israel. http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/.

Just Security

Just Security, http://justsecurity.org/. A blog based at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law. Covers national security related developments, which seems to be interpreted as including world events with implications for potential action by national security units of government. Has a nice daily email newsletter of annotated links. These tend to be to mainstream media articles only, but I find it a nice way to quickly skim what mainstream media is saying on these topics, then click through to articles of interest. Topical headings in the daily news roundup are currently: Iraq and Syria, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, Russia and Ukraine, Pakistan, and Other Developments.

KurdishQuestion

KurdishQuestion, http://kurdishquestion.com/. Covers Kurdistan.

Land Destroyer

Land Destroyer, the blog of Tony Cartalucci, http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/. Cartalucci covers the various U.S. National Endowment for U.S.-instigated "color revolutions" from Bangkok, and he covers them well. For example, in a recent explosive series of articles, he's exposed the Islamic Caliphate as a U.S./Saudi-backed play to trifurcate Iran into three nations on sectarian lines and serve as the pretext for U.S. invasion of Syria, a project postponed about a year ago when the sarin gas attack in Ghouta, Syria, was exposed as a false flag attack designed to justify U.S. military strikes on Syria. Includes contact page. Cartalucci is a prolific writer and also publishes in many other venues, so a Google Alert is needed to catch them all. But see criticism of Cartalucci's reporting at http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/conspiracy-oracle-backs-beijing-bangkok/.

Mondoweiss

Mondoweiss, http://mondoweiss.net/. U.S.-based, several contributing authors. Covers the Middle East generally and Israel/Palestine in particular from a liberal two-state Zionist perspective. High quality and often in-depth political analysis. But stay aware of the perspective when reading. In my opinion, the two-state solution to the Palestine Question was obsoleted by heavy Israeli colonization of Palestine many years ago. Some still sincerely cling to it as those at Mondoweiss do, but it's most often used just as a cynical excuse for further delay in resolving the Palestine Question.

Moon of Alabama

Moon of Alabama, http://www.moonofalabama.org. Blog with good coverage of the Ukraine and Palestinian conflicts. Merciless when it comes to deflating government propaganda. Strong tradition of linking key claims to information sources.

New Eastern Outlook

New Eastern Outlook, http://journal-neo.org/. Published in English and Russian. Good mix of Russian and English journalists. Somewhat Russia-centric editorial outlook that translates into a strong focus on U.S. nastiness in the Asia/Eurasia scene, among other focii. Can subscribe to free email newsletter.

NSNBC

NSNBC, http://nsnbc.me/. Fairly new alternative news site with a global focus on developing nations. Its publisher and principle reporter has a very deep understanding of war and peace issues as they affect Arabic people.

Right Web

Right Web, http://rightweb.irc-online.org/. "Right Web is a program of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) that assesses the work of prominent organizations and individuals—both in and out of government—who promote militarist U.S. foreign and defense policies, with a special focus on the “war on terror” and the Middle East. Right Web aims to foster informed public debate about these policies with feature articles and profiles of individuals and organizations that examine political discourses and institutional allegiances over time." The site has an anti-war, progressive bent but thoroughly references its information with links to source materials. The profiles of individuals are an excellent aid in tracking political and institutional connections among pro-war luminaries.

Secrecy News

Secrecy News, American Federation of Scientists, http://blogs.fas.org/blogs/secrecy/. Blog Editor Steven Aftergood writes about current events involving government secrecy in the U.S., archives and tracks recently released Congressional Research Service that were not published, and curates recently de-classified government records. He's also an expert the Freedom of Information Act and related statutes used to seek declassification of government records.

SANA

Syrian Arab News Agency ("SANA"), http://sana.sy/en/. Official news organ of the Syrian government. Sister publication of the Syrian Times.

Security Assistance Monitor

Security Assistance Monitor, http://securityassistance.org/. "A citizen's guide to U.S. security and defense assistance Security Assistance Monitor documents all publicly accessible information on U.S. security and defense assistance programs throughout the world, including arms sales, military and police aid, training programs, exercises, exchanges, and deployments." See site review by Jim Lobe here. http://www.lobelog.com/new-resource-for-tracking-us-military-and-police-aid/.

Strategic Culture Foundation

Strategic Culture Foundation, http://www.strategic-culture.org/. Covers global events with a particular focus on government violence or the threat thereof in central to northern Eurasia. Many Russian and Ukrainian writers. Article quality is usually good.

Syrian Times

Syrian Times, English language sister publication of SANA, http://syriatimes.sy/.

The Daily Star (Lebanon)

The Daily Star (Lebanon), http://www.dailystar.com.lb/. English language daily taking a conventional neutral point of view in its writing. But willing to tackle political stories that most other mainstream media don't want to touch unless someone else breaks the story first.

Tom Dispatch

Tom Dispatch, http://www.tomdispatch.com/. A news site that began as a emailing list, then was adopted as a fostered web project by The Nation. Tom Dispatch's Nick Turse is the only reporter doing in-depth reporting on U.S. AFRICOM military activities in Africa. Tom Dispatch often serves up highly critical news coverage of U.S. government foreign activities, with thorough hyperlinking to source materials. Its founder, Tom Engelhardt, has a historian's view that pulls seeming disparate events together into adhesive coherence.

Vineyard of the Saker

Vineyard of the Saker, http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/. The blog of an expatriate Russian with military experience and excellent understanding of military tactics and strategy living in Florida. Highest quality in-depth and ongoing coverage of the Ukraine conflict I've found, albeit biased toward the separatists. For example, there's a reason the U.S. is no longer peddling its propaganda that Ukraine separatists shot down a Maylaysian airliner. This site made mincemeat of that propaganda seven ways to Sunday within a few days after the event. The Ukraine coup government did it with a air-to-air missile followed up with 30-mm air cannon fire on both sides of the cockpit. Complete with photos of what remained of the cockpit pitted with small cannon round holes pointed inward on both sides.

Voltairenet

Voltaire Network, http://www.voltairenet.org/en. Predominately investigative writers from the European Union. Translations to English are not always as good as desired. Excellent coverage of the Syrian War and no hesitation about poking its nose into matters that a variety of governments would prefer to remain secret. Check the "Partners" links in the navigation bar for areas of particular focus.

*

The asterisk in section titles indicates sources not searchable via the U.S. Foreign Wars search engine.

27 August 2014

News Sources for Conflicts in the West Asia/Eurasia Zone

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