Veteran and 2020 candidate said Trump’s willingness to pardon soldiers ‘undermines the very foundations ... of this country’
Donald Trump’s willingness to consider pardons for US soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes “undermines the very foundations, legal and moral, of this country”, Democratic candidate for president Pete Buttigieg said.
Related: ‘The president's insane’: book by CNN's Jim Acosta charts Trump war on press
Continue reading...Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US would send 1,500 troops to the Middle East as a protective measure after a breakdown in relations with Iran. ‘Right now, I don’t think Iran wants to fight and I certainly don’t think they want to fight with us,’ the US president said
Continue reading...White House downplays prospect of conflict but blames Iran for tanker bombings and Iraq attack
The US will send hundreds of additional troops and a dozen fighter jets to the Middle East in the coming weeks to counter what the Pentagon has said is an escalating campaign by Iran to plan attacks against the US and its interests in the region.
And for the first time, Pentagon officials on Friday publicly blamed Iran and its proxies for recent tanker bombings near United Arab Emirates and a rocket attack in Iraq.
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, was a key architect of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Now he is stoking tensions with Iran. Julian Borger describes how the standoff could get out of control. Also today: Katharine Viner on how the Guardian is updating its language when reporting on the climate crisis
John Bolton, who has been called “the most dangerous man in the world”, was not Donald Trump’s first pick for his national security adviser. But after a series of resignations, he was plucked from a life of Fox News appearances to reprise his career as the foremost military hawk in the US. Now he has his sights set on Iran and has pushed for a buildup of US military assets in the Gulf.
The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, tells Anushka Asthana that as tensions rise, so do the chances of an accidental – or deliberate – escalation towards war. The echoes of the drumbeat to war in Iraq in 2003 are all too apparent, and it was Bolton’s role in that crisis that prompted a Guardian columnist to attempt to make a citizen’s arrest of him in the tranquil surroundings of the Hay literary festival in 2008. George Monbiot describes how he came out second best from that encounter.
Continue reading...Destroyer moved near Scarborough Reef to ‘challenge excessive maritime claims’, says commander of Seventh Fleet
A US warship has sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China in the South China Sea, a move likely to anger Beijing at a time of tense ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
The destroyer USS Preble carried out the operation on Sunday, a US military spokesman said. The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which also include a trade war, the blacklisting of tech company Huawei US sanctions and Taiwan.
Continue reading...Nicolás Maduro appeared on the brink of being forced from power in an uprising plotted by the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó. But key figures stayed loyal, allowing the president to begin reprisals. Tom Phillips in Caracas has watched it play out. Plus: Owen Jones on public schools and who gets to go to Britain’s elite universities
Juan Guaidó described his attempted uprising last month as the “final phase” of his plan to oust Nicolás Maduro. But after a day of chaos and confusion in which Guaidó’s mentor, Leopoldo López, was sprung from house arrest, the Venezuelan president was still in power and many of the plotters had gone into hiding.
The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, is in Caracas and describes to Anushka Asthana the sense of defiance among supporters of Maduro, and Guaidó’s mood of optimism in an exclusive Guardian interview.
Continue reading...Formal request for a meeting is the closest the Guaidó camp has come to requesting US military intervention to help oust Maduro
The head of Venezuela’s national assembly, Juan Guaidó, has asked for a meeting with the US military for “strategic and operational planning” in the power struggle between the Guaidó camp and the government of Nicolás Maduro.
In a letter to the head of US Southern Command (SouthCom), Guaidó’s representative in Washingon, Carlos Vecchio, pointed to worsening conditions in Venezuela as the standoff continues and “the impact of the presence of uninvited foreign forces that place our country and others at risk”.
Continue reading...National security adviser John Bolton says any Iranian attack on US or its allies will be met with ‘unrelenting force’
The US has said it is sending an aircraft carrier and a bomber taskforce to the Middle East in response to what it called “a credible threat” by Iranian regime forces.
The deployment of forces was first announced by the national security adviser, John Bolton, on Sunday, and confirmed by the acting defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, on Monday. Neither official gave an explanation of the alleged Iranian threat. According to one report, information passed on by Israeli intelligence contributed to the US threat assessment.
Continue reading...Navy rear admiral John Ring was relieved of his duties on Saturday. About 40 prisoners are being held at the facility
The commander of the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba was abruptly fired for unknown reasons over the weekend.
Navy R Adm John Ring was relieved of his duties on Saturday. A statement from US Southern Command said the change in leadership was “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command”, and would “not interrupt the safe, humane, legal care and custody provided to the detainee population” at Guantánamo.
Continue reading...Destroyers William P Lawrence and Stethem transited through the waterway on Sunday as Pentagon ups the ante with Beijing
The US military has sent two navy warships through the Taiwan Strait as the Pentagon increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.
Sunday’s voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.
Continue reading...Iran’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill labelling US forces in the Middle East as terrorist, a day after Washington’s terrorism label for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard formally took effect.
The defence minister, Gen Amir Hatami, introduced the bill on Tuesday authorising the government to act firmly in response to “terrorist actions” by US forces. It demands authorities use “legal, political and diplomatic” measures to neutralise the American move, without elaborating.
Continue reading...José González Carranza was arrested by Ice officers and deported to Mexico, but brought back after an Arizona paper reported on it
US immigration officials deported the husband of a soldier killed in Afghanistan – then reversed course and let him back into the country.
José González Carranza, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers last week at his home in Arizona and quickly deported to Mexico, he and his attorney told the Arizona Republic.
Continue reading...Openly transgender people now banned from serving in the military as LGBT groups denounce ‘shameful’ rule
The US military is returning to the era of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policies, after new rules that ban transgender people from serving came into effect on Friday.
The new policy bars military members who have transitioned or are openly trans from enlisting after Friday, while troops who come out as trans while serving after that day will be discharged.It forces trans soldiers to hide their identity or lose their job and will result in increased stigma and mental health issues, said troops and LGBT groups.
Continue reading...Jody Williams and Mary Wareham were leading lights in the campaign to ban landmines. Now they have autonomous weapons in their sights
It sounds like something from the outer reaches of science fiction: battlefield robots waging constant war, algorithms that determine who to kill, face-recognition fighting machines that can ID a target and take it out before you have time to say “Geneva conventions”.
This is no film script, however, but an ominous picture of future warfare that is moving ever closer. “Killer robots” is shorthand for a range of tech that has generals salivating and peace campaigners terrified at the ethical ramifications of warfare waged via digital proxies.
Continue reading...Kurdish-led group says last of militants cleared from stronghold of Baghuz
After almost five years, the battle to dismantle Islamic State’s brutal “caliphate” has ended with an announcement from US-backed forces that the militants have been driven out of their last stronghold of Baghuz.
Isis had held out for months against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the small oasis town on the Euphrates river, clinging on to an area of land less than 700 sq metres wide despite fierce coalition bombing. But on Saturday an SDF spokesperson, Mustafa Bali, tweeted that the town had been liberated.
Continue reading...As investigators close in, the president invokes the support of the military, police and vigilantes. This is a perilous moment
What does a megalomaniacal president of the United States do when he’s cornered? We’ll soon find out.
Related: 'It's a small group of people': Trump again denies white nationalism is rising threat
Continue reading...The US has begun building parts for a new ground-launched cruise missile in anticipation of the end of a cold war treaty that banned them, the Pentagon has confirmed.
The Trump administration declared on 1 February it was no longer bound by the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty and would withdraw completely in August, pointing to the deployment of a new Russian missile which the US has complained for more than six years was a violation of the agreement.
Continue reading...Exclusive: account exposes failures of US intelligence, which put $10m bounty on Mullah Omar
The Taliban’s elusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, and American troops once even searched the house where he was hiding but failed to find a secret room built for him, a new biography claims.
The account exposes an embarrassing failure of US intelligence, which put a $10m bounty on Omar’s head after the 9/11 attacks in the US. Officials repeatedly suggested that, like the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, he was hiding in Pakistan and died there.
Continue reading...Reach of extremist groups could spread to Ghana, Togo and Benin, says US military chief
A rapid and alarming deterioration of the security situation in Burkina Faso is threatening to spread to its three southern neighbours, a senior US military figure has warned, heralding the potential destabilisation of a vast area of west Africa.
Related: Kidnapped Canadian found dead, Burkina Faso officials say
Continue reading...Martha McSally, the Arizona Republican senator, revealed during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the air force. McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she did not report the assault because she did not trust the system and was ashamed and confused
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