Links for Friday, September 13
War, war and war. More on the way.
Ebal Violante: Are we at war?
Doctor Senator: Not yet. But we're trying real hard.
—Fargo, from “The Pretend War”
This Friday-the-13th melange of links contains scary stuff. War, war and war. Plus war. And music.
Links
• Putin warns Ukraine use of long-range arms will put NATO at war with Russia (Aljazeera)
This happened:
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy has urged allies to lift restrictions on Western-supplied arms to strike deep inside Russia.
Then this happened:
President Vladimir Putin has warned that if Western nations allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons to strike inside Russia then it will mean NATO would be “at war” with his country.
“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict. It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” Putin told Russian state TV on Thursday.
We covered the issue here:
File under “Are we at war? No, but we’re trying real hard.”
• Democratic congressman — a Kennedy descendent — calls for the president to let Ukraine blow up four oil refineries around Moscow (Ryan Grim, Twitter)
The headline says it. Click through for the video.
As Ryan Grim noted, Jake Auchincloss is a leaf in the Auchincloss family tree, which makes him, like Gore Vidal, related to Jackie Kennedy’s stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss. Which makes him a Kennedy, nearer the center of power than most of his peers. For whom does he speak?
File under “Do we really want WW III? Just curious.”
• Putin’s global ambition (Kamala Harris, 2024 debate transcript)
If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now. …Putin's agenda is not just about Ukraine. … [Without NATO] Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland.
File under “Do we really want WW III? Just curious.”
• Israeli forces accused of killing their own citizens under the 'Hannibal Directive' during October 7 chaos (ABC.net.au)
Panicked, operating without their normal command structure and unable to coordinate with ground forces, [the IDF] fired on vehicles returning to Gaza, knowing they were likely carrying hostages.
"This was a mass Hannibal. It was tons and tons of openings in the fence, and thousands of people in every type of vehicle, some with hostages and some without," Colonel Erez said.
Air force pilots described to Yedioth Ahronot newspaper the firing of "tremendous" amounts of ammunition on October 7 at people attempting to cross the border between Gaza and Israel.
"Twenty-eight fighter helicopters shot over the course of the day all of the ammunition in their bellies, in renewed runs to rearm. We are talking about hundreds of 30-millimetre cannon mortars and Hellfire missiles," reporter Yoav Zeitoun said.
"The frequency of fire at the thousands of terrorists was enormous at the start, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow their attacks and carefully choose the targets."
Was this covered in the major media, like our own ABC? Not according to the search engine Kagi.com’s AI bot. Question: What US media carried the story ‘Hannibal Directive on Oct 7’? Answer below.
That’s not a surprise. Here’s yet another example of the mainstream Western media hiding Israel’s crime. Note the disparate headlines:
File under “‘Mass Hannibal’ sounds like mass murder.”