U.S. commander: Iraq’s Mosul dam on verge of catastrophic collapse

U.S. commander: Iraq’s Mosul dam on verge of catastrophic collapse

Special to WorldTribune.com The potential for a collapse of the Mosul dam in northern Iraq is real, according to the commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). “The likelihood of the dam collapsing is something we are trying to determine right now … all we know is when it […]

Text of explainer-warning leaflets to ISIL tanker drivers released

Text of explainer-warning leaflets to ISIL tanker drivers released

Special to WorldTribune.com Leaflets dropped by the U.S. in Syria and Iraq warned drivers of tankers carrying Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) oil to “leave the trucks and flee” as air strikes on the tankers were imminent. “Warning. Airstrikes are coming, oil trucks will be destroyed,” read one leaflet. “Get away from your […]

Realism not rhetoric needed to defeat ISIL, warns Gates

Realism not rhetoric needed to defeat ISIL,  warns Gates

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates slammed both the Obama Administration and the presidential primary candidates calling for long-term realism in America’s fight against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) terrorism. “I think that the president has all along underestimated ISIS, has underestimated the degree […]

A former U.S. diplomat’s inexplicable defense of Kim Jong-Un

A former U.S. diplomat’s inexplicable defense of Kim Jong-Un

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to Korea, makes an astounding statement in a piece published after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test. Striking “a very positive note,” he praises “the performance of Kim Jong-Un in improving the North Korean economy and downplaying nuclear threats and nuclear weapons development.” It […]

New U.S. ISIL strategy: bomb the ‘Daesh cash’

New U.S. ISIL strategy: bomb the ‘Daesh cash’

Special to WorldTribune.com The United States has unleashed a new strategy against Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL): bomb the “Daesh cash.” According to Col. Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, nine air strikes in Iraq and Syria in the past few months have destroyed “tens of millions” of dollars of […]

U.S. provides logistical support to French carrier in Gulf

U.S. provides logistical support to French carrier in Gulf

Special to WorldTribune.com The United States is providing critical support for France’s aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, resupplied France’s Charles De Gaulle carrier, which began operations in the Gulf last month as part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). “The […]

Two satellite phone SIM cards missing after Iran captured U.S. sailors

Two satellite phone SIM cards missing after Iran captured U.S. sailors

Special to WorldTribune.com Two SIM cards from satellite phones were missing from the boats of the 10 U.S. sailors who were detained by Iran. In its first official account of the incident, the United States military on Jan. 18 released a timeline of the events of Jan. 12. The sailors were headed from Kuwait to […]

Stalinist Cuba, mass graves, and a U.S. president’s legacy

Stalinist Cuba, mass graves, and a U.S. president’s legacy

Special to WorldTribune.com By Frank Calzon On Jan. 8, 1959, as Fidel Castro entered Havana in triumph and the dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba, Raul Castro opened up a mass grave in Santiago and immediately executed seventy one Cubans without due process. As the Obama Administration begins a final year of diplomatic appeasement of tyrants […]

Migration of ISIL jihadists: Out of Syria . . . and into Libya

Migration of ISIL jihadists: Out of Syria . . . and into Libya

Special to WorldTribune.com By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs January 2016 saw an acceleration of the movement of Daesh (asad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi al-‘Iraq wash-Sham) — so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) — fighters out of Syria and into Libya. There were profound reasons for this “flight to safety” by Daesh, […]

The foreign policy ‘vision’ at Obama’s last State of the Union cries for an opthalmologist

The foreign policy ‘vision’ at Obama’s last State of the Union cries for an opthalmologist

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, the annual speech to a joint session of Congress, has emerged as more of a political pep rally than a clear overview of America’s standing in the world both domestic and foreign. The address was touted as […]