In the days since the US military killed Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s fêted top security official, Iran’s leaders have repeatedly threatened retaliation. Yesterday, they volleyed ballistic missiles at two bases that house US troops in Iraq. No casualties were reported. On Twitter, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, said his country had “concluded proportionate measures in self-defense,” and insisted Iran does not want further escalation. President Trump, for his part, tweeted that “all is well!” Sources close to the president told Maggie Haberman, of the New York Times, that he’s looking for an “off-ramp” from the escalating tensions. But who knows what to believe anymore? In recent days, even senior US officials have seemed unsure as to what their plan actually is. On Monday, things came to a head after an American general informed Iraq’s military of a planned US withdrawal from the country in a letter that leaked to the press. Mark Esper, the US defense secretary, and Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hurriedly assembled reporters, denied knowledge of the letter, and denounced its contents. They walked off, but Milley quickly returned with an update: the letter was “a draft,” he said, and should never have been sent. (“Here’s the bottom line,” he told reporters. “This was a mistake.”) Members of the press were scathing of the confusion. The military news site Task & Purpose called it a “monumental screw-up”; on MSNBC Monday night,... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-01-08 13:07:07 UTC ]
Lloyd Shepherd, former director of news and information products at Yahoo and (disclaimer) deputy director of digital publishing at GU, has a new company and a new project in the form of Messy Media which is set to roll out a series of specialist news blogs.The company launched its first... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2007-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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