Rwanda experienced the most intensive slaughter in this blood-filled century we are about to leave. Corridors of Power: Rwanda s1e3: That Was a Local Thing, Clinton
They were hearing the information but they weren’t acting on it. ibid. old boy
The Kosovar Muslims’ struggle for independence from Serbia ... ‘We were going to intervene in Kosovo.’ Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? s1e4: Kosovo: In the Name of Our Future
If Milosevik does not halt his ethnic cleansing of Kosovo the western powers are willing to use their military might to stop him. ibid.
The bombing of Belgrade was a bit of a shock for some of us at the State Department. ibid.
We did do the right thing. ibid. Albright
Why didn’t we do more sooner about Bosnia? Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? s1e5: Darfur: Carrots for a War Criminal, author
In Sudan, a vast land, the third largest in Africa, two decades of civil war had brought countless atrocities, and left two million dead. The country was rich in oil but that lay in the south. ibid.
Darfur is a region in western Sudan roughly the size of Spain. The people of Darfur are Muslims, but they are also black Africans. ibid.
Now the Christians in south Sudan were going to get their own state, the Darfuris escalated their own. ibid.
Colin Powell’s prescient warning, ‘If you break it, you own it.’ ibid.
America broke Iraq, and was clearly unprepared for what would happen next. ibid.
More than 2 million Dafuris left their homes … They never had enough to eat; disease was rampant … Women, children and the elderly suffered most. ibid.
Young Arabs began to remake their world … Libyans had taken to the streets challenging their long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? s1e6: Libya: If You Break It, You Own It
Gaddafi had been a villain for the West for a quarter of a century. ibid.
‘We need to make sure they [Gaddafi’s forces] don’t get to Benghazi.’ ibid. US dude
‘You unleash a chain of events that make it very difficult to control.’ ibid.
‘Oh no, my people love me because I’m leading the resistance front.’ Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? s1e7: Syria: The Risk of Doing Nothing, Bashar al-Assad
Parents joined religious leaders in a march to demand their children be released. The marchers were peaceful but the forces of the regime opened fire, killing four. ibid.
‘You now had great powers pitted against each other in Syria, and with that the conflict was going to be very difficult to manage.’ ibid. US dude
Multiple reports that Assad was using chemical weapons. ibid.
Every solution you propose or present or pursue almost necessarily creates new problems. So even when you think you’ve done the right thing, you have generated a whole set of additional decisions that themselves put you back in this loop of imperfection. Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? s1e8: Syria: A Loop of Imperfection, US dude
What does this all end? ibid. Barack
A new force had emerged in Syria: Isis. ibid.
Americans had shown little appetite for sending their war planes to defend Syrians even when thousands were dying from Assad’s chemical weapons. But the televised beheading of an American journalist had raised a sudden appetite for revenge. This stark act of cruelty and injustice on a single young American kneeling in an orange jumpsuit in the desert awakened a bottomless anger. ibid.
‘This war was sold to the American people based on falsehood and lies.’ Political Deception: History is a Lie that No-One Contests III: Iraq: A Veritable Imposture, comment
George Bush changes enemies. Osama bin Laden is replaced by Saddam Hussein. This about-face is the fruit of an incredible manipulation with catastrophic consequences for the world. ibid.
A conventional war in the most unstable region in the world. Ibid
The machinery of lies runs at full throttle for months. ibid.
‘The sales campaign that took place, I would characterize as aggressive deception.’ ibid. comment
In the end the yellow-cake dossier will have a remarkable fate. ibid.
Early 2003: The American government decides to present its great manipulation to the world. ibid.
The night of March 19th the war begins. ibid.
March 2011: Libyan rebels rise against Muammar Gaddafi. What at first appears to be a spontaneous uprising is in reality the culmination of a carefully managed, top secret, 30-year-old, CIA operation. For decades America has been plotting to remove the man it branded the Mad Dog of the Middle East. What few people know as the rebellion against Gaddafi unfolds is that the man leading the uprising is in fact a long-time CIA contact. CIA Declassified s1e1: Killing Mad Dog Gaddafi, 2014
The Libyan rebels are directed and coordinated by CIA experts on the ground. ibid.
CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia: The North Africa desk is buzzing. They are monitoring secret communications coming in from Libya. ibid.
1986: Operation El Dorado Canyon: Instead of sending in a CIA hit squad, the US will launch air strikes on a series of military targets inside Libya. ibid.
The rebels turn into a baying mob. They unleash a murderous revenge upon Gaddafi for four decades of oppression. ibid.
A fortress in Afghanistan. 1 month after 9/11. 2 operatives from the CIA’s elite special activities division are hot on the trail of Osama bin Laden. This is the declassified story of how the CIA with elite forces put down a Taliban uprising outnumbered 100/1. CIA Declassified s1e2: Fortress of War
The full operational force of the CIA now forcuses on one man and his network of terrorists. The CIA knows bin Laden is hiding in Afghanistan. He’s found refuge with a Taliban, the ruling extremist Islamic regime. But they don’t know his precise location. ibid.
For the very first time in American history, President Bush approves a plan using the CIA as a lead element in a war. Operation Enduring Freedom is the invasion of Afghanistan. ibid.
At the CIA headquarters analysts receive intelligence that many of these hardline foreigners are in fact members of Al Qaeda. ibid.
In 1996 the CIA set up a specialist unit to investigate a relatively unknown but extremely wealthy Saudi billionaire. His name is Osama bin Laden. CIA Declassified s1e3: The Real Zero Dark Thirty
Alex Station doesn’t give up. It tracks Bin Laden through the warrens of Kandahar. ibid.
Intelligence suggest that bin Laden has slipped over the border into Pakistan. Pakistan is officially an ally of the United States. ibid.
In Zero Dark Thirty, under torture [Abu] Zubaydah reveals Bin Laden’s link to the outside world – a courier. ibid.
Che Guevara, a ruthless revolutionary is intent on destroying the United States. In the 60s he’s causing mayhem in Bolivia to spark off revolutions throughout South America that will destabilise the area and threaten American interests … Mission: to capture Che Guevara and bring him back alive. CIA Declassified s1e4: The Hunt for Che Guevara
To students and revolutionary youths the world over he is a hero, a freedom fighter. But to others Che is a cold-blooded killer. ibid.
For the next four months US instructors, many veterans of Korea and Vietnam, train the Bolivian soldiers. ibid.
14th August 1967: 2 weeks after Rodriguez arrives in Bolivia, government soldiers make a spectacular discovery: it’s a cave used be Che’s guerillas – it contains a treasure trove of information on the rebel force. ibid.
One of the documents taken from the guerrilla’s cave is Che’s passport. It reveals how he entered Bolivia disguised as a middle-aged Uruguayan economist in November 1966. ibid.
The guerillas are completely isolated and alone. ibid.