CovertAction Bulletin

The United Nations voted on October 2nd to authorize a military intervention in Haiti, led by the Kenyan government.  But a long history of foreign intervention and occupation in Haiti has led to disastrous results for the Haitian people, whether at the hands of the United States, France or overseen by the United Nations. This intervention is being opposed by people in Haiti and by internationalis...

After their highly-watched 15th summit, the core member nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have accepted six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who will become members on January 1, 2024. More than a dozen other countries have applied for membership. But what is BRICS? As the world trends from a unipolar hierarchy led by...

In Argentina, the far right-wing Libertarian candidate Javier Milei of the Liberty Advances party won 30% of the country’s presidential primary, calling for an end to “Kirchnerism” - really, a call to end the social programs fought for and won by the Argentinian people. We dive deeper into the analysis of how we got here, and what this surge in popularity of libertarianism really means.  Meanwhile...

A recent article in the New York Times attacked peace groups and activists who oppose the U.S. government’s drive towards war with China. Just days later, Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding an investigation into Code Pink, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Dongsheng and others named in the article. While they differ on tactics or on domestic...

On July 26, former President Mohamad Bazoum was removed from power by a military general, Tchiani. This has set off a wave of condemnation and threats of military intervention from the US and France, for whom Bazoum proved to be a reliable ally. Thousands have rallied to support Niger’s new leadership since July 26, reportedly carrying banners reading ”Down with France” and “Foreign bases out”. Th...

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer film made a huge $174 million internationally on its opening weekend. The three-hour biopic of the so-called “father of the atomic bomb” dives into the personal and professional relationships of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It’s centered around the 1945 Trinity test in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico and the development of the Manhattan Project that led up to...

A recent Washington Post article titled “A North Korean defector captivated U.S. media. Some question her story” highlights the many appearances Yeonmi Park has made on right-wing news outlets over the past few years. Scholars and solidarity activists have been pointing out the serious holes in Park’s stories since she started getting attention. But even the Post has pushed her propaganda, running...

The AUKUS trilateral military and intelligence partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States doesn't get much attention in the U.S. media. It's yet another element of the US quest for world domination. The first pillar of AUKUS focuses on getting Australia nuclear-powered submarines, and the second enhances technology and information sharing. The US government has r...

The June 23 coup attempt in Russia by the Wagner Group seemed to end almost as quickly and suddenly as it started. Yevgeny Prigozhin specifically targeted the Ministry of Defense and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and within hours Wagner forces had entered the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and entered the grounds of the command of the Southern Military District headquarters in the city. Wall-to-w...

We begin today’s show with a remembrance of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who passed on June 16 at the age of 92. Then, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his recent trip to China with a 35-minute meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 19th. Blinken had also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and top diplomat Wang Yi over the weekend.  Despite the State Department and...

In early June, cities in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the US were blanketed by smoke from wildfires in Canada, some hundreds of which are still burning. Air Quality Index levels reached nearly 500 in New York City at one point, well into the “hazardous” range. In fact, New York City was briefly the world’s most polluted city during that time. New York does not normally fall in the wor...

Pride month is here in the US. It’s a time for LGBTQ people to celebrate, to build community, to honor our elders, and to continue the tradition of protest for recognition, safety and equal rights. In the face of “don’t say gay” laws, book bans, street harassment, attacks on trans athletes and drag shows and laws targeting trans healthcare and even families who provide gender-affirming care for tr...

What is the real impact of Biden’s anti-immigrant policies on the border and where is the outrage? On May 11, the U.S. government’s Title 42 regulation expired. It had been in place for three years and prevented nearly all people who sought asylum in the United States from applying for it.  The Biden administration continues to militarize the border with 1,500 new National Guard soldiers. The so-c...

The “debt ceiling” crisis playing out between President Biden and Congressional Republicans is manufactured by capitalism to justify spending cuts to critical social programs while continuing to bail out big businesses and fund the Pentagon’s endless war drive. This comes after the taxpayer-funded bailouts of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank show the willingness of the c...

To mark the occasion of the coronation of King Charles the III, Julian Assange wrote a scathing public letter to the new monarch from his cell at Belmarsh prison, where he’s been held for over four years. The coronation cost £100 million of tax-payer funds, and many across the country have been outraged that public funds are being spent on such pomp and circumstance during a cost of living crisis....

In this episode, we highlight the struggle of the workers at the Ford Cuautitlán Assembly Plant, just outside Mexico City. On January 8, 1990, workers at the plant were attacked by police and private hired thugs wearing Ford jackets. This happened during a prolonged period of labor action by the workers, and kicked off an occupation of the plant. This attack didn’t happen in a vacuum and the CIA p...

Earlier this month, Elon Musk released a portion of Twitter’s algorithm and has since asked netizens to pat him on the back for his contribution to bringing back the old “free speech” of the early days of the internet. As the controversy on Twitter surrounding blue checks being given to dead celebrities, Musk continues to portray himself as disrupting the social media market by being a true advoca...

The Washington Post has published that it has reviewed over 300 leaked documents posted online allegedly from the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The documents' presence online prompted an investigation that led to the arrest on Thursday of a 21-year-old Air National guardsman, Jack Teixeira. This leak of Pentagon documents has given us a glimpse of how the US government and some of its...

The expulsion of two Black elected Representatives from Tennessee’s state government continues a long, racist tradition of the removal of Black people in political power in the United States. From the founding of the country through the Reconstruction era and to the modern day,  white supremacy and capitalism have used every weapon at their disposal to disenfranchise Black voters and legislators....

Mass protests in Israel broke out after Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against Netanyahu’s planned judicial reform - really, a legislative coup. But nowhere in the media coverage was any discussion of how the protests or the judicial reform itself would impact the Palestinian people who continue to live un...

On March 18, thousands of people from across the country and the world gathered in Lafayette Park, just outside the White House, demanding an end to the endless US wars of the past 20 years and in particular the proxy conflict in Ukraine. Almost 300 groups endorsed the event from a wide variety of struggles, including the environmental organizations , antiwar veterans organizations, Black liberati...

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Islamophobia became a sort of unofficial religion in the United States. Vigilante street attacks on Muslim people became common. The government surveilled mosques and community centers. Over two decades later, the situation doesn’t seem much different. Resistance to bringing refugees from Syria into the US based entirely in racism and Islamophobia. As we mark the 2...

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released its 2023 Annual Threat Assessment, putting China, Russia, Iran and North Korea directly in the crosshairs of US imperialism and regime change operations. The report is very clear on the motives of the entire establishment: to prevent any other state from challenging US hegemony, the “rules-based global order.” We discuss the lengthy...

35 people were arrested and 23 charged with domestic terrorism at a music festival gathering that was part of the a week of action to stop Cop City. Cop City, as it is known by activists, is a $90 million dollar police militarization facility in Atlanta, and activists for the past two years have been occupying the forest where it is being built. We discuss how police militarization and the afterma...

Just before the one-year anniversary of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine, President Biden made a surprise visit to Kiev over President’s Day weekend. According to the AP, the plan was approved just two days before, but discussion began a month prior. Air Force One flew to Germany, then turned its transponders off for a flight to Poland. Only two US journalists accompanied Biden -...