The Pentagon carried out over 70 airstrikes in March.

By: ANTIWAR

The Pentagon carried out over 70 airstrikes in March against targets inside Yemen, which was more than US forces carried out in all of 2016. That trend of escalation appears to be continuing into early April, with officials saying over 20 strikes were launched just in the first two days of April.

Officials say that the strikes, which were mostly launched by drones, targeted al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) targets around the Shabwa Province, focusing on “infrastructure” and “fighting positions.” They provided no indication on death tolls.

AQAP is considered a high priority for the Trump Administration, and Pentagon officials have been playing up the threat in trying to get approval for an escalation in the US involvement in the Saudi invasion of Yemen, even though the Saudi war is unrelated to AQAP, and the Saudis have largely ignored fighting with them.

Indeed, AQAP gained considerable territory after the Saudi invasion, because the focus of the invasion was on chasing the Shi’ites out of southern Yemen, and little effort was made to secure broad chunks of rural territory which has since been added to AQAP’s territory.

by Alex Thomas, The Anti-Media

Lobbying in the nation’s capitol is a billion dollar industry, but sometimes, companies dip their toes into state and local politics, as well. When giant corporations want to influence bills and national elections, they generally spread their money around, cozying up to a number of politicians and shaking hands with numerous government officials. However, at the local level, high-dollar financing is a bit more transparent.

Insys Therapeutics is a small player on the national scale. The Center for Responsive Politics reported that they spent only $120,000 lobbying in D.C. in 2016. But in Arizona, where the company is based, they forked over $500,000 — and they did it to keep marijuana illegal in the traditionally Republican state.

by Wikileaks

Today, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named "Vault 7" by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.

The first full part of the series, "Year Zero", comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina. It follows an introductory disclosure last month of CIA targeting French political parties and candidates in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election.

Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.

By: Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project

In a move that is sure to cause a firestorm of controversy, Donald Trump signed Executive Orders at 11 a.m. EST, advancing the Dakota Access Pipeline as well as the Keystone XL.

According to Reuters, U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive actions on Tuesday to advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, an administration official said, rolling back key Obama administration environmental policies in favor of expanding energy infrastructure.

The entire substance of the executive order was not made immediately clear. However, they will fulfill campaign promises Trump made to approve both pipelines — which have been vehemently opposed by a massive bipartisan sect.

This news comes on the heels of a pipeline spill yesterday, which dumped hundreds of thousands of liters of oil on an aboriginal community in Canada.

As the Free Thought Project has reported, this move by Trump has been premeditated since the election. It is most likely why the company behind DAPL, Energy Transfer Partners, said in December, the denial of an easement necessary to drill under the Missouri River is of no consequence for its plans to complete the project.

by Darius Shahtahmasebi, The Anti-Media

Shortly after the Obama administration began deploying American troops across Russia’s border in a number of countries, including Lithuania, some 300 U.S. Marines landed in Norway for a six-month deployment. Their Monday deployment marks the first time since World War II that foreign troops have been allowed to station in Norway.

The Marines will spend a year in total in Norwegian territory, and the current deployment will be replaced after their six-month service is completed.

Unsurprisingly, it’s doubtful Russia will view this move favorably. When questioned about the proposal to station U.S. troops in Norway in October last year, Russia questioned the motives behind such a move. As the Russian embassy in Oslo told Reuters:

“Taking into account multiple statements of Norwegian officials about the absence of threat from Russia to Norway we would like to understand for what purposes is Norway so … willing to increase its military potential, in particular through stationing of American forces in Vaernes?”