Category: The Fifth Column

(TFC) – It’s clear the Trump administration wants some form of resolution with North Korea. That resolution will probably be sought through military means. The US game plan is the same as it’s been since 9/11: preemptive war based on some unidentifiable threat. That threat has to be sold to the American people. The first step will be to return North Korea to the state sponsors of terrorism list. The chess pieces are already being put on the board and US media outlets are already laying out the case for…

(TFC)— Recently, Trump Administration representatives attended UN climate talks in Bronn, Germany. Perhaps this won’t surprise some readers, but they were all also affiliated with the fossil fuel industry. In pushing the importance of their industry’s survival, they hinted to background power balances pulling strings. “This panel is only controversial if we choose to bury our heads in the sand and ignore the realities of a global energy system.” Those words came from David Banks’ mouth, special energy assistant to US President Donald Trump. Banks, with other coal and gas…

Mali, Africa (TFC)— Africa seems ripe with tales from the depths of US Special Operations these days. This time, two SEAL Team 6 operatives are being looked at for the death of a Green Beret in Mali. Ruled homicide by strangulation, the incident has propagated a wealth of theories online. Could the soldier have been in the wrong place, wrong time? If so, then why? On June 4th 2017, Green Beret Staff Sergeant Logan Melgar was found dead inside Mali’s US embassy. Although his exact assignment is unknown, he’d had…

(TFC) – Less than an hour ago, we received a series of messages from one of our affiliated teams of journalists inside Kirkuk. His team has witnessed Hashd Al-Shaabi and other unidentified Iraqi irregulars going door to door and arresting those with Kurdish flags, supporters of the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party), and others. The forces were also in search of specific people named on a list. The list is said to include Kurdish activists as well as members of the media, although we could not independently verify the list’s contents at the…

(TFC) – The War for Kurdish Independence may have started. Iraqi forces attacked oil fields and two military bases in Kirkuk in an attempt to take control of the province. The province has been under Kurdish control since 2014 when the Kurds liberated it from ISIS forces. The province is disputed and this attack was the expected first move for Iraqi forces. While the Iraqi government is claiming its forces were ordered to avoid conflict, that is not what happened, nor is it likely any such order was given. Multiple…

Editor’s Note: Jake Reyes runs La Quinta Columna, TFC’s Spanish Edition. He lives in Puerto Rico. The former Marine was on the Island when Maria hit. Here’s his story. (TFC) – It was 2:30 am when the Beast started to attack… at first, it sounded like a giant serpent hiss, and then the roar began… it was like a huge beast destroying everything in its path. The air-conditioner in my room was ripped out by the tremendous force of the winds, leaving a hole. I started screaming at my father while holding…

(TFC) – It’s time to separate fact from fiction and plausible from impossible. It’s also time to address some physics that is leading to lots of confusion. The Vegas shooting is the biggest mass shooting since Wounded Knee. With such a tragic event, it stands to reason people would be searching for answers. The answers are only important if you’re asking the right questions. The Fifth Column spoke with several survivors. The stories were harrowing. They all believed a second shooter was on scene. They witnessed carnage and humanity at its finest….

(TFC) – In response to more than 90% of Iraqi Kurds voting in favor of independence through peaceful means, the Iraqi government has issued the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) an ultimatum: hand over control over your airports and control of your borders. The Iraqi government is threatening an air embargo if the Kurds don’t comply with the demand. The move shows exactly how weak Baghdad is. Knowing it can’t force the Kurds to comply militarily on the ground, it’s only option is to threaten civilian air traffic. The Kurds have…