Global Research Editor’s Note

We bring to the attention of our readers the following text of Osama bin Laden’s interview with Ummat, a Pakistani daily, published in Karachi on September 28, 2001. It was translated into English by the BBC World Monitoring Service and made public on September 29, 2001.

The authenticity of this interview remains to be confirmed. It was available in recognized electronic news archives including the BBC. 

The interview tends to demystify the Osama bin Laden persona.

Osama bin Laden categorically denies his involvement in the 9/11 attacks.  Bin Laden’s statements in this interview are markedly different from those made in the alleged Osama video tapes.

In this interview, Osama bin Laden exhibits an understanding of US foreign policy. He expresses his views regarding the loss of life on 9/11. He focusses on CIA support to the narcotics trade.

He also makes statements as to who, in his opinion, might be the likely perpetrator of  the September 11 attacks.

This is an important text which has not been brought to the attention of Western public opinion.

We have highlighted key sections of this interview.

It is our hope that the text of this interview, published on 28 September 2001 barely a week before the onset of the war on Afghanistan, will contribute to a better understanding of the history of Al Qaeda, the role of Osama bin Laden and the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

I should be noted that on the day preceding the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden had been admitted for treatment in a Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

This was confirmed by Dan Rather in a CBS News Report. 

This interview is published for informational purposes only.

GR does not in any way endorse the statements in this interview. Nor are we in a position to confirm its authenticity.

Michel  Chossudovsky, September 2, 2023


Full text of September 2001 Pakistani paper’s “exclusive” interview with Usamah Bin-Ladin

translated from Urdu by the BBC World Monitoring Service

Karachi, 28 September 2001, pp. 1- 7.

Ummat’s introduction

Kabul: Prominent Arab mojahed holy warrior Usamah Bin-Ladin has said that he or his al-Qa’idah group has nothing to do with the 11 September suicidal attacks in Washington and New York. He said the US government should find the attackers within the country. In an exclusive interview with daily “Ummat”, he said these attacks could be the act of those who are part of the American system and are rebelling against it and working for some other system. Or, Usamah said, this could be the act of those who want to make the current century a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity. Or, the American Jews, who are opposed to President Bush ever since the Florida elections, might be the masterminds of this act. There is also a great possibility of the involvement of US intelligence agencies, which need billions of dollars worth of funds every year. He said there is a government within the government in the United States.

The secret agencies, he said, should be asked as to who are behind the attacks. Usamah said support for attack on Afghanistan was a matter of need for some Muslim countries and compulsion for others. However, he said, he was thankful to the courageous people of Pakistan who erected a bulwark before the wrong forces. He added that the Islamic world was attaching great expectations with Pakistan and, in time of need, “we will protect this bulwark by sacrificing of lives”.

Following is the interview in full detail:

Ummat: You have been accused of involvement in the attacks in New York and Washington. What do you want to say about this? If you are not involved, who might be?

Usamah [Osama bin Laden]: In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful. Praise be to Allah, Who is the creator of the whole universe and Who made the earth as an abode for peace, for the whole mankind. Allah is the Sustainer, who sent Prophet Muhammad for our guidance. I am thankful to the Ummat Group of Publications, which gave me the opportunity to convey my viewpoint to the people, particularly the valiant and Momin true Muslim people of Pakistan who refused to believe in lie of the demon.

I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children, and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children, and other people.

Such a practice is forbidden ever in the course of a battle. It is the United States, which is perpetrating every maltreatment on women, children, and common people of other faiths, particularly the followers of Islam. All that is going on in Palestine for the last 11 months is sufficient to call the wrath of God upon the United States and Israel.

There is also a warning for those Muslim countries, which witnessed all these as a silent spectator. What had earlier been done to the innocent people of Iraq, Chechnya, and Bosnia?

Only one conclusion could be derived from the indifference of the United States and the West to these acts of terror and the patronage of the tyrants by these powers that America is an anti-Islamic power and it is patronizing the anti-Islamic forces. Its friendship with the Muslim countries is just a show, rather deceit. By enticing or intimidating these countries, the United States is forcing them to play a role of its choice. Put a glance all around and you will see that the slaves of the United States are either rulers or enemies of Muslims .

The US has no friends, nor does it want to keep any because the prerequisite of friendship is to come to the level of the friend or consider him at par with you. America does not want to see anyone equal to it. It expects slavery from others. Therefore, other countries are either its slaves or subordinates.

However, our case is different. We have pledged slavery to God Almighty alone and after this pledge there is no possibility to become the slave of someone else. If we do that, it will be disregardful to both our Sustainer and his fellow beings. Most of the world nations upholding their freedom are the religious ones, which are the enemies of United States, or the latter itself considers them as its enemies. Or the countries, which do not agree to become its slaves, such as China, Iran, Libya, Cuba, Syria, and the former Russia as received .

Whoever committed the act of 11 September are not the friends of the American people. I have already said that we are against the American system, not against its people, whereas in these attacks, the common American people have been killed.

According to my information, the death toll is much higher than what the US government has stated. But the Bush administration does not want the panic to spread. The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; the people who are a part of the US system, but are dissenting against it. Or those who are working for some other system; persons who want to make the present century as a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity so that their own civilization, nation, country, or ideology could survive. They can be any one, from Russia to Israel and from India to Serbia. In the US itself, there are dozens of well-organized and well-equipped groups, which are capable of causing a large-scale destruction. Then you cannot forget the American Jews, who are annoyed with President Bush ever since the elections in Florida and want to avenge him.

Then there are intelligence agencies in the US, which require billions of dollars worth of funds from the Congress and the government every year. This funding issue was not a big problem till the existence of the former Soviet Union but after that the budget of these agencies has been in danger.

They needed an enemy. So, they first started propaganda against Usamah and Taleban and then this incident happened. You see, the Bush administration approved a budget of 40bn dollars. Where will this huge amount go? It will be provided to the same agencies, which need huge funds and want to exert their importance.

Now they will spend the money for their expansion and for increasing their importance. I will give you an example. Drug smugglers from all over the world are in contact with the US secret agencies. These agencies do not want to eradicate narcotics cultivation and trafficking because their importance will be diminished. The people in the US Drug Enforcement Department are encouraging drug trade so that they could show performance and get millions of dollars worth of budget. General Noriega was made a drug baron by the CIA and, in need, he was made a scapegoat. In the same way, whether it is President Bush or any other US president, they cannot bring Israel to justice for its human rights abuses or to hold it accountable for such crimes. What is this? Is it not that there exists a government within the government in the United Sates? That secret government must be asked as to who made the attacks.

Ummat: A number of world countries have joined the call of the United States for launching an attack on Afghanistan. These also include a number of Muslim countries. Will Al-Qa’idah declare a jihad against these countries as well?

Usamah: I must say that my duty is just to awaken the Muslims; to tell them as to what is good for them and what is not. What does Islam says and what the enemies of Islam want?

Al-Qa’idah was set up to wage a jihad against infidelity, particularly to encounter the onslaught of the infidel countries against the Islamic states. Jihad is the sixth undeclared element of Islam. The first five being the basic holy words of Islam, prayers, fast, pilgrimage to Mecca, and giving alms Every anti-Islamic person is afraid of it. Al-Qa’idah wants to keep this element alive and active and make it part of the daily life of the Muslims. It wants to give it the status of worship. We are not against any Islamic country nor we consider a war against an Islamic country as jihad.

We are in favour of armed jihad only against those infidel countries, which are killing innocent Muslim men, women, and children just because they are Muslims. Supporting the US act is the need of some Muslim countries and the compulsion of others. However, they should think as to what will remain of their religious and moral position if they support the attack of the Christians and the Jews on a Muslim country like Afghanistan. The orders of Islamic shari’ah jurisprudence for such individuals, organizations, and countries are clear and all the scholars of the Muslim brotherhood are unanimous on them. We will do the same, which is being ordered by the Amir ol-Momenin the commander of the faithful Mola Omar and the Islamic scholars. The hearts of the people of Muslim countries are beating with the call of jihad. We are grateful to them.

Ummat: The losses caused in the attacks in New York and Washington have proved that giving an economic blow to the US is not too difficult. US experts admit that a few more such attacks can bring down the American economy. Why is al-Qa’idah not targeting their economic pillars?

Usamah: I have already said that we are not hostile to the United States. We are against the system, which makes other nations slaves of the United States, or forces them to mortgage their political and economic freedom. This system is totally in control of the American Jews, whose first priority is Israel, not the United States. It is simply that the American people are themselves the slaves of the Jews and are forced to live according to the principles and laws laid by them. So, the punishment should reach Israel. In fact, it is Israel, which is giving a blood bath to innocent Muslims and the US is not uttering a single word.

Ummat: Why is harm not caused to the enemies of Islam through other means, apart from the armed struggle? For instance, inciting the Muslims to boycott Western products, banks, shipping lines, and TV channels.

Usamah: The first thing is that Western products could only be boycotted when the Muslim fraternity is fully awakened and organized. Secondly, the Muslim companies should become self-sufficient in producing goods equal to the products of Western companies. Economic boycott of the West is not possible unless economic self-sufficiency is attained and substitute products are brought out. You see that wealth is scattered all across the Muslim world but not a single TV channel has been acquired which can preach Islamic injunctions according to modern requirements and attain an international influence. Muslim traders and philanthropists should make it a point that if the weapon of public opinion is to be used, it is to be kept in the hand. Today’s world is of public opinion and the fates of nations are determined through its pressure. Once the tools for building public opinion are obtained, everything that you asked for can be done.

Ummat: The entire propaganda about your struggle has so far been made by the Western media. But no information is being received from your sources about the network of Al-Qa’idah and its jihadi successes. Would you comment?

Usamah: In fact, the Western media is left with nothing else. It has no other theme to survive for a long time. Then we have many other things to do. The struggle for jihad and the successes are for the sake of Allah and not to annoy His bondsmen. Our silence is our real propaganda. Rejections, explanations, or corrigendum only waste your time and through them, the enemy wants you to engage in things which are not of use to you. These things are pulling you away from your cause.

The Western media is unleashing such a baseless propaganda, which make us surprise but it reflects on what is in their hearts and gradually they themselves become captive of this propaganda. They become afraid of it and begin to cause harm to themselves. Terror is the most dreaded weapon in modern age and the Western media is mercilessly using it against its own people. It can add fear and helplessness in the psyche of the people of Europe and the United States. It means that what the enemies of the United States cannot do, its media is doing that. You can understand as to what will be the performance of the nation in a war, which suffers from fear and helplessness.

Ummat: What will the impact of the freeze of al-Qa’idah accounts by the US?

Usamah: God opens up ways for those who work for Him. Freezing of accounts will not make any difference for Al-Qa’idah or other jihad groups. With the grace of Allah, al-Qa’idah has more than three such alternative financial systems, which are all separate and totally independent from each other. This system is operating under the patronage of those who love jihad. What to say of the United States, even the combined world cannot budge these people from their path.

These people are not in hundreds but in thousands and millions. Al-Qa’idah comprises of such modern educated youths who are aware of the cracks inside the Western financial system as they are aware of the lines in their hands. These are the very flaws of the Western fiscal system, which are becoming a noose for it and this system could not recuperate in spite of the passage of so many days.

Ummat: Are there other safe areas other than Afghanistan, where you can continue jihad?

Usamah: There are areas in all parts of the world where strong jihadi forces are present, from Indonesia to Algeria, from Kabul to Chechnya, from Bosnia to Sudan, and from Burma to Kashmir. Then it is not the problem of my person. I am helpless fellowman of God, constantly in the fear of my accountability before God. It is not the question of Usamah but of Islam and, in Islam too, of jihad. Thanks to God, those waging a jihad can walk today with their heads raised. Jihad was still present when there was no Usamah and it will remain as such even when Usamah is no longer there. Allah opens up ways and creates loves in the hearts of people for those who walk on the path of Allah with their lives, property, and children. Believe it, through jihad, a man gets everything he desires. And the biggest desire of a Muslim is the after life. Martyrdom is the shortest way of attaining an eternal life.

Ummat: What do you say about the Pakistan government policy on Afghanistan attack?

Usamah: We are thankful to the Momin and valiant people of Pakistan who erected a blockade in front of the wrong forces and stood in the first file of battle. Pakistan is a great hope for the Islamic brotherhood. Its people are awakened, organized, and rich in the spirit of faith. They backed Afghanistan in its war against the Soviet Union and extended every help to the mojahedin and the Afghan people. Then these are the same Pakistanis who are standing shoulder by shoulder with the Taleban. If such people emerge in just two countries, the domination of the West will diminish in a matter of days. Our hearts beat with Pakistan and, God forbid, if a difficult time comes we will protect it with our blood. Pakistan is sacred for us like a place of worship. We are the people of jihad and fighting for the defence of Pakistan is the best of all jihads to us. It does not matter for us as to who rules Pakistan. The important thing is that the spirit of jihad is alive and stronger in the hearts of the Pakistani people.

Copyright Ummat in Urdu, BBC translation in English, 2001


Read about Osama Bin Laden in Michel Chossudovsky’s international best-seller

Order Directly from Global Research

America’s “War on Terrorism”

by Michel Chossudovsky

According to Chossudovsky, the  “war on terrorism” is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. The “war on terrorism” is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the “New World Order”, dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

 

Donate to Global Research

May 15th, 2021 by Global Research News

Our Asia Pacific Website

November 27th, 2020 by Global Research News

  • Posted in English
  • Comments Off on Our Asia Pacific Website

Subscribe to the Global Research Newsletter

November 6th, 2020 by Global Research News

  • Posted in English
  • Comments Off on Subscribe to the Global Research Newsletter

Nuestro sitio en español: Globalizacion.ca

November 5th, 2020 by Global Research News

  • Posted in English, Mobile
  • Comments Off on Nuestro sitio en español: Globalizacion.ca

Pour Accéder à la Version Mobile de Mondialisation.ca

August 14th, 2017 by Global Research News

Nous faisons face présentement à une problème technique.

Pour accéder à la version mobile de mondialisation.ca, cliquez sur le Menu principal de Globalresearch.ca (version mobile), (en haut à gauche) et ensuite cliquez sur Mondialisation.ca.

 

A partir de la semaine prochaine le problème technique devrait être résolu.

Amitiés à tous nos lecteurs

 

  • Posted in Desktop Only, English
  • Comments Off on Pour Accéder à la Version Mobile de Mondialisation.ca

Today’s Most Popular Stories on Global Research

August 22nd, 2015 by Global Research News

  • Posted in Desktop Only, English
  • Comments Off on Today’s Most Popular Stories on Global Research

GR’s Ukraine Report: 800+ articles

August 22nd, 2015 by Global Research News

Fighting Lies and Searching for Truths

July 19th, 2015 by Global Research

The world is globalizing and information has become more accessible to more people than ever before. We are, indeed, in unprecedented times, and we face unprecedented challenges.

The aims of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and Global Research are to battle the tidal waves of misinformation and propaganda washing our minds on a daily basis. We have separated ourselves from the corporate controlled mainstream news, whose only objective is to serve their corporate masters. We take no assistance from the major foundations such as Rockefeller, Ford, and MacArthur, who act as patrons (and thus pacifiers) of the alternative and critical voices challenging the forces of globalization.

We do this in order to remain an independent voice, challenging all that needs to be challenged and exposing all that remains in the dark. Bringing light to a dimly lit world is no easy task, and though the aim and method is “independence,” we are, in fact, entirely dependent upon YOU, our readers. Without your support, we cannot continue our operations nor expand our horizons and opportunities. Global Research is indebted to our readers, and we are here for you and because of you. If you would like Global Research to continue and to grow, we need your support now more than ever.

By making a donation  to Global Research, you  assist journalists, researchers and contributors who have either lost their jobs with the mainstream media or who have been excluded from employment opportunities as professional journalists for their pledge to the truth. We send our thanks to all who have contributed so far by donating or becoming a member!

The mainstream media is owned by bankers and corporate kingpins. Not only that, but it has been historically and presently infiltrated by covert government agencies, seeking to deceive and propagandize their agendas. The CIA has long had associations with major mainstream news publications. By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc. The CIA even ran a training program “to teach its agents to be journalists,” who were “then placed in major news organizations with help from management.”

At Global Research, we seek to not only expose and criticize the larger picture, but to point the finger at the media, itself, and examine who is lying, why they lie, and how they get away with it.

To continue in our endeavours, we need our readers to continue in their support.

One important and helpful thing that all of our readers can do is to help spread our name and information by “sharing and  “liking” our Facebook page here. We post articles daily that will appear in your news feed so that you don’t have to come to us, we can bring our information straight to you. “Like” our page and recommend us to your friends. Every bit helps! You can also subscribe to our RSS feed

You can also support us by continuing to send us your much needed donations which allow us to continue our day-to-day operations and help us expand our scope and content.

Supporting Global Research is supporting the cause of truth and the fight against media disinformation.

Thank you.

The Global Research Team

FOR ONLINE DONATIONS

For online donations, please click below:

VISIT THE DONATION PAGE

FOR DONATIONS BY MAIL

To send your donation by mail, kindly send your cheque or international money order, made out to CRG, to our postal address:

Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

PO Box 55019
11, Notre-Dame Ouest,

Montreal, QC, H2Y 4A7
CANADA

FOR DONATIONS BY FAX
For payment by fax, please print the credit card fax authorization form and fax your order and credit card details to Global Research at 514 656 5294

You can also support us by purchasing books from our store! Click to browse our titles.

Global Research Articles on the Environment

December 22nd, 2014 by Global Research News

Analysis on Climate Change and Global Warming. 100+ GR Articles

December 9th, 2014 by Global Research News

  • Posted in Desktop Only, English
  • Comments Off on Analysis on Climate Change and Global Warming. 100+ GR Articles

Global Research’s Ukraine Report

November 21st, 2014 by Global Research News

Click to Get the Latest Global Research Articles

December 23rd, 2013 by Global Research News

  • Posted in Desktop Only, English
  • Comments Off on Click to Get the Latest Global Research Articles

Click for Latest Global Research News

November 22nd, 2013 by Global Research News

Today’s Most Popular Stories

October 15th, 2013 by Global Research News

A deluge of articles have been quickly put into circulation defending France’s military intervention in the African nation of Mali. TIME’s article, “The Crisis in Mali: Will French Intervention Stop the Islamist Advance?” decides that old tricks are the best tricks, and elects the tiresome “War on Terror” narrative.TIME claims the intervention seeks to stop “Islamist” terrorists from overrunning both Africa and all of Europe. Specifically, the article states:

“…there is a (probably well-founded) fear in France that a radical Islamist Mali threatens France most of all, since most of the Islamists are French speakers and many have relatives in France. (Intelligence sources in Paris have told TIME that they’ve identified aspiring jihadis leaving France for northern Mali to train and fight.) Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), one of the three groups that make up the Malian Islamist alliance and which provides much of the leadership, has also designated France — the representative of Western power in the region — as a prime target for attack.”

What TIME elects not to tell readers is that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is closely allied to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG whom France intervened on behalf of during NATO’s 2011 proxy-invasion of Libya – providing weapons, training, special forces and even aircraft to support them in the overthrow of Libya’s government.

As far back as August of 2011, Bruce Riedel out of the corporate-financier funded think-tank, the Brookings Institution, wrote “Algeria will be next to fall,” where he gleefully predicted success in Libya would embolden radical elements in Algeria, in particular AQIM. Between extremist violence and the prospect of French airstrikes, Riedel hoped to see the fall of the Algerian government. Ironically Riedel noted:

Algeria has expressed particular concern that the unrest in Libya could lead to the development of a major safe haven and sanctuary for al-Qaeda and other extremist jihadis.

And thanks to NATO, that is exactly what Libya has become – a Western sponsored sanctuary for Al-Qaeda. AQIM’s headway in northern Mali and now French involvement will see the conflict inevitably spill over into Algeria. It should be noted that Riedel is a co-author of “Which Path to Persia?” which openly conspires to arm yet another US State Department-listed terrorist organization (list as #28), the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to wreak havoc across Iran and help collapse the government there – illustrating a pattern of using clearly terroristic organizations, even those listed as so by the US State Department, to carry out US foreign policy.Geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar noted a more direct connection between LIFG and AQIM in an Asia Times piece titled, “How al-Qaeda got to rule in Tripoli:”

“Crucially, still in 2007, then al-Qaeda’s number two, Zawahiri, officially announced the merger between the LIFG and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM). So, for all practical purposes, since then, LIFG/AQIM have been one and the same – and Belhaj was/is its emir. “

“Belhaj,” referring to Hakim Abdul Belhaj, leader of LIFG in Libya, led with NATO support, arms, funding, and diplomatic recognition, the overthrowing of Muammar Qaddafi and has now plunged the nation into unending racist and tribal, genocidal infighting. This intervention has also seen the rebellion’s epicenter of Benghazi peeling off from Tripoli as a semi-autonomous “Terror-Emirate.” Belhaj’s latest campaign has shifted to Syria where he was admittedly on the Turkish-Syrian border pledging weapons, money, and fighters to the so-called “Free Syrian Army,” again, under the auspices of NATO support.

Image: NATO’s intervention in Libya has resurrected listed-terrorist organization and Al Qaeda affiliate, LIFG. It had previously fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now has fighters, cash and weapons, all courtesy of NATO, spreading as far west as Mali, and as far east as Syria. The feared “global Caliphate” Neo-Cons have been scaring Western children with for a decade is now taking shape via US-Saudi, Israeli, and Qatari machinations, not “Islam.” In fact, real Muslims have paid the highest price in fighting this real “war against Western-funded terrorism.”

….

LIFG, which with French arms, cash, and diplomatic support, is now invading northern Syria on behalf of NATO’s attempted regime change there, officially merged with Al Qaeda in 2007 according to the US Army’s West Point Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). According to the CTC, AQIM and LIFG share not only ideological goals, but strategic and even tactical objectives. The weapons LIFG received most certainly made their way into the hands of AQIM on their way through the porous borders of the Sahara Desert and into northern Mali.

In fact, ABC News reported in their article, “Al Qaeda Terror Group: We ‘Benefit From’ Libyan Weapons,” that:

A leading member of an al Qaeda-affiliated terror group indicated the organization may have acquired some of the thousands of powerful weapons that went missing in the chaos of the Libyan uprising, stoking long-held fears of Western officials.”We have been one of the main beneficiaries of the revolutions in the Arab world,” Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a leader of the north Africa-based al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM], told the Mauritanian news agency ANI Wednesday. “As for our benefiting from the [Libyan] weapons, this is a natural thing in these kinds of circumstances.”

It is no coincidence that as the Libyan conflict was drawing to a conclusion, conflict erupted in northern Mali. It is part of a premeditated geopolitical reordering that began with toppling Libya, and since then, using it as a springboard for invading other targeted nations, including Mali, Algeria, and Syria with heavily armed, NATO-funded and aided terrorists.

French involvement may drive AQIM and its affiliates out of northern Mali, but they are almost sure to end up in Algeria, most likely by design.

Algeria was able to balk subversion during the early phases of the US-engineered “Arab Spring” in 2011, but it surely has not escaped the attention of the West who is in the midst of transforming a region stretching from Africa to Beijing and Moscow’s doorsteps – and in a fit of geopolitical schizophrenia – using terrorists both as a casus belli to invade and as an inexhaustible mercenary force to do it.

  • Posted in Desktop Only, English
  • Comments Off on The Geopolitical Reordering of Africa: US Covert Support to Al Qaeda in Northern Mali, France “Comes to the Rescue”

Latest Global Research Articles. Subscribe to GR’s RSS Feed

December 30th, 2012 by Global Research News

  • Posted in Desktop Only, English
  • Comments Off on Latest Global Research Articles. Subscribe to GR’s RSS Feed

Salafism and the CIA: Destabilizing the Russian Federation?

September 14th, 2012 by F. William Engdahl

Part I: Syria comes to the Russian Caucasus

On August 28 Sheikh Said Afandi, acknowledged spiritual leader of the Autonomous Russian Republic of Dagestan, was assassinated. A jihadist female suicide bomber managed to enter his house and detonate an explosive device.

The murder target had been carefully selected. Sheikh Afandi, a seventy-five-year old Sufi Muslim leader, had played the critical role in attempting to bring about reconciliation in Dagestan between jihadist Salafi Sunni Muslims and other factions, many of whom in Dagestan see themselves as followers of Sufi. With no replacement of his moral stature and respect visible, authorities fear possible outbreak of religious war in the tiny Russian autonomous republic.[1]

The police reported that the assassin was an ethnic Russian woman who had converted to Islam and was linked to an Islamic fundamentalist or Salafist insurgency against Russia and regional governments loyal to Moscow in the autonomous republics and across the volatile Muslim-populated North Caucasus region.

Ethnic Muslim populations in this region of Russia and of the former Soviet Union, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and into China’s Xinjiang Province, have been the target of various US and NATO intelligence operations since the Cold War era ended in 1990. Washington sees manipulation of Muslim groups as the vehicle to bring uncontrollable chaos to Russia and Central Asia. It’s being carried out by some of the same organizations engaged in creating chaos and destruction inside Syria against the government of Bashar Al-Assad. In a real sense, as Russian security services clearly understand, if they don’t succeed in stopping the Jihadists insurgency in Syria, it will come home to them via the Caucasus.

The latest Salafist murders of Sufi and other moderate Muslim leaders in the Caucasus are apparently part of what is becoming ever clearer as perhaps the most dangerous US intelligence operation ever—playing globally with Muslim fundamentalism.

Previously US and allied intelligence services had played fast and loose with religious organizations or beliefs in one or another country. What makes the present situation particularly dangerous—notably since the decision in Washington to unleash the misnamed Arab Spring upheavals that began in Tunisia late 2010, spreading like a brushfire across the entire Islamic world from Afghanistan across Central Asia to Morocco—is the incalculable wave upon wave of killing, hatreds, destruction of entire cultures that Washington has unleashed in the name of that elusive dream named “democracy.” They do this using alleged Al-Qaeda groups, Saudi Salafists or Wahhabites, or using disciples of Turkey’s Fethullah Gülen Movement to ignite fires of religious hatred within Islam and against other faiths that could take decades to extinguish. It could easily spill over into a new World War.

Fundamentalism comes to Caucasus

Following the dissolution of the USSR, radical Afghanistani Mujahadeen, Islamists from Saudi Arabia, from Turkey, Pakistan and other Islamic countries flooded into the Muslim regions of the former USSR. One of the best-organized of these was the Gülen Movement of Fethullah Gülen, leader of a global network of Islamic schools and reported to be the major policy influence on Turkey’s Erdogan AKP party.

Gülen was quick to establish The International Dagestani-Turkish College in Dagestan. During the chaotic days after the Soviet collapse, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation officially registered and permitted unfettered activity for a variety of Islamic foundations and organizations. These included the League of the Islamic World, the World Muslim Youth Assembly, the reportedly Al-Qaeda friendly Saudi foundation ‘Ibrahim ben Abd al-Aziz al-Ibrahim.’ The blacklist also included Al-Haramein a Saudi foundation reported tied to Al-Qaeda, and IHH, [2] a Turkish organization banned in Germany, that allegedly raised funds for jihadi fighters in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan, and was charged by French intelligence of ties to Al Qaeda.[3] Many of these charities were covers for fundamentalist Salafists with their own special agenda.

As many of the foreign Islamists in Chechnya and Dagestan were found involved in fomenting the regional unrest and civil war, Russian authorities withdrew permission of most to run schools and institutions. Throughout the North Caucasus at the time of the Chechyn war in the late 1990’s, there were more than two dozen Islamic institutes, some 200 madrassas and numerous maktabas (Koranic study schools) present at almost all mosques.

The International Dagestani-Turkish College was one that was forced to close its doors in Dagestan. The College was run by the Fethullah Gülen organization.[4]

At the point of the Russian crackdown on the spread of Salafist teaching inside Russia at the end of the 1990’s, there was an exodus of hundreds of young Dagestani and Chechyn Muslim students to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other places in The Middle east, reportedly to receive training with the Gülen movement and various Saudi-financed organizations, including Salafists. [5] It is believed in Russia that the students trained by Gülen supporters or Saudi and other Salafist fundamentalist centers then were sent back to Dagestan and the North Caucasus to spread their radical strain of Islam.

By 2005 the situation in the Caucasus was so influenced by this Salafist intervention that the Chechen Salafist, Doku Umarov, cited by the UN Security Council for links to Al-Qaeda,[6] unilaterally declared creation of what he called the Caucasus Emirate, announcing he planned to establish an Islamic state under Sharia law encompassing the entire North Caucasus region including Dagestan. He modestly proclaimed himself Emir of the Caucasus Emirate. [7]

*  *  *

WWIII Scenario

*  *  *

 

Part II: Salafism at war with Sufi tradition

Salafism, known in Saudi Arabia as Wahhabism, is a fundamentalist strain of Islam which drew world attention and became notorious in March 2001 just weeks before the attacks of September 11. That was when the Salafist Taliban government in Afghanistan willfully dynamited and destroyed the historic gigantic Buddhas of Bamiyan on the ancient Silk Road, religious statues dating from the 6th Century. The Taliban Salafist leaders also banned as “un-islamic” all forms of imagery, music and sports, including television, in accordance with what they considered a strict interpretation of Sharia.

Afghani sources reported that the order to destroy the Buddhas was made by Saudi-born jihadist Wahhabite, Osama bin Laden, who ultimately convinced Mullah Omar, Taliban supreme leader at the time to execute the act.[8]

Before and…After Salafist Taliban …

While Sufis incorporate the worship of saints and theatrical ceremonial prayers into their practice, Salafis condemn as idolatry any non-traditional forms of worship. They also call for the establishment of Islamic political rule and strict Sharia law. Sufism is home to the great spiritual and musical heritage of Islam, said by Islamic scholars to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam, going back centuries.

As one Sufi scholar described the core of Sufism, “While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to God in Paradise–after death and the ‘Final Judgment’– Sufis believe as well that it is possible to become close to God and to experience this closeness–while one is alive. Furthermore, the attainment of the knowledge that comes with such intimacy with God, Sufis assert, is the very purpose of the creation. Here they mention the hadith qudsi in which God states, ‘I was a hidden treasure and I loved that I be known, so I created the creation in order to be known.’ Hence for the Sufis there is already a momentum, a continuous attraction on their hearts exerted by God, pulling them, in love, towards God.” [9]

The mystical Islamic current of Sufism and its striving to become close to or one with God is in stark contrast to the Jihadist Salafi or Wahhabi current that is armed with deadly weapons, preaches a false doctrine of jihad, and a perverse sense of martyrdom, committing countless acts of violence. Little wonder that the victims of Salafist Jihads are mostly other pacific forms of Islam including most especially Sufis.

The respected seventy-five year old Afandi had publicly denounced Salafist Islamic fundamentalism. His murder followed a July 19 coordinated attack on two high-ranking muftis in the Russian Volga Republic of Tatarstan. Both victims were state-approved religious leaders who had attacked radical Islam. This latest round of murders opens a new front in the Salafist war against Russia, namely attacks on moderate Sufi Muslim leaders.

Whether or not Dagestan now descends into internal religious civil war that then spreads across the geopolitically sensitive Russian Caucasus is not yet certain. What is almost certain is that the same circles who have been feeding violence and terror inside Syria against the regime of Alawite President Bashar al-Assad are behind the killing of Sheikh Afandi as well as sparking related acts of terror or unrest across Russia’s Muslim-populated Caucasus. In a very real sense it represents Russia’s nightmare scenario of “Syria coming to Russia.” It demonstrates dramatically why Putin has made such a determined effort to stop a descent into a murderous hell in Syria.

Salafism and the CIA

The existence of the so-called jihadist Salafi brand of Islam in Dagestan is quite recent. It has also been deliberately imported. Salafism is sometimes also called the name of the older Saudi-centered Wahhabism. Wahhabism is a minority originally-Bedouin form of the faith originating within Islam, dominant in Saudi Arabia since the 1700’s.

Irfan Al-Alawi and Stephen Schwartz of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism give the following description of Saudi conditions under the rigid Wahhabi brand of Islam:

Women living under Saudi rule must wear the abaya, or total body cloak, and niqab, the face veil; they have limited opportunities for schooling and careers; they are prohibited from driving vehicles; are banned from social contact with men not relatives, and all personal activity must be supervised including opening bank accounts, by a male family member or “guardian.” These Wahhabi rules are enforced by a mutawiyin, or morals militia, also known as “the religious police,” officially designated the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) who patrol Saudi cities, armed with leather-covered sticks which they freely used against those they considered wayward. They raid homes looking for alcohol and drugs, and harassed non-Wahhabi Muslims as well as believers in other faiths.” [10]

It’s widely reported that the obscenely opulent and morally-perhaps-not-entirely-of- the-highest-standards Saudi Royal Family made a Faustian deal with Wahhabite leaders. The deal supposedly, was that the Wahhabists are free to export their fanatical brand of Islam around to the Islamic populations of the world in return for agreeing to leave the Saudi Royals alone.[11] There are, however, other dark and dirty spoons stirring the Wahhabite-Salafist Saudi stew.

Little known is the fact that the present form of aggressive Saudi Wahhabism, in reality a kind of fusion between imported jihadi Salafists from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the fundamentalist Saudi Wahhabites. Leading Salafist members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood were introduced into the Saudi Kingdom in the 1950’s by the CIA in a complex series of events, when Nasser cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood following an assassination attempt. By the 1960’s an influx of Egyptian members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi Arabia fleeing Nasserite repression, had filled many of the leading teaching posts in Saudi religious schools. One student there was a young well-to-do Saudi, Osama bin Laden.  [12]

During the Third Reich, Hitler Germany had supported the Muslim Brotherhood as a weapon against the British in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. Marc Erikson describes the Nazi roots of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood thus:

…as Italian and German fascism sought greater stakes in the Middle East in the 1930s and ’40s to counter British and French controlling power, close collaboration between fascist agents and Islamist leaders ensued. During the 1936-39 Arab Revolt, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence, sent agents and money to support the Palestine uprising against the British, as did Muslim Brotherhood founder and “supreme guide” Hassan al-Banna. A key individual in the fascist-Islamist nexus and go-between for the Nazis and al-Banna became the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini.[13]

After the defeat of Germany, British Intelligence moved in to take over control of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ultimately, for financial and other reasons, the British decided to hand their assets within the Muslim Brotherhood over to their CIA colleagues in the 1950s. [14]

According to former US Justice Department Nazi researcher John Loftus,  “during the 1950s, the CIA evacuated the Nazis of the Muslim Brotherhood to Saudi Arabia. Now, when they arrived in Saudi Arabia, some of the leading lights of the Muslim Brotherhood, like Dr Abdullah Azzam, became the teachers in the madrassas, the religious schools. And there they combined the doctrines of Nazism with this weird Islamic cult, Wahhabism.” [15]

“Everyone thinks that Islam is this fanatical religion, but it is not,” Loftus continues. “They think that Islam–the Saudi version of Islam–is typical, but it’s not. The Wahhabi cult has been condemned as a heresy more than 60 times by the Muslim nations. But when the Saudis got wealthy, they bought a lot of silence. This is a very harsh cult. Wahhabism was only practised by the Taliban and in Saudi Arabia–that’s how extreme it is. It really has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is a very peaceful and tolerant religion. It always had good relationships with the Jews for the first thousand years of its existence.” [16]

Loftus identified the significance of what today is emerging from the shadows to take over Egypt under Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi, and the so-called Syrian National Council, dominated in reality by the Muslim Brotherhood and publicly led by the more “politically correct” or presentable likes of Bassma Kodmani. Kodmani, foreign affairs spokesman for the SNC was twice an invited guest at the Bilderberg elite gathering, latest in Chantilly, Virginia earlier this year.[17]

The most bizarre and alarming feature of the US-financed  regime changes set into motion in 2010, which have led to the destruction of the secular Arab regime of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muhammar Qaddafi in Libya, and the secular regime of President Ben Ali in Tunisia, and which have wreaked savage destruction across the Middle East, especially in the past eighteen months in Syria, is the pattern of emerging power grabs by representatives of the murky Salafist Muslim Brotherhood.

By informed accounts, a Saudi-financed Sunni Islamic Muslim Brotherhood dominates the members of the exile Syrian National Council that is backed by the US State Department’s Secretary Clinton and by Hollande’s France. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is tied, not surprisingly to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood of President Mohammed Morsi who recently in a meeting of the Non-Aligned in Iran called openly for the removal of Syria’s Assad, a logical step if his Muslim Brothers in the present Syrian National Council are to take the reins of power. The Saudis are also rumored to have financed the ascent to power in Tunisia of the governing Islamist Ennahda Party,[18] and are documented to be financing the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Syrian National Council against President Bashar al-Assad. [19]

Part III: Morsi’s Reign of Salafi Terror

Indicative of the true agenda of this Muslim Brotherhood and related jihadists today is the fact that once they have power, they drop the veil of moderation and reconciliation and reveal their violently intolerant roots. This is visible in Egypt today under Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi.

Unreported in mainstream Western media to date are alarming direct reports from Christian missionary organizations in Egypt that Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood has already begun to drop the veil of “moderation and conciliation” and show its brutal totalitarian Salafist colors, much as Khomeini’s radical Sharia forces did in Iran after taking control in 1979-81.

In a letter distributed by the Christian Aid Mission (CAM), a Christian Egyptian missionary wrote that Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood “announced they would destroy the country if Morsi didn’t win, but they also said they will take revenge from all those who voted for [his opponent Ahmed] Shafiq, especially the Christians as they are sure we did vote for Shafiq. Yesterday they began by killing two believers in el Sharqiya because of this,” the missionary added, speaking on condition of anonymity.[20]

This report came only weeks after Egyptian State TV (under Morsi’s control) showed ghastly video footage of a convert from Islam to Christianity being murdered by Muslims. The footage showed a young man being held down by masked men with a knife to his throat. As one man was heard chanting Muslim prayers in Arabic, mostly condemning Christianity, another man holding the knife to the Christian convert’s throat began to cut, slowly severing the head amid cries of “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is great”), according to transcripts. In the letter, the Egyptian missionary leader added that, “soon after Morsi won, Christians in upper Egypt were forcibly prevented from going to churches.” Many Muslims, the letter claimed, “also began to speak to women in the streets that they had to wear Islamic clothing including the head covering. They act as if they got the country for their own, it’s theirs now.” [21]

Already in 2011 Morsi’s Salafist followers began attacking and destroying Sufi mosques across Egypt. According to the authoritative newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (Today’s Egyptian), 16 historic mosques in Alexandria belonging to Sufi orders have been marked for destruction by so-called ‘Salafis’. Alexandria has 40 mosques associated with Sufis, and is the headquarters for 36 Sufi groups. Half a million Sufis live in the city, out of a municipal total of four million people. Aggression against the Sufis in Egypt has included a raid on Alexandria’s most distinguished mosque, named for, and housing, the tomb of the 13th century Sufi Al-Mursi Abu’l Abbas.[22]

Notably, the so-called “democratically elected” regime in Libya following the toppling of Mohamar Qaddafi by NATO bombs in 2011, has also been zealous in destroying Sufi mosques and places of worhip. In August this year, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova expressed “grave concern” at the destruction by Islamic Jihadists of Sufi sites in Zliten, Misrata and Tripoli and urged perpetrators to “cease the destruction immediately.” [23] Under behind-the-scenes machinations the Libyan government is dominated by Jihadists and by followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, as in Tunisia and Egypt. [24]

The explosive cocktail of violence inherent in allowing the rise to power of Salafist Islamists across the Middle East was clear to see, symbolically enough on the night of September 11,th when a mob of angry supporters of the fanatical Salafist group, Ansar Al-Sharia, murdered the US Ambassador to Libya and three US diplomats, burning the US Consulate in Bengazi to the ground in protest over a YouTube release of a film by an American filmmaker showing the Prophet Mohammed indulging in multiple sex affairs and casting doubt on his role as God’s messenger. Ironically that US Ambassador had played a key role in toppling Qaddafi and opening the door to the Salafist takeover in Libya. At the same time angry mobs of thousands of Salafists surrounded the US Embassy in Cairo in protest to the US film. [25]

Ansar Al-Sharia (“Partisans of Islamic law” in Arabic) reportedly is a spinoff of Al-Qaeda and claims organizations across the Middle East from Yemen to Tunisia to Iraq, Egypt and Libya. Ansar al-Sharia says it is reproducing the model of Sharia or strict Islamic law espoused by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq. The core of the group are jihadists who came out of an “Islamic state”, either in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, or among jihadists in Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003.[26]

The deliberate detonation now of a new round of Salafist fundamentalist Jihad terror inside Muslim regions of the Russian Caucasus is exquisitely timed politically to put maximum pressure at home on the government of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Putin and the Russian Government are the strongest and most essential backer of the current Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, and for Russia as well the maintenance of Russia’s only Mediterranean naval base at Syria’s Tartus port is vital strategically. At the same time, Obama’s sly message to Medvedev to wait until Obama’s re-election to evaluate US intent towards Russia and Putin’s cryptic recent comment that a compromise with a re-elected President Obama might be possible, but not with a President Romney, [27] indicate that the Washington “stick-and-carrot” or hard cop-soft cop tactics with Moscow might tempt Russia to sacrifice major geopolitical alliances, perhaps even that special close and recent geopolitical alliance with China.[28] Were that to happen, the World might witness a “reset” in US-Russian relations with catastrophic consequences for world peace.

F. William Engdahl*  is the author of Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order

Notes:

[1] Dan Peleschuk, Sheikh Murdered Over Religious Split Say Analysts, RIA Novosti, August 30, 2012, accessed in

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120830/175517955.html.

[2] Mairbek  Vatchagaev, The Kremlin’s War on Islamic Education in the North Caucasus, North Caucasus Analysis Volume: 7 Issue: 34, accessed in http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=3334

[3] Iason Athanasiadis, Targeted by Israeli raid: Who is the IHH?, The Christian Science Monitor, June 1, 2010, accessed in http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0601/Targeted-by-Israeli-raid-Who-is-the-IHH.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Mairbek Vatchagaev, op. cit.

[6] UN Security Council, QI.U.290.11. DOKU KHAMATOVICH UMAROV, 10 March 2011, accessed in http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/NSQI29011E.shtml. The UN statement reads: “Doku Khamatovich Umarov was listed on 10 March 2011 pursuant to paragraph 2 of resolution 1904 (2009) as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”, “recruiting for”, “supplying, selling or transferring arms and related materiel to” and “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” the Islamic Jihad Group (QE.I.119.05), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (QE.I.10.01), Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs (RSRSBCM) (QE.R.100.03) and Emarat Kavkaz (QE.E.131.11).”

[7] Tom Jones, Czech NGO rejects Russian reports of link to alleged Islamist terrorists al-Qaeda, May 10, 2011, accessed in http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/society/czech-ngo-rejects-russian-reports-link-alleged-islamist-terrorists-al-qaeda?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=enprofil&utm_campaign=twennews.

[8] The Times of India, Laden ordered Bamyan Buddha destruction, The Times of India, March 28, 2006.

[9] Dr. Alan Godlas, Sufism — Sufis — Sufi Orders:

[10] Irfan Al-Alawi and Stephen Schwartz, Wahhabi Internal Contradictions as Saudi Arabia Seeks Wider Gulf Leadership, Center for Islamic Pluralism, May 21, 2012, accessed in http://www.islamicpluralism.org/2040/wahhabi-internal-contradictions-as-saudi-arabia

[11] Irfan Al-Alawi and Stephen Schwartz, Wahhabi Internal Contradictions as Saudi Arabia Seeks Wider Gulf Leadership, May 21, 2012, accessed in http://www.islamicpluralism.org/2040/wahhabi-internal-contradictions-as-saudi-arabia.

[12] Robert Duncan, Islamic Terrorisms Links to Nazi Fascism, AINA, July 5, 2007, accessed in http://www.aina.org/news/2007070595517.htm.

[13] Marc Erikson, Islamism, fascism and terrorism (Part 2), AsiaTimes.Online, November 8, 2002, accessed in http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DK08Ak03.html.

[14] Ibid.

[15] John Loftus, The Muslim Brotherhood, Nazis and Al-Qaeda,  Jewish Community News, October 11, 2006, accessed in http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/loftus101106.htm

[16] Ibid.

[17] Charlie Skelton, The Syrian opposition: who’s doing the talking?: The media have been too passive when it comes to Syrian opposition sources, without scrutinising their backgrounds and their political connections. Time for a closer look …, London Guardian, 12 July 2012, accessed in http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/syrian-opposition-doing-the-talking.

[18] Aidan Lewis, Profile: Tunisia’s Ennahda Party, BBC News, 25 October 2011, accessed in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15442859.

[19] Hassan Hassan, Syrians are torn between a despotic regime and a stagnant opposition: The Muslim Brotherhood’s perceived monopoly over the Syrian National Council has created an opposition stalemate, The Guardian, UK, 23 August, 2012, accessed in http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/23/syrians-torn-despotic-regime-stagnant-opposition.

[20] Stefan J. Bos, Egypt Christians Killed After Election of Morsi, Bosnewslife, June 30, 2012, accessed in http://www.bosnewslife.com/22304-egypt-christians-killed-after-election-morsi.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Irfan Al-Alawi, Egyptian Muslim Fundamentalists Attack Sufis, Guardian Online [London],

April 11, 2011, accessed in http://www.islamicpluralism.org/1770/egyptian-Muslim-fundamentalists-attack-sufis

[23] Yafiah Katherine Randall, UNESCO urges Libya to stop destruction of Sufi sites, August 31, 2012, Sufi News and Sufism World Report, accessed in http://sufinews.blogspot.de/.

[24] Jamie Dettmer, Libya elections: Muslim Brotherhood set to lead government, 5 July, 2012, The Telegraph, London, accessed in http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9379022/Libya-elections-Muslim-Brotherhood-set-to-lead-government.html.

[25] Luke Harding, Chris Stephen, Chris Stevens, US ambassador to Libya, killed in Benghazi attack: Ambassador and three other American embassy staff killed after Islamist militants fired rockets at their car, say Libyan officials, London Guardian, 12 September 2012, accessed in http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/12/chris-stevens-us-ambassador-libya-killed.

[26] Murad Batal al-Shishani, Profile: Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen, 8 March 2012, accessed in  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17402856.

[27] David M. Herszenhorn, Putin Says Missile Deal Is More Likely With Obama, The New York Times, September 6, 2012, accessed in http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/world/europe/putin-calls-missile-deal-more-likely-if-obama-wins.html. According to an interview Putin gave on Moscow’s state-owned RT TV, Herszenhorn reports, “Mr. Putin said he believed that if Mr. Obama is re-elected in November, a compromise could be reached on the contentious issue of American plans for a missile defense system in Europe, which Russia has strongly opposed. On the other hand, Mr. Putin said, if Mr. Romney becomes president, Moscow’s fears about the missile system — that it is, despite American assurances, actually directed against Russia — would almost certainly prove true.

“Is it possible to find a solution to the problem, if current President Obama is re-elected for a second term? Theoretically, yes,” Mr. Putin said, according to the official transcript posted on the Kremlin’s Web site. “But this isn’t just about President Obama. “For all I know, his desire to work out a solution is quite sincere,” Mr. Putin continued. “I met him recently on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, where we had a chance to talk. And though we talked mostly about Syria, I could still take stock of my counterpart. My feeling is that he is a very honest man, and that he sincerely wants to make many good changes. But can he do it? Will they let him do it?”

[28] M.K. Bhadrakumar, Calling the China-Russia split isn’t heresy, Asia Times,  September 5, 2012, accessed in http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NI05Ad01.html.

 

  • Posted in Desktop Only, English
  • Comments Off on Salafism and the CIA: Destabilizing the Russian Federation?

Welcome to the newly redesigned Global Research website!

September 8th, 2012 by Global Research

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the newly redesigned Global Research website!

We are very proud to launch an updated version of our website, featuring the same timely and analytical content as before, in a display that will be easier for our readers to navigate so that you can get the information you need as quickly and easily as possible.

On this website, you will be able to access an archive of more than 30,000 articles published by Global Research.

We thank all of our readers for the feedback you have sent us over the years and hope you will enjoy your browsing experience.

These changes would not be possible without your support, and for that we extend our sincere appreciation.

To help us cover the costs of important projects and necessary upgrades like this, we kindly ask that you consider making a donation to Global Research.

We also take this opportunity to invite you to become a Member of Global Research

If we stand together, we can fight media lies and expose the truth. There is too much at stake to choose ignorance.

Be aware, stay informed, spread the message of peace far and wide.

Feedback and suggestions regarding our new website are most welcome. To post a comment, kindly visit us on the Global Research facebook page

Sincerely,

 

The Global Research Team

O regime de Kiev é absolutamente incapaz de manter o controle sobre o que acontece no país. Numa declaração recente, o Ministério do Interior anunciou que não possui informações sobre a localização de todas as armas que foram distribuídas à população ucraniana desde o estabelecimento da lei marcial – imediatamente após o lançamento da operação militar especial da Rússia. Isto significa que milhões de armas circulam livremente pelo país – ou mesmo no estrangeiro – e podem acabar nas mãos de criminosos e terroristas. Porém, mais do que isso, a verdadeira preocupação parece ser com a possibilidade de o povo ucraniano iniciar uma revolta contra o governo.

Igor Klimenko, Ministro do Interior da Ucrânia, afirmou em 12 de Abril que muitas das armas distribuídas aos cidadãos simplesmente já não estão sob controle governamental. Não existem dados que comprovem a localização das armas, impedindo assim qualquer tipo de controle sobre a circulação destes equipamentos. Isso tem causado preocupação ao governo, que tenta criar mecanismos para recuperar as armas – ou pelo menos localizá-las e monitorá-las.

“Quantas armas nossos cidadãos têm nas mãos? Entre 1 e 5 milhões (…) Quantas granadas? Bastante também (…) Nós (…) entendemos que deveriam tê-lo porque há uma guerra em curso”, disse o Ministro.

Os legisladores ucranianos estão atualmente a trabalhar num projeto de lei que estabelece um procedimento oficial que obriga os cidadãos a entregar ou registar as suas armas. No início das hostilidades com a Rússia, o Ministério do Interior distribuiu milhões de armas aos civis. O suposto objetivo era fortalecer a população e criar milícias populares para proteger as cidades ucranianas dos “invasores” russos.

Além de armas de fogo, também foram entregues granadas a cidadãos comuns, o que demonstra o elevado nível de irresponsabilidade por parte do governo ucraniano. Para piorar a situação, muitos veteranos regressam da linha da frente com armas capturadas que guardam como “troféus”, o que torna ainda mais difícil às autoridades terem controle sobre o equipamento militar que circula no país.

Obviamente, a distribuição irresponsável de armas às pessoas comuns pode ter consequências catastróficas. O governo afirma estar particularmente preocupado com o fato de muitos soldados regressarem a casa com problemas mentais devido ao stress no campo de batalha. Pessoas nestas condições de saúde não deveriam portar armas, pois poderiam representar um risco para a sociedade. Embora válido, o argumento não parece suficiente para explicar as preocupações do regime.

O governo ucraniano nunca demonstrou qualquer preocupação real com a saúde mental das suas tropas. Pessoas com problemas mentais estão até sendo enviadas para o front, além de os soldados serem obrigados a permanecer no campo de batalha por um longo período, ignorando quaisquer protocolos de saúde. O regime neonazista é bem conhecido pelo seu desrespeito pela vida dos cidadãos comuns e pela sua indiferença pela saúde dos soldados, razão pela qual tal preocupação não parece ser a verdadeira razão pela qual a Ucrânia quer recuperar o controle sobre as armas.

Além disso, é necessário recordar que, desde 2022, as autoridades russas têm relatado a presença de armas ucranianas fornecidas pelo Ocidente com grupos terroristas em todo o mundo, mesmo em África. Kiev sempre ignorou o fato evidente de que as suas armas estavam no mercado negro, razão pela qual esta não parece ser a verdadeira explicação por trás do desespero do regime em controlar a circulação de armas a partir de agora.

Certamente, Zelensky e a sua equipe estão particularmente preocupados com a crescente insatisfação popular e a possibilidade de uma revolta em massa. Apesar de ser uma medida perigosa e irresponsável, armar civis garante inevitavelmente maior poder de rebelião aos cidadãos comuns. Com armas nas mãos, os civis ucranianos poderiam criar milícias populares de autodefesa, não contra os russos (como planejou Kiev), mas também contra o próprio regime neonazista e as suas políticas ditatoriais.

Com pessoas armadas dispostas a proteger-se e a resistir às medidas do regime, pode tornar-se impossível para Kiev continuar a manter o sistema de recrutamento forçado a longo prazo, por exemplo. Estando o povo ucraniano cada vez mais insatisfeito com a guerra, parece que Kiev teme que haja revoltas populares contra as autoridades – o que, considerando a posse de armas pelo povo, poderá levar a uma guerra civil e ao colapso imediato do regime.

Na verdade, a Ucrânia encontra-se numa situação cada vez mais complicada. Será difícil recuperar o controle sobre as armas distribuídas, pois certamente o cidadão comum não aceitará obedecer à nova lei – e poderá se defender de represálias justamente por estar armado. Sem a confiança e o apoio do seu próprio povo, o regime não parece ter boas expectativas, sendo a derrota uma mera questão de tempo.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

 

Artigo em inglês : Kiev admite que não tem controle sobre as armas que foram distribuídas aos cidadãos comuns, InfoBrics, 16 de Abril de 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

*

Lucas Leiroz, jornalista, pesquisador do Center for Geostrategic Studies, consultor geopolítico.

Você pode seguir Lucas Leiroz em: https://t.me/lucasleiroz e https://twitter.com/leiroz_lucas

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

On April 17, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke at this year’s National Conservatism (NatCon) conference, a gathering of conservative political parties in the European Union, as the name aptly suggests. Dubbed the “gathering of Europe’s far right” by the mainstream propaganda machine, NatCon is indeed opposed to the ultra-liberal ideology and policies of the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. Thus, it’s hardly surprising that Orban was quite critical of the troubled bloc’s numerous failures, as he openly urged voters to reject mainstream political parties in the upcoming EU elections. Orban even called on the political leadership in Brussels to resign, pointing out that all of their major projects and policies, such as the so-called “green transition”, sustainable development, migration, military and sanctions, etc. failed.

“The sense of this European election is: change the leadership,” he stated, adding: “If the leadership proves to be bad, it must be replaced. That’s so simple.”

For the Associated Press, this was “too much”, as the major mainstream propaganda machine outlet complained about the applause that Orban, a “right-wing populist leader” according to them, got for those words. He also criticized the EU’s suicidal climate policies and agriculture rules that make it impossible for farmers across the EU to stay in business. In addition, Orban warned that the ongoing migration crisis is getting out of hand and that the possible admission of the Kiev regime to the EU or NATO should not be allowed, primarily for economic and security reasons. He also criticized the European Commission, the bloc’s effectively unelected executive body, for using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to attack his country, slamming the EC for an attempt to “suffocate Hungary financially”.

And indeed, the Brussels bureaucrats illegally denied giving Budapest access to billions of euros in funds over alleged “concerns about democratic backsliding in the country”, as well as the “possible mismanagement of EU money”. In Orban’s view, this is nothing more than an attempt to blackmail the country due to his strong stance on all of the aforementioned policies and ideologies that the political West subscribes to nowadays. He also reiterated that the failures extend to the self-defeating sanctions on Russia. The mainstream propaganda machine usually accuses Orban of being a supposed “staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin” for such a stance, particularly when it comes to his opposition to the change of Ukraine’s status as a potential geopolitical buffer zone between the EU/NATO and Russia.

In addition, Orban called the Neo-Nazi junta “just a protectorate relying on Western money and weapons, not a sovereign state anymore”. Expectedly, this wasn’t met with approval in Brussels, which even tried to prevent this year’s NatCon, citing alleged “security concerns” as the excuse for it. The AP called the conference “a gathering of strident nationalists and fundamentalist Christians”, complaining about the fact that it resumed after winning a legal challenge against Brussels city authorities which tried to prevent it under the pretext that it posed “a threat to public order”. Other prominent EU conservative figures, such as Eric Zemmour from France, were to attend the NatCon. However, Zemmour was held by the police, preventing his address about the EU’s immigration rules that can only be described as suicidal.

And while the mainstream propaganda machine is shrieking at the very idea someone would dare criticize and strongly oppose any (let alone all) of the aforementioned policies, the obvious question arises – is the so-called “far right” in the EU right (no pun intended)? Can anyone really refute Orban’s claim that the political leadership in Brussels is incompetent when they say things like “Russia is losing so badly that its military is forced to take chips out of washing machines“? Such ludicrous propaganda myths clearly indicate that the so-called “EU elites” are far more like flea market salesmen, rather than leaders who could ever be taken seriously. What’s more, Orban is certainly not alone in his criticism, as Prime Minister Robert Fico of the neighboring Slovakia expressed similar concerns, particularly about Ukraine.

As for the extremely controversial EU Asylum and Migration Pact recently approved by the European Parliament, which will effectively force member states to accept their “fair share of new immigrants” or pay a fine for every migrant they reject, the conservative parties are furious, and rightfully so, it should be noted.

While the EU, a mere geopolitical pendant of NATO at this point, is allocating hundreds of billions to the deeply corrupt Neo-Nazi junta, farmers across the bloc are faced with a plethora of issues that will soon spill over to other industries and sectors of fledgling European economies. The unelected Brussels bureaucrats believe that encouraging their (neo)colonialist policies through immigration might ameliorate some of those issues by essentially importing more cheap labor force.

However, the conservatives are (rightfully) concerned about the demographic and security consequences of such policies. The extremist ultra-liberal ideology that the political West increasingly subscribes to is incompatible with the more traditional values of both the immigrants and indigenous Europeans. This is already causing a plethora of societal and safety problems across the continent, so encouraging immigration will only exacerbate the situation. The ongoing deindustrialization of the EU’s most powerful economies is certainly not making things better, as the largely unskilled labor force that most immigrants belong to will not be able to contribute economically, which opens a lot of questions about potential security risks in the foreseeable future. However, asking about it is usually deemed too “far right”.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source

Rwanda: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa

April 18th, 2024 by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Today April 7, 2024, we commemorate the April 7, 1994 Genocide. Thirty years ago. 

***

Originally written in May 2000, the following text is Part II of Chapter 7 entitled “Economic Genocide in Rwanda”, of the Second Edition of The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order , Global Research, 2003. 

This text updates the author’s analysis on Rwanda written in 1995 , which was published in the first edition.

To order  The Globalization of Poverty, click here .

***

This text is in part based on the results of a study conducted by the author together with Belgian economist and Senator Pierre Galand on the use of Rwanda’s 1990-94 external debt to finance the military and paramilitary.

***

The civil war in Rwanda and the ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives.

From the outset of the Rwandan civil war in 1990, Washington’s hidden agenda consisted in establishing an American sphere of influence in a region historically dominated by France and Belgium. America’s design was to displace France by supporting the Rwandan Patriotic Front and by arming and equipping its military arm, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)

From the mid-1980s, the Kampala government under President Yoweri Musaveni had become Washington’s African showpiece of “democracy”. Uganda had also become a launchpad for US sponsored guerilla movements into the Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo. Major General Paul Kagame had been head of military intelligence in the Ugandan Armed Forces; he had been trained at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College (CGSC) in Leavenworth, Kansas which focuses on warfighting and military strategy. Kagame returned from Leavenworth to lead the RPA, shortly after the 1990 invasion.

Prior to the outbreak of the Rwandan civil war, the RPA was part of the Ugandan Armed Forces. Shortly prior to the October 1990 invasion of Rwanda, military labels were switched. From one day to the next, large numbers of Ugandan soldiers joined the ranks of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Throughout the civil war, the RPA was supplied from United People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) military bases inside Uganda. The Tutsi commissioned officers in the Ugandan army took over positions in the RPA. The October 1990 invasion by Ugandan forces was presented to public opinion as a war of liberation by a Tutsi led guerilla army.

Militarization of Uganda

The militarization of Uganda was an integral part of US foreign policy. The build-up of the Ugandan UPDF Forces and of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) had been supported by the US and Britain. The British had provided military training at the Jinja military base:

“From 1989 onwards, America supported joint RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front]-Ugandan attacks upon Rwanda… There were at least 56 ‘situation reports’ in [US] State Department files in 1991… As American and British relations with Uganda and the RPF strengthened, so hostilities between Uganda and Rwanda escalated… By August 1990 the RPF had begun preparing an invasion with the full knowledge and approval of British intelligence. 20

Troops from Rwanda’s RPA and Uganda’s UPDF had also supported John Garang’s People’s Liberation Army in its secessionist war in southern Sudan. Washington was firmly behind these initiatives with covert support provided by the CIA. 21

Moreover, under the Africa Crisis Reaction Initiative (ACRI), Ugandan officers were also being trained by US Special Forces in collaboration with a mercenary outfit, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI) which was on contract with the US Department of State. MPRI had provided similar training to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Croatian Armed Forces during the Yugoslav civil war and more recently to the Colombian Military in the context of Plan Colombia.

Militarization and the Ugandan External Debt

The buildup of the Ugandan external debt under President Musaveni coincided chronologically with the Rwandan and Congolese civil wars. With the accession of Musaveni to the presidency in 1986, the Ugandan external debt stood at 1.3 billion dollars. With the gush of fresh money, the external debt spiraled overnight, increasing almost threefold to 3.7 billion by 1997. In fact, Uganda had no outstanding debt to the World Bank at the outset of its “economic recovery program”. By 1997, it owed almost 2 billion dollars solely to the World Bank. 22

Where did the money go? The foreign loans to the Musaveni government had been tagged to support the country’s economic and social reconstruction. In the wake of a protracted civil war, the IMF sponsored “economic stabilization program” required massive budget cuts of all civilian programs.

The World Bank was responsible for monitoring the Ugandan budget on behalf of the creditors. Under the “public expenditure review” (PER), the government was obliged to fully reveal the precise allocation of its budget. In other words, every single category of expenditure –including the budget of the Ministry of Defense– was open to scrutiny by the World Bank. Despite the austerity measures (imposed solely on “civilian” expenditures), the donors had allowed defense spending to increase without impediment.

Part of the money tagged for civilian programs had been diverted into funding the United People’s Defense Force (UPDF) which in turn was involved in military operations in Rwanda and the Congo. The Ugandan external debt was being used to finance these military operations on behalf of Washington with the country and its people ultimately footing the bill. In fact by curbing social expenditures, the austerity measures had facilitated the reallocation of State of revenue in favor of the Ugandan military.

Financing both Sides in the Civil War

A similar process of financing military expenditure from the external debt had occurred in Rwanda under the Habyarimana government. In a cruel irony, both sides in the civil war were financed by the same donors institutions with the World Bank acting as a Watchdog.

The Habyarimana regime had at its disposal an arsenal of military equipment, including 83mm missile launchers, French made Blindicide, Belgian and German made light weaponry, and automatic weapons such as kalachnikovs made in Egypt, China and South Africa [as well as … armored AML-60 and M3 armored vehicles.23 While part of these purchases had been financed by direct military aid from France, the influx of development loans from the World Bank’s soft lending affiliate the International Development Association (IDA), the African Development Fund (AFD), the European Development Fund (EDF) as well as from Germany, the United States, Belgium and Canada had been diverted into funding the military and Interhamwe militia.

A detailed investigation of government files, accounts and correspondence conducted in Rwanda in 1996-97 by the author –together with Belgian economist Pierre Galand– confirmed that many of the arms purchases had been negotiated outside the framework of government to government military aid agreements through various intermediaries and private arms dealers. These transactions –recorded as bona fide government expenditures– had nonetheless been included in the State budget which was under the supervision of the World Bank. Large quantities of machetes and other items used in the 1994 ethnic massacres –routinely classified as “civilian commodities” — had been imported through regular trading channels. 24

According to the files of the National Bank of Rwanda (NBR), some of these imports had been financed in violation of agreements signed with the donors. According to NBR records of import invoices, approximately one million machetes had been imported through various channels including Radio Mille Collines, an organization linked to the Interhamwe militia and used to foment ethnic hatred. 25

The money had been earmarked by the donors to support Rwanda’s economic and social development. It was clearly stipulated that funds could not be used to import: “military expenditures on arms, ammunition and other military material”. 26 In fact, the loan agreement with the World Bank’s IDA was even more stringent. The money could not be used to import civilian commodities such as fuel, foodstuffs, medicine, clothing and footwear “destined for military or paramilitary use”. The records of the NBR nonetheless confirm that the Habyarimana government used World Bank money to finance the import of machetes which had been routinely classified as imports of “civilian commodities.” 27

An army of consultants and auditors had been sent in by World Bank to assess the Habyarimana government’s “policy performance” under the loan agreement.28 The use of donor funds to import machetes and other material used in the massacres of civilians did not show up in the independent audit commissioned by the government and the World Bank. (under the IDA loan agreement. (IDA Credit Agreement. 2271-RW).29 In 1993, the World Bank decided to suspend the disbursement of the second installment of its IDA loan. There had been, according to the World Bank mission unfortunate “slip-ups” and “delays” in policy implementation. The free market reforms were no longer “on track”, the conditionalities –including the privatization of state assets– had not been met. The fact that the country was involved in a civil war was not even mentioned. How the money was spent was never an issue.30

Whereas the World Bank had frozen the second installment (tranche) of the IDA loan, the money granted in 1991 had been deposited in a Special Account at the Banque Bruxelles Lambert in Brussels. This account remained open and accessible to the former regime (in exile), two months after the April 1994 ethnic massacres.31

Postwar Cover-up

In the wake of the civil war, the World Bank sent a mission to Kigali with a view to drafting a so-called loan “Completion Report”.32 This was a routine exercise, largely focussing on macro-economic rather than political issues. The report acknowledged that “the war effort prompted the [former] government to increase substantially spending, well beyond the fiscal targets agreed under the SAP.33 The misappropriation of World Bank money was not mentioned. Instead the Habyarimana government was praised for having “made genuine major efforts– especially in 1991– to reduce domestic and external financial imbalances, eliminate distortions hampering export growth and diversification and introduce market based mechanisms for resource allocation…” 34, The massacres of civilians were not mentioned; from the point of view of the donors, “nothing had happened”. In fact the World Bank completion report failed to even acknowledge the existence of a civil war prior to April 1994.

In the wake of the Civil War: Reinstating the IMF’s Deadly Economic Reforms

In 1995, barely a year after the 1994 ethnic massacres. Rwanda’s external creditors entered into discussions with the Tutsi led RPF government regarding the debts of the former regime which had been used to finance the massacres. The RPF decided to fully recognize the legitimacy of the “odious debts” of the 1990-94. RPF strongman Vice-President Paul Kagame [now President] instructed the Cabinet not to pursue the matter nor to approach the World Bank. Under pressure from Washington, the RPF was not to enter into any form of negotiations, let alone an informal dialogue with the donors.

The legitimacy of the wartime debts was never questioned. Instead, the creditors had carefully set up procedures to ensure their prompt reimbursement. In 1998 at a special donors’ meeting in Stockholm, a Multilateral Trust Fund of 55.2 million dollars was set up under the banner of postwar reconstruction.35 In fact, none of this money was destined for Rwanda. It had been earmarked to service Rwanda’s “odious debts” with the World Bank (–i.e. IDA debt), the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

In other words, “fresh money” –which Rwanda will eventually have to reimburse– was lent to enable Rwanda to service the debts used to finance the massacres. Old loans had been swapped for new debts under the banner of post-war reconstruction.36 The “odious debts” had been whitewashed, they had disappeared from the books. The creditor’s responsibility had been erased. Moreover, the scam was also conditional upon the acceptance of a new wave of IMF-World Bank reforms.

Post War “Reconstruction and Reconciliation”

Bitter economic medicine was imposed under the banner of “reconstruction and reconciliation”. In fact the IMF post-conflict reform package was far stringent than that imposed at the outset of the civil war in 1990. While wages and employment had fallen to abysmally low levels, the IMF had demanded a freeze on civil service wages alongside a massive retrenchment of teachers and health workers. The objective was to “restore macro-economic stability”. A downsizing of the civil service was launched.37 Civil service wages were not to exceed 4.5 percent of GDP, so-called “unqualified civil servants” (mainly teachers) were to be removed from the State payroll. 38

Meanwhile, the country’s per capita income had collapsed from $360 (prior to the war) to $140 in 1995. State revenues had been tagged to service the external debt. Kigali’s Paris Club debts were rescheduled in exchange for “free market” reforms. Remaining State assets were sold off to foreign capital at bargain prices.

The Tutsi led RPF government rather than demanding the cancellation of Rwanda’s odious debts, had welcomed the Bretton Woods institutions with open arms. They needed the IMF “greenlight” to boost the development of the military.

Despite the austerity measures, defense expenditure continued to grow. The 1990-94 pattern had been reinstated. The development loans granted since 1995 were not used to finance the country’s economic and social development. Outside money had again been diverted into financing a military buildup, this time of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). And this build-up of the RPA occurred in the period immediately preceding the outbreak of civil war in former Zaire.

Civil War in the Congo

Following the installation of a US client regime in Rwanda in 1994, US trained Rwandan and Ugandan forces intervened in former Zaire –a stronghold of French and Belgian influence under President Mobutu Sese Seko. Amply documented, US special operations troops — mainly Green Berets from the 3rd Special Forces Group based at Fort Bragg, N.C.– had been actively training the RPA. This program was a continuation of the covert support and military aid provided to the RPA prior to 1994. In turn, the tragic outcome of the Rwandan civil war including the refugee crisis had set the stage for the participation of Ugandan and Rwandan RPA in the civil war in the Congo:

“Washington pumped military aid into Kagame’s army, and U.S. Army Special Forces and other military personnel trained hundreds of Rwandan troops. But Kagame and his colleagues had designs of their own. While the Green Berets trained the Rwandan Patriotic Army, that army was itself secretly training Zairian rebels.… [In] Rwanda, U.S. officials publicly portrayed their engagement with the army as almost entirely devoted to human rights training. But the Special Forces exercises also covered other areas, including combat skills… Hundreds of soldiers and officers were enrolled in U.S. training programs, both in Rwanda and in the United States… [C]onducted by U.S. Special Forces, Rwandans studied camouflage techniques, small-unit movement, troop-leading procedures, soldier-team development, [etc]… And while the training went on, U.S. officials were meeting regularly with Kagame and other senior Rwandan leaders to discuss the continuing military threat faced by the [former Rwandan] government [in exile] from inside Zaire… Clearly, the focus of Rwandan-U.S. military discussion had shifted from how to build human rights to how to combat an insurgency… With [Ugandan President] Museveni’s support, Kagame conceived a plan to back a rebel movement in eastern Zaire [headed by Laurent Desire Kabila] … The operation was launched in October 1996, just a few weeks after Kagame’s trip to Washington and the completion of the Special Forces training mission… Once the war [in the Congo] started, the United States provided “political assistance” to Rwanda,… An official of the U.S. Embassy in Kigali traveled to eastern Zaire numerous times to liaise with Kabila. Soon, the rebels had moved on. Brushing off the Zairian army with the help of the Rwandan forces, they marched through Africa’s third-largest nation in seven months, with only a few significant military engagements. Mobutu fled the capital, Kinshasa, in May 1997, and Kabila took power, changing the name of the country to Congo…U.S. officials deny that there were any U.S. military personnel with Rwandan troops in Zaire during the war, although unconfirmed reports of a U.S. advisory presence have circulated in the region since the war’s earliest days.39

American Mining Interests

At stake in these military operations in the Congo were the extensive mining resources of Eastern and Southern Zaire including strategic reserves of cobalt — of crucial importance for the US defense industry. During the civil war several months before the downfall of Mobutu, Laurent Desire Kabila basedin Goma, Eastern Zaire had renegotiated the mining contracts with several US and British mining companies including American Mineral Fields (AMF), a company headquartered in President Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Arkansas.40

Meanwhile back in Washington, IMF officials were busy reviewing Zaire’s macro-economic situation. No time was lost. The post-Mobutu economic agenda had already been decided upon. In a study released in April 1997 barely a month before President Mobutu Sese Seko fled the country, the IMF had recommended “halting currency issue completely and abruptly” as part of an economic recovery programme.41 And a few months later upon assuming power in Kinshasa, the new government of Laurent Kabila Desire was ordered by the IMF to freeze civil service wages with a view to “restoring macro-economic stability.” Eroded by hyperinflation, the average public sector wage had fallen to 30,000 new Zaires (NZ) a month, the equivalent of one U.S. dollar.42

The IMF’s demands were tantamount to maintaining the entire population in abysmal poverty. They precluded from the outset a meaningful post-war economic reconstruction, thereby contributing to fuelling the continuation of the Congolese civil war in which close to 2 million people have died.

Concluding Remarks

The civil war in Rwanda was a brutal struggle for political power between the Hutu-led Habyarimana government supported by France and the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) backed financially and militarily by Washington. Ethnic rivalries were used deliberately in the pursuit of geopolitical objectives. Both the CIA and French intelligence were involved.

In the words of former Cooperation Minister Bernard Debré in the government of Prime Minister Henri Balladur:

“What one forgets to say is that, if France was on one side, the Americans were on the other, arming the Tutsis who armed the Ugandans. I don’t want to portray a showdown between the French and the Anglo-Saxons, but the truth must be told.” 43

In addition to military aid to the warring factions, the influx of development loans played an important role in “financing the conflict.” In other words, both the Ugandan and Rwanda external debts were diverted into supporting the military and paramilitary. Uganda’s external debt increased by more than 2 billion dollars, –i.e. at a significantly faster pace than that of Rwanda (an increase of approximately 250 million dollars from 1990 to 1994). In retrospect, the RPA — financed by US military aid and Uganda’s external debt– was much better equipped and trained than the Forces Armées du Rwanda (FAR) loyal to President Habyarimana. From the outset, the RPA had a definite military advantage over the FAR.

According to the testimony of Paul Mugabe, a former member of the RPF High Command Unit, Major General Paul Kagame had personally ordered the shooting down of President Habyarimana’s plane with a view to taking control of the country.

He was fully aware that the assassination of Habyarimana would unleash “a genocide” against Tutsi civilians. RPA forces had been fully deployed in Kigali at the time the ethnic massacres took place and did not act to prevent it from happening:

The decision of Paul Kagame to shoot Pres. Habyarimana’s aircraft was the catalyst of an unprecedented drama in Rwandan history, and Major-General Paul Kagame took that decision with all awareness.

Kagame’s ambition caused the extermination of all of our families: Tutsis, Hutus and Twas. We all lost. Kagame’s take-over took away the lives of a large number of Tutsis and caused the unnecessary exodus of millions of Hutus, many of whom were innocent under the hands of the genocide ringleaders. Some naive Rwandans proclaimed Kagame as their savior, but time has demonstrated that it was he who caused our suffering and misfortunes…

Can Kagame explain to the Rwandan people why he sent Claude Dusaidi and Charles Muligande to New York and Washington to stop the UN military intervention which was supposed to be sent and protect the Rwandan people from the genocide? The reason behind avoiding that military intervention was to allow the RPF leadership the takeover of the Kigali Government and to show the world that they – the RPF – were the ones who stopped the genocide.

We will all remember that the genocide occurred during three months, even though Kagame has said that he was capable of stopping it the first week after the aircraft crash. Can Major-General Paul Kagame explain why he asked to MINUAR to leave Rwandan soil within hours while the UN was examining the possibility of increasing its troops in Rwanda in order to stop the genocide?44

Paul Mugabe’s testimony regarding the shooting down of Habyarimana’s plane ordered by Kagame is corroborated by intelligence documents and information presented to the French parliamentary inquiry.

Major General Paul Kagame was an instrument of Washington. The loss of African lives did not matter. The civil war in Rwanda and the ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives.

Despite the good diplomatic relations between Paris and Washington and the apparent unity of the Western military alliance, it was an undeclared war between France and America. By supporting the build up of Ugandan and Rwandan forces and by directly intervening in the Congolese civil war, Washington also bears a direct responsibility for the ethnic massacres committed in the Eastern Congo including several hundred thousand people who died in refugee camps.

US policy-makers were fully aware that a catastrophe was imminent. In fact four months before the genocide, the CIA had warned the US State Department in a confidential brief that the Arusha Accords would fail and “that if hostilities resumed, then upward of half a million people would die”. 45 This information was withheld from the United Nations: “it was not until the genocide was over that information was passed to Maj.-Gen. Dallaire [who was in charge of UN forces in Rwanda].” 46

Washington’s objective was to displace France, discredit the French government (which had supported the Habyarimana regime) and install an Anglo-American protectorate in Rwanda under Major General Paul Kagame. Washington deliberately did nothing to prevent the ethnic massacres.

When a UN force was put forth, Major General Paul Kagame sought to delay its implementation stating that he would only accept a peacekeeping force once the RPA was in control of Kigali. Kagame “feared [that] the proposed United Nations force of more than 5,000 troops… [might] intervene to deprive them [the RPA] of victory”.47

Meanwhile the Security Council after deliberation and a report from Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali decided to postpone its intervention.

The 1994 Rwandan “genocide” served strictly strategic and geopolitical objectives.

The ethnic massacres were a stumbling blow to France’s credibility which enabled the US to establish a neocolonial foothold in Central Africa.

From a distinctly Franco-Belgian colonial setting, the Rwandan capital Kigali has become –under the expatriate Tutsi led RPF government– distinctly Anglo-American. English has become the dominant language in government and the private sector. Many private businesses owned by Hutus were taken over in 1994 by returning Tutsi expatriates. The latter had been exiled in Anglophone Africa, the US and Britain.

The Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) functions in English and Kinyarwanda, the University previously linked to France and Belgium functions in English. While English had become an official language alongside French and Kinyarwanda, French political and cultural influence will eventually be erased. Washington has become the new colonial master of a francophone country.

Several other francophone countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have entered into military cooperation agreements with the US. These countries are slated by Washington to follow suit on the pattern set in Rwanda. Meanwhile in francophone West Africa, the US dollar is rapidly displacing the CFA Franc — which is linked in a currency board arrangement to the French Treasury.

Notes (Endnote numbering as in the original chapter)

  1. Written in 1999, the following text is Part II of Chapter 5 on the Second Edition of The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order. The first part of chapter published in the first edition was written in 1994. Part II is in part based on a study conducted by the author and Belgian economist Pierre Galand on the use of Rwanda’s 1990-94 external debt to finance the military and paramilitary.
  • Africa Direct, Submission to the UN Tribunal on Rwanda, http://www.junius.co.uk/africa- direct/tribunal.html Ibid.
  • Africa’s New Look, Jane’s Foreign Report, August 14, 1997.
  • Jim Mugunga, Uganda foreign debt hits Shs 4 trillion, The Monitor, Kampala, 19 February 1997.
  • Michel Chossudovsky and Pierre Galand, L’usage de la dette exterieure du Rwanda, la responsabilité des créanciers, mission report, United Nations Development Program and Government of Rwanda, Ottawa and Brussels, 1997.
  • Ibid
  • Ibid
  • ibid, the imports recorded were of the order of kg. 500.000 of machetes or approximately one million machetes.
  • Ibid
  • Ibid. See also schedule 1.2 of the Development Credit Agreement with IDA, Washington, 27 June 1991, CREDIT IDA 2271 RW.
  • Chossudovsky and Galand, op cit
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid.
  • World Bank completion report, quoted in Chossudovsky and Galand, op cit.
  • Ibid
  • Ibid
  • See World Bank, Rwanda at http://www.worldbank.org/afr/rw2.htm.
  • Ibid, italics added
  • A ceiling on the number of public employees had been set at 38,000 for 1998 down from 40,600 in 1997. See Letter of Intent of the Government of Rwanda including cover letter addressed to IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus, IMF, Washington, http://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/060498.htm , 1998.
  • Ibid.
  • Lynne Duke Africans Use US Military Training in Unexpected Ways, Washington Post. July 14, 1998; p.A01.
  • Musengwa Kayaya, U.S. Company To Invest in Zaire, Pan African News, 9 May 1997.
  • International Monetary Fund, Zaire Hyperinflation 1990-1996, Washington, April 1997.
  • Alain Shungu Ngongo, Zaire-Economy: How to Survive On a Dollar a Month, International Press Service, 6 June 1996.
  • Quoted in Therese LeClerc. “Who is responsible for the genocide in Rwanda?”, World Socialist website at http://www.wsws.org/index.shtml , 29 April 1998.
  • Paul Mugabe, The Shooting Down Of The Aircraft Carrying Rwandan President Habyarimama , testimony to the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), Alexandria, Virginia, 24 April 2000.
  • Linda Melvern, Betrayal of the Century, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, 8 April 2000.
  • Ibid
  • Scott Peterson, Peacekeepers will not halt carnage, say Rwanda, rebels, Daily Telegraph, London, May 12, 1994.

First published on January 2, 2018, this article addresses the history of the U.S War on Iran project focussing on the insidious role of Israel, essentially acting on behalf of Washington. The original title was:

“US Winks, Israel Bites?  Shifting Middle East Alliances. The War on Iran is “On Hold”?

Author’s Update

In recent developments, in response to Israel’s bombing of Iran’s Consulate in Damascus, according to media reports:

Iran has launched more than 300 cruise and ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, IDF officials said, a retaliatory attack weeks after an Israeli strike on the Iranian consular building in Syria killed two of Tehran’s top commanders.

“There were explosions visible in the air over Jerusalem as air sirens rang throughout the country.”

“Iran said that after tonight’s attack, the “matter can be deemed concluded” unless there is more violence.”

“Doing the Dirty Work For Us”

The fundamental question is whether this retaliatory attack will lead to escalation, including an Israeli counter-attack on Iran.

In this regard, Israel is largely serving the strategic interests of  the U.S. acting on behalf of Washington. 

The dirty war concept is embedded in U.S foreign policy.

Let your allies do the Dirty Work for You. The Israeli attack against the Iran Consulate in Damas was conducted in consultation with Washington. 

The geopolitical and strategic implications as well as the probability of a retaliation by Iran had been carefully analyzed. 

Let’s be under no illusions. The use of nuclear weapons by Israel in response to Iran’s retaliation is being discussed behind closed doors both in Tel Aviv and in Washington. That does not mean that it is contemplated as an option. 

 

Déjà Vu

It is worth noting that at the outset of Bush’s Second Term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell, hinting, that Israel would, so to speak: be doing the dirty work for us (paraphrase) without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”.

According to Cheney

“The Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards,” 

“Israel would not be able to act unilaterally against Iran, without a green light from the Pentagon which controls key components of Israel’s air defense system.

In practice, a war on Iran, were it to occur would be a joint US-Israeli endeavor, coordinated by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with America’s allies playing a key (subordinate) role.” (quoted from 2018 article)

Source: Council on Foreign Relations

Israel and the US-NATO Alliance

It is a complex military-intelligence undertaking, carefully planned over several years, in liaison and  coordination with US intelligence, the Pentagon, US Strategic Command and NATO. (See article below).

Israel’s  War ongoing against Palestine is currently conducive to a process of military escalation which potentially could engulf a large part of Middle East. 

Video Interview

 

Israeli Military Cooperation with the Pentagon and NATO

Military cooperation with both the Pentagon and NATO is viewed by Israel’s Defence Force (IDF) as a means to “enhance Israel’s deterrence capability regarding potential enemies threatening it, mainly Iran and Syria.”

Israel is a de facto member of NATO (with a special status) since 2004, involving active military and intelligence coordination as well as consultations pertaining to the occupied territories.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed (Press Conference, Brussels, October 12, 2023) that Israel is under attack and that U.S. military deployments in the Middle East are ongoing allegedly to avoid escalation:

There is always the risk that nations and/or organisations hostile to Israel will take try to take advantage. And that includes, for instance, organisations like Hezbollah or a country like Iran. So this is a message to countries and organisations hostile to Israel that they should not try to utilise the situation. And the United States have deployed, or has deployed more military forces in the region, not least to deter any escalation or prevent any escalation of the situation. (NATO Press Conference, Brussels, October 12, 2023, emphasis added)

Barely three days following the commencement of IDF’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, America’s largest Aircraft Carrier The USS Gerald R. Ford has come to the rescue of Israel, positioned itself in Israel’s territorial waters.

According is the CBS Report, The USS Gerald Ford is presented as a “show of force and a warning to bad actors”. It also points to escalation. The hideous crimes committed by the IDF against 2.3 million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip are not mentioned.

According to media report: 

“[this] is part of the United States’ show of support after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on the Jewish state”.

“CBS News national security correspondent David Martin says the aircraft’s presence is meant to signal a warning to bad actors in the region.”

The War on Iran is no longer on Hold? 

Below is the text of my January 2018 article focussing initially on the 2003 “Iran Theatre Near Term” (TIRANNT) project and the history of military alliances.

An earlier version of this text was published on August 22, 2010

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, October 14, 2023, April 14, 2024

 

 

US Winks, Israel Bites?

Shifting Middle East Alliances.

The War on Iran is “On Hold”?

By Michel Chossudovsky 

January 2, 2018

 

In 2003, the war on Iran project was already Déjà Vu. It had been on the drawing board of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties. 

Since the launching of the Theater Iran Near Term (TIRANNT) war games scenario in May 2003 (leaked classified document), an escalation scenario involving military action directed against Iran and Syria had been envisaged, of which Syria was the first stage in 2011.  

The initial invasion of Iraq under “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was launched on March 20, 2003, April 9 marks the Fall of Baghdad;  officially the invasion was completed on May 1st, 2003.

In May 2003, immediately following the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the TIRANNT (Theater Iran Near Term) war games scenario were carried out as revealed by William Arkin, a former US intelligence analyst:

“In early 2003, even as U.S. forces were on the brink of war with Iraq, the Army had already begun conducting an analysis for a full-scale war with Iran. The analysis, called TIRANNT, for “theater Iran near term,” was coupled with a mock scenario for a Marine Corps invasion and a simulation of the Iranian missile force. U.S. and British planners conducted a Caspian Sea war game around the same time. And Bush directed the U.S. Strategic Command to draw up a global strike war plan for an attack against Iranian weapons of mass destruction. All of this will ultimately feed into a new war plan for “major combat operations” against Iran that military sources confirm now exists in draft form. [This contingency plan entitled CONPLAN 8022 would be activated in the eventuality of a Second 9/11, on the presumption that Iran would be behind it]  (William Arkin, Washington Post, 16 April 2006)

Screenshot of WPo article, opinion section

“Theater Iran Near Term”, a scenario of waging a war against Iran following the defeat of Iraq was the unspoken concept. Under the auspices of US Central Command, TIRANNT focussed on both “Near Term” (i.e. following the Iraq war) as well “Out-Year” (signifying the subsequent year) scenarios for war with Iran ” …including all aspects of a major combat operation, from mobilization and deployment of forces through postwar stability operations after regime change.” (Ibid)

The core TIRANNT effort began in May 2003, when modelers and intelligence specialists pulled together the data needed for theater-level (meaning large-scale) scenario analysis for Iran. TIRANNT has since been updated using post-Iraq war information on the performance of U.S. forces. Meanwhile, Air Force planners have modeled attacks against existing Iranian air defenses and targets, while Navy planners have evaluated coastal defenses and drawn up scenarios for keeping control of the Strait of Hormuz at the base of the Persian Gulf.

A follow-on TIRANNT Campaign Analysis, which began in October 2003, calculated the results of different scenarios for action against Iran to provide options for analyzing courses of action in an updated Iran war plan. (Ibid)

Needless to say, the “Near Term” plans formulated in 2003 had been postponed.

USCENTCOM’s “Dual Containment”. First Iraq, then Iran

The 2003 decision to target Iran under TIRANNT  as well as all subsequent endeavors and “secret plans” were part of the broader Middle East military roadmap. Already during the Clinton administration, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) had formulated in 1995 under the doctrine of “Dual Containment” “in war theater plans” to invade first Iraq and then Iran:

“The broad national security interests and objectives expressed in the President’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Chairman’s National Military Strategy (NMS) form the foundation of the United States Central Command’s theater strategy. The NSS directs implementation of a strategy of dual containment of the rogue states of Iraq and Iran as long as those states pose a threat to U.S. interests, to other states in the region, and to their own citizens. Dual containment is designed to maintain the balance of power in the region without depending on either Iraq or Iran. USCENTCOM’s theater strategy is interest-based and threat-focused. The purpose of U.S. engagement, as espoused in the NSS, is to protect the United States’ vital interest in the region – uninterrupted, secure U.S./Allied access to Gulf oil.”

USCENTCOM, http://www.milnet.com/milnet/pentagon/centcom/chap1/stratgic.htm#USPolicy

emphasis  added, the original document of USCENTCOM is no longer available)

The Role of Israel. Doing the Bombing For Us?

The TIRANNT (2003) scenario was followed by a series of military plans pertaining to Iran. Numerous post 9/11 official statements and US military documents had pointed to an expanded Middle East war, involving the active participation of Israel.

Broadly, what characterizes U.S. foreign policy is to encourage America’s allies “to do the dirty work on our behalf”.

At the outset of Bush’s Second Term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell, hinting, in no uncertain terms, that Iran was “right at the top of the list” of the rogue enemies of America, and that Israel would, so to speak, “be doing the bombing for us” (paraphrase), without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”.

In contrast, under the Trump administration, according to Professor James Petras, Israel and the Zionist Lobby are playing an active role, pressuring President Trump to take the first step:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Presidents of the 52 Major Jewish American Organizations are leading President Trump, like a puppy on a leash, into a major war with Iran. The hysterical ’52 Presidents’ and ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu are busy manufacturing Holocaust-level predictions that a non-nuclear Iran is preparing to ‘vaporize’ Israel, ,  The buffoonish US President Trump has swallowed this fantasy wholesale and is pushing our nation toward war for the sake of Israel and its US-based supporters and agents. (James Petras, Global Research, October 27, 2017)

Who are the Main Actors?

Political rhetoric is often misleading. Israel is America’s ally. Military operations are closely coordinated. Tel Aviv is however subordinate to Washington. In major military operations, Israel does not act without the Pentagon’s approval.

Barely acknowledged by the media, the US and Israel have an integrated air defense system, which was set up in early 2009, shortly after the Israel invasion of Gaza under “Operation Cast Led”.

The X-band radar air defense system set up by the US in Israel in 2009 would “integrate Israel’s missile defenses with the U.S. global missile detection network, which includes satellites, Aegis ships on the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Red Sea, and land-based Patriot radars and interceptors.”  (Sen. Joseph Azzolina, Protecting Israel from Iran’s missiles, Bayshore News, December 26, 2008). )

What this means is that Washington calls the shots. Confirmed by the Pentagon, the US military controls Israel’s Air Defense:

”This is and will remain a U.S. radar system,’ Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. ‘So this is not something we are giving or selling to the Israelis and it is something that will likely require U.S. personnel on-site to operate.’” (Quoted in Israel National News, January 9, 2009, emphasis added).

At the outset of  Obama’s Second Term, the US and Israel initiated discussions pertaining to a “US personnel on site” presence in Israel, namely the establishment of a “permanent” and “official” military base inside Israel. And on September 17, 2017, a US Air Defense base located in the Negev desert was inaugurated. According to the Israeli IDF spokesperson, the objective is to send a “message to the region, ” including Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.

Israel would not be able to act unilaterally against Iran, without a green light from the Pentagon which controls key components of Israel’s air defense system.

In practice, a war on Iran, were it to occur would be a joint US-Israeli endeavor, coordinated by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with America’s allies playing a key (subordinate) role.

The Evolving Structure of Military Alliances

Since the formulation of USCENTCOM’s “in war theater” plans in the mid-nineties, and more specifically since the onslaught of the war on Syria in 2011, the geopolitics of the broader Middle East Central Asian region has evolved dramatically with Russia and  China taking on a major role.

In this regard, the shift in the structure of military alliances has served to weaken US influence. Iran is now supported by a powerful China-Russia block. In turn, Pakistan and India have joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which has contributed to undermining US-Pakistani relations.

In turn, Iran’s bilateral relations with China including strategic oil, gas and pipeline deals (as well as military cooperation) have developed since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012.

Moreover, while Tehran has reached a “pact of convenience” with Ankara, the unity of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States is now in jeopardy, with Qatar, Oman and Kuwait building an alliance with Iran, to the detriment of  Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Since the war on Syria, Iran has not only established a strong bilateral relationship with Syria, it has also reinforced its ties with Lebanon and Yemen.

In other words, US hegemony is threatened in the broader Middle East Central Asian region. The structure of alliances and “cross-cutting coalitions” in 2018 does not favor a US-led military operation against Iran.

  • The Atlantic Alliance is in crisis and so is the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
  • The US and Turkey are clashing in Northern Syria, where Turkey is fighting US sponsored Kurdish rebels.
  • Turkey, which constitutes NATO’s heavyweight (in terms of conventional forces) has acquired Russia’s S400 air defense system. Does this signify that Turkey (as a member state of the Atlantic Alliance) no longer fully shares the US-NATO-Israel defense system?
  • Another consideration is Turkey’s rapprochement with both Russia and Iran.

presidents Putin and Erdogan (right)

Demise of the “Triple Alliance”: US, Israel, Turkey

How does Turkey’s “pact of convenience” with Iran affect the Israel-Turkey  Security and Secrecy Agreement (SSA) launched by the Tansu Çiller government in 1994?

The SSA agreement was a carefully designed instrument of US foreign policy (sponsored by the Clinton administration) which set the stage for a firm and close Israel-Turkey relationship in military and intelligence cooperation, joint military exercises, weapons production and training.

The SSA largely served US strategic interests in the Middle East. The intent of the SSA Israel-Turkey bilateral military-intelligence agreement was to create a triangular relationship between the US, Israel and Turkey. This de facto (rather than de jure) “triple alliance”, under the helm of the Pentagon, was intended to integrate and coordinate military command decisions (as well as intelligence) between the three countries pertaining to the broader Middle East.

From a strategic standpoint, the Pentagon was intent upon “using” both Israel and Turkey in Middle East military operations (i.e to act on our behalf).

The “Triple alliance” was based on close (bilateral) military ties respectively between Israel and Turkey with the US, coupled with a strong bilateral military relationship between Tel Aviv and Ankara.

In turn, Israel signed a far-reaching military cooperation protocol with NATO in March 2005 in Jerusalem.  Under this agreement, Israel had become a de facto member of NATO. The 2005 Israel-NATO bilateral military cooperation agreement was viewed by the Israeli military as a means to “enhance Israel’s deterrence capability” against Iran, which has recently entered into an alliance of convenience with Turkey, a NATO member state.  Sounds contradictory?

It is also worth noting Israel’s longstanding membership in NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue together with six other non-NATO member states: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. Recently, these six countries have taken a stance against Israel in the wake of Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

It was no coincidence that the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) was launched in the same year as the Israel-Turkey SSA agreement (1994).

  • Is the Israel-Turkey SSA agreement currently in jeopardy?
  • Following Trump’s Jerusalem Statement, the Mediterranean Dialogue is also in crisis, to the detriment of Washington.
  • How can joint military and intelligence operations directed against Iran be carried out when Turkey (a NATO member state and an ally of Israel) is  “in bed with the enemy”?
  • Another consideration is the de facto demise of GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova), a loose US-NATO sponsored military alliance of five former Soviet republics created in 1999, slated to be used against Russia and Iran.

For the above reasons, the Pentagon’s TIRANNT “Near Term” scenario of a conventional war against Iran at this juncture is unlikely.

While a conventional war on Iran is currently on hold, the US has indelibly opted for nonconventional warfare including destabilization, economic sanctions, infiltration, cooptation and regime change.

The Pentagon, nonetheless retains its longtime strategic option of inducing its closest allies including Saudi Arabia and Israel to “wage war on its behalf”.

We are nonetheless at a dangerous crossroads in our history. While Pentagon analysts are fully aware that the US cannot win a conventional war against Iran, a first strike tactical nuclear weapons attack is still “on the table”. So are intelligence ops, the recruitment of hired “jihadist” terrorists, the funding of insurgencies, etc. (not to mention the use of a panoply of nonconventional weapons systems including electromagnetic, chemical and biological weapons).

***

War is a criminal undertaking which is supported by the US media.

Global Research is committed to revealing the nature of this military agenda as well as fostering a broad counter-propaganda campaign which serves to undermine the fake legitimacy of Washington’s “humanitarian” wars.

Spread this article far and wide.

We Need Your Support.  To Donate to Global Research Click Here  

Video (2007)


Order Directly from Global Research Publishers

 

Michel Chossudovsky

The US has embarked on a military adventure, “a long war”, which threatens the future of humanity. US-NATO weapons of mass destruction are portrayed as instruments of peace. Mini-nukes are said to be “harmless to the surrounding civilian population”. Pre-emptive nuclear war is portrayed as a “humanitarian undertaking”.

While one can conceptualize the loss of life and destruction resulting from present-day wars including Iraq and Afghanistan, it is impossible to fully comprehend the devastation which might result from a Third World War, using “new technologies” and advanced weapons, until it occurs and becomes a reality. The international community has endorsed nuclear war in the name of world peace. “Making the world safer” is the justification for launching a military operation which could potentially result in a nuclear holocaust.

.

.


America’s hegemonic project in the post 9/11 era is the “Globalization of War” whereby the U.S.-NATO military machine —coupled with covert intelligence operations, economic sanctions and the thrust of “regime change”— is deployed in all major regions of the world. The threat of pre-emptive nuclear war is also used to black-mail countries into submission.

This “Long War against Humanity” is carried out at the height of the most serious economic crisis in modern history.

It is intimately related to a process of global financial restructuring, which has resulted in the collapse of national economies and the impoverishment of large sectors of the World population.

The ultimate objective is World conquest under the cloak of “human rights” and “Western democracy”.

Please Note: These Titles are currently available in pdf format. 
 

  • Posted in English, NO READ MORE LINK
  • Comments Off on Towards Military Escalation? Will Israel “Do the Dirty Work for Us”? “Theater Iran Near Term (TIRANNT)”? The War on Iran is No Longer On Hold?
  • Tags:

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

The New York Times instructed journalists covering Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to “avoid” using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian land, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept.

The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” and to steer clear of the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli–Arab wars. The areas are recognized by the United Nations as refugee camps and house hundreds of thousands of registered refugees.

The memo — written by Times standards editor Susan Wessling, international editor Philip Pan, and their deputies — “offers guidance about some terms and other issues we have grappled with since the start of the conflict in October.”

While the document is presented as an outline for maintaining objective journalistic principles in reporting on the Gaza war, several Times staffers told The Intercept that some of its contents show evidence of the paper’s deference to Israeli narratives.

“I think it’s the kind of thing that looks professional and logical if you have no knowledge of the historical context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” said a Times newsroom source, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, of the Gaza memo. “But if you do know, it will be clear how apologetic it is to Israel.”

First distributed to Times journalists in November, the guidance — which collected and expanded on past style directives about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict — has been regularly updated over the ensuing months. It presents an internal window into the thinking of Times international editors as they have faced upheaval within the newsroom surrounding the paper’s Gaza war coverage.

“Issuing guidance like this to ensure accuracy, consistency and nuance in how we cover the news is standard practice,” said Charlie Stadtlander, a Times spokesperson. “Across all our reporting, including complex events like this, we take care to ensure our language choices are sensitive, current and clear to our audiences.”

Issues over style guidance have been among a bevy of internal rifts at the Times over its Gaza coverage. In January, The Intercept reported on disputes in the Times newsroom over issues with an investigative story on systematic sexual violence on October 7. The leak gave rise to a highly unusual internal probe. The company faced harsh criticism for allegedly targeting Times workers of Middle East and North African descent, which Times brass denied. On Monday, executive editor Joe Kahn told staff that the leak investigation had been concluded unsuccessfully.

WhatsApp Debates

Almost immediately after the October 7 attacks and the launch of Israel’s scorched-earth war against Gaza, tensions began to boil within the newsroom over the Times coverage. Some staffers said they believed the paper was going out of its way to defer to Israel’s narrative on the events and was not applying even standards in its coverage. Arguments began fomenting on internal Slack and other chat groups.

The debates between reporters on the Jerusalem bureau-led WhatsApp group, which at one point included 90 reporters and editors, became so intense that Pan, the international editor, interceded.

“We need to do a better job communicating with each other as we report the news, so our discussions are more productive and our disagreements less distracting,” Pan wrote in a November 28 WhatsApp message viewed by The Intercept and first reported by the Wall Street Journal. “At its best, this channel has been a quick, transparent and productive space to collaborate on a complex, fast-moving story. At its worst, it’s a tense forum where the questions and comments can feel accusatory and personal.”

Pan bluntly stated:

“Do not use this channel for raising concerns about coverage.”

Among the topics of debate in the Jerusalem bureau WhatsApp group and exchanges on Slack, reviewed by The Intercept and verified with multiple newsroom sources, were Israeli attacks on Al-Shifa Hospital, statistics on Palestinian civilian deaths, the allegations of genocidal conduct by Israel, and President Joe Biden’s pattern of promoting unverified allegations from the Israeli government as fact. (Pan did not respond to a request for comment.)

Many of the same debates were addressed in the Times’s Gaza-specific style guidance and have been the subject of intense public scrutiny.

“It’s not unusual for news companies to set style guidelines,” said another Times newsroom source, who also asked for anonymity. “But there are unique standards applied to violence perpetrated by Israel. Readers have noticed and I understand their frustration.”

“Words Like ‘Slaughter’”

The Times memo outlines guidance on a range of phrases and terms.

“The nature of the conflict has led to inflammatory language and incendiary accusations on all sides. We should be very cautious about using such language, even in quotations. Our goal is to provide clear, accurate information, and heated language can often obscure rather than clarify the fact,” the memo says.

“Words like ‘slaughter,’ ‘massacre’ and ‘carnage’ often convey more emotion than information. Think hard before using them in our own voice,” according to the memo. “Can we articulate why we are applying those words to one particular situation and not another? As always, we should focus on clarity and precision — describe what happened rather than using a label.”

Despite the memo’s framing as an effort to not employ incendiary language to describe killings “on all sides,” in the Times reporting on the Gaza war, such language has been used repeatedly to describe attacks against Israelis by Palestinians and almost never in the case of Israel’s large-scale killing of Palestinians.

In January, The Intercept published an analysis of New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times coverage of the war from October 7 through November 24 — a period mostly before the new Times guidance was issued. The Intercept analysis showed that the major newspapers reserved terms like “slaughter,” “massacre,” and “horrific” almost exclusively for Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians, rather than for Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli attacks.

The analysis found that, as of November 24, the New York Times had described Israeli deaths as a “massacre” on 53 occasions and those of Palestinians just once. The ratio for the use of “slaughter” was 22 to 1, even as the documented number of Palestinians killed climbed to around 15,000.

The latest Palestinian death toll estimate stands at more than 33,000, including at least 15,000 children — likely undercounts due to Gaza’s collapsed health infrastructure and missing persons, many of whom are believed to have died in the rubble left by Israel’s attacks over the past six months.

Touchy Debates

The Times memo touches on some of the most highly charged — and disputed — language around the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The guidance spells out, for instance, usage of the word “terrorist,” which The Intercept previously reported was at the center of a spirited newsroom debate.

“It is accurate to use ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ in describing the attacks of Oct. 7, which included the deliberate targeting of civilians in killings and kidnappings,” according to the leaked Times memo. “We should not shy away from that description of the events or the attackers, particularly when we provide context and explanation.”

The guidance also instructs journalists to “Avoid ‘fighters’ when referring to the Oct. 7 attack; the term suggests a conventional war rather than a deliberate attack on civilians. And be cautious in using ‘militants,’ which is interpreted in different ways and may be confusing to readers.”

In the memo, the editors tell Times journalists:

“We do not need to assign a single label or to refer to the Oct. 7 assault as a ‘terrorist attack’ in every reference; the word is best used when specifically describing attacks on civilians. We should exercise restraint and can vary the language with other accurate terms and descriptions: an attack, an assault, an incursion, the deadliest attack on Israel in decades, etc. Similarly, in addition to ‘terrorists,’ we can vary the terms used to describe the Hamas members who carried out the assault: attackers, assailants, gunmen.”

The Times does not characterize Israel’s repeated attacks on Palestinian civilians as “terrorism,” even when civilians have been targeted. This is also true of Israel’s assaults on protected civilian sites, including hospitals.

In a section with the headline “‘Genocide’ and Other Incendiary Language,” the guidance says, “‘Genocide’ has a specific definition in international law. In our own voice, we should generally use it only in the context of those legal parameters. We should also set a high bar for allowing others to use it as an accusation, whether in quotations or not, unless they are making a substantive argument based on the legal definition.”

Regarding “ethnic cleansing,” the document calls it “another historically charged term,” instructing reporters: “If someone is making such an accusation, we should press for specifics or supply proper context.”

Bucking International Norms

In the cases of describing “occupied territory” and the status of refugees in Gaza, the Times style guidelines run counter to norms established by the United Nations and international humanitarian law.

On the term “Palestine” — a widely used name for both the territory and the U.N.-recognized state — the Times memo contains blunt instructions: “Do not use in datelines, routine text or headlines, except in very rare cases such as when the United Nations General Assembly elevated Palestine to a nonmember observer state, or references to historic Palestine.” The Times guidance resembles that of the Associated Press Stylebook.

The memo directs journalists not to use the phrase “refugee camps” to describe long-standing refugee settlements in Gaza. “While termed refugee camps, the refugee centers in Gaza are developed and densely populated neighborhoods dating to the 1948 war. Refer to them as neighborhoods, or areas, and if further context is necessary, explain how they have historically been called refugee camps.”

The United Nations recognizes eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. As of last year, before the war started, the areas were home to more than 600,000 registered refugees. Many are descendants of those who fled to Gaza after being forcibly expelled from their homes in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which marked the founding of the Jewish state and mass dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

The Israeli government has long been hostile to the historical fact that Palestinians maintain refugee status, because it signifies that they were displaced from lands they have a right to return to.

Since October 7, Israel has repeatedly bombed refugee camps in Gaza, including Jabaliya, Al Shati, Al Maghazi, and Nuseirat.

The memo’s instructions on the use of “occupied territories” says, “When possible, avoid the term and be specific (e.g. Gaza, the West Bank, etc.) as each has a slightly different status.” The United Nations, along with much of the world, considers Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem to be occupied Palestinian territories, seized by Israel in the 1967 Arab–Israeli war.

The admonition against the use of the term “occupied territories,” said a Times staffer, obscures the reality of the conflict, feeding into the U.S. and Israeli insistence that the conflict began on October 7.

“You are basically taking the occupation out of the coverage, which is the actual core of the conflict,” said the newsroom source. “It’s like, ‘Oh let’s not say occupation because it might make it look like we’re justifying a terrorist attack.’”

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image is from FAIR

Video: COVID Nurses Speak Out About Vaccine Injuries

April 18th, 2024 by Children’s Health Defense

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Two COVID nurses shared their testimonies about what transpired at the outset of the mass vaccine mandates. 

Click here to watch the video

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

Citizenship: Concept and Consequences

April 18th, 2024 by Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Citizenship as a Concept

The term “citizenship” is usually used either in academia or news as a synonym of nationality and national affiliation (from the Anglo-Saxon, West European perspective followed by the New World, in fact, as a synonym of state). However, “citizenship” as a concept is essentially a product of and used in political philosophy and jurisprudence. In practice, the majority of governments in the world concerned with giving or not giving citizenship to someone follow either the so-called:

  1. The French model, based on the “right of soil” (ius soli) or 
  2. The German model, founded on the principle of “right of blood” (ius sanguinis).

Actually, “citizenship” is not part of the terminology established by sociology and anthropology as in these two academic fields of research the notion of citizenship has come up only recently, basically, with the research of Roger Brubaker, Louis Dumont, or Immanuel Todd. The notion of citizenship is particularly interesting for sociologists and anthropologists as a phenomenon that structures collective representations and social relations among individuals and groups (to have certain rights as well as certain duties). 

The status of being a citizen is decided by the law. In the traditions linked to republican political features, qualifications to have or not citizenship have been linked to particular rights and duties of citizens as well as to a commitment to equality between citizens is compatible with considerable exclusivity in the qualifying conditions (Ancient Greece, Rome, and Italian republics excluded women followed by some certain classes of labor men from the concept of citizenship).   

During the last decades, basically since the end of the Cold War 1.0 in 1989, there are three crucial reasons for the popularity of dealing with the issue of citizenship:

  1. Re-establishment of national states in East-Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe;
  2. Re-emerging the problem of the status of historical, ethnic, and territorial minorities;
  3. The problem of immigrants’ condition (for instance, in West Europe).

In principle, social science is concerned with the concept of citizenship mainly as an “imagined construction” that is applied in social life. According to a short definition and understanding of citizenship, it is juridical status, granting a sum of rights and duties to members of a specific political entity (state). Concerning the issue of legal rights and duties, one can possess 1) citizenship (participating in state elections for the president and parliament); 2) permanent residence permission (participation in only local elections for the assembly); and 3) temporal resident permission (no electoral rights).

Historically, during the time of feudalism, for instance, full citizenship possessed only aristocracy having political rights followed by certain duties to the state. In modern times, citizenship is understood as a pillar of a modern/contemporary state resembling, in fact, loyalty to the political unity that grants citizenship (it includes above all mandatory military service/conscription to defend the “motherland” – a country of citizenship). Nevertheless, in the past, there was a commonly accepted notion of citizenship that is very similar to the contemporary one (like the polis in ancient Greece, republican Rome, or in Italian medieval comuni/communities).

Today, there are notions of even supranational/transnational citizenship as it was, for instance, in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (double citizenship: of the republic and Yugoslav federation but a single passport) or the EU (double citizenship: of the national state and the EU with a single passport). Nevertheless, there were/are problems of supranational identity and transnational citizenship like in socialist Yugoslavia, USSR, or today in the EU where an overwhelming minority of inhabitants support supranational identity (of being Yugoslav, Soviet, or European) but have transnational citizenship (of Yugoslavia, USSR, or the EU).

What is very important to stress, the notion of (modern) citizenship is unlike the notion of (feudal) subjection. In other words, to possess citizenship means to be a member of a political entity having certain rights but to be a subject means being subjected to sovereignty (ruler) without rights having only heavy obligations. The notion of citizenship involves a relation of reciprocal loyalty between an impersonal institution (state) and its members (but not subjects). The notion of subjection, in fact, implies a personalized relation of obedience and submission of subjects to the sovereign. However, since the modern (anti-feudal) times, different types of rights (civil, social, political, minority…etc.) have differentiated citizenship from subjection which was historically founded on privileges (for aristocracy) and obligations (for taxpayers).

What Weberians (followers of Maximilian Karl Emil Weber, 1864−1920) would say is that citizenship is a typical phenomenon of legal-bureaucratic political systems. According to them, subjection belongs to traditional (feudal) and charismatic political systems and social relations. In addition, the concept of citizenship fits to “institutionalized state” while subjection fits to “personalized state”.

Rights of Citizenship

The concept of citizenship understands four rights for the citizenship holders:

  1. Civil rights concerning individual freedoms (personal freedom, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion) and the right to fair and equal justice for all. They stemmed from the ascent of the middle class in the 18th century;
  2. In the 19th century, political rights concerning the exercise and control of political power, to vote, and to create political parties were established;
  3. Social rights (rights ensuring a degree of welfare and safety through welfare and education services) were guaranteed in the 20th century;
  4. Cultural rights (rights to maintain and hand down to one’s descendant’s cultural identity, ethnic affiliation, and religious background) are introduced in the 1970s.

Dealing with the concept of citizenship, the relations between citizenship, politics of recognition, and multiculturalism is essential. Citizenship is a social process that takes place under specific historical conditions. We have to keep in mind that the concept of citizenship involves both the rights and the duties. 

Citizenship as a concept is in the Western world very much founded on the principle of staatsnation (ein sprache, ein nation, ein staat), a German term of French origin. This principle has characterized the old content’s history from the 19th century on. According to the principle of staatsnation = each nation (ethnocultural-linguistic group) must have its state with its territory and each state must comprise one nation. According to common sense and most theoretical representations, a staatsnation is, in fact, kulturnation which is a community whose members share the same cultural traits. 

The concept of kulturnation corresponds to both: 

  1. The Herderian idea of “volk”/people (whose main characteristic is a shared language for all its members); and to
  2. The original French concept of nation, in which the linguistic criteria is also a major feature.

The original French concept of nation was defined in 1694 by the Académie Française. In essence, the German romanticist model is based on the formula of language-nation-state, while the modern French model after the 1789−1794 Revolution is founded on the opposite formula of state-nation-language (this formula, however, in the practice in many cases results in the assimilation and even ethnic cleansing of the minorities).  

The staatsnation principle postulates the formation of politically sovereign monocultural and/or monoethnic territorial spaces. This principle is based on cultural and/or ethnic purity. From the 19th century on, i.e. since the staatsnation principle was applied in Europe, there have been repeated efforts to make the single national territories both ethnically and culturally more homogeneous. The politics of ethnocultural re-composition in the name of staatsnation principle influenced both in some cases 1) ethnic cleansing, 2) boundary revisions, 3) forced assimilation, 4) banishments, 5) planned immigration, 6) deportations, etc. 

Dealing with the question of citizenship, today has to deal with minority rights and minority protection (regarding in many cases with civic state and society). Globally, human rights were accepted after 1945 while minority rights after 1989. The fact is that the national state has far too often been understood exclusively as a geographic expression. In addition, the national state is a political association of citizens who belong to it even because of their cultural traits are often disregarded. 

We and the Rest

Not everyone can indiscriminately belong to a specific national state. According to Max Weber, the national state is an association partially open to the outside. In many cases, historically, there were examples of limited opening towards the “others” or the foreigners (like Japan up to 1867). Such a view entails the creation of institutional mechanisms of social selection that regulate affiliation and exclusion. It has to be stressed that both citizenship and nationality represent the fundamental tools that define who has the complete right to belong to a national state and who is excluded from it. 

A drastic example of the policy of ethic-based citizenship can be mentioned in the case of Estonia and Latvia (to eliminate the influence on domestic politics of the local Russian minority) immediately after the dismemberment of the USSR but contrary to the case of Lithuania (in Lithuanian case just for the reason that Russian minority was not so numerous compared to Estonian and Latvian cases). In other words, in 1991 Estonia and Latvia introduced a model of citizenship following the staatsnation doctrine that tends to stamp out any form of cultural difference within its national territory. However, neighboring Lithuania after the Soviet time or Malaysia after the end of the British colonial domination in 1956, has given itself a model of multicultural citizenship, which is based upon differences amongst the country’s various ethnic components.

Specific institutions are established in order to support a strict logic of either inclusion or exclusion from the national state according to the principle of staatsnation. For instance, according to the post-Soviet constitution of Lithuania, in fact, only ethnic Lithuanians can be elected as the president of the country (The 78 paragraph: “Respublikos prezidentu gali būti renkamas lietuvos pilietis pagal kilmę…“ [For the President of the Republic can be elected only Lithuanian citizen according to the origin…]). 

Nevertheless, these restrictive institutions are:

  1. Naturalization;
  2. Assimilation;
  3. Entitled nation;
  4. Minorities.

Practically, a foreigner can obtain citizenship through naturalization and assimilation. We have, however, to keep in mind that in many countries around the world double citizenship is not allowed (like in Germany or Austria). The acculturation process results in a cultural affiliation change. This is a more or less voluntary process. Usually, the foreigner has to forsake his previous citizenship. However, today, dual citizenship is becoming juridically more widespread as a more democratic option. However, it is still in major cases regarded as dangerous for the preservation of national identities (for instance, controversial debate in Germany).

Practically, in the majority of states exists the problem of the citizenship of the minorities based on the difference between the entitled nation and the rest of the population (minorities) (cases of Slovenia and Croatia). Such attitude implies a structural asymmetry and it conceals a partial exclusion and a demarcation between first and second-class citizenships with their minority rights (example of the Socialist Yugoslavia). In many cases, the citizenship is ethnocentrically oriented which raises the question of citizenship and cultural plurality. Another connected question is the relationship between citizenship and the right to difference.

To focal questions concerning citizenship:

  1. Does citizenship have a unifying and inclusive function?
  2. Citizenship as the expression of a harmonious political community?

From the very sociological viewpoint, citizenship must be perceived as an agonistic process with competition, tensions, conflicts, permanent negotiations, and compromises between the groups involved in the struggle for the recognition of their rights. 

Final Words

The concept of citizenship is in most cases understood as a research issue within the political science framework.

Therefore, the usual definition of citizenship is provided in political terms as referring to the terms of membership of the nation-state which secure certain rights and privileges to those who fulfill particular obligations.

Citizenship is a political concept but not developed and academically as such recognized theory.

It, nevertheless, is formalizing the conditions for full participation in a certain community (in fact, a nation-state). Originally, the political definition of citizenship stresses the inclusive nature of the term (concept) as it implies that anyone within the territory of a nation-state who meets certain obligations can be included as a citizen, with corresponding rights and privileges.  

Qualifications for citizenship, in fact, reflect a conception of the purposes of the political community and a view about which persons are allowed to enjoy the benefits of rights (and duties) of the political unity (state). Shortly, the concept of citizenship applied certain moral and legal rights and obligations to those who possess it. We have all the time to keep in mind that citizenship on the one hand gives certain rights but on the other hand, requires as well as certain obligations.  

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović is a former university professor in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Geostrategic Studies. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.  

Featured image is from the author

Introductory Note and Update

Fidel Castro was both an incisive analyst as well a powerful voice against nuclear weapons. 

In the light of recent developments in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, we bring to the attention of our readers Fidel’s powerful October 15, 2010 statement on the dangers of nuclear war

Today, the dangers of military escalation in both the Middle East and Eastern Europe are beyond description. 

“In a nuclear war the collateral damage would be the life of all humanity”

Israel is a nuclear power.

Let’s be under no illusions. The use of nuclear weapons by Israel in response to Iran’s attack is being discussed behind closed doors both in Tel Aviv and in Washington. That does not mean that it is going to be implemented. 

 

Fidel Castro’s Message to the World against Nuclear War. Calling for World Peace

“The conventional war would be lost by the US and the nuclear war is no alternative for anyone.  On the other hand, nuclear war would inevitably become global”

“I think nobody on Earth wishes the human species to disappear. 

And that is the reason why I am of the opinion that what should disappear are not just nuclear weapons, but also conventional weapons.  We must provide a guarantee for peace to all peoples without distinction

“In a nuclear war the collateral damage would be the life of all humanity. Let us have the courage to proclaim that all nuclear or conventional weapons, everything that is used to make war, must disappear!”

“It is about demanding that the world is not led into a nuclear catastrophe, it is to preserve life.”

 

TRANSCRIPT

The use of nuclear weapons in a new war would mean the end of humanity. This was candidly foreseen by scientist Albert Einstein who was able to measure their destructive capability to generate millions of degrees of heat, which would vaporize everything within a wide radius of action. This brilliant researcher had promoted the development of this weapon so that it would not become available to the genocidal Nazi regime.

Each and every government in the world has the obligation to respect the right to life of each and every nation and of the totality of all the peoples on the planet.

Today there is an imminent risk of war with the use of that kind of weapon and I don’t harbour the least doubt that an attack by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran would inevitably evolve towards a global nuclear conflict.

The World’s peoples have an obligation to demand of their political leaders their Right to Live. When the life of humankind, of your people and your most beloved human beings run such a risk, nobody can afford to be indifferent; not one minute can be lost in demanding respect for that right; tomorrow will be too late.

Albert Einstein himself stated unmistakably: “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”. We fully comprehend what he wanted to convey, and he was absolutely right, yet in the wake of a global nuclear war, there wouldn’t be anybody around to make use of those sticks and stones.

There would be “collateral damage”, as the American political and military leaders always affirm, to justify the deaths of innocent people.

In a nuclear war the “collateral damage” would be the life of all humanity.

Let us have the courage to proclaim that all nuclear or conventional weapons, everything that is used to make war, must disappear!

Fidel Castro Ruz, October 15, 2010

 

The Legacy of Fidel Castro Lives

Michel Chossudovsky, April 18, 2024

***

From October 12 to 15, 2010, I had extensive and detailed discussions with Fidel Castro at his home in Havana, pertaining to the dangers of nuclear war, the global economic crisis and the nature of the New World Order. These meetings resulted in a wide-ranging and fruitful interview.

The first part of this interview published by Global Research and Cuba Debate focuses on the dangers of nuclear war.

The World is at a dangerous crossroads. We have reached a critical turning point in our history.

This interview with Fidel Castro provides an understanding of the nature of modern warfare: Were a military operation to be launched against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the US and its allies would be unable to win a conventional war, with the possibility that this war could evolve towards a nuclear war.

The details of ongoing war preparations in relation to Iran have been withheld from the public eye.

How to confront the diabolical and absurd proposition put forth by the US administration that using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran will  “make the World a safer place”? 

A central concept put forth by Fidel Castro in the interview is the ”Battle of Ideas”.

The leader of the Cuban Revolution believes that only a far-reaching “Battle of Ideas” could  change the course of World history. The  objective is to prevent the unthinkable, a nuclear war which threatens to destroy life on planet earth.

The corporate media is involved in acts of camouflage. The devastating impacts of a nuclear war are either trivialized or not mentioned. Against this backdrop, Fidel’s message to the World must be heard;  people across the land, nationally and internationally, should understand the gravity of the present situation and act forcefully at all levels of society to reverse the tide of war.

The “Battle of Ideas” is part of a revolutionary process. Against a barrage of media disinformation, Fidel Castro’s resolve is to spread the word far and wide, to inform world public opinion, to “make the impossible possible”, to thwart a military adventure which in the real sense of the word threatens the future of humanity.  

When a US sponsored nuclear war becomes an “instrument of peace”, condoned and accepted by the World’s institutions and the highest authority including the United Nations, there is no turning back: human society has indelibly been precipitated headlong onto the path of self-destruction.

Fidel’s “Battle of Ideas” must be translated into a worldwide movement. People must mobilize against this diabolical military agenda.

This war can be prevented if people pressure their governments and elected representatives, organize at the local level in towns, villages and municipalities, spread the word, inform their fellow citizens regarding the implications of a thermonuclear war, initiate debate and discussion within the armed forces.

What is required is a mass movement of people which forcefully challenges the legitimacy of war, a global people’s movement which criminalizes war. 

In his October 15, 2010 message (see video below), Fidel Castro warned the World on the dangers of nuclear war:

There would be “collateral damage”, as the American political and military leaders always affirm, to justify the deaths of innocent people. In a nuclear war the “collateral damage” would be the life of all humanity. Let us have the courage to proclaim that all nuclear or conventional weapons, everything that is used to make war, must disappear!”

The “Battle of Ideas” consists in confronting the war criminals in high office, in breaking the US-led consensus in favor of a global war, in changing the mindset of hundreds of millions of people, in abolishing nuclear weapons.  In essence, the “Battle of Ideas” consists in restoring the truth and establishing the foundations of World peace.

The interview was conducted in Spanish. It was translated into English by Global Research and Cuba Debate.

The original Spanish version as well as translation into English were published by Cuba Debate and Global Research. 

 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, November 2010 

 

Conversations on the Dangers of Nuclear War. 11-15 October 2011

Professor Michel Chossudovsky: I am very honored to have this opportunity to exchange views concerning several fundamental issues affecting human society as a whole. I think that the notion that you have raised in your recent texts regarding the threat against Homo sapiens is fundamental.

What is that threat, the risk of a nuclear war and the threat to human beings, to Homo sapiens?

Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz: Since quite a long time –years I would say- but especially for some months now, I began to worry about the imminence of a dangerous and probable war that could very rapidly evolve towards a nuclear war.

Before that I had concentrated all my efforts on the analysis of the capitalist system in general and the methods that the imperial tyranny has imposed on humanity.  The United States applies to the world the violation of the most fundamental rights.

During the Cold War, no one spoke about war or nuclear weapons; people talked about an apparent peace, that is, between the USSR and the United States, the famous MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) was guaranteed.  It seemed that the world was going to enjoy the delights of a peace that would last for an unlimited time.

 

 


Notice the Book by Bob Woodward entitled Obama’s Wars. Fidel had ordered a copy when it was launched, delivered to him in the UN diplomatic pouch. He had read it cover to cover when I met up with him on October 12, 2010

Michel Chossudovsky: … This notion of “mutual assured destruction” ended with the Cold War and after that the nuclear doctrine was redefined, because we never really thought about a nuclear war during the Cold War.  Well, obviously, there was a danger –as even Robert McNamara said at some point in time.

But, after the Cold War, particularly after September 11 [2001],  America’s nuclear doctrine started to be redefined.

Fidel Castro Ruz: You asked me when was it that we became aware of the imminent risk of a nuclear war, and that dates back to the period I talked to you about previously, barely six months ago.  One of the things that called our attention the most regarding such a war danger was the sinking of the Cheonan during a military maneuver. That was the flagship of the South Korean Navy; an extremely sophisticated vessel.  It was at the time when we found on Global Research the journalist’s report that offered a clear and truly coherent information about the sinking of the Cheonan, which could not have been the work of a submarine that had been manufactured by the USSR more than sixty years ago, using an outdated technology which did not require the sophisticated equipment that could be detected by the Cheonan, during a joint maneuver with the most modern US vessels.

The provocation against the Democratic Republic of Korea added up to our own earlier concerns about an aggression against Iran.  We had been closely following the political process in that country. We knew perfectly well what happened there during the 1950s, when Iran nationalized the assets of the British Petroleum in that country- which at the time was called the Anglo Persian Oil Company.

In my opinion, the threats against Iran became imminent in June [2010], after the adoption of Resolution 1929 on the 9th of June, 2010, when the United Nations Security Council condemned Iran for the research it is carrying out and the production of small amounts of 20 per cent enriched uranium, and accused it of being a threat to the world.  The position adopted by each and every member of the Security Council is known: 12 member States voted in favor –five of them had the right to veto; one of them abstained and 2 –Brazil and Turkey- voted against. Shortly after the Resolution was adopted –the most aggressive resolution of of them all– one US aircraft carrier, embedded in a combat unit, plus a nuclear submarine, went through the Suez Canal with the help of the Egyptian government.  Naval units from Israel joined, heading for the Persian Gulf and the seas nearby Iran.

The sanctions imposed by the United States and its NATO allies against Iran was absolutely abusive and unjust.  I cannot understand the reason why Russia and China did not veto the dangerous Resolution 1929 of the United Nations Security Council.  In my opinion this has complicated the political situation terribly and has placed the world on the brink of war.

I remember previous  Israeli attacks against the Arab nuclear research centers.  They first attacked and destroyed the one in Iraq in June 1981.  They did not ask for anyone’s permission, they did not talk to anybody; they just attacked them and the Iraqis had to endure the strikes.

In 2007 they repeated that same operation against a research center that was being built by Syria.  There is something in that episode that I really don’t quite understand:  what was not clear to me were the underlying tactics, or the reasons why Syria did not denounce the Israeli attack against that research center where, undoubtedly, they were doing something, they were working on something for which, as it is known, they were receiving some cooperation from North Korea.  That was something legal; they did not commit any violation.

I am saying this here and I am being very honest: I don’t understand why this was not denounced, because, in my opinion, that would have been important. Those are two very important antecedents.

I believe there are many reasons to think that they will try to do the same against Iran:  destroy its research centers or the power generation centers of that country.  As is known, the power generation uranium residues are the raw material to produce plutonium.

 

Michel Chossudovsky:  It is true that that Security Council Resolution has to some extent contributed to cancelling the program of military cooperation that Russia and China have with Iran, especially Russia cooperates with Iran in the context of the Air Defence System by supplying its S-300 System.

I remember that just after the Security Council’s decision, with the endorsement of China and Russia, the Russian minister of  Foreign Affairs said: “Well, we have approved the Resolution but that is not going to invalidate our military cooperation with Iran”. That was in June.  But a few months later, Moscow confirmed that military cooperation [with Iran] was going to be frozen, so now Iran is facing a very serious situation, because it needs Russian technology to maintain its security, namely its [S-300] air defence system.

But I think that all the threats against Russia and China are intent upon preventing the two countries from getting involved in the Iran issue. In other words, if there is a war with Iran  the other powers, which are China and Russia, aren’t going to intervene in any way; they will be freezing their military cooperation with Iran and therefore this is a way [for the US and NATO] of extending their war in the Middle East without there being a confrontation with China and Russia  and I think that this more or less is the scenario right now.

There are many types of threats directed against Russia and China. The fact that China’s borders are militarized –China’s South Sea, the Yellow Sea, the border with Afghanistan, and also the Straits of Taiwan- it is in some way a threat to dissuade China and Russia from playing the role of powers in world geopolitics, thus paving the way and even creating consensus in favour of a war with Iran which is happening under conditions where Iran’s  air defence system is being weakened.   [With the freeze of its military cooperation agreement with Russia] Iran is a “sitting duck” from the point of view of its ability to defend itself using its air defence system.

Fidel Castro Ruz:  In my modest and serene opinion  that resolution should have been vetoed.  Because, in my opinion, everything has become more complicated in several ways.

Militarily, because of what you are explaining regarding, for example, the commitment that existed and the contract that had been signed to supply Iran with the [Russian] S-300, which are very efficient anti-aircraft weapons in the first place.

There are other things regarding fuel supplies, which are very important for China, because China is the country with the highest economic growth.  Its growing economy generates greater demand for oil and gas.  Even though there are agreements with Russia for oil and gas supplies, they are also developing wind energy and other forms of renewable energy. They have enormous coal reserves;  nuclear energy will not increase much, only 5% for many years. In other words, the need for gas and oil in the Chinese economy is huge, and I cannot imagine, really, how they will be able to get all that energy, and at what price, if the country where they have important investments is destroyed by the US.  But the worst risk is the very nature of that war in Iran.  Iran is a Muslim country that has millions of trained combatants who are strongly motivated.

There are tens of millions of people who are under [military] orders,  they are being politically educated and trained, men and women alike.  There are millions of combatants trained and determined to die.  These are people who will not be intimidated and who cannot be forced to changing [their behavior]. On the other hand, there are the Afghans –they are being murdered by US drones –there are the Pakistanis, the Iraqis, who have seen one to two million compatriots die as a result of the antiterrorist war invented by Bush.  You cannot win a war against the Muslim world; that is sheer madness.

Michel Chossudovsky:  But it’s true, their conventional forces are very large,  Iran can mobilize in a single day several million troops and they are on the border with Afghanistan and Iraq, and even if there is a blitzkrieg war, the US cannot avoid a conventional war that is waged very close to its military bases in that region.

Fidel Castro Ruz: But the fact is that the US would lose that conventional war. The problem is that nobody can win a conventional war against millions of people; they would not concentrate their forces in large numbers in a single location for the Americans to kill them.

Well, I was a guerrilla fighter and I recall that I had to think seriously about how to use the forces we had and I would never have made the mistake of concentrating those forces in a single location, because the more concentrated the forces, the greater the casualties caused by weapons of mass destruction….


From left to right: Michel Chossudovsky, Randy Alonso Falcon, Fidel Castro Ruz

Michel Chossudovsky: As you mentioned previously, a matter of utmost importance: China and Russia’s decision in the Security Council, their support of Resolution 1929, is in fact harmful to them because, first, Russia cannot export weapons, thus its main source of income is now frozen.  Iran was one of the main customers or buyers of Russian weapons, and that was an important source of hard currency earnings which supported Russia`s consumer goods economy thereby covering the needs of the population.

And, on the other hand China requires access to sources of energy as you mentioned. The fact that China and Russia have accepted the consensus in the UN Security Council, is tantamount to saying: “We accept that you kill our economy and, in some ways, our commercial agreements with a third country”.  That’s very serious because it [the UNSC Resolution] not only does harm to Iran; is also harms those two countries, and I suppose –even though I am not a politician –that there must be tremendous divisions within the leadership, both in Russia and in China, for that to happen, for Russia to accept not to use its veto power in the Security Council.

I spoke with Russian journalists, who told me that there wasn’t exactly a consensus within the government per se; it was a guideline.  But there are people in the [Russian] government with a different point of view regarding the interests of Russia and its stance in the UN Security Council.  How do you see this?

Fidel Castro Ruz: How do I see the general situation? The alternative in Iran –let me put it this way –the conventional war would be lost by the US and the nuclear war is not an alternative for anyone.

On the other hand, nuclear war would inevitably become global.  Thus the danger in my opinion exists with the current situation in Iran, bearing in mind the reasons you are presenting and many other facts; which brings me to the conclusion that the war would end up being a nuclear war.


Filming of Fidel’s message on October 15.2010. From left to right: Fidel Castro, TV crew, Michel Chossudovsky, Randy Alonso Falcon

Michel Chossudovsky: In other words, since the US and its allies are unable to win the conventional war, they are going to use nuclear weapons, but that too would be a war they couldn’t win, because we are going to lose everything.

Fidel Castro Ruz: Everyone would be losing that war; that would be a war that everyone would lose. What would Russia gain if a nuclear war were unleashed over there? What would China gain?  What kind of war would that be? How would the world react? What effect would it have on the world economy? You explained it at the university when you spoke about the centralized defence system designed by the Pentagon.  It sounds like science fiction; it doesn’t even remotely resemble the last world war.  The other thing which is also very important is the attempt [by the Pentagon] to transform nuclear weapons into conventional tactical weapons.

Today, October 13th, I was reading about the same thing in a news dispatch stating that the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were drawing up strong protests about the fact that the US had just carried out subcritical nuclear tests.  They’re called subcritical, which means the use of the nuclear weapon without deploying all the energy that might be achieved with the critical mass.

It reads:  “Indignation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of a United States nuclear test.”…

 “The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that suffered a nuclear attack at the end of WW II, deplored today the nuclear test carried out by the US on September last, called sub critical because it does not unleash chain nuclear reactions.

“The test, the first of this kind in that country since 2006, took place on September 15th somewhere in Nevada, United States.  It was officially confirmed by the Department of Energy of that country, the Japan Times informed.”

What did that newspaper say?

“I deeply deplore it because I was hoping that President Barack Obama would take on the leadership in eliminating nuclear weapons”, the governor of Nagasaki, Hodo Nakamura, stated today at a press conference.

A series of news items related to that follows.

“The test has also caused several protests among the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including several survivors of the atomic bombs attacks that devastated both cities in August of 1945.

“We cannot tolerate any action of the United States that betrays President Barack Obama’s promise of moving forward to a world without nuclear arms, said Yukio Yoshioka, the deputy director of the Council for the Victims of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb.

“The government stated that it has no intention of protesting.”  It relegates the protest to a social level and then said: “With this, the number of subcritical nuclear tests made by the United States reaches the figure of 26, since July 1997 when the first of them took place.”

Now it says:

“Washington considers that these tests do not violate the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) since they do not unleash any chain reactions, and therefore do not release any nuclear energy, and so they can be considered to be laboratory tests.”

The US says that it has to make these tests because they are necessary to maintain the “security of its nuclear arsenal”, which is the same as saying: since we have these great nuclear arsenals, we are doing this in order to ensure our security.

Michel Chossudovsky:  Let us return to the issue of the threat against Iran, because you said that the US and its allies could not win a conventional war.  That is true; but nuclear weapons could be used as an alternative to conventional warfare, and this evidently is a threat against humanity, as you have emphasized in your writings.

The reason for my concern is that after the Cold War the idea of nuclear weapons with a “humanitarian face” was developed, saying that those weapons were not really dangerous, that they do not harm civilians, and in some way the nuclear weapons label was changed.  Therefore, according to their criteria, [tactical] nuclear weapons are no different from conventional weapons, and now in the military manuals they say that tactical nuclear weapons are weapons that pose no harm to civilians.

Therefore, we might have a situation in which those who decide to attack Iran with a nuclear weapon would not be aware of the consequences that this might have for the Middle East, central Asia, but also for humanity as a whole, because they are going to say: “Well, according to our criteria, these [tactical] nuclear weapons [safe for civilians] are different from those deployed during the Cold War and so, we can use them against Iran as a weapon which does not [affect civilians and] does not threaten global security.”

How do you view that?  It’s extremely dangerous, because they themselves believe their own propaganda.  It is internal propaganda within the armed forces, within the political apparatus.

When tactical nuclear weapons were recategorized in 2002-2003, Senator Edward Kennedy said at that time that it was a way of blurring the boundary between conventional and nuclear weapons.

But that’s where we are today; we are in an era where nuclear weapons are considered to be no different from the Kalashnikov. I’m exaggerating, but somehow nuclear weapons are now part of the tool box –that’s the word they use, “tool box” –and from there you choose the type of weapon you are going to use, so the nuclear weapon could be used in the conventional war theatre, leading us to the unthinkable, a nuclear war scenario on a regional level, but also with repercussions at the global level.

Fidel Castro Ruz: I heard what you said on the Round Table [Cuban TV] program about such weapons, presumably harmless to people living in the vicinity of the areas where they are to be targeted,  the power [explosive yield] could range from one-third of the one that was used in Hiroshima up to six times the power [explosive yield] of that weapon, and today we know perfectly well the terrible damage it causes.  One single bomb instantly killed 100,000 people.  Just imagine a bomb having six times the power of that one [Hiroshima bomb], or two times that power, or an equivalent power, or 30 per cent that power.  It is absurd.

There is also what you explained at the university about the attempt to present it as a humanitarian weapon that could also be available to the troops in the theatre of operations.  So at any given moment any commander in the theatre of operations could be authorized to use that weapon as one that was more efficient than other weapons, something that would be considered his duty according to military doctrine and the training he/she received at the military academies.

Michel Chossudovsky:  In that sense, I don’t think that this nuclear weapon would be used without the approval, let’s say, of the Pentagon, namely  its centralised command structures [e.g. Strategic Command]; but I do think that it could be used without the approval of the President of the United States and Commander in Chief.  In other words, it isn’t quite the same logic as that which prevailed during the Cold War where there was the Red Telephone and…

Fidel Castro Ruz: I understand, Professor, what you are saying regarding the use of that weapon as authorized by the senior levels of the Pentagon, and it seems right to me that you should make that clarification so that you won’t be blamed for exaggerating the dangers of that weapon.

But look, after one has learned about the antagonisms and arguments between the Pentagon and the President of the United States, there are really not too many doubts about what the Pentagon decision would be if the chief of the theatre of operations  requests to use that weapon because he feels it is necessary or indispensable.

Michel Chossudovsky: There is also another element.  The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons now, as far as I know, is being undertaken by several European countries which belong to NATO.  This is the case of Belgium, Holland, Turkey, Italy and Germany.  Thus, there are plenty of these “little nuclear bombs” very close to the theatre of war, and on the other hand we also have Israel.

Now then, I don’t think that Israel is going to start a war on its own; that would be impossible in terms of strategy and decision-making.  In modern warfare, with the centralization of communications, logistics and everything else, starting a major war would be a centralized decision.  However, Israel might act if the US gives Israel the green light to launch the first attack.  That’s within the realm of possibilities, even though there are some analysts who now say that the war on Iran will start in Lebanon and Syria with a conventional border war, and then that would provide the pretext for an escalation in military operations.

Fidel Castro Ruz: Yesterday, October 13th, a crowd of people welcomed Ahmadinejad in Lebanon like a national hero of that country.  I was reading a cable about that this morning.

Besides, we also know about Israel’s concerns regarding that, given the fact that the Lebanese are people with a great fighting spirit who have three times the number of reactive missiles they had in the former conflict with Israel and Lebanon, which was a great concern for Israel because they need –as the Israeli technicians have asserted – the air force to confront that weapon.  And so, they state, they could only be attacking Iran for a number of hours, not three days, because they should be paying attention to such a danger.  That’s the reason why, from these viewpoints, every day that goes by they are more concerned, because those weapons are part of the Iranian arsenal of conventional weapons. For example, among their conventional weapons, they have hundreds of rocket launchers to fight surface warships in that area of the Caspian Sea.  We know that, from the time of the Falklands war, a surface warship can dodge one, two or three rockets.  But imagine how a large warship can protect itself against a shower of weapons of that kind.  Those are rapid vessels operated by well-trained people, because the Iranians have been training people for 30 years now and they have developed efficient conventional weapons.

You yourself know that, and you know what happened during the last World War, before the emergence of nuclear weapons.  Fifty million people died as a result of the destructive power of conventional weaponry.

A war today is not like the war that was waged in the nineteenth century, before the appearance of nuclear weapons.  And wars were already highly destructive.  Nuclear arms appeared at the very last minute, because Truman wanted to use them.  He wanted to test the Hiroshima bomb, creating the critical mass from uranium, and the other one in Nagasaki, which created a critical mass from plutonium.  The two bombs killed around 100,000 persons immediately.  We don’t know how many were wounded and affected by radiation, who died later on or suffered for long years from these effects. Besides, a nuclear war would create a nuclear winter.

I am talking to you about the dangers of a war, considering  the immediate damage it might cause.  It would be enough if we only had a limited number of them, the amount of weapons owned by one of the least mighty [nuclear] powers, India or Pakistan.  Their explosion would be sufficient to create a nuclear winter from which no human being would survive.  That would be impossible, since it would last for 8 to 10 years.  In a matter of weeks the sunlight would no longer be visible.

Mankind is less than 200,000 years old.  So far everything was normalcy.  The laws of nature were being fulfilled; the laws of life developed on planet Earth for more than 3 billion years.  Men, the Homo sapiens, the intelligent beings did not exist after 8 tenths of a million years had elapsed, according to all studies.  Two hundred years ago, everything was virtually unknown.  Today we know the laws governing the evolution of the species.  Scientists, theologians, even the most devout religious people who initially echoed the campaign launched by the great ecclesiastical institutions against the Darwinian Theory, today accept the laws of evolution as real, without it preventing their sincere practice of their religious beliefs where, quite often, people find comfort for their most heartfelt hardships.

I think nobody on Earth wishes the human species to disappear.  And that is the reason why I am of the opinion that what should disappear are not just nuclear weapons, but also conventional weapons.  We must provide a guarantee for peace to all peoples without distinction, to the Iranians as well as the Israelis.  Natural resources should be distributed.  They should!  I don’t mean they will, or that it would be easy to do it.  But there would be no other alternative for humanity, in a world of limited dimensions and resources, even if all the scientific potential to create renewable sources of energy is developed. We are almost 7 billion inhabitants, and so we need to implement a demographic policy.  We need many things, and when you put them all together and you ask yourself the following question:  will human beings be capable of understanding that and overcome all those difficulties? You realize that only enthusiasm can truly lead a person to say that he or she will confront and easily resolve a problem of such proportions.

Michel Chossudovsky:  What you have just said is extremely important, when you spoke of Truman.  Truman said that Hiroshima was a military base and that there would be no harm to civilians.

This notion of collateral damage; reflects continuity in [America’s] nuclear doctrine ever since the year 1945 up until today.  That is, not at the level of reality but at the level of [military] doctrine and propaganda.  I mean, in 1945 it was said: Let’s save humanity by killing 100,000 people and deny the fact that Hiroshima was a populated city, namely that it was a military base.  But nowadays the falsehoods have become much more sophisticated, more widespread, and nuclear weapons are more advanced.  So, we are dealing with the future of humanity and the threat of a nuclear war at a global level. The lies and fiction underlying [US] political and military discourse would lead us to a Worldwide catastrophe in which politicians would be unable to make head or tails of their own lies.

Then, you said that intelligent human beings have existed for 200,000 years, but that same intelligence, which has now been incorporated in various institutions, namely the media, the intelligence services, the United Nations, happens to be what is now going to destroy us.  Because we believe our own lies, which leads us towards nuclear war, without realizing that this would be the last war, as Einstein clearly stated. A nuclear war cannot ensure the continuation of humanity; it is a threat against the world.

Fidel Castro Ruz: Those are very good words, Professor.  The collateral damage, in this case, could be humanity.

War is a crime and there is no need for any new law to describe it as such, because since Nuremberg, war has already been considered a crime, the biggest crime against humanity and peace, and the most horrible of all crimes.

Michel Chossudovsky.-  The Nuremberg texts clearly state: “War is a criminal act, it is the ultimate act of war against peace.” This part of the Nuremberg texts is often quoted. After the Second World War, the Allies wanted to use it against the conquered, and I am not saying that this is not valid, but the crimes that they committed, including the crimes committed against Germany and Japan, are never mentioned.  With a nuclear weapon, in the case of Japan.

Michel Chossudovsky.-  It is an extremely important issue for me and if we are talking about a “counter-alliance for peace”, the criminalization of war seems to me to be a fundamental aspect. I’m talking about the abolition of war; it is a criminal act that must be eliminated.

Fidel Castro Ruz –  Well, who would judge the main criminals?

Michel Chossudovsky.- The problem is that they also control the judicial system and the courts, so the judges are criminals as well. What can we do?

Fidel Castro Ruz   I say that this is part of the Battle of Ideas.

It is about demanding that the world not be spearheaded into a nuclear catastrophe, it is to preserve life.

We do not know, but we presume that if man becomes aware of his own existence, that of his people, that of his loved ones, even the U.S. military leaders would be aware of the outcome; although they are taught in life to follow orders, not infrequently genocide, as in the use of tactical or strategic nuclear weapons, because that is what they were taught in the [military] academies.

As all of this is sheer madness, no politician is exempt from the duty of conveying these truths to the people. One must believe in them, otherwise there would be nothing to fight for.        

Michel Chossudovsky .- I think what you are saying is that at the present time, the great debate in human history should focus on the danger of nuclear war that threatens the future of humanity, and that any discussion we have about basic needs or economics requires that we prevent the occurrence of war and instate global peace so that we can then plan living standards worldwide based on basic needs;  but if we do not solve the problem of war, capitalism will not survive, right?          

Fidel Castro Ruz.– No, it cannot survive, in terms of all the analysis we’ve undertaken, it cannot survive. The capitalist system and the market economy that suffocate human life, are not going to disappear overnight, but imperialism based on force, nuclear weapons and conventional weapons with modern technology, has to disappear if we want humanity to survive.

Now, there something occurring at this very moment which characterizes the Worldwide process of disinformation, and it is the following: In Chile 33 miners were trapped 700 meters underground, and the world is rejoicing at the news that 33 miners have been saved. Well, simply, what will the world do if it becomes aware that 6,877,596,300 people need to be saved, if 33 have created universal joy and all the mass media speak only of that these days, why not save the nearly 7 billion people trapped by the terrible danger of perishing in a horrible death like those of Hiroshima or Nagasaki?

Michel Chossudovsky. -This is also, clearly, the issue of media coverage that is given to different events and the propaganda emanating from the media.

I think it was an incredible humanitarian operation that the Chileans undertook, but it is true that if there is a threat to humanity,  as you mentioned, it  should be on the front page of every newspaper in the world because human society in its totality could be the victim of a decision that has been made, even by a three-star general who is unaware of the consequences [of nuclear weapons].

But here we are talking about how the media, particularly in the West, are hiding the most serious issue that potentially affects the world today, which is the danger of nuclear war and we must take it seriously, because both Hillary Clinton and Obama have said that they have contemplated using nuclear weapon in a so-called preventive war against Iran.

Well, how do we answer? What do you say to Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama regarding their statements pertaining to the unilateral use of nuclear weapons against Iran, a country that poses no danger to anyone?      

Fidel Castro Ruz.- Yes, I know two things: What was discussed. This has been revealed recently, namely far-reaching arguments within the Security Council of the United States.  That is the value of the book written by Bob Woodward, because it revealed how all these discussions occurred. We know the positions of Biden, Hillary, Obama, and indeed in those discussions, who was firmer against the extension of the war, who was able to argue with the military, it was Obama, that is a fact.

I am writing the latest reflection, actually, about that. The only one who got there, and gave him advice, who had been an opponent because of his Republican Party membership, was Colin Powell. He reminded him that he was the President of the United States, encouraging advice.

I think we should ensure that this message reaches everybody; what we have discussed. I think many read the articles you have published in Global Research.  I think we need to disclose, and to the extent that we have these discussions and harbor the idea of disclosure. I am delighted every time you argue, reasonably, and put forth these issues, simply, in my opinion, there is a real deficit of information for the reasons you explained.

Now, we must invent. What are the ways to make all this known? At the time of the Twelve Apostles, there were 12 and no more, and they were given the task of disseminating the teachings a preacher transmitted to them. Sure, they had hundreds of years ahead of them. We, however, we do not have that. But I was looking at the list of personalities, and there are more than 20 prominent people who have been working with Global Research, prestigious people, asking the same questions, but they do not have hundreds of years, but, well, very little time.

Michel Chossudovsky. –  The antiwar movement in the United States, Canada and Europe is divided. Some people think the threat comes from Iran, others say they [the Iranians] are terrorists, and there is a lot of disinformation in the movement itself.

Besides, at the World Social Forum the issue of nuclear war is not part of the debate between people of the Left or progressives. During the Cold War there was talk of the danger of nuclear conflict, and people had this awareness.

At the last meeting held in New York on non-proliferation, under the United Nations, the emphasis was on the nuclear threat from non-state entities, from terrorists.

President Obama said that the threat comes from Al Qaeda, which has nuclear weapons.  Also, if someone reads Obama’s speeches he is suggesting that the terrorists have the ability of producing small nuclear bombs, what they call “dirty bombs”. Well, it’s a way of [distorting the issues] and shifting the emphasis.

Fidel Castro Ruz. – That is what they tell him [Obama], that is what his own people tell him and have him believe.

Look, what do I do with the reflections? They are distributed in the United Nations, they are sent to all governments, the reflections, of course, are short, to send them to all the governments, and I know there are many people who read them. The problem is whether you are telling the truth or not. Of course, when one collects all this information in relation to a particular problem because the reflections are also diluted on many issues, but I think you have to concentrate on our part, the disclosure of essentials, I cannot cover everything.

Michel Chossudovsky. – I have a question, because there is an important aspect related to the Cuban Revolution. In my opinion, the debate on the future of humanity is also part of a revolutionary discourse.  If society as a whole were to be threatened by nuclear war, it is necessary in some form, to have a revolution at the levels of ideas as well as actions against this event, [namely nuclear war].

Fidel Castro Ruz .- We have to say, I repeat,  that humanity is trapped 800 meters underground and that we must get it out, we need to do a rescue operation. That is the message we must convey to a large number of people. If  people in large numbers believe in that message, they will do what you are doing and they will support what you are supporting. It will no longer depend on who are those who say it, but on the fact that somebody [and eventually everybody] says it.

You have to figure out how you can reach the informed masses. The solution is not the newspapers. There is the Internet, Internet is cheaper, Internet is more accessible. I approached you through the Internet looking for news, not through news agencies, not through the press, not from CNN, but news through a newsletter I receive daily articles on the Internet . Over 100 pages each day.

Yesterday you were arguing that in the United States some time ago two thirds of public opinion was against the war on Iran, and today, fifty-some percent favored military action against Iran.

Michel Chossudovsky .- What happened, even in recent months, it was said: “Yes, nuclear war is very dangerous, it is a threat, but the threat comes from Iran,” and there were signs in New York City  saying: ” Say no to nuclear Iran, “and the message of these posters was to present Iran as a threat to global security, even if the threat did not exist because they do not have nuclear weapons.

Anyway, that’s the situation, and The New York Times earlier this week published a text that says, yes, political assassinations are legal.

Then, when we have a press that gives us things like that, with the distribution that they have, it is a lot of work [on our part]. We have limited capabilities to reverse this process [of media disinformation] within the limited distribution outlets of the alternative media. In addition to that, now many of these alternative media are financed by the economic establishment.            

Fidel Castro Ruz.- And yet we have to fight.

Michel Chossudovsky .- Yes, we keep struggling, but the message was what you said yesterday. That in the case of a nuclear war, the collateral damage would be humanity as a whole.

Fidel Castro Ruz.- It would be humanity, the life of humanity.

Michel Chossudovsky.-   It is true that the Internet should continue to function as an outreach tool to avoid the war.

Fidel Castro Ruz.- Well, it’s the only way we can prevent it. If we were to create world opinion, it’s like the example I mentioned: there are nearly 7 billion people trapped 800 meters underground, we use the phenomenon of Chile to disclose these things.

Michel Chossudovsky .- The comparison you make with the rescue of 33 miners, saying that there are 33 miners below ground there to be rescued, which received extensive media coverage, and you say that we have almost 7 billion people that are  800 meters underground and do not understand what is happening, but we have to rescue them, because humanity as a whole is threatened by the nuclear weapons of the United States and its allies, because they are the ones who say they intend to use them.        

Fidel Castro Ruz.- And will use them [the nuclear weapons] if there is no opposition, if there is no resistance. They are deceived; they are drugged with military superiority and modern technology and do not know what they are doing.

They do not understand the consequences; they believe that the prevailed situation can be maintained. It is impossible.

Michel Chossudovsky. – Or they believe that this is simply some sort of conventional weapon.           

Fidel Castro Ruz. – Yes, they are deluded and believe that you can still use that weapon. They believe they are in another era, they do not remember what Einstein said when he stated he did not know with what weapons World War III would be fought with, but the World War IV would be fought with sticks and stones. I added there: “… there wouldn’t be anyone to handle the sticks and stones.” That is the reality; I have it written there in the short speech you suggested I develop.

Michel Chossudovsky .- The problem I see is that the use of nuclear weapons will not necessarily lead to the end of humankind from one day to the next, because the radioactive impact is cumulative.

Fidel Castro Ruz. – Repeat that, please.

Michel Chossudovsky. – The nuclear weapon has several different consequences: one is the explosion and destruction in the theater of war, which is the phenomenon of Hiroshima, and the other are the impacts of radiation which increases over time.           

Fidel Castro Ruz.- Yes, nuclear winter, as we call it. The prestigious American researcher, University of Rutgers (New Jersey) Professor Emeritus Alan Robock irrefutably showed that the outbreak of a war between two of the eight nuclear powers who possess the least amount of weapons of this kind would result in “nuclear winter”.

He disclosed that at the fore of a group of researchers who used ultra-scientific computer models.

It would be enough to have 100 strategic nuclear weapons of the 25,000 possessed by the eight powers mentioned exploding in order to create temperatures below freezing all over the planet and a long night that would last approximately eight years.  Professor Robock exclaims that it is so terrible that people are falling into a “state of denial”, not wanting to think about it; it is easier to pretend that it doesn’t exist”.  He told me that personally, at an international conference he was giving, where I had the honor of conversing with him.

Well, but I start from an assumption: If a war breaks out in Iran, it will inevitably become nuclear war and a global war. So that’s why yesterday we were saying it was not right to allow such an agreement in the Security Council, because it makes everything easier, do you see?

Such a war in Iran today would not remain confined to the local level, because the Iranians would not give in to use of force. If it remained conventional, it would be a war the United States and Europe could not win, and I argue that it would rapidly turn into a nuclear war. If the United States were to make the mistake of using tactical nuclear weapons, there would be consternation throughout the world and the US would eventually lose control of the situation.

Obama has had a heated discussion with the Pentagon about what to do in Afghanistan; imagine Obama’s situation with American and Israeli soldiers fighting against millions of Iranians. The Saudis are not going to fight in Iran, nor are the Pakistanis or any other Arab or Muslim soldiers. What could happen is that the Yanks have serious conflicts with the Pakistani tribes which they are attacking and killing with their drones,  and they know that. When you strike a blow against those tribes, first attacking and then warning the government, not saying anything beforehand;  that is one of the things that irritates the Pakistanis. There is a strong anti-American feeling there.

It’s a mistake to think that the Iranians would give up if they used tactical nuclear weapons against them, and the world really would be shocked, but then it may be too late.

Michel Chossudovsky .- They cannot win a conventional war.          

Fidel Castro Ruz .- They cannot win.

Michel Chossudovsky. – And that we can see in Iraq; in Afghanistan they can destroy an entire country, but they cannot win from a military standpoint.          

Fidel Castro Ruz. – But to destroy it [a country] at what price, at what cost to the world, at what economic costs, in the march towards catastrophe? The problems you mentioned are compounded, the American people would react, because the American people are often slow to react, but they react in the end. The American people react to casualties, the dead.

A lot of people supported the Nixon administration during the war in Vietnam, he even suggested the use of nuclear weapons in that country to Kissinger, but he dissuaded him from taking that criminal step. The United States was obliged by the American people to end the war; it had to negotiate and had to hand over the south. Iran would have to give up the oil in the area. In Vietnam what did they hand over? An expense. Ultimately, they are now back in Vietnam, buying oil, trading. In Iran they would lose many lives, and perhaps a large part of the oil facilities in the area would be destroyed.

In the present situation, is likely they would not understand our message. If war breaks out, my opinion is that they, and the world, would gain nothing. If it were solely a conventional war, which is very unlikely, they would lose irretrievably, and if it becomes a global nuclear war, humanity would lose.

Michel Chossudovsky.- Iran has conventional forces that are …significant.

Fidel Castro Ruz.-   Millions.

Michel Chossudovsky.-  Land forces, but also rockets and also Iran has the ability to defend itself.

 Fidel Castro Ruz.-   While there remains one single man with a gun, this is an enemy they will have to defeat.

Michel Chossudovsky.-  And there are several millions with guns.

 Fidel Castro Ruz.-   Millions, and they will have to sacrifice many American lives, unfortunately it would be only then that Americans would react, if they don’t react now they will react later when it will be too late; we must write, we must divulge this as much as we can.   Remember that the Christians were persecuted, they led them off to the catacombs, they killed them, they threw them to the lions, but they held on to their beliefs for centuries and later that was what they did to the Moslems, and the Moslems never yielded.

There is a real war against the Moslem world.  Why are those lessons of history being forgotten?  I have read many of the articles you wrote about the risks of that war.

Michel Chossudovsky.-  Let us return to the matter of Iran.  I believe that it is very important that world opinion comprehends the war scenario.  You clearly state that they would lose the war, the conventional war, they are losing it in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran has more conventional forces than those of NATO in Afghanistan.

 Fidel Castro Ruz.-   Much more experienced and motivated.  They are now in conflict with those forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and one they don’t mention: the Pakistanis of the same ethnic group as those in the resistance in Afghanistan. In White House discussions,  they consider that the war is lost, that’s what the book by Bob Woodward entitled “Obama’s Wars” tells us.  Imagine the  situation if in addition to that, they append a war to liquidate whatever remains after the initial blows they inflict on Iran.

So they will be thrust into a conventional war situation that they cannot win, or they will be obliged to wage a global nuclear war, under conditions of a worldwide upheaval.  And I don’t know who can justify the type of war they have to wage; they have 450 targets marked out in Iran, and of these some, according to them, will have to be attacked with tactical nuclear warheads because of their location in mountainous areas and at the depth at which they are situated [underground].  Many Russian personnel and persons from other nationalities collaborating with them will die in that confrontation.

What will be the reaction of world opinion in the face of that blow which today is being irresponsibly promoted by the media with the backing of many Americans?

Michel Chossudovsky.-  One issue, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, they are all neighbouring countries in a certain way.  Iran shares borders with Afghanistan and with Iraq, and the United States and NATO have military facilities in the countries they occupy.  What’s going to happen? I suppose that the Iranian troops are immediately going to cross the border.

Fidel Castro Ruz.-   Well, I don’t know what tactic they’re going to use, but if one were in their place, the most advisable is to not concentrate their troops, because if the troops are concentrated they will be victims of the attack with tactical nuclear weapons. In other words, in accordance with the nature of the threat as it is being described, the best thing would be for them to use a tactic similar to ours in southern Angola when we suspected that South Africa had nuclear weapons; we created tactical groups of 1000 men with land and anti-air fire power.  Nuclear weapons could never within their reach target a large number of soldiers. Anti-air rocketry and other similar weapons was supporting our forces.  Weapons and the conditions of the terrain change and tactics must continuously change.

Michel Chossudovsky.-  Dispersed.

Fidel Castro Ruz.-   Dispersed, but not isolated men, there were around 1000 men with appropriate weapons, the terrain was sandy, wherever they got to they had to dig in and protect themselves underground, always keeping the maximum distance between components.  The enemy was never given an opportunity to aim a decisive blow against the 60,000 Cuban and Angolan soldiers in southern Angola.

What we did in that sister country is what, a thousand strong army, operating with traditional criteria, would have done.  Fine, we were not 100 000, in southern Angola there were 60,000 men, Cubans and Angolans; due to technical requirements the tactical groups were mainly made up of Cubans because they handled tanks, rockets, anti-aircraft guns, communications, but the infantry was made up of Cuban and Angolan soldiers, with great fighting spirit, who didn’t hesitate one second in confronting the white Apartheid army supported by the United States and Israel.  Who handled the numerous nuclear weapons that they had at that moment?

In the case of Iran,   we are getting news that they are digging into the ground, and when they are asked about it, they say that they are making cemeteries to bury the invaders. I don’t know if this is meant to be ironic, but I think that one would really have to dig quite a lot to protect their forces from the attack which is threatening them.

Michel Chossudovsky.-  Sure, but Iran has the possibility of mobilizing millions of troops.

Fidel Castro Ruz.-   Not just troops, but the command posts are also decisive.  In my opinion, dispersion is very important.  The attackers will try to prevent the transmission of orders.  Every combat unit must know beforehand what they have to do under different  circumstances.  The attacker will try to strike and destabilize the chain of command with its radio-electronic weapons.  All those factors must be kept in mind.  Mankind has never experienced a similar predicament.

Anyway,  Afghanistan is “a joke” and Iraq, too, when you compare them with what they are going to bump into in Iran: the weaponry, the training, the mentality, the kind of soldier…  If 31 years ago, Iranian combatants cleaned the mine fields by advancing over them, they will undoubtedly be the most fearsome adversaries that the United States has ever come across.

***

The interview was conducted in Spanish.

Our thanks and appreciation to Cuba Debate for the transcription as well as the translation from Spanish.

***

Fidel’s Message on the Dangers of Nuclear War

Recorded on the last day of the Conversations, October 15, 2010 the original Global Research/Cuba Debate video (our copyright) was removed on alleged copyright infringements alongside many other Youtube postings.

TRANSCRIPT

The use of nuclear weapons in a new war would mean the end of humanity. This was candidly foreseen by scientist Albert Einstein who was able to measure their destructive capability to generate millions of degrees of heat, which would vaporize everything within a wide radius of action. This brilliant researcher had promoted the development of this weapon so that it would not become available to the genocidal Nazi regime.

Each and every government in the world has the obligation to respect the right to life of each and every nation and of the totality of all the peoples on the planet.

Today there is an imminent risk of war with the use of that kind of weapon and I don’t harbour the least doubt that an attack by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran would inevitably evolve towards a global nuclear conflict.

The World’s peoples have an obligation to demand of their political leaders their Right to Live. When the life of humankind, of your people and your most beloved human beings run such a risk, nobody can afford to be indifferent; not one minute can be lost in demanding respect for that right; tomorrow will be too late.

Albert Einstein himself stated unmistakably: “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”. We fully comprehend what he wanted to convey, and he was absolutely right, yet in the wake of a global nuclear war, there wouldn’t be anybody around to make use of those sticks and stones.

There would be “collateral damage”, as the American political and military leaders always affirm, to justify the deaths of innocent people.

In a nuclear war the “collateral damage” would be the life of all humanity.

Let us have the courage to proclaim that all nuclear or conventional weapons, everything that is used to make war, must disappear!

Fidel Castro Ruz

October 15, 2010


Michel Chossudovsky Book’s published in 2011, following his October 2010 meeting with Fidel Castro

WWIII Scenario

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Papers reviewed: 

  • (2023 July, Seraphin et al) – The impact of vitamin D on cancer: A mini review
  • (2023 June, Kuznia et al) – Efficacy of vitamin D3 supplementation on cancer mortality: Systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
  • (2023 Mar, Nemeth et al) – Interplay of Vitamin D and SIRT1 in Tissue-Specific Metabolism—Potential Roles in Prevention and Treatment of Non-Communicable Diseases Including Cancer
  • (2022 Oct, Henn et al) – Vitamin D in Cancer Prevention: Gaps in Current Knowledge and Room for Hope

2023 July, Seraphin et al – The impact of vitamin D on cancer: A mini review

  • “Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to the development and progression of a number of cancer types.”
  • Vitamin D continues to show positive anti-cancer effects against many types of cancer.
  • Demographic studies recommend vitamin D supplementation to prevent cancer.
  • In general, the normal range for circulating 25(OH)D is 30–50 ng/mL
  • deficiency is defined as < 20 ng/mL

Summary of recent advancements in vitamin D cancer research: 

  • Breast cancer
    • Vit.D deficiency common in breast cancer patients, younger and obese patients are more susceptible
    • Vit.D Deficiency linked to higher grade and ER-subtypes
  • Ovarian cancer – people with high Vit.D levels had 37% lower risk of ovarian cancer
  • glioblastoma – induced apoptosis, cytotoxic autophagy and inhibited migration and invasiveness, and stemness
  • melanoma – people on Vit.D supplements had lower risk of melanoma, low levels associated with reduced melanoma patient survival
  • multiple myeloma – Vit.D treatment overcomes cancer drug resistance
  • prostate cancer – Vit.D can inhibit tumor progression by negatively regulating androgen receptor signalling
  • Head and neck SCC – patients with aggressive cancers had lowest Vit.D levels
  • bladder cancer – Vit.D improved chemo efficacy
  • osterosarcoma – Vit.D suppressed tumor growth and metastasis
  • Colorectal cancer – Higher Vit.D intake resulted in 17% lower risk, suppresses colorectal cancer stem cells

Conclusions

  • there were about 904 articles on relationship between Vitamin D and cancer during 2022-2023 (Vit.D cancer research has increased substantially)
  • “low circulating vitamin D levels are associated with an increased risk of cancers”
  • “supplementation alone or in combination with other chemo/immunotherapeutic drugs may improve clinical outcomes even further”

2023 June, Kuznia et al – Efficacy of vitamin Dsupplementation on cancer mortality: Systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials 

  • Analysis of 14 RCTs revealed a 12 % lower cancer mortality in the vitamin Dgroup compared with the placebo group in 10 trials with a daily dosing regimen (no mortality reduction was seen in 4 trials using a bolus regimen)
  • Cancer survival improved when daily vitamin D3 was started before cancer diagnosis.
  • Meta-analyses of observational studies reported elevated risks of lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, bladder carcinoma, and lymphoma in people with low serum 25(OH)D concentration
  • Systematic reviews further concluded that sufficient 25(OH)D levels (≥50 nmol/L) are associated with better prognosis in patients with breast and colorectal cancers, whereas there have been too few studies for other cancer sites to draw conclusions
  • Moreover, low 25(OH)D levels were substantially related to increased cancer mortality in the general population.
 

2023, Mar, Nemeth et al – Interplay of Vitamin D and SIRT1 in Tissue-Specific Metabolism—Potential Roles in Prevention and Treatment of Non-Communicable Diseases Including Cancer

  • Vitamin D decreases cancer cell proliferation and induces apoptosis of cancer cells
  • Vitamin D reduces the expression of HIF-1, VEGF, as well as IL-8, which are all important angiogenic factors (tumors need new blood vessels to grow)
  • prospective and retrospective epidemiological studies reported an association between a 25(OH)D3 level below 20 ng/mL and a 30–50% increased risk of colon, prostate, and breast cancer and higher mortality
  • systematic review found that vitamin D supplementation induced a shift in colon microbiome composition and increased its diversity
 

2022 Oct, Henn et al – Vitamin D in Cancer Prevention: Gaps in Current Knowledge and Room for Hope

  • “observational studies consistently showed that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased cancer incidence and mortality”
  • “The potential of vitamin D for cancer prevention and add-on treatment has long been bolstered by several discovered mechanisms involving the regulation of cell growth and differentiation, apoptosis, intercellular contacts, angiogenesis, immune function, and interaction with the gut microbiome
  • “results show stronger relations between 25(OH)D and cancer mortality than cancer incidence, suggesting an impact on outcome after tumor onset. It might be explained by a gain in the relevance of 25(OH)D concentrations to counteract tumor progression to a more aggressive tumor grade, growth, and metastatic spread after initial carcinogenesis, lowering the malignancy level.”
  • “The negative association between 25(OH)D plasma levels and cancer mortality is more substantial than cancer incidence. That is why vitamin D might also be considered an add-on treatment for tumor patients.
  • Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL) – The VITAL study investigated the effect of 2000 IU of vitamin D3 per day, combined with 1 g of marine n-3 fatty acids per day, on an invasive cancer of any type and major cardiovascular events over a median follow-up of 5.3 years.
    • there was a 24% decrease in cancer incidence if your BMI was < 25
    • there was a 25% decrease in cancer mortality (if you exclude first 2 years of follow-up where cancer may have existed but was undiagnosed)
  • Finnish Vitamin D trial with 1600 IU/day or 3200 IU/day vs placebo in > 60 year olds showed no difference in incidence of cancer

My Take… 

I’m often asked by COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated individuals how to either prevent cancer from developing or once diagnosed, how to best treat a Turbo Cancer, given that Oncologists have no idea how to deal with this new vaccine phenomenon.

Ivermectin and Fenbendazole (or Mebendazole) have emerged as the leading options for an alternative treatment approach to mRNA Induced Turbo Cancers, however, a comprehensive treatment plan will involve several other elements.

One of these is Vitamin D.

Supplementing Vitamin D is easy and cheap.

Having high Vitamin D levels or supplementing daily with Vitamin D gives you the following potential cancer-related benefits:

  • immune system support and numerous anti-cancer effects (cell cycle arrest, increased apoptosis, decreased angiogenesis, decreased cancer stem cells, decreased metastasis)
  • a 10-30% decrease in the risk of getting certain cancers such as breast, ovarian, melanoma, colorectal, prostate, lung
  • a 10-30% decrease in cancer mortality once diagnosed.

These are substantial benefits that cannot be ignored.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Israel Just Hasn’t Got the Air Force for a War with Iran

Last weekend, Iran covered Israel with 330 drones and missiles. These were sent from various points inside Iran, some 1,000-2,500 km away from Israel, depending on each location. Iran immediately threatened to make a 10 times larger attack – that would be around 3,500 missiles against Israel – if Israel made even a hiccup to hit back at Iran.

Israel simply hasn’t got an air force capable of fighting Iran over these long distances.

Israel hasn’t got B-52 strategic bombers like the US has.

Israel hasn’t got a long range missile force even nearly comparable to Iran’s.

What Israel has got is a large air force of medium-range multi-role aircraft like F-35I, F-16I, and F-15I all of which have limited range and comparably small payload, necessitating many-many missions in order to achieve sizeable results.

The Israeli air force is perfectly designed to kill endless numbers of people in nearby Beirut or kill a few people in a consulate in Damascus – but next to useless if talking about a massive air campaign against Tehran or any big number of other targets in Iran.

Israel can attack Iran by using aerial refueling for its mid-range aircraft like the über-expensive F-35I when they are underway to Iran (or back).

Where should Israel be able to carry out such an aerial refueling its attack aircraft en route to or from Iran?

It can’t be over Syria or Iraq, because Iranian militias and allies have received the capable Russian air defense which can shoot them down. It may be, that US and Israel believe that F-35 is “invisible” (stealth) on radar, but big aircraft tankers are slow and inviting targets, and definitely not visible. The only route which Israeli waves of air attacks on Iran could take which would enable aerial refueling would be via Saudi Arabia.

That would bring Saudi Arabia directly in war on Israel’s side against Iran, and there is next to no chance that Saudi Arabia will allow that.

Israel’s problem is limited capabilities to strike Iran have been studied for decades and are well-documented.

Israel’s need for aerial refueling is even recently confirmed by one of Israel’s top air force commanders:

Brig. General (ret) Relik Shafir – former IAF commander, took down Iraq’s Osirak reactor. Gen. Shafir says:

Israel’s air force cannot attack Iran without aerial refueling

What he doesn’t say, but means, is that aerial tankers will get shot down, and the attack bombers will not return

The result is that Israel is lost.

Once again: The result is that Israel is lost. Israel’s conventional options are limited – useless.

Another Israeli top military describes how limited Israel’s options are – in essence, Israel has NO relevant military options to counter Iran’s capability to destroy Israel with massive and long-time waves of missiles attacks:

Brig. General (ret) Dr. Amnon Sofrin – former Mossad Intelligence Directorate chief, Gen. Sofrin says:

Israel and Iran are now fighting each other directly, in the open. If Israel strikes Iran very hard, Iran is going to pay back, and it will be an ongoing “dispute” (read: escalation)  that will get us to another area (read: nuclear) where we don’t want to go.

Israel cannot altogether fight Gaza, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran. Israel has to calibrate (= diminish) its response.

Still, the former intelligence general opines that Israel “has to pay back” – but what small options are left for Israel?

Option 1 – undercover activities, Israel terror action which “doesn’t leave a sign” and without huge damage.

Option 2 – Israel can use the air force (which it hasn’t got for the purpose) which in the end, if Israel doesn’t calculate very well, will drag the whole area into a huge conflict. As we saw above, using Israel’s air force is a very limited or even impossible option.

Option 3 – Israel can retaliate on some of Iran’s friends (so-called “proxies”) outside Iran’s territory. Also here, Iran has made it clear, that Iran will strike Israel again, if Israel retaliates on Iran’s friends and allies.

After Iran’s massive drone-missile assault on Israel last weekend, Israel has already decided to hit back at Iran. And Iran has made it clear, that ANY Israeli attack on Iran, no matter how small, will trigger a much larger Iranian response. So Israel might as well decide to go all-in against Iran – right from the beginning. Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has pressed for an enormous Israeli attack on Iran, one which Iran “will never forget”. In the twisted sense of the situation, what Bezalel Smotrich says makes… well, in its own logic, sense. See this.

Nuclear Only Option for Israel 

But there is a catch: And that is, that Israel does simply not possess the capability, the air power to hit back hard at Iran  – EXCEPT if Israel goes nuclear.

But while Israel hasn’t got the thousands of drones and missiles for a long-range air campaign which Iran has, Israel does possess a smaller number of long range of nuclear capable missiles (some on submarines) which can hit anywhere.

And that is undoubtedly what Bezalel Smotrich wants – an Israeli nuclear attacks all over Iran.

The Middle East is about to become the nuclear focus of the world.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.


WWIII ScenarioTowards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War” 

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-5-3
Year: 2012
Pages: 102

PDF Edition:  $6.50 (sent directly to your email account!)

Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which hosts the critically acclaimed website www.globalresearch.ca . He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Reviews

“This book is a ‘must’ resource – a richly documented and systematic diagnosis of the supremely pathological geo-strategic planning of US wars since ‘9-11’ against non-nuclear countries to seize their oil fields and resources under cover of ‘freedom and democracy’.”
John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy, Guelph University

“In a world where engineered, pre-emptive, or more fashionably “humanitarian” wars of aggression have become the norm, this challenging book may be our final wake-up call.”
-Denis Halliday, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations

Michel Chossudovsky exposes the insanity of our privatized war machine. Iran is being targeted with nuclear weapons as part of a war agenda built on distortions and lies for the purpose of private profit. The real aims are oil, financial hegemony and global control. The price could be nuclear holocaust. When weapons become the hottest export of the world’s only superpower, and diplomats work as salesmen for the defense industry, the whole world is recklessly endangered. If we must have a military, it belongs entirely in the public sector. No one should profit from mass death and destruction.
Ellen Brown, author of ‘Web of Debt’ and president of the Public Banking Institute   

Video: Five Moderna Shots and a Flu Shot and Our Son Is Dead

April 18th, 2024 by Children’s Health Defense

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

While once running in competitions over long distances — a “very athletic” man, James unexpectedly died in December 2023 after receiving multiple COVID shots and a flu vaccine.

It was a few days after one of his races, while decorating the Christmas tree, when he was found unresponsive.

“We’re all in shock,” his mother explains. Discover the details of this heartbreaking narrative on CHD.TV.

Click here to watch the video

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

Israel Versus Iran – A Trigger Towards Armageddon?

April 18th, 2024 by Peter Koenig

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Israel’s Minister of War, Yoav Gallant, told his troops the Iranian attack was not successful; that of about hundred drones and rockets, Israel downed them all but four, thanks to their good preparation. This is a lie on many levels.

Both Netanyahu and Gallant expressed their determination to retaliate after a well thought-out plan. Netanyahu qualified, it needs to be a “clever response”.

Likewise, army chief Herzi Halevi is crystal clear in his attempt at launching a response for Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel, but he does not want to cause a war.

The Israeli Cabinet is also “mulling” over what they call a “political offensive” – whatever that may mean.

Interesting is that both sides, Israel and Iran, do not seem to want war, or better a HOT WAR, where saber-rattling could surreptitiously convert into a mushroom cloud. They know when NATO gets involved, Russia and China may get involved – and then the sky is open and Armageddon is on the table, or rather all over Mother Earth.

If indeed, Israel goes ahead with such a counter-attack, however benign or non-benign it may be, it is like giving Biden the finger because, according to the latest news, Biden backtracked from his earlier limitless commitment to support Israel and to always fight for Israel’s security. Biden’s “back-stoppers“ must have told him otherwise: “America is not going to war with Iran for Israel.” Israel – you are on your own, so to speak.

That was a smart decision. Will they stick to it? The US is divided. There are the Zionists, who so far have called the shots in Washington and the Pentagon. But the balance is gradually shifting in favor of the more level-headed thinkers, those who do not want to risk WWIII which could become nuclear – and global.

Similar messages of “caution” seem to emanate from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a strong supporter of Zionism. He called Benjamin Netanyahu, suggesting prudence in any further action he may take. An escalation that could spin out of control is in nobody’s interest.

Nevertheless, PM Sunak assured Netanyahu of UK’s support to “guarantee Israel’s security”.

If this sounds like a game of words, probably it is a game of words. Maybe hiding a surprise – and perhaps during the days of “thinking about prudence” — something much bigger may be under preparation. Knowing the Israel-Zionist’s own supremacy concept, they will not let the Iranian attack, even if well justified, go unanswered.

Just to refresh memories, because they are systematically wiped out by the bought mainstream media: Iran launched a measured, but well calculated retaliatory attack on Israeli military targets in the early hours of 14th April. The drone and ICBM missile assault of some 300 projectiles was a response for Israel’s unprovoked attack of 1st April on Iran’s Consulate in Damascus, leaving seven people dead, including two high-ranking Iranian military officers.

By the multitude of rockets Iran fired on Israel in sequence, first the drones then the missiles, Iran suppressed Israel’s and their allies air defense system that concentrated on intercepting drones and was unable to intercept the subsequently launched hypersonic missiles.

Tehran having entered a new stage of political and military stature beyond the Middle Eastern boundaries, had to react to Israel’s Damascus provocation of 1st April, in terms of a clear message, “Don’t mess with Iran – or else”.

Iran, now militarily speaking, one of the three key members of the newly ten BRICS nations, must assure the West that sanctions and threats and random unprovoked attacks will not cut it anymore.

The 14th April attack by Iran was not just a retaliatory strike, but has established a new order, depriving Israel of her absolute impunity, which until recently had been guaranteed by the US.

Important to note is that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami said that from now on, if Israel attacks the interests of Iran and Iranian citizens, Tehran will strike it again (RT News – 16 April 2024).

This means that if Israel now hits back, Iran will not just swallow whatever Israel does to harm Iran. And there is the danger – a real risk of escalation out of control.

One might ask, was this “out-of-control” situation planned and prepared by the Zionist-dominated West?

Let us not forget, whatever Zionist-Israel does in pursuit of her ultimate goal, the establishment of Greater Israel, is to control the Middle East’s inexhaustible energy resources.

Achieving Greater Israel depends very much on Israel conquering Iran, not only because Iran is literally in “command” of the oil and gas rich Middle East, but also a Greater Israel needs control over the Strait of Hormuz, now controlled by Iran.

Currently about 30% or more of the world’s total oil and gas consumption is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. See this.

With a Greater Israel, the bulk of Middle Eastern hydrocarbons would be under Zionist-Israeli control and with the Strait of Hormuz under Israeli control, shipments of the energy resources, how much and to whom, would be under Zionist command.

Not to forget, Zionist-Israel is already in the process of appropriating the enormous gas reserves off-shore of Gaza – conservatively estimated already some 20 years ago at about a trillion cubic-feet, worth between two and three billion dollars, depending on the market price. And as we know, he, who controls the resource, decides its “market” price.

An updated assessment of the Gaza off-shore reserves may be exponentially higher. Of course, kept secret, given the current war and expropriation scenario by Zionist-Israel.

The huge port that is rumored to be planned just outside Gaza – maybe construction has already begun — has little to do with food delivery to Gaza (certainly not), or “exporting” the remaining Gazans to unknown destinations.

Much more likely will this be the port for handling the Gaza off-shore hydrocarbons through a yet to be built (but planned since 1971) Ben-Gurion Canal, all the way to the Red Sea. The new canal would probably bankrupt the Suez Canal, a possession of Egypt, an Arab state.

The Suez Canal is already suffering due to lack of transshipments of at least 20 European countries, who are afraid the Yemeni-Houthi attacks on US- and Israeli-controlled merchandise vessels could also target their ships.

This Big Picture speaks for Israel not letting go. From their point of view, they MUST conquer Iran. The Zionists may be so blinded by their delusion of “grandeur”, that they may not see the Mushroom Cloud that may wipe them out along with much of the rest of the world.

The reality is that Iran is no longer alone. Iran wants to make sure that their power and presence is accounted for by Israel, the US, its European vassals, and the West-at-large, because they are now a member of the new BRICS which is not just an economic association.

Their membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – a strategic and economic China-Russia initiative, protects them from outside attacks, the same way NATO members are protected. (Collective Defense Doctrine under Art, 5) 

Attack One BRICS state, you attack them all.

Retaliation in the case of an attack on Iran can come from all or selected members of the ten BRICS countries, especially from Russia and China; which would pretty much mean WWIII.

This may be the reason for Iran’s relatively benign retaliation against Israel. It was a warning.

Iran does not want war. They may follow the Tao philosophy, as expressed by Sun Tzu in ancient times,

“To fight 100 battles and win 100 battles is not the height of skill. The best way to win is not to fight at all.”

This is Iran’s strategy. Its strike against Israel was not so much a military response as a grandmaster’s move in a big chess game. And the game is not over yet (RT News, 16 April 2024).

May President Putin’s words resonate and be taken seriously, “I hope WWIII can be avoided”meaning that an Israeli assault on Iran would not remain unanswered by Russia, which would bring in NATO and WWIII could explode overnight.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign

 

 


The book is available in pdf. You can download it in docsend. See below

 

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

 

 


 

 

 

The Worldwide Corona Crisis 

Global Coup d’État Against Humanity 

by

Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, 2022


 

About the Author

 

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.

He has undertaken field research in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific and has written extensively on the economies of developing countries with a focus on poverty and social inequality. He has also undertaken research in Health Economics (UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),  UNFPA, CIDA, WHO, Government of Venezuela, Johns Hopkins International Journal of Health Services (1979, 1983)).

He is the author of 13 books including The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003), America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005),  and The Globalization of War, America’s Long War Against Humanity (2015).

He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than 20 languages. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia. He can be reached at [email protected].


Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized, Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. -Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

 仕組まれたコロナ危機:「世界の初期化」を目論む者たち

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on November 18, 2022

“It’s a great book that I want people all over Japan to read. When I read this book, the various events explained in chronological order all fall into place and context, and they came close with a sense of reality. It’s terrifying. My heart became pounding and painful as I read on. We must carefully determine the reverse side of the goodwill of the people who organized the COVID-19 pandemic. What can we do as a grassroots person? It’s a tough question.

… そのあとに本書を読むと、時系列に説明されている様々な出来事が、ことごとく腑に落ち、現実味をもって迫ってきました。恐ろしいです。読み進めるうちに胸がドキドキ苦しくなりました。コロナ禍を仕組んだ人びとの善意の裏の顔をしっかりと見極めなければなりません。私自身はワクチンを一度も打ちませんでしたが、だから良かったという単純な話ではありません。個人的には、打った仲のよい友達との話に断絶を感じていますし、多くの方々が不幸を味わっています。これこそ、コロナ禍を仕掛けた人々の狙いなのです。草の根の一人として、何ができるでしょうか?難しい問題です。

 


 

This book is dedicated to my life-long partner Micheline Ladouceur, who is acting in solidarity with the future of all humanity

 


Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Jezile Torculas for her support and advice pertaining to the editing and production of the book. My thanks to Tatuo Uwama who took the initiative of translating the manuscript into Japanese. Credits also to Teresa Balisacan for assisting in the layout and design of the book cover.

A debt of gratitude to Felicity Arbuthnot, who has been a source of inspiration for many years; to my daughter Maya, who has provided me with an understanding and insight on the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the younger generation; to Ariel Noyola Rodríguez, my thanks for his video productions; Michael Welch for outstanding Global Research radio programs.

I am also indebted to the collective of Global Research authors and friends who, in the course of the last few years, have contributed to a detailed understanding of the corona crisis which is affecting people’s lives worldwide.

My thanks to Peter Koenig, Manlio Dinucci, David Skripac, Dr. Denis Rancourt, Dr. Stephen Frost, F. William Engdahl, Christine Massey, Dr. Rudolf Haensel, Edward Curtin, Richard Gale, Dr. Gary Null, Colin Todhunter, Michael Whitney, Prof. Anthony J. Hall, Dr. Pascal Sacré, Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Prof. Raul Villegas, Shane Quinn, Stephen Lendman, Mark Taliano, Dr. Jacques Pauwels, Prof. Claudia von Werlhof, Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin, Carla Stea, Bonnie Faulkner, Timothy A. Guzman, Robert Burrowes, Dr. Gary G. Kohls, Dr. Nicole Delépine, Richard Delgado, Emanuel Pastreich, Mathias Chang, Stephen Sefton, Dr. Chandra Muzzafar, for their writings, support and encouragement.

I remain indebted to the late Padre Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann for having provided me with a critical understanding on the contradictions prevailing within the United Nations system.

 


 

Table of Contents

 

Preface 

 

Chapter I

Introduction. Destroying Civil Society. The Fear Campaign

Chapter II

The Corona Timeline

Chapter III

What Is COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2: How Is It Tested? How Is It Measured? 

Chapter IV

Engineered Economic Depression

Chapter V

The Enrichment of the Super Rich. The Appropriation and Redistribution of Wealth 

Chapter VI

The Impacts on Mental Health

Chapter VII

Corrupt Science: “There Is No Cure”. Suppression of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a Cheap and Effective Drug 

Chapter VIII

Big Pharma’s COVID “Vaccine”

Chapter IX 

The 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic. Was It a Dress Rehearsal?

Chapter X

Freedom of Expression. Categorizing The Protest Movement as “Anti-Social Psychopaths”

Chapter XI

The Worldwide CoVax Operation and the Nuremberg Code. Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide

Chapter XII

“Global Coup d’État” and the “Great Reset”. Global Debt and Neoliberal “Shock Treatment”

Chapter XIII 

“Digital Tyranny” and the QR Code 

Chapter XIV

The COVID-19 Endgame: Eugenics and the Depopulation Agenda

Chapter XV

The Road Ahead: Building a Worldwide Movement Against “Corona Tyranny”

 


 

Preface 

 

“Hell is empty, and all the demons are here.” —William Shakespeare, Tempest, 1610

 

The COVID-19 crisis is destroying people’s lives. My responsibility as an author is to reveal the truth, break the tide of media disinformation and reach out worldwide to as many people as possible.

We are dealing with an exceedingly complex process. In the course of the last two and a half years, I have analyzed almost on a daily basis the timeline and evolution of the COVID-19 crisis.

From the very outset in January 2020, people worldwide were led to believe and accept the existence of a rapidly progressing and dangerous epidemic. Media disinformation was instrumental in sustaining the COVID-19 narrative.

At the time of writing, protest movements have erupted in numerous countries. The entire planet is in state of economic and social chaos. A worldwide crisis in food and agriculture is unfolding with famines erupting in all major regions of the world (see Chapter IV). 

From the very outset in January 2020, scientific lies and falsehoods have been used to sustain the legitimacy of the COVID-19 policy mandates including lockdowns, the imposition of the face mask, social distancing and the suppression of fundamental human rights. 

The decision-making process is controlled by the financial establishment. A structure of “Global Governance” is unfolding which undermines democracy and the institutions of civil society. The same instructions are transmitted simultaneously to corrupt politicians in a large number of countries. The United Nations system is also complicit in the conduct of this diabolical endeavor.

The pandemic was announced on March 11, 2020. On that same day, lockdown instructions were transmitted to 193 member states of the United Nations, essentially requiring the confinement of the labor force and the “closure” of the economic and social  landscape as a means to “combating the virus”. 

More than 7 billion people worldwide are directly or indirectly affected by the corona crisis and the destructive mandates implemented by morally depraved national governments.  

The mRNA Vaccine

Starting in late 2020, people worldwide were led to believe that Big Pharma’s COVID-19 vaccine injections were the “solution”. And that “a new normal” would be restored once the entire population of the planet of almost 8 billion people had been fully vaccinated with several doses. 

How is it that a vaccine for the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, which under normal conditions would have taken years to develop, was promptly launched in early November 2020? The mRNA “vaccine” announced by Big Pharma — with Pfizer in the lead — is based on an experimental gene-editing mRNA technology which has a bearing on the human genome.1  

Were the standard animal lab tests using mice or ferrets conducted?

Or did Pfizer “go straight to human “guinea pigs”“? Human tests began in late July and early August 2020.2 “Three months is unheard of for testing a new vaccine. Several years is the norm.”3

 

Copyright Large + JIPÉM, permission to use

This caricature by Large + JIPÉM  explains our predicament:

Mouse No. 1: “Are You Going to Get Vaccinated”

Mouse No. 2: “Are You Crazy, They Haven’t Finished the Tests on Humans”

The COVID-19 vaccine project is profit-driven. It is supported by corrupt politicians serving the interests of Big Pharma. It is by far the largest vaccination programme in world history geared towards injecting (in several doses) the entire population of planet Earth (7.9 billion people). 

The evidence amply documented is that the mRNA vaccine has resulted in an upward worldwide tide in mortality and morbidity. 

Reports confirm that the COVID-19 vaccines are killing our children. In the UK, “the worst figures in terms of all-cause deaths are among double-vaccinated teenagers.”4

 

Book Description and Outline

The introductory chapter focuses on the fear campaign, the deliberate destabilization of civil society and the insidious role of media propaganda.  

A detailed review of the history of the COVID-19 crisis, examining the timeline of major events is outlined in Chapter II. 

Chapter III focuses on the nature of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as on the flawed Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Test which from the outset was established by national governments to generate “fake data” with a view to justifying excessive and socially repressive policy mandates. 

The broad economic and social consequences of this crisis including the process of worldwide impoverishment and redistribution of wealth in favor of the super rich billionaires are examined in Chapters IV and V. Economic chaos has been instrumental in triggering the most serious global debt crisis in world history. 

The devastating impacts of the lockdown policies on mental health including the rise in suicides and drug abuse are examined in Chapter VI. 

Chapter VII examines the suppression of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a cheap and effective drug.

Big Pharma’s vaccination programme was envisaged already months before the alleged outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan in late 2019. Chapter VIII reviews what is best described as “a killer vaccine”.  The latter part of the chapter focuses on the ID2020 Digital Identity Project and the imposition of the so-called vaccine passport.

Chapter IX recalls the circumstances of the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic, which turned out to be a scam. Was it a “dress rehearsal” for things to come? 

Chapter X focuses on the derogation of freedom of expression and the authoritarian policies used to repress the protest movement and ensure social compliance. 

Chapter XI focuses on crimes against humanity and the Nuremberg Code. 

Chapter XII analyses the World Economic Forum’s proposed “Great Reset” which if adopted would consist in establishing a system of global governance, scrapping the welfare state and imposing massive austerity measures on an impoverished population. The official emblem of the WEF’s “Great Reset” is “Own Nothing, Be Happy”.

Chapter XIII entitled Digital Tyranny focuses on the worldwide QR Verification Code project which lays the groundwork for the establishment of a global digital data bank of almost 8 billion people. Peter Koenig describes the QR code as “an all-electronic ID – linking everything to everything of each individual (records of health, banking, personal and private, etc.).”

Chapter XIV focusses on Eugenics and Depopulation Agenda

Chapter XV entitled The Road Ahead: Building a Worldwide Movement Against Corona Tyranny formulates the contours of a worldwide movement which forcefully challenges the legitimacy of the financial elites, Big Pharma, et al., as well as the corrupt structures of political authority at the national level. 

A word on methodology: our objective is to refute the “Big Lie” through careful analysis consisting of:

  • a historical overview of the COVID crisis with precise data, concepts and definitions; 
  • quotations from official documents and peer-reviewed reports, numerous sources and references are indicated;
  • scientific analysis and detailed review of “official” data, estimates and definitions; and
  • analysis of the impacts of WHO “guidelines” and government policies on economic, social and public health variables.

My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a pretext and a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”.  

This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people.

We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children Worldwide. 

Truth is a powerful instrument. 

Michel Chossudovsky,

Global Research, Montreal, August 2022

 

Endnotes

1 F. William Engdahl, November 15, 2020. What’s Not Being Said About the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine. “Human Guinea Pigs”? https://www.globalresearch.ca/what-not-said-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine/5729461

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid. 

4 The Expose, July 29, 2022.  Shocking: UK Government Admits COVID Vaccinated Children Are 4423% More Likely to Die of Any Cause & 13,633% More Likely to Die of COVID-19 Than Unvaccinated Children. https://www.globalresearch.ca/print-version-of-covid-book/5780283

 


 

Chapter I

Introduction

Destroying Civil Society. The Fear Campaign

 

“It is time for everyone to come out of this negative trance, this collective hysteria, because famine, poverty, mass unemployment will kill and destroy the lives of many more people than SARS-CoV-2!” —Dr. Pascal Sacré1

“I’m seeing patients that have facial rashes, fungal infections, bacterial infections.  … In February and March [2020] we were told not to wear masks. What changed? The science didn’t change. The politics did. This is about compliance. It’s not about science…” —Dr. James Meehan2

“Once the Lie becomes the Truth, there is no moving backwards. Insanity prevails. The world is turned upside down.”  –Michel Chossudovsky

“We’re being locked-down for an infection fatality rate of less than 0.2%.” —Dr. Richard Schabas3

We are at the crossroads of one of the most serious crises in world history. We are living history, yet our understanding of the sequence of events since January 2020 has been blurred. Worldwide, people have been misled both by their governments and the media as to the causes and devastating consequences of the COVID-19 “pandemic.”

The unspoken truth is that the novel coronavirus provides a pretext and a justification to powerful financial interests and corrupt politicians to precipitate the entire world into a spiral of mass unemployment, bankruptcy, extreme poverty and despair. 

This is the true picture of what is happening. It is the result of a complex decision-making process. 

“Planet lockdown” is an encroachment on civil liberties and the “right to life”.

Entire national economies are in jeopardy. In some countries, martial law has been declared.

Small and medium-sized capital are slated to be eliminated. Big capital prevails.

A massive concentration of corporate wealth is ongoing. 

It’s a diabolical “New World Order” in the making.  

Red zones, the face mask, social distancing, the closing down of schools, colleges and universities, no more family gatherings, no birthday celebrations, music, the arts; no more cultural events, sports events are suspended, no more weddings, “love and life” is banned outright.

And in several countries, Christmas and New Year family reunions (2021-2022) were illegal.

Closing down the global economy is presented to us as a means to combating the virus. That’s what they want us to believe. If the public had been informed that COVID-19 is “similar to seasonal Influenza”, the fear campaign would have fallen flat.

The pandemic was officially launched by the WHO on March 11, 2020 leading to the lockdown and closure of the national economies of 190 (out of 193) countries, member states of the United Nations. The instructions came from above, from Wall Street, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the billionaire foundations.

The March 11, 2020 pandemic was preceded by a WHO Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020 which was followed in February 2020 by the destabilization of financial markets.

The video below was initially published by Vimeo more than a year ago, prior to the launching of the vaccine. It was taken down on March 5, 2022 as an act of censorship directed against Global Research. Watch below or click here.

 

 

On January 30, there were 83 “COVID-19 confirmed cases” outside China, out of a total population of 6.4 billion. In the days preceding the February financial crash, there were 1,076 “COVID-19 confirmed cases” outside China (see our analysis in Chapter II).

This diabolical project based on scanty and flawed estimates is casually described by the corporate media as a “humanitarian” endeavour; the “international community” has a “responsibility to protect” (R2P).  

Image: copyright CODEPINK, permission to use

In the words of Diana Johnstone, it’s “the global pretext”. An unelected “public-private partnership” under the auspices of the World Economic Forum (WEF) has come to the rescue of planet Earth’s 7.9 billion people. The closure of the national economies of 193 member states of the United Nations is presented as a means to “killing the virus”.

Sounds absurd. Closing down the real economy of planet Earth is not the “solution” but rather the “cause” of a diabolical process of worldwide destabilization and impoverishment. 

The national economy combined with political, social and cultural institutions is the basis for the “reproduction of real life”: income, employment, production, trade, infrastructure, and social services.

Destabilizing the economy of planet Earth cannot constitute a “solution” to combating the virus. But that is the imposed “solution” which they want us to believe in. And that is what they are doing.

It’s the destruction of people’s lives. It’s the destabilization of civil society. 

The lies are sustained by a massive media disinformation campaign — 24/7, incessant and repetitive “COVID alerts” in the course of more than two and a half years. It’s a process of social engineering. 

What they want is to hike up the numbers so as to justify the lockdown. COVID death statistics are “fabricated” (see Chapter III).

COVID-19 is portrayed as the “killer virus”. 

Destroying Civil Society 

People are frightened and puzzled. “Why would they do this?”

Empty schools, empty airports, bankrupt grocery stores.

In France, “churches were threatened with Kalashnikovs over COVID-19 outbreak” (April 2020).4

The entire urban services economy is in crisis. Shops, bars and restaurants are driven into bankruptcy. International travel and holidays are suspended.  Streets are empty. In several countries, bars and restaurants are required to take names and contact information to support effective contact tracing if necessary.5

Cultural Lockdown

At the same time, starting in March 2020, the worldwide closure of national economies was accompanied by a cultural lockdown affecting music and artistic events. Empty museums, no more operas, no more symphonies, concert halls are closed down worldwide. So-called digital stay at home platforms were put forth. In the US, museums announced closure on March 12, 2020 starting with the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. In France, the Louvre, Versailles and the Eiffel Tower were closed down on March 13, 2020, two days after the lockdown.

Free Speech Is Suppressed

The lockdown narrative is supported by media disinformation, online censorship, social engineering and the fear campaign.

Medical doctors who question the official narrative are threatened. They lose their jobs. Their careers are destroyed. Those who oppose the government lockdown are categorized as “anti-social psychopaths”.6

Peer-reviewed psychological “studies” are currently being carried in several countries using sample surveys. Accept the “big lie” and you are tagged as a “good person” with “empathy” who understands the feelings of others.

Express reservations regarding social distancing, the wearing of face mask and the mRNA vaccine, and you will be tagged (according to “scientific opinion”) as a “callous and deceitful psychopath” (see Chapter XI).

In colleges and universities, the teaching staff is pressured to conform and endorse the official COVID narrative. Questioning the legitimacy of the lockdown or the vaccine in online “classrooms” could lead to dismissal.

Numerous medical doctors and scientists who have opposed the COVID consensus or the vaccine have been arrested. In December 2020, “Jean-Bernard Fourtillan, a retired university professor known for his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine was arrested “by law enforcement officers under military command, and forcibly placed in solitary confinement at the psychiatric hospital of Uzès.” Fourtillan is known as a  “longtime critic of vaccines that use dangerous adjuvants””.7

Google, Facebook and Twitter: Marketing the Big Lie

The opinions of prominent scientists who question the lockdown, face mask or social distancing are “taken down” by Google:

YouTube doesn’t allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities‘ medical information about COVID-19, including on methods to prevent, treat or diagnose COVID-19, and means of transmission of COVID-19.” (emphasis added)8
 
They call it “fact-checking”, without acknowledging that both the WHO and the national health authorities contradict their own data and concepts.

Similarly, Twitter has confirmed that “it will remove all posts that suggest there are ‘adverse impacts or effects of receiving vaccinations'” …

Twitter will memory-hole any posts that “invoke a deliberate conspiracy” or “advance harmful, false, or misleading narratives” about vaccines.”

Screenshot from Twitter

 

March 11, 2020: Engineered Economic Depression. Global Coup d’Etat?

Destabilizing in one fell swoop the national economies of 193 countries is an act of “economic warfare”. This diabolical agenda undermines the sovereignty of nation-states. It impoverishes people worldwide. It leads to a spiraling dollar-denominated global debt.

The powerful structures of global capitalism, Big Money coupled with its intelligence and military apparatus are the driving force. Using advanced digital and communications technologies, the lockdown and economic closure of the global economy is unprecedented in world history.

This simultaneous intervention in approximately 193 countries derogates democracy. It undermines the sovereignty of nation-states worldwide, without the need for military intervention. It is an advanced form of “economic warfare” which overshadows other forms of warfare including conventional (Iraq-style) theater wars (see Chapters IV and V).

 

“Global Governance” Scenarios. World Government in the Post-COVID Era? 

The March 11, 2020 lockdown project uses lies and deception to ultimately impose a worldwide totalitarian regime, entitled “Global Governance” (by unelected officials). In the words of David Rockefeller:

“…The world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” (quoted by Aspen Times, August 15, 2011, emphasis added)9

Image: David Rockefeller (By william vazquez, visual waves inc licensed under CC BY 4.0)

The Global Governance scenario imposes an agenda of social engineering and economic compliance:

It constitutes an extension of the neoliberal policy framework imposed on both developing and developed countries. It consists in scrapping “national auto-determination” and constructing a worldwide nexus of pro-US proxy regimes controlled by a “supranational sovereignty” (world government) composed of leading financial institutions, billionaires and their philanthropic foundations (see Chapter XIII). 

 

Simulating Pandemics

Rockefeller’s “Lock Step Scenario”

The Rockefeller Foundation proposes the use of “scenario planning” as a means to carry out “Global Governance”.10

In the Rockefeller’s 2010 report entitled “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development Area”, scenarios of Global Governance and the actions to be taken in the case of a worldwide pandemic are contemplated.11

More specifically, the report envisaged (p. 18) the simulation of a Lock Step scenario including a global virulent influenza strain.

“The Lock Step scenario describes “a world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership, with limited innovation and growing citizen pushback.” In “2012” (i.e. two years after the report’s publication), [as part of the simulation] an “extremely virulent and deadly” strain of influenza originating with wild geese brings the world to its knees, infecting 20 percent of the global population and killing 8 million people in just seven months – “the majority of them healthy young adults.” (Helen Buyniski, February 2020)12

The 2010 Rockefeller report was published in the immediate wake of the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic (see Chapter IX).

The Clade X Tabletop Simulation

On May 15, 2018, a tabletop simulation of a pandemic entitled Clade X was conducted under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.  

Clade X was described by its organizers as a day-long pandemic tabletop exercise the purpose of which “was to illustrate high level strategic decisions in the United States and the world … to prevent a pandemic” (emphasis added).13  It was “played by individuals prominent in the fields of national security or epidemic response”.  

Bill Gates Had Foreknowledge 

“In the case of biological threats, that sense of urgency is lacking… The world needs to prepare for pandemics in the same serious way it prepares for war.” (Bill Gates quoted in Business Insider, April 17, 2018)

 

The October 2019 “Event 201”

Clade X was followed by another tabletop simulation entitled Event 201 (also under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security).14

Event 201 pertained to a coronavirus epidemic entitled nCoV-2019.  It was held on October 18, 2019, less than three months before the announcement by the Chinese authorities in early January 2020 of a new coronavirus entitled 2019-nCoV (subsequently renamed SARS-CoV-2): 

“Statement about nCoV and our pandemic exercise

January 24, 2020 – In October 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security hosted a pandemic tabletop exercise called Event 201 with partners, the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Recently, the Center for Health Security has received questions about whether that pandemic exercise predicted the current novel coronavirus outbreak in China.

To be clear, the Center for Health Security and partners did not make a prediction during our tabletop exercise. For the scenario, we modeled a fictional coronavirus pandemic, but we explicitly stated that it was not a prediction. Instead, the exercise served to highlight preparedness and response challenges that would likely arise in a very severe pandemic. We are not now predicting that the nCoV-2019 outbreak will kill 65 million people. 

Although our tabletop exercise included a mock novel coronavirus, the inputs we used for modeling the potential impact of that fictional virus are not similar to nCoV-2019.” (emphasis added)15

The Event 201 pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019 also addressed how to deal with social media and so-called “misinformation”. 

Many features of the 201 “simulation exercise” did in fact correspond to what actually happened when the WHO Director-General launched a global public health emergency on January 30, 2020.

In the Event 201 scenario, a 15% collapse of financial markets had been “simulated”. It was not “predicted” according to the organizers and sponsors of the event, which included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as the World Economic Forum.16

It is worth noting that the sponsors of Event 201 — including the WEF and the Gates Foundation — have been actively involved from the very outset in coordinating (and financing) the COVID-19-related policies including the RT-PCR test, the lockdown procedures as well as the mRNA vaccine. The evidence suggests that these policies had been planned and envisaged at a much earlier date. 

 

The Scenario 201 Players

Among the 201 Johns Hopkins tabletop scenario “players” were key personalities holding advisory or senior positions in a number of core organizations. Less than three months later, these 201 “players” became actively involved in the policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The following prominent individuals from global business, government, and public health were exercise players tasked with leading the policy response to a fictional outbreak scenario in the Event 201 pandemic tabletop exercise.”17

Some of the key players in Scenario 201; from left to right: Dr. Gao Fu (by 中国新闻网, licensed under CC BY 3.0), Jane Halton (by WHO/Peter Williams), and Dr. Stephen Redd (by U.S. Government, licensed under the Public Domain)

The entities directly or indirectly “represented” by the “players” included the WHO, Johns Hopkins, the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI, Dr. Timothy Grant Evans), US Intelligence, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Dr. Chris Elias), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI, Chairwoman Jane Halton), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the UN Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Stephen Redd), China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Director Dr. George Fu Gao), Big Pharma (Adrian Thomas), the World Bank and Global Banking, the Airline and Hotel industries. For more details, click here.

It is worth noting that China’s CDC Director Dr. George Fu Gao played a central role in overseeing the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020, acting in close liaison with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins, et al. Dr. Gao Fu is an Oxford graduate with links to Big Pharma. He was also for several years a fellow of the Wellcome Trust. 

Dr. Stephen Redd (CDC) played a key role in the 2009 H1N1 vaccination campaign in the US, which turned out to be fake (see  Chapter IX).

 

nCoV-2019

It is also worth noting that the WHO initially adopted a similar acronym (to designate the coronavirus) to that of the Johns Hopkins Pandemic Event 201 Exercise (nCoV-2019). “…The new virus was initially named 2019-nCoV by [the] WHO.”18

“On Feb 11, 2020, WHO renamed the disease as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). That same day, the Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy posted a manuscript on bioRxiv in which they suggested designating 2019-nCoV as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the basis of a phylogenetic analysis of related coronaviruses.” (Lancet)19

The selection of the name SARS-CoV-2 is explained in Chapter III in relation to the so-called Drosten report.

Intelligence and “The Art of Deception”

The COVID crisis is a sophisticated instrument of the power elites. It has all the features of a carefully planned intelligence operation using “deception and counter-deception”. Leo Straus “viewed intelligence as a means for policymakers to attain and justify policy goals, not to describe the realities of the world.” And that is precisely what they are doing in relation to COVID-19.20

 

“The Global Pretext” 

Confirmed by prominent scientists as well as by official public health bodies including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 is a public health concern but it is NOT a dangerous virus.

The COVID-19 crisis is marked by a public health “emergency” under WHO auspices which is being used as a pretext and a  justification to trigger a worldwide process of economic, social and political restructuring. The tendency is towards the imposition of a totalitarian state.

Social engineering is being applied. Governments are pressured into extending the lockdown despite its devastating economic and social consequences.

There is no scientific basis for implementing the closing down of the global economy as a means to resolving a public health crisis. Both the media and the governments are involved in spreading disinformation.

The fear campaign has no scientific basis. Your governments are LYING. In fact, they are lying to themselves. 

 

Endnotes

1 Dr. Pascal Sacré, August 7, 2020. COVID-19: Closer to the Truth: Tests and Immunity. https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-closer-to-the-truth-tests-and-immunity/5720160

2 John C. A. Manley, October 6, 2020. Medical Doctor Warns that “Bacterial Pneumonias Are on the Rise” from Mask Wearing. https://www.globalresearch.ca/medical-doctor-warns-bacterial-pneumonias-rise-mask-wearing/5725848

3 Dr. Richard Schabas, January 19, 2021. We’re Being Locked-down for an Infection Fatality Rate of Less than 0.2%? Dr. Richard Schabas to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. https://www.globalresearch.ca/were-being-locked-down-infection-fatality-rate-less-than-0-2/5734799

4 Lucy Williamson, April 22, 2020. Coronavirus: The church threatened with Kalashnikovs over Covid-19 outbreak. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-52389953

5 WHO, September 9, 2020. Tracking COVID-19: Contact Tracing in the Digital Age. https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/tracking-covid-19-contact-tracing-in-the-digital-age

6 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, October 6, 2020. The Vaccinated vs. the Unvaccinated: Those Who Refuse the Vaccine and the “Official” Covid-19 Narrative are Categorized as “Psychopaths”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/collective-narcissism-and-the-dark-triad-those-who-protest-against-the-official-covid-19-narrative-are-categorized-as-psychopaths-is-it-a-witch-hunt/5722151

7 Jeanne Smits, December 11, 2020. Accomplished pharma prof thrown in psych hospital after questioning official COVID narrative. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/accomplished-pharma-prof-thrown-in-psych-hospital-after-questioning-official-covid-narrative/

8 Youtube Help, n.d. COVID-19 medical misinformation policy. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785?hl=en

9 Will Kesler, August 15, 2011. Beware New World Order. https://www.aspentimes.com/news/beware-new-world-order/

10 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, May 1, 2020. Global Capitalism, “World Government” and the Corona Crisis. https://www.globalresearch.ca/global-capitalism-world-government-and-the-corona-crisis/5712312

11 The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Business Network, May 2010. Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development. https://www.nommeraadio.ee/meedia/pdf/RRS/Rockefeller%20Foundation.pdf

12 Helen Buyniski, February 5, 2020. VIDEO: The “Lock Step” Simulation Scenario: “A Coronavirus-like Pandemic that Becomes Trigger for Police State Controls”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/all-sectors-us-establishment-lock-step-deep-states-latest-bio-war/5702773

13 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, n.d. CLADE X EXERCISE. https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/events/2018_clade_x_exercise/

14 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, n.d. Event 201. https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/

15 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, January 24, 2020. Statement about nCov and our pandemic exercise. https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/news/center-news/2020/2020-01-24-Statement-of-Clarification-Event201.html

16 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, March 1, 2020. COVID-19 Coronavirus: A Fake Pandemic? Who’s Behind It? Global Economic, Social and Geopolitical Destabilization. https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-coronavirus-a-fake-pandemic-whos-behind-it-global-economic-and-geopolitical-destabilization/5705063

17 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, n.d. Event 201 Players. https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/players/

18 Shibo Jiang, Zhengli Shi, et al., February 19, 2020. A distinct name is needed for the new coronavirus. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30419-0/fulltext

19 Ibid.

20 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, November 12, 2020. The Covid “Pandemic”: Destroying People’s Lives. Engineered Economic Depression. Global “Coup d’Etat”? https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-second-wave-destroying-peoples-lives-global-coup-detat/5728207


 

Chapter II

The Corona Timeline

 

This chapter provides a detailed timeline and history of the corona crisis starting in August 2019.

August 1, 2019: Glaxo-Smith-Kline (GSK) and Pfizer announced the establishment of a corporate partnership in Consumer Health Products including vaccines. 

September 19, 2019: Meeting of the ID2020 Alliance

The ID2020 Alliance held their summit in New York entitled “Rising to the Good ID Challenge”. The focus was on the establishment of a vaccine with an embedded digital passport under the auspices of GAVI (Alliance for Vaccine Identity). The stated objective was the creation of a global digital database.1

“With the opportunity for immunization to serve as a platform for digital identity, the program harnesses existing birth registration and vaccination operations to provide newborns with a portable and persistent biometrically-linked digital identity. The program will also explore and assess several leading infant biometric technologies to offer a persistent digital identity from birth … 

“We are implementing a forward-looking approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over their own personal information, while still building off existing systems and programs.”2

October 18, 2019: Event 201. The 201 Pandemic Simulation Exercise

The coronavirus was initially named 2019-nCoV by the WHO, the same name (with the exception of the placement of the date) as that adopted at the October 18, 2019 201 simulation exercise under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health, Center for Heath Security (an event sponsored by the Gates Foundation and World Economic Forum). Event 201:

“In October 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security hosted a pandemic tabletop exercise called Event 201 with partners, the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. …  For the scenario, we modeled a fictional coronavirus pandemic, but we explicitly stated that it was not a prediction. (emphasis added, see Chapter I).3

December 12, 2019: The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission

When the advisory claims this date to be the earliest original onset date of the 59 patients with unexplained viral pneumonia.(Timeline and Early Chronology)4

December 31, 2019: First cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province and reported to the WHO.  “A total of 44 cases were reported: 11 patients are severely ill, while the remaining 33 are in stable condition.”5

January 1, 2020: Chinese health authorities closed the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan following Western media reports claiming that wild animals sold there may have been the source of the virus. This initial assessment was subsequently refuted by Chinese scientists.

January 7, 2020: The Chinese authorities (allegedly) “identified a new type of virus” which (according to reports) was isolated on January 7, 2020. No specific details were provided regarding the process of isolation of the virus. According to scientific reports, the identity as well as the process of isolation of the virus had not been undertaken (for further details, see Chapter III). The number of cases was exceedingly low. “44 cases of pneumonia even though viral-specific nucleic acids were found on only 15 patients”. No evidence of an unfolding epidemic in China.6

January 11, 2020: The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announces the first death caused by the coronavirus.

January 22, 2020: WHO — Members of the WHO Emergency Committee “expressed divergent views on whether this event constitutes a PHEIC [Public Health Emergency of International Concern] or not”. The Committee meeting was reconvened on January 23, 2020, overlapping with the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos (January 21-24, 2020). The small number of cases in China did not justify a PHEIC.7

The meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the WHO Director-General under the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) expressed divergent views on whether this event constitutes a PHEIC or not. At that time, the advice was that the event did not constitute a PHEIC, but the Committee members agreed on the urgency of the situation and suggested that the Committee should be reconvened in a matter of days to examine the situation further. (WHO, Statement on the meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV))8

January 21-24, 2020: Consultations at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

The consultations were held under the auspices of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) for the development of a vaccine program. CEPI is a WEF-Gates partnership. With support from CEPI, Seattle-based Moderna will manufacture an mRNA vaccine against 2019-nCoV:

“The Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, collaborated with Moderna to design the vaccine.”9 

The evidence suggests that the 2019-nCoV vaccine project was already underway in 2019 (see Chapter VIII). It was officially announced at Davos, two weeks after the January 7, 2020 announcement by the Chinese authorities, and barely a week prior to the official launching of the WHO’s worldwide Public Health Emergency on January 30, 2020.

The WEF-Gates-CEPI vaccine announcement precedes the WHO’s Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). See WEF video

Dominant financial interests, billionaire foundations and international financial institutions played a key role in launching the WHO PHEIC.

In the week preceding this historic WHO decision, the PHEIC was the object of “consultations” at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos (January 21-24). The WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros was present at Davos. Were these consultations instrumental in influencing the WHO’s historic decision on January 30? 

Was there a conflict of interest as defined by the WHO? The WHO’s largest donor is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which, together with the WEF and CEPI, had already announced in Davos the development of a COVID-19 vaccine prior to the historic January 30 launching of the PHEIC.10

The WHO Director-General had the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Big Pharma and the World Economic Forum (WEF). There are indications that the decision for the WHO to declare a Global Health Emergency was taken on the sidelines of the WEF in Davos (January 21-24) overlapping with the January 22 meeting of the Emergency Committee in Geneva.

January 28, 2020: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed (without firm evidence) that the novel coronavirus had been isolated (see Chapter III).11

January 30, 2020: The WHO’s Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

The first stage of this crisis was launched by the WHO on January 30th. While officially it was not designated as a “pandemic”, it nonetheless contributed to spearheading the fear campaign.

From the very outset, the estimates of “confirmed positive cases” have been part of a “Numbers Game”.

In some cases, the statistics were simply not mentioned and in other cases, the numbers were selectively inflated with a view to creating panic.

Not mentioned by the media, the number of “confirmed cases” based on faulty estimates (RT-PCR) used to justify this far-reaching decision was ridiculously low.

The worldwide population outside China is of the order of 6.4 billion. On January 30, 2020, outside China there were:

“83 cases in 18 countries, and only 7 of them had no history of travel in China.” (See WHO, January 30, 2020)12

On January 29, 2020, the day preceding the launching of the PHEIC (recorded by the WHO), there were five cases in the US, three in Canada, four in France, and four in Germany.13

There was no “scientific basis” to justify the launching of a worldwide public health emergency.

 

Screenshot from WHO, January 29, 2020

 

Those low numbers (not mentioned by the media) did not prevent the launching of a worldwide fear campaign.

 

January 31, 2020: President Trump’s Decision to Suspend Air Travel with China

On the following day (January 31, 2020), Trump announced that he would deny entry to the US of both Chinese and foreign nationals “who have traveled in China in the last 14 days”. This immediately triggered a crisis in air travel, transportation, US-China trade relations as well as freight and shipping transactions.

Whereas the WHO “[did] not recommend any travel or trade restrictions,” the five so-called “confirmed cases” in the US were sufficient to “justify” President Trump’s January 31st, 2020 decision to suspend air travel with China while precipitating a hate campaign against ethnic Chinese throughout the Western world.

This historic January 31st decision paved the way for the disruption of international commodity trade as well as for the imposition of worldwide restrictions on air travel. It was eventually instrumental in spearheading the bankruptcy of major airlines. 

“Fake media” immediately went into high gear. China was held responsible for “spreading infection” worldwide.

Early February 2020: The acronym of the coronavirus was changed from nCoV-2019 (its name under the October Event 201 Johns Hopkins Simulation Exercise) to SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 indicates the disease triggered by SARS-CoV-2.

February 20-21, 2020: Worldwide COVID data outside China. The Diamond Princess cruise ship

While China reported a total of 75,567 cases of COVID-19 (February 20), the confirmed cases outside China were abysmally low and the statistics based, in large part, on the RT-PCR test used to confirm the “worldwide spread of the virus” were questionable to say the least. Moreover, out of the 75,567 cases in China, a large percentage had recovered. And recovery figures were not acknowledged by the media.

On the day of Dr. Tedros’s historic press conference (February 20, 2020), the recorded number of confirmed cases outside China was 1,073 of which 621 were passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship (stranded in Japanese territorial waters).

From a statistical point of view, the WHO decision pointing to a potential “spread of the virus worldwide” did not make sense.

On February 20th, 57.9% of the worldwide COVID-19 “confirmed cases” were from the Diamond Princess, hardly representative of a worldwide “statistical trend”. The official story is as follows:

  • A Hong Kong-based passenger who had disembarked from the Diamond Princess in Hong Kong on January 25 developed pneumonia and was tested positive for the novel coronavirus on January 30.
  • He was reported to have travelled on January 10 to Shenzhen on mainland China (which borders on Hong Kong’s new territories).
  • The Diamond Princess arrived in Yokohama on February 3. A quarantine was imposed on the cruiser, see NCBI study.14
  • Many passengers fell sick due to the confinement on the boat.
  • All the passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess undertook the PCR test.
  • The number of confirmed cases increased to 691 on February 23.15

Source: Nakazawa, E., Ino, H., et al. (Published on NCBI)

 

Read carefully: From the standpoint of assessing worldwide statistical trends, the data doesn’t add up. Without the Diamond Princess data, the so-called confirmed cases worldwide outside China on February 20, 2020 were of the order of 452, out of a population of 6.4 billion. 

Examine the WHO graph below. The blue indicates the confirmed cases on the Diamond Princess (international conveyance which arrived in Yokohama on February 3, 2020), many of whom were sick, confined to their rooms for more than two weeks (quarantine imposed by Japan). All passengers and crew took the RT-PCR test (which does not detect or identify SARS-CoV-2).

Needless to say, this so-called data was instrumental to spearheading the fear campaign and the collapse of financial markets in the course of the month of February 2020 (see Chapter IV).

 

Source: WHO, February 2020

Source: WHO, February 2020

 

February 20th, 2020: Director General of WHO intimates that the COVID-19 pandemic is imminent 

At a press conference on the 20th of February, Thursday afternoon (CET), in a briefing in Geneva, the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he was

“concerned that the chance to contain the coronavirus outbreak was “closing”” …

“I believe the window of opportunity is still there, but that the window is narrowing.”16

There were only 1,076 cases outside China (including the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship):

 

Excerpt from the WHO Director-General’s opening remarks, February 20th, 2020 (Source: WHO)

Note: The WHO graph above, showing data for February 20, 2020, indicates 1,073 cases; however, the WHO press conference indicated 1,076 cases.

 

These “shock and awe” statements contributed to heightening the fear campaign, despite the fact that the number of confirmed cases outside China was exceedingly low. 

Image: WHO data recorded on February 20, 2020,  at the outset of the so-called COVID Financial Crash. (Source: WHO)

February 20-21, 2020 marks the beginning of the 2020 Financial Crash (See Chapter IV).

Excluding the Diamond Princess, the WHO recorded on February 20 a total of 452 so-called “confirmed cases” worldwide outside China, for a population of 6.4 billion — 15 in the US, 8 in Canada, 9 in the UK (see table on the right). Those are the figures used to justify Dr. Tedros’s warnings, “the window is narrowing”

A larger number of cases outside China was recorded in South Korea (153 cases according to WHO) and Italy (recorded by national authorities).

The statement by Dr. Tedros (based on flawed concepts and statistics) set the stage for the February financial collapse (see Chapter IV).

February 24, 2020: Moderna Inc. supported by CEPI announced that its experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, known as mRNA-1273was ready for human testing.17

February 28, 2020: A WHO vaccination campaign was announced by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus:18

“More than 20 vaccines are in development globally, and several therapeutics are in clinical trials. We expect the first results in a few weeks”. 

It is worth noting that the campaign to develop vaccines was initiated prior to the decision of the WHO to launch a Global Public Health Emergency. It was first announced at the WEF meeting at Davos (January 21-24) by CEPI.

Early March 2020: China. More than 50% of the infected patients recovered. A total of 49,856 patients had recovered from COVID-19 and were discharged from hospitals in China. 

The WHO recorded a total of 80,304 confirmed cases in China on March 3, 2020. What this means is that the total number of “confirmed infected cases” in China was at 30,448. Namely, 80,304 minus 49,856 = 30,448. No evidence of a pandemic in China.

These developments concerning “recovery” were not reported by the Western media.

March 5, 2020: WHO Director-General confirmed that, outside China, there were 2,055 cases reported in 33 countries. Around 80% of those cases were from three countries (South Korea, Iran and Italy).19

March 7, 2020: USA. The number of “confirmed cases” (infected and recovered) in the United States in early March was of the order of 430, rising to about 600 (March 8). A rapid rise in COVID positive cases was recorded in the the course of the month of March. 

Compare these figures to those pertaining to Influenza B virus. The CDC estimated for 2019-2020 (for the US) “at least 15 million virus flu illnesses… 140,000 hospitalizations and 8,200 deaths”. (The Hill)20

March 7, 2020: China. No pandemic in China. Reported new cases in China fell to double digit. 99 cases recorded on March 7. All of the new cases outside Hubei province were categorized as “imported infections” (from foreign countries). The reliability of the data remains to be established:

99 newly confirmed cases including 74 in Hubei Province, … The new cases included 24 imported infections — 17 in Gansu Province, three in Beijing, three in Shanghai and one in Guangdong Province.21

March 11, 2020: The historic COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, “closing down” of approximately 190 national economies  (Chapter IV)

The WHO Director-General had already set the stage in his February 21st Press Conference.22

 “The world should do more to prepare for a possible coronavirus pandemic.” The WHO had called upon countries to be “in a phase of preparedness”.

The WHO officially declared a worldwide pandemic at a time when there were 118,000 confirmed cases and 4,291 deaths worldwide (including China). (March 11, 2020, according to press conference)23 What do these “statistics” tell you?

Image: Total cases on March 12, 2020 (Source: WHO)

The number of confirmed cases outside China (6.4 billion population) was of the order of 44,279 and 1,440 deaths (figures recorded by the WHO for March 11 on March 12, see table on the right). These are the figures used to justify the lockdown and the closing down of approximately 190 national economies.24

(The number of deaths outside China mentioned in Tedros’s press conference was 4,291).

In the US recorded on March 11, 2020, there were, according to Johns Hopkins, 1,335 “cases” and 29 deaths (“presumptive” plus PCR confirmed).

No evidence of a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

Immediately following the March 11, 2020 WHO announcement, the fear campaign went into high gear. (The economic and financial impacts are reviewed in Chapter IV)

March 16, 2020: Moderna mRNA-1273 was tested in several stages with 45 volunteers in Seattle, Washington State. The vaccine program started in early February:

“We don’t know whether this vaccine will induce an immune response, or whether it will be safe. That’s why we’re doing a trial,” Jackson stressed. “It’s not at the stage where it would be possible or prudent to give it to the general population.” (AP, March 16, 2020)25

March 18, 2020: Lockdown in the United States

November 8, 2020: The COVID-19 mRNA “vaccine” was launched. (Chapter VIII)

Mid to late December 2020: Worldwide implementation of the mRNA vaccine program.

January 2021 (onwards): Rising trend in vaccine-related deaths and adverse events documented by official data as well as by the Pfizer Confidential Report (see Chapter VIII).

March 2021: Fictional Exercise Scenario of a Deadly Monkeypox Virus Pandemic

A Tabletop Simulation of a “fictional exercise scenario involving an unusual strain of monkeypox virus” was presented at the March 2021 Munich Security Conference. It was sponsored by the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s (NTI) program of  “Strengthening Global Systems to Prevent and Respond to High-Consequence Biological Threats”. (See Chapter XIII)

Two of the participants of the Johns Hopkins Event 201 October 2019 Tabletop Simulation of a novel coronavirus were present: Dr. George Gao Fu, head of China’s CDC and Dr. Chris Elias, President of the Global Development Division of the Gates Foundation.26

May-June 2021: The Delta Variant and “a Fourth Wave” were announced.

The alleged dangers of the Delta variant were used to speed up the vaccination program as well as the imposition of the vaccine passport.

August-September 2021: The Imposition of a Vaccine Passport in Several Western countries

October 2021: Release of the Pfizer Confidential Report under freedom of information (FOI)

This report confirms the impacts (death and adverse events) of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine (see Chapter VIII).27

November 2021: The Omicron variant was allegedly detected in South Africa. The fear campaign triggered a renewed crisis in air travel, coupled with disruptions in commodity trade.

November 2021-January 2022: Distribution of billions of COVID antigen and home test kits worldwide which contributed to doubling the number of so-called “COVID-19 confirmed cases” in the course of six months. More than a billion home and antigen tests in the US, 291 million in Canada.28 

December 24, 2021: The COVID-19 Christmas Omicron lockdown

No large Christmas reunions, the imposition of stay at home mandates, partial closure of bars and restaurants (leading to more bankruptcies), cancellation of sports and cultural events. The unspoken objective is to isolate human beings — prevent people from socializing and meeting up with their loved ones. 

January-February 2022: Partial Lockdowns. Discriminatory Practices directed against the Unvaccinated

In many countries, the unvaccinated were confined to their homes, prevented from traveling, fired from their jobs, prevented from attending schools and universities. They were accused of being extremists and psychopaths. These social divisions are creating conflicts within families and local communities, literally contributing to the disruption of social life, with devastating impacts on economic activity (see Chapter XI).

Canada’s Freedom Convoy 2022 

January-Early February 2022: Mass protest movement in Canada against the vaccine mandate.

 

Freedom Convoy 2022, Ottawa, February 2022. (Copyright Global Research)

March 2022: The launching of the WHO Pandemic Treaty 

In March 2022, the WHO launched an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) with a mandate to create “A Pandemic Treaty”, i.e. a global health governance entity which if adopted would override the authority of WHO member states (see Chapter XIII). 

China’s COVID Zero Tolerance Mandate imposed on Shanghai 

Starting on March 28, 2022The COVID Zero Tolerance Mandate was imposed on Shanghai, a port city of 26 million people. Initially in Shanghai then extended to major Chinese cities in the course of the following months (April-July 2022) (see Chapter IV).

May 13, 2022: The WHO announces a Monkeypox Outbreak

According to the WHO:

Since 13 May 2022, cases of monkeypox have been reported to [the] WHO from 12 Member States that are not endemic for monkeypox virus, across three WHO regions. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing,  … As of 21 May, 92 laboratory confirmed cases, and 28 suspected cases of monkeypox with investigations ongoing, have been reported to WHO from 12 Member States” (see Chapter XIII)

June-July 2022: The seventh wave. Alleged “imminent danger” of the Omicron BA-4 and BA-5 sub-variants.

July 23, 2022: The Monkeypox Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

The WHO Director-General declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) pertaining to the monkeypox virus

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took this decision unilaterally against a majority vote of International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) Emergency Committee.

“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission… Although I [Tedros] am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.”29    (See Chapter XIII)

 

Endnotes

1 PYMNTS, September 18, 2019. How To Build A Global Digital Identity Network. https://www.pymnts.com/news/consumer-authentication/2019/how-to-build-a-global-digital-identity-network/

2 PYMNTS, September 19, 2019. ID2020 Alliance Unveils Digital ID Program. https://www.pymnts.com/news/biometrics/2019/id2020-alliance-unveils-digital-id-program/

3 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, n.d. Event 201. https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/

4 Chiron Return, September 30, 2021. Timeline and Early Chronology of Covid-19 “Pandemic”, PCR Assay and Sequencing. https://www.globalresearch.ca/early-chronology-covid-pcr-assay-sequencing/5757189

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 WHO, January 23, 2020. Statement on the first meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). https://www.who.int/news/item/23-01-2020-statement-on-the-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)

8 Ibid.

9 National Institutes of Health, March 16, 2020. NIH clinical trial of investigational vaccine for COVID-19 begins. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-investigational-vaccine-covid-19-begins

10 WHO, January 30, 2020. Statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)

11 CDC, December 29, 2020. SARS-CoV-2 Viral Culturing at CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/grows-virus-cell-culture.html

12  WHO, January 30, 2020. Statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)

13 WHO, January 29, 2020. Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Situation Report – 9. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200129-sitrep-9-ncov-v2.pdf?sfvrsn=e2c8915_2

14 Eisuke Nakazawa, Hiroyasu Ino, et al., March 24, 2020. Chronology of COVID-19 Cases on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship and Ethical Considerations: A Report From Japan. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7156812/

15 Ibid.

16 WHO, February 20, 2020. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 on 20 February 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19-on-20-february-2020

17 WEF, February 13, 2020. Update: Coronavirus (COVID-19) | DAVOS 2020. https://www.weforum.org/videos/update-wuhan-coronavirus-covid-19-davos-2020

18 WHO, February 28, 2020. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 28 February 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—28-february-2020

19 WHO, March 5, 2020. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 5 March 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—5-march-2020

20 Joseph Guzman, January 27, 2020. Coronavirus is spreading — but the flu is a greater threat to Americans. https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/longevity/480089-coronavirus-sparks-panic-as-flu-poses-greater-threat-to

21 Xinhua, March 7, 2020. Xinhua Headlines: China’s new COVID-19 cases drop to double-digit figures since Jan. 21. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-03/07/c_138853686.htm

22 WHO, February 21, 2020. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Press Conference. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/who-audio-emergencies-coronavirus-full-press-conference-21feb2020-final.pdf?sfvrsn=954f8ec7_2

23 WHO, March 11, 2020. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 11 March 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020

24 WHO, March 12, 2020. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 52. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200312-sitrep-52-covid-19.pdf

25 The Associated Press, March 16, 2020. COVID-19 vaccine test begins as volunteer patient administered 1st shot. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-vaccine-1.5499244

26 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, August 4, 2022. Worldwide Monkeypox Health Emergency (PHEIC): For Bill Gates, It’s “Moneypox”: Simulation of Fictitious Monkeypox Virus Pandemic in March 2021, Goes Live in May 2022. https://www.globalresearch.ca/bill-gates-warns-smallpox-terror-attacks-urges-leaders-use-germ-games-prepare/5781195?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles

27 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, August 13, 2022. Bombshell Document Dump on Pfizer Vaccine Data. https://www.globalresearch.ca/bombshell-document-dump-pfizer-vaccine-data/5763397

28 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, July 19, 2022. Biggest Lie in World History: There Never Was A Pandemic. The Data Base is Flawed. The Covid Mandates including the Vaccine are Invalid. https://www.globalresearch.ca/biggest-lie-in-world-history-the-data-base-is-flawed-there-never-was-a-pandemic-the-covid-mandates-including-the-vaccine-are-invalid/5772008

29 WHO, July 23, 2022. WHO Director-General’s statement at the press conference following IHR Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox – 23 July 2022. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-statement-on-the-press-conference-following-IHR-emergency-committee-regarding-the-multi–country-outbreak-of-monkeypox–23-july-2022

 


 

Chapter III

What Is COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2:

How Is It Tested? How Is It Measured?

 

“The PCR is a process. It does not tell you that you are sick.”  —Dr. Kary Mullis, Nobel Laureate and Inventor of the RT-PCR, passed away in August 2019.

“…All or a substantial part of these positives could be due to what’s called false positives tests.” —Dr. Michael Yeadon, distinguished scientist, former Vice President and Chief Science Officer of Pfizer

“This misuse of the RT-PCR technique is applied as a relentless and intentional strategy by some governments to justify excessive measures such as the violation of a large number of constitutional rights, … under the pretext of a pandemic based on a number of positive RT-PCR tests, and not on a real number of patients.” —Dr. Pascal Sacré, Belgian physician specialized in critical care and renowned public health analyst.

“I have seen massive efforts made to deliberately inflate Covid death numbers by relabelling cancer patients and stroke victims and all manner of normal regular deaths as Covid, in fact virtually anyone getting into an ambulance. The methods used to do so were totally flawed, PCR tests for example being run on 45 cycles we all know to be worthless, yet people are being euthanised on this basis and sometimes only on the basis of a chest x-ray alone.” —John O’Looney, Funeral Director, Milton Keynes, U.K.

 

Introduction

Media lies coupled with a systemic and carefully engineered fear campaign have sustained the image of a killer virus which is relentlessly spreading to all major regions of the world. 

Several billion people in more than 190 countries have been tested (as well as retested) for COVID-19.  

At the time of writing, more than 500 million people worldwide have been categorized as “COVID-19 confirmed cases (“cumulative cases”).

The alleged pandemic is said to have resulted in more than 5.8 million COVID-19-related deaths.

Both sets of figures — morbidity and mortality — are invalid. A highly organized COVID testing apparatus (part of which is funded by the billionaire foundations) was established with a view to driving up the numbers of “COVID-19 confirmed cases”, which are then used as a justification to impose the “vaccine” passport coupled with the repeal of fundamental human rights. 

From the outset of this crisis in January 2020, all far-reaching policy decisions upheld and presented to the public as a “means to saving lives” were based on flawed and invalid RT-PCR positive cases.

These invalid COVID-19 “estimates” have been used to justify confinement, social distancing, wearing of the face mask, the prohibition of social gatherings, cultural and sports events, the closure of economic activity, as well as the enforcement of the mRNA “vaccine” launched in November 2020. 

There is no such thing as a “COVID-19 confirmed case”. Firmly acknowledged both by scientific opinion and the World Health Organization, the RT-PCR test used to “detect” the spread of the virus (as well as its variants) is not only flawed but TOTALLY INVALID. 

The fear campaign is relentlessly spearheaded by political statements and media disinformation. A closer examination of official reports from national health authorities as well as peer-reviewed articles provides a totally different picture. 

In this chapter, we will be focusing on the following issues:

1.  The features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as outlined by the WHO, the CDC and peer-reviewed reports. Is it a dangerous virus?

2. The Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Test used to “detect/identify” SARS-CoV-2.

3. The reliability of the estimates of mortality and morbidity pertaining to the alleged COVID-19 infection.

 

The Features of SARS-CoV-2

Lies through omission: the media has failed to reassure the broader public.

Below is the official WHO definition of COVID-19 followed by that of the CDC:

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which may cause illness in animals or humans.  In humans, several coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered coronavirus causes coronavirus disease COVID-19.

“The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, dry cough, and tiredness. … These symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. Some people become infected but only have very mild symptoms. Most people (about 80%) recover from the disease without needing hospital treatment. Around 1 out of every 5 people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing.”1

 

Similar to Influenza According to the CDC

COVID-19 versus Influenza (Flu) Virus A and Virus B (and subtypes) 

Rarely mentioned by the media or by politicians: The CDC (which is an agency of the US government) confirms that COVID-19 is similar to Influenza:

Influenza (Flu) and COVID-19 are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. COVID-19 is caused by infection with a new coronavirus (called SARS-CoV-2) and flu is caused by infection with influenza viruses. Because some of the symptoms of flu and COVID-19 are similar, it may be hard to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone, and testing may be needed to help confirm a diagnosis. Flu and COVID-19 share many characteristics, but there are some key differences between the two.”2

If the public had been informed and reassured that COVID is “similar to Influenza”, the fear campaign would have fallen flat.

The lockdown and closure of the national economy would have been rejected outright.

According to Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, pneumonia is “regularly caused or accompanied by coronaviruses”.3

Immunologists broadly confirm the CDC definition. COVID-19 has similar features to a seasonal influenza coupled with pneumonia.

According to Anthony Fauci (Head of NIAID), H. Clifford Lane, and Robert R. Redfield (Head of CDC) in the New England Journal of Medicine:

“…the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.”4

How convenient: The above article was first published in the NEJM on March 26, 2020, exactly ten days after the declaration of a national emergency by President Trump on March 16, 2020. Had this authoritative peer-reviewed text been brought to the attention of the American public, the lockdown mandate would have fallen flat. 

Fauci speaks to the White House press corps on COVID-19 in April 2020, watched by President Donald Trump (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right). (By The White House, licensed under the Public Domain)

Dr. Anthony Fauci is lying to himself. In his public statements, he says that COVID is “ten times worse than seasonal flu”.5

He refutes his peer-reviewed report quoted above. From the outset, Fauci has been instrumental in waging a fear and panic campaign across America.6 

 

The Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Test

The slanted methodology applied under WHO guidance for detecting the alleged spread of the virus is the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, which has been routinely applied all over the world since February 2020.

The RT-PCR test has been used worldwide to generate millions of erroneous “COVID-19 confirmed cases”, which are then used to sustain the illusion that the alleged pandemic is real.

This assessment based on erroneous numbers has been used in the course of the last two and a half years to spearhead and sustain the fear campaign.

And people are now led to believe that the COVID-19 “vaccine” is the “solution”. And that “normality” will be restored once the entire population of planet Earth has been vaccinated.

“Confirmed” is a misnomer. A “confirmed RT-PCR positive case” does not imply a “COVID-19 confirmed case”.

Positive RT-PCR is not synonymous with the COVID-19 disease! PCR specialists make it clear that a test must always be compared with the clinical record of the patient being tested, with the patient’s state of health to confirm its value [reliability]. (Dr. Pascal Sacré)7

The procedure used by the national health authorities is to categorize all RT-PCR positive cases as “COVID-19 confirmed cases” (with or without a medical diagnosis). Ironically, this routine process of identifying “confirmed cases” is in derogation of the CDC’s own guidelines:

“Detection of viral RNA may not indicate the presence of infectious virus or that 2019-nCoV is the causative agent for clinical symptoms. The performance of this test has not been established for monitoring treatment of 2019-nCoV infection. This test cannot rule out diseases caused by other bacterial or viral pathogens.”8 (emphasis added)

The methodology used to detect and estimate the spread of the virus is flawed and invalid.

 

False Positives

The earlier debate at the outset of the crisis focused on the issue of “false positives.”

Acknowledged by the WHO and the CDC, the RT-PCR test was known to produce a high percentage of false positives. According to Dr. Pascal Sacré:

“Today, as authorities test more people, there are bound to be more positive RT-PCR tests. This does not mean that COVID-19 is coming back, or that the epidemic is moving in waves. There are more people being tested, that’s all.”9

The debate on false positives (acknowledged by health authorities) points to so-called errors without necessarily questioning the overall validity of the RT-PCR test as a means to detecting the alleged spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

 

The PCR Test Does Not Detect the Identity of the Virus

The RT-PCR test does not identify/detect the virus. What the PCR test identifies are genetic fragments of numerous viruses (including influenza viruses types A and B and coronaviruses which trigger common colds).

The results of the RT-PCR test cannot “confirm” whether an individual who undertakes the test is infected with SARS-CoV-2.

The following diagram summarizes the process of identifying positive and negative cases. All that is required is the presence of “viral genetic material” for it to be categorized as “positive”. The procedure does not identity or isolate COVID-19. What appears in the tests are fragments of the virus.10

 

 
 
A positive test does not mean that you have the virus and/or that you could transmit the virus.

According to Dr. Kary Mullis, inventor of the PCR technique, 

“The PCR detects a very small segment of the nucleic acid which is part of a virus itself.”

Image: Dr. Kary Mullis, American biochemist and Nobel laureate. (By Dona Mapston/Flickr, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

According to renowned Swiss immunologist Dr. B. Stadler:

So if we do a PCR corona test on an immune person, it is not a virus that is detected, but a small shattered part of the viral genome. The test comes back positive for as long as there are tiny shattered parts of the virus left. Even if the infectious viri are long dead, a corona test can come back positive, because the PCR method multiplies even a tiny fraction of the viral genetic material enough [to be detected].11

Dr. Pascal Sacré concurs, “These tests detect viral particles, genetic sequences, not the whole virus.”12

“In an attempt to quantify the viral load, these sequences are then amplified several times through numerous complex steps that are subject to errors, sterility errors and contamination.”

 

The WHO’s “Customized” RT-PCR COVID-19 “Test” 

Two important and related issues.

The PCR test does not identify the virus as outlined above. Moreover, the WHO in January 2020 did not possess an isolate and purified sample of the novel 2019-nCoV virus. 

What was contemplated in January 2020 was a “customization” of the PCR test by the WHO, under the scientific guidance of the Berlin Virology Institute at Charité Hospital.

Dr. Christian Drosten and his colleagues at the Berlin Virology Institute undertook a study entitled “Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR”.13

 

Screenshot from Eurosurveillance 

 

The title of the Berlin Virology Institute study is an obvious misnomer. The PCR test cannot “detect” the 2019 novel coronavirus. (See Dr. Kary Mullis, Dr. B. Stadler, Dr. Pascal Sacré quoted above).

Moreover, the study published by Eurosurveillance acknowledges that the WHO did not possess an isolate and purified sample of the novel 2019-nCoV virus: 

[While]… several viral genome sequences had been released,… virus isolates or samples [of 2019-nCoV] from infected patients were not available …”14

The Drosten, et al. team then recommended to the WHO that in the absence of an isolate of the 2019-nCoV virus, a similar 2003 SARS-CoV should be used as a “proxy” (point of reference) of the novel virus:

“The genome sequences suggest presence of a virus closely related to the members of a viral species termed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-related CoV, a species defined by the agent of the 2002/03 outbreak of SARS in humans [3,4].

We report on the the establishment and validation of a diagnostic workflow for 2019-nCoV screening and specific confirmation [using the RT-PCR test], designed in absence of available virus isolates or original patient specimens. Design and validation were enabled by the close genetic relatedness to the 2003 SARS-CoV, and aided by the use of synthetic nucleic acid technology.” (Eurosurveillance, January 23, 2020, emphasis added).15

What this ambiguous statement suggests is that the identity of 2019-nCoV was not required and that “COVID-19 confirmed cases” (aka infection resulting from the 2019 novel coronavirus) would be validated by “the close genetic relatedness to the 2003 SARS-CoV.” 

What this means is that a coronavirus detected 19 years ago (2003 SARS-CoV) is being used to “validate” the identity of a so-called “novel coronavirus” first detected in China’s Hubei Province in late December 2019.

The recommendations of the Drosten study (generously supported and financed by the Gates Foundation) were then transmitted to the WHO. They were subsequently endorsed by the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The WHO did not have in its possession the “virus isolate” required to identify the virus. It was decided that an isolate of the new coronavirus was not required. 

The Drosten, et al. article pertaining to the use of the RT-PCR test worldwide (under WHO guidance) was challenged in a November 27, 2020 study by a group of 23 international virologists, microbiologists, et al.

It stands to reason that if the PCR test uses the 2003 SARS-CoV virus as “a point of reference”, there can be no “confirmed” COVID-19 cases of the novel virus 2019-nCoV (subsequently renamed SARS-CoV-2) or of its variants.

 

Has the Identity of the 2019-nCoV Been Confirmed? Does the Virus Exist? 

While the WHO did not possess an isolate of the virus, is there valid and reliable evidence that the 2019 novel coronavirus had been isolated from an “unadulterated sample taken from a diseased patient”?16

The Chinese authorities announced on January 7, 2020 that “a new type of virus” had been “identified” “similar to the one associated with SARS and MERS” (related report, not original Chinese government source). The underlying method adopted by the Chinese research team is described below:

We prospectively collected and analysed data on patients with laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection by real-time RT-PCR and next-generation sequencing.

Data were obtained with standardised data collection forms shared by WHO and the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium from electronic medical records.17 (emphasis added)

The above study (quotation above as well as other documents consulted) suggests that China’s health authorities did not undertake an isolation/purification of a patient’s specimen. Using “laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection by real-time RT-PCR” (as quoted in their study) is an obvious misnomer, i.e. the RT-PCR test cannot under any circumstances be used to identify the virus. The isolate of the virus by the Chinese authorities is unconfirmed.18

 

Freedom of Information Pertaining to the Isolate of SARS-CoV-2

A detailed investigative project by Christine Massey entitled Freedom of Information Requests: Health/Science Institutions Worldwide “Have No Record” of SARS-COV-2 Isolation/Purification provides documentation concerning the identity of the virus. The responses to these requests from 127 entities in 25 countries confirm that there is no record of isolation/purification of SARS-CoV-2 “having been performed by anyone, anywhere, ever.”19

 

The Threshold Amplification Cycles. The WHO Admits that the Results of the RT-PCR “Test” Are Totally Invalid

The RT-PCR test was adopted by the WHO on January 23, 2020 as a means to detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, following the recommendations of the Berlin Virology research group (quoted above).

Exactly one year later on January 20, 2021, the WHO retracts. They don’t say “we made a mistake”. The retraction is carefully formulated (see original WHO document here).20

The contentious issue pertains to the number of amplification threshold cycles (Ct). According to Pieter Borger, et al.:

The number of amplification cycles [should be] less than 35; preferably 25-30 cycles. In case of virus detection, >35 cycles only detects signals which do not correlate with infectious virus as determined by isolation in cell culture…(Critique of Drosten Study)21

The World Health Organization (WHO) tacitly admits one year later that ALL PCR tests conducted at a 35 cycle amplification threshold (Ct) or higher are INVALID. But that is what they recommended in January 2020, in consultation with the Virology team at Charité Hospital in Berlin.

If the test is conducted at a 35 Ct threshold or above (which was recommended by the WHO), genetic segments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus cannot be detected, which means that ALL the so-called “COVID-19 confirmed cases” tabulated worldwide in the course of the last two and a half years are invalid.

According to Pieter Borger, Bobby Rajesh Malhotra, Michael Yeadon, et al., the Ct > 35 has been the norm “in most laboratories in Europe & the US”.22

 

The WHO’s Mea Culpa

Below is the WHO’s carefully formulated “retraction”.

“WHO guidance Diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 states that careful interpretation of weak positive results is needed (1). The cycle threshold (Ct) needed to detect virus is inversely proportional to the patient’s viral load. Where test results do not correspond with the clinical presentation, a new specimen should be taken and retested using the same or different NAT technology. (emphasis added)

WHO reminds IVD users that disease prevalence alters the predictive value of test results; as disease prevalence decreases, the risk of false positive increases (2). This means that the probability that a person who has a positive result (SARS-CoV-2 detected) is truly infected with SARS-CoV-2 decreases as prevalence decreases, irrespective of the claimed specificity.”23

 

“Invalid Positives” Is the Underlying Concept 

This is not an issue of “weak positives” and “risk of false positive increases”. What is at stake is a “flawed methodology” which leads to invalid estimates of “COVID-19 confirmed cases”.

What this admission of the WHO confirms is that the estimate of COVID positive from a PCR test (with an amplification threshold of 35 cycles or higher) is invalid. In which case, the WHO recommends retesting, “a new specimen should be taken and retested…”

The WHO calls for “retesting”, which is tantamount to saying “we screwed up”.

That recommendation is pro-forma. It won’t happen. Several billion people worldwide have already been tested, starting in early February 2020.

From the outset, the PCR test has routinely been applied at a Ct amplification threshold of 35 cycles or higher. What this means is that the PCR methodology as applied worldwide has in the course of the last two and a half years led to the compilation of faulty and misleading COVID-19 estimates, which according to the WHO (January 20, 2021) are based on an invalid methodology.  

And these are the statistics which are used to measure the progression of the so-called “pandemic”. Above an amplification cycle of 35 or higher, the test will not detect fragments of the virus. Therefore, the official “COVID numbers” (COVID-19 confirmed cases) are meaningless.

It follows that there is no scientific basis for confirming the existence of a pandemic, which in turn means that the lockdown/economic measures which have resulted in social panic, mass poverty and unemployment (allegedly to curtail the spread of the virus) have no justification whatsoever. According to scientific opinion:

“if someone is tested by PCR as positive when a threshold of 35 cycles or higher is used (as is the case in most laboratories in Europe & the US), the probability that said person is actually infected is less than 3%, the probability that said result is a false positive is 97%  

3. The number of amplification cycles (less than 35; preferably 25-30 cycles);

In case of virus detection, >35 cycles only detects signals which do not correlate with infectious virus as determined by isolation in cell culture [reviewed in 2]; if someone is tested by PCR as positive when a threshold of 35 cycles or higher is used (as is the case in most laboratories in Europe & the US), the probability that said person is actually infected is less than 3%, the probability that said result is a false positive is 97%” (emphasis added) (Pieter Borger, Bobby Rajesh Malhotra, Michael Yeadon, Clare Craig, Kevin McKernan, et al. Critique of Drosten Study)24

As outlined above, “the probability that said result is a false positive is 97%”, it follows that using the >35 cycles detection will indelibly contribute to “hiking up” the number of “fake positives”.

The WHO’s mea culpa confirms that the COVID-19 PCR test procedure as applied is meaningless.

 

The CDC Orders the Withdrawal of the PCR Test

The WHO’s historic retraction is followed six months later by a mea culpa on the part of the CDC. On July 21, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls for the withdrawal of the PCR test as a valid method for detecting and identifying SARS-CoV-2: 

“After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only.”

In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select and begin their transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test.

CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. (emphasis added)25

Read carefully: what this CDC directive tacitly admits is that the PCR test does not effectively differentiate between “SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses”. We have known this from the outset.

As of January 1, 2022, the CDC has withdrawn its endorsement of the RT-PCR test in the US.

If the PCR test is invalid as intimated by both the CDC and the WHO, more than 574 million so-called “COVID-19 confirmed cases” (July 2022) as well as more than 6.3 million alleged COVID-related deaths (July 2022) collected and tabulated worldwide since the outset of the alleged pandemic are totally meaningless.

 

The Falsification of Death Certificates 

Inasmuch as the PCR test is invalid, it follows that the estimates of “COVID-19 confirmed cases” including the detection of variants of SARS-CoV-2 are totally invalid. This in turn means that the methodology pertaining to establishing COVID-19-related deaths worldwide is also invalid.

It is worth noting that in a December 2020 report, the CDC reported that 94% of the deaths attributed to COVID have “comorbidities” (i.e. deaths due to other causes).26

For six percent of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups.

“They’re writing COVID on all the death certificates,” according to Michael Lanza, Funeral Director at Staten Island, NY.

“Funeral directors doubt legitimacy of deaths attributed to pandemic, fear numbers are ‘padded.'” (Project Veritas)27

Moreover, had the CDC used the criteria in its Medical Examiners’ and Coroners’ Handbook on Death Registration and Fetal Death Reporting Revision 2003: 

” … the COVID-19 fatality count would have been approximately 90.2% lower” (See H. Ealy, M. McEvoy, and et al., August 09, 2020)28

US Fatalities With At Least 1 Comorbidity. (Source: CDC via IPAK PHPI

 

COVID-19: The “Underlying Cause of Death” and the CDC’s “More Often Than Not” Clause 

While the CDC acknowledged the issue of comorbidities, it nonetheless enacted totally invalid instructions with regard to the death certificates.

Barely a week following the historic March 11, 2020 lockdown, specific guidelines were introduced by the CDC pertaining to  death certificates (and their tabulation in the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS)).29

Will COVID-19 be the underlying cause of death? This concept is fundamental.30

The underlying cause of death is defined by the WHO as

“the disease or injury that initiated the train of events leading directly to death”.  

What the CDC recommended with regard to statistical coding and categorization is that COVID-19 is expected to be the underlying cause of death “more often than not.”

The CDC combines these two criteria: “underlying cause of death” and “more often than not”.

Will COVID-19 be the underlying cause of death? 

“The underlying cause depends upon what and where conditions are reported on the death certificate. However, the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID-19 being the underlying cause more often than not.”31

The above directive is categorical.

The CDC Concepts and Justifications

The certifier is not allowed to report coronavirus without identifying a specific strain. And the guidelines recommend that COVID-19 must always be indicated.

 

Screenshot from National Vital Statistics System

The certifier cannot depart from the CDC criteria. COVID-19 is imposed. Read carefully the CDC criteria.32

There are no loopholes.

These CDC directives have contributed to categorizing COVID-19 as the recorded “cause of death”. Two fundamental concepts prevail throughout:

  1. The “underlying cause of death”
  2. The “More Often than Not” clause which falsifies the cause of death 

And these criteria are imposed despite the fact that the RT-PCR test used to corroborate the “cause of death” provides misleading results as acknowledged by both the WHO and the CDC.

In practice, as outlined above, “probable COVID-19” or “likely COVID-19” will be considered as the “underlying cause of death” without the conduct of a PCR test and without performing an autopsy. 

The criteria establishing the “underlying” cause of death in the US are based on “the more often than not” clause (see above) established nationally by the CDC.

Canada: Flawed “Estimates” of the Cause of Death

In Canada, the criteria differ from one province to another. Categorizing the cause of death in Canada’s Province of Quebec has been the object of gross manipulation.33

According to a directive from Quebec’s Ministry of Health (April 2020):

“If the presumed cause of death is Covid-19 (with or without a positive test) an autopsy should be avoided and death should be attributed to Covid-19 as the probable cause of death. In addition, deaths whose probable cause is Covid-19 are considered natural, and are not subject to a coroner’s notice.“ (emphasis from the original document)34

The directive does not allow the counting of comorbidities. Applied on April 16, 2020, this directive was conducive to an immediate sharp increase in the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19:

44.9% of total deaths in Quebec were attributed to COVID-19 (week of 11-18 April 2020) (see table below).

According to Montreal’s La Presse, “April [2020] was the deadliest month”. But did La Presse consult the directives of the Ministry of Health?

Below are the (daily) causes of death for Quebec corresponding to the week of April 12 to 18, 2020 (immediately following the government directive) measured according to the criteria issued by the Ministry of Health.35 There were virtually no COVID cases or deaths recorded in March 2020. 

Table below: Causes of Deaths, Daily Average 

 

Source: Copyright La Presse 

Are these figures the result of the so-called deadly pandemic? Or are they the result of the Ministry of Health’s “guidelines” based on erroneous criteria?

  • “presumed” case pertaining to COVID
  • “with or without a positive test”
  • “probable” cause of death
  • “autopsy should be avoided” in the case of COVID-19
  • deaths of which the probable cause is COVID-19 are considered natural, and are not the object of a notice to the coroner

According to Mr. Paul G. Brunet of the Council for the Protection of the Sick (CPM):

“… We realized through the denunciations by some of the doctors that people did not die from COVID, but from dehydration, malnutrition, abandonment, laments Mr. Brunet. So what did the thousands of people in CHSLDs [old persons nursing homes] and private residences really die of?” (quoted in La Presse, translated from French)

 

Test, Test, Test: Invalid Data and the “Numbers Game”

People are frightened. They are encouraged to do the PCR test, which increases the number of fake positives. Governments are involved in increasing the number of PCR tests with a view to inflating the estimates of so-called “COVID-19 confirmed cases”.

Moreover, starting in late 2021, several billion antigen and home test kits were distributed worldwide. More than a billion test kits were distributed in the US.

In Canada, which has a population of 38.5 million people, the federal government ordered (late 2021, early 2022) the delivery of 291 million COVID-19 antigen home testing kits. This decision has not only contributed to spearheading the fear campaign, it has created a situation of social chaos. It has contributed to pushing up the numbers of so-called “confirmed cases”.36 These tests are not routinely accompanied by a medical diagnosis of the patient.

 


Annex to Chapter III

Full text of the WHO directive dated January 20, 202137

 

Screenshot from WHO

 

Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) Technologies that Use Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for Detection of SARS-CoV-2

Product type: Nucleic acid testing (NAT) technologies that use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of SARS-CoV-2

Date: 13 January 2021                                                                      

WHO-identifier: 2020/5, version 2

Target audience: laboratory professionals and users of IVDs.

Purpose of this notice: clarify information previously provided by WHO. This notice supersedes WHO Information Notice for In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device (IVD) Users 2020/05 version 1, issued 14 December 2020.

Description of the problem: WHO requests users to follow the instructions for use (IFU) when interpreting results for specimens tested using PCR methodology.

Users of IVDs must read and follow the IFU carefully to determine if manual adjustment of the PCR positivity threshold is recommended by the manufacturer.

WHO guidance Diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 states that careful interpretation of weak positive results is needed (1). The cycle threshold (Ct) needed to detect virus is inversely proportional to the patient’s viral load. Where test results do not correspond with the clinical presentation, a new specimen should be taken and retested using the same or different NAT technology.

WHO reminds IVD users that disease prevalence alters the predictive value of test results; as disease prevalence decreases, the risk of false positive increases (2). This means that the probability that a person who has a positive result (SARS-CoV-2 detected) is truly infected with SARS-CoV-2 decreases as prevalence decreases, irrespective of the claimed specificity.

Most PCR assays are indicated as an aid for diagnosis, therefore, health care providers must consider any result in combination with timing of sampling, specimen type, assay specifics, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contacts, and epidemiological information.

Actions to be taken by IVD users:

  1. Please read carefully the IFU in its entirety.
  2. Contact your local representative if there is any aspect of the IFU that is unclear to you.
  3. Check the IFU for each incoming consignment to detect any changes to the IFU.
  4. Provide the Ct value in the report to the requesting health care provider.

 

Notes

1. Diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020, WHO reference number WHO/2019-nCoV/laboratory/2020.6.

2. Altman DG, Bland JM. Diagnostic tests 2: Predictive values. BMJ. 1994 Jul 9;309(6947):102. doi: 10.1136/bmj.309.6947.102.


Endnotes

1 WHO, March 8, 2020. Media Statement: Knowing the risks for COVID-19. https://www.who.int/indonesia/news/detail/08-03-2020-knowing-the-risk-for-covid-19

2 CDC, n.d. Similarities and Differences between Flu and COVID-19. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs-covid19.htm#table

3 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 5, 2020. Fake Coronavirus Data, Fear Campaign. Spread of the COVID-19 Infection. https://www.globalresearch.ca/fake-coronavirus-data-fear-campaign-spread-of-the-covid-19-infection/5708643

4 Anthony Fauci, Clifford Lane, et al., March 26, 2020. Covid-19 — Navigating the Uncharted. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387#

5 Ronald Bailey, March 11, 2020. COVID-19 Mortality Rate ‘Ten Times Worse’ Than Seasonal Flu, Says Dr. Anthony Fauci. https://reason.com/2020/03/11/covid-19-mortality-rate-ten-times-worse-than-seasonal-flu-says-dr-anthony-fauci/

6 Ibid.

7 Dr. Pascal Sacre, November 5, 2020. The COVID-19 RT-PCR Test: How to Mislead All Humanity. Using a “Test” To Lock Down Society. https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-rt-pcr-how-to-mislead-all-humanity-using-a-test-to-lock-down-society/5728483

8 CDC, July 21, 2021. CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel. https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download

9 Dr. Pascal Sacre, November 5, 2020. The COVID-19 RT-PCR Test: How to Mislead All Humanity. Using a “Test” To Lock Down Society. https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-rt-pcr-how-to-mislead-all-humanity-using-a-test-to-lock-down-society/5728483

10 Joseph Hadaya, Max Schumm, et al., April 1, 2020. Testing Individuals for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2764238

11 Beda M Sadler, July 2, 2020. Coronavirus: Why Everyone Was Wrong. It is Not a “New Virus”. “The Fairy Tale of No Immunity”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-why-everyone-wrong/5718049

12 Dr. Pascal Sacre, August 7, 2020. COVID-19: Closer to the Truth: Tests and Immunity. https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-closer-to-the-truth-tests-and-immunity/5720160

13 Victor M Corman, Olfert Landt, et al., January 23, 2020. Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR. https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Christine Massey, August 4, 2021. The Identity of the Virus: Health/Science Institutions Worldwide “Have No Record” of SARS-COV-2 Isolation/Purification. https://www.globalresearch.ca/foi-reveal-health-science-institutions-around-world-have-no-record-sars-cov-2-isolation-purification-anywhere-ever/5751969

17 Chaolin Huang, Yeming Wang, et al., January 24, 2020. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159299/

18 Fan Wu, Su Zhao, et al., February 3, 2020. A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2008-3

19 Christine Massey, August 4, 2021. The Identity of the Virus: Health/ Science Institutions Worldwide “Have No Record” of SARS-COV-2 Isolation/Purification. https://www.globalresearch.ca/foi-reveal-health-science-institutions-around-world-have-no-record-sars-cov-2-isolation-purification-anywhere-ever/5751969

20 WHO, January 20, 2021. Nucleic acid testing (NAT) technologies that use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of SARS-CoV-2. https://www.who.int/news/item/20-01-2021-who-information-notice-for-ivd-users-2020-05

21 Pieter Borger, Bobby Rajesh Malhotra, et al., November 27, 2020. Review report Corman-Drosten et al. Eurosurveillance 2020. https://cormandrostenreview.com/report/

22 Ibid.

23 WHO, September 11, 2020. Diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/diagnostic-testing-for-sars-cov-2

24 Pieter Borger, Bobby Rajesh Malhotra, et al., November 27, 2020. Review report Corman-Drosten et al. Eurosurveillance 2020. https://cormandrostenreview.com/report/

25 CDC, July 21, 2021. Lab Alert: Changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing. https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert-Changes_CDC_RT-PCR_SARS-CoV-2_Testing_1.html

26 CDC, January 20, 2022. Conditions Contributing to COVID-19 Deaths, by State and Age, Provisional 2020-2021. https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Conditions-Contributing-to-COVID-19-Deaths-by-Stat/hk9y-quqm

27 Project Veritas, April 30, 2020. BREAKING: Funeral Directors in COVID-19 Epicenter Doubt Legitimacy of Deaths Attributed to Pandemic, Fear Numbers are ‘Padded’. https://www.projectveritas.com/news/breaking-funeral-directors-in-covid-19-epicenter-doubt-legitimacy-of-deaths/

28 H. Ealy, M. McEvoy, et al., July 24, 2020. Covid-19: Questionable Policies, Manipulated Rules of Data Collection and Reporting. Is It Safe for Students to Return to School? https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-fatalities-wer-90-2-lower-how-would-you-feel-about-schools-reopening/5720264

29 National Vital Statistics System, March 24, 2020. New ICD code introduced for COVID-19 deaths. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/coronavirus/Alert-2-New-ICD-code-introduced-for-COVID-19-deaths.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2XckyC93jfKqvOue5EdPlNA8LlKKgz4vPZTU1whI4vXLSOADSjsL9XY-M

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid.

33 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, February 14, 2021. Quebec: Falsification of Mortality Data Pertaining to Covid-19. https://www.globalresearch.ca/quebec-falsification-of-mortality-data-pertaining-to-covid-19/5737290

34 See this: https://amol.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/19_avril_20-AU-00603_LET_Opatrny-Codirecteurs_Orientations_ministerielle….pdf

35 Ibid.

36 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, July 19, 2022. Biggest Lie in World History: There Never Was A Pandemic. The Data Base is Flawed. The Covid Mandates including the Vaccine are Invalid. https://www.globalresearch.ca/biggest-lie-in-world-history-the-data-base-is-flawed-there-never-was-a-pandemic-the-covid-mandates-including-the-vaccine-are-invalid/5772008

37 WHO, January 20, 2021. Nucleic acid testing (NAT) technologies that use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of SARS-CoV-2. https://www.who.int/news/item/20-01-2021-who-information-notice-for-ivd-users-2020-05

 


 

Chapter IV

Engineered Economic Depression

 

Introduction

Economics 101. The March 11, 2020 lockdown applied simultaneously in 190 countries has resulted in: 

“The confinement of the labor force” coupled with

“The paralysis of the workplace”.  

The predictable impact: 

The most serious economic crisis in world history.

The Economics Profession

The economics profession  focusing on the “market mechanism” has casually ignored this fundamental causal relationship. 

The consensus among both neoclassical as well as “progressive” political economists and social scientists is that “V the virus”, namely SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the downfall of economic activity.

A similar position was adopted by trade union organizations including the AFL-CIO: the confinement of the labor force was viewed as a means to “protect” labor rights. 

When workers are confined in their homes, prevented from going to their workplace, “the common sense impact” is obvious: the lockdown is conducive to worldwide economic and social chaos. 

According to mainstream economists and financial analysts, the economic crisis commenced in early March 2022 coinciding with the onslaught of the war in Ukraine.  

That position is mistaken.

The ongoing economic and social crisis which is affecting humanity worldwide has its roots in January 2020 following the WEF meetings in Davos and the launching of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the WHO (January 30, 2020). 

Distinct Phases and Consequences

There are several distinct phases in the engineered destabilization of the global economy which are examined in this chapter:

  • Late January 2020: the Trump administration announced (Jan 31, 2020) that the U.S. will deny entry to foreign nationals “who have traveled in China in the last 14 days”.1 Trump’s decision immediately triggered a crisis in air travel and transportation which is still ongoing. China-US trade as well as the tourism industry were disrupted.
  • February 20, 2020: The WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros’s warning that a pandemic was imminent served to trigger the most serious financial crash since 1929.
  • The March 11, 2020 lockdown was conducive to the “closing down” of approximately 193 national economies, with devastating economic and social consequences.
  • November-December 2020: A partial lockdown as well as the launching of the COVID-19 vaccine
  • November 2021-January 2022: The Omicron variant was used to justify a partial lockdown, the launching of the vaccine passport, the enforcement of restrictive measures directed against the unvaccinated.
  • April-July 2022: The application of a lockdown mandate under China’s Zero Tolerance COVID Mandate in Shanghai and major urban areas in China.

 

The Disruption of US-China Trade 

Trump’s decision on January 31, 2020 was taken immediately following the announcement of the WHO Director-General’s decision to launch a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) (January 30, 2020). In many regards, this was an act of “economic warfare” against China.

And then, following Trump’s January 31, 2020 decision to curtail air travel and transportation to China, a campaign was launched in Western countries against China as well as against ethnic Chinese. The Economist reported that “The coronavirus spreads racism against and among ethnic Chinese.”2

“Britain’s Chinese community faces racism over coronavirus outbreak.”

According to the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong): “Chinese communities overseas are increasingly facing racist abuse and discrimination amid the coronavirus outbreak. Some ethnic Chinese people living in the UK say they experienced growing hostility because of the deadly virus that originated in China.”3

 

US-China Trade. America’s Dependence on “Made in China”

The impacts on bilateral US-China trade relations at the outset of the corona crisis were devastating: US commodity imports from China declined by 28.3% in the course of the first three months of the corona crisis.

Following the March 11, 2020 lockdown and (partial) closure of economic activity worldwide, the decline of US imports from China in March 2020 was of the order of 36.5% (in relation to March 2019).4  Moreover, resulting from the deep-seated financial crisis which started in February 2020, the value of (announced) Chinese direct investment projects in the US had fallen by about 90% (Financial Times).5

While the US has an advanced and diversified high technology economy (in both civilian and military production), its manufacturing base is weak. America is an import-led economy (resulting from offshoring) heavily dependent on commodity imports from the People’s Republic of China.

Moreover, despite America’s financial dominance and the powers of the dollar, there are serious failures in the structure of America’s “real economy” which have been exacerbated by the corona crisis.

Political and geopolitical factors have also played a key role including the anti-Chinese campaign launched in February 2020 as well as threats by Washington, claiming that China was responsible for “spreading the virus”.

While the US economy entered into a deep-seated crisis starting with the February 2020 financial crash and the March 2020 lockdown, China’s national economy had recovered. China’s exports increased significantly in the course of 2021. 

Bilateral US-China trade relations are nonetheless in jeopardy, marked by a significant reduction of Chinese imports from the US. While China’s exports to the United States increased in 2021, China’s monthly trade surplus with the United States increased by 31.1% (Time, January 14, 2022).6

In April 2022, there was a dramatic turnaround in China’s economy, marked by the adoption of a COVID-19 Zero Tolerance Mandate, (with millions of people confined to their homes) leading to a partial closing down of Shanghai’s financial sector coupled with a paralysis of commodity trade out the world’s largest port (see analysis below).

 

The February 2020 Corona Financial Crash

Speculative trade and financial fraud played a key role. On Thursday afternoon, 20th of February, in Geneva (CET Time), the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus held a press conference. I am “concerned”, he said, “that the chance to contain the coronavirus outbreak” is “closing” …

“I believe the window of opportunity is still there, but that the window is narrowing.”7

These “shock and awe” statements contributed to triggering panic, despite the fact that the number of confirmed cases outside China was exceedingly low: 1,076 cases for a population of 6.4 billion (excluding the Diamond Princess, there were 452 so-called “confirmed cases” worldwide) (see Chapter II).

The statement by Dr. Tedros (based on flawed concepts and statistics) set the stage for the February financial collapse triggered by inside information, foreknowledge, derivative trade, short-selling and a galore of hedge fund operations.

COVID-19 was narrowly identified as the catalyst of the financial crash.

Who was behind this catalyst?

Who was behind the fear campaign which contributed to triggering chaos and uncertainty on financial markets?

The small number of “COVID-19 confirmed cases” outside China (1,076) did not in any way point to an unfolding worldwide epidemic. But this did not prevent the markets from plummeting.

The markets had been manipulated. Whoever had foreknowledge (“inside information”) of the WHO Director-General’s February 20, 2020 statement would have reaped significant monetary gains.

Was there a conflict of interest (as defined by the WHO)?8 The WHO is partly funded by the Gates Foundation. Bill Gates has “60% of his assets invested in equities [including stocks and index funds]”, according to a September 2019 CNBC report.9

The stock market crash initiated on February 20th referred to as the 2020 Coronavirus Crash (February 20-April 7, 2020) was categorized as:

“the fastest fall in global stock markets in financial history, and the most devastating crash since the Wall Street Crash of 1929.”

The cause of the financial crash was (according to “analysts”) V the Virus, namely, the “massive spread” of the epidemic outside China. But that was an outright lie. There were only 1,076 cases worldwide for a population of 6.4 billion outside China (see Chapter III). Media disinformation played a key role in spearheading the fear campaign.

 

Insider Trading and Financial Fraud

The possibility of financial fraud and “insider trading” (which is illegal) was casually dispelled by financial analysts and media reports. 

Without the human hand, there is no causal relationship between a microscopic virus and the complex gamut of financial variables. 

The “killer virus” fear campaign coupled with Dr. Tedros’s timely “warnings” of the need to implement a worldwide pandemic indelibly served the interests of Wall Street’s institutional speculators and hedge funds. The financial crash led to a major shift in the distribution of money wealth (see analysis in Chapter V).

In the week following the February 20-21 WHO announcement, the Dow Jones collapsed by 12% (CNBC, February 28, 2020).10 According to analysts, the plunge of the DJIA was the result of the worldwide spread of the virus. A nonsensical statement in contradiction with the (small) number of WHO COVID positive estimates (1,076 outside China), most of which were based on the faulty PCR test. 

On Monday, February 24, upon the reopening of stock markets, there was an unprecedented plunge in the Dow Jones  attributable to the “impending dangers” that “COVID was spreading worldwide creating uncertainties in financial markets”.  

“Stocks fell sharply on Monday (February 24) as the number of coronavirus cases outside China surged, stoking fears of a prolonged global economic slowdown from the virus spreading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1,031.61 points lower, or 3.56%, at 27,960.80.” (CNBC) (emphasis added)

 

Dow Jones Industrial Average December 2019 – March 2020 (Source: Bloomberg Data)

 

Also on February 24, Trump requested a $1.25 billion emergency aid.

 

Screenshot from Al Jazeera

 

According to BBC, worldwide stock markets saw sharp falls “because of concerns about the economic impact of the virus”, suggesting that the virus was “the invisible hand” responsible for the decline of financial markets.

COVID-19 was narrowly identified as the catalyst of the financial crash.

Who was behind the fear campaign which contributed to triggering chaos and uncertainty on financial markets coupled with bankruptcies and a massive redistribution of money wealth? 

March 11, 2020: The COVID-19 Pandemic, Lockdown, Closing Down of 190 National Economies

On March 11, 2020, the WHO officially declared a worldwide pandemic at a time when the number of confirmed cases outside of China (6.4 billion population) was of the order of 44,279 and 1,440 deaths (figures recorded for March 11 by the WHO on March 12, 2020).11 

The “science” behind this worldwide lockdown decision was based on “a mathematical model” by Dr. Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, as a means to avoiding a “predicted” 600,000 deaths in the UK.

Ferguson’s “model” (which borders on ridicule) was used by the financial establishment as a justification to trigger economic and social chaos worldwide. Ferguson’s endeavors were generously funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Immediately following the March 11, 2020 WHO announcement, the fear campaign went into high gear. As in the case of the February 20-21, 2020 crash, the March 11, 2020 statement by the WHO Director-General had set the stage.

Stock markets crashed worldwide. On the following morning, the Dow (DJIA) plummeted by 9.99%  (a decline of 2,352.60 to close at 21,200.62). Black Thursday, March 12, 2020 was “the Dow’s worst day” since 1987.12 Financial fraud was the trigger. A massive transfer of financial wealth had taken place in favor of America’s billionaires (see chapter V).

“Stay at Home” confinement instructions were transmitted to 193 member states of the United Nations. Politicians are the instruments of powerful financial interests. Was this far-reaching decision justified as a means to combating the virus?

The decision was based on a flawed lockdown model designed by Imperial College London. 

“Confinement of the labour force” coupled with paralysis of the “workplace” (productive, commercial activities, etc.)  indelibly leads to a deep-seated worldwide economic depression. 

Unprecedented in history, applied almost simultaneously in a large number countries, entire sectors of the world economy were destabilized. Small and medium-sized enterprises were driven into bankruptcy. Unemployment and poverty are rampant.

In several developing countries, famines have erupted (see analysis below). The social impacts of these measures are devastating. The health impacts (mortality and morbidity) including the destabilization of the national healthcare system (in numerous countries) far surpass those attributed to COVID-19.

 

Economic Warfare

The instructions came from above, from Wall Street, the World Economic Forum, and the billionaire foundations. This diabolical project is casually described by the corporate media as a “humanitarian” public health endeavor.  The “international community” has a “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P).  An unelected “public-private partnership” under the auspices of the World Economic Forum (WEF) has come to the rescue of planet Earth’s 7.9 billion people. The closure of the global economy was presented as a means to “killing the virus”.

Sounds absurd. Closing down the real economy of planet Earth is not the “solution” but rather the “cause” of a process of worldwide destabilization and impoverishment, which in turn has an impact on patterns of morbidity and mortality. In this regard, what must be addressed is the causal relationship between economic variables (e.g.  purchasing power, unemployment) and the state of health of the population.  

The national economy combined with political, social and cultural institutions is the basis for the “reproduction of real life”: income, employment, production, trade, infrastructure, and social services.

Destabilizing the economy of planet Earth cannot constitute a “solution” to combating the virus. But that was the imposed “solution” which they want us to believe in. And that is what they are doing.

 

The Lockdown and the Process of Engineered Bankruptcy

There is an important relationship between the “real economy” and “Big Money”, namely the financial establishment.

What is ongoing is a process of concentration of wealth, whereby the financial establishment (i.e. the multi-billion dollar creditors) are slated to appropriate the real assets of both bankrupt companies as well as state assets.

The “real economy” constitutes “the economic landscape” of real economic activity: productive assets, agriculture, industry, goods and services, trade, investment, employment as well as social and cultural infrastructure including schools, hospitals, universities, museums, etc. The real economy at the global and national levels is being targeted by the lockdown and closure of economic activity. 

The lockdown instructions transmitted to national governments have been conducive to the destabilization of “the national economic landscape” of numerous countries, which consists of a complex economic and social structure

The “stay at home” lockdown prevents people from going to work. From one day to the next, it creates mass unemployment (worldwide). In turn, the lockdown is coupled with the closure of the entire sectors of the national economy.

The lockdown immediately contributes to the disengagement of human resources (labor) which in turn brings productive activity to a standstill.

The channels of supply and distribution are frozen, which eventually leads to potential shortages in the availability of commodities. In turn, several hundred million workers worldwide lose their jobs and their earnings.

While national governments have set up various “social safety nets” for the unemployed, the payment of wages and salaries by the employer is disrupted which in turn leads to a dramatic worldwide collapse in purchasing power.

It’s a payments crisis. Wages and salaries are not paid. Impoverished households are unable to purchase food, pay their rent or monthly mortgage. Personal and household debts (including credit card debts) go fly high. It’s a cumulative process.

This globalization of poverty leads to a decline in consumer demand which then backlashes on the productive system, leading to a further string of bankruptcies. Inevitably, the structure of international commodity trade is also affected. 

 

Global Indebtedness

The Global Money financial institutions are the “creditors” of the real economy which is in crisis. The closure of the global economy starting in March 2020 has triggered a process of global indebtedness. Unprecedented in world history, a multi-trillion bonanza of dollar-denominated debts is hitting simultaneously the national economies of more than 190 countries.

The creditors will also seek to acquire ownership and/or control of “public wealth” including the social and economic assets of the state through a massive indebtedness project under the surveillance of creditor institutions including the IMF, the World Bank, the regional development banks, etc. 

Under the so-called “new normal”, Great Reset put forth by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the creditors (including the   billionaires) are intent upon buying out important sectors of the real economy as well as taking over bankrupt entities (see Chapter XIII).13

 

Crisis of the Global Economy. The Evidence

In the sections below, we briefly review the dramatic impacts of the closure of the global economy focusing on bankruptcies, global poverty, unemployment, the outbreak of famines as well as the collapse of the educational system. 

Most of the figures quoted below are from the UN, governments and related sources, which tend to underestimate the seriousness of this ongoing global crisis, which is literally destroying people’s lives. 

Indebtedness in all sectors of economic activity worldwide is the driving force.

What is presented below is but the tip of the iceberg.  

 

Bankruptcies

The wave of bankruptcies triggered by the closure of the world economy affects both small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as large corporations. The evidence confirms that small and medium-sized enterprises are literally being wiped out.

According to a 2020 survey by the International Trade Centre, quoted by the OECD, pertaining to SMEs in 132 countries:

two-thirds of micro and small firms report that the crisis strongly affected their business operations, and one-fifth indicate the risk of shutting down permanently within three months. Based on several surveys in a variety of countries, McKinsey (2020) indicates that between 25% and 36% of small businesses could close down permanently from the disruption in the first four months of the pandemic. (OECD Report, emphasis added)14

According to Bloomberg:

Over half of Europe’s small and medium-sized businesses say they face bankruptcy in the next year if revenues don’t pick up, underscoring the breadth of damage wrought by the Covid-19 crisis.

One in five companies in Italy and France anticipate filing for insolvency within six months, according to a McKinsey & Co. survey in August of more than 2,200 SMEs in Europe’s five largest economies.”15

The surveys tend to underestimate the magnitude of this unfolding catastrophe. The numbers are much larger than what is being reported.

In the US, the bankruptcy process is ongoing. According to a group of academics in a letter to Congress:

“We anticipate that a significant fraction of viable small businesses will be forced to liquidate, causing high and irreversible economic losses. “Workers will lose jobs even in otherwise viable businesses. …

A run of defaults looks almost inevitable. At the end of the first quarter of this year, U.S. companies had amassed nearly $10.5 trillion in debt — by far the most since the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis began tracking the figure at the end of World War II. “An explosion in corporate debt,” Mr. Altman said.” (NYT, June, 16, 2020)16

With regard to small businesses in the US:

almost 90% of small businesses experienced a strong (51%) or moderate (38%) negative impact from the pandemic; 45% of businesses experienced disruptions in supply chains; 25% of businesses has less than 1-2 months cash reserves.“ (OECD)17

The results of a survey of over 5,800 small businesses in the United States:

… shows that 43% of responding businesses are already temporarily closed. On average, businesses reduced their employees by 40%. Three-quarters of respondents indicate they have two months or less in cash in reserve. … (OECD) 

In a 2020 survey,18 

 “half of all US small business owners in the entire country believe that they may soon be forced to close down for good. Not even during the Great Depression of the 1930s did we see anything like this”.19

It should be noted that since the March 2020 lockdown (in both the US and Canada), both small and medium-sized enterprises as well as large corporations have received numerous handouts and loans under so-called emergency lending, which has contributed to delaying the actual filing of bankruptcy (in the US, see Chapter VII and Chapter XI). Worldwide, the filing of bankruptcy has been conveniently postponed following what the World Bank described as “trillions of dollars of financial support from governments” which are generously funded by Big Money creditors.

 

Global Unemployment

A massive worldwide contraction in employment is ongoing. In an August 2020 report, the International Labour Organization (ILO) confirms that:

The COVID-19 crisis has severely disrupted economies and labour markets in all world regions, with estimated losses of working hours equivalent to nearly 400 million full-time jobs in the second quarter of 2020, most of which are in emerging and developing countries…(ILO, 2020a). …

Among the most vulnerable are the 1.6 billion informal economy workers, representing half of the global workforce, who are working in sectors experiencing major job losses or have seen their incomes seriously affected by lockdowns.

The COVID‐19 crisis is disproportionately affecting 1.25 billion workers in at-risk jobs, particularly in the hardest-hit sectors such as retail trade, accommodation and food services, and manufacturing (ILO, 2020b). Most of these workers are self-employed, in low-income jobs in the informal sector…  Young people, for example, are experiencing multiple shocks including disruption to education and training, employment and income, in addition to greater difficulties in finding jobs.20

The ILO does not in any way explain the political causes of mass unemployment, resulting from actions taken by national governments, allegedly with a view to resolving the COVID pandemic. Moreover, the ILO tends to underestimate both the levels as well as the dramatic increase in unemployment. 
 

Global Unemployment Is Slated to Rise in 2022-23

The pandemic is presented as the cause of unemployment. According to the ILO:

Global unemployment is expected to remain above pre-COVID-19 levels until at least 2023. The 2022 level is estimated at 207 million, compared to 186 million in 2019.21 

The ILO acknowledges that the overall impact on employment is not revealed by the above projections of global unemployment, “because many people have left the labour force”.  

What is at stake is that large sectors of the labor force are the victims of bankruptcies as well as discriminatory policy mandates which have marginalized them from the labour market. 

National governments remain under the control of global creditors. What is contemplated for the post-COVID era is the implementation of massive austerity measures including the cancellation of workers’ benefits and social safety nets.

 

Unemployment in the US

In the US, “more than 30 million people, over 15% of the workforce, applied for unemployment benefits… ” in the immediate wake of the March 2020 lockdown. (CSM, May 6, 2020)22

Announced in early December 2020, “More than 10 million Americans are projected to lose their unemployment benefits the day after Christmas [2020] unless Congress acts to extend key pandemic-related programs – a prospect that as of now looks uncertain at best.” (US News and World Report)23

The cliff edge looms as coronavirus cases surge around the country and applications for unemployment benefits rise with states and localities reimposing virus-related restrictions. The lapse is also set to occur as protections for renters, student loan borrowers and homeowners expire – a potential devastating confluence of events for both individuals, whose savings have been ravaged by the pandemic, and the economy at large, which is gradually clawing its way back from the coronavirus-induced recession.

When the programs lapse at the end of December [2020], an estimated 12 million people could lose jobless benefits, according to the Century Foundation. (US News and World Report)24
 
During the most severe Main Street economic collapse in US history — with over one-fourth of working-age Americans jobless — an additional calamity looms:

According to Census Bureau estimates, 30 to 40 million Americans face possible eviction in 2021-22 for lack of income to pay rent or service mortgages.

Without federal aid or an extended rent moratorium, a calamity of biblical proportions may unfold in the coming months. (Stephen Lendman)25

 

Unemployment in the European Union (EU)

Unemployment across the whole of the European Union is expected to rise to nine percent in 2020, in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns enforced by national governments”.26

According to official EU figures:

Greece, Spain and Portugal … have once again seen large rises in youth unemployment since the start of the pandemic. Greece saw a surge from 31.7 percent in March [2020] to 39.3 percent in June [2020], while Spain and Portugal had similar increases, from 33.9 percent to 41.7 percent and 20.6 percent to 27.4 percent, respectively.27

 

Unemployment in Latin America

In Latin America, the average unemployment rate was estimated at 8.1 percent at the end of 2019. The ILO states that it could rise by a modest 4 to 5 percentage points to 41 million unemployed.28

In absolute numbers, these rates imply that the number of people who are looking for jobs but are not hired rose from 26 million before the pandemic to 41 million in 2020, as announced by ILO experts.

These estimates of the ILO and the World Bank are misleading. According to the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), the increase in unemployment for the Latin American region was of the order of 24 million in 2020, with job losses in Colombia of the order of 3.6 million, Brazil 7.0 million and Mexico 7.0 million.29

Even these figures tend to underestimate the dramatic increase in unemployment. And the situation has evolved in 2021-22, following partial lockdowns which have triggered a renewed wave of bankruptcies. 

According to a survey conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), the increase in unemployment in Mexico was of the order of 12.5 million in April 2020, i.e. in the month following the March 11, 2020 lockdown and closure of the national economy.30

 

The Outbreak of Famines

Poverty and chronic undernourishment is a pre-existing condition.

First, there is a long-term historical process of macroeconomic policy reform and global economic restructuring which has contributed to depressing the standard living worldwide in both the developing and developed countries.

Second, these pre-existing historical conditions of mass poverty have been exacerbated and aggravated by the imposition of the COVID lockdown.

With large sectors of the world population already well below the poverty line prior to the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the recent hikes in the prices of basic food staples are devastating. 

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), “690 million people do not have enough to eat while 130 million additional people risk being pushed to the brink of starvation.” (November 2020 statement)

These figures are questionable. Both the FAO and the WFP have failed to address the central role of the lockdown and closure of national economies as a “shock mechanism” which simultaneously triggers mass poverty coupled with the destabilization of agricultural production in both developing and developed countries, in all major regions of the world. 

The underlying causality is simply not addressed. Climate and conflict analysis take precedence:

“We are seeing a catastrophe unfold before our very eyes. Famine – driven by conflict, and fuelled by climate shocks and the COVID-19 hunger pandemic – is knocking on the door for millions of families.” (David Beasley, Executive director of the WFP)

 

The FAO Report

Famines have erupted in at least 25 developing countries according to the FAO. It’s an incomplete study: most of Asia and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and North America are not included (see map below): 

“The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) identifies 27 countries that are on the frontline of impending COVID-19-driven food crises, as the pandemic’s knock-on effects aggravate pre-existing drivers of hunger.

No world region is immune, from Afghanistan and Bangladesh in Asia, to Haiti, Venezuela and Central America, to Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Syria in the Middle East to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Liberia Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe in Africa.

The joint analysis by FAO and WFP warns these “hotspot countries” are at high risk of – and in some cases are already seeing – significant food security deteriorations in the coming months, including rising numbers of people pushed into acute hunger.”

Source: FAO, April 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has potentially far-reaching and multifaceted indirect impacts on societies and economies, which could last long after the health emergency is over. These could aggravate existing instabilities or crises, or lead to new ones with repercussions on food security, nutrition and livelihoods.

With over two billion people, or 62 percent of all those working worldwide, employed in the informal economy according to ILO data, millions of people face a growing risk of hunger. Earnings for informal workers are estimated to have declined by 82 percent, with Africa and Latin America to face the largest decline (ILO 2020). (FAO, p. 6)31

 

Global Famine. Acute Hunger in 80 Countries

A World Food Programme (WFP) November 2021 report points to Global Famine and “Acute Hunger in 80 Countries”

Global hunger continues to rise at an alarming rate: our latest estimates show that 282.7 million people across 80 countries are experiencing extreme levels of acute hunger. This represents an increase of around 110 percent compared to 2019 (when 135 million people in 58 countries were classified as acutely food insecure).

This “guesstimate” of 287.7 million cases of acute hunger borders on ridicule and “fake statistics”. Mass poverty is extensive worldwide. The “estimate” is based on the following concept, which is put forth by the World Food Programme (a UN body) as a humanitarian and compassionate criterion:

“one meal a day, the basic needed to survive – costing US$0.43 per person per day”. (WFP, p 1)

Ask Bill Gates, who is actively buying up bankrupt family farms: “how much did your lunch cost”?

The recent hikes in food prices are contributing in a very real sense to “eliminating the poor” through “starvation deaths”. In the words of Henry Kissinger:

“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.”

In this regard, Kissinger had intimated, in the context of the “1974 National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests,” that the recurrence of famines could constitute a de facto instrument of population control. It’s part of the WEF’s eugenics agenda.  

 

Famine and Despair in India 

The social and economic impacts of the March 11, 2020 lockdown in India were devastating, triggering a wave of famine and despair. “Millions of people who lost their income now face increased poverty and hunger, in a country where even before the pandemic 50 percent of all children suffered from malnourishment”.32

In late November 2020, the largest general strike in the country’s history was carried out against the Modi government with more than 200 million workers and farmers. According to the Mumbai University and College Teachers’ Union: 

This strike is against the devastating health and economic crisis unleashed by COVID-19 and the lockdown on the working people of the country. This has been further aggravated by a series of anti-people legislations on agriculture and the labour code enacted by the central government. Along with these measures, the National Education Policy (NEP) imposed on the nation during the pandemic will further cause irreparable harm to the equity of and access to education.33

According to Left Voice:

“The pandemic has spread from major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and other urban centers to rural areas where public health care is scarce or non-existent. The Modi government has handled the pandemic by prioritizing the profits of big business and protecting the fortunes of billionaires over protecting the lives and livelihoods of workers.”34

 

“Food Insecurity” in the US 

Undernourishment and so-called “food insecurity” are not limited to developing countries.

The terminology is not quite the same. “Famine” in America which today is a reality is rarely mentioned. Neither is the lockdown (confinement of the labor force) acknowledged as a mechanism which has triggered so-called “food insecurity”.

The US Department of Agriculture defines “food insecurity” as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food”. 

“Hunger” is defined as “an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity”. “Famine” does appear in the USDA glossary. 

Recent estimates by Feeding America suggest that one in seven Americans representing 45 million people in 2020, including 15 million children, experienced “food insecurity”:

Before the start of the pandemic, the overall food insecurity rate had reached its lowest point since it began to be measured in the 1990s, but those improvements were being upended by the pandemic.35

According to Stephen Lendman:

“Around one in four US households experienced food insecurity this year [2020]— over 27% of households with children.

A Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research study estimates the number of food insecure households with children at nearly 30%.  Black families are twice as food insecure as their white counterparts. Latino households are also disproportionately affected.”36

 

The Billionaires’ “Solution to Global Famine”? 

In a bitter irony, the World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that the billionaire philanthropists (including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, et al.), who have enriched themselves in the course of the COVID-19 crisis, have generously come to the rescue of 42 million people affected by famine.

Bear in mind, this process of global impoverishment is the direct consequence of billionaire enrichment invariably conducted through fake science and fraudulent transactions (see Chapter V).

According to Oxfam, “For every new billionaire created during the pandemic. … millions of people were pushed into extreme poverty”.

“Billionaires gathered in Davos have enjoyed an obscene surge in their fortunes over the last two years. The pandemic and now the steep rise in food and energy prices have been a bonanza for the wealthiest, while millions of people face hunger and poverty as the cost living shoots up.” (Oxfam)

 

Education: The Impacts on Our Children

The very foundations of civil society are threatened. UNICEF estimates that 1.6 billion children and adolescents were affected by the closure of schools worldwide.37

“As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the globe, a majority of countries have announced the temporary closure of schools, impacting more than 91 per cent of students worldwide… Never before have so many children been out of school at the same time…”

Colleges and universities are also paralysed. Students are denied the right to education. While UNESCO confirms that more than one billion learners are affected, it offers no concrete solution or critique. The official narrative of the so-called “public/private partnership” imposed on national governments has been adopted at face value.38

School closures were carried out in 132 countries. See diagram below (UNESCO, May 2020).

 

Screenshot from UNESCO

The above review of the economic and social impacts points to a complex process. Large sectors of the world population have been precipitated into poverty and despair. The various agencies of the United Nations quoted above tend to skim the surface. The underlying causes are simply not addressed.

 

The Global Travel and Tourism Economy

Prior to the corona crisis, travel and tourism represented a major share of the global economy: approximately ten percent of global GDP with an estimated workforce of more than 320 million jobs worldwide.39

Travel and tourism industry, which includes airlines, airport facilities, land transportation, hotels, resorts, restaurants, museums, concert halls, parks, and a variety of urban services, has been precipitated into bankruptcy resulting in mass unemployment.

The economic and social impacts are devastating particularly in countries which have a sizeable tourist economy (e.g. Italy, France, Switzerland, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Peru, and Panama, among others).

The estimated loss of jobs in the tourism industry is estimated to be of the order of 100 million worldwide (November 2020 report, see also IMF report).40

Job Losses in the US

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a “staggering 9.2 million jobs could be lost in the U.S. … if barriers to global travel remain in place”. The WTTC estimates that more than half of all jobs supported by the sector in the U.S. in 2019 are slated to be lost. Between 10.8 million and 13.8 million jobs within the Travel and Tourism sector “are at serious risk”.41

While the restrictions on air travel coupled with the March 11, 2020 lockdown triggered the demise of smaller regional airlines, in the course of the 2020-2022, a large number of national flag carriers have been precipitated into a de facto bankruptcy situation, including Aero-Mexico, Avianca, and South African Airlines, among others. According to a report, “43 commercial airlines have failed since January 2020, … completely ceasing or suspended operations” in 2020. There was also a backlash on the production of civilian aircraft.42

Trump’s suspension of air travel to China on January 31, 2020 based on five COVID-19 confirmed positive cases in the U.S. played a key role in setting the stage for the air travel and tourism crisis, which at the time of writing is still ongoing.

The lockdown has also undermined the largest transport infrastructure project in Europe, namely the underground tunnel between the UK and continental Europe. The Eurostar was precipitated into a situation of de facto bankruptcy.

All of these disruptions in international travel are presented to public opinion as a means to combating the killer virus. It’s a big lie.

Bankrupt hotel chains and major airlines in all likelihood will be “picked up” at rock-bottom prices by the multi-billionaires.

 

The Shanghai 2022 COVID Zero Tolerance Mandate. The Destabilization of China’s Export Economy?   

Starting in late March, early April 2022, the Chinese government ordered the lockdown pertaining to Shanghai, a port city of 26 million people.

The confinement of Shanghai’s labour force was carried out under a “COVID Zero Tolerance Mandate”: “At least 38,000 medical workers from across China have been deployed to aid Shanghai … in the fight against the Omicron variant…” (Global Times)43

Image: Dr. George Gao Fu (by 中国新闻网, licensed under CC BY 3.0)

Visibly, China’s health authorities had endorsed the Fauci-Gates “fake science” lockdown consensus without batting an eyelid. China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) is headed by Dr. George Gao Fu, a colleague of Anthony Fauci, et al. Anthony Fauci is Dr. Gao Fu’s mentor. 

China’s Zero Tolerance COVID Mandate was a “copy and paste” of the March 11, 2020 lockdown (based on “fake science”) sponsored by Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, et al. under the auspices of the WHO (in close consultation with the World Economic Forum). China’s Zero Tolerance COVID Mandate is predicated on a fear campaign.

In mid-July 2022, China’s health authorities announced that several major urban areas had been instructed to implement the COVID Zero Tolerance Mandate as a means to combating the “highly-transmissible Omicron BA.5 subvariant”.

The labour force was confined in a large number of industrial cities thereby leading to economic and social chaos as well as a dramatic decline in economic activity. According to Reuters:

The BA.5 [subvariant] lineage, spreading fast in many other countries, has been detected in cities such as Xian in the province of Shaanxi and Dalian in Liaoning province, … It was first found in China on May 13 in a patient who had flown to Shanghai from Uganda, the China Center for Disease Prevention and Control said, with no local infections linked to the case that month.44

Did that “patient” from Uganda take the PCR test upon his return to China? Variants and sub-variants cannot under any circumstances be detected by the PCR test (the original SARS-CoV-2 virus cannot be detected by the PCR test, see Chapter III).

A large number of urban areas were closed down in major regions of China. On July 11, 2022, China’s National Heath Commission confirmed the following data for mainland China45:

  • a total of 352 new domestically transmitted COVID infections recorded on July 10,
  • 46 new symptomatic cases, and
  • 306 new asymptomatic cases.

46 new symptomatic cases out of a population of 1.45 billion people does not justify closing down China’s major urban areas.

 

Economic Destabilization: Shanghai and the Global Economy 

The impacts of these measures put forth by China’s National Health Commission and China’s CCDC have precipitated China’s supply chains into jeopardy.

“COVID Zero Tolerance” has contributed to destabilizing Shanghai’s financial sector as well as its buoyant export economy. It has also contributed to undermining domestic transport and commodity supply lines.

Since mid-April 2022 (coinciding with the lockdown of Shanghai), the Yuan (CNY) declined abruptly against the US dollar (USD).

 

Chinese Yuan Renminbi to US Dollar Exchange Rate Chart (Source: Xe)

 

The volume of commodity trade in and out of the Port of Shanghai (and other major port cities) has subsided, which inevitably has a bearing on the availability of “Made in China” commodities worldwide.

 

Made in China goods (By ThiNguyen2021, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

 

“Made in China” is the backbone of retail trade which indelibly sustains household consumption in virtually all major commodity categories from clothing, footwear, to hardware, electronics, mobile phones, TV sets, toys, jewelries, household fixtures, food, etc. Ask the American consumer: the list is long.

Importing from China is a lucrative multi-trillion dollar operation. It is the source of tremendous profit and wealth in the US because consumer commodities imported from China’s low wage economy are often sold at the retail level more than ten times their factory price.

Global commodity trade at wholesale and retail levels is in crisis. The potential impacts in all major regions of the world are devastating — worldwide scarcities of essential consumer goods coupled with inflationary pressures.

These developments also affect China’s sovereignty as a nation-state with a weakened economy, not to mention its Belt and Road initiative.

In the context of the current crisis, including Washington’s “Pivot to Asia”, there are serious geopolitical implications which have a direct bearing on the confrontation between China and the US.

For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, The Shanghai “COVID Zero Tolerance Mandate”. Engineered Depression of China’s Economy?

Automobile Industry at a Standstill: Engineered Shortage in the Production of Semi-conductors?  

The automobile industry worldwide experienced a 15% decline in production in 2020. The decline in 2021-22 is significant, largely affecting production in Japan, South Korea and China.

This decline has been accentuated by a shortage in the availability of semi-conductors:

“Automakers, which rely on dozens of chips to build a single vehicle, have been particularly hard hit, forced to halt production lines globally as they await chip supplies. The debacle is likely to cost the auto industry $450 billion in global sales … In September 2021 Toyota was forced to slash production at 14 factories in Japan over a lack of semiconductors. Some of the cuts will continue into October due to a lack of components from Southeast Asia, Toyota has said.” (Washington Post, September 2021)46

Semi-conductors constitute a strategic commodity, used in a variety of sectors including electronics, medical devices, electronic and communications networks, etc. 

There are indications of possible manipulations, which have led to artificial shortages of semi-conductors affecting a number of key sectors of the global economy.

There are geopolitical implications. The world’s largest semi-conductor producer is the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

 

Global “Supply Chain Disruptions” and Demand Relations 

The lockdowns from March 11, 2020 onwards have triggered a process of worldwide economic destabilization which directly affects both “supply” and “demand” relations. It’s the most serious economic crisis in world history affecting simultaneously more than 190 countries.

“Supply” pertains to the production of goods and services, namely the activities of the “real economy”.

“Demand” pertains to the ability of households given their purchasing power to acquire essential goods and services.

Both supply and demand relations are in jeopardy.

Worldwide, large sectors of industry, agriculture and urban services stand idle. The lockdown policies initiated in March 2020 have triggered bankruptcies and unemployment, which in turn have been conducive to a process of disengagement of human resources (labor) and productive assets from the economic landscape.

On the supply side, a massive contraction in the production and availability of goods and services (commodities) is unfolding. Entire sectors of the global economy are “not producing”, scarcities of certain commodities and services have emerged. In turn, the channels of transportation by land and sea (e.g. container trade) have been disrupted since March 2020.

On the demand side, mass unemployment and poverty triggered by the lockdown policies has contributed to an unprecedented collapse in purchasing power (of families and households worldwide), which in turn has led to the collapse in the demand for goods and services. Poverty is rampant, large sectors of the world population do not have money to buy food and essential consumer goods.

Contraction of production (supply) coupled with the collapse of purchasing power (demand) is conducive to a deep-seated worldwide economic depression coupled with inflationary pressures. 

In turn, the collapse in purchasing power resulting from mass unemployment has led to a mounting personal debt crisis including the inability to meet monthly rent and mortgage payments. This process eventually leads to a confiscation of real assets.

In the US, 68 percent of those who were behind on rent (May 2021 figures) had become unemployed as a result of the lockdown.47

These developments are casually blamed on the “pandemic’s economic fallout” without analyzing how the failed lockdown policies were instrumental in triggering economic chaos and unemployment worldwide.

 

The Fiscal Crisis of the Nation-State

State-funded public sector activities including health, education, culture, sports and the arts are in jeopardy. Meanwhile, in the US, the Biden administration has favored a massive increase in military and security-related expenditures as well as biotechnology with generous handouts to Big Pharma and the Military-Industrial Complex.

Since the onset of the corona crisis, the public debt in country after country has gone fly high largely precipitated by economic chaos.

Bankrupt companies no longer pay taxes. Unemployed workers (without earnings) no longer pay taxes. Tax dollars are no longer coming into the coffers of the state.

The increase in global unemployment and poverty coupled with bankruptcies have led to an unprecedented fiscal crisis.

In turn, government revenue has been redirected to funding corporate handouts.

The private appropriation of wealth has precipitated a global debt crisis. In country after country, the public debt has skyrocketed.

 

Massive Austerity Measures, Global Insolvency 

Generous handouts and social safety nets have been used by national governments as a means to enforcing compliance and acceptance of the COVID-19 mandates. These handouts (including loans at 0%) are eventually slated to be abolished and replaced by the most drastic austerity measures in world history.

An unpayable multi-trillion dollar public debt is unfolding worldwide, coupled with a process which we might describe as “global insolvency”.

The creditors of the state are “Big Money”. Ultimately, they call the shots.

The enrichment of the billionaire class has also contributed to the destabilization of the nation-state (see Chapter V).

What is also unfolding is the “privatization of the nation-state” including the progressive demise of the “welfare state” and its public institutions (education, health, culture).

 

Endnotes

1 Allison Aubrey, January 31, 2020. Trump Declares Coronavirus A Public Health Emergency And Restricts Travel From China. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/31/801686524/trump-declares-coronavirus-a-public-health-emergency-and-restricts-travel-from-c

2 The Economist, February 17, 2020. The coronavirus spreads racism against—and among—ethnic Chinese. https://www.economist.com/china/2020/02/17/the-coronavirus-spreads-racism-against-and-among-ethnic-chinese

3 Wallis Wang, February 13, 2020. Britain’s Chinese community faces racism over coronavirus outbreak. https://www.scmp.com/video/world/3050436/britains-chinese-community-faces-racism-over-coronavirus-outbreak

4 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, November 5, 2020. The Corona Pandemic and Trump’s Trade War against China: America’s Dependence on “Made in China”. Potential Disruption of the US Economy. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-corona-pandemic-and-trumps-trade-war-against-china-americas-dependence-on-made-in-china-potential-disruption-of-the-us-economy/5713552

5 Financial Times, May 11, 2020. US-China economic decoupling accelerates in first quarter of 2020. https://www.ft.com/content/115fc14f-4a8a-45da-8688-c59605a5191a

6 Joe Mcdonald, January 14, 2022. China’s Trade Surplus Hit Record in 2021—With Exports Jumping 30% Amid Pandemic Demand. https://time.com/6139334/china-record-trade-surplus-2021/

7 WHO, February 20, 2020. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 on 20 February 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19-on-20-february-2020

8 WHO, n.d. Declarations of Interest. https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest

9 Maggie Fitzgerald, September 17, 2019. More than 60% of Bill Gates’ wealth is invested in stocks. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/17/bill-gates-gave-away-35-billion-this-year-but-net-worth-didnt-drop.html

10 Fred Imbert, Maggie Fitzgerald, et al., February 28, 2020. Stock market Friday recap: Dow loses 3,500 points on week, closes off lows, Fed pledges support. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/28/stock-market-live-updates-dow-loses-3200-points-and-counting-on-week-bond-yields-collapsing.html

11 WHO, March 12, 2020. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 52. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200312-sitrep-52-covid-19.pdf

12 Pipa Stevens, Maggie Fitzgerald, et al., March 12, 2020. Stock market live Thursday: Dow tanks 2,300 in worst day since Black Monday, S&P 500 bear market. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/stock-market-today-live.html

13 WEF, n.d. The Great Reset. https://www.weforum.org/great-reset/

14 OECD, July 15, 2020. Coronavirus (COVID-19): SME policy responses. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/coronavirus-covid-19-sme-policy-responses-04440101/

15 See this: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-22/half-of-europe-s-smaller-businesses-risk-bankruptcy-within-year

16 See this: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/business/corporate-bankruptcy-coronavirus.html

17 OECD, July 15, 2020. Coronavirus (COVID-19): SME policy responses. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/coronavirus-covid-19-sme-policy-responses-04440101/

18 Michael Snyder, December 10, 2020. 48% Of U.S. Small Businesses Fear that They May be Forced to “Shut Down Permanently” Soon. https://www.globalresearch.ca/48-us-small-businesses-fear-forced-shut-down-permanently-soon/5732050

19 Chuck Casto, November 25, 2020. Alignable: 48% Of Small Businesses Risk Closing in Q4, New Poll Says. https://www.alignable.com/forum/alignable-48-of-small-businesses-risk-closing-for-good-new-poll

20 ILO, September 23, 2020. COVID-19 leads to massive labour income losses worldwide. https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_755875/lang–en/index.htm

21 ILO, January 17, 2022. ILO downgrades labour market recovery forecast for 2022. https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_834117/lang–en/index.htm

22 Ned Temko, May 6, 2020. No jobs, so what future? Half the world’s workforce on the edge. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2020/0506/No-jobs-so-what-future-Half-the-world-s-workforce-on-the-edge

23 Claire Hansen, December 2, 2020. Some 12 Million to Lose Unemployment Aid After Christmas With Stimulus Still Uncertain. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-12-02/some-12-million-to-lose-unemployment-aid-after-christmas-with-stimulus-still-uncertain

24 Ibid.

25 Stephen Lendman, December 2, 2020. Millions of Americans Vulnerable to Eviction. https://www.globalresearch.ca/millions-americans-vulnerable-eviction/5730985

26 Statista, January 2022. Unemployment rate in selected European countries as of November 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1115276/unemployment-in-europe-by-country/

27 James Poulter, September 15, 2020. Europe Is Facing a Youth Unemployment Crisis. https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7gknm/europe-is-facing-a-youth-unemployment-crisis

28 ILO, July 1, 2020. ILO: Sharp rise in unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean leaves millions without income. https://www.ilo.org/caribbean/newsroom/WCMS_749692/lang–en/index.htm

29 Semana, August 19, 2020. Colombia, el tercer país que más empleos perdió en América Latina. https://www.semana.com/empresas/confidencias-on-line/articulo/empleos-que-mas-se-perdieron-en-america-latina-segun-el-bid/296265/

30 Forbes, June 3, 2020. Desempleo en México alcanza a casi 25% de la población: Heath. https://www.forbes.com.mx/economia-desempleo-mexico-casi-25-poblacion-heath/

31 FAO and WFP, July 2020. FAO-WFP early warning analysis of acute food insecurity hotspots. https://www.fao.org/3/cb0258en/CB0258EN.pdf

32 Global Research News, December 4, 2020. India: Largest Strike in World History : Over 200 Million Workers and Farmers Protest against Poverty and Unemployment Triggered by Covid Lockdown. https://www.globalresearch.ca/india-largest-strike-in-world-history-over-200-million-workers-and-farmers-paralyze-india/5731395

33 Ibid. 

34 Ibid.

35 Feeding America, March 2021. The Impact of the Coronavirus on Food Insecurity in 2020 & 2021. https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/National%20Projections%20Brief_3.9.2021_0.pdf

36 Stephen Lendman, October 3, 2020. Covid Crisis Has Triggered Mass Unemployment in America: Over One Million UI Claims in the US for 28 Straight Weeks. https://www.globalresearch.ca/over-one-million-ui-claims-us-28-straight-weeks/5725527

37 Jason Miks and John McIlwaine, April 20, 2020. Keeping the world’s children learning through COVID-19. https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/keeping-worlds-children-learning-through-covid-19

38 UNESCO, n.d. Education: From disruption to recovery. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse

39 Adam Behsudi, December 2020. Tourism-dependent economies are among those harmed the most by the pandemic. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/12/impact-of-the-pandemic-on-tourism-behsudi.htm

40 Margaux MacDonald, Roberto Piazza, et al., September 2, 2020. A Simple Guide to Estimating the Impact of COVID-19 on Travel and Hospitality Activity. PDF Link

41 World Travel and Tourism Council, November 11, 2020. U.S. looks set to lose 9.2 million jobs in 2020 due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions, says WTTC. https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Press%20Releases/US-looks-set-to-lose-9-million-jobs-in-2020-due-to-COVID-19-and-travel-restrictions.pdf

42 Abigail Ng, October 8, 2020. Over 40 airlines have failed so far this year — and more are set to come. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/08/over-40-airlines-have-failed-in-2020-so-far-and-more-are-set-to-come.html

43 Global Times, April 4, 2022. Over 38k medical workers deployed to aid Shanghai in Omicron battle, the highest number since Wuhan in early 2020. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1257497.shtml

44 Roxanne Liu & Ryan Woo, July 11, 2022. Update 3-Shanghai plans more COVID testing amid fresh curbs across China. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/1-shanghai-braces-more-mass-040242739.html

45 Ibid.

46 Jeanne Whalen, September 23, 2021. Semiconductor shortage that has hobbled manufacturing worldwide is getting worse. https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/09/23/chip-shortage-forecast-automakers/

47 Sarah Treuhaft, Michelle Huang, et al., September 16, 2021. Rent Debt in America: Stabilizing Renters Is Key to Equitable Recovery. https://nationalequityatlas.org/rent-debt-in-america

 

 

Chapter V

The Enrichment of the Super Rich

The Appropriation and Redistribution of  Wealth 

 

“V the Virus” is said to be responsible for the wave of bankruptcies and unemployment. That’s a lie. There is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.

The decision-making process must be addressed. It’s the powerful financiers and billionaires who are behind this project which has contributed to the destabilization (worldwide) of the real economy.

Since early February 2020, the Super Rich have cashed in on billions of dollars. In a matter of four months, coinciding with the March 11, 2020 lockdown, the total wealth held by billionaires around the world has grown from $8 trillion to more than $10 trillion.

There are three distinct phases which are directly related to the corona crisis. Each of which is marked by major shifts in the distribution of global wealth.

  1. The financial crisis initiated on February 20 was conducive to a dramatic redistribution of wealth and ownership of financial assets. Foreknowledge, inside information and speculative trade played a key role. Was there foreknowledge and/or inside information of WHO’s Dr. Tedros’s February 20th statement? (See Chapter IV)
  2. The March 11 lockdown and closing down of the national economies of 190 UN member states, which triggered corporate as well as SME bankruptcies worldwide. The March 11 event also marked the plunge of stock markets worldwide, starting on Black Thursday March 12, 2020 (see Chapter IV).
  3. The third stage of billionaire enrichment pertains to the implementation in 2021-2022 “partial lockdowns”, policy mandates and restrictive measures which contributed to triggering a renewed wave of bankruptcies and economic chaos.

The redistribution of wealth in favor of the billionaire class is confirmed by an IPS study resulting from the March 2020 closing down of the global economy.1

At the global level, billionaires were big winners during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to a UBS 2020 report, roughly 2,189 global billionaires have an estimated wealth of $10.2 trillion.2

This is an estimated increase of $1.5 trillion during the 2020 pandemic based on both UBS and Forbes billionaire data from 2019.  

The UBS report raises the question: are the billionaires “innovators” or “disruptors”?

When the storm passes, a new generation of billionaire innovators looks set to play a critical role in repairing the damage. Using the growing repertoire of emerging technologies, tomorrow’s innovators will digitize, refresh and revolutionize the economy. 

Let us be under no illusions, these corrupt billionaires are “impoverishers”.

 

“Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction” (FWMD)

While the UBS and Forbes report (quoted above) fail to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to this massive redistribution of wealth, they nonetheless confirm that “collective billionaire wealth has grown at its fastest rate over any period over the past decade.”3

In fact, it is the largest redistribution of global wealth in world history. It is predicated on a systematic process of worldwide impoverishment. It is an act of economic warfare.

The billionaires were not only the recipients of generous “government stimulus packages” (i.e. handouts), the bulk of their financial gains from the outset of the COVID fear campaign in early February 2020 was the result of insider trading, derivative trade and the manipulation of both financial and commodity markets.

Warren Buffett rightfully identifies these speculative instruments (supported by sophisticated algorithms) as “Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction”.

On March 18, 2020 (coinciding with the lockdown in the US), US billionaires had a combined wealth of $2.947 trillion. By October 8, 2020, their wealth had surged to $3.8 trillion — a monetary increase of $850 billion, a rise of their combined wealth of the order of more than 28 percent (see IPS study).4

This estimate does not account for the increase in wealth during the period preceding March 18, 2020 which was marked by a series of stock market crashes.5 

And commencing in late 2020, the billionaire class was involved in sustaining a second wave lockdown involving the partial closure of the world economy. 

The table below identifies the increase in personal wealth of the five richest US billionaires (March 18 – June 17, 2020). (Not outlined in the table is the wealth of US billionaires which increased by another $266 billion from June to October 2020).

 

Source: Institute for Policy Studies

 

Billionaire wealth growth (March 2020 – March 2021) resulting from the implementation of the March 2020 lockdown, Chuck Collins (in an incisive study published by Inequality.org) estimates billionaire wealth growth over a full year, based on Forbes data compiled in this report by ATF and IPS.6,7

March 18 [2020] is used as the unofficial beginning of the crisis because by then most federal and state economic restrictions responding to the virus were in place. March 18 was also the date that Forbes picked to measure billionaire wealth for the 2020 edition of its annual billionaires’ report, which provided a baseline that ATF and IPS compare periodically with real-time data from the Forbes website. PolitiFact has favorably reviewed this methodology.8

Source: Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness and Institute for Policy Studies

Source: Institute for Policy Studies

Source: Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness and Institute for Policy Studies

 

The Enrichment of Big Pharma

The Forbes report underscores the enrichment of the CEOs of both Western and China’s Big Pharma conglomerates involved in the COVID vaccine as well as in the lucrative sale (worldwide) of face masks and medical supplies.9

These include Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and BioNTech co-founder Uğur Şahin.

China’s Big Pharma is a full-fledged partner in this process of enrichment. The CEOs of several China-based pharmaceutical companies include Tianjin’s CanSino Biologics, Inco, Shenzhen’s Contec Medical Systems, and Sansure Biotech, which makes COVID-19 tests, as well as China’s vaccine conglomerate Sinovac. 

Among China’s Big Pharma multi-billionaires is Li Jianquan, president of Chinese medical products manufacturer Winner Medical. Several of the products related to the COVID pandemic, including face masks, are produced by Winner Medical. 

Li Jianquan has a net worth of 6.8 billion (for details, see Forbes Report).10

For the complete list of billionaires in 2020-2021, consult the Forbes list.11

 

The Geopolitics of Global Wealth

In 2022, Forbes reported a reshuffle of worldwide billionaire wealth to the detriment of Russia and China. 34 fewer billionaires in Russia (compared to 2021) and “87 fewer Chinese billionaires on the list”:

America still leads the world, with 735 billionaires worth a collective $4.7 trillion, including Elon Musk, who tops the World’s Billionaires list for the first time. China (including Macau and Hong Kong) remains number two, with 607 billionaires worth a collective $2.3 trillion.”

For the full list of the 2022 world’s billionaires, see Forbes real-time billionaires rankings.

 

Billionaire Enrichment and the Demise of the Family Farm 

The ongoing demise of family-owned agriculture has been exacerbated by the lockdown policies.

Bill Gates is using the money appropriated during the financial crisis to extend his corporate control in a variety of economic activities, “buying devalued assets at fire-sale prices” including the acquisition of farmland (see Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Neo-feudalism).12

According to The Land Report (February 2021), Bill and Melinda Gates are now America’s largest farm owners to the detriment of family farming, which over the years has been driven into bankruptcy.

The Gates portfolio consists of “242,000 acres of American farmland and nearly 27,000 acres of other land across Louisiana, Arkansas, Nebraska, Arizona, Florida, Washington and 18 other states” (see the analysis by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.).13

See the map below indicating a total of 268,984 acres accruing to the Gates. This is tantamount to the de facto expropriation of thousands of family farms over a vast area of the United States.

This process spearheaded by mounting debts and bankruptcies commenced prior to the pandemic and will in all likelihood continue under the so-called “new normal”.

 

This graph is based on a 2021 report by The Land Report

 

Billionaire Wealth Is Not the Result of Economic Growth

This enrichment of a social minority is not based on the creation of  “new wealth” resulting from real economic growth. Quite the opposite. It is the result of an engineered global economic depression.

The process of billionaire enrichment feeds on economic and social chaos. It relies heavily on the “fear campaign” and the worldwide destabilization of both financial markets and the real economy.

It has been instrumental in triggering an unprecedented process of redistribution of income and wealth. Large sectors of the world population have been driven into extreme poverty. 

Billionaire enrichment involves the acquisition of economic and financial assets at rock bottom prices, the takeover of bankrupt enterprises in major sectors of economic activity, the manipulation of markets (bonds, equities, commodities, currency markets, etc.) including the use of speculative instruments, derivative trade, involving “foreknowledge” and “inside information” (see Chapter IV).

 

Endnotes

1 Chuck Collins, October 8, 2020. U.S. Billionaire Wealth Is Up $850 Billion Since March 18th. https://ips-dc.org/u-s-billionaire-wealth-up-850-billion/

2 UBS, 2020. Riding the storm: Market turbulence accelerates diverging fortunes. https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/static/noindex/wealth-management/ubs-billionaires-report-2020-spread.pdf

3 Ollie A. Williams, October 6, 2020. Billionaire Wealth Hits $10 Trillion For First Time Ever Thanks To Government Stimulus: UBS. https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwilliams1/2020/10/06/billionaire-wealth-hits-10-trillion-for-first-time-ever-thanks-to-government-stimulous/?sh=49cd0e6549ba

4 Chuck Collins, October 8, 2020. U.S. Billionaire Wealth Is Up $850 Billion Since March 18th. https://ips-dc.org/u-s-billionaire-wealth-up-850-billion/

5 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, November 7, 2020. The Covid-19 Roadmap: Towards Global Economic Chaos and Societal Destruction. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-covid-19-roadmap-towards-economic-chaos-and-societal-destruction/5725602

6 Chuck Collins, March 23, 2021. Who Are the 10 Biggest Pandemic Profiteers? https://inequality.org/great-divide/10-biggest-pandemic-profiteers/

7 Americans for Tax Fairness and IPS, March 18, 2021. Billionaires Data. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15n35QH3mq7jxxLmOnrcn2LGtMSssi-x1aCU9_2V9YVM/edit#gid=1259834744

8 Nusaiba Mizan, October 12, 2020. Biden says billionaires gained $800 billion, but study looks at growth since market bottomed out. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/oct/12/joe-biden/biden-says-billionaires-gained-800-billion-study-l/

9 Giacomo Tognini, April 6, 2021. Meet The 40 New Billionaires Who Got Rich Fighting Covid-19. https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2021/04/06/meet-the-40-new-billionaires-who-got-rich-fighting-covid-19/?sh=278895b117e5

10 Ibid. 

11 See this: https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

12 Robert F. Kennedy Jr., February 4, 2021. Bill Gates and Neo-Feudalism: A Closer Look at Farmer Bill. https://www.globalresearch.ca/bill-gates-neo-feudalism-closer-look-farmer-bill/5736504 

13 Ibid.


 

Chapter VI

The Impacts on Mental Health 

 

“If we don’t stand up against this lockdown madness right now, we are complicit in the soul murder of our children! Yet the majority of parents and educators in kindergartens and schools … silently accept that corrupt governments are driving their children into madness or even suicide and thus strangling the future of all of us. –Rudolf Haensel,  September 2021

“Smiling as a facial expression has existed since the dawn of mankind. It is an inherent feature of human beings. Coupled with mandatory social distancing, the Covid mask hides our faces and prevents us from expressing our feelings while meeting and interacting with our fellow human beings. The mandates create an aura of social despair. Smiling and laughter reduces stress, encourages dialogue, exchange, solidarity, conflict resolution. Smiling also constitutes a means to confronting the Covid-19 fear campaign.” –Michel Chossudovsky, May 2022

“There has been another cost that we’ve seen, particularly in high schools. We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than there are deaths from COVID. We’re seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose,” –Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the CDC, July 14, 2020

 

Introduction

Physical Distancing, Corona, Covid-19

The coronavirus mental health predicament of several billion people worldwide is the result of

  • social engineering including confinement, isolation, social distancing and the mask,
  • the incessant 24/7 fear campaign waged by the media and the governments,
  • the spike in unemployment, mass poverty and despair triggered by the worldwide destabilization of national economies.

Image: Pixabay License/No attribution required

Psychiatrists have addressed the “negative impacts” on mental health pertaining to the factors mentioned above. Confirmed by peer-reviewed reports, the lockdowns have also been conducive to triggering depression, uncertainty, and anxiety. 

“There is concern the Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 pandemic is having a negative impact on the mental health of the general population through a range of suggested mechanisms: fear, uncertainty, and anxiety; social distancing/isolation; loneliness; and economic repercussions.”1

The overall picture of the impacts of the corona crisis on mental health is yet to be fully addressed. Our analysis will focus on the following issues for which data is available:

  1. the dramatic increase in suicides worldwide in countries where the lockdown was imposed,
  2. the increase in mortality attributable to drug overdose (cocaine, opioids),
  3. the rise in alcoholism resulting from a hike in alcohol consumption.

 

Worldwide Rise in Suicides

The WHO has failed to report on suicide deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Similarly, at the time of writing, the reported suicide statistics in the US pertaining to 2021-22 are not available. Our analysis is largely based on case study reports. 

Suicides in the US

In 2019, suicides were the tenth leading cause of death in the US, 47,511 Americans died by suicide.2 The estimated number of suicide attempts in 2019 was of the order of 1.38 million.3

The evidence is scanty. 

A CDC-sponsored peer-reviewed report (Mark É. Czeisler, Rashon I. Lane, Emiko Petrosky, et al.) confirms that the loss of employment and purchasing power in the immediate aftermath of the March 2020 lockdown played a key role specifically  among “vulnerable” social and low income groups, in triggering a wave of depression and anxiety, which resulted in what they describe as “suicide ideation” (thinking about different ways to die).4

The authors confirm that:  

Symptoms of anxiety disorder and depressive disorder increased considerably in the United States during April–June of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019 (1,2). ….

The percentage of respondents who reported having seriously considered suicide in the 30 days before completing the survey (10.7%) was significantly higher among respondents aged 18–24 years (25.5%), minority racial/ethnic groups (Hispanic respondents [18.6%], non-Hispanic black [black] respondents [15.1%]), self-reported unpaid caregivers for adults (30.7%), and essential workers (21.7%).5

Another study confirms that ‘social distancing/isolation and loneliness‘ resulting from the lockdown policies are factors which may have contributed to suicide:  

“Secondary consequences of social distancing may increase the risk of suicide,” researchers noted in an April 10, 2020 paper published by the American Medical Association.6

“It is important to consider changes in a variety of economic, psycho-social, and health-associated risk factors.” (See FEE)

Essentially, researchers warned forced isolation could prove to be “a perfect storm” for suicide. (emphasis added)7

The central issue — which is not addressed by the peer-reviewed reports — is how the engineered loss of employment and purchasing power resulting from the lockdown coupled with confinement leads to depression and despair.8

Anxiety and depression resulting from unemployment and loss of income is a worldwide phenomenon, unprecedented in world history. Country by country, one can observe similar tendencies. Low-income developing countries such as India are experiencing a situation of total despair affecting large sectors of an impoverished population.  

Suicides in India

The lockdown in India has been conducive to a spike in suicides which is a consequence of “severe hardship … as entire livelihoods have come undone, amid an escalating job crisis”.9

“It should come as little surprise then that the spectre of suicide has raised its ugly head, with spikes in reports of people, who see no change in fortune on the horizon, taking their own lives.”

The Brookings Institute has also addressed the role of the corona crisis in triggering suicides in India:

Anecdotal evidence for India, meanwhile, suggests increases in rural suicides. India instituted one of the world’s strictest lockdowns amidst high rates of poverty. … Lockdowns resulted in millions of more Indians entering poverty and exacerbated one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The additional numbers of suicides are estimated to be well into the thousands.10

Suicides in Japan

While the overall number of suicides had declined steadily in recent years, 2020 marked the first time within the past decade that suicide numbers were rising again. (Statista)11  
 
 
 
Notice the surge in suicide rates immediately following the lockdown (Source: Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor/Graphic: Jason Kwok and Natalie Croker, CNN)
 

This sudden upward trend was triggered by COVID-19 lockdown policies. In 2020, approximately 21,000 people committed suicide in Japan,12

“Far more Japanese people are dying of suicide, likely exacerbated by the economic and social repercussions of the pandemic, than of the COVID-19 disease itself. …  Provisional statistics from the National Police Agency show suicides surged to 2,153 in October [2020] alone, marking the fourth straight month of increase.” CBS November 2020 report (emphasis added)13

The above report confirms that suicides among women in Japan increased dramatically in the wake of the March 2020 lockdown. In October 2020 (compared to October of the previous year), female suicides had increased by 83% (in comparison to male suicides which increased by 22% over the same time period).14

Suicides Among Japan’s Schoolchildren

A 2021 report by Japan’s Ministry of Education confirms that suicide among Japanese schoolchildren had hit a record high during the 2020 school year.

“Japan recorded 415 suicides among schoolchildren aged 6 to 18 during the 2020 school year — the highest number since records began in 1974…. The figure was 31% higher than the previous school year, when 317 schoolchildren died.”15 

The report from the Ministry of Education suggests that “the pandemic has caused changes in the school and family environment and had an impact on children’s behavior”.

 

Deaths Resulting from Drug Overdose

The main drug opioid categories (CDC) are as follows:

  • illegal heroin
  • synthetic opioids such as fentanyl
  • so-called “pain relievers” including oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®)
  • codeine
  • morphine
  • etc. 

The drugs listed above are “chemically-related and interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain” (CDC).

Recorded in 2020, the corona crisis has contributed to a significant increase in both opioid and cocaine sales in the US. 

According to the CDC:

Synthetic opioids ([categorized by the CDC as] primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl) appear to be the primary driver of the increases in overdose deaths, increasing 38.4 percent from the 12-month period leading up to June 2019 compared with the 12-month period leading up to May 2020.  …

Overdose deaths involving cocaine also increased by 26.5 percent. … Overdose deaths involving psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine [produced by GSM], increased by 34.8 percent. The number of deaths involving psychostimulants now exceeds the number of cocaine-involved deaths.16 (CDC December 2020 Report) (emphasis added)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in December 2020 that the pandemic may have contributed to “a rise in deadly drug overdoses.” While the data is incomplete, the CDC report confirms a sizeable increase in the number of deaths attributable to drug overdose (related to consumption of cocaine and opioids):

Drug overdoses were linked to more than 81,000 people’s deaths between June 2019 and May 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, jumping 18 percent compared to the previous 12-month period. Such deaths rose 20 percent or more in 25 states and the District of Columbia, the report said.17 (PBS report)

The  CDC graph based on both the predicted as well as reported values (i.e. numbers) of deaths attributed to drug overdoses reveals that the monthly count started to accelerate in February 2020.18

Screenshot from CDC

 

In April, 2020, 2,146 people died of opioid overdose, followed by 3,388 deaths in May 2020 marking the largest monthly increases since 2015 when the federal government began collecting this data.17 (Quoted in PBS report)

The following graph indicates the US monthly data. In the months prior to the corona crisis (July 2019 to January 2020), the monthly drug overdose death count was substantially below 1,000.

The hike starts in February (coinciding with the financial crash). Following the mid-March lockdown, drug overdose deaths went fly high.

In May 2020, the overdose death count was in excess of 3,000, i.e. a more than three-fold increase in relation to the drug overdose deaths recorded prior to the corona crisis. In the US, the recorded monthly drug overdose deaths in 2020 have more than tripled.17

 

Graph based on CDC data quoted above. Source: PBS

 

More recent CDC data confirms that the increase in deaths attributable to drug overdose has continued to increase:

From 71,130 deaths in 2019 (end of December 2019) to 92,478 in 2020 (end of December 2020), namely an increase of 21,348 deaths in the course of 2020 in relation to 2019.19

This upward trend has continued in the course of 2021.

In the twelve-month period finishing in June 2021, the number of recorded drug overdose deaths reached almost 100,000 fatalities (end of June 2021: 98,022).20

Opioid-related Deaths in Canada

The tendency in Canada is consistent with that observed in the US. A dramatic increase in opioid-related deaths was recorded in Ontario following the March 17, 2020 lockdown emergency which was coupled with unemployment following the closing down of economic activity:

The number of opioid-related deaths increased quickly in the weeks following the state of emergency declaration in Ontario on March 17, 2020. Overall, there was a 38.2% increase in opioid-related deaths in the first 15 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic (695 deaths; average of 46 deaths weekly) compared to the 15 weeks immediately prior (503 deaths; average of 34 deaths weekly).21

It is worth noting that in the course of the pandemic, fentanyl (pharmaceutical opioid) accounted for 87% of opioid-related deaths (87.2% [N=538 of 617]) compared to the pre-pandemic cohort (79.2% [N=399 of 504]).22

 

Source: Public Health Ontario

 

The following graph provides a clear-cut picture of the dramatic rise in opioid overdose emergency visits in Ottawa starting from January 2020 through December 2020.

 

 Source: Public Health Ontario

 

The Production and Trade in Opioids

According to UN sources, Afghanistan currently produces 94% percent of the world’s opium supply, which is transformed into heroin, morphine as well as pharmaceutical opioids. The heroin trade is protected.23 US military presence in Afghanistan plays a key role. It’s a multi-billion dollar operation involving both the drug cartels (illegal heroin) and (indirectly) Big Pharma which is involved in the sale and distribution of pharmaceutical opioids.24

Several Big Pharma companies involved in the marketing of the COVID-19 vaccine including Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are also involved in the highly profitable (and legal) sale of pharmaceutical opioids, which in the course of the corona crisis (2020-2021) have become one of the main sources of drug overdose.

Corrupt Big Pharma Companies

Local communities across America took a stance against the Pharma giants with regard to opioids. In 2019-20, a multi-billion dollar opioid settlement was reached with Purdue Pharma on behalf of thousands of US cities and counties. 

“In October [2020], Oxycontin-maker Purdue admitted to enabling the supply of drugs “without legitimate medical purpose”, paying doctors and others illegal kickbacks to prescribe the drugs, among other claims. It agreed to pay $8.3bn.” (BBC, February 4, 2021)25

At the height of the corona crisis (November 2020):

“Four major Big Pharma distributors (Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, Amerisource Bergen) involved in the production (J&J) and distribution of prescription opioids “reached a tentative multi-billion settlement with counties and cities that sued them for damages”.26 

The settlement was referred to as the “Opioid Epidemic.” What is its relationship to the corona crisis? In a bitter irony, Johnson & Johnson, which has been the object of a prescription opioids class action lawsuit, is also a major distributor of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

These same Big Pharma distributors benefited from the spike in the sales of opioids resulting from the lockdown, which in turn contributed to a significant increase in drug overdose deaths in the course of 2020-2021 (see graphs above).

In a bitter irony, the spike in drug overdose has led to increased profits for Big Pharma.

While Big Pharma is the object of a multi-billion dollar civil lawsuit on the fraudulent distribution of prescription opioids, several of these corrupt companies are now entangled in promoting the COVID-19 vaccine initiative. According to Bloomberg, “more than 400,000 Americans have died over the last two decades from [drug] overdose”.27

And now, since the onset of the corona crisis in February 2020, monthly deaths resulting from drug overdose have more than tripled (see graph above). 

 

Alcoholism

Drug abuse and alcoholism are often related.

Drug and alcohol abuse have increased with COVID, and so has suicide. Help hotlines are flooded and certain statistics — online alcohol sales increased in the U.S. by over 200% — paint a dark picture.”

“Addiction is skyrocketing,” says addiction therapist Cindi Brand, who worked formerly with CAMH.

The pandemic has increased all forms of anxiety and stress even … Social distancing means people with addiction issues “can’t possibly get the help they need right now,” she says. (emphasis added)28

Increase in Sales of Alcohol

An upward trend in alcoholism during the corona crisis in the US is confirmed by a significant increase in the sale of alcohol. According to a Nielsen study, the stay at home orders in March 2020 resulted in “a 54% increase in national sales of alcohol for the week ending March 21, 2020, compared with one year before; online sales increased 262% from 2019.”29

A RAND corporation sample survey study conducted with the support of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) consisted in comparing adults’ drinking habits in 2019 with those prevailing during the corona crisis (2020):

“American adults have sharply increased their consumption of alcohol during the shutdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, with women increasing their heavy drinking episodes (four or more drinks within a couple of hours) by 41%

A national survey found that the overall frequency of alcohol consumption increased by 14% among adults over age 30, compared to the same time last year. The increase was 19% among all adults aged 30 to 59, 17% among women, and 10% among for non-Hispanic white adults.” (Rand Corporation)30

While the Rand Corporation study on drinking habits reveals an increase in the consumption of alcohol, the results must be interpreted with caution. The recorded increase in the actual sale of alcohol (54%) was significantly higher than the estimated increase in drinking, based on the Rand sample survey. Concurrently, however, during lockdown, consumption of alcohol has largely been taking place in homes, rather than in (closed) bars and restaurants.31 

According to Michael Pollard, lead author of the study at RAND, “People’s depression increases, anxiety increases, [and] alcohol use is often a way to cope with these feelings.”32

 

Endnotes

1 Stefania Chiappini,  Amira Guirguis, et al., July 29, 2020. COVID-19: The Hidden Impact on Mental Health and Drug Addiction. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7403495/

2 American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, n.d. Suicide Statistics. https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/

3 National Institute of Mental Health, n.d. Suicide. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide#part_154969

4 Mark É. Czeisler, Rashon I. Lane, et al., August 14, 2020. Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, June 24–30, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6932a1.htm

5 Ibid.

Mark A. Reger, Ian H. Stanley, et al., April 10, 2020. Suicide Mortality and Coronavirus Disease 2019—A Perfect Storm? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2764584?guestAccessKey=c40eefb2-c634-47ed-b3c3-f00b005e3cf2&utm_

7 Jon Miltimore, November 24, 2020. Suicide Claimed More Lives in October Than 10 Months of COVID-19 in Japan, Report Shows. https://fee.org/articles/suicide-claimed-more-lives-in-october-than-10-months-of-covid-19-in-japan-report-shows/

Mark A. Reger, Ian H. Stanley, et al., April 10, 2020. Suicide Mortality and Coronavirus Disease 2019—A Perfect Storm? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2764584?guestAccessKey=c40eefb2-c634-47ed-b3c3-f00b005e3cf2&utm_

9 Times Now Digital, September 14, 2020. Amid COVID-19 outbreak, India’s suicide epidemic remains unaddressed – these graphs show how. https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/amid-covid-19-outbreak-indias-suicide-epidemic-remains-unaddressed-these-graphs-show-how/652188

10 Carol Graham, November 17, 2020. The human costs of the pandemic: Is it time to prioritize well-being? https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-human-costs-of-the-pandemic-is-it-time-to-prioritize-well-being/

11 Statista, March 2021. Total number of suicides committed in Japan from 2011 to 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/622065/japan-suicide-number/

12 L. Kettenhofen, November 30, 2021. Suicide in Japan – statistics & facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/5259/suicide-in-japan/

13 Lucy Craft, November 13, 2020. Suicide claimed more Japanese lives in October than 10 months of COVID. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-suicide-coronavirus-more-japanese-suicides-in-october-than-total-covid-deaths/

14 Ibid.

15 Emiko Jozuka, October 14, 2021. Child suicides in Japan are at a record high. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/14/asia/suicide-children-japan-intl-hnk/index.html

16 CDC, December 17, 2020. Overdose Deaths Accelerating During COVID-19. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.html

17 Laura Santhanam, December 28, 2020. What’s behind the historic spike in drug overdose deaths under COVID-19. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/whats-behind-the-historic-spike-in-drug-overdose-deaths-under-covid-19

18 CDC, January 12, 2022. Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm#data-tables

19 Ibid.

20 Deidre McPhillips, November 17, 2021. Drug overdose deaths top 100,000 annually for the first time, driven by fentanyl, CDC data show. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/17/health/drug-overdose-deaths-record-high/index.html

21 Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, The Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario/Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, et al., November 2020. Preliminary Patterns in Circumstances Surrounding Opioid-Related Deaths in Ontario during the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/o/2020/opioid-mortality-covid-surveillance-report.pdf?la=en

22 Ibid.

23 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, June 14, 2005. The Spoils of War: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-spoils-of-war-afghanistan-s-multibillion-dollar-heroin-trade/91

24 MarketWatch, January 13, 2022. Opioids Drugs Market Size, Share 2022 Global Analysis Covers COVID-19 Impact | Detailed Insights on Upcoming Trends, Growth Rate and Future Forecast to 2025. https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/opioids-drugs-market-size-share-2022-global-analysis-covers-covid-19-impact-detailed-insights-on-upcoming-trends-growth-rate-and-future-forecast-to-2025-2022-01-13

25 BBC, February 4, 2021. McKinsey agrees $573m opioid settlement in US. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55939224

26 KHN Morning Briefing, November 6, 2020. 4 Drug Companies Agree To $26 Billion Opioid Settlement. https://khn.org/morning-breakout/4-drug-companies-agree-to-26-billion-opioid-settlement/

27 Jef Feeley, February 4, 2021. McKinsey to Pay $573 Million to Resolve U.S. Opioid Claims. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-04/mckinsey-said-to-agree-to-550-million-opioid-claim-settlement-kkq6xumb

28 Liz Braun, October 1, 2020. Drug and alcohol use rising during COVID. https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/drug-and-alcohol-use-rising-during-covid

29 NielsenIQ, May 7, 2020. Rebalancing the ‘COVID-19 effect’ on alcohol sales. https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/analysis/2020/rebalancing-the-covid-19-effect-on-alcohol-sales/

30 RAND, September 29, 2020. Alcohol Consumption Rises Sharply During Pandemic Shutdown; Heavy Drinking by Women Rises 41%. https://www.rand.org/news/press/2020/09/29.html

31 Sasha Pezenik, September 30, 2020. Alcohol consumption rising sharply during pandemic, especially among women. https://abcnews.go.com/US/alcohol-consumption-rising-sharply-pandemic-women/story?id=73302479

32 Ibid.  


 

Chapter VII

Corrupt Science: “There Is No Cure”

Suppression of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), 

A Cheap and Effective Drug 

 

There was an ongoing battle to suppress hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a cheap and effective drug for the treatment of COVID-19. The campaign against HCQ was carried out through slanderous political statements, media smears, not to mention an authoritative peer-reviewed “evaluation” published on May 22 by The Lancet, which was based on fake figures and test trials.

The study was allegedly based on data analysis of 96,032 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between Dec 20, 2019, and April 14, 2020 from 671 hospitals worldwide. The database had been fabricated. The objective was to kill the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) cure on behalf of Big Pharma.

While The Lancet article was retracted, the media casually blamed “a tiny US-based company” named Surgisphere whose employees included “a sci-fi writer and adult content model” for spreading “flawed data” (Guardian). This Chicago-based outfit was accused of having misled both the WHO and national governments, inciting them to ban HCQ. None of those trial tests actually took place.

 

Screenshot from The Lancet

 

While the blame was placed on Surgisphere, the unspoken truth (which neither the scientific community nor the media has acknowledged) is that the study was coordinated by Harvard professor Mandeep Mehra under the auspices of Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), which is a partner of the Harvard Medical School.

When the scam was revealed, Dr. Mandeep Mehra, who holds the Harvey Distinguished Chair of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, apologized:

“I have always performed my research in accordance with the highest ethical and professional guidelines. However, we can never forget the responsibility we have as researchers to scrupulously ensure that we rely on data sources that adhere to our high standards.

It is now clear to me that in my hope to contribute this research during a time of great need, I did not do enough to ensure that the data source was appropriate for this use. For that, and for all the disruptions – both directly and indirectly – I am truly sorry.” (emphasis added)

Mandeep R. Mehra, MD, MSC (official statement on BWH website)1

But that “truly sorry” note was just the tip of the iceberg. Why?

The studies respectively on Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir and on hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) were conducted simultaneously by Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH).

While The Lancet report (May 22, 2020) coordinated by Dr. Mandeep Mehra was intended “to kill” the legitimacy of HCQ as a cure of COVID-19, another important (related) study was being carried out (concurrently) at BWH pertaining to remdesivir on behalf of Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Dr. Francisco Marty, a specialist in Infectious Disease and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, was entrusted with coordination of the clinical trial tests of the antiviral medication remdesivir under Brigham’s contract with Gilead Sciences, Inc2:

“Brigham and Women’s Hospital began enrolling patients in two clinical trials for Gilead’s antiviral medication remdesivir. The Brigham is one of multiple clinical trial sites for a Gilead-initiated study of the drug in 600 participants with moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and a Gilead-initiated study of 400 participants with severe COVID-19.

… If the results are promising, this could lead to FDA approval, and if they aren’t, it gives us critical information in the fight against COVID-19 and allows us to move on to other therapies.”

While Dr. Mandeep Mehra was not directly involved in the Gilead Remdesivir BWH study under the supervision of his colleague Dr. Francisco Marty, he nonetheless had contacts with Gilead Sciences, Inc:

“He participated in a conference sponsored by Gilead in early April 2020 as part of the Covid-19 debate” (France Soir, May 23, 2020)3

What was the intent of his (failed) study? To undermine the legitimacy of hydroxychloroquine?

According to France Soir, in a report published after The Lancet retraction:

The often evasive answers produced by Dr Mandeep R. Mehra, … professor at Harvard Medical School, did not produce confidence, fueling doubt instead about the integrity of this retrospective study and its results. (France Soir, June 5, 2020)4

Was Dr. Mandeep Mehra in conflict of interest? (That is a matter for BWH and the Harvard Medical School to decide upon)

 

Who Were the Main Actors? 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, portrayed as “America’s top infectious disease expert,” played a key role in smearing the HCQ cure which had been approved years earlier by the CDC as well as providing legitimacy to Gilead’s remdesivir.

Dr. Fauci has been the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since the Reagan administration. He is known to act as a mouthpiece for Big Pharma.

Dr. Fauci launched remdesivir in late June (see details below). According to Fauci, remdesivir is the “corona wonder drug” developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. It’s a $1.6 billion dollar bonanza.

 

Gilead Sciences, Inc: History

Gilead Sciences, Inc is a multi-billion dollar bio-pharmaceutical company which is now involved in developing and marketing remdesivir. Gilead has a long history. It has the backing of major investment conglomerates including the Vanguard Group and Capital Research & Management Co, among others. It has developed ties with the US government.

In 1999, Gilead Sciences, Inc developed Tamiflu (used as a treatment of seasonal influenza and bird flu). At the time, Gilead Sciences, Inc was headed by Donald Rumsfeld (1997-2001), who later joined the George W. Bush administration as Secretary of Defense (2001-2006). Rumsfeld was responsible for coordinating the illegal and criminal wars on Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003).

Rumsfeld maintained his links to Gilead Sciences, Inc throughout his tenure as Secretary of Defense (2001-2006). According to CNN Money (2005): “The prospect of a bird flu outbreak … was very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld [who still owned Gilead stocks] and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences.”5

Anthony Fauci has been in charge of the NIAID since 1984, using his position as “a go-between” the US government and Big Pharma. During Rumsfeld’s tenure as Secretary of Defense, the budget allocated to bio-terrorism increased substantially, involving contracts with Big Pharma including Gilead Sciences, Inc. Anthony Fauci considered that the money allocated to bio-terrorism in early 2002 would:

“accelerate our understanding of the biology and pathogenesis of microbes that can be used in attacks, and the biology of the microbes’ hosts — human beings and their immune systems. One result should be more effective vaccines with less toxicity.” (Washington Post, February 7, 2022)6

In 2008, Dr. Anthony Fauci was granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush “for his determined and aggressive efforts to help others live longer and healthier lives.”7

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, listens Thursday, June 19, 2008, as he is announced as a recipient of the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom, at ceremonies in the East Room of the White House. (White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

 

The 2020 Gilead Sciences, Inc. Remdesivir Project

We will be focusing on key documents (and events).

Chronology (February-June 2020)

February 21, 2020: Initial release pertaining to NIH-NIAID remdesivir placebo test trial

April 10: The Gilead Sciences, Inc study published in the NEJM on the “Compassionate Use of Remdesivir”

April 29: NIH released study on remdesivir (report published on May 22 in NEJM)

May 22: The BWH-Harvard Study on Hydroxychloroquine coordinated by Dr. Mandeep Mehra published in The Lancet

May 22: Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary Report, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) 

June 5: The (fake) Lancet Report (May 22) on HCQ is retracted

June 29: Fauci announcement. The $1.6 billion remdesivir HHS agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc

 

April 10, 2020: The Gilead Sciences, Inc study published in the NEJM on the “Compassionate Use of Remdesivir”

A Gilead-sponsored report was published in New England Journal of Medicine in an article entitled “Compassionate Use of Remdesivir for Patients with Severe COVID-19”. It was co-authored by an impressive list of 56 distinguished medical doctors and scientists, many of whom were recipients of consulting fees from Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. funded the study which included several staff members as co-authors.

“The testing included a total of 61 patients [who] received at least one dose of remdesivir on or before March 7, 2020; 8 of these patients were excluded because of missing postbaseline information (7 patients) and an erroneous remdesivir start date (1 patient) … Of the 53 remaining patients included in this analysis, 40 (75%) received the full 10-day course of remdesivir, 10 (19%) received 5 to 9 days of treatment, and 3 (6%) fewer than 5 days of treatment.” (NEJM, April 10, 2020)8

The NEJM article states that “Gilead Sciences, Inc began accepting requests from clinicians for compassionate use of remdesivir on January 25, 2020.”

From whom, from where? According to the WHO (January 30, 2020), there were 86 cases in 18 countries outside China of which 5 were in the US, 5 in France and 3 in Canada.

Several prominent physicians and scientists have cast doubt on the Compassionate Use of Remdesivir study conducted by Gilead, focusing on the small size of the trial. Ironically, the number of patients in the test is less than the number of co-authors: “53 patients” versus “56 co-authors.”

Below we provide excerpts from scientific statements on the Gilead NEJM project (Science Media Centre) published immediately following the release of the NEJM article9:

‘Compassionate use’ is better described as using an unlicensed therapy to treat a patient because there are no other treatments available. Research based on this kind of use should be treated with extreme caution because there is no control group or randomisation, which are some of the hallmarks of good practice in clinical trials.” (Prof Duncan Richard, Clinical Therapeutics, University of Oxford)

 “It is critical not to over-interpret this study. Most importantly, it is impossible to know the outcome for this relatively small group of patients had they not received remdesivir.” (Dr Stephen Griffin, Associate Professor, School of Medicine, University of Leeds)

 “The research is interesting but doesn’t prove anything at this point: the data are from a small and uncontrolled study.” (Simon Maxwell, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Prescribing, University of Edinburgh)

“The data from this paper are almost uninterpretable. It is very surprising, perhaps even unethical, that the New England Journal of Medicine has published it. It would be more appropriate to publish the data on the website of the pharmaceutical company that has sponsored and written up the study. At least Gilead have been clear that this has not been done in the way that a high quality scientific paper would be written.” (Prof Stephen Evans, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)

“It’s very hard to draw useful conclusions from uncontrolled studies like this particularly with a new disease where we really don’t know what to expect and with wide variations in outcomes between places and over time. One really has to question the ethics of failing to do randomisation – this study really represents more than anything else, a missed opportunity.” (Prof Adam Finn, Professor of Paediatrics, University of Bristol)

To review the complete document of Science Media Centre pertaining to expert assessments, click here.

 

April 29, 2020: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Study on Remdesivir

On April 29 following the publication of the Gilead Sciences, Inc study in the NEJM on April 10, a press release of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on remdesivir was released. The full document was published on May 22, by the NEJM under the title: Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary Report (NEJM). 

The study had been initiated on February 21, 2020. The title of the April 29 press release was: “Peer-reviewed data shows remdesivir for COVID-19 improves time to recovery.”

It’s a government-sponsored report which includes preliminary data from a randomized trial involving 1,063 hospitalized patients. The results of the trial labelled Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) are preliminary, conducted under the helm of Dr. Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID):

An independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) overseeing the trial met on April 27 to review data and shared their interim analysis with the study team. Based upon their review of the data, they noted that remdesivir was better than placebo from the perspective of the primary endpoint, time to recovery, a metric often used in influenza trials. Recovery in this study was defined as being well enough for hospital discharge or returning to normal activity level.

Preliminary results indicate that patients who received remdesivir had a 31% faster time to recovery than those who received placebo (p<0.001). Specifically, the median time to recovery was 11 days for patients treated with remdesivir compared with 15 days for those who received placebo. Results also suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8.0% for the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6% for the placebo group (p=0.059). (emphasis added)10

In the NIH’s earlier February 21, 2020 report (released at the outset of the study), the methodology was described as follows:

… A randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational antiviral remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) …

Numbers. Where? When? 

The February 21 report confirmed that the first trial participant was “an American who was repatriated after being quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship” that docked in Yokohama (Japanese Territorial Waters) (see Chapter II). “Thirteen people repatriated by the US State Department from the Diamond Princess cruise ship” were selected as patients for the placebo trial test.

Ironically, at the outset of the study, 58.7% of the “confirmed cases” worldwide (542 cases out of 924) (outside China) were on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship from which the initial trial placebo patients were selected.

Where and When: The trial test in the 68 selected sites? That came at a later date because on February 19 (WHO data), the US had recorded only 15 positive cases (see table below).

“A total of 68 sites ultimately joined the study—47 in the United States and 21 in countries in Europe and Asia.” (emphasis added)

In the final May 22 NEJM report entitled Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary Report

There were 60 trial sites and 13 subsites in the United States (45 sites), Denmark (8), the United Kingdom (5), Greece (4), Germany (3), Korea (2), Mexico (2), Spain (2), Japan (1), and Singapore (1). Eligible patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either remdesivir or placebo. Randomization was stratified by study site and disease severity at enrollment.11

The Washington Post applauded Anthony Fauci’s announcement (April 29)12:

“The preliminary results, disclosed at the White House by Anthony S. Fauci, …  fall short of the magic bullet or cure… But with no approved treatments for Covid-19,[Lie] Fauci said, it will become the standard of care for hospitalized patients …

The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Fauci said. 

“The government’s first rigorous clinical trial of the experimental drug remdesivir as a coronavirus treatment delivered mixed results to the medical community Wednesday — but rallied stock markets and raised hopes that an early weapon to help some patients was at hand.

The preliminary results, disclosed at the White House by Anthony Fauci, chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which led the placebo-controlled trial found that the drug accelerated the recovery of hospitalized patients but had only a marginal benefit in the rate of death.

… Fauci’s remarks boosted speculation that the Food and Drug Administration would seek emergency use authorization that would permit doctors to prescribe the drug.

In addition to clinical trials, remdesivir has been given to more than 1,000 patients under compassionate use. [Also refers to the Gilead study published on April 10 in the NEJM]

The study, involving [more than] 1,000 patients at 68 sites in the United States and around the world [??], offers the first evidence [??] from a large [??], randomized [??] clinical study of remdesivir’s effectiveness against COVID-19.”

The NIH placebo test study provided “preliminary results.” While the placebo trial test was “randomized”, the overall selection of patients at the 68 sites was not fully randomized. See the full report.13

 

May 22, 2020: The Controversial (Retracted) Lancet Report on Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)

It is worth noting that the full report of the NIH-NIAID entitled Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary Report was released on May 22, 2020 in the NEJM, on the same day as the controversial Lancet report on hydroxychloroquine.

Immediately following its publication, the media went into high gear, smearing the HCQ cure, while applauding the NIH-NIAID report on remdesivir released on that same day.

Remdesivir, the only drug cleared to treat COVID-19, sped the recovery time of patients with the disease, … “It’s a very safe and effective drug,” said Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. “We now have a definite first efficacious drug for Covid-19, which is a major step forward and will be built upon with other drugs, [and drug] combinations.”14

When the Lancet HCQ article by Bingham-Harvard was retracted on June 5, it was too late, it received minimal media coverage. Despite the retraction, the HCQ cure “had been killed.”

 

June 29, 2020: Fauci Green Light. The $1.6 Billion Remdesivir Contract with Gilead Sciences, Inc

Dr. Anthony Fauci granted the “green light” to Gilead Sciences, Inc. on June 29, 2020.

The semi-official US government NIH-NIAID-sponsored report (May 22) entitled Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary Report (NEJM) was used to justify a major agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (A final report was released on November 5, 2020)

The report was largely funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

On June 29, based on the findings of the NIH-NIAID report published in the NEJM, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on behalf of the Trump Adminstration an agreement to secure large supplies of the remdesivir drug from Gilead Sciences, Inc. for the treatment of COVID-19 in America’s private hospitals and clinics.

The earlier Gilead study based on scanty test results published in the NEJM (April 10) of 53 cases (and 56 co-authors) was not highlighted. The results of this study had been questioned by several prominent physicians and scientists.

Who will be able to afford remdesivir? 500,000 doses of remdesivir are envisaged at $3,200 per patient, namely $1.6 billion (see the study by Elizabeth Woodworth).15

The drug was also approved for marketing in the European Union under the brand name Veklury.

If this contract is implemented as planned, it represents for Gilead Sciences, Inc. and the recipient US private hospitals and clinics a colossal amount of money.

According to the Trump Administration’s HHS Secretary Alex Azar (June 29, 2020):

“To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. [at $3200] The Trump Administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for COVID-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.”

 

Remdesivir versus Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)

Careful timing:

The Lancet study (published on May 22, 2020 and subsequently retracted) was intended to undermine the legitimacy of hydroxychloroquine as an effective cure to COVID-19, with a view to sustaining the $1.6 billion agreement between the HHS and Gilead Sciences, Inc. on June 29. The legitimacy of this agreement rested on the May 22 NIH-NIAID study in the NEJM which was considered “preliminary.”16

What Dr. Fauci failed to acknowledge is that chloroquine had been “studied” and tested 15 years ago by the CDC as a drug to be used against coronavirus infections. And that hydroxychloroquine has been used in the course of 2020 in the treatment of COVID-19 in several countries.

According to the (2005) Virology Journal, Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread.”17 It was used in the SARS-1 outbreak in 2002. It had the endorsement of the CDC. 

HCQ is not only effective, it is “inexpensive” when compared to remdesivir at an estimated “$3,120 for a US patient with private insurance.”

 

Concluding Remarks

The Gilead Sciences, Inc. remdesivir study (50+ authors) was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 10, 2020.

It was followed by the NIH-NIAID Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary Report on May 22, 2020 in the NEJM.  And on that same day, May 22, the report on hydroxychloroquine coordinated by BWH-Harvard Dr. Mehra was published by the Lancet (which was subsequently retracted).

Harvard Medical School and the BWH bear responsibility for having hosted and financed the Lancet report on HCQ coordinated by Dr. Mandeep Mehra.

Is there conflict of interest? BWH was simultaneously involved in a study on remdesivir in a contract with Gilead Sciences, Inc.

While the Lancet report coordinated by Harvard’s Dr. Mehra was retracted, it nonetheless served the interests of Gilead Sciences, Inc.

It is important that an independent scientific and medical assessment be undertaken, respectively of the Gilead Sciences, Inc New England Journal of Medicine (NEMJ) peer-reviewed study (April 10, 2020) as well as the NIH-NIAID study also published in the NEJM (May 22, 2020).

 

Endnotes

1 Brigham and Women’s Hospital, May 22, 2020. No Improvement in Death Rate for COVID-19 Patients who Received Hydroxychloroquine. https://www.brighamandwomens.org/about-bwh/newsroom/press-releases-detail?id=3592

2 Brigham and Women’s Hospital, March 30, 2020. Two Remdesivir Clinical Trials Underway at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. https://www.brighamhealthonamission.org/2020/03/26/two-remdesivir-clinical-trials-underway-at-brigham-and-womens-hospital/

3 Xavier Azalbert & Eric Gyssler, June 5, 2020. From coincidences to coincidences, the Boston connexion serves Remdesivir? https://www.francesoir.fr/politique-monde/coincidences-coincidences-boston-connexion-serves-remdesivir

4 Ibid.

5 Nelson D. Schwartz, October 31, 2005. Rumsfeld’s growing stake in Tamiflu Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing. https://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/

6 George F. Will, February 7, 2002. War and Health. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/02/07/war-and-health/c1e5dfb2-c373-45ef-87d1-eb89f0db557c/

7 George W Bush Library, March 30, 2020. https://twitter.com/gwblibrary/status/1244601539227942914?lang=en

8 Jonathan Grein, Norio Ohmagari, et al, June 11, 2020. Compassionate Use of Remdesivir for Patients with Severe Covid-19. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007016#article_references

9 Prof. Stephen Evans & Prof. Adam Finn, April 11, 2020. Expert reaction to a study about compassionate use of remdesivir for patients with severe COVID-19. https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-a-study-about-compassionate-use-of-remdesivir-for-patients-with-severe-covid-19/

10 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, February 25, 2020. NIH Clinical Trial of Remdesivir to Treat COVID-19 Begins. https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/nih-clinical-trial-remdesivir-treat-covid-19-begins

11 John H. Beigel, Kay M. Tomashek, et al., November 5, 2020. Remdesivir for the Treatment of Covid-19 — Final Report. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007764?query=recirc_mostViewed_railB_article

12 Laurie Mcginley & Christopher Rowland, April 29, 2020. Gilead’s remdesivir improves recovery time of coronavirus patients in NIH trial. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/gileads-remdesivir-improves-recovery-time-of-coronavirus-patients-in-nih-trial/

13 Ibid.

14 Matthew Herper, May 22, 2020. Covid-19 study details benefits of treatment with remdesivir, and also its limitations. https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/22/covid-19-study-details-benefits-of-treatment-with-remdesivir-and-also-its-limitations/

15 Elizabeth Woodworth, August 27, 2020. Remdesivir for Covid-19: $1.6 Billion for a “Modestly Beneficial” Drug? https://www.globalresearch.ca/remdesivir-covid-19-1-6-billion-modestly-beneficial-drug/5717690

16 Mandeep R. Mehra, Sapan S. Desai, et al., May 29, 2020. Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis. https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6.pdf

17 Martin J. Vincent, Eric Bergeron, et al., August 22, 2005. Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1232869/

 


 

Chapter VIII

Big Pharma’s COVID “Vaccine”

 

Our Children Are the Victims

Student at the Lycée Valabre de Luynes-Gardannem, Aix-en-Provence, 16 years old Sofia Benharira  passed away on September 21 [2021] yes, 7 days after having received the deadly Pfizer vaccine. Two Heart Attacks, Thrombosis. May She Rest in Peace.

***

“Her daughter’s 13-year-old friend who did not want to take the COVID-19 vaccine. “Her Heart Stopped. She is in Critical Care. This is happening here right now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Because she wanted to play soccer. 

She did not want to take the Vaccine. But when our Premier mandated the vaccine for children playing sport.  …. 

“I am disgusted with our government.”

(Powerful voice of a Canadian mother)

***

“Yesterday evening, we got news from France of a young man, 22 years old who died nine hours after having being vaccinated. He wanted to travel on a holiday to Greece. “He just wanted to live said his father. … he was my only son, and he died, killed by a crap vaccine that was never validated or properly tested”. 

The mainstream media provided its own interpretation quoting “authoritative medical sources”.

“It  wasn’t the vaccine which triggered Maxime Beltra‘s death. He died from an allergic reaction, they said: “a probable serious food allergy, according to medical sources”.

Now isn’t that a piece of authoritative fake news, quoting hospital officials. Today Our thoughts are with Maxime Beltra and his family.

***

“If you permit this to go ahead [vaccine], I guarantee, there will be avoidable deaths of perfectly healthy children and severe illnesses in ten times as many. And for no possible benefit. Knowing what I know from 40 years training and practice in toxicology, biochemistry and pharmacology, to participate in this extraordinary abuse of innocent children in our care can be classified in no other way than Murder.” —Dr. Michael Yeadon, prominent scientist, former Vice President of Pfizer

“Three doctors from Ontario died after the hospital where they worked started administering the fourth booster shot to their staff. Is it a coincidence or are they victims of this diabolical worldwide vaccination campaign?” —Mark Taliano, author, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization

“This vaccine campaign will go down as the biggest scandal in medical history, … moreover, it will be known as the biggest crime ever committed on humanity.” —MP Christine Anderson, Member of the European Parliament, July 2022

 

Yes, It’s a killer vaccine. That message should be loud and clear. This is happening all over the world: children and adolescents are dying. Crimes against humanity, crimes against our children. 

Health authorities are routinely instructed to categorize vaccine-related deaths and injuries to COVID-19: “The vaccinated are dying of COVID.” It’s a boldface lie. 

 

Introduction

The vaccine was launched on November 9, 2020, barely six months after the March 11, 2020 lockdown. These two interrelated policy mandates constitute the strategic pillars of the COVID crisis:

  • The lockdown was an act of economic and social warfare directed against all humanity.
  • Amply documented (starting in early 2021) the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is a poisonous substance which has resulted in a sustained upward trend in vaccine-related mortality and morbidity.

Peer-reviewed reports confirm the causes of vaccine-related deaths and injuries including, among others, blood clots, thrombosis, myocarditis and fertility.

The impacts of the vaccine are also documented by a secret Pfizer report which was released under freedom of information (see analysis below).

Video: Impact of COVID vaccinations on mortality (December 2020 – April 2021, selected countries), click here to watch.

The latest official figures at the time of writing (April 3, 2022) point to approximately: 

69,053 COVID-19 injection-related deaths and 10,997,126 injuries for the EU, US and UK combined for a population of 830 million people.1

But only a small fraction of the victims or families of the deceased will go through the tedious process of reporting vaccine-related deaths and adverse events to the national health authorities. 

Moreover, the health authorities are actively involved in obfuscating the deaths and injuries resulting from the “unapproved” and “experimental” COVID-19 “vaccine”.

Based on historical data (Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (ESPH-VAERS) p. 6)

“Adverse events from drugs and vaccines are common, but underreported. … less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Likewise, fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported. (emphasis added)2

These are official statistics based on a formal process of registration of deaths and injuries. The actual number of deaths and injuries triggered by the mRNA vaccine is much higher.

Multiply the figures by the relevant parameter to get the REAL numbers; we are talking about very high numbers.

 

The mRNA “Vaccine”. Hidden Agenda? 

The vaccine does not save lives nor does it contain the pandemic because there is no pandemic. It’s a money-making operation for Big Pharma in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Moreover, it’s not a one-time vaccine jab. Several doses are contemplated over several years.

It is applied worldwide and enforced by powerful financial Interest. Not a single country, with the exception of Burundi, Tanzania and Haiti, had the courage to refuse the mRNA vaccine.

While there is no reliable evidence, it is worth noting that the presidents of Tanzania and Burundi died under mysterious circumstances.

Haiti was the only country in the Western hemisphere which categorically refused to implement the mRNA vaccine.

In a bitter irony, immediately following president Jovenel Moise’s assassination on July 7, 2021, president Joe Biden promptly sent half a million vaccine doses (and more to come, courtesy of Uncle Sam) delivered by COVAX to Port-au-Prince six days after Moise’s passing.3

This first shipment to Haiti was part of a US Aid Program consisting of 500 million doses of the “killer vaccine” which was slated to be sent to a large number of developing countries.  

 

Big Money for Big Pharma

The US government ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine in the immediate wake of the March 11, 2020 lockdown. The EU purchased more than 1.8 billion doses, which represents four times the population of the European Union. It’s Big Money for Big Pharma, generous payoffs to corrupt politicians at the expense of taxpayers.

The objective is ultimately to make money, by vaccinating the entire planet of 7.9 billion people for SARS-CoV-2.

The COVID vaccine requires at least three doses. This is the largest vaccine project in world history and the biggest money-making operation for Big Pharma.

Worldwide, people are led to believe that the corona vaccine is a solution. And that “normality” will then be restored.

 

The mRNA Vaccine Is “Unapproved” and “Experimental” 

How is it that a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which under normal conditions would take years to develop, was promptly launched on the 9th of November 2020?

Moreover, the vaccine announced by Pfizer, Moderna Inc, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is based on an experimental gene-editing mRNA technology which has a bearing on the human genome.

Coupled with the mRNA vaccine initiative is the development of a so-called digital passport which is currently being imposed on entire populations (see analysis below).

And why do we need a vaccine for COVID-19 when the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as numerous scientists have confirmed unequivocally that COVID-19 is “similar to seasonal influenza”? (See analysis in Chapter III)

Four major companies including Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) are involved in marketing the experimental mRNA vaccine with the relentless support of national governments.  

In the US, the “green light” to market the experimental mRNA vaccine was granted back in December 2020, despite the fact that according to the FDA, the vaccine is an “unapproved product”.

The FDA, in an ambiguous statement, has provided a so-called Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, namely “to permit the emergency use of the unapproved product, … for active immunization…”4 (See below)

 

Screenshot from the FDA

 

There is something fishy and “contradictory” in this statement. The experimental Pfizer mRNA vaccine is both “unapproved” and “permitted”.

I have checked this statement with a prominent lawyer. It is blatantly illegal to market an “unapproved product”.

In the US, the Pfizer-Moderna vaccine was categorized by the CDC as an “investigational drug”. “The emergency use” clause is there to justify the launching of what might be described as an “illegal drug”.

There is an ongoing fear campaign but there is no “emergency” which justifies “emergency use”. Why?

  1. Both the WHO and the CDC have confirmed that COVID-19 is “similar to seasonal influenza”; it is not a killer virus. 
  2. The PCR test used to estimate “confirmed positive cases” is flawed. Since March 2020, the COVID-19 “numbers” have been manipulated, hiked up.
  3. The overall validity of the PCR test (and estimates) as applied since January 2020 has been questioned (January 2021) by the WHO (see our analysis in Chapter III).

 

Pfizer Has a Criminal Record: “Fraudulent Marketing” of an “Unapproved Product”

Flashback to 2009. In a historic US Department of Justice decision in September 2009, Pfizer Inc. pleaded guilty to criminal charges.5 It was “the largest health care fraud settlement” in the history of the US Department of Justice:

American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. … have agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products, … ” (September 2, 2009)6

Screenshot from the Department of Justice

 

To view the C-Span video, click here.

 

Déjà Vu: Flash Forward to 2020-2022

How on earth can you trust a Big Pharma vaccine conglomerate which pleaded guilty to criminal charges by the US Department of Justice including “fraudulent marketing” and “felony violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act”?

I should mention, however, that in 2009, Pfizer was so to speak “put on probation” by the US Department of Justice.7 It was obliged to enter into “a corporate integrity agreement” with the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). That agreement provided for “procedures and reviews to … avoid and promptly detect” misconduct on the part of Pfizer Inc.  

Johnson & Johnson and “the Opioid Epidemic” 

At the height of the corona crisis, barely covered by the media, coinciding with the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine in early November 2020, Johnson & Johnson (and its three distributors) (involved in the marketing of prescription opioids)  “reached a tentative multi-billion settlement with counties and cities that sued them for damages”.8 The class action lawsuit was “the largest federal court case in American history” (for further details, see Chapter VI pertaining to “The Impacts on Mental Health”).

Are these legal antecedents relevant to an understanding of Big Pharma’s vaccine initiative?

Johnson & Johnson is currently involved in the production and marketing of a COVID adenovirus viral vector vaccine which also entails genetic therapy (the above J&J class-action lawsuit is one among several lawsuits against J&J).

 

Human Guinea Pigs

In relation to the COVID vaccine, “fraudulent marketing” is an understatement. The mRNA vaccine announced by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca is an “unapproved drug” based on the “experimental” gene-editing mRNA technology which has a bearing on the human genome.9

Moreover, the standard animal lab tests using mice or ferrets were not conducted. Pfizer “went straight to human ‘guinea pigs’.”10

“Human tests began in late July and early August [2020]. Three months is unheard of for testing a new vaccine. Several years is the norm.” (F. William Engdahl, Global Research, November 2020)11

Dr. Michael Yeadon, former Vice President of Pfizer, has taken a firm stance

“All vaccines against the SARS-COV-2 virus are by definition novel. No candidate vaccine has been… in development for more than a few months.”

“If any such vaccine is approved for use under any circumstances that are not EXPLICITLY experimental, I believe that recipients are being misled to a criminal extent.”12

In early December 2020,  Dr. Michael Yeadon together with Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg “filed an application with the EMA“, the European Medicines Agency responsible for EU-wide drug approval, for the immediate suspension of all SARS-CoV-2 vaccine studies, in particular the Pfizer-BioNtech study on BNT162b (EudraCT number 2020-002641-42).13

 

History of the SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Project 

There are many contradictions. The analysis below addresses the earlier stages of the vaccine project as well as the role of the 201 simulation of a coronavirus pandemic under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine held in New York on October 18, 2019 (see Chapter I).

The COVID vaccine is a multi-billion dollar Big Pharma operation which will contribute to increasing the public debt of more than 150 national governments.

Supported by the fear campaign, money — rather than public health — is the driving force behind this initiative.

The GSK-Pfizer Partnership 

Five months before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, two of the largest worldwide Pharma conglomerates decided to join hands in a strategic relationship. In August 2019, GSK confirmed the formation of a major partnership with Pfizer entitled the Consumer Health Joint Venture.14

While the relationship is said to be limited to “trusted consumer health brands”, the agreement envisaged joint financial procedures including joint multi-billion dollar investment projects. While it does not constitute a merger, the GSK-Pfizer alliance implies selective integration and de facto collusion in many of the two companies’ activities including the vaccine market.

The completion of the joint venture with Pfizer marks the beginning of the next phase of our transformation of GSK. This is an important moment for the Group, laying the foundation for two great companies, one in Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines and one in Consumer Health.” (GSK, August 1, 2019, emphasis added)15

This GSK-Pfizer relationship also encompasses a network of partner pharmaceutical companies, research labs, virology institutes, military and biotech entities, etc. many of which are currently involved in the COVID vaccine initiative.  

At present, a handful of multi-national companies including GSK and Pfizer control 80% of the global vaccine market. Under the agreement between the two companies, GSK-Pfizer is slated to play a dominant and coordinated role in regards to the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

The October 2019 Coronavirus Event 201 Simulation Exercise. Development of an “Effective Vaccine”

The coronavirus was initially named nCoV-19 by CEPI and the WHO — exactly the same name as that adopted in the WEF-Gates-Johns Hopkins Event 201 (2019-nCov) pertaining to a coronavirus simulation exercise held in mid-October 2019. It was only later that COVID-19 was identified by the WHO not as a virus but as a disease: coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the virus was identified as “severe acute respiratory syndrome” coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). 

The Event 201 Johns Hopkins simulation (examined in Chapter I) addressed the development of an effective vaccine in response to millions of cases in the October 2019 simulation of an outbreak of a novel coronavirus entitled 2019-nCoV. The simulation announced a scenario in which the entire population of the planet would be affected:

“We ran a massive viral pandemic simulation.., 65 million deaths worldwide.”

“During the initial months of the pandemic, the cumulative number of cases [in the simulation] increases exponentially, doubling every week. And as the cases and deaths accumulate, the economic and societal consequences become increasingly severe.”

The scenario ends at the 18-month point, with 65 million deaths. The pandemic is beginning to slow due to the decreasing number of susceptible people. The pandemic will continue at some rate until there is an effective vaccine or until 80-90 % of the global population has been exposed. From that point on, it is likely to be an endemic childhood disease.16

To watch the World Economic Forum video, The 201 Johns Hopkins Simulation, click here.

 

The Central Role of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)

The lead entity for the novel coronavirus vaccine initiative is the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an organization sponsored and financed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Two weeks after the virus had been formally identified by the People’s Republic of China (Jan 7, 2020), a vaccine for the novel coronavirus was announced by CEPI at the Davos World Economic Forum on January 20-24, 2020.

Note the chronology: The development of the 2019-nCoV vaccine was announced at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) a week prior to the official launching by the WHO of a Worldwide Public Health Emergency (January 30, 2020) at a time when the number of “confirmed cases” worldwide (outside China) was 83 (see Chapter II).

The pandemic was launched by the WHO on March 11, 2020. And five days later, barely covered by the media, the first tests involving human volunteers were conducted by Moderna in Seattle on March 16, 2020.

The evidence suggests that the vaccine project was initiated at a much earlier stage. According to Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the project to develop a vaccine commenced not only prior to the discovery and identification of the coronavirus (January 7, 2020) but several months prior to the October 2019 simulation exercise (see interview with Richard Hatchett below).17

CEPI, on behalf of the Gates Foundation and the WEF, was seeking a “monopoly” role in the vaccination business the objective of which was a “global vaccine project”, in partnership with a large number of “candidates”.

The CEO Stéphane Bancel of Moderna Inc. described the features of the mRNA vaccine at a World Economic Forum press conference in Davos (January 2020). “We inject instructions … mRNA is a platform.” He confirmed that research was already well underway in collaboration with the NIS and CEPI. Click here to view the video.

Image: Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel (Licensed under GFDL, free to use)

On January 31, 2020, the day following the WHO’s official launching of the global public health emergency (PHEIC) and Trump’s decision to curtail air travel with China, CEPI announced its partnership with CureVac AG, a German-based biopharmaceutical company.

A few days later, in early February 2020, CEPI “announced that major vaccine manufacturer GSK would allow its proprietary adjuvants — compounds that boost the effectiveness of vaccines — to be used in the response” (the pandemic was officially launched on March 11, 2020).18

There were many “potential vaccines in the pipeline” with “dozens of research groups around the world racing to create a vaccine against COVID-19”.

 

The COVID-19 Global Vaccination Program 

CEPI (on behalf of Gates-WEF, which funded the 201 simulation exercise) played a key role in a large-scale worldwide vaccination program in partnership with biotech companies, Big Pharma, government agencies as well as university laboratories.  

Screenshot from CEPI’s Twitter

 

The foregoing statement by CEPI was made nearly two months prior to the official declaration of a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The number of confirmed cases outside China on January 30, 2020 was 83. 

“We’re having conversations with a broad array of potential partners”. And critical to those conversations is: What’s the plan to make very large quantities of vaccine within a time frame that is potentially relevant to what people seem to be increasingly certain will be a pandemic, if it isn’t already there? …” [Richard Hatchett, CEPI CEO in an interview with stat.news.com] (emphasis added)19 

 

Prior Knowledge of the COVID Pandemic. The mRNA Vaccine Was Already in the Pipeline

Of significance, Hatchett confirmed that the project to develop a vaccine commenced not only prior to the discovery and identification of the coronavirus (January 7, 2020) but several months prior to the October 2019 201 simulation exercise.

“We did that in the last year or so [early 2019]…  We are using the information that we have collected and have that team now thinking about opportunities for scaling vaccines of various different types. That is a work in progress. For some of the technologies the tech transfer [to a manufacturer] may be something that could be done in a time frame that was pertinent to the epidemic, potentially.

I think it is going to be really important to engage those folks who have access to really substantial production capacity. And having the big producers at the table — because of their depth, because of their experience, because of their internal resources — would be very, very important.

The candidate vaccines will be very, very quick. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID [who has been spreading panic on network TV], is out in public as saying he thinks the clinical trial for the Moderna vaccine may be as early as the spring [2020]. (emphasis added)20

Did CEPI Director Richard HatchettDr. Anthony Fauci who heads NIAID, and Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bencel have “prior knowledge” of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic? 

Hatchett’s statements suggest that they had already been working on an mRNA vaccine in early 2019. Moreover, on December 12, 2019, two weeks prior to the official confirmation of the existence of a so-called “novel coronavirus” by the Chinese health authorities, Moderna Inc. together with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had already “sent mRNA coronavirus vaccine candidates” to a lab investigator at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (see Joseph Mercola, July 10, 2021).21

The CEPI-sponsored vaccine conglomerates had already planned their investments well in advance of the global worldwide health emergency (declared by the WHO on January 30, 2020).

Moderna announced on February 24, 2020 the development of “an experimental (messenger) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, known as mRNA-1273″. “The initial batch of the vaccine has already been shipped to US government researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)” headed by Dr. Antony Fauci.

In the words of Fauci:

“Finding a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2 is an urgent public health priority…This Phase 1 study, launched in record speed, is an important first step toward achieving that goal.”22

Below are excerpts from the statement by Moderna which indicates “foreknowledge” as well as its collaboration with Anthony Fauci’s NIAID as early as January 13, 2020:23

Moderna’s Work on a Potential Vaccine Against COVID-19

Moderna is proud to be among the many groups working to respond to this continuing global health emergency. This page summarizes key milestones in our work to advance our vaccine candidate (mRNA-1273) and responds to frequently asked questions.

Timeline of our response through March 16, 2020

On January 11, 2020, the Chinese authorities shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus.

On January 13, 2020, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Moderna’s infectious disease research team finalized the sequence for mRNA-1273, the Company’s vaccine against the novel coronavirus. At that time, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, disclosed their intent to run a Phase 1 study using the mRNA-1273 vaccine in response to the coronavirus threat and Moderna mobilized toward clinical manufacture.  Manufacture of this batch was funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

On February 7, 2020, the first clinical batch, including fill and finishing of vials, was completed, a total of 25 days from sequence selection to vaccine manufacture. The batch then proceeded to analytical testing for release.

On February 24, 2020, the clinical batch was shipped from Moderna to the NIH for use in their Phase 1 clinical study.

On March 4, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) completed its review of the Investigational New Drug (IND) application filed by the NIH for mRNA-1273 and allowed the study to proceed to begin clinical trials.

On March 16, 2020, the NIH announced that the first participant in its Phase 1 study for mRNA-1273 was dosed, a total of 63 days from sequence selection to first human dosing.

While Moderna Inc. initially stated that the first clinical trials would commence in late April (2020), tests involving human volunteers started in mid-March 2020 in Seattle (bear in mind the pandemic was officially launched on March 11, 2020).24 

Researchers in Seattle gave the first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine Monday — leading off a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges.  …

Some of the study’s carefully chosen healthy volunteers, ages 18 to 55, will get higher dosages than others to test how strong the inoculations should be. Scientists will check for any side effects and draw blood samples to test if the vaccine is revving up the immune system, looking for encouraging clues like the NIH earlier found in vaccinated mice.

“We don’t know whether this vaccine will induce an immune response, or whether it will be safe. That’s why we’re doing a trial,” Jackson stressed. “It’s not at the stage where it would be possible or prudent to give it to the general population.” (FOX news local)25

 

The COVID Vaccine and the ID2020 Digital Identity Platform

While CEPI had announced the launching of a global vaccine at the Davos World Economic Forum, another important and related endeavor was underway. It’s called the ID2020 Agenda which, according to Peter Koenig, constitutes “an electronic ID program that uses generalized vaccination as a platform for digital identity”: 

“The ID2020 Agenda harnesses existing birth registration and vaccination operations to provide newborns with a portable and persistent biometrically-linked digital identity.” (Peter Koenig, March 12, 2020)26 

The founding partners of ID2020 are Microsoft, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) (an initiative of the Gates Foundation).

GAVI and its partners (WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, and the IMF) have been actively involved in the implementation (financing) of the global vaccine project entitled COVAX. 

The key entities involved in coordinating COVAX are the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO). All three entities receive financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  

 

Screenshot from WHO

 

It is worth noting that the ID2020 Alliance held their summit in New York, entitled “Rising to the Good ID Challenge”, on September 19, 2019, exactly one month prior to the nCov-2019 simulation exercise entitled Event 201 at Johns Hopkins in New York:

Is it just a coincidence that ID2020 is being rolled out at the onset of what the WHO calls a Pandemic? – Or is a pandemic needed to ‘roll out’ the multiple devastating programs of ID2020? (Peter Koenig, March 2020)27

ID2020 is part of a “world governance” project which, if applied, would roll out the contours of what some analysts have described as a global police state encompassing through vaccination (embedded microchip) the personal details of several billion people worldwide.

According to Dr. David Martin (quoted by Makia Freeman)

“This is not a vaccine … using the term vaccine to sneak this thing under public health exemptions … This is a mRNA packaged in a fat envelope that is delivered to a cell. It is a medical device designed to stimulate the human cell into becoming a pathogen creator. It is not a vaccine! Vaccines actually are a legally defined term … under public health law … under CDC and FDA standards, and a vaccine specifically has to stimulate both an immunity within the person receiving it, but it also has to disrupt transmission.”28 

 

Hidden COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries: The Microscopic Blood Clots

Many people who are vaccinated will not be immediately aware of the injuries incurred. The latter in many cases of “adverse events” are not discernible nor are they recorded. While “big blood clots” resulting from the vaccine are revealed and reported by those vaccinated, an important study by Canada’s Dr. Charles Hoffe suggests that the mRNA vaccine generates “microscopic blood clots”.

“The blood clots we hear about which the media claim are very rare are the big blood clots which are the ones that cause strokes and show up on CT scans, MRI, etc.

The clots I’m talking about are microscopic and too small to find on any scan. They can thus only be detected using the D-dimer test.” 

“These people have no idea they are even having these microscopic blood clots. The most alarming part of this is that there are some parts of the body like the brain, spinal cord, heart and lungs which cannot re-generate. When those tissues are damaged by blood clots they are permanently damaged.

“These shots are causing huge damage and the worst is yet to come.”29

Watch below his interview with Laura Lynn Tylor Thompson (also available on Rumble channel).

 

Do We Know What’s Inside the Pfizer Vaccine Vial?

The causes of vaccine-related deaths and injuries have not been addressed by the health authorities.

What is inside the vaccine vial? National health authorities have not made public the results of their lab exams. It is unclear as to whether those lab exams of the vaccine vials have been conducted.

Below is a review of the analysis and laboratory research conducted by the independent La Quinta Columna Spanish team.

Graphene Oxide Nano-particles

According to lab exams conducted by the Spanish La Quinta Columna research team, graphene oxide nano-particles have been detected in the vial of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.30

The preliminary results of their research (analysis by electron microscopy and spectroscopy) are far-reaching. Graphene oxide is a toxin which triggers thrombi and blood coagulation. It also has an impact on the immune system. Graphene oxide accumulated in the lungs can have devastating impacts.

Watch the interview with Ricardo Delgado Martin of La Quinta Columna.

 

The results of the Spanish study, yet to be fully confirmed and ascertained, suggest that the recorded vaccine-related deaths and “adverse events” could be the result of graphene oxide nano-particles contained in the COVID vaccine vial.

Similarly, we call upon the national health authorities of the 193 member states of the UN which are currently vaccinating their people to conduct their own study and analysis of the vaccine vial. And if graphene oxide is detected, the vaccination program should immediately be discontinued.

See summary of their report entitled “Graphene Oxide Detection in Aqueous Suspension, Observational study in Optical and Electron Microscopy”. Read the full study (English).31

Also of significance (acknowledged by national health authorities), graphene oxide nano-particles are also contained in face masks.32

 

The Electromagnetic Properties of the mRNA Vaccine

What is triggering the electromagnetic effects which have been detected in people who have been vaccinated?

These effects have been amply documented and confirmed by independent sources including those vaccinated. The national health authorities have failed to provide an explanation.

See the study conducted by the European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance.33

Below are two videos produced by the Spanish Research team at La Quinta Columna.

Watch the video below.

 

Watch the video below.

 

Big Pharma. Pfizer’s Near Global Monopoly

Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake. This is the largest and most dangerous and expensive vaccine project in world history which is slated to be financed by tax dollars worldwide, putting an obvious strain on the public debt of numerous countries.

The vaccine program is accompanied by a “timeline” consisting of recurrent mRNA inoculations over several years. As documented above, it will have devastating impacts on mortality and morbidity worldwide.

What is at stake is a multi-billion dollar Big Money operation for Big Pharma with Pfizer in the lead.

Pfizer-BioNTech (allied with Moderna Inc.) is in the process of consolidating its worldwide (near monopoly) position by pushing out its major competitors including AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

Pfizer has been pressuring politicians to endorse their mRNA vaccine. Its political lobbying is also directed against its Big Pharma competitors. According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism report:

One official who was present in the unnamed country’s negotiations described Pfizer’s demands as “high-level bullying” and said the government felt like it was being “held to ransom” in order to access life-saving vaccines.34

Ironically, in the EU, the reported deaths and injuries were used by the European Commission to cancel the renewal of the contract with AstraZeneca, despite the fact that there were substantially more deaths and injuries associated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

In April 2021, the EU Commission confirmed that it would “end AstraZeneca and J&J vaccine contracts at expiry”. “The Pfizer shot will take precedence”. Never mind your followup dose with AstraZeneca, the health authorities have instructed people to get their second or third jab with Pfizer or Moderna (thereby visibly violating medical norms).

Having sidelined its competitors, Pfizer-BioNTech has jacked up the price of the vaccine vial. Pfizer has literally cornered both the EU and US markets.

A near global vaccine monopoly is in the making by a company which has a criminal record with the US Department of Justice. 

The Secret Pfizer Report 

The confidential Pfizer Report released as part of a freedom of information (FOI) procedure provides data on deaths and adverse events recorded by Pfizer from the outset of the vaccine project in December 2020 to the end of February 2021, namely a very short period (at most two and a half months).

“By February of 2021, Pfizer had already received more than 1,200 reports of deaths allegedly caused by the vaccine and tens of thousands of reported adverse events, including 23 cases of spontaneous abortions out of 270 pregnancies and more than 2,000 reports of cardiac disorders.”35

The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was launched in the US on the 14th of December after the granting of Emergency Use Authorization on December 11, 2020.

Report Prepared by: Worldwide Safety Pfizer

The information contained in this document is proprietary and confidential. Any disclosure, reproduction, distribution, or other dissemination of this information outside of Pfizer, its Affiliates, its Licensees, or Regulatory Agencies is strictly prohibited. Except as may be otherwise agreed to in writing, by accepting or reviewing these materials, you agree to hold such information in confidence and not to disclose it to others (except where required by applicable law), nor to use it for unauthorized purposes.”36

In a twisted irony, the data revealed in this “insider report” refutes the official vaccine narrative peddled by the governments and the WHO. It also confirms the analysis of numerous medical doctors and scientists who have revealed the devastating consequences of the mRNA “vaccine”.

What is contained in Pfizer’s “confidential” report is detailed evidence on the impacts of the “vaccine” on mortality and morbidity. This data which emanates from the “horse’s mouth” can now be used to confront as well as formulate legal procedures against Big Pharma, the governments, the WHO and the media.

In a court of law, the evidence contained in this Big Pharma confidential report (coupled with the data on deaths and adverse events compiled by the national authorities in the EU, UK and US) is irrefutable: because it is their data and their estimates and not ours.

Bear in mind: its data is based on reported and recorded cases, which constitute a small percentage of the actual number of vaccine-related deaths and adverse events.

This is a de facto mea culpa on the part of Pfizer (Yes, it is a killer vaccine).

Pfizer was fully aware that the mRNA vaccine which it is marketing worldwide would result in a wave of mortality and morbidity. This is tantamount to a crime against humanity on the part of Big Pharma.

Pfizer knew from the outset that it was a killer vaccine.37

It is also a mea culpa and treason on the part of corrupt national governments worldwide which are being threatened and bribed by Big Pharma.

At the time of writing, no attempt has been made by the governments to call for the withdrawal of the killer vaccine.

People are told that the vaccine is intended to save lives.

“Killing is good for business”: It is a multi-billion dollar operation worldwide. And Pfizer already has a criminal record (2009) with the US Department of Justice on charges of “fraudulent marketing”.

 

Concluding Remarks: The Vaccine Passport

The data from official sources as well as those quoted in the Pfizer report confirm unequivocally that the COVID-19 “vaccine” has resulted in an upward trend in vaccine-related mortality and morbidity.

The studies of Dr. Charles Hoffe, the Spanish research team (La Quinta Columna), the confidential Pfizer Report as well as numerous other studies unequivocally confirm that the mRNA “vaccine” is a “killer vaccine”.

So why are governments pressuring people to get vaccinated?

Heads of state and heads of government worldwide are being pressured, bribed, co-opted and/or threatened by powerful financial interests into accepting the COVID vaccine consensus.

The vaccine passport is the endgame, which constitutes a transition towards digital tyranny and depopulation (see Chapters XIII and XIV).

 

Endnotes

1 Doctors for COVID Ethics, June 22, 2022. J’Accuse! The Gene-based “Vaccines” Are Killing People. Governments Worldwide Are Lying to You the People, to the Populations They Purportedly Serve. https://www.globalresearch.ca/jaccuse-governments-worldwide-lying-you-people-populations-they-purportedly-serve/5750650

2 The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010. Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (ESP:VAERS). https://digital.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/docs/publication/r18hs017045-lazarus-final-report-2011.pdf

3 Captaindaretofly, August 26, 2021. Several Anti-Covid-19 Vaccine Presidents Assassinated, Mainstream Media Silent, COVID-19 Jabs “Coincidentally” Rolled Out Just Days Later. https://www.globalresearch.ca/several-anti-covid-19-vaccine-presidents-assassinated-mainstream-media-silent-covid-19-jabs-coincidentally-rolled-out-just-days-later/5754040

4 FDA, January 3, 2022. Comirnaty and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/comirnaty-and-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine#additional

5 US Department of Justice, September 2, 2009. Justice Department Announces Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement in Its History: Pfizer to Pay $2.3 Billion for Fraudulent Marketing. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-largest-health-care-fraud-settlement-its-history

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 KHN Morning Briefing, November 6, 2020. 4 Drug Companies Agree To $26 Billion Opioid Settlement. https://khn.org/morning-breakout/4-drug-companies-agree-to-26-billion-opioid-settlement/

9 F. William Engdahl, October 17, 2021. What’s Not Being Said About the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine. “Human Guinea Pigs”? https://www.globalresearch.ca/what-not-said-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine/5729461

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid. 

12 See this: threadreaderapp.com/…/1302725167588798467

13 Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg and Dr. Michael Yeadon, December 1, 2020. Petition/Motion For Administrative/Regulatory Action Regarding Confirmation Of Efficacy End Points And Use Of Data In Connection With The Following Clinical Trial(S). https://2020news.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Wodarg_Yeadon_EMA_Petition_Pfizer_Trial_FINAL_01DEC2020_EN_unsigned_with_Exhibits.pdf

14 GSK, August 1, 2019. GSK completes transaction with Pfizer to form new world-leading Consumer Healthcare Joint Venture. https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-completes-transaction-with-pfizer-to-form-new-world-leading-consumer-healthcare-joint-venture/

15 Ibid.

16 Center for Health Security, n.d. The Event 201 scenario. https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/scenario.html

17 Helen Branswell, February 6, 2020. In effort to develop coronavirus vaccine, outbreak expert sees ‘hardest problem’ of his career. https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/06/cepi-coronavirus-vaccine-development/

18 GSK, February 3, 2020. CEPI and GSK announce collaboration to strengthen the global effort to develop a vaccine for the 2019-nCoV virus. https://cepi.net/news_cepi/cepi-and-gsk-announce-collaboration-to-strengthen-the-global-effort-to-develop-a-vaccine-for-the-2019-ncov-virus/

19 Helen Branswell, February 6, 2020. In effort to develop coronavirus vaccine, outbreak expert sees ‘hardest problem’ of his career. https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/06/cepi-coronavirus-vaccine-development/

20 Ibid. 

21 Joseph Mercola, July 11, 2021. NIAID, Moderna Had COVID Vaccine Candidate in December 2019. https://www.globalresearch.ca/niaid-moderna-covid-vaccine-candidate-december-2019/5749713

22 National Institutes of Health, March 16, 2020. NIH clinical trial of investigational vaccine for COVID-19 begins. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-investigational-vaccine-covid-19-begins

23 Moderna, Inc. 2020. Moderna’s Work on a Potential Vaccine Against COVID-19. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1682852/000119312520074867/d884510dex991.htm

24 Mark Prvulovic, February 24, 2020. Moderna’s New COVID-19 Vaccine Ready for Human Trials; Stock Up 15%. https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/02/24/modernas-new-covid-19-vaccine-ready-for-human-tria.aspx

25 Associated Press, March 16, 2020. Coronavirus vaccine test opens as volunteer in Seattle gets 1st shot. https://www.q13fox.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-test-opens-as-volunteer-in-seattle-gets-1st-shot

26 Peter Koenig, March 12, 2020. The Coronavirus Vaccine: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020”. Vaccination as a Platform for “Digital Identity”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-causes-effects-real-danger-agenda-id2020/5706153

27 Ibid.

28 Makia Freeman, November 13, 2021. The mRNA COVID Vaccine Is Not a Vaccine. https://www.globalresearch.ca/mrna-covid-vaccine-not-vaccine/5734464

29 Brian Shilhavy, July 14, 2021. Canadian Doctor: 62% of His Patients Vaccinated for COVID Have Permanent Heart Damage. “Microscopic Blood Clots”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-doctor-62-patients-vaccinated-covid-have-permanent-heart-damage/5750198

30 Ricardo Delgado and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, July 17, 2021. Video: Graphene Oxide: A Toxic Substance in the Vial of the COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine? https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-graphene-oxide-a-toxic-substance-in-the-vial-of-the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine/5750340

31 Prof. Dr. Pablo Campra Madrid, June 28, 2021. Graphene Oxide Detection in Aqueous Suspension, Observational study in Optical and Electron Microscopy. https://www.docdroid.net/Ov1M99x/official-interim-report-in-english-university-of-almeria-pdf

32 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, July 14, 2021. Face Masks Contain Graphene, A Poisonous Substance. https://www.globalresearch.ca/face-masks-contain-graphene-a-poisonous-substance/5749855

33 Mamer and Amar Goudjil, January 23, 2022. Study on Electromagnetism of Vaccinated Persons. https://www.globalresearch.ca/study-electromagnetism-vaccinated-persons-luxembourg/5749516

34 Madlen Davies, Rosa Furneaux, et al., February 23, 2021. ‘Held to ransom’: Pfizer demands governments gamble with state assets to secure vaccine deal. https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2021-02-23/held-to-ransom-pfizer-demands-governments-gamble-with-state-assets-to-secure-vaccine-deal

35 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, August 13, 2022. Bombshell Document Dump on Pfizer Vaccine Data. https://www.globalresearch.ca/bombshell-document-dump-pfizer-vaccine-data/5763397

36 Pfizer, 2021. Cumulative Analysis of Post-Authorization Adverse Event Reports of PF-07302048 (BNT162B2) Received Through 28-Feb-2021. https://phmpt.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/5.3.6-postmarketing-experience.pdf

37 Ibid.


 

Chapter IX

The 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic.

Was It a Dress Rehearsal?

 

Introduction

Remember the 2009 H1N1 “Pandemic” when Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology compared the H1N1 swine flu pandemic to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic while reassuring the public that the latter was more deadly. (CBC: Get swine flu vaccine ready: U.S. advisers). For further details, see Michel Chossudovsky, August 2009 Study on H1N1 Pandemic.1

Based on incomplete and scanty data, the WHO Director-General Margaret Chan predicted with authority that “as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years — nearly one-third of the world population.” (World Health Organization as reported by the Western media, July 2009)

A worldwide public health emergency was unfolding on an unprecedented scale. 4.9 billion doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine  envisaged by the World Health Organization (WHO).

A report by President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology “considered the H1N1 pandemic ‘a serious health threat’ to the U.S. — not as serious as the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic but worse than the swine flu outbreak of 1976.”

“It’s not that the new H1N1 pandemic strain is more deadly than previous flu threats, but that it is likely to infect more people than usual because so few people have immunity.” (Get swine flu vaccine ready: U.S. advisers)

It was a multi-billion bonanza for Big Pharma supported by the WHO’s Director-General Margaret Chan. 

Image: Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, is captured during the session ‘Raising Healthy Children’ at the Annual Meeting 2011 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 28, 2011. (Copyright World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Remy Steinegger / Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

In a subsequent statement, Dr. Chan confirmed that:

“Vaccine makers could produce 4.9 billion pandemic flu shots per year in the best-case scenario”, Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), quoted by Reuters, 21 July 2009).2

Swine flu could strike up to 40 percent of Americans over the next two years and as many as several hundred thousand could die if a vaccine campaign and other measures aren’t successful.” (Official Statement of Obama Administration, MSNBC News, 24 July 2009).3

Déjà Vu: Neil Ferguson

At the very outset of the H1N1 crisis in April 2009, Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London was advising Bill Gates and the WHO:  

“‘We might expect up to 30 per cent — 40 per cent of the population to become ill in the next six months if this truly turns into a pandemic,'” said Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) taskforce which decided to raise its alert over the virus to level four.”(emphasis added)

That was the same Neil Ferguson (generously supported by the Gates Foundation) who designed the coronavirus lockdown model (launched on March 11, 2020). As we recall, that March 2020 mathematical model was based on “predictions” of 600,000 deaths in the UK.

There was no H1N1 pandemic affecting two billion people.

Millions of doses of swine flu vaccine had been ordered by national governments from Big Pharma.

Millions of vaccine doses were subsequently destroyed — a financial bonanza for Big Pharma, an expenditure crisis for national governments.

There was no investigation into who was behind this multi-billion dollar fraud. Several critics confirmed that the H1N1 pandemic was “fake”.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a human rights watchdog, is publicly investigating the WHO’s motives in declaring a pandemic. Indeed, the chairman of its influential health committee, epidemiologist Wolfgang Wodarg, has declared that the “false pandemic” is “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century.”

Even within the agency, the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Epidemiology in Munster, Germany, Dr. Ulrich Kiel, has essentially labeled the pandemic a hoax. “We are witnessing a gigantic misallocation of resources [$18 billion so far] in terms of public health,” he said.

They’re right. This wasn’t merely overcautiousness or simple misjudgment. The pandemic declaration and all the Klaxon-ringing since reflect sheer dishonesty motivated not by medical concerns but political ones.

Unquestionably, swine flu has proved to be vastly milder than ordinary seasonal flu. It kills at a third to a tenth the rate, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Data from other countries like France and Japan indicate it’s far tamer than that.(

(Michael Fomento, Forbes, February 10, 2010)5

NIAID Director Anthony Fauci had endorsed the 2009 H1N1 vaccine on behalf of Big Pharma:

About 60 million people, most of them children, received the vaccine... It was subsequently revealed that the vaccine, GSK’s PandemrixTD, can cause narcolepsy and cataplexy … Narcolepsy affects a person’s sleeping cycle, leaving them unable to sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time, and causing them to fall unconscious during the day. The condition damages mental function and memory, and can lead to hallucinations and mental illness” (International Business Times, 03 February 2014)

 

GSK in Canada 

GSK’s ArepanrixTD (broadly similar to PambremixTD with a different name) was applied in Canada (see here).7

The WHO’s H1N1 pandemic was declared on June 11, 2009. GSK was on contract with the Canadian government. The GSK’s ArepandrixTM vaccine was delivered to Canada’s health authorities within less than four months.  

GSK President Paul Lucas who was invited by Canada’s Senate boasted that “45% of Canadians had received protection from the H1N1 virus by being vaccinated with GSK’s ArepanrixTM” (Canada’s Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, October 9, 2009).8

There was no protection. Many people in Canada fell sick after receiving the H1N1 ArepanrixTD vaccine. In the UK and the EU, the victims of the GSK vaccine were duly compensated. It was a “similar” vaccine with a different name (PambremixTD):

[British] Patients who suffered brain damage as a result of taking a swine flu vaccine are to receive multi-million-pound payouts from the UK government.

The government is expected to receive a bill of approximately £60 million, with each of the 60 victims expected to receive about £1 million each. (International Business Times, emphasis added)9

In a bitter irony, it was the UK government (rather than GSK) that paid for the vaccine- induced brain damages in children.

Despite ample evidence, in Canada, no compensation was paid.

 

In Memory of a Little Girl Named Amina Abudu

GSK’s Vaccine killed a little girl named Amina Abudu:

A vaccine was rushed to market, and the five year old was among millions of Canadians to get the shot, … Five days later, Amina’s older brother found her lying unconscious in the bathroom of the family’s east-end Toronto home. She was dead.

The parents’ lawyer, Jasmine Ghosn, alleged the preventive drug was brought out quickly and without proper testing … as the federal government exerted “intense pressure” on Canadians to get immunized. (National Post, November 2019)10

 

Copyright Adam Abudu, permission to use

On record, GSK acknowledged that the ArepanrixTD applied in Canada was “similar” to GSK’s PandemrixTM applied in the UK and the EU, which led to brain damage in children.

PandemrixTD (2009) causes narcolepsy, which is categorized as “a chronic neurological disorder that affects the brain’s ability to control sleep-wake cycles.” While PandemrixTM was subsequently withdrawn, ArepanrixTD (which is similar or identical to PandremrixTM) applied in Canada prevailed.

All the evidence was casually dispelled. An eleven years lawsuit against GSK was initiated by Amina’s parents in the Ontario Superior Court and then in the Court of Appeal.

I spoke to Amina’s father Adam Abudu who provided me with a number of legal documents as well as the texts of the judgment.

Below is the concluding statement of the Ontario Superior Court in December 2019 (emphasis added):

No matter how much I may sympathize with the grief Ms. Hyacenth and Mr. Adam have been forced to live with because of the loss of their daughter, the evidence does not support any finding of a breach of the standard of care by GSK or any finding that the death was caused or contributed to by the Arepanrix vaccine.

The pain of the loss of a child may dissipate but does not disappear. I sincerely hope that the effort and energy Ms. Hyacenth and Mr. Adam have put into finding a cause for Amina’s death will help dissipate their pain. I hope that the knowledge that Amina’s passing has not gone unnoticed by GSK, public health authorities or the courts gives them some comfort.

Understandably they have fought long and hard for answer to a question that would overwhelm any parent in these circumstances: Why did my child die? I deeply regret having to answer the question by saying that, after 10 years of investigation, we do not know. The state of scientific and medical knowledge remains limited and imperfect. A court must, however, base its decisions on the evidence before it. That evidence does not establish on a balance of probabilities that Arepanrix caused or contributed to Amina’s very unfortunate death. As a result, I must dismiss the plaintiffs’ action.

(Ontario Superior Court, J Koehnen, December 10, 2019)

“Frivolous Justice”

Note the hideous tone of the above statement by “trial judge” Markus Koehnen, a former litigation partner with McMillan LLP, a major corporate Toronto law firm:

“I sincerely hope effort and energy Ms. Hyacenth and Mr. Adam have put into finding a cause for Amina’s death will help dissipate their pain.”

That is what you call “Frivolous Justice”.

The above judgment (which failed to acknowledge and analyze methodically the evidence) was then submitted to the Court of Appeal in December 2020 (more than 11 years after Amina’s passing in 2009) and then to Canada’s Supreme Court which refused to hear the case.

Amina Abudu’s passing — Her legacy will live:

For the millions of children worldwide whose lives are currently threatened by Big Pharma’s COVID mRNA “vaccine”.

The underlying criminality largely directed against children goes back to the WHO’s Director-General Margaret Chan’s landmark decision to declare an H1N1 pandemic, based on “fake science”. There was no pandemic, and SEVERAL billion doses of a dangerous and “fake vaccine” were distributed. Was this deliberate?

“Nevermind the kids”… that’s “collateral damage” for Big Pharma which made billions of dollars selling the H1N1 vaccine.

Confirmed by the British Medical Journal: “The World Health Organization’s handling of the swine flu pandemic was deeply marred by secrecy and conflict of interest with drug companies”:

“The BMJ found that WHO guidelines on the use of antiviral drugs were prepared by experts who had received consulting fees from the top two manufacturers of these drugs, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK.

The report also reveals that at least one expert on the secret, 16-member “emergency committee” formed last year to advise the WHO on whether and when to declare a pandemic received payment during 2009 from GSK.

Announcing that swine flu had become a global pandemic automatically triggered latent contracts for vaccine manufacture with half-a-dozen major pharmaceutical companies, including GSK. The WHO has refused to identify committee members, arguing that they must be shielded from industry pressure. “The WHO’s credibility has been badly damaged,” BMJ editor Fiona Godlee said in an editorial.” (AFP, June 4, 2010, emphasis added)

 

Was the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic a “Dress Rehearsal”?

The same powerful financial actors including Big Pharma and the billionaire philanthropists including the Gates Foundation were behind the H1N1 scam.

What were the lessons learned “for them”?

  • The pandemic was fake and the dangers of the H1N1 vaccine were revealed in court cases in the UK and the EU.
  • In contrast to today’s ongoing COVID Crisis, the fraud was revealed because segments of the mainstream media reported on H1N1 and informed the public.
  • There was no cohesive propaganda apparatus coupled with online censorship.
  • There was no organized fear campaign.
  • There were divisions within the WHO.
  • Scientists and medical doctors were not unduly pressured to endorse the WHO decision.

Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, who revealed the fraud behind H1N1 and brought it to the attention of the European Parliament, is now actively involved together with Dr. Michael Yeadon in the campaign against the COVID-19 vaccine.

Endnotes

1 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, August 25, 2009. Remember the “Fake” 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: Manipulating the Data to Justify a Worldwide Public Health Emergency. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-h1n1-swine-flu-pandemic-manipulating-the-data-to-justify-a-worldwide-public-health-emergency/14901

2 Katie Reid and Laura MacInnis, May 19, 2009. WHO sees 4.9 billion pandemic flu shots in best-case. https://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE54H1XO20090519

3 MSNBC News, July 24, 2009. Swine flu could sicken over 2 billion in 2 years. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna32122776

4 NDTV, April 28, 2009. Deadly flu could infect 40 per cent of UK population: Report. ndtv.com/…/deadly-flu-could-infect-40-per-cent-of-uk-population-report-392997

5 See this: https://www.forbes.com/2010/02/05/world-health-organization-swine-flu-pandemic-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento.html#4fd9f96548e8 (Article was unpublished)


 

Chapter X

Categorizing The Protest Movement as “Anti-Social Psychopaths”

 

“The tools of psychology are dangerous in the hands of the wrong men. Modern educational methods can be applied in therapy to streamline man’s brain and change his opinions so that his thinking conforms with certain ideological systems.” —Joost A. M. Meerloo, The Rape Of The Mind, 1956.

“Coercive psychological systems are behavioral change programs which use psychological force in a coercive way to cause the learning and adoption of an ideology or designated set of beliefs, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors.”The Late Dr. Margaret Singer

“The intense pressure to conform is an attempt to cement a community of believers. Strict rules of belonging are imposed, and those who disagree are excluded. This community has invented its own rite of passage: a form of baptism, of purification in the name of salvation, with “the vaccine” worshipped as the saviour.”Prof. Maximilian Forte, July 2022

Introduction

The  imposition of the MRNA vaccine has relied on coercive persuasion and brainwashing tactics, coupled with media propaganda and the fear campaign.  The objective of national governments is to ensure “Acceptance”. Dr. Margaret Singer quoted above, refers to coercive influence, anxiety and stress-producing tactics over continuous periods of time“.

From the very outset of the pandemic, a diabolical process was undertaken which consisted in “identifying” and “categorizing” all those who are opposed to the governments’ management of the coronavirus pandemic including the lockdowns and the vaccine mandate.  

According to so-called “peer-reviewed psychological studies” (commissioned by corporate foundations on behalf of the Globalist elites) the opponents of the covid consensus have been categorized as “anti-social psychopaths”.  

The unvaccinated have been prevented from travelling, fired from their jobs, prevented from attending schools and universities. They are categorized and accused (according to “scientific opinion) of being extremists and psychopaths. 

What has unfolded is a social divide between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.

These social divisions are creating conflicts within families and local communities, literally contributing to the disruption of social life, with devastating impacts on economic activity. 

Supported by media propaganda, the campaign is proceeding unabated. Those who refuse to get the killer “vaccine” are categorized as “anti-social psychopaths”.

What prevails is a “divide and rule” scenario which is being enforced simultaneously in numerous countries. 

This chapter reviews several psychological studies undertaken with a view to undermining the protest movement against the COVID-19 mandates and the vaccine.

 

“Scientific Studies”: Categorizing COVID Opponents as “Anti-social Psychopaths” 

What is the nature and thrust of these “scientific studies”? 

Protest against the “official truth”, criticize government mandates, express reservations regarding the lockdown, social distancing, the wearing of face mask, the vaccine, etc. and you will be tagged (according to “scientific opinion”) as a “callous and deceitful psychopath”

Accept the “official narrative” and vaccine mandate you are tagged as a “good person” with “empathy” who understands the feelings of others. 

A so-called peer-reviewed “empirical report” describes those who refuse to wear the face mask or abide by social distancing as having “anti-social personality disorders”. 

Those who “do not adhere to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19” are tagged as “anti-social”.  

The findings of the Brazilian study involving a “sample” of 1,578 adults was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences under the title COVID-19 pandemic over time: Do antisocial traits matter?1

 

Screenshot from ScienceDirect

 

“Empathy” versus “Anti-social Traits” 

The statistical “methodology” of this study is straightforward. It is intended to serve as a model. It consists in categorizing a so-called sample of adults from all major regions of Brazil into two distinct groups. It examines:

“..the relationships between antisocial traits and compliance with COVID-19 containment measures. The sample consisted of 1578 Brazilian adults aged 18–73 years … and a questionnaire about compliance with containment measures.2

Latent profile analyses indicated a two-profile solution:

the antisocial pattern profile which presented higher scores in Callousness, Deceitfulness, Hostility, Impulsivity, Irresponsibility, Manipulativeness, and Risk-taking, as well as lower scores in “Affective resonance” (processes of social interaction) and the empathy pattern profile which presented higher scores in Affective resonance …” 

The antisocial and empathy groups showed significant differences. … Our findings indicated that antisocial traits, especially lower levels of empathy and higher levels of Callousness, Deceitfulness, and Risk-taking, are directly associated with lower compliance with containment measures. These traits explain, at least partially, the reason why people continue not adhering to the containment measures even with increasing numbers of cases and deaths. (emphasis added)3

The research methodology is built around three main questions4:

  • “Do you think it is necessary to avoid approaching people as much as possible until the coronavirus situation is controlled?” (social distancing),
  • “Do you think it is necessary to wash your hands and/or use alcohol gel as many times a day until the coronavirus situation is controlled?” (hygiene),
  • “Do you think it is necessary to use face mask (that protects nose and mouth) in Brazil?” (face mask)

Yes/No Categorization

Answer Yes to these three questions: you are categorized as having “Empathy” (i.e. the ability to understand and share the feelings of others).

Answer No to all three questions: you are categorized (according to the study) as having “higher levels of Callousness, Deceitfulness, Hostility, Impulsivity, Irresponsibility, Manipulativeness, and Risk-taking” (as quoted above).

It all sounds very scientific. The unspoken objective of these psycho-studies is to provide governments with a mandate to intimidate as well as to enforce compliance, while smearing the alleged psychopaths who refuse to conform to the official narrative, which is an outright lie.  
 

“The Dark Triad” and “Collective Narcissism” 

According to Eric W. Dolan (PsyPost), the above study consisted in identifying “a measure of maladaptive personality traits…”.  Dolan also refers to a related study focusing on:

“the “Dark Triad” of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism associated with ignoring preventative COVID-19 measures.”

The study conducted in Poland is entitled: 

Adaptive and maladaptive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: The roles of Dark Triad traits, collective narcissism, and health beliefs5

The study refers to the practice of “collective narcissism”, namely a common belief and practice by a so-called “In-Group” (aka protest movement, collective of dissident medical doctors, scientists) directed against the official coronavirus “truth” (aka the Big Lie). Collective narcissism is embedded in what psychologists call the Dark Triad.

 

Screenshot from ScienceDirect

The study is based on “a nationally representative sample from Poland (N = 755)”. It examines “the relationships between the Dark Triad traits (i.e. psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) and collective narcissism (i.e. agentic and communal) … Participants characterized by the Dark Triad traits engaged less in prevention …”6

“The results point to the utility of health beliefs in predicting behaviors during the pandemic, explaining (at least in part) problematic behaviors associated with the dark personalities (i.e., Dark Triad, collective narcissism). …

The traits, such as the Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) and collective narcissism … may have implications for how one copes with the virus…  For example, individuals characterized by the Dark Triad traits may be less likely to follow governmentally-enforced restrictions related to COVID-19.7

The term “agentic” quoted above refers to “goal-achievement”.

And here is the methodology:

“We measured the Dark Triad traits (Wave 2) … [also with reference to] the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen scale (Jonason & Webster, 2010). The scale consists of four items assessing individual differences in psychopathy (e.g. “I tend to lack remorse”), narcissism (e.g. “I tend to seek prestige or status”), and Machiavellianism (e.g. “I tend to manipulate others to get my way”). Participants indicated their agreement with each item (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). We averaged responses to create indices of each trait.”8

Sounds scientific. What are the conclusions?

“We advanced the scope of the model by illustrating the relevance of dark personality traits in predicting both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors in response to the pandemic by person-focused (i.e. the Dark Triad traits) and group-focused (i.e. collective narcissism) personality traits.” 

To read the full report, click here, emphasis added)9

The psychological definition of Dark Triad Traits comprises the combined personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. “They are called “dark” because of their “malevolent qualities“.”Illustration by Global Research

The Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD) consists of a broader “personality inventory” which assesses and measures the three personality components of the Dark Triad.

Illustration by Global Research

In substance, what this “scientific report” confirms is that people, who question the COVID-19 official narrative including the vaccine mandate, have “malevolent personality disorders”. They are said to suffer from the Dirty Dozen “Dark Triad Traits” (DTDD). 

 

The Anti-COVID Protest Movement Is Identified as “Collective Narcissism”

When they act contiguously within an In-Group or a Protest movement, they are tagged as applying “collective narcissism”.

The framework of the above study is also envisaged for other countries in partnership with the Warsaw group. Another related study is entitled “Who complies with the restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19?: Personality and perceptions of the COVID-19 situation”10

Strong words. “Peer-reviewed”?

 

Towards an Inquisitorial Environment. Digital Witch Hunt

Psychology is being used in a pernicious way to provide legitimacy to police state measures. The mandate is to “go after” those who allegedly have “malevolent personality disorders”.

It’s an inquisitorial doctrine, which could eventually evolve towards a Digital Witch Hunt. In contrast to the Spanish Inquisition, the contemporary inquisitorial system has almost unlimited capabilities of spying on and categorizing individuals who are opposed to the COVID-19 consensus. 

People are tagged and labeled, their emails, cell phones are monitored, detailed personal data are slated to be entered into a giant Big Brother data bank of 7.9 billion people under WHO auspices. 

Anti-vaccine scientists and medical doctors are categorized. They are the object of censorship, and in some cases they are arrested and sent for treatment in a psychiatric ward. 

Once this digital cataloging has been completed, people are locked into watertight compartments. Their profiles are established and entered into a computerized data bank. 

Meanwhile, the citizenry is galvanized into supporting the tenets of “Global Governance”. 

Painting by Francisco Goya depicting an auto de fé, an act of public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Inquisition, based on 1800-1810 first-hand accounts. (By QAHsJoGPh6kFeQ at Google Cultural Institute, licensed under the Public Domain)

 

Are the Billionaires Mentally Deranged? 

These empirical psychology studies are meant to be used against citizens who oppose the COVID-19 policy mandates implemented by their governments. In turn these governments obey orders from higher up. 

We might beg the question: Are the billionaires, “philanthropists”, corrupt politicians, et al., who are the unspoken architects of both the COVID-19 vaccine and the lockdown policies mentally deranged? 

Their personality traits are not the motive of scientific investigation. They are psychopaths. Money and enrichment is the driving force.

 

Endnotes

1 Fabiano Koich Miguel, Gisele Magarotto Machado, et al., January 1, 2021. Compliance with containment measures to the COVID-19 pandemic over time: Do antisocial traits matter? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920305377

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

Bartłomiej Nowak, Paweł Brzóska, et al., December 1, 2020. Adaptive and maladaptive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: The roles of Dark Triad traits, collective narcissism, and health beliefs. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920304219

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Marcin Zajenkowski, Peter K. Jonason, et al., November 1, 2020. Who complies with the restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19?: Personality and perceptions of the COVID-19 situation. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920303883


 

Chapter XI

The Worldwide COVAX Operation 

and The Nuremberg Code.

Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide

 

“We, the survivors of the atrocities committed against humanity during the Second World  War, feel bound to follow our conscience. …

Another holocaust of greater magnitude is taking place before our eyes. We call upon you to stop this ungodly medical experiment on humankind immediately. It is a medical experiment to which the Nuremberg Code must be applied.” —Rabbi Hillel Handler, Hagar Schafrir, Sorin Shapira, Mascha Orel, Morry Krispijn et al, see complete text here

 

The mRNA “Vaccine” vs. Nuremberg 

The vaccine is being applied and imposed worldwide. The target population is 7.9 billion. Several doses are contemplated. It is the largest vaccination program in world history (see Chapter VIII).

“Never before has immunization of the entire planet been accomplished by delivering a synthetic mRNA into the human body”.1

Image: “Very good meeting with @BillGates on the margins of #Rotary convention. Discussed on @WHO & @gatesfoundation collaborative initiatives focused on Primary health care. His commitment to helping the needy is beyond words.” (By Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus/Facebook)

The WHO “guidelines” for establishing a Worldwide Digital Informations System for issuing so-called “Digital Certificates for COVID-19” are generously funded by the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations.” (see Chapter XIII)

Focusing on the experimental nature of the mRNA vaccine and its devastating health impacts, legal analysts have raised the issue of the historic Nuremberg Nazi Doctors’ Trial” (1946-47) in which Nazi doctors were charged for war crimes, specifically in the conduct of medical experiments on both prisoners in the concentration camps and civilians.

The Medical Case, U.S.A. vs. Karl Brandt, et al. (also known as the Doctors’ Trial), was prosecuted in 1946-47 against 23 doctors and administrators accused of organizing and participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the form of medical experiments and medical procedures inflicted on prisoners and civilians.3

Karl Brandt, the lead defendant, was the senior medical official of the German government during World War II; other defendants included senior doctors and administrators in the armed forces and SS (see Harvard Documents).4

 

Letter to Heinrich Himmler concerning x-ray and surgical sterilization (Taken from Nuremberg Trials Project of Harvard Law)

 

Resulting from the verdict on August 19, 1947, the Nuremberg Code was enacted. Reviewed below are the Ten Principles of the Nuremberg Code.5 Several of these principles – in relation to the mRNA vaccine and the vaccine passport – have been blatantly violated.

The first principle of the “Nuremberg Code” states that “the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential,” and that is precisely what is being denied in relation to the “vaccine” (see sentences in bold below).6

1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.

This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.

2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.

3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment.

4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.

5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.

6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.

7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.

8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment.

9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible.

10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probably cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.

(emphasis added)

 

Nuremberg and the COVID Crisis

Starting in December 2020, entire populations in a large number of countries are under threat to comply and get vaccinated.

With reference to the Nuremberg Code, they are unable:

to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion” (Nuremberg principle 1 above).

Amply documented, there is an upward trend in mRNA vaccine deaths and injuries worldwide and the health authorities are fully aware of the “health risks”, yet they have not informed the public. There is no informed consent. And the media is lying through their teeth:

No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur” (Nuremberg principle 5 above). 

The above “a priori reason” outlined in Nuremberg principle 5 is amply documented. Deaths and disabling injuries are ongoing at the level of the entire planet. They are confirmed by the official statistics of mRNA vaccine mortality and morbidity (EU, US, UK).

 

Nazi “Medical Experiments”

Let us recall the categorization of specific crimes pertaining to Nazi “medical experiments” conducted on concentration camp prisoners. These included “the killing of Jews for anatomical research, the killing of tubercular Poles, and the euthanasia of sick and disabled civilians in Germany and occupied territories. …”7

Karl Brandt and six other defendants were convicted, sentenced to death, and executed; nine defendants were convicted and sentenced to terms in prison; and seven defendants were acquitted.

The trial documents and evidence are all on file. The defendants were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

 

The defendants in the dock during the Nuremberg Trials (By Raymond D’Addario, licensed under the Public Domain)

 

The Scale and Size of the Worldwide COVID-19 Vaxx Operation

While the Nuremberg principles are of utmost relevance to the COVID-19 vaccine project, simplistic comparisons should be avoided. The context, the history and the mechanisms of compliance pertaining to the mRNA “vaccine” are fundamentally different.

The scale and size of the worldwide COVAX operation as well as its complex organizational structure (WHO, GAVI, Gates Foundation, Big Pharma) are unprecedented.

Humanity in its entirety is the object of the vaxx project. The target population for experimentation of the COVID-19 vaccine is the entire population of planet Earth:

Almost 8 billion people, involving several doses.

Multiply the world’s population by four doses (as proposed by Pfizer): the order of magnitude is 30 billion doses worldwide.

The numbers are in the billions. The likely impacts on mortality and morbidity are beyond description.

Big Money is behind this public-private partnership project.

We are dealing with a worldwide process of crimes against humanity. Entire populations in a large number of member states of the UN are subject to compliance and enforcement (without the rule of law).

If they refuse the vaccine, they are socially marginalized and confined, rejected by their employers, rejected by society; no education, no career, no life. Their lives are destroyed.

If they accept the vaccine, their health and their life are potentially in jeopardy.

The evidence of mortality and morbidity resulting from vaccine inoculation both present (official data) and future (e.g. undetected microscopic blood clots) is overwhelming (see Chapter VIII).

And that’s just the beginning.

Extensive crimes against humanity worldwide are being committed.

The mRNA “vaccine” modifies the human genome at the level of the entire planet. It’s genocide.

It’s a “holocaust of greater magnitude, taking place before our eyes”. 

 

Endnotes

1 Rabbi Hillel Handler, Hagar Schafrir, et al., September 16, 2021. Stop the Covid Holocaust! Open Letter. https://www.globalresearch.ca/stop-the-covid-holocaust-open-letter/5755902

2 WHO, August 27, 2021. Digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates: vaccination status: web annex A: DDCC:VS core data dictionary, 27 August 2021. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Digital_certificates-vaccination-data_dictionary-2021.1

3 Harvard Law School, n.d. NMT Case 1: U.S.A. v. Karl Brandt et al.: The Doctors’ Trial. https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/nmt_1_intro

4 Ibid.

5 US Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Nuremberg Code. https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/doctors-trial/nuremberg-code

6 Ibid.

7 Harvard Law School, n.d. NMT Case 1: U.S.A. v. Karl Brandt et al.: The Doctors’ Trial. https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/nmt_1_intro


 

Chapter XII

Global Coup d’État and the “Great Reset”.

Global Debt and Neoliberal “Shock Treatment”

 

“The IMF, World Bank and global leaders knew full well what the impact on the world’s poor would be of closing down the world economy through COVID-related lockdowns.

Yet they sanctioned it and there is now the prospect that in excess of a quarter of a billion more people worldwide will fall into extreme levels of poverty in 2022 alone.” —Colin Todhunter, July 2022

History of Economic “Shock Treatment”. From the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) to “Global Adjustment (GA)”

The March 11, 2020 (simultaneous) closing down of the national economies of approximately 193 member states of the UN is diabolical and unprecedented. Millions of people have lost their jobs and their lifelong savings. In developing countries, poverty, famine and despair prevail. The closure of national economies has led to a spiraling global debt. Increasingly, national governments are controlled by the creditors, which are currently financing the social safety nets, corporate bailouts and handouts.

While this model of “global intervention” is unprecedented, it has certain features reminiscent of the country-level macro-economic reforms including the imposition of strong “economic medicine” by the IMF. To address this issue, let us examine the history of so-called “economic shock treatment” (a term first used in the 1970s).1

 

Flashback to Chile, September 11, 1973

As a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Chile, I lived through the military coup directed against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. It was a CIA operation led by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger coupled with devastating macro-economic reforms.

In the month following the coup d’etat, the price of bread increased from 11 to 40 escudos overnight.2 This engineered collapse of both real wages and employment under the Pinochet dictatorship was conducive to a nationwide process of impoverishment.

Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet shaking hands with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1976 (By Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile.Archivo General Histórico del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, licensed under CC BY 2.0 cl)

 

While food prices had skyrocketed, wages had been frozen to ensure “economic stability and stave off inflationary pressures.” From one day to the next, an entire country had been precipitated into abysmal poverty; in less than a year, the price of bread in Chile increased 36 times and 85 percent of the Chilean population had been driven below the poverty line. That was Chile’s 1973 “Reset”. 

Two and a half years later in 1976, I returned to Latin America as a visiting professor at the National University of Cordoba in the northern industrial heartland of Argentina. My stay coincided with another military coup d’état in March 1976.

Behind the massacres and human rights violations, “free market” macro-economic reforms had also been prescribed – this time under the supervision of Argentina’s New York creditors, including David Rockefeller who was a friend of the Junta’s Minister of Economy José Alfredo Martinez de Hoz.3

Chase Alumni Association

Image: David Rockefeller meets Dictator Jorge Videla (right) and Minister of Finance Martinez de Hoz, 1978? (Source: Plaza de Mayo)

Chile and Argentina were “dress rehearsals” for things to come. The imposition of the IMF-World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was imposed on more than 100 countries starting in the early 1980s (see Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Global Research, 2003).4

A notorious example of the “free market”: Peru in August 1990 was punished for not conforming to IMF diktatsthe price of fuel was hiked up 31 times and the price of bread increased more than 12 times in a single day.5 These reforms – carried out in the name of “democracy” – were far more devastating than those applied in Chile and Argentina under the fist of military rule.

The March 2020 Lockdown. “Economic Warfare”

And now on March 11, 2020, we enter a new phase of macro-economic destabilization, which is more devastating and destructive than 40 years of “shock treatment” and austerity measures imposed by the IMF on behalf of dominant financial interests.

There is rupture, a historical break as well as continuity. It’s “neoliberalism to the nth degree”.

Closure of the Global Economy: Economic and Social Impacts at the Level of the Entire Planet

Compare what is happening to the global economy today with the country by country “negotiated” macro-economic measures imposed by creditors under the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The March 11, 2020 “Global Adjustment” was not negotiated with national governments. It was imposed by a  “public-private partnership”, sustained by fake science, supported by media propaganda and accepted by co-opted and corrupt politicians.

 

“Engineered” Social Inequality and Impoverishment. The Globalization of Poverty 

Compare the March 11, 2020 “Global Adjustment” “guidelines” affecting the entire planet to Chile on September 11, 1973.

In a bitter irony, the same Big Money interests behind the 2020 “Global Adjustment” were actively involved in Chile (1973) and Argentina (1976). Remember “Operation Condor” and the “Dirty War” (Guerra Sucia).

There is continuity. The same powerful financial interests including the IMF and the World Bank bureaucracies in liaison with the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) are currently involved in preparing and managing the post-pandemic “new normal” debt operations (on behalf of the creditors) under the Great Reset.

Henry Kissinger was involved in coordinating Chile’s 9/11, 1973 “Reset”.

The following year (1974), he was in put charge of the drafting of the “National Strategic Security Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200) which identified depopulation as “the highest priority in US foreign policy towards the Third World”.6         

The Thrust of “Depopulation” Under the Great Reset? 

Illustration by Global Research/image of Henry Kissinger is from White House Photographic Office/PD-USGOV, licensed under the Public Domain

Today, Henry Kissinger is a firm supporter alongside the Gates Foundation (which is also firmly committed to depopulation) of the Great Reset under the auspices of the World Economic Forum (WEF) (see Chapter XIII). 

No need to negotiate with national  governments nor carry out “regime change”. The March 11, 2020 lockdown project constitutes a “Global Adjustment” which triggers bankruptcies, unemployment and privatization on a much larger scale affecting in one fell swoop the national economies of more than 150 countries.

And this whole process is presented to public opinion as a means to combating the “killer virus” which, according to the CDC and the WHO is similar to seasonal influenza (see Chapter III).

 

The Hegemonic Power Structure of Global Capitalism 

Big Money including the billionaire foundations are the driving force. It’s a complex alliance of Wall Street and the banking establishment, the Big Oil and Energy Conglomerates, the so-called “Defense Contractors”, Big Pharma, the Biotech Conglomerates, the Corporate Media, the Telecom, Communications and Digital Technology Giants, together with a network of think tanks, lobby groups, research labs, etc. The ownership of intellectual property also plays a central role.

This powerful digital-financial decision-making network also involves major creditor and banking institutions: the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB), the IMF, the World Bank, the regional development banks, and the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which plays a key strategic role.

By far the most powerful financial entities are the giant investment portfolio conglomerates including Black Rock, Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity. They control: 

“… a combined 20 trillion dollars in managed assets…. Conservatively counting, a four to five-fold leverage power (i.e. some US$ 80 to 100 trillion)”. These powerful financial conglomerates have a leverage in excess of the the world’s GDP which is of the order of about 82 trillion dollars.”7

In turn, the upper echelons of the US state apparatus (and Washington’s Western allies) are directly or indirectly involved, including the Pentagon, US Intelligence (and its research labs), the health authorities, Homeland Security and the US State Department (including US embassies in over 150 countries).

 

The “Real Economy” and “Big Money”

Why are these COVID lockdown policies spearheading bankruptcy, poverty and unemployment?

Global capitalism is not monolithic. There is indeed “a class conflict” “between the super rich and the vast majority of the world population”.

But there is also intense rivalry within the capitalist system; namely a conflict between “Big Money Capital” and what might be described as “Real Capitalism” which consists of corporations in different areas of productive activity at the national and regional levels. It also includes small and medium-sized enterprises.

What is ongoing is a process of concentration of wealth (and control of advanced technologies) unprecedented in world history, whereby the financial establishment (i.e. the multi-billion dollar creditors) are slated to appropriate the real assets of both bankrupt companies as well as state assets.

The “real economy” constitutes “the economic landscape” of  real economic activity: productive assets, agriculture, industry, services, economic and social infrastructure, investment, employment, etc. The real economy at the global and national levels is being targeted by the lockdown and closure of economic activity. The Global Money financial institutions are the “creditors” of the real economy.

 

Global Governance: Towards a Totalitarian State

The individuals and organizations involved in the October 18, 2019 201 Simulation are now involved in the actual management of the crisis once it went live on January 30, 2020 under the WHO’s Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which in turn set the stage for the February 2020 financial crisis and the March lockdown (see Chapter I).

The lockdown and closure of national economies has triggered several waves of mass unemployment coupled with the engineered bankruptcy (applied worldwide) of small and medium-sized enterprises (see Chapter IV).

All of which is spearheaded by the installation of a global totalitarian state which is intent upon breaking all forms of protest and resistance.

The COVID vaccination program (including the embedded digital passport and the QR Code) is an integral part of a global totalitarian regime (see Chapter VIII and Chapter XIII).

What is the infamous ID2020? It is an alliance of public-private partners, including UN agencies and civil society. It’s an electronic ID program that uses generalized vaccination as a platform for digital identity. The program harnesses existing birth registration and vaccination operations to provide newborns with a portable and persistent biometrically-linked digital identity.red zones, face masks, social distancing, lockdown. (Peter Koenig, March 12, 2020)8

 

“The Great Reset”

The same powerful creditors which triggered the COVID global debt crisis are now establishing a “new normal” which essentially consists in imposing what the World Economic Forum describes as the “Great Reset”.

Using COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions to push through this transformation, the Great Reset is being rolled out under the guise of a ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ in which older enterprises are to be driven to bankruptcy or absorbed into monopolies, effectively shutting down huge sections of the pre-COVID economy. Economies are being ‘restructured’ and many jobs will be carried out by AI-driven machines.

The jobless (and there will be many) would be placed on some kind of universal basic income and have their debts (indebtedness and bankruptcy on a massive scale is the deliberate result of lockdowns and restrictions) written off in return for handing their assets to the state or more precisely to the financial institutions helping to drive this Great Reset. The WEF says the public will ‘rent’ everything they require: stripping the right of ownership under the guise of ‘sustainable consumption’ and ‘saving the planet’. Of course, the tiny elite who rolled out this great reset will own everything. (Colin Todhunter,  Dystopian Great Reset, November 9, 2020)9

 

Push the Reset Button

The World Economic Forum’s Great Reset has been long in the making. “Push the reset button” with a view to saving the world economy was announced by WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab in January 2014, six years prior to the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“What we want to do in Davos this year [2014] is to Push the Reset Button, the world is too much caught in a crisis mode.”

Two years later in a 2016 interview with the Swiss French language TV network (RTS), Klaus Schwab talked about implanting microchips in human bodies, which in essence is the basis of the “experimental” COVID mRNA vaccine. 

“What we see is a kind of fusion of the physical, digital and biological world,” said Klaus Schwab.

Schwab explained that human beings will soon receive a chip which will be implanted in their bodies in order to merge with the digital world.

RTS: “When will that happen?

KS: “Certainly in the next ten years.

“We could imagine that we will implant them in our brain or in our skin.”

“And then we can imagine that there is direct communication between the brain and the digital World.”

Watch the interview below, Towards Digital Tyranny, with Peter Koenig. Click here for the Bitchute version.

June 2020. The WEF Officially Announces the Great Reset

“The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous future.” -Klaus Schwab, WEF (June 2020) 

What is envisaged under “the Great Reset” is a scenario whereby the global creditors will have appropriated by 2030 the world’s wealth while impoverishing large sectors of the world population.

In 2030, “you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” (Click here to watch the video)

 

The United Nations: An Instrument of Global Governance on Behalf of an Unelected Public-Private Partnership

The UN system is also complicit. It has endorsed “Global Governance” and the Great Reset. And so has the Vatican. 

Image: Antonio Guterres (By U.S. Mission Photo by Eric Bridiers/Flickr, licensed under the Public Domain)

While UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres rightfully acknowledges that the pandemic is “more than a health crisis”, no meaningful analysis or debate under UN auspices as to the real causes of this crisis has been undertaken.

According to a September 2020 UN Report:

“Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost. The lives of billions of people have been disrupted. In addition to the health impacts, COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated deep inequalities … It has affected us as individuals, as families, communities and societies. It has had an impact on every generation, including on those not yet born. The crisis has highlighted fragilities within and among nations, as well as in our systems for mounting a coordinated global response to shared threats. (UN Report)10

The far-reaching decisions which triggered social and economic destruction worldwide are not mentioned. No debate in the UN Security Council. Consensus among all five permanent members of the UNSC.

V the Virus is casually held responsible for the process of economic destruction. 

The World Economic Forum’s “public-private partnership” project entitled “Reimagine and Reset Our World” has been endorsed by the United Nations. 

Image: George Kennan (By Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress, licensed under the Public Domain)

Flashback to George Kennan and the Truman Doctrine in the late 1940s. Kennan believed that the UN provided a useful way to “connect power with morality,” using morality as a means to rubber-stamp America’s “humanitarian wars”.

The COVID crisis, the lockdown measures and the mRNA vaccine are the culmination of a historical process.

The lockdown and closure of the global economy are “weapons of mass destruction” which in the real sense of the word “destroy people’s lives”. Amply documented, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is best described as a “killer vaccine”. 

What we are dealing with are extensive “crimes against humanity”.

 

President Joe Biden and the “Great Reset”

Joe Biden is a groomed politician, a trusted proxy, serving the interests of the financial establishment.

Let’s not forget that Joe Biden was a firm supporter of the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein “had weapons of mass destruction”. “The American people were deceived into this war”, said Senator Dick Durbin. Do not let yourself be deceived again by Joe Biden.11

Evolving acronyms: 9/11, GWOT, WMD and now COVID. Biden was rewarded for having supported the invasion of Iraq.

During the election campaign, Fox News described Biden as a “socialist” who threatens capitalism; “Joe Biden’s disturbing connection to the socialist ‘Great Reset’ movement”.

While this is absolute nonsense, many “progressives” and anti-war activists have endorsed Joe Biden without analyzing the broader consequences of the Biden presidency.

“The Great Reset” is socially divisive, it’s racist. It is a diabolical project of global capitalism. It constitutes a threat to the large majority of American workers as well as to small and medium-sized enterprises. It also undermines several important sectors of the capitalist economy. 

 

The Biden Presidency and the Lockdown

With regard to COVID, Biden is firmly committed to maintaining the partial closing down of both the US economy and the global economy as a means to “combating the killer virus”.  

President Biden is a firm supporter of the corona lockdown. He not only endorses the adoption of staunch COVID-19 lockdown policies, his administration is committed to the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” and the “vaccine passport” as an integral part of US foreign policy, to be implemented or more correctly “imposed” worldwide.

In turn, the Biden-Harris administration will attempt to override all forms of popular resistance to the coronavirus lockdown.

What is unfolding is a new and destructive phase of US imperialism. It’s a totalitarian project of economic and social engineering, which ultimately destroys people’s lives worldwide. This “novel” neoliberal agenda using the corona lockdown as an instrument of social oppression has been endorsed by President Biden and the leadership of the Democratic Party. 

The Biden White House is committed to the instatement of what David Rockefeller called “Global Governance”. 

 

The Protest Movement

It should be noted that the protest movement in the US against the lockdown is weak. In fact there is no coherent grassroots national protest movement. Why? Because “progressive forces” including leftist intellectuals, NGO leaders, trade union and labor leaders — most of whom are aligned with the Democratic Party — have from the outset been supportive of the lockdown. And they are also supportive of Joe Biden.  

In a bitter irony, anti-war activists as well as the critics of neoliberalism have endorsed Joe Biden.

Unless there is significant protest and organized resistance, nationally and internationally, the Great Reset will be embedded in both domestic and US foreign policy agendas of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration.

It’s what you call imperialism with a “human face”.

Where Is the Protest Movement Against This Unelected Corona “Public-Private Partnership”?

The same philanthropic foundations (Rockefeller, Ford, Soros, et al.) which are the unspoken architects of the “Great Reset” and “Global Governance” are also involved in (generously) financing climate change activism, the Extinction Rebellion, the World Social Forum, Black Lives Matter, LGBT, et al. 

What this means is that the grassroots of these social movements are often misled and betrayed by their leaders who are routinely co-opted and generously rewarded by a handful of corporate foundations.

The World Social Forum (WSF), which is commemorating its 21st anniversary, brings together committed anti-globalization  activists from all over the world. But who controls the WSF? From the outset in January 2001, it was (initially) funded by the Ford Foundation. 

It’s what you call “manufactured dissent” (far more insidious than Herman-Chomsky’s “manufactured consent”).

The objective of the financial elites “has been to fragment the people’s movement into a vast “do it yourself” mosaic. Activism tends to be piecemeal. There is no integrated anti-globalization anti-war movement.” (Michel Chossudovsky, Manufacturing Dissent, Global Research, 2010)12

Image: Joe Biden with Henry Kissinger (By Kai Mörk www.securityconference.delicensed under CC BY 3.0 de)

In the words of McGeorge Bundy, President of the Ford Foundation (1966-1979):

“Everything the [Ford] Foundation did could be regarded as “making the world safe for capitalism”, reducing social tensions by helping to comfort the afflicted, provide safety valves for the angry, and improve the functioning of government.13

The protest movement against the Great Reset which constitutes a “global coup d’état” requires a process of worldwide mobilization:

There can be no meaningful mass movement when dissent is generously funded by those same corporate interests [WEF, Gates, Ford, et al.] which are the target of the protest movement”.14

 

 

Endnotes

1 Michel Chossudovsky, April-June 1975. Hacia El Nuevo Modelo Económico Chileno Inflación Y Redistribución Del Ingreso. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20856482?refreqid=excelsior%3A9228243fa26a81bb3c2b0c2d58094922&seq=1

2 Ibid.

3 Michel Chossudovsky, April 16, 1977. Legitimised Violence and Economic Policy in Argentina. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4365500?seq=1 

4 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, June 3, 2020. Understand the Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order. https://www.globalresearch.ca/understand-the-globalization-of-poverty-and-the-new-world-order/25371

5 Ibid. 

6 National Security Council, December 10, 1974. Implications of Worldwide Population Growth For U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (THE KISSINGER REPORT). https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB500.pdf

7 Peter Koenig, January 22, 2022. The COVID-Omicron Crisis: The Roadmap Towards a Worldwide Financial Crash, Inflation, Digitization. https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-omicron-is-killing-christmas-and-beyond-financial-crash-inflation-digitization/5765170

8 Peter Keonig, March 12, 2020. The Coronavirus Vaccine: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020”. Vaccination as a Platform for “Digital Identity”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-causes-effects-real-danger-agenda-id2020/5706153

9 Colin Todhunter, November 9, 2020. Dystopian “Great Reset”: “Own Nothing and Be Happy”, Being Human in 2030. https://www.globalresearch.ca/own-nothing-happy-being-human-2030/5728960

10 UN, September 2020. United Nations Comprehensive Response to COVID-19. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/un-comprehensive-response-to-covid-19.pdf

11 Mark Weisbrot, February 17, 2020. WORTH THE PRICE? Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War (narrated by Danny Glover). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhcuei8_UJM

12 Prof Michel Chossudovsky, September 20, 2010. “Manufacturing Dissent”: The Anti-globalization Movement is Funded by the Corporate Elites. https://www.globalresearch.ca/manufacturing-dissent-the-anti-globalization-movement-is-funded-by-the-corporate-elites/21110

13 Ibid. 

14 Ibid.


 

Chapter XIII 

“Digital Tyranny” and the QR Code

 

“It’s the worldwide invasion of the QR code – QR coding of everything: all of your most intimate data, health, personal behaviors, habits – track records of where we have been and even where we may be planning to go. Nothing will escape the QR code. Nobody talks about it.” —Peter Koenig, former World Bank analyst, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization

 

Towards a Digitized Global Police State 

The worldwide QR Verification Code project lays the groundwork for the instatement of a “Digitized Global Police State” controlled by the financial establishment. It’s part of what the late David Rockefeller entitled “The March Towards World Government” based on an alliance of bankers and intellectuals (see Chapter XII).  Peter Koenig describes the QR code as:

“an all-electronic ID – linking everything to everything of each individual (records of health, banking, personal and private, etc.).”

 

Towards a Worldwide Digital Currency System (CBDC)  

Consultations are also ongoing between the World Economic Forum (WEF) and central banks with a view to implementing a so-called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) network. According to David Skripac,

“A worldwide digital ID system is in the making. … The aim of the WEF—and of all the central banks [is] to implement a global system in which everyone’s personal data will be incorporated into the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) network.”1 

 

The QR Verification Code Software

In early 2022, the WHO signed a major contract with Deutsche Telekom T Systems to develop a QR Verification App and software which is to be applied worldwide.

The QR code-based software solution is slated to be used:

“for other vaccinations as well, such as polio or yellow fever, T-Systems said in a statement … adding that the WHO would support its 194 member states in building national and regional verification technology.” (emphasis added)

According to a Deutsche Telekom I-T Systems Communique, “The WHO’s gateway service also serves as a bridge between regional systems“, which essentially implies a coordinated global structure of QR surveillance, which oversees the entire population of Planet Earth.2

And once established, it will police “every aspect of our lives”, wherever our location. “It can also be used as part of future vaccination campaigns and home-based records.

According to the CEO of Deutsche Telecom T Systems:

“Corona has a grip on the world. Digitization keeps the world running”.3

Bill Gates has a long-standing relationship with Deutsche Telekom’s  former CEO Ron Sommer going back to the late 1990s.4

 

Tracing and Tracking

T-Systems had previously set up the European Federation Gateway Service (EFGS). The service ensures that member states’ corona tracing apps work across borders.

The Telekom app is categorized as “one of the most successful tracing apps in the world”.

Who has the grip on the world? A giant data bank pertaining to almost 8 billion people is controlled by “Big Money”.5

People are tagged and labeled, their emails, cell phones are monitored, detailed personal data are entered into a giant Big Brother data bank.

“Digital tyranny” requires repelling all forms of political and social resistance. 

Individual human beings are categorized as “numbers”. Once these “numbers” are inserted into a global digital data bank, humanity in its entirety is under the control of the globalists, namely the Financial Establishment.

The history, culture and identity of nation-states is foreclosed. People become numbers inserted into a global data bank. In turn the formulation of societal projects (projet de société) at national, local and community levels is erased.

Social democracy, socialism, libertarianism: under global governance, all forms of representative democracy and class struggle are precipitated into the dustbin of history.

Progressives should understand who is behind this hegemonic project, it’s part of a neoliberal agenda, it’s an endgame which destroys the identity of human beings; it destroys humanity.

It is important to organize a broad movement of resistance leading to the outright dismantling of this diabolical agenda, which is embedded in the WHO’s Pandemic Treaty, sponsored by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Gates Foundation.

The modalities of the globalists’ project are embedded in the WHO’s Pandemic Treaty, an initiative of the WEF and the Gates Foundation.

 

The Infamous WHO “Treaty on Pandemics”  

Image: Damaged but still decodable QR code (Licensed under CC0)

In March 2022, the WHO launched an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) with a mandate to create “A Pandemic Treaty”, i.e. a global health governance entity which would override the authority of WHO member states.

“The Global Pandemic Treaty on pandemic preparedness would grant the WHO absolute power over global biosecurity, such as the power to implement digital identities / vaccine passports, mandatory vaccinations, travel restrictions, lockdowns, standardized medical care and more.

This Pandemic Treaty, if implemented, will change the global landscape and strip you and me of some of our most basic rights and freedoms.

Make no mistake, the WHO Pandemic Treaty is a direct attack on the sovereignty of its member states, as well as a direct attack on your bodily autonomy.” (Peter Koenig, June 2022)6

The Treaty on Pandemics is tied into the WHO’s QR Verification Code project and the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.

The  legitimacy of both the Treaty on Pandemics and the QR Verification Code under WHO auspices rests on the presumption that the alleged “COVID-19 pandemic is real” and that the mRNA vaccine constitutes a SOLUTION to curbing the spread of the virus. 

What is the legitimacy as well as the science behind this diabolical project? NONE. Amply confirmed: THERE IS NO PANDEMICThe alleged COVID-19 pandemic is based on “fake science” (see Chapter III).

Both the EU Digital COVID Certificate Framework as well as the WHO QR Verification Code are predicated on outright lies and fabrications.

The Treaty on Pandemics is the “back door” towards “Global Governance” and digital tyranny. It consists in constructing a worldwide nexus of proxy regimes controlled by a “supranational sovereignty” (World Government) composed of leading financial institutions, billionaires and their philanthropic foundations (see Chapter XII).

Image by the Council of the European Union

 

The WHO’s Plan Is for 10 Years of Pandemics (2020-2030)

A series of future pandemics have been contemplated by the WHO with the support of the Gates Foundation.  According to the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the Director-General of the WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: 

 “There will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies.

The question is not if, but when. …  we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion.

To that end, we believe that nations should work together towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response.” 

-Joint call for an international pandemic treaty7

 

Bill Gates’s “Pandemic Number Two”: The Monkeypox?

“We’ll have another pandemic. It will be a different pathogen next time,” (CNBC, February 18, 2022)

“We’ll have to prepare for the next one…

“To be ready for Pandemic Two, … I call this Pandemic One”  (Bill Gates, see Video: The WHO Plans for 10 Years of Pandemics)8

President Joe Biden says America “needs to start getting funding to prepare for the next pandemic“. 

Big Money is behind Biden’s proposal, supportive of Bill Gates: 

“The White House has proposed allocating $82 billion toward planning for pandemic response”. (Business Insider, June 23, 2022)9

 

The  Monkeypox PHEIC

On July 23, 2022, a Monkeypox Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) was declared unilaterally by the Director-General of the WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus against a majority vote of the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee (9 against, 6 in favor).10

“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission…I [Tedros] have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”  …11

 “Although I [Tedros] am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.  …

It’s therefore essential that all countries work closely with communities of men who have sex with men, to design and deliver effective information and services, and to adopt measures that protect the health, human rights and dignity of affected communities.

(emphasis added)

“I  Have Decided… “

Tedros’ decision to declare a PHEIC in defiance of the Emergency Committee is illegal. The above announcement borders on ridicule. Where is the science? What are the implications? A review of WHO statements reveals “scientific biases” and outright manipulations. 

And guess what: it’s the real-time PCR test, which the CDC declared invalid for detecting SARS-CoV-2 (effective December 31 2021), which is now being used to “detect the monkeypox pathogen”.12

Screenshot from CDC

There is no evidence that monkeypox is a sexually-transmitted disease. (See Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, August 1, 2022)13

Does Tedros’s statement constitute an encroachment of the fundamental rights of the LGBT Community which is currently the object of the emergency measures? In the words of the IHR Emergency Committee report cited above: “interventions [are] targeted to this segment of the population [LGBT].”

The WHO is funded by the Gates Foundation. And Bill Gates is centrefold. He has been pushing for the monkeypox scenario since 2017. 

Moreover, in March 2021, a tabletop simulation (similar to the October 2019 Event 201 Simulation) generously funded by multi-billionaire foundations, portrays a “fictional exercise scenario of a deadly, global pandemic involving an unusual strain of monkeypox virus”. The simulation was presented at the Munich Security Conference.

 

Simulation versus “Real Life” Monkeypox Outbreak

May 15, 2022 marks the commencement of the monkeypox epidemic in the Simulated Scenario” (see figure below), leading up to January 2023 (83 countries affected) with 70 million confirmed cases and 1.3 million deaths (see graph below).14

Coincidence? Visibly, May 15, 2022 as well as the 150 cases in the simulation bear a canny resemblance to the “REAL” press reports and WHO advisory:         

“Since 13 May 2022, cases of monkeypox have been reported to [the] WHO from 12 Member States that are not endemic for monkeypox virus, across three WHO regions. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing,  …” (WHO Advisory)15

 

Screenshot from the Simulated Scenario, Munich Security Conference, page 10 of NTI Report

 

The Transition from PHEIC 2.0 to “Pandemic Number Two”? 

Dr. Tedros’s July 2022 monkeypox PHEIC was modelled on the WHO’s COVID-19 January 30, 2020 PHEIC (see Chapter II).

What’s next? The PHEIC sets the stage. It’s a preamble towards subsequent pandemics.  

Will the historic July 23, 2022 Monkeypox PHEIC 2.0 lead the way towards “Pandemic Number Two”, i.e. a worldwide monkeypox pandemic, officially enacted by the WHO at some future date?

A monkeypox vaccine was developed (prior to the outbreak in May 2022). It was announced on May 18, 2022.16

 

Endnotes

1 David Skripac, March 26, 2022. Oh, Canada! Our Home and Native . . . Dictatorship! The WEF is “Trampling Our Freedoms”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-our-home-native-dictatorship/5772052

2 Albert Hold, February 23, 2022. Checking Covid 19 certificates: World Health Organization selects T-Systems as industry partner. https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/covid-19-who-commissions-t-systems-648634

3 Ibid.

4 Dow Jones Newswires, September 4, 1998. Deutsche Telekom Won’t Comment On Reports of Talks With Microsoft. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB904923633645893500

5 Worldometer, n.d. Current World Population. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

6 Peter Koenig & Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, June 2, 2022. Video: Digital Tyranny and the QR Code. The WHO Pandemic Treaty is the Back Door to “Global Governance”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/digital-tyranny-and-the-qr-code-the-who-pandemic-treaty-is-a-back-door-to-global-governance/5782245

7 Council of the European Union, n.d. An international treaty on pandemic prevention and preparedness. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/coronavirus/pandemic-treaty/

8 Stopworldcontrol, May 4, 2022. THE PLAN – WHO plans for 10 years of pandemics, from 2020 to 2030. https://rumble.com/v13kefy-must-see-the-plan-who-plans-for-10-years-of-pandemics-from-2020-to-2030.html

9 Matthew Loh, June 23, 2022. Biden says another pandemic will come and the US needs to start preparing for it. https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-second-pandemic-funding-us-preparing-2022-6

10 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, May 25, 2022. Worldwide Monkeypox Health Emergency (PHEIC): For Bill Gates, It’s “Moneypox”: Simulation of Fictitious Monkeypox Virus Pandemic in March 2021, Goes Live in May 2022. https://www.globalresearch.ca/bill-gates-warns-smallpox-terror-attacks-urges-leaders-use-germ-games-prepare/5781195

11 WHO, July 23, 2022. WHO Director-General’s statement at the press conference following IHR Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox – 23 July 2022. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-statement-on-the-press-conference-following-IHR-emergency-committee-regarding-the-multi–country-outbreak-of-monkeypox–23-july-2022

12 CDC, June 6, 2022. Test Procedure: Monkeypox virus Generic Real-Time PCR Test. https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/pdf/pcr-diagnostic-protocol-508.pdf

13 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, August 1, 2022. “Factual Chaos” at the WHO? Dr. Tedros: Monkeypox Outbreak Is “Among Men Who Have Sex with Men”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/factual-chaos-at-the-who-dr-tedros-monkeypox-outbreak-is-among-men-who-have-sex-with-men/5788349

14 NTI, November 23, 2021. Strengthening Global Systems to Prevent and Respond to High-Consequence Biological Threats. https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/strengthening-global-systems-to-prevent-and-respond-to-high-consequence-biological-threats/

15 WHO, May 21, 2022. Multi-country monkeypox outbreak in non-endemic countries. https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2022-DON385

16 Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, May 25, 2022. Worldwide Monkeypox Health Emergency (PHEIC): For Bill Gates, It’s “Moneypox”: Simulation of Fictitious Monkeypox Virus Pandemic in March 2021, Goes Live in May 2022. https://www.globalresearch.ca/bill-gates-warns-smallpox-terror-attacks-urges-leaders-use-germ-games-prepare/5781195


Chapter XIV

The COVID-19 Endgame: Eugenics

and the Depopulation Agenda

 

“We’re now facing a situation where a huge number of very powerful organizations and elites at international and national levels are calling for policies that are basically a suicide pact. Basically a death wish of some sort.” —Patrick Moore, former president of Greenpeace

Do these “Do Goodie” billionaires have any idea of the carnage and suffering their mass-vaccination campaign is likely to generate? Or is that the goal, a world with fewer people? —Michael Whitney, renowned author and geopolitical analyst. 

Introduction

The two strategic pillars of the COVID agenda examined in the previous chapters are:

  • The lockdown: an act of economic and social warfare which has triggered a worldwide process of impoverishment, social marginalization and despair,
  • The mRNA COVID “vaccine” which has resulted in a worldwide upward trend in mortality and morbidity.

Unprecedented in world history, these two strategic pillars are instrumental in triggering a process of depopulation which indelibly points to extensive crimes against humanity.

The enforcement of the depopulation agenda requires a socially repressive structure of “global governance” controlled by the financial establishment.

It also requires a cohesive propaganda apparatus with a view to enforcing social acceptance worldwide. In turn, this process requires the demise of the institutions of representative government coupled with the criminalization of the judicial system.

 

Depopulation and the History of Eugenics

The Global Governance scenario attempts to impose an agenda of social engineering and economic compliance.

The World Government envisaged by the globalists is predicated on obedience and acceptance. One of its major objectives is to carry out a worldwide depopulation agenda. 

The contemporary eugenics movement sponsored by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the billionaire philanthropists hinges upon two strategic pillars: the COVID lockdown and the mRNA vaccine, which are instruments of global population reduction.

US-NATO-led war are also instruments of depopulation. 

What we are living now is unprecedented. Today’s depopulation agenda is by no means comparable to the eugenist movement which unfolded in the US as of the early 20th century. Eugenics at the outset was based on legislation directed against specific population groups with so-called “learning or physical disabilities”:

“The 1907 law denied entry to anyone judged ‘mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defects being of a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living.’ It added ‘imbeciles’ and ‘feeble-minded persons’ to the list. …

By 1938, 33 American states permitted the forced sterilisation of women with learning disabilities and 29 American states had passed compulsory sterilisation laws covering people who were thought to have genetic conditions. Laws in America also restricted the right of certain disabled people to marry. More than 36,000 Americans underwent compulsory sterilisation before this legislation was eventually repealed in the 1940s.” (Victoria Brignell)1

 

Depopulation Directed Against Third World Countries

Inspired by the eugenist ideology, depopulation in the post World War II era became an integral part of a neo-colonial agenda. It was carefully embedded into the tenets of US foreign policy, largely directed against so-called “developing countries”.

We recall US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s National Security Study Memorandum 200 entitled “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth For U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.”

 

Screenshot from the National Security Council document

 

According to Kissinger (NSSM 200, 1974):

“Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the Third World, because the U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries.”

Illustration by Global Research / Image of Henry Kissinger is by Jay Godwin/Flickr, licensed under the Public Domain

 

The Vaccine Campaign Directed Against Third World Countries

In regards to Third World countries, depopulation was carefully instrumented through vaccines. The “tetanus vaccines” project implemented under WHO-UNICEF auspices was intended to “secretly sterilize women in poor countries all over the planet”.

Kenya’s Catholic bishops are charging two United Nations organizations with sterilizing millions of girls and women under cover of an anti-tetanus inoculation program sponsored by the Kenyan government.”2

Bill Gates, who is now at the forefront of the globalists’ mRNA “vaccine” program was intricately involved. “The Gates Foundation was sued by governments around the world, Kenya, India, the Philippines – and more.” (Peter Koenig, April 2020)3

 

The Globalists’ Depopulation Agenda.“What to Do with All These Useless People?”

While the globalists consider that planet Earth is overpopulated, they do not formally acknowledge that the COVID-19 mandates including the vaccine constitute the means to reducing the world’s population. The vaccine is upheld as means to “save lives”.

Klaus Schwab’s protégé Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, nonetheless begs the question, “what to do with all these useless people?”  

Harari is an influential member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) who supports the idea of creating a dystopian society managed by a handful of globalists who will rule over every human being on earth from the day they are born. (Timothy Alexander Guzman, July 2022)4

 

Secret 2009 Meeting of “The Good Club”. “Billionaires Try to Shrink World’s Population”

Flashback to April 25, 2009. The World Health Organization (WHO) headed by Margaret Chan declared a Public Health Emergency of International concern (PHEIC) pertaining to the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic, which in many regards was a “dress rehearsal” of the COVID pandemic (see Chapter IX). Barely two weeks later in early May 2009, at the height of the H1N1 “pandemic”, the billionaire philanthropists met behind closed doors at the home of the president of the Rockefeller University in Manhattan.

This secret gathering was sponsored by Bill Gates. They call themselves “The Good Club”. Among the participants were the late David Rockefeller, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey and many more:  

“Some of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.” (Sunday Times, May 2009)5

The emphasis was not on population growth (i.e. planned parenthood) but on “depopulation”, i.e. the reduction in the absolute size of the world’s population. To read the complete WSJ article, click here.

According to the Sunday Times report:

The philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.

Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said the summit was unprecedented. “We only learnt about it afterwards, by accident. Normally these people are happy to talk good causes, but this is different – maybe because they don’t want to be seen as a global cabal,” he said.

Another guest said there was “nothing as crude as a vote” but a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.

“This is something so nightmarish that everyone in this group agreed it needs big-brain answers,” said the guest.  …

Why all the secrecy? “They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government,” he said. (Sunday Times)6

The decision-making is intricate and complex. The reports of this secret May 2009 meeting largely reveal the depopulation narrative. It was one among numerous similar meetings (which are rarely the object of media coverage).

What is significant is the criminal intent of these billionaire “philanthropists” to depopulate planet Earth.

 

Bill Gates 2010 Depopulation Statement. The Role of “New Vaccines”

Image: Bill Gates (By Kuhlmann /MSC, licensed under CC BY 3.0 de)

Was an absolute “reduction” in world population contemplated at that May 2009 secret meeting? A few months later, Bill Gates in his TED presentation (February 2010) pertaining to vaccination, confirmed the following:

“And if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that [the world population] by 10 or 15 percent”.7

Listen to the quotation in this video starting at 04:21. Alternatively, see below for the screenshot of the quotation.

Screenshot from the TED Talk video

 

Bill Gates’s “Absolute Reduction” in World Population 

Bill Gates’s proposal of an “absolute reduction” in the world’s population using vaccination as an instrument would be as follows:

The world’s population (November 2022 estimate) is of the order of 8.0 billion.

  • An absolute reduction of 10% in 2022 would be of the order of 800 million.
  • An absolute reduction of 15% of the world population in 2022 would be of the order of 1.2 billion.

The same group of billionaires, who met at the May 2009 “secret venue”, has been actively involved from the outset of the COVID crisis in designing the lockdown policies applied worldwide, the mRNA vaccine and the “Great Reset”, the endgame of which is massive depopulation. 

Crimes against humanity are beyond description.

We are dealing with a criminal cabal which must be confronted.

 

Endnotes

1 Victoria Brignell, December 10, 2010. When America Believed in Eugenics. https://www.globalresearch.ca/when-america-believed-eugenics/5743548?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles

2 Michael Snyder, November 11, 2014. Is the WHO Using Vaccines to Secretly Sterilize Women All Over the Globe? https://www.globalresearch.ca/is-the-un-using-vaccines-to-secretly-sterilize-women-all-over-the-globe/5413599

3 Peter Koenig, March 4, 2021. Bill Gates and the Depopulation Agenda. Robert F. Kennedy Junior Calls for an Investigation. https://www.globalresearch.ca/bill-gates-and-the-depopulation-agenda-robert-f-kennedy-junior-calls-for-an-investigation/5710021

4 Timothy Alexander Guzman, August 6, 2022. The Cult of Globalism: The Great Reset and Its “Final Solution” for “Useless People”. https://www.globalresearch.ca/cult-globalism-great-reset-final-solution-useless-people/5784969

5 John Harlow, May 24, 2009. Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/billionaire-club-in-bid-to-curb-overpopulation-d2fl22qhl02

6 Ibid.

7 Bill Gates, 2010. Innovating to zero! https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_innovating_to_zero/transcript


 

Chapter XV 

The Road Ahead:

Building a Worldwide Movement Against “Corona Tyranny”

 

The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris on the afternoon of July 14, 1789. The Bastille was a medieval armory, fortress, and political prison. It was the symbol of Royal Authority under the reign of King Louis XVI. 

The French monarchy was obliged to accept the authority of the newly proclaimed National Assembly as well as endorse the fundamental rights contained in the “Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen” (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen), formulated in early August 1789.1

More than 230 years later, these fundamental rights (Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité) are now being contravened by corrupt governments around the world on behalf of a totalitarian and illusive financial establishment.

Storming of the Bastille (By Bibliothèque nationale de France, licensed under the Public Domain)

 

Bastille 2022

Bastille 2022 pertains not only to the restoration of these fundamental rights. It seeks to reverse and disable the criminal COVID-19 agenda which in the course of more than two and a half years has triggered economic, social and political chaos worldwide in 193 member states of the United Nations, coupled with bankruptcies, unemployment, mass poverty and despair. Famines have been reported in more than 25 countries. 

Starting in November 2020, an experimental mRNA vaccine launched by our governments (allegedly with a view to combating the spread of the virus) has resulted in an ascending worldwide trend of vaccine-related deaths and injuries. It’s a killer vaccine. It’s a crime against humanity. 

Bastille 2022 is not a “protest” movement, narrowly defined.

We do not seek to negotiate with corrupt government officials. We question their legitimacy. They are liars.

Our intent is to confront the powerful actors behind this criminal endeavor which is literally destroying people’s lives worldwide, while creating divisions within society. The impacts on mental health on population groups worldwide are devastating. 

The numerous lockdowns documented in previous chapters (stay at home of the workforce), fear campaigns, COVID-19 policy mandates imposed on approximately 193 member states of the United Nations have also contributed to undermining and destabilizing:

  • the very fabric of civil society and its institutions including education, culture and the arts, social gatherings, sports, entertainment, etc. 
  • all public sector activities including physical and social infrastructure, social services, law enforcement, etc.
  • all major private sector activities which characterize national, regional and local economies including small, medium and large corporate enterprises, family farms, industry, wholesale and retail trade, the urban services economy, transport companies, airlines, hotel chains, etc.
  • the structures of the global economy including international commodity trade, investment, import and export relations between countries, etc. The entire landscape of the global economy has been shattered. 

In turn, a process of enrichment by the elite billionaires together with widening social inequalities is unfolding (see Chapter V).

The massive debts incurred by the nation-states resulting from corruption as well fiscal collapse have skyrocketed. Increasingly national governments are in a straitjacket, under the brunt of powerful creditor institutions. Mounting debts at all levels of society are the driving force (see Chapter IV).

 

The Creation of a Mass Movement 

What is at stake is the creation of a mass movement (nationally and worldwide) which questions the legitimacy and authority of the architects of this insidious project which broadly speaking emanates from Big Money, Big Pharma, the Information Technology Conglomerates, the Security Apparatus, Intelligence, the Military Industrial Complex, Big Energy, and the Corporate Media. 

Ironically, the architects of the COVID-19 “pandemic” are now actively involved in formulating the “solution”. The World Economic Forum’s Great Reset consists in installing a worldwide totalitarian regime. What is contemplated is a system of “Global Governance” predicated on depopulation (see Chapters XII and XIII).

Approximately 193 UN member states are slated to be weakened and undermined. They are under the grip of the most serious debt crisis in world history. Under the Great Reset, the institutions of parliamentary democracy and the welfare state are to be replaced by an unelected “public-private partnership” dominated by the upper echelons of the financial establishment. 

 

Restoring Real Democracy

We will seek all avenues through peaceful means to disable and undermine this totalitarian project including dialogue with and within public and private institutions (students, teachers, law enforcement officials, members of the military and the judiciary, etc.)

What is required is to break down the structures of corruption, hierarchy and abusive authority, namely to pursue what might be described as:

“the democratization of decision-making within our institutions”.

 

The Art of Deception

We must nonetheless understand the limitations of conducting effective judicial procedures against national governments. The judges are often pressured, threatened and corrupt, aligned with both dominant financial interests and politicians.

Moreover, inasmuch as this insidious project is enforced by national governments worldwide, the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is officially “independent” in regards to the UN Security Council, has a longstanding record of side-stepping US-NATO war crimes. The ICC is controlled by the same financial elites which control the governments.

We must also understand the complexities of this carefully designed and coordinated totalitarian project, namely the role of various fraudulent financial institutions, corporate advisory and lobby groups, consultants, “scientific advisors”, etc. acting as intermediaries on behalf of Big Pharma and the financial elites. 

There is a hierarchy in the structures of authority. This complex and intricate decision-making process is used to co-opt, bribe and manipulate government officials. Almost identical policy mandates (emanating from higher authority) are implemented simultaneously in numerous countries, requiring active coordination. The same powerful lobby firms are acting at one and the same time in different countries (e.g. in North America and the European Union).

Large scale street protests will not prevail unless they are focused on effectively disabling this corrupt decision-making process. 

 

Protesters gathered near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in August 2020 to protest against COVID measures. Copyright: Reuters

 

Truckers Freedom Convoy in Canada in February 2022, a movement against COVID mandates. Copyright David Skripac, with permission to use

What Are Our Priorities? Counter-Propaganda 

More than 7 billion people worldwide are directly or indirectly affected by the corona crisis. Several billion people have already been vaccinated by an “unapproved” experimental mRNA “vaccine”, which has resulted in a worldwide wave of mortality and morbidity.

While this tendency is confirmed by official figures pertaining to vaccine-related deaths and adverse events, the mainstream media and the governments are in a state of denial.

The devastating health impacts of the COVID-19 vaccine are rarely acknowledged. It’s the same catchphrase (which is an outright lie) repeated ad nauseam: “the virus is far more dangerous than the vaccine”:

“We actually have more safety data on the vaccine than the virus, and already see that the virus is far more dangerous than the vaccine. (Intercare)2

Dr. Alan Schroeder thinks it’s very natural for parents to worry, but said for teens, the virus is more dangerous than the vaccine. (NBC)3

Doctors are on the lookout for it in children, but the bottom line remains that the virus is far more dangerous than the vaccine.

“The mutations in the omicron variant make it [the virus] more prolific, dangerous, and elusive“.

etc.

This propaganda consensus must be broken. With regard to the vaccine, informing people across the land regarding the data on deaths and adverse events is the first step.

The COVID crisis initiated in January 2020 is unprecedented in world history. Propaganda under Nuremberg is a crime (see Chapter XI).

Dismantling the propaganda apparatus is crucial. Counter-propaganda plays a key role in revealing the lies used to justify the policy mandates.

Without persistent media disinformation, the official COVID narrative falls flat.

First and foremost, we must forcefully challenge the mainstream media, without specifically targeting mainstream journalists who have been instructed to abide by the official narrative. We should in this regard favor dialogue with individual (independent) journalists.

We must ensure that people worldwide achieve an understanding of the history and devastating impacts of the COVID crisis supported by scientific concepts, analysis, testimonies and data. This endeavor will require a parallel process at the grassroots level, of sensitizing fellow citizens and establishing dialogue on the nature of the alleged pandemic, the mRNA vaccine, the RT-PCR test, as well as the devastating economic and social impacts of the lockdowns.

While we must put an end to the fear campaign, we must nonetheless inform our fellow citizens regarding the dangers of the mRNA vaccine as well as the engineered chaos of this totalitarian agenda of “Global Governance” on the very structures of civil society.

The “fear campaign” is to be replaced by “information, concepts, analysis and data” as well as “strategies” to confront Big Pharma, corrupt officials in high office as well as their Big Money sponsors.

We must also ensure the conduct of dialogue and debate at the grassroots of society.

 

Putting an End to the “Killer Vaccine”

Our first task is to immediately halt and cancel the so-called COVID-19 “vaccine” which has triggered a wave of mortality and morbidity worldwide. 

According to Dr. Thomas Binder:

“The gene injections are unsafe. They can cause anaphylactic reactions, thromboembolism, thrombocytopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and myocarditis in the short term.4

There is possible immunosuppression and antibody-dependent enhancement, ADE, in the medium-term.

And in the long term there are possible autoimmune diseases, cancer and infertility, risks that have not been ruled out yet.”

According to Doctors for COVID Ethics, in the EU, UK and US, the data respectively tabulated by EudraVigilance, MHRA (UK) and VAERS (US):

“have now recorded many more deaths and injuries from the COVID-19 “vaccine” roll-out than from all previous vaccines combined since records began”

With regard to the mRNA “vaccine”, the catastrophic number of injection related deaths has NOT been reported by the mainstream media, despite the official figures being publicly available.

“The signal of harm is now indisputably overwhelming, and, in line with universally accepted ethical standards for clinical trials, we demand that the COVID-19 “vaccination” programme be halted immediately worldwide.

Continuation of the programme, in the full knowledge of ongoing serious harm and death to both adults and children, constitutes Crimes Against Humanity/Genocide, for which those found to be responsible or complicit will ultimately be held personally liable.”5

As outlined in Chapter VIII, Pfizer has a criminal record (2009) with the US Department of Justice on charges of “fraudulent marketing”.6

As part of the 2009 DoJ settlement, Pfizer was put on parole:

“Pfizer also has agreed to enter into an expansive corporate integrity agreement … [which] provides for procedures and reviews to be put in place to avoid and promptly detect conduct similar to that which gave rise to this matter.”7

But we are no longer dealing with “fraudulent marketing”:

“Killing is good for business”: The vaccine is a multi-billion dollar operation worldwide. It’s manslaughter.

Once the “vaccine” has been halted, the criminality of Big Pharma will be fully revealed and understood. In turn, the legitimacy of the official COVID narrative based on lies and fake science will inevitably be impaired. This is the first step towards breaking the “official” COVID narrative. 

The truth is an important peaceful weapon. Without propaganda and media disinformation, the architects of this project do not have a leg to stand on.

Let us break the “official” COVID-19 consensus and the propaganda apparatus which provides “legitimacy” to a criminal agenda.

Once it collapses, it will open up the road towards reversing the broader process of economic, social and political chaos generated in the course of the last two and a half years.

 

The Geopolitical Dimensions

What is unfolding is a new and destructive phase of US imperialism. It’s a totalitarian project of economic and social engineering. 

The Biden administration has endorsed the COVID agenda, which has been used to destabilize and weaken national economies (ironically, including the United States as well as its allies and its “enemies”).

We cannot divorce our understanding of the COVID crisis from that of US foreign policy and America’s hegemonic agenda, e.g. the war in Ukraine, US-Russia relations, the enlargement and extension of NATO, the militarization of the South China Sea directed against China, Iran and the geopolitics of the Middle East, the ongoing sanctions regimes against Venezuela and Cuba, etc. 

Integrating All Sectors of Society

It should be noted that organized opposition in many Western countries is weak. Why? Because “progressive forces” including left intellectuals, NGO leaders, trade union and labor leaders both in Western Europe and North America have from the outset endorsed the official COVID narrative. Many of these progressive movements are supported by corporate foundations. 

The same billionaire foundations which are the unspoken architects of the “Great Reset” and “Global Governance” are also involved in (generously) financing various social movements. “They control the opposition”.  

What this means is that grassroots activists are often misled and betrayed by their leaders who are routinely co-opted by their billionaire sponsors.

It is essential that these grassroots activists be integrated into the mainstay of the movement against the COVID-19 consensus.

 

The Road Ahead

What is required is the development of a broad-based grassroots network which confronts both the architects of this crisis as  well as all levels of government (i.e. national, states, provinces, municipalities, etc.) involved in imposing the vaccine as well carrying out the lockdown and closure of economic activity.

This network would be established (nationally and internationally) at all levels of society, in towns and villages, workplaces, parishes, trade unions, farmers organizations, professional associations, business associations, student unions, and veterans associations. Church groups would be called upon to integrate this movement.

“Spreading the word” through social media and independent online media outlets will be undertaken bearing in mind that Google as well as Facebook are instruments of censorship.

Legal procedures and protests are unfolding in all major regions of the world. As part of a worldwide network of initiatives, it is important to establish mechanisms of communication, dialogue and exchange within and between countries. 

The creation of such a movement, which forcefully challenges the legitimacy of the financial elites, Big Pharma, et al., as well as the structures of political authority at the national level, is no easy task. It will require a degree of solidarity, unity and commitment unparalleled in world history.

What is required is the breaking down of political and ideological barriers within society (e.g. between political parties) while acting with a single voice towards building a worldwide consensus against tyranny. 

Worldwide solidarity and human dignity is the driving force.

 

Endnotes

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, July 20, 1998. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Declaration-of-the-Rights-of-Man-and-of-the-Citizen

2 Intercare, n.d. Part 10: COVID-19 vaccines and long-term side effects. https://healthhub.intercare.co.za/2021/09/15/part-10-covid-19-vaccines-and-long-term-side-effects/

3 Anoushah Rasta, May 5, 2021. FDA Expected to Approve Vaccinations for Kids, But Are Parents Ready to Move Forward? https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/coronavirus/fda-expected-to-approve-vaccinations-for-kids-but-are-parents-ready-to-move-forward/2537309/

4 Doctors for COVID Ethics, August 3, 2021. COVID Vaccine Necessity, Efficacy and Safety. https://doctors4covidethics.org/covid-vaccine-necessity-efficacy-and-safety-3/

5 Doctors for COVID Ethics, October 22, 2021. J’Accuse! The Gene-based “Vaccines” Are Killing People. Governments Worldwide Are Lying to You the People, to the Populations They Purportedly Serve. https://www.globalresearch.ca/jaccuse-governments-worldwide-lying-you-people-populations-they-purportedly-serve/5750650

6 US Department of Justice, September 2, 2009. Pfizer Inc. “Fraudulent Marketing”: “Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement in Its History” (2009). US Department of Justice. https://www.globalresearch.ca/justice-department-announces-largest-health-care-fraud-settlement/5738792

7 Ibid.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Read Part I, II and III:

WEF’s Great Reset: The Great Dispossession. The Loss of Property Rights in Financial Assets. “Own Nothing Be Happy”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 11, 2024

The Great Dispossession: Turning Our Property in Financial Assets Into the Property of “Secured Creditors”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 16, 2024


The Great Dispossession: A Massive Financial Crisis Is Pending. The WEF’s “Great Reset” Means “The Re-institutionalization of Feudalism”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 17, 2024


Under the 5th and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution the transformation of our financial property into collateral for secured creditors constitutes a taking. I don’t know whether the taking that exists in the regulations can be taken to court and ruled against prior to a taking actually occurring. Probably not.

The question therefore is how effective will a court ruling be in a situation of financial chaos. Clearly, those who devised the taking regulations either were ignorant of the taking clause or do not expect a Constitutional ruling to prevail.

If the legal profession were to take up this matter, perhaps the discrediting of the regulations would render them useless and force financial regulators and Congress to find other solutions to the problem. Clearly, the ability to create endless amounts of derivatives must be abolished.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

“Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference … The Thought Police would get him just the same … the arrests invariably happened at night … In the vast majority of cases there was no trial, no report of the arrest.

People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten.

—George Orwell, 1984

The government long ago sold us out to the highest bidder.

The highest bidder, by the way, has always been the Deep State.

What’s playing out now with the highly politicized tug-of-war over whether Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gets reauthorized by Congress doesn’t just sell us out, it makes us slaves of the Deep State.

Read the fine print: it’s a doozy.

Just as the USA Patriot was perverted from its stated intent to fight terrorism abroad and was instead used to covertly crack down on the American people (allowing government agencies to secretly track Americans’ financial activities, monitor their communications, and carry out wide-ranging surveillance on them), Section 702 has been used as an end-run around the Constitution to allow the government to collect the actual content of your conversations (phone calls, text messages, video chats, emails and other electronic communication) without a warrant.

Now intelligence officials are pushing to dramatically expand the government’s spying powers, effectively giving the government unbridled authority to force millions of Americans to spy on its behalf.

Basically, the Deep State wants to turn the American people into extensions of Big Brother.

As Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) explains:

If you have access to any communications, the government can force you to help it spy. That means anyone with access to a server, a wire, a cable box, a Wi-Fi router, a phone, or a computer. So think for a moment about the millions of Americans who work in buildings and offices in which communications are stored or pass through.

After all, every office building in America has data cables running through it. The people are not just the engineers who install, maintain, and repair our communications infrastructure; there are countless others who could be forced to help the government spy, including those who clean offices and guard buildings. If this provision is enacted, the government can deputize any of these people against their will, and force them in effect to become what amounts to an agent for Big Brother—for example, by forcing an employee to insert a USB thumb drive into a server at an office they clean or guard at night.

This could all happen without any oversight whatsoever: The FISA Court won’t know about it, Congress won’t know about it. Americans who are handed these directives will be forbidden from talking about it. Unless they can afford high-priced lawyers with security clearances who know their way around the FISA Court, they will have no recourse at all.”

This is how an effort to reform Section 702 has quickly steamrollered into an expansion of the government’s surveillance powers.

We should have seen this coming.

After all, the Police State doesn’t relinquish power easily, the Surveillance State doesn’t look favorably on anything that might weaken its control, and Big Brother doesn’t like to be restricted.

What most Americans don’t get is that even without Section 702 in play, the government will still target the populace for warrantless, suspicionless mass surveillance, because that’s how the police state maintains its stranglehold on power.

These maneuvers are just the tip of the iceberg.

For all intents and purposes, we now have a fourth branch of government.

This fourth branch came into being without any electoral mandate or constitutional referendum, and yet it possesses superpowers, above and beyond those of any other government agency save the military.

It is all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful.

It operates beyond the reach of the president, Congress and the courts, and it marches in lockstep with the corporate elite who really call the shots in Washington, DC.

The government’s “technotyranny” surveillance apparatus has become so entrenched and entangled with its police state apparatus that it’s hard to know anymore where law enforcement ends and surveillance begins. They have become one and the same entity.

The police state has passed the baton to the surveillance state.

On any given day, the average American is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears.

Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by the U.S. government’s vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops.

Beware of what you say, what you read, what you write, where you go, and with whom you communicate, because it will all be recorded, stored and used against you eventually, at a time and place of the government’s choosing.

Privacy, as we have known it, is dead.

Whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency is listening in and tracking you. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the complicity of the corporate sector, which buys and sells us from cradle to grave, until we have no more data left to mine. These corporate trackers monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere and share the data with the government.

Just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to collect data and spy on the American people. Then there are the fusion and counterterrorism centers that gather all of the data from the smaller government spies—the police, public health officials, transportation, etc.—and make it accessible for all those in power.

These government snoops are constantly combing through and harvesting vast quantities of our communications, then storing it in massive databases for years. Once this information—collected illegally and without any probable cause—is ingested into NSA servers, other government agencies can often search through the databases to make criminal cases against Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism or anything national security-related.

Empowered by advances in surveillance technology and emboldened by rapidly expanding public-private partnerships between law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, and the private sector, police have become particularly adept at sidestepping the Fourth Amendment.

Talk about a system rife for abuse.

Now, the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear from its mass spying program because they’re only looking to get the “bad” guys who are overseas.

Don’t believe it.

The government’s definition of a “bad” guy is extraordinarily broad, and it results in the warrantless surveillance of innocent, law-abiding Americans on a staggering scale.

Indeed, the government has become the biggest lawbreaker of all.

It’s telling that even after it was revealed that the FBI, one of the most power-hungry and corrupt agencies within the police state’s vast complex of power-hungry and corrupt agencies, misused a massive government surveillance database more than 300,000 times in order to target American citizens, we’re still debating whether they should be allowed to continue to sidestep the Fourth Amendment.

This is how the government operates, after all: our objections are routinely overruled and our rights trampled underfoot.

It works the same every time.

First, the government seeks out extraordinary powers acquired in the wake of some national crisis—in this case, warrantless surveillance powers intended to help the government spy on foreign targets suspected of engaging in terrorism—and then they use those powers against the American people.

According to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the FBI repeatedly misused Section 702 in order to spy on the communications of two vastly disparate groups of Americans: those involved in the George Floyd protests and those who may have taken part in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the Capitol.

This abuse of its so-called national security powers is par for the course for the government.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, intelligence agencies conduct roughly 200,000 of these warrantless “backdoor” searches for Americans’ private communications each year.

No one is spared.

Many of the targets of these searches have done nothing wrong.

Government agents have spied on the communications of protesters, members of Congress, crime victims, journalists, and political donors, among many others.

The government has claimed that its spying on Americans is simply “incidental,” as though it were an accident, but it fully intends to collect this information.

As journalist Jake Johnson warns, under an expanded Section 702, U.S. intelligence agencies “could, without a warrant, compel gyms, grocery stores, barber shops, and other businesses to hand over communications data.”

According to the Wall Street Journal,

“The Securities and Exchange Commission is deploying a massive government database—the Consolidated Audit Trail, or CAT—that monitors in real time the identity, transactions and investment portfolio of everyone who invests in the stock market.”

Journalist Leo Hohmann reports that the government is also handing out $20 million in grants to police, mental health networks, universities, churches and school districts to enlist their help in identifying Americans who might be political dissidents or potential “extremists.”

Ask the government why it’s carrying out this far-reaching surveillance on American citizens, and you’ll get the same Orwellian answer the government has been trotting in response to every so-called crisis to justify its assaults on our civil liberties: to keep America safe.

What this is really all about, however, is control.

What we are dealing with is a government so power-hungry, paranoid and afraid of losing its stranglehold on power that it is conspiring to wage war on anyone who dares to challenge its authority.

When the FBI is asking banks and other financial institutions to carry out dragnet searches of customer transactions—warrantlessly and without probable cause—for “extremism” indicators broadly based on where you shop, what you read, and how you travel, we’re all in trouble.

You don’t have to do anything illegal.

For that matter, you don’t even have to challenge the government’s authority.

Frankly, you don’t even have to care about politics or know anything about your rights.

All you really need to do in order to be tagged as a suspicious character, flagged for surveillance, and eventually placed on a government watch list is live in the United States.

As long as the government is allowed to weaponize its 360 degree surveillance technologies to flag you as a threat to national security, whether or not you’ve done anything wrong, it’s just a matter of time before you find yourself wrongly accused, investigated and confronted by police based on a data-driven algorithm or risk assessment culled together by a computer program run by artificial intelligence.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, it won’t be long before Big Brother’s Thought Police are locking us up to “protect us” from ourselves.

At that point, we will disappear.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

As Earth Day approaches, prepare for the annual spectacle of U.S. lawmakers donning their environmentalist hats, waxing poetic about their love for the planet while disregarding the devastation their actions wreak. The harsh reality is that alongside their hollow pledges lies a trail of destruction fueled by military aggression and imperial ambitions, all under the guise of national security.

Take Gaza, for instance. Its once-fertile farmland now lies barren, its water sources poisoned by conflict and neglect. The grim statistics speak volumes: 97% of Gaza’s water is unfit for human consumption, leading to a staggering 26% of illnesses, particularly among vulnerable children.

Israel’s decades-long colonial settler project and ethnic cleansing of Palestine have caused irrefutable damage to the land, air, and water, consequently contributing to the climate crisis. In fact, in the first two months of the current genocide campaign in Gaza, Israel’s murderous bombardment, which has killed nearly 35,000 people, has also generated more planet-warming emissions than the annual carbon footprint of the world’s top 20 climate-vulnerable nations. Yet, despite these dire circumstances, U.S. lawmakers persist in funneling weapons to Israel, perpetuating a cycle of violence and environmental degradation.

The ripple effects of militarism extend far beyond Gaza’s borders. In Ukraine, the Russia-Ukraine War has left a staggering $56.4 billion environmental bill, with widespread contamination of air, water, and soil. Landmines and unexploded ordnance left litter 30% of the country, posing long-term risks to both the environment and human health. The United States’ answer to all this has been to reject diplomacy and fuel a long, protracted war with a seamingling endless supply of weapons and military support. A war that most experts will tell you is not a winnable war. The proxy war the United States is funding not only leaves Ukrainians at risk of never achieving peace but also significantly contributes to the ever-growing climate crisis. 

Then, there is our government’s desire to go to war with China. The U.S. military’s heavy footprint already looms large in the Pacific, and with the war drums now beating harder for war than ever before , the footprint is growing. With over 200 bases dotting the region, the Pentagon’s voracious energy consumption fuels greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation, from polluted drinking water in Okinawa to severe contamination near military installations in Guam. Yet, our government insists that it is China that is our greatest enemy and not the looming threat of climate destruction. The U.S. military’s presence in the Pacific is destroying natural, indigenous ecosystems, favoring the idea of environmental destruction over attempting any form of diplomacy and cooperation with China. 

All of this destruction to the environment and acceleration of the climate crisis happens silently under the veil of “national security,” while discussions on how the environmental toll of war is the most significant national security threat are absent in D.C. While the threat of nuclear annihilation and civilian casualties rightfully dominate headlines, the ecological fallout remains an underreported tragedy. The Pentagon is the planet’s largest institutional emitter of fossil fuels; its insatiable appetite for conflict exacerbates climate change and threatens ecosystems worldwide. To make matters worse, the U.S. government wants to fund this destruction to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars a year while poor and low-wealth communities worldwide bear the brunt of climate catastrophes with little to no resources to protect themselves. 

At the heart of this destructive cycle lies a perverse economic incentive, where war becomes a lucrative business at the expense of both people and the planet. The narrative of GDP growth masks the actual cost of conflict, prioritizing financial profit over genuine progress in education, healthcare, and biodiversity. However, instead of war-economy metrics such as the GDP, we could embrace alternative metrics such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) that reckon with the actual toll of war on our world. We can shift from endless growth towards genuine well-being by valuing air quality, food security, and environmental sustainability. 

This Earth Day, let us reject the empty rhetoric of environmentalism without action. Let us demand accountability from our lawmakers and insist on an end to the cycle of violence and ecological devastation. By prioritizing peace and sustainability, we can protect our planet and safeguard future generations.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Melissa Garriga is the communications and media relations manager for CODEPINK. She writes about the intersection of militarism and the human cost of war. She is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Veterans for Peace

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

***

Introductory Note

Excess deaths — why is this not discussed in mainstream media? Why is this not top agenda in the Congress or Parliament?

The compilation of relevant Global Research articles focussing on several underlying causes of excess deaths was first published by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Short Excerpts of these articles were then prepared by Global Research, followed by the video production of John Campbell. 

Our thanks to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts and Dr. John Campbell.

Michel Chossudovsky. Global Research, January 2, 2024

***

1. 5G Danger: 13 Reasons 5G Wireless Technology Will Be a Catastrophe for Humanity, see this.

The 5G danger can’t be overstated. 

5G (5th Generation) is now being actively rolled out in many cities around the world. Simultaneously, as awareness over its horrific health and privacy impacts is rising, many places are issuing moratoriums on it or banning it, such as the entire nation of Belgium, the canton of Vaud (Switzerland) and San Francisco (USA). Radiofrequency radiation (RF or RFR) and electromagnetic fields (EMF) are being increasingly recognized as new types of pollution – environmental pollution. Here are 13 reasons exposing the 5G danger, which could turn into an unmitigated health and privacy catastrophe if enough people don’t rise up to stop it.  

By Makia Freeman

2. Depopulation: The New York Times Predicts Massive Population Reduction, see this.

“Fewer babies’ cries.

More abandoned homes.

Toward the middle of this century, as deaths start to exceed births, changes will come that are hard to fathom.”

Screenshot of the NYT article

“All over the world, countries are confronting population stagnation and a fertility bust, a dizzying reversal unmatched in recorded history that will make first-birthday parties a rarer sight than funerals, and empty homes a common eyesore.”

And it continues,

“Maternity wards are already shutting down in Italy. Ghost cities are appearing in northeastern China. Universities in South Korea can’t find enough students, and in Germany, hundreds of thousands of properties have been razed, with the land turned into parks.”

Is it all true? It remains to be verified. Omission?

At no time does the article mention the eugenist nature of deliberate population reduction, in connection with the covid plandemic, the coerced and by many accounts poisonous – vaccination campaign, with a non-vaccine, but instead a novel, totally untested mRNA-type “gene therapy” which the US CDC has allowed to be applied as an “emergency measure” in these dire circumstances of a pandemic, that actually lacks all characteristics of a pandemic, but has to be pumped up to make it appear as a pandemic – with literally almost all deaths appearing from whatever causes – even car accidents – can be – and “must” be categorized as covid deaths.

By Peter Koenig

3. Bill Gates Plans for New Catastrophic Contagion, see this.

“October 23, 2022, Gates, Johns Hopkins and the World Health Organization cohosted “a global challenge exercise” dubbed “Catastrophic Contagion,”3,4 involving a novel (and as of now fictional) pathogen called “severe epidemic enterovirus respiratory syndrome 2025” or SEERS-25 for short.

Enterovirus D685 is typically associated with cold and flu-like illness in infants, children and teens. In rare cases, it’s also been known to cause viral meningitis and acute flaccid myelitis, a neurological condition resulting in muscle weakness and loss of reflexes in one or more extremities.

Enteroviruses A71 and A6 are known to cause hand, foot and mouth disease,6 while poliovirus, the prototypical enterovirus, causes polio (poliomyelitis), a potentially life-threatening type of paralysis that primarily affects children under age 5. So, the virus they modeled in this simulation appears to be something similar to enterovirus D68, but worse.

Training African Leaders to Go Along With the Narrative

Tellingly, the Catastrophic Contagion exercise focused on getting leadership in African countries involved and trained in following the script. Participants included 10 current and former Health Ministers and senior public health officials from Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Angola, Liberia, Singapore, India and Germany, as well as Gates himself.”

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

4. Israel’s Expertise in Pacifying the Palestinians Is in High Demand by Capitalist Elites as Populations Around the World Grow Restive, see this.

“As the world watches in horror Israel’s military assault on the people of Gaza, people are left to wonder why world leaders are not doing more to censure Israel and are allowing Israel to get away with mass killing.

Jeff Halper, an American-Israeli anthropologist who has written numerous books on Israeli history, has a clear answer.

He says that leaders of countries around the world are feeling more insecure as wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a tiny capitalist elite and popular disaffection and the threat of rebellion grows.

Israel is revered precisely for its mastery of population-control techniques against the Palestinians, which many leaders want to emulate against dissident or minority groups within their own borders.

Part of Israel’s ace in the hole, according to Halper, is its development of a formidable weapons industry that allows it to supply high-tech weapons to countries around the world for the purpose of population control.

Israel is at the cutting edge in the development of surveillance satellites, weaponized and surveillance drones, Artificial Intelligence (AI) target identification systems, spyware gadgets and crowd control and cyberwarfare technologies, which it sells around the world.”

By Jeremy Kuzmarov

5. The WHO Plans to Have 10 Years of Pandemics (2020-2030), see this. 

“THE PLAN shows the official agenda of the World Health Organization to have ten years of ongoing pandemics, from 2020 to 2030.

This is revealed by a WHO virologist, Marion Koopmans. You will also see shocking evidence that the first pandemic was planned and abundantly announced right before it happened.

Make sure to watch, and share this everywhere.

More information, and to see all the documents in THE PLAN, go to: https://www.stopworldcontrol.com/proof

Video: The Plan 

 

“A group of almost one thousand medical doctors in Germany called ‘Doctors for Information’, which is supported by more than 7,000 professionals including attorneys, scientists, teachers etc., made a shocking statement during a national press conference: (1)

‘The Corona panic is a play. It’s a scam. A swindle. It’s high time we understood that we’re in the midst of a global crime.’

This large group of medical experts publishes a newspaper with circulation of 500,000 copies every week, to alert the public about the misinformation in the mainstream media about the coronavirus.”

By Stop World Control

6. Video: Excess Deaths. Analysis by John Campbell 

 

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Our thanks to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts for this compilation of articles. 

Featured image source


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

Expanding Middle East War. Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran, The War on Energy, Strategic Waterways

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 17, 2024

Israel and the Zionist lobby in the U.S. are NOT exerting undue influence AGAINST U.S. foreign policy as outlined by numerous analysts. Quite the opposite. The Zionist lobby is firmly aligned with U.S. foreign policy, and vice versa. It targets those who are opposed to war, who call for a ceasefire. It exerts influence in favour of the conduct of the U.S. military agenda in support of Israel.

UK Insurers Refuse to Pay Nord Stream Because Blasts Were ‘Government’-Backed

By Wyatt Reed, April 18, 2024

The legal team representing high-powered insurers Lloyd’s and Arch says that since the Nord Stream explosions were “more likely than not to have been inflicted by… a government,” they have no responsibility to pay for damages to the pipelines. To succeed with that defense, the companies will presumably be compelled to prove, in court, who carried out those attacks. 

The War on Gaza: Whither the “Jewish State”?

By Amir Nour, April 17, 2024

One of the unintended and crucial consequences of the genocidal Israeli War on Gaza is that it has put the “Jewish” and “Zionist” questions once again at the center of international geopolitics. 

WHO Cancer Agency Predicts 77% Rise in Cancers by 2050. Is the COVID Vaccine Causing Turbo Cancers?

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, April 17, 2024

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released a daunting prediction of the global cancer burden. It estimates more than 35 million new cancer cases in 2050 — a 77% increase from the estimated 20 million cancer cases that occurred in 2022.

Turbo Cancer Literature Is Growing Rapidly. The Dam Is Breaking and It Will Take Pfizer and Moderna with It

By Dr. William Makis, April 17, 2024

Not much has changed in regards to the hypotheses on how these turbo cancers may be arising in the COVID-19 vaccinated. There is more evidence of p53 playing a significant role. More work has been done on DNA contamination, SV40, and research is underway on integration of DNA contaminants into the genomes of the COVID-19 vaccinated.

US Moves Previously Banned Missiles Closer to China and Russia

By Drago Bosnic, April 17, 2024

The US Army deployed the elements of its latest land-based medium-range missile system overseas for the first time to take part in a military exercise in the island country. Apart from the aforementioned subsonic “Tomahawk” cruise missiles, “Typhon” also carries the supersonic SM-6 multi-purpose missiles.

In the Wake of “COVID Panic” and the “Lockdowns”: The Death and Resurrection of Science

By Prof. Peter C. Gøtzsche, April 17, 2024

The lockdowns went counter to what we knew about respiratory viruses, that it is impossible to lock them out, and they caused a lot of collateral damage, including an increase in deaths from other causes than Covid-19. 

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

The legal team representing high-powered insurers Lloyd’s and Arch says that since the Nord Stream explosions were “more likely than not to have been inflicted by… a government,” they have no responsibility to pay for damages to the pipelines. To succeed with that defense, the companies will presumably be compelled to prove, in court, who carried out those attacks. 

British insurers are arguing that they have no obligation to honor their coverage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which were blown up in September 2022, because the unprecedented act of industrial sabotage was likely carried out by a national government.

The insurers’ filing contradicts reports the Washington Post and other legacy media publications asserting that a private Ukrainian team was responsible for the massive act of industrial sabotage.

A legal brief filed on behalf of UK-based firms Lloyd’s Insurance Company and Arch Insurance states that the “defendants will rely on, inter alia, the fact that tiger explosion Damage could only have (or, at least, was more likely than not to have) been inflicted by or under the order of a government.”

As a result, they argue, “the Explosion Damage was “directly or indirectly occasioned by, happening through, or in consequence of” the conflict between Russia and Ukraine” and falls under an exclusion relating to military conflicts.

The brief comes a month after Switzerland-based Nord Stream AG filed a lawsuit against the insurers for their refusal to compensate the company. Nord Stream, which estimated the cost incurred by the attack at between €1.2 billion and €1.35 billion, is seeking to recoup over €400 million in damages.

Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, who led the first private investigative expedition to the blast sites of the Nord Stream pipelines, describes the insurers’ legal strategy as a desperate attempt to find an excuse to avoid honoring their indemnity obligations.

“If it’s an act of war and ordered by a government, that’s the only way they can escape their responsibility to pay,” Andersson told The Grayzone.

Following a report by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh which alleged that the US government was responsible for the Nord Stream explosion, Western governments quickly spun out a narrative placing blame on a team of rogue Ukrainian operatives. Given the lack of conclusive evidence, however, proving that the explosions were “inflicted by or under the order of a government” would be a major challenge for defense lawyers.

Even if the plaintiffs in the case are able to wrest back the funds in court, they are likely to face other serious hurdles. Later in the brief, lawyers for Lloyd’s and Arch suggest that even if they were required to pay up, anti-Russian sanctions would leave their hands tied.

“In the event that the Defendants are found to be liable to pay an indemnity and/or damages to the Claimant,” the brief states, “the Defendants reserve their position as to whether any such payment would be prohibited by any applicable economic sanctions that may be in force at the time any such payment is required to be made.”

After they were threatened with sanctions by the US government, in 2021 Lloyd’s and Arch both withdrew from their agreement to cover damages to the second of the pipelines, Nord Stream 2. But though they remain on the hook for damages to the first line, the language used by the insurers’ lawyers seems to be alluding to a possible future sanctions package that would release them from their financial obligations.

“Nord Stream 1 was not affected by those sanctions, but apparently sanctions might work retroactively to the benefit of insurers,” observes Andersson.

The plaintiffs may face an uphill battle at the British High Court in London, the city where Lloyd’s has been headquartered since its creation in 1689. As former State Department cybersecurity official Mike Benz observed,

“Lloyd’s of London is the prize of the London banking establishment,” and “London is the driving force behind the transatlantic side of the Blob’s “Seize Eurasia” designs on Russia.”

But if their arguments are enough to convince a court in London, a decision in favor of the insurers would likely be a double-edged sword. Following Lloyd’s submission to US sanctions and its refusal to insure ships carrying Iranian oil, Western insurance underwriters (like their colleagues in the banking sector) are increasingly in danger of losing their global reputation for relative independence from the state. Should the West ultimately lose its grip on the global insurance market — or its reputation as a safe haven for foreign assets — €400 million will be unlikely to buy it back.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Wyatt Reed is the managing editor of The Grayzone. As an international correspondent, he’s covered stories in over a dozen countries. Follow him on Twitter at @wyattreed13.

Featured image is from TG

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

After two years of draconian lockdowns, governments around the world suddenly dismantled their unprecedented campaigns against Covid-19 in silence. From one day to another, the whole thing was supposed to be forgotten. 

Looking back, it seems appropriate to abbreviate the Covid-19 pandemic as the Covid-19 panic, or to call it the pandemic of censorship and poor science.

Science and free speech were among the earliest victims of Covid-19. Millions of papers came out, most of them of very poor quality, and authorities quickly forgot that they are obliged to base their decisions on the most reliable science. Torturing your data till they confess became acceptable. And if randomised trials did not confess to what the authorities wanted, they ignored them and based their decisions on flawed observational studies instead. 

The lockdowns went counter to what we knew about respiratory viruses, that it is impossible to lock them out, and they caused a lot of collateral damage, including an increase in deaths from other causes than Covid-19. 

Sweden did not lock down and did not mandate face masks, and it seems to be the only country where the politicians had the best possible advisors and respected their advice. Sweden ended up having one of the lowest excess mortalities in the Western world. This should ring alarm bells everywhere, but what we have seen so far are pathetic defenses of grossly failed policies.

The scientists who knew the most about the relevant science were harassed if they spoke out and argued why the policies were inappropriate and harmful. They quickly learned that it was best to keep quiet. One example is Jonas Ludvigsson, who published a ground-breaking Swedish study making it clear that it is safe to keep schools open during the pandemic, for children and teachers alike. This was taboo.

We gave up our democracies almost overnight without much thought when we needed democracy more than ever. Free debate became a thing of the past; social media removed impeccable science if it went against official announcements; and the media were complacent with this new world order and often participated uncritically in the public humiliation of those who spoke out. 

George Orwell’s novel 1984 was a dire warning that humanity can lose its way and, in the end, become inhumane. A place where truth does not exist and where history and facts are changed according to the needs of those in power. In 1984, the Thought Police use fear, control, and constant surveillance to manipulate people and suppress “wrong thinking.” You end up loving those who destroyed you and your freedom. 

In 2020, all it took to mount enough fear among people to make them give up their daily life was a health crisis.

We came close to the Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” and “Big Brother is Watching You” with WHO’s mantra “Test, test, test,” and if you could not provide a fresh and negative virus test, you were a pariah. We regressed to the Middle Ages where public humiliation was the norm for those who were not mainstream.

People are slowly waking up to the disaster of misinformation we have seen, ironically under the banner of fighting misinformation. For example, it is now possible to say the obvious about the origin of Covid-19, that it is extremely likely it was a lab leak in Wuhan of an artificial virus manufactured there as part of the dangerous gain-of-function experiments. 

In September 2020, Michael Head from Southampton University sent an email to Susan Mitchie, a member of a group that advises the UK government about the pandemic, which she forwarded to other group members. Four days earlier, Carl Heneghan from the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine in Oxford and other scientists had briefed Prime Minister Boris Johnson and had argued for more targeted measures to protect the vulnerable rather than having a blanket lockdown.

Head’s email was condemned by former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption who called it an example of scientists being hounded by those who could not counter their arguments. The people singled out in the email were Carl Heneghan and his co-worker Tom Jefferson, and Peter C Gøtzsche because they had all spoken out about the harms of lockdowns.

Maliciously, Head did not discuss the science but called Jefferson and Gøtzsche “anti-vaccine activists” and noted that, “There’s quite a lot to Heneghan, and I imagine I am only aware of a small amount of it.” Head opined that Heneghan’s work “is of great interest and use to the anti-vax community, which says a lot.” It doesn’t. And the issue was the harms of lockdowns. 

Framing people by calling them ”anti-vaxxers” or ”controversial” is a dangerous path to take. It can be compared to the post-war McCarthyism in the US, where many people were falsely accused of being communists. During the pandemic governments actively used these methods to frame scientists who disagreed with them and the officials in charge. Labelling people stops all rational debate. 

Head’s derogatory email was mentioned in a newspaper article where Heneghan said: “I have never been ‘anti’ anything. I have worked tirelessly during this pandemic and the previous pandemic to reduce uncertainties and ask questions that might help improve healthcare decision making. This matters a lot to me which is why we have just carried out a review on the impact of lockdown on vital childhood vaccines.” Jefferson added that their review showed the catastrophic effect the Covid restrictions have had on the mass implementation of important childhood vaccines like those for MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella).

Gøtzsche noted that to label him as an “anti-vaccine activist” took him back to medieval times:

“In science you need open debate to further scientific understanding. During the Covid-19 epidemic the debate has many times been the opposite, with only one truth, like a religious dogma…We acknowledge many of our vaccines have been of great benefit and saved millions of lives and I certainly hope the Covid-19 vaccine will save millions of lives as well. People in this pandemic have been furthering their own agenda in all ways, and this involves below the belt punches…they show that academically they have lost the argument.”

The anti-vaxxer label is so popular that it is sprinkled on everyone who dares to write critically about anything. Even psychiatrist Michael P. Hengartner was called an anti-vaxxer when he pointed out that the average treatment effect of depression pills is poor and of questionable clinical significance.

In April 2021, Twitter and Facebook representatives were brought before the UK parliament to explain their firms’ censorship of discussion around Covid. Two particularly pertinent cases were raised: A tweet by Martin Kulldorff and a statement on Facebook by Heneghan.

Someone wrote to Kulldorff on 16 March 2021 that it seems to be a religious mantra now that everyone MUST be vaccinated. Kulldorff replied,

“No. Thinking that everyone must be vaccinated is as scientifically flawed as thinking that nobody should. Covid vaccines are important for older high-risk people, and their caretakers. Those with prior natural infection do not need it. Nor children.” 

Kulldorff’s tweet was measured, informative, and in accordance with good science, but it was labelled “misleading” by Twitter, and tweeters were rendered unable to interact with it and were instructed that “health officials recommend a vaccine for most people.” This was absurd to say, as Kulldorff had not contradicted it.

Some people called Heneghan “anti-science” for daring to convey the results of the randomised trials of face masks. He and Jefferson had noted that there was a troubling lack of robust evidence that they worked and that, despite being a subject of global importance, there had been a total lack of interest from governments in pursuing evidence-based medicine in this area. They also noted that the only studies that had shown face masks to be effective at stopping airborne diseases had been observational, which are prone to bias.

Heneghan posted a link on Facebook to an article he had written about the Danish trial of face masks for preventing Covid-19 that did not find an effect, and Facebook immediately labelled the article “False information. Checked by independent fact-checkers.” As Heneghan noted, there was nothing in his article that was “false.”

Kulldorff, Heneghan, and Jefferson are dissenting scientists who hold positions at esteemed institutions. So, on what basis could Twitter and Facebook declare their arguments void? The answers provided to the British parliamentarians were chilling. Someone put up a link to a video in a tweet with the appropriate handle @BigBrotherWatch:

Parliamentarian: “Who in your organisation would have been cited…and been qualified…that a professor of medicine was wrong?”

Katy Minshall, head of UK public policy at Twitter:

“Well, it is not Twitter saying he is wrong or misleading, it is the CDC [US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and health authorities around the world, and with that tweet you are referring to, my understanding is that it said, if you have had Covid-19 before, you have natural immunity and you don’t need the vaccine. That’s different to what the CDC and other health authorities around the world have said, which is that vaccines are effective in most people. What we want to do is that, when people see that tweet, to really quickly direct them to authoritative sources of information like the CDC or the NHS [the UK’s National Health Service] or the Department of Health, so they can see what the official guidance is and make up their own mind.”

Parliamentarian:

“On these issues, some of these highly controversial, really, current issues around public health, you think there is a danger in having debate amongst acknowledged experts, and that it is far better that everybody just sees the official public health position, even though that of course in time may change.”

Minshall:

“I think that’s a good question…because you are right, on the one hand, the information environment and what’s accurate with regard to the pandemic is evolving with the government providing different and sometimes competing advice…”

Minshall essentially said that anything that contradicts official guidance from public health authorities is deemed misleading by Twitter. She made the mistake that philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in his book The Art of Always Being Right called “Appeal to authority rather than reason,” which is the antithesis of science.

Censorship with appeal to authorities is poison for our democracies. Furthermore, official advice has often been proven wrong. One of the worst examples of this is the CDC whose information about influenza vaccinations is seriously misleading. For example, even though there is no valid evidence to support the hypothesis that vaccinating healthcare workers protects patients from influenza, a CDC review that included flawed observational studies in long-term care patients found that vaccination reduced mortality by 29% in the patients. However, influenza has been estimated to contribute to less than 10% of all winter deaths among persons aged 65 years and older. Thus, even if the vaccine had been 100% effective in preventing influenza deaths, the reduction in total deaths should have been less than 10%. The CDC seemed to have deliberately ignored the existing Cochrane review about influenza vaccination for healthcare workers, which reported a very poor effect of the vaccine. 

It has never been shown in randomised trials that influenza vaccines reduce mortality, and the benefit is so poor that many doctors who know about the evidence do not get vaccinated. But if they shared their views to the public on social media, they would immediately be censored. 

The randomised trials of face masks to prevent transmission of respiratory viruses including SARS-CoV-2 have not found any effect. A large trial in Bangladesh appeared to have shown a small effect, but the 1% difference in the number of people with reported Covid-like illnesses could easily have been caused by physical distancing, which was practiced by 5% more villagers in the face mask group than in the control group.

An argument for mandating face masks is that they cannot do harm. This is not correct. Facial expressions are important for social interactions. When kids can’t see each other’s smiles or learn critically important social and verbal skills, this can be harmful, especially for children who are experiencing trauma in their lives. And recently, an 11-month-old baby died after being forced to wear a mask at a Taiwan daycare. The baby’s mask became soaked with his tears and mucus from crying, inhibiting his ability to breathe. 

Official inquiries about what happened during the pandemic are about saving face. As an example, the official UK Covid-19 inquiry is a Yes, Minister farce. The Inquiry’s starting position is that lockdowns and face masks were necessary and effective, and they are eager to dismiss the evidence that tells us otherwise.

In contrast, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pointed to a peer-reviewed report about the first lockdown that found that “for every permutation of lives saved and GDP lost, the costs of lockdown exceed the benefits.”

The UK inquiry uncritically accepted substandard research and substandard advisors while bullying Heneghan using provocative language to suggest he didn’t have expertise in this area. Earlier, the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Dame Angela McLean, called Heneghan a “fuckwit” on a WhatsApp chat during a government meeting for his dissenting views on lockdowns. This farce is slated to run until 2026 and is reported to be one of the largest public inquiries in UK history.

Even though the UK inquiry is deeply shocking, it is no different to the “head in the sand” attitude that prevails everywhere. The Minister is always right, just like in Orwell’s novel 1984. In Italy, for example, the inquiry will establish if the government’s policies agreed with the WHO’s advice. 

All knowledgeable people need to speak up now. Why? Because those who hold power don’t seem to have learned anything from their mistakes and will likely make the same mistakes the next time a pandemic haunts the globe. They will again lock down and mandate whole populations to look like bank robbers, which is ridiculous. 

History will judge those who were responsible. They knew what they were doing when they intentionally stopped the free debate in the scientific community, which even became a crime. In September 2020, Zoe Lee Buhler, a pregnant woman, was arrested in her home and handcuffed in front of her two small children while in pyjamas over a Facebook post. Her crime was that she had arranged and promoted an upcoming event about freedom and human rights as a protest against the lockdown in Victoria. When Buhler insisted that she wasn’t breaking any laws, the police told her that she was, and she was charged with incitement.

We must fight with everything we have against governments that behave in a dictatorial manner, against the evidence, using substandard experts, “for our own good,” as they say. The best way forward is to learn as much as possible about the methods governments used to suppress and distort the science. The Great Barrington Declaration, which has received almost a million signatures, was an important milestone. We need to establish an international cooperation of scientists at the highest level who will stand together and never again accept to be silenced when the next pandemic hits us. 

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Peter Gøtzsche co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration, once considered the world’s preeminent independent medical research organization. In 2010 Gøtzsche was named Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis at the University of Copenhagen. Gøtzsche has published more than 97 papers in the “big five” medical journals (JAMA, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal, and Annals of Internal Medicine). Gøtzsche has also authored books on medical issues including Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime. Following many years of being an outspoken critic of the corruption of science by pharmaceutical companies, Gøtzsche’s membership on the governing board of Cochrane was terminated by its Board of Trustees in September, 2018. Four board resigned in protest.

Featured image is from Shutterstock


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

The War on Gaza: Whither the “Jewish State”?

April 17th, 2024 by Amir Nour

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Read Part I, II, III, IV, V and VI:

The War on Gaza: Might vs. Right, and the Insanity of Western Power

By Amir Nour, December 01, 2023

The War on Gaza: How the West Is Losing. Accelerating the Transition to a Multipolar Global Order?

By Amir Nour, December 04, 2023

The War on Gaza: Debunking the Pro-Zionist Propaganda Machine

By Amir Nour, December 11, 2023

The War on Gaza: Why Does the “Free World” Condone Israel’s Occupation, Apartheid, and Genocide?

By Amir Nour, December 22, 2023

The War on Gaza: How We Got to the “Monstrosity of Our Century”

By Amir Nour, January 25, 2024

The War on Gaza: Towards Palestine’s Independence Despite the Doom and Gloom

By Amir Nour, February 02, 2024


We are a people, one people (…) When we sink, we become a revolutionary proletariat, the subordinate officers of a revolutionary party; when we rise, there rises also our terrible power of the purse.” —Theodore Herzl[1]

An Enduring Conundrum: From the “Jewish” to the “Zionist” Question

One of the unintended and crucial consequences of the genocidal Israeli War on Gaza is that it has put the “Jewish” and “Zionist” questions once again at the center of international geopolitics. 

Today, more than ever before, this state of affairs begs an urgent update of the overheated debate around the future of Zionism, and by extension, that on the fate of the “Jewish State” it has succeeded in creating, by means of brutal force, in the midst of the infamous Western colonial enterprise in the Arab world during the 20th century.

Assuredly, the “Jewish Problem” is anything but new throughout history. Indeed, as Brian Klug[2] observed “The first person who saw the Jews as a problem was Moses, who, time and again, complained to God about them; or maybe it was God who first saw the Jews as problematic”.

A similar complaint is made in a treatise written in 1543 by the German Reformation leader and pioneer of Protestantism Martin Luther, titled “The Jews and Their Lies”. This work was among the last of his writings, shortly before he died in 1546 at the age of 63. 

When they issued its first English translation in the United States in May 1948, the Christian-American publishers emphasised that they did not do so for sectarian purposes, arguing that they were also publishing the edicts of more than 20 popes who dealt with the Jewish problem. Their edicts, they noted, are as strong – if not stronger – as anything contained in Martin Luther’s book, since “the ghettos were established by Papal edict, and the segregation of Christian communities from Jewish communities originated in edicts coming out of Rome”.

And because some of the language in the book was quite evidently expected to shock many readers, said publishers further stated to the attention of individuals doubting that these writings originated with the German priest that “the original language may be found in Martin Luther’s works in the Congressional Library, Washington, D.C., and in one of several accredited Lutheran seminaries. Numerous clergymen of all denominations are aware of the existence of this work”.

In its presentation of the treatise, the Virtual Jewish Library indicates that at the beginning of his career, Martin Luther was apparently sympathetic to Jewish resistance to the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, he expected the Jews to convert to his purified Christianity; when they did not, he turned violently against them.

The following excerpts from both the beginning and the end of the book say it all:

“I had decided not to write anymore, neither of the Jews, nor against the Jews. Because I have learned, however, that those miserable, wicked people do not cease trying to win over to themselves us, that is, the Christians also, I have permitted this booklet to go forth that I might be found among those who have resisted such poisonous undertaking of the Jews, and have warned the Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have thought that a Christian would permit himself to be fooled by the Jews to share their exile and misery. But the Devil is the God of the world, and where God’s word is not, he has easy sailing, not only among the weak, but also among the strong. God help us. Amen.”

And

“In my opinion it will have to come to this: if we are to stay clean of the Jew’s blaspheming and not become partakers of it, we must separate, and they must leave our country. Thus they could no more cry and lie to God that we are holding them captive; and we could no more complain that they plague us with their blaspheming and usury. This is the nearest and best advice that makes it safe for both parties.”

In modern times, however, the “Jewish Question” – in the sense of being a problem that needs to be solved – has been set by Europe in the 19th century. It was “a question Europe asked itself about the Jews”, says Klug. European leaders thought the same about such questions as the “Oriental”, “Armenian”, and “Kurdish”, among others.

Likewise, in his 1896 pamphlet titled “The Jewish State”, the Budapest-born journalist and founder of political form of Zionism, Theodore Herzl confirmed that historical fact and further acknowledged that

“The Jewish Question still exists. It would be useless to deny it (…) The Jewish Question exists wherever Jews live in perceptible numbers. Where it does not exist, it is carried by Jews in the course of their migrations. We naturally move to those places where we are not persecuted, and there our presence produces persecution (…) The unfortunate Jews are now carrying anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America.”[3]

As it happens, the “Jewish Question” in the United States of America was thoroughly dealt with primarily in a series of articles appearing in “The Dearborn Independent” newspaper from May 22 to October 2, 1920. These were subsequently incorporated in Henry Ford’s book published in the same year under the title “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem”[4]. It is no wonder that this book was, and still is to this day, considered by many as anti-Judaic and anti-Semitic.

And as anyone would do nowadays, Ford reported that the chief difficulty in writing about the Jewish Question during his time was the supersensitiveness of Jews and non-Jews concerning the whole matter. There is a vague feeling, he said, that even to openly use the word “Jew” or to expose it nakedly to print, is somehow improper. Hence, “polite evasions like ‘Hebrew’ and ‘Semite’ both of which are subject to the criticism of inaccuracy, are timidly essayed, and people pick their way gingerly as if the whole subject were forbidden, until some courageous Jewish thinker comes straight out with the good old word ‘Jew’ and then the constraint is relieved and the air cleared”. The word “Jew”, he rightly observed, is not an epithet, “it is a name, ancient and honorable, with significance for every period of human history, past, present and to come”.

According to the American industrialist, owing to this extreme sensitiveness about the public discussion of the Jewish Question on the part of Gentiles, “nothing is changed thereby. The Jew is not changed. The Gentile is not changed. The Jew still remains the enigma of the world (…) Poor in his masses, he yet controls the world’s finances. Scattered abroad without country or government, he yet presents a unity of race continuity which no other people has achieved. Living under legal disabilities in almost every land, he has become the power behind many a throne.”

The business magnate remarked that the emergence of the Jew in the financial, political and social spheres has been so complete and spectacular since the war [World War I], that his place, power and purpose in the world are being given a critical attention and a new scrutiny, much of it unfriendly. Such a scrutiny of his nature and super-nationality, he added, is essential to better define and understand the reasons for his power, his separateness, and his suffering. 

To that effect, he was of the view that the “Jewish Question” in America cannot be concealed or silenced by threats against publications, nor by the propagandist publication of matter extremely and invariably favorable to everything Jewish. The Jews of the United States, he said, “can best serve themselves and their fellow-Jews all over the world by letting drop their far too ready cry of ‘anti-Semitism’, by adopting a franker tone than that which befits a helpless victim, and by seeing what the Jewish Question is and how it behooves every Jew who loves his people to help solve it”.

The reality on the ground, nonetheless, proved to be altogether different. And the series of articles in the “The Dearborn Independent” newspaper have been met by an organized barrage by mail, wire and voice, every single item of which carrying the wail of persecution. In reaction, Ford commented by saying:

“One would think that a heartless and horrible attack were being made on a most pitiable and helpless people – until one looks at the letterheads of the magnates who write, and at the financial ratings of those who protest, and at the membership of the organisations whose responsible heads hysterically demand retraction. And always in the background there is the threat of boycott, a threat which has practically sealed up the columns of every publication in America against even the mildest discussion of the Jewish Question”.

Malek Bennabi, the Algerian thinker who also wrote about the “Global Jew” in his 1951 book[5], had this to say about Henry Ford’s imbroglio due to his outstanding albeit most unwelcome publication:

“(…) In fact, the Jewish ‘boss’ has behind him all the banks that his ancestors created, and everywhere he has cousins established, some in Paris, some in London, some in Berlin and others in New York. Anyone who is unaware of the crucial importance of this international cousinship, of these economic kingdoms, is learning this the hard way. When, about 1920, Ford thought himself strong enough to denounce the occult power that was spreading over all of America, he proved both his ignorance of the real force he wanted to fight and his boastfulness. But the great Kahal, who had been disturbed by the insubordination of the Gentile, had made his arrangements. And six months later, the great, the powerful, the extremely wealthy Ford had to publicly apologise to the Jewish community. He had understood”.

With regard to the question of political Zionism, as wished for by Henry Ford, there are today not one “courageous Jewish thinker [who] comes straight out with the good old word Jew” but many, who do not shy away neither from addressing challenging issues regarding their fellow-Jews nor from calling a spade a spade. 

One of those thinkers is Maj. Gen. (ret.) Gershon Hacohen whose very incisive critic we have previously referred to. In part three of his above-mentioned contribution[6], he asked: “What has Zionism achieved? And answered: “The imposition of doubt”. The sudden strike by Hamas, he explained, thrust the Zionist idea back to the dilemma of its earliest days. It prompted an echoing of the doubt cast during Herzl’s visit: “You might solve the Jews’ problem, but you won’t solve the problem of Judaism”. On October 7, he added, “we were forcefully confronted with the fundamental Zionist question: What do the Jews want in the Land of Israel? 

He was actually paraphrasing another “courageous Jew thinker” in the person of Dan Miron, a professor of 20th century Hebrew literature who, in a book[7] published in 2005, touched upon the Zionist dilemma and disputed its ultimate goal. To that effect, he said:

“…[T]he expectation of Zionism that the distancing of Jews from European societies and their concentration in their own country would lead to the disappearance of antisemitism did not materialise. Even the security of Zionism, which was supposed to be able to extricate the Jewish people from existential threats, leading to a new Jewish existential activism, did not come to fruition and may not reach the goal it set for itself”. 

Miron argues that in the two main dimensions of the Zionist vision outlined in Theodore Herzl’s magnum opus – that is to say finding a solution to the problems of antisemitism and of the need to physically protect Jews from persecution around the world – expectations have yet to pan out notwithstanding over a hundred years since the beginning of the Jewish emigration to Palestine and over fifty years of the state of Israel’s existence.

Thus, in the first dimension, Miron believes that the Zionist vision has become caught in a deadlock given that antisemitism has emerged in a new form that is more sophisticated: it is ostensibly not hatred of Jews as Jews, but merely criticism of the state of Israel, and fierce antipathy is directed against Jews worldwide whenever they voice complaints about actions that threaten the state of Israel, actions they feel endanger them as well.

As for the second dimension, Miron is of the opinion that there exists a fear that despite Israel’s independence and military strength, the historical development of Zionism and its success in achieving Jewish statehood have only led to the replacement of one type of existential threat with another. The most recent tragic events occurring in the tormented Middle East region are convincing evidence of the pertinence of Miron’s views and projections. 

Hacohen shares this perspective. In essence, he says, Zionism has merely swapped ailment A, like past pogroms – a Russian word meaning devastation – in Kishinev for ailment B, like the Iranian nuclear threat or the Simchat Torah massacre of the northwestern Negev. In other words, the movement that was supposed to solve antisemitism has instead generated, over the past two decades, a new and equally dangerous form of it, in the guise of anti-Zionism. 

Reflecting on the October 7th Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” conducted by several Palestinian Resistance groups and the entrance on the scene of the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” – which wiped out layers upon layers of Israelis’ conventional wisdom in terms of how they think about themselves and their path forward –  the retired military officer considers that the state of Israel is now “in one of the most difficult crises it has ever known. It suffered an unprecedented blow and it is required to receive an unprecedented punishment”. 

Such a punishment took a turn for the worse when – in retaliation for an April 1 Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus, Syria, that killed several Iranian military commanders and other local personnel – Iranian Revolutionary Guards launched “Operation True Promise” through a massive air attack, which is indeed unprecedented, on designated targets inside Israel, including two air bases in the Negev desert from which Israeli aircraft were used to strike said consulate. Over 300 drones and missiles navigated more than 1,700 kilometres above Iran’s neighbours, including Iraq and Jordan – both of which being home to US military bases – before penetrating Israel’s airspace. Even though Israel employed all of its extensive integrated anti-missile defense system comprised of the “Iron Dome”, the “Arrow” and “David’s Sling” missile interceptors, the US-made “Patriot” missile batteries, in addition to US, British, and Israeli aircraft, and US and French shipborne anti-missile defenses, several Iranian missiles succeeded in striking heavily-protected Israeli airfields and air defense installations.

In the aftermath of this Iranian attack, the leader of Israel’s opposition, Yair Lapid,  as well as many analysts and former Israeli officers believe that key defensive policy of deterrence – which has long been an obsession of the country’s political and military circles and regarded as a vital pillar of its security – has been severely damaged once again since October 7, 2023. From now on, writes commentator Ben Caspit in Ma’ariv newspaper,

“The Iranians have lost their sense of fear. No more proxies, undercover agents and covert terror attacks. From now on, it is Iran against Israel, out in the open. Israeli deterrence, which got Iran to swallow its pride every time anew and not to attack Israel directly, has now been shattered.”[8]

For his part, Scott Ritter[9] recounted in a recent article[10] that back in 2007, during an address to the American Jewish Committee, he told the crowd that the last thing he wanted to see was a scenario where Iranian missiles were raining down on the soil of Israel. He therefore warned that “unless Israel changes course, this is the inevitable outcome of a policy driven more by arrogance than common sense.” On the night of 13-14 April, his concerns were effectively played out live before an anxious international audience. Commenting on that event, Ritter said:

“The ‘Missiles of April’ represent a sea-change moment in Middle Eastern geopolitics – the establishment of Iranian deterrence that impacts both Israel and the United States (…) Moreover, Iran has been able to accomplish this without either disrupting its strategic pivot to the east or undermining the cause of Palestinian statehood”.

He therefore concluded that

“Operation True Promise” will go down in history as “one of the most important military victories in the history of modern Iran, keeping in mind that war is but an extension of politics by other means.”

In the final analysis, more than ever before in its short history, the “Jewish state” is now in deep and multifaceted trouble. In the past, writes Jacques Baud in his brilliant recent book[11], “the term antisemitism meant a sickly hatred of the Jew. Today, it means protesting against the bombing of women and children! (…) Israel has always sought to impose itself by force, and this strategy is not a winning one. Today, the Palestinian David is defeating the Israeli Goliath”.

And neither Herzl’s vision of a soft solution to the “Jewish Question” through a successful creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, nor Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s security approach based on his hard “Iron Wall”[12] policy, which was equally advocated by David Ben-Gurion, have so far helped the Jews fulfil their dream of living in peace, away from an age-old, entrenched and pervasive antisemitism, in “their own normal state, where they could be accepted as a nation among nations, a state among nation-states”. 

Furthermore, 76 years after its founding, Israel has yet to overcome the basic contradiction that has defined it from the very beginning: Can it be Jewish and democratic?[13]

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Amir Nour is an Algerian researcher in international relations, author of the books “L’Orient et l’Occident à l’heure d’un nouveau Sykes-Picot” (The Orient and the Occident in Time of a New Sykes-Picot) Editions Alem El Afkar, Algiers, 2014 and “L’Islam et l’ordre du monde” (Islam and the Order of the World),  Editions Alem El Afkar, Algiers, 2021. 

Notes

[1] Theodore Herzl, “The Jewish State”, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1946. The first English-language edition, translated by Sylvie d’Avigdor, was published by Nutt, London, England, 1896. As for the Herzl text, it was originally published under the German title “Der Judenstaat” in Vienna, 1896.

[2] Brian Klug, “Reflections on the Jewish Question, Postcolonial Critique, and Zionism”, University of Notre Dame, 29 August 2023. 

[3] Theodore Herzl, “The Jewish State”.

[4] Henry Ford, “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem”, The Dearborn Publishing Co., 1920 (downloadable from: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25282/25282-h/25282-h.htm).

[5] Malek Bennabi, “Vocation de l’Islam, Deuxième partie” (French version), 5 December 1951. 

[6] Maj. Gen. (ret.) Gershon Hacohen, ‘’A New Existential War – Part III: Forming a Clear Post-War National Vision Means Returning to the Roots of Zionism’’, BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,251, 8 January 8, 2023.

[7] Dan Meron, “Healing for Touching” (translated from Hebrew), 2005. See my related contribution, “The War on Gaza: Towards Palestine’s Independence Despite the Doom and Gloom”: https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-gaza-towards-palestine-independence-despite-doom-gloom/5848373

[8] Peter Beaumont, “Iran attack shows Israeli deterrence policy ‘shattered’, Netanyahu critics say”, The Guardian, 15 April 2024.

[9] Scott Ritter had spent the better part of a decade trying to protect Israel from Iraqi missiles, both during his service in Desert Storm, where he played a role in the counter-SCUD missile campaign, and as a United Nations weapons inspector, where he worked with Israeli intelligence to make sure Iraq’s SCUD missiles were eliminated. He has been  been writing about Iran for more than two decades and published two books on related subjects : “Target Iran, The Truth about the White House’s Plans for Regime Change” and Dealbreaker, Donald Trump and the Unmaking of the Iran Nuclear Deal”. Since October 7th attacks, he  has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause. He wrote a long article titled “Why I no longer stand with Israel, and never will again”, in which he explained why he does so. To read it, click on the following link:   https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/why-i-no-longer-stand-with-israel

[10] Scott Ritter, “The Missiles of April”, Scott Ritter Extra, 14 April 2024.

[11] Jacques Baud, “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: The Defeat of the Vanquisher”, Max Milo editions, March 2024. 

[12] Jabotinsky stated that “ Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach.” To read the full document, click on the following link:  https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf

[13] Eran Kaplan, “On its 75th birthday, Israel still can’t agree on what it means to be a Jewish state and a democracy”, The Conversation, 10 May 2023.

Featured image is from the author

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates more than 35 million new cancer cases in 2050

This represents a 77% increase from the estimated 20 million cancer cases that occurred in 2022

WHO blamed the rising cancer rates on an aging population, along with tobacco, alcohol, obesity and exposure to air pollution

WHO ignored the emergence of rapid-growing “turbo cancers” in people who have received one or more COVID-19 shots

Many of these cancers are showing up in young people, many under age 30, with no family history of cancer; treatment protocols are available to help recover from post-jab injuries

*

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released a daunting prediction of the global cancer burden. It estimates more than 35 million new cancer cases in 2050 — a 77% increase from the estimated 20 million cancer cases that occurred in 2022.1

While WHO named an aging population as a key driver behind the increasing cancer burden, along with tobacco, alcohol, obesity and exposure to air pollution, what they’re ignoring is the concerning trend of turbo cancers that occur shortly after COVID-19 shots.

Cancer Cases Set to Increase Significantly by 2050

The IARC cancer burden estimates are based on the “best sources of data available in [185] countries in 2022.”2 That year, there were an estimated 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths, with WHO reporting, “About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease.”3

About two-thirds of the new cancer cases and deaths were caused by 10 types of cancer. Lung cancer was most common, followed by female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and stomach cancer. When broken down by sex, breast cancer was the most commonly diagnosed — and the leading cause of cancer death — among women. For men, it was lung cancer.

Lung cancer and colorectal cancer accounted for the second and third most diagnosed types and cause of most deaths among women. However, for men, prostate and colorectal cancers were second and third most common, while liver and colorectal cancer caused the second and third most cancer deaths.4 

There were also disparities revealed based on human development index (HDI), a statistical tool that assesses three dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge (schooling) and a decent standard of living. According to WHO:5

“In terms of the absolute burden, high HDI countries are expected to experience the greatest absolute increase in incidence, with an additional 4.8 million new cases predicted in 2050 compared with 2022 estimates. Yet the proportional increase in incidence is most striking in low HDI countries (142% increase) and in medium HDI countries (99%). Likewise, cancer mortality in these countries is projected to almost double in 2050.”

What’s Driving Up Cancer Rates?

WHO blamed the projected cancer burden increase on a combination of age and environmental factors, stating:6

“The rapidly growing global cancer burden reflects both population ageing and growth, as well as changes to people’s exposure to risk factors, several of which are associated with socioeconomic development. Tobacco, alcohol and obesity are key factors behind the increasing incidence of cancer, with air pollution still a key driver of environmental risk factors.”

But it did not mention the emergence of rapid-growing cancers of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver, pancreas, bile duct, brain, lung and blood — including exceedingly rare types of cancer. As noted by Canadian oncologist and cancer researcher Dr. William Makis in the Highwire interview above,7 these cancers are showing up in young people, many under age 30, with no family history of cancer.

They’re showing up in pregnant women and young children. Equally odd is the fact that most are Stage 3 or 4 by the time they’re diagnosed, with symptoms arising only days or weeks before. The cancers grow and spread so rapidly, many of these patients die before treatment can even begin. Most of them are also resistant to conventional treatment.

The phenomenon has become common enough that the term “turbo cancers” was coined to describe these rapid-growing cancers in people who have received one or more COVID jabs.

Turbo Cancer Cases Reported Following COVID-19 Shots

In a case report described by board-certified internist and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough and colleagues, basaloid carcinoma, a type of aggressive cancer, developed in a 56-year-old man shortly after he received an mRNA COVID-19 shot.

Early symptoms, which began just four days after the jab, were similar to those caused by Bell’s palsy, and involved head pain — but soon a tumor developed on his ear and face. According to the study:8

“We place this within the context of multiple immune impairments potentially related to the mRNA injections that would be expected to potentiate more aggressive presentation and progression of cancer. The type of malignancy we describe suggests a population risk for occurrence of a large variety of relatively common basaloid phenotype cancer cells, which may have the potential for metastatic disease.

… Since facial paralysis/pain is one of the more common adverse neurological events following mRNA injection, careful inspection of cutaneous/soft tissue should be conducted to rule out malignancy.”

This is just one example. Another case report, published in Frontiers in Medicine,9 also found a “rapid progression” of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) — a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) — following an mRNA COVID booster shot. AITL is a cancer that affects the lymph system, primarily involving T-cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a crucial role in the immune system.

“Since nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines strongly activate T follicular helper cells, it is important to explore the possible impact of approved SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines on neoplasms affecting this cell type,” the study notes.10

The cancer occurred in a 66-year-old man, mere days after he got his third Pfizer shot. Ironically, he got the shot to protect him during chemotherapy, and in eight days, the cancer just exploded and spread like wildfire.

According to Makis, that kind of progression would normally take a couple of years, or at least a few months. “Such a rapid evolution would be highly unexpected in the natural course in the disease,” according to the study.11

How Might COVID-19 Shots Trigger Cancer?

In May 2021, I interviewed Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at MIT for over five decades, about the likely hazards of replacing the uracil in the RNA used in the COVID shots with synthetic methylpseudouridine.12 Uracil is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of RNA that are represented by the letters A, G, C and U.

This process of substituting letters in the genetic code is known as codon optimization, which is known to be problematic.

At the time, Seneff predicted the shots would cause a rise in prion diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases at younger ages, blood disorders and heart failure, and one of the primary reasons for this is because they genetically manipulated the RNA in the shots with synthetic methylpseudouridine, which enhances RNA stability by inhibiting its breakdown.

But when substituting parts of the code in this way, the resulting protein can easily get misfolded, and this has been linked to a variety of chronic diseases,13 including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and heart failure.14 As explained by Makis, the pseudouridine insertion can also suppress your innate immune surveillance by dampening the activity of toll-like receptors, and one downstream effect of that is reduced cancer surveillance.

“The more mRNA shots you take, the greater the immune system damage, the greater your risk of impaired cancer surveillance and hence, the greater your risk of turbo cancer,” Makis says.

DNA Contamination Discovered in COVID Shots

In a preprint study, microbiologist Kevin McKernan — a former researcher and team leader for the MIT Human Genome project15 — and colleagues assessed the nucleic acid composition of four expired vials of the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA shots. “DNA contamination that exceeds the European Medicines Agency (EMA) 330ng/mg requirement and the FDAs 10ng/dose requirements” was found.16

So, in addition to the spike protein and mRNA in COVID-19 shots, McKernan’s team discovered simian virus 40 (SV40) promoters that, for decades, have been suspected of causing cancer in humans, including mesotheliomas, lymphomas and cancers of the brain and bone.17

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, called for an end to the use of COVID-19 mRNA shots, citing concerns about DNA fragments in the products.18 In a December 6, 2023, letter sent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ladapo outlined findings showing the presence of lipid nanoparticle complexes and the SV40 promoter/enhancer DNA.

While there are limits on how much DNA can be in a vaccine due to concern over DNA integration, the guidelines don’t consider lipid nanoparticles and other factors in COVID-19 shots that could enhance how much DNA can enter a cell.

“Lipid nanoparticles are an efficient vehicle for delivery of the mRNA in the COVID-19 vaccines into human cells and may therefore be an equally efficient vehicle for delivering contaminant DNA into human cells.

The presence of SV40 promoter/enhancer DNA may also pose a unique and heightened risk of DNA integration into human cells,” according to a news release from the Florida Department of Health (DOH).19 Further, according to the Florida DOH, the FDA’s own 2007 guidance states:20

  • “DNA integration could theoretically impact a human’s oncogenes – the genes which can transform a healthy cell into a cancerous cell.
  • DNA integration may result in chromosomal instability.
  • The Guidance for Industry discusses biodistribution of DNA vaccines and how such integration could affect unintended parts of the body including blood, heart, brain, liver, kidney, bone marrow, ovaries/testes, lung, draining lymph nodes, spleen, the site of administration and subcutis at injection site.”

How to Recover From Post-Jab Injury

If you’ve had a COVID-19 shot, there are steps you can take to repair from the assault on your system. Remember, the more mRNA shots you take, the greater the immune system damage. So, the first step is to avoid getting anymore COVID jabs. Next, if you’ve developed any unusual symptoms, seek out help from an expert.

The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) also has a treatment protocol for post-jab injuries. It’s called I-RECOVER and can be downloaded from covid19criticalcare.com.21

Dr. Pierre Kory, who cofounded the FLCCC, has transitioned to treating the vaccine injured more or less exclusively. For more information, visit DrPierreKory.com. McCullough is also investigating post-jab treatments, which you can find on PeterMcCulloughMD.com.

The World Health Council has also published lists of remedies that can help inhibit, neutralize and eliminate spike protein, which most experts agree is a primary culprit. I covered these in my 2021 article, “World Council for Health Reveals Spike Protein Detox.”

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Notes

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 World Health Organization February 1, 2024

7 Rumble, The HighWire with Del Bigtree, Is the COVID Vaccine Causing Turbo Cancers? September 22, 2023

8 EXCLI Journal 2023;22:992-1011

9, 10 Frontiers in Medicine November 25, 2021; 8: 798095

11 Frontiers in Medicine November 25, 2021; 8: 798095, Discussion

12 International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research May 10, 2021; 2(1): 402-444

13 Nature Medicine December 6, 2011; 17: 1536-1538

14 Autophagy August 2008; 4(6): 821-823

15 The Healthcare Channel April 2, 2024

16 OSF Preprints April 10, 2023

17 Expert Rev Respir Med October 2011; 5(5): 683-697

18, 19, 20 Florida Health January 3, 2024

21 Covid19criticalcare.com 

Featured image is from Flickr


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Turbo cancer literature (15 papers):

  • (2024 Apr, Zhang and El-Deiry) – SARS-CoV-2 spike S2 subunit inhibits p53 activation of p21(WAF1), TRAIL Death Receptor DR5 and MDM2 proteins in cancer cells

  • (2024 Apr, Rubio-Casillas et al) – Review: N1-methyl-pseudouridine (m1Ψ): Friend or foe of cancer?
  • (2024 Apr, Gibo et al) – Increased Age-Adjusted Cancer Mortality After the Third mRNA-Lipid Nanoparticle Vaccine Dose During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan
  • (2023 Dec, Angues et al) – SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination and the Multi-Hit Hypothesis of Oncogenesis
  • (2023 Nov, Patrick Chambers) – The CD147 Epitope on SARS CoV2 and the Spike in Cancer, Autoimmunity and Organ Fibrosis
  • (2023 Oct, Speicher et al) – DNA fragments detected in monovalent and bivalent Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna modRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Ontario, Canada: Exploratory dose response relationship with serious adverse events.
  • (2023 Sep, McKernan et al) – Sequencing of bivalent Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines reveals nanogram to microgram quantities of expression vector dsDNA per dose
  • (2023 May, Uversky, Redwan, Makis, Rubio-Casillas) – IgG4 Antibodies Induced by Repeated Vaccination May Generate Immune Tolerance to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein
  • (2023 May, Eens et al) – B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma following intravenous BNT162b2 mRNA booster in a BALB/c mouse: A case report
  • (2023 Apr, Halma, Rose, Lawrie) – The Novelty of mRNA Viral Vaccines and Potential Harms: A Scoping Review
  • (2023 March, Guetzkow et al) – National Academies Committee on Review of Relevant Literature Regarding Adverse Events Associated with Vaccines
  • (2022 May, Jiang et al) – SARS–CoV–2 Spike Impairs DNA Damage Repair and Inhibits V(D)J Recombination In Vitro (Retracted)
  • (2022 Apr, Seneff et al) – Innate immune suppression by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations: The role of G-quadruplexes, exosomes, and MicroRNAs
  • (2022 Feb, Alden et al) – Intracellular Reverse Transcription of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 In Vitro in Human Liver Cell Line
  • (2020 Oct, Singh) – S2 Subunit of SARS-nCoV-2 Interacts with Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 and BRCA: an In Silico Study

Turbo cancer cases (11 papers):

  • (2024 Apr, Abdurrahman et al) – Primary Cutaneous Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma in a Rare Location With an Immune Response to a BNT162b2 Vaccine

  • (2024 Apr, Ueda et al) – Fetal hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis with intravascular large B-cell lymphoma following coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus: an intertwined case
  • (2024 Apr, Gentilini et al) – A Case Report of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL)/Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (LBL) Following the Second Dose of Comirnaty®: An Analysis of the Potential Pathogenic Mechanism Based on of the Existing Literature
  • (2023 Sep, Kyriakopoulos et al) – Bell’s palsy or an aggressive infiltrating basaloid carcinoma post-mRNA vaccination for COVID-19? A case report and review of the literature
  • (2023 Apr, Tachita et al) – Newly diagnosed extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, at the injected left arm after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination
  • (2023 Jan, Cavanna et al) – Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Developed Shortly after mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination: Report of a Case and Review of the Literature

  • (2022 Sep, Revenga-Porcel et al) – 76M lymphoma after 3rd Moderna mRNA
  • (2022 Aug, Sekizawa et al) – 80F lymphoma after 2nd Pfizer mRNA
  • (2022 Jun, Zamfir et al) – 58F 2nd Pfizer, 53M 2nd Pfizer both lymphoma
  • (2022 Apr, Mitsui et al) – 67M 2nd Pfizer, 80F 2nd Pfizer both lymphoma
  • (2021 Nov, Goldman et al) – 66M lymphoma progression after 3rd Pfizer mRNA

My Take…

“I searched for “Turbo Cancer” in Google and found 0 papers in the medical literature!” – This is the nonsense I face from heavily brainwashed and propagandized individuals online.

Let’s look at one of the key Big Pharma Propagandists on Twitter, Dr.David Gorski, whose opinion piece on Turbo Cancer is routinely used by “Community Notes” as an official source. He writes: 

There is no such thing as “turbo cancer”

Unsurprisingly, “turbo cancer” isn’t a thing. Oncologists don’t recognize it as a phenomenon, nor do cancer biologists, and if you search for it on PubMed, you won’t find a reference to it. Basically, it’s a clever term coined by antivaxxers to scare you into thinking that COVID-19 vaccines will give you cancer, or at least greatly increase your risk of developing cancer. The “evidence” marshaled to support the concept consists of the usual misinformation techniques used by antivaxxers: citing anecdotes, wild speculation about biological mechanisms without a firm basis in biology, and conflating correlation with causation, no matter how much one must squint to see it.

Unfortunately, “turbo cancer” is also too frightening and pithy of a term to go away any time soon. I expect antivaxxers to be using it for years to come, perhaps for the rest of my life.”

David H. Gorski, MD, PhD, FACS is a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute specializing in breast cancer surgery, where he also serves as the American College of Surgeons Committee on Cancer Liaison Physician as well as an Associate Professor of Surgery and member of the faculty of the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology at Wayne State University.

*

Wikipedia – “Turbo Cancer”: 

“Turbo cancer is an anti-vaccination myth centred on the idea that people vaccinated against COVID-19, especially with mRNA vaccines, are suffering from a high incidence of fast-developing cancers. The myth, spread by a number of vaccine opponents and related influencers including doctors, has no factual basis.

In late 2020, as COVID-19 vaccines were emerging, antivaccine doctors and social media personalities began circulating the unfounded idea that people vaccinated against COVID-19 were developing rapidly-spreading cancers. These claims have tended to misrepresent single case reports or speculate based on anecdotes. David Gorski summarized the “turbo cancer” phenomenon as “the usual misinformation techniques used by antivaxxers: Citing anecdotes, wild speculation about biological mechanisms without a firm basis in biology, and conflating correlation with causation.”

According to the US National Cancer Institute, “there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer, lead to recurrence, or lead to disease progression. Furthermore, COVID-19 vaccines do not change your DNA”.

My comment: this Wikipedia entry is very weak, it only references 2 of the 26 papers that I have listed. “COVID-19 Vaccines do not change your DNA” is also a false statement because this is currently an unknown. This entry also cites a non-expert, David Gorski, which brings its own set of problems.

The Big Pharma cover-up is extremely weak:

David Gorski’s opinion piece is full of false assumptions and bogus, fabricated statements. He goes over three papers (Goldman, Zamfir, Singh), and ignores the rest of the “Turbo Cancer” literature.

Here is an example of the type of faulty logic he uses:

“the claims (by lawyer Thomas Renz who claimed an increase in cancer in the database tracking the health of military personnel) were incredible on their face just from a scientific plausibility standpoint given that we know from the nuclear bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the cancers due to the most powerful carcinogen of all, large doses of ionizing radiation, take at least two years to begin showing up (leukemias) while most solid cancers don’t show up for around 10 years. Given that the vaccines were only introduced to the general population two years ago, even if the vaccines were as powerful a carcinogen as an ionizing radiation dose from being exposed when a nuclear bomb goes off, it would be only now that we might be beginning to see a glimmer of a cancer signal for leukemias, and even then most people didn’t receive the vaccine until months or even a year later, making too soon.”

This statement is full of bogus, false assumptions:

  • ionizing radiation is not the “most powerful carcinogen of all” and it’s clear that Gorski has zero understanding of ionizing radiation, which is not surprising as he has no training in it as a breast cancer surgeon.
  • “even if the vaccines were as powerful a carcinogen as an ionizing radiation dose from being exposed when a nuclear bomb goes off”
  • he is comparing lipid nanoparticles filled with artificially modified mRNA and DNA plasmid molecules that circulate in the blood throughout the entire body for weeks and are readily taken up by cells all over the body, with external radiation exposure from a “nuclear bomb”
    • the two processes cannot be compared biologically
    • Wikipedia: “Carcinogenicity of radiation depends on the type of radiation, type of exposure, and penetration. For example, alpha radiation has low penetration and is not a hazard outside the body, but emitters are carcinogenic when inhaled or ingested.”
    • he completely ignores the immune system in these deliberations and the effect of artificially modified mRNA on the immune system vs the effect of ionizing radiation on the immune system.

Oncologists don’t recognize it as a phenomenon, nor do cancer biologists, and if you search for it on PubMed, you won’t find a reference to it

Here Gorski commits the “appeal to authority fallacy”, as well as showing us his inability to search the medical literature properly.

He also ignores the fact that these experimental pharmaceutical products were never tested for genotoxicity or carcinogenicity. Why would oncologists or cancer biologists recognize a phenomenon caused by an experimental pharmaceutical product, if the manufacturers themselves didn’t test it for either genotoxicity or carcinogenicity?

Image

 

“Basically, it’s a clever term coined by antivaxxers to scare you into thinking that COVID-19 vaccines will give you cancer, or at least greatly increase your risk of developing cancer. The “evidence” marshaled to support the concept consists of the usual misinformation techniques used by antivaxxers: citing anecdotes, wild speculation about biological mechanisms without a firm basis in biology, and conflating correlation with causation, no matter how much one must squint to see it.”

  • Here, Gorski is reduced to ad hominem attacks, smears and false generalizations
  • He also engages in a strawman fallacy (he fabricates a caricature of “antivaxxers” that cite anecdotes and make wild speculations – but does not give a single specific example of such an individual in real life, who might engage in such activities – he then attacks this caricature that he fabricated and “defeats it”)
  • furthermore, Gorski himself has no expertise in biology, immunology, vaccines, or clinical trials. How would he know which speculations have a “firm basis in biology” if he has no such expertise?

Gorski also conveniently ignores the fact that doctors are being censored and suppressed from conducting COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Injury research in a way that has never been seen in medicine before. They are being stripped of their licenses, jobs and hospital privileges.

The playing field is not even but Gorski is acting like it is. One side has the backing of a well politically connected pharmaceutical mafia (routinely convicted of medical fraud) and $200+ billion in financial incentives, the other side has threats, smears, destruction of medical careers, reputations, jobs, licenses, academic careers, research careers, ability to earn an income, and sometimes even threats to families.

If it was a David vs Goliath battle, David would have no slingshot, no rocks, and he would be blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, and his legs broken, thrown in front of Goliath (the well fed and well funded David Gorskis of this world).

My Contribution to an Epoch Times Article

 

 

Not much has changed in regards to the hypotheses on how these Turbo Cancers may be arising in the COVID-19 Vaccinated.

There is more evidence of p53 playing a significant role.

More work has been done on DNA contamination, SV40, and research is underway on integration of DNA contaminants into the genomes of the COVID-19 Vaccinated.

We still don’t have answers.

However, I see April 2024 as a watershed moment – the Turbo Cancer papers are starting to come in now fast and furiously. More case reports, more hypotheses, more evidence of mRNA Induced Turbo Cancer in the population.

Despite the best efforts of big pharma and their corrupt allies in politics, media and medical associations, the truth about mRNA Induced Turbo Cancer cannot be suppressed, or hidden. It’s coming out and there is no turning back.

The dam is breaking and it will take Pfizer and Moderna with it.

When you look at Pfizer’s stock chart, you see a stock in freefall, going opposite compared to the rest of the market. That means bad news is being “priced in” over time as insiders sell and run for the hills. I believe that bad news is the truth about Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines causing CANCER.

 

Meanwhile, cancer deaths in the United States are at an all time high and rising.

 

Image

 

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.

Featured image is from COVID Intel


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Back in November last year, the US military was in the process of deploying new medium-range missile systems to the increasingly contested Asia-Pacific region.

At the time, General Charles A. Flynn, a four-star commanding officer of the US Army Pacific (USARPAC), stated that the deployment was officially slated for 2024 and that their purpose was to “deter China from invading Taiwan”.

More importantly, Flynn revealed that the US Army would deploy a missile launcher that will be able to fire the land-based version of the medium-range “Tomahawk” missile. Still, he refused to disclose where exactly the systems would be deployed, leaving many analysts to speculate about the possible location. There was even speculation that such missiles would be stationed directly in Taiwan. However, it seems that the United States chose not to go that far (at least not yet), although the latest deployment isn’t much better in terms of strategic impact on China’s security.

Namely, the system in question, officially named “Typhon”, has been sent to the Philippines.

The US Army deployed the elements of its latest land-based medium-range missile system overseas for the first time to take part in a military exercise in the island country. Apart from the aforementioned subsonic “Tomahawk” cruise missiles, “Typhon” also carries the supersonic SM-6 multi-purpose missiles. The latter is used by the US Navy as part of its shipborne “Aegis”, a combined SAM (surface-to-air missile) and ABM (anti-ballistic missile) system that can also be used in a secondary anti-ship role. Precisely the SM-6 gives it such a capability, meaning that it can hit both airborne and surface targets. Because of such multirole capabilities, “Typhon” can use the missile for land attack missions. Various American military sources suggest that such systems will be “permanently based in China’s backyard”, a clear indicator that the US plans to escalate its aggression.

On April 15, US Army Pacific (USARPAC) announced the arrival of one battery (or at least a part of it) to the Philippines where it participated in the Salaknib 24 military exercise. This specific “Typhon” system was sent on April 7 and it belongs to Battery C, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, which is part of the Long Range Fires Battalion assigned to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. Footage shows a single trailer-based containerized launcher towed by a HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck) being loaded on a USAF C-17A Globemaster III transport aircraft from the 62nd Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and then being unloaded in the Philippines. A “Typhon” battery consists of up to four launchers, a mobile command post and other auxiliary vehicles and equipment. The system also uses the Mk 70 Mod 1 launchers derived from the highly controversial Mk 41 VLS.

Namely, the Mk 41 vertical launch system (VLS) was one of the reasons why the INF Treaty fell apart, which recently led Russia to respond to the US escalation by testing its own previously banned intermediate-range missile.

The Mk 41 can fire a plethora of weapons, be it for SAM, ABM or any other system. It’s also part of the “Aegis” air and missile defenses, including its land-based “Aegis Ashore” variant. It can be argued that its most disturbing feature is that it can also fire purely offensive missiles such as the infamous “Tomahawk”. The problem is that there’s no viable way to know what sort of missile is in the VLS and the US has repeatedly refused to allow on-site inspections of its alleged “missile shield” in Eastern Europe. This effectively forced Russia to create countermeasures, particularly in the form of its unrivaled hypersonic missiles. China has a similar problem with such VLS, particularly now that the missiles have been deployed on land.

The US military openly describes the “Typhon” as a “strategic weapon system that would be used against higher-value targets like air defense assets and command and control nodes”. If based on Luzon, the largest and most important island in the Philippines, the system would have more than enough range to reach southern and southeastern China, including the island of Hainan which is crucial for extending control over the strategically important South China Sea. However, American military sources are complaining that too many countries have outright refused to allow the deployment of the “Typhon” on their territory. Still, this doesn’t seem to serve as a clear deterrent to the aggressive Pentagon planners, as they’re also deploying similar weapons with other service branches, including the US Marine Corps (USMC), which also has land-based “Tomahawk” launchers, albeit on a completely different platform, the 4×4 Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV).

Worse yet, back in 2021, meaning before the SMO (special military operation), the US Army reactivated its 56th Artillery Command in Germany to oversee forward-deployed units equipped with “Typhon” and similar strike platforms such as the “Dark Eagle” hypersonic missile, which is yet to be delivered, as it’s still going through a rather rocky development. Interestingly, the 56th Artillery Command had battalions equipped with “Pershing” and “Pershing II” nuclear-armed ballistic missiles during the (First) Cold War. In other words, the US-led political West is antagonizing both multipolar superpowers, openly taking pride in the fact that it can get into their “geopolitical backyards”. However, both Russia and China have superior missile technologies, particularly in terms of the development and deployment of hypersonic weapons. Worse yet for the Pentagon, even North Korea managed to overtake the US in this regard and continues to strengthen its forces.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend was the grimmest proof yet that French President Emmanuel Macron’s diagnosis of the security challenges facing the European Union is correct, Bloomberg reported on April 16 in an article titled “Macron’s Push to Arm Europe Is Getting More Urgent — and More Dangerous.” The French leader’s problem, however, is that he has not yet achieved the support of French voters in the face of his hardline position to escalate a conflict with Russia by sending French troops to Ukraine. On the contrary, he has attracted the antipathy of some allies, both at home and abroad.

Oscillating between peacemaker and provocateur, Macron has shown that he wants to lead the bloc in the Ukraine issue. Only last week, his administration resumed telephone contact with Russia, which, according to Bloomberg, “because the detailed contents of the exchange weren’t made public, turned the overture into an awkward public-relations mess as both sides traded different accounts of the call.”

While Macron claims to want an end to the Ukrainian conflict, after meeting European leaders at the Palace of Versailles earlier this year, he famously refused to rule out the possibility of sending troops to the ground in Ukraine. However, instead of garnering support and dissuading Moscow from conducting any offensives, German and other European allies publicly discarded the idea and thus undermined any ambiguity that had been sown.

According to Bloomberg, low recruitment in the military restricts France’s aspirations for greatness. Comparatively, while Russia has around 1.15 million soldiers — which represents almost the entire population of neighbouring Estonia — France has just 200,000. Last year, its infantry recruited 3,000 less than the target of 16,000 new personnel.

In March, the French defence minister urged the country’s arms industry to speed up the production of equipment for Ukraine, threatening to requisition companies that failed to meet the desired pace. Some industry members were surprised by the public rebuke as they consider their factories to be running at full steam already.

The new French budget figures could also undermine Macron’s war effort. Last week, the government said that its deficit would be greater than expected this year, requiring an additional €10 billion in savings in addition to the number already announced.

Just as alarming as the budget struggles, French public opinion is turning against the continuation of the Ukrainian conflict — falling from 82% to 58% according to IFOP data — something that Macron put at the forefront of his campaign against Marine Le Pen. Polls also showed that the majority of the French people opposed the deployment of troops as proposed by the president.

Despite Macron wanting to escalate the war by sending troops, he confusingly also demands global peace for the duration of the Paris Summer Olympics from July 26 to August 11. The French leader said in a recent interview with RMC and BFMTV that he would do all he could to achieve an “Olympic ceasefire,” specifically referring to the Israel-Hamas War, the Ukraine War, and the war in Sudan, and added that he is counting on the assistance of Chinese President Xi Jinping to achieve this.

“The leader of China is coming to Paris in a few weeks. I asked him to help me. In 2022, he also faced such a task during the Winter Olympics, which China hosted,” Macron said.

On the one hand, Macron actively seeks to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, but on the other, he wants Beijing to convince Moscow to hold off on its expected summer offensive, not for the sake of achieving lasting peace but instead to avoid inconvenience and distracting Paris with further bad news from the Ukrainian front when it is hosting one of the world’s largest sporting events.

Regardless, even if China wanted to deter Russia from the summer offensive, the Kremlin would not be compelled to do Macron any favours.

Macron’s delusions of grandeur have only deterred many voters from supporting him. Just as importantly, he has isolated himself from the general Western consensus, with the USA, Germany, and other major NATO members distancing themselves from his idea to send troops to Ukraine.

Although Macron’s idea has been shunned domestically and by foreign partners, it is a demonstration of how his push to arm Europe is certainly getting more urgent and more dangerous, as Bloomberg warned. Deepening confusion is that Macron is permitting hidden communications with Russia in a bid to establish peace for the Olympics period, but his public statements show an intention to escalate the war in Ukraine once the Games are over. This means that Macron is not only becoming more dangerous in his actions, but also desperate.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

First published on November 13, 2023

***

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

 

New Year Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

 

This article originally published on November 11, 2023 was revised on January 14th, 2024 with a focus on the dangers of escalation and the role of “False Flags”.

In recent developments, in response to Israel’s bombing of Iran’s Consulate in Damascus, according to media reports:

Iran has launched more than 300 cruise and ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, IDF officials said, a retaliatory attack weeks after an Israeli strike on the Iranian consular building in Syria killed two of Tehran’s top commanders.

“There were explosions visible in the air over Jerusalem as air sirens rang throughout the country.”

“Iran said that after tonight’s attack, the “matter can be deemed concluded” unless there is more violence.”

The fundamental question is whether this retaliatory attack will lead to escalation, including an Israeli counter-attack on Iran.

Video Interview

 

Video produced in November 2023

 

 

Expanding Middle East War.

Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran,

The War on Energy, Strategic Waterways

by

Michel Chossudovsky 

1. In Solidarity with Palestine 

.

We stand in Solidarity with Palestine. But we must recognize that the United States Military and Intelligence apparatus is firmly behind Israel’s genocide directed against the People of Palestine.
.

And this must be part of the solidarity campaign, namely to Reveal the Truth regarding Washington’s insidious role, which is part of a carefully planned military agenda directed against Palestine and the broader Middle East. Netanyahu is a proxy, with a criminal record. He has the unbending support of Western Europe’s “Classe politique”. 

The U.S. led War on the People of Palestine and the Middle East is a Criminal Undertaking 

Israel and the Zionist lobby in the U.S. are NOT exerting undue influence AGAINST U.S. Foreign Policy as outlined by numerous analysts.

Quite the opposite. The Zionist lobby is firmly aligned with U.S. foreign policy, and Vice Versa. It targets those who are opposed to war, who call for a cease fire. It exerts influence in favour of the conduct of the U.S. military agenda in support of Israel.
 
The US military-intelligence establishment in coordination with powerful financial interests is calling the shots in regards to Israel’s genocidal intent to “Wipe Palestine off the Map”.
 
.

2. Triggering “False Flags”

Inciting Escalation in The Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean

Let us be under no illusions. Remember Pearl Harbor, The Gulf of Tonkin, 9/11. “False Flags” are part of the history of modern warfare. They are sophisticated intelligence operations often requiring infiltration into enemy ranks.

Starting in the immediate wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, US-NATO war ships –including aircraft carriers, combat planes, naval vessels have been deployed in both the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

These deployments have been described in chorus by the mainstream media as a response to “Palestine’s [alleged] Aggression against the Jewish State”.

They are tagged as humanitarian undertakings: Coming to the rescue of Israel. Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

The False Flag concept requires inciting your enemy or an armed jihadist group to confront or “attack America” thereby providing a justification to strike back in self defense: The Houthis in the Red Sea and Hezbollah in the Eastern Mediterranean both of which are allies of Iran.

Trigger one or more incidents with a view to justifying a process of military escalation.

In recent developments, the “False Flag agenda” has evolved towards US-NATO air and naval attacks against Yemen. 

“Sadeh, Zubaydah, Abs, Bani, Sana, Hudaydah, and Taiz have been attacked by American forces, initiating yet another war without Congressional approval, a branch of the US government emptied of power.

The New York Times, of course, blames the expansion of the conflict on the Houthis for interfering with shipping to Israel.” (Paul Craig Roberts)

The endgame is to incite Iran through various means to enter the Middle East battlefield, which would lead eventually to a process of escalation. The media is now using the term: “Iranian Proxies” in an ambivalent report by the NYT: 

There is no direct evidence to show senior Iranian commanders ordered Yemen’s Houthi rebels to launch attacks on ships in the Red Sea, according to a New York Times report citing US intelligence officials.The unnamed sources said they continue to assess that Iran isn’t interested in a wider war, even though it encouraged Houthi operations in the Red Sea.

“The whole purpose of the Iranian proxies, they argue, is to find a way to punch at Israel and the United States without setting off the kind of war that Iran wants to avoid,” the news report said.

“There is no direct evidence that senior Iranian leaders, either the commander of the elite Quds Force or the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the recent Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.” (Quoted by Al Jazeera)

 

.

.

3. America’s Military Doctrine: Targeting and Killing Civilians

.
The targeting of civilians and the killing of children in Gaza is modelled on numerous US sponsored massacres of civilians (1945-2023) including the 2004 attack on Fallujah. (More than 30 Million mainly civilian deaths in US-led wars in what is euphemistically called the “post War Era”).
 .
Veteran War correspondent Felicity Arbuthnot reflected on the indescribable barbarity of the 2004  Fallujah massacre, which resulted in countless deaths and destruction. It was a genocide conducted by the U.S military: 
.

The Americans invaded, chillingly: “house to house, room to room”, raining death and destruction on the proud, ancient “City of Mosques.”

Marines killed so many civilians that the municipal soccer stadium had to be turned into a graveyard …

One correspondent wrote: “There has been nothing like the attack on Fallujah since the Nazi invasion and occupation of much of the European continent – the shelling and bombing of Warsaw in September 1939, the terror bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940.”

 

Fallujah, 2004 
.
The U.S. is supportive of the Israeli genocide directed against the people of Palestine. Prime Minister Netanyahu is a criminal. He is Washington’s proxy, unreservedly endorsed and supported by the Biden Administration as well as the U.S. Congress. 
 .
Zionism constitutes the ideological underpinnings of  contemporary U.S. imperialism and its unending war against the people of the Middle East. 
.
The Zionist “Greater Israel” dogma –as in all wars of religion since the dawn of mankind– is there to mislead people Worldwide as to “who is really pulling the strings”
.
Zionism has become a useful instrument which is embodied in U.S. military doctrine. The “Promised Land” broadly coincides with America’s hegemonic agenda in the Middle East, namely what the U.S. military has designated as the “New Middle East”.

Cui Bono: “To Whom Does it Benefit”

There are strategic, geopolitical and economic objectives behind Israel’s genocide directed against the People of Palestine. “Crimes are often committed to benefit their perpetrators”:

Who are the Perpetrators?

Israel’s War against the People of Palestine serves the interests of Big Money, the Military Industrial Complex, Corrupt Politicians…  The Genocide is implemented by Netanyahu on behalf of the United States.

The US military and intelligence apparatus are behind Israel’s criminal bombing and invasion of Gaza. The unfolding Middle East War is largely directed against Iran.
 .

Video Interview: Michel Chossudovsky and Caroline Mailloux

To leave a comment and /or access Rumble click here. Or click the lower right hand corner of the screen

 .

 4. Iran and the Nuclear Issue

Historical Antecedents. Using Israel As a Means to Attacking Iran 

In 2003, the war on Iran project (Operation Theatre Iran Near Term, TIRANNT)) was already Déjà Vu. It had been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for more than 15 years.

Let us recall that at the outset of Bush’s Second Term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell, hinting, in no uncertain terms, that Iran was “right at the top of the list” of the rogue enemies of America. And that Israel would, so to speak, 

“be doing the bombing for us” [paraphrase] , without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”.  For further details see my article below was first published by Global Research in May 2005, as well as PBS Interview with Z. Brzezinski 

This Dick Cheney-style option is currently (November 2023) once more on the drawing board of the Pentagon, namely the possibility that Israel which is already bombing Lebanon and Syria, would be incited to wage an attack on Iran (acting on behalf of the United States).

US Congress Resolution (H. RES. 559) Accuses Iran of Possessing Nuclear Weapons

Careful timing: In June 2023, the US House of Representatives adopted  Resolution (H. RES. 559) which provides a “Green Light” to wage war on Iran.

The US House  passed a resolution that allows the use of force against Iran, intimating without a shred of evidence that Iran has Nuclear Weapons:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives declares it is the policy of the United States—

(1) that a nuclear Islamic Republic of Iran is not acceptable;

(2) that Iran must not be able to obtain a nuclear weapon under any circumstances or conditions;

(3) to use all means necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; and

(4) to recognize and support the freedom of action of partners and allies, including Israel, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Click below to access the complete text of H. RES 559

Israel’s Undeclared Nuclear Weapons Arsenal 

Whereas Iran is tagged (without evidence) as a Nuclear Power by the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington fails to acknowledge that Israel is an undeclared nuclear power. 

In recent developments, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, “admitted to the world that Israel has nuclear weapons ready to be used against Palestinians”

The Times of Israel reported that: “Amichai Eliyahu said Sunday [November 5, 2023] that one of Israel’s options in the war against Hamas was to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip”

Video on Israel’s Nuclear Weapons Facility

English subtitles  
 

 .

5. The War on Energy

.

Unspoken Objective of a US-NATO-Israel War against Iran: Natural Gas 

Reserves of Natural Gas: Iran ranks Second after Russia. Russia, Iran and Qatar possess  54.1 percent of the World’s reserves of natural gas.

-Russia 24.3%, 

-Iran 17.3%, 

-Qatar, 12.5 %  (in partnership with Iran)

versus   

-5.3 % for the US

President Joe Biden ordered to “blow up” (September 2022) the Nordstream Pipeline, which constitutes a U.S. Act of War against the European Union.

In the words of Joe Biden:

“There will be no longer a Nord Stream 2”. Statement at White House Press Conference (February 7, 2022)

America’s strategic objective is, despite its meagre reserves of natural gas: 

To Force the European Union to buy LNG “Made in America”. 

What this implies is that America’s military agenda against Russia and Iran constitutes a means to hike up EU energy prices, which is an Act of Economic Warfare against the People of Europe. 

 
 

The Iran-Qatar Natural Gas Partnership 

The maritime gas reserves of the Persian Gulf are under a (joint ownership) partnership between Qatar and Iran (See diagram below).

 

The Biden Administration is Intent upon Destabilizing the Iran-Qatar Partnership 

This partnership is supportive of the People of Palestine.

In March 2022, “President Joe Biden  following a meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheik Tamim “designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally of the United States, fulfilling the promise that he had made to Qatar earlier this year [2022], the White House said” ( Reuters, March 10, 2022 )

“The designation is granted by the United States to close, non-NATO allies that have strategic working relationships with the U.S. military.

Biden promised Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, in January [2022] during a meeting at the White House that he would grant Qatar the special status.” Reuters  See also  Reuters (January 31, 2022) 

What is at stake are cross-cutting coalitions. Qatar is a “Partner” of Iran in relation to the strategic reserves of maritime gas in the Persian Gulf. There is no formaI military cooperation between the two countries.  

Washington’s unspoken agenda is to break and/or destabilize Qatar’s Partnership with Iran, by integrating Qatar into the US-NATO military orbit. 

It is worth noting that a few days prior to the October 7, 2023 Hamas operation, the Emir of Qatar Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani laid the foundation stone for the Northern Dome expansion project” in Iran’s Pars South Field (See map above).

“the Emir of Qatar said the groundbreaking for the Northern Dome expansion project was laid today, which is in line with Qatar’s strategy to strengthen its position as a global LNG producer …  

This joint gas field, known as “South Pars” in Iran, is the largest natural gas field in the world and contains 50.97 trillion cubic meters of gas and about 7.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas condensate.

At the time of writing, the implications of Sheik Tamin’s October 2023 expansion project in South Pars Fields (which is in Iranian territorial Waters) as well as Qatar’s “Special Status” Military Alliance with the U.S. remain unclear.

America’s Al-Udeid military base in Qatar (left) is the largest US base in the Middle East.

Have the status and functions of Al Udeid changed since the signing of the March 2022 agreement designating Qatar as a “Major Non NATO Ally of the US”

Qatar is both A Partner of Iran as well as a Major Non NATO Ally of the U.S. Reports confirm the development of a close relationship between the commanders of the US Air Force and the Qatari Emiri Air Force. 

Qatar is a “Powder Keg”?

The U.S. foreign policy objective is to ultimately destroy and undermine that “friendship” with Iran which is highly valued and supported by Qatari citizens.

The export of gas from South Pars North Dome transits through Iran, Turkey and Russia.

Qatar, Russia and Iran (the 3 largest holders Worldwide of natural gas reserves) reached an agreement in 2009 to create a ‘Gas Troika’, a trilateral gas cooperation entity including the development of joint projects.

A large number of countries including South Korea, India, Japan, China are importing LNG from Qatar. 

Last year (November 2022), “QatarEnergy signed a 27-year deal to supply China’s Sinopec with liquefied natural gas”. Qatar has also a strategic alliance with China.

Washington’s objective under the disguise of America’s “Major Non-NATO Alliance” with Qatar is to:

  • Break the Qatar-Iran Partnership
  • Exclude Iran from the Joint Maritime Gas Field
  • Exert US Control over the Maritime Gas Field in the Persian Gulf
  • Weaken and Disable the “Gas Troika” (Russia, Iran, Qatar) 
  • Create Chaos in the Global Energy Market, 
  • Undermine the Trade in Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to Numerous Countries

.

Iran. Third Largest Reserves of Oil Worldwide

Iran is not only second in terms of its gas reserves after Russia, it ranks third Worldwide in relation to its oil reserves (12% of Worldwide oil reserves) versus a meagre 4% for the U.S.
 
 

6. Strategic Waterways: The Ben Gurion Canal Project

 .

U.S. Seeks Dominance over Strategic International Waterways

The Ben Gurion Canal Project was initially a “secret” (classified) U.S. project formulated in 1963 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNG, a strategic think tank (focussing on nuclear radiation) on contract with the U.S Department of Energy. The LLNG project was formulated in response to the nationalization of the Suez Canal in July 1956 by President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956-1970). Its intent was to bypass the Suez Canal.

The Ben Gurion Canal project is currently contemplated as means control the channels of international maritime trade to the detriment of the people of the Middle East.  It also seeks to destabilize China’s maritime commodity trade.

 

 

In the context of the broader US-led Middle East War, the Ben Gurion Canal Project is part of America’s hegemonic military agenda. It is consistent with Netanyahu’s “Plan to Wipe Palestine Off the Map”.

According to Yvonne Ridley:

“The only thing stopping the newly-revised [Ben Gurion Canal] project from being revived and rubber-stamped is the presence of the Palestinians in Gaza. As far as Netanyahu is concerned they are standing in the way of the project” (Yvonne Ridley, November 10, 2023, emphasis added)

The U.S led war is intent upon confiscating all Palestinian territories, which would be appropriated by the State of Israel, acting as a strategic “Anglo-American Hub” in the Middle East:  

The Ben Gurion Canal will give Israel in particular and other friendly nations the freedom from blackmail arising out of access to the Suez Canal.

Arab states have been leveraging the Red Sea to pressure Israel and in response, Israel has decided to gain more control of the Red Sea. These African countries have cultural and economic affinities with the Arab states. One of the main military benefits for Israel is that it gives Israel the strategic options as the Ben Gurion Canal will totally take away the importance of Suez for the US military if needed in the aid for Israel.

Israel aims to push Egypt further into a corner by eliminating Suez in the global trade and energy corridor and becoming a global trade and energy logistics center.

Experts are of the opinion that this situation will shake the strategic-energy balance of China’s Belt and Road Project initiative in the Mediterranean, along with the Strait of Hormuz, which is the transfer point of 30 percent of the world’s energy. The Ben Gurion Canal would have the solid backing of the West. (Eurasia Review, November 7, 2023, emphasis added)

.

7. “Greater Israel”. Strategic “Anglo-American Hub”  

 

The Promised Land of Greater Israel coincides with America’s Colonial Design in the Middle East 

The Greater Israel design is not strictly a Zionist Project for the Middle East, it is an integral part of US foreign policy, its strategic objective is to extend US hegemony as well as fracture and balkanize the Middle East.  

In this regard, Washington’s strategy consists in destabilizing and weakening regional economic powers in the Middle East including Turkey and Iran. This policy –which is consistent with the Greater Israel–  is  accompanied by a process of political fragmentation.

Since the Gulf war (1991), the Pentagon has contemplated the creation of a “Free Kurdistan” which would include the annexation of  parts of Iraq, Syria and Iran as well as Turkey

“The New Middle East”:  Unofficial US Military Academy Map by Lt. Col. Ralph Peters

.

8. “America’s Promised Land”. Global Warfare

 

When viewed in the current context, including the siege on Gaza, the Zionist Plan for the Middle East coincides with America’s long war against the Middle East. As we mentioned earlier the Zionist agenda provides an ideological and religious justification of America’s long war against the Middle East. 

  • The 1979-80. the so-called Soviet Afghan War, engineered by the CIA 
  • The 1980-88 Iraq-Iran War engineered by the U.S. 
  • The 1991 Gulf War against Iraq,
  • The 2001 The US-NATO Invasion of Afghanistan
  • The 2003 Invasion of  Iraq
  • The 2006 War on Lebanon,
  • The Arab Spring,
  • The 2011 war on Libya,
  • The 2015 war on Yemen
  • Obama’s 2014-2017 “Counter-Terrorism” Operation against Iraq and Syria
  • The ongoing wars against Syria, Iraq and Yemen

The “Greater Israel” project consists in weakening and eventually fracturing neighboring Arab states as part of a US-Israeli expansionist project, with the support of NATO.

Needless to day, the ideological and religious underpinnings of the “Greater Israel” project are consistent with America’s imperial design.

While the Zionist agenda is not the driving force, it serves the useful purpose of misleading public opinion concerning America’s long war against the people of the Middle East. 

The Historical Context: A Sequence of Military Plans and Scenarios to Wage War on Iran 

Since the launching of the Theater Iran Near Term (TIRANNT) war games scenario in May 2003 (leaked classified doc), an escalation scenario involving military action directed against Iran and Syria had been envisaged, of which Syria was the first stage.  

TIRANNT was followed by a series of military plans pertaining to Iran. Numerous post 9/11 official statements and US military documents had pointed to an expanded Middle East war, involving the active participation of Israel.

Israel is America’s ally. Military operations are closely coordinated. Israel does not act without Washington’s approval.

U.S.-Israeli Air Defense

Barely acknowledged by the media, the US and Israel have an integrated air defense system, which was set up in early 2009, shortly after the Israel invasion of Gaza under “Operation Cast Led”.

The X-band radar air defense system set up by the US in Israel in 2009 would

“integrate Israel’s missile defenses with the U.S. global missile detection network, which includes satellites, Aegis ships on the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Red Sea, and land-based Patriot radars and interceptors.”  (Sen. Joseph Azzolina, Protecting Israel from Iran’s missiles, Bayshore News, December 26, 2008). )

What this means is that Washington calls the shots. Confirmed by the Pentagon, the US military controls Israel’s Air Defense:

”This is and will remain a U.S. radar system,’ Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

‘So this is not something we are giving or selling to the Israelis and it is something that will likely require U.S. personnel on-site to operate.’” (Quoted in Israel National News, January 9, 2009, emphasis added).

At the outset of  Obama’s Second Term, the US and Israel initiated discussions pertaining to a “US personnel on site” presence in Israel, namely the establishment of a “permanent” and “official” military base inside Israel.

And on September 17, 2017, a US Air Defense base located in the Negev desert was inaugurated.

According to the Israeli IDF spokesperson, the objective is to send a “message to the region, ” including Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.

Of utmost relevance:

Israel would not be able to act unilaterally against Iran, without a green light from the Pentagon which controls key components of Israel’s air defense system.

In practice, a war on Iran, would be a joint US-NATO-Israeli endeavor, coordinated by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with America’s allies playing a key (subordinate) role.

 

Michel Chossudovsky, November 11, 2023, Updated January 14, 2024

Below is my May 2005 Global Research article which provides a detailed historical perspective on US war plans to attack Iran. 

 

* * *

Part II

 

Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran

by  

Michel Chossudovsky 

Global Research

May 2005

 

At the outset of Bush’s second term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell. He hinted, in no uncertain terms, that Iran was “right at the top of the list” of the rogue enemies of America, and that Israel would, so to speak, “be doing the bombing for us”, without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”:

“One of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked… Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards,” (quoted from an MSNBC Interview Jan 2005)

Israel is a Rottweiler on a leash: The US wants to “set Israel loose” to attack Iran. Commenting the Vice President’s assertion, former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in an interview on PBS, confirmed with some apprehension, yes: Cheney wants Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to act on America’s behalf and “do it” for us:

“Iran I think is more ambiguous. And there the issue is certainly not tyranny; it’s nuclear weapons. And the vice president today in a kind of a strange parallel statement to this declaration of freedom hinted that the Israelis may do it and in fact used language which sounds like a justification or even an encouragement for the Israelis to do it.”

The foregoing statements are misleading. The US is not “encouraging Israel”. What we are dealing with is a joint US-Israeli military operation to bomb Iran, which has been in the active planning stage for more than a year. The Neocons in the Defense Department, under Douglas Feith, have been working assiduously with their Israeli military and intelligence counterparts, carefully identifying targets inside Iran (see Seymour Hersh)

Under this working arrangement, Israel will not act unilaterally, without a green light from Washington. In other words, Israel will not implement an attack without the participation of the US.

Covert Intelligence Operations: Stirring Ethnic Tensions in Iran

Meanwhile, for the last two years, Washington has been involved in covert intelligence operations inside Iran. American and British intelligence and special forces (working with their Israeli counterparts) are involved in this operation.

“A British intelligence official said that any campaign against Iran would not be a ground war like the one in Iraq. The Americans will use different tactics, said the intelligence officer. ‘It is getting quite scary.'” (Evening Standard, 17 June 2003)

The expectation is that a US-Israeli bombing raid of Iran’s nuclear facilities will stir up ethnic tensions and trigger “regime change” in favor of the US. (See Arab Monitor).

Bush advisers believe that the “Iranian opposition movement” will unseat the Mullahs. This assessment constitutes a gross misjudgment of social forces inside Iran. What is more likely to occur is that Iranians will consistently rally behind a wartime government against foreign aggression. In fact, the entire Middle East and beyond would rise up against US interventionism.

Retaliation in the Case of a US-Israeli Aerial Attack

Tehran has confirmed that it will retaliate if attacked, in the form of ballistic missile strikes directed against Israel (CNN, 8 Feb 2005). These attacks, could also target US military facilities in the Persian Gulf, which would immediately lead us into a scenario of military escalation and all out war.

In other words, the air strikes against Iran could contribute to unleashing a war in the broader Middle East Central Asian region.

Moreover, the planned attack on Iran should also be understood in relation to the timely withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, which has opened up a new space, for the deployment of Israeli forces. The participation of Turkey in the US-Israeli military operation is also a factor, following an agreement reached between Ankara and Tel Aviv.

In other words, US and Israeli military planners must carefully weigh the far-reaching implications of their actions.

Israel Builds up its Stockpile of Deadly Military Hardware

A massive buildup in military hardware has occurred in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

Israel has recently taken delivery from the US of some 5,000 “smart air launched weapons” including some 500 BLU 109 ‘bunker-buster bombs. The (uranium coated) munitions are said to be more than “adequate to address the full range of Iranian targets, with the possible exception of the buried facility at Natanz, which may require the [more powerful] BLU-113 bunker buster“:

“Given Israel’s already substantial holdings of such weapons, this increase in its inventory would allow a sustained assault with or without further US involvement.” (See Richard Bennett)

Gbu 28 Guided Bomb Unit-28 (GBU-28)

The Israeli Air Force would attack Iran’s nuclear facility at Bushehr using US as well Israeli produced bunker buster bombs. The attack would be carried out in three separate waves “with the radar and communications jamming protection being provided by U.S. Air Force AWACS and other U.S. aircraft in the area”. (See W Madsen)

Bear in mind that the bunker buster bombs can also be used to deliver tactical nuclear bombs. The B61-11 is the “nuclear version” of the “conventional” BLU 113. It can be delivered in much same way as the conventional bunker buster bomb. (See Michel Chossudovsky, see also this)

According to the Pentagon, tactical nuclear weapons are “safe for civilians”. Their use has been authorized by the US Senate. (See Michel Chossudovsky)

Moreover, reported in late 2003, Israeli Dolphin-class submarines equipped with US Harpoon missiles armed with nuclear warheads are now aimed at Iran. (See Gordon Thomas)

Even if tactical nuclear weapons are not used by Israel, an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities not only raises the specter of a broader war, but also of nuclear radiation over a wide area:

“To attack Iran’s nuclear facilities will not only provoke war, but it could also unleash clouds of radiation far beyond the targets and the borders of Iran.” (Statement of Prof Elias Tuma, Arab Internet Network, Federal News Service, 1 March 2005)

Moreover, while most reports have centered on the issue of punitive air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the strikes would most probably extend to other targets.

While a ground war is contemplated as a possible “scenario” at the level of military planning, the US military would not be able to wage a an effective ground war, given the situation in Iraq. In the words of former National Security Adviser Lawrence Eagelberger:

“We are not going to get in a ground war in Iran, I hope. If we get into that, we are in serious trouble. I don’t think anyone in Washington is seriously considering that.” ( quoted in the National Journal, 4 December 2004).

Iran’s Military Capabilities

Despite its overall weaknesses in relation to Israel and the US, Iran has an advanced air defense system, deployed to protect its nuclear sites; “they are dispersed and underground making potential air strikes difficult and without any guarantees of success.” (Jerusalem Post, 20 April 2005).

It has upgraded its Shahab-3 missile, which can reach targets in Israel. Iran’s armed forces have recently conducted high-profile military exercises in anticipation of a US led attack. Iran also possesses some 12 X-55 strategic cruise missiles, produced by Ukraine. Iran’s air defense systems is said to feature Russian SA-2, SA-5, SA-6 as well as shoulder-launched SA-7 missiles (Jaffa Center for Strategic Studies).

The US “Military Road Map”

The Bush administration has officially identified Iran and Syria as the next stage of “the road map to war”.

Targeting Iran is a bipartisan project, which broadly serves the interests of the Anglo-American oil conglomerates, the Wall Street financial establishment and the military-industrial complex.

The broader Middle East-Central Asian region encompasses more than 70% of the World’s reserves of oil and natural gas. Iran possesses 10% of the world’s oil and ranks third after Saudi Arabia (25 %) and Iraq (11 %) in the size of its reserves. In comparison, the US possesses less than 2.8 % of global oil reserves. (See Eric Waddell, The Battle for Oil)

The announcement to target Iran should come as no surprise. It is part of the battle for oil. Already during the Clinton administration, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) had formulated “in war theater plans” to invade both Iraq and Iran:

“The broad national security interests and objectives expressed in the President’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Chairman’s National Military Strategy (NMS) form the foundation of the United States Central Command’s theater strategy. The NSS directs implementation of a strategy of dual containment of the rogue states of Iraq and Iran as long as those states pose a threat to U.S. interests, to other states in the region, and to their own citizens. Dual containment is designed to maintain the balance of power in the region without depending on either Iraq or Iran. USCENTCOM’s theater strategy is interest-based and threat-focused. The purpose of U.S. engagement, as espoused in the NSS, is to protect the United States’ vital interest in the region – uninterrupted, secure U.S./Allied access to Gulf oil. (USCENTCOM, USPolicy , emphasis added)

Main Military Actors

While the US, Israel, as well as Turkey (with borders with both Iran and Syria) are the main actors in this process, a number of other countries, in the region, allies of the US, including several Central Asian former Soviet republics have been enlisted. Britain is closely involved despite its official denials at the diplomatic level. Turkey occupies a central role in the Iran operation. It has an extensive military cooperation agreement with Israel. There are indications that NATO is also formally involved in the context of an Israel-NATO agreement reached in November 2004.

Planning The Aerial Attack on Iran

According to former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, George W. Bush has already signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran, scheduled for June.(See this)

The June cut-off date should be understood. It does not signify that the attack will occur in June. What it suggests is that the US and Israel are “in a state of readiness” and are prepared to launch an attack by June or at a later date. In other words, the decision to launch the attack has not been made.

Ritter’s observation concerning an impending military operation should nonetheless be taken seriously. In recent months, there is ample evidence that a major military operation is in preparation:

1) several high profile military exercises have been conducted in recent months, involving military deployment and the testing of weapons systems.

2) military planning meetings have been held between the various parties involved. There has been a shuttle of military and government officials between Washington, Tel Aviv and Ankara.

3) A significant change in the military command structure in Israel has occurred, with the appointment of a new Chief of Staff.

4) Intense diplomatic exchanges have been carried out at the international level with a view to securing areas of military cooperation and/or support for a US-Israeli led military operation directed against Iran.

5) Ongoing intelligence operations inside Iran have been stepped up.

6) Consensus Building: Media propaganda on the need to intervene in Iran has been stepped up, with daily reports on how Iran constitutes a threat to peace and global security.

Timeline of Key Initiatives

In the last few months, various key initiatives have been taken, which are broadly indicative that an aerial bombing of Iran is in the military pipeline:

November 2004 in Brussels: NATO-Israel protocol: Israel’s IDF delegation to the NATO conference to met with military brass of six members of the Mediterranean basin nations, including Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. NATO seeks to revive the framework, known as the Mediterranean Dialogue program, which would include Israel. The Israeli delegation accepted to participate in military exercises and “anti-terror maneuvers” together with several Arab countries.

January 2005: the US, Israel and Turkey held military exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Syria. These exercises, which have been held in previous years were described as routine.

February 2005. Following the decision reached in Brussels in November 2004, Israel was involved for the first time in military exercises with NATO, which also included several Arab countries.

February 2005: Assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The assassination, which was blamed on Syria, serves Israeli and US interests and was used as a pretext to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

February 2005: Sharon fires his Chief-of-Staff, Moshe Ya’alon and appoints Air Force General Dan Halutz. This is the first time in Israeli history that an Air Force General is appointed Chief of Staff (See Uri Avnery)

The appointment of Major General Dan Halutz as IDF Chief of Staff is considered in Israeli political circles as “the appointment of the right man at the right time.” The central issue is that a major aerial operation against Iran is in the planning stage, and Maj General Halutz is slated to coordinate the aerial bombing raids on Iran. Halutz’s appointment was specifically linked to Israel’s Iran agenda: “As chief of staff, he will in the best position to prepare the military for such a scenario.”

March 2005: NATO’s Secretary General was in Jerusalem for follow-up talks with Ariel Sharon and Israel’s military brass, following the joint NATO-Israel military exercise in February. These military cooperation ties are viewed by the Israeli military as a means to “enhance Israel’s deterrence capability regarding potential enemies threatening it, mainly Iran and Syria.” The premise underlying NATO-Israel military cooperation is that Israel is under attack:

“The more Israel’s image is strengthened as a country facing enemies who attempt to attack it for no justified reason, the greater will be the possibility that aid will be extended to Israel by NATO. Furthermore, Iran and Syria will have to take into account the possibility that the increasing cooperation between Israel and NATO will strengthen Israel’s links with Turkey, also a member of NATO. Given Turkey’s impressive military potential and its geographic proximity to both Iran and Syria, Israel’s operational options against them, if and when it sees the need, could gain considerable strength. ” (Jaffa Center for Strategic Studies, http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/sa/v7n4p4Shalom.html )

The Israel-NATO protocol is all the more important because it obligates NATO to align itself with the US-Israeli plan to bomb Iran, as an act of self defense on the part of Israel. It also means that NATO is also involved in the process of military consultations relating to the planned aerial bombing of Iran. It is of course related to the bilateral military cooperation agreement between Israel and Turkey and the likelihood that part of the military operation will be launched from Turkey, which is a member of NATO.

Late March 2005: News leaks in Israel indicated an “initial authorization” by Prime Minster Ariel Sharon of an Israeli attack on Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant “if diplomacy failed to stop Iran’s nuclear program”. (The Hindu, 28 March 2005)

March-April 2005: The Holding in Israel of Joint US-Israeli military exercises specifically pertaining to the launching of Patriot missiles.

US Patriot missile crews stationed in Germany were sent to Israel to participate in the joint Juniper Cobra exercise with the Israeli military. The exercise was described as routine and “unconnected to events in the Middle East”: “As always, we are interested in implementing lessons learned from training exercises.” (UPI, 9 March 2005).

April 2005: Donald Rumsfeld  (right) was on an official visits to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. His diplomatic endeavors were described by the Russian media as “literally circling Iran in an attempt to find the best bridgehead for a possible military operation against that country.”

In Baku, Azerbaijan Rumsfeld was busy discussing the date for deployment of US troops in Azerbaijan on Iran’s North-Western border. US military bases described as “mobile groups” in Azerbaijan are slated to play a role in a military operation directed against Iran.

Azerbaijan is a member of GUUAM, a military cooperation agreement with the US and NATO, which allows for the stationing of US troops in several of the member countries, including Georgia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. The stated short term objective is to “neutralize Iran”. The longer term objective under the Pentagon’s “Caspian Plan” is to exert military and economic control over the entire Caspian sea basin, with a view to ensuring US authority over oil reserves and pipeline corridors.

During his visit in April, Rumsfeld was pushing the US initiative of establishing “American special task forces and military bases to secure US influence in the Caspian region:

“Called Caspian Watch, the project stipulates a network of special task forces and police units in the countries of the regions to be used in emergencies including threats to objects of the oil complex and pipelines. Project Caspian Watch will be financed by the United States ($100 million). It will become an advance guard of the US European Command whose zone of responsibility includes the Caspian region. Command center of the project with a powerful radar is to be located in Baku.” ( Defense and Security Russia, April 27, 2005)

Rumsfeld’s visit followed shortly after that of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s to Baku.

April 2005: Iran signs a military cooperation with Tajikistan, which occupies a strategic position bordering Afghanistan’s Northern frontier. Tajikistan is a member of “The Shanghai Five” military cooperation group, which also includes Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. Iran also has economic cooperation agreements with Turkmenistan.

Mid April 2005: Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets George W Bush at his Texas Ranch. Iran is on the agenda of bilateral talks. More significantly, the visit of Ariel Sharon was used to carry out high level talks between US and Israeli military planners pertaining to Iran.

Late April 2005. President Vladmir Putin is in Israel on an official visit. He announces Russia’s decision to sell short-range anti-aircraft missiles to Syria and to continue supporting Iran’s nuclear industry. Beneath the gilded surface of international diplomacy, Putin’s timely visit to Israel must be interpreted as “a signal to Israel” regarding its planned aerial attack on Iran.

Late April 2005: US pressure in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been exerted with a view to blocking the re-appointment of Mohammed Al Baradei, who according to US officials “is not being tough enough on Iran…” Following US pressures, the vote on the appointment of a new IAEA chief was put off until June. These developments suggest that Washington wants to put forth their own hand-picked nominee prior to launching US-Israeli aerial attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. (See VOA). (In February 2003, Al Baradei along with UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix challenged the (phony) intelligence on WMD presented by the US to the UN Security Council, with a view to justifying the war on Iraq.)

Late April 2005. Sale of deadly military hardware to Israel. GBU-28 Buster Bunker Bombs: Coinciding with Putin’s visit to Israel, the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency (Department of Defense) announced the sale of an additional 100 bunker-buster bombs produced by Lockheed Martin to Israel. This decision was viewed by the US media as “a warning to Iran about its nuclear ambitions.”

The sale pertains to the larger and more sophisticated “Guided Bomb Unit-28 (GBU-28) BLU-113 Penetrator” (including the WGU-36A/B guidance control unit and support equipment). The GBU-28 is described as “a special weapon for penetrating hardened command centers located deep underground. The fact of the matter is that the GBU-28 is among the World’s most deadly “conventional” weapons used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, capable of causing thousands of civilian deaths through massive explosions.

The Israeli Air Force are slated to use the GBU-28s on their F-15 aircraft. (See text of DSCA news release)

Late April 2005- early May: Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) in Israel for follow-up talks with Ariel Sharon. He was accompanied by his Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, who met with senior Israeli military officials. On the official agenda of these talks: joint defense projects, including the joint production of Arrow II Theater Missile Defense and Popeye II missiles. The latter also known as the Have Lite, are advanced small missiles, designed for deployment on fighter planes. Tel Aviv and Ankara decide to establish a hotline to share intelligence.

May 2005: Syrian troops scheduled to withdraw from Lebanon, leading to a major shift in the Middle East security situation, in favor of Israel and the US.

Iran Surrounded? 

The US has troops and military bases in Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and of course Iraq.

In other words, Iran is virtually surrounded by US military bases. (see Map below). These countries as well as Turkmenistan, are members of NATO`s partnership for Peace Program and have military cooperation agreements with NATO.

Copyright Eric Waddell, Global Research, 2003

In other words, we are dealing with a potentially explosive scenario in which a number of countries, including several former Soviet republics, could be brought into a US led war with Iran. IranAtom.ru, a Russian based news and military analysis group has suggested, in this regard:

“since Iranian nuclear objects are scattered all over the country, Israel will need a mass strike with different fly-in and fly-out approaches – Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and other countries… Azerbaijan seriously fears Tehran’s reaction should Baku issue a permit to Israeli aircraft to overfly its territory.” (Defense and Security Russia, 12 April 2005).

Concluding remarks

The World is at an important crossroads.

The Bush Administration has embarked upon a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity.

Iran is the next military target. The planned military operation, which is by no means limited to punitive strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, is part of a project of World domination, a military roadmap, launched at the end of the Cold War.

Military action against Iran would directly involve Israel’s participation, which in turn is likely to trigger a broader war throughout the Middle East, not to mention an implosion in the Palestinian occupied territories. Turkey is closely associated with the proposed aerial attacks.

Israel is a nuclear power with a sophisticated nuclear arsenal. (See text box below). The use of nuclear weapons by Israel or the US cannot be excluded, particularly in view of the fact that tactical nuclear weapons have now been reclassified as a variant of the conventional bunker buster bombs and are authorized by the US Senate for use in conventional war theaters. (“they are harmless to civilians because the explosion is underground”)

In this regard, Israel and the US rather than Iran constitute a nuclear threat.

The planned attack on Iran must be understood in relation to the existing active war theaters in the Middle East, namely Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.

The conflict could easily spread from the Middle East to the Caspian sea basin. It could also involve the participation of Azerbaijan and Georgia, where US troops are stationed.

An attack on Iran would have a direct impact on the resistance movement inside Iraq. It would also put pressure on America’s overstretched military capabilities and resources in both the Iraqi and Afghan war theaters. (The 150,000 US troops in Iraq are already fully engaged and could not be redeployed in the case of a war with Iran.)

In other words, the shaky geopolitics of the Central Asia- Middle East region, the three existing war theaters in which America is currently, involved, the direct participation of Israel and Turkey, the structure of US sponsored military alliances, etc. raises the specter of a broader conflict.

Moreover, US military action on Iran not only threatens Russian and Chinese interests, which have geopolitical interests in the Caspian sea basin and which have bilateral agreements with Iran. It also backlashes on European oil interests in Iran and is likely to produce major divisions between Western allies, between the US and its European partners as well as within the European Union.

Through its participation in NATO, Europe, despite its reluctance, would be brought into the Iran operation. The participation of NATO largely hinges on a military cooperation agreement reached between NATO and Israel. This agreement would bind NATO to defend Israel against Syria and Iran. NATO would therefore support a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and could take on a more active role if Iran were to retaliate following US-Israeli air strikes.

Needless to say, the war against Iran is part of a longer term US military agenda which seeks to militarize the entire Caspian sea basin, eventually leading to the destabilization and conquest of the Russian Federation.

The Antiwar Movement

The antiwar movement must act, consistently, to prevent the next phase of this war from happening.

This is no easy matter. The holding of large antiwar rallies will not in itself reverse the tide of war.

High ranking officials of the Bush administration, members of the military and the US Congress have been granted the authority to uphold an illegal war agenda.

What is required is a grass roots network, a mass movement at national and international levels, which challenges the legitimacy of the military and political actors, and which is ultimately instrumental in unseating those who rule in our name.

War criminals occupy positions of authority. The citizenry is galvanized into supporting the rulers, who are “committed to their safety and well-being”. Through media disinformation, war is given a humanitarian mandate.

To reverse the tide of war, military bases must be closed down, the war machine (namely the production of advanced weapons systems) must be stopped and the burgeoning police state must be dismantled.

The corporate backers and sponsors of war and war crimes must also be targeted including the oil companies, the defense contractors, the financial institutions and the corporate media, which has become an integral part of the war propaganda machine.

Antiwar sentiment does not dismantle a war agenda. The war criminals in the US, Israel and Britain must be removed from high office.

What is needed is to reveal the true face of the American Empire and the underlying criminalization of US foreign policy, which uses the “war on terrorism” and the threat of Al Qaeda to galvanize public opinion in support of a global war agenda.


Israel’s Nuclear Capabilities 

John Steinbach,  

March 2002

( This article describes Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal. Several of the statements are no longer valid or relevant in 2023

It is understood that in the course of the last 21 years, Israel’s nuclear capabilities have significantly evolved). 

 

With between 200 and 500 thermonuclear weapons and a sophisticated delivery system, Israel has quietly supplanted Britain as the World’s 5th Largest nuclear power, and may currently rival France and China in the size and sophistication of its nuclear arsenal. Although dwarfed by the nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and Russia, each possessing over 10,000 nuclear weapons, Israel nonetheless is a major nuclear power, and should be publicly recognized as such.

Today, estimates of the Israeli nuclear arsenal range from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of about 500. Whatever the number, there is little doubt that Israeli nukes are among the world’s most sophisticated, largely designed for “war fighting” in the Middle East. A staple of the Israeli nuclear arsenal are “neutron bombs,” miniaturized thermonuclear bombs designed to maximize deadly gamma radiation while minimizing blast effects and long term radiation- in essence designed to kill people while leaving property intact.(16) Weapons include ballistic missiles and bombers capable of reaching Moscow…

The bombs themselves range in size from “city busters” larger than the Hiroshima Bomb to tactical mini nukes.

The Israeli arsenal of weapons of mass destruction clearly dwarfs the actual or potential arsenals of all other Middle Eastern states combined, and is vastly greater than any conceivable need for “deterrence.”

Many Middle East Peace activists have been reluctant to discuss, let alone challenge, the Israeli monopoly on nuclear weapons in the region, often leading to incomplete and uninformed analyses and flawed action strategies.

Placing the issue of Israeli weapons of mass destruction directly and honestly on the table and action agenda would have several salutary effects.

First, it would expose a primary destabilizing dynamic driving the Middle East arms race and compelling the region’s states to each seek their own “deterrent.”

Second, it would expose the grotesque double standard which sees the U.S. and Europe on the one hand condemning Iraq, Iran and Syria for developing weapons of mass destruction, while simultaneously protecting and enabling the principal culprit.

Third, exposing Israel’s nuclear strategy would focus international public attention, resulting in increased pressure to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction and negotiate a just peace in good faith.

Finally, a nuclear free Israel would make a Nuclear Free Middle East and a comprehensive regional peace agreement much more likely. Unless and until the world community confronts Israel over its covert nuclear program it is unlikely that there will be any meaningful resolution of the Israeli/Arab conflict, a fact that Israel may be counting on as the Sharon era dawns.

From John Steinbach, Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal, Global Research

  • Posted in English, Mobile, NO READ MORE LINK
  • Comments Off on Expanding Middle East War. Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran, The War on Energy, Strategic Waterways

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

The Kiev regime is absolutely unable to maintain control over what happens in the country. In a recent statement, the Ministry of the Interior announced that it does not have information on the location of all the weapons that had been distributed to the Ukrainian population since the establishment of the martial law – immediately after the launch of Russia’s special military operation. This means that millions of weapons are circulating freely across the country – or even abroad – and could end up in the hands of criminals and terrorists. However, more than that, the real concern seems to be with the possibility of the Ukrainian people starting an uprising against the government.

Igor Klimenko, Ukraine’s Interior Minister, stated on April 12 that many of the weapons distributed to citizens are simply no longer under government control. There is no data to prove the location of the weapons, thus preventing any type of control over the circulation of these equipment. This has caused concern for the government, which is trying to create mechanisms to recover the weapons – or at least locate and monitor them.

“How many weapons do our citizens have in their hands? Between 1 and 5 million (…) How many grenades? Quite enough as well (…) We (…) understand that they should have it because there is a war going on”, the Minister said.

Ukrainian lawmakers are currently working on a bill to establish an official procedure obliging citizens to surrender or register their weapons. At the beginning of hostilities with Russia, the Ministry of the Interior distributed millions of weapons to civilians. The alleged objective was to strengthen the population and create popular militias to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian “invaders”.

In addition to firearms, grenades were also given to ordinary people, which shows the high level of irresponsibility on the part of the Ukrainian government. To make matters worse, many veterans return from the front lines with captured weapons that they keep as “trophies”, which makes it even more difficult for authorities to have control over the military equipment circulating in the country.

Obviously, the irresponsible distribution of weapons to ordinary people can have catastrophic consequences. The government claims that it is particularly concerned about the fact that many soldiers return home having mental problems due to stress on the battlefield. People in these health conditions should not have weapons as they could pose a risk to society. Although valid, the argument does not seem sufficient to explain the regime’s concerns.

The Ukrainian government has never shown any real concern for the mental health of its troops. People with mental problems are even being sent to the front, in addition to the fact that soldiers are being forced to remain on the battlefield for an extended period, ignoring any health protocols. The neo-Nazi regime is well known for its disregard for the lives of ordinary citizens and its indifference for the health of soldiers, which is why such concern does not seem to be the real reason why Ukraine wants to regain control over weapons.

Furthermore, it is necessary to remember that since 2022, Russian authorities have been reporting the presence of Western-supplied Ukrainian weapons with terrorist groups around the world, even in Africa. Kiev has always ignored the evident fact that its weapons were on the black market, which is why this does not seem to be the actual explanation behind the regime’s desperation in controlling the circulation of weapons from now on.

Certainly, Zelensky and his team are particularly concerned about growing popular dissatisfaction and the possibility of a mass uprising. Despite being a dangerous and irresponsible measure, arming civilians inevitably guarantees greater power of rebellion for ordinary citizens. With weapons in their hands, Ukrainian civilians could create popular self-defense militias, not against the Russians (as Kiev planned), but also against the neo-Nazi regime itself and its dictatorial policies.

With armed people willing to protect themselves and resist the measures of the regime, it may become impossible for Kiev to continue maintaining the forced conscription system in the long term, for example. Being the Ukrainian people increasingly dissatisfied with the war, it appears that Kiev fears that there will be popular uprisings against the authorities – which, considering the people’s possession of weapons, could lead to a civil war and the immediate collapse of the regime.

In fact, Ukraine is in an increasingly complicated situation. It will be difficult to regain control over distributed weapons, since ordinary citizens will certainly not accept obeying the new law – and will be able to defend themselves from reprisals precisely because they are armed. Without the trust and support of its own people, the regime does not seem to have any good expectations, being defeat a mere matter of time.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Lucas Leiroz is a member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert. You can follow Lucas on X (former Twitter) and Telegram. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

Checkmate: Iran Defeats the US-Israeli Missile Defense Architecture. Scott Ritter

By Scott Ritter, April 17, 2024

By defeating the US-Israeli missile defense shield, Iran exposed the notion of US missile defense supremacy that serves as the heart of US force protection models used when projecting military power on a global scale.

Germany Buries the Evidence of Complicity in Gaza Genocide: Nicaragua Exposes It

By John Perry, April 17, 2024

Carlos Argüello, who led the case last week and many of its previous cases, said that Nicaragua offered its expertise to Palestine and it had already joined in with South Africa’s action. It had decided to target Germany, the second biggest supplier of arms to Israel, because the US, the biggest supplier, is outside the court’s jurisdiction on this issue. 

What ‘Mysterious ICBM’ Did Russia Just Test Launch? Drago Bosnic

By Drago Bosnic, April 17, 2024

On April 12, 2024, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) test-fired an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) from the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region (oblast). The missile hit the Sary Shagan testing ground in Kazakhstan, located approximately 1,600 km to the east. Other than stating it’s an ICBM, RVSN didn’t reveal the exact type of the missile it launched.


The Great Dispossession: A Massive Financial Crisis Is Pending. The WEF’s “Great Reset” Means “The Re-institutionalization of Feudalism”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 17, 2024

In Part 3, I explain David Rogers Webb’s conclusion that a massive financial crisis is pending in which our financial assets are the collateral underwriting the derivative and financial bubble and will result in the loss of our assets but leave us with our debts as happened to those whose banks failed in the 1930s.

Not in Our Name! An Angry German Voice Speaks Out Against the German Federal Government’s Complicity in the Gaza Genocide

By Hermann Ploppa, April 17, 2024

Nicaragua’s accusation before the International Court of Justice is that Germany is actively participating in the genocide committed by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip. And I as a German learned in school that I have to resist when genocide is happening in front of my eyes.

Pentagon Recognizes “Officially” that Israel is a Nuclear Power. Declassified Document

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 17, 2024

The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an entity on contract to the US Department of Defense released a previously classified military document which confirms Israel’s nuclear weapons program. This is considered to be a landmark decision, widely interpreted as constituting a semi-official recognition by the US Department of Defense that Israel is a bona fide nuclear power.

A Brief History of Kill Lists, From Langley to Israel’s AI System Called “Lavender”

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, April 16, 2024

The Israeli online magazine +972 has published a detailed report on Israel’s use of an artificial intelligence (AI) system called “Lavender” to target thousands of Palestinian men in its bombing campaign in Gaza. When Israel attacked Gaza after October 7, the Lavender system had a database of 37,000 Palestinian men with suspected links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). 

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

It might be wrong to assume China has “peaked”. Nicholas R. Lardy, a  Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, writing for Foreign Affairs, argues it is still rising and should not be underestimated  as a superpower. Parts of the American establishment, however, still cannot conceive of pacific coexistence/competition with Beijing. Matt Pottinger (former Deputy National Security Adviser) and Mike Gallagher (former chair of the “House Select Committee on the CCP”) amazingly call for regime change in China, and argue that Washington should ensure the whole of Asia is under US military primacy.

Pottinger and Gallagher in fact wrote that “the United States shouldn’t manage the competition with China; it should win it”. They call for “greater friction” in Chinese-US relations, by adopting “rhetoric and policies that feel uncomfortably confrontational.”

The authors add that “Washington should not fear the end state desired by a growing number of Chinese”, namely a China “free from communist dictatorship.”

Other goals Washington should pursue, according to the same piece, are “severing China’s access to Western technology” (by placing export bans on areas such as “quantum computing and biotechnology”), and also multiplying “U.S. military installations across the region and pre-position critical supplies such as fuel, ammunition, and equipment throughout the Pacific.”

Desirability aside (even from an American perspective), it is debatable whether such goals are even achievable. I’ve written before on how impossible it is to really “decouple” from China, considering the fact that any such attempts pertaining to sanctions and export bans, for example, can only aggravate the new supply chain crisis, ultimately hurting the United States itself and its allies, as is, in a different way, already the case with the ongoing “chip war” – not to mention the fact that supply chains are remarkably hard to trace. The authors understanding is that “Xi is preparing his country for a war over Taiwan” and thus Washington should not fail to deter such war, for it could “kill tens of thousands of U.S. service members, inflict trillions of dollars in economic damage, and bring about the end of the global order as we know it.”

The irony here lies of course in the fact that in mid-2022 Washington decided to change its stance on Taiwan. Previously, it had always pragmatically recognized Beijing’s “One China Policy”. It has been building, as I wrote before, a major precision-strike missile network along the so-called first island chain, which is a chain of islands near China’s coast – this being part of a $27.4 billion operation. In addition, it has been trying to advance the QUAD as a “new NATO” to contain Beijing – its engagement with Nepal being an example of that. New Zealand has also been under pressure to align with AUKUS (an ongoing discussion). Everywhere, American anti-Chinese initiatives abound: there is even a “new QUAD” , the so-called “Afghanistan – Uzbekistan – Pakistan Quad Regional Support for Afghanistan-Peace Process and Post Settlement”. Nancy Pelosi’s July 2022 visit to Taiwan can hardly be described as anything else than a provocation. It is no exaggeration to say the American-Chinese escalation of tensions brings the world closer to a new global war, and much of that escalation has been Washington’s own doing.

It is no wonder then that Peter T. C. Chang, a research associate at the Institute of China Studies (University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), has described the current American stance on Beijing as a “sick obsession with China” which could lead to “profound uncertainties” globally and “ruin” the US “and the world.” With both the Gaza and Ukraine crises persisting, with no foreseeable resolution (especially with regards to the former), the Sinophobic obsession, as Chang describes it, holds the US and much of the world back from addressing critical issues, such as AI, climate change, and so on. Such Sinophobia is much fueled by a propaganda war, involving unsubstantiated rumors about spy balloons, Tik Tok’s communist plots and things like that. The aforementioned Pottinger and Gallagher’s piece, for instance (on “winning” the competition with China) also makes a lot of points regarding TikTok (supposedly run by the Chinese Communist Party as part of a “smokeless battlefield” approach) and so on that are not really worth mentioning and can hardly be described as anything else as propaganda.

The bellicose spirit that permeates much of the American Establishment in turn is based on certain misconceptions about China,which is seen as having reached its peak. However, as Lardy points out, in his aforementioned article, despite its “headwinds” (such as “a housing market slump” and the US-imposed restrictions), there is no reason to believe Beijing could not overcome all of those, as it overcame “even greater challenges when it started on the path of economic reform in the late 1970s.” As he concludes:

“China will likely continue to contribute about a third of the world’s economic growth while increasing its economic footprint, particularly in Asia. If U.S. policymakers underappreciate this, they are likely to overestimate their own ability to sustain the deepening of economic and security ties with Asian partners.”

Pottinger and Gallagher in turn acknowledge that the incumbent Biden administration has had its fair share of “failures of deterrence” (“in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and the Middle East”), but its China policy, nonetheless, they argue, “has stood out as a relative bright spot.” Biden’s foreign policy, one may recall, has been characterized for its “dual containment” approach – referring to simultaneously “encircling” Moscow and “containing” Beijing.

The Atlantic superpower is currently overextended, and overburdened. In addition, it is undergoing a military crisis, and its naval hegemony is under threat. It is therefore a superpower in decline, basically. Its enabling of Israel’s wild undertakings in the Levant has brought about the current crisis in the Red Sea. (now risking escalating into a full-blown Israeli-Iranian war). Even so, well-positioned actors within the American Establishment think it would be both feasible and desirable to pursue direct warfare with the Chinese superpower – even aiming at regime change. Those are quite dangerous ideas, to say the least.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Israel’s divisions are now at full display – even in the government. 

Six months into the conflict against Hamas, the Israeli public is deeply divided about how to win the war in the Gaza Strip. So, too, are the three top officials in the war cabinet meant to foster unity in that effort. (Rory Jones, The Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2024)

The split between Israel and its once “eternal” ally the USA is also increasing – no doubt, heated discussions are happening between the USA and Israel right now.

US sees its global empire crumbling in the Middle East and the US cannot rein in a religiously extremist Israel which wants to drag the US into the creation of its own regional empire and doesn’t care that Israel even with US help stands to chance of getting out on top of a wider war.

All this proves that Iran really knows a thing or two about strategy.

This is going BAD for Israel in all possible ways.

  1. Israel has morally become a global genocide pariah. Nobody fears Israel, deterrence is gone – instead Israel is hated by more and more – even in Germany, one of Israel’s closest “friends”, 70% of the population is appalled by Israel and in the US, more and more Americans including Jews feel disgust at Israel’s crimes.
  2. Hamas can after six months not be defeated militarily. Hamas is even still in political power.
  3. The hostages are not freed.
  4. The empty towns along Israel’s northern border are poised to stay empty forever.
  5. Iran sent an overwhelming number of 330 drones and missiles, and Iran already promises to send “10 times more” if Israel dares retaliate against Iran – suddenly Israel’s stockpiles of air defense missiles small and frighteningly, soon will be out of air defense, and we can look to Ukraine to see what the means (no electricity, no work, everything breaks down, no nothing).
  6. Iran has shown an upper hand, taken escalatory charge and destroyed Israel’s criminal Dahiya doctrine of endless civilian deaths, even without Iran itself causing civilian harm.
  7. Even Western experts give respect to Iran for its military planning, diplomacy, and mature leadership prowess.
  8. Everybody in the West fears what Israel will do to escalate an already big war in the world – stocks are already tumbling at the prospect of an uncontainable and endless Middle East war involving Iran (backed by Russia and China).
  9. Several Middle East régimes including Israel’s important security partner Jordan are at risk of falling, as Israel continues its genocide and other Muslim régimes stand passively at the sidelines while Iran successfully engages Israel-USA.
  10. Israel’s indispensable partner the USA openly calls for Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu to resign – calls Netanyahu a “risk” for Israel (and USA).
  11. Israel’s population is completely scared – and deeply divided.
  12. Nobody in Israel or the US has got any idea whatsoever how to conclude this, or what an outcome they could ever achieve might look like.

Did I forget a point or two? Probably, but the 12 points above are already devastating for Israel – and the USA with G7.

Neither Israel nor the USA has even got a plan A.

Instead of taking a pause, rethink, and start a dialogue – Israel drags the US into a flight forward from defeat to complete self-destruction. Israel cannot be dissuaded from retaliating, which is what the US fears. What probably happen these hours is that the US as a “compromise” presses Israel to a diminished “retaliation” – which from the perspective of Iran will not look at all “diminished” or negligible.

By giving warning to the US in advance, and by not killing anybody with its retaliation on Israel, Iran offered a path without a big Regional escalation involving the US and all US allies, potentially up to the nuclear level. But Israel’s divided government unite on one thing, and that is to make sure that such an escalation with dire global effects happens.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Photo: Valeriano Di Domenico / WEF)

Alle Artikel von Global Research können in 51 Sprachen gelesen werden, indem Sie die Schaltfläche „Website übersetzen“ unter dem Namen des Autors aktivieren (nur in der Desktop-Version verfügbar).

Um den täglichen Newsletter von Global Research (ausgewählte Artikel) zu erhalten, klicken Sie hier.

Klicken Sie oben auf die Schaltfläche „Teilen“, um diesen Artikel per E-Mail an Ihre Freunde und Kollegen weiterzuleiten. Folgen Sie uns auf Instagram und Twitter und abonnieren Sie unseren Telegram-Kanal. Fühlen Sie sich frei, Artikel von Global Research erneut zu veröffentlichen und mit anderen zu teilen.

Globale Forschungsempfehlungskampagne: Unsere Leser sind unsere Lebensader

***

Deutschland beteiligt sich aktiv am Völkermord der israelischen Streitkräfte im Gaza-Streifen, so lautet die Anklage Nicaraguas vor dem Internationalen Gerichtshof. Und ich habe in der Schule gelernt, dass ich Widerstand leisten muss, wenn sich vor meinen Augen ein Völkermord ereignet.

Ich erkenne mein Deutschland nicht wieder.

Jetzt wird doch erneut von „Kriegstauglichkeit“ schwadroniert. Da soll schon wieder gegen Osten marschiert werden.

Und das sollen wir doch bitte keine Feigheit vor dem Feind zeigen.

Wir müssen noch mehr Opfer bringen für die deutschen Rüstungsanstrengungen. Härte! Unerbittliche Härte!

Die Leute, die so daher schmettern, haben keine Bürstenfrisur und tragen keine Knobelbecher. Es sind die selben Leute, die eben noch von Verständigung, Toleranz und Frieden gesungen haben. Es sind Leute, die sich vor geraumer Zeit noch für einen respektvollen Umgang mit anderen Völkern und Ethnien ausgesprochen haben.

Und jetzt haben wir diese unreife Göre als Chefin des altehrwürdigen Auswärtigen Amtes, die sich imperialistischer, rassistischer und kolonialistischer aufführt als alle deutschen Außenminister vor ihr. Was ja auch unweigerliche zur Folge hat, dass Länder der Südhalbkugel Frau Baerbock das eigentlich unerlässliche diplomatische Protokoll verweigern. Aber ich will mich nicht weiter mit jener Verkörperung aller Peinlichkeit abgeben. Man kann ja grüne Politiker beschimpfen so viel man will. Man trifft hier jedoch immer nur die Schießbudenfiguren, auf die der Volkszorn losrennt, während sich die tatsächlichen Drahtzieher dieser Misere entspannt zurücklehnen können.

Immerhin haben über sechshundert Ministerialbeamte eine öffentliche Erklärung abgegeben, in der sie gegen die Unterstützung des Völkermords im Gazastreifen protestieren.

Die Unterzeichner dieser Erklärung haben sich nicht mit Klarnamen vorgestellt. Kann man denn auch im Ernst noch erwarten, dass diese Leute sich outen? Nach all den Akten der feudalistischen Willkür, die wir in der schweren Corona-Zeit erlebt haben? Wo Richter strafrechtlich verfolgt und zu Hause einer Durchsuchung unterzogen wurden, nur weil sie ein unpassendes Gerichtsurteil gefällt haben? Wo der Leiter eines Gesundheitsamtes strafversetzt wurde, weil er dem offiziellen Narrativ über eine Pandemie widersprochen hat? Nein, die sechshundert Ministerialbeamten haben es vollkommen richtig gemacht. Der zweckentfremdete Staatsapparat weiß, dass in seinen Reihen noch mutige Selbstdenker sitzen. Und dass die Usurpatoren unseres Staatsapparates sich vorsehen müssen. Solange die Dissidenten im Staatsapparat anonym bleiben, können sie im entscheidenden Augenblick im Sinne des Grundgesetzes intervenieren. Und zwar zugunsten des Gemeinwohls, wie sie es dereinst geschworen haben. Es gibt diese anständigen Volksdiener mit Rückgrat, und zwar im Militär, bei der Polizei, in der Justitz und im Regierungsapparat. Und, wie wir wissen, mittlerweile auch bei den Öffentlich-Rechtlichen Medien.

Und die sechshundert Aufrechten im Öffentlichen Dienst adressieren ihren Offenen Brief an die wichtigsten Mitglieder der Bundesregierung und sagen ihnen:

„… wir richten uns an Sie, weil wir als Bundesbeamtinnen und Angestellte im öffentlichen Dienst den Fundamentalprinzipien des Grundgesetzes verpflichtet sind. Artikel 25 Satz 1 Grundgesetz erteilt einen generellen Rechtsanwendungsbefehl in Bezug auf das Völkerrecht. Diese Vorschrift bewirkt nach Aussage des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, dass ‚die allgemeinen Regeln des Völkerrechts ohne ein Transformationsgesetz, also unmittelbar, Eingang in die deutsche Rechtsordnung finden und dem deutschen innerstaatlichen Recht im Range vorgehen.‘ Israel begeht in Gaza Verbrechen, die im evidenten Widerspruch zum Völkerrecht und damit zum Grundgesetz stehen, dem wir als Bundesbeamtinnen und Angestellte im öffentlichen Dienst verpflichtet sind. Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland unterstützt politisch, wirtschaftlich und militärisch die völkerrechtswidrige Politik Israels in Gaza und den weiteren völkerrechtswidrig besetzten palästinensischen Gebieten. Es ist daher unsere Pflicht als Beschäftigte des Bundes, diese Politik der Bundesregierung zu kritisieren und daran zu erinnern, dass die Bundesregierung strikt die Verfassung und das Völkerrecht zu beachten hat.“[1]

Nochmal im Klartext: die Bundesregierung kann sich so viele Gesetze und Verordnungen aus den Fingern saugen wie sie will. Sie alle sind nichtig, wenn sie nicht mit übergeordnetem Völkerrecht vereinbar sind. Schlimm, wenn man die Bundesregierung von außen her dersrt deutlich daran erinnern muss. Der Offene Brief verweist darauf, dass der Gaza-Streifen mit seinen etwa zwei Millionen Bewohnern seit dem 7. Oktober letzten Jahres von den israelischen Streitkräften so sehr in Schutt und Asche gebombt worden ist, dass ein Leben dort de facto nicht mehr möglich ist. Das hat den Internationalen Gerichtshof am 26. Januar dieses Jahres dazu veranlasst, die Handlungen der israelischen Streitkräfte im Gaza-Streifen als „plausible Akte des Völkermords“ zu verurteilen.

Wir müssen uns mal klar machen, dass es sich beim Krieg im Gaza-Streifen nicht um einen so genannten „symmetrischen Krieg“ handelt – also einem Krieg, in dem zwei in etwa gleich stark ausgerüstete Streitkräfte auf dem Schlachtfeld gegeneinander kämpfen. Nein, beim Gaza-Krieg handelt es sich um einen „asymmetrischen Krieg“: eine voll ausgerüstete und armierte Armee bekämpft eine wehrlose Zivilbevölkerung – bis diese Zivilbevölkerung entweder flüchtet oder vollständig vernichtet ist. Das Argument des Netanyahu-Regimes, man bekämpfe auf symmetrische Art eine Hamas-Armee, überzeugt nicht. Zwar hat die Hamas in den unterirdischen Tunneln eine Art von Rest-Vegetieren behaupten können. Militärisch spielt die Hamas – abgesehen von ein paar Heckenschützen-Angriffen auf vereinzelte israelische Soldaten – überhaupt keine Rolle. Potentiell und verbal verbündete Streitkräfte der Hisbollah oder des Irans halten sich bislang aus Angst vor den israelischen Atombomben weitgehend bedeckt.

Die Unterstützung der ukrainischen Streitkräfte durch Deutschland nimmt wenigstens noch Bezug auf die symmetrische Konstellation zweier angeblich gleich starker Streitkräfte, die einen Abnutzungskrieg führen. Demgegenüber ist bei der Unterstützung des israelischen asymmetrischen Krieges gegen palästinensische Zivilisten durch Deutschland die Rote Linie des Völkerrechts eindeutig überschritten. Eine Klage des Staates Nicaragua gegen Deutschland aus genau diesem Grund wird von den deutschen Anwälten beim Internationalen Gerichtshof rotzfrech als „haltlos“ zurückgewiesen. Die Mitarbeiter der öffentlich-rechtlichen Tagesschau können dieser Tatsache in ihrer Berichterstattung im Kern auch nicht widersprechen. Sie verlegen sich auf die beliebte Methode des Framings: wenn Nicaragua in der Sache unzweifelhaft Recht hat, dann muss diese Klage zumindest diskreditiert werden, indem man die Regierung Nicaraguas als „autoritär“ brandmarkt[2]. Dazu sei angemerkt, dass die Regierung Ortega durch freie und korrekte Wahlen in die Verantwortung gelangt ist.

Das Framing hilft aber rein gar nichts. Denn das angesehene schwedische Institut SIPRI hat festgestellt, dass fast allen Regierungen der Welt das Gebaren der israelischen Streitkräfte seit vielen Jahren so anrüchig vorgekommen ist, dass sie sich dezent aus dem Waffengeschäft mit Israel verabschiedet haben[3]. Es sind nur zwei bedingungslose Unterstützer der israelischen Aufrüstung übrig geblieben. Raten Sie doch mal bitte, wer die beiden sein könnten. Richtig: die USA war im Jahre 2023 mit 53 Prozent der größte Waffenlieferant der israelischen Streitkräfte. Ganz dicht gefolgt von der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, mit zuletzt 47 Prozent der Waffenimporte Israels. Und weil sich andere Länder weigern, Waffen an Israel zu liefern, hat sich der Anteil deutscher Ausrüstungslieferungen an Israel vom Jahre 2022 auf 2023 sage und schreibe verzehnfacht!

Dazu kommt, dass die Bundesregierung die Zahlungen an die Flüchtligsorganisation UNRWA einstweilen eingefroren hat[4]. Nicht für die 2,4 Millionen heimatvertriebenen Palästinenser in Jordanien, die teilweise in elenden Lagern seit Generationen vor sich hin vegetieren. Und auch nicht für deren 600.000 Leidensgenossen in Syrien, oder die halbe Million Leidensgenossen im Libanon[5]. Nein. Sondern ausdrücklich das Hilfsgeld für die zwei Millionen Palästinenser, die im Gaza-Streifen zusammengedrängt sind und jeden Augenblick mit ihrer Auslöschung rechnen müssen. Die keine Nahrung, keine Medizin, keine Krankenhäuser, keine Schulen und keine Universitäten haben. Und kein Dach über den Kopf. Selbst Trinkwasser ist nicht mehr ausreichend vorhanden. Das Hilfsgeld für diese unsere Mitmenschen im Gaza-Streifen hält die gloriose deutsche Bundesregierung konsequent zurück. Anders wie die Europäische Union, Spanien, Kanada, Schweden, Irland, Dänemark oder Australien, die ihre Hilfsgelder zwar kurzfristig eingefroren haben, jetzt aber ihre Hilfszahlungen sogar erhöht haben. Nur Deutschland hält treu an der weiteren Aushungerung der Palästinenser fest. Ich befinde mich gerade in Spanien. Die deutsche Haltung ist niemandem hier zu vermitteln.

Selbst der Tagesschau-Korrespondent Thilo Spanhel in Kairo versucht tapfer, der deutschen Filterblase ein bisschen abzuhelfen, indem er berichtet, dass das deutsche Ansehen durch die letzten Alleingänge in der Gaza-Frage massiv und nachhaltig ruiniert ist[6]. Hier ist, wie ich schon sagte, eine rote Linie überschritten worden von der aktuellen Bundesregierung. Und keiner soll hier bitte den Eindruck erwecken, eine mögliche neue Regierungskoalition als Nachfolgerin der Ampel würde in der Gaza-Frage anders handeln. Man möge sich doch bitte nur mal die X-Twitter-Verlautbarungen von prominenten Politikern der Opposition anschauen, um in dieser Frage von allen Illusionen geheilt zu sein.

Dagegen haben sich alle früheren deutschen Politiker durch Augenmaß und Bescheidenheit in der Nahost-Problematik ausgezeichnet. Da war zum Beispiel der legendäre SPD-Politiker Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski, der immer wieder erfolgreich zwischen Arabern und Israelis vermittelt hat und deswegen den zärtlichen Spitznamen „Ben Wisch“ zuerkannt bekam. Oder der ehemalige FDP-Außenminister Guido Westerwelle, der sich in der entscheidenden Sitzung des UNO-Weltsicherheitsrates zwar nicht gegen einen völkerrechtswidrigen Überfall auf den libyschen Staatschef Gaddhafi aussprechen konnte, aber mit seiner Stimmenenthaltung gerade der arabischen Welt signalisierte, dass Deutschland den Überfall missbilligt, dass er als Außenminister einer amerikanischen Kolonie aber nur mit einer Enthaltung antworten kann[7]. Das kam an. Auch die Araber wussten, dass Deutschland aufgrund seiner besonderen Vorgeschichte einen Tanz auf rohen Eiern aufführen musste. Die besondere deutsche Vorgeschichte beinhaltet aber auch, dass Deutschland seit dem Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs über keine Kolonien verfügt. Und während die Wut in der Dritten Welt über die Kolonialmächte Frankreich und Großbritannien bis heute überall zu spüren ist, haben die Deutschen sich durch ihr gleichermaßen bescheidenes, kompetentes und menschliches Auftreten in diesen Ländern über die Jahrzehnte ein hohes Ansehen erworben. Die Deutschen können ohne viel Gelaber viele Dinge gut organisieren. Das hört man überall. Das kann auch durch noch so viel transatlantische Umerziehungspropaganda nicht verleugnet werden. Die Deutschen als respektvolle Partner und als Menschen, die gut zuhören können. Das hat uns unter anderem gute Geschäftsbeziehungen eingebracht auf Zukunftsmärkten. All das ist jetzt durch die Unterstützung des Völkermordes in Palästina in wenigen Monaten zertrümmert worden.

Es soll hier nicht der Eindruck entstehen, als ginge es nur um gute Geschäfte. Das unbeschreibliche Elend unschuldiger Menschen ist unerträglich! Und dass wir mit unseren immerhin nicht gerade geringen Steuergeldern dieses Leiden noch verstärken müssen, geht gar nicht. Wir müssen unsere Stimme deutlich erheben: diese Verbrechen gegen das Völkerrecht geschehen nicht in unserem Namen! Und was wir tun, hat nichts mit „Antisemitismus“ zu tun. Die überwältigende Mehrheit aller Juden weltweit verurteilt die Verbrechen der Netanyahu-Regierung auf das Schärfste und diese mutigen Menschen artikulieren ihren Protest auf der Straße. Lassen wir diese Mitmenschen jetzt nicht im Stich. Ausgerechnet in der Gaza-Frage müssen wir nun wirklich keinen deutschen Sonderweg gehen. Erinnern wir uns doch noch mal, was wir in der Schule dereinst gelernt haben: wenn sich vor unseren Augen noch einmal ein Völkermord ereignet, dann ist es erste Bürgerpflicht, uns diesem Verbrechen zu widersetzen.

*

Hinweis für Leser: Bitte klicken Sie oben auf die Schaltfläche „Teilen“. Folgen Sie uns auf Instagram und Twitter und abonnieren Sie unseren Telegram-Kanal. Fühlen Sie sich frei, Artikel von Global Research erneut zu veröffentlichen und mit anderen zu teilen.

Anmerkungen

[1] https://diefreiheitsliebe.de/politik/600-bundesbeamte-fordern-von-bundesregierung-waffenlieferungen-an-israel-umgehend-einzustellen/

[2] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/deutschland-nicaragua-klage-102.html

[3] https://counter-investigations.org/investigation/german-arms-exports-to-israel-2003-2023

[4] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/stopp-finanzierung-unrwa-100.html

[5] https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/892835/umfrage/registrierte-palaestinensische-fluechtlinge-nach-gebiet/

[6] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/nahost-krieg-rolle-deutschland-100.html

[7] https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/libyen-enthaltung-in-der-uno-wie-es-zu-dem-deutschen-jein-kam-a-752676.html

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Last Thursday, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the British-Palestinian war surgeon, gave his first address as the newly-appointed rector of Glasgow University, chosen in recognition of his work at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

The following day he flew to Berlin, where he had been invited to address a major conference about Palestine.

On arrival he was taken away by police, interrogated for several hours and eventually told he had to leave Germany and wouldn’t be allowed to return until at least the end of April.

Any attempt to speak to the conference via Zoom could result in a fine or even a year’s prison sentence.

By the time he was released he couldn’t have taken part in the conference anyway, since it had been already invaded by at least 900 police and closed down. Berlin’s mayor said that it was ‘intolerable’ that the conference was taking place at all.

Speaking about his experience afterwards, Dr Abu-Sittah referred to the fact that Germany had – also last week – been defending itself at the International Court of Justice against charges by Nicaragua that it is an accomplice to genocidal war.

‘This is exactly what accomplices to a crime do’ he said. ‘They bury the evidence and they silence or harass or intimidate the witnesses’.

Watching the live feed of Germany’s lawyers at the Hague a few days earlier had been an odd experience.

They gave the impression of being affronted that Germany had been accused of such crimes, especially by a small country which, they argued, had no stake in the case. Also, Israel could not yet be said to be committing genocide, because the ICJ has not yet determined the case brought against it by South Africa, which Germany had supported Israel in contesting. Because Israel was not party to the new case, it should simply be thrown out.

Some research might have given them a better appreciation of Nicaragua’s credentials to bring the case. Its mutual solidarity with Palestine goes back a long way.

It also has more experience at the Hague than Germany, including its pioneer action against the US in 1984, when it won compensation of £17 billion (that was never paid) for the damage done to Nicaragua by the US-funded Contra war and the mining of its ports.

Carlos Argüello, who led the case last week and many of its previous cases, said that Nicaragua offered its expertise to Palestine and it had already joined in with South Africa’s action. It had decided to target Germany, the second biggest supplier of arms to Israel, because the US, the biggest supplier, is outside the court’s jurisdiction on this issue. 

Argüello explains that the object is to create a precedent with wider application – that countries must take responsibility for the consequences of their arms sales to avoid them being used in breach of international law. Germany’s argument that legal action cannot proceed before South Africa’s earlier case is resolved is nonsense, since countries have an obligation to prevent genocide, not merely wait until it is proven to be happening. In any case, Germany must have been aware of the numerous warnings from senior UN officials of the imminence of genocide in Gaza, which began as early as October 9th.

Germany claimed that it has a “robust legal framework” in place to ensure its arms exports are not misused, and that sales to Israel are now restricted to non-lethal equipment. But any supplies being sent to a genocidal army are helping to sustain its criminal actions, Nicaragua replied.

Much was made of Germany’s historic obligations due to its Nazi history, but Argüello argues that these should relate to the Jewish people, not the Israeli state. He adds that Germany’s past might also oblige it to help prevent genocide wherever it might occur. Its government spokesman on the South Africa case had claimed that Germany is ‘particularly committed to the Genocide Convention’. 

The economist Yanis Varoufakis was also banned from speaking in Berlin. He planned to conclude his speech by telling German politicians that ‘they have covered themselves in shame’ through their unflinching support for Israel’s atrocities. Carlos Argüello echoes this point when asked whether a decision by the ICJ can actually be enforced: we have to mobilise shame, he says, ‘…that’s the hope with this. Perhaps being too idealistic, but it’s the only weapon we have’.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

John Perry is based in Masaya, Nicaragua and writes for the London Review of Books, Covert Action, Global Research, The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, Counterpunch, The Grayzone and other publications.

Featured image: Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Rafah, the last refuge in southern Gaza. Photo credit: MENAFN 

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

On April 12, 2024, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) test-fired an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) from the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region (oblast). The missile hit the Sary Shagan testing ground in Kazakhstan, located approximately 1,600 km to the east. Other than stating it’s an ICBM, RVSN didn’t reveal the exact type of the missile it launched. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said only that the launch was conducted to test a “perspective missile system”, as well as to confirm “the stability of missiles in service”. The test has been deemed a success by both domestic and foreign military observers and analysts. However, combined with the rather unconventional wobbling and maneuvering of the missile, this level of secrecy by the Russian MoD, unseen since the (First) Cold War, left many questions unanswered.

Some sources, particularly those in the political West, reported that the missile in question was the 15Zh55ME “Topol-ME/Yars-E”. However, apart from speculation, we cannot know for sure what sort of ICBM it was. In fact, the range at which the test-launch was conducted could indicate that the missile in question was an ICBM in name only, as those are usually fired at the Kura test site in Kamchatka, which is much further to the east and, thus, far more suitable to test actual ICBMs. As previously mentioned, the missile demonstrated some rather unusual wobbling and maneuvering. Such vectoring is indeed unique, as no country other than Russia has developed such technologies for advanced ballistic missiles. Starting with the legendary “Topol”, particularly the “Topol-M” variant, most Russian ICBMs have this capability.

The newer and more advanced RS-24 “Yars”, which now forms the bulk of Russia’s strategic arsenal, the most powerful in the world, also inherited this capability. There have been several iterations of this ICBM, one of which is essentially a “shortened” version of “Yars”(with one stage removed) known as the RS-26 “Rubezh”. The deployment of this missile was officially put on hold back in March 2018 as the RVSN prioritized the adoption of the “Avangard” strategic HGV (hypersonic glide vehicle). Reportedly, the RS-26 was supposed to be relaunched in 2027. However, since the United States unilaterally left the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty back in 2019, the Russian military seems to have adjusted its plans accordingly. The special military operation (SMO) certainly accelerated this change.

It should be noted that, although “Rubezh” is officially an ICBM, its strategic impact effectively puts it in the category of IRBMs (intermediate-range ballistic missiles). Back in 2012, the RS-26 was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia, hitting the Kura test site approximately 5,800 km to the east. However, every other test-launch was conducted from Kapustin Yar and hit Sary Shagan. The now-defunct INF Treaty defines any ballistic missile with a 3,000-5,500 km range as an IRBM, meaning that “Rubezh” falls just outside of that category if its maximum range is taken into account. Still, the fact that it has been used at far shorter ranges ever since means that, in practice, it’s an IRBM. And that’s precisely how NATO sees it. This effectively makes the RS-26 a successor to the RSD-10 “Pioneer” which had an identical strategic impact.

Since 2018, “Rubezh” has effectively become a “black project”, with little to no information about its development or deployment. However, more recent reports suggest that the activity surrounding this missile has been anything but dormant. The crawling NATO aggression in Europe, as well as the deeply destabilizing moves of the United States and its vassals and satellite states all around Russia’s borders, including in the Middle East, suggest that Moscow certainly needs a missile like this. The fact that it can also carry a MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles) payload gives RVSN unprecedented strike capabilities at intermediate ranges. No power in NATO, including the US itself, has anything remotely similar, particularly when it comes to the RS-26’s maneuverability, giving it virtual immunity from ABM systems.

Namely, standard ABM (anti-ballistic missile) defense is already an extremely difficult task due to the sheer speed of such weapons. As ballistic computers need to calculate the trajectories of any ICBM or IRBM fired at their position (or any position they’re supposed to be defending) to enable interception, designing such missiles to be maneuverable makes that task effectively impossible. The RS-24 “Yars” that “Rubezh” was based on has already demonstrated the capability to constantly wobble and even change its vector. It can only be expected that the RS-26 has the exact same capability. This Russian technology is entirely unique, as regular ballistic missiles are unable to make such complex maneuvers. In fact, wobbling nearly always suggests there’s something wrong with the missile and it usually ends with its crashing or missing its target.

Thus, the latest test sends a very clear message to the political West. If NATO is considering the possibility of escalating its aggression in Europe, such actions will certainly be met with a swift response. This may also include the belligerent alliance’s recent engagement in the Middle East, where the US and its regional vassals have been contemplating attacks on Iran.

Moscow certainly knew about Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel, meaning that the latest test-launch was another warning sign to the political West that Russia won’t tolerate any large-scale attacks on Iran, as those would destabilize the situation on its southern borders. It’s also a message that “Rubezh” effectively nullifies all NATO ABM systems in Europe, while also cooling down the increasingly hawkish behavior of some of its European members such as France and the United Kingdom.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

The world’s attention has, rightfully so, been focused on the fallout from Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel on April 13-14, 2024. Iran’s purpose in launching the attack was to establish a deterrence posture designed to put Israel and the United States on notice that any attack against Iran, whether on Iranian soil or on the territory of other nations, would trigger a retaliation which would inflict more damage on the attacker than the attacker could hope to inflict on Iran.

To achieve this result, Iran had to prove itself capable of overcoming the ballistic missile defense systems of both Israel and the United States which were deployed in and around Israel at the time of the attack.

This Iran was able to accomplish, with at least nine missiles striking two Israeli air bases that fell under the protective umbrella of the Israeli-US missile defense shield.

The Iranian deterrence posture has implications that reach far beyond the environs of Israel or the Middle East.

By defeating the US-Israeli missile defense shield, Iran exposed the notion of US missile defense supremacy that serves as the heart of US force protection models used when projecting military power on a global scale.

The US defensive posture vis-à-vis Russia, China, and North Korea hinges on assumptions made regarding the efficacy of US ballistic missile defense capabilities. By successfully attacking Israeli air bases which had the benefit of the full range of US anti-ballistic missile technology, Iran exposed the vulnerability of the US missile defense shield to modern missile technologies involving maneuverable warheads, decoys, and hypersonic speed. US bases in Europe, the Pacific and the Middle East once thought to be well-protected, have suddenly been revealed to be vulnerable to hostile attack. So, too, are US Navy ships operating at sea.

Israel’s ballistic missile defenses were given a supercharged boost by the deployment of an advanced AN/TPY-2 X band radar on Israeli soil. The radar, operated by the US Army’s 13th Missile Defense Battery, is located on Har Qeren, a height which rises out of the Negev Desert near the city of Be’er Sheva. The AN/TPY-2 is a missile defense radar that can detect, track and discriminate ballistic missiles, discriminating between threats and non-threats (i.e., incoming missiles and space debris).

The AN/TPY-2 operates in two different modes. The first, known as the “forward-based mode,” detects and tracks ballistic missiles as they are launched. The second—“terminal mode”—is used to guide interceptors toward a descending missile. The AN/TPY-2 is optimized to work with the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system by guiding the THAAD missile to its target.

The US had deployed at least one, and possibly two, THAAD missile batteries to Israel at the time of the Iranian missile attack. In addition to assisting the THAAD missiles in shooting down incoming threats, the AN/TPY-2 radar data was integrated with Israeli radar data and other technical intelligence collected by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization’s (BMDO) network of early warning satellites deployed for the sole purpose of monitoring and reporting Iranian ballistic missile launches. This integrated early warning/surveillance/tracking system was tied into a multi-layered missile defense architecture which included the US THAAD and Israeli Arrow 2, Arrow 3, advanced Patriot, and David’s Sling anti-ballistic missile interceptor systems.

Adding to the capability and lethality of the US-Israeli ballistic missile defense architecture was the presence of at least two US Navy ballistic missile defense (BMD) system-capable Aegis-class destroyers equipped with the SPY-1 S band radar and SM-3/SM-6 interceptor missiles.

The Navy BMD-capable ships are configured to tie into the ground-based AN/TPY-2 X band radar as well as the broader BMD system through the Command and Control, Battle management, and Communications (C2BMC) system. The combination of ground-based radars and interceptors with the US Navy BMD system provides US military commanders with theater-wide protection from hostile ballistic missile threats. This integrated system is designed to detect, acquire, and track incoming threats and, using complex computer-drive algorithms, discriminate targets and destroy them using hit-to-kill kinetic warheads (i.e., a “bullet hitting a bullet”).

On April 13-14, 2023, this system failed. In short, the combination of US and Israeli anti-ballistic missile defense capabilities deployed in and around the Negev desert made the Israeli air bases located there the most protected locations in the world from threats posed by ballistic missiles.

And yet Iran successfully struck both locations with multiple missiles.

The global strategic implications of this stunning Iranian accomplishment are game-changing—the US has long struggled conceptually with the notion of what is referred to as “A2/AD” (anti-access/area denial) threats posed by hostile ballistic missiles.

However, the US had sought to mitigate against this AA/A2 threat by overlaying theater ballistic missile defense architecture like that that had been employed in Israel. The failure of the combined US-Israeli defense systems in the face of a concerted Iranian missile attack exposed the short-comings of the US ballistic missile defense capabilities world-wide.

In short, this means that the US and NATO forces in Europe are vulnerable to attack from advanced Russian missile technologies which match or exceed those used by Iran to attack Israel. It also means that China would most likely be able to strike and sink US navy ships in the Pacific Ocean in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. And that North Korea could do the same to US ships and forces ashore in the vicinity of Japan and South Korea.

Until which time the US can develop, produce and deploy missile defense systems capable of defeating the new missile technology being deployed by nations like Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea, US military power projection capabilities are in a state of checkmate by America’s potential adversaries.  

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image: North Korea conducts a mass launch of ballistic missiles (Source: Scott Ritter Extra)

Faulty Assurances: The Judicial Torture of Assange Continues

April 17th, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Only this month, the near comatose US President, Joe Biden, made a casual, castaway remark that his administration was “considering” the request by Australia that the case against Julian Assange be concluded.

The WikiLeaks founder has already spent five gruelling years in London’s Belmarsh prison, where he continues a remarkable, if draining campaign against the US extradition request on 18 charges, 17 incongruously and outrageously based on the US Espionage Act of 1917.

Like readings of coffee grinds, his defenders took the remark as a sign of progress. Jennifer Robinson, a longtime member of Assange’s legal team, told Sky News Australia that Biden’s “response, this is what we have been asking for over five years.  Since 2010 we’ve been saying this is a dangerous precedent that’s being set.  So, we certainly hope it was a serious remark and the US will act on it.” WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson found the mumbled comment from the president “extraordinary”,  hoping “to see in the coming days” whether “clarification of what this means” would be offered by the powerful.

On April 14, the Wall Street Journal reported that Canberra had asked their US counterparts whether a felony plea deal could be reached, enabling the publisher to return to Australia. “Prosecutors and a lawyer for Assange have discussed a range of potential deals, including those that include pleading guilty to a felony under the espionage law under which he was indicted, and those of conspiring to mishandle classified information, which would be a misdemeanor, people familiar with the matter have said.”

Last month, the UK High Court gave what can only be regarded as an absurd prescription to the prosecution should they wish to succeed. Extradition would be unlikely to be refused if Assange was availed of protections offered by the First Amendment (though rejecting claims that he was a legitimate journalist), was guaranteed not to be prejudiced, both during the trial and in sentence on account of his nationality, and not be subject to the death penalty.  That such directions were even countenanced shows the somewhat delusionary nature of British justices towards their US counterparts.

On April 16, Assange’s supporters received confirmation that the extradition battle, far from ending, would continue in its tormenting grind.  Not wishing to see the prospect of a full hearing of Assange’s already hobbled arguments, the US State Department, almost to the hour, filed the assurances in a diplomatic note to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).  “Assange,” the US Embassy in London claimed with aping fidelity to the formula proposed by the High Court, “will not be prejudiced by reason of nationality with respect to which defenses he may seek to raise at trial and at sentencing.”

Were he to be extradited, “Assange will have the ability to raise and seek to rely upon at trial (which includes any sentencing hearing) the rights and protections given under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.” An obvious caveat, and one that should be observed with wary consideration by the High Court judges, followed.  “A decision as to the applicability of the First Amendment is exclusively within the purview of the US Courts.”

The US embassy also promised that,

“A sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed on Assange.  The United States is able to provide such assurance as Assange is not charged with a death-penalty eligible offense, and the United States assures that he will not be tried for a death-eligible offense.”

This undertaking does not dispel the threat of Assange being charged with additional offences such as traditional espionage, let alone aiding or abetting treason, which would carry the death penalty.

In 2020, Gordon Kromberg, the chief Department of Justice prosecutor behind the case, told the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales that the US “could argue that foreign nationals are not entitled to protections under the First Amendment, at least as it concerns national defense information.”  There was also the likelihood that Assange, in allegedly revealing the names of US intelligence sources thereby putting them at risk of harm, would also preclude the possibility of him relying on such protections.

That the zealous Kromberg will be fronting matters should Assange reach US shores is more than troubling.  Lawyers and civil rights activists have accused him of using the Eastern District Court of Virginia for selective and malicious prosecutions.  As Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept observed with bleak accuracy in July 2021, “[r]ather than being pushed into obscurity by these efforts, today he is serving as a key figure in one of the most important civil liberties cases in the world.”

The High Court also acknowledged Kromberg’s views at trial regarding the possibility that the First Amendment did not cover foreign nationals.

“It can fairly be assumed that [Kromberg] would not have said that the prosecution ‘could argue that foreign nationals are not entitled to protections under the First Amendment’ unless that was a tenable argument that the prosecution was entitled to deploy with real prospect of success.” 

These latest assurances do nothing to change that fact.

A post from Assange’s wife, Stella, provided a neat and damning summary of the embassy note. 

“The United States has issued a non-assurance in relation to the First Amendment, and a standard assurance in relation to the death penalty. It makes no undertaking to withdraw the prosecution’s previous assertion that Julian has no First Amendment rights because he is not a US citizen.  Instead, the US has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can ‘seek to raise’ the First Amendment if extradited.”

Whether the justices are duly satisfied by the latest diplomatic manoeuvre, one non-binding in any tangible or true sense on prosecutors and judges in the US, awaits testing in the hearing on May 20. For Assange, the wheels of judicial torture have been prolonged.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). Email: [email protected] 

Featured image is from Lawyers for Assange

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Read Parts I and II:

WEF’s Great Reset: The Great Dispossession. The Loss of Property Rights in Financial Assets. “Own Nothing Be Happy”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 11, 2024

The Great Dispossession: Turning Our Property in Financial Assets Into the Property of “Secured Creditors”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 16, 2024


In Part 1, I explained that the next financial crisis will be bailed out not with central bank money creation but with our stocks, bonds and bank balances.

In Part 2, I explained the multi-year quiet regulatory changes that dispossessed us of our property.

In Part 3, I explain David Rogers Webb’s conclusion that a massive financial crisis is pending in which our financial assets are the collateral underwriting the derivative and financial bubble and will result in the loss of our assets but leave us with our debts as happened to those whose banks failed in the 1930s.

Webb begins with the economic formula that the velocity of circulation of money times the money supply equals nominal Gross Domestic Product. V x MS = GDP.

The velocity of circulation is a measure of how many times a dollar is spent during a given period of time, e.g., quarterly, annually. A high velocity means people quickly spend the money that comes into their hands. A low velocity means people tend to hold on to money.

Velocity impacts the Federal Reserve’s ability to manage economic growth with money supply changes. If the velocity of money is falling, an expansionist monetary policy will not result in rising GDP. In such a situation, the Federal Reserve is said to be “pushing on a string.” Instead of pushing up GDP, money supply increases push up the values of financial assets and real estate resulting in financial and real estate bubbles.

Webb notes that falls in velocity are precursors of financial crises. A multi-year sharp fall in velocity preceded the stock market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression that gave birth to regulatory agencies. The 21st century is characterized by a long-term fall in velocity that has reached the lowest level on record, while stocks and real estate have been driven to unprecedented levels by years of zero interest rates. When this bubble pops, we will be dispossessed.

Will the bubble pop?

Yes. The Fed suddenly and rapidly moved from zero to 5% interest rates, a reversal of the policy that drove up prices of stocks and bonds. The Fed raises rates by reducing money supply growth, thus removing the factor supporting high stock prices and collapsing the value of bonds. This results in a lowering of the value of stocks and bonds serving as collateral for loans, which, of course, means the loans and the financial institution behind them are in trouble. Bonds have already taken a hit. The stock market is holding because participants believe the Fed is about to reverse its interest rate policy and lower rates.

Webb notes that the official data show that the velocity of money collapsed in the 21st century while the Fed introduced “quantatative easing.” He makes the correct point that when the velocity of money collapses, the Fed is pushing on a string. Instead of money creation fueling economic growth, it produces asset bubbles in real estate and financial instruments, which is what we have at the present time.

When after more than a decade of near zero interest rates, the Fed raises interest rates it collapses the values of financial portfolios and real estate and produces a financial crisis.

As the authorities have set in place a system that bails out secured creditors with our bank deposits, stocks, and bonds, we will have no money and no financial assets to sell for money. People with mortgaged homes and businesses will lose them, as they did in the 1930s, when they lost their money due to bank failures. People with car payments will lose their transportation. The way the system works is you lose your money but not your debts.

The secured creditors are the creditors of the troubled institutions. Ultimately, the secured creditors are the mega-banks defined as “privileged creditors.”

The collapse of financial asset values in 1929 resulted in the failure of 9,000 banks (see this). Bank failure meant that you lost the money you had in the bank. It means the same thing today regardless of deposit insurance, because your deposits have been turned into collateral for creditors. Moreover, FDIC deposit insurance is a joke. The FDIC’s assets are in the billions. Bank deposits are in the trillions. The Dodd-Frank Act prioritized derivatives over bank depositors, so a bank account holder is in line behind derivative claims. Apparently, FDIC insurance claims will be issued in the form of issuance of stock in a failed bank.

It has all happened before, but not on the scale of what is pending.

Under the regulatory regime in place, financial collapse today means that money will be drained from the economy and be concentrated along with all wealth in a few hands. A modern-day economy cannot function without money and without companies that serve as distributors of food, goods, and services. Webb notes that it is a perfect opportunity for central banks to introduce Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with which they have been experimenting.

The provision of CBDC to the population would provide a money supply and income to a population in total chaos and restore order to a grateful population. But it would also give total control to rulers. Webb quotes Augustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements who says that the key difference between present day currency and Central Bank Digital Currency is that with CBDC the central bank will know how each person uses their allotment of digital currency which gives the central bank absolute control over you via the capability to regulate your purchases, to turn off disapproved purchases, to discipline dissenters. You will be supplied with the means of life as long as you have a good social credit score, which means that you are a non-dissenter of official narratives.

Webb believes that this result is the intent of the regulatory changes and corresponds to the World Economic Forum’s agenda: “you will own nothing.” There is much in the regulatory documents that support Webb’s belief. For example, the Single Resolution Board’s 2022 Guidance for Banks to prepare for “solvent wind-down,” is an indication that an event is in the works. The Single Resolution Board’s Work Program 2023 states: “The year 2023 will be the last of a transitional period for the establishment of the main elements of the resolution framework in the Banking Union.” In other words, everything is in place.

Whether Webb is correct that the regulatory regime that has been put in place amounts to a deliberate restoration of feudalism under high tech management or whether the new rules are the unintended consequence of the rulers’ drive for security is not important. The relevant point is that the next financial crisis will dispossess us not only of our pensions and financial assets but also of our freedom and independence. If the past is a guide, the next financial crisis is close at hand.

If the mega-rich and the large financial intermediaries can be made aware of the situation, it is in their own self-interest to convince Congress to use its law-making power to unwind the regulatory system of dispossession that has been created. But the hour grows late.

Ordinary people are dismissive of the World Economic Forum and its agenda of “you will own nothing and be happy,” but this is a mistake.

The WEF was founded 53 years ago and has over the half century recruited many of the important people in business, finance, and politics. If you are not a WEF member and attendee at Davos, you are lower down on the totem pole. Social, political, and intellectual standing depends on membership. It is important to understand that The Great Reset means the re-institutionalization of feudalism.

Note that we are also being dispossessed of our food and farmers of the use of their land:

No Farmers No Food: Will You Eat The Bugs?” is an Epoch Original documentary exposing the hidden agenda behind global “Green Policies,” the untold stories of farmers forced out of business, the disruption this will have on our food supply, and why edible bugs are suddenly being pushed to the fore as a “Global Green Solution.”

EpochTV program “Facts Matter” host Roman Balmakov investigates the rapidly changing landscape of our global food source—the farming industry—through interviews with farmers in The Netherlands, Sri Lanka, and the United States. This is the next global crisis that is being ignored by the world’s media.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Este es el pais que mas ha bombardeado a otras naciones

April 17th, 2024 by Global Research News

Israel’s War on Lebanon’s Trees

April 17th, 2024 by Bilal Nour Al-Deen

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Lebanon has a deep cultural connection to its trees. Its ancient cedar tree, which dominates the forests of its northern highlands, holds great symbolic importance as a national emblem and is featured front and center on the country’s flag. 

As with other countries around the world, the iconic, resilient cedar faces the growing threat of climate change.

But Lebanon’s woodland has come under an even more insidious threat in the past few months. Hundreds of acres of southern Lebanon’s lush greenery and vegetation – distinct from the northern cedar forests – have come under heavy, incendiary Israeli attacks, causing severe environmental and agricultural devastation to the region.

The occupation state’s use of white phosphorus bombs has dramatically impacted the lives of Lebanese residents, agricultural workers, and the south’s vital agricultural sector, which produces a significant portion of the country’s fruit, citrus, olives, and tobacco.

According to Save the Children,

“An increase in cross-border shelling and rocket fire since 7 October has triggered blazes in a key agricultural area of Lebanon that have run wild through olive groves and nearby farming communities.”

In February, the charity noted that tens of thousands of families in southern Lebanon have lost their livelihood, with Israeli military fire destroying over 47,000 olive trees – as well as other crops during their harvest. 

On 4 April, outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned that southern Lebanon could be designated as an “agricultural disaster zone.” Lebanon’s National News Agency quoted Mikati as saying:

Eight hundred hectares have been completely damaged, 340,000 heads of livestock have died, and about 75 percent of farmers have lost their final source of income.

Hezbollah’s Green Fingers

In 2013, the non-profit association Green Without Borders (GWB) was established to rejuvenate various southern areas through widespread tree-planting initiatives, causing deep distress for Israel’s military brass. In 2017, the occupation army’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi accused the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah, of utilizing the environmental organization as a cover for its border activities. 

But the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) refuted Tel Aviv’s claims. It confirmed that GWB was indeed engaged in legitimate tree-planting activity, further noting that the UN force “has not observed any unauthorized armed persons at the locations or found any basis to report a violation of resolution 1701.” 

Then, the Americans got involved with the issue of Lebanon’s southern foliage. In 2023, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on GWB and its president under the pretext that the association “serves as cover for Hezbollah’s underground warehouses and munitions storage tunnels.”

Israel’s Scorched Earth Policy 

Ongoing Israeli paranoia over Lebanon’s trees may explain why Tel Aviv has rained down white phosphorus over the south. These incendiary munitions burn everything in their path, including humans, vehicles, and vegetation, and are illegal to use in civilian areas under international law. 

Within a month of the northern battle’s inception, reports emerged that Israeli airstrikes had destroyed several hundred hectares of woodland, including pines, oaks, and centuries-old olive groves. 

Lebanese outrage has only grown since then. On 20 March, Minister of Agriculture Abbas Hajj Hassan declared

The Zionist entity’s attacks are not limited to the human losses that are absolutely irreplaceable. The Israeli bombing has caused severe damage to the agricultural sector, through which at least 6,000 hectares of agricultural land have been severely damaged, directly and 2,000 completely. It also destroyed 60,000 olive trees, some of which were 300 years old, as well as citrus, banana, and almond trees, as well as fruitful and non-fruitful trees, and vast areas were completely destroyed.

Hajj Hassan believes that Tel Aviv’s scorched earth policy serves two purposes: “The first is to break the will of the southerners,” forcing them to leave their lands, which will “shake the front,” and the second is to raze everything in sight “to abolish vegetation cover,” so the resistance and the Lebanese army will be exposed to Israel’s air force.

A source at Lebanon’s Southern Green Association tells The Cradle that Israel has destroyed large swathes of the south for this purpose:

It has targeted the entire territory adjacent to the border with Palestine – an area exceeding 100 kilometers long from Naqoura to Mount Hermon and the hills of Kfar Shuba, and to a depth exceeding an average of 6–7 kilometers – in several attacks.

He adds that the military operations “aim to make the area uninhabitable for Israel to implement a buffer zone inside Lebanon’s border.”

There is a clear, deliberate burning of the forest cover, destruction of olive vines and fruit trees, and contamination of the soil, which explains the intensive use of white phosphorus.

GWB President Zuhair Nahle, who has been personally sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury, makes clear to The Cradle that his organization is authorized by the Lebanese Ministry of Interior. 

Among our goals is to establish nurseries to produce forest and fruitful seedlings for afforestation and to care for what we have planted. We are an environmental organization that operates throughout all Lebanese territories, not just in Lebanon’s south.

Nahle also points out that Israel has a problem with Lebanese forestry in general because it obscures their illegal reconnaissance activities. Tel Aviv, it should be noted, violates Lebanese airspace hundreds of times per year to carry out recon operations, in blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701:

Israelis generally hate [Lebanese] tree-planting and forestry because the forest tree and its leaves don’t help them see what is under its dense branches. Also, it doesn’t allow radar and heat waves to penetrate. Thus, Israel feels uncomfortable regarding planting trees or protecting them … We have 18 sites in South Lebanon.

GWB’s Connection to the Resistance 

Speaking to The Cradle, retired General of the Lebanese Armed Forces Naji Malaeb says that GWB indeed “bothered Israel.” 

The fact that Hezbollah is deployed in an area where the UNIFIL and the Lebanese army are deployed too, without having a military barracks, a headquarters, or a visible weapons store, means that it has already been smeared behind other names, including Green Without Borders.

Malaeb emphasizes that Hezbollah retains its military capabilities, regardless of Israel’s many, varied efforts to counter them, including burning down all the greenery in sight:

“After the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri (on 2 January 2024), Hezbollah was able to launch 62 rockets at once from southern Lebanon.”

“Where were these missiles fired from while the area is being monitored by the Israelis, from the air?” he asks.

Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based American researcher and journalist who has covered Hezbollah for years, shares with The Cradle that “GWB’s motto is ‘The Shade of the Resistance,’ which certainly indicates a connection to Hezbollah. But I don’t believe Hezbollah denies this association.” 

The main purpose of GWB in the south was to establish observation posts along the Blue Line. These posts were not hidden; some were towering structures reaching 15 meters or more. By now, all of the observation posts have probably been destroyed.

Blanford claims those “posts served for observation, keeping an eye on Israeli movements. There was probably a psychological element to it as well because the Israelis were always complaining about the GWB posts but couldn’t do anything about them.”

Environmental and Strategic Considerations

Yet Blanford also emphasizes that Hezbollah likely didn’t utilize GWB for concealment purposes:

Hezbollah often utilizes existing forests and woods to shield their activities from the overhead view, such as from Israeli jets and drones. There were several positions in Wadi Salouqi, and they were not kept secret. The entrances to these positions were visible from the main road running through the Wadi.

He further explains that Hezbollah’s military preference is for low-signature tactics, such as the use of underground bunker and tunnel networks, exemplified by the famous Mleeta tunnel network dating back to the 1980s. 

Blanford notes that Hezbollah does use vegetation cover, like bushes and trees, to launch attacks on Israeli positions, highlighting their strategic use of natural terrain for operational advantage – as do all armies.

There are parallels between the US’s use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War and Israel’s similar deforestation efforts in southern Lebanon during the 1990s. 

Blanford recalls witnessing Israel’s firing of phosphorous shells into dry undergrowth near Arab Salim, illustrating a longstanding military tactic aimed at destroying potential cover utilized by adversaries.

Clearly, Hezbollah recognizes the strategic importance of trees in providing cover to its fighters, just as the occupation military’s actions reveal Israel’s readiness to destroy Lebanon’s entire tree population as a war tactic in full-spectrum warfare, akin to Tel Aviv’s total-destruction approach in Gaza. 

Nevertheless, history – and indeed Gaza – proves that this strategy will ultimately be futile, offering only short-term tactical advantages. Lebanon’s trees are deeply rooted in the land, as is its resistance.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image is from The Cradle

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Nicaragua’s accusation before the International Court of Justice is that Germany is actively participating in the genocide committed by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip. And I as a German learned in school that I have to resist when genocide is happening in front of my eyes.

I can hardly recognize my homeland Germany. Now people are talking about “fitness for war” again.

We’re supposed to march East again.

And please don’t show cowardice in front of the enemy!

We must make even more sacrifices for the German armament efforts. Hardness! Relentless harshness!

The people who are trumpeting like that don’t have a brushed hairstyle and they don’t wear military boots at all.

These are the same people who were just singing about understanding, tolerance and peace.

These are the people who, a quite short time ago, spoke out in favor of treating other peoples and ethnic groups with respect. And now we have this immature eternal teenage girl as head of the venerable Foreign Office, who behaves more imperialist, racist and colonialist than all German foreign ministers before her.

Which inevitably means that countries in the southern hemisphere deny Ms. Baerbock the essential diplomatic protocol. But I don’t want to deal with that embodiment of all embarrassment any further. You can insult green politicians as much as you want. However, here you only ever meet the shooting gallery figures on whom the people’s anger is unleashed, while the actual masterminds of this misery can sit back and relax.

After all, over 600 ministry officials have issued a public statement protesting support for the genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The signatories of this declaration did not introduce themselves with their real names. Can we seriously still expect these people to come out? After all the acts of feudalistic despotism that we experienced during the difficult Corona period? Where judges were prosecuted and subjected to home searches simply because they made a supposedly improper court ruling? Where the head of a health authority was reprimanded because he contradicted the official narrative about a pandemic?

No, the 600 ministry officials did it completely right. The misused state apparatus knows that there are still courageous self-thinkers in its ranks. And that the usurpers of our state apparatus must be careful. As long as the dissidents remain anonymous in the state apparatus, they can intervene at the crucial moment in accordance with the German constitution, the Grundgesetz. And for the benefit of the common good, as they once swore. There are these decent servants of the people with backbone, namely in the military, in the police, in the judiciary and in the government apparatus. And, as we know, now also in the German mainstream media.

And the 600 upright people in the public service address their open letter to the most important members of the federal government and tell them:

“… we are addressing you because, as federal civil servants and public servants, we are committed to the fundamental principles of the Grundgesetz. Article 25 sentence 1 of the Grundgesetz gives a general order to apply the law with regard to international law. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, this provision means that ‘the general rules of international law find their way into the German legal system without a transformation law, i.e. directly, and take precedence over German domestic law.’ Israel is committing crimes in Gaza that are in obvious contradiction to international law and thus stand by the Basic Law, to which we as federal civil servants and public servants are obliged. The Federal Republic of Germany supports politically, economically and militarily Israel’s policy in Gaza and the other Palestinian territories occupied in violation of international law. It is therefore our duty as federal employees to criticize this federal government policy and to remind us that the federal government must strictly observe the constitution and international law.”[1]

To put it bluntly again: the federal government can suck up as many laws and regulations as it wants.

They are all void if they are not compatible with higher international law.

It’s bad when the federal government has to be reminded of this so clearly from outside. The open letter points out that the Gaza Strip, with its approximately two million residents, has been bombed into rubble and ash by the Israeli armed forces since October 7th last year, so much so that life there is de facto no longer possible.

This led the International Court of Justice on January 26 this year to condemn the actions of the Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip as “plausible acts of genocide.”

We have to be clear that the war in the Gaza Strip is not a so-called “symmetrical war” – that is, a war in which two armed forces with approximately the same strength fight against each other on the battlefield.

No, the Gaza war is an “asymmetric war”: a fully equipped and armed army fights a defenseless civilian population – until this civilian population either flees or is completely annihilated. The Netanyahu regime’s argument that it is fighting a Hamas army in a symmetrical way is not convincing. Hamas was able to claim some kind of residual vegetation in the underground tunnels. Militarily, Hamas plays no role at all – apart from a few sniper attacks on isolated Israeli soldiers. Potentially and verbally allied forces of Hezbollah and Iran have so far largely kept a low profile out of fear of Israeli nuclear bombs. The last attacks of Iran against Israel demonstrate this military weakness of the opponents of Israel in a clear manner.

Germany’s support for the Ukrainian armed forces at least refers to the symmetrical constellation of two supposedly equally strong armed forces waging a war of attrition. In contrast, Germany’s support of Israel’s asymmetric war against Palestinian civilians has clearly crossed the red line of international law. A lawsuit brought by the state of Nicaragua against Germany for precisely this reason is cheekily rejected by German lawyers at the International Court of Justice as “baseless”. The employees of the public broadcaster Tagesschau cannot essentially contradict this fact in their reporting. They resort to the popular method of framing: if Nicaragua is undoubtedly right on this issue, then this complaint must at least be discredited by branding the Nicaraguan government as “authoritarian”[2]. It should be noted that the Ortega government assumed responsibility through free and correct elections.

But the framing doesn’t help at all. The respected Swedish institute SIPRI has found that almost all governments in the world have found the conduct of the Israeli armed forces so disreputable for many years that they have discreetly withdrawn from the arms deal with Israel[3]. Only two unconditional supporters of Israel’s rearmament remain. Please guess who these two could be. That’s right: the USA was the largest arms supplier to the Israeli armed forces in 2023 with 53 percent. This is closely followed by the Federal Republic of Germany, with 47 percent of Israel’s arms imports. And because other countries refuse to deliver weapons to Israel, the share of German equipment deliveries to Israel has increased tenfold from 2022 to 2023!

In addition, the federal government of Germany has temporarily frozen payments to the refugee organization UNRWA[4].

Not for the 2.4 million displaced Palestinians in Jordan, some of whom have been languishing in miserable camps for generations. And also not for their 600,000 fellow sufferers in Syria, or the half a million fellow sufferers in Lebanon[5]. No. But specifically the aid money for the two million Palestinians who are crowded together in the Gaza Strip and who face extinction at any moment. Who have no food, no medicine, no hospitals, no schools and no universities.

And no roof over their head. Even drinking water is no longer available in sufficient quantities.

The glorious German federal government is consistently withholding aid money for our fellow human beings in the Gaza Strip. Unlike the European Union, Spain, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and Australia, which froze their aid funds for a short time, but have now even increased their aid payments. Only Germany remains loyal to the continued starvation of the Palestinians. I am in Spain right now. The German attitude cannot be conveyed to anyone here.

Even the Tagesschau correspondent Thilo Spanhel in Cairo is bravely trying to remedy the German filter bubble a bit by reporting that Germany’s reputation has been massively and permanently ruined by the recent solo attempts on the Gaza issue[6]. As I already said, a red line has been crossed here by the current federal government. And please don’t give anyone the impression that a possible new government coalition as the successor to the so called “Ampel-Koalition” (i.e. the Social Democrat SPD, the ecologist Green Party, and the liberal FDP) would act differently on the Gaza issue. Please just take a look at the X-Twitter statements from prominent opposition politicians to be cured of all illusions on this issue.

In contrast, all previous German politicians have distinguished themselves through their sense of proportion and modesty when it comes to the Middle East problem.

For example, there was the legendary SPD politician Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski, who repeatedly successfully mediated between Arabs and Israelis and was therefore given the affectionate nickname “Ben Wisch”.

Or the former FDP Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who was unable to speak out against an attack on Libyan leader Gaddafi that violated international law at the crucial meeting of the UN Security Council, but with his abstention from the vote signaled to the Arab world that Germany disapproved of the attack. As foreign minister of an American colony, he can only answer with one abstention[7]. That was received.

The Arabs also knew that Germany had to perform a dance on raw eggs due to its special history. The special German history also means that Germany has not had any colonies since the end of the First World War. And while the anger in the Third World against the colonial powers France and Great Britain can still be felt everywhere today, the Germans have earned a high reputation in these countries over the decades through their equally humble, competent and humane demeanor.

The Germans can organize many things well without much nonsensical chatter. You hear that everywhere. No amount of transatlantic re-education propaganda can deny this. The Germans as respectful partners and as people who can listen well. This has given us, among other things, good business relationships in future markets. All of that has now been shattered by supporting the genocide in Palestine in just a few months.

I don’t want to give the impression that it’s just about good business.

The indescribable misery of innocent people is unbearable!

And the fact that we have to increase this suffering with our tax money, which is not exactly small, is simply unacceptable.

We must raise our voice clearly: these crimes against international law are not happening in our name!

And what we do has nothing to do with “anti-Semitism”.

The overwhelming majority of Jews worldwide strongly condemn the crimes of the Netanyahu government, and these courageous people are expressing their protest in the streets.

Let’s not let these friends of ours alone with their courage.

When it comes to the Gaza issue, of all things, we really don’t have to take a special German Sonderweg. [a concept lined to rise of Nazism]

Let’s remember what we once learned in school: if another genocide occurs before our eyes, then our first civic duty is to resist this crime.

*

AI Translation from German.

Minor Revisions by Global Research 

 

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Notes

[1]  https://diefreiheitsliebe.de/politik/600-bundesbeamte-fordern-von-bundesregierung-waffenlieferungen-an-israel-umgehend-einzustellen/

[2] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/deutschland-nicaragua-klage-102.html

[3] https://counter-investigations.org/investigation/german-arms-exports-to-israel-2003-2023

[4] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/stopp-finanzierung-unrwa-100.html

[5] https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/892835/umfrage/registrierte-palaestinensische-fluechtlinge-nach-gebiet/

[6] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/nahost-krieg-rolle-deutschland-100.html

[7] https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/libyen-enthaltung-in-der-uno-wie-es-zu-dem-deutschen-jein-kam-a-752676.html 

First published on April 15, 2015

The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an entity on contract to the US Department of Defense has released a previously classified military document which confirms Israel’s nuclear weapons program. 

This is considered to be a landmark decision, widely interpreted as constituting a semi-official recognition by the US Department of Defense that Israel is a bona fide nuclear power.  While the document confirms what is already known regarding Israel’s nuclear arsenal, the political implications are potentially far-reaching, particularly in relation to the ongoing negotiations pertaining to Iran’s alleged nuclear program.”

Who Threatens Whom in the Middle East: 

  • A de facto acknowledgement by the US that Israel is  a nuclear power threatening the Middle East in contrast to Iran’s non-existant nuclear weapons program  

Moreover, as detailed below, the IDA report tacitly portrays Israel’s nuclear weapons program as an extension of that of the United States. 

This 386-page 1987 report entitled “Critical Technological Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations” provides details regarding Israel’s weapons systems including the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Click image to access  the complete 387 page 1987 report

 

While the report was written 28 years ago, it confirms Israel’s capabilities to develop nuclear weapons, with an explosive capacity equivalent to 1000 times a (Hiroshima) atomic bomb:

 that in the 1980s Israelis were reaching the ability to create bombs considered a thousand times more powerful than atom bombs.

The report also states that:

“[Israel is] developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs. [1980s] That is, codes which detail fission and fusion processes on a microscopic and macroscopic level,”.

The report also notes that research laboratories in Israel “are equivalent to our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories,” the key labs in developing America’s nuclear arsenal. (quoted in Israel National News,  March 25, 2015)

Israel’s nuclear infrastructure is “an almost exact parallel of the capability currently existing at our National Laboratories,”

The report intimates that Israel’s weapons industry including its nuclear program is essentially an extension of that of the US, developed with the active support and collaboration of US military research labs and US “defense contractors”.

 

 

In this regard it also dispels the notion that the US was not made privy to Israeli classified information concerning its nuclear program, which in the earlier period was developed with the support of France.

The report also reveals that the Pentagon was fully informed regarding the intimate details of the Israeli program, which also suggests that it was developed in active collaboration with the US

The complete report can be consulted at http://cryptome.org/2015/03/ida-ctaiiann.pdf


  • Posted in English
  • Comments Off on Pentagon Recognizes “Officially” that Israel is a Nuclear Power. Declassified Document

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

*** 

There truly seems to be an epidemic of sudden deaths in schools across USA and Canada recently. Here are the most recent tragic cases.

Jena, LA – 15 year old Jena High School student Kameron Shelton died in class at 11am on April 18, 2023 (click here)

Milwaukee, WI – 19 year old Marquette University Student Kamrin Ray was found dead in residence on April 17, 2023

A Marquette University student died at a residence hall Monday night. First responders found him unresponsive on the bed by his roommate and pronounced him deceased. (click here)

Charlotte, NC – 18 year old Myers Park High School Senior Barron Alexander Harris died early morning of April 16, 2023 (click here)

Barron Alexander Harris was known by friends for “his loyalty, engaging personality, and loving spirit.” It’s not known how Harris died.

Montague, PEI – 16 year old high school (Ecole Francois-Buote) student Samuel Russell Campbell, died suddenly in school on April 14, 2023. (click here)

The École François-Buote community continued to mourn Saturday after a student at the Charlottetown school suffered a “sudden and unexpected death” on Friday.

Tipp City, OH – 17 year old Tippecanoe High School student Carson Robbins died on April 14, 2023 after a “brief illness” (click here)

Ithaca, NY – 19 year old Cornell University Student Matthew Friedman was found unresponsive in residence and died on April 12, 2023 (click here)

Bethesda, MD – Unnamed student at Walter Johnson High School passed away “very suddenly and unexpectedly” on April 12, 2023 (click here)

Boise, ID – 17 year old Timberline High School tennis player Justin Smith collapsed unexpectedly during tennis practice on April 10, 2023 and died in ER at 6:20pm. (click here)

Dallas, TX – Episcopal School of Dallas Student died overnight on April 5, 2023 (click here)

Berkeley, CA – 16 year old Berkeley High School student Lillia Bartlow went home from school on March 24, 2023 after suffering a migraine and died unexpectedly at home

Mukilteo, WA – 18 year old high school student Chloe Nuttbrock died suddenly of aneurysm in early March 16, 2023 (click here)

Image

Rice Lake, WI – 6 high school student deaths (posted on April 21, 2023)

My Take…

Found dead in dorm or residence. Cardiac arrest and died while at school.

Died after having migraine at school.

Died in early morning hours.

Died after “brief illness”.

Died during tennis practice at school.

None of this is normal. All these deaths must be investigated for the possibility of post COVID-19 mRNA vaccine sudden cardiac death or any role that the jabs may have played in these deaths.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.

Featured image is from SHTFplan.com


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

  • Posted in English
  • Comments Off on Epidemic of 15-19 Year Olds Dropping Dead in Schools and Dorms Across USA and Canada in April 2023

Nas Novas Regiões da Rússia, o terror ucraniano continua a ameaçar as vidas de civis inocentes, mesmo em áreas distantes das linhas da frente. Em 13 de Abril, o regime de Kiev lançou um ataque brutal contra a capital da República Popular de Lugansk (LPR), destruindo instalações civis. A incursão ocorre no meio da atual onda de ataques terroristas ucranianos que visam impedir que a vida civil volte ao normal nas fronteiras.

O ataque do dia 13 foi o primeiro bombardeio ucraniano bem-sucedido na capital Lugansk desde maio de 2023, quando mísseis atingiram uma fábrica de alimentos na cidade, ferindo dezenas de pessoas. Desta vez, o alvo do ataque foi uma fábrica de máquinas que estava prestes a ser inaugurada. Previa-se que a nova empresa empregasse dezenas de trabalhadores, o que certamente contribuiria significativamente para o avanço da recuperação econômica nas regiões libertadas. É evidente que o regime de Kiev quer impedir que a vida das pessoas comuns volte ao normal.

Apesar de estar numa zona de conflito, a cidade de Lugansk foi poupada de grandes bombardeamentos devido à distância entre a capital da LPR e as linhas da frente. As regiões ao redor da capital são totalmente controladas pelos russos, o que impede que os ucranianos possam realizar ataques de curto alcance. Isto permitiu um processo gradual de recuperação econômica, com o trabalho e as atividades comerciais a regressarem rapidamente à normalidade. Em Dezembro, estive na LPR como correspondente numa expedição jornalística e relatei a situação no terreno, sublinhando como a vida melhorou na região após a libertação militar.

Para que os ataques ucranianos contra a cidade de Lugansk sejam bem-sucedidos, é necessário utilizar armas de longo alcance, tendo em conta a grande distância entre a capital e as posições de artilharia de Kiev. Tanto no ataque de 13 de Abril como no bombardeamento de Maio de 2023, as forças neonazistas conseguiram atingir alvos em Lugansk porque usaram armas ocidentais de longo alcance – os mísseis britânicos Storm Shadow.

Alcançando 250 km, os mísseis Storm Shadow foram um ponto de escalada perigosa no conflito. O Reino Unido tornou-se o primeiro país a fornecer mísseis de longo alcance ao regime neonazista, o que permitiu a Kiev realizar operações contra áreas civis nas fronteiras, alcançando cidades libertadas na zona de operações militares especiais e até mesmo regiões totalmente desmilitarizadas no indiscutível território da Federação. Russo. Por outras palavras, sob a desculpa de aumentar as capacidades defensivas da Ucrânia, o Reino Unido deu a Kiev o que o regime precisava para atingir civis fora do campo de batalha.

O Ocidente está absolutamente consciente de que as suas armas estão a ser utilizadas contra alvos civis. As autoridades russas publicam regularmente dados que provam que as armas fornecidas pela OTAN estão por detrás de incursões terroristas em regiões fronteiriças. No ataque do dia 13, destroços de pelo menos dois mísseis Storm Shadow foram recolhidos e expostos pelas forças russas, não deixando dúvidas sobre as armas utilizadas para realizar o ataque. Como esperado, o Reino Unido permaneceu em silêncio, recusando-se a condenar o uso indevido da sua ajuda militar – o que é suficiente para considerar conivência e até co-participação por parte de Londres em crimes ucranianos.

Nos últimos meses, as tropas ucranianas sofreram pesadas perdas no campo de batalha, razão pela qual cada vez mais analistas militares apontam que o colapso do regime é iminente. Além do enorme número de vítimas, a Ucrânia também sofreu perdas territoriais graduais, com as tropas russas a conseguirem libertar várias aldeias em Donbass. Sem força suficiente para reagir nas linhas da frente, o regime utiliza o terror como distracção e ferramenta de propaganda. Ao atingir áreas civis na Rússia, Kiev faz parecer aos seus patrocinadores que ainda é capaz de causar danos no “território profundo” da Rússia, justificando assim o envio de mais armas pela OTAN.

Outro objectivo ucraniano com tais incursões é tentar provocar uma reação russa desproporcional. Se Moscou atacar com extrema violência e atingir alvos civis ucranianos, Kiev terá argumentos para solicitar mais ajuda ocidental e, assim, provocar uma grave escalada no conflito. Moscou, porém, não parece interessada nesse tipo de atitude. Os russos já provaram diversas vezes que os seus alvos continuarão a ser instalações militares e de infra-estruturas críticas, conforme permitido pelas regras do direito internacional.

Apesar do terror em algumas áreas civis, os russos ainda controlam a situação militar no conflito. Moscou está a seguir uma estratégia que conduzirá inevitavelmente ao colapso do inimigo num futuro próximo, razão pela qual não é necessária pressa em retaliar os ataques terroristas. Ao destruir a infra-estrutura ucraniana, a Rússia tornará em breve impossível a Kiev continuar a realizar incursões terroristas.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

 

Artigo em inglês : UK-supplied weapons behind Ukrainian terror in Donbassinfobrics.org/post/40964/

Imagem : InfoBrics

*

Lucas Leiroz, jornalista, pesquisador do Center for Geostrategic Studies, consultor geopolítico.

Você pode seguir Lucas Leiroz em: https://t.me/lucasleiroz e https://twitter.com/leiroz_lucas

Dois documentários recentes e inovadores — “Agora somos todos pessoas de plástico” e “ Pessoas de plástico: a crise oculta dos microplásticos” — expõem a presença generalizada da poluição plástica no ambiente e como esta pode afetar a saúde humana.

Os filmes, apresentados no Festival de Cinema de Santa Fé e no SXSW respectivamente, incluem entrevistas com especialistas, histórias pessoais e pesquisas científicas para sublinhar a urgência da crise da poluição plástica.

Rory Fielding, diretor do filme vencedor do Emmy “We’re All Plastic People Now”, testou quatro gerações do sangue de sua própria família em busca de produtos químicos derivados de plástico.

O codiretor de “Plastic People”, Ziya Tong, investigou o mundo oculto dos microplásticos e seus efeitos no corpo humano.

A Variety chamou “Plastic People” de “um daqueles documentários essenciais sobre o estado do nosso mundo” que oferece “uma história fascinante do plástico, mostrando-nos como o material gradualmente assumiu o controle” – mas também o descreveu como um “filme de terror [que] poderia ter sido chamado de ‘Ataque dos Polímeros Assassinos’”.

‘O plástico é o fim do futuro’ 

A poluição plástica tornou-se onipresente, com partículas de plástico encontradas em todos os cantos do globo.

“Está no ar. Está na água. Está na comida. Está em todos os nossos corpos”, de acordo com Rolf Halden, Ph.D., engenheiro ambiental da Universidade Estadual do Arizona, que aparece em “Somos todos pessoas de plástico agora”.

O documentário revela a descoberta de microplásticos em placentas humanas, conforme relatado pelo pesquisador italiano Dr. Antonio Ragusa, que alertou: “Para a humanidade, o plástico é o fim do futuro”.

Da mesma forma, “Plastic People” explora o mundo oculto dos microplásticos, pequenas partículas que os investigadores encontraram em órgãos humanos, sangue e tecido cerebral.

sinopse do filme observa que “quase todo pedaço de plástico já produzido se decompõe em ‘microplásticos’”, que se tornam “uma parte permanente do meio ambiente”.

Um especialista destacado no filme, Rick Smith, Ph.D., coautor de “Morte lenta por pato de borracha: o perigo secreto das coisas cotidianas”, disse: “Acontece que o plástico está realmente dentro de nós. Está em nossos filhos.”

Tong, uma jornalista científica, testou a neve no seu quintal e encontrou fragmentos de plástico, o que a levou a dizer aos seus filhos para não apanharem flocos de neve.

De acordo com “Plastic People”, o plástico é como “a personificação do capitalismo. Tornou possível o mundo material em que vivemos agora. São os ossos, a pele, o tecido conjuntivo.”

Produtos químicos derivados de plásticos podem “fazer as coisas darem errado no corpo humano” 

Ambos os documentários investigam os riscos à saúde associados à exposição a produtos químicos derivados de plástico.

Em “Somos todos pessoas de plástico agora”, o Dr. Leonardo Trasande, pediatra e diretor da Divisão de Pediatria Ambiental da Universidade de Nova York, discutiu o impacto dos produtos químicos desreguladores endócrinos encontrados nos plásticos, que “hackeiam esses sinais moleculares e fazem as coisas dão errado no corpo humano.

O filme também conta a história de Jess Helsley, diretora de Watershed Restoration do Wild Salmon Center, que foi diagnosticada com câncer de cólon de início precoce aos trinta anos. Helsley participou de um estudo que encontrou microplásticos no cólon de jovens pacientes com câncer.

“Plastic People” explora a ligação entre os plastificantes e vários problemas de saúde, incluindo doenças cardíacas, diabetes, obesidadecâncer e problemas de fertilidade. O filme destaca o trabalho dos principais cientistas “encontrando essas partículas em nossos corpos: órgãos, sangue, tecido cerebral e até mesmo nas placentas de novas mães”.

O documentário apresenta uma entrevista com o Dr. Pete Myers, cientista-chefe, fundador e presidente do conselho da Environmental Health Sciences, que alerta: “Os plásticos podem contribuir para a saúde de algumas maneiras milagrosas, mas os plásticos também podem causar problemas de saúde, problemas de saúde bastante graves, como morte.”

Infertilidade, níveis mais baixos de testosterona e riscos para os bebês 

“Agora somos todos pessoas de plástico” explora o impacto dos produtos químicos derivados do plástico na fertilidade e nos níveis de testosterona.

Shanna Swan, Ph.D., professor do Departamento de Medicina Ambiental e Saúde Pública do Hospital Mount Sinai, discutiu a “síndrome do ftalato”, que descreve como os órgãos genitais masculinos são alterados pela exposição materna aos ftalatos, uma classe comum de plastificantes.

Swan explicou que os ftalatos reduzem os níveis de testosterona, levando a homens “incompletamente masculinizados” com “testículos menos descidos, um pênis menor [e] distância anogenital mais curta”.

Os efeitos dos ftalatos não se limitam aos homens. Swan disse que nas mulheres, “se a testosterona entra… quando não deveria, ou mais do que deveria, então a mulher começa a produzir órgãos genitais mais masculinos”.

Isto leva a uma “diminuição das diferenças sexuais”, onde “o homem se torna menos completamente um homem, a mulher é menos completamente uma mulher”, disse Swan.

“Agora somos todos pessoas de plástico” também revela a presença de microplásticos no leite materno humano, sendo o estudo de Ragusa o primeiro a demonstrar este fenômeno.

Stacey Colino, coautora de “Contagem regressiva: como nosso mundo moderno está ameaçando a contagem de espermatozoides, alterando o desenvolvimento reprodutivo masculino e feminino e colocando em perigo o futuro da raça humana”, compartilhou sua experiência pessoal no uso de acessórios e mamadeiras plásticas para bombas tira-leite, tudo isso provavelmente expôs seus filhos a produtos químicos derivados de plástico.

John Hocevar, diretor da campanha dos oceanos do Greenpeace, alertou que o plástico está se tornando parte de nós “desde o início de nossas vidas”.

“Quando você aquece o leite em uma mamadeira de plástico, alguns pedaços de plástico dessa mamadeira vão para o leite que o bebê está bebendo”, disse ele.

Empresas de petróleo e gás motivadas a ‘aumentar a plastificação da vida humana’

Ambos os documentários lançam luz sobre o papel das grandes corporações, particularmente na indústria do petróleo e do gás, na perpetuação da crise da poluição plástica.

“Plastic People” fornece uma visão histórica da revolução dos plásticos que aumentou significativamente após a Segunda Guerra Mundial com sapatos, tecidos, eletrodomésticos, móveis e carros, antes de levar à atual era de uso único de garrafas de água descartáveis, copos, isqueiros e sacos plásticos.

Hocevar, em “We’re All Plastic People Now”, explicou que “99% do plástico é feito de combustíveis fósseis, petróleo e gás. É um perigo para a saúde humana em cada etapa do seu ciclo de vida.”

O documentário também traz a história de Sharon Lavigne, fundadora da RISE St. James em Louisiana, que lutou com sucesso contra a construção da maior fábrica de plásticos do mundo em sua comunidade, parte de uma área conhecida como “Beco do Câncer” devido à alta concentração de indústrias e instalações químicas.

Christy Leavitt, diretora da Campanha de Plásticos dos EUA da Oceana, destacou os planos da indústria para expandir a produção de plástico. “Eles querem… triplicar a quantidade” de plásticos até 2060, disse ela.

Ragusa chamou a atenção de empresas específicas, incluindo Coca-Cola, PepsiCo e Nestlé, pelo uso de plásticos há muito tempo.

Smith, em “Plastic People”, disse que face a um mundo que utiliza menos combustíveis fósseis, as empresas petrolíferas procuram formas de sustentar os seus lucros e, portanto, têm toda a motivação para “aumentar a plastificação da vida humana”.

‘Cada garrafa de água é uma bomba-relógio’

Ambos os documentários destacam as deficiências dos atuais esforços de reciclagem na abordagem à crise da poluição plástica.

Halden explicou que a reciclagem não é uma solução viável devido às baixas taxas de reciclagem e aos desafios da reciclagem de plásticos.

“Cada garrafa de água é uma bomba-relógio”, disse Halden, observando que apenas uma pequena fração dos plásticos chega realmente aos centros de reciclagem e, mesmo assim, o processo de reciclagem é muitas vezes ineficaz.

“[A reciclagem] não faz sentido comercial neste momento, da mesma forma que incentivamos o uso de combustíveis fósseis para produzir plásticos baratos”, disse ele.

Leavitt enfatizou a necessidade de uma mudança em direção a sistemas recarregáveis ​​e reutilizáveis. “A reciclagem não será suficiente, por isso algumas pessoas estão recorrendo a isso como uma solução, mas não será suficiente para resolver os plásticos.”

‘Precisamos aumentar o nível de urgência’

Ambos os documentários sublinham a importância das ações individuais, das políticas governamentais e da responsabilização empresarial para enfrentar a crise da poluição plástica.

Em “Plastic People”, Smith disse: “Para resolver o problema [dos plásticos], precisamos aumentar o nível de urgência nesta questão”.

O filme apresentava um residente de Bayfield, em Ontário, Canadá, que afirmava ser a primeira “comunidade livre de plástico” na América do Norte.

Especialistas e ativistas em “Agora somos todos pessoas de plástico” enfatizaram a importância de reduzir o consumo de plástico a nível individual.

Ruth Fielding, a mãe de 93 anos do produtor do filme, disse: “Cada pedacinho ajuda. Se eu não levar sacola plástica quando vou ao supermercado, ajuda um pouco. [Mas] sou apenas uma pessoa… não posso salvar o mundo sozinho.”

Leavitt destacou a necessidade de uma mudança nas políticas governamentais. Ela disse que precisamos que os governos nacionais, estaduais e locais “exijam que as empresas mudem a forma como os plásticos descartáveis ​​são produzidos e usados”.

Ragusa também apelou à ação política. “Para mudar isso, precisamos de políticos que sejam capazes de mudar.”

“Plastic People” também apela a uma abordagem multifacetada para enfrentar o problema da poluição plástica, com uma campanha de impacto que visa “executar um programa baseado em soluções que incluirá uma série de eventos, materiais educativos, bem como apelos à ação.”

O site do filme apresenta uma página “Take Action” que inclui diversas petições e outros recursos para ajudar as pessoas a se conscientizarem, envolver-se e fazer a diferença em suas comunidades.

Na sua página do Facebook, “Plastic People” publicou um artigo sobre “um tratado histórico mundial sobre plásticos” que está sendo discutido pelo Comitê Intergovernamental de Negociação da ONU sobre Poluição Plástica, cuja próxima sessão acontece em Ottawa, de 23 a 29 de abril.

John-Michael Dumais

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

17-year-old Aubrynn Grundy contracted COVID-19 a few weeks after her second dose of Pfizer, went into cardiac arrest, was hospitalized, given a cocktail of drugs, went into multi-organ failure, and tragically passed away.

Aubrynn Grundy lived in Livonia, Michigan. She was a perfectly healthy 17-year-old, and her story is sad and tragic, leaving her mother, Shanna Carroll, and stepfather, Adam Carroll, with many unanswered questions.

How did a perfectly healthy 17-year-old, who was recently double vaccinated for COVID-19, go into cardiac arrest three times, require life support and ventilation, develop multi-organ failure, and ultimately pass away?

In January 2022, Aubrynn received exciting news from the Odd Fellows Organization of Michigan that she would be one of only a few students chosen from her school to go on a youth pilgrimage trip to Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Ottawa, Niagara Falls, and Pennsylvania that summer.

Before leaving for the trip, Aubrynn was required to get two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. She received her first Pfizer dose on June 7, 2022, and her second Pfizer dose on June 28, 2022.

Aubrynn left for her trip on July 9, 2022, and a little over a week later, on July 18, 2022, she texted her mom from Canada, saying she wasn’t feeling well and had tested positive for COVID-19. Aubrynn’s mom and stepfather were unable to drive into Canada to get their daughter because they were not vaccinated, so they had to wait until the following day, July 19, 2022, when Aubrynn would be coming back across the border on the American side, to pick up their daughter.

On July 20, 2022, Aubrynn was back home in Michigan, still feeling unwell, so her mother took her to urgent care at St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital. After being dropped off by her mother, Aubrynn’s biological father showed up to wait with her, and shortly after that, Aubrynn went into cardiac arrest in the emergency department waiting room.

Life-saving measures were taken to keep Aubrynn alive. She was placed on ECMO, a form of life support for people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries affecting the heart or lungs. She was ventilated and administered various drugs, including fentanyl, dexamethasone, ketamine, propofol, hydromorphone, lidocaine, and others.

According to her medical records, she received such high doses of narcotics that Narcan had to be administered to bring her back. All of this happened within an hour and a half.

A request was then made for Aubrynn to be transported to a children’s specialty hospital, and an ambulance was dispatched. However, the ambulance was called off on the way due to insufficient beds. The Children’s Hospital of Michigan stepped in and said they would take Aubrynn and sent a helicopter to pick her up.

Shanna and Adam say that when the helicopter transport arrived at St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital to pick up Aubrynn, the healthcare team onboard the helicopter had to unhook all the machines Aubrynn was connected to because the healthcare staff at St. Mary’s had not done it properly, potentially compromising their daughter’s health.

By the time Aubrynn arrived at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, she had gone into cardiac arrest twice more and was moved to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), where she remained for 17 days as her health continued to deteriorate. She was suspected of suffering from myocarditis, her fingers, hands, toes, feet, legs, and arms began to turn black, gangrene was setting in, her organs were failing, and she would have required multiple amputations.

By August 6, 2022, Aubrynn’s condition had not shown signs of improvement. Her body was becoming increasingly resistant to pain medication, and the discoloration in her extremities continued to worsen. Ultimately, the decision was made to remove Aubrynn from life support, and she tragically passed away approximately 20 minutes later.

Shanna and Adam say that they had hired a lawyer to pursue legal action against St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital for malpractice. However, a year later, they received a letter from the law firm stating that they were dropping the case.

Aubrynn’s parents express their desire for answers; they want to understand why their vaccinated daughter passed away and hold the initial hospital accountable for what they consider multiple mistakes.

They mentioned that they are planning to seek legal representation again and have set up a GiveSendGo fundraiser to raise funds for this purpose. Here is a link to the fundraiser.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Our thanks to Dr. William Makis for bringing this to our attention.

Featured image is from TCI


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

 

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

The Israeli online magazine +972 has published a detailed report on Israel’s use of an artificial intelligence (AI) system called “Lavender” to target thousands of Palestinian men in its bombing campaign in Gaza. When Israel attacked Gaza after October 7, the Lavender system had a database of 37,000 Palestinian men with suspected links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). 

Lavender assigns a numerical score, from one to a hundred, to every man in Gaza, based mainly on cellphone and social media data, and automatically adds those with high scores to its kill list of suspected militants. Israel uses another automated system, known as “Where’s Daddy?”, to call in airstrikes to kill these men and their families in their homes.    

The bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes are buried in a mass grave in Khan Younis. Photo credit: Al-Jazeera

The report is based on interviews with six Israeli intelligence officers who have worked with these systems. As one of the officers explained to +972, by adding a name from a Lavender-generated list to the Where’s Daddy home tracking system, he can place the man’s home under constant drone surveillance, and an airstrike will be launched once he comes home.

The officers said the “collateral” killing of the men’s extended families was of little consequence to Israel.

“Let’s say you calculate [that there is one] Hamas [operative] plus 10 [civilians in the house],” the officer said. “Usually, these 10 will be women and children. So absurdly, it turns out that most of the people you killed were women and children.”

The officers explained that the decision to target thousands of these men in their homes is just a question of expediency. It is simply easier to wait for them to come home to the address on file in the system, and then bomb that house or apartment building, than to search for them in the chaos of the war-torn Gaza Strip. 

The officers who spoke to 972+ explained that in previous Israeli massacres in Gaza, they could not generate targets quickly enough to satisfy their political and military bosses, and so these AI systems were designed to solve that problem for them. The speed with which Lavender can generate new targets only gives its human minders an average of 20 seconds to review and rubber-stamp each name, even though they know from tests of the Lavender system that at least 10% of the men chosen for assassination and familicide have only an insignificant or a mistaken connection with Hamas or PIJ.  

The Lavender AI system is a new weapon, developed by Israel. But the kind of kill lists that it generates have a long pedigree in U.S. wars, occupations and CIA regime change operations. Since the birth of the CIA after the Second World War, the technology used to create kill lists has evolved from the CIA’s earliest coups in Iran and Guatemala, to Indonesia and the Phoenix program in Vietnam in the 1960s, to Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s and to the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Image: Patch worn by Phoenix Program operatives. (Photo Credit: Tuxxmeister / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)

Patch worn by Phoenix Program operatives

Just as U.S. weapons development aims to be at the cutting edge, or the killing edge, of new technology, the CIA and U.S. military intelligence have always tried to use the latest data processing technology to identify and kill their enemies.

The CIA learned some of these methods from German intelligence officers captured at the end of the Second World War. Many of the names on Nazi kill lists were generated by an intelligence unit called Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East), under the command of Major General Reinhard Gehlen, Germany’s spy chief on the eastern front (see David Talbot, The Devil’s Chessboard, p. 268).

Gehlen and the FHO had no computers, but they did have access to four million Soviet POWs from all over the USSR, and no compunction about torturing them to learn the names of Jews and communist officials in their hometowns to compile kill lists for the Gestapo and Einsatzgruppen.

After the war, like the 1,600 German scientists spirited out of Germany in Operation Paperclip, the United States flew Gehlen and his senior staff to Fort Hunt in Virginia. They were welcomed by Allen Dulles, soon to be the first and still the longest-serving director of the CIA. Dulles sent them back to Pullach in occupied Germany to resume their anti-Soviet operations as CIA agents. The Gehlen Organization formed the nucleus of what became the BND, the new West German intelligence service, with Reinhard Gehlen as its director until he retired in 1968.

After a CIA coup removed Iran’s popular, democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, a CIA team led by U.S. Major General Norman Schwarzkopf trained a new intelligence service, known as SAVAK, in the use of kill lists and torture. SAVAK used these skills to purge Iran’s government and military of suspected communists and later to hunt down anyone who dared to oppose the Shah. 

By 1975, Amnesty International estimated that Iran was holding between 25,000 and 100,000 political prisoners, and had “the highest rate of death penalties in the world, no valid system of civilian courts and a history of torture that is beyond belief.”

In Guatemala, a CIA coup in 1954 replaced the democratic government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman with a brutal dictatorship. As resistance grew in the 1960s, U.S. special forces joined the Guatemalan army in a scorched earth campaign in Zacapa, which killed 15,000 people to defeat a few hundred armed rebels. Meanwhile, CIA-trained urban death squads abducted, tortured and killed PGT (Guatemalan Labor Party) members in Guatemala City, notably 28 prominent labor leaders who were abducted and disappeared in March 1966.

Once this first wave of resistance was suppressed, the CIA set up a new telecommunications center and intelligence agency, based in the presidential palace. It compiled a database of “subversives” across the country that included leaders of farming co-ops and labor, student and indigenous activists, to provide ever-growing lists for the death squads. The resulting civil war became a genocide against indigenous people in Ixil and the western highlands that killed or disappeared at least 200,000 people.

This pattern was repeated across the world, wherever popular, progressive leaders offered hope to their people in ways that challenged U.S. interests. As historian Gabriel Kolko wrote in 1988,

“The irony of U.S. policy in the Third World is that, while it has always justified its larger objectives and efforts in the name of anticommunism, its own goals have made it unable to tolerate change from any quarter that impinged significantly on its own interests.”

When General Suharto seized power in Indonesia in 1965, the U.S. Embassy compiled a list of 5,000 communists for his death squads to hunt down and kill. The CIA estimated that they eventually killed 250,000 people, while other estimates run as high as a million.

Twenty-five years later, journalist Kathy Kadane investigated the U.S. role in the massacre in Indonesia, and spoke to Robert Martens, the political officer who led the State-CIA team that compiled the kill list.

“It really was a big help to the army,” Martens told Kadane. “They probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands. But that’s not all bad – there’s a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment.”

Kathy Kadane also spoke to former CIA director William Colby, who was the head of the CIA’s Far East division in the 1960s. Colby compared the U.S. role in Indonesia to the Phoenix Program in Vietnam, which was launched two years later, claiming that they were both successful programs to identify and eliminate the organizational structure of America’s communist enemies.  

The Phoenix program was designed to uncover and dismantle the National Liberation Front’s (NLF) shadow government across South Vietnam. Phoenix’s Combined Intelligence Center in Saigon fed thousands of names into an IBM 1401 computer, along with their locations and their alleged roles in the NLF. The CIA credited the Phoenix program with killing 26,369 NLF officials, while another 55,000 were imprisoned or persuaded to defect. Seymour Hersh reviewed South Vietnamese government documents that put the death toll at 41,000

How many of the dead were correctly identified as NLF officials may be impossible to know, but Americans who took part in Phoenix operations reported killing the wrong people in many cases. Navy SEAL Elton Manzione told author Douglas Valentine (The Phoenix Program) how he killed two young girls in a night raid on a village, and then sat down on a stack of ammunition crates with a hand grenade and an M-16, threatening to blow himself up, until he got a ticket home.  

“The whole aura of the Vietnam War was influenced by what went on in the “hunter-killer” teams of Phoenix, Delta, etc,” Manzione told Valentine. “That was the point at which many of us realized we were no longer the good guys in the white hats defending freedom – that we were assassins, pure and simple. That disillusionment carried over to all other aspects of the war and was eventually responsible for it becoming America’s most unpopular war.”

Even as the U.S. defeat in Vietnam and the “war fatigue” in the United States led to a more peaceful next decade, the CIA continued to engineer and support coups around the world, and to provide post-coup governments with increasingly computerized kill lists to consolidate their rule.

After supporting General Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the CIA played a central role in Operation Condor, an alliance between right-wing military governments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, to hunt down tens of thousands of their and each other’s political opponents and dissidents, killing and disappearing at least 60,000 people. 

The CIA’s role in Operation Condor is still shrouded in secrecy, but Patrice McSherry, a political scientist at Long Island University, has investigated the U.S. role and concluded,

“Operation Condor also had the covert support of the US government. Washington provided Condor with military intelligence and training, financial assistance, advanced computers, sophisticated tracking technology, and access to the continental telecommunications system housed in the Panama Canal Zone.”

McSherry’s research revealed how the CIA supported the intelligence services of the Condor states with computerized links, a telex system, and purpose-built encoding and decoding machines made by the CIA Logistics Department. As she wrote in her book, Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America:

“The Condor system’s secure communications system, Condortel,… allowed Condor operations centers in member countries to communicate with one another and with the parent station in a U.S. facility in the Panama Canal Zone. This link to the U.S. military-intelligence complex in Panama is a key piece of evidence regarding secret U.S. sponsorship of Condor…”

Operation Condor ultimately failed, but the U.S. provided similar support and training to right-wing governments in Colombia and Central America throughout the 1980s in what senior military officers have called a “quiet, disguised, media-free approach” to repression and kill lists. 

The U.S. School of the Americas (SOA) trained thousands of Latin American officers in the use of torture and death squads, as Major Joseph Blair, the SOA’s former chief of instruction described to John Pilger for his film, The War You Don’t See:

“The doctrine that was taught was that, if you want information, you use physical abuse, false imprisonment, threats to family members, and killing. If you can’t get the information you want, if you can’t get the person to shut up or stop what they’re doing, you assassinate them – and you assassinate them with one of your death squads.”

When the same methods were transferred to the U.S. hostile military occupation of Iraq after 2003, Newsweek headlined it “The Salvador Option.” A U.S. officer explained to Newsweek that U.S. and Iraqi death squads were targeting Iraqi civilians as well as resistance fighters.

“The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving to the terrorists,” he said. “From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation.”

The United States sent two veterans of its dirty wars in Latin America to Iraq to play key roles in that campaign. Colonel James Steele led the U.S. Military Advisor Group in El Salvador from 1984 to 1986, training and supervising Salvadoran forces who killed tens of thousands of civilians. He was also deeply involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, narrowly escaping a prison sentence for his role supervising shipments from Ilopango air base in El Salvador to the U.S.-backed Contras in Honduras and Nicaragua. 

In Iraq, Steele oversaw the training of the Interior Ministry’s Special Police Commandos – rebranded as “National” and later “Federal” Police after the discovery of their al-Jadiriyah torture center and other atrocities.

Bayan al-Jabr, a commander in the Iranian-trained Badr Brigade militia, was appointed Interior Minister in 2005, and Badr militiamen were integrated into the Wolf Brigade death squad and other Special Police units. Jabr’s chief adviser was Steven Casteel, the former intelligence chief for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Latin America.

The Interior Ministry death squads waged a dirty war in Baghdad and other cities, filling the Baghdad morgue with up to 1,800 corpses per month, while Casteel fed the western media absurd cover stories, such as that the death squads were all “insurgents” in stolen police uniforms. 

Meanwhile U.S. special operations forces conducted “kill-or-capture” night raids in search of Resistance leaders. General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Joint Special Operations Command from 2003-2008, oversaw the development of a database system, used in Iraq and Afghanistan, that compiled cellphone numbers mined from captured cellphones to generate an ever-expanding target list for night raids and air strikes. 

The targeting of cellphones instead of actual people enabled the automation of the targeting system, and explicitly excluded using human intelligence to confirm identities. Two senior U.S. commanders told the Washington Post that only half the night raids attacked the right house or person.

In Afghanistan, President Obama put McChrystal in charge of U.S. and NATO forces in 2009, and his cellphone-based “social network analysis” enabled an exponential increase in night raids, from 20 raids per month in May 2009 to up to 40 per night by April 2011.

As with the Lavender system in Gaza, this huge increase in targets was achieved by taking a system originally designed to identify and track a small number of senior enemy commanders and applying it to anyone suspected of having links with the Taliban, based on their cellphone data.

This led to the capture of an endless flood of innocent civilians, so that most civilian detainees had to be quickly released to make room for new ones. The increased killing of innocent civilians in night raids and airstrikes fueled already fierce resistance to the U.S. and NATO occupation and ultimately led to its defeat.

President Obama’s drone campaign to kill suspected enemies in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia was just as indiscriminate, with reports suggesting that 90% of the people it killed in Pakistan were innocent civilians. 

And yet Obama and his national security team kept meeting in the White House every “Terror Tuesday” to select who the drones would target that week, using an Orwellian, computerized “disposition matrix” to provide technological cover for their life and death decisions.    

Looking at this evolution of ever-more automated systems for killing and capturing enemies, we can see how, as the information technology used has advanced from telexes to cellphones and from early IBM computers to artificial intelligence, the human intelligence and sensibility that could spot mistakes, prioritize human life and prevent the killing of innocent civilians has been progressively marginalized and excluded, making these operations more brutal and horrifying than ever.

Nicolas has at least two good friends who survived the dirty wars in Latin America because someone who worked in the police or military got word to them that their names were on a death list, one in Argentina, the other in Guatemala. If their fates had been decided by an AI machine like Lavender, they would both be long dead.

As with supposed advances in other types of weapons technology, like drones and “precision” bombs and missiles, innovations that claim to make targeting more precise and eliminate human error have instead led to the automated mass murder of innocent people, especially women and children, bringing us full circle from one holocaust to the next.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and the author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist, a researcher for CODEPINK and the author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies are the authors of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, published by OR Books in November 2022. They are regular contributors to Global Research.

Featured image is from Shutterstock

The Great Dispossession: Turning Our Property in Financial Assets Into the Property of “Secured Creditors”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 16, 2024

Billionaires’ campaign donations elect the politicians, and what the regulatory changes do to billionaires is to reduce them to the same poverty as a homeless person. What the changes mean for large financial institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Schwab, etc., is their existence ceases.

Universities Continue to Kill Their Students Via COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

By Dr. William Makis, April 16, 2024

18 year old Janey Thompson was a fit, high level athlete who played varsity basketball and softball. In the fall of 2022, she was accepted to Wake Forest University (biophysics major) and was required to produce proof of COVID-19 vaccination status to attend university.

Mobilisation in Ukraine Turns Into Real Nightmare for Citizens, Says Former Ukrainian PM

By Ahmed Adel, April 16, 2024

According to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s publication, recruitment centres began attracting former prisoners to “capture” as much of the population as possible because the mobilisation resource was exhausted, and many people fled the country in any way possible.

Iran Attacks Israel: Middle East and the World Teeter on Brink of a Kinetic World War III

By Joachim Hagopian, April 16, 2024

The tally of Iran weapons launched against Israel included about 170 drones, over 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. Israel’s estimated cost was over $1 billion defending itself from the Iran missile and drone attack.

Bedfellows: Pharma and U.S. Government Agencies

By John Leake, April 16, 2024

I am aware of the preeminent role the Department of Defense has played in the criminal pandemic response. Nevertheless, I do not draw a sharp distinction between the DoD and companies like Pfizer and Moderna. I view the officers and directors of these corporations as having a symbiotic relationship with ranking officers of U.S. government agencies.

Germany Confirms Its Collaboration with Genocide, Shuts Down Palestine Conference

By Rick Sterling, April 16, 2024

A three-day Palestine conference in Berlin was forcibly shut down after three hours on Friday. Electricity was abruptly terminated in the midst of the presentation by Salman Abu Sitta, the 87 year old author of the authoritative “Atlas of Palestine”.

On the Conflict Between Israel and Iran. The Threat of World War. Emanuel Pastreich

By Emanuel Pastreich, April 16, 2024

The constant attacks of Israel on Iran have drawn the first of what could be numerous attacks by Iran on Israel. Those attacks will be used to justify greater attacks by Israel on Iran, and then attacks on other countries. Those attacks will eventually force the United States into the conflict, and that conflict may merge with the conflict Ukraine, thus bringing in Russia, and perhaps Germany, France, Great Britain, and Turkey.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Read Part I:

WEF’s Great Reset: The Great Dispossession. The Loss of Property Rights in Financial Assets. “Own Nothing Be Happy”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 11, 2024


In Part 1, I reported that we already do not own anything.

The immediate response from readers is: what can we do to avoid dispossession? Offhand, the answer might appear to be debt-free property and gold and silver in personal possession.

However, if the goal is that we own nothing and are controlled under a digital currency regime, these assets will be taken as well.

Webb says if the billionaires and large financial institutions can be made aware of the situation, they could make Congress aware of the regulatory changes and force Congress to use its law-making power to undo the regulatory changes.

After all, if there is no private financial property, there is no one to contribute to Congressional elections.

Billionaires’ campaign donations elect the politicians, and what the regulatory changes do to billionaires is to reduce them to the same poverty as a homeless person. What the changes mean for large financial institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Schwab, etc., is their existence ceases. Webb’s hope is the combined influence can undo the regulatory changes. The question is whether awareness can be generated. The fate of Congress is also at stake. In the Great Reset there is no input from the people and no function for Congress.

As in all of my writings, I am trying to bring awareness. Little doubt the messenger will be shot.

The purpose of Part 2 is to outline the regulatory changes that have been made that have turned our property in financial assets into the property of “secured creditors.”

Webb terms them legal changes, which they are, but as I read it from regulatory, not legislative, action.

Webb says the changes are global, but he only describes how the US and EU effected the changes for themselves. I am unable to imagine that Russia, China, Iran and any parts of the world not captured in the Western financial system are parties to the dispossession, especially under the regime of sanctions. As I read it, the dispossession that awaits is limited to the Western world and its captive countries. By global, perhaps Webb means the global operations of Western world financial organizations.

First some definitions: an “account holder” is you, your IRA, your pension plan, your stock and bond investments held at an “account provider” or “intermediary” or “depository institution” such as Merrill Lynch, Schwab, Wells Fargo. An “entitlement holder” is the definition of you whose ownership claim to your financial assets has been subordinated to the claims of “secured creditors” of the institution where you have your accounts. Please do understand that the dispossession of which I write is your dispossession.

As reported in Part 1, a country’s securities are pooled in a Central Security Depository (CSD). Each national CSD is linked to the International Security Depository (ICSD), which in the words of a 2013 report by the Bank for International Settlements Committee on the Global Financial System, makes available to “secured creditors” all available collateral (all of our stocks and bonds) and provides cross-border mobility of collateral from the “collateral giver” to the “collateral taker.” Yes, these terms are explicitly used, indicating recognition that theft is taking place.

Webb writes that these arrangements were “designed and deliberately executed to move control of collateral to the largest secured creditors behind the derivatives complex. This is the subterfuge, the endgame of it all.”

To achieve these arrangements took many years and many regulatory changes that did not involve financial market participants (you) in the decisions. The differences between financial property rights in the US and in some European countries were a special obstacle which required “harmonization” of Europe with the US. The first effort was signed only by the US, Switzerland, and Mauritius. The EU did not sign, because in some EU member countries (Sweden, Finland, for example) the purchasers of securities had inviolable property rights based on the ancient legal principle of lex rei sitae.

Webb describes, citing the documents, the 10-year work-around of this blockage.

The creation of cross-border collateral mobility began with the Depository Trust Corporation moving from physical stock certificates held in the owners name to book-entries. A “paperwork crisis” was claimed from having to process transactions of individually owned shares of securities.

Then the US Uniform Commercial Code was quietly amended over many years without requiring an act of Congress. Here are the changes:

Ownership of securities as property has been replaced with a new legal concept of a “security entitlement”, which is a contractual claim assuring a very weak position if the account provider becomes insolvent.

All securities are held in un-segregated pooled form. Securities used as collateral, and those restricted from such use, are held in the same pool.

All account holders, including those who have prohibited use of their securities as collateral, must, by law, receive only a pro-rata share of residual assets.

“Re-vindication,” which is the taking back of one’s own securities in the event of insolvency, is absolutely prohibited.

Account providers may legally borrow pooled securities to collateralize proprietary trading and financing. 


“Safe Harbor” assures secured creditors priority claim to pooled securities ahead of account holders.

Webb reports that “the absolute priority claim of secured creditors to pooled client securities has been upheld by the courts.”

Webb reproduces the New York Federal Reserve Bank’s reply to questions from the European Community’s Legal Certainty Group about the new system Washington was developing. The Fed was asked if investors have rights attaching to particular securities in pooled securities. The NY Fed responded “No.”

The Fed was asked if investors are protected against the insolvency of an intermediary or depository or account provider. The NY Fed answered “creditors have priority over the claims of entitlement holders.”

The Fed was asked if creditors still had priority if failure involved fault, negligence or similar breach of duty of the intermediary. The NY Fed answered: “In terms of the interest that the entitlement holder has in the financial assets credited to his securities account: regardless of fault, fraud, or negligence of the securities intermediary, under Article 8, the entitlement holder has only a pro rata share in the securities intermediary’s interest in the financial asset in question.”

In short, omnibus accounts pool assets so that individual securities cannot be identified with specific investors. When bankruptcy occurs causing default of the account provider, clients are left with a mere contractual claim and have to line up with all other unsecured creditors.

The objective of using all securities as collateral has been obtained. “Comprehensive ‘collateral management’ systems have been implemented which assure the transport of all securities cross-border through the mandated linkage of CSDs to ICSDs to the CCPs (where the risk of the derivatives complex is concentrated), and on to the anointed secured creditors which will take the collateral when the CCPs fail, having assured for themselves that their taking of assets cannot be legally challenged.”

Nevertheless, two problems remain. What happens if the pools of collateral are insufficient to cover the claims of secured creditors and what is the risk that a CCP (Central Clearing Party) could fail?

The 2013 Bank for International Settlements Global Financial Committee report says that if there is insufficient pooled collateral (our stocks and bonds) to prevent the collapse of the financial system (by which is meant apparently the mega-banks), then non-collateral has to be transformed into collateral. What non-collateral is and how it is transformed is not clear. The BIS Global Capital Committee’s report says: “some market participants may need to exchange available, but ineligible [as collateral], securities for other securities that meet eligibility criteria [as collateral] in order to fulfill their collateral obligations. Undertaking transactions to achieve this outcome has been defined as ‘collateral transformation.’”

Webb writes: “Collateral transformation is simply the encumbrance of any and all types of client assets under swap contracts, which end up in the derivatives complex. This is done without the knowledge of the clients, who were led to believe that they safely owned these securities, and serves no beneficial purpose whatsoever for these clients.”

As Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, my bailiwick was the management of the domestic economy, and my task was to replace the Keynesian demand-management policy that had resulted in “stagflation” with a supply-side policy. Moreover it was 40 years ago prior to the era of derivatives that exceed many times the size of world GDP and, as I understand, the combined value of all stocks and bonds in the Western world. Therefore, I cannot provide the answer. Webb does not explain, nor does the BIS committee, how more collateral is created when the pooled accumulations of all stocks and bonds are insufficient to meet secured creditors’ claims. But it is not from money creation by the central bank.

Under the new Dispossession, a Central Clearing Party (CCP) has the counterparty risk between parties in a transaction and provides clearing and settlement. The CCP has “the obligations of the failed clearing participant.” So what happens if a CCP itself fails? The answer seems to be financial Armageddon. “If a large CCP is in trouble because of its members’ default, then we will be having a banking crisis” says Benoît Gourisse, Senior Director, European Public Policy at ISDA.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation states that it has no solution to the undercapitalization of CCPs.

Webb concludes that the CCPs are deliberately under-capitalized and designed to fail.

In Part 3 we will consider the likely result of the pending financial crisis.


Read Part III:


The Great Dispossession: A Massive Financial Crisis Is Pending. The WEF’s “Great Reset” Means “The Re-institutionalization of Feudalism”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 17, 2024


*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Janey Thompson, daughter of WBT radio host Bo Thompson, dies after complications from blood clot 

By Spencer Chrisman

Published: Apr. 10, 2024 at 2:03 PM MDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Janey Thompson, the daughter of WBT Morning Show Radio Host Bo Thompson, has passed away after suffering complications from a blood clot, according to the radio station.

Janey died on Tuesday, April 9. She was a sophomore at Wake Forest University and was a biophysics major.

While at Wake Forest, she was a member of the National Society of Physics Students, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Delta Delta Delta sorority.

She was a 2022 graduate of Myers Park High School where she played varsity basketball and softball.

The radio station released the following statement regarding the passing of Janey:

The WBT and Radio One family is deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Bo Thompson’s daughter, Janey. There are no words to provide adequate comfort under these circumstances, but we are committed to supporting Bo and his family in any way possible during this difficult time. We know that the WBT Community of listeners joins us in prayers for the Thompson family.

She was mandated COVID-19 Vaccines at Wake Forest University

***

My Take…

18 year old Janey Thompson was a fit, high level athlete who played varsity basketball and softball. In the fall of 2022, she was accepted to Wake Forest University (biophysics major) and was required to produce proof of COVID-19 Vaccination Status to attend University.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate was dropped as of May 12, 2023.

Janey, a high level athlete, died less than a year after the mandate was dropped, from a blood clot that “traveled from her leg to her heart”, blood clots being one of the more common side effects of COVID-19 Vaccines.

This is a high likelihood case of a 20 year old girl being murdered by an illegal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate. 

*

Case 02: 21 year old Bryce Stanfield, football player and health sciences student collapsed at Furman University in SC during a football workout on Feb. 7, was on life support & died on Feb. 9, 2024. Autopsy: pulmonary embolism

  • Bryce had to abide by a COVID-19 Vaccine mandate to attend Furman University in the fall of 2022 and again in the fall of 2023

Image

 

 

Case 03 – University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) nursing student 21 year old Mia Brown had a medical emergency at the Recreation Center, collapsed and died suddenly on Feb. 12, 2024.

  • Mia Brown had to abide by a COVID-19 Vaccine mandate to attend UCCS in the fall of 2022

 

Image

 

 

Case 04 – Michigan State University student and political science major, 19 year old Angela Christy died in her sleep on Dec. 30, 2023.

  • Mar. 31, 2022: “Our daughter Angela will be attending MSU in the fall. We are beyond proud of her and all of her accomplishments”
  • (Fall 2022 – Angela had to abide by COVID-19 Vaccine and booster mandate to be able to attend Michigan State University)
  • Feb. 28, 2023: “Michigan State University is dropping a COVID-19 vaccine and booster mandate for students and staff a little more than a year after introducing the requirement”
  • Dec. 31, 2023: “We are heartbroken and devastated as our precious daughter Angela Grace suddenly and unexpectedly passed away yesterday in her sleep at 19 years old”

Image

 

Case 05 – Fayetteville, NY – 21 year old Salvatore Angotti, basketball and lacrosse player and senior at University at Buffalo died unexpectedly on Oct. 4, 2023.

  • Fall 2021 & Fall 2022 – Salvatore had to abide by COVID-19 Vaccine and booster mandate to be able to attend University at Buffalo

 

Image

 

 

Case 06 – 21 year old Megha Thakur, 21 year old Western University (Canada) student, had a heart attack and died 4 months later on Nov. 24, 2022. Five days after her death, Western University revoked their COVID-19 Vaccination Policy.

 

Image

 

Image

 

April 12, 2024 – Most Canadian Universities continue deadly COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates:

 

Image

 

More than 5000 US Colleges and Universities mandated COVID-19 Vaccines

 

Click here to watch the video

My Take…

I don’t understand why parents didn’t push back harder against University and College COVID-19 Vaccine mandates, all of which were illegal.

I have reported over 100 sudden deaths of University or College students. That means there are thousands such deaths.

Even 1 or 2 deaths at each of the 5000 Universities & Colleges that mandated the jabs, would mean thousands of needless deaths.

Certain Universities have had numerous sudden & unexplained student deaths since the jabs were mandated in the fall of 2021 (Cornell, Princeton, Penn State).

So far, not a single University or College leader has been prosecuted for the student deaths their mandates caused. That must change, because the injuries & deaths will continue for a very long time.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.

Featured image is from COVID Intel


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Mobilisation reserves in Ukraine have been emptied while the military calls for troop rotation at the front, which cannot be done, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on his Telegram channel on October 23. This is unsurprising as Ukraine has been illegally mobilising men since at least January, demonstrating the alarming lack of manpower the country has, an issue even well before the failed so-called “Spring Offensive,” which actually began in early June.

“The mobilisation in Ukraine has turned into a real nightmare for the Ukrainians […] Ukraine’s reserves have been emptied, while at the front, the military is asking for a rotation [of troops], which cannot be done due to lack of personnel in the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” said the former Ukrainian Prime Minister.

According to Azarov’s publication, recruitment centres began attracting former prisoners to “capture” as much of the population as possible because the mobilisation resource was exhausted, and many people fled the country in any way possible.

“Thus, as long as the Ukrainian authorities use force against their own people, there will be fewer and fewer supporters in the country, and fewer volunteers will appear in the ranks of the Ukrainian forces,” the former Ukrainian prime minister added.

“This means that with such sentiments in society, Ukraine has a catastrophically low chance of holding its own,” Azarov concluded.

Earlier, a spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the mobilisation potential of Ukraine still allows additional recruitment of men of military age without changing the legislation. Ukraine has been under martial law since February 24, 2022, and the next day, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilisation, and thus, male citizens aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving Ukraine’s borders. In fact, the legislation is so draconian that Ukrainian men face prison sentences of up to five years for evading military service during mobilisation.

However, even the few provisions within the draconian legislation are being violated, such as the procedure for delivering summonses – a written document issued in the name of a specific person – for conscription. The summons must be prepared in advance, and if issued correctly, the conscript must appear before the relevant state body responsible for mobilisation. According to the law, summonses cannot be delivered by messenger, text, phone, or e-mail, and they cannot be filled out in front of the person to whom it is handed. If the summons is issued incorrectly, the conscript does not have to appear for mobilisation.

Yet, in Ukraine, these few provisions in the legislation are being violated on a mass scale. 

One such case occurred in January 2023 in Odessa, when military recruiters hid inside an ambulance, and when they saw men of military age, they jumped out onto the street, handed out summons and forcibly dragged those who resisted into the ambulance. A month later, in Ternopil, military recruiters grabbed men at a bus station and forced them into the bus. Then, on March 20, a video appeared in which a taxi driver in Odessa expressed “insufficiently patriotic thoughts”, but two days later, he was reportedly “found and drafted into the army.”

These are just three examples of countless Ukrainians being literally dragged off the streets to fight in a war they have no interest in being involved in. This is also a major contributing reason to the utter failure of the so-called “spring offensive.” These forcibly conscripted men became the “cannon fodder” we heard about over the summer because they naturally had low morale and lacked military training.

In addition, many men are motivated to join the Ukrainian military just because it is one of the few secure sources of income, no matter how meagre it is, due to the destroyed economy. However, many of these men end up dead, become incapacitated due to injury, or do their best to avoid conflict to preserve their lives.

It is recalled that Ukrainian investigators detained Yevhen Borisov on charges of illegal enrichment, dereliction of duty, and evading military service in July. Borisov was fired as the military commissioner of the Odessa region in June after investigative reports found he and family members had bought property in Spain along with luxury automobiles worth $4 million, money he attained from taking bribes for exemptions, among other reasons.

In this way, Ukraine does not only have the problem of empty reserves, as highlighted by Azarov, but deep corruption that means many military-age men can avoid conscription, so long as they can pay the bribe, whilst poor Ukrainian men, which today forms most of the male population, are literally dragged off the streets to participate in a futile war against Russia, which they know they cannot win.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

On April 1st when as Israeli airstrike took out half the Iran embassy compound in Damascus, Syria along with Iran’s top ranking generals and 5 other officers, Israel clearly violated international law (both UN Charter Article 51 and 1961’s Vienna Convention) that protects foreign nations’ embassies, consulates and staff around the world. The targeted slain victims were all invited military advisors stationed in Syria, unlike the illegal US military occupiers refusing to leave both Syria and Iraq.

Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei responded by informing Israel and the world that it will deliver a payback “slap in the face” to Israel for its escalated aggression that is clearly a Netanyahu provocation, deliberately attempting to ignite the larger war in the Middle East in order to drag the US into World War III. Though Biden made the usual claim that US support for Israel is “ironclad,” sending US aircraft and destroyers into the area with missile ballistic defense systems to protect Israel, he also made an agreement with Iran not to intervene against Iran’s response after Iran warned the US to stay out of Tehran’s retribution in answer to Israel’s latest aggression.

The stage was already set when on April 13th last Saturday around noon local time Iranian special forces seized an Israeli operated container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing it into Iran port. Then late Saturday night began Iran’s intense barrage reportedly launching over 300 Kamikaze drones, rockets and cruise and ballistic missiles, simultaneously fired directly into Israel from not only directly from Iran, but Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran proxy groups in both Iraq and Syria. With Iran launching the world’s largest drone strike in history and Iran’s biggest missile launch in its history, the world stands at the abyss of global disaster.

The next day on Sunday April 14th Israel and Netanyahu were boasting that 99% of the incoming drones and missiles were effectively intercepted. IDF spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said that most of the drones and missiles were destroyed even prior to entering Israeli airspace, neutralized by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, with assistance from the US and allied coalition member UK, France and even Muslim monarchies Jordan and Saudi Arabia apparently shot down Iran drones. Apparently historical oil-rich Gulf States are still siding with the US/West and Islamic world isn’t so unified as recent appearances indicated. An anonymous source for the Saud family just told the Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the Saudi government blames Iran for financing terrorism responsible for the Hamas October 7th assault on Israel, sabotaging the burgeoning normalized relations between Riyadh and West Jerusalem.

The tally of Iran weapons launched against Israel included about 170 drones, over 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. Israel’s estimated cost was over $1 billion defending itself from the Iran missile and drone attack. Iran stated that its limited objective was to hit an Israeli intelligence base apparently located in the occupied Golan Heights, according to former intelligence operative Hal Turner. That secret base played a key role in the IDF airstrike attack that killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers in Damascus on April 1st.  Also, two IDF airbases were targeted by Iran in Israel’s Negev Desert. Iran announced its limited campaign hitting only military targets as an appropriate, proportionally measured response was successful exercising Iran’s right to self-defense and that it will suffice for now. Israel admitted only minor damage sustained at one airbase and that a 10-year old Bedouin Israeli girl was slightly injured from falling shrapnel with no deaths or other injuries reported in Israel.

According to an unnamed US defense official, Biden told Netanyahu late Saturday night that the US will not support Israel if it retaliates further against Iran, reportedly telling Bibi:

You got a win. Take the win.

According to a Sunday April 14th Axios exclusive:

The official said that when Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in any offensive operations against Iran and will not support such operations, Netanyahu said he understood.

According to a White House statement, Biden revealed:

I told Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks — sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel.

This drone and missile attack was Iran’s first military intervention launched from Iran soil against Israel ever. It’s limited strategic objective purposely spared the Israeli population and primarily was intended to send a message of deterrence to Israel, warning that if Israel retaliates, Iran’s response will be much “more extensive” and devastating. Days in advance of Iran’s weekend drone/missile launch, many Islamic nations in the Middle East warned the US of their refusal to allow US to use their land, sea and airspace to help Israel. An early Sunday April 14th CNN article claimed:

American forces intercepted 70 drones and at least three ballistic missiles.

The Biden team held a conference call on Sunday with its G7 counterparts “to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack,” collectively condemning Iran and demanding restraint.

My impression is that last weekend’s events were all pure theater, carefully plotted and choreographed to make Biden appear more presidential as commander-in-chief during his election year, showing he isn’t so weak and feeble after all, stepping up to save humanity from end of the world Armageddon with his decisive intervention warning Bibi the Butcher no help from US if he retaliates.

It’s a staged shitshow to project the optics that Biden is capable of finally putting his foot down and setting limits with the defiant Israeli dictator who previously has gone out of his way to humiliate Biden by flagrantly refusing all his requests and pressure. It seems to be a high profile image enhancement exercise, an impression management charade spectacle serving as humanity’s projected temporary reprieve from World War III gone kinetic, for the time being at least until the November election.

Incisive geopolitical journalist Brian Berletic wrote a very recent article just ahead of this weekend’s Iranian drone/missile attack on Israel tracing today’s events back to a think tank policy paper from 15 years ago. It crystalizes my own impression and conclusion that this last weeks’ events were all scripted years in advance, as is so often the case. Brian’s New Eastern Outlook piece dated April 15th entitled “2009 US Policy Paper Planned Current Israeli0Iranian Tensions opens with the following sentence:

In reality, almost verbatim, US-Israeli diplomacy (or lack thereof) and military operations are following a carefully laid out policy described in the pages of the Brooking Institution’s 2009 paper, “Which Path to Persia? Options for a new American Strategy Toward Iran.”

It immediately becomes apparent that this government-military-corporate funded behemoth think tank institution’s policy paper has literally been the US-Israel Middle East policy playbook for unfolding regional developments covertly manipulating tensions and hostilities against Iran by hegemonic power interests for the last decade and a half.

The Brooking paper constantly calls for using the press to project Iran the initiator of destabilizing tensions and conflict. Thus, in the immediate aftermath of Iran defending its own sovereignty, controlled puppet politicians in US and Israel in conjunction with the controlled corporate media predictably spin the narrative framing Iran as the belligerent aggressor and Israel the victim. Right on cue, on Sunday April 14th Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz went on the warpath against Iran, accusing:

Iran launched a large-scale and unprecedented attack against the state of Israel, which included hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. This attack once again proves what Israel has been saying for years: Iran is behind terrorist attacks in the region and is also the greatest threat to regional stability and world order, which is why Iran should never acquire nuclear weapons. Iran must pay the price for its aggression, and the first step in this direction must be immediate recognition of the Iranian IRGC – which carried out this large-scale terrorist attack against Israel – as a terrorist organization. The entire free world must stand with Israel against the axis of Iranian evil.

This is all too obvious that if Braindead Biden actually did convince Bibi the Butcher to forego his military retaliation against Iran, which still remains very questionable, FM Katz is attempting to rally the world currying favor for Israel, especially from the West and UN, into collectively delivering painful economic sanctions against Iran, seeking worldwide Israeli support intent on both distracting global attention away from its genocide against the Palestinians and absolving the Jewish Rogue State pariah of its over-the-top international crime on April Fool’s Day, bombing the Iran consulate in Syria, which is the real terrorist act here and of course Israel is actually the real “greatest threat to regional stability and world order.” And clearly all along, the real terrorist pariahs inflicting by far the most death and destruction on the planet are the US/Israel following orders from their kingpin City of London controllers.

Of course, perennial neocon blowhard John Bolton, former US national security adviser and ambassador to the UN had to rally for more warmongering rhetoric with the following statements to CNN:

Passivity at this point for Israel would be a big mistake. This is not time to play academic games and message and signal. This is a question of power. If they came from a different location containing nuclear warheads, Israel might not be so lucky.

Members of both the Senate and House are hardline AIPAC controlled Israeli firsters that demand Biden slam Iran with a new round of economic sanctions against Iran, totally ignoring Israel’s flagrant international breach of law taking out the Iran Consulate in Damascus.

Again, it’s okay if you violate international law as long as you line up on the US/West’s side. Total double standard arbitrarily applied with US rules-based exceptionalism, still trying to impose on nations deemed a threat to Washington’s waning unipolar order. On Monday Congress will vote to impose sanctions barring Iranian imports, Iran’s oil sales to China and financial transactions between Iran and US. Following Israel FM’s lead, the Israel controlled Congress will come up with more sanctions against Iran, and place pressure on EU to declare Iran’s military the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization.

Right on cue French warmonger Macron on Monday is calling for strengthening sanctions against Iran.

Another US House resolution also seeks to defy Biden’s edict and backs Israel’s military retaliation against Iran. Stand with Israel or be unseeded from your lofty position atop the US government is the kind of bribery/blackmail control Israel wields over Washington DC, of course per the marching orders of the City of London planetary controllers pushing the world toward the West vs. East Armageddon scenario.

Again, all of this appears more bread and circus theater and bluster to placate the worried world that WWIII is trying to be avoided. The real terrorists – the planetary controllers well over a century ago planned their scripted Armageddon Zio vs. Islamic war currently bent on executing their drastic depopulation agenda that’s also been in the works for some time, in due time unleashing their WWIII as the globalists’ biggest WMD kill weapon of them all. It seems the big one is coming sooner than later, i.e., possibly prior to the election with yet another US false flag terrorist attack at home as the excuse to declare national emergency martial law to cancel the November election.

As a sidelight to this big theatrical sideshow, Israel propaganda painting Iran as the big bad eternal enemy showing its evil “true colors” displays some of Saturday’s missiles fired at Israel. But the last several seconds of footage is from near a decade ago of a Russian Grad missile launch in what’s being purported as a compilation of this weekend’s Iranian strikes against Israel. This is just one among countless examples of how the Jewish State constantly uses deception to always over play its persecuted victim role to justify continually getting away with murderous genocide nonstop for the last three-quarters of a century during its entire existence as a nation.

Meanwhile, Putin stated this week:

If the United States wants to come to the field to support Israel, we will not sit idle here, the smallest attack by the United States on Iranian soil will force us to support Iran.

Iran’s account of Saturday’s “slap in the [Israeli] face” completely disputes the Israel claim that 99% of all the Iranian drones and missiles were successfully intercepted and failed to hit their targets. On Sunday April 14th Iran Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian stated:

In this operation, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with accurate calculations and using drones and guided missiles, targeted the military base where the Zionist regime’s F-35 aircraft carried out aggression on the building of Iran’s Embassy in Damascus.

The following day on Monday Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani stated:

Iran’s action was necessary and proportionate and targeted military sites. Iran acted to defend its national security and interests given the lack of action by the UN Security Council and ensuing irresponsible behavior of the US, Britain and France.

Again, Iran’s response was precise, measured and on estimate parity with the Israeli April 1st attack, although minus any IDF top brass generals assassinated, unlike the IRGC officers in Syria.

Also on Sunday, Chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Baqeri stated that Iran’s hypersonic missiles “reached their goals,” hitting Israel’s Nevatim Airbase where the US made F-35s were used to carry out the terrorist attack on the Iran Consulate. These claims refute the probable lies from Netanyahu and his war cabinet that little to no damage in Israel occurred. Israel’s war cabinet is discussing how it will respond to the Iran attack as again Bibi could once again defy Biden and retaliate and escalate the wider conflict further. IDF spokesman Peter Lerner told the press on Monday April 15th:

Just because we were successful in intercepting, we should not underestimate what Iran did. We are currently reviewing the options after IDF presented what it believes could be done. [Countermeasures could involve] a strike or no strike.

Iranians celebrate in the city of Ahvaz on April 14, 2024 after hearing news of the country’s retaliation against the Israeli regime’s terrorist attack on the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic mission in Damascus. (Photo by Tasnim news agency)

Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged his government to send the strong signal to its enemies, with this dangerously volatile, provocative, if not maniacal rhetoric:

Ideas of containment and moderation are the perceptions that ended on October 7. To create a deterrent in the Middle East, Israel has got to show that it is prepared to go berserk.

Meanwhile on Sunday, Iran Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) warned Israel with the statement:

Should the Israeli regime plan to continue its wicked actions against Iran, by any means or methods or at any levels, it will get a response ten times harsher.

According to Iran’s Press TV in an article on Monday April 15th:

The Iranian Army Chief Commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi says the country will not hesitate to give a ‘stormy and unified’ response to any act of aggression against it.

Brutally massacring close to 34,000 Palestinians in just over six months, mostly women and children, Israel lost this war months ago before the world court of public opinion. Both Israel and the US are genocidal war criminal nations that will eventually be prosecuted and punished. Last Friday April 12th Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled “Israel Wins Gaza Battles but Risks Losing the War” and then the day prior last Thursday, Israel’s Haaretz went even further “Saying What Can’t Be Said: Israel Has Been Defeated – a Total Defeat.” Writer Ron Unz makes the astute observation in his latest April 15th Unz Review article about all previous Israel wars:

Most of these previous half-dozen campaigns were fought against heavily-equipped conventional armies but their combined length totaled considerably less than the time Israel has now spent trying to defeat Gaza’s lightly-armed Hamas militants.

If Biden keeps his word, refusing to join or assist Israel if it continues this deadly tit-for-tat game of chicken, and Israel follows through to strike back at Iran, the Jewish State will then allegedly be on its own to fight off Iran’s reactive wrath that will ignite the full-fledge Middle East war that would almost certainly bring catastrophic consequences to not only Israel and this war-ravaged region, but perhaps entire planet. Both Israel with its Sampson option and Iran possess nuclear weapons. It appears the dreaded World War III scenario that top US Freemason Albert Pike predicted back in 1871, describing the war between the Islamic World (Iran et al backed by Eastern powers Russia, China) versus political Zionists (Rothschild et al City of London controlled Western powers Israel, US, NATO, EU) has at least temporarily been averted. But Israel vows revenge. Meanwhile, Israeli war cabinet meets again today to mull over how and when it will respond to Iran’s weekend attack, with the world teetering on the edge.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on The Government Rag.

Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate, former Army officer and author of “Don’t Let the Bastards Getcha Down” exposing a faulty US military leadership system based on ticket punching up the seniority ladder, invariably weeding out the best and brightest, leaving mediocrity and order followers rising to the top as politician-bureaucrat generals designated to lose every modern US war by elite design. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field with abused youth and adolescents for more than a quarter century. In Los Angeles he found himself battling the largest county child protective services in the nation within America’s thoroughly broken and corrupt child welfare system.

The experience in both the military and child welfare system prepared him well as a researcher and independent journalist, exposing the evils of Big Pharma and how the Rockefeller controlled medical and psychiatric system inflict more harm than good, case in point, the pandemic hoax and kill shot genocide. As an independent journalist for the last decade, Joachim has written hundreds of articles for many news sites, including Global Researchlewrockwell.com and currently https//jameshfetzer.orgInteldrop.org and  https://thegovernmentrag.com. As a published author of a 5-book volume series entitled Pedophilia & Empire: Satan, Sodomy & the Deep State, Joachim’s books and chapters are Amazon bestsellers in child advocacy and human rights categories. His A-Z sourcebook series fully document and expose the global pedophilia scourge and remain available free at https://pedoempire.org/contents/. Joachim also hosts the weekly Revolution Radio broadcast “Cabal Empire Exposed” on Friday morning at 7AM EST (ID: revradio, password: rocks!).

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

On Saturday April 13, thousands of people gathered in Niamey, the capital of the West African state of Niger, demanding the dismantling of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) operations inside their country.

This demonstration represents an ongoing struggle in several former French colonies to end the economic, political, cultural and military ties to the imperialist powers.

In addition to the negative influence from Paris, the U.S. has joined their counterparts in France deploying thousands of military personnel under the guise of fighting “Islamic terrorism”. AFRICOM was launched in February 2008 from its base in Stuttgart, Germany.

Over the course of the last sixteen years, the Pentagon has built a military base in the Horn of Africa state of Djibouti, also a former French colony. They share this installation, known as Camp Lemonnier, with thousands of French troops.

Other outposts for AFRICOM operations have included Mali, Guinea-Conakry and Burkina Faso which have been struck by military coups since 2020. In Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the new military-led governments have formed an Alliance of Sahel States. The purpose of the grouping is to enhance the security of these states independent of French and U.S. domination as well as to counter the now lifted sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

ECOWAS, a fifteen-member regional alliance of governments, led now by newly elected President Bola Tinubu of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, had been persuaded by the U.S. and France to take a hostile position towards the overthrow of the western-backed administration of Mohamed Bazoum in Niger last July 26. The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) was formed with widespread support from broad sections of the Nigerien population.

During the change of governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, people raised their national flags alongside that of the Russian Federation. Since the military seizure of power within these states, military advisors from Moscow have been requested.

Since the Pentagon-NATO-led counter-revolution in Libya during 2011, the first full-scale operation of AFRICOM, rebel groups have surfaced causing tremendous damage to the stability of various states throughout West and North Africa. These rebel formations operate in a similar fashion as al-Qaeda and the so-called “Islamic State.” Both of these designated “terrorist” organizations have their origins within U.S. intelligence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Although these entities claim they are motivated by Islam in carrying out their attacks, nearly all of their operations target civilians, many of whom are Muslims. The existence of these groupings and the violence they perpetuate provides a rationale for the continued presence of imperialism within their territories.

The propaganda and psychological warfare of France and the U.S. seeks to make the case for the indispensability of their assistance and occupation in order to fight terrorism. Nonetheless, since the formation of AFRICOM and the escalation of French interventions, the overall security situation in the Sahel and other regions of the African continent has worsened.

The Arrival of Russian Advisors in Niger

Therefore, following a pattern established by other Sahel states, the CNSP government in Niger has requested security assistance from the Russian Federation. Military advisors began to arrive in the uranium-rich state on April 12.

A report published by Al Mayadeen Television based upon an article from Sputnik news agency says:

“Reporting from the scene, a correspondent from Sputnik revealed that Russian experts have landed in Niger in an effort to train local forces on combating terrorism…. The landing of Russia’s IL-76 aircraft in Niamey was aired by Nigerien state broadcaster RTN which stated that this update came after a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and chairman of Niger’s National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, Abdourahmane Tchiani. The broadcaster announced that the arrival entails the installation of an air defense system through which Russian instructors will provide quality training for the Nigerien military staff.” 

These developments are creating much consternation on the part of the State Department and Pentagon based in Washington. During March, the U.S. dispatched a high-level delegation from the administration of President Joe Biden to Niamey in a failed attempt to salvage a military agreement allowing AFRICOM to remain in Niger.

Even after the CNSP leadership declared the military pact with the U.S. “null and void”, the Biden administration officials from the Defense and State Departments continued to speak publicly as if there was still the potential for remaining in Niger. The official position of the Biden administration is that they have not been formally ordered to leave the country.

However, it has been quite obvious for many months that the CNSP government views the U.S. in the same vein as France. The steadfast character of Niger and the two other Alliance States has not only staved off the intervention of an imperialist-backed ECOWAS invasion it indeed prompted Tinubu and his colleagues to invite these three governments to return to the regional grouping. All of the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS have been lifted against the CNSP in Niamey.

By setting a standard for anti-French and anti-U.S. postures in these underdeveloped states, the pro-western regimes in West Africa are concerned that the same pattern could unfold in their countries. Even in Nigeria, which is the most populated state on the continent with ostensibly the largest national economy, problems of hyper-inflation and foreign debt are hampering the capacity of the Tinubu administration to provide a decent standard of living for the majority of people inside the country.

CNSP Administration Bolstered by Mass Support for Independent Foreign Policy

Since the July 26 seizure of power by the CNSP, there have been demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people in Niger compelling the administration to reverse the path of neo-colonial dominance by France and the U.S. During the April 13 rallies and marches, people held signs telling AFRICOM to leave the historic city of Agadez and return to Washington.

French and U.S. involvement in post-colonial African states have never been beneficial to the majority of the people who are workers, farmers and youth. Irrespective of the vast deposits of strategic resources such as gold, diamonds, uranium, iron ore, bauxite, petroleum, natural gas and other assets such as waterways, agricultural potential and youthful labor forces which constitute in many states the overwhelming majority of people, the annual household incomes are some of the lowest in the world. The imperialists are committed to the maintenance of regimes which serve the interests of the ruling classes within the western industrial states.

In acknowledging the withdrawal of French troops from Niger, which was completed in March, the same above-mentioned article from Al Mayadeen noted:

“Presently, the U.S. maintains a deployment of 648 troops across two bases in the former French colony. In 2017, the Nigerien government granted approval for the deployment of armed U.S. drones to target militants as part of the Sahel counterterrorism mission. Despite participating with France and other Western allies in withholding aid to Niamey in response to Bazoum’s ouster, Washington has asserted that disengagement from Niger is not a viable option. As of September, Germany had approximately 110 soldiers stationed in the uranium-rich nation, while Italy had around 300 soldiers deployed there prior to the coup”.

Therefore, the declining influence of the Pentagon and international finance capital poses a dilemma for Washington, Paris and its NATO allies. In the 21st century, the People’s Republic of China has established partnerships with African Union (AU) member-states which have proved far more resilient than what is being offered by the imperialist centers.

Since the beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine more than two years ago, many AU member-states have exercised their independence in rejecting the overtures from the Biden administration to line up behind the efforts aimed at bringing down the government of President Vladimir Putin. The AU policy on Ukraine is that the war has negatively impacted food security on the continent.

In regard to the situation in Palestine, there is overwhelming support among the African masses for an immediate ceasefire and the recognition of an independent state. The Republic of South Africa, led by the African National Congress (ANC), has taken the Zionist regime to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) even though the legal challenge charging Israeli genocide against the Palestinians has been ridiculed by the Biden administration, saying it has no merit.

All of these factors are shaping the general mood within many African states not limited to the Sahel. With the U.S. pursuing its same unilateral foreign policy, there will surely be a continuing shift away from the forced subservience to Washington and Wall Street.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

All images in this article are from the author

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

The Middle East has, for some time, been a powder keg where degrees of violence are tolerated with ceremonial mania and a calculus of restraint. 

Assassinations can take place at a moment’s notice. 

Revenge killings follow with dashing speed. 

Suicide bombings of immolating power are carried out. 

Drone strikes of devastating, collective punishment are ordered, all padded by the retarded notion that such killings are morally justified and confined.

In all this viciousness, the conventional armed forces have been held in check, the arsenals contained, the generals busied by plans of contingency rather than reality. The rhetoric may be vengeful and spicily hysterical, but the states in the region keep their armies in reserve, and Armageddon at bay. Till, naturally, they don’t.

To date, Israel is doing much to test the threshold of what might be called the rule of tolerable violence. 

With Iran, for instance, it has adopted a “campaign between the wars”, primarily in Syria.  For over a decade, the Israeli strategy was to prevent the flow of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah, intercepting weapons shipments and targeting storage facilities.  “Importantly,” writes Haid Haid, a consulting fellow for Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, “Israel appeared to avoid, whenever feasible, killing Hezbollah or Iranian operatives during these operations.”

But the state of play has changed.  The Gaza War, which has become more the Gaza Massacre Project, has moved into its seventh month, packing morgues, destroying families and stimulating the terror of famine. Despite calls from the Israeli military and various officials that Hamas’s capabilities have been irreparably weakened (this claim, like all those battling an idea rather than just a corporeal foe, remains refutable and redundant) the killings and policy of starvation continues against the general Palestinian populace.  The International Court of Justice interim orders continue to be ignored, even as the judges deliberate over the issue as to whether genocide is taking place in the Gaza Strip.  The restraints, in other words, have been taken off.

The signs are ominous.  Spilt blood is becoming hard currency.  Daily skirmishes between the IDF and Hezbollah are taking place on the Israeli-Lebanon border.  The Houthis are feverishly engaged with blocking and attacking international shipping in the Red Sea, hooting solidarity for the Palestinian cause.

On April 1, a blood crazed strike by Israel suggested that rules of tolerable violence had, if not been pushed, then altogether suspended.  The attack on Iran’s consular offices in Damascus by the Israeli Air Force was tantamount to striking Iranian soil. In the process, it killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and other commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including Zahedi’s deputy, General Haji Rahimi. Retaliation was accordingly promised, with Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, vowing a response “at the same magnitude and harshness”.

It came on April 13, involving 185 drones, 110 ballistic missiles and 36 cruise missiles, all directed at Israel proper. Superficially, this looks anarchically quixotic, streakily disproportionate. But Tehran went for a spectacular theatrical show to terrify and magnify rather than opt for any broader infliction of damage.  Israel’s Iron Dome system, along with allied powers, could be counted upon to aid the shooting down of almost all the offensive devices.  A statement had been made and the Iranians have so far drawn a line under any further military action.  What was deemed by certain pundits a tactical failure can just as easily be read as a strategic if provocative success.  The question then is: what follows?

The Israeli approach varies depending on who is being asked.  The IDF Chief of Staff, General Herzi Halevi, stated that

“Israel is considering next steps” declaring that “the launch of so many missiles and drones to Israeli territory will be answered with retaliation.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was taloned in his hawkishness, demanding that Israel launch a “crushing” counterattack, “go crazy” and abandon “restraint and proportionality”, “concepts that passed away on October 7.”  The “response must not be a scarecrow, in the style of the dune bombings we saw in previous years in Gaza.”

Cabinet minister Benny Gantz, who is a voting member of the war cabinet alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, is tilting for a “regional coalition” to “exact the price from Iran, in the way and at the time that suits us.  And most importantly, in the face of the desire of our enemies to harm us, we will unite and become stronger.”  The immediate issues for resolution from Gantz’s perspective was the return of Israeli hostages “and the removal of the threat against the residents of the north and south.”

Such thinking will also be prompted by the response from the Biden administration that Netanyahu “think very carefully and strategically” about the next measures. “You got a win,” President Joe Biden is reported to have told Netanyahu.  “Take the win.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also expressed the view that, “Strength and wisdom must be the two sides of the same coin.”

For decades, Israel has struck targets in sovereign countries with impunity, using expansive doctrines of pre-emption and self-defence. In doing so, the state always hoped that the understanding of tolerable violence would prevail.  Any retaliation, if any, would be modest, with “deterrence” assured. With the war in Gaza and the fanning out of conflict, the equation has changed.  To some degree, Ben Gvir is right that concepts of restraint and proportionality have been banished to the mortuary.  But such banishment, to a preponderant degree, was initiated by Israel.  The Israel-Gaza War is now, effectively, a global conflict, waged in regional miniature.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). Email: [email protected]

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

First published on July 26, 2023

 

 

 

 

The ground-breaking movie Oppenheimer, despite its unsympathetic protagonist, packs a powerful anti-nuclear punch that makes it hard, if not impossible, to sleep after watching the film.

For this reason alone, the movie should be shown on the floor of Congress and in the White House as required viewing by all in DC bent on spending $1.7 trillion over the next decades to build new nuclear weapons to kill us all.

Only those with a global death wish or on the payroll of Northrop Grumman, the military contractor with the nuclear “modernization” contract, could watch this film and still root for US nuclear rearmament, a horror show now underway with the blessings of DC politicians. Unless people rise up in fury, unless this Hollywood movie sparks a second nuclear-freeze movement, a repeat on steroids of the 80’s nuclear weapons freeze, Congress and the White House will raid the treasury to expand our nuclear arsenal.

On the agenda is a new sea-launched nuclear cruise missile, a gravity bomb with two-stage radiation implosion, a long range strike bomber and the replacement of 400 underground nuclear missiles in the midwest with 600 new Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. These new ICBMS–The Sentinel–could each carry up to three warheads 20 times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to incinerate 200,000 people in a span of three days.

Irish actor Cillian Murphy plays the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a hand-wringing scientist, an unfaithful lackluster womanizer, a man with few convictions but lots of demons, who traverses an emotional landscape of ambition, doubt, remorse and surrender.

Oppenheimer oversees the Manhattan Project, the team of scientists hunkering down in the beautiful desert of Los Alamos, New Mexico, to build the hideous atomic bomb before the Germans or Russians crack the code.

In a scene reminiscent of the absurd 1950s, when pig-tailed school children scrambled under desks in mock nuclear drills, scientists don sunscreen and goggles to protect themselves during the blinding Trinity Test.

This was the first atomic test conducted with no warning to the downwinders–the nearby indigenous people of the Southwest who developed cancer as a result of radioactive fall out.

This was the test before President Truman ordered a 9,000 pound uranium bomb named “Little Boy’ loaded onto a B-29 bomber. This was the trial performance before the same President, depicted in the movie as unctuous and arrogant, orders Fat Boy, a second plutonium bomb– prototype for today’s nuclear weapon–dropped on Nagasaki.

Though the movie can be slow, a three hour endurance test, its historical insights and gut-churning imagery compensate for its lack of likable characters, save for Lt. General Leslie Groves, played by a fun-to-watch Matt Damon as Oppenheimer’s Pentagon handler.

One of the most haunting moments juxtaposes in living color celebrations of the bombings, applause and accolades for Oppenheimer standing at the podium with the guilt-consumed scientist’s black and white visions of irradiated souls, skeletal remains, flesh turned to ash–all amid a cacophony of explosions and pounding feet, the death march.

Even more disturbing are the questions that tug at the moviegoer, who wonders,

“Where are the Japanese victims in this film?

Why are they missing from this picture?

Why are they never shown writhing in pain, their lives and cities destroyed?” Instead, the human targets are seen only through the lens of Oppenheimer who imagines faceless x-rayed ghosts torn asunder in the burning wreckage, their skin, their flesh falling off their bones, their bodies disappearing into nothingness.

The omission of the real victims in the interest of maintaining a consistent point of view may make sense from a filmmaker’s perspective, but not from the standpoint of historians and truth tellers. Writer-director Christopher Nolan could have shown us photos, authentic aerial footage of the Japanese, blinded and burned, before the final credits roll to remind us the horror is real, not just a Hollywood movie bound for several Oscar nominations.

In the name of truth the movie does, however, smash the persistent myth that the US had no other choice but to drop the atomic bombs to end WWII.

Through dialogue, we learn Japan was about to surrender, the Emperor simply needed to save face; the point of irradiating Hiroshima and Nagasaki, targeting civilians in far off cities, was not to save the world but to show the Soviets the US possessed the technology to destroy the world, so better not cross the aspiring empire.

In closed door sessions, all filmed in black and white, we watch as crusading anti-communist politicians–determined to stop Oppenheimer from advocating for arms control talks with the Soviets–crucify their atomic hero for his association with members of the Communist Party, leftist trade unions and a long ago anti-capitalist lover who threw his bourgeois flowers in the trash.

When the McCarthyites strip Oppenheimer of his security clearance, it’s a big “who cares” shrug for a movie audience weary of Oppenheimer’s internal conflicts over whether science can be divorced from politics, from the consequences of a scientist’s research. How can anyone with a heart want to continue this line of work? To hell with the security clearance.

The movie Oppenheimer is compelling and powerful in its timeliness, though one can’t help but think it would have been exponentially more powerful had it  been told from a different point of view, from the point of view of a scientist who opposed the death-march mission.

We see glimpses of a pond-staring fate-warning Albert Einstein, who in real life lobbied to fund the atomic bomb research only to later oppose the project.

It could have been his story–or the story of one of the 70 scientists who signed a “Truman, don’t drop the bomb” petition that Oppenheimer squelched, persuading Edward Teller, the “father of the hydrogen bomb” not to present Truman with the petition drafted by Leo Szilard, the chief physicist at the Manhattan Project’s Chicago laboratory. The movie’s reference to the petition was so fast, so quiet, so mumbled, the audience could have missed it.

If we are not careful, more mindful, more awake, we might miss our moment, our moment to avert another nuclear holocaust, this one a far worse nightmare in which five billion of the Earth’s 8 billion people perish, either immediately from radiation burns and fire or in the months that follow during a famine in which soot blocks the sun.

The White House and a majority of Congress want to rush us, a sleepwalking populace into WWIII with Russia, a nation of 143 million people, 195 different ethnicities and 6,000 nuclear weapons. For those, like the shameful editors of the Washington Post, who insist we continue to forever fund the proxy war, for those in high places who refuse calls for a ceasefire, this movie reminds us of the existential danger we confront in a sea of denial, complicity and exceptionalism.

Despite campaigning on a platform of no first use of nuclear weapons, President Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review echoes his predecessor Trump’s approval of first use should our allies’ interests be threatened.

CODEPINK activists are distributing flyers outside showings of Oppenheimer to invite stunned movie goers leaving the theater in a daze to take action, to join our organization and amplify our peace-building campaigns, to ground the nuclear-capable F-35, to declare China is Not our Enemy and to partner with the Peace in Ukraine Coalition.

This is the movie, this is the moment, this is the time to challenge the euphemistic nuclear modernization program, to expose the madness of militarism that abandons urgent needs at home to line the pockets of military contractors gorging at the Pentagon trough.

This is the time to demand a ceasefire and peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, to stop preparations for war with China, to finally pass legislation to ban first use, to take our ICBM’s off hair trigger alert, to abide by our disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to campaign for the US to become signatories to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Opposed by NATO–a huckster for nuclear proliferation–the TPNW has been signed by 95 state parties wishing to outlaw the development, deployment and use of nuclear weapons.

Unlike Oppenheimer, we can make the right choice; the choice that saves the human race from immediate extinction.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Marcy Winograd of Progressive Democrats of America served as a 2020 DNC Delegate for Bernie Sanders and co-founded the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party. Coordinator of CODEPINKCONGRESS, Marcy spearheads Capitol Hill calling parties to mobilize co-sponsors and votes for peace and foreign policy legislation.

Iran Strikes Inside Israel for the First Time

April 16th, 2024 by Steven Sahiounie

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Israel started it. First came the unprovoked attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, which killed six Iranian military officials, including two generals, and six Syrian civilians who were pedestrians in the upscale Mezze neighborhood.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the attack on Israel, saying it launched the drones and missiles under Operation True Promise on April 14 as a retaliatory strike.

This was the first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory by Iran, even though Israel has attacked Iran numerous times.

Iran launched a barrage of explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel, although many of the drones and missiles were shot down before reaching Israeli territory. The launches came from Iran, as well as from Iraq and Yemen.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, reported an Israeli military base in southern Israel was hit causing some damage, and added Israel would do what was needed to protect its citizens when asked if Israel would respond to this attack.

A 7-year-old girl was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently from debris after the attack.

According to Israeli media, the first wave of the attack saw 300 bomb-carrying drones fired towards Israel. The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system launched hundreds of intercept missiles against the attack. As the region waited with baited breath, 200 ballistic missiles were launched towards Israel in the second wave of the attack, including 30 cruise missiles. Israeli media said the Iron Dome air defense missiles launched in the intercept of the Iranian attack cost $1.3 billion, which was paid for by the American taxpayers.

Air raid sirens wailed across Israel, and people were instructed to find safe shelter well ahead of the beginning of the attack.

Israel has, with the help of the US, a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range rockets.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said it now deemed the matter “concluded”, referring to the retaliatory strike on Israel in response to the deadly strike in Damascus, carried out on a diplomatic mission, which under the Vienna convention is deemed off-limits to attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said that his country has been preparing for a direct attack by Iran for years. Netanyahu is remembered for his cartoon drawing of a bomb which he used as a visual aid in his speech of the UN General Assembly in the past. He has consistently pointed to Iran as enemy number one. He was responsible for pressuring President Trump to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, even though it was effectively curbing Iran’s uranium enrichment progress.

When President Biden took office, he had tried to re-negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, but failed to reach an agreement.

Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, stopped many aircraft outside of Israel, while France, the UK and the Kingdom of Jordan all participated in downing their share of Iranian drones and missiles.

Israel has requested the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to meet in an emergency session in order to condemn the attack on Israel.

The UNSC has received a letter from Iran asserting its attack was within the UN Charter framework governing the right to self-defense.

EU leaders have condemned Iran’s revenge attack on Israel, along with the US, the UK, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Mexico, the Netherlands and Norway.

However, following the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the US and its European allies refused to agree to a UN resolution to condemn the Israeli attack. At the time, Iran said they would refrain from a retaliatory strike if the international community would agree to condemn the deadly actions of Israel. But, the western democracies refused, and this set the stage to an obligatory response.

President Biden said he would convene a meeting of the Group of Seven advanced democracies on Sunday “to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack.”

In is worth noting, that the ‘Group of Seven advanced democracies’ could view the killing of innocent civilians walking in the street in Damascus on April 1 as acceptable, and not warranting condemnation. It begs the question: what is ‘advanced democracy’?

Regional tensions remain high, amid fears of further escalation in the event of a possible Israeli counter-strike.

Senior international correspondent for CNN, Nick Robertson, analyzed the cause of the attack was Netanyahu’s continuing provocations. He has been mired in a war in Gaza which has seen almost 40,000 deaths, legal charges of genocide leveled at Israel, western aid organizations accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, and demands of a ceasefire in Gaza coming from European countries which had previously been friends of Israel.

Protest in Tel Aviv (Source)

The Israeli public have revolted against Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing allies. The public have demanded his resignation because of his failure to negotiate the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The public accuse Netanyahu of wanting the win his war in Gaza at any cost, even if it means none of the hostages will survive.

While most embattled leaders in a war would focus on the battle zone, Netanyahu instead sends a missile strike on Damascus in an effort to distract from his domestic political problems, and the fact that after six months of daily bombardment of Gaza, he has not claimed victory.

Biden spoke to Netanyahu after the attack, and reaffirmed the US support for Israel under attack, but Biden made it clear that the US will not militarily support Israel if they chose to reply. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US does “not seek escalation.”

Analysts described Iran’s attack on Israel as carefully calibrated to prevent further escalation. Before the Iranian response, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon announced temporarily closing their airspace, and news media were issuing warnings of an imminent attack, even before the first drones were flying. Amir Al-Mousawi, former Iranian diplomat and political analyst, told Al Mayadeen TV in an interview that there had been a deadline for the West and Israel which ended at 9 pm local time April 13, hours prior to the beginning of the attack on Israel.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are supported by Iran, and form part of the axis of resistance to the occupation of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria by Israel. These various resistance groups, some armed, and some unarmed, are calling for the freedom of the Palestinian people who are denied all human rights. Israel also occupies Shebaa Farms in the south of Lebanon, and the Golan Heights of Syria.

Netanyahu might be proud of the success of its defense in the Iranian attack, because he failed to defend Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7. Even though Hamas is just a resistance group, and far less powerful militarily than Israel, which is considered the strongest and best-equipped army in the Middle East, Israel’s border defenses collapsed and the military took days to repel the Hamas militants. On that day, militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, mainly women and children.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from MD

Bedfellows: Pharma and U.S. Government Agencies

April 16th, 2024 by John Leake

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Over the last couple of years, many readers have urged me to focus my investigative reporting on the role of U.S. government agencies such as the Department of Defense instead of harping on the perfidious conduct of pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Moderna.

I am aware of the preeminent role the Department of Defense has played in the criminal pandemic response. Nevertheless, I do not draw a sharp distinction between the DoD and companies like Pfizer and Moderna. I view the officers and directors of these corporations as having a symbiotic relationship with ranking officers of U.S. government agencies.

Fellow Substack authors, Katharine Watt and Sasha Latypova, have correctly emphasized that the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech gene injection shots are NOT pharmaceutical products, and that neither company actually manufactures these substances.

Both investigators emphasize that Pfizer and Moderna are mere front organizations, and—pursuant to the PREP Act of 2005—bear no actual power or liability.

I agree. However, in reviewing the history of the U.S. industrial corporations, I note that many guys moved back and forth between heading corporations and heading government agencies. Robert McNamara began his career in the military working for General Curtis LeMay. Later he worked for the Ford Motor Company and ultimately became its president, and then he became the Secretary of Defense for Kennedy and Johnson.

Senior officers and directors of the industrial services company, Brown & Root, were key supporters of Lyndon Johnson’s political career, and he rewarded the company handsomely after escalating the war in Vietnam, thereby helping the company to win the moniker “Burn & Loot.”

Donald Rumseld and Dick Cheney enjoyed similar careers, moving back and forth between the private and public sectors. Shortly before Cheney became a key figure in America’s Iraq War fiasco, he was the CEO of Halliburton, whose stock price enjoyed a 5X return between March 2003 and June 2008.

During the bird flu scare of 2005, President Bush asked Congress to allocate $7 billion in emergency funding to prepare for the possibility of the bird flu mutating into a human epidemic. He specifically asked for $1 billion to be allocated for the purchase of Tamiflu, jointly developed by Gilead Sciences and Roche. It just so happened that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was a major shareholder who made millions from the trade.

2005 was a windfall year for the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex, whose lobbyists worked closely with the Bush Administration to pass the PREP Act. This radical piece of legislation has served as a key instrument for giving U.S. government agencies emergency power and for enriching the pharmaceutical industry in the event of a pandemic—real, perceived, exaggerated, or fabricated.

One of the most powerful supporters of Theranos—the fraudulent blood testing company started by Elizabeth Holmes—was former Secretary of State, George Schultz. He still had cronies in the Pentagon who were keen to purchase Holmes’s bogus machines for the military.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the blossoming of similar cozy relationships. FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb was appointed to Pfizer’s Board of Directors shortly after he left the agency. Likewise, six months after he gave approval to Moderna’s new COVID-19 vaccine, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn was offered a position at the venture capital firm that was one of Moderna’s primary backers. Among major media players, Jim Smith, the CEO of Reuters, was appointed to Pfizer’s Board of Directors in 2014 and is also on the international business council of the World Economic Forum.

Moncef Slaoui was head of vaccine development at GlaxoSmithKline until 2017. At the time President Trump appointed him to lead Operation Warp Speed, he was a board member of both CEPI and Moderna, a primary candidate for Warp Speed funds. Though he resigned from the Moderna board to avoid a conflict of interest, he retained his stock options, which gained $2.4 million in value on the day the company announced favorable preliminary results of its Phase I trials. This raised concerns about his neutrality in judging its vaccine’s safety and efficacy data, so he agreed to divest his shares of Moderna stock.

Like Krupp and I.G. Farben during the Third Reich, U.S. corporations are bound to U.S. government institutions like the DoD, DARPA, NIH, HHS, and BARDA in an arrangement that strongly resembles Fascist Corporatism.

It seems to me that in trying to understand these relationships, it is useful to consider President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address in 1961. His warning to Americans about the rise of the Military-Industrial Complex is now more relevant than ever, and all Americans should be throughly acquainted with this speech.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense


The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.

“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”

Reviews

This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon

In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia

In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig 

Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac

A reading of  Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late.  You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0,  Year: 2022,  PDF Ebook,  Pages: 164, 15 Chapters

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

You may also access the online version of the e-Book by clicking here.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Good night to the Middle East.

After Iran’s retaliation against Israel with 330 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, there were no fatal casualties or civilian damage in Israel. Iran demonstrated its capabilities, put up deterrence, and offered to “call it a day”. US President Biden and other Israeli allies quickly urged Israel to accept the Iranian offer and not start a new much bigger round of escalation.

Israel, however, knows only genocide and escalation. Netanyahu’s government has this evening Monday 15 April 2025 promised to hit “hard” back at Iran.

In an unsourced report, Channel 12 claims the war cabinet has made the decision to hit back “clearly and forcefully” against Iran for its missile and drone attack on Saturday night.

The response will be designed to send the message that Israel “will not allow an attack of that magnitude against it to pass without a reaction,” the report says. The response will also be designed to make plain that Israel will not allow the Iranians to “establish the equation” they have sought to assert in recent days. This appears to be a reference to Iran’s warning that future Israeli strikes on Iranian territory, including its international diplomatic premises, will henceforth again be met by Iranian retaliatory strikes on Israel. (The Times of Israel, April 15, 2024)

Netanyahu of course knows, that next time, Iran will respond with not “just” 330 drones or missiles, but up to 10 times more, or 3,000 – 3,500 missiles. Israel’s claim that they shot down “more than 99% of the Iranian missiles” is a blatant lie. The big majority of Iran’s drones and cruise missiles were meant to deplete Israeli air defense magazines, make Israel reveal its air defense structure – and make way for Iranian ballistic missiles with up to 1,500 kg. warheads. Iran succeeded eminently. Out of the 330 missiles, shooting down “more than 99%” would mean that only three Iranian missiles got through.

Western media have confirmed, that at least nine Iranian ballistic missiles came through and hit 3-4 of Israel’s most guarded military sites, including two airbases and a security center.

The number of nine Iranian ballistic missiles getting through is to be seen relative to the fact, that only 110 missiles were ballistic out of the total 330 drones and missiles which Iran sent. There is no chance that Israel can intercept the next wave of perhaps 3,500 Iranian missiles, or that Iran next time will be polite enough to warn Israel and the US 72 hours in advance.

But Netanyahu calculates that with the next round of escalation with Iran, Israel will either drag the US into a war with Iran – or Israel will go nuclear.

And Israel’s president Isaac Herzog already yesterday said in an interview with Sky News that Israel would have to make it “clear” to the Iranian régime, that this cannot pass by. Herzog and Netanyahu are on the same page.

Israel will push the US to attack Iran – or Israel will go up to the nuclear level.

Those are the alternatives put up by Netanyahu for US president Biden to contemplate.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

Today, April 15, a day when American citizens pay taxes, I wanted to talk to you about where the money you pay for taxes actually goes and about the need to create an accountable and transparent system for budgeting and financing of the Federal Government so as to assure that your money goes to efforts that are in your interest, in the national interest.

But, sadly, the threat of world war is so great today that I must address that overwhelming subject first.

The possibility of a world war is so high that we have no choice, for sake of human survival, but to launch a global peace movement that is not merely about opposing war, but also is about organizing people, in every country, people who have the will, the bravery, the vision, and the determination to shut down every aspect of the economy, the culture, the educational system, the media, and of daily life that promotes the current deadly addiction to war.

While we were sleeping the United States economy was so hollowed out by the so-called free trade pushed by the banks, the control of our money so monopolized by the rich, and so many jobs were shipped abroad to enrich the few and impoverish the many, that now war appears to be the only stimulant left that can induce economic vitality.

War is most certainly the best way to give power to bankrupt governments and to give legitimacy to broken ideological systems. In addition, many politicians around the world are secretly thinking to themselves that war is the only thing that can save them from being overthrown and jailed.

The constant attacks of Israel on Iran have drawn the first of what could be numerous attacks by Iran on Israel. Those attacks will be used to justify greater attacks by Israel on Iran, and then attacks on other countries. Those attacks will eventually force the United States into the conflict, and that conflict may merge with the conflict Ukraine, thus bringing in Russia, and perhaps Germany, France, Great Britain, and Turkey.

How much further the conflict would spread beyond that, whether up to nuclear war, or out to China, India, Korea and Japan, we do not know yet.

What we do know is that Israel is inseparable from the financial, technological, military, intelligence, industrial complex that now has near complete control of the media and of policy in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.

We must not fool ourselves about the gravity of the situation. The fact that Iran’s attack on Israel was smaller than it could have been, or the fact that Israel’s possible response is marketed as a possible “tit-for-tat,” mean nothing.

We must remember the “Phoney War.”

The Phoney War refers to the eight months between the German invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 and the German invasion of France on May 10th, 1940. Although there was great uncertainly as to what would happen then, and plenty of wishful thinking about some magic solution, the truth was that once United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, the ball was set in motion.

You see, banks and corporations make enormous fortunes from the build up for war, and they want to encourage crises that demand massive spending on weapons—which translate into massive profits for their owners.

But banks and corporations do not want total war because total war is profoundly destructive, and because if there is such a war, the chain of command will shift from the banks and corporations to the military—which is not in the interests of the bankers.

The problem is that if the banks and corporations push the situation too far, as they have done now, then the chain of command moves over to the hands of the military and the generals follow orders like clockwork—and that is even more true granted the dangerous push to import AI going on everywhere.

It will require a revolution, at every level, to stave off this war. We must question the authority of the rich and powerful to make policy at every turn, and question every decision from the top to the bottom, asking of every single policy, law, or guideline, whether it is constitutional, legal, or moral.

We must not be afraid to say no to those who cloak themselves in Ivy League authority, or to those who wear uniforms, or to those who drive fancy cars, live in luxurious homes, and appear on TV.

If we must build our own journalism, our own communities, our own provisional governments to oppose this illegal and unconstitutional usurpation of authority, then so be it.

Only the pursuit of truth, combined with focused and immediate action, can put us on a road towards peace and away from a war of annihilation.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on Fear No Evil.

Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All images in this article are from the author

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Referral Drive: Our Readers Are Our Lifeline

***

A three-day Palestine conference in Berlin was forcibly shut down after three hours on Friday. Electricity was abruptly terminated in the midst of the presentation by Salman Abu Sitta, the 87 year old author of the authoritative “Atlas of Palestine”.

Former Greek Finance Minister and leader of DIEM25, Yanis Varoufakis, was prevented from entering Germany to attend the conference. He went on Twitter/X to send a message,

“Do you know that the German Interior Ministry has just banned me from entering Germany? Indeed if that were not enough,  I have been banned  from talking to you via zoom, or indeed through a video message like this, exactly like this. The threat being that I will be tried in Germany for breaking German law. Why? Because of a speech that I published yesterday on my blog calling for universal human rights in Israel-Palestine …. So my question to my German friends, to Germans in general whether you agree with me or not doesn’t matter. … Is this (banning) in your name? Is it something that you feel comfortable happening in your democracy? From my perspective this is essentially the death knell of the prospects of democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany.” 

Another banned guest speaker was UK citizen Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah. He told Middle East Eye,

”I have just returned from Germany where I was prevented from entering the country for attending a conference in Germany to give evidence on the war in Gaza and my witness statement as a doctor working in its hospitals. This morning at 10 I landed in Berlin to attend a conference on Palestine where I had been asked … to give my evidence of the 43 days that I had seen in the hospitals in Gaza, working in both Shifa and al-Ahli Hospital. Upon arrival I was stopped at the passport office. I was then escorted down to the basement of the airport where I was questioned for around 3.5 hours. At the end of 3.5 hours I was told that I will not be allowed to enter German soil and that this ban will last the whole of April. Not just that … if I were to try to link up by Zoom or Facetime with the conference even if I were outside Germany or if I were to send a video of my lecture to the conference in Berlin, then that would constitute a breach of German law and that I would endanger myself to have a fine or even up to a year in prison.” 

Dr. Abu Sitta further commented,

“Germany is defending itself against Nicaraguan charges that it is an accomplice to genocidal war as described by the International Court of Justice. This is exactly what accomplices to a crime do. They bury the evidence and they silence or harass or intimidate the witnesses. …. This crackdown on free speech is a dangerous precedent…  We are watching the first genocide unfold in the 21st Century and for Germany to become implicated as an accomplice in silencing the witnesses of this genocide does not bode well for the rest of the century.” 

A large contingent of police invaded the conference and shut off the electricity. Organizers told the reported 250 conference attendees to not provoke the police to violence. Afterward, organizers  held a press conference  reporting on the behaviour of police before and during the crackdown. Even before the conference, police tried to intimidate supporters of the conference and the owner of the conference venue. They threatened the venue owner might not be able to hold events in future if the conference went ahead.  An organizer asked, “Are these the methods of the mafia or democracy?” 

Western and Israeli media reported the closure was to prevent “anti semitism” or “hatred of Israel”. On this dubious and hypothetical basis, public education about a real ongoing massacre and mass starvation was made illegal. 

Source: PressTV

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Rick Sterling is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from PressTV

Note to readers: please click the share buttons above

feature image: Hitler, Schacht and Prescott Bush

First published by Global Research in May 2016,  this carefully researched article by Yuri Rubtsov sheds light on the role of Wall Street and the US Federal Reserve in financing the Nazi government of Adolph Hitler.

 

Global Research Introduction

From World War I to the Present: Dollar denominated debt has been the driving force behind all US led wars.

Wall Street creditors are the main actors.

They were firmly behind Nazi Germany. They financed Operation Barbarossa and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. 

1932 Secret Agreement: Wall Street Finances Hitler’s Nazi Party 

“On January 4th, 1932, a meeting was held between British financier Montagu Norman (Governor of the Bank of England), Adolf Hitler and Franz Von Papen (who became Chancellor a few months later in May 1932) At this meeting, an agreement on the financing of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP or Nazi Party) was reached.

This meeting was also attended by US policy-makers and the Dulles brothers, something which their biographers do not like to mention.

A year later, on January 14th, 1933, another meeting was held between Adolph Hitler, Germany’s Financier Baron Kurt von Schroeder, Chancellor Franz von Papen and Hitler’s Economic Advisor Wilhelm Keppler took place, where Hitler’s program was fully approved.” (Y. Rubtsov, text below)

Upon the accession of Adolph Hitler as Chancellor in March 1933, a massive privatization program was initiated which bears the finger-prints of Wall Street.

Dr. Hjalmar Schacht –re-appointed in March 1933 by Adolph Hitler to the position of President of The Reichsbank— was invited to the White House (May 1933) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“After his meeting with the U.S. President and the big bankers on Wall Street, America allocated Germany new loans totalling $1 billion” [equivalent to $23.7 billion in 2023, PPP estimate] (Y. Rubtsov, op cit)

Barely a year later, in April 1934, The Economist “reported that military expenditure was forcing the Minister of Finance to look for new resources” including the privatization of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Railways) (quoted in Germa Bel, p. 20). The Nazi government also sold off State owned shipbuilding companies, State infrastructure and public utilities.

With a “Nazi- Liberal” slant, –no doubt with “conditionalities”- the privatization program was negotiated with Germany’s Wall Street creditors. Several major banking institutions including  Deutsche Bank and Dresden Bank were also privatized.

“[T]he government of the Nazi Party sold off public ownership in several State-owned firms in the mid-1930s. These firms belonged to a wide range of sectors: steel, mining, banking, local public utilities, shipyards, ship-lines, railways, etc.

In addition, the delivery of some public services that were produced by government prior to the 1930s, especially social and labor-related services, was transferred to the private sector, mainly to organizations within the party.” (Germa Bel, University of Barcelona)

The proceeds of the privatization program were used to repay outstanding debts as well as fund Nazi Germany’s buoyant military industrial complex.

Numerous U.S. conglomerates had invested in Nazi Germany’s arms industry including Ford and General Motors: 

Both General Motors and Ford insist that they bear little or no responsibility for the operations of their German subsidiaries, which controlled 70 percent of the German car market at the outbreak of war in 1939 and rapidly retooled themselves to become suppliers of war materiel to the German army.

… In certain instances, American managers of both GM and Ford went along with the conversion of their German plants to military production at a time when U.S. government documents show they were still resisting calls by the Roosevelt administration to step up military production in their plants at home. (Washington Post,  November 30, 1998)

“A Famous American Family” Sleeping with the Enemy. The Role of Prescott Bush

Of significance: “A  famous American family” made its fortune from the Nazis, according to John Loftus’ documented historical analysis.    

Prescott Bush (grandfather of George W. Bush) was a partner in Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. , and director of the Union Banking Corporation , closely linked to the interests of German corporations, including Thyssen Stahl, an important company involved in the arms industry of the Third Reich. 

The Bush family links to Nazi Germany’s war economy were first brought to light at the Nuremberg trials in the testimony of Nazi Germany’s steel magnate Fritz Thyssen.

Image: Senator Prescott Bush with his son George H. Walker Bush. (1950s)

Thyssen was a partner of George W. Bush’s grandfather Prescott Bush: 

“From 1945 until 1949 in Nuremberg, one of the lengthiest and, it now appears, most futile interrogations of a Nazi war crimes suspect began in the American Zone of Occupied Germany.

Multibillionaire steel magnate Fritz Thyssen –-the man whose steel combine was the cold heart of the Nazi war machine– talked and talked and talked to a joint US-UK interrogation team.

… What the Allied investigators never understood was that they were not asking Thyssen the right question. Thyssen did not need any foreign bank accounts because his family secretly owned an entire chain of banks.

He did not have to transfer his Nazi assets at the end of World War II, all he had to do was transfer the ownership documents – stocks, bonds, deeds and trusts–from his bank in Berlin through his bank in Holland to his American friends in New York City: Prescott Bush and Herbert Walker [father in law of Prescott Bush]. Thyssen’s partners in crime were the father and [grandfather] of a future President of the United States [George Herbert Walker Bush]. (John Loftus, How the Bush family made its fortune from the Nazis: The Dutch Connection

The American public was not aware of the links of the Bush family to Nazi Germany because the historical record had been carefully withheld by the mainstream media. In September 2004, however, The Guardian revealed that:

George Bush’s grandfather, the late US Senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.  … 

His business dealings, which continued until his company’s assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.”

( Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell, How the Bush’s Grandfather Helped Hitlers Rise to Power,   Guardian, September 25, 2004)

 

Screenshot, The Guardian 

Prescott Bush entered politics in 1950. In 1952 he was elected Senator for Connecticut, a position which he held until January 1963.

Evidence of the Bush family’s  links to Nazism was available well before George Herbert Walker Bush (Senior) and George W. Bush entered politics, not to mention Bush Senior’s stint at the CIA. 

The U.S. media remained totally mum. According to John Buchanan (New Hampshire Gazette, 10 October 2003):

After 60 years of inattention and even denial by the U.S. media, newly-uncovered government documents in The National Archives and Library of Congress reveal that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926 until 1942, when Congress took aggressive action against Bush and his “enem\\y national” partners.

The documents also show that Bush and his colleagues, according to reports from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, tried to conceal their financial alliance with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, a steel and coal baron who, beginning in the mid-1920s, personally funded Adolf Hitler’s rise to power by the subversion of democratic principle and German law. Furthermore, the declassified records demonstrate that Bush and his associates, who included E. Roland Harriman, younger brother of American icon W. Averell Harriman, and George Herbert Walker, President Bush’s maternal great-grandfather, continued their dealings with the German industrial tycoon for nearly a year after the U.S. entered the war.

While Prescott Bush’s company’s assets, namely Union Banking Corporation  were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act (See below), George W. Bush’s grandfather was never prosecuted for his business dealings with  Nazi Germany.

“In 1952, Prescott Bush was elected to the U.S. Senate, with no press accounts about his well-concealed Nazi past.

There is no record of any U.S. press coverage of the Bush-Nazi connection during any political campaigns conducted by George Herbert Walker Bush, Jeb Bush, or George W. Bush, with the exception of a brief mention in an unrelated story in the Sarasota Herald Tribune in November 2000 and a brief but inaccurate account in The Boston Globe in 2001.” (John Buchanan, op. cit)

Up until Pearl Harbor (December 1941), Wall Street was trading with Germany.

In the wake of Pearl Harbor (1941-1945), Standard Oil “was trading with the enemy” selling oil to Nazi Germany through the intermediation of so-called “neutral countries” including Venezuela and Argentina.

Without the U.S. supply of oil to Nazi Germany instrumented by Standard Oil of New Jersey, the Third Reich would not have been able to invade the Soviet Union. 

 

Michel Chossudovsky,  November 21, 2023

 

***

History: Hitler was Financed

by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England

By Yuri Rubtsov

May 2016

 

World War II: More than 80 years ago was the start of the greatest slaughter in history.

If we are to approach the problem of “responsibility for the war”, then we first need to answer the following key questions:

  • Who helped the Nazis come to power?
  • Who sent them on their way to world catastrophe?

The entire pre-war history of Germany shows that the provision of the “necessary” policies were managed by the financial turmoil, in which the world was plunged into in the wake of  World War I. 

The key structures that defined the post-war development strategy of the West were the central financial institutions of Great Britain and the United States — the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve System (FRS) — and the associated financial and industrial organizations set out as a means to establish absolute control over the financial system of Germany and its ability to control political processes in Central Europe.

To implement this strategy, the following stages were envisaged:  

  1.  From 1919 to 1924 — to prepare the ground for massive American financial investment in the German economy;
  2. From 1924 to 1929 — the establishment of control over the financial system of Germany and financial support for Nazism (“national socialism”);
  3. From 1929 to 1933 — provoking and unleashing a deep financial and economic crisis and ensuring the Nazis come to power;
  4. From 1933 to 1939 — financial cooperation with the Nazi government and support for its expansionist foreign policy, aimed at preparing and unleashing a new World War.

WWI “War Reparations”

In the first stage, the main levers to ensure the penetration of American capital into Europe began with WWI war debts and the closely related problem of German reparations. 

After the US’ formal entry into the first World War, they gave the allies (primarily England and France) loans to the amount of $8.8 billion. The total sum of war debts, including loans granted to the United States in 1919-1921, was more than $11 billion.

To solve this problem, creditor nations tried to impose extremely difficult conditions for the payment of war reparations at the expense of Germany. This was caused by the flight of German capital abroad, and the refusal to pay taxes which led to a state budget deficit that could be covered only through mass production of unsecured German Marks.

The result was the collapse of the German currency — the “great inflation” of 1923,  when the dollar was worth 4.2 trillion Marks. German Industrialists began to openly sabotage all activities in the payment of reparation obligations, which eventually caused the famous “Ruhr crisis” — Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr in January 1923.

The Anglo-American ruling elites, in order to take the initiative in their  own hands, waited for France to get caught up in a venturing adventure and to prove its inability to solve the problem. US Secretary of State Hughes pointed out:

“It is necessary to wait for Europe to mature in order to accept the American proposal.”

The new project was developed in the depths of “JP Morgan & Co.” under the instruction of the head of the Bank of England, Montagu Norman. At the core of his ideas was representative of the “Dresdner Bank” Hjalmar Schacht, who formulated it in March 1922 at the suggestion of John Foster Dulles (future Secretary of state in the Cabinet of President Eisenhower) and legal adviser to President W. Wilson at the Paris peace conference.

Dulles gave this note to the chief Trustee “JP Morgan & Co.”,which then recommended H. Schacht in consultation with Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England.

In December, 1923, H. Schacht became Manager of the Reichsbank and was instrumental in bringing together the Anglo-American and German financial elites. 

In the summer of 1924, the project known as the “Dawes plan” (named after the Chairman of the Committee of experts who created it – American banker and Director of one of the banks of the Morgan group), was adopted at the London conference. He called for halving the reparations and solved the question about the sources of their coverage. However, the main task was to ensure favorable conditions for US investment, which was only possible with the stabilization of the German Mark.

To this end, the plan gave Germany a large loan of $200 million, half of which was accounted for by JP Morgan.

While the Anglo-American banks gained control not only over the transfer of German payments, but also for the budget, the system of monetary circulation and to a large extent the credit system of the country.

The Weimar Republic

By August 1924, the old German Mark was replaced by a new, stabilized financial situation in Germany, and, as researcher G.D Preparta wrote, the Weimar Republic was prepared for:

“the most picturesque economic aid in history, followed by the most bitter harvest in world history” — “an unstoppable flood of American blood poured into the financial veins of Germany.”

The consequences of this were not slow to appear.

This was primarily due to the fact that the annual reparations were to cover the amount of debt paid by the allies, formed by the so-called “absurd Weimar circle”.

The gold that Germany paid in the form of war reparations, was sold, pawned, and disappeared in the US, where it was returned to Germany in the form of an “aid” plan, who gave it to England and France, and they in turn were to pay the war debt of the United States. It was then overlayed with interest, and again sent  to Germany. In the end, all in Germany lived in debt [were indebted] , and it was clear that should Wall Street withdraw their loans, the country would suffer complete bankruptcy.

Secondly, although formal credit was issued to secure payment, it was actually the restoration of the military-industrial potential of the country.

The fact is that the Germans were paid in shares of companies for the loans so that American capital began to actively integrate into the German economy.

The total amount of foreign investments in German industry during 1924-1929 amounted to almost 63 billion gold Marks (30 billion was accounted for by loans), and the payment of reparations — 10 billion Marks. 70% of revenues were provided by bankers from the United States, and most of the banks were from JP Morgan. As a result, in 1929, German industry was in second place in the world, but it was largely in the hands of America’s leading financial-industrial groups.

US Investments in Nazi Germany. Rockefeller Financed Adolf Hitler’s Election Campaign

“Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie”, the main supplier of the German war machine, financed 45% of the election campaign of Hitler in 1930, and was under the control of Rockefeller’s “Standard oil”.

Morgan, through “General Electric”, controlled the German radio and electrical industry via AEG and Siemens (up to 1933, 30% of the shares of AEG owned “General Electric”) through the Telecom company ITT — 40% of the telephone network in Germany.

In addition, they owned a 30% stake in the aircraft manufacturing company “Focke-Wulf”.

“General Motors”, belonging to the DuPont family, established control over “Opel”.

Henry Ford controlled 100% of the shares of  “Volkswagen”.

In 1926, with the participation of the Rockefeller Bank “Dillon, Reed & Co.” the second largest  industrial monopoly in Germany after “I.G Farben” emerged — metallurgical concern “Vereinigte Stahlwerke” (Steel Trust) Thyssen, Flick, Wolff, Feglera etc.

American cooperation with the German military-industrial complex was so intense and pervasive that by 1933 the key sectors of German industry and large banks such as Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Danat-Bank (Darmstädter und Nationalbank), etc.  were under the control of American financial capital.

The political force that was intended to play a crucial role in Anglo-American plans was being simultaneously prepared. We are talking about the funding of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler personally.

As former German Chancellor Brüning wrote in his memoirs, since 1923, Hitler received large sums from abroad. Where they went is unknown, but they were received through Swiss and Swedish banks.

It is also known that, in 1922 in Munich, a meeting took place between A. Hitler and the military attaché of the US to Germany – Captain Truman Smith – who compiled a detailed report for his Washington superiors (in the office of military intelligence), in which he spoke highly of Hitler.

It was through Smith’s circle of acquaintances that Hitler was first introduced to German-American businessman Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl, a graduate of Harvard University who played an important role in the formation of A. Hitler as a politician, endorsed by significant financial support, while securing him ties and communication with prominent personalities of the British establishment.

Hitler was prepared in politics, however, whereas Germany under the Weimar Republic reigned, his party remained on the periphery of public life. The situation changed dramatically with the beginning of the 1929 financial crisis.

Since the autumn of 1929 after the collapse of the America’s stock exchange was triggered by the Federal Reserve, the third stage of the strategy of the Anglo-American financial establishment commenced.

The Federal Reserve and JP Morgan decided to stop lending to Germany, inspired by the banking crisis and economic depression in Central Europe. In September 1931, England abandoned the gold standard, deliberately destroying the international system of payments and completely cutting off the flow of “financial oxygen” to the Weimar Republic.

But a financial miracle occurred with the Nazi party: in September 1930, as a result of large donations from Thyssen, “I.G. Farben” and Industrialist Emil Kirdorf (who was a firm supporter of Adolf Hitler), the Nazi party got 6.4 million votes, and took second place in the Reichstag, after which generous investments from abroad were activated.

The main link between the major German industrialists and foreign financiers became H. Schacht.

1932 Secret Agreement: Wall Street Finances Hitler’s Nazi Party 

On January 4th, 1932, a meeting was held between British financier Montagu Norman (Governor of the Bank of England), Adolf Hitler and Franz Von Papen (who became Chancellor a few months later in May 1932) At this meeting, an agreement on the financing of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP or Nazi Party) was reached.

This meeting was also attended by US policy-makers and the Dulles brothers, something which their biographers do not like to mention.

A year later, on January 14th, 1933, another meeting was held between Adolph Hitler, Germany’s Financier Baron Kurt von Schroeder, Chancellor Franz von Papen and Hitler’s Economic Advisor Wilhelm Keppler took place, where Hitler’s program was fully approved.

It was here that they finally resolved the issue of the transfer of power to the Nazis, and on the 30th of January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor. The implementation of the fourth stage of the strategy thus begun.

 

The attitude of the Anglo-American ruling elites in relation to the new Nazi government was very sympathetic.

When Hitler refused to pay reparations, which, naturally, called into question the payment of war debts, neither Britain nor France showed him the claims of the payments.

Moreover, after his  visit to the United States in May 1933, H. Schacht became once more head of Reichsbank, and after his meeting with the U.S. President and the big bankers on Wall Street, America allocated Germany new loans totalling $1 billion.

In June, during a trip to London and a meeting with Montagu  Norman, Schacht also sought a British loan of $2 billion, and a reduction and cessation of payments on old loans.

Thus, the Nazis got what they could not achieve with the previous government.

In the summer of 1934, Britain signed the Anglo-German transfer agreement, which became one of the foundations of British policy towards the Third Reich, and at the end of the 1930’s, Germany became the main trading partner of England.

Schroeder Bank became the main agent of Germany in the UK, and in 1936 his office in New York teamed up with the   Rockefellers to create the “Schroeder, Rockefeller & Co.” investment Bank, which Times Magazine called the “economic propagandist axis of Berlin-Rome”.

As Hitler himself admitted, he conceived his four-year plan on the basis of foreign financial loans, so it never inspired him with the slightest alarm.

In August 1934, America’s Standard Oil [owned by the Rockefellers] in Germany acquired 730,000 acres of land and built large oil refineries that supplied the Nazis with oil. At the same time, Germany  secretly took delivery of the most modern equipment for aircraft factories from the United States, which would begin the production of German planes.

Germany received a large number of military patents from American firms Pratt and Whitney”, “Douglas”, “Curtis Wright”, and American technology was building the “Junkers-87”. In 1941, when the Second world war was raging, American investments in the economy of Germany amounted to $475 million. “Standard oil” invested – 120 million, General Motors- $35 million, ITT — $30 million, and Ford — $17.5 million.

The close financial and economic cooperation of Anglo-American and Nazi business circles was the background against which, in the 1930’s, a policy of appeasement led to World War II.

Today, the world’s financial elites have implemented the Great Depression 2.o [2008], with a followup transition towards a “New World Order“.

Yuri Rubtsov is a doctor of historical sciences, academician of the Russian Academy of military sciences, and member of  the International Association of historians of World War II

Translated from Russian by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ. (references not available in this version of the article)

ru-polit.livejournal (originally from 2009)