For God’s Sake Joe, What the Hell Are You Doing?

February 8th, 2024 by Colonel Ann Wright

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From U.S. military attacks on Syria, Iraq, and Yemen to the related complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank, Biden’s course of action is a danger to U.S. national security.

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It’s three in the morning and I can’t sleep again. Those of us concerned about Gaza and the West Bank are spending sleepless nights and busy days trying desperately to pressure the Biden administration to stop its complicity in the relentless Israeli genocide in Gaza; to halt the provision of weapons and money to Israel; and to demand an end to the carnage.

This is our demand: Cease-Fire Now!

We awakened to the news that the U.S. has attacked Syria, Iraq, and Yemen in retaliation for militants firing missiles into U.S. troop areas in Syria and Jordan and Houthis targeting Red Sea cargo vessels. Why have there been attacks on U.S. troops and interests?

The answer is simple. Because the U.S. is providing military weapons and international protection to Israel in its genocidal military operations in Gaza.

It seems obvious to everyone but you, that for our national security, the U.S. must stop its irrational protection of Israeli war crimes and demand that Israel stop its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.

Scenes of another day of Israeli bombing of Gaza with tens of thousands of buildings destroyed, Israeli commandos storming a hospital and assassinating three young men as they slept in their hospital beds, heavy rains pouring into makeshift tents for the million Palestinians now crammed into the area around Rafah, the daily and nightly raids of Israeli military into the West Bank cities and villages destroying roads, homes, cultural centers, Israeli occupation forces stripping men and boys of their clothes, forcing them to kneel for hours in humiliating positions and beating them for days in detention camps, finding 30 bodies in a mass grave in a schoolyard, Palestinians who were shot to death with their hands tied behind them by Israeli forces.

Going to the Heartless U.S. Congress

Every day we go to the offices of U.S. congresspersons and plead for them to back a ceasefire and to pressure the Biden administration to refuse to provide more weapons and money to the Israeli military. After 118 days of Israeli pounding of Gaza, most Senators and Representatives are still repeating some version of this: “No to a cease-fire. Israel has a right to self-defense. Israel has the right to destroy Gaza and kill as many Palestinians as is necessary to kill the last Hamas militant.”

At least 10 Senators and Representatives have Israeli flags alongside the U.S. flag in front of their offices which brings into question where their loyalties lie. Rep. Brian Mast (R-Mich.) wore his Israel military uniform into the U.S. Congress in October and is one of the most hate-filled members of Congress, treating the deaths of Gaza children as just fine.

Meanwhile, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, continues to receive death threats. Those who speak out to stop the genocide in Gaza are targeted by the American Israeli Public Affairs Council (AIPAC) with incitement to violence messaging and their associated Super PAC running candidates to replace them in Congress.

Protests in Washington against the genocide in Gaza and the massacres in the West Bank occur daily. A 9-day encampment in the narrow public land on each side of the two-lane road in front of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s home on Chain Bridge Road has brought Palestinian supporters from Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia who make sure Blinken know that he has blood on his hands for green-lighting the genocide in Gaza.

Biden and Powers Interrupted in Public Talks

President Biden was interrupted repeatedly with “Genocide Joe” in his public speaking engagement, first at a church in South Carolina and last week in Manassas, Virginia when he gave a speech on reproductive rights. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power was interrupted in her speech in Washington, D.C. last week by persons who have worked for USAID. In her Pulitzer Prize-winning book “A Problem From Hell,” Power documents America’s repeated failure to stop genocides around the world. Now she is complicit in the Biden administration for refusing to recognize genocide in Gaza and do nothing to oppose it.

As the promo for her book states: “Power, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, used exclusive interviews with Washington’s top policymakers, thousands of declassified documents, and her own reporting from modern killing fields to provide the answer. “A Problem from Hell” shows how decent Americans inside and outside government refused to get involved despite chilling warnings, and tells the stories of the courageous Americans who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act.”

Power needs to re-read her own book.

Protests in the Streets and Dissent by Government Officials

Millions of people around the world have taken to the streets in protests. Thousands in the U.S. have been arrested for blocking streets, highways, and bridges as well as for disrupting Congressional hearings, sitting down and singing in congressional buildings, and for chaining themselves to the fence at the White House.

Scores of government employees continue to publish statements calling into question the silence of their governments on the genocide of Gaza.

On February 2, 800+ government employees from the U.S. and 12 nations and E.U. organizations published a letter protesting Israeli policies and stating that the leaders of their countries and organizations could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza.

The letter states: “Our governments’ current policies weaken their moral standing and undermine their ability to stand up for freedom, justice and human rights globally…there is a plausible risk that our governments’ policies are contributing to grave violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and even ethnic cleansing or genocide.”

Approximately 80 of the signers are from American agencies, with the biggest group being from the State Department. National-level officials from nine member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as Sweden and Switzerland, signed the letter.

In November, more than 500 employees from about 40 U.S. government agencies sent a letter to President Biden criticizing his policies on the continuous Israeli attack on Gaza. In that letter, the officials also did not reveal their names due to the probability of retaliation by the agencies.

More than 1,000 USAID employees released an open letter with the same concerns. Dozens of State Department officials have sent at least three internal dissent cables to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

According to the New York Times, hundreds of officials in the European Union have signed at least two separate letters of dissent to the bloc’s leadership.

Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Algeria and Syria who resigned in 2014 over the Obama administration’s Syria policy is quoted in the Times article, stating that he had never seen a cross-border dissent letter like this new one in three decades of working at the State Department.

Ford added that some diplomats had learned a lesson from the run-up to the Iraq War begun by President George W. Bush: that keeping quiet about objections to misguided policies or not going public with them when the stakes are high could contribute to a disastrous outcome.

As one of three U.S. diplomats who resigned from the U.S. government on the decision in 2003 of the Bush administration to wage war on Iraq, I appeal for others in the U.S. government to continue to sign letters and to consider resignation as Josh Paul has done from the State Department and Tariq Habash has done from the Department of Education.

Biden Wants More Billions for Israel to Continue Its Genocide of Gaza

Despite all of our efforts, it is likely that on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, the U.S. Senate will pass a national security supplemental to provide Israel with another 14 billion dollars, three times what the U.S. provides annually to Israel. Israel is already the largest recipient of U.S. military financing and the added $10 billion will blow up the foreign affairs budget.

ICJ and World Public Opinion Will Hold Biden and the U.S. Government Accountable

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has warned countries assisting with weapons used in a genocide that leaders are complicit and can be held liable.

President Biden, in case your advisors have not mentioned this, both you and they are definitely up to your eyeballs in genocide and we and the world will hold you accountable.

[From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.]

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Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” 

Featured image: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream- by Mr. Fish

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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When Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News back in April last year (for doing his job, mind you), it seemed as if the last vestiges of press freedom in the United States were destroyed. And that’s certainly true when it comes to corporate media. However, despite how bad it looked at the time, it turned out to be one of the best things that happened in Carlson’s professional career. Namely, the fact that he worked for one of the largest news networks in America meant that he was constrained by their editorial policies and would’ve never reached his full potential as a world-class journalist. As a result of his truthful and objective reporting, Carlson became the target of Washington DC’s top vassal, the infamous Kiev regime, that effectively ended his long-running career at Fox News. Many in America were quite happy to see him go, but none more so than the Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky, whose endless corruption and dictatorial behavior were regularly exposed precisely by Carlson.

And yet, getting him ousted from American corporate media backfired spectacularly, as there was now nothing preventing Carlson from unleashing his full potential, unrestrained by corporate bosses and politicized editorial “guidelines” (i.e. orders). However, when the mainstream propaganda machine failed miserably in its attempts to tarnish his reputation, one of the top American intelligence agencies stepped in. Namely, back in 2021, the infamous NSA hacked into Carlson’s phone and found out that he was planning an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was an attempt to intimidate him and make sure this never happens, as Carlson was already revealing “way too many” uncomfortable truths about the troubled Biden administration and its favorite Neo-Nazi puppets. The mainstream propaganda machine simply had no way to counter Carlson’s rational, highly informed, witty and mostly unbiased analyses, extremely popular both in the US and worldwide.

His reporting was always an insurmountable obstacle for the warmongering propaganda. Carlson is often accused of alleged “pro-Russian bias”, particularly by the DNC-dominated institutions that simply don’t want to let go of their obsession with Moscow and its leadership. In complete contrast to the deranged ideologues in Washington DC, Carlson is a realist. He fully understands the dangers of a potential global conflict and wants to do everything in his power to make sure it never happens. This includes talking to the leader of the country that the US is determined to antagonize to the point of pushing it precisely into one such conflict. Carlson simply wants to do his job and understand (and also help his viewers understand) Putin’s viewpoint. And yet, this is precisely what the US government is terrified of, because Putin has always been very good at articulating his points, which is why the mainstream propaganda machine hates interviewing him and usually resorts to quoting him out of context.

This fear extends to the entire political West, as the European Union is now threatening to sanction Carlson for his interview with President Putin, set to be released later today (not yet published as of this writing). As we all know now, he visited Russia this week, despite years of threats to Carlson and his family. Of course, he’s completely unmoved by the threats of the anemic EU and its laughable bureaucrats. Why would he be, considering the fact that he’s being targeted by US intelligence, the same one that essentially destroyed the life of Carlson’s colleague Julian Assange and tried to do the same to their former employee Edward Snowden, who was saved only thanks to being in Russia. According to Newsweek, Carlson’s trip to Russia could result in a not-very-dissimilar witch-hunt. This was confirmed by EU lawmakers and high-ranking political leaders, such as Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian prime minister and current member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Verhofstadt wants a travel ban on Carlson, who he also described as “a mouthpiece” of Putin and former US President Donald Trump. He also accused Carlson of “aiding Putin’s war crimes”. This is precisely why no sane person is really interested in the opinions of EU bureaucrats. They’re simply incapable of using reason, which is what Carlson has been warning about for years, pointing out the importance of dialogue instead of going on mindless rants such as the one Verhofstadt just did. Carlson articulately explained his motivation for interviewing President Putin, making Verhofstadt’s comments all the more ludicrous and, quite frankly, deranged. According to Newsweek, even EU officials are having a difficult time finding legal grounds for sanctioning Carlson. One, who wished to remain anonymous, told Newsweek that any sanctions would require evidence that Carlson is “linked to Moscow’s aggression”, something that “is absent or hard to prove”. What this means is that the sanctions would be illegal.

However, the political West never had any issues circumventing its own laws for political reasons. After all, this is the centerpiece of the vaunted “rules-based world order“. It should be noted that Verhofstadt is not alone in his determination to go after Tucker Carlson. Luis Garicano, a former MEP, told Newsweek he agreed with his stance. MEP Urmas Paet, former Estonian foreign minister, joined the witch-hunt, complaining that Carlson is “giving a platform to a man wanted by the International Criminal Court and accused of genocide and war crimes”. Once again, this is precisely what Carlson has been criticizing for years. The vast majority of Western leaders and top-ranking officials live in a sort of “reality bubble” that has very little to do with the actual world. This makes it impossible to engage in any sort of dialogue with such people, let alone make a long-lasting agreement with them, which is highly dangerous, not just for Europe and Russia, but the entire world.

Another person interviewed by Newsweek, Polish MEP Witold Waszczykowski, also a former foreign minister, is a good case in point. According to Waszczykowski, American media should deal with Tucker, as he’s a journalist. However, he went a step further in his belligerence and slammed EU leaders for talking to Putin at all.

“Here in the EU, we have top politicians [such] as [French President Emmanuel] Macron and [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz who keep talking with Putin. I would like rather Mr. Verhofstadt to take care of those European politicians who keep searching for how to appease Russia instead of helping Ukraine to win the war.”

Once again, this is a perfect example of why it’s extremely dangerous to have such people in power. Considering the fact they’re extremely Russophobic, but are still top-ranking policymakers and political leaders in various EU countries, how could we ever hope to see any long-lasting peace between Russia and the political West?

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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

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Garden City, MI – Jennifer Ormiston Novak is a Manager at CVS Pharmacy

 

 

Dec. 14, 2021: “Got OUR boosters today. Moderna. Arms are hurting feeling feverish and super tired. Thought we would not have side effects. How long will this last?”

 

 

May be an image of 2 people, blonde hair and people smiling

 

Dec. 6, 2023: “Son of a gun! I waited to get the latest vaccine because I felt sick. No no no! I’m too busy for this! Yes I took more than one test and thought it was maybe strep or a bad sinus infection.”

 

 

Dec. 17, 2023: “How can this even be happening? I felt better, tested negative, went back to work. Had a headache and fever all day now I come home to this. No!”

 

 

Dec. 19, 2023: “Update. I still have COVID. Slept for over 48 hours now. On and off in bed. Headache is still excruciating. Fever…advance sorry to my hubby who is getting the brunt of my anger.”

 

 

Dec. 28, 2023: “Folks this is NOT a drill. COVID is back up and skyrocketing. I had/have it. Three weeks now with a headache that won’t quit. Nothing like I have ever experienced”. Please mask up.”

 

 

Jan. 1, 2024 – Rob Novak had a stroke.

Jan. 2, 2024 – Jennifer Ormiston Novak had a heart attack.

“Rob my husband had a stroke and went to the hospital. When I went to that hospital the next day I had a major heart attack in the ER before I could even go to his room. I was revived 3 times and paddled 20 times.” 

  • “An emergency stent was put into my heart through my leg area. From that stent insertion, my veins were damaged when pulling the stent out causing blockage in my leg. Emergency vascular surgery was done on my leg but was unsuccessful and my leg started to die which ended up in 2 amputations of my leg. First one below my knee then a second one above my knee.”
  • “Rob was there every day and night at my side after just having a stroke”

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Take… 

I have covered dozens of stories of multiple COVID-19 Vaccinated family members having vaccine injuries or dying suddenly.

This tragic story of Jennifer and Rob is unique, because we have confirmation that Jennifer and Rob took the Moderna COVID-19 mRNA booster shots together.

If they had a bad vaccine batch, a “hot lot”, both of them would have been developing internal damage. It’s important to have mRNA Vaccine serial numbers from all the vaccines they took (and check the serial numbers for adverse events on howbadismybatch.com)

It is highly probable that both continued to take mRNA vaccines together, as she lamented that she had not taken the most recent booster shot as she was sick.

Husband had a stroke, and she had two heart attacks, all within 24 hours. Both are very common vaccine side effects, and the recent COVID infection may have had a contribution as well.

Another indication of vaccine injury is this: the COVID-19 Vaccinated often have severe complications from even the most minor surgical procedures. The reason for this is unknown but usually due to clotting abnormalities.

It was the minor procedure of a cardiac stent that led to severe complications that required the amputation of her leg. This is so rare, it’s virtually unheard of.

Overall, a tragic, shocking story of someone who had no idea of the toxicity of the experimental pharmaceutical products she continued taking with her husband.

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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.

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

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

 

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“Economic thinking about immigration is generally quite superficial. It is a fact that in different [rich] countries, reproducible national capital is on the order of four times yearly national income. As a result, when an additional immigrant worker arrives, in order to build the necessary infrastructure (housing, hospitals, schools, universities, infrastructure of all kinds, industrial facilities, etc.), additional savings equal to four times the annual salary of this worker will be needed. If this worker arrives with a wife and three children, the additional savings required will represent, depending on the case, ten to twenty times the annul salary of this worker, which obviously represents a very heavy burden for the economy to bear. Maurice Allais (1911-2010), 1988 Nobel Prize in economics, 2002.

“What is the role of the Canadian government [in regards to immigration]? If it follows the recommendations of immigration advocates, it makes policies to maximize world welfare and its goal should be high, if not unlimited immigration. If its policies are to maximize the welfare of the native (Canadian) population, immigration policies should be designed to eliminate the fiscal burden (of between $20 and $26 billion a year) so that only positive economic benefits occur through  immigration.” —Hebert Grubel (1934- ), Emeritus professor of economics, Simon Fraser University, 2013.

“You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.” —Milton Friedman (1912-2006), Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, 1999.

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There’s no magic in economics.

To consume, you must produce, and to produce, you must save (income minus consumption expenses) and invest in productive capital, in infrastructure and in other means of supporting production. A stock of productive capital (businesses, factories, machinery, equipment, infrastructure) is required, plus innovations, technical progress, knowledge, management, reliable sources of energy and, above all, qualified workers, capable of contributing to increasing productivity and to raising the annual output of goods and services per capita.

That is how living standards and the average person’s well-being rise in some economies and why living standards remain stagnant or increase slowly in other economies.

This is explained in some economies by the lack of savings and productive capital relative to the numbers and skills of workers as well as other factors. Indeed, other economic indicators of human development do take into account the quality of life (economic and political stability, public health, education, individual security, etc.) of a population, beyond just the average of domestic output of goods and services per capita, the latter possibly distributed in a very unequal manner.

Nowadays, the so-called ‘advanced’ Western economies are considered relatively productive and their populations enjoy a relatively high standard of living, as measured by the average gross domestic product per capita. This is essentially because their stock of productive capital is high and because they benefit from technical progress, cheap energy sources and have access to a qualified labor force.

However, such relative success is not necessarily permanent and a foreclosed conclusion, if the conditions for economic growth atrophy or are replaced by other less efficient factors. A decline in living standards is not inevitable, but it can become possible, or even likely, if public policies are poorly designed.

Indeed, there have been structural changes taken place in Western economies, over several decades now, in Europe and North America. These has been a slowdown in new productive investments, a relative expansion of the services sector, an influx of low-skilled workers resulting from illegal immigration, the adoption of energy transition policies to encourage an increased reliance on more costly and less reliable energy sources and a chaotic geopolitical environment that has enhanced the possibility of hegemonic wars.

1. A simple model to understand the sources of real economic growth in the long term

Let’s start with a simple model of the real economic growth, i.e. the Solow model.

This model states that an economy’s long-run economic output growth depends on its stock of productive capital, resulting from savings, technological progress and the supply of labor.

The higher the stock of capital available in an economy, the more abundant the yearly domestic output of goods and services will be, for a given population.

If we consider that the living standard of a population ultimately depends on the stock of accumulated capital and that the annual growth of gross domestic product (GDP) depends largely on this capital, it follows that the more workers are qualified and the more they have access to capital (businesses, factories, machinery, equipment), the more productive they are, and the higher the living standard of the entire population will be.

2. An industrialized economy relies on more capital than a less developed economy

It has been observed that for an industrialized economy, it takes an average value of about $4 of capital to generate an annual domestic output of $1, at a ratio of 4:1. In a subsistence or stagnant economy, conversely, where the living standard is low, the capital/annual production ratio is low, possibly not exceeding the ratio of 1:1.

This may explain, to a large extent, the tendency towards large-scale population migrations, originating from countries with low living standards and a high demographic growth, towards countries with high living standards and highly capitalized.

In the short- and medium-term, such a migratory phenomenon is not necessarily to the advantage of advanced economies, which may see their rate of economic growth decline and the living standard of their population fall, if enough new investments are not added to the existing stock of capital.

3. Economic growth vs. population growth

One thing to understand is the following. If the population increases in an industrialized economy, either through the natural process or through a high influx of immigrants, it is then necessary that the stock of productive capital and the infrastructures of such an economy increase also, in a ratio of 4:1, (in the absence of technological progress), so as to maintain the standard of living of the entire population.

In other words, if the level of capitalization of a country with an advanced economy does not increase in proportion, and at the same time, as a strong demographic expansion takes place, a decline in income per capita and a general lowering of the living standard can be expected.[1]

It has become trivial to say that Western economies have become consumer societies. They are economies in which the percentage of goods and services produced and consumed occupy more than sixty percent of total production.

It is a complex evolution which is linked to the phenomenon of deindustrialisation that has been observed for half a century in most Western economies. It is measured by the decline of the part of industrial added value and industrial jobs, in GDP and in total employment.[2]

Such a phenomenon is accompanied by a national relocation of certain high productivity industries towards emerging economies, under the influence of economic globalization. This has meant a relative expansion of the production and consumption of private services (commerce, finance, transport, catering, entertainment, etc.) and of public services (teaching, health care, administration, etc.), a sector generally less likely to record important productivity gains.

4. Structural dissavings of governments through debt

Relative deindustrialization and the shift to a service economy in Western economies has forced governments to increase their budgetary deficits, pushing some countries into a level of total public debt that currently exceeds the level of their gross domestic product.

Those advanced economies with the highest levels of national debt relative to their annual gross domestic product, in 2024, as measured by the percentage of public debt to annual GDP, are:

P.S.: Japan is a special case because of its high household saving rate. Personal savings in Japan averaged 13.09% from 1963 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 62.10% in June of 2020. Moreover, Japan’s public debt is nearly all domestic.

For a more complete picture, one must add to the current public dissavings of governments the increasing waste of resources devoted to the global arms industry and to recurring ruinous and polluting wars, some of which could eventually lead to a catastrophic nuclear war.

5. Global warming and the energy crisis

There is a great complementarity between productive capital and energy. Indeed, when energy sources were abundant and could be considered unlimited, they were considered a given. Since pollution resulting from the burning of fossil fuels is one of the causes of global warming, this cannot be the case in the future.

Moreover, the global warming crisis has persuaded several governments to take drastic measures to reduce the combustion of fossil fuels, which are relatively abundant but non-renewable, easy to exploit and highly energy efficient (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.). The goal is to gradually replace them, over the coming decades, with less abundant renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydraulic, etc.), some of which are intermittent and less reliable, in addition to being expensive to exploit. 

The nuclear sector falls between these two categories of energy sources. Nuclear power accounts for about 10% of electricity generation globally. Nuclear power has advantages and disadvantages, but it is very expensive to produce. However, certain countries lacking alternative energy sources, such as France, will not have much choice but to resort more to it in the future.

6. Energy has played a big role in the rapid rise in living standards

Since the first Industrial Revolution, from 1750 to 1900 in Europe, and its acceleration in the 20th century, the availability of abundant and inexpensive energy sources of fossil fuels has been an important factor that has propelled industrial and commercial civilization upwards. Indeed, this is what has transformed economies that, for millennia, had been agrarian and artisanal, into urbanized industrial and commercial economies, like those of today.

In the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the advent of machines in the textile industry as well as in agriculture, followed by electrification and the subsequent multiplication of the means of transport, helped to multiply the physical and manual labor of workers and increase the production and distribution of products on a high scale. This resulted in considerable increases in labor productivity and in real GDP growth. GDP per capita followed, propelling upward the standard of living and the wealth of nations, as well as the quality of life of their populations.

For example, during the forty years between 1960 and 2000, a period of strong economic growth and relative international peace, French researcher Simon Yaspo estimated that GDP per capita in France, Germany and in the U.S. grew by more than 250 percent.

Such a rise has never been seen before in the history of the world. It is possible that humanity might never again experience such a long golden period of economic growth, with such a rapid rise in living standards.

7. Government policies and the energy transition

There is currently, in certain government circles, great optimism regarding the possibility of decarbonizing some national economies over the next quarter of a century, that is to say by the year 2050. This is based on the belief that substitution policies can be designed to promote a relatively rapid shift, from more polluting energies to cleaner ones. The objective is to limit the rise in global warming to 1.5℃ by the year 2050 and to keep it below 2.0℃ by the year 2100.

However, numerous economic and political obstacles could stand in the way of such an otherwise very laudable scenario.

The 2023 energy report, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), is somewhat less hopeful that a quick reduction of fossil energies can occur before 2050. Indeed, according to the organizations’s most recent energy forecasts, global consumption of oil and natural gas, which is expected to peak during the current decade, is seen to remain more of less around that level, until the year 2050. This is a consequence of the inertia and synergy that exist in energy systems. In other words, the development of new energy sources requires the use of fossil energies.

However, IEA is optimistic about a rapid reduction in the global consumption of coal, the most available and cheapest energy source. It predicts that such a consumption, after a peak reached also during the current decade, will quickly fall by 40% by the year 2050, which could bring it back to the level observed in the year 2000.

Nevertheless, coal and charcoal wood play a major role in heating, cooking and electricity production in several emerging and developing countries. The Chinese economy alone, for example, is responsible for 50% of global coal consumption. In Africa, coal represents 70% of the continent’s total energy consumption. Some resistance to switching from coal to more costly sources of energy could be expected from these regions.

Moreover, even in Western nations, some political resistance could be expected about the negative economic effects that an imposed energy transition could have on living standards and on the quality of life of populations. Some governments, seen as being too hasty on the issue or ill-prepared to mitigate its consequences, could be overthrown and be replaced by political leaders more inclined to resort to adaptation measures rather than to simple suppression, concerning energy production and consumption of various sources of energy.

Conclusions

The Great Recession of 2007-2008 may have served as a warning sign that the sources of economic growth in Western economies were beginning to fade. That deep recession forced major central banks to push interest rates way down, even towards zero, in order to stimulate growth.

In the coming years, Western economies will have to face structural developments even riskier to their future prosperity.

Indeed, Western economies risk suffering, all at the same time, from: 1- a slowdown in productive investments and productivity gains, the results of deindustrialization and the transition to a service economy; 2- a pressure from largely under-qualified illegal immigration, which could lower the ratio of productive capital per capita and accentuate the push towards consumption of public and private services; 3- public dissaving, the result of high public budgetary deficits and a resulting public over-indebtedness; 4- a waste of resources due to the expansion of the unproductive arms sector, in a global context of geopolitical instability and wars; and, 5- an energy transition that will be difficult to achieve, with policies aimed at penalizing inexpensive fossil fuels, in favor of more costly and less reliable alternative energies.

With these economic headwinds interacting and reinforcing each other, western economies could face lower economic growth rates ahead. This could also translate into a relative drop in standards of living, and also possibly, in people’s quality of life, over the coming years and coming decades.

In fact, in a not too far away future, the main limiting factor to economic growth in Western economies could likely come from more expensive sources of energy, which are less reliable than in the past. Likewise, demographic growth rates that are too rapid in relation to the stock of available productive capital, the result of uncontrolled immigration, could also become a cause of economic impoverishment.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay.

International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals “The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles” of the book about geopolitics “The New American Empire“, and the recent book, in French, “La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018“. He was Minister of Trade and Industry (1976-79) in the Lévesque government. He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University. Please visit Dr Tremblay’s site or email to a friend here.

Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Notes

1. The decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire, in the 5th century AD, is probably the most complex and most important historical phenomenon of an economic, political and military system that collapsed under the effect of several causes, but notably following a fall in income.

2. For example, the share of industrial jobs in total employment dropped by more than half in advanced economies, from 1970 to 2016.

The share of industrial jobs in total employment went from 46% to 17% in the U.K., from 31% to 17% in the U.S., from 39% to 18% in France, from 45% to 17% in Belgium. In Canada, the share of manufacturing jobs in total employment fell from 19.1% to 9.1%, from 1976 to 2019.

(For Quebec and Ontario, during the same period, the share of manufacturing employment, in total provincial employment, dropped from 23.2% to 11.5%, in the first case, and 23.2% to 10.2%, in the second case.


The Code for Global Ethics: Ten Humanist Principles

by Rodrigue Tremblay, Preface by Paul Kurtz

Publisher: ‎ Prometheus (April 27, 2010)

Hardcover: ‎ 300 pages

ISBN-10: ‎ 1616141727

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1616141721

Humanists have long contended that morality is a strictly human concern and should be independent of religious creeds and dogma. This principle was clearly articulated in the two Humanist Manifestos issued in the mid-twentieth century and in Humanist Manifesto 2000, which appeared at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Now this code for global ethics further elaborates ten humanist principles designed for a world community that is growing ever closer together. In the face of the obvious challenges to international stability-from nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation, economic turmoil, and reactionary and sometimes violent religious movements-a code based on the “natural dignity and inherent worth of all human beings” is needed more than ever. In separate chapters the author delves into the issues surrounding these ten humanist principles: preserving individual dignity and equality, respecting life and property, tolerance, sharing, preventing domination of others, eliminating superstition, conserving the natural environment, resolving differences cooperatively without resort to violence or war, political and economic democracy, and providing for universal education. This forward-looking, optimistic, and eminently reasonable discussion of humanist ideals makes an important contribution to laying the foundations for a just and peaceable global community.

Click here to purchase.

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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In the municipality of Birmingham, the second largest in the United Kingdom, the City Council filed for bankruptcy in September.

The Council said that due to payments owed to women for years of discriminatory pay differentials, the municipality could not meet its existing financial obligations.

In a September 6 article published in Fortune magazine, it emphasized that:

“In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of mostly female employees who didn’t receive bonus payments that were given to those occupying traditionally male-dominated roles at Birmingham’s council. Birmingham’s council said in June that it had already paid £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) in equal pay claims over the last decade, but still had some remaining claims which it estimated would accrue at the rate of between £5 million ($6.3 million) and £14 million ($17.6 million) a month.” 

These developments in Birmingham are reflective of the vast socio-economic problems impacting the working class and poor in Britain. During 2023, a series of large-scale strikes by trade unions in the transportation, healthcare, education, civil service and other sectors of the labor force revealed the level of discontent among millions of the people around the country.

Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ruled out any bailout of Birmingham along with other municipalities which have also filed for bankruptcy. Sunak, a proponent of tax cuts for the ruling class, imperialist military interventions and the mass deportation of migrants from Britain, said publicly that cities like Birmingham are in financial difficulty due to the mismanagement of their budgets.

The City Council, which is dominated by the Labor Party, pointed to the cuts imposed by successive Conservative governments in London. Also, huge cost overruns for the installation of a new IT system in Birmingham raised costs from an initially estimated 19 million pounds to nearly 100 million.

Birmingham hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2023 which contributed to the shortfall in public revenue. A previous advisor to the Birmingham city government told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that the holding of this international sports competition was one of the factors which drove the city into bankruptcy.

According to one source on the situation:

“Sharon Thompson, deputy leader of the council, told CNN, ‘Local government is facing a perfect storm. Like councils across the country, it is clear that this council faces unprecedented financial challenges, from huge increases in adult social care demand and dramatic reductions in business rates incomes to the impact of rampant inflation.’” 

Along with the tremendous responsibility of addressing the plight of the impoverished, senior citizens and the disabled through social spending, there is the question of the status of 10,000 municipal civil servants. Without the necessary funds to meet its obligations, there could very well be large-scale layoffs of municipal employees.

In a BBC report on the Birmingham bankruptcy published in the aftermath of the announcement by the City Council, it notes:

“Meanwhile, talks are continuing to safeguard the thousands of jobs at the city council.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union – which represents hundreds of workers, said: ‘Birmingham City Council’s workers must not pay the price for the council’s or central government’s incompetence and financial mismanagement. Our members undertake vital frontline services that are essential for the communities they serve and they should not be impacted through no fault of their own.’ Thurrock Council in Essex declared itself bankrupt in December (2022) and the leader of its Labor opposition, John Kent, warned people in Birmingham they were likely to see noticeable changes in the city – and quickly. ‘We’ve seen dirtier streets, grass being cut less frequently, our only theatre is now under threat and every subsidized bus route in the borough was just cancelled,’ he told BBC WM. He also said council tax in Thurrock rose by 10% last year and was likely to increase by the same again this year. ‘That’s the situation we will be in for many years to come. People are rightly very, very angry.’” 

Despite the draconian austerity imposed by five consecutive Conservative prime ministers since 2010, the party remains in power. The Labor Party underwent a purge of many left-wing activists over the last several years.

The Palestinian question remains a major issue within the Labor Party as many rank-and-file, mid-level and top leaders were accused of antisemitism. Any solidarity efforts with the Palestinians aimed at shifting British foreign policy was labelled as being anti-Jewish. Consequently, the current leadership of the Labor Party under Keir Starmer are as pro-Zionist as their Conservative counterparts.

In the latest military siege on Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) which has lasted for more than four months, the British administration of Sunak has pledged its ongoing unconditional support to Tel Aviv. The government has downplayed the solidarity demonstrations with Palestine involving hundreds of thousands of people, representing some of the largest manifestations in the imperialist countries.

Britain has joined the White House under President Joe Biden in launching the so-called Operation Prosperity Guardian by carrying out aerial strikes and shelling of Yemen which has taken a firm position against the genocide in Gaza. The Yemeni resistance organization, Ansar Allah, is imposing a blockade on Israeli-linked vessels and those utilizing their ports in solidarity with Palestine saying that the campaign will not stop until there is a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Since the repeated bombing of Yemen by London and Washington, the resistance forces say they will attack U.S. and British ships operating in the Red Sea and its contiguous waterways off the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. A mounting regional war in West Asia will only further the declining social conditions of working and oppressed people of Britain and the U.S.

Farmers Across Europe Protest Over Declining Incomes

Although the British electorate voted to leave the European Union (EU) in 2016 being convinced that the conditions for the people would improve, similar contemporary economic problems facing the UK are occurring on the continent. In France during 2023, millions of trade unionists and students engaged in months of strikes and demonstrations to halt a pension reform bill which was eventually passed absent of legislative action.

Later a nationwide rebellion erupted in opposition to police brutality after a youth of North African descent was killed by the security forces. The demonstrations on the part of farmers began during the latter months of 2023 and have continued to the present time.

Militant actions by farmers in France were called off in early February after promises were made by the government in Paris. However, there is no guarantee that the assistance pledged by President Emmanuel Macron and his cabinet will resolve the issues negatively impacting the farmers.

Since the beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine two years ago, the economic situation of EU farmers has deteriorated. Although reporting on the recent protests in the corporate and capitalist-controlled governmental media refuses to acknowledge the impact of sanctions against Moscow, it is quite obvious that the glut in the supply of agricultural products, rising prices for inputs and the demands placed upon farmers by EU governments are underlining the crisis.

Tens of thousands of farmers in various EU states including France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, among others, are engaging in highway and street blockades to demonstrate the urgency of their situations. In journalistic accounts of the protests, the western media dwells on the problems related to the transition to more environmentally sustainable agriculture as mandated by the United Nations Climate Conferences held annually as a major cause for the demonstrations.

Nonetheless, the costs of the proxy war against the Russian Federation related to arms transfers, direct monetary assistance to Ukraine as well as the loss of revenue due to the prohibition of trade in essential energy resources has raised the cost of living for farmers and workers substantially. The official policy of the U.S. and the EU has been to continue the sanctions and the funding of the Ukrainian military despite the tremendous failures on the battlefield.

Any serious negotiations for a ceasefire have been ruled out by the imperialist states headquartered in Washington and London. Biden’s failed approach of a sanctions-regime against Moscow has not resulted in a change in its foreign policy orientation towards Russia.

French farmers block motorway to Paris

In one Associated Press article from January 30 during the French farmers’ blockade, it does take the Ukraine war into account saying:

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused painful economic shocks, including higher costs, bringing farmers’ anger to a head in France and other European countries…. On the barricades, Ukraine in particular is on some protesters’ lips. Fast-tracked for EU membership talks, it’s seen as a potentially fearsome rival with its vast fields of grain and other agricultural products that have flooded into Europe since the invasion.” 

Therefore, capitalist methods of production and aggressive imperialist militarism are responsible for the declining incomes and living standards of workers and farmers. A change in the system is required to bring about an equal distribution of wealth and the end to wars of occupation and domination.

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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; featured image: Italian farmers protest harsh economic conditions

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Important and timely article, first published on April 10, 2020. The late Henry Kissinger has played a key role in the formulation of the “Depopulation Agenda”

“The International” is the world-renowned battle song of the socialist labor movement. The English version of the original French text reads:

“Wake up, damned of this earth, who are still forced to starve! (…) Army of slaves, wake up! (…) Peoples, hear the signals! To the final battle! There is no supreme being, no God, no emperor or tribune to save us. To put us out of our misery, that is something we can only do ourselves.”

This call was made to the international labor movement after the violent suppression of the Paris Commune in May 1871. It was not issued to the ruling “Elite” of the exploiters and oppressors.

However, it is precisely this so-called elite that seems to be blowing to the last battle today, in that it is seeking to reduce the population (depopulation) by means of a compulsory “mass protective vaccination”. The pathogenic or even deadly composition of this vaccine, which will also contain Nano-chips to control humanity, has certainly already been mixed in the world’s secret laboratories.

Even the active euthanasia of elderly and sick fellow citizens by means of strong sleeping pills and opiates has already set these dark figures on their way.

Likewise a worldwide redistribution of general wealth from the bottom to the top, from the poor to the super rich. Should we citizens of this world, remembering these plans of the cabal, not recall to whom the call for the final battle was actually made?

Two of these “world citizens” who are involved in such sinister plans are the former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger and the wealthy US entrepreneur and patron of the arts Bill Gates.

More than 50 years ago, Kissinger was Secretary of State, head of the US National Security Council and author of an important US foreign policy document:

According to the [Kissinger] memorandum, depopulation should be “the highest priority in US foreign policy towards the Third World”, (…) because “the US economy needs large and growing amounts of raw materials from overseas, especially from the less developed countries” (Eggert, W. (2003).

 

In an opinion piece for the “Wall Street Journal”, Kissinger called for

“a first step to develop ‘new techniques and technologies for infection control and appropriate vaccines for large populations’. (…) In a second step, the focus should now be on ‘healing the wounds of the global economy’. (quoted in RT Deutsch)

The citizens of the world should therefore – whether they want to or not – be vaccinated and, in addition, it should be checked whether they have complied with this vaccination obligation.

In the RT (Deutsch article just mentioned), Nobel Peace Prize winner Kissinger is also referred to as a war criminal because, as the architect of the US aggression against Vietnam and other covert CIA secret operations, he is responsible for the death of millions of people.

Vaccination

Kissinger and the The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seem to agree on the question of “mass protection vaccination”. On March 31, 2020, the “Washington Post” published an opinion article by Gates in which he describes his vision to vaccinate people around the world:

“To bring the disease to an end, we’ll need a safe and effective vaccine. If we do everything right, we could have one in less than 18 months — about the fastest a vaccine has ever been developed.

But creating a vaccine is only half the battle. To protect Americans and people around the world, we’ll need to manufacture billions of doses. (Without a vaccine, developing countries are at even greater risk than wealthy ones, because it’s even harder for them to do physical distancing and shutdowns.)

We can start now by building the facilities where these vaccines will be made. Because many of the top candidates are made using unique equipment, we’ll have to build facilities for each of them, knowing that some won’t get used. Private companies can’t take that kind of risk, but the federal government can. It’s a great sign that the administration made deals this week with at least two companies to prepare for vaccine manufacturing. I hope more deals will follow.

In 2015, I urged world leaders in a TED talk to prepare for a pandemic the same way they prepare for war — by running simulations to find the cracks in the system. As we’ve seen this year, we have a long way to go. But I still believe that if we make the right decisions now, informed by science, data and the experience of medical professionals, we can save lives and get the country back to work.

Is the vaccination program related to the objective of reducing world population?

In this context, let us recall Kant’s Enlightenment motto “Sapere aude!”: “Have the courage to use your own intellect!”

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Dr. Rudolf Hänsel is a graduate psychologist and educationalist.

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***

First posted on Global Research on December 12, 2021

Listen to Dr. Michael Yeadon, former Vice President and Chief Science Officer of Pfizer, talking about the pandemic, the PCR test and the COVID vaccine.

Watch the video below.

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Featured image: Dr Michael Yeadon, a former Pfizer vice president and co-founder of Doctors for COVID-19 Ethics. Photo credits: The Last American Vagabond / Odysee

A “False Flag” Operation to Justify the Israel-U.S. Genocide Against the People of Palestine

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, February 08, 2024

Although South Africa’s legal initiative was directed against the State of Israel, the conduct of the genocide is a joint Israel-U.S. project, with U.S. military and intelligence operatives collaborating directly with their Israeli counterparts. This collaboration is also supported by an extensive flow of military aid. 

Continual War Is the Backdrop to British Politics. General Patrick Sanders’ Proposal: “A ‘Citizen’s Army’ Ready to Confront Russia”

By Andrew Murray, February 07, 2024

There has been a lot of comment on General Sir Patrick Sanders’s recent speech urging preparations for a “citizen’s army” ready to confront Russia whenever the latter gets through Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine adventure.

Polish Farmers Announce Strike Against “Green New Deal”. The WEF Wants to Impose Synthetic GMO Laboratory Foods

By Julian Rose, February 07, 2024

Green  New Deal links directly into the Agenda 2030 ‘Sustainability’ program whereby the WEF proposes to 100% disenfranchise farmers and substitute synthetic GMO laboratory foods for real food grown in real soil.

Does Ukraine Have a Functional Air Defense System? Greece Denies Reports About Air Defense Systems Transfer to Kiev Regime

By Drago Bosnic, February 07, 2024

In recent days, there has been a lot of speculation that Greece would deliver its Soviet/Russian-made air defenses, particularly the S-300 series SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems to the Kiev regime. Even some reputable Greek media such as the Kathimerini reported on this.

Modern Warfare and the Three Strands to the “Swarming of Biden”: “Biden Is Boxed In”: Alastair Crooke

By Alastair Crooke, February 07, 2024

‘Swarming’ has been associated more recently with a radical evolution in modern warfare (most evident in Ukraine), where the use of autonomous swarming drones, continuously communicating with each other via AI, select and direct the attack to targets identified by the swarm.

Federal Court Halts Spraying of Monsanto’s Dicamba Pesticide Across Millions of Acres of Cotton, Soybeans

By Center For Biological Diversity, February 07, 2024

In a sweeping victory for family farmers and dozens of endangered plants and animals, a federal court today revoked approval of the extremely volatile, weed-killing pesticide dicamba.

2024 Is the New 1984: Big Brother and the Rise of the Security Industrial Complex (SIC)

By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead, February 07, 2024

Forty years past the time that George Orwell envisioned the stomping boot of Big Brother, the police state is about to pass off the baton to the surveillance state. Fueled by a melding of government and corporate power—the rise of the security industrial complex—this watershed moment sounds a death knell for our privacy rights.

Oblivious to Years of Public Pandemic Planning for COVID-19 — Let’s Not Ignore Disease X

By Dr. Peter McCullough, February 07, 2024

Very few of us saw the COVID-19 pandemic back decades. Yet the underpinnings and timeline for the pandemic response go back many years and date stamped by the 2005 PREP Act which provided immunity to “countermeasures” which we later learned included masks, lockdowns, vaccines, etc.

Deep-seated Crisis Within Ukraine Military: Draft Avoidance by “Internal Exile”

By Rodney Atkinson, February 07, 2024

The conflict between the Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Zaluzhny and President Zelensky is coming to a head with the latter showing extreme weakness after weeks of claims that Zaluzhny had been sacked but with Zaluzhny still in place.

Have a Nice World War, Folks. The Late John Pilger’s Analysis. His Legacy Will Live

By John Pilger, February 07, 2024

“War is fun”, the helmets in Vietnam used to say with bleakest irony, meaning that if a war is revealed as having no purpose other than to justify voracious power in the cause of lucrative fanaticisms such as the weapons industry, the danger of truth beckons.

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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If asked to compare a community of forest produce gathering people about 7000 years ago with a most modernized group of people in New York City today, most people would say that of course, the later situation reflects much greater development and progress of humanity in terms of easily accessing so many comforts and luxuries, not just needs.

However if we start exploring questions like which life-patterns reflect greater environment protection and sustainability, more justice and equality, more peace, contentment and harmony with other people as well as other forms of life, then in all likelihood the thousands of years old community would reflect a more ‘advanced’ state.

The past five to six hundred years are often regarded as the years of greatest progress. Yet cruelty, plunder, injustice, massacres and genocides (sometimes to the extent of nearly 90 per cent of the people of vast regions being killed) have also been seen in some of their worst forms during these centuries.

The last century has been called the century of the greatest progress but in fact this is the century in which the basic life-nurturing conditions of the planet have been ravaged the most, largely due to the folly of the richest 10 per cent of people, endangering not just the entire humanity but also the thousands and thousands of other forms of life.

Hence history must never be seen as a history of continuing human progress. Instead history must strive to understand the conditions relating to justice, equality, protection of environment and biodiversity, concern for all forms of life and compassion, peace and harmony in various places and times and then to understand progress or regression in these terms.

Similarly other social sciences and humanities must change to reflect such an improved and more comprehensive understanding of progress/regression and wellness/illness of various societies. This is certainly true of sociology, political science and perhaps most of all of Economics.

Unfortunately distortions in the study and understanding of Economics have often led to many economists, including some of the most reputed ones, contributing to injustice, inequality and ecological ruin instead of contributing to justice, equality and protection of environment.

Social sciences and social scientists must increasingly be more inward looking to honestly evaluate their role and contribution in times which are perhaps the most troubling in the history of humanity on earth, times when entirely human-made factors have brought the planet to a stage where its basic life-nurturing conditions are very badly threatened.  

Why is it that many social scientists have not been able to contribute in more meaningful and effective ways on the side of justice and equality, environment protection and peace? Why several of them are increasingly seen to be on the side of problems rather than solutions? Why an even higher number has chosen to be wrapped up in advancing their own comforts instead of taking a more active role in challenging injustices and helping to create a better, safer world?

There is much need for honest introspection by the community of social scientists regarding their role. Is their role to be seen only or mainly in careerist terms (which would be a very narrow understanding for a profession that should be seen in terms of a very noble and important role, all the more so in these difficult times)? What needs to be done to increase the possibilities of more and more social scientists being able to contribute more meaningfully to creating a better and safer world?

The other aspect relates to reframing, restructuring or perhaps even re-defining various social sciences in terms of the needs and requirements of creating a better, more just, sustainable and safer world. Both aspects of this introspection are of course related to each other, both are equally important. Initiatives relating to such introspection are likely to result in various useful suggestions, including some that can be taken up immediately and some that need longer-term processes and much wider efforts. If these can be shared and together lead to a more broad-based effort, cutting across narrow boundaries, then a more specific agenda of meaningful changes can emerge within a year or two.

What is true beyond any doubt is that in order to check the existential crisis before it is too late, and do this within a framework of justice, peace and democracy, the world deeds vary basic changes in the near future. Social scientists and social sciences must change in order to be able to contribute adequately to this. It is within this wider perspective that the suggestions made here should be seen.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, Earth without Borders, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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So how has this “post-war” Britain been working out for you?

There has been a lot of comment on General Sir Patrick Sanders’s recent speech urging preparations for a “citizen’s army” ready to confront Russia whenever the latter gets through Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine adventure.

But the most remarkable contention by the head of the British army was the one asserting that we have been dwelling in a “post-war world” but now need to man up for a “pre-war” one.

It might well suit an eminent general to wish to blank out the last generation since they have been inglorious, to say the least, in terms of British martial prowess.

But these are the facts of the real world we have actually been enduring. Over the last 25 years, Britain has fought in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Yemen.

It has further been a deeply involved proxy party to the continuing war in Ukraine, and in the Saudi/UAE aggression against Yemen prior to the present direct attacks. And our politicians are underwriting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

So we have neither been in a “post-war” world, nor a “pre-war” one, but a world of war. We are living in a country almost permanently fighting somewhere with someone.

Many of these wars have been flagrantly illegal — the aggressions against Yugoslavia and Iraq and the intervention in Syria most blatantly. Others have been in a grey area from that point of view.

A legal war is not necessarily a just, prudent or sustainable one. But the point is worth stressing given the fondness of British politicians for wrapping themselves in legality and plumping their bottoms on what they hope is the moral high ground.

In fact, Britain is a rogue state. And a bipartisan rogue state at that. All the wars just listed have enjoyed full-throated support from the front benches of both Labour and Tories. It has not mattered one whit who is in government and who is the “official opposition.”

That consensus briefly broke down when Labour successfully opposed strikes on Syria in 2013. Then leader Ed Miliband was so overcome with embarrassment at this victory that he never alluded to it again.

And under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership Labour challenged the attacks in Iraq and Syria in 2015, although for reasons that remain utterly incomprehensible it permitted a free vote to the party’s entitled imperialist faction in the Commons.

But war is by and large an Establishment project that all politicians buy into. There is dissent on the US right over continuing to prolong the Ukraine conflict, but in the Conservative Party here not a peep.

A third observation is that several of these conflicts were Nato-badged and led — the bombardment of Yugoslavia, the occupation of Afghanistan and regime change in Libya. All aggressions, and all disasters — a point to remember when anyone extols Nato’s “purely defensive” character.

With the obvious exception of the US, no other country in the world engages so consistently in military aggression. France may perhaps run Britain close, but even Paris sat out the Iraq calamity.

And all this is without mentioning the Pacific, where Britain is flexing its military and diplomatic muscles through Aukus and aircraft carriers without as yet doing any actual fighting.

Sir Patrick was exercised about fighting Russia — perhaps a “citizens’ navy” to confront China too was an imaginative leap too far.

The point is that, despite all the complaints of the brasshats and their media epigones that the British armed forces are now too enfeebled to stand sentinel on our sovereignty, Britain fights wars almost continually and all over the place.

Indeed Richard Gott, once of The Guardian before that organ took up permanent residence on the dark side, set out to write a book showing that Britain had been fighting somewhere or other every year from the 18th century on.

His researches terminated, likely through exhaustion, several hundred pages in but only in the mid-19th century. There will be a second volume eventually, and probably a larger one. Gott is attempting the literary equivalent of painting the Forth rail bridge.

So the question is not — how do we fight Russia, but why do we fight so much? The answer is surprisingly terse — finance capital, in two words, or imperialism if you feel one is sufficient.

Britain’s centuries-long record of aggression, now continuing unabated, is the direct extension of the hegemony of the City of London in our capitalist system. First, it funded the plundering of much of the world through trading, while using government debt incurred in war-fighting to assume a dominant place in the state.

Then it became the vehicle for the massive export of capital which greased the establishment of a formal empire, an informal empire alongside it, and a central financial role in world monopoly capitalism as a whole. Not a project that could be undertaken without sustained violence.

And so on into the sterling area, the invention of the eurodollar market, the post-cold war globalisation and every phase in the metamorphosis of imperialism. If you are laundering surplus value from across the globe, you need an open world market for capital — and that requires a world police force.

Today, capital’s global cop is clearly the US. The imperative for bourgeois Britain is to stay close to Washington above all, to ensure that the world order accommodates the parasites of the Square Mile.

So today Britain’s wars are usually fought as junior partner to the US. Even when London takes the lead, as it did with Paris in attacking Libya, US military back-up is vital.

And when Britain’s contribution is mostly symbolic — the RAF can be doing nothing in the Red Sea that the Pentagon could not do for itself — it is still a down payment on a world order it profits from.

The point here is that support for finance capital, for the City of London, is support for war in the end. In a week when Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have fallen over themselves to appease big capital — on corporation tax, on bankers’ bonuses and likely on private equity taxation — that seems relevant.

I met Ed Balls a dozen years ago, when he was shadow chancellor. On being urged not to follow New Labour by letting the City dictate economic policy, he said that such a proposal was “not a break with the last Labour government, but with the policy of the last 200 years.”

He gets more marks for historical erudition than political courage. The worst of it is not bankers getting rich while industrial workers get laid off, bad as that self-evidently is. It is that British finance capital is always marching us to war.

There is no need to be too mechanistic. Clearly Gordon Brown could have carried on obliging the bankers and Tony Blair could still have declined to invade Iraq.

The tendency to war is ineluctable, but no particular conflict is inevitable. The masses get a vote if we press hard enough.

But the connection remains tight. We have never been “post-war” because we are not “post-capitalist.”

Now that would be an objective worth forming a citizen’s army for. Gen Sanders may however prefer to find a berth with the Royal Hedge Fund Fusiliers.

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Featured image: Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps, speaks to Chief of the General Staff General Patrick Sanders during a visit to a military training camp in East Anglia in the UK, November 29, 2023

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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It’s going to be a very big push and will complement other protests taking place throughout Europe.

Poland has the largest number of family farms in Europe – over one million. These farms are a vital resource not just for national food production but also for the maintenance of Poland’s unique biodiversity.

Particular to this Polish farmer’s effort will be a central attack on ‘Green  New  Deal’ (see  below) which is of course a critically important issue vis-a-vis ensuring the future of all farmers/farming.

Green  New Deal links directly into the Agenda 2030 ‘Sustainability’ program whereby the WEF proposes to 100% disenfranchise farmers and substitute synthetic GMO laboratory foods for real food grown in real soil.

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A part of the announcement of the NSZZ of Individual Farmers “Solidarity” on the General Strike (from February 9 to March 10, 2024)

“…Our patience has been exhausted. The position of Brussels at the end of January 2024 is unacceptable to the entire agricultural community. In addition, the lack of response from the Polish authorities and declarations of cooperation with the European Commission, along with announcements to respect all decisions on the import of agricultural and food products from Ukraine, leave us no choice but to declare a general strike…We cannot accept the implementation of the “European Green Deal”, the European Union’s farm-to-table strategy and the proposed form of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The Polish government must present a clear plan for agricultural production, its profitability, the reconstruction of domestic processing and trade. We will fight for this until it happens. Polish farm families are the foundation of our country’s food security….

We ask compatriots to be understanding and aware of the situation in which we all find ourselves. We are fighting for our common good, which is to save Polish family-owned, often multi-generational farms from collapse and bankruptcy….”

See this.

Map of agricultural protests starting on February 9, 2024:

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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In recent days, there has been a lot of speculation that Greece would deliver its Soviet/Russian-made air defenses, particularly the S-300 series SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems to the Kiev regime. Even some reputable Greek media such as the Kathimerini reported on this. The military transfer, according to reports, was to eventually include other Soviet-era military equipment, including the ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, as well as the “Tor” and “Osa” short-range air defense systems.

Greece is by far the largest non-Warsaw Pact operator of Soviet/Russian-made weapons. It has acquired them both during and after the (First) Cold War. Athens was one of the few NATO members that sought to improve relations with Russia for decades, particularly in the aftermath of the illegal Turkish Neo-Ottoman invasion that resulted in the occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974.

As Moscow was among the first to condemn Ankara’s aggression, Athens maintained a balanced geopolitical position, even at the height of the (First) Cold War, despite its NATO membership. However, after Russia was forced to launch the special military operation (SMO), the new administration in Greece naively decided to reject this legacy of good relations and position itself firmly on the Kiev regime’s side. This can be somewhat understandable in purely practical terms and Moscow would’ve certainly had a great deal of understanding for the complex position of Athens. However, the latter made the mistake of agreeing to major weapons transfers, something that was wholly unnecessary and even self-defeating. Instead of such a major shift, Greece could’ve simply “condemned” the SMO in its official statements and be done with it.

This would’ve kept the relations with Russia largely intact, while there would’ve been ways to continue economic cooperation through various loopholes, just as many countries are already doing in order to circumvent sanctions. Unfortunately, the Greek government went a step too far, resulting in a completely unnecessary cooling of relations with the Kremlin. The damage is already done, but it’s important to at least prevent further deterioration in the millennium-old Greek-Russian ties. Luckily, this is precisely what Athens did, as it just denied reports about the supposed transfer of advanced air defense systems to the Neo-Nazi junta. Namely, on February 5, Athens categorically denied reports that it would send its Soviet/Russian-made S-300 SAM systems to the Kiev regime. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis dispelled and rejected the reports as fake.

“There must be a limit to fake news, especially when it has to do with the interests of the country and its international image. There is no such thing and I categorically deny it. There was not even the intention for Greece to risk the country’s defense,” Marinakis stressed in a statement.

This is certainly great news, not only for Russia, but Greece as well. What’s more, it’s also great news for the Ukrainian people, as any additional arms transfers to the Kiev regime only prolong the conflict. In the last two years, there were similar controversies about the potential transfer of Greek air defense systems, including in December 2022, when the then Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos stated that Athens could deliver its Soviet/Russian-made S-300PMU-1 long-range SAM system to the Neo-Nazi junta. Panagiotopoulos also stated that this would not happen until after the United States deployed its MIM-104 “Patriot” SAM system on Crete. The S-300PMU-1 is a late 1980s/early 1990s modernization of the advanced S-300PMU and it was initially given a NATO reporting name SA-10D “Grumble” (only to later be redesignated as the SA-20 “Gargoyle”).

Greece acquired it in the aftermath of the 1997-1998 standoff between Turkey and Cyprus. At the time, Nicosia acquired the S-300PMU-1 from Russia to put a stop to decades of Turkish encroachment on its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Ankara responded by escalating the crisis to a potential conflict in which Greece pledged to support its fellow Cypriots. After a series of negotiations, the opposing sides came to an agreement that Cyprus would send the newly acquired Russian SAM system to Crete, while Turkey promised to remove its offensive capabilities from the direct vicinity of the island country. Thus, Greece inadvertently acquired the S-300PMU-1, one of the most advanced long-range SAM systems available at the time. Since then, it has maintained a regiment of four S-300PMU-1 systems with eight fire units and 32 launchers that also use the 200 km range 48N6 missiles.

According to relevant sources, the Greek military acquired 175 missiles from Russia and the SAM system’s importance for the country’s security cannot be overstated, particularly in the southern Aegean Sea. For approximately two and a half decades, the S-300PMU-1 has been serving as a deterrent to Turkish belligerence in the region, guarding Greek sovereign airspace with distinction. The Greek Air Force also operates at least 4 Tor-M1 systems with 16 missile launchers, while the Greek Army operates 21 systems with 84 launchers. The system’s maximum engagement range is 12 kilometers and its main purpose is to protect the much longer-ranged S-300PMU-1. Similarly, the Osa-AKM’s firing range is 15 kilometers and the SAM system has the same purpose as the Tor-M1. The Greek Army operates 39 Osa-AKM systems with at least 120 launchers.

The potential transfer of even a small part of this sizeable arsenal to the Neo-Nazi junta would severely undermine Greek security and encourage Turkish expansionism. This doesn’t even have anything to do with the previously mentioned shift in the country’s foreign policy. The Mitsotakis government’s pivot toward Washington DC and Brussels is extremely unpopular among the vast majority of Greeks (both in Greece and Cyprus), particularly after the decision to send weapons to the Kiev regime. Athens sent several types of weapons, including IFVs (infantry fighting vehicles) and ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles). Many were rightfully furious, especially after it was revealed that the indigenous Greeks living in Mariupol and the surrounding areas were subjected to brutal treatment by the Kiev regime, particularly its Neo-Nazi units like the infamous “Azov Battalion”.

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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

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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“The Iranians have a strategy, and we don’t”, a former senior U.S. Defence Department official told Al-Monitor: “We’re getting bogged down in tactical weeds – of whom to target and how – and nobody’s thinking strategically”.

The former Indian diplomat MK Bhadrakumar has coined the term ‘swarming’ to describe this process of non-state actors miring the U.S. in the tactical attrition – from the Levant to the Persian Gulf.

‘Swarming’ has been associated more recently with a radical evolution in modern warfare (most evident in Ukraine), where the use of autonomous swarming drones, continuously communicating with each other via AI, select and direct the attack to targets identified by the swarm.

In the Ukraine, Russia has pursued a patient, calibrated attrition to drive hard-Right ultranationalists from the field of battle (in central and eastern Ukraine), together with their western NATO facilitators.

NATO attempts at deterrence towards Russia (that recently have veered off into ‘terrorist’ attacks inside Russia – i.e. on Belgorod) notably have failed to produce results. Rather, Biden’s close embrace of Kiev has left him exposed politically, as U.S. and European zeal for the project implodes. The war has bogged down the U.S., without any electorally acceptable exit – and all can see it. Moscow drew-in Biden to an elaborate attritional web. He should ‘get out’ quick – but the 2024 campaign binds him.

So, Iran has been setting a very similar strategy throughout the Gulf, maybe taking its cue from the Ukraine conflict.

Less than a day after the attack on Tower 22, the military base ambiguously perched on the membrane between Jordan and the illegal U.S. al-Tanaf base in Syria, Biden promised that the U.S. would provide a quick and determined response to the attacks against it in Iraq and Syria (by what he calls ‘Iran-linked’ militia).

Simultaneously however, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby stated that the U.S. doesn’t want to expand military operations opposite Iran. Just as in Ukraine, where the White House has been loath to provoke Moscow into all-out war versus NATO, so too in the region, Biden is (rightly) wary of out-right war with Iran.

Biden’s political considerations in this election-year will be uppermost. And that, at least partly, will depend on the fine calibration by the Pentagon of just how exposed to missile and drone attacks U.S. forces are in Iraq and Syria.

The bases there are ‘sitting ducks’; a fact would be an embarrassing admission. But a hurried evacuation (with overtones of the last flights from Kabul) would be worse; it could be electorally disastrous.

The U.S. seemingly aims to find a way to hurt Iranian and Resistance forces just enough to show that Biden is ‘very angry’, yet without perhaps doing real damage – i.e. it is a form of ‘militarised psychotherapy’, rather than hard politics.

Risks remain: bomb too much, and the wider regional war will ignite to a new level. Bomb too little, and the swarm just rolls on, ‘swarming’ the U.S. on multiple fronts until it finally caves – and finally exits the Levant.

Biden thus finds himself in an exhausting, ongoing secondary war with groups and militias rather than states (whom the Axis seeks to shield). In spite of its militia character, however the war has been causing major damage to the economies of states in the region. They have fathomed that American deterrence has not been showing results (i.e., with Ansarallah in the Red Sea).

Some of those countries – including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have initiated ‘private’ steps that were not coordinated with the U.S. They are not only speaking with these militia and movements, but also directly with Iran.

The strategy to ‘swarm’ the U.S. on multiple fronts was plainly stated at the recent ‘Astana Format’ meeting between Russia, Iran, and Turkey on 24-25 January. The latter triumvirate are busy preparing the endgame in Syria (and ultimately, in the Region as a whole).

The joint statement after the Astana Format meeting in Kazakhstan, MK Bhadrakumar has noted:

“is a remarkable document predicated almost entirely on an end to the U.S. occupation of Syria. It indirectly urges Washington to give up its support of terrorist groups and their affiliates “operating under different names in various parts of Syria” as part of attempts to create new realities on the ground, including illegitimate self-rule initiatives under the pretext of ‘combating terrorism.’ It demands an end to the U.S.’ illegal seizure and transfer of oil resources “that should belong to Syria””.

The statement thus spells out the objectives starkly. In sum, patience has run out over the U.S. weaponising the Kurds and attempting to revitalise ISIS in order to disrupt the tripartite plans for a Syria settlement. The trio want the U.S. out.

It is with these objectives – insisting that Washington give up its support of terrorist groups and their affiliates as part of attempts to create new realities on the ground, including illegitimate self-rule initiatives under the pretext of ‘combating terrorism’ – that the ‘Astana’ Russian and Iranian strategy for Syria finds common ground with that of the Resistance’s strategy.

The latter may reflect an Iranian strategy overall – but the Astana Statement shows the underlying principles to be Russia’s too.

In his first substantive statement after 7 October, Seyed Nasrallah (speaking for the Axis of Resistance as a whole) indicated a strategic Resistance pivot: Whereas the conflict triggered by events in Gaza was centrally connected with Israel, Seyed Nasrallah additionally underlined that the backdrop to Israel’s disruptive behaviour lay with America’s ‘forever wars’ of divide-and-rule in support of Israel.

In short, he tied the causality of America’s many regional wars to the interests of Israel.

So, here, we come to the third strand to the ‘swarming of Biden’.

Only it is not regional actors that are contriving to box-in Biden – it is America’s own protégé: Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Netanyahu and Israel are the principal target of the bigger regional ‘swarm’, but Biden has allowed himself to be enmeshed by it. It seems that he cannot say ‘no’. So here Biden is: boxed-in by Russia in Ukraine; boxed-in in Syria and Iraq, and boxed-in by Netanyahu and an Israel that fears the walls closing-in on their Zionist project.

There is likely no electoral ‘sweet-spot’ to be found here for Biden, between inserting America into an unpopular and electorally disastrous, all-out Middle East war, and between ‘green-lighting’ Israel’s huge gamble on victory over war against Hizbullah.

The confluence between the failed Ukrainian ploy to weaken Russia, and the risky ploy for Israel’s war on Hizbullah, is unlikely to be lost on Americans.

Netanyahu too is between a rock and a hard place. He knows that ‘a victory’ that boils down to just the release of the hostages, and confidence-building measures to establish a Palestinian state, would not restore Israeli deterrence – inside or outside the state. On the contrary, it would erode it. It would be ‘a defeat’ – and without a clear victory in the south (over Hamas), a victory in the north would be demanded by many Israelis, including key members of his own cabinet.

Recall the mood within Israel: The latest Peace Index survey shows that 94% percent of Israeli Jews think Israel used the right amount of firepower in Gaza – or not enough (43%). And three-quarters of Israelis think the number of Palestinians harmed since October is justified.

If Netanyahu is boxed in, so is Biden.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu said:

“We will not end this war with anything less than the achievement of all its objectives … We will not withdraw the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we won’t release thousands of terrorists. None of that is going to happen. What is going to happen? Total victory.”

“Is Netanyahu capable of veering strongly to the left… entering into an historic process that will end the war in Gaza and lead to a Palestinian state – coupled with an historic peace agreement with Saudi Arabia? Probably not. Netanyahu has kicked over many other similar buckets before they were filled”, opined veteran commentator, Ben Caspit, in Ma’ariv (in Hebrew).

Biden is making a huge bet. Best to wait on what Hamas and the Gaza Resistance answers to the hostage proposal. The omens, however, do not look positive for Biden —

Senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials responded yesterday to the latest proposal:

“The Paris proposal is no different from previous proposals submitted by Egypt … [The proposal] does not lead to a ceasefire. We want guarantees to end the genocidal war against our people. The resistance is not weak. No conditions will be imposed on it” (Ali Abu Shahin, member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau).

“Our position is a ceasefire, the opening of the Rafah crossing, international and Arab guarantees for the restoration of the Gaza Strip, the withdrawal of the occupation forces from Gaza, finding a housing solution for the displaced and the release of prisoners according to the principle of all for all … I am confident that we are heading for victory. The patience of the American administration is running out because Netanyahu is not bringing achievements” (Senior Hamas official, Alli Baraka).

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In a sweeping victory for family farmers and dozens of endangered plants and animals, a federal court today revoked approval of the extremely volatile, weed-killing pesticide dicamba.

The drift-prone pesticide has damaged millions of acres of crops and wild plants every year since the Environmental Protection Agency first approved it in 2017 for spraying on cotton and soybean crops genetically engineered by Monsanto (now Bayer) to survive what would otherwise be a deadly dose.

Today’s ruling by the U.S. District Court of Arizona in Tucson overturns the EPA’s 2020 reapproval of the pesticide, which included additional application restrictions that have failed to prevent the ongoing drift damage.

“This is a vital victory for farmers and the environment,” said George Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety’s legal director and counsel in the case. “Time and time again, the evidence has shown that dicamba cannot be used without causing massive and unprecedented harm to farms as well as endangering plants and pollinators. The court today resoundingly reaffirmed what we have always maintained: the EPA’s and Monsanto’s claims of dicamba’s safety were irresponsible and unlawful.”

Since dicamba was approved for “over-the-top” spraying its use has increased twentyfold. The EPA estimates 65 million acres (two-thirds of soybeans and three-fourths of cotton) are dicamba-resistant, with roughly half that acreage sprayed with dicamba, an area nearly the size of Alabama. Much of the unsprayed crops are planted “defensively” by farmers to avoid dicamba drift damage.

In today’s decision, the court canceled dicamba’s over-the-top use, holding that the EPA violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act’s public input requirement before its approval. This violation is “very serious,” according to the court, especially because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled that the EPA failed to consider serious risks of over-the-top dicamba in issuing the prior registration.

“I hope the court’s emphatic rejection of the EPA’s reckless approval of dicamba will spur the agency to finally stop ignoring the far-reaching harm caused by this dangerous pesticide,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Endangered butterflies and bee populations will keep tanking if the EPA keeps twisting itself into a pretzel to approve this product just to appease the pesticide industry.”

The court outlined the massive damage to stakeholders who were deprived of their opportunity to comment. That includes growers that do not use over-the-top dicamba and suffered significant financial losses. It also includes states that repeatedly reported landscape-level damage, but in the same 2020 decision lost the ability to impose restrictions greater than those imposed by the federal government without formal legislative or rulemaking processes. As a result, the court found “the EPA is unlikely to issue the same registrations” again after taking these stakeholders’ concerns into account.

The court also criticized the EPA’s assessment of the 2020 registrations’ widespread harms. Monsanto and the EPA claimed this over-the-top new use of dicamba would not cause harm because of new restrictions on its use. But the court found the EPA’s “circular approach to assessing risk, hinging on its high confidence that control measures will all but eliminate offsite movement, [led] to its corresponding failure to assess costs from offsite movement.” And instead, just as independent researchers had warned, the restrictions failed and dicamba continued to vaporize and drift.

“We are grateful that the court held the EPA and Monsanto accountable for the massive damage from dicamba to farmers, farmworkers and the environment, and halted its use,” said Lisa Griffith of the National Family Farm Coalition. “The pesticide system that Monsanto sells should not be sprayed as it cannot be sprayed safely.”

“Every summer since the approval of dicamba, our farm has suffered significant damage to a wide range of vegetable crops,” said Rob Faux, a farmer and communications manager at Pesticide Action Network. “Today’s decision provides much needed and overdue protection for farmers and the environment.”

Background

This is the second time a federal court has found that the EPA unlawfully approved dicamba. An earlier case resulted in an appeals court overturning the agency’s prior approval of the pesticide. The EPA reapproved the same uses of the pesticide in 2020, leading to the current lawsuit.

Today’s ruling outlaws dicamba products sprayed over emerged soybeans and cotton crops that are genetically engineered to withstand the spray. Since 2017 the pesticide has caused drift damage to millions of acres of non-genetically engineered soybeans as well as to orchards, gardens, trees and other plants on a scale unprecedented in the history of U.S. agriculture.

Dozens of imperiled species, including pollinators like monarch butterflies and rusty patched bumblebees, are also threatened by the pesticide.

The EPA admitted in a 2021 report that its application restrictions to limit dicamba’s harm had failed and the pesticide was continuing to cause massive drift damage to crops.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that up to 15 million acres of soybeans have been damaged by dicamba drift. Beekeepers in multiple states have reported sharp drops in honey production due to dicamba drift suppressing the flowering plants their bees need for sustenance.

The plaintiffs are National Family Farm Coalition, Pesticide Action Network, Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity. They are represented by legal counsel from the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity.

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US Blocks Yemen-Saudi Peace Deal

February 7th, 2024 by Dave DeCamp

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The US is purposely blocking a Yemen peace deal that was negotiated between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The US decision to re-designate the Houthis as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” will block the payment of public sector workers living in Houthi-controlled Yemen, who have gone without pay for years.

The payment of civil workers has been a key demand of the Houthis and is part of the first phase of the peace deal. The Houthis had asked for the salaries to be paid for using oil revenue that goes to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, whose leaders are mainly based in Saudi Arabia. It’s unclear if the Saudi side agreed to the Houthi demand or if they decided to pay the salaries using other means.

The first phase of the peace deal would also fully open Yemen’s airports and sea ports that have been under blockade since 2015, another aspect of the deal that will be complicated by the new US sanctions, which will go into effect later this month.

A US official told the Times that the US would only allow the payment of Yemeni civil salaries if the Houthis choose the path of “peace” and stop attacking shipping in the Red Sea. But the Houthis, who govern the most populated area of Yemen, have been clear the operations will only stop once the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza ends.

Instead of pressuring Israel to stop its onslaught, President Biden launched a new war against the Houthis, which has dramatically escalated the situation. The Houthis are now targeting American and British commercial shipping, and there’s no sign they will back down.

Since January 12, the US has launched at least 18 rounds of missile strikes on Houthi-controlled Yemen. President Biden has acknowledged the strikes are not “working” since they haven’t stopped Houthi attacks. But he vowed to continue bombing Yemen anyway.

The US supported a Saudi/UAE-led coalition in Yemen in a brutal war that killed at least 377,000 people between 2015 and 2022. More than half of those killed died of starvation and disease caused by the bombing campaign and blockade.

A truce between the Saudis and Houthis has been held since April 2022, but a formal peace deal hasn’t been signed. Despite the new US bombing campaign, the Saudis and Houthis appear determined not to restart the war. When President Biden launched his bombing campaign in Yemen, Saudi Arabia urged the US to “avoid escalation.”

This week, a Houthi official said the Yemeni group was ready to formally make peace with the Saudis. “Sanaa is prepared for peace with Riyadh despite the challenges posed by the US and its associated Yemeni groups,” said Hussein al-Ezzi, the Houthi deputy foreign minister.

Some members of the US and Saudi-backed Yemeni presidential council are calling for a ground campaign against the Houthis. But the council does not have much influence and is known in Yemen as the “government of hotels” since many of its members are in exile.

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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

Featured image is from Another Day in the Empire

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In his newly published book, Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse, Steven Starr shows that all it takes is one nuclear explosion to shut down  the United States and throw the population back into the Dark Ages. The electric power grid would be destroyed along with the communications system, the cooling systems at nuclear power plants and all electronic devices. The reason is that civilian infrastructure is not protected from Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP). The military has taken steps to shield its weapon and communication systems, but nothing has been done to protect civilian infrastructure. Bills mandating EMP protection have been defeated in Congress.  

Starr reports that only 4% of the US military budget is required to shield the power grid and civilian infrastructure. Instead, the Washington idiots waste trillions of dollars in pointless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Serbia, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and Ukraine.  

American cities would suffer no effects from blast and fire, such as would be produced by ground level detonation, but the consequences would be just as dire. Starr describes them in a summary on his website.

Effects of a Single High-altitude Nuclear Detonation Over the Eastern U.S.

“105 miles above Ohio, a single nuclear warhead explodes. Because it is far above the atmosphere, there will be no blast or fire effects felt on Earth, however, this high-altitude nuclear detonation will create a gigantic electromagnetic pulse or EMP.

“In one billionth of a second, the initial EMP E1 wave will cause massive voltages and currents to form within power lines, telecommunication lines, cables, wires, antennas, and any other electrically conductive material found beneath the nuclear detonation in a circular area covering hundreds of thousands of square miles.

“Within this region, under ideal conditions, the E1 wave will produce 2 million volts and a current of 5,000 to 10,000 amps within medium distribution power lines. Any unshielded modern electronic devices that contain solid-state circuitry, which are plugged into the grid, will be disabled, damaged, or destroyed. This includes the electronic devices required to operate all critical national infrastructure.

“Unshielded electronic devices within ground, air, and sea transportation systems, water and sanitation systems, fuel and food distribution systems, water and sanitation systems, telecommunication systems, and banking systems would all be simultaneously knocked out of service – and all these systems would be disabled until the solid-state electronics required to operate them could be repaired or replaced.

“The E1 wave will also instantly destroy millions of glass insulators found on 15 kilovolt-class electric power distribution lines. 78% of all electricity in the US is delivered to end users (residential, agricultural, commercial) through these 15 kV power lines. The loss of a single insulator on a line can knock out power distribution on the entire line.

“At the same instant, the massive voltage and current induced by the E1 wave will damage and destroy the relays, sensors, and control panels at 1783 High Voltage Substations, knocking out the entire electric power grid in the eastern half of the United States.

“One to ten seconds after the nuclear detonation, the following EMP E3 wave would induce powerful current flows in power lines including lines that are both above and below ground. E3 would damage or destroy many – if not most – of the Large Power Transformers and Extra High Voltage Circuit Breakers required for the long-distance transmission of about 90% of electrical power in the United States.

“The loss of Large Power Transformers and Extra High Voltage Circuit Breakers would mean that entire regions within the United States would be left without electric power for up to a year or longer. This is because Large Power Transformers are not stockpiled and the current wait time for their manufacture is 18 to 24 months; they must be custom designed and manufactured and about 80% are made overseas. They each weigh between 200 and 400 tons and must be shipped by sea and moving them to their final destination is quite difficult even under normal circumstances.

“Because nuclear power plants are not designed to withstand the effects of EMP, the solid-state electronics within their backup electrical and cooling systems would also be damaged and disabled. The failure of their Emergency Power Systems and active Emergency Core Cooling Systems will make it impossible to cool their reactor cores after emergency shutdown; this will quickly lead to reactor core meltdowns at dozens of nuclear power plants.

“To summarize, a single nuclear high-altitude electromagnetic pulse can instantly take out most or all of the US power grid while simultaneously destroying the solid-state electronic devices required to operate US critical national infrastructure – including the safety systems at nuclear power plants. Following a nuclear EMP, the people of the US would suddenly find themselves living in the conditions of the Middle Ages for a period possibly as long as a year – most Americans would not be able to survive such circumstances.

“For less than 4% of the US national defense budget, the US power grid and critical infrastructure can be shielded from EMP. However, the political will to implement this protection has not yet been found, so Americans remain very much at risk.”

The book is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kindle. If you read it, you will be amazed and disgusted at the negligence and stupidity of the US government.  Thanks to the fools who govern us, we have zero national security despite the massive expenditures year after year, decade after decade.

People do not realize that the convenience and entertainment provided by their cell phones comes at great cost when measured by risk.  Nothing is secure in the digital age, not your identity, your privacy, your bank account, or your independence. The expansion of the digital revolution into money will mean that you can be denied access to your money for any reason including the exercise of free speech.  All accumulated knowledge in digital form can be erased by one EMP. Try to imagine the consequences of such a loss.  These are new risks never before experienced on Earth.

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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.

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Nicaragua has warned Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada that it will take the countries to the International Court of Justice over allegations that weapons they are providing Israel are being used in a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

In a bilingual Spanish and English statement, the Nicaraguan government said that the four countries had supplied arms to Israel “to facilitate or commit violations of the Genocide Convention” in the Gaza Strip.

Nicaragua’s leftist government said it had delivered a verbal warning to them of its “decision to hold them responsible under international law”.

“Nicaragua has urged the government of the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada to immediately halt the supply of arms, ammunitions, technology and/or components to Israel as it is plausible they might have been used to facilitate or commit violations of the genocide convention,” the statement said.

The central American country was one of several along with Turkey, Jordan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Namibia to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in January.

The International Court of Justice has delivered an interim ruling calling on Israel to refrain from impeding the delivery of aid into Gaza and improve the humanitarian situation. 

It also ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide in the besieged enclave and to punish incitement to genocide.

However, it did not order Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza, one of South Africa’s key demands in the case it brought to The Hague.

In its statement, Nicaragua argued that “the risk” of a genocide occurring supported its appeal for a halt in arms shipments.

“The obligation to prevent genocide arises and begins when there is a risk of it occurring; in fact, when it is plausible that it is occurring or might occur. This plausibility is now beyond doubt and dispute.”

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, is close to US foes Russia and China. He secured a fourth term in office in 2021 after jailing his main opponents in an election the US slammed as a “pantomime” and a crackdown on street protests that saw hundreds killed.

Human Rights Watch has documented widespread cases of harassment and detention of Ortega’s political opponents, journalists, and human rights defenders.

He has most recently cracked down on the Catholic church, arresting clergy in what Human Rights Watch has said is “one of the worst human rights crises in Latin America.” 

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There is growing concern among the German leadership that NATO will not survive if Republican front-runner Donald Trump is re-elected as US president and that Russia will set its eyes closer to Berlin after Ukraine, writes The New York Times. This alarmist fake news comes as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is using “fiscal policy trickery” to ensure that his government can continue supporting Ukraine despite budgetary restrictions and the rise of the Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD).

In a speech to his supporters in Las Vegas in January, Trump said:

“We’re spending – we’re paying for NATO, and we don’t get so much out of it,” adding that “if we ever needed their help, let’s say we were attacked, I don’t believe they’d be there [to help].”

The former US leader has repeatedly accused NATO allies of failing to meet budgetary requirements and even proclaimed in 2017 that the military bloc was “obsolete.”

Trump remains in the lead for the nomination as Republican presidential candidate in the November elections, especially after several candidates dropped out of the race. The article notes that senior German officials fear there are significant doubts about whether NATO could survive a second Trump term.

“Their immediate concern is growing pessimism about the United States continuing to fund Ukraine’s struggle,” writes the NYT, referring to a months-long impasse in the US Congress over the latest $60 billion package proposed for Kiev by President Joe Biden. Republicans made the approval of more military aid to Ukraine contingent on the administration’s agreement to tighten controls at the US-Mexico border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

More alarming from the article is the fake news peddled by German officials who say that it is impossible to return to previous relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that they are afraid of the consequences of Russia’s win. Unnamed German officials stated to the newspaper that if American funding dries up and Russia prevails, its next target will be closer to Berlin, something which obviously will not occur as Moscow has repeatedly stated it has no interest in conflict with NATO.

The ruling German government has an all-time low approval rating, mostly related to economic issues, with many of these stemming from the reckless sanctions imposed on Russia. Nonetheless, Scholz said during a press conference on January 24 that he expects Kiev and Berlin to agree on security guarantees “soon.”

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, sources in Berlin said the agreement between Ukraine and Germany “should be signed on February 16 during the Munich Security Conference.”

Since the launch of the Russian military operation, Germany has supported Ukraine with weapons and equipment deliveries and is the second largest donor of military aid after the US.

Berlin has thrown away billions of euros to Ukraine, creating much outrage and why it took the German parliament until February 2 to approve this year’s ruling coalition’s budget. The approval ended a spending crisis that shook Scholz’s government after Germany’s constitutional court ensured a €60 billion hole in the country’s finances in November, forcing the ruling coalition to cut spending. This triggered infighting among the ruling Social Democrats (SPD), Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens.

Notably, though, Germany’s 2024 budget includes a fallback clause that allows a potential debt brake suspension for 2024 — should the war escalate or the US reduce their support for Ukraine, something likely if Trump is elected in November, which could prompt Germany to increase its support.

“If the situation worsens as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine, for example, because the situation on the front deteriorates or because other supporters reduce their aid to Ukraine or because the threat to Germany and Europe increases further, we will have to respond to this,” Scholz told reporters back in December.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democrats, exposed Scholz’s reasoning in parliament for suspending the debt brake over Ukraine aid as “fiscal policy trickery,” pointing out that it would allow the government to use the war to justify more spending in other areas. “The trick is obvious.”

Germany’s economy contracted in the final quarter of 2023, narrowly avoiding a recession spurred on by low global demand, high inflation, and energy costs. Yet, under these difficult economic conditions, which are hurting everyday Germans, Scholz is using “trickery” and alarmist fake news to justify his unhinged anti-Russia policies and support for Ukraine.

Scholz has sent €27.8 billion to Ukraine thus far, and all at a time when Germans are struggling, explaining why the AfD is now the most popular political party in the country. Although NATO will likely survive a Trump presidency perfectly fine, the purpose of Scholz’s fake news agenda is to create an alarm to try and justify his reckless policies. However, as the rise of the AfD attests, the Germans see his trickery.

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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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“Big Brother is Watching You.”―George Orwell, 1984

2024 is the new 1984.

Forty years past the time that George Orwell envisioned the stomping boot of Big Brother, the police state is about to pass off the baton to the surveillance state.

Fueled by a melding of government and corporate power—the rise of the security industrial complex—this watershed moment sounds a death knell for our privacy rights.

An unofficial fourth branch of government, the Surveillance State 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 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.

This is the new face of tyranny in America: all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful.

Tread cautiously.

Empowered by advances in surveillance technology and emboldened by rapidly expanding public-private partnerships between law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, and the private sector, the Surveillance State is making the fictional world of 1984, Orwell’s dystopian nightmare, our looming reality.

1984 portrays a global society of total control in which people are not allowed to have thoughts that in any way disagree with the corporate state. There is no personal freedom, and advanced technology has become the driving force behind a surveillance-driven society. Snitches and cameras are everywhere. People are subject to the Thought Police, who deal with anyone guilty of thought crimes. The government, or “Party,” is headed by Big Brother who appears on posters everywhere with the words: “Big Brother is watching you.”

Indeed, in our present age of ubiquitous surveillance, there are no private lives.

Everything is increasingly public.

What we are witnessing, in the so-called name of security and efficiency, is the creation of a new class system comprised of the watched (average Americans such as you and me) and the watchers (government bureaucrats, technicians and private corporations).

We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology, which answers not to us but to our government and corporate rulers.

This is the fact-is-stranger-than-fiction lesson that is being pounded into us on a daily basis.

In this way, 1984, which depicted the ominous rise of ubiquitous technology, fascism and totalitarianism, has become an operation manual for the omnipresent, modern-day surveillance state.

There are roughly one billion surveillance cameras worldwide and that number continues to grow, thanks to their wholehearted adoption by governments (especially law enforcement and military agencies), businesses, and individual consumers.

Surveillance cameras mounted on utility poles, traffic lights, businesses, and homes. Ring doorbells. GPS devices. Dash cameras. Drones. Store security cameras. Geofencing and geotracking. FitBits. Alexa. Internet-connected devices.

Stingray devices, facial recognition technology, body cameras, automated license plate readers, gunshot detection, predictive policing software, AI-enhanced video analytics, real-time crime centers, fusion centers: all of these technologies and surveillance programs rely on public-private partnerships that together create a sticky spiderweb from which there is no escape.

With every new surveillance device we welcome into our lives, the government gains yet another toehold into our private worlds.

As the cost of these technologies becomes more affordable for the average consumer, an effort underwritten by the tech industry and encouraged by law enforcement agencies and local governing boards, which in turn benefit from access to surveillance they don’t need to include in their budgets, big cities, small towns, urban, suburban and rural communities alike are adding themselves to the surveillance state’s interconnected grid.

What this adds up to for government agencies (that is, FBI, NSA, DHS agents, etc., as well as local police) is a surveillance map that allows them to track someone’s movements over time and space, hopscotching from doorbell camera feeds and business security cameras to public cameras on utility poles, license plate readers, traffic cameras, drones, etc.

It has all but eliminated the notion of privacy enshrined in the  Fourth Amendment and radically re-drawn the line of demarcation between our public and private selves.

The police state has become particularly adept at sidestepping the Fourth Amendment, empowered by advances in surveillance technology and emboldened by rapidly expanding public-private partnerships between law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, and the private sector.

Over the past 50-plus years, surveillance has brought about a series of revolutions in how governments govern and populations are policed to the detriment of us all. Cybersecurity expert Adam Scott Wandt has identified three such revolutions.

The first surveillance revolution came about as a result of government video cameras being installed in public areas. There were a reported 51 million surveillance cameras blanketing the United States in 2022. It’s estimated that Americans are caught on camera an average of 238 times every week (160 times per week while driving; 40 times per week at work; 24 times per week while out running errands and shopping; and 14 times per week through various other channels and activities). That doesn’t even touch on the coverage by surveillance drones, which remain a relatively covert part of police spying operations.

The second revolution occurred when law enforcement agencies started forging public-private partnerships with commercial establishments like banks and drug stores and parking lots in order to gain access to their live surveillance feeds. The use of automatic license plate readers (manufactured and distributed by the likes of Flock Safety), once deployed exclusively by police and now spreading to home owners associations and gated communities, extends the reach of the surveillance state that much further afield. It’s a win-win for police budgets and local legislatures when they can persuade businesses and residential communities to shoulder the costs of the equipment and share the footage, and they can conscript the citizenry to spy on each other through crowdsourced surveillance.

The third revolution was ushered in with the growing popularity of doorbell cameras such as Ring, Amazon’s video surveillance doorbell, and Google’s Nest Cam.

Amazon has been particularly aggressive in its pursuit of a relationship with police, enlisting them in its marketing efforts, and going so far as to hosting parties for police, providing free Ring doorbells and deep discounts, sharing “active camera” maps of Ring owners, allowing access to the Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal, which enables police to directly contact owners for access to their footage, and coaching police on how to obtain footage without a warrant.

Ring currently partners with upwards of 2,161 law enforcement agencies and 455 fire departments, and that number grows exponentially every year. As Vice reports, “Ring has also heavily pursued city discount programs and private alliances with neighborhood watch groups. When cities provide free or discounted Ring cameras, they sometimes create camera registries, and police sometimes order people to aim Ring cameras at their neighbors, or only give cameras to people surveilled by neighborhood watches.”

In November 2022, San Francisco police gained access to the live footage of privately owned internet cameras as opposed to merely being able to access recorded footage. No longer do police even have to request permission of homeowners for such access: increasingly, corporations have given police access to footage as part of their so-called criminal investigations with or without court orders.

The fourth revolutionary shift may well be the use of facial recognition software and artificial intelligence-powered programs that can track people by their biometrics, clothing, behavior and car, thereby synthesizing the many strands of surveillance video footage into one cohesive narrative, which privacy advocates refer to as 360 degree surveillance.

While the guarantee of safety afforded by these surveillance nerve centers remains dubious, at best, there is no disguising their contribution in effecting a sea change towards outright authoritarianism.

For instance, as an in-depth investigative report by the Associated Press concludes, the very same mass surveillance technologies that were supposedly so necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19 are now being used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, harass marginalized communities, and link people’s health information to other surveillance and law enforcement tools.

As the AP reports, federal officials have also been looking into how to add “‘identifiable patient data,’ such as mental health, substance use and behavioral health information from group homes, shelters, jails, detox facilities and schools,” to its surveillance toolkit.

These cameras—and the public-private eyes peering at us through them—are re-engineering a society structured around the aesthetic of fear and, in the process, empowering “people to not just watch their neighborhood, but to organize as watchers,” creating not just digital neighborhood watches but digital gated communities.

Finally, there is a repressive, suppressive effect to surveillance that not only acts as a potentially small deterrent on crime but serves to monitor and chill lawful First Amendment activity.

As Matthew Feeney warns in the New York Times, “In the past, Communists, civil rights leaders, feminists, Quakers, folk singers, war protesters and others have been on the receiving end of law enforcement surveillance. No one knows who the next target will be.

No one knows, but it’s a pretty good bet that the surveillance state will be keeping a close watch on anyone seen as a threat to the government’s chokehold on power.

After all, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the Surveillance State never sleeps.

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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.

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Very few of us saw the COVID-19 pandemic back decades. Yet the underpinnings and timeline for the pandemic response go back many years and date stamped by the 2005 PREP Act which provided immunity to “countermeasures” which we later learned included masks, lockdowns, vaccines, etc.

In the tome COVID-19 and the Global Predators, the Dr. Peter and Ginger Breggin constructed a timeline near the end of the book indicating 36 or more pandemic preparedness events including the PREP Act, 25 of which were written documents, and 6 were filmed like Johns Hopkins Event 201 in 2019 featuring many public health leaders, Senators, the Chinese CDC Director Dr. George Fu Gao, and the now US National Intelligence Director Avril Haines. These events should have been in the media and caught our attention. Honestly I missed them all!

Now with Disease X being openly planned as a next pandemic, likely emerging from a biolab where gain-of-function research is being done on organisms to make them more contagious and deadly to humans, the entire world is paying attention to a dangerous game of biological threats and counter-measures (therapeutics, vaccines) being played by high-stakes rollers within the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex. We are told Disease X is an unknown future organism, but it will have 20-times the mortality rate of SARS-CoV-2. How does Bill Gates, WHO, WEF, or anyone in the Complex know? I had a chance to sit down for this part of an interview with Dan Shumway of Kla.TV which is a global network to discuss these developments and the new calculus of public awareness developing for man-made biological threats. Shumway publishes an excellent Substack for you to check out.

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The Kiev regime never fails to remind the world that it’s a terrorist entity. We’ve all been accustomed to the mainstream propaganda machine’s attempts to either suppress information about this or outright ignore it. Killing journalists (including foreign ones) or any other prominent public figure they don’t like is completely “normal” behavior for the Neo-Nazi junta. This shouldn’t be surprising, as Zelensky’s deranged henchmen have publicly announced they’d keep doing what they call “sabotage operations” in Russia, a ridiculous euphemism for what can only be described as terrorist attacks. In the latest such case, the State Security Service of Georgia (SUS) arrested a group transporting a large cache of explosives from Ukraine to Russia. According to SUS officials, the group departed from Odessa.

There was no mention of the terrorists’ connection to the SBU, GUR or any other intelligence service, but their involvement is already implied. The SUS established that the terrorists hid the explosives in fake electric car batteries. During the search, Georgian agents discovered that the explosives, specifically C4, were disguised as batteries. According to the official statement by the SUS, given on February 5, the terrorist group was heading to Voronezh, a major city in western/southwestern Russia. The investigation led the SUS agents to the conclusion that the sender of the cache was Andrei Sharashidze, an MP (Member of Parliament) from Zelensky’s party. It’s highly unlikely that Sharashidze, a Kiev regime official of Georgian descent, tried to organize all this by himself, so SBU/GUR involvement is virtually guaranteed.

SUS officials stated that the explosive devices were transported in a minivan and arrived at the Georgian-Turkish border crossing on January 19, after going through Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. According to the Amsterdam-based Moscow Times, Georgian agents found six military-grade C4 plastic explosives weighing a total of 14 kg. The SUS claims that it deliberately replaced the explosive devices with replicas and returned them to their original location in order to locate and arrest the terrorist group. The organizers turned out to be seven Georgians, three Ukrainians and two Armenians. Sharashidze was the ringleader, while the level of involvement of others is yet to be determined, as it’s still unclear if they were knowingly involved or were simply never told what sort of cargo they were transporting.

Rather interestingly, the mainstream propaganda machine is accusing Georgia of rapprochement with Russia.

It appears that preventing terrorist attacks is now “not OK” if the target is determined by the Neo-Nazi junta. It should also be noted that the incident is very reminiscent of the terrorist attack that damaged the Crimean Bridge on October 8, 2022. At the time, the SBU sent a truck filled with explosives, while the perpetrators used virtually the same route, passing through Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and southern Russia. The Neo-Nazi junta openly bragged about the terrorist attack, with Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak saying that Crimea was “only the beginning” and that “everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled”.

The Kiev regime’s Defense Ministry and Zelensky himself also joined the chorus, praising a terrorist act that killed at least five civilians. Some European Union members, specifically Estonia, also praised the terrorists. The only difference this time is that both the political West and the Kiev regime realize just how “inconvenient” it is to brag about such acts, so they mostly keep quiet or deny their involvement when the plot is uncovered. It should also be noted that the Neo-Nazi junta is increasingly targeting Russia’s undisputed territory. Voronezh is an important industrial center, home to several state and private enterprises producing aircraft and missile components, including engines. It’s also home to JSC (joint-stock company) known as the “Concern Sozvezdie”, a major manufacturer of military equipment.

JSC “Sozvezdie” is a leading Russian developer of electronic warfare (EW), radio communications and electronic countermeasures (ECM) systems. The Russian military’s world-class EW units are a major obstacle for the Kiev regime’s unmanned warfare, severely limiting its strike capabilities. Most of its drone attacks in the Russian rear are intercepted precisely by EW units. This further implies that the goal was to weaken Moscow’s defenses in order to make unmanned strikes easier. Such attacks are part of NATO’s wider total war against Russia, primarily in order to disrupt normal economic activity in the country, as the unprecedented sanctions and what can only be described as an economic siege turned out to be an utter failure, with the Russian economy doing far better than anyone in the political West anticipated.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

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American journalist Tucker Carlson was spotted in Moscow in recent days, generating a series of controversies on social media. There are rumors that Carlson went to Russia to interview President Vladimir Putin. Although there is no confirmation yet about the case, expectations have been enough to encourage all kinds of negative reactions in the West, with public calls for Carlson to be expelled from the US for “treason”.

After leaving Fox News, Carlson launched a TV show on X (formerly Twitter) and has recently done a series of interviews with political leaders around the world, mainly presidents. Previously, he had already announced his personal interest in interviewing Putin, further stating that American authorities began spying on him and threatening him due to this intention. According to Carlson, the NSA hacked his computer and leaked his emails to the media, revealing his plan to go to Russia to interview Putin.

At first it was believed that the coercion from the American state was enough to stop Carlson’s plans, but recently the journalist finally traveled to Russia, sparking rumors about a possible interview with Putin. There is still no confirmation on the veracity of such allegations. The rumors were strengthened by images and videos circulating on social media showing what is believed to be Carlson team’s car leaving the Kremlin facilities.

However, the situation remains doubtful and unclear for now. Neither Russian authorities nor Tucker’s team confirmed or denied that an interview took place. What is known is that the journalist has actually spent a few days on Russian soil, visiting tourist attractions and having confirmedly attended a ballet performance at the Bolshoi Theatre. If there was any more important event on the journalist’s schedule, it will certainly be revealed soon.

However, it is interesting to analyze the reaction in the West to Carlson’s visit to Russia. Pro-war militants on the American political scenario are absolutely upset by this trip – and seem even angrier about the mere possibility of Tucker interviewing Putin. All sorts of hysterical reactions have arisen among American neoconservatives and liberals. Tucker has been called a “traitor” by several public figures. More than that, in a controversial statement, neoconservative writer Bill Kristol went to the extreme of calling for Tucker’s banishment from American soil, aimed at preventing him from returning to the US from Russia.

There are some special reasons for this reaction. Carlson is currently the most popular American journalist on social media. With more than 11 million followers on his X account and running a show whose audience is continually growing, Carlson represents a “threat” to Western Big Media. For example, Carlson’s recent interview with former American President Donald Trump reached an impressive 267 million views on X alone – having also been broadcast on other digital platforms. Carlson’s popularity is the reason why American elites are so afraid of him interviewing Putin.

The Russian president certainly has a lot to say to Western public. Since 2022, censorship on Russian media has prevented Western citizens from hearing the Russian side in the ongoing conflict. Putin’s words, when they reach an English-speaking audience, come in a distorted and biased way, with ordinary people in Western countries not having the opportunity to really understand Russia’s concerns and reasons.

More than that, Russian denunciations of war crimes, human rights abuses, promotion of neo-Nazism and the production of ethnic biological weapons rarely reach Western public opinion. In a direct interview with the Russian president, this scenario would completely change. This is why, even without any confirmation that the interview happened, the mere possibility of such an event is already causing panic among American warmongers.

Furthermore, even if there is no interview, the visit of a popular American journalist to Russia in current times is also important. Tucker could show his audience the reality on the ground in Russia, showing that there is no effect of the illegal sanctions imposed by the West and that the Russian people are in fact living well, contrary to the scenario of social catastrophe described by the mainstream media. Also, being an election year in Russia, Carlson’s coverage could also show that, contrary to what the big outlets say, the Russian government is actually popular, being supported by the majority of the people – with Putin not being elected in “fraudulent elections“, as said in the West, but in real democratic procedures.

In practice, Tucker has a lot to say to his millions of followers about Russia. Whether or not there is an interview with Putin, it is certain that Carlson’s trip will have a strong impact on Western journalism. The case is serving to unmask the real nature of “American democracy”. More than ever, it seems clear that concepts such as freedom of speech and media no longer mean anything to the decadent political structure of the contemporary US.

*

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Lucas Leiroz is a journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on X (former Twitter) and Telegram. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

***

The conflict between the Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Zaluzhny and President Zelensky is coming to a head with the latter showing extreme weakness after weeks of claims that Zaluzhny had been sacked but with Zaluzhny still in place. Zaluzhny has the support of political figures like the former president Poroshenko and the Kiev mayor Klitschko, the army itself and in particular Zelensky’s potentially most dangerous enemies, the openly Nazi militants like Azov, Right Sector, AIDAR etc. Zaluzhny’s Nazi sympathies are displayed here.

With losses of between 20,000 and 30,000 per month killed and wounded the Ukrainian front line is critically short of troops but the hot potato of recruiting 500,000 troops is being passed rapidly from Zaluzhny to Zelensky to parliament – and nothing happens. It would of course be the final straw for Zelensky’s many enemies in Ukraine. 

As background to Kiev’s press ganged troops, massive losses and expanding graveyards across the country Zelensky’s own successful efforts to avoid military service are instructive! The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has issued the following document from its archives:

The translation:

In connection with jourrnalists‘ many requests to provide an answer to an official inquiry about President Zelensky’s army record, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reports about a research of the archives, conducted by the country’s General Staff, revealed the following about the army record of the citizen Zelensky V.A. (Vladimir Alexandrovich)

As a citizen of Ukraine, Zelensky was included in the registrar of the servicemen of the Security Service of Ukraine and a special note was left on 22.12.2008 in the center for army registration and social support in Dovgintsevsky local office of Territorial Recruitment Service, the city of Krivoy Rog. This is the only army record where Zelensky stays registered. Zelensky never served in the army.

Vladimit Zelensky did not undergo his military service, his rank is that of a private, no special skills. Zelensky is fit for military service. Requests to show up at the territorial centre and visits were made on 15.04.2014, 23.06.2014, 15.08.2014 and 10.05.2015. 

During all of these visits Mr. Zelensky was absent from home.

Draft Avoidance by “Internal Exile”

The head of Ukraine’s Committee for Economic Development Dmitry Natalukha admits that at least 3.4 million men have been “lost”:

“They are not abroad, not in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, not disabled, not studying and not employed. We don’t know where all these people of military age are.”

Because both at home and as refugees abroad Ukrainians are being identified through their bank transactions, employment and medical records and any form of communication system Natalukha recognises that:

“In order to avoid being targeted by the TCC, (mobilisation offices) people will stop using state banks, withdrawing cash, using credit cards, and traveling between cities,” he added.

We know that even external exile – as refugees – is unlikely to save them from conscription and being hurled into the murderous conditions of the front lines.

While Germany and other countries have said they will not extradite Ukrainian refugees to be conscripted into the army the British government has not said that.

*

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This article was originally published on Freenations.

Rodney Atkinson is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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First published on November 22, 2023

***

The Dignity of Human Beings and Their Personality:

Neurotechnology and The Manipulation of The Human Nervous System.

“Saving Freedom and Democracy”

Open Letter to the European Union and Governments around the World

 by Mojmir Babacek

 

Due to advances in physical science and neurotechnology, it is crucial to introduce in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union the following amendments, which should then be reflected in the legislations of the member states of the European Union.

It is unacceptable that any human being in the European Union could be deprived of his or her dignity by manipulation of his or her nervous system and personality by dual use neurotechnologies.

Nobody will be deprived of his or her right to life by the use of weapons based on the effects of physical fields on the human body or nervous system to cause the death of a person by remotely-produced heart attack  (see this, pg. 250); suffocation (pg. 254); any form of cancer; diabetes; myocardial infarction; haemorrhage in the brain; thrombosis in the lungs, formation of blood clots (pg. 485) or any other deadly disease or malfunction of organs produced at a distance by electromagnetic or any other physical fields. Use of such fields to kill people will be considered, murder.

It is prohibited, under harsh sentences, to remotely access human brains with the use of technical means to decipher its activity and to control it for other than medical purposes (pg. 250, 251, 256).

Depriving a person of his or her free will with the use of dual use neurotechnologies imposing on him or her thoughts, emotions (pg. 250), hallucinations etc. or manipulating his or her subconscious and turning him or her, in this way, into a toy in the hands of manipulators (pg. 321, J.F. Schapitz) will be considered to be a torture, as well as imposing on him or her, in this way, sicknesses, illnesses, malfunction of organs or pain, control of limbs or producing pains or burns inside, or on, his or her body, by means of electromagnetic waves, directed energy weapons or other, as yet unpublished, physical means discovered by quantum physics research (for example non-local electron and photon connection (see this) or potential fields (see this and this).

Everyone has the right to liberty and security, including the protection of his or her body by the law from abuse of this right by electromagnetic waves, directed energy or other physical fields or methods discovered by quantum physics.

Everyone has the right to the protection of his or her own personal data, including the data contained in his or her brain. This data must not be collected from anyone for other than medical purposes and even for those purposes it must not be done without the informed consent of the person (see this).

Imposing remotely thoughts to human beings by means of dual-use neurotechnologies is strictly prohibited under harsh sentences (see this). 

To make sure that the democracy in the European Union will be preserved for future decades, the use of neurotechnologies enabling remote control of the activity of human nervous systems, thoughts, emotions etc, by means of pulsing of the transmissions of mobile phone systems in brain frequencies (see this), or manipulating the ionosphere to produce extra-long electromagnetic waves in brain frequencies (see this, this and this), or producing such electromagnetic waves in the electric grids or any other systems for the purpose of transmitting energy into human brains and interfering with their activities  will be prohibited to  the government officials of the European Union Member states or any other governments agencies, corporations or organizations, on, or above, the territory of the European Union, under heavy penalties.  

To make sure that this prohibition is observed as well as the prohibition to access brain data of individual brains, the governments of the Member states will establish teams, which will be equipped by the means that will enable them to detect radiations and other technical inventions, capable of controlling the human brains activities.

Scientists, with the expertise in those fields, will be obliged by the law to advise those teams, whenever they ask for it.

The teams must be trained to use this equipment and among their members should be representatives of at least two renowned human rights organizations, who will be paid by those organizations. They will be obliged by the law not to disclose the technologies, enabling remote access, to the activity of the human brains, but as well they will be obliged to publish the prohibited use of those technologies and identities of the abusers, including governments and their officials.

The trespassers will be punished by long sentences in prison. By the same, sentences will be punished anyone, including government officials or government agencies officials, who will authorise insertions or  insert in the brains or other parts of the bodies of human beings, chips, graphene antennas (see this), or any other nanoparticles or viruses (see this) facilitating the control of the activity of the human nervous system for other than medical purposes. Even for medical purposes, it can be done only with the informed consent of the person. Inserting those materials into food, water, inoculation or aerosols or authorisation of those insertions by government officials will be punished by life in prison. Scientists, who will be  aware of such actions, will be obliged, by law, under harsh penalties, to inform media of such actions and media will be obliged, by law, to publish such incriminating information.

Production, use or trade with all types of pulse generators pulsing electromagnetic or other energy from 0 Hz to 100 Hz will be prohibited by law under the penalty of a minimum of 15 years in prison with the exception of pulse generators produced and used for medical purposes. Those pulse generators will be registered at the production site and their presence in the medical establishments will be under permanent protection and control.

Transmissions of any type of energy in the frequencies from 0 to 100 Herz are prohibited by law under penalty of a minimum of 15 years in prison.

In order to fully meet the objective, to secure the freedom of thought of their citizens, the Member states of the European Union will publish the existence of technologies of remote control of the activity of the human nervous system, disclosing what kinds of radiation, or brain to brain connection, can be used for remote control of the activity of the human nervous system, without disclosing the actual procedures which are used to achieve such control. The scientists will be obliged, by law, under harsh penalties, to disclose the existence of such technologies to the general public in case governments, or other entities, try to hide them. The government officials, who will try to hide them, will be punished by a minimum of 15 years in prison. 

To ensure the implementation of this strategy, to preserve human rights in the coming years and decades, the European Union will, in addition to the publication of the existence of those technologies, actively work for international treaties, banning the use of those technologies, by every state and country, on the planet. The control of the observation of this ban will be conferred by the United Nations Organization. As a part of this process the European Union will renounce its participation in the NATO program of non-lethal weapons, using “Directed Energy Weapons that can allegedly manipulate human behaviour in a variety of unusual ways… with systems which can directly interact with the human nervous systems” (quoted from the European Parliament document on Crowd Control Technologies” from the year 2000, (pg. 25 and 69).

All those actions are absolutely necessary to ensure that any person in the European Union Member States will be able to enjoy its freedom of thought when deciding for whom it will cast its vote in the election or what is his or her political opinion as well as what are his or her life options.

Your respectfully, 

Mojimir Babacek

November 14, 2023

*

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Mojmir Babacek was born in 1947 in Prague, Czech Republic. Graduated in 1972 at Charles University in Prague in philosophy and political economy. In 1978 signed the document defending human rights in  communist Czechoslovakia „Charter 77“. Since 1981 until 1988 lived in emigration in the USA. Since 1996 he has published articles on different subjects mostly in the Czech and international alternative media.

In 2010, he published a book on the 9/11 attacks in the Czech language. Since the 1990s he has been striving to help to achieve the international ban of remote control of the activity of the human nervous system and human minds with the use of neurotechnology.

Featured image is from the US Army

 

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John Pilger passed away on December 30, 2023. His Legacy will Live.

This article was first published by Global Research almost 14 years ago.

With foresight John Pilger focusses on the Globalization of War.  

***

Here is news of the Third World War.

The United States has invaded Africa. US troops have entered Somalia, extending their war front from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen and now the Horn of Africa.

In preparation for an attack on Iran, American missiles have been placed in four Persian Gulf states, and “bunker-buster” bombs are said to be arriving at the US base on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

In Gaza, the sick and abandoned population, mostly children, is being entombed behind underground American-supplied walls in order to reinforce a criminal siege.

In Latin America, the Obama administration has secured seven bases in Colombia, from which to wage a war of attrition against the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

Meanwhile, the secretary of “defence” Robert Gates complains that “the general [European] public and the political class” are so opposed to war  they are an “impediment” to peace.  Remember this is the month of the March Hare.

According to an American general, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan is not so much a real war as a “war of perception”.

Thus, the recent “liberation of the city of Marja” from the Taliban’s “command and control structure” was pure Hollywood. Marja is not a city; there was no Taliban command and control. The heroic liberators killed the usual civilians, poorest of the poor. Otherwise, it was fake. A war of perception is meant to provide fake news for the folks back home, to make a failed colonial adventure seem worthwhile and patriotic, as if The Hurt Locker were real and parades of flag-wrapped coffins through the Wiltshire town of Wooten Basset were not a cynical propaganda exercise.

“War is fun”, the helmets in Vietnam used to say with bleakest irony, meaning that if a war is revealed as having no purpose other than to justify voracious power in the cause of lucrative fanaticisms such as the weapons industry, the danger of truth beckons. This danger can be illustrated by the liberal perception of Tony Blair in 1997 as one “who wants to create a world [where] ideology has surrendered entirely to values” (Hugo Young, the Guardian) compared with today’s public reckoning of a liar and war criminal.

Western war-states such as the US and Britain are not threatened by the Taliban or any other introverted tribesmen in faraway places, but by the antiwar instincts of their own citizens. Consider the draconian sentences handed down in London to scores of young people who protested Israel’s assault on Gaza in January last year. Following demonstrations in which paramilitary police “kettled” (corralled) thousands, first-offenders have received two and a half years in prison for minor offences that would not normally carry custodial sentences. On both sides of the Atlantic, serious dissent exposing illegal war has become a serious crime.

Silence in other high places allows this moral travesty. Across the arts, literature, journalism and the law, liberal elites, having hurried away from the debris of Blair and now Obama, continue to fudge their indifference to the barbarism and aims of western state crimes by promoting retrospectively the evils of their convenient demons, like Saddam Hussein. With Harold Pinter gone, try compiling a list of famous writers, artists and advocates whose principles are not consumed by the “market” or neutered by their celebrity. Who among them have spoken out about the holocaust in Iraq during almost 20 years of lethal blockade and assault?  And all of it has been deliberate. On 22 January 1991, the US Defence Intelligence Agency predicted in impressive detail how a blockade would systematically destroy Iraq’s clean water system and lead to “increased incidences, if not epidemics of disease”. So the US set about eliminating clean water for the Iraqi population: one of the causes, noted Unicef, of the deaths of half a million Iraqi infants under the age of five.  But this extremism apparently has no name.

Norman Mailer once said he believed the United States, in its endless pursuit of war and domination, had entered a “pre-fascist era”.  Mailer seemed tentative, as if trying to warn about something even he could not quite define. “Fascism” is not right, for it invokes lazy historical precedents, conjuring yet again the iconography of German and Italian repression. On the other hand, American authoritarianism, as the cultural critic Henry Giroux pointed out recently, is “more nuance, less theatrical, more cunning, less concerned with repressive modes of control than with manipulative modes of consent.”

This is Americanism, the only predatory ideology to deny that it is an ideology. The rise of tentacular corporations that are dictatorships in their own right and of a military that is now a state with the state, set behind the façade of the best democracy 35,000 Washington lobbyists can buy, and a popular culture programmed to divert and stultify, is without precedent. More nuanced perhaps, but the results are both unambiguous and familiar. Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, the senior United Nations officials in Iraq during the American and British-led blockade, are in no doubt they witnessed genocide. They saw no gas chambers. Insidious, undeclared, even presented wittily as enlightenment on the march, the Third World War and its genocide proceeded, human being by human being.

In the coming election campaign in Britain, the candidates will refer to this war only to laud “our boys”.  The candidates are almost identical political mummies shrouded in the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes. As Blair demonstrated a mite too eagerly, the British elite loves America because America allows it to barrack and bomb the natives and call itself a “partner”.  We should interrupt their fun.

Click here to Consult the Archive of John Pilger articles

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The Dangers of Complicity: The US Courts, Gaza and Genocide

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, February 06, 2024

Holding the foreign policy of a country accountable in court, notably when it comes to matters criminal, can be insuperably challenging. Judges traditionally shun making decisions on policy, even though they unofficially do so all the time. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based civil liberties group, was not to be discouraged, most notably regarding the Biden administration’s unflagging support for Israel and its war in Gaza.

Video: “Justified Vengeance” and the History of Israeli “False Flags” (2001-2024): Palestine Portrayed as “The Aggressor”

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, February 07, 2024

The “Justified Vengeance” doctrine propounds in no uncertain terms that (despite its limited military capabilities) Palestine rather than Israel is “the Aggressor” and that Israel has the right to defend itself.

Shocking Spike in Use of Unlawful Lethal Force by Israeli Forces Against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank

By Amnesty International, February 06, 2024

With the world’s eyes fixed on Gaza, Israeli forces have over the past four months unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings, including by using lethal force without necessity or disproportionately during protests and arrest raids, and denying medical assistance to those injured, said Amnesty International.

Following ICJ Ruling, Japan’s Itochu to Sever Ties with Israel’s Elbit

By Palestine Chronicle, February 06, 2024

Itochu Corporation’s aviation unit will end its cooperation with Israeli defense contractor company Elbit Systems Ltd by the end of February following the ICJ ruling, the company announced on Monday.

UK Judge Rules in Favour of University Professor David Miller Sacked for Anti-Zionist Views

By Middle East Eye, February 06, 2024

A UK judge on Monday ruled in a landmark decision that David Miller, a professor of political sociology, who was fired from the University of Bristol in 2021 for anti-Zionist views, was unfairly dismissed and subjected to discrimination. 

“Gazacaust”: Placing the Blame Where It Belongs. Mike Whitney Interview with Ron Unz

By Ron Unz and Mike Whitney, February 06, 2024

From the beginning I’ve been extremely reluctant to characterize the Israeli attack on Gaza as being a “genocide” because use of that term has become so wildly inflated and distorted in recent years, converted by dishonest Western governments and their mainstream media lackeys into a propaganda-weapon used to vilify countries whose governments they seek to undermine.

History: Emancipation, the Nadir and Pan-African Awakenings

By Abayomi Azikiwe, February 06, 2024

Chicago was the scene for the 1893 Columbian Exposition (World Fair) where people from throughout the globe would visit the city to “celebrate” the 400th anniversary of the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus. The entire framework of the gathering was of course flawed since there were already peoples and nations in existence in the western hemisphere centuries prior to the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean.

Buried Under the Genocide Debate: Desecrated Graves

By Barbara Nimri Aziz, February 06, 2024

It’s hard to imagine this happening in modern times. Even an assault on a single grave is a criminal act in a civilized (sic) country. The very idea is reviled everywhere. So what about Israel’s ongoing assaults on Palestinian cemeteries across Gaza?

250 U.S. Cargo Planes and at Least 20 Ships Have Delivered More Than 10,000 Tons of Armaments and Military Equipment to Israel Since War on Gaza Started

By Jeremy Kuzmarov, February 06, 2024

Times of Israel report on January 25 noted that more than 250 U.S. cargo planes and 20 ships have delivered more than 10,000 tons of munitions and military equipment to Israel since its onslaught on Gaza began in October.

Pathologist Arne Burkhardt Revealing the Grave Dangers of MRNA Vaccines

By Dr. Arne Burkhardt and Taylor Hudak, February 06, 2024

Many cases of sudden death and severe disease are being reported since the rollout of the COVID-19 gene-based vaccines. Early on, several doctors and scientists warned that the COVID vaccines would lead to several complications including autoimmune disease, blood clots, strokes, and more.

Author’s Introduction

There is a complex history behind Israel’s October 2023  Plan to “Wipe Gaza off the Map”.

It’s Genocide, An Absolute Slaughter:

 “We are going to attack Gaza City very broadly soon,” Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said in a nationally broadcast address, without giving a timetable for the attack.”

It’s a criminal undertaking based on Israel’s doctrine of “Justified Vengeance” which was first formulated in 2001.

(See below: my January 2009 article published at the very outset of Israel’s 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza under “Operation Cast Led”)  

The “Justified Vengeance” doctrine propounds in no uncertain terms that (despite its limited military capabilities) Palestine rather than Israel is “the Aggressor” and that Israel has the right to defend itself.

It is now established that the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack was a False Flag operation carried out by a “faction” within Hamas, in liaison with Mossad and U.S. intelligence:

“U.S. intelligence say they weren’t aware of an impending Hamas attack. 

Did Netanyahu and his vast military and intelligence apparatus (Mossad et al) have foreknowledge of the Hamas attack which has resulted in countless deaths of Israelis and Palestinians.

Was a carefully formulated Israeli plan to wage an all out war against Palestinians envisaged prior to the launching by Hamas of  “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm”?

This was not a failure of Israeli Intelligence, as conveyed by the media. Quite the opposite”

Video. Justified Vengeance and False Flags. Michel Chossudovsky

Lux Media Video recorded on October 16, 2023

Below: detailed analysis and history of Israeli False Flag Operations against the People of Palestine

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Click here or lower right corner of screen to comment or access Rumble 

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The History of False Flags: “The Green Light to Terror” (1997), The “Bloodshed as a Justification” to Wage War

The late  Prof Tanya Reinhart confirms the formulation in 1997 of a False Flag Agenda entitled “The Green Light to Terror” which consisted in promoting (engineering) suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, citing “the Bloodshed as a Justification” to wage war on Palestine: 

“…This is the “green light to terror” theme which the Military Intelligence (Ama”n) has been promoting since 1997, when its anti-Oslo line was consolidated. This theme was since repeated again and again by military circles, and eventually became the mantra of Israeli propaganda… 

The ‘Foreign Report’ (Jane’s information) of July 12, 2001 disclosed that the Israeli army (under Sharon’s government) has updated its plans for an “all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority” 

The blueprint, titled “The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces”, was presented to the Israeli government by chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, on July 8 [2001].

The assault would be launched, at the government’s discretion, after a big suicide bomb attack in Israel, causing widespread deaths and injuries, citing the bloodshed as justification.” (Tanya Reinhart, December 22, 2001)

Ariel  Sharon: “A 1948 Style Solution”

According to the Prof. Tanya Reinhart; “Mass expulsion could occur at some later stage  of the ground invasion [2002- ], were the Israelis to open up Gaza’s borders to allow for an exodus of population … Expulsion was referred to by Ariel Sharon as the “a 1948 style solution”. For Sharon “it is only necessary to find another state for the Palestinians”. -‘Jordan is Palestine’ – was the phrase that Sharon coined.” (Tanya Reinhart, op cit)

The “Hamas-Mossad Partnership”

What is now unfolding in Gaza is part of a longstanding intelligence agenda, which has been on the drawing-board of successive  Israeli governments for more than twenty years. Founded in 1987 with the support of Israel, “The Hamas-Mossad partnership” is confirmed by Netanyahu: 

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. … This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (March 2019 Statement quoted by Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)

“Support” and “Money” for Hamas

“Transferring Money to Hamas” on behalf of Netanyahu is confirmed by a Times of Israel October 8, 2023 Report: 

“Hamas was treated as a partner to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Abbas from moving towards creating a Palestinian State. Hamas was promoted from a terrorist group to an organization with which Israel conducted negotiations through Egypt, and which was allowed to receive suitcases containing millions of dollars from Qatar through the Gaza crossings.” (emphasis added)

Benjamin Netanyahu’s position defined several years prior to the October 7, 2023 “State of Readiness For War” consists in the total appropriation of Palestine  Lands as well as the outright exclusion of the Palestinian people from their homeland:

“These are the basic lines of the national government headed by me: The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel — in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea and Samaria.” (January 2023)

The Role of Mossad

The doctrine of “Justified Vengeance” initiated in 2001, is the cornerstone of Israel’s intelligence narrative. It provides a justification to carry out acts of genocide, with the support of the International community, first in Gaza, then in the West Bank. 

 “With an annual budget of about $3billion and 7,000 staff, Mossad is the second-largest espionage agency in the Western world after the CIA.”

These official figures are meaningless, intelligence agencies do not reveal the sources of their funding or the size of their staff (which are in excess of the figures quoted above).

Mossad (Foreign Intelligence) together with Shin Bet (Domestic National Security) and Aman (Military Intelligence) is the main actor in the conduct of  “false flag operations”. It’s covert capabilities are extensive. It has over the years infiltrated both  Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority, It also exerts –in liaison with US intelligence– control over Al Qaeda operatives, ISIS and Daesh throughout the Middle East.

Mossad’s mandate is to create “divisions” within the Palestinian Resistance Movement, while sustaining fear and routine terrorist false flag events against innocent Israeli civilians, which sustains the legitimacy of the “Justified Vengeance” narrative. 

Chronology

Let us briefly review the history, the various stages following the:

Failure of Oslo I and II (1993-95) and The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (1995) 

2001. “Operation Justified Vengeance”

Presented in July 2001 to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon by IDF chief of staff  Shaul Mofaz, under the title:

“The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces”.

See the Analysis of  Tanya Reinhart and the Jane Report quoted above and in the article below).

“Operation Justified Vengeance” was also referred to as the “Dagan Plan”, named after the late General Meir Dagan, who headed Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency from 2002-2011. 

The longer term objective of  “Operation Justified Vengeance” (2001) was and remains the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. 

2002. Decision to Build the Infamous Apartheid Wall by Sharon government

2004. The Assassination of Yasser Arafat

It was ordered by the Israeli Cabinet in 2003. It was approved by the US which vetoed a United Nations Security Resolution condemning the 2003 Israeli Cabinet decision. It was undertaken by Mossad. (See details in article below).

2005. The Removal, under Orders of PM Ariel Sharon of all Jewish Settlements in Gaza.

Proposed in 2003 by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, implemented in August 2005 and completed in September 2005. 

A Jewish population of over 7,000 was relocated. This relocation was required to transform the Gaza Strip into “An Open Air Prison”

2006. The Hamas election victory in January 2006.

Without Arafat, the Israeli military-intelligence architects knew that Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would loose the elections.

2008-2009. “Operation Cast Lead”

In 2008 the “Bloodshed Justification” was an essential component of the military-intelligence agenda, which was first formulated in the 2001 “Operation Justified Vengeance”: 

“The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces”

The killing of Palestinian civilians was justified on “humanitarian grounds.”  as formulated in the “Operation Justified Vengeance Report”. 

***

Michel Chossudovsky, May 15,  2021, October 23, 2023, November 8, 2023,

Below is my article published in early January 2009, at the height of  the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead 

 

The Invasion of Gaza:

Part of a Broader Israeli Military-Intelligence Agenda

by Michel Chossudovsky 

January 2009

 

***

“Operation Cast Lead”

The aerial bombings and the ongoing ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli ground forces must be analysed in a historical context. Operation “Cast Lead” [2008] is a carefully planned undertaking, which is part of a broader military-intelligence agenda first formulated by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001:

“Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”(Barak Ravid, Operation “Cast Lead”: Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

It was Israel which broke the truce on the day of the US presidential elections, November 4:

“Israel used this distraction to break the ceasefire between itself and Hamas by bombing the Gaza strip.  Israel claimed this violation of the ceasefire was to prevent Hamas from digging tunnels into Israeli territory.

The very next day, Israel launched a terrorizing siege of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities in an attempt to “subdue” the Palestinians while at the same time engaging in armed incursions.

In response, Hamas and others in Gaza again resorted to firing crude, homemade, and mainly inaccurate rockets into Israel.  During the past seven years, these rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis.  Over the same time span, Israeli Blitzkrieg assaults have killed thousands of Palestinians, drawing worldwide protest but falling on deaf ears at the UN.” (Shamus Cooke, The Massacre in Palestine and the Threat of a Wider War, Global Research, December 2008)

Planned Humanitarian Disaster

On December 8, [2008] US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was in Tel Aviv for discussions with his Israeli counterparts including the director of Mossad, Meir Dagan.

“Operation Cast Lead” was initiated two days day after Christmas. It was coupled with a carefully designed international Public Relations campaign under the auspices of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

Hamas’ military targets are not the main objective. Operation “Cast Lead” is intended, quite deliberately, to trigger civilian casualities.

What we are dealing with is a “planned humanitarian disaster” in Gaza in a densly populated urban area. (See map below)

The longer term objective of this plan, as formulated by Israeli policy makers, is the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestinian lands:

“Terrorize the civilian population, assuring maximal destruction of property and cultural resources… The daily life of the Palestinians must be rendered unbearable: They should be locked up in cities and towns, prevented from exercising normal economic life, cut off from workplaces, schools and hospitals, This will encourage emigration and weaken the resistance to future expulsions” Ur Shlonsky, quoted by Ghali Hassan, Gaza: The World’s Largest Prison, Global Research, 2005)

“Operation Justified Vengeance”

A turning point has been reached. Operation “Cast Lead” is part of the broader military-intelligence operation initiated at the outset of the Ariel Sharon government in 2001. It was under Sharon’s “Operation Justified Vengeance” that  F-16 fighter planes were initially used to bomb Palestinian cities.

“Operation Justified Vengeance” was presented in July 2001 to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon by IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, under the title “The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces”.

“A contingency plan, codenamed Operation Justified Vengeance, was drawn up last June [2001] to reoccupy all of the West Bank and possibly the Gaza Strip at a likely cost of “hundreds” of Israeli casualties.” (Washington Times, 19 March 2002).

According to Jane’s ‘Foreign Report’ (July 12, 2001) the Israeli army under Sharon had updated its plans for an “all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority, force out leader Yasser Arafat and kill or detain its army”.

“Bloodshed Justification”

The “Bloodshed Justification” was an essential component of the military-intelligence agenda. The killing of Palestinian civilians was justified on “humanitarian grounds.” Israeli military operations were carefully timed to coincide with the suicide attacks:

The assault would be launched, at the government’s discretion, after a big suicide bomb attack in Israel, causing widespread deaths and injuries, citing the bloodshed as justification. (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel’s move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001, emphasis added)

The Dagan Plan 

“Operation Justified Vengeance” was also referred to as the “Dagan Plan”, named after General (ret.) Meir Dagan, who currently heads Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.

Reserve General Meir Dagan was Sharon’s national security adviser during the 2000 election campaign. The plan was apparently drawn up prior to Sharon’s election as Prime Minister in February 2001. “According to Alex Fishman writing in Yediot Aharonot, the Dagan Plan consisted in destroying the Palestinian authority and putting Yasser Arafat ‘out of the game’.” (Ellis Shulman, “Operation Justified Vengeance”: a Secret Plan to Destroy the Palestinian Authority, March 2001):

“As reported in the Foreign Report [Jane] and disclosed locally by Maariv, Israel’s invasion plan — reportedly dubbed Justified Vengeance — would be launched immediately following the next high-casualty suicide bombing, would last about a month and is expected to result in the death of hundreds of Israelis and thousands of Palestinians. (Ibid, emphasis added)

The “Dagan Plan” envisaged the so-called “cantonization” of Palestinian territories whereby the West Bank and Gaza would be totally cut off from one other, with separate “governments” in each of the territories. Under this scenario, already envisaged in 2001, Israel would:

 “negotiate separately with Palestinian forces that are dominant in each territory-Palestinian forces responsible for security, intelligence, and even for the Tanzim (Fatah).” The plan thus closely resembles the idea of “cantonization” of Palestinian territories, put forth by a number of ministers.” Sylvain Cypel, The infamous ‘Dagan Plan’ Sharon’s plan for getting rid of Arafat, Le Monde, December 17, 2001)

From Left to Right: Dagan, Sharon, Halevy

The Dagan Plan has established continuity in the military-intelligence agenda. In the wake of the 2000 elections, Meir Dagan was assigned a key role. “He became Sharon’s “go-between” in security issues with President’s Bush’s special envoys Zinni and Mitchell.”  He was subsequently appointed Director of the Mossad by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2002. In the post-Sharon period, he remained head of Mossad. He was reconfirmed in his position as Director of Israeli Intelligence by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June 2008.

Meir Dagan, in coordination with his US counterparts, has been in charge of various military-intelligence operations. It is worth noting that Meir Dagan as a young Colonel had worked closely with defense minister Ariel Sharon in the raids on Palestinian settlements in Beirut in 1982. The 2009 ground invasion of Gaza, in many regards, bear a canny resemblance to the 1982 military operation led by Sharon and Dagan.

Continuity: From Sharon  to Olmert 

It is important to focus on a number of key events which have led up to the killings in Gaza under “Operation Cast Lead”:

1. The assassination in November 2004 of Yasser Arafat.

Olmert and Sharon

This assassination had been on the drawing board since 1996 under “Operation Fields of Thorns”.

According to an October 2000 document

“prepared by the security services, at the request of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, stated that ‘Arafat, the person, is a severe threat to the security of the state [of Israel] and the damage which will result from his disappearance is less than the damage caused by his existence'”. (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel’s move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001. Details of the document were published in Ma’ariv, July 6, 2001.).

Arafat’s assassination was ordered in 2003 by the Israeli cabinet. It was approved by the US which vetoed a United Nations Security Resolution condemning the 2003 Israeli Cabinet decision. Reacting to increased Palestinian attacks, in August 2003, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared “all out war” on the militants whom he vowed “marked for death.”

“In mid September, Israel’s government passed a law to get rid of Arafat. Israel’s cabinet for political security affairs declared it “a decision to remove Arafat as an obstacle to peace.” Mofaz threatened; “we will choose the right way and the right time to kill Arafat.” Palestinian Minister Saeb Erekat told CNN he thought Arafat was the next target. CNN asked Sharon spokesman Ra’anan Gissan if the vote meant expulsion of Arafat. Gissan clarified; “It doesn’t mean that. The Cabinet has today resolved to remove this obstacle. The time, the method, the ways by which this will take place will be decided separately, and the security services will monitor the situation and make the recommendation about proper action.” (See Trish Shuh, Road Map for a Decease Plan,  www.mehrnews.com November 9 2005

The assassination of Arafat was part of the 2001 Dagan Plan.

In all likelihood, it was carried out by Israeli Intelligence. It was intended to destroy the Palestinian Authority, foment divisions within Fatah as well as between Fatah and Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas is a Palestinian quisling.

He was installed as leader of Fatah, with the approval of Israel and the US, which finance the Palestinian Authority’s paramilitary and security forces.

2. The removal, under the orders of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005, of all Jewish settlements in Gaza.

A Jewish population of over 7,000 was relocated.

“It is my intention [Sharon] to carry out an evacuation – sorry, a relocation – of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements…. I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza,” Sharon said.” (CBC, March 2004)

The issue of the settlements in Gaza was presented as part of Washington’s “road map to peace”.

Celebrated by the Palestinians as a “victory”, this measure was not directed against the Jewish settlers. Quite the opposite: It was part of  the overall covert operation, which consisted  in transforming Gaza into a concentration camp. As long as Jewish settlers were living inside Gaza, the objective of sustaining a large barricaded prison territory could not be achieved. The Implementation of “Operation Cast Lead” required “no Jews in Gaza”.

3. The Building of the Infamous Apartheid Wall

This was decided upon at the beginning of the Sharon government in 2002. (See Map below).

 

4.  The Hamas Election Victory in January 2006.

Without Arafat, the Israeli military-intelligence architects knew that Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would loose the elections. This was part of the scenario, which had been envisaged and analyzed well in advance.

With Hamas in charge in Gaza, using the pretext that Hamas is a terrorist organization, Israel would carry out the process of “cantonization” as formulated under the Dagan plan. Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would remain formally in charge of the West Bank. The duly elected Hamas government would be confined to the Gaza strip.

Ground Attack, 2008-2009

On January 3, [2009] Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza in an all out ground offensive:

“The ground operation was preceded by several hours of heavy artillery fire after dark, igniting targets in flames that burst into the night sky. Machine gun fire rattled as bright tracer rounds flashed through the darkness and the crash of hundreds of shells sent up streaks of fire. (AP, January 3, 2009)

Israeli sources have pointed to a lengthy drawn out military operation. It “won’t be easy and it won’t be short,” said Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a TV address.

Israel is not seeking to oblige Hamas “to cooperate”. What we are dealing with is the implementation of the “Dagan Plan” as initially formulated in 2001, which called for:

“an invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory by some 30,000 Israeli soldiers, with the clearly defined mission of destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian leadership and collecting weaponry currently possessed by the various Palestinian forces, and expelling or killing its military leadership. (Ellis Shulman, op cit, emphasis added)

Nakba 2.0: Mass Expulsion and a Ground Invasion Contemplated

The broader question is whether Israel in consultation with Washington is intent upon triggering a wider war.

Mass expulsion could occur at some later stage of the ground invasion, were the Israelis to open up Gaza’s borders to allow for an exodus of population.

Expulsion was referred to by Ariel Sharon as the “a 1948 style solution”. For Sharon

“it is only necessary to find another state for the Palestinians. -‘Jordan is Palestine’ – was the phrase that Sharon coined.” (Tanya Reinhart, op cit)

 

Os agricultores europeus estão a sair às ruas em vários países para protestar por melhores condições de vida e de trabalho. França, Alemanha e Países Baixos estão entre os estados mais afetados pela crise, mas há manifestações em muitos outros países. Os agricultores protestam pelo fim da política de importação de cereais ucranianos e contra as novas normas ambientais que restringem a produção agrícola europeia.

Historicamente, o agronegócio europeu é uma atividade econômica com relações profundas com os governos. A Europa Ocidental é caracterizada por uma baixa capacidade produtiva, e os países locais não conseguem satisfazer todas as suas necessidades alimentares apenas com os produtores nacionais. Para equilibrar este cenário, os governos europeus sempre incentivaram a produção interna através de incentivos fiscais, compras estatais de commodities e outras medidas. Com isso, manteve-se um equilíbrio de interesses, preservando a atividade agrícola europeia, apesar da forte entrada de itens estrangeiros através de importações.

No entanto, a política pró-guerra da UE perturbou este equilíbrio de interesses entre governos e agricultores. Para “ajudar” a economia de Kiev, os países europeus decidiram permitir a entrada massiva de produtos agrícolas ucranianos nos seus territórios. Como é sabido, a Ucrânia é um grande exportador agrícola, tendo uma capacidade produtiva muito maior do que os países da Europa Ocidental. Como resultado, a importação descontrolada de cereais de baixo custo simplesmente causou o colapso da produção interna nos países europeus.

A política histórica de proteção dos trabalhadores rurais foi substituída por um abandono do agronegócio nacional, priorizando medidas que possam de alguma forma “ajudar” a Ucrânia. Por outras palavras, para implementar os esforços de guerra anti-Rússia do Ocidente, os membros da UE decidiram prejudicar os seus próprios trabalhadores rurais, o que gerou indignação. Alguns países, como a Hungria, a Polônia e a Romênia, já tomaram medidas preventivas para limitar a crise, proibindo parcialmente o comércio de cereais com Kiev, mas em estados fora da fronteira com a Ucrânia, a situação permanece fora de controle.

Comentando o caso, Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod, presidente do Research Center on Economics and Sustainability (ECO-SOS), disse:

“O efeito não é exatamente das sanções econômicas anti-russas, mas sim das importações da Ucrânia (…) A estrutura do sector agrícola da Ucrânia é muito diferente da do resto da Europa porque na Ucrânia o campo de produção é muito maior o que significa mais capacidade de produção. Na Europa são mais pequenos e, além disso, os custos de produção na Ucrânia são muito mais baixos. Obviamente estão a competir com produtos europeus. E os produtores agrícolas têm-se queixado muito.”

Paralelamente à questão ucraniana, existem problemas relativos às políticas “verdes” europeias. Para cumprir a sua agenda ecológica, o bloco impôs diretrizes cada vez mais restritivas aos agricultores locais. Por exemplo, os subsídios estatais aos combustíveis – que são essenciais para os produtores rurais manterem as suas máquinas – sofreram cortes significativos, gerando enormes perdas econômicas para o sector agrícola.

Na verdade, os países membros da UE parecem interessados ​​em pressionar os seus trabalhadores rurais a pagar todos os custos da agenda ecolôgica. Isto é especialmente problemático no caso europeu, uma vez que o sector agrícola local depende fortemente de incentivos estatais para continuar a funcionar. Na prática, para alcançar objectivos “ESG” a UE parece disposta a arruinar a sua própria produção rural.

“[Os agricultores] sentem que têm de pagar toda a fatura das alterações climáticas. E é verdade que o setor agrícola contribui muito para as emissões e que o sector agrícola tem de fazer um grande esforço para mudar a situação. Mas isso é algo que deve ser feito por todas as atividades econômicas. Portanto, preferiria uma distribuição mais equilibrada desta conta ESG entre todas as indústrias”, acrescentou Arauzo-Carod.

Esse cenário só tende a piorar. Infelizmente, a UE não está interessada em tomar medidas para aliviar os efeitos da crise. Pelo contrário, o bloco parece realmente disposto a continuar a concentrar-se em agendas externas, como a da Ucrânia, tendo em conta o que se viu na recente aprovação de um novo pacote de mil milhões de euros para o regime neonazista. Os tomadores de decisões da Europa Ocidental desistiram da soberania nacional e agora governam apenas para servir interesses estrangeiros, tais como os esforços de guerra da OTAN ou os planos “verdes” das elites e corporações ligadas ao FEM. Os interesses do povo europeu simplesmente já não parecem ter importância.

Com a queda constante dos padrões de vida europeus, é possível que haja uma escalada sem precedentes na mobilização popular. Os agricultores não são os únicos afetados – já estão a manifestar-se porque foram prejudicados mais diretamente, mas todos os sectores da sociedade sofrem de alguma forma os efeitos das políticas da UE. É possível que o sector industrial se junte às manifestações, uma vez que muitas fábricas europeias foram fechadas desde 2022 devido a sanções à energia russa. No mesmo sentido, as pessoas comuns nas cidades podem juntar-se a protestos para exigir melhorias nas condições de vida, gerando uma situação de crise generalizada.

Enquanto a UE não priorizar os interesses europeus, será impossível garantir qualquer tipo de estabilidade social.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

 

Artigo em inglês : European farmers show outrage at EU policies, InfoBrics, 5 de Fevereiro de 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

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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

 

O jornalista norte-americano Tucker Carlson foi flagrado em Moscou nos últimos dias, gerando uma série de polêmicas nas redes sociais. Há rumores de que Carlson foi à Rússia para entrevistar o presidente Vladimir Putin. Embora ainda não haja confirmação sobre o caso, as expectativas têm sido suficientes para encorajar todo tipo de reações negativas no Ocidente, com apelos públicos para que Carlson seja expulso dos EUA por “traição”.

Depois de deixar a Fox News, Carlson lançou um programa de TV no X (antigo Twitter) e recentemente fez uma série de entrevistas com líderes políticos de todo o mundo, principalmente presidentes. Anteriormente, ele já havia anunciado seu interesse pessoal em entrevistar Putin, afirmando ainda que as autoridades americanas começaram a espioná-lo e a ameaçá-lo devido a essa afirmação. Segundo Carlson, a NSA invadiu seu computador e vazou seus e-mails para a mídia, revelando seu plano de ir à Rússia entrevistar Putin.

A princípio acreditou-se que a coerção do Estado americano seria suficiente para impedir os planos de Carlson, mas recentemente o jornalista finalmente viajou para a Rússia, gerando rumores sobre uma possível entrevista com Putin. Ainda não há confirmação sobre a veracidade de tais alegações. Os rumores foram reforçados por imagens e vídeos que circularam nas redes sociais mostrando o que se acredita ser o carro da equipa Carlson a sair das instalações do Kremlin.

No entanto, a situação permanece duvidosa e pouco clara por enquanto. Nem as autoridades russas nem a equipe de Tucker confirmaram ou negaram a realização de uma entrevista. O que se sabe é que o jornalista já passou alguns dias em solo russo, visitando pontos turísticos e tendo assistido comprovadamente a uma apresentação de balé no Teatro Bolshoi. Se houve algum acontecimento mais importante na agenda do jornalista, certamente será revelado em breve.

Contudo, é interessante analisar a reação do Ocidente à visita de Carlson à Rússia. Militantes pró-guerra no cenário político americano estão absolutamente irritados com esta viagem – e parecem ainda mais irritados com a mera possibilidade de Tucker entrevistar Putin. Todos os tipos de reações histéricas surgiram entre os neoconservadores e liberais americanos. Tucker foi chamado de “traidor” por várias figuras públicas. Mais do que isso, numa declaração controversa, o escritor neoconservador Bill Kristol chegou ao extremo de pedir o banimento de Tucker do solo americano, com o objetivo de impedi-lo de regressar da Rússia aos EUA.

Existem algumas razões especiais para esta reação. Carlson é atualmente o jornalista americano mais popular nas redes sociais. Com mais de 11 milhões de seguidores em sua conta X e comandando um programa cuja audiência está crescendo continuamente, Carlson representa uma “ameaça” para a grande mídia ocidental. Por exemplo, a recente entrevista de Carlson com o ex-presidente americano Donald Trump alcançou impressionantes 267 milhões de visualizações apenas no X – tendo sido transmitida também em outras plataformas digitais. A popularidade de Carlson é a razão pela qual as elites americanas têm tanto medo que ele entreviste Putin.

O presidente russo tem certamente muito a dizer ao público ocidental. Desde 2022, a censura aos meios de comunicação russos têm impedido os cidadãos ocidentais de ouvirem o lado russo no conflito russo-ucraniano. As palavras de Putin, quando chegam a um público de língua inglesa, vêm de forma distorcida e tendenciosa, com as pessoas comuns nos países ocidentais não tendo a oportunidade de realmente compreender as preocupações e razões da Rússia.

Mais do que isso, as denúncias russas de crimes de guerra, violações dos direitos humanos, promoção do neonazismo e da produção de armas biológicas étnicas raramente chegam à opinião pública ocidental. Numa entrevista direta ao presidente russo, este cenário mudaria completamente. É por isso que, mesmo sem qualquer confirmação de que a entrevista aconteceu, a mera possibilidade de tal evento já causa pânico entre os pró-guerra americanos.

Além disso, mesmo que não haja entrevista, a visita de um jornalista americano popular à Rússia nos tempos atuais também é importante. Tucker poderia mostrar ao seu público a realidade no terreno na Rússia, mostrando que não há efeito das sanções ilegais impostas pelo Ocidente e que o povo russo está de fato a viver bem, ao contrário do cenário de catástrofe social descrito pela grande mídia . Além disso, sendo um ano eleitoral na Rússia, a cobertura de Carlson também poderia mostrar que, ao contrário do que dizem os grandes meios de comunicação, o governo russo é realmente popular, sendo apoiado pela maioria do povo – com Putin não sendo eleito em “eleições fraudulentas”. , como se diz no Ocidente, mas em procedimentos verdadeiramente democráticos.

Na prática, Tucker tem muito a dizer aos seus milhões de seguidores sobre a Rússia. Quer haja ou não uma entrevista com Putin, é certo que a viagem de Carlson terá um forte impacto no jornalismo ocidental. O caso serve para desmascarar a verdadeira natureza da “democracia americana”. Mais do que nunca, parece claro que conceitos como liberdade de expressão e de liberdade de imprensa já não significam nada para a estrutura política decadente dos EUA contemporâneos.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

Artigo em inglês : Warmongers react to Tucker Carlson’s supposed ‘Putin interview’, InfoBrics, 5 de Fevereiro de 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

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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

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With the world’s eyes fixed on Gaza, Israeli forces have over the past four months unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings, including by using lethal force without necessity or disproportionately during protests and arrest raids, and denying medical assistance to those injured, said Amnesty International.

The organization investigated four emblematic cases where Israeli forces used unlawful lethal force– three incidents in October and one in November – which resulted in the unlawful killing of 20 Palestinians, including seven children. Researchers remotely interviewed 12 people, 10 of them eyewitnesses, including first responders, and local residents. The organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified 19 videos and four photos in examining these four incidents.

Amnesty International’s research also found that Israeli forces obstructed medical assistance to people with life-threatening wounds and attacked those attempting to assist injured Palestinians, including paramedics. 

Over the past few months Israel has stepped up deadly raids across the West Bank and tensions have skyrocketed. In one recent incident Israeli forces carried out a raid masquerading as medical staff. At least 507 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in 2023, including at least 81 children, making it the deadliest year for Palestinians since the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) began recording casualties in 2005. 

“Under the cover of the relentless bombardment and atrocity crimes in Gaza, Israeli forces have unleashed unlawful lethal force against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings and displaying a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives. These unlawful killings are in blatant violation of international human rights law and are committed with impunity in the context of maintaining Israel’s institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy.

“These cases provide shocking evidence of the deadly consequences of Israel’s unlawful use of force against Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli authorities, including the Israeli judicial system, have proven shamefully unwilling to ensure justice for Palestinian victims. In this climate of near total impunity, an international justice system worth its salt must step in. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court must investigate these killings and injuries as possible war crimes of wilful killing and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury. The situation in Palestine and Israel is a litmus test for the legitimacy and reputation of the court. It cannot afford to fail it.”

Since 7 October, across the West Bank, Israeli security forces’ use of unlawful force during law enforcement operations has been unrelenting, sowing fear and intimidation among entire communities; it has also been used to disperse rallies and protests held in solidarity with Gaza and demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Between 7 October and 31 December 2023, 299 Palestinians were killed, marking a 50% increase compared to the first nine months of the year. At least 61 further Palestinians, including 13 children, have been killed so far in 2024 as of 29 January, according to OCHA.

Under the cover of the relentless bombardment and atrocity crimes in Gaza, Israeli forces have unleashed unlawful lethal force against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank…

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International

Amnesty International sent requests for information on the four cases investigated to the Israeli military’s spokesperson unit and to the Jerusalem District Commander on 26 November. At the time of publication, no response had been received. Amnesty International is continuing to investigate other cases of excessive force during law enforcement operations, such as the repeated raids and attacks in Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern occupied West Bank.

Israel has a well-documented track record of using excessive and often lethal force to stifle dissent and enforce its system of apartheid against Palestinians leading to a historic pattern of unlawful killings committed with impunity.

“Three bullets were fired without any mercy”: The Nour Shams October Raid

Since 7 October, Israeli forces have stepped up raids, carrying them out almost daily across the occupied West Bank in what it describes as search and arrest operations. 

Over 54% of the 4,382 Palestinians injured in the West Bank were injured during such operations, according to OCHA.  

In one illustrative case investigated by Amnesty International, Israeli military and border police forces used excessive force during a 30-hour-long raid on Nour Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem beginning on 19 October.

During the operation Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians, including six children, four of them under the age of 16, and arrested 15 people. Israeli military sources quoted in media reports said that one Israeli Border Police officer was killed and nine were injured after an improvised explosive device was thrown at them by Palestinians.

Residents told Amnesty International that, during the operation, Israeli soldiers stormed more than 40 residential homes, destroying personal belongings and drilling holes in the walls for sniper outposts. Water and electricity to the camp was cut off and soldiers used bulldozers to destroy public roads, electricity networks and water infrastructure.

Among those killed during the raid was 15-year-old Taha Mahamid, who Israeli forces shot dead in front of his house as he came out to check whether Israeli forces had left the area. Taha was unarmed and posed no threat to the soldiers at the time he was shot, based on witness testimony and videos reviewed by Amnesty International. A video filmed by one of his sisters and verified by Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab shows Taha walking on the street, peeking to check for the presence of soldiers and then collapsing on the street outside his house, after the sound of three gunshots.

Fatima, Taha’s sister, told Amnesty International: “They did not give him a chance. In an instant, my brother was eliminated. Three bullets were fired without any mercy. The first bullet hit him in the leg. The second – in his stomach. Third, in his eye. There were no confrontations… there was no conflict.”

An eyewitness told Amnesty International that when Taha’s father, Ibrahim Mahamid, then attempted to carry his injured son to safety, Israeli forces shot him in the back. A verified video filmed by one of Taha’s sisters immediately after the shooting shows Taha’s father lying on the ground next to Taha before limping away. Fatima Mahamid added: “He [her father Ibrahim] raised his hands, showing them [the soldiers] that he had nothing in them. He just wanted to take his son. They shot him with one bullet, and my father fell next to Taha.”

Ibrahim Mahamid suffered serious damage to his internal organs and had to be taken to intensive care.

Neither Taha nor Ibrahim Mahamid posed a threat to security forces or anyone else when they were shot. This unnecessary use of lethal force should be investigated as possible war crimes of wilful killing and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health.

Approximately 12 hours after Taha Mahamid’s killing, Israeli military stormed his family’s home and locked his family members, including three young children, in a room under the supervision of a soldier for about 10 hours. They also drilled holes in the walls of two rooms to position snipers overlooking the neighbourhood. One witness said the soldiers searched the house, beating a member of the family, and one was seen urinating on the doorstep.

In videos verified by Amnesty International, Israeli military bulldozers are seen damaging the narrow streets of the Nour Shams refugee camp. Also, a video posted by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and verified by Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab shows the extensive damage to a road inside the Nour Shams refugee camp, hampering the medical evacuation of the injured during the raid.

Excessive Force Used Against Palestinian Protesters

Protests in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza have been held frequently across the occupied West Bank since 7 October. These demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, but some protesters have been seen throwing stones in response to the presence or forceful intervention of the Israeli forces.

Israeli forces’ use of lethal force in response to youth throwing stones is at odds with the right to life under international human rights law and international standards regulating the use of force in policing. Lethal force in law enforcement can only be used when there is an imminent threat to life; its use is not a proportionate response to stone-throwing.

In one egregious case on 13 October in Tulkarem, two eyewitnesses described to Amnesty International how Israeli forces stationed at a military watch tower at one of the main entrances to the town and those on the roof of a nearby home opened fire on a crowd of at least 80 unarmed Palestinians peacefully demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza.

Two journalists who were at the scene separately told Amnesty International that they saw Israeli forces firing two tear gas canisters at the crowd and shortly afterwards opening live fire at them without warning shots. The two journalists saw four people being shot and injured as they tried to run away from the shooting. A few minutes later, Israeli forces also opened fire in the direction of the journalists even though both were wearing vests clearly marked as Press. They hid behind a wall along with three children and had to remain there for about two hours as the operation continued.

During this time, they witnessed a Palestinian man riding past them on a bike being shot and injured by an Israeli soldier. One of the journalists also saw another demonstrator being shot in the head. She described how the victim was suddenly shot and fell to the ground. He later succumbed to his wounds.

In a different incident, on 27 November, Israeli forces resorted to excessive force against a crowd of Palestinians in Beitunia, near Ramallah. The group had gathered to greet prisoners released from Ofer prison as part of the deal between Israel and Hamas during the temporary humanitarian pause in Gaza.

Witnesses described to Amnesty International how the Israeli military fired live ammunition and rubber coated bullets at the crowd and dropped tear gas canisters using drones. Witnesses also reported that Israeli forces deployed a military bulldozer and drove military jeeps into the Palestinians who had gathered.

One eyewitness saw resident Yassine Al-Asmar being shot in the chest while he was just standing in the crowd and watched how ambulances were unable to reach him due to the ongoing shooting by the Israeli forces. Instead, his friends managed to move him out and take him to a hospital in Ramallah, but he was declared dead shortly afterwards. 

Videos verified by Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab show some protesters throwing stones and burning tires in the area, as well as at least one person throwing a Molotov cocktail at a bulldozer.

Under international law, throwing stones or burning tires do not justify a law enforcement response involving the use of firearms. International law prohibits the use of lethal force against people who are not posing an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

These shootings should be investigated as possible war crimes of wilful killing and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury. 

One of the witnesses said: “They seek to mar our celebration of released prisoners and assert their domination.”

“I saw …the ambulance getting shot at”: Obstruction of Medical Assistance 

The obstruction of medical assistance by Israeli forces during operations across the OPT is a routine practice Amnesty International has documented for years and is part of Israel’s system of apartheid. Under international law, Israeli forces have an obligation to ensure anyone injured by their forces is able to access medical treatment.   

Amnesty International has investigated five occasions where the Israeli forces hindered or prevented those seriously injured in demonstrations and raids from receiving critical medical assistance. They also shot at Palestinians trying to help, including medics tending to the wounded.

On 10 October, in Ein Al-Lozeh, a neighbourhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem, an Israeli Border Police patrol unit unlawfully killed Ali Abbasi who was unarmed and attempting to pull to safety Abd Al-Rahman Faraj, who had just been shot by the same unit on patrol in the area.

Confrontations had erupted between Palestinians and Israeli Border Police in the neighbourhood. Palestinians used fireworks, and the Israeli forces used live ammunition. Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified three videos shot from different angles, showing fireworks hitting the back and sides of a police car.

During these clashes, Abd Al-Rahman Faraj was shot. Shortly thereafter, Ali Abbasi tried to pull Faraj to safety. An eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, told Amnesty International that they saw Israeli forces shooting Ali Abbasi in the head as he tried to pull Faraj away.

The witness said Israeli forces then threatened to shoot people who tried to help the two men and obstructed an ambulance from reaching the victims, leaving them bleeding on the ground for over an hour. The victims were later collected by an Israeli military ambulance and their bodies have yet to be returned to their families.

Similarly, during the crackdown on the Tulkarem demonstration on 13 October, eyewitnesses to the shooting by Israeli forces of the Palestinian man who was riding a bike told Amnesty International that the paramedic who attempted to rescue the victim was also shot at by the Israeli soldiers as he approached the injured man. One of the two journalists who witnessed the incident told Amnesty International that she saw the man on the bike being shot in one of his legs before he fell down:

“He was screaming. And then one of the ambulance guys tried to move him and save his life but the Israeli sniper continued shooting. I saw with my own eyes the medical people and the ambulance getting shot at by Israeli snipers.”

In a third example, during the raid in Nour Shams on 19 October, three eyewitnesses, including a paramedic on the scene, said two ambulances were stopped at the entrance of the camp and prevented from reaching the injured. The witnesses said the residents were forced to transport the wounded to a hospital in private cars.

Family members who witnessed the 19 October shooting of Ibrahim Mahamid while he attempted to carry his injured son Taha to safety told Amnesty International that he was prevented from receiving medical assistance for over an hour. The organization also spoke to a paramedic on the scene who confirmed that he had spent over an hour trying to reach Ibrahim Mahamid but Israeli forces stopped the ambulance at the entrance of the camp and Ibrahim was left to bleed throughout that time.  

During the raid which took place across Jenin on 9 November, the Israeli military attacked medical personnel attempting to treat someone with a gunshot wound inside Jenin refugee camp. As reported by OCHA, Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians during this operation, which lasted 12 hours and involved both armed clashes and air strikes.

According to an eyewitness, Israeli forces shot Sabreen Obeidi, a PRCS paramedic, in her lower back while she was inside a parked PRCS ambulance in Jenin refugee camp.

PRCS paramedic Sabreen Obeidi was shot in the lower back while aboard this ambulance in Jenin refugee camp

During the same raid on 9 November, the Israeli forces also shot at two other PRCS ambulances that entered Jenin refugee camp to collect injured persons. Video footage from a camera installed inside a PRCS ambulance shared with Amnesty International and verified by the organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab shows a round striking the road approximately two metres in front of the ambulance. The incident depicted in the video was also recounted to Amnesty International by a paramedic inside the ambulance who said that he also saw two other paramedics shot at by a sniper positioned in a building across the street.

International law requires that the sick and wounded and medical personnel be respected and protected. Obstructing access to medical treatment violates the right to health, the right to security of the person, to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and can lead to violations of the right to life.

“Amnesty International has long documented unlawful killings by Israeli forces and how they fit into the system of apartheid into which Palestinians are locked. It is time for the ICC Prosecutor to investigate these killings and the crime of apartheid in its investigation into the situation in Palestine,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israel is the occupying power and its actions are bound, in addition to the Fourth Geneva Convention and the law of occupation, by its obligations under international human rights law.

In policing demonstrations and carrying out other law enforcement functions in the West Bank, including so-called search and arrest operations, Israeli forces must respect human rights, including the rights to life and security of person and the rights to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly, as well as international standards that elaborate how human rights must be upheld by law enforcement officials such as the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

These standards prohibit the use of force by law enforcement officials unless strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty and require that firearms may only be used as a last resort – when strictly necessary for military personnel or police to protect themselves or others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury. The intentional lethal use of firearms is only permissible if strictly unavoidable in order to protect life. Wilful killings of protected persons and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to protected persons are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and war crimes.

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Featured image: Taha Mahamid, 15, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in front of his house

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A UK judge on Monday ruled in a landmark decision that David Miller, a professor of political sociology, who was fired from the University of Bristol in 2021 for anti-Zionist views, was unfairly dismissed and subjected to discrimination. 

Rahman Lowe Solicitors, Miller’s representatives, called the judgment a “significant triumph”, establishing that anti-Zionist beliefs are legally protected in the workplace. 

“Prof. Miller successfully claimed discrimination based on his philosophical belief that Zionism is inherently racist, imperialist, and colonial, a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, alongside a finding of unfair dismissal,” a statement from the solicitors said. 

“This judgment establishes for the first time ever that anti-Zionist beliefs are protected in the workplace,” they added.

The judgment found that Miller had experienced discrimination based on his philosophical belief and had been unfairly dismissed by Bristol University.

The decision was hailed by free speech advocates, with one commentator calling it a “key victory for free speech and academic freedom”.

The case has gathered widespread attention in recent years, particularly from academics and individuals advocating for justice, fairness and equality in Palestine. 

Anti-Israel Criticism

David Miller was dismissed in 2021 after accusing Israel of wanting to “impose [its] will all over the world”.

Following his dismissal, he launched employment tribunal proceedings claiming unfair dismissal, breach of contract and discrimination or victimisation on grounds of religion or belief.

At his hearing he made clear that anti-Zionism was not the same as antisemitism, and was not a “racist set of ideas”.

He added that it was impossible for a Zionist state such as Israel to be non-racist, and described Gaza as an “open air prison”.

Rahman Lowe’s partner Zillur Rahman, who represented Miller, called it a “landmark case” which “marks a pivotal moment in the history of our country for those who believe in upholding the rights of Palestinians”.

“The timing of this judgment will be welcomed by many who at present are facing persecution in their workplaces for speaking out against the crimes of the Israeli state, and the genocide taking place in Gaza,” he added.

I am also very proud that we have managed to establish that anti-Zionist views qualify as a protected belief under the UK Equality Act,”

Miller responded to the decision saying that he hopes it would become a touchstone precedent in all future battles that people face with “the racist and genocidal ideology of Zionism and the movement to which it is attached”.

“I am extremely pleased that the Tribunal has concluded that I was unfairly and wrongfully dismissed by the University of Bristol. I am also very proud that we have managed to establish that anti-Zionist views qualify as a protected belief under the UK Equality Act,” he said. 

“The University of Bristol maintained that I was sacked because Zionist students were offended by my various remarks, but it was plain from the evidence of its own witnesses that this was untrue, and it was the anti-Zionist nature of my comments which was the decisive factor,” he added.

‘Disappointed’ and ‘Dangerous’

The judgment was criticised by the Union of Jewish Students, a national body representing university Jewish societies and Jewish students. It noted that despite finding in favour of Miller, the tribunal found he had contributed to his own dismissal and was “culpable and blameworthy”.

“UJS believes this may set a dangerous precedent about what can be lawfully said on campus about Jewish students and the societies at the centre of their social life. This will ultimately make Jewish students less safe.”

In a statement, the University of Bristol said it was disappointed by the judgment and was reviewing the tribunal’s findings carefully.

It said: “After a full investigation and careful deliberation, the University concluded that Dr Miller did not meet the standards of behaviour we expect from our staff in relation to comments he made in February 2021 about students and student societies linked to the University. As a result and considering our responsibilities to our students and the wider University community, his employment was terminated.

“We recognise that these matters have caused deep concern for many, and that members of our community hold very different views from one another.

“We would, therefore, encourage everyone to respond in a responsible and sensitive way in the current climate.

“The University of Bristol remains committed to fostering a positive working and learning environment that enriches lives and where the essential principles of academic freedom are preserved.”

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Featured image: David Miller’s sacking was based on his opinion that Zionism is ‘inherently racist’ (Screengrab/YouTube)

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First published on December 22, 2023

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Author’s Note and Update

My critique and analysis of the “Just War” concept was first raised in an article entitled America’s “Just War” against Afghanistan: Women’s Rights “Before” and “After” America’s Destructive Wars.

The following article was first published by Global Research on December 22, 2023.

The war in the Middle East is edging towards Escalation. War Propaganda is the driving force. The official 9/11 consensus has created a counter-terrorism mandate embedded in US Foreign Policy.

America’s “Global War on Terrorism” is not categorized as an outright “act of war” within segments of the peace movement. 

Also, the 9/11 doctrine accuses Muslim countries of waging a “civilizational war of Islam against the West”.

Michel Chossudovsky, February 6, 2024

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Introduction. The 9/11 False Flag and the 2023 Middle East War

This article which focusses on the 9/11 False Flag is of utmost significance to our understanding of the ongoing Israel-U.S. genocide against Palestine as well as the broader U.S. hegemonic war against the broader Middle East.

On September 11, 2001, Afghanistan was identified as a “state sponsor of terror”, without a shred of evidence. The 9/11 attacks were categorized as an act of war against America by an unnamed foreign power.

It was a “False Flag” which consisted in blaming Afghanistan of having attacked America. “The Right to Self Defense” was put forth. The US-NATO aggressor was portrayed as the victim.

9/11: A Historical Landmark in U.S. Military Doctrine (2001- )

The alleged 9/11 “Attack on America” was instrumental in justifying the implementation of so-called “counter-terrorism” operations (aka wars) against ALL Muslim countries, now extending over a period of more than 20 years(2001 onwards).

In the present context (2023), The 9/11 False Flag has a bearing on the evolving US-NATO-Israel 2023 “Humanitarian War” against Palestine and the  Middle East War, which is predicated on the concept of “Self Defense” against alleged terrorist attacks by Muslim Countries.

What Happened on September 11, 2001?

“A few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Bush administration concluded without supporting evidence, that “Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation were prime suspects”.

CIA Director George Tenet stated that bin Laden has the capacity to plan “multiple attacks with little or no warning”

Image (right). George Tenet with G. W. Bush and Dick Cheney

Secretary of State Colin Powell called the attacks “an act of war” and President Bush confirmed in an evening televised address to the Nation that he would “make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them”.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey pointed his finger at “state sponsorship,” implying the complicity of one or more foreign governments. In the words of former National Security Adviser, Lawrence Eagleburger, “I think we will show when we get attacked like this, we are terrible in our strength and in our retribution.”

Meanwhile, parroting official statements, the Western media mantra had approved the launching of “punitive actions” directed against civilian targets in the Middle East. In the words of William Saffire writing in the New York Times:

“When we reasonably determine our attackers’ bases and camps, we must pulverize them — minimizing but accepting the risk of collateral damage” — and act overtly or covertly to destabilize terror’s national hosts”.(Michel Chossudovsky, Who is Osama bin Laden, September 12, 2001)

NATO’s “Collective Defense Clause” and the October 7, 2001 Invasion of Afghanistan

On September 12, 2001, less than 24 hours after the attacks, at a meeting of the Atlantic Council in Brussels, NATO invoked for the first time in its history “Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – its collective defence clause” declaring the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon “to be an attack against all NATO members:

“The tragic death of thousands of Americans on 9/11 allegedly instrumented by Al Qaeda (with the support of an unnamed foreign power) was used as a pretext and a justification for launching the first phase of the Middle East Central Asian War, which consisted in the bombing and occupation of Afghanistan.” Michel Chossudovsky, Who is Osama bin Laden, September 12, 2001)

The decision of the Atlantic Council to invoke Article V (officially confirmed in late September), was conducive to the US-NATO bombing and invasion of Afghanistan which commenced on October 7 2001, four weeks after the tragic events of 9/11.

The invasion of Afghanistan had been on the drawing board of the Pentagon months prior to 9/11. The September 11 attacks were used as a pretext and a justification to invade and occupy Afghanistan.

Moreover, military analysts and the media were instructed not to reveal the fact that you do not plan a large scale theater war thousands of miles away in a matter of 25 days. Impossible. (from September 12- October 7, 2001)

The forbidden truth (known and documented) is that Osama bin Laden was a US “intelligence asset” and that his precise whereabouts prior and in the immediate wake of 9/11 were known to the US government.” ( Michel Chossudovsky, More Troops to Afghanistan)

The U.S. led war against Afghanistan consists essentially of two interrelated stages.

The first stage tagged as the Soviet-Afghan War started at the height of the Cold War in 1979  was a carefully planned military and intelligence operation led by the United States, which consisted in recruiting and financing the “Islamic brigades” (Mujahideen)  including Osama bin Laden. 

The second stage, unfolded with the US-NATO October 7, 2001 invasion of Afghanistan four weeks after 9/11, following the decision of the Atlantic Council to Invoke Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. 

The Criminal Invasion of Afghanistan and the “Just War” Narrative

The October 7 2001 invasion was heralded as “A Just War” by Professor Richard Falk, renowned scholar, professor of International and Humanitarian Law at Princeton and anti-war activist.

The statement of Professor Richard Falk, who is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) formulated in the immediate  wake of 9/11 — published four days after the commencement of the US-NATO bombing campaign– was intent upon providing legitimacy to America’s war on Afghanistan

“I have never since my childhood supported a shooting war in which the United States was involved, although in retrospect I think the NATO war in Kosovo achieved beneficial results. The war in Afghanistan against apocalyptic terrorism qualifies in my understanding as the first truly just war since World War II.
 
 
 

“The perpetrators of the September 11 attack cannot be reliably neutralized by nonviolent or diplomatic means; a response that includes military action is essential to diminish the threat of repetition, to inflict punishment and to restore a sense of security at home and abroad. 

The extremist political vision held by Osama bin Laden, which can usefully be labeled “apocalyptic terrorism,” places this persisting threat well outside any framework of potential reconciliation or even negotiation for several reasons: Its genocidal intent is directed generically against Americans and Jews;

its proclaimed goal is waging an unconditional civilizational war –Islam against the West– without drawing any distinction between civilian and military targets; it has demonstrated a capacity and willingness to inflict massive and traumatizing damage on our country and a tactical ingenuity and ability to carry out its missions of destruction by reliance on the suicidal devotion of its adherents.”  (Richard Falk, The Nation,    Defining a Just War, October 11, 2001, 4 days after the invasion of Afghanistan, emphasis added).

Note the emphasis on: 

genocidal intent against Americans and Jews”

as part of an alleged

“civilizational war of Islam against the West”.

Palestine 2023: Is It Not “The Other Way Round”? What We Are Witnessing Is “The Genocidal War of the West Against Muslim Countries.”

Osama bin Laden’s “Apocalyptic Terrorism” has provided a justification for the waging of America’s “Global War on Terrorism”, i.e. the numerous post 9/11 U.S. led “humanitarian wars” and “counter-terrorism operations” against Muslim countries (with the support of Israel) in the course of the last 22 years, which have resulted in millions of deaths. 

A holy crusade was launched against the Muslim World of approximately 50 countries and one quarter of the World’s population. 

In turn,Counterterrorism” has been used in the course of the last twenty years as a justification for the establishment of U.S. military bases in Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia.

The unspoken objective of “counter-terrorism” is to confiscate and appropriate the extensive oil and gas reserves of Muslim countries. 

“The Just War”

Professor Richard Falk is a life-long anti-war activist. He is renowned for his commitment to the rights of Palestinians and his courageous stance against the Israeli government. In February 2001, Professor Falk was appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to serve in the Inquiry Commission pertaining to the occupied Palestinian territories.

In March 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Professor Richard Falk as UN Special Rapporteur pertaining to human rights in the Palestinian occupied territories.

Professor Falk’s statement entitled “Defining A Just War, Ends and Means” was  formulated 8 months following his OHCR February 2001 appointment to serve in the Palestine Inquiry Commission. In a February 2001 Interview, Falk raised the question as to whether Palestinians have a “Right to Resistance”:  

“The [UN OHCR] team will consider two major issues, he said. “One is evaluating whether the conditions of occupation are such as to give the Palestinians some kind of right of resistance,” said Falk. “And if they have that right, then what are the limits to that right?”

“We must ask specific questions, such as what kinds of weapons were used?” he said. “And how does one interpret and understand the vulnerability of children? For example, the Palestinians contend that the Israeli army targeted children, and the Israeli army says Palestinians used children as human shields.” (Princeton University Report, February 2001, (emphasis added) 

According to Falk –referring to the role of Osama bin Laden’s– “apocalyptic terrorism” is marked by the conduct of

an unconditional civilizational war of Islam against the West”

This statement by Richard Falk constitutes a misunderstanding as to what happened on 9/11. 9/11 was a False Flag.

I should underscore, however, that in recent statements on Palestine, Professor Falk’s critique of the Netanyahu government goes against his earlier “Just War” stance formulated in the immediate wake of 9/11. 

The evidence presented below documents the alleged role of Bin Laden in the September 11, 2001 attacks, which provided the pretext and the justification to wage war not only on Afghanistan but also against numerous Muslim countries (in the aftermath of 9/11), under the mantle of America’s “Global War on Terrorism”. 

There Was No Evidence that Afghanistan Had Attacked America on 9/11

The Taliban government through diplomatic channels had offered on two occasions (September and October 2001) to enter into negotiations with regard to the extradition of Osama Bin Laden. President G. W. Bush is on record for having refused to negotiate with the Afghan government regarding the Taliban Offer “to Hand Over Bin Laden to Washington”. 

screenshot of BBC report, December 21, 2018 .

Why was George W. Bush reluctant to negotiate the extradition of Osama bin Laden? The Bin Laden- Bush family relationship?

What Happened on September 10, 2001? 

1. Poppy G.H.W. Bush Senior Meets Osama’s Brother Shafiq at The Ritz Carlton Hotel on September 10, 2001

One day before the 9/11 attacks, as well as on the morning of 9/11, the dad of the sitting President of the United States of America, George Herbert Walker Bush was meeting none other than Shafiq bin Laden, the brother of the alleged terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. Sounds absurd? 

According to The Washington Post:

“It didn’t help that as the World Trade Center burned on Sept. 11, 2001, the news interrupted a Carlyle business conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel here attended by a brother of Osama bin Laden [Shafiq bin Laden]. Former president Bush [senior], a fellow investor, had been with him at the conference the previous day. (Greg Schneider, Pairing the Powerful With the Rich, Washington Post, March 16, 2003)

2. Osama is Hospitalized in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on September 10, 2001

Confirmed by Dan Rather, CBS News, Osama bin Laden had been admitted to a Pakistani Military hospital in Rawalpindi on the 10th of September local time, less than 24 hours before the terrorist attacks

“Pakistan intelligence sources tell CBS News that bin Laden was spirited into this military hospital in Rawalpindi for kidney dialysis treatment.

On that night, says this medical worker who wanted her identity protected, they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them. She says it was treatment for a very special person.” (CBS, For more details see this)

This CBS report casts doubt on the official narrative to the effect that Osama bin Laden was responsible for coordinating the 9/11 attacks. It would be impossible for Osama bin Laden to enter a Pakistani military hospital unnoticed. His whereabouts were known.

“How on earth could Bin Laden have coordinated the attacks from his hospital bed in a heavily guarded Pakistani military hospital located in Rawalpindi.

Bear in mind that the Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi (under the adminstration of the Pakistani military) exclusively “provides specialised treatment to Army personel and their immediate family”.

Osama bin Laden must have had some connections in the Pakistani military or intelligence to be admitted to the hospital. He was, according to Dan Rather’s CBS report, provided with  “treatment for a very special person”.

If the CBS report by Dan Rather is accurate and Osama had indeed been admitted to the Pakistani military hospital on September 10, 2001,  courtesy of America’s ally, he was in all likelihood still in hospital in Rawalpindi on the 11th of September, when the attacks occurred. (Michel Chossudovsky, September 10, 2010)

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly claimed in the wake of 9/11 that the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden remained unknown:  “It is like looking for a needle in a stack of hay”.

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Wake of 9/11. What is the Meaning of Al Qaeda in Arabic?

In the wake of 9/11, The Just War Concept has become embedded in U.S. Foreign Policy. It constitutes an anti-Muslim narrative of going after the alleged Al Qaeda “Islamic terrorists” who have (since the early 1980s) been routinely recruited by US intelligence. 

What is the meaning in Arabic of Al Qaeda? القاعِدة

According to Major Pierre-Henri Bunel, a former agent of France’s military intelligence.

It’s “The Base”, namely  the Computer Database of the Islamic Mujahideen ( Reagan’s “Freedom Fighters”) recruited by the CIA.

“When Osama bin Laden was an American agent in Afghanistan, the Al Qaida Intranet was a good communication system through coded or covert messages.

The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this.

But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money. (Major Pierre-Henri Bunel, World Affairs, Delhi, emphasis added)

The above statement by Major Bunel, was confirmed by the late British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook (shortly before his passing) in a pointed article in The Guardian:

“Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by Western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda, literally “the database”, was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.  (Robin Cook, The Guardian, July 8, 2005, see also archive, emphasis added)

Ronald Reagan meets the Mujahideen in the Oval Office (1980s)
 

The “Just War Concept”  was among several narratives including “Counter-Terrorism” directed against Islamic Jihadists, “Responsibility to Protect”, “Exporting Democracy”, “Humanitarian Wars”, etc. (See video interview below)

Video: Michel Chossudovsky and James Corbett

The Criminalization of War

The Just War Concept provides a green light to wage “humanitarian wars” against Muslim countries.  It is the antithesis of  “a real peace movement”, which consists in what Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia defined as “The Criminalization of War” first formulated in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005. 

Under “The criminalization of war” agenda all wars of aggression are categorized as criminal undertakings, with the exception of “Self-Defense” (which today describes the Resistance of Palestine against the Israeli led invasion). 

Under International law, there is no such thing as “A Just War”.  From a legal standpoint, “Defining The Just War” formulated prior to the invasion of Afghanistan is in contradiction with the Geneva Convention (IV)

Richard Falk denies the hegemonic nature of U.S. foreign policy:

“Another form of antiwar advocacy rests on a critique of the United States as an imperialist superpower or empire. This view also seems dangerously inappropriate in addressing the challenge posed by the massive crime against humanity committed on September 11.

Whatever the global role of the United States –and it is certainly responsible for much global suffering and injustice, giving rise to widespread resentment that at its inner core fuels the terrorist impulse– it cannot be addressed so long as this movement of global terrorism is at large and prepared to carry on with its demonic work. 

These longer-term concerns –which include finding ways to promote Palestinian self-determination, the internationalization of Jerusalem and a more equitable distribution of the benefits of global economic growth and development–must be addressed.

Of course, much of the responsibility for the failure to do so lies with the corruption and repressive policies of governments, especially in the Middle East, outside the orbit of US influence. A distinction needs to be drawn as persuasively as possible between inherently desirable lines of foreign policy reform and retreating in the face of terrorism.”  (Richard Falk, Defining a Just War, The Nation, October 11, 2023, emphasis added)

With. regard to the above quotation, is it not “the other way round”? Many of the governments “inside” rather than “outside” the orbit of US influence are corrupt. Why? Because their leaders are threatened, coopted and/or bribed by Washington. 

With regard to the so-called “movement of global terrorism”, see the National Security Decision Directive 166 (NSDD 166), (signed by President Reagan) which de facto authorized  stepped-up covert military aid to the Mujahideen.

To read the full text of NSDD 166, click image below.

 

The promotion of “Radical Islam” was a deliberate CIA initiative (NSDD 166) which in the wake of 9/11 has served as justification to waging a “Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) in the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and sub–Saharan Africa. 

The number of CIA sponsored religious schools (madrasahs) increased from 2,500 in 1980 to over 39,000USAID generously financed the process of religious indoctrination, largely to secure the demise of secular institutions and the collapse of civil society:

“The United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings….

Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtun, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $51 million on the university’s education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994“, (Washington Post, 23 March 2002)

 

“Before” and “After” a US Led “Humanitarian War”

Selected excerpts from 

America’s “Just War” against Afghanistan: Women’s Rights “Before” and “After” America’s Destructive Wars.

suggest you access full article

It should be understood, that the “Before” and “After” Analysis Applies to the numerous Muslim Countries which have been the object of  America’s “Humanitarian Warfare” agenda including Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, among others which have been the object of US-NATO bombings, invasions, “counter terrorism” and “regime change” operations in the wake of September 11, 2001. 

 

Afghanistan “Before”

Kabul University 1980s

A co-ed biology class at Kabul University

Public transportation in Kabul  

Women working in one of the labs at the Vaccine Research Center

Afghanistan “After” 

The Fate of Women and Children 

 

 

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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I’m old enough to remember hearing and seeing frequent references to something called “the rule of law.” Then in the post-9/11 era this vital phrase seemed to go the way of our dwindling freedoms, civil liberties and the tattered remnants of our democratic institutions. In the process of aborting the promise of decent human futures for most of the world’s people, the word, “law,” was pushed to the sidelines.

Where once we would have seen many references to the importance of making and enforcing good laws for the benefit of all people, that ideal has pretty much become mute and obsolete from the perspective of our puppeteered governors. When the concept of law is assertively put forward, it usually pertains to weaponized lawfare used in warlike attacks on the reputations, careers and economic viability of those that threaten the interests and authority of the rich and powerful.

The rules-based international order provides cover for the weaponization of law as a means for those with much power to maintain and augment their subordination of subjugated groups lacking access to power. The phrase, “rules-based international order” is repeated again and again in political communications, but especially in top-down communications during this era of rapid civilizational decline.

A rule is frequently much more flexible, fleeting, subjective and ephemeral than a law. All kinds of people, groups and organizations can make rules for a variety of purposes. Rules can be made almost anywhere, anytime. Rules can be made by anyone and rules may or may not be followed. Most of the time there are no serious consequences that flow from breaking a rule.

The requirements for making and enforcing laws are very different from the loose requirement involving rules. Only sovereign entities can make laws of the sort that police are duty-bound to enforce, sometimes to the point of pressing criminal charges when serious infractions occur. These days this kind of sovereign authority is mostly invested, theoretically at least, in countries.

Typically national constitutions situate the exercise of sovereignty in very explicit procedures involving many forms of interaction between people, elections, legislatures and courts. In some countries, where Muslim people predominate, the making, exercise and enforcement of laws draw on principles infused with religious understandings drawn from the Koran.

The United States also affords much room for the merger of politics and religion especially when it comes to the influential role of Christian Zionism in the formulation of public policy. The Christian Zionist role is most often to mobilize public support for US wars in support of the supposed interests of Israel.

Sovereignty and Law in Colonies, Empires and Nation States

Between 1945 and today, the number of countries belonging to the the United Nations went from 50 to almost 200. This near quadrupling of nation states in the world came about largely through the supposed decolonization of European colonies especially in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Indochina and East Asia.

In the dominant system of international law, colonies were not considered sovereign nor were the inhabitants of colonies considered rights-bearing citizens. Rather the people in colonies were classified as disenfranchised wards subject to the sovereign jurisdiction of imperial authority over them. There were very large divides in the laws differentiating colonists from colonizers.

By 1945 Europe was exhausted from fighting two world wars in a period of less than half a century. As a result, European empires came unglued. In some instances decolonization was a relatively peaceful and amiable procedure. In other cases, as in Algeria, Vietnam, and Angola, the breakup was violent on both sides.

European colonies were processed through the new institutions of the United Nations to become the sites of nominally sovereign countries. This process of so-called decolonization, however, was hampered by the imposition of neocolonialist techniques. The continuity of entrenched patterns of subordination was maintained often through the imposition of new techniques especially through the agencies of debt enslavement. The global growth of debt enslavement is one of the main animating factors driving the operation of the rules-based international order.

The close association of various techniques of debt enslavement and the so-called rules-based international order is a big factor energizing countries that were once colonies of European empires to seek alternative banking arrangements. This movement involves the urge of many national governments to get out from underneath the military weight of the US Armed Forces combined with the financial weight of the US dollar and its attending institutions.

The monopolistic role of US dollar and the financial institutions it supports are generating the opposition of the BRICS and the Global South countries in their growing identification with the alliance between Russia, China and Iran. This emerging alternative to the rules-based international order emphasizes national sovereignty as a primary facilitator of national self-determination.

This quest to realize the potential of national sovereignty, however, is running up against those still pushing some of the deceptions integral to the rules-based international order. In recent times the pressure from this quarter to override national sovereignty continues to grow. The other side of the pre-emption of national sovereignty is the designation of topic-based centres of global sovereignty.

An obvious example is the current push by Big Pharma to make the UN’s World Health Organization the site of a claim to global sovereignty in health care and especially in the business of declaring pandemics. The huge scams and frauds associated with the manufactured COVID crisis point the way to more of the same from the hoaxers who operate in and around the WHO.

Quite clearly there is a powerful movement afoot to make the sketchy business of climate change the basis for some sort of topic-based sovereign centre in the style of the World Economic Forum.

The WEF is an unaccountable decision-making venue that, as is well known in Trudeau’s fiefdom of Canada, often pre-empts the sovereignty of national parliaments and legislatures. Canadians, for instance, find their election decisions count for naught when their Parliaments become useless because the big decisions are being made in Davos.

Power Grabs by Inter-Connected Networks of Self-Aggrandizing Swindlers

From what sources does the so-called rules-based order, both national or international, draw its principles, ideas and authorities?

Where do the rules come from?

From the United Nations? From courts of international law. From the World Bank? From treaties and conventions? From the Internet? From the Pentagon? From Labor Relations? From the EU? From law libraries? From stock markets? Black markets? Media cartels? From voting? From Rothschild intrigues? From academic conferences? From the work of fact checkers? From sacred scriptures? From research labs? From all of the above? From none of the above?

When it comes to the recent arrival of something labelled the rules-based international order, the origins lie more in power grabs by inter-connected networks of self-aggrandizing swindlers. As I view it, those who make claims to some kind of deep authority for a “rule-based order”are often seeking easy routes to obtain and augment influence for themselves and for their bosses.

References to rules-based order often comes from the lips of those who have never reckoned genuinely with the the requirements of scientific methodology or with the egalitarian principles integral to the realization of anything approaching democratic means of decision-making.

So let’s get real about what is really going on in the name of the rules-based international order. Let’s consider what this supposed order actually is, as well as what this grandiose phrase is meant to hide and conceal.

One of the keys to the so-called rules-based order is that the rules are decidedly different for different groups. This eclectic approach tends to announce the abandonment of principles emphasizing the application of universality, in other words, of equality before the law. Another key feature of the rules-based order is that there are whole classes of people who are basically exempted from having to adhere to any binding rules or laws at all.

These small groups who are put above the law, tend also to be the groups that by and large make the rules for everyone else. Average people are by and large denied any say whatsoever in deciding any aspect of the international rules-based order.

In the days when the rule of law was confidently placed in the forefront of some government operations, elections were the primary means for governors to obtain informed consent from the governed. These days, however, the role of the media is to deploy deception to produce uniformed consent in order to facilitate political agendas that often go against the basic rights and interests of most people.

Most elections these days are rigged. There are many well-established means of doing this cheating. One of the main techniques is through the exploitation of hackable systems of digital vote counting. Another common feature is the sabotage of elections by well-orchestrated networks of large media cartels.

These communications cartels grossly misrepresent crucial issues central to the formulation of sound public policies. As Julian Assange indicates below, most populations do not like to go to war. Wars happen, nevertheless, because media venues play a major roles in “tricking” the public by publicizing litanies of lies.

The nature of warfare is changing rapidly as multiple governments are made subject to manipulations from above. Increasing this manipulation from above is aimed at eliminating, starving, enfeebling and impoverishing the governments’ own constituents. This phenomenon is well illustrated by the hundreds of millions of deaths and injuries purposely caused worldwide by the coercive pushing on populations of military bioweapons disguised as medical treatments for a supposedly new coronavirus.

The depopulation agenda was advanced in the course of the manufactured COVID crisis.

This depopulation agenda continues to be promoted by the mass media’s 24/7 promotion of war, war and more war. Indeed, the business of mass communications has pretty much become intertwined with an array of mass murder rackets.

In the international rules-based order, there is plenty of room for special sets of rules for particular categories of criminal activity. These underground interactions include child trafficking, pedophilia rings intertwined with elaborate blackmail and espionage operations, the plundering and subsequent sales of human organs, black markets in armaments including weapons of mass destruction, the commerce of drug makers and drug pushers as exploiters of addictions, the smuggling of immigrants, and the killing, buying and selling of the last precious remnants of endangered wildlife.

Although these kinds of activities are outlawed, they are in fact made to form significant elements of the global economy.

Such profitable criminal activities are well integrated into the matrix of the so-called rules-based international order.

The funds generated easily find their way into large banking establishments that often have access to expertise in money laundering. The funds so generated often join other flows of ill-gotten capital into off-shore tax havens whose operations are inconsistent with the rule of law but completely consistent with the rules-based international order.

This so-called “order” exempts the rich from carrying the expense of governments while the much squeezed middle class wage earners are left to bear the cost of paying for government services and the interest payments on government debt paid mostly to the private central bankers in and around the Swiss-based Bank of International Settlements. To add insult to injury, the rich walk off with the privatized wealth from enterprises that often depend on substantial public investments along with sweetheart deals among political cronies.

This whole structure of legalized kleptocracy and fraud benefits the few at the expense of the the many. The sinister operation is defended, facilitated and augmented by large contingents of lawyers, prosecutors and judges who conduct their devious dealings behind the ornaments of law but not within the rule of law. The higher one goes up the scale from domestic law into international law, the more sordid, corrupt and deceptive the legal establishments become.

The groups and individuals that have effectively monopolized the largest share of wealth and power in the international rule-based order, mostly got where they are by slipping and sliding around both the laws and the rules. The ability to pull off such evasions often depends on working collaboratively with those charged to enforce the laws and the rules. Federal police operation like the FBI in the United States and Canada’s RCMP pretend to be law enforcement agencies but they are really very corrupt agencies of political theatre meant to advance the interests of their self-interested pay masters.

The ascendant class of serial law breakers tend to rule by transforming all regulatory and enforcement agencies into protection rackets to safeguard their own enterprises and interests. They are under no compunction to follow the rules they often make without accountability…. without obtaining anything resembling the informed consent of the governed.

The small number of people that dominate the governments and the media and the Internet and the courts and the professions and the unions and education and the cultural institutions are mostly servants of a system that concentrates massive political and proprietary control in the hands of a tiny minority. This minority operates above the law. These people are almost never held accountable for violating even the highest order of international criminal law.

The Savagery of Settler Colonies and Especially Israel

The expression of versions of sovereignty, gave legitimacy to “law” long before before the era when claims were made that some sort of rules-based order was the glue that would hold international society together. The concept of sovereignty became manifest in the evolutions of religiously-based ruling dynasties, some of which expanded into empires through conquest and diplomacy. The Aztec Empire of Mexico, or the Egyptian Empire of the Nile Valley, or the Persian Empire at Eurasia’s core, or the Macedonian Empire that briefly extended from Greece all the way to India, or the Chinese Empire, or the archetypal Roman Empire all had rich imperial histories long before the era of national states. The animating cultural force of the ancient empires often enlivens the heritage of the national governments that succeeded them.

Beginning in the 1500s and 1600s European polities, namely Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany created overseas colonies that became the basis of new forms of empire. Together these empires divided up almost the entirety of the Earth’s land mass. The lawyers of this era became very busy developing notions of sovereignty to concentrate law making authority in a few imperial capitals.

Darwinian social science in the Victorian era replaced Enlightenment era principles of universal human equality. Instead of affirming egalitarian ideals, the emerging social sciences ranked human beings on a vertical scale from savagery to barbarism to civilization. This paradigm was adopted by King Leopold of Belgium to justify his claim of the sovereign proprietorship over the Congo Free State in equatorial Africa.

King Leopold persuaded the United States and the European powers to accept his program submitted in 1885. He promised that he would govern the Congo to elevate through education the native savages into civilized people. Once he established his claim, Leopold used his status as absolute dictator to enslave his subjects in the work of rubber plantations.

In Canada it wasn’t until the 1960s that the Dominion government removed the category of savages and barbarians from the complex of laws and policies created specifically for the governance of registered Indians. Under Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Indians could henceforth vote and run in national elections, enter into contracts by using their signatures, purchase alcohol, and borrow money in banks.

The maintenance of Darwinian paradigms of savagery and civilization facilitated the making of laws enabling European powers, their corporate extensions and their colonial emigrants to pretty much help themselves to whatever lands and natural resources they wanted on the expanding frontiers of empire. This kleptocratic system was made to be especially ruthless in its treatment of Indigenous peoples in those parts of empire where imperial expansion was accompanied by the migration of large contingents of non-native settlers that overwhelmed the Native peoples numerically, economically and culturally.

These regions where the the Indigenous peoples became small minorities compared to the immigrants and their descendants, have been identified as settler colonies. Many of the settler colonies in North America seceded from their British imperial parent to form the United States in America. The remaining settler colonies in the British Empire including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland, were sometimes referred to as White Dominions.

After 1911 many tried to construct the Union of South Africa as a White Dominion similar to, say, Canada. The governments of Canada and South Africa, who collaborated in their governance of Indian reserves and Bantustans, imposed policies that treated Indigenous peoples as uncivilized wards of the state. In the African polity, however, Black people were numerically dominant and eventually asserted against sometimes ruthless settler resistance, their constitutional status as equal individuals in the mix of citizenship with White people.

Israel turns out to have emerged as the most aggressive of all the settler colonies. I can think of no single genocidal event in the history in settler colonies more severe than what we have been witnessing in Gaza since early October. I cannot think of any Indian war or Maori war or Aborigines war or Kaffir war in South Africa to compare with the rapid fire, high-tech assault still underway in Gaza.

The colonization of the Israeli entity got off to a very bad start in 1947-48 after the General Assembly of the United Nations just barely squeezed out a majority vote on Resolution 181. The key features of Resolution 181 were the partition provisions dividing Palestine into to two sections, one for a new Jewish country and the other for a new Arab state. To this day the Arab state has yet to established. This outcome had the result of making many of the Palestinian survivors of Israel’s genocidal “War of Independence” in 1948, into stateless refugees.

From 1948 until today the genocidal assault on the native Palestinians has continued. The stateless refugees of the Gaza concentration camp were subjected to especially ruthless treatment culminating in the genocidal assault initiated in early October of 2023. It is readily apparent to those who have looked at the available evidence that considerable planning for this climactic genocide happened in the secret branches of the US and Israeli governments long before October 7.

The aim has been and remains to rid the Gaza strip of its 2+ million Palestinians inhabitants. The plan remains to exterminate as many Palestinians as possible by a lethal combination of technics, while while simultaneously destroying all housing, infrastructure and life support systems. The plan is to evict all survivors by forcing them to run for their lives away from a sterile death zone that the Jewish supremacists conducting the genocide want to transform into Jewish settlements.

When the Test of Legitimacy Is What You Can Get Away With

It seemed until recently that the US-Israel genocidal assault on Gaza was well within the purposely vague and ill-defined “rules-based international order.” This supposed rules-based order seems to thrive on operating outside the rule of law in the realm where might is right and the test of legitimacy is what you can get away with.

The settler colonialism of Israel was crafted into a defiant display demonstrating how many Israeli Jews have come to believe with some justification that they are not subject to any enforced limitations in their treatment of the Indigenous peoples. Many have come to embrace a self-perception that they are Chosen people considered to be above the law when it comes to the act of de-Palestinianizing Greater Israel.

For them ethnic cleansing was not to be considered a crime but rather a divine calling and a mission. The West Bank settlers with their laissez faire approach to murdering, torturing and jailing Palestinians seem to have become something of a caricature of the Cowboys and Indians culture of the American Wild West.

Then in the final days of 2023 the South African government submitted to the World Court a very solid indictment of Israel, accusing it of violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Instituted in 1948, the Genocide Convention was a pioneering example of international criminal law very intertwined with the genesis of the UN’s International Court of Justice. (ICJ)

The ICJ agreed to accept the South African submission. The Court heard South Africa’s verbal arguments on January 11 and the next day it heard lawyers presenting a a defence on behalf of the government of Israel. Apparently Israel had never taken its place in the dock for the accused in any international proceeding.

Apparently up until 12 January, Israel basically ignored and boycotted any proceeding meant to hold them legally accountable for their treatment of the occupied people. The government and most of the people of Israel refused to acknowledge that Palestinians have a right of self-defence. They refused to picture themselves as Occupiers victimizing the Occupied People. Whatever happens, it seems, Jewish Israelis must always see themselves as victims.

Then on January 26 the ICJ came out with a historic ruling that acknowledged that a plausible instance of genocide was occurring in Gaza. The court did not order a cease fire. According to Michel Chossudovsky, the Court opted rather to call on the Netanyahu government to prevent and punish itself for possibly committing genocide.

Like many, I was initially very happy with the Court’s ruling. After years of seeing huge examples of obvious criminality taking place on many fronts at the the highest levels, apparently without legal consequences for the culprits, I wondered if the rule of law on the most important issues of our time had gone completely dormant.

The confidence of high officialdom in Israel that they could justify their obvious genocide by calling Palestinians animals and worse than animals, was hard to even fathom let alone absorb. Seeing hateful genocidal language put in the mouths of the Israeli children’s choir seemed to me like a whole new type of child abuse.

It also came as a shock that amidst all the factionalism among Jewish Israels, there seems to be no significant group focused on ending the genocidal assault because of the insanely lethal and injurious damage being done to Palestinian humans including droves of their children. It was daunting listening to that young Israeli soldier speaking openly about his wish to shoot Israeli children as if this lust to kill was the basis for some kind of wet dream.

Rethinking the ICJ Ruling in Light of the Observation That Netanyahu and His Cabinet Have Been Put in Charge of the Process of Investigating, Preventing and Punishing the Gaza Genocide

It has taken a while to sink in, but my appreciation of the ICJ ruling has dropped a few notches the more I contemplate the argument posed by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky in a running essay in Global Research.ca that he keeps revising since first publishing it on January 29. I currently have the Feb. 4 version in front of me. I’ll reproduce a large portion of the text below. The subtitle introduces the main thesis.

The ICJ “Appoints” Netanyahu to “Prevent” and “Punish” Those Responsible for “Genocidal Acts”

The excerpt below starts with a part of the court order followed by Prof. Chossudovsky’s analysis of its meaning and implications

Court Order: “The State of Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip;…”

Analysis: What the ICJ judgment intimates is that the “Constitutionally Responsible Rulers (CRRs)”  acting on behalf of the State of Israel , namely the members of Netanyahu’s Cabinet, are “Innocent”.  They cannot “prevent and punish” themselves.

And that is where “Fake Justice” comes in  

“Constitutionally Responsible Rulers (CRRs)” Netanyahu, Galant, Ben-Gvir, Katz,  Smotrich, et al are the architects of the Genocide. Yet they have been assigned by the ICJ  with a mandate “To Prevent and Punish the Direct and Public Incitement to Commit Genocide…”  

The CRRs within Netanyahu’s Cabinet acting on behalf of the State of Israel-– who carefully planned prior to October 7, 2023 a genocidal attack against the People of Palestine, have been “appointed” by the ICJ to “take all measures within its power” to “prevent” and “punish” “public officials”, private individuals”, andmembers of the Military who are carrying out acts of “direct and public incitement to commit genocide”.

Prevention and Punishment is not contemplated against Israel’s Netanyahu Clique of CRRs “who have blood on their hands.”  

Under present circumstances, this “take all measures within its power” concept is tantamount to the criminalization of International Law: The CRRs “Criminals in High Office” (Netanayahu et al) are invited to take law enforcement in their own hands.

The option to entrust Netanyahu’s Cabinet with the “Prevent and Punish” assignment was a decision of the World Court. The 17 Judges could have demanded that the Israeli government cease all genocidal actions. They could also have recommended that the “prevent and punish” mandate be assigned to a United Nations body, including the UN Security Council. 

The Netanyahu government has ordered the most hideous crimes against the People of Palestine. 

And now the World Court has instructed a criminal government led by Netanyahu (who has a criminal record) to “take all measures within its power” to “prevent” and “punish” “public officials, “private individuals” (Article IV) as well as combatants within the Israeli military….

It’s an absurd proposition.  It unfortunately disallows Netanyahu to “prevent and punish himself”.

As Prof. Chossudovsky sees it, the ICJ has framed its ruling in ways meant to cushion the executive branch of the Israeli government from prosecution for genocide. The scholar is very suspicious of the role of the Chairman of the World Court, Joan Donoghue, a former lawyer for Hillary Clinton when she was US Secretary of State. Prof. Chossudovsky believes Judge Donoghue is taking signals from the US government and that she should have recused herself from the proceedings for having a conflict of interest.

In setting up an obstacle to the prosecution of the executive branch of the Israeli government, Judge Donoghue is by implication also protecting the executive branch of the US government. The US government can be viewed as a full partner in the Gaza genocide in spite of the unconvincing play acting by some in the Biden administration.

On January 26 the Times of Israel reported that

“However, the court did not take the action most desired by South Africa and feared by Israel — that of ordering an immediate, unilateral ceasefire which would have stymied the war effort and indicated that the court believes genocide is actively taking place.”

In contemplating this comments after reading Professor Chossudovsky’s assessment, I pictured the ICJ ruling in a different light. While the ruling will clearly have serious consequences for Israel, some Israelis must have understood the judgment as one that that enabled them to evade what they most feared, namely the “ordering of an immediate, unilateral ceasefire which would have stymied the war effort and indicated that the court believes genocide is actively taking place.”

My thoughts turn to a Zoom discussion I recently watched where journalists in Tel Aviv at Haaretz commented on the ruling. One of the presenters indicated that Israel had just evaded a bullet he had feared would strike Israel with the issuing of the ICJ ruling. After viewing the Haaretz presenter’s comments, the new revelations from Prof. Chossudovsky helped me to I understand better why the journalist might have seen it the way he did.

I also revisited my former assessment of a celebration involving thousands of Israelis in a stadium in Jerusalem where great merriment and even exuberant dancing took place. The conference, which took place after the ICJ ruling, was to anticipate killing and evicting all the Gazan Palestinians as a prelude to the partiers’ goal of transforming Gaza into the site of many new Jewish settlements.

I covered this story of this Israeli real estate party in a recent Substack post. When I put the item together, it did not dawn on me that Itamar Ben-Givir and his colleagues may have well understood the brighter side of the ICJ’s ruling when it comes to the legal position of the Israeli PM and cabinet. Were they celebrating that part of the ruling?

See my post here.

Final Thoughts

I’ll close with a few thoughts on the instant Israeli demonization of the United Nations Refugee and Work Agency, UNRWA. This UN agency has been a life line for displaced Palestinians not only in Gaza and the West Bank but also in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

Eighteen governments including my government of Canada fell straight in line with withholding funding from UNRWA, the agency carrying the largest burden of the responsibility to provide humanitarian supplies into Gaza at this moment of grave need. To contribute to the holding back of humanitarian aid at this time and in this context may be interpreted as a flirtation with complicity in genocide.

Canada I think is already complicit in genocide because it supplies weapons to the government of Israel. There are also reports that Canada’s special forces unit, Joint Task Force-2, took part with the IDF in military operations in Gaza, As I see it, the complex of Israel Lobby organizations in Canada, but especially the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, CIJA, are also complicit in genocide because they counsel Canada’s people and its government to show contempt for the World Court and the UNRWA.

The CIJA’s actions indicate why the organization should have to register as a lobby for a foreign government and why it should not be treated as a charitable philanthropy capable of issuing receipts for tax exemptions.

All of this resistance to ending the genocide in Gaza causes me to be less optimistic about turning the corner away from the notorious rules-based international order. Many of its protagonists seem to have no problem with aligning themselves with the Israel-US genocide in Gaza as well as with the attackers on Yemen and Lebanon. As I am coming to understand it, however, the weight of worldwide public opinion that is no longer prepared to tolerate the obscenity of open genocide in our midst, is making headway towards a humanitarian approach embracing national sovereignty, multipolarity, and the security that comes from a more robust embrace of the rule of law.

*

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 author’s Substack, Looking out at the World from Canada.

Dr. Anthony Hall is currently Professor of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta Canada. He has been a teacher in the Canadian university system since 1982. Dr. Hall, has recently finished a big two-volume publishing project at McGill-Queen’s University Press entitled “The Bowl with One Spoon”.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). 

Featured image is from the author

The Dangers of Complicity: The US Courts, Gaza and Genocide

February 6th, 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).

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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.

Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Holding the foreign policy of a country accountable in court, notably when it comes to matters criminal, can be insuperably challenging. Judges traditionally shun making decisions on policy, even though they unofficially do so all the time. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based civil liberties group, was not to be discouraged, most notably regarding the Biden administration’s unflagging support for Israel and its war in Gaza.

In a filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of California last November, the CCR, representing a number of Palestinian human rights organisations including Palestinians in Gaza and the United States, sought an order “requiring that the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense adhere to their duty to prevent, and not further, the unfolding genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.” Such a duty, arising in the UN Genocide Convention of 1948, “is judicially enforceable as a peremptory norm of customary international law.”

The complaint alleged that the genocidal conditions in Gaza had “so far been made possible because of unconditional support given [to Israel] by the named official-capacity defendants in this case,” namely, President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

At the time proceedings were initiated, the Israeli campaign in Gaza, launched in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas, had already claimed the lives of 11,000 Palestinian civilians, “more than 4,500 of them children, as well as entire families, numerous journalists and UN workers.” The bombardment had crippled critical infrastructure, led to the displacement of 1.6 million persons, and had been “accompanied by a total siege of Gaza, depriving Palestinians in Gaza the conditions of life necessary for human survival: food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity.” (Currently, the displaced number exceeds 2 million; the number of dead towers at 26,000.)

In reaching his decision to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds, Jeffrey S. White admitted it was the “most difficult” of his career. He acknowledged South Africa’s action in the International Court of Justice against Israel, which argues that Israel’s conduct against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip satisfies the elements of genocide.

The January 26 interim order of provisional measures granted by the ICJ explicitly put Israel on notice to comply with the Genocide Convention, punish those responsible for directly and publicly inciting genocide, permit basic humanitarian assistance and essential services to the Gaza Strip, preserve relevant evidence pertaining to potential genocidal acts and submit a report to the ICJ on its compliance within a month. In international law, these interim measures are accepted as binding.

The ICJ also showed some scepticism to arguments that Israel had taken adequate measures to minimise harm to Palestinian civilians and respond to instances where an incitement to genocide could be imputed. None of the measures taken till that point had removed the risk of irreparable harm; to merely assert compliance was not sufficient evidence of it.

In White’s words, “the undisputed evidence before this Court comports with the finding of the ICJ and indicates that the current treatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military may plausibly constitute a genocide in violation of international law.” Lawyers representing the government also chose not to cross-examine witnesses, bar one Holocaust scholar who testified that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip could be classed as genocidal.  Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, the claims advanced in this case, involving disputes over foreign policy, raised “fundamentally non-justiciable political questions.” To compel the US government to cease military and financial assistance to Israel were matters “intimately related to foreign policy and national security”.

The plaintiffs had encountered that great limitation articulated by Chief Justice Marshall in 1803: that ‘[q]uestions, in their nature political, or which are, by the constitution and laws, submitted to the executive, can never be made in this court”. To do so would violate the separation of powers. The judiciary was, according to White, “not equipped with the intelligence or the acumen necessary to make foreign policy decisions on behalf of the government.”

Despite being bound by weighty precedent and rulings in previous cases, White concludes with a plea. The ICJ had found it “plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide.” The judge implored the “Defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.” Not bad for one lacking intelligence or the acumen necessary to make foreign policy decisions.

While disappointed in White’s ruling, Brad Parker, a senior advisor to one of the organisational plaintiffs, Defense for Children International Palestine, saw the thickest of silver linings. Along with the ICJ decision, “and the increasing recognition that what Israel is carrying out is a genocide and the US is complicit in those genocidal acts, I think the strong language from a US federal court judge increasingly works to isolate Israel’s actions and also bring pressure on the Biden administration to change course.”

To date, the slaughter in Gaza continues. Israeli politicians and military officials persist in claiming that murderously innovative approaches to killing Palestinian civilians are not, by definition, genocidal. But the walls of justifiable impunity, so proudly claimed by Israel in its righteous mission of self-defence, are proving increasingly porous.

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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] 

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Question 1: The ICJ Genocide Ruling

Mike Whitney (MW): In your opinion, is the ICJ’s ‘genocide’ ruling convincing or overstated?

Ron Unz (RU): From the beginning I’ve been extremely reluctant to characterize the Israeli attack on Gaza as being a “genocide” because use of that term has become so wildly inflated and distorted in recent years, converted by dishonest Western governments and their mainstream media lackeys into a propaganda-weapon used to vilify countries whose governments they seek to undermine.

Most people understand “genocide” to mean killing a large fraction of a given population group as part of an effort aimed at total extermination. But in early 2021, the outgoing Trump Administration and incoming Biden officials both publicly declared that the Chinese government was committing a “genocide” against the Uighur people of Xinjiang Province despite failing to provide any evidence that any significant number of Uighurs had actually been killed, and the media heavily promoted those accusations. If the bipartisan political leaders of America and our complicit mainstream media can declare a “genocide” without any apparent killings, the word has become so totally corrupted that I’m loath to consider using it.

However, in a strictly technical sense this ridiculous situation is actually possible. The term “genocide” was originally invented around 1944 by a Jewish propagandist named Raphael Lemkin, who used it as a means of stigmatizing and vilifying Nazi Germany. The beginning of the lengthy Wikipedia article on Genocide explains how the definition soon officially adopted by the UN included situations involving few if any actual killings:

In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.

Given the nebulous definition of causing “serious bodily or mental harm,” leftist academics over the decades have often denounced “cultural genocide,” in which a government uses its power to assimilate a minority group into the language and cultural practices of the majority. For example, a century ago Canada established a system of residential public schools to teach English and modern lifestyles to Amerindian children from deprived tribal backgrounds. At the time, the policy was considered a benign, enlightened effort to help integrate them into mainstream Canadian society, but in recent years, that educational project has been denounced as “cultural genocide.”

One obvious problem with this very expansive definition of “genocide” is that it includes far too many historical cases. Used in such a broad fashion, there may have been many dozens or even hundreds of different “genocides” around the world over the last decade or two, and if everything is a “genocide” then nothing is a “genocide,” with the powerful political term drained of any impact.

However, despite all those serious concerns, I do think that the Israeli military actions in Gaza have been so extreme, so indiscriminate, and so massive that they fall into an entirely different category. Nearly 70% of the Gazans killed have been women or children, a demographic profile very close to that of the general Gaza population. Since Hamas consists entirely of adult males, this indicates that nearly all the deaths have been those of unarmed civilians, which is almost unprecedented in military conflicts over the last few decades.

However, such carnage is hardly surprising given Israel’s enormously heavy bombardment of that very densely populated urban center with the largest unguided bombs in its arsenal. After less than one month, the Israelis had already dropped more explosives than the tonnage corresponding to the nuclear weapons used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and they have accelerated their attacks since then, destroying 100,000 local buildings and rendering nearly two million Gazans homeless.

By early December, the Financial Times reported that the destruction inflicted upon defenseless northern Gaza after just seven weeks of Israeli attacks was similar to that suffered by the worst-hit German cities after years of Allied carpet-bombing during World War II, an astonishing comparison.

The obvious Israeli intent has been to render Gaza totally uninhabitableand kill enough Gazans to drive them out into the Sinai desert, thereby allowing the Israelis to annex the land as many of their political leaders have proposed. The South African legal case filed before the ICJ included 90-odd pages quoting numerous top Israeli political and military leaders who publicly declared their explicitly genocidal plans towards the Palestinians of Gaza, and their attacks over the last four months have certainly amounted to the greatest televised slaughter of helpless civilians in the history of the world.

Under such a combination of facts, I think it was very reasonable for the near-unanimous ICJ ruling that there was strong evidence that the Gazans were at serious risk of suffering a potential genocide at the hands of the Israelis. The Israeli government itself appointed one of the ICJ judges hearing the case, selecting a former chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, but he voted along with the other justices that the Israeli government must take all measures to prevent and punish incitement to genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza.

Question 2: Possible Israeli Justification

MW: In your opinion, is there any defense for Israel’s behavior in Gaza? And, are you at all sympathetic to Israel’s stated position (that they need to defeat Hamas to defend their own national security.)

RU: Israel has absolutely no legitimate case whatsoever for its attacks on Gaza over the last four months, and as more and more facts have come out, the attempts at justification have become weaker and weaker.

Hamas came to power in 2007 following free elections organized and judged fair by the Americans, but after that surprising victory at the polls, Israel and the West orchestrated an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the vote by military force. As I explained in December, the failure of that coup led Israel to impose a very harsh blockade and siege on Gaza:

For over fifteen years, more than two million Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza have been rigidly confined to what Human Rights Watch and other leading international organizations have widely described as the world’s largest open air prison or concentration camp, with all their food, fuel, medicine, and outward movement tightly controlled by their Israeli captors.

When the Gazans began staging months of large, unarmed peaceful marches in 2018 to protest their terrible situation, they were massacred by Israeli troops, with many thousands killed or wounded. In 1960 Apartheid South Africa, a single, somewhat violent protest march against aspects of white minority rule led to 69 deaths and horrified the entire world, which proclaimed it “the Sharpesville Massacre.” But given the tight control over the global media by Jews and other pro-Israel forces, the vastly larger number of deaths inflicted upon the totally unarmed Gaza protesters was almost entirely ignored. This remarkable story was told in a widely-praised 2019 documentary on the subject by filmmaker Abby Martin, an American sympathetic to the Gazans, as well as in her more recent interview on the same subject.

The American government and American media endlessly glorify the 1950s Civil Rights protest marches led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others and have fiercely denounced the brutal beatings those illegal protesters sometimes received at the hands of Southern police. But imagine the reaction if thousands of those black marchers had been shot down by American military snipers.

The key difference is that the uniformly pro-Israel Western global media has for decades concealed these facts, allowing the Israelis to literally get away with murder. Meanwhile, the Israeli government had spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing massive fortified defenses around Gaza, which they believed had completely eliminated the possibility of any incursion by Hamas.

Therefore, when the very successful Hamas attack breached those defenses, the complacent and over-confident Israelis completely panicked, and their Apache helicopters were ordered to blast anything that moved with Hellfire missiles, killing very large numbers of Israeli civilians. The exact totals are uncertain, but based upon the evidence I think that a majority, probably a substantial majority of all the unarmed Israeli civilians killed on October 7th actually died at the hands of their own trigger-happy military forces, with perhaps as few as 100 to 200 killed by the Hamas fighters, in many cases inadvertently.

These likely facts are hardly surprising since the primary goal of the Hamas attack was to seize Israeli hostages who could then be exchanged for the thousands of Palestinian captives held without trial in Israeli prisons, sometimes for years and under brutal conditions. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the Israeli government implemented its notorious “Hannibal Directive,” ordering Israeli military forces to deliberately target and the kill Israelis who had been captured by Hamas in order to forestall any such later prisoner exchanges.

I discussed these issues in several articles (see this, this, and this), beginning in late October, also explaining that since the Hamas fighters had apparently killed so few civilians, Israel and its media allies had desperately resorted to promoting the most outrageous atrocity-hoaxes to buttress their moral case for the massive retaliatory bombardment of Gaza they were unleashing.

In early January, I summarized some of these conclusions:

The surprisingly successful Hamas attack on October 7th was deeply embarrassing to the Israelis, and pro-Israel propagandists soon began heavily emphasizing ridiculous hoaxes such as the claims of forty beheaded babies or a baby roasted in an oven. All of these frauds were provided by extremely disreputable characters, but eagerly accepted and promoted by leading Western political elites and media outlets.

The latest wave of very doubtful claims has focused upon second-hand stories of Hamas gang-rapes and sexual mutilations. These accounts only came to light two months after the events in question and lacked any supportive forensic evidence, with many of the claims coming from the same individuals behind the beheaded babies hoax, suggesting that they are equally desperate propaganda ploys. Journalists Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, and others have discussed the extreme credulity of the Times and other media outlets in promoting these blatantly fraudulent stories. Many of these points are summarized in a brief video discussion:

Meanwhile, consider the very strong evidence from silence. According to news reports, small GoPro cameras were worn by the attacking Hamas militants, which recorded all their activities, and the Israelis recovered many of these from their bodies and began carefully examining hundreds of hours of this extensive video footage. They surely would have soon released a video compilation providing any incriminating evidence that they found, yet I’m not aware of a single public clip that shows any such brutal atrocities or mass killings, strongly suggesting that very little of that occurred. Indeed, the Gray Zone discovered that the main photograph provided of an allegedly raped and murdered Israeli woman actually turned out to be that of a female Kurdish fighter from years earlier that had been plucked off the Internet, demonstrating the apparent desperation and dishonesty of the pro-Israel propagandists promoting these stories.

But given that total national humiliation, the Israeli military reaction aimed at punishing the helpless civilians of Gaza has been enormously brutal, probably already killing well over 30,000 victims, overwhelmingly women and children. Nearly all of Gaza’s hospitals have been destroyed, along with the local universities, schools, mosques and churches, and administrative buildings. A few days ago, the New York Times published an article highlighting the widespread Israeli use of controlled demolitions to deliberately destroy all of this civilian infrastructure. The obvious intent is to render the entire area uninhabitable and permanently drive out Gaza’s Palestinians.

It’s useful to contrast this Israeli retaliatory campaign of massive destruction with how other countries reacted in the wake of comparable events. For example, in 1946 Zionist militants dressed as Arabs bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people in one of the worst terrorist attacks in history to that date, with an overwhelming majority of the victims being civilians. It would have been unthinkable for the British to have responded by launching a massive bombing campaign against the Jewish population centers of Palestine, killing thousands or tens of thousands of Jews, and they would have been universally condemned by the world as the worst sort of war-criminals if they had done so.

Similarly, beginning in the early 1970s, the IRA launched a huge wave of terrorism against British military and civilian targets, including bombing attacks in central London, and many hundreds died as a consequence. In 1984, the IRA planted a massive bomb in the Brighton hotel being used for a Conservative Party conference, killing or severely injuring many important British officials, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her government narrowly escaping death. The IRA had considerable popular support among the Catholics of both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, yet the British would have been considered totally insane if they had responded with a massive strategic bombing campaign against those Irish civilian population centers.

When countries behave like mad dogs before the eyes of the entire world they have only themselves to blame for the ultimate consequences.

Question 3: Demographic Reasons

MW: Are there demographic reasons why Israel would want to expel the Palestinians in Gaza or is this really all about Hamas?

RU: The Zionist goal had always been to establish Israel as an ethnically-pure Jewish state, driving out all the native Palestinians. In 1948, the Zionist militias came close to achieving that objective, seizing nearly 80% of the territory and violently expelling almost a million Palestinians from their ancient homeland, killing many of them in that brutal process of ethnic cleansing. The main regret was that some Palestinians still remained when a truce ending the fighting, but the result was still the creation of an overwhelmingly Jewish state. Although the UN required Israel to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to the homes they had fled days or weeks earlier, the Israeli government always ignored that requirement, often shooting and killing any Palestinian civilians who attempted to do so. I discussed that history of Israel’s origins in a long December article.

However, in 1967 the Israelis suddenly launched a surprise attack against Egypt and its other Arab neighbors, seizing Gaza and the West Bank with their millions of Palestinians, many of whom were refugees who had previously been expelled from their homes in Israel two decades earlier. Annexing those new territories would have required Israel to grant citizenship to their non-Jewish residents, severely shifting the overall demographic balance, so despite endless peace negotiations, they have effectively remained under Israeli occupation for more than a half-century, even as their Palestinian populations have steadily increased.

A further political constraint upon Israeli governments has been the growing political power of the right-wing religious voting block, which regards those occupied territories as the sacred, divinely-ordained lands of their Greater Israel and is therefore absolutely opposed to relinquishing any part of it, especially in order to establish a Palestinian state. Moreover, during those long decades of occupation, Israeli governments have planted many Jewish settlements, with most of those settlers being religious zealots, determined to retain the land and drive out the existing Palestinians.

Over the last three generations, Palestinian numbers have grown more rapidly than Jewish ones, and they now constitute almost exactly half of the population of the intended Greater Israel, now containing 7.2 million Jews and 7.2 million Palestinians. So if the Palestinians were granted civil rights, Israel would immediately cease to be a Jewish state. Therefore, prior to October 7th, the Israeli strategy had been to maintain an Apartheid state on the West Bank, while confining the Palestinians of Gaza to what amounted to an open-air prison.

But the surprisingly successful Hamas raid destroyed those political illusions, inflicting very heavy casualties on Israel’s military forces and also leading to many civilian deaths. With Apartheid no long considered a viable, long-term option, the Israeli government seems to have now decided to use the Hamas raid as an excuse for solving its demographic problems by killing or expelling all the Palestinians once and for all, with surveys showing that the bulk of the Israeli public apparently supports that plan.

I had discussed some of these issues in an October podcast interview:

Click here to watch the video

Question 4: UNRWA and Palestinian Starvation

MW: Israeli leaders know that if they succeed in defunding UNRWA, tens of thousands of Palestinians will die from hunger. And, yet, among members of the Knesset, there is almost unanimous support for the policy. What are we to make of this? Does Israel really want to starve two million Palestinians or do they have some other goal in mind?

RU: For the last several months, the Israelis have been severely restricting the import of food, water, and medicine into Gaza so that there is already widespread hunger and thirst, with a high-ranking UN official describing the resulting famine as an “unprecedented” crisis. According to these reports, the Palestinians of Gaza now constitute roughly 80% of all the people in the world facing catastrophic hunger.

Moreover, numerous top Israeli leaders have been using explicitly genocidal language towards this Palestinian population. According to Max Blumenthal, Israeli public opinion surveys have shown that 98% of Israeli Jews support the massive destruction inflicted upon Gaza and indeed over 40% think that the Israeli government’s military attacks have been too restrained and should be stronger.

Combining these different pieces of evidence, I doubt that many members of the Knesset would be dismayed if large numbers of Gazans began to die of starvation, especially if such horrifying conditions finally succeeded in driving them into Egypt and forcing the Egyptian government to accept them, thereby emptying the enclave and allowing Israel to permanently occupy and annex it. At the very least, Israeli leaders may believe that such mass starvation of Gazan civilians would coerce Hamas into accepting defeat and agreeing to release their remaining prisoners.

So the plan behind the Western suspension of financial support for UNRWA may be based upon Israeli goals, which include some mixture of punishment and further pressure for Palestinian expulsion or Hamas surrender. Meanwhile, the Western media has used the heavy coverage of those unsubstantiated accusations against UNRWA to avoid reporting the dramatic vote against Israel by the IJC that had immediately proceeded it.

The actual reasons given by the United States and many of its allies for cutting off funding to UNRWA and beginning to starve the Palestinians seemed utterly unreasonable. According to media reports, UNRWA employs some 30,000 Gazan residents and the Israelis claimed that just 12 of these individuals had participated in the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel—12 out of 30,000 employees! This demonstrates the absurd subservience of Western political leaders to the wishes of the Israeli government.

With so much of Gaza destroyed and with so many Gazans now on the verge of starvation, there are videos showing groups of Israeli activists blocking the entry of trucks carrying food and water to that desperate population, and surely almost everyone around the world condemns that monstrous behavior. Yet the political leaders of America, Britain, Germany, and many other Western nations who endlessly boast of their humanitarian principles are now doing much the same thing, seeking to cut off food supplies to millions of starving civilians, utterly outrageous actions ignored by most of the American public, who have been successfully brainwashed by our mainstream media.

Question 5: A War of Narratives

MW: Israel’s operation in Gaza is, to large extent, a war of narratives. On the one hand, we have the highly-politicized term “genocide,” and on the other we have the equally-politicized term “antisemitism.” I cannot remember any conflict in which language played a more important role or summarized the views of the warring parties. Do you agree that—beyond the actual hostilities and violence—there is a battle of narratives taking place in which the two main enemies are brandishing their own particular terminology to overpower the other? Who do you think is winning that war?

RU: I do think that the political activists condemning the Israeli military attack on Gaza quickly began using the incendiary charge of “genocide” to dramatize their case and also to counter the weighty accusations of “antisemitism” they faced from their pro-Israel opponents. But that approach has resulted in some serious setbacks.

For example, when student protesters at Harvard and other elite colleges held up signs denouncing “genocide” or shouted it out at their public demonstrations, their opponents dishonestly claimed that they were publicly calling for the genocide of Jews. This allowed pro-Israel forces to deploy their overwhelming political and media power to promote that ridiculous argument and use it to force the resignation of the presidents of Harvard and UPenn, resulting in an unprecedented ideological purge of the top leadership of Ivy League schools.

I also think introduction of that term may have helped pressure Elon Musk into banning anyone on Twitter who used the popular progressive slogan “From the River to the Sea,” claiming that it represented a call for “Jewish genocide” rather than merely the replacement of Israel with a secular democratic state with equal rights for both Jews and Palestinians.

On the other hand, now that a near-unanimous majority of the International Court of Justice has ruled that the Palestinians of Gaza are indeed potentially at risk of suffering such a genocide at Israel’s hands, those accusations have become much more substantial and legitimate, although the Western mainstream media has done its utmost to avoid reporting that important story, probably preventing most of the public from becoming aware of it.

There is also a very strong divide based upon age and sources of information. For generations, America’s mainstream print publications and broadcast media have presented an extremely one-sided, pro-Israel account of the Middle East conflict, and individuals drenched for decades in such powerful propaganda are unlikely to suddenly change their opinions, so polling shows that they are still very supportive of Israel.

However, younger Americans are less set in their beliefs and they also often get their knowledge of events from social media and video platforms, which are much less under the total control of pro-Israel propagandists.Therefore, surveys reveal that they are far more evenly divided in their views, or even actually lean more towards the Palestinian side.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world outside the influence of the Western mainstream media, support for the Palestinian cause seems absolutely overwhelming, certainly among the two billion Arabs and Muslims, but elsewhere as well. For example, China and its media outlets have attempted to provide even-handed coverage of the current conflict, seeking to maintain good relations with both Israel and the Arab world. But when a leading influencer on Chinese social media polled his million Weibo followers soon after the October 7th Hamas attacks, 98% of them thought that the Palestinians were the ones with justice on their side.

I discussed some of these matters in several recent podcast interviews:

Question 6: Inciting a War with Iran

MW: In your opinion, is Netanyahu trying to incite a war between the United States and Iran? How would Israel benefit from such a war?

RU: It’s absolutely obvious that he is trying to do so. Indeed, Netanyahu and his political allies, including the American Neocons, have been doing their utmost to incite an American attack on Iran for decades, using military provocations, dishonest propaganda, and political pressure to achieve this objective. For more than thirty years, the Israeli leader has declared that Iran is on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon and must be stopped, famously holding up a colorful illustration of the dire Iranian threat at the 2012 UN General Assembly.

The problem they face is that all competent military experts agree that such a war would be utterly disastrous for the United States and our Western allies, as well as the entire world. Iran is a large, populous nation and its reasonable concerns about a possible American attack have caused it to build up a very formidable military force, including an enormous arsenal of highly-accurate cruise missiles which could easily overwhelm our defenses in the region. If we attacked, Iran’s retaliatory strikes could probably destroy all of our local bases in the region, killing enormous numbers of Americans, while sinking many of our ships at sea, perhaps even including the aircraft carriers that provide our global projection of power.

Over the last few weeks, the Houthi militias of Yemen, merely equipped with second- and third-tier weapons, have demonstrated that they can successfully bar the Red Sea to any vessels they wish, and our vaunted naval and air power has proved powerless to stop them. So in a war, the Iranians—who possess a vastly larger arsenal of first-class weapons, supposedly even including the hypersonic missiles that we ourselves have yet been unable to produce—could easily block the Straits of Hormuz to oil tankers, thereby collapsing much of the world economy at a stroke, especially including our NATO allies and Japan.

Given the endless American threats of attack, the Iranians have worked very hard over the last couple of decades to greatly improve their military capabilities, while despite our enormous defense budget, our own conventional arsenal has largely remained stagnant due to our overwhelming focus upon counter-insurgency efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than two decades ago, the Pentagon’s 2002 Millennium Challenge war games found that the Iranians could defeat America in a war, and Iran is vastly stronger today. Meanwhile, the Iranians have recently finalized a comprehensive 20-year deal with Russia that includes defense cooperation, and given our huge support for the Ukrainian forces over the last couple of years, Moscow would certainly be very willing to return the favor by backing and supplying Iran.

So I actually think the greatest danger we face is that a sufficiently ignorant or arrogant Biden Administration, under enormous internal and external pressure by pro-Israel political forces, might be drawn into a totally irrational war with Iran. And if the results were sufficiently disastrous, with enormous American human losses from Iranian missiles fired at our military bases and ships sunk at sea, perhaps including aircraft carriers, our government might find itself compelled to threaten or use nuclear weapons to salvage its position, thereby pushing the entire world to the brink of destruction.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).  

Featured image is from TUR

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New Year Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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“Autopsy is not only a service to the doctors who were responsible for the patient, but it is a public service for our health system.” – Prof. Dr. Arne Burkhardt

Many cases of sudden death and severe disease are being reported since the rollout of the COVID-19 gene-based vaccines. Early on, several doctors and scientists warned that the COVID vaccines would lead to several complications including autoimmune disease, blood clots, strokes, and more. Additionally, The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, data showed a strong correlation between the vaccines and adverse events. But how does one determine in an individual case that the vaccine was the cause of death or the adverse event? It is through pathology.

An early pioneer of pathological investigations into vaccine adverse events was Prof. Arne Burkhardt — a senior, highly accomplished pathologist from Germany. Prof. Burkhardt came out of retirement in 2021 to examine the autopsy and biopsy materials of vaccinated patients. The work of Prof. Burkhardt not only provided strong evidence of vaccine causation, it substantiated the professional medical hypotheses of doctors and scientists around the world.

Journalist Taylor Hudak interviewed Prof. Burkhardt in his laboratory in Reutlingen, Germany, shortly before his death in May 2023. Prof. Burkhardt explains several of his findings in detail as well as which testing mechanisms he uses. Additionally, he shares his perspectives on the public health industry and academic and medical science as well as what motivates him to do this work.

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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

History: Emancipation, the Nadir and Pan-African Awakenings

February 6th, 2024 by Abayomi Azikiwe

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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.

Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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“The unfriendly whites first drove the native American from his much-loved home. Then they stole our fathers from their peaceful and quiet dwellings, and brought them hither, and made bondmen and bondwomen of them and their little ones. They have obliged our brethren to labor; kept them in utter ignorance; nourished them in vice and raised them in degradation; and now that we have enriched their soil, and filled their coffers, they say that we are not capable of becoming like white men, and that we never can rise to respectability in this country.” (Quote taken from a Maria W. Stewart address entitled African Rights and Liberty delivered at the African Masonic Hall in Boston, February 27, 1833)

These words uttered in a public address later published in the abolitionist Liberator newspaper edited by William Lloyd Garrison some three decades prior to the African intervention in the United States Civil War, typified the sentiment of Black people during the escalating struggle over the future of slavery. (See this)

Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879), born in the northeast state of Connecticut, is said to have been the first woman of any race to speak before audiences of all genders. A series of her speeches between 1831-33, which often utilized religious themes, also gave a materialist analysis of the social conditions of African Americans in the 19th century.

After the defeat of the Confederacy in April 1865, the post-Lincoln government led by President Andrew Johnson was faced with the policy question of how to deal with the 4.5 million people of African descent of which nearly 90 percent were enslaved. Since the national Colored Conventions held in the U.S. beginning in 1830, African American men and women were calling for full equality and land.

Nevertheless, the gallant legislative and organizational efforts of African Americans and their allies within the political superstructure in the House of Representative, Senate, along with state and local governing entities, could not reverse the failure to reconstruct the U.S. on bourgeois democratic principles. These historical developments would plunge the country into another century of racial turmoil. A series of judicial and legislative decisions set the African American people back to a period often described as the “Nadir”. Elected and appointed officials were driven from offices in Washington, state capitals and local governments. This level of institutional racism and repression was enforced by the Ku Klux Klan and other violent white supremacist organizations. Their policies of complete segregation were given legal cover by the state and federal courts which reversed the intent of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution along with the Civil Rights Acts passed during Reconstruction.

By the last decade of the 19th century, “lynch law” was prevalent throughout the South and other regions of the U.S. Thousands of African Americans were being driven from their farms, workplaces and communities. Others were subjected to highly exploitative conditions of employment and unlawful imprisonment which were just as horrendous if not worse than the antebellum period.

Interventions at the Columbian Exposition

Chicago was the scene for the 1893 Columbian Exposition (World Fair) where people from throughout the globe would visit the city to “celebrate” the 400th anniversary of the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus. The entire framework of the gathering was of course flawed since there were already peoples and nations in existence in the western hemisphere centuries prior to the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean.

The fair immediately drew the ire of leading African Americans who decried the total neglect of the contributions of their people in the three decades since the legal end of enslavement. Fortunately, in response, the Haitian government appointed longtime public speaker, author and diplomat Frederick Douglass as co-commissioner of the exhibit for this independent African island-nation in the Caribbean.

After the protest by community organizations, the event administrators designated one day for African Americans. Anti-lynching campaigner and journalist, Ida B. Wells, a much-younger friend and collaborator of Douglass, urged him not to participate in this concession. Douglass argued that he would take advantage of any opportunity to advance the plight of African Americans.

At the Haitian exhibit, a document written by Douglass, Wells, I. Garland Penn and Ferdinand Barnett, the future husband of Wells, entitled “The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition”, was broadly circulated in the thousands. The pamphlet, which extended over 80 pages, was a damning indictment against the U.S. political, economic and social system.

Wells in chapter IV of The Reason Why explained the purported origins of lynch law in the U.S. Citing the Virginia Lancet related to horse theft, Col. Wm. Lynch drafted the law in 1780, and it has been referred to since as the infliction of punishment by private and unauthorized persons.

According to Wells in the chapter:

“This law continues in force today in some of the oldest states of the Union where the courts of justice have long been established, whose laws are executed by white Americans. It flourishes most largely in the states which foster the convict lease system and is brought to bear mainly against the Negro. The first fifteen years of freedom he was murdered by masked mobs for trying to vote. Public opinion having made lynching for that cause unpopular a new reason is given to justify the murders of the past 15 years. The Negro was first charged with attempting to rule white people and hundreds were murdered on that pretended supposition. He is now charged with assaulting or attempting to assault white women. This charge, as false as it is foul, robs us of the sympathy of the world and is blasting the race’s good name.” 

This intervention in 1893 coincided with the Chicago Congress on Africa and the Congress of Representative Women, both of which were addressed by African American women. The Congress on Africa occurred between August 14-21. The event was spread out across various churches within the African American community. Several press accounts praised the Congress on Africa as the most interesting and significant aspect of the Columbian Exposition.

According to one account of the deliberations:

“From August 14, 1893, to August 21, 1893 probably the largest number of African American participants in a world’s fair event assembled as part of the Congress on Africa, or as it was sometimes referred to, the Congress on African Ethnology, or the Congress on the Negro. Its eight-day length included a citywide Sunday session that entered the sanctuaries and pulpits of scores of churches, so thousands of interested church congregants listened to information on the status of the global African population. Identified fully for what it was, the Congress on Africa combined the intellectual with the ideological, religious, philosophical and scientific to formulate an agenda facilitating, in effect, a dualistic American African public policy on the status of continental and diasporan Africans. Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crummell, John Mercer Langston, T. Thomas Fortune and Bishop Henry McNeal Turner discussed the future of Africa with a smattering of continental Africans in attendance. For the American nation, this congress brought about a re-creation of the liberal arrangement between the races that originated in the abolitionist era. And, in its aftermath it represented a first dialogue in substantive interracial cooperation. Accordingly, well-educated blacks as well as the elite and middle-class whites presented invited papers. Africans from the continent and from the Diaspora filled the black ranks, many being the most notable persons in their fields of endeavor – intellectually-endowed, well-known and respected by members of both races. So, with enthusiasm, Caucasians from Europe, Africa and America collaborated in problem-solving based on African strengths rather than hand wringing over African deficiencies.”

Pan-African Awakenings 1897-1900

During the time period in which the Columbian Exposition was held, colonialism was expanding exponentially on the African continent. The Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-85 convened by the leading European powers divided the continent among the imperialist states. See this.

By 1897 in Britain, the African Association had been formed by activists such as South African Alice Kinloch and Trinidadian-born Barrister Henry Sylvester Williams. By 1900 the so-called First Pan-African Conference was convened in London which attracted delegations largely from African descendants in the European, U.S. and Caribbean Diaspora.

Pan-African Conference 1900 in London

The event held between July 23-25 enjoyed the active participation of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, Bishop Alexander Walters, Ms. Anna Julia Cooper, among others. The African Association was merged into the Pan-African Association which, according to the conference report, was supposed to hold another gathering within two years in the U.S. (See this)

Nonetheless, such a gathering was not held until after the conclusion of World War I in 1919 in Paris to coincide with the discussions by the imperialist powers over the geopolitical dynamics stemming from the post-war situation. Nonetheless, the objective limitations of the organizers of the Pan-African Conference of 1900 in London did not halt the resistance to colonialism on the African continent and throughout the world.

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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

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Times of Israel report on January 25 noted that more than 250 U.S. cargo planes and 20 ships have delivered more than 10,000 tons of munitions and military equipment to Israel since its onslaught on Gaza began in October.

The same article stated that Israeli Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir visited Washington in late January to finalize the purchase of 25 F-35 stealth fighter jets, 25 F-15 fighter jets and 12 Apache helicopters from the U.S.

In late December, The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli Defense Ministry had made almost $2.8 billion in additional purchases from the U.S. since the war started—in addition to the $3.8 billion in military aid that the U.S. provides to Israel annually.[1]

On January 26, a 17-judge panel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague issued a ruling that South Africa had solid foundation to bring its case of genocide before the world’s highest court. 

As of this writing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed more than 26,000 civilians in Gaza and injured 65,000 more while reducing much of Gaza to rubble following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

The ICJ case may very well implicate the U.S., which has provided most of the weapons used to kill Palestinian civilians in violation of the laws of war.

Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud wrote that “the fingerprints of U.S. weapons are on the body of every Palestinian killed in Gaza, from the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, to UN schools, to every house and every street.”

According to Baroud,

“never before in the history of the U.S.’s relationship with the Middle East has Washington been so directly involved in an Israeli war. The closest was the 1973 war, and even then, the U.S. involvement arrived a week later, and was hardly as direct.”[2]

In December, Amnesty International carried out an investigation, which determined that Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) manufactured by Boeing at a factory in St. Louis, Missouri, were used by the Israeli military in two unlawful air strikes on homes full of civilians in the Gaza Strip on October 10 and 13, with the fragments from the bombs found in the rubble.

A Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kit fixed to a bomb on display at the Navy League’s 2003 Sea-Air-Space Exposition. [Source: wsws.org]

The strikes on the al-Najjar family home in Deir al-Balah and Abu Mu’eileq family home in the same city killed a total of 43 civilians, including 19 children, and 14 women. In both cases, survivors told Amnesty International there had been no warning of an imminent strike.

A fragment of the JDAM that struck the Abu Mu’eileq family home. [Source: amnesty.org]

A collage of people

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Members of the al-Najjar family who were killed in the strike. [Source: amnesty.org]

A collage of people posing for the camera

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Members of the Abu Mu’eileq family who were killed in the strike. [Source: amnesty.org]

Amnesty has also raised alarm at the use of white phosphorus bombs in Gaza in violation of international law that it believed “may have been exported” from the U.S. In the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead, Israel used white phosphorus bombs that had been produced in Louisiana and Arkansas.

A target of anti-war activism during the Vietnam era, white phosphorus bombs are designed to burn people’s flesh to the bone.

Another weapons used widely by Israel are BLU-109 2,000 pound bunker buster bombs made in the U.S., which according to AP News have killed thousands of people after being dropped in densely populated neighborhoods on the Gaza strip.

According to a report on the World Socialist Website (WSWS), Israeli air strikes in Gaza have been carried out from a fleet of American made warplanes consisting of:

  • 40 F-35 advanced Lockheed Martin stealth warplanes
  • 196 F-16 multi-purpose planes made by General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin
  • 83 F-15 fighters designed and produced by McDonnell Douglas (which is now part of Boeing)

These warplanes are equipped with bombs, missiles and guidance kits largely manufactured in the United States.

The bombs include MK-80 bombs made by General Dynamics in Garland, Texas, and retrofitted in McAlester, Oklahoma, at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, which produces a wide variety of bombs, including the infamous Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs dropped on Afghanistan, whose yield is comparable to a tactical nuclear weapon.[3] 

A worker at the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc., plant in Garland, Texas, works on the MK-80 series of bombs. [Source: wsws.org]

A large missile in front of a building

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McAlester Army Ammunition Plant where they are proud of their deadly creation. [Source: armymilitary.net]

According to the WSWS, the MK-80 is a “primary bomb being used by the IDF as it destroys Gaza.” The IDF has also likely been using GBU-12 (Paveway) laser-guided bombs manufactured by Lockheed at its plant in Archbald, Pennsylvania, that are dropped from Lockheed F-35 fighter jets manufactured at a Lockheed plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

Lockheed’s Archbald plant, where smart bombs used by the IDF to kill Gazan civilians are manufactured. [Source: wsws.org]

Government contracts show that, at its main production headquarters in Tucson, Arizona, Raytheon makes its own variant of the Paveway laser-guided bomb kit and a variety of other missiles for the IDF, including the TOW, the AGM-65 Maverick, the Sidewinder, and the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) explains that Raytheon “provides weapon systems, components, and maintenance services to the Israeli Air Force’s fleet of F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets. For example, the company and its subsidiary Pratt & Whitney have provided F100 engines—the ‘engine of choice’ for F-15 and F-16 aircraft—and APG-82(V)1 radars.”

Raytheon also makes a variety of smaller electronic components as well for the IDF, regularly working with Elbit Systems, a leading Israeli weapons manufacturer.

Of the protests in the U.S. over the Israel-Gaza War, a number have targeted the weapons pipeline coming out of the United States. For example, as the WSWS reports:

  • On Thursday, November 2, 60 protesters blocked the entrance to Raytheon in Tucson, demanding the company end its extensive sales to the IDF.
  • On Friday, November 3, hundreds of protesters and several rank-and-file members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) stalled the military vessel Cape Orlando in Oakland, California, as it headed to Israel with military supplies.
  • On Monday, November 6, hundreds more protesters tried to block Cape Orlando in Tacoma, Washington. At least three dock workers refused to handle the cargo.
  • On the same day, 75 young protesters blocked entrances to the Boeing plant outside of St. Louis, Missouri, the one which builds JDAMS, delaying the start of the shift by four hours, according to St. Louis Public Radio.
  • Several protests have occurred at Elbit Systems, one of the largest Israeli defense companies. This includes a protest by more than 200 people at Elbit’s U.S. headquarters in Boston.

The Merchants of Death war crimes tribunal, headed by former Lancaster prosecutor Brad Wolf, has sought to hold leading weapons contractors accountable for their war profiteering.

Merchants of Death Homepage Image

Source: merchantsofdeath.org

Besides enriching the coffers of leading arms manufacturers, the Biden administration’s support for Israel is contingent on Israel’s function as what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has called a virtual aircraft carrier for the U.S. in the oil-rich Middle East.

Israel performs vital services for the U.S. by attacking nationalistic regimes hostile to U.S. interests like, that led by Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War and Bashar al-Assad of Syria today, and has allowed the U.S. to establish a secret military base in the Negev Desert that can be used as a launching pad for wider U.S. military operations in the Middle East.

It is no surprise then that the Biden administration is unfazed by the recent ICJ court ruling, and will continue to arm Israel as it commits genocide against the Palestinian people who count for little in the U.S.’s larger geopolitical designs.

Iranian Hawks Beat Drums of War as Biden Plans Military Strike

The war drums are starting to beat louder and louder for Iran following a drone attack on the Syria-Jordan border in the Al-Tanf area that killed three U.S. servicemen and wounded 34.

The Biden administration blamed the attack on Iran without offering any proof, with Iran denying any involvement.

Biden said on January 30 that “I do hold them [Iran] responsible in that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.”

Biden also said that the U.S. response to the drone attack would be carried out “over the course of several days,” striking “multiple targets,” a U.S. official told ABC News. “These are going to be very deliberate targets—deliberate strikes on facilities that enabled these attacks,” on U.S. forces, the official said.

Though Biden claimed he does not want a wider Middle East war, U.S. action is threatening exactly that—something neoconservatives have long wanted.

In a characteristic segment on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News on January 26, Florida Congressman Mike Waltz (R-FL) claimed that Iran had carried out 165 attacks on U.S. troops since October 7 plus an additional 78 since Biden took office, leaving out that these troops were illegally occupying Middle-Eastern countries.

Waltz said in response to the attacks that the U.S. should develop a multi-pronged strategy in which it “hit Iranian operatives, dried up Iranian cash revenues, and supported Iranian efforts to overthrow their government, like in the Green revolution and Masha Ahmini protests,” which Obama and Biden had done little in his view to effectively support.

Sean Hannity chimed in with the false claim that Iran was now “only months away from obtaining nuclear weapons capability” and said that Americans should be “deadly afraid of the marriage of radical ideology and nuclear weapons.”

The third guest, Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth said that the “bad guys” [Iran] should know that if they attack Americans, they will be killed.”

Hegseth said that this wasn’t happening under the Biden administration, which was constraining the operations of U.S. troops holding the line against ISIS. The Biden administration was bombing warehouses to make it look like it was doing something and could have used some of the troops guarding the Jordan-Syrian border on the U.S.-Mexican border.

In Hegspeth’s view, Biden and his supporters naively believed that “a ceasefire in Gaza would cause Iran and its proxies–the Houthis, Hizbollah, Hamas and the anti-American militias that had targeted U.S. troops to stand back, which was a pipe dream.”

The choice was clear in the 2024 election between Biden and Trump, who according to Waltz, had “defeated ISIS, killed Baghdadi, made Iran broke and without nuclear weapons, and signed the Abraham Accords [drawing Israel closer to various Gulf Arab countries in an anti-Iran alliance].”

The above Republican talking points sadly resonate among certain segments of the U.S. electorate who have been conditioned to hate Iran and Muslims more broadly and to support imperialistic foreign policies. They embody the lie that Trump is an antiwar candidate and that U.S. foreign policy would be less aggressive or recklessly militaristic under his leadership than under Biden’s.

On Tuesday January 30, Hannity had on his show Iran-Contra felon and CIA agent Oliver North who reminisced about how he had a cyanide poison pill with him on one of his missions to Iran in the 1980s in case he had to commit suicide. (North was in Iran to procure illegal weapons sales in order to finance Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries mobilized by the CIA to overthrow the socialist Sandinistas).

North echoed Hannity in calling Biden the “appeaser-in-chief” for ignoring the alleged 160+ attacks on U.S. troops since Biden took office, leaving out like Waltz that those troops were illegally occupying Muslim countries. (Iran also was never proven to have been directly responsible for any of the attacks).

Calling the Iranian regime a suicidal one that embraced a death cult, North advanced a five point program for Iran that he said would deter Iranian aggression and prevent World War III.

The plan called for a) accelerating harsh sanctions on Iran, b) warning the Ayatollah that the U.S. would cut off Iran’s oil supplies if U.S. ships were struck again; c) indictment of the leaders of Iranian proxies that attacked U.S. troops; d) an end to any secret meetings supposedly being held in an attempt to revitalize the Iran nuclear agreement that Trump pulled out of, and e) acceleration of the sale of liquified natural gas to U.S. allies to shore up their strength.

Hannity responded to North by proposing bombing Iran’s oil refineries, which North seemed to agree with, as did two other guests on Hannity’s show, historian Victor Davis Hanson, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Twenty years ago, Hannity was leading the way in championing the U.S. invasion of Iraq, bringing on similar kinds of guests making similar kinds of arguments.

One would think that the outcome of that war would have had a humbling effect and would limit calls for yet more military intervention in the Middle East.

One should remember, however, that Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch has deep CIA ties and that Fox is a mouthpiece for a Republican Party that is financed by big oil companies who made a killing in Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution when the Shah gave them what they wanted.

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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.

Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He is the author of five books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019), The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018), and Warmonger. How Clinton’s Malign Foreign Policy Launched the U.S. Trajectory From Bush II to Biden (Clarity Press, 2023). He can be reached at: [email protected].

Notes

  1. After the war broke out in mid-October, President Biden requested a $14 billion aid package to Israel and Biden also removed restrictions on Israel’s ability to access a weapons stockpile that the Pentagon has kept in Israel since the 1980s. The State Department further invoked emergency provisions that allowed it to send tens of thousands of artillery shells and other munitions to Israel without review of Congress. 

  2. Baroud continued: “Every statement made by top U.S. officials, starting with Biden, to Blinken to Sullivan, to all others, indicate that the U.S. is a party in the war, not an outsider, a benefactor, and certainly not a mediator. They even sat in on meetings to discuss Israeli war plans on Gaza. They cannot claim ignorance.” 
  3. The bomb was nicknamed the “mother of all bombs.” 

Featured image: U.S.-supplied military equipment arriving in Israel, December 2023. [Source: timesofisrael.com]

The Ottawa Freedom Convoy 2022 Against the COVID-19 “Vaccine” Mandates: Was the Emergencies Act Justifiable? Was Media Accurate?

By Michael Welch, February 05, 2024

People ruled over by mask mandates, lock-downs, and other restrictions in life, followed now by the threat of losing your job without paid leave if you didn’t consent to a vaccine you didn’t trust  can all be major impositions on some individuals. The Freedom Convoy directed all the built-up pressure cooking in a closed and sealed pot for almost two years and then released it in a peaceful protest movement in the city of Ottawa.

African Emigration and the United States Civil War

By Abayomi Azikiwe, February 05, 2024

Numerous revolts among the enslaved African population occurred throughout the Western Hemisphere from Brazil, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, the United States, among others. In the U.S., the plans for rebellion in Richmond led by Gabriel in 1800; the German Coast revolt in Louisiana in 1811; the Charleston incident under the direction of Denmark Vessey in 1822; a widespread revolt in 1831 led by Nat Turner in Southhampton County, Virginia shook the ideological foundations of the slavocracy.

Qatar’s Gaza War Mediation May be a “Double-edged Sword”

By James M. Dorsey, February 05, 2024

Demonstrators gathered this week at Qatari diplomatic missions in Washington, New York, and Ottawa to express frustration with the Gulf state’s failure to achieve an Israeli-Hamas agreement on a second round of prisoner exchanges.

What Is a Jew, a Zionist, Zionist Propaganda, “Israelism”, Truth About the ICJ Ruling

By Irwin Jerome, February 05, 2024

What fundamentally underlies the motivation of Zionist Israel’s conquest and colonization of Palestine and the Palestinian people is what has fundamentally driven the human world’s conquest and colonization of vulnerable, less-stronger indigenous peoples, their lands and natural resources since humankind’s earliest evolution from the primordial muck of creation.

The CIA, Vengeance and Joshua Schulte

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, February 05, 2024

The release of the Vault 7 files in the spring of 2017 in a series of 26 disclosures, detailing the hacking tools of the US Central Intelligence Agency, was one of the more impressive achievements of the WikiLeaks publishing organisation. As WikiLeaks stated at the time, the hacking component of the agency’s operations had become so sizeable it began to dwarf the operations of the National Security Agency.

How Digital Currencies (CBDS) Will be Used to Control the Masses. Mike Adams Interviews Dr. Mercola

By Mike Adams and Dr. Joseph Mercola, February 05, 2024

Debanking is the weaponization of finance for the purpose of social control, which simply doesn’t happen in a free society. By debanking me, my CEO, CFO, their spouses and children, Chase Bank is giving people a foretaste of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will be used to control the masses.

US and NATO Are “The Fourth Reich”. Strikes Inside Iran Are Contemplated.

By Drago Bosnic, February 05, 2024

It’s barely been a month into 2024, and here’s Washington DC, already bombing half a dozen countries and threatening at least that many more. This includes Syria, Iraq and Yemen, while nobody’s even reporting on drone strikes all across Africa and the Middle East (including occasional attacks on Afghanistan). They’re also threatening Iran, Venezuela and several other countries in Latin America, including Mexico.

GMOs Will Destroy Indian Agriculture, and Will Harm the Health of One Billion Indians and Their Animals

By Aruna Rodrigues, February 05, 2024

Hybrid Bt cotton, the only commercialised GM crop in India, has failed conclusively. Based on this failure and the evidence on GM crops to date, the Union of India’s proposal to commercialise herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard will destroy not just Indian mustard agriculture but citizens’ health.

Propaganda: Misrepresenting Ivermectin as a “Horse Dewormer”: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated Individuals Who Died Suddenly

By Dr. William Makis, February 05, 2024

As the phenomenon of “died suddenly” among the COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated continues to accelerate, I have noticed that some of those who have recently died, fully bought the fraudulent “horse dewormer” propaganda and were brainwashed into mRNA vaccination.

UK’s “Online Safety Act” Officially Grants Mainstream Media Permission to Publish Lies

By OffGuardian, February 05, 2024

Welcome to the modern definition of “freedom of speech”, where the MSM are directly and explicitly permitted to “knowingly publish false information with intent to cause non-trivial harm”, and you can be sent to jail for a year for calling out their lies.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

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“Crime was down significantly. The streets had never been cleaner. The homeless have never been better fed – well fed. And the support and love of fellow Canadians and anyone that came, regardless of religion, background, culture, beliefs…we were all there under the umbrella of freedom and that’s all that mattered. I’ve never felt more community and connection in my life!”Kristen Nagle, Frontline National nurse, participant in the Freedom Convoy. Action against Attorney General of Canada (See Below)

LISTEN TO THE SHOW


Click to download the audio (MP3 format)

Two years ago this week, the Truckers Freedom Convoy descended on the nation of Canada’s capital city. [1]

People ruled over by mask mandates, lock-downs, and other restrictions in life, followed now by the threat of losing your job without paid leave if you didn’t consent to a vaccine you didn’t trust  can all be major impositions on some individuals.

The Freedom Convoy directed all the built-up pressure cooking in a closed and sealed pot for almost two years and then released it in a peaceful protest movement in the city of Ottawa. [2]

This was not not a collection of “far-right white supremacist and hate groups” as depicted in media and in government statements. [3]
a

a

Nevertheless, on February 14, 2022, Prime Minister Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in history.

This law authorized the temporary suspension of the rights of individuals as defined under the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, allegedly to ensure safety and security during a national emergency. The Canadian government authorized law enforcement to remove the trucks, arrest key individuals, and freeze the bank funds of several more.[4][5]

While it was a peaceful protest,  according to a poll, at the time, two third of Canadians supported Trudeau’s use of the Act “to help authorities clear out Freedom Convoy blockades.”[6]

This all led to the decision on the 14th of February to invoke a measure known as the Emergencies Act – a law passed in 1988 which authorized the temporary suspension of the rights of individuals as defined under the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, all so as to ensure safety and security during a national emergency. The Canadian government authorized law enforcement to remove the trucks, arrest key individuals, and freeze the bank funds of several more. [4][5]

Two years later, a Federal Court judge just ruled that the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Act was an unreasonable move and was not justified by any national emergency. 

The truckers and their supporters saw the ruling as a victory for them.

 

For many Ottawa dwellers, the torment of the “Trucker-Fest 2022” still haunts them to this very day. [6][7]

According to media reports, there was no significant protest movement by Ottawa dwellers (see Global and Mail Report): 

 

\

Screenshot Globe and Mail 

 

On this episode of the Global Research News Hour, we devote most of our time to hearing representatives from two sides of the dispute over whether the truckers implanting themselves in the streets for weeks over-reached the patience and the tolerance of good folks of Ottawa.

This is followed by the presentations of a few other people who played roles in dealing with complaints, and a short commentary about the possible role of media in the affair.

Brenda Knight is a Board member of the Centretown Community Centre in the heart of downtown. She is also a resident living in a condo opposite the Convoy, and is co-Chair of the Ottawa People’s Commission on the Convoy Occupation. The final reports can be found at https://www.opc-cpo.ca/#reports
Kristen Nagle was a nurse who led the group Canada Frontline Nurses and lives in London, Ontario. She participated in the Convoy gatherings pretty much from the beginning and was a named plaintiff in the Federal Court ruling on the Emergencies Act.

(Global Research News Hour Episode 420)

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Cowichan Valley Community Radio CICV 98.7 FM serving the Cowichan Lake area of Vancouver Island, BC airs the program Thursdays at 9am pacific time.

Notes:

  1. https://globalnews.ca/news/8579463/protest-convoy-arrives-ottawa-multi-day-demonstration/
  2. https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/analysis-majority-of-canadians-disagree-with-freedom-convoy-on-vaccine-mandates-and-lockdowns/
  3. https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-ottawa-freedom-convoy-protesters-honest-respectful-citizens-not-justin-trudeau-says/5769697
  4. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-premiers-cabinet-1.6350734
  5. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-4.5/page-1.html
  6. https://www.fct-cf.gc.ca/Content/assets/pdf/base/2024-01-23-News-Bulletin-Public-Order-Emergency.pdf
  7. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/emergencies-act-ruling-reopens-emotional-debate-two-years-after-huge-protests-1.6740473

African Emigration and the United States Civil War

February 5th, 2024 by Abayomi Azikiwe

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After the United States Congress outlawed participation in the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1808, the kidnapping and importation of Africans into North America continued. (See this)

From the geographical regions on the continent where the trade in human capital thrived, there was resistance from Africans to their bondage which was designed for the purpose of gross exploitation enforced through national oppression.

Numerous revolts among the enslaved African population occurred throughout the Western Hemisphere from Brazil, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, the United States, among others. In the U.S., the plans for rebellion in Richmond led by Gabriel in 1800; the German Coast revolt in Louisiana in 1811; the Charleston incident under the direction of Denmark Vessey in 1822; a widespread revolt in 1831 led by Nat Turner in Southhampton County, Virginia shook the ideological foundations of the slavocracy.

These acts of resistance were the most well known since under the system of African enslavement there was resistance which took many forms on a daily basis. In addition to direct violent confrontation with the slave owners and their functionaries, many people fled the plantations seeking freedom from the tyranny of enforced labor exploitation.

Those Africans who escaped bondage either through legal means after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War in the northeast or migration to areas outside the U.S., played a critical role in the establishment of the Underground Railroad. This term was attributed to an organized cadre of anti-slavery activists who facilitated the departure of Africans from their slave masters.

In areas within the northeast of the U.S. there were newspapers founded in cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Boston which advocated the emancipation of African people. In Philadelphia there was the formation of anti-slavery societies for both men and women. Philadelphia was the scene of the initiation of the Free African Society and later the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) which contributed to the political education and agitation for the dissolution of legalized slavery. (See this)

Mary Ann Shadd and the Debates Surrounding Emigration and Full Equality

One of the key routes of the Underground Railroad was pathed through 19th century Detroit where a community of African Americans by the 1830s-1840s began to build independent institutions in this strategically located municipality bordering what became known as Ontario, Canada. One of the first urban rebellions in the U.S. took place in Detroit in 1833 when a couple which fled from enslavement in Kentucky were jailed in efforts to send them back into bondage.

The plight of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn prompted the African American community in Detroit at the time to forcefully liberate the couple and arrange transport to Canada. After 1833, the British-controlled territories were declared free from slavery. The Blackburns later took up residence in Toronto where they became a self-sufficient couple operating their own transportation business in the city.

In later years, Mary Ann Shadd Cary represented a prime example of the role of African people in Ontario during the period of the mid-to-late 19th century. Shadd became a journalist, publishing the Provincial Freeman which advocated the abolition of slavery as well as African emigration from areas where they were endangered of being placed in bondage.

One source on the political organizing work being done during this period points out:

“In 1823, Mary Ann Shadd was born in Delaware to a free couple. Shadd is recognized today as the first Black female editor in the United States and, after emigrating as an adult, one of the first female journalists in Canada. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Shadd and one of her brothers left the U.S. to move to Canada. Encouraged by Henry and Mary Bibb—two active attendants at the 1854 Emigration Convention—Shadd later became a teacher. After doing so, she successfully established a school for Black children and, in 1852, published several pro-emigration booklets. One of her most well-known pieces is titled A Plea for Emigration: or Notes of Canada West, which encouraged her Black readers to emigrate to Canada. The year before, Shadd has been the only woman present at the first Convention of Colored Freemen.” 

These developments were by no means isolated. Others advocated a return to the African continent such as Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) who eventually moved to Liberia and Sierra Leone while working for many years as a journalist, educator, diplomat and politician. The Republic of Liberia was established formally in 1847. Nonetheless, the American Colonization Society (ACS) remained controversial among Africans in the U.S. during the antebellum period.  (Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) (blackpast.org))

Due to the prevalence of institutional racism, many whites believed that African Americans legally manumitted from enslavement could not live a productive existence in the U.S. Earlier Sierra Leone, also in West Africa, was established after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War for those who fought alongside the British who had promised freedom in the aftermath of the conflict.

However, the experiences of Shadd Cary embodied the contradictions and rigorous debate among the African American people. This same above-mentioned document emphasized:

“Much like her father, who edited the Liberator alongside William Lloyd Garrison, Shadd was inspired to create her own newspaper in order to pursue her pro-emigration and abolitionist goals. She did just that, publishing the first issue of Provincial Freeman on March 25, 1854. Shadd did not place her name under the masthead of the paper, ‘thus concealing the paper’s editorship.’ In addition to including her own articles (without crediting herself) in the paper, Shadd incorporated the work of other influential abolitionists and pro-emigrationists such as Martin Delany. Although Mary Ann Shadd was not in attendance at the 1854 Emigration Convention, it can be said that her pro-emigration pieces in the Provincial Freeman were incredibly influential as associated textual pieces engaging the convention event. The following year, Shadd maneuvered her way into the 1855 Colored Convention. Although her emigration ideas clashed with some delegates, Shadd presented a speech at the convention. It proved convincing to the delegates so much so that they granted permission to extend her speaking time.”

Nevertheless, when the Civil War erupted in the U.S. in 1861, Shadd and her husband, Thomas F. Cary, returned to the U.S. Shadd worked as a recruiting officer for the Union army encouraging African Americans to enlist to fight for the end of slavery. After the war, Shadd studied law and became one of the first women lawyers to practice in the U.S.

African Labor and the Civil War

At the beginning of the Civil War in April 1861, there were nearly 4.5 million Africans living in the U.S., 90 percent of whom were enslaved. The profits accrued from the theft of Indigenous land, the importation of enslaved African labor and its super-exploitation economically benefited the slavocracy and the burgeoning industrial capitalists largely based in the northern states.

The contradictions between the systems of slavery and industrial capitalism underlined the outbreak of the Civil War. The valuable enslaved labor of African people served as the basis for the prosperity and social status of the planters.

Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois during the Great Depression in 1935 published his seminal work entitled “Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880.” In the first chapter of this book, The Black Worker, Du Bois puts forward his thesis which emphasizes that the African agricultural proletariat played a central role in the defeat of the Confederacy.

Du Bois writes saying:

“It was thus the black worker, as founding stone of a new economic system in the nineteenth century and for the modern world, who brought civil war in America. He was its underlying cause, in spite of every effort to base the strife upon union and national power.” 

After the Civil War and the failure of Federal Reconstruction by 1877, African Americans were thrust back into a social situation reminiscent of the antebellum period. It would take nearly another century to regain those rights granted through the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution as well as the Civil Rights Acts passed between 1866-1875.

Today in the third decade of the 21st century the right to the universal franchise, access to public accommodations and education remain contested in the U.S. Consequently, the issues which drove the country into a civil war could resurface threatening the very existence of the bourgeois democratic system which has developed since the latter decades of the previous century.

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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

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Qatari mediation in the Gaza war threatens to become a double-edged sword.

Demonstrators gathered this week at Qatari diplomatic missions in Washington, New York, and Ottawa to express frustration with the Gulf state’s failure to achieve an Israeli-Hamas agreement on a second round of prisoner exchanges.

Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told the Washington gathering that the demonstrations were meant “to thank the Qataris and at the same time to press them to push Hamas. Those two things are not in conflict: You’ve done a good job, you really need to do more of a good job.”

Earlier, Israeli protesters rallied at Qatar’s Washington embassy, striking a far more strident tone. Their message was “Qatar is Hamas.”

The Israeli nationals held the Gulf state responsible for Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel in which more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, were killed and some 240 were taken hostage.

“We are here today to call out Qatar for what it really is: a terror supporting state seeking to destabilize the Middle East region. We will not allow Qatar to wash its hands (of) its responsibility (for) what happened on October 7,” said Nimrode Pantz, a  lawyer and protest organiser.

Norman Goldstein, uncle of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whom Hamas is holding hostage in Gaza, addresses about 50 people in front of the Qatari embassy in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 2, 2024. Photo:  Andrew Bernard

Another speaker vowed that the protesters would “hunt (Qatari diplomats) in every place you will be until we see (the hostages) back.”

In November, Qatar negotiated a week-long truce during which Hamas exchanged more than 100 hostages, kidnapped during the October 7 attack.

Hamas still holds 136 hostages and bodies of captives killed in the fighting in Gaza.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman al-Thani, together with the intelligence chiefs of the United States, Israel, and Egypt have drafted a plan based on proposals by Hamas and Israel, involving a pro-longed ceasefire and swap of all hostages and bodies for an unspecified number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

The main obstacle to an agreement is that Hamas insists on a permanent ceasefire that would end the war while Israel maintains that ending the war is non-negotiable.

The parties also have yet to agree on the staggered ratio of Palestinians to be released for each Hamas-held hostage and the identity of the Palestinians to be freed.

Considering Hamas’ main bargaining chip is its hostages, the group might insist on keeping a few hostages to make sure Israel abides by an agreement – a demand Israel is certain to reject.

Alternatively, a Hamas official suggested that the group may seek guarantees from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt that the ceasefire amounts to an end to the war.

“Our aim is to finish this as soon as possible…to bring the hostages back, but to put a closure for the war as well,” Mr. Al-Thani told National Public Radio.

It’s going to take fancy language to bridge the gap.

The trick will be a formula that allows both parties to claim they have achieved their irreconcilable goals.

One formula may be a lengthy ceasefire, potentially described as transitional rather than permanent. This would allow Israel to maintain that the war will continue while Hamas could claim the contrary.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has not made things easier by adopting a hardline in recent days. He has not only rejected ending the war, but also the release of “thousands of terrorists” and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza any time soon.

Mr. Netanyahu may sing a different tone this weekend in talks with US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, on his sixth visit to Israel since the war began, but any hostage swap agreement will likely entail provisions that could prompt his far-right coalition partners to withdraw from the government.

Mr. Netanyahu may hope that Hamas will rescue him by rejecting anything less than an end to the war and the release of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prison in exchange for the hostages.

The State Department and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, in an apparent attempt to pressure Mr. Netanyahu to soften his rejection of the creation of an independent Palestinian state and approach to the hostage negotiations, are exploring possibilities of recognising Palestine as a state.

So far, the US and Britain have recognised President Mahmoud Abbas’ West Bank-based Palestine Authority as the entity governing the West Bank and official Palestinian interlocutor under the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

This week’s US sanctioning of four vigilante Israeli West Bank settlers sent a similar message.

Even though small in number, the demonstrations in the US and Canada echo Mr. Netanyahu’s recent criticism of Qatar.

You don’t hear me thanking Qatar… It is essentially no different from the UN or Red Cross, and in a certain sense is even more problematic – I have no illusions about them… They have leverage over (Hamas). Why do they have leverage? Because they finance them,” Mr. Netanyahu told hostage families earlier this month, ignoring that Qatari funding of Hamas in Gaza was at his behest.

“Qatar hosts the heads of Hamas; it also funds Hamas; it has leverage on Hamas…They placed themselves as mediators – so start proving it and bring back our hostages,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a subsequent news conference.

This week, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), founded by Yigal Carmon, a former advisor to Israel’s West Bank and Gaza occupation authority and Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin, sought to bolster Mr. Netanyahu’s argument. MEMRI reported that Qatar regularly trained Hamas’ police force.

In response, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry accused Mr. Netanyahu of “undermining the mediation process for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving the lives of innocents, including Israeli hostages.”

Echoing Mr. Netanyahu’s criticism and American Jewish leaders’ frustration, Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress have asked the Biden administration to pressure Qatar. The lawmakers also called for Hamas’ expulsion from Qatar.

The United States agreed with Qatar in October to revisit the Gulf state’s relationship with Hamas once all hostages have been released.

Officials of both countries left open whether the review would lead to the expulsion of Hamas representatives or to restrictions on their ability to operate from the Gulf state.

What the review will entail is likely to depend on whether and in what state Hamas survives the Gaza war. A Hamas survival could mean that the United States, and for that matter Israel, will have a continued need for a backchannel.

Nevertheless, the criticism threatens to put a dent in Qatari relations with the American Jewish community, a pillar of its largely successful soft power strategy in the United States.

Hamas has maintained a presence in Qatar since 2012 at the request of the United States and with Israel’s acquiescence.

Qatar and the administration have pushed back at the criticism.

“I’ve been hearing this a lot about the leverage and the pressure. Qatar needs to be understood clearly in this context. Our role as a mediator is to try to bring the parties to bridge the gaps between them,” Mr. Al Thani said in an on-stage interview at the Atlantic Council, a Washington thinktank.

“Beyond this leverage, we don’t see that Qatar is a superpower that can impose something on this party or another party to bring them to that place. Basically, were using our good offices to connect, to bridge gaps, to put solutions and come up with some alternatives,” he added.

Roger Carstens, US President Joe Biden’s top hostage envoy, told the Hostages’ Families Forum and the American Jewish Committee that Qatar is “doing everything we’re asking.”

Members of the Forum met last week with Mr. Al-Thani to thank him for his efforts.

Even so, Emily Moatti, a member of the Forum’s diplomatic team and a former Israeli parliament member, suggested the families were holding their nose while working with Qatar.

The Forum “thinks that the only way hostages will be released is through negotiations, and as unfortunate as it may be – we would prefer Egypt – Qatar is totally a partner in this,” Ms. Moatti said.

In a twist of irony, a Qatar-funded consultant, Jay Footlik, helped the families get meetings with Mr. Al-Thani and other Qatari officials and coached them on how to approach those encounters. Qatar pays Mr. Footlik’s, consultancy, ThirdCircle Inc., US$40,000 a month.

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Dr. James M. Dorsey is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and podcast, The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey.

Featured image: Airport workers unload crates with aid delivered from Qatar destined for Gaza at El Arish International Airport (Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

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Preface

What fundamentally underlies the motivation of Zionist Israel’s conquest and colonization of Palestine and the Palestinian people is what has fundamentally driven the human world’s conquest and colonization of vulnerable, less-stronger indigenous peoples, their lands and natural resources since humankind’s earliest evolution from the primordial muck of creation. Greed, Power, Control, Domination over all lesser lifeforms that get in the way of their ruthless juggernaut evolutionary journey through time and space is what is still humankind’s key, operative, motivating force. The latest wars in Ukraine and Gaza nothing more than a repeat of ancient “Might Makes Right” philosophy, ad infinitum.

If the so-called ‘Civilized” world is ever to accomplish anything significantly and meaningfully different than it so far has in past centuries, since the beginning, it now is being challenged by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to decide what exactly that significant and meaningful difference may yet be.

Otherwise, the only other conclusion to arrive at is that it is simply a matter of time until the final tipping point is reached, or biggest most world-destructive bomb or weapon is invented and used to its deadliest effectiveness, by yet the next most crazed Hitler, Netanyahu, Bush or Zelensky to come along.

The Truth About the International Court of Justice Ruling of Genocide

Some contend The International Court of Justice (ICJ) tepid ruling of so-called potential genocide that could lead to genocide against Zionist Israel is at least a small win for the formal rule of law between the civilized nations of the world.

But it doesn’t do a damn thing to stop the indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinians, stop the war, or prevent it from already turning into a regional war that could quickly turn into a world war; as the recent close-call firing of a Houthi cruise missile at an American war ship suggests.

While the likes of the United States and government of President ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden, in spite of so much damning evidence presented by South Africa’s legal team to the ICJ, contemptuously termed the ICJ’s ruling of genocide against Israel to be Meritless”. 

Biden’s outrageous comment is a flagrant insult, mockery and affront to the rule of international law in light of the backdrop of the past 75 years of genocide, since 1945, perpetrated against the Palestinians; with the United States a clear co-conspirator and enabler, complicit in Israel’s genocidal crimes; having provided during all those years with monies stolen from its taxpayers, military weaponry, and the ultimate ‘slam dunk’ weapon of its veto power within the UN’s Security Council, that it exercised 36 times to block and cover up Israel’s on-going genocide and denial of Palestinian Statehood. Biden and the US, obviously, has never heard of the movement NOT IN MY NAME!

The same charge of genocidal complicity could and should be leveled at the US, as well, as every other nation that likewise served as co-conspirators with Israel and the United States during those three-quarters of a century; which would no doubt be everyone.

Zionist Israel, the US, UK and other co-conspirators in Western governments also will continue to arrogantly ignore or malevolently skirt, as craftily, maliciously and devilishly as they can, the ICJ’s decision; with the sum total end result that the Palestinians will remain landless, stateless and no closer to a final One-State Solution, with a clear partition between themselves and Zionist Israel; which Zionist Israel has absolutely no intention of ever giving back so much as a zot of its stolen occupied territories to the Palestinians.

Its intent remains, as always, to totally divest and remove the Palestinians from the last remaining scraps of their former homelands. The lands so far totally flattened by Israel’s blitzkrieg air and land forces already even arrogantly being advertised to potential future settler-colonists, investors and speculators by international real estate investment syndicates for soon-to-be available purchase and occupancy.

Unless the international community of nations immediately undertakes to impose: an immediate worldwide arms embargo and ironclad ceasefire, followed by an equally-ironclad Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) Movement against Zionist Israel, to counteract the United States co-conspiratorial role, with its always ultimate veto power vote ready in its back pocket, any action beyond the ICJ’s weak-kneed, lily-livered ‘potential genocide’ ruling will end up for naught, with yet more ofthe same old, “Yaddah, Yaddah. Yaddah”, business-as-usual smugness.

The Zionist Project, since Israel’s inception as a fascist, lawless political state in 1948, has always been to create the Zionist’s dream of a pure Jewish apartheid state, devoid of all Palestinians and other Arabs.

Oct 7 simply the convenient trigger of many deadly triggers opportunistically seized upon by the Zionists at every turn; since long before even the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and invasion of Palestine in 1948 to accomplish the Final Solution of their steadfast megalomaniacal master plan to create an exclusive nationalistic homeland of the Jewish religion. Oct 7 simply the ultimate trigger needed, with the blessings of the world’s complicit fascist governments and regimes within the Western and Arab worlds, to realize and legitimize their own fascist political dreams-come-true.

Meir Kahane, the radical,  American Zionist leader, who was assassinated in the 1950’s once famously declared, which hard-nosed Zionists continue to believe to this day, that “The Arab is a cancer in our midst, and you don’t co-exist with a cancer. You either cut it out or you die.” Kahanism is pure, unadulterated, Zionism in the raw.

While Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, one of the world’s leading anti-Zionist scholars, contends “Zionism is no good for anybody. Not for the Jewish people, not for the Gentile people. Not for anyone. Zionist propaganda hides what Zionism really is, because Zionists don’t want people to really understand what Zionism is”.

While, writer and philosopher Noam Chomsky. In “Israel: A Land Without a People For a People Without a Land” has also stated, for the record, that “The very existence of Israel, in its essence, is anti-semitism.”

Chomsky’s point will be elaborated upon a bit later here by Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro.

Historically, Zionism is to Israeli Nationalism what Nazism was to fascist German nationalism. To the extent that the general public doesn’t yet already totally understand that, suggests how successful the propagandists have been in their massive brainwashing of the world’s masses; that has successfully convinced them to believe that what is happening in the war in Gaza today is simply an extension of the so-called ‘World War Against Terrorism’; first begun against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and his bogus Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s), rather than it being a worldwide civil war OF TERROR, perpetrated by international Deep State fascists, that has followed, ever since.

Zionist Israel’s movement in Israel, as one of many extensions of that same war now in Gaza, in anticipation of yet its further expansion in its occupied West Bank territories, is now considering militarizing its settler colonists with additional anti-tank missiles and even more sophisticated high-powered small arms weaponry; not unlike what Germany. Italy and Spain’s Neo-Nazis did in the 1930’s, when they also began arming their own rabid, brainwashed civilian supporters prior to their planned invasion that began the onset of WWII’s on-slaughter.

So What Then Is a Jew, a Zionist, Zionist Propaganda, Israelism, Truth

Within the context of evolution of Zionist Jewry, their Zionist Colonization Project, as first conceived, then acted upon in 1948, finally is culminating in 2024 with either the genocide of the entire nation of Palestinian Arabs or their utter deportation and hostile exile to disparate parts yet unknown, and/or  another world war to try to stop it.

Within the context of the war in Gaza, to compare a real orthodox Jew to a Zionist Jew, or real orthodox Christian to a Zionist Christian, is akin to trying to compare apples to oranges. They’re two entirely different  entities, or whatever other descriptive term one might care to use as a comparison.

The one follows the precepts of the original teachings of their Jewish or Christian faiths, as constituted since their earliest origins with the some 600+ teachings of the Torah or Ten Commandments of the Bible, that remain inviolate to this day, The adherents of these faiths incapable of participating in: senseless, murderous, ruthless, vengeful, blood-thirsty, unholy retribution; such is now being waged against the Palestinians in Occupied Palestine.

Their opposite counterparts those who only know how to commit such acts of retribution, forever remain comfortable and satisfied with such actions.

The genocidal policies and actions being committed by the Zionist Israeli’s, and their complicit Zionist evangelical Christian allies throughout the Old World’s Western-Eastern Europe, Middle Eastern, and New World nations, historically, have had layer-upon-layer of political-ideological-evangelical adaptations grafted onto them; whose primitive principles remain, as they always have been, forever amoral, without conscience or any inherent sense of guilt for violating whatever once sacrosanct precepts. In short, the difference between a genuine religious Jew or Christian and their Zionist counterparts is no different than comparing a true democrat to a fascist.

The renowned American-Jewish Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro is one who spells out in great detail what some of the fundamental contradictions are Zionist Israel as a democratic political-religious ideal as opposed to the racist, fascist entity it has become.

For over 30 years he has attained an enviable place in the arena of anti-Zionist intellectuals on the ideology of on the ideology of Zionism and its relationship to Judaism. His field of research includes: religious philosophy; analytic theology; Talmud, Halachah and Biblical exegesis. His most recent published best-seller work is “The Empty Wagon; Zionism’s Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft”; one of the most controversial books on the subject of Judaism and Zionism, is considered by many to be the most definitive work written on the subject; while Zionists who have read it absolutely hate it. Rabbi Shapiro’s 7-Minute video on President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the political capital of Israel has been viewed well over two million times.

Rabbi Shapiro Raises Interesting Points About Zionist Israel

In a You Tube discussion of “Jewish Nationality is an Absurdity; It Doesn’t Make Any Sense”, Rabbi Shapiro, an internationally-renowned scholar on Zionism, raises further critical talking points about what is Jewish Nationality and what is not Jewish Nationality, that clarifies many of the commonly misunderstood principles that underlie the founding and evolution of the modern Zionist Israel State.

Among the points he underscores, includes: the definition of Zionism, in a nutshell, means the term ‘Jewish State’, that refers primarily to issues of nationality. In a nutshell, Zionism means the ‘Jewish State’. Meaning only Jews, not Palestinians or non-Jews, have the same self-determination rights by law in Israel. In Zionist Israel there is no one common language, Hebrew or otherwise, nor does there exist a common nationality or political requirement to swear allegiance to Zionism. Ben Gurion, Israel’s first President, even refused, when asked, to put the word ‘God’ in Zionist Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

To further clarify what that means, Rabbi Shapiro states the analogy,

“Israel is to the Jewish people, what France is to the French people, what Ireland is the Irish people, What America is to the Americans, and so on.”

In a nutshell, Zionist Israel means ‘the Jewish State’, that has nothing to do with the Jewish religion.

“In and of itself”, says Rabbi Shapiro, “The Jewish State isn’t, inherently, a settler-colonist movement, either. Shapiro says it doesn’t even have anything to do with the Palestinians. It’s nothing personal. They have simply gotten caught in the crossfire with Zionism’s radical ideological desire to create a 100% pure State of Jewish people of the Jewish faith.”

Therefore, Zionism is an ideological movement to rebrand and re-engineer the former lands of Palestine into the new state of Israel, solely as the political nation-state of the Jews. 

Because even though non-Jews can live and work in Israel, even if they are not of the Jewish faith, they cannot have the same rights as a person who is a Jew by birth or by conversion. Which means they do not have the same inherent, innate rights as a citizen who is a Jew by birth or by conversion. It’s a form of religion, in and of itself. Therefore, Zionist Israel, by definition, isn’t naturally compatible with being a democratic state or a real democracy.

Also, though no Islamic or Arab State claims to represent all Moslems, Zionism claims Israel is the ‘Nation of the Jews’ and, as such, Benjamin Netanyahu himself has claimed many times in public that he represents all the world’s Jews.

Benjamin Netanyahu, in his book A Place of Nations, asserts that “Anti -Zionism is the same as anti-semitism.” Yet Rabbi Shapiro says that is the equivalency of saying, “I’m not anti-American or anti-Zionist. I just think the U.S. or Israel shouldn’t exist.” Or as Noam Chomsky earlier pointed out in the text here, “The very existence of Israel, in its essence, is anti-semitism.”

Al-Jazeera’s English-speaking program recently presented for release on You Tube.com the views of one very simple Orthodox Jewish religious person who gave his unabashed, heart-felt views to the world about his and Orthodox Judaism’s widely-held perspectives on: the war in Gaza; Jewish relationships with Palestinians, and; the basic differences that exist between Judaism and Zionism; that everyone who is concerned about the continuing genocide being committed in Gaza, the West Bank and Gaza Strip will find invaluable.

Entire Western World Complicit in Genocide Against Palestinians

By now, the growing numbers of coup’s, attempted coups and veritable world war somewhere still in the offing, orchestrated by the United States and waged by the fascists in Ukraine, and now the extension of that world war being waged by the Zionists in Gaza, are all part of the same single bolt of cloth plot to totally destroy any semblance of existing international rules of law, order and democracy, which don’t work for Zionist Israel’ fascist rule in Occupied Palestine any more than they do for the fascists anywhere else in the world. Since the 1980’s, the Deep State and its fascist governments have been steadily gaining power and control of the electorate everywhere in Europe, Asia, South and North America.

Led by America’s President Joe Biden and, no doubt, soon-to-be-re-elected President Trump, along with a lackey host of  hundreds of others that include: Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau; the UK’s PM Rishi Sunak; France’s Emmanual Macron and Marine Le Pen; Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and its Green Party; Italy’s PM Giorgia Melani and Silvio Berlusconi, and; Sweden’s Sweden Democrats; to name but a few among a host of hundreds more.

The neo-fascist movement never did go away with the defeat of Germany’s Nazi Party: Benito Mussolini’s Italian Social Movement (MSI) slowly morphed into the ‘Brothers of Italy (FDI) in an alliance with the fascists of the National Alliance (AN), Northern League (LN) and Matteo Salvani’’s radical Lega Party; former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia Party (FI) with that of Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni;

Canada’s former PM Stephan Harper’s right-wing Conservative Party has since morphed into its new leadership under Pierre Poilievre, who now threatens to become Canada’s new Prime Minister;

France’s Union and French Fraternity Party (UFF) disappeared momentarily until it re-emerged into the mainstream under the banner of the National Rally; along with the emergence, in the European Parliament, with: the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO); not to forget the Netherlands, so-called Center Party (CP);

Poland’s radical League of Polish Families, and: the Fidesz Party in Hungary, under former PM Viktor Obanz, and its Budapest Model plan to build high-tech border fences to keep out Muslims and Brown people.

All of these nationalistic parties are commonly opposed to matters pertaining to immigrants, immigration, and share a core xenophobic ideology of nativism, authoritarianism, anti LGBTQ rights and populism. 

Though they all may support a new perverted form or offer some lip-serving semblance of democracy, per se, they remain opposed to key government institutions and values, such as: an independent judiciary, a free and open media; minority rights; pluralism and the separation of powers.

So, it’s easy to see how the world’s fascists hands-off attitude to interfere with the Zionist Israel master plan continue to closely observe Zionist Israel’s methodical eradication of the Palestinians, one way or the other, and whatever degree of military or legal resistance it elicits, represents an all-important lynch pin, one critical strand, in the single bolt of cloth to eventually remove all semblances of formerly-existing democratic ways of life. Biden, Trump, Netanyahu & Company the leaders of the pack intent upon paving the way forward.

Alexander Garland, former co-chair of Germany’s Alternative for Germany Party (AFP), has said, in regard to current geo-political world events, “Hitler and the Nazis are just bird shit in more than 1,000 years of successful Germany history.”

Palestinians Are 21st Century Irish in the Way of Manifest Destiny

The whole matter of the plight of the Palestinians reminds this writer of the plight of his own Irish ancestors in Ireland, who once also had the same things happening to them, with the Irish Penal Laws of 1695 & The Property Act of 1703; when the writer Jonathan Swift wrote his infamous satire A Modest Proposal, in which Swift, to illuminate the horrendous predicament of we Irish through satire, suggested the Irish begin breeding its children for the catastrophe that was upon them, rather than see them needlessly starve to death, die and be idly buried; but instead breed them for consumption and leather products; thereby decreasing their population in need of non-existent food while, at the same time, create for themselves a self-supporting native-grown economy, through the marketing of the flesh and skin of our children.

Our people murdered, willy-nilly by Oliver Cromwell and British Army under the orders of the English aristocracy, the Zionists of their day; forced to starve to death, with only the common grasses underfoot left to eat, which back in the day our people referred to their fate as The Green Death; because of the green smears left on the lips of the corpses of our dead; while those of us lucky enough to have survived, were labelled as vagrants who finally were forced to flee to the New World in search of whatever safety and freedom we could find.

It’s a reminder, too, of the Sioux Indians this writer once lived among who told similar horrid stories of horrible death and destruction of their people at the hands of the ‘White Man’; who, themselves, even tanned the skin of the dead Sioux dead to make lamp shades, book covers, and other souvenir trinkets and the like; similar to the way the body parts of dead Palestinians are being used now in the midst of the war, by the Zionist invaders for their own commercial profit and personal use.

The writer W.B. Yeats, writing about the Irish peoples defiant Easter Uprising of 1916, that occurred about the same time English Lord Balford and his Zionist plotters were drafting their Balfour Declaration that was to seal the fate of the Palestinian people, declared in one of his stanza’s, “Now and in time to be, wherever the green is worn, are changed, changed utterly, a terrible beauty is born.”

Yeats could foresee the future of the Irish, rising above that of the British fascist when he juxtaposed the words “terrible” and “beauty” to contrast the angelic image of the Irish against the angry, vengeful English. Were some Palestinian Yeats around today what choice words would he or she now use to contrast the angelic image of the Palestinians against the angry, vengeful Zionists in their midst in Israel and America?

Survival of Indigenous Peoples Is a Never Ending Saga

Zionist Israel itself represents a new European invention of a massive, world-wide Zionist version of a 21stCentury ‘Manifest Destiny’ Settler-Colonization Project, in the making for over at least century or more, intent upon destroying not only the Palestinian people but any and all existing democratic governments left on the planet.

The genocidal attack against the Palestinians in Gaza by the Western powers, under the leadership of the United State and a host of its lackey Western governments, continues to be resolutely supported by those today who, like the Lord Balfour’s and Oliver Cromwell’s of their day, arrogantly flaunt, with contempt the International Court of Justice (ICG) window-dressing ruling of so-called “potential” genocide; but without ever simultaneously calling for resolute, meaningful political actions that include: a permanent ceasefire; immediate arms embargo; International Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Zionist Israel, as well as; absolutely insist, no demand, the United Nation’s immediately implement, on behalf of the Palestinians, a One State Solution, with adequate partitions between Palestine and Israel to ensure whatever so-called potential genocide at once ceases and never ever again threatens.

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This article was originally published on The Intel Drop.

Jerome Irwin is a Canadian-American writer who, in previous lives, has been involved in a wide range of diverse and varied worlds, including the Criminology profession with an American police department, and later for a brief-time in the capacity of clandestine communications with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. For decades, in various professional capacities as an educator, researcher, geo-political analyst, and writer. Irwin has sought to call attention to a broad spectrum of world problems pertaining to the degradation and unsustainability caused by a host of environmental-ecological-spiritual-ideological issues that exist between the conflicting world philosophies of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.

Irwin is the author of the book, “The Wild Gentle Ones; A Turtle Island Odyssey” (www.turtle-island-odyssey.com), a spiritual odyssey among the native peoples of North America that over the decades has produced numerous articles pertaining to: Ireland’s Fenian Movement; native peoples Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance Movement; AIPAC, Israel & the U.S. Congress anti-BDS Movement; the historic Battle for Palestine & Siege of Gaza, as well as; the many violations constantly being waged by industrial-corporate-military-propaganda interests against the World’s Collective Soul. To examine a portion of the eclectic body of his work goggle: “Jerome Irwin, writer” The author and his wife are long-time residents on the North Shore of British Columbia.

Featured image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a map showing the occupied West Bank and Gaza as part of Israel during his speech at the UN General Assembly, 22 September 2023 (Reuters)

The CIA, Vengeance and Joshua Schulte

February 5th, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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The release of the Vault 7 files in the spring of 2017 in a series of 26 disclosures, detailing the hacking tools of the US Central Intelligence Agency, was one of the more impressive achievements of the WikiLeaks publishing organisation. As WikiLeaks stated at the time, the hacking component of the agency’s operations had become so sizeable it began to dwarf the operations of the National Security Agency.

“The CIA had created, in effect, its ‘own NSA’ with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capabilities of a rival agency could be justified.”

The publication ruffled feathers, enraged officials, and stirred the blood of those working in the intelligence community bothered by this “digital Pearl Harbor”. The exercise involved the pilfering of 180 gigabytes of information and constituted, according to the agency, “the largest data loss in CIA history”.

The CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force was charged with investigating the incident and submitted its findings to the director in October 2017. Pompeo should have been grudgingly grateful – WikiLeaks had given the organisation a good excuse for cleaning the cobwebs and removing the creases.

The report, for instance, found that the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) had placed greater emphasis on the building of “cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems. Day-to-day security practices had become woefully lax.” The cyber weapons were also “not compartmented”, passwords at various administrator levels were shared “and historical data was available to users indefinitely.”In what reads like a vote for the dull and the tedious, the report took issue with “a culture that evolved over years that too often prioritized creativity and collaboration at the expense of security.”

The individual responsible for taking the loot to WikiLeaks was the fractious Joshua Schulte, who worked at the CCI as a software developer and had himself created a number of hacking tools. On February 1, he was sentenced in the New York federal court to 40 years in prison. His list of previous convictions was encyclopaedically colourful: espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and child pornography.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Jesse M. Furman, in that time honoured tradition of judicial vagueness, remarked that, “We will likely never know the full extent of the damage, but I have no doubt it was massive.” This was a silly claim, given that the leaks were, as Axios reported, “largely inconsequential, with most being instruction manuals for old hacking tools”.

The prosecution was similarly imprecise (and disingenuous), as they tend to be when measuring the extent national security is supposedly impaired by information disclosures. “He caused untold damage to our national security in his quest for revenge against the CIA for its response to Schulte’s security breaches while employed there,” stated the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams. Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen further added that Schulte had “directly risked the lives of CIA personnel, persisting in his efforts even after his arrest.”

In comments made to the court prior to the sentencing, Schulte touched on the wonderful penal conditions that mark the US penitentiary system. He had, for instance, been denied hot water. He had been extensively exposed to artificial light and constant noise.

He also had – and here, British judges should take note regarding Assange’s own arguments against extradition to the US – been deceived by the prosecutors in a plea deal offer that would have seen him sentenced to 10 years in prison. Instead, he got an additional three decades.

“This is not justice the government seeks,” Schulte accurately observed, “but vengeance.”

Schulte proved an important figure in the roistering annals of WikiLeaks. It was his disclosures that signalled the cold and vicious turn in US policy in targeting Assange.

The release of the Vault 7 files sent the then director, Mike Pompeo, into a rage. The 2021 Yahoo! report, which famously noted various opinions within the intelligence community on what could be done about the Australian publisher, reports that change of approach. According to one former Trump national security official, the director and CIA officials “were completely detached from reality because they were so detached about Vault 7.”

Soon, Pompeo was publicly tarring WikiLeaks while privately pondering options to kidnap or assassinate Assange.

In April 2017, in a speech given to the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, the director hoisted the black flag. “WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service and has encouraged its followers to find jobs at the CIA in order to obtain intelligence.”

Nonsensically, Pompeo imbues the publishing organisation with dictatorial and mesmeric qualities. “It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information.” (No, it did not.) “And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations.”  Given the concentration of unstable power at the heart of Washington, and its imperial pretences, Pompeo can hardly be surprised.

The speech is worthy of close analysis. It declares, inevitably, that the CIA is a noble organisation incapable of abuse, a saintly enterprise of patriots who should be treated as such. It takes issue with those who give the game away.  And, more fundamentally, it refuses to have any truck with a publisher who aids that cause.

Pompeo, for instance, dismissed Assange’s own justifications for publishing national security material as “sophistry”. He could hardly be compared to Thomas Jefferson or “the Pulitzer Prize-winning work of legitimate news organizations such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.”

Dangerously, the strategy behind the bluster becomes clear, and would find itself gorily displayed in the indictment against Assange. It picks and chooses between publishers as sacred and profane, the ennobled and the condemned.  It ignores the pointed fact that national security information is almost always pilfered and leaked, sometimes patriotically, sometimes selfishly. Punish Assange, and you are opening the door to punishing any news outlet of any stripe operating anywhere. And that, fundamentally, is the point.

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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 licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

First published on November 13, 2023

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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 Part II my earlier 2005 article Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran

 

 

Expanding Middle East War.

Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran,

The War on Energy, Strategic Waterways

by

Michel Chossudovsky 

1. In Solidarity with Palestine 

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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.
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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”.
 
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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)

 

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3. America’s Military Doctrine: Targeting and Killing Civilians

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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: 
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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 
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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. 
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Zionism constitutes the ideological underpinnings of  contemporary U.S. imperialism and its unending war against the people of the Middle East. 
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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”
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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.
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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

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 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  
 

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5. The War on Energy

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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

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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

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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

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Please enjoy this rapid fire interview as I react to several developing stories including Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros frustration with the lack of world enthusiasm for his attempted power grab through the 2024 Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Alliance and new International Health Regulations. Here is a quick explanation from Canadian MP Leslyn Lewis:

What is the status of the Pandemic Treaty?

The Pandemic Treaty is nearing the end of the negotiation and drafting phase, ultimately due to be signed by May 2024. The WHO established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) in December 2021 to spearhead the negotiations, drafting and input into the proposed treaty. Since then, the INB has held several meetings to gather input and discuss proposals for the treaty. 

The INB has gone over several iterations of proposals and considered member-state submissions. They are currently finalizing the text for a proposed accord to be presented at the 2024 WHA meeting.  

Notably, the change in referring to the pandemic instrument as an accord and not a treaty might signal that there may be a lower threshold of national scrutiny required than that which a formal treaty process would require. A treaty would require that each member state ratify the treaty, should it be legally binding in international law. The precise obligations and compliance measures to be adopted are yet to be determined.

What would the treaty do?

The WHO has stated that the treaty could “ensure better preparedness and equitable response for future pandemics, and to advance the principles of equity, solidarity and health for all.”  

It “could take the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and use them to build back better. Equity is one of the key principles being discussed as part of the work on the new accord.

“A new accord could promote political commitment at the highest level, through ensuring an all-of-government and whole-of-society approach within countries, and sustained and sufficient political and financial investment within and among countries.”[1]

As proposed, a legally binding treaty would see power given to the WHO to direct the global health management of pandemics. The treaty will define and classify what is to be considered a pandemic. Once a pandemic is declared, the WHO would require countries to adopt specific response measures. The working draft of the treaty also proposes a reporting requirement to the WHO and advises that there should be a “global peer review mechanism to assess national, regional and global preparedness capacities and gaps.”

Listen to what Tedros says in the clip. Do you trust him or the WHO?

We also cover the former top White House coronavirus adviser under President Donald Trump, Dr. Deborah Birx with former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on long-COVID analogies to HIV disease.

Birx is towing the narrative line that all of our ills are attributed to long-COVID with no mention of the vaccine.

Finally, Alison Steinberg asked about a previously unknown type of replicating agent, far smaller and simpler than a virus called an “obelisk” which is a loop of self-replicating RNA that infects commensal bacteria such as streptococcus sanguinis. They discuss how improved understanding of the oral-pharyngeal-gut microbiome raise the possibility of improving our immune defenses.

Click here to watch the video

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Debanking is the weaponization of finance for the purpose of social control, which simply doesn’t happen in a free society

By debanking me, my CEO, CFO, their spouses and children, Chase Bank is giving people a foretaste of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will be used to control the masses

In the U.S., 81.37% of all desktop searches are done on Google. Worldwide, its market share for search is 85.53%. Its monopoly on searches gives Google enormous influence over what people can see and learn about, which is incredibly dangerous. Google, all by itself, can easily mislead and “de-educate” the global population for generations to come

AI systems are also being programmed with pro-pharma propaganda, and that will become the dominant knowledge base for humanity from here on

To preserve life-saving health information that is being actively censored to erase it from human memory, I am creating a master video course that will encapsulate my life’s work. Once completed, the course will be available to Substack subscribers, who can download the videos and share them with others

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August 18, 2023, I joined Mike Adams, aka, “The Health Ranger,” on his free-speech platform, Brighteon, to discuss our debanking by JP Morgan Chase Bank.

As previously reported, in mid-July, I, along with my CEO and CFO — both of whom have been with me for nearly 20 years — received identical letters informing us that Chase Bank was closing our accounts, as well as the accounts of their spouses and children.

Irrational Excuses

In the original letters, the only reason we were given was that there was “unexpected activity” on an unspecified account. Later, a representative told reporters that account closures are typically only done for anti-money laundering purposes.1,2

However, no money laundering charges have ever leveled against me, and in a real money laundering case, they seize your accounts outright. They don’t give you a month to take your business elsewhere.

Then, in response to a letter by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, in which he questioned the bank’s decision to close our accounts, a Chase spokesman replied that the accounts were closed because:3

“… the customer has been the subject of regulatory scrutiny by the Federal government on multiple occasions for engaging in illegal activity relating to the marketing and sale of consumer products and we have a legal obligation to prevent funds derived from these activities from flowing through our bank.”

The last “federal scrutiny” of our business was 2.5 years ago in 2021,4 when the Food and Drug Administration sent us a warning letter accusing us of selling vitamins C, D, quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced to “mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose or cure COVID-19 in people,” in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

However, a warning letter is not proof of illegal activity. It’s an accusation. We responded to the FDA’s letter, letting them know their accusations were baseless, and that was the end of that. We had not violated the law.

If Chase insists it has a “legal obligation” to debank me, my employees and their families, over an old FDA warning letter — which had no legal basis and never led to criminal charges — then Chase Bank would also be legally obligated to debank its own executives and employees who intentionally benefited from sex trafficking5,6,7 and defrauded investors with illegal investment schemes.8 Why haven’t they?

Hidden Social Credit System in Action

While many have been debanked over the past couple of years, what’s particularly egregious about this action is that it was not only directed at me, but my employees and their families as well.

This is one of the primary characteristics of the Chinese social credit system, where people are punished for their associations. It’s the weaponization of finance for the purpose of social control, which simply doesn’t happen in a free society.

In that respect, the actions by Chase Bank indicate we’re in a whole new phase of the globalists’ social engineering project. It’s also a foretaste of how the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will be used to control the masses.

Chase Bank Is Part of Government Censorship Committee

Interestingly, we recently discovered that Chase Bank is the only bank represented on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee,9which may explain why Chase targeted my business. This advisory committee provides “strategic and actionable recommendations” to the CISA director on “cybersecurity issues.”

A Chase representative was present during a March 1, 2022, Cybersecurity Advisory Committee Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation & Disinformation Subcommittee meeting,10,11in which Laura Dehmlow, section chief for the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), warned that “subversive information” on social media could undermine public support for the U.S. government, and that “media infrastructure” needed to be held accountable.

The committee members went on to discuss what the government’s strategic approach related to misinformation and disinformation ought to be, how best to organize information sharing between the public and private sector, and how to collaborate across channels.

We now know that a formalized process was implemented that allowed government officials to log into a special portal where they could flag social media content for removal.12

Ask yourself, why was a major bank included in a meeting in which they were trying to tease out the best way for government to censor Americans? With everything we now know about CISA’s domestic censorship activities, it seems reasonable to suspect that the weaponization of finance — debanking “domestic threat actors” — was part of the original strategy.

So, did CISA have a hand in the bank’s decision to close my business accounts, and those of key employees and their families? We have no evidence of this yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Florida Attorney General Is on the Case

In May 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that specifically prohibits financial institutions from denying or canceling services based on political or religious beliefs,13 so, we may end up being the test case for this new legislation. We’re currently working with the Florida state attorney general.

Unfortunately, I misspoke during the interview, saying the attorney general’s office is filing a suit against Chase. However, we’re not quite there yet. I’ve been told it’s still too early to tell whether charges will be filed.

The Second Burning of the Library of Alexandria

I launched my website in 1997. Google didn’t even exist yet. And for years, all the way up to about 2015 or so, the internet remained uncensored. You could find information about anything you could think of.

What’s happening to the internet now is reminiscent of the burning of the library of Alexandria, the storehouse of the world’s most important and precious information. For background, the library of ancient Alexandria in Egypt, was once known as the “greatest accumulation of human knowledge in history.”14 Historical sources report there may have been as many as 400,000 papyrus scrolls recording ancient works and knowledge, including 200,000 that Marc Antony gave to Cleopatra.

Inexplicably, like their 21st century cousins, the world citizens of yesterday apparently didn’t appreciate this wide body of knowledge and, over the centuries they burned the library numerous times until, today, practically none of the library still exists, after a purging reportedly done to erase anything that disagreed with The Koran occurred.

Now, the modern world’s library, Google, has essentially burned itself down by programming its search algorithms such that you cannot find anything but officially sanctioned information, unless you know the URL of what you’re looking for. If you rely on any search engines your search results will typically be limited to less than 100 links you can click on even though there may be tens or hundreds of millions of results.

In the U.S., 81.37% of all desktop searches are done on Google.15 Worldwide, its market share for search is 85.53%.16 Its monopoly on searches gives Google enormous influence over what people can see and learn about, which is incredibly dangerous. Google, all by itself, can easily mislead and “de-educate” the global population for generations to come.

However, since nearly every search engine uses Google data, the indirect control they have is likely closer to 95%.

Eventually, I suspect artificial intelligence will take over online searches, at which point there will only be one answer for any given question. Needless to say, that will be even more dangerous. We can already see that AI systems are being fed a steady diet of pro-pharma propaganda and nothing else, and that will become the dominant knowledge base for humanity from here on.

So, we’re at a point now where we must work to preserve life-saving information, and figure out a way to distribute it in a way that cannot be censored. Fortunately, decentralized alternatives are coming online, such as Qortal,17 Bastyon18 and Nostr.19 Adams is also working on turning Brighteon into a completely decentralized, peer-to-peer platform that will be impossible to censor or shut down.

Coming Soon: A Master Health Course

I’m currently working on a video course on health and nutrition that people will be able to download to their personal hard drives, so that this information doesn’t get extinguished. If need be, they can then put it on a thumb drive and hand it out to friends and family, so they have the information they need to thrive as well.

There are many inexpensive, basic strategies that can radically improve your health, quality of life and longevity, and these are the very things the globalists, technocrats and transhumanists are now trying to erase from the database of knowledge accumulated on the internet.

I mean, they’re literally in the process of erasing basic health advances that have been well-recognized and understood for decades (if not hundreds or even thousands of years), such as the fact that you have an immune system, and that certain nutrients are necessary for, and will improve, your immune function.

I hope to end up with about 50 modules, each module being a one- to two-hour video. In its totality, the course will be a compilation of my life’s work. I want to give people a library of health strategies that they can go back to again and again, even after I’m gone, and even if the internet is taken down.

The course will be released on Substack to subscribers, who will have the opportunity to ask questions, and if needed, I’ll release follow-up videos. The great thing about releasing this information in the form of video modules rather than a book is that, if new information becomes available, I can simply record an update. You can’t go back and change what you put in a book.

The Substack subscription is $5 a month, or $50 a year, so it’s very affordable. Substack proceeds are used to support a nonprofit dedicated to improving crisis resilience. I do not have a title for this course yet, but I’ll share more information about it as it gets closer to completion.

Prepare for the Inevitable

I’m convinced COVID-19 was just a test run. Something far worse than COVID is being planned for us, so we must prepare, to the best of our ability. Addressing any health problems you may have and maintaining good health is part of that preparation. Being healthy will make you more resilient in the face of just about any difficulty, and there’s no telling what the globalist cabal will cook up next.

It could be another bioweapon, electrical grid failures, food shortages, a financial collapse, a cyberattack on critical infrastructure or a fabricated alien invasion.

Critical data collection on messaging and public responses took place during the COVID pandemic, so now they have the technological capability to identify the triggers that will maximize fear and give them the greatest degree of control. I suspect the next crisis will be far worse for that fact alone.

Whatever crisis gets rolled out, we now know that it will be used to push tyranny, because global slavery is the ultimate goal. They want complete control over every human being on earth, from cradle to grave — what you eat, what you do and think, what you buy, how and where you live, and for how long.

Another crucial preparation strategy is to build a community where you can share knowledge. Everyone has different skill sets, and we need to learn to work together locally and help each other.

Lone wolves are not likely to survive the multitude of crises headed our way. City dwellers will also face much greater difficulty, as there are so few natural resources there. So, if you can, get out of the cities.

George Orwell’s Final Warning

In closing, we’d do well to heed George Orwell’s sober advice. Before his death in 1950, at the age of 47, he told a reporter that “something like ‘1984’ could happen,” because “this is the direction the world is going in at the present time.”

Indeed, we’re still heading in that same direction today, 73 years later. Orwell went on to read an excerpt from his book, “1984,” followed by a final warning to future generations:

“’In our world, there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. The sex instinct will be eradicated. We shall abolish the orgasm. There will be no loyalty except loyalty to the party.

But always, there will be the intoxication of power. Always, in every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever.’

The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one: Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.”

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Notes

1 Vermont Daily Chronicle July 31, 2023

2 Life Site News July 27, 2023

3 Florida Voice August 1, 2023

4 US FDA. Warning Letter Mercola.com. February 18, 2021

5 CNBC March 17, 2023

6 NY Post July 25, 2023

7 Fortune June 23, 2023

8 CNN September 29, 2020

9 CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee

10 CISA March 1, 2022 Meeting Minutes

11, 12 The Intercept October 31, 2022

13 Ron DeSantis May 2, 2023 (Archived)

14 Mid-Continent Public Library. Historical Libraries. The Library of Alexandria

15 Statista Google Market as of April 21, 2023

16 Statista Market Share of Desktop Search Engines Worldwide Jan 2015 to March 2023

17 Qortal.org

18 Bastyon.com

19 Nostr.com

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).

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Brazilian journalist Pepe Escobar, often calls the United States a “Rogue Superpower”. Could this be an exaggeration? Not in the slightest.

On the contrary, Escobar is exercising basic decency and etiquette, something that even American diplomacy is completely incapable of. It’s certainly old news that the US-led political West has been conducting a comprehensive aggression against the world. However, we keep forgetting just how massive its scope is.

It’s barely been a month into 2024, and here’s Washington DC, already bombing half a dozen countries and threatening at least that many more. This includes Syria, Iraq and Yemen, while nobody’s even reporting on drone strikes all across Africa and the Middle East (including occasional attacks on Afghanistan). They’re also threatening Iran, Venezuela and several other countries in Latin America, including Mexico.

On February 4, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan refused to rule out the possibility of strikes inside Iran. Attacks on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its allied militias in Iraq and Syria are already underway. On February 3, the United Kingdom also joined this aggression. To put it simply, there was an attack on American soldiers in Jordan, so Washington DC is bombing Syria and Iraq (for God knows which time). Make it make sense. Former US president Donald Trump, who’s anything but innocent when it comes to America’s disastrous foreign policy, has repeatedly condemned Washington DC’s presence in the Middle East. He completely deconstructed the mainstream propaganda machine’s laughable narrative that the unfortunate region is supposedly “more stable” thanks to the political West’s aggression by simply pointing out that it’s “a mess”.

And indeed, who in their mind would think that having terrorists and various shady groups running entire regions and even countries in the Middle East is better than having Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi or Bashar al-Assad in power?

Well, the US and its puppets certainly think so and precisely thanks to that, countries such as Libya, Syria and Iraq have been ravaged by decades of war. This is without even taking into account other countries such as Yemen where millions have been brought to the point of extinction, mostly through hunger and sheer brutality. Despite all that, including its humiliating defeat in Afghanistan nearly two and a half years ago, Washington DC wants to convince everyone that invading Iran would actually make anything better. There are close to 90 million people in that country, which also has a very robust domestic military industry, as well as a sizeable stockpile of ballistic missiles and drones.

It should be noted that the US itself is also a far cry from 2003 when it could muster hundreds of thousands of soldiers, as well as those of its vassals and satellite states. In other words, Washington DC simply doesn’t have the conventional forces to pull off such an invasion. The American people are simply not interested in serving in the military as they were just 20 years ago. So, what does that leave it with? Weapons of mass destruction or WMDs. And indeed, the Pentagon has an undisclosed number of W76-2 warheads that have a very small yield of 2-7 kt (kilotons of TNT). This is upwards of only 10% of the destructive power of the “Fat Man” atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Basic military logic implies that such weapons are pointless against a country like Russia that has multi-megaton monstrosities such as the unrivaled RS-28 “Sarmat” and whose retaliation would devastate the entire NATO.

The only viable explanation is that the US wants to use such warheads in a conflict with a non-nuclear power. Faced with dwindling conventional capabilities, America is left with only one way to try to blackmail the rest of the world into accepting its vaunted “rules-based world order” – nuclear war. This is also completely in line with the overall US military strategy – attack only those who can’t shoot back. For the time being, Iran is the only major rival without thermonuclear weapons, making it the “perfect target”. However, that’s certainly not enough for the perpetually warmongering political elite in America. Namely, they’ve just sent three nuclear-powered supercarriers and B-52 strategic bombers to the Asia-Pacific as a “show of force” to China and North Korea. USAF’s other strategic bombers are already being put to “good use”, as the B-1Bs are once again devastating the Middle East.

Anyone with a single functioning brain cell knows who the bad guys are. Except for the bad guys themselves. On the contrary, they’re unequivocally convinced they’re the “good guys”. It’s not entirely clear if this is a coping mechanism, self-delusion or perhaps simply a case of one lying to everyone (including themselves). Either way, the answer to that question is completely inconsequential and doesn’t make any difference to the dozens (if not hundreds) of millions of people (mostly civilians) whose lives they’ve destroyed and keep destroying. For decades, the US has been trying to portray the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire”, with some of its presidents even directly calling it that.

However, things have worsened considerably in the last 10-15 years, as the current generation of neoliberal and neocon warmongers have openly likened Russia and President Vladimir Putin to Nazi Germany and Hitler, respectively. It takes a special kind of hypocrisy to do that while attacking well over half the planet and even calling it the “War on Terror” or “struggle for freedom and democracy”. The US-led political West has (ab)used the latter so much that terms such as freedom, democracy and human rights will at some point need to be replaced with something that would encompass their true meaning, but sound different, as the originals have been tarnished beyond repair.

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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).

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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When Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Matthew G. Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and James Smith, the Assistant Director of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced on February 1 that Joshua Schulte would spend 40 years in prison, longer than many murderers, they made it clear to the world that the most grave crime an American can commit is exposing the barbaric actions of the government against its own citizens.

The Statue of Liberty weeps; The spiritual leader of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, who wrote, “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression” rolls over in his grave.

The United States, like so many empires of old, has tossed off all pretenses of communal good, of republicanism, of accountability and transparency, of the rule of law and justice for all, and instead has crudely marked out a path for suppression of any attempt to make public its internal decay.

Let us not kid ourselves; we all know where that road leads.

Perhaps you did not know about the trial of Joshua Schulte for releasing evidence of criminal wrongdoing within the government. The case has been largely been ignored by the mainstream media, and of course all the candidates for office have been as silent as the tomb about this grotesque miscarriage of justice.

Reports that he possessed child pornography were added to the charges later to make it seem a little less insane—but although such material was most likely planted—it did nothing to relieve the grim prospect.

His crime was the release to the public through the Wikileaks website of examples of criminal wrongdoing by the United States, especially by the CIA. Most likely it was not even him who released those damning materials.

Insiders in defense and intelligence all know full well that Schulte and associates selected relatively tame criminality by intelligence and the military and did not even touch on the major state crimes. Yet even that action had to be punished as brutally as possible.

This sentencing, in which a computer programmer with a conscience was turned into a terrorist for a show trial, forms nothing less than a declaration of war against truth tellers, whistleblowers, and, along with the slaughter of journalists in Gaza, against writers and intellectuals in the United States and around the world. A republic infected with the virus of empire will take everyone down with her as her titanic form sinks lower and lower into the swamp.

We know that there are people at every level in the Federal Government, right now, who are reaching the breaking point, who feel that they must speak out against the unspeakable evil that flows beneath the surface of just about everything these days.

We feel your pain, men and women of conscience, and even if the politicians and public figures run away in fear, while they act bravely on TV, we will stand with you.

We know that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is the intended next victim of such a show trial.

We also know that there are hundreds, thousands, of you who have been punished without anyone even finding out what happened to you. We stand with all of you too, all you unspoken heroes. As Bobby Kennedy said,

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, that, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

After all, the jury in 2020 could not agree to convict Schulte for violating the Espionage Act, despite immense political pressure.

There is much doubt that the materials released to WikiLeaks were even related to Schulte in the first place. But what is certain is that those responsible for the crimes described in those documents will not be subject to persecution because a secret fortress of classified directives protects them, making them like gods in a rotten empire.

The information released on WikiLeaks, and attributed to Schulte, describes broad criminal operations including development of malware to attack anyone without a trace, spying programs aimed at illegally gathering information on citizens that can be sold to the highest bidder, and techniques for blaming other countries and individuals for crimes of which they were innocent.

Needless to say, in a democratic and transparent nation, Schulte and others would be held up as heroes. But today they are the enemies of the dark forces that have lodged deep inside Washington.

The point of the release of these materials was to start a debate on what America is doing and what it is becoming. But the CIA Director at the time Mike Pompeo, denounced these truth tellers as “demons” and “enemies” declaring that the basic rights of any citizens involve would be forfeited because they had become a “non-state hostile intelligence agency.”

It is important to note that Schulte has served five years under terrible conditions according to the barbaric “special administrative measures” program that subjects him to white noise in solitary confinement in a dark room, all actions intended to do psychological damage. Not given a fork, he must eat with his hands. Often, he does not have access to a toilet.

Palestinians protesting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza would not find Schulte’s situation unfamiliar. After all such psychological warfare techniques were developed in Israel. Nor would immigrants from South America who have been caught on the border, and subject to confinement in inhuman camps run for profit by contractors have any trouble understanding either. After all, the militarized border contains security systems operated by the same firms, like Elbit Systems,  that work in the occupied territories, and use the same surveillance technology, and interrogation and isolation methods, developed over there. That obscene marriage of Israeli and American security, private prisons, and opaque misuse of law is described in detail in Todd Miller’s book Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World.

Those borders, those walls to block out people, to lock up truthtellers, or to hide ugly secrets at the CIA or the Department of Defense, must be defended at all costs by the powerful.

We must stand up against this brutalization of the government in the United States and resist rule by the multinational corporations, and the wealthy behind them, who are pushing this policy of punishment for anyone who dares to speak the truth.

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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.

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).

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Hybrid Bt cotton, the only commercialised GM crop in India, has failed conclusively. Based on this failure and the evidence on GM crops to date, the Union of India’s proposal to commercialise herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard will destroy not just Indian mustard agriculture but citizens’ health.

There have been five days of intense hearings on this matter in the Supreme Court (SC) — the GMO Public Interest Writ filed almost 20 years ago in 2005 by the author, which ended on 18 January 2024.

In these last 20 years, piecemeal hearings have dealt with submissions relating to individual crops like hybrid Bt cotton, the attempted commercialisation of hybrid Bt brinjal (2010) and now the attempt to commercialise hybrid HT mustard.

The evidence provided here is a distillation of the critical inputs of those 60+ submissions based on the affidavits and studies of leading, independent scientists and experts of international renown.

However, there is a serious and proven conflict of interest among our regulators, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture along with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which promote GMOs in Indian agriculture. This evidence reflects the findings of the TEC Report (Technical Expert Committee) appointed by the Supreme Court (SC) in 2012 and two Parliamentary Standing Committees of 2012 and 2017.

‘Modern biotechnology’ or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are products where the genomes of organisms are transformed through laboratory techniques, including genetically engineered DNA (recombinant) and its direct introduction into cells. These are techniques not used in traditional breeding and selection.

GMOs create organisms in ways that have never existed in 3.8 billion years of evolution and produce ‘unintended effects’ that are not immediately apparent. This is why rigorous, independent protocols for risk and hazard identification are the sine qua non of correct regulation in the public interest. The Indian ‘Rules of 1989’ describe GMOs as “hazardous”.

Contamination by GMOs of the natural environment is of outstanding concern, recognised by the CBD (Convention on Biodiversity), of which India is a signatory. India is one of 17 listed international hot spots of diversity, which includes mustard, brinjal and rice.  India is the centre of the world’s biological diversity in brinjal with over 2500 varieties grown in the country and as many as 29 wild species.

India is a secondary centre of origin of rape-seed mustard with over 9000 accessions in our gene bank (National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources). With a commercialised GM crop, contamination is certain. The precautionary principle must apply, is read into the Constitution and is a legal precedent in India.

Hybrid Bt cotton was introduced in 2002 and remains the only approved commercialised crop in India. It has been an abject failure.

Failure of Bt Cotton

India is the only country in the world to have introduced the Bt gene into hybrid Bt Cotton.  It was introduced in hybrids as a ‘value-capture mechanism’, according to Dr Kranthi, ex director of the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR). The hybrid technology disallows seed saving by millions of small farmers. Conservative estimates indicate that Indian farmers may have paid an additional amount of Rs 14,000 crores for Bt cotton seeds during the period 2002-18, of which trait fees amounted to Rs 7337.37 crores, (Dr Kranthi). There was also a phenomenal three-fold increase in labour costs in hybrid cotton cultivation.

Prof. Andrew Gutierrez (University of California, Berkeley) is among the world’s leading entomologists and cotton scientists and provided the ecological explanation of why hybrid Bt cotton is every bit a disaster that it is in India. Most hybrid cottons are long season (180-200-day duration). This increases the opportunities for pest resurgence and outbreaks because it links into the lifecycle of the pest. The low-density planting also increases the cost of hybrid seeds substantially.

Hybrids require stable water too (therefore, irrigation, as opposed to rain-fed) and more fertiliser. Some 90% of current Bt cotton hybrids appear susceptible to sap-sucking insects, leaf-curl virus and leaf reddening, adding to input costs and loss of yield. Most telling is that India produces only 3.3 million tonnes from its irrigated area of 4.9 million hectares compared to 6.96 million tonnes from an equivalent area in China.

Hybrid Bt cotton in India has resulted in a yield plateau, high production costs and low productivity that reduce farmer revenues, correlated with increased farmer distress and suicides. It has stymied the development of economically viable high-density short-season (HD-SS) Non-Bt high-yielding straight-line varieties. The failure of hybrid Bt cotton is an abject lesson for GMO implementation in other crops.

Yet, the regulators attempted to repeat history in the form of hybrid Bt brinjal and Hybrid HT Mustard.

Field trial solutions (CICR data) of high-density short-season (HD-SS) NON-GMO pure-line (non-hybrid), rainfed cotton varieties have been developed in India that could more than double yield and nearly triple net income.

The Central Government admitted in its affidavit in the Delhi High Court (22 Jan 2016), adding, (on 23 January 2017), that Bt “cotton seeds are now unaffordable to farmers due to high royalties charged by MMBL (Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Ltd) which has a near monopoly on Bt cotton seeds and that this has led to a market failure”.

Moreover, there is no trait for yield enhancement in the Bt technology. Any intrinsic yield increase is properly attributable to its hybridisation in both Bt cotton and Bt brinjal. Lower insecticide use is the reason for introducing the Bt technology worldwide.

The pink bollworm has developed high levels of resistance against Bollgard-II Bt cotton, leading to increased insecticide usage in India, increases in new induced secondary pests and crop failures. The annual report 2015-16 of the ICAT-CICR confirms that Bt cotton is no longer effective for bollworm control

Insecticide usage on cotton in 2002 was 0.88 kg per hectare, which increased to 0.97 kg per hectare in 2013 (Srivastav and Kolady 2016).

Matters were deliberately muddied in India, leading to any hybrid vigour being attributed to the Bt technology! Yields have stagnated despite the deployment of all available latest technologies, including the introduction of new potent GM technologies, a two-fold increase in the use of fertilisers and increased insecticide use and irrigation. And yet, India’s global rank is 30-32nd in terms of yield.

In 13 years, the cost of cultivation increased 302%. In 15 years, there was 450% increase in labour costs. The costs of hybrid seed, insecticide and fertiliser increased more than 250 to 300%.

Net profit for farmers was Rs. 5971/ha in 2003 (pre-Bt) but plummeted to net losses of Rs. 6286 in 2015 (Dr Kranthi): see this.

Regulatory Failure: Bt Brinjal

Regulators tried to commercialise Bt brinjal and in hybrids in 2009. The Bt gene is proven to be undeniably toxic (Profs. Schubert of the Salk Institute; Pusztai, Seralini and others have confirmed this).

In August 2008, the regulators were forced to publish the Developers’ (Monsanto-Mahyco) self-assessed bio-safety dossier on their website, 16 months after the order of the SC to make the safety dossier data public (15 Feb 2007).

Bt brinjal was the first vegetable food crop in the world to be approved for commercialisation, by the collective regulatory body and their expert committees, virtually without oversight. When the international scientific community examined the raw data, their collective comments were scathing. Prof Jack Heinemann stated that Mahyco has failed at the first, elementary step of the safety study: “I have never seen less professionalism in the presentation and quality assurance of molecular data than in this study”.

He criticised Mahyco for using outdated studies, testing to below acceptable standards and inappropriate and invalid test methods.

Prof David Andow, in his comprehensive critique of Monsanto’s Dossier, ‘Bt brinjal Event EE1’, listed 37 studies of which perhaps one had been conducted and reported to a satisfactory level by Monsanto. He concluded: “The GEAC set too narrow a scope for environmental risk assessment (ERA) of hybrid Bt brinjal, and it is because of this overly narrow scope that the EC-II is not an adequate ERA… most of the possible environmental risks of Bt brinjal have not been adequately evaluated; this includes risks to local varieties of brinjal and wild relatives, risks to biological diversity, and risk of resistance evolution in BFSB.”

The Central Government itself declared an unconditional and indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal in Feb 2009 based on the collective responses of the scientific community.

Disaster in the Making: GM Hybrid HT Mustard

Like Bt, HT is a pesticidal crop (to kill weeds). These two GMO technologies represent about 98% of crops planted worldwide, with HT crops accounting for more than 80%. Neither has a trait for yield. In its 2002 Report, the United States Department for Agriculture stated: “currently available GM crops do not increase the yield potential… In fact, yield may even decrease if the varieties used to carry the herbicide tolerant or insect-resistant genes are not the highest yielding cultivars… Perhaps the biggest issue raised by these results is how to explain the rapid adoption of GE crops when farm financial impacts appear to be mixed or even negative.”  

The developer’s (Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants University of Delhi) bio-safety dossier, in contempt of the SC orders, has never made its data public. A Right to Information (RTI) request was filed in 2016 with the Directorate of Rape-Seed Mustard Research, which conducts protocols of non-GMO mustard trials for crop improvement programmes for our farmers, for varietal stability and performance. The RTI was an eye opener. Virtually all the directorate’s norms were flouted in the field trials, making them invalid. Hybrid mustard HT DMH 11 was out yielded by more than the 10% norm by non-GMO varieties and hybrids, which forced the developers to admit this fact in their formal reply affidavit in the SC.

Hybrid HT mustard DMH 11 employs three transgenes: the male sterility gene, barnase, the female restorer gene, barstar, and the bar gene that confers tolerance to Bayer’s herbicide glufosinate ammonium or BASTA. Each of the parent lines has the bar gene that makes them both HT crops along with their resulting hybrid DMH 11. The reason for employing barnase and barstar is because mustard is a closed pollinating crop (even though it out crosses pretty well, 18%+) and this technology (a male sterility technology) makes it easier to produce mustard hybrids.  It is not a hybrid technology. Its counterpart in non-GMO male sterility technology is the CMS system (cytoplasmic male sterility). Employing male sterility in mustard allows it to be used more easily in already existing hybridisation technology.

It is curious the extent to which the regulators have tried to obfuscate the facts and muddy the waters. Their first response was that the acronym HT in mustard DMH 11 means ‘hybrid technology’. When this didn’t work, the next ‘try’ was that DMH 11 isn’t an HT crop!

This too was easily proved wrong because of the presence of the bar gene. Now, this fact has been admitted.

Furthermore, the regulators have failed either intentionally, or because they are simply unable to stop, illegal HT cotton being grown on a commercial scale for the last 15 years or so. This is the state of GMO regulation in India.

Bayer’s own data sheet states that glufosinate causes birth defects and is damaging to most plants that it comes into contact with. Like its counterpart, glyphosate, it is a systemic, broad spectrum, non-selective herbicide (it kills indiscriminately soil organisms, beneficial insects etc) and is damaging to most plants and aquatic life. The US Environmental Protection Agency classifies glufosinate ammonium as “persistent” and “mobile” and is “expected to adversely affect non-target terrestrial plant species”.

Glufosinate is not permitted in crop plants in India, under the Insecticide Act. Since it is very persistent in the environment, it will certainly contaminate water supplies in addition to food. Surfactants are used to get the active ingredients into the plant, which is engineered to withstand the herbicide, so it doesn’t die when sprayed. The herbicide and surfactant are sprayed directly on the crops and significant quantities are then taken up into the plant.  The weeds die — or used to!

The US Geological survey noted that while 20 million pounds/year of glyphosate was used prior to GE crops (1992), 280 million pounds/year was used in 2012, largely as a result of glyphosate-resistant crops. In the U.S. alone, glyphosate-resistant weeds were estimated to occupy an area of over 24 million hectares as of 2012. This is a failed and unsustainable technology anywhere, and for India it will be disastrous.

The stated objective by the regulators themselves for HT mustard is that the two HT parent lines (barnase and barstar each with the bar gene), will be similarly employed in India’s best (non-GMO) varieties to create new crosses resulting in any number of HT hybrid mustard DMH crops. Thus, Indian mustard varieties (non-GMO) in a very short time will be contaminated and Indian mustard agriculture (which is non-GMO) destroyed.

The regulators claim that GMO HT hybrid DMH 11 will create a significant dent in India’s oilseeds imports. Given that GMO mustard has no gene for yield enhancement, is significantly out yielded by non-GMO mustard hybrids and varieties, this is indeed a magic bean produced from thin air by the regulators, defying all logic and commonsense. Mustard Oil imports are virtually zero (ie rapeseed mustard as distinct from canola rape oil which is also illegal GMO).

The story of the current steep decline in oilseeds production in Indian farming must be laid at the door of a wrong policy decision that comprehensively ignored national and farmers’ interest to severely slash import duties on oilseeds of around 300% to virtually zero. In 1993-94, India imported just 3% of our oil-seed demand; we were self- sufficient. Then we happily bowed to WTO pressure and now import almost 70% of our demand in edible oils! (Devinder Sharma).  This is the real reason for our heavy import bill.

The TEC recommend a double bar on GM Mustard — for being an HT crop and also in a centre of mustard diversification and/or origin. It is hoped that our government will recognise the dangers of GMOs, bar HT crops, including GM mustard, and impose a moratorium on all Bt crops.

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Aruna Rodrigues is the Lead Petitioner in the GMO PIL filed in 2005 for a moratorium on GM crops.  

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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In this article I provide extracts from my book No Worries No Virus. The book details:

  • comprehensive evidence of the Covid-19 hoax;
  • evidence the pandemic situation was planned with a purpose;
  • analysis indicating the Covid-19 death numbers are fraudulent;
  • flawed modelling and false case numbers used to justify world lockdown;
  • the fraudulent Covid-19 PCR test used to create false case numbers;
  • technical analysis and evidence showing that a Covid-19 virus causing disease simply does not exist (no evidence of being isolated, ever);
  • the work of Dr Stefan Lanka and other experts demonstrating that pathogenic viruses causing disease simply do not exist – virology took a wrong turn
  • the truth about relevant world events in banking, politics, and war between 1913 to 2019 that help one gain a deeper realisation of the agenda behind the Covid-19 world lockdown; 
  • analysis of the World Economic Forum technocratic reset agenda.

In March 2020, as the most of world grinded to a halt in the face of the Covid-19 scare, populations were simultaneously preached to by establishment media and corrupted politicians about the threat of impending death. A threat that was propagandised by the corporate-owned and government media with incomplete, pseudo-science, pressuring everyone to get the jab. The fact that most of the people of the world were simultaneously forced to ‘stop’, signalled that a major change in the world was being attempted.

In our own life time we have lived under a corporate-communist political hierarchy, which, though purporting to be made of individual and autonomous nation states, is actually a one world government controlled by the world private banking cartel and its mega-corporations and its unelected institutional framework, including the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, the World Economic Forum, et al. This also includes the mega-corporate media who, at the launch of the pandemic, employed nothing less than trauma-based mind control to convince the world’s population that they were all likely to die from Covid-19 unless they did exactly what the world government ordered and take an experimental vaccine. They then enact and encourage laws that allow society to become degraded, weak, easily controllable, and unable to perceive the nature of their material and spiritual captivity.

Covid-19 was a fulcrum event, it created a mental split. There are those that fully accepted the government narrative, restrictions, and wore the masks proudly; and there are those more aware people that could see for themselves what was really happening. Millions of people worldwide have seen through the deception.

However, for the most part, those people that could see the truth couldn’t convince most other people of that truth no matter how hard they tried, and those believing the government narrative couldn’t convince the ‘truthers’ of their truth no matter hard they tried. 

A friend sent me this video titled ‘Mask Wearer versus Non-Mask Wearer’. The video exemplifies in a comedic way the very noticeable split in families and in wider society that was induced by the Covid ‘situation’.  

It seemed like an invisible mental barrier manifested itself. Why could the relative few people see through the Covid-19 fake pandemic so clearly amidst the mass insanity around them? and why could most of the people not see the lies? 

Rather than submitting to lies and technocratic slavery, perhaps it is how we face and deal with lies that counts. Was the fake pandemic the last chance for those who refused to wake up after the lies of 911 and those who refused to wake up from corporate media fakery.

Note the following video of 911 in which building 7 is seen ‘still standing’ in the New York skyline even after the BBC news team had announced it had collapsed. The BBC news got their timing wrong and building 7 collapsed later from an obvious controlled demolition.

During the terrible events we see an instance where the media-matrix of pre-scripted news got their timing wrong. No tall building had ever collapsed like a deck of cards primarily due to fire but this is what the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have claimed.

The fact that there is even a debate on whether this was a controlled demolition or not is mind boggling reality breakdown. When you mention building 7 nobody knows a single thing about it.

We can unlock ourselves from the mental prison of corporate media propaganda. Our mental reality creates our physical reality. That is why it is so important to see the truth. By seeing through the deceptions and manipulations our mental reality is cleansed, we are set free from delusion, and the doors and possibilities for a better future can be opened.

Thus, deceptions, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the lies of 911, or ‘manmade climate change due to CO2’, could be perceived as a challenge for us all. We can choose to either be a slave to the lie, or alternatively, to create and co-create a better reality based on truth. 

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Mark Gerard Keenan, is a former scientist at the UK Government Dept. of Energy and Climate Change, and at the United Nations Environment Division. He is author of the following books:

Mark’s E-books in PDF format are available at https://mkeenan.ie/shop/.

Make a donation for Mark’s articles via Paypal.

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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American Amara Majeed was accused of terrorism by the Sri Lankan police in 2019. Robert Williams was arrested outside his house in Detroit and detained in jail for 18 hours for allegedly stealing watches in 2020. Randal Reid spent six days in jail in 2022 for supposedly using stolen credit cards in a state he’d never even visited.

In all three cases, the authorities had the wrong people. In all three, it was face recognition technology that told them they were right. Law enforcement officers in many U.S. states are not required to reveal that they used face recognition technology to identify suspects.

Face recognition technology is the latest and most sophisticated version of biometric surveillance: using unique physical characteristics to identify individual people. It stands in a long line of technologies – from the fingerprint to the passport photo to iris scans – designed to monitor people and determine who has the right to move freely within and across borders and boundaries.

In my book, “Do I Know You? From Face Blindness to Super Recognition,” I explore how the story of face surveillance lies not just in the history of computing but in the history of medicine, of race, of psychology and neuroscience, and in the health humanities and politics.

Viewed as a part of the long history of people-tracking, face recognition techology’s incursions into privacy and limitations on free movement are carrying out exactly what biometric surveillance was always meant to do.

The system works by converting captured faces – either static from photographs or moving from video – into a series of unique data points, which it then compares against the data points drawn from images of faces already in the system. As face recognition technology improves in accuracy and speed, its effectiveness as a means of surveillance becomes ever more pronounced.

Accuracy Improves, But Biases Persist

Surveillance is predicated on the idea that people need to be tracked and their movements limited and controlled in a trade-off between privacy and security. The assumption that less privacy leads to more security is built in.

That may be the case for some, but not for the people disproportionately targeted by face recognition technology. Surveillance has always been designed to identify the people whom those in power wish to most closely track.

On a global scale, there are caste cameras in India, face surveillance of Uyghurs in China and even attendance surveillance in U.S. schools, often with low-income and majority-Black populations. Some people are tracked more closely than others.

In addition, the cases of Amara Majeed, Robert Williams and Randal Reid aren’t anomalies. As of 2019, face recognition technology misidentified Black and Asian people at up to 100 times the rate of white people, including, in 2018, a disproportionate number of the 28 members of the U.S. Congress who were falsely matched with mug shots on file using Amazon’s Rekognition tool.

When the database against which captured images were compared had only a limited number of mostly white faces upon which to draw, face recognition technology would offer matches based on the closest alignment available, leading to a pattern of highly racialized – and racist – false positives.

With the expansion of images in the database and increased sophistication of the software, the number of false positives – incorrect matches between specific individuals and images of wanted people on file – has declined dramatically. Improvements in pixelation and mapping static images into moving ones, along with increased social media tagging and ever more sophisticated scraping tools like those developed by Clearview AI, have helped decrease the error rates.

The biases, however, remain deeply embedded into the systems and their purpose, explicitly or implicitly targeting already targeted communities. The technology is not neutral, nor is the surveillance it is used to carry out.

Latest Technique in a Long History

Face recognition software is only the most recent manifestation of global systems of tracking and sorting. Precursors are rooted in the now-debunked belief that bodily features offer a unique index to character and identity. This pseudoscience was formalized in the late 18th century under the rubric of the ancient practice of physiognomy.

Early systemic applications included anthropometry (body measurement), fingerprinting and iris or retinal scans. They all offered unique identifiers. None of these could be done without the participation – willing or otherwise – of the person being tracked.

The framework of bodily identification was adopted in the 19th century for use in criminal justice detection, prosecution and record-keeping to allow governmental control of its populace. The intimate relationship between face recognition and border patrol was galvanized by the introduction of photos into passports in some countries including Great Britain and the United States in 1914, a practice that became widespread by 1920.

Face recognition technology provided a way to go stealth on human biometric surveillance. Much early research into face recognition software was funded by the CIA for the purposes of border surveillance.

It tried to develop a standardized framework for face segmentation: mapping the distance between a person’s facial features, including eyes, nose, mouth and hairline. Inputting that data into computers let a user search stored photographs for a match. These early scans and maps were limited, and the attempts to match them were not successful.

More recently, private companies have adopted data harvesting techniques, including face recognition, as part of a long practice of leveraging personal data for profit.

Face recognition technology works not only to unlock your phone or help you board your plane more quickly, but also in promotional store kiosks and, essentially, in any photo taken and shared by anyone, with anyone, anywhere around the world. These photos are stored in a database, creating ever more comprehensive systems of surveillance and tracking.

And while that means that today it is unlikely that Amara Majeed, Robert Williams, Randal Reid and Black members of Congress would be ensnared by a false positive, face recognition technology has invaded everyone’s privacy. It – and the governmental and private systems that design, run, use and capitalize upon it – is watching, and paying particular attention to those whom society and its structural biases deem to be the greatest risk.

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 is an Associate Professor of Bioethics and History, Drexel University. 

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Although Ukraine is doing everything possible to increase its domestic production of artillery shells, the limited support from its Western allies has meant that soldiers on the front lines are running out of this type of ammunition. Nonetheless, the Kiev regime is receiving just enough sporadic military support from the EU at this moment in time so that the Ukrainian military can survive, and the new financial aid package still indirectly supports Ukraine’s war effort, even if Brussels denies it.

“We’ve never had enough shells of 122 mm calibre… we’re getting them right from the factory,” a Ukrainian soldier fighting on the Avdeyevka front told POLITICO.

“On average, we fire 15 shots per day. But there were days when we made more than 100 shots, or haven’t made any at all. Now hostilities intensified in our direction, but we have as few shells as we used to have,” the soldier acknowledged.

News about the shortage of certain ammunition among Ukrainian troops is not new. Even Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, accepted in early January that there was “shell hunger” in his armed forces.

Although Ukraine is increasing the domestic production of shells to try and deal with this “hunger,” refusing to reveal the numbers it is manufacturing, the country is still almost entirely reliant on foreign supplies, which is proving disastrous since the European Union is failing to provide what it promised while American support for Ukraine has been gridlocked in Congress for months now.

“The stoppage is having a real impact on the troops dug into trenches in southern and eastern Ukraine,” notes the American news portal.

The report indicates that the Ukrainian military continues to receive little ammunition from abroad, which complicates the situation even though the country is trying to increase its local production of projectiles.

Umerov himself admitted that Russia “vastly outnumbers” Ukraine in daily artillery strikes. According to him, the Russians fire 5-10 times more artillery shells than the Ukrainians.

“Today we have a war of such a scale that the entire capacity of the free world is not enough to support our consumption. We definitely cannot do this without help,” Ukraine’s Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin told POLITICO.

According to the outlet, this shortage situation is one of the key reasons why the Ukrainian military has gone on the defensive along the entire front “in the wake of this summer’s disappointing counteroffensive.”

Despite American funding for Ukraine hitting an impasse in Congress, the European Union on February 1 agreed on an astronomical €50 billion of macro-financial aid. Although the aid package — about two-thirds loans and one-third grants — is supposedly not intended to fight Russia and is to support the economy and pay for rebuilding, the EU still has a separate plan for funding arms and ammunition, and at the same time, by paying for its economic needs, it allows Ukraine to concentrate more of its real economy towards the war effort.

It is for this reason that Brussels is receiving a lot of criticism. Europeans suffer from high inflation and energy prices, and the eyewatering €50 billion could have been utilised to serve citizens better instead of highly corrupt Ukraine. By Brussels recklessly throwing away tens of billions of euros to Ukraine, the Kiev regime can use money from elsewhere to fuel its fight against Russia, such as producing the shells it is “hungry” for, instead of rebuilding the country, and in this way, the EU is indirectly supporting Ukraine’s war effort.

For this reason, the European aid package has been condemned across the continent.

The head of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party in the European Parliament, Harald Vilimsky, called the decision “bad news for Europe’s taxpayers.”

“The EU has no strategy to end the war in Ukraine and does not appear interested in finding peaceful solutions. At the same time, Brussels is focused on permanently feeding Ukraine billions, even though this money could be used much better in the EU itself and the Member States,” he said. “Ukraine has long since turned into a bottomless financial pit.”

Vilimsky also pointed out that although some funds are provided as loans, no one believes that Ukraine will repay them.

Joining the concerns of the MEP was French MP Thierry Mariani, who lamented that the aid package would cost French taxpayers €8 billion, adding that this is money “that our farmers would dream of.”

In recent weeks, European farmers have been protesting by blocking roads and dumping manure and waste in front of government buildings across the continent. Farmers demand recognition of the importance of their profession and denounce government agricultural policies that, according to them, make them uncompetitive in the market.

Yet, European technocrats are sidelining their concerns to support Ukraine’s war effort instead, one that is evidently futile since even with the massive amount of Western support, the country has run out of manpower and weapons. Vilimsky described Ukraine as a “bottomless financial pit;” rather, the country is a black hole for all financial, military, and other aid.

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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”

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Aug. 21, 2021 – US FDA posted a tweet fraudulently misrepresenting Ivermectin as a “animal & veterinary drug”. This post would result in countless deaths.

 

Sep. 15, 2021 – The plot against Ivermectin.

  • This interesting article describes the propaganda around fraudulently labeling Ivermectin as “horse dewormer”

Jan. 2, 2024 – 49 year old Champion bodybuilder and former paramedic Chad Russell McCrary died unexpectedly. In Aug.2021 he mocked Ivermectin as a “horse wormer” and got COVID-19 Vaccinated.

  • He was paralyzed in 2005 after motocross accident but continued to compete
  • Aug. 21, 2021: FDA Issued their false propaganda tweet about Ivermectin
  • Aug. 30, 2021, McCrary: “People would rather take horse wormer apparently. Well, I didn’t murder anyone and I damn sure not a horse”
  • Aug. 30, 2021: “Trying to convince people to take equine medicine is the craziest shit I’ve ever heard of…As a paramedic, I wonder what the ER doctor would say if I rolled up in there and tell them I gave my patients horse wormer…for the love of God”
  • Sep. 26, 2021: “One of the main reasons I went ahead and got my covid vacine is because I go to hospitals and nursing home to visit people and hopefully lift their spirits”.

 

 

Oct. 29, 2023 – IL – Deborah Zari died suddenly on Oct. 29, 2023.

  • “Are people really dumb enough to believe a *horse dewormer* is safer than the vaccines?”
  • Deborah Zari was found unresponsive in the morning of Oct. 29, 2023.

 

Image

 

Oct. 18, 2023 – Dwight Allan Twilley was driving alone when he suffered a massive stroke, lost control of his car and crashed into a tree, dying of brain hemorrhage on Oct. 18, 2023. 

  • Sep. 5, 2021: “How’s that Ivermectin workin’ for you? Possible side effects”
  • Aug. 23, 2021: “Time to quit whining and get vaccinated”

 

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May 26, 2023 – West Chester, PA – 52 yo animal activist Chris Takacs died in his sleep on May 26, 2023. 

  • Sep. 7, 2021: “Please get vaccinated. Please don’t take sheep medication.”

  • April 30, 2021: “I got my second shot of the Moderna vaccine today”

 

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Joe Rogan Talks About Ivermectin “Horse Paste” Propaganda

Watch the video here.

Mainstream Media and Medical Associations

  • The propaganda in US and Canada around “horse dewormer” was relentless and hundreds of media outlets and medical associations participated in it.

  • For example, the British Columbia Medical Association Journal in Canada wrote an article titled “From the horse’s mouth: Calls to the Drug and Poison Information Centre about Ivermectin Exposures”
  • It’s crucial to remember that they were ALL in on it.

 

 

MSNBC – Example of Mainstream Media Propaganda on “Horse Dewormer”

 

  • “any doctor that prescribes this medicine (Ivermectin) for a patient should have their credential re-evaluated”.

  • “This is the drug that fringe doctors and right-wing social media celebrities swore would prevent and/or cure Covid-19, a lie that led to it being in short supply last year.”
  • “There is black and white evidence that ivermectin not only does not help Covid patients, but also that when the product intended for animals is taken by humans, it can cause harm, including a dramatic increase in calls to poison control centers nationwide.” (the harm isn’t any actual poisoning, but an “increase in phone calls”)
  • “The real threat is not limited to ivermectin, of course. It extends to misinformation around other unproven Covid treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and targeted at actual effective strategies such as vaccines, masks and more.”
  • “The energy exerted by the radical right filters into the mainstream by disguising itself with the label of “doctor” or “patient” or “right to try.””

My Take…

This article is not about the hundreds of thousands of lives in the US and Canada that could have been saved with Ivermectin or other early treatments.

Beyond what RFK Jr talked about with Rogan (blocking Ivermectin so the $200+ billion failed mRNA tech could be rolled out), I believe there was another, more specific purpose to the “horse dewormer” operation.

As the phenomenon of “died suddenly” among the COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated continues to accelerate, I have noticed that some of those who have recently died, fully bought the fraudulent “horse dewormer” propaganda and were brainwashed into mRNA vaccination.

This particular piece of propaganda was rolled out in August 2021 and it was so effective that many are still parroting the false talking points to this day.

But why August 2021?

This was the final non-coercive tool to try and increase mRNA Vaccine uptake and compliance which had stalled around 60%.

The propaganda technique employed was: shaming and ridiculing the unvaccinated (you’re not a horse, you’re not a cow). That’s why the FDA post was so unprofessional and childish – it had to be that way to achieve the goal of “persuading” the remaining 30-40% who were holding out on vaccination.

What came immediately after this?

Illegal COVID-19 Vaccine mandates – get the mRNA vaccine or lose your job, career, University/College program, government benefits, etc.

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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.

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

The Marriage Between Zionism and Imperialism

February 5th, 2024 by Marc Vandepitte

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The genocide the Israeli army is perpetrating today in Gaza is not a slip-up but the logical offshoot of an imperialist and colonial project established at the end of the 19th century: Zionism. To properly understand what is happening today, it is necessary to understand the origins and stakes of this ideology and movement.

The Jewish Question

Since time immemorial, Jewish people have lived scattered throughout the world. Even centuries before the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman Empire (A.D. 70), 3.5 million Jews lived in diaspora while only half a million resided in Palestine.

The situation of the various Jewish communities in the diaspora was very diverse. Some were prosperous and free. In those regions, Jewish notables even held positions of authority. In others, Jews lived at the bottom of society, were oppressed and were easily the target of antisemitism.

At the end of the 19th century, capitalism was in a serious crisis. Large sections of the population were impoverished. To promote national unity and divert attention from the crisis, the establishment needed a scapegoat, and at that time it was the Jews. There were outbreaks of antisemitism in both Eastern and Western Europe. Tsarist Russia was rocked by brutal [anti-Jewish] pogroms in 1881, and in France there was the Dreyfus affair at the end of the 19th century.

Two answers were formulated during that period regarding this antisemitic wave. For progressive Jews like Karl Marx and Moses Mendelsohn, the battle had to be waged on the ground against everything that was reactionary. Others, such as Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, chose to flee. According to them, the problems of Jews could only be solved in a Jewish state of their own. That was right away the core of Zionism.

Poor Support Within the Jewish Population

Various locations were initially considered for such a Jewish state, including Uganda, Kenya, Argentina and Palestine. Ultimately the choice fell on Palestine. That country had the advantage that the myths of the Torah could be used to mobilize Jews worldwide. Moreover — as we will see further — this plan had the full support of British imperialism.

Zionism was created by a handful of Jewish intellectuals. It had very little support in its early stages. Fierce opposition to this new ideology came from various Jewish circles. The Reform movement, the Orthodox Jews and the socialist movement which opposed the idea of a Jewish state.

In the 19th century, the Jewish bourgeoisie was for the most part well-integrated into bourgeois society and the capitalist economy. Therefore, they were focused on assimilation rather than segregation. They found the idea of a Jewish state of their own nonsensical; it was not at all in line with their interests. Under the influence of the Communist International, the Jewish workers had little enthusiasm for Zionism.

It was mainly among the petty bourgeoisie and more specifically among intellectuals that Zionism emerged and found a following. The crisis of capitalism hit the middle class hard and within this system there was little perspective for solving their problems.

In summary, in the early years, Zionism was mainly supported by petty-bourgeois intellectuals and represented only a small minority movement within Judaism. Before WWI, the Zionist movement failed to become a major player within Judaism.

The migration to Palestine advocated by the Zionists was equally small. Between 1881 and 1925, nearly four million Jews emigrated from Europe. But only 1% of them sought refuge in Palestine at the time. 

Imperialist and Nazi Support

If Zionists received little support from Jewish quarters, they could count on Britain. At the end of the 19th century, imperialism was in full swing and a Jewish state in Palestine suited the British imperialists. There are several reasons for this.

The British wanted control over the Near East. A Jewish state in that region, under British influence, could be very useful in this regard. Palestine is strategically very important because of its proximity to the Suez Canal (opened since 1869), which provides access to the shortest route to Asia. From 1935 onwards, oil played an equally important factor: The oil supply from Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea also passed through Palestine.

At the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was running on its last legs, and in this vacuum there was a real possibility of forming a large and strong Arab state. At the beginning of the 19th century, Egypt’s [Ottoman Pasha] Muhammad Ali already attempted to build a strong Arab empire that, in addition to Egypt, also included Syria and parts of Sudan. With the creation of a Jewish state, the British wanted to prevent this.

Finally, with the creation of a Jewish state, the British wanted to prevent France, a major imperialist rival, from seizing this strategic region. Under Napoleon (Bonaparte), France had previously attempted to annex Egypt and Syria.

In 1838, the British opened their first consulate in Jerusalem. The mission included informally encouraging Jews to come to Palestine, promising to protect them. Nearly 60 years before the Jewish Zionists held their congresses, the British not only liked the idea of settling Jewish people here, but had already begun to implement it.

Balfour Declaration expressed British imperialism’s plan to divide and conquer in the Palestine region by promoting Zionism.

In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour wrote to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a member of a prominent Jewish Rothschild banking family in Great Britain. [It was] a letter to the Zionist movement, which would go down in history as the Balfour Declaration. In it he stated that the British government was positive about the establishment of a “National Home for the Jewish People in Palestine” and that it will do its utmost to facilitate this project.

The aspirations of the petty-bourgeois Zionists coincided with the geopolitical interests of British imperialism. To a large extent, Zionism is a product of British big business. In any case, without Britain the Zionist project could never have developed or achieved its goals in Palestine.

But it was not just from British imperialism that the Zionists were looking for support. For example, German Zionists concluded various cooperation agreements with the Nazis. Wealthy German Jews could emigrate to Palestine together with [some of] their capital. With that Jewish-German capital, the Zionists in Palestine were able to develop the economic infrastructure to receive Jews from Germany. In return, the German Zionists broke the boycott that most Jewish organizations in Europe and the U.S. had declared against trade in German goods.

In Palestine, the Jewish Agency set up a commission to investigate the problems of the Jews in Germany. David Ben-Gurion, [who became] Israel’s first prime minister, wrote about this at the time: “It is not the task of the committee to advocate for the rights of the Jews in Germany. The committee should only be interested in the problem of German Jews insofar as they can emigrate to Palestine.”

It was thanks to those agreements that German Jews “constituted the super-top class in Israel” at that time.

After WWII, the role of patron and facilitator would mainly be taken up by the United States with Europe as a junior partner.

Colonial Project

The Jews may have been people without a country, but Palestine was certainly not a country without people. At the end of the 19th century, almost half a million Palestinians lived between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. To turn the area into a “Jewish” state, it was necessary to remove the Indigenous population.

In other words, the project advocated settler colonialism, similar to what Europeans had previously done in South and North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

All projects of settler colonialism are driven by the so-called “logic of elimination,” which is the logic of making the native population disappear as much as possible. The history of the above shows that this logic inevitably leads to dehumanization, disenfranchisement, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

From the beginning, the Zionists’ objectives were clear, although they did not openly state them at first. In 1895, Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary:

“We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. (…) Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”

And it was not just words. The Zionists bought up as many pieces of land as possible, built their own parallel state structure and set up militias.

Gradually, the Zionist leadership showed less diffidence and came out openly in favor of an exclusive Jewish state. In 1940, Josef Weitz, head of the Colonization Department of the World Zionist Organization no longer beat about the bush: “It must be clear that there is no room in the country for both [Arab and Jewish] peoples. (…) If the [Palestinian] Arabs leave it, the country will become wide and spacious for us. (… ) There is no room here for compromises. 

“There is no way but to transfer the [Palestinian] Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, to transfer all of them, save perhaps for [the Palestinian Arabs of] Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the old Jerusalem. Not one village must be left, not one [Bedouin] tribe.”

The charter of the Likud, Netanyahu’s party, also leaves little to the imagination. It states: “The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable” and “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”

We are dealing here with unadulterated settler colonialism, which incidentally fitted in perfectly with the spirit of the epoch, which was characterized by the colonization drive of European countries. At the end of the 19th century, almost all uncolonized areas in Asia and Africa were overrun and colonized.

For example, in 1870 only 10% of Africa was owned by European powers; this rose to 90% in the period before the First World War. At the Berlin Conference (1885), Africa was simply divided among the European colonizers.

Zionism fits into that picture and can, in other words, be regarded as the last European colonial project.

Two-state Solution?

The aggressive colonial character immediately became clear with the proclamation and formation of the Jewish state in 1948. This was accompanied by the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic): a mass slaughter of the Palestinian population, the destruction of 500 villages and the deportation of approximately half of the Palestinian population. A United Nations resolution provided for the return of all expelled Palestinians, but this was never complied with.

From then on it was a matter of striving for the smallest possible number of Palestinians in the largest possible annexed area. The 1967 Six-Day War quadrupled Israel’s territory. It occupied the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula (returned to Egypt in 1979), the West Bank (including eastern Jerusalem) and the Golan Heights (taken from Syria).

The Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995 were a further consolidation of the colonial project. These agreements were intended to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They provided for so-called Palestinian self-government and would pave the way for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

But that self-government was a joke. In fact, this “two-state solution” was nothing more than a diversionary tactic that allowed Israel to continue dispossessing Palestinians. Peace was just a pretext for Israel to buy time and continue building Jewish settlements.

And that happened. Half a million settlers now live in the occupied West Bank and that number is constantly increasing. The lives of the Palestinians are made as difficult as possible: they are humiliated, harassed and robbed. Thousands of them, including children, have been kidnapped and spend years in prisons in Israel.

But that is nothing compared to the Gaza Strip. There, [2.2 million] residents have been subjected to a complete blockade since 2007 and the strip was reduced to a concentration camp.

Today, only a tiny part of the original Palestine remains.

Completion or End of Zionist/Imperialist Project?

The surprise attack from Gaza and the subsequent siege of the Gaza Strip are a turning point in the Zionist project. A return to the previous state of affairs is impossible.

The Israeli army is indulging in primitive and barbaric violence based on the most modern technology, including artificial intelligence. Officially, the goal is to eliminate Hamas. But the severity and ruthlessness of the operation reveal that this is an excuse to make the area uninhabitable and to deport the population completely.

According to the anti-Zionist philosopher Moshé Machover, who is himself Jewish, living in Israel, that plan has been in existence for a long time. In 2014 he said: “[The Israeli regime is] actually waiting for a time when they can be permanently expelled to neighboring countries. That will only be possible during a full-scale war and I fear that Israel is prepared to provoke it.”

Several plans have already been leaked to deport the entire population of Gaza abroad. Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter openly speaks of “a new ‘Nakba.’”

There is no doubt, the current war is fully in line with the old Zionist dream of ruling over the region from “the sea to the Jordan.”

The imperialist backing of that dream was also made abundantly clear when, shortly after October 7, U.S. and European leaders rushed to Tel Aviv to support the Israeli government. The U.S. also immediately sent two warships, loads of ammunition and provided $14.5 billion in aid.

Why Israel is so important to the U.S. is clearly stated by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the politically inconsistent nephew of President John F. Kennedy: “Israel is critical to the U.S. The reason it’s critical is because it’s a bulwark for us in the Middle East. It’s almost like having an aircraft carrier in the Middle East. It’s our oldest ally, for 75 years.”

But, for so much savagery, the Zionists pay a price. As Lebanese anthropologist Leila Ghanem puts it, Israel is gradually becoming “the most hated country in the world.”

Since the start of the war, millions of people worldwide have taken to the streets against the genocide in Gaza, trade unions have stopped arms deliveries, and Israeli officials and soldiers have been charged in international and national courts. The improved relations that Tel Aviv had with countries in the region are at risk.

For people of the Global South, the Zionist project is an anachronism of our times and has no future. The “Israeli exception” must end. The oppressed Palestinian people, subject to terror but resisting this “last colonial project,” have acquired great symbolic value [for people who confront imperialism].

As a result of what is happening in Gaza, [former U.S. President Barack] Obama warns of a new wave of antisemitism. It is the irony of history: Zionism, which wanted to be a solution to antisemitism, is now itself the cause of antisemitism.

Imperialism is also in bad shape. The de facto support for the horror in Gaza unmasks the rhetoric about human rights and democracy. The contrast with which the West dealt with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine versus its support for Israel today could not be greater.

The war against Gaza is accelerating the tilting North-South relations. The West is becoming increasingly isolated and has definitively lost its credibility among the countries of the global South.

I would like to end with the words of Leila Ghanem: “The battle for Gaza is the battle of all of us. … The words of Miguel Urbano still resonate in my ears: ‘Where imperialism concentrates its military, political, economic and media forces, those who confront it do so in the name of all humanity.’ The fall of Gaza will be the fall of all of us in the face of capitalist barbarism. The merit of this solidarity is to have pointed the finger at our class enemy.” (workers.org)

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This article was originally published on Workers World.

Marc Vandepitte is a Belgian anti-imperialist, contributor to Investig’action, rebellion, Solidaire and other magazines. He contributed this article to the Jan. 21 Lenin Centennial meeting in New York City. Register here for the centennial.

Featured image: Statue of the founder of Zionism Theodor Herzl, unveiled in 2012 at the Mikveh Israel synagogue in Tel Aviv. It is called “Herzl meets Emperor Wilhelm II”

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Welcome to the UK where it’s now official government policy that you CAN’T publish “misinformation”, but The Guardian, the BBC, Disney and Netflix CAN.

Yes, it’s true – the recently signed “Online Safety Act” brands the publication of “false information” a criminal offense punishable by up to a year in prison…

…unless you’re an MSM outlet, when it’s totally fine.

Think even the corrupt & bloated criminal class that rules over us would never dare be that blatant?

Take a look at section 179 making it illegal to publish false information with intent to cause harm:

 

…and then look at section 180, which exempts all MSM outlets from this new law:

 

 

…and that’s without even getting into OfCom’s “select committee”, or how they choose to define “misinformation” (s. 152)

Welcome to the modern definition of “freedom of speech”, where the MSM are directly and explicitly permitted to “knowingly publish false information with intent to cause non-trivial harm”, and you can be sent to jail for a year for calling out their lies.

Oh, and it looks like our friends across the pond might not be far behind. The Big Tech Senate hearings started yesterday, and social media executives are already throwing their support behind the new “Kids Online Safety Act”.

With the EU’s own Digital Services Act coming into force later this month, and all the focus on “misinformation and disinformation” at Davos two weeks ago, we can see the real crackdown on internet free speech is about to kick into gear.

Good times.

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Featured image is from OffGuardian

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ARMS trade campaigners have produced a map showing locations across Britain where components are made for F-35 warplanes being used by Israel to attack Gaza.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) says the map is intended to identify the sites as targets for protests.

The group says 15 per cent of the components used to build F-35s are made in Britain in deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds for arms manufacturers.

CAAT said:

“The map will enable campaigners across the country to find out where the components are produced and to protest [against] the companies who are profiting from the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza on their doorsteps.

“Foreign Secretary David Cameron recommended continuing arms sales to Israel on December 12 2023, despite previous Foreign Office assessments stating there were ‘serious concerns’ about breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) and Israel’s commitment and ability to comply with IHL.

“Cameron further accepted that Israel has a different interpretation of its IHL obligations.”

On January 26 the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that there was a “plausible” case that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Since then calls for Britain to end arms sales to Israel have mounted.

CAAT media co-ordinator Emily Apple said:

“This is a great resource for campaigners across the country.

“People do not want genocide profiteers on their doorstep and this map will enable communities to take action against the companies that are complicit in war crimes in their local area.

“However, this isn’t something we should have to do. The legal position is clear. Israel is committing war crimes, including bombing hospitals and refugee camps and deliberately targeting medical workers.

“This government should immediately suspend arms exports to Israel.

“Instead it is prioritising the profits of arms dealers over Palestinian lives, and it is down to ordinary people to hold these companies to account for their murderous deals.”

CAAT said British Aerospace is the main British supplier of components for F-35s.

The company’s British HQ is at Warwick House, PO BOX 87, Farnborough Aerospace Centre, Farnborough, Hants, GU14 6YU.

The map identifies 141 locations of UK arms manufacturers.

The rear fuselage of every F-35 fighter is made by BAE Systems at Samlesbury Aerodrome, Lancashire.

The “active interceptor system” is made by BAE Systems in Rochester, Kent. There is a steady stream of components for F35s and Israel’s F16s from this site.

“Durability testing” for the F35 is undertaken at the BAE structural testing facility in East Yorkshire.

Martin-Baker makes the ejector seat in Britain; its headquarters is in Higher Denham, Buckinghamshire.

Cobham Mission Systems made the refuelling probe for the F35; Cobham Mission Systems was sold to Eaton in 2021 and is hosted at Mission Systems Wimborne Ltd.

Leonardo makes the laser targeting system for the F35 in Edinburgh.

Dunlop Aircraft Tyres makes the aircraft tyres in Birmingham.

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Featured image: An F-35 takes off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, June 24, 2019 (Source: Morning Star)

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On Sunday the Pentagon said its forces again struck an anti-ship cruise missile launch position in Yemen. A US Central Command (CENTCOM) statement said the operation was conducted in “self defense” against a Houthi cruise missile “prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea” at 4 a.m. local time on Sunday.

This follows on the heels of a much bigger wave of strikes Saturday, which involved the US coalition attacking over 30 targets across 13 locations from air and ships, including using F/A-18 fighter jets.

A statement released from Operation Prosperity Guardian Saturday said, “Today’s strike specifically targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars.”

The statement was issued by the US, UK, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand, which make up the Western coalition trying to protect international commercial transit in the Red Sea.

The Associated Press has put the number of Saturday strikes alone at 36, meaning by Sunday the coalition has reached nearly 40 strikes in Yemen:

The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. But Washington once more did not directly target Iran as it tries to find a balance between a forceful response and intensifying the conflict.

The stepped-up Western campaign appears to have done little to deter the Houthi attacks, given launches are still being attempted. A fresh Houthi statement has warned, “We will meet escalation with escalation.”

UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Saturday that the anti-Houthi strikes are about protecting innocent lives:

“The Houthis’ attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea are illegal and unacceptable and it is our duty to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation,” Shapps said.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera has compiled a list of various companies and industries which have seen their shipping and supply chains significantly impacted by the Houthi raids in the Red Sea, as follows below

Autos

  • Geely: China’s second-largest automaker by sales said on December 22 that its electric vehicle (EV) sales would likely be impacted by a delay in deliveries.
  • Michelin: Four factories in Spain owned by the French tyre maker halted output on January 20-21 due to raw materials delivery delays.
  • Suzuki: The company’s Hungary production plant restarted manufacturing on January 22 as planned following a halt the previous week due to delays in the arrival of Japanese-made engines. It said shipping routes were changed to pass around Africa, which could affect pricing.
  • Tesla: The US-based electric vehicle maker will suspend most car production at its factory near Berlin from January 29 to February 11 due to a lack of components caused by shifts in transport routes.
  • Volvo: The Swedish automaker said on January 12 that it would halt production at its Belgian plant for three days due to delays.
Energy
  • BP: The oil major on December 18 said it had temporarily paused all transits through the Red Sea.
  • Equinor: The company said on December 18 that it had rerouted vessels that had been heading towards the Red Sea.
  • Edison: The energy group’s CEO said on January 25 that it was starting to experience a slowdown in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies from Qatar.
  • Qatar Energy: The world’s second-largest exporter of LNG has stopped sending tankers via the Red Sea although production continues, a senior source with direct knowledge of the matter told the Reuters news agency on January 15.
  • Shell: The British oil major suspended all shipments through the Red Sea indefinitely, the Wall Street Journal reported on January 16.
  • Valero Energy: The US refiner said on January 25 that the Red Sea attacks have led to a rise in freight rates for crude oil.

Logistics

  • DHL: The German logistics company, which does not operate ships but uses them to transport containers, on January 8 advised customers to take a close look at how they manage inventories.
  • FedEx: The US parcel delivery giant said on January 14 that it hadn’t seen much of a shift to air freight due to disruptions in the Red Sea.

Retailers

  • Adidas: CEO Bjorn Gulden said on February 1 that shipping disruptions in the Red Sea were negative for gross margins, adding that “exploding” freight rates were driving up costs and shipping delays were causing some delivery issues.
  • Danone: The French food group said in December that most of its shipments had been diverted, increasing transit times. Should the situation last beyond 2-3 months, Danone will activate mitigation plans, including using alternate routes, its spokesperson said.
  • Ikea: The furniture retailer is sticking to planned price cuts despite increased costs, and has sufficient stocks to absorb any supply chain shocks, it said on January 15.
  • Marks & Spencer: The British retailer’s CEO said on January 11 that the company is expecting some slight delay in clothing and home deliveries due to the disruption to shipping.
  • Next: The British clothing retailer’s CEO on January 4 said sales growth would likely be moderated if disruptions continued through 2024.
  • Pepco: The Poundland owner warned on January 18 that its supply could be impacted in the coming months if the disruptions continue.
  • Primark: Associated British Foods’ finance director said on January 23 that Primark is coping with disruptions by adjusting timings and stock flow.
  • Sainsbury’s: “We’re making sure that we plan the sequencing of product from Asia Pacific so that we get products in the right order,” the company’s CEO said, adding that long-term contracts with shippers “mitigate any cost impact as far as possible”.
  • Target: The US retailer is experiencing some disruptions of shipments from India and Pakistan, a source familiar with the matter said on January 12, calling the effect “minor” overall.
  • Tractor Supply: Deliveries for the US retailer have been delayed anywhere from two to 20-plus days, the company’s chief supply chain operator said on January 12.
  • Williams-Sonoma: The Pottery Barn owner is rerouting shipments and has been working on contingency plans, its CEO told CNBC on January 24.

Others

  • BHP Group: The Australian mining giant on January 25 said the disruptions were forcing some of its freight service providers to take alternative routes, such as Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
  • Electrolux: The Swedish home appliance maker has set up a task force to find alternative routes or identify priority deliveries to try to avoid disruptions. On February 2, its CEO said that costs related to the developments in the Red Sea were manageable. “If the situation is prolonged, I am more worried about higher costs than about risk of having to pause production,” he added.
  • Essity: The maker of brands such as Libresse and TENA said it was staying in contact with impacted suppliers to ensure the continued flow of goods. On January 25, its CEO said that it saw a negative impact on its freight costs, but he could not specify what that impact would amount to.
  • Evonik: The speciality chemicals maker said it was being hit by “short notice routing changes and delays”, and was trying to mitigate the impact by ordering earlier and switching to air freight where possible.
  • Gechem GmbH & Co KG: The German chemicals maker said it had lowered production of dishwasher and toilet tablets as a result of the delays.
  • Kone: The Finnish elevator maker said the situation may in some cases delay shipments, but most of its customer deliveries should stay on schedule. Kone said it had prepared for the disruptions by seeking alternative delivery methods and routes.
  • Levi Strauss & Co: The denim maker is experiencing delays of 10 to 14 days in transit times as a result of continued disruptions to Red Sea shipping. It has shifted some US shipments to the West Coast, avoiding the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
  • Logitech: The computer peripheral maker’s CEO on January 23 said profit margins will be hit by higher transport costs due to the Red Sea crisis.

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