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Kimberley Polman, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, returned to Canada recently after having secretly travelled to Syria in 2015 to marry an ISIS fighter (a member of the armed terrorist group styling itself as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria; sometimes referred to as ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; or “Daesh” in Arabic). She is part of a group of fifty Canadian men, women, and children who have been held for several years in detainment camps run by the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), a Kurdish-separatist used by the US government illegally to occupy northeastern Syria, a third of the whole country, where Syria’s petroleum resources are located. Twenty-three of the detainees are represented by a Canadian lawyer known for taking on high-profile cases, Lawrence Greenspon.

In an interview with the CBC on October 26, 2022, Greenspon noted that his client, Polman, who has serious health issues, has been held in harsh conditions for over three years in the Al-Roj detention camp without being charged. She was arrested by the RCMP upon landing in Montreal but was later released on bail. According to Greenspon, Polman won’t be subject to criminal charges but rather obliged to sign a peace bond, a legal contract with the court to live under specified conditions for a specified period of time. In other words, at some point in the future, after meeting the terms of her peace bond, Polman will likely walk free.

Arriving in Canada alongside Polman was Oumaima Chouay and her two children. Chouay, however, faces charges of leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group, participating in a terrorist group, providing property or services for terrorism purposes, and conspiracy to participate in the activity of a terrorist group.

What is ISIS?

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria burst onto the world stage in June 2014. A handful of its followers, in a long column of brown Toyota pickup trucks wended its way across the open desert in broad daylight and in the full view of the occupying air force of the USA as it crossed unopposed from Syria into Iraq and proceeded to seize and occupy Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, hardly firing a shot.

Of course, a lot of preparation went into that invasion. As early as 2012, the Defence Intelligence Agency of the USA reported that plans to establish a “caliphate” (Islamic state) were in the works straddling the borders of Iraq and Syria. This agency noted that “this is exactly what the supporting powers to the (armed Syrian) opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.” The leader of this putative state was Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, an Iraqi cleric who had been held for a time in the US prison at Camp Bucca in Iraq where he joined al Qaeda in 2004. He was later killed in a US raid on his compound in Syria’s Idlib province in 2019.

ISIS was one of well over one hundred terrorist militias which were organized, trained, equipped, and funded by the USA and its coalition of countries (including Canada, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel) willing to violate international law in attempting to overthrow the democratically-elected and sovereign government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The US proxy war on Syria was unleashed in March 2011 at about the same time as a similar regime change operation was initiated by the USA in Libya to unseat Colonel Mouammar Gadaffi in Libya. A Canadian general was in command of the NATO operation that led to the destruction of that most prosperous state in Africa. A wave of disturbances swept West Asia (aka the “Middle East”) and North Africa under the guise of the “Arab Spring.” In this period, the US government was trying to re-organize North Africa and West Asia. It was seeking new puppets to assist in its strategic foreign policy goal of securing West Asian and North African petroleum resources, not necessarily to use them itself, but rather to control the flow of these critical resources to Europe, India, and China.

It was for this reason that the USA and UK invaded Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, unleashing turmoil in West Asia and in North and Western Africa that persists until today. It was partly for this reason that the US initiated the attempted regime change operation in Syria in 2011, which is not over yet, eleven years later. All told, the US wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Iraq contributed to an unprecedentedly-large wave of millions of refugees that swept over Europe and North America in the past decade.

The US plan for ISIS would effectively fracture the nation states of Syria and Iraq. The US would then be able to further balkanize the countries of Syria and Iraq into small and weak statelets, each run by leaders of compliant religious or ethnic groups, such as the Kurds. In the worst case scenario for the USA, if ISIS were challenged by a resurgent Syrian and/or Iraqi government in alliance with Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah (of Lebanon), then the presence of ISIS in both countries would provide a pretext (under GW Bush’s so-called “War on Terror”) for the USA to maintain a military presence with troops, tanks, and aircraft in both countries and thus to maintain control of the petroleum resources of each.

As it happened, the worst case scenario for the USA unfolded. Under the de facto leadership of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani (later assassinated by US President Donald Trump in January, 2020), a military alliance including the armed forces of Iran, Syria, Russia, plus the irregular forces of Hezbollah, Popular Mobilization Forces of Iraq, and certain armed Palestinian militias decisively defeated ISIS on the battlefield – with little help from the USA.

In fact, the US coalition did what it could to aid ISIS by purposely misdropping supplies to the terrorists, which supplies were intended to reach official allies of the USA on several occasions, by providing intelligence to ISIS which resulted in the deaths of many Syrian Arab Army soldiers, and by standing down on several occasions when ISIS launched attacks across the open desert on Palmyra, Syria. Both Joe Biden, then Vice-President, and Martin Dempsey, then top US general, both publicly acknowledged US support for ISIS on separate occasions, respectively in October and September 2014.

And on every occasion that ISIS suffered a major military defeat, such as at Raqqa (the capital city of ISIS), US forces, which had carpet-bombed the city with little regard for the city’s civilian population, rescued large numbers of ISIS fighters and bussed them out to other theatres of conflict such as its Al Tanf base in Syria and also to Afghanistan, following the chaotic collapse of the US occupation there.

Canada’s Role

In the summer of 2015, Kimberly Polman, then a resident of British Columbia, informed her family  that she was taking a trip to Austria. Actually, she went to Syria after marrying an ISIS fighter online. She now recounts that she endured violence at the hands of ISIS, including having been raped on multiple occasions.

Polman spent several years under very harsh conditions in a detainment camp in northeastern Syria along with thousands of other detainees with a connection to ISIS, including the other forty nine prisoners claiming Canadian citizenship. According to lawyer Greenspon, about 20 countries have repatriated over one thousand prisoners from these detainment camps.

The Trudeau government, up to now, has shown a marked reluctance to do so. According to former Canadian Global Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne,

“Given the security situation and the lack of a physical presence on the ground, the Government of Canada’s ability to provide consular assistance in any part of Syria is extremely limited. Nevertheless, Canadian consular officials are engaged directly with the Canadians in the custody of the [Autonomous Administration of Northeastern Syria] … or their family members in Canada, to monitor their location and well-being.” Champagne also said Global Affairs has established a communication channel with regional authorities in northeast Syria “to advocate for the [detainees’] well-being to the extent possible.”

But the hands of successive Canadian governments are not clean in regards to Syria. Both the Harper and Trudeau governments have been accomplices of US efforts to overthrow the government of Syria.

Here’s a partial list of Canada’s dirty role in Syria:

  • In December 2011, Canada’s ambassador to Tunisia, Glenn Davidson, was tasked with organizing the pre-conference to launch the Friends of Syria Group of Countries (FSG) in Tunis in February 2012. The FSG was the coalition of countries the USA used to coordinate, fund, and supply terrorist mercenary forces in Syria in obvious violation of international law and the UN Charter.
  • Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird, invited members of the Syrian National Council to Ottawa in December 2011 and later travelled to Turkey to attend international conferences in support of the proxy warriors. In addition, Defence Minister Peter MacKay invited key figures of the Syrian armed opposition to the Halifax International Security Forum, a major Department of Defence and NATO gathering;
  • The Harper government unilaterally broke off diplomatic relations with Syria in May, 2012, and delegated an ambassador to the Syrian National Council, the pretender government created by the USA;
  • In June 2013, the Harper government hosted a meeting of the Sanctions Sub-Committee of the FSG which drew up the harsh regime of unilateral economic sanctions which has impoverished 80% of the Syrian people. These sanctions are illegal because they lack the approval of the UN Security Council. But the effect of those coercive economic measures, which persist until today, was to turn millions of Syrian people into refugees, some of whom, such as Alan Kurdi, died in Turkish waters. About 30,000 Syrian refugees ended up in Canada;
  • In accordance with his 2015 campaign promise to “end the combat mission in Iraq”, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau did remove Canadian fighter jets from the Global Coalition Against Daesh. Instead, he replaced them with reconnaissance and refuelling aircraft at the service of the US coalition (which continued to operate illegally over Syria) and sent military “trainers” to fight alongside the Kurdish-separatist entity in Northern Iraq;
  • The Trudeau government supported the Syrian White Helmets with at least 7.5m dollars of funding and toured the group’s spokespersons in Canada. The White Helmets, a propaganda tool of the West against Syria, were a creation of British intelligence in the person of John LeMesurier, who later died under mysterious circumstances in Turkey, after allegations of financial corruption.
  • The most notorious fraud committed by the White Helmets was to stage a fake chemical attack in Douma, Syria, in April 2018 and blame the Syrian government. This led to USA, UK, and France launching a missile attack on Syria, an act of undeclared war. Later, inspectors of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) submitted detailed reports. Due to political and economic pressure from the US and NATO allies, including Canada, the OPCW suppressed the inspectors’ reports. This scandal threatens to destroy the organization’s reputation.
  • Later, when the Syrian Arab Army liberated Daraa, hundreds of White Helmets and their Al Nusra / Al Qaeda terrorist allies fled into Israeli occupied Golan. Trudeau’s Global Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland, took credit for their “rescue”. Several hundred of the fugitives disappeared; many of the rest were given refugee status in Canada.

ISIS bride Kimberly Polman faces a further court appearance on December 2 in British Columbia to finalize the terms of her peace bond. Ouimaima Chouay will also be required to appear in court to answer the charges against her. Canadians will watch to see how Canada will treat its citizens who illegally travelled to Syria to join ISIS. However, Canadians also deserve an accounting from our current and former leaders as to what they contributed to the enduring misery of the Syrian people since the regime change war began in 2011.

One of the accounts still unsettled is that of CSIS (the Canadian Security Intelligence Service) and its role in running a double agent, a Syrian by the name of Mohammed al-Rashid, who trafficked people like Kimberly Polman into Syria to be recruited by ISIS.

(to be continued…)

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Ken Stone is a long time antiwar, anti-racism, environmental, and labour activist, resident in Hamilton. He is Treasurer of the Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from The Hamilton Spectator


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***

In 2007 and 2008 Barack Obama had altogether raised more than 3 times as much money from financial institutions and bankers, in comparison to his Republican Party rival John McCain. Obama’s election campaign was furnished with millions of dollars from America’s major banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.

Obama’s election victory in November 2008 was not chiefly due to promises that he made but, as is the case with all US presidential elections in recent decades, was because of the amount of cash that he acquired. Former president Jimmy Carter (1977-81) said 10 years ago, “We have one of the worst election processes in the world right in the United States of America, and it’s almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money”.

Overall, it could be argued reasonably enough that Obama did not prove as aggressive as his predecessor, George W. Bush. Two European states joined the US-led NATO military organisation during the Obama era, compared to 7 during the Bush years. Regarding the 2 countries which did accede to NATO in the Obama presidency, Albania and Croatia in April 2009, the groundwork for that had been laid by Bush. Yet the White House’s goal under Obama was to maintain and if possible increase US hegemony, through armed force if necessary.

In one regard Obama chose more harmful actions than Bush, relating to the field of drone warfare and their deployment in different countries to kill people. Between 2004 and the start of 2015, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) executed 413 drone strikes against Islamic militants, along with targeting those who were mere suspects; some of the victims were innocent bystanders, “collateral damage” Washington would say. Of the 413 drone strikes launched by the CIA in the above decade, 362 of them were carried out under the Obama administration (Obama became president in January 2009, ending in January 2017).

A Washington-based think tank, the New America Foundation, reported that Bush ordered between 45 to 50 drone attacks in his 8 year tenure (2001-09), which killed 477 people. About half way through the Obama presidency, his administration had ordered 316 drone strikes by then which killed at least 2,363 people.

The New America Foundation admits these figures are most likely an underestimation. Rather than the number being 2,363, it may amount to more than 3,400 dead, including 307 civilians, with the victims present in nations like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. It should be mentioned that – as opposed to the Americans – Russia has deployed drones on a smaller scale, for surveillance purposes and to undermine critical infrastructure and military equipment in the Ukraine war.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in February 2013 that the real death toll from US drone strikes is higher again. “We’ve killed 4,700”, Graham was quoted as saying, despite him having supported the use of drones to target humans. At the beginning of 2012 the Americans had in operation over 7,000 drones. In Pakistan alone, from 2004 to 2011, between 2,347 and 2,956 people were killed in US drone attacks which was reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, headquartered in London. The majority of the drone assaults in that 7 year period in Pakistan occurred from 2009, when Obama entered office.

According to historian Moniz Bandeira,

“Barack Obama took charge of the selection process, picking targets from a top secret ‘kill list’ drafted by the intelligence services (NSA, CIA, etc.), including the names of terrorists or suspected terrorists (capture was only theoretical), using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones, or Navy SEAL Team 6 (ST6)”.

Many of those killed in Pakistan by US drones in the above years were militants; but, as elsewhere, there were hundreds of civilian casualties including serious loss of life inflicted upon children. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that from 2004 to 2011 at least 393 civilians in Pakistan were killed in US drone attacks, including around 175 children.

The US military invasions and drone assaults, rather than leading to a reduction of terrorism worldwide, resulted in a significant increase. More than a decade after president Bush had announced his “war on terror”, in 2014 no less than 13,463 terrorist attacks occurred that year globally. In 2015, there were 11,002 casualties from terrorism in just one nation, Afghanistan.

American authorities felt the drone to be the cheapest, safest and most accurate means of eradicating their declared enemies. Washington’s international drone assassination campaign is something of an undeclared war, and president Obama had made drone attacks the hallmark of his “anti-terror strategy”.

The US has not won a major war since their defeat of Japan in 1945. Obama ordered an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan in December 2009, in the hope of securing a military victory there but it failed. The Americans possessed neither the military capabilities or understanding of Afghanistan to accomplish victory. Obama boasted in May 2014 that “Our military has no peer”, and yet the US Armed Forces could not subdue either Afghanistan or Iraq, two mostly defenceless countries.

Obama had planned military action against Syria in 2013, under the pretext of accusations of chemical warfare by the government of Bashar al-Assad. The Obama administration provided no evidence of chemical weapon usage by Assad’s forces, nor could any proof be found, which UN investigators admitted. President Assad even informed the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as to the exact location of the chemical weapons in Syria, an agreement which was met with the approval of the UN Security Council, and that frustrated Obama’s plans for an invasion of Syria.

Since 2012, US personnel from the CIA, Special Operations Forces (SOF), Navy SEALs, and the Blackwater private military company, were providing training to jihadists in Jordan, before sending them across the border to Syria in order to fight against Assad’s soldiers. For example, in early March 2013 around 300 jihadists trained by the US special forces entered Syria from Jordan.

Obama was warned by his Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, that Syria would be a more difficult target than Libya. The terrain of Syria was more heavily armed than that of Libya, and the Syrians had the support of Russia which was supplying president Assad with modern air defence systems. Washington estimated that between 75,000 to 90,000 American troops would be needed in Syria, almost as much as they had in Afghanistan, so as to secure Washington’s goal of regime change in Damascus.

A US aerial bombing campaign against Syria would have been unlikely to change the strategic scenario. In addition, there was hardly any support within Syria for US military involvement, whereas there was considerable backing in Syria for a Russian presence there. Unlike in Libya too, the Americans would have risked confrontation in Syria with Russia and Iran.

As with Obama’s drone campaign, he surpassed Bush in the regularity with which he deployed US military elite units, such as the Special Operations Forces (SOF), and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Obama sent the JSOC to conduct covert operations to liquidate Islamic fighters, or anyone else deemed an enemy, in states like Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Sudan. Obama’s government made such extensive use of covert actions with elite forces, that it was difficult to distinguish between Washington’s secret operations and activities pursued by the CIA.

Comprising part of the Joint Special Operations Command are the Navy SEAL Team Six. In the first year of Obama’s presidency, the Navy SEAL Team Six killed 675 people, and in 2011 they eliminated another 2,200. US lieutenant-colonel John Nagl said that, during a 90 day period in 2010, soldiers of the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) carried out 3,000 combat missions, as they infiltrated villages in Afghanistan usually in the middle of the night.

The night raids were carried out primarily with the observational assistance of MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones, which were controlled by the CIA and armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The US Special Operations Command were often executing these missions alongside the CIA, and the latter were operating increasingly as a paramilitary force.

On top of the CIA’s usual spying and intelligence gathering, they were involved in many of the tasks performed by the US Special Operations Forces, in regions such as the Middle East and Africa. This was outlined in a secret presidential finding signed by Bush on 17 September 2001, which authorised the CIA to create teams to apprehend or kill designated individuals.

President Obama signed executive orders or findings to sanction targeted killings or other covert actions, without having to go to the Congress. In mid-2010, about 18 months into Obama’s presidency, it was reported in the Washington Post that the US Special Operations Forces – which like the other elite units comprise part of the US Armed Forces – were operating in 75 countries, 60 more than at the end of Bush’s tenure. Obama had intensified US covert actions; he expanded the “war on terror”, retitled under Obama as “overseas contingency operations”.

In late 2011 Obama dispatched 100 American soldiers from the Special Operations Command to central Africa, ostensibly to assist the Ugandan authorities in the search for Joseph Kony, who Western media outlets have described as “one of the world’s most wanted warlords”. For many years Kony has been the leader of the armed rebel organisation, the Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony was never found and is reportedly alive and well today. One of Obama’s real goals in Africa, however, was to increase the US military presence on that continent by establishing bases such as in Ethiopia, Djibouti and South Sudan.

Obama ordered a 5.7% increase of the budget for the US Special Operations Forces in 2011, raising it to $6.3 billion. The US Special Operations Forces had 13,000 active duty soldiers overseas, including perhaps 9,000 altogether in Afghanistan and Iraq. Between April 2010 and April 2011, the US Special Operations Forces killed 3,200 insurgents and captured 800.

The US was operating two capture/kill campaigns in Yemen, a strategically placed country between the Gulf of Aden and oil rich Saudi Arabia. One of Washington’s capture/kill operations in Yemen was overseen by the CIA using drones, and the other has been executed by US elite forces from the Joint Special Operations Command.

One drone strike in late September 2011, using a Hellfire missile, killed a number of people in Yemen, including the American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, which proved controversial in Washington only because of his country of birth. Al-Awlaki had been placed on the kill list with Obama’s approval, because of his purported terrorist activities. On 14 October 2011 Al-Awlaki’s teenage son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, also born in America, was killed in another US drone attack in Yemen. The tragedy for the Al-Awlaki family continued when Nawar al-Awlaki, an eight-year-old child and daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed on 29 January 2017 in a military raid sanctioned by the Trump administration.

Hundreds of soldiers from the US Special Operations Forces have been stationed at the American military base in Djibouti, east Africa, called Camp Lemonnier. There they have worked under cover, concealing their identities as they co-ordinated the flight paths of the drones to nearby countries. The Camp Lemonnier base is of strategic importance because it is located between east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, while American involvement there allows them access to the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

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Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization

 

Sources

Politico, “Carter: Money ruining elections”, 12 September 2012

Daily Telegraph, “US senator says drone death toll is 4,700”, 21 February 2013

Bureau of Investigative Journalism, “Drone war exposed: The complete picture of CIA strikes in Pakistan”, 10 August 2011

Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The Second Cold War: Geopolitics and the Strategic Dimensions of the USA (Springer; 1st ed., 23 June 2017)

Guardian, “US attack on Syria delayed after surprise U-turn from Obama”, 1 September 2013

Daily Mail, “U.S. special forces close in on jungle hideout of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony”, 29 April 2012

CBC, “Obama sends 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan”, 1 December 2009

Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The World Disorder: US Hegemony, Proxy Wars, Terrorism and Humanitarian Catastrophes (Springer; 1st ed., 4 Feb. 2019)

Reuters, “Terrorist attacks, deaths up sharply in 2014 – U.S. State Department”, 19 June 2015

Featured image is from The Ecologist

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The Secret Wars of the US Imperium. “Unauthorized Hostilities”

November 14th, 2022 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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To get to where they are, imperial powers will deceive, dissimulate and distort. The US imperium, that most awesome of devilish powers, has tentacled itself across the globe, often unbeknownst to its own citizens.

In a report released by the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center of Justice titled Secret War: How the US Uses Partnerships and Proxy Forces to Wage War Under the Radar, there is little to shock, though much to be concerned about.  The author of the report contends that the list of countries supplied by the Pentagon on US military partnerships is a savagely clipped one.  The list is so wrong that 17 countries have been omitted.

click to download report

Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, betrays a charmless naivete in remarking that the “proliferation of secret war is a relatively recent phenomenon”, something she regards as “undemocratic and dangerous”.  She is certainly right about the last two points, but distinctly wrong about the novelty.

The United States, since its inception, has schemed, through purchase, conspiracy and force of arms, to spread its power and embrace an empire without declaring it.  Along with that embrace came the perceived need to wage secret war.

The illegal, covert engagement by US forces in Laos was one of the most brutal examples of a clandestine conflict waged unawares to many politicians back home.  It was, as the dark title of Joshua Kurlantzick’s book on the subject suggests, a great place to have war.

It began with a Central Intelligence Agency outfit training and arming members of the Hmong ethnic minority who would, some 14 years later, partake in full scale engagements with Communist allies of the North Vietnamese.

This development was accompanied by an aerial campaign that saw more bombs dropped by the US than used by its air force in the entirety of World War II.  Between 1964 and 1973, more than 2.5 million tons of ordnance from over 580,000 bombing sorties was dropped.

US lawmakers tend to express much surprise that US forces should mysteriously appear in countries they can barely find on the map.  But to a large extent, the circumstances arose with their own connivance.  The authorising backdrop to such engagements centre on a number of instruments that have proliferated since September 11, 2001: the US Title 10 authorities, the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), deployment notifications under the War Powers Resolution, and the souped up idea of the right to self-defence.

Of concern here is the broad umbrella of “security cooperation” programs that are authorised by Congress under the AUMF against designated terrorist groups.  Codified as 10 U.S.C.§ 333, the provision permits the DoD to train and equip foreign forces in any part of the globe.

Section 127e, or 10 U.S.C. §127e, stands out, as it authorises the DoD to “provide support to foreign forces, irregular forces, groups or individuals engaged in supporting or facilitating ongoing military operations by United States special operations forces to combat terrorism.”

The 2001 AUMF has become an instrument of vast elasticity, stretched by every administration since its inception to cover a list of terrorist groups that remains secret to the public.  The executive had long withheld the list from Congress, something it was bound to do given its cavalier interpretation as to what “associated forces” in the context of terrorist groups are.

The DoD has also kept quiet on the specific circumstances US forces operate under these authorities.  As Ebright puts it, the reasoning at play is “that the incident was too minor to trigger statutory reporting requirements.” Confrontations deemed “episodic” and part and parcel of “irregular” warfare do not amount to “hostilities”.

Another accretion of secrecy, and one aided by its important premise of deniability, is the Presidential Approval and Reporting of Covert Actions, 50 U.S.C. § 3093 (1991).  Again, the 9/11 terrorist bogey has featured in targeted killings and assassinations, despite assertions to the contrary.

Perhaps the most startling nature to such cooperation programs is the scope granted by Section 1202 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018.  While it mirrors Section 127e in some respects, the focus here is not on counterterrorism but supporting “irregular warfare operations” against “rogue states”.  Ebright strikes a bleak note.  “Far beyond the bounds of the war on terror, §1202 may be used to engage in low-level conflict with powerful, even nuclear, states.”

Every now and then, the veil of secrecy on such operations has been pierced.  In 2017, four members of the US Army Green Berets, along with four soldiers from Niger, were killed in an ambush outside the village of Tongo Tongo.  It was the highest loss of life for US military personnel since 1993, when 18 Army Rangers perished in the Somalian Black Hawk Down incident.

What was head shakingly odd about the whole affair was not merely the surprise shown by members of Congress by this engagement, but the nonplussed way the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Joseph Dunford, called for an investigation.  His sole objectives were to ascertain whether US forces had “adequate intelligence, equipment and training” and whether there was “a pre-mission assessment of the threat in the area” of appropriate accuracy.  Surely the more relevant question would have been what these modern kitted-up Roman legionnaires were doing without broader awareness back home?

The findings of the summary report, and those of Pentagon officials, was that militants in the area had “superior firepower”.  For every US and Nigerien soldier came three attackers.  Again, this misses the overall point about clandestine operations that even some in the upper echelons of Washington know little about.

Despite a number of public statements claiming that the US military role in theatres such as Africa are confined to “advising and assisting” local militaries, the operational reality has occasionally intruded.

In 2018, the now retired General Donald Bolduc, who commanded US special forces in Africa till 2017, had enough boastful candour to reveal that the army had “guys in Kenya, Chad, Cameroon, Niger [and] Tunisia who are doing the same kinds of things as the guys in Somalia, exposing themselves to the same king of danger not just on 127 echoes.  We’ve had guys wounded in all the types of missions that we do.”

Ebright recommends that mere reform of “outdated and overstretched AUMFs” will not do.  “Congress should repeal or reform the Department of Defense’s security cooperation authorities.  Until it does so, the nation will continue to be at war – without, in some cases, the consent or even knowledge of its people.”

That’s hardly going to happen.  The security establishment in Washington and a coterie of amnesiacs are keen on keeping a lid on the fact that the US has been a garrison, warring state since 1941.  And the next big conflict is just around the corner.  Appearances must be kept.

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

Featured image: “Whores of War,” original illustration by Mr. Fish.

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***

When China’s President XI Jinping meets with President Joe Biden Monday in Indonesia, he better bring a whiteboard and some simple handouts. For it is beyond the ability, or the intention, of Biden’s elitist advisers to give him an accurate picture of the extremely close strategic relationship between China and Russia – and between Xi and Putin personally.

Can Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan be so dense? That cannot be ruled out. But perhaps it is more likely that they (and the neocons behind U.S. foreign policy) simply do not want to give the president any reason to flinch in his Captain Ahab pursuit of weakening Russia in Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

Were they to warn Biden that he could face a two-front war with peer adversaries (Russia and China), he might opt for a more sensible policy. Biden might even be brought to understand that, for Putin, the conflict in Ukraine poses the same kind of existential threat that, say, President John Kennedy faced 60 years ago from Soviet nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba.

Likewise, Biden might be able to appreciate that China and Russia are each fully aware that if one of them goes down, the other is next in the sights of the a US military desperate to get back on the winning track after so many misadventures over the last 77 years.

Has Biden been told that, contrary to all expectations, China gave Putin a waiver on its bedrock Westphalian policy on sovereignty and noninterference, and that XI has made it clear that China supports Russia’s “core interests” in Europe, just as Russia supports China’s core interests vis-à-vis Taiwan.

When the planned Biden-Xi meeting was announced Wednesday, Biden was asked whether the Chinese and the Russians are “putting together a real alliance,” Biden said:

I don’t think there’s a lot of respect that China has for Russia or for Putin.  I don’t think they’re looking at it as a particular alliance.  Matter of fact, they’ve been sort of keeping their distance a little bit.

Wrong: “Keeping their distance a little bit?” The adolescent-type textual analysis adduced for this media “insight” over recent weeks is rubbish. As to the far more important question as to whether Russia and China have a formal defense alliance or something short of that, well, this became largely moot on December 15, 2021 when President XI stated that “this relationship even exceeds an alliance in its closeness and effectiveness.”

Administration officials and the media have obediently insisted that “the two countries do not have a formal alliance”. This is technically correct. It is also a distinction without much real difference. Prudent strategic planners would take this into account, and advise the president accordingly – particularly as the conflict in Ukraine escalates, as do tensions along China’s Pacific frontier.

Putin’s Main Squeeze

With the obvious lack of prudent planners in Washington, it will fall to XI and his whiteboard to give Biden a tutorial during their meeting in Bali. For, sadly, it appears President Biden is still as misinformed about the Sino-Russian relationship as he was on June 16, 2021 during his only in-person summit with President Putin in Geneva. Embarking on the plane, Biden let it be known that the “Russians are in a difficult spot being squeezed by China.”

And here is the bizarre way Biden described, at his post-summit presser, his decades-behind-the-times approach to Putin on China:


”Without quoting him [Putin] – which I don’t think is appropriate – let me ask a rhetorical question: You got a multi-thousand-mile border with China. China is seeking to be the most powerful economy in the world and the largest and the most powerful military in the world.”

Putin Nonplussed

Speaking on Oct. 27 at the Valdai International Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the sanity of those who would “spoil relations with China at the same time they are supplying billions-worth of weapons to Ukraine in a fight against Russia.”

In answer to a question on “the growing tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan,” Putin labeled visits by top US officials to Taiwan a “provocation.” Putin added:

“Frankly, I do not know why they are doing this. … Are they sane? It seems that this runs completely counter to common sense and logic … This is simply crazy.

“It may seem that there is a subtle, profound plot behind this. But I think there is nothing there, no subtle thought. It is just nonsense and arrogance, nothing else. … Such irrational actions are rooted in arrogance and a sense of impunity.”

No, even if one can discern some degree of cleverness in the Blinken/Sullivan/neocon gambit of keeping Biden blissfully unaware of the danger of two-front war – in order to grease the skids for further escalation in Ukraine – no, that does not strike me as “sane.”

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Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27-year career as a CIA analyst includes serving as Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and preparer/briefer of the President’s Daily Brief. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

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This week, we celebrate our 13th anniversary of Vaccine Awareness Week. Barbara Loe Fisher, cofounder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) summarizes some of the high and low points we’ve experienced over the past year

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has now logged over 1.4 million adverse events associated with the COVID-19 shots, including more than 30,000 deaths, half of which are from the United States. No other vaccine has ever caused as many injuries

While the harms are undeniable, health authorities are still doing what they can to deny the risks associated with the COVID shots. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fought for 15 months to avoid releasing V-Safe data. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also refusing to release autopsy reports of those who died post-jab

The culture wars that are going on in the world are really about collectivism versus individualism. The globalist cabal are desperately trying to convince countries to adopt a collectivist philosophy, which they refer to as “prosociality,” and move away from respect for the individual and individual rights. Nowhere is this currently more apparent than in the medical field and public health policy

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This week, we celebrate our 13th anniversary of Vaccine Awareness Week. In this video, Barbara Loe Fisher, cofounder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) — which celebrated its 40th anniversary as a nonprofit organization in April 2022 — summarizes some of the high and low points we’ve experienced over the past year.

As usual, I will match all donations made to the NVIC during this week, so it’s a great time to contribute, as each dollar you give will be doubled. As a company, we’ve supported the NVIC for 14 years. In 2023, it’ll be 15 years since I made the commitment to support this extraordinary charitable organization, which fights for protection of informed consent rights and medical freedom like no other.

Onslaught of COVID Shot Injuries

Needless to say, it’s been a rough couple of years in terms of defending the human right to autonomy and medical freedom. Unconstitutional and dangerous COVID shot mandates have resulted in the greatest avalanche of medically-induced injuries ever seen. As explained by Fisher:

“It was parents of DPT vaccine-injured children [who] launched the vaccine safety and informed consent movement in this country — the modern vaccine safety and informed consent movement — because, really, we owe a debt of gratitude to the parents, doctors and scientists back in the 1800s and early 1900s [who] rang the first warning bell about the risks associated with the smallpox vaccine — one of the most reactive vaccines that has ever been used — until the COVID shots.

The statistics in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) on MedAlerts, which has been operating since 2003 … has logged in over 1.4 million adverse events associated with the COVID-19 shots and over 30,000 deaths. About 15,000 of those death reports are from the United States, because the VAER system also accepts reports from foreign countries that use U.S. vaccines.

There’s never been a vaccine that has generated that kind of adverse event reporting ever … at least since 1990 when they started [operating] VAERS. The VAER system was created under the [1986] National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.

The VAER system was a unique contribution that we [parents of vaccine-injured children] made. We insisted [on] a centralized vaccine adverse event reporting system that was transparently open to the public, accessible by the public, and that the public could report reactions [to], not just doctors.

The 1.4 million adverse events associated with COVID ‘vaccines’ is the highest number ever reported for a vaccine since 1990, and comprises about half of all reports that have been made to VAERS since 1990. It’s a stunning statistic.

It’s something they cannot deny, even though they try to say, ‘Well, not everything that’s reported is causally associated with the vaccines.’ Of course, they don’t know how many are or are not. The stark fact that more than half of the reports in VAERS have been made for COVID-19 ‘vaccines’ is something that can’t be denied.”

Lies and Cover-Ups

While the harms are undeniable, based on the statistics, health authorities are still doing what they can to deny the risks associated with the COVID shots. For example, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fought for 15 months to avoid releasing V-Safe data.1,2 They eventually lost the fight and the data confirm what we’re seeing in VAERS.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also refusing to release autopsy reports,3 even though those reports can be de-identified. They also will not release de-identified information on myocarditis, which is strongly associated with the COVID shots.

“When I look back at the last three years of this COVID pandemic, all I see are lies and cover-ups,” Fisher says. “It breaks my heart. We tried for many, many decades, we presented [information] to state legislatures, to the federal government, to the CDC, NIH [National Institutes of Health], FDA.

I sat on government vaccine advisory committees begging them to do the science, the biological mechanism work that would inform the policy makers about what happens in the body when vaccines are injected. They refused to do that work so they could identify people who are genetically, biologically and environmentally at high risk for having a vaccine reaction.

They refused to reform the system that would take out the vaccine safety oversight mechanism from HHS [Health and Human Services], which has the legal responsibility for developing vaccines, for regulating vaccines, for making policy for vaccines, and also has the safety oversight mechanism.

There is so much corruption now in this mass vaccination system — because it has been hijacked by Pharma and because Congress refused to have oversight on the whole vaccine program. They have allowed Pharma to hijack the system … There were failures all along, for 40 years, failures to deal with the problem of conflicts of interest within the mass vaccination program …

When I finally realized after several decades that they had absolutely no intention of fixing anything, or of learning, or trying to screen out people, that they didn’t care [about injuries] — that’s when I realized that this was a much bigger problem than I originally had thought when we were looking at just DPT vaccine …

These public-private partnerships that have grown and been allowed by Congress have corrupted the system. You cannot have the same people who are profiting from the product in charge of making policy, regulating and [conducting] oversight on the safety of the product.”

Obedient Self-Sacrifice Is the New Virtue

Fisher cites The Lancet Commission’s report on “Lessons for the Future of the COVID-19 Pandemic,”4 and an accompanying editorial, “COVID-19: The Case for Prosociality,”5 both of which are published in the October 8, 2022, issue of The Lancet. The Commission’s report politicizes the COVID pandemic response and both it and the editorial try to make a case for what the authors call “prosociality.”

“What they want is for all countries to adopt a collectivist philosophy and move away from focusing on the individual,” Fisher explains. “The culture wars that are going on in the world are really about collectivism versus individualism. The United States of America was founded on the basic concept that the individual has rights which limit the power of the state.

That’s why we have a Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, and why we have had in this country respect for freedom of thought, speech, conscience, religious belief and assembly — all of those things in the Bill of Rights that allow the individual to limit the power of the state.

These people, and I’m talking basically the World Health Organization, these folks want a major reorganization and a refocus on the collectivist ideology, which means that the individual is less important than the state. What they’re calling for is more power and more money to be given to the WHO so that future pandemics can be handled better.

One of the top things they focus on is the fact that in the societies that are more individualistic — like the U.S. and Europe, [and] have more civil liberties, more respect for the individual — there was disobedience. People protested, people would not agree uniformly to masking and lockdowns and vaccination.

They want more power and more money to create basically a quasi-world government that is led by WHO, by public health officials. Reading this report, I could not believe that they think they can get away with this. It is completely political. It is not scientific or medical.

They blame everybody but themselves for the pandemic response that has ruined economies, that has affected the mental health and the educational status of children and adults, and has caused such devastation …

We better start realizing that what happened with COVID had as much to do with politics and ideology as it did about a virus. If you look at the World Economic Forum (WEF), which has called for The Great Reset of society, it’s the same thing that was said in this Lancet Commission report.

They [authors of the report] talk about hiring more behavioral psychologists and others to persuade people to be more obedient the next time around. It’s really shocking.”

Healthy Policy Based on False Assumptions and Lies

Surveys now show trust in public health officials is on the decline, which should come as no surprise considering how they’ve flip-flopped on their policies and denied easily provable facts. One of the biggest lies perpetuated was that the COVID shots would prevent infection and transmission.

Everybody assumed this was the case, as all other vaccines have been promoted as a way to prevent infection and transmission. Only those who actually read the FDA briefing document issued at the very beginning, like Fisher and I did, saw that manufacturers were only required to prove a 50% efficacy in preventing severe COVID disease — not in preventing infection and transmission.

“Only if you looked at that would you realize, from the get-go, that they knew the vaccines were not going to prevent infection and transmission,” Fisher says.

They never tested it, and without testing, no claims can be made whatsoever. And yet that’s what they did. They claimed the shots would stop COVID, that you wouldn’t get sick or spread it to others. This was the sole premise behind the vaccine passports. Vaccination was supposed to be a way to make you “safe” to be around. They pushed this lie for all it was worth, knowing they didn’t have a scientific leg to stand on.

Another way by which health authorities deceived the public into thinking the shots would work like a traditional vaccine was by changing the very definition of a vaccine. No longer is a “vaccine” something that actually prevents infection and transmission of disease. Rather, it’s now defined as something that triggers an “immune response,” which may or may not prevent disease.

Clearly, they knew what they were doing and they developed a strategy to deceive the public in a variety of different ways.

They also misled people into thinking the shots were far more effective than they were by conflating relative and absolute risk. While the relative risk reduction was around 95%, the absolute risk reduction was below 1%.6 As noted by Fisher, the idea of vaccine-induced herd immunity is also terribly flawed, and we’ve certainly seen that with the COVID shots.

Modern Day Child Sacrifice

The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that has pushed these lethal and completely useless COVID shots on young children. Fortunately, uptake in this age group has been low. As of July 20, 2022, only 2.8% of children under 5 had received at least one dose.7

That may soon change, however, as the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) unanimously voted, October 20, 2022, to add the COVID shot to the recommended CDC’s vaccination schedules for both children and adults.8

The day before that, October 19, ACIP also recommended the shots become part of the CDC’s Vaccines for Children Program (VFC),9 a federal entitlement program that pays for vaccines for children who don’t have insurance. So, clearly, the FDA and CDC have no intention of coming clean about the dangers of these shots.

They may have miscalculated their ability to keep people brainwashed, however. Fisher estimates that about half of the American population now question vaccination, and not just the COVID shots. The distrust is also spilling over into other vaccines.

Censorship Has Had Lethal Consequences

The truth would be even more widespread were it not for Big Tech censoring public conversations about COVID and COVID shots that criticize government public health policies and laws. Yes, it’s illegal and unconstitutional for government officials to violate freedom of speech and censor by proxy, using private companies to do their dirty work, but they’re doing it anyway. Fisher continues:

“One of the reasons they were successful too in these last three years is because they shut down all [dissenting voices] … There was an article published in The Lancet in March 2021, talking about how these anti-vaccine groups, these groups criticizing the COVID vaccine, how they were to blame for [public health officials] not being able to get everybody to line up and take this vaccine.

NVIC was deplatformed in March 2021 by Facebook and Instagram. Then we were deplatformed by Twitter. Then we were deplatformed by YouTube. All of my commentaries for over a decade, completely gone.

Then PayPal, in December 2021 … in the midst of our year-end fundraising campaign – without warning one night blocked all donations to NVIC, completely tanking our fundraising campaign.

We were completely taken off of social media in 2021. This hampers the ability of people who have history, who have knowledge, who have something to say from being able to communicate in the public square. Online access is the new 21st century public square. We’re completely blocked from communicating with the majority of people here or in other countries.”

Around the World People Are Standing Up for Health Freedom

But despite the heavy-handed censorship, people around the world are still waking up to what’s happening. More and more people are starting to realize that the COVID pandemic wasn’t so much about responding to infectious disease as it was about manipulating people into accepting a new world order.

“What has gladdened my heart in the last few years has been to see the millions of people who stood up in the physical public squares in London, Berlin, Rome and Amsterdam. In so many places around the world, including Canada, people stood up for their freedom, for their right to be able to assemble, to be able to have free speech and to be able to say no to a vaccine they considered too dangerous.

You can tell from reports, these [COVID] lessons-learned reports, that are coming out from big universities, these doctors are furious that a significant portion of the public dared to stand up in public and fight for their freedom. This is a good sign for us. It means that the spirit of freedom that lives in the hearts of so many people around the world is not dead. It is not gone.

This is something that we can build on because all we’re asking for is the right to have full information about these pharmaceutical products, and be able to make an informed and voluntary decision. Nobody’s telling people not to do it. Nobody’s telling people that you shouldn’t make vaccines.

I believe in the free market system, and I believe that a product should be subject to the forces of the marketplace. It shouldn’t be forced on anybody. If people want the product, that’s their choice.

But they shouldn’t force people to do something that’s against their conscience, against their intellectual analysis of the product … People shouldn’t be forced to put their physical health at risk if they believe that they’re going to be harmed by it. That’s tyranny …

We get letters from people who were heads of their families, who were responsible for feeding and housing their families. They were made to make this Faustian choice between putting their health at risk by getting that vaccine … or of losing their job and not being able to provide for their family. Literally, families went bankrupt.

On top of all of this deception and cover up, they want to muzzle anybody who brings up these issues. If you don’t learn from your experience, you’re going to repeat it. This is why reports like the Lancet Commission report are so dangerous. All they want to do is more of the same, the next time around, and force more people to salute smartly.”

Good News From the Legislative Battleground

This update is not all doom and gloom, however. Fisher also brings some good news. Throughout the pandemic, the NVIC has been instrumental in alerting people about proposed COVID vaccine-related legislation in the U.S. — both good and bad — through the NVIC Advocacy Portal. When you sign up to the Portal, which is free, you receive information about vaccine-related bills moving in your state.

Often NVIC issues position papers and talking points that you can use when speaking about proposed bills with your state legislators. Since NVIC launched the Advocacy Portal in 2010, their staff and volunteers have been working with families and educating state legislators about the need to protect informed consent rights in public health laws when it comes to vaccination.

In 2021, not a single state legislature successfully passed a COVID vaccine mandate. “That’s huge. I mean that’s really big considering how many other countries did it,” Fisher says.

For the 2022 legislative session, NVIC analyzed about 900 vaccine-related bills for the Portal, and the number of bills the NVIC supported were more than twice the number they opposed. That’s a record number of positive, freedom-affirming bills.

They included bills prohibiting COVID jab mandates for students, employees and patients. Some required exemptions to be available for employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Others prohibited discrimination over COVID-19 vaccination status.

“We’re really proud of our record in the states because vaccine laws are state laws. I’m a big believer that you have to participate in government.

Only by showing up at the polls and voting for people who will affirm natural rights, human rights, civil liberties that are in the Bill of Rights, only by electing those kinds of people will we be able to function in society and protect it from becoming a collectivist society where the state is supreme and where individuals are devalued and individual rights are eliminated.

I don’t believe in giving up on government. I believe the only thing that’s going to save us is to be involved in the system and pass laws that govern us that we can support.”

The full “NVIC 2022 Annual Report on U.S. State Vaccine Legislation” will be published Thursday, November 17, 2022, on Mercola.com and NVIC.org during this Vaccine Awareness Week.

Other Hopeful Signs

Several of the negative bills the NVIC opposed this legislative session were bills allowing doctors to persuade minor children as young as 11 years old to give informed consent to vaccination without the knowledge or consent of their parents. Washington, D.C., was the only jurisdiction that managed to pass such a dangerous bill, which is another good sign.

“It’s great news,” Fisher says. “Again, it shows the education of the state legislators and it shows that they’re listening to their constituents. I think this is good news for all of us.

It shows that when you get active, when you take talking points to your legislators, when you have your facts straight and you sit down with the people that you elect and explain to them why it’s important to protect vaccine freedom of choice, most of them are listening. Not all, but many of them. Many more than they did before COVID, that’s for sure.”

Again, it’s people like you actually using the NVIC Advocacy Portal that has made these positive shifts a reality. It’s a profoundly useful and helpful tool that everyone can use. Keeping it going requires funding, however, which is why we have this fundraiser once a year, during which I double your donations.

Take Action Today

Going forward, tools like the NVIC Advocacy Portal will only become more crucial, as the medical industry is clearly switching to the “vaccine” product model going forward. There are literally hundreds of new vaccines, both traditional and mRNA, in the research and development pipeline.

That’s what we’re up against. They’re going to have a “vaccine” for just about every disease, which violates every basic tenet of human biology and physiology. Genetically engineered pharmaceutical products like vaccines that manipulate the body’s cells and affect immune and brain function will never address the foundational issues that cause human disease, which is the failure to integrate ancestral lifestyle strategies and diets.

Our genes have been modified over tens of thousands of years. They don’t shift overnight. Now you can do that with CRISPR/Cas9 technology, but it’s a profoundly risky venture that’s going to cause far more harm than good before they ever perfect it.

Pharma is going to switch to the vaccine model because vaccine manufacturers and vaccine administrators have no liability when people are harmed by a product labeled a “vaccine.” They can make and distribute these products that harm — and even kill — people and it won’t cost them a dime.

The main protection you have against that is to not volunteer your body for medical experimentation and to take action to protect your right to know and freedom to make voluntary medical decisions, especially decisions about using pharmaceutical products called “vaccines.” It is unfortunate, but true, that everyone who has received a COVID jab has participated in an uncontrolled medical experiment.

So, in closing, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal and get involved in the legislative process. Also, please make a donation today — every dollar counts — to help the NVIC keep their life-saving educational and advocacy programs going for another year.

Stand Up for Your Right to Make Informed Vaccine Choices

The 13th Annual Vaccine Awareness Week from November 13 to November 19, 2022, will feature important information about vaccine science, policy and law that you can share with your family and friends.

With every donation you make during Vaccine Awareness Week, you can help support the legal right to make an informed, voluntary decision about vaccinations. During this week, we’ll match your donations up to $100,000 to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a nonprofit charity advocating for vaccine safety and informed consent rights since 1982.

During the COVID pandemic, government has collaborated with pharmaceutical corporations, medical trade groups and businesses to promote COVID-19 vaccine mandates and has partnered with Silicon Valley and corporate media to censor public conversations about vaccination and health. It is critical that you take action now to protect your legal right to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices.

Thankfully, for 40 years NVIC has been providing the public with independent, well-referenced information on vaccination and advocating for the inclusion of vaccine safety and informed consent protections in public health policies and laws.

NVIC’s work in state legislatures over the past decade through the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal is one big reason why no state legislature mandated the COVID vaccine in 2021 or 2022.

Just before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted vaccine manufacturers an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to distribute experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, NVIC sponsored the groundbreaking 5th International Public Conference on Vaccination: Protecting Health & Autonomy in the 21st Century featuring 51 speakers. You can watch or listen to the conference for free here.

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Notes

1 Steve Kirsch Substack October 5, 2022

2 ICANdecide.org V-Safe Database

3 The Vaccine Reaction October 9, 2022

4 The Lancet October 8, 2022; 400(10359): 1224-1280

5 The Lancet October 8, 2022; 400(10359): 1171

6 The BMJ Opinion November 26, 2020

7 KFF July 22, 2022

8 Reuters October 20, 2022

9 Meryl Nass Substack October 19, 2022

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

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Increased consumption of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) was associated with more than 10% of all-cause premature, preventable deaths in Brazil in 2019. That is the finding of a new peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The findings are significant not only for Brazil but also for high income countries such as the U S, Canada, the UK, and Australia, where UPFs account for more than half of total calorific intake.

Brazilians consume far less of these products than countries with high incomes. This means the estimated impact would be even higher in richer nations.

UPFs are ready-to-eat-or-heat industrial formulations made with ingredients extracted from foods or synthesised in laboratories. These have gradually been replacing traditional foods and meals made from fresh and minimally processed ingredients in many countries.

The study found that approximately 57,000 deaths in one year could be attributed to the consumption of UPFs – 10.5% of all premature deaths and 21.8% of all deaths from preventable noncommunicable diseases in adults aged 30 to 69.

The study’s lead investigator Eduardo AF Nilson states:

“To our knowledge, no study to date has estimated the potential impact of UPFs on premature deaths.”

Across all age groups and sex strata, consumption of UPFs ranged from 13% to 21% of total food intake in Brazil during the period studied.

UPFs have steadily replaced the consumption of traditional whole foods, such as rice and beans, in Brazil.

Reducing consumption of UPFs by 10% to 50% could potentially prevent approximately 5,900 to 29,300 premature deaths in Brazil each year. Based on this, hundreds of thousands of premature deaths could be prevented globally annually. And many millions more could be prevented from acquiring long-term, debiltating conditions.

Nilson adds:

“Consumption of UPFs is associated with many disease outcomes, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and other diseases, and it represents a significant cause of preventable and premature deaths among Brazilian adults.”

Examples of UPFs are prepackaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza, ready-to-eat meals, hot dogs, sausages, sodas, ice cream, and store-bought cookies, cakes, candies and doughnuts.

And yet, due to trade deals, government support and WTO influence, transnational food retail and food processing companies continue to colonise markets around the world and push UPFs.

In Mexico, for instance, these companies have taken over food distribution channels, replacing local foods with cheap processed items, often with the direct support of the government. Free trade and investment agreements have been critical to this process and the consequences for public health have been catastrophic.

Mexico’s National Institute for Public Health released the results of a national survey of food security and nutrition in 2012. Between 1988 and 2012, the proportion of overweight women between the ages of 20 and 49 increased from 25 to 35% and the number of obese women in this age group increased from 9 to 37%. Some 29% of Mexican children between the ages of 5 and 11 were found to be overweight, as were 35% of the youngsters between 11 and 19, while one in ten school age children experienced anaemia.

The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) led to the direct investment in food processing and a change in Mexico’s retail structure (towards supermarkets and convenience stores) as well as the emergence of global agribusiness and transnational food companies in the country.

NAFTA eliminated rules preventing foreign investors from owning more than 49% of a company. It also prohibited minimum amounts of domestic content in production and increased rights for foreign investors to retain profits and returns from initial investments.

By 1999, US companies had invested 5.3 billion dollars in Mexico’s food processing industry, a 25-fold increase in just 12 years.

US food corporations began to colonise the dominant food distribution networks of small-scale vendors, known as tiendas (corner shops). This helped spread nutritionally poor food as they allowed these corporations to sell and promote their foods to poorer populations in small towns and communities. By 2012, retail chains had displaced tiendas as Mexico’s main source of food sales.

A spoonful of deceit  

Turning to Europe, more than half the population of the European Union (EU) is overweight or obese. Without effective action, this number will grow substantially by 2026.

That warning was issued in 2016 and was based on the report A Spoonful of Sugar: How the Food Lobby Fights Sugar Regulation in the EU by the research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).

CEO noted that obesity rates were rising fastest among lowest socio-economic groups. That is because energy-dense foods of poor nutritional value are cheaper than more nutritious foods, such as vegetables and fruit, and relatively poor families with children purchase food primarily to satisfy their hunger.

The report argued that more people than ever before are eating processed foods as a large part of their diet. And the easiest way to make industrial, processed food cheap, long-lasting and enhance the taste is to add extra sugar as well as salt and fat to products.

In the United Kingdom, the cost of obesity was estimated at £27 billion per year in 2016, and approximately 7% of national health spending in EU member states as a whole is due to obesity in adults.

The food industry has vigorously mobilised to stop vital public health legislation in this area by pushing free trade agreements and deregulation drives, exercising undue influence over regulatory bodies, capturing scientific expertise, championing weak voluntary schemes and outmaneuvering consumer groups by spending billions on aggressive lobbying.

The leverage which food industry giants have over EU decision-making has helped the sugar lobby to see off many of the threats to its profit margins.

CEO argued that key trade associations, companies and lobby groups related to sugary food and drinks together spend an estimated €21.3 million (2016) annually to lobby the EU.

While industry-funded studies influence European Food Standards Authority decisions, Coca Cola, Nestlé and other food giants engage in corporate propaganda by sponsoring sporting events and major exercise programmes to divert attention from the impacts of their products and give the false impression that exercise and lifestyle choices are the major factors in preventing poor health.

Katharine Ainger, freelance journalist and co-author of CEO’s report, said:

“Sound scientific advice is being sidelined by the billions of euros backing the sugar lobby. In its dishonesty and its disregard for people’s health, the food and drink industry rivals the tactics we’ve seen from the tobacco lobby for decades.”

ILSI industry front group  

One of the best known industry front groups with global influence is what a September 2019 report in the New York Times (NYT) called a “shadowy industry group” – the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).

The institute was founded in 1978 by Alex Malaspina, a Coca-Cola scientific and regulatory affairs leader. It started with an endowment of $22 million with the support of Coca Cola.

Since then, ILSI has been quietly infiltrating government health and nutrition bodies around the globe and has more than 17 branches that influence food safety and nutrition science in various regions.

Little more than a front group for its 400 corporate members that provide its $17 million budget, ILSI’s members include Coca-Cola, DuPont, PepsiCo, General Mills and Danone.

The NYT says ILSI has received more than $2 million from chemical companies, among them Monsanto. In 2016, a UN committee issued a ruling that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup, was “probably not carcinogenic,” contradicting an earlier report by the WHO’s cancer agency. The committee was led by two ILSI officials.

From India to China, whether it has involved warning labels on unhealthy packaged food or shaping anti-obesity education campaigns that stress physical activity and divert attention from the food system itself, prominent figures with close ties to the corridors of power have been co-opted to influence policy in order to boost the interests of agri-food corporations.

As far back as 2003, it was reported by The Guardian newspaper that ILSI had spread its influence across the national and global food policy arena. The report talked about undue influence exerted on specific WHO/FAO food policies dealing with dietary guidelines, pesticide use, additives, trans-fatty acids and sugar.

In January 2019, two papers by Harvard Professor Susan Greenhalgh, in the BMJ and the Journal of Public Health Policy, revealed ILSI’s influence on the Chinese government regarding issues related to obesity. And in April 2019,  Corporate Accountability released a report on ILSI titled Partnership for an Unhealthy Planet.

A 2017 report in the Times of India noted that ILSI-India was being actively consulted by India’s apex policy-formulating body – Niti Aayog. ILSI-India’s board of trustees was dominated by food and beverage companies – seven of 13 members were from the industry or linked to it (Mondelez, Mars, Abbott, Ajinomoto, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle) and the treasurer was Sunil Adsule of Coca-Cola India.

In India, ILSI’s expanding influence coincides with mounting rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

In 2020, US Right to Know (USRTK) referred to a study published in Public Health Nutrition that helped to further confirm ILSI as little more than an industry propaganda arm.

The study, based on documents obtained by USRTK, uncovered “a pattern of activity in which ILSI sought to exploit the credibility of scientists and academics to bolster industry positions and promote industry-devised content in its meetings, journal, and other activities.”

Gary Ruskin, executive director of USRTK, a consumer and public health group, said:

“ILSI is insidious… Across the world, ILSI is central to the food industry’s product defence, to keep consumers buying the ultra-processed food, sugary beverages and other junk food that promotes obesity, type 2 diabetes and other ills.”

The study also revealed new details about which companies fund ILSI and its branches.

ILSI North America’s draft 2016 IRS form 990 shows a $317,827 contribution from PepsiCo, contributions greater than $200,000 from Mars, Coca-Cola and Mondelez and contributions greater than $100,000 from General Mills, Nestle, Kellogg, Hershey, Kraft, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Starbucks Coffee, Cargill, Unilever and Campbell Soup.

ILSI’s draft 2013 Internal Revenue Service form 990 shows that it received $337,000 from Coca-Cola, and more than $100,000 each from Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow AgroSciences, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Bayer Crop Science and BASF.

Global institutions, like the WTO, and governments continue to act as the adminstrative arm of industry, boosting corporate profits while destroying public health and cutting short human life.

Part of the solution lies in challenging a policy agenda that privileges global markets, highly processed food and the needs of ‘the modern food system’ – meaning the bottom line of dominant industrial food conglomerates.

It also involves protecting and strengthening local markets, short supply chains and independent small-scale enterprises, including traditional food processing concerns and small retailers.

And, of course, we need to protect and strengthen agroecological, smallholder farming that bolsters nutrient-dense diets – more family farms and healthy food instead of more disease and allopathic family doctors.

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Renowned author Colin Todhunter specialises in development, food and agriculture. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) in Montreal.


Read Colin Todhunter’s e-Book entitled

Food, Dispossession and Dependency. Resisting the New World Order

We are currently seeing an acceleration of the corporate consolidation of the entire global agri-food chain. The high-tech/big data conglomerates, including Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Google, have joined traditional agribusiness giants, such as Corteva, Bayer, Cargill and Syngenta, in a quest to impose their model of food and agriculture on the world.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also involved (documented in ‘Gates to a Global Empire‘ by Navdanya International), whether through buying up huge tracts of farmland, promoting a much-heralded (but failed) ‘green revolution’ for Africa, pushing biosynthetic food and genetic engineering technologies or more generally facilitating the aims of the mega agri-food corporations.

Click here to read.

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***

On November 9, the Russian military command officially announced its decision to withdraw the entire Russian grouping from the right bank of the Dnieper. The loss of control of Kherson has so far been Russia’s biggest military loss in the war in Ukraine.

According to various sources, on the morning of November 11, Ukrainian units approached the outskirts of the city of Kherson. In the western direction, they gained a foothold near Chernobayevka, where there was a warehouse of Russian equipment at the airfield. The personnel and the equipment were withdrawn from the village more than a week ago. To the north of the city, at night, Ukrainian forces approached the villages of Melovoe and Novokair.

On the morning of November 11, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Reznikov announced that 40,000 Russian soldiers were allegedly cut off “in Kherson, around the city and on the western bank of the Dnieper River.”

His statements hardly responded to reality, since the entire Russian grouping in the Kherson region reportedly numbered about 50,000 soldiers and their withdrawal began much earlier. A few days before, several Russian units with all of their equipment left the right bank region.

Several units of the Russian special forces remained in the city until this morning to ensure the safety of the crossings. After these units withdrew to the left bank, the command was given to undermine the bridges. In the early morning, the Antonovsky Bridge, the bridge of the Kakhovskaya dam and other crossings were blown up.

Russian ferry crossings and groups of troops were covered by air defense units. The heavy artillery duels and strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces aimed to slow down the Ukrainian advance as much as possible. In their turn, Ukrainian forces shelled the crossings all along the river. As a result of the shelling, one of the locks of the Kakhovskaya dam was damaged.

Together with the Russian troops, the evacuation of civilians continued as some people stayed in the city until the last despite the official evacuation which took place from October 18 until November 9. On November 11, the last ferry crossed the Dnieper to the left bank.

It seems that the surrender of the city of Kherson by the Russians has already brought political results. On November 11, the United States extended the license for all energy transactions with major Russian banks and the Central Bank for the third time since February. The US State Department said that Washington is waiting for signals of readiness for serious negotiations from Russia.

Turkish president Erdogan called Moscow’s decision to withdraw troops from Kherson correct and positive and announced his intention to hold talks with Putin.

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***

The announcement of the Kherson Retreat may have signaled one of the gloomiest days of the Russian Federation since 1991.

Leaving the right bank of the Dnieper to set up a defense line on the left bank may spell out total military sense. General Armageddon himself, since his first day on the job, had hinted this might have been inevitable.

As it stands in the chessboard, Kherson is in the “wrong” side of the Dnieper. All residents of Kherson Oblast – 115,000 people in total – who wanted to be relocated to safer latitudes have been evacuated from the right bank.

General Armageddon knew that was inevitable for several reasons:

  • No mobilization after the initial SMO plans hit the dust;
  • destruction of strategic bridges across the Dnieper – complete with a three-month methodical Ukrainian pounding of bridges, ferries, pontoons and piers;
  • no second bridgehead to the north of Kherson or to the west (towards Odessa or Nikolaev) to conduct an offensive.
  • And then, the most important reason: massive weaponization coupled with NATO de facto running the war translated into enormous Western superiority in reconnaissance, communications and command and control.

In the end, the Kherson Retreat may be a relatively minor tactical loss. Yet politically, it’s an unmitigated disaster, a devastating embarrassment.

Kherson is a Russian city. Russians have lost – even if temporarily – the capital of a brand new territory attached to the Federation. Russian public opinion will have tremendous problems absorbing the news.

The list of negatives is considerable. Kiev forces secure their flank and may free up forces to go against Donbass. Weaponizing by the collective West gets a major boost. HIMARS can now potentially strike targets in Crimea.

The optics are horrendous. Russia’s image across the Global South is severely tarnished; after all, this move amounts to abandoning Russian territory – while serial Ukrainian war crimes instantly disappear from the major “narrative”.

At a minimum, the Russians a long time ago should have reinforced their major strategic advantage bridgehead on the west side of the Dnieper so that it could hold – short of a widely forecasted Kakhovka Dam flood. And yet the Russians also ignored the dam bombing threat for months. That spells out terrible planning.

Now Russian forces will have to conquer Kherson all over again. And in parallel stabilize the frontlines; draw definitive borders; and then strive to “demilitarize” Ukrainian offensives for good, either via negotiation or carpet bombing.

It’s quite revealing that an array of NATO intel types, from analysts to retired Generals, are suspicious of General Armageddon’s move: they see it as an elaborate trap, or as a French military analyst put it, “a massive deception operation”. Classic Sun Tzu. That has been duly incorporated as the official Ukrainian narrative.

So, to quote Twin Peaks, that American pop culture subversive classic, “the owls are not what they seem”. If that’s the case, General Armageddon would be looking to severely overstretch Ukrainian  supply lines; seduce them into exposure; and then engage in a massive turkey shoot.

So it’s either Sun Tzu; or a deal is in the wings, coinciding with the G20 next week in Bali.

The art of the deal

Well, some sort of deal seems to have been struck between Jake Sullivan and Patrushev.

No one really knows the details, even those with access to flamboyant 5th Column informants in Kiev. But yes – the deal seems to include Kherson. Russia would keep Donbass but not advance towards Kharkov and Odessa. And NATO expansion would be definitely frozen. A minimalist deal.

That would explain why Patrushev was able to board a plane to Tehran simultaneous to the announcement of the Kherson Retreat, and take care, quite relaxed, of very important strategic partnership business with Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The deal may have also been the inbuilt “secret” in Maria Zakharova’s announcement that “we’re ready for negotiations”.

The Russians will leave the Dnieper riverbank in a managed military retreat. That would not be possible without managed military-to-military negotiations.

These back channel negotiations have been going on for weeks. The messenger is Saudi Arabia. The US aim, in the short term, would be towards a sort of Minsk 3 accord – with Istanbul/Riyadh attached.

No one is paying the slightest attention to coke clown Zelensky. Sullivan went to Kiev to present a fait accompli – of sorts.

The Dnieper will be – in thesis – the settled and negotiated frontline.

Kiev would have to swallow a frozen line of contact in Zaporizhye, Donetsk and Lugansk – with Kiev receiving electricity from Zaporozhye, hence cease shelling its infrastructure.

The US would come up with a loan of $50 billion plus part of the confiscated – i.e. stolen – Russian assets to “rebuild” Ukraine. Kiev would receive modern air defense systems.

There’s no doubt Moscow will not go along with any of these provisions.

Note that all this coincides with the outcome of the US elections – where the Dems did not exactly lose.

Meanwhile Russia is accumulating more and more gains in the battle for Bakhmut.

There are no illusions whatsoever in Moscow that this crypto-Minsk 3 would be respected by the “non-agreement capable” Empire.

Jake Sullivan is a 45-year-old lawyer with zero strategic background and “experience” amounting to campaigning for Hillary Clinton. Patrushev can eat him for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night snack – and vaguely “agree” to anything.

So why are the Americans desperate to offer a deal? Because they may be sensing the next Russian move with the arrival of General Winter should be capable of conclusively winning the war on Moscow’s terms. That would include slamming the Polish border shut via a long arrow move from Belarus downwards. With weaponizing supply lines cut, Kiev’s fate is sealed.

Deal or no deal, General Winter is coming to town – ready to entertain his guest of honor Sun Tzu with so many new dishes at their dinner table.

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Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture. Since the mid-1980s he’s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok. He has extensively covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to China, Iran, Iraq and the wider Middle East. Pepe is the author of Globalistan – How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War; Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad during the Surge. He was contributing editor to The Empire and The Crescent and Tutto in Vendita in Italy. His last two books are Empire of Chaos and 2030. Pepe is also associated with the Paris-based European Academy of Geopolitics. When not on the road he lives between Paris and Bangkok. 

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

 Admission by former US National Security Advisor and notorious Iran-hawk John Bolton, (November 10) that weapons are being provided to those carrying out the latest regime change attempt taking place against Tehran, should come as little surprise.

Beginning on the 16th of September, less than 24 hours after Iran had joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – an alliance intended to foster political, economic and military development in Eurasia – protests that initially started in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year old Iranian woman who passed away suddenly following an interaction with a female police officer in Tehran, would rapidly escalate into violent riots that quickly swept the Islamic Republic.

The sudden, violent nature of these riots, and their coordinated coverage by Western media, bore all the trademarks of a CIA-orchestrated colour revolution, which would later be confirmed as such by the involvement of Masih Alinejad, a US Agent who previously held a meeting with former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – like John Bolton, another long-time supporter of regime change in Iran.

Indeed, the violent overthrow of Iranian leaderships has a historical precedent. In 1953, the MI6 and CIA-orchestrated Operation Ajax would see then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh deposed following his decision to nationalise Iran’s vast oil reserves. His replacement, the Western-backed Shah Pahlavi, would himself be overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw the anti-American and anti-Zionist Ayatollah Khomeini come to power, the Islamic Republic remaining a steadfast foe of the West ever since.

Bolton’s admission that arms are being provided to the ‘Iranian opposition’ however, has a much more recent historical usage.

In February 2011, protests in Libya calling for government reform would quickly escalate into violent riots that soon swept the African state.

With weapons provided by the CIA and MI6 and the cover of a NATO-imposed No Fly Zone, terrorists would overrun the country in the space of eight months, with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi – whose planned ‘Gold Dinar’ currency had triggered the regime change operation – being lynched in a Sirte street in October of that year, his once thriving nation being reduced to a lawless wasteland.

Likewise in March 2011, a similar regime operation would erupt in Syria, when terrorists armed by the US, Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia took control of vast swathes of the Arab Republic, the casus belli being Bashar al-Assad’s 2009 refusal to allow US-ally Qatar to build a pipeline through his country, an arrangement that would have undermined his relationship with key ally Russia.

Unlike Libya however, Damascus has been able to withstand this regime change attempt for the past 11 years, with Assad remaining in power to this day. This was helped in no small part by an Iranian intervention in June 2013, with both Damascus and Tehran sharing a common defence agreement, and a further Russian air campaign that began in September 2015, again at the request of the Damascus, and which allowed the Syrian Arab Army to retake areas that had fallen under terrorist control, such as the key city of Aleppo.

This is where grim possibilities come into play in the similarities between Libya and Syria and what is currently taking place in Iran.

Should the current disturbances eventually escalate into what would effectively be a proxy war on Iran, the regime change lobby will undoubtedly move towards calls for a Libya-style ‘humanitarian intervention’ to take place against the Islamic Republic.

Possessing some of the most advanced air defence systems in the Middle East, any attempt to close Iran’s skies would undoubtedly lead to Tehran’s missile capabilities being put to use on Washington’s regional allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, turning a proxy war into a major regional conflict.

Indeed, Iran’s capabilities in this regard were already notably displayed in January 2020, when a retaliatory missile strike was launched against the Ain Al-Asad US airbase in neighbouring Iraq, in response to the drone strike assassination of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

Even the scenario of a major regional conflict however, would be before even Iran’s own allies decided to become involved.

In March 2021, a 25-year cooperation deal was signed between Iran and Nuclear-armed China in order to further relations in regards to the development of energy infrastructure. Following the Russian intervention in Ukraine earlier, Tehran and Moscow have also furthered their ties, with Vladimir Putin paying a visit to the Iranian capital in July.

The possibility that either Beijing or Moscow may decide to intervene should Western military action be taken against Iran is distinct, and therefore it is not just in Iran’s interest that the current disturbances are quelled as quickly as possible, but the entire World’s.

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Gavin O’Reilly is an activist from Dublin, Ireland, with a strong interest in the effects of British and US Imperialism. Secretary of the Dublin Anti-Internment Committee, a campaign group set up to raise awareness of Irish Republican political prisoners in British and 26 County jails. His work has previously appeared on American Herald Tribune, The Duran, Al-Masdar and MintPress News. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. Support him on Patreon.

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Attack on Russian Orthodox Churches in Ukraine

November 14th, 2022 by Manlio Dinucci

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***

Ukrainian President Zelensky recites the script written by Washington and announces as a precondition for the opening of negotiation with Russia that the territorial integrity of Ukraine should be restored, that is, Crimea and Donbas inhabited by populations put back into the hands of Kyiv, and Russia pays war damages to Kyiv and submits to an international trial for war crimes. At the same time Washington, playing the role of peace broker, declares its will to keep the door open to peace negotiations while continuing to fuel the war with massive arms supplies to Kyiv worth $ 18 billion up to now.

In Ukraine, the head of the Orthodox Church of Kyiv, who has broken with the Patriarchate of Moscow, declares that those who kill Russians are forgiven, and Vladimir Putin is the Antichrist. On this basis, an attack on the churches of the Russian Orthodox parishes which have remained connected to the Moscow Patriarchate is underway throughout Ukraine, carried out by neo-Nazi armed groups that break down the doors of the churches and beat the faithful. While all this is underway in Ukraine, one of the leading neo-Nazi exponents of the Azov battalion, presented as a hero, is touring US schools and receiving international awards.

On this background the interview, carried out in Moscow by Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti on behalf of Grandangolo, with Olga Zinoviev, head of the Zinoviev International Research and Training Center at Moscow State University, co-president of the Zinoviev Club is placed.

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This article was originally published on byoblu.

Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

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***

 

 

“If anyone from the outside interferes in Ukraine, they should know this: If they create threats for us… we will retaliate immediately. We have all the tools we need to respond, and all the decisions on this (matter), have already been made.”– Russian President Vladimir Putin

***

There’s no doubt that the retreat from Kherson was a black-eye for the Russian Army. There’s also no doubt that the general who ordered the evacuation made the right decision. True, the optics are terrible, but optics don’t win wars. Strategy, valor and firepower win wars. Russian General Sergey Surovikin appears to grasp that fact which is why he made the unpopular decision to retreat.

Surovikin could have made the more politically acceptable choice and defended Kherson to the end, but the risks far outweighed the benefits. By all accounts, the 25,000 Russian troops in the city could have easily been encircled and annihilated by Ukrainian artillery. Additionally, Surovikin would have been forced to commit more troops to a rescue mission that would not have advanced Russia’s overall military strategy in the slightest. Russia’s immediate goal is to complete the liberation of the Donbas, a task that is not yet finished and which requires more of the troops that had been pinned-down in Kherson.

For all intents and purposes, the retreat from Kherson was a no-brainer. If the nightmare scenario had unfolded –as many had expected– and thousands of Russian soldiers wound up surrounded and slaughtered in defense of a city that holds little strategic value, then popular support for the war in Russia would have vanished overnight.

Neither Putin nor Surovikin could afford to take that risk. So, instead, they opted to pack-it-in and evacuate while they still could, which of course, incited the fury of their critics who are still hopping mad. The good news, however, is that the Kherson public relations disaster will have no meaningful impact on the outcome of the war. Russia is still on-track to achieve all of its strategic objectives despite the pitfalls it has encountered along the way. Here’s a brief recap of the Russian withdrawal from an interview with Colonel Douglas MacGregor:

“When General Surovikin took command… it was decided that Russia was going to wait for a decisive operation to end the war. In other words, no more simply defending southern Ukraine and the territory we’ve annexed, no more expectations of negotiations with anyone– those are over– we have to end the war.

How do you end the war? Well, you launch operations that are so devastating in their destructiveness that the enemy cannot resist them. However, if you are going to do that you’re going to have to scale back current activities. (like Kherson) In other words, you have to make changes on the ground, shuffle troops, change resource commitments because you are now building up for forces that are not yet in southern Ukraine … but are being prepared with this mobilization of 300,000 troops integrated into this new force for future operations… which will come this winter once the ground freezes…. So, I would regard (the withdrawal) as an operational decision with short-term benefit in support of the long-term strategy of building this enormous striking power…The Russians no longer place any confidence in negotiations. I don’t think we could say anything to the Russians at this point that would persuade them to stop.” (“EVERYTHING changes in 4 weeks: Interview with Colonel Douglas MacGregor”, youtube; Start at 50 seconds)

So, according to MacGregor, the repositioning of troops is key to the overall strategy which has changed under Surovikin. Under the new commander, the primary focus of military operations is the annihilation of all forces and assets that allow the enemy to continue to wage war. I suspect that means the removal of the Zelensky regime and his security services, but I could be wrong. In any event, the upcoming Russian offensive is going to be much more in-line with a conventional combined-arms ground war than with the Special Military Operation we’ve seen up to this point. Moscow is determined settle the issue as quickly as possible and as forcefully as necessary. There won’t be any more messing around.

That said, recent reports (see below) suggest that the Biden administration may deploy US combat troops to the theatre in response to any Russian escalation that could threaten to alter the course of the war. If these reports prove to be accurate, then the greatly-anticipated winter offensive could trigger a direct conflagration between the United States and Russia. Given the trajectory of the war to this point, we think it’s only a matter of time before Washington emerges from behind its proxies and engages Russian troops on the battlefield. There are many indications that the Pentagon is already preparing for that eventuality.

Secret communications between national security advisor Jake Sullivan and the former Russian ambassador to Washington, Yuri Yushakov, and the former head of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, suggest that Sullivan warned his Russian counterparts that the US would not allow Russia to settle the conflict on its own terms, but would take whatever steps were needed to prevent a decisive Russian victory. Check out this excerpt from another interview with Colonel Douglas MacGregor:

MacGregor– “Jake Sullivan talked about the dangers of escalation… He simply said that ‘We see evidence that you, Russia, are preparing to escalate this conflict.’ Which is true; we have been talking about this (impending Russian winter) offensive. ‘And we are warning you against that’ (said Sullivan) The unspoken implication at this point, is that we’re prepared to jump into this conflict in some way because we will not allow you to partition Ukraine. We will not allow you to fight and win this war on your terms……

Napolitano– Do you know whether Sullivan mentioned the presence of the 40,000 US troops (101st Airborne) in Poland?

MacGregor– We don’t (know that) But we think– based on the language that has leaked-out in the paragraph I received from another source, that he (Sullivan) did imply that they have 90,000 troops in Poland and Romania, and that, potentially, if Russia escalated, presumably– on the scale that we think the Russians will escalate– that we (the US) might be prepared to jump in. And we would jump in with 40,000 US troops, 30,000 Polish troops and 20,000 Romanian troops….. Sullivan made it clear that we are in a position to intervene.”

…”What we don’t know is what the Russians said in response, because if you are Russian, the red line is clear: ‘If you move into Ukraine, you’re going to be at war with Russia.’ We seem to be in denial about that.”

Napolitano– “Let me get this straight: Are you of the belief, …that Jake Sullivan…threatened the Russians that if they crossed these red lines, they would meet with US military resistance in Ukraine?”

MacGregor– I think that implication was made. That is the impression I am getting and I don’t think we should be surprised about that because Ukraine’s position is deteriorating very rapidly… And we are very concerned about a Ukrainian collapse. Some estimates indicate that the entire economy and social structure will collapse within 60 days. Some say they are going to general mobilization in Ukraine right now, which may include women, because their manpower base is exhausted. And, remember, people continue to leave Ukraine as much as possible because nobody wants to be stuck in a country that shortly will have no power, no electricity, and where there will be trouble getting water, and trouble getting food. The situation in Ukraine is dire.”

Napolitano– What are 40,000 US troops in the 101st Airborne doing in Poland?

MacGregor– They are preparing for combat operations….

Napolitano– Has the Department of Defense given the President of the United States plans for the entry of US troops into Ukraine? Is that done?

MacGregor– I think those plans have certainly been discussed if not briefed to Jake Sullivan. Certainly, the Secretary of State (Anthony Blinken) is aware. I don’t know what they’ve told the president. My hope is that he received some briefing. Again, this is all very serious because we are in the middle of an election and this could happen without any consultation with Congress whatsoever.

Napolitano– What is the status of the 300,000 reservists that Putin called up a month ago?

MacGregor– The majority of them have already been integrated into formations and units –alot of them have gone into units that were under-strength that are now back to ‘full strength’. Some have gone into new units. (Note: I think MacGregor could be wrong about this. Other analysts suggest that only 80,000 reservists have been sent to Ukraine so far. The process could take a few months before the entire deployment is concluded.) It’s almost complete but, the bottom line is, the low temperature in Ukraine has been 37 degrees. which means you’re still going to be stuck in the mud whether you are attacking or defending. Until the ground freezes, I don’t think alot going to happen…But when the winter arrives and the ground freezes, that is when the Russians will attack. And we see evidence of this from at least three different directions including the east, the southeast and the north. And, judging from the (military) buildup and the weapons systems that are in place and supplies that are available, this is an offensive that is designed to end the war. Whether it will or not, we don’t know. But I think that is the idea.

MacGregor– There’s one last thing I’d like to leave you with: When General Surovikin, the commander of the western theatre accepted his appointment, he made these brief remarks. He said “A Syrian solution for Ukraine is unacceptable.” In other words, we will not allow Ukraine to fall under the influence of various actors that maintain Ukraine in a state of permanent turmoil and war. That’s a very clear signal, that when they launch (the winter offensive) they plan to put an end to the conflict. So, it would be very unwise for us to get in the way of this…..We simply do not have the level of support to guarantee success.” (“This is a Red Line in Ukraine”, Colonel Douglas MacGregor, Judging Freedom)

Russia is now prepared to do whatever it takes to win the war quickly and roll-up the hostile army that poses a threat to its national security.

If US forces join the fighting, the calculus for winning could change dramatically, but the strategic objectives would remain the same. No nation can be expected to live at peace when a gun is pointed at its head. That is why Putin opposed NATO membership for Ukraine, and that is why the current war is being fought.

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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 The Unz Review

Video: The Pfizer Vaccine and “Mrs. 4.5 Billion Doses”. EUC President Von Der Leyen Involved in Censorship, Surveillance, Coercion and Corruption

By Mislav Kolakusic, November 13, 2022

Watch Mislav Kolakusic, Croatian lawyer and Independent MEP talks about Mrs Von der Leyen, President of the EUC, known as Mrs 4.5 billion doses.

COP27 Deliberations Reaffirm Imperialist States as Main Obstacle to Ending Climate Change

By Abayomi Azikiwe, November 14, 2022

After one week of speeches, discussions, demonstrations and debate, the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) has once again stalled over the questions of which global interests are actually responsible for environmental degradation.

U.S. Has Now Spent $60 Billion for Ukraine’s War

By Eric Zuesse, November 13, 2022

Those $52B U.S. are expenses from 22 January 2022 up through 3 October 2022, about 8.3 months, or $6.25B per month; so, up through now, around $60B U.S. thus far has been spent by the U.S. Government in its war against Russia that is being waged by Ukrainian troops in the battlefields of Ukraine, which adjoins Russia.

Video: Dr. McCullough Facing Certifications Revocation for Alleged “False…Information” Dissemination

By Dr. Peter McCullough and Kristina Borjesson, November 13, 2022

Government orchestrated attacks against high-profile physicians successfully treating covid patients with early treatment protocols and warning about the dangers of covid vaccines continue, with world renowned cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough as one of their latest targets.

The Folly of War, US Militarism Continues Apace

By Shane Quinn, November 12, 2022

In recent weeks, heavily armed US destroyers have been advancing northwards closer to Beijing, along the East China Sea and Yellow Sea, within short distance too of Shanghai, China’s biggest port and most populous city.

Stolen Election Update. “Mysterious Sharp Upward Readjustment of the Count for Democratic Candidates”

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, November 11, 2022

The same swing states where the last presidential election was stolen are again showing the mysterious sharp upward readjustment of the vote count for Democrat candidates.  In Arizona where election day vote counting is on hold, mysterious tranches of votes keep arriving days after the election for the Democrat candidate for governor–17,000 here, 5,000 there. 

Canadian Support for NAZI Collaborators After World War II. Lest We Forget. A Remembrance Day Special

By Michael Welch, November 11, 2022

The sad reality is that the ultra-nationalist groups, which honoured figures like Stepan Bandera, a collaborator with Adolf Hitler, have made a come back in Ukraine. These are the figures now being assisted by Canada at a time when we revere the brave people who fell in war against figures…like Hitler.

How the FDA and CDC Are Hiding COVID Jab Dangers

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, November 11, 2022

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has publicly warned that COVID is one of the Top 10 causes of death in children aged 5 to 11, yet when asked to produce the data, they admitted they never conducted an analysis for that age group.

What Will the World Look Like in 2032? Reversing the COVID Narrative, Confronting “The Great Reset”, Restoring Democracy

By Peter Koenig, November 12, 2022

Even if vaccines were stopped immediately, which they are not, hundreds of thousands of people or more might be killed in the next 10 years – and if the vaxx drive continues and eventually 70% to 80% of the world population is vaxxed, the impacts on world population of about 7.9 billion would be potentially devastating. See this.

Is There Graphene Oxide Inside the Shots? Mainstream Media Article on Physician Who Filmed Structures Resembling Circuitry and Microchips in Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

By Paul Anthony Taylor, November 12, 2022

On the outer edges of the World Wide Web, it isn’t difficult to find people making outlandish claims about ingredients contained in the mRNA and DNA forms of COVID-19 vaccines. As a science-based organization, while strongly disputing assertions that these injections are supposedly proven to be ‘safe’, our Foundation steers a strict course well clear of such speculation.

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The Decline of the West: Spengler in Today’s World

November 14th, 2022 by Oscar Silva-Valladares

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***

Timelessness of thought and vision in world politics is a rare mark of grandeur. Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, written a century ago, deserves this distinction as it reads like it was done yesterday.

The German historian-philosopher wrote in 1922 that the centuries old West-European-American civilization was in permanent and irretrievable decline in all manifestations of life including religion, art, politics, social life, economy and science. For him, the political, social and ideological dimensions of this decline were evident in the failings of the Western political class in both sides of the Atlantic. He saw politicians, mostly based in large cities, consumed by ideology and contempt towards silent majorities and described them as “a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, and deeply contemptuous of the countryman.” Nowadays the Brussels-based European Union (EU) leadership, through their recurring disdain for nation sovereignty, fully befits this definition.

Spengler believed that decadence in politics means predominance of ideology over action. “Men of theory commit a huge mistake in believing that their place is at the head and not in the train of great events” he wrote, unaware about how true this is today as we just saw the fall of UK Prime Minister Truss who sacrificed economics in the altar of ideology. Dogma destroying social cohesion and prosperity is also present in the wrecking of Europe’s manufacturing competitiveness as their politicians forcibly deny cheap Russian energy or when Lilliputian Lithuania picks a fight with China in defence of Taiwan’s “sovereignty.” On the face of these events the German thinker would have repeated his assertion that “the political doctrinaire … always knows what should be done, and yet his activity, once it ceases to be limited to paper, is the least successful and therefore the least valuable in history.”

When we listen to the German Minister of Economic Affairs Harbeck or his Foreign Affairs counterpart Baerbock lecturing on the primacy of the green agenda or on how Ukraine military support needs to continue regardless of what voters think, we can’t help remembering the writer’s damning query: “[have they] any idea whatever of the actualities of world-politics, world-city problems, capitalism, the future of the state, the relation of technics to the course of civilization, Russia, Science?.”

The “rules-based international order,” that Western axiom born out of post-Cold War euphoria and used to justify US-led hegemonism, reminds us the writer’s aphorism that “nothing is simpler than to make good poverty of ideas by founding a system”. “Even a good idea has little value when enunciated by a solemn ass” comes to mind when we hear the European Commission President von der Leyen or the EU Foreign Affairs Head Borrell repeat the same mantra. “In politics, only its necessity to life decides the eminence of any doctrine,” something that has been forgotten as Europe blindly follows the US in an economic war that is ruining the continent.

On the East-West confrontation, concerning China, Spengler highlighted Western politicians’ traditional lack of understanding of the main drivers of Chinese thinking which have to do with a 4000-year view of history and of their place in the world, as compared to the Western narrow timeframe absorbed by events that took place since 1500. Western self-contained perception of history negates world’s history, he says, adding that world-history, in the Western eyes, is our world picture and not all mankind’s.

American exceptionalism, the dangerous notion that US values, political system and history destines it to play the world’s leading role, was questioned when he pointed out that there are as many morals as there are Cultures, no more and no fewer, and that each Culture possesses its own standard, the validity of which begins and ends with it, a statement that explains the need for a multipolar world. As much as has become politically correct to criticize Nietzsche’s ideas after his appropriation by Nazi ideology, Spengler affirmed that Nietzsche’s basic concept of will of power is essential to Western civilization, and this is consistent with the Western belief on the superiority of its values and the need to impose them on other cultures. “Western mankind is under the influence of an immense optical illusion. Everyone demands something of the rest. We say “thou shalt” in the conviction that so-and-so in fact will, can and must be changed or fashioned or arranged conformably to the order, and our belief both in the efficacy of, and in our title to give, such orders is unshakable.”

Money, politics and the press play an intimate role in Western civilization, declares Spengler. In politics, money “nurses” the democratic process particularly during elections, as is the recurring US case. The press serves him who owns it and it does not spread “free” opinion – it generates it. “What is truth? For the multitude, that which it continually reads and hears.” On freedom of the press, we are reminded that it is permitted to everyone to say what he or she pleases, but the Press is free to take notice of what he or she says or not. The Press can condemn any “truth” to death simply by not undertaking its communication to the world – “a terrible censorship of silence which is all the more potent in that the masses of newspaper readers are absolutely unaware that it exists.”

Striking parallels exist between today’s poverty in US cities and his observation of Rome at the time of Crassus, who as a real-estate speculator also recalls Donald Trump. Rome people is portrayed as living “in appalling misery in the many-storied lodging-houses of dark suburbs”, a misfortune directly linked to the consequences of Roman military expansionism and which suggests current conditions in Detroit, Cleveland or Newark.

The Decline of the West was first read as the epilogue of World War I, the war that ended all wars. Hopefully it will not be read in today’s world as the introduction of a new calamity.

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Oscar Silva-Valladares is a former investment banker who has lived and worked in North and Latin America, Western & Eastern Europe, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the Philippines, and Western Africa. He currently provides strategic consulting advisory on financial matters across emerging markets.

Featured image is from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

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***

After one week of speeches, discussions, demonstrations and debate, the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) has once again stalled over the questions of which global interests are actually responsible for environmental degradation.

More importantly in contemporary times, the issue of imperialist countries and their multinational corporations being obligated to pay for the negative impact of greenhouse gas emissions within the former colonial and neo-colonial territories has been raised to the top of the agenda of international gatherings.

Today the United States, Britain and the European Union (EU) are facing widespread economic and security difficulties characterized mainly by attempts to control an inflationary spiral not experienced in over four decades and the impact of a proxy war being fought between Washington and NATO on the one hand and the Russian Federation and its allies on the other. The threat of thermonuclear war has been raised by the administration of President Joe Biden while the defense industry and the Pentagon facilitate the flow of arms into Ukraine and other contiguous states.

The heavy presence of the U.S. at the COP27 Summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh Egypt has served as an impediment to holding open and democratic discussions. As in the previous conference held in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, Washington and its surrogates have consistently vetoed language within resolutions that address the international division of economic power and labor, which is key in addressing the desperate impact of severe weather events, desertification and food deficits. Since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the shipment of grain, wheat and other agricultural products and inputs have been severely constrained.

Moreover, Egypt is a country whose government has been beholden to aid from the U.S. for decades since the signing of the Camp David Accords normalizing relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv. The Accords were signed in 1978 and since this time period billions of dollars have been sent to Egypt for its military forces and the maintenance of the state. Consequently, it should not be surprising that the U.S. would have a disproportionate presence at the conference in Sharm-el-Sheikh.

COP27 Africans demonstrate in Egypt

The fact that this summit is being held on the African continent, many would think that this provides an opportunity for the continent’s governmental and non-governmental leaders to take center stage. Nonetheless, the presence of the U.S. president and other leading cabinet and legislative figures illustrates the limitations of such conferences.

A report on the COP27 proceedings published by the Associated Press noted:

“The subject of climate compensation was once considered taboo, due to concerns from rich countries that they might be on the hook for vast sums. But intense pressure from developing countries forced the issue of ‘loss and damage’ onto the formal agenda at the talks for the first time this year. Whether there will be a deal to promote further technical work or the creation of an actual fund remains to be seen.”

However, as within the counter arguments surrounding the payments of reparations for African enslavement and colonization by Europe and North America, the guilty interests will not accept responsibility for the harm done in the past or the present. This same political position by the imperialist states was reflected in the statement made by U.S. environmental envoy John Kerry.

According to the Associated Press in the same above-mentioned article:

“John Kerry said the United States is hopeful of getting an agreement ‘before 2024’ but suggested this might not come to pass in Egypt. But he made it clear where the U.S. red line lies for Washington: ‘The United States and many other countries will not establish some … legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability.’ That doesn’t mean money won’t flow, eventually. But it might be branded as aid, tied into existing funds and require contributions from all major emitters if it’s to pass.”

In other words, Washington and Wall Street plans to maintain the status quo where “aid and loans” to states within Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean will serve as the mechanism by which the U.S. and other imperialist states will utilize to avoid their responsibility for climate change. Under such a policy the existing global configuration of geopolitical dominance will remain.

However, this viewpoint does not take into consideration the intervention of the working class, the oppressed, farmers and impoverished communities in shaping political trends and governmental policy in various regions of the world. In Latin America for example, Indigenous nations, workers and farmers have initiated uprisings in response to the neo-liberal imposed policies which restricted water and land usage as well as the rapid rise of inflation.

In Africa there is a great level of awareness drawing the link between imperialism and militarism. This rising consciousness has resulted in demonstrations against France’s Operation Barkhane and the demand that the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) withdraw their forces from the continent.

As the AP points out in its analysis of the COP27 debate over damage and loss:

“Rich countries have fallen short on a pledge to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 in climate financing for poor nations. This has opened up a rift of distrust that negotiators are hoping to close with fresh pledges. But needs are growing, and a new, higher target needs to be set from 2025 onward.”

These imperatives on the part of African and other developing regions cannot be postponed in perpetuity. The emergence of alternative models of international relations are a clear result of the failure of the Bretton Woods monetary system which emerged during the concluding months of the Second World War. These institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), have long been exposed for their role aimed at exploiting the majority of the world’s population remaining under the yoke of imperialism.

Voices Are Raised Against Imperialist Foreign Policy

Despite the role of the U.S. and its allies in the United Kingdom and the EU, there were protests which took place during the first week of the COP27 Summit. In designated zones at Sharm-el-Sheikh, a resort area where there is a strong reliance on tourism and political conferences, people called for the radical departure from the existing production methods and military policies which have resulted in the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, warming the planet to dangerous and unsustainable levels.

Inside the conference, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, decried the lack of action by the United Nations in addressing the problems emanating from climate change. Barbados recently in an act of sovereignty withdrew from the British crown and declared itself a republic demanding the payment of reparations for centuries of enslavement and colonialism.

Prime Minister Mottley emphasized in her speech that:

“We were the ones whose blood, sweat and tears financed the industrial revolution. Are we now to face double jeopardy by having to pay the cost as a result of those greenhouse gases from the industrial revolution? That is fundamentally unfair. We need to have a different approach, to allow grant-funded reconstruction grants going forward, in those countries that suffer from disaster. Unless that happens, we are going to see an increase in climate refugees. We know that by 2050, the world’s 21 million climate refugees today will become 1 billion.”

Outside of the conference, people marched in condemnation of the failure of the imperialist states to pay damage and loss to the developing countries suffering the most from climate change in the 21st century. One article on these protests quoted the voices of the people saying:

“’Pay for loss and damage now,’ said Friday Nbani, a Nigerian environmental activist who was leading a group of African protesters. Many protesters, alongside several vulnerable countries, have called for ‘loss and damage’ payments, or financing to help pay for climate-related harms, to be central to negotiations. ‘Africa is crying, and its people are dying,’ Nbani said.”

These contradictions will be eventually resolved through a protracted class struggle which extends across the planet. The outcome of this struggle against climate change will be determined by the international balance forces and the determination of the majority to build a world based upon the interests of the people and the earth.

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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: COP27 in Egypt where people protested climate policy / all images in this article are from the author

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***

The Canada that Canadians now view every day is not the sensible, reasonable, and generous society that Canadians of all stripes have built up over many generations.

It has become polarized, nasty and barely recognizable.

Just listen to people talking in stores, on the street, and in meeting places.

Just walk or drive through cities and villages and the countryside, and see the Canadian flags — paired with signs expressing vehement disapproval of our federal government. Loyal Canadians are fed up with their federal government.

And one person is responsible for this — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He has drastically altered Canadian institutions and norms so considerably that usually calm people are raising their voices in protest.

The core of the protestors in Ottawa and other Canadian centres were angry not only about government heavy-handedness in its pandemic policies, but also the changes being brought about by Trudeau.

He has cheapened public discourse and public life.

He talks so high-minded, yet has a lifelong history of deplorable acts.

He has arbitrarily ruined the lives of many other people who have been supposedly guilty of far less egregious acts than have been proven by photographs against him — perhaps to deflect his own guilt?

Does “do as I say, not as I do” strike home? How about “one standard for the masses, and another for the elites like me?”

His intolerance, and high-handed and ill-founded rectitude has led many to regard the government with disdain, and doubt its ability to get things right.

And now his decision to not only invoke the Emergencies Act (which most minds — those not cowardly beholden to Trudeau — agree was not necessary to get the job done in Ottawa), but to keep it in force for an undetermined period (to “hunt down” some Canadians to charge them with mischief?), has shown precisely how inappropriate Trudeau really is for this high office.

Those who know Trudeau, or have studied him in office, know that he is not only immature and calculatedly unfair to those who are not in his circle, but know that he is unschooled.

From his utterances such as the declaration that everything with the SNC-Lavalin Affair was entirely appropriate to his embarrassing behaviour in front of cameras at Buckingham Palace to his penchant for dressing up to his puerile approach to any person who dares not defer to him to his lack of consideration of any thought that does not mesh with his — Trudeau exhibits time and time again that he is not fit for the job.

The English have the perfect word to describe our prime minister — a cockwomble! To save you the time in looking it up, here it is: a person prone to making outrageously stupid statements and/or inappropriate behaviour while generally having a very high opinion of his own wisdom and importance. Does that not perfectly capture our prime minister?

But take heart — Canada is still strong due to its majority of citizens who maintain common sense. We will recover when this prime minister is gone.

The freedom to differ, to voice, to offend, and to live our lives within the law, and not some person’s elite notion of what is good and bad, will return.

We are resilient, but let’s hope that it is sooner rather than later –the pain inflicted by this government has almost brought us to the tipping point.

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Stephen LeDrew is a lawyer, broadcaster, and the longest-serving president of the Liberal Party of Canada.

U.S. Has Now Spent $60 Billion for Ukraine’s War

November 13th, 2022 by Eric Zuesse

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***

On October 11th, the Kiel Institute for World Economy’s “Ukraine Support Tracker” headlined “US significantly expands support, Europe lags behind” and reported

The US has again significantly expanded its pledges of support for Ukraine in recent weeks. European countries, on the other hand, have made only a few new pledges. In addition, the aid announced by EU countries has been slow to reach Ukraine. These are the results of the latest update of the Ukraine Support Tracker. The analysis on heavy weapons has been considerably expanded in this release.

In the period now additionally covered by the Ukraine Support Tracker (August 4 to October 3), the US made new pledges of just under 12 billion euros, bringing the total to just over 52 billion euros in military, financial, and humanitarian aid. EU countries and institutions expanded their commitments by only about 1.4 billion euros over the same period, and now collectively reach just over 29 billion euros.

One dollar =.97 euro.

Those $52B U.S. are expenses from 22 January 2022 up through 3 October 2022, about 8.3 months, or $6.25B per month; so, up through now, around $60B U.S. thus far has been spent by the U.S. Government in its war against Russia that is being waged by Ukrainian troops in the battlefields of Ukraine, which adjoins Russia. The prize for the U.S. Government would be to become enabled to place its missiles on Ukraine’s Russian border around 300 miles away from Moscow in order to blitz-nuclear annihilate Russia’s central command in a first-strike nuclear attack so that Russia will have only around five minutes to launch its retaliatory weapons (making that virtually impossible).

American weapons manufacturers also are profiting enormously from this, as are other U.S. international corporations, such as ExxonMobil, and Cargill. By contrast, U.S. consumers suffer greatly increased inflation from it.

Europe is being destroyed by it (huge inflation, etc.), and so the publics there are demonstrating against this war, but the war in Ukraine wasn’t at all a factor determining how Americans voted in the November 8th mid-term congressional elections — it was a non-existent priority to them: only 2% of the voters said that they were interested in “Foreign policy” matters at all. It’s a perfect electorate for the military-industrial complex, international corporations, etc., to control: they aren’t even interested in it, at all, perfectly manipulable by the billionaires and their media, in order for them to vote for the billionaires’ candidates of both Parties — and both Parties’ candidates supported (and voted in Congress for) this $60B federal expense; they’re like a pair of twins that have the same brain and are connected at the head, but far longer-lasting.

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This article was originally published on The Duran.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

Featured image is from The Cradle

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***

Watch Mislav Kolakusic, Croatian lawyer and Independent MEP talks about Mrs Von der Leyen, President of the EUC, known as Mrs 4.5 billion doses.

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***

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said on Wednesday that he sees an opportunity for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine now that Moscow has announced its retreat from Kherson and that the two sides should “seize the moment.”

“When there’s an opportunity to negotiate when peace can be achieved, seize it,” Milley told the Economic Club of New York. “Seize the moment.”

Milley thinks Russia is digging in for the winter and that the battle lines won’t change much over the next few months. He said lessons should be learned from World War I, when European powers’ refusal to negotiate led to millions more casualties in trench warfare.

Milley said Russia may be using the withdrawal to rest its troops for a future spring offensive but believes “there’s also an opportunity here, a window of opportunity for negotiation.”

The top US military officer said that the two sides need to reach a “mutual recognition” that victory “is maybe not achievable through military means, and therefore you need to turn to other means.”

Milley said that if a diplomatic solution isn’t reached, the US would continue arming Ukraine, and the US and NATO have big plans to support Kyiv for years to come. But Milley reiterated his view that negotiations are possible in an interview with CNBC the following day. “Now, what the future holds is not known with any degree of certainty, but we think there are some possibilities here for some diplomatic solutions,” he said.

His comments came after NBC News reported that some US and Western officials believe this winter will bring an opportunity for peace talks. But The New York Times reported on Thursday that Milley is at odds with other high-level US officials over his stance.

The Times report said that President Biden’s advisors have concluded that the moment is not ripe for peace talks and that the US shouldn’t be pressuring Ukraine to negotiate. The White House has been careful to maintain that it’s not nudging Ukraine to the negotiating table, with Biden repeating on Wednesday that the US won’t pursue anything about Ukraine “without Ukraine.”

But National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan did visit Kyiv last week and reportedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to soften his stance on negotiations. Zelensky previously ruled out talks with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is president, but he dropped that position this week, although he is maintaining maximalist demands as preconditions for talks.

The comments from Milley and Sullivan’s request of Zelensky mark a significant shift in the US’s stance on negotiations. Up to this point, the Biden administration had discouraged diplomacy even when a deal was within reach after Ukraine and Russia held in-person peace talks in Istanbul at the end of March.

After the Istanbul talks, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv and urged against negotiations with Russia. Once it was clear there would be no deal, the US said its goal was to “weaken” Russia, and Congress passed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine.

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

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***

Government orchestrated attacks against high-profile physicians successfully treating covid patients with early treatment protocols and warning about the dangers of covid vaccines continue, with world renowned cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough as one of their latest targets.

In this interview, Dr. McCullough, who describes himself as the first physician in the U.S. to face losing his board certifications for political reasons, lays out the details of his experience.

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This video was originally published on The Whistleblower Newsroom.

Featured image is a screenshot from the video


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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The federal government is throwing away more COVID-19 vaccines, with nearly eight million doses of the Moderna vaccines discarded due to drying-up demand in Canada and around the world.

The National Post reported in June that the government had thrown away 1.2 million doses of Moderna’s shot that had expired, along with 13.6 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. The number of expired Moderna shots has now risen to 7.7 million and the government has also now disposed of 3.1 million doses of the Novavax vaccine. About 7,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine has been thrown away.

The federal government’s data for discarded vaccines are current as of the end of October this year and don’t include vaccines that may have expired and were discarded after they were sent to provincial governments.

Canada ordered tens of millions of doses from seven different manufacturers before any of the vaccines had cleared clinical trials, at a cost of more than $9 billion.

Click here to read the full article on National Post.

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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.”

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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Hands Off Haiti! No Military Intervention!

November 13th, 2022 by Richard Dunn

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Since the summer of 2018, Haiti has been experiencing mass protests. Thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets to express their frustration and anger regarding the current social conditions on the island. The social upheavals are a cause of concern for all progressive people, especially since the unrest has increased since August 22 of this year.

What is more troubling is that acting President of Haiti Ariel Henry, addressing the country, remarked that the government intends to request international “assistance” to deal with the social crisis in Haiti. Ariel Henry officially wrote to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres that the UN should intervene militarily to bring the situation back to normal. Secretary-General Guterres on October 10 urged the international community to review deploying military forces to Haiti to resolve the crisis situation.

Haiti’s Sovereignty Always Under Attack

Shortly after the comments from Ariel Henry, the United States Government sent a delegation to Haiti supposedly to “review” Henry’s request; on Monday October 17, the UN Security Council met to discuss a suggestion from the United States and Mexico to send in non-UN forces and later announced the imposition of sanctions against “gang” leaders. These developments are troublesome and the erroneously misleading narrative of “gang violence” is establishing an ideological justification for military intervention—United States military intervention.

The United States and Canada have delivered military machinery to Haiti under the suspicious title of “security equipment”; this “security equipment” includes armored and tactical vehicles to be used to strengthen the police to fight “criminal gangs.” It is reported that, by October 28, Haiti will receive additional delivery of military machinery.

This request by Ariel Henry is tantamount to treason and António Guterres’s comments are not only suggestively racist but also an affront to the sovereignty and independence of Haiti. To request outside military intervention, to solve problems of your country, is a sellout of the sacrifices the enslaved Africans made to achieve their freedom and set up their own independent state.

Underlying the call for intervention is the age-old erroneous premise that Black people are incapable of governing themselves and hence need white people to guide and manage their affairs. This is without question an infringement on International Law and the UN Charter regarding the non-interference in the domestic affairs of other countries. I strongly doubt that Guterres would make such a suggestion were Haiti a white country.

The Crisis in Haiti Is Imperialist-Made

In 1791 the enslaved people of Haiti carried out the first successful slave revolution and in 1804 established the first Black Republic in the Western Hemisphere. For the next 218 years the people of Haiti have been engaged in a constant struggle to further develop and carry out the intent of their revolution for self-determination, social justice and socio-economic independence.

These goals have become unattainable because of occupation, dictatorship, destabilization, theft by Wall Street financial interests aided by the United States military, governmental corruption, natural disasters and, most critically, the payment of reparations to their former enslavers. Haitians have had to pay in cash for their freedom from enslavement and subsequent independence; the imperialist powers and the local and foreign oligarchs have all benefited from this immoral, ridiculous and treacherous policy.

Since the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the response from the colonialists and international imperialism has been to punish Haiti and crush the revolution and its original goals of a just and equitable society and self-determination. In May 2022 The New York Times published an expose that lays bare the genesis of Haiti’s problems.

In a series titled “The Root Of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers,” the article in part says:

“The colony made many French families fabulously rich.…It was also…the world’s most brutal.…But for generations after independence, Haitians were forced to pay the descendants of their former slave masters…The burdens continued well into the 20thcentury.”

The piece continues:

“The wealth…coaxed from the ground brought wild profits for a French Bank that helped finance the Eiffel Tower…Haiti’s riches lured Wall Street, too, delivering big margins for the institution that ultimately became Citigroup.”

According to the Times the financial loss to Haiti is approximately $115 billion, “eight times the size of its economy in 2020.” The United States invaded and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934; prior to this, in 1914 the United States stole $500,000 worth of gold from the National Bank of Haiti, which was then transported to the United States by the military vessel USS Machias. The gold ended up in the vault of Hallgarten & Co. a City Bank (later known as CitiBank) affiliate.

Added to this, the country was also devastated by the U.S.-instigated and supported dictatorship of François Duvalier (“Papa Doc”) and later his son Jean-Claude Duvalier “Baby Doc” from 1957 to 1986, who both ruled the nation with iron fists.

Corruption by the Duvaliers and other government officials, and murderous repression through the para-military group the Tonton Macoute, tortured and killed opponents including ordinary citizens. Haiti’s woes were not over as the country suffered two U.S.-orchestrated and executed military coups against democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, first in 1991 and again in 2004.

U.S. Imperialism’s Attempt to “Destroy” Haiti

Haiti’s attempt both to feed itself and improve the social conditions of its citizens were directly thwarted by the United States government by flooding Haiti with rice grown by U.S.-subsidized farmers and sold much cheaper than that locally produced.

The Canada-Haiti Information Project has reported that “since 1995 the U.S. has given over $13 billion in subsidies to American rice farmers…That keeps the price of American rice exported to Haiti significantly lower than rice produced by Haitian farmers.” This arrangement puts the local farmers at a great disadvantage because they cannot compete with such an unfair and disproportionate arrangement and eventually forces many of them out of business.

The Haitian parliament made an attempt to raise the standard of living for the citizens by raising the minimum wage to $5 per day; the United States on behalf of the textile companies intervened and had the bill blocked.

Haiti was part of the PetroCaribe Agreement that was set up in 2005 by Venezuela under late President Hugo Chávez. The Agreement in part offered affordable prices on petroleum products and to promote socio-economic development by eliminating inequality and improving the quality of life in the partner countries. The illegal and immoral sanctions imposed on Venezuela prevented Haiti from participating in the program and receiving affordable petroleum products, hence the increase and scarcity of fuel in the country.

What Is to Be Done

The current social crisis in Haiti has extraordinarily little to do with “gangs” but is a result of machinations carried out by the Core Group led by the United States and their allies: Canada, France, the European Union (EU) and the lackey Organization of American States (OAS).

The citizens of Haiti have taken to the streets across the country to protest their frustration against economic misery: food insecurity; increasing inflation; high fuel prices and shortage; and an end to foreign interference and intervention in the internal affairs of the country.

Most importantly, the protesters are demanding the resignation of acting President Ariel Henry, who they say is incapable of addressing the socio-economic issues and bringing peace and stability to the country.

In order for Haiti to begin the long and arduous road to recovery the following needs to be done:

  • The United States and its allies—especially Canada, France and Britain—must immediately stop interfering in the internal affairs of Haiti.
  • There must be NO military intervention, UN or otherwise.
  • There must be NO support for foreign intervention in Haiti, disguised as “assistance” by organizations such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), or the African Union (AU).
  • The United States and its allies must stop supporting a repressive, corrupt and illegitimate regime represented by Ariel Henry and the local oligarchy.
  • Progressive forces, internationally and within the African diaspora especially, must demonstrate solidarity with the people of Haiti by engaging their respective elected officials and participatory social action to thwart any impending military action and allow the people of Haiti to solve their own problems, in their own way.

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Richard Dunn is a retired construction professional, trained in Architecture and Energy Management. He’s been a social justice activist since 1968 and was particularly active with the Walter Rodney defense demonstrations. Richard is an author, a contributing columnist to newspapers, an editor for a music industry magazine and operates a social justice website. Richard can be reached at: [email protected].

Featured image: It took Haiti 122 years to pay off its debt of independence, a neocolonial strategy that remains in place and leads to chronic underdevelopment. Photo: Juvenal Balán

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Since the union of Crimea with Russia in March 2014, the entry into the sea of Azov is fully controlled by Russia. (see image below).

The following article is a revised and update of an earlier GR article by Michel Chossudovsky   It provides a brief summary of the Geopolitics of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov as well as observations on the Ukraine War.

***

An Act of sabotage of the Kerch Strait bridge was perpetrated (October 8, 2022). The Kerch bridge  is strategic: it links Crimea (by road and rail) to Russia’s Krasnodar region. 

Reports confirm that both road and rail traffic have partially resumed. (BBC)

This article first published on June 5, 2022 provides a geopolitical analysis of the Kerch straight, focussing on strategic waterways. 

Our brief assessment of the Ukraine War in early June (largely confirmed by subsequent reports) was the following (for details scroll down):

  • Ukraine is not in a position to win this war. 
  • Ukraine is without a Navy and without an Air Force which was destroyed at the outset in late February 2022.
  • Ukraine has no maritime access to the Sea of Azov and Eastern Ukraine, nor does it have naval power in the Black Sea.
  • The Peace Negotiations initiated in Istanbul in late March, which were the object of political sabotage constitute the only solution. 
  • All major ports on the Sea of Azov are under Russian control.
  • While Russia decided for strategic reasons to retreat from Kherson (November 11, 2022) it remains partially in control of the access of Ukraine’s major river-way the Dnieper to and from the Black Sea
  • The Dnieper is in some regards a seaway. The Dnieper is a major corridor for grain cargo transportation.

***

Introduction

Historically, the Kerch strait in Eastern Crimea has played a strategic role.

It constitutes a narrow maritime gateway which links the Black Sea via the Sea of Azov to Russia’s major waterways including the Don and the Volga.

 

It also ensures maritime transit from the Black Sea to Moscow not to mention the strategic maritime route between the Caspian Sea (via the Volga-Don Canal) to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. 

Map: The United Deep Waterway System of European Russia.

 

The Volga also links the Caspian Sea to the Baltic Sea as well as to the Northern Sea route, via the Volga–Baltic Waterway.  (See above)

The Volga is connected to a system of canals (via lakes Onega, Ladoga) to the Neva River and St Petersburg. (See map below)

 

What is at stake is an integrated system of waterways which connects the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea to the Baltic and the Northern Sea Route.

In this regard the narrow Kerch Strait in Eastern Crimea is strategic.

The 2014 Union of Crimea with Russia Redefines the Geography and the Geopolitical Chessboard of the Black Sea Basin

Since 2014, the reunion of Crimea to the Russian Federation, represented a major setback for US-NATO, whose longstanding objective was to integrate Ukraine into NATO, while extending Western military presence in the Black Sea basin. (See details below)

Brief Observations on the Ukraine War: The Sea of Azov is Strategic. Ukraine Has No Maritime Access. 

In regards to the Ukraine War, Russia’s control of the Kerch Strait plays a key role. In recent developments (June 2022), Russia now controls the entire basin of the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine has no maritime access to the Sea of Azov and Eastern Ukraine, nor does it have naval power in the Black Sea.

Without a navy (and without an Air Force which was destroyed at the outset in late February), Ukraine is not in a position to win this war. The Peace Negotiations initiated in Istanbul in late March, which were the object of political sabotage constitute the only solution. 

Ukraine’s Naval Base Berdyansk (a 2020 initiative of Zelensky) on the Western Azov coastline is under Russian control. All major ports on the Sea of Azov are under Russian control.

Russia largely controls the access of Ukraine’s major river-way the Dnieper to and from the Black Sea  (see second map below: The Dnieper is in some regards a seaway.) The Dnieper is a major corridor of grain cargo transportation.

In the context of the Ukraine War, through their military deployments in Donetsk and Lugansk, Russian forces have  consolidated their control over the entire Sea of Azov basin.

The map below (June 2, 2022) indicates the areas of deployment and Russian control from the North of Lugansk (territories opposite Kharkov) to Kherson on the Dnieper.

Update, November 13, 2022

The map below describes the situation on November 11, 2022 following the strategic withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson, which is situated on the western coastline of the Dnieper River. The entrance of the Dnieper to the Black Sea remains “partially” controlled by Russia.

 

Flashback: The 2014 Treaty between Russia and Crimea

With the March 18, 2014 Treaty signed between Russia and Crimea, the Russian Federation has extended its control over the Black Sea as well as over the Sea of Azov.

Under the agreement between Russia and Crimea announced by president Putin in 2014, two “constituent regions” of Crimea joined the Russian Federation: the “Republic of Crimea” and the “City of Sevastopol”. Both have the status of “autonomous regions”. The status of Sevastopol as an autonomous entity separate from Crimea is related to the location of Russia’s Naval base in Sevastopol.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia retained its naval base in Sevastopol under a bilateral agreement with Ukraine. With the signing of the March 18th 2014 Treaty, that agreement became null and void. Sevastopol including the Russian naval base became part of an autonomous region within the Russian Federation. Prior to March 2014, the naval base was not within Ukraine under a lease agreement. Moreover, since 2014, Crimea’s territorial waters belong to the Russian Federation.

Following the union of Crimea to Russia, The Russian Federation now controls a much larger portion of the Black Sea, which includes the entire coastline of the Crimean peninsula. The Eastern part of Crimea –including the Kerch strait– are under Russia’s jurisdiction. On the Eastern side of the Kerch strait is Russia’s Krasnodar region and extending  southwards are the port cities of Novorossiysk and Sochi. 

The Geopolitics of  Oil and Gas Pipelines

Novorossiysk is also strategic. It is Russia’s largest commercial port on the Black Sea, at the cross-roads of major oil and gas pipelines between the Black Sea and the Caspian sea.

While the main strategic oil pipeline route is between Novorossiysk and Baku, there is a nexus of gas pipelines between Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkmenistan, linking up with China.

Prior to Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Putin signed “a wide-ranging agreement” with the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

Kerch Strait: History

Historically, the Kerch strait has played a strategic role. It constitutes a gateway from the Black Sea to Russia’s major waterways including the Don and the Volga.

During World War II, the Kerch peninsula was occupied by Nazi Germany (taken back by the Red Army) was an important point of transit by land and water.

In the coldest months of Winter, it became an ice bridge linking Crimea to the Krasnodar region.

The Kerch strait is about 5 kilometers in length and 4.5 km. wide at the narrowest point between the tip of Eastern Crimea and the peninsula of Taman. Kerch is a major commercial port linked to railway, ferry and river routes.

image right: Kerch strait, photo taken from Crimean side, (prior to the construction of the bridge) narrow width, aerial view of strait and Taman peninsula. 

The Sea of Azov: Geopolitical Hub

Of significance, as a result of the integration of Crimea into the Russian Federation in 2014 Moscow gained full control of the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The bilateral agreement between Russia and Ukraine governing the maritime route through the Kerch straights was scrapped.

The strait also constitutes an entry point into Russia’s major river waterways.

The Sea of Azov connects with the Don River and the Volga, through the Volga Don Canal. In turn, the Volga flows into the Caspian sea.

The Kerch strait is strategic.  The Kerch-Yenikalskiy Canal allows large (ocean) vessels to transit from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov.

As outlined above, the Kerch Strait links the Black Sea to the Volga via the sea of Azov and the Volga Don Canal which in turn connects to Saint Petersburg and the Baltic Sea. The Volga also connects to Moscow, via the Moscow river through the Volga-Moskva canal.

Note: The Caspian sea basin is in sense “landlocked”. It’s only access to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean is via the Volga. The same applies to its access to the Atlantic via the Baltic Sea, or via the White Sea, the Barents Sea and the Northeast Arctic Passage to the Pacific.

Strategic waterways. In Summary

  1. Caspian Sea- Volga, Volga-Don Canal, Don, – Sea of Azov -Black Sea, Mediterranean
  2. Black Sea- Sea of Azov -Don- Volga Don Canal -Volga -Volga-Moskva Canal, Moscow River, Moscow
  3. Black Sea- Sea of Azov -Don- Volga Don Canal -Volga -Neva, St Petersburg, Baltic Sea
  4. Caspian Sea, Volga, Neva, Svir, Onega Lake, White Sea Canal, North Sea and Northeast Arctic Passage

 

Volga-Don Canal

Russia-Ukraine Relations Regarding the Kerch Strait

In December 2013, Moscow signed a bilateral agreement with the Yanukovych government in Kiev pertaining to the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait, connecting Eastern Crimea (which was part of Ukraine) with Russia’s Krasnodar region.

That agreement was a followup to an initial agreement signed in April 2010 between the two governments.

The Russia-Ukraine 2013 agreement pertaining to the construction of the bridge had, for all purposes already been scrapped before March 16, 2014.

Image right: new Kerch bridge links Eastern Crimea (road and rail transportation) to  Russia’s Krasnodar region. (image right).

Crimea’s union to Russia was already in the pipeline prior to the referendum, it was a fait accompli.

Less than two weeks before the March 16 2014 Referendum, at the height of the crisis in Ukraine, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the state-road building corporation Avtodor, or “Russian Highways” “to create a subsidiary company that would oversee the building of a bridge across the Kerch Strait”.

This bridge is geared towards train transport routes linking Western and Eastern Europe to the Caspian Sea basin, Kazakhstan and China. It is therefore an integral part of the Eurasian Project (linking up with China’s Belt and Road initiative).  

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Prof. Michel Chossudovsky has recently released his eBook entitled The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity.

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

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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.”

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Video: 32 Young Doctors in Canada All Dead in 6 to 8 Weeks

November 13th, 2022 by North American News 01

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First published on September 7, 2022

Suggest you consult the updated report on the deaths of Canadian Doctors (November 14, 2022) (click below)

Video: 90 Sudden or Unexpected Canadian Doctor Deaths: Dr. William Markis Interview

By William Markis, November 13, 2022

 

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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.”

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

Price: $11.50 

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Attacco alle Chiese Ortodosse Russe in Ucraina

November 12th, 2022 by Manlio Dinucci

La rassegna stampa internazionale di Byoblu | 72° puntata

Il presidente ucraino Zelensky, recitando il copione scritto da Washington, annuncia come precondizione per l’apertura di un negoziato con la Russia che questa ripristini l’integrità territoriale dell’Ucraina, ossia rimetta nelle mani di Kiev la Crimea e il Donbass abitati da popolazioni russe, paghi a Kiev i danni di guerra e si sottoponga a un processo internazionale per crimini di guerra. Allo stesso tempo Washington, recitando il ruolo di mediatore di pace, dichiara di voler mantenere la porta aperta ai negoziati di pace, mentre continua ad alimentare la guerra con massicce forniture di armi a Kiev del valore, fino ad oggi, di 18 miliardi di dollari.

In Ucraina il capo della Chiesa ortodossa di Kiev, che ha rotto con il patriarcato di Mosca, dichiara che chi uccide i russi è perdonato e che Vladimir Putin è l’anticristo. Su questa base è in corso in tutta l’Ucraina un attacco alle chiese delle parrocchie ortodosse russe, rimaste collegate al Patriarcato di Mosca, effettuato da formazioni armate neonaziste che sfondano le porte delle chiese e picchiano i fedeli. Mentre tutto ciò è in corso in Ucraina, uno dei massimi esponenti neonazisti del battaglione Azov, presentato come eroe, è in tournée nelle scuole degli Stati Uniti e riceve premi internazionali.

Su questo sfondo si colloca l’intervista, effettuata a Mosca da Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti per conto di Grandangolo, a Olga Zinoviev, responsabile del Centro internazionale di ricerca e formazione Zinoviev all’Università Statale di Mosca, copresidente del Club Zinoviev.

Manlio Dinucci

The Folly of War, US Militarism Continues Apace

November 12th, 2022 by Shane Quinn

This incisive article by Shane Quinn was first published on July 27, 2020

**

The First World War showed plainly that the resort to armed conflict is the most devious and damaging of all policies. Even in the heart of militaristic Europe, the folly of war had long been noted by prominent and shrewd commanders, such as the Prussian General Hans von Seeckt, one of the most powerful men in Germany from the early 1920s. After taking a neutral stand in Berlin during the failed March 1920 Kapp Putsch, von Seeckt became head of the new German Army, the Reichswehr, and he was responsible for its reorganisation, tactics, training, etc.

Von Seeckt had devoted his life to military affairs and somebody, one can assume, would have represented the very embodiment of armed violence. However, by the early 1930s von Seeckt came to the opinion that “war, far from being a continuation of policy, had become rather the bankruptcy of policy”. Looking back, he drew some obvious conclusions from the bloodletting of the First World War, when he had been Chief of Staff to Field Marshal August von Mackensen. Von Seeckt’s concern was not so much of an ethical nature, but simply because he felt “war was no longer an intelligent way to conduct a nation’s policy”.

The military theorist and historian, Lt. Col. Donald J. Goodspeed, wrote how,

“General von Seeckt knew his subject thoroughly well. Far better, unfortunately, than did Corporal Hitler who was soon to assume command of Germany’s defence forces. Even before the invention of nuclear and thermo-nuclear weapons, war had become too dangerous and uncertain for responsible men to embark on willingly. If force was still to be used in national and international affairs, it was obvious to people like General von Seeckt that it would have to be in some other form than conventional war”.

Von Seeckt was supported previously in his misgivings about war by Vladimir Lenin, another astute observer and, like von Seeckt, hardly a soft touch. The Russian leader believed that fighting wars was “a survival from the bourgeois world” and “should be replaced by the class struggle and the seizure of power by the Communist minority”. Lenin expounded that military combat would have to be discarded once and for all.

By the 1920s and 1930s it was indeed clear that war, not only morally redundant, had also become too unpredictable and costly for rational heads of state to pursue. Sadly, there have not been too many of these in power since the early 20th century. A generation after Lenin and von Seeckt, stern trepidations regarding war were expressed by Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. These esteemed figures were a little late to the party with their forebodings in 1955, a decade into the nuclear age, when they stated, “Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”

Nevertheless their concerns remain entirely relevant, as humanity has done anything but renounce war. The realities of conflict have been disregarded; most frequently of all by the irresponsible leaders of the Western powers, principally America, the nation which has fought the most wars in living memory.

From the early 1950s Washington was centrally involved in the Korean War, through which its air force levelled great swathes of Korea and also destroyed dams. Subsequent to that came the invasion of Vietnam, initiated by president John F. Kennedy, then escalated from the mid-1960s to Laos and Cambodia by his successors Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

During the past three decades alone, the US has invaded other countries such as Panama, Iraq on two occasions, the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. Since the disappearance of the Soviet bloc, much of Washington’s focus has been on the Middle East, which may not be surprising considering this region holds almost 50% of the world’s known oil sources. The US strategy of military means in the Middle East is self-defeating, costly (most of all to the local inhabitants) and has contributed to America’s decline as a world power.

China on the other hand, mainly through its vastly ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has proceeded in its foreign ventures for the large part with due care, and through non-military actions; as Beijing attempts to overtake US power in the Middle East and surrounding territories. China’s Belt and Road policy is centred on financial investments, dialogue and mutual understanding, rather than intimidation by arms.

China is consequently the Middle East’s largest investor, and its trade there is increasing year-on-year. There are indications that Beijing’s influence in the Middle East and Persian Gulf will rise continually in the time ahead, and this will have significant repercussions for Washington. The Middle East’s leaders, wearied by war, terrorism and US drone strikes, have responded to Beijing’s financial plans “with open arms”. The Middle East already accounts for over 40% of China’s oil imports.

Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense, said in June 2003 that Iraq “floats on a sea of oil”, unlike North Korea as he pointed out. Yet in attacking an Iraq undermined by a decade of Western sanctions, the Bush administration and its oil industry bosses finished up with nothing. Worse was to come as the occupation pushed Iraq closer to its neighbour Iran – and Iraq’s biggest trading partner today is none other than Iran. Together, Iraq and Iran possess almost 20% of the planet’s oil reserves, so the scale of US decline in the Middle East becomes apparent.

Following the Iraq fiasco, Washington has turned much of its gaze towards its primary foe, China. Although the attempted military encirclement of China was enacted by Barack Obama, the level of US arms expenditure – already much larger than any other nation – has increased under Donald Trump as US-Chinese relations worsen. In February 2020 the US president said “we have invested a record-breaking $2.2 trillion in the United States military” including the purchase of “the finest planes, missiles, rockets, ships, and every other form of military equipment”.

Washington’s dependence on its strength of arms is a double-edged sword, as experienced generals like von Seeckt would surely have recognised. The US Army is a colossus with feet of clay, and this became clear with the inability to bend Iraq to its will, or Afghanistan. The threat of force once more involves ominous dangers, not only to China but to the United States. Both being nuclear powers, any war which descends to a nuclear one is unthinkable.

In recent weeks, heavily armed US destroyers have been advancing northwards closer to Beijing, along the East China Sea and Yellow Sea, within short distance too of Shanghai, China’s biggest port and most populous city. In mid-April 2020 an American guided-missile destroyer, the USS McCampbell, was spotted in the Yellow Sea less than 50 miles from the coastal city of Weihai, in Shandong province – and fewer than 500 miles from Beijing, with its 20 million residents. Two months ago another American destroyer, the USS Rafael Peralta, was seen early in the morning advancing to within 135 miles of Shanghai.

In greater frequency since 2018, US destroyers have also sailed through the Taiwan Strait beside China’s south-eastern coastline. The Beijing-based military analyst Zhou Chenming, perplexed with the thinking behind these actions, asked of the Americans, “Are they gathering intelligence to destroy China’s developed industrial regions along the east coast in the future? Are they showing their support for Taiwan’s separatist forces? Or are they preparing to fight a war with China?” Nor have these occurrences been limited to naval exercises. Since the start of this year, there have been dozens of American warplane flights over the South China Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

The US military patrols astride China’s shores may be in response to Beijing’s growing assertiveness, for instance in the South China Sea; which has changed in status from US-controlled channels to clearly contested waters. Beijing’s annual military spending has risen from almost $40 billion in 1999 to $266 billion by 2019, a near seven-fold increase. The latter figure is still a fraction that of the US arms outlay.

Washington’s encirclement strategy of China has notable limitations. A map of Asia reveals that China is overall far from surrounded. Northwards lies Russia, the world’s largest country. China is the Kremlin’s biggest trading partner, and investment between these neighbours is steadily increasing. Chinese-Russian bilateral trade rose from $69 billion in 2016 to $110 billion by 2019 and their respective leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, seem to have a warm relationship. Long forgotten is the era of the Sino-Soviet split. Dan Coats, Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence, said in early 2019, “China and Russia are more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s”.

In December 2019 the Sino-Russian relationship grew closer again, with the opening of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline; on which construction began seven years before and has cost $55 billion. This 1,800 mile long pipeline funnels natural gas from Siberia and southern Russia to north-eastern China. Plans are well advanced to begin assembling a second Power of Siberia pipeline, which would distribute further volumes of Russian gas to China, across nearby Mongolia.

Russia contains the largest gas reserves in the world by some distance, and Moscow has traditionally relied on Europe for its gas exports where US interference is rising. The Power of Siberia pipeline, which is to be extended in future, was laid across some formidable terrain such as swamp land and mountain passes. This feat of engineering may encourage Beijing to overcome its own challenging logistics, pertaining to the proposed Kashgar-Gwadar oil pipeline between China and Pakistan.

Through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a key element of the Belt and Road, China has been easily the largest investor in Pakistan for years. Pakistan is a strategically important country situated beside the Middle East and Strait of Hormuz. These areas are some of the most crucial on earth, and central to the Belt and Road’s development. It is hoped that the CPEC will spur industrial development across Pakistan.

China is neither hampered by US forces along its western frontiers – in resource rich Central Asia – after the Pentagon, six years ago, was removed from its last remaining Central Asian base in Kyrgyzstan. Had the US military been able to retain its presence at the Manas Air Base, near the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek, and less than 200 miles from China’s vital Xinjiang province, it would have stood as an obstacle to the Belt and Road’s expansion. The Americans were instead evicted from this important base in 2014 after a Kyrgyz parliament vote, news that was no doubt welcomed in Beijing. China has since moved in and become Kyrgyzstan’s largest trading partner.

Central Asia is a region where Chinese power has increased beyond all measure, and it is clear that Washington has underestimated Central Asia’s significance. In cooperation with Russia, China is the dominant force and biggest investor in Central Asia through which Chinese pipelines criss-cross, and the Belt and Road continues its construction.

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This article was originally published on Global Village Space.

Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

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***

Updated on November 20, 2022 at 10:14 AM ET.

On the outer edges of the World Wide Web, it isn’t difficult to find people making outlandish claims about ingredients contained in the mRNA and DNA forms of COVID-19 vaccines. As a science-based organization, while strongly disputing assertions that these injections are supposedly proven to be ‘safe’, our Foundation steers a strict course well clear of such speculation. A few days ago, however, an interesting article in the Australian edition of The Spectator, a mainstream British magazine focusing on politics, culture, and current affairs, came to our attention. Authored by journalist Rebecca Weisser, it describes how when examining droplets from the Pfizer mRNA vaccine under a dark-field microscope, Dr. David Nixon, a Brisbane GP, observed what appear to be mechanical arms assembling and disassembling glowing rectangular structures resembling circuitry and microchips. Captured on video, what Nixon filmed is certainly thought-provoking, to say the least.

As The Spectator article describes, the structures Nixon observed in the droplets of vaccine he examined seemed motionless at first. It was only when using time-lapse photography, condensing hours of footage into minutes, that the structures’ movement was revealed. Nixon says the formation of crystals in the droplets seems to be stimulated by electromagnetic radiation, and that this stops when the slide containing the vaccine is shielded by a Faraday bag (a container made from a conducting material that blocks external electromagnetic fields from reaching its interior). The Spectator article suggests Nixon’s findings are similar to those made by other teams from New Zealand, Germany, Spain, and South Korea.

Nixon has apparently shared what he saw with Wendy Hoy, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Chronic Disease at the University of Queensland in Australia. Recognized internationally for her multidisciplinary research and work in kidney and related chronic disease, Hoy has reportedly called on the Australian government and its health authorities to explain the apparent spontaneous formation of chips and circuitry in mRNA vaccines, and the abnormal objects that are claimed to have been seen in the blood of vaccinated people. It will be interesting to see what response she gets.

Mounting controversy

Nixon’s findings seemingly heap still further controversy on the mRNA and DNA forms of vaccines used against COVID-19. Serious side effects now attributed to the injections include severe liver damage; very low platelet counts (thrombocytopenia); high rates of severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis); inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis); blood clots (thrombosis); and even death. With analysis by British Medical Journal senior editor Peter Doshi and colleagues showing the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are statistically more likely to cause serious adverse events than they are to prevent hospitalization, it is long since time that their use should have been suspended.

Do Nixon’s bizarre videos really show mechanical arms assembling and disassembling circuitry and microchips? Frankly, without further evidence, it is impossible to say for sure. But whatever the structures filmed by Nixon are, one thing seems for sure in that the controversy surrounding mRNA- and DNA-based COVID-19 vaccines is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

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Executive Director of the Dr. Rath Health Foundation and one of the coauthors of our explosive book, “The Nazi Roots of the ‘Brussels EU’”, Paul is also our expert on the Codex Alimentarius Commission and has had eye-witness experience, as an official observer delegate, at its meetings. You can find Paul on Twitter at @paulanthtaylor

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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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.”

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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For the past two and a half years humanity has been in the grip of a global psychological and economic war. Unlike the two world wars of the twentieth century, which mainly affected the belligerent nations and their neighboring countries, the corona crisis is truly global in scope. No matter where one resides on this planet, one cannot escape either the economic or mental health implications of this crisis.

In The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Michel Chossudovsky succinctly and methodically pierces through the numerous layers of lies surrounding the “pandemic.”

From his thorough analysis the reader comes to understand that nothing about the crisis, including its origins, occurred by chance but was purposefully designed to be a war against humanity. As he points out, every aspect of this war—from the fear campaign to the fraudulent use of the RT-PCR test to the experimental injections masquerading as vaccines to the Great Reset with its proto-eugenical agenda—has been carefully orchestrated.

While most economists, including those considered to be on the political left, continue to blame COVID-19 for the destabilization of the global economy, 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. Chossudovsky’s matter-of-fact approach reveals in no uncertain terms who and what organizations are behind the manufactured COVID-19 crisis.

This meticulously researched chronicle is a must-read for anyone wanting to truly understand world events of the past two-and-a-half years.

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David Skripac has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aerospace Engineering. He served as a Captain in the Canadian Forces for nine years. During his two tours of duty in the Air Force, he flew extensively in the former Yugoslavia as well as in Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Djibouti.

He is the author of a recently published e-book, “Our Species Is Being Genetically Modified,” and a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is by fernando zhiminaicela from Pixabay


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

***

As a means to reaching out to millions of people worldwide whose lives have been affected by the corona crisis, we have decided in the course of the next few weeks to distribute the eBook for FREE.

Price: $11.50. FREE COPY Click here to download.

 

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Incisive study by Shane Quinn first published on June 6, 2019

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By 1961 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, a group of senior military figures advising the president, had concluded that proposed nuclear attacks across China, the USSR and Warsaw Pact allies would result in over half a billion deaths. Approximately 600 million fatalities.

Yet the Joint Chiefs of Staff, deliberately or subconsciously, were compiling an estimate that was not a complete reflection of reality. The true death toll would have soared towards one billion, quite likely even passing that number and reaching about 1.2 billion dead, double the original calculation.

In 1961, the USSR possessed almost 2,500 nuclear weapons, and had long since developed the far more powerful hydrogen bombs; though at this time, unknown to almost everybody but the Soviet leadership, Moscow held ownership of just four intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of hitting the US mainland with nuclear warheads. The US military then had 170 such long distance missiles in their arsenal.

However, American intelligence had grossly underestimated the number of Soviet nuclear-armed, mid-length missiles and bombers, which were within comfortable striking distance of every NATO state across Europe. The Kremlin had many hundreds of intermediate and medium-range ballistic missiles, along with jet aircraft, primed in responding to a US first strike upon Soviet soil. Even a full force American nuclear attack had the means to take out a mere fraction of the USSR’s ability in retaliating through its own nuclear capabilities.

In riposte to a US first strike, a significant proportion of the Soviets’ surviving nuclear devices would be fired at most, or all, of the following NATO countries: West Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Turkey – each of which would face annihilation, either from precision hits through Soviet warheads, or via radioactive fallout dispersed on the wind.

By the early 1960s, there were more than 4,000 US nuclear weapons positioned in the above European NATO states, something that Moscow was aware of due to continuous intelligence reports.

It may be important to note that Britain – which first tested an atomic weapon in October 1952 – agreed to take more powerful US nuclear bombs on its territory from September 1954. This “nuclear sharing” policy was far from limited to the UK.

Britain was thereafter copied by the following NATO members, all of which became de facto nuclear powers from these dates, when they accepted US nuclear weapons upon their soil: West Germany in March 1955, Italy in April 1957, France in August 1958, Turkey in February 1959, the Netherlands in April 1960, Greece in October 1960, and lastly Belgium in November 1963.

In an event of nuclear conflict between our planet’s superpowers, the list of countries to face extinction would not be limited to militarized nations. Britain, a key NATO and nuclear power, constituted particularly high priority scope in Soviet and later Russian nuclear war planning. Kremlin reprisal strikes over the UK would most probably have resulted in extensive fallout spreading westwards over neutral Ireland, with less than 400 miles distance between London and Dublin.

Finland was expected to be one of the first to face destruction following US nuclear attacks on Leningrad and her submarine pens.

This radioactive poisoning was anticipated to fan out across neighbouring Sweden, destroying this separate neutral country. NATO state Norway, to the west of Sweden, could also expect wide-scale ruin due to enlarging fallout.

Switzerland, a secretive nation bordering France and Germany, was directly in harm’s way and because of nearby fallout that country would have faced desolation. Likewise neutral Austria, which shared frontiers with Germany and Warsaw Pact states like Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

From 1960, American military plans were formulating to wipe all of the USSR’s Warsaw Pact allies off the face of the earth. This included not merely Czechoslovakia and Hungary but also East Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. In 1960, the population of Warsaw Pact countries (minus the USSR) comprised of 93 million people.

As the plans were developing General Thomas Power, the 55-year-old chief of Strategic Air Command, said in December 1960 that,

“I just hope none of you have any relatives in Albania, because they have a radar station there that is right in our flight path, and we take it out”.

Albania was to be obliterated early, with others to quickly follow. The Warsaw Pact’s destruction with nuclear attacks would, in addition, result in radiation reaching southwards over NATO states Greece and Turkey. These two countries, sharing borders with Warsaw Pact rivals, were likely to face devastation regardless; as Moscow responded to US first strikes with assaults of their own against NATO members and de facto nuclear powers, that were holding American warheads pointed towards Russia.

Furthermore, Tito’s Yugoslavia, also bordering various Warsaw Pact states, would face eradication following close-range fallout from US ground-burst nuclear explosions.

Virtually the whole of the European continent would have been decimated – either from direct hits or through the devastating aftermath – had Pentagon nuclear programs undergone execution as envisaged by its commanders. This included all of Washington’s NATO allies in western and southern Europe.

Come 1961, every urban area in the USSR containing 25,000 people or more was earmarked to be struck with a nuclear warhead.

To put the scale of these plans into perspective, the Soviet Union was a landmass greater in size than both America and Canada put together. Russia by itself is easily the biggest country in the world; but the USSR consisted of another 14 nations spanning thousands of miles across eastern Europe and Central Asia, from Estonia and the Ukraine to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

It was possible for the Pentagon with its new long-range, jet-powered bombers to strike each urban centre in the USSR. In 1961, Washington’s nuclear cargo had climbed to 22,200 bombs, a significant rise from the 18,600 such weapons in 1960. The Kremlin held an aforementioned 2,470 nuclear bombs in 1961, just over a tenth the size of Washington’s arsenal.

A 1959 Soviet census revealed that the USSR was home to almost 210 million people. Large-scale nuclear attacks would have killed off the vast majority of Soviet citizens – again from either the direct impact of scores of cities being razed to the ground, or from fallout spreading far and wide.

Primarily due to budgetary purposes the scheme for conflict with Soviet Russia, as outlined by outgoing president Dwight D. Eisenhower, was for direct escalation to first strikes with nuclear weapons. Conventional or “limited warfare” would be bypassed.

Eisenhower was aware of Pentagon death estimates regarding hundreds of millions of fatalities, but though understandably appalled he accepted the proposals, as too did his fresh-faced successor John F. Kennedy.

Communist China, the fourth largest country in the world, was to be attacked in synchronization with the Soviet Union. After 1950, this stratagem became firmly embedded in US nuclear conflict designs, and war planners were loathed to alter it. General Power himself, when asked at a conference in December 1960 if the Chinese could be spared, dismissed the suggestion when he said,

“I hope nobody thinks of it because it would really screw up the plan”.

In 1961, the US military had over 1,000 jet fighters positioned within striking range of the great USSR and Chinese land spaces; while further hundreds of jets could promptly be called upon if required. The planes were stationed in airfields like those at Kunsan in South Korea and Kadena in Japan, while many more were placed on aircraft carriers surrounding the Sino-Soviet bloc. Other US jets were located at American bases such as in West Germany.

Many of America’s B-47, B-52 and B-58 aircraft were armed with hydrogen bombs, containing an explosive force ranging from five to 25 megatons.

The latter figure, 25 megatons, equates to 25,000 kilotons of explosive power. By comparison, the Nagasaki bomb consisted of 21 kilotons. In this case, the most destructive hydrogen bombs were well over 1,000 times more powerful than the weapon which brought ruin to Nagasaki.

By 1962, Washington held about 500 of these 25 megaton mammoths. One 25 megaton weapon contained within it more firepower than all of the bombs and shells dropped throughout the combined wars in human history.

Elsewhere, China’s population in 1961 comprised 660 million people, dwarfing the Soviet populace. In late 1960, a US military briefing calculated that proposed nuclear attacks against China, along with ensuing fallout, would kill around 300 million people.

Pentagon war plans also entailed hitting every Chinese city. China was less than half the USSR’s size, and so could be attacked en masse more rapidly, with the inevitable fallout not having as large a distance to travel. A true death toll in China was most likely closer to 600 million. China was already under threat, as from January 1958 US nuclear-armed missiles were being stockpiled on the island of Taiwan, less than 200 miles from China’s eastern coast. These Matador cruise missiles were within range of big metropolitan areas like Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Blowing up hundreds of Chinese and Soviet cities would have grave consequences for many other Asian states. The most notable of these was India, which shares a border with China to the north, and was home to over 450 million people in the early 1960s. Following nuclear attacks throughout China, radioactive material was anticipated to move southwards over India, killing untold more millions.

Afghanistan, sharing frontiers with China and the USSR, would face large-scale ruin from enveloping fallout – while neighbouring Pakistan, bordering China and India, could expect its fair share of radioactive substance. Further Asian countries resting upon China’s boundary to the south may likely have experienced widespread radiation, such as Nepal, Bhutan, Burma (Myanmar), Laos and Vietnam, five nations with a combined population of 65 million in 1960.

Significantly, the USSR’s broad military apparatus would also have responded to US nuclear attacks upon her soil, emanating from the western superpower’s air bases in Japan, South Korea, Guam, etc. In 1961, Okinawa alone was hosting almost 800 American nuclear bombs, while the nation of South Korea had about 600 such weapons. Guam, a tiny island in the western Pacific, was at the time holding 300 US nuclear warheads.

As relating to Europe, the Soviets had growing numbers of medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and bombers focused on US military bases in the Pacific region – a reality further escaping the attention of American intelligence services.

US first strikes, this time on the southern and eastern USSR, cannot have been remotely sufficient in eliminating a major Russian nuclear reply against US allies like South Korea and Japan. Both these latter countries would have been blown into dust during a nuclear war. As a consequence, North Korea could have faced destruction due to close-in fallout expanding quickly from the devastated South Korean capital Seoul.

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Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.


Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War” 

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-5-3
Year: 2012
Pages: 102
Print Edition: $10.25 (+ shipping and handling)
PDF Edition:  $6.50 (sent directly to your email account!)

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

Reviews

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

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

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

WWIII Scenario

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***

The same swing states where the last presidential election was stolen are again showing the mysterious sharp upward readjustment of the vote count for Democrat candidates.  In Arizona where election day vote counting is on hold, mysterious tranches of votes keep arriving days after the election for the Democrat candidate for governor–17,000 here, 5,000 there.  Tucker Carlson asked who benefits from long delays in vote counting.  He investigated and reported that a Democrat won in 12 out of 13 delays in arriving at the outcome.

Here is a report showing the same spikes in votes for Democrats in last Tuesday’s election that we saw in the stolen presidential election.  These spikes don’t happen for Republicans except when computer adjustments of the margins of victory for Democrats become too large to be believable.  Then there is a spike in the red vote to eliminate the unbelievable margin of Democrat victory. See this. 

The fact of the matter is that power, not democracy, is the Democrats’ goal.  Their goal of revolutionizing society and over-riding parental authority, the traditional family, and Constitutional rights such as the First and Second Amendments leaves no room for self-government by the people.  The American people are being coerced into the revolution by the education system that is used to indoctrinate children and by “crises,” such as the “war on terror” and “covid pandemic,” that are used to vitiate the US Constitution. 

The revolution is gradual but steady.  Younger generations are born into “the new normality” and think that all that is being erased is “white racism” and an unfounded belief that some sexual preferences are perverse.

Every week that passes brings new restraints on liberty.  We have reached the point where challenges to official narratives are censored and MAGA Republicans are fired and refused jobs by a new generation of Woke business executives. 

The FBI and Department of Justice (sic) are politicized and used with impunity as weapons in the hands of Democrats.

And still Americans vote for Democrats?   

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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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How the FDA and CDC Are Hiding COVID Jab Dangers

November 11th, 2022 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has publicly warned that COVID is one of the Top 10 causes of death in children aged 5 to 11, yet when asked to produce the data, they admitted they never conducted an analysis for that age group

The CDC has also lied about Pfizer’s study results. While claiming the Pfizer jab was 92% effective for those with previous COVID infection, the actual trial data found NO evidence of efficacy in those with previous infection

In July 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration quietly disclosed finding an increase in four types of serious adverse events in elderly people who received Pfizer’s COVID jab: acute myocardial infarction, disseminated intravascular coagulation, immune thrombocytopenia, and pulmonary embolism. However, more than a year later, that study still has not been published

The FDA is also hiding other studies. Buried inside a study protocol, the FDA discusses findings from an unpublished “cohort study of the third dose safety in the Medicare population where historical controls were used.” In that Medicare study the FDA found a significant risk for immune thrombocytopenia and acute myocardial infarction among those with prior COVID-19 diagnosis, as well as an increased risk of Bell’s palsy and pulmonary embolism in general

Analysis of the CDC’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Reports (MMWR) reveals the CDC is systematically (and automatically) hiding jab-related deaths, particularly in categories like cancer, cardiac deaths and strokes, to make the shots appear unrelated to excess deaths

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention jointly run and, allegedly, monitor the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) for safety signals.

Both agencies have been blatantly derelict in their duties in this regard, as the safety signals in VAERS have been screaming for attention since the first quarter of 2021. Yet both the FDA and CDC claim they’ve found nothing of concern. Nothing at all.

They’re so unconcerned they even added the COVID jabs to the childhood vaccination schedule, with the first jab series to be given to toddlers and babies as young as 6 months. Meanwhile, data from around the world, including data in VAERS,1 V-Safe and the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED), suggest these shots are the deadliest in the history of vaccines. No other product comes even close.

CDC Invents Facts to Drive a Narrative

In the video above, Megyn Kelly interviews Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the difficulty in determining how many lives may have been saved by the COVID shots, versus how many lives have been lost because of them, and highlights some of the outright false statements issued by the CDC.

For example, the CDC has publicly warned that COVID is one of the Top 10 causes of death in children aged 5 to 11, yet when asked to produce the data, they admitted they never conducted an analysis for that age group.

So how did they conclude that COVID is a top cause of death in an age group they’ve never analyzed mortality data for? The rational conclusion is that they just made it up.

As noted by Kennedy, the CDC is also discouraging autopsies of people who die post-jab, and they’re engaging in a whole host of other obfuscation tactics that make good data hard to come by, and this has been going on since the very beginning of the pandemic.

FDA Is Withholding Crucial Study Findings

The FDA is also guilty of massive data obfuscation. In a recent BMJ article,2 investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi discusses the FDA’s failure to follow up on and release data showing an increase in serious adverse events in elderly individuals who received the Pfizer shot:

“In July 2021 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly disclosed findings of a potential increase in four types of serious adverse events in elderly people who had had Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine: acute myocardial infarction, disseminated intravascular coagulation, immune thrombocytopenia, and pulmonary embolism.

Little detail was provided, such as the magnitude of the increased potential risk, and no press release or other alert was sent to doctors or the public. The FDA promised it would ‘share further updates and information with the public as they become available.’

Eighteen days later, the FDA published a study planning document (or protocol) outlining a follow-up epidemiological study intended to investigate the matter more thoroughly.

This recondite technical document disclosed the unadjusted relative risk ratio estimates originally found for the four serious adverse events, which ranged from 42% to 91% increased risk. (Neither absolute risk increases nor confidence intervals were provided.)

More than a year later, however, the status and results of the follow-up study are unknown. The agency has not published a press release, or notified doctors, or published the findings by preprint or the scientific literature or updated the vaccine’s product label.

The BMJ has also learnt that the FDA has not publicly warned of similar signals detected in a separate observational cohort study3 it conducted of the third dose (first booster dose) in the elderly …

[Nor] has the agency publicly acknowledged other published observational studies or clinical trial reanalyses reporting compatible results. Experts spoke to The BMJ about their concerns about the data and have called on the FDA to notify the public immediately.”

Serious Side Effects in Seniors Are Being Hidden

As explained by Demasi,4 the July 2021 findings came from a surveillance system called Rapid Cycle Analysis (RCA), which provides “near real-time” monitoring of 14 “adverse events of special interest.” Like VAERS and other surveillance tools, the RCA cannot establish causality, but unlike the others, its strength lies in detecting potential safety signals more rapidly.

The FDA’s protocol document for the planned follow-up study indicates that a manuscript of the original RCA study is being prepared, but more than a year later, neither the original RCA study nor the follow-up study have been published. Why?

The FDA is also hiding other studies. Buried inside yet another study protocol, the FDA discusses findings from “a cohort study of the third dose safety in the Medicare population where historical controls were used.” In that Medicare study, the FDA found:

“… a statistically significant risk for immune thrombocytopenia (incidence rate ratio 1.66, confidence interval 1.17 to 2.29) and acute myocardial infarction (IRR 1.15, CI 1.02 to 1.29) among people with prior COVID-19 diagnosis as well as an increased risk of Bell’s palsy (IRR 1.11, CI 1.03 to 1.19) and pulmonary embolism (IRR 1.05, CI 1.0001 to 1.100) in general.”

Why were those results buried in a study protocol and never published or announced to the public? As noted by Dr. Joseph Fraiman, an emergency medicine physician in New Orleans, “If the FDA is stating publicly that they’re collecting [data], then they should be publicly reporting it. They shouldn’t be burying the results in protocols as they’ve done.”5

Dutch epidemiologist and president of the International Society of Drug Bulletins, Dick Bijl, agrees, telling Demasi that any warning signals found in July 2021 “should have been analyzed and published within months.”

Reanalysis of Trial Data Confirms Safety Problems

Fraiman is particularly concerned as his team recently reanalyzed data from the Pfizer and Moderna Phase 3 trials, finding results that match those that the FDA are now hiding.

Their reanalysis,6 which focused on serious adverse events highlighted in a World Health Organization-endorsed ‘priority list7 of potential adverse events relevant to the COVID-19 shots, found Pfizer’s shot was associated with an increased risk of serious adverse events at a rate of 10.1 events per 10,000. The rate for Moderna’s jab was 15.1 events per 10,000.

Fraiman’s analysis stressed that this level of risk for a post-injection event was significantly greater than the risk reduction for COVID-related hospitalization found in both trials, which was only 2.3 per 10,000 participants in the Pfizer trial and 6.4 per 10,000 in the Moderna trial.

In short, the shots are far more likely to land you in the hospital than COVID-19 itself. For every 800 jab recipients, one person will suffer a serious injury. Meanwhile, some 5,000 must get the Pfizer jab to prevent a single COVID hospitalization. This is what risk-benefit analysis is all about — comparing and weighing the benefit against the risk — and in this case, the jab clearly does more harm than good.

Scandinavian Study Confirms Cardiovascular Risks

Demasi also cites an observational study8 from Denmark, Finland and Norway, which found “statistically significant increases in thromboembolic and thrombocytopenic outcomes following both Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines.” As reported by the authors:

“In the 28-day period following vaccination, there was an increased rate of coronary artery disease following mRNA-1273 [Moderna] vaccination: RR, 1.13 … There was an observed increased rate of coagulation disorders following all 3 vaccines (AZD1222 [AstraZeneca]: RR, 2.01]; BNT162b2 [Pfizer]: RR, 1.12; and mRNA-1273: RR, 1.26) …

There was also an observed increased rate of cerebrovascular disease following all 3 vaccines (AZD1222: RR, 1.32; BNT162b2: RR, 1.09; and mRNA-1273: RR, 1.21 …

For individual diseases within the main outcomes, 2 notably high rates were observed: 12.04 for cerebral venous thrombosis and 4.29 for thrombocytopenia, corresponding to 1.6 and 4.9 excess events per 100 000 doses, respectively, following AZD1222 vaccination.”

Christine Stabell Benn, a vaccinologist and professor in global health at the University of Southern Denmark told Demasi:9

“The safety signal seems to be gathering around cardiovascular and cerebral vascular events, things to do with circulation and our larger organs, and these are the same signals that appear to be popping up in the FDA surveillance data as well …

It seems to me that doctors have a much higher tolerance for COVID vaccine side effects because there’s been this sense that if you don’t take the vaccine, you die. Obviously, that is completely the wrong way to think about it.

We don’t want to create a lot of unnecessary anxiety and we can’t say there is now proof that the vaccines cause these events because the data are of poor quality, but we can say there is a danger signal, and the medical profession needs to be alerted to this.”

Jab Makers Intentionally Botched Trials

The primary reason for why the data is of “poor quality” is the fact that the COVID shots “were not tested properly” from the start, Stabell Benn notes. The control groups were eliminated by giving them the real shots a few months into the Phase 3 trials, which makes it near-impossible to evaluate long-term side effects — problems that might arise many months or years later. This seems to have been done intentionally, for that very reason.

Without a proper control group, any and all side effects can be written off as normal, as there’s no documented unjabbed group to compare with. Many of us did not get the jab, but there are no data about us (our health status and so forth) in the trial, so true comparisons become problematic.

Are Data Withheld to Prevent Establishment of Causation?

Earlier this year, the CDC admitted it was deliberately withholding data for fear they may be “misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective” and/or be misconstrued as confirming causation.10 This is not how real science should be conducted.

To ever reach the conclusion that the shots are causing injury, data are needed, and lots of it. By withholding crucial data, the CDC is effectively preventing that conclusion from being reached. Its excuse so far has been that there are “no data” to indicate there’s a problem. Meanwhile, they’re sitting on data that indicate just that!

CDC Lied About Pfizer Study Results

In addition to hiding data, the CDC has also lied about trial results. As noted in an October 31, 2022, tweet from Rep. Thomas Massie:11

“Pfizer’s original vaccine trial, which contained 1,200 participants with evidence of prior infection, showed no benefit from their shots for those who had evidence of prior infection. CDC lied, said study showed it was 92% efficacious for those w/ evidence of prior infection.”

study C4591001 subgroup analyses

Massie — a Republican Congressman for Kentucky and an award-winning scientist — initially revealed the CDC’s error in January 2021, after having tried, in vain, to get the CDC to correct it. I detailed Massie’s efforts in “Why Do Public Health Agencies Reject Natural Immunity?” At the time, Massie said:12,13

“There is no efficacy demonstrated in the Pfizer trial among participants with evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infections and actually there’s no proof in the Moderna trial either … It [the CDC report] says the exact opposite of what the data says.”

Latest COVID Variant Favors the Jabbed 3 to 1

In related news, October 25, 2022, the Ethical Skeptic — a data analyst and fraud investigator — tweeted14 out a graphic showing the latest COVID variant, dubbed BQ, is infecting the jabbed at a rate of 3-to-1 compared to the unjabbed. It also appears to favor those who got jabbed more recently.

COVID-19 case by variant and testing positivity trends dashboard

CDC Has Automated Data Falsification

A day earlier The Ethical Skeptic posted the second installment15 of his “Houston, the CDC Has a Problem” series, in which he details how the CDC is systematically manipulating the data to hide signs of COVID jab dangers.

Using data from the CDC’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Reports (MMWR), he shows how the CDC hides and deletes excess jab-related deaths, particularly in categories like cancer, cardiac deaths and strokes. In June 2022, the CDC temporarily paused its MMWR reporting to perform a “system upgrade.” That lasted two months.

When it came back online, large numbers of deaths jab-related categories had been moved, either into the COVID death category or a “holding” category for undetermined deaths, thereby making it appear as though deaths from cancer, heart attacks and strokes are far lower than they are. This gaming of the algorithm appears to have been automated as of that system update. Here’s an excerpt from Part 2, in which The Ethical Skeptic summarizes his findings:16

“The principal concerns with regard to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ‘Weekly Provisional Counts of Deaths by State and Select Causes’17 and ‘Wonder: Provisional Mortality Statistics’18 are that the reports have begun to exhibit two primary apparent goals on the part of the CDC and its agency:

  • concealing excess deaths potentially caused by the mRNA vaccines, and
  • attempting to make mRNA vaccines falsely appear as uber-effective in saving lives.

Please note that we will not resolve an answer to either of these issues in this article, rather herein we will only outline the efforts in disinformation, misinformation, and deception on the part of the CDC which are foisted in an attempt to achieve both goals. Accordingly, four key issues are entailed inside this two-sided-coin deception:

1. The National Vital Statistics System Upgrade (hereinafter referred to as the ‘NVSS System Upgrade’) afforded the CDC a timeframe inside which it could alter 22 weeks of NCHS-MMWR data.

During this window of opportunity the CDC surreptitiously removed excess death records from its database, and adjusted the policies and techniques as to how ICD-10 mortality codes were populated with state death certificate data thereafter.

We outline herein that a new policy was enacted during the NVSS System Upgrade break, one which centered around two categorical gaming practices. The CDC is employing categorical gaming techniques to conceal dramatic Excess Non-COVID Natural Cause Mortality.

If these excess deaths are not COVID deaths and are not vaccine related, as is commonly claimed through appeals to authority, credential, and ignorance, then there should also be no reason to conceal their associated records. Yet, that is exactly what is occurring.

2. Excess Cancer Mortality is being concealed through Cancer Multiple Cause of Death (hereinafter referred to as ‘MCoD’) categorical reassignment to COVID-19 Underlying Cause of Death (hereinafter referred to as ‘UCoD’).

3. Sudden Adult Deaths are being concealed by holding Pericarditis-Myocarditis-Conductive heart related deaths inside the R00-R99 temporary disposition bucket, far longer than per historical practice, thereby falsely depleting the associated ICD-10 mortality trend for these related deaths.

Finally, the CDC is using the exact opposite technique, exploiting Multiple Cause of Death attributions and adding in completely fictitious deaths as well, in order to make its mRNA vaccines appear to be performing better than they are.

4. The CDC is using Multiple Cause of Death categorical gaming, and is creating novel death counts, in order to counterfeit an appearance that the unvaccinated are dying at a rate 12 times that of the vaccinated.”

22-Sigma Increase in Cardiac Deaths

The article contains loads of charts and graphs and extra details for those who want to dig in. But in summary, the analysis performed by The Ethical Skeptic raises serious questions about the CDC’s handling of mortality data, as it appears to be manipulating statistics specifically for the purpose of hiding post-jab deaths.

On the upside, The Ethical Skeptic believes the CDC’s mirage will soon fall apart, as the data is already starting to get misaligned to the point that fraud is self-evident.

For example, since the system upgrade, 25% of all weekly COVID deaths just so happen to also be dying of cancer. “Such constitutes an impossibility in this important mortality account ledger, one which is analogous to the same species of mistake an embezzler might make,” he writes.

Similarly, the temporary “holding” bucket has grown by 70% since the introduction of the COVID shots, and the CDC is simply leaving them there. At present, there are 35,600 pericarditis, myocarditis and conductive disorder deaths that remain unaccounted for in U.S. cardiac mortality statistics.

If just 18% of these deaths were properly coded back into their heart-related deaths, there would be a 22-sigma increase in cardiac mortality. Based on the CDC’s data, having properly recategorized the miscategorized deaths, The Ethical Skeptic estimates there are now 385,000 excess deaths related to the jabs.

Justice for Vaccine Victims Act

Marjorie Taylor Greene, House representative for Georgia’s 14th Congressional district, recently introduced HR 7308, the Justice for Vaccine Victims Act of 2022, which would require an investigation into COVID jab injuries reported to VAERS to be completed within three months of the bill’s enactment.

The bill would also remove liability protections “that apply to the administration or use of certain medical countermeasures (e.g., vaccines) during the public health emergency.”19

Last but not least, November 1, 2022, Judicial Watch announced20 it is suing the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) for all of its safety studies relating to vaccines and gene therapies to treat or prevent COVID.

All in all, it seems the wheels are coming off the COVID jab bus. Sparks are already flying. The FDA and CDC could have saved themselves by coming clean a few months into the COVID jab scam. At this point, there’s no way to save face, let alone anyone’s career. Both agencies are doomed, as are their leadership.

*

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Notes

1 OpenVAERS

2, 4, 5, 9, 10 The BMJ 2022; 379: o2527

3 FDA CBER Surveillance Program August 31, 2022

6 Vaccines September 22, 2022; 40(40): 5798-5805

7 SPEAC October 26, 2021

8 JAMA Network Open June 1, 2022; 5(6): e2217375

11 Twitter Thomas Massie October 31, 2022

12 Full Measure After Hours Podcast January 30, 2021

13 Full Measure News January 31, 2021

14 Twitter Ethical Skeptic October 25, 2022

15, 16 The Ethical Skeptic, Houston, the CDC Has a Problem Part 2

17 Weekly Provisional Counts of Deaths by State and Select Causes

18 Wonder: Provisional Mortality Statistics

19 Coffee & COVID November 3, 2022

20 Judicial Watch November 1, 2022


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

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

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***

The US Department of Homeland Security (HSA) is conducting medical censorship while hiding in plain sight.  The website for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has resources to engage vigilante “disinformation” police to assist HSA in their mission of silencing opinions on COVID-19 and pandemic response. 

The main stated target is disinformation defined as information deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country.  Their toolkit allows any user to use “products” and tailor them with official logos to spread the government propagandized message:[i]

“COVID-19 DISINFORMATION TOOLKIT

These Toolkit resources are designed to help State, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) officials bring awareness to misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories appearing online related to COVID-19’s origin, scale, government response, prevention and treatment. Each product was designed to be tailored with local government websites and logos.

Download and share these resources—talking points, FAQs, outreach graphics, and posters—to help spread awareness.”

The toolkit directs well-intended users to use images, talking points, and documents to deliver a message.  There is only ONE source of trusted information—you guessed it—state and local agencies who rely upon the CDC!

So, the picture is becoming more clear on how the US government operationalized a propaganda campaign on its own people from the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.

They took these steps:

1) establish a single source of truth—the CDC,

2) weaponize CISA to declare “disinformation” their target,

3) enlist a legion of volunteer deputies without any official authority or accountability to operate within social media and all walks of life, giving public service messages telling Americans the CDC is the only trusted source of information.

The converse of this assertion–anything else must be considered untrue and up for being nailed as “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or “malinformation.”  Don’t be surprised if FOIA-obtained documents demonstrate CISA and CDC were operating as partners in established campaigns with social media, mainstream television, print media, corporations, schools, and every aspect of life.  Nothing can be more dangerous to public health.  Directing all trust to a single source of medical information that is not contemporary, has no regular schedule of review or public briefings, is not transparent with data (e.g., the withheld V-Safe dataset), and has woefully lagged on major scientific developments (contagion control, testing, vaccine safety).  It’s a mind-blowing reality that our government agencies, in a planned and coordinated manner, have operationalized a plan to control information and spread propaganda in order to influence behavior. They pitted agencies against citizens and individuals against one another and set social media as the main battleground.  The CDC and DHS CISA should be prime targets of US Senate and Congressional Investigations into our disastrous pandemic response.

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Note

[i] DHS CISA Publication: “We’re in This Together. Disinformation Stops With You.”

Featured image is from Red Voice Media


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

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

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

In April 2023, Dr. Hassan Diab will face an unfair trial in France for a crime he did not commit. This is despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence. All the so-called “evidence” that was presented by France to justify Hassan Diab’s extradition in 2014 has been withdrawn, discredited, or rejected. France has offered NO new evidence against Hassan. On the contrary, the alibi evidence, proving that Hassan was not in France at the time of the 1980 Paris bombing, has proven unshakable.

We are marking the 8th anniversary of Hassan’s extradition with a series of public actions. These include a rally at the Human Rights Monument in Ottawa on November 13, a press conference on November 14, and a petition to be delivered to PM Trudeau.

1. Join the Rally in Ottawa on Sunday November 13 

Please join the rally in Ottawa on Sunday November 13, at 1:00 pm ET, demanding that the Canadian Government protect Hassan Diab from further injustice, stop the relentless persecution he is facing, and refuse any future request for Hassan’s extradition.

  • What: Rally Demanding that the Canadian Government Protect Hassan Diab from Further Injustice
  • When: Sunday November 13, 2022, at 1:00 pm ET
  • Where: At the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument, 220 Elgin St, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Matthew Behrens (Social justice advocate; coordinator of the Homes not Bombs non-violent direct action network) will be MC.

Speakers will include:

  • Rev. Eric Meter (First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa)
  • Eric Schiller (Retired Professor from the University of Ottawa, human rights advocate, and member of the Quakers in Ottawa)
  • Susan Spronk (Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Board Member, Associate Professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies at Ottawa University)
  • Michelle Weinroth (Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Writer)
  • Students from Professor Deborah Conners’ class, Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University

Also, statements will be read from:

  • Don Davies (NDP Member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway since 2008)
  • Diana Ralph (Member and learning coordinator of Or Haneshamah Synagogue and co-cofounder of Independent Jewish Voices)

The Ottawa Raging Grannies will sing.

2. Attend the Press Conference (Zoom) on Monday November 14

Join the press conference on Hassan’s situation and the urgent need for the Canadian government to protect Hassan from any future request for his extradition to France.

  • What: Press Conference on Hassan Diab
  • When: Monday November 14, 2022, at 10:00 am ET
  • Where: Online (Zoom)

The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) will carry a livestream of the press conference on their Facebook page.

Speakers include:

  • Don Bayne (Hassan Diab’s Canadian lawyer)
  • Roger Clark (Former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada,1988-1999, and member of the Hassan Diab Support Committee)
  • Rob Currie (Professor of Transnational Criminal Law at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University)
  • Tim McSorley (National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group)
  • Alex Neve (Former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, 2000-2020, and Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs)
  • Jo Wood (Member of the Hassan Diab Support Committee)

3. Sign the Petition Addressed to PM Trudeau

Please sign the petition urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to protect Hassan Diab from further injustice, and say NO to a potential second extradition to France for a crime he did not commit.

Please share the petition widely among your family, friends, and networks, and on social media.

If you have already signed, a BIG THANK YOU. Hassan and his family are deeply grateful for your support!

*

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Featured image is from Justice for Hassan Diab

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The 2022 Midterm – Yet Another Steal?

November 11th, 2022 by Joachim Hagopian

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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***

This week’s Big Event – the US midterm election result, it’s proven to be yet another likely scam election. But then how can we honestly expect a different result if the identified problems that rigged the stolen 2020 election have never been fixed or resolved?

The definition of stupidity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again, expecting a different outcome each time. We learned the pathetic evidence in detail how the Democrats stole the 2020 election.

A majority of Americans even agree that election results were illegally altered and flipped by fraud, yet have the evidence of stuffed ballots and proven mail-in fraud, the tampered Dominion electronic vote flip at 4AM from overseas switching votes via unprotected internet access so that a repeated debacle is inevitably doomed to be painfully repeated on November 8th to even further make more a mockery of the United States as the one-time beacon of democratic freedom. Sadly, the only democratic freedom still alive in America today is the freedom of the Democratic Party to steal yet another national election. Why hasn’t America bothered to even correct these identified election crimes?

Because the Deep State cabal consisting of the Democrats in collusion with the RINO Republicans, the GOP establishment of Bush-McCain-Romney-McConnell types has been allowed to steal yet another super important US election to ensure that our constitutional republic is totally destroyed. And unbelievably, the same swing states identified in 2020 for unlawfully swinging the election are all at it once again – Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania and Michigan, making certain that the leftist overthrow of America is complete, that fraud will forever rule and that the US has been turned into a bloated, corrupt beyond repair banana republic.

Despite numerous campaign professionals, pollsters, and even MSM pundits conceding strong Republican gains across the country were expected, the 2022 election appears rigged from the start.

Early Tuesday morning in Arizona’s Maricopa County, the Phoenix area again, the same notorious county guilty of fraud in 2020, reported that dozens of its electronic voting machines had “printing issues.” And of course, wouldn’t you know it, the 20% of the dysfunctional Maricopa County machines reporting tabulating problems were primarily in precincts that consistently vote Republican. On Wednesday night November 9th, Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake spoke to Tucker Carlson on Fox News:

I feel 100% certain I am going to win. The question is how big will that win be? Can you believe this, Tucker?  We still have 650,000 votes that have not been counted. And guess who these voters are? They’re the people who showed up on election day. They’re the people, 275,000 of them are people who brought their ballot to polls on election day because they don’t trust the mail and they don’t trust the drop boxes. So guess who those voters are? They’re our voters. And we’re only down by a few thousand votes right now. When those votes come in, we’re going to see a lot of liberal minds kind of blowing up. 

Kari Lake maintains confidence in victory, boldly vowing as priority #1 to remedy all these dubious voting improprieties racking her state. On top of this Southwest sabotage, after initially claiming that all vote counts would be completed this week by Friday, the latest from the Maricopa County election officials is that they may be working through to Thanksgiving or even Christmas.

Kari Lake was being diplomatic when she questioned the tabulating machines unable to count votes on Tuesday morning as “incompetence,” when such hugely significant elections are repeatedly botched every time out by the same county notorious as a Democratic stronghold for causing setbacks that harm the GOP chances, a pattern that cannot be by coincidence alone.

The Gateway Pundit reported that in Detroit ballots were moved in the middle of the night well after the deadline.

Also, after trailing all evening, there were two distinct ballot drops suddenly that permitted incumbent Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to soar to victory by the familiar “drop and roll” method, with each subsequent drop containing nearly every ballot another vote for Whitmer.

Recall that this same overly familiar tactic was used at 4AM on the night of November 3rd, 2020 to falsify Biden’s illegit election. So-called “glitches” in electronic voting machines in 2020 along with suspicious illegal ballot drops, long after deadlines were the exact same fraudulent methods used to steal the 2020 election. The Democrats logically figure if their methods of cheating were successful to overturn every past election, reasoning that if it ain’t broken, why fix it?

And ever since, Democrats have been calling anyone who questions the legitimacy of stolen contests “election deniers,” now increasingly deemed threats to democracy, criminalized as enemies of the state.  With history appearing to repeat itself here, unless we stop these ruthless would-be killers of free democratic elections now, the global tyranny of their one world governance will soon be irreversible.

In the meantime, current Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy just sent a letter to his caucus announcing his intention to run for the Speaker of the House position to replace the scandalous, soon retiring current holder Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Though McCarthy was hoping to make his big public announcement on Tuesday night, instead he waited till after 2AM in a four-minute speech to claim that when they wake up Wednesday morning, Republicans will be the majority party in the House.

But even as late as Thursday night, still too many races remain too close to call.

That said, the GOP is expected to have more members in Congress than Democrats, but just barely more. The “red tsunami” expected never materialized, and in January, McCarthy will take an ever-so-thinnest sliver of a majority to the new 2023 House session, having to make concessions along the way as the new Speaker. It appears that the big red wave dried up to a mere drip drop due to the infamous ballot drops the Dems pulled in the 2020 Trump steal.

The Senate also is even less certain for a GOP majority. In the contentious battleground swing state of Georgia, on December 6th Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock will face off in a runoff, both pulling under 50% with less than 1% between them due a libertarian candidate playing the spoiler with 2% of the total vote. A suspicious ballot drop and roll in Georgia may have forced the runoff to deny Herschel’s victory outright.

Though the Ebenezer Baptist Church Pastor Warnock may have less personal baggage, Herschel was the Heisman Trophy winner who took his Georgia Bulldogs to the championship and played a few years in the NFL. His star power backed by Trump lifted him from a field of half dozen hopefuls in the primary. With Trump backed Republican challengers in both Nevada and Arizona giving the Democrat incumbents a race down to the wire, it may still be days or even weeks before the final votes are counted and Americans will know which party holds the majority. With 78% of the Nevada votes tallied, Republican Adam Laxalt holds a 2% edge while Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly is just ahead of GOP challenger Blake Masters. It’s quite feasible that the Georgia runoff in December will determine the Senate majority party.

With all the recent polls leading up to Tuesday’s election showing that 3 out of 4 Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction under the current Biden regime, the consensus was that the Republicans would do far better than they have. As more information comes in, it’s apparent that the Democrats have been repeatedly caught again, sneaking more drop and roll of illegal ballots in Georgia, and the incumbent Democratic governor races in Michigan and Minnesota. So why would the most unpopular president in all US history that according to the official Big Lie we’re supposed to actually believe received in 2020 the most votes of all presidential candidates in all American history, why would Biden’s midterm election turn out any different, when the political party with majority power being so publicly rebuked by US citizens would miraculously once again defy all odds, and the GOP barely picks up seats in Congress.

Again, it defies all logic, all reason and all of history, more than strongly indicating that what they did to steal the 2020 election, they did again to repeat another steal in this week’s midterm, treasonous fraud committed by the exact same method of fake ballot dumps all going to the Democratic candidates. The answers to the questions below are all obvious…

Why are 49 out of 50 states still using proven unreliable, easily tampered with electronic voting machines?

Unlike many other nations around the world, like France that switched over to paper ballot voting only, why does the US refuse to fix this problem? Unless it wants to make sure that voter fraud continues?

Why is the same criminal Democratic Party in all the same states allowed to steal yet another election? Unless the powers-that-shouldn’t-be want the party that is fast destroying America to finish the job.

In this modern day and age, there is absolutely zero excuse to keep failing to fix the known preventable problems from recurring over and over again, unless powers-that-shouldn’t-be want America destroyed.

Despite so much irrefutable proof of treasonous election fraud already from the last illegitimate national election, yet again DNC traitors are rearing their ugly heads, trying to steal yet more crucial midterm elections, perhaps even America’s last. If We the People fail to stop them this time, the leftist Democrats realize their power to completely demolish the US may well be vanquished and averted if the Demon-Crats lose their present majority in both the House and Senate. Thus, they’ve resorted to frantic desperation tactics that are already being uncovered and exposed, to preserve their majority power in the legislative branch at all cost. Our Founding Fathers’ brilliant checks and balances system allows us to stop the weak, controlled puppet president only if a Republican majority is achieved in the legislative branch to effectively counter and oppose the Democrats’ destructive treasonous agenda.

However, with infiltration by so many RINO Republicans voting alongside the Democrats, even a GOP majority in Congress may not prove enough to stop the criminal cabal’s controlled demolition of the US. Washington is so compromised by embedded treasonous fraudsters, captured completely through sexual blackmail and bribery, puppets continue doing what they’re told, totally owned by the genocidal bloodline controllers.

Days ahead of this week’s election, the legacy media whores were hyping that “security officials are concerned about claims of a hacked (or stolen) election.” The November 4th USA Today lead sentence fears:

Fake cyber narratives about a stolen or rigged election are an acute concern, according to authorities who fear they could undermine the process and lead to more Jan. 6-style political violence… What cyber analysts fear most is fake narratives about hacked elections undermining integrity.

The cabal criminals will be closing in on all of us who speak the truth, calling the truth “misinformation” and the truthtellers “enemies of the state,” in order to continue spewing out their false narrative lies. It’s very predictable now. So, when crooks rig more elections and smart enough people are catching on, daring to confront the authorities’ lies as a vain attempt to cover up so many blatant anomalies and inept desperado mistakes, building up overwhelming evidence of election fraud, truthtellers will be cast as dangerous criminals for daring to question their thoroughly corrupt government’s illegal tyranny.

The Deep State cabal is trying to cover all its bases, because the perps want to be cocksure their crooked ways are protected with impunity. Through their deceptive divide and conquer Modus Operandi, the bloodline controllers are pressing for a full-blown civil war in America between the criminal puppet elite buffered by their dumbed down robots fighting against the growing number of honest citizens, mostly comprised of patriots and veterans joined by law enforcement and military personnel determined to restore and defend America’s constitutional rights and oaths. As law abiding citizens on the right side of history, we’re protecting our constitutional rights, liberties and freedom against traitors and miscreants.

Again, from the USA Today article, Suzanne Spaulding, former top Department of Homeland Security official that headed its election security efforts, states:

Conspiracy theories will take hold in a substantial segment of the population and could lead to additional political violence.

Never mind that so many conspiracy theories have proven far more accurate accounts of history than countless government false narratives or that nefarious criminal organizations like the CIA invented the term “conspiracy theory,” solely to undermine the credibility and reputation of those intelligent enough to know that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the lone gunman behind the JFK assassination. Yet by their factual misdeeds, it’s too often these 3-letter government agencies like the DHS, the CIA and FBI that are the criminal handlers of blamed patsies that wantonly at will violate constitutional laws with impunity and themselves a far more menace to society than conspiracy theorists. Let’s start either abolishing them or at least start prosecuting them for their endless litany of crimes.

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Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate, former Army officer and author of “Don’t Let the Bastards Getcha Down,” exposing a faulty US military leadership system based on ticket punching up the seniority ladder, invariably weeding out the best and brightest, leaving mediocrity and order followers rising to the top as politician-bureaucrat generals designated to lose every modern US war by elite design. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field with abused youth and adolescents for more than a quarter century. In Los Angeles he found himself battling the largest county child protective services in the nation within America’s thoroughly broken and corrupt child welfare system.

The experience in both the military and child welfare system prepared him well as a researcher and independent journalist, exposing the evils of Big Pharma and how the Rockefeller controlled medical and psychiatric system inflict more harm than good, case in point the current diabolical pandemic hoax and genocide. As an independent journalist for over the last decade, Joachim has written hundreds of articles for many news sites, like Global Researchlewrockwell.com and currently https://jameshfetzer.org.   As a published bestselling author on Amazon of a 5-book volume series entitled Pedophilia & Empire: Satan, Sodomy & the Deep State, his A-Z sourcebook series exposes the global pedophilia scourge is available free at https://pedoempire.org/contents/.  Joachim also hosts the Revolution Radio weekly broadcast “Cabal Empire Exposed,” every Friday morning at 6AM EST (ID: revradio, password: rocks!) 

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***

Children’s Health Defense on Monday filed a summary of its appeal in a lawsuit against Rutgers University over the university’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Last week, Rutgers announced it will recruit children under age 5 for a joint trial with Pfizer for its pediatric COVID-19 bivalent vaccine.

The attorney representing Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and 13 Rutgers University students in a lawsuit challenging Rutgers’ COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy said the District Court of New Jersey didn’t follow the legal standard when it dismissed CHD’s case.

In an interview this week with The Defender, Julio C. Gomez of Gomez LLC, lead counsel in the case, said U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi’s argument for granting the university’s motion to dismiss “failed to accept the facts as alleged in the plaintiffs’ complaint as true,” as required under the legal standard on a motion to dismiss.

CHD on Oct. 19 appealed the decision and on Monday filed a summary of its appeal.

Gomez also spoke with The Defender about Rutgers’ Nov. 4 announcement that it is partnering with Pfizer on a new clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine in children under age 5.

“Rutgers should be keenly aware that so far, the studies that are being used to support COVID-19 vaccination of children are deeply flawed and that the risks of experimental vaccination are too great for children who face negligible risks from COVID-19, especially when so many are already naturally immune,” Gomez said.

The new clinical trial is the latest evidence of Rutgers’ conflicts of interest related to its COVID-19 vaccine policies, Gomez said.

“As we alleged in our lawsuit [filed in August 2021], Rutgers was selected by all three vaccine manufacturers — Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson — to run clinical trials. Rutgers knew or should have known none of these studies showed that these vaccines prevent transmission, yet Rutgers rushed to be one of the first universities in the country to mandate COVID-19 vaccines on its students.”

History of the case

On Aug. 16, 2021, CHD sued Rutgers University, its board of governors, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway and others over the university’s decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for students attending school in the fall.

At the time, the mandate applied only to students. Faculty and staff were exempt. The policy was since updated to include faculty and staff. The updated policy also requires all eligible faculty, staff and students to provide proof of receiving a COVID-19 booster shot.

CHD’s lawsuit alleged Rutgers’ policy is a violation of the right to informed consent and the right to refuse unwanted medical treatments.

The complaint also alleged the policy is a breach of contract because, in January 2021, Rutgers assured students COVID-19 vaccines would not be required in order to attend school — but just two months later, the university flip-flopped and issued new requirements for taking the shot prior to attending classes.

Mary Holland, CHD president and general counsel, and Ray Flores, special counsel to CHD, provided legal support to Gomez LLC.

On Aug. 30, 2020, CHD filed a temporary restraining order against Rutgers seeking to prevent the university from coercing students, including those attending class remotely, to get the vaccine by blocking the email accounts of unvaccinated students. Judge Quraishi denied the request.

More than a year after CHD sued the university — on Sept. 9 of this year — Judge Quraishi granted Rutgers’ motion to dismiss.

At the time, Gomez told Law360:

“Colleges and universities do not and should not possess the legal authority to mandate experimental vaccines, especially those colleges and universities like Rutgers that have financial skin in the game and are working with the vaccine manufacturers to develop and test these experimental products with no liability and no accountability.”

Judge Quraishi had previously refused CHD’s request to recuse himself from the case on the basis that as a former Rutgers University law professor, he would not be impartial.

Rutgers ‘crossed a line it shouldn’t have crossed’

CHD’s appeal of appeal of Judge Quraishi’s dismissal of the case means the case will now go to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

According to Monday’s filing of a summary of appeal, CHD’s appeal will address:

(1) Whether the District Court committed legal errors, including misapplying the motion to dismiss standard.

(2) Whether Rutgers University had the legal authority to mandate COVID-19 vaccination and other unsafe and ineffective measures as a condition of attendance (“COVID-19 Policy”), or whether Rutgers’ COVID-19 Policy was preempted by federal law, 21 U.S.C. Section 360bbb-3, or is ultra vires under state law.

(3) Whether Plaintiffs adequately pled causes of action:

(a) That Rutgers’ COVID-19 Policy violated the right to informed consent and to refuse unwanted medical treatment guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the New Jersey Constitution.

(b) That Rutgers’ COVID-19 Policy violated the right to equal protection of the law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment and New Jersey Constitution.

(c) That Rutgers’ COVID-19 Policy violated 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 and/or the New Jersey Civil Rights Act.

Gomez told The Defender he believes the case is strong and that, as evidence mounts that COVID-19 vaccines don’t prevent infection or transmission, the tide is turning against mandates.

Rutgers “crossed a line it shouldn’t have crossed,” he said.

According to Best Colleges, a “still-expanding group of U.S. colleges and universities say students must receive a COVID-19 vaccine before arriving on campus.” The Best Colleges website provides a list of U.S. colleges and universities that, as of Sept. 9, still require the vaccines.

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Featured image is from CHD


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

Hundreds of Fossil Fuel Lobbyists to Attend COP27

November 11th, 2022 by Alex Kimani

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***

A total of 636 oil and gas lobbyists have registered to attend the COP27 event in Egypt, 25% more than the number that attended COP26 climate summit in the UK and more than the combined delegates of the ten countries most impacted by climate change. 

The oil and gas lobby is larger than any single national delegation apart from the United Arab Emirates, who are slated to host next year’s conference.The oil and gas lobbyists will be aiming to protect the interests of the fossil fuel industry. For instance, they could push back against measures that ban new gas projects and urge delegates to accept development of oil fields in developing nations.

They will have their work cut out for them.

Leaders of island nations have already called on countries to pay for climate reparations by taxing big oil. Oil industry lobbyists are likely to try to water down any agreements to this effect.

Dubbed the African COP, COP27 is likely to simultaneously address the dire climate impacts on the continent and showcase the continent’s fossil fuels potential, rendering the lobbyists’ inclusion understandable.

Back in March, Vijaya Ramachandran, director for energy and development at the Breakthrough Institute, proposed that Germany and Europe should look to Africa, if they are serious about achieving energy security. Ramachandran noted that the continent is endowed with substantial natural gas production, reserves, and new discoveries in the process of being tapped. Very little of Africa’s gas has been exploited, either for domestic consumption or export.

Algeria is already an established major gas producer with substantial untapped reserves and is connected to Spain with several undersea pipelines. Germany and the EU are already working to expand pipeline capacity connecting Spain with France, from where more Algerian gas could flow to Germany and elsewhere. Libyan gas fields are connected by pipeline to Italy.

New pipelines under discussion currently focus on the Eastern Mediterranean Pipeline Project, which would bring gas from Israel’s offshore gas fields to Europe. Senegal has recently discovered major offshore fields. Meanwhile, Mozambique is already developing its vast natural gas resources.

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Alex Kimani is a veteran finance writer, investor, engineer and researcher for Safehaven.com. 

Featured image is from OilPrice.com

Video: Biden Thinks Russia Invaded Iraq

November 11th, 2022 by Steve Watson

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***

During a bumbling speech Wednesday, a reporter had to remind Joe Biden where Russia is currently engaged in conflict after the President suggested Putin’s troops were about to pull out of a city in Iraq.

Biden was asked about reports that the Russian military is to leave the city of Kherson in Ukraine, one of the only major cities they have successfully occupied since the invasion began.

“I think the context is that whether or not they’re pulling back from Fallujah,” Biden said before racking his brain to try and recall where Russian troops really are.

Fallujah is in Iraq.

It’s not even on the same continent.

Elsewhere during the speech Biden’s brain shut down as he attempted to say the word ‘apocalyptic’:

During the press conference Biden pulled out a list of pre-approved reporters that he was told to call on for questions:

When he was asked one of those questions, he said he plans to change “nothing”:

Biden also admitted he plans to sneak off on holiday, despite the fact that he’s spent 40% of his presidency on holiday already.

During the speech following the midterm elections, Biden said he “will veto any attempt to pass the national ban on abortion,” will “ban assault weapons, or try like the devil,” said he will not back down on climate policies, and refused to support Republican-backed efforts to make cuts to Social Security and Medicaid to bring down inflation.

In the same breath he vowed to work with Republicans after the elections.

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Featured image is a screenshot from one of the videos above

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***

The midterm elections delivered to the American people a stark, stark message. The Republican and Democratic Parties have been reduced to play toys for billionaires and multinational corporations that carry out an intriguing puppet show for us, one that spins further and further away from any concern for citizens, and buries the Constitution and the rule of law in a shallow grave.

The unexpectedly strong showing of the Democratic Party, a criminal syndicate that pushed the deadly COVID19 vaccine on the American people in the largest act of genocide since the killing of the natives in the 18th and 19th centuries, was made for corporate TV. Everyone knows that although the Republican Party is just as corrupt and just beholden to corporate finance and militarists, that many citizens intended to vote Republican as a protest, if nothing else.

The election was clearly rigged, and both progressives and conservatives know this fact. The rigging of the tallies, and the contrived nail-biting final counts were but icing on the fascist cake.

This new Congress is entirely incapable of serving its constitutional role as the legislative branch of government because it functions as a mere appendage of Wall Street. No one really cares if the politicians are red, or blue, or purple. We were fed an alternative between a globalist, techno-fascist, gender blending, identify politics covert operation run by BlackRock and Israeli private intelligence firms and a reactionary, isolationist, racist, and militarist FBI-led operation funded by Koch Industries, Lockheed Martin, and real estate speculators.

But as bad as that false choice may have been, it was not the worst part. It is clear now that global finance, in order to create enough of economic and political chaos in the United States to justify military rule is intentionally destroying our society, crushing all functional institutions, shutting down logistics and transportation, in a horrific betrayal of our citizens—that will reap great profits for premium investors.

Do not waste time gawking at the followers of Donald Trump. Leave them alone as they try to do their best.

Let us focus on the global investment banks and the handful of billionaires, American and otherwise, who lurk behind them. This Democrat Republican cultural identity show has gone far too far.

The time has come to focus on class warfare, on the efforts of a tiny number of the super-rich to reduce the citizens of the United States, and of the world, to slavery so that they will be managed by AI, by robots and drones through elaborate geo-fencing and digital currency scams. None of that agenda was mentioned by the candidates that we voted for.

This is not the first time that we have fought against slavery in the United States.

What will the consequences of this election be? Increased political power for the Republican Party will most likely result in a further decline of rational debate but, at the same time, threats of globalism and of bio-fascism will receive a little more attention than under the Democrats.

The drive for world war, for the control of money by the superrich, and for the controlled demolition of the economy will go ahead as scheduled.

Let me conclude by saying a few words about the military in the United States.

There can be no question that if this election did anything, it has completely discredited both of these so-called political parties and that the policies for congress will be fed to its portly inhabitants by lobbyists, bankers and intelligence operatives from abroad.

There is only one party, but grab a beer because this sure is one hell of a party!

Because the executive has been entirely outsourced to private contractors also controlled by global finance, and the judiciary has been stripped of all checks on external influence, in effect all three branches of government are rotten to the core.

What are the implications?

It means that in effect the only functional part of the government will be the military and that, at the same time, Wall Street will have no choice, facing looming hyperinflation, but to drive for a military economy using imagined threats from Russia and China as an excuse.

Why must we have a military economy? The answer is quite simple. We have been fed a lie that the stock market, money printing, and radical waste and overproduction are necessary for a healthy economy and for the good of citizens when in fact they are but tools used by the rich to exploit us all.

Now that the nation is in shambles, now that it is no longer possible to prop up growth with stock buybacks financed by money printing (that is quantitative easing and COVID relief for financial speculators) there is no longer a choice—even for Wall Street. The United States must turn to a planned economy to avoid massive losses for the speculators because money printing will no longer work.

But the speculators most certainly do not want a planned economy that might be focused on helping ordinary citizens, or on ending the rule of the billionaires. No, that sort of a planned economy, following the Constitution, establishing a regulated national bank, promoting the rule of law, that sort of planned economy is taboo. Not even the pay-to-play progressives are allowed to talk about overproduction or planned economies.

But a planned economy is exactly what we need and the only planned economy the financiers can accept is a military planned economy. That means even more of a drive for war because only war can create the demand that is needed now that most of the economy has been reduced to a fraud, to a series of bogus numbers in cyberspace cooked up by Goldman Sachs and back up by private intelligence contractors.

Back to the military.

Now that the Congress has been reduced to clown house, a house of mirrors for our amusement, the military is the only remaining part of the government that is functional, and, like it or not, its role in politics will only increase.

There is a profound paradox here. We need men and women of bravery to fight for justice and for the Constitution at home against the billionaires. Sadly, most intellectuals have run away in fear.

It is not a surprise that the military, where at least a few brave souls remain, would be the last part of the system to collapse. And we must appeal to the better angels of those within that system.

But the risk of sliding into world war so as to avoid exposing the devious machinations of the billionaires only increases every day. That is exactly how the First World War got started.

We must work with those brave souls in the military, and among citizens, who are ready to form a provisional government, to restore the Constitution, and to wash the bankers, the corporate lobbyists, and the pawns and pets of the billionaires, out of Washington D.C. without exception.

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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.

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***

A US special forces unit has stepped up its operations inside the Arctic Circle in Norway while admitting it is trying to get Russia’s attention by testing an experimental new weapons delivery system there.

“It puts this thing within range of Russia,” Special Operations Command Europe’s Lt. Col. Lawrence Melnicoff was quoted as saying of the new parachute dropped long-range missile which was tested. “We are intentionally trying to be provocative without being escalatory.”

“We’re trying to deter Russian aggression, expansionist behavior, by showing enhanced capabilities of the allies,” he added in the comments given to military magazine Stripes.

The experimental weapon system and program is called Rapid Dragon, and on Wednesday it was successfully test-fired at Norway’s Andoya Space Range, which is the country’s premiere far-northern weapons testing site.

Rapid Dragon is a new cruise missile delivery method which begins by parachuting a long-range missile from the back of a C-130 plane. A guided missile then shoots out during the descent of the large crate containing the projectile, as video of this week’s successful deployment shows…

According to a brief explanation of how the unusual delivery system works:

The Red Dragon system uses a steel cage and can be loaded with Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missiles, which have a range of up to 1,200 miles depending on the variant.

“The way it works is it drops out of cargo aircraft like a heavy equipment air drop, so it’s completely a roll-on, roll-off package,” Melnicoff said.

After rolling out, the cage stabilizes under parachutes. Then a sling gate opens and the missiles drop out.

Other weapons like swarming drones can be deployed utilizing this method as well, the US military says. The unusual delivery is in part designed to disguise a long-range missile launch as but a typical battlefield airdrop from a cargo plane, thus catching the enemy off-guard until the missile is already well on its way to target.

Melnicoff described further of the unconventional delivery method: “It complicates Russian decision-making because we know that they’re targeting very, very large specific aggregations of allied power… Ramstein Air Base, RAF Lakenheath, things like that.” He added: “We’re survivable. If worse comes to worst and somebody takes out these power hubs, we can forward-project precision artillery fire across the alliance with our partners.”

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Featured image: Artistic rendering of “Rapid Dragon” deployment system. (Source: Zero Hedge)

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Walking Wide Awake into World War III

November 11th, 2022 by Prof. John Weeks

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with rising tensions between NATO and Russia, have drawn comparisons to the outbreak of World War I.

In 2014, back when the open hostilities in Ukraine really began, the journalist Eric Margolis said “We can stumble into a war with Russia. This reminds me of 1914 all over again.”

This “stumbling” of course refers to the “sleepwalking thesis of war” that is part of both popular and scholarly narratives of World War I.

The International Relations realist Stephen Walt warned “the West is sleepwalking into war in Ukraine” the day before Russia invaded. The World Health Organization (yes, that one) has warned the world could be sleepwalking into a nuclear war. And the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network is concerned the world might be “sleepwalking into nuclear Armageddon.”

Unfortunately, it’s much worse than that. The United States is marching wide awake toward general nuclear war.

Princeton University historian Stephen Kotkin has criticized the sleepwalking thesis of war as a comforting myth that remains “close to people’s hearts” to this day.

“Nobody ever sleepwalks into war,” he says.

Kotkin points out that the government and military archives of the Great Powers contain thousands of orders to move horses, hay, and weapons systems into place to prosecute the war years before Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. The Great Powers also imposed military conscription to ensure they would have a wealth of young men to feed into the slaughter.

Kotkin says:

You go into the archives, and you see nothing but decisions being made towards war. And somehow this is known as sleepwalking towards war. There was no sleepwalking to World War I. There was only preparation for war. There was nothing but incessant preparation to war.

Libertarian Institute Director Scott Horton agrees; “You call it sleepwalking but everybody’s wide awake. It’s just, they’re stupid.”

The stupidity continues. This time it isn’t horses and Maxim machine guns being ordered into Europe, it’s “highly accurate guided tactical nuclear weapons.” That’s right, the United States is sending B61-12 tactical, air-dropped gravity bombs to NATO bases. According to Bryan Bender, Paul McLeary, and Erin Banco in Politico, the nuclear arsenal upgrade was originally planned for Spring 2023, but is being accelerated. The new bombs should arrive in time for Christmas.

According to the Politico piece:

Asked for comment, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder responded via email that “while we aren’t going to discuss details of our nuclear arsenal, modernization of US B61 nuclear weapons has been underway for years and plans to safely and responsibly swap out older weapons for the upgraded B61-12 versions is part of a long-planned and scheduled modernization effort. It is in no way linked to current events in Ukraine and was not sped up in any way.” [emphasis added]

Should we believe him? Sure, why not? The United States has been incessantly preparing for nuclear war for years. That sounds about right.

Here are some other American made decisions that have been marching us toward Armageddon:

  • Expanding/enlarging the NATO military alliance
  • Placing anti-ballistic missile systems that can also fire nuclear tipped cruise missiles in NATO countries
  • Backing an anti-Russian coup in Ukraine in 2004
  • Backing an anti-Russian coup in Ukraine in 2014
  • Integrating the Ukrainian military into the NATO alliance structure
  • Shipping hi-tech weapons systems to the Ukrainian military
  • Sabotaging peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia
  • Assisting the Ukrainian military with war strategy and enemy targeting

War is a massive production. It doesn’t just happen like a bar fight (bar fights don’t just happen either). In the French film Pierrot le Fou, an American director compares film to a battleground. We can reverse the idea and compare war to a film production. There are the financial backers: the taxpayers. There are the producers and directors: the politicians, generals and spy masters. And there are the extras: the soldiers.

There are also all the people who make the costumes and the weapons and the vehicles. The people who build the military bases and cook the meals and provide security and do the laundry and run the logistics.

As the American historian Daniel Immerwahr described the U.S. military during World War II:

Think of a GI, and you’re more likely to imagine a soldier on the front lines than a construction worker. But in the case of the United States, the construction worker is the better mental image. During the war, fewer than one in ten U.S. service members ever saw a shot fired in anger. For most who served, the war wasn’t about combat. It was about logistics.

This is true today. Sadly, there are no stars in war. Unless of course we count the fictions generated by the war propaganda.

Are all these people sleepwalking? Of course not. They are awake and they are working hard to make war possible. From a certain level of analysis, it is a tremendous feat of human cooperation and ingenuity. Hot biscuits! But since they are preparing for the annihilation of the human species, it is a truly horrific spectacle.

The American people are the ones who are asleep. We must wake up and push for peace.

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John is a member of the Society for Consciousness Studies, where he researches literary theory. Whereas dominant academic literary discourse revolves around Marx, Lacan and Derrida, he prefers Mises, Horton and Woods.

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Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War” 

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

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

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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***

No doubt, none of us can recall a time when the world at large has faced so many problems and crises that impinge upon the well-being and mortality of billions of people.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that for the average person the human psyche is extraordinarily fragile and can easily be overwhelmed with anxiety, dread, depression and anger. People desperately sought solutions to ameliorate an all-pervading angst as society was being completely reconfigured in the image of those who hold power, influence and wealth. There was a time in the past when we believed our elected officials would enact laws to protect the citizenry and provide a climate for sustaining a normal, productive life.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, those who could capitalize on its opportunities found the means to push forward non-democratic agendas to displace normalcy. In its place the masters of government and industry assured us that existential angst is our new fate. Faith in any institutional security has collapsed into a tragic theater as the younger generations face an uncertain future and life loses its purpose and meaning.

The majority of people’s beliefs are grounded and conditioned upon the input and information they receive. Through a compromised media, the consuming public is spoon-fed a heavy dose of fear and confusion. Those who make efforts to pull back the curtain to expose the wizard of a dystopian globalist Oz are marginalized and officially canceled by Silicon Valley and an army of faux fact checkers. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the culture of non-transparency draping the halls of Washington, the international health institutions, professional medical associations, and the pharmaceutical complex has sparked public suspicions about conspiratorial opertions to shred democracy and individual rights and freedoms.

Objective skepticism, the ability to turn towards the mind’s faculty for critical thought, has rapidly declined in American society for several decades. Yet a healthy skepticism is necessary for questioning both the rhetoric and misinformation of “official” views and propaganda, including hints of what is commonly ridiculed as conspiracy. The word “conspiracy” has lost its meaning and credibility in the American lexicon. Rarely does mainstream media, professional associations and think tanks, and official federal public relations and propaganda contextualize the term to simply implicate wrongdoing and corruption. When used by authorities, “conspiracy” is almost always pejorative, a means to slander, accuse and marginalize people as loons and quacks. As a result we are led to believe the gospel word of officialdom: the Warren report, the 911 Commission, and everything spouted from Anthony Fauci, the White House and federal health agencies regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and the wave of pro-vaccine mania.

Very often conspiracies are ridiculous, bordering on the surreal and absurd. However, past examples of politically motivated black flag operations and secretive agendas created in corporate boardrooms and government halls cannot rule out that conspiracies don’t exist or never have. When there is sound reason to question the integrity of a politician, health official, media pundit, or a corporate executive, it is natural for the inquisitive mind to explore more deeply the hidden motivations and goals underlying the thoughts and actions of conspiracies’ physical footprints. In most cases it is the evidence of contradictions, hypocrisies and confirmed blatant lies by individuals in authority that give birth to the conspiratorial mind.

Conspiracies conducted by the government, which resulted in unnecessary violence and death, are proven to have occurred or at least certainly planned:

the Gulf of Tonkin, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, the CIA staged coup to oust Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, and the failed Operation Northwood scheme by the CIA and Pentagon to launch acts of terror against Miami residents.

Before the 2001 anthrax scare identified any individual or group behind the toxic letters, according to an FBI whistleblower, the Bush White House instructed the FBI to blame the attacks on al-Qaeda; later it was revealed that the threats were carried out by one or more US government employed scientists. In addition, the US government frequently launches conspiratorial misinformation campaigns throughout the major corporate media and Silicon Valley complex in order to support its clandestine and long term agendas. Furthermore, the media makes every effort to seduce us into believing that we don’t have conspiracies in the banking system, the pharmaceutical industry, and the government intelligence apparatus.

NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander claimed publicly that intelligence surveillance of the American public “foiled” 54 terrorist attacks by extremists. Independent research confirmed that in fact only one, and a possible second, attack could be directly associated with the war on terrorism. The media never questioned the accuracy of Alexander’s claim nor provided evidence to the contrary. Repeatedly Obama lied to the American people about the largess of the national security state and its infiltration into the lives of average citizens, including massive data collection of private phone calls, emails and internet activity. The federal government is a vast sea of conspiracies operative at any given moment. Edward Snowden documented proof that intelligence surveillance is far more extensive than officially reported. But others can be cited throughout the recent activities of the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, FISA courts, USDA and FDA and CDC, and the Justice Department. Additional confirmed conspiracies planned by our executive branch, the CIA, military and other federal agencies include:

  • A US Congressional committee acknowledged that the CointelPro campaign included the FBI employing provocateurs from the 1950s to 1970s to carry out terrorist acts in order to blame civil political activists.
  • Bush’s justice department Attorney General John Yoo recommended that the US create a false terrorist organization for the purpose of conducting terrorist attacks that could be blamed on al-Qaeda.
  • Overwhelming scientific evidence now can debunk the official report that the three World Trade buildings could not have collapsed in free fall from jet-fuel fires alone.
  • Government has covered up conspiracies waged against Americans by other nations. The Israeli bombing of the USS Liberty and the planting of bombs in US diplomatic facilities in Egypt by Israeli terrorist cells are two examples.
  • State Department documents show the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff planned to bomb the US consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to win popular support for an invasion of the country.
  • During the US occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, American soldiers were instructed to leave weapons near bodies of innocent civilians they killed in order to make the claim they were terrorists.
  • The Tuskegee Syphilis Study conducted by the US Public Health Service between 1932 to 1972, which experimented with unknowing poor African American men in violation of the Nuremberg Code.
  • The 2000 Simpsonwood meeting convened by the CDC with major health agencies and executives of vaccine makers to cover-up scientific evidence that mercury in vaccines were contributing to the increase in autism.
  • The whistleblower document dump by a senior CDC epidemiologist, Dr. William Thompson, revealing that the health agency under Julie Gerberding’s directorship destroyed internal research proving the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine contributed to a 250 percent higher rate of autism in African American boys. Gerberding went on to become president of Merck’s vaccine division with a $2.5 million salary and $38 million in stock options.
  • The thirty-year asbestos covered up of prior knowledge about asbestos’ association with respiratory illness and cancer in order to avoid lawsuits
  • The CIA’s mind control operations known as MK Ultra from the 1950s into the 1970s before being exposed by the Church Committee.
  • The Iran-Contra Affair in 1985 to secretly sell arms to Iran in order to fund Nicaraguan Contras.
  • The October Surprise during the Carter-Reagan presidential election when Reagan insiders met with Iranian revolution leaders in Europe to prevent the release of American hostages until after Reagan’s inauguration if he won the election.

These are only examples indicting factions within the federal government with treason to conduct conspiratorial acts. When the brilliant journalist I.F. Stone wrote, “Every government is run by liars, and nothing they say should be believed,” he could have been speaking about the entire gamut of federal agencies. Examples of legalized terror are aplenty and reveal actions solely for the pursuit of profit at the cost of Americans’ health. This has become particularly epidemic in private industry:

  • Merck’s withholding evidence from the FDA that its blockbuster drug Vioxx had serious health risks, including heart attack, stroke and death. The drug was responsible for at least a very conservative toll of 60,000 deaths.
  • In 2009, Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion for what was then the largest healthcare felony settlement in US pharmaceutical history for illegally promoting its drugs, including its painkiller Bextra. $1.2 billion was for the criminal fine then the largest imposed in the US.
  • The US Justice Department charged Johnson and Johnson $2.2 billion in criminal fines for marketing its autism and anti-psychotic drug Risperdal for unapproved uses. Forty-five states filed civil lawsuits against J&J in the scandal
  • Lawsuits continue to pile up against Merck for punitive damages, negligence, strict liability with failure to warn, manufacturing defects and common law fraud due to injuries associated with its HPV vaccine Gardasil.
  • A group of CDC scientists who called themselves SPIDER (Scientists Preserving the Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research) turned anonymous whistleblowers after releasing a written complaint criticizing the agency for operating as a tax-funded subsidiary of the drug industry in partnership with the FDA.
  • The legal suits against the agricultural giant Monsanto hid years of research and evidence of its active Round Up chemical glyphosate being responsible for DNA damage, birth defects, and a variety of cancers
  • Federally funded researchers forcefully administered highly toxic AIDS drugs in experiments on foster care children in a New York children’s center;

Besides withholding truthful claims, individuals, groups, companies or governments targeted in conspiracy theories share an atmosphere perceived as clandestine and secret. In the private sector, conspiracies are voluminous and are permitted to continue behind the backs of federal crime authorities. For decades independent voices have suggested that Wall Street has undue influence over the Federal Reserve and government economic policies. On the contrary, tens of thousands of articles, books and opinion essays, reinforced with solid scholarship, reveal we do in fact have an epidemic of conspiracies in our midst. Yet there is barely a legislator or journalist in corporate media with the courage to independently investigate the leads behind current events.

The corporate media is also complicit in our nationwide conspiracy of corruption and criminal behavior. The media wonks of public opinion, at the behest of federal and corporate pressure, control the issues that the public should or should not hear. Consequently our media engages in campaigns of psychological terror by keeping the public in doubt and fear. Something is terribly wrong when there is such disparity between official rhetoric and the destruction of civil freedoms, justice, sovereignty and constitutional guarantees now decimating human rights and the quality of life across the US. For example, the Biden White House instructed the justice department on the behalf of local school boards nationwide to consider any and all parents who challenge school board’s policies and rules. Instead such parents should be identified and pursed as domestic terrorists, thereby stifling all free speech that challenges government policies.

America is awash in conspiracy. Every firm on Wall Street and in the large private industrial complexes—oil and fossil fuels, nuclear energy, military and national security contractors, the pharmaceutical industry, agro-chemical firms—regularly and repeatedly engage in legal and illegal conspiracies against the American public. Private corporations and their employees have settled many thousands of lawsuits.

On occasion accused individuals, usually propped as patsies and fall guys, have gone to jail. But in the majority of cases companies negotiate settlements and walk away without remorse and are able to retain their ill-gotten gains. JP Morgan settled on $13 billion for mortgage fraud, which left thousands of families homeless. Wachovia was slapped for a mere $800 million for money laundering hundreds of billions of dollars including dark money associated with the illegal drug trade. In every private industry we discover numerous resolved class action suits with underlying conspiratorial intentions to deceive the public and federal regulators. Corruption is systemic throughout corporate America and increases with every bill to further deregulate.

A seductive characteristic of many reasonable conspiracy theories is that they cannot be ruled out entirely. For this reason they gain popular traction and proliferate. Research conducted by psychologists Michael Wood and Karen Douglas at the University of Kent in the UK, and findings by political scientist Lance DeHaven in his book Conspiracy Theory in America, indicate that conspiracy theorists are more sane and intellectually mature than our naïve leaders in government and the major two political parties who more fanatically attach themselves to anti-conspiracy beliefs.i  For example, the Kent studies showed that two of three viewers of mainstream media reporting on the events of 9/11 disbelieved the networks.

The full throttle efforts to enforce experimental Covid mRNA vaccines and threaten jobs and educations generated a flurry of conspiratorial charges leveled against the vaccine makers, Anthony Fauci, the NIAID, the CDC and the Biden administration. Since conspiracies arise due to observable inconsistencies, contradictions and obvious misstatements, there is every reason for a critical thinking person to realize that the official narrative is contrary to the growing number of first person accounts of deception at every level. Words don’t match reality. Numerous medical professionals and physicians have spoken out against:

  • The accuracy of PCR testing to track the pandemic and determine case counts;
  • The manner in which Covid-19 deaths were recorded, which included deaths caused by other medical conditions including pneumonia and other infectious diseases;
  • Unwarranted changes in the World Health Organization’s definition of a pandemic and herd immunity;
  • The violation of international laws by enforcing an experimental vaccine on the public;
  • Suppression of accurate data and reports of Covid vaccine injuries and deaths;
  • The suppression of effective and inexpensive lifesaving drugs such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine;
  • Years of scientific evidence against the effectiveness of masks and social distancing and lockdowns;
  • Confirmed lies that the vaccines prevented infection and transmission of the SARS-2 virus and its variants

The widespread censorship of scientific voices within the orthodox medical community is only the tip of the iceberg; however, it provides certainty that the policies and strategies being endorsed are by no means science-based. Similar to the worst kinds of religious fundamentalism that represses and engages in violence against non-believers, the commercial based medicine advocated by Fauci and the government’s network of medical institutions, drug companies and philanthropists like Bill Gates are determined to excommunicate those who criticize their dogma. In every worse possible way the medical establishment is emulating religious institutions that have been totally intolerant of dissenters. We can and should have enormous respect for science when it is conducted in an objective methodological manner aligned with ethical intent; however we should pay no respect for science that is dogmatic, fundamentalist and intolerant. A growing body of evidence now shows that official propaganda about the SARS-2 virus’ origins, the vaccines, and the demonization of safe, cheap and effective treatments has been antithetical to real science. The federal medical complex’s handling of the crisis was an utter failure from the start. And now we are witnessing the larger cost of this incompetence appearing in unexpected harm such as enormous spikes in mental health disorders, suicides, and an epidemic of Covid vaccine-induced injuries and deaths.

Yet the more disconcerting problem is that the CDC and WHO have been in complete denial about the facts on the ground and persist in giving false information and disingenuous excuses to avoid accountability.

Fortunately the pandemic has now been firmly exposed as a scam as federal inconsistencies and new information further implodes their narrative. The public will then need to rise up, along with the dissenting medical community, and demand legal accountability for the perpetrators of this pandemic terrorism.

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Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the biotechnology and genomic industries.

Dr. Gary Null is host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on alternative and nutritional health and a multi-award-winning documentary film director, including his recent Last Call to Tomorrow

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

Note

i Kevin Barrett, “New Studies: Conspiracy Theorists Sane; Government Dupes Crazy, Hostile,” Press TV, July 12, 2013. http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/07/12/313399/conspiracy-theorists-vs-govt-dupes/

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***

The Department of Defense has announced that it will send Avenger air defense systems and a number of other weapons to Ukraine, bringing US security assistance to Kiev to over $1 billion in the last month alone.

A Pentagon press release issued Thursday says President Joe Biden approved a $400 million weapons transfer to Ukraine. The White House claims it can directly send arms from American stockpiles to foreign governments under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, insisting it requires no congressional authorization for the massive arms shipments. While the military has warned its weapons supplies are dwindling after the White House greenlit 25 rounds of security assistance for Kiev since Russia invaded in February, the aid appears to be set to continue into the foreseeable future.

The latest weapons package will include four Avenger air defense systems, self-propelled platforms capable of firing Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Boeing assembles the Avenger vehicle, while Raytheon – the former employer of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – manufactures its munitions.

This round of arms assistance also includes HAWK missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), over 100,000 artillery rounds, 100 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs), 400 grenade launchers, small arms, demolition equipment for obstacle clearing and cold weather gear. The HAWK missiles will receive upgrades before being sent to Kiev, with all funding pulled from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan discussed the weapons package at a White House press briefing, saying

“This increased air defense will be critical for Ukraine as Russia continues to use cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones to attack critical civilian infrastructure.”

Deputy Defense Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters that Washington is seeking to establish an overlapping network of defensive weapons to protect Ukraine from Russian strikes.

“We’re basically creating … a net of air defense systems of different ranges,” she said. “Whether it’s the Hawk missiles or the [IRIS-T medium range infrared homing missile] that the Germans provided or what we are providing today with the four Avenger air defense systems – all of them have different ranges, all of them contribute differently on the battlefield, which makes the Ukrainians effective.”

The Biden administration has accused Tehran of selling drones to Moscow for deployment in Ukraine. While Iran has acknowledged sending UAVs prior to the war, it maintains no weapons have been delivered to Russia since the invasion began, and that it will not take sides in the conflict.

As of Thursday, the Pentagon reported that total military aid to Ukraine since Biden took office stands at $19.3 billion, with the vast majority of that authorized after Russia’s attack commenced last winter. However, the Germany-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy has disputed that figure, instead claiming that overall US military support for Ukraine had surpassed $28 billion by October 3. For several months, Washington has announced new weapons packages for Kiev on a weekly basis.

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Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com and news editor of the Libertarian Institute.

Will Porter is the assistant news editor of the Libertarian Institute and a staff writer and editor at RT.

Kyle Anzalone and Will Porter host Conflicts of Interest along with Connor Freeman.

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***

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan joins Piers Morgan Uncensored just five days after an attempt was made on his life while he was rallying with his political party. The former cricketer survived with gun shot wounds to his legs after a failed assassination attempt which he believes he “should not have survived”.

Imran tells Piers Morgan that he knew an assassination attempt was in the works from the Intelligence Services and opens up about these deadly plans being formulated within a corrupt government. Piers also asks him about the assailants and Imran says he believes one of the shooters is still at large. He also expresses his thanks to the “heroes” who bravely intervened in the assassination attempt – one of whom it cost his life.

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Featured image is a screenshot from the video

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***

The defense sector spent over $101 million on federal lobbying during the first three quarters of 2022 and affiliates of these companies have contributed $17.5 million to members of Congress during the 2022 midterm election cycle as of Oct. 19, a new OpenSecrets analysis found.

Congress is expected to pass the largest Pentagon spending bill in history after the midterm election. A huge share of the potential $858 billion package passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee – which still needs to be approved by both the House and Senate – will likely go to companies in the defense sector. One-third to half of the money allocated to the Department of Defense and related programs went to defense contractors from 2001 to 2020, the Brown University Costs of War Project found.

The lion’s share of Pentagon contracts have historically gone to five companies – Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. These five companies spent $44.5 million of the total $101 million the sector has spent on federal lobbying during the first nine months of 2022.

Aerospace and defense prime contractors –those that bid to work directly with the government on certain contracts – dramatically consolidated from 51 in the 1990s to just these five companies today, according to a February report from the Department of Defense.

From 2016 to 2021, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamic raked in more than $765 billion from the federal government, including $704.8 billion from the Department of Defense.

These five contractors received more money from the Department of Defense and the federal government than any other government contractor since 2016 – only Pfizer breached the top five Department of Defense contractor ranks during 2021 amid the coronavirus vaccine rollout that year.

The defense sector is spending less money on federal lobbying this year than it has in prior years as demand for weapons to Ukraine continues and the U.S. flirts with “great power competition” against Russia and China. Inflation is also helping to drive Pentagon budget increases.

“I really think inflation is driving this thing,” said Stephen Semler, the co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, a grassroots think tank that promotes U.S. foreign policy reform.

Inflation is at the highest level in decades, and defense contractors and industry groups including the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Defense Industrial Association have pushed for a higher Pentagon budget and adjustments to fixed price contracts to account for higher costs.

Members of armed services and appropriations committees attract most defense sector contributions

Of the $19.5 million the defense sector – plus Boeing, which OpenSecrets codes as part of the transportation industrycontributed to congressional candidates during the 2022 election cycle, $17.5 million went to incumbent members of Congress.

The largest recipients of contributions from affiliates of those defense companies serve on the House or Senate armed services and appropriations committees, which are responsible for crafting the annual National Defense Authorization Act. That act funds the annual defense spending – and, by extension, a substantial part of these defense contractors’ coffers – every year.

One leading voice in Congress calling for the Pentagon budget to rise with the rate of inflation is Rep. Mike Rogers (R–Ala.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. He’s also the top recipient of contributions from the defense sector this cycle, having received over $444,000 from individuals and PACs affiliated with defense contractors during the 2022 election cycle.

The defense sector also contributed more money to Rogers’ campaign this election cycle than any other sector since 2012, according to OpenSecrets’ data.

“Remember: At the end of the day, getting the inflation number right is important, but it’s only part of the story. If we want to protect our country and meet national security needs, we need 3 to 5 percent real growth above inflation. We plan to accomplish this goal in this year’s NDAA,” said a May press release from Rogers and Sen. James Inhofe (R–Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

While affiliates of the defense sector typically give about equally to support incumbent Democrats and Republicans, individuals and PACs have contributed three times as much money to Republican non-member candidates as Democratic ones. Republican candidates who are not currently members of Congress have collectively received just under $1.5 million, while Democratic non-member candidates have received $486,500.

Defense sector cites inflation to justify increased Pentagon budget

In a letter to leaders of the appropriations and armed services committee this May, the Aerospace Industries Association, a defense industry trade group, urged them to pass defense spending and authorization bills before the end of the fiscal year to show “resolve in the face of Russian and Chinese aggression.”

“Three to 5 percent growth above the inflation rate is the level of investment required to support America’s global force, maintain our competitive edge over adversaries, and catch up technologically in areas where we are falling behind,” wrote Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Eric Fanning.

The National Defense Industrial Association also claimed that the Department of Defense will lose more than $110 billion in buying power between fiscal year 2021 and 2023.

The Pentagon spending package passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee at the end of June added $45 billion to President Joe Biden’s initial request.

But defense spending has never been tied to inflation, and economy-wide inflation rates are a poor indicator of price changes for defense-specific purchases, Heidi Peltier, director of the Costs of War Project and a senior researcher at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Public Affairs, wrote in May.

“If inflation were the only concern, the NDAA would be at most a few billion over the original proposal, nothing like $45 billion, which far surpasses not only Biden’s request but also any reasonable amount of inflation that the DoD would actually experience,” Peltier said in a written statement to OpenSecrets.

Boeing reported a significant $2.8 billion loss on its defense programs during its third quarter earnings call, primarily due to cost overruns on the KC-46 tanker and new Air Force One, Defense One reported. While the company cited inflation as one of several challenges facing Boeing and the industry, Boeing’s cost overruns for the KC-46 program had already exceeded $5 billion in January 2021.

Under the firm fixed-price contract, Boeing paid those cost overruns out-of-pocket. But leaders from the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Defense Industries Association reportedlypressed the Pentagon and members of Congress to increase the ceiling on firm-fixed-price contracts to account for inflation.

“There’s a myth that’s perpetuated by the arms industry and also establishment figures like [President Joe] Biden that military spending equals security, that there’s a causal link between the two as if security is a commodity that can only be purchased through Pentagon appropriations,” Semler told OpenSecrets. “Now, because of inflation, under that logic, it means we can buy less, so we’re buying less security unless we increase the budget.”

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Featured image: President Joe Biden delivers remarks to Department of Defense personnel at the Pentagon on February 10, 2021. (DoD/Lisa Ferdinando)

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The Bunker: The Trillion-Dollar Pentagon

November 11th, 2022 by Mark Thompson

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***

This week in The Bunker: the Pentagon is on the verge of spending $1 trillion a year; honoring vets by incorporating their care into the defense budget; a dirty little secret that boosts defense spending; and more.

Fitting the Pentagon to a ‘T’: The nation’s first trillion-dollar defense budget looms

It’s not here yet, by most accounting, but we’re within spitting distance of spending $1 trillion annually on the U.S. military. This might actually be a good thing, if more spending made us safer. But it doesn’t. It only makes us feel safer, which is a devil’s bargain.

The Senate version of the 2023 defense authorization act earmarks $857 billion (PDF) for national defense. The slackers in the House only want $850 billion (PDF), which may be why it’s known as the “lower house.” Both bills are well beyond President Biden’s $813 billion request. Differences between the two versions will be ironed out in the coming weeks, but the bottom line is that the Pentagon is bound to break the trillion-dollar barrier relatively soon.

Even let’s-spend-more conservatives are split on this gusher. “We need a $1 trillion defense budget,” argued Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, earlier this year. “We need more and better weapons for a newly threatening security environment,” he wrote shortly after Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine. “Russia’s aggression underlines the potential of the U.S. having to fight simultaneous wars in Europe and Asia, to defend NATO and to stave off a China attack on Taiwan or elsewhere, when our forces currently may not be adequate to winning one fight.” Simultaneous wars in Europe and Asia? Be thankful he didn’t enlist the Star Wars’ Sith to inflate the threat even more.

But Lowry’s colleague Philip Klein shot the notion down. “We can’t afford a $1 trillion defense budget,” Klein maintained, citing the fiscal challenges facing the nation and bipartisan stupor when it comes to dealing with them. And, as always, there is the political angle: “If conservatives get behind the idea of massive hikes in the military budget, it gives them a lot less credibility in arguing against the massive social spending being proposed on the left.”

The Pentagon budget generally rides an up escalator, as former Assistant Secretary of Defense Larry Korb spells out (WARNING: Math Alert, Including Percentages) as he details the Biden administration’s creation of the 2023 defense budget:

The administration had to choose a base starting point: the $753 billion it originally requested for FY [fiscal year] 2022 or the $770 billion it projected it would request in FY 2023. Alternatively, the administration could use the $780 billion that Congress authorized for FY 2022, which was $37 billion — 5% — more than President Biden’s proposal for FY 2022 and $10 billion more than he intended to request for FY 2023.

Instead of choosing either of these base amounts in its FY 2023 budget proposal, the Biden administration requested $813 billion, which went far beyond what it proposed in FY 2022. This was a result of pressure from Congress — including from many Democrats, who objected to several of President Biden’s proposed reductions, particularly to the Navy — and the impact of inflation on pay for active duty, reserve, and retired military personnel. This is $33 billion — about 4% — more than what Congress approved in FY 2022 and about $45 billion — 10% — more than the administration projected it would propose in FY 2023.

And that was all before Congress further fattened it up.

Estimates of when U.S. defense spending will top $1 trillion range from next year to 2027 to 2030 depending on gobs of variables. Toss in elements like homeland security and the Pentagon’s share of interest paid on the national debt — as Mandy Smithberger, the former director of the Center for Defense Information here at the Project On Government Oversight has done — and a case can be made that the nation crossed that $1 trillion threshold five years ago.

Speaking of which…

Accounting for veterans

Technically speaking, of course, we do already spend well over $1 trillion annually on national defense, even before adding in national debt interest. You can get there simply by adding what we pay to care for our veterans to the Pentagon’s purse. This year, we’ve authorized $778 billion for today’s military, and appropriated another $271 billion to spend in 2022 for those who fought yesterday’s wars (total: $1.05 trillion). VA spending has more than doubled over the past decade. Its proposed $301 billion 2023 budget is more than the $298 billion the Pentagon spent in 1999.

The Defense Department pays to mothball ships, store warplanes in the desert, and clean up its environmental messes. Why should soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Guardians be treated any differently?

We owe our veterans a lot. That’s something to keep in mind every day, not just this week when Veterans Day comes around. One way of acknowledging that debt is to incorporate the cost of caring for them into the U.S. defense budget.

How Contractors Make More Money by Refusing to Share Their Blueprints

The Bunker regularly comes across contract awards earmarked for a weapon’s developer because that original builder is the only one who has the detailed specs and drawings needed to build spare parts. William LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top civilian weapons buyer, was speaking at a weapons-buying conference November 4 when he recalled what an unnamed defense industry official told him about contractors’ reluctance to share such data.

“To be honest with you, you’re going to have to make us do it,” the contractor told LaPlante. “We will not do it on our own, because it actually puts us at a disadvantage to our competitor. If my stuff is interchangeable with another company’s stuff, then I’ve just lowered the barrier of entry.”

Take this recent contract (PDF) to Bell Helicopter for chopper maintenance. “The Government does not currently own the technical data, nor possess the requisite license rights necessary to compete the efforts anticipated,” the Pentagon said in justifying its award to Bell without competition. “The estimated timeframe to qualify another source and develop the technical data for the requirements herein is eight (8) years.”

The type of helicopter involved first flew 66 years ago.

That’s another reason why the annual U.S. defense budget will soon top $1 trillion.

Here’s what has caught The Bunker’s eye recently

Secret wars

The Brennan Center for Justice published a November 3 investigation into the clandestine combat the U.S. military has been waging in more than a dozen nations around the world since 9/11.

Submarine race to the bottom

After the USS Connecticut rammed the sea floor because its crew failed to follow existing rules, the service has rolled out an armada of new rules they can ignore, Navy Times reported November 2.

Count your blessings…

Not a single word about the 2022 mid-term elections in The Bunker this week. You’re welcome.

Thanks for hanging out with The Bunker. Consider forwarding this on to acquaintances so they can sign up here.

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Mark Thompson writes for the Center for Defense Information at POGO.

Featured image is from POGO

Bamboo Diplomacy: The China-Southeast Asia Romance

November 11th, 2022 by Pepe Escobar

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***

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is monopolizing the Asian and Global South spotlight for no fewer than 10 days, this week and the next, across a flurry of regional and international summits. 

First stop is Phnom Penh for the 25th China-ASEAN summit, the 25th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) summit, and the 17th East Asia Summit, all the way to Sunday.

Next week will be Bali for the Group of Twenty, followed by Bangkok for the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit.

No wonder the diplomatic spin across Southeast Asia is all about global governance entering the “Asia moment” – as coined by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. It’s a moment that may be set to last a century – and beyond.

In parallel, Chinese diplomacy is also predictably on a roll. Premier Li Keqiang – who will step down next March, after two terms in office – heads Beijing’s delegation in Cambodia after two key Southeast Asian interactions: the visit by Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong to China and Chinese Vice-Premier Han Zheng’s visit to Singapore.

All that fits the pattern of increasing China-Southeast Asia integration. Since 2020, ASEAN has been China’s largest trading partner. China has been ASEAN’s top trading partner since 2009. Total China-ASEAN trade reached $878 billion in 2021, up from $686 billion in 2020. It had been $9 billion in 1991. China-ASEAN investment was more than US$340 billion by last July, according to the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing.

Interests particularly converge on deepening RCEP – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest trade deal on the planet. That translates in practice as closer integration of supply chains, infrastructure connectivity and the building of a new international land-sea trade corridor.

So it’s no wonder all the slogans for these 10 days of summits reflect closer integration. The ASEAN 2022 theme is “ASEAN A C T: Addressing Challenges Together.” The Indonesians defined the G20 as “Recover Together, Recover Stronger.” And the Thais defined APEC as “Open. Connect. Balance.”

Now bend that bamboo

Timing is everything. After the Communist Party Congress defined the parameters of “peaceful modernization” and how Beijing will develop globalization 2.0 with Chinese characteristics, diplomacy was ready to go on the offensive. And not only across Southeast Asia.

On South Asia, Beijing hosted Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Regardless of who holds power in Islamabad, Pakistan remains strategically crucial, with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) connecting to the Western Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and beyond toward Europe.

Pakistan cannot be left to implode under severe financial constraints. So it’s no wonder that Xi Jinping promised that “China will continue to do its best to support Pakistan in stabilizing its financial situation.”

Image: Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif visited Beijing. Photo is licensed under Creative Commons

They were very specific on CPEC: Priorities are the construction of auxiliary infrastructure for Gwadar port in the Arabian Sea and to upgrade the Karachi Circular Railway project.

On Africa, Beijing hosted Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu.

Beijing is constantly inviting African leaders to discuss trade and investment in a “South-South” format. So it’s no wonder the Chinese find receptivity to their ideas and necessities to an extent that’s absolutely out of the question in the West.

China-Tanzania is now a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.” This is quite significant, because now Tanzania is on the same level as Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, in China’s ultra-complex “friendship” hierarchy. Tanzania, incidentally, is a crucial source of soybeans.

On Europe, Beijing received German Chancellor Olof Scholz for a lightning-fast visit, leading a caravan of business executives. Beijing may not “save” Berlin from its current self-enforced predicament; at least it’s clear that German business will not go for “decoupling” from China.

It’s crucial to remember that Vietnam, Pakistan and Tanzania are all key partners in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And the same applies to Germany: The Ruhr Valley is the privileged Belt and Road terminal in the European Union.

All that leaves the Quad, AUKUS, the “Indo-Pacific Framework” and the “Partners for a Blue Pacific” – different denominations of isolation/demonization of China – trailing in the dust. Not to mention the imperial drive to impose “decoupling.”

Beijing knows full well Singapore’s role as the essential Southeast Asian finance/tech node. Hence the signing of 19 bilateral deals, some related to high tech.

But as far as optics go, the key visitor may have been Vietnam. Forget about their South China Sea tensions. For Beijing, what matters is that Nguyen Phu Trong came to visit immediately after the Communist Party conference – somehow echoing the centuries-old tribute system. Hanoi may have no interest whatsoever in being strategically dominated by Beijing. But demonstrating respect – and neutrality – is the Asian diplomatic way to go.

Trong made a point to note that “Vietnam considers its friendly cooperation with China the first priority of its foreign policy.”

That may not necessarily mean that Hanoi is privileging Beijing over Washington. The meaning of “first priority” seems to be clear: China and Vietnam agreed to turbocharge work on the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea. That also happens to be a key Chinese priority – as it keeps the process as an inter-Asian matter without the predictable “foreign interference.”

It was Trong himself who first came up with the fascinating idea of “bamboo diplomacy“: soft, clever, persistent and resolute. The concept may be easily applied to the whole of China-Southeast Asian relations.

Round up the jargon

This week in Phnom Penh, there are serious discussions on deepening the RCEP; problems on the food and energy front; and speeding up the negotiation of what is billed as the 3.0 version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

All that involves a key issue: the interconnection of BRI projects and ASEAN’s so-called Outlook on the Indo-Pacific – a series of ASEAN  development strategies.

A good example is the endless high-speed-rail saga related to connecting Yunnan province in southern China to Singapore.

The building of the Thai section was proposed even ahead of the Laos section. Yet Kunming-Vientiane was ready in record time – and is rolling – while the Thais have been endlessly haggling and lost in corruption and internal infighting: Only part of their section at best will be finished by 2028.

The same applies to Malaysia and Singapore still not finding an agreement. This is the case of a key connectivity corridor across Southeast Asia hobbled by internal and bilateral trouble. In parallel, the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has proceeded with only a few bumps.

As much as China and ASEAN established an official comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021, several key BRI projects are intimately connected to Southeast Asia. After all, Xi Jinping launched the Maritime Silk Road concept in Jakarta more than nine years ago.

The same applies to solving the seemingly intractable issues of the South China Sea. The Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea was signed by Beijing and ASEAN 20 years ago.

In geopolitical terms, the 10-headed ASEAN hydra is a unique beast: a living lab of peaceful – civilizational – co-existence.

Trade has always been the secret weapon. It has always been a two-way road between China and Southeast Asia. History tells us that the willingness of Southeast Asian rulers to submit – even if symbolically – to China explains the predominant Make Trade Not War ethos.

The main exception was Vietnam, occupied by China from 111 BC until AD 963-979. But even as Vietnam became independent from China a millennium ago, it always remained deeply influenced by Chinese culture. In contrast, the Chinese who were assimilated into Thai culture gave up Confucianism and ended up adopting Indian court rituals.

In parallel, as Professor Wang Gungwu in Singapore always noted, paying tribute and requesting protection from the Chinese imperial dynasties never meant that Beijing could do what it wanted across Southeast Asia.

In the current incandescent geopolitical juncture, China is definitely not interested in playing divide and rule in Southeast Asia. Chinese strategic planners seem to understand that ASEAN carries a lot of soft power smoothing the big power play across Southeast Asia, offering a platform for all to engage with each other.

No one seems to mistrust ASEAN. That also explains why the Southeast Asians have come up with an acronym fest that basically hails cooperation – from ASEM and ASEAN+3 to APEC.

So it’s enlightening to remember that “China is prepared to open itself to ASEAN countries,” as Xi himself said when he launched the Maritime Silk Road in Jakarta in 2013. “China is committed to greater connectivity with ASEAN countries” – and “China will propose the establishment of an Asian infrastructure investment bank that would give priority to ASEAN countries’ needs.”

The bilateral relationships between China and each of the 10 members of ASEAN may carry their own particular complications. But there seems to be a consensus that no bilateral will determine the future of China-Southeast Asian relations.

The discussions this week in Phnom Penh and next week in Bali and Bangkok suggest that Southeast Asia has ruled out either extreme: paying tribute or demonizing China.

Across Southeast Asia the Chinese diaspora has been informally referred to for decades as “the bamboo internet.” The same metaphor would apply to China-Southeast Asia diplomacy: Gotta go the bamboo way. Soft, clever, persistent – and enduring.

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This article was originally published on Asia Times.

Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture. Since the mid-1980s he’s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok. He has extensively covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to China, Iran, Iraq and the wider Middle East. Pepe is the author of Globalistan – How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War; Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad during the Surge. He was contributing editor to The Empire and The Crescent and Tutto in Vendita in Italy. His last two books are Empire of Chaos and 2030. Pepe is also associated with the Paris-based European Academy of Geopolitics. When not on the road he lives between Paris and Bangkok. 

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will head Beijing’s delegation in Cambodia for regional meetings. Photo: CCTV screen grab

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***

My title comes from a song sung by soldiers as they marched to hell in the trenches of World War I and the same song my sisters and I sang in the car as our parents drove us to our summer vacation in paradise at Edgewater Farm.

I think of this as we march to WW III.

The soldiers, who would be slaughtered by the millions as pawns in the great game, sardonically sung it to the tune of Old Lang Syne to express their bewilderment at why they were fighting in the so-called “War to End All Wars” or “the Great War.”

We children sang it because we had heard the words but had no idea where they came from, yet they seemed playful and weird and easy to remember and we were celebrating our good fortune in leaving the city and arriving at the farm for a week’s country idyll.

War and peace absurdly juxtaposed.  Because?  Because everyone needs to be somewhere even if they don’t know why.

Yet today so many people feel lost in a world gone mad, a nowhere land, far further from somewhere than when John Lennon penned the words to “Nowhere Man” in 1965.  It is no wonder he was assassinated in 1980, for he was a man growing into a profound anti-war consciousness.

Now we’re again celebrating Armistice/Remembrance/Veteran’s Day on November 11 in a world forever at war and with nuclear annihilation staring us in the face.  Always the bitter Old Lie told by the depraved political and economic elites to suck the masses into death.  Wilfred Owen, killed in action on November 4, 1918 one week before the Armistice, murmurs to us from his French grave:

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

But what do dead poets know?  Only everything important.

What child would want such gory glory as dulce et decorum est pro patria moriun less it was pounded into its head by men in love with death?

Do they think the dead can hear the cheers?

Can we hear the songs of the poets who link us back to contemplate the atrocities of the battles of The Somme, Passchendaele, Marne, Gallipoli, Verdun, etc. with all the official lies told by the political jackals responsible for these slaughters?

At the farm, my many sisters and I, despite not knowing what we had sung, did know why we were where we were; our “because” had a clear answer.  We were there to choose life, not death, to enjoy living, which we knew was a precious gift from parents who could barely afford the expense.  We walked barefoot down the sandy dirt road between the green pasture where the cows lolled dreamily and the quiet waters of the limpid creek to the swimming hole where we would float for hours with the fish as turtles eyed us from their log perches in the sun.

What child would want to wallow in blood and gore for a posthumous medal?

What parent would want their child to march to war to die, rather than swim in the waters of life and love?

We’re here because we’re here because nihilism is celebrated as patriotism and the love of death masquerades as love of life.  The nations that celebrate these war days do not do so to foster peace but to remind people that it is indeed sweet to die for one’s country.  And God too, of course.  Because?  The poet Dylan sings the truth.  Just listen: “With God on Our Side”  or hear Phil Ochs’ “Is There Anybody Here.”

But all of this was once upon a time in the 1960s when many people were realizing that war was a racket, as Marine General Smedley Butler told us long ago.  Today sleep has descended on most people while the disease of war is injected into the public’s bloodstream in a manner learned well from the massive propaganda campaign of WW I.  In the USA then, it was the Committee on Public Information, led by George Creel, Edward Bernays, Walter Lippmann, et al. who “manufactured the consent” of the public to hate the “Huns,” keep their mouths shut, and spy on their neighbors, all in the service of a jolly-good war “over there.”  Today the spying and propaganda apparatus dwarfs those efforts exponentially with its electronic, digital technology.

But poets don’t text the truth.  They sing it and think it and tell it, even when nobody’s listening.

We’re all lucky to still be here.  If we continue to celebrate past wars and the soldiers who fought them in a sly homage to the greatness of war, we are doomed.  We won’t be here because….

Here’s Liam Clancy singing of one man’s story of war’s greatness.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Behind the Curtain.

Edward Curtin is a prominent author, researcher and sociologist based in Western Massachusetts. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image is from Free the People


He is the author of Seeking the Truth in a Country of Lies

To order his book, click here.

“Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies is a dazzling journey into the heart of many issues — political, philosophical, and personal — that should concern us all.  Ed Curtin has the touch of the poet and the eye of an eagle.” Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“Edward Curtin puts our propaganda-stuffed heads in a guillotine, then in a flash takes us on a redemptive walk in the woods — from inferno to paradiso.  Walk with Ed and his friends — Daniel Berrigan, Albert Camus, George Orwell, and many others — through the darkest, most-firefly-filled woods on this earth.” James W. Douglass, author, JFK and the Unspeakable

“A powerful exposé of the CIA and our secret state… Curtin is a passionate long-time reform advocate; his stories will rouse your heart.” Oliver Stone, filmmaker, writer, and director

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Imran Khan Shooting: Pakistan Has Reached a Tipping Point

November 11th, 2022 by Junaid S. Ahmad

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***

Even as Pakistan grapples with the fallout from severe flooding, throngs of people have continued to take to the streets to push for radical change. The shooting earlier this month of former Prime Minister Imran Khan at one of these protests has brought the country to a tipping point. 

Today, Khan’s popularity as a political leader is at its peak – and this is precisely why he is now in trouble. Removed from office in April after losing a no-confidence vote orchestrated by his political enemies, he has displayed an indefatigable resolve to fight back.

What has followed has been nothing less than historic. Pakistan has seen many civilian politicians deposed unceremoniously, but the bulk of ordinary people have been fairly indifferent to such elite intrigues. The nation’s curse has been that sometimes the civilian politicians in power, and their blatant plundering of the country, have actually made military rule seem better – or at least no different.

Khan’s ouster engendered anger among large segments of the population, who believed that the “Khan experiment” was now dead. His decision to fight back is frankly miraculous in a country where wealth and power are so obscenely monopolised by the civilian and military elites who despise Khan.

Across the country, Khan has held rallies to reinvigorate a population that otherwise might have fallen into despair over the restoration of the old political order. In the scorching heat of the summer and through the devastating floods, Khan has not budged an inch on his simple core demand: that the country holds elections to determine who should govern.

Desperately seeking change

Yet, what seems like a fairly banal demand is anathema to the traditional mainstream political parties. The Pakistan Muslim League (N) in particular, whose leader Shehbaz Sharif has been appointed prime minister without a mandate from the people, is in panic mode. It has long been accustomed to dominating the most powerful and populous province of the country, Punjab, which was reclaimed in July by-elections by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The rise of Khan’s PTI has been no small feat, with the relatively young party breaking the stranglehold of the two-party duopoly that dominated the country’s political life for decades. Clearly, Pakistanis desperately want change.

Pakistan’s ruling elites have tried pretty much everything to curb this trend, seeking to outlaw voting by overseas Pakistanis, who overwhelmingly support Khan. Police hit Khan with absurd “terrorism” charges, and the state’s election commission recently disqualified him from contesting elections. Rather than addressing the gargantuan social and economic problems facing Pakistan, the regime is clearly fixated on destroying Khan.

But the government is not the only player in this saga. Khan enjoys widespread support within the ranks of the Pakistani military, perhaps explaining why the heavily militarised national security state has been so reluctant to repress popular mobilisations. If such orders were issued, there is a real risk that soldiers’ guns could turn the other way, sparking a rebellion within the military.

These are the same armed forces that for the past two decades, have been forced to sacrifice and die for the American “war on terror”. By this point, they are surely more attracted to Khan’s pledge to be a friend of the US in peace but not in war, than to any new orders the military high command might devise in connivance with Washington.

Meanwhile, illegal detentions, torture, and murders are happening on this government’s watch. High-profile journalist Arshad Sharif, who had exposed corruption in the regime, was killed last month in strange circumstances after he fled to Kenya. Pakistan’s political groups have been thoroughly exposed for their hypocrisy, lies, and opportunism.

Uncertainty ahead

At this point, we can only speculate as to the motivation for Khan’s shooting last week. He was wounded in the leg, in what his supporters have called an assassination attempt. If a trained shooter from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies wanted to kill Khan, many observers believe, then that would have been the outcome.

Rather, some say the shooting might have been a warning to Khan and his supporters, one of whom died in the same incident after sustaining bullet wounds. But this explanation seems weak because the whole world knows by now that virtually nothing could deter Khan from openly confronting the powers-that-be, whether in Islamabad or Washington.

Whatever the motivation, this could backfire badly, adding momentum to Khan’s push for change. The former prime minister has emphasised that his rallies and marches must remain peaceful, and indeed, the demonstrations thus far have been incredibly disciplined.

At the same time, we must not lose sight of the larger geopolitical power plays at work here. Khan has accused Washington of being behind a conspiracy to keep him from the halls of power. At a time when the US has been humiliated by its former puppets – including Saudi Arabia and India, which have refused to go along with the “new cold war” that the US is waging against China and Russia – Washington apparently wants to revive relations with the formidable Pakistani military.

Khan is no revolutionary socialist, but he believes that Pakistan has the right to maintain its own independent foreign policy. For that reason, he will remain an impediment to Washington.

While the outcome of this chaotic situation is deeply uncertain, one thing is crystal clear: The political battle is between Khan and the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis on one side, and the powerful and wealthy civilian and military elites (sponsored by Washington) on the other. Despite legitimate criticisms of how Khan governed when in power, progressives must be able to figure out where they stand now.

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This article was originally published on Middle East Eye.

Junaid S. Ahmad teaches Religion and World Politics and is the Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decoloniality, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from IRF

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***

One of the more tiresome experiences for anyone engaged in long-term solidarity work with the Palestinians is encountering the same old Zionist myths, churned out year after year despite having been conclusively disproved by any objective standard. Anyone who watched “The X-Files” will recall the poster in Mulder’s room of a UFO beneath which were the words, “I want to believe.” The doggedness with which veteran Israel supporters cling to myths suggests a similar commitment of faith.

Perhaps the most obviously discredited myth is that the majority of Palestinian Arabs fled their homes in 1948 at the call of their leaders. It still surfaces fairly often, although it looks set to fade away in the not too distant future, not because its adherents are convinced that it is unfounded, but mainly because of age taking its toll.

After 1948, generations of Americans perceived Israel to be an enlightened, democratic and humane country. Blaming the Palestinians for their own exile and dispossession was necessary to preserve that image. The essential vindication of the Palestinians’ own accounts of 1948 over the past 30 or so years has occurred while Israel has increasingly embraced the most racist, nationalistic forms of Zionism without any pretense of liberalism or enlightened values. Israel’s current political leaders are less inclined to worry about denying Israel’s responsibility for the mass expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 than their predecessors. According to a 2016 Pew poll, nearly half of Israeli Jews openly wish that the rest had been expelled and express the desire that the Palestinians might still be removed, one way or another. How is it possible to support Israel today without endorsing or at least enabling the policies to which such outlooks give rise?

Yet some propaganda themes have already bitten the dust. I was reminded of this while sorting through some old papers from the 1960s. Some capitalized on Westerners’ general lack of knowledge of the Middle East. We were told that Israelis greet each other with the word shalom, peace, and this showed the value they attached to that concept. The fact that Arabs greeted each other with salaam ‘alaykum, translated into English as “peace be unto you,” was not mentioned, although it could equally well be cited as evidence of their appreciation of peace.

In 1967, Israel could still rely on Westerners’ ignorance of the Palestinians and their history. When addressing U.S. audiences, Israel’s proponents used maps that showed all the lands of the Arab countries; by comparison, Israel looked very small. “The Arabs have all this territory, and the Jews only want this tiny scrap of land as a state,” was the accompanying description, with minor variations. The size of the Arab world was actually irrelevant: the territory in contention was the land of Palestine, home to a people who were not Egyptians, Algerians or Iraqis, but Palestinians. Denying the national identity and history of the Palestinian people and subsuming them into “the Arabs” not only obscured the nature of the conflict, but reinforced the Zionist contention that the “Arab refugees” should be resettled in Arab countries. It’s rather as if an invader of say, Peru or Costa Rica, had offered the justification for displacing their people by pointing to a map of Latin America and saying, “Look at all the land these Latinos have!”

News commentaries on Israelis killed in the late 1960s would sometimes say that the loss of life was deeply felt at a national level because the population of Israel was small. By implication, the more numerous Arabs did not feel the loss of life as deeply, as if numbers diluted grief. Few people outside the region would have made a comparison with the Palestinians and realized that the size of the Palestinian population was comparable to Israel’s. Why would Palestinians not deeply feel the loss of their fellow nationals in conflict? In fact, any reporter who bothered to visit Palestinian communities was able to confirm that they did.

One story that rapidly evaporated was that of the boots. Just after the Israeli attack on Egypt in June 1967, photographs appeared in some Western newspapers and magazines (including Life) showing lots of military boots scattered upon the ground. It was reported that they had been discarded by Egyptian soldiers who, as simple peasant farmers, were not used to wearing boots and had taken them off so that they could run away more easily.

There were problems with this story from the start: more perceptive observers might have wondered whether people who knew how hot a desert could get underfoot would actually have done this. The story suggested that the Egyptian soldiers were easily vanquished and put to rout. Over the following months, a fuller picture emerged of what happened.

Under assault by a well-prepared and strong adversary who took total command of the skies through a surprise attack, the Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip and Sinai took heavy losses but initially fought determinedly. Their cohesion broke down when their panicky high command ordered them to retreat, at a time when their communications were badly disrupted. Those retreating in the area of the Mitla Pass in central Sinai were sitting ducks for Israeli air strikes.

Israeli tanks and soldiers encountered thousands of demoralized Egyptian soldiers. Around 5,000 were taken prisoner. Scattered reports told of soldiers who’d abandoned their weapons being shot down by Israeli soldiers when they approached and pleaded for water. While some Israeli soldiers acted humanely, others simply saw the taking of prisoners who would need to be guarded, given water and fed as a burden that they should not bear. Weaponless and disorganized, the Egyptians could be left to try to walk back toward the Suez Canal or die of thirst in the desert. Some Arab sources later claimed that Israeli troops forced Egyptian soldiers to take off their boots before turning them loose: it diminished both their ability to resume fighting and, in some cases, their chances of survival.

Stories of Egyptian incompetence and unmartial qualities ultimately backfired on Israel. Such stories encouraged the Israeli soldiers to assume that Israel enjoyed military superiority over Egypt and to underestimate the determination and ability of the Egyptian army to rebuild its strength and recover its lost territory. They were shocked by the initial successes of the Egyptian armed forces in October 1973, which crossed the Suez Canal under heavy bombardment and drove Israeli soldiers from their well-fortified positions. Disparaging the courage and fighting ability of Egyptian troops no longer seemed like a good idea to Israeli publicists.

Some old Zionist myths have lost their utility to their makers and others have been so badly discredited that they have ceased to be reiterated. New ones are brought into service, old themes given a new coat of paint, but they are, if anything, even less credible than the preceding ones and will meet the same fate. It is no wonder that present-day Israel and its supporters put great effort into shutting down arguments over Palestine through the accusation of “anti-Semitism.” They don’t have a case that can be validated by logical arguments based on facts, international law and basic principles of humanity.

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John Gee is a free-lance journalist based in Singapore and the author of Unequal Conflict: The Palestinians and Israel.

Featured image: Israeli warplanes attacked hundreds of towers and civilian ‘targets’ in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

Who Is Winning, Who Is Losing, the Ukraine War?

November 11th, 2022 by Eric Zuesse

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Speculation is rife that U.S/NATO are winning the military war in Ukraine (by arming and commanding Ukraine’s armed forces — it’s a proxy-war on the U.S. side), and also is rife that Russia is winning the military war in Ukraine (using its own forces), but “the fog of war” and propagandistic agendas dominate the military war on both sides (both the U.S.-and-allied side that gets its ‘information’ from Ukraine’s Government and the Russian side that gets its ‘information’ from Russia’s Government).

It’s a two-front war: the military front, and the economic front. And that “fog of war” pertains ONLY to the military aspect of the war. It does NOT pertain to the economic front.

The ‘fog of war’ is almost 100% uncertainty on the military front, and nobody yet really knows which side is actually winning this war militarily.

BY STARK CONTRAST: The economic front is 100% controlled by investors and is indisputably shown in the changes in the respective values of the currencies on the two sides: the value of the ruble relative to the dollar, and to the pound, and to the euro, today versus on 1 January 2022, which initial date was before anyone had any clear knowledge that Russia would invade Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and would promptly be hit by an all-out economic war against Russia: intense primary and secondary sanctions to create an economic iron wall between East and West, an economic blockade (by “The West”) against Russia.

Here are those economic changes, and the victor, thus far, in the war’s ECONOMIC front is clearly and unambiguously shown in each of these three graphs: see this.

See this

As that shows: The immediate response by investors to the 24 February 2022 invasion was to think that Russia’s economy would be crushed by “The West”; but, ever since May, there has been a remarkably stable belief by investors that instead Western (i.e., UK/U.S.-and-allied) economies will be crushed — crushed by What?
.
Crushed by the UK/U.S.-and-allied sanctions and by the U.S./UK blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines in order to lock Europe out of what was and had long been Europe’s cheapest and most plentiful energy-source: Russia.
.
Now, both consumers and industry in the EU will be grossly overpaying for energy because their Governments are allied with UK/U.S against Russia, instead of with Russia against UK/U.S. They will be paying a hefty price for years to come, because they are allied Westward instead of Eastward.

Nazis overwhelmingly support Ukraine against Russia, and now are leading throughout The West. Consumers and industries in UK and in Europe — and even in America itself — will be paying hefty prices for the nazi policies by their leaders. Are they democracies? One might also ask: Is Russia a democracy?

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This article was originally published on The Duran.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from The Unz Review

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Agenda skovana u Paklu

November 11th, 2022 by Dragan Filipovic

Oni koji zaborave prošlost su osudjeni da je ponove” – George Santayana, španski pisac

Zadati udarac onima koji ometaju realizaciju plana …” – istorija se ponavlja, seljacima koji se ne pridržavaju vladinog plana se ponovo preti oduzimanjem imanja

Prije sto godina Sovjetske komunističke vlasti su – pod izgovorom opšteg dobra – započele konfiskaciju imovine kulaka (seljaka zemljovlasnika) i time uništili milione života i godinama unazadili sopstvenu privredu. Njihovi ideološki naslednici u 21. vijeku koriste iste metode pod okriljem UN Agende 2030 koju su potpisale sve 193 zemlje članiceUjedinjenih Nacija – iz uvjerenja da to čine za opšte dobro.

 

Komunistička stranka Kine je 1958-1962 pod sloganom Veliki skok naprijed sprovodi prinudnu kolektivizaciju zbog koje je 50 miliona umrlo od gladi; danas “Veliki reset” zamjenjuje Veliki skok

17 Laznih Ciljeva

Agenda 2030 se sastoji od 17 SDGs – Sustainable Development Goals (Ciljeva za održivi razvoj) koji utiču na sve aspekte života na zemlji. Iza njenih atraktivnih deklaracija se krije jedna mračna kontrolna ideologija koja stavlja kolektivni interesispred ličnih prava, uz potpunu uzurpaciju proizvodnih lanaca hrane.

Taj kolektivizam je potvr]en na prošlogodišnjem UN Samitu o Ishrani čija je platforma bila “iskoristiti moć prehrambrenih sistema radi postizanja 17 ciljeva održivog razvoja do 2030.” kao i uvodjenje CO2 naknada zbog borbe protiv ”klimatskih promjena”. Ta agenda podrazumijeva prelazak sa fosilnih goriva na ”zelenu energiju” za šta je koncipirana ESG – Environmental, Social, and Governance (upravljanje životnom sredinom i društvom), metrika usklađenosti sa ciljevima agende.

Šta ako jedna mala grupa svjetskih lidera zaključi da glavni rizik Zemlji potiče iz aktivnosti bogatih država?… Da bi spasili planetu, ta grupa odlučuje: Zar nije jedina nada za planetu da industrijske civilizacije dožive krah? Zar naša obaveza nije da to ostvarimo? – Maurice Strong, mentor Klausa Schwaba i osnivač UN Svjetske Komisije za životnu sredinu i razvoj 1983. godine

”Klimatske promjene” je ključna alatka – uz terorizam i pandemije – u rukama elite koja jača svoju moć stvaranjem globalnih problema koji zahtijevaju globalna rješenja. Njihovo rješenje za ”klimatske promjene” je Net Zero plan za redukciju ”atmosferskih zagađivača” ugljenika i azota, čime se namjerno ignoriše fakat da je ugljenik primarna komponenta života na zemlji koji predstavlja polovinu biomase na planeti i da je azot neophodna supstanca za rast biljaka.

Drveće brže raste uz višu koncentraciju CO2 / Generator za obogaćivanje CO2 na 1500 ppm

Atmosferski nivo ugljen-dioksida je bio višestruko veći u periodima kada je zemlja bila značno zelenija nego danas i kao osnovni nutrijent za biljke je optimalni nivo CO2 višestruko veći od sadašnjih 420 ppm tako da bi njegova drastična redukcija mogla ugroziti život na planeti.

Koncentracija CO2 u atmosferi je iznosila iznad 5,000 ppm (parts per million/delova na milion) u Kambrijskom periodu,pre 550 miliona godina; tokom zadnjih 150 miliona godina taj nivo je pao za 90 % i sada iznosi 420 ppm

U zadnjih pola miliona godina zemlja je prošla kroz četiri ledena doba koja su u prosjeku trajala stotinak hiljada godina i zadnjih 11.500 godina zemlja se nalazi u interglacijalnom periodu koji je omogućio ljudima da se bave poljoprivredom i da izgrade civilizacije; ne zna se kada dolazi sljedeće ledeno doba, jedino da je ono neizbježno.

U prethodna četiri interglacijalna razdoblja su globalne temperature, bez industrije i automobila, bile 2 do 4 stepena više od sadašnjih; prije 120.000 godina nilski konji su šetali Evropom

Teza da ugljen-dioksid predstavlja opasnost za klimu je zasnovana na pseudonauci koju mediji promovišu na isti način kao i Covid narativ u vezi s kojim se poslušno prenosi svaka laž koju emituju vlasti i korporacije, dok se ignorišu glasovi 900.000 zdravstvenih stručnjaka iz Velike Barringtonske Deklaracije koji osudjuju pandemijsku histeriju i samoubilačke pandemijske mjere. Na isti način se zanemaruje Oregonska peticija iz 2007. i stav 32.000 klimatskih stručnjaka koji tvrde da “ne postoji naučni dokaz da ljudsko oslobadjanje ugljen-dioksida, metana ili drugih gasova može izazvati katastrofalno zagrijavanje Zemljine atmosfere i poremećaj klime. Ograničenje stakleničkih gasova bi oštetilo životnu sredinu, poremetilo napredak nauke i tehnologije i naudilo zdravlju i dobrobiti čovječanstva… štaviše, postoje značajni naučni dokazi da bi povećanje atmosferskog ugljen-dioksida imalo puno korisnih efekta na prirodno biljno i životinjsko okruženje zemlje.” Taj stav je nedavno potvrdio norveški Nobelovac, fizičar Ivar Giaever i još 1200 naučnika: “Ne postoji klimatsko vanredno stanje; klimatska nauka je degenerisala u raspravu zasnovanu na uvjerenjima, a ne na zdravoj nauci.”

PLANETARNO ZAHLAĐIVANJE GLOBALNO ZAGRIJAVANJE KLIMATSKE PROMJENE

KLIMATSKI ALARMIZAM SLAVI NESLAVNIH 50 GODINA POSTOJANJA:

70-ih godina zasnovan na zahlađenju planete, da bi u sljedećoj deceniji prešlo na zagrijavanje kako bi se okrivili ljudi; sada se koristi termin “Klimatske promjene” pošto se ni jedna prognoza nije obistinila

Jedini koji vjeruju u klimatske promjene su oni koji od nje profitiraju, kao i učenici koji zbog Grete Thunberg imaju izgovor da izostanu iz škole: uprkos neprestanog napora da se javnost ubijedi u suprotno, Gallup anketa potvrdjuje da svega 3 % Amerikanaca gleda na klimatske promjene kao problem, dok anketa New York Times bilježi da 1 % upitanih navodi klimu kao najvažnije pitanje sa kojim se zemlja suočava. Iz tog razloga klimatska propaganda nastavlja raditi punom parom, koristeći Big Tech da aktivno cenzuriše sve suprotstavljene klima – i naravno Corona – stavove. Nedavno je izbilo u javnost da su prije dvije godine WEF i Ujedinjene Nacije ujedinili snage i angažovali 110.000 “informacionih ratnika” da regulišu internet kako bi “zaštitili svijet od dezinformacija”.

1989: visoki UN zvaničnik za zaštitu životne sredine tvrdi da zbog rasta nivoa mora cijele nacije mogu biti izbrisane sa lica zemlje do 2000. godine, ako ne zaustavimo trend globalnog zagrijavanja. Sva mjerenja pokazuju da je nivo mora svugdje stabilan ili u opadanju

Elite ulažu veliku nadu u mladu generaciju kojoj je predodređeno da, uz pomoć školske indoktrinacije i studentskih pokreta kao što su Fridays for Future, prihvati ”zelenu agendu”. Mladi takođe trebaju naučiti da na ljudski rod gledaju kao pošast planete i akceptirati da će bolni koraci biti potrebni za rješavanje ”klimatske krize” – kao na primjer da će oni biti prva generacija u zadnjih sto godina koja neće moći da posjeduje automobil.

Armada Pentagona emituje više CO2 od 140 svjetskih država ali se ipak ne nalazi na meti Grete Thunberg, alatke globalista kao i američka vojska

Ti bolni koraci na nivou države su vidljivi na primjeru Šri Lanke čiji je ministar životne sredine Mahinda Amaweera, slijepo jureći ESG ciljeve, proglasio inicijativu za “spas zemlje od naše zloupotrebe od geoinženjeringa, pohlepe i sebičnosti” i poslije usvajanja ”taksonomije zelenih finansija” je prošle godine zabranio vještačka gnojiva, za šta je ta zemlja nagrađena ESG ocjenom od 98,1.

Na rezultate tih mjera se nije dugo čekalo pošto su prinosi pirinča ove godine prepolovljeni, privreda zemlje pred kolapsom, a stanovništvo na rubu gladi. To je primoralo Svjetski Ekonomski Forum da sa WEF sajta ukloni članak iz 2018. u kojem se Šri Lanka hvali zbog uspješne ekološke kampanje i prognozira da će se ona do 2025. pridružiti klubu bogatih zemalja.

Lenjinov sledbenik Klaus Schwab i njegov kartel globalista žele u svojim rukama objediniti svu vlast i kontrolu nad cjelokupnim životom na zemlji: “Nećete imati ništa i bićete sretni”

Agenda 2030 – zvanični ciljevi: 1. Eliminacija siromaštva 2. Nula gladi 3. Dobro zdravlje 4. Kvalitetno obrazovanje 5. Rodna ravnopravnost 6. Čista voda i sanitacija … 17. Partnerstvo za postizanje ciljeva

Agenda 2030 – stvarni ciljevi: 1. Eliminacija niže klase 2. GMO hrana/Codex Alimentarius 3. Prinudno cijepljenje 4. Propaganda/Ispiranje mozga/Indoktrinacija 5. Razaranje porodice 6. Privatizacija vode/Racioniranje … 17. Globalna vlada

Svijet bez zagađenja zvuči primamljivo ali se iza te agende krije plan za uvođenje globalnog komunizma u kojem UN/WEFupravljaju svim resursima i populacija zavisi od vlade za životne potrebe.

Novinar Alex Newman upozorava na rat za hranu: “Globalisti žele da uklone male i srednje farmere da bi sve stavili pod kontrolu fašističkog privatno-javnog partnerstva. Ko kontroliše snabdijevanje hranom, kontroliše sve. Jedna stvar koju su komunisti voljeli je stvaranje oskudice da bi svi zavisili od države. Ideja korišćenja hrane kao oružja je bilo obilježje komunističkih režima prije sto godina, i to je obilježje onih koji promovišu Agendu UN-a 2030 i ciljeve održivog razvoja.”

Autor G. Edward Griffin potvrdjuje tu skrivenu agendu: “Prljava tajna Agende je da je to master plan UN za promjenu svjetskog političkog i ekonomskog sistema u totalitarni kolektivizam; da bi se to sprovelo, ljudi se moraju oslanjati na državu za sve, inače se teško mogu kontrolisati. To znači ukidanje privatne svojine da bi se svi sakupili i složili u gradove gde će živjeti u stanovima koje će im država dodijeliti. Niko ne smije posjedovati zemlju i izvor vode pošto oni koji su u stanju uzgajiti hranu predstavljaju prijetnju kolektivističkom društvu jer im tada pomoć države nije potrebna.“

Veliki koraci ka realizaciji Agende su napravljeni zahvaljujući razaranju malih i srednjih preduzeća tokom Covida i odavno planiranom Ukrajinskom ratu koji je smanjio isporuke gnojiva i plina ka Evropi čija privreda ulazi u recesiju. Njemačkoj industriji sada prijeti kolaps, dok je u SAD ove godine uništeno preko stotinu fabrika i distribucionih centara za hranu.

Velika Britanija isplaćuje farmere da napuste svoja imanja – čime vlada koristi sredstva poreskih obveznika da bi osigurala da će se poreski obveznici suočiti s glađu…

što potvrdjue gradonačelnik Londona Sadiq Khan: “Ovako nešto nikada nismo vidjeli. Ove zime milioni ljudi u Velikoj Britaniji tragično neće moći da priušte ni grijanje ni hranu. To ne smije da se desi. Vlada mora da uskoči u pomoć za njihove osnovne potrebe

Diktatura Digitalnog Novca

Da bi se se Net Zero agenda mogla sprovesti u djelo prvo se gotovina mora eliminisati kao sredstvo plaćanja i uveo ”digitalni novčanik” koji će pratiti svu potrošnju. Švedska, koja je 1661. bila prva Evropska zemlja koja je uvela papirne novčanice, će marta iduće godine postati prva zemlja na svijetu koja će ih potpuno zabraniti a širom svijeta se punom parom radi na kreaciji CBDC – digitalnih valuta centralnih banaka koje će vremenom zamijeniti sav novac u opticaju.

Za sada samo informativnog karaktera: NatWest banka iz Velike Britanije računa mjesečni karbonski otisak svojih klijenata na bazi njihove svakodnevne potrošnje

Nature.com studija otkriva da “PCA – personal carbon allowances (lične karbonske naknade) su ključ za postizanje ambicioznih ciljeva redukcije klimatskih promena. Napredak vještačke inteligencije u toku Covid-19 krize nam otvara novu priliku za PCA baziranu na SDG principima.”

Direktor holandske RaboCarbon banke Barbara Baarsma otkriva način funkcionisanja tog digitalnog novčanika: “Trebamo osigurati da svaki gradjanin Holandije dobije fiksnu količinu prava na emisiju ugljenika. Na taj način možemo biti sigurni da ne emitujemo više od našeg godišnjeg limita. Vaše pravo na emisiju će biti smješteno u karbonskom novčaniku. Dakle, ako želim da letim, otkupila bih pravo na CO2 emisiju od nekoga ko sebi ne može priuštiti letenje. Na ovaj način ta siromašna osoba može dodatno zaraditi. Ili ako neko živi u maloj kući, može prodati svoja prava na emisiju nekome ko živi u velikoj kući, na ovaj način siromašni ljudi mogu imati koristi od zelene ekonomije.”

Maldivi su prva zemlja koja je uvela multinamensku ličnu kartu po nacrtu UN Agende 2030 koja zamenjuje pasoš, platnu karticu, vozačku dozvolu i  zdravstvenu knjižicu, što će dozvoliti vlastima da karticu deaktiviraju ako se na primer propusti obavezno cijepljenje

Elita računa da, ako su većinu čovječanstva uspjeli da preplaše lažnom pandemijom, zašto ne ponoviti isti scenario sa imaginarnom klimatskom apokalipsom? Njemački ministar zdravlja Karl Lauterbach već nagovještava lockdown mandate za klimu: “Vakcina protiv CO2 nikada neće postojati. Zato su nam neophodne mjere koje su uporedive sa restrikcijima lične slobode u borbi protiv pandemije da bi prebrodili klimatske promjene.”

Zdravstvene mjere kao izgovor za fašizam: u junu su Kineske vlasti volšebno promijenile QR kodove iz zelenog u crveno za više hiljada osoba iz provincije Henan kako ih spriječile da sudjeluju na protestu protiv nesolventnih banaka koje su im zamrzle depozite

Kanadski lekar Dr. Kyle Merritt se prvi u svijetu dosjetio da pacijentu postavi dijagnozu ”pati od klimatskih promjena’‘, čime je pokrenuo globalnu inicijativu ”Doktori i medicinske sestre za planetarno zdravlje” koja poziva vlasti da proglase ”klimatsko i ekološko vanredno stanje”.

Dok se milioni maski svakodnevno isporuče sa jedne strane planete na drugu, svijet nije u stanju dostaviti hranu siromašnima: 800 miliona osoba gladuje dok se na putu od polja do stola baci dovoljno hrane da se nahrani tri milijardeusta; veliki dio 130 milijardi maski koje se godišnje iskoriste završe u moru gdje se razgrade u mikroplastiku koja ulazi u lanac ishrane i potom u naše organizme

Krave Nisu Problem

Geoinženjering u akciji: svaka poplava, suša, toplotni talas i oluja su sada ”neosporivi dokazi za klimatske promjene” 

Ljudske emisije gasova i zagađenost atmosfere ne predstavljaju opasnost za opstanak planete, već je to zagađivanje ljudskih mozgova od strane propagande koju emituju globalisti zahvaljujući njihovom medijskom monopolu i kontroli naučnih publikacija.

Nezadovoljni kontrolom većine svjetskog bogatstva, oni žele da iz haosa koji su prouzrokovali stvore novi svjetski poredak u kojem posjeduju i diriguju apsolutno sve – prirodne resurse, proizvodnju hrane, ljudski DNK i Zemljinu atmosferu i potom natjerati čovječanstvo da živi u ”pametnim gradovima” gdje će svaki sekund života biti pod nadzorom.

Net Zero, ili u prevodu: Nula energije kada nestane vjetra, nula hrane kada nestane gnojiva i na kraju nula života kada nestane slobode

To će im jedino uspjeti ako mi svi to dozvolimo i dobra vijest je da se poslije Covid debakla sve veći broj ljudi polako ali sigurno budi i dolazi do realizacije da nas čeka pakao ako nastavimo ovim putem. Pitanje je samo, nakon primjene 12 milijardi Covid inekcija, da li će nas ostati dovoljno sposobnih da bi se spriječila ta satanistička, anti-ljudska agenda?

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November 11th, 2022 by Global Research News

Gene-based Vaccination — Quo Vadis?

Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, November 5, 2022

Video: The “Death Tsunami” Is Here. “You should never ever take any Covid shot anymore”. Dr. Sherry Tenpenny

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, November 8, 2022

The Dark Origins of the Davos Great Reset

F. William Engdahl, October 31, 2022

PfizerGate: Official Government Reports prove Hundreds of Thousands of People Are Dying Every Single Week Due to COVID-19 Vaccination

The Expose, November 6, 2022

Pfizer Appears to Have Corrupted the Entire Western World

Dr. Robert Malone, November 9, 2022

Why Are Cancers Escalating Post-mRNA Vaccination?

DailyClout, November 4, 2022

Video: Pfizer’s “Secret” Report on the Covid Vaccine. Beyond Manslaughter. The Evidence is Overwhelming. The Vaccine Should Be Immediately Withdrawn Worldwide

Prof Michel Chossudovsky, November 6, 2022

Colossal Financial Pyramid: BlackRock and The WEF “Great Reset”

F. William Engdahl, November 6, 2022

Video: Who Blew Up Nord Stream Pipelines? “The Russians Did It”

Matt Orfalea, November 8, 2022

Washington’s Plan to Break Up Russia

Mike Whitney, November 6, 2022

How the Super-Rich Control the U.S. Government

Eric Zuesse, November 6, 2022

Germany: Is the Chancellor Betraying the US Emperor? The New Germany-China “Connection”

Peter Koenig, November 9, 2022

Dear Friends, Sorry to Announce a Genocide: Dr. Naomi Wolf on the Pfizer “Confidential Report”

Dr. Naomi Wolf, November 6, 2022

Long-Term Organ Damage After COVID-19 Vaccines Emerging in Medical Literature

Dr. Peter McCullough, November 9, 2022

The Shortages Are Coming

Michael Snyder, November 9, 2022

Association Between Vaccines and Excess Mortality Getting Stronger — And Is Discussed in UK Parliament

Igor Chudov, November 9, 2022

Pfizer Crimes against our Children: Cardiac Arrest of Two Month Old Baby an Hour after Experimental Vaccine

Ranit Feinberg, November 8, 2022

The U.S. Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II

James A. Lucas, November 8, 2022

Climate Disruption: It’s Not Due to CO2

Prof. Claudia von Werlhof, November 7, 2022

Will You Survive the ‘Tripledemic’?

Dr. Joseph Mercola, November 9, 2022

Pfizer Works to Fast-Track More Vaccines for Pregnant Moms, Despite Mounting Evidence Rushed COVID Shots Harmed Babies

By Children’s Health Defense, November 10, 2022

Buoyed by the successful global marketing of its COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer is teeing up to dominate the maternal vaccine market even as OB-GYNs on the front lines of maternal care sound the alarm about the COVID-19 shots’ infanticidal fallout.

More Thoughts on the Stolen 2022 Election

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, November 11, 2022

In Maricopa County Arizona it appears that the Democrats’ attempt to steal the election is being explained away as a “printer issue.” Somehow the machines that worked in the primaries “malfunctioned” in the election.

Is Turkey Changing Course in Idlib?

By Steven Sahiounie, November 11, 2022

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian warplanes shelled positions of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, on November 6 in Idlib province.  Some of the terrorists killed were: Abdul Minam Muhati, Radwan Hussain Muhayer, Abu Dawoud al-Filistini, Mohammad Ali al-Kadour, Abu Hussein al-Raddad, Abu Hajat al-Chad, Amro abu Layth al-Askandarani, and Mohammed Suliaman al-Ali.

Brain Inflammation and the mRNA Vaccines

By Alex Berenson, November 10, 2022

Three large insurance databases showed sharp increases in cases of severe brain inflammation after the Covid mRNA shots, according to a new peer-reviewed paper. People who received the Pfizer jab or booster had a 40 to 70 percent higher chance over the next six weeks of encephalitis or encephalomyelitis. The Moderna jab carried an even higher risk after the second primary dose or a booster.

Pfizer’s COVID Cash Powers a ‘Marketing Machine’ on the Hunt for New Supernovas

By Arthur Allen, November 10, 2022

The company has reaped nearly $100 billion from selling covid-19 vaccines and treatments to U.S. taxpayers and foreign governments. With that windfall, it plans to get richer, sinking the cash into developing and marketing potential blockbusters for conditions like migraines, ulcerative colitis, prostate cancer, sickle cell disease, and obesity.

Department of Defense Driving Mass Vaccination While FDA and Vaccine Companies Are Powerless to Stop It

By Dr. Peter McCullough, November 10, 2022

In this issue of the Report, we have an exclusive interview with Alexandria (Sasha) Latypova, MBA, a former pharmaceutical executive, and independent analyst. Her prior reports on TrialSite News that deaths reported in VAERS after COVID-19 vaccination are not randomly distributed according to manufacturing lots as they are with influenza vaccines. Instead, they are aggregated in specific “hot lots.”

Apple Is Tracking You Even When Its Own Privacy Settings Say It’s Not, New Research Says

By Thomas Germain, November 10, 2022

For all of Apple’s talk about how private your iPhone is, the company vacuums up a lot of data about you. iPhones do have a privacy setting that is supposed to turn off that tracking. According to a new report by independent researchers, though, Apple collects extremely detailed information on you with its own apps even when you turn off tracking, an apparent direct contradiction of Apple’s own description of how the privacy protection works.

Energy Bills in Europe Are 90% Higher Than Last Year

By Irina Slav, November 10, 2022

Electricity and gas prices are soaring across Europe, with bills close to double from last year in most European capitals, according to new data from the Household Energy Price Index—a monthly tracker of energy prices for households across 33 European capitals, including the 27 EU member states and several non-members.

Let’s be Clear: If World War III Happens It Will be the Result of Choices Made by the US Empire

By Caitlin Johnstone, November 10, 2022

The commander of the US nuclear arsenal has stated unequivocally that the war in Ukraine is just a warmup exercise for a much larger conflict that’s already in the mail.

Russia’s Tactical Retreat from Right-bank Kherson Region – Victory for Kiev?

By Drago Bosnic, November 10, 2022

On November 9, Russian High Command announced it will retreat from the right-bank areas of the Kherson oblast (region). The current commander of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Army General Sergei Surovikin, announced the plan in a report to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

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More Thoughts on the Stolen 2022 Election

November 11th, 2022 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

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***

In Maricopa County Arizona it appears that the Democrats’ attempt to steal the election is being explained away as a “printer issue.” Somehow the machines that worked in the primaries “malfunctioned” in the election.

In Arizona there seems to be an effort to disappear the votes for Republican Kari Lake.  Vote counting has been stopped when 600,000 votes remain to be counted.  The uncounted votes are “day of election” votes cast in person mainly by Republicans who vote in person as they have learned not to trust alternative voting methods.  The “day of election” votes will be for Republican Governor candidate Kari Lake.  Is that why the voting has stopped?  The hundreds of thousands of uncounted “day of election” votes could also give the Senate seat to Republican Blake Masters.

How do we reconcile Florida’s red wave with the absence of one elsewhere?  The answer is that Florida doesn’t permit all the voting ways that make it easy to steal.  I voted in Florida on a paper ballot that was counted immediately prior to my departing the site, and I was given a confirmation of my counted vote.  Gov. DeSantis and Senator Rubio won by overwhelming margins.  DeSantis defeated Democrat Crist by 59% to 40%.  Even heavily Democrat Miami-Dade County voted 55% for Republican DeSantis.  Rubio defeated his Democrat challenger by a double-digit margin. Of Florida’s contingent of 28 members of the House, 20 are Republican.  Why only in Florida were Democrats rejected as was expected to happen in many states?

For Democracy to work, those who control election procedures and vote counting must believe in a fair vote.  They must believe in democracy. If instead they believe in power, which Democrats do, there cannot be a fair election.  The Democrats are more addicted to power, because unlike Republicans they have a revolutionary ideology that seeks to normalize perversity and demonize normality–thus Democrats  normalize sexual perversion and teach critical race theory and transgender theory to school children in order to confuse them about their natural gender and to inculcate guilt for being a white racist.  By indoctrinating the young, the Woke Democrats remove people from opposing their gradual and ongoing revolution.

Another feature of the Democrats’ revolution is open borders that are flooding the US population with non-whites, essentially turning the US into a non-white country, thereby dispensing with the “reactionary values of Western civilization.”  At the hands of Democrats, white Americans are facing civilizational genocide.  Is it possible that white people are too stupid to see this and take no action at the voting booth to protect themselves?  Or has Democrat control of many major cities precluded change by voting?  In the large cities the Democrats control the voting. They control who votes and how many times. Republicans don’t want to embarrass America by making a scandal.  The mentality is “let it go, don’t rock the boat, it won’t happen next time, the media will skewer us for questioning America’s righteousness.”

I know the Republicans are far from perfect.  But they are not anti-white.  If white Americans don’t start paying close attention, they are history.  The British didn’t pay attention, and now they are ruled by an Indian Hindu Prime Minister and their capital, London, is ruled by a Pakistani.  Both might be good and capable politicians, but they are not British. The “British” prime minister has already held a Hindu religious celebration at 10 Downing Street. As weak as Christianity and the Church of England already are, with only mosques and not Christian churches, being built in England  and Europe, how much longer will Christmas be celebrated in the West?  Public manifestations of Christmas celebration have already been eliminated in America, thus placing us well on the way to complete cultural and religious deracination.  Is America becoming a country that serves an armaments industry, Jewish bankers, immigrant-invaders, and abandons the moral high ground to LGBT sexual perversity?

The entirety of the West is becoming a culture like the bar scene in the first  Star Wars film (1977).  As days past, less and less remains of Western Civilization  to be defended.

*

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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.

Featured image: Map of the 2022 Senate races (Photo is licensed under the Public Domain)

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Is Turkey Changing Course in Idlib?

November 11th, 2022 by Steven Sahiounie

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***

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian warplanes shelled positions of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, on November 6 in Idlib province.  Some of the terrorists killed were: Abdul Minam Muhati, Radwan Hussain Muhayer, Abu Dawoud al-Filistini, Mohammad Ali al-Kadour, Abu Hussein al-Raddad, Abu Hajat al-Chad, Amro abu Layth al-Askandarani, and Mohammed Suliaman al-Ali.

The Syrian air force targeted positions of HTS and destroyed a drone factory in the suburbs of Idlib.  This attack was in response to an earlier HTS attack on the suburbs of Latakia causing the deaths of SAA soldiers including, Mohammed al-Sharaa, Mohammed al-Atiyah, and Jafar Ibrahim.

Idlib is the last terrorist occupied area in Syria, with many different terrorist groups present, ranging from the Turkish backed terrorists to those formerly supported by the US-NATO attack on Syria which began in 2011. Some of the 3 million people have attempted to leave, but were prevented by the terrorists, who hold civilians as human shields, benefitting from the humanitarian aid being delivered to support the civilians.

All the various terrorist groups have one common denominator: they all follow a political ideology known as Radical Islam, which French President Macron has declared war on in France. Al Qaeda came to light after September 11, 2001, and since then many other terrorist groups have arrived on the international stage: such as Free Syrian Army (FSA), HTS, and culminating in Islamic State (IS).

A truce was reached in March 2020 between Turkey and Russia concerning the security in Idlib.  Turkey had promised to guarantee the safety of the M4 highway, which links the port of Latakia with the industrial city of Aleppo.  Turkey had promised to reign in the terrorist groups they support in Idlib, but never fulfilled the agreement.  The M4 remains closed to commercial and civilian traffic because of terrorist attacks on any movement on the highway.

In the agreement with Turkey, it was stipulated that Russia and Syria would continue to fulfill their UN mandated policy of identifying and targeting any Al Qaeda, or related terrorists, including IS. It was Turkey’s responsibility to remove civilians from terrorist outposts and weapons storage areas.

HTS responded to the attack by targeting SAA positions with military and missiles in the area of Saraqib, which had been a commercial and civilian traffic junction for Latakia to Aleppo traffic.

Russia’s role

Major General Oleg Yegorov, deputy head of the Russian Ministry’s Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, said HTS, which was formerly named Jibhat al-Nusra and banned in Russia, had shelled Idlib’s de-escalation zone five times in 24 hours.

“Three attacks in Idlib province, one in Latakia, one in Hama,” he said recently while confirming a Syrian soldier’s death and another’s injury.

He said Russian military police units conducted patrols in the provinces of Aleppo, Hasakah and Raqqa.

The Russian Defense Ministry’s Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Control over the Movement of Refugees in the Syrian Arab Republic was established in February 2016.  The office has negotiated dozens of agreements with terrorists and the Syrian administration, allowing for terrorists to surrender, or be removed safely, so that civilians could return to their homes across the country. The office also coordinates the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Turkey’s role

Lately, Turkey has been deporting Syrian refugees back home.  Turkish President Erdogan is facing a presidential election in June 2023.  His opposition has promised to send home all the Syrian refugees, which has caused Erdogan to match their promise.  The border crossing at Kessab has seen activity, as well as others, with Syrians being forcibly deported from Turkey.

The Syrian National Army (SNA) is a Turkish-backed mercenary group made up of former FSA fighters after the demise of the group which had been promoted and defended by the late Senator John McCain.  Turkey had been keeping a distance between SNA and HTS in the Azaz and Afrin areas; however, Turkey has recently allowed HTS to freely move.

The future status of HTS depends on the changing positions of Russia and Turkey concerning the Idlib region.  Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has suggested an advanced agreement might be reached which would see HTS eliminated in Idlib, while the US backed Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) would be shut down in the northeast.

This possibility would need Turkey to repair its relationship with Syria, which has been hinted at over a few months.  Turkey and Syria are both keen to remove the US backed SDF from the northeast.

On November 8, the Turkish occupation forces and their SNA mercenaries attacked Abu Rasin town, northwest of Hasaka.

The US role

US President Obama planned and found the Arab funding for the US-NATO attack on Syria for ‘regime change’ in 2011.  Many US Democrats blame him for not militarily intervening in Syria, but in fact he did.  The US administration, through the CIA and Pentagon, supported the terrorist groups as their ‘boots on the ground’ which utilized assets available without having to convince the US Congress to send US troops to Syria.  The US does have an illegal military occupation force in Syria, but not in Idlib.  However, the US exerts control over Idlib through the UN humanitarian aid delivered which not only feeds civilians, but also feeds the terrorist groups and their families.  HTS and IS in Idlib are used by Washington to prevent the end of the Syrian conflict.  The American foreign policy on Syria is to maintain the status quo in Idlib: an uneasy truce where Syrians are prevented from rebuilding by threat of terrorists and Congressional sanctions.

HTS

Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani is the leader of HTS, and the defacto ruler of Idlib.  He is a ‘shape shifter’, able to change his political colors to align with issues shifting on the ground.  Recently he broke out of Idlib and engaged in a power shift in the north of Aleppo.

He distanced HTS from his former ally IS, and broke off his former alliance with Al Qaeda in an effort to re-brand his image.

Afrin had been controlled by the US-backed SDF, later the Turkish backed SNA took the area known for olive crops and olive oil production.  HTS has entered the area despite a lack of local support.  Jawlani developed alliances with hard-core extremists like al-Hamza and the Shah Brigade, which managed to allow HTS into northern Aleppo recently.

Jawlani was interviewed by Martin Smith of PBS Frontline, in which the terrorist cleaned up his image in a suit pandering to a Western audience, and seeking their acceptance.

Jawlani and his HTS are terrorists, but businessmen as well.  By controlling border crossings, they took advantage of the trade of oil, fuel, wheat, and cotton, as well as the sale of land and opening of money exchanges.  He calls his administration “Salvation Government.”

His prisons such as al-Zanbaqi, al-Eqab, and Harem are full of his former comrades, such as Al Qaeda and IS terrorists.

In the past few weeks, HTS has approached the borders of Azaz, an extremely important city in the orbit of the Turkish backed SNA and the Turkish occupation forces.  Jawlani is attempting to control from Idlib province all the way to the northern section of Aleppo. This could only be accomplished by some agreement between HTS and the SNA.

Astana meeting

The next Astana Format international meeting on Syria will take place on November 22-23, says Russian Special Presidential Envoy on the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov.

According to Bogdanov, Iran and Turkey agreed to take part in the meeting. In addition, the meeting will be attended by representatives of Syrian sides, as well as observer states.

“[Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov was in Amman, where they also discussed Jordan’s participation as an observer state. The same is true for Iraq and Libya as Syria’s neighbor states that have high interest in what is happening in Syria, because there are present issues of borders, refugees and security. We welcome these countries’ participation,” the diplomat said.

The previous, 18th international meeting on Syria, took place in Astana on June 15-16.

The road to peace in Syria and the rebuilding of lives and homes there can only be done with the help of neighbors.  Absent from the peace process in Astana is the US and the EU, although it is their sanctions which keep the Syrian civilians held hostage, as human shields protecting Western foreign adventures to create a ‘New Middle East’.

*

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image is from South Front

Brain Inflammation and the mRNA Vaccines

November 10th, 2022 by Alex Berenson

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***

Three large insurance databases showed sharp increases in cases of severe brain inflammation after the Covid mRNA shots, according to a new peer-reviewed paper.

People who received the Pfizer jab or booster had a 40 to 70 percent higher chance over the next six weeks of encephalitis or encephalomyelitis. The Moderna jab carried an even higher risk after the second primary dose or a booster.

Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain itself, while encephalomyelitis is inflammation of nerve sheaths in the brain or spinal cord. Both can range from relatively mild conditions to serious or even fatal illnesses. The researchers reported 47 cases following Pfizer’s jab; they did not disclose an exact figure for Moderna’s.

Though the finding was published in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine, it has received little attention – in part because the authors presented the findings in a way that made them seem less statistically robust than they were.

The paper’s finding comes after a stream of case reports in medical journals of brain inflammation following the mRNA shots.

The reports have come from physicians worldwide, including Belgium, Japan, Taiwan, Peru, and Thailand – and even the United States, an unusual development since American physicians are often reluctant to publicize serious mRNA vaccine side effects.

SOURCE

VAERS, the federal vaccine adverse events reporting system, also contains scores reports of severe cases of encephalitis or encephalomyelitis shortly after Covid shots, although those are not peer-reviewed.

SOURCE: VAERS case report 2057411-1

Encephalitis and encephalomyelitis are rare conditions that can occur following infections or auto-immune reactions. Both can be fatal in serious cases if untreated.

The most likely mechanism for potential mRNA vaccine encephalitis is that the shots overstimulate the immune system and cause the body to attack its one tissues in what physicians sometimes call a cytokine storm. As Taiwanese physicians explained in describing two cases:

Exposed mRNA or vaccine components may also be detected as antigens [substances that stimulate the immune system], further resulting in aberrant proinflammatory cytokine cascades and activation of immune signaling pathways…

Some patients in the case reports have had complete recovery after treatment with with steroids or other immunosuppressants. Others remained injured or even comatose, according to the case reports.

*

The Vaccine paper appeared online on September 27 and in print October 26. It draws on the Food and Drug Administration’s Biologics Effectiveness and Safety database, which tracks insurance claims in people who have received vaccines or other treatments.

In this case, the researchers followed claims for 17 different potential side effects, including myocarditis, in three large commercial insurance databases including more than 16 million vaccinated people. They they compared the results to the background rates of the conditions before the shots.

This method probably substantially understates the risk of short-term post-vaccine side effects, because people who are ill or feeling ill – seriously or not – are likely to delay being vaccinated. Thus vaccines tend to be given to people at times when they are at lower risk for illness or death.

*

That problem is common to all vaccine safety analysis outside of randomized clinical trials, and essentially unavoidable. But this paper had another issue, one that came directly from its design.

The researchers failed to pool the results from the three different databases. Instead, they analyzed each separately. They also analyzed the Pfizer and Moderna shots separately, rather than together.

As a result, the researchers were examining the post-shot risks using data that they had sliced into relatively small pools. In five of the six pools they checked, the researchers found that people who had received the mRNA shots had a notably increased risk of brain inflammation – ranging from 43 to 89 percent. (The only exception was after the first Moderna shot.)

But the scientists then dismissed those findings. Why? The smaller the pool of data, the more easily researchers can dismiss a finding as due to chance. Scientists generally say a finding is not necessarily real if statistical analysis confirms more than a 5 percent chance that it is due to chance.

Thus the writers simply ignored the excess risk they had found, claiming that it “did not meet the threshold for statistical signal in any of the three databases.”

Their refusal to pool and reanalyze the data was particularly odd in the case of Pfizer’s jab, which showed a remarkably consistent excess of encephalitis and encephalomyelitis not just among the various insurers but after each shot. (Inevitably, the researchers made those numbers available only deep in the paper’s appendix.)

The FDA researchers offered no clear explanation for their failure to pool the claims databases – especially since they noted that all they had analyzed all three databases “using the same protocol, analysis, and programming specifications.”

But if their goal was to make safety signals as hard as possible to find, they succeeded.

*

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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.”

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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***

Buoyed by the successful global marketing of its COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer is teeing up to dominate the maternal vaccine market even as OB-GYNs on the front lines of maternal care sound the alarm about the COVID-19 shots’ infanticidal fallout.

On Nov. 1, Pfizer issued a press release about an investigational vaccine for pregnant women the company said will protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Not coincidentally, RSV is the latest viral bugaboo to hit the headlines, with frantic news accounts of “overwhelmed” hospitals sounding eerily reminiscent of the early coronavirus fear-mongering.

Buoyed by the successful global marketing of its COVID-19 jabs — an estimated 49% of pregnant women worldwide reportedly views the vaccines favorably and almost 1 in 4  pregnant women in the U.S. took them — Pfizer is hoping to hit another home run with the RSV vaccine.

The vaccine maker said it intends to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by the end of the year.

The FDA, meanwhile, has been busy handing out “Breakthrough Therapy” designations to Pfizer as if they were papal dispensations, signaling a regulatory willingness to speed up approval not only for Pfizer’s RSV vaccine but also for a maternal Group B Streptococcus (GBS) vaccine the company is developing.

To this expedient end, the FDA allowed Pfizer to “stop the [RSV] study short,” halting enrollment at about 7,400 participants — though the trial was supposed to involve 10,000 pregnant women.

Researchers devoted to vaccine orthodoxy pay lip service to the need for an extra-high evidentiary bar for pregnancy vaccines — stating that such vaccines should not only prove they reduce illness, with minimal reactogenicity in the woman, the fetus and the neonate, but should also “demonstrate safety or lack of evidence of harm.”

However, those turn out to be empty words.

In fact, the influenza and Tdap (tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis) vaccines that public health agencies have long recommended for pregnant women never underwent any clinical trial safety testing in that population, and the FDA never licensed those vaccines specifically for pregnant women.

Moreover, flu shots and Tdap shots have never even resulted in any statistically significant reduction in the outcomes they are supposed to address.

With the advent of Emergency Use Authorization COVID-19 vaccines, the FDA, Pfizer and other manufacturers barely made any pretense of assessing maternal safety, and likely “colluded together to conceal damaging data” about high rates of fetal death.

Other researchers, however — and even vaccine insiders — began to speak out in 2021.

For example, Canadian researchers writing in late 2021 worried that many of the systemic reactions commonly reported after COVID-19 vaccination might be “sufficient to affect fetal/neonatal development.”

Those authors included vaccinologist Byram Bridle, Ph.D., who earlier in 2021 characterized the COVID-19 vaccines’ disturbing biodistribution and accumulation in vital organs as “a big mistake,” and neurology professor Dr. Steven Pelech, who expressed repeated concerns about myocarditis and the vaccines’ risks to young people.

Now, as horrified pregnant women who took the COVID-19 jabs experience skyrocketing miscarriages, stillbirths and fetal malformations, they are wondering why regulators issued no warnings.

But as Pfizer’s exuberant RSV press release and the FDA’s complacent endorsement of clinical trial shortcuts suggest, vaccine makers and regulators not only intend to ignore or bulldoze even the most outsized safety signals but are clearly positioning themselves to go after pregnant women in an even bigger way.

‘Quibbles’ and questions

The details provided — or omitted — about Pfizer’s RSV clinical trial exemplify manufacturers’ and regulators’ cavalier approach toward pregnant women.

Commenting on Pfizer’s announcement, family physician Dr. Buzz Hollander — who clarified that he is predisposed to celebrate the new RSV vaccine offering — nonetheless noted a number of serious criticisms:

  • Pfizer released “just a press release” but no data, making it “impossible to pick [the vaccine’s declared efficacy] apart.”
  • Pfizer offered no explanation as to how it defined “severe” disease, its primary endpoint.
  • A year into the trial, Pfizer fishily altered an important endpoint, defying a fundamental clinical trial design principle that “involves setting out in advance the endpoints that will be assessed.”
  • In Hollander’s words, Pfizer “switched their secondary (critical!) endpoint of RSV hospitalizations to 360 days from 180 days… and then inspired my suspicion by not reporting any hospitalization data, interim or otherwise, in their breathless press release.”
  • Researchers have published only one small safety study for the RSV shot, about which Hollander said: “I quibble with studies finding >40% of placebo participants reporting systemic symptoms; when queried enticingly enough, half of us might recall a headache or some fatigue the day after our placebo shot, and that can bury a difference in real adverse reactions compared to the vaccine group.”
  • Curtailing study enrollment was unwise, Hollander said, because “bigger is better when it comes to … finding safety signals.”
  • Earlier this year, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) “stopped cold” a three-times-bigger trial of a similar RSV vaccine for pregnant women after detecting a safety signal, yet there has been no discussion as to why Pfizer’s maternal RSV vaccine is “fine” while GSK’s was deemed “untouchable.”

Hollander’s modest conclusion: “We should have all learned by now that even the appearance of cutting corners in the vaccine approval process will carry its own unknown costs.”

Readers reacting to Hollander’s post were less circumspect. One acerbically remarked, “The problem here is Pfizer. They’ve paid billions in fines for shady practices and data manipulation. And that was before the Covid vaccines (for which they’re indemnified).”

Another reader expressed his reservations even more succinctly: “Trust Pfizer numbers? You must be joking.”

Adverse pregnancy outcomes after COVID vaccination — no joke

As Pfizer, with the FDA’s help, tees itself up to “dominat[e] the maternal RSV vaccine market,” OB-GYNs on the front lines of maternal care are stepping forth to sound the alarm about the COVID-19 shots’ infanticidal fallout.

Dr. Kimberly Biss recently tweeted, “Since the vaccine rollout started, we have seen in our practice a decrease in new OB numbers, which would be infertility, by about 50%; we’ve also seen an increase in miscarriage rate by about 50%, and … probably about a 25% increase in abnormal pap smears as well as cervical malignancies.”

Similarly, Dr. James Thorp, in multiple interviews, described an “off-the-charts” rise in sudden fetal death and other adverse outcomes, including fetal malformation and fetal cardiac arrest.

Asked to comment on information recently leaked from a California hospital, Thorp characterized the uptick in fetal deaths — from under 6 per 1,000 in 2020 to more than 29 per 1,000 following the rollout of COVID-19 injections — as being “way way beyond” what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordinarily would consider a safety signal.

Thorp published a preprint in September (along with co-authors who include Children’s Health Defense’s Megan Redshaw) describing “significantly more frequent” pregnancy-related adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, after COVID-19 shots than in the aftermath of flu shots — which themselves are far from benign.

Cataloging significant increases in “miscarriage, fetal chromosomal abnormalities, fetal malformation, fetal cystic hygroma, fetal cardiac disorders, fetal arrhythmia, fetal cardiac arrest, fetal vascular mal-perfusion, fetal growth abnormalities, fetal abnormal surveillance, fetal placental thrombosis, low amniotic fluid, and fetal death/stillbirth” and also menstrual abnormalities, Thorp and co-authors called for a “worldwide moratorium on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy.”

For children who survive, Thorp suggested they may suffer from lifelong “vaccine-induced acquired immune deficiency syndrome.”

In Scotland, meanwhile, the government ordered an investigation into the “spike in newborn baby deaths” in 2021 and 2022, an increase “larger than expected from chance alone.”

Even in a gerrymandered study clearly designed to exonerate the COVID-19 shots during pregnancy — focusing on immediate reactions after a first or second dose and hampered by “limited perinatal outcome assessment” — researchers found that 4.4-7.5% of pregnant women reported obstetrical symptoms.

Careless and worse

As Substack writer Etana Hecht wrote last May, “The topic of pregnant and nursing moms getting vaccinated under encouragement and coercion is painful,” particularly once one becomes aware of “how carelessly the most precious among us are being treated.”

That carelessness is evident as we witness some of the same players involved in the COVID-19 vaccine fiasco now circling back around to help build the case for Pfizer’s RSV vaccine.

That includes figures such as Dr. Robert Frenck, the Pfizer-beholden principal investigator of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital clinical trial that tested the company’s COVID-19 shot in children. Frenck reported 12-year-old Maddie de Garay’s serious vaccine injuries to the FDA as a mere “stomachache.”

Graphs clearly show that none of the vaccines pushed on pregnant women are safe for babies or moms — but given that from one-fourth to one-half of pregnant women acquiesce to getting them, those who know the truth need to work even harder to get the word out.

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Featured image is from CHD


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

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

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

For drugmaker Pfizer, a fortune amassed in the covid pandemic is now paving the path to pharma nirvana: a weight loss pill worth billions.

The company has reaped nearly $100 billion from selling covid-19 vaccines and treatments to U.S. taxpayers and foreign governments. With that windfall, it plans to get richer, sinking the cash into developing and marketing potential blockbusters for conditions like migraines, ulcerative colitis, prostate cancer, sickle cell disease, and obesity.

It just announced it will triple or even quadruple the price of its covid vaccine once it goes on the commercial market next year. Meanwhile, the company is inundating doctors and pharmacists — and consumers — with advertising touting its covid drug Paxlovid.

“Pfizer is a remarkable marketing machine. They have an incredible ability to make the most of molecules and get them adopted,” said Timothy Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

The federal government is helping Pfizer with its marketing, urging people to get boosters targeting the omicron variants, although early data has been mixed on whether the shots work better than the earlier version. But even with a 66% drop in covid vaccine sales in the past quarter, the company made about $4.4 billion in those three months. Pfizer has a deep stream of cash to finance its future. Covid has been very good for business.

The company appears most excited — judging from its messages to investors — about two experimental diabetes pills, “me too” drugs in the class known as GLP-1 agonists. As Pfizer competitors have already discovered, they double as weight-loss drugs. In one trial, more than half of obese patients on a high-dose Eli Lilly and Co. injectable lost a fifth of their body weight — results that have raised the drugs’ cachet as a diet aid in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and other social niches where cost is no issue and being thin is always in.

Wall Street analysts are predicting such massive demand for these drugs that Pfizer “can find a place there with marketing” if its version works, though it is at least two years from licensure, said Mohit Bansal, a Wells Fargo analyst. By 2035, the Lilly drug alone could earn $100 billion a year for its formulation, according to one Bank of America analysis.

Pfizer still sees covid as a “multibillion-dollar franchise” long term, Chief Financial Officer David Denton told a Nov. 1 earnings call, since covid “is going to be somewhat like a flu, sustained flu, but actually more deadly than the flu.”

The company announced Oct. 20 that it would charge $110 to $130 a shot once government contracts run out next year, more than double what investors were expecting. The U.S. government paid $30.50 per shot in its latest contract with Pfizer, according to Zaid Rizvi, a researcher for the advocacy group Public Citizen.

Pfizer was a good citizen in keeping prices down during the worst of the pandemic, CEO Albert Bourla told investors. Now payers will pick up the added cost, while consumers “wouldn’t see the difference” because there’s generally no copay for vaccines.

Still, unless new mutations are dangerous enough to scare enough people, Wall Street analysts expect sales to lag, as the public loses interest, Republican politicians discourage booster shots, and concerns continue about rare heart damage in young people getting the shots. Pfizer said in July it had taken “a $450 million write-off of inventory related to covid-19 products” that exceeded “approved shelf-lives.” And Moderna on Nov. 3 lowered sales predictions for its covid vaccine.

“Not many people are going to go out and get their fourth, fifth, and sixth boosters if there’s no major new variant,” said Geoff Meacham, an analyst at Bank of America. “If you’ve had the two mRNAs and a booster, you are pretty well protected. Do you need it annually?”

That lagging interest in covid products has investors pushing Pfizer to show where it can make up revenue for three bestsellers — the breast cancer drug Ibrance, the rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz, and Eliquis, a blood thinner — whose patents run out this decade.

While conducting its own research, Pfizer fattened its development portfolio in the past two years by buying companies that already had developed promising drugs. The company hopes these purchases, and its own work, will give it $25 billion in new annual revenue by 2030.

Meanwhile, the company has treated investors to $25 billion in dividends over the past three years and spent $9 billion jacking up share prices with stock buybacks.

All this is due to the huge profit bulge from its covid products, which has enabled Pfizer to outpace Johnson & Johnson as the biggest industry revenue earner so far in 2022. From late 2020 through September, Pfizer earned about $80 billion from sales of 3.8 billion covid vaccines and Paxlovid, and the company expects an additional $15 billion in the remainder of this year. Until recently, investors had been predicting that number would fall to around $11 billion annually by 2026, but Pfizer’s recent commercial pricing announcement increased that figure, potentially, by up to $3 billion, according to a Wells Fargo analysis.

Still, “from the investor’s point of view, the focus is not on covid as much at this point. The focus is, what do they do with this money and expertise?” Bansal said, and how to “use it to grow their core business.”

To grow that core, Pfizer since last year has acquired several midsize companies with promising or licensed drugs. It spent $11.6 billion for Biohaven, whose migraine drug Nurtec ODT brought in $324 million in the first half of 2022. Pfizer predicts up to $6 billion in annual revenue from the drug.

Its hopes are also high for Oxbryta, a sickle cell anemia drug produced by Global Blood Therapeutics, which Pfizer bought for $5.4 billion. Priced at $125,000 a year, the drug, which raises oxygen levels in patients, earned $100 million in the first two quarters of the year but might be worth $2.5 billion annually with a powerful marketing engine behind it, according to Wall Street analysts.

Pfizer is strengthening its franchise in respiratory vaccines and treatments, Dr. Mikael Dolsten, the chief scientific officer, said on the Nov. 1 call. It’s racing against GSK and Moderna to be first to license a vaccine that protects older adults as well as pregnant women and their newborns against RSV, a respiratory virus that has overwhelmed children’s hospitals this fall. The company also has released an updated version of its bacterial pneumonia vaccine, which brought in $5.3 billion in 2021.

The other mRNA vaccine companies are also rolling in cash but have narrower strategies. Moderna is testing 32 infectious-disease vaccines and developing a long-shot individualized cancer vaccine. Pfizer’s German partner, BioNTech, which did most of the original development of their covid vaccine, has a similar focus.

Pfizer and Moderna both began advanced clinical trials this year for their first non-covid mRNA vaccines — against influenza. If flu season is widespread enough, the tests could show whether the vaccines are any better than standard flu shots, and whether one works better than the other.

Investors expect a lot from Pfizer, with its 80,000 employees and $81 billion in 2021 revenue. And they are likely to get it.

Nurtec, the migraine drug it acquired with Biohaven, will be a good test case. Pfizer and giants like it each have at least 2,000 sales reps marketing to primary care physicians in the United States, Calkins said. An operation like that probably costs $400 million a year, he said, far more than a company like Biohaven could afford.

Pfizer will use its marketing prowess, particularly among primary care physicians, to “build the world’s leading migraine franchise,” CEO Bourla said on the Nov. 1 call. Pfizer has the resources to flood the media with direct-to-consumer ads and negotiate with insurers and pharmacy benefit managers to make sure patients can get this and other drugs, said Bansal, the Wells Fargo analyst.

Sickle cell patients are harder to reach, but Pfizer “has relationships in the hospital setting, the heft of their investment in commercialization” to increase sales of Oxbryta, said Evan Seigerman, a research analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

Pfizer also plans to make a blockbuster of etrasimod, an experimental drug against ulcerative colitis that it acquired with its $6.7 billion purchase of Arena Pharmaceuticals.

Pfizer’s GLP-1 formulation is key to its goals. The GLP-1 drugs are similar to a gut peptide, or small protein, that stimulates biochemical pathways that help release insulin, diminish appetite, and lower certain immune responses. While the drugs were invented and licensed to fight Type 2 diabetes, the FDA has approved one of them for obesity treatment as well, and companies are testing GLP-1 formulations against fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, kidney disease, congestive heart failure, and even Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Pfizer executives said they hope to decide by 2024 which of two candidate drugs to take into large clinical trials. The company sees itself finding a niche with a pill that can be taken with or without food, according to Dolsten. Most of the current products are injectables, which turn off many people.

Assuming one of the drugs gets licensed, marketing will do the rest.

*

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Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

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

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

In this issue of the Report, we have an exclusive interview with Alexandria (Sasha) Latypova, MBA, a former pharmaceutical executive, and independent analyst. Her prior reports on TrialSite News that deaths reported in VAERS after COVID-19 vaccination are not randomly distributed according to manufacturing lots as they are with influenza vaccines. Instead, they are aggregated in specific “hot lots.”

For example, from data on 33 lots of the Pfizer vaccine, 80% of the deaths have arisen from 35% of the lots. For Moderna, only 24% of the lots account for 80% of the deaths. Lot sizes were small initially, and some contaminated the metallic beads used in the manufacturing process. This explains reports and videos of injection site magnetism early in the campaign and why over time, these claims dissipated.

The lot sizes became larger, and the rushed nature of vaccine manufacturing invariable loads specific lots with more viable intact mRNA, while others have considerably less genetic material and or broken fragments of mRNA.Under the existing government contracts, there is no FDA or third-party inspection of the products for safety, quality, or purity. Because the US Department of Defense, under the Emergency Use Authorization countermeasures program, is the ”developer” of the vaccines, there is a complex array of biological defense contractors that make the components of the vaccines.

Specifically, private contractors do the fill-and-finish manufacturing, and the DOD or its designees has material possession of the products until delivery at a vaccine center. At this stage, the vaccine companies (Pfizer, Moderna, JNJ, Novavax) are largely marketing shields for the military program. Ms. Latypova makes it clear, by the US EUA regulations, COVID-19 mass vaccination is a DOD operation, and the signal to “go” is given by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Under Trump, it was Alex Azar, and now with Biden, it’s Xavier Becerra. Essentially if the HHS Secretary believes a national medical emergency exists, then DARPA, the branch of the military dealing with biological threats, is activated, and the process starts.

Here is a quote from the DARPA website:

“As part of the ADEPT program in 2011, DARPA began investing in nucleic acid vaccines. The hypothesis was that rather than delivering antigens to the immune system, we could deliver genes that encode the antigen and allow the human body to produce the antigen from its own cells, triggering a protective immune response. In December 2020, former ADEPT performer Moderna’s RNA vaccine received FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) approval for the prevention of COVID-19.”1

So, it is fully disclosed that the genetic vaccines were not a product of Operation Warp Speed and developed in just a few months, as portrayed by the White House. In truth, DARPA has been working on genetic vaccines with companies such as Moderna since 2011. What is the role of the FDA?2 Latypova points out it is largely “theatre”. In other words, the FDA is giving sham approvals to versions of the vaccines as they move forward since they are powerless to stop it. This interview is gripping and a must-listen for those trying to comprehend the mild-blowing reality of forced vaccination resulting in record injuries, disabilities, and death. Our music contribution is from John Gouveia Psalm 2 – Why Do the Nations Rage?3

So let’s get real, let’s get loud; on America Out Loud Talk Radio, this is The McCullough Report!

The McCullough Report: Sat/Sun 2 PM ET Encore 7 PM – Internationally recognized Dr. Peter A. McCullough, known for his iconic views on the state of medical truth in America and around the globe, pierces through the thin veil of mainstream media stories that skirt the significant issues and provide no tractable basis for durable insight. Listen on iHeart Radio, our world-class media player, or our free apps on AppleAndroid, or AlexaEach episode goes to major podcast networks early in the week and can be heard on-demand anywhere in the world.

*

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Dr. McCullough is an internist, cardiologist, and epidemiologist managing the cardiovascular complications of both the viral infection and the injuries developing after the COVID-19 vaccine in Dallas, TX, USA.

Notes

1 https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/covid-19

2 https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/emergency-use-authorization-medical-products-and-related-authorities

3 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nXTL5iZDD8k

Featured image is from America Out Loud


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

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

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

For all of Apple’s talk about how private your iPhone is, the company vacuums up a lot of data about you. iPhones do have a privacy setting that is supposed to turn off that tracking. According to a new report by independent researchers, though, Apple collects extremely detailed information on you with its own apps even when you turn off tracking, an apparent direct contradiction of Apple’s own description of how the privacy protection works.

The iPhone Analytics setting makes an explicit promise. Turn it off, and Apple says that it will “disable the sharing of Device Analytics altogether.” However, Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, two app developers and security researchers at the software company Mysk, took a look at the data collected by a number of Apple iPhone apps—the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, and Stocks. They found the analytics control and other privacy settings had no obvious effect on Apple’s data collection—the tracking remained the same whether iPhone Analytics was switched on or off.

“The level of detail is shocking for a company like Apple,” Mysk told Gizmodo.

The App Store appeared to harvest information about every single thing you did in real time, including what you tapped on, which apps you search for, what ads you saw, and how long you looked at a given app and how you found it. The app sent details about you and your device as well, including ID numbers, what kind of phone you’re using, your screen resolution, your keyboard languages, how you’re connected to the internet—notably, the kind of information commonly used for device fingerprinting.

“Opting-out or switching the personalization options off did not reduce the amount of detailed analytics that the app was sending,” Mysk said. “I switched all the possible options off, namely personalized ads, personalized recommendations, and sharing usage data and analytics.”

Apple did not respond to multiple requests for comment. We’ll update the story with any information the company provides.

Gizmodo requested that Mysk examine a few other Apple apps for comparison. The researchers said that the Health and Wallet apps, for example, didn’t transmit any analytics data at all, regardless of whether the iPhone Analytics setting was on or off, whereas Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, the iTunes Store, and Stocks all did. Most of the apps that sent analytics data shared consistent ID numbers, which would allow Apple to track your activity across its services, the researchers found.

For example, the Stocks app sent Apple your list of watched stocks, the names stocks you viewed or searched for and time stamps for when you did it, as well as a record of any news articles you see in the app, according to Mysk’s analysis for Gizmodo. The information was sent to a web address labeled analytics, https://stocks-analytics-events.apple.com/analyticseventsv2/async. That transmission was separate from the iCloud communication necessary to sync your data across devices. Unlike the other apps, however, Stocks sent different ID numbers and far less detailed device information.

The researchers checked their work on two different devices. First, they used a jail broken iPhone running iOS 14.6, which allowed them to decrypt the traffic and examine exactly what data was being sent. Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14.5, cuing users to decide whether or not to give their data to individual apps with the prompt “Ask app not to track?”

The researchers also examined a regular iPhone running iOS 16, the latest operating system, which bolstered their findings. There is little reason to think that the jail broken phone would send different data, they said, but On iOS 16, they saw the same apps sending similar packets of data to the same Apple web addresses. The data was transmitted at the same times under the same circumstances, and turning the available privacy settings on and off likewise didn’t change anything. The researchers couldn’t examine exactly what data was sent because the phone’s encryption remained intact, but the similarities suggest this may be standard behavior on the iPhone.

Keeping tabs on your behavior rubs some people the wrong way, regardless of the information in question. But this data can be sensitive. In the App Store, for example, the fact that you’re looking at apps related to mental health, addiction, sexual orientation, and religion can reveal things that you might not want sent to corporate servers.

It’s impossible to know what Apple is doing with the data without the company’s own explanation, and as is so often the case, Apple has been silent so far. It’s entirely possible that Apple doesn’t use the information if you turn the settings off, but that’s not how the company explains what the settings do in its privacy policy.

You can see what the data looks like for yourself in the video Mysk posted to Twitter, documenting the information collected by the App Store:

This isn’t an every-app-is-tracking-me-so-what’s-one-more situation. These findings are out of line with standard industry practices, Mysk says. He and his research partner ran similar tests in the past looking at analytics in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. In both of those apps, Mysk says the data isn’t sent when analytics settings are turned off.

Privacy is one of the main issues that Apple uses to set its products apart from competitors. It emblazoned 40-foot billboards of the iPhone with the simple slogan “Privacy. That’s iPhone.” and ran the ads across the world for months. But the company is slowly introducing many of the internet’s privacy issues into the once sacrosanct Apple ecosystem. Apple is working hard to build an advertising empire. Apple’s ad network runs on your personal information just like the ones Google and Meta operate, albeit in a more reserved way.

Along the way, Apple developed a very convenient definition of what privacy means that lets the company criticize its rivals’ privacy practices while harvesting your data for similar purposes. Apple says you shouldn’t think of what it does as “tracking.” According to the company’s website:

Apple’s advertising platform does not track you, meaning that it does not link user or device data collected from our apps with user or device data collected from third parties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes, and does not share user or device data with data brokers.

In other words, it’s not tracking unless you’re linking together data collected from services owned by different companies. If only one company—Apple—is collecting the data, then by Apple’s definition, it’s not tracking. Of course, that’s different from the definition of tracking that everyone else seems to use.

It’s no surprise that Apple is collecting analytics information, the practice is laid out in the privacy policy, and almost every app and device you use probably uses your data for analytics. But Mysk said he’s stunned at the level of detail. “I expected from a company like Apple, that believes that privacy is a fundamental human right, to collect more generic analytics,” Mysk said.

What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone, unless you count the mountains of information your iPhone sends to Apple.

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