Global Research

If one had been reading America’s leading newspapers and magazines over the past several weeks the series of featured stories suggesting that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is some kind of latter day Lucrezia Borgia would have been impossible to avoid. Putin, who was simultaneously being branded as some kind of totalitarian monster, apparently does not just go around chopping off heads. Instead, he prefers to slip military grade poison into people’s tea or wipes it onto their doorknobs. The case of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in England is being cited as evidence that poisoning is a routine way of cleaning out the closets, so to speak, together with that of Aleksandr Litvinenko, who died in England in 2006 under mysterious circumstances after reportedly drinking a radioactive isotope that had been placed into his cup of tea while dining at a sushi restaurant in London. Apparently the raw fish had nothing to do with it.

There are, of course, parts of the story that just don’t fit no matter how hard one tries. The Skripals, father and daughter, lived in Salisbury within walking distance of Britain’s chemical and biological weapons lab located at Porton Down, an option for poisoning that was never fully explored. And there was no real reason to kill them in 2018 as they no longer posed any threat to Russian interests, having escaped to England twelve years before. In fact, they did not die, which in itself seems odd since the lethal agent was eventually reported by the British to have been Novichok, which may have been smeared on their from door latch. Novichok is designed for battlefield use and reputedly kills instantly.

Poisoning is certainly a convenient short cut when one is unable or unwilling to persevere with the basic principle of politics among nations, often referred to as Diplomacy 101. The first rule in Diplomacy 101 is that you prioritize your interests so that you are not wasting your time and energy by pursuing objectives that are either essentially inconsequential or even meaningless at the expense of authentic vital national interests. By all accounts, Vladimir Putin is an astute politician who would recognize that killing political opponents is counter-productive. Far better to let them live to demonstrate that Russia is truly a country that allows dissent.

At the same time, if one wants to witness ignorance and hubris combined in news reporting, at its worst, it is only necessary to journey through the stories on Russia and Putin that comes out of the strange world inhabited by the punditry at newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post.

Bret Stephens, a self-proclaimed conservative voice at the New York Times, makes no attempt to conceal his hostility to nations like Russia, China and Iran. His latest foray into the unknown is to advocate congressional legislation to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin. He calls it the “Navalny Act.” The eponymous Navalny is Alexei Navalny, a leading Russian dissident who is currently in Germany being treated for what has been described as a poisoning carried out by unknown persons using a somewhat unidentifiable poison for an unknown objective, which is presumed to be killing him as he is a critic of the Putin regime.

Stephens advocates a law by Congress that would empower the U.S. government to both initiate and increase sanctions while also placing travel bans on those individuals who might be implicated in the claimed poisoning of Navalny. It is, in effect, direct interference in a foreign government’s domestic activities, which might have the consequence of inviting foreign governments and the U.N. to start inquiring into just how the U.S. does business. Stephens goes beyond sanctions and travels by further advocating linking his Navalny Act to the Senate’s proposed Defending American Security From Kremlin Aggression Act, or DASKA, that is being promoted by none less than Lindsey Graham. It would require inter alia that intelligence agencies issue available to the public reports on Vladimir Putin’s personal wealth.

There are inevitably a number of problems with the blame Putin narrative. As Israel Shamir observed shortly after the fact, it was at first by no means completely clear if Navalny was actually poisoned at all. He fell ill while flying from Siberia to Moscow and was tested for poisons before it being determined that he might have suffered a diabetic attack. When in Germany for treatment, a mysterious water bottle was produced by his family that the Bundeswehr labs are now claiming had traces of Novichok on its surface. If Novichok truly were on the bottle Navalny, his family and the air crew would all be dead, as well as the Bundeswehr technicians.

If Putin was behind the poisoning of a prominent dissident, it would have served no purpose beyond freeing oneself up from a political nuisance, so there would have been little in the way of motive. Quite the contrary, as Russia is, in fact, in the final stages of setting up the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Germany, which with be highly profitable to both countries and is being strongly opposed by the Trump regime.

The White House has been trying hard to kill the project on “national security grounds” to benefit potential U.S. gas suppliers, so much for Trump being a tool of Putin. That rather suggests that the U.S. might have more motive than the Kremlin to poison Navalny, namely to create a cause celebre damning Putin. At the moment, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in fact reported to be hesitant about completing the project due to the Navalny furor and pressure from Washington.

Interestingly, Stephens quotes his good friend Bill Browder, who was enthusiastic about the prospects for a new piece of legislation to beat Putin over the head with. Browder, the original darling of the war party who has described himself as Vladimir Putin’s “number one enemy,” was the driving force behind much of the original legislation to punish Russia, but his story has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese.

Browder is much loved by Congress as he embodies Russo-phobia. He is a major hedge fund figure who, inter alia, is an American by birth. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1997 in exchange for British citizenship to avoid paying federal taxes on his worldwide income. He is what used to be referred to as an oligarch, having set up shop in Russia in 1999 as Hermitage Capital Management Fund, a hedge fund registered in tax havens Guernsey and the Cayman Islands. It focused on “investing” in Russia, taking advantage initially of the loans-for-shares scheme under Russia’s drunkard President Boris Yeltsin, and then continuing to profit greatly during the early years of Vladimir Putin. By 2005 Hermitage was the largest foreign investor in Russia.

Similar to the proposed Navalny Act and central to the tale of what Browder really represents is the Magnitsky Act, which the U.S. Congress passed into law to sanction individual Kremlin officials for their treatment of alleged whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, arrested and imprisoned in Russia. Browder has sold a narrative which basically says that he and his “lawyer” Sergei Magnitsky uncovered massive tax fraud and, when they attempted to report it, were punished by a corrupt police force and magistracy, which had actually stolen the money. Magnitsky was arrested and died in prison, allegedly murdered by the police to silence him.

The Magnitsky Act asserts American “rights” to punish crimes occurring anywhere in the world, a right that is claimed by no other nation. By it, the U.S. asserted its willingness to punish foreign governments for human rights abuses. The Act, initially limited to Russia, has now been expanded by virtue of 2016’s Global Magnitsky Act, which enabled U.S. sanctions worldwide. The proposed Navalny Act coupled with Lindsay Graham’s DASKA would together go well beyond even that bit of draconian legislation.

The basis for the Magnitsky Act was essentially fraudulent, just as might turn out to be the case with the Navalny story. Contrary narrative to that provided by Browder concedes that there was indeed a huge fraud related to as much as $230 million in unpaid Russian taxes, but that it was not carried out by corrupt officials. Instead, it was deliberately ordered and engineered by Browder with Magnitsky, who was actually an accountant, personally developing and implementing the scheme, using multiple companies and tax avoidance schemes to carry out the deception.

The pending legislation dreamed up by Stephens is undeniably driven by extreme hatred of Putin and of Russia, using contrived and evidence-free scenarios to condemn the Russian government for crimes that do not even make sense from a risk-gain perspective. The Magnitsky Myth alone has already done more even than the contrived Russiagate to launch and sustain a dangerous new Cold War between a nuclear-armed United States and a nuclear-armed Russia.

It would perhaps not be too off base to suggest that the Navalny poisoning has the smell of a possible false flag operation by the U.S. with the possible collusion of anti-Russian elements in Germany. Moscow had no real motive to kill Navalny while the White House is certainly keen on terminating Nord Stream 2. That the U.S. media also continues to be attracted to schemes like Stephens’ is symptomatic of just how far the Russia-phobia current in America and Europe has robbed people of their ability to see what important even when it is right in front of them. Good relations with Russia are more important than either getting involved in Moscow’s politics by validating Navalny or selling gas. To suggest that yet more foreign meddling as advocated by Brent Stephens of the New York Times could well lead to tragedy for all of us would be an understatement.

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This article was originally published on American Herald Tribune.

Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served nineteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter Afghanistan in December 2001. Phil is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values and interests. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Oppositionist Alexei Navalny looks up into the sky on a march in memory of politician Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in Russia. Credit: Michal Siergiejevicz/ Flickr)

In an op ed titled “Losing Both Elections” (Common Dreams) Gwynne Dyer sees Trump’s presence in the White House as exposing the U.S.’ racism leading to its being “extinguished”, a “necessary evolution of American history.”  That is a very positive summation, but it comes about through some very strange presentation of information.

Dyer is a Canadian historian/journalist with degrees in military history and military philosophy (military rationales?) but surprisingly misses out large components of what history has actually recorded.

He begins the article noting how Europeans have a “deep well of respect” for the U.S.  That may or may not be true but the arguments used to arrive at that statement are simply wrong.

Wars

His first joint is “Even if the United States was years late to both world wars, it showed up both times in time to save the day.”  This is not true.

World War I didn’t save any days, and would have ended in the full attrition of the warring empires of the day (Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Turkey [Ottoman Empire], Austria-Hungary) and a long process of unwinding the mess.  As it was, the Paris Peace of 1919 created a long process of unwinding the mess – and in truth it is still not unwound today as the U.S. revives its Cold War policies against Russia.

World War II was already ‘won’ by the time the U.S. entered into the European fighting.  The Soviet Union/Russia had decimated several German armies and were well on their way to conquering Germany itself.  This came at a huge cost to the Russian defenders who incurred the largest personnel losses of any country in the war.

His next argument is “And American troops stayed in Western Europe to protect it from Soviet power throughout the Cold War.”  This is not true either.  The U.S. stayed in Europe to realize and optimize its new found position as the world’s industrial global leader and strongest economy – thanks mainly to the war and the fact that none of it was fought on U.S. territory.

He does argue correctly “Most Eastern Europeans see the United States as the instrument of their liberation from the Soviet Union,” but the other side of that coin is the unilateral decision by Russia to withdraw its troops and allow that freedom on the provision – partly – that NATO would not move “an inch closer” to the Russian border.  Admittedly, the East Europeans feel liberated from Russian dominance, but their economies have not benefited greatly from the western imposed austerity programs and the rising right wing governments currently supported by the U.S.

Democracy

His conclusion from the above is “But would two terms of Trump mean the end of American democracy? Not necessarily.”

The fallacy here is that the U.S. is actually a democracy, if the word democracy is correctly defined as ‘people + power’ as the root words indicate.  The U.S. is truly an oligarchy, a government run by the wealthy, who also happen to have a strong militaristic viewpoint, the military solution being the main solution for most U.S. problems (domestically, “law and order”; foreign affairs, “rule of law” but mainly oil and the petrodollar).

Solutions?

Dyer’s argument then proceeds into the race problem and ends with “Having been so exposed, it will probably finally be extinguished….It is a necessary evolution of American history, for which some people living elsewhere may also pay a substantial price.”

This conclusion is somewhat bizarre.  Whether Trump  is re-elected or not, the race problem will not go away.  The U.S. has since its inception been a racist state, a heritage of the British Empire, indeed of all western European thought especially after the “Doctrine of Discovery” was formally announced as early as 1452 in Papal Bulls.  Strangely enough, and supporting the idea of U.S. racism is the Doctrine’s usage as recently as 2007 to remove indigenous land from the original inhabitants. [see this].  The chances of racism being extinguished any time soon are very remote.

The final statement –  “some people living elsewhere may also pay a substantial price” – is also bizarre.  Ever since its inception, and even before it, “people living elsewhere” have always paid a substantial price – in their lives, their resources, their environment, their freedoms, their land.  This began with the Indian Wars, runs through the Spanish War and its long ongoing battles for control (including 1965-67 Indonesia slaughter of  up to a million peasants and workers labelled ‘communists’, a U.S. inspired slaughter), through the World Wars (ending with the unnecessary slaughter of millions of Japanese civilians from fire bombing and nuclear bombing), and continues on today through the many covert and overt actions of the militarized state (the Pentagon, the CIA, and the many mercenary companies making their living from these operations) as it fights to retain its military and financial hegemony of the world.

There is no part of the world where U.S. actions have not had a negative impact on the people living there, and have not had a “substantial impact”.  This extends throughout the Americas with the Monroe Doctrine which is essentially a doctrine in violation of all current norms of international “rule of law”.  It covers all of Asia, most spectacularly in Vietnam and also with the overflow effects in Laos and Cambodia and the brutal Pol Pot regime, the latter partly supported by the U.S.  More recently it is obvious in South Asia, where the U.S. forever war still runs in Afghanistan, started when the U.S. supported the mujahideen freedom fighters of the Taliban against the Soviets, creating in the long run al-Qaeda and ISIS.

The impact is most strong in the Middle East with U.S. support of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the U.S. support of the dictatorial Saudi Monarchy (where there is not even the pretence of democracy), both combining into other wars of aggression in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and for the U.S., Iran next.  These wars are a combination of Christian fundamentalism, oil, the US$, and the military, a symbiotic unitary expression of the greed and racism of the struggling U.S. empire.

There are no real solutions offered, just a vague warning of more of the same “substantial price” being paid.  The race issue will not be solved even though it is currently a large highlight of domestic politics.  The overall problem with the U.S. is that of a fully racialized state of violence attempting to rule the world – that is not a problem that will be settled whether Trump is re-elected or not.

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Jim Miles is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Vox

It is astonishing to me that we still have 287 million gasoline vehicles on our roads and that 20 percent of our electricity comes from burning dirty coal. We just go on blithely pumping over 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, a powerful and dangerous heat-trapping gas, into the atmosphere annually. It is like setting off atomic bombs in the atmosphere. We know this. And yet as a society we are virtually paralyzed. Our Neanderthal-in-chief actually promotes coal burning, and the Republican Party is a Siamese twin with Big Oil.

The presidential candidates aren’t even talking about it much, and it was an issue largely excluded by the corporate press and the party machines from the primary debates.

While individuals with the resources can cut down on their carbon footprints with solar panels and electric cars (they are a good combination), the problem can’t be tackled effectively without government action. And there, the United States has failed. It has been made to fail by Big Carbon and greedy politicians and ignorant journalists and an apathetic public that apparently doesn’t care if their children or grandchildren face a choice of being burned up or drowning.

If you go back and look at the predictions of climate scientists about 2020, you’ll see that they gave a range, of best- and worst-case scenarios. In every instance, it is the worst case scenario that has come to pass. Even the most jaded and alarmed scientists in 2000 were not pessimistic enough.

Mother Nature is trying to tell us something but we are not listening.

Diana Leonard and Andrew Freedman at WaPo write,

“These wildfires are what is known as a compound disaster, in which more than one extreme event takes place at the same time, across a varied geography. While climate scientists have been warning that compound disasters are an inevitable result of human-caused climate change, a spate of simultaneously burning, rapidly expanding fires spanning the entire West Coast was not expected for several more decades if greenhouse gas emissions remain high.”

1. 3.1 million acres of California have been scorched this year by wildfires, the largest number in recorded history, and thousands of homes have been destroyed. Some 200,000 are going without electricity in a bid to stop more fires. Christina Walker at CNN reports that California wildfires have increased 8x in size since 1970, and the number of acres burned is up 500%.

CNN quotes Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research: “climate change has not just made the extreme heat waves that coincided with the fires worse. The bigger effect is the more subtle, long-term warming,” he said. “That couple of degrees of (average) warming over decades … you don’t notice it as much, but it’s still there lurking in the background, sucking extra moisture out of the vegetation and the soil.”

A study has just demonstrated that the number of extreme-danger fire days has doubled since 1980 in California because of global heating.

2. Wildfires have burned a million acres in Oregon, and Timothy Bella, Marisa Iati and Hannah Knowles at WaPo report that state officials are worried about a “mass fatality incident” that will overwhelm local health care facilities. Fully 10 percent of the state’s population, some 500,000 people, have been ordered evacuated.

3. Joseph O’Sullivan reports at the Seattle Times that Washington state has seen over 600,000 acres burned. It is also part of the expanding Compound Disaster. This is the most acreage burnt in recorded history except for 2015. Governor Jay Inslee, in keeping with the spirit of Compound Disaster, is trying to provide shelter to some of the 500,000 fleeing Oregonians.

4. Nature is not disconnected from human society or from the economy, as Trump and his ilk imagine. Jeff Dukes writes in the Chicago Tribune about the effect of global heating on the Midwest:

“In the Midwest, we regularly see crops ruined by droughts or floods. We expect wetter springs, bigger downpours and more variable precipitation during hotter summers to crash yields more often. The agricultural banks that many farmers depend on for credit are typically small and disproportionately exposed to these regional extreme weather events.”

The Midwest is facing the opposite problem from the West, of increased downpours and crop damage. What we seldom stop to think about is the rolling farm bankruptcies it will produce and hence the rolling bank failures.

5. Hurricane Laura visited devastation on Louisiana and struck up to Arkansas. It landed as nearly a Category 4 Hurricane, and if it had hit more populous areas it would have been an even bigger disaster. Sarah Gibbons at National Geographiclays out the dangers of such enormous storms. They are causing coastal erosion, literally just taking away the state’s land. As the icecaps melt, the Gulf of Mexico is rising (and the water is heating, so it expands). That sea level rise is exacerbating the sinking of the Delta because levees no longer let the Mississippi lay down silt.

Hot sea water and extra moisture in the air from heat-driven evaporation is fueling super-hurricanes in the Gulf that are more powerful and cause more downpours than anything in recorded history. This heating is from us driving our cars and burning our coal and other ways we generate heat-trapping gases.

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In an editorial [1] last week, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, lambasted Donald Trump for canceling a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 due to rain, and accused him of disparagingly mentioning military veterans as “losers” and “suckers.”

But in order to substantiate his allegations, Goldberg came up with a rather bizarre example. While noting Donald Trump wasn’t invited to the funeral of Republican Senator John McCain, who died battling cancer in 2018, Goldberg observed:

“Trump’s understanding of concepts such as patriotism, service, and sacrifice has interested me since he expressed contempt for the war record of the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. ‘He’s not a war hero,’ Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. ‘I like people who weren’t captured.’”

Alluding to Goldberg’s article, Trump said during a Labor Day press conference on September 7 held at the White House:

“I’m not saying the military’s in love with me, the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”

Though a decorated Vietnam War veteran, McCain was a highly polarizing figure as a senator and was regarded by many leftists as an inveterate neocon hawk, who vociferously exhorted Western military interventions in Libya and Syria.

McCain was a vocal supporter of the 2011 military intervention in Libya. In April 2011, he visited the anti-Gaddafi forces and National Transitional Council in Benghazi, the highest-ranking American to do so, and said that the rebel forces were “my heroes.”

Regarding Syria’s proxy war that began in 2011, McCain repeatedly argued for the US intervening militarily in the conflict on the side of the anti-government forces. He staged a visit to rebel forces inside Syria in May 2013, the first senator to do so, and called for arming the Free Syrian Army with heavy weapons and for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria.

Following reports that two of the people he posed for pictures with had been responsible for the kidnapping of eleven Lebanese Shia pilgrims the year before, McCain disputed one of the identifications and said he had not met directly with the other.

In the aftermath of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Ghouta in 2013, McCain vehemently argued for strong American military action against the government of Bashar al-Assad, and in September 2013, cast a Foreign Relations committee vote in favor of Obama’s request to Congress that it authorize a military response.

Charlie Wilson was a Democratic Congressman representing Texas in the House of Representatives from 1973 to 1996. He was a vocal supporter of training and arming Afghan jihadists during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, and on one occasion, he praised the leader of fearsome Haqqani Network Jalal-ud-Din Haqqani as “goodness personified.” He was a subject of a Hollywood feature film “Charlie Wilson’s War,” in which Tom Hanks played the role of Charlie Wilson.

In more than one ways, Senator John McCain was the hawkish equivalent of Charlie Wilson and Syria’s proxy war was the re-enactment of the Soviet-Afghan War.

If we were to draw parallels between the Soviet-Afghan jihad during the 1980s and Syria’s proxy war 2011-onward, the Western powers used the training camps located in the Af-Pak border regions to train and arm Afghan jihadists battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan.

Similarly, the training camps located in the border regions of Turkey and Jordan were used by the CIA and Pentagon to provide money, training and weapons to militants battling the Syrian government with the collaboration of Turkish, Jordanian and Saudi intelligence agencies.

During the Soviet-Afghan jihad, it is a known historical fact that the bulk of the so-called “freedom fighters” was comprised of Pashtun jihadists, including the militant factions of Jalaluddin Haqqani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf and scores of other militant outfits, some of which later coalesced together to form the Taliban militant group.

Similarly, in Syria, the majority of purported “moderate rebels” was comprised of Islamic jihadists, such as Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State and myriads of other militant groups, including a minuscule fraction of defected Syrian soldiers which went by the name of Free Syria Army (FSA).

Apart from Pashtun militants, various factions of the Northern Alliance of Tajiks and Uzbeks constituted the relatively “moderate” segment of the Afghan rebellion, though those “moderate” warlords, like Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abul Rashid Dostum, were more ethnic and tribal in character than secular or nationalist, as such. Similarly, the Kurds of the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces” can be compared to the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan.

During the last few years, the Islamic State’s purported “terror franchises” in Afghanistan and Pakistan have claimed a spate of bombings against the Shia and Barelvi Muslims who are regarded as heretics by Takfiri jihadists. But to contend that the Islamic State is responsible for suicide blasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan is to assert that the Taliban are responsible for the internecine conflict in Syria and Iraq.

Both are localized militant outfits and the Islamic State without its Baathist command structure and superior weaponry bankrolled by Western powers and oil-rich Gulf States is just another ragtag, regional militant outfit. The distinction between the Taliban and the Islamic State lies in the fact that the Taliban follow Deobandi sect of Sunni Islam which is a sect native to South Asia, whereas the jihadists of the Islamic State mostly belong to Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi-Salafi denomination.

Secondly, and more importantly, the insurgency in Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan is an indigenous Pashtun uprising which is an ethnic group native to Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan, whereas the bulk of the Islamic State’s jihadists in Syria and Iraq was comprised of Arab militants and included foreign fighters from the neighboring Middle Eastern countries, North Africa, the Central Asian states, Russia, China and even radicalized Muslims from as far away as Europe and the United States.

The so-called “Khorasan Province” of the Islamic State in the Af-Pak region is nothing more than a coalition of several breakaway factions of the Taliban and a few other inconsequential local militant outfits that have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in order to enhance their prestige, and draw funds and followers, but which doesn’t have any organizational and operational association with the Islamic State proper in Syria and Iraq.

The total strength of the Islamic State-Khorasan is estimated to be between 3,000 to 5,000 fighters. In comparison, the strength of the Taliban is estimated to be between 60,000 to 80,000 militants. The Islamic State-Khorasan was formed as a merger between several breakaway factions of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban in early 2015. Later, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a Pakistani terrorist group Jundullah and Chinese Uyghur militants pledged allegiance to it.

In 2017, the Islamic State-Khorasan split into two factions. One faction, based in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, is led by a Pakistani militant commander Aslam Farooqi, who was reportedly arrested in May, and the other faction, based in the northern provinces of Afghanistan, is led by a former Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) commander Moawiya. The latter faction also includes Uzbek, Tajik, Uyghur and Baloch militants. 

In Pakistan, there are three distinct categories of militants: the Afghanistan-focused Pashtun militants; the Kashmir-focused Punjabi militants; and foreign transnational terrorists, including the Arab militants of al-Qaeda, the Uzbek insurgents of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Chinese Uyghur jihadists of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Compared to tens of thousands of native Pashtun and Punjabi militants, the foreign transnational terrorists number only in a few hundreds and are hence inconsequential.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is mainly comprised of Pashtun militants, carries out bombings against Pakistan’s security apparatus. The ethnic factor is critical here. Although the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) like to couch their rhetoric in religious terms, it is the difference of ethnicity and language that enables them to recruit Pashtun tribesmen who are willing to carry out subversive activities against the Punjabi-dominated state apparatus, while the Kashmir-focused Punjabi militants have by and large remained loyal to their patrons in the security agencies of Pakistan.

Although Pakistan’s security establishment has been willing to conduct military operations against the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which are regarded as a security threat to Pakistan’s security apparatus, as far as the Kashmir-focused Punjabi militants, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the Afghanistan-focused Quetta Shura Taliban, including the Haqqani network, are concerned, they are still enjoying impunity because such militant groups are regarded as “strategic assets” by Pakistan’s security agencies.

Therefore, recent allegations by regional power-brokers that Washington provided material support to splinter groups of Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) as a tit-for-tat response to Pakistan’s security agencies double game of providing support to the Afghan Taliban to mount attacks against the Afghan security forces and their American backers cannot be ruled out. In fact, a UN report in July [2] estimated that more than 6,000 Pakistani militants had sought refuge in Afghanistan following Pakistan’s military operations in tribal areas in 2014.

In November 2018, for instance, infighting between the main faction of the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada and a breakaway faction led by Mullah Mohammad Rasul left scores of fighters dead in Afghanistan’s western Herat province.

Mullah Rasul was close to Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, and served as the governor of southwestern Nimroz province during the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. After the news of the death of Mullah Omar was made public by the Afghan intelligence in 2015, Mullah Rasul broke ranks with the Taliban and formed his own faction.

Mullah Rasul’s group is active in the provinces of Herat, Farah, Nimroz and Helmand, and is known to have received arms and support from the Afghan intelligence, as he has expressed willingness to recognize the Washington-backed Kabul government.

Regarding Washington’s motives for providing covert support to breakaway factions of the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani militants, the US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack, and toppled the Taliban regime with the help of the Northern Alliance comprised of ethnic Tajik and Uzbek warlords.

The leadership and fighters of the Pashtun-majority Taliban resistance movement found sanctuary in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, and mounted an insurgency against the Washington-backed Kabul government. Throughout the occupation years, Washington kept pressuring Islamabad to mount military operations in the lawless tribal areas in order to deny safe havens to the Taliban.

However, Islamabad was reluctant to conduct military operations, which is a euphemism for all-out war, for the fear of alienating the Pashtun population of the tribal areas. After Pakistan’s military’s raid in July 2007 on a mosque (Lal Masjid) in the heart of Islamabad, which also contained a religious seminary, scores of civilians, including students of the seminary, died.

The Pakistani Taliban made the incident a rallying call for waging a jihad against Pakistan’s military. Thereafter, terror attacks and suicide bombings against Pakistan’s state apparatus peaked after the July 2007 Lal Masjid incident. Eventually, under pressure from the Obama administration, Pakistan’s military decided in 2009 to conduct military operations against militants based in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

The first military operation was mounted in the Swat valley in April 2009, the second in South Waziristan tribal agency in October the same year, and the third military operation was launched in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal agencies in June 2014. In the ensuing violence, tens of thousands of civilians, security personnel and militants lost their lives.

Although Pakistani political commentators often point fingers at the Washington-backed Kabul government in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s arch-foe India for providing money and arms to the Pakistani militants for waging a guerrilla war against Pakistan’s state establishment, reportedly Washington has provided covert support to the Pakistani Taliban in order to force Pakistan’s military to conduct military operations against militants based in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Keeping this background of Washington’s covert support to breakaway factions of the Afghan Taliban that have waged an insurgency against the US-backed Kabul government and to the Pakistani Taliban that have mounted a guerrilla war against Pakistan’s state establishment in mind, the allegations that Washington has provided material support to militant groups in the Af-Pak region in order to divide and weaken the Taliban resistance against American occupation of Afghanistan are not entirely unfounded.

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Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions, neocolonialism and petro-imperialism. 

Notes

[1] Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

[2] UN says thousands of anti-Pakistan militants in Afghanistan:

https://apnews.com/ab3668337f310b4be8e1ed2442470992

Featured image is from FAIR

In the last half-century, journalists James Bamford, Ben Bradlee, Seymour Hersh, and Neil Sheehan were each threatened with prosecution under the Espionage Act. But the U.S. government never followed through with Espionage Act charges against a journalist until 2019, when WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested and charged.

Trevor Timm, the executive director for the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), told a magistrate court judge, “[President Donald] Trump’s administration is moving to explicitly criminalize national security journalism, and if this prosecution is allowed to go forward, dozens of reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere would also be in danger.”

FPF is a nonprofit organization that Timm said “protects, defends, and empowers public interest journalism in the 21st century.” It developed SecureDrop, an “open-source platform for secure communications between sources and media organizations.”

WikiLeaks, as Timm noted, is widely recognized as a “pioneer” of this kind of “secure submission system for journalistic sources.” The system that FPF developed is available in 10 languages. “More than 70 media organizations worldwide, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, USA Today, Bloomberg News, CBC, and the Toronto Globe and Mail” are using the system to “solicit” or accept leaked documents.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which published the “Panama Papers” investigation, has a page on their website that says, “Leak to us.” Dropboxes for leaks are even advertised by news organizations on social media platforms.

It is these common newsgathering practices that the United States Justice Department’s prosecution of Assange explicitly criminalizes. However, James Lewis of the Crown Prosecution Service, who represents the U.S. government, attempted to undercut testimony from Timm.

Lewis stated it was the prosecution’s position that Assange is “not a journalist.” Timm acknowledged this position but maintained “it doesn’t matter whether the U.S. government considers Assange a journalist.” The New York Times does not need an “issued press pass to have First Amendment rights.” Plus, it is beside the point whether Assange is a journalist because he “engaged in First Amendment activities.”

Timm refused to accept the prosecution’s argument that the indictment against Assange is carefully tailored to only criminalize the publication of documents that contained the names of informants working for the U.S. government.

Three of the charges deal specifically with U.S. diplomatic cables that allegedly endangered informants. But other charges relate to all documents and assert that Assange’s possession of the documents was a crime. If Assange committed a crime, so have other journalists, Timm added.

Lewis asked Timm if a “responsible journalist” or in fact any journalist would publish the name of a third party when it was unnecessary to publish that name and when publishing that name would put that person’s life in danger.

Prior witnesses at least partly agreed with Lewis’ point. However, Timm astutely declared that the “idea of who is or is not a responsible journalist is different from what is illegal or legal conduct.” No U.S. court has ever said such publication would be illegal.

Back in 2010, as documented by Wired Magazine, Senator Joseph Lieberman and other lawmakers “introduced legislation that would make it a federal crime for anyone to publish the name of a U.S. intelligence source.” It was a response to WikiLeaks.

Timm recalled Congress debated the legislation—the Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination (SHIELD) Act—which would have amended the Espionage Act. Yet, the bill never became law so apparently Congress did not think it was necessary to make the publication of intelligence sources by anyone illegal.

Lewis referred to an editorial by former media partners of WikiLeaks that condemned the media organization for publishing over the entire cache of uncensored U.S. diplomatic cables. Although WikiLeaks was not responsible for leaking the password that led to the decryption of a file that contained the cache, the Guardian, New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel, and Le Monde, along with other human rights organizations, were appalled at WikiLeaks for supposedly endangering lives.

Timm maintained the U.S. government should not be in the business of determining which newspapers or media organizations exercise sound editorial judgment or not. The question should be whether what WikiLeaks did in publishing those cables was illegal, and it was not.

Furthermore, Timm called the prosecutor’s attention to the fact that former media partners, which were upset with WikiLeaks, are opposed to the prosecution of Assange.

In Timm’s statement to the court, Timm highlighted how Trump has “attempted to stifle press freedom at all levels.” The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which FPF uses to track press freedom violations in the U.S., has tallied over 2,000 examples, where Trump tweeted “negative remarks, insults, or threats to the press” since his presidential campaign in 2016. He has referred to journalists as “enemies of the people.”

The strong testimony of Timm in defense of press freedom and the First Amendment was hard for Lewis to undermine. So, he asked, “Why should your opinion be preferred over the opinion of courts in the United States?”

“My opinion is in line with previous court opinions,” Timm answered. “There’s never been a publisher charged in this manner before,” and, “Supreme Court precedent is almost wholly on the side of Mr. Assange in this case.”

There are guidelines known as the federal rules of prosecution that Justice Department employees are expected to follow. Lewis absurdly cited these rules as evidence that the Assange prosecution could not be a part of a “war on journalism.”

If the decision to prosecute Assange was part of a “war on journalism,” Lewis added, wouldn’t prosecutors in this case be acting contrary to federal rules of prosecution?

“Yes,” Timm answered, “and if they did breach those obligations,” one should hope there would be accountability.

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Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “Unauthorized Disclosure.”

Featured image is from Another Day in the Empire

With today being another anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it’s important to recall why it was that that deadly event came about.

No, the terrorists didn’t attack us because they hated our “freedom and values,” as U.S. officials and American interventionists claimed after the attacks. Instead, the attacks occurred in retaliation for what the U.S. national-security establishment, specifically the Pentagon and the CIA, had been doing to people in the Middle East prior to the 9/11 attacks.

Recall the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when the U.S. government intervened in a conflict involving their old partner and ally, Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq. Iraq had gotten in a territorial dispute with Kuwait, which ended up with Iraq invading Kuwait.

U.S. officials felt that they could not let Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait to stand, which is somewhat strange given that the U.S. government supported Iraq when it invaded Iran in the 1980s. Without the congressional declaration of war the Constitution requires, the U.S. government went to war against Iraq, killing multitudes of Iraqi people in the process and wreaking untold destruction across the country.

During the conflict, the Pentagon ordered the destruction of Iraq’s water-and-sewage treatment plants, after a study revealed that such destruction would help spread infectious illnesses within the Iraqi populace.

Then once hostilities were ended, the U.S. and UN enforced one of the most brutal systems of sanctions in history against the Iraqi people, which proceeded to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, especially since the sanctions prevented those destroyed water and sewage treatment plants from being repaired. The U.S. government’s ambassador to the UN, Madeleine Albright, declared that the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children were “worth it.”

There was also the Pentagon’s intentional stationing of U.S. troops near Islamic holy lands, knowing full well the effect that such an action would have on Muslims.

There was also the brutal “no-fly zones” over Iraq, which enabled the U.S. planes to wreak even more death and destruction in Iraq.

There was also the unconditional support given by U.S. officials to the Israeli government.

The rage that all that interventionism produced within people in the Middle East is what brought on the 9/11 attacks. It also brought on the anti-American terrorism that preceded 9/11 attacks: the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, the attack on the USS Cole, and the attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Unfortunately, rather than acknowledge what their pre-9/11 interventionism produced, the Pentagon and the CIA doubled down and used the 9/11 attacks to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Those interventions were followed by interventions in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere.

All that new interventionism added fuel to the pre-9/11 rage, which produced more anti-American terrorism, which then caused the Pentagon and the CIA to react even more forcefully against the terrorism.

That’s how we have ended up with an endless supply of terrorists, an perpetual war on terrorism, and the destruction of liberty and prosperity here at home, all of which, of course, has kept the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA in high cotton in terms of both money and power. It’s quite possibly the biggest racket in U.S. history.

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Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show Freedom Watch. View these interviews atLewRockwell.com and from Full Context. Send him email.

Unfortunately, this time around Serbia was not lucky to have a guileless but unquestionably upright public servant like James Stewart (playing the role of the endearing Mr. Smith) to represent it in Washington. (image left). 

Referring to the fictional Mr. Smith, who turns up in Washington as the newly-elected senator from some distant prairie state, the movie trailer says that “his plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn’t back down”.

One wishes the trailer blurb could be applied to what happened in Washington on September 3 and 4, at what was misleadingly billed the “Kosovo Economic Conference.”

But instead, it would be more correct to say that unlike the lucky people of Kansas or Nebraska, or wherever Mr. Smith happened to come from, Serbia was represented in Washington, figuratively speaking, by the chicken-hearted Dr. Emil Hácha, yes, the famous Czech statesman of post Munich fame who on March 15th, 1939 signed the document stating he had “confidently placed the fate of the Czech people and country in the hands of the Führer of the German Reich.” (See also Avalon Law, Yale Edu)

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But history does not necessarily repeat itself.

Trump, Pence, Grenell and the lot of them did not have to chase president Aleksandar Vučić  (image right, with Pres Trump) around the table to make him sign anything; he was happy to do it of his own volition, glowing with puerile pride at the end of the ceremony when the American president magnanimously rewarded him with his pen.

Little did the Balkan country bumpkin know something that every American schoolboy who watches television could have told him. This particular act of regal generosity is a standard feature of Presidential signing rites, as some YouTube homework done before departure from Belgrade would have made clear.

But juvenile swooning over a Presidential pen is scarcely the gravest and most unstatesmanlike impropriety that marked Aleksandar Vučić’s whirlwind Washington tour, an episode that will, as a real statesman once remarked, live in infamy, at least in the annals of Serbia’s diplomatic relations.

What was actually signed, albeit with a different pen, was incomparably worse than the silly caper with the Presidential pen.

Screenshot, White House, Sept 4, 2020 (VOA) 

For starters, the supposedly “economic” summit of the parties had little to do with their shipwrecked economies, or with finding ways to resuscitate them. The principal points to which the Balkan parties committed were beneficial exclusively to third parties.

Serbia is to diversify its “energy sources,” i.e. renounce its perfectly satisfactory energy arrangements with the Russian Federation.

By implication, that must lead to abandoning the South Stream project that would have been highly beneficial to its treasury.

It must also “prohibit the use of 5G equipment supplied by untrusted [Chinese] vendors” but after “removal” it must substitute for it equally harmful 5G equipment manufactured by trusted American firms. (The Agreement is a hilarious mixture of cowboy diplomacy and fanciful posturing; are there still US factories capable of producing 5G equipment, or may “trusted” products still be manufactured in China but by American firms, as long as it is not Huawei?)

Finally, Serbia is informed that it will move its Tel Aviv embassy to Jerusalem by this time next year and that Israel will establish diplomatic relations with “Kosovo.”

The precious moment when Trump breaks the news to the obviously out of the loop President Vucic has gone viral, but the undoubtedly best version of this memorable scene was posted by the Turkish press agency, with the (to Serbian viewers) hysterical acronym TRT. One of the TRT reader’s reactions to this burlesque in the TRT comments section wraps it all up: “I bet that Serbia and so called Kosovo signed peace agreement between Israel and Palestine but they don’t even know it yet”.

To the extent that the meeting to which the two Balkan chieftains were summoned did have any relation to economics, it was to bolster US economic interests in the region, to be sure.

The Fox News post about the Oval Office proceedings makes that abundantly clear. The “great” and “fantastic” (some of the President’s favorite hyperbole that he used lavishly) thing about this economic conference is that it opens up business opportunities for the United States “in these two countries” [at 9:27 minutes video below]. While ravaged in 1999 by NATO depleted uranium munitions on the surface, Kosovo is literally a pot of gold just underneath.

Whose capital will now claim the fabulous mineral resources of the Trepca mine complex?

.

Last but not least, this “economic agreement” between “Serbia and Kosovo” features also several enigmatic infrastructural provisions: completion of the “Peace Highway,” rail link between Pristina and Merdare, and rail link between the south Serbian city of Nis and Pristina.

For whom are these communication facilities being built and how exactly will they generate jobs and prosperity for local citizens?

The operationalization of these projects (some of which have already been started) is to proceed under the auspices of the U. S. International Development Finance Corporation, described as “America’s development bank.”

So the projects enumerated in the Agreement under the guise of stimulating the local economy have in fact nothing to do with invigorating the flow of tomatoes and potatoes, but have got everything to do with completing NATO’s Balkan infrastructure network, with Camp Bondsteel (US military base) in Kosovo (image left) as its obvious hub.

What ultimate purposes that infrastructure is being built to serve it does not take much imagination to fathom.

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Stephen Karganovic is president of “Srebrenica Historical Project,” an NGO registered in the Netherlands to investigate the factual matrix and background of events that took place in Srebrenica in July of 1995.

Featured image is from Wikimedia Commons

While our nation was busy spending a considerable amount of time discussing racial inequalities (as we should) or whether or not public schools and colleges were going to open or start online, or debating the upcoming national political conventions, our federal government, specifically, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued his 3^rd amendment to The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP).

The Act was first enacted this year by a declaration from the Secretary of HHS on March 10, 2020. 

The 3rd amendment, issued on August 24^th, 2020, allows pharmacists to administer vaccines to children ages 3-18. Many states had previously established restrictions on who could administer childhood vaccinations. 

I must admit that this announcement slipped past me last week. I was alerted to it when talking with a parent advocate one evening. I could not believe it and thought it must be just for a specific state.

Later, I searched the internet to find a few articles dated August 19^th, 20^th and 21^st. The Federal Register listed the action on Monday, August 24, 2020. [1]

This action by the Secretary of HHS allows certain licensed pharmacists to order and administer, and pharmacy interns (who are acting under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist) to administer, any vaccine that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends to persons ages 3 through 18.

This amendment was prompted by a report from the CDC in which it found a significant decrease in rates of routine childhood vaccinations. [2]

Now with the federal announcement of this declaration, how will this play out in the states? How much weight does this declaration have regarding state law which traditionally regulates the activities of state licensed pharmacists?

So the question now to be answered, does this declaration by the Secretary of HHS supersede state law? 

In the last couple of years, there were many proposed legislative bills introduced to allow pharmacists to administer childhood vaccines that did not go anywhere in state legislatures around the country.

Is this declaration a product of those legislative failures?

Or is this a flare shot high in the air to signal to state health departments to use their rule-making authority to modify statutes to allow pharmacies to enter the childhood vaccination arena?

Even my home state of Minnesota passed legislation in May, 2020 to allow pharmacists to administer any FDA-approved COVID vaccine to children as young as 6 years of age.

This is not a mandate, but rather setting up a horrible scenario for which pharmacists are clearly not trained to handle. The method of passing legislation during a Peacetime Emergency declaration by governors to circumvent public testimony is very troubling.

The PREP Act has been previously amended twice prior to this declaration.

Previous amendments of The PREP Act include:

• The 1st amendment on April 10^th to extend liability immunity to covered countermeasures authorized under the newly passed CARES Act. [3] This declaration provides limited immunity to manufacturers of masks, plastic shields, gloves and other protective equipment.
• The 2nd amendment on June 4^th for the purpose of clarifying that covered countermeasures include qualified countermeasures that limit the harm COVID-19 might otherwise cause. [4] Basically, allowing the use of therapeutics and other measures that were not designed for COVID, to be used if necessary.

Now comes the problem of allowing pharmacists to administer childhood vaccines.

In the Vaccine Court currently, the number one petition filed for compensation is for shoulder injury as the result of a vaccination (SIRVA). Most of the injured persons (adults) received influenza or Tdap vaccinations from their local retail pharmacy such as Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid or Target. 

If these retail pharmacies cannot properly administer a vaccine to an adult, why would we allow this for children?

One of the biggest problems when filing a petition claiming shoulder injury is the failure of the retail pharmacies to accurately record in the medical records which arm the vaccine was administered in and who did it. These pharmacies can barely keep up with adults receiving one vaccine at a time.

What happens when a parent brings their child into the business to get several vaccines? Will the pharmacy tech or pharmacist record the date, time, which arm or leg?

Probably not.

Will they be able to obtain and examine a thorough review of medical records prior to administering the vaccine?

Probably not.

Most doctors lack any comprehensive training of what a vaccine injury is or adverse reactions in a child, let alone a pharmacist receiving this type of training.

This has all the makings for a disaster.

But why is our government transferring the responsibility of administering vaccines to retail pharmacies instead of doctors’ offices or clinics? 

It just might be the pushback from doctors who claim it is not profitable or too costly to administer basic vaccinations in their office. From their point of view, it would be more cost effective in a pharmacy setting.

Or is it something more sinister? It does appear that our government, with pressure from Pharma, is trying to “gut” the NVICP and slowly move injury compensation into the CounterMeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).

This is clearly the landing spot for the COVID vaccine. And it is the black hole for those who are injured or have perished because of a vaccine.

If the public is withheld case decisions and information about CICP, then vaccine injury claims will no longer exist.

So many agendas by our government agencies and medical community have no regard for the best interest of the people. 

The BIG problem here is The PREP Act being used as a vehicle to circumvent Congress. The real concern is will we see a federal mandate for COVID vaccine at some point in the future via The PREP Act?

They are adopting policy via fiat without proper and necessary public comments and testimony. Will the PREP Act become the vehicle to advance vaccine policy in the United States?

I believe that we will see a few more amendments to The PREP Act if Congress will not address the liability issue for businesses, schools, colleges to open up. There are lawsuits already filed by employees for wrongful death (WalMart) and hospitalizations of employees claiming being infected by COVID while employed.

We must remain vigilant, we must be prepared to act, and we must educate our elected officials on a federal level, state and local level as well.

The PREP Act is in force as declared in March, 2020 until October, 2024 unless revoked by the Secretary of HHS or POTUS, or another health care emergency emerges.

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Wayne Rohde is the author of The Vaccine Court. He has an upcoming Podcast of NVICP, The PREP Act, CounterMeasures Injury Comp Program and COVID vaccine legal issues starting Mid-October.

Notes

[1] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-08-24/pdf/2020-18542.pdf

[2] https://www.seyfarth.com/news-insights/third-amendment-to-prep-act-declaration-further-expands-scope-of-liability-immunity-for-medical-countermeasures-against-covid-19.html?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=LinkedIn-integration

[3] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-04-15/pdf/2020-08040.pdf

[4] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-06-08/pdf/2020-12465.pdf

Featured image is from Health Impact News

On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that dubious claims about Navalny’s alleged novichok nerve agent poisoning appear to be following a “script (that) was written in advance.”

Russophobic establishment media reports about what happened have the distinct aroma of fake news like countless times before on issues relating to Moscow.

In response to Russia’s request for Berlin to provide verifiable evidence of what it claims happened to Navalny, “nothing, zero” was sent, nothing publicly revealed, said Zakharova.

Did Navalny fall ill naturally or from foul play? If the latter, cui bono?

Clearly not Russia. Dark forces in the US and their imperial partners alone benefit.

It’s also clear that claims by a German military lab that Navalny was novichoked were dubious at best.

Exposure to even a minute amount of the most deadly known substance causes death in minutes.

Navalny is very much alive over two weeks after falling ill, and according to reports from Berlin, his condition is improving.

Scratch the fake novichoking claim. Navalny either experienced a metabolic disorder as diagnosed by Russian doctors or became ill from something else yet to be revealed.

The former explanation seems most likely, the latter very much possible, perhaps foul play, and if proved from further independently verified analysis, nothing suggests Kremlin responsibility.

Moscow fosters cooperative relations with other countries, confrontation with none, Germany a valued economic and trade partner.

Wanting bilateral relations expanded to benefit both countries, clearly Kremlin officials would do nothing to undermine ties — what dark forces in Washington clearly seek.

Completing construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany is vital for both nations.

On Monday, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert downplayed linking completion of the project’s construction to what happened to Navalny, saying it’s “too early” for a punitive response.

The gas pipeline is vital for other European countries besides Germany.

Russia proved time and again that it’s a reliable political, economic and trade partner.

Fostering the relationship between European capitals and Moscow is warranted. Undermining it is detrimental to the continent.

According to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russian authorities do not believe that Berlin wants Nord Stream 2 suspended or halted.

Asked about some remarks from German politicians related to undermining the project, Peskov said:

“(W)e see that for each such new statement, two statements appear, which speak about the absurdity of such proposals.”

Abandoning the pipeline would amount to Germany shooting itself in the foot to please Washington and its own Russophobic hardliners.

Moscow urged mutual cooperation with Germany to resolve things beneficially to both countries and other European ones that very much want low-cost Russian natural gas Nord Stream 2 will supply when completed.

According to German Eastern Business Association head Michael Harms, “(l)egally I think that is hardly possible” to stop completion of the pipeline, adding:

“All permits have been granted. The contracts are watertight — not only in Germany, but also in five countries plus under European regulations.”

While Angela Merkel doesn’t rule out punitive actions against Russia over what happened to Navalny, it makes no economic sense for her to halt completion of the project.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt once said “those who trade with each other do not shoot each other.”

Russo/German relations are largely positive. In January, RT noted that bilateral relations were “thawing. It’s good news for all Europeans.”

Russia and Germany are the continent’s two most important countries.

Positive relations are beneficial to both sides. Nurturing and developing them makes sense.

Without access to Russian hydrocarbon and other resources, Germany’s economy would be harmed.

Relations between Merkel and Putin are positive. Months after the Obama regime’s coup in Ukraine, followed by Crimeans voting overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia weeks later, Putin said the following about Russia’s relations with Germany’s chancellor in November 2014 at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia:

“(W)e are guided by interests instead of sympathies and antipathies,” adding:

“(S)he (Merkel) (is) also…guided by the same interests just like any other leader of a nation, state or government.”

“This is why I see neither considerable changes nor any substantial alterations in the nature of our relations.”

At the time, Merkel stressed the importance of dialogue with Russia despite differences over Ukraine.

Later she said “the fact that there are many serious conflicts around the world stresses the need to search for solutions.”

“We are responsible — both Germany and Russia as permanent members of the UN Security Council.”

“We must work on finding solutions…I hold the view that disagreements can only be resolved through negotiations.”

Her current view of bilateral relations with Russia is highly likely to be unchanged.

When both leaders met in Moscow in January this year, RT reported that they shared common views on ending conflict in Libya, preserving the JCPOA, and completing construction of Nord Stream 2 “in the face of US sanctions” that aim to undermine the project.

At the time, Putin said talks with Merkel focused on “most hot” issues.

Ahead of their meeting, deputy German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said the following:

Berlin “noticed with regret that the sanctions initiated by the US Congress against Nord Stream 2 and Turkstream (pipelines) came into force after being signed by the US president,” adding:

“The federal government rejects such extraterritorial sanctions. They affect German and European companies and represent interference in our domestic affairs.”

If foul play was responsible for Navalny’s illness with the objective of undermining Nord Stream 2’s completion, achieving this aim is highly likely to fail.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

The global call for an objective investigation that will inevitably establish facts into the alleged “poisoning” of opposition leader and a Russian citizen, Alexei Navalny, in August has started yielding results. President Vladimir Putin has decided, as the first step, to set up an independent committee to investigate the cruel and inhumane attempt on his life.

As globally known, Navalny is a Russian opposition politician and “anti-corruption activist”. He came to international prominence by organizing demonstrations and running for political office, advocating against corruption in Russia and contributing to public discussions on reforms that could help Putin’s government.

He fell ill on a domestic flight last month and was treated in a Siberian hospital, and later evacuated to Berlin. Germany has said that toxicology tests conducted by its armed forces found “unequivocal evidence” that Navalny had been poisoned with Novichok, the substance used in the 2018 attack Skripal family, on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

Navalny’s case undoubtedly bears similarities to other poisoning incidents in the political history of Russia. There are many ordinary Russians, who believe that the world must know the truth about this brazen attempt on the life of a Russian opposition leader. In addition, it would clear the air, or instead to have an increasingly tainted image.

In an interview with the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte made by Di Claudio Cerasa from an Italian media, Il Foglio, on September 10, 2020, focused on Alexei Navalny:

“Navalny? The German position coincides with the Italian one. Recovery? We will start with the Commission’s recommendations. Oppositions? My invitation to dialogue is always valid. School? There are reasons to be optimistic.” (Interview with the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, the headline reads, original Italian translated into English).

The Head of the Government chooses to speak on an important issue that has nothing to do with economic dossiers or with the future of the government, but with a delicate issue of a diplomatic and geopolitical nature. The theme is this: but exactly, where does Italy stand on the Alexei Navalny case? Alexei Navalny, as you know, is one of the most prominent opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin and was taken to Germany to be treated after being poisoned in Russia.

The German government said it had acquired “no doubt” evidence that Navalny was poisoned. Angela Merkel herself said she “condemned this attack in the most severe way” and has askied the Russian government “to urgently clarify because there are questions that only the Russian government can and must answer. The world is waiting for explanations.”

It was revealed that investigators found a new, more lethal variant of Novichok on Navalny’s hands and water bottle: for this reason, investigators believe that the perpetrators of the attack are Russian services authorized by the Kremlin. Up to now, we point out to Conte, the government has chosen to handle the issue with great caution – even too much. But in this conversation with Il Foglio, the prime minister puts aside a little diplomacy and agrees to answer a specific question, according to the published article.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has told Italy’s prime minister that he would set up a committee to investigate the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Giuseppe Conte quoted on as saying on September 10.

“President Putin has assured me (in a recent conversation) that Russia intends to clear up what has happened, and told me that he would set up a committee of inquiry and was ready to collaborate with the German authorities,” Italy’s Conte told the newspaper Il Foglio in the interview. “Collaboration is the best way to prevent this dramatic event from negatively affecting relations between the EU and Russia,” Conte added.

This step taken by the Kremlin could scale down escalating tensions between European Union members, especially, Germany and Russia. It tension relating Navalny threatens to cause lasting damage to diplomatic relations and the economies of both countries, and as a whole the European Union.

Over the ongoing situation, among others, relating to Navalny, European Union has threatened more sanctions against Russia. What is really at stake here also is the Nord Stream-2. This pipeline is expected to provide Europe with a sustainable gas supply while providing Russia with more direct access to the European gas market.

The Nord Stream-2 is a pipeline project slated to transport natural gas from eastern Russia to northern Germany, where it would link up with infrastructure that carries fuel to Western Europe. It would run 1,200 kilometers, mostly under the Baltic Sea along the existing Nord Stream pipeline – hence the name Nord Stream 2.

On September 9, in connection with the demarche undertaken by the Group of Seven on the Alexei Navalny case, the Foreign Ministry has issued the following statement. Russia insists that Germany provide data on Alexei Navalny’s medical examination, including the results of the biochemical tests, as per the official request for legal assistance submitted by the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation on August 27. Berlin has not been willing to respond to our repeated requests in a prompt and constructive manner.

“Without the above-mentioned information, the Russian law enforcement agencies are unable to engage all the necessary procedural mechanisms in order to establish the circumstances of the incident. Meanwhile, the frenzy that is being stirred up around this case is only growing,” according to the statement posted to its official website.

“We note that Russian doctors proposed establishing close dialogue with their German colleagues in order to discuss the available data on Alexei Navalny’s health that is held in Russia and in Germany. Unfortunately, the German side has been thwarting this process,” it further said.

The unconstructive approach by the German authorities is accompanied by groundless accusations against Russia. The massive misinformation campaign that has been unleashed clearly demonstrates that the primary objective pursued by its masterminds is to mobilize support for sanctions, rather than to care for Alexei Navalny’s health or establish the true reasons for his admission to hospital, it concluded.

Russia has different relations with individual member states of the European Union. But, all the members unite around policies either for or against Russia. Since 2014 annexation of Crimea, for example, the EU has collectively imposed sanctions initially involving visa bans and freeze of assets of 170 individuals and 44 entities involved in these operations. The EU sanctions have been extended and are in force until 2020.

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Kester Kenn Klomegah is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

This article was originally published on Asia Times.

9/11 was the foundation stone of the new millennium – ever as much indecipherable as the Mysteries of Eleusis. A year ago, on Asia Times, once again I raised a number of questions that still find no answer.

A lightning speed breakdown of the slings and arrows of outrageous (mis)fortune trespassing these two decades will certainly include the following. The end of history. The short unipolar moment. The Pentagon’s Long War. Homeland Security. The Patriot Act. Shock and Awe. The tragedy/debacle in Iraq. The 2008 financial crisis. The Arab Spring. Color revolutions. “Leading from behind”. Humanitarian imperialism. Syria as the ultimate proxy war. The ISIS/Daesh farce. The JCPOA. Maidan. The Age of Psyops. The Age of the Algorithm. The Age of the 0.0001%.

Once again, we’re deep in Yeats territory: “the best lack all conviction/ while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

All along, the “War on Terror” – the actual decantation of the Long War – proceeded unabated, killing Muslim multitudes and displacing at least 37 million people.

WWII-derived geopolitics is over. Cold War 2.0 is in effect. It started as US against Russia, morphed into US against China and now, fully spelled out in the US National Security Strategy, and with bipartisan support, it’s the US against both. The ultimate Mackinder-Brzezinski nightmare is at hand: the much dread “peer competitor” in Eurasia slouched towards the Beltway to be born in the form of the Russia-China strategic partnership.

Something’s gotta give. And then, out of the blue, it did.

A drive by design towards ironclad concentration of power and geoconomic diktats was first conceptualized – under the deceptive cover of “sustainable development” – already in 2015 at the UN (here it is, in detail).

Now, this new operating system – or technocratic digital dystopia – is finally being codified, packaged and “sold” since mid summer via a lavish, concerted propaganda campaign.

Watch your mindspace

The whole Planet Lockdown hysteria that elevated Covid-19 to post-modern Black Plague proportions has been consistently debunked, for instance here and here, drawing from the highly respected, original Cambridge source.

The de facto controlled demolition of large swathes of the global economy allowed corporate and vulture capitalism, world wide, to rake untold profits out of the destruction of collapsed businesses.

And all that proceeded with widespread public acceptance – an astonishing process of voluntary servitude.

None of it is accidental. As an example, over then years ago, even before setting up a – privatized – Behavioral Insights Team, the British government was very much interested in “influencing” behavior, in collaboration with the London School of Economics and Imperial College.

The end result was the MINDSPACE report. That was all about behavioral science influencing policymaking and most of all, imposing neo-Orwellian population control.

MINDSPACE, crucially, featured close collaboration between Imperial College and the Santa Monica-based RAND corporation. Translation:

the authors of the absurdly flawed computer models that fed the Planet Lockdown paranoia working in conjunction with the top Pentagon-linked think tank.

In MINDSPACE, we find that, “behavioral approaches embody a line of thinking that moves from the idea of an autonomous individual, making rational decisions, to a ‘situated’ decision-maker, much of whose behavior is automatic and influenced by their ‘choice environment’”.

So the key question is who decides what is the “choice environment’. As it stands, our whole environment is conditioned by Covid-19. Let’s call it “the disease”. And that is more than enough to beautifully set up “the cure”: The Great Reset.

The beating heart

The Great Reset was officially launched in early June by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the natural habitat of Davos Man. Its conceptual base is something the WEF describes as Strategic Intelligence Platform: “a dynamic system of contextual intelligence that enables users to trace relationships and interdependencies between issues, supporting more informed decision-making”.

It’s this platform that promotes the complex crossover and interpenetration of Covid-19 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution –

conceptualized back in December 2015 and the WEF’s choice futuristic scenario. One cannot exist without the other. That is meant to imprint in the collective unconscious – at least in the West – that only the WEF-sanctioned “stakeholder” approach is capable of solving the Covid-19 challenge.

The Great Reset is immensely ambitious, spanning over 50 fields of knowledge and practice. It interconnects everything from economy recovery recommendations to “sustainable business models”, from restoration of the environment to the redesign of social contracts.

The beating heart of this matrix is  – what else – the Strategic Intelligence Platform, encompassing, literally, everything: “sustainable development”, “global governance”, capital markets, climate change, biodiversity, human rights, gender parity, LGBTI, systemic racism, international trade and investment, the – wobbly – future of the travel and tourism industries, food, air pollution, digital identity, blockchain, 5G, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI).

In the end, only an all-in-one Plan A applies for making these systems interact seamlessly: the Great Reset – shorthand for a New World Order that has always been glowingly evoked, but never implemented. There is no Plan B. 

The Covid-19 “legacy”

The two main actors behind the Great Reset are Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and executive chairman, and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. Georgieva is adamant that “the digital economy is the big winner of this crisis”. She believes the Great Reset must imperatively start in 2021.

The House of Windsor and the UN are prime executive co-producers. Top sponsors include BP, Mastercard and Microsoft. It goes without saying that everyone who knows how complex geopolitical and geoeconomic decisions are taken is aware that these two main actors are just reciting a script. Call the authors “the globalist elite”. Or, in praise of Tom Wolfe, the Masters of the Universe.

Schwab, predictably, wrote the Great Reset’s mini-manifesto.  Over a month later, he expanded on the absolutely key connection: the “legacy” of Covid-19.

All this has been fully fleshed in a book, co-written with Thierry Malleret, who directs the WEF’s Global Risk Network. Covid-19 is described as having “created a great disruptive reset of our global, social, economic and political systems”. Schwab spins Covid-19 not only as a fabulous “opportunity”, but actually as the creator (italics mine) of the – now inevitable – Reset.

All that happens to dovetail beautifully with Schwab’s own baby: Covid-19 “accelerated our transition into the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution”. The revolution has been extensively discussed at Davos since 2016.

The book’s central thesis is that our most pressing challenges concern the environment – considered only in terms of climate change – and technological developments, which will allow the expansion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In a nutshell, the WEF is stating that corporate globalization, the hegemonic modus operandi since the 1990s, is dead. Now it’s time for “sustainable development” – with “sustainable” defined by a select group of “stakeholders”, ideally integrated into a “community of common interest, purpose and action.”

Sharp Global South observers will not fail to compare the WEF’s rhetoric of “community of common interest” with the Chinese “community of shared interests” as applied to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is a de facto continental trade/development project.

The Great Reset presupposes that all stakeholders – as in the whole planet – must toe the line. Otherwise, as Schwab stresses, we will have “more polarization, nationalism, racism, increased social unrest and conflicts”.

So this is – once again – a “you’re with us or against us” ultimatum, eerily reminiscent of our old 9/11 world. Either the Great Reset is peacefully established, with whole nations dutifully obeying the new guidelines designed by a bunch of self-appointed neo-Platonic Republic sages, or it’s chaos.

Whether Covid-19’s ultimate “window of opportunity” presented itself as a mere coincidence or by design, will always remain a very juicy question.

Digital Neo-Feudalism

The actual, face-to-face Davos meeting next year has been postponed to the summer of 2021. But virtual Davos will proceed in January, focused on the Great Reset.

Already three months ago, Schwab’s book hinted that the more everyone is mired in the global paralysis, the more it’s clear that things will never be allowed (italics mine) to return to what we considered normal.

Five years ago, the UN’s Agenda 2030 – the Godfather of the Great Reset – was already insisting on vaccines for all, under the patronage of the WHO and CEPI – co-founded in 2016 by India, Norway and the Bill and Belinda Gates foundation.

Timing could not be more convenient for the notorious Event 201 “pandemic exercise” in October last year in New York, with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security partnering with – who else – the WEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. No in-depth criticism of Gates’s motives is allowed by media gatekeepers because, after all, he finances them.

What has been imposed as an ironclad consensus is that without a Covid-19 vaccine there’s no possibility of anything resembling normality.

And yet a recent, astonishing paper published in Virology Journal –  which also publishes Dr. Fauci’s musings  – unmistakably demonstrates that “chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread”. This is a “relatively safe, effective and cheap drug” whose “significant inhibitory antiviral effect when the susceptible cells were treated either prior to or after infection suggests a possible prophylactic and therapeutic use.”

Even Schwab’s book admits that Covid-19 is “one of the least deadly pandemics in the last 2000 years” and its consequences “will be mild compared to previous pandemics”.

It doesn’t matter. What matters above all is the “window of opportunity” offered by Covid-19, boosting, among other issues, the expansion of what I previously described as Digital Neo-Feudalism – or Algorithm gobbling up Politics. No wonder politico-economic institutions from the WTO to the EU as well as the Trilateral Commission are already investing in “rejuvenation” processes, code for even more concentration of power.

Survey the imponderables

Very few thinkers, such as German philosopher Hartmut Rosa, see our current plight as a rare opportunity to “decelerate” life under turbo-capitalism.

As it stands, the point is not that we’re facing an “attack of the civilization-state” . The point is assertive civilization-states – such as China, Russia, Iran – not submitted to the Hegemon, are bent on charting a quite different course.

The Great Reset, for all its universalist ambitions, remains an insular, Western-centric model benefitting the proverbial 1%. Ancient Greece did not see itself as “Western”. The Great Reset is essentially an Enlightenment-derived project.

Surveying the road ahead, it will certainly be crammed with imponderables. From the Fed wiring digital money directly into smartphone financial apps in the US to China advancing an Eurasia-wide trade/economic system side-by side with the implementation of the digital yuan. 

The Global South will be paying a lot of attention to the sharp contrast between the proposed wholesale deconstruction of the industrial economic order and the BRI project – which focuses on a new financing system outside of Western monopoly and emphasizes agro-industrial growth and long-term sustainable development.

The Great Reset would point to losers, in terms of nations, aggregating all the ones that benefit from production and processing of energy and agriculture, from Russia, China and Canada to Brazil, Indonesia and large swathes of Africa.

As it stands, there’s only one thing we do know: the establishment at the core of the Hegemon and the drooling orcs of Empire will only adopt a Great Reset if that helps to postpone a decline accelerated on a fateful morning 19 years ago.

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Pepe Escobar, a veteran Brazilian journalist, is the correspondent-at-large for Hong Kong-based Asia Times. His latest book is 2030. Follow him on Facebook. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

As James Lewis QC for the prosecution, representing the US government, revealed, “I’m just saying about my charger.  It’s in court and I’m going to run out of battery.”  It was one of those moments that said much about the fourth day of proceedings at the Old Bailey regarding one Julian Assange, publisher, Australian national and wanted by the US Department of Justice for incongruous charges of espionage.  

It all had the appropriate Orwellian shades and show trial trimmings.  The US prosecution team had gone remote; Assange’s legal team was physically present and masked.  Technology again did its bedevilling magic at the Central Criminal Court.  At one point, Joel Smith for the prosecution was attempting to get the attention of Judge Vanessa Baraitser to inform her that nothing could be heard in the court room.  The screen of chief prosecutor Lewis had also frozen.   

Unlike the previous three days of these extradition proceedings, the central contentions were not Assange the public interest journalist, the discloser of informant names, or President Donald J. Trump’s war on the Fourth Estate. It was the revelation that COVID-19 had found its way into the Old Bailey. On Wednesday night, Judge Baraitser was told that a member of one of the legal teams may have been exposed to the coronavirus.  As was announced on Court News,

“Julian Assange’s extradition hearing at the Old Bailey today will not be going ahead because the husband of one of the US lawyers has come down with COVID-like symptoms.  Once he gets the result of a test the judge will determine how best to proceed.”

Assange would have had reason to reflect upon this moment with bitter mockery.  His conditions in Her Majesty’s Belmarsh Prison have been a picture of shoddy treatment, both physically and symbolically.  Access to his legal team has been scandalously scant, exacerbated by pandemic lockdown conditions.  The entire institutional treatment of the Australian has been considered nothing less than that of a tortured figure, “shocking and excessive”, to use the words of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute.   His supporters, fearful, see him at risk of contracting coronavirus and suffering, in his frail state, the gruelling effects of COVID-19.

His efforts to seek bail in order to escape the dangers of viral transmission have been foiled by the pitiless Baraitser.  In March, Edward Fitzgerald QC attempted to convince the judge that medical “experts consider that [Assange] is particularly at risk of developing coronavirus and, if he does, that it develops into very severe complications for him.”  Should he contract it, “it would be very doubtful that Belmarsh would be able to cope with his condition.” 

Swatting such concerns away, Baraitser saw little reason for concern: there were no instances of COVID-19 at Belmarsh, a reckless conclusion to draw given the self-isolation measures imposed upon a hundred personnel at the time.  The group Doctors for Assange were shaken by the ruling. In their March 27 statement, they vented.  “Despite our prior unequivocal statement that Mr Assange is at increased risk of serious illness and death were he to contract coronavirus and the evidence of medical experts, Baraitser dismissed the risk, citing UK guidelines for prisons in responding to the global pandemic.”  The editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, Kristinn Hrafnsson was furious.  “To expose another human being to serious illness, and to the threat of losing their life, is grotesque and quite unnecessary.”

In June, Doctors for Assange reiterated the call that Assange be granted bail, having met “internationally recommended criteria for prisoner release during COVID-19.”  Globally, prisons were being emptied of inmates to prevent the march of COVID-19.  Assange remained the exception.

On September 10, 2020, history grimaced with irony. It was the prosecutors for the United States, Assange’s incessant harassers, who had been potentially infected.  Notwithstanding this, Judge Baraitser was not averse to pushing onto a fifth day of proceedings, a point that agitated the legal teams and seemed to be as quixotic as it was indifferent.

Fitzgerald, representing Assange, urged the court to accept the logical assumption that “COVID will be in the courtroom.”  The staff of the court would themselves be “at risk, and you yourself may well be at risk.”  It was a good ploy on Fitzgerald’s part to mention the court as the primary consideration, reserving the concerns of his client for last.  “Finally, our client Mr Assange, who is vulnerable you are aware, would be at risk in court.”  His request for adjournment struck a common chord with Lewis.  Proceedings will be postponed until September 14, awaiting the test results.  In the meantime, the defence and prosecution will make interest of justice submissions on how they wish to proceed in the event the test is positive for coronavirus.

In the meantime, the rest of the Old Bailey will continue to grind.  A spokesperson for the City of London Corporation was businesslike in moving forward.  “The Central Criminal Court is deep cleaned every day in accordance with government guidelines and will remain open.”

It was left to Kevin Gosztola of Shadowproof to sum up the day’s sentiment in wry fashion: “Looking forward to the courtroom sketch of Assange in a glass box with only the judge in the room as we proceed virtually.  That’ll be [sic] quite appropriate image for this case.”  Lewis, in the meantime, might be able to obtain his charger.

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

There is a great brouhaha over foreign nations interfering in United States’ elections. Russia, we are told, not only interfered in the 2016 presidential election catastrophe, but is back at it again, trying to get their candidate re-elected.

How, one asks in righteous, democratic anguish, can such a thing be tolerated? What is more sacred to democracy than a free and unfettered right to vote? The thought of such interference in U.S. elections is enough to make the angels in heaven weep!

This writer is a firm believer in reality checks, and now is as good a time as any to take one.  Let us look at just how much the U.S. government believes in free and fair elections. The following is only a small sampling.

• In 1953, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, and installed the brutal Shah of Iran as monarch. The U.S. government supported his decades-long reign of terror.
• Following the Geneva Accords that separated Vietnam into two nations, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, elections were scheduled for 1956 that would have been a referendum on reunification. The South boycotted them, with U.S. support. “President Eisenhower wrote later in his memoirs that if in fact the elections had been held, Ho Chi Minh would have gotten 80 percent of the vote.”[1]
• Following Chile’s fair and democratic elections in 1970, President Richard Nixon said this: “I don’t see why we need to stand idly by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.”[2] Please note that Salvador Allende was a Marxist, not a Communist. The U.S. spent millions of dollars to foment economic and civil problems that eventually resulted in the overthrow of Allende. He was replaced by the U.S.’s choice, the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled for 17 years. “Truth commissions set up after Chile’s return to democracy concluded that Pinochet forces tortured some 29,000 people and killed more than 3,000.”[3]
• In January of 2005, Hamas won a decisive victory in the Gaza Strip of Palestine. Then Senator Hillary Clinton (later Secretary of State) said this: “’I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake,’ said Sen. Clinton. ‘And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.’” (Emphasis added).[4]

It is clear that the U.S. doesn’t disapprove of election meddling, as long as it is the one doing it. But do government officials really object to foreign nations’ interference in U.S. elections? Perhaps not. In 2020, pro-Israel lobbies have poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of various candidates. The haul by just the top 20 recipients, this year alone is $5,647,895.00.[5] And once their candidates are elected, the lobby groups write legislation for them, that is then introduced to be voted on.[6] And one is naïve indeed if one thinks that pro-Israel lobbyists write legislation for the benefit of the average U.S. citizen. No, they write legislation to curtail the rights of U.S. citizens to boycott; to increase foreign aid to Israel (let’s remember that places like Flint, Michigan, still have to buy bottled drinking water), and to otherwise benefit Israel.

It would be incorrect for the reader to think that pro-Israel lobbies are only busy during a presidential election year. In 2018, the top 20 recipients received $4,372,220.00. And the top 20 for 2016, another presidential election year, received $6,454,498.00. And remember, please, that these number only show the top 20 recipients of each year. Many other politicians, children of lesser gods, apparently, still received huge amounts of funding from pro-Israel lobbies.

Is this not foreign interference in U.S. elections? When lobbies representing foreign governments donate millions of dollars to get their chosen candidates elected, and then write legislation for those candidates who are now elected officials (this writer cannot bring himself to call them ‘representatives’) to introduce as bills, can interference be more obvious?

Russia, apparently, is going about this all wrong. All that country needs to do is establish a lobby group in the U.S.; say, the America-Russia Political Affairs Committee (ARPAC). ARPAC members can meet with candidates and officials running for re-election; take them and their families on ‘fact finding’ junkets to Russian resorts, and donate generously to their campaigns. There will be no more of this talk of Russian interference; that country will simply be using the same method that has been so successful for Israel, and look at how beneficial that has been for that racist, oppressive, apartheid nation.

But, one might say, there may be some anomalies, but that doesn’t negate the U.S. government’s deep commitment to free and fair voting. Well, let’s take a closer look at voting within the U.S.

• In some poor and rural areas, photo identification is required. Many people in those areas don’t have driver’s licenses, or photo IDs from college, and getting a photo ID card may require an hours-long bus commute. So, in many cases, they simply can’t vote.
• Under the current administration, countless numbers of mailboxes, into which people can deposit their mail-in ballots, have been removed.Where the nearest mailbox is located may be difficult to discern. Following a hue and cry about mailbox removal and voter disenfranchisement, the Post Office said it would no longer removed these letter collection boxes in 16 states, although it will not replace those that have thus far been removed. And there is no word about mailbox removal in the remaining 34 states. And is it just coincidence that according to surveys, more Democrats than Republicans are concerned about in-person voting due to Covid-19, and so are more likely to vote by mail? This writer thinks not.
• The U.S. Postal Service has high-speed mail sorters, which the current head of the Post Office, Louis DeJoy, who just happens to be a major donor to President Donald Trump’s campaign, has chosen to disable.

Let us take a small flight of fancy. Imagine, for a minute, that you heard the following facts about a nation:

• An election is approaching.
• The current president, a white racist, is behind in the polls, and removes mailboxes into which an unprecedented number of ballots are expected to be deposited, due to a pandemic that is raging in that nation. Most of those mailboxes have been removed from population centers of people of color, with whom the president is not particularly popular.
• A close associate of the president, who is a major donor to his political campaign, is appointed to lead the postal service, and disables high-speed mail sorting machines.
• The president, his main opponent and many members of their political parties benefit from the financial donations of foreign nations.
• The number of polling places, and their hours or operation, will be limited, mostly in communities of color.
• Corporations are allowed to donate unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns.

Does this not conjure thoughts of a banana republic, a backward nation, kept that way by the oligarchs who have long run it? This belies the repeated U.S. government proclamations that that nation is a shining city on a hill, the envy of the world for its democratic principles, the upholder of justice and human rights everywhere. These myths have long been perpetrated by the U.S., but seldom believed outside its own borders. It is long past time for them to be dispelled within, as well. With civil unrest still raging coast to coast due to racism and police brutality; with voter suppression at home and imperial wars abroad, change must come about. The 2020 election will not be the vehicle which ushers it in; Democratic Candidate Joe Biden may be the lesser of two evils, but evil is still evil.

If the people of the United States knew the power that they hold, change would happen. Unless and until they learn this important lesson, there will be little alteration in the business of U.S. governance.

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Notes

[1] Jayne Werner, “A Short History of the War in Vietnam,” Monthly Review, Vol. 37, June, 1985

[2] [2] Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela, A Nation of Enemies: Chile under Pinochet (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), 23.

[3] Benjamin Witte-Lebhar, “Chile’s Dictatorship-Era Spy Chief Manuel Contreras Dead at 86,” NotiSur – South American Political and Economic Affairs, August 28, 2015.

[4] https://observer.com/2016/10/2006-audio-emerges-of-hillary-clinton-proposing-rigging-palestine-election/

[5] https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=Q05++

[6] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/05/01/statehouse-model-bills-bds-protest-bans/3575083002/

Featured image is from Eureka Street

For anyone old enough to have been alive and aware of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and of so-called COVID-19 in 2020, memory may serve to remind one of an eerie parallel between the two operations.  However, if memory has been expunged by the work of one’s forgettery or deleted by the corporate media flushing it down the memory hole, or if knowledge is lacking, or maybe fear or cognitive dissonance is blocking awareness, I would like to point out some similarities that might perk one up to consider some parallels and connections between these two operations.

The fundamental tie that binds them is that both events aroused the human fear of death. Underlying all fears is the fear of death.  A  fear that has both biological and cultural roots. On the biological level, we all react to death threats in a fight or flight manner. Culturally, there are multiple ways that fear can be allayed or exacerbated, purposely or not. Usually, culture serves to ease the fear of death, which can traumatize people, through its symbols and myths. Religion has for a long time served that purpose, but when religion loses its hold on people’s imaginations, especially in regard to the belief in immortality, as Orwell pointed out in the mid-1940s, a huge void is left.  Without that consolation, fear is usually tranquilized by trivial pursuits.

In the cases of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the current corona virus operation, the fear of death has been used by the power elites in order to control populations and institute long-planned agendas.  There is a red thread that connects the two events.

Both events were clearly anticipated and planned.

In the case of September 11, 2001, as I have argued before, linguistic mind-control was carefully crafted in advance to conjure fear at the deepest levels with the use of such repeated terms as Pearl Harbor, Homeland, Ground Zero, the Unthinkable, and 9/11.  Each in its turn served to raise the fear level dramatically. Each drew on past meetings, documents, events, speeches, and deep associations of dread. This language was conjured from the chief sorcerer’s playbook, not from that of an apprentice out of control.

And as David Ray Griffin, the seminal 9/11 researcher (and others), has pointed out in a dozen meticulously argued and documented books, the events of that day had to be carefully planned in advance, and the post hoc official explanations can only be described as scientific miracles, not scientific explanations. These miracles include: massive steel-framed high-rise buildings for the first time in history coming down without explosives or incendiaries in free fall speed; one of them being WTC-7 that was not even hit by a plane; an alleged hijacker pilot, Hani Hanjour, who could barely fly a Piper Cub, flying a massive Boeing 757 in a most difficult maneuver into the Pentagon; airport security at four airports failing at the same moment on the same day; all sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies failing; air traffic control failing, etc.  The list goes on and on.  And all this controlled by Osama bin Laden. It’s a fairy tale.

Then we had the crucially important anthrax attacks that are linked to 9/11. Graeme MacQueen, in The 2001 Anthrax Deception, brilliantly shows that these too were a domestic conspiracy.

These planned events led to the invasion of Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, the invasion of Iraq , the ongoing war on terror, etc.

Let us not forget years of those fraudulent color-coded warnings of the terrorist levels and the government admonition to use duct tape around your windows to protect against a massive chemical and biological attack.

Jump to 2020.  Let me start in reverse while color-coded designs are fresh in our minds. As the COVID-19 lockdowns were under way, a funny thing happened as people were wishing that life could return to normal and they could be let out of their cages. Similar color-coded designs popped up everywhere at the same time.  They showed the step-by-step schedule of possible loosening of government controls if things went according to plan. Red to yellow to green. Eye catching. Red orange yellow blue green.  As with the terrorist warnings following September 11, 2001.  In Massachusetts, a so-called blue state where I live, it’s color chart ends in blue, not green, with Phase 4 blue termed “the new normal: Development of vaccines and/or treatments enable the resumption of ‘the new normal.’” Interesting wording.  A resumption that takes us back to the future.

As with the duct tape admonitions after 9/11, now everyone is advised to wear a mask. It’s interesting to note that the 3 M Company, a major seller of duct tape, is also one of the world’s major sellers of face masks.  The company was expected to be producing 50 million N95 respirator masks per month by June 2020 and 2 billion globally within the coming year.  Then there is 3 M’s masking tape…but this is a sticky topic.

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, we were told repeatedly that the world was changed forever.

Now we are told that after COVID-19, life will never be the same. 

This is the “new normal,” while the post-9/11-pre-Covid-19 world must have been the old new normal. So everything is different but normal also.

So as the Massachusetts government website puts it, in the days to come we may be enabled to enact “the resumption of ‘the new normal.’”  This new old normal will no doubt be a form of techno-fascist transhumanism enacted for our own good.

As with 9/11, there is ample evidence that the corona virus outbreak was expected and planned; that people have been the victims of a propaganda campaign to use an invisible virus to scare us into submission and shut down the world’s economy for the global elites.  It is a clear case, as Peter Koenig tells Michel Chossudovsky in this must-see interview, that is not a conspiracy theory but a blatant factual plan spelled out in the 2010 Rockefeller Report, the October 18, 2019 Event 201, and Agenda 21, among other places.

Like amorphous terrorists and a war against “terrorism,” which is a tactic and therefore not something you can fight, a virus is invisible except when the media presents it as a pale, orange-spiked bunch of floating weird balls that are everywhere and nowhere.  Watch your back, watch your face, mask up, wash your hands, keep your distance – you never know when those orange spiked balls may get you.

As with 9/11, whenever anyone questions the official narrative of Covid-19, the official statistics, the validity of the tests, the effectiveness of masks, the powers behind the heralded vaccine to come, and the horrible consequences of the lockdowns that are destroying economies, killing people, forcing people to despair and to commit suicide, creating traumatized children, bankrupting small and middle-sized businesses for the sake of enriching the richest, etc., the corporate media mock the dissidents as conspiracy nuts, aiding the viral enemy.  This is so even when the dissenters are highly respected doctors, scientists, intellectuals, et al., who are regularly disappeared from the internet.

With September 11, there were initially far fewer dissenters than now, and so the censorship of opposing viewpoints didn’t need the blatant censorship that is now growing daily.

This censorship happens all across the internet now, quickly and stealthily, the same internet that is being forced on everyone as the new normal as presented in the Great Global Reset, the digital lie, where, as Anthony Fauci put it, no one should  ever shake hands again. A world of abstract images and beings in which, as Arthur Jensen tells Howard Beal in the film, Network, “All necessities [will be] provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.”  A digital dystopia that is fast approaching as perhaps the end of that red thread that runs from 9/11 to today.

Heidi Evens and Thomas Hackett write in the New York Daily News (September 12, 2001):

With the nation’s illusion of safety and security in ruins, Americans begin the slow and fitful process of healing from a trauma that feels deeply, cruelly personal…leaving citizens throughout the country with the frightening knowledge of their vulnerability.

To order Edward Curtin’s Book, directly from Clarity Press click here 

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Distinguished author and sociologist Edward Curtin is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He is the author of the new book: https://www.claritypress.com/product/seeking-truth-in-a-country-of-lies/

The Washington regimes’ demand that the Chinese firm ByteDance sell the U.S. presence of its video sharing app TikTok to a U.S. tech company is not a smart move. This follows related demands that the Chinese mobile app WeChat cease operating in the U.S., and that Chinese Huawei’s 5G mobile phone technology be banned from the U.S. and from use by any of its international allies.

In blocking Chinese tech the U.S. regime in effect deprives American people and American companies of advanced technologies which their competitors will use in other countries. TikToks AI and big data functions for social media and other uses are two years ahead of anything produced in the U.S. The Wechat mobile app is far better and more powerful than its U.S. mobile counterpart Whatsapp; Huawei’s 5G technology is ahead of all world competitors.

The recent appearance of these leading-edge technologies from China is not by chance. And more are undoubtedly to come. Beijing is now a world center of research and innovation in information technology, bio-technology, and more. And its combined capital value for its hi-tech companies is greater than that of Silicon Valley; Shenzhen in southern China, once a tiny fishing village, has also emerged in recent years as an innovation hot-house; and other hi-tech hubs are arising in other cities in this nation of 1.4 billion people.

Every move to block Chinese tech will, moreover, inevitably be met with reciprocal defensive measures by China to ban export to the U.S. of advanced Chinese technology and/or to block U.S. tech sales in China, and the Chinese tech market is *much bigger* than the U.S. one.

How Can the U.S. Block TikTok?

How precisely will the Washington regime stop U.S. residents from using Tik-Tok and other Chinese apps if the U.S. rights are not sold? Will they ban it outright at the network level? That would be an action without precedent in the U.S. and put paid to its claim to be a champion of ‘free markets’.

Alternatively, the Washington regime could demand that Apple and Google remove Chinese apps like TikTok from their app stores where U.S. users download them. That could seriously cut into their future use, though offshore apps stores would no doubt still offer them. U.S. companies could also be forbidden to do business with Tiktok in terms of advertising or other commercial relationships, as has already been done with Hawaii.

But here too the Washington gang would be playing a very dangerous commercial game. For the basis of their anti-Tiktok campaign and anti-WeChat campaigns is the unsubstantiated claim that they may provide private users information to the Chinese government. On the other hand, It is a proven fact, well-known to the Chinese government, that U.S. app makrets such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft have actively collaborated with the U.S. so-called National Security Agency (NSA) to infiltrate China and purloin millions of our text messages and phone information and computer data, including tapping of former Chinese president Hu’s phone.

Unlike the claims against Tiktok, the past U.S. NSA cyber penetration of China, including its sensitive military labs, is a proven fact due to the documents released by the courageous whited-blower Edward Snowden.

If the U.S. regime continues the anti-Chinese app trend on security grounds, China may very well reciprocate by banning  Apple, Google, and other U.S. apps and phones from its market on the same security grounds as a defensive measure. In China’s case, this measure would be supported by the proven record of NSA collaboration with the U.S. tech giants, and would represent massive financial losses for those firms.

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Eric Sommer is an international journalist living permanently in China.

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Why 9/11 Matters 19 Years Later. The Spinning of 9/11, “Political Trickery”

By Michael Welch, Anthony Hall, Richard Gage, and Prof. Graeme MacQueen, September 11, 2020

Now, on the 19th anniversary of 9/11, some people might be doubting whether the narrative still connects with a dreary and desolate planet. Resources have shifted away from countries supporting terrorism to a new cold war with Russia and China. In the last seven years or so, Putin alone was found responsible (or so the story goes) of illegal violence in Ukraine, stirring up trouble in Syria, poisoning an ex-Russian spy and his daughter (they recovered), and now taking on his political rival, opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Heck, he is even responsible for putting Trump in the White House!

The Truth behind 9/11: Who Is Osama Bin Laden?

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, September 11, 2020

At eleven o’clock, on the morning of September 11, the Bush administration had already announced that Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon. This assertion was made prior to the conduct of an indepth police investigation.

That same evening at 9.30 pm, a “War Cabinet” was formedintegrated by a select number of top intelligence and military advisors.  And at 11.00 pm, at the end of that historic meeting at the White House, the “War on Terrorism” was officially launched.

Examining 9/11 and America’s “War on Terrorism”

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, September 10, 2020

From the very outset, I questioned the official story, which described nineteen Al Qaeda sponsored hijackers involved in a highly sophisticated and organized operation. My first objective was to reveal the true nature of this illusive “enemy of America”, who was “threatening the Homeland”.

The myth of the “outside enemy” and the threat of “Islamic terrorists” was the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s military doctrine, used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, not to xii America’s “War on Terrorism” mention the repeal of civil liberties and constitutional government in America.

The “Inside Job” Hypothesis of the 9/11 Attacks: JFK, 9/11 and the American Left

By Prof. Graeme MacQueen, September 09, 2020

On November 23, 1963, the day after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Fidel Castro gave a talk on Cuban radio and television.[1] He pulled together, as well as he could in the amount of time available to him, the evidence he had gathered from news media and other sources, and he reflected on this evidence.

The questions he posed were well chosen: they could serve as a template for those confronting complex acts of political violence.  Were there contradictions and absurdities in the story being promoted in the U.S. media? Who benefitted from the assassination? Were intelligence agencies claiming to know more than they could legitimately know? Was there evidence of foreknowledge of the murder? What was the main ideological clash in powerful U.S. circles and how did Kennedy fit in? Was there a faction that had the capacity and willingness to carry out such an act? And so on.

From 9/11 to Covid-19: 19 Years of Media Lies.

By Dr. Eric Beeth, September 08, 2020

Here in Brussels, we usually have a solemn ceremony every Sept 11th in front of a large twisted metal beam from one of the top floors of the North WTC tower that is called the “9/11 and Article 5 Memorial”.  It reminds not only about the strange things that happened to the WTC that day, but also that these events led Europe to join in the “War on Terror” that Pres. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld initiated on that day.  I never go to that Memorial : it is situated in the same Commune as where I live, but on the restricted grounds of NATO, where even journalists are no longer welcome, due to that strange SARS-virus everyone is talking about.

9/11 News Coverage: How 36 Reporters Brought Us the Twin Towers’ Explosive Demolition on 9/11

By Ted Walter and Prof. Graeme MacQueen, September 06, 2020

The widely held belief that the Twin Towers collapsed as a result of the airplane impacts and the resulting fires is, unbeknownst to most people, a revisionist theory. Among individuals who witnessed the event firsthand, the more prevalent hypothesis was that the Twin Towers had been brought down by massive explosions.

This observation was first made 14 years ago in the article, “118 Witnesses: The Firefighters’ Testimony to Explosions in the Twin Towers.” A review of interviews conducted with 503 members of the New York Fire Department (FDNY) in the weeks and months after 9/11 revealed that 118 of them described witnessing what they interpreted that day to be explosions. Only 10 FDNY members were found describing the destruction in ways supportive of the fire-induced collapse hypothesis.

Video: 9/11 and the Global War on Terrorism

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and James Corbett, September 06, 2020

Millions of people have been misled regarding the causes and consequences of 9/11.

9/11 marks the onslaught of the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), used as a pretext and a justification by the US and its NATO allies to carry out a “war without borders”, a global war of conquest.

It’s being widely reported that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to circumvent certain parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with the EU last year. The internal market bill, published on Wednesday, effectively negates the legal force of parts of the withdrawal agreement in areas relating to state aid and Northern Ireland customs.  It gives the British government the power to unilaterally change some of the arrangements made for the Northern Irish border – the UK’s only land frontier with the EU.  The Johnson government says that such a bill is needed to stop “damaging” tariffs on goods travelling from the rest of the UK to Northern Ireland if negotiations with the EU on a free trade agreement fail. It will be up to Michael Gove, Minister for the Cabinet Office, to persuade EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, of the necessity of the bill, when he meets with him. However, although the government is adamant the move amounts to little more than a safety net, many have been left unconvinced.

The head of the government’s legal department, Sir Jonathon Jones, has reportedly resigned in protest at the attempt to undermine the Brexit deal, particularly the parts relating to Northern Ireland. Despite government claims the bill is to protect the Northern Ireland peace process, a former cabinet minister told the BBC that the opposite is the case. “I cannot allow anyone to get away with saying the government is doing this to protect the peace process. This does the precise opposite. It is about the internal market in the UK and is more likely to lead to a hard border [between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland] which will imperil the peace process.”

Senior Conservatives, together with EU officials, have warned that such a bill would undermine international law, and therefore negatively affect the UK’s reputation. Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, stated Britain would “lose the moral high ground” if it was to proceed with the bill.  Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee concurred, stressing “Our entire economy is based on the perception that people have of the UK’s adherence to the rule of law’.

The word ‘perception’ should of course be stressed here, as the current government’s record on adhering to the rule of law is rather inconsistent. Why, only last year Boris Johnson illegally prorogued parliament in his plan to push through a No Deal Brexit. Although presented back then as a standard suspension of parliament prior to the Queen’s speech, it was clear the Prime Minister had ulterior motives as the break would have prevented any proper debate of the EU withdrawal agreement, and increased the chances of a No Deal Brexit. Parliament only resumed due to a fight led by Scottish Nationalists in court.

Indeed the Scottish government, which has been consistently opposed to Brexit, and in particular a No Deal Brexit, has its own reservations with the Internal Market Bill.  Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, proclaimed yesterday that it was nothing short of a ‘naked power grab’ as it would claim back certain powers which had been devolved to the Scottish Parliament decades ago. She decried it ‘an abomination’ which would ‘cripple devolution’; explaining that it would prevent the Scottish Parliament from legislating over areas such as animal welfare and food safety standards. Scotland may be forced to accept, she said, sub-standard chlorinated chicken imports from the US if a transatlantic trade deal was negotiated with Britain.  Sturgeon vowed to ‘fight tooth and nail’ against Johnson’s proposed bill, but she stressed that Scottish independence would now be the only certain way to defend Scotland’s interests. With polling now at 55% in favour of independence, it seems as if the majority of Scots currently agree with this.

Scottish politicians are joined by their EU counterparts in denouncement of the Internal Market Bill. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she was ‘very concerned’ and that it would ‘undermine trust’ during the negotiations with the EU. It’s even been reported that the EU could effectively sue the UK for not adhering to the deal, even before the Internal Market bill was voted for in Westminster. By applying huge fines and sanctions, it would hope to persuade British MPs to vote against Johnson’s bill. With so much opposition to it already, since its announcement on Wednesday, it’s not clear whether Johnson would indeed get the legislation passed by parliament.

Regardless of whether it is passed or not, arguably a certain amount of damage has already been done to the UK-EU relationship. The very proposal of such a bill has been enough to harm relations going forward. Indeed a cynic would argue that Johnson never intended to adhere to certain aspects of the Brexit deal. On the contrary, he has always shown determination to get exactly what he wants on Brexit, and if it means a No Deal Brexit, whereby Britain would have to adhere to WTO rules, then so be it. The withdrawal agreement signed last October was a political move to boost Johnson’s popularity prior to the December election. Last year we were used to Johnson saying one thing but doing the other; despite his claims of wanting to secure a withdrawal agreement, his actions led many to believe he and his band of Brexiteers were intent on a No Deal Brexit. EU sources are now speculating that No Deal is exactly what Johnson wants. Indeed, Johnson himself on Monday said that leaving the EU without a trade deal would still be a ‘good outcome’ for the UK.

That remains to be seen. But what it won’t be good for is trust. Johnson’s unreliability will jeopardise Britain’s overall future at a time when it needs to be forging trade deals in the post-Brexit world. If the UK does not adhere to the agreement, it will unlikely bee seen as a steadfast ally in future. In addition, it bodes badly for the constitutional integrity of the UK as he will lose any remaining trust of the Scottish people. By attempting to pull the wool over their eyes, Britain is set to make more enemies than friends amongst its neighbours in the post-Brexit era.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Johanna Ross is a journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

During a Thursday Security Council session on Syria, Alexey Navalny’s alleged novichok nerve agent poisoning was discussed.

So far, Germany failed to present evidence that supports its claim about his condition.

Is it because there is none? Did Russophobic hardliners in Angela Merkel’s government convince her to accuse Russia of something no evidence suggests it had anything to do with?

What possible motive could Moscow have to want a political nobody with scant public support harmed?

What possible Kremlin benefit could be achieved? Who benefits from what happened to Navalny and whose interests are harmed?

The answers are self-evident. Nothing remotely suggests Russian responsibility for committing an act that would only bring it grief.

The US and its imperial partners alone benefit from Navalny’s alleged poisoning.

Whatever caused his illness has no Russian fingerprints on it.

At Thursday’s Security Council session, Trump regime acting deputy UN envoy Normal Chalet defied reality by falsely claiming that the Russian Federation “used chemical nerve agents from the novichok group in the past (sic).”

He referred to the 2018 father and daughter Skripal incident. Not a shred of evidence proved Russian responsibility for what happened to them in Britain.

Claims otherwise by the Theresa May regime at the time were fabricated.

To this day, no evidence was ever presented to show novichok poisoning caused their illness — the world’s most deadly toxin able to cause death in minutes from exposure.

They’re alive. So is Navalny, his condition improving, nearly three weeks after becoming ill on onboard a flight from Tomsk, Russia to Moscow.

Chalet and his Western Security Council partners unacceptably suggested Russian responsibility for Navalny’s condition at Thursday’s session.

Calling on Moscow “to be fully transparent and to bring those responsible to justice” flies in the face of reality.

No evidence indicates Kremlin responsibility for what happened to Navalny — nothing but baseless allegations and accusations that don’t stand up in the light of day.

At Thursday’s SC session, Russian UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia debunked the false accusation of Moscow’s connection to Navalny’s illness, saying the following:

“Today we are eye-witnessing another attempt at a scenario which is nothing new. We have seen it before.”

“It was tested on the Skripals case, to which, by the way, we still didn’t receive answers to still pending questions,” adding:

“As for Alexey Navalny’s case, everything we said was crystal clear.”

“We are the most interested party to know what happened, but even a first-year law student knows that any investigation should be preceded by evidence and by facts, based on available to us evidence. Or, rather, lack of it.”

“Our law enforcement authorities do not have grounds to open an investigation” — because no evidence was presented to indicate a crime was committed.

“Our doctors who, by the way, saved Alexey Navalny did not find any chemical weapon substances in his analyses.”

“The German laboratory claims it did. But we received no evidence from Germany that would allow us to make a conclusion that it was a crime by attempted poisoning and thus start an investigation.”

Medical analysis by Russian doctors indicated a metabolic disorder. They found no chemical, biological, or other toxins in his system.

Claiming he was novichoked by a German military lab has clear earmarks of an anti-Russia false flag.

When accusations lack supportive evidence, they’re groundless.

Russia’s request for Germany to provide information it claims to have about Navalny’s illness went unanswered since August 27.

Nebenzia stressed that Moscow’s request for Berlin to provide facts about Navalny’s condition is “absolutely legitimate and natural…and it should be honored in accordance with the agreement between our countries.”

Fulfilling its obligation is essential “to establish the truth by investigating an alleged crime.”

Instead, Russia was told that Berlin will not provide information it claims to have because “it could enable Russia to learn how much the Bundeswehr (military lab) knows about chemical substances.”

“Then we heard that the results were classified. How should we interpret this. What do you think?”

At the same time, Merkel’s government shared its findings with the US and other Western states.

The obvious double standard needs no elaboration.

In US judicial proceedings, parties are required to share relevant information relating to admissible evidence, including from documents and interrogations — what’s called the principle of discovery.

It can also be obtained from non-parties through subpoenas. Failure to disclose what’s required can result in mistrials or dismissal of charges.

Criminal case defendants notably have the right to relevant documents, witness depositions, questions and answers from interrogations, crime scene and other forensic evidence, including toxicology results, police reports, “raw evidence,” arrest and search warrants, grand jury testimony, and other relevant data.

Prosecutors are prohibited from concealing the above information.

Unlike Hollywood-style courtroom dramas, actual ones hardly ever  include surprise Alfred Hitchcock/Perry Mason-type evidence by any party during proceedings, especially anything introduced near their conclusion.

No legitimate tribunal would accept accusations without hard evidence. What’s learned through discovery is essential to present during proceedings.

Nebenzia stressed that Berlin’s failure to provide Russia with information on Navalny’s condition “goes against the rule of law” it pretends to “champion,” adding:

“If you demand explanations, put the facts on the table and we will compare notes.”

“Why should we trust allegations uncorroborated by evidence…As of yet, we received nothing that would allow our relevant authorities to conduct their own de-jure investigation, although they started a de-facto (one) which is called pre-investigation procedures.”

Article VII of the Chemical Weapons Convention states the following:

“Each State Party shall cooperate with other States Parties and afford the appropriate form of legal assistance.”

If Germany and its Western partners are committed to uphold the CWC, why are they breaching the above provision?

Instead of comparing Russian and German analyses of Navalny’s medical condition, Berlin continues to suppress its findings, cooperation with Russia ruled out.

Cooperation cuts both ways. Because of stonewalling by Germany, Russia is “unable to engage in all the necessary procedural mechanisms to start an investigation,” Nebenzia explained.

The fault lies in Berlin, not Moscow. Unless corrected in compliance with the CWC and rule of law overall, the Navalny incident suggests “foul play being staged,” said Nebenzia, adding:

“Cui bono” from what’s going on? “Is fecit cui prodest.”

“Who is to benefit from this?”

The responsible part(ies) gain by falsely blaming Russia for what no evidence or motive indicate it had anything to do with.

If Navalny was poisoned by exposure to novichok in Tomsk, Russia, he’d have died before boarding a flight to Moscow.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image is from Land Destroyer Report

Since March, weekly US claims for unemployment insurance (UI) were greater than ever before in the nation’s history for 25 straight weeks.

What seemed unimaginable when 2020 began is cold, hard reality.

Over one million jobless US workers continue to file weekly claims for vitally needed help.

For the last two reporting periods, unemployment claims exceeded the previous week’s total at a time when TV talking head experts expected numbers to decline.

Economist John Williams noted that “(m)eaningful quality and credibility issues continue to plague…headline labor numbers.”

On August 19, downside labor market revisions won’t show up in monthly BLS reports until February 2021, he explained.

Based on how US unemployment was calculated pre-1990 — before the books were cooked to artificially improve the labor market’s appearance — US unemployment today is 28%, not the phony BLS reported so-called U.3 8.4% figure.

Current US unemployment exceeds the depths of the Great Depression when numbers of jobless Americans peaked at 25%.

On Friday, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reported that “UI claims (keep) rising as jobs remain scarce,” adding:

In the latest weekly reporting period, UI claims rose “from 1.6 million to 1.7 million,” broken down as follows:

Applications for “regular state UI (totaled) 884,000.”

Another “839,000” jobless Americans “applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).”

PUA is the federal program for jobless Americans who don’t qualify for regular UI.

EPI explained that it provides “up to 39 weeks of benefits and expires at the end of this year” if not renewed.

What’s happening in the US jobs market is unprecedented in the nation’s history.

Instead of meaningful congressional action to address economic collapse in the country, both right wings of the one-party state keep politicizing the issue ahead of November elections — a shocking indictment of a hugely corrupted system that’s too debauched to fix.

According to The Economic Collapse blog, “more than half of all households in some of our largest cities ‘are facing serious financial problems,’ ” at a time when so-called experts forecast improving conditions, adding:

A “new NPR/Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation survey” of respondents in the four largest US cities — NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston — reported disturbing findings.

Half or more of households in these cities reported serious financial conditions — from 50% in Chicago to 63% in Houston.

Because of mass unemployment and underemployment, millions of Americans are increasingly unable to pay for food, shelter, and other essentials to life and well-being in the world’s richest country.

Instead of improving economic conditions, things keep deteriorating.

During daily exercise walks along Chicago’s upscale Magnificent Mile, the usually bustling avenue appears to have scant retail traffic in shops not boarded up and either closed or only partly operating.

In August, CBS Chicago reported that avenue shops are “at risk for massive…closures,” adding:

“A Chicago icon, the Magnificent Mile’s 13 blocks are known across the world.”

“It’s a draw for tourists and a serious boost to the city’s bottom line. What would the city look like without all of this?”

Some locations along the avenue are vacant, some “still boarded up, others dealing with plummeting sales (and) a spike in thefts.”

According to City Council Alderman Brian Hopkins:

“We’re losing tax revenue, and we are losing sales tax on a daily basis.”

“If this trend continues, we won’t have a viable downtown.”

“And it’s not going to be that long. We’re talking a few years.”

“Privately (retailers are saying) they can’t sustain this. They can’t continue at the level they’re at right now, and if it keeps up, we are going to see a rash of business closures in the downtown area” — including along the Magnificent Mile.

To minimize vandalism and theft, the avenue is heavily patrolled by Chicago police on foot, bicycles, as well as in marked and unmarked vehicles.

An officer I chatted with explained that plainclothes cops are protecting the Magnificent Mile and other downtown areas daily round-the-clock along with others in uniform.

On Friday, the Chicago Sun Times reported results of polling data that show “more than 1 in 3 Chicagoans…use(d) up all or most of their savings,” adding:

“(M)any have fallen behind in rent and mortgage payments, with 1 in 4 Chicagoans reportedly having trouble paying their rent or mortgages.”

“And about 20% of people reported skipping or delaying major bill payments to” buy food.

Polling data showed that “69% of Black households and 63% of Latino households reported having serious financial problems.”

What’s true of Chicago is replicated nationwide during conditions that exceed the worst of the Great Depression without an array of New Deal jobs creation programs and other initiatives to improve things.

Most worrisome is that things may worsen ahead and remain dire for countless millions of the nation’s most disadvantaged because of inaction to address things responsibly by politicians in Washington.

EPI explained that most US states provide 26 weeks of UI.

When exhausted, eligible individuals “can move onto Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which is an additional 13 weeks of state UI benefits that is available only to people who were on regular state UI.”

Millions of jobless Americans also lost health insurance coverage.

With scant or no savings, they’re unable to pay medical expenses if become ill and need professional care.

Regardless of whether Republicans or Dems control the White House and/or Congress next year, unprecedented hard times in the US for countless millions are likely to continue for some time — maybe for years to come.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

The Chinese currency is expected to increase its 2% share in the world market to somewhere between 5% and 10% within the next 10 years. This could mean that the Chinese yuan will become the world’s third largest currency by 2030, second only to the US dollar and the euro, according to analysts from Morgan Stanley. The yuan achieving a third place position with up to 10% market share within 10 years would be a phenomenal achievement for Beijing, but falls well short of increasing speculation that the yuan will topple the US dollar in only a matter of time.

The analysts, led by Robin Xing, highlight the increasing global demand for Chinese securities from investors. In July, the net inflow of foreign capital in Chinese securities reached $21.3 billion, the highest value since 2014 when statistics began. The total value of securities held by foreign investors reached $360 billion, 13.7% more than in 2019. In addition, according to the company’s report, in 2020 the total amount of portfolio investments attracted to China will be $150 billion, and this annual value will increase to $200-300 billion between 2021 and 2030.

According to the International Monetary Fund, in the first quarter of 2020, the US dollar had a 61.9% share of world reserves. The euro had 20.05%, the yuan had 5.70%, and the pound sterling had 4.43%. There are several factors that limit the yuan’s internationalization, however, the most important is how restricted it is to foreign investors. China has not yet fully opened the yuan to international investors and this severely limits the internationalization of it.

Opening up China’s financial markets would attract more foreign investment, which, in turn, could support high growth rates. On the other hand, Morgan Stanley believe that as China seeks to change the growth model of its economy from exports to domestic consumption, the country will inevitably absorb more than it produces. The Morgan Stanley researchers believe that by 2030, China’s deficit is projected to be 1.2% of its GDP. In this situation, to finance this deficit between 2025 and 2030, China needs a net inflow of at least $180 billion of foreign capital annually, a motivating factor for Beijing’s push for the Belt and Road Initiative.

Foreigners who invest in the yuan in Chinese markets earn higher returns than those who invest in Western markets because Chinese bonds are higher than their Western counterparts. This is the most important factor in attracting foreign investors. Chinese authorities are taking steps to facilitate foreign capital access to the Chinese market, including simplified rules for foreign investors to access the Chinese securities market.

Although at the end 2019 there were approximately 70 central banks around the world holding reserves of yuan, an increase from 60 at the end of 2018, the rapid rise of the Chinese currency and the quick demise of the US dollar that has often been speculated has not yet occurred, and will not in the short-term, according to Morgan Stanley. Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University, shared the same sentiment, saying “I continue to be very skeptical about any dramatic rise in the [yuan] as a major reserve currency.”

As the petrodollar still dominates the international economic system, the yuan overtaking the US dollar is not foreseeable in the short or medium term. As Saudi oil has played a major role in the US dollar becoming the world’s reserve currency in the aftermath of the 1970’s oil crisis, China would have to convince oil-producing states to sell their crude in yuan’s. Considering how little market share the yuan has internationally at the moment, it is unlikely that oil-producing states will want to switch from the dollar to the yuan, especially considering that the US guarantees the security of Saudi Arabia in exchange for the Saudi’s backing the petrodollar system.

Some have even touted that the digital yuan, which would not be a cryptocurrency as it would be backed by a central bank, could one day topple the US dollar. However, Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University, does not believe that a digital yuan would be a “game changer.”

“Because the digital currency is little different from the yuan itself, it will on its own ‘not be a game changer’ that elevates the [yuan’s] role in international finance,’ wrote Prasad. “After all, the Chinese government still restricts capital inflows and outflows, and the People’s Bank of China still manages the [yuan’s] exchange rate. Neither policy is likely to change significantly anytime soon.”

Speculation continues that the collapse of the petrodollar is near and the rise of the yuan is imminent. However, in the foreseeable future, this remains fanciful so long as countries continue to sell oil for dollars and China keeps its restrictions on foreign investors. Short of an unpredictable factor, the yuan does not yet have the means or capability to challenge the US dollar in a serious way just yet. This will inevitably change however in the coming decades as China continues to infrastructurally rise domestically while it creates a network of transportation hubs all across the world that will inevitably lead to a massive increase in demand for the yuan.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Paul Antonopoulos is an independent geopolitical analyst.

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This week is the 19^th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. America never recovered politically from those attacks, and government responses to the Covid pandemic are repeating many of the same follies of the War on Terror.

Three days after the World Trade Center towers tumbled down, President George W. Bush promised to “rid the world of evil.” After making an outlandish promise that should have earned him derision in perpetuity, the media and the political elite rallied around Bush to give him unlimited power to purportedly achieve that goal. The fact that the 9/11 attacks were preceded by the biggest intelligence failures since Pearl Harbor became irrelevant.

Nowadays, presidents are expected to rid the nation of all risks. Politicians who promise to keep citizens safe have been permitted unlimited power to shut down businesses, churches, and almost any other activity.  The Democratic Party is echoing this theme in its campaign message that President Trump is practically guilty of murdering 180,000 Americans because he failed to prevent the Covid pandemic. The fact that stunning errors by the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration compounded the Covid death toll did not stop the rush to sacralize all government experts.

Both the 9/11 attacks and Covid Mania instantly made individual freedom irrelevant. After the Bush administration suspended habeas corpus and secretly arrested more than a thousand people in the U.S., Attorney General John Ashcroft proclaimed that “those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty… give ammunition to America’s enemies.”  Critics were still traitors regardless of how many constitutional rights the Bush administration trampled.

Mandatory masks have become the Covid equivalent of antiterror absolutism. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, presidential candidate Joe Biden declared, “We’ll have a national mandate to wear a mask — not as a burden but as a patriotic duty to protect one another.” When asked if he will force everyone to wear a mask, Biden replied, “This isn’t about freedom, it’s about freedom for your, your neighbors.” For Biden, any presumed benefit from government edicts to curb Covid infections makes freedom irrelevant.

Last April, the New York Times declared that the Covid “virus generates much the same fear and anxiety caused by terrorism, but it is brought by nature, not by humans.” And the task for government was to “learn how to frighten [citizens] into acting for the common good.” But the vast majority of the harm inflicted during this pandemic was due to government edicts and political-bureaucratic fearmongering, not the virus itself.

Both the War on Terror and the Covid Mania quickly became permeated by “security theater.” At 400+ airports around the nation, the Transportation Security Administration erected checkpoints and proceeded to endlessly harass and molest peaceful American travelers. When protests erupted over the TSA’s nude body scanners (which failed to detect 95% of bombs and weapons smuggled past them by testers) and pointless groping of boobs and butts, politicians and much of the media defended the agency. A Los Angeles Times editorial headline proclaimed, “Shut Up and Be Scanned,” while a Washington Post columnist sneered, “Grow up, America.”

After politicians promised to vanquish Covid, they entitled themselves to micromanage Americans’ lives, shutting down almost all businesses (except for big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Target), outlawing gymnasiums (except for government employees) and hair salons (except for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi), prohibiting anyone from leaving their home to visit family or friends (Michigan), banning all recreational travel (Oregon), and shutting down public beaches (Los Angeles).

After 9/11, any purported terrorist threat anywhere purportedly justified the Bush administration’s seizure of boundless power. With the pandemic, almost all Covid cases justify politicians prohibiting almost any type of behavior. In Montgomery County, Maryland, for instance, the local health czar sought to dictate that all private schools must remain shut downas long as the county of one million had more than nine new Covid cases per day.

The most visible folly of Bush’s War on Terror was his invasion of Iraq, which his administration justified based on an array of ludicrous claims including that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapon. Bush never apologized for using false pretenses to take America into a war that left more than 4,000 Americans dead and tens of thousands others badly wounded. The fact that most foreign policy “experts” supported the invasion settled the issue, according to the establishment media.

Similarly, governors and mayors justified placing hundreds of millions of Americans under de facto house arrests based on mortality predictions on Covid-19 from the World Health Organization that were 50 times higher than the rate the U.S. experienced. Those lockdowns were far more effective at destroying 14 million jobs than preventing the spread of Covid-19 to more than six million Americans. But most of the media still presumes that the lockdown dictates were legitimate because they were based on “science and data” – regardless that much of the data was bogus and the epidemiological forecasts were wildly inaccurate.

After 9/11, many Americans felt instant hatred for anyone who protested against Bush administration crackdowns or the Iraq War. (Remember the Dixie Chicks?) After the Covid shutdowns began, the problem was not the bogus data but anti-lockdown protestors who refused to abandon their daily lives. A Democratic congressional candidate in Indiana denounced the protestors as “COVIDIOTS” and declared that he hoped Covid “disproportionately” killed them.  But  when even larger protests erupted after the killing of George Floyd, more than a thousand public health “experts” blessed the mass gatherings as a worthwhile risk to promote social justice.

In both the War on Terror and Covid Mania, the “solution” to blunders was unleashing even greater destruction. After Bush’s invasion of Iraq unleashed chaos and a religious civil war, neoconservatives claimed that the only solution was to also invade Iran. American troops in Baghdad would supposedly never be safe until the U.S. military toppled the regime in Tehran.

Similarly, lockdown zealots claim that the only reason that so many Americans died of Covid was because politicians did not shut down everything practically in perpetuity – or at least until a vaccine is available. Biden recently endorsed dictating a national shutdown if Covid infection numbers rise again. British politicians have gone even further, championing perpetuating severe restrictions on citizens’ lives until “zero Covid” is achieved.  As author Patrick Henningsen warned, “#ZeroCOVID is an excuse for fools & authoritarians to ruin society.”

The War on Terror vivified how a single vague congressional resolution – the Authorization to Use Military Force that Congress passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks – unleashed endless aggression abroad, justifying bombing Syria, Libya, Somalia, and other nations and leading to U.S. troops now fighting in 14 nations. Covid Mania precedents could spur radical shutdowns in the coming year any time that politicians or government bureaucrats claim that a new virus is “COVID-like,” thereby necessitating again placing hundreds of millions of Americans under house arrest.

Another commonality between the War on Terror and Covid Mania is that

politicians are entitled to define collateral damage out of existence. Most Americans are oblivious to the vast carnage inflicted by the U.S. military on Afghan and Iraqi civilians.  Similarly, the “experts” who score the pandemic shutdowns ignore the surge in suicides and skyrocketing drug abuse, as well as the vast loss of learning for tens of millions of students due to school shutdowns.

Stunning debacles are no impediment to politicians pirouetting as saviors. George W. Bush ran for reelection in 2004 touting pictures of the World Trade Center wreckage. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is trumpeting a new book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic – even though his dictate requiring nursing homes to admit Covid patients helped cause more than 10,000 deaths. Nationwide, nursing home residents account for almost half of Covid-19 fatalities, and governors in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan issued disastrous orders similar to Cuomo’s.

Like the endless War on Terror, the Covid shutdowns will likely be viewed as one of the greatest political debacles in modern American history. But many politicians still believe that there is no problem that cannot be solved by a bigger federal iron fist. Will the media continue venerating “experts” until American freedom and prosperity are both obliterated?

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James Bovard is the author of ten books, including Public Policy Hooligan, Attention Deficit Democracy, The Bush Betrayal, and Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Washington Post, New Republic, Reader’s Digest, and many other publications. He is a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors, a frequent contributor to The Hill, and a contributing editor for American Conservative.

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The recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vindicated the contractor-turned-whistleblower, Edward Snowden, by ruling that the National Security Agency’s blanket data collection was unlawful and likely unconstitutional.

After Snowden alerted the world, the Obama administration claimed that the dragnet was necessary to catch terrorists, specifically Issa Doreh, Basaaly Saeed Moalin, Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud, and Mohamed Mohamud, who were convicted in 2013 for sending money to a group designated terrorists by the U.S. State Department: Al-Shabaab, the Somali youth wing of the non-terrorist Islamic Courts Union, which the US and Britain overthrew in late-2006. The Ninth Circuit ruled that Obama’s assertion was “inconsistent with the contents of the classified record.”

In my new book The War on You, I look into the history of the U.S.-British intelligence complex and how it is used to try to control your thoughts and behaviors.

The Global Information Grid

In the post-WWII era, the architecture of U.S. surveillance expanded exponentially. Since the 1960s, the Pentagon has been building what it calls the Global Information Grid (GIG), first mentioned in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book, Between Two Ages. The GIG is a network of satellites, telephone, telex, fax, and other interceptable software and hardware.

After WWII, the British and American governments signed the still-classified UKUSA Agreement. Under the Agreement, the Pentagon and UK Ministry of Defence established what journalist Peter Goodspeed calls “a massive surveillance system that can capture and study every telephone call, fax and e-mail message sent anywhere in the world.” According to Goodspeed: “[E]spionage agents from Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand — backed up by a web of ships, planes and radar and communication interception sites that ring the earth — have established the greatest spy network in history.”

One of the largest interception centers is RAF Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, UK. The station hosts 33 large, golf ball-looking spheres full of radars (radomes). As Goodspeed says, Menwith Hill spies on the whole of Europe and parts of western Russia. Another is Canada’s Communications Security Establishment, which spies on North America and eastern Russia. Another was discovered in Israel, which spies on the Middle East and Central Asia. Goodspeed notes that the Australian system “hunts for communications originating in Indochina, Indonesia and southern China. New Zealand sweeps the western Pacific.”

Britain’s Role

The Menwith Hill station was set up in 1956 by the U.S. Army Security Agency. By the year 1992, it was intercepting two million communications per hour, mainly across Europe, Africa, and Russia. The station pioneered the use of IBM computers in the early-1960s. Echelon picks relevant words spoken in telephone calls and alerts agents. It was run via the NSA’s Pathway computer system, which apparently used “off-the-shelf” technologies, from Compaq, Digital Equipment Corp., Tandem, and others (see Loring Wirbel’s book, Star Wars). Jurisdiction was given to the NSA in 1966. The Federation of American Scientists states: “Since then, Menwith Hill has sifted the international messages, telegrams, and telephone calls of citizens, corporations or governments to select information of political, military or economic value.”

Journalist Duncan Campbell notes that in 1970s’ UK, the Post Office installed wideband connections to Menwith Hill and Hunters Stones microwave radio station, as part of the microwave network which carried long-distance telephone calls during the 1970s and ‘80s. Also in the ‘70s, the NSA inserted de-encryption devices into Switzerland’s Crypto AG software, enabling the Agency to decode the traffic of 130 countries.

In 1992, says the Federation of American Scientists, British Telecom installed digital fiber optic cables. By 1996, the cables were able to carry over 100,000 simultaneous telephone calls. In the U.S., the NSA’s Operation Shamrock produced similar results. By the 1970s, the magnetic tapes recording all telegraphic communications allowed the NSA to analyze 150,000 messages per month. In August 1975, then-Director of the National Security Agency, Lt. Gen. Lew Allen, admitted to the Congressional Pike Committee that the “NSA systematically intercepts international communications, both voice and cable.”

Canada’s Role

In the year 2000, 60 Minutes reported: “If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there’s a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the [NSA].” It also noted that “Echelon’s computers capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world … [V]irtually every signal radiated across the electromagnetic spectrum is being collected and analyzed.” Mike Frost, a former spy with the Canadian services, says: “Echelon covers … the entire planet … [E]verything that’s radiated worldwide at any given instant … Baby monitors give you a lot of intelligence.”

All phone calls are listened to. Frost gives the example of a woman who told her friend that her son’s theater performance “bombed.” The word “bombed” was in the NSA’s Dictionary and triggered a computer response for officers to listen to the conversation. However, in order to know that the woman was talking about her son’s play, as opposed to an actual bombing, the NSA must have been recording everything she was saying to able to play it back to agents to get the context of the conversation. “The captured signals” of every broadcast made “are then processed through a series of supercomputers, known as dictionaries, that are programmed to search each communication for targeted addresses, words, phrases or even individual voices,” says Goodspeed.

These ground-based systems were (and are) not only linked to the hundreds of satellites orbiting the Earth, they connect to mapping and profiling software. The U.S. Space Command calls this “full spectrum dominance.”

Conclusion

The blanket surveillance is bad enough for domestic social control and international industrial espionage. But even worse is the use of “full spectrum dominance” for murder. As we’ve seen with cases like the drone up- and down-links at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the U.S. Global Information Grid is used to murder the world’s poorest people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.

Satellites, GPS, and the internet itself were designed in the military sector in the previous decades and transferred to private corporations for profit, creating “dual-use’ technology. But so are the NSA’s Echelon, voice-recognition, and data point-collection software. These technologies are today incorporated into banking, insurance, social media, and marketing in what Professor Shoshana Zuboff conceptualizes as “surveillance capitalism.” These are some of the weapons in the war on you.

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T.J. Coles is a postdoctoral researcher at Plymouth University’s Cognition Institute in the UK and a regular contributor to CounterPunch and The London Economic. His books include Voices for Peace (with Noam Chomsky and others) and The War on You.

Brazil is the world’s largest user of pesticides, including more than a dozen considered highly hazardous, thanks to permissive legislation that allows some of Europe’s biggest agrochemical companies to continue selling products that have been banned in their home market.

The toxicity of these pesticides has raised concerns: 22 of them are classified as highly hazardous pesticides, or HHPs, by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), a global coalition that advocates for eco-friendly alternatives to chemical pesticides. The classification is based on criteria developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): in humans, they can be toxic to the reproductive system, damaging to DNA, or carcinogenic, as well as fatal to bees and other pollinators.

Even though these products have been banned in other countries, companies like Bayer, BASF and Syngenta make millions of dollars selling them in Brazil. According to IBAMA, the Brazilian environmental agency, more than 63,000 tonnes of just 10 of these 22 pesticides were sold in 2018. Sales of the other 12 products were not reported because of commercial confidentiality; IBAMA only discloses data on active ingredients manufactured by three or more companies. It also doesn’t break down the amounts sold by each company.

The companies

The global pesticide market generated $ 34.4 billion in 2017, according to the FAO. And the industry is increasingly controlled by a handful of companies. Headquartered in Switzerland, Syngenta is part of the ChemChina group, a world leader in the sector. German company Bayer comes second. It experienced massive growth in 2018 after acquiring Monsanto, which produces Roundup, a herbicide based on glyphosate, the world’s best-selling pesticide. Rounding out the top three is Germany’s BASF. Together, the three companies control 54.7% of the global agrochemical industry.

In 2018, 36.7% and 24.9% of the active ingredients sold worldwide by Bayer and BASF respectively were highly hazardous under the PAN definition, according to a reportthat lists German agrochemical companies’ sales to developing countries. The report was prepared by the Permanent Campaign Against Pesticides, INKOTA Network, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, MISEREOR and South African organization Khanyisa.

According to the study, more flexible registration procedures make it easier for highly hazardous pesticides to enter markets in the global South. Brazil is a case in point: 44% of the substances registered here have been banned in the European Union, according to a report released in July by the former president of the Brazilian Association for Agrarian Reform (ABRA), Gerson Teixeira.

Alan Tygel, a spokesman for the Campaign Against Pesticides and For Life, explains why the study began with Germany:

“The country is the world’s second-largest pesticide exporter because of these two major manufacturers. It exports 233 active ingredients — nine of which are banned in the EU but produced in Germany and then exported.

“Of the 233 active ingredients exported by Germany, 62 are considered highly hazardous,” he adds.

The report shows that half of the 24 ingredients sold by Bayer and BASF in Brazil are highly hazardous. One of them is Fipronil, an active ingredient used in insecticides marketed by BASF. The product entered PAN’s list for its fatal effects on bees. In the 1990s, it was blamed for a massive bee die-off in France. In 2017, millions of chicken eggs were contaminated by Fipronil in Belgium and the Netherlands. That same year, the product was banned from the entire EU for posing “high acute risks for bees [when used as] seed treatment in maize,” according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

In Brazil, beekeepers list it as the main cause of the deaths of more than 500 million bees in 2018-2019. According to IBAMA, 1,600 tonnes were sold in the country in 2018 alone, to be used in the cultivation of cotton, potatoes, soybeans and corn.

Another controversial item on the list is the fungicide Carbendazim from Bayer, which has been banned from the European market since 2016. Its potential harms include genetic defects, impaired fertility, and fetus problems, in addition to being very toxic to bodies of water, according to the Campaign Against Pesticides report. The product is also on PAN’s list because it can damage DNA and be toxic to the reproductive system.

According to IBAMA, Carbendazim sales in Brazil amounted to 4,800 tonnes in 2018. In December last year, the country’s National Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) started reevaluating it to decide whether it should remain on the market. The process is slow and may take more than a decade, as happened recently with glyphosate, whose registration was renewed after 11 years under reevaluation. In the meantime, Carbendazim continues to be sold for the cultivation of black beans, soybeans, wheat and oranges.

The report calls on the German government to ban exports of pesticide active ingredients that are not allowed in the EU. “We do not have data on which company produces imported substances or to which countries they are exported,” says German researcher Lena Luig, from the INKOTA Network, one of the contributors to the report.

A more flexible pesticide registration procedure makes it easier for highly hazardous pesticides to enter certain countries, such as Brazil. Image Matheus Cenali/Pexels.

Syngenta makes billions from selling hazardous pesticides to poor countries, study says

Last year, the Swiss NGO Public Eye released a report showing how Syngenta makes billions of dollars selling highly dangerous pesticides, particularly to low- and middle-income countries. Those same pesticides are banned in Switzerland, Syngenta’s home country.

Using exclusive data provided by leading agribusiness intelligence company Phillips McDougall, Public Eye estimates that Syngenta made some $3.9 billion by selling highly hazardous pesticides in 2017 — more than 40% of its pesticide sales that year.

About two-thirds of these sales were made in low- and middle-income countries, with Brazil the largest individual market.

According to the report, “51 of the 120 pesticide active ingredients in Syngenta’s portfolio are not authorized for use in its home country, Switzerland; 16 of them were banned because of their impact on human health and the environment. But Syngenta continues selling them in lower income countries.”

The report lists 10 active ingredients sold by the company in Brazil that are banned in the EU and appear on PAN’s highly hazardous list. One of them is the herbicide Atrazine, the fourth-most-used pesticide in Brazil, with 287,000 tonnes sold in 2018, according to IBAMA.

The product is used in the cultivation of sugarcane, corn and sorghum. It was banned from the EU for causing endocrine disorders that affect the hormonal system. “Atrazine has been banned in Switzerland and the EU for many years because of its far-reaching and enduring contamination of drinking water sources,” says Carla Hoinkes, an agricultural researcher at Public Eye and one of the report’s authors.

Another best seller on the list is Paraquat, the sixth-most-used pesticide in Brazil, with 13,100 tonnes sold. Due to its high toxicity, it has been banned in Switzerland since 1989 and in the EU since 2017. “Paraquat is so toxic that accidental ingestion of a single sip may kill you. It is now banned in more than 55 countries, but Syngenta keeps selling it where it is still allowed,” Hoinkes says.

In 2017, Brazilian health regulator ANVISA decided that Paraquat should be removed from the country’s market. The ban is due to start on Sept. 22 this year, but faces strong lobby efforts by the agribusiness industry, which has formed a “Paraquat task force” to try to reverse the decision.

Data on sales of one of Syngenta’s main products, the insecticide Thiamethoxam, are not publicly available due to trade secrets. A member of the neonicotinoid insecticide family, it is fatal to pollinators such as bees. “Syngenta’s thiamethoxam, as well as Bayer’s Imidacloprid [which sold 10,000 tonnes in Brazil in 2018], is a ‘bee killing’ neonicotinoid insecticide that was banned from European and Swiss fields in 2018, after a long legal battle,” Hoinkes says. “According to FAO and WHO, a growing body of evidence suggests that neonicotinoid insecticides ‘are causing harmful effects to bees and other beneficial insects on a large scale.’”

Companies say there are no risks

Pesticide manufacturers have no problem with selling in Brazil products that have been banned in Europe.

According to BASF, there are major differences in crops, soil, climate, pests, and agricultural practices around the world.

“Different pests require different solutions, and all BASF products are extensively tested, evaluated and approved by each country’s competent authorities, following official and legal procedures established in the respective countries before being marketed,” the company said in a statement.

It also said that for market reasons it chose not to renew the registrations of some active ingredients in Europe. “In many cases, the active ingredient is not renewed or registered in Europe because the occurrence of pests, diseases and weeds in a temperate climate does not justify it or because there is no economically important crop.” Of the 12 ingredients produced by BASF and cited in the Campaign Against Pesticides report, only Saflufenacil has never had a license requested for the European market. The others were either never authorized or ended up being excluded from that market after reevaluations.

Bayer said the lack of approval for a given pesticide in the EU “in no way determines its safety” and that “it does not mean a double standard.”

“Our internal safety requirements ensure that our products meet minimum global standards everywhere, regardless of how developed and rigorous each country’s regulatory system may be. Since 2016, Bayer has pledged to sell only crop protection products whose active ingredients are registered in at least one OECD country,” the company said.

Syngenta said it is important to consider differences in agricultural practices around the world, including the types of crops grown and the conditions to which they are exposed, as well as the types of pests. “Products used in [Brazil], with a tropical climate and under high pressure from pests and diseases, may not be so necessary in countries where harsh winter conditions — often marked by snow — naturally reduce pest pressure. In other words, if there is no demand for a certain pesticide, there is no need to register or renew the product’s registration in that country,” it said.

CropLife Brasil, an association of pesticide manufacturers that includes Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, said the report ignores that proper use of pesticides is critical in determining its toxicity to users, their families, and consumers. “Agricultural conditions regarding flora, fauna and climate in different countries result in a wide variety of insects/pests, weeds and diseases that affect plants. This means that different pesticides will be available to farmers in Europe and other regions. Therefore, the fact that a crop protection product is not approved in the EU in no way determines its safety,” CropLife said in a statement.

Hoinkes said there is a case to be made for specific agronomic needs, but not much. “In most cases it is proven that the EU has banned or severely restricted the use of a pesticide or group of pesticides due to concerns about the environment or human health,” she says.

She cites the examples of Fipronil, Paraquat, Atrazine and Thiamethoxam.

“So companies like Syngenta or Bayer are indeed using ‘double standards’ for different countries — due to weaker regulations or poor enforcement in certain political contexts — to continue selling highly hazardous pesticides banned in their own territories because they are acutely toxic to humans, kill bees, persist in drinking water or are suspected of causing cancer, birth defects or other chronic diseases.”

Asked if they believe that there are risks in permitting domestic sales of products banned in the EU and if these bans are taken into account during pesticide evaluation, Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) said the country is “sovereign to regulate” and has the technical expertise to analyze pesticides. “If they are sold here, it means that they have been rigorously analyzed by MAPA, ANVISA and IBAMA, and were approved by each of these agencies according to their respective competencies.” Read the full statement from Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture.

The companies also questioned PAN’s criteria for classifying pesticides as highly hazardous. Acute toxicity, chronic health damage, environmental hazards, and being listed in international conventions and agreements for the regulation of pesticides are evaluated. PAN’s list currently includes 310 active ingredients.

BASF says that concepts sustained by NGOs such as PAN “impose restrictions beyond those established by internationally recognized government agencies such as FAO and WHO.” Neither the FAO nor the WHO are government agencies. The company also said that “regulatory agencies in each country are the best judges of their regions’ needs.”

Syngenta said that PAN’s list “is not recognized by any national or international organization.” The company added that Public Eye, the Swiss NGO that published the critical report, “seeks to undermine innovation agriculture, without which food would be scarcer, more expensive and less safe.”

Alan Tygel of the Campaign Against Pesticides says the PAN list is based on criteria defined in 2006 by two U.N. agencies: the WHO and FAO. “These two agencies defined the criteria but never listed the pesticides. The interesting and important part of [PAN’s report] is precisely that it names these highly hazardous pesticides,” he says.

Read the full statements from BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and CropLife.

This report is part of Por trás do alimento (Behind the food), a joint project of Agência Pública and Repórter Brasil to investigate the use of pesticides in Brazil, and was first published here in Portuguese on June 18, 2020. Read the full coverage on the project website.

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The signs are ominous as yet another climate record is broken. California is once again burning. From near the southern Mexico border, to San Diego and the forests of the Sierra Nevada, over two million acres of the Golden state were on fire yesterday.

As the state sweltered in record temperatures, the temperature peaked at 121 degrees over the weekend, with firefighters tackling dozens of blazes and the situation still extremely volatile.

Communities across the state are facing power blackouts and internet problems. Last night, Pacific Gas & Electric cut off electricity to parts of the North Bay area as the winds picked up. As I write, an estimated 120,000 PG&E customers are currently without power.

These are the effects of climate change. The amount of land already on fire is another grim record, and the fact it comes now, when late September and October are traditionally peak fire season, raises real cause for concern. The previous record was set decades ago in 1987 at 1.96 million acres.

Yesterday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesperson, Lynne Tolmachoff said,

“It’s a little unnerving because September and October are historically our worst months for fires. It’s usually hot, and the fuels really dry out. And we see more of our wind events.”

The authorities are already stretched. Yesterday, the U.S. Forest Service issued a press release warning that “most of California remains under the threat of unprecedented and dangerous fire conditions with a combination of extreme heat, significant wind events, dry conditions, and firefighting resources that are stretched to the limit.”

One of the largest fires is the Creek Fire, in the Sierra National Forest, which has burned over 100 square miles of forest, with some 850 firefighters trying to tackle the blaze.

As the LA Times reports, “the Creek fire burning in the Sierra Nevada is the worst, trapping hikers, killing at least one person and destroying a large swath of the town of Big Creek.”

One local resident, Debra Rios, told the Guardian,

“I hope like heck the fire doesn’t reach my little ranch…It’s not looking good right now. It’s an awfully big fire.”

Another resident of the remote hamlet of Big Creek, told the paper,

“about half the private homes in town burned down. Words cannot even begin to describe the devastation of this community.”

“We lost our home,” Nettie Carroll, 40, another local resident, who had lived there for sixteen years, told the New York Times. “It looks like everything is completely gone.”

They are not alone. States of emergency have now been issued in five Californian counties, according to the BBC, which include Fresno County, Madera, Mariposa, San Bernardino and San Diego.

And the bad news is that it could get much worse in the coming days, reports the LA Times. According to the paper, “California’s record-breaking fire season could get much worse in the coming days as powerful winds heighten the danger of more blazes while firefighters continue to struggle with destructive conflagrations across the state.”

The paper continued “Intense Diablo winds are forecast for parts of Northern California this week…Forecasters said 25-35mph winds were expected, with gusts topping 45mph.”

And California is not the only state burning. There are also fires burning in Oregon and Washington State, where some 300,000 acres of land have burnt.

On Twitter, people pointed out that this is climate change in action. Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org tweeted:

California has already set a new record for wildfire this year–and Sept and Oct are usually the worst months
This is what a climate crisis looks like https://t.co/pkAJZjGkW9

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) September 8, 2020

Climate Nexus added:

Scientists have linked California's increasingly intense wildfire seasons to climate change. A paper this year found that higher-than-average temps are likely to remain high for longer, possibly extending CA wildfire season to Thanksgiving. https://t.co/s0kympqHkX via @NBCNews

— Climate Nexus (@ClimateNexus) September 8, 2020

Just hours ago, a joint op-ed written by Vanessa Warheit and Laura Neish, respectively the Executive Director of 350 Bay Area and former Executive Director of Fossil Free California, highlights the financial institutions fueling these wildfires, as some of the largest banks have continued to finance fossil fuel extraction in California and across the globe — investing in over USD $700 billion to the fossil fuel industry since the adaptation of the Paris Climate Agreement.

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Considering its size, prestige and historical value, Tibet is another region within China’s frontiers of a vital nature to Beijing. Tibet in fact has a centuries-long association with mainland China; and, in modern history, was ruled from a distance by China’s authorities following the 1720 Chinese expedition to Tibet. This military operation was ordered by China’s long-ruling Qing dynasty, so as to expel the Mongol Dzungars from the area, and reinstate Beijing’s authority over Tibet.

For almost two centuries from 1720, Tibet was under the sway of China’s authorities, up to a point. By 1903 and 1904 Western intrusion in Tibet, from the British Empire, broke Beijing’s limited influence on the area. British forces entered the Tibetan capital Lhasa during early August 1904, in a campaign where their forces killed up to 3,000 Tibetans, who were poorly armed and equipped.

The Manchu-led Qing dynasty, which had governed China since 1644, was by then in difficulty and its complete collapse arrived in 1912. For the next four decades until 1949, China entered one of the greatest periods of decline in its history – as the country was dominated by the imperial powers of Britain, Japan, and the most powerful of them, the United States.

Nevertheless US power would suffer a serious blow with China’s independence in 1949. From the early 1950s Mao Zedong’s attitude to Tibet, and that of his successors, was not to eradicate its inhabitants’ way of life, nor indeed to colonise the region. The English scholar Prof. Robert Barnett, a notable specialist in Tibetan history, wrote that,

“If we try to envisage the perspective of Chinese officials and the CCP [China’s Communist Party] toward Tibet over the last 60 years, what we see for the most part is not an effort to destroy or attack Tibetan culture, as some critics have alleged, but the opposite: a long series of ‘gifts’, interrupted only by what the party now describes as the ‘errors’ of the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976]”. (1)

Mao furnished the Tibetan leadership with offerings, and in return expected their obedience and respect when required, while he refrained from directly meddling in their internal affairs. The opening gift bestowed by Mao’s government on Tibet, according to Prof. Barnett, “was that of liberation in 1950” (2). Following this, as he outlined, came “the gift of class struggle and the accompanying dispensing of land” in 1959 to the Tibetan peasantry. Then “regional autonomy” was introduced in Tibet by 1965 (Tibet Autonomous Region), and a classless society the next year. Subsequent to Mao’s death in 1976, further gifts were granted, but the nature of them altered with the shift in ideological leanings in China’s capital.

Beijing’s experienced reformist politician, Deng Xiaoping, became the country’s outright leader by 1978. Tibet was granted a household economy in 1980, stability in 1990, the market economy in 1992, and infrastructural projects were enacted by 2006 such as pertaining to housing (3). As part of the Great Western Development Strategy launched early this century, Chinese governments have sought to bridge the gap between eastern and western China. In Tibet, China’s authorities have overseen the construction and extension of airports, highways and railroads such as the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world’s highest and costing the equivalent of $4.2 billion. It connects the Tibetan capital Lhasa 1,200 miles eastwards to central China.

Beijing has instituted wide-scale health care and educational programs in Tibet, leading to the construction of hundreds of medical centres, hospitals and schools. Following the communist accession to power, the average life expectancy of a Tibetan citizen has almost doubled, from 35 years in 1950 to 68 years over six decades later (4). As of late 2017, according to Tibet’s education department 2,200 schools of all levels were in operation across Tibet; with close to 700,000 students attending, more than 20% of Tibet’s entire population.

The Tibetan populace today remains surprisingly small at just over three million, considering its status as the second largest region in China, behind neighbouring Xinjiang. Like each Chinese province, living standards and cultural tolerance has “improved extremely rapidly” in Tibet during the past four decades, spurred on by investment initiatives implemented by Beijing (5). At least in GDP terms Tibet remains the poorest area of China. Around 80% of Tibetans currently reside in rural areas and make a living from agriculture, where overall earnings are low. Yet, over the past generation, the average per capita income of a rural Tibetan has increased substantially, from under $100 in 1992 to $1,525 by 2017. (6)

Tibet and the Plateau which bears its name has enormous planetary importance. Over 25% of the world’s human population are dependent upon fresh water continually delivered to them, by major rivers like the Yangtze and Mekong, whose sources are traced to the Tibetan Plateau’s glaciers. However, due to unchecked climate change, these glaciers have been diminishing for decades resulting in less available fresh water for humans.

Water scarcity, along with poor water quality, is already having repercussions for the two billion people reliant on Tibet’s life-giving resources. Hundreds of millions of these affected people live in nuclear-armed states like China, India and Pakistan, with the possibility of conflict erupting over water shortages. There could be a situation whereby climate change induces a nuclear war, humanity’s two biggest threats, our pincers, combining to influence each other. Tibet, which holds the largest amount of frozen fresh water outside of the poles, lost 27% of its glacier ice cover between the documented years 1970 and 2010. (7)

Tibet has considerable strategic and political significance, partly because it shares a lengthy border with India – a country led since 2014 by Narendra Modi, an extremist politician who has been dismantling Indian secular democracy and silencing critical voices. Under Modi, India’s relations with America and president Donald Trump are particularly close. The US and Indian armed forces have recently been conducting joint military exercises, meant somewhat as a warning to China.

It is hardly surprising India’s relations with China have deteriorated so much. The Trump administration has provided strong public support to India during the ongoing Himalayan border disputes, in which casualties were inflicted on both India and China in June 2020. The two states are now bolstering their forces along the contested Himalayan regions, meaning further clashes could occur in weeks to come. Tibet’s people can only look on, and hope that nothing deadly unfolds between nuclear powers.

Tibet’s paltry human population is mainly due to the area’s remote and rugged terrain, along with an average altitude of 4,500 metres above sea level. Instead, Tibet contains more wildlife than anywhere else in China, home to large mammals from Himalayan wolves and brown bears to lynx and even Bengal tigers, which were photographed in Tibet last year for the first time.

Ethnic Tibetans comprise about 90% of people residing in the region, with 8% of Tibet’s remaining populace made up of Han Chinese, along with smaller numbers of Hui, Mongols, etc. The vast majority of the population adhere to Tibetan Buddhism, which was first introduced to Tibet in the 8th century.

In May 1951, the Tibetan government signed a surrender document (Seventeen Point Agreement) in which they consented to officially become part of China, recognising Beijing’s sovereignty over their territory, but the Tibetan government would retain a great level of power regarding their own affairs. Prof. Barnett noted, “This was a policy of exceptionalism, according to which Tibet was to be treated quite differently from the rest of China and given the gift of continuing, unreformed governance and society, with a treaty-like document to confirm its status. It was unlike anything else in Chinese Communist history until the arrangement with Hong Kong 30 years later”. (8)

In 1951, the Harry Truman administration offered modest US military support to the Tibetan government. The Dalai Lama’s advisers rejected these early proposals as being “too tentative and unreliable”. The US Congress, then and now, considers Tibet a landmass occupied by China and which has the right to self-determination, overlooking Tibet’s long association with mainland China.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, succeeding Truman in 1953, significantly increased US backing for Tibet’s separatist forces. In 1956 the CIA began providing covert assistance to Tibetan insurgents and, that very year, their incitement helped to instigate several rebellions in the Kham and Amdo regions of eastern Tibet (9). The revolts were eventually suppressed by Beijing, but in Kham the unrest continued until 1962. CIA destabilisation methods in Tibet – with the assistance of other secret agents from the special services of Nepal and India – played a role in the March 1959 US-supported Tibetan uprising against Chinese control, which descended into an unmitigated fiasco for the rebels.

Mao, enraged by what he perceived as a lack of gratitude by Tibet’s leadership for his lenient strategy, ordered that the rebellion be crushed. Over the course of just a fortnight it was all over, resulting in many thousands of casualties for the Tibetans. The Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), who received funding from the CIA for years, fled Tibet to India in late March 1959 and still lives there today. When US relations with China warmed slightly in the early 1970s, all American support for Tibet’s separatists quickly ended, leaving them embittered.

Yet from the early 1980s until today, US governments resumed and continue to channel cash to Tibetan opposition groups and exile organisations. Some of this money is funnelled through the US State Department branch, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, along with support forthcoming from the US government funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The Trump administration is providing many millions of dollars to Tibetan separatist causes. In the year 2019 alone Washington dispensed with $17 million to Tibet’s “independence” goals, extending to Tibetan-linked groups based in India and Nepal. (10)

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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.

Environmental groups filed a legal brief today urging the Constitutional Court of Ecuador to halt all mining concessions in the Los Cedros protected forest, a global “Key Biodiversity Area.” The brief cites concerns from famed primatologist Jane Goodall and more than 1,200 other prominent scientists.

In this unprecedented case, the court could use Ecuador’s constitutional provision on the “Rights of Nature” to protect the forest from mining. Two-thirds of the reserve are now covered by mining concessions granted to the Ecuadorian state mining company ENAMI and its Canadian partners, Cornerstone Capital Resources and BHP. The Constitutional Court agreed in May to hear the case.

Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson, Peter Raven, Rosemary and Peter Grant, and more than 1,200 other scientists from all over the world have urged the Ecuadorian government to stop mining activities at Los Cedros and Ecuador’s other protected forests. In an August letter, the scientists noted that Los Cedros is home to a remarkable 207 different species of plants and animals included on Ecuador’s Red Lists.

The scientists expressed grave concern about mining’s impacts on the exceptional biodiversity of Ecuador’s protected forests and specifically requested that all mining concessions be removed from those forests, including Los Cedros.

Earth Law Center, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, and the Center for Biological Diversity an amicus curiae(friend of the court) brief before the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court. It asks the court to protect Los Cedros and robustly enforce constitutional provisions that establish basic rights of nature, or “pachamama,” including the rights to exist and to restoration.

“Mining companies can’t be allowed to threaten the exceptional biodiversity of Ecuador’s protected forests,” said Alejandro Olivera, senior scientist and Mexico representative at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Los Cedros Reserve is well known for its critically endangered brown-headed spider monkeys and endangered spectacled bears, as well as orchids found nowhere else on Earth. Mining companies must halt this threat and stop all mining operations at Los Cedros.”

The brown-headed spider monkey, found in Los Cedros, has lost more than 80% of its original area of distribution in northwest Ecuador. In 2005 it was estimated that there were fewer than 250 brown-headed spider monkeys globally, granting the species a place among the top 25 most endangered primates in the world.

“Twelve years after first recognizing the rights of nature in its Constitution, Ecuador must now uphold these rights in earnest, including by protecting the Los Cedros forest from devastating mining concessions,” said Constanza Prieto Figelist, Latin American legal lead at Earth Law Center. “Enforcing the rights of Los Cedros forest will also protect the human right to a healthy environment and rights of future generations because we all rely upon healthy, functioning ecosystems for our very survival.”

The groups note that the case is of great significance, both for Ecuador and the world, because it has the potential to establish important and influential “Earth jurisprudence” that will help guide humanity to be a beneficial rather than a destructive presence within the community of life. The proposed mining is unlawful, the groups say, and must be prohibited on the basis that it violates the rights of the Los Cedros Protective Forest as an ecosystem as well as the rights of the many members of that living community.

Allowing the mining to proceed would also be contrary to the national objective of achieving good living (“sumak kawsay”) and consequently would violate the Constitution of the republic of Ecuador, the groups argue. It would also be a violation of the fundamental and non-negotiable principles of nature that humanity must respect in order to live harmoniously and flourish.

An active petition to Ecuador’s government officials and the mining companies has also been launched, and the court ruling will come soon.

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Featured image: A brown-headed spider monkey (Ateles fusciceps ssp. fusciceps) in the Los Cedros Reserve, Ecuador. Photo credit: Bitty Roy.

Imagine for a moment that there is a foreign government that receives billions of dollars a year in “aid” and other benefits from the United States taxpayer. Consider beyond that, the possibility that that government might take part of the money it receives and secretly recycle it to groups of American citizens in the United States that exist to maintain and increase that money flow while also otherwise serving other interests of the recipient country. That would mean that the United States is itself subsidizing the lobbies and groups that are inevitably working against its own interests. And it also means that U.S. citizens are acting as foreign agents, covertly giving priority to their attachment to a foreign country instead of to the nation in which they live.

I am, of course, referring to Israel. It does not require a brilliant observer to note how Israel and its allies inside the U.S. have become very skilled at milking the government in the United States at all levels for every bit of financial aid, trade concessions, military hardware and political cover that is possible to obtain. The flow of dollars, goods, and protection is never actually debated in any serious way and is often, in fact, negotiated directly by Congress or state legislatures directly with the Israeli lobbyists. This corruption and manipulation of the U.S. governmental system by people who are basically foreign agents is something like a criminal enterprise and one can only imagine the screams of outrage coming from the New York Times if there were a similar arrangement with any other country.

The latest revelation about Israel’s cheating involves subsidies that were paid covertly by Israeli government agencies to groups in the United States which in turn took direction from the Jewish state, often inter alia damaging genuine American interests. The groups involved failed to disclose the payments, which is a felony. They also failed to register under the terms of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, which mandates penalties for groups and individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments. In particular, FARA mandates that the finances and relationships of the foreign affiliated organization be open to Department of the Justice inspection. It states that “any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or otherwise acts at the order, request, or under the direction or control of a foreign principal.” Those who fail to disclose might be penalized by up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

Israel’s various friends and proxies, uniquely, have been de facto exempt from any regulation by the U.S. government. The last serious attempt to register a major lobbying entity was made by John F. Kennedy, who sought to have the predecessor organization to today’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) comply with FARA. Kennedy was killed before he could complete the process.

To be sure, the U.S. government has recently been aggressive in demanding FARA registration for other nations as well as for Americans working for foreign powers. There have been several prominent FARA cases in the news. Major Russian news agencies operating in the U.S. were compelled to register in 2017 because they were funded largely or in part by the Kremlin. Also, as part of their plea deals, the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn both conceded that they had failed to comply with FARA when working as consultants with foreign governments.

A leading recipient of the Israeli government’s largesse has been the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF), which has a presence in 43 countries worldwide, though it is registered in the U.S. as a non-profit. It received a grant of $100,000 from Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry in 2019, part of the $6.6 million that was doled out to eleven American organizations in 2018-9. Israel Allies particularly uses Lawfare to target the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), which has a large and growing presence on university campuses. Effective lobbying by IAF in the U.S. has resulted in more than half of all states passing legislation that bans or limits the BDS activity while legislation that would criminalize organizations working against Israel has also been moving through congress. IAF has been directly involved in drafting such legislation and has more recently been pushing for new laws that would legally define criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism.

The Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs initially, in 2015-7, tried to give money openly to diaspora organizations but found that many American Jewish groups, to their credit, would not take it due to concerns over FARA and being accused of “dual loyalty.” So, the Ministry created an ostensibly non-government “public benefit company” cut-out to distribute the cash in a more secretive fashion. The mechanism was given the operational name Concert.

Concert’s sole purpose was to provide money to diaspora advocacy groups that would work primarily against BDS and other efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state. Concert had an independent board, but its activity of directed by the Strategic Affairs Ministry’s director-general.

Concert’s internal documents are predictably vague in describing the activities that it was funding, and one might assume that they are purposely misleading. They refer to “defensive and offensive” actions, on “corporate responsibility,” “the digital battlefield,” and regarding “amplification units” that would provide “support for organizations in a pro-Israeli network.” The intention was to improve Israel’s image due to the widespread and completely accurate perception that its human rights record is among the worst in the world. Concert was created to serve as a mechanism to be exploited where situations prevailed that “require an ‘outside the government’ discussion with the different target audiences… [and] provide a rapid and coordinated response against the attempts to tarnish the image of Israel around the world.”

Interestingly, one of the most recognizable recipients of Concert funds was Christians United for Israel (CUFI), America’s largest pro-Israel group, which received nearly $1.3 million in February 2019 to pay for several 10 week-long “pilgrimages” to the Holy Land. Each pilgrimage involved thirty “influential Christian clerics from the U.S.” who were clearly propagandized while they were in the Middle East. Other large disbursements went to predominantly Jewish student groups, presumably to provide them with both resources and necessary training to oppose campus critics of Israel.

The simple way to deal with the massive and illegal Israeli influencing operations that are being directed against the United States would be first of all to deduct every identifiable dollar that is being spent by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to empower supporters in America from the $3.8 billion plus that Israel receives each year directly from the U.S. Treasury. Israel would not be concerned if the United States were to recover a paltry $10 million or so, but it would definitely send a message.

And then one might follow-up by requiring all the Israeli proxies that together make up the Israel Lobby to register under FARA. One might start with AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) but there will be many, many more before the work is done. And CUFI, for sure. The fundamentalist Christian head cases that place Israel’s interests ahead of those of their own country finally need to have their bell rung.

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Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served nineteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter Afghanistan in December 2001. Phil is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values and interests. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from HAIM ZACH/GPO

Lebanon has been faced with political upheavals, and the huge explosion which destroyed the Beirut Port.  Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse asked a noted expert on Lebanon, Dr. Marwa Osman, to explain the recent visit of French President Macron to Beirut, and what it portends.  

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Steven Sahiounie (SS):  Recently, France’s President Macron met with Mohammed Raad of Hezbollah. Do you think France is changing their position on Hezbollah?

Marwa Osman (MO):  I don’t think it is a matter of position, rather a matter of a realistic view to the Lebanese political arena. Who hold the majority in the parliament? Who has the greatest public support in Lebanon? By far, the answer is Hezbollah and its allies. So it would be an absolute waste of time if Macron had decided to bypass the resistance in Lebanon while trying to find a solution to the economic and political deadlock in the country. Mind you, the Americans were not happy about this meeting, as it was the first meeting ever held between any Hezbollah member with a French President, yet this Mohammad Raad is a member of parliament that we are talking about and the head of a Lebanese political bloc that represents along with its allies the majority of the Lebanese parliament, so why wouldn’t he meet with Macron? The confusion is only there because the Americans did not like it because of the Beirut Barracks explosion of 1983 which the resistance never claimed responsibility for anyways.

SS:  Lebanon chose a new Prime Minister on the very day President Macron arrived. Do you think his visit put pressure on the choice?

MO:  Yes, it seems that everyone wanted to save face before Macron arrived because he promised the Lebanese presidency help at the international level in the form of a donors’ conference in October, and for this to take place there has to be a viable Lebanese government in place before then. Add to that the corona virus pandemic and the existential threat of a non-existent economy on the country made it also an emergency to have a government in place asap. Until now there has been no government announced but it was reported by Lebanese media that the current designated Prime Minister is set to provide the presidency with a list of names for his cabinet which should be approved soon.

SS:  Macron has given a deadline to the Lebanese politicians and threatened them with sanctions. Isn’t that interference in Lebanon’s sovereignty?

MO:  That is blatant and clear violation of political norms and international law too. As no state has a unilateral say in what other states can or cannot do. Yes, I do agree that we need anti-corruption plans put in place asap and reforms at the level of the judiciary system and the constitution and that we need to hold all those responsible accountable, but that is strictly a Lebanese internal matter and no other state or head of state has a say or even a right to give his or her opinion about this matter. Our justice system is capable of covering all the anti-corruption cases, we just need a political decision. Better yet, we need to completely remove politics from the judiciary system and that can only happen when we become a full secular state with a “one province electoral law”, which means abolishing the sectarian system of election in the country.

SS:  The tension between the Israeli occupation and Hezbollah is on the highest level since the 2006 war. Do you think “Israel” is preparing for war on Lebanon?

MO:  Israel is always at war with Lebanon, it has always been a case of cessation of hostilities, there never was peace. How can there be peace when the Israeli regime keeps violating our airspace, occupying our land and waters and assassinating our men? Every day we wake up to the sounds of fighter jets in our airspace and all day every day we are constantly harassed with spy drones that keep buzzing so loud it drives us crazy, Israel is always on high alert waiting for the next round to carpet bomb Beirut any chance it gets. However, a full out war is currently out of the question for several reasons. First, Israel knows that the rules of the game have changed especially after the resistance gained great experience from fighting off terrorism in Syria alongside the Syrian Arab army and the Russian army inside Syria. Second, Israel needs full US support to pursue a war on Lebanon and that is not an option at the moment because Trump is indulging himself in pre-elections campaigning that he has not time or desire to cause any damage to his electoral campaign and third the Israeli regime is suffering from high covid19 exposures that would keep its hands tied in the event they risked a war anytime soon.

SS:  After visiting Lebanon, Macron headed for Iraq.  What was the goal of that visit and dose France has designs on the Middle East?

MO:  Macron popping for a visit in Baghdad as the first head of state to visit the Iraqi capital since Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi took office should not come as a surprise. The French president claimed to back Iraq’s sovereignty all the while his US allies still occupy the country. However, by playing Lawrence of Arabia in Iraq, Macron aims to fill the vacuum left by an isolationist America to boost France’s clout in west Asia. President Macron has seen the vacuum in question as an opportunity. He now acts as if he is Europe’s foreign policy leader by default and thinks that he has to run the show because there is a diplomatic-relations gap in the Western world. However, by trying to court all sides, Macron risks drawing a blank with one of them. Success in Lebanon might burnish his reputation as a consummate negotiator, however, skepticism is brewing about France’s ability to play a leading role in west Asia, where the US, Russia and their allies have traditionally called the shots.

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Dr. Marwa Osman has a PhD in Management, a MBA on “The Effect of Politics on the Foreign Direct Investment in Lebanon”, is a University Lecturer at the Lebanese International University and Maaref University, and is the Host of the political show “The Middle East Stream” broadcast on Press TV.

Steven Sahiounie is an award-winning journalist.

“When the European settlers arrived, they needed land to live on. The First Nations peoples agreed to move to different areas to make room for the new settlements.” – Complete Canadian Curriculum (Grade 3), 2017.¹

In 2017, the Complete Canadian Curriculum guide for third graders claimed that “the First Nations peoples moved to areas called reserves, where they could live undisturbed by the hustle and bustle of the settlers.”² This was a radical and absurd misrepresentation of Canadian history, but it was reflective of a longstanding ideological project to convince Canadians that their country is a well-intentioned contributor to the greater good of the world. In that version of history, Canada has been a haven for refugees, it has been a voice of reason in times of international crisis, it has sought to preserve peace when others wanted war, it has made sacrifices when war was necessary to defeat injustice, and it has helped other nations build prosperous and functional societies like the one Canada built after Indigenous people, presumably, “moved to areas called reserves, where they could live undisturbed by the hustle and bustle of the settlers.”

Canada in the World offers a sober re-assessment of that story, providing a broad history of Canada’s engagements in the world since Confederation (1867). Unlike many such studies, I will treat the relations between the French, British, and then Canadian settlers and the Indigenous nations they encountered as a foundational element of what Canada became, and I will insist that the legacy and logic of Canadian colonialism runs through the entire history of Canada in the world. Canada’s colonial project was driven by one fundamental material goal – the destruction of Indigenous political economic practices and their displacement by capitalism – and an equally important ideological foundation in the claim that Europeans were racially and culturally advanced and, thus, that their conquest of the Indigenous Peoples represented ‘progress.’ The interplay between this economic compulsion and its ideological framing has remained integral to the story of Canada.

 Canada’s Colonial Founding

The structure of this book is designed to highlight the central thesis that Canada’s relationships in the world have consistently followed the patterns set during its colonial founding. Part I provides an overview of the colonial project that created Canada, with emphasis on the period around Canada’s Confederation, a key point in the genocidal effort to eliminate what Canadian officials called “the Indian problem.”³ The creation of Canada took place within the broader dynamics of the emergence of capitalism, the spread of European colonialism and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which I discuss briefly.

As a new world order was constructed around those dynamics, the foundation for what would become Canada was being established in the minds and in the material conditions of its colonial architects. First, Canada was rooted in the desire to establish a private market in land and labour and create the conditions for capitalist wealth accumulation. Thus, like any settler capitalist state, Canada was designed to destroy the Indigenous inhabitants – by extermination, expulsion, assimilation or whatever other method – and replace their societies with one that would be dominated by a handful of wealthy capitalists and the laws and institutions that support a capitalist society.

Second, it was premised on the notion that white, European society was more advanced, intelligent, rational, and just, and that white settlers were providentially destined to conquer the world. Though this notion took many forms, the various ideas that came to be known as white supremacy were deeply inculcated in the project to create Canada, justifying – in the minds of white settlers – the genocidal practices and policies that were facilitating the theft of land and destruction of Indigenous societies that settler capitalism required. White settlers were possessed by a colonial imagination, a fantasy of their superiority – and of the inferiority of those others they encountered – that permeated nearly every aspect of what became Canadian society. This colonial imagination was manifest in the most overtly genocidal expressions, like John A. MacDonald’s assertions of the superiority of the Aryan races, but it was often also present in the attitudes of settlers who believed themselves to be more progressive and enlightened, like Canadian missionaries or members of the suffragist movement in its early days.

Looking back at the period around Confederation and the conquest of the west, 21st century Canadians are often tempted to assert that, while the racism of the early settlers was terrible, it was a product of the period in which they lived and it is unfair to judge them by the standards of the present. This is a profoundly inadequate assessment. It ignores the fact that those attitudes never went away, even if they were very gradually refashioned and new language used to express them. Though Part I emphasizes the moments around Canada’s creation, it will carry the story of Canadian colonialism forward to the 21st century to illustrate that colonialism never ended but, rather, remained an ongoing and pervasive part of the Canadian story. This reality is tragically evident, for instance, in the appalling rate at which Indigenous women and children are murdered or disappeared in Canada, often with little, if any, investigation. Furthermore, as the rest of the book will illustrate, Canadians’ attitudes toward people outside of its own borders remained steeped in the same attitudes; what was said of people in Afghanistan in the 21st century reflected what had been said about Indigenous people in the 1880s.

Even in the 1880s, there was no global consensus that white supremacist values were correct. While most wealthy white people more or less accepted its basic premises, the overwhelming majority of the world was not white and did not consent to the theft of their land, the destruction of their societies, and the denigration of their cultures by Europeans. Colonialism was always met with resistance. Even within European societies and settler colonies, there gradually emerged in the 19th century a current of anti-colonial politics. Though these individuals often failed to completely transcend the white supremacy of the society they emanated from, they increasingly built connections with colonized people in struggles to overthrow the capitalist, colonial world order. The left, as this resistance came to be known, was always present in both the colonized and settler communities, and put the lie to any notion that ‘everyone’ believed in the ideas of white supremacy.

Canada Looks Outward

Part I, then, lays the groundwork for the argument at the heart of this book, which is that those key components of Canada’s founding – settler capitalism and the colonial imagination – remained central to Canada’s engagements in the world henceforth. In Part II, I return to the period around Confederation and track the parallel dynamics of Canada’s looking outward to the rest of the world, illustrating the ways in which the very same Canadians who were consolidating colonialism in Canada were projecting it elsewhere. Sam Steele, celebrated police officer who helped conquer Indigenous people and supervised the virtual slave labour of Chinese workers on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), would later travel to South Africa to administer concentration camps holding mostly-black South Africans on behalf of the British Empire. Cornelius Van Horne, capitalist tycoon who was the president of the CPR, was quickly off to Cuba where he brought his “clearer northern brain” to monopolize the island and extract profits. By the 1930s, the Canadian military would be supporting a massacre of thousands of Indigenous farmers – “communist Indians,” Prime Minister R.B. Bennett called them – in El Salvador, in order to protect the profits of the Canadian company which monopolized electricity provision in the country.

This section of the book then locates Canada within the period of global tumult that developed in the early 20th century and exploded between 1914-1945 with two world wars and an economic catastrophe. The class dynamics of Canadian society – muted somewhat by the early stages of colonial conquest – became much clearer in this period as working-class Canadians, often immigrants, were sacrificed on behalf of the British Empire and the global supremacy of the Anglo-American powers. Central to this section is a re-assessment of Canada’s place in a world gripped by left-wing revolution and fascist reaction; most notably, Part II critically examines Canada’s relationship to the far-right movements that rose around the world in the 1920s and 1930s to illustrate that Canada often did more to foster their emergence than to stop them. Although Canada’s participation in the Second World War was mythologized as selfless and heroic, the defeat of Nazi Germany would have been much easier had Canada not spent so long supporting Hitler, refusing to accept Jewish refugees, and abandoning countries like Spain and Portugal to fascist domination.

Explaining Canada’s behaviour in this period is difficult unless one remains clear about its founding principles. Canada’s commitment was to a capitalist world, and thus it shared with the fascist powers a deep-rooted desire to crush the movements of the left that had risen up dramatically in the early 20th century in opposition to the poverty and immiseration of capitalism. In particular, Canada sought the destruction of the Soviet Union and, when Canada’s own invasion failed to defeat the Russian Revolution, it hoped to wield fascism abroad as a hammer against communism. Furthermore, like the fascist powers, the Canadian ruling classes nurtured an abiding belief in hierarchy, in the idea that the world was divided into categories of people who, based on their race, gender, class, or religion, were more or less fit to rule over others. Hitler, after all, admired Canada’s genocidal policies toward Indigenous Peoples, just as the Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King admired “the constructive work” Hitler’s Germany was doing in having “met the Communist menace at the time she did, and in the way she did,” which was, of course, by mass murder.⁴ King and Hitler also, notably, agreed “that in a large percentage of the [Jewish] race there are tendencies and trends which are dangerous indeed.”⁵ Ideologically, then, the Canadian government was not so distant from the fascists, even while many individual Canadians abhorred them.

Middle Power and Cold War

The world looked very different after the Second World War, and Part III grapples with Canada’s emergence as a so-called “Middle Power” during the Cold War. This was the era when peacekeeping became part of Canadian identity, when an image was built of a Canada that was a neutral and well-intentioned arbiter in international affairs. The reality was much different: as the people of Africa, Asia, and Latin America fought for their freedom from European colonial or neocolonial authority, Canada consistently sided with the colonial powers and undermined those struggles for freedom. Canadian magazines declared that India “was not a nation,” Canadian officials urged Britain not to relinquish control of its colonial possessions to politically “immature” Africans, and Canadian weapons were donated to France to oppose the Vietnamese fight for independence. Across the globe, Canada insisted that colonized people were not capable of self-governance, and mobilized racist stereotypes of Congolese cannibals, Papuan people “living in trees,” and South Asian leaders wearing diapers.

These were all manifestations of the same colonial imagination that Canada had applied to its own conquered peoples, so it should come as no surprise that white supremacy mobilized at home would be similarly mobilized abroad. But Canada’s undermining of the freedom struggles of colonized people was not simply ideological; by the Cold War period, Canadian capital had expanded into the world, from banking to mining to manufacturing, and the movements struggling against colonialism could not always be trusted to protect Canadian investments. Thus, part of Canada’s Cold War calculation was always to support those movements that were most amenable to maintaining a global capitalist system in a world where the existence of the Soviet Union made communism or socialism a viable option.

Canada thus became an important player in the Cold War, working closely with the United States to undermine those movements in the decolonizing world that posed a threat to the capitalist order and seeking to support those which would maintain neocolonial relations with the west. Canada opposed Indonesian freedom when it was oriented to the left, but supported it when it was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered millions of communists and welcomed foreign capital. Canada resisted the idea of Congolese independence when it was led by the charismatic left-leaning Patrice Lumumba, but quickly assisted an independent Congo taken over by right-wing forces which had assassinated Lumumba. Canada built close relations with the government of Chile and gave millions of dollars in foreign aid until Chileans elected the socialist Salvador Allende. Aid and relations were then suspended until a coup d’etat by the notorious butcher Augusto Pinochet – supported by Canada – turned Chile into a violent, capitalist laboratory.

It was all geared toward the larger goal of winning the Cold War, definitively conquering the socialist bloc that was centred around the Soviet Union which, for all its flaws and problems, remained a key source of support for popular movements around the world. Canada had, from its inception, been driven by the permanent need to expand the frontiers of capitalism, and that project got a boost in the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Canada found itself part of an Anglo-American alliance that effectively ruled the world. Part IV of this book assesses what Canada did with this new power. It may have seemed, to some Canadians, that whatever violence was necessary to defeat the Soviet ‘Evil Empire’ was worth it, even if it was unsavoury. For those who accepted that logic, the 1990s likely came as a shock, as Canada involved itself in global affairs that had disastrous consequences but did not have the Cold War as an excuse.

Endless Wars and Climate Catastrophe

Part IV begins by addressing the 1990s, from the catastrophic dismantling of the economies of Russia and Eastern Europe, to the wanton violence of the Persian Gulf War, to the torture and murder of Somali youth, to the chaotic and confusing war in Yugoslavia and, perhaps most notably, the deeply tragic and misunderstood crisis in Rwanda. In sum, it was a terrible victory lap for the capitalist world and, especially, for Canada. In 2001, when decades of US interference in the Middle East produced a predictable retaliation in the form of the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, a new era in world politics was declared under the banner of the War on Terror. Devastating and calamitous invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq quickly expanded to Libya, Syria, Mali and elsewhere, and the world veered ever closer to the dystopian fantasies that permeated western pop culture. The 21st century has offered endless war, climate catastrophe, capitalist crises, and the rise of fascism, and Canada has consistently been found exacerbating all of these problems.

Canada has become one of the world’s largest exporters of weapons. Canada is one of the world’s worst polluters. Canada has routinely intervened in other countries’ affairs – Haiti, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela – to neutralize popular movements trying to reform or replace the capitalist structures causing the crisis. And Canada has cozied up to a new wave of fascists – in Brazil, Ukraine, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Israel and arguably the United States itself – who seem possessed by a pathological death drive that leaves children in concentration camps in Texas, an entire people imprisoned by an apartheid wall in Israel, and the Amazon rainforest in flames. If the world is in crisis, Canada is a co-author, and through it all the logic has remained the same.

Behind the cascading crises of the 21st century is the endless desire for capitalist profits, of which Canada is in pursuit, especially in the environmentally destructive extractive industries. And in every struggle over Canadian access to some resource in some place, there have been people saying no, but being ignored or overruled. The same colonial imagination that led Canadians to assert their right to conquer Canada and write its laws drove Canadians to insert themselves into Honduras and re-write Honduran laws. The same certainty that Canada knew best was inherent in its transparent efforts to overthrow the Venezuelan government in favour of a pro-western oligarch, even if the vast majority of Venezuelans had not and would not choose it. The same assumption of Canadian superiority led Canadian soldiers to claim that Afghans were “two thousand years behind” and needed the Canadian occupation to help develop the country and its industries.

When people oppose Canadian intervention – as they often have – they are chastised as immature, irrational, hysterical, and backwards. When Indigenous Guatemalans opposed a Canadian mine, the Canadian ambassador told them that they needed “to face the reality of a global society.”⁶ If they were not insulted, they were attacked; after a Colombian opponent of a Canadian hydro dam travelled to Canada to denounce the project, he returned to Colombia to be murdered without a word from the Canadian government or media. Even back in Canada, when an Indigenous protestor interrupted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a fundraiser dinner to raise the issue of people dying from poisoned water at Grassy Narrows First Nation, Trudeau sarcastically mocked the protestor while he was escorted out.

It is these continuities in Canada’s engagements in the world that this book seeks to highlight. Canada’s behaviour in more than 150 years of colonial relations with Indigenous Peoples is a terrible story in itself, but is given another dimension when understood to be a consistent expression of what Canada is in the world. Canadian settlers’ pervasive and ongoing practice of sexual violence against Indigenous women was reflected in the same behaviours by Canadian soldiers in Korea. The mixture of violence and manipulation that Canada used to seize land from Indigenous communities was replicated by Canadian capitalists in Honduras in the 21st century. Perhaps most telling of all, in nearly every setting the Canadian military found itself – Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan – soldiers consistently ended up calling that place “Indian Country.”

This book offers a broad history of Canada in the world, but it is not exhaustive. Such a task would be impossible to write and overwhelming to read. Instead, I have made decisions about what to emphasize, what to note briefly, and what to leave out. Those choices, naturally, betray my own interests in writing a book like this. Where many traditional Canadian historians spend much time dissecting the various personalities at the highest level of Canadian politics, my focus tends to be on the broader dynamics of historical change. This is because I seek to understand why things happen, and I do not believe this question can be answered merely by examining the decisions of a few typically wealthy men who claim to speak on behalf on an entire nation. That those people in positions of power have an effect is undeniably true and, as such, the various prime ministers are a big part of this story. But the flow of history runs much deeper than these individuals; this book suggests that Canada, regardless of its prime minister, has always been driven by a material compulsion toward the accumulation of capital and an ideological commitment to colonialism and white supremacy.

Indeed, many studies of Canadian foreign policy begin from an unsubstantiated assumption that Canadian policy is generally well-intentioned and seeks to strike a balance between the well-being of Canadians and the greater interests of the international community. Such an approach ignores the fact that Canada, like the rest of the world, is divided into many classes of people with very different interests; what is good for some may be bad for others. I understand history as being shaped by conflict between and within a variety of social classes and communities. The Canadian state, in this framework, acts as an institution that seeks to manage class conflict to the ultimate benefit of the Canadian capitalist class. As such, the phases and episodes in Canada’s foreign engagements are reflective of the evolving needs of the ruling classes. This book not only recounts various pieces of Canadian history but, in addition, contextualizes them within the framework of the Canadian colonial capitalist project.

Naturally, individual people in Canada often took on those goals and ideologies that emanated from the state, especially those whose interests most closely aligned with those of the Canadian ruling class, but many others found themselves on the opposite side for a variety of reasons. Gabriel Dumont, Mewa Singh, Alice Chown, Arthur Roy, Freda Coodin, Red Walsh, Norman Bethune, Edgar Harris, Kanao Inouye, James Endicott, Herbert Norman, Claire Culhane, Rocky Jones, Lee Maracle, Jean Claude Parrot, Suzanne Dudziak; they all found themselves on the wrong side of Canada, at some point and for some reason, but their stories are just as significant as the Prime Ministers.’ They represent the cracks in the edifice of Canada; those who were excluded from it, who were broken by it, or who extricated themselves from it and came to oppose it. In some of their lives – a soldier who refused to fight against the Bolsheviks, a nurse in Vietnam who exposed Canadian complicity in that conflict, or a nun who travelled to the Honduran border to block the passage of Canadian-supported paramilitaries – there were hints at something different that could have been, or that could yet be, in place of the Canada that is.

Still, this book is an examination of the Canada that is: how it has fit into the world, what role it has played, how it has shaped and been shaped by the dynamics around it. There is much covered here that is not typically included in foreign policy studies, ranging from the dynamics of class and race in Canada, the relationship between early waves of Canadian feminism and the Great War, and shifting attitudes toward immigration and who was included as ‘white’ and/or ‘Canadian.’ There are also forays into global and regional politics that may, on occasion, seem not to be directly related to Canada. One of the weaknesses of many of the existing studies of Canada’s engagements in the world is that the narrow focus on Canada means that the broader context in which Canada is engaging can be obscured. In fact, the Canadian government has often relied upon simplistic and de-contextualized narratives of its activities in order to cloak them in an air of harmless, good intentions. To truly understand the role Canada plays in various historical moments, it is imperative that we properly understand those moments.

For instance, the story that emerged from the crisis in Rwanda in 1994 was that a Canadian general tried to stop a genocide from taking place, but was thwarted by United Nations bureaucrats who refused to give him the resources he needed to prevent Rwandan Hutus from engaging in a vicious and coordinated spree of ethnic violence against Tutsis. That narrative is inaccurate, but explaining its inaccuracies requires some deeper understanding of the history of Great Lakes Africa. Thus, Chapter 10 diverges for several pages into that history, out of which the reader should emerge with a much fuller understanding of how Canada’s interference in Rwanda may have directly contributed to the tragedies that engulfed that country, even before 1994, and which ended with a pro-western dictatorship that perfectly suited Canada’s interests.

There are many such explorations of regional and global history, into which I insert Canada’s place, and in crafting these historical accounts I am deeply indebted to the work of other scholars. Outside of several years of fieldwork in Honduras, and the occasional personal anecdote, the knowledge that I marshal for this book is drawn from secondary sources, hundreds of them, each one containing many years of work and thinking by someone else. Although I have tried to use these sources faithfully, even when I am criticizing them, it needs be said that in a book as broad in scope as this, there are likely moments where the nuance and texture of my sources gets lost. I can only implore the interested reader to follow up on the sources that I have drawn from to get the deeper picture that, on occasion, I have had to sacrifice for relevance and brevity.

There is a fundamental question at the heart of this book: what is Canada? What is at the core of the thing – the state, the society, the culture – that was built on the place that is now called Canada and which was once under the jurisdiction of hundreds of Indigenous nations? No single answer will ever be fully satisfactory, but my intention is to cast some light on this problem by looking at how Canada has engaged in the world. What did Canada say? What did it do? Who did it support? Who did it oppose? What was Canada’s contribution to the events that shaped people’s lives over the past century and a half, and what role has it played in building the world our children will inherit? The answers to these questions will not be comforting to anyone who is committed to the idea of a nice, kind Canada trying to help people. But given the state of the 21st century world, I make no apologies if this book is jarring. The problems that Canada has helped create are so great that some view them as an existential threat to humanity itself. Even less dire interpretations of the coming calamities suggest that we must, as a species, change course urgently. A necessary first step, for people located in Canada, is an honest and unflinching look in the mirror.

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Tyler Shipley is professor of Culture, Society, and Commerce at the Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning and he has written for academic journals and local and mainstream media across North America and Europe. His recent book is Ottawa and Empire: Canada and the Military Coup in Honduras. He is the editor of Left Hook journal.

Notes

1. Quoted in Philip Lee-Shanok, “GTA book publisher accused of whitewashing Indigenous history,” CBC News, October 3, 2017.
2. Quoted in Philip Lee-Shanok, “GTA book publisher accused of whitewashing Indigenous history,” CBC News, October 3, 2017.
3. Duncan Campbell Scott, quoted in J.R. Miller, Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada, 3rd edition, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2000, p. 281-282.
4. William Lyon Mackenzie King, The Mackenzie King Diaries, 1893-1947, June 29, 1937, Microfiche Collection, University of Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1980.
5. William Lyon Mackenzie King, quoted in Gerald Tulchinsky, “Goldwin Smith: Victorian Canadian Antisemite,” in Alan Davies, ed., Antisemitism in Canada: History and Interpretation, Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1992, p. 84.
6. James Lambert, quoted in Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber, Blood of Extraction: Canadian Imperialism in Latin America, Halifax, Fernwood, 2016, p. 95-96.

Featured image is from The Bullet

British/American human rights lawyer Smith founded UK-based Reprieve in 1999 — “an organization of courageous and committed human rights defenders.”

It provides pro bono legal and investigative work services for “some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

They include individuals facing capital punishment and victims of abusive state practices, including “rendition, torture, extrajudicial imprisonment and extrajudicial killing.”

Reprieve lawyers and investigators represent oppressed and abused individuals worldwide — including seven Guantanamo Bay political prisoners.

London-based, its “vision is a world free of execution, torture and detention without due process.”

In the US alone, Smith represented over 300 prisoners on death row, preventing executions 98% of the time.

He rightfully calls Guantanamo prison an “affront to democracy and the rule of law.”

His mission is getting the camp closed. He helped secure the release of 69 of its wrongfully held detainees — held for political reasons alone.

For his legal expertise in championing human rights, he received numerous awards, including the Gandhi Peace Award, International Freedom of the Press Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award from The Lawyer Magazine and The Law Society.

In his book titled “Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America,” Smith discussed US Kafkaesque injustice, a judicial system that time and again engineers convictions, including by falsified testimonies and/or suppressed exculpatory evidence.

Smith earlier said that he never stops “think(ing) how it is that an innocent person is so certain that they didn’t do it, that they can’t fathom that 12 people could find them guilty” —  what mind-manipulating prosecutors pull off time and again.

Convictions advance their careers. They don’t “wonder if (they’re) going to put an innocent person in prison…or not,” said Smith, adding:

“You just can’t do that as a human. So naturally, the people who do this job believe that everyone is guilty. And it’s something the system doesn’t take account of. But it’s sort of obvious.”

The US judicial system illegitimately legitimizes malpractice too often, especially against society’s most disadvantaged — from police to prosecutors to DAs to judges.

Time and again in US courtrooms, upholding the standard of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is a meaningless figure of speech.

Smith believes many US judicial system practitioners don’t know what the standard means, saying:

“We cannot loudly proclaim that the burden of proof is central to the system (and) then assert that we cannot begin to define it,” adding the following:

“The (US) jury system…is utter insanity because you’re not allowed to talk to jurors before or after the trial.”

“There’s no way of knowing if they did their job properly.”

“And the idea that the defense has to rely on the police for the investigation? Total insanity.”

“I’ve never met a defense lawyer here who has done any factual investigation for themselves. Total insanity.”

“And the whole notion of a barrister – that he shouldn’t have an emotional relationship with his client? Insanity.”

“You cannot represent someone, and meaningfully put them across to the jury, if you don’t have a relationship with them.”

Britain’s system matches the worst of the US, and it shows in Julian Assange’s show trial. More on Smith’s observations on what’s going on below.

In Britain, families of victims are “told their catharsis is going to come from punishment,” said Smith, adding:

“And it’s just cruel, because it doesn’t. They just get exploited. I think that’s probably the area in which we’ve been most unkind to victims.”

In one respect alone, Britain’s system is less “disastrous” than America’s. “(W)e don’t kill people,” Smith explained.

In 1965, parliament abolished capital punishment, replacing it with a discretionary maximum of life in prison.

Smith witnessed what he called the full horror of a US execution by lethal injection, saying the experience have him “much more power to (explain to jurors) what it is like.”

“The underlying concept of the (US) justice system is…ridiculous, total madness.”

Smith expects virtually everything imaginable thrown at Assange in a US court room, including what’s not in charges against him.

On Tuesday, he testified at his extradition trial in London, saying the following after the fact:

The US claims that “none of the things that I mentioned (in testimony) were relevant to the indictment, and they are wrong.”

“They are factually wrong. Right there in the indictment it charges (Assange) with a whole bunch of those things” Smith discussed, adding:

“I’m sure that every witness in this case will back me up when I say that conspiracy cases open a Pandora’s box of everything the government wants to throw at them.”

Using so-called experts like FBI agents who are part of the dirty system, hired to perpetuate it, “they throw the whole kitchen sink at people in those trials which is a danger for justice.”

Assange is considered guilty by accusation, not for any real crime, for exposing high crimes of state US authorities want suppressed.

Like hanging whistleblowers out to dry in the US for exposing government wrongdoing, mistreating Assange, prejudging him guilty as charged, assuring extradition to the US for show trial 2.0 and certain conviction, is a warning to others like him that they may face a similar fate.

The hugely corrupted US political and judicial systems are too debauched to fix.

Tinkering around the edges won’t change its fundamental flaws.

Voting in a one-party state with two right wings assures continuity whenever farcical elections are held.

Transformational change is needed, a whole new system — democracy for real according to the rule of law, replacing fantasy versions in the US and West.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image is CC BY 2.0

As the United States continues to drawdown its presence in Iraq more than 17 years after invading it, other powers have their eye on the vacuum that will be left by Washington cutting its losses and departing. 

“The livelihood of millions of people throughout the World is at stake. It is my sincere hope that the truth will prevail and that the understanding provided in this detailed study will serve the cause of World peace. This objective, however, can only be reached by revealing the falsehoods behind America’s “War on Terrorism” and questioning the legitimacy of the main political and military actors responsible for extensive war crimes.” (Michel Chossudovsky, August 2005 )

Below is the preface of  Michel Chossudovsky’s bestseller:  America’s “War on Terrorism“, available from our online store. 

“America’s War on Terrorism” was launched at 9.30pm on September 11, 2001

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At eleven o’clock, on the morning of September 11, the Bush administration had already announced that Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon. This assertion was made prior to the conduct of an indepth police investigation.

That same evening at 9:30 pm, a “War Cabinet” was formed integrated by a select number of top intelligence and military advisors. And at 11:00 pm, at the end of that historic meeting at the White House, the “War on Terrorism” was officially launched.

The decision was announced to wage war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in retribution for the 9/11 attacks. The following morning on September 12th, the news headlines indelibly pointed to “state sponsorship” of the 9/11 attacks. In chorus, the US media was calling for a military intervention against Afghanistan. Barely four weeks later, on the 7th of October, Afghanistan was bombed and invaded by US troops.Americans were led to believe that the decision to go to war had been taken on the spur of the moment, on the evening of September 11, in response to the attacks and their tragic consequences.

Little did the public realize that a large scale theater war is never planned and executed in a matter of weeks. The decision to launch a war and send troops to Afghanistan had been taken well in advance of 9/11. The “terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event” as it was later described by CentCom Commander General Tommy Franks, served to galvanize public opinion in support of a war agenda which was already in its final planning stage.

America’s “War on Terrorism”

by Michel Chossudovsky

ISBN Number: 9780973714715

Pages: 365 with complete index

List Price: $24.95

Special Price: $18.00

The tragic events of 9/11 provided the required justification to wage a war on “humanitarian grounds”, with the full support of World public opinion and the endorsement of the “international community”.

Several prominent “progressive” intellectuals made a case for “retaliation against terrorism”, on moral and ethical grounds. The “just cause” military doctrine (jus ad bellum) was accepted and upheld at face value as a legitimate response to 9/11,without examining the fact that Washington had not only supported the “Islamic terror network”, it was also instrumental in the installation of the Taliban government in 1996.

In the wake of 9/11, the antiwar movement was completely isolated. The trade unions and civil society organizations had swallowed the media lies and government propaganda. They had accepted a war of retribution against Afghanistan, an impoverished country of 30 million people.

I started writing on the evening of September 11, late into the night, going through piles of research notes, which I had previously collected on the history of Al Qaeda. My first text entitled “Who is Osama bin Laden?”, which was completed and first published on September the 12th. (See Chapter II.)

From the very outset, I questioned the official story, which described nineteen Al Qaeda sponsored hijackers involved in a highly sophisticated and organized operation. My first objective was to reveal the true nature of this illusive “enemy of America”, who was “threatening the Homeland”.

The myth of the “outside enemy” and the threat of “Islamic terrorists” was the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s military doctrine, used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, not to xii America’s “War on Terrorism” mention the repeal of civil liberties and constitutional government in America.

Without an “outside enemy”, there could be no “war on terrorism”. The entire national security agenda would collapse “like a deck of cards”. The war criminals in high office would have no leg to stand on.

It was consequently crucial for the development of a coherent antiwar and civil rights movement, to reveal the nature of Al Qaeda and its evolving relationship to successive US administrations.

Amply documented but rarely mentioned by the mainstream media, Al Qaeda was a creation of the CIA going back to the Soviet- Afghan war. This was a known fact, corroborated by numerous sources including official documents of the US Congress. The intelligence community had time and again acknowledged that they had indeed supported Osama bin Laden, but that in the wake of the Cold War: “he turned against us”.

After 9/11, the campaign of media disinformation served not only to drown the truth but also to kill much of the historical evidence on how this illusive “outside enemy” had been fabricated and transformed into “Enemy Number One”.

The Balkans Connection

My research on the Balkans conducted since the mid-1990s enabled me to document numerous ties and connections between Al Qaeda and the US Administration. The US military, the CIA and NATO had supported Al Qaeda in the Balkans. Washington’s objective was to trigger ethnic conflict and destabilize the Yugoslav federation, first in Bosnia, then in Kosovo.

In 1997, the Republican Party Committee (RPC) of the US Senate released a detailed report which accused President Clinton of collaborating with the “Islamic Militant Network” in Bosnia and working hand in glove with an organization linked to Osama bin Laden. (See Chapter III.) The report, however,was not widely publicized. Instead, the Republicans chose to discredit Clinton for his liaison with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The Clinton Administration had also been providing covert support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a paramilitary group supported by Al Qaeda, which was involved in numerous terrorist attacks. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6, together with former members of Britain’s 22nd Special Air Services Regiment (SAS) were providing training to the KLA, despite its extensive links to organized crime and the drug trade. Meanwhile, known and documented, several Al Qaeda operatives had integrated the ranks of the KLA. (See Chapter III).

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In the months leading up to 9/11, I was actively involved in research on the terror attacks in Macedonia, waged by the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) of Macedonia, a paramilitary army integrated by KLA commanders. Al Qaeda Mujahideen had integrated the NLA. Meanwhile, senior US military officers from a private mercenary company on contract to the Pentagon were advising the terrorists.

Barely a couple of months prior to 9/11, US military advisers were seen mingling with Al Qaeda operatives within the same paramilitary army. In late June 2001, seventeen US “instructors” were identified among the withdrawing rebels. To avoid the diplomatic humiliation and media embarrassment of senior US military personnel captured together with “Islamic terrorists” by the Macedonian Armed Forces, the US and NATO pressured the Macedonian government to allow the NLA terrorists and their US military advisers to be evacuated.

The evidence, including statements by the Macedonian Prime Minister and press reports out of Macedonia, pointed unequivocally to continued US covert support to the “Islamic brigades” in the former Yugoslavia. This was not happening in the bygone era of the Cold War, but in June 2001, barely a couple of months prior to 9/11. These developments, which I was following on a daily basis, immediately cast doubt in my mind on the official 9/11 narrative which presented Al Qaeda as the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. (Chapter IV.)

The Mysterious Pakistani General

On the 12th of September, a mysterious Lieutenant General, head of Pakistan’s Military Intelligence (ISI), who according to the US press reports “happened to be in Washington at the time of the attacks”, was called into the office of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitrage.

The “War on Terrorism” had been officially launched late in the night of September 11, and Dick Armitage was asking General Mahmoud Ahmad to help America “in going after the terrorists”. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was on the phone with Secretary of State Colin Powell and the following morning, on the 13th of September, a comprehensive agreement, was reached between the two governments.

While the press reports confirmed that Pakistan would support the Bush administration in the “war on terror”, what they failed to mention was the fact that Pakistan`s military intelligence (ISI) headed by General Ahmad had a longstanding relationship to the Islamic terror network. Documented by numerous sources, the ISI was known to have supported a number of Islamic organizations including Al Qaeda and the Taliban. (See Chapter IV.)

My first reaction in reading news headlines on the 13th of September was to ask: if the Bush administration were really committed to weeding out the terrorists, why would it call upon Pakistan`s ISI, which is known to have supported and financed these terrorist organizations?

Two weeks later, an FBI report, which was briefly mentioned on ABC News, pointed to a “Pakistani connection” in the financing of the alleged 9/11 terrorists. The ABC report referred to a Pakistani “moneyman” and “mastermind” behind the 9/11 hijackers.

Subsequent reports indeed suggested that the head of Pakistan’s military intelligence, General Mahmoud Ahmad, who had met Colin Powell on the 13th of September 2001, had allegedly ordered the transfer of 100,000 dollars to the 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. What these reports suggested was that the head of Pakistan’s military intelligence was not only in close contact with senior officials of the US Government, he was also in liaison with the alleged hijackers.

My writings on the Balkans and Pakistani connections, published in early October 2001 were later incorporated into the first edition of this book. In subsequent research, I turned my attention to the broader US strategic and economic agenda in Central Asia and the Middle East.

There is an intricate relationship between War and Globalization. The “War on Terror” has been used as a pretext to conquer new economic frontiers and ultimately establish corporate control over Iraq’s extensive oil reserves.

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The Disinformation Campaign

In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the disinformation campaign went into full gear.

Known and documented prior to the invasion, Britain and the US made extensive use of fake intelligence to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Al Qaeda was presented as an ally of the Baghdad regime. “Osama bin Laden” and “Weapons of Mass Destruction” statements circulated profusely in the news chain. (Chapter XI.)

Meanwhile, a new terrorist mastermind had emerged: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. In Colin Powell’s historic address to the United Nations Security Council, detailed “documentation” on a sinister relationship between Saddam Hussein and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was presented, focussing on his ability to produce deadly chemical, biological and radiological weapons, with the full support and endorsement of the secular Baathist regime.

A Code Orange terror alert followed within two days of Powell’s speech at the United Nations Security Council, where he had been politely rebuffed by UN Weapons Inspector Dr. Hans Blix.

Reality was thus turned upside down. The US was no longer viewed as preparing to wage war on Iraq. Iraq was preparing to attack America with the support of “Islamic terrorists”. Terrorist mastermind Al-Zarqawi was identified as the number one suspect. Official statements pointed to the dangers of a dirty radioactive bomb attack in the US.

The main thrust of the disinformation campaign continued in the wake of the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. It consisted in presenting the Iraqi resistance movement as “terrorists”. The image of “terrorists opposed to democracy” fighting US “peacekeepers” appeared on television screens and news tabloids across the globe.

Meanwhile, the Code Orange terror alerts were being used by the Bush administration to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation across America. (See Chapter XX.) The terror alerts also served to distract public opinion from the countless atrocities committed by US forces in the Afghan and Iraqi war theaters, not to mention the routine torture of so-called “enemy combatants”.

Following the invasion of Afghanistan, the torture of prisoners of war and the setting up of concentration camps became an integral part of the Bush administration’s post 9/11 agenda.

The entire legal framework had been turned upside down. According to the US Department of Justice, torture was now permitted under certain circumstances. Torture directed against “terrorists” was upheld as a justifiable means to preserving human rights and democracy. (See chapters XIV and XV.) In an utterly twisted logic, the Commander in Chief can now quite legitimately authorize the use of torture, because the victims of torture in this case are so-called “terrorists”, who are said to routinely apply the same methods against Americans.

The orders to torture prisoners of war at the Guantanamo concentration camp and in Iraq in the wake of the 2003 invasion emanated from the highest levels of the US Government. Prison guards, interrogators in the US military and the CIA were responding to precise guidelines.

An inquisitorial system had been installed. In the US and Britain the “war on the terrorism” is upheld as being in the public interest. Anybody who questions its practices—which now include arbitrary arrest and detention, torture of men, women and children, political assassinations and concentration camps—is liable to be arrested under the antiterrorist legislation.

The London 7/7 Bomb Attack

A new threshold in the “war on terrorism”was reached in July 2005, with the bomb attacks on London’s underground, which resulted tragically in 56 deaths and several hundred wounded.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the London 7//7 attacks were used to usher in far-reaching police state measures. The US House of Representatives renewed the USA PATRIOT Act “to make permanent the government’s unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists”. Republicans claimed that the London attacks showed “how urgent and important it was to renew the law.”

Barely a week prior to the London attacks, Washington had announced the formation of a “domestic spy service” under the auspices of the FBI. The new department—meaning essentially a Big Brother “Secret State Police”—was given a mandate to “spy on people in America suspected of terrorism or having critical intelligence information, even if they are not suspected of committing a crime.” Significantly, this new FBI service is not accountable to the Department of Justice. It is controlled by the Directorate of National Intelligence headed by John Negroponte, who has the authority of ordering the arrest of “terror suspects”.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the 7/7 London attacks, Britain’s Home Office, was calling for a system of ID cards, as an “answer to terrorism”. Each and every British citizen and resident will be obliged to register personal information, which will go into a giant national database, along with their personal biometrics: “iris pattern of the eye”, fingerprints and “digitally recognizable facial features”. Similar procedures were being carried out in the European Union.

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War Criminals in High Office

The anti-terrorist legislation and the establishment of a Police State largely serve the interests of those who have committed extensive war crimes and who would otherwise have been indicted under national and international law.

In the wake of the London 7/7 attacks, war criminals continue to legitimately occupy positions of authority,which enable them to redefine the contours of the judicial system and the process of law enforcement. This process has provided them with a mandate to decide “who are the criminals”, when in fact they are the criminals. (Chapter XVI).

From New York and Washington on September 11 to Madrid in March 2004 and to London in July 2005, the terror attacks have been used as a pretext to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. People can be arbitrarily arrested under the antiterrorist legislation and detained for an indefinite period.More generally, throughout the Western World, citizens are being tagged and labeled, their emails, telephone conversations and faxes are monitored and archived. Thousands of closed circuit TV cameras, deployed in urban areas, are overseeing their movements. Detailed personal data is entered into giant Big Brother data banks. Once this cataloging has been completed, people will be locked into watertight compartments.

The witch-hunt is not only directed against presumed “terrorists” through ethnic profiling, the various human rights, affirmative action and antiwar cohorts are also the object of the antiterrorist legislation.

The National Security Doctrine

In 2005, the Pentagon released a major document entitled The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America (NDS), which broadly sketches Washington’s agenda for global military domination. While the NDS follows in the footsteps of the Administration’s “preemptive” war doctrine as outlined in the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), it goes much further in setting the contours of Washington’s global military agenda. (See Chapter XIX.)

Whereas the preemptive war doctrine envisages military action as a means of “self defense” against countries categorized as “hostile” to the US, the 2005 NDS goes one step further. It envisages the possibility of military intervention against “unstable countries” or “failed nations”, which do not visibly constitute a threat to the security of the US.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon had unleashed a major propaganda and public relations campaign with a view to upholding the use of nuclear weapons for the “Defense of the American Homeland” against terrorists and rogue enemies. The fact that the nuclear bomb is categorized by the Pentagon as “safe for civilians” to be used in major counter-terrorist activities borders on the absurd.

In 2005, US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) drew up “a contingency plan to be used in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack”. The plan includes air raids on Iran using both conventional as well as tactical nuclear weapons.

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America’s “War on Terrorism”

The first ten chapters,with some changes and updates, correspond to the first edition of the book published in 2002 under the title War and Globalization: The Truth behind September 11. The present expanded edition contains twelve new chapters, which are the result of research undertaken both prior as well as in the wake of the invasion of Iraq. (Parts III and IV.) The sequencing of the material in Parts III and IV corresponds to the historical evolution of the post 9/11 US military and national security agendas. My main objective has been to refute the official narrative and reveal—using detailed evidence and documentation—the true nature of America’s “war on terrorism”.

Part I includes four chapters on September 11, focusing on the history of Al Qaeda and its ties to the US intelligence apparatus. These chapters document how successive administrations have supported and sustained terrorist organizations with a view to destabilizing national societies and creating political instability.

Part II entitled War and Globalization centers on the strategic and economic interests underlying the “war on terrorism”.

Part III contains a detailed analysis of War Propaganda and the Disinformation Campaign, both prior and in the wake of the invasion of Iraq.

Part IV entitled The New World Order includes a review of the Bush administration’s preemptive war doctrine (Chapter XIX), a detailed analysis of the post-Taliban narcotics trade protected by US intelligence, and a review of the 9/11 Commission Report focusing specifically on “What Happened on the Planes on the Morning of 9/11”.

Chapter XX focuses on the system of terror alerts and their implications. Chapter XXI follows with an examination of the emergency procedures that could be used to usher in Martial Law leading to the suspension of Constitutional government. In this regard, the US Congress has already adopted procedures, which allow the Military to intervene directly in civilian police and judicial functions. In the case of a national emergency—e.g., in response to an alleged terror attack—there are clearly defined provisions, which could lead to the formation of a military government in America.

Finally, Chapter XXII focuses on the broad implications of the 7/7 London Bombs Attacks, which were followed by the adoption of sweeping Police State measures in Britain, the European Union and North America.

Writing this book has not been an easy undertaking. The material is highly sensitive. The results of this analysis, which digs beneath the gilded surface of US foreign policy, are both troublesome and disturbing. The conclusions are difficult to accept because they point to the criminalization of the upper echelons of the State. They also confirm the complicity of the corporate media in upholding the legitimacy of the Administration’s war agenda and camouflaging US sponsored war crimes.

The World is at an important historical crossroads. The US has embarked on a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity. As we go to press, the Bush Administration has hinted in no uncertain terms that Iran is the next target of the “war on terrorism”.

Military action against Iran would directly involve Israel’s participation, which in turn is likely to trigger a broader war throughout the Middle East, not to mention an implosion in the Palestinian occupied territories.

I have attempted to the best of my abilities to provide evidence and detailed documentation of an extremely complex political process.

The livelihood of millions of people throughout the World is at stake. It is my sincere hope that the truth will prevail and that the understanding provided in this detailed study will serve the cause of World peace. This objective, however, can only be reached by revealing the falsehoods behind America’s “War on Terrorism” and questioning the legitimacy of the main political and military actors responsible for extensive war crimes.

I am indebted to many people, who in the course of my work have supported my endeavors and have provided useful research insights. The readers of the Global Research website at www.globalresearch.ca have been a source of continuous inspiration and encouragement.

Michel Chossudovsky, August 2005

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research. He is the author of eleven books including The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003), America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005), The Global Economic Crisis, The Great Depression of the Twenty-first Century (2009) (Editor), Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War (2011), The Globalization of War, America’s Long War against Humanity (2015). He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.  His writings have been published in more than twenty languages. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia.

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Germany’s failure to disclose novichoking medical evidence it claims about Alexey Navalny’s condition strongly indicates there is none.

Notably his August 20 illness happened ahead of Russian regional and local elections at 83 locations, scheduled for September 11 – 13.

On September 9, Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said the following:

“I can now report with confidence…on the complete readiness of Russia’s electoral system for the single (Unified Election Day) voting…on September 13 and on the preceding days of September 11 and 12” for early voting.

Tass reported that elections “will take place at 83 Russian entities, with over 78,000 mandates involved.”

Tatarstan, Kursk, Penza and Yaroslavl regions will hold lower house State Duma elections.

Eleven regions will elect local legislators, 18 regions to hold elections for governors, 22 regions to elect municipal representatives, and “26 entities will vote on local self-governance bodies’ membership.”

“Heads of the Nenets Autonomous Region and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area will be elected by the deputies of local legislative assemblies,” Tass explained.

In July, Russia’s upper house Federation Council and lower house State Duma passed legislation amending election laws to permit voting for three days.

The new measure doesn’t affect the procedure for absentee ballot voting that remains unchanged.

In late August, Tass reported that “3,590 people (took) part in the test run of the online voting procedure that will be used during the Russian State Duma (lower house) election in the Yaroslavl and Kursk regions planned for September.”

On July 3, Tass said “77.92% of (Russian) voters supported” new election procedures for voting on constitutional amendments.

Last March, CEC head Pamfilova said voting on constitutional amendments would not be combined with September elections because “these are two completely different campaigns, regulated by different laws.”

Earlier, spokesman for the Federal National Guard Troops Service (FNGTS) Valery Bribakin explained the following on how public order and security would be maintained for upcoming regional and local elections, saying:

“Almost 6,500 response units of the FNGTS extra-departmental guards with a total number of more than 13,000 employees will be involved.”

“The response units’ patrol routes will be shifted closer to event venues on the single voting day, which will considerably shorten the time of the units’ arrival.”

“The territorial bodies of the Federal National Guard Troops Service will also additionally involve more than 7,000 employees of the extra-departmental service, most of whom will ensure security in the areas of election polls in cooperation with law enforcement officers.”

“Security will be fully provided in cooperation with the law enforcement authorities.”

Ahead of Russia’s March 2018 presidential election, Radio Sputnik interviewed geopolitical analyst Alex Christoforou.

He noted the suspicious timing of Britain’s claim about what happened to Sergey and Yulia Skripal, falsely accusing Russia of poisoning them with a novichok nerve agent, presenting no corroborating evidence because there was none.

Was the incident an attempt to diminish support for Putin in an election he was virtually certain to win overwhelmingly?

“Putin will win the election, and we will see what happens after that,” said Christoforou, separately adding:

He’s “one of the few statesmen, one of the few measured leaders who works in a very measured and calculated diplomatic way to resolve a lot of issues that are on the world stage, as opposed to a lot of flamboyant and outrageous rhetoric we’re hearing from some of the other major powers in the West.”

The Skripals incident had no noticeable effect on Putin’s reelection bid, winning overwhelmingly by a near-77% majority.

Turnout was strong at 67.4%. Putin’s better than expected victory margin and high turnout perhaps was in response to popular displeasure over false UK-led Western accusations of what happened to the Skripals.

Post-election, Putin explained if anyone was exposed to military-grade nerve agent, they “would have died on the spot,” adding:

“Russia does not possess such agents. We have destroyed all our chemical arsenals under control of international observers.”

Blaming Russia for the Skripal incident is “utter nonsense,” he stressed. No one “in Russia would allow such a stunt (especially) ahead of presidential elections and the World Cup. It’s unthinkable.”

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal headlined: “With Navalny Sidelined, Russia’s Opposition Seeks to Deal a Blow to Putin,” saying:

“Local (Russian) elections could show whether (what happened to) Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny has cowed the opposition or energized it.”

While nothing is certain pre-election, perhaps 2018 results are indicative of how things will turn out on Russia’s September 13 Unified Election Day.

As for Moscow’s relations with the US-dominated West, things continue to deteriorate, the Navalny incident the latest example.

Support by Britain, France, Germany and the EU for preserving the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran over strong US opposition is a notable exception to the rule.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

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Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

My first contribution to Black Agenda Report was “Madame President? No, Madame Prisoner,” a profile of Rwandan political prisoner Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza published in January 2014. Late Black Agenda Report Editor Bruce A. Dixon had asked me to write it after following my conversations with Victoire and other Rwandan dissidents for some years. Those conversations began in January 2010, when I looked into why no viable challengers to incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame were being allowed into that year’s presidential election. Victoire had just returned from Netherlands to Rwanda to stand as a candidate, but she had almost immediately been placed under house arrest. Why? Because upon arriving in Rwanda’s capital, where she was met by Rwandan press and fellow dissidents, she went straight to the genocide memorial and made this statement:

“We totally agree and are conscious that there has been a genocide against Tutsis and we seriously and continuously advocate that all those who were responsible be brought before the courts of justice. We also agree that there have been other serious crimes against humanity and war crimes [against Hutus]; those who committed them have to bear the legal consequences. We must all the time remember those tragedies, make sure they don’t get ever repeated. We also need to ensure that people’s lives are effectively and strongly protected by laws.”

I quoted Victoire in “Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide and 2010 Election,” one of the first essays I wrote about what I was beginning to understand, and soon heard from International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) defense attorneys and scholars including the late Edward S. Herman, co-author, with David Peterson, of “The Politics of Genocide,” and “Enduring Lies: Rwanda and the Propaganda System, 20 Years On.” I spoke to Ed Herman six years later for “Rwanda, Burundi and Wars ‘To Stop the Next Rwanda,’” a Project Censored broadcast on KPFA and other Pacifica Radio stations.

Rwanda 2010 and beyond

Victoire went to prison for eight years, beginning in 2010, for “genocide ideology,” which means voicing a more complex genocide history than that legally codified in Rwanda. The legally codified history is that ethnic Hutus massacred up to a million or more Tutsis during the 100 days beginning on April 7, 1994, which ended when General Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) “stopped the genocide.” While in prison Victoire wrote “Between Four Walls of the 1930 prison: Memoirs of a Rwandan Prisoner of Conscience.”

Bernard Ntaganda, a Rwandan lawyer who also attempted to run against Kagame in 2010, went to prison for four years. Frank Habineza, the 2010 candidate of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, fled to Sweden after the party’s vice president was found dead by the banks of a river, with his head cut off but still in possession of his wallet and the keys to his car, which remained nearby. (Habineza later returned and became a member of Rwanda’s parliament.) Rwandan journalists went to prison, were shot dead, or fled the country and the continent.

In July 2010, prominent Tanzanian law professor and ICTR defense attorney Jwami Mwaikusa was assassinated in Dar Es Salaam, and ICTR defense attorney Peter Erlinder was arrested and charged with “genocide ideology” from mid-May to mid-June 2010, while in Rwanda to defend Victoire in court.

(Erlinder was released after international outcry motivated then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to secure his “unconditional medical release.” She did not respond to his legal arguments at the ICTR or in defense of Victoire, or to his criticism of war crimes committed by Kagame, a longstanding Clinton ally.)

Internationally known Rwandan gospel singer Kizito Mihigo joined Victoire in prison from 2014 to 2018 for recording a gospel song in which he acknowledged the genocide of Hutus as well as Tutsis during the Rwandan Civil War and its final 100 days. Like Victoire, he was released but forbidden to leave Rwanda, and in February 2020 he was arrested while trying to cross the country’s southern border into Burundi. Kizito died several days later in police custody and few believed the police report that he had committed suicide.

In 2014, the BBC produced and aired the documentary “Rwanda’s Untold Story,” which so infuriated the Rwandan President and his ruling Tutsi elite that they temporarily banned BBC Gahuza, the network’s Kinyarwanda language radio broadcast in Rwanda, and organized a list of 38 scholars and journalists to sign a statement condemning the documentary’s “revisionism.”

In Praise of Blood, Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front

In 2018, Judi Rever’s groundbreaking book “In Praise of Blood: Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front” chronicled and evidenced the crimes of Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Army, which became the national Rwandan Defense Force (RDF), in both Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kagame’s main excuse for invading DRC has always been that he was compelled to hunt down Hutus who had killed Tutsis then fled to Congo and continued to threaten Rwanda, but Rever’s book, and the UN Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1993-2003, document the RDF’s massacre of innocent civilians, both Rwandan refugees and Congolese.

Rusesabagina in handcuffs, Dr. Mukwege under threat

In 2010, Kagame accused Paul Rusesabagina, author of the book which became the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” of “harboring the double genocide theory.” Last week Rwandan authorities seized Rusesabagina in the UAE and flew him to Kigali in handcuffs, where they paraded him before the press and charged him with terrorism.

Dr. Denis Mukwege, the Nobel Prize winning gynecological surgeon who founded Panzi Hospital to treat victims of the sexual violence used as a weapon in DRC’s resource wars, is receiving death threats for identifying Rwanda as the primary occupier and aggressor in DRC and calling for an international tribunal to prosecute the crimes evidenced in the UN Mapping Report.

Recognize Hutu Genocide

This is just a short list of moments in the ongoing struggle over the truth of the Rwandan Genocide, and the 25 years of hell that ensued when Kagame’s army followed Rwandan refugees into the DRC and remained there to occupy and plunder. I compiled it in order to encourage BAR readers to visit the new “Hutu Genocide” website at hutugenocide.org, which calls for recognition of genocide committed against Hutu populations in Rwanda and DRC. A good entry point there is the YouTube video “A mapping of crimes in the book ‘In Praise of Blood, the Crimes of the RPF by Judi Rever’,” which begins with the statement, “This video is not meant to deny, minimize, or conceal in any way the genocide against Tutsis that took place in Rwanda in 1994.” Judi Rever says the same, as does Victoire Ingabire, and as do I.

We also agree that neither Rwandans nor Congolese will see peace until the whole truth is told.

Why the silence in the world’s upper diplomatic, governmental, and global NGO circles, including the United Nations? Because Rwanda’s violent occupation of DRC and its service as an entrepôt for stolen Congolese resources has worked out well for powerful interests in the US and elsewhere in the industrialized world, and the truth would embarrass them.

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Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire  Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and   Peace Prize  for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. Please support her work on Patreon.  She can be reached at ann-at-anngarrison.com. She is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

The third day of extradition proceedings against Julian Assange at the Old Bailey resumed on the point of politics.  Assange as a figure of political beliefs; Assange as a target of the Trump administration precisely for having them.  The man sketching the portrait was Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University.   

It is no mean feat trying to pin down Assange’s political system.  Leftward, rightward, with resistance to the centre?  Lashings of libertarianism; heavy doses of anti-war and holding the powerful to account?  Such figures tend to be sui generis.  In his submitted statement to the court, Rogers suggests a uniform theme. 

“The political objective of seeking to achieve greater transparency in the workings of governments is clearly both the motivation and the modus operandi of Mr Assange and the organisation WikiLeaks.”

On the stand, Rogers described the Assange method of influence and disruption: the release of the war logs, their influence on public opinion regarding the US imperium’s engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, the revelations of 15,000 unaccounted civilian casualties.  The butcher’s bill of the imperium, in other words, was laid bare by the WikiLeaks’ releases.

For Rogers, this approach jarred with various US administrations, but none more so than that of Trump’s.  Assange’s entire approach and “what he stands for represents a threat to normal political endeavour.” 

James Lewis QC for the prosecution made his effort to narrow, clip and sharpen the focus on Assange, questioning the expanse of political belief being attributed by Rogers.  At times, the prosecution seemed suspended in a time capsule, suggesting, for instance, that political opinions were only applicable to governments and leaders.  Rogers preferred a more complex picture: the evolving nature of what political opinion might constitute (for instance, it could include “transnational elites” and attitudes towards corporations).  The issue of publishing an item or not could also constitute a form of political opinion. 

Lewis then went on the attack, grumpy at the length of Rogers’ responses and suggesting that his testimony was biased towards the defence.  Why had he omitted the views of such individuals as US assistant attorney Gordon Kromberg, who argued that prosecuting Assange had been a criminal rather than political matter?  Again, Rogers took preferred the broad approach.  Prosecutors of a certain rank tend to mimic the views of their superiors – that is their due.  What mattered were those higher-ups who had initiated a change in policy regarding WikiLeaks to instigate a “politically motivated prosecution”.  This could be demonstrated with some plausibility by considering the wider political context of different administrations.  The Obama administration had set its heart on not prosecuting Assange; those in the Trump administration had warmed to the idea. 

Not quite getting his pound of flesh, Lewis moved on to targeting the reasons why the Obama administration had gone cold on prosecuting Assange.  Like many black letter lawyers on this point, the issue of Assange being confined in the Ecuadorean embassy has them in knots.  “What would be the point [of arresting Assange] if he’s hiding in the embassy?” posed Lewis.  Rogers, rather sensibly, suggested that this would constitute a pressuring move.  “It would have made very good sense to bring it at that time, to show a standing attempt to bring Mr Assange to justice.”  Lewis had also made a specious point.  As investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi points out, individuals such as Edward Snowden have been duly charged despite fleeing the jurisdiction.  Practical custody was hardly a necessary precondition to getting that paperwork ready.

Lewis proceeded to till the same ground as that covered in the testimony of Mark Feldstein, attempting to push the suggestion that the case against Assange might yield future charges, at least as believed by himself and his defence team.  Rogers offered similar parrying: the Trump administration’s approach to Assange was distinct, its attitudes conveyed through the hostile remarks of former CIA director Mike Pompeo and the then hungry Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  A difference in approach might be gathered from President Barack Obama’s commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence.  This was Trump’s possible counter. 

Post-lunch interest then turned to Trevor Timm, Director of Freedom of the Press Foundation.  As he points out in the submitted statement, “The decision to indict Julian Assange on allegations of a ‘conspiracy’ between a publisher and his source or potential sources, and for the publication of truthful information, encroaches on fundamental freedoms.”  WikiLeaks was a pioneer in secure submission systems such as SecureDrop, one that had been emulated by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and Al Jazeera.   

It was incumbent upon journalists that they “develop relationships with their sources” and attempts to punish publishing activity arising from the use of “leaked documents of public importance” would face First Amendment difficulties.

The Trump administration, however, had proved bolder than its predecessors.  The Espionage Act had been previously floated at such journalists as James Bamford, Ben Bradlee, Seymour Hersh and Neil Sheehan.  It took Assange’s arrest and charging in 2019 to break with tradition.

The indictment, particularly in alleging that Assange had engaged in a conspiracy with Chelsea Manning to crack a military computer passport for reasons of remaining anonymous, would criminalise a common news practice and the whole pursuit of national security journalism.  Were the prosecution permitted “to go forward, dozens of reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere would also be in danger.”

Lewis took umbrage at Timm’s claim, outlined in his statement, that Trump had engaged in an enthusiastic “war on journalism”.  The FPF director was unsparing, suggesting that the indictment of the WikiLeaks publisher was part of this war, “and it is no exaggeration to say the First Amendment itself is at risk.”  To Lewis, Timm replied with a salient reminder that Trump had tweeted 2,200 times about the press, describing them at stages as the “enemy of the people”.  It was “very telling that Trump’s is the first one to try to bring a case like this since the Nixon administration.” 

The prosecution preferred returning to that exhausted nag of an idea: that Assange could not be seen as a journalist.  A form of fallacious logic came into play: the US Department of Justice had no interest in prosecuting journalists and would be breaching their own prosecutorial guidelines in doing so; Assange was not a journalist, therefore showing appropriate discrimination.   

Timm had an appropriate response to this nonsensical approach.  “In the US, the First Amendment protects everyone. Whether you consider Assange a journalist doesn’t matter; he was engaging in journalistic activity.”  And if the DOJ was in breach of federal rules, it should follow that they be held accountable.   

Timm also refused to ingest the prosecution line that the indictment was sufficiently narrow to only cover the publication of documents that had revealed the names of informants working for the US.  Other charges in the indictment focused on criminalising the act of possessing the documents.  That every claim would implicate journalists across the spectrum, as would “the mere thought of obtaining these documents”.  A sinister, dangerous implication. 

The prosecution was also caught up in what a “responsible journalist” might do.  While the issue of unnecessarily publishing the name of a third party thereby endangering that person might raise matters of ethical responsibility, that, suggested Timm, was a separate question “from what is illegal or legal conduct.”  A previous attempt to criminalise publishing the name of a US intelligence source had been made, by Senator Joseph Lieberman among others, in 2010 as a direct response to the WikiLeaks disclosures.  But the Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination (SHIELD) Act never became law.   

As for whether WikiLeaks had behaved appropriately or not in publishing the entire tranche of uncensored US diplomatic cables, despite it not being responsible for leaking the password to the relevant encrypted file containing the documents, Timm was firm.  Governments should not have a hand in making such editorial judgments; the question centred on illegality, something which WikiLeaks could not be accused of.

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

The “peace deal” between the UAE and Israel announced last month cannot be interpreted solely through the lens of normalisation; it is much more than that. Normalisation between the two countries had been well underway for decades.  

What occurred on 13 August was merely an official announcement of this process. The absurdity of calling it a “peace deal” should not be overlooked; there was no war between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi. Rather, we are being confronted by a strategic alliance between these two countries – one that is aiming to shift the region’s geopolitics.

The paradox is that this alliance did not occur between two equal parties with the same political power and influence. Rather, it is an alliance between a slave, the UAE, and Israel, the master.

While the deal achieves some goals for the UAE, such as buying US F-35 fighter jets and securing the Israel lobby’s support in Washington to help conceal its crimes in Yemen, Libya, Egypt and other arenas, it gives Israel unprecedented gains.

Israel will use its agreement with the UAE to achieve several political, strategic and economic goals, of which it could otherwise never have dreamed. The alliance represents a psychological and political breakthrough in the decades-old wall of the formal Arab boycott of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump’s adviser, Jared Kushner, are thus trying to exploit the momentum of the deal to pressure other Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Sudan and Morocco. There has been much speculation about Bahrain in particular, especially after Kushner’s recent visit to Manama.

Israel will use its relations with Abu Dhabi to extend its map of influence and security to the Gulf region.

The deal turns the Gulf into an Israeli sphere of influence, especially if Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia follow in the UAE’s footsteps. In light of Israel’s military and intelligence superiority, all Gulf countries will be under Israeli hegemony.

Threat to Iran

Through its presence in the Gulf, Israel will be on Iran’s western border, posing an existential threat to Tehran. Iran views normalisation between Israel and the Arab Gulf countries as a conspiracy with great risks for the region.

The UAE’s territories could be used to spy on Iran, while Israel could also infiltrate Iranian society by exploiting contacts with the Iranian community in the Emirates.

The Israel-UAE agreement also provides an opportunity for the UAE to become a large market for Israeli products, which could then spread to the rest of the Arab Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. According to the Financial Times, several Israeli companies were reportedly already involved in trade and investment in Abu Dhabi under the auspices of European firms, but now, they can operate openly.

Meanwhile, the Emirati investment fund Mubadala, which has capital worth about $230bn, is reportedly one of the most important investors in the Israeli technology sector. It is also expected that Abu Dhabi’s $700bn sovereign wealth fund will contribute to investments in Israel.

Overall, Israel’s most significant gain from this agreement relates to infiltrating Arab populations and changing the minds of future generations, so that they accept peace with Israel – even without securing the rights of the Palestinian people. And unlike Israel’s cold peace with Egypt and Jordan, peace with the UAE will be an intimate one.

Shifting perceptions

There appears to be a generation of Emiratis who accept normalisation with Israel and promote it openly on social media, suggesting a shift in the public perception of the Israeli occupation.

Those who follow various Emirati youth on Twitter would have seen signs of a brainwashing operation over the past few years, aiming to justify the UAE’s rapprochement with Israel, despite its racist and bloody history with Arab peoples.

In other words, we are not facing an alliance between two states, but rather an Israeli project for hegemony and influence in the region with Emirati funding and promotion, in return for some temporary gains for Abu Dhabi.

It is an illusion for the UAE to believe that this alliance will make it an important regional state, or for Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed to hail himself as the “new leader of the Middle East”, as Kushner described him in a statement upon his arrival in Abu Dhabi airport with the Israeli delegation that visited the UAE last week.

Opinion polls in the Arab world will reveal bin Zayed and his brothers to be nothing but puppets in the hands of Israel, which will toss them away after it has achieved its goals.

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Khalil al-Anani is a Senior Fellow at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies in Washington DC. He is also an associate professor of political science at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. You can follow him on Twitter: @Khalilalanani.

Ed Curtin…. is a revolutionary genius, a profound thinker – who sees truth where others close their eyes. “Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies” is a visionary analysis of the falsehoods we experience on a daily basis way beyond the borders of the United States.

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see” – is the philosophical underpinning of this marvelous book. Ed dissects with a sharp daring scalpel of courage the coats of hypocrisy and lies until he unmasks the tumor of deception that pervades every layer of our society. Through a universal propaganda machine, fraud permeates our lives and brains. We have become gullible, confused and start believing wrong is right and war is peace.

Ed, like Albert Camus, is fighting a constant plague, a never-ending Sisyphusian rebellion towards a horizon of freedom. Ed skillfully weaves through the shams, until we begin seeing the light. As so lucidly expressed by Leonard Cohen, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”.

Ed leaves us with a light of hope, eviscerating the scare of darkness, and is opening our eyes.

A Masterpiece.

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Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals such as Global Research; ICH; New Eastern Outlook (NEO) and others. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies

Author: Edward Curtin

ISBN: 9781949762266

Published: 2020

Options: EBOOK – Epub and Kindle, paper, PDF

Click here to order.

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The Baltic States have become the scene of NATO military actions especially aimed at provoking Russia and Belarus.

At the end of September, this year’s largest military exercise “Sword 2020” will take place in Latvia.

Approximately 1000 Vidzeme Brigade bodyguards and soldiers, representatives from the Lithuanian Armed Forces Volunteer Defense Forces and the NATO Extended Presence Battle Group will take part in the training. They will carry out the tasks over a wide area, covering seven counties. The urban environment, forests and meadows will become a battlefield. Outside the landfills, ammunition and combat simulations will be used. Collective training will train operations in hybrid threats, as well as improve command management capabilities.

In addition, several other NATO military exercises will take place in the Baltic States during this period.

Operation Steadfast Pyramid 20 – begun in Latvia will continue through September 11, NATO explaining:

“An Exercise Study focused on further developing the abilities of commanders and senior staff to plan and conduct operations through the application of operational art in decision making based on the ACO Comprehensive Operations Planning Directive (COPD) and utilizing a complex, contemporary scenario.”

Operation Steadfast Pinnacle 20 is scheduled for Latvia from September 13-18, explaining:

“An Exercise Study focused on further developing the abilities of commanders and senior staff to plan and conduct operations through the application of operational art in decision making based on the ACO (Allied Command Operations) Comprehensive Operations Planning Directive (COPD) and utilizing a complex, contemporary scenario.”

Operation Ramstein Guard 10 20 is scheduled for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from September 20-24.

“The NATO Electronic Warfare Force Integration Program is a means to exercise the NATO designated regional elements of NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence System conducted through the CAOCs (Combined Air Operation Center) while also including some national systems and assets. It is designed to train Air Command Ramstein and subordinate units on the reporting/coordination requirements while exposing them to a wide variety of EW (electronic warfare) tactics and techniques in a controlled environment,” NATO officials said.

From September 1 to 10, joint war games by an infantry brigade of the Baltic Armed Forces and the 41st Field Artillery Brigade of the U.S. Army will take place in Estonia. This is the first live firing exercise by U.S. artillery outside their permanent bases in Europe.

In a statement the Russian embassy in Washington said it considers the use of multiple launch rocket systems by U.S. armed forces during the exercises in Estonia to be provocative and extremely dangerous for regional stability,

“Russia has repeatedly proposed to the United States and its allies to limit training activities and to divert the exercise zones from the Russia-NATO contact line,” the text reads. “Why do this demonstrative saber-rattling? What signal do the NATO members want to send us? Who is actually escalating tensions in Europe? And this is all happening in the context of an aggravated political situation in that region of Europe [in Belarus].”

“A rhetorical question is – how would the Americans react in the event of such shooting by our military at the U.S. border?” the embassy added.

The objective, according to the organizers of the exercises, is to test NATO’s defense capabilities against possible attacks on European soil. However, despite the official narrative, the provocative nature of the tests is truly clear.

It is obvious that military tensions have erupted in the Baltic States. Recently NATO planes that would be used in the exercises were intercepted unexpectedly by Russian fighters while flying over the border area.

It is known that Aleksandr Lukashenko accused the U.S.-led West of attempting to destabilize the country, including by deploying NATO forces close to its borders. In addition, Lukashenko put his troops on high alert and started his own military exercises, understanding NATO’s maneuvers as a provocative and threatening measure, not only against Russia, but also Belarus.

Any military provocations along Poland-Lithuania-Belarus borders with could lead to an uncontrollable escalation from all sides.

Exercises like the above go on at all times near the borders of nations on the U.S. target list for regime change.

From now through year end 2020 U.S.-led NATO military exercises will be held in Turkey, France, the UK, Kosovo, the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, Lithuania, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Poland and Norway.

It’s obvious that instead of prioritizing cooperative relations with the world community, NATO (U.S.) is preparing for a serious military conflict.

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Jonas Dringelis is a political journalist.

Image is from the author

In March, soon after arriving aboard the Polarstern, a German icebreaker frozen into Arctic sea ice, Jennifer Hutchings watched as ice broke up around the ship, weeks earlier than expected. Even as scientists on the research cruise scrambled to keep field instruments from plunging into the ocean, Hutchings, who studies ice deformation at Oregon State University, Corvallis, couldn’t suppress a thrill at seeing the crack up, as if she had spotted a rare bird. “I got to observe firsthand what I studied,” she says.

Arctic sea ice is itself an endangered species. Next month its extent will reach its annual minimum, which is poised to be among the lowest on record. The trend is clear: Summer ice covers half the area it did in the 1980s, and because it is thinner, its volume is down 75%. With the Arctic warming three times faster than the global average, most scientists grimly acknowledge the inevitability of ice-free summers, perhaps as soon as 2035. “It’s definitely a when, not an if,” says Alek Petty, a polar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Now, he and others are learning that a warming atmosphere is far from the only factor speeding up the ice loss. Strengthening currents and waves are pulverizing the ice. And a study published last week suggests deep heat in the Arctic Ocean has risen and is now melting the ice from below.

Ice has kept its grip on the Arctic with the help of an unusual temperature inversion in the underlying waters. Unlike the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, the Arctic gets warmer as it gets deeper. Bitter winters and chilly, buoyant freshwater from Eurasian rivers cool its surface layers, which helps preserve the underside of the ice. But at greater depths sits a warm blob of salty Atlantic water, thought to be safely separated from the sea ice.

Read complet Sciencemag,org  article

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Paul Voosen is a staff writer who covers Earth and planetary science.

Featured image: The Polarstern, released too early from a floe, returned to the North Pole in August amid thin ice. (by STEFFEN GRAUPNER)

The delicate power balance in the East Mediterranean is changing dramatically and quickly as states begin to cooperate to contain and contract Turkish ambitions in the region. Turkey’s drive to secure and control gas and oil supplies has seen its military involve in Iraq, Syria and Libya, while also threatening war with Greece and Cyprus to annex their rights to energy exploration in the East Mediterranean. Among all this, Ankara also continues its threats against Israel and denounces the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

On the face of such aggression, Mossad considers Turkey to be a bigger threat to Israel than Iran. This also comes as Israel signed a peace treaty with the UAE, one of the biggest critics of Turkey who is not only financing elements of the Syrian Army, but is also militarily and financially supporting the Libyan National Army against jihadists loyal to the Turkish-backed Government of National Accords in Tripoli. Greece, Cyprus and Egypt have strong military relations and jointly oppose Turkish actions in Libya and the wider East Mediterranean region, while Greece, Cyprus and Israel also enjoy such relations.

However, as war rhetoric emanates from Ankara against so-called NATO-ally Greece, France has stepped up its support for the latter. This has been unexpected support as NATO, the EU and their major countries traditionally appease Turkish aggression against Greece and Cyprus. France has firmly committed its military to defend Greece in case of a Turkish attack. Effectively, we are at the cusp of an inter-NATO war in the East Mediterranean.

With Turkey creating problems on NATO’s southern flank, it would be easy for Moscow to take a step back and watch the Alliance continue its internal conflicts. However, Russia heavily depends on access to the Mediterranean via the Turkish-controlled Bosporus and Dardanelle Straits from the Black Sea which has always been an important economic and military geostrategic point for Russia. Any potential war between Greece and Turkey will inevitably see the Greek Navy blockade the Dardanelles, and therefore obstruct Russia’s quick access to the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.

Although Russia has vocally said that international law must be implemented in the East Mediterranean, which favors Greece and Cyprus, Moscow has been careful not to antagonize the Turks either. However, to secure Russia’s interests in the region, the Kremlin might find itself forced to be actively involved in this inter-NATO hostility to ensure war does not breakout and hinder their access to the Mediterranean via the Black Sea.

Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Cyprus, where he emphasized the strong historic ties between Cyprus and Russia. It also comes as the Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece said that Athens wants to strengthen its ties with Moscow that were weakened by the previous government who were ousted in last year’s elections. These developments in Nicosia and Athens with Moscow appear as the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Greece is Russia’s “traditional partner” in Europe only days ago.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron will meet in Corsica tomorrow to create a “joint security doctrine” between their two countries. Macron is serious about creating such a doctrine as the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the only one of its kind built in Europe, is sailing to the Greek continental shelf that Turkey considers its own. The de Gaulle not only carries up to 30 aircraft, but it can also transport 800 soldiers and 500 tonnes of ammunition. This is a serious challenge against the Turkish fleet that has been illegally escorting the Oruç Reis research vessel for over a month in search of gas and oil deposits in Greece’s continental shelf. An aircraft carrier is sailing against a fellow NATO member that has been threatening war with another NATO member.

Macron has already twice described NATO as “brain dead,” and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg still displays disinterest in diffusing the Greek-Turkish hostilities.

At the same time, Moscow sold Turkey the S-400 missile defense system, which not only strengthened their relations, but also created discord in NATO, Russia still has deep differences with Ankara. This is not only over Syria and Libya, but also in Crimea as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan increases his denunciations of Russia’s alleged persecution of Crimean Tartars. There is little actual substance between a Russian-Turkish geostrategic partnership that is more often than not in contradiction with each other’s ambitions.

Access through the Turkish-controlled straits is guaranteed by the 1936 Montreux Convention, giving Moscow some leverage in its relations with Turkey. If war broke out though, these straits would trap Russian shipping in the Black Sea. Russia has emphasized that the East Mediterranean issue must be resolved diplomatically and with international law. Turkey is one of 15 countries in the whole world who has not signed and ratified the United Nations Charter Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as it would favor Greece’s claims in the oil and gas rich deposits in the Each Mediterranean. In this context, if Moscow was true to its word that it supports international law, this would automatically put it on side with Greece as Russia has no interest in escalating current hostilities into a war and temporarily lose access to a major trade route.

As Macron pushes for a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, Russia could very well establish strong ties with France by cooperating in the East Mediterranean. This would put Russia in a security nexus that includes Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel and the UAE, which is beginning to form a powerful bloc in the East Mediterranean. Depending on how Russia chooses to navigate through the current Greco-Turkish crisis could depend on how much Russian influence can be enhanced or weakened in light of the rapidly changing power balance in the region.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Paul Antonopoulos is an independent geopolitical analyst.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

“Two well-known and highly respected mainstream economists, Carmen Reinhart, a chief economist for the World Bank, and Vincent Reinhart, chief economist for Morgan Stanley bank, have recently published an article in the widely read capitalist source, Foreign Affairs, entitled ‘The Pandemic Depression’. Arguing primarily from a global perspective, the economists have concluded the US economy as of the 3rd quarter 2020 is not merely now experiencing a ‘great recession’ but now qualifies as another Great Depression.

There is another perspective, however, from which to also argue the US economy is in a bona fide Great Depression. It is from the perspective of the US Labor Market. For as of the late 3rd quarter 2020 the US economy suffers from an unemployment rate of no less than 25%–i.e. the same rate during the worst years and quarters of 1932-33, the depths of the 1930s Great Depression. Yet what we hear from the media and politicians of both wings of the Corporate Party of America—aka the Republicans and Democrats—is that unemployment is only 8.4%! That’s barely one-third of 25%.

Republicans and Trump have used the low-balled number of 8.4% as the main excuse to prevent the passage by Congress of any further economic stimulus. The Democrats have voiced no effective rebuttal since they too have accepted the 8.4%. So what is it? 8.4% and not even a great recession any longer? Or 25% and the possibility the ranks of unemployed are about to grow even further?

What follows is a debunking of the 8.4% unemployment rate and a quantitative explanation why that rate is 25%–as well as a statement of the forces that will likely result in an even further deterioration in the unemployment rate in the 2020-21 period ahead.

(25% & 40 Million Still Unemployed)

After the massive job implosion last spring, a weak rebound in jobs has occurred as the economy reopened over the early summer. But that jobs rebound has shown clear signs of faltering by late July and has clearly deteriorated by late August as unemployment claims have risen in recent weeks. Even more ominous, as that has near term condition of jobs has worsened, parallel indications show the emergence of a second, more permanent phase of job loss on the horizon. Since early March 2020, more than 55m workers have filed for, and received, unemployment insurance benefits.

According to official government data, as of the end of August, 29.5 million US workers were still getting benefits. That 29.5m reflects 18.4% workers clearly unemployed. But it’s also a subset of the total jobless, since millions haven’t been able to get benefits. So the actual number of jobless as of labor day 2020 is north of 29.5m and 18.4% Nevertheless, the statistic we hear is 8.4% unemployment rate and 13.4 million unemployed. What gives?

Some of the 55 million who received benefits at some point over the course of the last six months of the pandemic began returning to work starting in May. The number returning grew in June, but then began slowing once again in July and August as the rebound in jobs began to falter in July-August.

Others of the 55 million have simply exhausted their benefits. Many are still unemployed but no longer part of the 29.5 million that remain on benefits.

In addition, millions more workers since March have entered the labor force for the first time but they too have not been eligible to receive benefits due to lack of prior work history as first time job seekers—which precludes them from receiving unemployment benefits. Like those having exhausted their benefits, they too are unemployed but not part of the 29.5m still getting benefits at the end of August.

Joining the ranks of those unemployed but not receiving benefits are the millions who never got benefits because they simply gave up looking for work for various reasons and dropped out of the labor force—which puts them in a category in which, according to US labor department methodology, they aren’t counted as unemployed. They may be out of work, but given the oxymoronic way the US defines unemployed they aren’t considered unemployed for purposes of calculating the unemployment rate!

Finally, there are the additional millions more who never were able to get benefits since March even though they tried, due to various bureaucratic reasons.

Whether having exhausted their benefits, or first time entrants to the labor force not eligible for benefits, or whether they’ve dropped out of the labor force, or were denied benefits for bureaucratic reasons—all these groups are nonetheless part of the unemployed, even though they are not counted among the 29.5m still getting unemployment benefits.

In short, the 55m who got benefits at some point since March, and the 29.5m who are still getting them, are in both cases just a subset of a much larger number of jobless. There are millions more unemployed who never got on the unemployment benefits rolls since March and still not able to get benefits. There’s at least 10-15 million more jobless but without benefits. That means an unemployment rate, at minimum, of 25%–not the 8.4% peddled by the media apologists for Wall St. and the politicians of the Corporate Party of America (aka Trumpublicans and Democrat wings of that party).

Last April 2020 perhaps as much as 50% of the total US labor force of 160 million workers was jobless for approximately two months. As of today, Labor Day 2020, at minimum a fourth, or 25%, still remains so.

That 25% is about the same jobless rate as occurred during the worst years of the 1930s Great Depression, 1932-33!

Here’s why it’s 25% at minimum today, Labor Day, and quite possibly even more:

(Dissecting the Government’s Low-Ball U-3/8.4% Unemployment Rate)

Despite an actual 25% unemployment rate (i.e. 40 million still jobless) what we hear from the media and politicians is that the unemployment rate is only 8.4%. And thus the total unemployed is only 13.4 million. (When 8.4% is calculated on the 160 million total US labor force, the number unemployed comes to 13.4 million).

The official government statistic of 8.4% jobless is repeated ad nauseam in the media. It’s then picked up by politicians, commentators, and even progressives who should know better and parroted back to the public. But 8.4% is nonsense. A purposely low-balled, cherry-picked number for public consumption.  Here’s why:

To begin with, the 8.4% is the government’s official U-3 unemployment rate. The problem with U-3, however, is that it represents only full time workers who became unemployed. But there are at least 50 million workers in the US economy who are not ‘full time’, but part time, discouraged and what the government calls the ‘missing labor force’. The government adds these groups to its U-3 and 8.4%. That raises the unemployment rate in August to 14.2%–not 8.4%. And that translates to a total unemployed of 22.7 million—not 13.4 million.

The 14.2%/22.7 million numbers are carefully avoided in media reporting. One almost never hears the 14.2% and virtually always only the 8.4%, regardless that both are official government statistics.

But even that 14.2%/22.7m is grossly under-estimating the total unemployed. Remember that other government statistic, i.e. those receiving unemployment benefits? Workers receiving benefits as of late August was 29.5 million. And that represents a 18.4% jobless rate. Obviously, if a worker is getting benefits, he/she must be unemployed, right? But you’ll hear 29.5 million and 18.4% in the media even less than the 14.2% and 22.7 million.

In the case of the 29.5 million, moreover, we have another example of ‘low-balling’ and cherry-picking a statistic –not unlike cherry-picking the U-3 stat instead of the U-6. The media reports the number of workers getting benefits at only 16 or 17 million, not 29.5 million!

But here’s what they don’t explain when citing only 16-17 million getting benefits: That number accounts only for workers receiving unemployment benefits under the traditional State Unemployment Benefits system. The 16-17 million excludes independent contract workers, gig, freelance, and others getting benefits under the supplemental Pandemic Unemployment Insurance (PUC) program created last March as part of the Cares Act. In other words, there’s two unemployment benefits systems and the media typically chooses to report only the one when indicating workers getting benefits. There’s the traditional State Unemployment Benefits system and the new Supplemental PUC system that for the first time ever has provided benefits for the 50m non-traditional workers who were before March never eligible for benefits but are now and will continue to be eligible at least through December 2020 when that PUC system expires. Once again, it’s media cherry-picking and number low-balling time.

The State system and the PUC system together comprise the 29.5 million workers still getting unemployment benefits. 29.5m receiving benefits is certainly more than 22.7m (U-6) and even more so than 13.4m. It’s not that the government job statistics consciously lie (although in some cases they come quite close). It’s just that the government produces low ball numbers for the media to pick up, which they do and pound away at. And then commentators, politicians, business sources play their role of spreading the low ball numbers and conveniently ignoring other data.

How then did the US economy get to 29.5 million and 18.4%? Here’s the trajectory: In April more than 6 million workers filed for benefits every week for two weeks, followed by 3-5 million more for several more weeks thereafter! The weekly new benefits filing rate declined as the economy began to reopen in May. However, after May new State unemployment benefit claims still averaged 1 to 2 million every week through July; In addition, the number of PUC initial benefit claims per week also exceeded 1 million a week, every week, through July as well.

The combined totals of the two programs—State and PUC— thus never fell below 2 million initial filings a week throughout the period of the reopening of the economy, from May through July. It has also remained a combined more than 1.5m/week throughout August. That’s 6 million new unemployment filing claims—i.e. 6 million newly unemployed—in just the last month of August. Bringing the total on unemployment benefits to the 29.5 million.

But wait! The 29.5m represents only unemployed workers who were able to get benefits. There’s many more workers who became jobless but were unable to successfully get benefits; or who gave up even trying in the first place and simply dropped out of the labor force altogether. Who are they? And how great are their numbers?

Their numbers are well north of even the 29.5 million and 18.4% unemployment rate. The true total jobless includes their numbers plus the 29.5 million.

For the 29.5m receiving benefits as of Labor Day 2020 excludes those jobless who were unable to get benefits in the first place, who filed unsuccessfully for benefits, who got lost in the bureaucratic process of filing and never got benefits, or who just couldn’t figure out how to file and were not helped and gave up. The 29.5m also represents those having exhausted benefits during the last six months. And those who chose not to file even though unemployed. Finally, the 29.5m excludes new entrants to the labor force over the past six months who weren’t eligible for benefits but haven’t been able nonetheless to find work given the collapse of the economy! All these categories of jobless workers represent the unemployed as much as those receiving benefits include the obviously unemployed. So the number of jobless is actually much higher than even 29.5 million. The 29.5m is therefore just a subset of the true total unemployed.
So how many more are jobless but not getting benefits as of Labor Day 2020?

(Estimating the Actual Jobless—With & Without Benefits)

You won’t get an accurate number from the government of the total unemployed who didn’t get benefits but have been, and remain, nonetheless jobless since February 2020.

However, private research surveys do give us an idea. MarketWatch, a business research and media company, published an interesting feature story in Fidelity.com this past week, based on its survey of the Philadephia/Mid-Atlantic region of the economy. That case example survey provides a reasonable estimate of the magnitude of those jobless since March 2020 but not among the 29.5m that succeeded in obtaining unemployment benefits.

Of the total number of workers in the Philadelphia, Mid-Atlantic US region who lost their jobs since February, MarketWatch reports that only 87% actually filed successfully for benefits. And of that 87%, only 65% who bothered to file actually ended up getting benefits. That means only 52%, or roughly half of the unemployed in the Philadelphia area, actually got unemployment benefits. The other 48% were just as much out of work, but without benefits.

If Philadelphia represents a microcosm and relatively accurate sample of the entire US economy labor market, simple extrapolation means that the 55 million who successfully got benefits since March 2020 may represent barely half of the total of those who have been unemployed since March!

That means the 29.5 million still getting benefits may represent barely half of all those still unemployed. There may therefore be between 40 and 50 million workers in America still jobless—those still getting benefits (the 29.5m) and those without benefits (10m to 20m).

Thus, the oft-reported official US numbers of 8.4% unemployment rate and 13.4 million total out of work is dwarfed not only by the government’s own alternative U-6 data, as well as by its own data showing 29.5 million jobless getting benefits, but also by the fact the total jobless without benefits may be nearly as large as those with benefits.

Assuming the low-end estimate of 10 million still jobless but without benefits, and adding that to the government data that shows 29.5 million still on benefits, a total jobless of at least 40 million is the result. And that’s the low end assumption. It may be well over 40 million as of end of August 2020.

40 million is 25% of the labor force. And it’s far greater than the 8.4% and 13.4 million that the media and politicians keep drumming into our ears. What the media and politicians are telling us is only one-third of the total unemployed!

Corroborating this estimate of at least 25% unemployed today is yet another government statistic called the labor force participation rate, or LFPR. It represents workers who have dropped out of the labor force altogether. It’s in addition to the 29.5m and 18.4% rate since, by government guidelines and definitions, those who drop out of the labor force cannot receive benefits.

(Labor Force Participation Rate Suggests 5.5 Million Dropped Out)

The Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is the percent of working age Americans who have left the Labor Force. They are neither working nor actively looking for work. But they are jobless nonetheless and should be considered among the unemployed. The LFPR was 63.4% of the 164.5 million civilian labor force in February 2020. By August the LFPR dropped to 61.7% out of a 160 million labor force. The difference translates into approximately 5.5 million workers who dropped out of the labor force since February 2020. Having dropped out they are not actively looking for work and therefore not considered unemployed by the government for purposes of calculating unemployment rates. Nor are they eligible to receive benefits since, as drop outs, they are not actively looking for work. However they are nevertheless unemployed and their 5.5 million are additional to the 13.4 million U-3 and 22.7 million U-6 unemployed or the 29.5 million getting benefits. They are among the ‘other’ 10-20 million jobless but not counted by the U-3/U-6 or included in those receiving benefits. Their number strongly corroborates that there are many millions more unemployed—not getting benefits or ignored by the government’s official monthly jobless numbers.

Let’s look at the latest of those government monthly employment numbers. Once again what appears is a fudging and manipulation of the numbers in yet other ways as well.

(August 2020 Government Employment Report)

The first thing to know about the August Employment Report is that it isn’t for the month of August. It is only for the first two weeks of the month (and the last two weeks of July). The data cuts off around the 12th of the month. So what we’re looking at in a ‘August’ report is really July 13 to August 12 jobs data—i.e. before unemployment claims began to rise again in late August.

Second, it’s important to understand that the August jobs numbers are not the actual number of jobs created July 13-August 12. It is not the raw data of actual jobs created or lost that’s reported—for August or for any month in the Labor Dept jobs reports.

The government takes the actual raw data and performs various statistical operations on that raw jobs data and reports that adjusted statistic as the actual number of jobs, even though it isn’t. But that’s what all statistics are—an operation and adjustment on the actual raw data. Moreover, the August raw data itself may be over-stated as well, not just altered by the statistical operation(s).

Raw (actual) jobs data comes from several sources: Large businesses report to the government changes in employment, layoffs, hires, etc. (called the Establishment Survey) The government also surveys a sample of households monthly (called the Population Survey). But there’s a third, more questionable source, based on data from the creation and destruction of small businesses, called the (net) New Business Development survey (NBD). That NBD data, however, represents businesses destroyed or created 6 to 9 months before the month in question—i.e. in this case August. So we get six to nine month old data integrated with current data from the Establishment and Population surveys. Mixing such older data with more recent is a questionable statistical practice. It means adding positive net new business development pre-March and Covid, in January-February, to current jobs data. That has the effect of dampening the actual numbers of August jobs unemployment. That is, it adds to and over-estimates the number of jobs created in August. If net business development for July were used—not January/February—it would mean integrating massive small business destruction that has occurred under Covid since March. That would have the opposite effect: it would dampen job creation numbers in August and increase unemployment numbers.

That’s just one example how ‘statistical operations’ on data can serve to exaggerate job growth and under-estimate unemployment.

Another sometimes questionable statistical operation is called the Seasonality adjustment. The seasonality statistical adjustment in August reduced the number of new filings for unemployment benefits in just the last week of August by 130,000. The government then reported a ‘seasonally adjusted’ 881,000 new unemployment claims for the week ending August 29, when the actual number was 1,011,000.

Similarly, in August there were 9,118,000 reported as unemployed in August when the actual data, not seasonally adjusted, for August showed 9,286,000 actually unemployed—i.e. a difference of 168,000. Put another way, there were 168,000 more jobless in actuality than reported as unemployed. 168,000 were artificially reduced from the unemployed ranks due to statistical operations involving just seasonality alone!

The statistical models assume more return to work at the end of summer than, say for instance, at the end of spring. But the point is these models are based on assumptions developed in normal times under normal conditions. Since Covid neither times or conditions are ‘normal’. Yet the government continues to use the same assumptions, models, and statistical operations to change the actual data, the actual number of employed and unemployed, to the statistical representations of the actual numbers!

The latest August official Labor Dept. job data report says 1.37m new jobs were created. This is the statistic. But the actual data, for above reasons, is far fewer new jobs and far more unemployed.

The August Report is biased in yet another way. It purports to show the condition of the US private sector economy. But 238,000 new US census workers were hired in August who’ll be gone by October. Take away the seasonality adjustment of 168,000 jobs and the 238,000 very temporary government Census workers, and the private sector actual job gain in August was roughly 964,000 not 1.37m. Even without the deduction of seasonality, the private job report company, ADP, often cited as a check on government job reports, reported only 428,000 net jobs growth in August—i.e. less than half of the government’s August jobs report.

1.37m new jobs reported, minus the 168,000 seasonal upward adjustment and minus the 238,000 Census workers, and the difference is 964,000 actual net private sector jobs created in August, or about half a million fewer than in July. The job creation monthly is an accelerating downward trend.

Even accepting the government’s own inflated monthly jobs numbers, the rate of monthly job growth has been slowing rapidly since May 2020: In May 3.4 million new jobs were reported as created. In June, as the economy reopened virtually everywhere, 4.7 million new jobs. But in July, as the economic rebound began to fade, only 1.5 million, and now as of August 12, only 1.37m. In short, even questionable statistical operations cannot total cover up the obvious downward trend.

Perhaps a better indicator of this downward trend post-August 12, is the more than 4 million workers who have newly filed for unemployment benefits the last three weeks, and undoubtedly hundreds of thousands more were also newly jobless but who were not able to get benefits or just dropped out of the labor force giving up searching for a job in today’s deeply depressed labor market.

And yet we read and hear from the media and politicians that the job market is healing rapidly and job recovery is accelerating—even as data show it is in fact deteriorating. We hear unemployment is declining fast when in fact it has begun to rise once again.

(Summing Up Jobs: March Through August 2020)

To sum up the bigger true picture of jobless during the first six months of the Covid era:

• 55 million filed for benefits, state and PUC, since last February, out of 160m labor force
• Tens of millions more failed to file or filed unsuccessfully and didn’t get benefits
• 29+ million are still getting benefits as of September Labor Day 2020
• 10-20 million still unemployed but not getting benefits as of Labor Day 2020
• 1.5 million are continuing to file first time for benefits weekly as of early September
• 8.4%/13.4m official U-3 jobless rate is the preferred ‘cherry picked’ media number
• 14.2%/22.7m is government’s alternative data (U-6) yet ignored by media & politicians
• 13.4 or 22.7m still falls far short of the 29.5m/18.4% actually still getting benefits
• At least 5.5m dropped out of labor force the past 6 mo. but not considered unemployed
• The actual unemployment rate is 25% and 40 million are still jobless, at minimum
• Even government monthly stats show a sharp slowing of new jobs added each month

As bad as the picture looks for Phase 1 (March-to Labor Day 2020) of the current crisis, future prospects for jobs for American workers after Labor Day 2020 appear even bleaker.

(2nd Wave of Restructuring & Permanent Job Loss)

The Covid virus did not cause the current economic crisis—i.e. the 2nd Great Recession. It did precipitate and accelerate and deepen that crisis, however. The US economy was weakening steadily throughout 2019, with the important sectors of business investment and manufacturing actually contracting throughout the year. Should the virus therefore disappear overnight, the deep wounds to the US economy will remain. Many of the 40 million furloughed starting in March and still jobless will not soon be recalled to their prior work—if at all. Entire industries like travel, entertainment, food & lodging, and others will not return to the ‘old normal’ of pre-Covid. A new normal will occur, but it will be one based on a much reduced output in various industries and companies and therefore employment.

Many major corporations have already announced thousands—and in some cases tens of thousands—of permanent layoffs that will take effect in the coming months. These layoffs will be permanent. They represent the leading edge of a coming second wave of job loss.

Industries deepest affected by the growing permanent restructuring and downsizing include Airlines, surface transportation, cruise lines, resorts and hotels, casinos, malls and retail services, education services, local food services, and many sectors of manufacturing that support all these industries with products and maintenance services. This is a large swath of the US economy, in both GDP and employment terms. A clearer picture of which industries, and how deeply impacted, will be clearer after September 30 when the government publishes its quarterly industry-specific statistics for the second quarter 2020.

In the meantime, announcements of thousands of planned layoffs are being announced weekly by United, American, and other airlines; by Boeing and other aerospace suppliers; by big box mall-based retail companies like JC Penneys, Kohls, Nieman Marcus and others; Movie Theater chains AMC and Cinemark; oil drilling and fracking companies; hospitals’ non-Covid related services health workers; beverage suppliers to hotels and restaurants like Coca Cola—to mention just those making front business page news in recent weeks. Tech companies are all restructuring despite healthy profits performance, shifting to remote employment on a major scale that reduces employment costs via layoffs. They will require therefore fewer building support and operations employees. Many other businesses may also shift to remote activity, with the result that urban office buildings will become less employment populated and much of the local city support services for the office building sector will dramatically downsize in employment as well.

The Federal Reserve Bank’s latest ‘Beige Book’ summary of the US economy warned that millions of workers temporarily furloughed since March may have been permanently laid off by August and more may become so. This shift of temporary laid off to permanent layoff status is corroborated by a survey that showed 3.4 million workers believe they won’t be recalled because their companies have either permanently closed or said they planned to close.

Added to this leading edge of the next wave of layoffs due to business restructuring and downsizing is the likelihood of millions more public sector state and local government layoffs. More than a million government workers have been already laid off since March. Budget and deficit problems accelerating rapidly for state and local governments due to the Covid pandemic (i.e. more expenses amidst collapsing tax revenues) will result in still more public employee layoffs. It’s been estimated these governments will need between $500 billion and $940 billion in bailout rescue in a new stimulus bill from Congress to avoid the mass layoffs. However, it appears extremely unlikely they’ll get much, if anything, in a next Congressional stimulus bill in 2020. Layoffs are therefore inevitable and in some of the larger states and cities they will be significant and forthcoming before 2020 year end.

Small business failures and permanent closures are already rising significantly. As small businesses close, jobs associated with them will disappear. And the numbers could easily amount in the millions by the end of 2021.

There are roughly 30 million small businesses in the US economy. Millions of those temporarily closed since March will fail to reopen. And the worse may be yet to come. The National Federation of Independent Businesses, an industry trade group for small business, forecasts 21% will likely fail within another six months. That’s one-fifth of the 30 million or about 6 million. Even if a high end estimate, the number is still unprecedented. At the low end is the US Census ‘Business Pulse’ survey that predicts a 5% small business job loss. That’s 1.5 million closures. Whether 6 or 1.5 million, it’s a large number with an even larger number of employees thrown out of work as the businesses close in coming months.

Other forces driving a second wave of layoffs are more difficult to estimate but no less likely. Among them include the Covid related requirement that K-12 schools implement home remote school education services. Many working class households are two-parent wage earners. They lack resources to pay for babysitters or nannies. Those with K-6 year old children in particular will be forced to have one parent quit and stay at home to ensure home schooling. These ‘quits’ will not show up as unemployed, since the parent is ‘out of work’ but not actively ‘looking for work’. They will show up as labor force drop outs. But they will be unemployed nonetheless! It’s uncertain how wide spread the remote K-8 education services will be this fall, or how long it will last. One recent estimate, however, by Brevan Howard Asset Management to its investors, concluded no fewer than 4.3 million US workers could stay home given lack of child care arrangements. A resurgence of Covid may mean millions more may have to quit their jobs and choose unemployment in order to provide their young children education via remote learning.

Another development that for now is difficult to estimate as well is the impact on employment of the lack of a necessary fiscal stimulus for households. The elimination of the $600 supplement pandemic unemployment benefit at the end of July has resulted in a reduction of no less than $65 billion in consumption spending per month starting this past August. Evictions and mortgage foreclosures will also have a negative impact on consumer household spending, which is nearly 70% of the economy and US GDP. Already the loss of the $600 benefit, combined with rising evictions, is having a major effect on consumer confidence which in August began falling again sharply. This could be exacerbated by an inadequate stimulus bill in September. Reduced working class benefits and household incomes will have an impact on consumer demand for products and services in the economy across the board, affecting nearly all sectors of businesses. And as that demand drops, it will almost certainly lead in turn to less consumer spending and in turn to more layoffs.

The preceding five forces—i.e. large corporate restructurings and permanent downsizing, a sharp rise in public sector layoffs, unprecedented business closures, remote schooling requirements of two working parent families, and general demand reduction due to inadequate next stimulus—all translate into a second wave of layoffs now emerging.

These longer term job reduction forces mean the recent tepid rebound in jobs during May-July will likely give way to a relapse in the US labor markets in coming months and a rise in unemployment. The trend may already be appearing as of late August as first time claims for unemployment benefits have begun to rise once again.

And then there are still the ‘known unknowns’ that could exacerbate conditions further: the increasingly likelihood of a historic political crisis surrounding the November 3 elections. That will breed massive uncertainty and potentially an even worse economic crisis and associated layoffs. Or the Covid virus could resurge significantly once again as winter sets in, as many fear will happen. That too will lead to more shutdowns and furloughing of jobs once again. Even further down the road is the 2021 ‘black swan’ event of another financial crisis, as businesses, households, and local governments begin to default on their debts and precipitate another financial crisis similar to 2008-09.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Jack Rasmus.

Jack Rasmus is author of the recently published book, ’The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump’, Clarity Press, January 2020. He blogs at jackrasmus.com and hosts the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions on the Progressive Radio Network on Fridays at 2pm est. His twitter handle is @drjackrasmus. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

As the rest of Europe and the world remains under the grip of draconian rules and the threat of new lockdowns, Sweden, which allowed its citizens to remain free throughout the entire pandemic, has pretty much declared victory over the coronavirus.

The country now has one of the lowest infection rates on the planet, and it’s difficult not to admire how it has handled the past year, with no strict lockdown or compulsory face mask rules. All businesses, schools and public places remained open in Sweden for the duration.

“Sweden has gone from being the country with the most infections in Europe to the safest one,” Sweden’s senior epidemiologist Dr. Anders Tegnell commented to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

“What we see now is that the sustainable policy might be slower in getting results, but it will get results eventually,” Tegnell clarified.

Tegnell previously warned that encouraging people to wear face masks is “very dangerous” because it gives a false sense of security but does not effectively stem the spread of the virus.

“The findings that have been produced through face masks are astonishingly weak, even though so many people around the world wear them,” Tengell has urged.

Last week, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed Sweden’s drop in infection rate, with only 12 cases per million, compared to 18 in neighbouring Denmark and 14 in nearby Norway.

Graphic: The Sun

At the peak of the Sweden’s outbreak, it was seeing 108 new infections per million people, as it pursued a “herd immunity” strategy.

The figures also show that out of 2500 randomly selected and tested people in Sweden, none tested positive, compared to 0.9 percent positive in April, and 0.3 percent in May.

“We interpret this as meaning there is not currently a widespread infection among people who do not have symptoms,” said Karin Tegmark, deputy head of the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

When compared to the rest of Europe, Sweden’s death rate sits somewhere in the middle. However, officials are confident that playing the long game will see this improve drastically.

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Featured image is from The Unz Review

Sanctions are a blunt weapon used by the mighty against the weak to compel them to capitulate to political demands, but almost always put pressure on populations rather than rulers who concede nothing. Although sanctions have been liberally used in this region they have not had the result desired by those imposing them.

They have been employed since 1979 against revolutionary Iran by the US and later by the international community, since 1990 against Iraq, and since 2004 against Syria.

In all three cases, sanctions have had a destructive impact on local efforts to contain Covid-19, which has spread across the region and the world and will continue to spread as long as centres of infection exist.

As early as April, the British medical journal, The Lancet, reported that Iran’s “capacity to respond to the virus is substantially impeded by unilateral economic sanctions re-imposed after the US administration withdrew from the nuclear deal in May, 2018”. The Lancet criticised the Trump administration fop making a bad situation worse by ramping up sanctions in March of this year.

The Lancet continued, “Even before COVID-19, Iran’s health system was feeling the effect of the sanctions. Their impact is now severe because they restrict the government’s ability to raise funds or import essential goods,” including protective gear, tests and medicines. The Lancet pointed out that of “the ten countries with the highest  number of  recorded cases [in April], Iran is the poorest”. Iran cannot afford to fund “adequate prevention, diagnosis and treatment”. The country cannot adopt measures to strengthen its responses to the pandemic, The Lancet said.

Sanctions on Iran were imposed long before Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 agreement signed by the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany which limited Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions. US sanctions on Iran were imposed in 1979 following the overthrow of Washington’s ally and have been tightened and elaborated by US allies. This process has prevented Iran from exporting its oil, its main source of revenue, driving down the value of Iran’s currency, and plunging it into negative economic growth.

Although food and medicine are meant to be exempted from sanctions, Iran cannot access essential supplies because the US controls international banking and finance and threatens to punish any country or firm that deals with Iran. Consequently, for years Iran has not been able to procure medicine and medical equipment needed for cancer, heart, diabetes, and other common ailments and the country’s health sector has been run down.

The pandemic took hold in Iran in February and has established its grip on the country since then. Latest figures show that Iran has had 387,000 cases with 22,293 deaths. While failing to deal with the virus early and mismanagement are largely responsible for this toll, sanctions have played a key role. Iran’s failure to contain Covid-19 has led to the spread to the region and countries as far away as Norway and Canada.

Follwing Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the international community imposed heavy sanctions on Iraq. Once again the US, this time under George W.H. Bush, was prime mover. Once again food, medicine and humanitarian supplies were meant to be excluded but were not. Following the US-led war that forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, UN mediator Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan urged the victors to provide humanitarian aid to Iraq and prevent the collapse of health care which, at the time, was provided to 90 per cent of the population. This did not happen. Over the next five years, half a million Iraqi children died of disease and malnutrition and the country’s national health system, the best in the region, deteriorated. Asked in 1996 about this terrible toll, US ambassador to the UN Madeline Albright responded, “I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.” For the US, yes; for Iraqi families, no.

Although sanctions eased in 1996 with the introduction of the UN’s oil-for-food programme, restrictions on oil sales and trade remained until well after the 2003 Iraq war was mounted by George W. Bush at a time Iraq had largely recovered from the 1991 assault. The second Bush war and subsequent occupation plunged Iraq into unending instability and chaos. The health care system collapsed. More than 20,000 doctors fled the country, leaving only 30,000. Today, Iraq has a serious shortage of doctors and health workers because it does not have the funds to employ medical graduates although Covid-19 has Iraq in its brutal grip. Iraqis have suffered 260,400 cases and more than 7,500 deaths. Among these victims are 44 doctors who died and more than 1,500 who have been infected.

Sanctions, initially introduced because of Damascus support for Palestinian opponents of Israel, were intensified after unrest erupted in 2011 and morphed into civil and proxy wars during the middle of that year. The Syrian national health system, which had provided primary care for the majority of Syrians, has been heavily impacted. Doctors have left the country. Widely used medicines have become unavailable due to sanctions. Covid-19 has put a huge strain on clinics, hospitals and staff. Worldometer reports that Syria has had 3,171 covid cases and 134 deaths but these could be underestimates due to difficulties in identifying and tracing cases in a country still beset by warfare, instability and sanctions-driven economic decline.

While lockdown was initially employed to contain infection, Syrians cannot afford prolonged periods of economic inactivity. Protective gear, test kits and medications are absent. Death notices are being posted in neighbourhoods and on social media. Doctors and nurses are among the dead. Danny Makki reporting for the US Middle East Institute argues that Syria cannot “get through this pandemic without some form of serious international medical support”. Instead, the Trump administration has toughened sanctions on firms and individuals who deal with the Syrian government while the Western powers do nothing and insufficient supplies trickle in from the World Health Organisation and China.

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Featured image is from InfoBrics

The great question after yesterday’s hearing was whether prosecution counsel James Lewis QC would continue to charge at defence witnesses like a deranged berserker (spoiler – he would), and more importantly, why?

QC’s representing governments usually seek to radiate calm control, and treat defence arguments as almost beneath their notice, certainly as no conceivable threat to the majestic thinking of the state. Lewis instead resembled a starving terrier kept away from a prime sausage by a steel fence whose manufacture and appearance was far beyond his comprehension.

Perhaps he has toothache.

Professor Paul Rogers

The first defence witness this morning was Professor Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. He has written 9 books on the War on Terror, and has been for 15 years responsible for MOD contracts on training of armed forces in law and ethics of conflict. Rogers appeared by videolink from Bradford.

Prof Rogers’ full witness statement is here.

Edward Fitzgerald QC asked Prof Rogers whether Julian Assange’s views are political (this goes to article 4 in the UK/US extradition treaty against political extradition). Prof Rogers replied that “Assange is very clearly a person of strong political opinions.”

Fitzgerald then asked Prof Rogers to expound on the significance of the revelations from Chelsea Manning on Afghanistan. Prof Rogers responded that in 2001 there had been a very strong commitment in the United States to going to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Easy initial military victories led to a feeling the nation had “got back on track”. George W Bush’s first state of the union address had the atmosphere of a victory rally. But Wikileaks’ revelations in the leaked war logs reinforced the view of some analysts that this was not a true picture, that the war in Afghanistan had gone wrong from the start. It contradicted the government line that Afghanistan was a success. Similarly the Wikileaks evidence published in 2011 had confirmed very strongly that the Iraq War had gone badly wrong, when the US official narrative had been one of success.

Wikileaks had for example proven from the war logs that there were a minimum of 15,000 more civilian deaths than had been reckoned by Iraq Body Count. These Wikileaks exposures of the failures of these wars had contributed in large part to a much greater subsequent reluctance of western powers to go to war at an early stage.

Fitzgerald said that para 8 of Rogers’ report suggests that Assange was motivated by his political views and referenced his speech to the United Nations. Was his intention to influence political actions by the USA?

Rogers replied yes. Assange had stated that he was not against the USA and there were good people in the USA who held differing views. He plainly hoped to influence US policy. Rogers also referenced the statement by Mairead Maguire in nominating Julian for the Nobel Peace Prize:

Julian Assange and his colleagues in Wikileaks have shown on numerous occasions that they are one of the last outlets of true democracy and their work for our freedom and speech. Their work for true peace by making public our governments’ actions at home and abroad has enlightened us to their atrocities carried out in the name of so-called democracy around the world.

Rogers stated that Assange had a clear and coherent political philosophy. He had set it out in particular in the campaign of the Wikileaks Party for a Senate seat in Australia. It was based on human rights and a belief in transparency and accountability of organisations. It was essentially libertarian in nature. It embraced not just government transparency, but also transparency in corporations, trade unions and NGOs. It amounted to a very clear political philosophy. Assange adopted a clear political stance that did not align with conventional party politics but incorporated coherent beliefs that had attracted growing support in recent years.

Fitzgerald asked how this related to the Trump administration. Rogers said that Trump was a threat to Wikileaks because he comes from a position of quite extreme hostility to transparency and accountability in his administration. Fitzgerald suggested the incoming Trump administration had demonstrated this hostility to Assange and desire to prosecute. Rogers replied that yes, the hostility had been evidenced in a series of statements right across the senior members of the Trump administration. It was motivated by Trump’s characterisation of any adverse information as “fake news”.

Fitzgerald asked whether the motivation for the current prosecution was criminal or political? Rogers replied “the latter”. This was a part of the atypical behaviour of the Trump administration; it prosecutes on political motivation. They see openness as a particular threat to this administration. This also related to Trump’s obsessive dislike of his predecessor. His administration would prosecute Assange precisely because Obama did not prosecute Assange. Also the incoming Trump administration had been extremely annoyed by the commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence, a decision they had no power to revoke. For that the prosecution of Assange could be vicarious revenge.

Several senior administration members had advocated extremely long jail sentences for Assange and some had even mooted the death penalty, although Rogers realised that was technically impossible through this process.

Fitzgerald asked whether Assange’s political opinions were of a type protected by the Refugee Convention. Rogers replied yes. Persecution for political opinion is a solid reason to ask for refugee status. Assange’s actions are motivated by his political stance. Finally Fitzgerald then asked whether Rogers saw political significance in the fact that Assange was not prosecuted under Obama. Rogers replied yes, he did. This case is plainly affected by fundamental political motivation emanating from Trump himself.

James Lewis QC then rose to cross-examine for the prosecution. His first question was “what is a political opinion?” Rogers replied that a political opinion takes a particular stance on the political process and does so openly. It relates to the governance of communities, from nations down to smaller units.

Lewis suggested that Assange’s views encompassed the governance of corporations, NGOs and trade unions. They could not therefore be considered as “political opinion”. Rogers replied that the province of the political in the last fifty years or so now includes much more beyond the strict governmental process. Assange particularly discusses relationships between government and corporations and the latter’s influence on government and society as part of a wider ruling establishment.

Lewis then asked “is simply being a journalist a person who expresses political opinions?” Rogers replied not necessarily; there were different kinds of journalist. Lewis than asked “So just being a journalist or publisher does not necessarily mean that you have political opinions, does it?” Rogers replied “not necessarily, but usually.” Lewis then suggested that the expression of editorial opinion was what constituted a political view in a journalist. Rogers replied that was one way, but there were others. Selection of material to publish could manifest a political view.

Lewis then rattled off a series of questions. Is transparency a political opinion? Does Assange hold the view that Governments may never hold secrets? Should that transparency enable putting individuals at risk? There were more.

Rogers replied that these questions did not permit of binary answers.

Lewis then took Rogers to Assange’s speech to the Stop the War Coalition, where he stated that the invasion of Poland at the start of the Second World War was the result of carefully concocted lies. Did Prof Rogers agree with that view? What political opinion did that view represent? Rogers replied it represented a strong political opinion and a particular view on the origin of war. Lewis then quoted another alleged comment of Assange, “Journalists are war criminals” and asked what political opinion that represented. Rogers replied that it represented a suspicion of certain journalistic practices.

Rogers said that he had never said he supported or identified with Assange’s views. He strongly disagreed with some. But that they were coherent political views there was no doubt.

Lewis then read out a lengthy quote by Assange to the effect that strongly anti-transparency governments will always result in more leaks, followed by more restrictions and this would set up a cycle. Lewis asked Rogers what political view this could be said to represent. Rogers replied it was an interesting analysis of the working of highly autocratic systems. Their concern with secrecy leads to increased leaks which decrease their security. He was not sure if it was explicit, but he believed Assange may be positing this as a new development made possible by the internet. Assange’s thesis was that autocratic regimes harbour the seeds of their own destruction. It was not a traditional view held by political scientists but it was worth consideration.

Lewis now changed tack. He stated that Prof Rogers was appearing as a “so-called expert witness” under a continuing obligation to be unbiased. He had a duty to consider all supporting evidence. US Assistant Attorney Gordon Kromberg had submitted an affidavit explicitly denying there was any political motivation for the prosecution, stating that it is evidence based. Why did Prof Rogers not mention the Kromberg statement in his report? An unbiased expert witness would take into account Kromberg’s statement.

Rogers replied that he spoke from his expertise as a political scientist, not a lawyer. He accepted that Kromberg had made his statement but believed a wider view to be more important.

Lewis stated that Kromberg’s first affidavit stated that “based on the available evidence and applicable law a grand jury had approved the charges.” Why had Rogers not mentioned the grand jury? Rogers said that he had taken a wider view about why there was a decision now to prosecute and not in 2011, why Kromberg’s statement was being made now after a gap of eight years. This was anomalous.

Lewis then asked “I want to consider why you did not consider the opposite view. Have you seen the evidence?” At this point he was grinning very strangely indeed, looking up at the judge, leaning back with one arm wide across his chair back, in some sort of peculiar alpha male gesture. I believe Rogers’ videolink only gave him a wide view of the whole courtroom, so how much he could see of the body language of his questioner I am unsure.

Rogers said he had seen the evidence. Lewis gurned in wild-eyed triumph “you cannot have seen the evidence. The evidence has only been seen by the grand jury and not released. You cannot have seen the evidence.” Rogers apologised, and said he had understood Lewis to mean Kromberg’s affidavit as the evidence. Rogers went on to say that less than 24 hours ago he had received an evidence bundle of 350 pages. It was unfair to expect him to have a precise mental picture of every document.

Lewis then returned to a Gordon Kromberg affidavit which said that prosecutors have a code which bars them from taking politically motivated decisions. Rogers replied that may be right in theory, but was untrue in practice, particularly in the USA where a much higher percentage of senior officials in the Department of Justice were political appointees who changed with each administration. Lewis asked Rogers whether he was alleging the prosecutors did not follow the code outlined by Kromberg. Rogers replied you had to consider the motivation of those above the prosecutors who influenced their decisions. “What you are giving me is a fair representation of how federal prosecutors are supposed to do their work. But they work as those above direct them.”

Lewis repeated that the code excludes political motivation for prosecution. Was Rogers claiming that Gordon Kromberg was acting in bad faith? Rogers replied no, but he was acting under political direction. The timing of this indictment after eight years was the key. Lewis asked whether that mattered if a crime had been committed. He referred to historic prosecutions of those soldiers who had allegedly committed crimes in Northern Ireland over twenty years ago. Was it political motivation that led to new prosecutions now? Rogers said this was more about bad faith.

Lewis asked if Rogers understood what Assange was being prosecuted for. Was he being prosecuted for publishing the collateral murder video? Rogers replied no, the charges were more specific and mostly related to the Espionage Act. Lewis stated the majority of charges were focused on complicity in theft and on hacking. Rogers responded there was obviously a wider political question as to why acts were being done in the first place. Lewis stated that on the question of publication, charges only related to the unredacted names of sources. Rogers said that he understood that was what the prosecution is saying, but was not agreed by the defence. But the question remained, why is this being brought now? And you could only look at that from the point of view of developments in American politics over the last twenty years.

Lewis asked Rogers to confirm that he was not saying US prosecutors were acting in bad faith. Rogers replied that he would hope not, at that level. Lewis asked if Rogers’ position was that at a higher level there had been a political decision to prosecute. Rogers said yes. These were complex matters. It was governed by political developments in the US since about 1997. He wished to speak to that… Lewis cut him off and said he preferred to look at evidence. He cited a Washington Post article from 2013 which stated that there had been no formal decision not to prosecute Assange by the Obama administration (this was the same article Lewis had quoted yesterday to Feldstein, on which he had been called out by Edward Fitzgerald for selective quotation). Rogers replied yes, but that must be considered in a wider context.

Lewis again refused to let Rogers develop his evidence, and gave the quotes from Assange’s legal team, again as given yesterday to Feldstein, to the effect they had in 2016 not been informed charges had been dropped. Rogers replied that was just what you would expect from Wikileaks at that time. They did not know and were bound to be cautious.

Lewis: Do you accept there had been a continuing investigation from Obama to Trump administrations.

Rogers: Yes, but we do not know at what level of intensity.

Lewis: Do you accept that there was no decision not to prosecute by Obama

Rogers: There was no decision to prosecute. It did not happen.

Lewis: How could they prosecute when Assange was in the Embassy?

Rogers: That would not preclude a prosecution going ahead and charges being brought. That might be a way to bring pressure on Ecuador.

Lewis: Assange’s lawyer said there was no decision not to prosecute by the Obama administration.

Rogers: I have accepted there was no decision not to prosecute. But there was no prosecution and it was considered.

Lewis: Judge Mehta said there was ongoing investigation of others beside Manning. And Wikileaks tweeted Assange’s willingness to come to the USA to face charges if Manning was granted clemency.

Rogers: Obviously Assange and his lawyer could not be sure of the situation. But it must be understood that bringing Julian Assange to the USA for a major trial of someone who was perceived by many Trump supporters and potential Trump supporters as an enemy of the state, might be of crucial political benefit to Mr Trump.

Lewis now responded that Rogers was not a real expert witness and “had given a biased opinion in favour of Julian Assange”.

Edward Fitzgerald QC then re-examined Prof Rogers for the defence. He said that Mr Lewis had appeared to see something sinister in Mr Assange’s statement that the invasion of Poland and second world war had been started by lies. To what lies did Prof Rogers think that Assange was referring? Rogers replied the lies of the Nazi Regime. Fitzgerald asked if this was a fair point. Rogers replied yes.

Fitzgerald read the context of Assange’s statement which also referred to lies starting the Iraq war. Rogers agreed that lies leading to war was a consistent Assange political theme. Fitzgerald then invited Rogers briefly to summarise the consequences of the change of US administration. Rogers stated that under Trump, the narrative from senior politicians on Wikileaks had changed.

The Bush administration had viewed the Iraq war as essential, with the support of most American people. That view had gradually changed until Obama had won basically on a “withdraw from Iraq” ticket. Similarly the Afghan war had been thought winnable but gradually the political establishment changed their mind. This shift in view was partly due to Wikileaks. By 2015/6 American politics had moved on from the wars and there was no political interest in prosecuting Wikileaks.

Then Trump came in with a completely new attitude to the entire fourth estate and to openness and accountability of the executive. That had led to this prosecution. Fitzgerald directed Rogers to a Washington Post article which stated:

The previously undisclosed disagreement inside the Justice Department underscores the fraught, high-stakes nature of the government’s years-long effort to counter Assange, an Internet-age publisher who has repeatedly declared his hostility to U.S. foreign policy and military operations. The Assange case also illustrates how the Trump administration is willing to go further than its predecessors in pursuit of leakers — and those who publish official secrets.

Rogers agreed this supported his position. Fitzgerald then asked about Lewis’s comparison with prosecution of British soldiers for historical crimes in Northern Ireland. Rogers agreed that their prosecution in no way related to their political opinions, so the cases were not comparable. Rogers’ final point was that four months after Barr took office as attorney general, charges were increased from a single one to eighteen. This was a pretty clear indication of political pressure being put on the prosecutorial system.

Trevor Timm

The afternoon witness was Trevor Timm, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Association in San Francisco, again via videolink. You can see his full evidence statement here. The Freedom of the Press Association teaches and supports investigative journalism and seeks to document and counter violations of media freedom in the USA.

Mr Timm testified that there is a rich history in the USA of famous reporters covering defence and foreign affairs related matters drawing upon classified documents. In 1971 the Supreme Court had decided the government could not censor the NYT from publishing the Pentagon Papers. There have been several instances over history where the government had explored using the Espionage Act to prosecute journalists but no prosecution had ever materialised because of First Amendment constitutional rights.

For the defence, Mark Summers QC put to Mr Timms that this was the prosecution’s case: Chelsea Manning had committed a crime in whistleblowing. So any act that helped Chelsea Manning or solicited material was also a crime. Timm replied this was not the law. It was standard practice for journalists to ask sources for classified material. The implications of this prosecution would criminalise any journalist in receipt of classified intelligence. Virtually every single newspaper in the United States had criticised this decision to prosecute on these grounds, including those that have opposed Wikileaks’ general activities.

This was the only attempt to use the Espionage Act against a person not in government employ apart from the AIPAC case, which had collapsed for that reason. Many great journalists would have been caught by this kind of prosecution, including Woodward and Bernstein for the cultivation of Deep Throat.

Summers asked about the prosecution’s characterisation of the provision of a drop box by Wikileaks to a whistleblower as criminal conspiracy. Timm replied that the indictment treats possession of a secure drop box as a criminal offence. But the Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times and over 80 other news organisations have secure drop boxes. The International Committee of Investigative Journalists has a drop box with a specific “leak to us” page requesting classified documents. Timms’ own foundation had developed in 2014 a secure drop box which they taught, and which had been adopted by multiple news organisations in the USA.

Summers asked if news organisations advertised drop boxes. Timm replied yes. The New York Times links to its secure drop box in its social media posts. Some even took out paid adverts for whistleblowers. Summers asked about the “most wanted list” which the prosecution characterised as criminal solicitation. Timm replied that multiple respectable news organisations actively solicited whistleblowers. The “most wanted” list had been a Wiki document which had been crowdsourced. It was not a Wikileaks document. His own foundation had contributed to it along with many other media organisations. Summers asked if this was criminal activity. Timm replied in the negative.

Summers asked Timm to expound his thoughts on the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture in 2014. Timm said that this vital and damning report on CIA involvement in torture had been much redacted and was based on thousands of classified documents not made available to the public. Virtually the entire media had therefore been involved in trying to obtain the classified material that revealed more of the story. Much of this material was classified Top Secret – higher than the Manning material. Many newspapers appealed for whistleblowers to come forward with documents and he had himself published an appeal to that effect in the Guardian.

Summers asked if it had ever been suggested to Timm this was criminal behaviour. Timm replied no, the universal belief had been that it was first amendment protected free speech. The current indictment is unconstitutional.

James Lewis QC then cross-examined for the prosecution. He said this was claimed to be expert opinion, but did Timm know what that meant in UK law? Timm said he had an obligation to explain his qualification and to tell the truth. Lewis replied that he was also supposed to be objective, unbiased and have no conflict of interest. But the Free Press Foundation had contribute to Assange’s defence fund. Lewis asked how much? Timm replied US$100,000.

Lewis asked if there were any conditions under which the Foundation would get their money back. Timm replied no, not to his knowledge. Lewis asked whether Timm would feel personally threatened were this case to go to prosecution. Timm replied that would represent a threat to many thousands of journalists. The Espionage Act was so widely drafted it would even pose a threat to purchasers and readers of newspapers containing leaked information.

Lewis said that Timm had testified that he had written advocating a leaking of CIA material. Did he fear he would be prosecuted himself? Timm replied no, he had not asked for material to be leaked to himself. But this prosecution was a real threat to thousands of journalists represented by his organisation.

Lewis said that the prosecution position is that Assange is not a journalist. Timm replied that he is a journalist. Being a journalist does not mean working for the mainstream media. There was a long legal history of that going back to pamphleteers at the time of Independence.

This cross examination was not going so well, and Lewis reached yet again for Gordon Kromberg’s affidavit as for a comfort blanket. Kromberg had sworn that the Department of Justice takes seriously the protection of journalists and that Julian Assange is no journalist. Kromberg had further sworn that Julian Assange was only being prosecuted for conspiring to illegally obtain material, and for publishing unredacted names of informants who would be at risk of death. The government is going out of its way to stress it is not prosecuting journalism.

Timm replied that he based his opinion on what the indictment said, not on the Department of Justice press release from which Lewis had read. Three of these charges relate to publication. The other charges relate to possession of material. Lewis said that Timm was missing the hacking allegation which was central to Count 1 and several other counts. Lewis quoted an article in the Law Review of New York Law School, which said that it was illegal for a journalist to obtain material from the wreckage of a crashed airplane, from an illegal wiretap or from theft, even if the purpose were publication. Would it not be illegal to conspire with a source to commit hacking?

Timm replied that in this case the allegation appeared to be that the hacking was to protect the identity of the source, not to steal documents. Protection of sources was an obligation.

Lewis then asked Timm if he had seen the actual evidence that supports the indictment. Timm replied only some of it, in particular the Java script of the messages allegedly between Assange and Manning. Lewis said Timm could not have seen all the evidence as it had not been published. Timm replied he had not said he had seen it all. He had seen the alleged Assange/Manning messages which had been published.

Lewis said that Assange had published unredacted material which put lives in danger. That was the specific charge. Timm replied that, assuming the assertion was true, the prosecution was still unconstitutional. There was a difference between responsible and irresponsible, and legal and illegal. An act could be irresponsible, even blameworthy, and still not illegal.

There had never been a prosecution for publication of names of informants, even where they were allegedly put in harm’s way. Following the official line about harm to informants precisely due to Wikileaks’ publication of the cables, Senator Joe Liebermann had introduced the Shield Bill into Congress. It failed specifically on First Amendment grounds. The episode tells us two things; firstly that Congress considered publication of informants’ names was not illegal and secondly that neither did they wish to make it illegal.

Lewis quoted a Guardian editorial condemning the publication of names, and stated that the Washington Post, New York Times, El Pais and Der Spiegel among many others had condemned it too. Timm replied that still did not make it illegal. The US government ought not to be the arbiter of whether an editorial decision is correct or not. Timm also felt it worth noting in passing that all of those media outlets whose opinions Lewis held in such high regard, had condemned the current attempt at prosecution.

Lewis asked why we should prefer Timm’s opinion to that of the courts. Timm replied that his opinion was in line with the courts. Countless decisions over centuries upheld the First Amendment. It was the indictment which was out of tune with the courts. The Supreme Court had expressly stated that there was no balance of harm argument in First Amendment cases.

Lewis asked Timm what qualification he had to comment on legal matters. Timm replied he had graduated from Law School and had gained admission to the New York Bar, but rather than practice he had worked on academic analysis of media freedom cases. The Foundation often joined in with litigation in support of media freedom, on an amicus basis.

Lewis said (in a tone of disbelief) that Timm had stated this prosecution was part of “Trump’s war on journalism”. Timm cut in niftily. Yes, he explained, we keep track on Trump’s war on journalism. He has sent out over 2,200 tweets attacking journalists. He has called journalists “enemies of the people”. There is a great deal of available material on this.

Lewis asked why Timm had failed to note that US Assistant Attorney Gordon Kromberg had specifically denied that there was a war on journalists? Timm said he had addressed these arguments in his evidence, though without specifically referencing Kromberg. Lewis stated that Timm had also not addressed Kromberg’s assertion that Assange is not charged simply with receipt of classified material. Timm replied that is because Kromberg’s assertion is inaccurate. Assange is indeed charged with offences encompassing passive receipt. If you get to count 7, for example and look at the legislation it charges under, it does precisely criminalise passive receipt and possession.

Lewis asked why Timm had omitted Kromberg’s reference to the grand jury decision? Timm replied that it meant very little: 99.9% of grand juries agree to return a prosecution. An academic study of 152,000 grand juries had revealed only 11 which had refused the request of a federal prosecutor to prosecute.

Lewis asked Timm why he had failed to mention that Kromberg asserted that a federal prosecutor may not take political considerations into account. Timm replied that did not reflect reality. Prosecution was one prong of many in President Trump’s war on journalism. Lewis asked whether Timm was saying that Kromberg and his colleagues were acting in bad faith. Timm replied no, but there had been a story in the Washington Post that more senior federal prosecutors had been opposed to the prosecution as contrary to the First Amendment and thus unconstitutional.

Mark Summers then re-examined for the defence. He said that Kromberg presents two grounds for Assange not being a journalist. The first is that he conspired with Manning to obtain confidential material. Timm replied that this cultivating of a source was routine journalistic activity. The indictment is precluded by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has ruled that even if a journalist knows that material is stolen (but not by him), he may still publish with entitlement to First Amendment protection.

Summers asked Timm about Lewis’s comparison of Assange’s contact with Manning to theft from an airplane wreck or illegal wiretap. Timm said this alleged offence did not reach that bar. The government does not allege that Assange himself helped Manning to steal the material. It alleges he provided help to crack a code that enabled Manning better to protect his identity.

Lewis here interrupted with a lengthy quote from one of Kromberg’s affidavits, to the effect that the government was now alleging that Assange helped Manning hack a password in order to facilitate obtaining classified information. Timm said yet again Kromberg’s affidavit did not appear to match the actual indictment. The claim there is that the password hacking “may have made it more difficult to identify Manning”. It is about source protection, not theft. Source protection is normal journalistic activity.

Summers stated that Kromberg’s second justification for stating that Assange is not a journalist was that he published the names of sources. Timm replied that he understood these facts were disputed, but in any event the Supreme Court had made plain such publication still enjoyed First Amendment protection. Controversial editorial choice did not render you “not a journalist”.

Summers asked Timm if he accepted Kromberg’s characterisation that Assange was only being prosecuted for alleged hacking and for publication of names. Timm said he did not. Counts 16, 17 and 18 were for publishing. All the other counts related to possession. Count 7 for example was for “knowingly unlawful receiving and obtaining”. That described passive receipt of classified information and would criminalise much legitimate journalistic activity. Huge swathes of defence, national security and foreign affairs reporting would be criminalised.

Comment

The defence have been attempting the last two days to make a rational case that this is a politically motivated prosecution and therefore not eligible under the terms of the UK/US extradition treaty of 2007 (relevant extract pictured above).

In opening argument back in February, the prosecution had run a frankly farcical argument that Article 4 of the treaty does not apply as incompatible with UK law, and an esto argument that Assange’s activity is not political as in law that word can only mean support for a particular party. Hence Lewis’s sparring on that point with Prof Rogers today, in which Lewis was well out of his depth.

Lewis primary tactic has been rudeness and aggression to disconcert witnesses. He questions their honesty, fairness, independence and qualifications. Today his bullying tactics ran foul of two classier performers than he. That is no criticism of Professor Feldstein yesterday, whose quiet dignity and concern was effective in a different way in exposing Lewis as a boor.

Lewis’s remaining tactic is to fall back repeatedly on the affidavits of Gordon Kromberg, US Assistant Attorney, and his statements that the prosecution is not politically motivated, and on Kromberg’s characterisation of the extent of the charges, which everybody else but Lewis and Kromberg finds inconsistent with the superseding indictment itself.

Witnesses understandably back away from Lewis’s challenge to call Kromberg a liar, or even to question his good faith. Lewis’s plan is very plainly to declare at the end that every witness accepted Kromberg’s good faith and therefore this is a fair prosecution and the defence have no case.

Perhaps I can assist. I do not accept Kromberg’s good faith. I have no hesitation in calling Kromberg a liar.

When the best thing your most supportive colleague can say about you, is that out-and-out Islamophobes do enjoy temporary popularity in the immediate aftermath of a terror attack, then there is a real problem. There is a real problem with Gordon Kromberg, and Lewis may very well come to regret resting the weight of the credibility of his entire case upon such a shoogly peg.

Kromberg has a repeated history of Islamophobic remarks, including about Muslim women. As the Wall Street Journal reported on September 15th 2008,

“Kromberg has taken a lot of heat recently for comments made and tactics taken in terrorism prosecutions”… said Andrew McCarthy, a former federal terrorism prosecutor. “As long as nothing goes boom, they want to say you’re an Islamophobe. The moment something does go boom, if the next 9/11 happens, God help anyone who says they weren’t as aggressive as Gordon.”

For British readers, Kromberg is Katie Hopkins with a legal brief. Conjure up that image every one of the scores of times Lewis relies on Gordon Kromberg.

More to the point, all expert witnesses have so far said that Kromberg’s precious memoranda explaining the scope of the indictment are inaccurate. It is at odds either with actual practice in the USA (the lawyer Clive Stafford Smith made this point) or the actual statutes to which it refers (the lawyers Trevor Timm and of course Mark Summers QC for the defence both make this point).

Crucially, Kromberg has a proven history of precisely this kind of distortion away from the statute. Also from the Wall Street Journal:

Federal judge Leonie M. Brinkema lashed out at the prosecutor [Kromberg], calling his remark insulting. Earlier, she had chastised Kromberg for changing a boilerplate immunity order beyond the language spelled out by Congress and questioned whether Arian’s constitutional rights had been violated.

“I’m not in any respect attributing evil motives or anything clandestine to you, but I think it’s real scary and not wise for a prosecutor to provide an order to the Court that does not track the explicit language of the statutes, especially this particular statute,” Brinkema said at the hearing in the Alexandria courtroom.

Next time Lewis asks a witness if they are questioning Kromberg’s good faith, they might want to answer “yes”. It certainly will not be the first time. As Trevor Timm testified today, senior prosecutors in the Justice Department had opposed this prosecution as unconstitutional and refused to be involved. Trump was left with this discredited right wing sleazeball. Now here we are at the Old Bailey, with a floundering Lewis clutching at this oaf Kromberg for intellectual support.

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Featured image is from 21st Century Wire

NATO has stepped up its activities in the neutral waters of the Barents Sea, raising tensions in the Arctic region. In just one day, Russian pilots escorted three military planes, one Norwegian and two British. One of the British planes was headed specifically for the Russian border when it was identified and escorted by the Russian fighter MiG-29, which caused discontent among Russian military and politicians.

Aerial maneuvers in the region were intense and revealed a new stage in the operations of the Western military alliance in the vicinity of the Arctic. Commenting about the incidents, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that, while NATO training flights near Russian borders are not new, the nature of those flights has changed, considering that military flights were less frequent and now they are regular, with constant war training and missile tests, with a large number of aircrafts being used in such operations.

It is important to note, however, that the increased activities of NATO forces has been general and not restricted to the Arctic zone alone. Previously, on September 1, Russian fighters escorted three US Air Force strategic B-52H bombers over the Baltic Sea. The day before, August 31, a Su-27 fighter from the Russian Aerospace Force intercepted four NATO planes heading for the Russian border. In addition, in the past week, Russian fighters had to take off three times to escort a Norwegian Air Force aircraft over the Barents Sea.

NATO’s maritime presence has been equally striking. Currently, the US Navy destroyer USS Ross, armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and the Aegis air defense system, is leading a fleet of NATO warships that entered the Barents Sea on September 7.

These ships, bases and fighter planes are part of a major military program that aims to build a complex defense system for Europe. In fact, NATO continues to prepare for an eventual war against Russia and uses increasingly aggressive maneuvers to demonstrate its military strength and capability. What is not yet clear is the reason for such an alarm for a possible war. After all, what would be Russia’s interest in a war against the West (in NATO programs, it is preparing for a possible Russian attack)? The one who shows the most hostility and does not seem to want any kind of friendly relationship with Moscow is precisely the Western alliance, and the reasons seem clear.

NATO is a military organization designed by Washington exclusively to serve American interests. The alliance was created in the Cold War, in a context of geopolitical bipolarity precisely to contain the Soviet advance and guarantee Western interests. After the end of the Cold War, what is its purpose for existence, considering that the US already enjoys the global dominance? Simply, to preserve and perpetuate such hegemony. However, American power is in significant decline, with several facts showing the emergence of a multipolar world.

Faced with this scenario, Washington, which leads NATO, is organizing demonstrations of force that are aimed simply at ensuring the West’s ability to maintain its dominance in case of a conflict or war. Thus, determined targets are chosen to be the focus of these demonstrations, such as Russia in Europe, China in the Pacific, Venezuela in the Caribbean. For each of these targets, Washington invests in the support of a geographically close countries or region, such as Western Europe in the Russian case, India in the Chinese case and Colombia in the Venezuelan case. In fact, none of these target countries has any pretensions to declare war against the US, invade Europe or anything similar. These narratives are created to justify dangerous and bold military maneuvers whose aim is simply to demonstrate force.

Especially in the Arctic, the US has a historical weakness, with Russia playing a role of regional hegemony. Washington is increasingly trying to gain space in the Arctic zone, but it cannot reverse its historical backwardness alone, thus depending on a joint NATO effort.

However, the effects of these measures are extremely dangerous. Russia cannot simply ignore the provocations, accepting that foreign forces carry out maneuvers on its border. Moscow will certainly react with similar exercises and as a result the diplomatic crisis with the US will deepen. Likewise, the role of European countries in Washington’s plans is unstable. Such military maneuvers do not favor major European interests, but many countries with lesser military potential see NATO as a possibility to increase its geopolitical relevance and then adhere to all the programs of the alliance. In the Arctic, however, all NATO efforts are unlikely to be successful, with Russian regional dominance being virtually irreversible in the current circumstances.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Lucas Leiroz is a research fellow in international law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

Over the last two decades the western imperialist states and their allies have imposed draconian sanctions on the Southern African nation of Zimbabwe.

Not only has the economic embargo impacted the majority of Zimbabweans, the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has been impacted negatively.

Nonetheless, the 15-member SADC grouping has maintained its solidarity with Harare amid repeated attempts to destabilize and overthrow the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union, Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) ruling party. These efforts include the funding of numerous opposition parties and their political initiatives along with threats some years ago to engage in a direct military intervention by Britain, the former colonial power.

On September 8, the fraternal African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa sent a delegation to Zimbabwe for discussions with its ZANU-PF counterparts. ZANU-PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa told the Zimbabwe Herald newspaper that the ANC delegation would only meet with the ruling party as they were sister organizations which had transformed themselves from liberation movements into ruling parties.

Image on the right: Zimbabwe Mininster of Industry and Commerce Dr. Sekai Nzenza (Herald photo)

The visit by the ANC leadership group comes amid the backdrop of renewed attempts by opposition parties in both countries to cast aspiration on the Zimbabwe government. Ace Magashule, the Secretary General of the ANC, led the delegation from South Africa aimed at discussing important matters affecting the entire SADC region.

An article published on September 9 in the state-owned Herald says of the ANC delegation that it is composed of:

“Apart from Cde Magashule, the ANC delegation includes, party national chairman Cde Samson Gwede Mantashe, Cde Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula (member of the NEC and Minister of Defense and Military Veterans), Cde Tony Yengeni (member of the NEC and National Working Committee (NWC), and chairperson of the NEC on Peace and Stability), Cde Lindiwe Zulu (member of the NEC, chairperson of the NEC on International Relations and Minister of Social Development) and Cde Enoch Godongwana (member of NEC and chairperson of the NEC on Economic Transformation.”

At the same time the current social and political situation in South Africa is a cause for concern within the region and Africa as a whole. South Africa has the largest number of COVID-19 pandemic cases while the ANC government is struggling to provide adequate testing and mitigation efforts.

As of September 9, the number of confirmed cases in South Africa is 640,441. Some 15,086 people have died from the virus and 567,729 are considered recovered.

The pandemic and the government’s declaration of a health emergency in late March have been paralleled by the rise of an already high jobless rate. Concomitantly, the value of the national currency, the rand, has been in decline.

President Cyril Ramaphosa told a virtual briefing of the South African National Editor’s Forum (SANEF) on September 9, in relationship to government policy aimed at addressing the financial crisis:

“We will be able to identify key projects across all our provinces that we can embark on. Some of them are ready and some are almost ready by a press of a button very shortly and they will create quite a number of jobs.”

Contrasting these figures with Zimbabwe where the number of those infected are far lower, the ZANU-PF government has been successful in limiting the spread of the disease inside the country. Zimbabwe has 7,388 confirmed COVID-19 cases, some 2,018 deaths from the disease, while 5,477 people are deemed to have recovered.

These official statistics on the public health situation in Zimbabwe have ironically been confirmed by the United States Embassy in the capital of Harare. Successive administrations in Washington since 2000 and even before, have maintained a hostile diplomatic posture towards ZANU-PF.

However, in a press release issued on September 9, the U.S. Embassy warned of the overall threat of international travel which has continued since March. The Embassy cited the same statistics being published by various global data centers including the World Health Organization (WHO), which has been publicly attacked by the administration of President Donald Trump leading to the withdrawal of funding to the agency based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Opposition Parties and Imperialism in Southern Africa

The leading group attempting to unseat the elected ZANU-PF government in Zimbabwe is the Movement for Democratic Change (Alliance). The MDC-A is one of many other MDC formations which arose at the time of the comprehensive land reform program during 2000 when the previous administration of the late first President Robert Mugabe expedited land redistribution.

Zimbabwe’s land question was the basis for the mobilization and organization of the people during the national liberation struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. In order to avoid an outright military victory by the armed revolutionary guerrilla organizations of ZANU-PF and the-then Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU-PF) headed by the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, the U.S., working with Britain, the previous colonial power in Zimbabwe, facilitated a political settlement to the independence war at the Lancaster House talks in late 1979.

These talks resulted in internationally-supervised multi-party elections during April 1980 when ZANU-PF won an overwhelming majority. A coalition government encompassing ZANU-PF, ZAPU-PF and the remnants of the settler-colonial regime ruled the country for five years when a new republic was born. By 1987, ZANU-PF and ZAPU-PF had merged, resolving many of the political difficulties which arose during the early years of independence.

Both Washington and London had pledged to assist the Zimbabwe government in the land reform process during the Lancaster House talks. These imperialist governments reneged on their promises prompting the ZANU-PF administration to pass legislation in 2000 expropriating the European settler-colonial agricultural class, taking back for the African people the most arable and productive land inside the country.

Image below: Zimbabwe Minister of Information Monica Mutsvangwa (Herald photo)

Despite reports to the contrary in recent months, the Zimbabwe Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa, reiterated that the land reform process was irreversible. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been involved in efforts to improve relations with all of the country’s adversaries since he took office in November 2017. Negotiations with some displaced European farmers have resulted in the resumption of agricultural production by a small number of these business interests.

However, the U.S. maintains its hostile position towards the ZANU-PF government. In late July, Chinamasa described the Washington ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols, as a “thug.” Nichols was accused of funding the opposition to deliberately destabilize the country and place Zimbabwe at greater risk of a wider spread of COVID-19.

MDC-A leaders were seeking to hold an anti-government demonstration on July 31 which would have contravened the public health policies enacted by President Mnangagwa. Chinamasa said on July 27 that:

“He (Nichols) continues to engage in acts of undermining this republic and if he does so, if he continues engaging in acts of mobilizing and funding disturbances, coordinating violence and training insurgents, our leadership will not hesitate to give him marching orders. Diplomats should not behave like thugs, and Brian Nichols is a thug.”

U.S. Has Horrendous Human Rights Record

Since the beginning of 2020, Washington has been further exposed for its failure in the public health sphere. The U.S. has over 6 million COVID-19 cases resulting in excess of 190,000 deaths since February.

The economic impact of the pandemic triggered a 32% decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter, the sum total of goods and services produced in a given country. Millions are still unemployed while being imperiled by the threat of evictions, foreclosures and hunger.

After a series of police and vigilante killings of African Americans and other people of color, the law-enforcement execution of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 sparked a nationwide upsurge in anti-racist demonstrations and urban rebellions. Calls for the defunding and dismantling of police have taken on a mass character.

Consequently, the Trump administration’s destabilization program against Zimbabwe and the entire SADC region has been rejected by progressive forces throughout the sub-continent and beyond. The country and region needs humanitarian assistance, not unwarranted interference in their internal affairs.

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

All images in this article are from Herald; featured image: Zimbabwe ZANU-PF and ANC delegation hold critical talks in Harare on September 9, 2020 (Herald photo)

2020 is an unusual year; weddings have been cancelled, schools closed, almost all large public gatherings banned, the global economy dismantled; the middle class and Main Street’s small and medium sized businesses are struggling to survive.  In California, the film industry, the theaters have been hit hard.  The Grand Lake Theater, which has generously hosted countless events and 15 prior 9/11 Truth Film Festivals is currently closed.

In March, the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance could no longer meet legally and was forced to hold meetings in cyberspace. No Lies Radio, hosted Zoom meetings for the group; discussions and organizing continued, despite the obstacles and challenges that everyone faced  The group voted to go “virtual” this year, with the assistance of No Lies Radio, who has been web-streaming the live Film Festival for many years.

The Grand Lake Theater created a wonderful space for public interaction. The lobby was always filled with tables and the opportunity for people to converse, share materials, organize, inspire and support one another. It was where the choir met.  There were hugs, the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones. The unique atmosphere of an old-style theater with popcorn, cookies, kindred spirits gathering together, in person, was a wonderful experience for many people.. However, a virtual Film Festival is the best we can do, under the current circumstances, when Draconian laws mandate social distancing and mask wearing. Online webinars do allow some interactivity, questions and answers, and bringing in distant speakers. Guns and Butter’s Bonnie Faulkner will kick off the Film Festival, as she has for 16 years. The program will be posted on the Northern California 9/11 Truth website [sf911Truth.org] when we finalize it. The Film Festival will be held Thursday, September 10th, noon to 8:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time.

As this dramatic year continues to unfold, the program is evolving; some films are still in production. Included are the best 9/11 Truth films that we could find, since last year’s Film Festival. In addition to 9/11, our speakers will address Covid19 and the problems facing the upcoming national election.

The impact of 9/11 continues to shape US domestic and foreign policy, robbing us of our liberties, and costing millions of lives, as the subsequent wars continue to wreak havoc abroad. The Northern California 9/11 Truth  Alliance has  been committed to “ seek and disseminate truths about the terrible crimes committed on September 11, 2001, exposing gaps and deceptions in the official story. Our goal is to inspire more eyewitness revelations, truthful media coverage, and a movement that will bring the responsible criminals to justice and eliminate governmental and corporate policies that enable criminal elements to commit such acts.”

This year’s Featured Films include:

‘Calling Out Bravo 7 2020 Edition’

Produced by Firefighters for 9/11 Truth, this excellent, comprehensive documentary, includes details on the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings on 9/11 that are not well known. Very informative and important, a must see, especially for those who have never realized the deep flaws within the official narrative

‘The Genesis of The 9/11 “War on Terror”: How Much Does Mainstream Academia Really Know?’

Compiled from an excellent presentation by Dr. Piers Robinson on 9/11/2019 at the Public Master Class on the events of September 11, 2001 in Zurich, Switzerland.  Dr Piers Robinson is Co-Director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies, convenor of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media and associated researcher with the Working Group on Propaganda and the 9/11 Global ‘War on Terror’.  He is currently a Speciality Chief Editor for Political Communication and Society, Frontiers in Communication and sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals.

‘9/11 Whistleblowers‘

Produced by James Corbett, The Corbett Report. A detailed look at the whistleblowers, that have spoken out, whose voices and stories have challenged  the official narrative. They include- Kevin Ryan, Cate Jenkins, Barry Jennings, Michael Springmann and William Rodriguez.

And more to be announced.

Featured Speakers and Panelists:

Kevin Ryan- Heroic whistleblower, Kevin Ryan, was fired for going public on 9/11 by Underwriters Laboratories. He has continued to speak out, and investigate the events of 9/11. He has authored numerous articles, the book-‘ Another Nineteen: Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects’ and has edited The Journal of 9/11 Studies. He will speak on “Parallels Between 9/11 and Covid19.”

Jonathan Simon– Author of ‘CODE RED: Computerized Elections and the War on American Democracy-Election 2020 Edition’, Executive Director of Election Defense Alliance, he has published numerous papers on various aspects of election integrity since 2004. Dr. Simon is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Law and will address “Could the November Election be Stolen?”

New York Fire Commissioner Christopher  Goia of the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department, helped pass a powerful resolution in support of the Grand Jury Investigation of 9/11 in July 2019.  He served in the Marine Corps, and as an Emergency Medical Technician for 25 years, he also worked  in construction, and volunteered for the Fire Department for three decades.

Erik Lawyer– Founder of Firefighters for 9/11 Truth. Currently Erik lives and works in Colorado building community and resilience. His organization, One Becoming One works on personal transformation, as well as overcoming fear through love.

Access to the Film Festival can be found at No Lies Radio.

Another Virtual 9/11 Truth Conference

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is behind “Justice Rising,” an online conference on the struggle for 9/11 justice. The international lineup features David Ray Griffin, Niels Harrit, and Steven Jones. It will also offer a deep look into AE911Truth’s upcoming feature documentary SEVEN.

Friday, September 11: 6 to 9 PM Eastern (12 to 2 AM Central European Summer Time)

Saturday, September 12: 3 to 6 PM Eastern (9 to 11 PM Central European Summer Time)

Sunday, September 13: 6 to 9 PM Eastern (12 to 2 AM Central European Summer Time)

Justice Friday: Richard Gage, AIA, will open the conference. Speakers will include UK 9/11 family member Matt Campbell and barrister Nick Stanage; AE911Truth’s Ted Walter and Tony Szamboti; and, from the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, Mick Harrison and David Meiswinkle.

Science Saturday: SEVEN director Dylan Avery; Dr. Leroy Hulsey, whose Building 7 study the film is about; AE911Truth board member Roland Angle; and 9/11 researchers David Ray Griffin, Niels Harrit, and Steven Jones.

Big Picture Sunday: “War on Terror” expert Daniele Ganser; the Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead; and James Corbett of The Corbett Report.

For more information, please visit this page.

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Carol Brouillet Co-Founder of the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, and organizer of many, many, conferences, film festivals, rallies, marches. Publisher of over 7,000,000 Deception and Perception Dollars to draw attention to the problems with the official 9/11 narrative and promote peaceful alternatives to the dominant paradigm. Mother, Congressional candidate, radio-show host for many years, concerned and active on many different issues, especially global economics. Her website is http://www.communitycurrency.org/.

Nineteen years ago today, on September 9th, 2001, two days prior to the tragic events of 9/11, the Global Research website was launched at www.globalresearch.ca.

We started up in late August with a handmade web design on FrontPage.  A student in philosophy gave me a hand in drafting the home page and putting the project online. (See below for screenshot.)

On the morning of September 8,  I took a two hour “crash course” on the use of file transfer FTP software from a young software specialist, who taught me how to upload articles to the website.

Among our first articles was a coverage of the events surrounding 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan on October 7.

(Viewable here: https://web.archive.org/web/20011014234017/http://www.globalresearch.ca/)

From these modest beginnings, with virtually no resources, the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) has evolved into a dynamic research and independent online media group.

So much has changed since 2001, but the need for independent voices reporting on issues of global concern remains, and is perhaps more important now than ever before in GlobalResearch.ca’s 19 years online.

We are the crossroads of a global crisis which must be understood and analyzed in all its complexities.

Our thanks to our authors from all major regions of the World, from all walks of life, from committed independent voices, journalists, scholars, scientists, college and high school students, human rights and anti-war activists, environmentalists.

Over the years, more than 25,000 authors have contributed to Global Research (in English, French and Spanish as well as in other languages).

There is an ongoing campaign against independent media including Global Research.

Truth is a powerful and “peaceful weapon”.

On our 19th Birthday, Freedom of Expression Must Prevail.

Michel Chossudovsky, September 9, 2020

Click to donate:

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On behalf of the Global Research team, we extend our sincere thanks for your continued support and encouragement over all these years!

Imagine the reaction if the Russian government funded programs and events for years inside the US to create youth groups indoctrinated in support of Moscow’s interests – particularly in regards to voting in US elections and the shaping of the US government itself.

It would be considered up to and including an act of war, with Russian-funded organizations in the US dismantled, those involved jailed for sedition and even treason, and heavy penalties leveled against Russia directly.

Yet the United States itself has been engaged in these very activities for years – directly interfering in the internal political affairs of targeted nations around the globe.

“Youth” groups directly involved in current protests across Asia – from Hong Kong to Thailand – propped up by US government money are the result of years of US efforts to recruit, indoctrinate, and turn the region’s youth against incumbent governments – especially those with close ties to China.

Washington “Youth” Brand in Thailand

The Western media and their Thai partners have helped build up the “youth” brand of recent anti-government protests in Thailand.

Despite Thailand’s billionaire-led opposition and the US government itself being behind virtually every aspect of the current protests – they are still described as “youth-led,” “self-organized,” “organic,” and “spontaneous.”

Of course, with major rallies – including one supposedly organized by secondary school children – featuring expensive stages, professionally printed banners, ribbons, flags, and clothing, promoted by US government-funded media platforms across US-based social media platforms, and serving the interests of opposition parties led by aging billionaires – there is obviously nothing youthful, self-organized, organic, or spontaneous about any of them.

But where did this “youth” brand come from?

One of the Thai “youth” leaders – Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak – visiting the US Embassy in 2016 provides a clue.

In fact, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak’s visit was just part of a much wider strategy by the US government to manipulate and leverage not only Thailand’s youth, but young people across all of Southeast Asia to create a pro-Western political bloc to weild against a rising China and its allies in the region.

US “Pivot to Asia’s” Failure Led to Using, Abusing, Hiding Behind Region’s Youth

It was part of the US “Pivot to Asia” which began in 2011 with then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s article in Foreign Policy Magazine titled, “America’s Pacific Century” – a manifesto declaring America’s desire to establish hegemony over Asia.

Clinton would state:

The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action.

Of course, the United States isn’t located in Asia.

An entire ocean stands between the continents of North America and Asia. Asia’s affairs are no more America’s business than America’s business is Asia’s. For the US to be “right at the center of the action” is a declaration of intent to impose American interests onto the region at the expense of Asia’s collective sovereignty.

Clinton herself references Afghanistan and Iraq – located in another region the US was “at the center of the action” in – and a region America’s interference including multiple wars of aggression has left utterly devastated by war, infighting, terrorism, economic collapse, and several of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century.

While Clinton pretended to advocate working with China in her article, she also made sure to promote Washington’s growing investments in confrontations with Beijing. This includes in the South China Sea where the US poses as self-appointed arbiter in territorial claims. It also includes the US State Department’s “Lower Mekong Initiative” in which the US seeks to create tensions between China and Southeast Asia over the use of the Mekong River which flows through the region.

Clinton also admitted to America’s growing military presence in the region while attempting to deny its purpose was to “constrain China’s growth.” But of course it was for decades and still is Washington’s primary foreign policy objective in Asia to encircle and contain China’s growth – a fact now all but entirely admitted by the US government.

Enter Asia’s Youth

America’s “Pivot to Asia” began with attempts to bend regional governments into partnerships with Washington against China.

This categorically failed with even the Philippines at one point disregarding an “international” court case the US funded and fought for on its behalf against China – deciding instead to resolve its dispute with Beijing bilaterally itself.

Other nations that had once maintained relatively close ties to the US – including Thailand – had already begun a pivot of their own – toward Beijing.

With the possibility of persuading existing governments to do Washington’s bidding all but extinguished – efforts began to leverage US “soft power” as a means of coercing or even replacing uncooperative governments. This included ongoing efforts to build up opposition parties but also to augment them with the region’s “youth.”

Washington’s YSEALI and Generation Democracy 

This manifested itself in several ways through a series of programs, events, and through huge amounts of funding via the US State Department itself as well as through the US’ notorious regime change arm, the National Endowment for Democracy.

One program created in 2013 called “Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative” (YSEALI) sought to indoctrinate a cadre of local youths from across ASEAN – including through trips to the United States itself and “seeding” money provided to start activist groups upon returning home.

Through a variety of programs and engagements, including U.S. educational and cultural exchanges, regional exchanges, and seed funding, YSEALI seeks to build the leadership capabilities of youth in the region, strengthen ties between the United States and Southeast Asia, and nurture an ASEAN community.

YSEALI’s own mission statement admits (emphasis added):

In case one cannot spot what’s wrong with YSEALI’s mission statement, simply imagine a Russian-funded program operating in the US, Canada, and Mexico “building the leadership capabilities of youth” in North America.

YSEALI Thai alumni are – almost without exception – both anti-China and now fully involved in Thailand’s current ongoing anti-government protests.

Another program is called “Generation Democracy” funded by the US NED and its subsidiary, the International Republican Institute (IRI).

Launched in Bangkok in 2017 by US Ambassador to Thailand Glyn Davies – a US National War College graduate who specialized in “non-military instruments in persuasive, inducement, and coercive strategies” – it sought to – according to its own website (emphasis added):

“Young people in Asia are looking to build a vibrant future that is citizen-centered and hopeful,” said IRI President Ambassador Mark Green. “Through Generation Democracy, we look forward to working with them to make this vision a reality.”

Again, imagine a Russian-funded program aimed at helping selected youth build America’s future. By doing so, one can easily see how the activities of YSEALI and Generation Democracy – when looking past its superficial platitudes – constitutes blatant political interference in violation of international law and norms – law and norms the US itself would never allow to be infringed upon in protecting its own internal political affairs.

An example of how these programs are involved in shaping the decisions of young voters in Southeast Asia and in Thailand specifically – was Generation Democracy’s 2019 workshop held at Thammasat University called, “Get out the Vote (GOTV) Ideathon.”

This weekend, Thais will go to the polls for their first general election in eight years. Since 2014, Thailand has been under a military led government, creating an environment where civic and political participation is severely limited.The US IRI’s own website in a post titled, “Thailand: Young People Refuse To Be Silenced In This Historic Election Year,” directly reflects Thai opposition talking points depicting the current pro-Beijing government in Thailand as “authoritarian” and the “youth’s” desire to replace it with “democracy” according to Washington D.C.

The post claims:

Nothing is mentioned about what happened in 2014 or the fact that the military-led government had ousted the previous government – headed by billionaire fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra – which was in the process of robbing nearly a million rice farmers and killing protesters in the streets.

By the time the military intervened, over 20 people including women and children had died in nearly daily attacks on protests sites. It is no coincidence that both the US government and the Thai opposition it sponsors omit this crucial context.

IRI’s tone is identical to the current Thai opposition’s because the US government directly backs and has deliberately shaped the opposition’s agenda in Thailand.

In addition to laying the groundwork over the last several years to recruit and leverage Thailand’s youth – the US government through the NED is funding virtually every aspect of Thailand’s current so-called “student protests” – everything from forming the protest’s leadership, to organizing petitions to rewrite Thailand’s constitution, to promoting the protests across the media, to even filling up the protests with people.

The ultimate and stated goal of the protesters themselves is regime change and the rewriting of Thailand’s constitution.

It is a process that has repeated itself all over the world and over many years.

The New York Times article, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” revealed how these same groups now working to shape Thailand’s opposition and the nation’s youth today were behind the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011 – previously claimed to have been “self-organized” by regional youths.

One of the primary forums used by the US government to recruit, train, and equip Arab World youth was literally called the Youth Movement Summit – according to the US government’s America.gov website.

The 2008 statement titled, “Announcement on Alliance of Youth Movements Summit,” would claim:

India could have followed the Chinese Defense Ministry’s suggestion to investigate the first-ever firearm discharge near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in almost half a century, which could have helped New Delhi “save face” before Beijing by de-escalating this extremely dangerous situation that it’s entirely responsible for provoking, but it declined doing so since it’s seemingly more important for Modi to “save face” before his domestic audience even if it leads to a disastrous “war by miscalculation” with China.

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Remember the goal of flattening the curve? Ensuring that hospitals weren’t overrun? Well, what do you call a scenario where thousands of cases result in zero hospitalizations? I’d call it the ultimate flat curve – or downright flat line. Yet rather than recognizing the detection of mild cases among college students as portents of good news, universities continue to sow panic for no good reason.

If we had in place the strict eligibility threshold for COVID-19 testing that we had in March when tests were scarce, we quite literally would not know the “epidemic” of mild and asymptomatic cases on college campus even exists. After being open for weeks, college campuses have no reported deaths or even hospitalizations that I can find. You might say that’s because they’ve done such an amazing job preventing cases. Nope: They have tons of reported cases. Dr. Andrew Bostom, a cardiovascular and epidemiology researcher, posted a spreadsheet on twitter of all the cases in 17 state university systems as of September 4:

1/ Very Reassuring U.S. Return To Campus C19 News: ZERO reported C19 hospitalizations despite >11,000 students testing C19+, i.e., being declared “C19 cases” pic.twitter.com/XrGlWddlsd

— Andrew Bostom (@andrewbostom) September 5, 2020

There is not a single hospitalization among them. How is this an emergency situation? If anything, the fact that there are so many cases is a blessing, because, with such a young population, these cases are a de facto vaccine, creating herd immunity without danger.

Despite this blessing, the University of Arizona has hired a private security company to “patrol and ensure compliance of health and safety directives” on campus, essentially turning the campus into a prison and criminalizing the lives of young adults who have near-zero risk from the virus. They must be suffering the epidemic of the century there in order to warrant such heavy-handed policing, right?

Well, according to Dr. Richard Carmona at the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, they found a few “cases” at a sorority house and “were able to identify, very early, before anybody was symptomatic, that there were sick people in their dorm.”

The horror! Some asymptomatic cases. What are they going to do during the flu season when even young people actually get sick for a week? The entire purpose of counting cases during an epidemic is because they might predict mass casualties. During this pseudo-epidemic on college campuses, they need to count cases to even know they exist. But if they don’t result in serious illness, then what is the purpose of counting them more than rhinovirus colds?

Then there is the issue of what exactly these PCR tests are detecting. Many of them could be false positives, insignificant viral loads, or the dead RNA of a virus that passed weeks ago still being carried around in the student’s nasal passages. There is no metric for any of this being monitored in the testing. The irony of the University of Arizona using positive testing of benign cases as the baseline for such draconian measures is that so many of those tests turn out to be false positives. Out of the 13 positive results among members of the university’s athletics department last week, 11 of them turned out to be false upon retesting.

But evidently, negative tests aren’t even enough to escape to clutches of tyranny. Last Monday, Ohio Health Director Lance D. Himes signed an order requiring even students who test negative to be isolated in a quarantine house on campus. It includes asymptomatic individuals or even those merely “exposed” to a COVID-positive individual. They’d be barred from exiting the quarantine house without written permission from a health official, and individual universities would decide whether parents are even allowed to visit them. This is a mandate for de facto prison – all for an “epidemic” built on false or notional positives with no health risks beyond the ordinary bugs that spread on campuses every year.

By sending your children to Ohio’s public colleges, you are essentially sending them off to jail, because it’s nearly impossible for them not to be quarantined. Ohio State University is conducting mandatory random testing of 8,000 students each week via their “surveillance testing program.” Based on everything we know about false positive or old dead viral RNA, it’s a near-certainty that the testing will net dozens of people every week. Now, this order will force numerous friends and dorm-mates to be confined as well.

It’s becoming self-evident every week that the virus that is really spreading is an incorrigible psychosis. Rather than confining our youth for a cold that might not even spread in its asymptomatic form, perhaps its time to start confining some of the public health officials … to a mental health facility.

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Daniel Horowitz is a senior editor of Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @RMConservative.

Featured image is from CODEPINK

Powerful forces in the US and UK want Assange crucified for the unforgivable “crime” of truth-telling investigative journalism the way it should be on vital for everyone to know geopolitical issues.

That’s what his slow-motion extradition to the US trial in Britain is all about.

John Pilger called proceedings a “Stalinist trial,” guilt automatic in advance.

In Stalinist Soviet Russia, the aim was to eliminate everyone not bending to his will, proceedings conducted secretly or not at all.

Mistreatment of Assange since forcefully dragged from Ecuador’s London embassy in April 2019 has been all about inflicting constitutionally banned cruel and unusual punishment, along with killing him slowly from neglect and abuse, a high crime against humanity under international law.

On Monday, show trial proceedings resumed, presided over by hostile to judicial fairness district judge Vanessa Baraitser.

UK authorities assigned her the task of assuring Assange’s extradition to the US for kangaroo court proceedings or conspiring with a plot to eliminate him by slow-motion maximum security mistreatment.

A US/UK conspiracy aims to assure that he’s never freed from prison confinement by denying him due process and equal protection under law — so guilty as charged is certain no matter his innocence of all charges.

Baraitser limited his access to counsel, leaving him in legal limbo.

She denied his emergency bail request at a time of large-scale coronavirus outbreaks in Britain, and rejected more time requested by his legal team to address a Trump regime superseding indictment.

In late June, a US Justice Department statement said the following:

“A federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment today charging Julian P. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, with offenses that relate to (his) alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States (sic),” adding:

“The new indictment does not add additional counts to the prior 18-count superseding indictment returned against Assange in May 2019.”

“It does, however, broaden the scope of the conspiracy (sic) surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which Assange was previously charged.”

Addressing the court on Monday, legal team member for Assange Mark Summers said fairness demands that if the prosecution is permitted to revise its indictment, the defense should be granted more preparatory time to respond.

According to WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, the Trump regime had 10 years to make their case against Assange.

His lawyers worked for the past year in preparing a defense against the first superseding indictment.

“Throwing this (second one) at the last minute is an absolute insult to the UK courts and to Julian and to justice,” Hrafnsson stressed, adding:

This gross injustice must be “addressed upon appeal and on every level.”

In testimony by video link, Journalism Professor Mark Feldstein explained that leaking and publishing documents related to national security has been longstanding practice in the US, a First Amendment right.

Never before was a journalist or publisher prosecuted for what’s constitutionally permitted, he stressed.

The current phase of Assange’s extradition hearing is expected to last up to a month.

Charges against him in original or revised form are spurious.

Earlier he explained that WikiLeaks has the right “to publish newsworthy content (that’s) (c)onsistent with the US Constitution. We publish material that we can confirm to be true.”

That’s what speech, press, and academic freedoms are all about — the most fundamental of democratic rights without which all others are jeopardized.

Unjustifiably charging him under the long ago outdated 1917 Espionage Act, a WW I relic pertaining to the war alone, nothing in its aftermath, along with one phony accusation of computer crime, compounds the travesty of justice against him.

Baraitser permitted only nine members of the public to be in court for proceedings — dubiously claiming COVID-19-related restrictions.

Five seats were reserved for Assange’s family and friends, four alone for the general public.

NGOs, press freedom advocates, and EU MPs had remote access permission granted them to monitor proceedings withdrawn — on the unacceptable pretext of protecting “the integrity of the court” by making what’s going on inside London’s Old Bailey as secretive as possible.

In response, whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted the following:

“The extradition of Julian Assange is a malicious prosecution by any standard. Even critics of the man ought to condemn this as a show trial.”

“The ‘crime’ in question is the greatest public service @Wikileaks ever performed: exposing (US) abuses” in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Drop the charges. #FreeAssange”

Wanting him prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned longterm is less about him personally, much more a message to others who may follow in his footsteps.

It makes clear that a fate similar to his awaits anyone exposing US high crimes it wants concealed.

The same goes for whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning.

Imprisoned twice, now free, she could experience a repeat of what she endured at the discretion of the US ruling class.

That’s how police state injustice operates in fantasy democracy America.

A Final Comment

In New York Times v. United States (June 30, 1971), the US Supreme Court’s landmark 6 – 3 majority ruled that the Times and Washington Post were legally permitted to publish what’s known as the Pentagon Papers — material leaked by Daniel Ellsberg.

A per curiam court statement said the following:

“Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity.”

The government “thus carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint.”

Majority Supreme Court justices agreed with their district and appeals court counterparts that Congress shall make no law (that) abridg(es) the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

Under rights affirmed by the First Amendment, publications, groups or individuals may legally publish truthful information in the public interest no matter how it was obtained.

If extradited to the US, convicted and imprisoned, Assange will be denied what’s mandated under the First Amendment, affirmed by majority Supreme Court ruling.

Proceedings against him turned the rule of law on its head — supported by establishment media for failing to denounce what’s going on.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image is from Massoud Nayeri

This morning we went straight in to the evidence of Clive Stafford Smith, a dual national British/American lawyer licensed to practice in the UK. He had founded Reprieve in 1999 originally to oppose the death penalty, but after 2001 it had branched out into torture, illicit detention and extraordinary rendition cases in relation to the “war on terror”.

Clive Stafford Smith (image below) testified that the publication by Wikileaks of the cables had been of great utility to litigation in Pakistan against illegal drone strikes. As Clive’s witness statement put it at paras 86/7:

86. One of my motivations for working on these cases was that the U.S. drone campaign appeared to be horribly mismanaged and was resulting in paid informants giving false information about innocent people who were then killed in strikes. For example, when I shared the podium with Imran Khan at a “jirga” with the victims of drone strikes, I said in my public remarks that the room probably contained one or two people in the pay of the CIA. What I never guessed was that not only was this true but that the informant would later make a false statement about a teenager who attended the jirga such that he and his cousin were killed in a drone strike three days later. We knew from the official press statement afterwards that the “intelligence” given to the U.S. involved four “militants” in a car; we knew from his family just him and his cousin going to pick up an aunt. There is a somewhat consistent rule that can be seen at work here: it is, of course, much safer for any informant to make a statement about someone who is a “nobody”, than someone who is genuinely dangerous.
87. This kind of horrific action was provoking immense anger, causing America’s status in Pakistan to plummet, and was making life more dangerous for Americans, not less.

Legal action dependent on the evidence about US drones strike policy revealed by Wikileaks had led to a judgement against assassination by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and to a sea change to public attitudes to drone strikes in Waziristan. One result had been a stopping of drone strikes in Waziristan.

Wikileaks released cables also revealed US diplomatic efforts to block international investigation into cases of torture and extraordinary rendition. This ran counter to the legal duty of the United States to cooperate with investigation of allegations of torture as mandated in Article 9 of the UN Convention Against Torture.

Stafford Smith continued that an underrated document released by Wikileaks was the JPEL, or US military Joint Priority Effects List for Afghanistan, in large part a list of assassination targets. This revealed a callous disregard of the legality of actions and a puerile attitude to killing, with juvenile nicknames given to assassination targets, some of which nicknames appeared to indicate inclusions on the list by British or Australian agents.

Stafford Smith gave the example of Bilal Abdul Kareem, and American citizen and journalist who had been the subject of five different US assassination attempts, using hellfire missiles fired from drones. Stafford Smith was engaged in ongoing litigation in Washington on whether “the US Government has the right to target its own citizens who are journalists for assassination.”

Stafford Smith then spoke of Guantanamo and the emergence of evidence that many detainees there are not terrorists but had been swept up in Afghanistan by a system dependent on the payment of bounties. The Detainee Assessment Briefs released by Wikileaks were not independent information but internal US Government files containing the worst allegations that the US had been able to “confect” against prisoners including Stafford Smith’s clients, and often get them to admit under torture.

These documents were US government allegations and when Wikileaks released them it was his first thought that it was the US Government who had released them to discredit defendants. The documents could not be a threat to national security.

Inside Guantanamo a core group of six detainees had turned informant and were used to make false allegations against other detainees. Stafford Smith said it was hard to blame them – they were trying to get out of that hellish place like everybody else. The US government had revealed the identities of those six, which put into perspective their concern for protecting informants in relation to Wikileaks releases.

Clive Stafford Smith said he had been “profoundly shocked” by the crimes committed by the US government against his clients. These included torture, kidnapping, illegal detention and murder. The murder of one detainee at Baghram Airport in Afghanistan had been justified as a permissible interrogation technique to put fear into other detainees. In 2001, he would never have believed the US Government could have done such things.

Stafford Smith spoke of use of Spanish Inquisition techniques, such as strapado, or hanging by the wrists until the shoulders slowly dislocate. He told of the torture of Binyam Mohammed, a British citizen who had his genitals cut daily with a razor blade. The British Government had avoided its legal obligations to Binyam Mohammed, and had leaked to the BBC the statement he had been forced to confess to under torture, in order to discredit him.

At this point Baraitser intervened to give a five minute warning on the 30 minute guillotine on Stafford Smith’s oral evidence. Asked by Mark Summers (image on the left) for the defence how Wikileaks had helped, Stafford Smith said that many of the leaked documents revealed illegal kidnapping, rendition and torture and had been used in trials. The International Criminal Court had now opened an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, in which decision Wikileaks released material had played a part.

Mark Summers asked what had been the response of the US Government to the opening of this ICC investigation. Clive Stafford Smith stated that an Executive Order had been issued initiating sanctions against any non-US citizen who cooperated with or promoted the ICC investigation into war crimes by the US. He suggested that Mr Summers would now be subject to US sanction for promoting this line of questioning.

Mr Stafford Smith’s 30 minutes was now up. You can read his full statement here. There could not have been a clearer example from the first witness of why so much time yesterday was taken up with trying to block the evidence of defence witnesses from being heard. Stafford Smith’s evidence was breathtaking stuff and clearly illustrated the purpose of the time guillotine on defence evidence. This is not material governments wish to be widely aired.

James Lewis QC then cross-examined Clive Stafford Smith for the prosecution. He noted that references to Wikileaks in Stafford Smith’s written evidence were few and far between. He suggested that Stafford Smith’s evidence had tended to argue that Wikileaks disclosures were in the public interest; but there was specifically no public interest defence allowed in the UK Official Secrets Act.

Stafford Smith replied that may be, but he knew that was not the case in America.

Lewis then said that in Stafford Smith’s written evidence paras 92-6 he had listed specific Wikileaks cables which related to disclosure of drone policy. But publication of these particular cables did not form part of the indictment. Lewis read out part of an affidavit from US Assistant Attorney Kromberg which stated that Assange was being indicted only for cables containing the publication of names of informants.

Stafford Smith replied that Kromberg may state that, but in practice that would not be the case in the United States. The charge was of conspiracy, and the way such charges were defined in the US system would allow the widest inclusion of evidence. The first witness at trial would be a “terrorism expert” who would draw a wide and far reaching picture of the history of threat against the USA.

Lewis asked whether Stafford Smith had read the indictment. He replied he had read the previous indictment, but not the new superseding indictment.

Lewis stated that the cables Stafford Smith quoted had been published by the Washington Post and the New York Times before they were published by Wikileaks. Stafford Smith responded that was true, but he understood those newspapers had obtained them from Wikileaks. Lewis then stated that the Washington Post and New York Times were not being prosecuted for publishing the same information; so how could the publication of that material be relevant to this case?

Lewis quoted Kromberg again:

“The only instance in which the superseding indictment encompasses the publication of documents, is where those documents contains names which are put at risk”.

Stafford Smith again responded that in practice that was not how the case would be prosecuted in the United States. Lewis asked if Stafford Smith was calling Kromberg a liar.

At this point Julian Assange called out from the dock “This is nonsense. Count 1 states throughout “conspiracy to publish”. After a brief adjournment, Baraitser warned Julian he would be removed from the court if he interrupted proceedings again.

Stafford Smith said he had not said that Kromberg was a liar, and had not seen the full document from which Lewis was selectively quoting at him. Count 1 of the indictment is conspiracy to obtain national security information and this references dissemination to the public in a sub paragraph. This was not limited in the way Kromberg suggests and his claim did not correspond to Stafford Smith’s experience of how national security trials are in fact prosecuted in the United States.

Lewis reiterated that nobody was being prosecuted for publishing except Assange, and this only related to publishing names. He then asked Stafford Smith whether he had ever been in a position of responsibility for classifying information, to which he got a negative reply. Lewis then asked if had ever been in an official position to declassify documents. Stafford Smith replied no, but he held US security clearance enabling him to see classified material relating to his cases, and had often applied to have material declassified.

Stafford Smith stated that Kromberg’s assertion that the ICC investigation was a threat to national security was nonsense [I confess I am not sure where this assertion came from or why Stafford Smith suddenly addressed it]. Lewis suggested that the question of harm to US national interest from Assange’s activities was best decided by a jury in the United States. The prosecution had to prove damage to the interests of the US or help to an enemy of the US.

Stafford Smith said that beyond the government adoption of torture, kidnapping and assassination, he thought the post-2001 mania for over-classification of government information was an even bigger threat to the American way of life. He recalled his client Moazzam Begg – the evidence of Moazzam’s torture was classified “secret” on the grounds that knowledge that the USA used torture would damage American interests.

Lewis then took Stafford Smith to a passage in the book “Wikileaks; Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy”, in which Luke Harding stated that he and David Leigh were most concerned to protect the names of informants, but Julian Assange had stated that Afghan informants were traitors who merited retribution. “They were informants, so if they got killed they had it coming.” Lewis tried several times to draw Stafford Smith into this, but Stafford Smith repeatedly said he understood these alleged facts were under dispute and he had no personal knowledge.

Lewis concluded by again repeating that the indictment only covered the publication of names. Stafford Smith said that he would eat his hat if that was all that was introduced at trial.

In re-examination, Mark Summers said that Lewis had characterised the disclosure of torture, killing and kidnapping as “in the public interest”. Was that a sufficient description? Stafford Smith said no, it was also the provision of evidence of crime; war crime and illegal activity.

Summers asked Stafford Smith to look at the indictment as a US lawyer (which Stafford Smith is) and see if he agreed with the characterisation by Lewis that it only covered publication where names were revealed. Summers read out this portion of the superseding indictment:

and pointed out that the “and” makes the point on documents mentioning names an additional category of document, not a restriction on the categories listed earlier. You can read the full superseding indictment here; be careful when browsing as there are earlier superseding indictments; the US Government changes its indictment in this case about as often as Kim Kardashian changes her handbag.

Summers also listed Counts 4, 7, 10, 13 and 17 as also not limited to the naming of informants.

Stafford Smith again repeated his rather different point that in practice Kromberg’s assertion does not actually match how such cases are prosecuted in the US anyway. In answer to a further question, he repeated that the US government had itself released the names of its Guantanamo Bay informants.

In regard to the passage quoted from David Leigh, Summers asked Stafford Smith “Do you know that Mr Harding has published untruths in the press”. Lewis objected and Summers withdrew (although this is certainly true).

This concluded Clive Stafford Smith’s evidence. Before the next witness, Lewis put forward an argument to the judge that it was beyond dispute that the new indictment only related, as far as publication being an offence was concerned, to publication of names of defendants. Baraitser had replied that plainly this was disputed and the matter would be argued in due course.

The afternoon resumed the evidence of Professor Mark Feldstein, begun sporadically amid technical glitches on Monday. For that reason I held off reporting the false start until now; I here give it as one account. Prof Feldstein’s full witness statement is here.

Professor Feldstein is Chair of Broadcast Journalism at Maryland University and had twenty years experience as an investigative journalist.

Feldstein stated that leaking of classified information happens with abandon in the United States. Government officials did it frequently. One academic study estimated such leaks as “thousands upon thousands”. There were journalists who specialised in national security and received Pulitzer prizes for receiving such leaks on military and defence matters. Leaked material is published on a daily basis.

Feldstein stated that “The first amendment protects the press, and it is vital that the First Amendment does so, not because journalists are privileged, but because the public have the right to know what is going on”. Historically, the government had never prosecuted a publisher for publishing leaked secrets. They had prosecuted whistleblowers.

There had been historical attempts to prosecute individual journalists, but all had come to nothing and all had been a specific attack on a perceived Presidential enemy. Feldstein had listed three instances of such attempts, but none had reached a grand jury.
[This is where the technology broke down on Monday. We now resume with Tuesday afternoon.]

Mark Summers asked Prof Feldstein about the Jack Anderson case. Feldstein replied he had researched this for his book “Poisoning the Press”. Nixon had planned to prosecute Anderson under the Espionage Act but had been told by his Attorney General the First Amendment made it impossible. Consequently Nixon had conducted a campaign against Anderson that included anti-gay smears, planting a spy in his office and foisting forged documents on him. An assassination plot by poison had even been discussed.

Summers took Feldstein to his evidence on “Blockbuster” newspaper stories based on Wikileaks publications:

• A disturbing videotape of American soldiers firing on a crowd from a helicopter above Baghdad, killing at least 18 people; the soldiers laughed as they targeted unarmed civilians, including two Reuters journalists.
• US officials gathered detailed and often gruesome evidence that approximately 100,000 civilians were killed after its invasion of Iraq, contrary to the public claims of President George W. Bush’s administration, which downplayed the deaths and insisted that such statistics were not maintained. Approximately 15,000 of these civilians killings had never been previously disclosed anywhere.
• American forces in Iraq routinely turned a blind eye when the US-backed government there brutalized detainees, subjecting them to beatings, whippings, burnings, electric shock, and sodomy.
• After WikiLeaks published vivid accounts compiled by US diplomats of rampant corruption by Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his family, ensuing street protests forced the dictator to flee to Saudia Arabia. When the unrest in Tunisia spread to other Mideast countries,WikiLeaks was widely hailed as a key catalyst for this “Arab Spring.”
• In Afghanistan, the US deployed a secret “black” unit of special forces to hunt down “high value” Taliban leaders for “kill or capture” without trial.
• The US government expanded secret intelligence collection by its diplomats at the United Nations and overseas, ordering envoys to gather credit card numbers, work schedules, and frequent flier numbers of foreign dignitaries—eroding the distinction between foreign service officers and spies.
• Saudi Arabian King Abdullah secretly implored the US to “cut off the head of the snake” and stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons even as private Saudi donors were the number-one source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.
• Customs officials caught Afghanistan’s vice president carrying $52 million in unexplained cash during a trip abroad, just one example of the endemic corruption at the highest levels of the Afghan government that the US has helped prop up.
• The US released “high risk enemy combatants” from its military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who then later turned up again in Mideast battlefields. At the same time, Guantanamo prisoners who proved harmless—such as an 89-year-old Afghan villager suffering from senile dementia—were held captive for years.
• US officials listed Pakistan’s intelligence service as a terrorist organization and found that it had plotted with the Taliban to attack American soldiers in Afghanistan—even though Pakistan receives more than $1 billion annually in US aid. Pakistan’s civilian president, Asif Ali Zardari, confided that he had limited control to stop this and expressed fear that his own military might “take me out.”

Feldstein agreed that many of these had revealed criminal acts and war crimes, and they were important stories for the US media. Summers asked Feldstein about Assange being charged with soliciting classified information. Feldstein replied that gathering classified information is “standard operating procedure” for journalists. “My entire career virtually was soliciting secret documents or records”

Summers pointed out that one accusation was that Assange helped Manning cover her tracks by breaking a password code. “Trying to help protect your source is a journalistic obligation” replied Feldstein. Journalists would provide sources with payphones, fake email accounts, and help them remove fingerprints both real and digital. These are standard journalistic techniques, taught at journalism college and workshops.

Summers asked about disclosure of names and potential harm to people. Feldstein said this was “easy to assert, hard to establish”. Government claims of national security damage were routinely overblown and should be treated with scepticism. In the case of the Pentagon Papers, the government had claimed that publication would identify CIA agents, reveal military plans and lengthen the Vietnam War. These claims had all proven to be untrue.

On the White House tapes Nixon had been recorded telling his aides to “get” the New York Times. He said their publications should be “cast in terms of aid and comfort to the enemy”.

Summers asked about the Obama administration’s attitude to Wikileaks. Feldstein said that there had been no prosecution after Wikileaks’ major publications in 2010/11. But Obama’s Justice Department had instigated an “aggressive investigation”. However they concluded in 2013 that the First Amendment rendered any prosecution impossible. Justice Department Spokesman Matthew Miller had published that they thought it would be a dangerous precedent that could be used against other journalists and publications.

With the Trump administration everything had changed. Trump had said he wished to “put reporters in jail”. Pompeo when head of the CIA had called Wikileaks a “hostile intelligence agency”. Sessions had declared prosecuting Assange “a priority”.

James Lewis then rose to cross-examine Feldstein. He adopted a particularly bullish and aggressive approach, and started by asking Feldstein to confine himself to very short, concise answers to his precise questions. He said that Feldstein “claimed to be” an expert witness, and had signed to affirm that he had read the criminal procedural rules. Could he tell the court what those rules said?

This was plainly designed to trip Feldstein up. I am sure I must have agreed WordPress’s terms and conditions in order to be able to publish this blog, but if you challenged me point blank to recall what they say I would struggle. However Feldstein did not hesitate, but came straight back saying that he had read them, and they were rather different to the American rules, stipulating impartiality and objectivity.

Lewis asked what Feldstein’s expertise was supposed to be. Feldstein replied the practice, conduct and history of journalism in the United States. Lewis asked if Feldstein was legally qualified. Feldstein replied no, but he was not giving legal opinion. Lewis asked if he had read the indictment. Feldstein replied he had not read the most recent indictment.

Lewis said that Feldstein had stated that Obama decided not to prosecute whereas Trump did. But it was clear that the investigation had continued through from the Obama to the Trump administrations. Feldstein replied yes, but the proof of the pudding was that there had been no prosecution under Obama.

Lewis referred to a Washington Post article from which Feldstein had quoted in his evidence and included in his footnotes, but had not appended a copy. “Was that because it contained a passage you do not wish us to read?” Lewis said that Feldstein had omitted the quote that “no formal decision had been made” by the Obama administration, and a reference to the possibility of prosecution for activity other than publication.

Feldstein was plainly slightly rattled by Lewis’ accusation of distortion. He replied that his report stated that the Obama administration did not prosecute, which was true. He had footnoted the article; he had not thought he needed to also provide a copy. He had exercised editorial selection in quoting from the article.

Lewis said that from other sources, a judge had stated in District Court that investigation was ongoing and District Judge Mehta had said other prosecutions against persons other than Manning were being considered. Why had Feldstein not included this information in his report? Assange’s lawyer Barry J Pollock had stated “they are not informing us they are closing the investigation or have decided not to charge.” Would it not be fair to add that to his report?

Prof Feldstein replied that Assange and his lawyers would be hard to convince that the prosecution had been dropped, but we know that no new information had in 2015/16 been brought to the Grand Jury.

Lewis stated that in 2016 Assange had offered to go to the United States to face charges if Manning were granted clemency. Does this not show the Obama administration was intending to charge? Should this not have been in his report? Feldstein replied no, because it was irrelevant. Assange was not in a position to know what Obama’s Justice Department was doing. The subsequent testimony of Obama Justice Department insiders was much more valuable.

Lewis asked if the Obama administration had decided not to prosecute, why would they keep the Grand Jury open? Feldstein replied this happened very frequently. It could be for many reasons, including to collect information on alleged co-conspirators, or simply in the hope of further new evidence.

Lewis suggested that the most Feldstein might honestly say was that the Obama administration had intimated that they would not prosecute for passively obtained information, but that did not extend to a decision not to prosecute for hacking with Chelsea Manning. “If Obama did not decide not to prosecute, and the investigation had continued into the Trump administration, then your diatribe against Trump becomes otiose.”

Lewis continued that the “New York Times problem” did not exist because the NYT had only published information it had passively received. Unlike Assange, the NYT had not conspired with Manning illegally to obtain the documents. Would Prof Feldstein agree that the First Amendment did not defend a journalist against a burglary or theft charge? Feldstein replied that a journalist is not above the law. Lewis then asked Feldstein whether a journalist had a right to “steal or unlawfully obtain information” or “to hack a computer to obtain information.” Each time Feldstein replied “no”.

Lewis then asked if Feldstein accepted that Bradley (sic) Manning had committed a crime. Feldstein replied “yes”. Lewis then asked “If Assange aided and abetted, consulted or procured or entered into a conspiracy with Bradley Manning, has he not committed a crime?” Feldstein said that would depend on the “sticky details.”

Lewis then restated that there was no allegation that the NYT entered into a conspiracy with Bradley Manning, only Julian Assange. On the indictment, only counts 15, 16 and 17 related to publishing and these only to publishing of unredacted documents. The New York Times, Guardian and Washington Post had united in condemnation of the publication by Wikileaks of unredacted cables containing names. Lewis then read out again the same quote from the Leigh/Harding book he had put to Stafford Smith, stating that Julian Assange had said the Afghan informants would deserve their fate.

Lewis asked: “Would a responsible journalist publish unredacted names of an informant knowing he is in danger when it is unnecessary to do so for the purpose of the story”. Prof Feldstein replied “no”. Lewis then went on to list examples of information it might be proper for government to keep secret, such as “troop movements in war, nuclear codes, material that would harm an individual” and asked if Feldstein agreed these were legitimate secrets. Feldstein replied “yes”.

Lewis then asked rhetorically whether it was not more fair to allow a US jury to be the judge of harm. He then asked Feldstein: “You say in your report that this is a political prosecution. But a Grand jury has supported the prosecution. Do you accept that there is an evidentiary basis for the prosecution?”. Feldstein replied “A grand jury has made that decision. I don’t know that it is true.” Lewis then read out a statement from US Assistant Attorney Kromberg that prosecution decisions are taken by independent prosecutors who follow a code that precludes political factors. He asked Feldstein if he agreed that independent prosecutors were a strong bulwark against political prosecution.
Feldstein replied “That is a naive view.”

Lewis then asked whether Feldstein was claiming that President Trump or his Attorney General had ordered this prosecution without a factual basis. The professor replied he had no doubt it was a political prosecution, this was based on 1) its unprecedented nature 2) the rejection of prosecution by Obama but decision to prosecute now with no new evidence 3) the extraordinary wide framing of the charges 4) President Trump’s narrative of hostility to the press. “It’s political”.

Mark Summers then re-examined Professor Feldstein. He said that Lewis had suggested that Assange was complicit in Manning obtaining classified information but the New York Times was not. Is it your understanding that to seek to help an official leaker is a crime? Professor Feldstein replied “No, absolutely not”.

“Do journalists ask for classified information?”
“Yes.”
“Do journalists solicit such information?”
“Yes.”
“Are you aware of any kind of previous prosecution for this kind of activity.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Could you predict it would be criminalised?”
“No, and it is very dangerous.”

Summers than asked Professor Feldstein what the New York Times had done to get the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. Feldstein replied they were very active in soliciting the papers. They had a key to the room that held the documents and had helped to copy them. They had played an active not a passive role. “Journalists are not passive stenographers.”

Summers reminded Prof Feldstein that he had been asked about hacking. What if the purpose of the hacking was not to obtain the information, but to disguise the source? This was the specific allegation spelt out in Kromberg memorandum 4 paras 11 to 14. Professor Feldstein replied that protecting sources is an obligation. Journalists work closely with, conspire with, cajole, encourage, direct and protect their sources. That is journalism.

Summers asked Prof Feldstein if he maintained his caution in accepting government claims of harm. Feldstein replied absolutely. The government track record demanded caution. Summers pointed out that there is an act which specifically makes illegal the naming of intelligence sources, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Prof Feldstein said this was true; the fact that the charge was not brought under the IIPA proves that it is not true that the prosecution is intended to be limited to revealing of identities and in fact it will be much broader.

Summers concluded by saying that Lewis had stated that Wikileaks had released the unredacted cables in a mass publication. Would it change the professor’s assessment if the material had already been released by others. Prof Feldstein said his answers were not intended to indicate he accepted the government narrative.

Edward Fitzgerald QC then took over for the defence. He put to Prof Feldstein that there had been no prosecution of Assange when Manning was prosecuted, and Obama had given Manning clemency. These were significant facts. Feldstein agreed.

Fitzgerald then said that the Washington Post article from which Lewis complained Feldstein had quoted selectively, contained a great deal more material Feldstein had also not quoted but which strongly supported his case, for example “Officials told the Washington Post last week that there is no sealed indictment and the Department had “all but concluded that they would not bring a charge.”” It further stated that when Snowden was charged, Greenwald was not, and the same approach was followed with Manning/Assange. So overall the article confirmed Feldstein’s thesis, as contained in his report. Feldstein agreed. There was then discussion of other material that could have been included to support his thesis.

Fitzgerald concluded by asking if Feldstein were familiar with the phrase “a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich”. Feldstein replied it was common parlance and indicated the common view that grand juries were malleable and almost always did what prosecutors asked them to do. There was a great deal of academic material on this point.

THOUGHTS

Thus concluded another extraordinary day. Once again, there were just five of us in the public gallery (in 42 seats) and the six allowed in the overflow video gallery in court 9 was reduced to three, as three seats were reserved by the court for “VIPs” who did not show up.

The cross-examinations showed the weakness of the thirty minute guillotine adopted by Baraitser, with really interesting defence testimony cut short, and then unlimited time allowed to Lewis for his cross examination. This was particularly pernicious in the evidence of Mark Feldstein. In James Lewis’ extraordinary cross-examination of Feldstein, Lewis spoke between five and ten times as many words as the actual witness. Some of Lewis’s “questions” went on for many minutes, contained huge passages of quote and often were phrased in convoluted double negative. Thrice Feldstein refused to reply on grounds he could not make out where the question lay. With the defence initial statement of the evidence limited to half an hour, Lewis’s cross examination approached two hours, a good 80% of which was Lewis speaking.

Feldstein was browbeaten by Lewis and plainly believed that when Lewis told him to answer in very brief and concise answers, Lewis had the authority to instruct that. In fact Lewis is not the judge and it was supposed to be Feldstein’s evidence, not Lewis’s. Baraitser failed to protect Feldstein or to explain his right to frame his own answers, when that was very obviously a necessary course for her to take.

Today we had two expert witnesses, who had both submitted lengthy written testimony relating to one indictment, which was now being examined in relation to a new superseding indictment, exchanged at the last minute, and which neither of them had ever seen. Both specifically stated they had not seen the new indictment. Furthermore this new superseding indictment had been specifically prepared by the prosecution with the benefit of having heard the defence arguments and seen much of the defence evidence, in order to get round the fact that the indictment on which the hearing started was obviously failing.

On top of which the defence had been refused an adjournment to prepare their defence against the new indictment, which would have enabled these and other witnesses to see the superseding indictment, adjust their evidence accordingly and be prepared to be cross-examined in relation to it.

Clive Stafford Smith testified today that in 2001 he would not have believed the outrageous crimes that were to be perpetrated by the US government. I am obliged to say that I simply cannot believe the blatant abuse of process that is unfolding before my eyes in this courtroom.

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Julian Assange, Prometheus Bound

By Pepe Escobar, September 09, 2020

Amid thundering silence and nearly universal indifference, chained, immobile, invisible, a squalid Prometheus was transferred from the gallows for a show trial in a faux Gothic court built on the site of a medieval prison.

Kratos, impersonating Strength, and Bia, impersonating Violence, had duly chained Prometheus, not to a mountain in the Caucasus, but to solitary confinement in a high-security prison, subject to relentless psychological torture. All along the Western watchtowers, no Hephaestus volunteered to forge in his smithy a degree of reluctance or even a sliver of pity.

Video: Outside the London Show-trial of Julian Assange: John Pilger’s Speech

By John Pilger, September 09, 2020

Veteran investigative journalist and filmmaker John Pilger delivered the following speech outside London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court on Monday, the first day of resumed show-trial proceedings for the extradition of Julian Assange to the US. Pilger, along with a number of other leading journalists and human right monitors, was denied access to the court.

Assange’s Second Day at the Old Bailey: Torture, Drone Strikes and Journalism

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, September 09, 2020

The highlights of the second day of Julian Assange’s extradition proceedings at the Central Criminal Court in London yielded an interesting bounty.  The first was the broader public purpose behind the WikiLeaks disclosures, their utility in legal proceedings, and their importance in disclosing instances of US extrajudicial killings, torture and rendition.  The second involved a discussion about the practice of journalism and the politicised nature of the prosecution against Assange.

Your Man in the Public Gallery: the Assange Hearing Day 6

By Craig Murray, September 08, 2020

Court 10 appeared to be a fairly bright and open modern box, with pleasant light woodwork, jammed as a mezzanine inside a great vault of the old building. A massive arch intruded incongruously into the space and was obviously damp, sheets of delaminating white paint drooping down from it like flags of forlorn surrender. The dock in which Julian would be held still had a bulletproof glass screen in front, like Belmarsh, but it was not boxed in. There was no top to the screen, no low ceiling, so sound could flow freely over and Julian seemed much more in the court. It also had many more and wider slits than the notorious Belmarsh Box, and Julian was able to communicate quite readily and freely through them with his lawyers, which this time he was not prevented from doing.

Julian Assange: Future Generations of Journalists Will Not Forgive Us if We Do Not Fight Extradition

By Peter Oborne, September 07, 2020

Let us further suppose the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture said this dissident showed “all the symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture” and that the Chinese were putting pressure on the UK authorities to extradite this individual where he could face up to 175 years in prison.

The outrage from the British press would be deafening.

There would be calls for protests outside the prison, solemn leaders in the broadsheet newspapers, debates on primetime news programmes, alongside a rush of questions in parliament.

The situation I have outlined above is nearly identical to the current plight of Julian Assange.

The “Stalinist” Trial of Julian Assange

By John Pilger, September 07, 2020

If the powerful lie to us, we have the right to know. If they say one thing in private and the opposite in public, we have the right to know. If they conspire against us, as Bush and Blair did over Iraq, then pretend to be democrats, we have the right to know.

It is this morality of purpose that so threatens the collusion of powers that want to plunge much of the world into war and wants to bury Julian alive in Trumps fascist America.

As British Judge Made Rulings Against Julian Assange, Her Husband Was Involved with Right-wing Lobby Group Briefing Against WikiLeaks Founder

By Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, September 07, 2020

Westminster chief magistrate Lady Emma Arbuthnot made two key legal rulings against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in February 2018, which ensured he would not be able to take up his asylum in Ecuador.

Around this time, her husband, Lord James Arbuthnot, a former Conservative defence minister with links to the British military and intelligence establishment, was working closely with the neo-conservative Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a pressure group with a strongly anti-Assange agenda. Lord Arbuthnot has hosted and chaired events for the HJS at the House of Lords and long sat on its “political council”.

This is the tale of an Ancient Greek tragedy reenacted in AngloAmerica.

Amid thundering silence and nearly universal indifference, chained, immobile, invisible, a squalid Prometheus was transferred from the gallows for a show trial in a faux Gothic court built on the site of a medieval prison.   

Kratos, impersonating Strength, and Bia, impersonating Violence, had duly chained Prometheus, not to a mountain in the Caucasus, but to solitary confinement in a high-security prison, subject to relentless psychological torture. All along the Western watchtowers, no Hephaestus volunteered to forge in his smithy a degree of reluctance or even a sliver of pity.

Prometheus is being punished not for stealing fire – but for exposing power under the light of truth, thus provoking the unbounded ire of  Zeus The Exceptionalist, who’s only able to stage his crimes under multiple veils of secrecy.

Prometheus pierced the myth of secrecy – which envelops Zeus’s ability to control the human spectrum. And that is anathema.

“Prometheus Being Chained by Vulcan,” 1623 oil painting by Dirck van Baburen. (Vulcan Rijksmuseum, Wikimedia Commons)

For years, debased, hack stenographers worked relentlessly to depict Prometheus as a lowly trickster and inconsequential forger.

Abandoned, smeared, demonized, Prometheus was comforted by only a small chorus of Oceanids – Craig Murray, John Pilger, Daniel Ellsberg, Wiki warriors, Consortium writers. Prometheus was denied even the basic tools to organize a defense that might at least rattle Zeus’s cognitive dissonant narrative.

Oceanus, the Titan father of the Oceanids, could not possibly urge Prometheus to appease Zeus.

Fleetingly, Prometheus might have revealed to the chorus that exposing secrecy was not what best suited his heart’s content. His plight might also, in the long run, revive popular attachment to the civilizing arts.

One day, Prometheus was visited by Io, a human maiden. He may have forecasted she would engage in no future travels, and she would bear him two offspring. And he may have foreseen that one of their descendants – an unnamed epigone of Heracles – many generations hence, would release him, figuratively, from his torment.

Zeus and his prosecutorial minions don’t have much of a case against Prometheus, apart from possession and dissemination of classified Exceptional information.

Still it was eventually up to Hermes — the messenger of the Gods, and significantly, the conduit of News — to be sent down by Zeus in uncontrollable anger to demand that Prometheus admits he was guilty of trying to overthrow the rules-based order established by the Supreme Exceptional.

This is what’s being ritualized at the current show trial, which was never about Justice.

Prometheus won’t be tamed. In his mind, he will be relieving Tennyson’s Ulysses: “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

So Zeus may finally strike him with the thunderbolt of Exceptionalism, and Prometheus will be hurled into the abyss.

Prometheus’s theft of the secrecy of power, though, is irreversible. His fate will certainly prompt the late entrance of Pandora and her jar of evils – complete with unforeseen consequences.

Whatever the verdict reached in that 17^th century court, it’s far from certain that Prometheus will enter History just as a mere object of blame for human folly.

Because now the heart of the matter is that the mask of Zeus has fallen.

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This article was originally published on Consortiumnews.

Pepe Escobar, a veteran Brazilian journalist, is the correspondent-at-large for Hong Kong-based Asia Times. His latest book is 2030. Follow him on Facebook.

Featured image: Police ejecting Julian Assange from Ecuadorian embassy in London, April 11, 2019. (YouTube)

Here’s your BLM Pop Quiz for the day: What do “Critical Race Theory”, “The 1619 Project”, and Homeland Security’s “White Supremacist” warning tell us about what’s going on in America today?

1. They point to deeply-embedded racism that shapes the behavior of white people
2. They suggest that systemic racism cannot be overcome by merely changing attitudes and laws
3. They alert us to the fact that unresolved issues are pushing the country towards a destructive race war
4. They indicate that powerful agents — operating from within the state– are inciting racial violence to crush the emerging “populist” majority that elected Trump to office in 2016 and which now represents an existential threat to the globalist plan to transform America into a tyrannical third-world “shithole”.

Which of these four statements best explains what’s going on in America today?

If you chose Number 4, you are right. We are not experiencing a sudden and explosive outbreak of racial violence and mayhem. We are experiencing a thoroughly-planned, insurgency-type operation that involves myriad logistical components including vast, nationwide riots, looting and arson, as well as an extremely impressive ideological campaign. “Critical Race Theory”, “The 1619 Project”, and Homeland Security’s “White Supremacist” warning are as much a part of the Oligarchic war on America as are the burning of our cities and the toppling of our statues. All three, fall under the heading of “ideology”, and all three are being used to shape public attitudes on matters related to our collective identity as “Americans”.

The plan is to overwhelm the population with a deluge of disinformation about their history, their founders, and the threats they face, so they will submissively accept a New Order imposed by technocrats and their political lackeys. This psychological war is perhaps more important than Operation BLM which merely provides the muscle for implementing the transformative “Reset” that elites want to impose on the country. The real challenge is to change the hearts and minds of a population that is unwaveringly patriotic and violently resistant to any subversive element that threatens to do harm to their country. So, while we can expect this propaganda saturation campaign to continue for the foreseeable future, we don’t expect the strategy will ultimately succeed. At the end of the day, America will still be America, unbroken, unflagging and unapologetic.

Let’s look more carefully at what is going on.

On September 4, the Department of Homeland Security issued a draft report stating that “White supremacists present the gravest terror threat to the United States”. According to an article in Politico:

“…all three draft (versions of the document) describe the threat from white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terror threat facing the U.S., listed above the immediate danger from foreign terrorist groups…. John Cohen, who oversaw DHS’s counterterrorism portfolio from 2011 to 2014, said the drafts’ conclusion isn’t surprising.

“This draft document seems to be consistent with earlier intelligence reports from DHS, the FBI, and other law enforcement sources: that the most significant terror-related threat facing the US today comes from violent extremists who are motivated by white supremacy and other far-right ideological causes,” he said….

“Lone offenders and small cells of individuals motivated by a diverse array of social, ideological, and personal factors will pose the primary terrorist threat to the United States,” the draft reads. “Among these groups, we assess that white supremacist extremists …will pose the most persistent and lethal threat.”..(“DHS draft document: White supremacists are greatest terror threat” Politico)

This is nonsense. White supremacists do not pose the greatest danger to the country, that designation goes to the left-wing groups that have rampaged through more than 2,000 US cities for the last 100 days. Black Lives Matter and Antifa-generated riots have decimated hundreds of small businesses, destroyed the lives and livelihoods of thousands of merchants and their employees, and left entire cities in a shambles. The destruction in Kenosha alone far exceeds the damage attributable to the activities of all the white supremacist groups combined.

So why has Homeland Security made this ridiculous and unsupportable claim? Why have they chosen to prioritize white supremacists as “the most persistent and lethal threat” when it is clearly not true?

There’s only one answer: Politics.

The officials who concocted this scam are advancing the agenda of their real bosses, the oligarch puppet-masters who have their tentacles extended throughout the deep-state and use them to coerce their lackey bureaucrats to do their bidding. In this case, the honchos are invoking the race card (“white supremacists”) to divert attention from their sinister destabilization program, their looting of the US Treasury (for their crooked Wall Street friends), their demonizing of the mostly-white working class “America First” nationalists who handed Trump the 2016 election, and their scurrilous scheme to establish one-party rule by installing their addlepated meat-puppet candidate (Biden) as president so he can carry out their directives from the comfort of the Oval Office. That’s what’s really going on.

DHS’s announcement makes it possible for state agents to target legally-armed Americans who gather with other gun owners in groups that are protected under the second amendment. Now the white supremacist label will be applied more haphazardly to these same conservatives who pose no danger to public safety. The draft document should be seen as a warning to anyone whose beliefs do not jibe with the New Liberal Orthodoxy that white people are inherently racists who must ask forgiveness for a system they had no hand in creating (slavery) and which was abolished more than 150 years ago.

The 1619 Project” is another part of the ideological war that is being waged against the American people. The objective of the “Project” is to convince readers that America was founded by heinous white men who subjugated blacks to increase their wealth and power. According to the World Socialist Web Site:

“The essays featured in the magazine are organized around the central premise that all of American history is rooted in race hatred—specifically, the uncontrollable hatred of “black people” by “white people.” Hannah-Jones writes in the series’ introduction: “Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country.”

This is a false and dangerous conception. DNA is a chemical molecule that contains the genetic code of living organisms and determines their physical characteristics and development….Hannah-Jones’s reference to DNA is part of a growing tendency to derive racial antagonisms from innate biological processes….where does this racism come from? It is embedded, claims Hannah-Jones, in the historical DNA of American “white people.” Thus, it must persist independently of any change in political or economic conditions….

…. No doubt, the authors of The Project 1619 essays would deny that they are predicting race war, let alone justifying fascism. But ideas have a logic; and authors bear responsibility for the political conclusions and consequences of their false and misguided arguments.” (“The New York Times’s 1619 Project: A racialist falsification of American and world history”, World Socialist Web Site)

Clearly, Hannah-Jones was enlisted by big money patrons who needed an ideological foundation to justify the massive BLM riots they had already planned as part of their US color revolution. The author –perhaps unwittingly– provided the required text for vindicating widespread destruction and chaos carried out in the name of “social justice.”

As Hannah-Jones says, “Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country”, which is to say that it cannot be mitigated or reformed, only eradicated by destroying the symbols of white patriarchy (Our icons, our customs, our traditions and our history.), toppling the existing government, and imposing a new system that better reflects the values of the burgeoning non-Caucasian majority. Simply put, The Project 1619 creates the rationale for sustained civil unrest, deepening political polarization and violent revolution.

All of these goals conveniently coincide with the aims of the NWO Oligarchs who seek to replace America’s Constitutional government with a corporate Superstate ruled by voracious Monopolists and their globalist allies. So, while Hannah-Jones treatise does nothing to improve conditions for black people in America, it does move the country closer to the dystopian dream of the parasite class; Corporate Valhalla.

Then there is “Critical Race Theory” which provides the ideological icing on the cake. The theory is part of the broader canon of anti-white dogma which is being used to indoctrinate workers. White employees are being subjected to “reeducation” programs that require their participation as a precondition for further employment . The first rebellion against critical race theory, took place at Sandia Labs which is a federally-funded research agency that designs America’s nuclear weapons. According to journalist Christopher F. Rufo:

“Senator @HawleyMO and @SecBrouillette have launched an inspector general investigation, but Sandia executives have only accelerated their purge against conservatives.”

Sandia executives have made it clear: they want to force critical race theory, race-segregated trainings, and white male reeducation camps on their employees—and all dissent will be severely punished. Progressive employees will be rewarded; conservative employees will be purged.” (“There is a civil war erupting at @SandiaLabs.” Christopher F Rufo)

It all sounds so “Bolshevik”. Here’s more info on how this toxic indoctrination program works:

“Treasury Department …

The Treasury Department held a training session telling employees that “virtually all White people contribute to racism” and demanding that white staff members “struggle to own their racism” and accept their “unconscious bias, White privilege, and White fragility.”

The National Credit Union Administration

The NCUA held a session for 8,900 employees arguing that America was “founded on racism” and “built on the blacks of people who were enslaved.” Twitter thread here and original source documents here.

Sandia National Laboratories

Last year, Sandia National Labs—which produces our nuclear arsenal—held a three-day reeducation camp for white males, teaching them how to deconstruct their “white male culture” and forcing them to write letters of apology to women and people of color. Whistleblowers from inside the labs tell me that critical race theory is now endangering our national security. Twitter thread hereand original source documents here.

Argonne National Laboratories

Argonne National Labs hosts trainings calling on white lab employees to admit that they “benefit from racism” and atone for the “pain and anguish inflicted upon Black people.” Twitter thread here.

Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security hosted a Training on “microaggressions, microinequities, and microassaults” where white employees were told that they had been “socialized into oppressor roles.” Twitter thread here and original source documents here.” (“Summary of Critical Race Theory Investigations”, Christopher F Rufo)

On September 4, Donald Trump announced his administration “would prohibit federal agencies from subjecting government employees to “critical race theory” or “white privilege” seminar…

“It has come to the President’s attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date ‘training’ government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda,” read a Friday memo from the Office of Budget and Management Director Russ Vought. “These types of ‘trainings’ not only run counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception, but they also engender division and resentment within the Federal workforce … The President has directed me to ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions.”

The next day, September 5, Trump announced that the Department of Education was going to see whether the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project was being used in school curricula and– if it was– then those schools would be ineligible for federal funding. Conservative pundits applauded Trump’s action as a step forward in the “culture wars”, but it’s really much more than that. Trump is actually foiling an effort by the domestic saboteurs who continue look for ways to undermine democracy, reduce the masses of working-class people to grinding poverty and hopelessness, and turn the country into a despotic military outpost ruled by bloodsucking tycoons, mercenary autocrats and duplicitous elites. Alot of thought and effort went into this malign ideological project. Trump derailed it with a wave of the hand. That’s no small achievement.

Bottom line: “Critical Race Theory”, “The 1619 Project”, and Homeland Security’s “White Supremacist” warning represent the ideological foundation upon which the war on America is based. The “anti-white” dogma is the counterpart to the massive riots that have rocked the country. These phenomena are two spokes on the same wheel. They are designed to work together to achieve the same purpose. The goal is create a “racial” smokescreen that conceals the vast and willful destruction of the US economy, the $5 trillion dollar wealth-transfer that was provided to Wall Street, and the ferocious attack on the emerging, mainly-white working class “populist” movement that elected Trump and which rejects the globalist plan to transform the world into a borderless free trade zone ruled by cutthroat monopolists and their NWO allies.

This is a class war dolled-up to look like a race war. Americans will have to look beyond the smoke and mirrors to spot the elites lurking in the shadows. There lies the cancer that must be eradicated.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Mike Whitney is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from TUR

“No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end.”—George Orwell

You can map the nearly 20-year journey from the 9/11 attacks to the COVID-19 pandemic by the freedoms we’ve lost along the way.

The road we have been traveling has been littered with the wreckage of our once-vaunted liberties, especially those enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.

The assaults on our freedoms that began with the post-9/11 passage of the USA Patriot Act laid the groundwork for the eradication of every vital constitutional safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse.

The COVID-19 pandemic with its lockdowns, mask mandates, surveillance, snitch lines for Americans to report their fellow citizens for engaging in risky behavior, and veiled threats of forced vaccinations has merely provided the architects of the American police state with an opportunity to flex their muscles.

These have become mile markers on the road to tyranny.

Free speech, the right to protest, the right to challenge government wrongdoing, due process, a presumption of innocence, the right to self-defense, accountability and transparency in government, privacy, press, sovereignty, assembly, bodily integrity, representative government: all of these and more have become casualties in the government’s ongoing war on the American people. In the process, the American people have been treated like enemy combatants, to be spied on, tracked, scanned, frisked, searched, subjected to all manner of intrusions, intimidated, invaded, raided, manhandled, censored, silenced, shot at, locked up, denied due process, and killed.

What the past 20 years have proven is that the U.S. government poses a greater threat to our individual and collective freedoms and national security than any terrorist, foreign threat or pandemic.

In allowing ourselves to be distracted by terror drills, foreign wars, color-coded warnings, partisan politics, pandemic scares, and other carefully constructed exercises in propaganda, sleight of hand, and obfuscation, we failed to recognize that the U.S. government—the government that was supposed to be a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”—has become the enemy of the people.

Indeed, the U.S. government has grown so corrupt, greedy, power-hungry and tyrannical over the course of the past 240-plus years that our constitutional republic has since given way to an idiocracy, and representative government has given way to a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) and a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American citizens).

Although the Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the Constitution—was adopted as a means of protecting the people against government tyranny, in America today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned.

“We the people” have been terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of compliance by a government that cares nothing for our lives or our liberties.

The bogeyman’s names and faces have changed over time (terrorism, the war on drugs, illegal immigration, a viral pandemic), but the end result remains the same: in the so-called name of national security, the Constitution has been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.

What we are left with today is but a shadow of the robust document adopted more than two centuries ago. Sadly, most of the damage has been inflicted upon the Bill of Rights.

Here is what it means to live under the Constitution, post-9/11 and in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic.

The First Amendment is supposed to protect the freedom to speak your mind, assemble and protest nonviolently without being bridled by the government. It also protects the freedom of the media, as well as the right to worship and pray without interference. In other words, Americans should not be silenced by the government. To the founders, all of America was a free speech zone.

Despite the clear protections found in the First Amendment, the freedoms described therein are under constant assault. Increasingly, Americans are being arrested and charged with bogus “contempt of cop” charges such as “disrupting the peace” or “resisting arrest” for daring to film police officers engaged in harassment or abusive practices. Journalists are being prosecuted for reporting on whistleblowers. States are passing legislation to muzzle reporting on cruel and abusive corporate practices. Religious ministries are being fined for attempting to feed and house the homeless. Protesters are being tear-gassed, beaten, arrested and forced into “free speech zones.” And under the guise of “government speech,” the courts have reasoned that the government can discriminate freely against any First Amendment activity that takes place within a government forum.

The Second Amendment was intended to guarantee “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Essentially, this amendment was intended to give the citizenry the means to resist tyrannical government. Yet while gun ownership has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as an individual citizen right, Americans remain powerless to defend themselves against SWAT team raids and government agents armed to the teeth with military weapons better suited to the battlefield. As such, this amendment has been rendered null and void.

The Third Amendment reinforces the principle that civilian-elected officials are superior to the military by prohibiting the military from entering any citizen’s home without “the consent of the owner.” With the police increasingly training like the military, acting like the military, and posing as military forces—complete with heavily armed SWAT teams, military weapons, assault vehicles, etc.—it is clear that we now have what the founders feared most—a standing army on American soil.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits government agents from conducting surveillance on you or touching you or invading you, unless they have some evidence that you’re up to something criminal. In other words, the Fourth Amendment ensures privacy and bodily integrity. Unfortunately, the Fourth Amendment has suffered the greatest damage in recent years and has been all but eviscerated by an unwarranted expansion of police powers that include strip searches and even anal and vaginal searches of citizens, surveillance (corporate and otherwise) and intrusions justified in the name of fighting terrorism, as well as the outsourcing of otherwise illegal activities to private contractors.

The Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment work in tandem. These amendments supposedly ensure that you are innocent until proven guilty, and government authorities cannot deprive you of your life, your liberty or your property without the right to an attorney and a fair trial before a civilian judge. However, in the new suspect society in which we live, where surveillance is the norm, these fundamental principles have been upended. Certainly, if the government can arbitrarily freeze, seize or lay claim to your property (money, land or possessions) under government asset forfeiture schemes, you have no true rights.

The Seventh Amendment guarantees citizens the right to a jury trial. Yet when the populace has no idea of what’s in the Constitution—civic education has virtually disappeared from most school curriculums—that inevitably translates to an ignorant jury incapable of distinguishing justice and the law from their own preconceived notions and fears. However, as a growing number of citizens are coming to realize, the power of the jury to nullify the government’s actions—and thereby help balance the scales of justice—is not to be underestimated. Jury nullification reminds the government that “we the people” retain the power to ultimately determine what laws are just.

The Eighth Amendment is similar to the Sixth in that it is supposed to protect the rights of the accused and forbid the use of cruel and unusual punishment. However, the Supreme Court’s determination that what constitutes “cruel and unusual” should be dependent on the “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” leaves us with little protection in the face of a society lacking in morals altogether.

The Ninth Amendment provides that other rights not enumerated in the Constitution are nonetheless retained by the people. Popular sovereignty—the belief that the power to govern flows upward from the people rather than downward from the rulers—is clearly evident in this amendment. However, it has since been turned on its head by a centralized federal government that sees itself as supreme and which continues to pass more and more laws that restrict our freedoms under the pretext that it has an “important government interest” in doing so.

As for the Tenth Amendment’s reminder that the people and the states retain every authority that is not otherwise mentioned in the Constitution, that assurance of a system of government in which power is divided among local, state and national entities has long since been rendered moot by the centralized Washington, DC, power elite—the president, Congress and the courts.

If there is any sense to be made from this recitation of freedoms lost, it is simply this: our individual freedoms have been eviscerated so that the government’s powers could be expanded.

Mind you, by “government,” I’m not referring to the highly partisan, two-party bureaucracy of the Republicans and Democrats. Rather, I’m referring to the Deep State—the corporatized, militarized, entrenched bureaucracy that has set itself beyond the reach of the law and is unaffected by elections, unaltered by populist movements, and staffed by unelected officials who are, in essence, running the country and calling the shots in Washington DC, no matter who sits in the White House.

This is a government that, in conjunction with its corporate partners, views the citizenry as consumers and bits of data to be bought, sold and traded.

This is a government that spies on and treats its citizens as if they have no right to privacy, especially in their own homes.

This is a government that is laying the groundwork to weaponize the public’s biomedical data as a convenient means by which to penalize certain “unacceptable” social behaviors.

This is a government that subjects its people to scans, searches, pat downs and other indignities by the TSA and VIPR raids on so-called “soft” targets like shopping malls and bus depots by black-clad, Darth Vader look-alikes.

This is a government that uses fusion centers, which represent the combined surveillance efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement, to track the citizenry’s movements, record their conversations, and catalogue their transactions.

This is a government whose wall-to-wall surveillance has given rise to a suspect society in which the burden of proof has been reversed such that Americans are now assumed guilty until or unless they can prove their innocence.

This is a government that treats its people like second-class citizens who have no rights, and is working overtime to stigmatize and dehumanize any and all who do not fit with the government’s plans for this country.

This is a government that uses free speech zones, roving bubble zones and trespass laws to silence, censor and marginalize Americans and restrict their First Amendment right to speak truth to power. The kinds of speech the government considers dangerous enough to red flag and subject to censorship, surveillance, investigation, prosecution and outright elimination include: hate speech, bullying speech, intolerant speech, conspiratorial speech, treasonous speech, threatening speech, incendiary speech, inflammatory speech, radical speech, anti-government speech, right-wing speech, left-wing speech, extremist speech, politically incorrect speech, etc.

This is a government that adopts laws that criminalize Americans for otherwise lawful activities such as holding religious studies at home, growing vegetables in their yard, and collecting rainwater.

This is a government that persists in renewing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the president and the military to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely.

This is a government that saddled us with the Patriot Act, which opened the door to all manner of government abuses and intrusions on our privacy.

This is a government that, in direct opposition to the dire warnings of those who founded our country, has allowed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a standing army by way of programs that transfer surplus military hardware to local and state police.

This is a government that has militarized American’s domestic police, equipping them with military weapons such as “tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft,” in addition to armored vehicles, sound cannons and the like.

This is a government that has provided cover to police when they shoot and kill unarmed individuals just for standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety.

This is a government that has allowed private corporations to get rich at taxpayer expense by locking people up in private prisons for non-violent crimes, while providing Corporate America with a source of cheap labor.

This is a government that has created a Constitution-free zone within 100 miles inland of the border around the United States, paving the way for Border Patrol agents to search people’s homes, intimately probe their bodies, and rifle through their belongings, all without a warrant. Incredibly, nearly 66% of Americans (2/3 of the U.S. population, 197.4 million people) now live within that 100-mile-deep, Constitution-free zone.

This is a government that treats public school students as if they were prison inmates, enforcing zero tolerance policies that criminalize childish behavior, failing to teach them their rights under the Constitution, and indoctrinating them with teaching that emphasizes rote memorization and test-taking over learning, synthesizing and critical thinking.

This is a government that is operating in the negative on every front: it’s spending far more than what it makes (and takes from the American taxpayers) and it is borrowing heavily (from foreign governments and Social Security) to keep the government operating and keep funding its endless wars abroad. Meanwhile, the nation’s sorely neglected infrastructure—railroads, water pipelines, ports, dams, bridges, airports and roads—is rapidly deteriorating.

This is a government whose gun violence—inflicted on unarmed individuals by battlefield-trained SWAT teams, militarized police, and bureaucratic government agents trained to shoot first and ask questions later—poses a greater threat to the safety and security of the nation than any mass shooter. There are now reportedly more bureaucratic (non-military) government agents armed with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines.

This is a government that has allowed the presidency to become a dictatorship operating above and beyond the law, regardless of which party is in power.

This is a government that treats dissidents, whistleblowers and freedom fighters as enemies of the state.

This is a government—a warring empire—that forces its taxpayers to pay for wars abroad that serve no other purpose except to expand the reach of the military industrial complex.

This is a government that has in recent decades unleashed untold horrors upon the world—including its own citizenry—in the name of global conquest, the acquisition of greater wealth, scientific experimentation, and technological advances, all packaged in the guise of the greater good.

This is a government that allows its agents to break laws with immunity while average Americans get the book thrown at them.

This is a government that speaks in a language of force. What is this language of force? Militarized police. Riot squads. Camouflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics. Brutality. Contempt of cop charges.

This is a government that justifies all manner of government tyranny and power grabs in the so-called name of national security, national crises and national emergencies.

This is a government that exports violence worldwide, with one of this country’s most profitable exports being weapons. Indeed, the United States, the world’s largest exporter of arms, has been selling violence to the world in order to prop up the military industrial complex and maintain its endless wars abroad.

This is a government that is consumed with squeezing every last penny out of the population and seemingly unconcerned if essential freedoms are trampled in the process.

This is a government that believes it has the authority to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation, the Constitution be damned.

In sum, this is a government that routinely undermines the Constitution and rides roughshod over the rights of the citizenry.

This is not a government that believes in, let alone upholds, freedom.

So where does that leave us?

As always, the first step begins with “we the people.”

Those who gave us the Constitution and the Bill of Rights believed that the government exists at the behest of its citizens. It is there to protect, defend and even enhance our freedoms, not violate them. Our power as a citizenry comes from our ability to agree and stand united on certain freedom principles that should be non-negotiable.

It was no idle happenstance that the Constitution opens with these three powerful words: “We the people.” In other words, we have the power to make and break the government. We are the masters and they are the servants. We the American people—the citizenry—are the arbiters and ultimate guardians of America’s welfare, defense, liberty, laws and prosperity.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we have managed to keep the wolf at bay so far. Barely.

Our national priorities need to be re-prioritized. For instance, some argue that we need to make America great again. I, for one, would prefer to make America free again.

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This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People  is available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Featured image is from Land Destroyer Report

Veteran investigative journalist and filmmaker John Pilger delivered the following speech outside London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court on Monday, the first day of resumed show-trial proceedings for the extradition of Julian Assange to the US. Pilger, along with a number of other leading journalists and human right monitors, was denied access to the court.

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