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This August 30, the United States should reflect on its own violence, so there can finally be some semblance of accountability—including acknowledging wrongdoing, repairing the harm to the victims, and putting mechanisms in place that prevent this violence from recurring.

Despite the fact that the United States has routinely and openly violated the human rights of its own citizens as well as communities across the globe, the government rarely has any qualms about condemning the violations of other countries. These condemnations, almost always hypocritical, however, often do more to shine light on its own abuses and the lack of accountability.

Like clockwork each year, the United States issues statements commemorating various human rights days highlighting particular abuses. Last year, for example, Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement through the State Department on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. The statement reads in part that “the United States renews its commitment to addressing enforced disappearance and calls on governments around the world to put an end to this practice, hold those responsible to account, reveal the whereabouts or fate of loved ones who have been disappeared, and respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons.”

This year, the U.S. government will almost certainly release yet another statement to commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30, once again erasing its own crimes. Although disappearances have less typically been associated with the United States, the U.S. has long deployed this abuse in the War on Terror—often disguising the practice through euphemisms and denials. After two decades plus of the War on Terror, however, it is imperative to shed light on the unresolved issue of Guantánamo prisoners’ disappearances and the CIA’s disturbing rendition, detention, and interrogation program that operated in the earlier days of the war.

Obscured Realities: Rendition and Disappearances

In the early days of the War on Terror, the CIA was given the licence to render and detain people in countries across the globe who were willing to host black sites. The program operated from 2002-2009, with at least 119 individuals enduring the violence of the CIA. Some never returned home; others were sent to Guantánamo Bay. Although the U.S. government has continued to use the term “render” as in render to justice, in practice, many of those subjected to this violence have effectively disappeared—leaving their families in an abyss of uncertainty, all while the U.S. government refuses to reckon with this legacy.

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the United States should reflect on its own violence, so there can finally be some semblance of accountability—including acknowledging wrongdoing, repairing the harm to the victims, and putting mechanisms in place that prevent this violence from recurring.

Activists in orange jumpsuits protest in front of the White House.

Activists holding signs with the names of 35 men still imprisoned at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, protest outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on January 11, 2023, the 21st anniversary of the notorious facility. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Enforced disappearances are a particularly brutal form of state violence. Not only do the victims fear never being found, the families of the victims live in perpetual uncertainty with constant denials of information from the government about their loved ones’ fates. The pain of not knowing whether a family member is alive or deceased, free or imprisoned, makes closure impossible.

Disappearing War on Terror Prisoners

The post-9/11 and the War on Terror waged by the United States transformed many parts of the world into war zones, cemeteries, and prisons. Lives were forever lost or shrouded in obscurity, while entire families were erased. Gul Rahman, an Afghan citizen, is just one name among the countless individuals whose fate became tragically entwined with the secret operations of the Central Intelligence Agency, vanishing into CIA black sites, never to emerge alive. Among the torture Rahman endured was being handcuffed to the ground, put in a diaper, and placed in a cell with freezing temperatures—which lead to his untimely death by hypothermia. Rahman’s family was never formally informed of his death, and, despite their fighting to have his body returned for a proper burial, the United States has denied their request.

Detention by the CIA was not the only way War on Terror prisoners have been effectively disappeared. When the first Muslim men were taken to Guantánamo in January 2002, only the nationalities of prisoners were disclosed. Not only because the U.S. didn’t actually know the identities of many of the men, but because they were so dehumanized, that the U.S. government didn’t prioritize sharing the names with the International Committee of the Red Cross or any other agency or institution—especially any that would hold them accountable. It wasn’t until 2004 that the names of the men detained were finally revealed—although many with incomplete names documented, leaving their families in prolonged darkness about their whereabouts. Names were only disclosed by monitoring websites like Alasra and the Britain-based CagePrisoners.

Guantánamo became synonymous with secrecy, human rights abuses, and the plight of countless detainees. Many were held there for years, unaccounted for, like ghosts in the system. Families were left in a perpetual state of uncertainty, not knowing whether their loved ones were dead or alive. In addition, nine prisoners died while at Guantánamo—a harrowing and violent conclusion to their detention—especially since the deaths occurred years after many of the men last saw their families.

As a Guantánamo survivor myself, I spent around six agonizing years at Guantánamo before my family knew anything about my whereabouts. Another family came to know about their son in 2016; a lawyer contacted the family and let them know.

Continuing Injustice: Recent Cases

The injustices extended beyond the walls of Guantánamo. In many cases, after being transferred, detainees vanished for months, disappearing into solitary confinement in their home countries in Saudi Arabia or in third-party nations like the United Arab Emirates. Constituting a violent ebb and flow of being lost and found, War on Terror prisoners have been forced to endure the possibility of being disappeared again and again.

Ghassan al-Sharbi’s case represents a more recent chapter in this ongoing tragedy. Forcibly repatriated to Saudi Arabia, he vanished into obscurity. Despite attempts to locate him, his whereabouts remain unknown. The lack of response from both the Saudi government and the State Department exemplifies the prevailing indifference to the plight of former detainees.

Another former prisoner, Asim al-khalaqi, was released to Kazakhstan in 2015, but died tragically four months later due to mistreatment and medical negligence. The Kazakh government failed to inform Asim’s family of his death, denying them the chance to retrieve his body or hold a proper burial—thus constituting a symbolic disappearance. He was buried in an unknown cemetery and an unknown grave.

In solidarity with victims and their families, we must reaffirm our collective determination to create a world where no one vanishes, justice prevails, and human dignity is inviolable.

The stories of Gul Rahman, Asim al-khalaqi, Ghassan al-Sharbi, and countless others stand as painful reminders of the enduring impact of CIA rendition, Guantánamo Bay, and the “War on Terror.” While the black sites and detention camps have garnered international criticism, their legacy continues to cast a long shadow over the lives of those affected. Families have been denied closure, and the cycle of suffering perpetuates even after release. The world must remember these names, demand accountability, and work toward a future where such gross violations of human rights are truly left in the past. Until then, the War on Terror will endure as a haunting testament to the cost of sacrificing justice for security.

On this international day, let us demand an end to enforced disappearances and the practices that perpetuate them. Let us hold nations accountable for their actions and demand transparency. In solidarity with victims and their families, we must reaffirm our collective determination to create a world where no one vanishes, justice prevails, and human dignity is inviolable. By doing so, we honor the disappeared, restore justice, and ensure that no one is condemned to obscurity or denied their humanity.

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

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Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemen national formerly imprisoned–without charge or trial–at the U.S. offshore prison in Guantanamo Bay, currently lives in Serbia.

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Apparently, the Ukrainian government wants to disguise the dictatorial aspect of the regime by pretending to be a democracy. According to information reported by Western media, Kiev plans to organize elections next year. The news is surprising, as the country has been under martial law since February 2022, which would legitimize the postponement of the elections. However, the aim is believed to be to increase Zelensky’s popularity and improve his public image.

The information was published by the Spanish newspaper El Pais on August 28th. Anonymous sources familiar with the matter were consulted by journalists and said that elections will strengthen Zelensky, thus motivating a circumvention of the norms imposed by martial law.

Until recently, Zelensky ruled out elections, but now there are signs that he and his team are changing the strategy. In an interview with local TV a few days ago, Zelensky said: “The logic is that if you are protecting democracy, you must also protect it during the war. And one way to protect it is elections”. In the same vein, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of the Ukrainian parliament, stated in July that updates to Ukrainian martial law “would take place soon” as “democracy cannot stop”. Some analysts believe he was commenting on the possibility of calling elections even in times of war.

There are some additional reasons why Kiev is planning these measures. First, it is necessary to remember that the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime is not sovereign, and all its decisions are taken under the direct influence of foreign agents. And recently there has been pressure from some Americans for Ukraine to implement “more democratic” policies to justify Western support. American politicians have already expressed, including in a personal meeting with Zelensky, their desire to see elections in Ukraine next year, which explains Ukraine’s readiness to revise its martial law.

“After a meeting with Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Wednesday, two senators from the Democratic Party, Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, as well as Republican Lindsey Graham, stressed that they considered it necessary for Ukrainian democracy to hold elections despite the country being at war. The Democratic position has a lot to do with the upcoming presidential election in the United States, which will be held in November 2024. The Republican Party has numerous prominent members (including former President Donald Trump) who have criticized military support for Kyiv, and who, since last spring, have used the argument that Ukraine is not so different from Russia, since the country has suspended democracy under the pretext of war”, El Pais’ article reads.

However, some sources also believe that the main reason for Kiev to take this action is a matter of domestic politics. Zelensky’s popularity has fallen recently, not just because of the conflict, but also because the Ukrainian president has failed to fulfill his main promise during the previous election campaign: to fight corruption. So, instead of thinking about concrete solutions to the corruption problem, Zelensky apparently plans to regain his popularity through new elections. The Ukrainian political scenario does not allow for the existence of a solid opposition coalition, given that many parties were banned and opposing politicians arrested, so it could be “easy” for Zelensky to achieve victory.

In this regard, Mark Savchuk, a political commentator and adviser to the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Office, told journalists:

“Zelenskiy is a great public relations man, especially with the international community, and we are lucky for that, but if there is now talk of going to the polls it is because of Ukrainian internal issues that he does not want to be aired abroad (…) Only in the judiciary have there been improvements, but neither Zelenskiy nor his team are prepared [to fight corruption]. Ordinary Ukrainians see that this is still a corrupt country, they experience it on a daily basis and there are always new stories about it in the news (…) Their team is inept and corrupt. We have a serious corruption problem and they believe that their popularity will slip, so they want to take advantage of their charisma now electorally.”

However, it will not be so easy to organize elections in the midst of the conflict. There are many difficulties to be faced by Ukrainian citizens in an election scenario. In all regions affected by the hostilities it will be virtually impossible for citizens to vote, as the possibility of moving around is severely limited due to the intensity of the fighting. This will restrict the voting area to only some western regions of Ukraine, where the population is more influenced by pro-NATO media and tends to support the regime – despite growing criticism of Zelensky’s administrative ability.

In practice, there are two risks for Zelensky with the plan to hold a new election. One of them is Zelensky losing the dispute. Although the Ukrainian opposition has been practically neutralized by the regime’s dictatorial policies, it has become increasingly clear that Western sponsors plan to replace Zelensky, which makes it possible for Washington to create the necessary conditions for another candidate to win. The other risk is that, even if he wins, Zelensky remains unpopular, with his victory looking like a mere bureaucratic procedure, given the absence of relevant opponents. In this scenario, the plan to make Ukraine look “more democratic” would fail.

However, in either case, Ukraine’s real problem will not be solved: the country will continue to work as a proxy for the US and fight an unwinnable war against a much stronger enemy, causing unnecessary suffering for the Ukrainian population.

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Lucas Leiroz is a journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on Twitter and Telegram.

Featured image: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers an address in Kiev, Ukraine, April 15, 2022. (Credit: Ukrainian Presidency)

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Einleitung

Während ich an einem neuen Artikel arbeitete, wurde ich durch eine serbische Fernsehsendung auf das EU-Gesetz über digitale Dienste (GdD) aufmerksam. Da diese Verordnung eine Gefahr für die Meinungsfreiheit der Bürger und die Rechtsstaatlichkeit sein könnte, möchte ich die Information gerne weitergeben, die genaue Auswertung und Beurteilung jedoch juristischen Experten überlassen.

Um den Zusammenhang zwischen meinem begonnenen Artikel und der Verordnung der EU zu verstehen, will ich das Thema und die Einleitung des Artikels kurz wiedergeben:

Wir wissen, dass wir am Rande des Vulkans leben, wiegen uns aber in der Hoffnung, dass es zu keinem Ausbruch kommen werde.

Immer wieder wird beklagt, dass nur wenige Menschen sich unabhängige Gedanken machen über die Zukunft der Welt. Die beruhigende Selbsttäuschung scheint angenehmer zu sein als der Gedanke an die Gefahr. Die Mehrheit der Menschen würde nicht aufwachen, weiterhin den Staatsmedien vertrauen und vor den anstehenden Problemen ausweichen. Doch die Realität will erkannt und verstanden sein: wer zu ihr in Widerspruch gerät, wird entweder geschädigt oder vernichtet.

Tatsache ist, dass wir auch im Zeitalter der Aufklärung und Vernunft noch im alten konservativen Denken des Mittelalters befangen sind, wo man geglaubt hat, dass sich alles oben im Himmel abspielt. Deshalb meinten die Menschen, sich nicht selbst erforschen zu können, nicht ihre seelische Natur, ihre unbewussten Gefühlsregungen und ihre Reaktionsweisen. Aus diesem Grund haben sie die Psychologie nicht erfasst. Sie wollen weiterhin brave Staatsbürger bleiben, die die Anordnungen der Obrigkeit nicht in Frage stellen, sondern bedingungslos gehorchen und nicht „aus der Reihe tanzen“. Einiges, was man als älterer Bürger seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg erlebt hat, scheint sich zu wiederholen.

Da es sich beim althergebrachten konservativen Denken um einen unbewussten Prozess handelt, können wir diese Menschen beziehungsweise uns alle nicht verurteilen. Wir sollten mutig an unser Gefühlsleben herantreten und uns wie auch unsere Mitmenschen kennen lernen, um aufzuwachen, aktiv zu werden und gegen die bestehenden unmenschlichen Bedingungen der Gesellschaft zu revoltieren (Albert Camus).

Gesetz über digitale Dienste (GdD)  

Das Gesetz über digitale Dienste heißt auf Englisch „Digitale Services Act (DSA)“ und auf Französisch „Règlement sur les Services Numériques (RSN). Es soll unter anderem die Haftungs- und Sicherheitsvorschriften für digitale Plattformen, Dienste und Produkte schaffen und den digitalen Binnenmarkt vollenden.

Da ich die Beurteilung des europäischen Regelwerks juristischen Experten überlassen möchte, hier nur einige Anmerkungen gemäß Wikipedia (1):

„Die Verordnung aktualisiert den 2000 beschlossenen rechtlichen Rahmen für Online-Plattformen der Europäischen Union und passt ihn an die Gegebenheiten des Plattformkapitalismus an. Dabei sollen die Grundsätze des freien Internets jedoch berücksichtigt werden. Die Verordnung wurde am 27. Oktober 2022 im Amtsblatt der Europäischen Union bekannt gemacht. Kernvorschiften werden bereits ab dem 16. November 2022 anwendbar sein, der überwiegende Teil wird am 17. Februar 2024 anwendbar sein. (…). 

Die EU-Kommission verfolgt mit dem Vorschlag nach eigenen Angaben primär drei Ziele:

  • Besserer Schutz der Verbraucher und ihrer Grundrechte im Internet.
  • Schaffung eines leistungsfähigen bzw. klaren Transparenz- und Rechenschaftsrahmens für Online-Plattformen.
  • Förderung von Innovation, Wachstum und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit im Binnenmarkt. (…).

Sehr große Online-Plattformen werden strengere Verpflichtungen erfüllen müssen, die in einem angemessenen Verhältnis zu den erheblichen gesellschaftlichen Risiken stehen, die von ihnen ausgehen, wenn sie illegale und „schädliche“ (‚harmful content‘) Inhalte, einschließlich Desinformationen, verbreiten. (…).

Die Bürgerrechtsbewegung European Digital Rights meldete in einer Pressemitteilung substanzielle Bedenken an und beurteilte den Vorschlag als Gefahr für die Meinungsfreiheit und Rechtsstaatlichkeit.“

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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel ist Schul-Rektor, Erziehungswissenschaftler und Diplom-Psychologe. Nach seinen Universitätsstudien wurde er wissenschaftlicher Lehrer in der Erwachsenenbildung. Als Pensionär arbeitete er als Psychotherapeut in eigener Praxis. In seinen Büchern und Fachartikeln fordert er eine bewusste ethisch-moralische Werteerziehung sowie eine Erziehung zu Gemeinsinn und Frieden. Für seine Verdienste um Serbien bekam er 2021 von den Universitäten Belgrad und Novi Sad den Republik-Preis „Kapitän Misa Anastasijevic“ verliehen.

Er schreibt regelmäßig für Global Research.   

Note

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesetz_über_digitale_Dienste 

Ausgewähltes Bild Electronic Frontier Foundation

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Introduction

While I was working on a new article, I became aware of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) through a Serbian television programme. Since this regulation could be a threat to citizens’ freedom of expression and the rule of law, I would like to pass on the information, but leave the exact evaluation and assessment to legal experts.

In order to understand the connection between the article I have started and the EU regulation, I will briefly recapitulate the topic and the introduction of the article:

We know that we live on the edge of the volcano, but we lull ourselves into the hope that it will not erupt.

Time and again, people complain that few people give independent thought to the future of the world. The comforting self-delusion seems more pleasant than the thought of danger. The majority of people would not wake up, continue to trust the state media and evade the problems at hand. But reality wants to be recognised and understood: anyone who contradicts it will either be harmed or destroyed.

The fact is that even in the age of enlightenment and reason, we are still caught up in the old conservative thinking of the Middle Ages, where people believed that everything happened up in heaven. That is why people thought they could not explore themselves, not their psychic nature, their unconscious emotions and their ways of reacting. For this reason they have not grasped psychology. They want to remain good citizens who do not question the orders of the authorities, but obey unconditionally and do not “step out of line”. Some of the things that older citizens have experienced since the Second World War seem to be repeating themselves.

Since traditional conservative thinking is an unconscious process, we cannot condemn these people or any of us. We should courageously approach our emotional life and get to know ourselves as well as our fellow human beings in order to wake up, become active and revolt against the existing inhuman conditions of society (Albert Camus).

Digital Services Act (DSA)

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is called in French “Règlement sur les Services Numériques (RSN)”. Among other things, it aims to create liability and security rules for digital platforms, services and products and to complete the digital single market.

Since I would like to leave the assessment of the European regulatory framework to legal experts, here are just a few comments according to Wikipedia (1):

“The regulation updates the legal framework for online platforms of the European Union adopted in 2000 and adapts it to the realities of platform capitalism. However, the principles of the free internet are to be taken into account. The regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 October 2022. Core provisions will already be applicable from 16 November 2022, the majority will be applicable on 17 February 2024. (…).

According to the EU Commission, the proposal primarily pursues three goals:

  • Better protection of consumers and their fundamental rights on the internet
  • Creation of an efficient and clear transparency and accountability framework for online platforms.
  • Promoting innovation, growth and competitiveness in the internal market. (…).

Very large online platforms will have to comply with stricter obligations proportionate to the significant societal risks they pose when disseminating illegal and ‘harmful content’, including disinformation. (…).

The civil rights movement European Digital Rights raised substantial concerns in a press release, judging the proposal a threat to freedom of expression and the rule of law.”

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Dr Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a school rector, educational scientist and qualified psychologist. After his university studies, he became an academic teacher in adult education. As a retiree, he worked as a psychotherapist in his own practice. In his books and professional articles, he calls for a conscious ethical-moral education in values as well as an education for public spirit and peace. For his services to Serbia, he was awarded the Republic Prize “Captain Misa Anastasijevic” by the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad in 2021.

Note

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesetz_über_digitale_Dienste

Featured image is from Electronic Frontier Foundation

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***

Healthy COVID-19 mRNA vaccinated children are dying of infections they should not be dying from: influenza, strep A, meningitis, sepsis. Not just in Australia either.

All highly COVID-19 vaccinated countries. Here are some examples:

July 6, 2023 – Noosa, Australia – 11 year old Emma Schwab died suddenly from “influenza B” one day after being released from the hospital. “Cases surge in Australia.”

Feb. 23, 2023 – IL – 7 year old Rose Tylor Kunkes died suddenly from Strep Throat.

Feb. 17, 2023 – UK – 6 year old Milly-Rose Stirrup suddenly fell ill on Feb. 14 with pain in her stomach and her heart. Within a few days she was dead. Doctors suspect sepsis.

Dec. 20, 2022 – Utah – 17 year old student in a boarding school for troubled teens, Taylor Goodridge, died of peritonitis and sepsis which caused her organs to fail. She started having symptoms on Dec. 9, back pain, difficulty breathing, vomiting.

Dec. 13, 2022 – 18 year old Maria Alexandra Gaynor was a healthy student at Dalhousie University, which mandated COVID-19 mRNA vaccines on all students. She died suddenly of Meningitis.

Nov. 29, 2022 – 9 year old West Kelowna, British Columbia girl Ayla Loseth, died from sepsis from Strep A. “At least 3 kids die from Strep A as infections on the rise among children in Canada”.

Ayla Grace Loseth was taken to hospital by her parents Chrissy and Brad on Nov. 26, 2022 with dehydration, nausea and fever. They were told it was the flu but, three days later, she died from sepsis from Strep A. (Click here)

Sep. 10, 2022 – Italy – 18 year old Lorenzo Squillace, who was a lifeguard from San Benedetto del Tronto, died suddenly on Sep. 10, 2022 after feeling ill at home. He died of sepsis.

Aug. 23, 2022 – Naples, Italy – 19 year old Greek female navy cadet Talia who was on board Prometheus ship died 48hr after feeling unwell on Aug. 23, 2022. She had hemorrhagic rash, then sepsis.

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Australian researchers publish study proving COVID-19 mRNA vaccines damage the immune systems of children!

Published on Aug. 25, 2023, the paper is called: “BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination in children alters cytokine responses to heterologous pathogens and Toll-like receptor agonists”

Study looked at 29 kids ages 5-11 and found that:

  • “BNT162b2 vaccination is associated with a decrease in bacterial and viral stimulant-induced cytokine responses one month after vaccination”
  • “BNT162b2 vaccination is associated with a sustained decrease in cytokine responses to viral, but not bacterial, stimulants six months after vaccination”
  • “These data show that a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-based vaccine alters heterologous immunity in children and that these effects can persist up to six months after vaccination”

Translated, this means that Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine suppresses the immune systems of children ages 5-11 for at least 6 months, leaving them susceptible to viral and bacterial infections 

It only took researchers 1.5 years to catch up to my warnings against mRNA vaccinating children ages 5-11.

On March 5, 2022 at 12:51pm, I posted a Tweet: “Pfizer Covid vaccine was just 12% effective against Omicron in kids 5 to 11, study finds – CNBC. The results are actually far, far worse. By week 6, there is negative efficacy of -41%. This mRNA product should be pulled off the market. Now.”

By 5:11pm my Twitter account was locked, suspended and stayed suspended for 11 months.

Twitter would go on to suspend and terminate every doctor and scientist who raised concerns about safety of mRNA vaccines in children. 

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were rolled out in Canadian and US children 5-11 years old from Dec. 2021 to May 2022.

What happened 6 months later? Nov-Dec 2022: USA had worst flu season in 2 decades!

Canada also had worst flu season in years: “10 kids dead amid pediatric flu surge”. “Pediatric hospitalizations were 20x higher than usual for the time of year.”

My Take… 

An Australian team has just proven that the Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine suppresses or damages the immune systems of children ages 5-11 for at least 6 months, leaving them susceptible to viral and bacterial infections.

Millions of children took the Pfizer mRNA jab because their parents trusted the corrupt officials who approved those jabs without any safety studies!

Once the jabs were rolled out in children ages 5-11 in the first quarter of 2022, the following happened approximately 6 months later:

  • US had worst flu season in 2 decades in late 2022 (source)
  • Canada was in a “flu epidemic” in late 2022, with pediatric hospitalizations up 2000%
  • Australia had 360% increase in strep A infections in 2022 (source)
  • Australia is having an “intense flu season” in June-Oct 2023 where children are “being hit the hardest” (source1) (source2)
  • UK had “worst flu season in a decade” in late 2022 (source)
  • New Zealand is in for another large and early flu season (source)

I believe hundreds of children have died from immune system suppression caused by taking the Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, and the record flu seasons seen in US, Canada, Australia and UK in 2022 and 2023 are the direct result of immune damage caused by Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.

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


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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Safe and Secure? Or Stressed and Scared?

August 31st, 2023 by Barbara Nimri Aziz

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“Why don’t you just report it to the town council, with a photo of that cluttered yard,” I suggested to a neighbor complaining of piles of junk abandoned on an incomplete construction site beside her house.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that”, she swiftly counters; “They might become angry.”

I’ve encountered this kind of fear repeatedly – fear of any personal confrontation.

Neighbors prefer to put up with excessive noise, disrespect and other aggravations rather than approach a neighbor, or report their concern to the municipality. It speaks to lack of confidence between neighbors and to misgivings about elected officials.

I wonder if, like me, you detect a wariness and unease – fear, actually­– not known here 15, 25, 50 years ago.

We all know our region is undergoing a huge amount of change. Transformation, really. Yet, The Catskills has never been a static, forgotten part of New York. Here’s not unlike many semi-rural areas experiencing surges and slumps.

People are more apprehensive than in the past, it seems. Our schools, hospitals and clinics need more guards, as if businesses and public places are not already engulfed by cameras. If you’re nervous about your home the answer comes back: “Install cameras; activate it while away and you can get alerts anywhere, through your phone.” Is this really a solution? We end up anxiously checking our phones for warnings.

Certainly, in my village, the number of surveillance cameras through the woods and along country roads is unprecedented. Earlier we had only tree-mounted cameras in nearby woods to view baby bears in season, or check the clattering in our refuse bins for bothersome raccoons and porcupines. Now, innocent walkers, perhaps, new homeowners, are caught unaware, like a one couple on a stroll in the woods above their property. They were filmed! And the property owner, far away in another state, filed a trespassing suit that cost the couple several hundred dollars, another villager reports. That can certainly curb one’s enthusiasm for hiking on our abundant green hills.

One homeowner, who visits her riverside house once a year, if that often, has cameras all around her place—to ensure that her teenage grandchildren don’t use the house without her supervision. Her own grandchildren! At a hardly-used residence! When I pass the place during my evening walk, a spotlight flashes on me, alerting her on her phone, somewhere. I wave cynically at the light, mumbling something unrepeatable.

‘No Trespassing’ signs now mark the landscape in all directions. I wonder, should we leave behind our bird-watching binoculars for fear of being suspected of peeping?

Notwithstanding surveillance technology available to homeowners, something else– something discomforting– is going on.

There’s rising fear and unease about our surroundings, our neighborhoods.

Yes, a lot of changes. New people moving in do not feel like real neighbors. Appearing on weekends only, they rush out of their $500,000+ homes to socialize at one of the new upscale restaurants. Regulars can’t even accidentally meet them at our local eateries. Then there’s the Airbnb crowd. They may walk past our house – with their indispensable dog – pausing to peer at our flowerbed. Anyway, they’re soon gone. Can’t make a neighborhood from that.

I’m thankful my house is not near the town’s craft-beer circus, or the extended vodka bar that’s usurped an entire village street.
That raises another issue—more drinking holes. Most new businesses are high-end eateries and bars. Frankly, I’d rather have our recently shuttered pharmacy or a handy late-night Chinese takeout.

It’s not change; it’s not newcomers. For more than two centuries, people arrived here from elsewhere and became part of today’s solid social fabric. This change underway today is aggravated by something beyond the Catskills; bad news and threats are descending from all sides. Frightening news used to be confined abroad. Now it’s homemade –within our borders. If it’s not fires, its fentanyl; if it’s not floods, it’s scamming seniors’ savings; if it’s not fights about books, it’s new laws over gender identity; if it’s not the roar of trucks up Highway 17, it’s the price of bread. Shootings and economizing on food had belonged in distant places; now, they are around the corner and up the road.

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Barbara Nimri Aziz whose anthropological research has focused on the peoples of the Himalayas is the author of the newly published “Yogmaya and Durga Devi: Rebel Women of Nepal”, available on Amazon

She is a regular contributor to Global Research.


“Yogmaya and Durga Devi: Rebel Women of Nepal”

By Barbara Nimri Aziz

A century ago Yogmaya and Durga Devi, two women champions of justice, emerged from a remote corner of rural Nepal to offer solutions to their nation’s social and political ills. Then they were forgotten.

Years after their demise, in 1980 veteran anthropologist Barbara Nimri Aziz first uncovered their suppressed histories in her comprehensive and accessible biographies. Revelations from her decade of research led to the resurrection of these women and their entry into contemporary Nepali consciousness.

This book captures the daring political campaigns of these rebel women; at the same time it asks us to acknowledge their impact on contemporary feminist thinking. Like many revolutionaries who were vilified in their lifetimes, we learn about the true nature of these leaders’ intelligence, sacrifices, and vision during an era of social and economic oppression in this part of Asia.

After Nepal moved from absolute monarchy to a fledgling democracy and history re-evaluated these pioneers, Dr. Aziz explores their legacies in this book.

Psychologically provocative and astonishingly moving, “Yogmaya and Durga Devi” is a seminal contribution to women’s history.

Click here to order.

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***

The US history of creating coups and dictatorships is not over. US President Obama presided over the coup in Honduras in 2009.

The US backed the Turkish military in trying to topple the democratically elected Erdogan in 2016.

In 2014, US president Obama and now-president Biden used Nazi groups to topple the democratically elected president Yanukovych of Ukraine.

The US has also tried to topple the democratically elected president Maduro in Venezuela.

The atrocities which the US inflicted on Chile with the coup in 1973 are still a deep pain for Chile.

It clearly illustrates the size and depth of the pain inflicted by the USA, that even today, 50 years after the US-coup in Chile, enormous efforts are made by Chile’s society to bring justice to the results of US atrocities. This includes looking for the thousands of “disappeared”.

Reporting from Chile’s capital Santiago, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman said successive Chilean governments have failed to seriously search for the disappeared people since Pinochet left power in 1990.

Newman noted that mass graves have been previously discovered in Chile near former interrogation centres, but not all the human remains found have been properly examined or identified.

“The forensic science has advanced quite a lot, so there is hope that at least some of the disappeared will be identified, even if it’s just a bone,” she said.

“A lot of people here told me, even if it’s just a little piece of the person that went missing that [they] can bury, that will help a lot to put their pain to rest.” 

Al Jazeera, August 30, 2023

The ”disappeared” were executed – sometimes cast from helicopters into the ocean.

The US inflicted similar atrocities on Argentina, Nicaragua, Panamá, El Salvador, and many other Latin American, African, Asian, Middle East, and European countries.

The pain of US atrocities lives – and is not forgotten all over the World.

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

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

In 2022, the US Army selected Bell Textron’s tiltrotor V280 as its Black Hawk replacement. This caused more than a few eyebrows to rise in consternation. The V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, flown by the Marine Corps and Special Operations Command, has had what can only be euphemistically regarded as a patchy record. It has been singularly odd in terms of the procurement and acquisition process, topped off by a tendency for killing its users while continuing to maintain a keen following. To date, no one has been held to account for what would, in any other policy context, be deemed criminally negligent.

The V-22 platform was the first tiltrotor deployed by the military, a strange creature combining the characteristics of fixed-wing planes, helicopters and vertical take-off and landing craft. It was originally inspired by a Pentagon request to Bell and Boeing after the failure of the hostage rescue effort dubbed Operation Eagle Claw. The April 1980 attempt by the Carter administration, intended to rescue US citizens being held by Iranian authorities, resulted in the deaths of five air force personnel and three marines.

The platform is slated for flying till 2055 yet sports a very blood-spattered resume. Prior to 2007, it had had four crashes, resulting in 30 deaths. Two of the first five prototypes suffered a number of fatal crashes in the early 1990s resulting in 30 deaths, though it formally came into the service of the Marines in 2007. After 2007, a further 24 deaths were caused in a further 10 crashes.

The Marine Corps has persisted indulging its use, seeing it as central in fighting the new lighter version of conflict the US imperium envisages, one characterised by manoeuvrability and speed as marked out by the “Force Design 2030” strategy.  “Proponents of Force Design 2030 argue,” writes ground forces specialist Andrew Feickert, “that current Marine Corps design is outdated and that new forces and operational concepts are required to prevail against China.”

One such appealing operational concept is EABO, otherwise known as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations. It is a concept that has been embraced by the de-facto colonial Marine force located at the top end in Australia, cutely called by publicists worried about that fact the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin.Occupying forces, the belief goes, do not rotate.The unit, comprising 2,500 soldiers, has been based in the Northern Territory from April to October every year since 2012.

On the morning of August 27, a V-22B Osprey with 23 US marines crashed on Melville Island just north of Darwin. Three marines were killed. Several others were left injured with varying degrees of severity. The episode brought back memories of another Osprey crash on Australian soil, which saw a failed effort on the part of the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 to land on the flight deck of USS Green Bay on August 5, 2017. On that occasion, there were also three fatalities, along with 23 injuries.

Those with claimed military or aviation expertise flock to the defence of this beast of moron and myth, admiring its “revolutionary design”, “a kind of plane-helicopter hybrid,” writes Peter Layton, involving wings tilting upwards “for take-off and landing and back down again for level flight.” It is appealing to its users, most notably the Marine Corps, for having greater range than helicopters, with higher speed and formidable carrying capacity.

Layton goes on to sing the praises of this lethal hybrid. “The Osprey is at the leading edge of aviation technology, with nothing else in operational service like it.” There are marvellous, evident reasons for that, but he prefers to note its essential role in the US strategy of prosecuting EABO operations against China from Australian bases rather than its hazards.

The literature about the V-22 Osprey notes the thorny history of this supposed “dream machine” and the problems of the Major Defense Acquisition Program that brought it into existence. To follow its development and deployment was an act akin to faith and its accompanying delusions. Richard Whittle, writing on the problem-plagued machine, found that, no matter what he penned, he “could usually count on being chastised by someone, for the Osprey was as close as a defense issue gets to being a religious question. There were believers and nonbelievers, and neither had much use for those who gave credence to the other side.”

Certainly, believers can come up with the sort of waffle asserting that each “Osprey flight is a learning event for the pilots, the maintenance personnel and the aircraft’s manufacturer.” This begs the question as to whether such equipment should ever see the light of day, especially given how often it snuffs out the lives of its users.

Other reasons for such an unfathomably dangerous record are also offered to distract from this deeply flawed craft. The National Commission on Military Aviation Safety, for instance, noted the baleful safety record of the US military in toto in a 2020 study conducted at the behest of Congress. The audit found that between 2013 and 2018, US forces suffered a remarkable 6,000 aviation safety “mishaps” during training and routine operations, resulting in 198 deaths and 157 lost aircraft. The bill for this dubious achievement had been $9.41 billion. The Osprey, it would seem, found itself in good, perishable company.

As with other religious questions, usually touching on doctrine and belief in some invisible, all-powerful tormentor, those saddled with it have paid the highest price. As US military policy continues its inexorable march to the next war, this time shamelessly using Australian strategic real estate for the purpose, it will also happily place its own personnel in machines as deadly to them as to any intended adversary.

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

Featured image: Bell V-280 Valor demonstrating high speed cruise configuration at the 2019 Alliance Air Show, Fort Worth, TX. (Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

What We Know About Depleted Uranium in Ukraine So Far?

August 31st, 2023 by International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons

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***

In the recent months there have been multiple reports containing different information about the use of depleted uranium weapons in Ukraine. Due to the rapidly changing events and partly contradictory statements by different officials and media, it is hard to tell with certainty, what party of the conflict has already used weapons containing depleted uranium. Further problems arise from the fact, that DU issue is being further instrumentalized by different actors with e.g., Russian officials claiming that DU projectiles are nuclear weapons.

All of this led to uncertainty and to the necessity of updating our initial assessment.

ICBUW position on the issue is unchanged:

Regardless of which belligerent uses DU weapons, that use will result in widespread environmental and public health damage and is extremely problematic under international (humanitarian) law.

DU Use by Ukrainian Forces

According to our research, Ukraine does not have its own depleted uranium rounds. The United Kingdom has confirmed that Ukraine will receive depleted uranium shells, also the United States are planning to supply this type of weapons. Even more alarming are the news regarding the new contract awarded recently to Rocketdyne, which concerns the production of of DU rounds for M1 Abrams tanks. In light of this information, it seems that the US is not planning on phasing out DU ammunition after all.

Our position regarding this news has not changed either:

ICBUW regrets and condemns the decision of the British government to supply depleted uranium ammunition and urges the United States to refrain from supplying this type of ammunition to Ukraine and to rely on less toxic alternatives instead. 

The topic of the supply of UK-made depleted uranium ammunition seems to be surrounded by fake news as well. One example is the report, that a warehouse storing British-supplied depleted uranium ammunition was destroyed in Khmelnitsky, claiming that radiation levels were rising in the aftermath of the strike. There is zero evidence, that the warehouse was a “depleted uranium storage facility”, the reports on radiation levels have also been dismissed as false by the IAEA.

DU Use by Russian Forces

Russia has a significant number of different DU rounds in its arsenals. There were multiple reports regarding the use of DU round by the Russian forces, however, we were unable to independently verify that this type of ammunition was already used in Ukraine. The initial reports by GICHD suggested that Russian-made depleted uranium ammunition was already found in Ukraine, but after further clarification, we received information, that the 3BM-32 round was included in the Explosive Ordnance Guide as a precautionary measure.

Due to secrecy, there is also some degree of uncertainty regarding the types of ammunitions in service with the Russian army, which have depleted uranium sabots. According to our research, 3BM-60 (“Svinets-2”) contains a depleted uranium-tungsten alloy penetrator. This information finds it’s confirmation in various sources, including Kommersant newspaper (see their recent article), TASS (see this report from 2018) and Zvezda (see this article). Based on this information, articles speaking of the “tungsten” core of the Svinets-2 appear to be misleading, i.e., telling half-truths regarding this type of ammunition.

Even though there is still no independent confirmation of the use of DU weapons by the Russian army, threats of DU use coming from Moscow are alarming. In June, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that depleted uranium ammunition was not used so far in the conflict by Russia, but Russia reserves the right to use it if the Armed Forces of Ukraine use the US-/UK-supplied DU rounds. In this regard, ICBUW reminds, that the use of a weapon illegal under international law by one party of conflict does not justify the use of the same weapon by other belligerents. Such use only amplifies the adverse effects on the local population, contributing heavily to the environmental catastrophe.

We continue to follow reports of shipments or use of military equipment with depleted uranium components or DU ammunition and invite everyone with relevant information to share it with us.

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Featured image: Russian T-80 Tank in Ukraine (Source: mil.ru)

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***

A tantalising new video appears to show slain Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin commenting on his ‘elimination’ in the days before he was reportedly killed.

It comes amid a wave of conspiracy theories that the Wagner boss may have cheated death by putting a body double on his doomed business jet which crashed in Russia on 23 August.

Many in the West believe he was assassinated at the behest of Vladimir Putin in revenge for the coup he led in June against the dictator’s regime.

In the footage, Prigozhin, 62, is seen wearing military fatigues in a car, and says:

‘For those discussing whether or not I am alive.

‘How am I doing? It’s the weekend, the second half of August [20]23. I am in Africa,’ he says, speaking to camera. ‘So fans of discussing my elimination, intimate life, earnings or whatever, as a matter of fact, everything is fine.’

Click here to read the full article on Daily Mail Online.

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Featured image is from Seymour Hersh

Twenty-two years ago: 9/11 was  a criminal undertaking based on countless lies and fabrications. On September 11, 2023, we commemorate 9/11. In the following weeks, Global Research will be publishing several important articles pertaining to 9/11 and its immediate aftermath, leading to the illegal US-NATO bombing and occupation of Afghanistan.

This carefully documented article by Larry Chin was first published almost ten year after 9/11 documents how President Obama in May 2011 officially announced that Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks had been killed.

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On the evening of May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama declared that the CIA, on his personal order, successfully killed Al-Qaeda “mastermind” Osama bin Laden. In a conveniently scheduled Sunday evening telecast, Obama shamelessly wielded tired lies and 9/11 propaganda, while congratulating himself and the CIA. In classic lying George W. Bush fashion, Obama announced “mission accomplished”.

Obama has pronounced Osama bin Laden to be dead. But according to historical facts and extensive documented evidence, he may never have been alive in the way that the official propaganda has portrayed him. Or alive at all.

Osama bin Laden has been a CIA asset in reality, and a propaganda boogeyman in official fiction.

The official Osama bin Laden narrative, along with “Islamic terrorism” and Al-Qaeda, is a  CIA military-intelligence fabrication designed to provide a pretext for an eternal global war agenda, and to provide an ongoing propaganda pretext for the “war on terrorism”.

The “Militant Islamic Network”, including bin Laden himself, has been, since the Cold War a intelligence network that has been “run” on behalf of Anglo-American interests.

The attack of 9/11 was a false flag operation, planned and carried out by Anglo-American intelligence assets, blamed on “Al-Qaeda”, despite no credible supporting evidence.

On the other hand, evidence abounds concerning the manipulation of terror assets, including bin Laden, by the CIA. This milieu was thoroughly examined by Mike Ruppert in Crossing the Rubicon, in which he concluded:

“Given the degree of documented intelligence penetration of  al Qaeda; the fact that Osama bin Laden had been a CIA asset during the first Afghan conflict against the Soviets; the fact that a number of the so-called hijackers and/or al Qaeda members had been trained in CIA training camps in Chechnya; had fought in CIA/US-sponsored guerrilla conflicts (e.g. in Kosovo with the KLA in 2000), or had received military training at US installations; given all that, it is reasonable to assume that one or more top al Qaeda officials were in fact double or triple agents…”

“Based upon what is known about successful intelligence penetrations for years prior to the attacks of 9/11, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda could not have sneezed without the CIA or the NSA knowing about it.”

The assertion that bin Laden’s whereabouts have been unknown, that he could have eluded detection for a decade (including the “he’s hiding in caves along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border” and other such fables) was debunked years ago. According to a November 2003 Reuters report, bin Laden had received kidney dialysis in a US military hospital in Dubai two months before the 9/11 attacks, and again on September 10, 2001, according to Pakistani intelligence. These and other reports support the conclusion that Osama bin Laden was not only a CIA asset (one whose whereabouts were more than known), but one who was deathly ill. Other reports over the years suggest that the “mastermind” may have certainly died at some point, even while his image continued to be used incessantly to keep the “war on terrorism” alive.

President Obama’s lying before the cameras was as shameless as the clumsiness of the mainstream corporate media dance surrounding it. At the same time Obama stated in his speech that the killing of bin Laden had taken place “tonight” in a mountain hideout in Pakistan, various reporters on competing networks, citing multiple sources, contradicted Obama, stating that bin Laden was killed a week ago in a firefight near Islamabad, and that bin Laden’s body had been tested for DNA ever since. This conflict alone raises enough doubt to throw this new official story into the question. In the coming days, there will undoubtedly be more holes revealed.

Seasoned observers have said for years that Osama bin Laden—the mythic figure— would elude capture as long as the Anglo-American elites needed to continue the current course of war in the Middle East and Central Asia. He would never be captured, absolutely never be put on trial, and would not be “killed” unless political expediency demanded it. The elites, for various reasons, have chosen this hour to end this tired and overused trump card.

The “successful kill” of bin Laden comes at a convenient time. Obama’s popularity has plummeted. His political opponents are threatening to unseat him in 2012. The continued US presence in the Middle East and support for the “war on terrorism” is fragile, weakened by popular protests, and ambivalence among Americans.

The “war on terrorism” narrative, the continuing world war done in its name, will never end. It is clear, however, that some change in course is in the works; at the very least, a tactical shift.

In the meantime,  Barack Obama can now claim to have “finished the job” in Afghanistan, just as he promised to do when elected, and declare himself to be a champion anti-terrorist, a “take-charge” military leader and bastion of justice who has avenged 9/11. Obama will ride this hard for his re-election campaign.

In response to Obama’s victory speech, crowds (of unknown origin) gathered outside the White House chanting “U.S.A.”. Whether this spectacle was staged or genuine is not known. What is known is that the vast majority of the American public remains oblivious to the fact that their own government, Bush/Cheney and Obama administrations alike, have never stopped lying to them about 9/11, the “war on terrorism”, or Osama bin Laden.

On this night, Obama repeated The Big Lie, the biggest one of all.

NATOstan Robots Versus the Heavenly Horses of Multipolarity

By Pepe Escobar, August 30, 2023

We will all need plenty of time and introspection to analyze the full range of game-changing vectors unleashed by the unveiling of BRICS 11 last week in South Africa. Yet time waits for no one. The Empire will (italics mine) strike back in full force; in fact its multi-hydra Hybrid War tentacles are already on display.

U.S. Sponsored Neo-Nazi Ukraine 2014 EuroMaidan. The Hiring of Snipers

By Katya Gorchinskaya, August 30, 2023

Former State Security Head of Ukraine Oleksandr Yakimenko blames Ukraine’s current government for hiring snipers on Feb. 20, 2014 when dozens of people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The victims were mainly EuroMaidan Revolution demonstrations, but some police officers were also killed. This was the deadliest day during the EuroMaidan Revolution, a three-month uprising that claimed 100 lives.

French Ambassador Defies Order to Vacate Niger

By Abayomi Azikiwe, August 30, 2023

President Emmanuel Macron of France has publicly stated that the National Council for the Safeguarding of Our Homeland (CNSP) government in Niger has no right to withdraw the diplomatic credentials from Paris’ ambassador to the West African state.

Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine Causes Marked Decrease in Immunity in Children: Study

By Igor Chudov, August 30, 2023

Many of us shared anecdotes of loved ones vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines – and suffering from all sorts of unrelated illnesses afterward. I know a young individual who, after mandated COVID vaccination, had all sorts of bacterial illnesses that he never had before. (This story was a major impetus to my opening and growing this substack).

Multiple Family Members or Couples Suffering COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries or Sudden Deaths.

By Dr. William Makis, August 30, 2023

Danny Norman and Stacey Singles lost their baby boy Cooper at 2 weeks old on May 23, 2023. Just 2 months later, on August 13, 2023, while on vacation in Bali, Stacey Singles collapsed and died suddenly. This is a truly heartbreaking family tragedy.

Border Massacres: The Saudi Ethiopian Migrant Killings

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, August 30, 2023

We know what the regime is like. Starving a country, bombing its hospitals and strafing its schools has been minor fare for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The population of Yemen has found this out to their colossal cost.

Brutal EU Censorship Regime Takes Hold, ‘Free Speech’ Advocate Elon Musk Folds, YouTube Adopts WHO ‘Misinformation’ Policy

By Ben Bartee, August 30, 2023

Nation-states under EU jurisdiction can no longer be rationally said to be “free,” to the extent that they ever truly were to begin with. They are now part of a wholly integrated slave colony of the multinational technocracy, headed by the World Economic Forum and similar organizations outside of the reach of any democratic control.

BRICS Establishes a New International Order

By Manlio Dinucci, August 29, 2023

The BRICS association-formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa-expands to include 6 more countries, which will become full members as of January 1, 2024: the Argentine Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Who Controls the World and War in Ukraine?

By Irwin Jerome, August 29, 2023

The Deep State is simply a metaphor for what happens when the enormously destructive, evil powers of obscenely-massive amounts of money, wealth and power, are amassed in the hands of the few or many immoral, conscienceless individuals or groups of individuals, who care little to nothing about what happens to any one person, nation or state other than themselves.

Do Vaccines Cause Autism? A History of Institutional Corruption

By Helen Buyniski, Richard Gale, and Dr. Gary Null, August 29, 2023

If you actually “follow the science,” Wikipedia’s description of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “anti-vaccine advocacy” might elicit indifference or unequivocal support for Wikipedia’s position.

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Introduction

There were several military coups in West Africa lately. Mostly in former French colonies, and in many ways “neo-colonies” of France, that do arguably more harm to the Sahel countries than the more than 300 years of French “on-the-ground” colonies, or enslavement. Though, this latter crime is not to be discarded at all. It has been an across-Africa genocide of unimaginable proportions, that, so far went unpunished.

But the new crime, the financial and military strategic econo-political colonization, needs to be brought to the fore now.

Among the coup countries are Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, but also Nigeria – a former British colony.

Of all these “coups”, Niger gets by far the most attention, and seems to be at the center of the controversy.

At the outset it looked like the military staged a coup to get the France-friendly President Mohamed Bazoum (image right with President Macron), out of the way and to move away from French monetary hegemony, the Franc CFA (Communauté Financière Africaine, or African Financial Community). See also this and this.

On second thought, however, another image emerged, especially after Madame Victoria Nuland’s, US Deputy Secretary of State (August 7, 2023) personal visit to Niamey, Niger, where she was purportedly denied access to the deposed President, and was apparently snubbed by the new military leader, General Abdourahmane Tchiani.

The latter is not very plausible, but is once more a “media coup” against the truth. Ever more evidence emerges that Niger’s coup was supported by the US. Washington has two military bases in Niger and at least between 3,000 and 4,000 military personnel stationed in Niger.

One of the US bases is a strategically important drone base, in the Agadez region, known as Niger Air Base 201. Following its permanent base in Djibouti, Niger Air Base 201 (image left ) stands as the second-largest US base in Africa. See this.  

The 201 Air Base is owned by the Nigerien military, built and financed for by the United States. It is operated by the U.S. military as a drone base. 

France still has at least 1,500 military stationed in Niger. This, even though French President Macron had promised to withdraw them, as soon as General Tchiani “requested” him to do so. Everything must be questioned now. Did Tchiani really request a withdrawal of French troops?

What appears (almost) sure is that the US were supporting the military coup, if not helping General Tchiani – who served as the chief of the Nigerien presidential guard (2011-2023) – to the military take-over. See also this important analysis by Professor Chossudovsky.

What’s at Stake?

The deposed President Mohamed Bazoum had Macron’s support, not only because he allowed France’s shameless exploitation of Niger through the CFA Franc (for more details see this), but also because France exploits Niger’s rich uranium and high-purity petrol – and has access to Niger’s other mineral riches. See this and this).

Besides, and maybe most importantly, Niger is a landlocked Sahel country, strategically located in the center of North Africa, between Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Chad and Libya (see map).

Being in control of Niger, (population  25 million), is in a way like being in control of Kosovo, the US-NATO  engineered cut-out piece of land from Serbia (with the largest U.S. military base in Europe), in the middle of former Yugoslavia, bombed to rubble in 1999 by President Clinton, to divide and conquer – conquer the area. 

That is what Niger may become, if the US has its say. Washington does not want France involved anymore. Being in control of Niger, is like being in control of at least northern West Africa, a resources-rich, but an extreme poverty-stricken territory – which Washington suspects may also interest Russia and possibly China. 

The Role of the Wagner Private Army 

It is not a well-kept secret that the private Russian Wagner army has had a foothold in this part of Africa with several thousand mercenaries for at least a couple of years, maybe longer – in Chad, Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, and maybe even Nigeria.

Hypothetically, purely speculatively, let us assume the leader of the Wagner private army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was supposedly killed in a plane crash on 23 August 2023, between Moscow and St. Petersburg, is still alive, never was on that plane. Therefore, he may have escaped the crash.

This according to all official news, including by the Kremlin (2 days ago) was denied. Apparently Russian examinations by genetic tests, indicated that Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in the crash.

President Putin himself has confirmed that the remains of Yevgeny Prigozhin had been DNA-examined, and confirmed that he is dead.

OK, Prigozhin is no longer among the living.

For example, Dr. Joanna Szostek, Sr. Lecturer in Political Communication, University of Glasgow, expressed some doubts. She said, “It is very likely we will never exactly know what happened … “, as quoted here.

Rumors say, Prigozhin had been seen after the plane “accident”, in the Central African Republic, where he has his African headquarters, and where he is a hero.

It is worth noting that Prigozhin allegedly posted a video on August 21, 2023 from Africa. Was this two days before the plane crash or was it a video corresponding to an earlier date:  

See the recent video released by the Daily Mail

 


Still some doubts remain, one being Prigozhin’s firm habit not to get on the same plane with his top brass, for precisely the reason of a wanton or accidental crash.

Prigozhin had been “killed” before in the past couple of years, and reappeared.

So, who knows, this may be his final death.

See also the interview with an Ex-KGB agent: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7LyfITOJVE 

Just for argument’s sake, though very unlikely, a Russian mercenary army in Northern Central Africa that may still be fighting for Russia, would be most uncomfortable for Madame Nuland and her hegemonic ilk in Washington. 

Or, is it possible Wagner could be bought by Washington? After all, mercenaries are killers for money.

What to Do About It? 

The US attempt is to make sure that Niger, the country of strategy, a member of the US / NATO France supported ECOWAS, will not slip out into liberty from “independence” some 60 years ago.

Shortly after the Niger military coup, Mr. Putin has cautioned not to interfere in Niger’s internal affairs. He was referring precisely to ECOWAS which has “warned” of an ECOWAS military intervention, if the French aligned deposed President Bazoum, would not be returned immediately to the Presidency. In hindsight, and knowing what we know now, the ECOWAS warning too, was a media manufactured untruth by “design”.

ECOWAS is The Economic Community of West African States. It is one of 8 African regional political and economic unions. ECOWAS has 15 member countries located in Central and West Africa. But ECOWAS is divided within. Without the support of the US / NATO and France, it may fall apart. Therefore, a warning from ECOWAS has only meaning when an “arrangement” has been reached before.

Le Conseil National pour la Sauvegarde de la Patrie (CNSP), roughly translated as “National Movement for the Defense of the Homeland”, headed by the Military Junta’s General Tchiani, is supported by the Pentagon. At least five members of the military coup (July 26, 2023) received their military training in the U.S. 

This means the US is well-established within Niger, and by association within central and West Africa – and they do not want to lose out on this highly strategic – and resources-rich – African position; not to the French, not to the Russians – and not to China.

But, then there is still the unconfirmed suspicion of a mercenary army roaming in Western Africa – and who knows – just in case – what their plans might be, and for whom they might fight.

*

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

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

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

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*** 

This important Kiev Post article by Katya Gorchinskaya (originally published on March 13, 2014) in the immediate wake of the EuroMaidan, quotes Ukraine’s Head of State Security of Ukraine Oleksandr Yakimenko (under the Yanukovych government) pointing to the hiring of snipers on February 20, 2014.

Yakimenko also reviews how the U.S. provided financial support to the Protest Movement. 

***

Former State Security Head of Ukraine Oleksandr Yakimenko blames Ukraine’s current government for hiring snipers on Feb. 20, 2014 when dozens of people were killed and hundreds more wounded.

The victims were mainly EuroMaidan Revolution demonstrations, but some police officers were also killed. This was the deadliest day during the EuroMaidan Revolution, a three-month uprising that claimed 100 lives.

Yakimenko also blamed the United States for organizing and financing the revolution by bringing illegal cash in using diplomatic mail.

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine dismissed the charges as ludicrous, while another official with the current government called the accusations “cynical” propaganda with no factual basis.

The former SBU chief is now wanted in Ukraine for his alleged role in organizing mass murders in Ukraine, along with numerous other former top officials of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, including the ex-president himself, former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zahkharchenko and former presidential chief of staff Andriy Klyuyev.

Yakimenko made these and other accusations in a 10-minute exclusive interview to Russia’s Vesti channel in an undisclosed location. 

“The shots sounded from the building of Philharmonics,” Yakimenko told Vesti. “This was the building supervised by (now National Security Council Chief Andriy) Parubiy.”

He said the snipers were shooting in the back of the running police, as well as at protesters. He said there were two groups of “well-dressed” snipers, each composed of 10 people, operating in the building. Yakimenko said their exit was witnessed by both SBU operatives and protesters themselves.

He said one of the groups of snipers disappeared, but the other one relocated to Hotel Ukraina and continued to kill the protesters at a slower pace. Yakimenko said at that point representatives of Svoboda and Right Sector appealed to him to deploy SBU’s special unit Alfa to destroy the snipers. 

Yakimenko claims that he was ready to do it, but did not get the permission of Parubiy, who supervised the self-defense forces.

“To get inside EuroMaidan I needed Parubiy’s permission because the forces of self-defense would hit me in the back,” Yakimenko said. “But Parubiy did not give me such a permission.”

“Not a single weapon could get onto Maidan without Parubiy’s permission,” he said, adding that EuroMaidan protesters used mercenaries from former defense ministry’s special units, as well as foreign mercenaries, including those  from former Yugoslavia.

“This is typical Russian-style propaganda,” says Viktoria Siumar, deputy head of the National Security and Defense Council and Parubiy’s deputy. She said these “cynical” lies that are circulating in the Russian media, have not and cannot be backed by a single fact.

Yankimenko says that Parubiy, as well as a number of other organizers of EuroMaidan, received direct orders from the U.S. government. Among those people he named former and current intelligence chiefs Mykola Malomuzh and Viktor Gvozd, former Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko and leader of the opposition Petro Poroshenko.

“These are the forces that were doing everything they were told by the leaders and representatives of the United States,” he says. “They, in essence lived in the U.S. embassy. There wasn’t a day when they did not visit the embassy.”

SBU chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko is also accused of playing to the tune of the Americans. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine commented on these accusations in just one word: “ludicrous.”

All orders were given either by the U.S. or EU ambassador Jan Tombinski, “who in essence is a Polish citizen.” 

“The role of Poland cannot be evaluated,” Yakimenko said. “It dreams about restoring its old wish, Rzeczpospolita.” 

The EU Delegation had no comment about the accusations.

The former SBU chief also talked at length about the financing of EuroMaidan protests, saying much of it came directly from the U.S., and that some Ukrainian oligarchs, including Poroshenko, Dmytro Firtash and Viktor Pinchuk.

“From the beginning of Maidan we as a special service noticed a significant increase of diplomatic cargo to various embassies, western embassies located in Ukraine,” says Yakimenko. “It was tens of times greater than usual diplomatic cargo supplies.” He says that right after such shipments crisp, new U.S. dollar bills were spotted on Maidan. 

He said Ukraine’s oligarchs were also financing Maidan because they were “hostages of the situation and had no choice” because most of their assets are located in the west.

*

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Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected].

Featured image: Oleksandr Yakimenko blames Ukraine’s current government for hiring snipers on Feb. 20. Photo by UKRAINIAN NEWS

French Ambassador Defies Order to Vacate Niger

August 30th, 2023 by Abayomi Azikiwe

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President Emmanuel Macron of France has publicly stated that the National Council for the Safeguarding of Our Homeland (CNSP) government in Niger has no right to withdraw the diplomatic credentials from Paris’ ambassador to the West African state.

Since the order to leave within 48 hours was issued, the stakes have grown higher in the month-long struggle between the new government in Niamey and several western imperialist countries and their allies in the region.

After the July 26 seizure of power by the presidential guard and the conventional forces, there were immediate calls from France and the United States for a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) aimed at the reinstallation of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. The former leader was said to have been elected democratically by the people of Niger and therefore the CNSP ruling council should not be recognized as the legitimate government.

However, since the change in government in Niger, neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali have pledged their support to the CNSP. Both governments which also came to power through military coups [supported by the Pentagon], have stated that any attack on Niger would be viewed as a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali.

At the same time several African states such as Algeria, which shares a long border with Niger, are opposing military intervention by ECOWAS. Even within the ECOWAS states such as the Federal Republic of Nigeria, there is broad opposition to sending troops into Niger. The Nigerian Senate controlled by President Bola Tinubu’s own political party, the All-Progressive Congress (APC), refused to authorize the deployment of troops to neighboring Niger.

In fact, throughout the entire region diverse voices have spoken loudly against the French scheme to reimpose Bazoum. A recent session of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) failed to reach an agreement on endorsing an invasion into Niger.

Therefore, the rationale being used by Macron to stage a diplomatic incident has no basis in the reality now permeating the West and North Africa regions in particular and the continent as a whole. Since the CNSP administration does not have the blessing of France, Macron claims that their diplomatic personnel, military units along with strategic economic interests must continue to operate in Niger despite the widespread sentiment against the neo-colonial status-quo.

In a speech to French ambassadors on August 25, Macron reiterated that he would support an ECOWAS military invasion into Niger. Ambassador Sylvain Itte of France has refused to meet with the new leadership in Niamey. Consequently, the CNSP believes that the ongoing presence of Itte would be a threat to the security and well-being of the country.

Macron told his foreign service personnel that:

“France and its diplomats have faced particularly difficult situations in some countries in recent months, from Sudan, where France has been exemplary, to Niger at this very moment and I applaud your colleague and your colleagues who are listening from their posts. I think our policy is the right one. It’s based on the courage of President Bazoum, and on the commitments of our ambassador on the ground who is remaining despite all the pressure, despite all the declarations made by the illegitimate authorities.” 

This response to the existing crisis of legitimacy for France in West Africa illustrates the imperialist posture of Macron. In his discourse, he asserts that Paris has acted in an exemplary manner in the region. Judging from the recent political events many are disputing this perceived notion of benevolence from a former colonial power.

Tens of thousands of Nigeriens have taken to the streets since July 26 to demonstrate their support for the CNSP and its policies. This atmosphere is a direct result of the interference by Paris and Washington in the internal affairs of the uranium-rich state.

The U.S. has at least 1,100 Africa Command (AFRICOM) troops on the ground along with a military base and drone stations. France reportedly maintains a troops contingent of 1,800 aimed at guarding its dominant economic interests in the uranium industry.

People in Niger and throughout the region are incensed over the ongoing exploitation of natural resources. These resources belong to the citizens of these states, and they have a right to determine the political and economic direction of their countries.

Diplomatic Hostility and Military Threats Based on Distortions

The western propaganda saying that the former Bazoum government in Niger was the “last hope for democracy in West Africa” is a pure farce. Bazoum represented the interests of international finance capital and the NATO states.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Niger earlier in the year to praise Bazoum for his willingness to extend the military and intelligence presence of the U.S. In actuality, the circumstances surrounding the ascendancy and administrative tenure of Bazoum are far from the glowing rhetoric about the purported virtues of the political leader.

An article published by Foreign Affairs on August 29 reflects a simmering debate inside the ruling circles in the U.S. over what approach to take towards the CNSP government [which is in liaison with the Pentagon]. Judging from the tone of the report, some analysts are urging that the administration of President Joe Biden distance itself from the policy orientation of France.

The Foreign Affairs report emphasizes:

“The United States, however, has broken from France to advocate for a more pacifist response. Washington’s stance has come as a surprise. The United States has generally been content to follow France’s lead in the Sahel in exchange for support for U.S. endeavors in the Middle East….

Washington’s current course is correct, and U.S. policymakers must resist calls to back an intervention. It is by no means inevitable that a proxy war between Russia and the West will break out in the Sahel. In fact, a military intervention would only increase the likelihood of more extensive meddling in the region by Russia. The junta appears interested in partnering with Moscow, but to date, Moscow has remained equivocal. In the event of a challenge to the junta by foreign militaries, however, Russia could be obliged to make good on promises to protect its African partners.” 

Whether or not the Biden administration will maintain this position is largely dependent upon the direction of the CNSP government along with the burgeoning anti-imperialist movement in Niger and throughout West Africa. Although there is competition between the interests of France and the U.S., overall, the two imperialist powers have the same objectives.

Both Washington and Paris want to utilize their military and economic presence in Niger to serve as a bulwark against the growing influence of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. If France is given no sanctuary in the Sahel region to pursue its neo-colonial ambitions, it appears inevitable that AFRICOM, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and State Department will seek to fill this vacuum.

By taking on even greater responsibility for ensuring the ability of imperialism to thrive unhindered in West Africa, a clash between AFRICOM, NATO and their client regimes against the popular forces and progressive governments will occur. The emergence of a clearly demarcated military conflict in West Africa involving the interests of the imperialists and those of the people would require a major expansion in defense spending and deployment of Pentagon personnel.

Washington and its NATO cohorts are already committed to military conflicts and antagonisms in Ukraine (Eastern Europe), West Asia and the Asia-Pacific. A significant expansion of this military involvement in West Africa will be paid for by the working people of the U.S. and Western Europe who are already suffering from rising prices and deteriorating living conditions.

Although it is not stated openly in the capitalist countries by the dominant political parties, the escalating imperialist war budgets are responsible to a significant degree for the impoverishment and consequent discontent of the working class and oppressed. This righteous discontent can be transformed into a political outlook which challenges ideologically the entire concept of western hegemony in favor of domestic and foreign policies which serve the majority of people within society.

*

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

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***

Many of us shared anecdotes of loved ones vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines – and suffering from all sorts of unrelated illnesses afterward. I know a young individual who, after mandated COVID vaccination, had all sorts of bacterial illnesses that he never had before. (This story was a major impetus to my opening and growing this substack).

Finally, we have scientific confirmation that vaccination against COVID-19 causes a marked decrease in immunity to heterologous pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. This decreased immunity to other pathogens (acquired immune deficit) is what people colloquially refer to as “VAIDS.” (VAIDS stands for Vaccine-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

The study titled BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination in children alters cytokine responses to heterologous pathogens and Toll-like receptor agonists, set out to measure the quality of general immune responses in children vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID vaccine.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1242380/full

Blood samples from 29 children, aged 5-11 years old, were taken before the FIRST dose of COVID vaccination and subsequently retaken on the 28th day after the second dose.

Methods: A whole blood stimulation assay was used to investigate in vitrocytokine responses to heterologous stimulants (killed pathogens, Toll-like receptor ligands) and SARS-CoV-2 antigens. Samples from 29 children, aged 5-11 years, before and 28 days after a second BNT162b2 vaccination were analysed (V2 + 28). Samples from eight children were analysed six months after BNT162b2 vaccination.

In the introduction, scientists coyly said that vaccination “altered cytokine responses”. As we will discover, the jabs altered immune responses for the worse, not better!

Conclusions: BNT162b2 vaccination in children alters cytokine responses to heterologous stimulants, particularly one month after vaccination. This study is the first to report the immunological heterologous effects of COVID-19 vaccination in children.

What the Scientists Did 

Sample collection 

Participants were requested to provide blood samples at two core visits, and one optional visit. The first blood sample was taken immediately before, and on the same day as, the first BNT162b2 vaccination (V1), the second blood sample was taken 28 days after the second BNT162b2 vaccination (V2 + 28) and the optional third blood sample was taken 6 months after the second BNT162b2 vaccination (V2 + 182) (Supplementary Figure S1). Up to 23 mL venous blood was collected into sodium heparin-containing and serum separator tubes (Becton Dickinson, NJ, USA).

Then, collected blood was tested for the immune response to various pathogens, including various commonly encountered bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, and pathogenic yeast Candida Albicans:

In vitro whole blood stimulation

In vitro whole blood stimulation assays were done as previously described (16, 23). [lab work details omitted – I.C.] … Other stimulants have previously been described (16) and included: bacterial stimulants (heat-killed Haemophilus influenzae type B, HK Listeria monocytogenes, BCG-Denmark , HK Staphylococcus aureus and HK Escherichia coli, and viral/other stimulants (hepatitis B virus surface antigen, …, HK Candida albicans

Many of the above are pathogens that we encounter often, and they are the reason why we have God-given immune systems to keep them away, which healthy children typically do.

Unfortunately, the 29 COVID-vaccinated children aged 5-11, had markedly decreased immune responses 28 days after the second dose of Pfizer. Many specific immune reactions declined by a factor of over ten times:

(the charts in the figure above are using logarithmic scale)

The authors state:

Following heterologous bacterial, fungal and viral/TLR agonists stimulation, there was a general decrease in cytokine and chemokine responses in children between V1 and V2 + 28. The largest decreases were seen for IFN-γ and MCP-1 (Figures 2, 3A-C). IL-6, IL-15, IL-17 also decreased between V1 and V2 + 28 following stimulation with BCG, H. influenzae, S. aureus, hepatitis B antigen, poly(I:C), and R848 (Figure 3B). L. monocytogenes stimulation induced IL-15, TNF-α and IP-10 decreases between V1 and V2 + 28 (Figure 3C). IL-8 responses also decreased between V1 and V2 + 28 following H. influenzae and S. aureus stimulation.

Reduced responses to Staphylococcus aureus are very serious: this illness is difficult to treat and causes untold harm. I will skip the worst pictures to not upset my readers too much.

In any case, a decrease in immune responses happens across the board.

In the ideal world, careful scientists, cautious public health authorities, and principled medical doctors would investigate COVID vaccines’ effects before vaccinating tens of millions of children and billions of adults. Had they investigated and done the basic science (such as the study above) before mandating and injecting COVID vaccines, such dangerous injections would never have been given to children and young adults!

Instead, in the mad rush to “vaccinate the world” with vaccines that do not even work, we ruined the immune responses of millions of children and likely all other vaccinated people.

Headlines about the “unexplained rise in children infected” with the above-mentioned bacteria abound:

Instead of careful consideration, science and health authorities denied everything and refused to debate. Now that the truth is coming out, the ill effects of Covid vaccines can no longer be reversed. Very unfortunate!

Do you know any affected people? Please share your stories, while BEING MINDFUL ABOUT PRIVACY!

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Featured image is from the author


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

Aug. 14, 2023 – Melbourne, Australia – Danny Norman and Stacey Singles lost their baby boy Cooper at 2 weeks old on May 23, 2023. Just 2 months later, on August 13, 2023, while on vacation in Bali, Stacey Singles collapsed and died suddenly. This is a truly heartbreaking family tragedy.

Aug. 19, 2023 – Halifax, MA – William Roche and his wife Tracy Roche have both come down with cancer. Tracy was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and this spring William was diagnosed with tonsil/neck/throat cancer.

Aug. 12, 2023 – Darlington, UK – 41 year old Mike Clinton died unexpectedly in his sleep just 3 months after his wife Shelly Clinton also died unexpectedly, leaving behind two orphan boys ages 12 & 14.

Aug. 9, 2023 – Dartmouth, NS – 55 yo Brian Scott Sutherland died unexpectedly on Aug. 9, 2023 at home. His partner, 59 yo Robert Bobby Barkhouse died unexpectedly in his sleep on Mar. 22, 2022.

Aug. 4, 2023 – Albertson, NY – Jill Silverstein “suffered a medical event” and died unexpectedly on Aug. 4, 2023. Her 45 year old husband, Craig Silverstein, had died suddenly on April 29, 2021 from a cardiac arrest. Their kids are now orphans.

Aug. 4, 2023 – Whitman, MA – Michelle/Lexi Kowalski suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on Aug. 1, 2023 which left her unable to speak or swallow. Two days later, her husband Joe Kowalski suffered a heart attack.

July 29, 2023 – Deer Lake, NL, Husband and wife dead within a week of each other. 58 year old Sandra May Pearce died suddenly on July 29, 2023, a week after her husband Selby Arthur Pearce died suddenly on July 21, 2023.

July 18, 2023 – New Milford, CT – 24 year old Hope Smith died unexpectedly at home on July 18, 2023. Her father, 59 year old Timothy J. Smith died unexpectedly at home on Nov. 2, 2022.

July 6, 2023 – Fort Hamer, FL – 11 year old Andrew Amber had breathing problems, ended up intubated, coded and died briefly before being revived by Hospital staff. He was diagnosed with myocarditis. His father, Barnabas Amber had a massive heart attack just 5 months ago and needed 6 AED shocks to be revived.

May 5, 2023 – Magnolia, TX – Physician Darrick Wells had a brain bleed from a micro aneurysm in 2021 after his COVID-19 vaccine. Recently, he had another stroke. His wife has been diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis, also COVID-19 vaccine induced.

July 2021 – Bremerton, WA – Robert Phinney and her husband both developed skin problems after taking COVID-19 vaccines. Her husband’s injury appears to be an autoimmune vasculitis caused by COVID-19 vaccine.

June 1, 2021 – Husband and wife have major heart surgeries 3 weeks apart. Erin Gallagher had chest pain on June 1 and needed open heart surgery. 3 weeks later her husband Chris Gallagher, who had chest pains after COVID-19 vaccine, had to have open heart surgery as well!

My Take… 

This is why I started my substack.

I wanted to report information that would not be reported anywhere else.

These stories are almost impossible to find.

Special thanks to two Twitter users: Nashville Angela and Janiesaysyay for locating a few of these cases and alerting people to them.

Big pharma and the Vaccine Cartel don’t want people to know about these stories.

Multiple family members coming down with injuries has only a few possible explanations (beyond coincidence):

  1. Genetic predisposition shared by family members (doesn’t explain couples) – no one is studying this anywhere in the world;
  2. Took a COVID-19 vaccine from the same bad batch or bad vial that has high incidence of severe adverse events and sudden deaths – possible cause in some of these cases;
  3. The overall incidence of COVID-19 vaccine injuries is now so high, that it is statistically inevitable that some families will have more than one person coming down with vaccine injuries.

I believe the last scenario is now in play. There are simply so many people being injured by COVID-19 vaccines that it is inevitable now that there will be families where two or three members are injured or die suddenly.

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


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More than twenty years ago I published a study in which I argued that South Africa’s apartheid system was created by mission and land appropriation.[i] This obviously implicated the Christian churches, including those that had claimed to be opposed to the British policy enshrined in the National Party programme when it came to power in 1947. This study received one review which confirmed the experience I had defending it as a dissertation—namely that my thesis was not understood. The problem was not the clarity or evidence. That was clear from the review and the committee’s reactions. Rather it was a fundamental and paradigmatic issue. Neither the Church nor the land question was taken seriously as central to the policy of apartheid.

In the years following the demise of South Africa’s National Party regime, I watched and waited to see what would happen to the social and economic order that the Anglo-Afrikaner elite had created since the end of the 19th century. As I predicted none of the grand land reform measures, not even those stated in the new constitution or the ANC’s Reconstruction and Development Plan were implemented in more than token ways. One of the reasons for this was the victory of neo-liberalism in 1989 over every other form of economic programme. Another was and remains the absence of any social-political-economic praxis aimed at social transformation to counter the neo-liberal paradigm. Finally the nature of the NP’s withdrawal was to surrender form without surrendering power.

Actually my interest in these problems goes back to 1986, when by accident I was on a study trip to Brazil. It was the year after the formal end of the military dictatorship instigated by the US in 1962 and executed in 1964. During that trip I was able to interview numerous people involved in the drafting of a new civilian constitution to replace the Atos Institucionais that had formed the basis of military rule for two decades. It was by coincidence that I found myself in a similar position in 1991 when I arrived in Johannesburg.

All that said: I have been studying social engineering for more than thirty years. In the West—to apply a thoroughly worn and yet useful cliché—the DNA of social engineering is the Latin Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church. (The Vatican)

Since the 18th century but even more in the 20th century there has been a largely successful effort to conceal the extent to which the Latin Church remains the model for effective conquest. Wishful thinking, mendacity, and propaganda have obscured the mechanisms by which the West’s oldest transnational corporation shaped what is today often called the “globalized world”—a euphemism for the planet’s susceptibility to the central ecclesiastical technology—missionary conquest.

In The Art of War (5 BCE), Chinese general, Sun Tzu, explained, “to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” The method of mission is to break the enemy’s resistance.

Colonialism and imperialism over the past four centuries were not merely the extension of high lethality belligerence and larceny by Western barbarians. Numerically the population of the Western peninsula, aka Europe, was always far too small to fight and conquer the world that came to embody the British and now Anglo-American Empire.

In fact this inability of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French and later Belgian forces to conquer and fully occupy all the territories they claimed is often used to explain the failures of imperialism and the ultimate victory ascribed to independence movements after 1945.

In today’s comparison between empires supposed to have waned or atrophied, like the British or French, and the imperial quality ascribed to the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, invidious and fallacious distinctions are made. The persistence of the multi-ethnic quality of both great continental states is treated as evidence that they are imperial in nature—for which they are regularly condemned in popular and scholarly venues.

These states whose alleged empires comprise immediately contiguous territory in which culture and populations have integrated over centuries are compared with the occupation of India, Africa, Indonesia and the Americas by small tribal kingdoms, like Spain, Portugal, France or the Netherlands, Belgium or Great Britain. These kingdoms and republics have supposedly withdrawn to their core principalities and liberated once subjugated peoples. Thus these states, which now constitute the EU, the Commonwealth and the USA, have attained the moral status entitling them to condemn other states for sins they committed and meanwhile allege to have confessed.

This is the general political context in which the empire of the West constitutes itself as the “international community” and the promulgator of “rules” those who are not part of this “community” are obliged to follow. Certainly there is a tiny, barely audible voice in that community that tries to assert the primacy of international law or the Law of Nations, as it was once known. Both the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China make every effort to remind the world that the Law of Nations, as opposed to the “rules-based” order is the genuine foundation of human civilization and commerce between states.

There are several clear reasons why these efforts have failed to date. First, the historic balance of political-economic forces, including military, had remained for the better part of the 20th century and into the 21st century in the hands of the barbarian West. (For readers who may wonder why I consistently use the term “barbarian”, let me say that it has been these countries, the collective West, that have constituted the most warlike and destructive forces on the planet for the past five hundred years, including the only state to have deployed atomic weapons.) Second, the control of nearly two thirds of the world’s land mass and the inhabitants of those areas has magnified the impact of the barbarian tribes reinforced by naval and air power developed to dominate those territories. This has had the effect of isolating the two huge Asian nations of Russia and China. Third, and probably most importantly, the West developed the most powerful psychic technology for conquest of hearts and minds throughout the planet. This technology is cultural, proprietary and above all religious.

Image: In this handout picture released by the U.S. Army, a mushroom cloud billows about one hour after a nuclear bomb was detonated above Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 6, 1945. Japanese officials say a 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II. City officials said Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certified “hibakusha,” or radiation survivor, of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki, but has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier as well. (AP Photo/U.S. Army via Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, HO) 

It is on this last aspect of Western barbarism that I will focus.

The Latin Church bequeathed to its semi-secular partners in conquest the technology of mission. Previously religion was based either on geography or ethnicity. There were no universal gods and monotheism was a rarity at best. Sigmund Freud offered an explanation for the latter in a late and brief essay called Moses and Monotheism (1939). However it is not his thesis that concerns me here. In the course of recorded history, to the extent we can rely on it, deities were confined to places and peoples. Travellers, even armies, brought their religions with them while paying due respect even homage to the deities they met on their travels and campaigns. Of course what this meant was that the sacred places of others were generally treated respectfully even if they did not coincide with one’s own religious worship. When people moved they either brought their own deities or adopted the ones they found in their new homes.

The establishment of cults based on a universal deity was the product of global imperial expansion. However it first only supported the imperial conquerors by granting that the local god now was free to accompany the soldiers of a marauding army far from its own cultural and ethnic community. The next stage of development was for the universal deity to be adopted by soldiers recruited from territories that had been invaded and conquered. This left the peoples dominated by military conquest possessed of their local and ethnic deities while integrating the foreign troops into an ideologically (religiously) uniform command structure.

When the Latin Church was founded by what was essentially a coup against Hellenistic Christianity based in the Balkans, Black Sea basin and Asia Minor, monotheism acquired a virulence inconsistent with what we know about original Christian praxis and aggressiveness which arguably triggered the militancy of Islam, too. That virulence and aggressiveness was disproportionate to the numbers actually following the Latin deviation. Yet within less than a thousand years this Christian deviation led to the global dominance of the business corporation and the missionary propaganda technology as means of psychological conquest independent of territorial occupation.

How Does Mission Really Work?

If one reads any of the standard histories describing the expansion of Christianity in the Western peninsula of Eurasia, the Americas or Africa, great attention is given to the preachers of the Gospel. In some narratives they travelled alone preaching—i.e. orally transmitting—from Scripture and working miracles—i.e. performing acts deemed supernatural or divinely supported. Then there were the preachers accompanying invading armies who not only preached to the soldiers but also construed the results of battle either as divine victories or punishing defeats. Hagiography, the stories of saints, is replete with accounts of wonders that led to conversion of princes and nations to the Holy Church. The precise mechanics of these conversions is generally omitted because it is expected that the readers already accept the divine attributes of the Church and the will of god to increase his flock.

However the core of the technology of conversion is already recognisable in the myth of Christ itself. In fact the true intent of this myth has been marvellously characterised by Jose Saramago in his scandalous novel The Gospel according to Jesus Christ (1991). In a dialogue between the god in question and Jesus of Nazareth, Saramago recounts how this god, aware of all the other competing gods and determined to be the top god, needs people to fight for him against the other gods. He explains to Jesus that people would not fight just for a god—but they would fight for him. Jesus is furious at this revelation and refuses to participate in the god’s plan for domination. The god replies that Jesus is powerless to resist. He can refuse to perform miracles but he will be unable to prove that he did not perform the miracles god stages.

Saramago uses this fable or interpretation of the Gospel to explain the dynamics of “victimhood”. The god sets up Jesus as an ordinary man who suddenly can perform miracles, which draw a following. Then he creates the conditions by which Jesus is persecuted and killed by the State. This galvanizes the cult around Jesus the miracle-worker. The cult angered by the murder of its divine leader seeks revenge. This it can only do by the threat of or use of armed force. To exact revenge it must align with those who have the necessary force and win them over to the cult. As members of the vengeful cult they are now in a position to exact revenge or alternatively conversion to the cult. It is this basic materialistic contradiction that fuels the cult’s expansion.

As a rule, and this can be found throughout the missionary activity of Western churches (the Latin Church and its reformed derivatives), local cults and their deities are not easily abandoned. First of all, under the conditions of ethnic or geographic religion there is no reason for an established ethnic group or the traditional inhabitants of a region to “change gods”. Sedentary peoples who remain together as tribes or occupy agricultural and pastoral regions for centuries do not “evolve” their religious beliefs into monotheism. This notion of monotheism as an evolutionary product is part of the 19thcentury myth of progress many associate with Charles Darwin and sociological followers of his historical interpretations.

As said before military expansion or nomadic barbarism are the social formations from which monotheism emerges as soon as territorial and population conquest require.

The expanding Latin Church overcame this inertia by the refinement of the “victimhood” and its transformation into a method of psychological warfare. The invading Church, let us call it the Church militant, sought and isolated minorities in the targets of conquest. These minorities had little or no power in the communities to which they were attached. Thus they were amenable to preaching—if for no other reason than the allied power to which they were then joined. The adoption of the cult by these minorities endowed them with “purity” compared to the complex majority communities with their geographic and ethnic deities, now viewed as corrupted and sullied by mundane practices. The pure status insinuated virtues proclaimed to be absent among the majority. Naturally in any established community there are various sources of discontent. No system functions perfectly. The longer any system has been in place the more incoherence is certain to have appeared. Hence the first tactic of the new “pure” is to find and recruit the discontented among the majority. It is not necessary that these discontents join the cult of the pure. In fact it may be detrimental to the overall strategy if they do.

What is important is the capacity of the discontents to be sacrificed for purity. They must be sufficiently dissatisfied that they will act in concert with the pure, wittingly or unwittingly. Here a number of options are possible but to keep it simple we will stick to the “Jesus model”. The potential “Jesus” has to be perceived as a member of the community as a whole. Then he has to articulate grievances that all but the most hard-core defenders of the status quo will admit—even if this admission has no immediate consequences. Then this “Jesus” has to be sacrificed. That means the “Jesus” has to conspicuously suffer and perhaps even die at the hands of the supporters of the status quo. This does not by itself trigger a revolt or overthrow of the prevailing system. In fact that is not the aim of this strategy. Instead it creates a breach in the perceived legitimation of the extant religion. That breach arises from the fear that the insignificant “Jesus” becomes more than exemplary of the threat to everyone else who harbours the doubts or critiques for which this “Jesus” was persecuted. A latent choice is introduced into an inertial system: align with the pure or risk punishment.

It is important to say that this only works when the pure already enjoy a preponderance of force, even if that force has not yet been applied. Therein lies the difference between missionary conversion and revolutionary mobilisation. For example it is also the fundamental difference between Maoism and “Sharpism”.

The Christianisation of the western hemisphere and Africa relied on this model. Sometimes this was simplified by the mass extermination of Western barbarian conquest, like in the Americas. Another argument used to explain the effect of missionary conquest is that the defeat of the besieged population on the battlefield discredited the extant religion and deities, leaving the survivors to convert to the “winning god”. However this argument is insufficient to explain conversion where no such massive battlefield annihilation occurred. Nor does it explain the continued success of the “Jesus” model without explicit armed force.

In this brief essay I would like to apply the “victimhood” or “Jesus” model and by implication its 20th century adaptation in the wake of the “second thirty years war” that was interrupted in 1945.[ii] For more than 30 years—to keep it simple starting in 1989—the world has been subject to an accelerated conversion or social engineering process, euphemistically called “globalisation”. The acceleration or metastasis was made possible by the defeat of the Soviet Union. Every history book one can find today will recount that the Soviet Union failed due to what might be called the errors of its underlying religion, i.e. Marxism-Leninism. Those with less antagonism toward that body of theory will argue that the Soviet Union was bankrupted into collapse. Then ridiculously sentimental will say that “communism failed because even communists realised it was wrong”.

An objective examination of the economic conditions of the two superpowers in 1989 would demonstrate that the Soviet Union did not collapse because it was bankrupt and its economy no longer able to function. The Soviet Union and its antagonist the United States were both in demonstrably ruinous economic condition. In fact the economic condition of the US never improved after 1989—only the FIRE sector did[iii]. Moreover there was no military defeat of the Soviet Union. The war started under President Jimmy Carter in Afghanistan was far shorter (for the Russians) than the thirty some years that the US waged war throughout Indochina. The Soviet Union had none of the debt the US accumulated carpet-bombing and murdering millions in Korea between 1950-53.

Three factors led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The first was the accumulated damage done by a century of economic and armed war against the country.

US “experts” like George Kennan wrote accurately that it would take the Soviet Union at least twenty years to recover the lost population and economic capacity destroyed by the West’s German-led war against it. [iv] That was with all things being equal—which they were not. Despite the non-stop war against the Soviet Union the country was able to reach nearly its full pre-war capacity by the mid-1960s.

Scarcely a common source in the West explains that the occupation of Europe east of the rivers Elbe and Danube was conceded by the West to the Soviet Union in Yalta as an alternative to reparations from Germany. To the extent this is mentioned at all the excuse given was to prevent a situation arising like the one when the West drained Germany like a vampire after the 1918 armistice. The conditions at the end of World War 2 were quite different. Namely the Western “allies”, mainly the Americans, had encouraged the destruction or theft of every useful capital asset in what became the Soviet zone of occupation and the transfer of anything of future economic value to the West.

The subsequent, at first secret, re-arming of Germany under command of American and Nazi general officers and continued brain drain led to the erection of the fortified border between the Soviet zone and the rest of the Western peninsula. Thus the Soviet Union had to fortify and subsidize the countries ruined by the Wehrmacht campaigns while trying to reconstruct its own economy and restore the 20 million plus killed during World War 2. While the Soviet Union was working to recover a relatively weak status quo ante, the United States was able to expand its markets and power over the rest of the globe. Thus from 1945 until 1989 the United States economy was fuelled by the elimination of every other meaningful competitor whether it was for sales or purchases. It is worth noting—given the recent release of an atomic bomb hagiography called Oppenheim—that this weapon was devised under the leadership of rabid anti-communists/ anti-Soviets for use in wiping the Soviet Union off the face of the Earth after it was clear that the Wehrmacht had failed. At no time during World War 2 was Anglo-American aerial bombardment directed to support the Soviet Union’s self-defence. It was explicitly waged to destroy economic competitors to the British and American Empires.

The third factor was the missionary strategy. I have always found it bitterly amusing when Americans or the natives of the Western peninsula complain about Soviet (or Chinese) propaganda. The first thing I ask them is how much Russian or Chinese they have learned? Then I ask if they can name a Russian or Chinese pop musician or film star or what Chinese or Russian clothing items they most prefer? The only food and drink they can associate with Russia are vodka and caviar. How effective could their propaganda be?

Which US Restaurants Serve Coke or Pepsi

Coca Cola and Pepsi (thanks to negotiations by Richard Nixon on behalf of his friends) are known throughout the world and were imported or bottled in the Soviet Union. Denim trousers (Levis) were coveted goods from Magdeburg to Vladivostok. Despite technical countermeasures there was little that could be done to suppress the vast global propaganda machine combining films, music, and consumer goods of every kind. This all served to amplify the ideology of consumerism as a pure form of economic and social well being. This pure form—available only to the “middle class” countries on any scale—was presented and seen everywhere as the virtue which a struggling economy and political system was expected to produce for young people. There was no question of converting the heroes of the Soviet Union, the survivors of the civil war and non-stop foreign invasions since 1918.

However the young, the desperately needed replacements to rebuild the Soviet Union, could not simply be inculcated in the moral sacrifices of their parents and grandparents. There had to be space and a future for these people. The capacity to compete for the hearts and minds of the generations that by 1989 had no immediate recollection of the Great Patriotic War was not only challenged within the Soviet Union but throughout the countries it had occupied since 1945. These countries, especially the GDR, Hungary and Poland, were able to benefit from overt and covert support from the West. Moreover there had been an intensive and to date still largely unacknowledged level of penetration and sabotage under the guise of technology transfer agreements that in the final years weakened the system considerably. Defective control technology for industrial infrastructure led to serious destruction of pipelines.[v] It takes no fantasy to imagine that intentionally defective control components—merely improperly calibrated meters would have done the trick—led to the Chernobyl meltdown.

The Helsinki Accords (1975), still considered naively as an important step toward peace, were a major propaganda victory for the West. Despite the creation of NGOs in the West, the only governments consistently subjected to its conditions were those in the “Soviet bloc”. By treating the conflict between the US and the USSR as competition when in fact it was covert aggression by the United States, every international treaty presented the US as the generous human rights and peace defender and the Soviet Union as conceding its power both domestically and abroad. To this day there is no general admission in the West that no later than 1945, it was the US that waged non-stop war against the Soviet Union, making all these treaties essentially acts of extortion against the country and its people all of whom were aware of the US first strike and second strike atomic warfare strategy and what it would mean for any reconstruction and development.

By the time a wholly compromised Mikhail Gorbachev gave his country to the US raiders under Yeltsin, the moral legitimacy of the Soviet Union had been so seriously undermined that no party or military effort could rescue it from the locust swarms that devastated the country after 1990. With the borders open, the government in disgrace, and the youth able to join what they thought would be the saving purity of the cult held back for seventy years, the potential for converts was enormous. The cost was immeasurable. Only with the election of Vladimir Putin did the bleeding stop.

The conversion of the Soviet Union into the neo-liberal Russian Federation was made possible not by some catastrophic failure of Marxism – Leninism or even the inadequacy of the CPSU government. It was accomplished by 44 continuous years of covert war against a country struggling to recover from the previous decades of war waged against it. It may be added that Russia has always had a conflict between its Russian (Slavic Orthodox) and its Francophile/ Anglophile partisans.[vi] The October Revolution did not overcome this contradiction. Before 1917 there were also factions that believed that the Russian economy should rely on Germany, France and Britain for its industrial products and export its raw materials (like any third world country). Lenin’s vision for the October Revolution was to transform Russia into a self-sufficient industrialised nation capable of using its own resources for development. As a result the conflicts in revolutionary Russia were very much like those that persisted in the so-called Third World where leaders like Nkrumah wanted national electrification to make the country capable of producing and exporting aluminium for hard cash instead of just cheap bauxite for peanuts. The Generalplan Ost was not just an expression of Hitler’s attitude toward the Soviet Union but also the West’s plans that had been frustrated by Stalin’s “socialism in one country”, so poorly understood by ultraorthodox Marxists in the West. Altogether then the constant war, covert, diplomatic and economic waged against the Soviet Union, directly and through the Comecon states, combined with the global propaganda campaign directed at the vulnerable youth to undermine the last pillars of an independent Soviet Union. And for the Russian Federation the war is far from over.

The Woke and the Dead

Just as the war against Russia did not end with the destruction of the Soviet Union, the war against humanism, whether liberal or Marxist, has continued.  No one doubts that the end of the Soviet Union also meant that the independence struggles that began in earnest and seemed promising until 1975 were going to be reversed wherever possible. Absent the military or diplomatic challenge from Moscow or Beijing, every liberation movement that was not subdued was forced to reach a neo-liberal compromise to avoid being neutralised. While the US economy was just as much in tatters as that of the Soviet Union, the US could use the IMF, World Bank, and UN (also NATO) to transfer the costs to Rest of World. That was an option always unavailable to Moscow.

However the unimaginable concentration of wealth that has continued since 1989 would have to consume what was left of the US economy too. The Chinese strategy for accelerated industrialisation using what was essentially a modified treaty port system permitted the Anglo-American financial oligarchy to relocate all its meaningful industrial capacity—whatever had not already been moved to Indonesia or some other client state—to China.[vii] This deindustrialisation—following the British model—left the US with only one industry of any size: weapons systems.[viii] The steady impoverishment of the US since the 1970s has always been concealed behind a wall of credit cards and second mortgages. Thus the illusory American standard of living is maintained by charging the difference between 1973 salaries and 2023 prices. Already by the time the Bush-Clinton dynasty obtained control over the presidency and the electoral machinery to deliver congressional majorities, popular resistance was growing. Initially deceived by the Reagan-Thatcher shell games, the inability to continue debt payments and the rising cost of everything, aggravated by massive privatization in a system already dominated by business corporations, were pushing increasing numbers of conservative, church-going, Americans into opposition to what they identified as the status quo.

This presented a serious problem for the country’s ruling oligarchy. It was the Christian, moral majority that had put Ronald Reagan in the White House. Despite wars initiated by both Bush presidents and Clinton to stir that majority’s patriotic fervour, both the wars’ failures and the fallout in terms of major wealth transfers and obvious corruption were threatening to alienate that core upon which the nation’s owners depend for consent. A revolt in the Republican rank and file, also known as the Tea Party, not only articulated some of this resentment but also led to upsets in the previously comfortable GOP election machinery. Attempts were made to stigmatise the Tea Party as a fanatical right-wing minority. In fact it looked for a while like some self-appointed Tea Party leaders in the Establishment would perform some rhetorical moves and vent the steam that threatened to dislodge the mainline Republican Party.

This appeared to work until out of the “red”, the New York City real estate mogul, Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for the 2016 general elections.[ix] Worst of all, Donald Trump won the election, soundly defeating the anointed successor from the Bush-Clinton gang. It should be remembered this implosion was delayed by the CIA’s invention of Barack Obama as a candidate to defuse all the opposition to George W Bush. Obama had dutifully served/ saved the financial oligarchy when its massive financial derivatives scam collapsed in 2008. Together with Hillary Clinton, Obama kept the US at war for eight years so that the patriotic majority had to swallow its antipathy to the polyester POTUS.

The panic that ensued among the Establishment was clearly not really aimed at Trump, since his personality and ignorance of the bureaucratic system he was entering posed no immediate threat. Rather it was the conservative, populist core that his election empowered which the Establishment had to check. For the better part of a century this majority of the population could be relied upon to support the Establishment in the cause of anti-communism. However after 1989 this cry was inconsistent with the proclamation that the West had won and communism along with the evil Soviet Union had been destroyed. A new strategy was needed.

Until the Six Day War (1967) not much attention had been paid to Israel and certainly nothing significant to the forced labour, slave labour and mass murder perpetuated in Germany and those territories it had occupied during the Second World War.[x]Obvious reasons included the need to avoid shining the light on perpetrators the US had installed in West Germany or in cushy jobs stateside; the need to focus attention on the evils of the Soviet Union, and more subtly because the massive death toll of the Soviet Union alone would have tarnished the on-going campaigns to destroy it. With the Israel attack of Egypt, a relatively benign public opinion was at risk of turning into outright hostility toward the Euro-Zionist colony under British administration in Palestine that had declared itself the State of Israel in 1948. Israel not only launched surprise attacks but also occupied territory in every direction more than doubling the area under its control.

In the wake of this public relations disaster, a campaign, which became massive in scope and continues to this day, resurrected the stories and history of the Second World War and retold it as the war by Germany to exterminate world Jewry and the centre of this war, “the holocaust” was the mass murder of an estimated six million Jews in concentration camps run by the German Nazi regime. Since the Second World War had been fought to defend Jews from extermination, Israel could not be blamed even for pre-emptive measures since these all served to prevent another “holocaust”. The fact that even were one certain of the numbers of deaths and could be convinced by data, the figure of six million pales in comparison to the twenty plus million killed in the Soviet Union alone and another twenty million that died in China during the war. So without diminishing any deaths whether due to slave labour or mass murder, the re-writing of the history of World War 2 as the prologue to the foundation of Israel required heavy-duty propaganda and convincing political force. All of this was brought to bear. The scope of distortion and outright mendacity needed to establish the state of Israel as the “Victim” par excellence and its Jewish citizens, living and dead, as the ultimate victims, have been treated extensively elsewhere. The point here is that this is probably the greatest example of the “victim” strategy for social engineering since the “Jesus” strategy as deployed by the Latin Church.

The structural analogy I propose is as follows: It is not sufficient that there is a victim, this victim must be chosen; must be the ultimate victim. This victimhood also means that the victim is the embodiment of purity in comparison to which all other victims are imperfect or not victims at all. A veritable hierarchy of victims follows with the chosen victim at the top. This victim is entitled to reverence, even adoration, and the victims purity must be defended absolutely. The cult of this victim endows the true believers with the charisma of purity—even if they are not in fact pure in any meaningful sense. The cult then reaches into the majority of the impure from which it recruits or implicates those either aspirant to purity or touched by the guilt of the “impure”. Together these two elements when combined with material force, whether political, economic, military or combinations thereof, create a minority of the pure positioned to defend purity and the victimhood even from imputed threats by the majority who are by definition impure or victims of lower status. The aim of this strategy is to subjugate an indigenous majority by creation of a morally pure and hence powerful minority. This minority cannot show the physical force upon which its attack relies without creating a majority reaction that could repel it. The moral-psychological power is expressed through the implication of guilt or sympathy among unorganised members of the majority who in dispersion seek confirmation of their moral position. Thus latent outliers may work to strengthen the minority assault or undermine any emerging consensus to defend the indigenous culture.

This is essentially pre-emptive counter-insurgency. That is why Gene Sharp was so interested in dissecting national liberation movements. He wanted to know how to re-engineer them to oppose mass movements. Before he published his infamous From Dictatorship to Democracy he published a study for the US Department of Defense on how to create popular forces that would effectively combat national liberation struggles by imitating them.[xi]

By 1975 the national liberation movements in all of the countries in the Western Empire had been either subdued or compromised. Their radical leaders, including those in the US, were murdered or driven underground. In their place came the civilian defence organisations Sharp had conceived now in the form of NGOs.[xii] These became the seeds for so-called astro-turf grassroots movements, collectively called “civil society”. Civil society replaced the mass movements with qualified experts able to promote agendas in the system. What that meant in fact was that mass politics and struggle were replaced by political management conducted by cadres modelled on Sharp’s understanding of the political commissar. Key positions were filled with the members of movements who could be rewarded after their unfortunate leaders had been eliminated. With time civil society became a career path for academically trained managers in social engineering. The financial support of the oligarchy either directly or through various conduits compounded with access to all the Establishment media outlets, not least of which are the educational institutions, would raise civil society to the supreme force for articulating purity and victimhood. Civil society became the cover for the merger of missionary technology and brute economic, political and military force in a world where the ecclesiastical model had become a vehicle for the popular movements, e,g, in the 80s liberation theology and in the 90s Christian revivalism. The papacy had succeeded in crushing the mass movements’ efforts to use the Church for the liberation struggle.[xiii] However there was no such central force capable of subduing the Protestant denominations. Although Pentecostalism had been very effective in Latin America for neutralising the popular church, the US was a far more complicated terrain than the Catholic countries.[xiv] Scandals had decimated the most reliable agents in the Fundamentalist movement already in the late 1980s.[xv]

This was the challenge that gave rise to the Fourth Awakening—or Woke, a tasteless appropriation of an expression from Black American dialect meaning “aware”.

The term awakening is more appropriate because Woke is really another crusade.

Awakenings were the Protestant equivalents of the Catholic Crusades, usually in someway also just as fanatical and bloody as well as profitable for the promoters.[xvi] Following the model applied after the Six Day War and working from the basis of Gene Sharp’s NGO-based counter-insurgency strategy, the Establishment through its extensive control over all mass media and educational institutions accelerated the moral campaign to create a movement of purity and victimhood to be directed against the core working class population of the United States and other middle class countries in the empire. By appropriating the academically modified liberation jargon developed in the university and NGO labs, armed propaganda units like BLM and Antifa could be deployed in ways that thirty years ago would have been prosecuted as communist terrorism. This use of reconstituted liberation jargon was calculated to antagonise the majority as well as trigger reactions which moderately critical or liberal members of the majority would find difficult to defend.

This counter-insurgency campaign is being waged by the civil society cadre organisations and the kind of armed propaganda units conceived in the CIA’s Phoenix Program for Southeast Asia during the wars against Vietnam and subsequent wars in Central America.[xvii] The difference is that since the target is the conservative, patriotic majority, the language has to be that of the movements they had been indoctrinated to oppose since 1945. Combined with the very real corporate power behind this “moral minority” or pure (vicarious) victims and the effective use of legislation and police power (or its absence), the Woke Crusade aims to divide the majority of the American population, not only whites since conservative Christianity is foundational among Blacks and Latinos too. The Woke crusade is a carefully synthesised missionary project to completely re-engineer the conditions under which the vast majority of American citizens live in the mistaken (and insincere) belief that this serves social justice. This war against popular majorities is not limited to the United States. It is being waged throughout what was once called Christendom. In fact that is why it is so effective thus far—it is derived from the modus operandi of the institution upon which all Christendom was based.

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Notes

[i] Church Clothes: Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa (2004)

[ii] The comparison of the wars between 1914 and 1945 with the Thirty Years War (ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648) was made by Sigmund Neumann, The Future in Perspective (1946)

[iii] FIRE = Finance, Insurance and Real Estate

[iv] George Kennan’s assessments also formed the basis of the NSC 68, adopted as the framework for the massive post-war rearmament prior to the US invasion of Korea. For a detailed discussion see Bruce Cumings The Origins of the Korean War, especially Vol. II.

[v] In the documentary Deception – Reagan’s Method (2014) Dirk Pohlman interviewed at least one retired US official who stated defective technology was deliberately delivered to the Soviet Union resulting in major industrial sabotage. This was only one aspect of the covert war leading to the collapse of the GDR and the Soviet Union.

[vi] This conflict is an important theme in the works of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

[vii] For discussions of these policies under Deng Xiaoping, see among others, William Hinton, The Great Reversal: The Privatization of China 1978-1989 (1989), Michel Chossudovsky, China: Towards Capitalist Restoration? (1986).

[viii] Adam Curtis graphically describes the British post-war deindustrialisation and privatisation of foreign policy (weapons sales) in his BBC documentary The Mayfair Set (1999)

[ix] The US states that supported Republicans, especially Trump have been called „red states“ as opposed to the „blue states“ that vote Democratic.

[x] This and related aspects of the „holocaust industry“ are the subjects of research by Normal Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (2000). No claim is made here that he would share my assessment.

[xi] National Security through Civilian-Based Defense (1970)

[xii] The term „non-governmental organisations“, NGOs, is deceptively ambiguous. Literally these are organisations that are not „governmental“. That suggests that such an organisation is private and independent of government. However what constitutes „governmental“ is in fact ambiguous. If such an organisation was created by a government; its key officers are appointed by a government and the core funding comes from such government, then the mere fact that the entity is created under private law is spurious ground for calling it non-governmental. In fact the term is intended to distract from the substance of these organisations and create the impression of independence needed to maintain the fiction of „civil society“. Here it is more appropriate to call this a special case of the “corporate veil”, a concept to conceal liability.

[xiii] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict VI, led these attacks against Catholic clerics and theologians, like the Boffs in Brazil and anyone identified with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua or with other popular church movements, in his capacity as head of the Holy Office (the successor to the Inquisition). During his war against heresy Salvadoran bishop Oscar Romero was murdered while saying mass. The assassins were not even threatened with excommunication.

[xiv] Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil (1996).

[xv] The names Falwell, Baker and Robertson were among the most prominent among the so-called televangalists.

[xvi] The first Great Awakening began in the 1730s. The second is dated from the end of the 18th century into the early 19th. The third led into the American Civil War. Depending on whether one counts the religious movement that roughly coincided with the Second Vatican Council (late 1960s) as the fourth, the Woke crusade can also be counted as the Fifth Awakening.

[xvii] Douglas Valentine, The Phoenix Program (1990), the definitive elaboration of the program based on Valentine’s in-depth interviews with the key players and independent research.

Featured image is from TruePublica

Border Massacres: The Saudi Ethiopian Migrant Killings

August 30th, 2023 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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We know what the regime is like. Starving a country, bombing its hospitals and strafing its schools has been minor fare for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The population of Yemen has found this out to their colossal cost. Add to this the killing of dissident journalists, the enthusiastic employment of capital punishment, and an assortment of other merry brutalities, the House of Saud comes across as a fine specimen of barbaric endeavour. At least, as many of their supporters will say, they like international sporting events, and are willing to throw money at, if not completely purchase, full events.

The killing of hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023 on what is sometimes termed the “Eastern Route” or “Yemeni Route”, adds another notch to the belt of bloodstained achievements for Riyadh. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW),

“Saudi officials are killing hundreds of women and children out of view of the rest of the world while they spend billions on sports-washing to try to improve their image.”

This is all the more galling for the fact that such human travellers must already encounter the dangers of the sea route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, where they transit through to Saudi Arabia.

HRW’s “They Fired Upon Us Like Rain”: Saudi Arabian Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border, is a self-explanatory document of brutal recounting by the human rights organisation, based on the interviews of 42 Ethiopian and asylum seekers. In addition to the interviews, HRW also based its report on findings drawn from an examination of 350 videos and photographs which were posted on social media platforms.

The examination had been conducted by members of the Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims. In terms of injuries, IFEG members reached the conclusion that some exhibited “clear patterns consistent with the explosion of munitions with capacity to produce heat and fragmentation”; others had “characteristics consistent with gunshot wounds”.

The 2023 report by the organisation notes some staggering instances of violence against those seeking refuge.

“People travelling in groups, from four to five people to up to several hundred describe being attacked by mortar projectiles and other explosive weapons by Saudi border guards once they had crossed the border from Yemen into Saudi Arabia.”

The allegations are biting in their cruelty, and bring to mind the fact that killings of this sort have happened before along this notorious route. Saudi border guards, it would seem, went so far as to deploy an array of weapons against such migrants, showing a keen interest targeting Ethiopians. Some 750,000 live and work in the kingdom. Movement through the borders is based on the less than scrupulous calculations and account keeping of smugglers.

Those interviewed in the camp of Saada, base for tens of thousands awaiting their chance to enter Saudi Arabia, note how Saudi border guards tended to patrol the border equipped with “large vehicles” that could have been rocket launchers.

“Many migrants,” the report also notes, “said they saw cameras tracking their movements mounted on what looked like ‘street lamps’ on the Saudi side of the border.”

Some of the brutalities are calculatingly perverse. According to HRW, some Saudi border guards dared to discriminate, bothering to first ask “survivors in which limb of their body they preferred to be shot, before shooting them at close range.” Such viciousness sounds boardroom, spreadsheet and planned, which is exactly the sort of matter that should leave a trail right to the Kingdom’s central authorities. But it could also be burgeoning sadism at work, an instant where the powerful can determine what bit of maiming might excite them.

3D model of likely Saudi border guard posts and patrol roads near fences

3D model of likely Saudi border guard posts and patrol roads near fences identified with satellite imagery near the migration route from the migrant camp of Al Thabit in Saada Governorate, Yemen, into Saudi Arabia. Graphic © Human Rights Watch

For Ethiopians moving through the precarious route, the circumstances of misery have been frequent. While Riyadh engages in its own complement of viciousness, the Yemeni guards have also had a hand in raping and torturing asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa. Houthi forces have not been averse to targeting immigration centres in Sana’a.

The spectacle recounted by HRW is grotesque. But so are acts involving the turning back of refugee-laden boats or repulsing migrant vessels in the Mediterranean, and conspiring to frustrate the international right to asylum which has been in print since 1951. Little wonder that little mention was made of the killings when they were made aware to envoys from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and the European Union, not to mention the Biden administration. (The US State Department insists that it “quickly engaged senior Saudi officials to express our concern” on receiving news on the gruesome details.)

In August 2001, the Australian government, a most eminent practitioner in the field of subverting international refugee law, did not deploy rocket launchers against those seeking asylum off Christmas Island on the Norwegian vessel, the MV Tampa. But they did deploy fully armed members of the Special Air Services regiment, an elite force that would go on to, some years later, inflict atrocities upon Afghans in an unwinnable war.

This HRW Report adds another bloodied entry to the chronicles of the Kingdom’s brutality. The organisation claims that the killings continue. The sanguinary story is a telling one for those who continue to conduct relations with Riyadh without murmur or concern, delighted by the riches of its Sovereign Wealth Fund. Its officials know all too well that cash and the expediency of security softens a prickly conscience.

*

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

Featured image: A video published on TikTok on December 4, 2022 shows a group of roughly 47 migrants, 37 of whom appear to be women, walking along a steep slope inside Saudia Arabia on the trail used to cross from the migrant camp of Al Thabit.

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What follows is an unholy trinity of highly incestuous stories that I’ve covered on an individual basis elsewhere and that I’ll try to briefly synthesize here:

1) Medieval EU Censorship Regime Goes Into Full Effect

2) Elon Musk Folds Like a Lawn Chair to EU Censorship Regime

3) YouTube Adopts WHO ‘Medical Misinformation’ Censorship Regime

On the first score, Via Reuters:

“More than a dozen of the world’s biggest tech companies face unprecedented legal scrutiny, as the European Union’s sweeping Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes new rules on content moderation, user privacy and transparency.

From Friday, a host of internet giants – including Meta’s (META.O) Facebook and Instagram platforms, Apple’s online App Store, and a handful of Google (GOOGL.O) services – will face new obligations in the EU, including preventing harmful content from spreading, banning or limiting certain user-targeting practices, and sharing some internal data with regulators and associated researchers…

The EU is seen as the global leader in tech regulation, with more wide-ranging pieces of legislation – such as the Digital Markets Act and the AI Act – on the way. The bloc’s success in implementing such laws will influence the introduction of similar rules around the world.”

“Content moderation” = censorship

“Tech regulation” = censorship

“Preventing harmful content from spreading” = censorship.

These euphemisms are out of control. At least the totalitarians of the 20th century had the honesty to tout their totalitarianism for what it was, rather than hiding behind technocratic, pseudo-humanitarian jargon.

Via Cyber Risk GmbH:

The Digital Services Act is the most important and most ambitious regulation in the world in the field of the protection of the digital space against the spread of illegal content, and the protection of users’ fundamental rights. There is no other legislative act in the world having this level of ambition to regulate social media, online marketplaces, very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs). The rules are designed asymmetrically: Larger intermediary services with significant societal impact (VLOPs and VLOSEs) are subject to stricter rules.

After the Digital Services Act, platforms will not only have to be more transparent, but will also be held accountable for their role in disseminating illegal and harmful content

More diligent content moderation, less disinformation:

– Platforms and search engines need to take measures to address risks linked to the dissemination of illegal content online and to negative effects on freedom of expression and information;

– Platforms need to have clear terms and conditions and enforce them diligently and non-arbitrarily;

– Platforms need to have a mechanism for users to flag illegal content and act upon notifications expeditiously;

– Platforms need to analyse their specific risks, and put in place mitigation measures – for instance, to address the spread of disinformation and inauthentic use of their service.”

On the second score, via Associated Press:

“European Commissioner Thierry Breton said late Thursday that he noted the’“strong commitment of Twitter to comply’ with the Digital Services Act, sweeping new standards that the world’s biggest online platforms all must obey…

Breton, who oversees digital policy, is also meeting other tech bosses in California. He’s the EU’s point person working to get Big Tech ready for the new rules, which will force companies to crack down on hate speech, disinformation and other harmful and illegal material on their sites. The law takes effect Aug. 25 for the biggest platforms.”

So much for Musk’s professed commitment to “free speech.”

On the third score, via Reclaim the Net:

YouTube, the titan of online video content, has expanded its Covid misinformation policy to cover what it calls all forms of medical misinformation.

YouTube has also declared its plan to delist videos promoting “cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective,” effectively disallowing content creators from encouraging natural cures.

The platform pledges to implement its medical misinformation policies when a topic exhibits high public health risks, is supposedly prone to misinformation, and when official guidance from health authorities is accessible to the public.”

Via YouTube:

“As medical information – and misinformation – continuously evolves, YouTube needs a policy framework that holds up in the long term, and preserves the important balance of removing egregiously harmful content while ensuring space for debate and discussion.

Moving forward, YouTube will streamline dozens of our existing medical misinformation guidelines to fall under three categories – Prevention, Treatment, and Denial. These policies will apply to specific health conditions, treatments, and substances where content contradicts local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO)

We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on treatments for specific health conditions, including promoting specific harmful substances or practices.”

By “harmful substances,” YouTube presumably means it will censor content regarding actual safe and effective medications such as ivermectin, once universally demonized in corporate state media and now recognized by the US FDA (probably under threat of legal consequences) as a treatment for COVID-19.

Nation-states under EU jurisdiction can no longer be rationally said to be “free,” to the extent that they ever truly were to begin with. They are now part of a wholly integrated slave colony of the multinational technocracy, headed by the World Economic Forum and similar organizations outside of the reach of any democratic control.

The national governments within the EU are, in the words of Klaus Schwab, “penetrated,” with strong overtones of rape. That is what this is – the rape of formerly sovereign nations at economic and political gunpoint.

*

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This article was originally published on Armageddon Prose.

Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Rappler

Whitewashing Down Under: The Vietnam War Fifty Years On

August 30th, 2023 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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The Vietnam War tormented and tore the societies who saw fit to participate in it. It defined a generation culturally and politically in terms creative and fractious. And it showed up the rulers to be ignorant rather than bright; blundering fools rather than sages secure in their preaching. Five decades on, the political classes in the United States and Australia are still seeking to find reasons for intervening in a country they scant understood, with a fanatic’s persuasion, and ideologue’s conviction, a moralist’s certainty. Old errors die hard.

Leaders are left the legacy of having to re-scent the candle, hoping that no one notices the malodorous stench left by history. Errors can be ignored in the aromatic haze. Broadcasters and producers of celluloid scutter about to provide softening programs explaining why soldiers who had no valid reason fighting a conflict, could find themselves in it. The ABC in Australia, for instance, released their series called Our Vietnam War, narrated by Kate Mulvany, whose bridge to the war was via her father. The very title is personal, exclusive, and seemingly excludes the Vietnamese who found themselves pawns, rebels, collaborators and insurgents.

The production also received the approval of the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “The series provides a unique opportunity for viewers to gain insights into the personal stories of veterans and the broader impact of conflict on Australia’s history and identity.”

The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has made 2023 a calendar year for reminding Australians about the Vietnam experience, albeit in a most slanted way. On March 29, he acknowledged veterans visiting Canberra in an address to parliament. The words “courage”, “sacrifice” and “bonds of camaraderie forged under fire, and cruel realities of loss”, were noted. Adversaries are not mentioned, nor was, curiously enough, opposition to the war that was expressed at the time from a number of brave Labor Party stalwarts, Arthur Calwell being foremost among them.

The speech continued in a more plangent tone.

“Let us stand in this place, in this Parliament, and speak – loudly and clearly – about those who were sent to war in our name, who did their duty in our name, but whose names we did not hold up as proudly as we should have.”

On Vietnam Veterans’ Day (August 18), Albanese gave another speech, this time in Ipswich, Queensland, where he again apologised to the veterans.  “We should have acknowledged you better as a nation then. But the truth is, as a nation we didn’t.” The platitudes are piled up, and merely serve to blunt the nature of Australia’s involvement in a brutal, rapacious conflict. “You upheld Australia’s name. You showed the Australian character at its finest.”

This distraction serves to cover the tracks of those who erred and bungled, not merely in committing the troops, but in ignoring the consequences of that deployment. The mistreatment dished out to the returnees was as much a product of civilian protest as it was a conscious effort on the part of veterans from previous conflicts to ignore it. It was a war never formally declared, conducted in conditions of gross deception.

A half-century on, it is striking to see the apologetics gather at the podium. The New South Wales branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL), for instance, went out of its way to issue one for the way thousands of defence personnel were treated in the aftermath of the conflict. “RSL NSW acknowledges a generation of veterans who are still healing and we publicly recognise our charity’s past mistakes this Vietnam Veterans Day,” came the statement the organisation’s president Ray James.

In the making of war, those behind the policies for waging it tend to escape culpability. The Australians in this affair were, to put it politely, compliant, featherbrained creatures upset by the Yellow Peril north of Papua New Guinea and easily won over through invocations of the “Red Under the Bed”.

Canberra went out of its way to send material and aid to South Vietnam not merely to fight Asiatic atheists of a red hue, but to impress their increasingly bogged-down US allies. To aid the enterprise, the Menzies government introduced national service conscription in November 1964, a policy that became the source of much parliamentary acrimony, notably from the Labor Party.

In July 1966, on an official visit to Washington, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt emetically appropriated the Democratic Party’s own campaign slogan by declaring that Australia was “All the way with LBJ”. At the National Press Gallery that same month, Holt declared that, “When it comes to American participation and resolution to see the war in south Vietnam through, Australia is undoubtedly all the way”. Spinelessness and crawling in a military alliance became political virtues, or what Albanese might like to call “values”.

Australia’s commitment was marred by problems of strategic worth, something which officials were well aware of as early as April 1967. As a government paper titled “Australia’s military commitment to Vietnam” documents, requests for a larger Australian commitment by US military sources in Saigon and Washington were made despite the open-ended nature of the conflict. The planners lacked certitude on basic objectives, not least on the issue of victory itself. The views of US Defence Secretary Robert S. McNamara, as expressed in meetings with his Australian counterparts, are expressly mentioned in all their obliqueness. The secretary “had no doubt that America could no longer lose the war, but they still had the problem of winning and that could be long and hard and there was no easy way which could point directly to victory.”

Add to this the fantastic delusion that the Vietnamese communist movement was a Peking-directed affair rather than an indigenous movement keen to remove foreign influence, and we have a conflict not merely futile on the part of Canberra and Washington, but wasteful and criminal. Fifty years later, and officials from both countries have the chance to make another round of potentially graver, more calamitous decisions.

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

History of American Hegemony: USA as “Global Greatest Power”. From Alaska (1867) to Europe (1917)

By Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović, August 28, 2023

Such a new type of US global imperialism practically started in the 1898 war against Spain (in fact, Spanish colonies). Many experts in US history and global politics will say that the year 1898 was, actually, a turning point year in US foreign policy when Washington started to push toward the creation of the global empire of the USA.

What Is Taught in Schools of Journalism?

By Prof. Bill Willers, August 29, 2023

The big lie perpetrated about journalism is that it has an adversarial relationship with power. There may have been some truth to that at some point in history, but within living memory the precise opposite has been the truth. And why be surprised? One would expect that controlling the Narrative and the flow of information would be a prime goal of government.

We the Targeted: How the Government Weaponizes Surveillance to Silence Its Critics

By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead, August 30, 2023

Ever since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his groundbreaking “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, the Deep State has been hard at work turning King’s dream into a living nightmare. The end result of the government’s efforts over the past 60 years is a country where nothing ever really changes, and everyone lives in fear.

De-globalization: How Much and at What Cost?

By Karsten Riise, August 30, 2023

Biden’s China trade policy is ridiculous. An article in New York Times (NYT) today 28 August 2023 puts serious question marks on the policy of US President Biden and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to “de-risk” (in fact, decouple) their western economies from China.

The US Deepens the Lebanese Suffering

By Steven Sahiounie, August 30, 2023

Lebanon’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, shocked the UN on August 25 in New York by rejecting the proposal that is being forced upon Lebanon by the United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. In a surprise act of national defiance, and rejection at being dictated to by Washington, Bou Habib would not acquiesce to moving to Chapter VII. Chapter VI calls for “the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” while Chapter VII “calls for the imposition of Resolution 1701 by force.”

New Documentary Coming this September: ‘Peace, War and 9/11’

By International Center for 9/11 Justice, August 29, 2023

In a wide-ranging interview filmed six months before his passing, eminent scholar and lifelong peace activist Graeme MacQueen shares his final words on 9/11 and the 2001 anthrax attacks. Drawing from his depth of knowledge as a professor of peace studies, MacQueen illuminates the concept of war as an all-encompassing parasitic system that depends on triggering events — sometimes natural but often managed or even manufactured — to move from a cold to a hot phase.

How BRICS+ Ensures Global Peace. “Rules-based World Order” in the Dustbin of History?

By Drago Bosnic, August 29, 2023

The world has truly never seen anything like BRICS, an organization that unites the most diverse group of not only nation-states, but actual civilization states. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa don’t really seem to have much in common, and yet, their ties within this framework are growing stronger by the day at this point.

Do Vaccines Cause Autism? A History of Institutional Corruption

By Helen Buyniski, Richard Gale, and Dr. Gary Null, August 29, 2023

Given that vaccines are mandatory for most children in public schools, it makes sense that they should be scientifically proven to be safe. However, in a careful analysis of thousands of articles in the peer-reviewed literature on toxicology and immunology, nowhere can we find evidence for these claims on vaccine safety are based upon a gold standard of clinical research: long-term, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.

BRICS Summit Expands by Six Members. De-Dollarization and the New Cold War

By Abayomi Azikiwe, August 29, 2023

President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa served as the host of the recently held 15th BRICS Summit which turned out to be one of the most significant gatherings in the nearly decade-and-one-half existence of the alliance.

America’s Domestic Party Politics Fuel the Ukraine Catastrophe

By Philip Giraldi, August 29, 2023

I am surely not the only one who has noticed that the defensive propaganda lines that are flowing out the Democratic Administration have become more than ordinarily ridiculous of late. One is astonished at the melding of fact and fiction to create narratives that depict the White House and all that pertains to it as forging a new and more wonderful country. Wasn’t “Build Back Better” the battle cry, whatever that is supposed to mean?

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“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — President Harry S. Truman

Ever since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his groundbreaking “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, the Deep State has been hard at work turning King’s dream into a living nightmare.

The end result of the government’s efforts over the past 60 years is a country where nothing ever really changes, and everyone lives in fear.

Race wars are still being stoked by both the Right and the Left; the military-industrial complex is still waging profit-driven wars at taxpayer expense; the oligarchy is still calling the shots in the seats of government power; and the government is still weaponizing surveillance in order to muzzle anti-government sentiment, harass activists, and terrorize Americans into compliance.

This last point is particularly disturbing.

Starting in the 1950s, the government relied on COINTELPRO, its domestic intelligence program, to neutralize domestic political dissidents. Those targeted by the FBI under COINTELPRO for its intimidation, surveillance and smear campaigns included: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, the Black Panther Party, John Lennon, Billie Holiday, Emma Goldman, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, Felix Frankfurter, and hundreds more.

In more recent decades, the powers-that-be have expanded their reach to target anyone who opposes the police state, regardless of their political leanings.

Advances in technology have enabled the government to deploy a veritable arsenal of surveillance weapons in order to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” perceived threats to the government’s power.

Surveillance cameras mounted on utility poles, traffic lights, businesses, and homes. License plate readers. Ring doorbells. GPS devices. Dash cameras. Drones. Store security cameras. Geofencing and geotracking. FitBits. Alexa. Internet-connected devices. Geofencing dragnets. Fusion centers. Smart devices. Behavioral threat assessments. Terror watch lists. Facial recognition. Snitch tip lines. Biometric scanners. Pre-crime. DNA databases. Data mining. Precognitive technology. Contact tracing apps.

What these add up to is a world in which, on any given day, the average person is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears.

Consider just a small sampling of the ways in which the government is weaponizing its 360 degree surveillance technologies to flag you as a threat to national security, whether or not you’ve done anything wrong.

Flagging you as a danger based on your feelings. Customs and Border Protection is reportedly using an artificial intelligence surveillance program that can detect “sentiment and emotion” in social media posts in order to identify travelers who may be “a threat to public safety, national security, or lawful trade and travel.”

Flagging you as a danger based on your phone and movements. Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up a steady stream of digital location data on users’ movements and travels. For instance, the FBI was able to use geofence data to identify more than 5,000 mobile devices (and their owners) in a 4-acre area around the Capitol on January 6. This latest surveillance tactic could land you in jail for being in the “wrong place and time.” Police are also using cell-site simulators to carry out mass surveillance of protests without the need for a warrant. Moreover, federal agents can now employ a number of hacking methods in order to gain access to your computer activities and “see” whatever you’re seeing on your monitor. Malicious hacking software can also be used to remotely activate cameras and microphones, offering another means of glimpsing into the personal business of a target.

Flagging you as a danger based on your DNA. DNA technology in the hands of government officials completes our transition to a Surveillance State. If you have the misfortune to leave your DNA traces anywhere a crime has been committed, you’ve already got a file somewhere in some state or federal database—albeit it may be a file without a name. By accessing your DNA, the government will soon know everything else about you that they don’t already know: your family chart, your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course, etc. After all, a DNA print reveals everything about “who we are, where we come from, and who we will be.” It can also be used to predict the physical appearance of potential suspects. It’s only a matter of time before the police state’s pursuit of criminals expands into genetic profiling and a preemptive hunt for criminals of the future.

Flagging you as a danger based on your face. Facial recognition software aims to create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded as they go about their daily business. Coupled with surveillance cameras that blanket the country, facial recognition technology allows the government and its corporate partners to identify and track someone’s movements in real-time. One particularly controversial software program created by Clearview AI has been used by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect photos on social media sites for inclusion in a massive facial recognition database. Similarly, biometric software, which relies on one’s unique identifiers (fingerprints, irises, voice prints), is becoming the standard for navigating security lines, as well as bypassing digital locks and gaining access to phones, computers, office buildings, etc. In fact, greater numbers of travelers are opting into programs that rely on their biometrics in order to avoid long waits at airport security. Scientists are also developing lasers that can identify and surveil individuals based on their heartbeats, scent and microbiome.

Flagging you as a danger based on your behavior. Rapid advances in behavioral surveillance are not only making it possible for individuals to be monitored and tracked based on their patterns of movement or behavior, including gait recognition (the way one walks), but have given rise to whole industries that revolve around predicting one’s behavior based on data and surveillance patterns and are also shaping the behaviors of whole populations. One smart “anti-riot” surveillance system purports to predict mass riots and unauthorized public events by using artificial intelligence to analyze social media, news sources, surveillance video feeds and public transportation data.

Flagging you as a danger based on your spending and consumer activities. With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases—whether at the grocer’s, the yogurt shop, the airlines or the department store—and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we’re helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time. Consumer surveillance, by which your activities and data in the physical and online realms are tracked and shared with advertisers, has become a $300 billion industry that routinely harvests your data for profit. Corporations such as Target have not only been tracking and assessing the behavior of their customers, particularly their purchasing patterns, for years, but the retailer has also funded major surveillance in cities across the country and developed behavioral surveillance algorithms that can determine whether someone’s mannerisms might fit the profile of a thief.

Flagging you as a danger based on your public activities. Private corporations in conjunction with police agencies throughout the country have created a web of surveillance that encompasses all major cities in order to monitor large groups of people seamlessly, as in the case of protests and rallies. They are also engaging in extensive online surveillance, looking for any hints of “large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals.” Defense contractors have been at the forefront of this lucrative market. Fusion centers, $330 million-a-year, information-sharing hubs for federal, state and law enforcement agencies, monitor and report such “suspicious” behavior as people buying pallets of bottled water, photographing government buildings, and applying for a pilot’s license as “suspicious activity.”

Flagging you as a danger based on your social media activities. Every move you make, especially on social media, is monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are increasingly investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. This obsession with social media as a form of surveillance will have some frightening consequences in coming years. As Helen A.S. Popkin, writing for NBC News, observed, “We may very well face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal ‘Game of Thrones’ downloads… the new software has the potential to roll, Terminator-style, targeting every social media user with a shameful confession or questionable sense of humor.”

Flagging you as a danger based on your social network. Not content to merely spy on individuals through their online activity, government agencies are now using surveillance technology to track one’s social network, the people you might connect with by phone, text message, email or through social message, in order to ferret out possible criminals. An FBI document obtained by Rolling Stone speaks to the ease with which agents are able to access address book data from Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage services from the accounts of targeted individuals and individuals not under investigation who might have a targeted individual within their network. What this creates is a “guilt by association” society in which we are all as guilty as the most culpable person in our address book.

Flagging you as a danger based on your car. License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. With tens of thousands of these license plate readers now in operation throughout the country, affixed to overpasses, cop cars and throughout business sectors and residential neighborhoods, it allows police to track vehicles and run the plates through law enforcement databases for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives. Of course, the technology is not infallible: there have been numerous incidents in which police have mistakenly relied on license plate data to capture out suspects only to end up detaining innocent people at gunpoint.

Flagging you as a danger based on your political views. The Church Committee, the Senate task force charged with investigating COINTELPRO abuses in 1975, concluded that the government had carried out “secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power.” The report continued: “Groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and their lifestyles… Intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of presidents and other high officials.” Nothing has changed since then.

Flagging you as a danger based on your correspondence. Just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. For instance, the U.S. Postal Service, which has been photographing the exterior of every piece of paper mail for the past 20 years, is also spying on Americans’ texts, emails and social media posts. Headed up by the Postal Service’s law enforcement division, the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) is reportedly using facial recognition technology, combined with fake online identities, to ferret out potential troublemakers with “inflammatory” posts. The agency claims the online surveillance, which falls outside its conventional job scope of processing and delivering paper mail, is necessary to help postal workers avoid “potentially volatile situations.”

Now the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear from these mass spying programs as long as we’ve done nothing wrong.

Don’t believe it.

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

The government’s definition of a “bad” guy is extraordinarily broad, and it results in the warrantless surveillance of innocent, law-abiding Americans on a staggering scale.

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

Weaponized surveillance is re-engineering a society structured around the aesthetic of fear.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the police state wants us silent, servile and compliant.

They definitely do not want us to engage in First Amendment activities that challenge the government’s power, reveal the government’s corruption, expose the government’s lies, and encourage the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.

And they certainly do not want us to remember that we have rights, let alone attempting to exercise those rights peaceably and lawfully, whether it’s protesting police brutality and racism, challenging COVID-19 mandates, questioning election outcomes, or listening to alternate viewpoints—even conspiratorial ones—in order to form our own opinions about the true nature of government.

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This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

De-globalization: How Much and at What Cost?

August 30th, 2023 by Karsten Riise

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Biden’s China trade policy is ridiculous. An article in New York Times (NYT) today 28 August 2023 puts serious question marks on the policy of US President Biden and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to “de-risk” (in fact, decouple) their western economies from China.

Yes, US imports from China have fallen significantly the past year, but US imports from countries like Vietnam and Mexico have filled out the gaps left by China and supplied the US with exactly the same products as China used to deliver to the US. But even worse for Biden’s policy: these countries, like Vietnam and Mexico, are themselves importing more from China of exactly the same stuff, which they are now exporting more to the US. In other words, China’s exports to US are not diminishing nearly as much as the trade statistics show. Instead of exporting to the US directly, China is just exporting via other countries like Vietnam and Mexico, often through Chinese owned companies there. See this.

Not only is Biden missing his target of actually decoupling the US economy from China. Worse, the costs to US consumers are increasing through Biden’s anti-China trade practices. The EU better take notice too. No strategic improvement for the West of “decoupling”, only higher costs for Western consumers.

The anti-globalization agenda of Biden and von der Leyen is still being executed as best as they can. But it will take more time and have considerably more costs for the US and the EU. Meanwhile, we see that Western jobs which moved to China are NOT coming back to the US or the EU. Export-related jobs just move from China to other countries in the Global South.

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

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

The US Deepens the Lebanese Suffering

August 30th, 2023 by Steven Sahiounie

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Lebanon’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, shocked the UN on August 25 in New York by rejecting the proposal that is being forced upon Lebanon by the United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

In a surprise act of national defiance, and rejection at being dictated to by Washington, Bou Habib would not acquiesce to moving to Chapter VII. Chapter VI calls for “the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” while Chapter VII “calls for the imposition of Resolution 1701 by force.”

At question is the yearly renewal of a UN mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), set to expire August 31, which had been voluntary and mutually agreed upon by Lebanon and the UN.  But the UN, primarily under the command of the US, has decided if Lebanon will not agree to the terms of the mandate, it will be forced upon them. 

Bou Habib was in New York attending meeting concerning the UN mandated UNIFIL forces, and it was after meeting with the United States Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield that Lebanon’s decision was made to reject the imposition of the mandate upon Lebanon by force, emanating from the heavy-handed treatment by Washington.

Thomas-Greenfield stressed the

“U.S. support for securing a strong Security Council mandate to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, so it can fulfill its duties.” She also called for “addressing the activities of the organization ‘Green Without Borders,’ which the United States recently imposed sanctions on, for providing support and cover for Hezbollah’s operations in southern Lebanon along the Blue Line.”

The US imposed sanctions Wednesday on the Lebanese environmental organization, ‘Green Without Borders’, a NGO established in 2013 which is protecting the Lebanese environment, and planting trees in devastated areas. According to the US Treasury Department the NGO and its leader, Zouher Nahli, are linked to Hezbollah. 

“We are not an arm for anyone,” Nahli told The Associated Press in January. “We as an environmental association work for all the people and we are not politicized.”

The US is opposed to the Lebanese resistance group who are providing border protection on the southern border of Lebanon, against frequent Israeli provocations. The US views the group as a terrorist group supported by Iran. In the view of the Lebanese people, the group is the only guarantee of security from invasion and occupation.

The South of Lebanon

UNIFIL was created by the Security Council in March 1978 after the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon; however, since then Israel has made repeated incursions into Lebanon, and brutally occupied the entire southern portion for 18 years ending in 2000.  While the Israeli military withdrew from the south, they remain occupying a very strategic agricultural section in the south called Shebaa Farms, and the UN has never recognized Shebaa Farms as an occupied area in Lebanon.

The 18 years of occupation of Lebanon by the Israeli military demonstrates the ineffectiveness of UNIFIL and the UN. Many in Lebanon accuse UNIFIL of acting to suppress resistance in southern Lebanon on behalf of Israel.

The dispute between Lebanon and the UN over Shebaa Farms centers on the UN falsely identifying the area as Syrian territory, when Syria and Lebanon jointly recognize the area as Lebanese territory clearly demarcated on older maps.

“Recognizing the land borders contributes to putting an end to the ongoing tensions,” Bou Habib added in a statement issued by the foreign ministry on 25 August. 

In summer of 2006, Israel attempted a massive invasion of Lebanon, and while the Israeli ground troops were not able to take even on inch of territory, the Israeli air force bombed the country from north to south causing thousands of deaths and injuries and massive infrastructure damages.

Resolution 1701 was approved in 2006 after the Israeli army was defeated by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and calls for “a full cessation of hostilities” and “authorizes UNIFIL to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind.”

UNIFIL peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have a working relationship and conduct joint exercises, and Bou Habib referred to the necessity and importance of coordinating UNIFIL’s operations with the Lebanese government, represented by the Lebanese army, as stipulated in the UNIFIL’s known Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

Elias Al-Baysari, Lebanon’s Director General of General Security, said on Friday that the two suspects were arrested as they attempted to leave the country through Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport. Initial investigation found they had been Mossad operatives, assigned to carry out operations inside Lebanon. Mossad is the Israeli secret spy agency working around the world. Lebanese security officials will reveal more details later about the Russian man and his wife after been tipped off by the Lebanese resistance.

The Lebanese economy has collapsed, but there is a chance to generate money from energy resources which have been discovered off-shore. Prime Minster Nijib Mikati, and Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri flew in a helicopter recently over Block 9 in the Mediterranean Sea to see for themselves the beginning of energy exploration for the financially failed country. 

While Lebanon is drowning in financial collapse, there is the hope that the sea will give up its resources to save the country. There is the constant threat from Israel, and their supporter, the US. The question is whether the US will allow Lebanon to save their economy while using their own resources.

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from MD

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A German court has sentenced one of its own judges to prison for ruling against the government’s mask mandates.

In 2021, Judge Christian Dettmar struck down a local government ordinance that required schoolchildren to wear masks in the German state of Thuringia. The case made headlines across Germany.

Judge Dettmar is now set to lose his legal career and pension and receive a two-year suspended prison sentence for allegedly “perverting the law.”

During the pandemic-era lockdowns, the Thuringian state government ruled that all children were to wear masks while at school, stay a minimum distance from each other, and take virus tests.

The judge ruled that masks shouldn’t be mandatory for children at two schools in Weimar, Thuringia, after the mother of two children, aged 8 and 14, complained that the masks were giving them insomnia, nausea, and headaches.

‘I Saw Danger in Delay’

Judge Dettmar told the schools in Weimar that they could no longer enforce the order, as the mandates weren’t compatible with the welfare of the children involved.

His decision immediately sparked outrage in the state government, which called for his punishment and removal.

The judge’s ruling was overturned by the Higher Regional Court in Erfurt, following a complaint by the state’s education department, which forced students to once again wear masks in schools.

The district court in Erfurt stated that only an administrative court held the jurisdiction to make such a ruling and that Judge Dettmar’s decision didn’t fall under the scope of his court.

“The good cause of protecting children, which they may have had in the back of their minds, does not justify the way,” the district court judge said in his ruling.

Judge Dettmar defended his decision on the matter, arguing that he had merely consulted certified university experts.

“I still don’t know why I’m sitting here. I have three grown-up children myself. At that time, I was driven by the everyday life of the schoolchildren. I saw danger in delay. The reports I use come from experienced university professors,” he said.

The high court decision also led to Judge Dettmar’s suspension from the bench after a disciplinary hearing was conducted by the Judicial Service Court.

State prosecutors then took action against the judge, charging him with “perverting the law” and ruling on a matter he had no authority over.

According to German public broadcasting channel MDR, the court heard arguments from prosecutors that Judge Dettmar had made his ruling as a political statement against lockdowns, not out of genuine concern for the children involved.

He was also accused of deleting emails and files from his computers to cover up the reason for his ruling.

A police raid on his home and his office, conducted only weeks after his ruling was overturned, seized his electronic devices, including his mobile phone, which contained private correspondence that allegedly revealed his bias against lockdown measures.

Prosecutors further accused the judge of being biased toward experts who were critical of lockdown rules before giving his verdict, according to the German tabloid Bild.

They said he met with them before hearing from the official experts who were consulted in the case when making his original decision.

Judge Dettmar said he did consult with scientists who were skeptical of the measures enacted by the government at the time.

State Prosecutors Want Harsher Sentence

Judge Dettmar had been suspended on probation pending the investigation’s results.

His legal team is considering an appeal in the case as he faces possible dismissal from his duties as a judge in addition to his two-year suspended sentence.

According to German law, a civil servant who’s sentenced to a custodial sentence of more than 12 months is deprived of both position and pension.

The prosecutors, who had originally asked for a three-year sentence, are also appealing the sentence, according to MDR, which has been following the story since it broke in 2021.

The defense has argued that the trial was politically motivated and was intended to silence dissenters.

Before his sentence, Judge Dettmar said he had no regrets about his decision and that he would make the same ruling again “out of deep inner conviction.”

“I have considerable doubts about the usefulness of masks. If you want to wear them voluntarily to school, you can do so, but we don’t have to patronize parents,” he said.

COVID Lockdown Rules, Revisited

Germany instituted some of the harshest restrictions in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The German government eased most mandates in March 2022, but many German politicians were eager to reinstitute them, and stricter mask rules were issued the following winter.

While most of the world dropped mask travel requirements in 2022, the German government, under left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD) Chancellor Olaf Scholz, waited until February to finally end the mandates on long-distance trains and buses.

SPD Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who was known for his enthusiastic lockdown policies, claimed in February 2022 that the world would be dealing with COVID-19 for another 10 years, Der Spiegel reported, implying that Germany would also be dealing with pandemic measures to some degree for several years.

But Mr. Lauterbach told the German publication in January that “the population has built up high immunity, and the experts who advise us no longer believe there will be another big, serious winter wave.”

“At this point, we also don’t foresee particularly dangerous variants reaching us in the coming weeks and months,” he said.

Nonetheless, he appealed to the public to continue wearing masks voluntarily indoors and on trains.

In the United States, some schools and businesses are reintroducing mask requirements because of concerns about new variants of the virus.

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Bryan S. Jung is a native and resident of New York City with a background in politics and the legal industry. He graduated from Binghamton University.

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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First published on August 24, 2023, revised and updated on August 29, 2023

Introduction 

According to reports, “An Anti-imperialist People’s Movement” has unfolded spontaneously across francophone West Africa in support of Niger’s Conseil National pour la sauvegarde de la Patrie (CNSP) (National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland) which came to power on July 26, 2023 in a military Coup d’Etat against the elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum who is supported by France’s President Emmanuel MacronBazoum was among the founders in 1990 of the “Parti Nigerien pour la Democratie et le Socialisme”. 

Demonstrations in Niger by supporters of the CNSP government have largely targeted France calling for the withdrawal of French troops:

“Protesters attempted to storm the French embassy to express their outrage at the decades of colonial and neo-colonial domination their country has suffered.” (Liberation News)

Pressured by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (led by the president of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu) as well as by the African Union and the UN, Niger’s military junta has “refused to reinstall the ousted president” (August 8, 2023).

“Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, … who is now the chair of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), had threatened just days after the ascendancy to power of the CNSP to lead a military intervention to reimpose Bazoum. (Black Agenda Report, emphasis added)

In recent developments, thousands of young people have gathered in Niamey’s stadium, to sign up as volunteers in defense of their country.

ECOWAS threats have contributed to “building greater animosity against France and the U.S.”

Is This “Anti-Imperialist Movement” a Reality? Or is it Fake?

Whereas ECOWAS is portrayed as an organization which (unofficially) serves the neocolonial interests of both France and the U.S., people across West Africa are unaware of the role of Niger’s Conseil National pour la Sauvegarde de la Patrie (CNSP). 

The so-called “Anti-imperialism People’s Movement” (integrated by anti-war progressives, trade unions, etc) has been deliberately misled. Niger’s CNSP military junta is not committed to combating US sponsored neocolonialism in sub-Saharan Africa. Quite the opposite: The CNSP military leadership is (indirectly) controlled by the Pentagon.

At least five senior members of the Niger military Junta received their training in the U.S.

General Abdourahamane Tiani who led the coup d’Etat and who is currently head of the CNSP military Junta received his military training at the National Defense University’s (NDU) College of International Security Affairs (CISA). CISA is the U.S. Department of Defense’s  “flagship for education and building of partner capacity in combating terrorism, irregular warfare, and integrated deterrence at the strategic level” (emphasis added)

Brig. General Barmou who currently represents the military junta undertook his military training in the U.S. at Fort Moore, Columbus, Georgia and at the National Defense University (ND)

Brig. General Barmou and his team are categorized by The Wall Street Journal as “the good guys”: 

“At Center of Niger’s Coup Is One of America’s Favorite Generals…[General Barmou]”. In the words of Victoria Nuland (August 7, 2023):

“... General Barmou, former Colonel Barmou, is somebody who has worked very closely with U.S. Special Forces over many, many years.” 

Tacitly acknowledged by US Deputy Secretary of State Nuland, both General A. Tiani and Brig. General Barmou in terms of their military profile and background are “friends of America”.

Would these “good guys” –who have the “NeoCon blessing” of  Victoria Nuland— lead a genuine grassroots movement against U.S. imperialism? The answer is obvious!

What should be understood, is that Paris exerts its neo-colonial influence within ECOWAS, whereas Washington controls both sides. i.e. ECOWAS as well as Niger’s CNSP Military Junta. It also controls numerous African governments throughout the continent.

Visibly there is a clash between the U.S. and France, barely acknowledged by media reports. What is unfolding is the creation of political divisions within West Africa, which could potentially lead to Armed Conflict.

Most analysts have failed to acknowledge that the CNSP military Junta has a close relationship with the Pentagon. The Biden administration has  casually refused to describe the ouster of President M. Barmou as a “coup d’Etat” or a “regime change”. 

Remember The 2013 Protest Movement in Egypt which was also characterized by a mass protest movement (which was the object of manipulation): 

“The media has portrayed the Egyptian armed forces as broadly “supportive” of  the protest movement, without addressing the close relationship between the leaders behind the military coup and their US counterparts.

Let us be under no illusions.  While there are important divisions within the military, Egypt’s top brass ultimately take their orders from the Pentagon.

Defense Minister General Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi, who instigated the Coup d’Etat directed against President Morsi is a graduate of the US War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

General Al Sisi was in permanent liaison by telephone with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel  from the very outset of the protest movement. (Michel Chossudovsky, July 4, 2013)

Washington’s Unspoken Objective is to “Remove France from Africa”

The deposed president Mohamed Bazoum has the support of France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Bazoum has been removed by a military Junta which is directly supported by the Pentagon.

The unspoken objective of Victoria Nuland’s mission [August 7, 2023] was to ultimately  “negotiate”,  of course unofficially Niamey’s “alignment” with Washington against Paris”. This objective has in substance been achieved. 

Moreover “USAFRICOM has a military base in Niger. The US military has been routinely collaborating with their Nigerien counterparts who are now operating under the auspices of the CNSP Military Junta. 

In 2022, Mali and Burkina Faso Had Already “Set the Stage”. Cut Ties with France 


Chronology of Military Coups. All of which have direct or indirect links to the Pentagon

Mali: May 24, 2021, Colonel Assimi Goita 

Guinea Conakry, September 5, 2021, Commander Mamady Doumbouya

Burkina Faso: September 30, 2022. Captain Ibrahim Traoré

Niger: July 26, 2023, General Abdourahamane Tiani


Mali

Despite his anti-colonial rhetoric largely directed against France, Mali’s (Interim) Head of State Colonel Assimi Goita is also a faithful instrument of the Pentagon. He received his military training in the US, while also actively collaborating with the U.S. Army Special Forces (“Green Berets”). Confirmed by the WP, Colonel Assimi Goita participated in a USAFRICOM training program known as Flintstock. He has also studied at the Joint Special Operations University at the MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

It is worth noting that in late January 2022, The Republic of Mali led by Colonel Assimi Goita –who is a “friend of America” as well as an instrument of the Pentagon– had already in  set the stage for “Removing France from Africa”.

Colonel Assimi Goita (image above: second from Left) issued a directive to “end diplomatic, military and economic ties with France”. He also confirmed an end of Mali’s ECOWAS membership.

Concurrently, he announced that French was to be abolished as Mali’s official language.

That reminds me of Rwanda under Paul Kagame which –starting in the late 1990s– became an English speaking “US Protectorate” in Central Africa. 

Guinea’s Military Junta led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya (who led the Coup d’Etat in September 2021) welcomed the Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame (April 2023) in Conakry stating that he is inspired by Paul Kagame’s “Rwandan model”.

Burkina Faso 

In Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré (left) came to power in a military coup (September 30, 2022). Upon his confirmation as Head of the Military Junta on October 5, 2022, he ordered the withdrawal of French forces.

A similar pattern seems to be unfolding in Niger?  

In recent developments, the CNSP military Junta requested the French Ambassador Sylvain Itte to leave Niger within 48 hours. 

In turn, both Mali and Burkina Faso have confirmed their commitment to sending troops to Niger if required. They have fully endorsed Niger’s CNSP Military Junta. 

The Role of Victoria Nuland

Victoria Nuland acting on behalf of the Biden Administration has played a key role. She was in Niamey on August 7-8, 2023 for meetings with the Military Junta (see above) as well as on an earlier “interagency delegation” last year to Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. (October 16-23, 2022).

Ironically, the Burkina Faso military coup led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré occurred less than 3 weeks prior to Victoria Nuland’s mission to The Sahel:

“We went to the region in force. We were looking, in particular, at how the U.S. strategy towards the Sahel is working. This is a strategy that we put in place about a year ago to try to bring more coherence to our efforts to support increased security,  …

In Burkina, in Niger, and in Mauritania, we are working very closely with those militaries, with their gendarmerie, with their counterterrorist forces to support them in their effort to push back and protect their populations from this poison in Mali.” (Victoria Nuland, quoted in Rollingstone, February 2023)

To the People of Africa. In Solidarity

In a bitter irony, the process of “French Decolonization” (i.e “Paris out of Africa”) does not ensure the instatement of democratic forms of government. Quite the opposite, it tends to favor the hegemonic development of U.S. neocolonialism and the militarization of the African continent, which must be forcefully opposed.

A pattern of US militarization (coupled with the imposition of neoliberal “shock treatment” macro-economic policies), has unfolded in several francophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

Related article:

“Divide and Rule”: Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni Is Biden’s “Political Asset”. U.S. Behind Niger Coup d’Etat. America’s Hegemonic Wars Against Europe and Africa

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, August 20, 2023

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

Visit and follow us on Instagram at @crg_globalresearch.

***

This incisive and carefully researched article by Larry Chin was originally published by Global Research in March 2002 under the title: Unocal and the Afghanistan Pipeline

October 7, 2023 marks the commemoration of the US – NATO invasion of  Afghanistan on October 7, 2001.

Twenty-two Years of War and Atrocities have been spearheaded by

  1. the geopolitics of the strategic trans-Afghan pipeline, which is the object of this article,
  2. the Taliban’s decision (2000) to drastically curtail opium production with a view to cancelling outright the  multibillion Afghan drug trade.

September 11, 2001 provided the justification to wage war on Afghanistan. A war cabinet was created at 11 o’clock at night on September 11, 2001. On the following day, NATO’s North Atlantic Council met in Brussels.

An unnamed foreign power had attacked America allowing the nation under attack, to strike back in the name of “self-defense”.

“if it is determined that the [September 11, 2001] attack against the United States was directed from abroad [Afghanistan] against “The North Atlantic area“, it shall be regarded as an action covered by Article 5 of the Washington Treaty”. (emphasis added)

The bombing and invasion of Afghanistan which commenced on October 7, 2001 was described as a “campaign” against “Islamic terrorists”, rather than a war.

America’s “War on Terrorism” was born on September 11, 2001.

Michel Chossudovsky, August 30, 2023

***

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Argentine oil company Bridas, led by its ambitious chairman, Carlos Bulgheroni, became the first company to exploit the oil fields of Turkmenistan and propose a pipeline through neighboring Afghanistan. A powerful US-backed consortium intent on building its own pipeline through the same Afghan corridor would oppose Bridas’ project.

The Coveted Trans-Afghan Route

Upon successfully negotiating leases to explore in Turkmenistan, Bridas was awarded exploration contracts for the Keimar block near the Caspian Sea, and the Yashlar block near the Afghanistan border. By March 1995, Bulgheroni had accords with Turkmenistan and Pakistan granting Bridas construction rights for a pipeline into Afghanistan, pending negotiations with the civil war-torn country.

The following year, after extensive meetings with warlords throughout Afghanistan, Bridas had a 30-year agreement with the Rabbani regime to build and operate an 875-mile gas pipeline across Afghanistan.

Bulgheroni believed that his pipeline would promote peace as well as material wealth in the region. He approached other companies, including Unocal and its then-CEO, Roger Beach, to join an international consortium.

But Unocal was not interested in a partnership. The United States government, its affiliated transnational oil and construction companies, and the ruling elite of the West had coveted the same oil and gas transit route for years.

A trans-Afghanistan pipeline was not simply a business matter, but a key component of a broader geo-strategic agenda: total military and economic control of Eurasia (the Middle East and former Soviet Central Asian republics). Zbigniew Brezezinski describes this region in his book “The Grand Chessboard-American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives” as “the center of world power.” Capturing the region’s oil wealth, and carving out territory in order to build a network of transit routes, was a primary objective of US military interventions throughout the 1990s in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Caspian Sea.

As of 1992, 11 western oil companies controlled more than 50 percent of all oil investments in the Caspian Basin, including Unocal, Amoco, Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Pennzoil, Texaco, Phillips and British Petroleum.

In “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia” (a definitive work that is a primary source for this report), Ahmed Rashid wrote,

“US oil companies who had spearheaded the first US forays into the region wanted a greater say in US policy making.”

Business and policy planning groups active in Central Asia, such as the Foreign Oil Companies Group operated with the full support of the US State Department, the National Security Council, the CIA and the Department of Energy and Commerce.

Among the most active operatives for US efforts: Brzezinski (a consultant to Amoco, and architect of the Afghan-Soviet war of the 1970s), Henry Kissinger (advisor to Unocal), and Alexander Haig (a lobbyist for Turkmenistan), and Dick Cheney (Halliburton, US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce).

Unocal’s Central Asia envoys consisted of former US defense and intelligence officials. Robert Oakley, the former US ambassador to Pakistan, was a “counter-terrorism” specialist for the Reagan administration who armed and trained the mujahadeen during the war against the Soviets in the 1980s. He was an Iran-Contra conspirator charged by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh as a key figure involved in arms shipments to Iran.

Richard Armitage, the current Deputy Defense Secretary, was another Iran-Contra player in Unocal’s employ. A former Navy SEAL, covert operative in Laos, director with the Carlyle Group, Armitage is allegedly deeply linked to terrorist and criminal networks in the Middle East, and the new independent states of the former Soviet Union (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrghistan).

Armitage was no stranger to pipelines. As a member of the Burma/Myanmar Forum, a group that received major funding from Unocal, Armitage was implicated in a lawsuit filed by Burmese villagers who suffered human rights abuses during the construction of a Unocal pipeline. (Halliburton, under Dick Cheney, performed contract work on the same Burmese project.)

Bridas Versus the New World Order

Much to Bridas’ dismay, Unocal went directly to regional leaders with its own proposal. Unocal formed its own competing US-led, Washington-sponsored consortium that included Saudi Arabia’s Delta Oil, aligned with Saudi Prince Abdullah and King Fahd. Other partners included Russia’s Gazprom and Turkmenistan’s state-owned Turkmenrozgas.

John Imle, president of Unocal (and member of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce with Armitage, Cheney, Brezezinski and other ubiquitous figures), lobbied Turkmenistan’s president Niyazov and prime minister Bhutto of Pakistan, offering a Unocal pipeline following the same route as Bridas.’

Dazzled by the prospect of an alliance with the US, Niyazov asked Bridas to renegotiate its past contract and blocked Bridas’ exports from Keimar field. Bridas responded by filing three cases with the International Chamber of Commerce against Turkmenistan for breach of contract. (Bridas won.) Bridas also filed a lawsuit in Texas charging Unocal with civil conspiracy and “tortuous interference with business relations.” While its officers were negotiating with Pakistani and Turkmen oil and gas officials, Bridas claimed that Unocal had stolen its idea, and coerced the Turkmen government into blocking Bridas from Keimir field. (The suit was dismissed in 1998 by Judge Brady G. Elliott, a Republican, who claimed that any dispute between Unocal and Bridas was governed by the laws of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, rather than Texas law.)

In October 1995, with neither company in a winning position, Bulgheroni and Imle accompanied Niyazov to the opening of the UN General Assembly. There, Niyazov awarded Unocal with a contract for a 918-mile natural gas pipeline. Bulgheroni was shocked. At the announcement ceremony, Unocal consultant Henry Kissinger said that the deal looked like “the triumph of hope over experience.”

Later, Unocal’s consortium, CentGas, would secure another contract for a companion 1,050-mile oil pipeline from Dauletabad through Afghanistan that would connect to a tanker loading port in Pakistan on the coast of the Arabian Sea.

Although Unocal had agreements with the governments on either end of the proposed route, Bridas still had the contract with Afghanistan.

The problem was resolved via the CIA and Pakistani ISI-backed Taliban. Following a visit to Kandahar by US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Raphael in the fall of 1996, the Taliban entered Kabul and sent the Rabbani government packing.

Bridas’ agreement with Rabbani would have to be renegotiated.

Wooing the Taliban

According to Ahmed Rashid, “Unocal’s real influence with the Taliban was that their project carried the possibility of US recognition, which the Taliban were desperately anxious to secure.”

Unocal wasted no time greasing the palms of the Taliban. It offered humanitarian aid to Afghan warlords who would form a council to supervise the pipeline project. It provided a new mobile phone network between Kabul and Kandahar. Unocal also promised to help rebuild Kandahar, and donated $9,000 to the University of Nebraska’s Center for Afghan Studies. The US State Department, through its aid organization USAID, contributed significant education funding for Taliban. In the spring of 1996, Unocal executives flew Uzbek leader General Abdul Rashid Dostum to Dallas to discuss pipeline passage through his northern (Northern Alliance-controlled) territories.

Bridas countered by forming an alliance with Ningarcho, a Saudi company closely aligned with Prince Turki el-Faisal, the Saudi intelligence chief. Turki was a mentor to Osama bin Laden, the ally of the Taliban who was publicly feuding with the Saudi royal family. As a gesture for Bridas, Prince Turki provided the Taliban with communications equipment and a fleet of pickup trucks. Now Bridas proposed two consortiums, one to build the Afghanistan portion, and another to take care of both ends of the line. By November 1996, Bridas claimed that it had an agreement signed by the Taliban and Dostum—trumping Unocal.

The competition between Unocal and Bridas, as described by Rashid, “began to reflect the competition within the Saudi Royal family.”

In 1997, Taliban officials traveled twice to Washington, D.C. and Buenos Aires to be wined and dined by Unocal and Bridas. No agreements were signed.

It appeared to Unocal that the Taliban was balking. In addition to royalties, the Taliban demanded funding for infrastructure projects, including roads and power plants. The Taliban also announced plans to revive the Afghan National Oil Company, which had been abolished by the Soviet regime in the late 1970s.

Osama bin Laden (who issued his fatwa against the West in 1998) advised the Taliban to sign with Bridas. In addition to offering the Taliban a higher bid, Bridas proposed an open pipeline accessible to warlords and local users. Unocal’s pipeline was closed—for export purposes only. Bridas’ plan also did not require outside financing, while Unocal’s required a loan from the western financial institutions (the World Bank), which in turn would leave Afghanistan vulnerable to demands from western governments.

Bridas’ approach to business was more to the Taliban’s liking. Where Bulgheroni and Bridas’ engineers would take the time to “sip tea with Afghan tribesmen,” Unocal’s American executives issued top-down edicts from corporate headquarters and the US Embassy (including a demand to open talks with the CIA-backed Northern Alliance).

While seemingly well received within Afghanistan, Bridas’ problems with Turkmenistan (which they blamed on Unocal and US interference) had left them cash-strapped and without a supply.

In 1997, they went searching for a major partner with the clout to break the deadlock with Turkmenistan. They found one in Amoco. Bridas sold 60 percent of its Latin American assets to Amoco. Carlos Bulgheroni and his contingent retained the remaining minority 40 percent. Facilitating the merger were other icons of transnational finance, Chase Manhattan (representing Bridas), Morgan Stanley (handling Amoco) and Arthur Andersen (facilitator of post-merger integration). Zbigniew Brezezinski was a consultant for Amoco.

(Amoco would merge with British Petroleum a year later. BP is represented by the law firm of Baker & Botts, whose principal attorney is James Baker, lifelong Bush friend, former secretary of state, and a member of the Carlyle Group.)

Recognizing the significance of the merger, a Pakistani oil company executive hinted, “If these (Central Asian) countries want a big US company involved, Amoco is far bigger than Unocal.”

Clearing the Chessboard Again

By 1998, while the Argentine contingent made slow progress, Unocal faced a number of new problems.

Gazprom pulled out of CentGas when Russia complained about the anti-Russian agenda of the US. This forced Unocal to expand CentGas to include Japanese and South Korean gas companies, while maintaining the dominant share with Delta.

Human rights groups began protesting Unocal’s dealings with the brutal Taliban. Still riding years of Clinton bashing and scandal mongering, conservative Republicans in the US attacked the Clinton administration’s Central Asia policy for its lack of clarity and “leadership.”

Once again, violence would change the dynamic.

In response to the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania (attributed to bin Laden), President Bill Clinton sent cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Sudan. The administration broke off diplomatic contact with the Taliban, and UN sanctions were imposed.

Unocal withdrew from CentGas, and informed the State Department “the gas pipeline would not proceed until an internationally recognized government was in place in Afghanistan.” Although Unocal continued on and off negotiations on the oil pipeline (a separate project), the lack of support from Washington hampered efforts.

Meanwhile, Bridas declared that it would not need to wait for resolution of political issues, and repeated its intention of moving forward with the Afghan gas pipeline project on its own. Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan tried to push Saudi Arabia to proceed with CentGas (Delta of Saudi Arabia was now the leader). But war and US-Taliban tension made business impossible.

For the remainder of the Clinton presidency, there would be no official US or UN recognition of Afghanistan. And no progress on the pipeline.

Then George Walker Bush took the White House.

*

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The alarming discovery by scientist Kevin McKernan, of DNA contamination in vials of Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines has raised significant concern in the scientific community. Meanwhile, the reported finding has attracted criticism from those quick to ‘demonise’ anyone questioning the safety, efficacy, and sanctity of the ‘vaccines.’

McKernan’s detractors – and there have been plenty of them – have criticised everything from lack of peer-reviewed publication to speculation about the viability of the anonymously sent vials. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. Criticism and open debate in scientific enquiry are good things. After the three years of censorship and stifled debate in science and medicine one thing is patently clear: freedom of speech is paramount to truth. 

Let’s be clear on another thing. The peer-review system is essentially broken. The same players with vested interests in the pharmaceutical industry curiously have the same influence on the research and publication industry. As McKernan rightly points out, ‘[t]he market will validate this finding long before traditional peer review even puts its boots on. Independent wet lab reproduction trumps 3 anonymous readers every time.’ This, then was the motivation behind publishing the results online with a call-to-action for scientists in the field to independently verify the results. 

Answer the call they did. McKernan’s results – for the Pfizer product (BNT162b2) – have now been independently verified by a number of internationally recognised laboratories confirming both the presence and levels of DNA contamination across different vials and batches. 

So, in asking the question ‘Is the result reproducible?’ the answer (for the Pfizer product BNT162b2 at least) is ‘Yes.’ The contamination is real. These results now lead us to ask some other questions which hang heavily in the air. 

Questions like, ‘How bad is the contamination,’ ‘What are the regulatory authorities doing about it,’ and – the question on everyone’s lips – ‘What does this mean for the billions who took the jab?’ 

These questions deserve answers.

So, how bad is the contamination? There are two things to consider here.

Firstly, what are the levels of contamination and secondly what are the components of the contamination.

As previously reported, levels of DNA contamination in the Pfizer BNT162b2 product came in around 18-70 times over the limits set by regulatory authorities. These levels of contamination have also been confirmed independently.

To put some perspective on these numbers McKernan explains in terms of PCR testing for Covid.

‘You were probably swabbed with one of those nasal swabs to get a Covid PCR. You would be called positive of a CT (cycle threshold) under 40. We’re getting CTs under 20 with the contamination of the vaccine. That’s a million-fold more contamination than you would be called positive for having a virus. Now, the virus they’re swabbing is outside of your mucosal membrane in your nose. We’re talking about a contaminant that’s getting injected, bypassing your mucosal defences at a million-fold higher concentrations…There’s an enormous difference here in terms of the amount of material it’s in there.’ 

The manufacturing process, as discussed in a recent BMJ article, points to how the DNA contamination may’ve occurred.

The clinical trials were run using ‘Process 1’ which involved in vitro transcription off synthetic DNA – essentially a ‘clean’ process. However, this process is not viable for mass production, so the manufacturers switched to ‘Process 2’ to dial things up. Process 2 involves using E. coli bacteria to replicate the plasmids.

Getting the plasmids out of the E coli. can be challenging and result in residual plasmids in the vaccines. But there’s another concern. When plasmid contamination is found, there is a potential for bacterial endotoxin to also be present. This endotoxin can produce serious side effects if injected including anaphylaxis and septic shock. Australian Professor Geoff Pain remains most vocal providing extensive details on these endotoxins.

Sequencing of the plasmids from the Pfizer vials resulted in another ‘accidental’ discovery. Something was found that wasn’t in the sequence map disclosed by Pfizer to the EMA. This something is called a SV40 promoter. The SV40 promoter is a sequence that turns on gene expression, like a switch. It is also a potent nuclear localisation signal, meaning it makes a beeline for the nucleus. The entire SV40 genetic sequence came to infamous prominence in the 1960s having been found to have polluted the Salk polio vaccine, causing a subsequent surge in cancers. We’ll return to the concerning significance of the SV40 promoter sequence in a moment.

Subsequent experiments suggest that most of the DNA contamination is fragmented, which is by no means benign. McKernan states, ‘(Much of) the DNA is actually linear because they do go through a step trying to fragment this and (linear DNA) has a higher propensity for integration than circular plasmid DNA.’ It seems that a significant amount of the DNA is in this form and presents a greater risk to humans in terms of risk for integration into the genome, than the circular DNA. 

To make matters worse – as if things could get any worse – it appears that much of the DNA is packaged in the lipid nano particles (LNP).

‘If the DNA is actually in the LNPs, we have different risks, as… this will then transfect the mammalian cells and become a genetic alteration. Now, whether it integrates with the genome is secondary, the fact that you’re getting foreign DNA into the cell is a risk in and of itself, because it could partially get expressed, or it could muddle around with other transcription, translation machinery that’s in there,’ McKernan explains.

Let’s recap. We have DNA, which is mostly packaged in LNP designed to travel all over the body and enter cells, delivering it’s genetic cargo like a trojan horse. Some of this DNA may contain the SV40 promoter sequence – the one known to make a beeline to the nucleus and turn on gene expression. McKernan states an obvious concern, ‘If (the SV40 promoter) becomes integrated into the genome it will turn on gene expression wherever it lands. If this happens to be an oncogene (a cancer-causing gene), you’ve got problems.”

This, dear reader, is only one of the many possible adverse effects from injecting synthetic DNA into humans. 

The scientific literature acknowledges the potential for foreign/synthetic DNA alone to be oncogenic (cancer-causing), infectious, and prothrombotic. In addition, genomic integration of a viral promoter like SV40 can contribute to cancer and is well known to cause leukemia in gene therapy trials.

You can see why scientists are alarmed. These concerns were presented to the FDA on the June 16, 2023. What have they done with this information you ask? Probably filed it in a box somewhere in a deep dark warehouse between the words ‘conspicuous’ and ‘conspire’ is my guess.

When we consider the above it is clear why strict legal rules exist in the field of genetic science especially where humans are involved. Rules designed to (actually) keep people safe from the potential known and unknown consequences of messing with the genetic integrity of human life. Which brings us to the next question: 

‘What are the regulatory authorities doing about it?’ From what we can tell, nothing. 

The independently verified contamination alone heralds a serious quality control issue which behooves immediate attention from the likes of the FDA, TGA and EMA. Combined with significant adverse event data and climbing excess mortality rates around the world these shots should have been pulled over two years ago. Indeed, we would postulate they should never have been approved. 

This unfolding story is by no means over. Serious questions have been raised asking whether these products, which have been injected into billions around the world, were approved illegally.

The disturbing revelation was raised in a recent landmark publication by one of the authors. It appears that even without the DNA contamination ‘the so-called “vaccines,” from the beginning fulfilled the legal definitions for being categorized as genetically modified organisms.’ They therefore required GMO licences. It would appear those licences are missing.

The Australian Federal Court is being asked to consider this issue in proceedings recently filed under the Gene Technology Act against Pfizer and Moderna.

Australia’s TGA and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator were thoroughly informed of the GMO and synthetic DNA contamination by the lawyers responsible, but neither office has bothered to reply nor comment.

In a statement to the press, instructing solicitor Katie Ashby-Koppens says, ‘We took this case on because neither of the appropriate regulators were doing anything about it. The Therapeutic Goods Administration and Office of the Gene Technology Regulator were both put on notice in 2022 that these products contain GMOs and they have failed to act. It has been left to citizens to do what the Australian Government won’t do.”

“Every single person who has been injected with these products has received a GMO that has not been through the expert regulatory process in this country. The human genome could be changed permanently, and no one was informed.”

If all this bares out, at best the regulatory bodies have failed in their duty to protect the people. At worst they have been complicit in a crime with consequences for the world’s population and generations to come.

To answer the final question the question on everyone’s lips: ‘What does this mean for the billions who took the jab?’ We may soon start answering this question more precisely, with the development of qPCR kits to differentiate between Long Covid and Long Vax, and determine whether vaccine sequences are present in human tissue samples.

*

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Dr Julie Sladden is a medical doctor and freelance writer with a passion for transparency in healthcare. Her op-eds have been published in both The Spectator Australia and The Daily Declaration. In 2022, she was elected as a Local Government Councillor for West Tamar in Tasmania.

Julian Gillespie is a lawyer and former barrister in Australia, known for his Covid-19 research and advocacy. His work includes seeking to have the provisional approval of Covid-19 vaccines declared legally invalid due to failures to meet regulatory standards. Julian is also a director of Children’s Health Defense, Australia.

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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

What Is Taught in Schools of Journalism?

August 29th, 2023 by Prof. Bill Willers

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*** 

 

“Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.” Edward Bernays, Propaganda

“I truly do not understand what has happened to journalism.” Alex Berenson

The big lie perpetrated about journalism is that it has an adversarial relationship with power. There may have been some truth to that at some point in history, but within living memory the precise opposite has been the truth. And why be surprised? One would expect that controlling the Narrative and the flow of information would be a prime goal of government.

Governments ultimately become tyrannical, as history teaches. Where a vacuum exists, nature fills it, and if that vacuum is one of political power, those least contained by moral restraint have the greatest advantage in filling the void. Over time, restraints diminish within government itself, as its influences within mainstream media (MSM) become increasingly dominant. And if you doubt that this level of tyranny has hit home, consider this report of two months ago from the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

Governments have interests separate from those of the governed, and for them to function with minimal interference they influence to the extent possible mainstream media, both print and electronic. Those connecting government and the public call themselves journalists, and for the most part they get their training in college-level schools of journalism.

Journalism at the University of Wisconsin

Now, get this: In 2021, the University of Wisconsin’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (its formal title) was given a $750,000 grant by a subdivision of the National Science Foundation (NSF) known as “Convergence Accelerator”. The grant is based on governmental concern of public skepticism regarding the official narratives of the Covid19 Pandemic and the integrity of the 2020 Presidential election, two of the most contentious issues in US history, both in crying need of open discussion and debate, both actively censored by MSM. The focus of the grant is to develop methods for overcoming skepticism of official accounts —  specifically of these two issues —  as found in social media. According to the Grant Abstract, the project is funded to “deliver” a 3-step method:

1. Identify social media sources circulating “misinformation” and online communities susceptible to such “misinformation”.

2. Working with fact-checking organizations, develop “correction” and “intervention messages” to counter vaccine hesitancy and electoral skepticism.

3. Dissemiate “corrections” (e.g. via ads, automated bots, “influencers”) and evaluate their effectiveness.

Think hard about that. It is in no way “journalism” as normally (and wishfully) understood, or as claimed, but naked, in-your-face propagandizing in the service of governmental power, in this case using the services of a publicly funded institution of “higher learning”. It makes one wonder what on earth journalism students at the UW are being taught. Just the fact that faculty would be involved in such a project would, in itself, be a message louder than any course students might take. In any event, the results of this project should be available at the NSF website in December, 2023.

The premise of the UW grant is that governmental narratives regarding Covid19 and 2020 Presidential election are ipso facto absolutely accurate, and that competing information, opinion or interpretation must therefore be understood as misinformation to be refuted or censored. Why? Well, apparently because it’s the Government. As for those who accept the official drumbeat that the election was honest, it might be worth a few minutes spent here, here, here, here, here, here. There’s more, of course. In addition, valid medical information countering governmental “public health” messaging, and the endless repetition of “safe and effective” re the Covid19 vaccine, can be found here, here, hereherehere, here.

Journalism at the University of Washington

The Center For An Informed Public at the University of Washington’s Information School also received — and also in 2021 — an NSF grant of $2.25 million to “develop and evaluate ‘rapid response’ methods for studying and communicating about disinformation at a sophistication and pace on par with the dynamic and interdisciplinary nature of the challenge” (Grant details here). The goal of this grant corresponds to that of the U of WI grant (above) and, likewise, the spotlighted issues are the 2020 Election and Covid19.

While the grant does not terminate until 2026, in 2022 an article appeared in Nature Human Behavior, “Combining interventions to reduce the spread of viral misinformation”, in which three of the authors are funded by this NSF grant, the article indicating the direction of their research: “We reveal that commonly proposed interventions [eg ‘outright removal’] are unlikely to be effective in isolation. However, our framework demonstrates that a combined approach can achieve a substantial reduction in the prevalence of misinformation.”

Among the combined approaches they study, in addition to account removal, are “nudges” [messaging/warning to influence decisions of users of social media], interruption of “sharing behavior”, and what they term “virality circuit breakers”, an elaborate system that identifies and “disrupts” sources of “misinformation”, particularly from those they identify as repeat spreaders. Details consider various time spans between identification of “misinformation” and response time, because speed of response is for them a significant factor in obstructing the spread of unwanted information and opinion. Admitting that outright censorship has “public relation challenges”, what they devise is a multi-pronged system of information interference and slowdown that amounts to piecemeal censorship. It’s rather like the principle of ‘death by a thousand cuts’.

The Center For An Informed Public was a founder in 2020 of the Election Integrity Partnership [oh the irony!], the Stanford Internet Observatory being the other founder. The Partnership’s stated purpose is to counter “… attempts to suppress voting, reduce participation, confuse voters, or delegitimize election results without evidence”, but obviously their major concern is the last of these, i.e. “The metanarrative of a ’stolen election’, which later propelled the January 6 insurrection.” 

Election Integrity Partnership boldly clarifies its status as servant to governmental authority in listing factors influencing the capacity for “virality of misinformation” online: ” Another factor that mediates the spread of rumors is the availability of timely, quality information from trusted sources — e.g., media and government officials”. One wonders at the fact that people in such positions could be so ignorant of the present level of public distrust of both mainstream media and government. The first recommendation in their 2021 Final Report is “Federal Government: Establish clear authorities and roles for identifying election-related mis- and disinformation.”

In all of this, there seems little inclination to explore who exactly within government enjoys the right to determine what is or isn’t mis- or disinformation, how they came by this authority, or what might be their motives. There is no apparent awareness that the popular theory regarding journalism is that it’s fundamentally about reporting information to a public that, on its own, can then discuss and debate openly to determine what truth there is in it all. And certainly there is no appreciation of the free speech rights of those who have been labeled as spreaders of unwanted information and opinion. 

These are just the tip of an immense iceberg, and should you make an effort to research this issue, taking it to wherever the facts lead, what you find should make your blood boil regardless of where you are on any political spectrum. The First Amendment is being trashed on multiple fronts. There is wide understanding that something is rotten in the state of journalism, and schools of journalism are a key part of that rot.

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Bill Willers is an emeritus professor of biology, University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. He is founder of the Superior Wilderness Action Network and editor of Learning to Listen to the Land, and Unmanaged Landscapes, both from Island Press. He can be contacted at [email protected]

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

New Documentary Coming this September: ‘Peace, War and 9/11’

August 29th, 2023 by International Center for 9/11 Justice

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

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We at the International Center for 9/11 Justice are thrilled to announce the imminent release of Peace, War and 9/11, a feature documentary narrated by the late Graeme MacQueen and directed by Ted Walter and Richard Heap.

Graeme MacQueen was a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

To consult the archive of his writings on 9/11, extending over a period of more than 10 years, click Graeme MacQueen.

His Legacy will live forever. 

World Premiere in Hamilton

The film will have its worldwide premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, at 7:00 PM at the Westdale in Hamilton, Ontario — the city where MacQueen lived and taught as a professor for much of his life.

There will be a suggested donation of $10 to $20 at the door. However, if you prefer to pay online and wish to guarantee yourself a seat, you can also donate and reserve your seat online.


Reserve seats for the world premiere


The premiere will be followed by a reception at the Nannaa Persian Eatery, next door to the theater.

Online Release and NYC/Oakland Screenings

The film will then be released worldwide on YouTube, Amazon, and Tubi on Friday, Sept. 8, followed by screenings in New York City and Oakland, California.

The NYC screening will be held on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 6:00 PM at Cinema Village in the heart of Greenwich Village. Tickets are $20. Seating is limited, so be sure to buy your tickets as soon as possible.


Buy tickets for the NYC premiere now


Earlier on September 10th — at 2:00 PM Eastern — there will be an online symposium dedicated to MacQueen, presented by the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry. The International Center for 9/11 Justice is proud to co-sponsor this event, and we warmly invite you to attend.

The Oakland screening will take place on Monday, Sept. 11, as part of the 19thAnnual 9/11 Truth Film Festival, presented by the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance.

This year’s festival is dedicated to honoring the legacies of MacQueen and fellow 9/11 scholar David Ray Griffin, who passed away last November.

The festival will begin at 3:00 PM with a recording of a talk MacQueen gave in 2016, called “War on Democracy.” It will end with Peace, War and 9/11, which will start at around 7:00 PM.

A $20 donation is suggested, but no one will be turned away!

Film Synopsis

In a wide-ranging interview filmed six months before his passing, eminent scholar and lifelong peace activist Graeme MacQueen shares his final words on 9/11 and the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Drawing from his depth of knowledge as a professor of peace studies, MacQueen illuminates the concept of war as an all-encompassing parasitic system that depends on triggering events — sometimes natural but often managed or even manufactured — to move from a cold to a hot phase.

Within this framework, MacQueen presents his analysis of the back-to-back 9/11 and anthrax attacks.

He argues that both attacks were deceptions perpetrated by the same group of actors for the purpose of launching the global war on terror and breathing new life into the war system — a path we are still on and living the consequences of today.

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The world has truly never seen anything like BRICS, an organization that unites the most diverse group of not only nation-states, but actual civilization states. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa don’t really seem to have much in common, and yet, their ties within this framework are growing stronger by the day at this point. What’s more, BRICS is rapidly turning into a BRICS+ concept that brings in even more new members. Namely, during a recent summit in South Africa, the organization announced that Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates will become full members in just a bit more than four months.

The importance of BRICS+ is perhaps best seen in the joint diplomatic effort of its members to deescalate tensions in various parts of the world, even turning decades-old (or even centuries-old) rivalries and enmity into solid partnerships. A recent example of this is the thawing of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two Middle Eastern countries that have been at each other’s throats for nearly half a century. This also includes proxy wars, such as the one in Yemen. Joint efforts of Russian and Chinese diplomacy have been particularly significant in this regard and most importantly, it worked. Both Middle Eastern countries will join BRICS on January 1, 2024.

An important side effect of this could be the end of the aforementioned war in Yemen, where US complicity in aggression against the unfortunate country has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, near-constant hunger, extreme poverty and overall destruction.

In addition, BRICS+ is also expanding its footprint in Africa, a particularly vulnerable part of the world that has been subjected to brutal oppression and colonialism by the political West. This process has been ongoing for approximately half a millennium now and continues to this very day, albeit in a more sinister form of neocolonialism. The recent example of Niger illustrates this perfectly. BRICS+ will inevitably accelerate the dismantling of this exploitative system.

South Africa is already a founding member, but with Ethiopia and Egypt joining, BRICS+ will get two more African nations on board, both with a millennia-old history. This is a particularly alarming prospect for the political West, primarily the United States. Namely, they’re trying to save what’s left of Western power projection in Africa, but with BRICS+ strengthening the sovereignty of its members, this US-led effort will be in vain. In addition, Algeria and Senegal have also officially applied for membership, while Angola, DR Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe also either announced their application or have expressed strong interest in doing so.

This refers to African nations only. However, the list is much longer when considering the fact that Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam have also applied, while Afghanistan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey and Uruguay have all announced their own applications. Once again, this is an extremely diverse group of countries that seemingly have very little in common. However, they’re all united in a quest to ensure their sovereignty and prosperity. Truth be told, this will be a handful for BRICS+ diplomacy, but the process is irreversible at this point.

This isn’t to say that BRICS is without its problems already, but these are being tackled. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting last week, seeking to deescalate tensions on their long-disputed border. A joint statement released after the meeting described the discussion as “positive, constructive and in-depth” and that “India and China had agreed to maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels”. Rapprochement between the two Asian giants isn’t only important within the BRICS framework, but also for global security, as both countries are heavily armed, including with thermonuclear weapons.

In Latin America, BRICS+ is bound to include most of the continent, a particularly important prospect, as it’s now faced with a resurgent Monroe Doctrine.

Namely, the US is doubling down on its neocolonialist policies in Latin America to prevent or at the very least slow down the advent of multipolarity. Most alarmingly for the belligerent thalassocracy, BRICS+ not only ensures (geo)political sovereignty, but also a cultural one, because it allows the development of different civilizational models, as no member of the organization, no matter how powerful, aims to impose its system of societal values and development on any other country.

As previously mentioned, this is a truly terrifying concept for the political West, as it aims to do the complete opposite. By imposing its (at this point extremist and simply degenerate) neoliberal policies, the political West is prolonging the effects of neocolonialism and its dominance over entire continents. These extremely damaging policies can only be prevented through the strengthening of national sovereignty and precisely BRICS+ is the only way to achieve it. Needless to say, the prospect of having 30 or more countries join such an organization is a complete disaster for the US-led political West, as it nullifies the concept of sanctions and/or direct aggression.

Needless to say, this is a net positive for the (actual) world, as the current “rules-based world order” benefits only one center of global power. Worse yet, this comes at the expense of everyone else, costing them peace and normal development. That’s why Washington DC will continue to pursue neocolonialism everywhere it can. Precisely BRICS+ ensures that it can’t.

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Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

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***

This important study on “Do Vaccines Cause Autism” consists of a three series which are slated to be published by Global Research

PART I

Do Vaccines Cause Autism? A History of Institutional Corruption

PART II

Do Vaccines Cause Autism? The Evidence Against Vaccine Safety

PART III

Do Vaccines Cause Autism? Vaccine Safety Continued and Profits Over Health

***

If you actually “follow the science,” Wikipedia’s description of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “anti-vaccine advocacy” might elicit indifference or unequivocal support for Wikipedia’s position.

“Kennedy is the chairman of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group he joined in 2015 formerly known as the World Mercury Project. The group alleges a large proportion of American children are suffering from conditions as diverse as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, food allergies, cancer, and autoimmune diseases due to exposure to certain chemicals and radiation. Children’s Health Defense has blamed and campaigned against vaccines, fluoridation of drinking water, paracetamol (acetaminophen), aluminum, wireless communications, among others.”

Screenshot from Wikipedia

With no sense of irony, the author(s) write as if these things were not demonstrably toxic.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17] Are the authors and editors of this article just poor, misguided, or biased researchers?

Did they really fail to unearth even one of the thousands of peer-reviewed articles demonstrating a connection between the exposures mentioned and harms to health?

One would hope that it is a scientist or experienced and well-read science journalist who is charged with writing the entry on the highly contentious and consequential vaccine-autism debate appearing in the most widely read “encyclopedia.”

As a scientist or science journalist, you daily read at least the abstracts of scientific studies. Many thousands of these state clearly that indeed a connection has been found between a litany of health problems and these toxins, which people can scarcely avoid in the modern world. So, for such people, the propagandistic drivel appearing on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Wikipedia page would read as so absurd as to be laughable.

Certainly studies are open to interpretation; they may be the subject of debate; they may be subject to the scrutiny of the public and the scientific community; by all means, try to replicate them.

But to write as if there is no debate, as if these studies simply do not exist; as if the association between these exposures and harms to health is some ludicrous and easily refutable “allegation,” this is not scientific. It appears as ignorance at best. It does not represent values of critical thinking, intellectual rigor and a spirit of openness to evidence, all hallmarks of science. Are these descriptions of Kennedy’s stance on vaccines and autism just ignorance or stupidity, or are they something else?

What anyone who reads Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Wikipedia page who is familiar with the science, and who does not have a conflict of interest, is likely to feel next is disquiet.

It is disturbing to read these bald assertions of denial, clearly intended to maim Kennedy’s reputation, and know that the vast majority of Wikipedia’s viewers are not reading the science, and will have no protective mental buffer of skepticism about what they read there. They will instead most likely accept these spurious statements — these bold lies — as truth. Most people are looking to Wikipedia for answers because they do not read the science. Somehow, with no formal debate, Wikipedia has been lofted up as if it were the Archbishop of science, the mouthpiece of official scientific opinion, and all its pronouncements, no matter how patently propagandistic, are accepted as mindlessly accepted as infallible.

Wikipedia has dwarfed the traditional encyclopedias in popularity and readership with 6.1 billion monthly visitors in 2021.[18] But Wikipedia is not a wisp as trustworthy or scholarly. In fact, you do not need to have a degree in the sciences, or a research specialty, or verifiable understanding of the subject on which you write, to participate in editing a page. Anyone can do it.[19] As a writer or editor, you remain nameless and faceless, and may be difficult to trace. Indeed,

Wikipedia’s co-founder, Larry Sanger, told journalist Glenn Greenwald that the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies use “Wikipedia [as] one of many tools… to wage “information warfare.’ He said,

“We do have evidence that, as early as 2008, that CIA and FBI computers were used to edit Wikipedia…. Do you think that they stopped doing that back then?”[20]

Unlike the scientific studies RFK Jr’s Wikipedia page in its strange amnesia has failed to mention, there is no process of formal expert peer review before an article is published or edits approved on Wikipedia. The “open encyclopedia” is thus a perfect tool in the hands of would-be totalitarians, corporate propagandists and social engineers with their inexhaustible ill-gotten funds.

Indeed, you need not look far, in spite of the sophisticated algorithmic maneuvers made by Google to wipe such artifacts from its search results,[21] to find ample evidence that there is precisely what you might call a “question” about whether vaccines are “associated” with autism. This “question,” this rather undeniable association can — and should — be openly debated, live on national television, on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the rest of the legacy media outlets. RFK Jr. might just be willing to participate, unlike some of his opponents.[22]

“Vaccine expert” Peter Hotez’s claim that science isn’t up for debate is empty rhetoric. If there is peer-reviewed science that is being covered up by health authorities, a debate is as good a forum as any to expose both sides to the light of day. A debate is also an accessible forum for the public to observe, unlike jargon-laden peer-reviewed journals and elite science and medical conferences which are the only forums, Hotez claims, in which science is honed. As if science is some hermetically sealed snow-globe in which everyone on the inside agrees with everyone else. Frighteningly, this is what “science,” with people like Hotez at its helm, is becoming. When ordinary people’s lives are now more and more subject to top-down requirements “based on the science,” the public has a right to observe and hear it debated in plain language. This is urgently needed. It is truly a question of life and death.

But just how debatable is the assertion that vaccines cause autism?

In fact, though it should be held in public, the debate is over. All the evidence is there; but no one is brave enough to say it, and with reason, as anyone who does is publicly tarred and feathered. The issue is so highly pressurized, anyone with anything to lose is rightly afraid to light the match and say the simple words “Vaccines cause autism,” knowing they’ll watch their reputation and maybe their career burst into flames. Lots of semantic acrobatics are performed that effectively communicate the causal connection without actually stating it in so many words. Really speaking vaccines have been scientifically and legally documented to cause autism. Not just once. Not just twice. Many times.

Here is the evidence. First we will provide some historical context, looking at some of the scandalous revelations made in the last 30 years that reveal a cover-up about the vaccine-autism connection. Then we will report the scientific studies that examine the connection between autism or neurological and developmental injury and vaccines, with a focus on the heavy metals used in vaccine adjuvants. Third, we will cover the history and purpose of the vaccine court, which has paid out billions to injured victims in its thirty-five year lifetime. This court has compensated a number of cases which were described in court proceedings to be autism; disorders classified as autism spectrum disorder; or seizure disorders and neurodevelopmental or encephalopathic injuries which present as similar or identical to autism.

California's Autism Explosion: An Eyewitness Perspective — NCSA

In 1983, the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) recommended a total of 10 vaccines for our children up to the age of 5. In 2007, the CDC recommended 36, an increase of 260%, or 3.6x. You can see the slope change at both those dates in the graph. (Source: Steve Kirsch)

Given that vaccines are mandatory for most children in public schools, it makes sense that they should be scientifically proven to be safe. However, in a careful analysis of thousands of articles in the peer-reviewed literature on toxicology and immunology, nowhere can we find evidence for these claims on vaccine safety are based upon a gold standard of clinical research: long-term, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.

What is glaringly absent is research examining the cumulative toxicological impact of the CDC vaccine schedule over a long period of time. Never has a concise epidemiological study been published that compares the long-term health outcomes of a group of infants and children given the recommended CDC immunization schedule and a cohort of unvaccinated children.

Why? Several smaller studies indicate that neurological disorders are associated with vaccination, when vaccinated children are compared with the unvaccinated.[23, 24, 25, 26] Since such gold-standard research has never been carried out, our medical officials are relying on inconclusive research that is not science-based in order to create public health policy. American parents, meanwhile, are conditioned by our medical officials to bring their children in for regular vaccinations, confusing pure propaganda with scientific proof.

All humans possess a unique biochemistry that makes them more or less susceptible to various types of toxins. Whereas one child may be left with a compromised immune system after exposure to an environmental toxin, another child may experience learning problems or mild brain defects. Vaccine safety is not proved by stating the obvious – that not every child who receives the standard CDC vaccine schedule has autism. As we witness a rapidly increasing number of vaccinated children being afflicted by conditions such as autism, food allergies, encephalitis, type 1 diabetes, ADHD and Crohn’s disease, it’s critical that we investigate further the role played by environmental toxins to better understand their pathology.  And when we look into the independent science on the safety of vaccines, it’s readily apparent that many of the ingredients found in vaccines are toxic, even in small amounts, and may contribute to a range of illnesses, including autism.

History and Context: Whistleblowers, Corrupt Health Officials, and Cover-ups

Research indicates that conflicts of interest abound in the vaccine industry, making it difficult to have faith in our health authorities.[27] Worse still, evidence points to pervasive corruption among high profile individuals and institutions in the medical-industrial complex. Here we will look at some of the most alarming examples.

Simpsonwood

In 2003, while researching the controversial link between vaccines and autism – which despite repeated dismissal by all public health authorities continued to persist among parents and in-the-know doctors as autism rates skyrocketed, public health advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. stumbled upon a massive coverup that had taken place in June 2000 in Norcross, Georgia. The Simpsonwood conference – officially the Scientific Review of Vaccine Safety Datalink Information – included top scientists and health officials from the FDA, the CDC, the British health ministry, and pharmaceutical industry execs, all gathered to discuss the results of a major study evaluating the negative effects of thimerosal, a commonly-used mercury-based preservative used in vaccines. CDC epidemiologist Dr. Tom Verstraeten presented his findings to the assembled luminaries, concluding, “the screening analysis suggests a possible association between certain neurologic developmental disorders. Namely tics, attention deficit disorder, speech and language disorders and exposure to mercury from Thimerosal containing vaccines before the age of six months.”[28]

The transcript Kennedy unearthed through a Freedom of Information Act request bears witness to the mild panic that set in among the audience after Dr. Verstraeten dropped that bomb – they speak over one another with questions, try to minimize the results, and WHO director John Clements even expresses doubt that the study should have been conducted at all – since “the outcome of it could have, to some extent, been predicted…I know how we handle it from here is extremely problematic.” While the doctors agree the matter merits further investigation, and even admit it raises some perhaps disquieting possibilities,” they agree to “embargo” the information until a meeting scheduled for later that month – and then never released it at all. Verstraeten’s study wasn’t even published until 2003, after the conclusion had been rewritten from

“This analysis suggests that high exposure to ethyl mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines in the first month of life increases the risk of subsequent development of neurologic development impairment, but not of neurologic degenerative or renal impairment. Further confirmatory studies are needed.”[29]

“No consistent significant associations were found between TCVs and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Conflicting results were found at different HMOs for certain outcomes. For resolving the conflicting findings, studies with uniform neurodevelopmental assessments of children with a range of cumulative thimerosal exposures are needed.”[30]

This was Verstraeten’s fourth attempt to conduct the study to produce the desired data after the first three had stubbornly showed the correlation he was trying to disprove. After firing off a despairing email to a colleague (“I do not wish to be the advocate of the anti-vaccine lobby and sound like being convinced that thimerosal is or was harmful, but at least I feel we should use sound scientific argumentation and not let our standards be dictated by our desire to disprove an unpleasant theory”), Verstraeten was able to tweak the results by adding patient data from an HMO with younger patients, different diagnosis codes, and dubious record-keeping thanks to a recent state takeover. It was enough to obfuscate the damning results of the first three “phases” and render the original study meaningless (and therefore publication-worthy). Problem solved! If only it weren’t for that meddling Kennedy…[31]

It’s worth noting that Dr. Johnson expresses reservations at having his newborn grandson vaccinated with a thimerosal-containing vaccine, but has no such concern for the rest of the country, whose children were injected with toxic mercury for a full two years after he learned of the connection between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders. Worse, while the drug companies that manufactured the thimerosal-containing vaccines offered to remove the offending substance in September 1999, the CDC declined their offer,[32] instead waiting until all thimerosal-containing vaccine lots expired in 2002 to officially end its use – lest they lose a few dollars by having to throw away already-purchased doses.[33]

Gerberding: The Vaccine Insider

Image: Julie Gerberding (Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

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There is a revolving door between the vaccine manufacturers and those in government who are responsible for overseeing these manufacturers. A prime example is former CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who left the agency in 2010 to take a position with pharmaceutical giant Merck as the President of the company’s vaccine division. Gerberding stated in an interview that she is “very bullish on vaccines.”[34] Her admission is especially disconcerting given her long history of siding with vaccine makers. While in her position at the CDC, the organization was found to be massively exaggerating the threat of the H1N1 swine flu, and pushing largely unproven vaccines on the American public with dangerous side effects.[35]

Despite her clear alliance with Big Pharma, Dr. Julie Gerberding strongly implied a vaccine-autism link during a 2008 interview with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta while serving as the CDC’s director. Gerberding stated:

“Well, you know, I don’t have all the facts because I still haven’t been able to review the case files myself. But my understanding is that the child has a — what we think is a rare mitochondrial disorder. And children that have this disease, anything that stresses them creates a situation where their cells just can’t make enough energy to keep their brains functioning normally. Now, we all know that vaccines can occasionally cause fevers in kids. So if a child was immunized, got a fever, had other complications from the vaccines. And if you’re predisposed with the mitochondrial disorder, it can certainly set off some damage. Some of the symptoms can be symptoms that have characteristics of autism.”[36]

Thorsen: A Case of Corruption

A prime example of the corruption within the CDC around vaccine safety is the case of Dr. Poul Thorsen, a Danish researcher who coauthored 36 CDC studies, two of which are widely cited studies claiming to disprove an autism-vaccine link. From 2004 to 2010 Thorsen allegedly laundered more than $1 million in grant money allocated for research and used the funds to make personal purchases, including a home in Atlanta.[37] Thorsen is currently in Denmark awaiting extradition to the United States.

In a recent editorial, Robert F. Kennedy called into question the slow nature of US authorities in apprehending Thorsen stating that:

“The fact that he is roaming free and is easy to find, despite the US Federal indictment, does not imply Thorsen’s innocence… Rather it suggests a lack of enthusiasm by HHS and CDC to press for his capture and extradition. The agency undoubtedly fears that a public trial would expose the pervasive corruption throughout CDC’s vaccine division and the fragility of the science supporting CDC’s claims about Thimerosal safety.”[38]

The two autism-vaccine studies undertaken by Thorsen and his team have been decried by critics as scientific fraud. According to leaked CDC documents, the data from one of the studies, which monitored rates of autism in Denmark after a country-wide phase out of Thimerosal, were heavily manipulated to make it appear that autism rates increased after its removal from vaccines, when in fact rates decreased. The research’s methodology was so unscientific that journals such as The Lancet and The Journal of the American Medical Association rejected publishing the study, and it wasn’t until a CDC director wrote a strongly-worded letter to staff at the journal Pediatrics, that the research was actually published.[39]

The other autism-vaccine study coauthored by Thorsen, which seemingly debunked an autism link to the MMR vaccine was published in 2002. In his aforementioned editorial, Robert Kennedy Jr. wrote about the study’s questionable methodology:

“That study employed CDC’s trademark ruse of including many children who were too young to receive the autism diagnosis, which at that point usually occurred at age four. CDC epidemiologists have consistently used this ploy in their phony autism studies to dampen the autism signal and exonerate the vaccine.The 2002 Madsen et al. MMR study also included a substantial number of unvaccinated children and employed a suite of other statistical gimmicks to mask the association with the MMR vaccine.”[40]

The Thompson Revelation

Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe (2016) - IMDb

Thanks to the widely-seen film Vaxxed, the most well-known (and perhaps controversial) whistleblower remains Dr. William Thompson.

In 2014, a senior scientist at the CDC, Dr. William Thompson, went public with claims that he and his colleagues willfully omitted data from a study that supported a link between vaccines and autism. After discovering a connection between the MMR vaccine and an increased risk of autism among African American males under 36 months of age, Thompson claims that he and his fellow authors chose to exclude these data and effectively perpetrated scientific fraud by publishing research which contradicted their actual research conclusions.[41] Commenting on how he and his colleagues misrepresented their findings, Thompson stated that:

…we decided to exclude reporting any race effects, the co-authors scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study. The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room and reviewed and went through all the hard copy documents that we had thought we should discard and put them in a huge garbage can. However, because I assumed it was illegal and would violate both FOIA and DOJ requests, I kept hard copies of all documents in my office and I retained all associated computer files. I believe we intentionally withheld controversial findings from the final draft of the Pediatrics paper.[42]

Thompson leaked thousands of pages of internal documents to Rep. Bill Posey suggesting that the agency lied about links between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders and links between the MMR vaccine and autism – particularly in black males. The latter link – discovered in November 2001 – was memory-holed, according to a conversation between Thompson and researcher Brian Hooker, with evidential data destroyed the following year, facts Thompson confirmed via affidavit to Posey.

In 2015, Representative Bill Posey entered a statement by Thompson about the cover-up into the Congressional record.[43]

In an interview last year, Congressman Posey commented on the “intentionally evasive” behavior of CDC spokesperson on vaccines and autism, Dr. Colleen Boyle while he questioned saying:

I asked her a very direct question. ‘Have you done a study comparing autism rates in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children?…’  She started telling us about everything she’s done …After she wasted three minutes, I cut her off and I demanded that she answer the question. And then, only then, did she admit that the federal government has never done that very simple, fundamental, basic study.[44]

In light of the growing evidence of corruption and fraud within the CDC, Representative Bill Posey has called for an investigation of the CDC on the issue of vaccine science.[45]

When Thompson tried to alert then-CDC director Dr. Julie Geberding of the unpublished findings in 2004, he was replaced with Dr. Frank DeStefano and threatened with termination for “insubordination.” When he tried to leave before they could fire him, they instead paid him a “retention bonus,” which he saw as an attempt to purchase his silence. Two papers Thompson subsequently published connecting thimerosal in vaccines to “tics” in boys were eviscerated before publication, with a 2012 study withheld from publication until he removed the tic data – even though that was the study’s only conclusive result.[46] His conversation with Hooker has been attacked by pharmaceutical advocates who claim he didn’t actually expose any wrongdoing but fail to explain why he would have felt it necessary to leak thousands of pages of documents to a sympathetic congressman if he was just discussing business as usual at the CDC.

DeStefano himself acknowledged the possibility that vaccines might play a role in triggering some children’s autism in 2014, choosing his words very carefully in an interview with Sharyl Attkisson. “It’s hard to predict who those children might be, but certainly, individual cases can be studied…” he said, the absence of a blanket denial speaking volumes.[47] To conduct such a study would be professional suicide, of course, which is probably why none have been attempted,

Sharyl Attkisson Digs for the Truth

In the ongoing debate over the link between vaccines and autism, pediatric neurologist Andrew Zimmerman is a pro-vaccine figure who publicly defected, allowing the release of 12-year-old court proceedings in which he testified that vaccines can, in fact, cause autism. In the sworn affidavit, Zimmerman told Department of Justice lawyers with whom he was working to defend vaccines against thousands of claims that he’d “discovered exceptions in which vaccinations could cause autism.”

Citing his own experiences with vaccine-damaged and autistic patients, as well as “scientific advances,” Zimmerman told the court that “in a subset of children, vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation did cause regressive brain disease with features of autism spectrum disorder.”

His timing couldn’t have been more disastrous for the vaccine-industrial complex. Not only did it throw a monkeywrench into the case in which he was serving as an expert witness – cases, to be more accurate, as a cluster of 5,000 vaccine-autism cases were being heard in the Autism Omnibus proceedings of the vaccine court, discussed in detail later in this article, on June 15, 2007 – but as the CDC’s expert witness, his word carried serious gravity and would have opened a Pandora’s box of legal action.

It’s not surprising, then, that Zimmerman’s testimony was covered up for almost 12 years, finally released in 2019. He was promptly fired, and DoJ attorneys spoke for him in court, describing his position in terms he calls “highly misleading” by claiming there was zero evidence of a link between vaccines and autism.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. certainly thought it was more than misleading, calling the substitution “one of the most consequential frauds, arguably in human history” and filing a fraud complaint with the DoJ’s Inspector General against the attorneys who covered up his explosive admission.[48] But the DoJ attorney who lied to the court is no longer with the department, and to look at the CDC’s website, Zimmerman may as well not have existed – nor anyone like him, or like the children he has studied. His testimony and work have been memory holed, and the CDC categorically denies any and all allegations that vaccines could influence or contribute to – let alone trigger or cause – the development of autism.

Had investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson not surfaced his testimony in her powerful report on the “vaccine debate” published in The HIll in 2019, weaving another scrap of evidence into what has become a very convincing tapestry, perhaps no one would have heard of it at all. Attkisson has doggedly pursued the vaccine-autism story for over a decade, speaking to whistleblowers, activists, parents, and others affected by the autism epidemic and refusing to shy away from the topic despite personal repercussions that would dissuade many lesser reporters. Hacked by the government, smeared on Wikipedia, and demonized in anti-“antivaxxer” blogs, she persists in illuminating the dark corners of power.

It is almost a truism at this point to say that the pharmaceutical lobby has Congress and the CDC in its pockets, but congressional lawmakers and their staffers interviewed on the program agree. Rep. Dan Burton, who attempted to investigate vaccines in the early 2000s, and his staffers told Attkisson about the coordinated bullying and intimidation they faced by pharmaceutical lobbyists who “put money everywhere” to ensure no obstacles stood in their profit path, while former Rep. Dr. Dave Weldon confirms that “if you as an individual member [of Congress] want to take on the pharmaceutical industry, it’s ‘forget it.’” The institutional stonewalling has not shaken his faith in the need for an investigation into vaccine safety, and he is certain that “some children can get an autism spectrum disorder from a vaccine.”

Perhaps weighed down by troubled consciences, or merely encouraged by the rising tide of similar revelations, many formerly pro-vaccine insiders have gone on the record to admit that decades of parental suspicions have been justified. Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former director of the National Institutes of Health who died in 2011, admitted in 2008 that she thought the government was “too quick” to dismiss the concerns of the families of vaccine-injured children “without sufficient studies of causation.” Healy told Attkisson about a 2004 Institute of Medicine report that “basically said, ‘Do not pursue susceptibility groups, don’t look for those patients whose children who may be vulnerable.” Confirming the suspicions of every vaccine choice advocate, Healy admitted “the reason why they didn’t want to look for those susceptibility groups is because they are afraid is that if they found them, however big or small they were, that that would scare the public away.” As for the link between vaccines and autism, she said, “the question has not been answered.”[49]

Vaccine Court

A discussion of the special, separate, jury-free, no fault “vaccine court” will be discussed more in depth later in this article. But it is important to mention, in looking at the history of corruption and cover-up, that the records of the vaccine court itself has paid over $4.4 billion[50] since its launch in 1988 to indemnify vaccine producers against the inevitable lawsuits from parents whose kids went to the doctor healthy and came home irreversibly damaged.[51] These speak for themselves. Using the less-radioactive term “encephalopathy,” vaccine court records show some children whose autism onset immediately followed vaccination had preexisting conditions that could render them susceptible to negative effects, including mitochondrial disorders and Tuberous Sclerosis, and the connection between vaccines, these conditions, and autism has been officially referred to in multiple cases.

When the government settled the historic case of Hannah Poling in 2010, paying out $1.5 million plus yearly payments that could amount to $20 million over the course of her life after Poling became autistic following a nine-shot vaccination visit, they qualified their seeming admission of guilt by stating that Poling had an underlying mitochondrial disorder that made her vulnerable to vaccine damage and “resulted” in her autism. Hers was the first courtroom admission of any vaccine role in the development of autism, and opened the door to the 4,800 autism cases then awaiting deposition in vaccine court.[52] So – of course – they sealed the case. It leaked out anyway, complete with diagnosis of vaccine-related “autistic encephalopathy,” and complete with Zimmerman’s opinion: he had “personally witnessed [Poling’s] developmental regression” after “vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation.” They may not have “caused” her autism – he wouldn’t go that far – but they certainly “triggered” it.[53]

It wasn’t the first financial award to the family of an autistic child that admitted some culpability – that was paid out in the first year of the vaccine court’s existence. In 1986, the court ruled a child’s seizures – a result of Tuberous Sclerosis – were triggered by the DPT vaccine, resulting in his mental retardation and autism. They did not admit the vaccine was entirely to blame, but acknowledged that it was a triggering factor in worsening his prognosis, since the age of seizure onset is directly related to quality of life for individuals with TS.[54] These cases have quietly piled up among the millions, many likely saddled with gag orders that prevent parents from speaking up about their experience.

Even Pharma Admits

Image: The hexavalent vaccine Infanrix hexa, which protects against hepatitis B in addition to diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

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One damning case of government-industry knowledge about a vaccine-autism connection is a leaked December 16, 2011 document from GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers. The text admits the corporation has been aware of the autism risk associated with its Infanrix vaccine, which combines diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, hepatitis B, inactivated polio and haemophilus influenza viruses. The report details adverse effects associated with autism, including encephalitis, developmental delays, altered states of consciousness, speech delays and other adverse reactions.[55]

While these revelations might be considered criminal cover-ups that directly threaten public health, they have had little effect on changing national policy over vaccine safety. Rather, the official denial of any possible association between vaccines and autism has hardened into an absolute dogma. And to date, there is not a single gold standard publication to refute with any certainty a vaccine-autism connection. Indeed, research from around the world proving a relationship increases, but almost none of it is coming from within American medical institutions.

Unlike the US, the UK and Australia, the majority of the governmental health ministries in the modern industrialized world do not take an official national stance on the vaccine-autism controversy and other serious vaccine-related injuries. Only nineteen countries, including the US, have no-fault policies regarding the pharmaceutical industry for vaccine injury compensation programs. This is partially due to the American and British health agencies being heavily compromised by private vaccine business interests. The revolving doors and conflict of interests between these federal agencies and the pharmaceutical industry have been well documented. In the US, members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory community are deep in the pockets of pharmaceutical firms.

The vaccine market is one of the most toxic cash cow scams in operation. In 2016, Market Watch reported that the technological advisory firm Technavio released its Global Human Vaccines Market 2016-2020 analysis estimating that the vaccine market would reach $61 billion by 2020. At the start of 2016, it was worth $24 billion. The enormous projection increase is due to global initiatives to push vaccination compliance upon other nations and over 270 new vaccines, for both old and new indications, in development. The report also predicted that American pharmaceutical companies, notably Merck, Pfizer and Abbott, have the most to gain. The industry also benefits from the $10 billion pledged by Bill and Melinda Gates to increase vaccination rates and compliance worldwide.[56]

Unlike the US and UK, in most nations independent and scientific integrity rules, and compensation for vaccine adverse events is the norm. In 2014, French authorities ruled there was a direct relationship between the Hepatitis B vaccine and a sudden rise in multiple sclerosis.[57] In 2012, after a long investigative trial, an Italian court ruled that the MMR vaccine caused brain injury leading to autism in the case of Valentino Bocca.[58] This ruling was intentionally blacked out by the American media.

Japan discontinued the MMR vaccine in 1993, four years after imposing it on its citizens on a mandatory basis. The rate of adverse events – including meningitis, limb loss, and death – was 2,000 times higher than expected, and the shot was pulled after doctors confirmed it had entered at least one child’s nervous system and probably at least three. Japan, not coincidentally, has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.[59]

Meanwhile, in the US, California has now mandated child vaccination, and several other states have proposed similar compulsory-vaccination laws while their constituents are bombarded with news stories playing up every measles case as the new bubonic plague. The Idaho Department of Health public information officer Tom Shanahan expressed his regret that his state was unlikely to pass such a measure, complaining to Reuters that in Idaho, “there’s a pretty strong culture of individual rights.”[60]

Research

If good quality science exists that could discredit the pro-vaccine argument that there is no connection to autism, it is completely understandable that the media and the government and industry and scientists for hire continue their unrelenting attack on independent scientists, physicians, and most importantly, upon the victims themselves. To acknowledge that the entire vaccine program is unsupported by gold standard science would mean massive lawsuits, congressional investigations and discrediting the CDC, the FDA, US public health services and pharmaceutical companies. In effect, this could be the largest public health scandal in American history, and the public would be very unforgiving. Let’s now take a look at more damning evidence linking vaccines with autism and neurodevelopmental disease and the systemic suppression of this evidence.

The vaccine-autism debate has been limited mainly to two issues: the MMR vaccine, following the controversies over Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s findings in the 1990s, and the toxicology of thimerosal. Studies have pointed to the role of other vaccines than MMR in autism as well. Doctors at Stony Brook University’s Medical Center determined that male infants vaccinated with the Hepatitis B vaccine prior to 1999 have a three-fold higher autism rate than their non-vaccinated peers. The risk was greater among non-white boys.[61]

Concerns over thimersosal are waning because it has been removed from all vaccines except for the influenza shot, and even the flu vaccine cannot account for the rising autism rate. Since 2001, autism has steadily continued to rise. In 2000, it was 1 in 250 children. As of March 2023, the CDC’s reported rate has dropped to a shocking 1 in 36; just a few years prior, in 2018, the rate was 1 in 44.[62] This rate has been found to be even higher by the authors of a JAMA Pediatrics Research Letter published in 2020: they found autism was occurring in 3.49 percent of children and adolescents age 3 to 17. That’s 1 in 30.[63] The CDC argues that this proves thimerosal is not the culprit. It ignores a 2012 Australian study published in the journal Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry that there is a direct maternal transfer of ethylmercury from pregnant mothers to the embryo/fetus.[64] It remains American federal health policy for pregnant women to receive the flu shot, which may contain 25 micrograms of mercury.

*

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Helen Buyniski is a journalist and photographer based in New York City. Her work has appeared on RT, Global Research, Ghion Journal, Progressive Radio Network, and Veterans Today. Helen has a BA in Journalism from New School University and also studied at Columbia University and New York University. Find more of her work at http://helenofdestroy.com and http://medium.com/@helen.buyniski or follow her on Twitter at @velocirapture23. 

Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the biotechnology and genomic industries.

Dr. Gary Null is host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on alternative and nutritional health and a multi-award-winning documentary film director, including his recent Last Call to Tomorrow.

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

Notes

1 View the Evidence: 1348 Abstracts with Vaccination: All Research. Anti-therapeutic Action: Vaccinations: All. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/anti-therapeutic-action/vaccination-all

2 View the Evidence: 325 Abstracts with Vaccine Adjuvants Research. Toxic Ingredient: Vaccine Adjuvants. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/vaccine-adjuvants

3 View the Evidence: 226 Abstracts with Cell Phone Exposure Research: Toxic Ingredient: Cell phone exposure. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/cell-phone-exposure

4 View the Evidence: 986 Abstracts with Electromagnetic Radiation Research: Anti-therapeutic Action: Electromagnetic Radiation. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/anti-therapeutic-action/electromagnetic-radiation

5 View the Evidence: 1005 Abstracts with Electromagnetic Field Harms Research: Anti-therapeutic Action: Electromagnetic Field Harms. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/anti-therapeutic-action/electromagnetic-field-harms

6 View the Evidence: 423 Abstracts with Mobile Phone Radiation Research: Anti-therapeutic Action: Mobile Phone Radiation. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/anti-therapeutic-action/mobile-phone-radiation

7 View the Evidence: 229 Abstracts with Microwave Radiation Research. Anti-therapeutic Action: Microwave Radiation. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/anti-therapeutic-action/microwave-radiation

8 View the Evidence: 321 Abstracts with Aluminum Research: Toxic Ingredient: Aluminum. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/aluminum

9 View the Evidence: 175 Abstracts with Fluoride Research: Toxic Ingredient: Fluoride. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/fluoride

10 View the Evidence: 273 Abstracts with Paracetamol Research: Toxic Ingredient: Paracetamol. GreenMedInfo. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/paracetamol (see also: https://greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/tylenol)

11 Sage C, Burgio E. Electromagnetic Fields, Pulsed Radiofrequency Radiation, and Epigenetics: How Wireless Technologies May Affect Childhood Development. Child Dev. 2018 Jan;89(1):129-136. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12824. Epub 2017 May 15. PMID: 28504324.

12 Carter CJ, Blizard RA. Autism genes are selectively targeted by environmental pollutants including pesticides, heavy metals, bisphenol A, phthalates and many others in food, cosmetics or household products. Neurochem Int. 2016 Oct 27:S0197-0186(16)30197-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuint.2016.10.011. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 27984170.

13 Braun MM, Ellenberg SS. Descriptive epidemiology of adverse events after immunization: reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), 1991-1994. J Pediatr. 1997 Oct;131(4):529-35. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(97)70056-8. PMID: 9386653.

14 Andrade C. Use of acetaminophen (paracetamol) during pregnancy and the risk of autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. J Clin Psychiatry. 2016 Feb;77(2):e152-4. doi: 10.4088/JCP.16f10637. PMID: 26930528.

15 Blaylock RL, Strunecka A. Immune-glutamatergic dysfunction as a central mechanism of the autism spectrum disorders. Curr Med Chem. 2009;16(2):157-70. doi: 10.2174/092986709787002745. PMID: 19149568.

16 Good P. Evidence the U.S. autism epidemic initiated by acetaminophen (Tylenol) is aggravated by oral antibiotic amoxicillin/clavulanate (Augmentin) and now exponentially by herbicide glyphosate (Roundup). Clin Nutr ESPEN. 2018 Feb;23:171-183. doi: 10.1016/j.clnesp.2017.10.005. Epub 2017 Dec 1. PMID: 29460795.

17 Good P. Did acetaminophen provoke the autism epidemic? Altern Med Rev. 2009 Dec;14(4):364-72. PMID: 20030462.

18 Dorothy Neufeld. The 50 Most Visited Websites in the World. January 27, 2021. Visual Capital. Accessed August 16, 2023. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-50-most-visited-websites-in-the-world/

19 How to edit a page. Wikimedia. Page last edited April 19, 2023. Accessed August 16, 2023. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/How_to_edit_a_page

20 CIA moderating Wikipedia – former editor. 2 Aug, 2023. https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14020512000277/Frmer-Edir-CIA-Mderaing-Wikipedia

21 Kirsten Grind, Sam Schechner, Robert McMillan and John West. How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-interferes-with-its-search-algorithms-and-changes-your-results-11573823753

22 Dr. Peter Hotez on the anti-science movement and declining Joe Rogan’s debate challenge. JUL 13, 2023. American Medical Association Accessed August 17, 2023. https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/dr-peter-hotez-anti-science-movement-and-declining-joe-rogan-s-debate

23 Mawson, Anthony & Bhuiyan, Azad & Jacob, Binu & Ray, Brian. (2017). Preterm birth, vaccination and neurodevelopmental disorders: a cross-sectional study of 6-to 12-year-old vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Journal of Translational Science. 3. 1-8. 10.15761/JTS.1000187. https://www.oatext.com/Preterm-birth-vaccination-and-neurodevelopmental-disorders-a-cross-sectional-study-of-6-to-12-year-old-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-children.php#Article

24 Mawson, Anthony & Ray, Brian & Bhuiyan, Azad & Jacob, Binu. (2017). Pilot comparative study on the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated 6-to 12-year-old U.S. children. Journal of Translational Science. 3. 1-12. 10.15761/JTS.1000186. https://howdovaccinescauseautism.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Mawson-2017.pdf

25 Gallagher, Carolyn & Goodman, Melody. (2008). Hepatitis B triple series vaccine and developmental disability in US children aged 1–9 years. Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry. 90. 997-1008. 10.1080/02772240701806501. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02772240701806501#.Ue8MEY1wqSo

26 Unvaccinated. How Do Vaccines Cause Autism? Accessed August 16, 2023. https://howdovaccinescauseautism.org/category/unvaccinated/

27 Delong, G. “Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Safety Research.” Accountability in Research 19, no. 2 (2012): 65-88. Accessed November 14, 2015. doi:10.1080/08989621.2012.660073.

28 Scientific Review of Vaccine Safety Datalink Information (transcript). 7-8 Jun 2000. http://thinktwice.com/simpsonwood.pdf Retrieved 18 Jan 2019

29 Verstraeten, TM et.al. “Increased risk of developmental neurologic impairment after high exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccine in first month of life.” (original abstract submission). 1999. http://mercury-freedrugs.org/docs/00mmdd_EISAbstractSubmission_IncreasedRiskOfDevelopmentalNeurologicImpairmentAfterHighExposureToThimerosal-containingVaccine_.pdf Retrieved 18 Jan 2019.

30 Verstraeten, TM et.al. “Safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines: a two-phased study of computerized health maintenance organization databases.” Pediatrics. 2003 Nov;112(5):1039-48. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14595043

31 Hooker, Brian et.al. “Methodological Issues and Evidence of Malfeasance in Research Purporting to Show Thimerosal in Vaccines Is Safe.” BioMed Research International. 2014; Article ID 247218. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/247218/

32 Chapter II: 1999-2000: Simpsonwood. Put Children First. http://putchildrenfirst.org/chapter2.html Retrieved 18 Jan 2019.

33 Hurley, AM et.al. “Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Autism: A Review of Recent Epidemiologic Studies.” Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 2010 Jul-Sep; 15(3):173-181. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3018252/

34 Luke Timmerman. Merck’s Julie Gerberding, Former CDC Director, on the Future of Vaccines. Xconomy. June 24, 2011. Accessed archive August 16, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20110627073713/www.xconomy.com/national/2011/06/24/mercks-julie-gerberding-former-cdc-director-on-the-future-of-vaccines/

35 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/24/Superstar-CBS-Reporter-Blows-the-Lid-Off-the-Swine-Flu-Media-Hype-and-Hysteria.aspx

36 Sanjay Gupta MD. Rush Transcript: Unraveling the Mystery of Autism; Talking With the CDC Director; Stories of Children with Autism; Aging with Autism. CNN Transcripts. Aired March 29, 2008. Accessed August 16, 2023. https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/hcsg/date/2008-03-29/segment/01

37 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Forbes Magazine & CDC’s Rogue Scientist. August 22, 2015. Archived from robertfkennedyjr.com. Archive accessed August 16, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20151113040130/http://www.robertfkennedyjr.com/articles/forbes.082215.html

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

41 August 27, 2014 Press Release, “Statement of William W. Thompson, Ph.D., Regarding the 2004 Article Examining the Possibility of a Relationship Between MMR Vaccine and Autism.” Morgan Verkamp LLC. Archive accessed August 16, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20151025025144/http://www.morganverkamp.com/august-27-2014-press-release-statement-of-william-w-thompson-ph-d-regarding-the-2004-article-examining-the-possibility-of-a-relationship-between-mmr-vaccine-and-autism/

42 Brian Shilhavy. Will CDC Whistleblower on Vaccines Testify Before Congress? August 13, 2015. Health Impact News. Accessed August 16, 2023. http://healthimpactnews.com/2015/will-cdc-whistleblower-on-vaccines-testify-before-congress/

43 Ibid.

44 Congressman Posey Accuses CDC Over Corruption. Posted April 16, 2014. Age of Autism. Accessed August 16, 2023. http://www.ageofautism.com/2014/04/congressman-posey-accuses-cdc-over-corruption-.html

45 Ibid.

46 Hooker, Brian. “Dr. Brian Hooker’s official statement regarding William Thompson.” Focus for Health. 26 Apr 2016. https://www.focusforhealth.org/dr-brian-hooker-statement-william-thompson/

47 Attkisson, Sharyl. “CDC: ‘Possibility’ that vaccines rarely trigger autism.” Sharyl Attkisson (blog). 10 Dec 2018. https://sharylattkisson.com/2018/12/10/cdc-possibility-that-vaccines-rarely-trigger-autism/

48 Attkisson, Sharyl. “How a pro-vaccine doctor reopened debate about link to autism.” The Hill. 13 Jan 2019. https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/425061-how-a-pro-vaccine-doctor-reopened-debate-about-link-to-autism

49 “NIH Director Dr Bernadine Healy speaks to Sharyl Attkisson about autism susceptibility.” (video) Children’s Health Defense (YouTube). 27 Apr 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZFPpHBNp2M

50 Petitions Filed, Compensated and Dismissed, by Alleged Vaccine, Since the Beginning of VICP, 10/01/1988 through 08/01/2023. (Vaccine Injury Compensation Data: Most Recent Data Report). Updated 08/01/2023. Health Resources and Services Administration. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/hrsa/vicp/vicp-stats-08-01-23.pdf

51 Wolfe, Eli. “Federal Vaccine Court Quietly Pays Billions.” Fair Warning. 12 Dec 2018. https://www.fairwarning.org/2018/12/vaccine-court-pays-billions/

52 Attkisson, Sharyl. “Family to Receive $1.5M+ in First-Ever Vaccine-Autism Court Award.” CBS News. 10 Dec 2010. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-to-receive-15m-plus-in-first-ever-vaccine-autism-court-award/

53 Zimmerman, Andrew. “RE: Hannah Poling (DOB: 12/27/98); Report of the Office of Special Masters, United States Court of Federal Claims, November 9, 2007.” (letter). 30 Nov 2007. https://www.rescuepost.com/files/rh-4.pdf Retrieved 19 Jan 2019.

54 Attkisson, Sharyl. “Learning from a Previous Vaccine-Autism Case?” CBS News. 8 Aug 2008. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/learning-from-a-previous-vaccine-autism-case/

55 Biological Clinical Safety and Pharmacovigilance: GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development Combined Diptheria, Tetanus and Acellular Pertussis, Hepatitis B enhanced Inactivated Poliomyelitis and Haemophilus Influenzae type B vaccine: Infanrix hexa Summary Bridging Report. 16 December 2011. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-jYsdHZuRhCVXZUbFFlUzdfNGM/edit?pli=1

56 Big Pharma and Big Profits: The Multibillion Dollar Vaccine Market By Timothy Alexander Guzman Silent Crow News 26 January 2016 https://www.globalresearch.ca/big-pharma-and-big-profits-the-multibillion-dollar-vaccine-market/5503945

57 https://healthimpactnews.com/2014/new-study-hepatitis-b-vaccination-in-france-sparked-a-wave-of-new-cases-of-ms/

58 https://www.undergroundhealth.com/courts-quietly-confirm-mmr-vaccine-causes-autism/

59 Hope, Jenny. “Why Japan banned the MMR vaccine.” Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-17509/Why-Japan-banned-MMR-vaccine.html Retrieved 18 Jan 2019.

60 Abutaleb, Yasmeen. “Tougher laws a likely legacy of the Disneyland measles outbreak.” Reuters. 3 Mar 2015. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-measles-vaccines-insight/tougher-laws-a-likely-legacy-of-the-disneyland-measles-outbreak-idUSKBN0LZ15Q20150303

61 J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2010;73(24):1665-77. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2010.519317.

62 Autism Prevalence Higher, According to Data from 11 ADDM Communities. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last Reviewed: March 22, 2023. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/p0323-autism.html

63 Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.1 in 30 U.S. Kids Diagnosed With Autism in 2020 — What’s Behind the Surge? The Defender. July 14, 2022. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/kids-diagnosed-autism-spectrum-disorder-jama-pediatrics/

64 Gallagher CM, Goodman MS. Hepatitis B vaccination of male neonates and autism diagnosis, NHIS 1997-2002. Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry. Volume 94, Issue 8, 2012

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President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa served as the host of the recently held 15th BRICS Summit which turned out to be one of the most significant gatherings in the nearly decade-and-one-half existence of the alliance.

This expansion of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) grouping encompasses even more of the already 44% of the world’s population with a majority located in the Global South.

At the meeting in Johannesburg from August 23-24, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and the Arab Republic of Egypt were approved for membership in the expanding body. Various reports indicate that the combined population of the BRICS countries including the six new members is conservatively estimated at 47% of the global population and anywhere between 29-36% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Some sources believe that the combined membership’s population already exceeds half of the people living today.

While six new governments were admitted in Johannesburg, there are many other states clamoring to join the economic bloc. The 55 African Union (AU) member-states were invited to the 15th BRICS Summit. There are methods for non-members to apply as countries like Zimbabwe, which has praised the growth of BRICS as representing the prospects for building a world system independent of the hegemony of the United States, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom.

Republic of Zimbabwe Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga during the BRICS Africa Outreach sessions was quoted as saying:

“As a country, Zimbabwe perceives how BRICS represents a formidable alliance that fosters a multipolar and inclusive world order. Joining this alliance will provide Zimbabwe with a unique opportunity to collaborate with like-minded nations and harness the benefits of collective strength. As a country, Zimbabwe applauds the establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the proposal to use local currencies between member states in the BRICS and other countries in the south. Like other countries in the south, Zimbabwe hopes to benefit from the New Development Bank as an alternative source of funding for developmental projects.” 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attended the summit in South Africa after formally applying for BRICS membership. During the summit he held meetings with other leaders including President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.

Ethiopia maintains good relations with leading members of BRICS including China and South Africa. The government views its admission into the economic bloc as providing tremendous impetus to its development agenda.

An editorial in the Herald newspaper noted:

“At its core, BRICS is driven by a bold vision – to establish its own world economic and trade systems that challenge the existing Western-dominated order. The group seeks to reshape the political and economic landscape in a way that benefits its member nations, promoting a more equitable and multipolar world. This ambitious agenda reflects the growing frustration among emerging economies with outdated structures of global governance that no longer reflect the economic realities of the 21st century.” 

Plans to Strengthen Healthcare Networks

One of the important discussions taking place during and after the summit was the increasing collaboration between the AU, its affiliate, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and BRICS in improving healthcare infrastructure and information sharing throughout the Global South. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic the access to vaccines and other medicines were facilitated heavily utilizing networks established among the BRICS states.

When the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) along with governments internationally, there was much criticism around the concept of “vaccine nationalism” emanating from the developing geopolitical regions. The wealthiest western capitalist governments rushed to vaccinate their own citizens with almost no concern for the overwhelming majority of people across the planet.

Out of this experience over the last three years, production facilities in the Republic of South Africa have been established to play a significant role in the face of another pandemic. Early warning systems already in existence in the aftermath of other major pandemics in Africa and Asia can be activated when necessary.

The South African government which hosted the 15th BRICS Summit said of the discussions around healthcare issues:

“The attendees highlighted the reality of the shifting centers of global power, pointing out that the expanded BRICS family now represents 4.8 billion people, which is over half of the global population. ‘Increasing human and animal interconnectedness, climate change and an increasing frequency of infectious disease outbreaks mean that the AU and BRICS’ ability to contain infectious diseases has a fundamental bearing on global health security. The realization of this growing responsibility compelled AU and BRICS stakeholders to convene and begin a process towards a declared collaborative framework.’ Participants were further encouraged by the collective capabilities identified in medical and digital technologies, human resource potential, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. They also observed that the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturing Network (DCVMN), which is composed of manufacturers from BRICS member states, contributed to 60% of the COVID-19 vaccine products. The meeting considered the merits of opening up the entire expanded BRICS and AU market to all pharmaceutical manufacturers in the BRICS and AU regions.” 

De-Dollarization and the New Cold War

Perhaps one of the most contemplated questions being debated by BRICS and other economic blocs based in the West, are the proposals aimed at lessening dependence on the U.S. dollar. The beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine has brought to the fore the problems caused by the domination of the dollar as it relates to the imposition of sanctions by Washington against Moscow.

The sanctions have worsened food insecurity amid the challenges associated with the post-pandemic economic recovery in Africa, Asia and other geopolitical regions. A Black Sea grain deal arrived at through diplomatic mediation involving the AU and Turkey, has been shattered due to the refusal of the NATO states, which are behind the Ukraine administration and military, to honor their portion of the agreement.

Russia is a co-founder of BRICS and is respected by the other member-states. President Vladimir Putin attended the summit virtually due to threats to apprehend him at the aegis of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other officials. Such attacks on the gatherings of governments which represent some of the largest countries within the Global South makes the imperative of independent development even more urgent.

In the same editorial quoted above from the Ethiopian Herald, it emphasizes:

“One of the key objectives discussed at this year’s summit is to reduce global reliance on the U.S. dollar. The dominance of the U.S. currency has far-reaching consequences, often at the expense of other nations. The strength of the U.S. economy directly impacts the value of the dollar, causing fluctuations that ripple through international markets. This volatility undermines the stability of other currencies and hampers the economic prospects of emerging nations. Recognizing this vulnerability, BRICS aims to promote the use of national currencies in international trade as a means to rectify the situation. Russia and China, in particular, have been vocal proponents of de-dollarization, aiming to weaken America’s stranglehold on the global financial system. These nations have legitimate concerns about the potential abuse of economic power by the United States, especially through unilateral sanctions that can wreak havoc on the economies of targeted countries. By diversifying away from the U.S. dollar, BRICS hopes to insulate its member nations from such vulnerabilities and foster a more balanced and resilient global financial architecture.”

These objectives by the BRICS countries further affirms the complete incapacity of the U.S., European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom to engage in effective diplomatic initiatives beyond the perpetuation of unjust wars. As the Global South discusses long-term projects which will be financed by the New Development Bank (NDB) to foster the formation of a multipolar world system, the imperialist states are becoming even more isolated in many geopolitical regions.

The threat that imperialism poses is it has embarked upon a course that could lead to another World War. Intensifying antagonism against the Russian Federation, China, Iran, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Cuba, North Korea, South Africa, etc. along with the expanding anti-imperialist governments and movements in the West Africa region, reflects the desperation of the NATO states and its allies. Obviously, the Global South will be forced to defend its program for economic development and the desire to live in a world free of western hegemony.

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

All images in this article are from the author

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***

In his 1988 book War Stars: The Superweapon in the American Imagination, H. Bruce Franklin traces a deep-rooted cultural belief in the magic of futuristic weapon systems that would enable the U.S. to defeat any foreign adversary. 

Franklin dates the infatuation to the era of the revolutionary war with the development of the combat submarine by Robert H. Fulton to pulverize the British Navy.

He in turn shows a direct line through World War I and World War II and the development of air power and the atomic bomb, through the Vietnam War where sophisticated U.S. war machines could not defeat the guerrilla warfare tactics of the Vietcong.

Franklin could easily include a new chapter on Ukraine, whose summer counteroffensive has fizzled despite the country’s function as a testing ground for new American weapon systems.

These include space-based satellites and sensors that have been used by the Ukrainians to track Russian troop movements and assist in navigation, mapping and electronic warfare, and positioning systems that guide precision weapons and drones.

A webinar in mid-July hosted by the War Industry Resistance Network placed the U.S. strategy in Ukraine in the context of a broader attempt by the U.S. to militarize space and use it to destroy its leading geopolitical rivals—Russia and China.

A close-up of a blue planet Description automatically generated

Source: spacenews.com

The first speaker, Dave Webb, a retired engineering and peace studies professor from England, emphasized that the 1991 Operation Desert Storm set the groundwork for Ukraine as the first space war in which the U.S. showed off new satellite and precision guided missiles that wound up devastating Iraq.

In 1997, the U.S. Space Command outlined its goal of obtaining full-spectrum military dominance over land, sea, air and space by the year 2020—which achieved partial fulfillment with the Trump administration’s creation in 2019 of a new Space Force as a branch of the U.S. military.

By 2024, the budget of the Space Force reached $30.3 billion, a 15% increase over 2023 and a doubling of the budget from 2020.

Workers prepare Space Test Program-3 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command on November 22, 2021, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, for mounting process with an Atlas V rocket. The mission sent two satellites into space. [Source: spacenews.com]

Congress has in a not so veiled way tried to legitimate these budget increases by holding hearings raising alarm about the threat of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO’s).

One in late July featured a former intelligence officer, David Grusch, who claimed that he faced retaliation at the Pentagon for his confidential disclosure that “non-human beings” had been retrieved from spacecraft.[1]

On August 11, the 75th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (ISRS) was activated at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. It has been tasked with identifying and destroying or disrupting adversary satellites and ground-based lasers aimed at preventing the U.S. from using its own satellites during a conflict.

Space.com reported that the U.S. Space Force has conducted multiple training exercises to practice “live fire” satellite jamming [of Russian and Chinese space based satellites] and “simulated on-orbit combat training” as part of a growing commitment to space-based war.

The Space Force’s operations have been made possible by a $1.5 billion space surveillance radar center built by Lockheed Martin in an atoll in the Marshall Islands, which became operational in March 2020. The center now tracks more than 26,000 objects in space, some the size of a marble.

A building with several towers Description automatically generated

An aerial view of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Fence on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. [Source: spacenews.com]

Additional surveillance centers have recently been built in Texas, Australia and Great Britain while Boeing is building a secret military space plane, the X-37B, which can carry out orbital space flight missions.

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Boeing X-37. [Source: wikipedia.org]

Webb ended his talk by noting that the spirit of a 1967 Outer Space Treaty that was designed to prevent the militarization of Outer Space is not being followed.

Space exploration is giving way to space exploitation and growing competition with Russia, which has developed its own space-based weapon systems in response to what the U.S. is doing.

A group of men signing papers at a table Description automatically generated

Signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967. [Source: spaceflight.com]

The second speaker at the webinar, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, pointed out that, for the last quarter century, Russia has presented its demand for a new cooperative space treaty before the United Nations but has been blocked by the U.S., Israel and a few of their allies.

The Russians have stated unequivocally, as have the Chinese, that they do not want to devote their countries’ resources to a destructive and fruitless arms race in space, though the U.S. believes it can be master in space and has been taken over totally by the military-industrial complex.

When the creation of the new Space Force came up for a vote in 2019, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives supported it, though it had wanted to call it Space Corps.

Growing up in a military family, Gagnon said he experienced a political awakening while enlisted in the Air Force in 1971 when he came in contact with peace activists at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, where he was stationed.

Gagnon’s concern about the militarization of Outer Space began when he read a book by Linda Hunt called Secret Agenda, which detailed the CIA’s recruitment of Nazi scientists under Operation Paperclip who helped found the U.S. space program.

Chief among them was Wernher von Braun, who had helped develop the V-2 rocket in Germany using slave labor.

Gagnon said he finds it chilling that the U.S. Space Force carries out yearly war-game exercises where they simulate fighting using space-based weapons right out of science fiction novels. Among these is the “Rod from God,” a weapon in which tungsten steel rods are fired from orbiting satellites, smacking the Earth from the sky as if sent by God.

Right now, Gagnon says, we are living through a Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse as the U.S. has pointed nuclear weapons directly at Russia from a U.S. military base in Deveselu, Romania, and another in Redzikowo, Poland off the Baltic Sea.

The U.S. goal is to break up Russia as it did Yugoslavia in the 1990s because Russia is the world’s largest resource base and threatens the ability of the U.S. to extract resources from the Arctic unencumbered.

Along with World War III, the current U.S. space strategy is threatening to unleash a major environmental catastrophe as space-based satellites and weapons are leaving debris that cannot be cleaned up.

According to Gagnon, exhaust from escalating numbers of rocket launches is diminishing the ozone layer, and the growing space debris could even cause the Earth to go dark as collisions become more likely.

Back in 1989, Gagnon organized a protest at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral that was attended by Navy Captain Edgar Mitchell, the only astronaut known to have ever attended a peace rally.[2]

Mitchell told the crowd at the protest that, “if there was ever a war in space, it would be the last war humans ever fought because it would create so much debris orbiting around the planet, there would be no way to clean it up.”

Mitchell’s warning makes clear the importance of supporting the efforts of peace groups to try to prevent the militarization of space and to fight the military-industrial complex, which is a cancer not only to our own planet but to the entire universe.

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Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: [email protected].

Notes

  1. The disclosure it should be noted was based on second-hand information. 

  2. Born in Hereford, Texas, in 1930, Mitchell obtained a Doctor of Science degree (equivalent to a Ph.D.). from MIT and was the Lunar Module Pilot for the 1971 Apollo 14 mission who was the sixth man to walk on the moon. During his travels to space, Mitchell said that he had an epiphany that led him to work for the rest of his life to “broaden the knowledge of the nature and potentials of mind and consciousness and to apply that knowledge to the enhancement of human well-being and the quality of life on the planet.” 

Featured image is from bbc.com

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***

America’s top general said that Washington plans to maintain its force posture in the Middle East. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley stressed the region’s “significant” importance to America’s foreign policy. 

In an interview with Jordan’s Al-Mamlaka TV on Thursday, Milley said,

“I can’t imagine that the United States would ever walk away from the Middle East. I think we’ll remain committed for many, many years and decades to come.” 

“We have very close friendships and partnerships. And we want to make sure that the region is stable. Obviously, the region is a primary source of oil and energy resources for other parts of the world.” Milley added that the region is “very important and very significant to the United States for a lot of reasons.”

For decades, Washington has used its military in an attempt to control the Middle East. The US has spent trillions of dollars and killed millions of people in dozens of military campaigns conducted over the last 30 years. 

The wars have failed to accomplish America’s stated goals: to bring peace, stability and democracy to the Middle East. Instead, Washington’s wars and financing of various militaries have stoked sectarian tensions. Additionally, the US has armed a multitude of tyrannical governments, enabling them to brutally oppress their citizens.

Washington currently has thousands of soldiers in various countries across the region, including hundreds of troops in Syria. Milley said,

“There are still fighters in small groups in and around Syria and around Iraq…and if we were to somehow suddenly withdraw, [Islamic State] could reconstruct themselves. So the situation is much, much better than it was.” He continued, “But it still requires a level of commitment. So we’ve got some modest amount of forces in Syria and we’ve got forces in Iraq.”

However, American troops in Iraq and Syria often find themselves in conflict with forces supporting the Syrian government, not jihadists. Additionally, American warplanes in Syria have regularly had near misses with Russian fighter jets.  

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Kyle Anzalone is news editor of the Libertarian Institute, opinion editor of Antiwar.com and co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Will Porter and Connor Freeman.

Featured image: FILE PHOTO: US Army soldiers fire an M777 Howitzer during an operational rehearsal exercise at Mission Support Site Conoco, Syria, December 4, 2022. (Credit: US Army / Sgt. Julio Hernandez)

Are They Prepping for Plandemic 2.0?

August 29th, 2023 by OffGuardian

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***

The buzz around the alt-news sphere the last few days has been that the establishment is planning to bring back pandemic restrictions. And, in fairness, this is some evidence this could be true.

It started with Alex Jones reporting that a whistleblower from the TSA had informed him the US government was going to start bringing back Covid restrictions in starting in October and going into full lockdown again by December.

There’s also the fact we’re suddenly being told about “case spikes” and not one, not two, but THREE new variants – Eris, Pi and Pirola – have hit the headlines.

Meanwhile, some places are bringing back mask mandates already, such as Morris Brown College in Atlanta. It’s not just the US either, last week a hospital in Dublin re-instituted Covid rules.

Just a few days ago Robin Monotti posted this to Twitter:

Apparently, the UK government’s Health Security Agency is looking to hire a “Vaccine Supply Operations Overseer” for the upcoming “largest vaccination programme” which is to be “delivered at pace”.

Neil Ferguson has even emerged from hiding to warn against the Pirola variant.

So, those warning we’re in for another “Plandemic” aren’t panicking over nothing. There’s no smoke without fire, after all, and there’s a lot of smoke here.

…a suspicious amount of smoke, you might say. An “orgy of evidence” is always hard to trust. And given how watchful Covid sceptics are likely to be, for the establishment to advertise their intentions like that would be a potential mistake.

But what other explanation could there be? Realistically, we’re looking at three potential plans here.

It really is just “Plandemic 2.0”. The reason it looks like they’re gearing up to redo covid…is that they’re gearing up to redo Covid. They’re not shy about making their agenda plain a lot of the time, and this is just an egregious example.

It’s a bluff to discredit alt media. A standard ploy, the establishment deliberately feeds the anxieties of independent media outlets who reflexively report the sky is falling…and then they don’t follow through, making the indy media look like the boy who cried wolf.

It’s about vaccines. As covered in our most recent Eris piece, the latest Covid “vaccines” are set to be released next month, amid uptake rates that have plummeted since 2021. By “discovering new variants” and dangling restrictions over our collective heads like a Sword of Damocles, they may just be marketing the new vax.

If the uptake is good then the measures go away, and they can say we “defeated the new variant”. If it’s bad…in with the lockdown. Except for the people who are up to date with their vaccines, of course.

Of course, it could be a mixture of all three, or maybe they haven’t decided yet and will play it by ear.

But what do you think? Are we going to have another round of Covid hysteria? Is there a potential explanation we missed?

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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***

Canada has enacted a new law called the Online News Act that forces social media companies to compensate domestic news organizations for content shared on their platforms. To comply with the new law, Meta banned all news — both national and international news stories — from appearing in Facebook and Instagram feeds in Canada as of June 1, 2023

Google is also blocking all Canadian news from its search, news and discover products in Canada as of June 29, 2023

According to a citizen journalist, X (formerly Twitter) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are working together to censor people on the platform. The ADL has also been influencing crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe to deplatform certain users

The ADL is using artificial intelligence software to comb through podcasts and video-game streams for “extremist” keywords. This suggests ADL is surveilling the online activities of private citizens even if those activities have nothing to do with the ADL’s political and social causes

While Elon Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and promised X would be a free speech platform, evidence suggests otherwise. X CEO Linda Yaccarino is the chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Taskforce on Future of Work and sits on the WEF’s Media, Entertainment and Culture Industry Governors Steering Committee. She has stated that “lawful but awful” posts will be “deamplified,” and that the company policy is one of “freedom of speech, not reach.” X is also actively recruiting applicants for various censorship positions for the upcoming election in 2024

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Censorship is ramping up at a rapid clip, and much of it is clearly directed by the U.S. federal government, despite a federal judge’s order prohibiting federal agencies and officials from communicating with social media companies about content moderation.1

In recent days, several news stories have highlighted governments’ and Big Tech’s intent to increase censorship. There’s even a rumor that Google will ban independent media from its search results altogether.2 I’ve not been able to confirm this, but considering everything else going on, would anyone really be surprised if it were true?

Google, Meta Ban News in Canada

For example, Canada has enacted a new law called the Online News Act that forces social media companies to compensate domestic news organizations for content shared on their platforms. While that may not sound like censorship, it has the same effect, as social media companies are now automatically removing all news links.3

To comply with the new law, Meta banned all news — both national and international news stories — from appearing in Facebook and Instagram feeds in Canada as of June 1, 2023.4

Google is also blocking all Canadian news from its search, news and discover products in Canada as of June 29, 2023.5 In other words, if you live in Canada, you cannot get any news whatsoever unless you subscribe or go to the news source in question directly.

X/Twitter Colludes with Anti-Defamation League to Censor

In other news, X (formerly Twitter) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are working together to censor X users, according to citizen journalist Kyle Clifton (his X account is Kyle Undercover).6

In a series of five videos7 (which you can view here), ADL director of development Courtney Kravitz and the ADL community manager for Arizona, Sarah Kader, discuss a variety of tactics the ADL is using to suppress and censor online speech.

In video No. 1, Kravitz explains that outright bans are not ideal, as it forces people to seek out alternative platforms. Hence a “balance” must be struck between preventing them from “run[ning] to this dark place where they are just with like-minded people” and preventing them from “spewing hate and disinformation.”

It appears the ADL prefers tactics like shadow-banning instead, where the reach of an account or post is severely limited. “Everyone should have freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach,” Kravitz tells Kyle. Interestingly enough, Musk himself used that same line in the summer of 2022.8

In video No. 2, Kravitz admits the ADL has urged Elon Musk to not reverse the ban on certain users, and in video No. 3, Kader explains how the ADL is using novel artificial intelligence software to comb through podcasts and video-game streams for “extremist” keywords.

As noted by Life Site News,9 the admission that ADL is scouring the audio streams of online gamers “suggests ADL has … interest in combing through the online activities of private citizens not involved in political and social causes …” Is that really something the ADL should be doing?

In video No. 4, Kravitz admits the ADL has also been influencing crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe to deplatform certain users, telling them that “extremists” are using their payment processing services to “fund their evil stuff.”

And, in video No. 5, Kader explains how the Arizona ADL has set up a Law Enforcement Advisory Council to identify and address online “hate.” The Advisory Council is made up of “local police departments and other law enforcement agencies all around the state.” Some key questions here, of course, are: What is hateful speech, and who decides what words are considered hateful?

In recent years, we’ve seen how this “anti-hate” narrative has been used to justify the removal of people providing truthful information about COVID and the COVID jabs, for example. Somehow, medical information was deemed “hateful.”

X Censorship Squad Are Anything but Free-Speech Minded

While Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and promised X would be a free speech platform, the people he’s hired are not freedom-loving free speech advocates. Quite the contrary.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino is the chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Taskforce on Future of Work. She’s also part of the WEF’s Media, Entertainment and Culture Industry Governors Steering Committee.

linda yaccarino

Yaccarino has publicly asserted that she has autonomy from Musk.10 A more important question is, does she have autonomy from the WEF, or is she using X to further the WEF’s agenda?

Either way, Yaccarino has stated that “lawful but awful” posts will be “deamplified,” read, shadow banned and demonetized.11 And, like Musk, she has stressed that the company policy is one of “freedom of speech, not reach” to protect “brand safety” for advertisers. And, indeed, under Yaccarino’s watch, big advertisers are once again returning to the platform.

X Is Gearing Up for Election Censorship

X is also actively recruiting applicants for various censorship positions,12 including an “Elections Team Lead,” which flies in the face of Musk’s statement that “Free speech is essential for a functioning democracy.”13

X censorship recruiter Aaron Rodericks is also working against Musk’s stated vision by promoting Kate Starbird,14 a former Twitter employee and chief architect of the 2020 election censorship campaign in which 100% of the top “repeat misinformation spreaders” were Conservatives.15

election misinformation

As noted in Michael Shellenberger’s testimony before the House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in March 2023:16

“Kate Starbird, who runs the University of Washington disinformation lab, has for years been funded primarily by U.S. government agencies to do social media narrative analytics of political groups, or insurgency movements, of interest or concern to U.S. military intelligence or diplomatic equities.

Starbird acknowledged that the censorship focus of CISA and EIP [Election Integrity Partnership] moved from ‘foreign, inauthentic’ social media users to ‘domestic, authentic’ social media users between 2016 to 2020.”

Starbird is also one of the 23 members of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, launched in December 1, 2021.17

European Union Tightens Censorship Nose

In related news, X has also rolled out a new feature that allows users to report posts that violate the European Union’s new law (the Digital Services Act or DSA) against expression of political dissent, pro-Russian propaganda and other “fake news.”18 The new EU law took effect August 25, 2023.19

Other online platforms required to meet DSA requirements for content moderation or risk heavy fines include Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, Amazon, Booking, AliExpress, Google Shopping, Zalando, Apple, Google’s app stores, Google Maps, Wikipedia, Google Search and Bing.20 As reported by Politico:21

“These large platforms will have to stop displaying ads to users based on sensitive data like religion and political opinions. AI-generated content like manipulated videos and photos, known as deepfakes, will have to be labeled.

Companies will also have to conduct yearly assessments of the risks their platforms pose on a range of issues like public health, kids’ safety and freedom of expression. They will be required to lay out their measures for how they are tackling such risks.

‘These 19 very large online platforms and search engines will have to redesign completely their systems to ensure a high level of privacy, security and safety of minors with age verification and parental control tools,’ said [EU’s Internal Market Commissioner Thierry] Breton.

External firms will audit their plans. The enforcement team in the Commission will access their data and algorithms to check whether they are promoting a range of harmful content — for example, content endangering public health or during elections. Fines can go up to 6 percent of their global annual turnover and very serious cases of infringement could result in platforms facing temporary bans.”

The key words there are “content endangering public health” and “elections.” That tells you the EU will force all of these platforms to censor medical information and election information.

X Implementing New Identification Rules

X is also pushing us deeper into surveillance state tyranny by requiring XBlue subscribers to submit a selfie and a government-issued ID to verify their identity.22 X will store this personal information for 30 days and share it with an Israeli identification verification company called AU10TIX.

For now, non-blue users are not required to verify their identities, but I suspect it’s only a matter of time. Eventually, you’ll have to have a digital identity to use the internet at all, and every move you make online will be tracked as part of your social credit score. X is simply paving the way.

CCDH Feigns Innocence

In 2021, it became apparent that the U.S. government was basing many of its censorship decisions on information from an obscure U.K.-based group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). Its “Disinformation Dozen” report,23 published March 24, 2021, has without question been one of the most widely cited “justifications” for censorship over these past two years.

The problem is that this report was itself an example of gross misinformation. The CCDH claimed 12 individuals were responsible for 73% of vaccine misinformation on social media, including Facebook, yet an investigation by Facebook revealed the so-called “disinformation dozen” were responsible for just 0.05% of all views of vaccine-related content on the platform.24

Yet, even after Facebook set the record straight, the federal government continued to cite the CCDH report as the reason for why they wanted the people listed in it censored by Big Tech.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren demanded that Amazon ban my book, “The Truth About COVID,” based on the CCDH’s false statements about me, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) even relied on it to identify “domestic threat actors,”25 meaning domestic terrorists.

Put simply, the DHS has tagged me as a domestic terrorist based on the fabrications of a shadowy intelligence-connected group that in a rational society would have no credibility whatsoever.

This is the intelligence community’s version of Nancy Pelosi’s “wrap-up smear” tactic,26 which is when a politician feeds false information to the media and then uses those media reports to support their false claims.

August 3, 2023, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, launched an investigation into the CCDH’s potential role in the Biden administration’s censorship regime.

The group was ordered to hand over records to the Judiciary Committee detailing its interactions with the U.S. government and the executive branch by August 17.27 As reported by The Washington Post that day:28

“On Thursday [August 17], the CCDH responded with a full-throated defense of its research and communications with government officials, dismissing Jordan’s allegations as ‘confusion about the organization’ in a letter.

Related documents, which were exclusively viewed by The Washington Post, show that the organization has worked with government officials from both parties …

Jordan also has released internal communications from Meta, which he has dubbed ‘the Facebook Files,’ citing the CCDH’s research. The emails … show that the White House discussed the CCDH’s coronavirus research with Facebook executives as it pressured the company to take a tougher line against vaccine falsehoods.

Nadgey Louis-Charles, a House Judiciary spokesperson, recently told The Post that these emails expose the ‘extent to which the Biden White House used the work of the CCDH to try to censor speech.’”

Free Speech Without Reach Is Not Freedom

The CCDH’s fabrications have been used by a long list of government actors and representatives, including members of Congress, state attorneys general and even President Biden himself, all of whom publicly called for retaliatory actions to be taken against us.

As a result, we’ve been censored on social media, delisted by Google Search, and demonetized on YouTube. We’ve been deplatformed and cut off from online payment processors, our websites have been cyberattacked and, in several cases, taken down completely — and we’ve been debanked, all for the “crime” of sharing Constitutionally-protected views and published science.

At the end of the day, the so-called “problem” of misinformation and disinformation is pure nonsense. In a free society, people debate issues and bring varying viewpoints to the table. “Misinformation” is a completely fabricated problem, made up by the very people who seek to control the public discourse for their own aims.

The technocratic cabal driving this global censorship movement know they must silence dissenting viewpoints because what they intend to impose on us is so heinous, if people understand what they’re doing, they’ll never be able to achieve their goals.

So, it’s not just “democracy” that hangs in the balance. Basic freedoms, human rights and life as we know it will be taken from us, and the only way to stop it is by waking people up to reality through information sharing. The very survival of humanity now depends on our ability to maintain free speech, which is why we must keep pushing back against all forms of censorship.

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Notes

1 CNN July 6, 2023

2 Dainikbidyaloy.com August 14, 2023

3 CBC August 8, 2023

4 Meta Press Release June 1, 2023

5 NPR June 29, 2023

6, 9 Life Site News August 11, 2023

7 Twitter Kyle Undercover

8 Life Site News June 17, 2022

10, 11 New York Post August 10, 2023

12, 13 BizPacNews August 21, 2023

14 Revolver August 18, 2023

15 Twitter Mike Benz August 16, 2023

16 Michael Shellenberger Testimony, House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, March 9, 2023

17 CISA Press Release December 1, 2021

18 Twitter Afshiin Rattansi August 20, 2023

19 The Guardian June 23, 2023

20, 21 Politico April 25, 2023

22 Social Media Today August 3, 2023

23 Counterhate.com The Disinformation Dozen March 24, 2021

24 Facebook August 18, 2021

25 Combatting Targeted Disinformation Campaigns, Part 2 August 2021

26 Daily Wire October 8, 2018

27 Greenmedinfo.com August 3, 2023

28 Washington Post August 17, 2023

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Zelensky Believes Ukraine Will be Permanently Supported

August 29th, 2023 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

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Zelensky seems to be naively optimistic about his country’s future. He believes that Kiev is as important to the US as Israel and worthy of permanent military support, unaffected by internal shifts in US politics.

In an interview with a local TV channel, Zelensky expressed confidence that US military aid to Ukraine will remain unaffected, regardless of what happens in the White House. He compared the Ukrainian situation to that of Israel, a country that has remained a strategic ally of the US over the decades, in a policy of cooperation that has not changed despite the different guidelines of the various American presidents.

He also stated that his country is prepared to face a situation of prolonged conflict. Zelensky believes that fighting with Russia could take years, forming a circumstance of permanent hostility, similar to that seen by Israel in its conflict with the Palestinian resistance. Therefore, comparing both cases, the neo-Nazi president believes that the US aid model for Israel may also be suitable for Ukraine, emphasizing however that, for this to happen, Kiev could not take the conflict into the [demilitarized and undisputed] territory of the Russian Federation, as this would risk the stability of aid and Ukraine could “be left on its own”.

“We need to learn to live with [the conflict]. We need to learn. Israel is at war. It depends on what kind of war. We are prepared to keep fighting for a very long period of time… [while] minimizing the number of casualties. Like in Israel, for example. We can live like that (…) The Israeli model… we will likely get this exact model. The Israeli model that includes weapons, technology, training, finances, etc”, he told journalists during the interview.

There are some curious points in these words by Zelensky. First, it is necessary to note his optimism, as he is apparently convinced that Western aid will become an American stable state policy, immune to local political changes. Zelensky seems to ignore the growing critical opinion of the US role in the conflict, with congressmen condemning the aid to Kiev, in addition to possible future presidential candidates, such as Donald Trump himself, stating that they will “end” the war.

Furthermore, it is interesting to see that Zelensky is reportedly concerned about not allowing the conflict to affect Russian demilitarized territory, as this contradicts what some of his officials have been saying in recent months. High ranking Ukrainian military have pledged drone strikes against Russian cities, meaning they plan to take the conflict outside the combat zone. Apparently, there is no central command in the neo-Nazi regime, with officials saying different things at the same time and contradicting the plans announced by the president.

The key problem with Zelensky’s analysis is that he compares situations that are not alike. In the case of Israel, US military aid has remained intact over the decades because the country is a key US partner in the Middle Eastern region, where Washington has promoted a policy of constant occupation. Furthermore, Israel has many representatives within American society itself, with many political and economic groups supporting the Jewish state.

The Ukrainian case is different. The American strategy for Kiev consists in using the country as a proxy in a war against Russia. The Americans have no hope of beating Russia on the battlefield, but they want to generate attrition and destabilization, so they use Ukrainian soldiers as “cannon fodder” to achieve this goal. In Israel, the US is concerned about the security of its partner, in Ukraine it is not. For Washington, the war must be prolonged “to the last Ukrainian” because this is precisely Kiev’s role in the American strategy for Russia.

In the same sense, it must be remembered that the Russians maintain the military control of the conflict. Moscow is deliberately avoiding creating a major escalation that would allow it to resolve the situation once and for all, but definitely the Russian armed forces could do it at any time. So, the power to decide whether or not to make a prolonged conflict is in the hands of Russian officials, not Ukrainians, which makes Zelensky’s words a mere bluff.

In the end, it looks like Zelensky is trying to show an image of strength and stability when he is actually weak and isolated. Since the NATO summit, when Zelensky was rejected by his sponsors, the Ukrainian president has had a very negative public image. Now, he appears to be simply trying to improve his status by saying that, despite NATO’s denial, Ukraine still has its place in the West’s plans, with the possibility of permanent aid even without membership, in line with the “Israel model.”

There are no arguments to justify this conclusion, but he needs to somehow try to react to his growing unpopularity, even more so when rumors grow that the West wants to replace him. However, given the Ukrainian military catastrophe, public opinion is unlikely to believe Zelensky.

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Lucas Leiroz is a journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on Twitter and Telegram.  

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On March 3, 2023, a German team published an extensive review of MASKING during the COVID-19 pandemic that should put the final nail in the coffin of masking & mask mandates.

The Kisielinski Study 

A German team, led by an independent surgeon in private practice, published a large review of mask use during COVID-19 pandemic.

It has 172 references.

I will summarize key findings:

  • 4.5 billion people (58%) were confronted with a “mask obligation”
  • Fresh air has 0.04% CO2
  • Wearing masks more than 5 minutes: 1.4 to 3.2% CO2

Carbon Dioxide Re-breathing

  • Surgical mask after 30 min = 2.8-3.2% CO2 (U.Butz, 2005)
  • N95 after 1 min = 0.9% CO2 (T.Blad, 2020)
  • N95 after 5 min = 1.28% to 3.52% (Sinkule, 2013)
  • N95 after 60 min = 2.8-3.2% (Roberge, 2010)

Acute CO2 Toxicity

  • 10 min of 2.5-3.5% CO2 increases cerebral blood flow by 100% = headaches
  • hyperventilation, metabolic changes (acidosis)

Chronic CO2 Toxicity (animal studies)

  • 0.3% CO2 – irreversible neuron damage, neuron destruction, increased anxiety, impaired learning and memory (rat studies)
  • 0.5% CO2 – testicular toxicity in adolescents (rat studies show diminished fertility in rat testes after one 4hr exposure at 2.5% CO2)
  • 0.8% CO2 – stillbirths (safety level set by US Navy for female submarine crew, due to rat studies showing fetal malformations, post implantation loss, lower probability of viable fetuses)

Other Findings

  • N95 masks and surgical masks performed at their worst with coronavirus & influenza virus particles (did ok with bigger bacterial sized particles) (source)
  • Children: Data on a total of 25 930 children wearing face masks for 270 min per day showed that 68% complained about discomfort. Side effects included irritability (60%), headache (53%), difficulty concentrating (50%), less happiness (49%), reluctance to go to school/kindergarten (44%), malaise (42%), impaired learning (38%) and drowsiness/fatigue (37%) (source)
  • Any mandatory masking of pregnant women in the real world exceeds the CO2 toxicity limit set by US Navy for female submarine crew

Stillbirths 

  • Are mask mandates responsible for 28% rise in stillbirths worldwide?
  • Italy: 3-fold increase in stillbirths during lockdown period Mar-May 2020 which included mask mandates
  • 42% of US female surgeons lost a pregnancy Nov.2020-Feb.2021
  • Sweden: no mask mandates, no increase in stillbirths
  • Mechanism: increased CO2 and acidity in blood trigger compensatory mechanisms that lead to calcifications in placenta
  • CO2 plays a role in oxidative stress which would impede fetal body development, lead to DNA mutations
  • CO2 can increase inflammation leading to an imbalanced immune response, procoagulant state and early pregnancy loss.
  • Some evidence that N95 mask use by pregnant women could result in their children having significantly reduced verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance (child neurodevelopment study in Rhode Island that had mask mandates). (source)

Children and Adolescents

  • children are not small adults
  • 0.3% CO2 exposure to adolescent brain neurons can cause neuronal destruction, anxiety and impaired learning and memory (Uysal, 2014)
  • 0.3% CO2 – neurons die off (apoptosis), especially under exercise or stress.
  • CO2 can destroy spermatid and Sertoli cells in testes
  • Damaging mechanism of CO2 in testes is oxidative stress, acidosis, increased inflammation and apoptosis.
  • CO2 toxicity to testes has been known for 60 years.

My Take… 

This study ONLY looks at CO2 re-breathing toxicity.

As the authors write:

  • other noxious agents in the masks contribute to toxicological long-term effects like the inhalation of synthetic microfibers, carcinogenic compounds and volatile organic compounds could also play a role regarding our research question”

The animal studies are clear and this review summarizes them thoroughly.

Not only does masking not work on coronaviruses or influenza viruses, but masking causes real harm to vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, children and adolescents.

The harm being caused by masking is very serious. Even a few minutes of wearing a surgical, cloth or N95 mask and you initiate the following long term damages:

  • children – irreversible neuron damage, neuron destruction, increased anxiety, impaired learning and memory
  • adolescents – testicular toxicity
  • pregnant women – stillbirths, fetal malformations, post implantation loss, lower probability of viable fetuses

When you know the physical and mental harms that masks can cause, the intent of those who are pushing mask mandates again, suddenly becomes very clear.

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

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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BRICS Establishes a New International Order

August 29th, 2023 by Manlio Dinucci

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The 15th BRICS Summit, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, made a series of decisions that lay the foundation for a new international order, an alternative to that imposed by the West.

The BRICS association-formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa-expands to include 6 more countries, which will become full members as of January 1, 2024: the Argentine Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

At present, 44 countries want to join BRICS: 22 have already officially applied, and another 22 have expressed their intention to do so. Therefore, the Summit instructed foreign ministers to prepare a list of partner countries as a basis for further enlargement.  

The five current members together account for more than 42 percent of the world’s population, 30 percent of the world’s territory, 23 percent of GDP and 18 percent of global trade. 

Candidates that could join the 6 already admitted as full members include: Afghanistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, and Nicaragua. 

A BRICS expanded to include these 13 countries would have more than 4 billion people, or more than half the world’s population, it would own 45 percent of the world’s oil reserves and more than 60 percent of the world’s gas reserves. Its total GDP would amount to about $30 trillion, more than the GDP of the United States and twice that of the European Union.

The realization of a new international order, alternative to that imposed by the West, is therefore possible: indeed, the founding value of the BRICS is the shared commitment to restructure the global political, economic and financial architecture so that it is fair, balanced and representative. Within this framework, the BRICS have launched a plan to de-dollarize trade, which is already reducing the hegemony of the dollar, and have created the New Development Bank, an alternative to the World Bank. Further steps in this direction are expected from the 16th BRICS Summit, to be held in 2024 in Russia.

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This article was originally published on byoblu in Italian.

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

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I am surely not the only one who has noticed that the defensive propaganda lines that are flowing out the Democratic Administration have become more than ordinarily ridiculous of late. One is astonished at the melding of fact and fiction to create narratives that depict the White House and all that pertains to it as forging a new and more wonderful country. Wasn’t “Build Back Better” the battle cry, whatever that is supposed to mean?

And the spin is endless, even when a clueless Joe Biden belatedly winds up in Maui to relate to the tragedy in which at least 1,000 died, only to be greeted by surviving local residents saluting the president with their middle fingers upraised.

As the president looked out over the destruction of an entire city by fire he reminisced by recalling his long ago “almost” encounter with a fire in his kitchen.

Locals who were screaming for help from government were, in fact, getting almost nothing while the nation’s Chief Executive was in the Oval Office gloating over sending another $23 billion to the arch crook Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, money to fight a war that Biden encouraged and has blithely entered into.

Washington politicians characteristically have no morals and are driven only by their desire to perpetuate their party’s dominance so that the corruption that makes so many of those who adhere to the process rich, including Joe Biden. How do 500,000 dead Ukrainians and Russians matter if a myth about the United States and its values can be exploited to obtain electoral victory for Biden in 2024? As the greatly esteemed monster Madeleine Albright once put it, “I think it is worth it!”

I would suggest that our political class and the parasites that surround it are approaching depths not yet plumbed when I occasionally peruse articles or listen to speeches produced by the Washington DC spin machine. But even by that measure, I was appalled by a recent article that appeared in Politico and which immediately received considerable replay in other publications frequented by the inside-the-Beltway crowd.

Politico was acquired by Axel Springer, a German publisher in 2021, Europe’s largest newspaper and magazine conglomerate. Ideologically, some have described Springer publications’ political bias “as leaning left of center or moderate” but my personal exposure to the group since my army days in Germany has led me to believe that it is actually much more conservative than that. All employees at Springer, to include Politico, are expected to support the European Union, NATO, Israel, the war against Ukraine, the open society, and free market policies.

The article is entitled “Here Are 3 Ways to End the War in Ukraine. One Might Actually Work” with a subtitle “Putin has a veto over two endgames for Ukraine. 

But there’s a third that would bypass him.” The piece was penned by one Tom Malinowski, an assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor in the Obama administration before serving as a Democratic Party congressman from New Jersey’s 7th district between 2019 and 2023.

He is currently under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics over “substantial reason to believe” that he had violated federal laws relating to conflicts of interest. He had reportedly traded and failed to disclose approximately $1 million of stock in medical and technical companies that would be receiving taxpayer assistance as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response, which would inevitably result in a large surge in stock values.

Malinowski is currently a senior fellow at the McCain Institute, one of those foundations funded by defense industries where politicians go to hide and get rich between terms in elected office. The Institute is a Washington DC based allegedly “nonpartisan think tank established in cooperation with Arizona State University.” Its declared mission is to “fight for democracy, human dignity, and security for a world that is free, safe, and just for all people.”

Inevitably, it is rather selective in terms of who exactly benefits from its largesse and one might recall that its eponymous founder Senator John McCain hardly ever saw a war he didn’t like and once dismissed Vladimir Putin’s Russia as a “gasoline station pretending to be a real country.” McCain was also a major player in the “regime change” operation in Ukraine in 2014, suggesting that his judgement about America’s relationship with the rest of the world just might be a little flawed.

Malinowski is inevitably fully on board with the White House view of why the United States has gone whole hog in a proxy war against Russia that uses Ukraine as its instrument of choice . He says in his first paragraph that “’Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia — never,’ President Joe Biden said in a speech in Poland this year, and rightly so. For the war in Ukraine to end on terms consistent with American interests and ideals, Ukraine must be seen to have won, and Russia’s invasion must go down in history as a decisive failure, enough to deter other authoritarian powers from launching similar wars of aggression in the future.”

Malinowski poses his “3 Ways” as follows: first, for

“its armed forces to take back all the territory Russia has unlawfully seized since its first invasion in 2014 — including Crimea. This would be a fantastic outcome. It is still possible. And the United States should do everything possible to support it, including, if Congress approves more funding, by providing the more advanced weapons Ukraine has requested.”

If Malinowski thinks armed victory by Ukraine is “still possible” he is delusional, but he does not seriously expect that outcome, except for the “more funding” part. His Second Way, also a “red herring” to disguise where he really wants to go, would be “through a diplomatic agreement.

Earlier this month, 40 countries, including China and the United States, met in Saudi Arabia to discuss President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point plan for peace, which would require the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine, the return of abducted children and justice for war crimes. Any settlement based on that plan would, of course, be wonderful. But Russia under Putin has never ended its wars at the negotiating table; at best it has frozen them, keeping its options open. Russia has shown zero interest in making concessions that would come close to the minimal requirements of Ukraine and its allies. As long as his military avoids total collapse, and he believes there is a chance of political change in the West, Putin will likely keep sacrificing Russians to stay in the fight.”

So Malinowski’s Second Way is a deliberately designed dead end and he, of course, blames it all on Putin. His actual “solution” would be the Third Way:

“So if Russia manages to stymie plans A and B, where would that leave us by, say this time next year? Should Ukraine and its allies simply carry on, hoping for a breakthrough in 2025 or beyond? Given what’s at stake — not just the survival of Ukraine but of the whole international order — that would be risky. It would make success dependent on events we cannot predict or control, including on the outcome of elections in Western countries, including the United States. And while we have no right to tell Ukrainians to stop fighting before their country is whole, we also have no right to expect them to keep fighting at any cost. Fortunately, there is a third possible way to satisfy the need for Ukrainian success and Russian failure, over which Putin would have no veto.”

Malinowski requires that:

“the United States would give the Ukrainian military whatever it needs to advance as far as possible in its counteroffensive. At an appropriate point next year, Ukraine would declare a pause in offensive military operations and shift its primary focus to defending and rebuilding liberated areas while integrating with Western institutions.

Then, at its July, 2024 summit in Washington, NATO would invite Ukraine to join the Western alliance, guaranteeing the security of all territory controlled by the Ukrainian government at that point under Article 5 of the NATO treaty… This would be a defensive pact, but not a commitment to take direct part in any future offensive operations Ukraine might choose to undertake.

Ukraine joining NATO could itself be how the war ends, consistent with Biden’s current policy — and at a time and on terms set by Ukraine and its allies, not by Russia. Gaining security within NATO as a strong, pluralistic, democratic state would absolutely count as a victory for Ukraine — arguably as big as quickly regaining Crimea. It might make it politically possible for Zelensky, if he so chooses, to emphasize nonmilitary strategies for reclaiming any parts of his country still under Russian occupation, which Ukraine’s allies would also continue to support — potentially including anything from diplomacy and sanctions to blockade and sabotage…

Adding a democratic Ukraine in NATO would mark the utter and permanent defeat of Putin’s crusade to absorb it into a Russian empire…

Yes, Russian forces could try to go on the offensive again, but the likely futility of attacking fortified Ukrainian positions now backed by the threat of NATO firepower would be a strong deterrent. Meanwhile, sanctions on Russia would remain; its economic and military strength would continue to erode; and Putin could only watch as his frozen assets abroad are drawn down to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction.”

It is easy to see what is wrong with the Malinowski Third Way apart from it being an open door to initiating a nuclear World War III. And one might suggest that it is also possible to discern the US domestic politics that are driving it. How the war in Ukraine ends all depends on Zelensky behaving rationally, which he is not renowned for, and he is quite capable of joining NATO before using a false flag or otherwise provoking an incident with Russia that would require NATO Article 5 intervention.

Also, all the other parties involved would have to act predictably and sanely, including the US, which is unlikely. Zelensky in particular is desperate to draw the US and NATO into his war and will do whatever it takes to arrive at that point and his non-negotiable demand for full restoration of all Ukrainian territory including Crimea, endorsed by Malinowski, is a deal breaker that in any event Russia could not accept.

Even the up-until-now supportive US mainstream media is beginning to see the light and is admitting both that the highly touted Ukrainian counteroffensive has been a failure and that Ukraine has no ability to defeat Russia no matter how many weapons are put in the pipeline at great cost to sustain it. And there is also the fraud from the Biden regime that is taking place with reports that even the normally biddable CIA has been warning to no avail that the war is unwinnable. The fact that as many as half a million Ukrainians and Russians have already been killed or wounded is starting to hit home with both Americans and Europeans and will increase demands to end the fighting as unconditionally as necessary.

A final but very important point that must be made is the deliberate timing of Malinowski’s “3rd Way” which very conveniently presents Joe Biden with a great military victory just before the US presidential election, erasing all memories of the disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan. It apparently matters not that in doing so it continues a bloody and pointless war and destroys Ukraine as a state and as a people.

Online substack observer Simplicius the Thinker describes how

“Democrats will need all the help they can get. If a plan could be designed and packaged in a way where it can be sold as a major ‘victory’ then certainly Democrats will attempt to drag it out until the eve of the election to try to use ‘Biden’s major Ukrainian victory’ as a huge final hour boost.” Joe and Malinowski apparently believe that victory in an election is more important that finding the sanity to take steps to save hundreds of thousands of lives and they will continue to do whatever it takes to “win.”

Sickening.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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The Profiteering Motive

August 29th, 2023 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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Times of crisis can be glorious for some. The Great Depression bred its share of wealthy profiteers. The First and Second World Wars fostered many a multimillionaire. Over the bodies of millions, the returns for armaments companies were unparalleled. And during the current “cost of living crisis,” as it is so often dubbed, there are companies beaming at their profit margins even as they affect false modesty.

In the United Kingdom, for instance, earnings for household energy suppliers are booming, despite crushing bills. British Gas reported a staggering nine-fold increase in profits, from £98 million in 2022 to £969 million this year. Its parent company Centrica reported profits of £2.1 billion over the first six months of 2023, while Shell glowed with a profit of £3.9 billion for the second quarter in 2023.

In Australia, where the spirit of roguish exploitation remains strong, companies such as the national carrier Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank are rolling in cash. Supermarket outlets such as Coles have also announced huge returns. To them can be added such energy companies as AGL. While households are counting the dollars and cents for the weekly shopping and the fortnightly rental, corporate entities of a certain heft are thriving.

This is all fascinating stuff. For one thing, it does not necessarily attest to quality. It also brings out the market defenders who take issue with such terms as “price gouging”. “Profit outrage,” comes an editorial in The Australian, “has always been a fluid concept.  It comes around every six months for listed companies, and for their CEOs it’s a balancing act.” Rather than asking the question why such companies are thriving as the commonfolk decline, the paper blames customers and workers for not defining “what an acceptable level of profit is.”

The company bosses such as Leah Weckert of Coles also argue that such profits are miniscule relative to the demands of shareholders. Much like a hospital regarding its patients as irritating fodder, she cites the wishes of the market as all conquering and relevant while ignoring the customer. Do shop with us, but we know where true allegiances lie.

The banksters are also advancing the arguments that their returns are hardly unexceptional. Despite the company’s earnings of A$10.16 billion in cash profit, the Commonwealth Bank’s chief executive, Matt Comyn, prefers the long view. “Our profitability has fallen substantially in the last decade and is currently lower than a number of international markets.” How terrible for him, given the company’s remorseless cutting of 251 jobs from its IT, Business Banking and Retail Baking Services roles.

What is unacceptable is the extent these companies seem to derive their profits even as they slash their employment base and offer unspeakably poor services, all in an effort to consolidate their dominant share of the market. Talk of competition and the balm of reduced prices has ceased to be relevant in the food, banking, insurance, energy and aviation industries. Behind the profits lie sackings, euphemistic restructuring, thinning, and the incidental benefits of war. (Oh Vladimir, go the company executives, we love you!)

Reassured in their dominant position in the pecking order, companies can behave appallingly. The service on Qantas is often an abomination, a brattish, shabby excuse for an airline. Despite that, it remained the sole beneficiary of government assistance in the airline business during the global pandemic, the guzzling, pampered Australian icon. To show its gratitude, the “Flying Kangaroo” became a beast of even greater indifference.

In 2022, the airline company made losing luggage, cancelling flights with a drunk’s compulsion, and keeping people waiting on calls matters of routine. Those seeking refunds were repulsed, frustrated and often ignored. And don’t even begin to mention their hopeless frequent flyer redemption system.

The financial pundits also took note of the tarnished brand, looking beyond the social media storm and understandable fury from the Transport Workers Union. (The latter took the company to court over the sacking of 1,700 ground staff during the pandemic.) The Australian Financial Review revealed “anecdotal evidence that the brand damage is getting worse. It has spread to the elite C-suites of Australian business”.

In 2023, Qantas found itself very much in the pink. The 2023 financial year, the company recorded a A$2.5 billion pre-tax profit, raising the question as to what the appropriate profit returns in such cases would be. The controversial, outgoing CEO Alan Joyce, in a typically unconvincing public relations spray, suggested that such earnings were ordinary, given the last “normal” profit in 2019.

His successor, Vanessa Hudson, was also unmoved, seeing it as a logical outcome of solid planning. “All of the work we have done during COVID in terms of restructuring our cost base, we are going to see that as fares come down … with capacity coming back, that our cost position is going to materially improve going forward.”

The Joyce-Hudson rationale barely survives scrutiny. The company’s higher fares, its structural stripping to the value of A$1 billion and its return in invested capital, up from 18.4 percent in 2019 to 103.6 percent in 2023, has even prompted the question as to whether there is a more than a bit of over-earning taking place here.

It’s little wonder that the heads of such outfits have attracted revulsion. Joyce, so devoid of empathy he is bound to become an Australian university chancellor, even suffered an egg and toilet paper attack on his family home in July last year. But the atrocious and incompetent are long in business, and far from being put down, they survive, striving to fight another day and announce, with pride, the next round of profits. Shouldering them will be desperate customers and unwilling taxpayers, aiding the whole affair. Market competition, as it so often tends to be, remains the great hoax of economics.

*

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

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***

Mike Whitney interviews Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a renowned author and academic, and chairman of The Institute for Political Economy.

Mike Whitney (MW): To what extent has the war in Ukraine accelerated the move to a new global realignment?

Paul Craig Roberts (PCR): It was Washington’s economic sanctions against Russia, the theft of Russia’s central bank reserves, and the theft of Venezuela’s gold, not the conflict in Ukraine, that weaponized the US dollar and resulted in global realignment.

The limited Russian intervention in Donbas was Putin’s belated eight-year-delayed response to the US coup that overthrew the government of Ukraine in 2014 and installed a government hostile to Russia and to the Russian population that had been incorporated into the Ukraine province of the Soviet Union by Soviet leaders. The intervention was forced on Putin by the United States’ buildup of a large Ukraine army poised to overthrow the self-declared Donbas republics.

By habit and convenience, the US dollar is used as world money to settle imbalances in international trade, but the sanctions woke the world up to the risks of using the dollar. Consequently, the BRICS suddenly expanded with membership extended to Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The organization now contains essentially the entirety of world oil production and 40-45% of World GDP.

Clearly, a realignment has already occurred.

MW: Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE have now all joined BRICS. How will this affect the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency? (Is this the end of the petrodollar?)

PCR: Saudi Arabia announced the end of the petrodollar when it began accepting payment for oil in other currencies. The BRICS are working out how to carry on trade among themselves without use of the US dollar, which in effect brings to an end the role of the dollar as world reserve currency.

The BRICS might try to create a new reserve currency consisting of a weighted basket of their currencies. This is unnecessary and could lead to strains among BRICS members from disputes over the shares of each currency in the basket. A reserve currency is no longer needed. A reserve currency was needed at the end of WWII because the other industrialized economies were destroyed. As the US had the only intact economy, the role fell to the US dollar. Today this is not the situation. Central banks can keep their reserves in the form of the currencies of their trading partners.

What this means for Washington is that the US will begin having financing problems for its large budget and trade deficits. As long as the dollar was the world money, foreign central banks kept their reserves in US Treasury debt. As US budget and trade deficits grew, so did the reserves of the world banking system.

The situation is changing. If a dozen countries constituting about half of the world’s population and 40-45% of world GDP cease using the dollar, the foreign central bank market for US debt shrinks considerably. Having offshored its manufacturing, the US is import-dependent. Declining use of the dollar means a declining supply of customers for US debt, which means pressure on the dollar’s exchange value and the prospect of rising inflation from rising prices of imports.

MW: Can Washington allow this realignment to stand or should we expect to see a coup in Saudi Arabia where the US has five military bases and numerous CIA offices?

PCR: I do not know if Washington has the ability to overthrow the Saudi government or whether Russia, China, and Iran would permit it. Remember, President Obama was going to overthrow Assad in Syria, but Putin did not permit it.

MW: The globalist dreams of the western oligarchs (WEF) appear to be coming to an end along with the so-called “rules-based order”. In your opinion, how important has Vladimir Putin been in spearheading the move towards a “new architecture for global security” and laying the groundwork for a new multipolar world order?

PCR: What broke up Washington’s version of global order was the West’s cold shoulder to Putin’s effort to be a part of the world order on equal standing and not in a subservient position. It was Washington’s arrogance and foolishness that broke up the global order.

MW: Before he died, national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski warned that the US would need to seek an accommodation with Russia and China to ease the transition away from the unipolar system. Here’s what he said:

“As its era of global dominance ends, the United States needs to take the lead in realigning the global power architecture… the United States is still the world’s politically, economically, and militarily most powerful entity but, given complex geopolitical shifts in regional balances, i t is no longer the globally imperial power….

the United States must take the lead in realigning the global power architecture in such a way that the violence …can be contained without destroying the global order.…

a long and painful road toward an initially limited regional accommodation is the only viable option for the United States, Russia, China, and the pertinent Middle Eastern entities. For the United States, that will require patient persistence in forging cooperative relationships with some new partners (particularly Russia and China)…

The fact is that there has never been a truly “dominant” global power until the emergence of America on the world scene…. During the latter part of the 20th century no other power even came close. That era is now ending. Toward a Global Realignment, Zbigniew Brzezinski, The American Interest

In your opinion, how should the United States deal with Moscow and Beijing? Is there a way that we can defend US interests while –at the same time– avoiding years of conflict and confrontation? What should our foreign policy objectives be?

PCR: The neoconservatives’ goal of US hegemony prevents Washington from hearing Brzezinski’s advice. Washington’s chance to deal with Russia and China has passed. The question we face is how will Russia and China deal with Washington. The neoconservative monopoly on US foreign policy means that there are no other voices for Washington to hear, and American hegemony is out of the question.

*

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). 

Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Who Controls the World and War in Ukraine?

August 29th, 2023 by Jerome Irwin

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***

Foreword

Who and why those among the Deep State, a metaphor meaning what each and every human is doing by omission or commission about war in the Ukraine and about war everywhere else, not to mention the destruction of the planet’s entire natural world well-being and survival, is inexorably causing the intentional worldwide destruction and instability of whole cultures, societies of human and non-human life, as well as, while, at the same time, intentionally and indifferently continues to condone the brutal wholesale annihilation of both human and non-human planetary life, with the real possibility of a potential nuclear war, and the devastation to all of life itself that it poses, and the mass insanity and madness of what is being perpetrated in front of the world’s eyes, beyond what no words can adequately convey.

The cause of such brutal madness and the inexplicable ‘irrationality’ underlying it all, remains a conundrum, other than the gross motives of mindless greed, power and control, that is being exercised by those totalitarian “puppet master” entities who exist within the financial world’s Deep State. They’re the ones who control the world and all that continues to feed upon whatever warmongering conflict.

They’re the ones who are forever comfortable with allowing the hideous conflict in Ukraine, as well as with every other mindless, hideous, irrational world conflict, or deteriorating human and non-human life condition on Planet Earth, to remain unchecked until it so suits them; as with the now dangerous drift ever closer in the direction of some human-created planetary climate crisis or nuclear cataclysm, with the victimized body of Ukraine now but the latest identified epicenter.

The Deep State is simply a metaphor for what happens when the enormously destructive, evil powers of obscenely-massive amounts of money, wealth and power, are amassed in the hands of the few or many immoral, conscienceless individuals or groups of individuals, who care little to nothing about what happens to any one person, nation or state other than themselves.

The monstrous mass destruction being indifferently perpetrated against Ukraine, is the same monstrous indifference that is causing the mass destruction of the world’s societies, because of unheralded numbers of refugees and immigrants who are being forced to flood to all points on the globe, in search of harbors of safety. This tragic phenomenon, in turn, is causing the wholesale mass disruption and destruction to traditional cultures and heritage of peoples lives and their natural habitats everywhere. What is happening is not only morally unconscionable, but gross criminality of the worst kind against all of humanity and Mother Earth herself, for which the whole world continues to suffer, grievously.

In simple truth of fact, the Deep State is a cannibalistic human-created monster of plutocrats, oligarchs and tyrants who are prepared to perpetually feed upon the human and planet’s collective bodies, whether through Peace or War, as if they were nothing more than rotting carcasses.The rapacious appetites of these carnivorous entities know no limits, but only crave more and more and more to feast upon, as in the current case of Ukraine, until the beast is duly satiated. Until the next time, when the lust for the riches of monies and the planet’s natural resources once again overcomes their sense of moral sanity. The Deep State simply is a malignant seed that has existed within every human being, to varying degrees, and in various shadowy disguises, since the beginning of the species creation on earth.

Part I:

The Ukraine War Will Only End

When the Deep State Says It Will

“How will the war in Ukraine End?” The questions are endless, but what are the right questions to ask? Before reading any further, one must ask themselves both the question and the answer: “How will the war in Ukraine end?”

Any number of theses or predictions continue to be put forward by myriad pundits to suggest how it will happen, Some historian’s predict Five Ways To End the War”.

Other Innumerable Military Analysts Point to How the War Will End and Why?

Some Ask, “When Will the War End?”; “Others say “The War Will End in Calamity Once the United States Gives F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine”.

Still others say, “Depleted Funds Finally Will Put an End to Russia’s War in Ukraine”:

Some say “The War Will Only End With the Liberation of Crimea from Russia”; while others argue

“The Fatal End For the World Will Come When Ukraine’s Land War Escalates Into a Maritime War in the Black Sea”.

But who really knows? Trump once laimed he could, “End The Ukraine War in One Day”; while an Ex-CIA Director Predicts “I Already Know Who Will Win The War and How”:

Some others say “The War Will End Sooner Than Expected?”;

“Others contend, “The War may go one for years more yet”, while some say.

“Ending the War in Ukraine through negotiations will only present Dangers of a False Peace”:

These same ones argue, “The Only way to End The War is by a Russian Defeat on the Battlefield”,

while others worry, “Ukraine Can Only inevitability become an endlessly-wider, cancerous conflict that ultimately will be fatal to both Western and Eastern Europe.”

In point of truth, the end, “Only the Shadow really knows.”

The list of articles and titles and suppositions are endlessly-long but they all lead nowhere, save for a multitude of yet more suppositions and predictions. Yet never is any direct mention ever made, by name, of the Deep State and its Machiavellian involvement and culpability in the course and direction of the war, by simply always Following the Money To Whatever Conclusions It Leads

The Money Continues to Flow Along with the Body Count

By now, after over eighteen months of bloody slaughter warfare, as heinous as anything that ever occurred in WWI or WWII, the reticence to put an end to this Unending War remains patently evident among U.S., NATO, Ukrainian and Russian combatants involved, in spite of the horrendous cannon fodder the Ukrainians and their mercenaries have since become in the onslaught.

Little mention is ever made about why the ruthless, double-speaking corporate press once severely criticized the presence of Neo-Nazi’s in the war in Ukraine, but since have virtually whitewashed the obvious reasons why the ever-widening, far-right, Neo Nazi elements in Ukraine and in the world, for nine years since the Coup of 2014, and even many years before that, have been actively supported by the U.S., NATO, and the majority of their citizenry and still obstinately refuse to enter into any meaningful ceasefire or peace negotiations with Russia.

This reality becomes ever more disgustingly clearer with each passing day and month as military escalation and the threat of collapse continues to drift towards some unknown potential hideous nuclear end game, world-wide financial collapse or consequent immense societal chaos.

Whomever the Deep State plutocrats, oligarchs and tyrants are in the world who have backed this nine-year war since the Coup of 2014, while remaining mysteriously-enshrouded behind the curtains, continually pulling out all the stops and levers, they continue to reap unbelievable profits from the war for a slew of multi-national investment management companies, like the Vanguard Group and Black Rock, or financial institutions like the U.S. Federal Reserve, Barclays Bank, JP Morgan, Chase & Company, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Bank of New York, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Alfa Bank, Gazprom, Sberbank, and VTB, to name but a few. For decades, if not centuries in other previous wars, protected by the immensity of the same dark veil of their wealth and privilege, the principles of these financial institutions, or others of their kind, continue to be provided with the same protective anonymity and total invisibility. But does anyone really care?

On the other hand, their many political underlings within the Western World’s apparatchik and nomenklatura within the United States Government and other Western governments among NATO Nation, can be readily identified by name and by face and position of power, whether they’re: Presidents, Prime Ministers, Secretary’s of State, Undersecretaries of State, National Security Advisors, myriad Ambassadors, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, or Defense Commanders. But not so within the principals of the Deep State.

The whole nameless, faceless mob of them and the rest of us poor dolts, as unwitting co-conspirators, collectively, could otherwise simply be known as “Deflectors of The Truth” or “The Gatekeepers”, who forever obfuscate and deflect from the real timeless, ever-unfolding, human story from being fully known or told, whose directives remain forever paramount.

There actually isn’t anything clandestine about this since most elected officials and prominent figures in positions of power everywhere in the world mostly openly adhere to the same world view and faithfully subscribe to its tenets, with little problem whatsoever, while dutifully carrying out the orders and directives of their shadowy Deep State puppet masters, safely ensconced behind their closed chambered doors. It’s they who always, ultimately, will have the last word as to when and how the war in Ukraine finally will end.

Meanwhile. the world’s populace, more and more dumbed down by the greatest, most savage, corporate propaganda war ever waged in history against the world’s masses, stand by hopelessly transfixed, like deer caught in the on-coming blinding flash of a nuclear holocaust, massive societal collapse or some other equally-dire life-ending calamity.

Unlike other wars, when massive upwellings of anti-war, pro-peace protests once readily responded to whatever widespread war or social chaos erupted, or when some demonstrative affirmative action was needed to respond to the serous lack of food, money or jobs; their once existed within the world’s citizenry a belief in their ability or capacity to demonstrate vigorously, even violently, to stop the insanity of whatever war or societal collapse existed. But why some never-ending deep-felt self-hatred exists among certain humans, who inexorably continue to lead the world towards oblivion, whether by military or planetary destruction, remains the greatest unanswered conundrum of them all. What is now happening throughout the world is not only morally unconscionable, but nothing short of gross criminality against all of humanity and Mother Earth herself.

Though the masses once did have the capacity to believe in the power of their collective mass actions against wars in places like Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya or Palestine, that belief or conviction since has been seriously eroded and shown, over time, to be proven to be untrue.

What Has Happened to World Leaders Who Did Hold to that Belief

This futility can be seen in the past actions taken by more than a few world leaders who sought on their own to try to make a real difference in the world; such as in the fate of their countries like the Congo, Iraq and Libya, whose leaders, Patrice Lamumba, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, once also had the temerity and chutzpah to dare to challenge the Deep States iron grip on the way human society works; especially the dominance of the U.S. Petro Dollar & U.S. Dollar as the world’s Reserve Currency.

But for all their efforts they, too, ended up ruthlessly assassinated by the Deep State in the West, while their vast national financial wealth and holdings, wrongly thinking they were safe once they were securely kept within American, British and French financial institutions, were horribly misled. In the end, once they were assassinated, all their holdings ended up cannibalized by those same Western Banks and financiers, without any trace whatsoever left of where all their monies and wealth ultimately went and who the mongrels were who actually devoured them. And that was that.

But today, after eighteen months of the collective world’s virtual passivity towards the war in Ukraine that threatens a hideous nuclear apocalypse, those one-time peace advocates extraordinaire who also once dared to care, like U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Russia’s Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and singer-songwriter John Lennon, are now helpless to do anything more about it other than continue to roll in their graves.

Part II:

Who Exactly Is the Deep State

and What Are They All About

 

One can never know the full extent of the reach of the Deep State’s behemoth octopus and its outstretched tentacles that reach into every aspect of the world’s geo-politics; or whatever high-level talks continue to occur among secret cabals of plotters over time who’ve regularly met at secluded places like the Bohemian Grove in California’s remote Monte Rio of Sonoma County. It’s but one of the many nefarious playgrounds where Deep State players and plotters annually gather to play and plot. At least 5 U.S. presidents, at various critical moments in modern history, have attended Bohemian Grove’s obscene whatever goings-on; without any corporate press in attendance to record the hush-hush event, or majority of world politicians or general public allowed to be present or even made aware of, while these Machiavellian’s engage in whatever nefarious plots or plant whatever evil seeds for the world’s questionable future.

The Deep State Has a Long Timeline

But the antics of shadowy puppet master players within the Deep State of the Old World would similarly also have to include a long line of shadowy figures within entities like the infamous Rothschild Dynasty, an immensely-wealthy German Ashkenazi Jewish family who, for over 200 years, has exercised enormous power and influence on the geo-political-military-economic-banking history of the nations of Europe and those nations within the America’s of the New World, as well.

Without ever knowing all the gory, brutal, unseemly details, it’s all but a virtual certainty that the huge international dynastic banking reach of the Rothschild and Rockefeller Dynasty’s, and those others of their ilk, such as the Bilderberg Group and Trilateral Commission, still, somehow, since their inceptions, continue to have a hand in whatever the nation-stripping of national wealth or whatever economic upheavals, wars and violent regime changes have occurred. They continue to play key roles in the engineering and manipulations of the current war in Ukraine; or whatever other carefully planned and executed, future regime changes In Ukraine that may yet require the deposing or assassination of a Zelenskyy, Russia’s Putin, or whatever underlings replace them, if need be, to ultimately strip Ukraine or Russia of their huge stores of natural resources and financial web of connections

David Wilcock: Financial Tyranny on Russian TV, Part One: Jan 16, 2013 further elaborates upon the historical antecedents of what has been, and continues to be, the financial tyranny of war in general, and who its perpetrators have been and continue to be, specifically among the Western World’s financial warmongers who, to date, remain utterly indifferent and aloof to the amount and degree of death and destruction, pain and anguish to which they are party to and continue to directly play an active hand in their creation.

The viewer of this production is left to ponder whether or not there indeed truly exists a secret cabal in the world, that some refer to as the “Illuminati” or some other esoteric moniker, who may not be an identifiable organization of card-carrying members at all, but, like the infamous Koch brothers in the United States, nevertheless serve more like an umbrella of disparate, mutually self-serving individuals and groups of large numbers of powerful individuals and collectives who have been controlling or heavily influencing some of the most important aspects of human life for centuries, up to the present day.

These Globalist New World Order’, dark ‘One World’ cabalists and elites include the world’s: top figures in financial institutions; investment markets; multi-national corporations, religious institutions; international corporate publishing houses, educators, media; military forces judicial systems, entertainment industry; medical enterprises, government regulatory and advisory bodies, and even members among the various Royal families.

This nefarious umbrella, historically as well as today, continues to keep the world dumbed down, ill-informed and totally in the dark; uninformed about the real intentions of these planetary overlords whose intended objective is to perpetually keep the global network within their total control, in such a way that influences and bends all of life on Planet Earth as it/they so see fit.

Part III

Trajectory of the Ukraine War

and Its Relentless Murder and Mayhem

 

To sense where the trajectory of the war is leading there is no better one to listen to then the renowned peace activist and all-wise geo-political commentator, Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs, engaged in a conversation with the also extremely intelligent TV commentator Tulsi Gabbard on her You Tube Tulsi Gabbard Show, who, herself, at one time unsuccessfully campaigned, in 2020, for the office of the U.S. Presidency. If Tulsi Gabbard had won the presidency, the world no doubt would absolutely be a far different place today than it is.

Pay close attention close to where the collective thoughts of Sachs and Gabbard are going on the part the Deep State is playing in the war, and the lackey roles countries like America, Canada and others continue to play, by allowing the war to slowly, inexorably, turn ever more towards a nuclear direction.

Professor Sachs contends the U.S. Democratic and Republican Party’s now essentially are a single ‘War Party’, collectively pitted against the hegemons of China and Russia, and why America’s lackey allies in Canada and NATO also are opposed to the concept of Neutrality. For, as in the case of Ukraine, as a seminal chess piece within the NATO game of geo-political life, as Sachs declares, “NATO is U.S. Power in the world.” Any notion of Neutrality only dissuades and interferes with that reality. It’s simply bad for business, not to mention world investments and world conquest! Clearly, this is perhaps the most dangerous red flag of the war.

Sachs further suggests that the passive assent, so typical of countries of even normally non-aggressive countries like Canada, that once were favorably looked upon as paragons of peace and non-violence, now are so terrified, and passively willing to acquiesce, if not prostrate themselves,  to the United States on-going sledgehammer proxy war against Russia.

In Another Time and Another Place, Canada Was a Leader of Nations

Twenty years ago, Canada, once prideful of itself as one of the world’s pre-eminent peace-keeping nations, once deployed nearly one-third of Canada’s army around the world, who proudly wore the UN’s Blue Helmuts (or blue berets), with thousands of its peacekeepers deployed in troubled places like the Balkans, Somalia, the Golan Heights and Cypress, as well as many other smaller places in the world.

But now, in Canada, with ever-increasing numbers of pro-war, anti-Russian Ukrainian immigrants and refugees continuing to flow into all parts of the country, Canada, for all intents and purposes, has thrown aside the Blue Helmuts and Blue Berets and essentially signed onto the willingness of the war hawks in the United States and its allies in the world to refuse to aggressively work for any ceasefire, peace negotiations or notion of neutrality. In so doing, Canada, in effect, has become a willing party to allow the war in Ukraine to predictably turn, by design or default, into a potential nuclear catastrophe. In short, other allies to America, also have essentially, as Jeffrey Sachs says, all “drank the Deep State’s WWIII Kool Aid”.

Sach’s further points out that by such fearful, cowardly countries unequivocally supporting, in tandem, the United States and President Biden’s far-right, Neo Con war policies and those of his U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, for years, have been willing to look the other way, with the full approval of the majority of Democrats and Republicans alike, while using Ukraine to constantly agitate for a nuclear confrontation with Russia and China. Sachs suggests they essentially are supporting what is “a collective death wish”.

Part IV

JFK’s Bold Peace Speech

When the Threat of War Was Darkening

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, as an activist for world peace and cynic of the real intentions of the United States and NATO master plan for the world, often makes reference in his presentations, speeches and interviews to President John F. Kennedy’s “Peace Speech”. Professor Sachs rightly suggests JFK’s Peace Speech is, indeed, perhaps the greatest speech ever made by an American President, or any other world leader for that matter, that puts to shame the wishy-washy, duplicitous words of those leaders today, like President Biden and PM Justine Trudeau, who continue to do just the opposite.

Once the reader has had a chance to compare and contrast their words and actions against those of President Kennedy’s, and starts to intellectually connect all the dots until they feel it in their guts, some blatantly obvious questions will arise. Such as, “Why was it only three short months after Kennedy made his ground-breaking peace speech that he was assassinated? Was the President REALLY murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald as a Russian dupe, or was the President assassinated by some far more dark, sinister Deep State global entity that, historically, finally was prepared to once-and-for-all come out of the closet and assert, in broad daylight for all to see, its fundamentally-hateful opposition to peace anywhere in the world. The bottom line being that peace is always bad for business as well as financial world investments!

Can the world’s major geo-political-military-economic events, that since have transpired in other countries throughout the world since Kennedy’s assassination, likewise be connected to the on-going historical activities of the Deep State that have been in play, in various guises, for at least the past two centuries, since the United States birth as a nation, and then traced forward in time to Kennedy’s assassination and then fast forwarded to the present-day war in Ukraine?” Carefully comparing and contrasting Kennedy’s words with those of Biden and his actions in Ukraine is an important first step to take.

Part V

The War Calls Into Question

if There Ever Was a Benevolent Creator

 

Did There Ever Exist, in Fact, a Kind, Benevolent Creator of Planet Earth

The question why humankind can’t seem to follow any other plan or direction for life on Planet Earth, other than an endless, unbroken chain of war, domination and hegemon over all human beings, and Planet Earth herself, begs the obvious question, “Has there ever existed a kind, benevolent creator responsible for America and Canada, or any other nation since their earliest origins in the New World; or who ever actually has been behind these nations so-called God-led, Creation-based, democracies? Or has this somehow otherwise served as mere religious devices, historically used by this same mysterious, rapacious, evil, earlier European-Dark State and its twisted, devil-obsessed vision for life on Planet Earth?”

The United States, without a doubt, has had a troubled political-ideological-military existence from its earliest beginnings; what with its European origins rooted in: treacherous financial skullduggery; religious witch hunts; the slavery of captive Africans, the eradication or removal of almost all Native Indian Nations in America’s Southern portion, to make way for the planting of cotton and harvesting by its New World captive African slave industry as its first “cash crop”, or Canada’s Northern Western prairies, when animal furs became their first “Big Money” crop; or a U.S. Civil War that, since its temporary cessation over a century ago, of military combat between hostile economic, political-religious-ethnic elements, has never actually ever ended or been fully resolved, politically, ideologically or morally, to the present day. To a different, lesser degree, the same could be said for the modern-day nation of Canada and, indeed, the rest of the New & Old World’s “Foreign Settler” governments.

Part VI

Thin Ray of Hope to the War’s

Peaceful Ending Is a Hope Against Hope

 

There is at least one last remaining thin ray of hope as a possible exit strategy to the war in Ukraine, proposed by the grand war strategist-wizard himself, William Luttwak, as a plebiscite vote that will allow the native-born or naturalized citizenry of Ukraine’s independent oblast regions in the Donbas, Donetsk and Luhansk Republic’s, of Eastern Ukraine, to vote on their permanent annexation by Russia.

Luttwak suggests his bold proposal would be a sterling example for all other nations to follow in-kind as humanity’s best, if the only way forward, to finally take the giant step it needs to take to  put an end to the madness of constant warfare on Planet Earth.

Perhaps, in the future, instead of Planet Earth continuing to perpetuate, throughout the universe among other inhabitants of other celestial bodies, its widespread black reputation as That Dangerous Warring Planet To Be Avoided At All Cost”, something else again might begin to happen. Those more advanced beings in the universe, who, for millenniums, have purposefully avoided any formal contact with Planet Earth’s primitive humans for that reason, will no longer be afraid to attempt to make official contact with we human inhabitants of this Earth, and finally will instead become known, throughout the Solar System and beyond, as “Those of the Peaceful, Peace-loving Planet”.

But therein lies the conundrum in trying to get so many diverse Neo-Nazi, nationalist elements in the world to agree, given how deeply ensconced they are within Ukraine, Eastern-Western Europe, the America’s, as well as everywhere else; who now have the capacity to continue to do so much great harm to life, and all living things, everywhere in the world with their amassed extensive arsenal of so much of the hideous weaponry, with which the United States and NATO have thus far lauded Ukraine; yet while intentionally failing to ever even keep an accurate account of those into whose hands all this extremely-dangerous weaponry now have fallen; thereby threating in the future still other nations welfare and wellbeing.

Luttwak, as the author of “Coup d’etat: a Practical Handbook”, fully understands the dangerous, knotty problem any such bold plebiscite vote represents. He is a senior associate in the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Wash. D.C., a consultant to government and international enterprises, who also has served many times as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense, National Security Council, the White House chief of staff, the U.S. Department of State, the US Army, US Air Force and several allied governments. He also is well-known and respected for his work on grand geo-political-military strategies, geo-economics, military history and international relations, but, perhaps, especially more so for his book, “Coup d’etat; a Practical Handbook, that now is required reading in many military colleges and universities, worldwide.

If, as this on-going war continues, and Biden and Putin readiness to do a peace deal since has passed,latest and Luttwak’s proposal doesn’t work out, given the abject hostile, malevolent resistance by those like Zelenskyy and Nuland, he says the world might be looking at something more like a 7 Year War or maybe even a 25 year, or longer, war yet ahead, not to mention some more immediate, unexpected, premature, nuclear conclusion once all the West’s money, weapons, and/or patience, finally runs out.

Says Luttwak, “There is only one conceivable exit strategy from the increasingly destructive war in Ukraine: a Plebiscite in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (as per USSR map), preceded by a total cease fire secured by the lifting of all war-sanctions. “There is no other path”, he warns, “to a Russian victory or to a greater Russian defeat.” He further adds, almost as a cautionary aside, that perhaps the best or only possible answer to the problematic reality of so many of today’s existing tyrants in the middle of this war, is to finally realize that “It’s time to kill all the bastards.”

Part VII

Biden, Zelensky, NATO,

Putin Follow the Deep State’s Orders

It’s abundantly clear that Biden, Zelenskyy, NATO and Putin are the known main players in the War in Ukraine, but, in truth, it’s their silent Deep State partners, whoever, whatever or wherever they are, who have the complete and utter ear of U.S. President Biden, NATO, Zelenskyy and Putin, whose recent actions speak loudly of the aggressive course the war continues to take.

Ukraine’s attack: on the Crimea Bridge, Russia’s downing of a NATO drone over the Black Sea;

Russia’s boarding of an Egyptian/Ukrainian grain ship in the Black Sea;

Biden’s decision to send F16 Fighter jets to Ukraine;

NATO’s sophisticated drone attack in the Black Sea’s Novorossiysk Bay against a commercial oil ship and Russian amphibious landing assault ship, the Olienegorsky Gornyak, at one of Russia’s most extensive naval bases, and largest commercial port on the Black Sea;

and now, with the still unsolved revelation of who committed the assassination of the Wagner Group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, all suggest where the war in Ukraine is heading and must inevitably end in some kind of world-wide Civil War or Nuclear War.

This further raises the more serious question if the U.S.-NATO-Ukrainian-land war strategy, instead of moving in the direction towards peace, has instead since begun to shift towards an even more aggressive maritime war strategy of total war against military and commercial shipping in the Black Sea; while possessing drone missiles with a range of 500 kilometers, within easy-striking distance of Moscow and other ports along the Danube.

This is but yet another one of, perhaps, the most dangerous and intolerable of all ‘red lines’, totally unacceptable to Russia, that is deliberately being crossed by the West with impunity; the predictable consequences of which can only but lead where it is inexorably going.

Yet Another International Flashpoint Dangerously Threatening a WWIII

Ukraine’s maritime naval drone attack in the Black Sea can be likened to the still unsolved, Nord Stream Sabotage, that could, without Putin and Russia’s wise forbearance, have already become a fatal flashpoint for WWIII but didn’t because the ‘smoking gun’ proof that suggested a higher-level of technical complicity, expertise and know-how, involving more sophisticated operatives than just Ukraine, was flagrantly and criminally destroyed by the West.

At this point, this writer is reminded of yet another nefarious crime-of-the high-seas, that also, in the not-too-distant past, could have become the flashpoint onset of yet another potential world war that never happened, nor also never will be solved, because the still covered-up truth will never ever be revealed in the full light of day.

This international outrage was Israel’s, never to be forgotten, heinous attack, that still rankles many Americans to this day, against the USS Liberty in 1967, when Israeli air and naval forces attacked America’s most advanced spy ship in international waters, that killed 34 innocent American sailors and seriously wounded another 174.

The stinging lesson of this long unprovoked cold-blooded attack, that will forever live in infamy, was that which the Zionist state, like many other criminal states today, also might not heed doing to even its friends, not to mention its enemies, in order to get its own way. The similar lesson today being the sabotage of Russia’s Nord Stream Pipeline, while still unsolved, is also that there is nothing the American and NATO Neo Con’s and the Deep State, also might not refrain from doing to its friends or its enemies, in order to get its own way.

Fifty-eight years on, with the on-going complicity of the tightly corporate-controlled mainstream media still firmly in place, if not more so, in the war in Ukraine , this heinous closed book cover up, ordered by none other than President Johnson himself, still remains in place. End of story! Or maybe it’s Back To The Future in the case of Ukraine.

The Absolute Ludicrousness of the War Being a Proxy War

So, too, for the notion of the war in Ukraine, or any other war ever being any other kind of proxy war other than it being, just what it is, a war by the Deep State. This time around, wink-wink, the current war is nothing more than an extension of what all along has been, and continues to be, an already on-going virtual world war that simply awaits its final grizzly exclamation mark conclusion.

Meanwhile, the feigned U.S. and NATO ruminations about seriously considering possible peace negotiations, in view of Ukraine’s now utterly failed Spring and Summer Offensives and Counteroffensives, with 43,000 of their reconstituted army of 60,000 now already dead or wounded, and a suggested total of already, perhaps, 500,000 total, dead or wounded, Ukrainian Army troops, combined with Zelenskyy’s absurd 10 Point “Back to Square One” Plan that arrogantly demands, before peace talks can ever begin in earnest, that there first must be: the return of Crimea to Ukraine and its de-occupation, with the total withdraw of Russian troops from Ukrainian soil; while the Russian leaders responsible for the war must be brought to trial before the Nuremburg Courts. “Hello? The Lights Are On, But Is Anyone Home?”

So much for Edward Luttwak’s ambitious Plebiscite Vote for Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea’s independence.

Has the War Shifted from a Land War in Ukraine to the Black Sea?

Judge Napolitano, on his You Tube Show, Judging Freedom, recently interviewed Alastair Crooke, a former British Diplomat (not to be confused with BBC’s Alistair Cooke), who is the founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflict Forum, that advocates engagement between political Islam and the West. Previously a ranking figure in both British Intelligence (MI6) and European Union (EU) diplomacy, Alistair Crooke had many pithy things to say to Judge Napolitano about the Ukraine war.

In his recent interview, Crooke pressed the question in greater detail about what the real dangers are if the war on the Black Sea, that already now, in fact, has becomes the real war in Ukraine, turns ugly. One of the ugly truths about this new war in the Black Sea, as Crooke point out, is, once again, true to form, the West’s betrayal  and non-observance of the original agreement they made with Russia to allow it, in spite of the many sanctions imposed against Russia by the West, they agreed to allow Russia, to ship, for humanitarian reasons, its grains and fertilizer to world markets, if Russia would allow Ukraine to likewise do the same by shipping its own grains to ports, like Turkey and Spain for milling and export to world markets.

The inherent problem, however, is that the West (U.S. NATO, Europe), true to form, always somehow end up being pathological liars and betrayers, who never honored their agreements with the commies. In this case, Russian ships weren’t allowed to ship their grains and fertilizers, while many of Ukraine’s so-called ‘grain’ ships, once their grain cargoes were off-loaded, were returning with smuggled weapons in their holds. Yet now Russia is the one being called “evil” by the West for not rejoining the original grain agreement, that the West itself violated. So much for ‘Gentleman’s Agreements’ between West and East.

Part VIII

Miscalculations or Misinterpretations?

Calamities in the Black Sea

A Mistake Could Happen at Any Moment

Any one of the many careless miscalculations, miscommunications or misinterpretations, that regularly occur between the Americans, NATO, Ukraine and Russia in the Ukraine War, if carelessly committed in the Black Sea, could end the war and, fatally, the rest of us.

Historically, the Black Sea has long seen any number of flashpoints occur between Russia and the West; its theatre of competition between Russia and the West an especially super-charged dynamic now of the Ukraine War. The New York Times says, “If you had to rank the spots on the globe where the militaries of the United States and Russia could possibly run into each other, the Black Sea would probably be near the top of the list.”

A U.S. drone recently intercepted by two Russian warplanes, was downed just 75 miles southwest of Crimea, while six countries on the Black Sea’s coast are members of NATO (Turkey, Rumania, Bulgaria), with Ukraine friendly to the alliance; while with Turkey’s control of the Black Sea’s straits (the Dardanelles and the Bosporus), all shipping must pass through to transit between the Black Sea and other global waterways. Whereas the Montreux Convention of 1938 also gives Turkey the right to close the straits to most military traffic in times of war, which it exercised after Russia began its Special Military Operation (SMO). To say this is yet another ticking time bomb, is an understatement.

Epilogue

Hold Onto Your Hats Ladies and Gent’s. The rest of 2023 and 2024 is going to be a Rough Ride; what with so many unsettled wars, financial chaos, chaotic movements of refugees and immigrants, societal collapses, controversial, contentious seminal elections and crucial geo-political summits.

*

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

The writer Jerome Irwin is a Canadian-American writer who originally was a Criminology student working in one of America’s local police departments. For decades, Irwin has sought to call world attention to problems of environmental degradation and unsustainability caused by a host of environmental-ecological-spiritual issues that exist between the conflicting world philosophies of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.

Irwin is the author of the book, “The Wild Gentle Ones; A Turtle Island Odyssey” (www.turtle-island-odyssey.com), a spiritual odyssey among the native peoples of North America that has led to numerous articles pertaining to: Ireland’s Fenian Movement; native peoples Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance Movement; AIPAC, Israel & the U.S. Congress anti-BDS Movement; the historic Battle for Palestine & Siege of Gaza, as well as; the many violations constantly being waged by industrial-corporate-military-propaganda interests against the World’s Collective Soul. The author and his wife are long-time residents on the North Shore of British Columbia.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from the author

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Just four and a half months since President Biden declared an end to the Covid “emergency,” the media is suddenly full of stories about the return of Covid. This time a new “variant” is being rolled out and the media, in collusion with big Pharma and the fear-industrial complex, are churning out stories about how forced masking is making a comeback.

Also, the “unvaccinated” are again to be denied basic human rights in the name of fighting a virus that the vaccine demonstrably does not protect against.

In short, they are desperately trying to revive the tyranny, insanity, and utter irrationality of the two-year Covid scare. And they are pretending none of us remembers how they destroyed society with their lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates. They are hoping that none of us will remember the suicides, lost jobs, broken marriages, increased alcoholism and drug abuse, and the rest of what went along with the world’s experiment with global lockdown.

Even Fauci himself is back – like a moth drawn to the light of publicity. Despite all the scientific evidence that the lockdowns were a disaster, that they did far more harm than good, Fauci has re-emerged with his trademark arrogance and claimed that they were the right thing to do and should be done again if that’s what it takes to force people to take the vaccine. A vaccine that does not work.

They won’t even allow us to mention the spike in all-around mortality or the millions who may have been vaccine-injured the first time around. They want us to think that 20-year-old world-class athletes have always just dropped dead of heart attacks out of the blue. It’s all normal! Don’t question it! What are you, some kind of conspiracy theorist? Are you a science-denier?

Yes, look for a renewal of all those old hollow phrases used to attack those of us who can see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears. Their slogans are meant to silence any debate. The same “experts” like Fauci who claimed “I am the science” are back and they shamelessly demand to silence us again.

The big question is…why? Why are they doing this and how do they think they can get away with it a second time? One reason they believe they can get away with it again is that no one has ever been punished for what they did the first time. The Federal Government made sure that the pharmaceutical companies would not be liable for vaccine damages.

The public figures who openly became monsters, demanding the unvaccinated be drummed out of society and maybe even off the face of the earth have not been shamed or shunned. Politicians who displayed cowardice and worse have not been voted out of office for their treachery.

Why are they coming back around for another round of Covid tyranny? Fear is a weapon to gain control. Last time around they generated fear to radically change how America voted. Suddenly everyone was mailed ballots. How closely were they checked? No one knew and no one dared ask. The people who did ask about the election are now facing jail terms.

They want us to shut up while they do it again. Will we?

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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***

President Joe Biden’s comments that all Americans will “likely” be advised to get a new COVID vaccine as new variants spread through the country are “irresponsible,” according to Stanford University Professor of Medicine Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

“I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress, a request for additional funding for a new vaccine—that is necessary, that works,” Mr. Biden told reporters in South Lake Tahoe, California, on Aug. 25.

“And tentatively, not decided finally yet, tentatively it is recommended—it is likely to be recommended—that everybody get it, no matter whether they got it before,” he added.

Since early July, COVID-19 hospitalizations have been on the rise domestically, with three new variants of the disease spreading across the country. The uptick has resulted in some businesses, schools, and hospitals reinstating mask mandates.

Multiple drug companies, including Pfizer, Novavax, and Moderna, have introduced new vaccines they say will be effective against the EG.5, or ERIS, variant of COVID-19.

“It never occurred to me that an American president would be the number one spokesperson for a pharmaceutical company, but here we are,” Dr. Bhattacharya told The Epoch Times.

“It’s irresponsible to make this kind of public health advice for the entire American public in the absence of excellent randomized trial evidence, which has not been produced by the pharmaceutical companies,” he added.

“The FDA [Food and Drug Administration] never asked for them to produce them,” Dr. Bhattacharya said, referring to vaccines targeting the new COVID variants.

The Standard professor said that authorities are incorrectly treating COVID booster shots ” just like the flu vaccine, that you just update it from year to year.”

But, in contrast with the COVID-19 injections, for flu vaccines “there’s a long track record where the safety record of the vaccine is understood,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.

“Not requiring randomized trial evidence for updating the vaccine is irresponsible. It’s using a different mechanism than the flu vaccine. You can’t extend the experience you have with the flu vaccine to this vaccine,” he said.

The professor also picked up on President Biden’s comment that everyone will likely be advised to take the new vaccine “no matter whether they got it before.”

“Here where they’re saying is, essentially like it’s amnesty—We’re all going to be treated as if we’re unvaccinated with regard to this vaccine,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.

According to CNBC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials told reporters Thursday that the vaccines are expected to become available to the public in mid-September, though they are still pending approval from the FDA.

An independent CDC advisory committee is scheduled to meet on Sept. 12 to vote on recommended guidelines for eligibility for the new COVID-19 jabs.

During the press briefing, CDC and FDA officials advised that both agencies intended to urge Americans to get an updated COVID-19 shot, as well as the flu shot and the recently approved RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline.

“Vaccination is going to continue to be key this year because immunity wanes and because the COVID-19 virus continues to change,” a CDC official said.

Dr. Paul Marik of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care was scathing in his response to the president’s announcement.

“It’s insanity,” he told The Epoch Times.

“I think the vaccines have failed, and this is untested,” he added.

“Making a new vaccine against a new variant which is untested makes no sense,” Dr. Marik continued, saying that he “can’t see any group of patients who would benefit from a vaccine.”

“We need to know more information,” he added.

*

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Samantha Flom contributed to this report. 

Nathan Worcester covers national politics for The Epoch Times and has also focused on energy and the environment. Nathan has written about everything from fusion energy and ESG to Biden’s classified documents and international conservative politics. He lives and works in Chicago. Nathan can be reached at [email protected].

Featured image is from The Unz Review


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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

If Osama bin Laden Didn’t Do 9/11, Then Who Did?

By Prof. Anthony J. Hall, August 28, 2023

The dominant War Lords behind the rising onslaught of apocalyptic upheavals are very meticulous in some facets of their planning. Their Big Plans often involve the exploitation of manufactured disaster to generate panic, lot’s of panic…. panic meant to help destabilize, depopulate, and terrorize the general population. 

Kiev’s Slow Counteroffensive Makes Biden Lose Interest and Consider Talks with Russia

By Ahmed Adel, August 29, 2023

The longer Ukraine’s counteroffensive goes on, the more difficult it is for the US to maintain its support in political terms, reported Bloomberg, citing an expert. Reportedly, European officials “worry” that US President Joe Biden “may eventually look to nudge Ukraine toward negotiations” with Russia if Kiev’s forces do not make any significant successes in its counteroffensive.

COVID Crisis: “Mexico should be our example of what is possible.” AMLO and the Morena Party

By Teri Mattson and Rick Sterling, August 28, 2023

I love Mexico, particularly having grown up in California with the shared history. So I went to Mexico City. There were restrictions but they didn’t close their economy down. Like so much of the global south, it’s a cash-based economy. Things were open but managed.

COVID Reemerges: Why You Shouldn’t Panic

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, August 28, 2023

According to news reports, new COVID-19 variants are on the rise and are being closely monitored for pandemic spread. Media headlines clearly show we’re again facing a coordinated fear campaign to drive people into vaccination clinics.

When He Was Vice-President, Joe Biden Acted Like Ukraine Was His ‘Own Backyard’: Fired Ukraine Prosecutor

By Arjun Singh, August 28, 2023

The former Ukrainian prosecutor who was fired at the insistence of then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2016 after investigating Burisma, claimed that Biden treated Ukraine like his “own backyard,” according to comments made during an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on Saturday.

Where’s the Beef? Ranchers Take Stand Over Synthetic ‘Meat’ Label

By Matthew Lysiak, August 28, 2023

American cattlemen are readying for a fight to protect the definition of the word meat from producers of synthetic cellular-based beef alternatives. The synthetic “meat” market has already arrived in America.

Niger’s CNSP Military Junta Asks French Ambassador to Leave. “France Out of Africa” Instrumented by Washington?

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Chinedu Asadu, August 28, 2023

General A. Tiani who led the coup d’Etat received his military training in the US at the National Defense University (NDU). He has close links to the Pentagon. The Biden administration has  casually refused to describe the ouster of President M. Barmou as a “Coup d’Etat” or a “regime change”. Washington has accepted “the three year rule” proposed by the military Junta. 

NIH Study Suggests N95 COVID Masks May Expose Wearers to Toxic Compounds Linked to Seizures, Cancer

By Margaret Flavin, August 28, 2023

The intense propaganda used to coerce you to wear a face mask is not based on science. It is a pure political power play designed to force you and your children into submission. And they are preparing to force you to mask up again.

Israeli Strikes Hit Syria’s Aleppo Airport Causing Heavy Damage

By Middle East Eye, August 28, 2023

The Israeli military attacked Aleppo International Airport in the early hours of Monday morning, according to Syrian state media, Sana. At about 4.30 am local time Israel carried out an “aerial act of aggression” from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, said the Syrian state news agency, Sana. 

History of American Hegemony: USA as “Global Greatest Power”. From Alaska (1867) to Europe (1917)

By Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović, August 28, 2023

It can be indicated from a historical viewpoint that the USA emerged on the stage of global (world) politics in 1867 (four years before Germany did the same in 1871 after the Franco−Prussian War of 1870−1871). Both these imperial states at the same time exerted extremely influential politics in the process of radical transformation of the modern world both in Europe and outside of the Old Continent.

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

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

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

***

The longer Ukraine’s counteroffensive goes on, the more difficult it is for the US to maintain its support in political terms, reported Bloomberg, citing an expert. Reportedly, European officials “worry” that US President Joe Biden “may eventually look to nudge Ukraine toward negotiations” with Russia if Kiev’s forces do not make any significant successes in its counteroffensive.

Support for Ukraine remains essential because Europe lacks the financial conditions and military capacity to maintain Kiev’s forces. However, an expert quoted by Bloomberg explained that because of Ukraine’s sluggishness, the US will be less interested in what happens in Ukraine.

“[If fighting grinds to an impasse over the winter], it’s a really big problem, there’s going to be war fatigue,” said Samantha de Bendern, an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. “The U.S. is going to be less and less interested in what’s happening in Ukraine and it’s going to be more and more difficult for Europeans to convince the Americans that Ukraine is an American problem.”

Bloomberg also pointed out that Russia has enough ammunition for at least another year of fighting, with the Kremlin deploying new troops on the front lines. The wear and tear of the long conflict is becoming an advantage for the Russians.

“More than two months into its counteroffensive, Kiev has made only tactical advances against heavily dug-in Russian forces, despite having committed many units trained and armed by the US and Europe for the operation. The window for further significant actions is narrowing as wet and cold weather looms in the autumn,” wrote the outlet.

The Russian Ministry of Defence reported that Kiev suffered more than 26,000 casualties during the counteroffensive and lost 3,000 military equipment, confirming that the Western-backed attack failed in all its goals. Yet, this has not stopped Europe from continuing to back Ukraine, despite de Bendern’s warning that Biden could lose interest in the conflict, especially as Donald Trump surges in popularity following his interview with Tucker Carlson and the release of his mugshot.

The EU’s foreign policy spokesperson, Peter Stano, announced on August 22 that the bloc would continue to support Kiev “as long” as it takes, showing once again that the Union has little concern for the declining economic situation, which is hurting economies and working families.

According to EU data released earlier this month, the number of bankruptcy declarations of EU businesses reached a record high in the second quarter of 2023 compared with the previous quarter, which was up by 8.4%. This number of bankruptcies means this quarter is the highest since data collection began in 2015.

“Looking specifically at bankruptcies by activity, all sectors of the economy registered increases in the number of bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2023 compared with the previous quarter,” said the report published by Eurostat. “Accommodation and food services (+23.9%), transportation and storage (+15.2%), and education, health and social activities (+10.1%) were the sectors with the highest increases in the number of bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2023 compared with the previous quarter.”

Yet, with the economy performing dismally, European officials are still prioritising Ukraine over improving the declining living standards of European citizens.

“We are supporting Ukraine in its efforts to repair, recover and keep the state running. Today we paid a new €1.5 billion to Ukraine,” President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen posted on X on August 22.

It also appears that the US, like Europe, will support Ukraine unrelentingly. However, Biden could potentially lose interest in Ukraine. Next year’s election campaign will begin in the coming months, and the Ukraine issue will inevitably be a hot topic. Questions will be raised on how much money was wasted for no positive outcome in Washington’s view.

The latest poll by Gallup found that Biden had a job approval rating of only 42%. Less than half of those surveyed approved his handling of the situation in Ukraine, while only 37% supported the current state of relations with Russia. Eighty-three per cent of Democrats approve of Biden’s handling of the situation in Ukraine, while their ratings of his job on ties with Russia is at 78%. In contrast, only 13% of Republicans approved Biden’s handling of the situation in Ukraine, while 7% supported the current state of relations between Washington and Moscow.

Although Biden unsurprisingly has majority support in his Ukraine and Russia policies among his Democrat base, he has been an unprecedented disaster for the Independents and Republicans. As elections are looming and the Ukrainian military has been pulverised, a successful Russian offensive will likely see Biden scrambling to resolve the conflict peacefully, especially as the US cannot endlessly pump money into a war Ukraine has no chance of winning.

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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

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Teri Mattson is producer and host of the weekly podcast “WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean?” broadcast on Spotify, Apple podcast, CODEPink, as well as on Popular Resistance.

Rick Sterling (RS): How did you wind up living in Mexico City?

Teri Mattson (TM): I went to Mexico City in September of 2020 in response to how the Covid pandemic was being managed in Washington DC, where I was living at the time. I was walking every day outside to get moderate exercise, fresh air and sunshine to stay healthy during covid. And on two of my outings, I was stopped by the DC Metropolitan Police. They wanted to know what I was doing outside and where I was going. I told them I was out trying to stay healthy, and they asked for my papers, my id, and the address of my destination. After the second time that happened, I thought  the writing’s on the wall, the direction the US is going, and I just can’t live here any more.

I love Mexico, particularly having grown up in California with the shared history. So I went to Mexico City. There were restrictions but they didn’t close their economy down. Like so much of the global south, it’s a cash-based economy. Things were open but managed. For instance, the restaurants were all open with outdoor seating but everything closed at five. To go into a brick and mortar business, you had to line up outside six feet apart, mask on. When you got to the door, somebody would take your temperature, make sure your mask was on correctly, and make sure you sanitized your hands. People continued to use the buses and the subway. Vaccinations were free, testing was free. I didn’t get sick and none of my Mexican friends got sick.

The other BIG reason I went to Mexico is to witness what is happening with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the Morena Party and the fourth transformation. To see what is happening in Mexico.

RS: The Morena party is relatively new but in 2018 won a plurality in the Mexican Congress. How have they organized so effectively?

TM: They have a formal institution of political education. They do in person classes almost daily.  I’ve gone to many of them. They have a small college campus that they can use in the evening. These classes and events are  broadcast live throughout Mexico and other regions of the world, specifically the United States, where they have a large Mexicano diaspora. That institute has 15 satellite sites throughout Mexico. They also do in-person teaching events throughout the country. There are thousands of people on those zoom calls and hundreds of people in person, young and old, Mexicans of all ages.

RS: Was the Institute created by the government or by the Morena Party? How often do they have these meetings?

TM: It is by the party, not the government. Sometimes there are meetings every night. They have a whole calendar. You can see their programs and activities at INFPMORENA.MX. This summer every Thursday night they have a theme about social movement building and political formation to help people learn the process and what’s involved and different philosophical elements of it.

RS: How are these organized?

TM: Here’s an example. There was a panel discussion with the Bolivian Ambassador, a Peruvian representative and Morena spokesperson Jesus Ramirez. It was right after AMLO had nationalized the lithium fields. Bolivia, Peru and Mexico all have valuable lithium fields. Bolivia was couped because of their lithium fields and Peru the same. Now there’s the threat of US intervention in Mexico. They talked about the history of European and US colonialism and about the extraction of natural resources. The modern day scenario is lithium. It was petroleum, and now it’s lithium. The discussion was phenomenal.

That’s just one example. And then I’ve gone to an afternoon of Marxist films. They showed all these films that were blacklisted in the McCarthy era and the film producers and directors who were on the Hollywood blacklist. We looked at those films and what the messaging was, the Marxist themes out of them. We did a whole film study of that. Wow, it was good. I’ve also been to a few political formation classes. One I attended was an all day class on Hugo Chavez. It was great stuff covering both domestic issues and foreign policy issues, weaving it all together for the Mexican population.

This is how they are empowering their population to ensure that AMLO’s party and his vision continue.  There is a base of people to succeed him so it won’t just be one six year project.

RS: When is the next Mexican presidential election and how are they preparing for that?

TM: The election will be in June 2024. AMLO cannot run again per the Constitution. It’s one six year term for a Mexican president. AMLO is a popular charismatic leader, but  he can’t run again.

The Morena party itself has a lot of talent and a lot of experience, and is enormously popular. Mexico City is split 50 -50 but the rest of the country is solidly Morena,  led by Morena Governors and local leaders.

The key people who are running to be next Morena candidate for President are Claudia Sheinbaum, governor of Mexico City and the former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard. Ebrard  has been studying and preparing to be president of Mexico someday. And he has the resume and the experience to support that for sure. Claudia is younger and people love what she’s done for Mexico City.  And each of the mayors within her city as well, she’s empowered all of them as well. So, so she is very popular. And then you have the president of the Congress. There’s two other candidates. They’re all good.

In order to avoid the appearance that someone was anointed by AMLO, and also to hold the party together, all four of the candidates had to resign their public positions so they could run their campaigns without appearing to be benefit from their government position.   So all four candidates had to resign their position. It was also agreed that regardless of who wins the Morena presidency, the remaining three are guaranteed either a cabinet position or a legislative position. So the new president will have the infrastructure around him or her to continue the overall project.  It’s just brilliant.

On September 6  the party will announce who will be the candidate to represent Morena in the election next year.

RS: What has impressed you about changes in Mexico under AMLO?

TM: Well, the first thing is communication with the people.  AMLO is very clear: this is who we are as a government; this is what we want to achieve and this is how we’re gonna do it. This is the brainchild of  the president’s brilliant press secretary, Jesus Ramirez.

The president has a press conference every working day at 7:00 AM no matter where he is.  Sometimes they’re an hour, sometimes much longer. AMLO gives updates on the major departments, foreign policy, domestic policy, healthcare,  education, etc. If the military is being used to alleviate a flood or natural disaster, or if there is a big drug interdiction,  he talks about it.

It also gives him opportunity to challenge or correct any negative news from the day before. And sometimes he will say, oh, that’s completely false. Here’s what really happened. Or he’ll say, you know what? That did happen and we were wrong, and here’s how we’re gonna fix it. Or he can say, you know, it sort of was that way, but it was more this way. So he can get out in front every morning, get out in front of the news cycle. When the newspapers and news are being broadcast, he is on Twitter explaining their perspective and actions.

AMLO goes live on Twitter at 7:00 AM and many people in Mexico, not just Morena,  start their day listening to their president.  AMLO  reaches a really broad segment of the Mexican population, building a relationship with the people, helping them understand what is happening day to day in their government, what’s been achieved, what still needs work.

RS: In AMLO’s book New Hope for Mexico he talks about moral values.  How do you see that?

TM: AMLO is 69 years old.  For many of the young people that voted for him, he’s their grandfather.  They love him, and  he them.  So they relate to him that way.  AMLO’s government tries to find popular solutions for the majority of the people, which to me is liberation theology.

There are young people who say he’s not doing things fast enough.  I can appreciate that, but their parents and grandparents will tell you if you ask them, sometimes with tears in their eyes, never in their lifetime did they think they would see a president like they have now. So for them, it’s more than they ever dreamed possible.

But the young people will keep pushing harder, harder.

RS: What are some other examples of  positive things done by the Mexican government?

TM: The biggest thing has been the infrastructure projects, for example public transportation. There is now a gondola system providing easy access for people in the northern hills of Mexico City.  They call it the cable bus. There are two lines so far with more planned.  It’s been a life changer for the people in those colonias. I have friends who live in one of those areas. Public transportation is a game changer for many people.

Another example of effective governance is regarding parks and public spaces.  Since I arrived in September of 2020 I have seen so many parks renovated. They can be little parks that you’ll see down alleyways where people sit,have coffee and talk to the neighbors.  Or they can be kids playgrounds. They’re green, the fountains are working again.It’s unbelievable how many I have seen come back into fruition. The investment in public space is the investment in your people. Having those outdoor public spaces supports the emotional and physical health. People use those places for picnics. The other thing is all the public art installations. It’s profound. And now the art installations are used for educational purposes, like teaching people about Mexico, history of Mexico City, former presidents etc.. And there is art all over. They’ll feature historical artists, modern day artists, youth, collective art …they rotate.

RS: You’ve been living in Mexico for over two years now. How does the US look from the outside?

TM: From the outside it seems there is nothing happening. I don’t mean that all of you activists are not doing anything. But as as a nation it seems there is no change happening in the US. We are not doing anything to create a new system, a new structure, or to renovate the structure we have in any significant way. It’s all collapsing. A good percentage of  progressive and leftists don’t believe it’s possible to have a third party, a viable third party.

Meanwhile in Mexico there is a national organized strategy and strategic change happening. Morena was created as a third party to break up the P A N / PRI  duopoly that existed in Mexico for 70 plus years. It is the same type of system we have in the US. I get so tired of hearing a third party’s not possible.  Mexico has done it.  It took a lot of time and groundwork but they have broken the two party duopoly. They are our neighbor and they should be our example of what is possible.

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Rick Sterling is an independent journalist based in the SF Bay Area. He can be reached at [email protected].

COVID Reemerges: Why You Shouldn’t Panic

August 28th, 2023 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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According to news reports, new COVID-19 variants are on the rise and are being closely monitored for pandemic spread. Media headlines clearly show we’re again facing a coordinated fear campaign to drive people into vaccination clinics

In the U.S., EG.5, nicknamed Eris, has been declared a “variant of interest,” which means it is being monitored for mutations that might make it more hazardous

Australian news are highlighting the BA.2.86 variant, nicknamed Pirola, while Irish news are warning about an Omicron offshoot dubbed “the real deal” by World Health Organization officials

However, none of these variants are showing signs of being more hazardous than previous Omicron strains

Despite proof that masking is useless and lockdowns were a devastating mistake that should never be repeated, federal whistleblowers warn that these failed strategies may be reimplemented sometime between September and December 2023

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According to news reports, new COVID-19 variants are on the rise and are being closely monitored for pandemic spread. In the U.S., EG.5, nicknamed Eris, has been declared a “variant of interest” (VOI), which means it is being monitored for mutations that might make it more hazardous.1

Australian news are highlighting the BA.2.86 variant, nicknamed Pirola,2 while Irish news are warning about an Omicron offshoot dubbed “the real deal” by World Health Organization officials3,4— just in case you decided that COVID was no big deal anymore.

Seven other COVID variants are also being monitored by the WHO, and an additional three variants have been declared VOI, which calls for more extensive monitoring.5

Considering the many variants that have come and gone since 2020, isn’t it curious that media are now all of a sudden focusing on particular COVID strains again, just as we’re moving into fall and influenza season?

As previously predicted, we were given a short respite over the summer, and in the fall, the fearmongering will ramp up again to drive people into the vaccination clinics where they will be pressured to get not just one but three different shots — a booster for COVID, a flu vaccine and a brand-new fast-tracked vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

And, despite proof that masking is useless and lockdowns were a devastating mistake that should never be repeated, these failed strategies will likely be reimplemented as well. Our only hope, really, is mass disobedience, because those in charge are ignoring both science and the law.

Pirola Detected in Four Countries

Pirola has currently only been detected in Denmark, Israel, the U.S. and the U.K. As a “variant under monitoring” (VUM), the epidemiology of Pirola is being investigated and its characteristics and spread are being tracked.6

The WHO declared Pirola a VUM due to the number of mutations it carries, but according to some experts, it’s not expected to behave any differently than other Omicron substrains. Francois Balloux, Ph.D., a professor of computational systems biology at University College London, told ABC Australia:7

“BA.2.86 is the most striking SARS-CoV-2 strain the world has witnessed since the emergence of Omicron. Over the coming weeks we will see how well BA.2.86 will be faring relative to other Omicron subvariants.

Even in the worst case scenario where BA.2.86 caused a major new wave of cases, we are not expecting to witness comparable levels of severe disease and death than we did earlier in the pandemic when the Alpha, Delta or Omicron variants spread.

Most people on Earth have now been vaccinated and/or infected by the virus. Even if people get reinfected by BA.2.86, immune memory will still allow their immune system to kick in and control the infection far more effectively.”

No Reason to Worry About the ‘Real Deal’ Subvariant

Despite its ominous nickname, the “real deal” variant has only infected three people worldwide as of August 18, 2023, and according to a state medical lab in Denmark, there are no indications to suggest the new strain can cause severe illness.8

However, like Pirola, this strain is being monitored due to its collection of mutations, and some scientists are already calling for a return to lockdowns and mask-wearing to “slow down the spread.” Meanwhile, more logically-inclined experts have pointed out that most communities will have high immunity from exposure to previous Omicron strains.9

A Coordinated Fear Campaign

A quick look at the latest top mainstream media stories clearly reveal that we’re again facing a coordinated fear campaign orchestrated by government and media:10

Media are also pushing the idea of a “tripledemic” this fall, and they’re all reading from the same cue cards.

tripledemic headlines

TSA Whistleblower Warns Mask Requirements Will Soon Return

August 18, 2023, Alex Jones of InfoWars reported he’d been contacted by a high-level Transportation Security Administration (TSA) manager who warned that “by the middle of September,” TSA managers and airport employees will have to wear masks again.

By mid-October, all airline passengers will be required to mask up as well, and sometime in December, the TSA expects a full return to the 2021 COVID protocols.11 When managers asked why this would be occurring, they were told it was “because of the new variant in Canada.” Another federal contact that Jones spoke with said the same thing.

Likewise, the U.S. government is again stocking up on COVID-19 equipment and is hiring consultants to enforce COVID-19 “safety protocols.” Some of these contracts have start dates in September and October 2023, and will run into 2024 or 2025.12

Supposedly, the variant referred to is Eris (EG.5) — which currently accounts for an estimated 17.3% of new COVID cases in the U.S.13 — but how can they know, in mid-August, that this particular variant will suddenly become problematic in mid-September? Obviously they can’t, which means the coming “safety protocols” will again be based on fiction and fabrications.

Are They Gearing Up for Election Interference?

As noted by Jones, the coming COVID restrictions are likely part of “a deliberate attempt by the Biden administration to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election” by insisting it’s too dangerous to vote in person so we need mail-in ballots and absentee ballot harvesting14 — two strategies that make it easier to rig the election results.

The first COVID scare was pushed for two years, and the elections are only a little over a year away. More than likely, they will try to keep the second round of COVID fear porn going for longer than the first round, considering the intention is to make rolling lockdowns and restrictions a permanent state of affairs.

If we give in and go along with this charade, the globalist cabal will get their One World Government and the rest of the global population will be reduced to slaves and serfs.

There’s no question that that is the plan, and all they need to succeed is for people to go along with their false narratives. My recommendation remains the same as it was before: Peaceful civil disobedience. Do not comply. Remember, you cannot comply your way out of tyranny.

Common Risk Factors for Hospitalization and Death

As reported by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC),15 Eris appears no more dangerous than previous Omicron variants, all of which have been far milder than the original COVID strain. There are lots of “cases,” yes, but few cases of severe illness and hospitalization. Risk factors for hospitalization and death include:16

  • Being older than 60
  • Comorbidities, especially obesity, metabolic syndrome and frailty
  • Delayed treatment
  • High D-dimer level
  • Recent COVID booster

“The good news is that the advice we’ve been sharing from the FLCCC all along still stands — do what you can to prevent getting ill and if you do get it, treat immediately. Early treatment is critical,” the FLCCC writes.17

Signs and Symptoms to Watch Out For

Common symptoms experienced by those infected in the latest COVID-19 wave (in which BA.4, BA.5, BQ.1.1 and XBB1 variants have predominated) include:18

If any of these symptoms arise, begin treatment immediately. You can download the FLCCC’s latest treatment recommendations here. As noted by the FLCCC, there is NO need to wait for a confirmed PCR test, as the tests were developed for older variants and have always been unreliable at best anyway.

Another simple and inexpensive yet highly effective treatment strategy that I’ve promoted throughout the COVID pandemic is nebulized hydrogen peroxide. You can find more information about that here, here and here, and in the video below.

Prevention Strategies

As for prevention of COVID-19, influenza and RSV, the FLCCC suggests:19

  • Following their prevention protocol, which includes antimicrobial mouthwash, a nasal spray with 1% povidone-iodine, and immune-boosting supplements like quercetin and zinc, vitamins C and D, melatonin and elderberry syrup.
  • Intermittent fasting and balancing your gut microbiome.
  • Reduce stress.
  • Get good sleep. On average, adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night.
  • Spend more time outside in the sun and fresh air.

Regarding the use of ivermectin, the FLCCC comments:20

“… if you have significant comorbidities, lack natural immunity, or have a suppressed immune system you may want to try a twice-weekly dose of ivermectin at 0.2 mg/kg.

Likewise, consider it if you are currently suffering from long COVID or post-vaccine syndrome and are not currently being treated with ivermectin.

If you have an upcoming situation where you may have high possible exposure — such as travel, weddings, or conferences — taking daily ivermectin starting two days before departure and either daily or every other day during the period of high exposure is a reasonable approach.

Remember to immediately initiate daily ivermectin at treatment doses (0.4 mg/kg) at the first signs of any kind of viral syndrome. It bears repeating: Early treatment is essential! Most of all, pay no mind to the ongoing drumbeat of fear-mongering that the mainstream media is providing. We know the routine. We’ve been here before.”

Fearmongering Is a Tool to Foster Obedience

Indeed, it’s important to realize that the alleged “threats” posed by COVID, flu and RSV are being magnified for a reason. The biosecurity crisis needs to continue indefinitely because it’s the primary justification behind The Great Reset. At regular intervals, there must be another Chicken Little warning that the sky is still falling.

At some stage, you must realize that the more you give in and obey, the more you must give in and obey. There really is no end to what they can and will take from you, and holding on to the belief that your government would never [fill in the blank] is becoming more dangerous by the day.

It’s also important to realize that your government isn’t the ultimate power. Our government officials take orders too, from what is often referred to as the deep state. It’s not a government at all, but a global, hidden power structure that is accountable to no one, while influencing and manipulating everyone to bring about a new world order.

In years past, this shadowy cabal of power brokers were referred to under the term the New World Order. In 2020, the World Economic Forum came out on the public stage and announced The Great Reset, which is nothing but the NWO rebranded.

Don’t Get Fooled Twice

We can no longer afford to disbelieve the lengths to which this globalist cabal can and will go to seize control. They’ve already told us what the ultimate plan is — to use bioterrorism to take control of the world’s resources, wealth and people.

All we need to do is to believe it, and realize that the only thing giving them the power to impose their will is our fear. As long as we choose fear and demand our government keep us safe, they have every chance of winning.

Hopefully, a clear majority of people will have learned this lesson by now, and won’t fall for the same tricks again, even though they’ve upped the ante with a triple threat, rather than just one. Fear is a tool used to control you, but that only works if you buy into it.

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Notes

1 CNBC August 15, 2023

2, 5, 6, 7 ABC.net.au August 19, 2023

3 Independent.ie August 21, 2023

4, 8, 9 GB News August 18, 2023

10 Twitter Ryan Cunningham August 18, 2023

11 Daily Telegraph NZ August 19, 2023

12 Twitter Natalie Winters August 21, 2023

13 Benzinga August 11, 2023

14 CBS News September 1, 2020

15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 Substack FLCCC Alliance Community August 21, 2023 

Featured image is from Mercola


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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We bring to the attention of Global Research readers:

Important debate and analysis on the death of Wagner’s Prigozhin, chaired by Judge Napolitano 

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The former Ukrainian prosecutor who was fired at the insistence of then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2016 after investigating Burisma, claimed that Biden treated Ukraine like his “own backyard,” according to comments made during an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on Saturday.

Viktor Shokin was fired by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2016 after Biden — who was in charge of Ukrainian policy during the Obama administration — gave him an ultimatum, saying that Ukraine would not receive $1 billion dollars in aid until Shokin was dismissed. In an interview with Brian Kilmeade on “One Nation” on Saturday, Shokin claimed that Biden treated Ukraine as if it were his “own backyard.”

“I developed a very firm understanding of the fact that the vice president was only acting in his own interest. He, generally speaking, handled Ukraine like it was his own backyard,” Shokin told Kilmeade. “The office of Poroshenko, the president, was humiliated, but the entire country was humiliated,” Shokin added, describing Biden’s ultimatum that he be dismissed, which Biden publicly boasted about at a Council on Foreign Relations event on Jan. 23, 2018.

“I’m going to be leaving here in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch, he got fired and they put in place someone who was solid,” Biden said at the event.

At the time of Shokin’s firing, his office was investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that had hired Biden’s son, Hunter, to join its board. FBI documents released by Congress in July suggested that Hunter was hired to enable Burisma to utilize his father’s political influence and avoid threats to the company.

Shokin also suggested that Biden was personally engaged in corruption in Ukraine, citing his firing as one instance. “They were being bribed. The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn’t that alone a case of corruption?” he said.

“For years, these false claims have been debunked, and no matter how much air time Fox gives them, they will remain false,” said White House spokesperson Iam Sams in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Fox is giving a platform for these lies to a former Ukrainian prosecutor general whose office his own deputy called a hotbed of corruption, drawing demands for reform not only from then-Vice President Biden but also from U.S. diplomats, international partners, and Republican Senators like Ron Johnson.”

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American cattlemen are readying for a fight to protect the definition of the word meat from producers of synthetic cellular-based beef alternatives.

“It’s a red line. It isn’t right that these factory-made products should be able to market and sell their products off the backs of the cattleman,” Justin Tupper, President of the United States Cattlemen’s Association, told The Epoch Times.

“We are talking about chemical-laced cell-cultured products that can in some ways simulate meat, but they aren’t meat, and the American consumer needs to understand that,” added Mr. Tupper.

The synthetic “meat” market has already arrived in America.

Last year, the USDA gave two producers the green light to start producing and selling their lab-grown chicken-like products in the United States.

Where’s the Beef? Ranchers Take Stand Over Synthetic ‘Meat’ Label

Consumers shop for meat at a grocery store in Annapolis, Md., on May 16, 2022. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

While a decision over the labeling of the product has yet to be announced, the cattle industry plans on being aggressively proactive in both discussions with the USDA and, if needed, litigation after having learned a valuable lesson from the dairy farmers.

“The milk industry really dropped the ball,” said Mr. Tupper. “They never believed that anyone would think that almond milk was actual milk, so they brushed it off at the time. Now there are hundreds of items with milk in the name but with no milk in the product, and it has really hurt the entire dairy industry.”

“In the same way that you can’t milk an almond, you can’t get meat from a lab, only an animal, and we are not going to allow them to use our name to promote their product.”

Synthetic meat-like products are created by taking cells acquired from animals and placing them in a warm, sterile area, usually, a metal vat, where they are then combined with a solution of chemicals that causes the cells to double once a day.

The demand for synthetic meat has been spurred largely by corporate entities and government agencies working in tandem with the environmental movement.

Bill Gates, an investor in Upside Foods, one of the two synthetic meat producers approved by the USDA, believes meat alternatives are needed to save the world from upcoming catastrophic climate events caused by greenhouse gasses.

In a 2021 interview with Technology Review, Mr. Gates said that all well-off nations need to switch to be completely weaned off of living, breathing cows.

“All rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time,” Mr. Gates told the interviewer. “Eventually that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the people or use regulation to totally shift demand. So for meat in the middle-income-and-above countries, I do think it’s possible.”

A switch from animal meat to a laboratory-grown substitute would eliminate the need for animals to be bred and slaughtered—in the U.S. alone, around 9 billion chickens and 32 million cattle are killed every year.

However, beef cattle production constitutes only a small fraction of the gasses that many environmentalists claim have had a negative impact on the planet.

Just 2 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States come from beef cattle production, while energy production and transportation produce a combined 54 percent of emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Italian Ban

American ranchers aren’t the only ones raising the alarm. After two million Italians signed a petition calling for a ban against synthetic meat products, the Italian Senate passed a bill earlier this week, becoming the first country to make it illegal to produce or market the food, highlighting health concerns as the primary reason.

Ettore Prandini, President of Coldiretti, the largest association representing Italian agriculture, touted the vote as a legislative victory for the Italian people over corporate powers, telling the media that “the products in the laboratory in the authorization processes are not equated to food but rather to products of a pharmaceutical nature.”

An April 2023 report by the United Nations on the safety of “cell-based food products” cited 53 potential health hazards, including “the potential for expression of novel toxins, toxic metabolites, or allergens or a change in expression of toxins, toxic metabolites, or allergens as a result of genomic instability.”

The report concluded with a call for additional research and funding in order to draw more definitive conclusions.

Transparency Needed

Mr. Tupper isn’t calling for a ban on synthetic foods, only transparency, and believes that despite the large push for meat alternatives coming from corporate leaders and government agencies, the American cow is here to stay.

“The simple truth is that the taste of real beef cannot be replicated and, more importantly, when people discover the chemical storm that is actually in this product they are trying to pass off as meat, consumers are going to come to the conclusion that beef should come from a cow, not from a laboratory.”

“Our hopes are that the USDA will label this product for what it is, a cellular-based derivative of chemicals,” added Mr. Tupper.

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It should be understood that Niger’s CNSP Military Junta headed by General A. Tiani is supported by Washington.

General A. Tiani who led the coup d’Etat received his military training in the US at the National Defense University (NDU). He has close links to the Pentagon. 

The Biden administration has  casually refused to describe the ouster of President M. Barmou as a “Coup d’Etat” or a “regime change”.

Washington has accepted “the three year rule” proposed by the military Junta. 

Visibly there is a clash between the U.S. and France, barely acknowledged by the media. What is unfolding is the creation of political divisions within West Africa, which could potentially lead to Armed Conflict.

Similarly, the governments of Mali and Burkino Faso which were requested by Niamey to send troops to Niger. The military governments in both countries are aligned with Washington. 

In this regard, The Republic of Mali led by Colonel Assimi Goita –who is also a “friend of America” as well as an instrument of the Pentagon– had already in 2022  set the stage for “Removing France from Africa”.

Colonel Goita  issued in early 2022 a directive to “end diplomatic, military and economic ties with France”. Concurrently, he announced in 2022 that French was to be abolished as Mali’s official language.

In Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore came to power in a military coup, in October 2022, and ordered the withdrawal of French forces.

Is a similar pattern envisaged for Niger?

The CNSP military Junta no doubt in consultation with Washington has requested the French Ambassador Sylvain Itte to leave Niger within 48 hours. 

In a bitter irony, the process of “French Decolonization” (i.e “Paris out of Africa”) does not ensure the instatement of democratic forms of government. Quite the opposite, it tends to favor the hegemonic development of U.S. neocolonialism and the militarization of the African continent, which must be forcefully opposed.

A pattern of US militarization (coupled with the imposition of neoliberal “shock treatment” macro-economic policies), has unfolded in several francophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Michel Chossudovsky, August 28, 2023

See related detailed article: 

Niger’s Military Junta Is Supported by the Pentagon. Washington’s Unspoken Objective: “Remove France from Africa”

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, August 27, 2023

 

According to the Associated Press (Selected Excerpts):

Niger’s junta authorized troops from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to its defense and asked the French ambassador to leave the country Friday, raising the stakes in a standoff with other West African nations who are threatening force to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president.

The junta leader, Brig. Gen. Abdrahmane Tchiani, signed two executive orders authorizing the “security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi said late Thursday, after hosting a delegation from the two countries in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.

Sidi did not provide further details about the military support from the two countries whose military regimes have said any use of force by the West African bloc ECOWAS against Niger’s junta would be treated as an act of war against their own nations.  …

France has consistently acknowledged only the authority of Niger’s elected President Mohamed Bazoum, still detained by the junta. Paris reiterated Friday night that “only legitimate elected Nigerien authorities” have a say about the fate of its ambassador.

The invitation of troops from Mali and Burkina Faso as well as the expulsion of the French ambassador show “a very strong alignment” between the regimes of the two countries and that of Niger “in terms of having a very strong anti-Western and pro-authoritarian orientation,” said Nate Allen, an associate professor at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

The ECOWAS Commission president, Omar Alieu Touray, said Friday that the bloc’s threat to use force to reinstate Bazoum was “still on the table,” rejecting the junta’s three-year transition plan.

To read complete AP report click here 

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The intense propaganda used to coerce you to wear a face mask is not based on science. It is a pure political power play designed to force you and your children into submission.

And they are preparing to force you to mask up again.

In April, The Gateway Pundit reported on a German study that reveals that using a face mask during pregnancy may increase the chance of stillbirth, testicular dysfunction, and cognitive decline in children. 

Now, a study from researchers at Jeonbuk National University in South Korea, released in April and quietly being re-shared, suggests the “gold standard” surgical N95 masks may expose users to dangerous levels of toxic chemicals.

The study looked at two types of disposable medical-grade masks and several reusable cotton masks.

The Daily Mail reports:

The study found that the chemicals released by these masks had eight times the recommended safety limit of toxic volatile organic compounds (TVOCs).

Inhaling TVOCs has been linked to health issues like headaches and nausea, while prolonged and repeated has been linked to organ damage and even cancer. 

‘It is clear that particular attention must be paid to the VOCs associated with the use of KF94 [medical] masks their effects on human health,’ the researchers wrote in the study published April.

TOVCs, or Total volatile organic compounds, describes a wide range of organic chemical compounds, which are release by things like cleaning and beauty products, burning fool and cooking,  that could be classified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are reserved for characterization of such substances in polluted air, that is, VOCs generally refer to vapors of gases given off by compounds rather than the liquid phase.

While The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends keeping TVOC levels below 0.5 parts per million in indoor air, the study reveals that disposable masks studied contained up to 14 times the TVOCs compared to the cotton masks. 

Samples A1 through B3 represent disposable masks, whereas samples C1 through E4 are cloth masks. Disposable masks had up to 14 times more TVOCs than cloth masks Credit: DailyMail.com

The study is concerning especially in tandem with research released in January, 2023 by the Cochrane Library  that suggests masks provide ‘little to no difference’ to Covid infection or death rates:

There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect. The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection. Hand hygiene is likely to modestly reduce the burden of respiratory illness, and although this effect was also present when ILI and laboratory‐confirmed influenza were analysed separately, it was not found to be a significant difference for the latter two outcomes. Harms associated with physical interventions were under‐investigated.

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Who Killed Yevgeny Prigozhin?

August 28th, 2023 by Ted Snider

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Although Wagner leader Yevgeni Prigozhin had reportedly been banished to Belarus after his brief and spectacularly unsuccessful rebellion, he seemingly enjoyed a surprising freedom of movement. He apparently traveled between Belarus and Africa and traveled frequently between St. Petersburg and Moscow. He even made a very public and conspicuous appearance in July at the Russia-Africa summit where he met with African representatives and praised Vladimir Putin. But on August 23, Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash.

It could have been an accident: planes crash, and Prigozhin flew often. It could have been a murder. There is no shortage of people who might have wanted Prigozhin dead. Forces in Niger – whose coup government had just requested Wagner’s help and whom Prigozhin had just praised – or parties with an interest in Niger, or an interest in arresting Russia’s influence in Africa, might have wanted to put an end to his recent campaign to recruit mercenary soldiers to Africa. Ukraine or Poland, upon whose border Wagner’s forces were massing, might have wanted to eliminate him. The US or Ukraine might have wanted to destabilize Russia by rekindling the struggle between Moscow, the Ministry of Defense and now angry and vengeful Wagner forces. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu or Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, whom Prigozhin wanted removed, might have wanted to remove him.

But most people will point to Putin. Most people will say that Putin was just waiting to kill him to remove a threat and punish a traitor.

President Biden and CIA Director William Burns had both previously predicted that Putin would kill Prigozhin. Both suggested that Prigozhin shouldn’t fire his food taster. But despite Burns’ claim that Putin is “the ultimate apostle of payback,” the many media claims over the years that Putin habitually arranges the murders of opponents are unsupported. The late Stephen Cohen, who was Professor Emeritus of Politics and director of Russian Studies at Princeton, dismisses the charge in a single sentence, declaring it the easiest accusation against Putin to refute “because there is no actual evidence . . . to support it.”

In his biography of Putin, Philip Short dedicates more pages to the charge but comes up with a slightly more accusatory but similar verdict. By not punishing people who arranged killings, Putin may have “allowed a climate to develop” in which powerful people could order killings. But “contrary to widespread belief in the West,” Putin “did not” authorize the killings. Short reports that, “once the fog of conspiracy theories cleared,” responsibility for some of the most famous killings were “traced back to the entourage of Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.” Short calls the evidence massed against Putin in one of the most famous cases “entirely circumstantial.” Of the long list of “high-profile” killings in Russia, Short concludes that “with the exception of Litvinenko, none had been killed at Putin’s behest.” Short argues that in a list of ten suspicious deaths compiled by the Washington Post, “only the death of Alexandr Litvinenko can be laid firmly at Putin’s door. All the others appear to have been killed for reasons unconnected with the Kremlin.” Cohen argues that, despite the verdict that Putin was “probably” responsible for Litvinenko, “there is still no conclusive proof” even for that one death. Of the two cases that cemented Putin’s reputation as a murderous thug in the media, Cohen says that “Not a shred of actual proof points to Putin in either case.”

A skeptical cloud over the case against Putin in the death of Prigozhin is the flamboyant blowing up of his plane in Russian skies just outside Moscow. Assassinations are usually made of more subtle stuff.

The strongest circumstantial case against Putin is the seemingly more coordinated than coincidental firing, or demoting, of General Sergei Surovikin on the same day. On June 27, The New York Times reported that, according to US officials, Surovikin “had advance knowledge of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership.” When Prigozhin demanded  the removal of Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, he nominated Surovikin to replace him. Surovikin lost his job, and Prigozhin lost his life on the same day: a coincidence that at least suggests a coordinated plan, if Surovikin did, in fact, know of the rebellion and kept the knowledge from the Kremlin, to remove the two most powerful men behind the mutiny.

It may be long before the evidence is in – if it is ever in – on what happened the day Yevgeni Prigozhin died. But, though there is a case against Putin, it is far from a closed case. And, despite the constant claims, there is not a well-established line of high profile killings ordered by Putin to add to the evidence. There are also a number of other parties with a motive that should not be allowed to walk away just yet. That list includes, not just Putin, but ousted elements in Niger; parties, including the US, France and the political West with an interest in Niger and broader influence in Africa; countries, including the US and Ukraine, with an interest in restarting the Wagner-Moscow war; Poland with its Wagner crowded Belarusian border; and even other elements, like Shoigu and Gerasimov, in Russia who had felt Prigozhin’s danger.

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Ted Snider is a regular columnist on US foreign policy and history at Antiwar.com and The Libertarian Institute. He is also a frequent contributor to Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative as well as other outlets.

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It is becoming increasingly obvious to a range of Western observers — from the warmonger former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to the anti-war American journalist Ted Snider — that the Biden administration planned to ignite the Ukraine war long before it broke out, and has since been intent on prolonging it and blocking all attempts to negotiate any solution that could bring it to a peaceful end.

In his recently published memoir, Sarkozy said he opposed Ukraine’s accession to NATO when he was in power, and was supported in that stance by German chancellor Angela Merkel. He acknowledged that Crimea was part of Russia with a predominantly Russian population, and thought Ukraine should be a neutral state acting as bridge between Europe and Russia. Washington’s determination to prolong the war there is not in Europe’s interest, and it should muster the courage to say that and renounce the Western habit of launching wars by proxy — a clear reference to the US.

Ted Snider’s article in The American Conservative magazine detailed how the US sabotaged three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine held in Belarus and Istanbul in the early days of the war. They had reached preliminary agreement on ending the war by Russia offering concessions (to withdraw from the Kyiv area, not target President Volodimir Zelensky, and cease demanding Ukraine’s disarmament), in exchange for Ukraine undertaking not to join NATO.

Former Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who chaired the Istanbul talks, said afterwards that certain NATO members want to prolong the war and scupper any agreement to halt it — another clear reference to the US.

Biden has always been, and continues to be, eager to keep the war going. He believes it could result in the destruction of Russia, just as his country destroyed Iraq, Syria, and Libya with policies combining

economic siege, impoverishment, and military invasion pursued by successive US administrations.

We are witnessing a replay of the ‘Kuwait precedent’ where the US planned and provoked a war and sought to drag it on for as long as possible in pursuit of its goals. The George Bush Sr. administration lured Iraqi President Saddam Hussein into the trap of war in Kuwait and opposed Saudi efforts to prevent its outbreak at last-minute talks held in Taef. It pressured the Kuwaiti side to reject Saudi proposals aimed at avoiding hostilities just two days before they began.

History is now repeating itself in the Ukraine crisis, the major difference being that this time the US’ enemy is a nuclear-armed superpower fighting to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

American calculations in Ukraine have been wrong-headed since day one of the war. Persisting with them is not in the interest of the US or its European partners who have begun to pay the price of their involvement in the form of economic crises, inflation, and falling living standards for their citizens.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who came up with the idea of holding the Ukraine peace summit in Jeddah, imagined it would be a forum to celebrate Russia’s surrender like a latter-day Versailles conference. But the outcomes have proven completely contrary to these naive assumptions.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive which the US was banking on failed miserably. Veteran journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that US intelligence agencies warned Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that this offensive, so loudly trumpeted by the Biden administration, would not lead to Russia’s defeat and was merely a stunt by Zelensky.

The Biden administration has now authorised countries like Denmark and The Netherlands to send F-16 warplanes to Ukraine military, ostensibly to end Russian air force’s dominance of Ukrainian airspace. But these planes will be easy prey for Russia’s air defences and will no more tip the military balance than did the previously supplied Patriot and other missile systems or the US Abrams, German Leopard, and British Challenger tanks.

The sending of drones to strike central Moscow or blow up the Crimean bridge is no more than a desperate show staged by Zelensky and his handlers to conceal the reality of defeat as Russia consolidates its control of Crimea and the four annexed eastern provinces.

I’ve always said this and will say it again: Nuclear powers cannot be defeated, and as winter begins to set in in weeks to come, ‘General Frost’ will join the fight alongside the Russian army, promising more unpleasant military surprises for Biden.

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The Israeli military attacked Aleppo International Airport in the early hours of Monday morning, according to Syrian state media, Sana.

At about 4.30 am local time Israel carried out an “aerial act of aggression” from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, said the Syrian state news agency, Sana. 

It reported no casualties, but the Syrian transport ministry said the damage to the only functioning runway has put the airport out of service, adding that flights have been diverted to Damascus and Latakia airports.

“Maintenance teams will start repair work today to return the airport to service as quickly as possible,” ministry official Suleiman Khalil told AFP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said weapons depots at the adjacent Nayrab military airport were also targeted by air strikes. 

The strike comes a week after an Israeli attack on sites near Damascus killed two pro-government fighters, according to the Observatory.

This is the fifth time in under one year that Israel has struck Aleppo airport.

Alleged Israeli strikes last put Aleppo airport out of service in May, and prior to that twice in March, and one in September 2022.

Israeli missile strikes have also hit the airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus at least four times this year.

The Israeli military has made no comment following the latest attacks, a stance it has maintained following previous assaults on Syria.

Israel has conducted hundreds of air strikes in Syria since 2011, targeting Syrian troops, Iran-backed fighters and Hezbollah.

However, attacks targeting airports and paralysing aviation have become more frequent over the last year.

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After weeks of local speculation, the purchasers of 55,000 acres of northern California land have been revealed. The group Flannery Associates – backed by a cohort of Silicon Valley investors – has quietly purchased $800m worth of agricultural and empty land, the New York Times has reported. Its goal is to build a utopian new town that will offer its thousands of residents reliable public transportation and urban living, all of which would operate using clean energy.

The project was spearheaded by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former trader for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, and is backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors including Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist; Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of Linkedin; Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of the philanthropic group Emerson Collective and wife of Steve Jobs; Marc Andreessen, an investor and software developer; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payment processor Stripe; and the entrepreneurs Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, the Times reported.

Though Flannery has been purchasing farmland and empty plots over the past five years it has only recently started interacting with local officials and residents, according to the Times and local reports.

Flannery has purchased land from farmers for several times more than the market value and become the biggest landowners in Solano county, an area 60 miles north-east of San Francisco. The land bought by the firm encircles Travis air force base in Fairfield, a city of about 120,000 residents and home to the Anheuser-Busch Co brewery and the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory.

Recently, Flannery has been meeting with local officials and representatives, according to the Times. It has also been sending out opinion polls to local residents to gauge their feelings on an initiative that could appear on Solano county voter’s ballots, according to the newspaper SF Gate.

“This project would include a new city with tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees, and over ten thousand acres of new parks and open space,” a screenshot of the survey obtained by the newspaper reads.

The poll also asks if residents would support the project if it was placed in an area with “bad soil that only contributes 5% of the county’s agricultural production,” according to a Facebook post from Catherine Moy, the mayor of Fairfield, the closest city to Flannery’s purchases.

Despite the lofty goals set forth by Flannery, the group faces an uphill battle that will affect each step of the process of creating a new city from scratch. The firm has sued land owners who sold their land over what it describes as an “illegal price-fixing conspiracy”. Flannery would have to get the blessing of officials at the local and state levels and residents. It will also have to navigate environmental and zoning roadblocks, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

[This article was amended on 27 August 2023 to clarify that Flannery Associates has sued land owners from whom it bought land for an alleged price-fixing conspiracy.]

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