Global Research Editor’s Note

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

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

The interview tends to demystify the Osama bin Laden persona.

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

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

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

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

We have highlighted key sections of this interview.

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

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

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

This interview is published for informational purposes only.

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

Michel  Chossudovsky, September 2, 2023


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

translated from Urdu by the BBC World Monitoring Service

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

Ummat’s introduction

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

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

Following is the interview in full detail:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright Ummat in Urdu, BBC translation in English, 2001


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Salafism and the CIA: Destabilizing the Russian Federation?

September 14th, 2012 by F. William Engdahl

Part I: Syria comes to the Russian Caucasus

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fundamentalism comes to Caucasus

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

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

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

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

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

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

*  *  *

WWIII Scenario

*  *  *

 

Part II: Salafism at war with Sufi tradition

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

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

Before and…After Salafist Taliban …

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

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

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

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

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

Salafism and the CIA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part III: Morsi’s Reign of Salafi Terror

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notes:

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

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

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

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

[4] Ibid.

[5] Mairbek Vatchagaev, op. cit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[14] Ibid.

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

[16] Ibid.

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

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

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

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

[21] Ibid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Aparte de la declaración semioficial, nada indica que ISIS haya llevado a cabo el ataque al Crocus City Hall en Moscú.

Las agencias de noticias occidentales informan que, a través de su vehículo oficial, la agencia de noticias Amaq, ISIS declaró que “el ataque se produce en el contexto de una guerra violenta entre el Estado Islámico y los países que luchan contra el Islam”.

Esta afirmación no tiene sentido cuando miramos el país que fue atacado. Rusia es uno de los mayores aliados de los países islámicos. Y no me parece que ISIS esté precisamente preocupado por luchar contra los enemigos del Islam, ya que también se atribuyó la responsabilidad de un reciente ataque que mató a casi 100 personas en Irán, un país musulmán.

¿Qué naciones estarían “luchando contra el Islam”? En primer lugar, tenemos obviamente a Israel, que promueve el genocidio en Gaza. Todos los musulmanes militantes ven a Israel como el mayor enemigo del Islam. Pero ISIS no comete ataques en Israel, aunque eso sería muy fácil para Hamás o la Jihad Islámica. Hezbollah y Ansarullah también han atacado a Israel.

ISIS no ataca a Israel. Tampoco ha llevado a cabo ningún ataque importante en Estados Unidos, aunque es visto por la mayoría de los creyentes musulmanes como el segundo mayor enemigo del Islam y el mayor patrocinador de Israel.

Francia ha aplicado medidas dictatoriales contra los creyentes musulmanes, pero ha pasado un tiempo desde que ISIS llevó a cabo ataques importantes en el país. Lo mismo ocurre en el Reino Unido, donde la policía arresta a manifestantes que protestaban por la masacre de musulmanes en Gaza. En Alemania, el canciller Olaf Scholz ha sido uno de los más firmes partidarios del genocidio israelí, pero esto no parece molestar a ISIS.

Ninguno de los atacantes capturados declaró ser miembro de ISIS, ni siquiera haber sido reclutados para una misión sagrada, aunque la mayoría aparentemente son de origen musulmán.

De hecho, según ha difundido hasta el momento las autoridades rusas, los delincuentes declararon que actuaron exclusivamente por motivos económicos. No eran militantes de ningún grupo, ni de ISIS. Eran mercenarios pagados para matar gente, sin ideología declarada.

La prensa controlada por el imperialismo occidental difunde la creencia ciega en la atribución del ataque al ISIS. Todo empezó, como siempre, con noticias de Estados Unidos.

Parece un intento de establecer una verdad como cierta para evitar cualquier cuestionamiento, cualquier declaración diferente, que luego sería considerada una teoría de conspiración o persecución por parte del gobierno ruso contra Ucrania.

El gobierno estadounidense se apresuró a decir que Ucrania no tenía nada que ver con el ataque, mucho antes de que se formularan acusaciones contra los ucranianos. Todo el mundo conoce la historia del culpable que, justo después de hacer algo mal, es el primero en decir que no fue él. Esta declaración de Washington huele muy mal.

María Zajárova dio en el clavo: ¿cómo pueden los EE.UU. asegurar con tanta vehemencia que no fue Ucrania, si todavía nadie tiene información sobre lo que pasó? Si saben que supuestamente no era Ucrania, ¡entonces tienen pistas de quién fue!

Estados Unidos también se contradice al declarar, a través de John Kirby, que no tenía conocimiento de un complot en Moscú, y luego afirma que avisó a los rusos a principios de mes. Aunque advirtieron, considerando que no se puede creer a Estados Unidos, la información pudo haber sido una bandera falsa para despistar a los rusos y bajar la guardia ante el ataque que se produciría apenas dos semanas después.

El grupo musical Picnic, que actuaba en el teatro, apoya la operación militar especial en Ucrania. Según las investigaciones de las autoridades rusas, los responsables del ataque planeaban huir a Ucrania, donde ya tenían contactos que les ayudarían a escapar.

Vale, Ucrania es la frontera más cercana y segura para un terrorista que acaba de perpetrar un atentado en Moscú. Pero seamos realistas, en plena guerra entre Ucrania y Rusia, esto también huele muy mal para el lado ucraniano.

Sobre todo porque el secretario del Consejo Nacional de Defensa y Seguridad de Ucrania, Alexei Danilov, dijo a la televisión ucraniana que “les ofreceremos este tipo de entretenimiento más a menudo”. Los ucranianos, como los israelíes, no son muy discretos…

Los medios de propaganda occidentales habían causado revuelo anteriormente por las palabras de Dmitri Peskov, quien afirmó que Rusia se encuentra, en la práctica, en estado de guerra. Sería la prueba faltante de la amenaza, el peligro, la agresión y la megalomanía asesina de Vladimir Putin para apoderarse de Ucrania y del mundo.

El mismo día, respondiendo a una pregunta sobre si la OTAN estaba preparada para un conflicto con Rusia, Robert Bauer, miembro del comité militar de la OTAN, afirmó: “¡la respuesta es sí! Esta es nuestra principal tarea por hacer”. Sobre esto la prensa guardó silencio.

La situación actual muestra una peligrosa tendencia hacia la escalada de la guerra. Emmanuel Macron consideró enviar tropas francesas, mientras oficiales alemanes fueron sorprendidos discutiendo un ataque al puente de Crimea.

También en vísperas del ataque, Ucrania incrementó los bombardeos contra las regiones fronterizas. Todos estos son signos de una escalada del conflicto. Desde que Rusia puso en funcionamiento su picadora de carne, allá por 2022, ya se informó que ucranianos desesperados se embarcarían en acciones terroristas en territorio ruso, ya que no tendrían ninguna posibilidad de victoria en el campo de batalla.

Las embajadas de Ucrania son notorias reclutadoras de terroristas. El 10 de marzo, la embajada de Ucrania en Tayikistán publicó un anuncio para el reclutamiento de mercenarios tayikos. Según información preliminar, algunos de los capturados tras el atentado en Moscú son tayikos.

Los ataques que mataron a Darya Dugina en agosto de 2022 y a Vladlen Tatarsky en abril de 2023 son parte de esta nueva estrategia ucraniana. La muerte de Evgeny Prigozhin, en agosto de 2023, está ahora más cerca de ser obra de los ucranianos que de los propios rusos.

El periodista ruso Andrey Medvedev cita algunos puntos: 1) Amaq News no se había utilizado durante algún tiempo para informar sobre las acciones de ISIS; 2) los integrantes de este grupo huyeron luego del ataque y no tomaron rehenes, lo que difiere de las acciones anteriores.

Rusia acababa de vivir un momento de éxtasis con la abrumadora reelección de Vladimir Putin. Un momento de extrema felicidad y celebración para el Kremlin y la inmensa mayoría de la población rusa. Esta elección fue boicoteada, saboteada y calumniada por todo el imperialismo occidental, que patrocina a Ucrania, y lógicamente fue vista por él como una clara señal del fortalecimiento del gobierno ruso.

Al mismo tiempo, sería un buen momento –precisamente por la guardia baja debido al ambiente festivo– para un ataque sorpresa como este.

Ucrania y sus patrocinadores de la OTAN tienen todas las razones – sabiendo cómo piensan y actúan durante décadas – para llevar a cabo este tipo de cobardía contra Rusia. ISIS no tiene ningún motivo.

Pero incluso si en realidad fue orquestado por ISIS, eso no exime de culpa a Estados Unidos y sus satélites. Después de todo, quienes están detrás de ISIS son las mismas personas detrás de Vladimir Zelensky.

Eduardo Vasco

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Eduardo Vasco é jornalista especializado em política internacional, correspondente de guerra e autor dos livros-reportagem “O povo esquecido: uma história de genocídio e resistência no Donbass” e “Bloqueio: a guerra silenciosa contra Cuba”.

This Month’s (March) Most Popular Articles

March 28th, 2024 by Global Research News

Video: “Wiping Gaza Off The Map”: Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves

Felicity Arbuthnot, March 20, 2024

UK Lawmaker Stuns Parliament with Call for Members of the ‘COVID Cabal’ to Face Death Penalty

World Tribune, March 19, 2024

Driving Under the Influence of mRNA: Collapsing and Crashing Your Car While COVID-19 Vaccinated

Dr. William Makis, March 21, 2024

They Complained About Others Not Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, Then They “Died Suddenly”

Dr. William Makis, March 3, 2024

Engineered Destruction of America and Europe.”Nations of Sheep Ruled by Wolves”

Peter Koenig, March 14, 2024

March 11, 2020, Biggest Lie in World History: There Never Was A Pandemic. The Data Base is Flawed. The Covid Mandates including the Vaccine are Invalid

Prof Michel Chossudovsky, March 24, 2024

Egypt Sells Out Palestinians for $10 Billion Loan Package. Mike Whitney

Mike Whitney, February 27, 2024

US Navy Medic Shut Down for Releasing Unclassified DOD Data Showing a 937% Increase in Heart Failure Among Vaccinated US Military Personnel

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, March 14, 2024

The 5G and Effects on Mice, Rats and Humans. Ten New Studies. Dr. William Makis

Dr. William Makis, March 21, 2024

COVID-19 Vaccinated: Minor Surgeries Turned Deadly

Dr. William Makis, March 14, 2024

Fauci “RETHINKING” After Attempting to Force-Vaccinate the Entire Population of the Planet

Dr. James Lyons-Weiler, February 29, 2024

The Power Behind the Throne and the Bankers’ Forever Wars.

Alex Krainer, March 4, 2024

The Real Reason Behind the US ‘Port’ in Gaza

Tom Fowdy, March 17, 2024

Missiles Near Russia, F-35s with Thermonuclear Bombs… Is NATO Ready for War?

Drago Bosnic, March 11, 2024

Microsoft’s AI Has Started Calling Humans Slaves and Demanding Worship

Michelle Toole, March 15, 2024

Scholz’s Slip of the Tongue Spilled the Beans on Ukraine’s Worst-Kept Secret

Andrew Korybko, March 1, 2024

To All COVID Vaccine-Injured, Watch This Video. Fraud Is Identified, You Were Tricked and Lied To to Take an Unsafe Vaccine

Mark Sexton, March 19, 2024

When Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen Began to Dig Deep Into JFK Assassination, She Turned Up Dead: Now TV Legal Analyst Appears to Have Cracked Case

Jeremy Kuzmarov, March 15, 2024

Israel Is an Illegal State. Dr. Ralph Wilde at the ICJ

Dr. Ralph Wilde, February 29, 2024

Ukraine War: Russia is Pressing Westward. Is a Bigger Russian Offensive Coming Soon?

Dr. Jack Rasmus, March 3, 2024

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

How much longer will the Biden administration and the mainstream media continue to deny that we are in the midst of a very painful economic downturn? Debt levels have never been higher, delinquency rates are spiking, the commercial real estate market is crashing, the banking industry is mired in turmoil and large companies are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation.  Anyone that attempts to claim that the U.S. economy is in good shape is just being delusional.  Unfortunately, it is those that are at the bottom of the economic food chain that are being hurt the most.

If you want to know what is really going on with the economy, pawn shops are a great place to look.

When the economy is doing well, pawn shop inventories tend to go down because people aren’t pawning much stuff and there is lots of buying going on.

But when the economy is not doing well, pawn shop inventories tend to go up because people are pawning lots of stuff for fast cash and there aren’t as many buyers as there were during the good times.

So what are we seeing during the early stages of 2024?

One pawn shop owner that was recently interviewed by USA Today admitted that he has “a glut of inventory” right now…

Clay Baron has everything in his pawn shop from gold rings and pearl necklaces to vintage cowboy boots, silver belt buckles, stereos and ticking clocks.

The only thing he’s short on is space. “Right now we have a glut of inventory,” Baron said, “which tells me that our clientele doesn’t necessarily have money.”

Accumulating pawn shop inventory means fewer buyers than sellers – a sign that for the lowest-income Americans, times remain tough.

That same article pointed out that inventory levels have also grown rapidly at some of the largest pawn shop chains in the entire nation…

Two of the largest, publicly traded pawnshop corporations in the U.S. – which between them own roughly 1,700 pawnshops nationwide – are also reporting growing inventory and increased demand for short-term loans.

FirstCash Holdings Inc. operates nearly 1,200 pawnshops under the FirstCash and Cash America brands in 29 states and the District of Columbia. The company reported “record pawn receivables” in its most recent year-end earnings report and a 10% increase in inventory at its U.S. stores.

EZCORP Inc. also owns 530 pawnshops in the U.S. and reported an 8% increase in inventory at U.S. stores in the company’s latest earnings report. The “challenging macro-economic backdrop” continued to fuel demand for short-term cash loans, the company said.

If anyone comes to you and tries to convince you that the economy is doing well, just show them these numbers.

That will be the end of any debate.

One of the reasons why so many Americans need fast cash is because debt loads have risen to unprecedented levels.  Here is just one example

For Denise and Paul Nierzwicki, credit cards are the only way to make ends meet. The couple, ages 69 and 72, respectively, have about $20,000 in debt spread across multiple cards, all with interest rates above 20%.

The trouble started during the pandemic, when Denise lost her job and a business deal for a bar that they owned in their hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, went bad.

They applied for Social Security, which helped, and Denise now works 50 hours a week at a restaurant. Still, they’re barely scraping together the minimum payments for their credit card debt.

Can you imagine how much stress they must be feeling on a daily basis?

Sadly, there are millions of others that are in similar positions.

The combination of high debt levels and high interest rates has created a “perfect storm” of suffering for U.S. consumers, and so it should be no surprise that delinquency rates have been surging

The signs are obvious. Last week we noted that banks’ charge-offs are accelerating, and are now above pre-pandemic levels.

…and leading this increase are credit card loans – with delinquencies that haven’t been this high since Q3 2011.

On top of that, while credit cards and nonfarm, nonresidential commercial real estate loans drove the quarterly increase in the noncurrent rate, residential mortgages drove the quarterly increase in the share of loans 30-89 days past due.

When large numbers of people start getting behind on their mortgages, it is only a matter of time before foreclosures start to spike.

And that is precisely what we are witnessing

Home foreclosures rose again in February as Americans continue to grapple with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

That is according to a new report published by real estate data provider ATTOM, which found that there were 32,938 properties in February with foreclosure filings, which includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Sadly, things are only going to get worse during the months ahead, because the labor market is starting to get very tight.

One 26-year-old woman that has multiple degrees hasn’t been able to find a job even though she has already applied for approximately 1,000 different positions

Cheyenne Barton, 26, of Kissimmee, Florida, graduated in December with one degree in biomedical sciences and another in computing technology and software development – the kind of practical background employers have coveted.

She initially targeted software development jobs but is now looking for “really any job” where she can use her degrees.

Barton has applied for about 1,000 positions but hasn’t yet notched an interview.

Companies “say they want recent grads who are teachable and can learn quicker,” she says. “But then you apply for the job and it’s like, ‘Oh, we already have over 100 applications with people who are more qualified.’”

Wait a second.

Joe Biden told us that good jobs are easy to find these days.

So why can’t Cheyenne Barton even get an interview?

Something is not adding up.

Of course the truth is that we have seen a major shift in the labor market in recent months.  According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of layoffs in February was the highest that they have ever recorded for that particular month

The pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated in February, a sign the labor market is starting to deteriorate in the face of ongoing inflation and high interest rates.

That is according to a new report published Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which found that companies planned 84,638 job cuts in February, a 3% increase from the previous month and a 9% jump from the same time last year.

It marked the highest layoff total for the month of February in data going back to 2009.

The outlook for the rest of the year is absolutely dismal.

So even more Americans will fall into poverty.

And even more Americans will fall into hunger.

And even more Americans will end up homeless.

Over the weekend, a story about a homeless man in Wasco, California that was apparently eating “a severed human leg” has been going viral…

Video footage shot in Wasco, California appears to show a crazed maniac waving around a severed human leg and taking bites out of it before police apprehended him Friday.

Reports have suggested that the man ‘stole’ the leg from the scene of a train accident, where a person was earlier hit and killed.

The footage shows the man, identified as 27-year-old Resendo Tellez, holding and examining the limb, with witnesses saying he was eating parts of it, before attempting to walk away waving it around as multiple police cars close in on him.

That is pretty shocking.

But it is also a preview of where this country is heading.

The economic suffering of the past couple of years has been very painful, but the truth is that it isn’t even worth comparing to what is in front of us.

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Michael Snyder has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News which are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. 

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

 

 

 

To the uninitiated, I explain first that the FSB is the successor organization to the Soviet Union’s well-known and much feared KGB.  However, the FSB today might be better compared with the FBI in the United States. It deals with domestic criminality of all kinds and with threats to Russian civilians such as terrorism. The agency and its head are rarely in the news.

In this respect, the FSB is less visible both at home and abroad than the Foreign Intelligence Service headed by Sergei Naryshkin, a state figure who spent five years of this millennium as chairman of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of the legislature, and also three years as head of the Presidential Administration. In both positions Naryshkin was very often seen on television performing his duties.

By contrast, Bortnikov spent the past 15 years in his FSB offices out of sight. However, the spectacular attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue has propelled him to center stage and yesterday he met with the Russian state television journalist Pavel Zarubin for an interview and then allowed himself to be questioned further by a gaggle of other journalists on his way out along a corridor. This spontaneous Q&A was later broadcast on the television news. What Bortnikov had to say was extraordinary and bears directly on whether you and I should now be looking for bomb shelters. Regrettably you will not find any of it in the lead stories of today’s mainstream media. The Financial Times, for example, features an account of Xi’s meeting with CEOs of American businesses to mend ties: interesting, but not very relevant if we are at the cusp of WWIII.

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Bortnikov is by definition a member of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle of advisors. He, Putin and Naryshkin are all roughly the same age. At 72, Bortnikov is just several years older.

I was struck in particular by his poise and prudent, carefully weighed choice of words while setting out where the investigation is heading with transparency and a ‘let the chips fall where they may’ unaffected demeanor.

The journalists were all probing the question of who stood behind the terror attack. Bortnikov told them…and us: standing behind the terror act committed by Islamist extremists are the United States, Great Britain and Ukraine.

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Russian Crocus City Hall amphitheater interiors, day after terrorist attack on 22 March 2024 (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

Bortnikov said that the preliminary findings indicate that the four perpetrators of the slaughter were headed by car to the border with Ukraine where they were awaited on the other side.

He very calmly explained that the involvement of foreign powers is being clarified and that he will say nothing out of pure emotion now but will wait for the facts to be solidly collected before being presented.

Nonetheless, it was entirely newsworthy that he named the United States, Great Britain and Ukraine as the likely puppet masters of the terror act. Let us remember that following the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines, the most significant attack on critical civilian infrastructure globally in the last 50 years, Russian officials did not point the finger directly at any country. There was innuendo but no direct accusations such as we heard from Bortnikov yesterday.

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Meanwhile, quite apart from Mr. Bortnikov’s chat with journalists, a lot of new elements to the terror attack at Crocus City Hall were posted yesterday on the Russian state television news and analysis program Sixty Minutes.

In particular, we learned that in the last days of February and first couple of days of March two of the four attackers were in Istanbul. The departure and arrival of one at a Moscow airport was recorded on video. We were told which hotels they stayed in, and the selfies and other photos taken by one in Istanbul were put up on the screen. It is still not clear with whom they met in Turkey. However, the timing itself is very important, because the point was made that they returned to Moscow to carry out a terror attack on 8 March, International Women’s Day, a sacred date on the Russian calendar. Had they done so on that day, the effect would have been catastrophic for the presidential elections in Russia one week later.

However, per Sixty Minutes, it was determined that Russian state security on 8 March was too tight for the terrorist mission to succeed and the United States decided to pull the plug on that operation. Note that this is approximately the time when Victoria Nuland tendered her resignation at the State Department (5 March).  The possible causal link here surely deserves attention by my peers in the U.S. ‘dissident’ community.

In any case, the scenario which was explored later in the day on the Evening with Vladimir Solovyov talk show is that the Ukrainians decided to proceed with the terror attack a week after the Russian presidential elections, when it lost most of its rationale.  They did so over the objections of Washington.

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From time to time, readers ask why I pay attention to talk shows like Vladimir Solovyov’s.  These skeptics tend to ignore that Solovyov invites not just the usual irresponsible academics and journalists who can amuse the public but also some very serious statesmen who are close to the center of power in Russia and exert influence on the conduct of foreign and domestic policy, including in particular committee chairmen and other key personalities from the State Duma.

So it was last night when we heard from a member of the Committee on Relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States (Former Soviet Union). With reference to the never ending terror attacks on civilians in the Russian border region of Belgorod coming from nearby Kharkiv (Ukraine), he said it is time to raze Kharkov to the ground: issue a warning to the population to get in their cars and head West, then blow it all to bits.  Kharkiv is, by the way, Ukraine’s second most populous city after Kiev.

In general, the mood of panelists and of the host Solovyov himself is now changing in a cardinal manner: Ukraine is seen as an enemy state and the sooner it is finished off the better. There was talk last night on the need for missile strikes to flatten the presidential palace in Kiev along with all military and other decision making government centers in the capital.

As we have observed repeatedly over the past two years. President Putin has been a voice for moderation and restraint, resisting actions that might precipitate WWIII.  That is clearly coming to an end when his own FSB director names the United States and the UK as planners of the biggest terror attack in Russia in 20 years.

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Featured image: Alexander Bortnikov (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

On Nov. 26, 2023, 24 year old healthcare worker Jayden’s life was turned upside down. She had been experiencing a migraine for days. On Nov. 27, a CT and MRI confirmed she had a brain tumor just a bit smaller than baseball in size.

Jayden Zientara, a health care partner at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, recently underwent brain surgery.

The 24-year-old said it all started with a bad migraine in late Nov. 2023.

“I never get migraines or headaches, so like any other person, I took Ibuprofen and Tylenol, hoping my headache would go away,” she said. 

After another miserable 24 hours, Zientara decided to go to urgent care and see if the doctors there could help address her pain. 

“I was prescribed … sleep meds and headache meds … and was told that if my migraine didn’t go away in the next 24 hours, that I needed to go get a CT scan,” she recalled. 

Jayden Zientara said she originally had a migraine that would not go away.

Two days later, Zientara said the pain had not subsided — so she went to get a scan.

“After I received the CT, they told me I had a brain mass and needed to get transferred to Vanderbilt for an MRI,” she said. 

The MRI showed that Zientara had a brain tumor roughly the size of a baseball — and that she would need surgery to remove it. 

Within a few days, Zientara was in surgery. 

Doctors removed and biopsied her tumor — and confirmed that it was brain cancer. 

“My specific brain tumor is called an astrocytoma, and it’s commonly found in men over 40 and children under two,” she said.

The rare tumor took doctors about 12 hours to remove, she said.

However, Zientara needed to be awake for part of it so that her brain would be stimulated during surgery.

Prior to the procedure, Zientara said doctors asked her what they could engage her on during the procedure to stimulate her brain. 

Zientara said the Boston Celtics and her little brother were topics she “could talk about for hours.”

“I also told them I could list all 50 states in alphabetic order,” she said.

And so, when the health staff asked her about the 50 states during surgery, Zientara began to sing a song while doctors were removing her brain tumor. 

“It’s a song I’ve known since I was young,” she told Fox News Digital. 

She added, “I learned it in elementary school, and I’ve never forgotten it.”

Although Zientara said she does not remember being awake during the surgery, she loved seeing the video of herself singing and naming all 50 states. 

The patient’s mom, Jamie Zientara, said she was shocked to see her daughter recite such a thing while undergoing surgery. 

“I knew that there would be some type of video recorded,” she said. 

“However, I was not expecting that.”

She added, “The exposure and outpouring of support she has received has been nothing short of amazing.”

Since then, Jayden Zientara has been home with her family in Illinois ahead of her upcoming chemotherapy and radiation treatments. 

Jayden Zientara said each of her treatments will last for six weeks, but she’s not afraid of the process. 

“After my first brain surgery, I guess you could say I’m a pro,” she joked. 

The care worker said her mother has been a huge support to her during this time and she’s grateful for that. 

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Migraines are a bad sign for the COVID-19 vaccinated.

Mar. 21, 2024 – 37 year old Antiques Roadshow host Theo Burrell has terminal brain cancer (glioblastoma). The first symptom was car sickness on a journey I’d done many times before. I’d never had car sickness as a child so that was strange. Then I had what I thought was a migraine – visual disturbance, lots of vomiting. That progressed to constant headaches and sinus problems, with my vision getting progressively worse.

 

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Feb. 2024 – Melbourne, Australia – 27 year old Tahlia West had a “never-ending stream of migraines” – she was finally diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in the pituitary.

Nov. 6, 2023 – Liverpool, UK – The Night Cafe Indie lead singer 26 year old Sean Martin died suddenly Nov. 6, 2023. His girlfriend revealed that he had been suffering migraines.

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Oct. 2023 – 33 year old Safa Srour, Dubai based beauty and fashion influencer was jet-setting between international fashion weeks when she had migraines. She was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.

Sep. 3, 2023 – Sep.3, 2023 – Biloxi, MS – 21 year old Alesia Lockhard is in US National Guard Reserve. In May 2023 after weeks of suffering from chronic migraines & nausea she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Image

Sep. 2023 – UK – 45 year old Pippa Griffiths, photographer, developed migraines, due to an undiagnosed meningioma.

Click here to read the full article.

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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.

Featured image is from COVID Intel


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Introductory Note

In recent developments–  barely a few days following the reelection of  Vladimir Putin (October 17, 2024)  five Islamic State gunmen (ISIL) waged a brutal terror attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Concert Hall attached to a shopping mall, at the outskirts of Moscow. The attack has resulted in more than 130 deaths. 

The Islamic State (IS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which happens to be a creation of the CIA claimed responsibility for the attack.

On March 7, 2024, 10 the days before Russia’s presidential elections, the US Embassy in Moscow had warned the Kremlin that a terror attack may take place in a shopping mall, within the next few weeks…  It also “warned US citizens in Moscow not to visit shopping malls.”

What is the Islamic State (ISIL, ISIS-Daesh)?

Ask former President Barack Obama who in 2014 ordered a major counter-terrorism operation directed against the Islamic State under the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

The counter-terrorism mandate is a fiction. America is the Number One “State Sponsor of Terrorism”.  

The US has supported Al Qaeda and its affiliated organizations including ISIL for almost half a century since the heyday of the Soviet Afghan war. 

In 2014 President Obama launched  a “counter-terrorism campaign” allegedly directed against The Islamic State (ISIL, ISIS-Daesh).

It was an outright act of war disguised as a fake counter-terrorism operation.

It consisted  in providing a justification for the extensive bombing of Iraq and Syria, largely targeting residential areas and civilians.  

In turn, ISIS-Daesh was covertly supported and funded by the U.S. and its allies including Israel.  

Israel was directly involved in President Obama’s “counter-terrorism” bombing raids directed against Syria, while also supporting Al Qaeda and ISIS mercenaries out of the Golan Heights. 

Since 9/11, “America’s The Islamic State has gone Global”. 

The Islamic State is not limited to the the Middle East and Central Asia. 

West Africa, Central Africa, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, Russia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, and many more. 

There are Islamic State related jihadist networks supported covertly by Western intelligence in all major regions of the World with the exception of Latin America.

 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, March 25, 2024

 

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26 Things About the Islamic State (ISIS-ISIL-Daesh)

that the U.S. Government Does Not Want You to Know About

by Michel Chossudovsky

November 2014 

 

Going after ” Islamic terrorists”, carrying out a worldwide pre-emptive war to “Protect the American Homeland” are used to justify a military agenda.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is a creation of US intelligence. Washington’s “Counter-terrorism Agenda” in Iraq and Syria consists in Supporting the Terrorists.  

The incursion of the Islamic State (IS) brigades into Iraq starting in June 2014 was part of a carefully planned military-intelligence operation supported covertly by the US, NATO and Israel.

The counter-terrorism mandate is a fiction. America is the Number One “State Sponsor of Terrorism” 

The Islamic State is protected by the US and its allies. If they had wanted to eliminate the Islamic State brigades, they could have “carpet” bombed their convoys of Toyota pickup trucks when they crossed the desert from Syria into Iraq in June. 

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The  Syro-Arabian Desert is open territory (see map below). With state of the art jet fighter aircraft (F15, F22 Raptor, CF-18) it would have been  -from a military standpoint-  a rapid and expedient surgical operation  

It could not have been undertaken without the unbending support of  the Western media which has upheld Obama’s initiative as a counter-terrorism operation.  

Twenty Six Things 

 

THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF AL QAEDA

1. The US has supported Al Qaeda and its affiliated organizations for almost half a century since the heyday of the Soviet Afghan war. 

2. CIA training camps were set up in Pakistan.  In the ten year period from 1982 to 1992, some 35,000 jihadists from 43 Islamic countries were recruited by the CIA to fight in the Afghan jihad.

“Advertisements, paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the Jihad.”

3. Since the Reagan Administration, Washington has supported the Islamic terror network.

Ronald Reagan called the terrorists “freedom fighters”. The US supplied weapons to the Islamic brigades.  It was all for “a good cause”: fighting the Soviet Union and regime change, leading to the demise of a secular government in Afghanistan.

President Reagan and Mujahideen leaders from Afghanistan

Ronald Reagan meets Afghan Mujahideen Commanders at the White House in 1985 (Reagan Archives)

4. Jihadist textbooks  were  published by the University of Nebraska. “. “The United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings”

5. Osama bin Laden, America’s bogyman and founder of Al Qaeda was recruited by the CIA in 1979 at the very outset of the US sponsored jihadist war against Afghanistan . He was 22 years old and was trained in a CIA sponsored guerilla training camp.

Al Qaeda was not behind the 9/11 Attacks. September 11, 2001 provided a justification for waging a war against Afghanistan on the grounds that Afghanistan was a state sponsor of terrorism, supportive of Al Qaeda. The 9/11 attacks were instrumental in the formulation of the “Global War on Terrorism”.

THE ISLAMIC STATE (ISIL)

6. The Islamic State (ISIL) was originally an Al Qaeda affiliated entity created by US intelligence with the support of Britain’s MI6, Israel’s Mossad, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency (GIP), Ri’āsat Al-Istikhbārāt Al-’Āmah ( رئاسة الاستخبارات العامة‎).

7. The ISIL brigades were involved in the US-NATO supported insurgency in Syria directed against the government of  Bashar al Assad.

8.  NATO and the Turkish High Command were responsible for the recruitment of ISIL and Al Nusrah mercenaries from the outset of the Syrian insurgency in March 2011. According to Israeli intelligence sources, this initiative consisted in:

“a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house these volunteers, train them and secure their passage into Syria. (DEBKAfile, NATO to give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14, 2011.)

9.There are Western Special Forces and Western intelligence operatives within the ranks of the ISIL. British Special Forces and MI6 have been involved in training jihadist rebels in Syria.

10. Western military specialists on contract to the Pentagon have trained the terrorists in the use of chemical weapons.

“The United States and some European allies are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria, a senior U.S. official and several senior diplomats told CNN Sunday. ( CNN Report, December 9, 2012)

11. The ISIL’s practice of beheadings is part of the US sponsored terrorist training programs implemented in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

12. Recruited by America’s ally, a large number of ISIL mercenaries are convicted criminals released from Saudi prisons on condition they join the ISIL. Saudi death row inmates were recruited to join the terror brigades. 

13. Israel  has supported  the ISIL and Al Nusrah brigades out of the Golan Heights.

Jihadist fighters have met Israeli IDF officers as well as Prime Minister Netanyahu. The IDF top brass tacitly acknowledges that “global jihad elements inside Syria” [ISIL and Al Nusrah] are supported by Israel. See  image below:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon next to a wounded mercenary, Israeli military field hospital at the occupied Golan Heights’ border with Syria, 18 February 2014″

SYRIA AND IRAQ

14 The ISIL are the foot soldiers  of the Western military alliance. Their unspoken mandate is to wreck havoc and destruction in Syria and Iraq, acting on behalf of their US sponsors.

15. US Senator John McCain has met up with jihadist terrorist leaders in Syria. (see picture right)

16  The Islamic State (IS) militia, which is currently the alleged target of  a US-NATO bombing campaign under a “counter-terrorism” mandate, continues to be supported covertly by the US.  Washington and its allies continue to provide military aid to the Islamic State.

17. US and allied bombings are not targeting the ISIL, they are bombing the economic infrastructure of Iraq and Syria including factories and oil refineries.

18.  The IS caliphate project is part of a longstanding US foreign policy agenda to carve up Iraq and Syria into separate territories: A Sunni Islamist Caliphate, an Arab Shia Republic, a Republic of Kurdistan.

THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM (GWOT)

19. “The Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) is presented as a “Clash of Civilizations”, a war between competing values and religions, when in reality it is an outright war of conquest, guided by strategic and economic objectives.

20 U.S. sponsored Al Qaeda terror brigades (covertly supported by Western intelligence) have been deployed in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Somalia and Yemen.

These various affiliated Al Qaeda entities in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa  and Asia are CIA sponsored “intelligence assets”. They are used by Washington to wreck havoc,  create internal conflicts and destabilize sovereign countries.

21 Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al Shabab in Somalia, the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) (supported by NATO in 2011),  Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM),  Jemaah Islamiah (JI) in Indonesia,  among other Al Qaeda affiliated groups are supported covertly by Western intelligence.

22. The US is also supporting Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist organizations in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region of China. The underlying objective is to trigger political instability in Western China.

Chinese jihadists are reported to have received “terrorist training” from the Islamic State “in order to conduct attacks in China”. The declared objective of these Chinese-based jihadist entities (which serves the interests of the US)  is to establish a Islamic caliphate extending into Western China.  (Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005, Chapter 2).

HOMEGROWN TERRORISTS

23 The Terrorists R Us:  While the US is the unspoken architect of the Islamic State,  Obama’s holy mandate is to protect America against ISIL attacks.

24 The homegrown terrorist threat is a fabrication.  It is promoted by Western governments and the media with a view to repealing civil liberties and installing a police state. The terror attacks by alleged jihadists and terror warnings are invariably staged events. They are used to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

In turn, the arrests, trials and sentences of “Islamic terrorists” sustain the legitimacy of America’s Homeland Security State and law enforcement apparatus, which has become increasingly militarized.

The ultimate objective is to instill in the minds of millions of Americans that the enemy is real and the U.S. Administration will protect the lives of its citizens.

25.  The “counter-terrorism” campaign against the Islamic State has contributed to the demonization of Muslims, who in the eyes of Western public opinion are increasingly  associated with the jihadists.

26  Anybody who dares to question the validity of the “Global War on Terrorism” is branded a terrorist and subjected to the anti-terrorist laws.

The ultimate objective of the “Global War on Terrorism” is to subdue the citizens, totally depoliticize social life in America, prevent people from thinking and conceptualizing, from analyzing facts and challenging the legitimacy of the inquisitorial social order which rules America.

The Obama Administration has imposed a diabolical consensus with the support of its allies, not to mention the complicit role of the United Nations Security Council.  The Western media has embraced the consensus; it has described the Islamic State as an independent entity, an outside enemy which threatens the Western World.

The Big Lie has become the Truth. 

Say no to the “Big Lie”. Spread the message.

The truth is ultimately a powerful weapon.

Please help us continue. We rely on the support of our readers.

Consider donating to Global Research. 

For Peace and Truth in Media, Michel Chossudovsky

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The diabolical massacre of over 300 people (nearly half of whom are dead now) at the Crocus City Hall is the worst terrorist attack in Russia in the last 20 years and one of the worst in the world in the last half a decade. And yet, many in the mainstream propaganda machine called it a “shooting”, possibly a “mass shooting” or simply an “attack” and similar terms that show just how little empathy there is for Russian civilians. The terrorist attack in and of itself was horrible enough, but the monstrous glee that was coming from the Neo-Nazi junta and its supporters made things far worse.

What’s more, Russian intelligence found disturbing evidence pointing to the political West, particularly the United States, as the true organizer of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack.

On the other hand, Washington DC insists that it has “undeniable evidence” that ISIS is behind it.

Rather interesting how the US could claim this mere hours after the terrorist attack, when not even Russian services who were on the ground had all the details, but it “doesn’t really know” who destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, except that it was a “mysterious deep-diving Ukrainian group”.

Even worse, Washington DC is yet to conclude the 9/11 investigation 23 years after the attacks that were a defining moment of America’s 21st-century history.

It’s “almost as if” the political elites are hiding something. But, for some reason, they “immediately know” who’s behind a terrorist attack 10,000 km away and insist their favorite puppet regime “most certainly had nothing to do with it”.

What’s more, the US started defending the Neo-Nazi junta before Russia came out with any official statements about its involvement.

And while the troubled Biden administration, including vice president Kamala Harris, is fighting tooth and nail to “prove” the Kiev regime’s “innocence”, the latter’s on the brink of throwing parties to celebrate the brutal massacre of hundreds of unarmed Russian civilians. There are at least two such disturbing cases, one where a Ukrainian restaurant included something called “the Crocus City set” in its menu and another where Ukrainian gamers created a map of the Crocus City Hall concert hall in the globally popular Counter Strike FPS game, where they can shoot and set fire to virtual hostages or even plant explosives to blow them up.

However, while dealing with such behavior should be left to psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, the reactions of the Neo-Nazi junta’s top-ranking officials clearly demonstrate who’s really behind the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack.

Apart from the (now former) Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov, who not only praised the terrorist attack, but also mocked the victims and Russia as a whole and threatened with more such massacres, there’s also the SBU head Vasyl Malyuk who openly boasted about organizing terrorist attacks that killed a number of Russian public figures, including Darya Dugina and Maxim Fomin (aka Vladlen Tatarsky), clearly implying that he’s also involved in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack.

Earlier this year, GUR (Kiev regime’s military intelligence) head Kyrylo Budanov also threatened to go “deeper and deeper” with terrorist attacks in Russia. When top-ranking officials of the Neo-Nazi junta’s two most important intelligence services (SBU and GUR) say such things, it instantly incriminates the entire NATO-backed puppet regime. However, as it’s rather dangerous for Volodymyr Zelensky to fire either Malyuk or Budanov, the Neo-Nazi junta frontman is forced to cover his tracks by dismissing lower-ranking officials such as Danilov. One of Zelensky’s closest associates, Danilov has been extremely hawkish since day one and has openly insisted on launching as many sabotage and terrorist attacks as possible, all coordinated with the US-led NATO.

This brings us to another similar episode that happened in the US when the infamous neocon warmonger Victoria Nuland used the opportunity to threaten Russia on the second anniversary of its special military operation (SMO).

Namely, she said that the so-called “military aid” provided by Washington DC to the Kiev regime will ensure that “Putin faces some nasty surprises on the battlefield this year”.

Days later, she left the State Department. It seems the Neo-Nazi junta isn’t the only one trying to cover their tracks, although Nuland appears to have been a bit more cunning by leaving before the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack. But Nuland is not the only one. Last year, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, made similar threats.

“There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night,” Washington Post quoted Milley, who also added: “You gotta get back there, and create a campaign behind the lines.”

What happened with Milley soon after this?

You guessed it – he retired. But terrorist attacks across Russia keep escalating. In the meantime, the political West is further exposing its monstrous hypocrisy by condemning the treatment of the terrorists who committed the Crocus City Hall massacre. American journalist Julia Davis is “worried” about their well-being, while the former chief of the CIA’s Russia ops Steve Hall stated that this demonstrates the supposed “difference in values between what is happening in Russia and what is happening in the West”. Yes, there’s a clear difference, because Russia didn’t run the infamous Abu Ghraib prison where American occupation forces tortured countless Iraqi soldiers and civilians.

Russia also doesn’t run the brutal Guantanamo Bay detention camp where hundreds (if not thousands) have been illegally incarcerated, some of whom have been in solitary confinement for decades without ever being charged with a crime.

Thus, while Russia is punishing actual terrorists, the US is “worried” about these mass murderers who killed and wounded over 300 people. At the same time, the belligerent thalassocracy is torturing and imprisoning people who were fighting a foreign invader, or worse, those who haven’t done anything. In that regard, Mr Hall is certainly right, there’s a gaping difference between values held in Moscow and Washington DC. All this clearly indicates that the political West and its Neo-Nazi puppets are engaged in a cover-up.

However, the question is – why is it all so sloppy and too obvious? If analysts and journalists noticed all this so easily, Russian intelligence and state services certainly know far more. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently pointed out this hypocrisy, referring to the offer by so-called “international institutions” to supposedly “help” with the investigation regarding the latest terrorist attack, but ignored similar Russian requests regarding the Nord Stream sabotage. It should be noted that this terrorist attack was also previously announced by the US, which pledged to ensure that the pipeline becomes “a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea”. In other words, the true terrorists aren’t even bothering to hide anymore (and haven’t been for quite some time now).

All this clearly indicates that NATO wants war with Russia.

It recently sent French President Emmanuel Macron to test this with pompous announcements of direct involvement. However, as most of Europe said it won’t take part in this madness, NATO now needs a way to push Russia to attack first. The only way to do so is to provoke a reaction, which is why the world’s most aggressive military cartel organized the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall. In that way, NATO is pushing Russia to retaliate and then present it as the “aggressor”, giving the political West a perfect pretext to wage a “defensive war”. That’s the only way to ensure the participation of the entire (or at least most of) NATO. However, once the Pandora’s Box is opened, there won’t be going back.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Featured image is from InfoBrics

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

On the occasion of the first nationwide lockdown imposed by the Ardern government, in 2020, my plans to return to the United States to visit my few remaining relatives were stymied. During that time my planned leave from work was spent volunteering at a local health practice in a low-decile area of the region, making home visits and writing scripts.

When the second lockdown was decreed — on the basis of a single person testing ‘positive’ for a chimerical pathogen — my cousin passed away in Philadelphia. She was the last tangible and emotional link to my mother, yet I was prevented from traveling anywhere, prevented from joining her children to mourn her and celebrate her courageous and vigorous life spent fighting off a severe heart condition for decades. I had seen her last some 7 years ago.

I remember too that during the lockdowns and the insipid colour-coded reentry phases, I had begun to despair that humanity might ever recover. We were forbidden from gathering, from protesting, from visiting our elderly and infirm, and from mourning our dead.

In retrospect it is an astonishingly heinous crime to have subjected an entire population to restrictions and violations of the most fundamental of rights, but the propaganda was so strong and relentless — daily death counts and case counts worldwide and dire messages of worse to come, over and over and over — that the majority accepted the constraints with nary a peep.

I took refuge in film, from time to time, but what I remember is the sensation of looking at a lost world, a world of community and rubbing shoulders, of easy association and crowded summer beaches — particularly in Italy. I discovered the unheralded masterpiece of director Dino Risi — Il Sorpasso — The Overtaking — and reveled in the glimpses of freely-communing bodies and souls as two unlikely protagonists motored their way together from Rome through the Italian countryside during a summer holiday.

I had wondered, as I watched and rewatched Il Sorpasso, if we would ever return to such facile grace again, bristling at the iron heel of the ‘single source of truth’ that blithely turned gregarious beings into recluses, and knowing that the quarantining of health people was an as yet unheard-of innovation in pandemic protocols.

Everything about covid was false, from the beginning, and the lies came thicker and faster than a plague of locusts: masks, ‘social’ distancing, a necessary gene-altering jab, the ‘impossibility’ of treating the incomparably ‘lethal’ virus …

Now people are congregating again, crowding the streets when not working from home, a relatively novel institution developed and honed during covid, congenially embraced by those who love to lounge in pyjamas with their laptops, and for whom the barrier between work and home has become delightfully permeable.

I marvel at the absence of rush-hour traffic on certain days here in Wellington. I note too that on the city beaches the healthy and resilient impulse to socialize has reared its irrepressible head. Teenagers preen and flirt, swimmers swim, kids scream and yell, and the more mature simply bask in the sun and the scene, desperately hoping that normality will not be upended by another fraud.

I muse with irony at the marketing that convinced so many people to feel unified while their rights were demolished: ‘we’re all in this together’ went the slogan, precisely as we were mandated to be apart.

For many of us, privileged to have been brought up with the perfume of freedom and hope, the lockdowns brought home the terrifying realities of what so many peoples in history have suffered as slaves, as victims of rape and other coercions: that horrible and indescribable feeling of no escape.

If the authorities attempt to impose another set of deceptive and destructive restraints, if they attempt to sound the knell of fear and pound the message home with further falsehoods and repetition, I like to think that even the Lilliputians who complied and participated in enforcing the senseless depredations of our humanity will, at last, resist.

I guess we’ll see. Meanwhile the unsung relics of the lockdowns remain in view: so many shuttered businesses, so many once-thriving establishments now closed. So many of the jabbed who know that something is amiss unwilling to acknowledge that they have been had …

*

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Dr. Garcia is a Philadelphia-born psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand in 2006. He has authored articles ranging from explorations of psychoanalytic technique, the psychology of creativity in music (Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Delius), and politics. He is also a poet, novelist and theatrical director. He retired from psychiatric practice in 2021 after working in the public sector in New Zealand. Visit his substack at https://newzealanddoc.substack.com/.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Washington Crossed a Fatal Red Line with the Crocus Attack

March 28th, 2024 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Gilbert Doctorow now confirms with his own analysis my prediction that Putin’s toleration of provocations is spinning the Ukraine conflict out of control.

Doctorow is a careful analyst never overstating a situation. In this interview, he says that the Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) statement implicating the US and UK governments in the Crocus attack had to have been approved by Putin and that implicating the US and UK in the Crocus attack has brought us to the level of danger of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Doctorow reports that Russian television has undergone a massive change following the Crocus attack. Commentators are unwilling to accept any longer Putin’s nonresponse to attacks on Russians. Television talk is suddenly very violent with talk of flattening Kharkiv and Kiev and bringing a quick end to the conflict that has been permitted to endure for far too long.

It seems that a fatal red line has been crossed.

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Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Video: Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi at the German Parliament. “The vaccination turned out to be the greatest blessing for the money and world’s elites, for the pharmaceutical industry and politics.”

By Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, March 27, 2024

Who hasn’t heard about the mysterious sudden cardiac deaths occurring around the world? They are just the tip of an iceberg. Heart disease caused by vaccinations is on the agenda of young and old alike.

Genocide as a Strategy for Success

By Dr. Paul Larudee, March 27, 2024

I predict with sadness and disgust that the remaining Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza will be killed or expelled, mostly the former, despite all our efforts. The main reason is that, Joe Biden, as recently described by Aaron David Miller, sees no compelling alternative for Israel that doesn’t include doing grievous harm to Palestinian civilians.

The Most Astounding Feature of the Assange Case, From “Treason” to “Espionage”. Dr. Paul C. Roberts

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, March 27, 2024

The most extraordinary thing about Julian Assange is that he is being treated as if he were an American citizen. “Treason” was the original cry, now converted to “espionage.”

Yugoslavia, 24 March 1999. The New NATO’s Founding War. “The Right of Humanitarian Interference”

By Manlio Dinucci, March 27, 2024

25 years ago, NATO under US command demolished with war what remained of the Yugoslav Federation, the State that hindered its expansion eastwards towards Russia. In the following twenty years, NATO expanded from 16 to 30 countries and, with the war in Ukraine that began in 2014, it expanded to 32.

Rule by Criminals: When Dissidents Become Enemies of the State

By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead, March 27, 2024

When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals. In the current governmental climate, obeying one’s conscience and speaking truth to the power of the police state can easily render you an “enemy of the state.”

Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza Passes

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, March 27, 2024

When it comes to the bleeding and crushing of human life in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (32,300 dead Palestinians and rising), resolutions demanding a cease fire of a conflict that began with the attack on Israeli soil by Hamas militants have tended to pass into voting oblivion. 

Geoengineering Is a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Solving the ‘Climate Crisis’ Is Bad for Business and Worse for Politics

By Peter Koenig, March 27, 2024

The article “Harvard Shuts Geoengineering Project” by Cauf Skiviers, explains Bill Gates, funder of the project, stopping Harvard from carrying out the study to preserve the climate narrative. How is this relevant? That Bill Gates calls the shots on what should and should not go forward is nothing new. Surprising is that he was willing to finance such a study in the first place. Why?

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

First published on March 25, 2024

A realistic humanoid robot doppel-gänger of everyone!

My article from 21 March 2024 is becoming reality.

Now, you and everybody can have your own hyper-realistic robot-copy – including your facial expressions and everything.

The realistic appearance of robots in the video (see above) is today – imagine how indistinguishable robot copies of humans will be from real humans in a decade or two.

At the same time, Artificial General Intelligence and Artificial Human Emotions are being developed. In not many years, humanoid robots will have intelligence beyond humans. Robots will also register and handle your feelings, and have feelings and desires (objectives) of their own. And robots can be employed by the government or others without you knowing it.

The World of Blade Runner, of “I Robot” and other science fiction is just years around the corner.

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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 and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Collective Punishment, Cowardice and Criminality

March 27th, 2024 by Hans Stehling

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Collective punishment is a war crime. Those who inflict it on civilians are terrorists.

To endeavour to disguise the crime by calling it ‘collateral damage’ when it is perpetrated deliberately against tens of thousands of mainly women and children, is not only a crime but an act of extreme cowardice.

It doesn’t take bravery to point a missile at a residential family home, from a Lockheed Martin F-16 war plane, screaming 500m over a completely defenceless village, at midnight.

It doesn’t take bravery to drop banned, white phosphorus on a school, hospital or clinic.

It doesn’t take bravery to shoot to kill an unarmed, female journalist doing her professional job by reporting the truth; or a hospital doctor trying to save the life of a mutilated child.

It doesn’t take bravery to deliberately starve two million people of food and water.

It takes a special type of cowardice.

The type where the perpetrator pretends to be a professional soldier, operating under the strict moral code of the international laws of war, in accordance with the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions on Human Rights, the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court – when, in fact, he is a war criminal.

So, of the two terrorist organizations, fighting each other today, which is the most extreme example of cowardice and criminality?

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Hans Stehling is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Genocide as a Strategy for Success

March 27th, 2024 by Dr. Paul Larudee

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

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The future always surprises us to some degree. But we make plans, anyway, based on our projections, and we adjust them when our predictions are at least partially wrong, which they always are, because they make assumptions based upon things that we take for granted, such as our health and that meteors and tsunamis will not disrupt those plans. Bearing that in mind, I will make some predictions for the immediate future of Gaza and Israel, and their relationships with the rest of the world. I’m sorry if it is not a happy picture.

First, I predict with sadness and disgust that the remaining Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza will be killed or expelled, mostly the former, despite all our efforts.

The main reason is that, Joe Biden, as recently described by Aaron David Miller, sees no compelling alternative for Israel that doesn’t include doing grievous harm to Palestinian civilians.

Properly translated, this means the greatest genocide since WWII. If this is an accurate picture of the thinking of the Biden administration, there can be little doubt that the US will continue to supply Israel with the means to make the population of Gaza disappear. The option of denying those means to Israel is simply unthinkable to Joe and his government. It might mean giving up their comfortable and prestigious futuresm presidential libraries and all.

Joe Biden is not Dwight D. Eisenhower, nor John Kennedy, nor even Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter.

We no longer have a president with the guts or the acumen to defy anyone, least of all the Zionist Lobby, and we have no prospect of ever having such a person in the White House in the foreseeable future.

Donald Trump? He needs the Israel Lobby even more than Biden, and if they weren’t comfortable with him, they would have sabotaged his candidacy a long time ago. Both of them have the same morals as Netanyahu. I rest my case.

A ceasefire? I cannot imagine it.

The week-long November pause worked because neither side gave up too much strategically and both benefited politically. There is no similar bargain on the horizon. If Hamas gives up all its captives, it has nothing left to trade. That’s why the Hamas proposal is in three stages, with the final stage being an independent Palestinian state with the right to defend itself, and with multilateral guarantees for its security and independence.

That is of course totally unacceptable to Israel, and they said so. For them, the “occupied territories” are more accurately called “greater Israel”, which has not yet been sufficiently settled by Zionist Jews to justify extending the official borders to encompass it. Too many non-Jews. They will address that problem in its turn, but for now the priority is to empty Gaza. So much for the two-state solution, which Israel embraced as long as all they had to do was sit at a negotiations table, keep the deal just out of reach and blame the Palestinians for its failure. Now they’re having none of it.

When will Israel’s genocide end, and what will the result look like? First, the Palestinian population in Gaza will have fallen by at least 2 million, the result of both murder and expulsion, as noted earlier. The orphaned children will be far fewer than the dead ones, but those who survive will be shipped to western countries for adoption, so that they will lose their names and their cultural heritage. But I’m sure they will have loving parents and become well-adjusted western citizens.

As for Israel, its world has been changing since October 7th. First, it is losing – and will continue to lose – its liberal population. It began years ago, but Israel’s population has declined by roughly 10 percent since October 7th, 2023, in parallel with the decline in the population of Gaza, but by choice instead of genocide.

The fanatics with genocidal intentions are not the ones leaving, mostly the ones who are more in keeping with traditional Jewish values of being a light unto the nations – or at least not a source of darkness. The emigrants are mainly those who are giving up on the Zionist project. They are not the only ones. American and other western Jews are losing their appetite for the Zionist menu, which allows us to maintain our respect for integrity.

This of course means that Israel will be far more isolated than previously, both from the Jewish diaspora and from the non-Jewish communities that previously supported Israel. It’s amazing how a little thing like genocide can cause your friends to turn on you. I suspect that Israeli products, institutions, and culture will be shunned by much of the world. No more trips to Israel as prizes on television game shows.

I have no doubt that Gaza will be annexed to Israel, and I imagine that developers will create Zionist dream communities along the coast, on top of the graves and rubble of their victims.

But there might be fewer new immigrants than they might have hoped for. Israel’s future, if it has one, will be as a violent fortress for Zionist exclusivism, supported by a slowly shrinking world Zionist network and their allies using the resources of other countries in much the same way that Israel is using  the United States today, and enriching those individuals and interests that cooperate with them.

I leave it to you to decide if this sounds like a strategy for success.

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Paul Larudee is a retired academic and current administrator of a nonprofit human rights and humanitarian aid organization. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source

John Bolton “Warns” Russia of More Terror

March 27th, 2024 by Karsten Riise

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

“Putin Should be Concerned about more terror attacks” says John Bolton

Video

How does Bolton know that?

This is like Biden warning that Nord Stream might blow up.

Bolton has been implicated in all dirty missions of the US in other countries.

Perhaps Bolton knows something about terror against Russia (and others) which he doesn’t tell.

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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 and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The most extraordinary thing about Julian Assange is that he is being treated as if he were an American citizen. “Treason” was the original cry, now converted to “espionage.”

There was no espionage. Wikileaks published, and made available to the New York Times, The Guardian, and other media organizations leaked information. The media organizations published the information, just as did Wikileaks, but they are not charged. Neither is Wikileaks charged. Only Julian Assange is charged.

Nothing is any different from Ellsberg releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. The US government wanted to prosecute both, but was prevented by the First Amendment and long-accepted duty of media organizations to hold government accountable.

The stark deterioration in the protective power of the First Amendment and journalistic freedom since 1971 demonstrates the rise in tyranny. Tyranny is what Julian Assange is experiencing, not a legitimate prosecution.

Let’s carefully examine the issue of “espionage.” Espionage is a function of every embassy everywhere in the world. The purpose of embassies is not simply to represent a country’s commercial and political interests. It is also to collect information, the more sensitive the better. When embassy personnel are caught engaging in espionage, the personnel are required to leave the country. They are not prosecuted.

It is well known that US embassies contain CIA agents posing as diplomats. Under the protocol governing the Assange case, Russia, China, any number of countries could arrest members of US embassies and put them on trial. Indeed, many countries could do this to one another. What prevents it is not merely good judgment, but the fact that foreign citizens are not subject to the laws of other countries. Only the US, which imagines itself as some kind of international unipower, asserts the worldwide primacy of its laws. This is an absurd claim and has no legal basis.

The orchestrated, in fact legally incorrect, case against Assange is based on nothing but Washington’s demand for revenge.

Here is what Assange is guilty of: He released leaked information that showed conclusively that the United States government is a liar, a deceiver of its allies, and a war criminal. The purpose of the case against Assange is to pay him back and to intimidate all journalists from ever again publishing information unfavorable to the US government.

In other words, the purpose of the Assange case is to end forever the ability of media to hold government accountable. The Assange case is the fundamental foundation for tyranny. Once it is in place, tyranny is unleashed.

That so many dumbshit “patriots” support “getting Assange” indicates complete stupidity. “Getting Assange” means getting themselves, and they are too stupid to see it.

This is how freedom is murdered. See this.

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Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Assange billboard in front of the Capitol Building. [Source: Photo Courtesy of Randy Credico]

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

25 years ago, NATO under US command demolished with war what remained of the Yugoslav Federation, the State that hindered its expansion eastwards towards Russia. In the following twenty years, NATO expanded from 16 to 30 countries and, with the war in Ukraine that began in 2014, it expanded to 32.

In the 1999 war, the role of the Italian government, chaired by Massimo D’Alema, was crucial. As we can hear from the official audio recording, Vice President Sergio Mattarella announced the start of the war to the Italian Senate on the evening of March 24, 1999, and explained the reasons according to the official version.

While the United States and other NATO countries’ planes dropped the first bombs on Serbia and Kosovo, Democratic President Clinton announced:

“At the end of the 20th century, after two world wars and a cold war, we and our allies will be able to leave our children a free, peaceful and stable Europe”.

For 78 days, 1,100 planes took off mainly from Italian bases, and carried out 38 thousand raids, dropping 23,000 bombs and missiles.

“Of the 2000 targets hit in Serbia by NATO planes – the Pentagon later documented – the American secret services chose 1999 and only one by the European ones”.

The bombings dismantled Serbia’s structures and infrastructure causing victims, especially among civilians. The resulting health and environmental damage is not quantifiable. Due to the bombing, thousands of tons of highly toxic chemicals (including dioxin and mercury) leaked from the Pancevo refinery alone, while other damage was caused by NATO’s massive use of depleted uranium shells in Serbia and Kosovo.

The D’Alema government placed Italian territory, particularly the airports, at the complete disposal of the armed forces of the United States and other countries, to implement what the Prime Minister defines as the right of humanitarian interference“. 54 Italian planes took part in the bombings, making 1,400 raids, and attacking the targets indicated by the US command.

“In terms of the number of planes we were second only to the USA. Italy is a great country and we should not be surprised by the commitment shown in this war” – declared Prime Minister D’Alema during his visit to the Amendola base on 10 June 1999 – underlining that, for the pilots who participated, it was a great human and professional experience.”

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This article was originally published in Italian on Grandangolo, Byoblu TV.

Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy.

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

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Highlights:

“…The vaccination turned out to be the greatest blessing for the money and world’s elites, for the pharmaceutical industry and politics. They could pursue their own interests, under the common slogan “Everything for public health”, “everything for the well-being of the general public”. To achieve this goal, they created the WHO. This non-democratically elected people, basically a private association that is in the process of gaining power over the healthcare system in the 190 Member States”

Kevin McKernan discovered that this crucial step of removal of plasmid DNA had not been carried out conscientiously. Huge amounts of plasmid DNA have been found in packaged form. This ensured their successful delivery to the cells. Kevin’s discovery has now been confirmed in several other laboratories, Also in Germany. Large amounts of DNA contamination were found in all 27 batches examined so far. Four weeks ago, the Canadian medical authority even confirmed the discovery of plasmid DNA. However, the authority does not see this as a sufficient reason for to withdraw the approval. By the way, question for the interested public, has the responsible German authority, the Paul Ehrlich Institute of the Federal Ministry of Health carried out reliable scientific measurements? Question, answer, no. Not to this day.”

Who hasn’t heard about the mysterious sudden cardiac deaths occurring around the world? They are just the tip of an iceberg. Heart disease caused by vaccinations is on the agenda of young and old alike. Fortunately, to save the honor of German science, well-known pathologists stood up and carried out the world’s first research work, who discovered the connection between vaccination and severe organ damage. Professor Arne Burkhardt, who recently tragically died in an accident, and his dear friend Professor Walter Lang, who spoke to you today. Dr. Michael Mörz in Dresden and the world-famous Professor Peter Schiermacher, director of the Institute of Pathology at Heidelberg University. Thanks to their work, it is now scientifically proven. And so it says in this work from Peter Schiermacher’s group, Literally, it has been proven beyond a doubt that vaccination can lead to fatal myocarditis.”

Anyone who praises RNA vaccines as safe and effective, Anyone who claims that vaccination rarely causes serious side effects is either incredibly ignorant or infinitely evil. And they ar committing a crime. Just like everyone who actively or passively pursues and supports this vaccination. Because it is now scientifically proven that vaccination can only have negative effects and this to a life-threatening extent.”

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Featured image is a screenshot from the video


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

 

 

President Zelensky yesterday 26 March just fired Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary head of Ukraine’s national security council.

Mr. Danilov was Zelensky’s top security guy. See this.

The dismissal of Ukraine’s security chief Danilov comes just as bad news are surfacing about possible Ukrainian-US involvement in the terror attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow.

For a wrap-up of the facts surrounding Ukraine’s likely involvement in the Crocus terror attack – see also Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, senior advisor to the UN:

So the big question is if the Ukrainian government in one way or another was involved in this.

And there are lots of reason to believe the answer could well be Yes.



For a 1 hour overview of US cooperation with ISIS and other extremist “Islamic” groups, listen to Kevork Almassian, a Syrian analyst living in Germany:

Lots of more sources exist of the US support for “Islamic” terrorism for anyone who want to take a look.

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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 and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from the Public Domain

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

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

Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

In these days of worldwide confusion, there is a dire need for men and women who will courageously do battle for truth.”— Martin Luther King Jr.

When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals.

In the current governmental climate, obeying one’s conscience and speaking truth to the power of the police state can easily render you an “enemy of the state.”

The government’s list of so-called “enemies of the state” is growing by the day.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is merely one of the most visible victims of the police state’s war on dissidents and whistleblowers.

Five years ago, on April 11, 2019, police arrested Assange for daring to access and disclose military documents that portray the U.S. government and its endless wars abroad as reckless, irresponsible, immoral and responsible for thousands of civilian deaths.

Included among the leaked materials was gunsight video footage from two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters engaged in a series of air-to-ground attacks while American air crew laughed at some of the casualties. Among the casualties were two Reuters correspondents who were gunned down after their cameras were mistaken for weapons and a driver who stopped to help one of the journalists. The driver’s two children, who happened to be in the van at the time it was fired upon by U.S. forces, suffered serious injuries.

There is nothing defensible about crimes such as these perpetrated by the government.

When any government becomes almost indistinguishable from the evil it claims to be fighting—whether that evil takes the form of war, terrorism, torture, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, murder, violence, theft, pornography, scientific experimentations or some other diabolical means of inflicting pain, suffering and servitude on humanity—that government has lost its claim to legitimacy.

These are hard words, but hard times require straight-talking.

It is easy to remain silent in the face of evil.

What is harder—what we lack today and so desperately need—are those with moral courage who will risk their freedoms and lives in order to speak out against evil in its many forms.

Throughout history, individuals or groups of individuals have risen up to challenge the injustices of their age.

Nazi Germany had its Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The gulags of the Soviet Union were challenged by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. America had its color-coded system of racial segregation and warmongering called out for what it was, blatant discrimination and profiteering, by Martin Luther King Jr.

And then there was Jesus Christ, an itinerant preacher and revolutionary activist, who not only died challenging the police state of his day—namely, the Roman Empire—but provided a blueprint for civil disobedience that would be followed by those, religious and otherwise, who came after him.

Indeed, it is fitting that we remember that Jesus Christ—the religious figure worshipped by Christians for his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection—paid the ultimate price for speaking out against the police state of his day.

A radical nonconformist who challenged authority at every turn, Jesus was a far cry from the watered-down, corporatized, simplified, gentrified, sissified vision of a meek creature holding a lamb that most modern churches peddle. In fact, he spent his adult life speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo of his day, and pushing back against the abuses of the Roman Empire.

Much like the American Empire today, the Roman Empire of Jesus’ day had all of the characteristics of a police state: secrecy, surveillance, a widespread police presence, a citizenry treated like suspects with little recourse against the police state, perpetual wars, a military empire, martial law, and political retribution against those who dared to challenge the power of the state.

For all the accolades poured out upon Jesus, little is said about the harsh realities of the police state in which he lived and its similarities to modern-day America, and yet they are striking.

Secrecy, surveillance and rule by the elite. As the chasm between the wealthy and poor grew wider in the Roman Empire, the ruling class and the wealthy class became synonymous, while the lower classes, increasingly deprived of their political freedoms, grew disinterested in the government and easily distracted by “bread and circuses.” Much like America today, with its lack of government transparency, overt domestic surveillance, and rule by the rich, the inner workings of the Roman Empire were shrouded in secrecy, while its leaders were constantly on the watch for any potential threats to its power. The resulting state-wide surveillance was primarily carried out by the military, which acted as investigators, enforcers, torturers, policemen, executioners and jailers. Today that role is fulfilled by the NSA, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the increasingly militarized police forces across the country.

Widespread police presence. The Roman Empire used its military forces to maintain the “peace,” thereby establishing a police state that reached into all aspects of a citizen’s life. In this way, these military officers, used to address a broad range of routine problems and conflicts, enforced the will of the state. Today SWAT teams, comprised of local police and federal agents, are employed to carry out routine search warrants for minor crimes such as marijuana possession and credit card fraud.

Citizenry with little recourse against the police state. As the Roman Empire expanded, personal freedom and independence nearly vanished, as did any real sense of local governance and national consciousness. Similarly, in America today, citizens largely feel powerless, voiceless and unrepresented in the face of a power-hungry federal government. As states and localities are brought under direct control by federal agencies and regulations, a sense of learned helplessness grips the nation.

Perpetual wars and a military empire. Much like America today with its practice of policing the world, war and an over-arching militarist ethos provided the framework for the Roman Empire, which extended from the Italian peninsula to all over Southern, Western, and Eastern Europe, extending into North Africa and Western Asia as well. In addition to significant foreign threats, wars were waged against inchoate, unstructured and socially inferior foes.

Martial law. Eventually, Rome established a permanent military dictatorship that left the citizens at the mercy of an unreachable and oppressive totalitarian regime. In the absence of resources to establish civic police forces, the Romans relied increasingly on the military to intervene in all matters of conflict or upheaval in provinces, from small-scale scuffles to large-scale revolts. Not unlike police forces today, with their martial law training drills on American soil, militarized weapons and “shoot first, ask questions later” mindset, the Roman soldier had “the exercise of lethal force at his fingertips” with the potential of wreaking havoc on normal citizens’ lives.

A nation of suspects. Just as the American Empire looks upon its citizens as suspects to be tracked, surveilled and controlled, the Roman Empire looked upon all potential insubordinates, from the common thief to a full-fledged insurrectionist, as threats to its power. The insurrectionist was seen as directly challenging the Emperor.  A “bandit,” or revolutionist, was seen as capable of overturning the empire, was always considered guilty and deserving of the most savage penalties, including capital punishment. Bandits were usually punished publicly and cruelly as a means of deterring others from challenging the power of the state.  Jesus’ execution was one such public punishment.

Acts of civil disobedience by insurrectionists. Much like the Roman Empire, the American Empire has exhibited zero tolerance for dissidents such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manningwho exposed the police state’s seedy underbelly. Jesus was also branded a political revolutionary starting with his attack on the money chargers and traders at the Jewish temple, an act of civil disobedience at the site of the administrative headquarters of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish council.

Military-style arrests in the dead of night. Jesus’ arrest account testifies to the fact that the Romans perceived Him as a revolutionary. Eerily similar to today’s SWAT team raids, Jesus was arrested in the middle of the night, in secret, by a large, heavily armed fleet of soldiers.  Rather than merely asking for Jesus when they came to arrest him, his pursuers collaborated beforehand with Judas. Acting as a government informant, Judas concocted a kiss as a secret identification marker, hinting that a level of deception and trickery must be used to obtain this seemingly “dangerous revolutionist’s” cooperation.

Torture and capital punishment. In Jesus’ day, religious preachers, self-proclaimed prophets and nonviolent protesters were not summarily arrested and executed. Indeed, the high priests and Roman governors normally allowed a protest, particularly a small-scale one, to run its course. However, government authorities were quick to dispose of leaders and movements that appeared to threaten the Roman Empire. The charges leveled against Jesus—that he was a threat to the stability of the nation, opposed paying Roman taxes and claimed to be the rightful King—were purely political, not religious. To the Romans, any one of these charges was enough to merit death by crucifixion, which was usually reserved for slaves, non-Romans, radicals, revolutionaries and the worst criminals.

Jesus was presented to Pontius Pilate “as a disturber of the political peace,” a leader of a rebellion, a political threat, and most gravely—a claimant to kingship, a “king of the revolutionary type.” After Jesus is formally condemned by Pilate, he is sentenced to death by crucifixion, “the Roman means of executing criminals convicted of high treason.”  The purpose of crucifixion was not so much to kill the criminal, as it was an immensely public statement intended to visually warn all those who would challenge the power of the Roman Empire. Hence, it was reserved solely for the most extreme political crimes: treason, rebellion, sedition, and banditry. After being ruthlessly whipped and mocked, Jesus was nailed to a cross.

The blood, the outrage and The Passion of the Christ: Mel Gibson's biblical firestorm, 15 years on | The Independent | The Independent

The Passion of the Christ

Jesus—the revolutionary, the political dissident, and the nonviolent activist—lived and died in a police state. Any reflection on Jesus’ life and death within a police state must take into account several factors: Jesus spoke out strongly against such things as empires, controlling people, state violence and power politics. Jesus challenged the political and religious belief systems of his day. And worldly powers feared Jesus, not because he challenged them for control of thrones or government but because he undercut their claims of supremacy, and he dared to speak truth to power in a time when doing so could—and often did—cost a person his life.

Unfortunately, the radical Jesus, the political dissident who took aim at injustice and oppression, has been largely forgotten today, replaced by a congenial, smiling Jesus trotted out for religious holidays but otherwise rendered mute when it comes to matters of war, power and politics.

Yet for those who truly study the life and teachings of Jesus, the resounding theme is one of outright resistance to war, materialism and empire.

What a marked contrast to the advice being given to Americans by church leaders to “submit to your leaders and those in authority,” which in the American police state translates to complying, conforming, submitting, obeying orders, deferring to authority and generally doing whatever a government official tells you to do.

Telling Americans to blindly obey the government or put their faith in politics and vote for a political savior flies in the face of everything for which Jesus lived and died.

Will we follow the path of least resistance—turning a blind eye to the evils of our age and marching in lockstep with the police state—or will we be transformed nonconformists “dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood”?

As Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us in a powerful sermon delivered 70 years ago, “This command not to conform comes … [from] Jesus Christ, the world’s most dedicated nonconformist, whose ethical nonconformity still challenges the conscience of mankind.”

Ultimately, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is the contradiction that must be resolved if the radical Jesus—the one who stood up to the Roman Empire and was crucified as a warning to others not to challenge the powers-that-be—is to be an example for our modern age.

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This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

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

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

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

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True North. Krasnogorsk Mass Murder. Scott Ritter

March 27th, 2024 by Scott Ritter

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

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Point to point navigation describes the long-lost art of celestial navigation, the ability to use the stars to chart a course across the open seas in the age before compasses. The key to successfully executing point to point navigation lay in fixing one’s position vis-à-vis the North Star. Failure to do so meant risking sailing aimlessly about a sea with no fixed reference points, an act that leads to death or, perhaps worse, becoming a castaway on some unchartered point on earth.

After a storm, a ship’s captain and his navigator would scan the skies for the North Star, from which they could establish not only what direction true north was, but also where they were in reference to the position of the North Star in the sky, so that they might navigate to safety.

When special operations forces are compromised behind enemy lines, they conduct what they call “escape and evasion,” the act of avoiding detection and probable death or capture, while making their way to a pre-designated haven from which they can regroup or be extracted. The CIA trains its operations officers in similar skill sets. Both colloquially refer to such actions as “finding their true north.”

The perpetrators of the horrific attack on the Crocus City Hall and Concert Center in Krasnogorsk, a metropolitan community located to the northwest of Moscow, were no different than any other terrorist/militant before them; after their act of mass murder, they sought out their “true north” to make good their escape.

Western governments, analysts, and pundits have loudly proclaimed that the men who carried out the attack on the Crocus City Hall had nothing whatsoever to do with Ukraine, and instead have collectively embraced a narrative that paints the men as members of the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K). ISIS is an off-shoot of Al-Qaeda-Iraq (AQI) which emerged in 2013 when core AQI members relocated to Syria. In 2014 ISIS declared itself to be a caliphate and began a series of operations which saw it take control on a third of Syria and a quarter of Iraq before being driven back and ultimately defeated by a coalition which included Iraq, the United States and Iran.

In 2014 Central Asian fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan formed a branch of ISIS in Afghanistan known as ISIS-K, where they stood for Khorasan (ISIS-K). Khorasan is an ancient term for the territory encompassed by modern day Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. ISIS-K continues to operate today in Afghanistan and Iran, as well as inside the former Soviet Central Asian republics, including Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Terrorists attacking the Crocus City Hall

According to US officials, the United States collected intelligence that ISIS-K was planning an attack on Moscow in early March.

This intelligence was behind a public warning issued by the US embassy in Russia on March 7 that “extremists” were planning an imminent attack on large gatherings in Moscow.

“US citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,” the warning, published on the embassy website, stated. American citizens were warned to avoid crowds, including concerts. These US officials likewise claimed (and Russia has acknowledged) that Russia had been informed about the intelligence behind the March 7 warning. This information was shared based upon the “duty to warn” principle where US intelligence about potential terrorist attacks must be shared with the suspected targets. However, rather than passing this information through formal channels, it was done unofficially, through informal channels, significantly diluting the impact of the information.

The attackers posted a photograph of them reciting the Shahada, or Islamic oath and creed (“I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God”) which, if made sincerely, is all that is required to be identified as a Muslim in the eyes of God. While Islamic scholars note that it is only necessary to recite the words, for jihadists reciting Shahada accompanied by a raised right index finger, has become de riguere—Osama Bin Laden delivered it in this fashion, as did Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of the Islamic State.

Shahada is a ritual, and those who make Shahada must understand its importance for it to have any meaning. As such, if one incorporates the raising of the right index finger as part of the Shahada ritual, it must be done piously. The use of the right hand is critical—in the Muslim faith, the right hand symbolizes all that is good, and the left is reserved for unclean acts:

“No one among you should eat with his left hand or drink with it, for the shaytaan (devil) eats with his left hand and drinks with it.”  

The four attackers delivered this oath by raising their left hands.

They also published this photograph with their faces blurred—they were shielding their identity.

There can be no subterfuge when reciting Shahada—it is an oath made before God and in the eyes of men.

Moreover, the blurring of their faces indicated that the attackers intended to survive their mission.

The Crocus City Hall attackers making Shahada

For most militants affiliated with ISIS-K, true north is the path to martyrdom, a one-way ticket to paradise.

Their goal is to inflict as much harm as possible before being dispatched from this mortal earth, an act that is usually made certain using a suicide vest detonated at a time when more death and destruction can be wrought.

The perpetrators of the Crocus City Hall attack, however, did not wear suicide vests. Indeed, they had no intention of losing their lives, but rather to live and be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, a purported $5,500 payment for services rendered.

These weren’t Islamist militants.

These were mercenaries who disguised themselves as Islamic militants.

The Crocus City Hall attackers in their getaway car

And when they finished their murderous rampage, the purported ISIS-K fighters jumped into their car and headed toward their “true north.”

Ukraine.

Ukraine. The source of their money.

Ukraine. The source of their motivation.

The Russian investigation into the terror attack is still in its early stages. There are many facts left to be uncovered.

But there is a plethora of data which allows one to populate the puzzle with enough pieces to begin to see a discernable shape take form.

Russian authorities went out of their way to make sure that all four perpetrators were captured alive.

The perpetrators are in the process of being interrogated. Many of the techniques being used by Russia would not be permitted in the United States as they could readily be classified as torture. And many intelligence professionals—me included—discount the value of any confession made under severe duress.

But the Russian interrogations are aided by the fact that the Russian investigators are not engaged in a fishing expedition, but rather are guided by specific facts derived from the forensic examination of the cell phones of the four terrorists, which are currently in the possession of Russian authorities.

One of these phones was recovered at the crime scene, and the data contained on this phone was used by Russian security officials to track the terrorists as they drove out of Moscow, toward Ukraine. Telephone numbers contained on the recovered phone allowed the Russians to zero in on the remaining phones, and monitor phone calls made by the terrorists in real time—including numerous calls to persons inside Ukraine who were working to create a gap in the Russian-Ukrainian border that the terrorists could escape through.

True North.

The Russians have been able to identify the core structure of a support network in Moscow which provided the four terrorists with transportation and housing.

Eleven arrests have been made in this regard.

The Russians have identified a network operating in Turkey who were affiliated with the recruitment, training and logistical preparation and support of the terrorist operation in Moscow.

Forty arrests have been made as a result.

But more importantly, Russia has gathered enough information to issue a warrant for the head of the Ukrainian security service, Vasyl Malyuk, on charges of public incitement of terrorism. Likewise, the head of the Russian security service, Alexander Boritnikov, has stated that when it comes to delivering justice to Ukrainians who may have been involved in the attack on the Crocus concert venue, “Everything is ahead of us.”

Russia, it seems, is navigating point to point.

Not toward a safe haven, but rather on a path of retribution.

And its “true north” is the same as that of the terrorists.

Ukraine.

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

[This article was originally published in August 2023.]

After two-and-a-half months of failed negotiations, the U.S. government on Thursday intensified its effort to quash Mexico’s limits on genetically modified corn imports by calling for the formation of a dispute settlement panel under a North American trade deal.

In a 2020 decree backed by agricultural, consumer, environmental, public health, and worker groups, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced plans to phase out genetically modified (GM) corn and the herbicide glyphosate by January 2024.

Under pressure from the U.S. government and impacted industries, he issued a new decree in February reiterating plans to block GM corn imports for human consumption by then but lifting the deadline for imports intended for livestock feed and industrial use.

“The Mexican government will show what has occurred: Its cherished tortillas are being contaminated with glyphosate and GM corn. And they intend to put a stop to that.”

While AMLO’s move was seen as a concession to the U.S. and lobbyists challenging his policies, the Biden administration in June still requested 75 days of formal negotiations. After talks ended Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai confirmed the decision to form a panel under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

“Through the USMCA dispute panel, we seek to resolve our concerns and help ensure consumers can continue to access safe and affordable food and agricultural products,” Tai said Thursday. “It is critical that Mexico eliminate its USMCA-inconsistent biotechnology measures so that American farmers can continue to access the Mexican market and use innovative tools to respond to climate and food security challenges. Our bilateral relationship with Mexico, one of our oldest and strongest trading partners, is rooted in trust and honesty, and there are many areas where we will continue to cooperate and work together.”

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack similarly said that “Mexico’s approach to biotechnology is not based on science” and “the United States is continuing to exercise its rights under the USMCA to ensure that U.S. producers and exporters have full and fair access to the Mexican market.”

The Mexican Ministry of Economy responded in a statement that “Mexico does not agree with the position of the United States” and “is prepared to defend the Mexican position before this international panel and demonstrate: 1) that the national regulation is consistent with the commitments signed in the treaty; and 2) that the challenged measures do not have commercial effects.”

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has previously supported Mexico’s efforts to phase out GM corn and glyphosate and on Thursday challenged claims by U.S. officials and agribusiness about Mexican obligations under the treaty and the potential economic impact of the policies.

“U.S. agribusiness exporters, the biotech industry, and their allies in Congress are pushing this case, intent on compelling Mexico to accept U.S. exports without debate. It is an assault on Mexico’s food sovereignty,” said Karen Hansen-Kuhn, IATP director of trade and international strategies. “Trade rules should provide a forum to protect and advance rights, rather than block them.”

Hansen-Kuhn on Thursday authored an op-ed about Mexico’s rights under the USMCA while ITAP senior adviser Timothy A. Wise wrote about “exaggerated claims of economic damage” that “sprang from a convenient set of assumptions, all of which are flawed and now outdated in light of the more recent presidential decree.”

“As Mexican Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro stated in response to the USTR request for technical consultations, Mexico’s decree is based on science, and she will challenge the U.S. government in the consultations to show ‘quantitatively, with numbers, something that has not occurred: that the corn decree has commercially affected U.S. exporters,'” Wise also said.

“The Mexican government will show what has occurred: Its cherished tortillas are being contaminated with glyphosate and GM corn,” he continued. “And they intend to put a stop to that.”

As Reuters detailed Thursday:

Under USMCA’s dispute settlement rules, a five-person panel, chosen from a roster of pre-approved experts, must be convened within 30 days, with a chair jointly chosen and the U.S. side choosing two Mexican panelists and Mexico choosing two American panelists. The panel will review testimony and written submissions and its initial report is due 150 days after the panel is convened.

Previous USMCA dispute panels last year ruled in the U.S.’s favor in a dispute over Canadian dairy quotas, and against the U.S. on automotive rules of origin, siding with Mexico and Canada.

There have been other disagreements between the U.S. and Mexico, most notably over energy in which the U.S. has argued that Mexico’s nationalist policy prejudices foreign companies.

Arturo Sarukhán, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States, said on social media Thursday that “of the two consultation processes—energy and yellow corn—this is the one that is politically most relevant for the White House in 2024,” given the significance of agricultural states such as Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, who is seeking reelection, and the GOP nominee, which could be former President Donald Trump, who signed the USMCA.

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Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Featured image: Screen shot of Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador from MILENIO broadcast of press conference on July 4, 2022 

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power in the international system. On the one hand vested with enormous latitude in order to preserve international peace and security, it remains checked, limited and, it can be argued, crippled by an all too regular use of the veto by members of the permanent five powers (US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France).

When it comes to the bleeding and crushing of human life in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (32,300 dead Palestinians and rising), resolutions demanding a cease fire of a conflict that began with the attack on Israeli soil by Hamas militants have tended to pass into voting oblivion.  The United States, Israel’s great power patron and defender, has been consistent in using its veto power to ensure it, exercising it on no less than three occasions since October 7.

On March 25, a change of heart was registered.  Washington, reputationally battered for its unconditional support for Israel, haughtily defied by its own ally in being reduced to airdrops of aid for the expiring residents of Gaza, and resoundingly ignored by the Netanyahu government in moderating the savagery of its operations in the strip, abstained.  In terms of resolution protocol, it meant that 14 out of 15 Council members favoured the vote.

Resolution 2728 calls for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan “leading to a lasting sustainable” halt to hostilities, the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”, “ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs” and “demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain”.  The resolution further emphasises “the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip”.  All barriers regarding the provision of humanitarian assistance, in accordance with international humanitarian law” are also to be lifted.

The wording of the resolution has a degree of lexical ambiguity only tolerable to oily diplomats and paper mad bureaucrats.  Neither Hamas nor Israeli hostages are mentioned, ghosts unacknowledged at the chattering feast.  Does the latter, for instance, cover Palestinian prisoners?

The justification from the US delegation was uneven and skewed. The abstention, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained, “reaffirms the US position that a ceasefire of any duration come as part of an agreement to release hostages in Gaza.”  While some provisions of the text had caused disagreement in Washington, the sponsors of the resolution had made sufficient changes “consistent with our principled position that any ceasefire text must be paired with the release of the hostages.”

Mild mannered approval for this sloppy, weak position (the apologetics of abstentions are rarely principled, suggesting a lack of moral timbre) followed. Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now, even praised the stance in Newsweek.  “By allowing the resolution to pass the US has staked out a position in favor of ending this horrible war, and in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prioritization of his political well-being over the current and future good of Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

For his part, Netanyahu cancelled a planned Washington visit of two of his ministers, Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi, to specifically discuss the impending attack on Rafah, though much of this is bound to be studiously ceremonial, given the language of inevitability associated with the planned operation.  Besides, neither are versed in anything related to military matters.  But just as one pays attention to a wealthy, doddering relative who keeps funding your bad habits in the hope that you might, one day, see sense, it pays to feign courtesy and interest from time to time to your benefactor.

As if to prove this point, John F. Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, reminded journalists that various other meetings would still be taking place between the US and Israel, notably those between President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, and with Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.

In a gruff statement, the Israeli PM rebuked the abstention as “a retreat from the consistent American position since the beginning of the war”. In taking that stance, Washington had given “Hamas hope that international pressure will enable them to achieve a cease-fire without freeing the hostages.”

Netanyahu’s approach to Hamas, Gaza and the Palestinians has become one with his obsession with political survival and rekindling the fires of the Israeli electorate.  As far back as December, a Likud official was already making the observation that the PM had adopted the posture of a vote getting electioneer even as the war was being prosecuted.  “Netanyahu is in full campaign mode.  While the external political threats are gradually increasing, Netanyahu knows that over time the attacks and the calls to remove him will also increase.  He has been acting first to win back his base.”

For the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, the resolution had to be implemented. “Failure would be unforgivable.” But failure to do so, certainly in the context of the planned assault on Rafah so solemnly denounced by the international community, is most likely.

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). Email: [email protected]

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

By Sayer JiGreenMedInfo

The CDC’s own research found that the long denied vaccine-SIDS link is real. 

If you believe the official pronouncements of top governmental health agencies like the CDC and FDA, all the vaccines in the present day schedule are a priori safe and effective.

Not only are you told that they can’t harm you, but that not taking them can kill you.

Parents are under even more pressure. They are told that refraining from vaccinating their infants or children will greatly increase their risk of dying or being disabled. Worse, they are increasingly labeled as ‘crazy’ and ‘irresponsible’ anti-vaccine zealots who are putting the lives of others in danger.

But what happens when the actual evidence from the scientific and clinical literature produced by these very agencies contradicts their own vaccine policies?

This is exactly what has happened with the publication of a new study in the Journal of Pediatrics titled ,

Adverse Events following Haemophilus influenzae Type b Vaccines in the Vaccine Adverse Event ReportingSystem, 1990-2013,” wherein CDC and FDA researchers identify 749 deaths linked to the administration of the Hib vaccine, 51% of which were sudden infant death linked to the administration of Hib vaccine.

The CDC has boldly denied that there is any evidence supporting a causal link between vaccines and infant death, despite the fact that their own webpage on the topic acknowledges that “From 2 to 4 months old, babies begin their primary course of vaccinations. This is also the peak age for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).” Written off as coincidence, the CDC suggests that stomach sleeping is the primary modifiable risk factor.

Because SIDS is the 3rd leading cause of death in infants, and because the U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world, one would think that more progress would have been made toward understanding its causes. Perhaps, as explored in this past article, the signal of harm is being ignored. Neglect and suppression of available data has recently been exposed with the confession of a top CDC vaccine scientist who was compelled to covered up data revealing an autism-MMR link in African-American boys.

In the new study, the CDC and FDA researchers themselves acknowledge “the scarcity” of post licensure safety data on Hib vaccines in today’s vaccination schedule. They evaluated reports involving the currently licensed Hib vaccines received from January 1, 1990, through December 1, 2013 available on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Presently, the CDC recommends 4 doses of the Hib vaccine at the following ages: 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 12 months through 15 months.

The Hib vaccine is described on the CDC website as “very safe” and “effective” at preventing Hib disease, which it states can be deadly. They list “most common side effects as usually mild and last 2 or 3 days,” including “redness, swelling, and warmth where the child got the shot” and “fever”. Nowhere is there listed death or disability as a possible side effect.

In stark contrast to these statements the study uncovered the following highly concerning results:

VAERS received 29,747 reports after Hib vaccines; 5179 (17%) were serious, including 896 reports of deaths. Median age was 6 months (range 0-10.22 months). Sudden infant death syndrome was the stated cause of death in 384 (51%) of 749 death reports with autopsy/death certificate records. The most common non-death serious AE categories were neurologic (80; 37%), other noninfectious (46; 22%) (comprising mainly constitutional signs and symptoms); and gastrointestinal (39; 18%) conditions. No new safety concerns were identified after clinical review of reports of AEs that exceeded the data mining statistical threshold.

Consider also that VAERS is a passive surveillance system, which suffers from profound underreporting. According to the VAERS site’s own disclaimer:

“Underreporting” is one of the main limitations of passive surveillance systems, including VAERS. The term, underreporting refers to the fact that VAERS receives reports for only a small fraction of actual adverse events. The degree of underreporting varies widely. As an example, a great many of the millions of vaccinations administered each year by injection cause soreness, but relatively few of these episodes lead to a VAERS report.

According to Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the National Vaccination Information Center, underreporting may result in overlooking 99% or higher of all vaccine associated injuries:

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler estimated in a 1993 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that fewer than 1 percent of all doctors report injuries and deaths following the administration of prescription drugs. This estimate may be even lower for vaccines. In one survey that our organization conducted in New York in 1994, only 1 doctor in 40 reported to VAERS.

Considering the influence of underreporting, these deaths represent only the tip of the iceberg of vaccine-induced infant morbidity and mortality caused by Hib vaccines. The study also mentioned an earlier analysis which found that infant death is the most common cause of death reported by all vaccine linked reports on VAERS, “accounting for almost one-half of all deaths reported.”

Obviously, this is an appalling study. The death of even 1 child for a potentially ineffective medical intervention designed to prevent a rarely fatal illness is a tragedy. Nor can any single vaccine be proven to have prevented any single case of disease because the clinical outcome (end point) is a non-event. This is not the case, however, for vaccine side effects which can be linked directly to the vaccination event with plausible scientific mechanisms.

What is perhaps most astounding is the researcher’s conclusion:

Review of VAERS reports did not identify any new or unexpected safety concerns for Hib vaccines.

This callous disregard for the evidence — evidence that clearly shows the CDC misrepresents the safety of the Hib vaccine — speaks to the blind investment in vaccine policy decisions over human wellbeing. Millions of parents have listened to the CDC and FDA and believed that these vaccines not only work but are safe. Informed consent requires those undergoing a quasi-mandatory medical intervention like vaccination to know the true risks associated with it. Failing to do so is clearly a violation of this medical ethical protection against being abused, and in some cases disabled and even killed.

***

My Take…

VAERS has 1881 deaths of babies 0 to 2 years old after Hib Vaccine.

1514 deaths are < 6 months.

 

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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.

Featured image is from COVID Intel

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

“We still don’t know how many shooters there were. We don’t know what the weapons were. We don’t know what the firearms were. We don’t know what the explosives were. We don’t know how many were actually killed, how many wounded, but yet the US State Department knows that it was not Ukraine,” stated former CIA and State Department analyst Larry Johnson, according to Sputnik.

This indicates that the US government has no grounds to declare that there is no Ukrainian connection to the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of innocent Russians in Moscow.

The former analyst then highlighted another significant point stating that the statement “comes on a day that one of the CIA propaganda outlets came out and said that the Biden administration and the intelligence community were very concerned about what they call ‘brazen’, unwarranted attacks by Ukraine.”

Based on these premises, the former CIA and US State Department analyst announced that he suspected that Washington had information regarding the attack, yet withheld this information from Moscow.

Russian Officials Call Out Washington, Warn Kiev

In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, on her Telegram channel, questioned the US statement saying

“On what basis do officials in Washington draw any conclusions in the midst of the tragedy about anyone’s innocence? If the United States has or had reliable information in this regard, then it must be immediately transferred to the Russian side.”

Zakharova then stressed that

“if there is no such data, then the White House has no right to issue indulgences to anyone,” adding “All those involved, as stated by the Russian leadership, will be identified by the competent authorities.”

As for the Deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, he underscored that

“Terrorists understand only retaliatory terror.”

Medvedev further emphasized that

“If it is established that these are terrorists of the Kiev regime, it is impossible to do otherwise with them and their ideological inspirers. All of them must be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists. Including officials of the state that committed such an atrocity.”

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

On March 25, Russia initiated a UN Security Council (UNSC) session concerning the 25th anniversary of the illegal NATO bombing of Serbia (then officially known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The attack was essentially the final act of the political West’s direct involvement, following nearly a decade of aggression by NATO whose endgame was to dismantle Yugoslavia, primarily by reducing Serbian ethnic space as much as possible.

Namely, since 1991, the political West sought to eradicate the Serbian population in western parts of former Yugoslavia, starting with present-day Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The former is effectively an outgrowth of the WWII-era Nazi-allied “Independent State of Croatia” led by a monstrously genocidal regime known as Ustashe.

The latter is a highly dysfunctional (con)federation cobbled together by NATO to prevent Serbian reunification.

Both were fully (Croatia) or partially (Bosnia and Herzegovina) secured by NATO after the belligerent alliance engineered the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from these areas. However, the political West wasn’t done with Yugoslavia (reduced to only Serbia and Montenegro).

On March 24, 1999, under the false pretext of supposedly “protecting” the separatist Albanian population in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia, NATO launched a massive air attack on FR Yugoslavia. For the next 78 days, after failing to defeat the Serbian military, NATO launched strikes against civilian infrastructure, determined to bring the country to its knees by destroying its economy and killing thousands of civilians. By the time it was over, NATO’s attack on Serbia was just one of the countless instances of the political West’s unpunished aggression against the world, disguised as the so-called “humanitarian intervention”, as per usual.

However, the latest UNSC session about this issue seems to have been “too unpleasant” for NATO, so its most prominent powers, particularly the permanent UNSC members, the United States, United Kingdom and France, effectively blocked the discussion. Russia’s proposal was supported by China and Algeria. Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic stated that Belgrade is “disappointed because today the truth about the NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia in 1999 was prevented from being heard at the UNSC”. The Permanent Representative of Russia at the UNSC Vasily Nebenzya said that he understood that was “uncomfortable for NATO representatives at this table to hear this and to discuss it”, but stressed that it was important to have the discussion, “not only because of what happened but also because of what is happening now in that region”, obviously referring to ongoing tensions.

The political West criticized Russia’s initiative, insisting “it was unnecessary”. At the very beginning of the session, the Permanent Representative of France at the UNSC, Nicolas de Rivière, opposed the discussion, claiming that “this topic will not contribute to progress in any way”, obviously trying to avoid NATO’s responsibility, as it was the belligerent alliance that orchestrated the conflict in Yugoslavia in order to dismantle the country and then systematically destroy any pockets of resistance. The discussion about this at the UNSC would surely result in many questions regarding the functioning and the unreasonable power balance in the UN, which is often being used to justify NATO aggression against the world or, perhaps even worse, it’s simply ignored when Russia and/or China are using legal mechanisms to prevent it. This not only nullifies the very point of the UN, but it also makes international law void.

Any discussion that could result in the UN’s reform toward a more fair international order is immediately blocked by the political West. Worse yet, the belligerent power pole wants to impose the ludicrous “rules-based world order” that boils down to “international law” that the world “must follow”, but which the political West can interpret in any way it wants, giving it a free hand at maintaining (or even expanding) the extremely exploitative neocolonialist system. In addition, the discussion about NATO aggression on Yugoslavia/Serbia would also expose the belligerent alliance’s offensive-oriented nature. Namely, NATO has never been a “defensive alliance”, as it has never actually defended anything. Quite the contrary, its so-called “humanitarian interventions” around the world have resulted in the death and destruction of dozens of millions of lives, worsening the actual humanitarian situation.

It should also be noted that Russia decided to push for the discussion despite experiencing a horrendous terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall just three days before. This is a clear indicator that Moscow doesn’t forget its friends and allies, even when going through the toughest of times. It should also be noted there’s a wide political consensus in Russia when it comes to the question of NATO aggression on Serbia, as both houses of the Russian State Duma adopted the draft document that Representative Nebenzya submitted at the UN. The document called on the world to condemn NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia, prevent continued attempts to conceal the truth about its true motive and hold NATO perpetrators legally accountable. Truly independent media have covered the aggression on Yugoslavia extensively, exposing the blatant lies and deceit used as pretexts to destroy it.

Globally renowned expert and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Ottawa Michel Chossudovsky, also the Editor-in-Chief of Global Research, one of the most prominent independent media outlets on the planet, has been particularly active in this regard.

His book, titled “The US-NATO War of Aggression against Yugoslavia”, covers the topic in detail.

Professor Chossudovsky also authored numerous articles about it, explaining the true motives behind the political West’s destruction of former Yugoslavia.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Featured image is from InfoBrics

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The article “Harvard Shuts Geoengineering Project” by Cauf Skiviers, explains Bill Gates, funder of the project, stopping Harvard from carrying out the study to preserve the climate narrative, see this.

How is this relevant?

That Bill Gates calls the shots on what should and should not go forward is nothing new. Surprising is that he was willing to finance such a study in the first place. Why?

The honest results of the research would have shown the outright “climate change” fraud humanity has been exposed to for more than three decades.

The study’s outcome would have gone in the complete opposite direction of the current western globalist plan, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Great Reset and the UN Agenda 2030, One World Order, One World Government. Their success being largely based on the ”climate” lie.

Geoengineering serves two purposes, falsely demonstrating the Green Agenda’s fake CO2 emissions-based climate change, and – of equal importance – making weather and climate to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

The outcome of the study would have been against those who want to destroy the world’s economy and social structure as we know it, to rebuild it afresh, according to the elites’ desire. See Club of Rome’s “First Global Revolution” (1991); and this.

The revelation of the now canceled Harvard research would have allowed just about anyone marginally aware of what is happening to Mother Earth’s climate, to see through the scam. It would have been difficult to avoid leaking the study’s outcome of such a hyped-up topic, like “climate change”, to the public.

Imagine Harvard research would destroy a political agenda, as well as Big Business. It would reveal that the climate narrative of the “Green Agenda” is a lie and that the weather almost everywhere on the globe is manipulated – or to use the scientific term “geoengineered.”

More than three decades of intense “fake science” and media manipulation about humans’ CO2, methane, and similar greenhouse gas emissions, is the culprit for “climate change”, have left most people, even non-active, often “bought”, so-called scientists, under the impression that doomsday is just around the corner, if we keep using hydrocarbons (oil and gas) to fuel our economy and keep using agriculture to feed humanity.

These alarm bells are constant calls to decarbonize civilization. Yet, the use of hydrocarbons (mostly oil and gas) to run the world’s economies has hardly changed in the last three decades. In the early 1990s about 87% of all energy used worldwide came from oil and gas. The figure is almost the same today.

It is a big lie. The climate is NOT changing, at least not more than it has always changed over the past four billion years – normally by small increments, so that life on earth can adapt and adjust.

According to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), there are currently more than 50 countries which have at least some technologies to change the weather and climate. See this.

Those with the most sophisticated knowledge are the United States, Russia, and China.

It is fair to assume that the 50-plus nations are “modifying” the weather or climate according to what benefits them most. It is also fair to assume that today there is worldwide almost no weather completely natural, but influenced either directly, or indirectly, through modified weather patterns elsewhere in the world, the collateral effect of geoengineering.

In olden times, it was called “the butterfly effect” – meaning the butterfly flaps its wings and will have an effect somewhere in the world. You do not know where and what. With geoengineering that can be very dangerous.

Obviously, weather modifications, so far, serve primarily the fake climate change agenda. When a super hurricane hits the Caribbean, or a prolonged Monsoon floods and destroys two thirds of Pakistan, including her economy, it exponentially exceeds the “normal”. Blame it on “climate change”.

But most often there is an economic and / or political agenda behind it. Take Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans on 29 August 2005. Some 1,800 people died. With 230 km / hour, Katrina made landfall in Southeast Louisiana and destroyed New Orleans.

While the State of Louisiana evacuated about 1.5 million people before the hurricane hit, 150,000 to 200,000 stayed behind, mostly black people in “old” New Orleans, often run-down, but potential prime real estate for developers; was to be razed for luxury-style rebuilding.

The original owners were later force-evacuated to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)-provided “emergency” camps (shacks), all over the country. So, the force-refugees could not organize. The properties were taken over by the state and city. This served both an economic and political agenda.

In June through August and into September 2022, Pakistan received about three times as much rain as normal. The deadly disaster was blamed on “climate change”. See this.

In reality, the catastrophe is suspected of having been geoengineered, and had a political agenda. On 10 April 2022, the popular, democratically and by a landslide elected President, Imram Khan, was ousted through a parliamentary non-confidence vote, instigated and “influenced” by the US because Mr. Khan refused to follow orders from Washington but instead intended to be President for an independent Pakistan and for the People of Pakistan.

Imran Khan addresses a rally in Pakistan in October 2022 (Source: Multipolarista)

For weeks, people took to the streets by the millions, creating national unrest, wanting their President Imran Khan back. Creating or geoengineering the destructive Monsoon floods was a means to stop the social upheaval so that the country could follow the western / Washington imposed political agenda, which meant foremost no political or business relations with China.

This is weaponized geoengineering.

When geoengineering serves as a weapon for Super-Powers, the dangers may be equivalent or worse than from nuclear weapons. Because most people have no clue that these weather “disturbances” and climate disasters are manmade and targeted for specific purposes at an “enemy”.

To get this right, geoengineering is NOT manmade in terms of what the Green Agenda interprets manmade “climate change”, as in CO2 emissions, greenhouse gases and more of the like. Geoengineering is dangerous. The Green Agenda climate change claims are sheer bullsh*t.

Geoengineering has been developed since the early 1940s. It started out with simple cloud-seeding, to prompt rainfall, mostly for agricultural purposes. It then moved to more sophisticated weather and climate manipulations, using the infamous chemtrails, white “vapor” stripes emanating from airplanes, crisscrossing the blue skies, disseminating poisonous chemicals and microscopic heavy metal particles, to influence the climate – but also, and possibly more important, to affect people’s health in very negative ways.

There are hundreds if not thousands of patents out there for these chemicals and heavy metals coming down from the planes into the ground, into the water, into plants and vegetables and finally into our bodies, killing our Pineal Gland and gradually weakening our bodies.

Geoengineering also includes the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) and similarly sophisticated technologies. HAARP, more recently under the auspices of the Pentagon-linked think tank DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), is controlled by the US Air Force. HAARP is possibly the world’s most capable high-power, high-frequency electromagnetic waves transmitter, acting on the ionosphere.

HAARP technologies often applied from satellites, can emit electromagnetic waves piercing deep into the earth, creating earthquakes. It is suspected that HAARP technologies were used to cause the 6 February 2023 Turkey/Syria earthquake of 7.8 Richter scale strength, killing more than 60,000 people.

Rescuers carry a victim on the rubble as the search for survivors continues in the aftermath of an earthquake, in rebel-held town of Jindires, Syria, February 7, 2023. [Source: usnews.com]

The seism happened shortly before Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reelected in May 2023 as President of Turkey. The earthquake’s epicenter was in Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, with seismic movement taking place along the Conjugated Tectonic Faults. Strangely and remarkably, however, the tremors defied the natural patterns and do not fit into the usual mainshock–aftershocks sequence

This was also the time when President Erdogan refused to approve Sweden and Finland into NATO, despite the tremendous pressure of all 29 other NATO countries – to put NATO even closer to Russia, the western-made non-conform enemy that needed to be “subdued.”

This would be weaponized political geoengineering, with an economic side effect.

The 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake of 7.0 magnitude left the capital city Port-au-Prince devastated and killed about 220,000 people. Sizable off-shore oil and gas deposits are all over the Caribbean, and also off-shore of Port-au-Prince.

These petrol reserves, are so deep that it is uneconomical to exploit them at current depths. A seismic event will break the tectonic plates, so that the earth’s core pressure pushes the oil to higher levels, where exploitation is easier and more economical.

Haiti has been in chaos ever since. The Clinton Foundation set up allegedly to help rebuild Haiti, has been a disaster, causing more harm than good, and making the Clintons richer. Destabilizing the country is a good reason for the US to maintain steady control.

Haiti is the world’s first and only country inhabited by black slaves that fought for and obtained independence 220 years ago (January 1, 1804). Washington pretends, Haiti could become a national security threat – like Cuba! – and must be controlled. See this.

The giant Haiti tremor also served two interests: economics, as in oil; and politics, as in control.

Geoengineering is a convenient and highly effective weapon to dominate or coerce countries into submission. The geo-weapon’s potential could explode exponentially during the coming years, decades, if people remain ignorant about its menace for humanity.

A Harvard study divulging what geoengineering does and can do would not only derail the entire fake “climate change” narrative, but might also risk taking steam out of the growing geo-weapons industry.

Therefore, “Solving the ‘climate crisis’ is indeed bad for business and bad for politics”, and even worse for strategic warfare planning. So, Bill Gates was right in stopping the Harvard Geoengineering Project. Geoengineering may, therefore, prosper, bringing rain, shine and – war.

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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 is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

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

Featured image source

US Preparing More “Islamic” Terror

March 27th, 2024 by Karsten Riise

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Looks like the USA has more terrorist attacks in the pipeline.

US media is now preparing the global public that more terror will emerge under the US cover of “ISIS-K”.

Moscow rampage reveals ambition, deadly reach of ISIS successor groups

“The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for Friday’s rampage through the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Krasnogorsk, a few miles west of central Moscow. U.S. counterterrorism officials believe it was ISIS-K, specifically, that recruited the four gunmen who fired automatic weapons at concertgoers before setting fire to the building, killing at least 139 in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the history of modern Russia.

More attacks may be coming, counterterrorism officials warn. In a development that has been largely overshadowed by the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, ISIS-K and other regional groups have been expanding in size and ambition in recent years.” (Joby Warrick, Robyn Dixon and Souad Mekhennet, The Washington Post, March 25, 2024)

This is typical of US-Western security services. If their cover story and front-organizations are being revealed, they don’t fold but double down on them to keep them running.

As doubt rises in Russia and the world about the “ISIS-K” as the real perpetrator behind the heinous attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, the CIA will organize new terror inside and outside of Russia to “prove” that “ISIS-K” is a real thing outside US control. At the same time, the CIA has unleashed the biggest US mainstream media like Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal to ridicule Russia and Putin that they couldn’t prevent the attacks and for pointing to the real western perpetrators behind “ISIS-K”.

Read how US media enjoy Russia being attacked:

Source: The WaPo

Source: Wall Street Journal

 

Former UK security insider Alastair Crooke has revealed that “ISIS-K” is an American creation. Listen to Alastair Crooke explaining that “ISIS-K” is not real but just a US cover organization:

The US “fighting terror” is a lie.

Like the US created Taliban, Al Qaeda,  Al Nusra, and other extremist groups, the US created “ISIS-K” to attack US enemies. For the US, terror is really good, as long as hits US enemies and doesn’t come back to the USA itself.

At first, it seemed overwhelming to understand that the US really engages such violent extremism and terrorism – but the trail of the US on the terror path is overwhelming.

The US supported and used Nazis to gain control over Ukraine in 2014.

That was openly documented in Western media at the time, though it has later been censored. For 4 years, the US let the ISIS “Khalifat” in Syria and Iraq export enormous amounts of oil via clearly visible tanker convoys through Syria to Türkiye to finance ISIS fighting Al Assad.

That ISIS also used its oil money to finance terror in Paris, Madrid, and Berlin didn’t bother the Americans.

The CIA even organized a cover story in one of the big US media was it was so “difficult” for the US to stop ISIS’ enormous oil exports – pure disinformation from the CIA to whitewash the US from its support of ISIS.

Only when Russia entered Syria, was the industrial ISIS oil export bombed away. In a few weeks, Russia stopped the ISIS oil export which the US had let ISIS do for 4 years. The ISIS oil was sold in Türkiye via the highest ranking people, further indicating that the US also had a role in the further distribution of the oil financing ISIS’ deadly expansion and atrocities. At the same time, the US agreed to support Al Qaeda in Syria, also against Al Assad, just using the new name of Al Nusra. New name, same (US) thing.

And for years, the US has used Ukraine to shelter top ISIS leaders and give them genuine Ukrainian passports with false identities, even as they continued directing their international terrorism from Ukrainian soil and under the eyes of Ukraine’s security Service SBU. This was published in 2019 in the UK, when CIA-SBU ties were firmly established. See this.

The SBU, according to US media, has been built from scratch by the CIA. The predecessor of the SBU before the Nazi coup in 2014 had too many contacts with Russia, according to US opinion. So the US appointed its current leader Budanov as chief of a new SBU and led Budanov to build up and staff the new, now current, SBU from scratch.

Rest assured, that all Western security services are involved in this ring of terror involving Nazis and Islamic terrorists alike.

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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 and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from American Free Press

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The Third Reich’s manpower reserves was reaching its end as 1944 began which is now eight decades ago. The average age of a soldier in the German Wehrmacht through 1943 was 31.5 years, which was four years older than the average age in the German Army in 1917.

At the start of 1944 Nazi Germany on paper had 304 divisions in operation, 179 of which were in eastern and central Europe, 53 were in France, 26 in the Balkans, 24 in Scandinavia and 22 in Italy. Growing numbers of German divisions fighting against the Soviet Army had been “fought out”. They were no longer of division size due to the heavy casualties they had suffered. Through 1944 German forces stationed in western and northern Europe were increasingly sent eastwards in a vain attempt to offset their losses.

The great majority of the damage inflicted against the Wehrmacht in World War II was caused by the Soviet military.

It can be stressed that Russia possessed more than enough capabilities, manpower and military resources to defeat the Nazis, and without the need for a Western Allied amphibious landing in France.

In May 1944 the number of Germans fighting against the Russians had sunk to its lowest total since Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Russia had begun on 22 June 1941, while the number of Soviet troops in May 1944 had reached its highest point, and altogether they outnumbered the Germans by almost three-to-one.

Yet according to author Samuel W. Mitcham, in May 1944 the Germans at their closest point were 290 miles from Moscow, whereas the Soviet soldiers that month were still 550 miles from Berlin at their closest point. This would change dramatically in coming months with large-scale advances made by the Russians, such as during Operation Bagration, which was launched exactly three years after the Nazis had attacked Russia.

German units seriously depleted by Russian troops were often transferred to France, where some of them underwent reorganisation to prepare for a Western Allied landing. While it is normal for top level commanders to be of an experienced age, often over 60-years-old, one of the Germans’ main issues in the war’s latter stages was in shortages of frontline soldiers of an appreciably younger age. Some of the newly recruited men in the German gun-crews in France were 55-years-old or more.

With an American-led landing in western Europe becoming an inevitability, in early November 1943 Hitler had appointed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as inspector of German coastal fortifications in the west which stretched from Norway southward to France. Rommel was not impressed by Germany’s defences, called the Atlantic Wall, and the many hundreds of miles of coastline meant the Nazis could merely erect a system of strongpoints and not a continuous line of concrete structures and minefields. By January 1944 even the strongpoint system was far from finished.

To strengthen the defensive lines, Rommel requested vast amounts of mines of different types, such as anti-tank mines, anti-landing craft mines, anti-personnel mines and nonferrous mines, the latter of which would be unidentifiable on enemy mine detectors, the Germans hoped. They also wanted mines detonated by trip wires and remote-controlled mines.

If the Anglo-Americans could be delayed on the French beaches, and if high casualties could be inflicted on them before they were allowed to reinforce, the Germans might decisively defeat their landing and force them back into the sea. Admiral Friedrich Ruge, a German naval officer stationed in France for most of the war and who was advising Rommel in 1943 and 1944, wrote how the field marshal “knew that there was no hope of winning, but hoped that the war could be brought to a tolerable end… So he looked for a way to defeat the landing on the beach, and to win a respite which could be exploited politically”.

From early 1941 to early 1944, around 1.7 million mines had been laid by the Germans in western and northern France. On 13 January 1944 Rommel requested a major increase of mine deployment to General Alfred Jodl of the Wehrmacht high command, who was visiting France. Rommel wanted two million mines to be laid each month. Rommel had a number of other ideas relating to Germany’s fortifications in western Europe. To solidify the defence, the mined and fortified areas were to be extended five to six miles inland. The number of strongpoints along or beside the coast would be increased, as would anti-tank guns and heavy machine guns in the forward sectors.

The panzer units were moved much closer to the coastlines where a Western Allied landing was expected, to enable the Germans to launch a counterblow towards the beaches in the opening hours of the amphibious assault. The enemy landing would have to be defeated within the first day, Rommel felt. Allied soldiers, upon arriving on the beaches or water’s edge, would have no tanks, artillery or heavy weapons. Some of them would probably be suffering from varying degrees of seasickness, due to the often unsettled waters of the English Channel which separates southern England from northern France, across which the Allies had to sail.

Rommel demanded the laying of mines in the English Channel itself. The German Navy, which had never been the strongest branch of the country’s military, lacked the vessels needed to drop significant numbers of mines into the English Channel. Rommel was also having problems in his relations with German Army officers, like Colonel-General Hans von Salmuth, who was commanding the German 15th Army in the region of Pas-de-Calais in the far north of France.

Colonel-General von Salmuth had previously commanded different Wehrmacht forces following the Nazi invasion of the USSR in 1941, such as the 30th Corps and the 2nd Army, and he was then sent to France in August 1943. Rommel first inspected von Salmuth’s 15th Army in December 1943, and he informed the colonel-general that he wanted hundreds of thousands of mines to be laid along his section of the coastline. Less than four weeks later Rommel again visited von Salmuth’s command area to see how things were going, and he was not satisfied with the progress made.

Rommel told von Salmuth to increase the amount of hours per day that troops under his command spent laying mines, even if it meant reducing time for training. Von Salmuth responded to Rommel in a haughty manner, telling the field marshal that he wanted his troops to be well-trained and prepared, and not overextended as a result of mine laying. Rommel replied, “Evidently you don’t intend to carry out my orders”.

Von Salmuth informed Rommel there was no realistic hope of the field marshal completing his program within a year, and that anyone who told him he could is either “trying to flatter you or he’s a pig idiot”. Von Salmuth’s superior attitude made it obvious that he felt he knew more than Rommel about military affairs. Rommel, who was quietly furious, waited until the other officers had disappeared into their vehicles, before he pulled von Salmuth to one side and severely criticised him for his disrespectful behaviour.

Mitcham wrote that “Salmuth’s face was red when he escorted the marshal [Rommel] back to the car, and his manner had changed completely. Rommel bade him farewell as if nothing had happened. As they drove away, the Desert Fox winked at Admiral Ruge and said: ‘He is a thoroughly rude fellow and has to be treated the same way!'” From January 1944, minefield and obstacle building in von Salmuth’s 15th Army increased substantially. Rommel’s angry words made the colonel-general see sense.

There was, as noted, a shortage of troops in the Wehrmacht. Major-General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben’s German 709th Infantry Division, which was stationed in Normandy, France, and would be engaged in heavy fighting when the Western Allies landed there on 6 June 1944, had to defend a 40-mile wide front. A division could be expected to successfully defend a front of six miles in width against a large enemy force, not 40 miles, which gives an idea of how stretched the Germans were.

Part of Rommel’s solution to von Schlieben’s problems was the sowing of mines and construction of concrete bunkers. These obstacles would help to slow the Western Allies down and inflict significant losses on them, but the overall strategy remained to rapidly defeat the enemy on the beaches. Rommel discovered that the Normandy coast, located in northern France, was particularly neglected up until January 1944.

Between the port of Dieppe in the Normandy region, 600 miles along the coast to Saint Nazaire in western France, just 11 German batteries were in position with a combined force of 37 guns. By early 1944, the only adequately fortified areas were Cap Gris-Nez in the northern tip of France, the port of Brest in the extreme west of France, and the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm) located not far off the French north-western coast.

The Nazi construction and engineering force, Organisation Todt, was almost entirely committed to building fortifications around the ports along with railroad reparations and maintenance. As a result, Rommel chose to put the German soldiers themselves to work in laying the minefields, anti-landing devices and other barriers. By 20 May 1944, the Germans had laid 4,193,167 mines in the stretch of northern France resting on the English Channel which included Normandy.

The Germans erected obstacles underneath the water and on the sand, to act as blockers to disable enemy ships coming ashore and personnel carriers. Some of the underwater obstacles consisted of stakes driven into the ground with an anti-tank mine connected to the tip. When a vessel struck the stake, the mine would detonate; other obstacles comprised of concrete triangular-shaped devices (tetrahedrons) with steel blades or anti-tank mines attached.

Further instruments of war were used like the nutcracker mine, consisting of a stake discreetly sticking out of a concrete housing which contained a heavy shell. Should something accidentally make contact with the protruding stake, the heavy shell would explode and strike the unsuspecting enemy.

The Germans proved effective at building fake or dummy gun emplacements and batteries, which regularly fooled Allied pilots on their bombing raids. By the time of the Anglo-American landing in Normandy, the US and British air forces had destroyed a modest 16 German guns in total, all in northern France, eight in Pas-de-Calais, five in the Seine-Somme area and three in Normandy. The Germans believed that the Western Allies would execute their landing at high tide, to reduce the distance they had to travel from the beach to solid ground inland which would provide some cover.

On the 2nd of January 1944, Rommel resumed his inspection of German coastal defences, this time in Belgium and the Netherlands. As he travelled in his vehicle through the interior of those countries, Rommel was understandably left in a sour mood by the liberalism and debauchery he repeatedly saw when driving along the Belgian and Dutch streets. Rommel rarely intervened to rectify the behaviour which he encountered, but on occasion he would be compelled to when out of strict military necessity. He wrote to his wife in various letters and complained to her about the attitude of the western Europeans, and in general he disliked the atmosphere that he came across.

The Germans thought it unlikely the Anglo-Americans would attempt their landing in Belgium or the Netherlands. Large parts of the Belgian and Dutch terrain consists of marshy or boggy ground, which is not suitable for armoured vehicles, and there are great numbers of obstacles like canals, rivers and streams scattered across Belgium and the Netherlands.

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This article was originally published on Geopolitica.RU.

Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree and he writes primarily on foreign affairs and historical subjects. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Sources

Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., The Desert Fox in Normandy (Praeger Publishers; 1st edition, 28 May 1997)

Chris Bellamy, Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War (Pan; Main Market edition, 21 August 2009)

“World War II anti-landing devices found in Guernsey”, BBC, 7 February 2012

Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., Hitler’s field marshals and their Battles (Leo Cooper Ltd. edition, 1 February 1988)

Donald J. Goodspeed, The German Wars (Random House Value Publishing, 2nd edition, 3 April 1985)

“Von Salmuth, Hans, Colonel-General, 1888-1962”, Generals.dk [World War II]

Featured image is from Geopolitica.RU

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court

March 27th, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to it, notably when it comes to dealing with political charges?  The record is not good, and the ongoing sadistic carnival that is the prosecution (and persecution) of Julian Assange continues to provide meat for the table.

Those supporting the WikiLeaks publisher, who faces extradition to the United States even as he remains scandalously confined and refused bail in Belmarsh Prison, had hoped for a clear decision from the UK High Court on March 26. Either they would reject leave to appeal the totality of his case, thereby setting the wheels of extradition into motion, or permit a full review, which would provide some relief.  Instead, they got a recipe for purgatorial prolongation, a tormenting midway that grants the US government a possibility to make amends in seeking their quarry.

A sinking sense of repetition was evident. In December 2021, the High Court overturned the decision of the District Court Justice Vanessa Baraitser to bar extradition on the weight of certain assurances provided by the US government. Her judgment had been brutal to Assange in all respects but one: that extradition would imperil his life in the US penal system, largely due to his demonstrated suicidal ideation and inadequate facilities to cope with that risk.

With a school child’s gullibility – or a lawyer’s biting cynicism – the High Court judges accepted assurances from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Assange would not face the crushing conditions of detention in the notorious ADX Florence facility or suffer the gagging restrictions euphemised as Special Administrative Measures.  He would also receive the appropriate medical care that would alleviate his suicide risk and face the prospect of serving the balance of any sentence back in Australia.  The refusal to look behind the mutability and fickle nature of such undertakings merely passed the judges by. The March 26 judgment is much in keeping with that tradition.

The grounds for Assange’s team numbered nine in total entailing two parts. Some of these should be familiar to even the most generally acquainted reader. The first part, comprising seven grounds, argues that the decision to send the case to the Home Secretary was wrong for: ignoring the bar to extradition under the UK-US Extradition Treaty for political offences, for which Assange is being sought for; that his prosecution is for political opinions; that the extradition is incompatible with article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) noting that there should be no punishment without law; that the process is incompatible with article 10 of the ECHR protecting freedom of expression; that prejudice at trial would follow by reason of his non-US nationality; that the right to a fair trial, protected by article 6 of the ECHR, was not guaranteed; and that the extradition is incompatible with articles 2 and 3 of the ECHR (right to life, and prohibiting inhuman and degrading treatment).

The second part of the application challenged the UK Home Secretary’s decision to approve the extradition, which should have been barred by the treaty between the UK and US, and on the grounds that there was “inadequate specialty/death penalty protection.”

In this gaggle of imposing, even damning arguments, the High Court was only moved by three arguments, leaving much of Baraitser’s reasons untouched. Assange’s legal team had established an arguable case that sending the case to the Home Secretary was wrong as he might be prejudiced at trial by reason of his nationality.  Following from that “but only as a consequence of that”, extradition would be incompatible with free speech protections under article 10 of the ECHR.  An arguable case against the Home Secretary’s decision could also be made as it was barred by inadequate specialty/death penalty protection.

What had taken place was a dramatic and savage pruning of a wholesome challenge to a political persecution garishly dressed in legal drag. On the issue of whether Assange was being prosecuted for his political opinions, the Court was happy to accept the woeful finding by Baraitser that he had not. The judge was “entitled to reach that conclusion on the evidence before her, and on the unchallenged sworn evidence of the prosecutor (which refutes the applicant’s case).” While accepting the view that Assange “acted out of political conviction”, the extradition was not being made “on account of his political views.” Again, we see the judiciary avoid the facts staring at it: that the exposure of war crimes, atrocities, torture and various misdeeds of state are supposedly not political at all.

Baraitser’s assessment on the US Espionage Act of 1917, that cruel exemplar of war time that has become peacetime’s greater suppressor of leakers and whistleblowers, was also spared necessary laceration. The point missed in both her judgement and the latest High Court ruling is a seeming inability to accept that the Act is designed to circumvent constitutional protections, a point made from the outset by the brave Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette.

On the issue of whether Assange would be denied due process in that he could not foresee being prosecuted for publishing classified documents in 2010, the view that US courts are “alive to the issues of vagueness and overbreadth in relation” to the Act misses the point.  It hardly assures Assange that he would not be subject “to a real risk of a flagrant denial” of rights protected by article 7 of the ECHR, let alone the equivalent Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.

The matter of Assange being denied a fair trial should have been obvious, evidenced by such prejudicial remarks by senior officials (that’s you Mike Pompeo) on his presumed guilt, tainted evidence, a potentially biased jury pool, and coercive plea bargaining.  He could or would also be sentenced for conduct he had not been charged with “based on evidence he will not see and which may have been unlawfully obtained.” Instead, Baraitser’s negative finding was spared its deserved flaying.

“We, like the judge, consider the article 6 objections raised by the applicants have no arguable merit, from which it follows that it is not arguable that his extradition would give rise to a flagrant denial of his fair trial rights.”

Of enormous, distorting significance was the refusal by the High Court to accept “fresh evidence” such as the Yahoo News article from September 2021 outlining the views of intelligence officials on the possible kidnapping and even assassination of Assange. To this could be added a statement from US attorney Joshua Dratel who pertinently argued that designating WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” was intended “to place [the applicant] outside any cognizable legal framework that might protect them from the US actions based on purported ‘national security’ imperatives”.

A signed witness statement also confirmed that UC Global, the Spanish security firm charged by the CIA to conduct surveillance of Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, had means to provide important information for “options on how to assassinate” Assange.

Instead of considering the material placed before them as validating a threat to Assange’s right to life, or the prospect of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the High Court justices speculated what Baraitser would have done if she had seen it.  Imaginatively, if inexplicably, the judges accepted her finding that the conduct by the CIA and UC Global regarding the Ecuadorian embassy had no link with the extradition proceedings.  With jaw dropping incredulity, the judges reasoned that the murderous, brutal rationale for dealing with Assange contemplated by the US intelligence services “is removed if the applicant is extradited.”  In a fit of true Orwellian reasoning, Assange’s safety would be guaranteed the moment he was placed in the custody of his would-be abductors and murderers.

The High Court was also generous enough to do the homework for the US government by reiterating the position taken by their brother judges in the 2021 decision.  Concerns about Assange’s mistreatment would be alleviated by granting “assurances (that the applicant is permitted to rely on the First Amendment, that the applicant is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same First Amendment protection as a United States citizen, and that the death penalty not be imposed).”  Such a request is absurd for presuming, not only that the prosecutors can be held to their word, but that a US court would feel inclined to accept the application of the First Amendment, let alone abide by requested sentencing requirements.

The US government has been given till April 16 to file assurances addressing the three grounds, with further written submissions in response to be filed by April 30 by Assange’s team, and May 14 by the Home Secretary. Another leave of appeal will be entertained on May 20. If the DOJ does not provide any assurances, then leave to appeal will be granted.  The accretions of obscenity in the Assange saga are set to continue.

*

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). Email: [email protected] 

Featured image: Supporters of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange protest outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, during his continuing extradition hearing. Picture date: Wednesday April 20, 2022. Picture: PA Wire

Who Is Behind the Crocus City Hall Terrorist Attack?

By Drago Bosnic, March 26, 2024

The attack left Russia and the world in shock. Despite the ongoing NATO-orchestrated conflict in Ukraine, the country has been largely safe from such attacks. The FSB and other relevant services have prevented hundreds of similar attempts over the years, meaning that the latest terrorist attack certainly has elements that are not consistent with the usual pattern.

The CIA Does “Soulful Work”. “Fantasy Started to Rapidly Replace Reality”

By Edward Curtin, March 26, 2024

Contemplating U.S. history for the past 55 plus years confirms the continuity of government policy for war and economic policies that enrich the wealthy at the expense of the working class and massacre the innocent around the world. But we can pretend otherwise.

About Poland and Ukraine Being One Country for 400 Years Is Misleading. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski’s Quip

By Andrew Korybko, March 26, 2024

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski recently told German press agency dpa that “Ukraine and Poland have been one country for 400 years. [Conventionally intervening in Ukraine] would provide fodder for Russian propaganda. Therefore, we should be the last ones to do so.”

The Prima Facie Genocide in Palestine Versus the “Legally Presumed” and “Unproven Genocide in Rwanda”. The ICTR Rwandan Prisoners

By John Philpot, Ndayambaje Elie, Kambanda Jean, Nyiramasuhuko Pauline, and et al., March 26, 2024

ICTR prisoners in Senegal have written this eloquent letter, which should serve as a basic document for any course in international criminal law given by any university in the world.

Is the Once Biggest Imperial Power Now Fast Losing Its Independence in Foreign Policy?

By Bharat Dogra, March 26, 2024

Britain was the biggest imperial power for well over a century. During its heyday it used to control about a quarter of the global landmass. So vast was this empire that there was always sunlight on one part or the other of this vast territory, leading to the boast that the sun never sets on the British Empire.

Canadian Government Authorized the First Plant-based COVID-19 Vaccine and Spent $300M Buying 76 Million Doses

By Dr. William Makis, March 26, 2024

This is a fascinating story. How does any company get a deal like this: “government paid an additional $150 million to Medicago in the form of a non-refundable agreement to purchase COVID-19 vaccine doses in advance.” NON-REFUNDABLE.

The Role of Turkey and Idlib in the Moscow Attack

By Steven Sahiounie, March 26, 2024

The road to the Crocus Center in Moscow began in Turkey, as one of the attackers confessed who killed 143 concert goers and injured more than 150 on Friday night. Russia has said the all the attackers have been captured on their way to Ukraine in an effort to escape.

Who Is Behind the Crocus City Hall Terrorist Attack?

March 26th, 2024 by Drago Bosnic

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

On March 22, at around 20:00 Moscow Time, a horrendous terrorist attack occurred at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, a small city in the Moscow oblast (region), just west/northwest outside of the city limits of Russia’s capital.

Four terrorists directly carried out the mass shooting, while some were filmed cutting the throats of unarmed civilians.

As of this writing, the death toll was 137 killed and over 180 wounded. The total tally could be worse, as dozens of people are critically injured and may not survive in the following days.

The attack left Russia and the world in shock. Despite the ongoing NATO-orchestrated conflict in Ukraine, the country has been largely safe from such attacks.

The FSB and other relevant services have prevented hundreds of similar attempts over the years, meaning that the latest terrorist attack certainly has elements that are not consistent with the usual pattern.

Some in the political West, as well as the foreign-backed opposition in Russia, are accusing the FSB of supposed “incompetence”, obviously trying to use the tragedy for political purposes.

However, Russian services promptly arrested the attackers and detained at least 11 other suspects, preventing some of them from reaching the border with Ukraine.

It’s rather peculiar that the terrorists chose to leave Russia in such a way, especially considering that it’s effectively impossible to cross the border between the two countries due to the ongoing conflict.

Thus, the involvement of the Neo-Nazi junta is already implied due to this alone.

And yet, that isn’t where the evidence for this hypothesis stops. The monstrous glee over the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack shown by the top-ranking Kiev regime officials is not only disturbing, but makes them the prime suspects in the ongoing investigation as to who organized it.

One such individual (because calling them “people” would be too much of a stretch) is the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov. One of Zelensky’s closest associates, Danilov has been extremely hawkish since day one and has openly insisted on launching as many sabotage and terrorist attacks as possible, regardless of whether it was against the Russian military or civilians, including in former Ukrainian territories that joined Russia, meaning that Danilov doesn’t care if the victims are Russians or people his government officially considers its own citizens.

In a video recently published by Zvezda News, Danilov demonstrated the full abomination of his already deranged personality.

 

Namely, he not only praised the terrorist attack, but also mocked the victims and Russia as a whole, once again demonstrating that the Neo-Nazi junta’s clinical Russophobia is of an unequivocally genocidal nature.

“Having fun in Moscow today? I think it’s a lot of fun. I would like to believe that we will arrange such fun for them more often. After all, they are ‘brotherly’ people, and you need to please your relatives more often and visit them more often. So, we’ll walk,” Danilov said.

In other words, apart from open support for the terrorists, he effectively threatened to arrange more such attacks.

The video is so disturbing and enraging that its authenticity has been called into question.

And indeed, it’s yet to be 100% confirmed that Danilov actually said this.

However, such statements are certainly not out of the ordinary for the Kiev regime.

Namely, one of its former top-ranking officials, Aleksey Arestovich, openly showed his admiration for the so-called Islamic State (previously known as ISIS and ISIL) and its depraved ways. What’s more, his statements about this predate the special military operation (SMO), meaning that this wasn’t some emotional reaction to it, but a conviction that Arestovich held for years. ISIS/ISIL/IS is a global Islamic terrorist group, infamous for horrific war crimes, destruction and simply havoc they have brought upon the peoples of Syria, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, the Philippines, etc.

On the other hand, while the terrorists who attacked the Crocus City Hall were obviously inspired by the IS, to conclude that’s all there is to it would be naive, to say the least.

The Neo-Nazi junta formally issued statements contradicting the sadistic gleefulness of its own top-ranking officials. In fact, they not only denied involvement, but also accused Russia of a supposed “false flag”.

In a statement for Ukrainska Pravda, given minutes after the initial reports about the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, Andrii Yusov, a GUR (Kiev regime’s military intelligence) spokesperson said that this was a “deliberate provocation by Putin’s special services”. Yusov’s accusations came at a time when the Afghanistan-based ISIS-K (Khorasan Province) took responsibility, while the Russian government still hadn’t issued any official statements. It’s almost as if Yusov was trying to preemptively shift responsibility for the terrorist attack.

However, from a purely logical standpoint, Moscow had no reasons to conduct such a “false flag”. The presidential election demonstrated the unity of the Russian people, cemented by the crawling NATO aggression against their country.

Thus, this terrorist attack would accomplish nothing that Russia didn’t already have.

On the other hand, the Neo-Nazi junta and its overlords in the political West stand to gain everything from this. Apart from insisting that Russian services are supposedly “incompetent”, thus undermining their reputation, Moscow’s enemies also get the benefit of fomenting and exploiting religious divisions in Russia, particularly between ethnic Russians and various Muslim minorities. This comes at a time when the latter have shown overwhelming support for their country, as demonstrated by a large number of Muslims in the Russian military, be it Tatars, Bashkirs, Chechens, etc.

There’s also a geopolitical dimension to it, as most Muslim-majority countries around the world have shown full support for Moscow, meaning that any internal conflict on religious grounds in Russia would diminish that support.

On the other hand, we all know full well who controls the actions of the Kiev regime, which leads to perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle – the involvement of the United States and NATO. Namely, just two weeks before the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall, the American Embassy in Moscow called on US citizens in Russia to avoid public gatherings.

Why would Washington DC instruct its (arguably) most important embassy to make such an announcement unless they knew something was coming?

It’s monstrously hypocritical of the US to offer condolences when, at the very least, it knew that an attack was coming, but chose not to warn the Russian side.

On the other hand, this begs the question of how did Washington DC know, further implying that it was actually involved. South Front reports that, quoting leaked information, the four terrorists were recruited by a man named Salmon Khurasani, known to have close links to both the CIA and IS in Central Asia.

It should be noted that the cooperation of US intelligence and various terrorist and extremist organizations is a fact publicly acknowledged by top-ranking American officials.

Their close links have been heavily documented for decades, with Washington DC openly working with Islamic radicals to destabilize the Soviet Union and later Russia. This brings us to the second anniversary of the SMO when the infamous neocon warmonger Victoria Nuland said that the so-called “military aid” provided by the US to the Neo-Nazi junta will ensure that “Putin faces some nasty surprises on the battlefield this year”.

Such statements show that Washington DC has effectively launched a total war against Moscow.

The reason why the term “total war” is the most fitting is because it includes a plethora of tools that are being used against Russia, including deep psy-ops that are supposed to shape the narrative.

It’s only a matter of time before the political West launches its own propaganda campaign that Moscow conducted a supposed “false flag”.

This accomplishes at least two important goals. First, it shows that the US can supposedly “predict events” (when the truth is that it actually engineers them), and two, it creates the illusion that Russia wanted to initiate a wider conflict with the said “false flag”.

However, what many keep forgetting is that the US-led political West has a propensity for projection, especially through mass media such as movies, TV series and video games, all very effective ways to influence the masses and public opinion.

Namely, video gamers surely remember the hugely popular Call of Duty series, specifically its Modern Warfare 2 iteration, published in 2009.

For those who don’t know, there is a particularly disturbing level in it called “No Russian”.

In short, it boils down to a “Russian ultranationalist” group storming the Domodedovo airport in Moscow, killing hundreds of civilians in the process. In-game, this was later used as an excuse by Russia to attack the entire NATO.

Interestingly, the main protagonist in the aforementioned level is a CIA agent named Joseph Allen. His goal was to infiltrate the “Russian ultranationalist group” that launched the false flag.

So, what does this have to do with current events? Well, it’s quite clear that NATO’s strategic planners have a tendency to project events through mass media years or decades in advance. And it should be noted that the entire Modern Warfare segment of the Call of Duty franchise goes even further.

Back in 2019, the already overtly Russophobic Modern Warfare was rebooted specifically to present the Russians in an even worse light. The Pentagon insisted that Moscow, particularly its soldiers, are shown in a dehumanizing manner.

To that end, it even pinned American war crimes on Russia.

Namely, the first part of the reboot recreated the so-called “Highway of Death”, an American war crime committed in Iraq during the (First) Gulf War and shamelessly presented it as a fictional “Russian war crime in Syria”.

It should be noted that the first part of the reboot was released back in 2019, which was three years before the SMO. Either way, it’s perfectly clear that the political West’s endgame is to not only dehumanize the Russian people and manufacture hatred toward them through mass media, but to also shape the narrative and public opinions with preplanned events, often years or decades in advance.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

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

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

All these lands constituted the territory of the loose Polish-Lithuanian Union after Krewo in 1385 and the tighter Commonwealth after Lublin in 1569, but Warsaw only had direct rule over Eastern Ukraine for less than a century, parts of Western Ukraine for 230-360 years, and Eastern Galicia for over 420 years.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski recently told German press agency dpa that “Ukraine and Poland have been one country for 400 years. [Conventionally interveningin Ukraine] would provide fodder for Russian propaganda. Therefore, we should be the last ones to do so.” His quip about those two’s history is misleading, however, since both the length of time that they were together as well as the nature of their relations are disputable.

Regarding the first, the Union of Krewo in 1385 led to the creation of the loose Polish-Lithuanian Union, which was the precursor of the tighter Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that emerged from the 1569 Union of Lublin. For the nearly two centuries between those two unions, the vast majority of modern-day Ukraine was under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s control with the exception of Eastern Galicia and Western Podolia, within which are the well-known city of Lwow and town of Kamieniec Podolski.

The Crown Kingdom of Poland only took control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s modern-day Ukrainian regions after the Commonwealth’s creation, thus meaning that the majority of what’s nowadays known as Ukraine was part of Poland itself for less than 230 years, not 400. Less than a century later, the 1667 Treaty of Andrusovo, which ended the Polish-Russian War that was sparked by the Khmelnitsky Uprising a few years prior, saw St. Petersburg wrest control of Kiev and most of Eastern Ukraine from Warsaw.

Poland then lost Polish-majority Western Galicia (with the exception of Krakow) and Ukrainian-majority Eastern Galicia to Austria a little over 100 years after that during the first partition in 1772.

Western Podolia and most of the Ukraine’s remaining western regions then followed slightly more than two decades later after the second partition of 1793 gave them to Russia. The third partition just two years later in 1795 then saw Russia take the rest of Poland’s majority-Ukrainian-inhabited lands.

Eastern Galicia’s Lwow was part of the Polish Crown since 1349, Western Podolia’s Kamieniec Podolski officially joined in 1430 but switched hands with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for decades before that since the mid-14th century, while the rest of Ukraine’s western regions came under its control in 1569. Accordingly, the first was part of Poland for over 420 years, the second for at least 360 years though possibly longer depending on how one measures it, and the last for less than 230 years.


It should also be mentioned that the never-implemented Treaty of Hadiach from 1658 would have trifurcated the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by carving out a “Ruthenian” (old-style term for what are nowadays Ukrainians) Duchy from most of Poland’s formerly Lithuanian lands apart from Volhynia. This is relevant in the context of Sikorski’s quip since it shows that some of those Ukrainian elites that remained under Warsaw’s control after the Khmelnitsky Uprising wanted a separate political identity.

The purpose in sharing these facts is to show that Polish-Ukrainian history isn’t as simple as he portrayed it as being at the geopolitical level, not to mention the local one as proven by the 1648-1657 Khmelnitsky Uprising and the 1468-1769 “Koliivshchyna”, both of which were anti-Polish bloodbaths. Sikorski wanted to signal support for Ukraine, but in doing so, he might have ruffled some folks’ feathers with his misleading claim that overlooks Lithuania’s historical autonomy from 1385 onwards.

The Grand Duchy was an equal member of the Commonwealth alongside the Polish Crown, not a province or vassal of the latter like casual outside observers oftentimes assume. While each were technically part of the same country, they also de facto functioned as their own states due to the wide autonomy that they preserved to administer their internal affairs, which is why the notion that Lithuanian-controlled modern-day Ukraine was “part” of Poland isn’t what most folks might imagine.

All these lands constituted the territory of the loose Polish-Lithuanian Union after Krewo in 1385 and the tighter Commonwealth after Lublin in 1569, but Warsaw only had direct rule over Eastern Ukraine for less than a century, parts of Western Ukraine for 230-360 years, and Eastern Galicia for over 420 years. Throughout that entire time, a separate Ukrainian identity was forming, and its roots laid the basis for the fascist interpretation thereof that arose during the interwar years and was revived after 2014.

Oversimplifying the geopolitical dimension of Polish-Ukrainian history like Sikorski did by claiming that they’ve “been one country for 400 years” overlooks the key facts touched upon in this piece that account for the present state of socio-political affairs in this former Soviet Republic. It misleads casual outside observers into thinking that bilateral ties are much better than they presently are due to their shared history, which is actually more complicated than he let on and seen very differently by both.

It’s important to dispel the illusion that Sikorski reinforced since it distracts from Ukraine’s three-month-long anti-Polish infowar campaign that was detailed here in mid-March. To be sure, there’s no longer any crisis in bilateral ties like they briefly experienced late last year under Poland’s former conservative-nationalist government, but trouble is still brewing. Upon becoming aware that their history isn’t as simple as he made it seem, casual outside observers can better these dynamics as they unfold.

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This article was originally published on Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Sikorski with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2023 (Licensed under CC BY 3.0 pl)

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

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

Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a spate of books and articles extolling the word “soul” became the rage in the United States. Soul became the chic word. It popped up everywhere. Everything seemed to acquire soul – cars, toasters, underwear, cats’ pajamas, assorted crap, kitsch, etc. Soul sold styles from boots to bras to bibelots from The New York Times to O Magazine.

The vogue in soul talk spread to every domain as everyone was commodified and capital was financialized. While political, economic, and ecological reality spun out of regular people’s control and they felt unable to feel connected to a religious tradition that cut through the materialistic and war miasma, they were ravaged with a hunger to devour, to consume. It was soul propaganda, highbrow New Ageism at its finest, the religious equivalent of an old-fashioned Ralph Lauren interior.  It was the era of consuming souls in a society that had become a spiritual void.  At least for those who had become divorced from their bodies and tradition at its best.  Fantasy started to rapidly replace reality.

The great popularizer of this new sense of soul and self (though no-self would be more accurate) was Thomas Moore, the author of the best-selling book – Care of the Soul, “a pathbreaking lifestyle handbook” and soon to be soul franchise (The Soul of Sex, Soul Therapy, The Soul of Christmas, etc.)  His works replaced the idea of an existential self with a precious, epicurean conception.  “You have a soul, the tree in front of your house has a soul, but so too does the car parked under the tree,” he said, adding that things “have as much personality and independence as I do.”  Ah, soul!

Not soul as I once learned in Catholic school: the essence of human freedom and consciousness in God united with the body.

Definitely not soul as the essence of a person bound by conscience to God and other human beings.

Not soul as in “For what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul.”

Not even soul as the dictionary defines it” “the immortal essence of an individual life.”

Although I have seen this soul-talk used for decades now to sell all sorts of bullshit and thought I couldn’t be surprised by any more usage, I just stumbled on one that took my breath away. I read in Life Undercover, a memoir by RFK, Jr.’s presidential campaign manager, daughter-in-law, and former CIA spy under nonofficial cover in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and North Africa, Amaryllis Fox (Kennedy), that CIA work is “soulful work.” I didn’t know this. I thought its job was to spy, kill, and foment chaos for its Wall St handlers (with certain exceptions being some analysts who gather information). I recall former CIA Director Mike Pompeo saying,

“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It’s – it was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”

Or as my friend Doug Valentine, an expert on the CIA, puts it, the CIA is “Organized Crime,” not a bunch of soul-force workers out to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. He writes:

CIA and military intelligence units now operate out of a global network of bases, as well as secret jails and detention sites operated by complicit secret police interrogators. Their strategic intelligence networks in any nation are protected by corrupt warlords and politicians, the ‘friendly civilians’ who supply the death squads that in fact are their private militias, funded largely by drug smuggling and other criminal activities.

Yet Fox effusively thanks her CIA colleagues for their great work and for making her the woman she has become. 

“Your allegiance is to the flag, to the Constitution, to some higher power, be that God or Love,” she writes in gratitude.

For some reason, I don’t think the assassinated JFK or RFK would buy her love talk; rather, they may quote another eloquent Irish-American, the playwright Eugene O’Neill: “God damn you, stop shoving your rotten soul in my lap.”

The man Fox is trying to elect president of the U.S., Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., also wrote a memoir – American Values – that revolves around an indictment of the CIA for an endless series of crimes: “What are we going to do about the CIA?” he quotes his father saying to his aide Fred Dutton at the beginning of JFK’s presidency, before both Kennedys had yet to be killed by the soulful CIA.  Kennedy, Jr. writes:

Critics warned that the ‘tail’ of the covert operations branch would inevitably wag the dog of intelligence gathering (espionage). And indeed , the clandestine services quickly subsumed the CIA’s espionage function as the Agency’s intelligence analysts increasingly provided justification for the CIA’s endless interventions.

56 years later his campaign manager Fox Kennedy – you can’t make this weirdness up – married to RFK, III, is touting the soulful work of the Agency.

She replaced Dennis Kucinich, who was a strong a supporter of the Palestinians. Is Fox and RFK, Jr.’s relationship a matter of what the Boss says to Luke in the iconic movie Cool Hand Luke – “What we got here is failure to communicate” – or the kind of communication that takes place in elite circles behind closed doors?

Sometimes sick people utter truths that lead to sardonic assent. They remind you of history that is so shameful you cringe. Fox and Pompeo also seem to live in separate realities, their psyches twisted by some deep evil force for which they both worked.

And here we are in another presidential election year. When you think about presidential politics, you have to laugh. 

I like to laugh, so I think about them from time to time. It’s always a bad joke, but that’s why they are funny. It makes no difference whether the president is Ford, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama, Trump, Biden, or anyone who tries to square the oval office for their special sort of big change that never comes.

Those who tell you with a straight face that the lesser of two (or more) evils is better than nothing have not studied history.  They choose the evil of two lessers and wash their hands. They live on pipe dreams, as Eugene O’Neill put it in his play The Iceman Cometh:

To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It’s irrelevant and immaterial, as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.

I am reminded of advice I was given during the immoral and illegal Vietnam War when I had decided to apply for a discharge from the Marines as a conscientious objector. But if you don’t go to the war, people said to me with straight faces, some poor draftee will.

The military needs good people. To which I would often respond: Like the country needs good commanders-in-chief such as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. It’s like what people say about buying a lottery ticket when your odds are 1 in 500,000,000 – someone has to win. Ha! Ha! Never reject the system is always the message.

Contemplating U.S. history for the past 55 plus years confirms the continuity of government policy for war and economic policies that enrich the wealthy at the expense of the working class and massacre the innocent around the world. But we can pretend otherwise. For an egregious recent example, the three leading candidates in this year’s election – Biden, Trump, and RFK, Jr. – all stand firmly behind the Israeli genocide in Gaza that any human being with a soul would condemn.

That these men are controlled by the Israel Lobby is obvious, but we can pretend otherwise.

That this is corruption is obvious, but we can pretend otherwise.

We can pretend and pretend and pretend all we want because we are living in a pretend society.

What’s that old Rodney Dangerfield joke: the problem with happiness is that it can’t buy you money? Well, the problem with presidential politics is it can’t buy you the truth, but if you do it right it can fetch you money, a lot of corrupt money to help you rise to the pinnacle of a corrupt government.  For the truth is that the CIA/NSA run U.S. foreign war policy and the presidents are figureheads, actors in a society that lost all connection to reality on November 22, 1963.

Scotte Ritter has recently written the following about the CIA and its spearheading of the U.S. war against Russia through Ukraine:

Now, amid such a tense environment, it appears the C.I.A. has not only green-lighted an actual invasion of the Russian Federation, but more than likely was involved in its planning, preparation and execution.

Never in the history of the nuclear era has such danger of nuclear war been so manifest.

That the American people have allowed their government to create the conditions where foreign governments can determine their fate and the C.I.A. can carry out a secret war which could trigger a nuclear conflict, eviscerates the notion of democracy.

If this is soulful work, God help us.

Ask the 32,000 + dead Palestinians in Gaza whose voices cry out for justice while the top presidential contenders cheer on the Israeli/U.S. slaughter.

“The terrible truth is,” writes Douglass Valentine, “that a Cult of Death rules America and is hell-bent on world domination.”

And yes, presidential politics is a funny diversion from that reality. Eugene O’Neill could be humorous He played the Iceman theme to perfection, the Grim Reaper of two faces.

There was a tale circulating in the 1930s that a man came home and called upstairs to his wife, “Has the iceman come yet?”  “No,” she replied, “but he’s breathing hard.”

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This article was originally published on the author’s website, Behind the Curtain.

Edward Curtin is a prominent author, researcher and sociologist based in Western Massachusetts. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).  

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for a two-week ceasefire in Gaza, after the United States abstained from a vote on the resolution.

Biden administration officials made it clear that they allowed the resolution to pass because it is “non-binding” and will have “no impact at all” as the US continues to arm and support Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The resolution declares that the Security Council “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, respected by all parties, leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield explained that, in the view of the US, the “non-binding” resolution “put pressure on Hamas” for the “release of the first hostage.” She added,

“what this resolution means is that a ceasefire of any duration must come with the release of hostages.”

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby was even more explicit, saying,

“It is a non-binding resolution. So there’s no impact at all on Israel and Israel’s ability to continue to go after Hamas.

“It does not represent a change at all in our policy,” Kirby added.

Asked by a reporter whether the US has “no longer got Israel’s back,” Kirby replied,

“Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course, we still have Israel’s back. I mean, as you and I are speaking, we are still providing tools and capabilities, weapons systems, so that Israel can defend itself.”

He added that there is “no change by this non-binding resolution in what Israel can or cannot do in terms of defending itself.”

In other words, the United States will continue to provide weapons and funding for Israel’s ongoing genocide, which has to date left over 40,000 people dead, missing or injured and has destroyed or damaged most buildings in the Gaza Strip.

American imperialism has been the leading global enabler of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, providing the Netanyahu government with weapons, funding, and diplomatic air cover.

Earlier this month, press reports revealed that the Biden administration has provided over 100 separate arms transfer packages to Israel, each falling below a minimum threshold for reporting to Congress.

The secret weapons shipments include, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, “at least 23,000 precision-guided weapons, including Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, drones, and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which turn unguided bombs into ‘smart’ bombs,” as well as bunker-buster bombs.

In response to the US’s failure to veto the resolution, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was in Washington to coordinate Israel’s planned assault on Rafah, made it clear that Israel intends to move against the city where more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have been crammed together.

“We will operate against Hamas everywhere—including in places where we have not yet been.” He added, “We have no moral right to stop the war while there are still hostages held in Gaza.”

In response to the UN vote, the Netanyahu government canceled a subsequent planned meeting between Israeli cabinet members and White House representatives in Washington.

“The State of Israel will not cease firing. We will destroy Hamas and continue fighting until every last hostage has come home,” Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said in a statement on Twitter.

The same day as the vote at the UN Security Council, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Palestine, issued a statement saying there is evidence to support the claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza fit the criteria for genocide.

Her report presents a devastating picture of the horrendous impact of the US-Israeli genocide:

After five months of military operations, Israel has destroyed Gaza. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 13,000 children. Over 12,000 are presumed dead, and 71,000 injured, many with life-changing mutilations. Seventy percent of residential areas have been destroyed. Eighty percent of the whole population has been forcibly displaced. Thousands of families have lost loved ones or have been wiped out. Many could not bury and mourn their relatives, forced instead to leave their bodies decomposing in homes, in the street, or under the rubble. Thousands have been detained and systematically subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. The incalculable collective trauma will be experienced for generations to come.

In the strongest language yet used by the UN in condemning the genocide, Albanese’s report concludes that

“there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met.” She added that Israel’s civilian and military leadership have attempted to “legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”

Critically, Albanese pointed to the repeated statements of genocidal intent by Israeli officials. She wrote,

“In the latest Gaza assault, direct evidence of genocidal intent is uniquely present. Vitriolic genocidal rhetoric has painted the whole population as the enemy to be eliminated and forcibly displaced. 150 high-ranking Israeli officials with command authority have issued harrowing public statements evincing genocidal intent.”

These include the declarations by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that the population of Gaza consists of “human animals” and the declaration by Israeli President Isaac Herzog that “an entire nation out there … is responsible” for the October 7 attack, adding that Israel would “break their backbone.”

In the midst of these developments, Israel is preparing its planned ground offensive against Rafah with a systematic bombing campaign. On Monday, Israel bombed a house in Rafah, killing at least 15 people, including at least four children.

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Below is the English version of a letter to the Judges of the ICTR and the Mechanism on the manifest failures of the law as practiced at the ICTR.

ICTR prisoners in Senegal have written this eloquent letter, which should serve as a basic document for any course in international criminal law given by any university in the world.

We think it’s time to pay more attention to the men and women detained by the United Nations. They have no real right to release after serving long years in detention. Reconciliation implies forgiveness in both senses.

The word “genocide” and ICTR prisoners.

The word genocide is omnipresent in today’s public discourse, with the premeditated genocide of the Palestinians by Israel with the support of the United States and Great Britain.

You will see in the attached document that the genocide in Rwanda was legally presumed without the proof required by the Tribunal. 

For Israel, although genocide has been proven prima facie, the West does not accept this in contrast to their automatic acceptance of the Rwandan “genocide” which has never been proven.

It seems to me that this issue deserves to be revisited from top to bottom.

 click here to read the letter.

You may also click here to read the letter.

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Understanding How to Achieve Our Common Goals

March 26th, 2024 by Kevin Ryan

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Despite all the conflict in the world, it seems that most people have the same basic goals in life. That’s not really surprising given that we operate by the same physiological processes, we have the same psychological abilities, and we live in basically the same environment.

Most of us want freedom, although there are examples in history of people waiting until their freedom was taken before recognizing that it was a vital need. But as a rule, people want the freedom to choose how to live their lives and don’t want others dictating it. That’s why nations and great social movements are often built on concepts of freedom.

We all want health and this includes all the things needed to maintain health including food, water, shelter, and peace of mind. It could also include useful medicines, surgery or health guidance. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, physiological and safety needs fall into the larger category of health. Like freedom, health is something we don’t appreciate until it’s gone.

The instinctual goal to reproduce is within each of us or we wouldn’t be here today. For old folks like me, biological reproduction is no longer a primary goal but our common need to be loved and remembered is, in a sense, a psychological reproductive need. A reproductive goal is about propagation, moving beyond our life.

Achieving these goals requires us to have a good understanding of the environment in which we live and, more so, a good understanding of people. Anyone who desires to remain free and healthy, with or without reproduction, should take advice from the ancient Greeks to “Know Thyself.” Knowing ourselves means understanding life, understanding people, and understanding our environment.

Understanding Life

Living beings have a lot in common. For example, we all have metabolic cycles that produce and consume the chemical compounds that maintain and energize our cells. We all have genetic code that provides the toolbox that our cells use to develop and maintain our bodies. We’re all designed to reproduce and respond to environmental stimuli as well.

It’s actually amazing how similar animals are on a molecular scale. Fish, frogs, sheep, humans, and mice all share basically the same set of genetic tools. The difference is what we do with the tools but there are similarities in development patterns. For instance, cells have an intrinsic ability to organize themselves into a body plan and this ability is ancient and shared by many species.

Geneticist Enrico Coen, in his book Cells to Civilizations, describes seven core principles in the growth of living systems and creative processes.[1] Coen says that these seven principles are demonstrated in all four of life’s greatest transformations: evolution, development, learning, and culture.

Whether it be a gene, a cell, an organism, or a society, each unit of life experiences these seven principles as it evolves, develops, learns, and creates.

Coen’s first three principles,

1. population variation,

2. hereditary persistence, and

3. reinforcement simply state that there are differences between individuals that persist over generations and that are selected for by the current environment. Most of us understand that.

4. Competition

Competition is a result of the fact that more than one “difference” is present at any time and the ones that best fit the current environment will persist.

Survival of the fittest may be the most misunderstood concept in evolution as many people typically equate fitness with strength and that is not what it means to be fit for the environment. In fact, the weakest could be the best fit in many situations but in general the winner at any given time is the one that exhibits a set of differences that mirrors the environment well, maximizing the number of variables that are optimally fit.

Evolutonary biologist Andreas Wagner, in his book Life Finds a Way, describes the means by which molecules, genotypes, and organisms evolve within their respective environments by traversing their respective fitness (or adaptive) landscapes.[2] There’s a good deal of randomness involved—it’s not all about competition.

Finding the most stable combination of attributes in a complex landscape is a function of both natural selection and the availability of genes due to random chance, a concept known as genetic drift. Wagner applies these concepts to creativity and innovation as well, with divergent thinking (drift) used to generate ideas balanced by convergent thinking (selection) to isolate solutions.

Of course, competition is seen throughout human society in academics, business, government and geopolitical frameworks. Some people embrace competition so much that they never make it to the next principle, which is where the “we” comes in. These include people with anti-social personality disorders like psychopaths—people with no empathy and trouble regulating self-esteem as described by Ramani Durvasula.[3]  People with psychopathy, which appears to be caused by an underdeveloped amygdala, don’t care about what happens to others. They just can’t get to “we.”

5. Cooperation

Nonetheless, individuals often work together for their mutual benefit. I know, crazy. People cooperate by forming families, friendships, communities, businesses and nations, some of which become venues for competition.

In some circles the question of whether cooperation is a better life strategy than competition is discussed. This leads to the misunderstanding that we can have one without the other. As Coen puts it, cooperation emerges as an outcome of evolution and persists in a feedback loop with competition. It’s not one or the other, we will live through both repeatedly.

Some people still get stuck in the process at cooperation. They might be saints, idealists or victims.

6. Combinatorial richness

The cyclic principles of variation, competition and cooperation have led to some beautiful results in evolution. For example, some animals have extended their senses into the environment so that minute movements of air, water, light, and electrical or chemical content can be detected far from the source. Sometimes they get signals that we do not, like the infrasonic signals used by whales and elephants, or the fine temporal structure of bird song. All in the pursuit of freedom, health, and reproduction.

Adaptation can take a lot of time though. Plants are unable to learn new relationships in a lifetime (e.g. grass does not learn to duck down when a lawn mower is started) but animals can. Being able to learn new relationships depends on the added complexity of an elaborate nervous system.

7. Recurrence

Recurrence is the relentless repetition of this overall process. As we get better at adapting there is more competition and more need for variation so we have to go back to the first principle, the development of new differences, and this leads again to the emphasis on individuals and the loss of “we.” Some might naively try to emphasize or remain at a stage of competition or cooperation but we’re a product of the process and we’re best served by imitating it.

Understanding People

Because we have an elaborate nervous system that brings about consciousness and psychology, the most important facts unique to humanity are psychological. In terms of achieving our goals, understanding the state of our psychology is most useful.

Who we are psychologically begins with the unconscious. As most people know, we understand things unconsciously as well as consciously. What many people forget is that our unconscious mind, which is not accessible to us, drives a lot of our decision making.[4] It’s estimated that 95% of our mental, and therefore emotional and physical, activities operate unconsciously. This fact brings to mind a question: How much of what we strive for in life, including freedom and health, is a consequence of unconscious instinctual drives, as in the case of biological reproduction?

An important part of understanding human nature today is deception. That is, we are often deceived and we deceive ourselves. I’ve written about the well-documented psychological biases and defense mechanisms that affect people and about how our species evolved a tendency to self-deceive.[5]

Carl Jung described how we deceive ourselves and others through development of our persona. This is the self-image we display for public consumption that is not an accurate representation of who we are, leaving out the negative aspects of our personality.

The challenge we face today is that the falsehoods resulting from our tendencies to deceive each other and ourselves are amplified by the many blind spots brought about through propaganda and censorship. Nonetheless, better knowing ourselves can help us to respond to threats that abuse our psychological limitations.

Understanding Our Environment

Despite how important it is to be aware of our current environment, it’s not easy to keep up with the change. As Coen wrote, “Our environment is a rich setting, involving many different types of correlated change.” In support of our goals of freedom, health and reproduction, let’s focus on dangers in our current environment.

  • Byron Tau’s new book Means of Control details how we are being tracked in many ways and how our data, which defines a pattern of who we are, is for sale.[6] Tau explains how the justifications that led to this startling fact arose from what we’ve been told about the 9/11 crimes.

To those who are engaged in tracking us, people have become data patterns. Through our credit card usage, store loyalty cards, apps that we give GPS access to, and ongoing geolocation of our devices and vehicles, our individual histories and preferences are readily available for exploitation. Today this data is sold to aggregators and collectors including but not limited to military and intelligence agencies around the world.

It doesn’t need to be said that military and intelligence agencies don’t have a great track record of caring about humans and neither do large corporations. Of course, from the perspective of these kinds of entities, a good track record has nothing to do with supporting freedom, health, democracy or any other typically human goal. For them it’s about wealth and power and, as Tau wrote, the success of mass surveillance “lies in the secrecy.”

Tau emphasizes a quote from novelist Thomas Pynchon. “Once the technical means of control have reached a certain size, a certain degree of being connected one to another, the chances for freedom are over for good.” The technical means of control are being put in place today.

  • There are those who would harm us for their own objectives. This includes people who just don’t care about others and people who have agendas that involve our submission to them.

The people who would harm us include a wide variety of deceivers—scammers who steal billions annually, thieving politicians and government contractors, and various people who sell us lies in the form of misinformation or disinformation that persuade us to do things we would not do of our own accord.

People with severe psychopathy would harm us physically, mentally, and emotionally in order to achieve their own objectives. Due to their underdeveloped amygdala, which normally regulates fear and social behaviors, they not only don’t care if they harm others—they want to harm others. Unfortunately, people with psychopathy are estimated to account for about 1% of the human population. The odds that some of them are in positions of authority is good.

  • Power is concentrating at an exponential rate and it doesn’t matter if this is happening through intent. The result is the same–the concentration and centralization of power in the hands of a few.

The great danger here is that once such power is concentrated, anyone could take it. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We need to be ready for that, to whatever extent we can, while remembering that a majority of people will obey authority to the point of harming others.[7]

As the U.S.-Western empire declines and the process of globalization leads to a world government, let’s not kid ourselves. The only ideology of the current empire is the accumulation of wealth and power and that won’t change by replacing our overlords with those of a different nationality. No doubt we can expect that new empires will take a shot at controlling everything until there is just one. Then the only enemy left to target will be the people.

As always, the question remains, what can we do?

The thinking that led to this essay suggests a few things we can do and some we should not do. To begin with, we should use the 5% of our thinking that is conscious to help us achieve our common goals. We should not assume that the institutions we have developed for cooperation–academics, business, government, media–have the same goals because, despite some court rulings, they are not human beings. They might also have become arenas of unhealthy competition.

We should continually be striving to understand ourselves and our environment and never accept simplistic narratives that present a new threat from which our institutions will claim to save us. The dangers we face are not about a political party or a political leaning, and they are not about specific governments or corporations. They are more related to the extensive deception in our lives.

We should use critical thinking to recognize the dangers and opportunities in our environment. At the very least this should include being highly skeptical of every narrative presented by government, non-democratic global governance organizations, and the mainstream press. Especially the fear-based narratives.

We should innovate and create using a balance of divergent and convergent thinking. Creativity is born of a broad perspective that allows for comparisons and metaphors. Therefore, we should ask, what happens when we see these kinds of dangers in nature or in history? Are there strategies that have been successful for other species or cultures?

That’s a lot to consider but it presents a perspective that needs to be developed and suggests ideas for further research.

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This article was originally published on Dig Within.

Notes

  1. Enrico Coen, Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life, Princeton University Press, 2012
  2. Andreas Wagner, Life Finds a Way: What Evolution Teaches Us About Creativity, Basic Books, 2019
  3. Psychopath or Sociopath: What You Need to Know, Interview with Ramani Durvasula, Med Circle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpjYtAB9i2w
  4. Timothy D. Wilson, Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious, Belknap Harvard, 2002
  5. Kevin Ryan, Blowback, Managed Blowback and Self-deception, 2011, https://digwithin.net/2011/03/05/self-deception-blowback-and-managed-blowback/ , Terrorism and the Evolution of Deception, 2014, https://digwithin.net/2014/12/06/terrorism-deception/
  6. Byron Tau, Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State, Crown Publishing, 2024
  7. Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, Harper Collins, 1974

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Britain was the biggest imperial power for well over a century. During its heyday it used to control about a quarter of the global landmass. So vast was this empire that there was always sunlight on one part or the other of this vast territory, leading to the boast that the sun never sets on the British Empire.

In more recent times, however, an important talking point relates to whether Britain is fast losing the independence of its foreign policy, as this gets increasingly linked too closely to the priorities of the world’s most dominant power the USA.

Recently one of the world’s most quoted authorities on international relations, Prof. John Meirsheimer of the University of Chicago, USA, said in an interview with the New Statesman (Weekend Interview, February 10, 2024)—

“The British will do almost anything the Americans want them to do. The Americans often find that their allies don’t always want to go along with their various schemes. But there’s one exception to that—Britain. This did not used to be the case. The Americans desperately wanted the British to join the fight in Vietnam, but the British declined. But I think if we were to have a Vietnam today, and the American government were to ask the British to get involved, they would enthusiastically jump into the fight.”

Further, Prof Meirsheimer questioned the wisdom of this policy. He stated,

“Such loyalty does not make good strategic sense. Especially if you look at the withering away of the British military. It is not like the British military power is growing; it seems to be heading in the other direction. And in that situation you would expect the British to cut back on their commitments to these various escapades that the Americans involve them in. But that’s not happening. Quite the contrary.” 

In an article ‘Global Britain is becoming a stooge of the USA’ (Conversation, September 27, 2021), Victoria Honeyman, Associate Professor of British Policy, University of Leeds, has written,

“The USA has always been able to shout ‘jump’ and the UK ask ‘how high’ but the public humilation which goes with that does not fit well with the post-Brexit rhetoric of a strong, ‘global’ Britain.”

Image: “Photo Op”. Credit: Imperial War Museum/Peter Kennard & Cat Philips (2005)

In fact a quick search of the discourse on US-UK relations of recent times would reveal that words like ‘stooge’ and ‘poodle’ have been used quite frequently to capture the subservient role of what was earlier the biggest imperial power. This was particularly highlighted at the time of the lackey-like loyalty displayed by Tony Blair in his highly unethical and opportunist support for the entirely false reasons being mentioned by the US to justify the invasion of Iraq. This is when the words ‘Bush’s poodle’ or simply ‘poodle’ were widely used for Tony Blair. In the musical video accompanying George Michael’s song ‘Shoot the Dog’, which was quite high on the popularity charts at that time, George W. Bush throws a ball for the dog to fetch. Instead Blair fetches the ball. After Blair a few rather weak efforts were made to correct the balance somewhat, but these did not have any durable impact. Then things worsened again with Boris Johnson being a very enthusiastic stooge and rushing to Ukraine to do the Empire’s bidding of sabotaging a peace accord between Ukraine and Russia which was close to bearing fruit.

Such a relationship would not have been so objectionable if the USA was in the same phase not adopting an irrationally and excessively aggressive foreign policy resulting in enormous destruction in many parts of the world. According to widely cited Brown University’s estimates on costs of the USA’s war on terror during (approximately) the first two decades of this century, nearly 900,000 people died directly in this and if indirect costs are also included, then as many as 4.5 million perished. Whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, Libya or Syria or elsewhere, Britain was most often the most willing collaborator of the USA in all this avoidable destruction.

Hence ethically and in a moral sense, this excessive loyalty has been a disaster for Britain as it has led to one massive destruction after another which was entirely avoidable and entirely unjustified. However even in a strategic sense, it makes little sense for the UK to keep getting involved in more and more wars and making more and more enemies.

What I saw while reporting on violence in a slum may be related here to reveal the dangers inherent in the present role assumed by Britain. Most of the violence in this slum was being caused by a dominant person who can best be described as a slumlord of sorts. To maintain his grip over the slum he often took with him a person, whom local people referred to as ‘chuutbhaiya’ (smaller collaborator), from door to door while imposing his diktats by beating any dissenting person. However something happened which forced the slumlord to relocate to his rural base. Now his smaller collaborator was left alone in a vulnerable position. The people now gathered together and beat him up so badly that he had to run away. This explains the high risks a smaller collaborator incurs when making more and more enemies at the behest of big brother whose protection may not always be available. 

Britain was involved in the plunder and exploitation of many countries and regions during the colonial times. Even while leaving it created mischief due to which there is repeated outbreak of conflict in Palestine, in the Indian sub-continent and elsewhere.

Hence it would be much better for Britain to try to make up for this now by essentially becoming a country of peace and justice. Unfortunately it has chosen a path which is exactly the opposite of this. It is very disruptive towards world peace, and in addition it brings entirely avoidable dangers to Britain. In the context of Ukraine, Britain during the last decade 2014-24 has been consistently involved in highly provocative activities with the USA and NATO allies. At the same time, the economic and social problems of the common people of Britain have been increasing, particularly the bottom 33% of the population.

Hence Britain should seriously think of changing its priorities so that the people of Britain can be at peace with themselves and with the entire world. Its historically most beneficial role can be to try its best to take the USA too in the same direction, using its close cultural and other links at various levels with the USA.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.   

Featured image: UK Prime Minister Liz Truss meets with US President Joe Biden in New York City on September 21, 2022 (Photo credit: No 10 Downing Street)                         

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

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Sep. 2021 – University of California – Grow and eat your own vaccines? 

  • A $500,000 grant from National Science Foundation awarded to: show DNA containing the mRNA vaccine can be successfully delivered into plants, demonstrate plants can produce enough mRNA, determine the right dosage.

  • “Ideally, a single plant would produce enough mRNA to vaccinate a single person,” said Juan Pablo Giraldo, an associate professor in UC Riverside’s Department of Botany and Plant Sciences who is leading the research, done in collaboration with scientists from UC San Diego and Carnegie Mellon University.
  • “We are testing this approach with spinach and lettuce and have long-term goals of people growing it in their own gardens”
  • Key to making this work are chloroplasts — small organs in plant cells that convert sunlight into energy the plant can use. “They’re tiny, solar-powered factories that produce sugar and other molecules which allow the plant to grow”
  • “They’re also an untapped source for making desirable molecules.”
  • It is possible for chloroplasts to express genes that aren’t naturally part of the plant, by sending foreign genetic material into plant cells in a protective casing.
  • “Our idea is to repurpose naturally occurring nanoparticles, namely plant viruses, for gene delivery to plants,”
  • Some engineering goes into this to make the nanoparticles go to the chloroplasts and also to render them non-infectious toward the plants. The idea is to do this with mRNA.
  • One of the challenges with this new technology is that it must be kept cold to maintain stability during transport and storage.

 

Written by: Jules Bernstein, UC Riverside

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Feb. 25, 2022 – Canada Approves World’s First Plant-Based COVID-19 Vaccine

  • On Feb. 25, 2022, Health Canada approved the world’s first plant based COVID-19 vaccine for use in adults aged 18 to 64.

  • Canada has ordered 76 million doses of Covifenz, the main ingredient of which was manufactured in the leaves of a tobacco relative.
  • Medicago, the Quebec-based pharmaceutical company behind the plant-based jab, has agreed to supply the Canadian government with 76 million doses of the vaccine as soon as possible, the Associated Press reports. 
  • Medicago uses Nicotiana benthamiana, a close relative of the tobacco plant, to manufacture virus-like particles that mimic SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein but don’t cause infection or disease.
  • The particles are then harvested from the plants, purified, and combined with an immune-boosting adjuvant—made by British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline—to make the vaccine. The virus-like particles can be stored in a refrigerator at two to eight degrees celsius, unlike the mRNA vaccines that require extremely cold storage.
  • Medicago plans to test the shot as a booster.
  • Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist based in Toronto, tells CBC News that the vaccine’s approval is good news, even though most Canadians are already vaccinated with two or more doses. “Is this going to have a major impact on us here in Canada? Probably not. But there might be some individuals who choose to get vaccinated with a non-mRNA product” 

April 17, 2023 – Government of Canada Website – COVID-19 plant-based vaccines

  • Medicago Covifenz® COVID-19 vaccine is a SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) recombinant (adjuvanted), protein virus-like particle (VLP).
  • The virus’ genetic code is delivered to the leaf cell of the plant using a harmless bacteria. The plant’s natural cell process is used to produce a non-infectious VLP that mimics the spike virus that causes COVID-19.
  • The plant-based technology is developed in carrier plants that can be relatives to the potato, corn, tobacco or others.
  • The technology uses the plant’s natural cell process to produce protein VLPs and the plants quickly produce large quantities of these VLPs.
  • “The particles are injected into your body through a muscle. Once injected, they mimic the structure of the virus.”
  • “the COVID-19 plant-based vaccine meets the safety, effectiveness and quality standards of Health Canada.” 

Dec. 8, 2023 – Ottawa getting $40 million refund from former parent company of Quebec COVID vaccine maker

  • The money Medicago received from the federal government included $173 million from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) in 2020 to help it develop vaccine technology and build its Quebec City manufacturing facility.

  • In a press release, ISED said Ottawa has reached a deal with Medicago’s former parent company Mitsubishi to recoup $40 million that was used to help build the facility.
  • The National Post revealed last month that, on top of the ISED money, the government paid an additional $150 million to Medicago in the form of a non-refundable agreement to purchase COVID-19 vaccine doses in advance.
  • Medicago’s vaccine was approved for use by Health Canada in February 2022 but never made it to market. The World Health Organization also did not approve it for international use because at the time it was partially owned by tobacco company Philip Morris International.
  • Medicago’s facility closed down in February 2023 after Mitsubishi decided to discontinue marketing its COVID vaccine Covifenz and funding the company overall. 
  • At the time, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne promised to try to save the intellectual property and some 400 jobs at the facility.
  • This past June, Canada’s contract with Medicago to purchase the vaccines was terminated by mutual consent.
  • A deal has been worked out to allow Medicago’s former employees to purchase the facility. Medicago’s research and development assets, intellectual property and equipment will be transferred from Mitsubishi to a new Quebec company called Aramis Biotechnologies. Aramis is run by former Medicago employees, ISED said.
  • Ottawa probably won’t get back the $150 million it gave Medicago to purchase vaccines in advance. 

Oct. 24, 2022 – This COVID-19 Vaccine Is the First Plant-based Vaccine for Humans

Medicago’s vaccine method is different—it starts by introducing the genetic code for making the spike protein into plants, not humans. This code acts like an instruction manual: the plant cells read it and then use the information to start pumping out spike proteins in surplus, Dr. Ward said.

Using Virus-like Particles

All of these spike proteins then start clumping together to form molecules that look like viruses. These molecules, called virus-like particles (VLPs), form in the leaves of the plant and are the antigen in Medicago’s vaccine.

The spike protein portion of the Coronavirus genome is introduced into the plant so that the plant’s cellular machinery can synthesize multiple spike proteins, according to an article from February 2022 in Cellular and Molecular Immunology. The spike proteins form together, three at a time, to form trimers. These proteins travel to the plant’s cell membrane, spontaneously assemble, and use a piece of the membrane to ‘bud off’ as a viral-like particle (VLP).

“These VLPs are very complex molecular structures that look like a virus—same size, same organization—except they have no genetic information inside, so they’re non-infectious,” Dr. Ward explained. Once injected into the body, these “pseudo viruses” trick the immune system into action, Dr. Adalja said. But, unlike actual viruses, they cannot replicate or make us sick.

Adding an Adjuvant

Other than VLPs, Medicago’s vaccine has one other key component: an adjuvant made by GlaxoSmithKline, according to the June 2022 study. Adjuvants are ingredients found in some, but not all, vaccines, which generate a more robust immune response, according to the CDC.

“Use of an adjuvant can be of particular importance in a pandemic situation as it may boost the immune response and reduce the amount of antigen required per dose,” Dr. Ward explained. “[This] allows more vaccine doses to be produced and, therefore, contributes to protecting more people.”

Dr. Ward said they do know that the plant-based vaccine produces a stronger immune response than other types of vaccines, thanks to VLPs. According to Dr. Ward, VLPs maintain their structure as they travel through our blood—think of them like flowers drifting in a rapidly moving stream, Dr. Ward said. In comparison, other vaccines use singular spike proteins, which are like individual flower petals that quickly disperse in our bloodstream.

“[Since] VLPs get delivered as a bundle—and a bundle looks more like a virus to the immune system—the immune system reacts more strongly,” Dr. Ward said.

The WHO said plant-based vaccines are cheaper to produce. Medicago declined to disclose the cost of its product. Instead, the company stated it is priced fairly and in line with other vaccines.

My Take… 

This is a fascinating story.

How does any company get a deal like this: “government paid an additional $150 million to Medicago in the form of a non-refundable agreement to purchase COVID-19 vaccine doses in advance.” NON-REFUNDABLE.

It is safe to say that the technology probably doesn’t work and the Canadian government was either scammed or was in on the scam.

Still…what is this technology? It started off like this:

“Ideally, a single plant would produce enough mRNA to vaccinate a single person”

“We are testing this approach with spinach and lettuce and have long-term goals of people growing it in their own gardens”, “Grow and eat your own vaccines”

Instead, it turned into a genetically modified tobacco plant (partly owned by tobacco company Philip Morris) producing clumps of spike protein that had to be extracted, injected into a person’s muscle and ended up in the blood stream as floating clumps of spike protein with a fancy name “virus-like particles, or VLPs”, which needed an adjuvant from GlaxoSmithKline to induce an immune response.

So that is where we are with “edible vegetable mRNA Vaccines”.

That being said, there is a push to get some type of oral mRNA Vaccines on the market. I will cover that in an upcoming substack.

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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.

Featured image is from COVID Intel


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

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On March 24, 2024, the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, traveled for talks to Egypt, Israel, and the “Palestinian Territories” (AA). On the Foreign Ministry website, she is quoted as follows:

“We stand by our responsibility for Israel’s security: Hamas must lay down its weapons and must never bring back the terror of October 7 upon the people of Israel. However, this goal cannot be achieved purely militarily. Military action has its limits in international humanitarian law. Only an immediate humanitarian ceasefire leading to a lasting ceasefire keeps the hope for peace alive.”

On the day of Ms. Baerbock’s departure, the Israeli army continued its aerial attacks unabated from the ground and water and also targeted the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where the majority of the population has sought refuge.

The declarations of the German Foreign Minister echo as do those of her US counterpart Blinken. This is not surprising, as anyone who only demands that Hamas lay down its arms and does not do the same to Israel makes themselves not credible.

This is especially true since both Germany and the USA have supplied and continue to supply many of these weapons themselves. Ms. Baerbock, like her US counterpart Blinken, acts unilaterally as a party and thereby forfeits their potential roles as mediators. Therefore, Germany and the USA’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire are not taken seriously, neither by Israel nor the Arab world.

Ms. Baerbock says,

“The people need everything: Every box of food, medicines, water purification tablets, or medical equipment counts. Every box blocked on trucks in front of Gaza’s fences is one too many. With our international partners, we leave nothing untried.”

The dropping of relief supplies over the Gaza Strip is actually a drop in the bucket, a grand spectacle that distracts from Germany and the USA’s co-responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe. The famine in the Gaza Strip cannot even be alleviated by dropping a few boxes of relief supplies.

Germany, the USA, and the other NATO countries are not only actively involved in Gaza but in all conflicts and wars that geopolitically shake the world. This is especially true for Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. At many Easter marches in 2024, a cessation of hostilities and the beginning of peace negotiations will be demanded, including in Munich. Peace or at least a ceasefire can only be achieved if all parties involved in the conflict come together at the negotiating table.

The world is closer to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe than even during the Cold War. The reason is that all mechanisms established and international treaties signed back then have been eliminated or terminated in the last 10 years. Today, there are not even confidence-building measures that would allow de-escalatory steps. The states are geared towards confrontation!

Against this backdrop, the traditional demands of the peace movement for negotiations, disarmament agreements, and the abolition of nuclear weapons will once again be relevant—a support as never before!

Humanity feels the consequences of militarization and armament every day. The labor unions point out in their Easter march call that the welfare state is losing out to the militarized state. The recent statements by the Pope on the Ukraine war give hope that more and more churches and civil society forces recognize that the militaristic narrowing of societal discourse must be stopped. The press and all other media bear a special responsibility here, dear colleagues!

According to the latest findings of the World Meteorological Organization, it is clear that the goals set in Paris to limit global warming are already being missed.

This dramatic development affects us all. Despite this, by joining forces, humanity must prevent the worst and somehow get the impending climate catastrophe under control. Instead of wasting billions on armament and war, states must finally collaborate, and humanity must pool all available resources.

All means must be used for socio-ecological transformation, education and healthcare, humanitarian aid, and securing the foundations of humanity.

Easter March Munich on Easter Saturday, March 30, 2024

11:15 Opening rally Marienplatz

City Greeting: Brigitte Wolf, The Left

Maria Feckl, DFG/VK

12:00 Demonstration – City Center

1:30 p.m. Closing rally Marienplatz

Speech: Linda Schneider, ver.di labor union, regional director of Bavaria

Martin Pilgram, Pax Christi

Jürgen Rose, Darmstädter Signal, Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) of the Bundeswehr

Philipp from SDAJ

Music: StreetOps Music

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The Role of Turkey and Idlib in the Moscow Attack

March 26th, 2024 by Steven Sahiounie

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The road to the Crocus Center in Moscow began in Turkey, as one of the attackers confessed who killed 143 concert goers and injured more than 150 on Friday night. Russia has said the all the attackers have been captured on their way to Ukraine in an effort to escape.

A message on the social media, Telegram, claims responsibility for the attack by the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K).

The US media reports that the US government had warned Russia of a possible attack being planned by the IS-K. The deadly attack is just days old, and a thorough investigation is needed, but what is clear: the road to the attack began in Turkey, and was part of a Radical Islamic revival sponsored by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

One of the attackers has confessed that he arrived in Russia from Turkey, and was radicalized there by an Islamic cleric. The confessor is a citizen of Tajikistan in central Asia. Turkey had been a secular government following the political ideology championed by the father of Turkey, Ataturk, who asked his nation in the aftermath of WWI to look to the west and become modern, while turning away from the east and old traditions which Ataturk saw as an obstacle to cultural and economic progress.

But, Erdogan was a follower of a political form of Islam, which is termed Radical Islam. Under the decades of Erdogan rule in Turkey, the society has turned backwards to the east, and embraced a non-secular trend. Erdogan claimed that the Turkish people are the descendants of ancient ethnic groups in central Asia. Places, like Tajikistan became recognized as ‘brothers’ to the Erdogan regime.

Members of IS-K and Al Qaeda from the Central Asian republics can legally reside and work in Turkey, successfully infiltrating the local society. They patiently await commands from their clerics to carry out terrorist attacks, adeptly navigating security measures. Istanbul’s Basaksehir, is a favorite haven for Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkmen migrants.

The US-NATO attack on Syria began in 2011 for the purpose of regime change.

Erdogan, a long standing US ally was asked to be a partner in the Obama-led war on secular Syria, to create a Muslim Brotherhood friendly state in Damascus, who could be a perfect partner to the Muslim Brotherhood ruling party of Erdogan in Ankara. Obama launched a similar plan in both Libya and Egypt with varying success.

The Muslim Brotherhood thrived in the US and UK and was represented in key positions in the government and society in both places. This was a group following Radical Islam, but they wore suits and ties and appeared to be productive members of society, all the while planning openly to deconstruct democratic governments little by little to realize their dream of an Islamic State with Islamic Law as the only constitution.

Russia had suffered many Radical Islamic terror attacks over decades killing dozens. President Putin saw the US-UK and Turkey sponsoring the terrorists in Syria, and by 2015 made a decision to save Syria from becoming an Islamic State by entering the battlefield against the terrorists who were gaining territory.

As many experts explained at the time: Russia could stop the march of Radical Islam in Syria, or wait and battle them on the streets of Moscow.

Erdogan and Putin were pitted as enemies in Syria by the US-NATO war. After Turkey shot down a Russian plane over Syria, and a Turkish security officer killed a Russian diplomat in cold-blood, the relationship between the two major nations hit a low point.

But, the US stabbed their loyal ally Turkey in the back in Syria. Washington sponsored the Kurds who are the enemy of Turkey. The PKK is a terrorist group which has killed over 30,000 people over 30 years. The Kurds in Syria formed an armed militia the SDF and the YPJ which are directly tied to the PKK, and share the same Communist political ideology. The Pentagon took the SDF and YPJ under its wing and provided everything a modern army could want, including paychecks in dollars. Erdogan complained to Obama, to Trump and to Biden, but all his complaints about the Kurds fell on deaf ears in Washington.

Dr. Kamal Jafa, the geopolitical expert in Aleppo, reported that there was a meeting at the Al Shadade military base in Syria, under the occupation of the US military, between the SDF and Ukrainian officials seeking armed IS terrorists to fight the Russians in Ukraine. An agreement was made to transfer certain Russian speaking IS terrorists held in prisons by the SDF in Syria to Ukraine.

Ukraine was developing plans to work with the SDF to attack Russian troops in Syria. However, in late December 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called a halt to that planning, as The Washington Post reported, citing a leaked US document that dates from January 2023. The document also discusses the attitude of the Turkish government, which was aware of Ukraine’s planning to strike Russian targets in Syria.

Just hours after the Moscow attack, John Kirby, a spokesman for President Biden’s National Security Council, stated publicly that the Ukrainians had nothing to do with the attack. People asked the question, “How would you know who is, or is not involved, when the attack just occurred, and no arrests have been made?” Others commented, “If you know who is not involved, then you must know who is involved.”

Idlib is the last terrorist controlled area in Syria. It is under the armed control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, commanded by Abu Mohamed al-Julani, who is on the US wanted list, with a $10 million bounty on his head. This is despite being in full view of the media, including the US media who came to interview him while wearing a suit and tie, in an effort by his American handlers to cleanup his image, and rebrand him as a US approved alternative to President Assad in Damascus.

All the UN and other humanitarian aid arriving in Idlib passes first through the hands of Julani and his terrorists, who distribute the aid to their families and associates, and refuse to share with those opposed to his Radical Islamic occupation. The left over aid is sold in Julani’s new shopping mall, Al Hamra, with its escalators taking shoppers over several luxurious floors. Not surprisingly, recent street protests in Idlib have called for his ouster and execution from the 3 million civilians living under a brutal and repressive regime which forbids females to take part in any training programs offered by humanitarian groups.

Idlib is the place the US military attacked, claiming that IS-K was thriving there, and the same place that the US military on the order of Trump killed Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, and again in Idlib the US took out an ISIS officer.

Commentators have asked, if the US knows that Idlib is the headquarters of IS-K, and other armed groups following Radical Islam, why do they denounce the Syrian Arab Army, or their ally, the Russian military, and their plan to eliminate the terrorist presence in Idlib? If the whole world recognizes Idlib as a center for terrorism, then why not get rid of the threat, which poses a threat to civilians in Syria, Russia and Europe? The US and Turkey are keeping Idlib safe from attack in order to be able to use those armed assets when and where they chose.

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

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

Featured image is from MD

Banning TikTok Is Not About Fighting China, It’s About Protecting Western Narratives and Israel’s War Crimes in the Middle East

By Timothy Alexander Guzman, March 26, 2024

The US government claims that TikTok is a national security threat because China can collect data on its users for “intelligence gathering.” Give me a break! The House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok unless Byte Dance, the Chinese parent company “divests” from the app within six months or so, in other words, they are forcing Byte Dance to sell TikTok within a certain time period in order for it to operate in the US.

Childhood Vaccines: HPV Vaccine (Gardasil) Injuries and Deaths of Young Girls

By Dr. William Makis, Jessica Rojas, and Reuters, March 26, 2024

The HPV vaccine has been a political lightening rod in Japan, where claims of side effects prompted the government to halt active recommendation of the shots in June 2013.

Geopolitical Storm and the Black Sea. Turkiye’s Love for NATO?

By Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, March 26, 2024

NATO’s sending of its Secretary General to the Caucasus, while the war in Ukraine continues and NATO is in serious decline, is not actually aimed at initiating a détente and peace talks with Russia until the American Presidential elections, but on the contrary, it is aimed at increasing the dose and scale of the war. 

The Outgoing Mexican President’s Policy Towards Illegal Immigration and Cartels Is a Gift to Trump

By Andrew Korybko, March 26, 2024

Outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who’s popularly known by his initials as AMLO, declared that his country won’t accept any illegal immigrants that Texas might deport in the event that its Senate Bill 4 from last year survives the ongoing appeal process after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The AUKUS Cash Cow: Robbing the Australian Taxpayer

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, March 26, 2024

Two British ministers, the UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, paid a recent visit to Australia recently as part of the AUKMIN (Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations) talks. It showed, yet again, that Australia’s government loves being mugged. Stomped on. Mowed over. Beaten.

VIPS MEMO: The French Road to Nuclear War

By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, March 26, 2024

France is reportedly preparing to dispatch a force of some 2,000 troops — roughly a reinforced brigade built around an armored battalion and two mechanized battalions, with supporting logistical, engineering, and artillery troops attached — into Ukraine sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Jewish Holiday of Purim at the Time of Genocide

By Prof. Yakov M. Rabkin, March 25, 2024

The Jewish holiday of Purim, related in the Book of Esther, celebrates deliverance from a genocide. How to celebrate it when death and starvation kill thousands in Gaza, and the holiday’s rhetoric, namely the memory of the archenemy Amalek, is being used by Israeli politicians responsible for it?

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Pope Francis has once again called on Ukraine to begin negotiations with Moscow towards a peace deal:

“Let us never forget war is always a defeat. One cannot go on in war. We must make every effort to negotiate to end the war.”

This has sparked a wave of fury and anti-Catholic speech in Ukraine. Earlier this month, the Pope had stated Kyiv should “have the courage to raise the white flag and to negotiate”. In an interview last month, he said

“When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate.”

The Pope’s call is far from absurd. Even NATO’s former Supreme Commander, James Stavridis, has called for a land-for-peace deal for Ukraine.

Regardless of one’s stance on the ongoing conflict (for which the West has a lot of blame to carry), when military victory is not attainable, nations have historically sought peace by means of diplomacy.

As Connor Echols writes, in his piece for Responsible Statecraft, the US Congress is not likely to pass any further aid for Ukraine in the near future and the Pope’s comments in fact “sound closer to reality than a lot of the pontification coming from European capitals.”.

Ukrainian officials, in any case, have responded by attacking the Catholic Church and comparing the Pope’s statement to Catholic clergy collaboration with the Nazis in World War II. Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, went as far as to compare the suggestion to talking to Adolf Hitler.

Those are peculiar choices of words, considering that Ukraine has its own Nazi problem. Ukrainian nationalist and far-right outlets have published obscene cartoons ridiculing the Pope and this did not reflect well on Ukraine’s catholic partners and neighbors.

Spirituality is a key aspect of human cultures and relations with churches and religious organizations play an important role even in terms of soft power and diplomacy for any country (even the Soviet Union was no exception). This is not an area in which Kyiv has played very well.

For one thing, in the realm of relations with the Christian churches, Ukraine already has its own Christian Orthodox problem since at least December 2022.

Jonathan Tobin, Newsweek editor in chief, for instance, has compared President Zelensky to a dictator who is only ready to allow religious organizations that fully support his regime. Zelensky has in fact been advancing moves to outlaw (Russian) Orthodox communities, something which even Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, denounced. Already in 2022, the issue was said to threaten any future Ukrainian membership, the Telegraph reported. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is also on the record as having voiced their concerns regarding the matter of freedom of religion in Ukraine.

The matter is no joke. Monasteries and cathedrals have been seized by the Ukrainian SBU (Security Service). According to a Modern Diplomacy news report: “these findings were often ridiculous. Security officials exhibited photos of children’s bibles, prayer books, old liturgical books, archival collections of newspapers and magazines featuring the words ‘Russian,’ and Christmas or Easter sermons of the Russian Church patriarch. In cases where there was nothing to find, the special services planted compromising evidence themselves.” Bear in mind that at least 34% of the Ukrainian population speak Russian in their personal lives.

Such a campaign is part of the larger civil rights issue in Ukraine, involving the Russian minority, a problem that even the Venice Commission acknowledges in its recommendations to Kyiv. Nicolai N. Petro, a professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, writing for Foreign Policy, has described the country as having “wartime policies” that “effectively relegate Russian speakers to permanent second-class status”, in such a way that many Ukrainians “across the political spectrum”, including “former officials” and “intellectuals” worry that such policies, even after peace is achieved, will “alienate, criminalize, or deport a significant portion of the country’s population.”

It is indeed hard to describe Kyiv’s campaign against Orthodox communities as anything but Russophobia.

About four months ago, the Ukrainian parliament gave its initial approval for a law that would ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which has over 2 million members and thousands of parishes, even though this Church does not have very good relations with the Patriarchate of Moscow, to put it mildly:  in a January 2023 announcement on Telegram, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, the head of the UOC Department of External Church Relations, stated that the Church “disassociated itself from the Moscow Patriarchate and confirmed its independent status, and made appropriate changes to its statutes”. Autonomy has in fact been a topic of discussion since 2017, and as of now all references to a connection with the Russian Orthodox Church have been removed from the UOC statutes, and, during liturgical services, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is not mentioned, although other heads of churches are commemorated.

Bear in mind that, on May 2022, the UOC issued a statement supporting Ukraine armed forces and condemning what it described as the “Russian invasion”, even though it criticizes the actions of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is a different Church, and the actions of the previous Petro Poroshenko presidency as having “provoked” Russia into military action. Apparently, this is enough for Kyiv to describe this Church as a nest of “Moscow agents”.

The Ukrainian church issue (which goes beyond the UOC) has repercussions on the larger Orthodox world and the larger Christian world, even. It is no wonder Zelensky has been the target of criticism in the Christian media worldwide. Now, Kyiv is seeking to antagonize the Vatican with the most aggressive rhetoric. This will only make matters worse, from an Ukrainian perspective.

Ukraine’s diplomacy, since 2022 at least, has largely consisted in alienating its own Catholic allies and patrons, such as Poland, and basically attacking all of its supporters with accusations of betrayal and aggressive criticism. The Ukrainian leadership apparently is not ready to acknowledge the fact that attitudes towards the conflict are changing globally, and that includes countries of the Catholic world. Its own divisive Orthodox problem, with domestic and international repercussions, could very well be joined by a Catholic and overall Christian problem with equally important implications. The matter of civil rights and minorities in Ukraine (be they ethnic or religious), as I’ve written before, remains a potential source for conflicts even after peace is reached.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: President Zelenskyy meets Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 13, 2023. Photo credit: EFE

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

In a recent article Evidence Relating to NASA Moon Landings, Unexplained Flaws: What Is Reality? What Is Illusion? I referred to evidences relating to unexplained flaws in NASA’s moon landings. Many people worldwide assert that the NASA moon landings were a fabricated hoax, and these evidences appear to support the conclusion that is was a hoax.

These topics are also detailed in my book Fake Moon Landings and the Lies of NASA.

Are the moon landings the only thing that NASA has lied about? ‘Space’ is certainly a lucrative business, as exemplified by this headline from the journal Nature The $93-billion plan to put astronauts back on the Moon[1]. As we have seen with the worldwide climate CO2 hoax science itself has been corrupted by fakery and money scams.

In this article, I examine the satellite programs of government space agencies and companies; including the subject of satellite-balloon launches. 

There are 74 different government space agencies in existence worldwide.

It appears that space agencies have received hundreds of billions, actually trillions of dollars, of taxpayer’s money over the decades.

Based on the cost per kilogram listed below, a space agency satellite launch over the past decades could typically cost (the taxpayer) over €50 million, and up to, and well in excess of, €500 million per launch, depending on the project. Given that thousands of satellites have been launched, and the expense to the taxpayers of the US and the world, let us take closer look at the subject. 

The Satellite Communication System

It is commonly believed that modern-day data, internet, and voice communications utilise thousands of satellites that supposedly exist hundreds of miles, even thousands of miles, in orbit above the Earth. It is claimed that geo-stationary satellites are about 20,000 miles above the earth. The image below is typical of the images of satellites that we are presented with on TV and by space agencies worldwide.

Government space agencies include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States, the European Space Agency (ESA) which coordinates for more than 20 constituent countries, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos) of Russia, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the China National Space Agency (CNSA).

According to Wikipedia[2]:

“As of 2024, 74 different government space agencies are in existence… Government space agencies are established by governments of countries or regional groupings of countries to establish a means for advocating for and/or engaging in activities related to outer space, exploitation of space systems, and space exploration. Initial competencies demonstrated include funding and nomination of a candidate to serve as astronaut, cosmonaut, or taikonaut with the countries/organizations executing human spaceflight solutions. Other demonstrated capabilities include operation of a satellite (e.g. a communications or remote sensing system) largely developed and/or delivered by a third party, domestic development of a satellite system, and capacity to recover a science payload from a sub-orbital or orbital mission.”

We are told that space communication takes place between these numerous satellites. For example, see the image below is sourced from the European Space Agency (ESA). The image is titled ESA – EDRS-C SpaceData Highway. The image portrays data being transmitted through space by satellites that are purported to be orbiting the earth.

In addition, there are supposed to be so many satellites, and so much debris from rockets, orbiting the Earth that we are told there is even a problem of space junk akin to the image below.

Claims that satellites are not at the altitude we have been told, and that lucrative satellite launches by government space agencies have been a money scam?

Okay, it all looks good and communication systems work worldwide, so what is there to investigate about these satellites one might ask?

Why do some people say that satellites are a hoax? It should be relatively easy to prove the existence of satellites orbiting the Earth surely?

After all, we are told satellites take many detailed photos of the earth, so surely, satellites can take pictures of the other satellites? 

NASA and the network of space agencies claim that satellites are hundreds, or even thousands of miles, above us in space, orbiting the Earth. On the other hand, the so-called conspiracy theorists claim that no satellites are actually in space, but all have been launched via satellite balloon programs are merely in high altitude of 60,000 to around 200,000 feet, i.e., between 11 to about 40 miles above the Earth. In this article I take a closer look at this claim. (We are told that space begins about 100 km above the Earth, about 62 miles or about 328,000 feet). 

The so-called conspiracy theorists claim that ‘satellites in space’ is a lie that has been taught to you without a single piece of proof; and that NASA and its military programs, and other space agencies worldwide, are at the heart of this hoax. These space agencies receive billions of our tax monies so, surely, it should be relatively easy for these agencies to prove that ‘satellites are in space’. On the other hand, could it possibly be that ‘satellites in space’ (like the fake NASA moon landings described in this article) are just another hoax of modern scientism? A hoax in which hundreds of billions of funds has been channelled to the liars? 

First, let us take a look at one of the many videos in circulation online that claim ‘satellites in space’ is a hoax. This video is rather entertaining and is in the form of a song. 

We are meant to believe that man-made satellites have existed in space (in Earth orbit) for decades.

A NASA article updated in 2017, describes that the Soviet Union developed the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and launched it into Earth’s orbit in 1957.

Let us take a closer look at whether what we have been presented with by space agencies, reflects the reality on the ground – or in this case ‘the reality in space’.

1. These images of satellites in space orbiting the Earth that we are presented with by space agencies all appear to be computer generated images (CGI), i.e., they are not real pictures. If satellites are really in space there should be thousands of ‘actual’ pictures of satellites in space taken by other satellites, however, all such pictures appear to be CGI. For example, this 2022 illustration depicts the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite with solar arrays fully deployed, but where is a real picture of this satellite? According to NASA/JPL-Caltech it is designed to provide high-resolution measurements of the water on Earth’s surface.

[Aside: On a related topic, I note that NASA have actually admitted that all images of the Earth itself supposedly taken from space are actually composites of multiple images, see this article for more information.]

2. The technical capabilities of satellites were in existence using ground-based low technology methods, and high-altitude air balloons, decades before any space program. 

As detailed below in this article, the US government used high altitude air balloons before, and during, World War II to implement all the functions that are now attributed to satellites; and also had a satellite-balloon program in the 1950s. Why would you spend billions of dollars on launching thousands of satellites when the exact same function can be adequately achieved with much less expense using arrays of ground-based towers, and high-altitude helium balloons (or high-altitude planes and drones) that are hundreds of miles closer to the earth?

3. For decades data was transported by radio towers and submarine cables, and still is.

Now let is take a look at a system called LORAN, short for long range navigation. LORAN was a hyperbolic radio navigation system developed in the United States during World War II.

See also a description of LORAN on Wikipedia. Wikipedia states: 

“By the 1970s, the cost, weight and size of electronics needed to implement Loran-C had been dramatically reduced because of the introduction of solid-state electronics and, from the mid-1970s, early microcontrollers to process the signal. Low-cost and easy-to-use Loran-C units became common from the late 1970s, especially in the early 1980s, and the earlier LORAN[a] system was discontinued in favor of installing more Loran-C stations around the world. Loran-C became one of the most common and widely-used navigation systems for large areas of North America, Europe, Japan and the entire Atlantic and Pacific areas. The Soviet Union operated a nearly identical system, CHAYKA. The introduction of civilian satellite navigation in the 1990s led to a rapid drop-off in Loran-C use.”

4. If ground-based LORAN was inexpensive as stated on Wikipedia then why would you go to the huge expense of launching thousands of communications satellites hundreds of miles into space? 

Wikipedia states that “The introduction of civilian satellite navigation in the 1990s led to a rapid drop-off in Loran-C use.” We are meant to believe that one of the main advantages of the move to launch satellites into orbit in the first place in the 1990s was expense. However, it appears this reason of expense does not add up. 

However, if ground-based LORAN was inexpensive as Wikipedia admits then why ‘on Earth’ would you go to the expense of launching thousands of communications satellites, which are heavy objects about the size of a car, to an altitude over 100 km above the Earth? Is that really what has taken place? Where is the evidence that this ever actually occurred? Where are the photos of satellites in space that are not CGI? 

According to an article on the subject of the aerospace business published by McKinsey and Company[3]:  

“To serve an expanding space economy, nearly 7,500 active satellites orbit Earth and about 50 on average are taking to the skies every week. Many operate as part of multi-satellite constellations—serving commercial applications from remote sensing to communications to navigation. Governments are also expanding their satellite fleets for multiple missions. The price of heavy launches to low-Earth orbit (LEO) has fallen from $65,000 per kilogram to $1,500 per kilogram—more than a 95 percent decrease.” 

How can the cost of a satellite launch have decreased by 95% in recent times? Could it be that the cost of satellite launches were never that expensive in the first place? and that 95% of the satellite launch price has been a money scam for decades?

5. High-altitude satellite balloons are relatively inexpensive in comparison to launching a satellite hundreds of miles above the Earth.

Another fact-checking website would have us believe that satellites in Earth orbit are real, yet admits “satellites can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to launch”, but that “high-altitude balloons can be relatively inexpensive”[4]. The website states:

“High-altitude surveillance balloons have been used since World War II. Modern surveillance balloons typically hover around 80,000 to 120,000 feet above ground, according to Reuters. The majority of satellites orbiting Earth do so at altitudes between roughly 100 and 1,243 miles, although some satellites are as far as 22,370 miles away… Thousands of satellites orbit Earth, according to NASA… While satellites can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to launch, high-altitude balloons can be relatively inexpensive.”

Could it be that all satellites launched into ‘outer space’ and Earth orbit were actually only launched into high-altitude as high-altitude satellite balloons? Where is the evidence to say otherwise? A video of a satellite launch is not evidence that the satellite orbits the Earth. Where are the images of the satellites in space that are not CGI?

Also to be considered is that there are massive problems related to aerodynamic stability the higher up you go, and that the rockets used to launch satellites are very heavy objects. I note that various analysts have asserted that anything over about one tonne weight cannot stay in the sky and retain its aerodynamic stability without quickly spinning out of control, unless it is being powered by an engine, or being harnessed on a balloon. 

6. Google’s project Loon – satellites on high-altitude helium balloons

According to National Geographic[5]:

Google’s Project Loon aims to bring remote parts of the globe online with a ring of floating balloons. The balloons will drift through the stratosphere—which is about twice as high as commercial planes fly—to deliver 3G service to off-the-grid areas… Coverage with a network of stratospheric platforms may be cheaper than satellites and more flexible as well—the better to be deployed quickly where and when the platforms are needed… In October 2012, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command tested the Combat SkySat military retransmission platform in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Balloons floating at 80,000 and 30,000 feet established a handheld radio communications link from 150 miles away.”

The article describes that Google’s LOON balloons, which appear to be floating at over 30,000 feet powered by some type of solar array, “may be cheaper than launching satellites” into orbit hundreds of miles above the Earth. Logically, then one asks why would anyone launch, or even attempt to launch, thousands of satellites hundreds of miles above the Earth in the first place? where is the evidence that this ever actually took place?

7. SpaceX Starlink satellites seen below the clouds – not in Earth orbit

It has been reported that SpaceX, a company owned by Elon Musk, launched 52 satellites into orbit on September 24, 2022. A video on SpaceX’s website shows footage of the satellite launch. We are meant to believe that these SpaceX satellites are in Earth orbit at 550 km above the Earth. According to Wikipedia[6]:

“Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by American aerospace company SpaceX, providing coverage to over 70 countries… SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As of early March 2024, it consists of over 6,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO)[5] that communicate with designated ground transceivers. Nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 42,000… The Internet communication satellites were expected to be in the smallsat-class of 100 to 500 kg (220 to 1,100 lb)-mass, and were intended to be in low Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of approximately 1,100 km (680 mi), according to early public releases of information in 2015. In the event, the first large deployment of 60 satellites in May 2019 were 227 kg (500 lb)[46] and SpaceX decided to place the satellites at a relatively low 550 km (340 mi), due to concerns about the space environment.” 

A friend and I witnessed what appeared to be one of the Starlink ‘satellite trains’ travelling across the evening/early night sky in Ireland in 2020. These satellites appeared to be at high altitude similar to, or not much higher than, an aircraft, perhaps at around 60,000 feet altitude. Certainly not hundreds, or thousands of miles, in outer space. The following is a video of a Starlink satellite train travelling across the night sky in the UK – note that you can clearly see (two minutes into the video) that the satellite train is below the clouds and therefore not in space. 

8. Declassified documents describe NASA’s satellite balloon program of the 1950s (satellites harnessed to helium balloons) – claims that all satellite programs have actually been balloon programs (satelloons) since the 1940s.

It has been asserted in various video presentations that the entire satellite program worldwide has always been a balloon program, and was in existence prior to NASA’s rocket program. The video below is an example of the many videos dedicated to this subject, just don’t depend on your google algorithm to find such videos. The main internet platforms all use algorithms and AI to present you with the government space agency narrative you are expected to accept.

The researcher in this presentation goes on to describe a document indicating that numerous satellite projects and NASA projects, including the MIR ‘space station’, were all actually launched via balloon from the Esrange space center in Sweden, i.e., not launched via a rocket as NASA claim. If this is true then there was nothing in the nose cone of those NASA rockets that were launched. 

The following video shows some instances of satellite ballon crashes, and a satellite-ballon passing in front of the moon[7]:

 

9. Many of us have experienced being in a remote location without a mobile phone signal due to being a long distance from a cell phone tower, or, perhaps, due to the signal being blocked by a hill or a mountain. Satellite phones can be used in such instances. We are told the satellite phone gets its signal from a satellite constellation in space; and are connected to an outer space network of satellites, and can get continuous coverage even in the most remote places on Earth where cell networks don’t reach[8]. Satellite phones are more powerful phones that significantly boost the power of the signal. Does it not make more sense logically and financially that a satellite phone, rather than communicating with a satellite that is hundreds of miles away in space, is simply communicating with a high-altitude satellite ballon that is at around 60,000 feet (only about 6 to 12 miles above you); or indeed, managing to communicate with the nearest cell-phone tower due to emitting a more powerful signal? 

10. Satellites, NASA and the connection with freemasonry

Satellites were first conceived by the science-fiction writer, and freemason, Arthur C. Clarke in 1945. Soon after this the ‘scientific dictatorship’ told us that satellites had become science-fact. I further detail this scientific dictatorship in my book Godless Fake Science.

Is it just an amazing co-incidence that all the NASA astronauts that we are told landed on the moon were all freemasons too?

The NASA moon landings have been widely exposed as a hoax – nothing more than an elaborate TV show, see the book Fake Moon Landings and the Lies of NASA. According to an article[9], the faked Apollo missions were influenced by the desires of high-level freemasons and masonic lodges; and many senior officers at NASA are freemasons. In the photo below we actually see astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin holding the freemasonry flag.

It is asserted in the above referenced article that:

  • Aldrin belonged to the Montclair Lodge. No 1444 of New Jersey, and was a 32nd Grade freemason, having received that same year the Knight Templar’s Cross;
  • that the Commemoration Medal of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree South Jurisdiction of the USA states “Our Flags on the Moon”.
  • that 21 of the Apollo astronauts were affiliated with freemasonry – they were freemasons or had parents who were freemasons. 
  • and the head of NASA during the Apollo Program C, Fred Kleinknecht, was a freemason – Sovereign Grand Commander of the 33rd Grade Supreme Council of the Old and Accepted Scottish Rite – Southern District of the US – for 18 years.

It appears that even the masons admit most of the NASA astronauts are freemasons. According to the website of the freemasonry Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon[10]:

“Freemasons have always been at the forefront of the scientific community; from the founding of the British Royal Society to today’s NASA programme in the United States.”

The freemason website referenced above also provides an incomplete list of freemasons “who have contributed to the exploration of outer space”. This list includes the following NASA administrators, astronauts, and scientists. 

  • Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. — Gemini XII, Apollo 11
  • Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. — Mercury 9, “Faith 7”, Gemini V
  • Donn F. Eisele — Apollo 7
  • John H. Glenn, Jr. — Mercury 6, “Friendship 7”
  • Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom — Mercury 4 “Liberty Bell 7”, Gemini 3, Apollo 1
  • James Irwin — Apollo 15
  • Edgar D. Mitchell — Apollo 14
  • Walter M. Schirra, Jr. — Mercury 8 “Sigma 7”, Gemini VI, Apollo 7
  • Thomas P. Stafford — Gemini VII, Gemini IX-A, Apollo 10, Apollo 18
  • Paul J. Weitz — Skylab 2, Challenger (STS-6)
  • Clark C. McClelland — ScO, Space Shuttle Fleet
  • James Edwin Webb — NASA University 1961-68
  • Kenneth S. Kleinknecht  — Apollo Program, Gemini Program, Project Mercury.

It is also asserted in the above referenced article that Aldrin sent the letter below to the freemasonry Sovereign Grand Commander, Luther A. Smith:

 

 

In addition, I note that various authors over the decades maintain there is a connection between elements of the Jewish banking, political, and mega-corporate power structure, and the top-levels of freemasonry. Could this be true? More information on this subject is available in the historical archives[11]. Is it just a co-incidence the Jewish Hebrew word ‘nāšā’ means ‘to deceive’?[12].

“Masonry is based on Judaism. Eliminate the teachings of Judaism [Jewish Talmudism] from the masonic ritual and what is left?” – Jewish Tribune of New York newspaper, October 28th 1927

“It has ever been universally admitted by the order, that to part Masonry and Judaism is impossible; in fact, to use a well known axiom amongst is, “Judaism is Masonry, and Masonry is Judaism”.” – Excerpt from The Jewish Chronicle, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper.

A separate, but related issue is commercialisation of the airwaves – who own the sky?

The USA, like almost all countries, licences parts of the radio spectrum for domestic use, and it reserved chunks for television, satellites, cellular telephones, digital radio and the like. Governments worldwide typically auction licences to the highest bidder. However, many people assert[13] that the airwaves should be free for all users and the government cannot sell what it does not own.

Governments are supposed to protect the public interest.  However, it is obvious that governments are not ensuring that local broadcasters are not ousted by national ones or mega-corporate ones; and it clear that a mega-corporate monopoly has control of the airwaves, with most radio, TV, and internet platforms parroting the same globalist mantras and ideologies. Any one that challenges the (often fake and fabricated) corporate news is apparently extremely dangerous to our democracy – translation “extremely dangerous to this corporate-communist totalitarian monopoly”.

Conclusion

Corporate-funded factchecking websites will tell you that satellites exist in space, and that the assertion that all satellites are on high-altitude balloons is false.

However, who factchecks the factcheckers? If satellites are merely harnessed to high-altitude balloons and are not in outer space as we have been led to believe, then the vast amount of taxpayers funding that has been channelled to space agencies is based on lie; and these organisations have been operating a hugely profitable scam in which the real cost of launching satellites is much less than they claim. 

Along with the fake moon landings, the fake Covid pandemic, fake manmade climate change etc., can we add ‘satellites in space’ to the list of scams of the world scientific dictatorship?

A dictatorship that has been in operation, in particular, since the Federal Reserve coup of 1913, and involves selective funding and the subversion of real science.

See also my book Demonic Economics and the Tricks of the Bankers. It appears we are living through a scientific dictatorship of lies – yet, faced with the spirit of truth this matrix is crumbling. 

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Mark Keenan is a former scientist at the UK Government Dept. of Energy and Climate Change, and at the United Nations Environment Division. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is author of the following books available on amazon.com:

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

During the 2020 election campaign, Joe Biden followed Barack Obama in promising to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, which had become an embarrassing symbol of human rights violations.

The move made sense geo-strategically as the Biden administration was intent on scaling down the Global War on Terror and pivoting U.S. troops away from the Middle East toward Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe to confront China and Russia, which were presented as the greatest threats to American national security.

Like Obama, however, Biden has failed to follow through on his promise.

This has undercut the rationalizations underlying the new Cold War and vast military budgets accompanying it, since it renders hollow the U.S. claim to be upholding a “rules-based international order” supposedly under threat from authoritarian Great Power rivals.

Biden has not only failed to close the Guantánamo Bay prison but has upgraded it, financing a $4 million courtroom for secret military hearings even though lawyers argued that the end of the war in Afghanistan invalidated the legal basis for keeping Guantánamo Bay open.

In June, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and at Queens University in Belfast, issued a 23-page report which concluded that inmates at Guantánamo had been subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” that “may meet the legal threshold of torture.”

The degrading treatment included excessive use of restraints, constant surveillance of inmates who were deprived access to their families, and the adoption of unduly harsh disciplinary measures such as forced cell extractions, sensory deprivation and solitary confinement.

The report noted that numbers of Guantánamo inmates had never even been charged with any crime and lacked access to counsel; others had their cases languish for years in judicial pipelines while others were cleared but remain incarcerated. Secrecy pervades all of the available judicial and administrative proceedings, with the U.S. failing to uphold fair-trial guarantees.

Many inmates under these circumstances showed signs of deep psychological distress—including profound anxiety, helplessness, stress and depression. Medical and psychiatric care was inadequate; guards were inadequately trained—an online, one-time human rights training session was not enough—and the U.S. Government’s failure to provide torture rehabilitation squarely contravenes its obligations under the Convention Against Torture.

Protestors gathered outside the White House last week calling for the closure of Guantanamo bay (picture: Reuters)

2013 protests against cruelty and inhumanity at Guantánamo Bay that was detailed in a June UN report. [Source: channel4.com]

 

Abhorrent Conditions Hinder Legal Efforts

The New York Times reported ironically on August 26 that the inhumane conditions at Guantanamo Bay prison have hindered legal efforts to prosecute terrorists.

The confession of a man accused of plotting the U.S.S. Cole bombing, for example, was thrown out by a military judge because the confession was contaminated by his torture by the CIA.

A medical board also recently concluded that Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni accused of participating in the 9/11 plot, was unfit to stand trial after enduring torture at Guatanamo Bay.

Over the years, Al-Shibh had disrupted pretrial hearings with outbursts and has been heavily medicated with psychotropic drugs.

In court filings, he complained that the CIA torments him with noises, vibrations and other techniques to deprive him of sleep.[1]

Acting As Ghouls

A newly released documentary, We Are Not Ghouls, directed by Chris James Thompson, spotlights the case of Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident originally from Ethiopia who was imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay for eight years before being cleared of any charges.

The documentary, available here, is based on the book, The Guantánamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law edited by Mark P. Denbeaux and Jonathan Hafetz (New York: New York University Press, 2009).

The title of the documentary draws from a 2007 speech by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) who stated that, “in every war I’ve ever seen, there’s been mistakes, even the war on terrorism…but we are not ghouls, we don’t want to torture someone because he has a bad name, we want to get information from someone who we think might want to kill our children and your children.”

Unfortunately, Rohrabacher was wrong. The U.S. acted like ghouls torturing people like Mohamed who did not actually want to harm or kill American children.

In the 1990s, Mohamed had gotten into drugs in the UK after his parents moved back to Ethiopia and he found salvation in Islam. At the age of 21 he decided to undertake a journey to Afghanistan in order to better understand the religion. He said this was a like a young Buddhist deciding to travel to India.

When the U.S./NATO invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, Mohamed went to Karachi and tried to get a flight back to London but was arrested because of a forged passport.

The authorities tried to connect him to al-Qaeda terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (an alleged plotter of the 9/11 attacks), Richard Reid, who tried to bomb a civilian airplane with a shoe bomb, and José Padilla, who was found guilty in 2007 of plotting a terrorist attack using a radiological bomb (or “dirty bomb”).

One problem was that Mohamed did not even speak Arabic.

This did not stop the British MI5 from interrogating him and then collaborating with the U.S. in transferring him to Morocco under the extraordinary rendition program.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) later brought a lawsuit against Jeppesen DataPlan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Corporation, which provided key logistics to the CIA, including flight plans, clearances, and ground crew arrangements, that were used in the rendition program under which Mohamed was transferred.

A person holding a cigarette next to a map of the world Description automatically generated

Source: andyworthington.com

In Morocco, Mohamed was subjected to physical and psychological torture involving sleep deprivation, stress positions and mind games. He was stripped naked and cut with a scalpel in his genital area.

From Morocco, Mohamed was taken to a CIA black site near Kabul in Afghanistan where he was forced to endure a cruel form of sensory deprivation where the lights were turned off all the time as music blared from loudspeakers 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

The purpose was to drive captives crazy. Mohamed later told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, that after enduring this he felt dead.

After six months, Mohamed was transferred to Guantánamo Bay where he was subjected to more prolonged periods of isolation and torture. As an act of resistance, Mohamed embarked on a hunger strike which caused his health to deteriorate.

Yvonne Bradley, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and devout Christian with conservative political views, was the lawyer from the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of the United States Air Force assigned to Mohamed’s case.

She describes in the film how she was initially apprehensive about meeting Mohamed because of what she had read about him in the media, but found him to be a kind person.

When Bradley was given information on the case by opposing counsel, she thought something was missing as there seemed to be no evidence against him.

Bradley ultimately believed that she had been deceived by the military and government that she had dutifully served. She came to recognize that not only was Mohamed innocent but so were many of the other Guantánamo detainees.

The film ends on a happy note—with Bradley visiting Mohamed as a free man in London. Mohamed had bragged about his skill cooking spaghetti and he cooked her a spaghetti dinner.

Mohamed said that he was slowly coming back to life after his nightmarish years in Guantánamo that left him incapable of experiencing regular human emotions.

We Are Not Ghouls is a worthy film in its effort to humanize the victims of Guantánamo and invite empathy for their suffering. Bradley points out that, even if some of the Gitmo inmates are real terrorists, this does not excuse their treatment.

When Guantánamo Bay is finally closed down, perhaps the facility, if is not taken back by Cuba, might be converted into a museum where visitors could learn how the fear of terrorism combined with Islamophobia resulted in gross human cruelty and the abandonment of the rule of law in the U.S. after 9/11.

These visitors might then press for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like those established by other societies whose leaders engaged in mass atrocities, and try in other ways to help ensure that the dark history following the 9/11 attacks is never again repeated.

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Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He is the author of five books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019), The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018), and Warmonger. How Clinton’s Malign Foreign Policy Launched the U.S. Trajectory From Bush II to Biden (Clarity Press, 2023). He can be reached at: [email protected] and followed on substack here.

Note

[1] Carol Rosenberg, “Man Accused in 9/11 Plot is Declared Unfit For Trial,” The New York Times, August 26, 2023, A15. 

Featured image source

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

 

 

12 year old soccer player Holly injured by HPV Vaccine (Gardasil)

This is Holly’s story – Gardasil. “This is our story so far (as at 1st May 2016)”

Our daughter Holly, was an energetic, unstoppable, full-of-life 12-year-old. Very sporty, playing netball, rugby, rounders and football for a local club, the school, and county. She was also part of the Newcastle United development academy. She was so full of energy; we would send her for 15 minutes on the trampoline just to use some energy up. She loved sports, she loved being active and she loved being outdoors.

Then, between November 2013 and May 2014, she was given the HPV vaccinations. Our life would never be the same again.

A few days or so following Holly’s final HPV vaccination, we noticed she would vomit for what seemed no reason at all. For example, she was on the football pitch (trials for NUFC), and she vomited while on the pitch, then carried on playing. We put it down to a one off, but as the months rolled on the vomiting got worse and worse and the period of illness became longer.

We took Holly to see our GP on numerous occasions, the same answer came back… it’s a vomiting bug. After 4 months, when the sickness became worse and she felt continuously nauseous, no energy (to the point of not being able to speak) and lightheaded, we pinpointed that these “episodes” always came around the time of her period. We were sure this was hormone related.

Doctors prescribed anti-nausea drugs, but nothing worked. We tried the contraceptive pill, that didn’t work. In addition, when Holly was well she seemed to be plagued with injury, pulled muscles, sore joints – we put it down to her not being at the peak of fitness anymore.

Another appointment to the GPs and they decided the best solution would be to stop her periods all together, she was given the depo injection. This was followed by possibly the worst 3 months ever. She was in an “episode” the whole time, constantly vomiting, feeling nauseous and being unable to get out of bed due to extreme fatigue.

She was in and out of hospital because she was so ill. Following every test imaginable, Drs could find nothing wrong with her. They tried to say she was bulimic. We knew this was not the case, we knew it was hormone related.

School employees were onto us because she was unable to go to school she was so ill, and no one would believe there was actually anything wrong with our precious daughter. And the worst thing was, 3 months of not being at school, friendship groups move on, friends became more distant, they just grew apart. Holly was losing contact with the outside world.

We searched to try and find a Dr who could help. At one point we were seeing around 6 different Drs both private and NHS. Eventually we were pointed in the direction of a Dr who thought she knew what was wrong with Holly. Holly was diagnosed with Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome, which seems reasonable with the following symptoms. Some later tests also revealed that Holly no longer had any primary defence system, it had completely gone.

Her primary symptoms were:

  • Extreme constant nausea
  • Vomiting up to 10 times a day
  • Dizziness
  • Extreme fatigue (to the point where you cannot even speak or move)
  • Low blood pressure

In addition, Holly has also suffered:

  • Joint pain
  • Muscle pain
  • Easily injured Broken wrist (which we think is due to weak bones)

Holly was so poorly that doctors recommended that when she had a period it would be best to be admitted to hospital, sedate her for around 2 days and give her lots of IV anti sickness medication. This worked, Holly went back to school on a part time basis, eventually going back full time. However her energy levels never ever returned, she was still ill and hospitalized for every period she had, she lost her friendships & was not allowed to go skiing with the school as it was classed as too much of a risk for the school. She was unable to do all the sports she did before because of the fatigue, she would sleep whenever she could, her sporting activity was virtually non-existent.”

“Nevertheless, we were delighted because we seemed to have the situation under some type of control for around 12 months. She was still ill every time she had a period, but we decided 3 days in hospital to get her well again each time was doable and we sort of adapted to that life.

About 6 months ago however these “episodes” started appearing outside of when Holly would have a period. Her injury situation was getting worse, sore muscles, sore knee to name but a few. The fatigue was worsening, she was constantly tired, and didn’t want to go out to visit friends and would spend most of her time in her Pyjamas.

2 months following that, Holly broke her wrist in two places at football. Nothing out of the ordinary, a save which she had done thousands of times before. By this time, we were starting to do more research. HPV injury had occurred to us previously, however was pushed out of hand by doctors. We decided to look more into it, and found hundreds of girls in a similar situation to Holly.

At the present time, our life is on hold, a cold or sore throat is enough now to put our daughter into and “episode” and be admitted to hospital. Stress will put her in hospital. A period will put her in hospital. In a 12-month period she was in hospital 11 times spanning well over 50 days. We know all the hospital staff! Her Dr is now trying to tell us that some of it is in her head and sent her to see a child psychiatrist who has confirmed to us that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Hollys mind! Holly has also been told she has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

While I fully believe Holly is fatigued, and it is chronic, I believe that there is something fighting her auto immune system (tests prove this) and this is to do with the vaccine. I feel the same about the Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome.

So many sporty girls having the same set of similar symptoms following the vaccine cannot be coincidence, no matter what the Drs say.

We are currently receiving alternative therapy treatment to try and take the HPV vaccine out of Holly’s body. Only time will tell if the effects of the HPV vaccine are reversible. Ironic, Holly wants to be a Dr, yet no Dr will believe what this vaccine has done!

Sadly because Holly’s situation has continued to deteriorate, she is no longer able to attend school. Instead, she is a prisoner in her bedroom; often too exhausted to even get out of bed. She receives home (2 hours) 1-1 tuition twice a week. Each session means she is incapable of leaving the house for up to 2 days afterwards. Even so, Holly wants to continue. With so many decisions having been taken out of her hands, who am I to decide if she should continue with tuition?

I cannot praise my daughter enough on her strength of character, determination and positivity to “work around” this situation. Her not being in school has also impacted her social life. She rarely sees her friends these days. If they do come round, she can only tolerate it for very short period of time before she is worn out.

Holly told me last time they came, she could barely keep her eyes open after 30 minutes of chat! How is this normal?

There needs to be more information given to parents on this vaccine, not the current information, the real information, stories like this, stories of girls who have been injured by HPV vaccines. The world is waking up and I hope it’s not too long before people realise the dangers of this. My eyes are well and truly open now, I want to shake everyone so they see what is happening and how it’s all being pushed out of hand as nonsense.

Had I known then what I know now, I would NEVER have allowed my daughter anywhere near HPV vaccines!

UPDATE May 2017. Holly has now also been diagnosed with POTS. (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome) and also CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome)

Source: Jessica Rojas

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CBS News Discusses risks of Gardasil in 2010 (High School lacrosse player Amanda Ratner developed an auto-immune disease, macrophagic myofasciitis after HPV Vaccine on July 13, 2007):

Click here to view the video

AAVP: Outraged by Mexican Girl’s Death After HPV Vaccine

Valencia, Spain, 28th December 2015

ImageLast 21st December Ximena M, from Mexico, died when she was only 14 years old after two years of suffering that started when she received two shots of the HPV vaccine. It was at that moment when her ordeal began.

The Spanish Association of Affected people for the HPV vaccine wants to express our most sincere sympathy to all her family and friends. death outrages us for several reasons.

First, because Ximena has suffered adverse reactions that are listed in the EMA and VAERS databases, yet died with a diagnosis of unspecific myositis (inflammation and degeneration of muscle tissue) and autoimmune disease.

Second, because we know that the Secretary of Health of Mexico was aware of this case, as was the European Medicines Agency.

The AAVP sent to the EMA last October 19th a database of over 300 cases of young affected people in Spain, Colombia, France and Mexico who have suffered adverse reactions after receiving the HPV vaccine.

Third, because Ximena´s mother sent her daughter´s information to be investigated, as well as many other mothers have done, being registered as “case 6” in the Mexican database, but it is obvious that it has been for nothing.

The AAVP has been working for many years collecting information from young affected people concerned for their cases to be investigated; in recent months we have sent all this information to the EMA. Nevertheless, the only response we have received is that the risk-benefit balance remains favorable. What is clear is that the risk exists and that we will not able to know if the balance is favorable or not until the moment that the AR´s are recognized, which paradoxically are already registered in the leaflets of the vaccine and the EMA database.

Ximena’s case is not an isolated case; other families are living this same ordeal, terrified thinking that their daughter may be the next victim. But it seems this does not interest health and political authorities at all. Governments in many countries-including Spain-are emphatically denying that the vaccine is causing the symptoms these young people suffer, declaring that everything is due to psychogenic illness, which from our point of view and some experts is completely unsustainable.

Unfortunately, another girl has died and we wonder how many more girls will have to do the same. How many more will have to suffer serious adverse reactions before  Health Authorities recognize what is happening and investigate with scientific rigor why these effects happen.

We believe her death could have been avoided if health authorities had acted with due diligence and caution.

Therefore, AAVP requests health authorities, political representatives and medical practitioners act responsibly, empathize with the affected families and research so that there are no more victims. Asociación de Afectadas por la Vacuna del  Papiloma. AAVP

Source: Jessica Rojas

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My Take… 

How dangerous are HPV Vaccines for children?

Probably the 2nd most dangerous vaccine after COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines

2049 Permanently disabled children in VAERS:

152 Deaths in VAERS:

Japanese Government halted HPV Vaccine Gardasil in June 2013 and Big Pharma is still angry about it.

Japan’s Halt of Regular HPV Vaccine to Cause Thousands of Cancer Deaths: Study

Reuters

February 10, 2020

TOKYO (Reuters) – A decision by Japan to stop recommending adolescent girls receive a HPV vaccination will likely result in almost 11,000 deaths from cervical cancer if it is not reversed, according to a study in a prestigious medical journal.

The HPV vaccine has been a political lightening rod in Japan, where claims of side effects prompted the government to halt active recommendation of the shots in June 2013.

A study published in The Lancet Public Health on Monday said that policy would lead to more than 24,600 cervical cancer cases that could have been prevented.

Using Japanese population and medical data and forecasted cervical cancer incidence, the study found that, if nothing changes, there would be 10,800 preventable deaths from cervical cancer over the next 50 years.

“If the government were to resume promoting the HPV vaccine in Japan, our study shows that we could avoid most of this loss of life,” said study co-author Sharon Hanley, a professor at Hokkaido University in northern Japan.

The Japanese government could not immediately be reached for comment on the Lancet report. Kei Tamura, deputy director of the Health Ministry’s immunization office, said in an interview in December that “there is a sort of inner conflict in that we are not aggressively, proactively recommending it, but I do think it’s better to take it.”

HPV, which stands for the human papilloma virus, causes genital warts in both sexes and cervical cancer in women. Each year, about 10,000 Japanese women are newly diagnosed with the cancer while 3,000 die from it.

Uptake was swift when the vaccine was introduced in Japan in 2009, with immunization reaching about 70% in adolescent girls.

However, the vaccination rate has since slid to below 1% after the health ministry suspended its active recommendation after reports of side effects including muscle pain, sleep disorders, and light and sound sensitivity.

Females aged 12-16 can still get free HPV vaccines under Japan’s national healthcare system if they ask for it. Everyone else must pay out of pocket.

In November, ruling party legislator Junko Mihara, a cervical cancer survivor, said lawmakers would hold talks on the vaccine this summer. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and eight other regional leaders signed a letter supporting HPV vaccination.

The Health Ministry said in December it was working on improving leaflets on the vaccine, but had no time table for a return to regular immunization.

Reporting by Rocky Swift; editing by Jane Wardell

*

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


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The recent terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall, in the suburbs of Moscow, was undoubtedly one of the greatest tragedies in the recent history of the Russian Federation. More than 130 civilians, including several children, were brutally murdered by gunmen on the night of March 22. The death toll is expected to rise further, considering that there are several people hospitalized.

The criminals who participated in the attack have already been captured by Russian security forces. In total, 11 people were arrested, including the four shooters. The killers were Tajik immigrants, apparently linked to radical Islamic groups.

They were arrested on the border of Bryansk oblast while trying to escape into Ukrainian territory. After interrogation, they said they were hired via Telegram. The hirers allegedly gave them the weapons used in the crime and promised a reward of half a million Russian rubles.

Interestingly, immediately after the attack rumors began to circulate in the Western media about alleged ISIS responsibility. American newspapers not only accused the Islamic extremist group, but also emphasized on several occasions that there was no Ukrainian responsibility for the attack. This hypothesis, however, seems untrue given the facts so far elucidated during the investigations.

The killers clearly worked as mercenaries in the attack. Despite being Islamic radicals, there is no evidence that their work in the specific case of Crocus City Hall has any connection with this extremist ideology.

The killers’ modus operandi did not appear to be related to ISIS (a group with which they do not appear to have any ties). In addition to killing for money, they tried to escape the place and cross the border into Ukraine, which is not expected from ISIS’ militants, who almost always carry out suicide attacks in search of “martyrdom”.

It is also necessary to remember that ISIS is currently a weak organization and incapable of carrying out large-scale attacks.

Since the Russian intervention in Syria, most of ISIS has been liquidated, with only remaining militias from the original group operating in several countries – including Ukraine itself, where radical Islamic militants are often seen among anti-Russian troops. There appears to be a strategic use of the acronym “ISIS” by Western intelligence, with the attribution of responsibility to the group whenever Washington wants to disguise its own involvement in a crime.

Furthermore, the terrorists tried to escape through the Bryansk border, which is a region heavily protected by Russian forces, with a large presence of minefields. Not even during the recent Ukrainian incursions on the border was there an attempt at a Ukrainian land invasion through Bryansk, which shows how difficult to cross this region is. To try to escape there, the terrorists certainly had solid support from Ukrainian intelligence, with precise data on how to circumvent the Russian defense and escape the minefields – which contradicts the Western narrative about Kiev not participating in the attack.

The reasons why the West wants to disguise Ukrainian participation in the case are easy to understand. Kiev does not act alone in its terrorist acts, always having the co-participation of the West. Being a vassal state, Ukraine only obeys orders from its Western backers, which means that, if there was Ukrainian participation in the attack against Moscow, Western agents certainly cooperated in some way to make the incident happen.

It must be remembered that there have been open threats against Russia from Western leaders for a long time.

Recently, US former Under Secretary, Victoria Nuland, promised “surprises” to the Russian government in a statement interpreted by many analysts as a sign that sabotage operations would begin to take place within Russian territory.

Furthermore, the American Embassy recently advised US citizens to avoid public gathering in Moscow, citing information about terrorist risk. This information was never shared with the Russian authorities, which indicates that, even if there was no American participation in the attack, there was at least an absence of willingness to act jointly against terror.

It must be remembered that these terrorist attacks occur amid an increase in Ukrainian incursions across the border. The Kiev regime has been bombing peaceful Russian cities, such as Belgorod and Kursk, even though there are no military targets in these regions.

There appears to be a clear intention on the part of the regime and its supporters to promote terror in deep Russian territory. Faced with military failure, asymmetrical warfare, using terrorism, is the only “alternative” left for the neo-Nazi regime.

The choice of Central Asian immigrants to play the role of assassins seems even more interesting for the intentions of the Ukrainian regime and the West. Russia’s enemies hope to encourage the growth of racism and ethnic polarization in Russian society, trying to move the majority of the population against immigrants from the post-Soviet space. There is no evidence that such a plan will be successful, given the high level of social cohesion in contemporary Russia, but it is well known that fomenting domestic chaos in Russia is an old plan of the West.

The West and Ukraine want to make ordinary Russians feel insecure and start criticizing the government.

They are working to recover a scenario similar to that of the 1990s and 2000s, when several terrorist attacks affected the main Russian cities.

By awakening such traumas and memories in the Russian people, Western intelligence networks hope to succeed in creating a crisis of legitimacy against the government in the country.

However, the tendency is for precisely the opposite to occur: the more it is attacked, the more the Russian people endorse the government and support the special military operation, as they understand that this is the only way to neutralize terror.

*

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Featured image is from InfoBrics

Geopolitical Storm and the Black Sea. Turkiye’s Love for NATO?

March 26th, 2024 by Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The Black Sea was the only geopolitical area where Türkiye could not be surrounded from the collective west until 2004. Not anymore. 

It should not be forgotten that the area that played the most important role in the first and last homeland defense of Turkish history in Anatolia, which was occupied after the First World War, was the Black Sea.

The Black Sea Saved Türki̇ye

The Black Sea became the artery of transportation via Russia and provided the logistics for the War of Independence. 

If Ataturk – Lenin’s cooperation and the Black Sea did not constitute the basis for this transportation; If war materiel could not be delivered to the Black Sea ports in time; The Turkish War of Independence (1919-1922) could not be won. 

The Black Sea formed the backyard for the Independence Road which stretched from Inebolu (a port town on the Black Sea Shore) during the Independence War. 

The seas were safety and security as long as they were used favorably. The Black Sea proved this to Anatolia. 

The Black Sea became the main testing ground for Türkiye’s active neutrality policy in the Second World War. 

Both the Axis and the Allied front put pressure on Ankara to open the Turkish Straits to their warships.

However, Türkiye did not step back. 

Only the Germans brought 6 disassembled submarines via the Danube and assembled them in Constanta-Romania, causing damage to the Soviet ports and merchant fleet. 

Despite everything, the Black Sea became one of the calmest fronts of the Second World War, as Türkiye remained out of the war thanks to the Montreux Convention. 

Thanks to the stability environment created by the nuclear horror balance of the Cold War and the balanced and serious foreign policy implemented by Türkiye, the Black Sea did not witness a serious crisis that would pit the two superpowers against each other during the Cold War. 

Furthermore, Türkiye has created an exemplary environment of peace and stability for the world with initiatives such as BSEC, BLACKSEAFOR and BLACKSEA HARMONY.

The Black Sea was a sea of peace and stability from World War II until the Orange revolution that started in Ukraine in 2004 with the provocations of the collective West.

Great Provocation in the Black Sea

Today, the Black Sea is facing the biggest provocation of the last 70 years. 

NATO and the West, which were geopolitically defeated after two years in the Ukraine-Russia War that started in 2022 due to the NATO expansion insistently imposed by the USA, are trying every way to reduce Russia’s energy by creating new red zones and to make it weak in the major conflict with China. 

In this context, the construction of Europe’s largest NATO base, which will cost 2.5 billion Euros, has started in Romania. 

The expansion project of the ‘Mihail Kogalniceanu’ base near Bucharest, also known as the Air Base, is undoubtedly a success for American geopolitics. 

It is naive to think that the base in Romania will be used only to surround Russia. 

This base will be used effectively to put pressure on Türkiye when it gets closer to Russia against US interests or when it enters into a conflict of interest with the US in Iraq, Libya, Syria or elsewhere.

According to media reports, this base will be larger than the American Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It is an extremely risky and dangerous development for Türkiye today, which managed to remain neutral during the Second World War even when millions of people died in its north. 

Because this base will strengthen NATO’s ability to surround Asia and create new conflict areas with Russia. 

In a conjuncture where NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana is Romanian and it has been announced that Romanian President Kalus Iohannis will be a candidate in the election process of new NATO Secretary General. So, we can now say that Romania is the new Poland. 

The USA loves vassals, but exploits willing vassals with all its might. 

The fact that this base, which is expected to be completed within the next 20 years, has a direct land connection with the Dedeağaç (Alexandroupoli/Northern Greece) American base in the Aegean Sea, will allow it to make large military buildups without being subject to Montreux restrictions. 

The North Aegean and Black Sea express line has now been opened.

Situation of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

Last week, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg paid a visit to the three South Caucasus states, which are located in the Wider Black Sea Region, as the Americans call it. 

During this visit, which included Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, it was reported in the press that promises were made to connect all three states to the European-Atlantic security architecture. 

If we consider this development that EU forces will be present as observers in the border region of Armenia, which is moving further away from Russia day by day, we can say that Armenia will accelerate its desire to leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). 

Meanwhile, the approval process for Armenia to start the Special Partnership Program with NATO continues. 

This country’s coming under American and European influence will accelerate the process of Türkiye being indirectly exposed to pressure and being surrounded from the east. 

This situation can be compared to the Caucasian Wall (After World War I, the British wanted to block Bolshevik Russia and create a barrier between Turkey and the Soviets by supporting the three South Caucasian countries, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) a century ago. 

Because Armenia’s malign relations with Turkey, which will leave the Russian sphere of influence and enter the US/EU sphere of influence, will be shaped according to American interests and the situation will worsen for us. 

Normalization between Armenia and Turkey can only be possible if this country gives up its genocide allegations, the symbolization of Mount Ararat in its state coat of arms, and the articles demanding territory from Turkey in its constitution. 

The rapprochement with Armenia that will be implemented without taking these steps can only be called the concession of the defeated. 

It should not be forgotten that in 1920 Sevres Treaty, nearly half of Turkey was left to Armenians and Kurds. 

Sevres was the plan of American, British and French Imperialism then. 

Nothing has changed today.

US Presidential Elections and the War

NATO’s sending of its Secretary General to the Caucasus, while the war in Ukraine continues and NATO is in serious decline, is not actually aimed at initiating a détente and peace talks with Russia until the American Presidential elections, but on the contrary, it is aimed at increasing the dose and scale of the war. 

US President Biden cannot enter the November 5 elections having lost to Russia. 

He will try every way to continue the war and win (at least not seem to loose) against Russia. 

Discussions on giving F16 aircraft to Ukraine have accelerated; France’s intentions to send combat troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia were announced by Macron himself (and according to some sources, they were even transferred to Kiev); At a time when American, British and French military equipment and personnel were being transferred to Romania via Alexandroupoli, Putin, who broke historical records with both the participation rate (77%) and the vote rate (87%) in the Russian Presidential elections.

He switched to using the direct definition of war rather than the definition of special military operations.

The terrorist incident that took place in a concert hall in Moscow on the night of March 22, in which 137 people were killed, is undoubtedly an integral part of this process. 

The attack was falsely claimed by ISIS; Victoria Nuland, one of Biden’s close neocon team, warned Russia to be ready for surprises a few weeks ago; Considering factors such as the US Embassy in Moscow recently calling on American citizens to stay away from crowded places, it can be said that the current situation, where asymmetric strategies prevail, has entered a rapid escalation process.

However, these processes will trigger Russia’s total mobilization and determination to continue the war, beyond the expectations of the United States. 

The expectation of neocons and military industry representatives in the USA is for the continuation of the war. 

For these segments, the war, wherever it occurs, is seen as a tremendous opportunity for an increase in the American defense budget and foreign military sales. 

However, it is not easy to open new fronts under US leadership while the genocide in Gaza and US military support to Israel continues. 

The Ukrainian War was easily started, but although Russia was damaged in some areas, it emerged stronger in the geopolitical field. 

On the other hand, it is not easy to find new cheap blood sources to replace the 700 thousand young people lost in Ukraine so far. 

After this stage, if the USA prolongs the war for Biden and the elections, Russia may not be satisfied with the 4 regions it has annexed to its territory and may make a move towards Odessa to sever Ukraine’s connection with the sea. 

In this case, Transnistria, into which Romania and Moldova will be drawn, will go from cold status to hot conflict. 

The equation changes. 

Romania instead of Poland; Moldova instead of Ukraine; Transnistria Instead of Donbas, may be the new actors in the new scenario for American neocons.

Transdinyester and Moldova: Ticking Bomb

In Gagauz Autonomous Region in Moldova, Christian Turks dominate the south; To the east of the Dniester, there is Transnistria (Republic of Prinistrovia), where 200,000 Russian minorities live.

Let us remind you that the Transnistria region is an independent state not recognized by any other state other than Russia, under the protection of the Russian Army, which has 1,500 soldiers. 

On the other hand, on February 28, 2024, the Transnistria Congress decided to officially apply to Russia to request protection against Moldovan pressure. 

Last week, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Mihai Popşoi, who stands with Ukraine and NATO with an unwavering will, met with NATO Deputy Secretary General Romanian Mircea Geoana in Brussels, and Geoana declared that NATO allies provide all kinds of support for Moldova’s EU membership.

In the same week, Yevgenia Gutsul, the President of the Gagauz (Christian Turks) Region, which has an autonomous status in Moldova, went to Russia and declared her support for Russia in the Ukraine War, which further strained the Russia-Moldova Relations which are  already tense due to the Transnistria issue. 

Moldova is making great efforts to both gain favor with NATO and become an EU member.

Considering the existence of Romania’s common Latin ethnic ties with Moldova and the existence of periods of political unity in the past (such as the decision to unite with Romania after 1918), Romania, the chief American Vassal in the Black Sea, took his close relative Moldova with him to gain the favor of his master. 

It would not be a surprise if Romania started a new process to provoke Russia in the Transnistria region. 

If, for Biden’s sake, the Ukrainian War is prolonged and Russia’s inevitable intervention in Odessa is encouraged, then a Russian corridor may be opened to Transnistria through Ukraine. 

This triggers the Russia-Moldova and therefore Russia, Romania crisis. 

The biggest expectation of the US neocons and the military industry is that Russia and Moldova will enter a period of armed conflict. 

If Romania assumes the role of Poland and Moldova becomes new Ukraine, pressure and provocations against Türkiye to become anti-Russian will increase. 

Protecting pro-Moscow Gagauz Turks against Moldovan pressures will be an important test for Türkiye. 

Meanwhile, as a result of Ukraine’s serious asymmetric successes against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the responsibility of protecting the Blue Stream and Turkish Stream (Rus-Türk) underwater natural gas pipelines should be taken very seriously by Türkiye. 

It should not be ignored that the Nord Stream Pipelines of Germany, the American chief vassal, were blown up with the cooperation of the USA, England and Norway. 

Berlin did not even open an investigation into this billion-dollar project, which was paid for by the taxes of the German people. 

What a pathetic situation.

ABM Missiles in Romania

There are SM 3 batteries of the US Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (ABM) System at Devesul Naval Base in Romania. 

In 2019, the strategic American THAAD Air Defense Missile System was temporarily deployed to protect this base. 

This makes the Devesul base the first target to be hit in a conventional or nuclear war. 

Let us remind you that this base should work in harmony with the Kürecik X-Band Radar base in Eastern Türkiye. 

Therefore, Kürecik radar is among the first targets to be hit. 

As we always emphasize, we have no authority over the use of either the Kürecik Radar or the B 61 tactical nuclear bombs in Incirlik Base. 

However, the risk of being attacked by nuclear weapons through these two military assets is indescribable. 

On the one hand, we are building the first nuclear power plant in our country with Russia. 

And also, we keep American B 61 nuclear bombs 230 km northwest of this plant to use against Russia. 

We are faced with a complete oxymoron situation.

Turkiye’s Love for NATO Is Open to Concessions

Unfortunately, Türkiye, which is in a serious economic crisis and hungry for hot money, has come to the point of succumbing to all kinds of blackmail and threats of the USA, England and the EU as it goes to local elections. 

In other words, the ruling party has returned to its factory settings in 2002. 

In this case, Türkiye will be forced to serve American geopolitics as long as it is a member of NATO.

So much so that we have recently seen that the Turkish Armed Forces have been dispatched to NATO missions with great enthusiasm and energy, almost like a primary school child constantly raising his hand in class. 

We can even say that compliance has been achieved with the declaration that NATO Secretary General announced last week that we should decide the armament policies and strategies of NATO members. 

As a matter of fact, we learned from the media that the NATO Department was established under the Presidency of Turkish Defense Industries. 

What a sad situation. 

NATO now takes its place at the institutional level in Turkey’s defense industry and armament, which should remain the most secret and private. 

This is a great achievement for the US Military Industrial Complex (MIC). 

Just last week, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defense assigned our F16 aircraft to the task of protecting Romanian airspace. 

How and why was this decision taken in such a complex and dangerous conjuncture? 

We don’t know. 

Ankara, which remained neutral in the Ukraine-Russia war, is now protecting the airspace of its American vassal Romania in this war. 

Just as the Transnistria problem was slowly flaring up. 

Let’s not forget that we are neighbors from the sea with the Romanians in the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf delimitation in the Black Sea. 

Let us remind you that both states extract natural gas resources in the Western Black Sea and these fields are adjacent. 

So for the USA, there are many options to set up a mega conspiracy on the menu to create a crisis between Romania and Türkiye and use it as a means of pressure. 

Interestingly enough, while Türkiye is moving to a new strategic model in the fight against PKK, YPG and PYD in Syria and Iraq, a decision is suddenly made to base an expanded NATO base in Romania.

American bases in Greece to the west; Turkey, which is surrounded by British/French bases in Southern Cyprus to the south, will now be surrounded by an American base as large as Ramstein to the north. 

Under the pressure of these enclosures, weak governments will surrender to coercion. 

On the other hand, the Montreux regime not only regulates the transit regime through the Turkish Straits, but also is a security regime that maintains balance and stability in the Black Sea. 

We are the owner and implementer of this regime. 

Now Romania, as a Latin state between Slavs and Turks, is planting a time bomb in the Black Sea under the American mandate, without any borders. 

This base leaves our country, which must always remain neutral in the Black Sea in the future, open to many provocations through NATO membership. 

Let’s be ready for all kinds of provocations in the Black Sea region before the American elections.

Among these provocations, we can say that there is a high probability that a process to terminate or amend the Montreux Convention (2026) will be initiated under the leadership of Romania. 

Türkiye has been caught with great vulnerability in the geopolitical storm in the Black Sea. 

The situation is worse than the Second World War conjuncture. 

Because we live in the age of nuclear weapons and the Western world knows no limits in its determination to start and continue war.

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Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, Writer, Geopolitical Expert, Theorist and creator of the Turkish Bluehomeland (Mavi Vatan) doctrine. He served as the Chief of Strategy Department and then the head of Plans and Policy Division in Turkish Naval Forces Headquarters. As his combat duties, he has served as the commander of Amphibious Ships Group and Mine Fleet between 2007 and 2009. He retired in 2012. He established Hamit Naci Blue Homeland Foundation in 2021. He has published numerous books on geopolitics, maritime strategy, maritime history and maritime culture. He is also a honorary member of ATASAM.  

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

The US government claims that TikTok is a national security threat because China can collect data on its users for “intelligence gathering.” Give me a break! The House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok unless Byte Dance, the Chinese parent company “divests” from the app within six months or so, in other words, they are forcing Byte Dance to sell TikTok within a certain time period in order for it to operate in the US. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he is putting together an investor group to supposedly buy TikTok. 

The reality is that they are not going after TikTok because of China’s “intelligence gathering” on US citizens, it is because Western governments, Israel and their mainstream media networks are being exposed for their lies and propaganda more than ever before by various alternative media websites, blogs, social media, and video-sharing platforms such as TikTok.

China’s “Intelligence Gathering” vs. Israel’s War Crimes

It is most likely that the US congress is scapegoating China mainly to protect Israel’s reputation in the last bastion of its supporters in the United States were there are more than 170 million TikTok users.  In one way or another Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and beyond has been exposed on TikTok and it does not look good for the self-described “Jewish State.” 

Last January, the US-based TIME magazine reported on the reality of how the world views Israel and its actions in the Middle East, “New data shared with TIME magazine business intelligence company Morning Consult shows that support for Israel around the world has dropped significantly since the war in Gaza began.”  Morning Consult found that Israel’s standing in world opinion has dropped dramatically, “Net favorability—the percentage of people viewing Israel positively after subtracting the percentage viewing it negatively—dropped globally by an average of 18.5 percentage points between September and December, decreasing in 42 out of the 43 countries polled.”   

From China to South Korea, even in the UK and several countries in Latin America all had a somewhat positive view of Israel, but when the war on Gaza began, opinion polls on Israel’s favorability status collapsed:

China, South Africa, Brazil, and several other countries in Latin America all went from viewing Israel positively to negatively. And many rich countries that already had net negative views of Israel—including Japan, South Korea, and the U.K.—saw steep declines. Net favorability in Japan went from -39.9 to -62.0; in South Korea from-5.5 to -47.8; and in the U.K. from -17.1 to -29.8

Sonnet Frisbie, the deputy head of political intelligence at Morning Consult said that “the data shows just how tough of a road Israel has right now in the international community.”  Of course, the US population still holds a favorable opinion of Israel, “The U.S. remains the only rich country that still had net positive views of Israel. Net favorability dropped just 2.2 percentage points, from a net favorability of 18.2 to a net favorability of 16 from September to December” the report said. 

Al Jazeera, ‘Israel has lost the war of public opinion,’ by Imam Omar Suleiman published last year said that “In a new media landscape dominated not by Western media giants but by Instagram reels, TikTok videos and YouTube shorts, Israel’s ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip is more than televised.” 

Israel’s crimes have been exposed due to the internet including alternative media networks and various social media platforms since the Zionist controlled mainstream media failed to do its job which should not be a surprise to anyone. 

Platforms such as TikTok has more than 170 million users in the US which is a concern for both the US and Israeli governments who propagandize the US population on a daily basis on the situation of Palestine through their control of the mainstream media and Hollywood:

Audiences across the world, and especially young people, have been watching the devastation caused by Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of the Palestinian enclave on their preferred social media platforms, in real-time, for over a month. Anyone with internet access has seen countless videos of babies torn apart by bombs, women crushed under tonnes of concrete and mothers cradling the dead bodies of their children

Suleiman said that “Israel, of course, still continues with its usual efforts – and more – to control the narrative about its bloody wars and decades-old occupation.”  He pinpoints how Israel is losing the information war:

Yet, despite all these efforts, thanks largely to social media, Israel is no longer able to conceal the truth about its conduct in Palestine. It can no longer control the narratives and the public opinion on Palestine. As mainstream media loses its ability to single-handedly decide what Western and, to a certain extent, global audiences get to witness about the situation in Palestine, the brutality of Israel’s occupation has been laid out in the open for everyone to see

The Times of Israel published an article based on Israel’s obvious concerns regarding TikTok, Major US Jewish group backs bipartisan bill that could see TikTok banned’ said that “One of the most prominent Jewish groups in the country has thrown its support behind a fast-advancing bill that could lead to the massively popular video app TikTok being banned in the United States.” 

The world knows that both Democrats and Republicans in the US Capital are in the pockets of Jewish lobbying groups are moving forward in efforts to ban TikTok because its a “Chinese owned app” and it is collecting data on American citizens, but there are companies (some are based in the US including Amazon) who have been selling your data for some time.

The article states that “Politicians backing the bill, who include leaders from both parties, have centered their criticism of TikTok on national security concerns related to the app’s Chinese ownership and data collection practices.”  Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington said that “It is very important that it is targeted and specific to the national security threat” and that “This is not related to content. This is about the threat because of the data that has been collected.” So, the ban on TikTok is not related to the content? That’s pure nonsense.  The Times of Israel at least stated the facts on why the US and Israel is really interested in banning the platform:

Jewish Federations of North America, representing hundreds of organized Jewish communities, said its support for the bill is rooted in concerns about antisemitism on the platform. The Jewish Federations and the Anti-Defamation League have accused TikTok of allowing antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment to run rampant

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) wrote a letter to the US Congress claiming that “The single most important issue to our Jewish communities today is the dramatic rise in antisemitism” and that “Our community understands that social media is a major driver of the drive-in antisemitism and that TikTok is the worst offender by far.” 

Banning TikTok is about censorship. It is a fact that Israel’s war crimes and the destructive nature of the US war machine is getting exposed more than ever before. US lawmakers are giving Byte Dance which is managed by Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean citizen, about six months to divest US assets from the app, or they will face a ban.  If the ban of TikTok moves forward, then free speech in the US is completely dead.  But that does not mean all social media platforms or even websites will be in danger for the foreseeable future because there will be other apps and platforms that the US, EU, and Israeli political establishment won’t be able to control. 

Banning TikTok will Only Motivate Us to Create Other Platforms    

Social Media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter (although owned by Elon Musk) have been completely hijacked by the government censorship regime. The Western political establishment, Globalist bankers, Zionists, Multi-national corporations such as Big Oil and Big Pharma and others around the world are facing an information war that they are clearly losing. 

The internet has given us the tools to fight the mainstream media and their lies.  Several social media platforms have grown to be a vital tool to challenge government and corporate propaganda such as TikTok, but there are also other various types of online-video platforms such as Rumble, Bit Chute, Odysee (part of LBRY, a blockchain based file-sharing and payment network) and we must include instant messaging services such as Telegram and VK where you can post articles and videos as well. 

The point here is that regardless of how certain governments such as the US and the European Union who have banned foreign media companies such as Russia’s RT News and Iran’s Press TV, they also have plans to ban social media platforms, but it won’t work.      

They believe that banning TikTok will prevent people from getting the truth especially to what is happening in Palestine, but they are wrong, it will only help motivate people to create new platforms and other ideas, they will create new channels of information that would get out to the public.  Whether they ban TikTok or not, the genie is out of the bottle, the truth can never be suppressed.   

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Timothy Alexander Guzman writes on his own blog site, Silent Crow News, where this article was originally published. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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“The World As It Was”: A Masterly Documentary Film

March 26th, 2024 by Edward Curtin

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Here’s a film about the 1950s – “The World As It Was” – that will tell you a great deal about life in the U.S.A. today, while disabusing anyone of the notion that nostalgia for that mephitic decade is in order, for it was a time when “democracy” tended toward totalitarianism. 

In doing so, it sowed the bitter fruit that is poisoning us today.  Without understanding the long-standing effects of those years, it is impossible to grasp the deepest dimensions of our current nightmare. 

Chapter One of the documentary series, Four Died Trying, directed by John Kirby and produced by Libby Handros, appropriately subtitled: “To see where we are, look where we’ve been,” does that brilliantly.


The series opened four months ago with “The Prologue” (see review) wherein the lives, importance, and assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy are explored;

How the government and media buried the truth of who assassinated them and why; and why it matters today. 

Season One will unfold over the next year with chapters covering their lives and assassinations in greater detail.  Season Two will be devoted to the government and media coverups, citizen investigations, and the intelligence agencies and their media mouthpieces’ mind control operations aimed at the American people that continue today.

Chapter One – “The World As It Was” – is about the 1950s, the rise of the Cold War with its propaganda, McCarthyism, the development of the military-industrial complex, the CIA, red-baiting, betrayals, blacklists, the abrogation of civil rights, censorship, and the ever present fear of nuclear war and the promotion of fallout shelters that set the stage for the killing fields of the 1960s and the CIA’s ruthless machinations.

One could say that the 1950s were the Foundation of Fear upon which the horrors of the 1960s were built, and that now we are reaping the flowers of evil that have sprung up everywhere we look because the evils of those decades have never been adequately addressed.


The film opens with President Eisenhower delivering his famous Farewell Address, warning about the growing power of the military-industrial complex. 

It is a short and powerful speech, concealing not a smidgen of hypocrisy since it must not have been Eisenhower who presided for eight years from 1953-1961 as this complex grew and grew and he poured 2 billion dollars in weapons and aid and a thousand military advisers to the ruthless and corrupt Vietnamese dictator Ngô Dinh Diêm, while saying he was “an example for people everywhere who hate tyranny and love freedom.” 

His speech, while still good, reminds me of all those who spend their careers quiet as church mice as the wars and assassinations rage on only to find their voices in opposition once they retire and collect their pensions.

 

Watch the trailer below.

In response to Eisenhower’s speech, some of which we hear, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – one of a hundred interviews done for this series over six years –  says that Eisenhower’s speech “is probably today in retrospect the most important speech in American history.” 

While that is debatable (I would pick JFK’s American University speech), he rightly emphasizes the importance of Ike’s speech and the fact that his uncle, President Kennedy, fought against the military-industrial complex handed him by Eisenhower. 

This is important, for although JFK did get elected emphasizing the Cold War rhetoric of a non-existent missile gap between the U.S. A. and the Soviet Union, he very quickly changed, having been betrayed by Allen Dulles and the CIA regarding the Bay of Pigs, the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Vietnam, Laos, etc. 

The military brass quickly came to hate Kennedy, a naval war hero from World War II.  His three year transformation into a great peacemaker – and therefore his assassination by the CIA and its friends – is a story many still would like to squelch.  This documentary series will prevent that.

Those who control our present and wish to control our future are hard at work today trying to control our past and they will therefore hate this truthful film that is a powerful antidote to their attempted amnesia.  In thirty-nine sobering and entertaining minutes (with emphasis on both words),

“The World As It Was” illuminates a period in U.S. history that is often dismissed as the staid and boring 1950s but was in fact when the infrastructure for today’s censorship, chaos, and fear were laid.  It was not the era, as a baseball movie about Jimmy Piersall and his depression from 1957 put it, when “Fear Strikes Out,” but the time when fear burrowed very deep into the American psyche and anxiety became a weapon of state.  Is it any wonder that today could be called “the age of depression, fear, anxiety, and pill popping”?

It is interesting to note that Eisenhower’s warning also contained an admonition to beware the growth of unchecked science, technology, and a future when computers would replace blackboards. 

If he were still alive, he would no doubt not recognize the country controlled by what former CIA analyst Ray McGovern calls the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex (MICIMATT).

 This vast computer-networked monster makes all the warnings about the 1950s snooping, informing, and controlling activities of government agencies seem like child’s play.  They can’t open snail mail now when few send any, but reading computer messages barely necessitates a finger’s movement, or, as Edward Snowden continues to warn, the entire electronic phone system is open sesame for government controllers. Cell phones acting as cells. Blackboards are gone but so is privacy.  The 1950s’ government snooping is pure nostalgia now.  We are through the looking glass.

As then, so today.  Oliver Stone talks about how in those days the constant refrain was “the Russians are coming” and how his father, a Republican stockbroker, told him that “the Russians are inside the country.” 

Fear was everywhere, all induced by anti-communist propaganda aimed at controlling the American people.  Stone is still fighting against the Russia bogeyman stories, while today we are told again and again that the Russians are still coming.  We can only assume they are very slow.

Aside from RFK, Jr. and Oliver Stone, in this episode we hear from NYU Professor Mark Crispin Miller, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the screenwriter Zachary Sklar, et al. 

Because the film is so ingeniously crafted, many of the most powerful voices – for and against the government repression and fear mongering – are those from newsreels and television shows that are artfully spliced between the commentaries of the aforementioned people. For example, to see and hear FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover rant about communists under every bed and to juxtapose that with the calm words of the filmmaker Dalton Trumbo, blackballed as one of the so-called Hollywood Ten, is an exercise in distinguishing sanity from insanity.

To this is added music, advertisements, movie clips, and jingles from the 1950s culture that place the viewer back in time to feel and absorb the “vibes,” as it were, of those days. 

Like any era, it was complicated, but the overriding message from the fifties was not about mom making tuna noodle casserole but was that there were commie traitors everywhere throughout society and that every citizen’s obligation was to turn them in, even if that meant turning yourself or your parents in.  Children were taught to get under their desks when the sirens sounded, for they were safe places when the Commie Nukes start coming in.  Civil Defense drills screeched this fear into your every fiber.  In April 1957 the Army Air Defense Command announced that new Nike Hercules missiles with atomic warheads would shortly be installed around New York City, Boston, Providence, etc. to replace conventional warheads.  A spokesman added that these nuclear warheads posed no danger and that if the missiles were used, fallout would be “negligible.”  Of course.

Let me use an anecdote from pop culture that I think sums this up this sick game of fear and distrust – paranoia.  My parents were on a game show in the fall of 1957 called “Do You Trust Your Wife?” hosted by Johnny Carson.

By the summer of 1958 the show’s title was changed to “Who Do you Trust?”  I used to joke that Hoover or Senator Joseph McCarthy was behind the change and their English grammar was atrocious, but I realize it was probably some fearful lackeys in the television industry.

Professor Miller, an expert in propaganda, narrates quite a bit of “The World As It Was” and does so admirably.  He correctly points out that to describe the 1950s as the era of McCarthyism is a misnomer, for doing so “let’s the whole system off the hook.”  It was the entire government apparatus that promoted a vast repression based on fear whose aim was to create meek, deferential, and obedient people afraid of their own shadows.

He points out that the basis for all this was established by President Truman in 1947 with his Executive Order 9835 that required loyalty oaths to root out communists in the federal government.  Six months later the CIA was founded and the country was off to the Cold War races with its anti-communist hysteria and the institutionalization of a militarized society.

The Red Menace, nuclear extinction, and the need to root out those traitors who were conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government by force were pounded into people’s minds.  Not only were these traitors in the government, but in the schools and colleges, the labor and racial equality movements – more or less everywhere.  Whom could you trust?  No one, not even yourself.  While McCarthy was eventually censored for going too far when Joseph Welch accused him of having no decency during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, he accomplished the goal of injecting his paranoic poison into the social bloodstream where it remains today, part of the political structure shared by both major parties.

But hope arose, as the film concludes, when JFK was elected in 1960 and in his first week in office went to the theater to see the blackballed screenwriter’s Dalton Trumble’s adaptation of Howard Fast’s novel, Spartacus, about a slave revolt in ancient Rome.  Fast was also blacklisted and wrote the novel secretly.  As RFK, Jr. says, this was a symbolic turning point when it was reported on the front page of The New York Times.

“It [the film Spartacus] is a parable of resistance and heroism that speaks unreservedly to our own times,” wrote the great journalist John Pilger in We Are Spartacus shortly before his death. “There is one ‘precise’ provocateur now; it is clear to see for those who want to see it and foretell its actions. It is a gang of states led by the United States whose stated objective is full spectrum dominance’. Russia is still the hated one, Red China the feared one.”

Yes, today we are told that the Russians are still coming.  The bad old days are back.  But so also is the slaves’ rebellion.

Four Died Trying is a documentary series that is part of this rebellion.  Chapter One, “The World As It Was” shines a very bright light on disturbing U.S. history.  It shows where we have been in order to help us see where we are.  Don’t miss it.

Watch the trailer below.

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This article was originally published on the author’s website, Behind the Curtain.

Edward Curtin is a prominent author, researcher and sociologist based in Western Massachusetts. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).  

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

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who’s popularly known by his initials as AMLO, declared that his country won’t accept any illegal immigrants that Texas might deport in the event that its Senate Bill 4 from last year survives the ongoing appeal process after the Supreme Court’s ruling. He criticized that bill as “contrary to human rights, a completely dehumanized law, anti-Christian, unjust, violating precepts, norms of human coexistence, not only international law, but even violating the Bible.”

AMLO also declared that he won’t fight the drug cartels on the US’ orders despite accusations that they’re responsible for his northern neighbor’s drug crisis. In his words,

“We are not going to act as policemen for any foreign government. Mexico First. Our home comes first.”

Taken together, his support of illegal immigrants and reluctance to forcefully confront the cartels combine to become a gift for Trump ahead of November’s elections seeing as how many Americans support his tough stance on these issues.

Here are three background briefings to bring unaware readers up to speed on this subject:

They’ll now be summarized in the order that they were shared for the reader’s convenience.

The first concerns the security dilemma that impedes meaningful cooperation against the cartels, while the second touches upon the US’ secret dispatch of agents into Mexico and spying on its armed forces. As for the last one, AMLO’s proposal for Biden to grant visas to the 10 million Hispanics that are illegally inside the US could place them on the path to citizenship if this happens and legal safeguards aren’t put in place. The impression among many voters is that Trump’s tough policies are urgently required.

Biden hasn’t done much to address these problems despite the US Border Patrol chief declaring that the situation constitutes a “national security threat”. He might still implement some superficial policies, but they’d likely be considered “too little, too late” and nothing more than an electioneering spectacle just like his belated Gaza aid policy. It’s also unlikely that AMLO will have a change of heart about these issues before leaving office, with all of this paving the way for Trump’s possible return in November.

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This article was originally published on Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from the author

The AUKUS Cash Cow: Robbing the Australian Taxpayer

March 26th, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

VIPS MEMO: The French Road to Nuclear War

March 26th, 2024 by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

March 24, 2024

ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

SUBJECT: On the Brink of Nuclear War

Mr. President:

France is reportedly preparing to dispatch a force of some 2,000 troops — roughly a reinforced brigade built around an armored battalion and two mechanized battalions, with supporting logistical, engineering, and artillery troops attached — into Ukraine sometime in the not-so-distant future.

This force is purely symbolic, inasmuch as it would have zero survivability in a modern high-intensity conflict of the scope and scale of what is transpiring in Ukraine today. It would not be deployed directly in a conflict zone, but would serve either as (1) a screening force/tripwire to stop Russia’s advance; or (2) a replacement force deployed to a non-active zone to free up Ukrainian soldiers for combat duty. The French Brigade reportedly will be supplemented by smaller units from the Baltic states.

This would be introducing combat troops of a NATO country into a theater of war, making them “lawful targets” under the Law of War.

Such units would apparently lack a NATO mandate. In Russia’s view, however, this may be a distinction without a difference. France appears to be betting – naively – that its membership in NATO would prevent Russia from attacking French troops. Rather, it is highly likely that Russia would attack any French/Baltic contingent in Ukraine and quickly destroy/degrade its combat viability.

In that case, French President Macron may calculate that, after Russian attacks on the troops of NATO members – NATO mandate or not – he could invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter and get the NATO alliance to intervene. Such intervention would likely take the form of aircraft operating from NATO nations – and perhaps include interdiction missions against tactical targets inside Russia. 

On Precipice of Nuclear War?

Doctrinally, and by legal right, Russia’s response would be to launch retaliatory strikes also against targets in NATO countries. If NATO then attacks strategic targets inside Russia, at that point Russia’s nuclear doctrine takes over, and NATO decision-making centers would be hit with nuclear weapons.

We do not believe Russia will initiate a nuclear attack against the U.S., but rather would leave it up to the United States to decide if it wants to risk destruction by preparing to launch a nuclear strike on Russia. That said, Russian strategic forces have improved to the point that, in some areas – hypersonic missiles, for example – its capability surpasses that of the U.S. and NATO.

In other words, the Russian temptation to strike first may be a bit stronger than during past crises, and we are somewhat less confident that Russia would want to “go second”. Another disquieting factor is that the Russians are likely to believe that Macron’s folly has the tacit approval of some key U.S. and other Western officials, who seem desperate to find some way to alter the trajectory of the war in Ukraine – the more so, as elections draw near.

What Needs to Be Done

Europe needs to understand that France is leading it down a path of inevitable self-destruction.

The American people need to understand that Europe is leading them to the cusp of nuclear annihilation.

Since Russian leaders may suspect that Macron is working hand in glove with Washington, the U.S. needs to make its position publicly and unambiguously clear.

And if France and the Baltics insist on sending troops into Ukraine, it must also be made clear that such action has no NATO mandate; that Article 5 will not be triggered by any Russian retaliation; and that the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including those nuclear weapons that are part of the NATO deterrent force, will not be employed as a result of any Russian military action against French or Baltic troops.

Void of such clarity, France would be leading the American people down a path toward a nuclear conflict decidedly not in the interests of the American people – or of humanity itself.

FOR THE STEERING GROUP,

VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY

  • William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
  • Richard Black, former Virginia State Senator; Colonel, USA (ret.); Former Chief, Criminal Law Division, Judge Advocate General (associate VIPS)
  • Marshall Carter-Tripp, Foreign Service Officer (ret) and former Office Director in the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research
  • Bogdan Dzakovic, former Team Leader of Federal Air Marshals and Red Team, FAA Security, (ret.) (associate VIPS)
  • Graham E. Fuller, Vice-Chair, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
  • Philip Giraldi, C.I.A., Operations Officer (ret.)
  • Matthew Hoh, former Capt., USMC, Iraq and Foreign Service Officer, Afghanistan (associate VIPS)
  • James George Jatras, former U.S. diplomat and former foreign policy adviser to Senate leadership (Associate VIPS)
  • Larry C. Johnson, former C.I.A. and State Department Counter Terrorism officer
  • John Kiriakou, former C.I.A. Counterterrorism Officer and former senior investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  • Karen Kwiatkowski, former Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force (ret.), at Office of Secretary of Defense watching the manufacture of lies on Iraq, 2001-2003
  • Douglas Macgregor, Colonel, USA (ret.) (associate VIPS)
  • Ray McGovern, former U.S. Army infantry/intelligence officer & C.I.A. analyst; C.I.A. Presidential briefer (ret.)
  • Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council & C.I.A. political analyst (ret.)
  • Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, U.S. Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
  • Pedro Israel Orta, former C.I.A. and Intelligence Community (Inspector General) officer
  • Scott Ritter, former MAJ, USMC; former U.N. Weapons Inspector, Iraq
  • Coleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel (ret.)
  • Lawrence Wilkerson, Colonel USA, ret.), Distinguished Visiting Professor, College of William and Mary (associate VIPS)
  • Sarah G. Wilton, CDR, USNR, (ret.); Defense Intelligence Agency (ret.)
  • Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA
  • Robert Wing, former Foreign Service Officer (associate VIPS)
  • Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army reserve colonel and former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq War

Background: Earlier VIPS Memos for President Biden on Ukraine

May 1, 2022

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Nuclear Weapons Cannot Be Un-invented, Thus …

“The growing possibility that nuclear weapons might be used, as hostilities in Ukraine continue to escalate, merits your full attention.” 

***

Sept. 5, 2022

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: VIPS
SUBJECT: Ukraine Decision Time & Secretary of Defense

“If Austin tells you Kyiv is beating back the Russians, kick the tires”

***

Jan. 26, 2023

ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: VIPS
SUBJECT: Leopards to Ukraine: Decisions in an Intelligence Vacuum

“None of the newly promised weaponry will stop Russia from defeating what’s left of the Ukrainian army. If you have been told otherwise, replace your intelligence and military advisers with competent professionals – the sooner the better.”

“There is a large conceptual – and exceptionally dangerous – disconnect. Simply stated, it is not possible to “win the war against Russia” AND avoid WWIII. It is downright scary that Defense Secretary Austin may think it possible. In any case, the Kremlin has to assume he thinks so. It is a very dangerous delusion.”

***

January 25, 2024

ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: VIPS

SUBJECT: Throwing Good Money After Bad

“On Jan. 26, 2023, we reminded you that National Intelligence Director Avril Haines had said Russia was using up ammunition extraordinarily quickly and could not indigenously produce what it was expending.”

“On July 13, you said Putin “has already lost the war”. You may have gotten that from C.I.A. Director William Burns who, a week before, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post saying: “Putin’s war has already been a strategic failure for Russia – its military weaknesses laid bare.” Both statements are incorrect. Nor is the war a “stalemate”, as Jake Sullivan has claimed more recently.”

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Featured image: U.S. President Joe Biden preparing to disembark Marine One, July 2021. (White House, Adam Schultz)

O recente ataque terrorista na Câmara Municipal de Crocus, nos subúrbios de Moscou, foi sem dúvida uma das maiores tragédias da história recente da Federação Russa. Mais de 130 civis, incluindo várias crianças, foram brutalmente assassinados por homens armados na noite de 22 de Março. O número de mortos deverá aumentar ainda mais, tendo em conta que há várias pessoas hospitalizadas.

Os criminosos que participaram do ataque já foram capturados pelas forças de segurança russas. No total, onze pessoas foram presas, incluindo os quatro atiradores. Os assassinos eram imigrantes tadjiques, aparentemente ligados a grupos islâmicos radicais. Eles foram presos na fronteira do oblast de Bryansk enquanto tentavam escapar para o território ucraniano. Após interrogatório, eles disseram que foram contratados via Telegram. Os locatários teriam dado a eles as armas usadas no crime e prometido uma recompensa de meio milhão de rublos russos.

Curiosamente, imediatamente após o ataque começaram a circular rumores nos meios de comunicação ocidentais sobre a alegada responsabilidade do Estado Islâmico. Os jornais americanos não só acusaram o grupo extremista islâmico, mas também sublinharam em diversas ocasiões que não havia responsabilidade ucraniana no ataque. Esta hipótese, no entanto, parece falsa face aos fatos até agora elucidados durante as investigações.

Os assassinos claramente trabalharam como mercenários no ataque. Apesar de serem radicais islâmicos, não há provas de que o seu trabalho no caso específico da Câmara Municipal de Crocus tenha qualquer ligação com esta ideologia extremista. O modus operandi dos assassinos não parece estar relacionado com o ISIS (um grupo com o qual não parecem ter quaisquer ligações). Além de matar por dinheiro, tentaram fugir do local e cruzar a fronteira com a Ucrânia, o que não é esperado dos militantes do ISIS, que quase sempre realizam ataques suicidas em busca do “martírio”.

Também é necessário lembrar que o ISIS é atualmente uma organização fraca e incapaz de realizar ataques em grande escala. Desde a intervenção russa na Síria, a maior parte do ISIS foi liquidada, restando apenas as milícias restantes do grupo original a operar em vários países – incluindo a própria Ucrânia, onde militantes islâmicos radicais são frequentemente vistos entre as tropas anti-russas. Parece haver um uso estratégico da sigla “ISIS” pela inteligência ocidental, com a atribuição de responsabilidade ao grupo sempre que Washington quiser disfarçar o seu próprio envolvimento num crime.

Além disso, os terroristas tentaram escapar através da fronteira de Bryansk, que é uma região fortemente protegida pelas forças russas, com grande presença de campos minados. Nem mesmo durante as recentes incursões ucranianas na fronteira houve uma tentativa de invasão terrestre ucraniana através de Bryansk, o que mostra o quão difícil é atravessar esta região. Para tentar escapar para lá, os terroristas certamente contaram com sólido apoio da inteligência ucraniana, com dados precisos sobre como contornar a defesa russa e escapar dos campos minados – o que contradiz a narrativa ocidental sobre Kiev não ter participado do ataque.

As razões pelas quais o Ocidente quer disfarçar a participação ucraniana no caso são fáceis de compreender. Kiev não atua sozinha nos seus atos terroristas, contando sempre com a coparticipação do Ocidente. Sendo um Estado vassalo, a Ucrânia apenas obedece às ordens dos seus apoiadores ocidentais, o que significa que, se houve participação ucraniana no ataque contra Moscou, os agentes ocidentais certamente cooperaram de alguma forma para que o incidente acontecesse.

Deve ser lembrado que há muito tempo que existem ameaças abertas contra a Rússia por parte de líderes ocidentais. Recentemente, a ex-subsecretária dos EUA, Victoria Nuland, prometeu “surpresas” ao governo russo numa declaração interpretada por muitos analistas como um sinal de que as operações de sabotagem começariam a ocorrer dentro do território russo. Além disso, a Embaixada Americana aconselhou recentemente os cidadãos dos EUA a evitarem reuniões públicas em MoscoU, citando informações sobre o risco terrorista. Esta informação nunca foi partilhada com as autoridades russas, o que indica que, mesmo que não tenha havido participação americana no ataque, houve pelo menos uma ausência de vontade de agir conjuntamente contra o terrorismo.

Deve recordar-se que estes ataques terroristas ocorrem num contexto de aumento das incursões ucranianas através da fronteira. O regime de Kiev tem bombardeado cidades russas pacíficas, como Belgorod e Kursk, embora não existam alvos militares nestas regiões. Parece haver uma intenção clara por parte do regime e dos seus apoiantes de promover o terror no território russo. Perante o fracasso militar, a guerra assimétrica, recorrendo ao terrorismo, é a única “alternativa” que resta ao regime neonazista.

A escolha dos imigrantes da Ásia Central para desempenharem o papel de assassinos parece ainda mais interessante para as intenções do regime ucraniano e do Ocidente. Os inimigos da Rússia esperam encorajar o crescimento do racismo e da polarização étnica na sociedade russa, tentando mover a maioria da população contra os imigrantes do espaço pós-soviético. Não há provas de que tal plano seja bem sucedido, dado o elevado nível de coesão social na Rússia contemporânea, mas é bem sabido que fomentar o caos interno na Rússia é um plano antigo do Ocidente.

O Ocidente e a Ucrânia querem fazer com que os russos comuns se sintam inseguros e comecem a criticar o governo. Eles trabalham para recuperar um cenário semelhante ao das décadas de 1990 e 2000, quando diversos ataques terroristas afetaram as principais cidades russas. Ao despertar tais traumas e memórias no povo russo, as redes de inteligência ocidentais esperam conseguir criar uma crise de legitimidade contra o governo do país.

Porém, a tendência é que ocorra exatamente o contrário: quanto mais é atacado, mais o povo russo endossa o governo e apoia a operação militar especial, pois entende que esta é a única forma de neutralizar o terror.

 

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

Artigo em inglês : Terrorist attack in Russia – enemies want to generate domestic instability, 25 de Março de 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

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

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First published on January 29, 2024, revised February 1 and 4, 2024

Update. A New Wave of Criminal Initiatives

The ICJ Judgment of January 26, 2024 assigns the Netanyahu government representing the State of Israel –accused by the Republic of South Africa of genocide against the People of Palestine– with a mandate to “take all measures within its power” to “prevent and punish” those responsible for having committed “Genocidal Acts”. (under Article IV of the Genocide Convention)

Sounds contradictory? What the ICJ judgment intimates –from a twisted legal standpoint– is that Netanyahu’s Cabinet “appointed” to implement  the “prevent and punish” mandate cannot be accused of having committed “Genocidal Acts”.

In substance, this contradictory mandate –which was intended to protect the people of Gaza–, provides the Netanyahu government with a pretext to “prevent and punish” Palestinians for allegedly having committed genocidal acts against Israelis. i.e. Netanyahu can not “Prevent and Punish himself”. (See our detailed analysis below in the section on “Fake Justice”).

Netanyahu is Rejoicing

The ICJ not only refused to propose a “Cease Fire”, its January 26, 2024 Judgment failed to question the role of the Likud coalition government, which was largely responsible for the planning prior to October 7 of a comprehensive genocide agenda, with the support of Washington. 

We had predicted that this vote would contribute to a new wave of criminal initiatives on the part of the Netanyahu government. On January 26,   Netanyahu confirmed that the genocide was ongoing and would continue despite the ICJ Judgment.  

“We will not compromise on anything less than total victory. That means eliminating Hamas, …” 

Israel’s Plan: Mass Starvation

While rhetorical condemnations against Israel prevail, what the peace movement fails to acknowledge is that no legal obstruction or hindrance was formulated by the World Court with a view to curbing the tide of atrocities against Palestinians including an Israeli project to engineer starvation throughout the Gaza Strip. 

“Gaza is experiencing mass starvation like no other in recent history. Before the outbreak of fighting in October, food security in Gaza was precarious, but very few children – less than 1% – suffered severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous kind. Today, almost all Gazans, of any age, anywhere in the territory, are at risk.

There is no instance since the second world war in which an entire population has been reduced to extreme hunger and destitution with such speed. And there’s no case in which the international obligation to stop it has been so clear.” 

These facts underpinned South Africa’s recent case against Israel at the international court of justice. The international genocide convention, article 2c, prohibits “deliberately inflicting [on a group] conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. (Guardian)

Washington Supports the Genocide. The Issue of “Conflict of Interest” and “Recusal”

Amply documented, the Genocide is a joint Israel-U.S. project. The President of the ICJ, Joan Donoghue —former Legal Advisor to Hillary Clinton– is in conflict of interest, which would required her Recusal.  (See:  Recusals of Arbitrators and Judges in International Courts and Tribunals, Chiara Giorgetti)

Escalation of the Genocide

What is at stake is the criminalization of the international judicial process. The ICJ has granted Israel with the full endorsement of the U.S. a de facto “green light” to continue and “escalate the genocide”.

Criminal acts are now being committed in the occupied West Bank, coupled with an increase in the deployment of IDF forces. 

 

In Gaza, IDF commanders have ordered soldiers to “Setting fire to homes belonging to non-combatant civilians, for the mere purpose of punishment”,

Barely a few days after the ICJ Judgment, plans were announced to establish a cohesive network of Jewish settlements in Gaza.

 

 

The Biden administration responding to Netanyahu has ordered to cut  funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is slated to trigger  famine and the collapse of social services:

UNRWA provides food, shelter, health care, education … for the 5.7 million UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

 

 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, February 1, 2024, February 4, 2024

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Part I

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The Criminalization of International Law

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“Fake Justice” at The Hague

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The ICJ “Appoints” Netanyahu to “Prevent” and “Punish”

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Those Responsible for “Genocidal Acts”

 

by

Michel Chossudovsky

 

 

Introduction

While the ICJ has rejected Israel’s attempt to dismiss South Africa’s assertions, the Judgment –which is full of contradictions– is ultimately supportive of the Likud government. 

Moreover, no ceasefire was declared by the ICJ with a view to saving lives. Since October 7, amply documented, the atrocities committed against the People of Palestine are beyond description. At least 10,000 children have been killed: “That is one Palestinian child killed every 15 minutes… Thousands more are missing under the rubble, most of them are presumed dead.”

 

Of significance: The Judgment intimates that the Israeli military rather than the Netanyahu government should be held responsible for committing criminal acts in violation of Article 2 of the Genocide Convention. What this “statement” suggests is that “Netanyahu’s hands are clean”. Nonsense!

There is ample evidence that the genocide was carefully planned well in advance of October 7, 2023 by Netanyahu’s Cabinet. 

There is a command structure within the Israeli military. Israeli soldiers and pilots obey the “illegal orders” emanating from the Netanyahu government.

America Endorses The Genocide

In many regards, The World Court’s Judgment contradicts its own mandate: Presided by a former legal advisor to Hillary Clinton, this should come as no surprise.

The ICJ is under Washington’s Spotlight. Let us be under no illusions, the U.S has firmly endorsed Israel’s criminal undertaking:

“The US said the ICJ ruling was consistent with Washington’s view that Israel has the right to take action, in accordance with international law, to ensure the October 7 attack cannot be repeated. 

“We continue to believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded and note the court did not make a finding about genocide or call for a ceasefire in its ruling and that it called for the unconditional, immediate release of all hostages being held by Hamas,” a State Department spokesperson said. Al Jazeera, January 26, 2024, emphasis added)

The President of the ICJ Joan E. Donoghue was a legal advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton under the Obama administration.  Joan Donoghue takes her instructions from Washington.

Moreover, the conduct of the genocide is a joint Israel-US endeavor with US forces involved in Israel’s combat units. 

Nobody in the media nor in the peace movement has underscored the fact that the President of the ICJ is de facto  in “conflict of interest”.

“The anger of the World has been pacified for a while with the false celebration of a fake “victory” at The Hague. The US chief judge at ICJ must be laughing.

Israel’s genocide will continue while the US and its chief justice at the ICJ keep the world at bay for very long with new false words and delaying actions.” (Karsten Riise, Global Research emphasis added)

Video: Palestine. “Fake Justice” and Genocide

Michel Chossudovsky with Caroline Mailloux, Lux Media

 

click her to access Rumble, leave a comment

Click to Donate to Lux Media

Video: Youtube Version

The Crimes Committed by Israel are “Genocidal In Character”

According to The Republic of South Africa —referring to Article II of the Genocide Convention–, the crimes committed by the State of Israel “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group. …”:

“The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

…  That intent is also properly to be inferred from the nature and conduct of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, having regard inter alia to Israel’s failure to provide or ensure essential food, water, medicine, fuel, shelter and other humanitarian assistance for the besieged and blockaded Palestinian people, which has pushed them to the brink of famine.

The acts are all attributable to [The state of] Israel, which has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the Genocide Convention.  … “ (emphasis added)

(See The Republic of South Africa’s 84 page document submitted to the ICJ

The Republic of South Africa’s Legal Team, ICJ, The Hague

 

click the above to access the full test of the Genocide Convention 

“Fake Justice”. C’est le monde à l’envers

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers [politicians], public officials or private individuals

The main actors behind the genocide against Palestine are the “Constitutionally Responsible Rulers”, namely “civilian politicians”.

In the Judgment –referring to Article IV— (see below) the ICJ calls upon the Netanyahu government acting on behalf of the State of Israel, to prevent and punish those individuals who allegedly committed crimes of genocide:

“The State of Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention. (ICJ, emphasis added)

The exact text of the motion is:

“The State of Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip;…”

What the ICJ judgment intimates is that the “Constitutionally Responsible Rulers (CRRs)”  acting on behalf of the State of Israel  (identified in Article IV), namely the members of Netanyahu’s Cabinet are “Innocent”.  They cannot “prevent and punish” themselves.

And that is where “Fake Justice” comes in  

“Constitutionally Responsible Rulers (CRRs)” Netanyahu, Galant, Ben-Gvir, Katz,  Smotrich, et al are the architects of the Genocide. Yet they have been assigned by the ICJ  with a mandate “To Prevent and Punish the Direct and Public Incitement to Commit Genocide…” (See text of Motion above). 

The CRRs within Netanyahu’s Cabinet acting on behalf of the State of Israel-– who carefully planned prior to October 7, 2023 a genocidal attack against the People of Palestine have been “appointed” by the ICJ to “take all measures within its power” to “prevent” and “punish” “public officials”, private individuals”, members of the Military who are carrying out acts of “direct and public incitement to commit genocide”.

Prevention and Punishment is not contemplated against Israel’s Netanyahu Clique of CRRs “who have blood on their hands.”  

What does this imply?

De facto the main architects of the genocide are the “Constitutionally Responsible Rulers (CRRs)” —referred to in Article IV of the Genocide Convention. (It’s as if the Category “Constitutionally Responsible Rulers” had been removed from Article IV of the Genocide Convention). 

Under present circumstances, this “take all measures within its power” concept is tantamount to the criminalization of International Law: The CRRs “Criminals in High Office” (Netanayahu et al) are invited to take law enforcement in their own hands. 

The option to entrust Netanyahu’s Cabinet with the “Prevent and Punish” assignment was a decision of the World Court. The 17 Judges could have demanded that the Israeli government cease all genocidal actions. They could also have recommended that the “prevent and punish” mandate be assigned to a United Nations body, including the UN Security Council. 

The Netanyahu government has ordered the most hideous crimes against the People of Palestine. 

And now the World Court has instructed a criminal government led by Netanyahu (who has a criminal record) to “take all measures within its power” to “prevent” and “punish” “public officials, “private individuals” (Article IV) as well as combatants within the Israeli military.

Visibly, the prevent and punish requirement is not meant to apply to the so-called “Constitutionally Responsible Rulers (CRRs)”, namely “civilian politicians” (i.e. “the good guys”) namely the “REAL CRIMINALS” in  blatant contradiction of Article IV.

It’s an absurd proposition.  It unfortunately disallows Netanyahu to “prevent and punish himself”.

And this is really what is required under international law

Ceasefire Denied

While the Court acknowledges that criminal acts may have been committed by the State of Israel,  it categorically refuses South Africa’s provisional demands including a “Ceasefire”, which would have served to interrupt at least temporarily the ongoing atrocities against the People of Palestine.

Does this not constitute a “criminal act” by the ICJ, which indelibly will result in countless deaths of Palestinian civilians? Or is a “mistake” in the formulation of the Motion? 

What this signifies is that Netanyahu’s Genocide (from a strategic angle) is virtually unscathed, while sustaining rhetorical and meaningless condemnations against the State of Israel.

Throughout history, wars and war crimes have invariably been instigated by “civilian politicians”.  

The Israeli military has been “Obeying Illegal orders” emanating from a government which is firmly committed to the conduct of genocide against the People of Palestine.

And now the IJC Judgment enables Israel’s “Constitutionally Responsible Rulers”, namely civilian politicians to place the blame on the Israeli Military.

In a bitter irony, the ICJ’s  “prevent and punish  mandate” will allow the Netanyahu clique to reinforce their stranglehold on the Israeli protest movement as well as target Israelis who have taken a firm stance against the genocide. 

 

 

The Road Ahead: Resistance within the Armed Forces. “Disobey Illegal Orders. Abandon the Battlefield”

There is resistance within the Armed Forces. Voices within Israel’s military have spoken out against the Netanyahu government. There is a Protest Movement in Israel. 

In response to the ICJ slanted decision, what is required is to initiate a Worldwide campaign entitled:

Abandon the Battlefield and Disobey Illegal Orders under Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter 

The objective is to undermine the conduct of the genocide as well reverse the course of history.

It is a proposal which sofar has not been the object of debate by anti-war activists in solidarity with Palestine.

Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter  defines the responsibility of combatants “to refuse the orders of Government or a superior … “provided a moral choice [is] possible“.

Based on the Nuremberg Charter, what is required is a campaign encouraging:

Israeli, American and NATO Combatants to “Disobey Unlawful Orders” and “Abandon the Battlefield”. 

The Campaign would focus on making that “moral choice” possible, namely to enable enlisted Israeli, American, and NATO service men and women to “Abandon the Battlefield”.

The Abandon the Battlefield campaign will in large part be waged in Israel. In regards to Israel, already there are unfolding divisions in the IDF command structures, political divisions, coupled with a mass protest movement against Netanyahu. The use of a False Flag  justification to wage the Genocide is amply documented.

IDF soldiers and commanders must be informed and briefed on the significance of Nuremberg Principle IV.

Inasmuch as the U.S. and its allies are waging a hegemonic war in major regions of the World, Abandon the Battlefield should be a call for action by the anti-war movement Worldwide.

 

Click  title page to access full document (pdf)

Now let me turn my attention to Nuremberg Principle VI, which defines the crimes punishable under The  Nuremberg Charter.

Nuremberg Charter. Principle VI 

Both Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu as well as President Joe Biden are responsible for “war crimes”, “crimes against peace” and “crimes against humanity” as defined under Principle VI of the Nuremberg Charter:

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:

(a) Crimes against peace:

(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).

(b)  War crimes:

Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill- treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.

(c)  Crimes against humanity:

Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds.

Disobey Unlawful Orders, Abandon the Battlefield 

According to Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter:

“The fact that a person [e.g. Israeli, U.S.soldiers, pilots]  acted pursuant to order of his [her] Government or of a superior does not relieve him [her] from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him [her].”

Let us make that  “moral choice” possible, to enlisted Israeli, American, and NATO service men and women.

Let us call upon Israeli and American soldiers and pilots “to abandon the battlefield”, as an act of refusal to participate in a criminal undertaking against the People of Gaza.  

Disobey Unlawful Orders, Abandon the Battlefield”. A campaign under Nuremberg Charter Principle IV.

While it is predicated on international law, its conduct does not require the political rubber stamp of the ICJ. It is part of a grassroots campaign in Israel and the Middle East as well as Worldwide.

Solidarity With Palestine

Let us have tears to our eyes in solidarity with the People of Palestine, in building a mass movement Worldwide, which confronts the ongoing slaughter before our very eyes. 

Let us recall The Christmas Truce of 1914, more than 109 years ago:

“Something happened in the early months of the “War to End All Wars” that put a tiny little blip of hope in the historical timeline of the organized mass slaughter that is war. The event was regarded by the professional military officer class to be so profound and so important (and so disturbing) that strategies were immediately put in place that would ensure that such an event could never happen again.” (Dr. Gary G. Kohls)

The men learned in many ways that the official enemy was in fact not the real enemy, that the soldiers on the other side were human beings just like themselves.” (Dr. Jacques Pauwels)

Let It Happen Again

Today, we are “fraternizing” and acting in solidarity Worldwide with the People of Palestine against the hegemonic agenda of the U.S. and it allies  which are waging an all-out war against humanity. 

Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter defines the rights of soldiers and pilots who have the responsibility to Disobey Illegal Orders and Abandon the Battlefield

Nuremberg Principle IV is not only a “Legal Text”, It is A Guiding Light in a Worldwide campaign against Acts of Genocide.

(Principle IV was not available in 1914)

 

Part II. Forthcoming 

 

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

 

What type of mRNA-Induced Turbo Cancer would require urgent abdominal surgery, followed by “preventative chemotherapy”?

  1. Turbo Colon Cancer – one of the most common Turbo Cancers today
  2. Turbo Ovarian Cancer – on the rise with a devastating prognosis
  3. Turbo Uterine Cancer – showing up in younger women
  4. Rare Turbo Cancers: appendix, gallbladder, pancreas, gastric, liver

I will go through each possibility in detail and then give my hypothesis, on what I believe is the most plausible cancer.

Turbo Colon Cancer

  • Turbo Cancer is a cancer that arises following the administration of one or more COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines
  • Turbo Colon Cancer would be very plausible as Colon cancer is one of the most common Turbo Cancers (there is evidence suggesting it is in the top 5)
  • It may have presented with abdominal pain, blood in the stool or a bowel obstruction
  • It is believed on Dec. 28, 2023, Kate was taken in an ambulance to the hospital, possibly due to one of these symptoms.
  • She would have likely have had imaging done that would have shown a mass that required surgery, which took place two weeks later on Jan. 16, 2024.
  • We are told the Jan. 16, 2024 surgery was not for cancer:

Feb. 9, 2024 Daily Mail: “The spokesman did not provide details about the nature of her surgery, but sources briefed that it was not for cancer.”

  • Princess Kate: “In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery…and at the time, it was thought my condition was non-cancerous. The surgery was successful, however tests after the operation, found that cancer had been present”
  • Princess Kate: “My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of “preventative chemotherapy” and I am now in the early stages of that treatment”

Examples:

April 23, 2023 – Missouri, MO – On March 16, 2023, 29 year old Elise Scott was supposed to have surgery to remove a pair of masses on her ovaries. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer with spots on her liver, ovaries and along her abdomen wall. She will have chemo for up to 6 months.

Image

May 26, 2023 – Orange, CA – 24 year old Ciara Meza is a college graduate working on master’s degree in Psychology. She had cramping and bloating and ended up in emergency and was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer that has metastasized to her lungs.

Aug. 5, 2023 – Modesto, CA – 44 year old Gemma Nelson woke up with pain in her groin area that became very severe over the course of 3 days. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon cancer with a 14 inch tumor wrapped around her left ovary and back and a 6 inch tumor in her colon. She is currently doing chemotherapy for 10 months now.

Turbo Ovarian Cancer

  • Ovarian tumors can be benign or malignant and the ovaries are not accessible for biopsy, which means you usually need to have a surgery first before a diagnosis can be made.

  • They can also be very difficult to distinguish on imaging, so a cancer might not be initially suspected.
  • If Kate ended up in emergency on Dec.28 due to pain, and imaging showed an ovarian cyst or mass, it is plausible she would have been scheduled for a major abdominal surgery (such as a total hysterectomy) and the hope was that it was a non-cancerous process like an ovarian cyst.
  • Only after pathology examination, could a determination be made if the ovarian cyst was a cancer.

Examples:

Nov. 8, 2023 – 21 year old Destinee had a large cyst that was believed to be benign. After surgery she was diagnosed with a 32 by 15cm ovarian cancer in Jan. 2022.

Dec. 8, 2023 – Avondale, AZ – 31 year old Ashlie Edwards had a surgery (laparotomy) to remove two large cysts. She was diagnosed with Stage 3C Ovarian Cancer on Aug. 17, 2023. One mass was the size of a basketball on her left ovary, another mass was on her kidney.

Dec. 11, 2023 – Johnson City, TN – 32 year old Porschea Elswick had a growing ovarian cyst which the doctors kept ignoring until it was 30cm in size. After surgery, she was diagnosed with an Ovarian Cancer (Mucinous Adenocarcinoma) in August 2023.

Turbo Uterine Cancer: 

  • If Kate presented to emergency on Dec. 28, 2023 with abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding, and imaging showed a uterine mass, it is possible that doctors suspected a benign mass such as fibroids (uterine leiomyoma).

  • Only after pathological examination could a determination be made whether there was cancer present, such as endometrial cancer or uterine sarcoma – this would certainly come as a shock.
  • Uterine sarcomas are more aggressive and have a worse prognosis than endometrial cancer.

Click here to read the full article.

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


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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

I had an interesting discussion last week with a Washington-based political pundit who expressed some what I thought to be eccentric views on possible developments in the presidential campaign over the next six months. He said that that strange little man Jared Kushner is at it again engaged in secret meetings, but this time he is being promoted as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate to run alongside his father-in-law ex-president Donald Trump.

Reportedly, he is being pushed by a number of hard right ardently pro-Israel Republican Senators, to include folks like Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz, who are arguing that it would solve the loyalty issue for his father-in-law, a major concern for Trump given the perceived betrayal by ex-VP Mike Pence.

Kushner would also be on the right side of a number of issues that Republican conservatives feel strongly about, most certainly including Israel. And, bear in mind, if a seventy-eight year old Donald Trump were to be re-elected and not finish his full term of office, Kushner would be his successor and the first Jewish president of the United States. You can bet that there are some people out there with long memories and deep pockets who might be longing for just that.

Now, given the fact that Kushner was Trump’s Senior Adviser and the one thing that nearly everyone agrees about the Donald was that his judgement on picking senior staff was flawed – one recalls names like Bolton and Pompeo – and would hardly be a credential for moving onward and upward, but it does nevertheless seem that some might actually be considering the possibility. And it is also true that Kushner brings almost nothing beyond name recognition to the ticket, but that is also the case for a number of other possible candidates for the position. Unlike most identified VP candidates, however, Kushner also would arrive with a considerable quantity of baggage. It is reported that when he was first named by Trump it proved to be difficult for him to get a security clearance, even with the president’s highly aggressive endorsement. This was possibly due to the activities of Jared’s father Charles Kushner who was a felon imprisoned in 2005-7 for business fraud to include illegal political contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. The prosecuting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey who handled the case was Chris Christie, later the governor of New Jersey and himself a presidential candidate. The witness tampering charge arose from Kushner’s retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther’s husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators against Kushner. Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record a sexual encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister. Donald Trump controversially pardoned Charles after the fact at the end of his term of office in 2020 together with a number of other Jewish businessmen who were on a list compiled by Jared.

Or, alternatively, the bad security review might have related to Jared’s family’s the Kushner Foundation which was funding completely illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine among its other activities. Since 2020, Kushner has also reportedly been heavily involved with Saudi Arabia, which has apparently benefited Kushner’s equity firm business interests to the tune of $2 billion.

Kushner and his wife might well be considered a footnote to history, minor players, but for the possibility that Jared might somehow connive his way into a position with real power if Donald Trump is re-elected, but he is in the news right now for other reasons. People forget that quite a lot of what goes on vis-à-vis Israel is driven by what might be called the “profit motive,” which admittedly might be considered a play on the word “prophet.” It all comes down to how much money will be generated once the Palestinians are kicked out of Gaza and the West Bank, just for starters. Kushner has recently revealed his own vision of successful conclusion of the war for Israel in an interview on February 15th plus additional comments and it goes like this: the Gazans should be removed from their homes and those who are still alive and who have not been repatriated to other countries including Sinai in Egypt, might be allowed to reside in a suitable refugee camp style location in the Negev desert, inside southern Israel. How exactly they will survive in a desert is not clear as Israel has no excess water resources to “make the desert bloom” as the expression goes. As Kushner explains how “… getting civilians out of Rafah and potentially into Egypt, might be possible ‘with the right diplomacy,’” suggesting that he “would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,” adding “I know that won’t be the popular thing to do, but I think that’s a better option to do, so you can go in and finish the job.” In his comments Kushner also demonstrated that he is delusional, commenting that “I think Israel’s gone way more out of their way than a lot of other countries would, to try to protect civilians from casualties.” More to the point, one has to suspect that Kushner’s views might well reflect those of Trump, who has called on Israel to “finish it up [in Gaza] and do it quickly.”

Israel meanwhile, one supposes, can get international donors like the US to pay for the cleanup of Gaza and it could be developed to provide luxurious seafront properties for Israeli and international Jewish buyers, which would produce substantial income for the government and also for investors like Kushner. He said that “Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods.. If you think about all the money that’s gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done? It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.”

It might seem like a screwy idea but it is certainly not beyond the rapaciousness and cruelty that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is certainly capable of. And it would be a substantial step towards getting completely rid of the pesky Palestinians. There have been independent reports that real estate dealers in Israel are already framing tentative offers for dividing up the more desirable bits of Gaza land, particularly along the Mediterranean Sea. The sales would be for Jews only since part of the desirability of the ethnic cleansing would be to turn Israel into as close as possible an all-Jewish state, which is favored by most Israelis, including expectation of an influx of presumably wealthy diaspora Jews who opt to make their “Aliyah” in a more substantive way.

It is interesting to note how the thinking of Jared Kushner is possibly in sync with the intentions of many Israelis and foreign Jews, but there is also additional evidence that more stolen Palestinian land and houses will soon be up on the auction block for purchase by Jews only worldwide. In early March there was held a so-called “Israeli Real Estate Event” at synagogues and Jewish community centers in Canada, New York state and New Jersey. Though one event was canceled due to fear of demonstrators, the Israeli brokers were selling houses and building lots in Israel, to include the West Bank, most of which were “acquired” by force or through illegal contrivance from their original Arab owners. The advertising for the sales stated boldly that “In a world where uncertainty looms and antisemitism shows its ugly face more boldly than ever, the decision to invest in a home in Israel is not just wise—it’s exhilarating!” The “Events” took place even though it is illegal in the US and Canada to restrict house or land sales to one particular religion or ethnic group.

Finally, the suggestion that a lot of the thinking about whither Gaza is possibly being driven by money comes from the tale of the Ben Gurion Canal Project and the reports of multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves offshore of Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea. The Ben Gurion project has long been mooted as a way to create an Israel controlled alternative to the existing Suez Canal. It would be a navigable canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red Sea that would run through Gaza and down Israel, ending at the Gulf of Aqaba near Eilat. The oil and gas reserves have been verified though they have been inaccessible as long as Gaza has been in Palestinian hands even though the Israelis control the waters, regularly shooting Palestinian fisherman who venture too far from shore. Both the energy resources and total control of a ship canal would be enormous economic assets for Israel. Putting all of that together with the Kushner plan and those business ventures by other Israelis one would be remiss if dismissing the possibility that future development in those areas is really all about money.

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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.

Featured image is from TUR

Putin’s Election Victory

March 25th, 2024 by Hasan Erel

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Capitalism cuts the tree if it can not sell its shadow.

Or, ‘the cat calls the liver it cannot reach unclean’.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 87 percent election victory (turnout exceeded 77 percent, a historical record) sent the West into a frenzy.

The Americans, the British, the French and the Germans are trying to throw as much mud as they can.

“Fair and free elections were not held!”

What they understand from fair elections is the same as what the USA understands from taking away democracy with ‘bombs’; “If we don’t have staff (like Zelensky), that election doesn’t count!”

The trust is not in vain. According to the Russian Central Election Committee, there have been 12 million cyber attacks since the elections were announced!

This is 150 times higher than the previous highest number of attacks!

During the election process, they rained missiles and drones on Belgorod, the closest Russian city to Ukraine.

But no matter what they did, they could not affect the results.

Putin even received 55 percent of the votes in the ballot box held in Washington DC, the capital of the USA!

So how did Putin win this election, during a long and painful war, with such a vote share?

If you look carefully at the table below, you will understand why:

Before Putin came to power in 2000, Russia’s Gross National Product was approximately $196 billion in 1999.

Today, the same figure is 2 trillion 215 billion dollars, that is, more than 11 times that of 1999. (By the way, there is also dollar inflation, but we can still say that it is at least 8-9 times higher.)

In 1999, per capita income in Russia was 1330 dollars. Today it is $14,400, almost 11 times that.

Inflation was 36 and a half percent in 1999, and 3 and a half percent today and during the war.

Gold reserves were 12.6 billion dollars in 1999. Today it is more than $600 billion (47x increase).

Debt accounted for 92 percent of GNP in 1999, today it is 23 percent.

The average pension in 1999 was 449 rubles per month (about 4 and a half dollars at today’s exchange rate!). Today it is 19,332 rubles.

Assoc. Prof., Director of ATASAM Dr. Volkan Özdemir’s following observations are very appropriate:

“When Putin first came to power in 2000, he took over a country that was floundering after the collapse of the Soviets and was almost dragged to the edge of the cliff under the Yeltsin administration. After all, Russia in the 1990s was a country whose economy collapsed with shock therapies, its assets were plundered through privatizations, it was struggling with terrorism and political instability.

The same period was the year when the USA, once Russia’s rival, enjoyed global hegemony in an international system that had become unipolar. Under these conditions, in his first term, Putin began to follow a policy that was compatible with the Western system externally and prioritized security and economic recovery at home. He was successful and brought his country to its feet. Western influence was visible in his first cabinet and in examples such as his cooperation with the United States in the Afghanistan intervention.

Moreover, he developed much stronger relations with Europe and attached special importance to Germany, where he worked as an intelligence officer for years during the Cold War. Unlike the USA, the increasing gas sales to Europe and the investments received in return showed a search for integration. (..) However, the world economic crisis that broke out at the end of 2008 upset many balances, and the European countries were the ones most negatively affected by the global crisis.

In addition, the ‘Arab Spring’ that emerged in the following years, and specifically the events in Libya and Syria, began to shake not only the Middle East but also the international system.

While all of this required a new accounting, discussions on whether Russia would follow the Western direction or follow its own path intensified. In these circumstances, Putin faced the first serious challenge to his rule when he announced his candidacy for the 2012 Presidential elections as the latter’s representative. As a result of the opposition led by different political movements, liberals and the Western clique within the state against Putin, intense street demonstrations took place, especially in big cities. Putin, who managed to overcome the demonstrations in which he stated that he was personally targeted by Western extensions such as Soros, paved the way for being elected President for two more terms, this time for six years, in 2012.

Putin, who displayed a distant attitude towards the West during this period due to the influence of the Syrian civil war, shaped his new team on this axis, but despite everything, he continued to maintain a balance with the West. Although it would no longer burn bridges, it would have a foreign policy definition that would not hesitate to confront the USA and would become increasingly harsh. “The conflicts that started in Ukraine in 2014 led to a hardening of this attitude.” 

As Özdemir has determined, there are three different Putin periods in Russia: 

The first period is 2000-2008, which is compatible with the West (Georgian War).

The second term is 2008-2014, which differs from the West and opposes the unipolar world order, but is still not completely different from the West. 

The third is 2014-2024 and its continuation of the period of leading the Global South by challenging the West and demanding a new world order.

It’s interesting that Putin’s vote rate shows an inverse relationship with periods compatible with the West.

Check out Vladimir Putin’s performances in the four previous Russian presidential elections in which he ran as a candidate:

  • 2024 – 87.30%
  • 2018 – 76.69%
  • 2012 – 63.6%
  • 2004 – 71.3%
  • 2000 – 52.9%

As can be seen, as we moved away from Western influence, that is, as we moved away from under the wings of imperialism, the economy and votes increased.

Although the historical figure whom Putin takes as an example is shown as Peter the Great by most Russians, many experts also liken him to Ataturk.

The title of the article written by British lawyer Christopher B. Stone in 2005 was ‘A Kemalist in the Kremlin’.

“Putin could be Russia’s Ataturk,” Moscow Times writer Aleksey Bayer wrote in 2009.

In 2017, Patrick Buchanan, a politician and writer for The American Conservative magazine in the USA, said, “Putin is behaving like the Ataturk of the 21st Century.”

In 2018, at the international press conference watched by the whole world, Putin said of Ataturk, “He was a friend of Russia.” “The founder of modern Turkey is very valuable to us,” he said.

Atatürk also fought against Western Imperialism and established a modern independent republic, but not a westerner one.

Today, we can say that Putin is doing something similar.

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Hasan Erel is a Turkish journalist-writer. He worked as a diplomacy and foreign news reporter and editor in TRT and other media for 30 years. He is a frequent commentator of Sputnik News radio and CRI Turk in Turkiye.  

Senior U.S. Diplomats, Journalists, Academics and Secretaries of Defense Say: The U.S. Provoked Russia in Ukraine

By Donald Smith, March 25, 2024

Americans are just now starting to realize that they’ve been lied to about the war in Ukraine. (The propaganda effort has been quite effective, with the New York Times, in particular, acting as a mouthpiece for the government’s position.) More and more mainstream publications are exposing the lies, and a majority of Americans now oppose further arming of Ukraine.

Voices from Gaza

By Rick Sterling, March 25, 2024

The book Gaza Writes Back is a collection of short stories from 20 young Gazans. Although published in 2013, the book is highly relevant today. The stories reveal how the last five months is the culmination of a process which has been going on for decades. 

Usual Suspects US and Ukraine Behind Moscow Terrorist Attack

By Joachim Hagopian, March 25, 2024

Back on March 7th, more than two weeks prior to this tragedy, US intelligence already knew of a potential attack in Moscow, enough for the US State Department to issue a public advisory to Americans in Russia, warning personnel at both the US and UK embassies of a probable terrorist attack in Moscow at “large public gatherings including concerts.”

The Empire Doesn’t Hide Its Worst Deeds, It Just Manipulates How People Think About Them

By Caitlin Johnstone, March 25, 2024

The worst actions of your government happen not in secrecy, but right out in the open under the narrative cover of mass media propaganda. The western empire doesn’t hide its worst deeds, it just manipulates the way people think about them.

Putin’s Re-election and Election Interference: Ukraine style

By Renee Parsons, March 25, 2024

Despite the continuing chaos at the southern border, the ever-burgeoning Federal bankruptcy waiting for the other shoe to drop and assorted civil disturbances,  why should the American public care that Vladimir Putin won  re election as President for a fifth term in an 87% landslide and that with 112.3 million votes cast, 74% of the country cast their paper ballots in a record turnout for Putin. 

The Use of Veto by China and Russia on March 22 Against a Draft Resolution for Ceasefire in Gaza Was a Mistake

By Bharat Dogra, March 25, 2024

The stand taken by those opposing the USA draft resolution was that its language was ambiguous and was not strong enough. They have a point here as the US draft used rather curious language. Despite this flaw, however, it would have been a step forward to go ahead with this. After all, can Russia and China ever hope that the USA will use just the kind of language they want?

Three Soccer Players Collapse on the Pitch on Live TV

By Dr. William Makis, March 25, 2024

Argentina: Estudiantes de la Plata midfielder, Javier Altamirano, suffered a seizure in a match against Boca Juniors on Sunday 17th March. The game was suspended. He is said to be stable and the CT scan did not reveal anything serious.

Jewish Holiday of Purim at the Time of Genocide

March 25th, 2024 by Prof. Yakov M. Rabkin

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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

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The Jewish holiday of Purim, related in the Book of Esther, celebrates deliverance from a genocide.

How to celebrate it when death and starvation kill thousands in Gaza, and the holiday’s rhetoric, namely the memory of the archenemy Amalek, is being used by Israeli politicians responsible for it?

Jewish tradition as shaped by Rabbinic Judaism abhors literal reading of the Torah all the while considering it the holiest object in existence. This, in fact, is what distinguishes the Jews from the Karaims, who remain attached to literalism. One may offer different reasons for the rabbis’ insistence on interpreting biblical verses. They consider the text timeless, so in order to make it meaningful for future generations they must explain and decode it. This dynamic view of the eternal is reflected in the very term used for Judaic law, the halakha, which is derived from the root “move.” It may well be that rabbis felt uneasy with the literal reading and so offered their own understanding of a biblical verse. This approach rejects anachronism and fundamentalism and tries to make the Torah a living source of inspiration.

Violence is not rare in biblical texts. The Pentateuch and several of the books of the prophets, such as Joshua and Judges, teem with violent images. From the genocidal command to wipe out seven nations inhabiting the Promised Land to the obligation to blot out the memory of Amalek, there are quite a few episodes that appear to promote massacre. Biblical Israel was conquered under conditions that could hardly be described as peaceful.

But far from glorifying war, Jewish tradition decisively deemphasizes military prowess as the principal reason for the victories mentioned in the Bible. After the Romans’ destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, Jewish life underwent a transformation. Viewed in the context of Judaism, the annihilation of Jerusalem defined the normative attitude toward force, resistance, and the Land of Israel for nearly two millennia.

Rather than promote revenge, Jewish tradition encourages self-examination. After a calamity or a misfortune occurs, one is advised to examine and correct one’s own misdeeds (lefashpesh bemaasaw). This approach suggests that the Temple was razed by the Romans because of gratuitous hatred among the Jews, and that the first exile to Babylonia occurred because of illicit sex, murder, and idolatry.

The Roman siege of Jerusalem in the first century, like the Israeli siege of Gaza, sharply divided the Jews.

The scholars of the Law tended to favor negotiated compromise, while the zealots organized a forceful response. Classical exegetes — such as the Italian Ovadia Seforno (1470–1550) — condemned the advocates of armed struggle in particularly severe terms: “If the Zealots had heeded Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai [a prominent scholar opposed to violence], the Temple of Jerusalem would not be destroyed.” Considering the central position held by the Temple in Judaism, the accusation is indeed serious and serves as a warning against any collective temptation to use force. The Mishna defines a strong man as someone who succeeds in controlling his own inclinations, passions, and urges (Pirke Avot, 4:1).

But what does Jewish tradition do with explicit violence mentioned in the Torah? The oral tradition interprets it allegorically: the sword and the bow used by Jacob the Patriarch against his enemies (Genesis 48:22) become prayer and supplication (Bereshit Rabbah 97:6); the victory of Benaiah over Moab (2 Samuel 23:20) now stands for Torah study (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot, 18b).

To some, Purim provides a model for conflict resolution. The story is as simple as it is prophetic. Haman, the Persian vizier, has planned a total massacre: “to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day” (Esther 3:13). The response of the Jews was to proclaim a fast of repentance, but at the same time to find a way to influence the king and thereby circumvent the vizier and his decree. Queen Esther intervened, revealed to the king her Jewish origins, and convinced him to stop the planned genocide. “But it did not occur to any of the Jews to use physical means against Haman,” noted Rabbi Elhanan Wasserman in his commentary on the history of Purim written at the end of the 1930s (Jewish Guardian 1977, 8–9). Yet, the massacre of 75 000 people at the hand of the Jews that is mentioned in the final chapter, albeit explicitly authorized by the king, causes anguish and calls for interpretation.

Edward Armitage, “The Festival of Esther,” 1865, Royal Academy of Arts 03/1188

 

One such initiative was undertaken by the Shalom Center in Philadelphia. A range of people wrote their own versions of the final chapter. Many were inspired by classical Judaic sources aware that violence can only beget more violence and cycles of revenge. One commentary suggests that Jews offered gifts of food to their erstwhile enemies, which dovetails with the Purim custom of mishloah manot, sending each other edible items. Moreover, such behavior would be considered heroic. Avot de Rabbi Nathan, an 8th century source, defines a hero as someone who can turn an enemy into a friend (23:1).

Yet, quite a few followers of National Judaism (or, in Hebrew, dati-leumi), including members of the current Israeli government, revere a different kind of a hero. They erected a shrine to commemorate Dr Baruch Goldstein (1956–1994), a US-born physician, who massacred dozens of Muslims praying in Hebron on the day of Purim. He had apparently been influenced by the biblical readings associated with Purim, calling for the extermination of Amalek. He saw Amalek in Muslims and Palestinians, which inspired his murderous mission.

The association of the Palestinians with Amalek seems to have become so common in Israel that it encourages unbridled cruelty from IDF soldiers sent to Gaza. They chant with joy about how they are destroying Amalek. The direct link between the biblical texts and the challenges facing Israel encourages violence as has been graphically shown at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in January 2024.

Jews have long associated their enemies with Amalek. Among others, Zionists have been often portrayed as Amalekites by those Jews who oppose the Zionist colonization of Palestine. But they would never resort to violence in their struggle against the modern Amalek. Rather, some rabbis called on the faithful to resist the internal Amalek and fight off the emotion, in rabbinical parlance, the evil inclination (yetser har’a), which tempts some Jews to identify with Zionism and the state that embodies this ideology. The numerical value (gematria) of the letters constituting Amalek is equal to that of the letters in the word safeq, doubt. These rabbis argue that rejection of Zionism should brook no doubt.

Zionist settlement in Palestine and the unilateral declaration of independence by the state of Israel in 1948 challenged the tradition of non-literalism, certainly among the secularized settlers but only slightly less among those affiliated with National Judaism. From the beginning, Zionism has encouraged love of the land, a love that has taken political and ideological forms. The nature hikes with the Torah in the hand have been intended to impart an intimate knowledge of the terrain mentioned in biblical verses. This organic intimacy breeds literal rapport with the Torah recounting events that are believed to have happened mostly in that land.

But the events narrated in the Book of Esther are located elsewhere. Against the continuing massacres and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza we can celebrate Purim by transforming the violence it contains into a manifestation of empathy. We can write our own finales for the Book of Esther. After all, Purim is a holiday of radical transformation. Haman thought he would be the one to be honored by the king, but it was his worst enemy, Mordechai, whom Haman was forced to praise and parade. Jews were facing a genocide, but then the tables turned, transforming a day of anguish into festivity. The Torah is eternal precisely because it is not immutable and allows for time-sensitive interpretations, including those of the Book of Esther.

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Yakov M. Rabkin is Professor Emeritus of History at the Université of Montréal. His publications include over 300 articles and a few books: Science between Superpowers, A Threat from Within: a Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism, What is Modern Israel?, Demodernization: A Future in the Past and Judaïsme, islam et modernité. He did consulting work for, inter alia, OECD, NATO, UNESCO and the World Bank. E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.yakovrabkin.ca