Global Research

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

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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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Read about Osama Bin Laden in Michel Chossudovsky’s international best-seller

Order Directly from Global Research

America’s “War on Terrorism”

by Michel Chossudovsky

According to Chossudovsky, the  “war on terrorism” is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. The “war on terrorism” is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the “New World Order”, dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

 

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

*  *  *

*  *  *

 

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 6^th 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:

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If one is to believe part of the Western press, Giorgia Meloni, who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Italy since October 2022, is some kind of outcast within Western power structures – maybe a thorn in the side of Euro-Atlantic high officials. This is not necessarily so.

Meloni is not quite a Fascist herself, but her party certainly tolerates neo-Fascism, and some members of it have publically brought back the Roman salute, as seen during a memorial in Rome in January. The fact that she did not become politically isolated after such a scandal is quite remarkable. She is herself a former member of the Youth Front, a group whose origins can be traced back to Italian neo-Fascism – despite these far-right connections (past and present), Meloni has condemned Fascism and could perhaps be thought of as yet another example of that broad category which is European populism.

Italian courts have ruled the Roman salute is only punishable when it is a risk to public order, which gives a lot of room to interpretation. On Wednesday, in any case, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Meloni and commended the Italian Prime Minister for the country’s contributions to the Atlantic Alliance – Italy  regularly takes part in NATO maritime operation and Baltic Air Policing. Unlike other “populists” leaders in Europe, Meloni has always been an avid supporter of the Alliance. In July 2023, she used the topic of immigration from across the Mediterranean to press US president Joe Biden for a larger NATO role in Africa. In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Meloni signed a bilateral security agreement.

None of that is surprising. Back in October 2022, the then new Prime Minister issued a statement saying that

“Italy, with its head high, is part of Europe and the Atlantic alliance. Whoever doesn’t agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government, at the cost of not having a government.”

Her remarks were aimed at the Forza Italia party and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who passed away in June 2023. At the time, some of Berlusconi’s pro-Putin remarks were leaked, and this was quite a scandal, prompting Meloni to threaten to block talks to form a new government –

“I intend to lead a government with a clear and unequivocal foreign policy line”, she stated.

The message was duly noted and the Forza Italia party distanced itself from its founder Silvio Berlusconi, who then happened to make things easier for everybody by dying (of leukemia) the next year. Italian press had reported Meloni was considering appointing Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia’ national coordinator) as Foreign Affairs Minister in 2022, but had doubts about it after the aforementioned Berlusconi’s scandal. Tajani was eventually appointed and today is Meloni’s deputy (colloquially known as Vice-Premier), together with Matteo Salvini.

It would be interesting to compare Meloni with Marine Le Pen (defeated French presidential candidate in 2022). The latter promised to pull Paris out of NATO, claiming the alliance “perpetuates the anachronistic and aggressive logic of the Cold War bloc”. Le Pen was defeated and Meloni won.

I’ve written on how Neo-Mccarthyist wave in Europe has  been persecuting dissident leaders and political parties, a phenomenon I’ve called the “Maidanization” of Europe: it includes banning Soviet and Russian flags in Victory Day, criminalizing pro-Palestine protests, and, of course, persecuting or even banning “pro-Russian” political parties in a neo-Mccarthyist way, as seen in France, Poland, and Ukraine itself, which has banned at least 11 political parties so far.

Such persecution of “populism” can be quite selective – parties such as the AfD and leaders such as Le Pen are targeted, while Meloni is not at all and Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party not really. It is not hard to see what the criteria is.

Much of the rising popular European opposition to further supporting Ukraine has nothing to do with being “pro-Russia” or “pro-Putin” and rather has a lot to do with the costs and risks of getting the country involved in such a conflict. As I wrote before, with an unwinnable war haunting the continent, and rising energy prices, one should expect European “populism” and the far-right to gain more and more political influence: these movements have been increasingly capitalizing growing popular grievances with NATO and with the European Union bloc itself. Unfortunately, opposition to the US-led Atlantic Alliance and suicidal energy and economic policies have been largely marginalized in Europe to the point of almost becoming a monopoly of so-called extremist discourse.  So much for “strategic autonomy”.

Back to Meloni, her statements on the pressing social issue of migration do indicate deep disunity within the European establishment – in September last year the Italian Prime Minister said preventing migrants from entering the continent should be the main task for European heads of state.

At the same time, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was emphasizing the need to democratize the access of potential migrants to (legal) migration channels within the bloc. But even on that topic Meloni has disappointed anti-migration voters, with Italy currently seeing the largest (illegal) flow of migrants, a phenomenon that fuels xenophobia, cultural shocks, and frustration among working-class Italians. The truth is that the European economy largely relies on cheaper migrant labor and rhetorical points will not necessarily materialize into concrete policies.

All of that shows the limits of European so-called “populism”. Moreover, to sum it up, Fascist-leaning and far-right leaders and coalitions (even with public Fascist salutes and so on) are welcomed within European power structures – as long as they remain loyal to NATO. In the same way, blatant armed neo-Nazism is routinely white-washed in Ukraine itself.

*

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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.

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***

Catherine Englebrecht from True The Vote (TTV) has been working diligently in the sphere of trying to clean up voter registration rolls and ensure voter integrity for decades now. Englebrecht has faced constant targeting from agencies of the federal government and politicians who benefit from voter fraud, ballot fraud and illegal voting overall.

In this interview with Tucker Carlson, Catherine Englebrecht explains the federal loophole that assists in permitting illegal alien votes. If the illegal alien believes they are lawfully permitted to vote, they are not prosecuted.

As with everything else, the key to understanding how illegal aliens vote is to understand the process created by democrats.  The main goal in the modern era is to generate ballots. In order to generate ballots, the secretaries of state need a name and identifier for the ballot creation.  Registering their existence is where illegal alien voting starts.

Getting state IDs or a Driver’s License, links the identity to the Secretary of State office.  That identity then creates a potential ballot.

The ballot is the vehicle for the unlawful vote.  The illegal alien doesn’t even need to complete the ballot, they only need to exist to generate one.  Once the ballot is created, it can be filled out by anyone.

Ballot harvesters are those who collect the ballots and then fill them out.  Organizations like Black Lives Matter and various leftist political activist groups are the ballot harvesters.  The harvesters are paid by organizations funded by large donors and leftist corporations.

The harvesters then turn the completed ballots over to the polling counters/workers.  The polling counters/workers come from the African Methodist Episcopal church, the AME church network. Election and polling location work is the primary work of the AME church system.  The members of the AME church then destroy ballots that are completed by people against their interests, while simultaneously scanning the fraudulent ballots multiple times.

This is how the fraudulent ballot system works to overwhelm the accurate voting system.

It is not a complicated system; we are just not allowed to talk about it and we are supposed to pretend it is not happening.

Catherine Englebrecht has been exposing this system for decades. However, in the era of Trump but both wings of the political uniparty apparatus have gone too far with the fraud to stop now.

The popularity of President Trump forced the central ballot fraud operators to generate such a massive amount of fraudulent ballots that a BIG LIE cover -with major assistance from media- was needed to cover for it. Decades of intentionally built legal plausible deniability also stops the truth of the scale of fraud from surfacing.

The result, the outcome of what they did and the control mechanisms of fear they needed in the aftermath of what they did, are pictured below. If there was no voting fraud, none of this would be needed.

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What Is the Danger for Canadians?

Canadian politicians are about to sign over all authority of Canadians to outside interests, within the WHO (The World Health Organization Corporation) through The Pandemic Treaty and The Amendments to The International Health Regulations (IHRa).

The IHRa process of signing over our rights to an unelected third party corporation is scheduled to occur very soon, between May 24th and June 2nd.

What Danger Does This Pose? 

The WHO corporation will be given the power to unilaterally declare emergencies worldwide (including in Canada), which would trigger its complete authority over Canadians, up to and including full access to their financial assets/savings to remedy said emergency.

These emergency declarations can be established without confirmatory evidence and are not open for debate, discussion or delay. Schooling, medicine, financial assets of the citizens, the ability to work and earn a living, travel and even what Canadians are permitted to think about or say on social media…….will be either turned off or on at the whim of the unelected WHO. The WHO corporation has been right about very little so far and it appears that other nefarious agendas are indeed being played out, under the guise of health, by this unelected group of business people…..who have a very long list of human rights violations and an even longer list of accusations involving crimes against humanity.

What Can Canadians Do? 

Canadians need to write to their members of federal Parliament, provincial Parliament and all members of their local councils…in order to express their anger that a foreign unelected quasi-criminal corporation will bypass all aspects of human rights and freedoms within Canada. Canadians must send emails to as many of their elected officials as possible and say that they do not consent to this illegal political takeover of Canadians, by The WHO corporation. Canadians need to pledge and promise in these emails that they will never comply with such an illegal obfuscation of our governmental process here in Canada and will certainly not condone the seizure of Canadians rights, property and registered assets to remedy unilateral emergency declarations by this unelected quai-criminal organization.

Click here to find your member of Canadian Federal Parliament.

Dr. David Martin explains the IHR and Pandemic Treaty issues in just 3 minutes.

Friends beware: This WHO grab for the power to suspend  human rights applies to all nations including the Canadian Constitution and The Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedom.

Click here to watch the video

A Canadian Message to WHO General Director Tedros

Click here to watch the video

Please download this video here, and share with others.

Rejecting Monopoly Power Over Global Public Health

A complete policy brief regarding  the proposed IHR amendments and WHO pandemic treaty. This is especially useful for relevant politicians who need to know the details and way forward. Click here. 

The World Council For Health

We are a grass roots global organization at the front line of the war for your health, freedom, and survival.  Please support our mission, subscribe to our newsletter, and benefit from the wealth of resources to improve your health and security.

Dr Meryl Nass MD internal medicine specialist and biological warfare epidemiologist explains the imminent WHO threat.

Click here to watch the video

WHO’s Global Power Grab Explained – Part 1 Preview (9mins) from WCH South Africa

WCH Notice of Liability Served to WHO Director Tedros and Other Guilty WHO Leaders on May 8 

The language in these documents can also be used to address to your government representatives. See this. 

Swiss solicitor, Philipp Kruse, delivered the notice in person to the WHO headquarters around midday on Monday 6th, 2024. Here he is confirming delivery.

Click here to watch the video

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Apparently, Ukrainian intelligence neutralized a plot to assassinate President Vladimir Zelensky. According to SBU, saboteurs planned to kill the Ukrainian leader and other senior government officials. As expected, Moscow is accused of being behind the attempted attack, but there is no evidence that the Russians participated in the conspiracy. 

On May 7, SBU announced the arrest of two Ukrainian State Security Administration’s officers accused of plotting to kill the country’s president, as well as other politicians and military commanders. SBU chief Vasily Malyuk and military intelligence commander Kirill Budanov were among the names blacklisted by the plotters, according to information published on the SBU’s official Telegram channel.

Although the data was published a few days later, the arrest actually occurred on May 4th. The conspirators were identified as Andrey Guk and another employee whose surname is Derkach. The arrest of both occurred simultaneously in a special operation by the Ukrainian secret service to dismantle the team of saboteurs.

The operation to kill Zelensky and his team would take place through the use of heavy artillery.

The saboteurs planned to infiltrate the military to launch a joint missile and drone attack against government’s headquarters, eliminating several employees at the same time. To do this, the conspirators first infiltrated Zelensky’s personal security and collected important data about his schedule, passing it on to other – still unknown – saboteurs to organize the attack plan. Several sensitive data are believed to have been leaked by the conspirators, with the safety of senior Ukrainian government officials remaining at risk despite the arrest of the suspects.

A curious detail, however, is that the SBU, without showing any proof, accuses Moscow of being behind the conspiracy. According to Kiev’s secret service, Zelensky’s assassination attempt was being coordinated by Russian intelligence, with the plan being a kind of “gift to Putin before his inauguration” – which took place on May 7th. It is also believed that the missile attack would take place on the weekend, before or during the Orthodox Easter, when public attention would be distracted by the religious celebrations.

There is no evidence of Russian participation in the attack plan. No Russian citizens were captured by the Ukrainians, nor was direct communication between the arrested suspects and any Russian agents reported. The accusation seems completely unfounded, certainly based on the lie that Moscow is interested in eliminating Zelensky because of the conflict. Recently, Russian authorities included the Ukrainian president on a wanted list due to his crimes, but unlike the Ukrainian government, which maintains a public death list, the Russians do not have any assassination plans against wanted individuals. Russian interest in arresting Zelensky is being used fallaciously as a narrative to justify alleged Russian “responsibility” for the recent conspiracy, but in fact this is just war propaganda.

On the other hand, it is possible to say that Ukraine’s sponsors themselves are interested in eliminating Zelensky. As reported several times, Western strategists have been proposing Zelensky’s replacement since 2022, considering that the Ukrainian leader has exhausted his political image and is now seen as an unpleasant figure by Western public opinion.

Leaked Pentagon documents show that the initial plan was to conduct this replacement through elections in Kiev, which would also help rehabilitate Ukraine’s image as a “democratic” country.

However, Zelensky seems to have understood the intentions of his “allies”, which is why the elections are not about to take place. 

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Lucas Leiroz is a member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert. You can follow Lucas on X (former Twitter) and Telegram. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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

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Mark Zuckerberg may be one of the world’s most powerful people by dint of his control of Facebook owner Meta, but that doesn’t expose him to liability for failing to fix the world’s problems, Delaware’s Chancery Court ruled.

In a lengthy opinion that digressed into Modern Portfolio Theory and author David Foster Wallace’s exegesis of a joke about fish, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster put to rest any idea lawyers could bootstrap a lawsuit against Zuckerberg and Meta directors for managing the company in a way that damages the economy as a whole.

Delaware corporate law assigns a duty to directors to protect the interests of shareholders of one company, not investors across the entire economy, Laster wrote. 

“That point is so basic that no Delaware decisions have felt the need to say it,” the judge wrote in an April 30 decision. “Fish don’t talk about water.”

(To explain the latter remark, Laster included a lengthy footnote about the “old joke” in which an old fish says “how’s the water?” to two younger fish, one of whom then says “what’s water?” David Foster Wallace cited the joke in his 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, concluding “the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”)

Lawyers at Heyman Enerio Gattuso & Hirzel, who cite Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” on their website (“The victorious warrior first wins and then seeks battle; the defeated warrior first battles and then seeks victory”) sued Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Andreeson and others, claiming that according to the economic theory known as modern portfolio theory, Meta directors owed a duty to all shareholders. That theory assumes investors own diversified stock portfolios, which the lawyers said meant corporate directors must act accordingly.

Meta’s controlling shareholders, they said, derives benefits from producing harmful content and other practices that harm the rest of the economy, and therefore the portfolio of diversified investors. Under Delaware law, shareholders can file derivative actions on behalf of the corporation against officers and directors they claim are gaining special benefits not shared by minority shareholders. The lawyers tried to use that procedure to sue Zuckerberg for gaining a personal benefit at the expense of all investors.

Nice try but no dice, Laster ruled. 

“In short, the plaintiff has rediscovered the concept of externalities,” he wrote. This is the idea companies can derive a benefit from activities that might harm others, like polluting. The law has ways to deal with externalities, the court said, but not by filing a shareholder derivative suit.

“In the end, the plaintiff paints a Panglossian ideal of a world without externalities. I would like to live in that world,” the court concluded. “But this lawsuit is not the right vehicle for creating that future or for making the trip.”

*

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Apologists for the Israeli government and its genocidal policies are now warning us about “radicalized” college and university students. Apparently, it’s “radical” to protest genocide, famine, and ceaseless bombing. Contrariwise, it’s apparently “normal” to support mass murder, total destruction, and widespread starvation. Talk about a world turned upside down …

Of course, it’s only “radical” to oppose genocide if you live in a totalitarian state that’s prosecuting that genocide or aiding others in prosecuting it. Anyone with a working conscience and a smidgen of humanity would think it’s normal and sane to oppose mass murder and to protest against it.

Image: Sophie Scholl (Licensed under Fair Use)

Consider a university student who famously protested against genocide: Sophie Scholl. She, her brother Hans, and the rest of the White Rose movement in Nazi Germany are celebrated as heroes today in Germany because they spoke out at great risk against mass murder, and indeed the Nazis executed them in 1943 after holding show trials.

Again, we don’t dismiss Sophie Scholl as a campus “radical” for standing up for Jews and protesting against the murderous policies of the Third Reich. We see her as a paradigmatic individual, an example of the very best of us, a young woman of great moral courage. Of course, the Nazis thought otherwise, arresting her then executing her, her brother, and other White Rose members as traitors to their “race.”

Perhaps the Scholls were radical after all: radical in their courage and their commitment to human rights and values for all.

If you want to watch a powerful movie about young campus “radicals,” check out “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” from 2005. I highly recommend it. Back in 2013, I put together a list of 13 movies about the Holocaust and genocide for a college course I taught. In that course, I used well-known movies and documentaries like “Schindler’s List,” “The Sorrow and the Pity,” and “Night and Fog.” The list below was my attempt to expand on that and to point my students to some movies and documentaries that they may not have seen.

Here’s the original article I posted back in 2013:

Thirteen Movies About the Holocaust

I’ve seen a lot of movies and documentaries about the Holocaust or with themes related to the Holocaust and totalitarianism.  Of the films I’ve seen, these are the thirteen that stayed with me.  Please note that these movies have adult themes; they may not be suitable for children or teens.

1. American History X (1998): Searing movie about neo-Nazis and the power of hate.  Violent scenes for mature audiences only.
2. Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001): Excellent dramatization of Anne Frank’s life, to include the tragic end at Bergen-Belsen.
3. For My Father (2008): A movie about Palestinians, Israelis, and suicide bombers, but also a movie about the difficulties of confronting and overcoming prejudice.
4. Hotel Rwanda (2004): The genocide in Rwanda, and how one brave man made a difference.
5. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961): Powerful indictment of Nazi war criminals after World War II. 
6. Katyn (2007): A reminder that the Nazis weren’t the only mass murderers in World War II.
7. The Last Days (1998): Incredibly moving documentary that explores the fate of Hungarian Jews.  Highly recommended.
8. Life Is Beautiful (1997): It’s hard to believe that a comedy could be made about the Holocaust.  But I think this movie works precisely because the main character is so resourceful and full of life.
9. The Lives of Others (2006): Astonishing movie about life under a totalitarian regime (East Germany).  A “must see” to understand how people can be controlled and cowed and coerced, but also how some find ways to resist.
10. Lore (2012): Movie about a German teenager who has to survive in the chaos of 1945 as the Third Reich comes crashing down.  Various small scenes show the hold that Hitler had over the German people, and the reluctance of many Germans to believe that the Holocaust occurred and that Hitler had ordered it.
11. Sarah’s Key (2010): Heart-wrenching movie about the roundup of Jews in France, which reminds us that the Nazis had plenty of helpers and collaborators.
12. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005): Inspiring movie about Hans and Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement in Nazi Germany.  The Scholls were college students who took a courageous stand against the Nazis.  Executed as traitors in 1943, they are now celebrated as heroes in Germany. 

13. The Wave (2008): Compelling movie about the allure of fascism and “the Fuhrer (leader) principle.”  Highly recommended, especially if you want to know how Hitler got so many young people to follow him.

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Featured image: Scenes of the reinstated Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University on its fourth day. (Licensed under CC0)

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I am sitting on a fire escape across the street from Columbia University with three organizers of the Columbia University Gaza protest. It is night. New York City Police, stationed inside and outside the gates of the campus, have placed the campus on lockdown. There are barricades blocking streets. No one, unless they live in a residence hall on campus, is allowed to enter. The siege means that students cannot go to class. Students cannot go to the library. Students cannot enter the labs. Students cannot visit the university health services. Students cannot get to studios to practice. Students cannot attend lectures. Students cannot walk across the campus lawns. The university, as during the Covid pandemic, has retreated into the world of screens where students are isolated in their rooms.

The university buildings are largely vacant. The campus pathways deserted. Columbia is a Potemkin university, a playground for corporate administrators. The president of the university — a British-Egyptian baroness who built her career at institutions such as the Bank of England, World Bank and International Monetary Fund — called in police in riot gear, with guns drawn, to clear the school’s encampment, forcibly evict students who occupied a campus hall and beat and arrest over 100 of them. They were arrested for “criminal trespassing” on their own campus. 

These administrators demand, like all who manage corporate systems of power, total obedience. Dissent. Freedom of expression. Critical thought. Moral outrage. These have no place in our corporate-indentured universities.

All systems of totalitarianism, including corporate totalitarianism, deform education into vocational training where students are taught what to think, not how to think. Only the skills and expertise demanded by the corporate state are valued. The withering away of the humanities and transformation of major research universities into corporate and Defense Department vocational schools with their outsized emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math, illustrate this shift. The students who disrupt the Potemkin university, who dare to think for themselves, face beatings, suspension, arrest and expulsion.

The mandarins who run Columbia and other universities, corporatists who make salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, oversee academic plantations. They treat their poorly paid adjunct faculty, who often lack health insurance and benefits, like serfs. They slavishly serve the interests of wealthy donors and corporations. They are protected by private security. They despise students, forced into onerous debt peonage for their education, who are non-conformists, who defy their fiefdoms and call out their complicity in genocide.

Columbia University, with an endowment of $13.64 billion, charges students nearly $90,000 a year to attend. But students are not allowed to object when their tax and tuition money funds genocide, or when their tuition payments are used to see them, along with faculty supporters, assaulted and sent to jail. They are, as Joe Biden put it, members of “hate groups.” They are — as Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer said of those who occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia renaming it Hind Hall, in honor of a six-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, who was murdered by Israeli forces after spending 12 days trapped in a car with her six dead relatives — engaged in “lawlessness”. 

💔🇵🇸The full story of the 6 years-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was brutally killed in her uncle's car, alongside his family by the murderous #Israeli occupation army, in northern #Gaza Strip.https://t.co/A0nlejVFHM pic.twitter.com/BscGmPQFmu

— Daniella Modos – Cutter -SEN (@DmodosCutter) May 4, 2024

During the assault by dozens of police on the occupied hall, one student was knocked unconscious, several were beaten and sent to hospital and a shot was fired by a police officer inside the hall. The excess use of force is justified with the lie that there are outside infiltrators and agitators directing the protest. As the protests continue, and they will continue, this use of force will become more draconian.

“The university is a place of capital accumulation,” says Sara Wexler, a doctoral student in philosophy, seated with two other students on the fire escape. “We have billion dollar endowments that are connected to Israel and defense companies. We are being forced to confront the fact that universities aren’t democratic. You have a board of trustees and investors that are actually making the decisions. Even if students have votes saying they want divestment and the faculty want divestment, we actually don’t have any power because they can call in the NYPD.”

There is an iron determination by the ruling institutions, including the media, to shift the narrative away from the genocide in Gaza, to threats against Jewish students and antisemitism. The anger the protesters feel for journalists, especially at news organizations such as CNN and The New York Times, is intense and justified.

“I’m a German-Polish Jew,” says Wexler. “My last name is Wexler. It’s Yiddish for money-maker, money-exchanger. No matter how many times I tell people I’m Jewish, I’m still labeled antisemitic. It’s infuriating. We are told that we need a state that is based on ethnicity in the 21st century and that’s the only way Jewish people can be safe. But it is really for Britain and America and other imperialist states to have a presence in the Middle East. I’ve no idea why people still believe this narrative. It makes no sense to have a place for Jewish people that requires other people to suffer and die.”

I have seen this assault on universities and freedom of expression before. I saw it in Augusto Pinochet’s Chile, the military dictatorship in El Salvador, Guatemala under Rios Montt, and during my coverage of the military regimes in Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Syria, Iraq and Algeria.

Columbia University, with its locked gates, lines of police cruisers, rows of metal barricades three and four deep, swarms of uniformed police and private security, looks no different. It looks no different because it is no different. 

Welcome to our corporate dictatorship.

The cacophony of the streets of New York City punctuates our conversation. These students know what they are risking. They know what they are up against. 

Student activists waited months before setting up encampments. They tried repeatedly to have their voices heard and their concerns addressed. But they were rebuffed, ignored and harassed. In November, the students presented a petition to the university calling for divestment from Israeli corporations that facilitate the genocide. No one bothered to respond.  

The protesters endure constant abuse. On April 25, during Columbia’s senior boat cruise, Muslim students and those identified as supporting the protests had alcohol poured on their heads and clothes by jeering Zionists. In January, former Israeli soldiers studying at Columbia used skunk spray to assault students on the steps of Lowe Library. The university, under heavy pressure once the attackers were identified, said they had banned the former soldiers from campus, but other students reported seeing one of the men on campus recently. When Jewish students in the encampment attempted to prepare their meals in the kosher kitchen at the Jewish Theological Seminary, they were insulted by Zionists who were in the building. Zionist counter demonstrators have been joined on campus by the founder  of the white supremist Proud Boys organization. Students have had their personal information posted on the Canary Mission and found their faces on the sides of trucks circling the campus, denouncing them as antisemites. 

SPOTTED: Gavin McInnes, the found of the 'Proud Boys' and co-founder of VICE, spotted at the Columbia University Encampment Protest.

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 [email protected] to license pic.twitter.com/L61WmltRpB

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 24, 2024

These attacks are replicated at other universities, including UCLA, where masked Zionists released rats and tossed fireworks into the encampment and broadcast the sound of crying children –  something the Israeli army does to lure Palestinians in Gaza out of hiding to kill them. The Zionist mob, armed with pepper and bear spray, violently attacked the protesters, as police and campus security watched passively and refused to make arrests.

Zionist gangs play the sound of babies crying to mock the UCLA student encampment.

Israeli quadcopters did the exact same thing in Gaza to lure out Palestinians and kill them. pic.twitter.com/7YTUVSC5KL

— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) May 1, 2024

“At the General Studies gala, which is one of the undergraduate schools that has a large population of former IDF soldiers, at least eight students wearing keffiyehs were physically and verbally harassed by students identified as ex-IDF and Israelis,” Cameron Jones, a sophomore majoring in urban studies and who is Jewish, tells me. “Students were called ‘bitch’ and ‘whore’ in Hebrew. Some were called terrorists and told to go back to Gaza. Many of the students harassed were Arabs, some having their keffiyehs ripped off and thrown to the ground. Several students in keffiyehs were grabbed and pushed. A Jewish student wearing a keffiyeh was cursed at in Hebrew and later punched in the face. Another student was kicked. The event ended after dozens of students sang the Israeli national anthem, some of them flipping off students wearing keffiyehs. I have been followed around campus by individuals and been cursed and had obscenities yelled at me.”

The university has refused to reprimand those who disrupted the gala, even though the individuals who carried out the assaults have been identified. 

Universities have hired people such as Cas Halloway, currently the chief operating officer at Columbia, who was the deputy mayor for operations under Michael Bloomberg. Holloway reportedly oversaw the police clearance of the Occupy encampment at Zuccotti Park. This is the kind of expertise universities covet. 

At Columbia, student organizers, following the mass arrests and evictions from their encampment and Hind Hall, called for university-wide strikes by faculty, staff and students. Columbia has canceled its university wide commencement.

I am on the campus of Princeton University. It is after evening prayers and 17 students who have mounted a hunger strike sit together, many wrapped in blankets. 

As universities escalate their crackdowns, the protesters escalate their response. Students at Princeton held rallies and walk-outs throughout October and November, which culminated in a protest at the Council of the Princeton University Community, made up of administrators, students, staff, deans and the president. They were met at each protest with a wall of silence.

Princeton students decided, following the example at Columbia, to set up a tent encampment on April 25 and issued a set of demands calling on the university to “divest and disassociate from Israel.” But when they arrived early in the morning at their staging areas, as well as the site in front of Firestone Library which they hoped to use for an encampment, they were met with dozens of campus police and Princeton town police who had been tipped off. The students hastily occupied another location on campus, McCosh Courtyard. Two students were immediately arrested, evicted from their student housing and banned from campus. The police forced the remaining students to take down their tents. 

Protesters at the encampment have been sleeping in the open, including when it rains. 

In an irony not lost on the students, dotted around Princeton’s campus are massive tents set up for reunion weekend where alumni down copious amounts of alcohol and dress up in garish outfits with the school colors of orange and black. The protesters are barred from entering them. 

Thirteen students at Princeton occupied Clio Hall on April 29. They, like their counterparts at Columbia, were arrested and are now barred from campus. Some 200 students surrounded Clio Hall in solidarity as the occupying students were led away by police. As they were being processed by the police, the arrested students sang the Black spiritual Roll Jordan Roll, altering the words to “Well some say John was a baptist, some say John was a Palestinian, But I say John was a preacher of God and my bible says so too.” 

The hunger strikers, who began their liquid-only diet on May 3, issued this statement:

The Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment announces the initiation of a hunger strike in solidarity with the millions of Palestinians in Gaza suffering under the ongoing siege by the state of Israel. The Israeli occupation has deliberately blocked access to basic necessities to engineer a dire famine for the two million residents of Gaza. Since the announcement on October 9 by the Israeli Defense Minister prohibiting the entry of food, fuel and electricity into the Gaza Strip, Israel has systematically obstructed and limited access to vital aid for Palestinians in Gaza, even intentionally destroying existing cropland. On March 18, the U.N. Secretary General declared that “This is the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by the integrated food security classification system.” To make bread, Gazans have been forced to use animal feed as flour. To break their fasts in Ramadan, Gazans have been forced to prepare meals of grass. 97% of Gaza’s water has been deemed undrinkable since October 2021 and they have been forced to drink dirty salt water to survive. The consequences of this unprecedented famine created and maintained by Israel will devastate Gaza’s children for generations to come and cannot be tolerated any longer. We have begun our hunger strike to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza. We are drawing from the tradition of Palestinian political prisoners going on salt-water-only hunger strikes in Israeli prisons since 1968. Our hunger strike is a response to the administration’s refusal to engage with our demands for disassociation and divestment from Israel. We refuse to be silenced by the university administration’s intimidation and repression tactics. We struggle together in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We commit our bodies to their liberation. Participants in the hunger strikes will abstain from all food or drink except water until the following demands are met:

•   Meet with students to discuss demands for disclosure, divestment and a full academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

•   Grant complete amnesty from all criminal and disciplinary charges for participants of the peaceful sit-in.

•   Reverse all campus bans and evictions of students. 

The university and the world must recognize that we refuse to be complicit in genocide and will take every necessary action to change this reality. Our hunger strike, though small in comparison to the enduring suffering of the Palestinian people, symbolizes our unwavering commitment to justice and solidarity.

University President Christopher Eisgruber met with the hunger strikers – the first meeting by school administrators with protesters since Oct. 7 – but dismissed their demands.

“This is probably the most important thing I’ve done here,” says Areeq Hasan, a senior who is going to do a PhD in applied physics next year at Stanford, who is also part of the hunger strike. “If we’re on a scale of one to 10, this is a 10. Since the start of encampment, I have tried to become a better person. We have pillars of faith. One of them is sunnah, which is prayer. That’s a place where you train yourself to become a better person. It is linked to spirituality. That’s something I’ve been emphasizing more during my time at Princeton. There’s another aspect of faith. Zakat. It means charity, but you can read it more generally as justice…economic justice and social justice. I’m training myself, but to what end? This encampment is not just about trying to cultivate, to purify my heart to try to become a better person, but about trying to stand for justice and actively use these skills that I’m learning to command what I feel to be right and to forbid what I believe to be wrong, to stand up for oppressed people around the world.”

Anha Khan, a Princeton student on hunger strike whose family is from Bangladesh, sits with her knees tucked up in front of her. She is wearing blue sweatpants that say Looney Tunes and has an engagement ring that every so often glints in the light. She sees in Bangladesh’s history of colonialism, dispossession and genocide, the experience of Palestinians.

“So much was taken from my people,” she says. “We haven’t had the time or the resources to recuperate from the terrible times we’ve gone through. Not only did my people go through a genocide in 1971, but we were also victims of the partition that happened in 1947 and then civil disputes between West and East Pakistan throughout the forties, the fifties and the sixties. It makes me angry. If we weren’t colonized by the British throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century, and if we weren’t occupied, we would have had time to develop and create a more prosperous society. Now we’re staggering because so much was taken from us. It’s not fair.”

The hostility of the university has radicalized the students, who see university administrators attempting to placate external pressures from wealthy donors, the weapons manufacturers and the Israel lobby, rather than deal with the internal realities of the non-violent protests and the genocide. 

“The administration doesn’t care about the well being, health or safety of their students,” Khan tells me. “We have tried to get at least tents out at night. Since we are on a 24-hour liquid fast, not eating anything, our bodies are working overtime to stay resilient. Our immune systems are not as strong. Yet the university tells us we can’t pitch up tents to keep ourselves safe at night from the cold and the winds. It’s abhorrent for me. I feel a lot more physical weakness. My headaches are worse. There is an inability to even climb up stairs now. It made me realize that for the past seven months what Gazans have been facing is a million times worse. You can’t understand their plight unless you experience that kind of starvation that they’re experiencing, although I’m not experiencing the atrocities they’re experiencing.”

The hunger strikers, while getting a lot of support on social media, have also been the targets of death threats and hateful messages from conservative influencers.

“I give them 10 hours before they call DoorDash,” someone posted on X.

I give them 10 hours before they call door dash

— Fringe Commentary (@extraspiffy) May 3, 2024

“Why won’t they give up water, don’t they care about Palestine? Come on, give up water!” another post read.

Why won't they give up water? Don't they care about Palestine?

Come on. Give up water.

— Much Too Old to Feel this Damn Young (@PalominoOMG) May 3, 2024

“Can they hold their breath too? Asking for a friend,” another read.

Can they hold their breath too? Asking for a friend.

— ThAtB!TcH (@mmlp808085) May 3, 2024

“OK so I hear there’s going to be a bunch of barbecues at Princeton this weekend, let’s bring out a bunch of pork products too to show these Muslims!” someone posted.

On campus the tiny groups of counter protesters, many from the ultra orthodox Chabad House, jeer at the protesters, shouting “Jihadists!” or “I like your terrorist headscarf!”

“It is horrifying to see thousands upon thousands of people wish for our deaths and hope that we starve and die,” Khan says softly. “In the press release video, I wore a mask. One of the funnier comments I got was, ‘Wow, I bet that chick on the right has buck-teeth behind that mask.’ It’s ridiculous. Another read, ‘I bet that chick on the right used her Dyson Supersonic before coming to the press release.’ The Dyson Supersonic is a really expensive hair dryer. Honestly, the only thing I got from that was that my hair looked good, so thank you!”

David Chmielewski, a senior whose parents are Polish and who had family interned in the Nazi death camps, is a Muslim convert. His visits to the concentration camps in Poland, including Auschwitz, made him acutely aware of the capacity for human evil. He sees this evil in the genocide in Gaza. He sees the same indifference and support that characterized Nazi Germany. “Never again,” he says, means never again for everyone.

“Since the genocide, the university has failed to reach out to Arab students, to Muslim students and to Palestinian students to offer support,” he tells me. “The university claims it is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, but we don’t feel we belong here.”

“We’re told in our Islamic tradition by our prophets that when one part of the ummah, the nation of believers, feels pain, then we all feel pain,” he says. “That has to be an important motivation for us. But the second part is that Islam gives us an obligation to strive for justice regardless of who we’re striving on behalf of. There are plenty of Palestinians who aren’t Muslim, but we’re fighting for the liberation of all Palestinians. Muslims stand up for issues that aren’t specifically Muslim issues. There were Muslims who were involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. There were Muslims involved in the civil rights movement. We draw inspiration from them.”

“This is a beautiful interfaith struggle,” he says. “Yesterday, we set up a tarp where we were praying. We had people doing group Quran recitations. On the same tarp, Jewish students had their Shabbat service. On Sunday, we had Christian services at the encampment. We are trying to give a vision of the world that we want to build, a world after apartheid. We’re not just responding to Israeli apartheid, we’re trying to build our own vision of what a society would look like. That’s what you see when you have people doing Quran recitations or reading Shabbat services on the same tarp, that’s the kind of world we want to build.”

“We’ve been portrayed as causing people to feel unsafe,” he says. “We’ve been perceived as presenting a threat. Part of the motivation for the hunger strike is making clear that we’re not the people making anyone unsafe. The university is making us unsafe. They’re unwilling to meet with us and we’re willing to starve ourselves. Who’s causing the un-safety? There is a hypocrisy about how we’re being portrayed. We’re being portrayed as violent when it’s the universities who are calling police on peaceful protesters. We’re being portrayed as disrupting everything around us, but what we’re drawing on are traditions fundamental to American political culture. We’re drawing on traditions of sit-ins, hunger strikes and peaceful encampments. Palestinian political prisoners have carried out hunger strikes for decades. The hunger strike goes back to de-colonial struggles before that, to India, to Ireland, to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.”

“Palestinian liberation is the cause of human liberation,” he goes on. “Palestine is the most obvious example in the world today, other than the United States, of settler-colonialism. The struggle against Zionist occupation is viewed accurately by Zionists both within the United States and Israel, as sort of the last dying gasp of imperialism. They’re trying to hold onto it. That’s why it’s scary. The liberation of Palestine would mean a radically different world, a world that moves past exploitation and injustice. That’s why so many people who aren’t Palestinian and aren’t Arab and aren’t Muslim are so invested in this struggle. They see its significance.”

“In quantum mechanics there’s the idea of non-locality,” says Hasan. “Even though I’m miles and miles away from the people in Palestine, I feel deeply entangled with them in the same way that the electrons that I work with in my lab are entangled. As David said, this idea that the community of believers is one body and if one part of the body is in pain, all of it pains, it is our responsibility to strive to alleviate that pain. If we take a step back and look at this composite system, it’s evolving in perfect unitary, even though we don’t understand it because we only have access to one small piece of it. There is deep underlying justice that maybe we don’t recognize, but that exists when we look at the plight of the Palestinian people.”

“There’s a tradition associated with the prophet,” he says. “When you’ve seen an injustice occur you should try to change it with your hands. If you can’t change it with your hands then you should try to adjust it with your tongue. You should speak out about it. If you can’t do that, you should at least feel the injustice in your heart. This hunger strike, this encampment, everything we’re doing here as students, is my way of trying to realize that, trying to implement that in my life.”

Spend time with the students in the protests and you hear stories of revelations, epiphanies. In the lexicon of Christianity, these are called moments of grace. These experiences, these moments of grace, are the unseen engine of the protest movements.

When Oscar Lloyd, a junior at Columbia studying cognitive science and philosophy, was about eight-years-old, he and his family visited the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

“I saw the vast distinction between the huge memorial at the Battle of the Little Bighorn compared to the small wooden sign at the massacre at Wounded Knee,” he says, comparing the numerous monuments celebrating the 1876 defeat of the U.S. 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn to the massacre of 250 to 300 Native Americans, half of whom were women and children, in 1890 at Wounded Knee. “I was shocked that there can be two sides to history, that one side can be told and the other can be completely forgotten. This is the story of Palestine.”

Sara Ryave, a graduate student at Princeton, spent a year in Israel studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, a non-denominational yeshiva. She came face to face with apartheid. She is banned from campus after occupying Clio Hall.

“It was during that year that I saw things that I will never forget,” she said. “I spent time in the West Bank and with communities in the south Hebron Hills. I saw the daily realities of apartheid. If you don’t look for them, you don’t notice them. But once you do, if you want to, it’s clear. That predisposed me to this. I saw people living under police and IDF military threats every single day, whose lives are made unbearable by settlers.”

When Hasan was in fourth grade, he remembers his mother weeping uncontrollably on the 27^th night during Ramadan, an especially holy day known as The Night of Power. On this night, prayers are traditionally answered.

“I have a very vivid memory of standing in prayer at night next to my mother,” he says. “My mother was weeping. I’d never seen her cry so much in my life. I remember that so vividly. I asked her why she was crying. She told me that she was crying because of all of the people that were suffering around the world. And among them, I can imagine she was bringing to heart the people in Palestine. At that point in my life, I didn’t understand systems of oppression. But what I did understand was that I’d never seen my mother in such pain before. I didn’t want her to be in that kind of pain. My sister and I, seeing our mother in so much pain, started crying too. The emotions were so strong that night. I don’t think I’ve ever cried like that in my life. That was the first time I had a consciousness of suffering in the world, specifically systems of oppression, though I didn’t really understand the various dimensions of it until much later on. That’s when my heart established a connection to the plight of the Palestinian people.”

Helen Wainaina, a doctoral student in English who occupied Clio Hall at Princeton and is barred from campus, was born in South Africa. She lived in Tanzania until she was 10-years-old and then moved with her family to Houston.

“I think of my parents and their journeys in Africa and eventually leaving the African continent,” she says. “I’m conflicted that they ended up in the U.S. If things had turned out differently during the post-colonial movements, they would not have moved. We would have been able to live, grow up and study where we were. I’ve always felt that that was a profound injustice. I’m grateful that my parents did everything they could to get us here, but I remember when I got my citizenship, I was very angry. I had no say. I wish the world was oriented differently, that we didn’t need to come here, that the post-colonial dreams of people who worked on those movements actually materialized.”

The protest movements – which have spread around the globe – are not built around the single issue of the apartheid state in Israel or its genocide against Palestinians. They are built around the awareness that the old world order, the one of settler colonialism, western imperialism and militarism used by the countries in the Global North to dominate the Global South, must end. They decry the hoarding of natural resources and wealth by industrial nations in a world of diminishing returns. These protests are built around a vision of a world of equality, dignity and independence. This vision, and the commitment to it, will make this movement not only hard to defeat, but presages a wider struggle beyond the genocide in Gaza. 

"If these universities care only about their assets, the student movement will become a liability."

Students at Harvard University continue their action in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of the ongoing Israeli genocide. pic.twitter.com/K8M5rCedtv

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 8, 2024

The genocide has awakened a sleeping giant. Let us pray the giant prevails.

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Featured image: Strangelove 2024 — by Mr. Fish

The Collapse of Dollar Hegemony Could Lead to World War III. Richard C. Cook

Richard C. Cook, May 8, 2024

Video: Japanese Oncology Professor Fukushima Condemns mRNA Vaccines as “Evil Practices of Science”

Aussie17, May 3, 2024

Bromelain and Cancer

Dr. William Makis, May 8, 2024

Madkind vs. Mankind. A Race Against Time. Madkind’s Digitalization, A.I. Momentum, Economic Chaos and More…

Julian Rose, May 6, 2024

More Than 1,600 Scientists Sign Declaration: “No Climate Emergency” Exists at All

Ethan Huff, May 9, 2024

New US Antisemitism Law Turns Critics Against Israeli Genocide Into Criminals

Joachim Hagopian, May 3, 2024

German Government Admits There Was No Pandemic

Baxter Dmitry, April 4, 2024

Ukraine War “Spins Out of Control”: Putin Is “Letting It Get Too Late:” to Turn Aside from Nuclear Armageddon

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, May 8, 2024

Open Letter to the Bar of Quebec. Louis Olivier Fontaine

Louis Olivier Fontaine, May 7, 2024

COVID Pandemic Was a Fraud, a Lie, a Hoax! There Was Never Ever a Pandemic, Never Met the Threshold of a Pandemic and We Were Lied To Deliberately for Nefarious Reasons by Governments

Dr. Paul Elias Alexander, May 6, 2024

How China’s Naval Strategy Exposes Decades of America’s Sinophobic Lies

Drago Bosnic, May 6, 2024

Where Are the National Intelligence Estimates? Seymour Hersh

Seymour M. Hersh, May 6, 2024

The True “Efficacy” of COVID-19 “Vaccines”

Dr. Mark Trozzi, May 8, 2024

Video: Hillary Clinton, A Threat to All Humanity. With or Without Hillary, “Nuclear War is on the Table”?

James Corbett, May 4, 2024

The Hidden Messages of the Power Elite’s Cultural Apparatus

Edward Curtin, May 2, 2024

Vitamin B3 Boosts Muscle Mass, Improves Glucose Control

Dr. Joseph Mercola, May 6, 2024

Political West Appears to be Backing Off After Russia’s Nuclear Warning

Drago Bosnic, May 8, 2024

Funds for Ukraine: More Slaughter Without Victory? Conversations with Jack Rasmus and Peter Koenig

Michael Welch, May 4, 2024

NATO’s Entry Into the Ukraine War?

Germán Gorraiz López, May 8, 2024

Let Israel’s Leaders Get Arrested for War Crimes

Gideon Levy, May 6, 2024

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In an announcement that the mainstream/legacy media has deliberately downplayed, British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca says it is withdrawing its controversial COVID-19 vaccine worldwide. Attempting to explain the move, the firm claims that the development of new injections to counter current coronavirus variants has resulted in a surplus of updated vaccines. According to AstraZeneca, this has led to a “decline in demand” for its own product. In reality, however, with the company recently admitting that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause deadly blood clots, and with it now fighting lawsuits over deaths and injuries believed to be caused by it in the UK, Italy, Germany, and other countries, the more likely explanation is that AstraZeneca’s major shareholders have decided the shot has become a risk to profits.

With hindsight, of course, the firm’s announcement was hardly unexpected. Developed by scientists at the University of Oxford in the UK, a regulatory approval process that normally takes around 10 years to complete was reduced to a mere 10 months. With so many corners being cut, it is not surprising that problems with the shot soon became apparent. Within weeks of it being rushed into use in early January 2021, reports began associating the injection with unusual blood clots. By March 2021, at least 18 countries had already stopped using it. Probes into deaths quickly followed, inevitably leading to further governments suspending its use.

By the time the firm voluntarily withdrew its European Union marketing authorization in March 2024, the end was in sight for what had once been propagandized as a “vaccine for the world.” As stories emerged of victims with life-changing injuries being censored online, it became clear that desperate attempts to cover up the extent of the damage caused by the injection had failed. Whether it wanted to or not, AstraZeneca was going to be forced to face the music.

Holding the Pharma Industry to Account

The withdrawal of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the launching of legal action against the firm are only the first steps towards holding the pharmaceutical industry to account over COVID-19. Vaccines manufactured by other companies, including those of the mRNA variety produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, have similarly been shown to be responsible for deaths and life-changing injuries. While the spotlight is currently focusing on AstraZeneca, it will eventually fall more closely on these firms too. Further vaccine withdrawals and court cases could well follow.

One of the biggest barriers to holding vaccine makers to account over COVID-19 is that governments in most countries have granted them exemption from liability claims. This means that even if legal action brought against the firms is successful, the cost will ultimately be borne by taxpayers. Therefore, towards preventing such exemptions from being granted again in future, the politicians and regulatory officials who signed them during the COVID-19 pandemic should also be held accountable. Preventing history from repeating itself requires precisely identifying, and where possible correcting, the mistakes of the past. An honest assessment of the damage done by the AstraZeneca vaccine is the first step in this process.

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This article was originally published on Dr. Rath Health Foundation.

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

He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense

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Serbia’s geopolitical position is quite complex, perhaps among the most complicated in the world. The country is in an almost identical strategic situation as during the Second World War, when Nazi Germany and its vassals ruled most of Europe.

Virtually the same allies of the Third Reich are now firmly in NATO, demonstrating the former’s continuity through the latter. And to prove that, one just needs to look at the map of the Axis powers in 1941 and the map of NATO members and satellite states nowadays.

Thus, Serbia is forced to communicate with the belligerent alliance, particularly as the latter keeps escalating its pressure on Belgrade. Serbia’s close ties with Russia were unacceptable to NATO and the European Union. After Moscow’s counteroffensive against their crawling aggression in Eastern Europe (SMO), Brussels coerced Belgrade into downgrading ties with its long-time ally.

This was done mostly through blackmail and increased support for the illegal narco-terrorist entity in the NATO-occupied Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia.

In addition, there’s escalating pressure on Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, another artificially created entity that resulted from the political West’s aggression on Serbia/Yugoslavia. In such a situation,  Belgrade needs to tread carefully, as the New (Fourth) Reich and its Axis powers (“global NATO”) are only looking for an excuse to launch yet another aggression against any country that’s not fully compliant with their “diplomatic demands” (i.e. blackmail and arm-twisting). In other words, largely impotent against Russia (unless we count NATO support for terrorism and Nazism), the political West is like a wounded hyena looking for any sort of small prey on which it can demonstrate its “strength”. Despite all this, Serbia is still looking for ways to maintain its ties with the rapidly growing multipolar world.

Another long-time friend of the small European country is another (Eur)Asian giant – China. Belgrade and Beijing have had close ties for decades.

Apart from the mutual (geo)political support, as neither country accepts the political West’s attempts to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both, Serbia and China also have a robust economic cooperation that goes back decades. There’s been a considerable increase in cultural and educational ties, particularly with a growing number of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia. However, the far more consequential visit came on May 7, when President Xi Jinping touched down in Belgrade.

The Chinese leader spent two days in the country and was visibly content with the visit, perfectly aware that he came to a friendly (or even allied) country. What’s far more important for Serbia, Xi Jinping showed his respect for the small, virtually besieged country.

In stark contrast to NATO and the EU (the former’s geopolitical pendant), the Chinese leader demonstrated willingness to help the country at a very difficult time. Through its ties with Beijing, Belgrade is effectively circumventing the political West’s blockade. The belligerent power pole’s relations with Serbia effectively boil down to sending low-ranking apparatchiks who then convey their senseless demands, offering nothing in return (or worse, later demanding even more, as is usually the case). On the other hand, China’s offers mostly revolve around very real economic benefits, such as massive infrastructure projects that can help Serbia rebuild its industry, ravaged by decades of NATO aggression and EU (neo)colonial policies. Highlighting the many war crimes of the US-led belligerent alliance, Xi Jinping also reminded everyone that Beijing never forgot about the direct NATO aggression that was launched in 1999.

Interestingly, his visit was timed to fall precisely on the 25th anniversary of a deliberate NATO airstrike on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

Just before arriving Xi Jinping slammed the world’s most aggressive racketeering cartel for this unpunished war crime (just one of NATO’s countless). It should be noted that, although Washington DC officially “apologized”, calling it a supposed “mistake”, Beijing and the rest of the civilized world remain unconvinced. Namely, US/NATO war criminals dropped five JDAM precision-guided bombs, directly hitting the embassy and killing three civilians, while over 20 other people were injured. In testimony before Congress, CIA Director George Tenet admitted that this was “the only [bombing mission] organized and directed [by the CIA]”. So much for it being “accidental”. Naturally, the Chinese people were furious and never forgot such a barbaric act.

Xi Jinping himself pointed this out, adding that relations between China and Serbia are “sealed by blood” and that “the friendship of the countries will forever remain in the common memory of the Chinese and Serbian people”. Such words certainly resonate quite strongly in both countries. It should also be noted that this US/NATO war crime remains the only such act in modern history, as it has never happened before, not even during world wars. In other words, even monstrosities such as Nazi Germany had more respect for diplomatic etiquette than the US does. Quite an “achievement’ for America, one must notice. But then again, it’s not very difficult being better than the warmongers in Washington DC. However, Xi Jinping warned that such terrorist acts will never again be tolerated. It’s worth noting that this warning should be taken very seriously, as the Chinese leader is extremely careful when choosing his words.

This sort of seriousness is all the more important for such a small, virtually besieged country like Serbia, as Beijing and Belgrade announced they will “build a community with a shared future”, a significant upgrade of the already very close ties that were inked eight years ago when the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement was signed. Xi Jinping stressed that Serbia is China’s first comprehensive strategic partner in Central and Eastern Europe, an example many countries in the region have looked to follow. However, the new agreement will make the small European country the first with which the (Eur)Asian giant has built such a relationship. Xi Jinping himself pointed out that this “speaks volumes about the strategic, special and high-level China-Serbia relations”. Beijing also has very close ties with other independent European countries, particularly Belarus and the neighboring Russian Federation.

All this demonstrates that Serbia certainly doesn’t have a future in the political West.

Quite the contrary, as the belligerent power pole keeps sinking into madness, terrorism and escalating militarism, it’s becoming an even bigger danger not just to itself, but the entire world. This is precisely why many countries around the globe are hurrying to arm themselves, as having the ability to turn Washington DC and Brussels into radioactive glass deserts for the next several eons is the only way to make sure they remain in check. At least for the time being, as NATO’s nuclear saber-rattling demonstrates that the insanity of its leaders is making even this a questionable deterrent. Still, the world needs to continue developing and expanding cooperation between peoples and civilizations. The BRICS+ format certainly makes this not only possible, but also desirable for any truly sovereign country on the planet.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

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He knows that any first strike against Russia would spark World War III, but his hot air serves the purpose of boosting Western morale and falsely justifying NATO’s naval buildup in the Baltic Sea, which enriches the military-industrial complex.

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Former NATO Supreme Commander Admiral James Stavridis wrote in his latest op-ed for Bloomberg that “Kaliningrad will need to be neutralized” in the event of war with Russia in order to prevent an attack against the Suwalki Corridor.

This is nothing but a bunch of hot air and chest-thumping aimed at boosting Western morale ahead of Russia’s expected military breakthrough across the Donbass front lines. He knows very well that any first strike against Kaliningrad would instantly lead to World War III.

It’s become fashionable since the start of the special operation for Western commentators to fearmonger about a Russian invasion of NATO, which is meant to manipulate the public into accepting the bloc’s provocative military buildup along its neighbor’s borders on that false pretext. Finland and Sweden’s formal membership in NATO, which followed decades of closely coordinating all aspects of their policies with it as informal members, created fresh narrative opportunities in this respect.

After all, Stavridis’ lede is that the Baltic Sea has since transformed into a “NATO lake”, which he claims is tempting President Putin to meddle in member states’ affairs via cyber and electronic warfare like never before in response to their unprecedentedly large-scale drills there. This scenario closely resembles the one that Bild reported on in January citing allegedly leaked German Defense Ministry documents, which detailed the aggressive steps that Russia will allegedly take against the Baltics from then till May 2025.

Some of them concern ramped-up meddling of the sort that Stavridis regards as inevitable, but the reality is that this report from four months back simply served to precondition the public into accepting this speculation as fact in order to more easily manipulate them for the previously mentioned reasons. His piece in particular aims to generate widespread support for militarizing the Baltic even more than it already is, which is overkill considering the naval mismatch between NATO and Russia there.

It’s precisely because of this grossly lopsided balance of forces that Russia would only resort to nuclear weapons in self-defense as a last resort if Kaliningrad were to become the victim of unprovoked aggression by NATO via a first strike or some other means for strategically “neutralizing” it. This exclave’s primary purpose for Russia is to host its Baltic Fleet, but it’s also intended to deter NATO aggression by functioning as a launchpad for nuclear second strikes deep into Europe in the worst-case scenario.

Considering this, Stavridis’ piece is exposed as a morale-boosting information warfare product, not a practical policy recommendation. Its only importance rests in potentially manipulating more of the Western public into supporting NATO’s provocative military buildup along its neighbor’s borders on the false pretext that Russia is plotting to invade the bloc. Given the “mutually assured destruction” between Russia and the US, this isn’t for strategic purposes, but solely to enrich the military-industrial complex.

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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 Public Domain

Genocide in Gaza: King Bibi’s Land Grab

By Mike Whitney, May 10, 2024

On Monday, Israel intensified its airstrikes on Rafah, bombing more than 50 sites in the heart of the city. Video footage on Twitter showed plumes of smoke rising from the makeshift encampments and residential buildings where more than 1.4 million refugees are presently huddled in the most densely populated place on earth.

30,000 People March in Dublin in Defiance of the Globalist-Funded Mass Plantation of ‘Unvetted’ Migrants Into Ireland and Europe

By Mark Keenan, May 10, 2024

On Monday 6^th May, an estimated 30,000 people held a peaceful march in Dublin, Ireland, showing their strong determination to protect Ireland from the globalist new world order plan of mass ‘unvetted’ immigration into Ireland. The large march occurred amidst rising crime by migrants, including violent crime and sexual assaults.

The Possible Saudi-Israeli Normalization Post-Gaza

By Steven Sahiounie, May 10, 2024

On May 4, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, safe humanitarian corridors, and the fulfillment of Palestinians’ legitimate rights, including their right to self-determination and an independent state.

Ukrainian Azov Brigade Fighter Exposes Conscription Situation: “No one wants to join the Army these days”

By Ahmed Adel, May 09, 2024

Ukrainians are taking increasingly desperate measures to avoid conscription into the military at a time when Kiev does not have reserve troops to replace those already on the front, a soldier from the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade told local media.


“Napalm Girl – 
Never Stop Running Napalm Girl”: A Story of Atrocities in the Vietnam War. Peter Koenig

By Peter Koenig, May 09, 2024

My generation is old enough to still remember the Vietnam War – another American invasion, another US killing atrocity by psychopaths leading governments, another bonanza for the war industry. This is now 50-plus years back, and the empire’s strategies to dominate the world, subdue its people, has not changed.

The Continuing Dynamics of World War since 1914

By Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, May 09, 2024

Every day in the media, the question “When will the Third World War break out?” continues to be on the agenda. Let’s answer this question from the beginning, the world war has been going on between oceanic powers and continental powers with varying intensities since 1914. 

The Notice of Liability Delivered to Individuals at the WHO

By Dr. Tess Lawrie, May 09, 2024

As early as 2021, international experts were cautioning against the novel Covid strategies recommended by the WHO Covid team, especially but not limited to the experimental modRNA medical technologies developed at ‘warp speed’ to function purportedly as vaccines.

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Israel and Saudi Arabia seemed on the verge of establishing normal relations, but the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 changed everything after Israel began a horrific bombardment of Gaza in a revenge attack. The dead Israelis numbered about 1,400, but the dead Palestinians now amount to about 35,000, with more deaths recorded daily.

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office for the sixth time, he stated he had two main goals: to increase illegal settlements in the Occupied territory of the West Bank, and to sign a normalization pact with Saudi Arabia as part of the US-led Abraham Accords, which were rolled out during the administration of President Donald Trump.

US President Joe Biden continued the push for an Israeli-Saudi pact, and all signs appeared to point to a successful future normalization. Then Gaza happened, and the world watched in horror as Israel, supported by Biden, committed genocide in Gaza, with no end in sight to the genocide, and no end in sight to the American support of Israel.

Even though the hope of a pact between Israel and Saudi Arabia appears diminished, still Saudi Arabia has left the door open to Israel, but with conditions to be met before realizing the dream of Netanyahu, which could have implications for regional stability and a potential reset in Middle Eastern politics.

US-Israel Goal of Saudi-Israel Pact

Shared security concerns have played a pivotal role in bringing Saudi Arabia and Israel closer in recent years. With Iran’s expanding influence on the regional stage, both nations now recognize the necessity of cooperation to counter common threats to their national security. Covert intelligence sharing, joint military exercises, and discreet diplomatic communications have helped forge a new understanding between Riyadh and Tel Aviv.

Israel had a plan in which they would not make peace with the Palestinians, and would not give them freedom or human rights, but instead Israel would forge alliances with its Arab neighbors, thus by-passing the Palestinian issue.

With the US pressure on Middle Eastern countries under the Abraham Accords, the plan was successful, though limited to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Sudan which have already normalized ties and set a precedent for Saudi Arabia to join the crowd.

Iran as a Threat

Israel has always viewed Iran as ‘enemy number one’. Iran’s firm stance on support of the resistance to the occupation of Palestine has kept Israel attacking Iran in both words and military actions.

China stepped on to the Middle East diplomatic stage and successfully brokered a normalization pact between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This angered Israel and the US, as they were both using Iran as the threat to the Arab countries of the Middle East.

By all accounts, the peace has held between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran has said they will support any peace agreement that the Palestinian people make with Israel. If the US and Israel want to disarm, or dismantle the “Axis of Resistance” that Iran supports, then they need to settle on a peace deal between Israel and Palestine, and the resistance will be over, a thing of the past.

But, most political analysts on the Middle East have said that the US and Israel do not want any state, freedom, or human rights for Palestine. All the current rhetoric coming out of Washington about a two-state solution, and complying with decades old UN resolutions, is just empty talk and designed to buy time for the Netanyahu government to destroy Hamas, and empty Gaza.

AIPAC

Saudi Arabia seeks normalization with Israel because of AIPAC, the Israel lobby which controls the US Congress, the Oval Office, and any politician with hopes of a long career.

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is a book by John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, published in late August 2007. It was a New York Times Best Seller.

Mearsheimer and Walt contend that the centerpiece of US Middle East policy is its intimate relationship with Israel, and the US commitment to Israel is due primarily to the activities of AIPAC.

The power of AIPAC over members of Congress is massive. Although there are many domestic lobbies, they differ from APIAC because AIPAC is working for a foreign government, and it is not always in the national interest of the US, which is demonstrated by the current US support of Israel while committing genocide in Gaza that has brought chaos across the US on campuses and streets, and diminished the reputation of the US abroad as a promoter of freedom and human rights.

Many in Congress have accused AIPAC campaign contributions for achieving bipartisan support for anything proposed by the Israeli government.

Political fundraising is a huge part of AIPAC’s operation. One of the three top positions in its massive Washington, DC, headquarters is that of political director, who runs both the Washington political operation and receives an annual salary of about $500,000.

Access to US Weapons and Defense Technologies

If Saudi Arabia and Israel are together in the Abraham Accords, then Saudi Arabia can gain significant political leverage in Washington, DC. When the Kingdom needs weapons or defense technologies they won’t have any struggles in Congress for approval. AIPAC will send its lobbyists to Capitol Hill, and like magic everything will be quickly approved for Riyadh. This is the chief perk of a Saudi-Israel pact.

Vision 2030

Increasingly, Saudi Arabia has shifted its focus towards economic and infrastructural development under the ambitious Vision 2030 plan. Consequently, internal considerations and a desire for regional stability have compelled the Kingdom to reassess its stance on Israel. Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has a vision of leading the Kingdom away from fossil fuels and into business and tourism. He needs regional peace and prosperity to achieve his goals.

The shared pursuit of regional influence and access to advanced technologies has fostered a strategic convergence between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Bilateral agreements in cybersecurity, water management, renewable energy, and health care have established significant economic and technological exchanges, ultimately benefiting both nations. This evolving cooperation creates a foundation for further collaboration across numerous sectors and provides a platform for modified geopolitical alliances in the region.

Free Palestinian

On May 4, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, safe humanitarian corridors, and the fulfillment of Palestinians’ legitimate rights, including their right to self-determination and an independent state.

He added, that Saudi Arabia has tirelessly worked, in collaboration with other nations, to protect civilians and provide relief in Palestine.

The Kingdom also renewed its call on the international community to intervene immediately to stop the genocide being perpetrated by Israel against unarmed civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

On May 6, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs voiced Saudi Arabia’s warning of the dangers of targeting the city of Rafah. The ministry noted that Israel’s violation of international law and international humanitarian law without deterrence exacerbates the humanitarian crisis and scuttles international peace efforts.

As the Saudi Arabia-Israel relationship continues to evolve, it has the potential to reshape the geopolitical dynamics of the Middle East. Shared security concerns, economic opportunities, and the shifting Arab stance towards Israel have laid the groundwork for deeper cooperation. However, progress remains contingent on establishing a Palestinian state. Despite the obstacles ahead, a consequential reset in Middle Eastern politics appears possible and may foster a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive region.

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

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

Featured image is from The Duran

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If you’ve ever taken a lifesaving course, you know there’s a real possibility that a drowning person will drag you under and you’ll both die. It’s a lesson that should be kept in mind when discussing America’s relationship with Israel. (Adapted from @LarryBoorstein)

On Monday, Israel intensified its airstrikes on Rafah, bombing more than 50 sites in the heart of the city. Video footage on Twitter showed plumes of smoke rising from the makeshift encampments and residential buildings where more than 1.4 million refugees are presently huddled in the most densely populated place on earth. Israel’s air campaign was accompanied by a sizable ground-offensive that deployed tanks and armored vehicles to the southern border where Israeli troops quickly seized the Rafah Crossing without resistance.

The sudden uptick in violence has triggered widespread panic among the Palestinians many of who have already gathered their families and belongings onto carts and buses and fled northward to safety. The opening assault on the civilian enclave is reminiscent of earlier attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis both of which followed a similar pattern. The launching of random bombings is designed to amplify feelings of terror within the population while the humanitarian blockade tightens the stranglehold on critical food and medical supplies. The objective here is not to kill as many Palestinians as possible, but to force them into sprawling tent cities where they will languish amid the rubble until the international community finds a way to spirit them out of the country. For Israel, the endgame has always been ethnic cleansing, a comprehensive erasure of the native population. The ground invasion of Rafah represents the final phase of that maniacal strategy. This is from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:

The assault on Rafah comes despite the acceptance by Hamas Monday of a proposal for a temporary cessation of hostilities in exchange for the release of hostages. But after spending weeks attempting to blame the Palestinians for the ongoing war, Israeli officials flatly rejected the proposal….

In response to the murderous Israeli onslaught, multiple US officials reiterated their unlimited support for Israel. “We have always made clear that we are committed to Israel’s defense,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel on Monday. “That commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad.” US reiterates “ironclad” support to Israel as Netanyahu launches assault on Rafah, World Socialist Web Site

The cynical and misleading phrase “Israel’s right to defend itself” has become synonymous with the premeditated mass-murder of civilians. Most people have never seen anything as  horrific as Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza which explains why college campuses across the United States have become hotbeds of political activism almost overnight. America’s students now serve as the nation’s conscience by opposing a flagrantly-immoral onslaught that deliberately targets defenseless women and children.

Not surprisingly, Israel has yet to produce any hard evidence that their 7 month-long bloodbath has killed even one Hamas militant. Instead, we are expected to believe the unverified claims of IDF spokesmen who have proven themselves to be thoroughly unreliable time and time again. For all we know, the Hamas death figures are completely fabricated like the “40 beheaded babies” or the numerous fictitious rape allegations. All of these elaborate hoaxes have turned out to be part of a twisted, public relations campaign aimed at building support for Israel’s relentless butchery.

In fact, there is no reason to believe that Israel’s operation has anything to do with Hamas at all. Hamas is merely a pretext for corralling the Palestinians and driving them out of Gaza. That’s the real goal.

But while surveys show that a large majority of the global population opposes Israel’s demented crusade, that is not the case in Israel.

A recent article by Philip Giraldi stated that “92% of Israelis fully support the slaughter of the Palestinians by Netanyahu and his psychopaths.” Author Norman Finkelstein has largely corroborated Giraldi’s findings but provided more detail in a recent interview on You Tube. Here’s what he said:

“It’s not just the Israeli state. If you look at the Israeli society… overwhelmingly supports the genocidal war in Gaza. It’s about 95% of the Jewish Israelis who support the war. … I have to admit, I was astonished when I read the numbers… As of January, only 3.2 percent of Jewish Israelis believe the IDF is using too much firepower in Gaza. Can you believe those numbers? As of January, when the case had already reached the ICJ on the question of genocide, only 3.2 percent of Jewish Israelis believed the IDF was using too much firepower in Gaza. So, when people blame Netanyahu for the insanity …that is a misrepresentation of the facts…. The whole population agrees with what Netanyahu is doing. (Finkelstein also reports that 60% of Jewish Israelis oppose even providing Palestinians with humanitarian aid.) Norman Finkelstein on Israel Palestine,YouTube 55:10 min

In a 2-minute video on Rumble, Finkelstein provided even more interesting datapoints which help to illustrate the monstrous character of the current Israeli rampage. Not surprisingly, his remarks were scrubbed from You Tube but presented instead on a smaller “free speech” platform called Rumble. Here’s part of what he said:

I have very little sympathy for what has become of that state. It’s a satanic state…. If you look at every metric: Intensity of bombing; Payload of bombs; Imprecision of bombs; Destruction of civilian infrastructure; Ratio of civilians to combatants killed; Ratio of women and children to total numbers killed. By every metric,… what Israel is doing in Gaza is in a class all of its own. …They are killing people in a concentration camp. They are killing people in a concentration camp. They can’t go anywhere. They can’t flee. Norman Finkelstein on the Satanic state of Israel, Rumble

What are we to make of this? After all, Americans are constantly being told that Israelis are just like them, and that we share the same western values and western beliefs.

So, why the vast discrepancy? Why, for example, do 75% of Democrats now oppose Israel’s action in Gaza (Majority in U.S. Now Disapprove of Israeli Action in Gaza, Gallup) while an overwhelming majority of Israelis think the bloodletting should continue? And why do we constantly hear Israeli political leaders and senior-level bureaucrats denigrating Palestinians in the most vitriolic and hateful language? And, finally, why do we see a myriad of videos on social media of Israelis celebrating the destruction of Palestinian hospitals, universities and mosques, or blocking food trucks headed for Gaza, or gleefully mugging for a camera while mistreating the prisoners in their care? How do we explain this phenomenon? What twisted ideology has poisoned the minds of these people that they would treat others with such egregious inhumanity? (Check out this video of joyous Israelis celebrating the invasion of Rafah.)

BREAKING: ZIONISTS DANCING AND SINGING AS THEY INVADE RAFAH TO KILL CHILDREN

Source: @stairwayto3dom pic.twitter.com/7VM2ktq1Ux

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) May 6, 2024

Scenes like this (in the video) are bound to make ordinary people scratch their heads and wonder why the Israelis are so happy that their army is being used to crush a civilian population. What glory is there in that?

None at all. Many people are equally baffled when they hear Israeli politicians spew their loathing for Palestinians while making the case that women and children deserve the same punishment as Hamas. Where does that wellspring of hatred come from? And why would anyone in their right-mind want to block humanitarian aid trucks from delivering food to starving women and children? How sick is that?

How do people get this way? What sort of social environment produces people who celebrate sadistic acts of brutality and cruelty?

Author Lawrence Davidson helps to answer these questions by showing how the transplanting of mainly European Jews to Palestine created “cultural and ‘racial’ incubators for an ‘us (superior) vs. them (inferior)’” which is fairly common among settler populations. Here’s more:

The founders of modern Zionism were both Jews and Europeans, and (as such) had acquired the West’s cultural sense of superiority in relation to non-Europeans…..This sense of superiority would play an important role when a deal (the Balfour Declaration) (in which), the British would… help create a “Jewish national home” in Palestine…

…in other European colonies, where large numbers of Europeans resided, the era following World War II saw their eventual evacuation as power shifted over to the natives….Unfortunately, in the case of Palestine, this process of de-colonization never occurred…..

Soon thereafter, the Zionists began executing a prepared plan to conquer the “Holy Land” and chase away or subjugate the native population. And what of that imperial point of view which saw the European as superior and the native as inferior? This became institutionalized in the practices of the new Israeli state….

That made Israel one of the very few … self-identified “Western” nation states to continue to implement old-style imperial policies: they discriminated against the Palestinian population in every way imaginable, pushed them into enclosed areas of concentration and sought to control their lives in great detail.

If one wants to know what this meant for the evolving character of Israel’s citizenry who now would live out the colonial drama as an imperial power in their own right, one might take a look at a book by Sven Lindqvist entitled Exterminate All The Brutes (New Press 1996). This work convincingly shows that lording it over often resisting native peoples, debasing and humiliating them, regularly killing or otherwise punishing them when they protest, leads the colonials to develop genocidal yearnings….

The Israelis have taught their children the imperial point of view, augmented it with biased media reporting, labeled the inevitable resistance offered by the Palestinians as anti-Semitism and took it as proof of the need to suppress and control this population of “Others.”

And, from the Zionist standpoint, this entire process has worked remarkably well. Today all but a handful of Israeli Jews dislike and fear the people they conquered and displaced. They wish they would go away. And, when their resistance gets just a bit too much to bear, they are now quite willing to see them put out of the way…..

Now that apartheid South Africa is no more, the Israelis are the last surviving heirs to that dreadful heritage. Origins of Israel’s Anti-Arab Racism, Consortium News

Repeat: “…lording over… resisting native peoples, debasing and humiliating them, regularly killing or otherwise punishing them when they protest, leads the colonials to develop genocidal yearnings….”

Does that sum up the Palestinian experience for the last 75 years?

It does.

And have those “genocidal yearnings” matured into a full-blown genocide transforming all of historic Palestine into a free-fire zone in which the wholesale slaughter of civilians is applauded as a struggle against Hamas?

Yes, again.

It’s worth noting, that the views of other analysts are not entirely in synch with Davidson’s. For example, here’s how author Ron Unz responded when he was asked if he thought ‘racism played a role in the way the Palestinians are treated (by Israel)?

As I discussed in a long 2018 article, the word “racism” is far too mild a term to describe the attitude of traditional Orthodox Judaism towards all non-Jews. Drawing upon the seminal work of Israeli Prof. Israel Shahak, I highlighted some important facts:

… unfortunately, there is also a far darker side, primarily involving the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, with the highly derogatory term goyim frequently used to describe the latter. To put it bluntly, Jews have divine souls and goyim do not, being merely beasts in the shape of men. Indeed, the primary reason for the existence of non-Jews is to serve as the slaves of Jews, with some very high-ranking rabbis occasionally stating this well-known fact……

Jewish lives have infinite value, and non-Jewish ones none at all, which has obvious policy implications….

My encounter a decade ago with Shahak’s candid description of the true doctrines of traditional Judaism was certainly one of the most world-altering revelations of my entire life. But as I gradually digested the full implications, all sorts of puzzles and disconnected facts suddenly became much more clear….

For example, my history books had always disapprovingly mentioned Germany’s Max Nordau and Italy’s Cesare Lombroso as two of the founding figures of European racism and eugenics theories, but it was only very recently that I discovered that Nordau had also been the joint founder with Theodor Herzl of the world Zionist movement, while his major racialist treatise Degeneration, was dedicated to Lombroso, his Jewish mentor…

Obviously the Talmud is hardly regular reading among ordinary Jews these days…But it is important to keep in mind that until just a few generations ago, almost all European Jews were deeply Orthodox,… Highly distinctive cultural patterns and social attitudes can easily seep into a considerably wider population, especially one that remains ignorant of the origin of those sentiments, a condition enhancing their unrecognized influence. A religion based upon the principle of “Love Thy Neighbor” may or may not be workable in practice, but a religion based upon “Hate Thy Neighbor” might have long-term cultural ripple effects that extend far beyond the direct community of the deeply pious. If nearly all Jews for a thousand or two thousand years were taught to feel a seething hatred toward all non-Jews and also developed an enormous infrastructure of cultural dishonesty to mask that attitude, it is difficult to believe that such an unfortunate history has had absolutely no consequences for our present-day world, or that of the relatively recent past. The Jewish Roots of the Gaza Rampage, Ron Unz, The Unz Review

IMO, both of these answers help to explain Israel’s unusual penchant for cruel and sadistic behavior.

Whether that behavior is an expression of a colonial-settler mindset that sees the occupier as inherently superior to the native people or a religious doctrine that denigrates outsiders as “merely beasts in the shape of men”; the outcome is the same. In both cases, the aggressive behavior of one group is justified in terms of his basic superiority to the other. This is the type of Nietzschean logic that allows a nation to pound an entire civilian population into dust and then try to dignify it as a ‘war between equals.’ What a joke. As Finkelstein says, “They are killing people in a concentration camp.” Gaza is not a gladiatorial cage-match, it’s the moral equivalent of a firing squad.

We also must ask ourselves why Netanyahu is pressing ahead with the Rafah operation when it has clearly exacerbated Israel’s growing isolation and strained relations between Tel Aviv and Washington. The reason is, quite simply, that the plan to expel the Arab population from Palestine precedes the creation of the Jewish state by nearly 50 years. In other words, the plan to forcefully eradicate the indigenous people from their historic homeland dates back to the beginnings of Zionism itself more than a century ago. As “Zionist zealot Yosef Weitz said in 1940 – eight years before the founding of the state of Israel:

“It must be clear that there is no room in the country for both peoples … If the Arabs leave it, the country will become wide and spacious for us …. The only solution is a Land…without Arabs. There is no room here for compromises… There is no way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries … Not one village must be left, not one tribe… There is no other solution.” Israel’s Architect of Ethnic Cleansing, Stefan Moore, Consortium News

Here’s some additional background from Moore’s column:

In 1932, when Weitz joined the Jewish National Fund, there were only 91,000 Jews in Palestine (roughly 10 percent of the population) who owned a mere 2 percent of the land…. Changing that demographic reality called for a radical two-pronged solution first, to convince the British Mandate in Palestine to allow more Jewish migration and, simultaneously, develop an efficient program to expel indigenous Palestinians.”….

Thanks to Weitz’s obsessive commitment to the mass expulsion of Palestinians he became known as the “architect of transfer” — a euphemism for ethnic cleansing… that would reach its apotheosis in the Nakba of 1948….

“There is no room for us with our neighbours. . . . . the only way is to cut and eradicate them [the Palestinian Arabs] from the roots...

Speaking in 1938, David Ben-Gurion …announced in a 1938 speech:

“After we become a strong force…we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine…The state will have to preserve order – not by preaching but with machine guns.”….

Plan D, it was the final Masterplan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine:

“The orders came with a detailed description of the methods to be used to forcibly evict the people: large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding villages and population centers; setting fire to homes, properties, and goods; expelling residents; demolishing homes; and, finally, planting mines in the rubble to prevent the expelled inhabitants from returning…”

When it was over, more than half of Palestine’s indigenous population, over 750,000 people, had been uprooted; 531 villages had been destroyed… and an estimated 10-15,000 Palestinians were dead….

….Meanwhile, the racist language used by Israel’s leaders to justify the mass eradication of Palestinians remains unchanged: “We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly,” spits Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant; “This is a battle, not only of Israel against these barbarians,” intones Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “it is a battle of civilization against barbarism.” And “There are no Palestinians, because there isn’t a Palestinian people,” declares Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

“It is tempting to dismiss the revival of transfer … as the wild ravings of right-wing extremists,” writes Nur-eldeen Masalha. “Such a dismissal is dangerous, however, and it is well to be reminded that the concept of transfer lies at the very heart of mainstream Zionism. Israel’s Architect of Ethnic Cleansing, Stefan Moore, Consortium News

A careful reading of Moore’s article should convince readers that the current furor over October 7th is merely a smokescreen that’s being used to conceal the real motive for the war, which is Israel’s determination to control all the land between the River to the Sea in order to establish a demographically viable Jewish state with a clear Jewish majority. That is the primary objective of the Zionist project and it has been for more than a century. The last remaining obstacle to achieving that goal is the nearly two million Palestinians who would rather die than abandon their homeland.

We wish them success.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.

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

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Ukrainians are taking increasingly desperate measures to avoid conscription into the military at a time when Kiev does not have reserve troops to replace those already on the front, a soldier from the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade told local media. The lack of morale among Ukrainians to fight Russian forces brings into question why the US insists on sending billions of dollars to Kiev.

“No one is willing to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine nowadays,” commented Niko, who is using a call name and is a fighter for the 12th Brigade of the Azov Brigade, a formation of the National Guard of Ukraine formerly based in Mariupol.

The men “do whatever they come up with” to avoid conscription, including “swimming across the Tisza River and drowning themselves in there,” Niko told local media TSN before referring to reports from April 13 about men killed trying to flee Ukraine across the river to avoid compulsory military service.

Likewise, the neo-Nazi fighter said he continues to serve despite the amputation of his leg because no one can replace him.

Evasion of military service is increasingly worrying for Kiev, with many trying to flee the country illegally. The reaction of the Ukrainian authorities to these attempts is harsher than ever. A video published by Ukrainian media in March showed border guards brutally beating dozens of men detained when they tried to cross the border with Romania, piling them together on the ground.

On April 11, the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine approved a controversial law requiring men between the ages of 18 and 60 to carry their military registration papers at all times. The new law also toughens penalties for attempting to evade military conscription.

The mobilisation law aims to increase the number of Ukrainian troops. These measures were adopted amid the heavy losses suffered by Ukraine in the conflict, with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu indicating in late April that Kiev had lost almost 500,000 soldiers since the start of hostilities.

Yet, despite this catastrophic casualty number and the evident unwillingness of Ukrainians to fight, US President Joe Biden has approved a massive $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, wasting more taxpayer money on a war that will only result in Russia’s ultimate victory.

Ukrainians desperately avoiding conscription shows that the only people on the frontline are those unfortunate to have been forcibly mobilised and are therefore not motivated, or the most extremist elements like Niko, who have managed to survive but are extremely exhausted and even maimed.

This raises questions about who will man the new influx of weapons and equipment that Ukraine will receive. In fact, journalist Christoph Wanner on Die Welt revealed that the Ukrainian military is refusing to use US-made Abrams tanks due to overestimated expectations.

It is recalled that in late September 2023, the White House confirmed that Abrams tanks had begun arriving in Ukraine.

“They probably didn’t bring what was expected of them, so now they are temporarily abandoning the still intact Abrams tanks,” the journalist said when commenting on the withdrawal of Ukraine’s Abrams tanks from the front line.

Wanner noted that using the tanks, initially hailed as a “wunderwaffe” (wonder-weapon) that would turn the tide in Kiev’s favour, is complicated by first-person view (FPV) and kamikaze drones operated by the Russian military. Expectations of the Abrams effectiveness faced a harsh reality as cheap Russian drones can easily turn expensive American-made tanks into scrap metal.

“We cannot live in a world where drones costing a few thousand dollars have free rein to attack $10 million tanks where they are most vulnerable: from above,” lamented The Telegraph on April 26.

The fact that Abrams tanks have been removed from the battlefield indicates that Ukrainian soldiers are considered by the Kiev regime even more expendable than their outdated weaponry, providing insight once again into why Ukrainians are desperately avoiding conscription.

Although the $61 billion aid package could sustain Kiev’s war efforts for a few more months, it ultimately cannot help Ukraine avoid defeat. This will put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an even more difficult predicament than he currently finds himself in, especially as he is carrying out brutal persecutions through his conscription system of kidnapping men between 18 and 60 years old to go to the battlefront – a situation that cannot be sustained as domestic outrage will boil over.

The only thing Zelensky currently offers Ukrainian men of combat age is to die fighting in a futile war against Russia or go to jail for having deserted. As Niko pointed out, “No one is willing to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine nowadays.”

And who can blame them? No one wants to die or lose a leg like the neo-Nazi fighter did.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

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Every day in the media, the question “When will the Third World War break out?” continues to be on the agenda. 

Let’s answer this question from the beginning, the world war has been going on between oceanic powers and continental powers with varying intensities since 1914. 

So what is “World War”? 

This term emerged with the terms “First and Second World War”. 

It was coined to describe large-scale conflicts around the world, involving many nations, including the hegemon and its rivals, and covering different continents, regions and countries. 

The world of academia, media, politics and the military defined these multi-regional, multi-sided wars, which caused the hegemony to change hands or the existing hegemon to consolidate its power or the emergence of new great powers, as “world wars”. 

However, while the wars were being waged or after them, many states did not call these wars world wars. For example, there were states that defined the First World War as the “Great War”. The Ottoman Empire called this war “Harbi Umumi”, that is, “General War”. 

Similarly, while the Russians still define World War II as the “Great Patriotic War”, in China it is defined as the “War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression” or simply the “War of Resistance”. 

Hitler also frequently referred to World War II as “war” or “struggle” in his speeches and propaganda.

Industrial Revolution and the Period of Great Wars

Wars that affected the world continentally rather than regionally emerged after the industrial revolution. Because the industrial revolution brought machine power instead of manual/natural power in production, triggering revolutions in the production of goods that have never been seen in human history. Its biggest reflection for great powers was the transition from the capitalist stage to the imperialist stage with the increase in trade, economic power and prosperity. This transition undoubtedly received its greatest driving force from military power. Military power developed greatly in a short time as a tool of punishment and imposition of the hegemon who controlled the growing financial and economic world, thus prepared the conditions for world wars. Today’s framework was drawn at the beginning of the 19th century.

Pax Britannica and the World War

In the 19th century, the biggest owner of both the industrial and the military revolution was Great Britain. Using its economic and military (naval) power, the small island state imposed the liberal capitalist and Sterling-based global system wordlwide, based on Protestant morality. In other words, the foundations of today were formed after the victories of the 1805 Trafalgar Naval Battle and the 1812 Waterloo Battle. The imperialist hegemony of Anglo-Saxonism began to be imposed on the whole world through the Royal Navy and army. Even the Ottoman Tanzimat reform and the Baltalimanı trade agreement were the results of this era. This system worked smoothly until the beginning of the 20th century, and the Anglo-Saxon empire ruthlessly continued its hegemony without setting the sun.

The Rise of Germany and World War I

German soldiers on the way to the front in 1914. A message on the freight car spells out “Trip to Paris”; early in the war, all sides expected the conflict to be a short one. (From the Public Domain)

Britain’s global reign continued for nearly 100 years, until the unification of Germany at the beginning of the 20th century and its subsequent leadership of the second industrial revolution. The balance began to be disrupted after the early 1900s.

Germany, as a late imperialist and colonial continental state and economic giant, wanted to benefit more from the resources of underdeveloped countries during the transition from coal to oil. Germany challenged England’s naval power through developing and deploying a huge navy to the oceans.

And the First World War broke out. The first, most brutal showdown between the sea and the continent lasted 4 years. Britain allied with  another naval power -its archenemy of last 200 years – France, and its biggest rival -the continental state- Russia – and pushed Germany back to where it started at the end of the war.

The War Won Thanks to the USA

However, it owed this success to destiny. At the end of 1917, things were not going well and there was a communist revolution in Russia.

If there had been no revolution in Russia and the Russians had not withdrawn from the war with the extremely humiliating Treaty of Brest Litovsk, the USA would not have entered the war on the side of Britain to fill the gap, and perhaps Britain would not have won the war.

Thus, at the end of the war, Britain retained its place as the owner of the First Industrial Revolution and hegemony, but this victory was a Pirrhyc victory. Germany had become weak.

The USA was beginning to take Britain’s place. Power was slowly changing hands, but this change was between two Anglo-Saxons.

Losers and the Seeds of the New War

There were two big losers in the great power league of the First World War: Germany and Russia.

Both lost their empires and made large territorial concessions.

On the other hand, the United States could not be on the side of the winners, because although Britain had a large share in winning the war, it did not transfer post war gains to the United States from either the Middle East or Europe.

In 1918, Lenin made major territorial concessions in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to protect the revolution at home.

However, he still could not please the western world and was dragged into civil war. As a result, they achieved unity at the end of 1922 through bloody conflicts and established the Soviet Union. On the other hand, Germany’s humiliation period with the Treaty of Versailles brought out Hitler. Industrial giant Germany quickly recovered with its disciplined population and this time took action with its enormous military machine to expand its living space (Lebensraum).

Repeating Dynamics in Europe in 1939

The only thing that was different in the Second World War from the first was that the Soviets did not become enemies through the non-aggression agreement with Germany in the first two years of the war.

However, this was later disrupted, and the restructuring of the First World War was repeated.

The USA, Britain and the Soviets became allies.

Far from taking back what it lost in the first showdown, Germany occupied almost all of Europe.

As if that wasn’t enough, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941. Operation Barbarossa

This attack was inevitable despite the mutual non-aggression pact signed in 1939, because one of the eyes of the hegemon who emerged in Western Europe, just like Napoleon, is always directed towards the oceans and the other towards Asia.

It is a golden rule: What was lost in the first war is tried to be taken back in the second war.

The USA had the Wild West, England had India, Russia had the huge Central Asia, but Germany only had coal.

\Hitler was aiming for a German Empire stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Ural Mountains. Hitler was so strong till the end of 1941, with the support of US corporations. 

In a way, he took over the Imperial geopolitics from where the Kaiser left off in 1914.

In fact, his biggest goal was to gain access to both oil and valuable raw materials by taking over Russian lands.

After securing the oil and rubber stocks for domestic storages on which they were dependent, they achieved great victories in a toe years time frame with blitzkrieg warfare.

The first two years of the war went as planned. His aim was to persuade England to join him and attack the Soviets. Because Europe hated communists. Meanwhile, the world’s financial and trade giants were making big money from the war. Especially in the USA, the traces of the 1929 world economic crisis were being erased thanks to the war, and industrial production, was rapidly turning into war industry.

Pacific Front

On the other hand, another important factor that made this war a world war was Japan’s emergence as an island state, as a naval hegemon by challenging the USA in the Pacific.

They aimed to dominate the Pacific Ocean with Indonesia’s oil, Indo-China’s rubber, and other valuable strategic resources.

However, the Anglo-Saxon and Protestant USA, which has been the world’s largest economy since 1890, could not accept Britain’s example of establishing dominance by going from the island to the ocean and to the continent.

A massive blockade and sanctions process was launched against Japan, and on the morning of December 7, 1941,

Japan attacked the Hawaiian island and entered the war with the USA.

This attack was a big surprise for Hitler. Because Hitler did not want the neutral USA to intervene in the great war across the ocean.

Japan declared war on the USA without informing its ally Germany. Thus status quo fractured. Large US companies were already continuing to trade with Germany over the neutral countries throughout the war. The USA was even sending fuel to Germany via Spain. The neutral USA entering the war with Germany’s ally Japan would disrupt this flow.

Hitler’s Disappointment

Hitler’s situation was not bright at all during the days of the Pearl Harbor raid. The great Russian campaign (Operation Barbarossa) that he started on June 22, 1941, hit a hard rock in Moscow on December 5, 1941. The legend of the Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) ended that day. 

Photograph taken from a Japanese plane during the torpedo attack on ships moored on both sides of Ford Island shortly after the beginning of the Pearl Harbor attack. (From the Public Domain)

A week later, Hitler made his second mistake, as important as his decision to go to Moscow, and declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, hoping that Japan would declare war on the Soviets to force Russia into a two-front war. 

However, if not declared, the USA would have fought only in the Pacific Front and maintained its neutrality on the European front. On the other hand, the Japanese did not declare war on the Soviets in response to Hitler’s gesture. While this decision brought the beginning of the end of Hitler, it also ensured the salvation of England. Because if the USA had not actually entered the war on the side of Britain, it would have taken much longer for Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean basin to be freed from Hitler. 

In the meantime, let us remind that the reason why the Soviets did not make a preemptive attack on Germany was for not to provoke Japan. In such a situation, they would have to fight on two fronts. The beginning of the end of Germany, which was stuck in the mud in the Russian steppes, began with the Stalingrad victory, which lasted 200 days and ended in February 1943. The Soviets counterattacked in the summer of 1943. They were moving so fast that the Soviet armies were stopped in Berlin by the US threat of nuclear weapons. In fact, the real military power that saved Europe from Hitler was the Soviets. One of the main reasons for the Normandy landing was to prevent the Soviets from reaching the Atlantic coast and dominating Europe.

Post-war Balance

As a result of the determination of the areas of influence that started in Yalta after the war, the two winning fronts of the war (Anglo-Saxons and Soviets) created a balance. (We can say that if Hitler had won the war, the same sphere of influence would have been shared between Germany and the Anglo-Saxon world.) On the other hand, the Soviets created a very wide security buffer area extending from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea to avoid encountering a new Napoleon and Hitler again. With the geopolitical security belt where the first buffer is the Warsaw Pact and the second buffer is the Soviet Union, the founding Republic of the Soviets, Russia, has secured itself at the center.

The End of the Soviets

The external buffer called the Warsaw Pact lasted 36 years, and with the end of the Cold War, Russia first lost the Warsaw Pact and then the Soviet Union.

In other words, Russia encountered a new Brest Litovsk. It lost almost three-quarters of its domains within a year or two.

Just as Germany was humiliatingly provoked at the end of the First World War to prepare the environment for the Second War, this time, after the end of the Cold War, Russia was threatened with the continuous expansion of NATO to the East.

Furthermore it was faced with the NATO attempts to make Ukraine, one of the three main republics that founded the Soviet Union, a NATO ally. 

Today Is Like Yesterday

Today, the US-led maritime hegemony is playing a geopolitical chess game like the situation in the early 1900s. In place of the UK, there are USA, UK, and the EU; In place of Germany, there are China and Russia.

Today, there is no change in Anglo-Saxonism’s objectives towards Russia.

According to them, Russia is too big and should be dismembered at all costs and removed from all seas.

Its unlimited resources should be in the hands of neoliberal capitalists.

Let’s remind again. The rising great powers in Europe always turn their attention to the east as soon as they become hegemons.

Napoleonic France and Hitler’s Germany are the best examples.

The rising power in Europe after the Cold War was the USA.

By using NATO through its leading proxies, England, France, Germany, Romania and Poland, NATO, which has constantly expanded after 1999, today has penetrated into Russia’s vital borders.

By provoking and inviting the Russia-Ukraine War, the USA and the EU enabled European NATO countries to fight Russia indirectly, if not directly.

If Hitler came back to the world today and saw the borders of NATO and the EU, he would undoubtedly not be surprised by this situation.

Russia Removed From the Sea

Today, Russia is not in the Adriatic. It is squeezed into a small area in the Baltic. It is surrounded by NATO countries in the North Sea. If it were not for the Montreux Convention, which restricts the entry of NATO warships in the Black Sea in war time, it has been brought to a situation where it cannot even breathe. 

Despite being surrounded by NATO and being subjected to nearly a thousand economic sanctions and embargoes by the USA and the EU, Russia did not take any step back on the Ukrainian front; The fact that there was no change in the status of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia and Crimea, where the Russian-speaking population lives, frustrated the predictions that Russia would take a step back against Ukraine, which has received 200 billion USD worth of weapons, ammunition, mercenaries and aid from the West to date.

The leaders of the US, UK and France constantly say that Russia Must Not Win.

Russia is being demonized and made hostile in a way unprecedented in history.

However, this negative interaction backfires. During the Second World War, many western states breathed a sigh of relief when Hitler attacked the Soviets.

As a result, much of Hitler’s energy would be directed towards the east. 

However, the Russian Expedition, which Hitler and his generals predicted would reach Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev in 8 weeks at most, opened the doors of Berlin to the Russians with a devastating German defeat 2.5 years later.

Russians entered Berlin and did not leave Western Europe until 1989.

More importantly, in the 2.5 years between the winter of 1941 and 1943, their second biggest enemy, Japan, did not open a front against Russia in the east. Türkiye made the right decision by not entering the war on the side of Germany, nor did it enter the war on the side of the Anglo-Saxons. Today, in response to the anti-Russian US/EU and NATO front, China and India and the Global South do not even participate in fighting, let alone embargoes and sanctions against Russia.

The Main Target Is to Weaken China

For the collective west the most important objective is to defaeat  Russia thus move it away from the China and to keep the Anglo-American dominance globally.

A weak Russia will not be able to spare any strength against the Anglo-American alliance in the Pacific power struggle with China.

To the contrary, in a worst case scenario, Russia’s imposition of its own political will in Europe, despite the US and the EU/NATO bloc, will damage the global patronage of the US, whose reputation and credibility have already been greatly damaged due to the Gaza War. 

We are living in days in which the world economic balance is shifting towards Asia, and even the 300-year-old high-tech production monopoly of the West is being broken by Asian countries. BRICS+10 is rapidly moving towards becoming BRICS+40 in the autumn. 

The Global South now distances itself from US leadership and arbitration in international issues. Although the US-China competition is currently concentrated in the fields of trade and technology, the days when the military competition will be carried to the actual field, especially through the Philippines and Taiwan, are near. 

India will be the most important state in the alliance systems to be established during the military competition with China. If India remains neutral during the military conflict between China and the USA, the situation that will arise will be like Japan remaining neutral against the Soviets on the eastern front in World War II. 

This will be the most important decision that will determine China’s future. Let us remind you once again that if the Soviets had clashed with Japan in the east while the German occupation was continuing, they would not have been able to wage a two-front war.

Though, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand acting together with the USA against China cannot guarantee a decisive victory. Because military, demographic, and economic conditions are in China’s favor today.

USA Will Try to Buy Time in the Pacific

In the light of these views, the USA will not initiate a military initiative in the Pacific that will cause a loss of reputation and trust for itself, unless India’s complete participation in to the Anglo-Saxon bloc is guaranteed and the US allies in the Pacific reach joint and combined operational capability under a NATO-like military command and control structure. 

On the other hand, Ukraine, which still has its own dynamics, will use every means to continue the Russian war, as long as the its own people do not oppose it. In this way, both NATO states are kept on track and the American defense industry continues to transition to a war economy and massive production increase. 

Using the security advantage that geography provides, the USA will increase its efforts to prevent the unification of powers on other continents and to prevent continental states from reaching to the high seas as naval powers in order to ensure the continuation of the Anglo-American geopolitics of the early 1900s. 

In other words, the dynamics of the 1914 world war are valid today with different actors. World War continues. Only the scenes and actors vary. 

The two biggest geopolitical shifts were the end of the cold war in 1989 and the capitalist economic system collapse in 2008. In very same year, 2008, Russia challenged the USA in Georgia/South Ossetia, where neocon imperialism peaked and won. 

After 2012, with China entering the process of challenging the USA, the new era called great power competition has come to this day. 

In popular language, World War III continues with hybrid methods. A new front to be opened in the Pacific or in Moldova/Transdinistra after the Russia-Ukraine and Gaza-Israeli wars will give a clue to where this process will evolve in the future. 

However, under all circumstances, it is necessary to evaluate the situation that the US and EU/NATO fronts will encounter in the Asian Campaign with the surprises, Hitler encountered in the Moscow Campaign. 

In all these processes, I assume that the use of nuclear weapons will only be made by governments and leaders who will approve the destruction of their own people. That’s why I consider it a remote possibility. However, the production of nuclear weapons will continue, especially for the American war industry, and therefore the threat will be kept on the agenda and the transfer of large resources will be ensured.

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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.  

Featured image is from History Learning Site

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Global Research Wants to Hear From You!

***

My generation is old enough to still remember the Vietnam War – another American invasion, another US killing atrocity by psychopaths leading governments, another bonanza for the war industry.

This is now 50-plus years back, and the empire’s strategies to dominate the world, subdue its people, has not changed.

In the meantime, dozens of wars and conflicts have been initiated and fought either by the United States or its proxies, killing and maiming tens of millions of people around the world; as the world is sinking deeper and deeper into a dark abyss, from which one day, there may be no return.

But maybe there is hope.

What inspired me to write about Kim Phùc’s story – the “Never Stop Running, Napalm Girl” – is the short affectionate, yet strong and expressive anti-war video clip by Ray Jason, released in April 2024. Ray also provided the title for this article. See video below.

Vietnam – The 20-year War (1955 – 1975)

 You may remember the famous picture of the nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phùc, or Kim for short, who keeps running naked for her life from a US napalm attack that has scorched the cloths off her body, screaming in fear – never stopping from running. Kim was born on April 6, 1963.

Image: “The Terror of War”, photograph showing Phan Thi Kim Phuc running down a road near Trảng Bàng, Vietnam, after a napalm bomb was dropped on the village of Trảng Bàng by a plane of the Vietnam Air Force. (Licensed under PD-US)

On 8 June 1972 at Tràng Bàng, during the 20-year Vietnam War (1955-1975), Nick Ut took the iconic “Napalm Girl” photo (above). The then 21-year-old Associated Press (AP) photographer won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for his famous photo, titled, “The Terror of War”.

The picture was also chosen as the Word Press Photo of the Year for 1973.

Rightly or wrongly, the photograph has often been credited with initiating the Vietnam Peace process, by showing the people of the world innocent victims’ faces.  

Nick, the photographer, saved Kim’s life by taking her as an emergency to a Saigon hospital. They first did not want to admit her, saying that with her burns she would never survive. But Nick insisted, threatening them with going to the media, if they would refuse to help her, doing their best to save her life. They did, and saved Kim. 

In an interview some 20 years ago, Nick Ut, a veteran, retired from AP, and now Vietnamese-Canadian citizen, exuberated:

“That terrified little girl is still alive today and has become an eloquent testimony to the authenticity of that photo. That moment thirty years ago will be one Kim Phúc and I will never forget. It has ultimately changed both our lives.” 

Kim and Nick Ut have remained friends and posed for pictures at the 40th Anniversary Tribute Dinner in Honor of Kim Phuc in Toronto, June 8, 2012.  (Photo left by Matthew Sherwood/Reuters)

Today, Kim lives near Toronto with her family and helps other children-victims of war around the world. In between her trips, she shares her story with The World.

Kim Phúc founded the Kim Foundation International to provide aid to child victims of war. See this.​

In a February 2018 interview with The World, Kim Phúc described that day of horror, June 8, 1972:

“We were allowed to play inside of the temple nearby the bomb shelter. I remember after lunch, we heard the noise of some burning outside … suddenly, the soldiers asked the children to run out of the temple.”

“I saw the planes were very fast, very loud. As a child, I didn’t know anything. And I turned my head. I saw four bombs landing … then suddenly, the fire was everywhere around me. I didn’t see anybody else. And then the fire burned off my clothes, and I saw the fire on my left arm. I used my right hand to wrap it up. That’s why my right hand got burned, as well.”

The World: You just put the fire out with your hand?

“Yes. That moment, I was terrified, you know. Then, I ran out of that fire, and I saw my brothers and my cousins and some soldiers with us, probably South Vietnamese soldiers, who protected us in the temple. Then, we kept running and running and running, until I was too tired to run anymore. And I saw a lot of people. They stood on the street, and I cried out, “Too hot, too hot.” And I remember one of the soldiers; he gave me some water to drink. He poured water over my skin. At that moment, I passed out. I didn’t remember anything. I lost consciousness that day.” 

The World: After you lost consciousness, do you remember the following week? What happened afterward?

“Oh, for a long time, I had no idea when my memory came back.”

“After I got burned, I had a dream. I really wanted to become a doctor. Then, I got into medical school but then, at that moment, the Vietnamese government rediscovered me. I was that little girl in a famous picture, right? So, many foreign journalists came to Vietnam, and they wanted to interview me. So, because of that reason, I was put out of my school to basically do publicity [for the government].”

“And that was really a low point in my life. I didn’t have any freedom to do whatever I wanted.”

“Later, the Vietnamese government sent me to Cuba to study for six years. Then, I married a Vietnamese student, whom I met in my university. On the way back to Cuba [from our honeymoon to Moscow], our airplane had to stop in in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, for refueling. So, for one hour in that location, I took my chance; my husband and I defected [asking for Canadian political asylum, which they were granted]. Then our life was set up in Toronto. We had freedom in Canada.” 

Now, Kim is married (1992) to Bui Huy Toan. The couple has two children and lives in Ajax, Ontario, with their two children. In 1997, they became Canadian citizens. 

The World: You have such an optimistic view of how things can proceed in life after you went through so much. Are you ever angry?

“Right now, no. But before, yes. Before I held the hatred for a while. And I learned to forgive. I learned to love my enemies. That is from learning. I’m not born with that. I was raised in a different religion. I was raised in a Cao Dai religion in Vietnam, but I was missing something. And I just wondered, “Where are you, God?” But then finally I went to the library, and I had read so many religious books and among them, I read the Bible. Then I changed my attitude, changed my behavior.”

“I love my scars.”

“And because of that picture, I got the best treatment later-on. I went through 16 operations but unfortunately, I still have a lot of pain, so recently, I went through 10 laser treatments to help ease my pain.”

The World: I know you’ve got kids and grandkids. Have they ever seen the famous photo that was taken of you after that napalm fire? Do they see your scars and want to know why? What do you tell them to keep them positive about humanity?

“They know my suffering. They know everything. I cannot, you know, hide anything from them. I continue to teach them why Mommy got that scar and pain and suffering. But then I tell them because I still have a life and I still have you … be thankful to be alive. And I never, never take it for granted … I count what I have, but I’m not thinking about what I lost.”

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About Kim’s Life

When Kim Phúc was removed from her dream-studies, medicine, by the university and used for propaganda by her government, she became angry and depressed. Her anger was directed at the perpetrators of the war, who burned her, as well as her government which removed her from her studies and used her for publicity. The depression had its origins in her anger, as well as the constant pain from her scars. Kim was in a deep state of depression and considered suicide. 

But, the story goes, that in 1982 she found The Bible in a library. It led her to become a Christian and learning forgiveness. In 1986, she was granted permission by the Vietnamese Government to continue her studies in Cuba, where she first had to learn Spanish, then was trained as a pharmacist. It was in Havana, in 1989, where Kim Phúc met Nick Ut for the first time in fourteen years. The two have been meeting and speaking over the phone regularly ever since.

Becoming a Christian and learning forgiveness, Kim said in a National Public Radio (NPR) interview in 2008:

“Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?”

Forgiveness may have been the reason for Kim and Nick, the photographer, paying their respect, recently at the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington DC – a photo depicted towards the end of the tender but expressive anti-war video-composite of photographs “Never Stop Running, Napalm Girl”, by Ray Jason, above.

There is hope after all. Forgiveness and a conscience of Love may be the recipe for Peace and Harmony in this shattered and war-torn world.

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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: Thumbnails of the film footage showing the events just before and after the photograph was taken (Licensed under Fair Use)

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Global Research Wants to Hear From You!

***

Below you will find the text of the Notice of Liability delivered to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Dr Maria van Kerkhove, Dr Janet Diaz and Jeremy Farrar this week.

It was drafted with the help of specialist international lawyers and health scientists. Feel free to copy, paste and adapt for the purpose of notifying others of their liability in relation to the Covid-19 fraud.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: a man

dba: Director General World Health Organisation (WHO)

Office of the Director General

Avenue Appia 20

1202 Geneva – Switzerland       

6th day in the month of May in the year 2024

Dear Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (hereafter ‘you’),

Re: Notice upon Harm and to Cease and Desist 

On behalf of living men, women and all their sons and daughters living right now and those yet to be born on Earth, we hereby place you: a man: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, doing business as the Director General of the World Health Organisation (hereafter W.H.O), on notice that:

1. Your actions carried out in the capacity of Director General of the W.H.O during the Covid-19 chapter, principally consisting of falsely informing world governments of a so-called pandemic, thereby causing governments to declare non-existent medical emergencies, have been and are still an integral part of a chain of events that is resulting in mass loss of life, immense physical harm and untold psychological distress and trauma to the people on this planet;
2. Said actions appear to have led to Governments deploying insufficiently tested SARS-CoV-2 genetically modified organisms (GMOs) falsely termed ‘vaccines’ being also gene therapies, mandating unscientific masking protocols, implementing inhumane and anti-scientific ‘social distancing’ measures, purchasing and deploying ineffective and fraudulent PCR tests subsequently used to create false ‘casedemics’ in order to justify unlawful ‘lockdowns’, business closures and house arrest;
3. We demand that, with immediate effect, you cease and desist from taking further actions that would involve false and fraudulent communication to governments thereby causing or resulting in further instances of the kind of catastrophic outcomes outlined above.

Notice Upon Personal Liability

We also put you on notice that failure to cease or desist from continued or repeated involvement or implication in the above harms shall render you liable both in your personal and corporate capacity. As a man, you shall be investigated for criminal conspiracy. As a corporate officer, you shall be investigated for gross negligence, serious misconduct in public office, corporate fraud and potentially even aiding and abetting corporate manslaughter.

Further to the above Notices, and in order to clarify our position, may we take this opportunity respectfully to remind you of your own position and legal responsibilities.

WHO Constitutional Obligation

The objective of the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Article 1 of the WHO Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.¹ Thus, in your role as WHO Director-General, you are obliged to consult with a diversity of experts, including those who disagree with your recommendations on health, to ensure that best practice is ethically and objectively promoted to uphold the best interests of the public.

As early as 2021, international experts were cautioning against the novel Covid strategies recommended by the WHO Covid team, especially but not limited to the experimental modRNA medical technologies developed at ‘warp speed’ to function purportedly as vaccines.

The WHO Constitution states in Article 67 that members of the WHO may enjoy ‘such privileges and immunities as may be necessary for the fulfilment of its objective and for the exercise of its functions.” Such privileges and immunity, whilst patently unfair, inequitable and dangerous, only apply when fulfilling the Article 1 objective.

By your unilateral recommendation of harmful Covid strategies, The People, represented by the World Council for Health, do not believe that you acted in accordance with your constitutional obligations in Article 1. If your actions are found to be in contravention of Article 1, you will not be covered by Article 67 of the WHO Constitution that provides for the stated protection and immunity. In other words, you may be personally liable for the millions of deaths and immense suffering caused on account of your role in the unlawful authorisation of these harmful recommendations. Moreover, given the blatant conflicts of interest evident in the WHO’s activities, closely connected to commercial interests, immunity is not guaranteed when acting at the behest of those interests.

Consequences of Your WHO COVID Policies, Recommendations, Advice and Omissions 

1. Immeasurable suffering and death

In the past four years, billions of people who trusted and complied with WHO-based country government advice have experienced ongoing physical and mental suffering, illness, disability, loss of income, poverty, child abuse, other violence, and even death as a result.

2. Human rights violations

Country governments worldwide implemented severe emergency measures directly based on WHO recommendations that consequently resulted in widespread violations of fundamental human rights. Boys, girls and babies were masked and injected. Living men and women expressing, or wishing to express their right to free speech, travel, bodily autonomy, and to choose, were threatened, intimidated, coerced, neglected, abused and in some cases assaulted, imprisoned or killed. The WHO did nothing to address the harm it caused.

3. Failure to recommend inexpensive, safe and effective treatments and remedies for Covid-19

Covid-19 can be effectively treated with safe and established multi-purpose generic medicines, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, in combination with zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C, and other immune-boosting, health-promoting and anti-coagulant treatments. Failure to disclose and raise awareness of these, and failure to recommend ivermectin widely in combination with zinc for early use, meant that millions of people suffered and many died as a result of not being offered effective early and late treatments.

By recommending ivermectin only in the context of clinical trials and omitting sound and practical advice on how to attain the highest level of health during the Covid-19 scare, ivermectin and other effective treatments were withheld in many countries in favour of expensive GMO drugs, emergency-authorized patented pharmaceuticaldrugs without safety records. Thus, in your personal capacity, the world’s people may hold you responsible for the consequences of serious omissions related to safe, effective treatments for Covid-19, in preference for undisclosed GMOs.

4. Dangerous GMO gene therapies deployed in the guise of vaccines 

You may also be personally liable for death, loss and suffering in relation to the SARS-CoV-2 ‘vaccines’ as you have not advised people of the following:

1. The long-term material risks of these ‘vaccines’ are unknown. The LNP-modRNA platform fulfils EU, UK, South African, Australian, and US legal definitions for being properly deemed a genetically modified organism (GMO), and a gene therapy, where material risks are identified over a period up to 15 years and perhaps into offspring. People were not advised as required by law that the so-called ‘vaccines’ are, in fact, GMOs.
2. Pfizer used one process to manufacture the products that they submitted for approval but a different process to manufacture the product supplied for injection into the world’s people. The latter product was manufactured using E.coli bacteria and plasmid DNA which has resulted in excessive synthetic DNA contamination confirmed as able to integrate with the human genome. Moderna’s use of plasmid DNA in manufacture has also led to excessive synthetic DNA contamination.
3. Pfizer products includes a SV40 virus-derived enhancer gene sequence. This gene sequence is known to facilitate the transport of the synthetic DNA into cell nuclei, posing a real risk of chromosomal integration. This threatens permanent genetic modification of inoculated people without their knowledge or consent and can only be harmful.
4. The contents of these genetic injections do not stay in the arm muscle.
5. Spike proteins are produced for a prolonged and unknown period of time, possibly indefinitely.
6. These spike proteins trigger extensive microvascular blood clotting as well as large vessel blood clots.
7. Spike proteins are deposited in many tissues and organs including the heart, brain, testis, ovaries, liver and spleen, causing tissue degeneration and disease.
8. The large quantity of spike proteins may overwhelm the immune system, causing immune system dysfunction and worsening risk of all infections and cancers.
9. The spike protein is toxic in itself, but this foreign antigen also marks the victims’ own tissues as non-self, triggering autoimmune disease within these tissues.
10. The antibodies generated are non-neutralizing and worsen Covid disease; this is “antibody dependent enhancement” of infection.
11. Undeclared plasmid DNA in these products carries further dangers; especially in the case of Pfizer and the concealed SV40 enhancer and promotor sequences. This includes the disruption of tumour suppressor genes, and adds to the list of mechanisms by which these products increase cancer risk.
12. The artificial modRNA in these products is hyper-persistent due to the substitution of N1-methylpsudouridine in place of uracil. This prolongs the production of the toxic spike proteins, but also causes ribosome frame shifting, such that a variety of unpredictable proteins and polypeptides are also generated. These pose serious risk for triggering a large spectrum of autoimmune diseases.
13. Additionally the pegylated lipid nanoparticles, which deliver the genetic payload into the victims’ cells, are toxic in and of themselves.

5. Violation of informed consent

Based on your authority as the designated WHO Director General, the majority of people around the world trusted your words when you stated that Covid-19 GMOs and gene therapies were “safe and effective”. This claim cannot be substantiated and is further disproved by Covid-19 vaccine contracts. As such, the right to free and informed consent was violated for every human being who was injected with the experimental Covid-19 GMO gene therapy called ‘vaccines’.

In addition, it appears that at no point did you appraise people of the risks associated with these experimental GMO injections, nor have you shared the mounting vaccine injury reports with the public. Vigibase, the WHO pharmacovigilance collaboration with the University of Uppsala, holds the records of over five million people suspected of harm due to the Covid-19 genetic ‘vaccines’, yet you have failed to demand and ensure transparent, independent and timely analysis of these data.

This is in direct contravention of the Nuremberg Code, that was agreed to in 1948, to prevent non-consensual medical experimentation on human beings, following gross human rights violations during the Second World War.² Your failure to advise on, recommend, promote and ensure free and informed consent for these Covid-19 GMO gene therapies can be prosecuted for both breach of your duty of care as well as for battery.

World Council for Health Invitation

It is our opinion that the health of the World’s People is much poorer for the actions that you have taken during the course of your work responsibilities at the World Health Organization. In the circumstances, we are morally obliged to invite you to defend your actions or apologise publicly with a plan for reparations. A World Council for Health Country Council General Assembly is scheduled to take place on May 21, 2024, to hear your response and to agree on further necessary actions.

In the interim and in future, we demand that you cease and desist from spreading disinformation about the Covid-19 GMO gene therapy products with immediate effect.

By the men and women named below:

World Council for Health Steering Committee

Shabnam Palesa Mohamed (WCH Africa), Fahrie Hassan (WCH Africa), Emma Sron (WCH N. America), Dr.Marivic Villa (WCH N. Americas), Dr. Mark Trozzi (WCH N. America), Izumi Kamijo (WCH Asia), Rev. Dr. Wai Ching Lee (WCH Asia), Dr. Gilbertha St Rose (WCH Caribbean), Christof Plothe DO (WCH Europe), Dr. Mazen Nasreddine (WCH Levant), Lucinda van Buuren (WCH Oceania), Dr. Anne O’Reilly (WCH Oceania), Prof. Héctor Carvallo (WCH Latin America), Marco Albertazzi (WCH Latin America), Dr. Tess Lawrie (WCH Chief Coordinator)

‘Notice to principals is notice to agents and vice versa’

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Swiss solicitor, Philipp Kruse, delivered the notice in person to the WHO headquarters around midday on Monday 6th, 2024. Here he is confirming delivery:

Click here to watch the video

 

The WHO and its employees can no longer say they are ignorant of the issues and public concerns. Here is the signed receipt of the documents:

The World Council for Health Steering Committee is extremely grateful to lawyers Philipp Kruse, Julian Gillespie, David Adelman and the many, many others who informed, assisted and supported this international collaboration toward truth, justice and accountability.

*

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Featured image is licensed under CC

The Collapse of Dollar Hegemony Could Lead to World War III. Richard C. Cook

By Richard C. Cook and Ahmed Danyal Arif, May 08, 2024

Our Declaration of Independence states that every person has a right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Of course along with these rights come responsibilities. One is that we act with kindness and compassion in accepting the rights of others. Our predatory financial system does not do this.

IDF Enters Rafah Blocking Aid to the Gaza Strip

By Abayomi Azikiwe, May 09, 2024

In Gaza, the Health Ministry reports say that over 35,000 people have been killed while more than 70,000 are wounded and injured. Thousands of other bodies including many women, elderly and children remain trapped under the massive rubble of destroyed residential, commercial and public structures.

Genocide in Gaza: Kudos to Journalists Who Tell the Truth

By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, May 09, 2024

UNESCO should be congratulated for awarding the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for 2024 to Palestinian journalists covering Gaza. The prize this year was announced in Santiago, Chile in conjunction with World Press Day on 3^rd  May  2024.

Tackling California’s Budget Crisis: Raise Taxes, Cut Programs, or Form a Bank?

By Ellen Brown, May 09, 2024

In 2022, the state of California celebrated a record budget surplus of $97.5 billion. Two years later, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, this surplus has plummeted to a record budget deficit of $73 billion. Balancing the budget will be challenging. Unlike the federal government, the state cannot just drive up debt and roll it over year after year. 

The Militarization of Space: Report to U.S. Congress Outlines U.S. Determination to Establish “Space Command and Control”

By Drago Bosnic, May 09, 2024

On May 1, in an official statement before the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee On Strategic Forces, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb actually explained how the US plans to militarize space to “further its interests”, or more precisely, expand options to continue its aggression against the entire world.

Ukraine War “Spins Out of Control”: Putin Is Letting It Get Too Late to Turn Aside from Nuclear Armageddon

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, May 08, 2024

The Russian government has stated that the American F-16 aircraft supplied to Ukraine by the idiotic governments of Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium will “be treated as nuclear-capable weapons.”

Bromelain and Cancer

By Dr. William Makis, May 08, 2024

Bromelain’s anti-cancer properties have been evaluated extensively in dozens of studies in vitro for: breast cancer, prostate cancer, gastric, colorectal, hepatocellular, cholangiocarcinoma, lung, melanoma, lymphoma and leukemia.

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First published on September 4, 2023

*** 

Not everyone in the field of science has abandoned the truth that carbon dioxide (CO2) and other “greenhouse gases” are good for people and planet as opposed to bad.

More than 1,600 scientists – 1,609 as of this writing, to be precise – belonging to the Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) signed the World Climate Declaration in August, declaring that man-made climate change is a myth.

Contrary to the leftist narrative, there is no “climate emergency,” which means there is no need to abandon earth-based “fossil” fuels like gas and oil in favor of loud and unsightly wind turbines and Chinese-made solar panels.

“There is no climate emergency,” CLINTEL says.

“Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”

Most Climate Models Are False and Should Not be Used to Form Policy

For as long as the earth has existed, the climate has always been changing, this cohort of scientists and other experts says. Sometimes it gets cold, while other times it gets hot – and taking away meat, cars, and freedom is never going to change that.

As recently as 1850, the earth went through a “Little Ice Age,” so it is “no surprise,” the declaration states, “that we now are experiencing a period of warming.”

The government and media love to make much ado about nothing concerning the changing climate. All that “global warming” they love to rant on and on about is actually not that bad.

“Warming is happening ‘far slower’ than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” wrote Naveen Athrappully in a report for The Epoch Times.

As we have been saying for quite some time now, CO2 and other greenhouse gases are good for the planet. CO2 in particular is “essential” to all life on earth, and is extremely “favorable” for nature and the actual greening of the planet.

“Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools,” the coalition warns, adding that these same models “exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases” and “ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.”

Though they repeatedly try to denigrate it as a pollutant, the climate cultists are getting it wrong, wrong, and more wrong every time they refer to CO2 as some kind of planetary scourge that must be removed if we are to have any chance at survival.

“Extra CO2 results in the growth of global plant biomass while also boosting the yields of crops worldwide,” further explains Athrappully.

Furthermore, there is “no statistical evidence” to even remotely suggest that CO2 is in any way responsible for fueling more natural disasters like hurricanes, droughts, and floods.

“There is no climate emergency,” the group says. “Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. Go for adaptation instead of mitigation; adaptation works whatever the causes are.”

“To believe the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in. This is precisely the problem of today’s climate discussion to which climate models are central. Climate science has degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science. Should not we free ourselves from the naïve belief in immature climate models?”

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For overwhelming Western political analysts, journalists, scientists, etc., the disappearance of the USSR in 1990/91 was symbolized overdramatically by the physical destruction of the Berlin Wall followed by the removal/destruction of statues/monuments devoted to the communist leaders and communist ideology.

This geopolitical change called for a new world order in international relations (IR) and, in fact, heralded global peace, international democracy, and worldwide security and stability in foreign affairs after the Cold War 1.0 (1949−1989).

The period of the Cold War was a historic period lasting from the time of the establishment of the NATO pact in 1949 to the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

During that time, global politics was structured around a binary political geography that opposed US-led global capitalism to Soviet-type communism. Nevertheless, although the world did not face during that time a direct military confrontation (like in 1962 during the Cuban Crisis) between East and West, the period of the Cold War 1.0 witnessed serious economic, financial, military, political, and primarily ideological rivalries between at that time two (nuclear) superpowers (USA and USSR) and their allies (NATO and Warsaw Pact).

According to the well-known concept of “the end of history” which reflects the end of Cold War 1.0, the global battle of the previous 40 years – in the Western propaganda eyes, the final battle between (Western) liberties and (Eastern) “Evil Empire” – was over (at least for some time).

The world seemed unified under the New World Order (directed by Washington). Immediately after 1989, any combination of multipolarity of the post-Cold War 1.0 order in IR was understood as a real danger to global security. 

However, from the point of critical geopolitics, it was suggested that the world would soon miss stability in IR which existed during the Cold War 1.0 due to the military, political, and ideological opposition by two superpowers and their allies. In other words, according to those critics, the New World Order after 1989 will lose the clarity and stability that the Cold War 1.0 era had. Therefore, the post-1989 world concerning the IR, according to, for example, S. P. Huntington, was going to be a more jungle-like world of foreign affairs and of multiple dangers for global security with hidden traps, unpleasant surprises, and moral ambiguities. A new mantra in IR started after 11/9 (2001) when US President George W. Bush put clear lines of good and evil on the global political map.

During the Cold War 1.0, the “free” capitalistic world was fighting against the “non-free” communist world (particularly if someone lived in the “promised land” of the USA). The “promised” West demonstrated the inevitability of countries falling under “devil” communism like dominos (a “domino effect”) unless the USSR was contained behind the Iron Curtain. Nevertheless, after 1989, some political theorists offered new visions of global politics based on chaos and fragmentation claiming the threats and dangers from many corners around. Such critical global geopolitics became incorporated into the imagined geography of G. W. Bush’s proclaimed the War on Terror after 11/9 when the US administration sharply divided the world into two halves meaning that each state was either for the USA or for the terrorists. It was, in fact, no in-between space. From a wider perspective, the use of geographical imaginaries in forming global political models (like those two during and post-Cold War 1.0) is usually understood as geopolitics. 

From the point of human geography as an academic discipline, it understands geopolitics as an element of the practice and analysis of statecraft that considers geography and spatial relations both of which play a crucial impact in the process of making IR. The political reality concerning IR has to take seriously into consideration certain frameworks of laws of both geography and politics: concerning geography, distance, proximity, and location as they are understood to influence the development of political action (for instance, war). From the very points of geopolitical arguments, the impact of geography on politics is founded on the geophysical reality but not on ideology. It seems in historical practice that geographical science is going to have predictable impacts on political action.

Such above-presented arguments are challenged by those who claim that geographical relationships and entities are specific to historical and cultural environments. That means the nature of the influence of geography on political events can change. 

We have to keep in mind that the term geopolitics was historically first used by the Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellen in 1899. Nevertheless, the term was not very much used before the early 20th century. However, the British geographer and political strategist Halford Mackinder’s promotion of the study of geography as an academic discipline to assist statecraft stimulated the view that geopolitics can influence geographers to offer a way in which they could influence the IR. In essence, geopolitics as an academic research discipline is dealing with the question of which geographical factors can shape IR. Basically, these geographical factors include the continental space followed by the distribution of physical landscape and human resources. Concerning geographical research, some territories are predicted to be easier or harder to defend. In addition, the notion of distance affects politics and some topographical features can significantly participate in the security efforts of the state but as well as may also lead to its security vulnerability.

It can not be ever forgotten that the issue of security was all the time and is going to be in the future fundamental to the study of geopolitics. It, basically, means the maintenance of the state in the face of threats, usually from external powers (aggression from outside). The crucial point is that geopoliticians claim that they can support the concept of national (state) security by explaining the effects of a country’s (and around) geography and that of potential conquerors, on future power-political relations. In other words, the experts in geopolitics have to be able to predict which areas could make a state stronger, helping it to rise to prominence, and which might leave it vulnerable. The geopoliticians argue that geography is the most important factor in IR for the very reason it is the most permanent one. Subsequently, the study of geopolitics is considered to be of a very practical nature and the most objective one regarding IR. From that point of view, it is quite separate from political theory. 

Usually, geopoliticians present the world and IR as one closed system founded on interdependent relations between political actors, basically independent states. Accidentally or not, the interest in geopolitics as an academic discipline that can explain the world and the system of IR happened at a time when the entire world was explored by Western imperialistic colonists. Therefore, now the world has become available for the territorial and economic expansion of the nation-states. Soon, around 1900, the West European policy of colonialism reached its height. In principle, colonialism is understood as the rule of a nation-state (or other political power) over another, occupied and subordinated territory and its people. Originally, geopolitics was understood as the study that explains and even legitimates the policy of colonization and making overseas empires. Practically, before 1945 geopolitics in many cases was offering a way for nation-states to protect their territorial possessions at the time (before the process of de-colonization) when the “empty lands” (and “terra incognita”) became ultimately occupied by the West European (and other) states and powers.

From the very pan-global perspective, the best-known geopolitical thesis is of the British Mackinder – “Heartland Thesis”. According to the thesis, the Asian “Heartland” is a pivotal area of global geopolitics. Who controls this area provides a chief position in world politics and, therefore, global domination. This “Pivot Area” is surrounded by the “Outer Rim” of the lands divided into two territories: 1) “Inner or marginal crescent”; and 2) “Lands of outer or insular crescent”). If not resistance from the area of the “Outer Rim”, which is proximate to the “Heartland”, some occupying power could quite easily come to control first Europe and then the world. According to Mackinder’s thesis from 1919, the precondition to command “Heartland” is to rule East Europe. However, whoever rules “Heartland” commands the World Island which is a precondition to rule over the World. 

Mackinder’s geopolitical analysis of world politics, nevertheless, had a very practical task – to assist British global colonial imperialism. In other words, he suggested to the British policymakers to be wary of powers that are occupying the “Heartland”, and should establish a “buffer zone” around the territory of “Heartland” in order to prevent the accumulation of power in the future that might challenge the hegemony of the British Empire within both “Inner” and “Outer Crescents”. Mackinder’s geopolitical reasoning had a certain influence on both British foreign policy and popular imagination. Nevertheless, not all geopoliticians agree with Mackinder’s conclusion that the location of global power is the land as, for instance, the US geopoliticians Mahan, instead of the power of the land, promoted the concept of the power of the sea while later others promoted the significance of air power. Nonetheless, each of these three groups came up with different core areas from which political, military, and economic dominance can be imposed.

The notion of geopolitics after WWII was quite negative as in many eyes it was associated with Nazi Geopolitik policies of territorial occupation, expansionism, Lebensraum, colonization, holocaust, and war atrocities. Practically, during the Cold War 1.0, geopolitics, as expressed in pure spatial (geographical) models, became obsolete and out of use at least in its original form. Nevertheless, the Western (American) theory of the Domino Effect (chain reaction of states falling to the communists, like a row of falling dominoes) was in essence connected with the factor of territory (geography) as the spread of communism/socialism was seen not as a complex political process of adaptation and conflicts but primarily as a direct result of proximity to a territory ruled by the USSR. The process of chain reaction would not stop, according to this theory, until it reached the last standing domino (the USA), and made future political action appear inevitable unless proactive action like a pre-emptive strike is done.  

However, after 1989 appeared new approaches to geopolitics usually called “critical geopolitics”. For all of them, the common issue is the refusal of the objectivity and timelessness of the effect of geography on certain political processes including IR.

Differently from traditional geopoliticians, supporters of critical geopolitics are taking into consideration a wide spectrum of factors that influence political action and IR. Additionally, traditional geopolitics is criticized for the reason that it takes into consideration only the state or primarily the state as chief or even only player in international politics especially at the time of “Turbo Globalization” after 1989/1990 when, clearly, other actors and powers are involved both at the sub-state level (like ethnic, regional, or place-based groups), and at the supra-state level (such as transnational corporations or international organizations like NATO, EU, UN, ASEAN, NAFTA, BRICS, OPEC, Arab Union, African Union, Council of Europe, etc.). 

It has to be stressed that critical geopoliticians are particularly interested in questioning the language of geopolitics, or in other words, the so-called “geopolitical discourse”. For geopoliticians, discourse is a way of talking about, writing, or otherwise representing the world and its geographies. The discourse is simply seen as a way of representing the world – the way that is, in fact, shaping the reality of the world, rather than just being a way of presenting a reality that exists outside of language. Linguistic expression can be a problematic issue as language is metaphorical and, therefore, firstly understood differently by the listeners/readers and secondly directing the opinion of others. All the time exists a choice of words, expressions, and metaphors and the type of terms used affects the meaning of what is being described. For instance, the members of some organizations can be described as “terrorists” or “freedom fighters”. To properly understand the character and aims of their political activity, therefore, very much depends on the used linguistic description of them. As a consequence, there is a politics of language. 

Critical geopolitics is founded on postmodern concerns with the politics of representation. For the supporters of such an approach, political geography is not a collection of indisputable facts but, instead, is about power. It means that political geography is not an order or facts but, instead, geopolitical orders are created by top individuals and chief institutions and then imposed worldwide. Political geography is the product of cultural context followed by political motivation. One of the focal points of critical geography today is that it examines the question of why international politics are usually understood from the point of space or simply through the eyes of geography. Consequently, critical geopolitics seeks to uncover the politics involved in writing the geography of global space. This process is called “geo-graphing” (writing about earth/land) to use the process of geographical reasoning in the practical service of political and other powers.  

Critical geopolitics is not so much interested in classical geopolitical problems like the true effects of geography on international relations (like whether land, sea, or air powers are the most influential). Rather, critical geographers investigate whose models of international geography are used, and above all, whose interests these models serve. For them, power essentially depends on knowledge and, therefore, the knowledge has a crucial impact on political action. Examples of how science (knowledge) can be used in politics are the cases of Mackinder who wanted to help maintain British overseas imperial colonies and, therefore, its hegemony over world affairs, and Mahan, a naval historian, who was interested in building up the US Navy to assist the creation of the US Empire. 

Supporters of critical geopolitics tend to analyze the impact of geography in any description of the world or its parts from a political viewpoint – for instance to describe or predict a foreign policy of some nation-state is, in fact, to be engaged in geopolitics. Any geopolitical description can influence political perception. For instance, knowledge of other regions and the character of their inhabitants described in a particular political-ideological way can be significant for political action – using constantly the terms “Evil Empire” or “Devil Axis” to describe some country and its political leadership, serve to legitimate its own foreign policy and military actions.

The focal claim by the supporters of critical geopolitics is that conventional, or traditional geopolitical arguments are too much of a pro-geographical nature. Contrary to the traditional geopoliticians, their colleagues in critical geopolitics prefer to reduce the factor of space and place (that means not being crucially concerned with understanding and analyzing geographical processes) to concepts or ideologies. Ideology, from the very perspective of critical geography, can be understood as a meaning that serves to create or/and maintain relationships of domination and subordination, through symbolic forms. Regarding international politics, critical geopolitics argues that geopolitics is not simply linked to the function of describing or predicting the shape of IR. However, geopolitics has to be focal to how identity is formed and supported in contemporary (multi- and hybrid) societies.  

In conclusion, we can say that geopolitics continues to be a powerful form of geographical reasoning, but used in support of powerful political interests. Geopolitics can create “moral” maps of the world, and locate enemies to the nation-state. However, critical geopolitics is a significant challenge to the traditional geopolitical imagination of IR and global politics which offers another way to imagine alternative connections between different human groups in the world.  

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Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović is a former university professor in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Geostrategic Studies. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.  

A chamada “contra-ofensiva” ucraniana em 2023 foi um fracasso absoluto. Dezenas de milhares de soldados ucranianos morreram no campo de batalha em atritos sem necessidade, nos quais Kiev não teve qualquer hipótese de vencer. No entanto, a Ucrânia foi aparentemente aconselhada até mesmo por funcionários da OTAN a não utilizar tal estratégia suicida.

Segundo Guido Crossetto, ministro da Defesa italiano, o regime de Kiev ignorou vários avisos diretos para evitar atritos prolongados com a Rússia durante o contra-ataque de 2023. Crossetto afirma ter falado diversas vezes com Zelensky que a tentativa de lançar uma contra-ofensiva através de ataques frontais estava fadada ao fracasso e levaria à derrota da Ucrânia. No entanto, Zelensky supostamente ignorou tal conselho, optando deliberadamente pelas táticas irracionais usadas nas linhas de frente.

Crossetto revelou que tanto durante a visita de Zelensky à Itália como em outros fóruns internacionais, o presidente ucraniano ouviu diretamente dele uma opinião crítica sobre o plano de contra-ataque às posições russas. Analisando o conflito de forma realista, Crossetto afirma que, embora apoie a Ucrânia, não concorda com a decisão de confrontar frontalmente as forças russas, dada a clara superioridade de Moscou. O ministro disse que “o resultado de uma guerra é a soma de quem tem mais homens e mais meios”, razão pela qual insistir na fricção com a Rússia seria um suicídio para a Ucrânia.

O oficial também comentou outras questões relativas ao conflito. Por exemplo, criticou severamente o plano do presidente francês Emmanuel Macron de enviar tropas para lutar diretamente na Ucrânia se o exército de Kiev entrar em colapso. Segundo Crossetto, tal manobra seria extremamente perigosa e ultrapassaria a linha do retorno, razão pela qual aconselha a França a evitar qualquer envolvimento direto.

Além disso, Crossetto também fez alguns comentários realistas sobre as sanções anti-russas ocidentais. Segundo ele, as medidas coercivas não atingiram os seus objetivos. O ministro acredita que o Ocidente se engana ao manter tais sanções em vez de simplesmente reconhecer as novas circunstâncias geopolíticas.

“Muitas vezes comportamo-nos como se o mundo não tivesse mudado (…) Sempre pensámos que o Ocidente era suficiente para deter a Rússia e as sanções são o resultado do fato de ainda estarmos presos à ideia de que o mundo é o nosso mundo. Em vez disso, o mundo é muito maior e só podemos resolver esta crise envolvendo todos: primeiro com uma trégua e depois com a paz (…) Não devemos desistir de todos os caminhos e aberturas possíveis, mesmo os estreitos, da diplomacia, ” ele disse.

Na verdade, Crossetto mostra uma profunda compreensão geopolítica. Embora seja funcionário de um país da OTAN e apoie a Ucrânia, compreende que as circunstâncias geopolíticas favorecem a emergência de um mundo multipolar, no qual o Ocidente já não é o único ator no processo de tomada de decisão internacional. A sua opinião crítica sobre as atitudes ocidentais mostra que uma tendência realista pró-multipolar é capaz de emergir na Europa, apesar da forte pressão americana. Quanto mais a UE é vítima de medidas coercitivas impostas pelos EUA, mais os países europeus tendem a assumir uma postura crítica em relação a Washington e à OTAN.

No entanto, o detalhe mais interessante do seu discurso foi a notícia de que Zelensky ignorou os conselhos dos especialistas militares sobre a contra-ofensiva. Isto mostra como até os políticos estrangeiros estão mais preocupados com os soldados de Kiev do que com o próprio governo ucraniano. Na prática, não há respeito pelas vidas ucranianas por parte do regime neonazista. Os soldados são vistos como mera bucha de canhão, tendo que ser eliminados massivamente em batalhas inúteis e anti-estratégicas.

O desrespeito pelos soldados é uma das razões pelas quais o governo Zelensky é tão impopular. Os militares e as suas famílias não querem mais continuar a ver baixas numa guerra invencível. O moral das tropas está baixo e a certeza da derrota parece crescer entre os combatentes. Sem expectativas de vitória, não há razão para continuar a lutar, razão pela qual Kiev está a ser forçada a implementar métodos ditatoriais para manter os esforços de guerra.

Há rumores de que Kiev está a planear lançar outra “contra-ofensiva” em 2024. Tendo perdido quase todos os seus homens em idade militar, o regime está agora a utilizar idosos, mulheres e pessoas com problemas de saúde – bem como milhares de mercenários estrangeiros. Em tais circunstâncias, é obviamente impossível para Kiev vencer qualquer batalha, mas é possível que Zelensky insista no erro apenas para tentar fazer mais propaganda de guerra em busca de armas ocidentais.

Contudo, a situação ucraniana é ainda pior agora do que em 2023. Se Kiev quiser realmente repetir o erro de promover um contra-ataque, o colapso total do regime será certamente bem rápido.

Lucas Leiroz De Almeida

 

 

Artigo em inglês : Western officials warned Zelensky against 2023 ‘counteroffensive’, InfoBrics, 9 de main de 2024.

Imagem :  Ministro italiano da Defesa Guido Crossetto. InoBrics.

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Lucas Leiroz, jornalista, pesquisador do Center for Geostrategic Studies, consultor geopolítico.

Você pode seguir Lucas Leiroz em: https://t.me/lucasleiroz e https://twitter.com/leiroz_lucas

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Back in mid-February, the mainstream propaganda machine bombarded us with a slew of reports about “big bad Russian space nukes“, claiming that Moscow is using its technological prowess to build strategic space-based weapons. And while it’s true the Eurasian giant is a cosmic superpower and that it certainly has the know-how to accomplish such a feat, the mainstream propaganda machine conveniently “forgot” to explain why the Kremlin would make the decision to expand its space capabilities. Namely, Russia is indeed planning to deploy a nuclear-powered anti-satellite weapon (ASAT), but there’s a massive difference between having thermonuclear warheads pointed at Earth from space and having a nuclear-powered spacecraft. The Russian military is already in possession of the former, as it was the world’s first operator of the FOBS back in the early 1960s.

FOBS, an acronym for the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (СЧОБ in Russian), is a thermonuclear weapon system found on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), designed to make their range effectively limitless. China tested its own version of the technology only in 2021, while the United States has been unable to create anything similar. Thus, Moscow has had this capability for well over half a century, so why is there such hype over a supposed nuclear-powered ASAT all of a sudden? It’s exceedingly difficult to ignore the fact that this is being used as yet another excuse to push several warmongering agendas at once. First, it furthers the idea that there “cannot be peace” with the Kremlin, and second, it gives Washington DC the perfect excuse to continue militarizing space, started years (or, in reality, even decades) before the special military operation (SMO).

On May 1, in an official statement before the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee On Strategic Forces, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb actually explained how the US plans to militarize space to “further its interests”, or more precisely, expand options to continue its aggression against the entire world. The statement reflects on current and upcoming space policies of the Department of Defense (DoD), specifically on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Security Space Programs. Plumb directly mentioned China and Russia as the primary threats to Washington DC’s increasingly overstretched (neo)colonial empire. The budget predicted for FY 2025 is $33.7 billion, $25.2 billion of which will be “investments for procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation”. To put it into perspective, that’s a third of Russia’s annual military budget.

According to Plumb, specific fields of interest for the US military will be “space command and control, integrated space fires and protection capabilities, modernized and agile electronic warfare architecture, enhanced battlespace awareness and space systems defense, and a range of capabilities designed to enhance our space control”. He also stated the importance of having more space launch options, highlighting the importance of access to commercial (i.e. private) companies, as well as upgrades to the GPS, which is further evidence that Russia’s EW (electronic warfare) in Ukraine is indeed making NATO precision-guided weapons virtually obsolete, a complaint that has become rather commonplace ever since the SMO started. Plumb then focused on specific Russian and Chinese space capabilities, highlighting several types of systems.

Citing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and its 2024 Annual Threat Assessment (ATA), Plumb says that “China will probably have achieved world-class status in all but a few space technology areas by 2030″, complaining that Beijing can “monitor forces across the globe and improve its long-range precision strike capabilities against US or allied forces to deter or deny outside regional intervention”. In other words, the US is worried that China has the capability to not only defend itself, but also strike back in case of direct NATO aggression. What’s particularly concerning for Washington DC are Beijing’s “counter-space capabilities to hold our on-orbit assets at risk”. Plumb says that this includes EW, direct-ascent ASAT missiles, directed-energy weapons (DEWs) such as ground-based lasers, space-based kinetic weapons and orbiting space robots.

However, Plumbs seems to have been particularly concerned by Russia’s capabilities which are virtually identical to China’s, but also include the previously mentioned nuclear-powered systems. The US claims that Moscow has “a range of offensive counter-space capabilities”, including EW, DEWs, direct-ascent ASAT missiles and orbital systems with counter-space applications. The report focuses on “Russia’s investments in counter-space systems designed to exploit what it views as a US overreliance on space for conducting military operations” and “to offset US capabilities”. ODNI 2024 ATA says that “Russian military doctrine embraces multi-domain attacks, using both reversible and irreversible capabilities, to target adversary satellites” and that “Russia conducted cyber intrusions against commercial satellite communication networks” (i.e. GPS).

Plumb further accuses Moscow that it has “demonstrated through both public statements and actions that it views commercial satellites providing space-based services to Russia’s adversaries as potential targets” and that it’s “also developing a concerning [ASAT] capability related to a new satellite carrying a nuclear device that Russia is developing”. The US insists that it’s allegedly “worried this could pose a threat to all satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe, as well as to the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend upon”. The endless hypocrisy of the political West, but particularly the US, is immediately visible in such statements, as Plumb openly said, in this very report, mind you, that the Pentagon plans to expand the usage of commercial assets.

 

 

Soviet Terra-3 Ground-based-laser- ASAT (From the Public Domain)

In simpler terms, the US is complaining about Russia targeting “commercial” space capabilities, while top-ranking officials in Washington DC are bragging about using those same “commercial” capabilities for military purposes. Analyses I wrote years ago suggested that America has been using private space corporations to enhance its military capabilities. Who in their right mind can blame Moscow for wanting to deny such assets to the US military, which is also bragging about using other advanced technologies to target Russian soldiers? Of course, this is hardly strange or unexpected, since it’s coming from the political West. Hypocrisy is the only modus operandi its political elites understand. Interestingly, the report also mentioned North Korea and Iran, particularly as both besieged countries are working closely with Russia and China.

Funnily enough, the rest of the 13-page paper (.PDF) focuses precisely on the aforementioned commercial assets in space warfare and how the US and NATO can enhance their capabilities by using them against the world. In his concluding remarks, Plumb says that “space capabilities are essential to overall military effectiveness and central to [the US military’s] integrated deterrence strategy” and that Washington DC is “committed to making critical space investments to deter our competitors and prevail in conflict should deterrence fail”. Once again, it’s rather interesting how the belligerent thalassocracy is insisting on the fact that others are supposedly “aggressive” in space, while the Pentagon has been refusing to disclose the nature of its own space-based programs for decades, particularly the US Space Force’s controversial X-37B pilotless spaceplane.

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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: A USAF F-15 Eagle launching an ASM-135 ASAT anti-satellite missile. (From the Public Domain)

 

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The conflict in Ukraine was deliberately provoked by the United States and NATO with the aim of weakening Russia and overthrowing Vladimir Putin’s government. In the expectations of Washington and the Atlantic Alliance, this move should have dragged Russia – with its immense natural resources – under Western influence. A necessary postponement also in view of a possible confrontation with China.

Collapse Russia is a failed goal. But Washington and NATO have achieved an equally important objective: to weaken Europe and cut its political and economic ties with Russia. Today, Europe is more than ever enslaved by Washington, dependent on its gas and arms supplies.

What might seem like the analysis of a Kremlin official is instead a profound and detailed vision that comes from the heart of Europe, from Paris. This analysis bears the signature of Eric Denécé, one of the leading Western experts in geopolitics and geostrategy, with a lot of experience gained in the field, under the tricolor flag of French intelligence.

Denécé now is the Director and Founder of the French Centre for Intelligence Studies (CF2R). During his career, Denécé previously served as  Naval Intelligence Officer (analyst) within the Strategic Evaluation Division at the Secretariat Général de la Défense Nationale (SGDN). His operational experience, whether as an officer or as a consultant, led him to conduct operations in Cambodia among guerrilla forces, and in Myanmar to secure Total’s interests against the local guerrilla. He also served as a consultant to the French Ministry of Defence on projects concerning the future of the French Special Forces and South China Sea’s disputes. For years, he has served French and European companies on intelligence, counter-intelligence, information operations and risk management issues, in Europe and Asia.

Piero Messina (PM): More than 30 years ago Russia was assured that NATO would never extend its operational area. And then what happened?

Eric Denécé (ED): NATO’s lies date back to 1990, when the then US Secretary of State, James Baker, assured Mikaïl Gorbatchev at their meeting on February 9 that NATO would “never advance an inch eastwards”. This promise was not kept. Then, in March 1991, Western leaders again promised USSR leaders that NATO would not expand eastwards. The evidence of this lie is now documented, as confirmed by Roland Dumas, then French Foreign Minister, and Vladimir Fedorovsky, former Russian diplomat. NATO has constantly extended its influence in Eastern Europe, integrating new members. It continues to do so (Ukraine, etc.) and is even transforming itself into an anti-Chinese alliance, by deploying in the Indo-Pacific.

PM: From NATO Headquarters in Brussels they make it known that from their point of view the Atlantic Organization has in reality simply implemented the requests of Sovereign States that had expressed the desire to join that Pact. Is it a credible reconstruction?

ED: Such a situation would not have arisen if NATO had been dissolved after the threat of the Warsaw Pact had disappeared. But the Americans never had any intention of doing so, because the Alliance was a formidable instrument of political, diplomatic and military influence for controlling European states, almost all of which – with the exception of France and the UK – refused to make the minimum effort to ensure their own security.

Nor should we forget another essential aspect. By steadily enlarging NATO, and reneging on commitments made to Moscow, the Americans have denied Russia the notion of a space of influence in its near abroad, even though they themselves established the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which “forbids” the intervention or interference of any foreign state on the American continent, on pain of American retaliation. This systematic policy of “double standards” has finally exasperated the Russians, who consider that the West does not respect the international laws it has enacted and imposed on the world when it deems it profitable to its interests, but continues to condemn those who do.

PM: The last years of Ukraine’s history are very complex. What happened from 2004 to 2014? Are we able to make a list of the external actors who contributed to changing the course of that country’s history?

ED: In 2004, in the wake of the “color revolutions”, Ukraine saw a major popular movement denouncing widespread fraud in the second round of the presidential election. While the pro-European candidate Viktor Yushchenko was leading in the exit polls, the electoral commission declared the victory of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, supported by the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, and Vladimir Putin. Massive demonstrations were held to demand the annulment of the election results and the organization of a new ballot. On December 3, 2004, the Ukrainian Supreme Court annulled the presidential election and ordered a new ballot to be held in the presence of international observers. This time, Viktor Yushchenko was declared the winner and sworn in as president on January 23, 2005. A pro-Western government was installed in Kiev.

This peaceful “Orange Revolution” was supported and financed by the European Union, the United States and numerous Western NGOs and foundations. For Washington, support for Ukraine’s democratic opposition was part of the neoconservative strategy advocating a more active American foreign policy, based on the “Shape the world” principle.

But the new Ukrainian regime soon became characterized by chronic instability: in less than four years, three prime ministers succeeded one another, two parliamentary elections were held and the Orange coalition disintegrated. Due to internal conflicts, the regime that emerged from the Orange Revolution quickly collapsed, highlighting the endemic corruption that has characterized the country and its “elites” since independence.

As a result, in 2010, Viktor Yanukovych was elected – quite legally this time – to the presidency, notably with the support of the Russian-speaking populations of eastern Ukraine. He then decided to reject an economic association agreement with the European Union in favor of another, with Russia, which he considered more profitable for his country. This was the signal that provoked his overthrow, via the Maïdan coup (2014), orchestrated by the United States as confirmed by Victoria Nuland.

PM: European intelligence agencies had been shining a spotlight on Ukraine for two decades. Why was all history from 2004 to February 2022 literally erased?

ED: Western intelligence services were well aware of the particularly chaotic situation in this country (in near economic collapse, corrupt, plagued by mafias and specifically neo-Nazi groups, etc.), which was a veritable “gray zone” at the heart of Europe. So it had to be watched.

But the Americans decided to turn it into an area of tension with Russia, and set up a showdown in the belief that Moscow would bow down and be definitively weakened. So they deliberately increased the friction and tried to blame Moscow for everything. To achieve this, they had to forget their role in the 2004 revolution and the 2014 coup d’état, in order to continue to appear as the “camp of good and democracy”, in the face of the “dictator” Putin and his expansionist ambitions…

PM: In 2015 the Minsk agreements were reached. We will discover years later, former German Prime Minister Angela Merkel will tell us, that it was a strategy to buy time. How do you convince Russia to come to the negotiating table after that precedent?

ED: The deliberate non-application of the Minsk agreements by France and Germany is a real scandal, a double state lie that discredits both states in the eyes of the world and, of course, the Russians. It should be remembered that all this was done with the backing of Washington, which was opposed to the agreement. For Moscow, this was yet another example of Western duplicity and of the United States’ hostile plans against its country. This, of course, came on top of the lies of the post-Cold War era. With all confidence gone, Putin began to react differently, preparing his country for a possible confrontation. But he never gave up on the idea of negotiating with the Americans, Europeans and Ukrainians, in full knowledge of their double game.

PM: Let’s talk again about a global vision for a moment. What are the geostrategic objectives of the United States in this conflict? Is separating Russia from Europe a necessary objective for maintaining the Unipolar order born from the collapse of the USSR?

ED: In provoking this conflict, the Americans had two objectives. The first was to weaken Russia, overthrow Putin and integrate Russia and its resources into the Western camp, with a view to a possible future confrontation with China. The second was a takeover of the European states, increasingly dependent on Russian energy resources and, for some, rather critical of NATO. This was all the more necessary for Washington since, following the Brexit, London could no longer play its role as “Trojan horse” within the European Union, and the latter, under Franco-German impetus, risked increasing its autonomy vis-à-vis Washington.

Obviously, the United States failed completely on the first point, due to a very poor assessment of Russia’s willingness, resilience and capacity to react. On the other hand, it has been a complete success on the second, with Europe more than ever enslaved by Washington, dependent on its gas and arms supplies. Our European “elites” are clearly complicit in this deplorable development.

PM: Could the conflict between Russia and Ukraine be the first conflict between two opposing world visions: the unipolar world and the multipolar one which is concentrated in the BRICS dimension?

ED: This conflict is in fact the clash of two different world visions: that of a decadent Occident, led by the United States whose unilateralism and imperialism continue to grow stronger, and slavishly followed by European states with no will of their own, having abdicated all sovereignty. And that of Russia, attached to its sovereignty, culture and balanced relations between states, a vision shared by the majority of the BRICS and the so-called “southern” countries.

But for the West, this is nothing more than a collection of rogue or authoritarian regimes.

The funny thing is that our side claims to represent “good”, “right” and “democracy”, even though this is no longer the case. Let’s recall the contempt with which the United States ignored UN resolutions in 2003 and violated international law by invading Iraq, causing an estimated one million civilian deaths and giving birth to the terrorist group known as “Islamic State”.

PM: Europe is showing all its limits. The EU does not have a common foreign policy, it follows the guidelines dictated by NATO and the United States. What meaning does the European Union have today?

ED: The European Union is much more fragmented than we like to admit. And the Ukrainian conflict has only served to increase internal divergences. Firstly, several states are showing increasing national egoism in defending their own interests: this is the case of Poland and the Baltic States, whose hatred of Russia – partly understandable historically – is pushing them to extreme positions, harmful to Europe. This is also the case for Germany, which, since the Brexit, sees itself as the sole leader of the Union and is less and less inclined to cooperate: we can measure this in terms of the fight against immigration from the Mediterranean, compliance with financial rules and industrial cooperation on armaments.

Beyond this, it must be recognized that today it is a bellicose Washington-London-Warsaw axis that dictates European policy, since France and above all Germany have seen their political role considerably reduced by the Ukrainian conflict: the former because of its inability to curb its indebtedness, the latter because of the disruption of its supplies of cheap Russian natural gas.

PM: Let’s talk about how the war in Ukraine is reported by the media. Is it a one-way narrative, a narrative that often erases historical facts? What is the meaning of this attitude and how can it be explained?

ED: For the past two years, the Ukrainian conflict has given rise to an unbridled information war, albeit paradoxically limited since each side has banned the broadcasting of opposing media, and can only influence its own opinion. As a result, Russian propaganda remains difficult for Western audiences to measure, as it is impossible to access the messages it conveys. On the other hand, the disinformation practised by the Ukrainians and the Americans, and blindly repeated by the European media, is passed over in silence, even though the populations have been subjected to it on a daily basis for the past two years.

It is therefore important to highlight the techniques used by Kiev’s Spin Doctors, their American advisors and their media relays. Indeed, they use all the techniques of storytelling to impose their narrative, condition opinion, place full responsibility for this conflict on Moscow and neutralize any divergent viewpoint.

It is therefore more important than ever to be wary of any information disseminated by either side. In this conflict, Western media are no more neutral or reliable than Russian media.

PM: President Zelensky’s political profile is also very complex. From TV to Bankova. In addition to the oligarchs who we know have financed him, it is possible to imagine “hybrid” support for the construction of Zelensky as a media figure.

ED: This is an important question. In the West, we’ve made a “hero” of Zelensky, when in fact he’s just a mediocre character who plunged his country straight into chaos. Let’s not forget that this “comic” was elected in 2019 following a campaign prepared by the production of a TV series designed to propel him to the presidency. He was then elected on a pledge to restore the rights of the Russian-speaking population and to make peace. He completely reneged on these promises as soon as he came to power, notably under the influence and threat of neo-Nazi ultranationalist groups. And from 2020, he began to harden his policy towards his opposition, closing many media outlets – obviously labelled pro-Russian – and imprisoning certain opponents. It should also be remembered that he is accused, with solid evidence, of having laundered large sums of money, and that he has been unable to combat the corruption undermining his country, which has grown even worse with the war.

Above all, he is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians by refusing – under British pressure – to conclude peace negotiations with the Russians in April 2022, six weeks after the outbreak of the conflict.

PM: Until the 1990s, NATO used clandestine operational networks to change the order of things. In your opinion, is there a STAY BEHIND network dedicated to the Central Europe dossier today?

ED: Such networks were set up in Ukraine by the Americans and British as early as 2015. They trained special units within Kiev’s army and special services, both to reconquer the Donbass and Crimea, and to deal with a possible Russian invasion. These units were engaged against the autonomists in the south-east of the country, and then against Russian forces from the start of the “special military operation”. They are now conducting offensive operations in Russia, and are tempted to do so in Africa too, to disrupt the actions of the Wagner group and harm Moscow’s interests.

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In 2022, the state of California celebrated a record budget surplus of $97.5 billion. Two years later, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, this surplus has plummeted to a record budget deficit of $73 billion. Balancing the budget will be challenging. Unlike the federal government, the state cannot just drive up debt and roll it over year after year. The California Balanced Budget Act, passed in 2004, requires the state legislature to pass a balanced budget every year. 

The usual solutions are to cut programs or raise taxes, but both approaches are facing an uphill battle. Raising taxes would require a two-thirds vote of the legislature, which would be very challenging, and worthy public programs are in danger of getting axed, including homelessness prevention and funding for low-income housing. 

A third possibility might be to increase the income tax base and state income by stimulating the economy with a state-owned depository bank. The state-owned Bank of North Dakota, which has raised record profits for its state, is a stellar example. In a review of states with the healthiest budgets based on data from the PEW Charitable Trusts, U.S. News & World Report puts North Dakota at No. 1 in Budget Balancing and #1 in Short-term Fiscal Stability.    

California has an Infrastructure and Development Bank, which is already capitalized and has an established track record of prudent and productive lending, but it is not a depository bank and its reach is small. Transforming it into a depository bank would be fairly uncomplicated and could substantially increase its reach. 

But first a look at what happened to the state’s copious revenues.

Saga of a Budget Crisis

California’s record surplus was largely due to tax windfalls and to $43.5 billion received in American Rescue Plan money during the COVID crisis. Anticipating that these inflows would continue, the governor and legislature enacted a record budget for 2024-25 of nearly $300 billion, the largest of any state. Much of the surplus was committed to expanding an array of social and educational services, including extending universal health care coverage to undocumented immigrants. When taxes came in, the tally showed a revenue shortfall of $26 billion.  

Tech industry woes were a major contributor. The top 1% of earners pay nearly half of California’s  income taxes, and 20% of its GDP comes from the tech industry. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which financed startups and attracted venture capital, speeded the sector’s decline. Massive Silicon Valley layoffs occurred and tech stock lost value, cutting capital gains taxes. And there has been a notable exodus from the state not just among the ultra-wealthy but by businesses, due to the combination of high taxes, stringent regulations, and elevated costs for labor, utilities, and energy.  

Another contributor to the budget deficit were huge payouts for unemployment benefits, which skyrocketed during the COVID lockdown and business shutdowns. The state’s unemployment fund was exhausted, requiring a loan from the federal government. Twenty-one billion dollars remains to be repaid, and the interest rate on the debt has gone up. To meet the unemployment burden, California legislators are considering quintupling unemployment taxes and nearly doubling benefits, but the result could be more layoffs and more businesses leaving the state.

Plagued by Homelessness and Unemployment

Meanwhile, the wealth divide in California is enormous, with the highest unemployment rate and homeless rate in the country. This is despite $24 billion being spent on the unhoused over the last five years. Thirty percent of the nation’s homeless live in California, and nearly nine million Californians are on the brink of being homeless. Housing is too expensive for low-wage earners and there is a lack of available low-cost housing. But well-meaning legislation to help low-wage earners has had unintended consequences. 

As of April 1, the minimum wage for fast food restaurant workers was raised by 25% to $20 an hour triggered by a strike by their union. But the move has negatively impacted many of the workers. Fast food restaurant owners operate on thin profit margins; and to cover these new costs, they have had to reduce workers’ hours, raise customer prices, engage in massive worker layoffs, move out of state, or close their businesses altogether. Almost 10,000 fast food jobs have been lost in California just since the $20 minimum wage law was signed. 

As a result of these and other efforts to help low-wage earners, many vulnerable workers are suddenly finding or will find themselves out of a job.

Compare North Dakota

At the other end of the employment spectrum is North Dakota, which has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. As noted above, in a review of states with the healthiest budgets, U.S. News & World Report puts it at No. 1 in Budget Balancing and #1 in Short-term Fiscal Stability.  North Dakota’s budget for 2024-25 includes cuts in individual income taxes, including eliminating the state individual income tax for 60% of the population and a reduction in that tax for the other 40%. The result is projected to be a 1.5% flat rate income tax, the lowest in the nation. Again compare that to California, where the top state income tax is 14.4%, higher even than other states known for their tax burdens. 

North Dakota was the only state to fully escape the 2008-09 credit crisis, never slipping into the red. When the state did go over budget in 2001-02 due to the dot-com bust, the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the nation’s only state-owned bank, acted as a rainy day fund. To make up the budget shortfall, the bank declared an extra dividend for its state owner, and the next year the budget was back on track. 

The BND is more profitable than some of the largest Wall Street banks. Its latest Annual Report (for 2022) states that it had a record net income of $191.2 million that year, up $47 million from 2021. Its asset size also set a record, at $10.2 billion. The return on investment was a healthy 19%. As the BND’s principal depositor, the state must keep its funds in the bank by law, thus protecting the bank from a run on its deposits. The Standard & Poor’s credit rating for the BND is A+/stable. The S&P report states, “BND has one of the highest risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratios for rated U.S. banks.” 

BND’s profitability has helped strengthen community banks and credit unions in North Dakota by making loans in partnership rather than in competition with them. In the Great Recession, it also bought loans from stressed local banks to prevent bank failures and keep the economy running smoothly. BND operates with very low overhead and stresses productive and local lending rather than lending to buy existing assets, the sort of speculative lending that leads to bubbles and busts. 

The State’s Deposits Are Safer in Its Own Bank

The Bank of North Dakota was established in 1919 by a populist party of farmers who felt their farms were being foreclosed on unfairly by out-of-state bankers. They succeeded in bringing their state revenues back into their own bank, serving their own communities. 

Counting-room of the Bank of North Dakota, c. 1920 (From the Public Domain)

North Dakota’s revenues are safer in its own bank than in the largest Wall Street banks, which “insure” their capital with interconnected derivatives backed by rehypothecated collateral. The Financial Stability Board has declared that practice to be risky, “as highlighted during the 2007-09 global financial crisis.” The five largest Wall Street depository banks hold $223 trillion in derivatives, or 83 percent of all the derivatives at 4,600 banks; and they have a combined half trillion dollars in commercial real estate loans, also very risky in the current financial environment. 

Today most government funds are deposited in these SIFIs (Systemically Important Financial Institutions), putting the deposits at risk. Under the Dodd Frank Act of 2010, a SIFI that goes bankrupt will not be bailed out by the government but will be recapitalized by “bail ins” – confiscating the funds of the bank’s creditors, including “secured” depositors such as state and local governments. Under the Bankruptcy Act of 2005, derivative and repo claims have seniority and could easily wipe out all of the capital of a SIFI. The details are complicated, but the threat is real and imminent. See my earlier articles here and here, David Rodgers Webb’s The Great Taking, and Chris Martenson’s excellent series drilling down into the obscure legalese of the enabling legislation, concluding here.    

Even if the SIFIs remain solvent, they are not using state deposits and investments for the benefit of the people; and often they are betting against us. The BND, by contrast, is mandated to use its revenues for the benefit of the North Dakota public.  

California Could Replicate the BND Model with Its Infrastructure and Development Bank

California already has an Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank), but it is not a true depository bank able to take deposits and leverage its capital. According to its website: 

IBank was created in 1994 to finance public infrastructure and private development that promote a healthy climate for jobs, contribute to a strong economy, and improve the quality of life in California communities. IBank is located within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development and is governed by a five-member Board of Directors. IBank has broad authority to issue tax-exempt and taxable revenue bonds, provide financing to public agencies, provide credit enhancements, acquire or lease facilities, leverage state and federal funds and provide loan guarantees and other credit enhancements to small businesses. 

Its Infrastructure State Revolving Fund (ISRF) Program provides loans only to public entities (municipalities, counties, Joint Power Authorities, pension funds), but it also has a Small Business Financing Center (SBFC) that provides loan guarantees through independent agencies for businesses and farms having trouble accessing loans, among other outreach services. The ISRF is a revolving fund, limited to lending its base capital. It engages to some extent in leverage, but it’s the riskier version called “rehypothecation” (relending of existing collateral). As explained by Stan I-Bank’s first Executive Director Stan Hazelroth in a 2013 article: 

When you loan $100 to an electric utility, say, to build new infrastructure, they take money from ratepayers and pay that loan back over time. These payments, based on the history of utility ratepayers over decades, are very reliable—so reliable, in fact, that bond buyers will loan money secured by the promise of those ratepayers to pay the utilities back over time. 

The utility with the right to be paid back $100 can pledge those aggregate payments and secure an additional loan of, say, $80. When that loan begins to be paid back, bond buyers will loan you another, say, $60, which can also be loaned out. With just $100 in cash, in other words, you can loan out $240.

Thus a contract becomes a security, which can act as collateral for another loan and another for the lender. But reuse of the same asset for multiple loans can go only so far. Chartered at a 10% capital requirement, depository banks can issue up to ten times their capital in loans. (In 2020 the Fed lifted the capital requirement altogether, but 10% is still considered a prudent ratio.) 

Banks do need to back withdrawals with reserves, which they acquire from their incoming deposits or by borrowing from other banks or the Federal Reserve; but the state has plenty of deposits to serve that function. Any bank in which the state deposits its revenues will back its loans with those deposits, and the I-Bank’s loans are actually safer and better for the public interest than those of the big Wall Street banks. If the I-Bank were to become the state’s banker and its reserve account were overdrawn, it would have the same protections afforded by the Federal Reserve system to all chartered banks: it could borrow reserves from other banks, the repo market, or the Fed itself. The BND is not a member of the Federal Reserve but has a master account with it, allowing the bank to transfer funds with other banks in the system and to act as a “mini- Fed” for the state, providing correspondent banking services to North Dakota’s many community banks.

One thing California and North Dakota have in common is that they are both big agricultural states. The BND helps its farmers with a variety of low-interest loans. Although most of its loans are in collaboration with local banks, two loans it makes directly are the Beginning Farmer Real Estate Loan and Established Farmer Real Estate Loan. California’s struggling farmers could benefit from that sort of direct aid as well.

The state itself could also realize significant savings from its I-Bank if the bank’s loan capacity were expanded. I was unable to nail down the current comparative figures for loans, but here is an example from an article I wrote in Yes Magazine in 2018:

Financing infrastructure through the municipal bond market accounts for half the cost of infrastructure due to the debt load involved. One example where this is made clear is with Proposition 68, a statewide ballot measure that voters approved in the June 5 primary election which authorizes $4.1 billion in bonds for parks, environmental, and flood protection programs. The true cost of the measure is $200 million per year over 40 years in additional interest, bringing the total to $8 billion. California’s IBank, which funds infrastructure at 3 percent, could finance the same bill over 30 years for $2.1 billion—a nearly 50 percent reduction.

The Golden State as Trendsetter: Time to Form a Bank

In 2019, two bills were brought to convert California’s I-Bank into a depository bank, one in the Senate, SB 528 (Hueso), and one in the Assembly, AB 310 (Santiago). SB 528 sought simply to convert the I-Bank to a depository ban. It passed the first two committees but was “suspended” in Appropriations. The second bill, AB 310, sought to extend the I-Bank’s services directly to underserved individuals and businesses. It was opposed by the state treasurer and the state controller on grounds that it was too risky, and it failed. But California State Treasurer Fiona Ma said in her opposition letter to AB 310 that she was sympathetic to its goals, and that “I respectfully propose AB 310 be amended, replacing the current language with a mandate to develop a feasibility study to be conducted by an independent, apolitical expert source. The technical experts in my office can assist to build the framework of the study as the state’s banker.” 

There is actually no need to change the I-Bank’s existing programs, since it already has a variety of programs that help the underserved indirectly. Simply converting it to a depository bank would extend the reach of its existing services (for which there is currently excess demand), expand its profitability, reduce the cost of infrastructure and development for state and local government agencies, and protect any revenues deposited in it from a sudden crisis in the conventional banking system. 

The remedy for unemployment is employment, and the remedy for the unhoused is affordable housing. An I-Bank expanded into a state-owned depository bank could provide both.

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This article was first posted as an original to ScheerPost.com.

Ellen Brown is an attorney, co-chair of the Public Banking Institute, and author of thirteen books including Web of Debt, The Public Bank Solution, and Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. She also co-hosts a radio program on PRN.FM called “It’s Our Money.” Her 400+ blog articles are posted at EllenBrown.com.

She is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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UNESCO should be congratulated for awarding the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for 2024 to Palestinian journalists covering Gaza. The prize this year was announced in Santiago, Chile in conjunction with World Press Day on 3^rd  May  2024.

The prize named in honour of a Colombian journalist murdered in 1986, Guillermo Cano Isaza, is a recognition of the courage shown by journalists who are prepared to carry out their responsibilities in the face of grave danger. Guillermo was a newspaper editor who was a vocal critic of drug barons in his country and in South and Central America.   

It is an indisputable truth that journalists in Gaza have been confronting the reality of death every day of their lives in the last seven months as Israeli bombs rain their congested homeland and Israeli bullets target any child, woman or man who inhabits that narrow strip of land. Up to this point, 7^th May 2024, 143 journalists have lost their lives in the Israeli assault on Gaza. This is the largest number of journalists killed in a conflict within a certain period of time in a certain demographic setting. 

The number of journalists killed should be viewed in the context of the huge massacre that has taken place in Gaza since October 7^th. Israel —mainly its armed forces and Zionist settlers who are allowed to kill Palestinians at random— have annihilated at least 35,000 people in the course of the last seven months. It is heart-rending to know that about 70% of those killed are children and women. Indeed, more children have died in the present conflict in Gaza and the West Bank than in any previous assault upon Palestinian territory since 1948 when the state of Israel was established.

Image: Funeral for Palestine TV journalist Mohammad Abu Hattab. Credit: X/@MuhammadSmiry

If the story of this senseless slaughter has been told to the world, it is not simply because of the courage of the journalists associated with the conventional media. The alternative media have also played a significant role. Within the alternative media in Gaza are a large number of citizen journalists telling the truth to relatives and friends through their handphones and other channels. They too are heroes and heroines because of their indomitable courage and their willingness to take great risks, risks which place their very lives in peril.

It is because these citizen journalists had shared their stories with certain conventional media channels which in turn had scrupulously verified the news and information they had received that so much of what was, and is, happening in Gaza is now known to the world. A television station operating in both Arabic and English which helped to disseminate the actual happenings in Gaza and the West Bank far and wide was of course the Qatar-based Al Jazeera.

Al-Jazeera also has its own huge network of journalists on the ground whose courage and integrity are awe-inspiring. Through their commitment to truth and justice, they have raised journalism to a loftier level. It is a shame that such a television station should now be banned by the Israeli authorities from reporting from Occupied Palestine or Israel proper. It only confirms that the Israeli state does not want the world to know the truth about what it is doing in Gaza

But the truth will prevail in the end. That is the immutable law of life. After more than 75 years of oppression and suppression, of extermination and expulsion, millions and millions of people all over the world have come to know about what Israel really is, and what it has been doing to the Palestinians and other Arabs. 

Israel is exposed as never before. The whole world now knows that it is an arrogant, cruel and inhuman state and society. It is so selfish and self-serving that it has brought about its own downfall.

At this juncture, it should also be emphasized that while Israel is perpetuating colossal injustices against Palestinians, there are also millions of Jews in North America and Europe who are against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. They want the rights of the Palestinians restored. They are convinced that Jews, Christians and Muslims can live together in peace and harmony.

Together with Palestinians and millions of others from every continent and community, they would applaud UNESCO’s decision to award this year’s World Press Freedom prize to Palestinian journalists covering the catastrophe in Gaza. 

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Dr Chandra Muzaffar, founder and president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), prominent human rights advocate, author and academic, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image: The funeral of two Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

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So now the world knows.

The democratic government of the United States of America has been covertly supplying thousands upon thousands of high explosive, 2,000-pound (900kg) and 500-pound (225kg) bombs to the IDF to enable it to carry out the mass killing of civilians in Gaza. This fact makes the United States an accessory to mass murder in Gaza, amounting to genocide.

In the first month of its war in Gaza, Israel dropped hundreds of such massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away. To date, more than 100,000 have either been killed, mutilated or wounded. Primarily women and children.

These 2,000-pound bombs are four times heavier than the largest bombs the United States dropped on ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, during the war against the extremist group there.

Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of heavy munitions such as the 2,000-pound bomb for the soaring death toll. The population of Gaza is more highly concentrated than almost anywhere else on earth, so the deliberate use of such heavy munitions has a profound effect that directly violates the Geneva Conventions and Article 51 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area as densely populated as Gaza means it will take decades for communities to recover, if ever, from such crimes against humanity.

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In the aftermath of the attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on the border crossing city of Rafah, from Gaza to Egypt, the United States administration claimed that it had paused a shipment of massive bombs to the government of Prime Benjamin Netanyahu.

This statement made largely for international consumption is an indication of the political pressure generated by the continuing resistance of the Palestinians combined with mass demonstrations across the United States and the world.

President Joe Biden and members of his administration have said for weeks that it was opposed to a full-scale ground offensive by the IDF on Rafah, an area where 1.5 million people have taken refuge seeking to avoid the massive bombing operations and ground assaults on Gaza City and Khan Younis over the last seven months.  However, proponents of an immediate and lasting ceasefire say that the Biden administration is not serious about its threats to pause military assistance to the Israeli government.

Just recently, the U.S. Congress approved $95 billion more in taxpayer dollars to feed the imperialist war drives in Palestine, Ukraine, China and on the southern border with Mexico where thousands are crossing every week. Biden has stated repeatedly that the commitment of his administration to Israel remains “ironclad.”

These contradictory postures by the White House cannot conceal the critical role of the U.S. in perpetuating the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. The policy orientation of Washington is leading to greater instability, not just in Palestine, but internationally.

In Gaza, the Health Ministry reports say that over 35,000 people have been killed while more than 70,000 are wounded and injured. Thousands of other bodies including many women, elderly and children remain trapped under the massive rubble of destroyed residential, commercial and public structures.

An intensification of attacks on Rafah will generate even worse conditions for the civilian population already living under dire circumstances. The UN has declared that some areas in northern Gaza are coping with famine.

The IDF has already shut down and destroyed most of the hospitals in Gaza. The areas surrounding the hospitals had become humanitarian shelters for those whose homes have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes and shelling. Many physicians over the course of the latest phase of the war have been apprehended by the IDF, interrogated, tortured and murdered.

Rafah, bordering Egypt, has been a main point of entry for humanitarian assistance to the besieged population of the Gaza Strip. The level of aid has been significantly reduced since the IDF operations began in early October 2023. Many of the employees of UNRWA, which is responsible for providing assistance to the Palestinians, have been killed. The agency, which is affiliated with the UN, has been accused by Israel and the U.S. of harboring members of the Hamas Resistance Movement in Gaza.

Aid entering Rafah through Egypt (Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Therefore, in light of the massive bombing operations by the IDF along with the targeting of healthcare workers, hospitals, schools, religious institutions, food and water distribution services and neighborhoods, any objective observer of the situation in Gaza would conclude that genocide is being carried out. Meanwhile, the White House and its allies in Britain and the European Union (EU) have denied the reality that the Israeli government is deliberately forcing the Palestinian population out of the Gaza Strip while liquidating as many of them as possible.

The Biden administration has already lost several of the major constituencies within the Democratic Party electorate. The majority of the Arab and Muslim population groups in the U.S. are clearly alienated from the White House and Congress. This erosion of its electoral base has placed the administration in grave jeopardy.

Nonetheless, it is not only the Arab Americans and Islamic communities which have broken with the Biden campaign. Obviously, many youths and students are expressing their discontent with the U.S. foreign policy towards Palestine and West Asia as a whole. Significant sectors of the African American and Latin American peoples are also in solidarity with the Palestinians rejecting the official narrative that the resistance to settler-colonialism and genocide is tantamount to “terrorism.”

In an article published by the Associated Press on the siege of Rafah, it reports that:

“U.N. officials say an attack on Rafah will collapse the aid operation that is keeping the population across the Gaza Strip alive, and potentially push Palestinians into greater starvation and mass death. The Rafah crossing has a main route for aid entering the besieged enclave and the only exit for those able to flee into Egypt. Early Tuesday (May 7), Israel seized control of the Gaza side of the crossing, saying militants had staged attacks from the area. Both Rafah and Kerem Shalom, the other main aid entry point, have been closed since a Hamas mortar attack killed four Israeli soldiers. Though smaller entry points still operate, the closure is a blow to efforts to maintain the flow of food, medicine and other supplies that are keeping Gaza’s population alive. Some entry points have been opened in the north, and the U.S. has promised that a port to bring in supplies by sea will be ready in weeks. Bringing aid into Gaza through Rafah would likely be impossible during an invasion.” 

Even though the White House has said it is concerned about the burgeoning humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the reality is quite different. Not only has the administration repeatedly condemned the resistance forces in Gaza, they have worked very closely with the Zionist regime to eliminate tens of thousands in the enclave and create the conditions for the forced removal of another 2.3 million Palestinians from their homeland.

Genocidal Policies and U.S. Electoral Politics

The Biden administration could very well be willing to lose the national elections rather than rein in Tel Aviv. Biden’s opponent, former President Donald Trump, has never been a friend of the Palestinian people either.

It was Trump who relocated the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in violation of international law. Biden, who has been in the oval office for over three years, has not reversed this policy.

Biden has always said he considers himself a “Zionist” uttering the false notion that the settlers occupying Palestine have nowhere else to go. The president has never expressed any sympathy with the plight of Palestinians and continues to deliver massive amounts of war materials to the Israeli government, the aggressors in the present situation.

On the eve of the 76th anniversary of Nakba, the disaster of 1948 which has resulted in the dislocation and disenfranchisement of millions of Palestinians, demonstrations against the Zionist state will be a reminder that the struggle is by no means over. Despite the unprecedented numbers of casualties among Palestinians in the last seven months, the growth of the solidarity movement has reached new heights.

In several important swing states in the upcoming presidential elections, during the primaries an important minority within the Democratic Party electorate voted “Uncommitted” as a means of expressing their discontent with the administration’s facilitation of the genocide taking place in Gaza. Opinion polls released over the last several months reveal that the election outcomes are within the margin of error.

Journalist Omar Karmi wrote in the Electronic Intifada emphasizing:

“The U.S. has plenty of options. It can implement an arms embargo on Israel. It can withdraw financial support for Israel. It can exercise its considerable power to demonstrate that it takes seriously its self-appointed role as guarantor of international order and ‘leader of the free world.’ All of this will seem unpalatable to Joe Biden, a staunchly pro-Israel president facing what by all accounts appears a close election race in November. But that is the choice he faces: Israel or everyone else.” 

As the demonstrations around the U.S. continue for a ceasefire and solidarity with Palestine, the White House and the majority of Congressional officials are proving to be completely out of touch with important constituencies which are essential for any hope of winning Democratic control of the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government beginning in 2025. Irrespective of which ruling class-dominated party wins in the November elections, many people remain committed to ending the genocide and realizing the emergence of an independent Palestinian state will continue.

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

Featured image: IDF in Rafah in May 2024 (Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

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[This video was produced in 2013.]

James Corbett of corbettreport.com presents this 5-minute parody of the official conspiracy theory of 9/11.

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President Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected head-of-state in the Republic of South Africa, said during the final phases of the transition from apartheid settler-colonialism to non-racial democracy, that “our freedom remains incomplete without the liberation of the Palestinians.”

This statement takes on an even more poignant character in light of the developments of the last seven months in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

At present, approximately 35,000 people have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7 where resistance organizations based in the Gaza Strip launched an offensive operation against the Zionist state. The massive bombing operations and ground offensive by the IDF has drawn the opprobrium of billions of people around the world.

Mass demonstrations, boycotts, blockades, cultural presentations, petitions and electoral campaigns have been launched demanding an end to the siege of Gaza and the total independence of the Palestinian people under their own sovereign state. On college and university campuses in the United States and other countries from Western Europe to Australia, students have built encampments along with taking over buildings to demand the complete divestment of these educational institutions from entities that engage in business dealings and other forms of cooperation with the State of Israel.

The African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, has been a longtime ally of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority. In recent months, the ANC government has held discussions with the Hamas Resistance organization and other groupings representing the oppressed people.

Due to this decades-long affinity between African Liberation Movements and their Palestinian counterparts, the South African Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs filed a lawsuit in December 2023 charging Tel Aviv with violations of the Genocide Convention of 1948. A ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest legal body within the United Nations, said that the claims made by South Africa in its pleadings were plausible.

Nonetheless, the ICJ and the UN Security Council have refused to take any punitive actions against the Israeli regime. A separate legal challenge by the Nicaraguan government against Germany for being the second largest supplier of weapons to the IDF, was rejected by the ICJ.

Obviously, the imperialist states are committed to the maintenance of a settler-colonial state amid the struggling and oppressed peoples of West Asia and North Africa. U.S. President Joe Biden continues to supply bombs, warplanes, guns, intelligence assistance and diplomatic cover to the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire ruling apparatus which contains and exploits millions of Palestinians along with people living in neighboring Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq.

The disproportionate economic and political power exercised by the U.S. and other imperialist states on an international scale has been further exposed as being detrimental to peace, security and sustainable development. This is the reason behind the failure of western-dominated institutions such as the UN to impose harsh measures on Tel Aviv and its supporters for the perpetuation of settler-colonialism and genocide.

This intransigence on the part of imperialism is the trigger which ignites the resistance movements across the region. The mass demonstrations by broad sectors of the population within the Western states are a reflection of the social contradictions which exist in the leading capitalist countries. While there is much self-congratulatory rhetoric on the part of both ruling class-dominated political parties in the U.S., tens of millions remain impoverished and insecure.

South Africa and its policies towards the Palestinian question represents the rejection of U.S. and Western European hegemony. This attitude towards settler-colonialism and institutional racism positions the imperialists on a collision course with the majority of people around the globe.

South Africa and the World Economic Crisis

A key characteristic of capitalist societies is the level of inequality between the ruling class and the majority of the people constituting the workers, farmers and youth. All of these social elements of the oppressed peoples are destined to resist and eventually rise up against their rulers.

South Africa as a transitional state clearly remains an unequal society characterized still by the dominance of the capitalist modes of production. When reading most western-based analyses of the current phase within the South African political trajectory there is considerable emphasis on the official statistics revealing more than 32% jobless rate and even higher among youth.

In addition, the degree to which reforms instituted by the government have not fulfilled the aspirations of both the domestic and international capitalist interests lends to the arguments suggesting that the ANC has failed in its policy imperatives. Various positions taken and advanced by the South African government have drawn the ire of the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress.

Moreover, the Biden administration falsely accused Pretoria of selling arms to the Russian Federation assisting its Special Military Operation in Ukraine. An announcement was made recently calling for a downgrading of diplomatic relations by the U.S. towards South Africa.

However, interesting enough, South Africa has been once again designated as having the largest economy on the African continent. The ANC is standing for national elections at the end of May. There are economic and political interests within and outside of Africa which are working towards the weakening of the ruling party as an outcome of the voting. (See this)

Diplomatically, the White House castigated the ANC government for filing a legal claim against the Israeli government saying publicly that the case had “no merit.” Such continued utterances by the Biden administration are placing its own chances of reelection in an even more precarious status.

Leading African American religious organizations such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ) together issued a joint statement demanding that the Biden administration commit to a ceasefire in Gaza. These two denominations represent 4.9 million African Americans in the U.S. Prior to the AME-AMEZ statement early in 2024, 1000 African American clergy held a press conference telling the White House to work towards a ceasefire.

Therefore, the South African government, commandeering the largest national economy within the continental African Union (AU), along with the African American progressive forces, are working towards the halting of the genocide against the Palestinian people and a long-term resolution to the Palestinian question. In the U.S., the militant actions taken by students and professors at the most elite higher education institutions in the country, illustrates that the myths under which imperialism has shaped public opinion around the legitimacy and inevitability of the status-quo are collapsing.

In the U.S. hundreds of labor leaders and unions have formed committees to advance the cause of ending the genocide in Gaza. The struggle for Palestine liberation has grown exponentially within the imperialist centers of power.

Role of the African Union

At the AU headquarters in Ethiopia, the Commission has issued a series of statements condemning the actions of Tel Aviv against the Palestinians. In addition to the AU’s views and official policy on Palestine, they have parted ways with Washington over the necessity of a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis. (See this and this)

These declarations by African states are occurring within the context of a rising demand for U.S. and French military and diplomatic forces to vacate certain Africa states, particularly in the West African Sahel region where a series of events involving the military seizure of power is resulting in an apparent shifting of alliances from the NATO states to the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. Over several decades, successive Washington administrations have invested substantial resources and lives in their machinations to control the economic and political atmosphere within the AU member-states.

Consequently, the U.S. administration is working to destabilize those African states which are seeking to form their own independent foreign policy. South Africa has refused to back away from its solidarity with the Palestine people.

This is one of the most important achievements of the 30 years of independent democratic control in South Africa. Despite the limitations of the advancements toward total freedom and sovereignty, South Africa embodies large vibrant trade union and communist movements.

These proletarian organizations are allied with the government around the questions of Palestine and the necessity of building an alternative to the existing power relations. In the U.S., more working class organizations are diverging from the capitalist state involving foreign policy issues.

In order for imperialism to be defeated it will require a convergence of national liberation and working class struggles on a world scale. The current warmongering of the imperialists must be viewed as an act of desperation. These developments cannot deter the peoples from continuing their efforts for a just and peaceful planet.

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

All images in this article are taken from the author

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The following is a transcript on a an interview with Richard C. Cook conducted by Ahmed Danyal Arif, Editor of the Economics Section for The Review of Religions.

Ahmed Danyal Arif (ADA): Mr. Cook, first of all thank you so much for giving us a little of your precious time. We are very grateful for this. I have to be honest I don’t know where to start as you have had such a long career in the US Government where you have essentially served (please correct me if I am wrong) as a policy analyst in the 70s and 80s. You then worked for NASA and ended your career in 2007 as a Project Manager in the US Treasury Department. You are now retired and writing with a particular focus on monetary reform. What led you to write about this?

Richard C. Cook  (RCC): I began to study monetary reform in 1979-1980 when I worked for the Carter White House in the office of consumer affairs. I had discovered the ideas of British engineer C.H. Douglas who explained the chronic gap in developed economies between GDP and national income, which meant that society never had enough money to purchase what their economies were able to produce. Some very notable people like Winston Churchill and Henry Ford were also aware of this. The system of Keynesian economics was developed to address the problem through government borrowing. But all this accomplished was to ‘kick the can down the road’ by creating debt that eventually had to be paid off, usually through war or hyperinflation.

A decade later I found myself working for the US Treasury Department, when I was able to carry out an in-depth study of the history of the US monetary system. I learned that the banking system existed to fill the GDP-income gap but that the debt it created in doing so led to massive profits to the banks but ruin for the nation at large. I also learned that the only successful alternative had been the spending of Greenbacks by the government during the Civil War. I then came into contact with Stephen Zarlenga who had founded the American Monetary Institute and was studying the same problems. Together we wrote the American Monetary Act which became Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s NEED Act introduced in Congress in 2011 but not yet passed. This would create a modern version of Greenback money. So one thing led to another, and I am still writing about these things. My latest is my new book, Our Country, Then and Now to be published soon by Clarity Press.

ADA: In your book We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform (Tendril Press, 2009), you have a whole chapter about morality and economics. What is the correlation between the two and do you still believe this is the ‘key issue of the 21st century’?

RCC: Our Declaration of Independence states that every person has a right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Of course along with these rights come responsibilities. One is that we act with kindness and compassion in accepting the rights of others. Our predatory financial system does not do this. The system is based on putting people into debt. That’s how money is generated in the economy. But this is wrong.

Of course we are all responsible for working to earn a living. But the system should assure that people can earn enough that they can live decently and respectably as well as save for the future. Naturally, the work of some will support the lesser financial contributions of others, but this is part of life. If people are dissatisfied with their opportunities for work they should be free to seek elsewhere or be able to improve their skills so as to earn more. But all of this requires a monetary system that supports individual freedom and initiative. We do not have such a system today. What we have is debt slavery where the 1% make out like bandits and the 99% struggle to survive. Such a system also promotes crime and war, where people and nations feel they must steal from their neighbour in order to get by.

ADA: When we take a look at the current economic climate and the news on a daily basis, there is clearly a popular discontent. I am obviously thinking about inflation which really is giving us a hard time. Price rises have slowed in some parts of the world, but they are still significant. How did we get there? Is it only Putin’s fault or did the unconventional monetary policies of the central banks following the 2008 crisis also play a role?

RCC: We have a war, with the West supplying billions of dollars of weapons to the Ukrainian regime. And Russia is winning that war.

The West also cut itself off from cheap Russian energy in order to cause the Russian economy to collapse. That didn’t work. So energy prices are skyrocketing. Then for reasons no one understands, the Federal Reserve and other Western banks began raising interest rates, making every purchase of consumer goods more expensive. I certainly don’t begrudge the payment by the government of stipends to citizens during the pandemic. People have to live. But that was not the cause of the present crisis. The cause is the banking system.

ADA: Interest rates are also soaring as you rightly mentioned, and many are now questioning whether they can still afford to pay their mortgage while prospective first-time homeowners are considering putting off buying in the hopes of securing a better deal in the future. I even came across  a company called ‘SimpleClosure raising $1.5m in less than 24h to help businesses shut down’ (especially startups). I mean, it seems to be the perfect recipe for… a systemic crash, no?

RCC: There have been previous times in history that the Federal Reserve raised interest rates that crashed the economy. This is what started the Great Depression in 1929. The Fed started the recession of 1979 when it raised interest rates to over 20 percent. There were periodic increases in the 1980s and 1990s that took down the economies of entire nations in Latin America and Asia. It is happening again now after the zero percent interest rates the Federal Reserve put in place during the 2008-2009 Great Recession. The Federal Reserve always claims that they raise interest rates to ‘fight inflation.’ But there is an equally sound argument that higher interest rates cause inflation by making every business transaction more expensive. The fact is that the Federal Reserve is a black hole.

No one but the bankers themselves know what they are doing or why. At the present time banks like JP Morgan Chase are making record profits while the economy is moving toward a recession and ordinary people increasingly cannot afford food, housing, education, or transportation.

The US federal government is now $33.1 trillion in debt.

State and local governments are $3.17 trillion in debt. Private sector debt is over $30 trillion.

This is just within the US.

It means that every individual is $211,000 in debt on average. According to the Federal Reserve, the average net worth of American families in 2019 was $746,820, with the median $121,760. We can deduce that a large majority of American families literally own nothing. It’s no different in most other countries. And with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, mainly to attract overseas investment and shore up the dollar, the debt continually grows even if no new debt is added.

ADA: Turning to your latest insightful article titled ‘Is World War III About to Start’ (part I and part II), you say of the Ukraine war that ‘anyone with a discernible pulse is aware of the danger that the conflict could escalate into a conflagration large and destructive enough to morph into World War III.’ You also give a detailed analysis of the US military-industrial complex employing tens of millions of people. Do you think that military production is the only area where the “saturation” point can be postponed indefinitely as long as the ‘adversaries’ or ‘enemies’ are equally able to develop faster and better weapons?

RCC: The problem here are the words ‘adversaries’ and ‘enemies.’ Who says so? Personally, I have no ‘adversaries’ or ‘enemies.’ These are buzzwords used by governments to get people to kill other people and to get themselves killed. Why? So the fat cats can make money. It’s been that way for a long time, but it doesn’t have to be that way any longer. We have the knowledge and the understanding today to stop wars. Of course, there will always be competition, and some people will still try to cheat their competitors. So, we still need a system of law enforcement. But we don’t have to kill each other so the rich can get richer.

ADA: This brings me to the crucial issue of the dollar’s global hegemony. We know that this gives the US government power to impose crippling sanctions and wage other forms of financial warfare against adversaries. But this hegemony of the dollar is increasingly contested and the Sino-Russian agenda of opposition to the American currency has intensified with the Ukrainian conflict. Several historical allies of the United States (Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.) or Brazil have affirmed their desire to gradually get rid of the dollar. Do you think that this geo-monetary tug of war and the recent gold accumulation of central banks could lead to World War III and, in the medium/long term, to a different international monetary system from the one we have known since 1944 and the Bretton Woods Agreement?

RCC: Yes, it does seem clear that the collapse of dollar hegemony could lead to World War III if the US decides, out of desperation, to simply knock over the chessboard now that it is in danger of being checkmated.

The U.S. had previously been heading toward bankruptcy around 1970 due to huge budget and trade deficits coming from the Vietnam War. So, the Nixon government, also acting in desperation, removed the gold peg, while the banking/oil cartels raised oil prices by a factor of four. It was done by the US/British financial class, not by the Arab oil producers. What it really represented was a gigantic theft of international resources by these cartels. The world has never been the same since, with real GDP and incomes not having grown at all since then. So, the Bretton Woods Agreement actually ended then. Obviously, we need a new Bretton Woods, one that recognizes parity among all national currencies. This is what BRICS is aiming at, even as the West goes bankrupt.

ADA: As you already know, and you mentioned it in your book, interest is strictly forbidden in the Islamic paradigm. But as a Muslim, I also know that the Qur’an actually quite explicitly links interest with war (Ch. 2: V. 280). I just wanted to take your view, as a defense analyst or economist, on the role of debt in this whole global warfare that we have been seeing for decades now.

RCC: The view of the Islamic nations on lending and interest is absolutely correct. In the West, the regime of usury based on compound interest is criminal psychopathy.

What really happened was that gradually the money lenders took over the U.S. economy during the late 19th century in exactly the same way the Bank of England took over the British economy after it was founded in 1694.

The British got rich by plundering India, China, and South Africa, but the profits went to the bankers in the City of London, who put the entire British ruling class into debt.

The British Empire and today the American Empire were both founded on bank-created debt. Global warfare, including the West’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, are manifestations of this financial imperative. It is no accident that the US hedge fund BlackRock is in process of buying up the assets in Ukraine now that Ukraine has been depopulated by the war. This is what they wanted to do with Russia when they enticed Russia to invade Ukraine in 2022 then imposed sanctions. Russia was supposed to collapse, but it didn’t happen.

ADA: Ultimately, dialogue with other nations and communities is vital. Is it possible, in your opinion, for nations and leaders to conciliate a focus on their own national interests and at the same time consider what is best for the world at large?

RCC: Is a multipolar world possible? Only if the people of the West, acting through their own governments, take back the unconstitutional power of the banks. The US banking system, going back to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and beyond, is in fact an ongoing insurrection against the U.S. Constitution. It’s the Constitution that gives Congress, not the banks, the authority to create and oversee the monetary system of the nation. In Russia and China, the central banks report to the government.

In the US, the Federal Reserve reports only to the wealthiest 1%. This is what has to change. Until then, there can be no peace in the world. Of course, we also need a spiritual renewal.

My inspiration has been the German spiritual master Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken–1876-1943). His books are becoming available in English translation from Kober.com. I would urge all your readers to take a look. One thing he writes about is the necessity for people and nations to live within their means.

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This article was originally published on The Review of Religions.

Richard C. Cook is a retired US government analyst who worked for the US Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Jimmy Carter White House, NASA, and the US Treasury Department. While at NASA he became a whistleblower at the time of the January 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster by disclosing NASA’s past knowledge of the problems that destroyed the shuttle and killed the 7-person crew. At Treasury, he developed and taught training courses on the American monetary system. After retirement in 2007, he published several books and numerous articles on public policy issues, including ‘We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform’. Most recently he has published articles on the dangers of World War III and the urgent need to confront the crimes of international finance in driving the world to destruction. He will soon be publishing a new book, ‘Our Country, Then and Now’, through Clarity Press.

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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The Russian government including President Putin now publicly acknowledges that Western provocations are increasing in scope and seriousness and are spinning the Ukrainian conflict out of control.

The Russian government has stated that the American F-16 aircraft supplied to Ukraine by the idiotic governments of Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium will “be treated as nuclear-capable weapons.”

Dmitry Medvedev, former President of Russia and currently deputy director of the Russian Security Council has declared the West’s leaders to be “infantile morons” whose ignorant arrogance is leading to their destruction.

Alarmed by the increasing likelihood of NATO and US soldiers deployed to Ukraine and by the British Foreign Secretary’s statement that there are no prohibitions on Ukraine’s use of the UK-provided long range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory, President Putin has ordered the Russian Ministry of Defense to conduct exercises to guarantee Russia’s ability to rapidly deploy battlefield nuclear weapons.

Medvedev stated that while the moronic French president speaks of “strategic ambiguity,” for Russia there is no ambiguity. Russia’s “response will not be in Ukraine. There will be no hiding on Capitol Hill, in the Elysee Palace or at 10 Downing Street.”

These developments confirm that I was correct that Putin’s never-ending conflict would permit ever increasing Western interventions until the situation spins out of control. As Putin has never enforced any of his many red lines that the West has crossed in Ukraine, the West no longer regards Russian warnings as meaningful. The warnings are welcomed and used as propaganda to further rouse Western populations to “the Russian threat.”

I find it bewildering that Putin, and apparently Xi, still think the West will come to its senses and accept a multipolar world. The ignored reality is that Washington cannot possibly reposition Russia from enemy to trusted partner. Despite the enormous increase in provocations and elevation of tension, Russia and China are still unable to accept reality. In his inaugural speech Putin again gave his assurance that Russia does not renounce dialogue with the West. Apparently Putin is willing to be forever deceived as he was for eight years by the Minsk Agreement. Putin thinks the atmosphere has changed and today “reliability, mutual responsibility, sincerity, decency, nobility and courage” are highly valued. By whom, President Putin? Most certainly not by the West.

Putin’s aversion to reality is buttressed by that of Russian foreign affairs “experts.” For example, Andrey Bystritsky of the Valdai Discussion Club claims that Putin’s openness to dialogue with the US about a mutual security system will “undoubtedly be heard in the West. There is no doubt about it. They are listening carefully.” Please name one leader in the West who is seeking “diplomatic solutions.” If any such leader exists, he clearly has no influence.

The French president has sent French Foreign Legion troops to Ukraine.

The UK foreign minister has sent Ukraine long-range missiles with which to attack deep into Russia.

The Lithuanian prime minister dismisses Russian warnings and says she is ready to send troops to Ukraine. Biden calls the Russian president “Hitler” to justify more armaments and money for Ukraine.

These are not the words and deeds of those seeking diplomatic solutions. Russians have a difficult time engaging with reality, and it is the Russian failure to accept reality that is leading to nuclear war.

Putin does not understand that in America, the only remaining cement holding a dissolving society together is propaganda about “foreign enemies.”

American conservatives and super-patriots (USA! USA! USA!) oppressed by their own government rally to the support of their oppressive government against “foreign enemies.”

The designation of Russia, China, and Iran as enemies is essential for unity and for the power and profit of the powerful military/security complex. Without the propaganda, expressed by UK, EU, Biden and US Congressional leaders that Russia will next invade Europe, what would hold the West together? With the enormous investment Washington has in the portrait of Russia as Hitlerite evil, how can the Kremlin possibly entertain the hope of a partnership?

If Putin does not quickly bring an inexcusably over-long conflict to a victorious end before Ukraine fills up with Western troops, he will bequeath nuclear Armageddon to the world.

*

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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.

Sources

https://www.rt.com/russia/597054-medvedev-nuclear-drill-nato/

https://www.rt.com/news/597053-democrat-leader-us-troops-ukraine/

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-warns-ukraines-f-16s-will-treated-nuclear-threats-1897700

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240506/russias-not-bluffing-tactical-nuke-drills-are-deafening-warning-to-nato-to-stay-out-of-ukraine-1118294192.html

https://tass.com/politics/1784091

https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1948389/

Featured image is from The Unz Review

Video: Hiroshima-Nagasaki Dress Rehearsal. The Dangers of Nuclear War. Michel Chossudovsky with James Corbett

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and James Corbett, May 08, 2024

We talk about the original, genocidal plan of the US War Department for a genocidal nuclear slaughter of the Soviets, how that plan has continued to the present day, the existential threat of nuclear holocaust and the prospects for an anti-war movement that can actually stand up to the military-industrial complex.

Young Women with Stage 4 Cancers After COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination. Solution? Screening Age for Great Cancer Now Dropped from 50 to 40

By Dr. William Makis, May 08, 2024

The age that women should begin regular breast cancer screening has dropped from 50 to 40, according to new official guidance from the US’ chief disease prevention body. The US Preventive Services Task force (USPSTF) finalized Tuesday the draft recommendation from last year, amid rising cases of the disease in women under 50.

NATO’s Entry Into the Ukraine War?

By Germán Gorraiz López, May 08, 2024

With the US immersed in the electoral campaign for the November presidential elections, France, Poland and the United Kingdom would be the trident chosen by the globalists to implode the Ukrainian front next summer and provoke the subsequent entry of NATO into open conflict with Russia of a re-elected Putin until 2030.

Western Officials Warned Zelensky Against 2023 “Counteroffensive”. Rumors of Another “Counteroffensive” in 2024

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida, May 08, 2024

According to Guido Crossetto, Italian defense minister, the Kiev regime ignored several direct warnings to avoid prolonged frictions with Russia during the 2023 counterattack. Crossetto claims to have spoken to Zelensky several times that the attempt to launch a counteroffensive through frontal attacks were doomed to failure and would lead to Ukraine’s defeat.

The True “Efficacy” of COVID-19 “Vaccines”

By Dr. Mark Trozzi, May 08, 2024

Covid-19 experimental genetic injections have been referred to as “safe and effective vaccines” though they do not satisfy that definition or those claims. They are physically not like any vaccine ever administered before.

Anti-Doping: Western Media Ignites War on China in Sports

By Rick Sterling, May 08, 2024

Western accusations of doping by Chinese swimmers threaten to exacerbate China-US tensions, undermine the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and seriously harm the upcoming Paris Olympics. The controversy was ignited by investigation reports at the New York Times and German TV broadcaster ARD. 

Israel’s Battle Against Free Speech: The Shuttering of Al Jazeera

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, May 08, 2024

Al Jazeera has had a troubled relationship with Israel.  Sounding like paranoid family members who have imbibed a bit too much, accusations frothed from various politicians accusing the network of being a Hamas front. In a dubious honour, the network’s name became associated with a law passed by the Israeli Knesset on April 1.

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Papers reviewed: 

• 2023 Jan (Pezzani et al) – Anticancer properties of Bromelain: State-of-the-art and recent trends

• 2021 Nov (Hikisz et al) – Beneficial Properties of Bromelain

2023 Jan (Pezzani et al) – Anticancer properties of bromelain: State-of-the-art and recent trends

• Bromelain is an enzyme with a particular proteolytic activity that can be easily obtained from the pineapple stem (Ananas comosus)

• Bromelain’s anti-cancer properties have been evaluated extensively in dozens of studies in vitro for: breast cancer, prostate cancer, gastric, colorectal, hepatocellular, cholangiocarcinoma, lung, melanoma, lymphoma and leukemia

 

• Cytotoxicity: cytotoxic properties of bromelain known since ancient times (traditional Asian Medicine) – due to protease activity. Dose dependent.

• Apoptosis: bromelain can induce both internal and external apoptosis pathways
• autophagy: this mechanism focuses on the degradation and recycling of cellular components. Bromelain increases autophagy of cancer cells.
• Immunomodulatory: bromelain can stimulate or inhibit the immune system
  • Stimulates T-cells and other immune cells and their anti-cancer activity
• anti-inflammatory: bromelain has been used since ancient times for its anti-inflammatory properties
  • able to reduce inflammation and edema – bromelain reduces vasodilation, and increased capillary permeability, leukocyte migration and local pain by inhibiting the formation of bradykinin and serotonin.
  • bromelain also reduces levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines
  • Reduced cytokines/chemokines expression and alteration of white blood cell trafficking can impact on tumor microenvironment, another possible immune-mediated and anti-cancer effect of bromelain.
  • Bromelain can accelerate tissue repair processes as a result of the depolymerization of intercellular structures and modification of vascular permeability (modulation of the arachidonic acid cascade)
• Combined treatment: Bromelain delivery in association with other molecules is often used to obtain a synergistic effect.
  • bromelain + peroxidase: increase ROS, upregulate p53
  • bromelain + olive leaf: decreased lung carcinogenesis in mice
  • bromelain + curcumin + harpagophytum: reduced inflammation
  • bromelain + NAC: inhibits growth and proliferation of certain mucinous tumors
    • This activity can be traced back to the proteolytic activity of bromelain and the mucolytic activity of NAC
    • Some tumors may use mucins during invasion, metastasis and growth in otherwise inhospitable sites
  • bromelain + cisplatin: enhanced chemo effect in breast cancer
    • more tumor shrinkage than cisplatin alone
  • bromelain + radiation therapy: bromelain can act as a radiosensitizer and radio protector of normal tissue
    • increased ROS production, inhibition of repair of DNA strand breaks and inhibition of proliferation

Clinical Studies 

• bromelain has been studied as an adjuvant treatment in cancer care (not a main treatment but an addition to a main treatment)
• breast cancer patients who took bromelain for 10 days showed increased immunotoxicity effect of monocytes and lymphocytes against breast ca cells
• New drug (BromAc^®) combines bromelain + NAC and is used in recurrent thoracic pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) treatment (mucolytic properties of BromAc^® help the tumor dissolution when it was injected directly into mucinous disease)
• bromelain (in combination with papain, sodium selenite and Lens culinarislectin) has been also tested as a complementary medicine on more than 600 breast cancer patients to reduce the side effects caused by adjuvant hormone therapy.

• “Despite these promising effects, the number of clinical trials is low and limited to early stages.”

2021 Nov (Hikisz et al) – Beneficial Properties of Bromelain

• pineapple was valued because of its pleasant, sweet taste, in addition to a wealth of nutrients such as fiber, numerous vitamins, manganese, and copper.
• studies carried out on leaf extracts of pineapple stem have shown that they also contain many biologically attractive alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, and tannins. Currently, it is believed that the attractive healing properties of this plant can be attributed to the action of bromelain
• bromelain is an enzyme characterized by anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective, immunomodulatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties.
• Due to its low toxicity, high efficiency, high availability, and relative simplicity of acquisition, it is the object of inexhaustible interest of scientists
• bromelain is a non-toxic compound with therapeutic values, classified as a protein-digesting enzyme protease
• proteases perform many essential functions, e.g., digestion, proliferation control, cell growth and death, regulation of protein synthesis, and degradation.
• bromelain has low systemic toxicity and good absorption in the body while maintaining sufficiently high biological activity.
• safety: Animal experiments have shown that bromelain has very low toxicity with a lethal dose (LD) greater than 10 g/kg body weight.
• Immunomodulatory: Numerous studies indicate that bromelain has very complex immunomodulatory properties realized at many levels of molecular signaling pathways and control of gene expression involved in the immune response.
  • bromelain may cause both an increase and a decrease in the activity/expression of the same molecules involved in the immune response

Anti-Cancer Properties

• the exact mechanism of its molecular anticancer activities is still unknown
• It has been suggested that the ability of bromelain to inhibit tumor cell proliferation and metastasis, and induce tumor cell death may be due to its proteolytic and immunomodulatory properties
• Bromelain’s ability to trigger apoptosis is undoubtedly one of its essential features allowing for effective inhibition of cancer development and proliferation

• molecular mechanisms of bromelain’s anticancer activity are carried out in many biochemical pathways

 

• breast cancer – main mechanism is apoptosis, but also enzymatic degradation of cell DNA and inhibition of cancer cell cycle (cell cycle arrest)

• melanoma – bromelain upregulates p53 tumor suppressor protein
  • Bromelain-dependent apoptosis induction was associated with modulation of the Bax-Bcl-2 ratio, activation of caspases 3 and 9, and DNA fragmentation
  • bromelain’s ability to deplete intracellular glutathione and generation of reactive oxygen species also plays an essential role in fighting melanoma
• leukemias & lymphomas – combining bromelain with pineapple peroxidase is more effective in inhibiting tumor progression than bromelain alone.
  • bromelain plus pineapple peroxidase may be a powerful anticancer agent.
  • The combination of bromelain-peroxidase caused inhibition of the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase, and increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and changes in mitochondrial potential.
• gastrointestinal and colon cancer
  • bromelain + NAC combination inhibited the proliferation of human gastric and colon carcinoma cells
  • bromelain reduced the development of aberrant crypt foci, polyps, and tumors induced by carcinogens
  • worth emphasizing that the MUC1 glycoprotein, which provides tumor cells with invasive, metastatic, and chemo-resistant properties, may be one of the main targets of bromelain’s antitumor activity
  • apoptogenic properties of bromelain were realized in the mitochondrial pathway and were associated with the involvement of the caspase system and extranuclear p53, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) degradation.
  • Bromelain also appears to impair cancer cell survival by blocking the ERK1/2 and pAkt/Akt, NFκB/MAPK pathway and attenuating Bcl-2 and mucin 1, cell surface associated (MUC1) oncoproteins
• hepatic and pancreatic cancer
  • There is a high promise for bromelain, which can proteolytically degrade the extracellular matrix (ECM).
  • the role of bromelain is enzymatic degradation of the ECM around the tumor, which results in the enhancement of the penetration of anticancer drugs into the neoplastic tissue of the pancreas. As an anticancer drug delivery system, bromelain plays the role of a specific enhancer of the activity of chemotherapeutic agents
  • bromelain + NAC combo given with chemo such as doxorubicin, cisplatin, 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) may significantly reduce the doses of chemo agents while increasing the effectiveness and minimizing effects of systemic toxicity

• “bromelain undoubtedly appears to be a potent inducer of apoptosis and autophagy in tumor cells”

My Take…

Bromelain is very effective in COVID-19 Vaccine Injury as an enzyme that breaks down the toxic spike protein and many people are already taking it as part of a “spike protein detoxification” protocol.

That it has strong anti-cancer activity is an added bonus.

COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated individuals who developed Turbo Cancer need a spike protein detoxification, so Bromelain is very helpful with both spike detox and treating the Cancer as well.

In terms of an “Alternative Cancer Treatment”, Bromelain falls into the “Bioactive Compounds – Supplements” category along with others like Quercetin, Olive Leaf, Curcumin, Green Tea Extract, Resveratrol, Berberine, etc.

 

However, Bromelain does have unique properties that other “bioactive compounds” don’t. These include:

• it’s a proteolytic enzyme – has unique cytotoxic effect (dose dependent) as well as an immunomodulatory effect (affects how the immune system deals with cancer) that appears to be extremely complicated
• synergistic effect – works extremely well in combination with other agents
  • bromelain + peroxidase: increase ROS, upregulate p53 – effective against leukemias and lymphomas
  • bromelain + olive leaf: decreased lung carcinogenesis in mice
  • bromelain + curcumin + harpagophytum: reduced inflammation
  • bromelain + NAC: inhibits growth and proliferation of certain mucinous tumors (gastric and colorectal)
• powerful stimulator of apoptosis and autophagy
• Due to its low toxicity, high efficiency, high availability, and relative simplicity of acquisition, it is the object of extensive research.

As with most bioactive compounds, the question is how to add Bromelain into a Cancer Treatment Regimen and what doses to supplement with.

The literature does not give much guidance in this regard.

From 2021 paper by Varilla et al:

“Without any significant side effects, it has been recorded that almost 12 g/day of bromelain can be taken in an in vivo study [36]. In addition, bromelain is absorbed in its active form throughout the gastrointestinal tract, with approximately 40 percent of the total bromelain absorbed in its high molecular weight form from the intestine [37]. In terms of pharmacokinetics, the maximal level of bromelain in the blood was obtained an hour after oral dosing [35]. Furthermore, [36] found that bromelain retains its plasma proteolytic function. Based on this, a more recent in vitro test showed that after 4 h, approximately 30% of bromelain remained stable in artificial stomach juiceand that after the same time, roughly 20% of bromelain also remained stable in artificial blood [35].”

Bromelain typically comes in 500mg capsules.

*

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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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Apr. 30, 2024 – Breast cancer screening age officially lowered from 50 to 40, amid worrying rise of disease in young women

The age that women should begin regular breast cancer screening has dropped from 50 to 40, according to new official guidance from the US’ chief disease prevention body.

The US Preventive Services Task force (USPSTF) finalized Tuesday the draft recommendation from last year, amid rising cases of the disease in women under 50.

Recommendations from the group are almost always adopted as best practice by physicians across the US.

For instance, the same agency lowered the minimum colonoscopy screening age from 50 to 45 last year.

The ruling reverses longstanding guidance recommending women start regular screening, done through a specialist x-ray called a mammogram, at age 50. 

Dr John Wong, USPSTF vice president, cited a rise in breast cancer cases in women under 50, which recent research shows has increased by three percent per year.

This includes actress Olivia Munn, who was diagnosed with the disease at age 43 after an initial test missed her tumor.

‘There is clear evidence that starting screening every other year at age 40 provides sufficient benefit that we should recommend it for all women in this country to help them live longer and have a better quality of life,’ Dr Wong, a primary care physician at Tufts Medical Center in Massachusetts, said.

USPSTF has previously said an extra 20 million women in their 40s would benefit from a mammogram every two years.

In a study published last year in JAMA Network Open, researchers found that the number of women getting screened for breast cancer has declined since the Covid pandemic began.

Looking through 1.6 million breast cancer screening records, they found that screenings dropped by 14 percent in the first year of the pandemic.

* 

Apr. 30, 2024 – New York Times – In Reversal, Expert Panel Recommends Breast Cancer Screening at 40

 

April 26, 2024 – CANADA (CTV News)

Apr. 26, 2024 – ‘Too young to have breast cancer’: Rates among young Canadian women rising 

Breast cancer rates are rising in Canada among women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, according to a research by the University of Ottawa (uOttawa).

The study reviewed breast cancer cases over 35 years to shed light on trends in breast cancer detection in Canada, said the university in a news release on Friday.

It finds that the risk increases with age:

• Women in their 20s: There were 3.9 cases per 100,000 people between 1984 and 1988, compared to 5.7 cases per 100,000 between 2015 and 2019 for a 45.5 per cent increase.
• Women in their 30s: There were 37.7 cases per 100,000 people between 1984 and 1988, compared to 42.4 cases per 100,000 between 2015 and 2019 for a 12.5 per cent increase.
• Women in their 40s: There were 127.8 cases per 100,000 people between 1984 and 1988, compared to 139.4 cases per 100,000 between 2015 and 2019 for a 9.1 per cent increase.

The study is led by Dr. Jean Seely – Head of Breast Imaging at The Ottawa Hospital and professor in the Department of Radiology at uOttawa. Dr. Seely says the rising rates among younger women is alarming, noting that women in their 20s and 30s are not regularly screened for breast cancer.

“Breast cancer in younger women tends to be diagnosed at later stages and is often more aggressive,” said Dr. Seely.

Dr. Seely suggests targeting younger women in breast cancer awareness campaigns and screening programs.

“We’re calling for increased awareness among health-care professionals and the public regarding the rising incidence of breast cancer in younger women,” said Dr. Seely.

“We need to adapt our strategies and policies to reflect these changing trends, ensuring that all women, regardless of age, have access to the information and resources they need to detect and combat this disease.”

The study also says more research is needed to understand the root cause of rising breast cancer rates among younger women.

Chelsea Bland was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 28.

Though Bland is two years cancer free, she remains on hormone therapy today. Her experience prompted her to establish a local group to offer support for women between the ages of 28 and 40.

“I hope that by bringing awareness to this study it makes people think twice about saying that being in your 20s, 30s and 40s is too young to have breast cancer. In my support group, I have heard the same story over and over again,” Bland said.

“Young women are not being taken seriously after they find a lump because they are told they are too young for breast cancer. This has ultimately led to delays in being diagnosed and being diagnosed at a more advanced stage. We are not too young for this and this is happening to women who do not have any high-risk genetic markers for breast cancer, myself included.”

The study is published in the Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal.

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Recent turbo breast cancer cases in women under age 40 I’ve reported (16 cases):

2024 Jan – Philippines – 27 year old Janah Solleza has been diagnosed with cancer. She made a video about getting COVID-19 vaccinated.

 

 

2024 Apr – NC – Two friends in 30s diagnosed with terminal cancer Sarah Glad was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer & 3 weeks later her best friend 35 year old Rebekah Dunston was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon 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.

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The war in Ukraine would have meant a return to the Cold War between Russia and the USA and a return to the Doctrine of Containment, the foundations of which were laid out by George F. Kennan in his essay “The sources of Soviet behavior”, published in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1947 and whose main ideas are summarized in the quote “Soviet power is impervious to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of force”.

This would include the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO military structures and the increase of military forces with four new battalions deployed on the European border with Russia and the Russian response to the installation of missiles in Belarus Iskander-M equipped with multi-purpose warheads as well as S-40 anti-aircraft missiles following the dynamics of the Cold War (action-reaction).

For their part, Russia would have installed in Kaliningrad the Iskander M missiles equipped with multi-purpose warheads as well as S-400 anti-aircraft missiles and in the event of NATO closing the exit of the Soviet enclave of Kaliningrad to the Baltic Sea, could be reissued the Kennedy-Khrushchev Missile Crisis (October, 1962) which would have as its epicenter Kaliningrad.

NATO’s Entry Into the Ukraine War?

With the US immersed in the electoral campaign for the November presidential elections, France, Poland and the United Kingdom would be the trident chosen by the globalists to implode the Ukrainian front next summer and provoke the subsequent entry of NATO into open conflict with Russia of a re-elected Putin until 2030.

Poland seeks to become a local player in the Eastern European hornet’s nest and extend its influence to the Ukrainian area by claiming its right to incorporate the Ukrainian region of Lviv on the Polish map, which was occupied by Poland from 1918 to 1939.

Thus, the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, affirmed that his country is “willing to accept nuclear weapons” from allied countries in its territory, which has received the harsh and forceful response of Moscow when warning that “the deployment of such weapons in Poland will make Poland a priority objective in Russian military planning”.

Likewise, in a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia has warned that “the arrival of F-16 fighters in Ukraine will see them as carriers of nuclear weapons and we will consider that step by the US and NATO as a deliberate provocation”‘while accusing the West of openly supporting Ukraine’s sabotage actions on Russian territory and supplying Kiev with British and French long-range missiles as well as the new US ATACMS, which can reach Russian territory.

Within the dynamics of action-reaction typical of the new scenario of Cold War 2.0, Putin has ordered the Armed Forces of his country to conduct shortly tactical nuclear weapons maneuvers on the southern border with Ukraine. This would be a Russian response to the claims of French President Emmanuel Macron and other senior British officials “to be willing to send military contingents to Ukraine”. Thus, France had already deployed in Ukraine its first troops from the French Third Infantry Regiment, which is one of the main units of the French Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère).

Use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons?

If nobody prevents it, everything indicates that we are heading to the next entry of NATO in open conflict with  Russia, not being disposable the use of “non-strategic” nuclear weapons, also known as “tactical nuclear weapons”, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and of which Russia would have about 1,800 warheads and NATO would have 250 warheads deployed in Europe.

Tactical warheads refer to those designed to be used on a limited battlefield, for example, to destroy a tank column or carrier battle group if used at sea, so they are also known as “low performance”.

[This official interpretation and narrative regarding “low performance” is misleading. Tactical nuclear weapons have an explosive capacity between one third (1/3) of a Hiroshima to 12 times a Hiroshima bomb, M. Ch.]

However, according to Union of Concerned Scientists, a simulation by Princeton University of a US-Russia conflict that begins with the use of a tactical nuclear weapon predicts “a rapid escalation that would leave more than 90 million dead and injured”, with which the onset of a low-intensity nuclear conflict could degenerate into a large-scale nuclear conflagration with disastrous results for humanity.

*

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Germán Gorraiz López is a political analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

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The so-called Ukrainian “counteroffensive” in 2023 was an absolute failure. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers died on the battlefield in senseless attritions, in which Kiev had no chance of winning. However, Ukraine was apparently advised even by NATO officials against using such a suicide strategy.

According to Guido Crossetto, Italian defense minister, the Kiev regime ignored several direct warnings to avoid prolonged frictions with Russia during the 2023 counterattack. Crossetto claims to have spoken to Zelensky several times that the attempt to launch a counteroffensive through frontal attacks were doomed to failure and would lead to Ukraine’s defeat. However, Zelensky allegedly ignored such advice, deliberately opting for the irrational tactics used on the front lines.

Crossetto revealed that both during Zelensky’s visit to Italy and in other international forums, the Ukrainian president heard directly from him a critical opinion about the plan to counterattack Russian positions. Analyzing the conflict realistically, Crossetto states that, even though he supports Ukraine, he does not agree with the decision to confront Russian forces frontally, given Moscow’s clear superiority. The minister said that “the result of a war is the sum of whoever has the most men and the most means,” which is why insisting on friction with Russia would be suicidal for Ukraine.

The officer also commented on other issues concerning the conflict. For example, he severely criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to send troops to fight directly in Ukraine if Kiev’s army collapses. According to Crossetto, such a maneuver would be extremely dangerous and would cross the “point of no return”, which is why he advises France to avoid any direct involvement.

Furthermore, Crossetto also made some realistic comments about Western anti-Russian sanctions. According to him, the coercive measures failed to achieve their objectives. The minister believes that the West is deceiving itself by maintaining such sanctions instead of simply recognizing the new geopolitical circumstances.

“Many times we behave as if the world has not changed (…) We have always thought that the West was enough to stop Russia and the sanctions are the result of the fact that we are still stuck in the idea that the world is our world. Instead, the world is much bigger and we can only resolve this crisis by involving everyone: first with a truce and then with peace (…) We must not give up on every possible path and opening, even narrow ones, of diplomacy,” he said.

In fact, Crossetto shows a deep geopolitical understanding. Even though he is an official from a NATO country and supports Ukraine, he understands that geopolitical circumstances favor the emergence of a multipolar world, in which the West is no longer the only actor in the international decision-making process. His critical opinion of Western attitudes shows that a pro-multipolar realist tendency is capable of emerging in Europe, despite strong American pressure. The more the EU is victim of coercive measures imposed by the US, the more European countries tend to take a critical stance towards Washington and NATO.

However, the most interesting detail of his speech was the news that Zelensky ignored advice from military experts on the counteroffensive. This shows how even foreign politicians are more concerned about Kiev’s soldiers than the Ukrainian government itself. In practice, there is no respect for Ukrainian lives on the part of the neo-Nazi regime. The soldiers are seen as mere cannon fodder, having to be massively eliminated in useless and anti-strategic battles.

Disrespect for soldiers is one of the reasons why the Zelensky government is so unpopular. Military personnel and their families no longer want to continue seeing casualties in an unwinnable war. Troops’ morale is low, and the certainty of defeat seems to grow among the combatants. Without expectations of victory, there is no reason to continue fighting, which is why Kiev is being forced to implement dictatorial methods to maintain the war efforts.

Kiev is rumored to be planning to launch another “counteroffensive” in 2024. Having lost almost all of its military-age men, the regime is now using the elderly, women and people with health problems – as well as thousands of foreign mercenaries. In such circumstances, it is obviously impossible for Kiev to win any battle, but it is possible that Zelensky insists on the error just to try to do more war propaganda in search of Western weapons.

However, the Ukrainian situation is even worse now than in 2023. If Kiev really wants to repeat the mistake of promoting a counterattack, the total collapse of the regime will certainly be quick.

*

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Lucas Leiroz is a member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert. You can follow Lucas on X (former Twitter) and Telegram. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Guido Crossetto (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

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The language of diplomacy can be quite veiled, as is customary for diplomats trying to maintain a level of etiquette. However, this is done only when dealing with those who deserve respect. And then there’s the political West, an entity that has shown it commands zero respect. The words of its “leaders” mean little to nothing, their promises are worth less than the paper they’re written on, while their idea of conducting diplomacy is on the level of a severely mentally challenged caveman.

And where to even begin with NATO’s open support for terrorism that recently killed and wounded hundreds of Russian civilians. Thus, when dealing with such entities, one must forget about civilized ways and behave accordingly. In line with that, ambassadors of the United Kingdom and France in Moscow were summoned to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where they were told, in no veiled terms, what awaits them if London and Paris continue with their barbaric, warmongering behavior.

The video of the two diplomats leaving the building shows men who are clearly shaken. And for good reason, as the countries they represent have intentionally crossed all of Russia’s red lines in order to cause a reaction. Well, the political West was quite successful, because there was a reaction. It’s just that they don’t like it. One would say that doing something to cause a certain reaction from someone, but then not liking the reaction they knew was coming is called schizophrenia or some other form of mental disorder. However, this seems to be the only way in which the belligerent power pole operates these days (or centuries, to be precise). In the meantime, the Russian military is busy conducting exercises that involve simulated tactical nuclear strikes. Obviously, that’s another “hint” to NATO war criminals, as the world’s most aggressive racketeering cartel obviously didn’t get the memo back in mid-April when Moscow test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile at intermediate range.

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that military exercises involving simulated tactical nuclear weapons will cool down all the hot-headed governments in the political West and “help” them finally realize that they’re risking the fate of governing nothing but radioactive glass deserts from their fallout bunkers if they keep their current course. It should be noted that, although this sounds quite harsh, it’s a necessary evil. As previously mentioned, the United States, European Union, NATO, etc. have repeatedly demonstrated that it’s simply impossible to talk sense into them. They either openly brag about killing Russian troops, including with advanced AI systems, or try to toss the hot potato to each other when they’re caught red-handed. Moscow tried using diplomatic backdoor channels to urge them to deescalate, but to no avail. This left the official warning as the only option and that’s precisely what the Kremlin did by issuing a formal statement. Here it is.

In short, apart from warning about the belligerent rhetoric of Western countries, Moscow’s MFA also pointed out NATO’s support for terrorism, as well as the increasingly possible direct military involvement in Ukraine. The Kremlin also warned about the plethora of ever more advanced weapons that the Neo-Nazi junta is getting, as well as the fact that the political West is openly endorsing their usage against targets deep within Russia, including against civilians. It also pointed out that the US and its vassals and satellite states are deploying the aforementioned medium and intermediate-range missiles, previously banned by the now-defunct INF Treaty that Washington DC suspended unilaterally back in 2019, around not only Russia, but also China. The delivery of F-16s was also mentioned, with Russia reiterating that it “will regard them as carriers of nuclear weapons and consider this step a deliberate provocation. It should be noted that Sergei Lavrov also warned about this last year.

Russia also mentioned Polish requests to Washington DC regarding the deployment of American nuclear weapons on its territory. Moscow warned that “these and some other actions actually indicate that they are consciously leading to a further escalation of the Ukrainian crisis towards an open military clash between NATO countries and Russia” and that the Russian military will respond to such belligerence, including with thermonuclear weapons. It would seem this worked on some, such as France and Italy, as they’ve shown fear. This is particularly true for the former, as Paris is now insisting that it’s “not at war” with Russia and its people (although battlefield footage suggests otherwise, despite the mainstream propaganda machine’s attempts to declare it a “conspiracy theory”). President Macron’s statements have become less direct and more ambiguous after his ambassador in Moscow was told what would happen if NATO involvement became more direct. However, others seem to react differently to fear.

For instance, the US and Germany summoned their ambassadors back to their home countries (not that Russia will miss either, truth be told). Obviously, Washington DC and Berlin want to avoid similar (un)pleasantries, as they’re perfectly aware that Moscow knows all about their support for terrorism and Neo-Nazism. Also, they probably want to avoid the fate of one of Macron’s predecessors. Namely, back in 2007, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy tried playing it tough with Putin. It didn’t end well for him, to put it mildly. He was so shaken after the meeting that Western media reported he was drunk. It could be argued that Sarkozy was indeed drunk, only with fear, as he was so terrified that he was barely able to utter a coherent sentence. And obviously, that’s exactly what anyone with a single half-functioning brain cell would expect when trying to intimidate a country that can wipe out the entirety of France with a single ICBM (while fielding hundreds). Unfortunately, the political West needs to be reminded of this way too often.

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

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

Reviews

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

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

Michel Chossudovsky exposes the insanity of our privatized war machine. Iran is being targeted with nuclear weapons as part of a war agenda built on distortions and lies for the purpose of private profit. The real aims are oil, financial hegemony and global control. The price could be nuclear holocaust. When weapons become the hottest export of the world’s only superpower, and diplomats work as salesmen for the defense industry, the whole world is recklessly endangered. If we must have a military, it belongs entirely in the public sector. No one should profit from mass death and destruction.
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In this November 2023 presentation given in the Romanian Parliament, I provided evidence regarding the true efficacy of Covid-19 “vaccines”.

Other International Crisis Summit experts there revealed many details regarding the unprecedented deaths and injuries that follow these injections.

For my presentation, I set aside the monumental side effects, to evaluate the supposed purpose of the injections: to stop or reduce covid-19 infections. Here is the video of that presentation, as well as the same material in written format.

Click here to watch the video

The True “Efficacy” of COVID-19 “Vaccines”

Introduction 

Covid-19 experimental genetic injections have been referred to as “safe and effective vaccines” though they do not satisfy that definition or those claims. They are physically not like any vaccine ever administered before.

Pfizer / Moderna covid “vaccines” carry a payload of genetic mRNA for the spike protein in a special nanoparticle, while Astrazenica / Johnson & Johnson deliver full strand DNA in an adeno virus.

 

Not Safe, Not Effective

They do not block infection. They do not block transmission. They were predictably a failure and should not have been administered at all. The manufacturers’ clinical trials were inadequate, flawed, and in my opinion fraudulent. Efficacy claims to the public were deceptive.

Real-world data clearly demonstrates that in addition to causing unprecedented adverse events … 

And death by multiple mechanisms…

These injections ultimately increase ones risk of covid-19 disease; with more injections rendering progressively higher risk of disease. 

Predictable Failure and Persecution of Whistleblowers 

Why, as early as 2020, before the covid injection campaigns started, did many doctors and scientists around the world, including myself, endure great professional and financial persecution, in the process of warning you against these injections? It’s because they were predictably harmful! Prior to the global experiment, the predicted efficacy of these injections was very poor.  

There are many mechanisms of injury and death from the injections which my colleagues will describe to you, and I will gladly discuss during our interactions. These include general immune system dysfunctions that worsen all infectious diseases and cancers. 

However, the subject of this article is specifically these injections’ impact on frequency or severity of covid-19 infections. Though as we note they fail to meet the definition of vaccines, we will describe their efficacy in terms of how effective are they at reducing coronavirus infections. 

There efficacy was predictably bad. Here are a few of the reasons:  

Antibody Dependent Enhancement

Click here to watch the video

Coronavirus Vaccines Caused Death and Illness in Prior Animal Trials

First, prior coronavirus vaccine research had revealed that antibodies induced through experiments can actually worsen outcomes rather than helping. When exposed to the actual disease, vaccinated laboratory animals often suffered worse illness and higher death rates than the unvaccinated control animals. 

 

Second, these injections though labeled as “vaccines” were indeed genetic injections. Pfizer and Moderna covid-19 “vaccines” used messenger RNA technology. There have only ever been 385 human subjects in mRNA technology experiments prior to covid-19. These experiments demonstrated poor performance and high levels of adverse events with this technology. 

Antibody Mediated Selection

Click here to watch the video

Third, vaccinating a population during a pandemic violates a fundamental principle of vaccinology, which is that one should never try to vaccinate the way out of a pandemic. The reason for this is that doing so places evolutionary pressure on the virus, and drives the evolution of one variant after another. This obstructs the natural path to herd immunity which normally would have ended the pandemic in a matter of a few months. 

A fourth reason we predicted negative impact from these injections is the importance of the innate immune system and its development, especially for children. This is threatened by these injections.     

So those are some of the reasons that many of us strongly predicted that these injections would have negative “efficacy”, that is, that they would make matters worse. 

It is beyond naive to think that with big Pharma’s multi-billion dollar budget, their scientists who created these injections, could not foresee these same problems. 

What evidence do we have of efficacy from the “vaccine” manufacturers’ own documents? 

Pfizer’s initial two months of clinical trial data, which they used to apply to medical regulators for emergency use authorization; and the partial continuation of that clinical trial, to create their six month clinical trial report, had many flaws. 

For instance: Two months for Emergency Use Authorization, and 6 months for the published trial, was far too little time to legitimately assess safety or efficacy. 10 years would be a usual minimum for a normal vaccine, never mind these genetic experimental “vaccines”. 

The trial was not designed to assess transmission, or clinically relevant endpoints like hospitalization or transmission. 

Large numbers of “vaccinated” subjects were just eliminated from the study, so their results were absent, with no explanation. 

There was a failure to actively track and record the health status and adverse events of all trial participants. 

The study was prematurely unblinded and many of the “unvaccinated” control groups were injected with the “vaccine”. 

Unreliable and manipulatable PCR tests were used to diagnose “covid cases” without even reporting the cycle threshold used. This meant that “unvaccinated” subjects were diagnosed as having covid infections on very sketchy grounds; and “vaccinated” subjects similarly were diagnosed as not having covid, though they clearly had worse outcomes and more death. Considering the unreliability of the PCR as an endpoint measurement, they should have turned to all cause outcomes. 

 

The “vaccinated” had much higher unsolicited adverse events (more sickness and disability), but the “vaccines” were still assigned as reducing symptomatic and severe cases of covid, while ignoring the reality that the “vaccinated” group suffered much worse disease and disability than the control group. 

The Pfizer trial also had more death among the “vaccinated”.

Pfizer may have covered up waning efficacy of the “vaccines” by combining the adolescent cohort group in with the adult group, even though the adolescent group started months later 

Pfizer Wasn’t Alone in Performing Unacceptable Research…

 

Moderna’s study showed increased “covid like symptoms” in the “vaccinated” group, but combined with a negative PCR (which is totally manipulatable, and the cycle threshold was not reported) they shuttled these patients to be counted as “not covid”, but instead something they labeled as “reactogenicity”. So despite the injected people having more and worse covid symptoms in the week after the injections, they were counted as not having covid, and like Pfizer, Moderna ultimately reported that the “vaccines” reduced covid infections. 

With all these tricks in play, the manufacturers created a relative risk reduction claim of 95%, when the reality was likely much lower or even negative.   

Notice here we are discussing “relative risk reduction”. This is not normal.

 

Reporting relative risk reduction is deceptive and unethical. 

To make sound decisions about our health, we must be quoted absolute risk reduction. When Pfizer claimed their injections reduced the risk of covid disease by 95.1%, this actually meant it reduced the risk of covid disease by 0.7%.

The risk of covid disease was already very low without the “vaccine”, so a 95% RRR is a very small actual reduction in risk, or ARR. Moderna similarly claimed to reduce the risk of covid infection by 94.1% in their studies, but that was really just an absolute risk reduction of 1.1%.    

Considering the many flaws, omissions, and deceptive practices in the studies, like the ones we just discussed, the true absolute risk reduction for covid disease was possibly even less than the reported 0.7% and 1.1% ARR.

It may have been negative. We will find out more with the real world data to follow.  

These trials were not designed to assess transmission, or clinically relevant endpoints like hospitalization or death. The absolute harms clearly outweighed the absolute benefits for Pfizer’s 6 month data. People were coerced into experimental and dangerous injections that at most offered a sliver of benefit for reducing covid-19 disease, while increasing their total risk of harm. 

How did these so-called “vaccines” perform once they were imposed on the public? 

In short: poorly, and it was actively covered up by governments and medical regulators. 

 

Governments reported some evidence that supported “vaccine” effectiveness, but these claims were doubtful because of a range of serious inconsistencies and anomalies, including counting people as “unvaccinated” until two or three weeks after their injections, so for instance an infection up to two weeks after injection was counted as an infection in an unvaccinated person.  

People were considered “injected but not vaccinated” which is farcical. 

 

 

When government covid data showed infection rates highest in the most “vaccinated”, and lowest in the “unvaccinated”; rather than halt the injections and raise alarms, Canada’s governments stopped reporting “vaccination” status with the data. People were then blindfolded from seeing that it was predominantly “vaccinated” people suffering with covid-19 disease.

For example, by May 2022, Canadian data showed dramatically higher covid infection rates among the “vaccinated” than the unvaccinated, and even higher for triply injected person. Rather than responding in the best interest of the people, the government stopped reporting “vaccination” status with the covid statistics; then the public could no longer see what was happening.

 

Here’s one example of provinces doing the same thing. This is from British Columbia. Negative efficacy became obvious by the summer of 2022. The BC government responded by ending the reasonable practice of reporting “vaccination” status with covid data. 

Other provinces did the same. 

 

There is a severe difference between active surveillance in clinical trials and passive government surveillance used following the roll out. Passive surveillance systems seemed to make adverse events disappear.   

 

In Canada, only physicians could report adverse events, patients could not.   

The process was laborious, and doctors who tried to report adverse events, had their reports rejected, and they were investigated, disciplined, and often stripped of their licenses to practice medicine. 

For example consider Dr Patrick Phillips of Ontario Canada, who maintained ethical and scientific integrity throughout the pandemic, and was unlawfully persecuted by the medical licensing body, the CPSO, and stripped of his career and income. Every adverse event he reported was rejected, and the CPSO responded to each of his attempted reports by launching another complaint against him, despite there being no patient complaints. 

This is highly irregular.

 

 

In the UK, by week 11 of the injection campaign in March 2022, government data showed overall increased covid-19 infections and deaths among the “vaccinated” compared to the “unvaccinated.” Scientists and doctors who showed negative effects of the “vaccines” were banned from publication and ousted from professional positions. Despite that, many studies contained data that did demonstrate negative efficacy. 

 

A UK study of covid “vaccine” and disease statistics in June 2022, involving more than 9 million participants and comparing data for differing Body Mass Indexes, found (I quote) “Surprisingly, we observed a higher risk of test positivity after vaccination with one or two doses across all BMI groups, which is contrary to evidence reported by the UK Office of National Statistics.

 

 

Here are some results from Sweden, December 2022, from a study titled: Effectiveness of COVID-19 “Vaccines” over 13 Months Covering the Period of the Emergence of the Omicron Variant in the Swedish Population.  

This involved data from 9,153,456 Swedes. The researchers reported conflict of interest and conclusion that differed from the data, but regarding “vaccine” efficacy, they found “limited protection against Omicron infection (dropped to 43% by week four and no protection by week 14)” and by week 50 post injection “vaccine” efficacy dropped to nearly negative 100%, meaning it doubled the persons’ risk of covid infection.  

Our data showed negative “vaccine” efficacy against Omicron infection from week 14, indicating that “vaccinated” individuals experienced a higher risk of infection than those unvaccinated.”

In Germany, in the fall of 2022, a covid outbreak occurred at an Ophthalmology conference. Every single person known to be infected was “vaccinated”. 

The Cleveland Clinic in the USA employs more than fifty thousand persons. 

 

This study published in April 2023, involved 51,017 employees and clearly demonstrated negative efficacy of the “vaccines”, with the lowest infection rate in the “unvaccinated” and highest rates in the most injected. You can literally see how each injection increased the risk of infection by about 17%.

A second Cleveland Clinic study published in June 2023, demonstrated lowest infection rates in person “not up-to-date” on the “vaccines”, and highest rates in person “up-to-date”.

The researchers noted: “It is now well-known that SARS-CoV-2 infection provides more robust protection than “vaccination”. To say the least!

 

The USA FDA knew on September 17, 2021 that people injected with the Pfizer covid “vaccine” had double the risk of covid infection than the “unvaccinated”. This is from the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting September 17, 2021 FDA Briefing Document. 

This document reported a covid-19 infection rate in the “vaccine” group of 70.3 cases per 1000 people, but only 51.6 cases per 1000 people who were originally in the control group and later “crossed over” and injected. It is safe to assume that they would have experienced an even lower infection rate had they not been injected at all. 

It is scientifically deceptive and unethical to inject control subjects when they were clearly better off in terms of covid disease, adverse events, and death; but it did serve to reduce the magnitude of the negative efficacy that was demonstrated. 

 

Israel launched their third dose on July 30, 2021 and deaths skyrocketed. In Mongolia covid infections were approximately zero until they launched their injection campaign in February 2021. Then infection rates soared. 

 

The Amish:

Here’s another real world indication of the negative effects of the coerced and misrepresented covid-19 genetic injection “vaccines”, and the rest of the unscientific and unethical covid agenda. 

The Amish did not participate in any of the covid agenda. They did not mask, social distance, close their schools, churches or businesses. They did not invite nor submit to the injection campaigns. 

Amish people over 60 years old had a 23 times lower Infection Fatality Rate than the rest of the country.

For all age groups combined, their infection fatality rate from COVID was at least 90 times lower than the surrounding community.

The failure of the experimental genetic injections to perform as “vaccines” was predictable before they were launched. The manufacturers own studies were flawed, inadequate and riddled with efforts to obfuscate safety and dramatize benefit.  

Relative risk reduction numbers presented to the public were deceptive. Real world evidence shows that in addition to the dramatic adverse events and deaths caused by these injections, they are complete failures with negative efficacy.  

Covid-19 so-called “Vaccines” prolonged the pandemic, and increase individuals’ risk of covid-19 disease.  

What should be done?  

1. Halt the injections. 
2. Treat the injured. 
3. Restore ostracized scientists, doctors and nurses. 
4. Investigate covid crimes.
5. Restore the rule of law and human rights.

*

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Sources

ADE References:

• Immunization with SARS Coronavirus Vaccines Leads to Pulmonary Immunopathology on Challenge with the SARS Virus. “Conclusions: These SARS-CoV vaccines all induced antibody and protection against infection with SARS-CoV. However, challenge of mice given any of the vaccines led to occurrence of Th2-type immunopathology suggesting hypersensitivity to SARS-CoV components was induced. Caution in proceeding to application of a SARS-CoV vaccine in humans is indicated.”
• A Review: Understanding Molecular Mechanisms of Antibody-Dependent Enhancement in Viral Infections
• Antibody-dependent enhancement and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapies      
• Antibody-Dependent Enhancement of Feline Infectious Peritonitis Virus Infection in Feline Alveolar Macrophages and Human Monocyte Cell Line U937 by Serum of Cats Experimentally or Naturally Infected with Feline Coronavirus 
• Dr Lee Merritt explains ADE with mRNA “vaccine” VIDEO
• Antibody-dependent enhancement of coronavirus. ” it is clear that the effects of both have negative consequences for the human body and are probably an obstacle to the development of viral vaccines”
• Recent Advances in the Vaccine Development Against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus    
• “Vaccine candidates against SARSCoV were initially developed based on the full-length S protein. However, these vaccines were later demonstrated to induce non-neutralizing antibodies which did not prevent MERS-CoV infection, and the immunized animals were not protected from the viral challenge instead they experienced adverse effects like enhanced hepatitis, increased morbidity, and stronger inflammatory responses”
• Weingartl, H., Czub, M., Czub, S., Neufeld, J., Marszal, P., Gren, J., et al. (2004). Immunization with modified vaccinia virus ankara-based recombinant vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome is associated with enhanced hepatitis in ferrets. J. Virol. 78:12672. doi: 10.1128/JVI.78.22.12672-12676. 2004 
• The Novelty of mRNA Viral Vaccines and Potential Harms: A Scoping Review. Matthew T.J. Halma, Jessica Rose and Theresa Lawrie
• Mass vaccination during pandemic historical blunder: Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier.
• Children Should be Freed and Never Covid Injected P Alexander PhD and M Trozzi MD 
• Pfizer. Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for an Unapproved Product Review Memorandum
• Moderna. Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for an Unapproved Product. Review Memorandum
• Pfizer. Six Month Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine.
• Canadian Covid Care Alliance The-COVID-19 Inoculations More Harm Than Good REV Dec-16-2021  [Video]
• Peter Doshi: Pfizer and Moderna’s “95% effective” vaccines—we need more details and the raw data Jan 4 2021.       
• Waning immunity. Does the FDA think these data justify the first full approval of a covid-19 vaccine?
• Flawed endpoints. Will covid-19 vaccines save lives? Current trials aren’t designed to tell us. BMJ 2020; 371 doi: (Published 21 October 2020)
• P Alexander and M Trozzi.The reported 95% RRR (relative risk reduction) was really less than 20% when we recalculated and imputed the over 3,000 subjects they removed to get the >50% threshold for EUA. What Pfizer did in their FDA submission was fraudulent. Also, the ARR (absolute risk reduction) is 0.7% to 0.8%.   
• CDC Finally Released Its VAERS Safety Monitoring Analyses for COVID Vaccines via FOIA And now it’s clear why they tried to hide them. JOSH GUETZKOW January 4 2023

• Absolute verses relative risk reduction. Outcome Reporting Bias in COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Clinical Trials  
• Sources of bias in observational studies of covid-19 vaccine effectiveness
• Dr Jessica Rose on both the two weeks injected but “not vaccinated” scandal,  and worse covid in the injected:

• Associations of BMI with COVID-19 vaccine uptake, vaccine effectiveness, and risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes after vaccination in England: a population-based cohort study.   
• Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines over 13 Months Covering the Period of the Emergence of the Omicron Variant in the Swedish Population Dec 2022  
• Effectiveness of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Bivalent Disease. Effectiveness of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Bivalent Vaccine.  Nabin K Shrestha 1, Patrick C Burke 2, Amy S Nowacki 3, James F Simon 4, Amanda Hagen 5, Steven M Gordon 1
• Risk of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) among Those Up-to-Date and Not Up-to-Date on COVID-19 Vaccination. Nabin K. Shrestha,1 Patrick C. Burke,2  Amy S. Nowacki,3  Steven M. Gordon1  June 9, 2023
• How the Covid “Vaccines” Cripple the Immune System | Part 3 of 5
• How Covid “Vaccines” Cripple the Immune System | Part 4 of 5
• Steve Kirsch. The unvaccinated Amish were the control group. Their infection fatality rate from COVID was 90X lower than the surrounding community.
• Steve Kirsch at Pennsylvania Senate

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Who proposed a two-state solution? Not the Palestinians. Not Israel. It was conceived in the young United Nations, and proclaimed there in November, 1947. But it was never successfully implemented, despite on-and-off negotiations continuing for the better part of a century. The Zionist leadership briefly promoted it prior to the 1947 UN vote, but only to gain legitimacy for its intentions to implement Plan Dalet for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and its independent proclamation of the state of Israel six months after the UN vote. The closest the Palestinians came to accepting the solution was a “Roadmap“, that was never seriously pursued but which created the quisling Palestinian Authority. 

Let’s be honest. The two-state solution was never proposed by either side, and never wanted by either of them.

The Palestinians always wanted a single non-Zionist from the river to the sea, and the Zionists wanted the river to the sea exclusively for their state.

The two-state solution was a fantasy imposed by the colonial West to get the British off the hook and use the Zionists to their domestic advantage. Nevertheless, both the Zionists (Israel) and the Palestinians thought that they could best gain their ends by working through the post-colonial UN/Western power structure and its insistence – genuine or otherwise – on a two-state solution. It has been purposely deadlocked ever since, because the West continues to promote the two-state solution while the Palestinians and Israelis have little or no interest in actually implementing it. In fact, everyone seems to have a different idea about what the two-state solution should look like, which also changes over time.

A lot of the same applies to the idea of a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance, led by Hamas. True, they came to a brief, temporary agreement in November, 2023, but that was for very limited objectives and was neither intended nor expected to be permanent. The idea of a permanent ceasefire, promoted by peace groups and millions of demonstrators worldwide, as well as the UN, sounds like a great idea until you get to the details of what it entails and how to implement it. Everyone agrees (or will at least pay lip service) to stopping the killing of civilians, providing massive humanitarian aid and releasing captives. But then what? The ceasefire cannot be permanent without resolving questions of the status of Gaza and the rights it will enjoy.

Those questions place the aims of Israel and the Palestinian resistance completely at odds and largely irreconcilable. Prior to October 7th, Hamas had been preparing its strategic capability for years, creating the technology and resources for a sustained, effective resistance against the Israeli occupation, not merely occasional actions. The decision to finally launch the operation was due to multiple factors, but a major one was the increasing marginalization of the Palestinian cause and its potential abandonment by former ostensible supporters, such as the Arab countries that concluded “normalization” agreements with Israel. The proximate prospect of just such an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia plus the advanced state of readiness of the resistance forces may have been the deciding factors for the launching.

As for Israel, if its intelligence was not in fact taken by surprise but actually expecting the revolt, it had reasons for inviting it. First, the Zionist leadership had for many years been concerned that the Palestinian population was becoming greater in number than that of Jews in what it often calls “greater Israel”, including both Israel and the occupied territories under its control: the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza Strip, plus small bits of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This was intolerable to the Zionist leadership, and interfered with their intentions to annex those territories. They would therefore welcome a pretext to reduce that population, by whatever means necessary.

Second, while Israel has been gradually confiscating Palestinian lands and establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, no such effort is being made in Gaza. In fact, by evacuating the Jewish settlements in 2005 and making Gaza a sealed concentration camp of 2.3 million Palestinians, it guaranteed a ferment of Palestinian nationalism and resistance. Israel would prefer to simply be rid of it – but not the land, only the people. A revolt in Gaza would offer the opportunity to expel or exterminate the population while keeping the land.

Third, the discovery and partial mapping of a large natural gas field in Gaza waters became a powerful motive for creating a means for laying claim to both the land and its resources. From a strategic as well as economic point of view, the Israeli leadership felt unsurprisingly compelled to avoid allowing the prize to fall into Palestinian hands, and to keep it for themselves.

Finally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is highly motivated to remain in power, partly because he avoids prosecution for corruption by doing so, but also in order to become a national hero by “redeeming” another portion of “Eretz Israel” (land of Israel), through genocide and ethnic cleansing. The revolt by Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian resistance provides the pretext for implementing such a plan through genocide and ethnic cleansing, then annexation. 

The potential motives of the two sides for a ceasefire are thus totally different, if they exist at all. For the resistance it is national liberation, freedom, independence and complete sovereignty, comparable to any other nation on earth. They are aware that it will require huge sacrifices for the Palestinian people, but neither the leaders of the resistance nor the people of Gaza will accept to return to the status quo ante (or worse). These aims are clear in the three-stage ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted on May 6, 2024. That proposal culminates in a sovereign, independent Gaza, in total control of its economy, security and international relations. 

Israel, on the other hand, requires the elimination of Hamas as a minimal condition for a ceasefire. But even if Hamas agreed to disband, many if not most of its adherents would refuse to do so, and continue, if only under a new name, which Israel would also seek to eliminate. It is a disingenuous requirement, because Israel merely wishes to block a ceasefire and get on with eliminating the population.

How will it end? I’m sorry to say that Israel may have its genocide, with the invasion of Rafah as the next phase, and even the trickle of food and relief supplies being closed. Other than Yemen, there is no evidence that any nation will intervene to stop to stop the carnage or bring relief to the starving people of Gaza. But as I wrote four months ago, genocide will neither save Israel nor stop Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian resistance. Israel is a pariah state as never before, with countries abandoning it on a scale unseen since its founding. Even its support among diaspora Jews is withering, and Israeli Jews are fleeing the country by hundreds of thousands since October 7th. The settlements in the north and south have been evacuated, with many of the former inhabitants living in temporary housing in the larger Israeli cities or joining the exodus abroad. Many businesses have closed. Only the lifeline to the US keeps Israel afloat. But for how long?

Hamas, on the other hand, is at its most popular, enjoying unprecedented support in all of Palestine and beyond, and receiving more recruits than it can train. There is no sign that it is flagging, and every indication that it can carry on indefinitely. 

It is unwise to underestimate either side, but if this is a fight to the finish, it may turn out to be Israel’s third defeat, after the ones in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, and clearly more consequential. It is an open question who will be left standing at the end of Israel’s current struggle with Hamas, even if the victory is pyrrhic for the survivor.

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This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Paul’s Substack.

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.

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Global Research Wants to Hear From You!

***

Western accusations of doping by Chinese swimmers threaten to exacerbate China-US tensions, undermine the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and seriously harm the upcoming Paris Olympics. 

The controversy was ignited by investigation reports at the New York Times and German TV broadcaster ARD. 

These media outlets suggest there has been a cover-up of a mass doping incident among Chinese top swimmers with connivance of  the Chinese Anti Doping Agency (CHINADA) and complicity from the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). 

This story served as red meat to the hyper aggressive leader of the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart. 

It has prompted western swimming competitors to loudly complain. For example the NY Times reports that US team swimmer Paige Madden thinks medals from the Tokyo Olympics should be reallocated. “I feel that Team USA was cheated.”  British swimmer James Guy says, “Ban them all and never compete again.” What might be considered whining and poor sportsmanship is effectively being encouraged by western media. 

The NYTimes and ARD are the same two media that precipitated the accusations of “state sponsored doping” in Russia. It did enormous damage to thousands of Russian athletes and resulted in different levels of banning starting with the Rio Olympics in 2016.  Although widely accepted as “truth” in the West, the claims of widespread Russian doping were weak when evidence was required.  Most Russian athletes who challenged their banning were exonerated. The major accusers, the Stepanovs and Grigory Rodchenkov, were themselves guilty of doping and profiting from doping. Despite this, the banning has continued and escalated after the Russian intervention in Ukraine.  The accusations and banning were useful in propelling the “new cold war” and “new McCarthyism”. 

NYT and ARD, and their anonymous informants, may be seeking to do something similar to China. USADA has issued a response in which they say China may be engaging in “systematic doping” under a “coordinated doping regime”. On May 6 USADA’s Tygart escalated his attacks. He implies the Paris Olympics will be a “train wreck” because of WADA complicity in China’s “cheating”. He hopes the US government will “step in and help lead and fix this.”  Surely a recipe for success.  

What Happened 

On Jan. 1-3 in 2021, the Chinese swim team was having a domestic swim meet. It was in the midst of covid lockdown. As usual, the team was drug tested but this time a strange thing happened: many swimmers tested positive for a trace amount of the banned medication trimetazadine (TMZ). 

The China Anti Doping Agency (CHINADA) investigated and reported the facts to the World Anti Doping Agency as required.  They found: 

• 23 swimmers tested positive for a very small amount of trimetazadine (TMZ)
• the swimmers were from different regions of China with different coaches and trainers
• all 23 were staying at the same hotel eating in the same dining room
• none of the swimmers staying at a different hotel tested positive
• some of the swimmers tested positive one day, negative the next 
• tests in the hotel kitchen showed the presence of  TMZ on the air vent and counters

CHINADA concluded the positive TMZ tests were from hotel food and the athletes were not at fault.

They reported the incident and investigation to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and the international swimming federation now known as World Aquatics (formerly FINA). Both organizations examined the facts and agreed with the findings.    

Because the athletes were deemed to have no fault, the incident and names of the athletes were not publicized. WADA regulations indicate that there should be no publicity or naming of athletes deemed innocent and without an “Anti Doping Rule Violation” (ADRV). 

How It Has Been Reported 

Approximately a year later, in 2022,  anonymous sources reported this incident to the NY Times and ARD.  Since then, the two media outlets have done further investigation but kept the story secret until two weeks ago.  

They suggest something shady happened back in early 2021. They suggest WADA may be complicit in covering up anti doping violations. They almost encourage western athletes to challenge the Chinese swimming accomplishments and be “angry”. On April 20 the story was “Top Chinese Swimmers Tested Positive for Banned Drug, Then Won Olympic Gold“. On April 21 the story was “‘Team USA Was Cheated’: Chinese Doping Case Exposes Rift in Swimming“. On April 22 the story was “Top Biden Official Calls for Inquiry Into Chinese Doping Case.”

These reports ignited a flood of other sensational and accusatory reports and editorials. The Guardian report is titled “Poison in the pool: why the latest Chinese doping row is proving so toxic”. Sports Yahoo says “Extremely concerned Olympians will not let the Chinese doping allegations die”. The PBS News Hour had a video report titled “Chinese doping ‘swept under the carpet’: US anti-doping chief says”. Sports Illustrated said the news may alter the distribution of medals from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. 

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the situation. . 

The NY Times and ARD say they have been investigating this story for two years. The release appears timed to have maximum impact and possible damage, just months before the Paris Olympics.   

USADA Accuses WADA 

The US Anti Doping Agency (USADA) is led by the hyper-aggressive Travis Tyler. He has used the reports to claim that WADA is complicit in a Chinese “cover-up”. In a TV interview before a large national audience Tygart said,

“China didn’t follow the rules. They effectively swept this under the carpet because they didn’t find a violation. They didn’t announce a violation. They didn’t disqualify the athletes from the event at which they tested positive. And this is absolutely mandatory under the world anti-doping code that all nations are required to follow.”

WADA has responded that Tygart’s comments seem “politically motivated”.  They say CHINADA followed the rules, investigated and reported as required.  They say China did NOT have to announce it to the world, or name the individual athletes for the very good reason that false accusations of doping can destroy a career. WADA regulations say the names of athletes should NOT be publicized until or unless it is confirmed they have an Anti Doping Rule Violation. 

WADA Appoints Independent Investigator 

WADA is the international organization charged with supervising global anti-doping in sports. With its headquarters in Canada and most of its leaders from NATO countries, it is a largely western organization.

They are highly sensitive to criticism from the West. It has pushed back against some of the most extreme criticism, for example from the USADA head. They have also appointed an independent investigator to review what happened in China and whether WADA was correct to accept the Chinese investigation and report. 

WADA appointed Eric Cottier, the prosecutor general of a Swiss region. WADA headquarters are in Canada but the organization is registered in Switzerland. USADA has criticized the appointment suggesting that Cottier is not sufficiently “independent”.  

Thoms Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee, has voiced support for WADA. 

WADA has defended their actions in a press conference and fact sheet about the case. 

The controversy may quiet down. But a lot of poison has been spread around. Encouraged by the NY Times and other media,  numerous western athletes now claim they feel “cheated” out of medals at the Tokyo Olympics since 5 medals were won by Chinese swimmers involved in the  TMZ “doping scandal”. 

It is also possible the controversy will continue. Will the “Sports Czar” of the Biden Administration get involved? Will the FBI be designated to investigate?  These are now possible in the wake of the Rodchenkov Anti Doping Act which passed Congress in 2020. 

Reader comments following articles indicate there is a wellspring of anti-China hostility encouraged by the accusations. The most popular comment on this article says, “When will democracies learn that authoritarian regimes play dirty, and should be viewed as suspect not deserving of good faith.”  Another says,”No one knows doping like China knows doping, China knows doping best.”  Another one says, “China cheats. Russia cheats. Just like the East Germans did before them. Their governments will meet the same fate as they did.”

Pushback 

There has been some pushback to the sensational anti-China accusations. For example Denis Cotterell is a world class coach who has trained both  Australian and Chinese Olympic swimmers. He has spoken out strongly in support of the Chinese swimmers. He says, “I can see what they (the swimmers) go through. I see the measures… The suggestion that it’s systemic is so far from anything I have seen here the whole time. They are so adamant on having clean sport.” 

An insightful article from an Australian academic sports authority and popular sports commentator suggests there are political forces at work: “WADA – like the United Nations and other organizations – finds itself in the cross hairs of the great power struggle of our time: a rising China and its challenge to US dominance.”

Geopolitical Consequences

According to the “2024 Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community”, China is “challenging longstanding rules of the international system as well as U.S. primacy within it.” China’s positive “international image” is a challenge to U.S. leadership. By this logic, it is in the US interests to damage China’s international reputation and standing.

This raises the question: How did the TMZ get into the hotel kitchen and into the food being served to these Chinese athletes?

In February 2022, accusations of intentional doping were heaped on the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. A trace amount of trimetazadine (TMZ) was detected in a drug test taken seven weeks before the Beijing Olympics.  There are similarities to the Chinese case: same drug, same trace amount detected, same mystery as to how it was ingested.

Because she could not explain how it got there, Valieva was condemned in the West and ultimately had her international career destroyed. The Russian figure skating sweep was prevented and the Russian team lost their gold medals.  The controversy distracted and partially ruined the Beijing Olympics. The “intelligence community” undoubtedly considers this a success.

How did the TMZ get in the hotel kitchen in China? Who are the “whistle blowers” who informed the New York Times and ARD and supplied the names of the athletes who tested positive for the trace amount of TMZ?   

The anti doping crusade is being manipulated  by powerful forces with ignoble intentions. 

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Rick Sterling is an independent journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be contacted at [email protected]. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image is from the Public Domain

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Global Research Wants to Hear From You!

***

Today, Michel Chossudovsky of GlobalResearch.ca joins us to discuss his recent article: “The Hiroshima Nagasaki ‘Dress Rehearsal’: Oppenheimer and the U.S. War Department’s Secret September 15, 1945 ‘Doomsday Blueprint’ to ‘Wipe the Soviet Union off the Map.’”

We talk about the original, genocidal plan of the US War Department for a genocidal nuclear slaughter of the Soviets, how that plan has continued to the present day, the existential threat of nuclear holocaust and the prospects for an anti-war movement that can actually stand up to the military-industrial complex.

 

For more details see:

The Hiroshima Nagasaki “Dress Rehearsal”: Oppenheimer and the U.S. War Department’s Secret September 15, 1945 “Doomsday Blueprint” to “Wipe the Soviet Union off the Map”

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 28, 2024

 

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This was originally published on The Corbett Report.

Featured image is a screenshot from the video

---

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-5-3
Year: 2012
Pages: 102

PDF Edition:  $6.50 (sent directly to your email account!)

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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 Wants to Hear From You!

***

“Politics,” as the harsh, albeit successful German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck claimed, “is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.” 

To that should be added the stark awareness of being prudent, gingerly wise, appropriately cautious.  Mind how you go in avoiding any foolishness on the way.

Going after the motley press and news outlets while claiming to be a card-carrying member of the democracy club is far from prudent and more than a touch foolish, bound to make the critics croak and other fellow members decry.  And this is exactly what has happened in the context of Israel’s decision to shut down the Qatar-backed station Al Jazeera.

On May 5, police raided the offices of the network at the Ambassador hotel in Jerusalem. According to Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, equipment had been seized in the raid.

Al Jazeera duly released a statement strongly condemning and denouncing “this criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information.”  The network went on to affirm “its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences.”  Oddly enough, the ban is far from being a watertight one, as the channel remains accessible in Israel via Facebook.

Al Jazeera has had a troubled relationship with Israel.  Sounding like paranoid family members who have imbibed a bit too much, accusations frothed from various politicians accusing the network of being a Hamas front. In a dubious honour, the network’s name became associated with a law passed by the Israeli Knesset on April 1.

The instrument authorises the Minister of Communication, with the consent of the Prime Minister and the Ministerial Committee on National Committee, to shut down foreign news outlets operating in Israel deemed a national security threat.  This entails halting broadcasts by Israeli content providers, restricting access to the relevant provider’s website, shutting down transmitters in Israel and the seizure of devices used in supplying the channel’s content, including mobile phones.  Betraying the Netanyahu government’s continued suspicion of the country’s judicial process, the law shackles the judiciary from overturning such a decision, notwithstanding any belief that it should be.

The dust had barely settled on the vote before Minister Karhi revealed plans had been hatched to shutter Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel on the grounds that it “promotes terrorism”.  According to a statement from the Israeli Communications Ministry,

“There will be no freedom of expression to Hamas mouthpieces in Israel.”

Akiva Eldar, a political scribe who pushes pieces for Haaretz, suggested that the closing of the network was “a very populistic move to feed the beast of the public opinion that is very disappointed from the conduct of the government in Gaza and in the international arena”.  The tail-end of the remark did little to stir convention, as the move was designed “to please the partners from the radical right”.

The passage of the law prompted a High Court of Justice filing by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) on April 4.  The petition argues for the cancellation of “the temporary order allowing sanctions to be imposed on foreign broadcasting channels from Israel.” On May 2, with rumours of imminent action being taken against the Qatari broadcaster, the same organisation sought an interim injunction, refused by the court, to instruct the government to refrain from issuing orders to a foreign broadcaster till the petition was decided.  The ACRI had every reason to be disappointed with the ruling, given that Al Jazeera had been refused a prior right of plea and denied effective judicial review.

On May 6, a further filing was made to join a separate proceeding in the Tel Aviv District Court regarding the sanctions imposed on Al Jazeera, with the ACRI challenging the propriety of the administrative process involved and whether there was, in fact, a “real security risk” posed by the network.

The Al Jazeera law is not a singular instance of state repression regarding matters of free speech. The signs point to a chronic ailing in the Israeli polity. Adalah, a Palestinian-run non-profit NGO advocating for the rights of Palestinians in Israel has noted, by way of example, the “severe crackdown on the freedom of expression rights of Palestinian students seeking to suspend or even expel them for their posts on social media platforms.”  The posts in question “vary widely, ranging from expressions of solidarity with the people of Gaza, to Quranic verses, to scathingly critical views of the Israeli military’s actions, to seemingly arbitrary content unrelated to Hamas or to the war.”

On April 18, the Israeli police, in all its intimidating glory, entered the home of Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian in the Old City of Jerusalem.  Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who holds the Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University of London and a post at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was subsequently detained for comments made the previous month on the Makdisi Street podcast.

Of particular interest to the authorities were comments purportedly calling for the abolition of Zionism and the uncontroversial call to halt the genocidal actions in Gaza.  She was strip-searched, handcuffed and interrogated, and denied access to such necessities as food, water and medication for a number of hours.  Her frigid cell also lacked blankets, while she was inadequately clothed. Her release on bail precipitated further interrogation sessions, with the police keen to tease out incriminating matters from previously published academic papers.

From targeting academics, activists and students, to drawing the covers over a network of renown, the Israeli state has made a vulgar statement against the role of free speech.  Such creeping authoritarianism, however, shows itself to be one-eyed and, eventually, self-defeating.  Ultimately, in the gallop, it is bound to fall over itself.

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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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First published by Global Research on September 22, 2023

Today, we commemorate Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the Choral, which was first performed in Vienna exactly 200 years ago, on May 7, 1824. at the Vienna Court Theater at the Kärntnertor,

 

Introduction 

Friends, look around you: The World is in a state of economic and social chaos. Censorship and the suppression of fundamental human rights is ongoing at the level of the entire planet. 

That is why Beethoven’s call: “Friends, get Rid of all those Ugly Sounds” is of utmost significance. It constitutes an Act of Resistance, without which the “Ode to Freedom”, namely “Real Democracy” is an impossibility. 

As long as “totalitarian rule” prevails, whether it is in the 19th Century under The Austrian Empire or Today (2020-2030) under US-NATO and the World Economic Forum, the “Ode to Freedom” cannot under any circumstances become a reality.

Not surprisingly, the 21st Century Globalists and their intelligence apparatus are emulating the Austrian Empire, with “a spy network” far more sophisticated than that cooked up by Prince Klemens von Metternich.

In the present context, Beethoven’s “Friends, Get Rid of all those Ugly Sounds” should be understood as An Act of Resistance and Worldwide Solidarity against the prevailing structures of corruption, fraud, social divisiveness and political abuse. As well as a stance to the conduct of genocide against the People of Palestine. 

Friends: What this indelibly requires is the creation of an articulate and cohesive mass movement at the level of the entire planet (nationally and worldwide) which confronts the Deep State Globalist architects of this insidious project: Big Money, Big Pharma, the Information Technology Conglomerates, the Security Apparatus, Intelligence, the Military Industrial Complex, Big Oil an Big Energy, and the Corporate Media.  

While this is no easy task, Let us join hands and restore Schiller and Beethoven‘s “Ode to Freedom”. 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, October 7, 2023, May 7, 2024

200th Years Commemoration of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (May 7, 1824). 

 

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Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony’s first performance was in Vienna in May 1824 at the Kaiserliches Hoftheater am Kärntnertor

The Ninth Symphony is considered as a powerful symbol of solidarity, social equality, peace and human values. 

But there is something else, which has been ignored by musicologists and historians of music:

Beethoven added three extra verses –coupled with corresponding musical pitches– which were not contained in Friedrich von Schiller’s original “Ode to Joy”: 

Oh friends, not these sounds!
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!

But let us sing more pleasantly
Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen

And more joyful ones!
Und freudenvollere!

These three verses were sung right at the beginning, they were followed by

Freude!

Freude!

Freude schoener Goetterfunken

Tochter aus Elysium

…

Schiller first composed the Ode in 1785, six years after the French Revolution of 1789. The text of Schiller’s Ode was revised several times. Originally Schiller composed an “Ode to Freedom” that he subsequently changed to “Ode to Joy”. This change “did not appear in print until 1849“.

“[It was the revised version of 1803] which Beethoven used to erect the impressive musical-textual monument of the fourth movement of his last symphony.

He also modified Schiller’s text quite drastically in places, adding, by way of an introduction, a whole strophe of his own. 

In Beethoven’s eyes, adding a few lines of his own did not mean interfering with the text  but establishing a transition between worldly desire – leading to chaos, as expressed in the introductory [three verses] of the fourth movement – and the will of Man to free himself, as evoked by the poet. (Maximiano Cobra, emphasis added)

Were these “three verses” at the beginning of the Ode to Joy inserted by Beethoven intent upon downplaying both the religious overtones as well as the “idealism” pertaining to peace, brotherhood and solidarity as contained in Schiller’s poem. I should mention that the Ode also contained “masonic elements”.

“we must bear in mind that the message conveyed by the Ode echoed and reflected its whole historical environment. Around 1810, in the streets of Bonn,  vitalized by revolutionary echoes from across the Rhine, students sang the Ode to the music of the Marseillaise” (Maximiano Cobra).

The poem was alive with the French revolution’s ethos. “All humans become brethren where joy touches the heart,” wrote Schiller.”

Dear Friends, Listen carefully to the 4th movement.

Three verses were inserted (in musical phrases) at the outset of the 4th movement (O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!). What was Beethoven’s message to humanity??

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! Oh friends, not these sounds! Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen, But let us  sing more pleasantly.

which in substance means:  Friends, get Rid of all those “Ugly Sounds” 

Was Beethoven expressing in the lyrics and melodies of the 4th Movement, the true nature of the “ugly sounds” which in Vienna in the year 1824 characterized the derogation of peace, brotherhood and fundamental human rights at the height of the Austrian Empire under Kaiser Franz I (1804-1834)

Kaiser Franz I, Emperor of Austria  (image left)

 

This was during the “Metternich Period”, which was marked by social repression and “empire building”. Metternich forcibly crushed public demonstrations, coupled with media censorship and the suppression of freedom of speech.  

Was this a call by Beethoven “to tone down the revolutionary spirit”? 

Or was it a subtle message within Beethoven’s musical brilliance to the socially repressive regime of the Austrian Empire which at the time was under the helm of State Chancellor (Prince) Klemens von Metternich?

Klemens von Metternich (image right)

While Friedrich Schiller’s Ode to Joy is today considered Worldwide as a message to all mankind: “living in peace and harmony together”: 

–these three verses added by Beethoven should be remembered as a “Symbol of Resistance” to totalitarian rule. 

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! 

Metternich was firmly opposed to Liberalism: “He used a wide-ranging spy network to dampen down unrest”.(Alan Sked, “Decline and Fall of the Hapsburg Empire 1815-1918″

As long as “totalitarian rule” which is predicated on the suppression of “real democracy” prevails, in the 19th Century under Metternich or Today (2020-2025) under the World Economic Forum, the “Ode to Joy” or the “Ode to Freedom” cannot under any circumstances become a reality.

Not surprisingly, the 21st Century Globalists and their intelligence apparatus are emulating the Austrian Empire, with “a spy network” far more sophisticated to that cooked up by Prince Klemens von Metternich. 

There are (unconfirmed) reports that Metternich and Beethoven had met. Metternich was present at Beethoven’s funeral three years later in 1827. I should mention that Beethoven was not overtly against the aristocracy. He dedicated the Ninth Symphony to Koenig Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. 

The Choral starts at about 6.00 with the first three verses (which are indicated in German on the screen of the first video).

The second video featuring the 9th Symphony was recorded in Berlin

The full lyrics in German and English are indicated below at the foot of the article   

Video

Beautiful and Creative Production of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (1.11) (Ode to Joy, Chorale at about 45’00)

Flash Forward to the 21st Century

Today, at the outset of the 21st Century, Europe’s “Classe politique” is once again committed to sustaining the “ugly sounds” of a social order marked by corruption, fraud and social divisiveness.

The music of Beethoven’s 4th Movement was embedded in the EU-Anthem. The poem by Friedrich von Schiller was not used.

Beethoven’s first three verses of the Ode to Joy. A Symbol of Resistance

Let us recognize Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as a symbol of resistance, which in the contemporary context should be used to address the numerous “ugly sounds” of the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset, coupled with “Shock Treatment” and the Neoliberal agenda, which is endorsed by corrupt politicians, leading to the impoverishment of millions of people Worldwide.  

 

 

 

Michel Chossudovsky, September 21, 2023

 

 

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When I entered the legal profession on January 23, 2013, I took a solemn oath declaring my allegiance to a constituted authority and swore that I would carry out my duties with honesty in the spirit of fundamental justice.

By taking this oath, I pledged to uphold the Code of Professional Conduct of Lawyers and not compromise the honour or dignity of the profession.

Following the events that have occurred since 2020[1], I found myself in a morally untenable position, one that has led me to a decision that I will explain briefly in this letter.

During this time, I have borne witness to a misleading narrative presented as unquestionable truth to a population in a state of shock. Today, this narrative, invoking the existence of a serious threat to the health of the population, has been taken as “judicial notice,” meaning that it can no longer be challenged in court[2]. Without any debate, contrary to all logic, and simply because it was repeated ad nauseam, a fraudulent story has become an absolute truth. I use the word “fraudulent” advisedly because that is exactly what it is, the alleged threat being only a pretext for making profound and potentially irreversible changes in society. These changes were accompanied by a massive transfer of wealth to the ruling class. I cannot overlook the fact that this imaginary threat also served as justification for the deployment of so-called “safe and effective” injections, which are likely linked to the excess deaths currently observed in Canada and elsewhere[3].

Over the last four years, my ongoing analysis leads me to conclude that this terrible chain of events could only have occurred through the unprecedented control of information with the complicity of key players in previously respected institutions and professions. For example, I witnessed doctors, scientists and professionals try by every means possible to set the record straight. In doing so, they were denied their share of the COVID pie and found themselves at great personal risk. I had the honour and privilege of working with these remarkable individuals. To my dismay, I saw them censored and attacked with unspeakable violence, all this happening in the context of widespread ignorance and indifference. The silence of my own profession was the most disturbing. On the other hand, I observed many people agreeing with the official narrative  without question, behaving in an opportunistic manner, and being rewarded for participating in the lies and misappropriation of science. What a sad sight to see.

The professional orders were key players in preserving the official narrative and managed to spread terror within their ranks by systematically attacking dissenting voices. This revealed their true nature; namely that their mission is to control professionals and protect vested interests, not to protect the public. Universities, awash in industry funding, have played a similar role, ensuring that none of their members threaten the current profit model.

I unsuccessfully defended[4] and advised some of the scientists and professionals who were attacked in this fashion. Along with a few of my colleagues, I also acted as a whistleblower[5]. Prior to that, in the spring of 2021, I had helped prepare an application for judicial review, hoping that the courts might halt the ongoing totalitarian drift. This application will probably never be heard. It was summarily dismissed by the Superior Court, and the leave to appeal was subsequently denied by the Court of Appeal[6]. Many legal remedies or complaints have met a similar fate. In hindsight, I now understand that an honest debate will never be permitted. The outcome of such a debate would be devastating to the official narrative, something which must be avoided at all costs by those who have benefited and continue to benefit from it.

Regrettably, I have observed a profession that has dishonoured itself, either through silence or through complicity, affirming what others have already stated; it essentially serves Power[7]. And this Power has shown, to put it mildly, that it doesn’t work for our well-being.

Yet, the Code of Professional Conduct of Lawyers requires that I serve only one master: Justice.

The protection of fundamental rights and respect for the individual must inspire my practice. I have an obligation to act with integrity and maintain my professional independence. This code also requires me to uphold the authority of the courts – courts which now refuse debates, which punish any form of dissent and which condone unprecedented violations of the citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms. The reasonable limits imposed in a so-called free and democratic society were used to justify those violations[8].

The fact is our society is neither free nor democratic, despite the great efforts to make us believe such an illusion.

Citizens are allowed to exercise their rights and freedoms, such as freedom of opinion, as long as this exercise does not seriously undermine the powers that be. The division of power into executive, legislative and judicial powers, to which I would add the power of the media, is also an illusion. The walls have disappeared. All of these are slaves to Finance and take part in a plan that is not ours or, in any case, is not mine.

In this context, and since it was no longer possible for me to reconcile conflicting professional obligations, I chose to bow out by resigning from the Quebec Bar. I have withdrawn my allegiance to this constituted authority. I no longer support the courts. I refuse to take part for another moment in these sombre theatrics. That is the only decision that allows me to feel at peace with my conscience. That is all that really matters to me.

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This letter was originally published in French on April 22, 2024.

Notes

1. I will not go into the details of the 2020 crisis here, but whoever is interested can consult, among other things, the work of the National Citizens’ Inquiry (NCI). I participated in the NCI as a prosecutor during the hearings held in Quebec City on May 11-13, 2023. The commission heard 305 witnesses, including 94 experts, during the 24 days of hearings held in 8 Canadian cities. The report of the commissioners and all the testimonies are available to the public.

See: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca or https://www.nationalcitizensinquiry.com.

2. See, for instance, Monier c. Procureur général du Québec, 2023 QCCS 2111 (CanLII), https://canlii.ca/t/jxqcq.

3. See, for instance, the work of Denis G. Rancourt, PhD, Marine Baudin, PhD, Joseph Hickey, PhD and Jérémie Mercier, PhD: https://correlation-canada.org/covid-19-vaccine-associated-mortality-in-the-southern-hemisphere/.

4. See, for instance, my comments on the Linard case, during a conference in Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce on July 2, 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvQCRFeylII.

5. See, for instance, the conference I gave with four colleagues in Longueuil on November 30, 2021: https://rumble.com/vqx7lv-les-avocats-de-rinfo-covid-qubec-prennent-la-parole.html.

6. See Monier c. Procureur général du Québec, 2023 QCCS 2111 (CanLII), https://canlii.ca/t/jxqcq and Monier c. Procureur général du Québec, 2024 QCCA 80 (CanLII), https://canlii.ca/t/k2dhm.

7. See my comments on a text from Duncan Kennedy during an interview with independent journalist Julie Lévesque, published on February 19, 2023: https://tribunaldelinfaux.com/2023/02/19/video-legitime-defense-3-formation-juridique-hierarchie-et-soumission-entrevue-avec-me-louis-olivier-fontaine/.

8. About the curfew and freedom of movement, see, for instance, Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales c. Pépin, 2024 QCCQ 299 (CanLII), https://canlii.ca/t/k2p4n.

Featured image: The Édifice Ernest-Cormier is the courthouse for the Quebec Court of Appeal in Montreal (Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

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***

The world is facing two great threats today: the outbreak of WW3 and the Great Depression 2.0, much more serious than the one in 2007-2011 and similar to the market collapse of the 1930s. 

Both of these phenomena are interconnected because the ongoing series of local wars and the high probability of further ones in the Middle East and on the South China Sea seem to be methods of camouflaging the upcoming collapse of neoliberal global capitalism. 

In this situation, avoiding war becomes a matter of life and death, especially for the Central European nations, located in the natural crush zone between the West and the East. Any losses and destruction that would affect Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia or the Czech Republic in connection with the war with Russia are considered acceptable costs by the Anglo-Saxons. We may be the next victims of this war, and neither in Washington nor in London will anyone hesitate to send Polish or Romanian soldiers to die first in Ukraine, and then perhaps on the territories of our own countries.

NATO Is Already in Ukraine

NATO troops do not even have to enter Ukraine because they have already been there for a long time. 

The French and British presence on the Kyiv side is increasing from week to week, officially of course mainly for training and logistics purposes, but also for intelligence and we already know about the activity of NATO special forces, sappers, gendarmerie and even the police, including Polish one there.  Information on this subject is simply fed to the Western public in order to gradually accustom it to NATO’s increasing military involvement.  In this way, the full-scale entry into the war of countries such as Poland will seem simply a logical consequence of previously ongoing actions.  Unfortunately, in the current political situation, if such a decision is made, it is impossible to imagine avoiding Poland’s participation in the war with Russia, although over 90 percent of society opposes sending Polish troops to Ukraine. However, it is not the Poles who decide, but the American hegemon.

Fake Annexation Threat

Especially in Russia, Poland’s entry into the war is sometimes presented as an attempt to annex the territories that now constitute Western Ukraine. However it is necessary to distinguish the sentiments and hopes of Polish society from the policy of the Polish government. The authorities in Warsaw do not want to annex part of Ukraine, that is the truth and the Russian media needlessly delude themselves that it is otherwise. 

Of course, when nearly 1/3 of Poles have some historical, family connections with the former Eastern Borderlands (Kresy Wschodnie), including the lands currently occupied by Ukraine, it is difficult for us to forget that cities such as Lwów, Łuck, Stanisławów, Równe, Tarnopol have been  for centuries centres of Polish cultural and social life. 

The return of these areas to the Polish motherland would be an epoch-making event and a great national holiday, but the current rulers will not give Poles such gifts.  On the contrary, if Polish troops come to Ukraine, it will be to save the Kiev regime and former Polish lands… for Ukraine.

UkroPolin

Of course, if Polish troops enter Lwów, even as allies of President Zelensky and Mayor Sadovyi, it does not mean that we will leave quickly. A new geopolitical situation will be created, and this can always be saturated with new content. 

It may be the Polish-Ukrainian union, but whether it will be more Polish or more Ukrainian, we would see later on, and much would depend on the determination and commitment of the Poles themselves if the border dividing the eternally Polish lands truly disappears.  After all, millions of Ukrainians care more about going further to the West than on the lands and cities. And the vacuum should be filled in their place. Certainly, Poles would not manage our own former property in the East worse than oligarchs and Western capital do today.  Even if we had to do it in conditions as unfavourable as the Polish-Ukrainian union suggested to us.

The idea of a Polish-Ukrainian union, whatever it may be, appears from time to time, especially in circles closer to British policy towards Kiev. We can therefore assume that this is one of several possible scenarios predicted in London and Washington for Ukraine, depending on the course of events on the front and probably on the stability of the Zelensky’s regime. When it begins to falter and Poland will have to become another frontline state, then some new Polish-Ukrainian state entity would allow Ukraine to be drawn into NATO through the back door, and other countries belonging to the alliance would not be obliged to provide direct military assistance to this UkroPolin, as it is due because of the Art. 5 of the Treaty.

Who Is Our Real Enemy?

Such a scenario has many advantages for the West, but it would be very dangerous for Poland, which in one fell swoop would find itself in a state of actual war with Russia, and in addition would renounce its own sovereignty (although already limited by NATO and the EU) in favour of some undefined state entity with significant influence of Nazis and oligarchs. Instead of reaping any national benefits from the fall of the regime in Kiev, we would provide it with a direct influence on Poland’s internal politics, in addition to ultimately devastate our own economy, especially agriculture and transport.  

Yes, Poles definitely can and should strive to regain Polish property in the Eastern Borderlands, but without the unnecessary and harmful burden of the corrupt Kiev administration there and above all, without getting involved in a suicidal war with Russia.  The Russians are not enemies of Poles or any other Central European nation, but the real threats to us all are the warmongers, the Western military-industrial complex, as well as the Kiev Nazis and oligarchs. We must defend ourselves against them avoiding war at all costs.

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Konrad Rękas is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

 

 

 

The COVID States Program demonstrated ~25% of Americans resisted COVID-19 vaccination. I am constantly being reminded by family, friends, and patients what a relief it was to know declining vaccination was the right medical decision. I wondered if there were any historical parallels.

The smallpox vaccine was variously deployed by doctors in the 19th century using lymphatic fluid from animals or from arm to arm of humans. It could hot have been sterilized from bacteria such as staphylococci, streptococci, tetanus, syphilis, or viruses such as hepatitis B. The dose of cowpox virions could not have been measured or controlled. So there were obvious safety concerns such as fatal iatrogenic infections and great debate over whether the procedure worked at all.

In 2010, Thomas Weber portrayed Alfred Russel Wallace in the context of the public sentiment rising against the smallpox immunization campaign in Britain:

“Alfred Russel Wallace, eminent naturalist and co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection, was a major participant in the antivaccination campaigns in late 19th-century England. Wallace combined social reformism and quantitative arguments to undermine the claims of pro-vaccinationists and had a major impact on the debate. A brief account of Wallace’s background, his role in the campaign, and a summary of his quantitative arguments leads to the conclusion that it is unwarranted to portray Victorian antivaccination campaigners in general as irrational and anti-science. Public health policy can benefit from history, but the proper context of the evidence used should always be kept in mind.”

 

 

I found this article interesting because:

1) Wallace was an eminent scientist,

2) he and his family were vaccinated,

3) his arguments were based on statistics as described in his work Vaccination Proved Useless and Dangerous published in 1889,

4) by the early 1900’s about 25% of the public was refusing smallpox vaccination,

5) Weber concludes it was wrong to portray Victorian antivaccination campaigners as “anti-science.”

 

 

Why is the 25% refusal rate the same for both the early unsafe smallpox vaccinations and COVID-19 genetic injections? Why has “anti-science” resurfaced as a term in the context of modern vaccine ideology? Weaponization of the term may give us a clue from vaccine-promoter Dr. Peter Hotez who had biodefense grants for COVID-19 vaccines in 2015-16.

 

 

A 2024 paper by Paul et al obviously calling out Hotez, indicates “anti-science” is a disparaging term used to discredit someone with an opposing view, essentially a device of propaganda. Hotez appears to be is using it on offense to defend against his vulnerabilities as a co-conspirator in the US-Chinese creation of SARS-CoV-2 and possibly against a scientific awakening to the risks of the routine childhood vaccine schedule.

 

Paul E, Brown GW, Ridde V, Sturmberg JP. Who is “anti-science”? Public Health Pract (Oxf). 2024 Mar 29;7:100493. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2024.100493. PMID: 38601178; PMCID: PMC11004618.

 

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Featured image is from the Public Domain