Under US installed rule, Honduras is Latin America’s death squad capital. Anthropologist Adrienne Pine calls horrific abuses in the country “invisible genocide.”

Other than active war theaters, Honduras is “the most violent country on the planet,” she earlier said, its murder rate exceeding other nations.

Last year, she explained what she called the Honduran model of “militarized capitalism…neoliberal fascism,” and its devastating implications for human and civil rights, health, and human dignity – in Honduras and similar repressive societies, increasingly in the US.

In June 2009, Obama and Hillary Clinton colluded with Honduran fascists to topple democratically elected populist President Manuel Zelaya. Junta rule replaced him. State terror became official policy.

A state of siege exists. Human and civil rights violations are horrific. Killings, beatings, disappearances, and intimidation are commonplace.

Human rights workers, trade unionists, journalists, environmental activists, and other regime opponents are targeted for elimination.

For decades, Honduran officers have been trained at the infamous School of the Americas (SOA) – now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISEC).

Instruction focuses on killing, torture, oppression, eliminating poor and indigenous people, overthrowing democratically elected governments, assassinating targeted leaders, suppressing popular resistance, and solidifying hard-right rule cooperatively with Washington.

Thousands continue fleeing Honduras because of extreme poverty, severe repression, and state-sponsored violence following the decade-ago US orchestrated coup.

According to historian Dana Frank, “a series of (post-coup) corrupt (regimes) unleashed open criminal control of Honduras, from top to bottom of the government.”

Ruling authorities operate in cahoots with organized crime, drug traffickers, and the US. Violent gangs terrorize urban neighborhoods.

Post-coup regimes in cahoots with internal and foreign monied interests made life unbearable by eliminating social safety net protections, greatly increasing socioeconomic inequality.

Emigration from the country is all about fleeing from intolerable conditions, what Republicans and undemocratic Dems want instituted in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, and all other sovereign independent states.

Pentagon commanders reportedly are drafting military plans to counter Russian, Cuban, and Chinese influence in Venezuela.

While military intervention in the country is unlikely, Trump regime hardliners continue to say “all options are on the table” – what’s said time and again ahead of hostile actions against nations.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez accused Brazilian and Colombian authorities of plotting “a criminal plan…to militarily attack Venezuela.”

On Jovem Pan Radio, fascist Brazilian President Bolsonaro said he’s working with the Trump regime to sow discord in the ranks of Venezuela’s military.

“We cannot allow Venezuela to become a new Cuba or North Korea,” he roared. Retired army general/vice president Hamilton Mourao called for resolving things in Venezuela diplomatically.

He and other Brazilian officials oppose military intervention, the same position true throughout the region. Venezuelans overwhelming want US hands kept off their country. They’re especially against foreign military intervention.

Separately, the Trump regime imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, targeting its central bank, aiming to cut off access to US dollars, other sanctions imposed on Cuba.

According to neocon hardliner John Bolton, it’s a warning to Russia, China, Cuba, and other countries against cooperating with Maduro.

On Wednesday, he said “(t)oday, we proudly proclaim for all to hear: the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well. (Latin America) must remain free from internal despotism and external domination (sic).”

It’s what US aims for controlling Venezuela (and all other countries) are all about, wanting another imperial trophy, the Bolivarian Republic transformed to resemble Honduras and other despotic states.

According to Bolton, the Trump regime will consider action by Russia and other nations to aid Venezuela “a threat to international peace and security in the region.”

In response to US sanctions on Venezuela’s central bank, Maduro said “(t)o me the empire looks crazy, desperate.”

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said “(n)o one will rip the fatherland away from us, neither by seduction nor by force. We Cubans do not surrender.”

In response to US sanctions war on Venezuela and Cuba, Russia vowed to continue helping both countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov saying:

“We are concerned over the continuing actions by the United States toward the countries of the Latin American region. We see the sanctions as absolutely unlawful and illegitimate.”

“We will oppose them. Venezuela and Cuba are our allies and strategic partners in the region. We will do everything we can to let them feel our support.”

Russian support is key to preserving and protecting their sovereign independence from US aims to transform them into vassal states.

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

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

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

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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Israel is using its influence over the US establishment to try to impose the “Deal of the Century” to enable Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to officially occupy the West Bank. This would violate the Oslo agreement signed in 1993 and legalise all illegal Israeli settlements in Oslo-designated zone C of the occupied West Bank. The countries directly concerned in the “deal” (Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria) are unwilling to give away any part of their territories. However, Israel has managed to create enough noise around this “deal” to distract the world from its doings in Palestine, where it is in essence already implementing the “Deal of the Century”. The Israelis won’t wait for the results of US negotiations in the Middle East.

President Donald Trump seemed indifferent to Palestinian President ad interim Mahmoud Abbas’s comments that the US is “no longer viable as a partner and unfit as a mediator for any peace talks between Palestine and Israel”, in response to Trump’s gift to Israel of what doesn’t belong to him: Jerusalem. The Palestinians see the US playing the role of judge and executioner, totally biased in favour of Israel–and disrespectful of United Nations’ resolutions.

Palestine was lost when Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo agreement. He believed Israel would abide by the agreement, particularly regarding the West Bank in zones B and C. Israel disregarded Oslo and the Wye River Memorandum, giving the Palestinians less than 2% of the 13% of the land granted in both agreements.

A UN office for the coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report confirms that Israel had confiscated 35% of East Jerusalem even before Trump’s “gift” and that, in the West Bank, 5,773 structures were demolished displacing 9,033 people and affecting 51,491 Palestinians in zone C. “Israel planned for Palestinian development on only 1% of the land”, according to the OCHA report.

Indeed, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said: “Everybody has to move, run and grab as many Palestinian hilltops as they can to enlarge the Jewish settlements because everything we take now will stay ours…Everything we don’t grab will go to them”.

Israel can grab as much land as possible but the Palestinians, including Fatah and President Abbas, will never give up Palestine for any amount of cash on the table. Thus, the Arab countries incapable of facing down Trump’s bullying (Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt) must count on Palestinian refusal of the “Deal of the Century”.

The Palestinians cannot rely on Europe; the old continent lacks the courage or resolve to stand up against US bullying. This was shown already in the Iran deal, when Europe reacted negatively to the US decision but took no steps to meet its commitments, for fear of US reprisals. Moreover, when Trump gave away the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, Europe was only able to express its “disapproval”. Europe has lost any vestige of its position as a potential partner in the Palestinian peace process (if anything is left of this process).

Jordan, directly concerned by the US “Deal of the Century”, is expanding its horizons towards Syria and Iraq. King Abdullah II is trying to boost the Jordanian economy by re-establishing economic ties and commerce with Syria, notwithstanding US pressure to keep the borders closed. Baghdad has agreed  to construct a $10bn oil pipeline between Basra and Aqaba, providing the Kingdom with 150,000 barrels/day of crude oil. Jordan will provide Iraq with much-needed electricity and is aiming for a customs exemption between the two countries. King Abdullah also visited Turkey to ease the commercial relationship between the two countries; he lifted the customs duties on Turkish imports re-imposed last year. He is also expected to visit the Gulf countries to balance the relationship with all neighbouring countries to the benefit of Jordan’s domestic economy.

Jordan lost its privileged position as an intermediary in the region when Benyamin Netanyahu revealed Israel’s relationships with Saudi Arabia, Oman, the Emirates, Qatar and Bahrein. This has reduced the importance of Jordan for the US establishment, pushing Netanyahu to propose the exchange of Jordanian territory with Saudi Arabia and Palestine as part of the “Deal of the Century” (see part 1).

The differences among Arabs and the Muslim states allowed Netanyahu to take the initiative in Palestine and grab as much territory as possible. He has managed to divert the attention of the Arabs to concentrate on Iran as the “most dangerous enemy of all time.” The Palestinian cause was replaced by the Iranian “threat,” although Tehran has taken no initiative to attack any of its neighbours since the Islamic Republic took power in 1979.

Israel and the US are sending messages of war to both Hezbollah and Iran (and Hamas in Gaza). In reality, the US wants Iran to come to the negotiation table and to forget about Palestine and the Palestinian cause. Brian H. Hook, US Special Representative for Iran and a senior advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, wrote an article entitled: “Isn’t it time to abandon the policies that have kept the people of Iran and the United States apart since 1979? The people of the United States and Iran should have diplomatic ties. We can foresee a new American Embassy in Tehran issuing visas to tourists, business travellers and teachers”. Trump tried eight times to meet President Hassan Rouhani to no avail. Iran, before accepting a meeting, wants first to see the signed nuclear deal honoured.

The question poses itself: how can Iran be considered Enemy Number One of the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia (& Co.) with its security forces (IRGC) on the US Terrorist list, while at the same time the US State Department (that takes no initiative without Presidential approval) wants to open US doors to Iran?

Also read: The “Deal of the Century” won’t go through: Split among Palestinians supports Israel 1/3

https://www.globalresearch.ca/deal-century-wont-go-through-split-palestinians-supports-israel/5674734

Proof-read by:  Maurice Brasher & C.G.B

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Rumors of War: Washington Is Looking for a Fight

April 18th, 2019 by Philip Giraldi

It is depressing to observe how the United States of America has become the evil empire. Having served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and in the Central Intelligence Agency for the second half of the Cold War, I had an insider’s viewpoint of how an essentially pragmatic national security policy was being transformed bit by bit into a bipartisan doctrine that featured as a sine qua non global dominance for Washington.

Unfortunately, when the Soviet Union collapsed the opportunity to end once and for all the bipolar nuclear confrontation that threatened global annihilation was squandered as President Bill Clinton chose instead to humiliate and use NATO to contain an already demoralized and effectively leaderless Russia.

American Exceptionalism became the battle cry for an increasingly clueless federal government as well as for a media-deluded public. When 9/11 arrived, the country was ready to lash out at the rest of the world. President George W. Bush growled that “There’s a new sheriff in town and you are either with us or against us.” Afghanistan followed, then Iraq, and, in a spirit of bipartisanship, the Democrats came up with Libya and the first serious engagement in Syria. In its current manifestation, one finds a United States that threatens Iran on a nearly weekly basis and tears up arms control agreements with Russia while also maintaining deployments of US forces in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and places like Mali. Scattered across the globe are 800 American military bases while Washington’s principal enemies du jour Russia and China have, respectively, only one and none.

Never before in my lifetime has the United States been so belligerent, and that in spite of the fact that there is no single enemy or combination of enemies that actually threaten either the geographical United States or a vital interest.

Venezuela is being threatened with invasion primarily because it is in the western hemisphere and therefore subject to Washington’s claimed proconsular authority. Last Wednesday Vice President Mike Pence told the United Nations Security Council that the White House will remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, preferably using diplomacy and sanctions, but “all options are on the table.” Pence warned that Russia and other friends of Maduro need to leave now or face the consequences.

The development of the United States as a hostile and somewhat unpredictable force has not gone unnoticed. Russia has accepted that war is coming no matter what it does in dealing with Trump and is upgrading its forces. By some estimates, its army is better equipped and more combat ready than is that of the United States, which spends nearly ten times as much on “defense.”

Iran is also upgrading its defensive capabilities, which are formidable. Now that Washington has withdrawn from the nuclear agreement with Iran, has placed a series of increasingly punitive sanctions on the country, and, most recently, has declared a part of the Iranian military to be a “foreign terrorist organization” and therefore subject to attack by US forces at any time, it is clear that war will be the next step. In three weeks, the United States will seek to enforce a global ban on any purchases of Iranian oil. A number of countries, including US nominal ally Turkey, have said they will ignore the ban and it will be interesting to see what the US Navy intends to do to enforce it. Or what Iran will do to break the blockade.

But even given all of the horrific decisions being made in the White House, there is one organization that is far crazier and possibly even more dangerous. That is the United States Congress, which is, not surprisingly, a legislative body that is viewed positively by only 18 per cent of the American people.

A current bill originally entitled the “Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKA) of 2019,” is numbered S-1189. It has been introduced in the Senate which will “…require the Secretary of State to determine whether the Russian Federation should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and whether Russian-sponsored armed entities in Ukraine should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations.” The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado and is co-sponsored by Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

The current version of the bill was introduced on April 11th and it is by no means clear what kind of support it might actually have, but the fact that it actually has surfaced at all should be disturbing to anyone who believes it is in the world’s best interest to avoid direct military confrontation between the United States and Russia.

In a a press release by Gardner, who has long been pushing to have Russia listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, a February version of the bill is described as “…comprehensive legislation [that] seeks to increase economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation in response to Russia’s interference in democratic processes abroad, malign influence in Syria, and aggression against Ukraine, including in the Kerch Strait. The legislation establishes a comprehensive policy response to better position the US government to address Kremlin aggression by creating new policy offices on cyber defenses and sanctions coordination. The bill stands up for NATO and prevents the President from pulling the US out of the Alliance without a Senate vote. It also increases sanctions pressure on Moscow for its interference in democratic processes abroad and continued aggression against Ukraine.”

The February version of the bill included Menendez, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina as co-sponsors, suggesting that provoking war is truly bipartisan in today’s Washington.

Each Senator co-sponsor contributed a personal comment to the press release. Gardner observed that “Putin’s Russia is an outlaw regime that is hell-bent on undermining international law and destroying the US-led liberal global order.” Menendez noted that “President Trump’s willful paralysis in the face of Kremlin aggression has reached a boiling point in Congress” while Graham added that “Our goal is to change the status quo and impose meaningful sanctions and measures against Putin’s Russia. He should cease and desist meddling in the US electoral process, halt cyberattacks on American infrastructure, remove Russia from Ukraine, and stop efforts to create chaos in Syria.” Cardin contributed “Congress continues to take the lead in defending US national security against continuing Russian aggression against democratic institutions at home and abroad” and Shaheen observed that “This legislation builds on previous efforts in Congress to hold Russia accountable for its bellicose behavior against the United States and its determination to destabilize our global world order.”

The Senatorial commentary is, of course, greatly exaggerated and sometimes completely false regarding what is going on in the world, but it is revealing of how ignorant American legislators can be and often are. The Senators also ignore the fact that the designation of presumed Kremlin surrogate forces as “foreign terrorist organizations” is equivalent to a declaration of war against them by the US military, while hypocritically calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism is bad enough, as it is demonstrably untrue. But the real damage comes from the existence of the bill itself. It will solidify support for hardliners on both sides, guaranteeing that there will be no rapprochement between Washington and Moscow for the foreseeable future, a development that is bad for everyone involved. Whether it can be characterized as an unintended consequence of unwise decision making or perhaps something more sinister involving a deeply corrupted congress and administration remains to be determined.

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The Official Skripal Story is a Dead Duck

April 18th, 2019 by Craig Murray

One of the striking things about the official Skripal story is the way its more wildly improbable aspects have been released to the mainstream media over a long period, so as to manage their impact. So, for example, police acknowledgement that the perfume bottle Charlie Rowley found was sealed and could not have been the container used on the Skripals is comparatively recent, and it took nine months for us to learn that, by a truly wonderful coincidence, the first person to find the Skripals ill on the bench was the Chief Nurse of the British Army.

I covered these points in full in my article on the ten points I do not believe in the official story – an article which nobody has sought to refute, other than to yell “conspiracy theory”, as though that was an argument.

But today we learn from the Guardian (quoting the New York Times) that Donald Trump was only convinced to back the UK government line after being shown photos of dead ducks and hospitalised children by CIA director Gina Haspel.

The problem is that, there were no hospitalised children. No children have been reported as becoming ill following their duck feeding with the Skripals. We have heard from one of the parents that they were shown by the police extremely clear CCTV footage of the duck feeding, which has never been made public. Surely if the child had been hospitalised, the parent would have been mentioned it?

Dr Stephen Davies of Salisbury Hospital’s letter of 16 March 2018 to the Times has been explained away as poorly written or edited, in relation to the cause of the Skripals’ illness. But be that as it may, one thing the doctor’s letter does without any shadow of a doubt, is rule out the possibility of hospitalised children.

There were no hospitalised children.

We also know that the duck feeding was the time that “Boshirov and Petrov” were physically closest to the Skripals. But this is the first time there has ever been any mention of any harm to the ducks. Dead ducks would have been noticed by the public.

Possibly the Guardian and New York Times are inventing utter drivel, as in the Manafort meeting Assange story. That would in itself be worrying. The other possibility is that the security services produced fake photographs of hospitalised children and slaughtered some ducks, in order to convince Donald Trump. If the latter explanation is true, then the entire Skripal saga looks more and more staged.

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Yesterday, the world’s eyes turned to Paris as Notre Dame cathedral burned.

It was clear within minutes that complications due to the building’s age and density of heavy timber would severely hinder attempts to put out the fire. Still, it was shocking to see that iconic spire come down, succumbing to the fire as easily as a matchstick house.

Indeed, watching this ancient temple engulfed in smoke and heat was a frightening reminder there are many forces out there that render us powerless to save something dear to us.

People worldwide have meaningful connections to Paris. It is the most-visited city in the world. As such, people have memories of Notre Dame, memories that were dusted with ash and debris in yesterday’s horrific scene.

As is often the case, those nightmarishly frustrating contrarians were everywhere, taunting the mourners — remind everyone that the church was just bricks and mortar. Presumably these diehard deconstructionists also argue that art is “just paint on a canvas” and that their children are “just smaller people who look like me and live in my house.”

Notre Dame

Still, none of that cynicism could stem the mournful tide.

Within hours of the spire coming down, two of France’s wealthiest families — led by François-Henri Pinault and Bernard Arnault — had pledged no less than €300million in funding for the restoration effort. The city of Paris was also able to mobilise €10million.

Arnault is the CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury-goods company. He is the richest person in Europe and the fourth-richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $91.3 billion, as of this month. Perhaps the best-known brand overseen by Arnault is Louis Vuitton. Handbags, suitcases, you know the ones.

By comparison, Pinault is worth a paltry €30billion. He’s more of a Gucci man, and he also owns Stade Rennais FC.

Between them, they have significantly more money than several European states — such as Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia or Slovenia. If you had €3,000 in your bank account right now and you donated a tenner to the restoration effort, you’d be giving proportionally the same amount as these two.

Something to think about.

Perhaps an overlooked part of the discussion is the financial role that the Catholic Church could play in the restoration. Nobody outside the Vatican truly knows how much money the church has, but in 2012 The Economist calculated that the Vatican’s operating budget in the US alone came to $170billion. It stands to reason, then, that the global figure would be much larger again.

Pope Francis has confirmed that he is praying for all those affected by the Notre Dame fire. That is to say, he is putting his hands together, rather than in his pocket.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever had to raise a few hundred or a few thousand euro to renovate a church in suburban or rural Ireland without the help from the Vatican’s bajillions.

Notre Dame

It would be incredibly cheap to suggest that it is in some way wrong to give money for the restoration. There is a value that transcends simple economics in restoring testaments to civilisation. Better that Notre Dame remains a symbol of European history than €300 million rests in a billionaire’s bank account.

But the immediacy and magnitude of their response tells us something very important about the society we live in.

If two men in a world of more than 7 billion people can provide €300million to restore Notre Dame, within six hours, then there is enough money in the world to feed every mouth, shelter every family and educate every child. The failure to do so is a matter of will, and a matter of system.

The failure to do so comes from our failure to recognise the mundane emergencies that claims lives all around us every single day. Works of art and architectural history and beauty rely on the ingenuity of people, and it is people who must be protected above all else.

Brick and mortar and stained-glass might burn, but they do not bleed, and they do not starve, and they do not suffer. Humans suffer. Everywhere in the world, from Paris to Persepolis, people are suffering. But their suffering is every day. It does not light up a front page, and it does not inspire immediate donations from the world’s wealthiest men.

France currently counts 140,000 homeless people — 30,000 of which are children. A 2018 report by the Secours Catholique revealed that in total there are around 8.8 million people living below the poverty line in France in 2017. This means they are living on an income of less than €1,026 a month, and many of them live on considerably less. One in every eight French people live in poverty. Despite all of this, France remains the sixth richest country in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The next time someone tries to pretend like you need to choose between homelessness or immigration, nurses’ pay or a tax cut, a children’s hospital or a motorway, remember this moment. The money is there at a click of a finger. It just isn’t in our hands.

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New Mexico’s Gila River Named America’s Most Endangered River of 2019

April 18th, 2019 by Center For Biological Diversity

WASHINGTON― American Rivers today named the Gila River No. 1 on the list of “America’s most endangered rivers” of 2019, citing the grave threat that climate change and a proposed diversion project pose to New Mexico’s last free-flowing river. American Rivers and its partners called on New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to permanently stop the diversion project and advance more cost-effective, innovative water supply solutions.

“New Mexicans can’t afford to dry up their last wild river,” said Matt Rice, Colorado Basin director for American Rivers. “Ruining the Gila River with an expensive diversion project doesn’t make sense when there are better, more cost-effective water supply options.”

“We are already feeling the impacts of climate change in New Mexico and across the Southwest and it’s only going to get worse. The decisions we make today will determine whether we have healthy rivers and secure water supplies in the future. We have an opportunity on the Gila to demonstrate that it is possible to protect healthy rivers and meet our water needs in an era of climate change,”

said Rice.

Scientists estimate that due to climate change, the Gila River will cease to be a snowpack-fed river by mid-century. The proposed diversion project would put greater strain on Gila River flows already altered and reduced by the impacts of climate change. In turn climate change will likely limit the amount and availability of water that can be developed by the proposed diversion, calling into question the project’s long-term viability.

American Rivers and its partners called on Lujan Grisham to stop the diversion project and instead spend $66 million available through Arizona Water Settlement Act funding on alternative water supply solutions to meet the water needs of communities throughout southwest New Mexico.

These solutions include infrastructure improvements and expansions such as the Grant County Regional Water Supply Project and municipal and agricultural conservation and efficiency projects.

“It’s time to stop the waste of millions in federal funds on a Gila River diversion to benefit a small number of irrigators and the world’s largest copper mining company, and instead direct AWSA monies to critically important community water projects that achieve long-term water security for thousands in southwest New Mexico,” said Allyson Siwik, executive director of the Gila Conservation Coalition.

“It’s rare to see a wild river these days because so many of the nation’s rivers have been dammed,” said Donna Stevens, executive director of the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance. “People come from all over to visit the Gila Wilderness — the nation’s first wilderness area — and the Gila River. They boost the local economy with their tourist dollars.”

Flowing out of the nation’s first wilderness area, the Gila River supports outstanding examples of southwestern riparian forest, cold-water fisheries and a remarkable abundance of wildlife. The river is home to indigenous people who have lived in southwestern New Mexico for thousands of years, and it remains vital to the region’s culture and heritage.

“A stronghold for many endangered species, the Gila is one of the last intact rivers left in North America,” said Todd Schulke, a cofounder of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We have to work hard to make sure it stays that way. We urge Governor Lujan Grisham to help us protect the Gila River forever.”

The annual “America’s most endangered rivers” report is a list of rivers at a crossroads, where key decisions in the coming months will determine the rivers’ fates. Over the years the report has helped spur many successes, including the removal of outdated dams, the protection of rivers with “wild and scenic” designations, and the prevention of harmful development and pollution.

The Gila River was previously included on this list in 1995, 1996, 2008 and 2014. Other rivers in the region listed as most endangered in recent years include the Lower Rio Grande (2018), Lower Colorado River (2017) and Colorado River in the Grand Canyon (2015).

America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2019

1. Gila River, New Mexico
Gov. Lujan Grisham must choose a healthier, more cost-effective way to provide water to agriculture than by drying up the state’s last major free-flowing river.

2. Hudson River, New York
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must consider effective, nature-based alternatives to storm-surge barriers that would choke off this biologically rich tidal estuary.

3. Upper Mississippi River, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri
State and federal agencies must enforce laws that prohibit illegal levees, which increase flood risk for communities and degrade vital fish and wildlife habitat.

4. Green-Duwamish River, Washington
Local leaders must produce a flood-protection plan that safeguards communities and restores habitat for Chinook salmon — fish that are essential to the diet of Puget Sound’s endangered orca whales.

5. Willamette River, Oregon
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must immediately improve 13 dams to save wild Chinook salmon and steelhead from going extinct.

6. Chilkat River, Alaska
The Japanese investment firm DOWA must do the responsible thing and back out of a mining project that could decimate native salmon.

7. South Fork Salmon River, Idaho
The U.S. Forest Service must safeguard endangered fish by denying a mining proposal that could pollute this tributary of the “wild and scenic” Salmon River.

8. Buffalo National River, Arkansas
Gov. Asa Hutchinson must demand closure of an industrial hog-farming facility that pollutes groundwater and threatens endangered species.

9. Big Darby Creek, Ohio
Local leaders must use state-of-the-art science to craft a responsible development plan that protects this pristine stream.

10. Stikine River, Alaska
The International Joint Commission of the United States and Canada must protect the river’s clean water, fish and wildlife, and indigenous communities by stopping harmful, polluting mines.

2019 River of the Year: Cuyahoga River, Ohio
American Rivers celebrates the progress Cleveland has made in cleaning up the
Cuyahoga River, 50 years since the river’s famous fire that sparked the nation’s environmental movement.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

American Rivers believes every community in our country should have clean water and a healthy river. Since 1973, we have been protecting wild rivers, restoring damaged rivers and conserving clean water for people and nature. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., and offices across the country, we are the most effective river conservation organization in the United States, delivering solutions that will last for generations to come. Connect with us at AmericanRivers.org.

Contact:

Sinjin Eberle, American Rivers, (720) 373-0864
Allyson Siwik, Gila Conservation Coalition, (575) 590-7619
Todd Schulke, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 574-5962
Donna Stevens, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, (575) 590-5698

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The European Union (EU) and Canada issued a joint warning against the United States Wednesday after Washington reported that it would enforce Title III of the controversial Helms-Burton Act, which will permit lawsuits against foreign investments in Cuba.

“The EU and Canada consider the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures contrary to international law,” the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in a statement that was also signed by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

The “Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act,” commonly known as Helms-Burton, was signed on March 12, 1996, during former President Bill Clinton’s administration, with the objective of disrupting foreign investment to the island and accentuating the economic effects of the economic blockade.

Through the application of Title III, U.S. citizens could sue in their country’s courts those persons and entities that conduct business with about 200 state-owned institutions in Cuba that were nationalized after Jan. 1, 1959. However, since the Clinton administration, the U.S. had avoided the implementation of this measure by issuing “temporary” six-month suspensions.

This practice became normalized because the full enforcement of the anti-Cuban law would imply massive damages not only for Cuba but for U.S., Canadian, and mainly European interests, as the bloc is the largest foreign investor on the island and the country’s top export market.

The EU has argued that the law is illegal under World Trade Organization rules because it affects entities outside U.S. territory. Yet after negotiations with the U.S., a waiver was agreed upon, in 1998, to avoid the act affecting European businesses. In return, the EU dropped a challenge in the WTO to the U.S. legislation.

The waiver ends May 1 and the policy change to allow suits begins on May 2, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. The EU’s has threatened to sue at the WTO once again.

Meanwhile, Canadian officials said that the country “will review all options in response to this decision.” Its law allows counterclaims to be submitted to any U.S. complaint regarding commercial ties between Cuba and Canada.

This new enactment of sanctions comes now as a bid to pressure Cuba’s government for supporting Venezuela. Back in March 2019, the Trump administration already allowed the filing of lawsuits against more than 200 Cuban companies included in a unilateral list of sanctions. While Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) presented a bill before the U.S. Congress to prohibit the official recognition and rights of Cuban trademarks in the United States.

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Pompeo is “Setting the Stage for a War with Iran”

April 18th, 2019 by The Real News Network

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that the Trump administration would not rule out going to war with Iran even though there is no explicit authorization from Congress to do so. Pompeo said this in the context of being asked whether the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) could be used to attack Iran on the basis that Iran supported the 9/11 attacks and is connected to Al Qaeda, which carried out the 9/11 attack.

“Do you believe that the 2001 authorization to go to war with those who attacked us on 9/11 applies to Iran or Iran’s Revolutionary Guard?” Senator Rand Paul asked Pompeo on April 11 during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

“I’d prefer to just leave that to lawyers,” Pompeo said, dodging the question.

“So you’re unwilling to state unequivocally that you, that the resolution in 2001 to have retribution and stop people who attacked us, that Iran had something to do with the attacks on 9/11?” Rand asked.

“The factual question with respect to Iran’s connections to Al Qaeda is very real,” Pompeo said. “They have hosted Al Qaeda, they permitted Al Qaeda to transit their country. There’s no doubt there is a connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Al Qaeda.”

Then on Monday, April 15, the Trump administration’s decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization went into effect.

“Iran is not a sponsor of terrorism,” Colonel Larry Wilkerson told The Real News Network’s Greg Wilpert. “So to say that Iran sponsors terrorism of any sort, let alone Al Qaeda, is just preposterous. The greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the region and indeed in the world is Saudi Arabia—our ally.”

In a previous interview with The Real News, Wilkerson criticized Pompeo’s initial declaration that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was a “foreign terrorist organization” and called the Secretary of State “a fool.”

Wilkerson observed that the elements in this possible lead-up to war—from a president who does not seem to know the inner workings of his own administration’s military strategy to the involvement of hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton—recall the invasion of Iraq in 2003 under President George W. Bush, where nonexistent Al Qaeda connections were used as justification for war.

“We’re operating in a way that’s inimical to, injurious to, U.S. national security interests,” Wilkerson said. “To watch this as an academic and to watch it even more so, more profoundly, as a military professional is really jarring. This is truly stupid.”

Wilpert observed that “given that all of this groundwork … being laid with the terrorism mission for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the claim of connections between Iran and Al Qaeda,” the U.S. was likely preparing for an attack on Iran, which would fall conveniently in the months leading up to the 2020 election.

“President Trump wants the tension, the pressure on Iran to bring Iran back to the negotiating table so he can claim—just prior to the 2020 elections—that he’s done the impossible: He’s brought Iran back to the table and we’re negotiating again, and that the deal he will produce will be much better than the deal President Obama produced,”

Wilkerson said. “I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that that’s the case and that at the end of the day none of this happens—that we won’t go to war.

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Os 70 Anos aa NATO: De Guerra em Guerra

April 18th, 2019 by Comité No Guerra no Nato

DOCUMENTAÇÃO APRESENTADA PELO CNGNN NO CONGRESSO INTERNACIONAL DO 70º ANIVERSÁRIO DA NATO, FLORENÇA, 7 DE ABRIL DE 2O19

ÍNDICE

  1. A NATO nasce da Bomba
  2. A NATO renova-se, após a Guerra Fria
  3. A NATO destrói o Estado Jugoslavo
  4. A NATO expande-se para Leste, para a Rússia
  5. USA e NATO atacam o Afeganistão e o Iraque
  6. A NATO destrói o Estado líbio
  7. A guerra USA/NATO para demolir a Síria
  8. Israel e emirados na NATO
  9. A orquestração USA/NATO no golpe na Ucrânia
  10. A Escalada USA/NATO na Europa
  11. O porta-aviões Itália, na frente da guerra
  12. USA e NATO rejeitam o tratado da ONU e implantam novas armas nucleares na Europa
  13. USA e NATO destroem o Tratado INF
  14. O Império Americano do Ocidente lança a cartada da guerra
  15. O sistema de guerra planetária USA/NATO
  16. Para sair do sistema de guerra da NATO
  1. A NATO nasce da Bomba

Os acontecimentos que preparam o nascimento da NATO iniciam-se com o bombardeio atómico de Hiroshima e Nagasaki, efectuados pelos Estados Unidos, em Agosto de 1945, não para derrotar o Japão, agora numa situação de caos extremo, mas para sair da Segunda Guerra Mundial com a máxima vantagem possível, especialmente, sobre a União Soviética. Este facto é possível devido ao facto de que, naquela época, os Estados Unidos são os únicos a possuir a arma nuclear.

Somente um mês após o bombardeamento de Hiroshima e Nagasaki, em Setembro de 1945, o Pentágono já calcula que seriam necessárias cerca de 200 bombas nucleares contra um inimigo do tamanho URSS. Em 5 de Março de 1946, o discurso de Winston Churchill sobre a “Cortina de Ferro” abre oficialmente a Guerra Fria. Logo depois, em Julho de 1946, os EUA realizaram o primeiro teste nuclear no atol Bikini (Ilhas Marshall, Oceano Pacífico) para avaliar os efeitos sobre um grupo de navios já fora do activo e milhares de cobaias/ porquinhos-da-Índia. Participam na operação, mais de 40 mil militares e civis americanos, com mais de 250 navios, 150 aviões e 25 mil detectores de radiação.

Em 1949, o arsenal dos EUA sobe para cerca de 170 bombas nucleares. Neste ponto, os Estados Unidos estão seguros de ter bombas suficientes para atacar a União Soviética em pouco tempo. Nesse mesmo ano, no entanto, falha o plano dos EUA para conservar o monopólio das armas nucleares. Em 29 de Agosto de 1949, a União Soviética efectua a sua primeira explosão nuclear experimental. Alguns meses antes, em 4 de Abril de 1949, quando em Washington sabem que a União Soviética está prestes a ter a bomba e está quase a iniciar a corrida armamentista nuclear, os Estados Unidos criam a NATO. A Aliança, sob comando USA, durante a Guerra Fria, compreende 16 países: EUA, Canadá, Bélgica, Dinamarca, França, Alemanha Ocidental, Grã-Bretanha, Grécia, Islândia, Itália, Luxemburgo, Noruega, Países Baixos, Portugal, Espanha e Turquia. Através desta aliança, os Estados Unidos mantêm o seu domínio sobre os aliados europeus, usando a Europa como linha da frente contra a União Soviética.

Seis anos após a NATO, em 14 de Maio de 1955, nasce o Pacto de Varsóvia, incluindo a União Soviética, Bulgária, Checoslováquia, Polónia, República Democrática Alemã, Roménia, Hungria, Albânia (esta de 1955 até 1968).

Quando começa o confronto nuclear entre os EUA e a URSS, a Grã-Bretanha e a França, ambas membros da NATO, estão também a diligenciar, equipar-se com armas nucleares. A primeira a conseguir é a Grã-Bretanha, que em 1952 efectua uma explosão experimental na Austrália. A vantagem da NATO aumenta ainda mais quando, em 1º de Novembro do mesmo ano, os EUA fazem explodir a sua primeira bomba H (hidrogénio). Em 1960, os países da NATO com armas nucleares sobem para três, quando a França explode a sua primeira bomba nuclear em Fevereiro, no Saara.

Enquanto está em pleno desenvolvimento a corrida aos armamentos nucleares, em Outubro de 1962, surge a crise dos mísseis em Cuba: após a falhada invasão armada da ilha, em Abril de 1961, levada a cabo por exilados apoiados pela CIA americana, a União Soviética decide fornecer a Cuba mísseis balísticos de alcance médio e intermédio. Os Estados Unidos empreendem o bloqueio naval da ilha e colocam em alerta, as forças nucleares: mais de 130 mísseis balísticos intercontinentais estão prontos para ser lançados; 54 bombardeiros com armas nucleares a bordo são acrescentados aos 12, que o Comando Aéreo estratégico mantém sempre em vôo, vinte e quatro horas por dia, prontos para ataques nucleares. Naquela época, os Estados Unidos têm mais de 25.500 armas nucleares, às quais se juntam cerca de 210 britânicas, enquanto a URSS tem cerca de 3.350. A crise, que leva o mundo ao limiar de uma guerra nuclear, é atenuada pela decisão Soviética de não instalar mísseis em troca dos EUA levantarem o bloqueio e respeitarem a independência de Cuba.

Ao mesmo tempo, a China está a tentar adquirir armas nucleares e, em Outubro de 1964, faz explodir sua primeira bomba de urânio e, em menos de três anos, a sua primeira bomba H.

A par e passo com o crescimento do seu arsenal, o Pentágono desenvolve planos operacionais detalhados de guerra nuclear contra a URSS e contra a China. Um documento de 800 páginas – tornado público em 2015 pelo arquivo do governo dos EUA – contém uma lista (até então secreta) de milhares de alvos na URSS, Europa Oriental e China que os EUA se preparavam para destruir com armas nucleares durante a Guerra Fria. Em 1959, o ano a que se refere a “Target list = lista dos alvos”, os EUA têm mais de 12.000 ogivas nucleares, mais cerca de 80 britânicas, enquanto a URSS tem cerca de mil e a China ainda não tem nenhuma. Sendo também superior em vectores/transportadores (bombardeiros e mísseis), o Pentágono considera viável, um ataque nuclear.

Entre os estrategas norte-americanos – relatará Paul Johnstone, analista do Pentágono durante duas décadas (1949-1969) para o planeamento da guerra nuclear, contará depois a história – naquela época havia a convicção de que os Estados Unidos, num ataque nuclear sofreriam sérios danos e muitos milhões de mortes e continuariam a existir como nação organizada e viável, e no final prevaleceriam, enquanto a União Soviética não seria capaz de fazê-lo. (From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning)

Entre o final dos anos sessenta e o início dos anos setenta, os EUA têm cerca de 9.000 armas nucleares instaladas fora do seu território: cerca de 7.000 em países europeus da NATO, 2.000 em países asiáticos (Coreia do Sul, Filipinas, Japão). Além destas, eles têm 3.000 armas a bordo de submarinos e outras unidades navais, que podem, a qualquer momento, partir de posições avançadas, contra a União Soviética e outros países. A URSS, que não tem bases avançadas fora de seu território perto dos Estados Unidos (porém, do qual pode se aproximar com submarinos nucleares), tenta demonstar que, se fosse atacada, poderia lançar uma retaliação devastadora. Para confirmá-lo, num teste realizado em 20 de Outubro de 1961, explode a mais poderosa bomba de hidrogénio já experimentada, a «Zar» de 58-megaton, equivalente a quase 4.500 bombas de Hiroshima. Ao mesmo tempo, a União Soviética prepara uma arma espacial: um míssil que, colocado em órbita ao redor da Terra, poderia atacar os Estados Unidos a qualquer momento com uma ogiva nuclear.

Nesta altura, os Estados Unidos, em dificuldades, propõem à União Soviética um tratado sobre o uso pacífico do espaço. Assim, é assinado, em Janeiro de 1967, o Tratado sobre o Espaço Exterior, que proíbe a colocação de armas nucleares na órbita da Terra, na Lua ou noutros corpos celestes, ou de qualquer maneira, estacioná-las no espaço exterior.

Logo a seguir, em Julho de 1968, foi assinado o Tratado de Não-Proliferação Nuclear (TNP). Os Estados Unidos, a Grã-Bretanha e a União Soviética promovem-no, preocupados com o facto de outros países quererem entrar no círculo das potências nucleares. O Artigo 1 declara: “Cada um dos Estados nucleares militares compromete-se a não transferir armas nucleares para ninguém”. O Artigo 2 estabelece: ‘Cada um dos Estados militarmente nucleares, que faz parte do Tratado,  compromete-se a não receber de ninguém, armas nucleares ou outros engenhos explosivos nucleares, nem o controlo sobre tais armas e engenhos explosivos, directa ou indirectamente’. As potências nucleares comprometem-se a prosseguir as negociações sobre um tratado que estabeleça o desarmamento geral sob controlo internacional (Artigo 6). A Itália assina o TNP em 1969, e ratifica-o em 1975.

Enquanto os Estados Unidos, a Grã-Bretanha e a União Soviética procuram impedir com o Tratado de Não-Proliferação que outros países entrem no clube nuclear, do qual, em 1968, fazem parte de cinco membros, um sexto país infiltra-se no círculo das potências nucleares,conseguindo não só entrar, mas, uma vez lá dentro, torne-se oficialmente invisível: o convidado de pedra (convidado invisível) é Israel. Ao mesmo tempo que, em 1968, foi aberto para assinatura o Tratado de Não-Proliferação, Israel já está a empregar secretamente as suas primeiras armas nucleares. Nos anos 70 e 80, também a África do Sul, a Índia e o Paquistão começaram a construir armas nucleares. Em 1986, o arsenal mundial atinge o nível mais alto: cerca de 65.000 armas nucleares.

É nesta fase que a Europa está a ser transformada na linha de frente do confronto nuclear entre as duas superpotências. Entre 1976 e 1980, a URSS instalou mísseis balísticos de alcance intermédio no seu território. Baseados no facto de que, a partir do território soviético, eles podem atingir a Europa Ocidental, a NATO decide instalar na Europa, a partir de 1983, mísseis nucleares norte-americanos de alcance médio: 108 mísseis balísticos Pershing II na Alemanha e 464 mísseis de cruzeiro lançados do solo, distribuídos entre a Grã-Bretanha, a Itália, a Alemanha Ocidental, a Bélgica e os Países Baixos.

Em menos de 10 minutos após o lançamento, os Pershing II americanos, inseridos na Alemanha, podem atingir as bases e cidades soviéticas, incluindo Moscovo, com as suas ogivas nucleares. Ao mesmo tempo, os mísseis de cruzeiro americanos instalados em Comiso e noutras bases europeias, voando a velocidades subsónicas e a uma altitude de algumas dezenas de metros ao longo do contorno do terreno, podem escapar ao radar e atingir as cidades soviéticas. Por sua vez, os SS-20 distribuídos no território soviético podem atingir, em menos de 10 minutos a partir do lançamento, as bases e as cidades da Europa Ocidental.

Em Itália, nos meados dos anos oitenta, além das 112 ogivas nucleares em mísseis de cruzeiro estabelecidos em Comiso, existem outras armas nucleares americanas num total estimado em cerca de 700. Elas são constituídas, principalmente, de minas de demolição atómica, projecteis nucleares de artilharia e mísseis nucleares de curto alcance, destinadas a serem utilizadas em Itália. Isto indica que a Itália é considerada pelo Pentágono como um simples peão a ser sacrificado, um campo de batalha nuclear para ser transformado num deserto radioactivo.

Durante a Guerra Fria, de 1945 a 1991, acumula-se no mundo um arsenal nuclear que, na década de oitenta, atinge, provavelmente, 15.000 megatons, o equivalente a mais de um milhão de bombas de Hiroshima. É como se cada habitante do planeta estivesse sentado sobre 3 toneladas de TNT. O poder do arsenal nuclear excede 5.000 vezes o de todos os dispositivos explosivos usados ​​na Segunda Guerra Mundial. Cria-se, pela primeira vez na História, uma força destrutiva que pode apagar da face da Terra, não apenas uma vez, mas muitas vezes, a espécie humana e quase qualquer outra forma de vida.

  1. A NATO renova-se, após a Guerra Fria

Na segunda metade dos anos oitenta, o clima da Guerra Fria começa a mudar. O primeiro sinal do degelo é o Tratado sobre as Forças intermédias Nucleares (INF), assinado em Washington, em 8 de Dezembro de 1987, pelos Presidentes Reagan e Gorbachev: de acordo com o mesmo, os Estados Unidos e a União Soviética comprometem-se a eliminar todos os mísseis desta categoria, incluindo os mísseis Pershing II e os mísseis de cruzeiro distribuídos pelos EUA nos países europeus da NATO e os SS-20 instalados pela URSS no seu território. Em Maio de 1991, foram eliminados, no total, 2.692 mísseis desta categoria.

Este resultado importante é devido, principalmente, à “ofensiva do desarmamento”, lançada pela União Soviética de Gorbachev: em 15 de Janeiro de 1986, ela propõe não só retirar os mísseis soviéticos e americanos de alcance intermédio, mas estabelecer um programa abrangente para concretizar a proibição de armas nucleares até ao ano 2000. Em Washington sabem que Gorbachev quer, realmente, a eliminação completa dessas armas, mas também sabem que, no Pacto de Varsóvia e na própria União Soviética, está a acontecer um processo de desintegração, um processo que os Estados Unidos e os seus aliados favorecem por todos os meios possíveis.

  1. Após o colapso do Muro de Berlim, em Novembro de 1989, em Julho de 1991, dissolve-se o Pacto de Varsóvia: os seis países da Europa Central e Oriental que faziam parte desse mesmo Pacto, agora já não são mais aliados da URSS. Em Dezembro de 1991, dissolve-se a própria União Soviética: em vez de um único Estado, formam-se agora quinze Estados. O desaparecimento da URSS e do seu bloco de alianças cria, na região da Europa e da Ásia Central, uma situação geopolítica inteiramente nova. Ao mesmo tempo, a desintegração da URSS e a crise política e económica profunda que afecta a Federação Russa, marcam o fim da superpotência capaz de rivalizar com os Estados Unidos.

Os Estados Unidos aproveitam, imediatamente, o clima de “distensão” na Europa para concentrar as suas forças na área estratégica do Golfo Pérsico, onde, com uma manobra inteligente, preparam as condições para desencadear o que o Pentágono define como “o primeiro conflito após a Guerra Fria, um acontecimento determinante para a liderança global dos Estados Unidos”. Em 17 de Janeiro de 1991 é lançada contra o Iraque “a campanha do bombardeio mais intenso da História”: Em 43 dias, a força aérea dos Estados Unidos e dos Aliados (incluindo a dos italianos) lançam contra o Iraque, por meio de 2.800 aviões, 250.000 bombas, incluindo as bombas aglomeradas, que emitem um total de mais de 10 milhões de submunições, enquanto aviões, helicópteros e tanques disparam mais de um milhão de projecteis de urânio empobrecido. Em 23 de Fevereiro, as tropas da coligação, incluindo mais de meio milhão de soldados, lançam a ofensiva terrestre que, depois de cem horas de carnificina, termina com um “cessar-fogo temporário, em 28 de Fevereiro”, proclamou o Presidente Bush.

A NATO, apesar de não participar como tal na Guerra do Golfo, fornece o apoio de toda a sua infraestrutura às forças da coligação. Participam no bombardeio, juntamente com as dos EUA, as forças aéreas e navais britânicas, francesas, italianas, gregas, espanholas, portuguesas, belgas, holandesas, dinamarquesas, norueguesas e canadianas, enquanto as forças britânicas e francesas apoiam as forças americanas na ofensiva terrestre.

A nova estratégia é enunciada oficialmente, seis meses após o fim da Guerra do Golfo, na Estratégia da Segurança Nacional dos Estados Unidos, publicada pela Casa Branca, em Agosto de 1991. O conceito central é que “os Estados Unidos permanecem o único país com uma força, uma escala e influência em todas as dimensões – política, económica e militar – verdadeiramente global: não existe nenhum substituto para a liderança americana. A nossa responsabilidade, mesmo na nova era, é de importância fundamental e inescapável”.

Um documento do Pentágono, elaborado em Fevereiro de 1992, esclarece que “o nosso principal objectivo é evitar o ressurgimento de um novo rival, seja no território da antiga União Soviética ou em qualquer outro lugar, que represente uma ameaça na ordem da anteriormente proposta pela União Soviética. A nova estratégia exige que trabalhemos para impedir que qualquer poder hostil domine uma região cujos recursos seriam suficientes, se rigidamente controlados, de criar uma potência global. Essa estratégia será adoptada em todas as “regiões críticas para a segurança dos EUA, que incluem a Europa, a Ásia Oriental, o Médio Oriente, o sudoeste da Ásia e o território da antiga União Soviética. Também temos interesses importantes na América Latina, na Oceania e na África Subsaariana”.

“Uma questão-chave – salienta a Casa Branca na Estratégia da Segurança Nacional de 1991 – é como será influenciado, o papel da América, de líder da Aliança e, de facto, das nossas próprias alianças, especialmente na Europa, pela redução da ameaça soviética. As diferenças entre os aliados provavelmente tornar-se-ão mais acentuadas assim que diminuir a tradicional preocupação de segurança, que as fez unir no início.” Por outras palavras: os aliados europeus poderiam fazer escolhas divergentes das dos Estados Unidos, questionando a liderança dos EUA ou mesmo deixando a NATO, agora ultrapassada pela nova situação geopolítica. Portanto, é da maior urgência que os Estados Unidos redefinam não só a estratégia, como também o papel da própria NATO.

Em 7 de Novembro de 1991, os chefes de Estado e de Governo dos dezesseis países da NATO, reunidos em Roma, no Conselho do Atlântico, lançaram “O novo conceito estratégico da Aliança”. Embora, por um lado, “tenha desaparecido a enorme ameaça monolítica que foi a principal preocupação da Aliança durante os seus primeiros quarenta anos” – afirma o documento – “os riscos que permanecem para a segurança da Aliança são multifacetados e multi direccionais. Portanto, a dimensão militar da nossa Aliança, permanece um factor essencial, mas o facto novo é que ela estará mais do que nunca ao serviço de um conceito amplo de segurança”. Deste modo, a Aliança Atlântica redefine o seu papel, fundamentalmente, de acordo com as linhas traçadas pelos EUA.

  1. A NATO destrói o Estado Jugoslavo

O “novo conceito estratégico” da NATO é posto em prática nos Balcãs, onde a crise da Federação Jugoslava, devido às contradições entre os grupos de poder e os impulsos centrífugos das repúblicas, atingiu o ponto de ruptura.

Em Novembro de 1990, o Congresso dos Estados Unidos aprovou o financiamento directo de todas as novas formações “democráticas” da Jugoslávia, encorajando tendências separatistas. Em Dezembro, o Parlamento da República da Croácia, controlado pelo partido de Franjo Tudjman, emitiu uma nova Constituição segundo a qual a Croácia é apenas “a pátria dos croatas” e é soberana sobre o seu território. Seis meses depois, em Junho de 1991, além da Croácia, a Eslovénia também proclamou a sua independência. Imediatamente depois, irromperam confrontos entre o exército federal e os separatistas. Em Outubro, na Croácia, o governo Tudjman expulsa mais de 25 mil sérvios, enquanto as suas milícias ocupam Vukovar. O exército federal responde, retomando a cidade. A guerra civil começa a espalhar-se, mas ainda poderia ser interrompida.

Pelo contrário, o caminho tomado, é diametralmente oposto: a Alemanha, comprometida em expandir a sua influência económica e política na região dos Balcãs, em Dezembro de 1991, reconhece unilateralmente a Croácia e a Eslovénia como Estados independentes. Como consequência, no dia seguinte, os sérvios da Croácia proclamam a autodeterminação, constituindo a República Sérvia de Krajna. Em Janeiro de 1992, primeiro o Vaticano e depois a Europa dos Doze reconhecem a Eslovénia e a Croácia. Neste ponto, também a Bósnia-Herzegovina se incendeia, o que, de certa forma, representa todo o conjunto de nós étnicos e religiosos da Federação Jugoslava.

Os capacetes azuis da ONU, enviados para a Bósnia como uma força de interposição entre as facções em luta, são deliberadamente deixados em número insuficiente, sem meios adequados e sem directivas precisas, acabando por se tornar reféns no meio dos combates. Tudo contribui para demonstrar o “fracasso da ONU” e a necessidade de que seja a NATO a tomar conta da situação. Em Julho de 1992, a NATO lança a primeira operação de “resposta à crise”, para impor o embargo à Jugoslávia.

Em Fevereiro de 1994, aviões da NATO abatem aviões sérvio-bósnios, que voam sobre a Bósnia. É a primeira acção de guerra desde a fundação da Aliança. Com essa acção, a NATO viola o artº. 5 da sua Carta Constituinte, visto que a acção bélica não é motivada pelo ataque a um membro da Aliança e é efectuada fora da sua área geográfica.

Apagado o incêndio na Bósnia (onde o fogo permanece sob as cinzas da divisão em Estados étnicos), a NATO lança gasolina no surto de Kosovo, onde está em andamento há anos, uma reivindicação de independência pela maioria albanesa. Através de canais subterrâneos largamente geridos pela CIA, um rio de armas e financiamentos, entre o final de 1998 e o início de 1999, vai alimentar o ELK (Exército de Libertação do Kosovo), o braço armado do movimento separatista kosovar-albanês. Os agentes da CIA informaram posteriormente que entraram no Kosovo em 1998 e 1999, como observadores da OSCE encarregados de verificar  o cessar-fogo, fornecendo manuais de treino militar dos Estados Unidos e telefones via satélite ao Exército de Libertação do Kosovo (ELK), para que os comandantes dos guerrilheiros pudessem estar em contato com a NATO e Washington. O ELK pode, assim, lançar uma ofensiva contra as tropas federais e contra os civis sérvios, com centenas de ataques e detenções.

Enquanto os encontros entre as forças jugoslavas e as do ELK provocam vítimas de ambos os lados, uma poderosa campanha político-mediática prepara a opinião pública internacional para a intervenção da NATO, apresentada como o único meio de acabar com a «limpeza étnica» sérvia no Kosovo. O alvo principal é o Presidente da Jugoslávia, Slobodan Milosevic, acusado de “limpeza étnica”.

A guerra, denominada «Operação Força Aliada», tem início em 24 de Março de 1999. O papel da Itália é determinante: o governo D’Alema coloca o território italiano, em particular os aeroportos, à inteira disposição das forças armadas dos Estados Unidos e dos outros países, para exercer, como o Presidente do Conselho define, «o direito de ingerência humanitária». Durante 78 dias, descolando, sobretudo, das bases italianas, 1.100 aviões efectuam 38 mil saídas, lançando 23 mil bombas e mísseis. 75% dos aviões e 90 % das bombas e dos mísseis são fornecidos pelos Estados Unidos: Aos EUA pertence a rede de comunicações, de comando, de controlo e dos serviços secretos, através dos quais são conduzidas as operações: «Dos 2.000 objectivos atingidos na Sérvia pelos aviões da NATO – documenta, em seguida, o Pentágono – 1999 foram escolhidos pelos serviços secretos americanos e apenas um, pelos europeus».

Sistematicamente, os bombardeamentos desmantelam as estruturas e as infraestruturas da Sérvia, provocando vítimas, sobretudo entre os civis. Os danos que decorrem para a saúde e para o ambiente, não são quantificáveis. Só da refinaria de Pancevo, surgem,  devido aos bombardeamentos, milhares de toneladas de substâncias químicas altamente tóxicas (compreendendo a dioxina e o mercúrio). Outras destruições, na Sérvia e no Kosovo, são provocadas da parte da NATO, pelo emprego maciço  de balas de urânio empobrecido, já usadas na guerra do Golfo.

Nos bombardeamentos participam 54 aviões italianos, que atacam os objectivos indicados pelo comando americano. «Pelo número de aviões fomos secundados apenas pelos Estados Unidos. A Itália é um grande país e não se deve surpreender do empenho demonstrado nesta guerra», declara o Presidente do Conselho, D’Alema, durante a visita feita em 10 de Junho de 1999, à base de Amendola, salientando que, para os pilotos que participaram nela, foi “uma grande experiência humana e profissional”.

Em 10 de Junho de 1999, as tropas da Federação Jugoslava começam a retirar-se do Kosovo e a NATO põe fim aos bombardeamentos. A resolução 1244 do Conselho de Segurança da ONU dispõe que a presença internacional deve ter uma substancial participação da NATO. “Hoje a NATO enfrenta a sua nova missão: a de governar”, comenta The Washington Post.

Acabada a guerra, são enviados para o Kosovo mais de 60 agentes do FBI, mas não encontraram vestígios de massacres que justificassem a acusação, feita pelos sérvios, de “limpeza étnica”. Slobodan Milosevic, condenado a 40 anos de reclusão pelo Tribunal Penal Internacional de Haia para a antiga Jugoslávia, morre depois de cinco anos de prisão. O mesmo Tribunal exonera-o, em 2016, da acusação de “limpeza étnica”.

O Kosovo, onde os EUA instalam uma grande base militar (Camp Bondsteel), torna-se uma espécie de protectorado da NATO. Ao mesmo tempo, sob a cobertura de “Força da paz”, o antigo ELK no poder, aterroriza e expulsa mais de 250 mil sérvios, rom/ciganos, judeus, e albaneses designados de “colaboracionistas”. Em 2008, com a auto proclamação do Kosovo como Estado independente, é concluída a demolição da Federação Jugoslava.

Enquanto decorre a guerra contra a Jugoslávia, é convocada em Washington, de 23 a 25 de Abril de 1999, a cimeira que oficializa a transformação da NATO. Da Aliança que, baseada no Artigo 5 do Tratado de 4 de Abril de 1949, obriga os países membros a assistir também com as suas forças armadas, o país membro que for atacado na área do Atlântico Norte, ela é transformada numa aliança que, fundamentada no “novo conceito estratégico” e força os países membros também, a “efecuar operações de resposta a crises não previstas no Artigo 5, fora do território da Aliança”. Por outras palavras, a NATO prepara-se a projectar a sua força militar para além das suas fronteiras, não só na Europa mas também para outras regiões do mundo.

O que não muda, na mutação da NATO, é a hierarquia no seu interior. É sempre o Presidente dos Estados Unidos a nomear o Comandante Supremo Aliado, na Europa, que é sempre um general americano enquanto os aliados se limitam a ratificar a escolha. O mesmo acontece com os outros comandos-chave.

O documento que obriga os países membros a agir fora do território da Aliança, subscrito pelos dirigentes europeus, em 24 de Abril de 1999, em Washington, reitera que a NATO “apoia plenamente o desenvolvimento da entidade europeia da defesa, no interior da Aliança”. O conceito é claro: A Europa Ocidental pode ter a sua “identidade de defesa”, mas essa mesma “identidade de defesa”, tem de permanecer no interior da Aliança, ou seja, sob comando USA.

Assim, é confirmada e consolidada, a subordinação da União Europeia à NATO. Subordinação estabelecida pelo Tratado de Maastricht de 1992, que reconhece o direito dos Estados da União Europeia de fazer parte da NATO, definida como a base da defesa da União Europeia.

A Itália – participando da guerra contra a Jugoslávia, país que não tinha nenhuma acção agressiva nem contra a Itália, nem contra os outros membros da NATO – confirma ter adoptado uma nova política militar e, ao mesmo tempo, uma nova política externa. Esta, usando a força militar como uma ferramenta, viola o princípio constitucional, afirmado no Artigo 11, que “a Itália repudia a guerra como instrumento de ataque contra a liberdade dos outros povos e como meio de resolução de conflitos internacionais”.

  1. A NATO expande-se para Leste, para a Rússia

Em 1990, na véspera da dissolução do Pacto de Varsóvia, o Secretário de Estado dos EUA, James Baker, assegurou ao Presidente da URSS, Mikhail Gorbachev, que “a NATO não se estenderia uma polegada para leste”. Mas, em vinte anos, depois de destruir a Federação Jugoslava, a NATO amplia-se de 16 para 30 países, expandindo-se cada vez mais para Leste, em direcção à Rússia

Em 1999, engloba os três primeiros países do antigo Pacto de Varsóvia: Polónia, República Checa e Hungria. Em 2004, estende-se a mais sete: Estónia, Letónia, Lituânia (já parte da URSS); Bulgária, Roménia, Eslováquia (já parte do Pacto de Varsóvia); Eslovénia (que já faz parte da Federação da Jugoslávia). Em 2009, incorporou a Albânia (anteriormente, membro do Pacto de Varsóvia) e a Croácia (anteriormente, parte da Federação da Jugoslávia) e, em 2017, o Montenegro; em 2019, assina o protocolo de adesão da Macedónia do Norte como o 30º membro. Outros três países – a Bósnia Herzegovina (anteriormente, parte da Federação da Jugoslávia), a Geórgia e a Ucrânia (anteriormente parte da URSS) – são candidatos à adesão à NATO.

Assim, Washington vincula esses países, não à Aliança, mas directamente aos EUA, reforçando a sua influência dentro da União Europeia. Dos dez países da Europa Central e de Leste que aderiram à NATO, entre 1999 e 2004, sete entraram na União Europeia entre 2004 e 2007: à União Europeia que se expande para leste, os Estados Unidos sobrepõem-se à NATO, que se estende para Leste, sobre a Europa. Isto revela claramente o plano estratégico de Washington: incentivar os novos membros do Leste para estabelecer relações ainda mais favoráveis com os Estados Unidos na NATO, de modo a isolar a “velha Europa” que poderia, um dia, tornar-se autónoma.

Além do mais, a expansão da NATO para Leste, tem outras implicações. Englobando não só os países do antigo Pacto de Varsóvia, mas também as três repúblicas bálticas que, em tempos, fizeram parte da URSS, a NATO chega às fronteiras da Federação Russa. Não obstante, as garantias de Washington sobre as suas intenções pacíficas, isto constitui também uma ameaça nuclear para a Rússia.

  1. USA e NATO atacam o Afeganistão e o Iraque

Os Estados Unidos atacam e invadem o Afeganistão, em 2001, com o pretexto oficial de dar caça a Osama bin Laden, apontado como o instigador dos ataques terroristas de 11 de Setembro de 2001 (cuja versão oficial não resiste a investigações técnicas e científicas, efectuadas por peritos independentes). Osama bin Laden é uma figura bem conhecida em Washington: pertencendo a uma família rica saudita, tinha colaborado activamente com a CIA quando, de 1979 a 1989, treinou e armou mais de 100 mil mujaidin através do ISI (serviço secreto paquistanês)mais de 100.000 mujaidin para a guerra contra as tropas soviéticas caídas na “armadilha afegã” (como Zbigniew Brzezinski definirá posteriormente, afirmando que o treino e o armamento dos mujaidin se iniciaram em Julho de 1979, cinco meses antes da invasão soviética do Afeganistão) .

Abre-se uma nova fase da situação internacional: o Presidente dos Estados Unidos está autorizado a comandar a “guerra global contra o terrorismo”, na qual não há fronteiras geográficas, conduzida contra um inimigo que pode ser identificado de vez em quando, não somente como terrorista ou suposto terrorista, mas contra qualquer um que se oponha à política e aos interesses dos EUA. A imagem perfeita de um inimigo, permutável e duradouro. O Presidente Bush define-o como “um inimigo sombrio, escondido nos cantos escuros da Terra”.

O verdadeiro propósito da intervenção militar dos EUA no Afeganistão é a ocupação desta área de importância estratégica primordial. O Afeganistão está na encruzilhada do Médio Oriente, Ásia do Centro, do Sul e do Leste. Nesta área (no Golfo e no Cáspio) existem grandes reservas de petróleo. Encontram-se aí  três grandes potências – China, Rússia e Índia – cuja força está a crescer e afectar os activos globais. Como o Pentágono tinha alertado no relatório de 30 de Setembro de 2001, “existe a possibilidade de surgir na Ásia, um rival militar com uma base de recursos formidável”.

No período anterior a 11 de Setembro de 2001, havia na Ásia, fortes indícios de uma aproximação entre a China e a Rússia. Washington considera esse facto como um desafio aos interesses dos EUA, no momento crítico em que os Estados Unidos procuram preencher o vazio deixado pela URSS na Ásia Central. Uma posição geoestratégica chave para o controlo desta área, é a do Afeganistão.

A guerra começa em Outubro de 2001, com o bombardeio realizado pela aviação americana e britânica. Neste ponto, o Conselho de Segurança da ONU autoriza a criação da ISAF (Força Internacional de Assistência à Segurança), cuja direcção é confiada em sucessão à Grã-Bretanha, Turquia, Alemanha e Holanda. Mas, de repente, em Agosto de 2003, a NATO anuncia que “assumiu o cargo de liderança da ISAF, uma força com mandato da ONU”. É um verdadeiro golpe: nenhuma resolução do Conselho de Segurança autoriza a NATO a assumir a liderança, ou o comando, da ISAF. Somente após o facto consumado, através da Resolução de Segurança 1659, de Fevereiro de 2006, o Conselho de Segurança “reconhece o compromisso contínuo da NATO, em dirigir a ISAF”. Portanto, a missão da ISAF está incluída na cadeia de comando do Pentágono. Os militares italianos designados para a ISAF estão incluídos na mesma cadeia de comando.

Depois do Afeganistão, é a vez do Iraque, país submetido a um rigoroso embargo, desde 1991, que causou 1,5 milhões de mortes em dez anos, dos quais cerca de meio milhão eram crianças. O Presidente Bush em 2002, coloca o Iraque em primeiro lugar, entre os países que fazem parte do “eixo do mal”. O Secretário de Estado, Colin Powell, apresenta no Conselho de Segurança da ONU uma série de “provas” recolhidas pela CIA, que posteriormente serão reconhecidas como falsas, sobre a alegada existência de um grande arsenal de armas químicas e bacteriológicas em posse do Iraque e a sua alegada capacidade de construir armas nucleares num curto espaço de tempo. Como o Conselho de Segurança se recusa a autorizar a guerra, a Administração Bush ignora, simplesmente, esse facto.

A guerra começa em Março de 2003 com o bombardeio aéreo de Bagad e de outros centros, pela aviação americana e britânica e com o ataque terrestre realizado pelos fuzileiros navais que entram no Iraque vindos do Kuwait. Em Abril, tropas dos EUA ocupam Bagdad. A operação, chamada “Iraqi Freedom/Libertação do Iraque”, é apresentada como sendo uma “guerra preventiva” e a “exportação da democracia”. Os EUA e as forças de ocupação aliadas – incluindo as italianas envolvidas na operação “Antiga Babilónia” – encontram uma resistência inesperada. Para esmagá-la, o Iraque é posto a ferro e fogo por mais de um milhão e meio de soldados, que o Pentágono envia em rotação conjunta com centenas de milhares de “contractors/empresas militares privadas”, usando todos os meios: desde bombas de fósforo contra a população de Falluja às torturas na prisão de Abu Ghraib.

A NATO participa, efectivamente, na guerra com as suas estruturas e forças. Em 2004, foi criada a “Missão de Treino da NATO”, com o objectivo declarado de “ajudar o Iraque a criar forças armadas eficientes”. Milhares de militares e polícias iraquianos são treinados em 2.000 cursos especiais efectuados nos países da Aliança. Ao mesmo tempo, a NATO envia instrutores e conselheiros, incluindo italianos, para “ajudar o Iraque a criar o seu próprio sector de segurança de orientação democrática e durável” e “estabelecer uma parceria de longo prazo da NATO com o Iraque”.

  1. A NATO destrói o Estado líbio

Múltiplos factores tornam a Líbia importante aos olhos dos Estados Unidos e das potências europeias. Possui as maiores reservas de petróleo da África, preciosas pela sua elevada qualidade e baixo custo de extracção e grandes reservas de gás natural. Sobre essas mesmas reservas, o Estado líbio mantém um forte controlo, deixando margens de lucro limitadas para as empresas americanas e europeias. Além do ouro negro, a Líbia tem ouro branco: a imensa reserva de água fóssil do aquífero núbio, que se estende sob a Líbia, Egipto, Sudão e Chade. Os fundos soberanos são consideráveis, os capitais que o Estado líbio investiu no estrangeiro, em particular para fornecer à África os seus organismos financeiros e a sua própria moeda.

Na véspera da guerra de 2011, os Estados Unidos e as potências europeias “congelaram”, ou seja,  apreenderam, os fundos soberanos da Líbia, assentando um golpe mortal em todo o projecto. Os emails de Hillary Clinton (Secretária de Estado da Administração Obama, em 2011), que vieram depois a público, confirmam qual era o verdadeiro propósito da guerra: bloquear o plano de Gaddafi de usar os fundos soberanos da Líbia para criar órgãos financeiros autónomos da União Africa e uma moeda africana como alternativa ao dólar e ao franco CFA (a moeda que são forçados a usar, os 14 países africanos, antigas colónias francesas). É Clinton – Documentará mais tarde o New York Times  – que é Hillary Clinton que influencia o Presidente Obama a assinar “um documento que autoriza uma operação secreta na Líbia e o fornecimento de armas aos rebeldes”.

São financiados e armados, os sectores tribais hostis ao governo de Trípoli e os grupos islâmicos que até há poucos meses  eram designados como terroristas. Ao mesmo tempo, infiltraram-se na Líbia, forças especiais, incluindo milhares de comandos do Qatar facilmente camufláveis. Toda a operação é dirigida pelos Estados Unidos, primeiro através do Comando Africano, depois através da NATO, sob  comando USA.

Em 19 de Março de 2011, inicia-se o bombardeio aéreo-naval da Líbia. Em sete meses, a aviação dos USA/NATO efectua 30.000 missões, das quais 10.000 são de ataque, com o emprego de mais de 40.000 bombas e mísseis. A Itália participa nesta guerra com as suas bases e forças militares, dissolvendo o Tratado de Amizade, Parceria e Cooperação entre os dois países. Para a guerra na Líbia, a Itália disponibiliza para as forças USA/NATO, 7 bases aéreas (Trapani, Gioia del Colle, Sigonella, Decimomannu, Aviano, Amendola e Pantelleria), fornecendo assistência técnica e abastecimentos. A Força Aérea Italiana participa na guerra, efectuando mais de mil missões e a Marinha italiana está envolvida em várias frentes.

Com a guerra USA/NATO, de 2011, o Estado líbio é destruído e o próprio Gaddafi assassinado. É demolido esse Estado que, na costa sul do Mediterrâneo, em frente à Itália, mantinha “níveis elevados de crescimento económico” (como o próprio Banco Mundial documentava em 2010), registando “excelentes indicadores de desenvolvimento humano”, incluindo o acesso universal ao ensino primário e secundário e o acesso de 46% ao nível universitário. Apesar das disparidades, o padrão de vida da população líbia era consideravelmente superior ao dos outros países africanos. Testemunha-o o facto de que mais de dois milhões de imigrantes, principalmente africanos, encontravam trabalho na Líbia.

Também são afectados pela guerra os imigrantes da África Subsaariana, que, perseguidos sob acusação de colaborar com Gaddafi, são presos ou forçados a fugir. Muitos, impulsionados pelo desespero, tentam a travessia do Mediterrâneo para a Europa. Os que perdem a vida também são vítimas da guerra com a qual a NATO derrubou o Estado líbio.

  1. A guerra USA/NATO para demolir a Síria

Depois de ter demolido o Estado líbio inicia-se, no mesmo ano de 2011, a operação USA/NATO destinada a destruir o Estado sírio. Uma das razões foi o facto de que a Síria, o Irão e o Iraque assinam, em Julho de 2011, um acordo para um gasoducto que deveria ligar a jazida petrolífera iraniana de South Pars, a maior do mundo, à Síria e, assim, ao Mediterrâneo. A Síria, onde outro grande depósito foi descoberto perto de Homs, poderia assim, tornar-se um centro de corredores alternativos de energia, aos da Turquia e de outros percursos, controlados por empresas dos EUA e da Europa.

A guerra encoberta começa com uma série de atentados terroristas, efectuados sobretudo em Damasco e Alepo. As imagens dos edifícios devastados com explosivos poderosos são eloquentes: não são obra de simples rebeldes, mas de profissionais de guerra infiltrados. Centenas de especialistas das forças de elite britânicas, SAS e SBS – relata o Daily Star – operam na Síria, juntamente com unidades americanas e francesas.

A força de impacto é constituída por um grupo armado de grupos islâmicos (até recentemente, designados por Washington como terroristas) provenientes do Afeganistão, Bósnia, Chechénia, Líbia e outros países. No grupo de Abu Omar al-Chechen – relata o enviado do Guardian, em Aleppo – as ordens são dadas em árabe, mas devem ser traduzidas para checheno, tadjique, turco, dialeto saudita, urdu, francês e outras línguas. Munidos com passaportes falsos (especialidade da CIA), os combatentes afluem nas províncias turcas de Adana e Hatai, com fronteiras com a Síria, onde a CIA abriu centros de treino militar. As armas chegam principalmente através da Arábia Saudita e do Qatar que, como na Líbia, também fornece forças especiais.

O comando das operações está a bordo dos navios da NATO, no porto de Alessandretta. Abriu um centro de propaganda em Istambul, onde dissidentes sírios, treinados e financiados pelo Departamento de Estado dos EUA, fabricam notícias e vídeos que são transmitidos através das redes de satélites.

A partir de centros operacionais especiais, os agentes da CIA providenciam a compra de armas com grandes empréstimos concedidos pela Arábia Saudita, Qatar e outras monarquias do Golfo. Os mesmos organizam o transporte de armas na Turquia e na Jordânia através de uma ponte aérea e, finalmente, através da fronteira, fazem-nas chegar aos grupos na Síria, já treinados em campos especiais montados em território turco e jordano.

A estratégia usada surge nos documentos que vieram depois a público. A Secretária de Estado, Hillary Clinton, num email de 2012 (desclassificado como “número de processo F-2014-20439, Doc No. C05794498”), escreve que, dada a “relação estratégica” Irão-Síria, “o aniquilamento de Assad constituiria um imenso benefício para Israel, e também diminuiria o medo compreensível israelita de perder o monopólio nuclear”.

Um documento oficial do Pentágono, datado de 12 de Agosto de 2012 (desclassificado em 18 de Maio de 2015, por iniciativa do grupo conservador, Judicial Watch), afirma que “os países ocidentais, os Estados do Golfo e a Turquia, apoiam na Síria, as forças da oposição que tentam controlar as áreas orientais, adjacentes às províncias iraquianas ocidentais”, ajudando-as a “criar refúgios seguros sob protecção internacional”. Há uma “possibilidade de estabelecer um principado salafita na Síria oriental e é exactamente o que querem as potências que apoiam a oposição, para isolar o regime sírio, a retaguarda estratégica da expansão chiita (Iraque e Irão)”.

É neste contexto que, em 2013, se forma o ISIS (ou DAESH), que se autoproclama “Estado do Califado Islâmico”. Em Maio de 2013, um mês depois de fundar o ISIS, Ibrahim al-Badri – o “califa” conhecido com o nome de batalha de Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – encontra, na Síria, o Senador John McCain, líder dos republicanos, encarregado pelo democrata Obama, de desenvolver operações encobertas por conta do governo. Este encontro é documentado fotograficamente.

O ISIS recebe financiamentos, armas e rotas de trânsito dos aliados mais chegados aos Estados Unidos: Arábia Saudita, Qatar, Kuwait, Turquia, Jordânia, com base num plano, seguramente coordenado pela CIA. Depois de ter conquistado com as suas milícias, grande parte do território sírio, o ISIS lança a ofensiva no Iraque, não por acaso, mas no momento em que o governo, presidido  pelo chiita Nouri al-Maliki se afasta de Washington, aproximando-se, cada vez mais, da Rússia e da China. A ofensiva, que incendeia o Iraque, encontra matéria inflamável na rivalidade sunita-chiita. As milícias do ISIS ocupam Ramadi, a segunda cidade do Iraque e, pouco depois, Palmira, na Síria central, matando milhares de civis e forçando à fuga, dezenas de milhares dos mesmos.

De facto, o ISIS desempenha um papel  funcional na estratégia USA/NATO de demolição de Estados. O que não significa que a massa dos seus militantes, provenientes de diversos países, esteja consciente disso. Ela é muito heterogénea: fazem parte da mesma massa, quer combatentes islâmicos, formados no drama da guerra, quer militares da época de Saddam Hussein que combateram contra os invasores, quer muitos outros cujas histórias estão sempre ligadas a situações sociais trágicas, provocadas pela primeira guerra do Golfo e pelas guerras seguintes, num espaço de vinte anos. Também fazem parte alguns combatentes estrangeiros provenientes da Europa e dos Estados Unidos, dentro de cujas máscaras se escondem, de certeza, agentes secretos formados propositadamente, para tais operações.

Também é muito suspeito o acesso ilimitado do ISIS, no período do seu desenvolvimento máximo, às redes mediáticas mundiais, dominadas pelas colossais corporações mediáticas americanas e europeias, através das quais divulgam as filmagens das decapitações que, suscitando horror e que criam uma opinião pública muito vasta, favorável à intervenção no Iraque e na Síria.

A campanha militar “Inherent Resolve”, formalmente dirigida contra o ISIS, é lançada no Iraque e na Síria em Agosto de 2014, pelos Estados Unidos e pelos seus aliados: França, Grã-Bretanha, Canadá, Austrália, Arábia Saudita, Emirados Árabes Unidos, Bahrain e outros. Se os Estados Unidos, a França e a Grã-Bretanha usassem os seus caça bombardeiros, como tinham feito na Líbia em 2011, as forças do ISIS, movendo-se em espaços abertos, seriam um alvo fácil. Pelo contrário, elas podiam avançar imperturbáveis, com colunas de blindados carregadas de homens e explosivos. Se o ISIS avança na Síria e no Iraque, é porque em Washington, eles querem isso mesmo. O objectivo estratégico de Washington é a destruição da Síria e a reocupação do Iraque.

A intervenção militar russa na Síria, em 2015, em apoio às forças do governo, reverte o destino do conflito. Os caças-bombardeiros russos destroem as fortalezas do ISIS, uma após outra, abrindo caminho para as forças de Damasco. Os Estados Unidos, deslocados, jogam a cartada da fragmentação da Síria, apoiando os independentistas curdos e outros. Depois de tentar demolir o Estado sírio durante cinco anos, destruindo-o a partir de dentro, por intermédio de grupos terroristas armados e infiltrados do exterior e provocando mais de 250.000 mortes, no momento em que  operação está a  falhar, devido à intervenção militar russa em apoio das forças do governo sírio, os aparelhos políticos e mediáticos de todo o Ocidente lançam uma psyop colossal (operação psicológica) para fazer parecer o governo e todos os sírios que resistem à agressão, como sendo os agressores. A ponta de lança da psyop é a demonização do presidente Assad (como já tinha sido feito com Milosevic e Gaddafi), apresentado-o como um ditador sádico que gosta de bombardear hospitais e exterminar crianças, com a ajuda de seu amigo Putin, retratado como o neo-czar do renascimento do império russo. No momento em que caem os últimos redutos do ISIS, os mesmos aparelhos político-mediáticos espalham a fake news = notícia falsa de que o Estado Islâmico foi derrotado pelos Estados Unidos e pelas “Forças Democráticas da Síria” (uma milícia de curdos e árabes armada e apoiada pelo Pentágono).

  1. Israel e emirados na NATO

No mesmo dia (4 de Maio de 2016), em que se instala na NATO, o novo Comandante Supremo Aliado da NATO, na Europa – o General norte-americano Curtis Scaparrotti, nomeado como os seus 17 antecessores pelo Presidente dos Estados Unidos – o Conselho do Atlântico Norte anuncia que, no quartel general da NATO, é instituída em Bruxelas, uma Missão oficial israelita, chefiada pelo Embaixador de Israel, na União Europeia.

Israel está assim ainda mais integrado na NATO, à qual já está estreitamente ligado através do “Programa de Cooperação Individual”, que tinha sido ratificado pela NATO, em 2 de Dezembro de 2008, três semanas antes da operação israelita “Chumbo Fundido”, em Gaza. Inclui, entre outras funções, a colaboração entre os serviços secretos e a ligação das forças israelitas, incluindo as forças nucleares, ao sistema electrónico da NATO.

Israel – a única potência nuclear no Médio Oriente, que não aderiu ao Tratado de Não-Proliferação, subscrito pelo Irão, que não tem armas nucleares – possui (sem admiti-lo) um arsenal estimado entre 100 a 400 armas nucleares, incluindo mini bombas nucleares e bombas de neutrões da nova geração e produz plutónio e trítio em quantidades com que poderão construir outras centenas delas. As ogivas nucleares israelitas estão prontas para ser lançadas por mísseis balísticos e caça bombardeiros dos EUA, aos quais se juntam agora, os F-35.

Os principais países europeus da NATO, que apoiam, formalmente, o acordo nuclear iraniano estipulado em 2015 (do qual os EUA saíram em 2018), estão realmente alinhados com Israel. A Alemanha forneceu-lhe seis submarinos Dolphin, modificados para que pudessem lançar mísseis de cruzeiro com ogivas nucleares e aprovaram o fornecimento de mais três. A Alemanha, a França, a Itália, a Grécia e a Polónia participaram, com os EUA, no maior exercício internacional de guerra aérea da História de Israel, a Bandeira Azul 2017. A Itália, ligada a Israel por um acordo de cooperação militar (Lei n. 94, de 2005), participou com caças Tornado do 6º Esquadrão de Ghedi, adaptados ao transporte de bombas nucleares dos EUA.

De acordo com o plano testado no Exercício USA-Israel Juniper Cobra 2018, as forças USA e NATO chegariam da Europa (principalmente de bases em Itália) para apoiar Israel numa guerra contra o Irão. Ela pode começar com um ataque israelita contra instalações nucleares iranianas, como a realizada em 1981 em Osiraq, no Iraque. No caso de retaliação iraniana, Israel poderia fazer uso de uma arma nuclear colocando em movimento uma reacção em cadeia com resultados imprevisíveis.

À Missão oficial de Israel na NATO juntam-se as do reino da Jordânia e dos emirados do Qatar e do Kuwait, “parceiros muito activos” que estão ainda mais integrados na NATO, através de méritos adquiridos. A Jordânia alberga bases secretas da CIA nas quais – documentam o New York Times e o Der Spiegel – foram treinados militantes islâmicos da Al Qaeda e do Estado Islâmico para a guerra secreta na Síria e no Iraque. O Qatar participou da guerra da NATO contra a Líbia, infiltrando, em 2011, cerca de 5.000 comandos no seu território (conforme declarado ao The Guardian pelo Chefe do Estado-Maior do Qatar) e na Síria: admite-o em entrevista ao “Financial Times”, o antigo Primeiro Ministro do Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, que fala sobre as operações do Qatar e da Arábia Saudita de “interferência” na Síria, coordenadas pelos Estados Unidos.

O Kuwait, através do “Acordo de Trânsito”, permite à NATO ter o seu primeiro aeroporto no Golfo, não só para o envio de forças e materiais militares para o Afeganistão, mas também para a “cooperação prática da NATO com o Kuwait e outros parceiros, como a Arábia Saudita”. Parceiros apoiados pelos USA na guerra que massacra civis no Iémen. O Kuwait também participa com cerca de quinze caça bombardeiros, a quem a Itália fornece 28 caças Eurofighter Typhoon de nova geração, depois de abastecer Israel com 30 caças M-346 de treino avançado. Os Eurofighter Typhoons, que o Kuwait utiliza para causar hecatombes no Iémen e noutros lugares, também podem ser equipados com bombas nucleares. A Força Aérea Italiana fornece treino às tripulações.

  1. A orquestração USA/NATO no golpe na Ucrânia

A operação conduzida pelos USA e pela NATO na Ucrânia inicia-se quando, em 1991, depois do Pacto de Varsóvia, também se desagrega a União Soviética da qual fazia parte. Os Estados Unidos e os aliados europeus movem-se rapidamente para tirar a máxima vantagem da nova situação geopolítica.

A Ucrânia – cujo território funciona como um amortecedor entre a NATO e a Rússia e é atravessada por corredores de energia entre a Rússia e a União Europeia – não entra directamente na NATO. No entanto, no âmbito da NATO, associa-se à “Parceria para a paz”, contribuindo para as operações de “manutenção da paz” nos Balcãs.

Em 2002, é adoptado o «Plano de Acção NATO-Ucrânia» e o Presidente Kuchma anuncia a intenção de aderir à NATO. Em 2005, na esteira da “revolução laranja” (orquestrada e financiada pelos USA e pelas potências europeias), o Presidente Yushchenko é convidado para a Cimeira da NATO, em Bruxelas. Pouco depois é lançado um “diálogo intensificado sobre a aspiração da Ucrânia a tornar-se membro da NATO” e, em 2008, a cimeira de Bucareste dá luz verde à sua adesão.

Nesse mesmo ano, o exército georgiano, treinado e armado pelos Estados Unidos e, ao mesmo tempo, por Israel, através de empresas militares “privadas”, ataca a Ossétia do Sul, em luta desde 1991 (quando se desagrega a União Soviética) para  se tornar independente da Geórgia. Na noite de 8 Agosto de 2008 a Geórgia, apoiada pela NATO, lança uma ofensiva militar para reconquistar o controlo da região em discussão. Poucas horas depois, a Rússia intervém militarmente, rejeitando a invasão georgiana e a Ossétia do Sul torna-se, para todos os efeitos, independente da Geórgia. É o primeiro sinal da ofensiva que a NATO, sob comando USA, está a preparar na frente oriental para forçar a Rússia a reagir.

Na Ucrânia, em 2009, Kiev assina um acordo que permite a passagem no seu território, do abastecimento para as forças da NATO, no Afeganistão. Agora a adesão à NATO parece certa mas, em 2010, o Presidente Yanukovych, eleito recentemente, anuncia que, embora continuando a cooperação, a adesão à NATO não está no seu programa de governo. Mas, entretanto, no fim de 1991, a NATO teceu uma rede de ligações no interior das forças armadas ucranianas. Os oficiais superiores participam todos os anos nos cursos do NATO Defense College, em Roma, e em Oberammergau (na Alemanha). No mesmo quadro insere-se a instituição, na Academia Militar ucraniana, de uma nova “faculdade multinacional” com docentes da NATO. Também foi notavelmente desenvolvida a cooperação técnico-científica no campo dos armamentos a fim de facilitar a participação das forças armadas ucranianas em “operações conjuntas para a paz”, sob a orientação da NATO.

E visto que não existe só aquilo que se vê, é evidente que a NATO constrói uma rede de ligações nos ambientes militares e civis, muito mais extensa do que aparenta. Através da CIA e de outros serviços secretos, são recrutados anualmente, financiados, treinados e armados militantes neonazis. Uma documentação fotográfica mostra jovens militantes nazis ucranianos do UNO-UNSO, treinados em 2006, na Estónia, por instrutores da NATO, que ensinam técnicas de combate urbano e o uso de explosivos para sabotagens e atentados.

O mesmo método usado pela NATO, durante a Guerra Fria, para formar a estrutura paramilitar secreta «Gladio». Activa também em Itália onde, em Camp Darby e noutras bases, são treinados grupos neofascistas, preparando-os para atentados e para um eventual golpe de Estado.

A estrutura paramilitar de grupos neonazis entra em accção, em 2014, na praça Maidan, em Kiev. Uma manifestação anti governamental, com reivindicações justas contra a corrupção galopante e o agravamento das condições de vida, torna-se rapidamente transformada num verdadeiro campo de batalha: enquanto grupos armados tomam de assalto os palácios do governo, atiradores de elite(snipers) (vindos propositadamente para Kiev, da Geórgia) disparam com as mesmas armas de precisão, quer sobre os manifestantes, quer sobre a polícia.

Em 20 de Fevereiro de 2014, o Secretário Geral da NATO dirige-se, em tom de comando, às forças armadas ucranianas, advertindo-as para “permanecerem neutras”, pelas “graves consequências negativas para as nossas relações”. Abandonado pelas chefias das forças armadas e por grande parte do aparelho do governo, o Presidente Viktor Yanukovych é forçado a fugir. Andriy Parubiy – co-fundador do partido nacionalista, constituído em 1991 sob o modelo do Partido Nacional Socialista de Adolfo Hitler, e chefe das formações paramilitares neonazis – é nomeado “Chefe do Conselho de Defesa e Segurança Nacional”.

O golpe de Estado violento da Praça Maidan é acompanhado de uma campanha de perseguição, dirigida em particular contra o Partido Comunista e sindicatos, análoga àquelas que marcaram a chegada do fascismo em Itália e do nazismo na Alemanha. Sedes dos partidos destruídas, dirigentes linchados, jornalistas torturados e assassinados, activistas queimados vivos na Câmara do Trabalho, em Odessa; habitantes desamparados de Ucrânia oriental, de origem russa, massacrados em Mariupol, bombardeados com fósforo branco em Slaviansk, Lugansk, Donetsk.

Um verdadeiro golpe de Estado, sob a direcção USA/NATO, com a finalidade estratégica de provocar na Europa uma nova guerra fria para separar e isolar a Rússia e reforçar, ao mesmo tempo, a influência e a presença militar dos EUA na Europa. Perante o golpe de Estado e a ofensiva contra os russos da Ucrânia, o Conselho Supremo da República autónoma da Crimeia – território russo passado à Ucrânia no período soviético de 1954 – vota a favor de ser separada de Kiev e pede a reinserção na Federação Russa, decisão que é confirmada com 97% dos votos, num referendo do povo. Em 18 de Março de 2014, o Presidente Putin assina o tratado de adesão da Crimeia à Federação Russa, com o estatuto de república autónoma. Nesta altura, a Rússia é acusada pela NATO e pela União Europeia de ter anexado, ilegalmente, a Crimeia e é submetida a sanções. A Rússia responde com contra sanções que atingem, sobretudo, a economia da União Europeia, estando a economia italiana também compreendida.

Enquanto em Donbass, as autoproclamadas Repúblicas Populares de Donetsk e Lugansk, apoiadas pela Rússia, resistem à ofensiva de Kiev, que provoca milhares de mortos entre os civis, um roteiro para a cooperação técnica e militar, NATO/Ucrânia, assinada em Dezembro de 2015, integra todos os efectivos das forças armadas e a indústria bélica de Kiev na da Aliança, sob orientação USA.

Em 2019, a Ucrânia dá um passo sem precedentes: inclui na sua Constituição o compromisso de entrar oficialmente na NATO e, ao mesmo tempo, na União Europeia. Em 7 de Fevereiro, por sugestão do presidente Petro Poroshenko – o oligarca enriquecido com a pilhagem de propriedades estatais, que se recandidata à presidência – o Parlamento de Kiev aprova (com 334 votos contra 35 e 16 ausentes) as emendas, neste sentido, da Constituição. O Preâmbulo afirma “o rumo irreversível da Ucrânia para a integração euro-atlântica”; os artigos 85 e 116 decretam que a tarefa fundamental do Parlamento e do Governo é “obter a plena adesão da Ucrânia à NATO e à União Europeia”; o artigo 102 declara que “o Presidente da Ucrânia é o defensor do curso estratégico do Estado para obter a adesão plena à NATO e à União Europeia”.

A inclusão na Constituição do compromisso de entrar oficialmente na NATO acarreta consequências muito sérias. No plano interno, vincula o futuro da Ucrânia a esta escolha, excluindo qualquer alternativa e, efectivamente, coloca qualquer partido ou pessoa que se lhe opanha, numa posição ilegal. No plano internacional, deve-se ter em mente que a Ucrânia já está, de facto, na NATO, da qual é um país parceiro: por exemplo, o batalhão Azov, cuja marca nazi é representada pelo emblema copiado do SS Das Reich, foi transformado no regimento de operações especiais, equipado com veículos blindados e treinado por instrutores norte-americanos da 173ª Divisão Aerotransportada, transferido de Vicenza para a Ucrânia, rodeado por outros da NATO. Visto que a Rússia é acusada de anexar ilegalmente a Crimeia e realizar acções militares contra a Ucrânia, se ela se juntar oficialmente à NATO, os outros 30 membros da Aliança, de acordo com o art. 5, devem “ajudar a parte atacada, tomando as medidas consideradas necessárias, incluindo o uso de força armada”. Por outras palavras, deveriam entrar em guerra contra a Rússia. Sobre estas implicações perigosas da modificação da Constituição ucraniana – atrás das quais existem, de certeza, as mãos longas dos estrategas USA/NATO – cai sobre a Europa o silêncio político e mediático.

  1. A Escalada USA/NATO na Europa

A “nova missão” da NATO é oficializada na Cimeira de Setembro de 2014, no País de Gales,  lançando o “Readiniess Action Plan”, cujo objectivo oficial é “responder, rápida e firmemente, aos novos desafios à segurança”, atribuídos à “agressão militar da Rússia contra a Ucrânia” e ao “aumento do extremismo e dos conflitos sectários no Médio Oriente e no Norte de África”. O plano é definido pelo Secretário Geral da NATO, Jens Stoltenberg,  como “o maior reforço da nossa defesa colectiva desde o fim da Guerra Fria”.

Em apenas três meses, a NATO quadriplica os caça bombardeiros, duplica a capacidade convencional e nuclear, instalada na região báltica (antes parte da URSS); envia radares aéreos AWACS para a Europa Oriental e aumenta o número dos navios de guerra no Mar Báltico, no Mar Negro e no Mediterrâneo; instala na Polónia, Estónia, Letónia e Lituânia forças terrestres americanas, britânicas e alemãs; intensifica os exercícios conjuntos na Polónia e nos Países Bálticos, aumentando-os para mais de 200.

A partir de 2014, a pressão USA/NATO sobre a Rússia cresce em progressão geométrica. Em quatro anos, de 2014 a 2018, os EUA gastam 10 biliões de dólares na “Iniciativa de Segurança da Europa” (ERI), cujo objectivo oficial é “aumentar a nossa capacidade de defender a Europa contra a agressão russa”. Quase metade da despesa serve para potenciar o “pré-posicionamento estratégico” USA na Europa, ou seja, os depósitos de armamento que, colocados em posição avançada, permitem “uma rápida deslocação das forças armadas no teatro bélico”. Outra grande parte é destinada a “aumentar a presença, numa base rotativa, das forças americanas em toda a Europa”. As porções restantes servem para o desenvolvimento das infraestruturas das bases na Europa para “aumentar a prontidão da acção USA”, ao reforço dos exercícios militares e ao treino para “aumentar a prontidão e a capacidade de interacção das forças da NATO”.

Os fundos da ERI – esclarece o Comando Europeu dos Estados Unidos – são apenas uma parte dos que estão destinados à “Operação Atlantic Resolve, que demonstra a capacidade USA de responder às ameaças contra os aliados”. No âmbito dessas operações, é transferida de Fort Carson (Colorado), para a Polónia, em Janeiro de 2017, a 3ª Brigada couraçada, composta de 3.500 homens, 87 tanques, 18 obuseiros de auto lançamento, e outros meios. Ela será substituída a seguir por outra unidade, assim as forças couraçadas americanas são permanentemente deslocadas no território polaco. Os seus departamentos são transferidos, para treinos e exercícios, para outros países de Leste, sobretudo para a Estónia, Letónia, Lituânia, Bulgária, Roménia e mesmo Ucrânia, ou seja, são continuamente deslocados à volta da Rússia.

Sempre no contexto de tais operações, é transferida para a base de Illesheim (na Alemanha), a 10ª Brigada Aérea de Combate, com uma centena de helicópteros de guerra. Duas ‘task force’ são enviadas  para “posições avançadas” na Polónia, Roménia e Letónia. Nas bases de Ämari (Estónia) e Graf Ignatievo (Bulgária), são distribuídos caça bombardeiros USA e NATO, compreendendo Eurofighter italianos, para o “patrulhamento aéreo” do Báltico. A operação prevê, também, “uma presença continuada no Mar Negro”, na base aérea de Kogalniceanu (Roménia) e na de treino de Novo Selo (Bulgária).

O General Curtis Scaparrotti, Chefe do Comando Europeu dos EUA e, ao mesmo tempo, Comandante Supremo Aliado na Europa, assegura que “as nossas forças estão preparadas e posicionadas para impedir a agressão russa”. Um contingente USA é posicionado na Polónia oriental, no designado “Suwalki Gap”, um trecho de terreno plano com cerca de cem quilómetros de comprimento que, avisa a NATO, “seria uma passagem perfeita para os tanques russos”. É, assim, desenterrado o armamento da propaganda da velha Guerra Fria:  o dos tanques russos prontos a invadir a Europa. Agitando o fantasma de uma ameaça do Leste, que não existe, chegam, de facto, à Europa os tanques americanos.

O plano é claro. Depois de ter provocado com o putsch da Praça Maidan, um novo confronto com a Rússia, Washington (não obstante a mudança de Administração do Presidente Obama pela do Presidente Trump) segue a mesma estratégia: transformar a Europa na primeira linha de uma nova Guerra Fria, com vantagem para os interesses dos Estados Unidos e para as suas relações de força com as maiores potências europeias.

Na instalação no flanco oriental – compreendendo forças couraçadas, caça bombardeiros, navios de guerra e, também, unidades de mísseis nucleares – participam as potências europeias da NATO, como demonstra o envio de tropas francesas e de tanques britânicos para a Estónia. Fala-se, neste período, de um “exército” europeu, mas na reunião dos Ministros de Defesa da União Europeia, em Abril de 2017, em Malta, o Secretário Geral da NATO, Stoltenberg, esclarece em que termos: “Ficou claramente estabelecido, da parte da União Europeia, que o seu objectivo não é constituir um novo exército europeu ou estrutura de comando em competição com a NATO, mas algo que seja complementar ao que a NATO faz”.

  1. O porta-aviões Itália, na frente de guerra

As Forças Armadas USA possuem em Itália (de acordo com o relatório oficial do Pentágono, Base Structure Report),  mais de 1.500 edifícios, com uma superfície total superior a um milhão de metros quadrados e têm alugados ou como concessão, mais 800 edifícios, com uma superfície de cerca de novecentos mil metros quadrados. No total, trata-se de 2.300 edifícios com uma superfície de cerca de dois milhões de metros quadrados, espalhados por meia centena de locais. Mas, este número refere-se apenas, a uma parte da presença militar dos Estados Unidos da América em Itália.

Às bases militares USA juntam-se as da NATO, sob comando USA, e as italianas à disposição das forças USA/NATO. Estima-se que, no total, sejam mais de cem. A rede completa de bases militares está, directa ou indirectamente, às ordens do Pentágono. Está compreendida na “área de responsabilidade” do United States European Command (EUCOM), o Comando Europeu dos Estados Unidos, chefiado por um general americano que, ao mesmo tempo, ocupa o cargo de Comandante Supremo Aliado, na Europa. A “área de responsabilidade” do EUCOM, um dos seis “comandos combatentes unificados” com os quais os USA cobrem o globo, compreende a totalidade da região europeia e toda a Rússia (compreendendo a região asiática), mais alguns países da Ásia Ocidental e Central: Turquia, Israel, Geórgia, Arménia e Azerbaijão.

Na base aérea de Aviano (Pordenone) está estabelecida a 31st Fighter Wing, a esquadrilha USA de caça bombardeiros F-16C/D, pronta para o ataque com cerca de 50 bombas nucleares B61 (número estimado pela FAS, Federação dos Cientistas Americanos, no período antecedente a 2020).

Na base aérea de Ghedi (Brescia) está instalado o 6º Esquadrão da Força Aérea Italiana, com caça bombardeiros Tornado PA-200, prontos para o ataque sob comando USA, com cerca de 20 bombas nucleares B61 (número estimado pela FAS, Federação dos Cientistas Americanos, no período antecedente a 2020).A FAS declara que os pilotos italianos estão treinados para o ataque nuclear, como demonstra a presença em Ghedi de uma das quatro unidades da US Air Force instaladas nas bases europeias (bem como em Itália, na Alemanha, Bélgica e Holanda) “onde as armas nucleares USA estão destinadas a ser lançadas pelos aviões dos países anfitriões”. Os pilotos dos quatro países europeus e os pilotos turcos são treinados a usar bombas nucleares no exercício anual de guerra nuclear, da NATO. Em 2013, desenrolou-se em Aviano, em 2014 ocorreu em Ghedi.

Às armas nucleares USA, instaladas em território italiano, cujo número real é secreto, juntam-se as que estão a bordo das unidades da Sexta Frota, cuja base principal é em Gaeta, em Lazio. A Sexta Frota depende do Comando das Forças Navais USA, na Europa, cujo quartel general se situa em Nápoles – Capodichino.

Em Vicenza, existe a base da 173ª Brigada Aerotransportada do Exército USA, que fornece forças de intervenção rápida ao Comando Europeu, ao Comando África e ao Comando Central (cuja “área de responsabilidade” compreende o Médio Oriente e Ásia Central, bem como o Egipto). As forças da 173ª Brigada, já utilizadas no Iraque, em 2003, são enviadas rotativamente para o Afeganistão, Ucrânia e outros países da Europa Oriental.

Na área de Pisa/Livorno existe Camp Darby, o maior arsenal USA no mundo, fora da mãe pátria. É a base logística do Exército USA, que fornece as forças terrestres e aéreas, americanas e aliadas, na Europa, no Médio Oriente e em África. Nos seus 125 bunkers estão armazenados, projécteis de artilharia, bombas para os aviões e mísseis, num número que pode ser estimado em mais de 1,5 milhões. Não se pode excluir que, entre as armas aéreas armazenadas em Camp Darby, tenham estado e possam estar bombas nucleares. Junto às munições para a artilharia, estão armazenados nessa base, tanques e outros veículos militares num número estimado em 2.500 unidades, juntamente com mais de 11.000 materiais militares de vários tipos. Na base é o único sítio do Exército USA onde os tanques e outros veículos de combate, estão posicionados junto às munições. Na base está o equipamento completo para dois batalhões couraçados e para duas infantarias mecanizadas, que pode ser enviado, rapidamente, para uma zona de operações através do aeroporto de Pisa (Hub aéreo militar nacional) e pelo porto de Livorno (onde podem atracar unidades de propulsão nuclear).Aqui, fazem escala, todos os meses, navios enormes que transportam armas por conta do Pentágono, ligando os portos americanos aos portos do Mediterrâneo, do Médio Oriente e da Ásia.

Numa área de Camp Darby antigamente utilizada para atividades recreativas, formalmente devolvida à Itália, serão transferidas em 2019, do quartel Gamerra de Pisa, unidades do Comando das Forças Especiais do Exército (COM.FO.S.E.), para que possam treinar melhor com os EUA sobre operações secretas em zonas de guerra.

A partir das investigações dos juízes Casson e Mastelloni, surge a evidência que Camp Darby desempenha desde os anos 60 a função básica de rede de golpes formada pela CIA e pelo SIFAR no âmbito do plano secreto «Gladio». Camp Darby é uma das bases dos USA/NATO que – escreveu Ferdinando Imposimato, Presidente Honorário do Supremo Tribunal de Cassação – forneceu os explosivos para os massacres da Piazza Fontana em Capaci e Via d’Amelio. Bases onde se reuniam “terroristas negros, funcionários da NATO, mafiosos, políticos italianos e maçons na véspera de ataques”.

Camp Darby também tem a ver com a tragédia da barcaça Moby Prince, que colidiu com o navio-tanque Agip Abruzzo, na noite de 10 de Abril de 1991, no porto de Livorno. Morrem em 140 pessoas, depois de esperar durante horas em vão, por socorros. Naquela noite, no porto de Livorno, há um tráfego intenso de navios militares e militarizados dos EUA envolvidos no transbordo de armas USA, parte das quais é enviada secretamente para a Somália, Croácia e para outras áreas, não excluindo os depósitos da Gladio, em Itália. Quando a colisão ocorre, quem dirige a operação – certamente o comando USA de Camp Darby – tenta, imediatamente, cancelar qualquer prova.

Em Lago Patria (Nápoles) está a sede do Comando da Força Conjunta Aliada (JFC Naples). O seu novo quartel general, inaugurado em 2012, tem uma superfície coberta de 85 mil metros quadrados, circundado por uma vasta área cercada, predisposta para uma expansão futura. O pessoal, em aumento, é composto mais de 2.500 militares e civis. O JFC Naples da NATO está às ordens de um almirante americano, que comanda, ao mesmo tempo, as Forças Navais USA, na Europa (das quais depende a Sexta Frota) e as Forças Navais USA destinadas a África.

A cada dois anos, o JFC Naples assume o comando operacional da “Força de Resposta NATO” (NRF), uma força conjunta “altamente flexível e capaz” composta de 40 mil homens, que também tem a tarefa de conduzir  operações militares na  área de responsabilidade do Comandante Supremo Aliado, na Europa e para além dessa área”. A ponta de lança da NRF é constituída pela sua “Task Force Conjunta de Máxima Prontidão Operacional” que, composta de 5 mil homens, pode ser enviada em 2/3 dias, para a área de intervenção “antes de se iniciar a crise”.

No quartel general de Lago Patria está em funções, desde Setembro de 2017, o “Hub da Direcção Estratégica NATO para o Sul”, um centro de serviços secretos (inteligência), ou seja, de espionagem, “concentrado nas regiões meridionais, compreendendo o Médio Oriente, o Norte de África e Sahel, África sub-sahariana e áreas adjacentes”.

Na Sicília, a Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella, com um pessoal de cerca de 7.000 militares e civis, constitui a maior base naval e aéreaUSA e NATO, da região mediterrânea. Além de fornecer apoio logístico à Sexta Frota, a mesma constitui a base de lançamento de operações militares (em grande parte secretas), principalmente, mas não unicamente, no Médio Oriente e em África. A NAS – lê-se na apresentação oficial – «recebe aviões USA e NATO de todos os tipos». Entre estes, os drones espiões RQ-4B Global Hawk, capazes de voar sem abastecimento mais de 16.000 km a uma altitude de 16.000 km a 18.000 km que, de Sigonella efectuam missões de reconhecimento sobrevoando o Médio Oriente, África, Ucrânia Oriental e outras zonas. Para ataques dirigidos (quase sempre secretos) descolam de Sigonella, os drones Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper, armados de mísseis e bombas de orientação laser e via satélite.

A Naval Air Station Sigonella está integrada na base italiana de Augusta, que fornece combustível e munições às bases navais USA e NATO e, no porto de Catania, é capaz de albergar 9 navios de guerra. Para os exercícios de fogos reais, as forças especiais americanas dispõem do polígono de Pachino (Siracusa), concedido para uso exclusivo dos Estados Unidos.

Outra instalação importante americana na Sicília é a instalação MUOS de Niscemi (Caltanissetta). O MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) é um sistema de comunicações via satélites militares de alta frequência, composto de quatro satélites e de quatro estações terrestres: duas em território americano, na Virginia e no Hawaii, uma na Austrália e uma na Sicília, cada uma dotada de três grandes antenas parabólicas de 18 metros de diâmetro. Esse sistema permite ao Pentágono, ligar a uma única rede de comando e comunicações, submarinos e navios de guerra, caça bombardeiros e drones, veículos militares  e departamentos terrestres, enquanto estão em movimento, em qualquer parte do mundo onde se encontrem.

Na Sardenha estão os maiores polígonos para  treino das forças militares italianas e da NATO: em particular as de Salto di Quirra, Capo Teulada, Capo Frasca e Capo San Lorenzo. Aqui, são usadas em exercícios de fogos reais, cerca de 80% das bombas, ogivas de mísseis e balas utilizadas nas manobras militares que ocorrem em  Itália, com sérias consequências para a saúde da população.

  1. USA e NATO rejeitam o tratado da ONU e instalam novas armas nucleares na Europa

Em 20 de Setembro de 2017 – no mesmo dia em que o Tratado sobre a proibição de armas nucleares é aberto para assinatura nas Nações Unidas – a NATO rejeita-o sonoramente. O Tratado, votado na Assembleia Geral por uma maioria de 122 Estados, obriga os Estados signatários a não produzir ou possuir armas nucleares, a não usá-las ou ameaçar usá-las, não transferi-las ou recebê-las, directa ou indirectamente, com o objectivo da sua eliminação total.

Na declaração de 20 de Setembro de 2017, o Conselho do Atlântico Norte (formado pelos representantes dos 29 Estados membros) sustenta que “o Tratado não será efectivo, não aumentará a segurança nem a paz internacional, mas poderá fazer o oposto, criando divisões e diferenças”. Por conseguinte, esclarece sem usar meias palavras que “não aceitaremos nenhum argumento contido no Tratado”.

O Conselho do Atlântico Norte exclui assim os parlamentos nacionais dos países membros, privando-os da soberania para decidir autonomamente se querem ou não querem, aderir ao Tratado das Nações Unidas sobre a abolição de armas nucleares. Também anuncia que “indigitaremos os nossos parceiros e todos os países dispostos a apoiar o Tratado, a reflectir seriamente sobre as suas implicações” (leia-se: vamos chantageá-los para que  não o  assinem ou o ratifiquem). O Conselho do Atlântico Norte reitera que “o objectivo fundamental da capacidade nuclear da NATO é preservar a paz e desencorajar a agressão” e que “enquanto existirem armas nucleares, a NATO continuará a ser uma aliança nuclear”.

O Conselho do Atlântico Norte, no entanto, assegura “o forte empenho da NATO na aplicação plena do Tratado de Não-Proliferação Nuclear (TNP)”. Na realidade, ele é violado pela própria NATO. Os Estados Unidos – violando o Artigo 1, que proíbe os Estados militarmente nucleares de transferir armas nucleares para outros Estados – instalaram bombas nucleares B61 em cinco países membros da Aliança: Itália, Alemanha, Bélgica, Holanda e Turquia. Estes Estados agora mencionados, violam o TNP, que no Artigo 2 proíbe os Estados militarmente não nucleares, de receber armas nucleares, nem ter controlo sobre tais armas, directa ou indirectamente.

Uma nova bomba nuclear USA, a B61-12, substituirá em 2020, a B61, actualmente instalada em Itália e noutros países europeus. A B61-12 tem uma ogiva nuclear com quatro opções de potência seleccionáveis: no momento do lançamento, é escolhida a potência da explosão, dependendo do alvo a ser atingido. Ao contrário da B61 que cai verticalmente sobre o objectivo, a bomba nuclear B61-12 é lançada à distância e guiada por um sistema de satélite. Também tem a capacidade de penetrar no subsolo, mesmo através de betão armado, explodindo em profundidade para destruir os bunkers dos centros de comando e outras estruturas subterrâneas, de modo a “decapitar” o país inimigo num first strike = primeiro ataque nuclear.

O programa do Pentágono prevê a construção de cerca de 500 bombas nucleares B61-12, com um custo estimado em cerca de 10 biliões de dólares (de modo que cada bomba custará o dobro do que custaria se fosse inteiramente construída em ouro). O perigo dessa nova arma é salientado até mesmo pelo general James Cartwright, antigo Chefe do Comando Estratégico dos EUA, responsável pelas armas nucleares: “Armas nucleares de menor potência e maior precisão, aumentam a tentação de usá-las, até de usá-las primeiro, em vez de agir em retaliação”.

Fotografias de satélite mostram que foram efectuados trabalhos de restruturação para aumentar a “segurança” das bases de Aviano e Ghedi Torre, tendo em vista a instalação das bombas B61-12. Trabalhos semelhantes foram realizados na base aérea alemã de Buchel, em duas outras bases na Bélgica e na Holanda, e na base turca de Incirlic. A B61-12 pode ser lançada pelos caças F-16 e Tornado, mas, para obter toda a capacidade da bomba, são necessários aviões americanos equipados com sistemas digitais especiais: os caças F-35A, também fornecidos à Força Aérea Italiana.

O facto dos pilotos polacos também participarem no exercício de guerra nuclear da NATO, em Ghedi, pela primeira vez em 2014, indica que a B61-12 também será  instalada na Polónia e noutros países da Europa Oriental. Caças NATO de dupla funcionalidade, nuclear e convencional, já estão inseridos nas Repúblicas Bálticas, junto à Rússia.

Ao mesmo tempo, os EUA e a NATO estendem sobre a Europa,  o “escudo antimíssil”. Em Maio de 2016, na base aérea de Deveselu, na Roménia, é inaugurada a Aegis Ashore, a primeira instalação terrestre do sistema de mísseis Aegis dos Estados Unidos, no território europeu. O Secretário Geral da NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, agradece aos Estados Unidos porque, com esta instalação, “a primeira do seu género, com base em terra”, aumentam notavelmente a capacidade de “defender os aliados europeus contra os mísseis balísticos do exterior da área Euro-Atlântica”. Anuncia, então,  o início dos trabalhos para construir na Polónia, em 2018, outro Aegis Ashore semelhante ao que entrou em operação na Roménia. Às duas instalações terrestres juntam-se  quatro navios de guerra equipados com radares Aegis e mísseis SM-3 os quais, transportados pela U.S. Navy, na base espanhola de Rota, cruzam o Mediterrâneo, o Mar Negro e o Mar Báltico. A U.S. Navy já tem cerca de 30 navios desse tipo.

Tanto nas instalações nos navios, como nas instalações terrestres, os mísseis Aegis estão equipados com lançadores verticais Mk 41, da Lockheed Martin, ou seja, tubos verticais dos quais são lançados mísseis interceptores. É o chamado “escudo”, cuja função é, na realidade, ofensiva. Se os EUA pudessem construir um sistema confiável capaz de interceptar mísseis balísticos, poderiam manter a Rússia sob a ameaça de um first strike nuclear, confiando na capacidade do “escudo” poder neutralizar os efeitos de retaliação. Os lançadores verticais do “escudo”, além dos mísseis interceptores, também podem lançar outros mísseis. A própria Lockheed Martin aponta que este sistema é capaz de lançar “mísseis para todas as missões”, incluindo “os de ataque de longo alcance”, como “os mísseis de cruzeiro Tomahawk”. Estes podem ser armados com uma ogiva convencional (não nuclear) ou com uma ogiva nuclear.

Portanto, não é possível saber quais são os mísseis que, realmente, estão nos lançadores verticais das bases da Roménia e da Polónia e nos que estão a bordo dos navios que cruzam os limites das águas territoriais russas. Incapaz de controlar, Moscovo parte do princípio que também existem mísseis de ataque nuclear. O transporte de lançadores verticais Mk 41 perto do território russo viola o Tratado sobre Forças Nucleares Intermédias (INF), assinado pelos EUA e a URSS em 1987.

  1. USA e NATO afundam o Tratado INF

Os Estados Unidos anunciaram,  em Fevereiro de 2019, a “suspensão” do Tratado INF com a Rússia e a intenção de deixá-lo definitivamente dentro de seis meses. Portanto, sentem-se à vontade para testar e instalar armas da categoria proibida pelo Tratado: mísseis nucleares de alcance curto e intermédio (entre 500 e 5500 km), com base de lançamento em terra. O Pershing II e os mísseis de cruzeiro foram instalados na década de 1980 pelos EUA nos países europeus da NATO e o SS-20 instalado pela URSS no seu território, eliminados pelo Tratado sobre Forças Nucleares Intermédias (INF), assinado em 1987, pelos Presidentes Gorbachev e Reagan.

O Tratado INF foi posto em discussão por Washington, quando os Estados Unidos viram diminuir a sua vantagem estratégica sobre a Rússia e sobre a China. Em 2014, a Administração Obama, sem exibir qualquer prova, acusou a Rússia de ter experimentado um míssil de cruzeiro (9M729) da categoria proibida pelo Tratado e, em 2015, anunciou que “em face da violação do Tratado INF pelo Rússia, os Estados Unidos estão considerando a colocação de mísseis terrestres na Europa”. O plano foi confirmado pela Administração Trump: em 2018, o Congresso autorizou o financiamento de “um programa de pesquisa e desenvolvimento de um míssil de cruzeiro lançado do solo por uma plataforma móvel em estrada”. Por seu lado, Moscovo negou que o seu míssil de cruzeiro violasse o Tratado e, por sua vez, acusou Washington de ter instalado mísseis interceptores (os do “escudo”) na Polónia e na Roménia, que podem ser usados para lançar mísseis de cruzeiro com ogivas nucleares.

Neste contexto, deve ter-se em conta o factor geográfico: enquanto um míssil nuclear de alcance intermedio, instalado na Europa, pode atingir Moscovo, um míssil semelhante, colocado pela Rússia no seu território, pode atingir as capitais europeias, mas nunca Washington. Invertendo o cenário, é como se a Rússia dispusesse os seus mísseis nucleares de alcance intermédio no México.

O plano USA de abandonar o Tratado INF foi totalmente apoiado pelos aliados europeus da NATO. O Conselho do Atlântico Norte declarou, em 4 de Dezembro de 2018, que “o Tratado INF está em perigo devido às acções da Rússia”, acusada de estabelecer “um sistema de mísseis desestabilizadores”. O próprio Conselho do Atlântico Norte declarou ontem, “o seu apoio total à acção dos EUA de suspender as suas obrigações a respeito do Tratado INF” e intimou a Rússia a “empregar os seis meses restantes para regressar ao pleno cumprimento do Tratado”.

Para a ruína do Tratado INF também contribuiu a União Europeia que, na Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas, em 21 de Dezembro de 2018, votou contra a resolução apresentada pela Rússia sobre a “Preservação e observância do Tratado INF”, rejeitada por 46 votos. contra 43 e 78 abstenções. A União Europeia – da qual 21 dos 27 membros fazem parte da NATO (como faz parte a Grã-Bretanha, de saída da UE) – alinhou-se completamente com a posição da NATO que, por sua vez, se alinhou com a dos Estados Unidos. Portanto, na realidade, a União Europeia também deu luz verde à possível instalação de novos mísseis nucleares USA, na Europa, incluso, em Itália.Mais uma vez, é ignorada a advertência lançada pelo Presidente Vladimir Putin, em Fevereiro de 2019: “A Rússia será forçada a criar e instalar sistemas de armas que possam ser usados não somente contra os territórios de onde vem essa ameaça directa, mas também contra aqueles territórios onde estão localizados os centros de tomada de decisão, de onde pode vir a ordem de usar estas armas contra nós”. Por outras palavras, se os EUA instalarem mísseis nucleares de alcance intermédio, na Europa, apontados para a Rússia, a Rússia lançará mísseis nucleares destinados aos territórios europeus onde os mísseis norte-americanos são utilizados e, ao mesmo tempo, contra territórios dos EUA onde estão os centros de comando e controlo desses mísseis.

  1. O Império Americano do Ocidente lança a cartada da guerra

Um vasto arco de tensões e conflitos estende-se da Ásia Oriental à Ásia Central, do Médio Oriente à Europa, da África à America Latina. Os “pontos quentes” ao longo deste arco intercontinental – Península Coreana, Mar da China Meridional, Afeganistão, Síria, Iraque, Irão, Ucrânia, Líbia, Venezuela e outros – têm histórias e características geopolíticas diferentes, com factores específicos sócio-económicos internos, mas, ao mesmo tempo, estão ligados por um único factor: a estratégia com a qual os Estados Unidos da América procuram manter a sua posição de superpotência dominante.

Os Estados Unidos ainda são a primeira potência económica do mundo, sobretudo graças aos capitais e aos mecanismos com que dominam o mercado financeiro   global,às multinacionais com que exploram os recursos humanos e materiais de cada continente, à alta tecnologia e às patentes relacionadas na sua posse, ao papel penetrante dos seus grupos de multimedia que influenciam as opiniões e os gostos de biliões de utentes à escala planetária.

A sua supremacia é, no entanto, ameaçada pelo aparecimento de novos Estados e sujeitos sociais. A ser desafiado pela Rússia, pela China e por outros países, não é apenas o poder esmagador do petrodólar (moeda de reserva derivada da venda de petróleo), mas a própria hegemonia do dólar. O seu valor é determinado não pela capacidade económica real dos EUA, mas pelo facto de constituir quase dois terços das reservas monetárias mundiais e ser a moeda com a qual é estabelecido o preço do petróleo, do ouro e de outras matérias-primas nos mercados globais e das mercadorias em geral.

Isto permite que a Reserva Federal, o Banco Central (que é um banco privado), imprimam milhares de biliões de dólares com os quais é financiada a colossal dívida pública americana  – cerca de 23 triliões de dólares – através da compra de títulos e outros documentos emitidos pelo Tesouro. Nesse contexto, a decisão tomada pela Venezuela, em 2017, de libertar o preço do petróleo do dólar e vinculá-lo ao yuan chinês provoca um choque que faz tremer todo o palácio imperial fundado sobre o dólar. Se o exemplo da Venezuela se espalhasse, se o dólar deixasse de ser a moeda dominante do comércio internacional e das reservas cambiais, uma quantidade imensa de dólares seria colocada no mercado, reduzindo o valor da moeda norte-americana.

Washington olha com crescente preocupação, sobretudo para a parceria russo-chinesa: o intercâmbio entre os dois países está em forte crescimento; aumentam, ao mesmo tempo, os acordos de cooperação russo-chineses em energia, agricultura, aeronáutica, espaço e infraestrutura. O fornecimento de gás russo para a China através do novo gasoducto Sila Sibiri, a partir de 2019, abre o caminho para as exportações russas de energia para o Oriente, enquanto os EUA tentam bloquear o caminho para o Ocidente em direcção à Europa.

No Oriente Médio, além da intervenção militar que bloqueia o plano USA/NATO para demolir o Estado sírio, a Rússia usa instrumentos económicos, estipulando, em 2017, acordos com o Irão para a construção de infraestrutura ferroviária e energética, incluindo um gasoducto entre o Irão e a Índia, fortemente oposto pelos EUA. Washington responde com um movimento previamente acordado com Israel: o Presidente Trump ataca violentamente o Irão, acusando-o de violar “o espírito” do acordo nuclear de Teerão, em 2015, com o grupo 5 + 1 (EUA, Grã-Bretanha, França, Alemanha , China e Rússia). Apesar da própria Agência Internacional de Energia Atómica garantir que o Irão está cumprindo o acordo e que  não está a tentar fabricar armas nucleares, a questão é reaberta artificialmente, iniciando um processo perigoso com resultados imprevisíveis. O ataque de Washington é dirigido não apenas contra o Irão, mas contra a Rússia, que está a reafirmar a sua presença no Médio Oriente.

“Moscovo – escreve o The New York Times – tenta, através da gigantesca companhia petrolífera estatal, Rosneft, ganhar influência em lugares onde os Estados Unidos tropeçaram. Os seus esforços são devidos também, à necessidade, pois que as sanções americanas e europeias forçaram a Rosneft a encontrar novos parceiros e investimentos noutros lugares, em áreas turbulentas onde os interesses americanos estão em risco. A aposta maior para a Rosneft é a Venezuela. Em três anos, a Rússia e a Venezuela forneceram a Caracas, assistência financeira num total de 10 biliões de dólares, ajudando a Venezuela a evitar o default, sob um peso de um débito de 150 biliões de dólares. A Rússia está a usar cada vez mais o petróleo como instrumento bem como a espalhar a sua influência no mundo e a desafiar os interesses dos EUA”.

Um desafio crescente aos interesses dos EUA chega, simultaneamente, da China. O maior exportador de mercadorias do mundo, subiu, relativamente ao produto nacional bruto, para o segundo lugar no mundo, depois dos Estados Unidos, e registou taxas de crescimento económico mais altas do que as dos Estados Unidos. O projecto mais ambicioso, lançado pela China em 2013 e partilhado pela Rússia, é o da nova Rota da Seda: uma rede rodoviária e ferroviária entre a China e a Europa através da Ásia Central e Ocidental e através da Rússia, aproximadamente ao longo da rota da antiga Rota da Seda. O projecto, já em construção, prevê, juntamente com a rota terrestre, uma rota marítima pelo Oceano Índico, pelo Mar Vermelho e pelo Mediterrâneo. Para as infraestruturas rodoviárias e ferroviárias, que devem atravessar e ligar mais de 60 países, são esperados investimentos de mais de 1 bilião de dólares. O projecto, que não inclui componentes militares, não é simplesmente económico. Se fosse realizado de acordo com a ideia original, remodelaria a arquitectura geopolítica de toda a Eurásia, criando, com base na conveniência mútua, uma nova rede de relações económicas e políticas entre os Estados do continente.

O impulso para remodelar a ordem económica global não vem apenas dos grandes protagonistas  estatais, como a China e a Rússia, que querem um mundo que não seja mais unipolar, mas multipolar. Esse impulos chega, sob múltiplas formas e graus de consciência, de imensos sujeitos sociais, biliões de seres humanos que, em todos os continentes, sofrem as consequências da actual ordem económica global. Uma globalização económica centrada na procura do lucro máximo que, enquanto, por um lado, destroi as fronteiras para que o capital e os produtos possam circular livremente, por outro, estabelece outras fronteiras, invisíveis mas não menos concretas, que excluem a maioria da população mundial dos benefícios daquele crescimento económico. construído com os recursos humanos e com os materiais de todo o mundo. Este sistema cria, no mundo,  uma crescente polarização entre riqueza e pobreza. Mais de 85% da riqueza global (em termos de dinheiro e propriedades) está concentrada nas mãos de 8% da população adulta do mundo. Os restantes 92% possuem apenas 14% da riqueza global. Mais de 3 biliões e meio de pessoas, representando quase três quartos da população adulta global, têm um total de menos de 2,5% da riqueza global.

Mais de 2 biliões de pessoas em África, na Ásia e na América Latina, especialmente nas áreas rurais, vivem na pobreza ou, pelo menos, em condições de graves dificuldades económicas. Entre elas, cerca de um bilião estão em extrema pobreza, isto é, numa condição social caracterizada por desnutrição crónica,em situação de higiene e habitação desastrosas, alta incidência de doenças infecciosas e parasitárias, elevadda mortalidade, acima de tudo, nas crianças, curta duração de vida, analfabetismo, falta de poder de decisão, dependência, marginalização, vulnerabilidade e insegurança constante. Das aldeias da África subsaariana até às favelas da Ásia e da América Latina, os pobres experimentam o mesmo drama causado pelas mesmas causas de fundo.

É esta ordem económica global que os Estados Unidos procuram, por todos os meios, preservar e controlar. O objectivo estratégico perseguido por Washington é claro: remover qualquer Estado ou movimento político/social que possa prejudicar os interesses políticos, económicos e militares fundamentais dos Estados Unidos da América, colocando em risco a sua supremacia. Nesta estratégia, eles são apoiados pelas potências europeias da NATO e outras, como Israel e Japão, que, apesar de ter contrastes de interesses com os EUA, alinham-se sob a liderança dos EUA quando se trata de defender a ordem económica e política dominada pelo Ocidente. Não tendo a força económica para fazê-lo, os Estados Unidos e os seus aliados jogam, cada vez mais, a cartada da guerra.

Além das guerras propriamente ditas, Washington conduz, cada vez mais, “guerras não convencionais” através de “operações encobertas”, isto é, secretas. Ocupa-se disso a Comunidade de Inteligência/Serviços Secretos, formada por 17 organizações federais. Além da CIA (Agência Central de Inteligência), existe a DIA (Agência de Inteligência da Defesa), mas cada sector das Forças Armadas – Exército, Força Aérea, Marinha, Corpo de Fuzileiros Navais – tem seu próprio serviço secreto. O Departamento de Estado e o Departamento de Segurança Interna possuem-no. Entre esses serviços, em feroz competição entre si, a fim de obter apoio político e fundos federais, desempenha um papel primordial, a NSA (National Security Agency), especializada em intercepções telefónicas e informáticas, por meio das quais não são só espiados os inimigos, mas também os amigos dos EUA, como confirma o “datagate” suscitado pelas revelações do antigo contrante Edward Snowden.

As acções de campo são efectuadas pelo USSOCOM, o Comando das Forças Especiais, que possui dezenas de milhares de comandos dos quatro sectores das forças armadas. Conforme surge a partir de uma investigação do Washington Post, as forças das operações especiais estão instaladas em 75 países. O USSOCOM emprega, ao mesmo tempo, empresas militares privadas. Na área do Comando Central USA, que também inclui o Iraque e o Afeganistão, os contratantes do Pentágono são mais de 150.000. Adicionam-se os assumidos por outros departamentos e pelos exércitos aliados, cujo número é desconhecido, mas, de certeza que é elevado. Todos pertencem ao exército sombra privado, que apoia o exército oficial.

A tudo isto junta-se o “exército humanitário” formado por todas aquelas “organizações não-governamentais” que, dotadas de enormes meios, são utilizadas pela CIA e pelo Departamento de Estado para acções internas de desestabilização em nome da “defesa dos direitos dos cidadãos”. No mesmo âmbito, enquadra-se a acção do grupo Bilderberg – que o magistrado Ferdinando Imposimato denunciou como “um dos líderes da estratégia de tensão e massacres” em Itália – e da Open Society do “investidor e filantropo George Soros”, criador das “Revoluções coloridas”.

Os Estados Unidos – que desde 1945 causaram com suas guerras e golpes de Estado, mais de 20 a 30 milhões de mortos (mais outras de centenas de milhões causadas pelos efeitos indirectos de tais acções) – estão dispostos a fazer qualquer coisa para preservar a sua superioridade militar, sobre a qual baseiam o seu império, que se está a desmoronar com o surgimento de um mundo multipolar. No âmbito desta estratégia, as decisões políticas são tomadas antes de tudo pelo “Estado Profundo/Deep State”, um centro subterrâneo do verdadeiro poder detido pelas oligarquias económicas, financeiras e militares americanas.

  1. O sistema de guerra planetária USA/NATO

Na «geografia do Pentágono», o mundo está dividido em «áreas de responsabilidade», cada uma confiada a um dos seis Comandos Combatentes Unificados dos Estados Unidos: O Comando Norte, cobre a América do Norte; o Comando Sul, o Centro e a América do Sul; o Comando Europeu, a região que compreende a Europa e toda a Rússia; o Comando África, o continente africano (salvo o Egipto, que se agrupa no Comando Central); o Comando Central, o Mediterrâneo e a Ásia Central; o Comando Pacífico, a região da Ásia/Pacífico.

Cada um dos Comandos Combatentes Unificados é composto por comandos de diversos componentes das Forças Armadas USA,  naquela área. Por exemplo, o Comando Europeu dos Estados Unidos é formado por: Exército USA na Europa, Forças Aéreas USA na Europa, Forças Navais USA na Europa, Forças Marines USA na Europa, Comando de Operações Especiais USA na Europa. O comando de cada força está articulado, por sua vez, numa série de sub-comandos e unidades. Por exemplo, o Exército USA, na Europa, tem 22.

Aos seis comandos geográficos juntam-se-lhes  três comandos operativos à escala global: o Comando Estratégico, responsável pelas forças nucleares terrestres, aéreas e navais, das operações militares no espaço e espaço cibernético, do ataque global, da guerra electrónica e da defesa dos mísseis; o Comando para as Operações Especiais, com um comando específico em cada uma das seis áreas mais um na Coreia, responsável pela guerra não-convencional, pelas operações contra revoluções, pela operações psicológicas e por quaisquer outras missões ordenadas pelo Presidente ou pelo Secretário da Defesa; o Comando para o Transporte, responsável pela mobilidade dos soldados e armamentos por terra, ar e mar, a nível mundial.

Os Estados Unidos da América são o único país a ter uma presença militar à escala global, em cada continente e região do mundo. O Pentágono é directamente proprietário de 4.800 bases e outras instalações militares, quer nos USA, quer no estrangeiro, compreendendo 560.000 edifícios e estruturas (tipo estruturas ferroviárias, oleoductos e pistas de aeroportos). Segundo os dados oficiais do Pentágono, os Estados Unidos têm cerca de 800 bases e outras instalações militares em mais de 70 países, sobretudo em volta da Rússia e da China, muitas mais em uso ou secretas. Essas bases servem para uma rotação contínua de forças, que são aumentadas rapidamente com as transferidas das bases dos Estados Unidos, para concentrá-las em determinados teatros bélicos. Os países em que são distribuídas tropas americanas, compreendendo aqueles que não têm bases militares, são mais de 170. Entre militares, empregados civis e familiares, o Pentágono mantém permanentemente no estrangeiro cerca de meio milhão de cidadãos americanos.

Na peugada dos Estados Unidos move-se a NATO, a aliança sob o comando USA que agora não tem mais fronteiras. Na Europa – depois de se ter estendido para a área do antigo Pacto de Varsóvia, da antiga URSS e da antiga Jugoslávia – está a absorver a Ucrânia. Na Ásia Central, a NATO está a incorporar a Geórgia que, já integrada nas suas operações, é candidata a tornar-se membro pleno da Aliança. A NATO também continua a “aprofundar a cooperação” com o Cazaquistão, Quirguistão, Tadjiquistão, Turcomenistão e Uzbequistão, para combater a União Económica da Eurásia (que inclui a Rússia, Bielorrússia, Cazaquistão, Arménia e Quirguistão). Também permanece empenhada no Afeganistão, país de grande importância geoestratégica nas fronteiras da Rússia e da China.

Na Ásia Ocidental, a NATO continua a operação militar encoberta contra a Síria e prepara outras (o Irão está sempre na mira). Ao mesmo tempo, está a fortalecer a parceria (testada na guerra contra a Líbia) com quatro monarquias do Golfo – Bahrein, Emirados Árabes Unidos, Kuwait, Qatar – e cooperação militar com a Arábia Saudita que está a matar no Iémen com bombas de fragmentação fornecidas pelos EUA. Na Ásia Oriental, a NATO concluiu com o Japão um acordo estratégico que “amplia e aprofunda a longa parceria”, que se une a um acordo semelhante com a Austrália, em função anti-chinesa e anti-russa. Com a mesma finalidade, os principais países da NATO (incluindo a Itália) participam a cada dois anos, no Pacífico, naquilo que o comando da Frota USA designa como “o maior exercício marítimo do mundo”. Em África, depois de demolir a Líbia, a NATO está a aumentar a assistência militar à União Africana, a quem também fornece “planeamento e transporte naval”, dentro da estrutura estratégica do Comando da África dos Estados Unidos. Na América Latina, a NATO assinou um “Acordo de Segurança” com a Colômbia, que, já recrutada nos programas militares da Aliança (entre os quais, a formação de forças especiais), se tornou “o primeiro parceiro da NATO na América Latina”. Portanto, a NATO tem influência e autoridade no plano subversivo contra a República Bolivariana da Venezuela.

  1. Para sair do sistema de guerra da NATO

Enquanto a aceleração dos conflitos em curso faz aumentar o risco de uma grande guerra que, com o uso de armas nucleares e de outras armas de destruição em massa, colocaria em risco a própria existência da Humanidade e do Planeta Terra, é de importância vital,  multiplicar esforços para sair do sistema de guerra. Isto levanta a questão da adesão da Itália à NATO.

Há quem diga que se pode permanecer na NATO mantendo a sua autonomia de escolha, ou seja, tendo a possibilidade de decidir de vez em quando no Parlamento nacional se participa ou não, de uma iniciativa específica da Aliança Atlântica. Ilusão ou muito pior. No Conselho do Atlântico Norte, segundo estabelecem as regras da NATO, “não há voto nem decisão maioritária”, mas “as decisões são tomadas por unanimidade e por mútuo acordo”, isto é, de acordo com os Estados Unidos da América a quem pertence, por direito, a posição de Comandante Supremo Aliado na Europa e outros comandos importantes, incluindo o do Grupo de Planeamento Nuclear.

No grande espetáculo mediático da política, mágicos e acrobatas lançam apelos para um mundo sem armas nucleares, ou seja, para algo que actualmente é impossível, mas nada fazem para alcançar o que hoje seria possível: uma batalha política decisiva para libertar a Itália de armas nucleares, que não servem à nossa segurança, mas que  nos expõem a riscos acrescidos. É o único modo, através do qual, em Itália, se pode realmente contribuir para desarmar a escalada que leva à guerra nuclear, concretizando um verdadeiro passo em direcção à eliminação total das armas nucleares.

Para fazê-lo, precisamos lutar em campo aberto para que a Itália cesse de violar o Tratado de Não-Proliferação que ratificou, forçando os Estados Unidos a remover imediatamente as suas armas nucleares do nosso território nacional e, ao mesmo tempo, para que a Itália libertando-se, adira ao Tratado das Nações Unidas sobre a proibição de armas nucleares.

Os princípios da nossa Constituição e os verdadeiros interesses nacionais tornam, ao mesmo tempo, indispensável a remoção do nosso território nacional não só das armas nucleares, mas das bases USA e NATO sob o comando dos EUA. Por outras palavras, deve-se infringir o Grande Tabu que domina o mundo político e institucional, indicando claramente o objectivo a ser alcançado: a saída da Itália da NATO e a saída da NATO da Itália, para contribuir para a dissolução da Aliança Atlântica e de qualquer outra aliança militar. Objectivo considerado louco para quem vê a Aliança Atlântica como algo sagrado e intocável; considerado perigoso por aqueles que sabem que, colocando-se contra a NATO, colocam em risco a sua carreira política; considerado impossível para aqueles que pensam que uma Itália soberana e neutra não pode existir.

Os obstáculos que se interpõem para alcançar este objectivo são enormes. O Poder dominante baseia a sua força não apenas em instrumentos políticos, económicos e militares, mas no controlo das mentes, tornado possível por um aparelho mediático que, sobretudo através da televisão, induz a acreditar que só existe o que se vê e  não existe o que não se vê. O controlo das mentes por meio do aparelho mediático dominante permite, por um lado, tranquilizar a opinião pública, escondendo as ameaças reais, e, por outro, alarmá-la, fazendo aparecer hologramas de inimigos perigosos, para assim justificar políticas de rearmamento, operações militares e guerras, justificando ao mesmo tempo uma despesa militar que, em Itália, chega a cerca de 70 milhões de euros por dia e, de acordo com os compromissos assumidos na NATO, terá de subir para cerca de 100 milhões de euros por dia. E, sempre em função do controlo da mente, cria-se o espetáculo daqueles que, após terem apoiado as guerras que demoliram Estados inteiros (o último, o Estado da Líbia)tendo provocado êxodos maciços dramáticos, estão hoje na primeira fila para acolher de braços abertos, as vítimas dessas mesmas guerras.

Portanto, a grande maioria não sabe nada ou quase nada sobre os mecanismos que determinam a cada vez mais rápida escalada da guerra, tornando ainda mais real o cenário da terceira (e última) guerra mundial – a guerra termonuclear. É falado em pequenos círculos de “insiders”, em “salas cinzentas” (com referência à cor do cabelo) das quais os jovens estão praticamente ausentes. Trata-se de sair do armário, encontrar modos  e linguagens para fazer as pessoas conpreenderem que o tempo se está a esgotar, que é absolutamente necessário mover-se enquanto estamos a tempo. O que devemos fazer está nas mãos de cada um de nós.

Em face do perigo iminente, devemos demonstrar que ainda existe uma Itália que se lembra, não apenas por palavras, da sua própria Constituição; uma Itália para a qual a palavra “soberania” não é apenas um termo de uso para mudança política; uma Itália que se recusa a permanecer enjaulada numa aliança que, sob comando estrangeiro, nos prejudica e nos leva à catástrofe; uma Itália capaz de sair da visão anti-histórica de um Ocidente arreigado na defesa da sua supremacia; uma Itália capaz de desempenhar um papel activo na construção de um mundo multipolar no qual se concretizam as aspirações dos povos à liberdade e à justiça social, baseadas na Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos.

 

Texto nas línguas siguientes :

DANSK DEUTSCH ENGLISH ESPAÑOL  FRANÇAIS ITALIANO  NEDERLANDS
PORTUGUÊS ROMÎNA SLOVENSKÝ SVENSKA TÜRKÇE РУССКИЙ

GRUPO DE TRABALHO:

Francesco Cappello, Giulietto Chiesa, Franco Dinelli, Manlio Dinucci, Berenice Galli, Germana Leoni von Dohnanyi, Jeff Hoffman, Giuseppe Padovano, Marie-Ange Patrizio, Jean Toschi M. Visconti, Luisa Vasconcelos, Fernando Zolli

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  • Posted in Português
  • Comments Off on Os 70 Anos aa NATO: De Guerra em Guerra

Displaced Syrians in refugee camps in Jordan continue to return to their country through Nassib – Jaber border crossing after their towns and villages were cleaned from the US-sponsored terrorists..

Yesterday’s batch of returning families was mostly of women and children which arrived at noon time to Nassib border crossing on the Syrian side of the borders with Jordan.

Syrian authorities at the crossing rushed to provide basic services for the refugees and arranged for buses and trucks to return them to their respective towns and villages with their belongings.

One of the returned refugees Mr. Talal Juma is from Rigga city, the town that the US and its ‘coalition’ obliterated from life and claimed it liberated it, Mr. Juma spoke to SANA: ‘Today is like a dream coming true, it’s been 7 long years and now thanks to the heroes of the Syrian Armed Forces and their allies safety and security is being restored to our country and our return was possible’.

Mr. Juma called on all displaced Syrians abroad to pack and return to their country, he added: ‘There’s nothing that would preserve your dignity other than your home country.’

Mr. Ahmad Abu from Souran town in Hama countryside also called on his fellow Syrians displaced abroad to return to their country, he spent 5 years in Jordan away from home and almost felt life had no more meaning for him.

Earlier this month, on 4th of April, another batch of 150 displaced Syrians returned from al-Azraq refugee camp in Jordan through Nassib – Jaber border crossing and received the same assistance and services from the authorities including medical check-ups, ambulance, buses and trucks to carry them to their towns and villages with their belongings.

Following video report by SANA and interviews with some of the returning refugees:


Video transcript in English:

A new batch of displaced Syrians returned today from refugee camps in Jordan through Nassib – Jaber Border Crossing on their way to return to their towns and villages which were liberated from terror.

Smelling my nation’s breeze is alone enough, in God’s will safety and security will prevail and they’ll return, it’s enough.

We will rebuild the country and remain one hand shoulder by shoulder

Is there anything more wonderful than returning to our homeland? To our families? All should return to their country, after your country, there’s nothing of value.

If you go around the whole world you won’t find like your homeland.

We wanted to return to our homeland since a long while, but thanks God now safety and security is restored in our country

Our beloved Syria, there’s nothing like its soil, nothing like it anywhere else.

The person’s dignity is in his home country.

End of video transcript.

Syrian Refugees Returning from Jordan through Nassib Border Crossing
Syrian Refugees Returning Home – Archive (December 2018)

Colonel Mazen Ghandour, chief of Nassib Immigration Center, stated to SANA that 18,500 displaced Syrians have returned to their country through the crossing since it was cleaned from terror and reopened in October last year.

Colonel Ghandour added: ‘The authorities are always available to provide instant support and all needed services to the returning refugees and arrange their safe return to their respective towns and villages.’

Syrians are returning to their country despite the hardships caused by the ever-increasing unprecedented sanctions by the USA and its cronies, what the US and its evil camp couldn’t achieve in their War Of Terror they waged against Syria over more than 8 years, they will not achieve by any sort of sanctions.

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The public interest, and democratic political economies, both domestic and internationally, are poison to Empire. But this must be hidden from view, hence war propaganda/fake news is protected by legislation, while Constitutionally-protected, evidence-based real journalism, a dying phenomenon, continues to be attacked.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution, adopted on December 15, 1791,

“prevents the government from making laws which respect an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.” [1]

However, the Constitution is under constant assault by US oligarch[2] ruling classes.

Freedom of the press has been negated by ruling class monopoly ownership and pervasive propaganda. Criminal propaganda is protected while “freedoms of speech” are under constant assault.

The fakery of the news stories is protected by (unconstitutional) laws embedded in the National Defense Authorization Act which blur the lines between reality and spectacle. In an earlier article I wrote,

According to an amendment to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the House Bill H.R 5736 (now law), the federal government of the United States can now legally propagandize the domestic public.

Arguably, this makes staged theatrical presentations, featuring crisis-actors, and purporting to be ‘reality’, legal.

And, as if that isn’t enough, Don North writes in “US/NATO Embrace Psy-ops and Info-War” that,

“As reflected in a recent NATO conference in Latvia and in the Pentagon’s new ‘Law of War’ manual, the U.S. government has come to view the control and manipulation of information as a ‘soft power’ weapon, merging psychological operations, propaganda and public affairs under the catch phrase ‘strategic communications.’ “[3]

The Espionage Act[4] also contradicts the US Constitution, but it is being invoked with regard to the indictment against Julian Assange.

Ubiquitous classification of information beneath the mantle of “National Security” serves to sustain the illusion that Empire serves the public interest. Hence, as author and veteran journalist Naomi Wolf asserts, whistleblowers are necessary, as is the transmission of their leaks. This, she says, has been journalism practice for years. It is what real journalists are supposed to do.

The Daniel Ellsbergs and Chelsea Mannings of the world are necessary — Ellsberg is now considered to be a hero.  The Assanges of the world who transmit the truth are also necessary.

If the Espionage Act, the NDAA, and other legislation were to completely displace the U.S Constitution and its First Amendment, then the prospect of real journalism would finally be extinguished. And ruling classes feigning concern for the public interest would be delighted.

In the following video, Wolf walks us through the indictment[5] against Assange and demonstrates the paucity of evidence against him in the government’s on-going efforts to frame him and destroy the messenger with a view to protecting the Supreme International War Criminals currently guiding the Neo-con Imperial Shipwreck.

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Mark Taliano is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and the author of Voices from Syria, Global Research Publishers, 2017.

Notes

[1] Wikipedia, “First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) Accessed 18 April, 2019.

[2] Daniel Kreps, “Jimmy Carter: U.S. Is an ‘Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery.’ “ (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jimmy-carter-u-s-is-an-oligarchy-with-unlimited-political-bribery-63262/) Accessed 18 April, 2019.

[3] Mark Taliano, “Fake threats and engineered fears.” 16 July, 2016. (https://ahtribune.com/politics/1073-engineered-fears.html?fbclid=IwAR0qHlFivL8c1QIqMxZsiQO43qYN0R-ITQCPa9jUXAWjU9v8_LjzMFiGlJE) Accessed 18 April, 2019.

[4] Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, “18 U.S. Code CHAPTER 37—ESPIONAGE AND CENSORSHIP.” (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-37) Accessed 18 April, 2019.

[5] “In The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, United States of America v. Julian Paul Assange.” 6 March, 2018. (https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1153481/download) Accessed 18 April, 2019.


Order Mark Taliano’s Book “Voices from Syria” directly from Global Research.

Mark Taliano combines years of research with on-the-ground observations to present an informed and well-documented analysis that refutes  the mainstream media narratives on Syria. 

Voices from Syria 

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EU Rejects Israeli Claim to Syrian Golan

April 18th, 2019 by IMEMC

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has once again expressed the 28-nation bloc’s disapproval of the Israeli regime’s claim of “sovereignty” to Syria’s Golan Heights and other Tel Aviv-occupied territories.

Speaking at the plenary session of the European Parliament, in the French city of Strasbourg, on Tuesday, Mogherini stressed that the EU’s position on the status of Golan “has not changed.”

“The EU has a very simple and clear position,” she said. “The EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over any of the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, in line with international law and with UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 497. And this also applies to the Golan Heights.”

The EU’s top diplomat also noted, according to the PNN, that she had already issued a declaration on behalf of all the 28 member states and clarified their stance on the Golan Heights.

Additionally, she said, the five EU member states of the UN Security Council – including the UK, France, Germany, Belgium and Poland – had expressed the bloc’s common position on Golan in a joint stake-out.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the closing stages of its 1967 Six-Day War with Arab countries, which also saw the regime occupy the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds and the Gaza Strip.

Tel Aviv unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, in a move not recognized internationally.

Syria has repeatedly reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, saying the territory must be completely restored to its control.

On March 25, US President Donald Trump signed a decree recognizing Israeli “sovereignty” over the occupied Golan at the start of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington.

Trump’s controversial policy shift came over a year after the hawkish US president recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and transferred Washington’s embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Palestinian city.

Emboldened by Trump’s highly anti-Palestine agenda, Netanyahu has talked of plans to annex the occupied Palestinian region of the West Bank.

Illegal settlement activities

Elsewhere in her speech, Mogherini complained that Israel’s settlement construction activities in the occupied Palestinian lands were eroding any prospect of a two-state solution.

After a recent announcement by Israel to build 4,600 new settler units, the EU emphasized that it considered

“all settlement activity illegal under international law, and that settlements erode the viability of the two-state solution,” she said.

“And in fact, the two-state solution is not only fading away. It is being dismantled piece by piece,” she added, warning that abandoning the solution would bring greater chaos, not only to the occupied territories but also to the entire Middle East.

Israel has over the past months stepped up its settlement construction activities in the occupied lands in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built illegally since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian lands.

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Important events have occurred in the Middle East and North Africa in recent weeks that underline how the overall political reconfiguration of the region is in full swing. The Shia axis continues its diplomatic relations and, following Rouhani’s meeting in Baghdad, it was the turn of Adil Abdul-Mahdi to be received in Tehran by the highest government and religious authorities. Among the many statements released, two in particular reveal the high level of cooperation between the two countries, as well as demonstrating how the Shia axis is in full bloom, carrying significant prospects for the region. Abdul-Mahdi also reiterated that Iraq will not allow itself to be used as a platform from which to attack Iran:

“Iraqi soil will not be allowed to be used by foreign troops to launch any attacks against Iran. The plan is to export electricity and gas for other countries in the region.”

Considering that these two countries were mortal enemies during Saddam Hussein’s time, their rapprochement is quite a (geo)political miracle, owing much of its success to Russia’s involvement in the region. The 4+1 coalition (Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria plus Hezbollah) and the anti-terrorism center in Baghdad came about as a result of Russia’s desire to coordinate all the allied parties in a single front. Russia’s military support of Syria, Iraq and Hezbollah (together with China’s economic support) has allowed Iran to begin to transform the region such that the Shia axis can effectively counteract the destabilizing chaos unleashed by the trio of the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

One of the gaps to be filled in the Shia axis lies in Lebanon, which has long experienced an internal conflict between the many religious and political currents in the country. The decision by Washington to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel pushed the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, to make an important symbolic visit to Moscow to meet with President Putin.

Once again, the destabilizing efforts of the Saudis, Israelis and Americans are having the unintended effect of strengthening the Shia axis. It seems that this trio fails to understand how such acts as murdering Khashoggi, using civilian planes to hide behind in order to conduct bombing runs in Syria, recognizing the occupied territories like the Golan Heights – how these produce the opposite effects to the ones desired.

The supply of S-300 systems to Syria after the downing of the Russian reconnaissance plane took place as a result of Tel Aviv failing to think ahead and anticipate how Russia may respond.

What is surprising in Moscow’s actions is the versatility of its diplomacy, from the deployment of the S-300s in Syria, or the bombers in Iran, to the prompt meetings with Netanyahu in Moscow and Mohammad bin Salman at the G20. The ability of the Russian Federation to mediate and be present in almost every conflict on the globe restores to the country the international stature that is indispensable in counterbalancing the belligerence of the United States.

The main feature of Moscow’s approach is to find areas of common interest with its interlocutor and to favor the creation of trade or knowledge exchange. Another military and economic example can be found in a third axis; not the Shia or Saudi-Israeli-US one but the Turkish-Qatari one. In Syria, Erdogan started from positions that were exactly opposite to those of Putin and Assad. But with decisive military action and skilled diplomacy, the creation of the Astana format between Iran, Turkey and Russia made Turkey and Qatar publicly take the defense of Islamist takfiris and criminals in Idlib. Qatar for its part has a two-way connection with Turkey, but it is also in open conflict with the Saudi-Israeli axis, with the prospect of abandoning OPEC within a few weeks. This situation has allowed Moscow to open a series of negotiations with Doha on the topic of LNG, with these two players controlling most of the LNG on the planet. It is evident that also the Turkish-Qatari axis is strongly conditioned by Moscow and by the potential military agreements between Turkey and Russia (sale of S-400) and economic and energy agreements between Moscow and Doha.

America’s actions in the region risks combining the Qatari-Turkish front with the Shia axis, again thanks to Moscow’s skilful diplomatic work. The recent sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, together with the withdrawal from the JCPOA (the Iranian nuclear agreement), has created concern and bewilderment in the region and among Washington’s allies. The act of recognizing the occupied Golan Heights as belonging to Israel has brought together the Arab world as few events have done in recent times. Added to this, Trump’s open complaints about OPEC’s high pricing of oil has forced Riyadh to start wondering out aloud whether to start selling oil in a currency other than the dollar. This rumination was quickly denied, but it had already been aired. Such a decision would have grave implications for the petrodollar and most of the financial and economic power of the United States.

If the Shia axis, with Russian protection, is strengthened throughout the Middle East, the Saudi-Israel-American triad loses momentum and falls apart, as seen in Libya, with Haftar now one step closer in unifying the country thanks to the support of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France and Russia, with Fayez al-Sarraj now abandoned by the Italians and Americans awaiting his final defeat.

While the globe continues its multipolar transformation, the delicate balancing role played by Russia in the Middle East and North Africa is emphasized. The Venezuelan foreign minister’s recent visit to Syria shows how the front opposed to US imperialist bullying is not confined to the Middle East, with countries in direct or indirect conflict with Washington gathering together under the same protective Sino-Russian umbrella.

Trump’s “America First” policy, coupled with the conviction of American exceptionalism, is driving international relations towards two poles rather than multipolar ones, pushing China, Russia and all other countries opposed to the US to unite in order to collectively resist US diktats.

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Federico Pieraccini is an independent freelance writer specialized in international affairs, conflicts, politics and strategies. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from SCF

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The “Original Sin”!

April 18th, 2019 by Massoud Nayeri

In every struggle for Peace and Justice, there are critical moments that can change the outcome of that struggle. These days are so crucial to save the Body and Mind of two great humble human beings who are under immense barbaric treatment by their captors. Their voices have been silenced by illegal arrests and since then have been denied any contact with the outside world. Wherever we are, we must feel their pain and at this moment be their voices.

In the U.S., the Democratic and Republican Administrations already have introduced a dreadful detention system like Guantanamo Bay to justify and normalize their torturous techniques in breaking down the spirit of their detainees. The submissive U.K. “leaders” without any legal permission or logical reason have detained Julian Assange in their own “GITMO” Belmarsh Prison. This notorious prison in London poses grave concerns about the wellbeing of Julian Assange.

Today, we must increase our efforts to save Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange and make their freedom possible. We have the right to know about the health of our loved ones behind bars. The right of visitation for people in detention is a minimum demand that every civilized nation must accommodate. A delegation of immediate families members, the families of the Iraqi victims, doctors, lawyers, journalists and supporters should have the right to visit Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange.

Let’s not forget: the “Original Sin” mainly was the publication of a video about how a series of air-to-ground attacks conducted by a team of two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah in Iraq killing innocent civilians while they were laughing and shooting.

Free Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange NOW!

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Massoud Nayeri is a graphic designer and an independent peace activist based in the United States. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from the author

An affidavit unsealed by US prosecutors on Monday has underscored the unlawful character of the Trump administration’s request that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be extradited to the US in the wake of his illegal expulsion from Ecuador’s London embassy and arrest by the British police last Thursday.

The affidavit was made by Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) special agent Megan Brown on December 21, 2017, in support of two charges which had been secretly filed against Assange, under her name.

The charges accuse Assange of participating in a “conspiracy” with whistleblower Chelsea Manning to gain unauthorised access to a US government computer.

Brown’s document demonstrates that the Trump administration does not have a legal case against Assange that would withstand judicial scrutiny in the US, or in any other country that claims to be a democracy. It brands the US extradition request as a pseudo-legal fig leaf for an extraordinary rendition operation, aimed at silencing a publisher, for his lawful journalistic activities.

The sole “evidence” against Assange is chat logs, in the possession of the US government, which Brown and US prosecutors claim are of online conversations between the WikiLeaks founder and Chelsea Manning.

Brown’s affidavit, and the charge sheet, do not provide any direct evidence that the person Manning was speaking to was Assange.

The “case” against Assange is that Manning, and whoever she was allegedly conversing with in March 2010, discussed cracking a “hash,” or password, that would have allowed her to access US Defence Department material on an account that was not her own.

Manning, as a US army intelligence analyst, had access to the material that she leaked to WikiLeaks. She had already leaked thousands of documents, including the US army’s Afghan and Iraq war logs. The only purpose of accessing the password would have been to help protect her identity.

Brown’s affidavit indicates that the password was never cracked. It quotes Manning, allegedly asking, “any more hints about the IM hash?” The person Manning was conversing with replied: “No luck so far.” Brown then stated:

“There is no other evidence as to what Assange did, if anything, with respect to the password.”

Brown also draws attention to portions of the chat logs, in which Manning and her interlocutor discuss the contents of material she had read and leaked to WikiLeaks.

All of the substantive material in the affidavit has been in the possession of the US authorities since at least 2011, following Manning’s arrest the previous year.

The Obama administration viciously pursued Assange and convened a secret Grand Jury to concoct charges against him. It did not, however, press charges over the alleged conversation logs, in an apparent recognition that such a prosecution would violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment freedom of the press protections.

As one of Assange’s US based lawyers, Barry Pollack, stated this week:

“Encouraging sources to provide information, and using methods to protect their identity, are common practices by all journalists.”

Another of Assange’s lawyers, Jennifer Robinson, noted that the material showed “the kinds of communications journalists have with sources all the time.”

Brown’s affidavit demonstrates that the Trump administration is using the case against Assange to try and prevent journalists from speaking to any sources within the US state apparatus, who wish to disclose evidence of American imperialism’s criminal operations domestically and around the world.

The affidavit declares that WikiLeaks “solicited submissions of classified, censored, or otherwise restricted information,” as though there was something illegitimate about this centuries-long journalistic practice.

It stated that Assange “never possessed a security clearance or need to know” and was “prohibited from receiving classified information of the United States.” This line alone brands the indictment against Assange as a frontal assault on freedom of the press in the US and internationally.

Significantly, Brown’s affidavit condemns Assange for WikiLeaks’ publication of information that they “had reason to believe would cause injury to the United States.”

This is nothing less than a call to establish a legal precedent that journalists must function as de facto agents of the government, including by suppressing truthful information that is in the public interest.

Source: WSWS

The documents referenced in that section of the affidavit are the Iraq and Afghan war logs. Those publications exposed, for the first time, the extent of the war crimes carried out by US occupying forces in both countries.

The Iraq war logs documented the deaths of almost 110,000 people, including more than 66,000 people labelled by the US military as civilians. This included 15,000 civilian deaths, which were known to the US authorities, but publicly suppressed.

The war logs from both countries demonstrated that torture was a common practice for the US and its proxies. They documented extra-judicial killings and the cover-up of war crimes extending to the highest levels of military command.

The affidavit further demonstrates that it is for exposing these historic crimes, as a journalist and publisher, that Assange has been pursued and charged by the US government.

It is warning that if Assange is extradited to the US, espionage and other charges, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty, will likely be added to his charge sheet. Brown indicated that she became involved in the investigation against Assange, after having been assigned to an FBI “counter-espionage squad” in Washington.

The timeline presented by Brown, also provides new evidence of the motives behind the stepped-up US pursuit of Assange.

She began working with the “counter-espionage squad” targeting Assange in February 2017, the same month WikiLeaks announced that it was preparing to release a massive trove of documents from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), dubbed Vault 7.

The documents, published over March 2017, were the most extensive exposure of the criminal methods of the CIA in more than 30 years.

They detailed the activities of a secretive division within the agency, tasked with hacking computers all over the world. The documents demonstrated that the division had developed techniques to hack into computer systems and leave “tell-tale” markers, attributing the attacks to other countries, including Russia and Iran.

Vault 7 revealed that the agency was spying on people through smart televisions and other household devices. The CIA was also seeking to develop capabilities to remotely take control of the computer systems in modern cars. Such abilities could be used in assassination operations.

The US government response to the exposures was apoplectic. In April 2017, CIA director Mike Pompeo declared that Assange was a “demon” and that WikiLeaks was a “non-state hostile intelligence service” without any first amendment rights.

The same month, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said arresting Assange was a “priority.” He told a news conference:

“We’ve already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail.”

Just weeks before Pompeo and Sessions made their statements, the corrupt Ecuadorian regime of President Lenín Moreno, acting at the behest of Washington, cut-off all of Assange’s communications and his internet access, in its London embassy.

In court testimony last October, challenging the Ecuadorian government’s attempts to isolate and gag him, Assange explained that the escalating attacks against him had resulted from the publication of Vault 7.

Brown’s affidavit, and the timing of the 2017 investigation into WikiLeaks, demonstrate the urgency of transforming the immense support that exists for Assange among workers, students and young people, into a mass political movement to secure his freedom.

Everything must be done to prevent the extradition of the courageous journalist to the US, where he would be at the mercy of the CIA torturers and war criminals he has done so much to expose.

The Socialist Equality Party (Australia) is demanding that the Australian government end its collaboration in the US-led vendetta against Assange, an Australian citizen, and immediately use its undeniable legal discretion and diplomatic powers to secure his release from Britain and return to Australia, with a guarantee against extradition to the US.

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The silence is almost deafening. Is it the quiet before the storm? – Or is the US giving up on Venezuela? I don’t think so. It’s more like a regrouping after a first defeat, well, it’s a multiple defeat, if we start counting since the failed coup attempt against Hugo Chavez on 11 April 2002.

However, Washington is not giving up. The first blows come flying. Pompeo to Maduro – open your borders for humanitarian aid, or else…. which implies the usual, “all options are on the table – ’humanitarian’ military intervention is an option”.

Washington – April 10, 2019, high level US and South American (members of the infamous and nefarious Lima Group, naturally) politicians and military held a secret meeting about the strategic next steps to subdue Venezuela, how to “regime-change” the Maduro Government, by ‘military options’, as reported by investigative journalist Max Blumenthal. The meeting was dubbed ‘Assessing the Use of Military Force in Venezuela.’ It was hosted by the DC-based neoliberal thinktank the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, denounces Trump’s preparations for war to the entire UN community. The UN Community is increasingly taking note of the atrocities and lawlessness of the one rogue UN member that has the arrogance of thinking and acting as if it were above the law, above every law, even the laws made by its own lawmakers, the United States of America. In the context of the failed coup attempt on Venezuela, a group of about 60 UN members formed, including Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran and many more, representing about half of the world population, in support of Venezuela and especially in support of the UN Charter. The group requests and will enhance actions for UN members to respect the UN principles, the laws and rules upon which the United Nations were created almost 75 years ago. This is a new twist within the UN body.

On 11 April, US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, met in Washington with 16 ministers of finance and representatives of 20 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Portugal, Peru, Spain, and the UK) – to enhance the support of some 50 countries of the self-declared president Juan Guaidó, and how to support Venezuela, once the Maduro Government “is gone”. – Hilarious, if it wasn’t so serious.  It is as if these, otherwise smart people, were falling into the trap of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister – if a lie is repeated enough, it becomes the truth. Indeed, there is no other country in recent history that emulates Hitler and his approaches to world dominance by manipulation as well as Washington. And indeed, it is not quite clear, who was teaching whom.

Image result for delcy rodriguez

Venezuela’s Vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, denounces the preparation of a military intervention in Venezuela by the US, Colombia and Brazil. She warns the world from a humanitarian disaster if the global community, allows the United States and its minions to interfere in Venezuela.

Mexico’s new President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), also vehemently rejects any interference in Venezuela – and offers his Government’s services to mediate a dialogue between the Maduro Government and the opposition, a dialogue to which President Maduro has invited the opposition already many times. To no avail. Mostly because the orders from Washington are clear, no dialogue – no compromise, the Maduro Government must be go.

We will inject the necessary capital into the inefficient oil industry, and our petrol corporations are eager to revive Venezuela’s hydrocarbon industry and make it profitable again.

These are the bold and honest words of John Bolton, US National security Adviser. Let’s see where all this hoopla may lead. If it sounds like wishful thinking, it is wishful thinking.

Even though the true media hero, Julian Assange is for totally illegal reasons behind bars in the UK. And this because laws are made in Washington as Washington sees fit, as Trump signs papers, shows them on TV and they becomes law – and laws of the US are applied throughout the US vassalic world, and especially by its poodle puppets in London. Never mind this minor detail of human derailment. More importantly, it seems that Mr. Assange’s spirit and that of his creation of truth telling, Wikileaks, is increasingly reflected by politicians and journalists – who, though somehow coopted into the ‘system’, feel discomfort with this very system and decide to leak so-called classified information into the non-mainstream truth-telling media.

A classical case may be the secret ‘RoundTable’ that took place in Washington on 10 April to discuss the fate of Venezuela. The news about it was first published by the Grayzone portal on 13 April. Mr. Blumenthal has obtained the information along with a “check-in list” of the high-flying participants to this private ‘round-table’. When confronted and asked for interviews on the event, most members on the list were surprised, even stunned, and refused to talk. Somebody from inside must have leaked the information about the clandestine meeting.

On a totally different issue, but equally important for the concept and philosophy of leaking information to the outside world, is the recent disclosure – “leak” – by someone in the French military that sophisticated French weaponry was used by Saudi Arabia to attack and kill defenseless Yemenis. And this, although the French – and especially Roi Macron himself, has always denied that the French were participating offensively in this also illegal US-UK-NATO proxy war. The French narrative was and is that France’s weapons were only defensive. Sounds as stupid as calling the US War Ministry, the Ministry of Defense.

Are we entering a Leak-zone (no pun intended) – an epoch of leaking, of divulging ‘secret’ and classified information? Have we had enough impunity? It’s time to stop it. What is this “classified” and secret information anyway? In a so-called Democracy – why are the elected government officials privileged to hold on to secret information, unknown to the public who lives under the illusion that they elected them, and – more importantly, or even worse – the public, who pays for them. Can’t you see, dear People, what aberration of “democracy” we have moved into? – Please, just open your eyes and see all these contradictions, contradictions for us, but they serve the chosen- and you believe elected-by-you – elite, lining their pockets and increasing their power.

Now the public must know the truth. This new Leak-Culture may take hold. – If so, its high time, but never too late. It would be another sign towards the empire heaving on its last breath, or as Andre Vltchek so adroitly puts it, when he describes the ultimate crime of the lawless London gang, the police manhandling a sick and defenseless Julian Assange, “By dragging him from the embassy into a police van, it [the empire] has admitted that it already has begun sewing its own funeral gown.”

Back to Venezuela. Has Washington given up? Most likely not. Although their first coup attempt has failed. The Venezuelan military did not defect. Despite Trump’s warning, even threats, they stood and still stand behind Nicolás Maduro. The humanitarian aid trucks at the border in Cúcuta did not cross into Venezuela. In fact, they were burned by the very opposition, hoping to make believe that Maduro’s troops put them on fire. No. They were indeed the opposition forces and their allies in Colombia. Ironically, the mayor of Cúcuta, after the humanitarian aid stayed stuck at the border, asked Colombian President Duque, whether he, the mayor, might distribute the aid among the poor people of Cúcuta, because this aid was more needed in Cúcuta than in Venezuela.

Second, Juan Guaidó was never able to mobilize the crowds as Washington expected. Guaidó, a US lackey in the first place, lacks any charisma. He does not appeal even to the majority of Venezuela’s opposition. So, he is a dead horse. Bad choice by Washington.

Third, a direct military intervention seems unlikely – at least at this point – as Russia quietly but with considerable force has made known her presence in the country. And so does China. Though China may not have sent military personnel, China’s position was and is: Don’t mess with Venezuela. China and Russia have both huge investments in Venezuela’s hydrocarbon industry.

In the meantime, Bolton and Pompeo have already accused, in addition to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua as spreading ‘socialism’ in the region. That’s their crime. It’s now in the open – it’s not just the oil, it’s also ideology. They are going to be sanctioned. In Cuba invoking again the 1996 Helms–Burton Act, under which foreign companies are prohibited from doing business in Cuba, lest they are prevented from doing business in the US. In addition, the amount of money Cuban American’s may send home is again limited, after Obama lifted the restrictions. – And exile Cubans – mostly applying to those in Florida – may now sue Cuba in US courts for confiscated and nationalized land after the revolution. And that after 60 years. I wonder, what US courts have to meddle in Cuba. This latest US arrogance stinks to heaven.

Will the world smell it? – Is Washington at the end of the rope with Venezuela? – Will see. Not voluntarily; that’s for sure. But if leakers keep leaking, it’s a sign that even insiders have had it.

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Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Featured image: Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada

The mass media has been widely covering the details of the disastrous humanitarian situation in Rukban refugee camp over recent months. By the way, the crisis in other sites deserves more considerable attention. Al-Hol refugee camp located in Al-Hasakah province and run by the Syria Democratic Forces is one of them.

Every single day from 10 to 20 people, mainly women and children die due to the lack of drinking water, essential goods, and medicine. Only for the past two months, 250 children passed away in the camp. According to estimates, now more than 50,000 refugees reside there, although initially it was designed only for 25,000.

It turned out that the catastrophe of Al-Hol residents is caused by the illegal actions of the U.S. authorities. Their homes and shelters in the northern and north-eastern part of Syria have been destroyed by the indiscriminate airstrikes of the U.S.-led international coalition.

Apart from Rukban camp situated in the 55-kilometre zone near Al-Tanf, the American servicemen organized ’humanitarian assistance’ for the people in Al-Hol. However, it is really hard to believe in support of Washington to the locals. On the way to supply their bases in other parts of the country, American trucks allegedly deliver humanitarian aid to the camp. Meanwhile, under the guise of good intentions, weapons and military equipment for Kurdish militias flow from Iraq to Syria.

Since March 1, 2019, the United States has already delivered from Iraq six convoys with 100 Humvee jeeps, 150 pickup trucks equipped with machineguns, as well as small arms and grenade launchers, the local activists report.

In fact, Al-Hol residence received no humanitarian aid, and only a small part of the armament fell into the hands of the American soldiers deployed at Sarrin and Harab Isk military bases in the area of Manbij.

Three-quarters of the shipment was delivered to the Kurdish militias in Al-Hol camp and then moved to the settlements of Tell Abyad and Ras Al Ain at the border with Turkey. According to the Middle East experts, these towns could become the starting point of the Turkish army and its proxies’ large-scale military operation against Kurds in northern Syria.

Amid deterioration of the U.S.-Turkish relations, Washington continues to support SDF, that in response keep holding the oil fields in favour of the United States.

The Turkish side repeatedly expressed concern over the long-term and stable relations between the Americans and Kurds. By the way, the Pentagon has announced the allocation of $ 300 million for the train-and-equip program for the Syrian Democratic Forces. Moreover, half of the budget will be spent on the purchase of military transport.

It was also reported that the number of SDF is planned to be doubled – from 61,000 to 121,000 fighters. Exactly after this announcement, first messages on the forced recruitment in north-eastern Syria appeared.

Based on these data, the version of the secret weapons supply by the U.S. to SDF seems quite reasonable. This armament will be enough to disrupt Ankara offensive and create chaos in the north of Syria. Unfortunately, it is happening under the guise of humanitarian aid delivery to the people in need locked in Al-Hol refugee camp.

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In watching the grotesque arrest of Julian Assange being dragged from the Ecuador Embassy, it occurred to me that this ‘show’ in broad daylight was a deliberate attempt to intimidate and convey a message of omnipotent power and control.

Instead, it was the memory of the Collateral Murder video that Wikileaks released in 2010 that came to mind. In 2007, two US Apache helicopters using 30 mm cannon fire attacked a group of civilians outside Baghdad which included two Reuters reporters.   The horror of that video brought the Iraq war in a most graphic manner to include the images of a carefree group unaware that hell on earth was about to descend upon them creating a surreal experience as the helicopter crew dialogue was detached from any emotional reality of what they were about to do.   The two Reuters reporters were holding cameras which were mistakenly identified as AK47s.

Reuters demanded an investigation and later filed an FOIA to obtain a video from one of the helicopters. The US military was unresponsive. Washington Post reporter and MSM member in good standing David Sanger was on board but failed to ever report on the attack.

The video is re-significant since it was originally provided to Julian Assange from intelligence analyst PFC Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning  who was charged and imprisoned for releasing classified data.  Manning was sentenced to 35 years and ultimately pardoned by President Barack Obama who chose not to prosecute Wikileaks as a publisher which might set an inconvenient constitutional conundrum involving some of the establishment’s  favorite media friends.

Instead of treason and espionage charges, which would be difficult to prove since Assange is an Australian, the Assange indictment has, for the time being, focused on Assange and Manning conspiring to crack the DOD password in order to download classified records.  Just days prior to Assange’s arrest, Manning was re-arrested and is now being held for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigation of Wikileaks.

It took six hefty men to forcibly remove this one frail, vulnerable man whose arrest the entire world watched and who has now garnered worldwide support. The entire pathetic scene was further evidence that the Deep State, the government, whatever we call those evildoers with hands on all the levers of power, are terrified they have lost control of the narrative.  The public scene of Assange’s removal was a sign of desperation to assure themselves they are still power to be reckoned with.   It was a wave-the-flag type event confirming to the world that the American Empire is indeed in the deep throes of collapse.

Adding to their self imposed wound, the government action was immediately assailed by the newly-empowered voice of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hi) who is a candidate for President and the strong voice of Fox News Tucker Carlson – both immediately became outliers in their respective fields.   The only other candidate to speak out was former Sen. Mike Gravel who will, hopefully, upset the equilibrium of an otherwise tedious gaggle of establishmentarian candidates at the debate in June.  No other Presidential candidate dared raise their voice, meek and inconsequential though it may be – even those self important rising stars Andrew Yang who plans to use 3D holograms for remote campaigning or Peter Buttigieg who found a way to endear himself to the rank and file by debating vice president Pence on being gay – both were intimidated into silence by Assange’s arrest.

Gabbard, who recently qualified to be on the stage in June for the first debate, said the arrest was “meant to intimidate Americans, to be quiet, behave, toe the line or you will pay the price.” She is sure to be surrounded in June by a slew of faint-hearted candidates as she can take that stage with a straightened backbone. Since qualifying, there is a new invigorated energy about her as if she has earned a level of respect and legitimacy.

Fox News commentator Carlson, who is the only pro-peace voice on commercial tv news, is still reviled by the righteous Obama liberals who support war, Russiagate and the Assange arrest. While obviously a Republican, he defies a neat idological box with a guest list whose faces will never be seen on Maddow or Lemon:  Ralph Nader, Stephen Cohen, Jill Stein, Glenn Greenwald, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Patrick Kennedy, John Kiriakou and Gabbard among others although Gravel’s 16 year old campaign managers recently denied Carlson’s invitation in the name of ideological purity.

Carlson offered a litany of reasoning for the arrest that Assange “embarrassed everyone official in Washington, he humiliated HRC showing that the primaries were rigged”, “he made them look like buffoons” and “is now disowned“ by the journalist class.  With his final dart, Carlson added, “Assange’s  real sin was preventing HRC from becoming president” asking ‘Who hurts this country more and it is not him.”

The prosecution of Assange and Manning has provided an opportunity to replay the Collateral Murder video ad nauseum to remind the public exactly what these indictments are really about so that we never forget.  War incites humanity’s evil urges, the goal is always to kill and keep killing until there are no more to kill…war is never quick or easy or neat, war is always malicious and dirty and destroys families, children, homes and entire countries.

Since there is an entire generation of teens coming of voting age and millennials who have only a vague sense of what Julian Assange is about, there needs to be a national campaign to show Collateral Murder everywhere and anywhere.  It should be required viewing in every high school and college in the country.   With a court date in May to consider extradition, the arrest and prosecution of Assange and Manning will provide critical opportunity to discuss merits of the First Amendment and the evils of war – until they are both acquitted.

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Renee Parsons has been a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist for Friends of the Earth and staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. She can be found on Twitter @reneedove31

Since its inception, Israel has faced difficult political and military challenges. It defines the operational space in which IDF exists, the nature of development of its armed forces, and of individual weapons systems it uses.

The key objective and permanent factors include:

  • Israel’s geography, with the 470km-long country being no more than 135km wide.
  • Hostile environment, including unresolved territorial disputes with neighbors and the Palestinian problem.
  • Close proximity to borders of major cities and critical infrastructure.

At the same time, Israel did not treat its adversaries’ ability to use rockets as a priority for a long time, therefore establishing a comprehensive anti-ballistic missile system was not among its priorities either. The situation changed after the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq struck Israeli cities using improved Soviet R-17 (NATO classification SS-1b Scud-B) ballistic missiles. At that time, US Patriot PAC-2 ABM systems were used to protect Israeli cities, however, they demonstrated their ineffectiveness. Therefore a decision was made to push the development of the Arrow and Arrow-2 ABM system jointly with the US, with the first systems deployed in March 2000.

The Arrow-2 system was intended to defeat attacks using ballistic missiles with ranges up to 3,000km. However, Hezbollah and Hamas were expanding their use of short-range rocket artillery. The Second Lebanon War of 2006 showed Israel to be vulnerable against such weapons. In that conflict, Hezbollah used a wide range of 107mm, 102mm, 220mm, 240mm, and 302mm rockets of Soviet, Chinese, Syrian, and Iranian manufacture with ranges between 6 and 210km, such as the Fajr-3, Zelzal, Nazeat, and others. Between July 13 and August 13, Israel was the target of 4228 rockets which caused 53 civilian fatalities, 250 wounded, and 2000 cases of light injuries, in addition to considerable damage to infrastructure and housing.

Following this war, Israel’s leaders decided it was necessary to establish a tactical ABM system, and in February 2007 the decision to develop Iron Dome was made, with Rafael Advanced Defence Systems already working on it at that time. Its deployment in Israel began in 2011.

According to Rafael data, Iron Dome is a dual-purpose system: intercepting rockets, shells, and mortar bombs (counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar, or C-RAM), and also very short range air defense (VSHORAD).

Iron Dome’s main mission, according to a Rafael brochure, is protecting civilians in cities, strategic facilities, and infrastructure, and also reducing collateral damage. It may also be used to protect troop convoys and ships. The system can operate around the clock, in any weather and climate.

Iron Dome is intended to rapidly detect, identify, and intercept asymmetrical means of attack, such as:

  • short range rockets (4-70km)
  • mortar bombs
  • artillery shells.

Moreover, when used as a SAM, Iron Dome can engage aerial target, including aircraft, helicopters, UAVs, PGMs.

Iron Dome includes the following components:

  • EL/M-2084 truck-mounted multirole radar.
  • Fire control system.
  • Three truck-towed launchers, each with 20 Tamir interceptor rockets.

A single system is capable of protecting an area of 150 km2.

The Tamir missile is equipped with a homing sensor under a metallic ballistic cone to protect it against high temperatures. The cone is ejected several seconds prior to the intercept using the proximity-fused warhead.

Tests of the naval version of Iron Dome concluded in November 2017. There are plans to install it on Sa’ar-5 corvettes and to protect drilling platforms in coastal areas.

One of Iron Dome’s specifics is its ability to identify priority targets, and to intercept only those which pose a threat to protected sites. This ability is provided by the high-tech fire control system integrated with the EL/M 2084 radar.

If the incoming projectile is predicted to fall in uninhabited areas, launch commands are not issued in order to reduce operational expenses since each intercept costs several tens of thousands of dollars.

Intercepts are carried out by Tamir rockets which detonate in close proximity to the intercepted objects. The intercept takes place at the peak of target trajectory to reduce contamination should the warhead carry chemical or biological agents.

The United States have been active in financing the development, production, and servicing of Iron Dome since 2011. The program’s overall cost has been estimated at approximately $4.5 billion, with the US contribution being over $1.5 billion. The US budget for 2018 includes $92 million to finance Iron Dome.

US participation in Iron Dome is motivated by the need to support ABM development by its main ally in the region, and creating a technological base for own future ABM systems. The main US Iron Dome partner has been Raytheon, with some 55% of its components that are financed by the US are made by US contractors, chiefly Raytheon.

Each Iron Dome battery costs about $50 million, while each Tamir rocket is estimated at $20-100 thousand. Operating costs is difficult to estimate.

Iron Dome is being supplied to Canada, Azerbaijan, India, and several other countries. Czech Republic will receive them in the near future. The total volume of sales has reached $2 billion. Israel declared its intent to export the system many times. Interested parties have included South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, United States which have voiced interest in buying the system to protect own bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iron Dome effectiveness is subject of considerable debate among the expert community. Rafael has touted the system as highly effective, with Israel’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) supporting that assessment.

Effectiveness assessments are mainly based on the Second Lebanon War and two IDF operations in Gaza: Pillar of Cloud (2012) and Protective Edge (2014).

Thus according to the IDF, in 8 days of Pillar of Cloud Hamas launched 1506 rockets at Israel, of which 421 were intercepted, 875 fell in unpopulated areas, 58 in populated areas, 6 were killed, 240 were wounded. IDF claims Iron Dome effectiveness was 84%.

However, this data is doubted by US and Israeli experts. First of all, given IDF information on launched and intercepted rockets, system effectiveness should be about 87.9%(421 + 58=479=100%; 421/479*100=87,9%). The operational cost of Iron Dome (including Tamir interceptor rockets) was $25-30 million.

Secondly, according to Israeli police southern district data, some 109 rockets fell in populated areas, not 58. There is also no data on the reasons most of the rockets launched against Israel missed. This is likely due to the low quality of rockets used by Palestinians.

IDF claims that during Protective Edge, Palestinians launched 4500 rockets of which 692 were intercepted [during 50 days]. No additional data was provided, and the high indicated effectiveness (90%) also causes doubts due to the lack of IDF transparency. It’s clear that Iron Dome is not cost-effective. Hamas and Hezbollah rockets cost between $300 (Grad) and $800 (Qassam). When assessing cost-effectiveness, IDF should consider insurance payments for damaged property. Comparing this data for the three above-mentioned operations has led experts to conclude that per-rocket damage has been reduced from $29,500 in 2006, to $9,000 in 2012, and $5,100 in 2014.

Israel's Magic Lamp: Iron Dome Missile Defense

However, some US experts doubt the objectivity of official Israeli data and believe that intercept probability is about 5%. According to Michael Anderson, an expert with the Brock University, reduction in rocket effectiveness since the 2nd Lebanon War was due not only to Iron Dome, but also to a series of other measures, including early warning and bomb shelter improvements. Moreover, Gaza and 2nd Lebanon War can hardly be compared, in part because of the differences in population density between southern and northern Israel. Accurate assessments are also made difficult by absence of sufficient verifiably accurate information, much of which remains classified.

Israel is continuing Iron Dome purchases. It’s also clear Hezbollah, Hamas, and their allies will seek to improve own offensive weapons to make them more effective at overcoming Iron Dome, with two parallel approaches, tactical and technical.

From the technical point of view, the attacker will seek to improve munitions accuracy. If guided artillery shells are used, Iron Dome effectiveness would be much lower. According to IDF air defense commander Zwick Haimovich, Hezbollah and Hamas will be able to strike Israel using cruise missiles. Even when these improved systems are intercepted, they would increase Israel’s expenditures on air defenses because more interceptor rockets would be needed.

Tactically, the obvious response is placing offensive weapons in direct proximity of targets, given that Iron Dome’s minimum effective range is 4km. Even today Hezbollah can strike 75% of Israel’s territory using systems it currently owns.

Iron Dome has only limited abilities to intercept several targets simultaneously. Therefore Israel’s opponents will seek to increase the density of its rocket volleys. Increasing the number of cheap weapons is the most likely course adversaries will adopt. According to some reports, Hezbollah has already increased the number of its rockets by several times, to more than 100 thousand.

Combining unguided and guided rockets would greatly increase the ability to overcome ABM defenses. Moreover, ABM systems would be degraded if faced by multiple adversaries operating from different directions. According to open source data, Iron Dome is quite sensitive and often reacts to false alarms, for example, from machine-gun bursts. This vulnerability is an obvious one to exploit. The psychological factor also matters. RAND analysts are correct to note that reducing casualties among Israeli civilians has a negative media effect against the backdrop of losses among Palestinians or Lebanese.

In the future, Iron Dome will likely be modernized to address existing problems and to adapt to developments in offensive means.Moreover, fire control and radar systems will be modernized as well. On the one hand, the system will be better able to detect launches and predict trajectories. On the other hand, it’s necessary to improve the ability to identify targets due to its propensity to react to false alarms. These efforts will be accompanied by the development of Iron Beam which is intended to defeat ultra-short range munitions. Israel has limited ability to improve ABM tactics, and include better coordination, where intelligence-gathering plays a big role.

Israel and its adversaries will continue improving their defensive and offensive systems, respectively. They will focus on modernization, improving quality and quantity, development of new weapons, and improving tactics. Hezbollah and Hamas will emphasize tactics changes in the use of their existing arsenals, combined with improving their rockets’ range and accuracy and expanding the variety of weapons systems used. Combining cheap and improved precise rockets in a single salvo will become a more frequent tactic.

Israel, in turn, will continue perfecting Iron Dome and Iron Beam with US assistance. But given the increased arsenals of its adversaries, Tel Aviv will place greater emphasis on its intelligence and special operations to detect and destroy rocket launchers in early stages of conflict. Israel will also be forced to recognize the importance of traditional civil defense and early warning, since Iron Dome may be forced to focus on defending military targets and critical infrastructure when faced with massed attacks. Here too, intelligence and diplomatic instruments will be used to prevent a coordinated attack by several adversaries. Effectiveness of this system in future conflicts will influence its export potential.

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Burning Gothic: Reflections on Notre-Dame de Paris

April 18th, 2019 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

“But no matter the destruction, the spirit of what it means to be a cathedral can and does survive such catastrophes.” – Becky Clark, Church of England director of cathedrals and church buildings, April 17, 2019 

The destruction of the sacred will engender moving responses.  But the scope, and the particularity of that response varies.  The conflagration affecting Notre-Dame de Paris, located on the Île de la Cité, has become a twenty-four-hour saturation phenomenon.  Thirteen million annual visitors, a geographical pride of place at the centre of Paris, and vast repository of France in all matters religious, cultural and political, would have ensured that.

The attention given to other sites of sacred worth tends to be limited.  It is unlikely, for instance, that pledges of up to $113 million, promised by François-Henri Pinault to assist in the rebuilding project, are going to be heading the way of the more obscure sites of desecrated or damaged history.  A south Louisiana parish, for instance, is desperate for funding in rebuilding three Black churches of historic significance burned down in “suspicious’ circumstances.

“There is clearly something happening in this community,” suggested State Fire Marshal H. Browning.

The funding target for the GoFundMe campaign is $1.8 million.  To date, $1.5 million has been secured.

Notre-Dame will do that to the millionaire and billionaire set: draw attention from the well-heeled and a chance for celebrity posterity in the premier culture league.  (Even wineries such as the Château Mouton Rothschild are re-directing money from auctions to the cause.)  While the idea of purchasing a place of heaven is not as popular as it once was, it still exerts some hold in the secular world through the idea of enduring reputation.  Such gestures of financial promise have also stirred the pot of misplaced empathy for the cultural artefacts of a former colonial power.

People, in short, are not permitted their own singular ways of commemorating or grieving over a damaged or lost icon: they are to be scolded into appropriate acknowledgments and qualifications.  A fine, and slightly perverse example of this came in responses to a remark by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who was rebuked for suggesting that Notre-Dame might be considered in the same breath as “art and architecture”.  Former congressman Joe Walsh fulminated.

“It was a house of worship.  A Catholic Cathedral.  It wouldn’t have been difficult for you to acknowledge that.”

Looking at such structures are also exercises of mutual and mass deception.  Gothic architecture did not always share the enchanting mystery that has made structures such as Notre-Dame de Paris the subject of gooey adoration.  Having lapsed into a mysterious, almost barbaric prior life before the preferences towards Romanesque and the Classicist, such architecture was redeemed by the calls of Romanticism.  Victor Hugo’s pen praised the Gothic form for its freedom, its daring, “encouraging license and dissent from authority,” asserts John Sturrock in his introduction to the 1978 translation of Notre-Dame de Paris(1831), commonly known in Anglophone circles as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Hugo’s pen, in making the cathedral the protagonist, did the trick: interest in restoring the weathered, damaged structure was stimulated, halting the till then relentless drive towards tearing down Gothic Paris.

The fire that went through the Cathedral has been described variously as catastrophic and disastrous, but the nature of such creations is their permanent vulnerability and susceptibility to change.  A scene from Hugo’s own masterpiece is worth retelling, describing flames as the hunchbacked bellringer Quasimodo attacks the Truands in an effort to save Esmerelda.  “All eyes were raised to the top of the church.  They beheld there an extraordinary sight.  On the crest of the highest gallery, higher than the central rose window, there was a great flame rising between the two towers with whirlwinds of sparks, a vast, disordered, and furious flame, a tongue of which was borne into the smoke by the wind, from time to time.”

The building is all (well mostly, now) points, sharpness.  It is jagged, skyscraper coherence.  But to suggest that its body and shell was pure in its medieval form is to fall for a common deception perpetuated from the nineteenth century.  The Gothic restoration mania of the period had the effect of turning Notre-Dame into a modern mutilation.

Eugène Emmanuelle Viollet-le-Duc, aided by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus, tended towards heavy restoration between 1845 and 1864 on the grounds that the original Gothic idea of the cathedral needed fuller realisation.  They knew better.  Being somehow in touch with those spirits, they went to work, warned by archaeological preservationist Prosper Mérimée about the dangers of overly keen touching up.

“A restoration may be more disastrous for a monument than the ravages of centuries.”  Hugo, in the same spirit, observed “the countless defacements and mutilations to which men and time have subjected that venerable monument.”

The now destroyed barbed spire of wood and lead (la flèche) was itself was an addition. Viollet-le-Duc also added a new pulpit; original statues were removed from their resting places of centuries; spectacular gargoyles became a feature; and the south façade’s rose window received undue attention.  Paris-born photographer Danie Aubry aptly observed that the Gothic-mad restorer “should have worked for Disney.”  Ironically enough, Monday’s fire is being “potentially linked” to the $6.8 million renovation work that was already underway.

The visceral and rapid response from French President Emmanuel Macron was one of rebuilding.  Cathedral spokesman André Finot spoke of the structure having suffered “colossal damage”, with the frame obliterated.  Not so, countered an optimistic Macron, taking on board the inspirational guise of Viollet-le-Duc.  The rebuilding project would be grand and hurried.  Forget decades; the President wants the structure to be finished in time for re-opening for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.  “We will rebuild Notre-Dame even more beautifully, and I want it to be completed in five years.”  To that end, an international design competition to rebuild parts of the building has been announced.

The Gothic concept was itself an act of daring on the part of Abbot Suger, who embraced lightness and light in his 1137 design for Saint-Denis.  Platonism, Christianity and religious architecture were wed.  The reconstruction of Notre-Dame might dare to be something different, but many expect a simulacrum of the original.

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

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The Triumph of Evil

April 18th, 2019 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Today (April 17) I heard a NPR “news” report that described the democratically elected president of Venezuela as “the Venezuelan dictator Maduro.” By repeating over and over that a democratically elected president is a dictator, the presstitutes create that image of Maduro in the minds of vast numbers of peoples who know nothing about Venezuela and had never heard of Maduro until he is dropped on them as “dictator.”

Nicolas Maduro Moros was elected president of Venezuela in 2013 and again in 2018. Previously he served as vice president and foreign minister, and he was elected to the National Assembly in 2000. Despite Washington’s propaganda campaign against him and Washington’s attempt to instigate violent street protests and Maduro’s overthrow by the Venezuelan military, whose leaders have been offered large sums of money, Maduro has the overwhelming support of the people, and the military has not moved against him.

What is going on is that American oil companies want to recover their control over the revenue streams from Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Under the Bolivarian Revolution of Chavez, continued by Maduro, the oil revenues instead of departing the country have been used to reduce poverty and raise literacy inside Venezuela.

The opposition to Maduro inside Venezuela comes from the elites who have been traditionally allied with Washington in the looting of the country. These corrupt elites, with the CIA’s help, temporarily overthrew Chavez, but the people and the Venezuelan military secured his release and return to the presidency.

Washington has a long record of refusing to accept any reformist governments in Latin America. Reformers get in the way of North America’s exploitation of Latin American countries and are overthrown.

With the exceptions of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua, Latin America consists of Washington’s vassal states. In recent years Washington destroyed reform governments in Honduras, Argentina and Brazil and put gangsters in charge.

According to US national security adviser John Bolton, a neoconservative war monger, the governments in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua will soon be overthrown. New sanctions have now been placed on the three countries. Washington in the typical display of its pettiness targeted sanctions against the son of the Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. (See this)

Ortega has been the leader of Nicaragua since for 40 years. He was president 1985-1990 and has been elected and reelected as president since 2006.

Ortega was the opponent of Somoza, Washington’s dictator in Nicaragua. Consequently he and his movement were attacked by the neoconservative operation known as Iran-Contra during the Reagan years. Ortega was a reformer. His government focused on literacy, land reform, and nationalization, which was at the expense of the wealthy ruling class. He was labeled a “Marxist-Leninist,” and Washington attempted to discredit his reforms as controversial leftist policies.

Somehow Castro and Ortega survived Washington’s plots against them. By the skin of his teeth so did Chavez unless you believe it was the CIA that gave him cancer. Castro and Chavez are dead. Ortega is 74. Maduro is in trouble, because Washington has stolen Venezuela’s bank deposits and cut Venezuela off the international financial system, and the British have stolen Venezuela’s gold. This makes it hard for Venezuela to pay its debts.

The Trump regime has branded the democratically twice-elected Maduro an “illegitimate” president. Washington has found a willing puppet, Juan Guaido to take Maduro’s place and has announced that the puppet is now the president of Venezuela. No one among the Western presstitutes or among the vassals of Washington’s empire finds it strange that an elected president is illegitimate but one picked by Washington is not.

Russia and China have given Maduro diplomatic support. Both have substantial investments in Venezuela that would be lost if Washington seizes the country. Russia’s support for Maduro was declared by Bolton today to be a provocation that is a threat to international peace and security. Bolton said his sanctions should be seen by Russia as a warning against providing any help for the Venezuelan government.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo and vice president Pence have added their big mouths to the propaganda against the few independent governments in Latin America. Where is the shame when the highest American government officials stand up in front of the world and openly proclaim that it is official US government policy to overthrow democratically elected governments simply because those governments don’t let Americans plunder their countries.

How is it possible that Pompeo can announce that the “days are numbered” of the elected president of Nicaragua, who has been elected president 3 or 4 times, and the world not see the US as a rogue state that must be isolated and shunned? How can Pompeo describe Washington’s overthrow of an elected government as “setting the Nicaraguan people free?”

The top officials of the US government have announced that they intend to overthrow the governments of 3 countries and this is not seen as “a threat to international peace and security?”

How much peace and security did Washington’s overthrow of governments in Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, and the attempted overthrow of Syria bring?

Washington is once again openly violating international law and the rest of the world has nothing to say?

There is only one way to describe this: The Triumph of Evil.

“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” — William Butler Yeats

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site: Paul Craig Roberts Institute for Political Economy.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: A protest outside the United States Consulate in Sydney on January 23 2019 to demand no US intervention in Venezuela. Photo: Peter Boyle

Decent Australians want the Labor Party to win in the forthcoming Australian  elections for the sake of the young, poor, disabled, sick, elderly, unemployed, Indigenous and the environment. However the right wing-dominated Labor Opposition is merely better than the appalling present Coalition Government and is just as bad as a pro-Apartheid Israel, pro-Apartheid, and pro-war US lackey. Now pro-Apartheid Israel Labor has blatantly revealed its pro-Apartheid degeneracy by scrapping an outstanding, anti-Apartheid, anti-nuclear weapons and pro-human rights candidate, Melissa Parke, in the forthcoming Federal election.

  1. Outstanding anti-Apartheid Labor candidate Melissa Parke forced to withdraw by pro-Apartheid Israel Australian Labor Party.

It is relatively common for candidates to be scrapped just before Australian Federal elections because they have been found to have made racist,  homophobic or other offensive comments, have been found to be legally  ineligible because of having dual citizenship of Australia and another country, or have been alleged to have committed some offence from alleged bullying to alleged sexual assault. Indeed in relation to the present Federal election,  an excellent female Labor candidate  withdrew candidacy last year over allegations of bullying but was not re-instated as a candidate after  the allegations were dismissed [1]. Three  Coalition candidates have had to withdraw because of dual citizenship that is prohibited under Section 44 of the Australian Constitution [2, 3] (however while a Jewish Hungarian-origin Greens candidate  for the seat of Canberra has requisitely expunged his Hungarian citizenship, the  fervently pro-Zionist, Jewish Hungarian-origin,  Coalition Government Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg,  has apparently declined to legally expunge his Hungarian citizenship in an example of outrageous Zionist exceptionalism) [3-6].  Now another Coalition candidate has been outed for allegedly disparaging LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Homosexual, Transgender and Intersex) issues [7].

However the scrapping of  outstanding, anti-Apartheid, anti-nuclear weapons  and pro-human rights candidate and lawyer, Melissa Parke, in the forthcoming Federal election turns morality on its head – in any decent country it is surely the pro-Apartheid candidates  who would be rejected by voters and not decent anti-Apartheid candidates. One is reminded of Samuel Butler’s dystopian novel “Erewhon” that describes a society  in which sociopaths and psychopaths are empowered and treated  with great solicitude whereas the sick are ostracized and maltreated [8]. This episode  demonstrates the power of the Zionist Lobby in Zionist-perverted and subverted Australia, with the cravenly pro-Apartheid Israel, pro-Apartheid and US lackey Australian Labor Party (the ALP, and evidently an Apartheid Labor Party, an Anti-human rights Labor Party) removing a truly  outstanding  candidate, Melissa Parke, for fear of offending the rich and powerful supporters of nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel.

Indeed, surely the fundamental requirement for any candidates for office in a one-person-one-vote democracy like Australia is that they must unflinchingly support the proposition of one-person-one-vote. Presently it appears that in Australia all of Coalition candidates and most of Labor candidates  in practice reject the proposition of one-person-one-vote by fervently supporting grossly human rights-violating Apartheid Israel – the only candidates unequivocally supporting one-person-one-vote are the Greens, the Socialists and a tiny body of decent Labor Leftists,.

In addition to being anti-Apartheid and pro-one-person-one-vote, Melissa Parke is an exemplary former Federal MP, a long-standing Labor Party member, a human rights lawyer, and an anti-nuclear weapons Ambassador for the Nobel Prize-winning ICAN (International  Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons [9].  Melissa Parke on her standing down from candidacy in the Australian Federal elections: “[Israeli treatment of Palestinians] worse than the South African system of apartheid… “I’ve had 20 years’ experience in international relations and law including living and working in the Middle East. My views are well known. But I don’t want them to be a running distraction from electing a Labor government which will take urgent and strong action on climate change. That’s why I have decided to withdraw my candidacy. I look forward to working and supporting the party in other ways” [9].

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Melissa Parke must be commended for her loyalty to Labor and to one-person-one-vote. Further, she is quite correct in that climate change that existentially threatens 7.6 billion people is vastly more important than Israeli Apartheid that violates the lives of 14 million Palestinians. Unfortunately, just as Labor remorselessly ignores the human rights of Palestinians so grossly violated by Apartheid Israel, so its policy on climate change is largely confined to more rapidly  increasing renewable energy than the climate criminal Coalition, although this is actually already being rapidly effected by individual  home owners and corporations regardless of Federal Government policy. Further,  Labor has exactly the same climate criminal policy as the effective climate change denialist , pro-gas and pro-coal COALition in supporting unlimited gas and coal exports.  Greenhouse gas ) GHG) pollution from burning  Australia’s world-leading gas and coal exports is twice that of Australia’s Domestic GHG pollution [10]. Pollutants from the burning of Australia’s coal exports are estimated to kill 75,000 people each year [11].

Indeed, ignored by the climate criminal  Lib-Labs (the Liberal Party- National Party Coalition and Labor)  are  the horrible realities that taking land use and a the Global  Warming Potential  for methane into account,  Australia’s per capita GHG pollution in tonnes CO2-e per person per year  (116 tonnes if including its huge GHG-generating  exports)  is 55 times that of India (2.1 ) [12], and that Australia  is among the world leaders for climate change inaction in 14 areas:  (1) annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution, (2) live methanogenic livestock exports,  (3) natural gas exports, (4) recoverable shale gas reserves that can be accessed by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), (5) coal exports, (6) land clearing and deforestation, (7) speciescide – species extinction, (8) coral reef destruction,  (9) whale killing  and extinction threat through global warming, (10) terminal carbon pollution budget exceedance,   (11) per capita carbon debt,  (12) GHG generating iron ore exports, (13) climate change inaction, and (14) complicity in worsening climate genocide [13].

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Bill Shorten (Labor Leader of the Opposition): “[Melissa Parke has] done the right thing… I don’t share her views…  I have a view that Israel has the right to security behind its borders and the Palestinian people have a legitimate issue in statehood” [9]. Pro-Apartheid Labor and the pro-Apartheid Coalition hide their utterly disgusting moral depravity  behind the fig leaf of the “2-state solution”. However the “2-state solution” is now dead because US-, UK-, Canada-, Australia- and EU-backed Apartheid Israel has now ethnically cleansed 90% of Palestine. A clear, humane solution  to the continuing human rights catastrophe in Palestine is a unitary state (one-state solution, bi-national state) as in post-Apartheid South Africa that would involve return of all refugees, zero tolerance for racism, equal rights for all, all human rights for all, economic decency for all, one-person-one-vote democracy, justice, goodwill, reconciliation, airport-level security, nuclear weapons removal, internationally-guaranteed national security initially based on the present armed forces, and untrammelled access for all citizens to all of Palestine [14-16].

Pro-Zionist Labor leader Bill Shorten evidently disagrees with Melissa Parkes’ expert view (deriving from being  a human rights lawyer  with extensive experience on the ground in the Middle East) that Israeli Apartheid is worse than South African Apartheid. Bill Shorten  is utterly wrong  and should abjectly apologize to the 14 million Indigenous  Palestinian  victims  of genocidal Israeli Apartheid for his deeply offensive comments or otherwise simply remove himself from public  life.

Melissa Parkes’ view that  Israeli Apartheid is an awful racist reality and is worse than South African Apartheid is consonant with the views of a huge body of anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish humanitarians [17-25] . Thus, for example, those anti-Apartheid heroes  stating that Israeli Apartheid is worse than South African Apartheid notably include Mandla Mandela  (grandson of Nelson Mandela) (2017: “The movement from one settlement to another under heavy security checkpoints reminds us of a lighter experience in Apartheid South Africa of the ciskei homeland. This is more extreme than ciskei, because ciskeins were allowed to travel back and forth into King Williams Town and East London. Palestinians are confined to a settlement, even though in Ramallah they can see Jerusalem, but are not able to go without a permit from the Israeli government”  [26], and anti-racist Jewish South African and anti-Apartheid hero Ronnie Kasrils: “Like the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is effectively a hermetically sealed prison. It is shocking to discover that certain roads are barred to Palestinians and reserved for Jewish settlers. I try in vain to recall anything quite as obscene in apartheid South Africa” [19]. Anti-Apartheid hero Reverend Alan Boesak “[Israeli apartheid is] in its practical manifestation even worse than South African apartheid” [20]. Anti-Apartheid hero Nelson Mandela (1997):

“The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” [20].

This  large body of anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish humanitarian  opinion is countermanded by the virulent, false and defamatory assertions  of the Zionists who  defame all critics of Apartheid Israel as “anti-Semites” and defame anti-racist Jewish critics of Apartheid Israel (such as myself) not only as “anti-Semites” but also as “self-hating Jews” and “self-loathing Jews”. The racist Zionists so beloved by  the Australian Lib-Labs are the worst ant-Arab anti-Semites in the world through their support for the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2.3 million deaths from violence, 0.1 million, or from deprivation , 2.2 million since 1915 ) [22, 27-30]   and the ongoing Muslim Holocaust  and Muslim Genocide (32 million Muslims deaths from violence, 5 million, or avoidably from deprivation, 27 million, in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity that killed 3,000 innocent people) [31, 32].  The racist Zionists so loved by  the Australian Coalition and Labor are also the worst anti-Jewish anti-Semites in the world through falsely conflation of these appalling genocidal crimes with all Jews,  including  anti-racist Jewish humanitarians  who resolutely  condemn these crimes.

In stark contrast, the racist  Zionists so fervently supported by the Zionist-subverted and perverted Coalition  and Labor in Australia have an appalling record of genocidally racist assertions from the racist psychopath founder of European Zionism, Theodor Herzl (“We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border” , “We should there [Palestine] form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism”) ,  to the serial war criminal present PM of Apartheid Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu (“Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories”) [33, 34].

  1. Melissa Parke’s anti-Apartheid position has support from the decent Labor Left, Greens and Socialists.

At this point I must confess that my decent, anti-racist position as an anti-racist Jewish Australian derives not just from an innate philosophic humanitarianism but also from lived experience. I must give the disclaimer that for over 50 years I was happily married to a non-Indigenous non-White Australian and, of course, from our circumstances and as humanist humanitarians we were implacably opposed to Apartheid in all its disgusting manifestations in Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid Israel. My dear late wife, Zareena,  was Fiji Indian of Bengali and Bihari origin and came from a large Muslim family. All Zareena’s  grandparents were “5-year slaves” of the British in Fiji  (called “Girmityas” after Indian mispronunciation of “Agreement”) [35-38], and her eminent lawyer father, Abdul Lateef MBE, was a great advocate of inter-ethnic harmony, and helped negotiate independence  of Fiji from Britain [39]. As for myself, I am of British Celtic and Hungarian Ashkenazi Jewish origin. My family made major contributions to Hungary (ask any mathematician or surgeon [39-42]) but  all but a dozen perished in the WW2 Jewish Holocaust in Hungary in 1944-1945 [42, 43].

For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”. However these sacred injunctions are grossly violated by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic , Islamophobic and  indeed anti-Jewish anti-Semitic   racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel and their Western backers variously involved in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Somali Genocide,  Afghan Genocide, Yemeni Genocide and the Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide (32 million Muslims killed by violence, 5 million, or through imposed deprivation, 27 million, in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity that killed about 3,000 innocent people, mostly Americans [31, 32].  The racist Zionists and their racist US Alliance backers are anti-Jewish anti-Semitic by utterly  falsely conflating the appalling deeds of Apartheid Israel with all Jews, including anti-racist  Jews opposed to a neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel and its ongoing Palestinian Genocide [19].

To put the sacrifice of outstanding Labor candidate Melissa Parke in context, Australian politics is dominated by the extreme right-wing Liberal Party-National Party Coalition (presently mis-ruling Australia)  and the right-wing-dominated  Labor Party (presently the Opposition), these being collectively known as the Lib-Labs.  The Coalition is economically conservative and variously socially conservative, ferociously neoliberal, and panders to corporations, business, farmers, and the non-Muslim religious right. Labor has trade union origins and ostensibly stands  for the disadvantaged, the workers and the middle class. However when it comes to foreign policy the Lib-Labs are firmly united  as craven pro-war, pro-Apartheid Israel (and hence pro-Apartheid) US lackeys.

Those who supported Nazi Germany could reasonably be described as pro-Nazi. Those who supported Apartheid South Africa  (the Americans, British, Australians and Israelis) could reasonably be described as pro-Apartheid. Those who support Apartheid Israel  (the Americans, British, Australians, Canadians, French, Germans and Israelis) could also be reasonably described as pro-Apartheid. The Lib-Labs who collectively get about 80% electoral support in Australia are fervently pro-Apartheid Israel and hence pro-Apartheid, noting that Apartheid is condemned by the UN as one of the worst of crimes [44]. The Greens (10% of the vote) and the Socialists (1% tops) are genuine anti-racists and  accordingly support Palestinian human rights.

The politically correct racist (PC racist) Australians will vehemently declare  that “I am not a racist”  but  80% of them will give their primary vote to pro-Apartheid Lib-Labs. The Coalition supporters don’t know any better and range from the ignorant and stupid to the homicidally and genocidally greedy. Professor Gillian Triggs, an outstanding former  Australian Human Rights Commissioner, nailed it when she declared that the Coalition “was ideologically opposed to human rights” [45]. The Liberal Party- National Party Coalition has supported all post-1950 US Asian wars, atrocities associated with 50 million Asian deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation [46-48]. About half of the Liberals, the Far Right Liberals,  are pro-Apartheid Israel, US lackey, pro-war climate change denialists and the other half  are pro-Apartheid Israel, US lackey, pro-war effective  climate change denialists committed to deadly climate change inaction. The National Party represent the farmers whose forebears , variously within living memory,  were involved in the Aboriginal Genocide, Aboriginal Ethnocide and Aboriginal  dispossession, and  are like the war criminal and climate criminal Far Right Liberals.

Labor supporters are a bit more respectable  but are deceived by pro-Apartheid Israel Mainstream media and by overwhelmingly  pro-Apartheid Israel Labor MPs of the Labor Right. In 2014 in response to the latest Israeli Gaza Massacre, 66 MPs signed an open letter stating:

“We the undersigned members of Australian federal and state parliaments, call on all Australian politicians to condemn the ongoing Israeli military bombardment and invasion of Gaza. We call on Australian politicians to support an immediate cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire deal which includes an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and to the blockade of Gaza. We call on all Australian politicians to also support the United Nations Human Rights Council’s decision to launch an independent inquiry into purported violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.

Of the 66 MPs, there were 2 Independents, 1 former Liberal PM (Malcolm Fraser who subsequently left the Liberal Party), 23 Greens and 40 Labor MPs including Melissa Parke [49].

When  in 2017 former PM Malcolm Turnbull of the less extremist faction of the Liberal Party lavishly  welcomed nuclear terrorist, genocidal racist  and serial war criminal Apartheid Israeli PM Netanyahu to Australia, 60 variously eminent Australians protested thus (2017):

“Australia should not welcome the Prime Minister of Israel We strongly oppose the official visit to Australia of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel continues to defy all United Nations calls for it to comply with international law in respect of its illegal settlement building, and its treatment of the indigenous Palestinian population. Instead, over the last 50 years, Israel has held the people of Palestine under military occupation and: continues to illegally build settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; continues to confiscate Palestinian land; continues to demolish Palestinian homes; continues its policy of imprisonment of Palestinians without trial even of children as young as 12; and continues its blockade of the 1.8 million civilian inhabitants of Gaza. Those actions are not symbolic of a nation desirous of building peace with its neighbours. Those policies build understandable resentment, anger and desperation amongst Palestinians. We want all Israelis and Palestinians to have peace and freedom; we oppose all forms of terrorism and criminal violence by either side. We recognise when there is a gross imbalance of power, conflict will never be resolved” [50] .

The 60 signatories included 6 MPs, namely Jon Stanhope (Labor ACT Chief Minister 2001-2011), Alan Griffin (former Federal Labor MP and a Minister),  Jill Hall (former Federal Labor MP), Laurie Ferguson (former Federal Labor MP),  Sandra Kanck (former  SA State Democrat MP) and Melissa Parke, (former WA Federal Labor MP, lawyer for the United Nations in Gaza and an Ambassador for ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons  that won the  2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its role in achieving the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) [51].

  1. The Apartheid Israel realities ignored in gross lying by omission by utterly mendacious,  pro-Apartheid Lib-Lab Australia.

The Zionist-subverted, US lackey Australian Lib-Labs maintain  a fiction of a “balanced approach” for an ultimate  2-state solution between 2 assertedly “equal” disputants  . This racist fiction ignores the realities of a nuclear-armed Apartheid Israel  with a huge army, navy and air force  (state terrorism) physically and brutally occupying the Occupied Palestinian territories inhabited by utterly impoverished Occupied Palestinians, of whom a few  armed with limited knives, small arms and home-made,  ineffectual rockets permit  the Western descriptive of the Palestinian Hamas as  “terrorists” (a descriptive also applied to the lightly armed  Hezbollah soldiers defending Lebanon from the might of nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel).  90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed, this rendering the 2-state solution dead.  An updated  summary of the Palestine realities ignored by the mendacious, genocidally racist, pro-Zionist, pro-Apartheid, anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, Islamophobic and covertly White Supremacist  Australian Lib-Labs is given below:

(1) In 1880 there were 500,000 Arab Palestinians and 25,000 Jews, 50% of the latter being immigrants. The Palestinian  Genocide commenced with the famine deaths of 100,000 Palestinians associated with  conquest of Palestine  in WW1 by the British and the Australian  and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).

(2) The violent killing of Indigenous Palestinians commenced with the 1918 Surafend Massacre by ANZAC soldiers in which about 100 Palestinian villagers were massacred.

(3) Since the British invasion of Palestine in WW1 there have been 2.3 million Palestinian deaths from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or from imposed deprivation (2.2 million) – a Palestinian Genocide.

(4) There are 8 million Palestinian refugees, 7 million Exiled Palestinians, 5 million Occupied Palestinians, and 1.9 million Israeli Palestinians, with  all of these 14 million Palestinians variously excluded from all or part of Palestine.

(5) Of about 14 million Palestinians (50% children, 75% women and children), 7 million are forbidden to even step foot in their own country, 5 million are highly abusively imprisoned in the blockaded and bombed   Gaza Concentration Camp (2.0 million) or in ever-dwindling West Bank ghettoes  (3.0 million),  and 1.9 million live as Third Class citizens as Israeli Palestinians under over 60 Nazi-style Apartheid Israeli race laws.

(6) 90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian  inhabitants in an ongoing war criminal ethnic cleansing that has been repeatedly condemned by the UN and most recently by UN Security Council Resolution 2334 that was unanimously supported (with a remarkable Obama US abstention).

(7) GDP per capita is US$3,000 for Occupied Palestinians as compared to US$40,000 for Israelis.

(8) Through  imposed deprivation, each year Apartheid Israel passively  murders about 2,700 under-5 year old Palestinian  infants and passively murders 4,200 Occupied Palestinians in general who die avoidably from deprivation each year. under Israeli Apartheid. There is a circa 10 year life expectancy gap between Occupied Palestinians ands Israelis, this grossly violating Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War that demand that an Occupier must provide life-sustaining food and medical services to the Occupied “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”.

(9) This century Apartheid Israel has violently killed an average of about 550 Occupied Palestinians each year.

(10) Occupied Palestinians are deprived of essentially all human rights and civil rights by Apartheid Israel.

(11) Nuclear terrorist, serial war criminal, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel determines that 72% of its now 50% Indigenous Palestinian subjects who are Occupied  Palestinians  cannot vote for the government  ruling them i.e. egregious Apartheid.

(12) In its genocidal treatment of the Palestinians, US-, UK-, Canada-, France- and Australia-backed Apartheid Israel ignores numerous UN General Assembly Resolutions and UN Security Council Resolutions, the UN Genocide Convention, the Geneva Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Rights of the Child Convention, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and many other aspects of International Law.

(13) Apartheid Israel has attacked 12 countries and  occupied 5 with 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in countries  neighbouring  and variously occupied by Apartheid Israel totalling 24 million.

(14) 5 million Occupied Palestinians  (half of them children) are routinely blackmailed through torture or denial of life-saving medical care to spy on fellow Palestinians for Apartheid Israel.

(15) 5 million Occupied Palestinians (half of them children) are excluded by armed military check points from Jews-only areas and Jews-only roads.

(16) 50% of Israeli children are physically, psychologically or sexually abused each year  but 100% of Occupied Palestinian children are subject to traumatizing human rights abuse by the serial war criminal Israel Defence Force (IDF) through actual or threatened deadly violence.

(17) With continuing blockade and after repeated, large-scale  destruction of homes, schools, hospitals ands infrastructure, conditions in the Gaza Concentration Camp are appalling, with the UN warning that it is becoming unliveable

(18) Since March  2018 the Israelis have  killed about 200 unarmed Palestinians  and wounded about 18,000  more  out of scores  of thousands of unarmed Occupied Palestinians protesting in Gaza (in  the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in Apartheid South Africa police killed  69 demonstrators  and wounded 220 more).

(19) Apartheid Israel has been stealing water from Occupied West Bank aquifers but water allocations to Occupied Palestinians violate WHO standards for potable water .

(20) US-backed Apartheid Israel has attacked 12 countries including all its immediate neighbours, has up to 400 nuclear weapons and possesses missile delivery systems including  those based on Germany-supplied submarines.  This dangerous, war-exacerbating conduct acutely threatens   all 13.9 million Israeli subjects, these   comprising 6.6 million Jewish Israelis ,  1.9 million Indigenous Palestinian Israelis, 5 million Occupied Palestinians,  and 0.4 million non-Jewish and non-Arab  Israeli subjects (for detailed documentation see [29]).

  1. Double standards and egregious cognitive dissonance of the pro-Apartheid Australian Coalition and Labor Lib-Labs.

Outstanding human rights  lawyer and former Labor MP, Melissa Parkes, was effectively forced to relinquish her candidacy in the forthcoming  Australian elections because her expert, first-hand  assessment of the ongoing Palestinian catastrophe –  summarized in the term Israeli Apartheid –  differed from the utterly false and “benign”, Zionist-derived   perceptions of the right-dominated,  Zionist-subverted,  US lackey and pro-Apartheid Australian Labor Party Opposition ,  and indeed of the similarly Zionist-subverted, extreme right-dominated , pro-Apartheid Coalition Australian Government.

Decent Australians want the Labor Party to win the forthcoming Australian elections for the sake of the disadvantaged because the mendacious and neoliberal Coalition has a cruel and deadly disregard for disadvantaged Australians. Indeed about 80,000 Australians  die preventably  each year from “life-style” and “political choice” reasons, but this is not reported by Australia’s  mendacious Mainstream media  [52]. Of course this massive mendacity is not peculiar to Australia – it is entrenched in all  the racist, neoliberal and pro-Apartheid US Alliance countries. Lying by commission  and omission short-circuits rational risk management that is crucial for societal safety [53], noting that  lying by omission is far, far worse than lying by commission  because the latter at least permits public refutation and public discussion [54].

For nearly 2 decades Australia has been in the grip of Neocon American and Zionist  Imperialist (NAZI)-promoted terror hysteria that has led to draconian anti-terrorism laws, massive spying on Australians, and the creation of a quasi police state [55-58]. Thus, for example,  reportage of illegal or questionable operations by Australian Intelligence  (with or without Israeli, American  or other foreign involvement) is punishable by up to 10 years in prison [58]. Past Australian Intelligence crimes such as helping the US overthrow foreign governments (democratically elected or otherwise),  spying on foreign political figures or governments, and targeting illegal drone attacks with extra-judicial executions of people the Americans  don’t like (including Australians) were on the public record prior to this Nazi-style legislation that was supported by both the US lackey Labor Opposition as well as by the US lackey  Coalition Government . One supposes that since passage of  this regressive  legislation in 2014,  Australian Intelligence has had impunity to do the same sorts of things and worse. The Zionist-subverted Lib-Labs permit the US to share a huge volume of  raw intelligence on Australians  with Apartheid Israel [55].

Under the Coalition but with craven Labor Opposition support, Australia has become second only to Trump America as a supporter of nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally  racist, serial war criminal, grossly human rights-abusing, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. The Zionist-subverted and  pro-Apartheid  Labor Opposition and Coalition Government have trashed Australia’s international reputation abroad and are party to Zionist  subversion of Australian democracy and  institutions at home [59, 60].

The  2019 Christchurch Massacre of 50 Muslims by an Australian White Supremacist has tempered public expressions of the Neocon American and Zionist  Imperialist (NAZI)-emplaced anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia that is entrenched in Australia [61]. However a new target has emerged: China, notwithstanding  the hard reality that China is Australia’s biggest trading partner [62, 63]. Laws have been rushed through (with the  Chinese as targets) making foreign political donations and unregistered foreign lobbying illegal [64-69] but there are no constraints on wealthy Zionists with a fanatical support for Apartheid Israel being major political donors and political lobbyists. Australian Democracy has become a Plutocracy, Kleptocracy, Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy, Corporatocracy and Dollarocracy in which Big Money purchases people, politicians, parties, political influence, public perception of reality,  votes , more power and more private profit. The Greens want major constraints on this perversion of democracy [70].

Thus former PM Rudd revealed that 20% of his electoral funding came from the Jewish community (0.5% of the population) [71] but  his attempts to placate the Zionist Lobby over his defence of Australians from Israeli  crimes (violent kidnapping of Australians in international waters  and large-scale forging of Australian passports for terrorism purposes) were unsuccessful –  within a month he was removed from office in a US-approved, Mining  Corporation-backed, pro-Zionist-led Coup [72, 73]. Conversely union leader Bill Shorten’s public image in Australia was greatly enhanced in the Beaconsfield Mine accident in Tasmania, during which Australia’s biggest white collar  criminal and also a fervently pro-Zionist Jew, Richard Pratt,  famously gave Shorten use of  his private jet to fly to Tasmania [74, 75]. Shorten also flew on holiday to Easter Island, Argentina and Cuba with his former wife, financier Deborah Beale, on Pratt’s private jet [75].

The Chinese Government ,  like other governments including  Australia’s,  seeks to increase its influence and  to obtain information both overtly (licitly)  and covertly (illicitly). However while Australian politicians have been severely punished for merely having dinner with Chinese business figures [62, 63],  there is massive Israeli subversion of Australian politicians through free trips to Apartheid Israel and benign media coverage if they ignore the horrendous crimes of this neo-Nazi Apartheid state [77].  Indeed the number one  rule of Australian politics (as for UK, Canadian and US politics)  is not to offend the genocidally racist and  Australia- and human rights-betraying Israel Lobby. Thus Ali Kazak (former Palestinian Ambassador  to Australia):

“Forget China, no country has interfered, spied and endangered Australia’s security, sovereignty and the integrity of its national institutions more than Israel and its powerful lobbyists, writes Australia” [78].

The utterly  cowardly, timorous, gutless and yellow  Australian  Lib-Labs ignore the kidnapping, shooting, tasering, imprisonment, robbing, mangling, killing, torturing, defaming, abusing, deceiving, perverting and subverting of Australians variously by genocidally  racist  Israeli Zionists or by traitorous  Australian Zionists [60].   

Melissa Parke was forced to remove herself from candidacy in the forthcoming Federal elections  for being critical  of Apartheid Israel.  However other decent, anti-racist Australians, including  myself, have similarly fallen foul of the Zionist Lobby. Thus Muslim Australian engineer and ABC journalist  Yassmin Abdel-Magied made the mistake of simply publishing on her Facebook page the following 7 words: “Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine)”. Savaged by public outcry, Ms Abdel-Magied rapidly deleted the post and apologized, the ABC apologized and a month later removed her TV program, and Yassmin Abdel-Magied left for London [79].  The post was correct and her silencing by rabid jingoists was  a stain on Australia and an attack on free speech [79]. Other Australian truth-tellers variously subject to  attempted to ferocious Zionist  censorship  include author and teacher Paul Gilby (for referring to US and Israeli state terrorism) [80, 81], top  columnist  Mike Carlton (for criticizing the horrendous  2014  Gaza Massacre by Apartheid Israel) [82], and academic Dr Sandra  Nasr (for comparing Biblical and present-day Palestinian Genocides) [83]. A resolutely  truth-telling, scientist and humanitarian,  I have been rendered “invisible” to Mainstream Australia over the last  10 years through remorseless and false defamation by Zionists.

The pro-Zionist, pro-Apartheid, US lackey Liberal Party-National Party Coalition and the Australian Labor Party (aka the Lib-Labs) utterly ignore the horrendous Palestinian realities listed in items 1-20 in Section 3 above. While Labor has scrapped outstanding anti-Apartheid candidate Melissa Parke for her expressions of  humanity and support for Palestinian human rights, the Lib-Labs have turned  a blind eye to 6 pro-Zionist Jewish Lib-Lab MPs (fervently pro-Israel and entitled to be Israeli citizens) who have sat in the Australian Federal  Parliament for the last 3 years but who may be in violation of Section 44 of the Australian  Constitution that states (my emphasis in capitals)  that any person “under ANY acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or … a subject or a citizen or ENTITLED to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power” is ineligible to be a Member of Parliament. Indeed the present Coalition Government’s Treasurer , Josh Frydenberg,  is – like me – of Jewish Hungarian origin  and has  dual Hungarian citizenship and Australian citizenship and is thus ineligible  to be an  Australian Federal MP [84-87].

The egregious cognitive dissonance of the US lackey Lib-Labs over Apartheid Israel derives heavily from their craven support for Zionist-dominated America and blind acceptance of Zionist hasbara (propaganda). No doubt, only when the  long-suffering Americans  throw off the shackles of the traitorous racist  Zionists  will the US lackey Lib-Labs discard their support for Israeli Apartheid. As we approach the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter it is worth noting that there is no non-Biblical evidence for the Hebrew Exile from Egypt, for the Kingdom of David and Solomon,  or the Exile of Jews from Palestine. Indeed the cultural and ethnic descendants of the Palestinian Jews at the time of Jesus are today’s sorely oppressed Palestinians, whose  the Jewish Israeli oppressors  largely descend from Berber, Yemeni and Khazar converts to Judaism in the first millennium AD [88-94]. Indeed I am walking proof of the untruth of the Zionist assertion  that the Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazim) derived from Palestine via Spain, and thence Western Europe – DNA analysis says that I am  57% Ashkenazi Jewish and 24% British Celtic with zero English, Western European, Middle Eastern or Palestinian contribution.

Final comments

What can decent people do? Decent anti-racist folk  around the world must (a) inform everyone they can about the horrendous crimes of Apartheid Israel , (b) demand the sidelining from public life of racist Zionists and their racist supporters, and (c)  urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all people, politicians, parties, collectives, countries and corporations supporting this nuclear terrorist, neo-Nazi rogue state and its ongoing  Palestinian Genocide.

Decent Australians  fervently hope that the present pro-Zionist, pro-Apartheid,  and effectively climate change denialist Coalition will be kicked out in the May 2019 elections,  and be replaced by a Labor Government that will ameliorate the lives of millions of disadvantaged Australians and take some  action, albeit disgracefully limited, on the worsening climate emergency. In Australia’s compulsory,  preferential voting system, decent Australians who care for human rights, future generations and the environment will utterly reject the pro-Apartheid Coalition, vote 1 Green, put the racist One Nation Party last, and put the pro-Apartheid Coalition second last.

*

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This article was originally published on Countercurrents.

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003).

Notes

[1]. “Emmar Husar”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Husar .

[2]. Sumeyya Ilanbey and Noel Towell, “Three Liberal candidates dumped from party two days into the campaign”, Sydney Morning Herald,  12 April 2019: https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/three-liberal-candidates-dumped-from-party-two-days-into-the-campaign-20190412-p51doj.html .

[3]. “Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_44_of_the_Constitution_of_Australia .

[4]. Sally Whyte, “A 14-month battle to run for parliament: a triple citizen’s experience”, Sydney Morning Herald,  16 February 2019: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/a-14-month-battle-to-run-for-parliament-a-triple-citizen-s-experience-20190215-p50y3i.html .

[5]. “Hungarian nationality law”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_nationality_law .

[6]. Caitlin Gribben, “Mark Dreyfus draws Josh Frydenberg back into citizenship saga”, ABC News, 11 December 2017: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-10/josh-frydenbergs-citizenship-dividing-labor/9244440 .

[7]. Robert Burton-Bradley and Jason Fang, “Liberal Chisholm candidate Gladys Liu caught disparaging LGBTI issues, blames Chinese community ”, ABC News, 15 April 2019: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-15/chisholm-candidates-comments-on-same-sex-marriage-released/11004596 .

[8]. Samuel Butler, “Erewhon”, 1872.

[9]. “Labor candidate Melissa Parke  pulls     out of Curtin contest over Israel comments”, Guardian, 13 April 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/13/labor-candidate-melissa-parke-pulls-out-of-curtin-contest-over-israel-comments .

[10]. “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .

[11].  “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .

[12]. Gideon Polya, “Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January, 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm

[13]. Gideon Polya, “Offences of Pentecostal Christian Scott Morrison, PM after Australia’s fourth PM-removing coup in 5 years”, Countercurrents, 18 September 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/09/18/offences-of-pentecostal-christian-scott-morrison-pm-after-australias-fourth-pm-removing-coup-in-8-years/ .

[14]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli Jewish Nation-State Law enshrines Apartheid and genocidal racism”, Countercurrents, 24 July 2018:  https://countercurrents.org/2018/07/24/israeli-jewish-nation-state-law-enshrines-apartheid-and-genocidal-racism/ .

[15]. Gideon Polya, “Democratic one-state solution ( unitary state, bi-national state) for post-Apartheid Palestine”, Countercurrents, 22 Decemebr 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/22/democratic-one-state-solution-unitary-state-bi-national-state-for-post-apartheid-palestine/ .

[16]. “One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine”, : https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution  .

[17]. “Boycott Apartheid  Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.

[18]. “Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration  .

[19]. “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ .

[20]. “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .

[21]. “Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty and reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/nuclear-weapons-ban .

[22]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[23]. Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) individuals  exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, and (B) countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism.”, Palestinian Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .

[24].  “Stop state terrorism” : https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/  .

[25]. “State crime and non-state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/  .

[26]. Yaseen Kippie, “Mandla Mandela called Apartheid Israel worse than Apartheid South Africa”, 91.3 FM Voice of the Cape, 1 December 2017: https://www.vocfm.co.za/mandla-mandela-calls-apartheid-israel-worse-apartheid-south-africa/ .

[27]. Gideon Polya, “WW1 Start Centenary, Ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Latest Israeli Gaza Massacre & Western Lying”, Countercurrents, 5 August, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya050814.htm  ).

[28]. Gideon Polya, “100th anniversary of 1918 Australian and New Zealand Surafend Massacre of Palestinians”, Countercurrents, 10 December 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/10/100th-anniversary-of-1918-australian-new-zealand-surafend-massacre-of-palestinians/ .

[29]. Gideon Polya, “70th anniversary of Apartheid Israel & commencement of large-scale Palestinian Genocide”, Countercurrents, 11 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/11/70th-anniversary-of-apartheid-israel-commencement-of-large-scale-palestinian-genocide/ .

[30]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli-Palestinian & Middle East conflict – from oil to climate genocide”, Countercurrents, 21 August 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/08/21/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-conflict-from-oil-to-climate-genocide/ .

[31]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable  Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .

[32]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .

[33]. “Zionist quotes re racism and Palestinian Genocide”, Palestinian Genocide :  https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/zionist-quotes .

[34]. Gideon Polya, “Zionist quotes reveal genocidal racism”, MWC News, 12 January 2018: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/69955-zionist-quotes-reveal-genocidal-racism.html .

[35]. Rajendra Prasad, “Tears in Paradise. Suffering and struggle of Indians in Fiji 1879-2004”(Glade, Auckland, New Zealand, 2004).

[36]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “Tears In Paradise. Suffering and Struggle Of Indians In Fiji 1879-2004” by Rajendra Prasad – Britain’s Indentured Indian “5 Year Slaves””, Countercurrents, 4 March, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya040315.htm .

[37]. Kavia Ivy Nandan (editor), “Stolen Worlds. FijiIndian Fragments”, Ivy Press International , 2005.

[38]. Gideon Polya, “Anti-Indian subversion of Fiji by Apartheid Israel, Pro-Apartheid Australia & pro-Apartheid America”, Countercurrents,  20 October 2017: http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/20/anti-indian-subversion-of-fiji-by-apartheid-israel-pro-apartheid-australia-pro-apartheid-america/ .

[39]. “Abdul Lateef”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Lateef_(Fijian_lawyer) .

[40]. “Eugen Pólya [Jeno Pólya]”, Wikjpedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_P%C3%B3lya .

[41].  “George Pólya”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P%C3%B3lya

[42]. Harold and Loretta Taylor, “George Pólya. Master of Discovery”,Dale Seymour, Palo Alto, 1993.

[43]. John Bela Polya, “Autobiography”.

[44]. John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid”, Audiovisual Library of International Law: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html .

[45]. Michael Slezak, “Gillian Triggs: Australian government “ideologically opposed to human rights””, Guardian, 25 July 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/26/gillian-triggs-australian-government-ideologically-opposed-to-human-rights .

[46]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes a succinct history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/  .

[47]. Gideon Polya, “As UK Lackeys Or US Lackeys Australians Have Invaded 85 Countries (British 193, French 80, US 70)”, Countercurrents, 9 February, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090215.htm .

[48]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Cambridge History Of Australia” Ignores  Australian Involvement In 30 Genocides”, Countercurrents, 14 October, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya141013.htm.

[49]. “Australian MPs take action on Gaza”, The Greens, Lee Rhiannon, 27 July 2014: https://lee-rhiannon.greensmps.org.au/articles/australian-mps-take-action-gaza .

[50]. “Australia should not welcome the Prime Minister of Israel”: https://apanaustralia.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/statement_netanyahu_signatories_for_release_final.pdf.

[51]. “Melissa Parke, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Parke .

[52]. Gideon Polya, “Australian State Terrorism –  Zero Australian Terrorism Deaths, 1 Million Preventable Australian Deaths & 10 Million Muslims Killed By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 23 September, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya230914.htm .

[53]. Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home .

[54]. “Lying by omission”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/lying-by-omission .

[55]. Philip Dorling, “US shares raw intelligence on Australian  with Israel”, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 2013: http://www.smh.com.au/national/us-shares-raw-intelligence-on-australians-with-israel-20130911-2tllm.html .

[56]. Gideon Polya, “Terror Hysteria –  Draconian New Australian Anti-Terrorism Laws Target Journalists,  Muslims And Human Rights”,  Countercurrents, 8 October, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya0810114.htm .

[57]. Gideon Polya, “50 Ways Australian Intelligence Spies On Australia And The World For UK , Israeli And US State Terrorism”,  Countercurrents, 11 December, 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya111213.htm .

[58]. Mark Pearson, “Journalists face jail for reporting intelligence operations – with no public interest defence”,  Journlaw, 3 October 2014: https://journlaw.com/2014/10/03/journalists-face-jail-for-reporting-intelligence-operations-with-no-public-interest-defence/ .

[59]. Gideon Polya, “Dual Israeli citizenship & Zionist perversion of America, Australia , India and Humanity”, Countercurrents, 30 July 2017 : https://countercurrents.org/2017/07/30/dual-israeli-citizenship-zionist-perversion-of-america-australia-india-humanity/ .

[60]. Gideon Polya, “Racist Zionism and Israeli State Terrorism threats to Australia and Humanity”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/racist-zionism-and-israeli .

[61]. Gideon Polya, “Australian’s massacre of 50 Muslims in New Zealand spotlights entrenched Australian Islamophobia and anti-Arab anti-Semitism”, Countercurrents, 1 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/01/australians-massacre-of-50-muslims-in-new-zealand-spotlights-entrenched-australian-islamophobia-anti-arab-anti-semitism/ .

[62]. Gideon Poilya, “US lackey Australia attacks free speech of Senator Dastyari, Muslims, Chinese, journalists  and truth-tellers”, Countercurrents, 10 December 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/12/10/us-lackey-australia-attacks-free-speech-of-senator-dastyari-muslims-chinese-journalists-truth-tellers/ .

[63]. Gideon Polya, “Australian Sinophobia and China-bashing from colonial persecution and White Australia to Trump America’s Asian deputy sheriff”, Countercurrents, 26 January 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/01/26/australian-sinophobia-china-bashing-colonial-persecution-white-australia-trump-americas-asia-deputy-sheriff/ .

[64]. National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2018, Parliament of Australia: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/billhome/r6022%22.

[65]. Gareth Hutchens, “Sweeping foreign interference and spying laws pass Senate”, Guardian, 29 June 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/29/sweeping-foreign-interference-and-spying-laws-pass-senate .

[66]. “Australia passes foreign interference laws amid China tension”, BBC, 28 June 2018: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-44624270 .

[67]. Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill 2018, Parliament of Australia: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/billhome/r6018%22 .

[68]. Paul Karp, “Coalition bill to ban foreign political donations passes Senate”, Guardian, 15 November 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/15/coalition-bill-to-ban-foreign-political-donations-passes-senate .

[69].Yee-Fui Ng, “The foreign donations bill will soon be law – what will it do and why is it needed?”, The Conversation, 28 November 2018:  https://theconversation.com/the-foreign-donations-bill-will-soon-be-law-what-will-it-do-and-why-is-it-needed-107095  .

[70]. Larissa Waters, “Donations data show our democracy is for sale”, 1 February 2019: https://larissa-waters.greensmps.org.au/articles/donations-data-shows-our-democracy-sale-0  .

[71]. Michelle Grattan, “Car sparks brawl over political influence of Melbourne Jewish Lobby”, The Conversation, 10 April 2014: https://theconversation.com/carr-sparks-brawl-over-political-influence-of-melbourne-jewish-lobby-25482 .

[72].  Antony Loewenstein, “Does the Zionist Lobby have blood on its hands in Australia?”: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/07/02/does-the-zionist-lobby-have-blood-on-its-hands-in-australia/ .

[73]. Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist-led Coup ousts Australian PM Rudd”, MWC News, 29 June 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/3488-pro-zionist-led-coup.html .

[74]. Andrew Rule, “Bill Shorten: the sun also rises”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 September 2009: https://www.smh.com.au/national/bill-shorten-the-son-also-rises-20090926-g6kq.html .

[75]. “Showbag Bill & Pratt the Younger”, Middle East Reality Check, 14 October 2013: http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2013/10/showbag-bill-pratt-younger.html

[76]. Aaron Patrick, “Bill Shorten flew in Pratt’s private jet to  Cuba”, Financial Review, 10 February 2917: https://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/bill-shorten-flew-in-richard-pratts-private-jet-to-cuba-20170209-gu8z2k .

[77]. “I’ve been to Israel too”, Middle East Reality Check, 30 March 2009:  http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2009/03/ive-been-to-israel-too.html .

[78]. Ali Kazak, “Why should Israel’s lobby have different standards?”, Independent Australia, 9 November 2017: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/does-the-nation-have-a-new-white-australia-foreign-affairs-policy,10913 .

[79]. Gideon Polya, “Yassmin Abdel-Magied censored on Anzac Day – jingoists trash Australian free speech”, Countercurrents, 28 April 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/04/28/yassmin-abdel-magied-censored-on-anzac-day-jingoists-trash-australian-free-speech/ .

[80]. Letters to The Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia) re Zionists and politicians demanding the banning  of a politics book for high school students and mentioning US and Israeli state terrorism: http://www.theage.com.au/news/letters/he-who-shouts-loudest-not-necessarily-the-best/2006/09/16/1158334730192.html?page=fullpage .

[81]. Paul Heinrichs, “Textbook links US and Israel to “state terrorism””, The Age, 10 September  2006: https://www.theage.com.au/national/textbook-links-us-israel-to-state-terrorism-20060910-ge33s6.html .

[82], Gideon Polya, “Mike Carlton, Top Australian Columnist, Forced From Job For Criticizing Apartheid Israeli Gaza Massacre”,  Countercurrents, 8 August, 2014: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya080814.htm .

[83]. Gideon Polya, “Academic Free Speech Under Zionist Attack At Notre Dame Australia And LSE, UK”, Countercurrents, 16 December, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya161215.htm .

[84]. Gideon Polya, “Australia’s pro-Zionist PM Turnbull’s Jewish heritage may mean he is ineligible to be an MP”, Countercirrents, 17 September 2017:  https://countercurrents.org/2017/09/17/australian-pro-zionist-pm-turnbulls-jewish-heritage-means-he-may-be-ineligible-to-be-an-mp/ .

[85]. “Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_44_of_the_Constitution_of_Australia .

[86]. “Hungarian nationality law”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_nationality_law .

[87]. Caitlin Gribben, “Mark Dreyfus draws Josh Frydenberg back into citizenship saga”, ABC News, 11 December 2017: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-10/josh-frydenbergs-citizenship-dividing-labor/9244440 .

[88]. Eran Elhaik,”Ashkenazic Jews’ mysterious origins unravelled by scientists  thanks to ancient DNA”,  The Conversation, 5 September 2018: https://theconversation.com/ashkenazic-jews-mysterious-origins-unravelled-by-scientists-thanks-to-ancient-dna-97962 .

[89]. Eran Elhaik, “Uncovering ancient Ashkenaz – the birthplace of Yiddish speakers”,  The Conversation, 6 May 2016: https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355 .

[90]. Arthur  Koestler, “The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and its Heritage”, Hutchinson, 1976.

[91]. Shlomo Sand, “The Invention of the Jewish People”, Verso, London, 2009.

[92]. Marta D. Costa et al, “A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages”, Nature, 2013: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131008/ncomms3543/full/ncomms3543.html .

[93]. “The rise and fall of the “Dutch Jerusalem””, ABC Late Night Live, 4 March 2019: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-dutch-jerusalem/10868280 .

[94]. Marta D. Costa et al, “A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages”, Nature, 2013: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131008/ncomms3543/full/ncomms3543.html .

Soon, this blog will be illegal.

No, I’m not selling drugs or peddling child pornography. I write about America’s wars and the primary objective of those illegal and immoral wars—to make Israel the hegemon of the Middle East along with Saudi Arabia. All US foreign policy in that region centers on those two nations.

The following may soon be classified as hate speech and anti-semitism (as increasingly criticism of the Jewish state and its Zionist political ideology are considered crimes). 

Jewish neocons found their way into the Reagan administration and later the Bush Junior White House and Pentagon. Huddled under the wing of Vice President Dick Cheney, they plotted to attack and destroy Israel’s enemies. Neocon ideologues strategized and published papers on these manufactured wars, most notably a paper presented to then Israeli president Bibi Netanyahu. It called for taking out Iraq and Syria. Israeli academics have written on this subject for decades. The nation’s early leaders engineered border provocations and false flag attacks (the Lavon Affair) to destabilize the region. Southern Lebanon is considered a valuable asset primarily for its water resources (e.g. “Operation Litani”) and the Golan Heights in Syria was occupied for its strategic value. 

Israel, of course, is unable to destroy its enemies, so that task is left to America and its neocons. The American people were lied into a war on Iraq. Both Israel and the US knew Saddam Hussein didn’t have the capability to threaten Israel militarily. Beyond its oil, Iraq held little strategic value for the US and its corporatocracy. However, it did have the ability to cause trouble, especially in regard to the Palestinians. 

Syria’s relationship with its Lebanese neighbor and its stubborn refusal to simply handover the occupied Golan to the Israelis is also a problem. It was one of several objectives behind a manufactured color revolution in Syria under the aegis of the “Arab Spring,” an objective that has thus far resulted in the murder of around 600,000 Syrians. 

The Bush era neocons (including John Bolton, now national security adviser, and Elliot Abrams, a key Bush coconspirator) had an ambitious laundry list of nations to be destroyed—Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and importantly Iran, the only serious challenger to Israel. The Obama administration added Libya and began covert operations in Africa. 

Trump took the baton from Obama after he told us he wasn’t into “nation-building” and was a populist “America First” noninterventionist. The American people were lied to again, but then this is now normal behavior. 

After 9/11 and years of aggressive war propaganda, it is now common for the American people to believe these lies. Meanwhile, endless diversion in the form of super-hyper and potentially violent partisanship between factions of the establishment political class keep most Americans distracted from larger issues—war and the bankster-rigged economy. It should be noted that criticism of central banks and monetary policy are also considered hateful antisemitism. 

In short, US foreign policy, directed by high-level neocons, is not conducted in the interest of the American people. It benefits Israel, which also takes billions every year from the American taxpayer. 

Bush the intellectual midget was unable to provide and explanation why nuclear and biological weapons were not found in Iraq—instead, he made a comedy routine out of this “intelligence failure” and the systematic murder of eventually well over a million Iraqis. In truth, WMDs were not the reason for the invasion and occupation. The real objective was to produce violent sectarianism and division, thus making sure Iraq was preoccupied with its own serious problems and not calling for Palestinian justice. The same basic plan was reproduced in Libya, another oil-rich nation with a strong sense of pan-Arab nationalism, thus aligned with the Palestinians and regarding Israel as a renegade Zionist apartheid state. 

Donald Trump’s sycophantic fawning over Israel—undoubtedly under the influence of his Orthodox Jewish son-in-law—has opened the floodgates: the US embassy moved to Jerusalem, Trump signed off on Israel’s theft of Syria’s Golan Heights, and of most value for Israel, the US under Trump is ramping up rhetoric, imposing additional sanctions, and promising military action against Iran. The latest move: Trump has designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization (and the Iranians in turn designated the US Central Command as a terrorist organization).

Such criticism of Israel will soon be illegal. Democrats and Republicans are working together to make criticism of Israel a criminal offense. South Carolina passed a law making it illegal to boycott Israel, while Florida passed legislation outlawing antisemitic thoughtcrime. Tennessee worked to pass what it calls the Anti-Semitism Awareness Bill. After this failed to gain traction, Tennessee passed a resolution declaring unequivocal support for Israel. At the same time, the US House enacted a resolution “condemning anti-Semitism” following remarks made by House freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar’s criticism of AIPAC and the influence of Israeli-American lobbying. 

Now that criticism of Zionism and the Israeli state is criminal —according to the propaganda media and a manipulative ruling elite—we can expect any principled discussion of Israel, its treatment of the Palestinians, and its effort in unison with the neocons to get a shooting war going with Iran, to be punished by muzzle, fines, and possible prison time. 

Remarkable or not, this situation—most prominently the disassembly of the First Amendment and another devastating war—is hardly even a minor concern for many Americans. The criminalization of speech is something that happened in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and East Germany under the watch of the Stasi, and we were told it was impossible in America with our bounty of rights. 

Those rights—rights we are born with—are now increasingly denied by law. In the near future, such laws may be used to shutdown any number of websites and social media accounts that dare criticize Israel, as that criticism—that speech—is now equivalent to violence.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site: Another Day in the Empire.

Kurt Nimmo is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from TheFreeThoughtProject

The Strategy of Controlled Chaos

April 18th, 2019 by Manlio Dinucci

Everyone against everyone else – this is the media image of chaos which is spreading across the Southern shores of the Mediterranean, from Libya to Syria. It is a situation before which even Washington seems powerless. But in reality, Washington is not the sorcerer’s apprentice unable to control the forces now in motion. It is the central motor of a strategy – the strategy of chaos – which, by demolishing entire States, is provoking a chain reaction of conflicts which can be used in the manner of the ancient method of “divide and rule”.

Emerging victorious from the Cold War in 1991, the USA self-appointed themselves as “the only State with power, reach, and influence in all dimensions – political, economic and military – which are truly global”, and proposed to “prevent any hostile power from dominating any region – Western Europe, Eastern Asia, the territories of the ex-Soviet Union, and South-Western Asia (the Middle East) – whose resources could be enough to generate a world power”.

Since then, the United States, with NATO under their command, have fragmented or destroyed by war, one by one, the states they considered to represent an obstacle to their plan for world domination – Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and others – while still others are in their sights (among which are Iran and Venezuela).

In the same strategy came the coup d’État in Ukraine under the direction of the USA and NATO, in order to provoke a new Cold War in Europe intended to isolate Russia and reinforce the influence of the United States in Europe.

While we concentrate politico-media attention on the fighting in Libya, we leave in the shadows the increasingly threatening scenario of NATO’s escalation against Russia. The meeting of the 29 Ministers for Foreign Affairs, convened in Washington on 4 April to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Alliance, reaffirmed, without any proof, that “Russia violated the FNI Treaty by deploying new missiles with a nuclear capacity in Europe”.

One week later, on 11 April, NATO announced that the “update” of the US Aegis “anti-missile defence system”, based at Deveselu in Romania, would be implemented this summer, assuring that it would “not add any offensive capacity to the system”.

On the contrary, this system, installed in Romania and Poland, as well as on board ships, is able to launch not only interceptor missiles, but also nuclear missiles. Moscow issued a warning – if the USA were to deploy nuclear missiles in Europe, Russia would deploy – on its own territory – similar missiles pointed at European bases.

Consequently, NATO’s spending for « defence » has skyrocketed – the military budgets of European allies and those of Canada will rise to 100 billion dollars in 2020.

The Ministers for Foreign Affairs, united in Washington on 4 April, agreed in particular to “face up to Russia’s aggressive actions in the Black Sea”, by establishing “new measures of support for our close partners, Georgia and Ukraine”.

The following day, dozens of warships and fighter-bombers from the United States, Canada, Greece, Holland, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria began a NATO aero-naval war exercise in the Black Sea at the limit of Russian territorial waters, using the ports of Odessa (Ukraine) and Poti (Georgia).

Simultaneously, more than 50 fighter-bombers from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Holland, taking off from a Dutch airbase and refuelling in flight, practised “offensive aerial missions of attack against earth-based or sea-based objectives”. Italian Eurofighter fighter-bombers were once again sent by NATO to patrol the Baltic region to counter the “threat” of Russian warplanes.

The situation is increasingly tense and can explode (or be exploded) at any moment, dragging us down into a chaos much worse that of Libya.

*

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This article was originally published on Il Manifesto. Translated by Pete Kimberley.

Manlio Dinucci is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

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A estratégia do caos encaminhado

April 17th, 2019 by Manlio Dinucci

Tudo contra todos: é a imagem mediática do caos que se alarga à mancha de petróleo na costa sul do Mediterrâneo, da Líbia à Síria. Uma situação perante a qual até Washington parece impotente. Na realidade, Washington não é um aprendiz de feiticeiro incapaz de controlar as forças postas em movimento. É o centro motor de uma estratégia – a do caos – que, ao demolir Estados inteiros, provoca uma reação em cadeia de conflitos a serem utilizados de acordo com o critério antigo – “dividir para reinar”.

Tendo saído vitoriosos da Guerra Fria, em 1991, os USA autoproclamaram-se  “o único Estado com uma força, uma escala e uma influência, em todas as  dimensões – política, económica e militar – verdadeiramente global”, propondo-se “impedir que qualquer poder hostil domine uma região – Europa Ocidental, Ásia Oriental, o território da antiga União Soviética e o Sudoeste Asiático (Médio Oriente) – cujos recursos seriam suficientes para criar uma potência global”. Desde então, os EUA e a NATO sob o seu comando, fragmentaram ou demoliram com a guerra, um após outro, os Estados considerados obstáculos ao plano de domínio global – Iraque, Jugoslávia, Afeganistão, Líbia, Síria e outros – enquanto mais alguns (entre os quais o Irão e a Venezuela) ainda estão na sua mira.

Nessa mesma estratégia está incluído o golpe de Estado na Ucrânia, sob direcção USA/NATO, com o fim de provocar na Europa, uma nova Guerra Fria, a fim de isolar a Rússia e fortalecer a influência dos Estados Unidos na Europa.

Enquanto a atenção político-mediática se concentra no conflito na Líbia, deixa-se na sombra o cenário cada vez mais ameaçador da escalada da NATO contra a Rússia. A reunião dos 29 Ministros dos Negócios Estrangeiros, convocada em 4 de Abril, em Washington, para celebrar o 70º aniversário da NATO, reiterou, sem qualquer prova, que “a Rússia viola o Tratado INF, instalando, na Europa, novos mísseis com capacidades nucleares”.

Uma semana depois, em 11 de Abril, a NATO anunciou que neste verão haverá uma “actualização” do sistema USA Aegis de “defesa antimíssil”, instalado em Deveselu, na Roménia, assegurando que a mesma actualização “não oferece nenhuma capacidade ofensiva ao sistema”. Este sistema, instalado na Roménia e na Polónia e a bordo de navios, pode lançar não só mísseis interceptores, como também mísseis nucleares.

Moscovo advertiu que, se os EUA instalarem mísseis nucleares na Europa, a Rússia distribuirá no seu território, mísseis idênticos apontados para as bases europeias. Consequentemente, aumentam as despesas para a “defesa” da NATO: os orçamentos militares dos aliados europeus e do Canadá, aumentarão até 2020, para 100 biliões de dólares.

Os Ministros dos Negócios Estrangeiros da NATO, reunidos em Washington, em 4 de Abril, comprometeram-se em particular, a “enfrentar as acções agressivas da Rússia na região do Mar Negro”, estabelecendo “novas medidas de apoio aos nossos parceiros chegados, a Geórgia e a Ucrânia”. No dia seguinte, dezenas de navios e caça bombardeiros dos Estados Unidos, Canadá, Grécia, Holanda, Turquia, Roménia e Bulgária iniciaram um exercício de guerra naval da NATO, perto das águas territoriais russas, usando os portos de Odessa (Ucrânia) e Poti (Geórgia).

Ao mesmo tempo, mais de 50 caça bombardeiros dos Estados Unidos, Alemanha, Grã-Bretanha, França e Holanda, decolando de um aeroporto holandês e reabastecidos em voo, exercitavam-se em “missões aéreas ofensivas atacando alvos em terra ou no mar”. Por sua vez, bombardeiros italianos Eurofighter serão enviados pela NATO, para patrulhar novamente a região do Báltico contra a “ameaça” dos aviões russos.

A corda está cada vez mais tensa e pode quebrar-se (ou ser quebrada) a qualquer momento, arrastando-nos para um caos muito mais perigoso do que o da Líbia.

Manlio Dinucci

Artigo em italiano :

La strategia del caos guidato

Il manifesto, 15 de Abril de 2019

Tradutora : Luisa Vasconcellos

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Em Florença, celebração em oposição ao 70° aniversário da NATO

April 17th, 2019 by Comitato No Nato No Guerra

O 70º aniversário da NATO foi celebrado por 29 Ministros dos Negócios Estrangeiros, que se reuniram, não no quartel general da NATO, em Bruxelas, mas no do Departamento de Estado em Washington. O ‘mestre de cerimónias’ foi o Secretário Geral da NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, que apenas anunciou o discurso de abertura do Secretário de Estado, Michael Pompeo.

A NATO – explica o Departamento de Estado – é importante porque, graças a ela, “os Estados Unidos podem enfrentar melhor, politica e  militarmente, as ameaças globais globais aos seus interesses: a NATO permanece fundamental, para as operações militares USA na região transatlântica (isto é na Europa) e noutras regiões estrategicamente críticas, como o Médio Oriente e a Ásia Meridional”. Portanto, é o próprio Departamento de Estado que nos diz claramente, que a NATO é uma ferramenta dos Estados Unidos.

Nenhuma reacção política, em Itália. A única resposta veio da Conferência que, promovida pelo Comitato No Guerra No NATO e pelo Global Research, um centro de pesquisa liderado por Michel Chossudovsky, reuniu cerca de 600 participantes no Cine-Teatro Odeon, em Florença, no dia 7 de Abril.

As conclusões descritas a seguir, estão expostas na:

DECLARAÇÃO DE FLORENÇA,

CRIANDO UMA FRENTE INTERNACIONAL DESTINADA À SAÍDA DA NATO

Ø  “O risco de uma guerra gigantesca que, com o uso de armas nucleares poderia marcar o fim da Humanidade, é real e está a aumentar, mesmo que não seja percebido pela opinião pública, mantida na ignorância do perigo iminente.

Ø  É de vital importância, o empenho máximo em sair do sistema de guerra. Este facto levanta a questão da Itália e de outros países europeus pertencerem à NATO.

Ø  “A NATO não é uma aliança. É uma organização sob o comando do Pentágono, cujo objectivo é o controlo militar da Europa Ocidental e Oriental.

Ø  As bases dos Estados Unidos, nos países membros da NATO, servem para ocupar esses países, mantendo uma presença militar permanente que permite a Washington influenciar e controlar as decisões políticas e impedir as verdadeiras escolhas democráticas.

Ø  “A NATO é uma máquina de guerra que age de acordo com os interesses dos Estados Unidos, com a cumplicidade dos principais grupos de poder europeus, cometendo crimes contra a Humanidade.

Ø  “A guerra de agressão conduzida pela NATO, em 1999, contra a Jugoslávia, abriu caminho para a globalização das intervenções militares, com as guerras contra o Afeganistão, Líbia, Síria e outros países, em completa violação do Direito Internacional.

Ø  “Essas guerras são financiadas pelos países membros, cujos orçamentos militares estão constantemente a aumentar  à custa das despesas sociais, a fim de apoiar programas militares colossais, como o programa nuclear no montante de 1.2 triliões de dólares.

Ø  “Os EUA, violando o Tratado de Não Proliferação, instalaram armas nucleares em 5 países não nucleares da NATO, com o pretexto da falsa “ameaça russa”, colocando em risco a segurança da Europa.

Ø  “Para sair do sistema de guerra, que nos prejudica cada vez mais e nos expõe ao perigo iminente de uma guerra aniquiladora, devemos deixar a NATO, afirmando o direito de existir como Estados soberanos e neutros.

Ø  “Desta maneira, é possível contribuir para o desmantelamento da NATO e de qualquer outra aliança militar, para a reconfiguração das estruturas de toda a região europeia, para a formação de um mundo multipolar no qual se concretizam as aspirações dos povos à liberdade e à justiça social.

Ø  Propomos a criação de uma frente internacional NATO EXIT, em todos os países europeus da NATO, construindo uma rede organizadora de base capaz de encorajar, a luta necessária e difícil, para alcançar este objectivo vital para o nosso futuro.

Comitato No Guerra No Nato/Global Research, 

Florença, 7 de Abril de 2019

 

il manifesto,

Petition update, 9 de Abril de 2019


NO WAR NO NATO

SIGN THIS PETITON

Tradutora: Maria Luísa de Vasconcellos

 

Video em italiano :

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By now, most of us should have come to realize that plant, animal and human life is not eternal on this planet. For several decades atmospheric scientists have been warning that the orgy of anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases, if it is permitted to continue at current rates, will bring life as we know to an end. Where scientists disagree, and where there remains growing debate, concerns the timeline before global warming’s acceleration cascades into runaway conditions leading towards our demise. Nevertheless, one thing seems certain, for anyone who bothers to follow the steady flow of climate change reports and updates, every year conditions are becoming more dire than the previous years. And as scientists consistently have had to reevaluate their earlier predictions, the situation is turning more drastic.

Not to be outdone by the fossil fuel industry’s addiction to burning fossil fuels, nor our blusterous neoliberal capitalist rush to establish full spectrum economic dominance, the telecommunications industry and Silicon Valley are eager to enter the horse race to imperil human existence. In the past we have regularly reported on the corruption that is endemic in our federal health agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, in the nuclear power industry and industrial agriculture. Now we address the culture of deception that permeates the telecommunications and wireless regime, and its irresponsible denialism about electromagnetic frequency radiation’s effects on plant and animal life.

The roll out of 5G (Fifth Generation) technology across the nation is being framed as a sprint contest against China, which is also determined to transition to 5G.

Europe, in defiance of American pressures, is now leaning towards the Chinese company Huawei to service the European continent. It is expected that by 2024, about 40 percent of the world’s population will be connected to the 5G network. That means tens of billions of devices, from cars to refrigerators, traffic lights, surveillance equipment, utility smart meters and phones will be interlinked to a global web of EMF technologies. Nothing with an electronic chip will be exempt. No plant or tree, insect, bird, fish, animal or human will be able to escape 24-hour a day exposure to enormous amounts of electromagnetic pollution. Already this new generation technology is being aggressively promoted and marketed to the public without any mention of its catastrophic risks. The organization Physicians for Safe Technology is now warning that its predictable adverse effect will create “biological, environmental as well as societal disruption” and will “be difficult or impossible to reverse.”

Whereas the current 4G technology succeeded in a complete digital migration enabling higher speeds for mobile phones, video and internet interfaces, in the words of President Obama’s FCC chair Tom Wheeler, 5G will be the “Internet of Everything.”

“If something can be connected,” Wheeler told a National Press Club audience in 2016, “it will be connected in the 5G world. But with predictions of hundreds of billions of microchip-enabled products from pill bottles to plant waterers, you can be sure of only one thing: the biggest IOT [Internet of Things] has yet to be imagined.”

Wheeler believes he is in charge of this revolution:

“the 5G revolution will touch all corners and that is damn important.”

The Obama administration’s FCC launched the Spectrum Frontiers rules to mandate 5G rollout as a “national priority.” In the rules, we find a disturbing initiative; that is, technology will drive policy rather than vice versa. Wheeler stated this in no uncertain terms. In other words, the private telecommunications industrial complex is being given precedence over elected legislators, including Congressional leaders who voice deep concerns about 5G’s threats. It also has precedence over the warnings voiced by the medical, health and environmental agencies.

However, the 5G race actually goes back to the Clinton White House. In 1996, Clinton foolishly handed over to the telecommunications industry carte blanche power over state and local governments to install 5G technologies. The Telecommunications Act (TCA) is a dismal piece of legislation. It is another incident where Clinton was a far more loyal enabler to private corporate interests instead of the public. Clinton’s TCA decrees that no health or environmental concern can interfere with telecom installations. It gives full power to the FCC to regulate telecom EMF’s health effects, yet the FCC is not a health agency nor are there any biomedical experts in the FCC. In addition, the Act takes away the authority of town, city, and county councils to rule against 5G stations and cell tower installments. And if towns vote to prevent a 5G tower being erected near a school or children’s park, or a crowded neighborhood, the companies have the right to sue.

For example, in the prosperous town of Moraga in the San Francisco Bay Area, town council efforts are underway to prevent the installation of a 5G cell tower. The initiative is being launched by a woman whose husband, a heavy cell phone user since the mid-1980s, developed a brain tumor near the ear where he held the phone for many years. Moraga is mobilized to bring a halt to the tower. But it is losing battle. And there are similar cases occurring throughout the country as the pubic becomes increasingly warned about 5G health risks.

No argument can be raised against the benefits that wireless technologies have brought to the world. They have contributed to remarkable advances in medical diagnostic tools, security equipment, better telecommunication networks for governments, businesses and organizations, entertainment, faster connections on the worldwide web, connected the internet with mobile phones, and much more. Consequently it has also been a boon for job growth. But their disadvantages and defects have largely been hidden from public view. And the telecommunication industry and government officials have been completely aware of these risks for over half a century. Other risks are being identified and described as independent research and analysis outside the purview of corporate telecom oversight continues.

Unfortunately the government is not investing in the necessary safety studies to determine whether rolling out 5G is a wise policy. Wheeler, the initial architect for the nation’s 5G strategy, has never acknowledged that there are known health risks associated with electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) . He is a product of the same private industrial mindset that has churned out climate change deniers in the big oil companies and pesticide- and GMO-risk deniers in the Big Agriculture.

Americans need to wake up to the fact that they are facing a formidable enemy in the telecommunication industry. The FCC and the cartel of telecom companies and Silicon Valley remain in complete denial about the multitude of health risks that 5G antennas, mobile phones, smart meters and other electronic appliances that will be connected with 5G, have been shown to contribute towards. Wheeler, who was appointed by Obama, took the reins of the FCC with an intention to push 5G technology regardless of any opposition. He also originally opposed net neutrality that would financially benefit internet providers’ coffers at the public’s expense. The subsequent backlash from Silicon companies such as Google, Microsoft, eBay, etc., forced the FCC to back pedal. There was never any question about Wheeler’s loyalty to his masters in the cable and wireless industry. Before entering politics, he was a venture capitalist and lobbyist for the telecommunications industry, a former president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, and the only person to twice be inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame. What Wheeler accomplished in office on behalf of the telecommunications industry is analogous to the successes of Wall Street bankers within during the Clinton presidency to dismantle consumer protections from casino investments. Since leaving the FCC, Wheeler has become a Fellow at the corporate-centrist Brookings Institute where he continues to advance telecommunication’s commercial interests

Unfortunately the situation has worsened under Trump. The current FCC Consumer Advisory Panel is controlled by the Koch Brothers’ American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — staunch opponents of net neutrality, municipal broadband and consumer protections. The agency intends to grant the telecommunications industry with subsidized access to all local and state public properties. This will make the telecommunication industry’s dominance over state, city and state council rights complete.

Much of the technology that will be utilized by 5G is not completely new. The US and Soviet militaries have been experimenting with high electromagnetic frequency and microwave weaponry since the 1960s. A 1985 declassified CIA report on “Soviet Directed Energy Weapons” reveals that the Russians had been conducting extensive research in microwave particle beams and electromagnetic frequency directed laser weapons since the early 1960s. Their research was thorough and conceivable more advanced than the US military efforts.

Screenshot from the CIA

The only practical and conceivable benefit 5G has for the average consumer is speed. It is anticipated to be at least 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G technology, which in turn was 10 times faster than 3G. Therefore, for those impatient with download times, it is largely only time-saving perk with greater interface capabilities with other wireless devices. However, it will be far greater boon to the Defense Department’s development of weapons and crowd control technologies. With 5G circumnavigating the globe, we cannot begin to imagine the horrid possibilities of future weapons, which could even include directed measures to trigger illnesses and disease in a foreign populations. With the 5G rollout we will be finally be on the path of entering an Orwellian nightmare.

A plethora of medical and environmental research has accumulated about the health and ecological risks of electromagnetic frequency radiation (EMF) and microwaves. To avoid confusion, 5G transmission is within the microwave band frequency. It is estimated that there are over 10,000 peer-reviewed clinical studies mentioning serious molecular biological injury and defects to organs, neurons, cells and cellular function, and DNA damage to plants, animals and humans alike. Between August 2016 and September 2018, over 400 new studies on electromagnetic radiation risks have been compiled by public health Professor Joel Moskowitz at the University of California at Berkeley. These studies cover earlier generation technologies, whereas 5G will be far more evasive and less safe. Compared to 4G technology in use today, every 5G base station will contain hundreds of thousands of antennas each aiming laser like microwave beams to all devices. In an urban area, base stations would be installed 100 meters (328 feet) apart.

For example, a study published in the August 2018 issue of Journal of Medical Imaging and Health Informatics concluded after an extensive review of the medical literature that “incidence of cancer cases was remarkably higher among people who resided in 400 meters from mobile antennas, in comparison to those who lived further away. Females reported statistically more health complaints than males. Inhabitants living close to cellular antennas are also at increased risk for developing neuropsychiatric complaints.” Under the 5G regime every American in a suburb or city will be living 100 meters or less from an antenna. Our lives will exist in a stew of what some now call “electrosmog.”

The Competence Initiative for the Protection of Humanity, the Environment and Democracy in Germany has published one of the most thorough series of reports on the health, biological and environmental implications of long-term exposure to electromagnetic frequencies emitted from wireless communication technologies. The Initiative is a multi-disciplinary coalition of independent medical doctors, biologists, psychologists, environmental scientists, attorneys and representatives from other disciplines. Although the research primarily covers 3G and less, the science is daunting and should sound alarms of 5G’s far more destructive health risks. Even with 3G, the evidence is conclusive that the rise in brain tumors and cancer is attributable to the overuse of mobile phones. One summary report concludes that the genotoxic effects of phone radiation “can trigger irreversible damage in genomes and reversible ones in epigenomes.” Damage to cells’ mitochondria is particularly disturbing since mitochondrial DNA is directly passed down from mothers to their offspring. Back in 2011, the World Health Organization classified EMF radiation as a likely human carcinogen based upon wireless phones’ increased risk for developing malignant brain glioma tumors. The announcement was based upon scientists from 14 countries reviewing hundreds of scientific studies. Since then, the largest study of its kind through the National Toxicology Program, at a cost of $25 million, concluded without reservation that EMF exposure below the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines — which most countries follow — increases the incidence of brain and heart cancers in animals, including humans.

In 2016, the Europa EM-EMF guideline found “strong evidence that long-term exposure to certain EMFs is a risk factor for diseases such as certain cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, and male infertility…Common EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity) symptoms include headaches, concentration difficulties, sleep problems, depression, lack of energy, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms.”

All developed countries, which have the highest levels of EMF exposure and wireless device usage, are witnessing a rapid decline in male fertility. However, this trend is being observed globally. Since 1973 when close record keeping started to 2011, well into the wireless world, sperm concentrations have decreased 53 percent. The researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who conducted the study predicts that large majority of men in the Europe could be completely infertile by 2060. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 85 percent of couples are unable to achieve pregnancy after 12 months of trying. Male sterility is the primary problem among 30-50 percent of couples. Curiously, the HHS makes no mention of EMF exposure among its lists of probable causes, although it notes medical radiation treatments.

Yet barely do we hear about the increasing amount EMF exposure and mobile phone usages association with these rising male infertility trends. Researchers at the National Academy of Medical Sciences in Ukraine, placed study participants’ sperm samples in incubation conditions either with our without Wifi mobile phone exposure. Sperm exposed to EMF showed substantial DNA fragmentation and loss of motility. More comprehensive in vitro and in vivo studies out of Hanyang University in Seoul concluded that EMF exposure dramatically altered reproductive endocrine hormones, gonadal function, embryonic development, pregnancy and fetal development. In addition, pineal gland measurements observed a decrease in melatonin, which would contribute to either sleeplessness or poor quality of sleep that is commonly noted by persons with EMF sensitivities. Sperm germ cell morphology declined and apoptosis of male germ cells were observed. In addition, EMF adversely affected women’s ovaries with decreases in the estrus cycle and follicle growth.

The telecommunications industry and FCC deny these types of findings because living in a sea of 5G microwave exposure these health risks will multiply exponentially in time.

In the Competence Initiative’s report Bees, Birds, and Humans: Electrosmog’s Destructive Effects on Nature, German biologist Dr. Ulrich Warnke states:

“The information-processing and function systems of today’s humans, plants and animals are bombarded with artificial magnetic, electric and electromagnetic fields from numerous mobile and telecommunications sources in a concentration and intensity as never before. The consequences of these developments put forth by their critics cannot be overlooked any longer. Bees and other insects are disappearing. Birds avoid certain regions and are disoriented in others. Humans suffer functional problems and other sicknesses. And the evidence that suggests some of these problems may be inheritable means we’re passing them on to the next generation.”

As we noted above, Russia, before and during the years after the Soviet era, aggressively conducted experiments to determine microwave technologies activities on human health and the environment. Between 1960 and 1997, Russian scientists published 878 known studies measuring microwave effects on human and animal health and the environment. The studies are largely unknown in the US nor are they encouraging. In fact, they are outright frightening because these health threats have been known for a very long time and are being completely brushed aside. If 4G technology had been categorized and regulated as a pharmaceutical drug, it would have been black boxed and removed from the market long ago. And 5G will be far more toxic.

The Soviet studies on EMF exposure’s adverse effects on health and their symptoms’ prevalence of frequency, many which appear to have been replicated, monitored research subjects for 5 to 10 years. In other words, the researchers were interested in measuring the long-term effects from EMF exposure. They also involved thousands of subjects. Among the medical disorders identified were:

  • Neuroasthenia and sensory somatic disorders — 91% frequency after 10 years
  • CNS and autonomic nervous disorders — 59% frequency after 5 years
  • Cardiovascular disease — 66% frequency after 5 years
  • Circadian rhythm interruption and body temperature disruption – 85% frequency after 10 years
  • Hypoglycemia – 59% frequency after 10 years
  • Sensorimotor disorders and chronic fatigue – 59% frequency after 10 years
  • Depression – 66% frequency after 5 years
  • Resting tremors, tinnitus, hair loss – 59% frequency after 5 years
  • Memory loss and chronic headaches – 50% frequency after 5 years

Other disorders identified included loss of muscle strength, thyroid hyperactivity, deterioration of eye sight, psycho-neurovegetative dystonia, asthenia, cardiac pain, etc. The Soviets also found that EMF’s adverse effects accumulated with longer exposure; younger children had much higher sensitivity to EMF fields than adults; and, the decline in a person’s health increasingly amplified EMF’s adverse effects. Most important, these studies were conducted back in the 1960s. When Professor C. Susskind from the University of California at Berkeley introduced the Soviet’s research during a 1968 US Senate hearing to evaluate microwaves’ biological effects, his suggestions that the US should make an effort to replicate the Soviet’s research and determine microwave safety, were ignored and dismissed.

We have only touched upon 5G’s potential threats to human life. However, it will also have devastating consequences on wildlife, plants and the environment. A large body of scientific literature already exists to corroborate 5G’s catastrophic environmental threats. For those concerned with climate change, the 5G rollout will also contribute to a warming Earth. The rollout does not portend to be green or clean. Nobody is speaking about the 20,000 plus satellites that will orbit around the planet and need to be launched by 20,000-plus rockets to advance the 5G vision. These rockets will be fueled by a new type of hydrocarbon engine. A paper released by the Aerospace Corporation predicts that this will “create a persistent layer of black carbon particles in the northern stratosphere.” (Greenhouse gases normally remain in the troposphere above the earth’s surface). This would likely deplete the ozone by 1 percent and the polar ozone layer by as much as 6%. The report concludes that “[A]fter one decade of continuous launches, globally averaged radiative forcing from the black carbon would exceed the forcing from the emitted CO2 by a factor of about 10 to the fifth power.” In other words, 5G will have a substantial carbon footprint at a time when we must drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions to curtail the speed of reaching critical tipping points.

The federal government and telecommunication industry are making every effort to hide the predictable inimical consequences to life on earth once 5G is fully installed and operating. During Wheeler’s optimistic pep talk at the National Press Club, no mention was made about 5G detractors or ever increasing health warnings being articulated by the scientific community. Nor will the mainstream media lend its airwaves to address these deeply disturbing issues. The media is completely compromised by the telecom industry. Its conflicts of interests are rampant.

In our opinion, the 5G rollout is a naive experiment with potential holocaust-like dimensions in the long-term. The United States, unlike Europe, has never felt obliged to follow UNESCO’s Precautionary Principle to avoid “morally unacceptable harm” when the science is plausible but still uncertain. In the case of 5G, the harm to human life is certain, and in the view of Dr. Lennart Hardel, an oncology professor at University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden, it may be in violation of the Nuremberg Code.

The preponderance of quality peer-reviewed scientific data has established a direct link between EMF radiation emitted from mobile phones, computers and lap tops, and 3G to 5G antennas and towers with a multitude of illnesses. Unfortunately, based upon the lack of critical thinking and in-depth reporting evident in the mainstream media, we are reasonably confident that this expose and the excellent articles by many others will make very little impact. Mainstream media’s track record for denying scientific warnings about other human-made threats to health and life confirms our confidence. Almost nothing is being done in the US, and many other nations, to lessen global warming trends. The professional corporate class will do nothing, even if they understand climate change’s threats. There is simply too much profit to be made by not disrupting the status quo of conducting business-as-usual.  Now, there is the national priority to push the throttle to its limit to develop worldwide wireless connectivity.  Silicon Valley and its thousands of bright young minds will not wake up tomorrow and suddenly have a conscience committed to a universal set of morals and ethics. Like the generations before them, they are simply chasing the profits.  Federal legislators have always followed the money. Federal regulatory agencies such as the FCC, USDA, EPA, FDA and CDC are fully captured by Wall Street and multinational corporations. State legislators are following ALEC and its funders, who create and provide bills and policies favoring special corporate interests. These laws almost never benefit the citizens of the states.

We could have learned a lesson about why 5G will not be halted for proper review by looking at past history: our failed wars and the catastrophic consequences of our regime changes such as in Libya and Honduras. Even the arrest of Julian Assange. By now, we should have learned the lessons of how Washington has handled other scientifically proven dangers to the public:  genetically modified crops and chemicals like Roundup, mandatory vaccination, the dietary and environmental factors associated with our epidemics in obesity, diabetes, autism, heart diseases, etc, and the evisceration of consumer protection laws such as the Clean Water and Clean Air acts. Rarely do we ever read an honest, truthful expose in any major media source about the institutions and organizations that hold power over our lives, such as the Business Round Table, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Davos dilettantes. Nor is there ever concise reporting about the intelligence specter of the Deep State.

If we truly cared about 5G’s global peril to all of planetary life and humans, by extension we would have cared about all of these other threats foreshadowing our lives.  They are all interconnected.  So, are we hopeless? No, because there will always be a tiny segment of the American population who “get it” and in turn becomes an agitating voice against those in power. Unfortunately, those who “get it” are excluded from every critical forum where their voices most urgently need to be heard, especially within the mainstream media that protects the power elite and oligarchs. Hence, Americans find themselves in an economic, medical, political and pseudo-scientific echo chamber.  We hope this article provides a small source of light for those who wish to understand the future arrival of the 5G matrix.

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Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the biotechnology and genomic industries.

Dr. Gary Null is the host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on alternative and nutritional health and a multi-award-winning documentary film director, including Poverty Inc and Deadly Deception.

Selected Articles: Preventing the Sale of Venezuelan Oil to Cuba

April 17th, 2019 by Global Research News

Online independent analysis of US-led wars, rampant corruption, corporate greed, civil rights and fraudulent monetary transactions is invariably relegated to the bottom rung of search engine results.

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Julian Assange and the Agenda for Global War

By Prof. James Petras, April 17, 2019

Never has the mass media been so thoroughly discredited by official documents which directly contradict the official propaganda, mouthed by political leaders and parroted by ‘leading’ journalists.

The Price of Participating in Society Is the Sacrifice of Privacy and Self

By John Stanton, April 17, 2019

In what is arguably one of the most craven opportunistic moves by a business/media group to increase its circulation/profitability, on 10 April the New York Times (NYT) embarked on what it describes as its Privacy Project. 

Between Yes and No, Heaven and Earth with Albert Camus on a Spring Morning

By Edward Curtin, April 17, 2019

For a writer to fight injustice to the exclusion of creating beauty and living passionately contradicts the deepest desires of the human heart.  Albert Camus taught us this.

Preventing the Sale of Venezuelan Oil to Cuba: Killing Two Birds with a Stone

By Nino Pagliccia, April 17, 2019

Recent US sanctions have been directed at the heart of Venezuela’s economy: the oil industry, an industry that has also been crippled by the continued sabotages on the electric power grid of the country.

A Cathedral and a Mosque Engulfed in Fire; One Ravages the Past, the Other Threatens the Future

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, April 17, 2019

World leaders were quick to react to the tragedy of this fire.  News headlines around the world brought this disastrous incident to every living room around the globe and nations commiserated with the French. The inaudible sigh of relief was palpable when the structure was saved and with it, the history that laid within the walls. The past was not lost.

Annexation of West Bank May Provide Key to Unlocking Netanyahu’s Legal Troubles

By Jonathan Cook, April 17, 2019

The culmination of his dirty tricks campaign was an election-day stunt in which his Likud party broke regulations – and possibly the law – by arming 1,200 activists with hidden cameras, to film polling stations in communities belonging to Israel’s large Palestinian minority.

Permissible Influences: Israel and the Australian Elections

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, April 17, 2019

In Australia, anybody who either defends Palestinians against Israeli policy during their political career, especially prior or during an electoral campaign, or insists that Israeli policy falls well short of humanitarian standards, is deemed a rabid anti-Semite frothing with manifest hatred.

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Bamiyan, Babylon, Palmyra, Notre-Dame

April 17th, 2019 by Pepe Escobar

The Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed by an intolerant sect pretending to follow Islam. Buddhism all across Asia grieved. The West hardly paid attention.

The remaining ruins of Babylon, and the attached museum, were occupied, plundered and vandalized by a US Marine base during Shock and Awe in 2003. The West paid no attention.

Vast tracts of Palmyra – a legendary Silk Road oasis – were destroyed by another intolerant sect pretending to follow Islam with their backs covered by layers of Western “intelligence”. The West paid no attention.

Scores of Catholic and Orthodox churches in Syria were burnt to the ground by the same intolerant sect pretending to follow Islam with their backs sponsored and weaponized, among others, by the US, Britain and France. The West paid no attention whatsoever.

Notre-Dame, which in many ways can be construed as the Matrix of the West, is partially consumed by a theoretically blind fire.

Especially the roof; hundreds of oak beams, some dating back to the 13th century. Metaphorically, this could be interpreted as the burning of the roof over the West’s collective heads.

Bad karma? Finally?

Now back to the nitty-gritty.

Notre-Dame belongs to the French state, which had been paying little to no attention to a gothic jewel that traversed eight centuries.

Fragments of arcades, chimeras, reliefs, gargoyles were always falling to the ground and kept in an improvised deposit in the back of the cathedral.

Only last year Notre-Dame got a check for 2 million euros to restore the spire – which burned to the ground yesterday.

To restore the whole cathedral would have cost 150 million euros, according to the top world expert on Notre-Dame, who happens to be an American, Andrew Tallon.

Recently, the custodians of the cathedral and the French state were actually at war.

The French state was making at least 4 million euros a year, charging tourists to enter the Twin (Bell) Towers but putting back only 2 million euros for the maintenance of Notre-Dame.

The rector of Notre-Dame refused to charge for a ticket to enter the cathedral – as it happens, for example, at the Duomo in Milan.

Notre-Dame basically survives on donations – which pay the salaries of only 70 employees who need not only to supervise the masses of tourists but also to organize eight masses a day.

The French state’s proposal to minimize the ordeal; organize a beneficent lottery. That is; privatize what is a state commitment and obligation.

So yes: Sarkozy and Macron, their whole administrations, are directly and indirectly responsible for the fire.

Now comes the Notre-Dame of Billionaires.

Pinault (Gucci, St. Laurent) pledged 100 million euros from his personal fortune for the restoration. Arnault (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) doubled down, pledging 200 million euros.

So why not privatize this damn fine piece of real estate – disaster capitalism-style? Welcome to Notre-Dame luxury condo, hotel and attached mall.

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Pepe Escobar is correspondent-at-large at Asia Times. His latest book is 2030. Follow him on Facebook.

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The Florence Declaration (original in Italian) is available in 14 languages including Chinese.

It was drafted by the Italian Committee No War- No NATO and the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal.

Three Years Ago. April 17, 2019

More than 600 participants from all over Italy and the EU attended this important venue.

The Western media has not covered the Florence event. Disinformation through Omission.

Below is the English-Chinese Version.

Scroll down for links to the translations. Forward the Florence Declaration worldwide.

The Florence Declaration, April 7, 2019

The risk of a vast war which, with the use of nuclear weapons, could mean the end of Humanity, is real and growing, even though it is not noticed by the general public, which is maintained in the ignorance of this imminent danger.

使用核武器可能意味着人类的终结的大规模战争的风险是真实的,并且在不断增长,即使公众没有注意到这一风险,但这种风险始终处于对这一迫在眉睫的危险的无知之中。

A strong engagement to find a way out of the war system is of vital importance. This raises the question of the affiliation of Italy and other European countries with NATO.

寻求摆脱战争制度的途径的强烈参与至关重要。这就提出了意大利和其他欧洲国家与北约的联系问题。

NATO is not an Alliance. It is an organisation under the command of the Pentagon, and its objective is the military control of Western and Eastern Europe.

北约不是一个联盟。它是一个由五角大楼指挥的组织,其目标是对西欧和东欧的军事控制。

US bases in the member countries of NATO serve to occupy these countries, by maintaining a permanent military presence which enables Washington to influence and control their policies and prevent genuine democratic choices.

美国在北约成员国的基地通过保持永久的军事存在来占领这些国家,使华盛顿能够影响和控制他们的政策,并阻止真正的民主选择。

NATO is a war machine which operates for the interests of the United States, with the complicity of the major European power groups which made them guilty of crimes against Humanity.

北约是一个为美国利益运作的战争机器,欧洲主要权力集团的同谋使他们犯下了反人类罪。

NATO’s war of aggression in 1999 against Yugoslavia paved the way for the globalization of military interventions, with wars against Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and other countries, in complete violation of the international law.

1999年北约对南斯拉夫的侵略战争为军事干预的全球化铺平了道路,对阿富汗、利比亚、叙利亚和其他国家的战争完全违反了国际法。

These wars are financed by the member countries, whose military budgets are increasing continually to the detriment of social expenditure, in order to support colossal military programmes like that of the US nuclear programme which costs US $ 1.2 trillion.

这些战争是由北约成员国资助的,这些成员国的军事预算不断增加,损害了社会支出,以支持像美国核计划那样的庞大军事计划,耗资1.2万亿美元。

In violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the USA is deploying nuclear weapons in five non-nuclear NATO States, under the false pretext of the ”Russian menace”. By doing so, they are risking the security of Europe.

违反《核不扩散条约》,美国以“俄罗斯威胁”为借口,在五个非核北约国家部署核武器。这样做会危及欧洲的安全。

To exit the war system which is causing more and more damage and exposing us to increasing dangers, we must leave NATO, affirming our rights as sovereign and neutral States.

为了退出造成越来越多破坏的战争体系,使我们面临越来越大的危险,我们必须离开北约,确认我们作为主权和中立国家的权利。

In this way, it becomes possible to contribute to the dismantling of NATO and all other military alliances, to the reconfiguration of the structures of the whole European region, to the formation of a multipolar world where the aspirations of the People for liberty and social justice may be realised.

这样,就有可能有助于拆除北约和所有其他军事联盟,重新配置整个欧洲区域的结构,形成一个多极世界,实现人民对自由和社会正义的愿望。

We propose the creation of a NATO EXIT International Front in all the European member countries of NATO, by building an organisational network at a grassroots level strong enough to support the very difficult struggle we must face in order to attain this objective, which is vital for our future.

我们提议在北约的所有欧洲成员国建立一个北约退出国际阵线,在基本层面建立一个组织网络,以支持我们为实现这一目标必须面对的非常困难的斗争,这对我们的未来至关重要。

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The Florence Declaration has sofar been translated into 14 languages.

To read click the links below

中文, Chinese <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/chinese.html>

Dansk <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/dansk-firenze-deklarationen-for-en-nato.html>

Deutsch <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/deutsch.html>

English <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/english-declaration-of-florence-for.html>

Espanol <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/sp-declaracion-de-florencia-por-un.html>

Francais <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/francais-declaration-de-florence-pour.html>

Italiano <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/italiano-dichiarazione-di-firenze.html>

Nederlands <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/nederlands-declaratie-van-florence-voor.html>

Portugues <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/portugues-declaracao-de-florenca.html>

Romina <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/romina-declaratia-de-la-florenta.html>

Slovensky <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/slovensky-vyhlasenie-florencie-o.html>

Svenska <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/svenska-florens-deklarationen-for-en.html>

Turkce <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/turkce-natodan-ckmak-icin-bir.html>

русский, Russian <https://nowarnonato.blogspot.com/2019/04/blog-post_13.html>

Photos of the Florence Venue

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Farcical Ukraine Runoff Presidential Election

April 17th, 2019 by Stephen Lendman

Ahead of the April 21 runoff, the winner is clear – imperial USA, controlling Ukraine as a vassal state no matter who’s “elected” president on Sunday.

According to a KIIS research poll published Tuesday, comedian/entertainer Vladimir Zelensky is favored over US-anointed incumbent Petro Poroshenko by a 72.2 – 25.2% margin.

A poll released last week by Reiting research had Zelensky ahead of Poroshenko by 61 – 24%. In March 31 round one voting with 39 candidates on the ballot, Zelensky lead runner-up Poroshenko by 30 – 16.5% – a near two-to-one margin.

The incumbent is overwhelmingly despised by most Ukrainians, his pre-election approval rating in single-digits. Suspected election-rigging got him finishing second to meet Zelensky in Sunday’s runoff.

Elections the way they should be would have the political newcomer winning by a landslide. In Nazi-infested Ukraine waging war on its own people in Donbass, its hugely corrupt authorities in cahoots with oligarchs, and Washington behind the scenes controlling things – anything on Sunday is possible.

Poroshenko is vulnerable. As president, he enjoys immunity from prosecution. If defeated in Sunday’s runoff, he could be held accountable for corruption and other criminality.

He may try anything to stay in office. Ahead of the March 31 vote, he ordered Ukrainian security services and police to patrol streets and seize control of polling stations on the phony pretext of “protect(ing) the elections.”

Brookings nonresident foreign policy senior fellow Steven Pifer put out a propaganda piece on Ukraine on what he called key things to know about Sunday’s election, saying:

“Ukraine pulled off the March 31 election with no major hitch. Voting and ballot-counting proceeded smoothly.”

He ignored accusations of election-rigging to assure Poroshenko survived to runoff voting.

He lied saying “(t)he fact that Ukraine held a free, competitive presidential election should come as no surprise.” Nothing in fascist Ukraine is free, fair and just.

He said “(b)arring a miracle, it will be president Zelensky” after Sunday’s election – true enough, provided the Trump regime wants things to turn out this way, he failed to explain.

Pifer lied claiming “Poroshenko deserves credit for overseeing some impressive reforms, and he has had to cope with a low-intensity war with Russia.”

He’s a US-anointed despot. Accusations of “Russian aggression” persist despite not a shred of evidence supporting them in Ukraine or anywhere else – a US/NATO/Israeli specialty, not how the Russian Federation operates.

Ukraine’s economy isn’t “under-performing.” It’s disastrous for its ordinary people, suffering hugely under despotic rule.

The NYT published a Reuters piece, saying Poroshenko showed up last Sunday in Kiev’s soccer stadium “(f)lanked by rock musicians wearing yellow overalls and black t-shirts with skulls on them,” adding:

He “rebooted his campaign after Zelenskiy won nearly twice as many votes as him in the first round of the election on March 31, reaching out especially to younger voters disillusioned with corruption,” war in Donbass, dismal economic conditions, and repression of regime critics.

Ahead of Sunday’s runoff, he called Zelensky “a buffoonish populist,” adding:

“First of all, some people are disappointed. And we should open their heart. We should knock on their doors. We should deliver the information that ‘look, we hear what you mean. We understand what you need.’ ”

“Don’t believe populists. Don’t believe in the simple decision to the complicated question. May I remind you, we are the country in a state of war” ordinary Ukrainians want ended.

Parents want their military-aged sons free from conscription. They don’t want them sent to fight fellow Ukrainians in the country’s southeast. They want decent jobs, a living wage, and governance serving everyone equitably.

They oppose fascist repression. Under a free, fair and open process, Poroshenko has no chance to win.

In Ukraine and countless other countries, what matters is who controls the electoral process and counts the votes, not who goes to polling stations to cast them.

Given possible election-rigging, Sunday’s outcome could go either way.

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

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

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

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Venezuela: A Cocaine Super-Highway to the US?

April 17th, 2019 by Stephen Lendman

Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro is in the forefront of combatting illicit drugs. More on this below.

The US is the world’s leading facilitator of the illicit trade – working with drug cartels, notably through the CIA. Major US banks profit hugely from laundering dirty money.

In his book titled “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,” Alfred McCoy documented CIA and US government complicity in drugs trafficking at the highest official levels.

It continues today in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South and Central America, facilitating the global supply of illicit drugs.

Peter Dale Scott explained that

“(s)ince at least 1950, there has been a global CIA-drug connection operating more or less continuously” to this day.

“The global drug connection is not just a lateral connection between CIA field operatives and their drug-trafficking contacts.”

“It is more significantly a global financial complex of hot money uniting prominent business, financial and government, as well as underworld figures,” a sort of “indirect empire (operating alongside) existing government.”

America is one of numerous countries involved, the most harmful and disturbing because of its imperial power and global reach, influencing or affecting virtually everything worldwide.

The CIA relies on involvement in drugs trafficking for the significant amount of its revenues.

Heroin, cocaine, and other illicit drugs produce hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenues – a US government-supported bonanza, facilitated by corrupt officials, the CIA, organized crime, US and Western financial institutions, as well as other corporate interests.

Pre-9/11, Afghanistan under Taliban rule eradicated 94% of opium production, according to UN estimates, one of various reasons why Bush/Cheney launched naked aggression on the country in October 2001.

One objective was increasing opium production. Afghanistan was transformed into the world’s largest supplier – at one point producing more than total global demand, now accounting for at least most of it.

Disinformation, Big Lies, and fake news are what CNN does best – the most distrusted name in television news, a lying machine masquerading as a news organization, its operation a virtual conspiracy against truth-telling on vital issues.

On April 17, its propaganda piece on Venezuela falsely accused the country of “creat(ing) a cocaine super-highway to the US” – a bald-faced Big Lie, turning truth on its head claiming the following:

“Cocaine trafficking from Venezuela to the United States is soaring (sic)…(Unnamed) US and other regional officials say (sic) it’s Venezuela’s own military and political elite who are facilitating the passage of drugs in and out of the country on hundreds of tiny, unmarked planes (sic).”

Diosdado Cabello, the leader of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly and…Nicolas Maduro’s number two, was (sic) sanctioned in May 2018 for being ‘directly involved in narcotics trafficking activities’ ” – referring to Tareck El Aissami, Venezuelan executive vice president from January 2017 – mid-June 2018.

He’s currently Minister of Industries and National Production. Responding to fabricated charges, he said the following:

“When I headed the public security corps of my country, in 2008 — 2012, our fight against drug cartels achieved the greatest progress in our history and in the western hemisphere, both in terms of the transnational drug trafficking business and their logistics structures.”

“During those years, the Venezuelan anti-drug enforcement authorities under my leadership captured, arrested and brought 102 heads of criminal drug trafficking organizations not only to the Venezuelan justice but also to the justice of other countries where they were wanted.”

Bush/Cheney officials falsely accused Venezuela of non-cooperation against narco-trafficking the US supports worldwide.

Annually since then, Washington falsely claimed Venezuela hasn’t fulfilled its obligations under international narcotics agreements.

The Treasury Department sanctioned around two dozen Venezuelan nationals and over two dozen entities – falsely accusing them of narco-trafficking, including Vice President Aissami.

In response to false charges against him, he also wrote a public letter to US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, saying in part:

US “interest groups not only lack any evidence to demonstrate the extremely serious accusations against me, but they also have built a false-positive case in order to criminalize – through me – the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a country that is decidedly waging a war on transnational drug trafficking business.”

Dozens of “captured drug lords… were promptly deported to the USA (and) Colombia, in accordance with the requests made by the authorities of each country and in compliance with the international agreements on the fight against organized crime, facts formally acknowledged by the US and Colombian authorities.”

“…Venezuela has always been recognized by the United Nations as a territory free of drug production…(C)onnections between (the US) Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) (and) criminal drug organizations (are) very well documented…”

“The extraordinary progress made by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the fight against drug trafficking – which I directed in my capacity as head of the public security corps – was acknowledged by (the UN, and other) international organizations…”

Venezuelan efforts in combatting illicit drugs trafficking are recognized “in the archives of the Judicial bodies of the United States and Colombia, which also acknowledged the efforts that I headed against organized crime, which is unprecedented in our hemisphere.”

Venezuelan law mandates interdiction of drugs-trafficking aircraft in the nation’s airspace. Its efforts “destroyed, disabled or brought down over 100 aircraft belonging to the drugs transport structure from Colombia and neighboring countries illegally flying over our territory.”

“Venezuela is waging an all-out war against drugs because it is a cross-border crime against humanity…”

“Venezuela also fights drug cartels because our country and our people are victims of drug trafficking, particularly of the powerful Colombian illegal drug industry, the main supplier of the drugs that flood the streets of the United States and Europe” – facilitated by the nation’s narco-terrorist authorities at the highest levels.

“Today more drugs are brought into the United States than ever before, while a corrupt and legal powerful financial structure legitimizes and recycles dirty money from this international illegal activity, which deprives thousands of American young people of their life and future.”

The so-called US war on drugs is all about facilitating illicit trafficking, along with criminalizing and mass imprisoning ordinary Americans for possession of small amounts for their own use.

The US is ground zero for the illicit drugs trade. Venezuela is the hemisphere’s leader in combatting it.

Will false US charges of illicit drugs trafficking against Venezuela be used by the Trump regime as a pretext for military intervention to topple Maduro and eliminate the country’s social democracy?

Everything tried so far failed. While direct US military intervention is unlikely, put nothing past extremists in charge of Trump’s geopolitical agenda.

They’re hellbent to get another US imperial trophy, along with gaining control over Venezuelan world’s largest oil reserves and other valued resources.

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Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

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

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

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

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

It’s seemingly inexplicable to many that one of the world’s top oil exporters won’t help its “ally” survive the ever-worsening fuel crisis, but upon closer consideration and after much-needed critical thinking, it becomes clear that Russia intends to politicize this crisis in order to compel Syria into undertaking further concessions related to the upcoming constitutional reform process and initiating Iran’s dignified but “phased withdrawal” from the country, meaning that Moscow probably won’t “ride to the rescue” until Damascus finally promises to do what it’s wanted for over the past two years already.

The Elephant In The Room

The US’ strict anti-Iranian sanctions regime is responsible for causing a serious fuel crisis in Syria, with the popular Al-Masdar information outlet reporting that “thousands of cars in cities like Damascus, Latakia, and Aleppo are forced to wait several hours to fill up gas as the lines often stretch 3-5km long”. Neighboring Lebanon is temporarily assisting Syria with emergency fuel shipments in order to prevent the crisis in the war-torn state from worsening at precisely the point when most observers expected it to finally improve, but Beirut barely has enough oil to meet its own demands so this therefore doesn’t represent a sustainable solution to the crisis. As Syria struggles to survive and stave off the Color Revolution unrest that might “naturally” develop if its people continue to live in squalor and the price of everything spikes in response to shortage of fuel, the Alt-Media Community is busy condemning the US and its allies for their role in all of this while avoiding the elephant in the room of asking why the country’s oil-rich Russian “ally” isn’t helping it at this dire moment.

Exposing The Economic Excuse

It’s seemingly inexplicable that one of the world’s top oil exporters and most masterful perception management practitioners wouldn’t gift its “ally” emergency fuel shipments as a humanitarian gesture or at least sell it what it needs under a deferred payment plan, especially when considering that it’s owned all of the country’s oil and gas infrastructure since last year and regularly ships large amounts of oil to the country in order to meet the huge demands of its fuel-hungry Aerospace Forces there. On top of that, Russia even sells gas to its American adversary in spite of the sanctions that its customer imposed on this industry, proving that the “power of the dollar” is just as much of a Russian mantra as an American one, so it doesn’t make sense why it won’t do the same for its Syrian “ally” in exchange even if it’s through an oil-for-goods “barter agreement” like Russia has with Iran. Evidently, the Russian leadership is deliberately holding off on helping its Syrian “ally” for reasons that have nothing to do with economics but everything to do with politics.

(Anti-)Constitutional Demands

To explain, President Assad dealt his Russian counterpart an unprecedentedly humiliating diplomatic defeat when his government refused to implement the many controversial clauses of the Russian-written “draft constitution” that was first unveiled during the inaugural meeting of the Astana peace process back in January 2017, something that President Putin has never forgotten. Practically every one of the many growing differences between Russia and Syria can be traced back to that moment when Moscow caught Damascus completely off guard by presenting this surprise document to it at the same time as it gave this proposal to the so-called “rebels” that also attended the event, which was an unthinkable affront to Syria’s dignity and “face” even though it was “well-intended” and meant to revive the stalled peace process. Worse still, Russia then began “gently” seeking Iran’s “phased withdrawal” from the Arab Republic and entered into open collaboration with Syria’s hated Zionist foe to this end, resulting in the “nightmare scenario” of “Putinyahu’s Rusrael” emerging on Damascus’ doorstep and even becoming the most powerful military force within its own borders.

The Messenger

President Putin is so angry with President Assad ever since the September spy plane tragedy that he’s no longer on speaking terms with him anymore after talking to his counterpart only once nearly a full week after what happened, instead dispatching Defense Minister Shoigu to deliver a message to him recently when he could have just picked up the phone and called like he often does whenever he wants to talk with Erdogan or Netanyahu, both of whom it should be pointed out are Assad’s enemies. It can only be speculated what the latest message was about, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it included a “reminder” about President Putin’s insistence that his Syrian counterpart complies with the many constitutional changes that Russia “suggested” over two years ago and which are once again becoming relevant ahead of the commencement of the so-called “constitutional committee” that Moscow compelled Damascus to “compromise” on by agreeing to only have a 1/3 representation in.

“Diplomatic Blackmail”

Had Damascus agreed to Moscow’s speculative demands, then there’s no doubt that Russia would have already “rode to the rescue” by now and saved it from the current fuel crisis, but it’s very likely that Syria refused to give in to this “diplomatic blackmail” and that’s why Russia is “punishing” it by withholding much-needed supplies at this crucial time despite knowing that the exacerbation of this crisis could very well lead to Color Revolution unrest. Unlike what many might think, that scenario wouldn’t necessarily be detrimental to Russia’s strategic interests since it’s already “grooming” several members of the Syrian “opposition” like Jamil Qadri who often meet with high-level diplomats in Moscow and could possibly replace him “if need be”. Furthermore, “Russia’s Reshaping Syria’s ‘Deep State’ In Its Own Image” by actively “reforming” its armed forces in order to eliminate Iranian influence and replace it with its own, so it’s not far-fetched to imagine that Moscow has several ” back-up plans” if President Assad doesn’t do what President Putin wants.

Are The Saudis Pulling The Strings?

Another fact that deserves mentioning is that Russia currently controls the global oil market through the OPEC+ duopoly that it jointly manages with its new Saudi strategic partner, which it’s bidding to build 16 nuclear reactors for and just delivered state-of-the-art rocket launchers to. The aforementioned shipment also occurred right around the time that Russia’s UN Ambassador praised the Saudi-led coalition for “playing a very constructive role” in Yemen and just prior to the news that Russia replaced Venezuelan and Iranian crude on European markets as a result of Trumps sanctions regimes against both of the country’s “partners”. Given the ultra-lucrative cooperation that Russia currently has with Saudi Arabia and the growing closeness between these two Great Powers, it’s very possible that Russia intends to also replace Iranian crude on the Syrian market as part of its regional “balancing” strategy and is just waiting for the fuel crisis to become so unbearable that Damascus ditches Tehran and practically begs Moscow for oil at any price, possibly after promising to implement Russia’s “proposed” constitutional “reforms” and initiate Iran’s dignified but “phased withdrawal” from the country.

Concluding Thoughts

The entire population of Syria is seriously suffering from the current fuel crisis that was caused by American sanctions but could easily be relieved through the support of the country’s oil-rich Russian “ally”, though Moscow is holding off on helping Damascus until the latter complies with the Great Power’s most important political demands such as implementing the Russian-written “draft constitution” and initiating Iran’s dignified but “phased withdrawal” from the Arab Republic. The worsening crisis is making it more difficult for refugees to repatriate to their homeland from neighboring Lebanon and could also potentially result in a Color Revolution against President Assad, though Russia doesn’t seem to fazed by any of this because it already has several back-up plans that it could rely on in those scenarios in order to safeguard its strategic interests. After all, none other than Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov loudly proclaimed in 2016 that “Assad is not our ally” so it doesn’t matter to Moscow whether he remains in office or not. Alt-Media won’t admit it, but it looks like President Putin is no longer afraid of the “Assad must go” curse.

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This article was originally published on Eurasia Future.

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 frequent contributor to Global Research.

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For over a year now, the Israeli “Deal of the Century” for Palestine has been endorsed by the US establishment and is now echoing to the four corners of the world. The two novices in foreign policy, US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, manoeuvred by Israel from behind the scenes, are trying to promote it among Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, the three countries who are supposed to exchange territories to further Israel’s plans in Gaza and the West Bank. It remains improbable that the US and Israel can impose this plan that has taken shape under the watchful but impotent gaze of Europe and the Arab nations. 

Notwithstanding US-Arab-Israeli initial approval of this deal, the ultimate decision is in the hands of the Palestinian people. Although bickering and serious splits are omnipresent among the Palestinian leadership, all (including the President ad interim Mahmoud Abbas) have agreed to reject the Israeli-US deal. Thus, the “Deal of the Century” is expected to fall through because the Palestinians will never again make the mistake they made in 1948, and will hold on to their territory. They will not agree to exchange Palestine for parcels of land in Egypt and Jordan as written in the plan leaked by the same US establishment.

Palestinian officials said

“the Deal of the Century was launched by Israel in 1956 when, for nine days, Israel was committing genocidal massacres against Palestinian civilians and refugees in the Gaza strip and in particular in Khan Yunis and Rafah. The objective then was to push the Palestinian refugees toward an exodus so Israel could annex Gaza without refugees. The Palestinians who sought shelter in Gaza escaped the Israeli killing in 1948 from Akka, Haifa, Yafa, Safad, Gallilea, al-Led, al-Ramla, Nablus, al-Quds and Bir el-Sabe’. Today, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is trying to accomplish what David-Ben Gurion, the founder of the Zionist state and the first Prime Minister of this state, failed to achieve”.

“Today Netanyahu feels euphoric following the victory of the extreme right-wing parties in the last elections. Extremism in Israel dominates the Knesset. The classic right-wing party has a share in power but centrists like Labour went from 42 seats to 6 in the last legislative elections, its worst showing in its 71 year history. Thus, most of Israeli society has decided to vote for the extremism that is now overwhelming Israeli culture together with the armed forces. It is time for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to realise that Israel is not willing to give a state to the Palestinians and will always reject the right of return. No one today except President Abbas holds to the Oslo agreement (signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993 in Washington). Thus, it is time to reject every single article in the Oslo treaty and refuse any deal with Israel. President Abbas (Abu Mazen) believes in peaceful resistance and in “talking-resistance” at the United Nations and Europe, both of whom are impotent in the face of Israel’s plans and those of Trump. For this reason, we believe that armed resistance is the only way to get our state, because we reject any deal and any swap of territories”, said the source.

Several Arab states are promoting the Israeli “Deal of the Century”. Oil-rich countries, i.e. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, are trying to convince the Palestinians, Egyptians and the Jordanian leadership to swap territories to ease the deal and accommodate Israel.

Palestinian fleeing their homes across the Allenby bridge. The 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, al-Nakbah, literally "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm"), occurred from December 1947 to January 1949 when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. 600 Palestinian villages were sacked during the war, while urban Palestine was almost entirely extinguished.

According to well-informed sources, the “Deal of the Century” offers Egypt a sum between 65 and 100 billion dollars in exchange for offering part of Sinai (Sheikh Zuweid, Rafah and al-Aresh) to the Palestinian refugees in Gaza. In exchange, Jordan gives al-Baqoura and al-Ghamer to the Palestinians in the West Bank in exchange of “part C’. Amman would be offered around 50 to 60 billion dollars. Saudi Arabia is expected to offer Jordan a piece of Haql and Magna in exchange for the Egyptian islands of Tiran and Sanafir (the Saudis already paid for these Islands but an Egyptian court blocked the transfer of property). The Palestinians who remain in Palestine are expected, according to the deal, to receive tens of billions of dollars “to ease their life”. Also, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are supposed to receive a handsome quantity of billions of dollars to naturalise the Palestinian refugees on the condition they never return to Palestine.

The above details of the “Deal” confirm that it will not go through for many reasons: Lebanon and Syria will never agree to naturalise the Palestinian refugees. When young Palestinian teens living in Lebanon or Syria are asked where they come from, they immediately respond: “I am from Haifa, Yafa, Nablous, Quds, Safad…” They never say, even if they were born in Lebanon or Syria, that they belong to the country their parents or grandparents were forced to migrate to. They have never renounced their right to return and keep the key of their home hanging on the wall so as to never, ever forget where they belong.

Jordanian and Egyptian leaders will never dare offer territories to ease Israel’s plan because the population will revolt and regimes will fall. These and many more reasons lead to one conclusion: the “Deal of the Century” was dead even before it was born.

At the heart of US efforts to promote the deal is the economic strangulation of a few Middle Eastern countries – i.e. Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Gaza – who are going through a serious economic crisis. US forces are occupying north-east Syria, an area rich in oil and gas and agriculture. US forces also block the main crossing between Syria and Iraq at al-Tanf in order to block trade and keep the area insecure for commerce between the two countries, with the goal of breaking the Syrian government’s back. The US establishment is also putting pressure on the Arab Gulf States and has succeeded in stopping them from restoring a normal relationship with Syria, to prevent their participation in the reconstruction of the country. Israel and the US believe this is the best way to force Syria to the negotiation table- but this is not going to happen either.

Lebanon is going through a severe economic crisis but will never accept to naturalise the Palestinians for many reasons. First, the Palestinian cause will remain alive so long as Israel rejects a Palestinian state that meets the aspiration of the Palestinian population. Second, naturalisation would unbalance the country’s demography and to the detriment of the Christians so that they eventually be marginalised in Lebanon.

Neither will Jordan ever exchange this territory, even for the billions of dollars the country is in need of. By taking the money the monarchy would lose the country.

Egypt rejected Trump’s characteristic attempt at blackmail to force acceptance of the “Deal of the Century”. US officials threatened Egypt in reference to its military deal with Russia; in reality these threats were meant to force Sisi’s hand into accepting the “Deal”.

All these Middle Eastern countries are aware that geography moves history and changes regimes. This “deal” is not new at all. It started in 1956 and over the years Israel has contrived to create the conditions for its acceptance. It is exactly what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice advocated in 2006 when she announced the creation of a “New Middle East”. To support this plan, the US invaded Iraq in 2003; Israel declared war on Hezbollah in 2006 and half of the world gathered – but failed – to change the regime in Syria by means of terrorist proxies. His recent election victory is motivating Netanyahu to take advantage of a totally obedient President in the White House, and push him to endorse his “deal of the Century”. The time is right, from Israel’s point of view, to push through the deal. This Israeli insistence is forcing its neighbours to the opposite conclusion: it is proof to the “Axis of the Resistance” that no solution is possible in the Middle East but through resistance.

Note: The 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, al-Nakbah, literally “disaster”, “catastrophe”, or “cataclysm”), occurred from December 1947 to January 1949 when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. 600 Palestinian villages were sacked during the war, while urban Palestine was almost entirely extinguished.

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Julian Assange and the Agenda for Global War

April 17th, 2019 by Prof. James Petras

Introduction

For almost a decade Washington has sought to silence, jail and eliminate the world’s most prominent investigative journalist, Julian Assange (JA) and his team of co-workers at WikiLeaks (WL).

Never has the mass media been so thoroughly discredited by official documents which directly contradict the official propaganda, mouthed by political leaders and parroted by ‘leading’ journalists.

Washington is particularly intent on capturing JA because his revelations have had a particularly powerful impact on the US public, political critics, the alternative media and human rights groups in turning them against US wars in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We will proceed by discussing what JAand WLaccomplished and why the particular ‘cutting edge’ of their reportage disturbed the government.

We will then discus the ‘ongoing’ conflicts and the failure of the White House to score a decisive victory, as factors which has led Washington to intensify its efforts to make JA an ‘example’ to other journalists – demanding that they should ‘shape up’ or pay the consequences including imprisonment.

Context for Whistleblowing

By the end of a decade of war, opposition to the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan had spread to sectors of the military and civilian establishment.  Documents were leaked and critics were encouraged to hand over reports revealing war crimes and the toll in human lives. WL, under Assange’s leadership, were the recipients of hundreds of thousands of documents which poured in from military analysts, contractors and civilian office holders disgusted by official and mass media lies which perpetrated and covered up war crimes.

As the wars dragged on, and new ones were launched in Libya and Syria and liberal Congress-members were impotent and unwilling to expose the Obama/Clinton regimes’ lies and the falsifications accompanying the murder of President Gaddafi,  WikiLeaks and JA publicized documents which revealed how the US planned , implemented and fabricated Humanitarian  Wars to ‘save people’ …by bombing them!

The major networks and prestigious press, following the official line, but WL documents discredited them..

The Pentagon, the CIA, the Presidency and their Congressional supporters panicked – as their covert activities came to light.

They resorted to several desperate moves all directed to silence free speech.  They accused the investigative journalists of ‘espionage’ – working for Russia or Islamic terrorists or simply being ‘traitors for cash’.

As WL message gained legitimacy, Washington turned to the judiciary in search of rulings to muzzle their critics.  Free speech was criminalized .But  WL continued .New and more critical whistleblowers came on the scene; Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, William Binney and others provided new devastating evidence of Washington’s gross distortions and fabrications regarding civilian deaths.

In the Pentagon’s eyes, Julian Assange was The Enemy because he refused to be bought or intimidated.  WL successfully aroused distrust of the mass media and distrust of the official war news’ spread among the public.

The Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence apparatus sought the ‘internal’ spies feeding documents to WL.  Julian Assange was targeted for arrest in the belief that ‘beheading’ the leader would intimidate other investigative journalists. JA fled for his life, and sought and received asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK.

After seven years of pressure the US succeeded in having the Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno  violate his own country’s constitution and allow the British police to seize JS, jail and prepare him for extradition to Washington where the regime will find the appropriate judicial setting to condemn him to life imprisonment or… worse.

Conclusion

The war crimes committed by Washington are of such dimension that they have eroded the passive and submissive ethos of their public servants; having lost the trust, the government relies on threats, expulsions and criminal trials.

Investigative journalists are under pressure from the chorus of press prostitutes and face criminal trials.

Today Free speech means ‘free’ to follow the State.

Julian Assange’s upcoming trial is about more than free speech.  It is about Washington’s ability to pursue global wars, to apply illegal sanctions against independent countries and to recruit vassal states without opposition.  Washington, without public awareness, will be able to launch trade wars, and slander competitors with impunity.  Once whistleblowers are silenced and/or jailed anything goes.

In the present period  many journalists have lost their ability to speak truth to power, and young writers who seek outlets and role models, face the threat of censorship enforced by egregious punishment.  The White House seeks to convert the country into an echo chamber of lies for ‘humanitarian’ wars and ‘democratic’ coups.

Today the US government pursues a war against Venezuela.  Treasury  seizes its resources and wealth and State appoints its president in the name of ‘democratic values’.  The Trump regime is starving the Venezuelan people into submission in the name of a humanitarian mission, a ploy which is only contested by few journalists in the alternative media.

Washington is jailing JA to ensure that the crimes against Venezuela will continue with impunity.

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Award winning author Prof. James Petras is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Featured image is from thierry ehrmann | CC BY 2.0

Yellow Vests Struggle to Reinvent Democracy

April 17th, 2019 by Richard Greeman

Macron Cranks Up Propaganda and Repression

After five months of constant presence at traffic circles, toll-booths, and hazardous Saturday marches, the massive, self-organized social movement known as the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) has just held its second nationwide “Assembly of Assemblies.” Hundreds of autonomous Yellow Vest activist groups from all over France each chose two delegates (one woman, one man) to gather in the port city of St. Nazaire for a weekend of deliberation (April 5-7; Video April 6th).

After weeks of skirmishing with the municipal authorities, the local Yellow Vests were able to host 700 delegates at the St. Nazaire “House of the People,” and the three-day series of general meetings and working groups went off without a hitch in an atmosphere of good-fellowship. A sign on the wall proclaimed, “No one has the solution, but everybody has a piece of it.”

Their project: mobilize their “collective intelligence” to reorganize, strategize, and prolong their struggle. Their aim: to achieve the immediate goals of livable wages and retirements; restoration of social benefits and public services like schools, transportation, post offices, and hospitals; taxing the rich; ending fiscal fraud in order to pay for preserving the environment; and, most ambitious of all, reinventing democracy in the process. Their Declaration ends with the phrase “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” I wonder if they know who coined it.

Yellow and Green Unite and Fight

Particular attention was paid to the issue of the environment, reaffirming the popular slogan “End of the week. End of the world. Same logic, same struggle” (it rhymes in French). The Assembly went further and called on “[a]ll persons who wish to put an end to the expropriation of the living to take up a conflictual stance against the present system in order to create, together, a new ecological, popular social movement.”

This shows growth from the original Yellow Vest uprising that began as a protest against a hike in taxes on diesel fuel imposed in the name of “saving the environment.” (Less well-known is the fact that only 17% of that tax was actually earmarked for the environment. In any case, President Emmanuel Macron rescinded it in an early attempt to pacify the movement.) Since then, the Yellow Vests have tentatively converged with environmental groups, whom many poor and working-class Yellow Vests can’t help seeing as bourgeois on bicycles wanting to be nice but unwilling to struggle directly against the establishment.

So their call for unity is also, in part, a challenge to the environmental movement: “Join us in the struggle for social equality and be ready to fight the whole system.” Brilliant! Who said an unstructured, autonomous movement of ordinary, not well-educated people could not come up with strategies and tactics? Psychologists explain that this “wisdom of crowds” emerges whenever people are on an equal footing and free of constraint.1 It grows through experience. And discussion. A dialectical process leading to its emergence. “No one has the solution, but everybody has a piece of it.” This was the basis of direct democracy in Athens, from which the Yellow Vests have also borrowed the idea of choosing representatives by lot.

Autonomy

The Assembly of Assemblies reaffirmed the Yellow Vest founding principle of keeping clear of political parties. And clear of leaders. To my mind, this is a genius stroke. Every popular mass movement I have participated in over the past 60 years has been co-opted (or crushed) by the establishment. Leaders set up an office, they try to raise money and gain access to power, and end up compromising; they treat the rank and file activists like a mailing list, and the power and dynamic of the mass movement melts away, like the Nuclear Freeze that once mobilized millions. For example, in the U.S., the Democratic Party lured them in. Here, in France, the Socialist Party swallowed SOS Racisme, the embryo of a much-needed French Civil Rights movement.

Instinctively, from the beginning, the Yellow Vests seem to have assimilated and put into practice the profound criticism of representative democracy that goes back to the 18th century and was applied during the Paris Commune in 1871. There, delegates were given limited mandates, subject to instant recall, regularly rotated, and paid workmen’s wages. The Communards also called on other cities to rise and link up as a federation. This is precisely the Yellow Vests’ modus operandi.

Europe

This critique of representation explains the Assembly’s attitude toward the upcoming elections for the European Parliament, which will play out as a rehearsal for the next legislative elections when parties will be competing seriously for votes. The fear of being manipulated for political purposes is strong. Last month, Yellow Vests at a Paris demonstration recognized a Yellow Vest who had just declared her candidacy to great media fanfare, apparently in the name of the Yellow Vests. They were furious and yelled at her until she withdrew, shaken. Ugly, but a necessary example to anyone else who would rather be a politician than a Yellow Vest (without resigning first).

As far as Europe is concerned, the Assembly, far from calling for a Frexit, reached out to social movements in the other countries of the European Union in a call to come together and struggle against its neoliberal policies. The Assembly saw no point in voting in this sham election. As everyone knows, the European Parliament has no power or even visibility. It’s not even in Brussels, where the important decisions are made by representatives of the German banks and multi-national corporations. Moreover, it limits the deficit spending of its member countries, thus making it illegal for France to finance the social services and environmental reconstruction the people are demanding.

Restructuring and Reflection

Last weekend’s Assembly of Assemblies coincided with Act 21 of the Yellow Vests’ long struggle to occupy public spaces and freely proclaim their hopes and angers, but it brought out only 23,400 people (government count) across France, the lowest number so far. Small wonder after five straight months of bloody repression. The police were, as usual, out in force, and they stopped and frisked 14,919 people, according to the Paris Prefecture. After twenty-one weekly battles, many of us are too tired, too scared, and/or too old to continue “running with the bulls” through the streets, dodging gas canisters.

“We thought we were off for a sprint. In fact, we were involved in a marathon, and we need to prepare ourselves,” admitted one speaker. We realize we need to vary our tactics, refine our goals, and organize our democratic structures better for the movement to last, and last weekend’s Assembly attempted to face this challenge, starting with three weeks of discussion and a number of new approaches.

Among the new tactics was a call for a huge nationwide protest against the increasing repression being imposed by the Macron government, the liberation of all those in jail, whether Yellow Vests or in other “criminalized” struggles, referring directly to the oppressed North African and immigrant communities in France whose 2005 youth rising was brutally put down. “[The violent repression] we are experiencing today has been for decades the daily experience in the popular quarters [ghetto-like suburbs]” and concludes: “Now authoritarianism is being generalized to the whole society.”

Macron’s Response: Propaganda and Violent Repression

In contrast to these deliberations, last weekend the Macron government delivered the results of its official “Great Debate,” a publicity stunt organized by his government at a cost of €12-million to showcase the President articulately answering questions from selected audience of mayors and local notables in towns and villages across the country. In all, Macron logged 92 hours of speaking.

France’s elected monarch concocted this “Debate,” whose limits were set in advance – taxing the rich and the corporations was off the table – as his “answer” to the Yellow Vests’ demand for participatory democracy. The results were unsurprising: the French want “lower taxes, no cuts to services” (New York Times April 9). Asked if the “Great Debate” was a “success for Macron and his government,” only 6% of those polled by BFM-TV answered “yes.” Another poll revealed that 35% of French people still approve of the Yellow Vests (down from 70% last December), while only 29% approve of Macron.

PR aside, the Macron government’s real answer to public opposition posed by the Yellow Vests has been brutally stark: slander, violent repression, and strict new laws limiting the right to demonstrate – a right enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights and the French Constitution. Macron and his ministers have publicly denounced the Yellow Vests as “anti-Semites,” “fascists,” “a hateful mob,” and a violent conspiracy of “40 – 50,000” terrorists “of the extreme left and extreme right,” out to destroy French institutions.

This vicious caricature, echoed endlessly by the media and reinforced by scary images of violence and vandalism against the symbols of wealth and power in Paris, is designed to dehumanize the protesters, otherwise easily recognizable as poor provincials who are tired of being ignored. Thus demonized, the Yellow Vests’ actual demands for dignity and justice can be ignored. As a threat to France, they must be repressed by any means necessary.

Since November 2018, when the Yellow Vest movement suddenly sprang up 300,000 strong, the government has unleashed unprecedented police brutality, using military grade weapons against unarmed demonstrators, resulting in hundreds of serious injuries (including blindings, loss of limbs, and broken faces). Although invisible on French mainstream media (government subsidized and corporate owned), this French government violence has been repeatedly condemned by human rights panels in France and the European Union, as well as by Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Government Violence at Last Exposed

On Saturday March 23, as President Macron was visiting the Riviera, 73-year-old Geneviève Legay, local spokesperson for ATTAC (the 20-year-old international NGO that proposes taxing financial transactions for social purposes) joined the Yellow Vest demonstration at Nice to speak out against this repression. Interviewed on local TV carrying a rainbow peace flag, she declared, “We are here to say we have the right to demonstrate … We will leave this square when we choose. And if they use force… Then we’ll see. I’m not afraid. I’m 73 years old, what could happen to me? I’m fighting for my grandchildren. Against tax havens, and all the money the banks are laundering, against fossil energy.”

Moments later, Police Commander Souchi ordered his heavily armed riot police to charge the peaceful group in which Geneviève Legay was standing, and she found herself on the ground, surrounded by riot cops, bleeding profusely, with a cracked skull and broken ribs. She is still in the hospital with serious injuries.

On Monday, the Public Prosecutor and President Macron categorically denied that she had had any contact with the police, and the President, interviewed by the local paper, made a hypocritical apology, “wishing her a speedy recovery and hoping that she might learn some sagesse (literally “wisdom” but typically applied to children in the sense of learning to “behave”).

According to the President of France, as a fragile elderly person, Mme Legay should have known better than to go out to the square in the first place, and so, had got herself trampled in the crowd. (The haughty Macron, like the arrogant Trump, seems to enjoy adding insult to injury.) But, as her TV interview makes clear, Geneviève Legay knew very well she was risking her life to defend the democratic freedom to demonstrate and foresaw such an attack moments before it was ordered by police Commander Souchi.

Indeed, videos taken on the spot and the testimony of street-medics and other eyewitnesses (including policemen) told a different story. Apparently, a policeman wielding a shield hit her in the head and knocked her down, whereupon he and other cops straddled her and dragged her away bleeding, refusing to allow street-medics to attend her. They may also have kicked her when she was down, which would explain her cracked ribs.

Later, police entered her hospital room, where Mme Legay was alone (her daughters having been barred without explanation). They repeatedly tried to get Mme Legay to admit that a “cameraman” had pushed her down, but when she repeated that it was a policeman, they stopped taking notes.

Meanwhile, videos of the attack were all over the Internet, and the independent subscriber-supported news site Médiapart gathered eyewitness evidence and presented it to the Public Prosecutor, who on March 29 was obliged to reverse himself and affirm police involvement.

Then, on April 8, Médiapart exposed the deliberate official cover-up of this attack. It turns out that the person placed in charge of the investigation, Hélène P, one of the policewoman who had pressured Mme Legay in her hospital room to declare that she had been pushed down by a “cameraman,” was none other than the common-law wife of Commander Souchi, who had shouted the order to “Charge! Charge!” at the peaceful group in which Mme Legay was standing.

This scandal has finally broken official silence on French police brutality, after five months of violent, indiscriminate attacks on Yellow Vests – visible on YouTube but not on TV. Even the death, during a housing demonstration in Marseille, of Zaineb Redouane, an 80-year-old woman who was killed on December 4 at her upstairs window when shot directly in the face with tear-gas grenade, went unacknowledged. (She was only an Algerian.)

Macron’s Lies and Cover-ups

Thus, the President of the Republic was caught outrightly lying to cover up police brutality. Not as strange as one might think, given the scandal that has clung to him like a tick since last summer, also uncovered by Médiapart, the Benalla Affair – named for Macron’s Security Chief, who last year was captured on a video wearing a borrowed riot police uniform, viciously clubbing a demonstrator lying on the ground – apparently for the fun of it. It then emerged that Macron’s protégé and left-hand man Benalla was also involved in a variety of international intrigues and scams that continue to tarnish Macron’s Mister Clean image in France as new evidence emerges.

Nonetheless, Macron, a former Socialist, is still seen internationally as a progressive, democratic leader, efficiently modernizing France’s archaic “exception” to neoliberal dogma, and basically a friend to human rights. The extraordinary violence of his regime has remained hidden behind a smokescreen of demonization of the Yellow Vests and de facto censorship by the mainstream media. Even the liberal New York Review of Books, which in the 1960s printed a diagram of a Molotov cocktail on its front page, has clung to this line, placing the blame for “violence” on the protestors. So before leaving this subject, let’s look at some unpleasant statistics and then examine the role of the Black Block of so-called casseurs (“trashers”) in sustaining this image.

Whose Violence?

The official narrative is that the Yellow Vests have been attacking the forces of order, and indeed, they are often seen on TV throwing tear gas canisters back at the police. Interior Minister Castener has been categorical:

“I know of no policeman who has attacked the Yellow Vests.”

Here are the statistics.

No policemen have been reported as seriously injured during the five months of weekly clashes with the Yellow Vests. On the other hand, the latest official Interior Ministry figures list 2,200 wounded demonstrators, 10 eyes permanently put out, 8,700 arrests, 1,796 convictions, 1,428 teargas canisters fired, 4,942 dispersion grenades fired, and 13,460 Flashballs (LBDs) fired.

Flashballs, manufactured in Switzerland, are listed as “sub-lethal military weapons,” but when they cross the French border, they magically become “crowd-control devices”. They are extremely powerful and accurate at 50 yards, and the number of head wounds indicate that they have been deliberately aimed at demonstrators’ heads, as have been tear-gas canisters and grenades.

Médiapart’s list counts 606 demonstrators wounded, including one death, 5 hands ripped off, 23 blinded in one eye, 236 head wounds (including jaws ripped off), and 103 attacks on journalists. Among the wounded, 464 were demonstrators, 39 minors, 22 bystanders, 61 journalists, and 20 medics.

What About the Violent Vandals?

Concerning the Black Block and other casseurs (“trashers”), they are certainly guilty of property damage on a fairly significant scale but have, as far as I know, not wounded, blinded, or crippled any human beings. That, to me (but apparently not to the French media), is a significant difference. I have never eaten at Fouquet’s restaurant, and I’m sure they have insurance.

My problem with the Black Block at Yellow Vest demonstrations is that they never get arrested or struck by flashballs. Go on YouTube, and you can see dozens of videos of masked, black-clad guys with crowbars smashing banks and trashing stores in plain sight. No one ever stops them. Why?

A certain number of casseurs have been spotted (and videoed) as police provocateurs, infiltrating the demonstrations, smashing stuff, and then being exfiltrated through police lines. This is an old French police tactic designed to spoil the image of a demonstration and justify violent repression, but the whole truth is that Europe is full of angry young men, self-styled anarchists, deeply invested in fighting the establishment by smashing its symbols. They come in from all over Europe.

So, the cops leave them alone and concentrate on their main mission: brutalizing the crowds of ordinary demonstrators to scare them off and stifle dissent. Moreover, the Black Block folks are more likely to kick the shit out of the cops who try to stop them than are high-school kids, parents with children, and old folks like me and Geneviève. I’d like the Black Block much more if they would fight the cops themselves instead of using us as human shields while expressing their quite understandable rage while we get gassed and shot at.

“Libertycidal” Legislation

The new “anti-casseurs” laws that Macron is pushing through the legislature will legalize and set in stone for the future the repressive practices used against the Yellow Vests, making them permanently available to his successors (for example, Marine Le Pen). They have nothing to do with actual casseurs (who are obviously breaking existing laws and need only to be apprehended under those laws) and everything to do with making it nearly impossible for ecologists, trade-unionists, or Yellow Vests to demonstrate.

For example, if you are a small-town Yellow Vest and take the train to Paris on a Saturday, you are likely to be stopped several times between the station and the Champs-Élysées. If you have in your backpack Vaseline, eye drops, ski goggles, a bicycle helmet, a face-scarf or, God forbid, a gas mask, you can be arrested, brought to summary trial, and convicted the very same day for being part of a “group organized for the purpose of destroying public order and obstructing the forces of order.”

Of course, if you insist on a real trial with lawyers and everything, they will gladly hold you over in jail, but if you’re not at work on Monday, you’ll lose your job, and meanwhile, who is minding the kids? And if you eventually do get to demonstrate and the demonstration leads to property damage, you may also be made legally and financially responsible. As well, you may be placed on a list of dangerous people and barred at the whim of the local Prefect from demonstrating again.

The chilling prospect of turning these absurd police-state practices into law is what brought pacifists like Geneviève Legay out into the streets with the Yellow Vests. Interviewed in the hospital, where she is still in pain and recovering slowly from multiple injuries, she declared,

“Today I am determined to carry on the fight. It is ever more necessary to do so when you see the anti-democratic drift of this government […] The Yellow Vests support me, and I will continue supporting them. I am not going to stop fighting to defend our rights, as I have for 50 years, and to struggle against State repression whatever form it may take.”

The Cat Is Out of the Bag

She will not be alone. The League for the Rights of Man and more than 50 other civil liberties groups, religious associations, trade unions, civic associations and far-left parties have just called for a massive national demonstration for the right to demonstrate along with the Yellow Vests on Saturday, April 13. I hope it will be massive.

The choice of Saturday is significant as an act of solidarity with the Yellow Vests, who alone have been defending the public’s right to assemble in public places, and this, at considerable personal risk. For 22 weeks, the Yellow Vests have been acting out this basic democratic right through their principled refusal to beg the police for special permission for citizens to gather in a public square or parade through the streets. Imagine “Occupy Wall Street” happening all around the country, in cities and on traffic circles, on a weekly basis. All alone, the Yellow Vests have sustained thousands of injuries and thousands of arrests through this weekly act of civil disobedience, proclaiming the right to the city. Now, at last, they have recognition and allies.2

This new convergence of other groups, along with the new perspectives flowing from the Yellow Vests’ Assembly of Assemblies, may mark a new phase in their long and lonely struggle against Macron’s harsh, anti-democratic, neoliberal regime in its implacable drive to wipe out the relative advantages in living standards, social services, and personal liberties won by previous generations of French people: in 1936 (the general strike), 1945 (the Liberation), and 1968 (the general strike and student uprising). Indeed, since 1789 (the year of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which enshrines the people’s right to demonstrate grievances).

P.S. Meanwhile, the Algerian people, having suffered a century of French colonial rule, a long and bloody war for independence, and more than 60 years of corrupt police-state rule, are carrying on a similar struggle for dignity and democracy, filling the streets once a week (but on Friday, not Saturday) in so-far peaceful massive demonstrations. (The Montpellier Yellow Vests immediately voted their support.) The irony is that the Algerian police have held back on violence, whereas here in France, the level of state repression against the Yellow Vests reminds me of the oppressive atmosphere of police repression I experienced as a student in Paris during the Algerian War.

P. P.S. In my next report from Montpellier, I will try to relate, as a participant-observer, what it’s like inside the Yellow Vests. Meanwhile, don’t hesitate to send me any questions you may have about this under-reported but much-maligned autonomous popular movement.

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Richard Greeman has been active since 1957 in civil rights, anti-war, anti-nuke, environmental and labour struggles in the U.S., Latin America, France (where he has been a longtime resident) and Russia (where he helped found the Praxis Research and Education Center in 1997). He maintains a blog at richardgreeman.org.

Notes

1. See James Surowiecki: The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, Doubleday, 2004.

2. Typical of the Yellow Vests’ sense of autonomy, our Montpellier/Peyrou group, although happy to join the Oct. 13 demonstration (which has received an actual permit), reserves the right to break off from the official group, march around where they please, and return when they choose. You can only ‘have’ a right if you use it. During Act 21, after chasing around town with the cops on their heels, they ended up on the main square and spontaneously formed a very long line and began dancing an improvised Medieval danse to the rhythm of drums, flutes, and noise makers.

All images in this article are from The Bullet

Ottawa imposed sanctions on 43 Venezuelan officials Wednesday, according to a statement by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

While the statement did not specify the names of those targeted, Freeland indicated that they were “high-ranking officials” or “governors.”

“Canada is committed to supporting the peaceful restoration of constitutional democracy in Venezuela,” she added.

Previous Canadian sanctions had targeted a total of 70 Venezuelan officials.

The measures by the Trudeau government come on the heels of successive rounds of sanctions imposed against Caracas by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). After sanctioning Venezuela’s oil, mining and banking sectors, Washington has recently gone after vessels and cargo companies involved in Venezuelan oil shipments. The latest round targeted four shipping companies and nine vessels on Friday.

Sanctions occupied the limelight ata Lima Group summit held in Santiago, Chile, on Monday. The meeting, which was not attended by Mexico, ended with a joint statement by participating countries. While the declaration rejected “any threat or course of action leading to a military intervention,” it did call on the international community to continue imposing sanctions against Venezuela. The statement additionally calls for an “International Conference for Democracy,” to be held in Lima at a later date.

US-led sanctions have met growing international opposition, with many experts warning that the measures are exacerbating the Caribbean country’s current crisis by depriving the cash-strapped Venezuelan state of resources and imposing hurdles on transactions such as food and medicine imports. UN Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy has criticized the use of sanctions to promote regime change, while former UN Expert Alfred de Zayas likened sanctions to “medieval sieges,” meant to bring countries “to their knees.”

The latest sanctions coincided with a South American trip by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Colombia in the past week. Venezuela was one of the main topics on the agenda, as well as Chinese investments in Latin America.

Pompeo’s last stop was the Colombian town of Cucuta, right on the border with Venezuela, where he met Colombian President Ivan Duque and Venezuelan opposition leaders such as Julio Borges. Borges is wanted by Venezuelan judicial authorities for his alleged involvement in the drone assassination attempt against President Maduro on August 4, 2018.

Speaking in Cucuta on Sunday, Pompeo vowed to use “every economic and political means at our disposal,” including sanctions, to hold the “regime” accountable.

“You watch the political and diplomatic noose tighten around Maduro’s neck,” he told reporters before going back to the US.

Pompeo’s trip also featured warnings against Cuba, Russia and China for their support for the Maduro government. The secretary of state warned Havana and Moscow that there would be a “cost” for supporting Maduro, while also criticizing China’s presence in Latin America throughout the trip, calling it “nefarious.”

Beijing rebuked Pompeo’s comments on Monday, with Chinese Ambassador to Chile Xu Bu telling a local newspaper that Pompeo had “lost his mind.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang blasted Pompeo’s “groundless allegations,” adding that “the US has long been treating Latin America as its backyard, where it would resort to willful use of pressure, threat or even subversion.”

Meanwhile, both Chavismo and the opposition staged mobilizations during the weekend.

Self-proclaimed “Interim president” Juan Guaido held a three day tour of the country’s northwest, holding rallies in the states of Falcón and Zulia. Guaido asked his followers to be “confident,” while also pledging that the end of the “usurpation” was just days away.

“You are not alone in this struggle, the international community is behind you and we are not going to lose,” he told a crowd in Punto Fijo.

Western states such as Zulia, home to Venezuela’s second largest city, Maracaibo, have been particularly hard hit by the recent electricity crisis, taking days to see power restored following nationwide blackouts and only having a few hours of service at a time.

Venezuela’s electric grid has been plagued by under-investment and lack of maintenance, problems which have been compounded by US sanctions. States such as Zulia had plans to install thermoelectric plants so as to reduce the dependence on the Guri Dam, the country’s main electricity generator, but sanctions have ground plans to a halt, particularly through shortages of fuel necessary to activate the plants.

Chavismo held a march on April 13 to commemorate the defeat of the 2002 coup (@PartidoPSUV)

Chavismo held a march on April 13 to commemorate the defeat of the 2002 coup (@PartidoPSUV)

For its part, Chavismo held a rally in Caracas on Saturday to commemorate the defeat of the 2002 coup which removed Chavez from power for 47 hours. The coup was led by opposition figures such as Leopoldo Lopez and Henrique Capriles, placing business leader Pedro Carmona as interim president, before a massive popular response brought Chavez back to power.

The date also marks the anniversary of the Bolivarian Militia, a popular defense organization created in 2009 and which has a reported 2 million members.

In his speech, Maduro pointed out that many of those who led the coup are high-profile opposition figures today, while also drawing parallels between Carmona’s swearing in and Juan Guaido’s self-proclamation on January 23.

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Julian Assange Wins 2019 EU Journalism Award

April 17th, 2019 by Telesur

Julian Assange has been awarded the 2019 European United Left-Nordic Green Left Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers and Defenders of the Right to Information, WikiLeaks informed Tuesday.

The award is given to individuals “uncovering the truth and exposing it to the public” and to honor “individuals or groups who have been intimidated and/or persecuted” for such actions. Thus recognizing Assange’s work through WikiLeaks.

The prize is sponsored by European left-wing parliamentarians, who devised it in 2018 in honor of assassinated Maltese journalist Daphne Galizia. Nobel Peace prize winner (1976), Mairead Maguire, received it on Assange’s behalf at an event in the European Parliament in France.

Assange is a multi-award winning journalist, with more than 15 international recognitions for his work. The most outstanding awards are the 2008 New Media Award from The Economist, 2010 Time Person of the Year (Reader’s Choice), 2009 Amnesty International UK Media Award, among others. Something his defense has repeatedly explained since by being a publisher and journalist, U.S. imprisonment would mean the violation of fundamental freedom of expression rights.

“The warning is explicit towards journalists. What happened to the founder and editor of WikiLeaks can happen to you in a newspaper, you in a TV studio, you on the radio, you running a podcast,” said award-winning journalist John Pilger writing in an op-ed for teleSUR.

On April 11, Assange’s even-year asylum was abruptly removed and then arrested by British police. Immediately the U.S. charged him with “computer hacking conspiracy,” over an allegation he conspired with former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer.

Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno even tried to minimize the actions by saying he was “miserable hacker.” Now his defense is fighting an extradition request to face the U.S. justice system, even though Ecuadorean officials have assured this will not happen.

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Featured image is from Wired

5G: The Dominoes Are Starting to Fall

April 17th, 2019 by Claire Edwards

Long-time United Nations staff member Claire Edwards summarizes worldwide developments in the 5G situation. While still far from a victory claim, there is much to be hopeful about as millions around the world deepen involvement and take a stand for our shared future.

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How do you stop the rollout of a 12 trillion dollar technology promoted by one of the most profitable industries on the planet and bulldozed through by the EU, FCC and the whole UN, most notably its WiFi enablers, WHO and ITU?

Many people have said it’s impossible. But even as the Trump administration attempts to ram through 5G in the United States, the dominoes are indeed falling around the world, as cities and entire nations are coming to their senses and putting the brakes on 5G.

Lawmakers hitting the brakes on 5G:

Overcoming the roadblocks

For me, it has always seemed an information problem. If the public simply understood the existential threat posed by adopting a military weapon as a communications technology, they would not accept it.

The challenge of informing people is twofold. The name “5G” is deceptive, implying a simple upgrade from the current 4G or fourth generation wireless. [And many WiFi routers now display “5G” as a mode option, but it means “5GHz” in that context, not actual “5G” — an industry ploy to normalize the term’s acceptance through intentional obfuscation. -Ed.]

This ruse cleverly disguises the reality that 5G means densification, with each individual, visible antenna being replaced by thousands of tiny antennas menacing people, animals and nature from every nook and cranny on Earth and from 20,000 or more satellites with lethal, laser-like beams hitting their unwitting targets millions of times a day like silent bullets.

The second difficulty is the tight control of the media. Hardly a whisper of negativity about 5G penetrates the public sphere, while its claimed benefits are constantly touted in puff pieces in newspapers and in numerous promotional videos.

Yet in the space of only a year since we first heard about the impending catastrophe that is 5G, the message has spread virally through the alternative and social media.

5G deserves the bad rap

Since US Senator Blumenthal dealt a major blow to the telecommunications industry by definitively establishing that no safety studies have been done, the bad news on 5G just keeps on coming. At least 21 US cities have passed ordinances restricting “small cell” installation, and many are charging “recertification fees” to make it unprofitable for the wireless industry.

And the UK-based microwave weapons expert Barrie Trower reports that 17 mystery countries are taking steps to avoid getting 5G.

While the EU eagerly promotes the rollout of 5G, a new EU report admits that 5G is a massive experiment, lamenting that:

“[T]he problem is that currently it is not possible to accurately simulate or measure 5G emissions in the real world … concern is emerging over the possible impact on health and safety arising from potentially much higher exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation arising from 5G.”

The EU report goes on to set out the dangers:

“Increased exposure may result not only from the use of much higher frequencies in 5G but also from the potential for the aggregation of different signals, their dynamic nature, and the complex interference effects that may result, especially in dense urban areas.”

Meanwhile, a court in France has recognized electrohypersensitivity (EHS) as an occupational disease that can be developed also from exposure to levels of radiation that are considered to be safe by the government.

No one wants 5G but the telcos

5G is beginning to look like an unwanted orphan. Everyone who hears the truth about it shuns it like the plague. Even most of its proponents clearly have no love for it.

In his Palm Beach neighborhood, President Trump and his fellow billionaires are not having any of it. None of the EU institutions in Brussels are having it (European Commission, Council of the European Union, European Council and the European Parliament). And its very enablers, the UN and its WHO and ITU are not going to be having it in Geneva, either.

Watch for moratoria being declared in Washington, D.C., home to the FCC; and Munich, nearby home to ICNIRP. Either would be an obvious indicator that the game is rigged.

But one wonders how the 5G movers and shakers will avoid the satellites, which the 5G literature boasts as being intended to “blanket” the Earth. Perhaps the satellite beams will avoid the areas where they live. Or perhaps not. Unless this insane 5G satellite plan is stopped, they, too, might wake up to find themselves as much guinea pigs as the rest of us in this massive biological experiment.

While well over ten thousand peer-reviewed scientific studies on the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation provide a clear perspective on the unprecedented risk of 5G, the rhetoric from the corporate media would have you believe that it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. One thing we can agree on: if we were to allow 5G to go ahead, it would make history. What a pity, then, that it would leave no one standing to celebrate it.

The tide is turning in our favour because people like you, dear reader, are becoming educated and involved. You are sharing information and speaking with leaders. Thanks to your willingness to stand up for life and love, we will succeed in this great battle of our time.

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Claire Edwards, BA Hons, MA, worked for the United Nations as Editor and Trainer in Intercultural Writing from 1999 to 2017. Claire warned the Secretary-General about the dangers of 5G during a meeting with UN staff in May 2018, calling for a halt to its rollout at UN duty stations.  She part-authored, designed, administered the 30 language versions, and edited the entirety of the International Appeal to Stop 5G on Earth and in Space (www.5gspaceappeal.org) and vigorously campaigned to promote it throughout 2019. In January 2020, she severed connection with the Appeal when its administrator, Arthur Firstenberg, joined forces with a third-party group, stop5ginternational, which brought itself into disrepute at its foundation by associating with the Club of Rome/Club of Budapest eugenicist movement. She is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Sources

Washington Post: 5G is about to get a big boost from Trump and the FCC. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/12/g-is-about-get-big-boost-trump-fcc/?utm_term=.c9e453858d1a

EDN Network: 5G: The twelve trillion dollar technology. 3 May 2017. https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4458362/5G–The-twelve-trillion-dollar-technology.

Digital Survivor: Portland Officials Attempt to Block 5G. 26 March 2019. https://digitalsurvivor.uk/2019/03/26/portland-officials-attempt-to-block-5g/

Oasi Sana: “Provoca danni al corpo!” Firenze frena sul 5G e applica il Principio di Precauzione. Approvata con voto (quasi) unanime la mozione in difesa della salute. 5 April 2019. https://oasisana.com/2019/04/05/provoca-danni-al-corpo-firenze-frena-sul-5g-e-applica-il-principio-di-precauzione-approvata-con-voto-quasi-unanime-la-mozione-in-difesa-della-salute-notizia-esclusiva-oasi-sana/

Terra Nuova.it: Un Municipio di Roma vota contro il 5G: cosa farà la Giunta? (A municipality of Rome votes against 5G: What will the City Council do?) www.terranuova.it/News/Attualita/Un-Municipio-di-Roma-vota-contro-il-5G-cosa-fara-la-Giunta

Vedomosti: Минобороны отказалось передавать операторам частоты для 5G (Ministry of Defence refusing to transfer frequencies for 5G to operators). 28 March 2019. https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2019/03/28/797714-minoboroni-otkazalos-peredavat-5g

Brussels Times: Radiation concerns halt Brussels 5G development, for now. 1 April 2019. http://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/14753/radiation-concerns-halt-brussels-5g-for-now

Telecom Paper: Germans petition Parliament to stop 5G auction on health grounds. 8 April 2019. https://www.telecompaper.com/news/ germans-petition-parliament-to-stop-5g-auction-on-health-grounds–1287962

Algemeen Dagblad: Kamer wil eerst stralingsonderzoek, dan pas 5G-netwerk. 4 April 2019. https://www.ad.nl/tech/kamer-wil-eerst-stralingsonderzoek-dan-pas-5g-netwerk~ab567cd6/

Zero5G: San Francisco Chronicle: California Supreme Court Sides with Cities in Small Cell Faceoff. 5 April 2019. https://zero5g.com/2019/california-supreme-court-sides-with-cities-in-small-cell-faceoff/

Take Back Your Power: 5G: Vaud (Switzerland) Adopts Resolution for a Moratorium. 9 April 2019. https://takebackyourpower.net/5g-vaud-switzerland-adopts-moratorium/

Le Temps: Genève adopte une motion pour un moratoire sur la 5G. 11 April 2019. https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/geneve-adopte-une-motion-un-moratoire-5g

US Department of Defense: Active Denial Technology. Non-Lethal Weapons Program. https://jnlwp.defense.gov/Press-Room/Fact-Sheets/Article-View-Fact-sheets/Article/577989/active-denial-technology/. Published May 11, 2016.

Wireless Industry Confesses “No Studies Show 5G is Safe”. US Senator Blumenthal Raises Concerns on 5G Wireless Technology Health Risks at Senate Hearing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekNC0J3xx1w

EH Trust: USA City Ordinances To Limit And Control Wireless Facilities Small Cells In Rights Of Ways. https://ehtrust.org/usa-city-ordinances-to-limit-and-control-wireless-facilities-small-cells-in-rights-of-ways/

5G Gigantic health hazard – Barrie Trower & Sir Julian Rose. Video. 14 December 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLVIbPtNrVo.

European Parliament: 5G Deployment: State of Play in Europe, USA and Asia. April 2019. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2019/631060/IPOL_IDA(2019)631060_EN.pdf

Zero5G: French court Recognizes EHS as an Occupational Disease. 2 April 2019. https://zero5g.com/2019/french-court-recognizes-ehs-as-an-occupational-disease/

Activist Post: Are Palm Beach and Trump’s Estate Exempt from Legislation Forcing 5G Small Cell Tower Installation Everywhere Else? 27 December 2018. https://www.activistpost.com/2018/12/are-palm-beach-and-trumps-estate-exempt-from-legislation-forcing-5g-small-cell-tower-installation-everywhere-else.html

Featured image is from TBYP

A lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s approval of Alton Coal’s mine expansion near Bryce Canyon National Park was filed today by Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Grand Canyon Trust, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and WildEarth Guardians. The organizations filed a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) challenge to the recent approval of the expanded mine, which would extract millions of tons of coal and exacerbate climate change impacts including air pollution and other threats.

In August of 2018, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved an environmental report that allows Alton to expand its mine onto 2,114 acres of public land to extract more than 30 million tons of coal. The complaint argues that BLM failed to analyze the impacts of mercury pollution from burning coal, did not consider the enormous social costs of increased carbon emissions, and refused to take a broader, more cumulative look at the climate impacts of this project as is required under NEPA.

“The Trump Administration has repeatedly put corporate interests ahead of the American people and the safety of our health and environment. It’s disappointing, but not surprising, to see the Trump Administration approve this mine expansion without accounting for all the pollution impacts,” Nathaniel Shoaff, Senior Attorney at the Sierra Club said. “Our organizations remain strongly committed to protecting the climate, environment, and cultural resources in southern Utah.”

In addition to the pollution and climate impacts, this coal mine expansion threatens the natural resources and visitor experience at nearby iconic Bryce Canyon National Park. Even further, the BLM itself acknowledges that the expansion is likely to have a negative effect on North America’s southernmost population of Greater Sage Grouse.

“There are a host of reasons why allowing an enormous new strip mine on the doorstep of a national park is a terrible idea – and the vast amount of greenhouse gases and other air pollution that would result from burning the coal is certainly one of them,” said Ann Alexander, a Senior Attorney at NRDC. “The law requires that BLM lay out for the public the very real costs of that pollution which they have disregarded .”

“The approval of this coal mine expansion also comes at a time when Utahns are demanding a shift toward a new clean energy economy. Salt Lake City, Moab, Park City and Summit County all committed to 100% clean energy goals, and the state’s rooftop solar industry continues to boom. The Trump Administration ignored these factors as well as the more than 280,000 public comments filed in opposition to the proposal,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director at WildEarth Guardians.

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US President Donald Trump has vetoed a congressional resolution that sought to end US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, the White House has said.

“This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future,” Trump said in the veto message.

The resolution, which had passed the House of Representatives and Senate, sought to end US military involvement in the war in Yemen that had not received prior authorisation from Congress.

That restriction falls under the US War Powers Act of 1973, which seeks to rein in where and when US forces are involved in military conflicts.

Neither the 247-175 tally in the Democratic-majority House nor the 54-46 vote in the Republican-led Senate would be enough to override the veto, which would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers.

Trump had repeatedly threatened to veto the resolution in the past, calling it “flawed” legislation.

US Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate who championed the legislation, said he was “disappointed, but not surprised” by Trump’s move.

Representative Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman and another proponent of the resolution, also expressed disappointment.

“From a president elected on the promise of putting a stop to our endless wars, this veto is a painful missed opportunity,” he said.

UAE praises decision

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, praised Trump’s decision.

“President Trump’s assertion of support to the Arab Coalition in Yemen is a positive signal,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter early on Wednesday.

Other backers of the measure said the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen has worsened the humanitarian crisis there, harshly criticising Riyadh for killing civilians.

The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead, caused outbreaks of preventable diseases and brought the already impoverished country to the verge of famine.

The US military provides intelligence and logistics support to Saudi forces, and until recently was also assisting with the mid-air refuelling of Saudi jets.

Saudi Arabia launched the military campaign in Yemen in 2015 to root out the Houthis, who had taken over the capital, Sanaa, and ousted the internationally recognised and Saudi-backed government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Experts say that without US backing, Saudi Arabia would be forced to end its war effort in Yemen.

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In what is arguably one of the most craven opportunistic moves by a business/media group to increase its circulation/profitability, on 10 April the New York Times (NYT) embarked on what it describes as its Privacy Project. 

A day later on 11 April, no doubt with the NYT’s foreknowledge of what was to come thanks to an unofficial US government tip, Ecuador revoked Julian Assange’s (Wikileaks founder) asylum in its UK Embassy and fed him to the British Police dogs eagerly awaiting to arrest him and dump him in jail.

In May 2017 I wrote that Assange was doomed from the get-go to be arrested and handed over to the US Government and that it would only be a matter of time before Edward Snowden befell a similar fate.

Chelsea Manning’s leaked information made WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, a household name. It also made them permanent enemies of the US State. In 2010, Assange released a video that he called Collateral Murder. The video shows an airstrike in which Iraqi journalists are killed. Other releases based on Manning’s leak were known as the Afghan Diary and Iraq War Logs. The diplomatic cables exposed some of the silly machinations of the US State Department and the over classification of documents. 

Meanwhile, mainstream media (MSM) outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post feasted on the leaks and gave them prominent coverage daily, even as they excoriated Assange and his merry band of leakers. The MSM believes that WikiLeaks is not “real” journalism even as they used the classified material Assange provided to bolster their subscription numbers. Aren’t they accessories to Assange’s crime? Apparently they are not.

Assange has been living for the past five years under diplomatic protection in the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom. He has been accused of rape in Sweden and, if he leaves the embassy, would be arrested by UK authorities and, ultimately, end up in the USA. To make matters worse, now he is a target of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director.

Pompeo once praised WikiLeaks. Whatever data he has seen that made him go ballistic can’t be good for Assange, obviously. [Former] Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions over at the Justice Department has hinted that an arrest warrant is in the works.

He will never get a get out of jail card and is trapped in Ecuador’s Embassy in London. The trip from the UK to Sweden to the USA would be swift if he capitulates. ‘It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A non-state, hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,’ [then] CIA director Mike Pompeo said at a May event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. ‘Assange is a narcissist who has created nothing of value and he relies on the dirty work of others to make himself famous: He’s a fraud.’ 

Assange continues to dig a hole for himself with the CIA Vault leaks even as he enlightens us all, apparently, about the machinations of governments around the world.

Hello Clipper

The New York Times Privacy Project’s mission statement is essentially a rehash of a privacy and encryption issue that began on 16 April 1993 over the National Security Agency’s proposal to embed a Clipper Chip in the nation’s communications networks and nascent Internet/World Wide Web (WWW). The chip would have allowed NSA and US Law Enforcement Agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation to easily access foreign and domestic public communications. The proposal was the brainchild of President Bill Clinton’s administration but a wide awake American public and anti-Clipper Chip groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) opposed the technology and by 1996 the US government gave up on the technology.

Screengrab from The New York Times

There is grave doubt whether the American public or pro-Assange interest groups have the voice and staying power of those like the EFF that a couple of decades ago opposed the Clipper Chip.

According to the New York Times project mission statement,

The boundaries of privacy are in dispute, and its future is in doubt. Citizens, politicians and business leaders are asking if societies are making the wisest tradeoffs. The Times is embarking on this months long project to explore the technology and where it’s taking us, and to convene debate about how it can best help realize human potential.”

Privacy in Dispute? Convene a debate? You’re Kidding!

Only those in cryogenic freeze or in solitary confinement for the past couple of decades would not know that privacy is already dead, a quaint relic from a time long since past. In today’s world, the price of participating in society is the sacrifice of privacy and self. It is not so much that technology is the culprit, it’s that a networked world, whether through stories told around a campfire that are passed on in an oral tradition, or instantly via Facebook/Twitter, appears to be a necessary human craving. Wanting to belong to something or some group, to be able to identify with an ideology or fad is apparently irresistible.

What do you really have to trade with your fellow human beings other than your deepest secrets, knowledge and individuality?

Humans are merrily merging with machines or rather the software and interfaces that allow textual and vision immersion, and the light speed acquisition of knowledge that the networked world provides. The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution be damned. Who needs it? The government or marketplace will always find a workaround to that relic of a bygone era.

All of this seems preordained by some Universal Machine God. We bow our heads whilst on the mobile device. The Internet/WWW is a sort of public confessional where there is no mediating priest to talk to God for you. It is straight talk with the Public God who dispenses likes or dislikes like the number of prayers a priest tells you to recite to regain a clean soul. And the Internet/WWW is a vengeful God with a long memory. Past sins from youth, or once though well hidden, find their way onto the network with punishment meted out by a hash tag with a name linked to it. 

Sickness of the Future

The NYT Privacy Project, or even my musings here, are not necessary to understand future diseases at work right now in 2019. For a better description of that we can turn to a short story written by Chinese Sci-Fi writer Chen Qiufan titled “A History of Future Illnesses.” The story is located in the book Broken Stars, Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation (Ken Liu translator).

Technology allows ritual to become an indivisible part of everyday life. Its implanted into you and becomes part of your genetic heritage to be passed on to your children and they children multiplying and mutating, more vigorous that its host. You cannot control the impulse to refresh the page. Information explosion brings anxiety but can fill your husk of a soul. Every fifteen seconds you move the mouse, open your social networking profile, browse the comments, retweet and reblog, close the page, and do it all over again fifteen seconds later. You cant stop. 

You no longer talk to people in real life. Air has lost its role as the medium for transmitting voice. You sit in a ring, your eyes glued to the latest mobile device in your hand as though worshiping the talisman of some ancient god. Your thoughts now flow into virtual platforms at the tips of your fingers. You are auguring, laughing flustering joking. But reality around you is a silent desert. 

You cannot free yourself from the control of artificial environments. Ritual is omnipresent. It is no longer restricted to sacrifice, sermon, mass, concert, or game performed on a central stage where the classical unities hold. Ritual itself is evolving, turning into distributed cloud computing, evenly spread out to every nook and cranny of your daily life. Sensors know everything and regulate the temperature, humidity, air currents and light around you; adjust your heart rate, hormonal balance, sexual arousal, mood. Artificial intelligence is a god: your think it is there for your welfare bringing you new opportunities, but you’ve become the egg in the incubator, the marionette attached to wires. Every second of every minute of every day, you are the sacrifice that completes the unending grand ritual. You are the ritual.

Radical thinkers obsess wove how to withdraw from all this. The power of ritual comes from repetition, not its content. Day after day, the repetition of poses and movements gradually seeps into the depth of consciousness like a hard drive’s read-write-head repeatedly tracing the patterns of an idea, until the idea becomes indistinguishable from free will itself…Romantic love is ritual’s most loyal consumer along with patriotism. The radicals try to imitate the Luddites of old [but]…the only thing that can be done is nothing.”

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John Stanton is a Virginia based writer. Reach him at [email protected].

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“To give up beauty and the sensual happiness that comes with it and devote one’s self exclusively to unhappiness requires a nobility I lack.  However, after all, nothing is true that compels us to make it exclusive. Isolated beauty ends in grimaces, solitary justice in oppression.

Anyone who seeks to serve the one to the exclusion of the other serves no one, not even himself, and in the end is doubly the servant of injustice.  A day comes when, because we have been inflexible, nothing amazes us anymore, everything is known, and our life is spent in starting again. 

It is a time of exile, dry lives, dead souls.  To come back to life, we need grace, a homeland, or to forget ourselves.  On certain mornings, as we turn a corner, an exquisite dew falls on our heart and then vanishes.  But the freshness lingers, and this, always, is what the heart needs.  I had to come back once again.” – Albert Camus, “Return to Tipasa”

For a writer to fight injustice to the exclusion of creating beauty and living passionately contradicts the deepest desires of the human heart.  Albert Camus taught us this.  The love of life must inform the rebel’s resistance to injustice.  “It seems to me that the writer must be fully aware of the dramas of his time,” he writes, “and that he must take sides every time he can and knows how to do so.”  But his refusal, his no, does not imply a renunciation but an affirmation, a yes, to the joy and grandeur of life that is everyone’s birthright.

This is the difficult way of true art – the rebel writer’s way – the tension that the writer must live with as he shuttles back and forth between one’s heart’s desires and his commitment to resist evil. What is the point of fighting for a better world if one does not live as if that world were here now, and one’s living and writing were the revelation of that reality.  Camus somewhere said something to the effect that it is not your writings that I like, it is your writing.  He knew that we are always on the way, and our wayfaring should prefigure the enigma of our arrivals.

It is spring as I write and I am thinking of Camus when that exquisite dew fell on his heart that early morning. No doubt Albert felt a bit of heaven.  I’m feeling it now.  Spring, the time of the resurrection of the living dead.  All around new life bursts and blooms in wild array. A mountain stream races down the hillside, shouting its joy that the earth’s new warmth has freed it at last from its frozen sleep.  In the trees all around the birds have returned and sing exultantly of their homecoming.  Almost before our eyes the flowers push their way up to the light.  They have had enough of the underground, hungrily seeking the sun.  It is a beautiful dawn, and I can smell it.  I feel as though I have awoken from a long and deep sleep.  The morning star welcomed me. The sun rose majestically. And across my window three early flies jitterbug in the first light.  The whole earth is conspiring to explode with life and it is asking for our assent.

But dare the living-dead awaken?  Shall we say yes to this paradise?

“This day you will be with me in paradise.”  That’s what a man, convicted of crimes against the state and dying fast, once said.  Like most memorable statements, it is open to various interpretations.  But suppose, instead of offering one, we assume the existence of paradise, and ask a question that lurks unspoken and forbidden in every heart.

For there are some questions so obvious that we refuse to ask them for fear of having to answer.  To be asked such questions seems an impertinence, an insult to our intelligence, and an assault on our integrity.   Don’t be ridiculous, we think, though we don’t laugh.  Isn’t it obvious, we vaguely mutter, secretly knowing it is nothing of the sort.  We are caught off-guard, something we don’t do to ourselves.  Even our dreams escape us.  We prefer to live in the clouds.

But let’s be daring for once.  Let’s put aside all our usual lies and evasions and not be afraid of the truth.  Let’s ask ourselves a few very simple and annoying questions, the kind children ask their tongue-tied parents, and let’s not squirm away from answering.

What images of death do we live with?

Or, to put it another way, if you believe in life after death, what image of heaven do you entertain?  Not what do you think heaven is, but what do you desire it to be?  If you object and say you don’t believe in life after death, the question is still valid.  For we are, of course , here playing a game of the imagination.  You need only make believe, for the hell of it, that there is life after death. Or life before.

What would you like it to be?  Imagine.  What would you like this life to be?  Maybe that’s the real question.

The trouble with being born, of course, is that we are guaranteed to die and be aware of it most of our lives.  When it comes to dying, we have no choice; death is our fate and against it freedom is a meaningless word.  Living is another matter, though it is not something we generally give much thought, for we can choose not to live when breath is still ours. We are free to wait lovingly for annihilation by patiently enduring our lives, or we can commit quick suicide.

We don’t have to live, but we must die.  In our bitterness we may curse the fact that we find ourselves alive in the world; we didn’t ask for it.  This is obviously true and equally meaningless. Once we find ourselves alive, death is our destiny, like it or not.  Whether life is a living hell for us or just a dull plod through the years – a “hanging in there,” in those unconsciously evocative words – we hold in our hearts, however buried, images of what we would like life to be like if it were eternal.

That is, we all live with images of paradise, no matter how beclouded or unarticulated they may be.

Now, as I wander out in the early morning lulled by birdsong, I wonder what these images consist of.  What, in our hearts’ desires, do we yearn to become?  What heavens do we wish to inhabit?

For we are now in the school of imagination, what John Keats called the vale of soul-making, and must, like children everywhere, answer the following: Imagine paradise, on earth or in heaven, and describe it in as few or as many words as you wish.  For future reference, learn your answer by heart.

Camus wrote,

Yes, nothing prevents me from dreaming, in the very hour of exile, since at least I know this, with sure and certain knowledge: a man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the details of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.

Yes, to open our hearts.  It is naïve, but not stupid.  It is disturbing.  It is surely easy to hide behind the word mystery, or cynically to reply that the world is what it is, a far cry from paradise, nor will it ever be, here or in some supposed hereafter, any different.  The former is the believer’s dodge, the latter the skeptical “realist’s” way of begging the question.  Both are phony.

Only as we become as little children can we enter into the kingdom of heavenly imagination, and it is the fear of ridicule, our own and others,’ that bars the gate.  It is obvious that what happens after death is a mystery.  Why we come and why we go is something that we’ll never know, all beliefs to the contrary.  We live by pure faith, though, as Thoreau noted, we are determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it.  Which we can’t, ultimately.  Knowledge fails.  And anyway, what we know and what we want are not the same thing.  The images of paradise we hold don’t illuminate death in the slightest; they do, however, enlighten our lives.  After all, it is living that is within our power.  We live in possibility.  If we wish to pursue the ideal images of our heart’s desires, we must first make manifest what they are.

What do you want?  I know it is not easy living with a deep but dark longing.  Perhaps it is the fear of disappointment that keeps us in the dark.  Why, when the whole earth rises toward the light, do we shrink back in fear?  Does beauty crush us?

I remember leaving my mother’s house to go to the hospital where my dear father had just died. It was 5:30 AM on the first of May. Stepping outside, the birdsong and flowering bushes illuminated by the rising sun staggered me. How could this be: life and death in one hour, one moment. Where now was my father as his son walked through a garden of delight?  Where was that man whom I had kissed a few hours before?

What do I want?

Albert, you wondered too when you created your alter-ego Jacques Cormery in your novel, The First Man, and placed him at his father’s gravesite.  It was just a novel, as they say, but you were there and said,

All that was left was this anguished heart, eager to live, rebelling against the deadly order of the world that had been with him for forty years, and still struggling against the wall that separated him from the secret of all life, wanting to go farther, to go beyond, and to discover, discover before dying, discover at last in order to be, just once to be, for a single second, but forever.

Just once and one time only.  Isn’t that it?  No reruns. No playbacks.  One life.  Eternal.

Then what?

Perhaps our greatest fear is to passionately want something from life and death, “to go beyond” with Albert, to ask for something independent of society’s and others’ wishes, and to dare intuit it into existence. Society drones: Don’t dare feel it, don’t dare say it, don’t ask for too much.  Narrow it all down, life is much too much, narrow it all down.

Sometimes I think that because so many people have meekly accepted this dictum that they are unconsciously in love with death, assuming that all their problems and the anguish of being placed between yes and no, heaven and earth will then cease.  Oftentimes I think that we are living in the age of nihilism that Nietzsche predicted long ago, a time in which the will to nothingness is most clearly expressed in the sterile pursuit and embrace of things, a “paradise” of consumer goods at the expense of livingness.

“I cling like a miser to the freedom that disappears as soon as there is an excess of things,” writes Camus, grasping in a few words a key link between a just and unjust world where most people are subjected to violence and degradation at the hands of the wealthy and powerful who seek to devour the earth.

Ah, but here we are walking in the spring sunshine, the time for resurrection and for truth.  The whole earth is rising beneath our feet. We can feel it.  The trees are budding forth and leaving toward the stars. We can see them. We can smell the earth warming in the rising sun.  Perhaps like Camus, the spring smells seize us by the throat, and we find ourselves delirious with love and desire as “the gods speak in the sun and the scent of absinthe leaves,” as we wander through a reborn world.

So why don’t we say what we truly want?  Can we even imagine it?  Or is what we want so pathetic – more things, more money, anything to boost our egos and impress others, improve our appearances, elevate our social standing – that to admit it reveals the hollowness of our lives?  Are our desires so vague and culturally constricted that they must be repressed lest they make us realize how spiritually dead we are when all around us resurrection calls us to awaken to new life?

Suppose rather than hiding behind the lies and evasions that we use to divorce ourselves from the tree of life, we dare to speak from the indivisible root of truth and desire, or true desire, the eternal tree.  For to live truly and to die is to create out of that planting a full flowering, an exposed existence rooted in the earth and reaching to the stars.  Then, heaven will be our destiny, for it will proceed from our passions and usher in a glorious spring.

And yet, as Camus knew, our little imaginary heavens can lull us to sleep when world events call to us to rise up and say no.  Yes, but no, too.  Desire needs will to renew the world.  The lover who luxuriates in the spring sap rising must be a rebel.  “But the true life is present in the heart of this dichotomy….Life is this dichotomy itself,” he tells us.

To live authentically is to live between yes and no.

Dostoevsky, who shared with Camus the belief that we must rebel to save the world, had Karamazov rightly say that if all are not saved, what good is the salvation of only one?

To which he added: “Life is a paradise and we are all in paradise, but we refuse to see it.”

So it seems on this morning in spring as resurrection fills the air.  And even though this feeling will fade, Camus is right that its freshness will linger, an exquisite reminder of why we must rebel joyously.

You are right, Albert, “We must simultaneously serve suffering and beauty.”

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Distinguished author and sociologist Edward Curtin is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

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Julian Assange’s Victory

April 17th, 2019 by Andre Vltchek

Throughout history, dark and reactionary forces have always attempted to control the world; by violence, by deceit, by kidnapping and perverting the mainstream narrative, or by spreading fear among the masses.

Consistently, brave and honest individuals have been standing up, exposing lies, confronting the brutality and depravity. Some have fought against insane and corrupt rulers by using swords or guns; others have chosen words as their weapons.

Many were cut down; most of them were. New comrades rose up; new banners of resistance were unveiled.

To resist is to dream of a better world. And to dream is to live.

The bravest of the brave never fought for just their own countries and cultures; they fought for the entire humanity. They were and they are what one could easily define as “intuitive internationalists”.

Julian Assange, an Australian computer expert, thinker and humanist, had chosen a new and mostly untested form of combat: he unleashed an entire battalion of letters and words, hundreds of thousands of documents, against the Western empire. He penetrated databases which have been storing the evidence of the most atrocious crimes the West has been committing for years and decades. Toxic secrets were exposed; truths revealed. To those who have been suffering in silence, both face and dignity were finally returned.

Julian Assange was a ‘commander’ of a small team of dedicated experts and activists. I met some of them, and was tremendously impressed. But no matter how small in numbers, this team has been managing to change the world, or at least to give the Western public an opportunity to know, and consequently to act.

After WikiLeaks, no one in New York, Berlin, London or Paris has any right to say “we did not know”. If they do not know now, it is because they have decided not to know, opportunistically and cynically.

Julian Assange and his comrades published all that the West was doing to the Afghan people, as well as to those suffering from neo-colonialism and imperialism all over the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

What is it that the critics of Wikileaks are holding against Mr. Assange? That the snitches and the agents of the Western empire got ‘exposed’? Is the world expected to feel pity for them? Are tens of millions of victims supposed to be forgotten just so that the members of the Western intelligence services and their lackeys could feel safe and protected?

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A few days before this essay went to print, Julian Assange was cynically betrayed by a country which used to be governed by a socialist administration, and which gave him political asylum and citizenship, both. Its current ruler, Lenin Moreno, will be judged extremely harshly by history: he’ll be remembered as a man who began dismantling the socialist structure of Ecuador, and who then literally sold (to the twisted British and US judiciary systems) a man who has already sacrificed more than his life for the truth as well as for survival of our planet.

As the Metropolitan Police dragged Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London into a van, the entire world could catch a glimpse of the naked essence of the Western regime; the regime in action – oppressive, gangrenous, murderous and vindictive.

But we should not forget: the regime is not doing it because it is confident and strong. It is actually terrified. It is in panic. It is losing. And it is murdering, wherever it feels ‘vulnerable’, which is, all over the world.

Why? Because the millions, on all continents, are waking up, ready to face Western terror, ready to fight it, if there is no other way.

It is because they now know the truth. It is because the reality cannot be hidden; the brutality of Western global dictates is something that no one can deny any longer. Thanks to the new media in countries that have managed to free themselves from Western influence. And of course, thanks to heroes like Julian Assange, and his comrades.

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Julian Assange has not fallen. He was stabbed, betrayed. But he is here, he is alive, with us; with the millions of those who support him, admire him, and are grateful to him for his honesty, courage and integrity.

He confronted the entire Empire; the most powerful, evil, destructive and brutal force on earth. And he managed to damage its secret organizations, consequently spoiling some of the plans, therefore saving lives.

All this can be considered a victory. Not the final victory, but a victory nevertheless.

By arresting Assange, the empire showed its weakness. By dragging him from the embassy into a police van, it has admitted that it already has begun sewing its own funeral gown.

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This article was originally published on New Eastern Outlook.

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Four of his latest books are China and Ecological Civilization with John B. Cobb, Jr., Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Recent US sanctions have been directed at the heart of Venezuela’s economy: the oil industry, an industry that has also been crippled by the continued sabotages on the electric power grid of the country.

But when you think that enough suffering has been imposed on the people of Venezuela with all sorts of warfare actions taken out from the toolbox of a full scale Hybrid War, the US government strikes again with another hit. This time by preventing the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, which amounts to killing the two proverbial birds with one stone.

That is precisely the intention of the latest US sanctions against Venezuela targeting 34 oil tankers dedicated to transporting crude from Venezuela to Cuba. The measures against the Venezuelan cargo vessels owned by state-run oil company PDVSA are doubly illegal since they are also extraterritorial affecting two other firms: the Liberia-based Ballito Shipping Incorporated and the Greece-based ProPer In Management Incorporated.

Venezuela has been the main supplier of crude to the island based on a joint economic agreement that guarantees preferential prices of oil to Cuba in exchange for medical and educational services to Venezuela.

Cuba has been subjected to almost 60 years of relentless cruel economic and financial blockade by the US. At the beginning of this year, not coincidentally, the State Department issued a statement saying it would suspend Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act for 45 days only (starting on February 1) in order to conduct “a careful review”. After a further extension of 30 more days, John Bulton is expected to announce Trump’s full application of Title III with no exceptions, and no more waivers.

So far successive US presidents suspended the lawsuit provisions for up to six months. This has been done since the beginning and Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump himself have signed this provision every six months as allowed by the law.

Title III is the most insidious piece of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows US citizens who had properties nationalized by the revolutionary State of Cuba – including Cuban-Americans who were not US citizens at the time of nationalization – to file a suit in the United States against persons that may be “trafficking” in those properties.

The threat of US lawsuits that have a definite extraterritorial clout is an obvious deterrent for international companies from doing business in Cuba.

The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez, has categorically rejected the US action highlighting the fact that the activation of Title III is a blatant act of extraterritoriality against other countries that may suddenly be sued by US courts.

Cuba’s Granma newspaper wrote, Cubans

would be forced to return, reimburse or pay U.S. claimants for the house in which they live, the area on which their communities are built, the arable land where they cultivate produce, the school where their children are educated, the hospital or polyclinic where they receive medical assistance.

Russia has condemned it for violating international law. All Cuban nationalizations were and are legal under international law.

The US will likely apply Title III selectively trying to hit those governments that are not friendly, and spare Canada and European countries, for instance. Implementation will be centered on antagonist countries like Russia, China, and Venezuela.

Cuba is being targeted for its socialism aside for being a friend of Venezuela. The US timing is interesting because Cuba has just had a referendum where almost 87% of Cuban voters voted “YES” on a new constitution, which represents a very strong majority.

During the popular debates from mid-August to mid-November of 2018, it was the people who decided to be closer to socialism and even to include the ideal of communism in the new constitution, which had been deleted in the draft.

However, we have to understand that this renewed attack on Cuba is really aimed at Venezuela.

The call to apply sanctions on the Venezuelan crude to Cuba came from Juan Guaidó, the unconstitutionally self-appointed president, saying that the revenues from the sale of oil is financing Cuban intelligence operations in Venezuela.

Of course he is only repeating the lines supplied by US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who said that Cuba and Venezuela are running an “oil-for-repression scheme”.

This comes from the same US government that has appointed Elliott Abrams as US special envoy to Venezuela. Abrams was convicted for his involvement in the Iran-Contras scandal in the 1980s during the Reagan administration. The scandal involved the illegal arms sale to Iran to finance the Contras rebel group to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Elliott Abrams is now in charge of overthrowing the Bolivarian government in Venezuela. He has already made a failed attempt trying to force “humanitarian aid” into Venezuela from Colombia last February. I am sure that as we write he is devising means to introduce arms into Venezuela.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza stated that Venezuela would continue ensuring that Cuba receives the oil that it needs.

We will always fulfill Venezuelan promises and, of course, the commitments to brothers and sisters like Cuban and Venezuelan people”, he said. He added, “We are experts at guerrilla operationsEven when the conventional power of capitalism attacks you, you have to know how to respond by unconventional avenues, always respecting international law. We are experts.”

The attacks to force a regime change in Venezuela are numerous and illegal amounting to a hybrid war involving

  • economic boycotts
  • financial sanctions
  • illegal confiscation of billions of dollars deposited in international banks
  • cyber attacks
  • sabotage on the electric power grid carried out by mercenaries and terrorist groups.

This is a reminder of what we have seen in Cuba.

To be sure, the US is behind all of this but the Canadian government is not only complicit, it is an active participant with its own sanctions, as recently as a few days ago on 43 Venezuelan officials including Jorge Arreaza, and by inciting some Latin American countries to betray Venezuela.

Venezuela is resisting and continues its Bolivarian process to build a socialist society based on self-government with participation of all Venezuelans as protagonists.

On the face of such blatant abuses that may be considered as crimes against humanity, we ask:

Does the Trump administration know that the revenues from the sale of Venezuelan oil are used to provide food and medicines, and other life supporting services to Venezuelans?  I am not going out on a limb when I say they do, but they don’t care.

Does the Trump administration know that Cuba needs Venezuelan oil to run its industries and support the infrastructure that provide food and medicines, and other life supporting services to Cubans? Of course they know. The US has sabotaged Cuba with one of the longest and most cruel economic and financial blockades for almost 60 years.

We must conclude that the US government is not just innocently killing two birds with a stone. The US government is criminally harming millions of people in two countries in the cruelest way cutting off their livelihood with unilateral coercing measures.

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Nino Pagliccia is an activist and freelance writer based in Vancouver. He is a retired researcher from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is a Venezuelan-Canadian who follows and writes about international relations with a focus on the Americas. He is the editor of the book “Cuba Solidarity in Canada – Five Decades of People-to-People Foreign Relations” (2014). He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Caracas Chronicles

African American physicians began arriving in post Reconstruction era Augusta, Georgia during the mid-1880s. Initially these black physicians were offered work at the city’s only African American public hospital, but as racial prejudices hardened, they were barred from practicing at public hospitals, thus limiting their access to continuing education, denying career advancement, and creating an environment of discrimination and exploitation. However, black physicians persevered and played a critical role in developing cultural change within the field of medicine through racial solidarity and institutional development.   

In Segregated Doctoring, author Leslie J. Pollard, Sr. highlights the origins of the African American medical practice in Augusta within the confines of legalized segregation and racial tension in the South. Pollard says,

“I think the book serves as a corrective to the neglected story of black physicians in Augusta, and it is my hope that it becomes an important addition to scholarly literature that explores the city’s rich medical history.”

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Leslie J. Pollard Sr. was the Callaway Professor of History at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. His works include “Complaint to the Lord: Historical Perspectives on the African American Elderly” published by Susquehanna University Press in 1996 and Growing up Country, a fictional account of a rural black family during the Jim Crow period.


Segregated Doctoring by Leslie J. Pollard, Sr.

Genre: Non-fiction 

ISBN: 978-1-64111-162-1 

308 pages

Publication Date: Available now on Amazon

Price: $27.95

Click here to order.

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The world reacted with shock to the fire that engulfed the Notre Dame Cathedral. A symbol of Paris,  this 13th Century architectural marvel is home to precious historical religious relics and artwork; made even more famous throughout the world  by Victor Hugo’s famous novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

World leaders were quick to react to the tragedy of this fire.  News headlines around the world brought this disastrous incident to every living room around the globe and nations commiserated with the French. The inaudible sigh of relief was palpable when the structure was saved and with it, the history that laid within the walls. The past was not lost.

But another fire may well stop the future. Concurrent with the fire that ravaged Notre Dame, another historical place of worship, the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem fell victim to a fire of an unknown origin. The Mosque which was completed in 705 CE, is the third holiest site in Islam. But its fate is not shared by Moslems alone – it touches us all.

The world can be forgiven for their ignorance of this tragedy – and the importance of al Aqsa. The media simply dismissed it, as it does with all things that must be kept from the general public. This is not the first fire that was left unmentioned by mainstream media (MSM). A previous fire set to the Mosque by a zealous Australian Christian in 1969 failed to capture headlines. Indeed, the threats to al Aqsa Mosque have accelerated over the years to a point of no return. Given that the fate of this Mosque holds the fate of us all, how can the media be forgiven for their deafening silence?

In 2006, the Israeli government began work on an exact replica of the Hurva synagogue on its original site. The rebuilding of the Hurva is designed to usher in the rebuilding of the Third Temple. Rabbis were tailored for the special kind of garments they would be wearing in a “rebuilt temple” – the ‘end of time’. But the Mosque still stands in the way of building the Third Temple – for now.[i]

It took four years to complete the work on Hurva. When presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised AIPAC an undivided Jerusalem in 2008, the building of the Hurva synagogue was well on the way – which signaled continued future attacks on the al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for construction of the Third Temple.

In 2009, Israeli news headlines reassured Israelis that “Netanyahu would build the Third Temple”. Soon after, in 2010, JTA reported that “Our Land of Israel” party had put posters on 200 city buses in Jerusalem showing an artist’s rendition of the Third Temple on the al-Aqsa Mosque site with the slogan, “May the Temple be built in our lifetime.”

Donald Trump deliverance on Obama’s promise has made these fanatics more hopeful. How could they not be with Senator Broxon telling a cheering crowd

“Now, I don’t know about you, but when I heard about Jerusalem — where the King of Kings where our soon coming King is coming back to Jerusalem, it is because President Trump declared Jerusalem to be capital of Israel”.

And how do we ignore Benjamin Netanyahu taking ownership of Jerusalem stating that the Bible, the holy book for Jews and Christians, had justified it. Should we then be surprised that rabbis sent a letter of gratitude to Trump, praising him for “fulfilling prophecies”.

In March, as Israeli elections were approaching, it was reported that “The Israeli Third Temple” party had gained traction. And while the mainstream media can ignore the latest fire that broke out at the al Aqsa mosque on April 15, can we afford to ignore the blazing headlines of the same day: “END OF THE WORLD: Jerusalem third temple ‘fulfills Biblical prophecy’ of the end times” and other Israeli news ushering in the building of the Third Temple and the ‘end of times’?

Some may take comfort in the fact that this is all sheer madness, but one cannot ignore the insanity of which we were warned of by Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army who in 1999 reported his findings in the “Counterproliferation papers, Future Warfare Series No. 2, USAF Counterproliferation Center”.  This fascinating report, among other things, sounded the alarm over the probability of Gush Emunim, a right- wing religious organization, or others, hijacking a nuclear device to “liberate” the Temple Mount for the building of the third temple.  This is powerful insanity with insane powers enabling it.

Is the world ready to embrace this madness and accept this fate at this juncture? Are you?

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Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of lobby groups in influencing US foreign policy. 

Note

[i] Tom Mountain.  Preparing for the Third TempleJewish Advocate.  Boston:Aug 22, 2008.  Vol. 199,  Iss. 34,  p. 9 (1 pp.)

Featured image is from Gulf News

After winning the Israeli election with a slim majority, in a campaign that grew more sordid and vilifying by the day, Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to begin his fifth term as Israeli prime minister.

The culmination of his dirty tricks campaign was an election-day stunt in which his Likud party broke regulations – and possibly the law – by arming 1,200 activists with hidden cameras, to film polling stations in communities belonging to Israel’s large Palestinian minority.

Netanyahu justified the move by saying it would ensure the election was “kosher”. Yet again, Israel’s prime minister made it clear that the country’s 1.7 million Palestinian citizens were unwelcome interlopers in what he regards as an exclusively Jewish political process.

The PR firm behind the stunt admitted another motive. The goal was for the cameras to be quickly discovered by police and thereby scare the one in five citizens who are Palestinian into staying home. A low turnout by Palestinian voters in Israel would ensure a stronger parliamentary majority for Netanyahu’s coalition.

In fact, slightly less than half of the minority cast a ballot, although the reason was probably as much down to their exasperation at a series of ever more right-wing Netanyahu governments as it was a fear of surveillance at polling stations.

When coalition negotiations this week are complete, Netanyahu is likely to head the most ultra-nationalist government in Israel’s history – one even more extreme than his last one.

His coalition, comprising settler factions and religious fundamentalists, will even include a party hosting political refugees from the previously outlawed Kach party – anti-Arab racists banned in the US as a terror organisation.

The official opposition will be the Blue and White party led by a group of hawkish former generals – assuming Netanyahu doesn’t try to lure former army chief of staff Benny Gantz into a national unity government of the right.

In Washington, Netanyahu can rely on the full-throated support of Donald Trump’s administration.

In other words, Netanyahu will face no serious domestic or international obstacles as he implements the agenda of the right. He will entrench control over the last fragments of what was once assumed to be an emerging Palestinian state and he will step up attacks on the rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens, in line with the Nation-State Basic Law he passed last summer.

The biggest trouble facing Netanyahu once he forms a new government will not be political but legal.

During the election campaign, Israel’s attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, announced that Netanyahu would soon be indicted on a series of corruption charges.

The delay is largely a formality, giving the prime minister a final chance to defend himself at a special hearing. In the meantime, Netanyahu hopes he can find a way to ride out the charges.

One option is simply to drag out any trial, insisting it be deferred indefinitely on the grounds that he needs to focus on pressing matters of state. At the same time, he can rile up supporters and intimidate the judiciary by claiming that the courts are trying to overturn the will of the people.

The other option is to arm-twist his coalition partners into agreeing a retroactive immunity law making it impossible for prosecutors to indict the prime minister while in office. Some of his coalition partners are already on board.

How he might achieve this feat is through an “annexation for immunity” deal. In other words, Netanyahu gives the far-right and the settlers what they want – annexation of parts or all of the West Bank – and in return, they back immunity legislation.

That was why Netanyahu made an unexpected statement in favour of annexation shortly before polling.

Asked about the pressure for annexation from his coalition partners, he told the media:

“We will move to the next stage. I am going to extend [Israeli] sovereignty and I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements.”

Netanyahu has previously rejected formally annexing the West Bank, but not on moral or ideological grounds.

He demurred largely because annexation would bring him grief in western capitals and risk provoking a Palestinian civil rights struggle that might attract global sympathy. In any case, he regards such a step as unnecessary, given that Israel has already annexed the West Bank in all but name.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu would prefer to stay out of the dock. And of late, the stars have been aligning in favour of some kind of annexation.

The world is losing interest in the Palestinian cause, given that it has been presented as intractable by western leaders and there are battles closer to home for many of them.

Trump has shown he will sanction just about any Israeli violation of Palestinian rights if it panders to his Christian evangelical base. And the US president has set a useful precedent for Netanayhu in recently recognising Israel’s illegal annexation of the occupied Golan Heights. The principle of victor-takes-all has been established in Washington.

The question, therefore, is increasingly not whether, but what kind of, annexation Netanyahu plans.

It will most likely be done in stages and not referred to as annexation but rather, “extending Israeli sovereignty”. Large settlements close to Jerusalem such as Maale Adumim and the Gush Etzion bloc might be first.

But ultimately, Netanyahu’s political allies want most of Area C, the two-thirds of the West Bank designated in the Oslo accords as under temporary Israeli control.

This is the most prized territory, including water aquifers and agricultural land. And better still for the Israelis, after decades of administrative ethnic cleansing, it has few Palestinians left there.

Trump was shameless in helping Netanyahu during the election campaign and there is no reason to believe he will get tougher now. His so-called peace plan, if it is finally unveiled after the election, as promised, might make annexation of parts of the West Bank its centrepiece, dressed up as a solution to final-status issues.

Was the Golan Heights debacle a warm-up act, laying the groundwork for an even more audacious move from Trump to save Netanyahu’s skin? We may find out soon enough.

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A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.

Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His books include “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Permissible Influences: Israel and the Australian Elections

April 17th, 2019 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

So much hullabaloo; so much pent-up anger and, let’s face it, so much opportunity for the political classes of Australia.  The theme since 2016 is electoral interference; the object: whichever power so happens to afford an opportunity to gather support against.  Demonising the Chinese has been a specialty of Australian politics since the first members of the middle kingdom began eyeing prospects in the antipodes.  When Chinese residents did well on the gold fields, challenged Australian legislatures insisted on punitive reactions, hoping to the curb the wicked success of the Yellow Race.  Chinese-made furniture in Victoria needed the special tag of being made by Chinese.  The result in the nineteenth century was predictable: sales of Chinese-made products in the state grew.

Now, the terrors are somewhat more refined.  There is Huawei with capacities that make Australian 5G technologies look like pygmy newborns taking their first steps.  There are pokes and prods from the People’s Republic of China seeking to influence policy making with varying degrees of subtlety.  (Hardly shocking given that other mightily righteous states, including the United States, are very prone, and have done, the same thing.)     

All in all, interference in the electoral process of another country can come in all manner of forms.  What matters is whether they are tolerated or not.  The hectoring quality of interference from a small, undeclared nuclear state that insists on living, and exploiting, the shadow of the Holocaust, that unspeakable fate that befell the rich Jewish communities of Europe during the Second World War, is singular.  The unspeakable has proven to be politically useful for Israel, enabling a disproportionate influence to be exerted in the political affairs of other states.

In Australia, anybody who either defends Palestinians against Israeli policy during their political career, especially prior or during an electoral campaign, or insists that Israeli policy falls well short of humanitarian standards, is deemed a rabid anti-Semite frothing with manifest hatred.  To limit criticism of questionable policies, its best to simply limit the terms used: avoid, for instance, a reference to “Israeli policy”, or “atrocities”, or “settlements”.  Never mention “lobby” in the same sentence as “Israel”.  Importantly, the strategy here is to conflate Jews and the expanse of their history and experience with the hard edged, often harsh features of Israeli policy, thereby meaning that any criticism of policy implies a libel on the Jewish people.  Devious, that. 

As Australia now moves into another federal election of characteristic, lowbrow tedium, a few sparks are starting to show in that regard.  Interest has piqued towards certain members of the Australian Labor Party, targeted for expressing unscripted and inappropriate views favourable to Palestinians.  Again, anything favourable towards a Palestinian state or critical of Israel’s approach to it is singled out for special treatment. 

Curtin candidate Melissa Parke, deemed by ALP leader Bill Shorten a “star” in the running, became a casualty for remembering “vividly” how the IDF forced a pregnant Palestinian refugee “to drink a bottle of bleach”, an effort that apparently “burnt out all her throat and insides”.  She also likened Israel’s settlements to China’s efforts in the South China Sea.  The comments were made to pro-Palestine Labor activists at the United Voices headquarters in Perth. 

The defensive response is always on cue: the IDF is accountable; the IDF is “transparent”.  As the WA Liberal Party’s Policy Committee Chairman Sherry Sufi explains,

“Israel is a country with the rule of law. It has sent its Presidents and Prime Ministers to jail.” 

He cannot believe that an Israeli soldier could engage in the conduct alleged by Parke and “get away with it”.  The niggling problem disappears because it could never happen.

Fremantle MP Josh Wilson also caught the eye of the permanently indignant Israeli lobby.  At a December event organised by the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, featuring seven other Labor MPs, Wilson described the checkpoints peppering Gaza as “a series of chokeholds that squeeze Palestinians”.  The squeezing took place “on movement and time and dignity and peace of mind”, humiliating, delaying and discomforting Palestinians in the process.  The outcome?  “They are going to turn Palestine into Swiss cheese and that is what is happening.”

Senator Sue Lines, demonstrating how something is truly afoot in Australia’s western state, has done the unpardonable in mentioning the unmentionable: that the Israel lobby has influence in Australia.  In an address to WA Labor Friends of Palestine in March, Senator Lines lamented the tardiness of Labor policy towards the Israel-Palestine issue. 

“Not so much for those of us who are supporters of Palestine, but because the Israeli lobby is so powerful within the party and outside the party and it really does impact on the sort of movement we’ve been able to make in our policy.” 

The Labor leader has had to spring into action to douse any electorally damaging flames.  Shorten, on a visit to the seat of La Trobe in Melbourne, assured gathered journalists that Wilson and Senator Lines had “reconfirmed” their support for the official pro-Israeli Labor line.  Zionist Federation president Jeremy Liebler could rest easy:

“Good on Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen for swiftly clarifying that Ms Parke’s views are inconsistent with Labor’s approach to Israel, and I’m confident the party leadership will issue a similar response to Josh Wilson and Sue Lines.” 

Ignoring the substance of Senator Lines’ remarks, Liebler put it down to hostility against the Jewish community “having a dialogue with the Labor Party”.  Again, never mention the lobby.   

Much of this, sadly, comes down to keeping up, and in, with the voters.  Crude calculations figure.  Votes from Palestinians and their supporters are insignificant and few; votes from Jewish voters, highly prized.  The inner-city Melbourne seat of Macnamara, held by Labor, is of interest, given its slim margin and the retiring, pro-Israeli Labor MP, Michael Danby.  To that end, negative comments on Israel are not so much niggles in electoral strategy as bombs waiting to go off.

Israel’s Ambassador Mark Sofer has started to engage in what can only be regarded as standard electoral meddling.  Those not on script on the Israeli message needed to be called out as ignoramuses who do not understand that they are hurting the cause of Palestinians.

“The obsession with demonising Israel, which thankfully is the domain of the few, does not at all help the Palestinians and serves only to hamper possible rapprochement in the Middle East.”

Shorten has preferred to treat the Israeli ambassador with care, insisting that he will keep Labor contrarians in line. 

“For the sake of clarity, the Israeli ambassador representing the Australian government said they could work with both sides of politics.” 

Such talk is not so much diplomatic as capitulating.  Come May 18, Australia’s meek approach to the Middle East peace process is bound to be affirmed, with Israel unimpeachably dominant.

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

By April 16, the Libyan National Army (LNA) advance on Tripoli has appeared to be dragged into a trench war on the approach to the southern gate of the city. Militias loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA) have stopped the LNA advance in the area of Ain Zara and prevented LNA units from cutting off the Tripoli-Misrata highway heading along the coast. These GNA successes predetermined the tactical posture in the area.

Another important success was achieved by the GNA on April 14 when its forces shot down a MiG-21 jet of the LNA Air Force over Ain Zara with a MANPAD. The pilot ejected, but remains missing. The downed MiG-21 jet became a first confirmed and the second claimed downed jet since the start of the LNA advance on Tripoli on April 4. On April 10, the LNA announced that it had downed a L-39 jet of the GNA Air Force. However, there is sill no comprehensive evidence to confirm this.

At the same time, multiple counter-attacks by GNA forces have not allowed it to restore control over Tripoli International Airport. The main clashes are taking place south of it, in the town of al-Swani.

The LNA has been continuing to deploy reinforcements, including various military equipment, to the frontline near Tripoli. This move demonstrates that the LNA leadership is set to continue its military efforts in the area.

On April 14, the LNA leader, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar visited Cairo and met with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Following the meeting, the al-Sisis office released a statement

“the president affirmed Egypt’s support in efforts to fight terrorism and extremist militias to achieve security and stability for Libyan citizens throughout the country.”

While the statement did not mention Tripoli directly, Egypt, one of the main LNA backers, de-facto declared its support to the LNA advance.

Additionally, an Egyptian spy plane conducted a reconnaissance flight over the city of Misrata. Misrata’s militias, most of them radicals, are actively supporting pro-GNA forces. An airbase south of the city is hosting most of GNA air force warplanes that carry out strikes on LNA units.

Some sources speculated that the data collected by Egypt may be shared with the LNA in order to increase an efficiency of its operations.

So far, pro-GNA militias have demonstrated that they are capable of resting the LNA advance near Tripoli if they unite their forces. However, if the battle is getting protracted, some pro-GNA groups may find that their participation in the ongoing clashes endanger their business efforts in their core areas of influence. This would create conditions for fragmentation of the pro-GNA force deployed near Tripoli.

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“Cursed be that mortal inter-indebtedness which will not do away with ledgers. I would be free as air; and I’m down in the whole world’s books. I am so rich… and yet I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with” (Moby Dick, chapter cviii).

In standard rationalistic approaches to animal ethics (often employed by animal rights and welfare advocates), moral consideration is incrementally extended out from an established human ‘moral club’ to grant moral status to ‘others’. Typically, this strategy consists of basing our ethical obligation to animals on certain morally relevant similarities. In that case, the inclusion of non-human animals in the ethical sphere involves a twofold operation: first, we must identify the characteristics that make human animals worthy of moral consideration (e.g., rationality, language, desires, beliefs, etc.); second, they must then show that (at least some) nonhuman animals possess the requisite characteristics.

However, the very attempt to satisfy this demand already presupposes the implicit attitude of non-affiliation. It is precisely this assumption that seems open to dispute – for it fails to appreciate our actual experience since we do not, generally, consider ourselves discreet, solipsistic objects whose original problem is to figure out how to reconnect to the world. It ignores the fact that we begin always already caught up in the experience of being a lived body thoroughly involved in a complex web of ecological and social interrelationships with other living bodies and people. Further, it neglects that we are “entirely a part of the animate world whose life swells within and unfolds all around us,” as the philosopher David Abrams observes. It involves, in other words, a denial of human animality and our ecological embeddedness.

I suggest that we should question the presupposition that humans can and should attempt to define criteria for the moral consideration of the non-human (or more-than-human) world. In what follows, I argue that we would do better to adopt a position of genuine ethical openness; which means acknowledging that we can never settle our attitude to the other – that “my knowledge of others may be overthrown” as Stanley Cavell puts it, and “even that it ought to be.” I suggest that we should be skeptical of drawing up criteria for something’s being worthy of moral consideration. Instead of ensuring that nothing is capable of disturbing our ‘good conscience’, the interanimal ethics I propose recognizes our fallibility, as well as the limits of our knowledge and understanding. In short, it recommends that we remain wary of our natural complacency, as well as malleable and receptive to the other who might address us from anywhere, at any time.

A brief story from my childhood offers a good starting point:  When I was about five years old, I and another boy decided one day that we were going to find and kill a bird. My family had a house in a St. Louis suburb; so, my friend and I gathered what arms we could find – a wooden stick, a boomerang that belonged to my older brother – and went into the backyard to find our target. After a few unsuccessful attempts we managed to sufficiently wing a small one so that it lay helpless but still alive on the ground. We then set upon it. I remember only two things about what followed: first, the bird’s screeching out in pain and terror; and second, my sudden apprehension of horror and shame, which led to a good deal of sobbing.

In his Totality and Infinity, Emmanuel Levinas observes that,

“Morality begins when freedom, instead of being justified by itself, feels itself to be arbitrary and violent… freedom discovers itself murderous in its very exercise.”

To be sure, in a Levinasian moment of shame I discovered my freedom (and my embodiment) as murderous and arbitrary – I was startled, quite literally, by the voice (and, indeed, the face) of the other, in this case a defenseless bird. The point is that there was also a moment of carnal empathy, unbidden and completely unforeseen, in which the bird’s cries were my cries, its terror was my terror. I knew instantly – though not cognitively or discursively, but rather in my body – that I had intruded upon and violated something which had interests of its own. What horrified me was not that I had broken a moral norm or principle: what horrified me was that I had broken a body, a lived body with its own integrity – an integrity that I had not been aware of until I crushed it.

In that light, I propose we rethink the ethical in terms of human-animal intertwining, in terms of how ‘we echo through one another, such that “the relation between the human and animality is not a hierarchical relation, but lateral.” This involves recognizing that there is no human order as such in isolation from the semiotic networks – networks of meaning – that connects us inextricably to other living things. Consider, for example, Moby Dick. A whale has eaten Captain Ahab’s leg; and Ahab has the ship carpenter fashion a prosthesis out of a whalebone. “Oh. Life! Here I am, proud as a Greek God, and yet standing debtor to this blockhead for a bone to stand on! Cursed be that mortal inter-indebtedness which will not do away with ledgers.” For one thing, Ahab’s mutilated body reminds him that without others, he is just as helpless as an infant, unable to walk or talk (“I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with”). But more to the point, his flesh is part of the whale’s flesh, and the whale’s bone is a part of his body, attached to his body – so that he is indeed indebted to the whale and vice versa. “Ahab… becomes Moby Dick, he enters into a zone of proximity [zone de voisinage] where he can no longer be distinguished from Moby Dick, and strikes himself in striking the whale” (Deleuze). Similarly, I struck myself in striking that bird.

By suspending the standard rationalistic approaches to animal ethics, in which moral consideration is incrementally extended out from some pre-established human moral core, we are afforded the opportunity to ground ethics in a non-dual and forward-thinking ontological model. In contrast to the inherently hierarchical relation between the human and animal, I propose that a ‘laterality’ becomes recognizable in our carnal empathy and web-like intertwining with animals.

Returning inter-animal ethics to its ontological foundation, this concept was used to describe an existential condition that is shared between humans and other animals. Animals, like ourselves, have interests – and all semiotic agents, even the simplest, are able to distinguish between what they need and what is harmful (or unimportant) to them. As Kalevi Kull observes: “Everything alive has needs per se, not so the lifeless nor the dead.” I claim moreover that we are not justified in regarding animals as merely striving to continue in their existence – but rather, the animal is intrinsically a striving towards ontological expansion and self-expression, or what Kurt Goldstein calls “self-actualization” and “creativeness”.

Nature is the inexhaustible proliferation of creations: an infinitely creative force expressing itself with infinitely differentiated results. There is still a tendency to view genuine creativity as the special province of mankind; but there is an argument to be made that true creativity could not arise in the middle of a universe in which creativity did not already exist. So, unless we are prepared to accept that the creativity of human beings is itself an illusion, then arguably “the world, contrary to the classical physical image, was creative even before human creativity appeared…” This may mean, among other things, that there is no sharp division between nature and culture, ‘no kingdom within a kingdom,’ which is not to deny those aspects of human culture that make it unique – rather, it is to say that there is no aspect of human culture which is not at least pre-figured in the animal world.

Indeed, structures of performance and spectatorship, music and dance, painting, architecture, courtship, camaraderie, ritual and mourning – all find expression and meaning in non-human worlds. As our knowledge of living Nature deepens, we may find that those aspects of ourselves, which we take to be most distinctly human, may in fact be regarded as ‘an extension and refinement of animal abilities.’

In closing, it seems incumbent on us to view living entities ‘within the widest of intellectual and spiritual horizons.’ This means viewing and treating the animal as a living whole, an irreducible way of being-in-the-world that cannot be grasped through the physio-chemical description of life alone. It also means acknowledging that our humanity implies an already existing continuity with the non-human, that we inhabit a shared meaningful world with other living things, which itself is constitutive of our humanity.

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Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

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The Truth about Venezuela: Speaking events April 18-29

April 16th, 2019 by Global Research News

Mainstream media is spreading lies and half truths about the crisis in Venezuela. Canadians are not immune to this influence. Recently Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced more sanctions against the Maduro government on the grounds that he is “depriving Venezuelans of their most basic rights and needs” and that “Canada is committed to supporting the peaceful restoration of constitutional democracy in Venezuela.”

Global Research wishes to bring to the attention of our readers the following events in the following Canadian cities in late April, featuring speakers who bring first hand accounts of the situation on the ground in recent weeks.

Montreal, Quebec

The Trudeau Doctrine: Canada Spearheads Attempted Regime Change in Venezuela

Thursday April 18th | 19:00h

School of Community and Public Affairs

2149 Mackay Street (just south of Sherbrooke)

In tandem with Trump’s revived ‘Monroe Doctrine’, the Trudeau government is moving aggressively to carve out an imperial role for Canada in Latin America. Venezuela’s Bolivarian regime of Nicolas Maduro is the first target.

Come hear:

Yves Engler – solidarity activist and author of several critical analyses of Canadian foreign policy.

Dimitri Lascaris – Montreal-based lawyer, journalist and human rights advocate recently returned from fact-finding mission in Venezuela.

Sponsored by Socialist Action – [email protected] 514 804 7645

Winnipeg, Manitoba

The West’s War with Venezuela: Why Canada is Wrong

Wednesday April 24th | 7-9pm

Room 1L13

University of Winnipeg (near Ellice Avenue Entrance)

Free event. Donations welcome.

Mainstream media present a distorted picture of the situation in Venezuela. Come and hear different perspectives on this evolving situation which has the potential to destabilize the entire hemisphere. Find out why Canada is wrong to be supporting the overthrow of the Venezuelan government. Please share this post and invite your friends.

Speakers: Dimitri Lascaris, Ralph Jean-Paul, Yves Engler, Bill Blaikie, Leah Gazan, Radhika Desai, Ajit Singh, Basia Sokal

Sponsored by Venezuela Peace Committee, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, CKUW 95.9FM

Toronto, Ontario

The Truth about Venezuela: Eva Bartlett Reports on Venezuela

Thursday April 25th | 7-9pm

A Different Booklist Cultural Centre

777 Bathurst St.

Charge $10

Why is Canada involved in attempting to overthrow the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro? Who is Juan Guaido? Who is the Lima Group?

Free-lance Canadian journalist and human rights activist Eva Bartlett has spent years covering conflict zones in the Middle East and reporting the truth from the ground. Over the last few weeks she has been in Venezuela and will give an eyewitness report on the actual situation there and answer the many questions we may have.

Co-sponsors: A Different Booklist, UNIFOR National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy, Caribean Solidarity Network

Hamilton, Ontario

The Truth about Venezuela: Eva Bartlett Reports on Venezuela

New Vision United Church, 24 Main West,

Monday April 29th | 7pm

Free Admission, refreshments.

La strategia del caos guidato

April 16th, 2019 by Manlio Dinucci

Tutti contro tutti: è l’immagine mediatica del caos che si allarga a macchia l’olio sulla sponda sud del Mediterraneo, dalla Libia alla Siria. Una situazione di fronte alla quale perfino Washington sembra impotente. In realtà Washington non è l’apprendista stregone incapace di controllare le forze messe in moto. È il centro motore di una strategia – quella del caos – che, demolendo interi Stati, provoca una reazione a catena di conflitti da utilizzare secondo l’antico metodo del «divide et impera».

Usciti vincitori dalla guerra fredda nel 1991, gli USA si sono autonominati «il solo Stato con una forza, una portata e un’influenza in ogni dimensione – politica, economica e militare – realmente globali», proponendosi di «impedire che qualsiasi potenza ostile domini una regione – l’Europa Occidentale, l’Asia Orientale, il territorio dell’ex Unione Sovietica e l’Asia Sud-Occidentale (il Medioriente) – le cui risorse sarebbero sufficienti a generare una potenza globale». Da allora gli USA e la NATO sotto loro comando hanno frammentato o demolito con la guerra, uno dopo l’altro, gli Stati ritenuti di ostacolo al piano di dominio globale – Iraq, Jugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libia, Siria e altri – mentre altri ancora (tra cui l’Iran e il Venezuela) sono nel mirino.

Nella stessa strategia rientra il colpo di stato in Ucraina sotto regia USA/NATO, al fine di provocare in Europa una nuova guerra fredda per isolare la Russia e rafforzare l’influenza degli Stati Uniti in Europa.

Mentre si concentra l’attenzione politico-mediatica sul conflitto in Libia, si lascia in ombra lo scenario  sempre più minaccioso della escalation NATO contro la Russia. Il meeting dei 29 ministri degli Esteri, convocato il 4 aprile a Washington per celebrare i 70 anni della NATO, ha ribadito, senza alcuna prova, che «la Russia viola il Trattato INF schierando in Europa nuovi missili a capacità nucleare».

Una settimana dopo, l’11 aprile, la NATO ha annunciato che questa estate sarà effettuato «l’aggiornamento» del sistema USA Aegis di «difesa missilistica» schierato a Deveselu in Romania, assicurando che ciò «non fornirà alcuna capacità offensiva al sistema». Tale sistema, installato in Romania e Polonia, e a bordo di navi, può invece lanciare non solo missili intercettori ma anche missili nucleari.

Mosca ha avvertito che, se gli USA schiereranno in Europa missili nucleari, la Russia schiererà sul proprio territorio analoghi missili puntati sulle basi europee. Aumenta di conseguenza la spesa NATO per la «difesa»: i bilanci militari degli alleati europei e del Canada cresceranno nel 2020 di 100 miliardi di dollari.

I ministri degli Esteri NATO, riuniti a Washington il 4 aprile, si sono impegnati in particolare ad «affrontare le azioni aggressive della Russia nella regione del Mar Nero», stabilendo «nuove misure di appoggio ai nostri stretti partner, Georgia e Ucraina». Il giorno dopo, decine di navi e cacciabombardieri di Stati uniti, Canada, Grecia, Olanda, Turchia, Romania e Bulgaria hanno iniziato nel Mar Nero una esercitazione NATO  di guerra  aeronavale a ridosso delle acque territoriali russe, servendosi dei porti di Odessa (Ucraina) e Poti (Georgia).

Contemporaneamente oltre 50 cacciabombardieri di Stati Uniti, Germania, Gran Bretagna, Francia e  Olanda, decollando da un aeroporto olandese e riforniti in volo,  si esercitavano a «missioni aeree offensive di attacco a obiettivi su terra o in mare». Cacciabombardieri Eurofighter italiani saranno invece inviati dalla NATO a pattugliare di nuovo la regione baltica contro la «minaccia» degli aerei russi.

La corda è sempre più tesa e può rompersi (o essere rotta) in qualsiasi momento, trascinandoci in un caos ben più pericoloso di quello libico.

Manlio Dinucci

il manifesto, 15 Aprile, 2019

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70 Anni della Nato: Di Guerra in Guerra. Dichiarazione di Firenze

April 16th, 2019 by Comité No Guerra no Nato

Il rischio di una grande guerra che, con l’uso delle armi nucleari potrebbe segnare la fine dell’Umanità, è reale e sta aumentando, anche se non è percepito dall’opinione pubblica tenuta all’oscuro dell’incombente pericolo.

È di vitale importanza il massimo impegno per uscire dal sistema di guerra. Ciò pone la questione dell’appartenenza dell’Italia e di altri paesi europei alla NATO.

La NATO non è una alleanza. È una organizzazione sotto comando del Pentagono, il cui scopo è il controlo militare dell’Europa Occidentale e Orientale.

Le basi USA nei paesi membri della NATO servono a occupare tali paesi, mantenendovi una presenza militare permanente che permette a Washington di influenzare e controllare la loro politica e impedire reali scelte democratiche.

La NATO è una macchina da guerra che opera per gli interessi degli Stati uniti, con la complicità dei maggiori gruppi europei di potere, macchiandosi di crimini contro l’umanità.

La guerra di aggressione condotta dalla NATO nel 1999 contro la Jugoslavia ha aperto la via alla globalizzazione degli interventi militari, con le guerra contro l’Afghanistan, la Libia, la Siria e altri paesi, in completa violazione del diritto internazionale.

Tali guerre vengono finanziate dai paesi membri, i cui bilanci militari sono in continua crescita a scapito delle spese sociali, per sostenere colossali programmi miiitari come quello nucleare statunitense da 1.200 miliardi di dollari.

Gli USA, violando il Trattato di Non-Proliferazione, schierano armi nucleari in 5 Stati non-nucleari della NATO, con la falsa motivazione della «minaccia russa». Mettono in tal modo in gioco la sicurezza dell’Europa.

Per uscire dal sistema di guerra che ci danneggia sempre più e ci espone al pericolo imminente di una grande guerra, si deve uscire dalla NATO, affermando il diritto di essere Stati sovrani e neutrali.

È possibile in tal modo contribuire allo smantellamento della NATO e di ogni altra alleanza militare, alla riconfigurazione degli assetti dell’intera regione europea, alla formazione di un mondo multipolare in cui si realizzino le aspirazioni dei popoli alla libertà e alla giustizia sociale.

Proponiamo la creazione di un fronte internazionale NATO EXIT in tutti i paesi europei della NATO, costruendo una rete organizzativa a livello di base capace di sostenere la durissima lotta per conseguire tale obiettivo vitale per il nostro futuro.

Comitato No Guerra No Nato/Global Research, 

Firenze (Italia), 07:04:2019

VIDÉO EN ITALIEN :

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Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela? What Crisis?

April 16th, 2019 by Stephen Lendman

Will the Trump regime order military action against Venezuela on the phony pretexts of humanitarian intervention and responsibility to protect (R2P)?

Though highly unlikely, we’ve seen it many times before – “humanitarian” naked aggression, raping and destroying nations for their own good, “liberating” them from fundamental freedoms, looting their resources for “economic development” – the right thing to do?

One nation attacking another threatening no one is the highest of high crimes – a fundamental Nuremberg Tribunal principle affirmed by Chief Justice Robert Jackson, a US Supreme Court Justice.

Calling Nazi war crimes “the supreme international crime against peace,” he stressed the following in his opening remarks, saying:

“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated.”

He called aggressive war “the greatest menace of our times.”

International law defines crimes against peace as “planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing.”

All US post-WW II wars fall under this definition. If the Trump intervenes in Venezuela militarily, another US highest of high crimes will be added to its historical record already blood-drenched.

Countless millions of corpses attest to America’s barbarity, a nation hellbent for world conquest and domination no matter the human cost, operating by its own rules exclusively, fundamental international, constitutional, and US statute laws long ago abandoned.

Nazi war criminals were hanged for their crimes. America’s remain free to commit greater ones, raping humanity because who’ll stop them, Venezuela one of many prizes they covet.

There’s nothing remotely legal about US war on the country by other means – done to harm, not help ordinary Venezuelans.

R2P and humanitarian intervention are unrelated to legally binding principles under international humanitarian law. R2P initially came from a 2001  International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) report titled “A Responsibility to Protect.”

It focused on the responsibility of states to protect their citizens, recognizing that when unable to, the world community should help, according to principles of international humanitarian law.

At a 2005 World Summit gathering of heads of state, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing – a non-legally binding action.

A 2009 report to the UN General Assembly cited three elements of R2P, notably that the world community should recognize and protect the sovereignty of member states.

It should focus on the crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.

It should recognize that nations bear primary responsibility for protecting the rights, welfare and security of its citizens.

R2P is a principle. It’s not legally binding under international law. The same goes for humanitarian intervention – justifiable only when requested by a sitting government, not otherwise.

Intervening without it is extrajudicial. So are unilaterally imposed sanctions by one country on others.

On his GrayZone website, Max Blumenthal headlined “EXCLUSIVE: Away from the public eye, the (hawkish) Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank hosted a top-level, off-the-record meeting to explore US military options against Venezuela,” explaining:

Held on April 10, a secret discussion focused on “Assessing the Use of Military Force in Venezuela.”

Involved were “some of the most influential advisors on (Trump’s) Venezuela policy. They included current and former State Department, National Intelligence Council, and National Security Council officials, along with Admiral Kurt Tidd, who was until recently the commander of US SOUTHCOM.”

Senior Colombian, Brazilian, and imposter Guaido representatives attended. Convening the meeting was clearly over frustration by Trump regime hardliners for failing to topple Maduro and eliminate Venezuelan social democracy after nearly three months of trying.

War by other means hasn’t been able to co-opt Venezuela’s military, gain popular support, or transform imposter Guaido into a national hero – just the opposite.

Military intervention requires easy to invent pretexts. Opposition by regional and world community nations, the UN, and vast majority of Venezuelans wanting US hands off their country are major obstacles not overcome.

The April 10 meeting aimed to try finding a way to counter or circumvent these obstacles, not easily accomplished.

Despite considerable economic and financial harm to Venezuela caused by US war by other means, humanitarian crisis conditions in the country don’t exist.

In November and December 2018, UN Human Rights Council Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order Alfred-Maurice de Zayas visited Venezuela for 10 days, saying the following:

“There (is) no humanitarian crisis (in Venezuela), nothing to compare with Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, the Central African Republic, etc. But indeed there” are shortages of goods – not food with grocery shelves well stocked and subsidized food for the country’s poor.”

“The situation has gotten much worse since Dec. 2017 because of Trump’s sanctions and the economic and financial blockade.”

“(A)t no point when I was walking the streets of Venezuela that I felt threatened or saw violence and did not consider the country was experiencing a humanitarian crisis – but I do see human rights being used more and more to destroy human rights with the complicity of the mainstream media.”

“(A)t no no time since my report to the human rights council at the UN have I been approached by any” Western media to discuss “what is really happening.”

“What is particularly Machiavellian is the cause of an economic crisis that threatens to become a humanitarian crisis – that’s what the US has done through the financial blockade and then goes on to say they are going to offer humanitarian help.”

“(S)o-called president-in-waiting…Guaido is merely the jockey…riding (the US) Trojan horse.” Resolving Venezuela’s economic hard times is simple. Lift US sanctions. End the “financial blockade.”

“Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns…Twenty-first century sanctions attempt to bring down not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees.”

“The key to the solution of the (situation in Venezuela) is dialogue and mediation…There is nothing more undemocratic than a coup d’etat, and nothing more corrosive to the rule of law and to international stability when foreign governments meddle in the internal affairs of other states…”

“Only the Venezuelans have a right to decide, not the United States, not the United Kingdom…We do not want a repetition of the Pinochet putsch in 1973.”

“What is urgent is to help the Venezuelan people through international solidarity – genuine humanitarian aid and a lifting of the financial blockade so that Venezuela can buy and sell like any other country in the world. Its problems can be solved with good faith and common sense.”

De Zayas explained that because his truth-telling diverges from the official narrative, “I don’t exist,” he said. His report to the UN was “filed away” and ignored.

Dartmouth College anthropology graduate student Christopher Helali visited Venezuela for nine days in March. Commenting on his firsthand experience, he said the following:

“My first day completely debunked the stories about the so-called ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Venezuela. No, the people were not eating trash, rats, jaguars or resorting to cannibalism,” adding:

“(T)here was food everywhere…Street vendors sold everything from fruits and vegetables to meats and cheeses. Local markets had a wide variety of produce, processed meats, cheeses and beverages.”

“Things were much worse before Chavez. For the poor, there was nothing,” journalist Fernanda Barreto told Helali.

Human rights lawyer Christina Bracho explained that children were brutally exploited before Chavez, adding:

“After the revolution, Chavez gave these kids the chance to have an education, which all children deserve.”

“The US and Europeans hate Venezuela because we are trying to build a different world. They don’t want us to exist as an example of possible alternatives to their system.”

Helali was introduced to two Venezuelan generals. They welcomed him to their country.

“I was shocked,” he said. “They invited me to eat with them, so we sat down and purchased a traditional dessert.”

They had no weapons, guards or other protection. “The people are our protection,” said General A. Monroy M. Ordinary people greeted and saluted them.

In barrios Helali visited, people had communes to defend the revolution they cherish.

“The government provides individuals and families with subsidized food that addresses essential dietary and nutritional needs,” Helali explained.

Included are “beans, rice, spaghetti, oil, eggs, chicken, beef, corn flower, salt, sugar, lentils and powdered milk.”

Western reports about ill-nourished, starving Venezuelans losing weight are bald-faced Big Lies. “(T)he reality on the ground is quite different, Helali stressed, adding:

“The Venezuela I saw was…teeming with people, many carrying bags in and out of shops and eating at the restaurants.”

“Venezuela has taught me about the resilience and dedication of a people fighting for their dignity, independence and sovereignty against the United States.”

Ordinary Venezuelans want US dirty hands kept off their country. The nation’s military and millions of volunteer militia members want Bolivarian social democracy the way it should be preserved and protected.

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

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

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

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

The dramatic arrest of Julian Assange, hauled bodily from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, will be touted as an example of ‘rules-based’ politics, and yet his ‘crime’ is to have revealed the underside of modern democracy.

The problem is no longer how political leaders come to power, but their growing tendency to adopt criminal behavior, closing their eyes to similar abuse by their people. Two hundred years ago, when asked by a citizen what the Constitutional Convention had come up with, Benjamin Franklin responded: “A republic, if you can keep it.” That warning appears to have been behind the ever-increasing American tendency to commit crimes and pursue suspects.

The country has been mired in legal battles decades before the election of Donald Trump. After being indicted for conspiracy to cover up the break-in of the Democratic Headquarters in Washington’s Watergate building by his ‘plumbers’ searching for embarrassing information on his Democratic opponents, President Nixon resigned in order to avoid impeachment. His Vice-President, Spiro Agnew also resigned over suspicion of criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud. Did the nineteen seventies mark a turning point? Ronald Reagan’s ‘Morning in America’ didn’t quite make it through the nineties: Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair with a White House intern, the long drawn out process mocked by Europeans, who knew that presidents are no different from other men when it came to sex. The Senate found him not guilty, and he remained in office long enough to attack communist Serbia, his affair with Monica Lewinsky well surpassed by Donald Trump’s hush money.

This may be the point at which the United States went from being a rogue nation bent on exploiting the rest of the world under the guise of democracy, to a mafia state.

In the two plus years since Trump was sworn into office, the media has devoted itself almost entirely to reporting each twist and turn of the investigation into whether he was was being manipulated by an ‘adversary’. or ‘enemy’, (depending on the moment) for political reasons. Finding the idea that the real estate king was flattering Vladimir Putin in order to build a tower in Moscow less credible, (aside from the part about him offering a penthouse to President Putin, in standard you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours fashion) they cannot conceive that an American president should prefer deals to war. Hillary, after all, made no secret of her intention to take out Putin

According to the Wolfowitz security doctrine drafted in the late nineties, before GWB became president, and never supersededin order to maintain US world hegemony no nation is to be permitted to challenge America’s hegemony. Trump’s insistence on friendship with Russia, together with his flagrant disregard for decorum, has taken the gangsterism that began with Al Capone’s men shooting their opponents from the running boards of Ford Model T’s to a whole new level.

Invoking legal decisions going back hundreds of years, while manipulating the accumulated ‘swamp’ of rules and regulations, the President has been able to place sycophants in key positions, preventing Congress and the Courts from fulfilling their role as ‘checks and balances’ on his power. Freaking out the security community, Trump hired his daughter and son-in-law as full-time consultants in the White House, although neither of them could pass an FBI background investigation. In the ultimate act of defiance, having pretexted audits to avoid releasing his tax returns before the election, as all candidates have done, the president continues to do so, his men in the the justice and revenue departments protecting him, as he — and the press (sic!) —. knew they would. The Attorney General, known for having opined that a sitting president cannot be indicted before being nominated, is seen side-stepping congress’s questions about whether, when, and how much of the report on Trump-Russia relations will be released to the public.

In turn, as he implied to that same committee, J Edgar Hoover’s FBI has acquired power Putin’s FSB can only dream of, that of spying on the president.

While the political class is obsessed with Trump’s relations with Russia, it is much less interested in the extraordinary amounts of money that his acolytes accumulated during the course of their careers. The fact that Paul Manafort, who was briefly Trump’s campaign manager, was known to have previously worked for the ‘pro-Russian’ President of Ukraine (whom the US took down in 2014), is of much greater significance than the fact that he accumulated a small fortune while doing so. No one has yet come up with a plausible explanation as to why he was sentenced to a mere few years in jail for tax evasion.

For the Beltway, what counts is that the president seeks to imitate foreign authoritarian’ rulers: Besides the Russian President, there is Turkey’s Erdogan, who broke with NATO after seventy years to buy Russian military hardware; Dutertre, who cleanses the Philippines of drugs by killing dealers, and most recently the elected president of Venezuela, disavowed for being unable to run the county in the face of US cyber attacks, to be replaced by a self-anointed, American backed ‘acting president’.

The ability to act without having to secure the permission of others is the hallmark of both dictators and authoritarians; however their motivations differ. Dictators are usually after wealth, while revolutionaries, from Lenin and Mao to Castro and Chavez, broke with their class in order to impose policies that benefit the majority of their people.

In defense of authoritarians, if they knew about it, most Americans would be glad that Vladimir Putin didnt need permission from the Duma to rescue killer whales being held in appalling conditions by unscrupulous merchants. The same is true of his determination to avoid nuclear war, which is at the heart of the foreign policy that even a mafioso would support.

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Deena Stryker is an international expert, author and journalist that has been at the forefront of international politics for over thirty years. She can be reached at Otherjones. Especially for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook”. 

Featured image is from NEO

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Qods Force

April 16th, 2019 by Dr. Dennis M. Nilsen

When the Islamic Revolution occurred in February 1979 with the return to Iran of the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a political earthquake in the Middle East very visibly began.  Until this year, the Iranians had only experienced the rule of an emperor, shah (شاه) in Persian, and with the advent of the guardianship of the jurist (velayat-e faqih) established by Khomeini, the 2,500-year imperial tradition of Persian came to an end.

The Revolution was the culmination of opposition to the progressive modernization and centralization of the country under the last shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (1941-1979).  The shah succeeded his father Reza Shah in 1941 and ruled uninterruptedly until 1953, when after a brief exile, he was brought back by means of a coup planned and orchestrated by the British and Americans, a coup known as Operation Ajax by the West and the 28 Mordad coup d’état by the Iranians.  Following his installment, his rule became more and more subject to the Americans, to the point where he relied solely upon them for military equipment and even drew closer to the Israelis, something which the religious authorities repeatedly condemned.  The damn broke in 1979 in a flood of support for the returning Ayatollah, and this led quickly to a movement to depose the Shah and his entire government.

The Ayatollah Khomeini instituted a form of government called the velayat-e faqih, or guardianship of the jurist, a form which he quite openly declared to be a preparation for the return of the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi.  The purpose of the Iranian government now became clearly religious and eschatological, the very opposite of the secular purpose of serving as a Cold War American ally in the Middle East to maintain a military parity against Soviet Union which Muhammad Pahlavi saw as befitting the country.  Ayatollah Khomeini removed his country from such earthly concerns and directed its whole purpose towards preparing for the Return of the Mahdi, thus reinstituting a clear moral order for the state.

As with the Turks, the Shah’s military was dedicated to the secular form of government and was a key foundation in maintaining the Shah’s rule.  Hence, with the success of the Revolution, Khomeini and the new leadership decided that for that very reason it could not be trusted.  Many officers, if they could not leave the country, were either imprisoned, dismissed from their posts, or in the worst cases executed by revolutionary tribunals.  However, because the country could not do away entirely with its military force, Khomeini decided to create a force dedicated to the new movement, to counter any remaining secular tendencies in the armed forces as well as residual opposition to the new order, and to further protect the ideological purity of the government.  This organization was named the Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghelab-e Eslami, the Corps of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC).  Founded in May 1979 as a consolidation of the various paramilitary bodies which had formed upon Khomeini’s return, it soon became organized along military lines during the long and hard-fought Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), called the Holy Defense by the Iranians.

Although Khomeini very vocally directed both the Artesh and the Sepah to abstain from any organized and direct involvement in politics in his last testament, Article 150 of the IRI Constitution names the Sepah collectively as “the guardian of the Revolution and its achievements”.  This splendidly vague phrase invited a debate within Iranian politics after the death of Khomeini, with reformers and moderate elements – including the Ayatollah’s son Hassan Khomeini and the present president Hassan Rouhani – rejecting politicization; Conservatives and Principalists favor a close collaboration.  Active members of the IRGC do not sit in the Majlis, but many former members do, especially since the 2004 election when the Principalist factions actively sought ought veterans to run for Majlis seats.  Although the Sepah do not claim any one party as its own, an example of strong indirect influence is the Resistance Front of Islamic Iran, founded in 2011 by Mohsen Rezaee, a former intelligence officer and former head of the Sepah.  The party strongly professes adherence to the velayat-e faqih form of government and is in the umbrella alliance of other Principalist parties called the Principalists Grand Coalition.  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) joined the Sepah in 1985 during the War of Holy Defense, and created his first cabinet almost exclusively from IRGC members; his two administrations marked a strong upswing in the influence the Sepah has exercised since the end of the War of Holy Defense.  Since the election of Rouhani in 2013, their influence has lessened although the president has made public expressions of support for the Sepah; although he is a critic of their involvement in politics, he does realize their power as a body and of certain individual former members.

Economically, the Sepah is arguably the largest owner of interests in the Iranian economic, through either direct holdings or through subsidiaries.  After the end of the Iran-Iraq War, the IRGC sought to expand its influence in the economy partly to aid its many veterans in obtaining employment, partly to maintain the high level of influence which it had attained during the war.  The Sepah collectively has a great presence in the defense, engineering, construction, aerospace and automotive industries.  In addition, they exert control over several bonyads, charitable foundations directed by high-level Shiite clerics: two very important bonyads with clear Sepah links are the Mostazafan Foundation of the Islamic Revolution (بنیاد مستضعفان انقلاب اسلامی‎) and the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs (بنیاد شهید و امور ایثارگران‎).

In terms of manpower, the Sepah counts between 120,000 and 125,000 active members, divided between the Ground Forces, the Aerospace Force, the Navy and the Qods Force.  Overall control of the Sepah is exercised by Ayatollah Khamenei, but direct command is held by Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari.  The Ground Forces, commanded by Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, numbers, as far as can be known, 100,000 men and are divided between 32 provincial commands and the Tehran City Command.  They can best be described as mobile armored infantry, as the Sepah utilizes armored personnel carriers and has little or no tanks.  The provincial commanders have command over the local Basij paramilitary units as well.  The Aerospace Forces, commanded by Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, possess an inventory of attack and transport fixed wing aircraft and helicopters, but their mainstay is their arsenal of missile forces, a collection of thousands of short- and intermediate-range rockets which the Iranian Government continues to develop as a regional and national deterrent to possible Israeli or American attacks.  Thus, the Aerospace Forces are tasked with a political task of great importance.  The Sepah Navy, commanded by Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, is tasked with maintaining defense of the shoreline and territorial waters of Iran in the Persian Gulf; it performs this with a large number of high-speed coastal patrol boats and an arsenal of anti-ship missiles.  Lastly, the Organization for Mobilization of the Oppressed (سازمان بسیج مستضعفین) – known as the Basij – acts as a paramilitary force to complement the regular military organization of the Sepah.  Officially it counts 11.2 million members, with 600,000 available at any one time for service, and engages in the suppression of internal dissent, aids the police in law enforcement, and also provides social services and organizes religious activities.  It has branches in nearly every facet of Iranian public life, and is the chief means whereby the revolutionary government educates society about the political ideals and goals of the velayat-e faqih.  It is currently commanded by Brigadier General Gholamhossein Gheybparvar.

The remaining element of the Sepah is the least understood but also the one which continues to appear with the greatest frequency in the Western press, due largely to the ongoing Syrian rebellion: the Qods Force.  The Qods Force is the corps within the Sepah which engages in irregular and clandestine warfare outside the borders of the Islamic Republic, and is tasked with both direct military action and with advising and supplying its allies’ militaries.  Its commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani, is by far the most well-known officer of the Sepah, and he shares the same rank as Sepah commander General Jafari, an indication of the importance of the Qods Force to the Iranian Government.

The Qods Force carries the mission of ensuring the geopolitical (i.e. territorial) security of the Islamic Republic by pushing the front line of confrontation with the Zionist enemy as far from its borders as possible.  Further, it also serves the purpose of recalling by its name and its operational efforts against the Israelis the Shia eschatology which is built around the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslims as a preparation for the return of the Twelfth Imam, Mohammad al-Mahdi, whom the Iranians believe is currently in the last days of his Great Occultation.  This latter purpose remains largely unknown in the West except to those who pay close attention to the oppositional religious ideologies which serve as foundational beliefs for Israel and Iran.  Jerusalem plays a central part here, and a further explanation is needed.

All Jews reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah, and many see in the successful formation and defense of the State of Israel as a prelude to his appearance; further, although this is not widely discussed in Israeli society, it is believed that upon his coming, he will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, thereby permitting the reestablishment of temple sacrifice and the fulfilment once again of the Law of Moses.  The question of who controls Jerusalem thus holds a central importance to religious Jews.  Further, the recent victory in the Knesset elections of Benjamin Netanyahu, whose position as prime minister depends upon the Ultra-Orthodox parties, means that we will probably see a move to officially annex East Jerusalem as well as all Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Likewise, Jerusalem holds great significance for Muslims because of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the place of the Ascent of Muhammad.  According to the Book of al-Jafr, which the Shia attribute to the Sixth Imam, Ja’far al-Sadiq, Jerusalem must come under Muslim control as a precursor to the return of the Twelfth Imam, Mohammad al-Mahdi.  The Ayatollah Khomeini saw in the establishment of his political velayat-e faqih the only true Muslim government in the world, and believed because of its success in the face of Western opposition that this heralded the coming of the Mahdi.  Therefore, he preached the spread of the Islamic Revolution to all Muslim societies in general, but specifically directed attention to Jerusalem, which he viewed, as do all Muslims, as being under unjust occupation by their Jewish enemy.  The control of both the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock – both of which stand on top of the foundations of the Second Temple – are a particular scandal to them.  Hence, there is no surprise that both General Mohammad Ali Jafari and his deputy Brigadier General Mohammad Salami have stated in clear terms that Jerusalem is the object of the Islamic Republic’s jihad and that the war in Syria has begun the end times.

On the battlefield level, the Qods Force operates mostly at the level of advising foreign militaries on the use of irregular tactics.  They have most prominently helped form and direct the popular mobilization units (PMUs) in Iraq which successfully turned back the Islamic State when the American-formed and supplied Iraqi Army disintegrated.  In Syria, they have aided President Bashar al-Assad’s Army in forming similar units to keep order in areas recently cleared of Salafi rebels.  Oddly enough, much of what they do was developed by the Soviet military theorist Alexander Svechin, in which he called the ‘Operative Art’ of irregular warfare: whereas the American approach to the war has failed, the Iranian – and also Russian – approach has been, in agreement with Svechin, ‘suitable, feasible and at an acceptable cost’.

The Sepah continues to be the shield of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and will assuredly be both the nemesis and strategic foil of the Israelis and the Americans for many years to come.

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Libya and the Scramble for Africa

April 16th, 2019 by Christopher Black

North Africa is in turmoil again and the cause of it can be found in the plots of the Europeans and Americans to break nations states into pieces in order to control the oil and gas producing areas of the region and in the plots of against each other. In Libya the CIA trained General Haftar has begun yet another offensive against the weak UN imposed government based in Tripoli, the Government of National Accord, whose forces are weak, which has little support among the people and which has not succeeded in restoring any of the public services, from electric power and water supply to transportation to medical, education, or other administrative systems that existed under the government of the Jamarahiya Republic destroyed by the NATO aggression of 2011. Haftar, who was sent in to Libya in 2011 from Langley, Virginia to join in the US aggression against his own country, is backed by Egypt which wants stability on its border with Libya as well as France, Saudi Arabia and Russia which see him, connected to the CIA as he is, to be the only man with the ability to unite the country under one government, for ill or for good.

Haftar’s offensive against Tripoli which seems to have bogged down or slowed down in the past few days, it is difficult to determine which, also worries the Americans, or so they claim. They express fears that it could lead to a wider conflict, another civil war in Libya. Laughably, the Americans, who destroyed the country, claim that only they can stop the violence and bring heaven to the hell they have created.

The American intrigues are exposed by their official position opposing Haftar’s offensive while US forces, whose presence was not widely known, made very public announcements that they were withdrawing in face of Haftar’s attacks. This can only be understood as meaning they are getting out of his way so he can conduct his attack. Where they will withdraw to has not been revealed, nor the real reason for their presence in Libya in the first place. The American Africa Command stated,

Due to increased unrest in Libya, a contingent of U.S. forces supporting U.S. Africa Command temporarily relocated in response to security conditions on the ground,”

The command did not elaborate on the size of the troop contingent or where they were moved to,

“We will continue to monitor conditions on the ground and assess the feasibility for renewed U.S. military presence, as appropriate.”

The American pretext for having occupation forces in Libya is claimed to be a campaign to dislodge Islamic State elements in the country and to “maintained a special operations mission inside Libya that assists the government in counterterrorism efforts’ which is the language they use to justify all their illegal occupations of foreign countries.

Yet, as the US does nothing to oppose the offensive, it continues to state it supports the government Haftar is attacking in Tripoli and continues to claim that Haftar’s actions could strengthen Islamic State in Libya. Just how Islamic State got from Iraq and Syria to Libya is a question to be asked, as is their presence in Afghanistan. The answer is that it is composed of the remnants of the forces sent in to Libya by the US and its allies to attack Ghaddafi as well as locals recruited in Libya that the US sent into to Syria to attack the government there. Their defeat by the combined forces of the Syrian Army, Iran, and Russia, the defeat of the US war against Syria, forced them to return Libya, or be sent to Afghanistan to further destabilise the situation there. Now it is claimed by the US and its Libyan puppets that certain armed groups are ISIS affiliates, but whatever the reality, once again the claim gives the Americans another pretext to keep their bayonets at the throats of the Libyan people.

Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa and its production is important in keeping prices low especially when the US is trying to shut down shipments of Iranian and Venezuelan oil to world markets. Haftar was successful last year in securing control of oil facilities in the central and southern regions of the country and for increasing output there as well as securing port facilities on the Mediterranean so it can be shipped to world markets. Nevertheless, the UN, that is the Security Council of which the US is a member of course, has asked the US to put stronger pressure on Haftar to support the weak government in Tripoli, a strange game, which, of course the US has not done. Instead the US got Haftar to agree to the establishment of a CIA base in Benghazi, a city which Haftar controls.

It is claimed that Libyans see Haftar as a needed strongman capable of bringing the order the Tripoli government so far has been unable to provide, but it is really the US and EU and Russia that see him as such each for their own reasons. So now, 8 years after NATO thugs labelled Ghaddafi a strongman and dictator and then murdered him, the sane actors are calling for their strongman to take power, to be their dictator, and as for the Libyan people and the people that want the Jamarihiya back, well, who cares about them.

There are conflicting reports as to whether Haftar’s forces have captured Tripoli airport and the US seems to have doubts whether the man they flew in from Langley to help overthrow the Libyan Republic in 2011 can do the job. His army depends on support from local militias, which lack discipline and are notorious for war crimes and though Haftar claims to be against Islamists is supported by Salafist groups. On the other hand, like all the unsavoury characters working for the USA he is no democrat. He stated that Libya is not ready for democracy, echoing the US propaganda that Libya is a “failed state” instead of a NATO destroyed state, and, if the USA has its way Libya never will be a democracy, at least not the socialist democracy that was destroyed by NATO bombs and missiles.

But to cover themselves, the New York Times, the mouthpiece of the US state, editorialised that sanctions should be placed on Haftar for “subverting a peaceful settlement of Libya’s problems and violating Security Council resolutions supporting the rump government he is attacking.” One has to wonder how loudly the writers laugh among themselves when they write this stuff since they were one of the big voices calling for the NATO attack on Libya and for Ghaddafi’s murder in 2011; for using war instead of peace. As for UN resolutions, since when has the United States adhered to them when it didn’t want to? They might as well call for sanctions on themselves.

Meanwhile there is unrest in Algeria, unrest in Sudan and everywhere we see the dirty games of the French, British, Americans Italians, resurrecting the scramble for control of Africa’s resources that first took place in the 19th century. We have seen what their wars have brought to Africans from Rwanda to Congo, from Mozambique to Angola. There were the “colour” uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and now, in Algeria, there are protests against the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) and claims of corruption and failure to deal with unemployment and rising prices. The protestors in Algeria are demanding that all the old heroes of the fight for liberation against the French in the 1950’s and 60’s be swept away. The army and political leaders have acceded to the demands. The president, Bouteflika, has stepped down, more opposition parties have formed and new elections scheduled for July. However the army chief of staff warned that foreign actors are behind the protests, meaning France and the USA, and that the problems of Algeria cannot be solved by violence and the destruction of the independence they fought for all those years ago.

But with the forces of the US Africa Command and the French Foreign Legion positioned in a belt across the Sahel from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, and with Chines forces entering Somali and Russian elements also becoming active and the British playing games in their former colonies, we can expect nothing but more turmoil and violence as these nations fight against the peoples of the Africa and fight among themselves for the spoils of war as the scramble for Africa is renewed.

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Christopher Black is an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto. He is known for a number of high-profile war crimes cases and recently published his novel “Beneath the Clouds. He writes essays on international law, politics and world events, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

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No War No NATO: Support the Anti-War Movement

April 16th, 2019 by The Global Research Team

Dear Readers,

April 7th, 2019 marked the adoption of the Florence Declaration, drafted by Italy’s Anti-war Committee and the Centre for Research on Globalization during the Florence No War No NATO Conference.

The declaration states that

The risk of a vast war which, with the use of nuclear weapons, could mean the end of Humanity, is real and growing, even though it is not noticed by the general public, which is maintained in the ignorance of this imminent danger.

A strong engagement to find a way out of the war system is of vital importance. This raises the question of the affiliation of Italy and other European countries with NATO.

The declaration is an example of one of the ways we are trying to work towards peace. As is often the case though, there is more money to be made striving for war than there is striving for peace. To continue on this path, we will need your help. Can you support us in the struggle to end wars? If so, please make a donation or become a member now!

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Assange Used Ecuadorian Embassy for Spying? Lenin Moreno

April 16th, 2019 by Stephen Lendman

Unacceptable actions need a veneer of plausibility to make them appear justifiable, no matter how outrageous they are in the cold light of day.

The US unjustifiably justifies naked aggression and other hostile actions on the phony pretexts of humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect (R2P), and democracy building – notions the imperial state and its partners abhor.

In cahoots with the US and UK, hardline Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno invented phony reasons to rescind Assange’s citizenship and asylum status – agreeing to hand him over to UK authorities for extradition to the US, flagrantly violating international law.

Moreno lied claiming Assange hacked his private accounts and phones. He lied saying

“(i)n WikiLeaks we have seen evidence of spying (sic), intervention in private conversations on phones (sic), including photos of my bedroom, of what I eat, of how my wife and daughters and friends dance (sic).”

He lied calling his country’s (London embassy)…a center of spying (sic),” adding:

“(F)rom our territory and with the permission of authorities of the previous government, facilities have been provided within the Ecuadorian embassy in London to interfere in processes of other states (sic).”

He lied saying

Assange “maintained constant improper hygienic behavior throughout his stay, which affected his own health and affected the internal climate at the diplomatic mission.”

He lied claiming

“Assange’s attitude was absolutely reprehensible and outrageous (sic) after all the protection provided by the Ecuadorian state for almost seven years,” adding:

“He mistreated our officials in the Ecuadorian embassy in London (sic), abused the patience of Ecuadorians (sic). He developed an aggressive campaign against Ecuador (sic) and started to make legal threats against those who were helping him (sic).”

He lied saying his actions against Assange were not in cahoots with the US and UK. He lied claiming

“(i)t is a fallacy that there will be debt relief in exchange for Assange (sic).”

Former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino under former President Rafael Correa explained that Assange’s arrest “is part of Lenin Moreno’s agreement with the IMF,” adding he accepted Trump regime conditions for financial help to his country.

They included colluding with the US on Venezuela, rejecting Latin American economic integration Washington opposes, and expelling Assange from his London embassy – in exchange for what Patino called a “miserable ($4.2 billion) loan from the (loan shark of last resort) International Monetary Fund” no responsible leader would have anything to do with.

Moreno lied accusing Correa of spying on him by planting a hidden camera in the wall of his presidential office.

Following Assange’s arrest, Correa called Moreno “the greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history…his action “a crime humanity will never forget” or forgive.

He betrayed majority Ecuadorians, breaking virtually every promise made while campaigning, why most people in the country despise him.

Only 17% of the people trust him. Nearly three-fourths of Ecuadorians disapprove of how he’s governing.

Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson called Moreno’s accusations against him “outrageous,” lying to unjustifiably justify his “unlawful and extraordinary act.”

Assange is now detained in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, Britain’s Gitmo, likely in punishing solitary confinement to harm him more grievously than already.

Britain is mistreating an international hero like a dangerous criminal, the worst to come when extradited to police state USA.

It’ll be challenged by his lawyers in UK courts. If unsuccessful, his case will likely be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights or European Court of Justice, the highest EU court.

If extradited to the US, he’ll likely face torture and abuse, mistreatment similar to what Chelsea Manning endured for nearly seven years, more of the same ongoing for invoking her constitutional rights to stay silent.

Once in US custody, further charges against Assange are virtually certain under the long ago outdated Espionage Act.

What’s going on against him, Manning, and countless other US political prisoners is what tyranny is all about, how the US, UK and their imperial partners operate – by their own extrajudicial rules exclusively.

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

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

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

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.