Europa continua a comprar gás russo, apesar das sanções.

September 4th, 2024 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

Mais uma vez, a realidade europeia confronta-se com a loucura anti-russa fomentada pelos EUA. De acordo com dados recentes publicados pelos meios de comunicação alemães, Moscou ultrapassou Washington como o maior fornecedor de gás natural à UE. Isto mostra que a Europa, apesar de aderir às sanções, não conseguirá livrar-se tão cedo da cooperação energética com a Rússia, sendo o projeto de “isolar” Moscou absolutamente inviável.

Desde 2022, a UE mantém várias sanções contra a Federação Russa em retaliação ao lançamento da operação militar especial na Ucrânia. Bruxelas estabeleceu como objetivo eliminar qualquer dependência da energia russa o mais rapidamente possível, o que levou os países europeus a procurarem fontes de energia mais caras apenas para evitarem comprar gás russo.

Uma das principais alternativas encontradas pela Europa foi a compra do gás americano. O elevado preço da mercadoria e as graves dificuldades logísticas e de transporte têm sido problemas frequentes na cooperação energética entre a UE e os EUA. Contudo, a principal diretiva dos governos europeus é simplesmente não comprar quaisquer produtos russos, razão pela qual, embora não haja vantagem estratégica em comprar gás americano, a Europa tomou esta iniciativa.

A realidade econômica europeia, no entanto, coloca a UE num ciclo vicioso quando se trata de sanções anti-russas. Quanto mais necessita de comprar gás americano caro para manter a sua sociedade a funcionar, mais a Europa fica sem fundos – o que ameaça a própria continuidade da cooperação energética com os EUA. Assim, os europeus não têm outra alternativa senão contornar as suas próprias sanções anti-russas.

Segundo o think tank Bruegel, com sede em Bruxelas, no segundo trimestre de 2024, a Rússia foi responsável pelo fornecimento de 17% do gás consumido na Europa. Os países europeus receberam cerca de 12 mil milhões de metros cúbicos de gás russo, excedendo ligeiramente o fornecimento americano. A maior parte deste gás chega à Europa através da Bielorrússia ou da Ucrânia, mas uma parte significativa também flui através do gasoduto submarino TurkStream.

O regime de Kiev ameaçou recentemente proibir o fluxo de gás russo através do seu território, o que criou graves tensões com países como a Hungria e a Eslováquia – que, além de dependerem do gás russo para o seu abastecimento interno, têm mantido uma postura dissidente na Europa, condenando as irracionais sanções anti-russas. Mesmo que a proibição realmente ocorra, é provável que o fluxo de gás através da Bielorrússia e da Turquia aumente, além do fato de existirem rotas alternativas no Cáucaso que podem ser utilizadas com mais frequência.

É também importante sublinhar que os dados sobre a cooperação direta nem sempre refletem a realidade da cooperação energética. Além de o gás e o petróleo russos serem enviados diretamente para a Europa, os europeus também os compram através de agentes terceiros. Alguns países compram produtos russos e revendem-nos a preços mais elevados aos países europeus. É o caso da Índia, por exemplo, que lucrou com a revenda do petróleo russo à Europa. Na mesma linha, a Turquia está alegadamente a revender gás russo à Europa. Embora paguem mais neste tipo de esquema, alguns membros da UE preferem fazê-lo simplesmente para contornar as sanções e não negociar diretamente com Moscou.

Esta informação apenas confirma o que vários especialistas têm alertado desde 2022: a Europa nunca se tornará totalmente “independente” da Rússia. A geografia é o destino natural de um estado. Dado que a Europa e a Rússia estão geograficamente próximas, ambas precisam de aprender a lidar estrategicamente uma com a outra. Tentar “isolar” a Rússia – que é o maior país do mundo, além de ser autossuficiente em energia e alimentos – só prejudicará os próprios estados europeus.

Os EUA sempre lucraram com as sanções. Além de criarem fricções entre a Rússia e a Europa, os americanos conseguiram expandir os negócios das suas empresas energéticas, explorando a fraqueza da Europa. É tempo de a Europa compreender que esta é uma verdadeira armadilha geopolítica. A UE está a ser levada à falência por medidas suicidas adoptadas devido à influência de Washington – que alegadamente é um “parceiro” da Europa, mas na realidade boicota deliberadamente os estados europeus para proteger os seus interesses de hegemonia geopolítica.

Só a cooperação com a Rússia poderá conduzir a Europa a um futuro de estabilidade e prosperidade.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

 

Artigo em inglês : Europe still buying Russian gas, despite sanctions, InfoBrics, 3 de Setembro de 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

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Lucas Leiroz, membro da Associação de Jornalistas do BRICS, pesquisador do Centro de Estudos Geoestratégicos, especialista militar.

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

 

Namibia Blocks Vessel Carrying Explosives to Israel

September 4th, 2024 by Abayomi Azikiwe

During late August the Republic of Namibia drew the attention of the international community by publicly announcing it would not allow a vessel carrying explosive materials to the State of Israel to dock at one of its ports.

The ruling South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) stated that its actions were in line with international law where Tel Aviv has been found guilty of violating the Genocide Convention of 1948.

Namibia’s neighbor and longtime ally, the Republic of South Africa and its Government of National Unity (GNU) leading party, the African National Congress (ANC), has initiated a legal fight against the genocide being committed by the Israeli state since October 7. In December, South Africa took the Zionist entity before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest legal authority within the United Nations, demanding immediate action.

Both the ANC and SWAPO have been allies of the Palestinian liberation struggle for decades as all of them have a shared history of being dominated by settler-colonial regimes. The organized anti-colonial movements in South Africa, Namibia and Occupied Palestine have utilized mass demonstrations, general strikes and armed attacks in efforts to win their freedom from national oppression. Namibia gained its national independence in 1990 and four year later South Africa defeated the apartheid regime in 1994. However, the Palestinians are still fighting to break free from the Israeli state.

In January, the ICJ ruled that the charges of genocide leveled by Pretoria against Tel Aviv were plausible. Nonetheless, the settler-colonial regime occupying Palestine dismissed the ruling by the ICJ while continuing its shelling, bombing and killings in the Gaza Strip.

Since October 7, more than 40,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip as a direct result of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). With the backing of the United States and other western imperialist states, the government Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has destroyed residential areas, schools, hospitals, religious institutions and marketplaces in what could only be considered acts of genocide.

The entire population of Gaza, 2.3 million people, are imperiled by the U.S.-backed Netanyahu administration. No one living in Gaza can be considered safe from the atrocities being committed by the Occupation Forces. Since late August, the IDF has launched deadly raids into the West Bank under the same guise of combating “terrorism.”

Although the White House under President Joe Biden says it does not support the aggression in the West Bank, they have not halted the supply of arms to Tel Aviv. Just recently, Washington was reported to have approved the supply of an additional $20 billion in military assistance to the Zionist state.

Since October the Palestine solidarity movement has grown exponentially. International agencies such as the United Nations and others have been tracking the activities of shipping firms which conduct lucrative business with Israel and its allies. Students and mass organizations operating on college and universities campuses have staged demonstrations and encampments calling for the full disclosure and divestment from entities linked to the Zionist regime.

In an article reprinted by Radio Havana Cuba from Press TV it reports:

“A United Nations human rights expert has warned that a Portuguese-flagged ship is carrying tons of explosives to Israel, reiterating calls for an immediate arms embargo against the occupying entity to prevent further genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip. UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese sounded the alert in a post on X on Saturday, warning that based on the received information, ‘the vessel Kathrin, flying with Portuguese flag, is expected to deliver 8 containers of explosives to Israel.’” 

Imperialism Defies International Solidarity and Public Opinion

Despite the outrage exemplified by millions around the world against the genocide being perpetuated by the Israeli state and its supporters, the Zionist regime continues to operate with impunity. John Kirby, the National Security Advisor for the U.S., dismissed the legal actions taken by South Africa as being devoid of merit.

Biden along with Vice-President Kamala Harris have repeatedly said that they believe the Apartheid Israeli state has the right to exist. How can any government carrying out genocide within a settler-colonial state have any right to be accepted among the global community of nations and peoples?

The U.S. ruling class maintains that not only does this racist state have the right to exist they must be armed to defend themselves against the liberation movements seeking their overthrow. These liberation organizations such as Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in south Lebanon have been labeled as “terrorist” in efforts to justify the mass slaughter taking place within the communities in which they have emerged.

This same report quoted above went on to say that the weapons transfers to Israel represent a clear and present danger:

“These explosives are reportedly key components in the aircraft bombs and missiles that Israel is deploying against besieged Gaza and in its genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. As Namibia has rightfully denied port access to Kathrin, upholding international law, my hope is that Angola will follow Namibia’s example and not consent to harbor the ship. This could be a serious breach of the Genocide Convention,’ Albanese added. According to Vesselfinder ship tracking data earlier this week, the cargo ship, the MV Kathrin, which is sailing under the flag of Madeira, is currently anchored off the coast of Namibia, as the country in southwest Africa has refused to allow it to enter any of its ports.  Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal, is an archipelago comprising four islands off the northwest coast of Africa.”

These efforts by Namibia not only coincides with developments on the campuses across North America, other efforts such as the attempts aimed at the blockade of Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea has also made a monumental contribution to solidarity with Palestine. The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) have disrupted the flow of cargo in the region of the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

Reports indicate that the Israeli-controlled Port of Eilat has been negatively impacted by the operations conducted by the YAF. Even though the U.S. and the United Kingdom have conducted aerial strikes against the people of Yemen and their infrastructure over the last several months, it has not curtailed their determination to enhance politico-military pressure on Tel Aviv. 

Namibian Justice Ministry Says Its Position Is Based Upon International Law

Although the U.S. and other imperialist states frequently claim that they are the genuine upholders of international law, their foreign policy towards Occupied Palestine proves otherwise. This also held true in regard to the former situation in South Africa, Namibia and throughout the sub-continent.

From the 1960s thru the 1980s there were numerous international decisions within the UN which gave credence to the struggle for the abolition of apartheid and settler-colonialism. However, it would take mass demonstrations, boycotts and educational projects conducted in conjunction with the struggle of the people of Southern Africa which turned the tide in favor of anti-colonialism and national independence.

Several months before, the now-deceased President Hage Geingob had denounced its former colonial power Germany for its unconditional support to the State of Israel. This declaration by Geingob was viewed as a means to compliment the legal efforts by South Africa while at the same time extending its historical legacy of international solidarity with all oppressed and exploited peoples around the globe.

The Minister of Justice of the Republic of Namibia articulated the reasoning behind its stance on Palestinian solidarity. She told the state-owned New Era newspaper that the refusal to allow the vessel to dock in Namibian ports was the only just decision in light of the existing laws and the political considerations in favor of the plight of the Palestinians.

Yvonne Dausab, the Minister of Justice said that:

“Yes, I have asked Namport (Namibian Ports Authority) via the line ministry to consider the request to not allow the vessel MV Kathrin to dock in our ports. As such, it was necessary to engage authorities in Namibia on issues of concern to ensure our decisions and actions domestically are aligned with our obligations in terms of international law and our policy stance of many years on Palestine. I addressed a letter to Cabinet, international relations ministry, works ministry, as well as the safety and security ministry, advising and reminding them of our international obligations, not only under the Genocide Convention but also as articulated in the recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It is against this background that I requested the relevant authorities not to allow the vessel MV Kathrin to dock at the Walvis Bay port.” 

These principled views of the Namibian government add to the diversity of tactics within the Palestine solidarity movement. As in other national liberation struggles, this multiplicity of political forces and tactics have resulted in victory over injustice.

Irrespective of the incorrect policies of the imperialist states towards the Palestinian question, the masses of the people throughout the world are working feverishly on behalf of the colonized people. These contradictions will inevitably create the conditions which will prove favorable to the objectives of the Palestinians and other progressive forces throughout the entire West Asia region.

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary 

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

Featured image is from the author

Selected Articles: First, Elon Musk Made Us Pay for ‘Free Speech’. Now He Decides Who’s Allowed It

September 4th, 2024 by Global Research News

First, Elon Musk Made Us Pay for ‘Free Speech’. Now He Decides Who’s Allowed It

By Jonathan Cook, September 04, 2024

The ‘saviour of free speech’ is cracking down on criticism of Israel’s genocide. What he calls the ‘faaaaar left’ is in his crosshairs. It’ll be erased so utterly, you won’t remember it was ever there.

Israeli-Palestinian

Blame Trump for October 7. Mike Whitney

By Mike Whitney, September 03, 2024

The person who is most responsible for the attacks on October 7 is Donald Trump. It was Trump who launched the so-called Middle East Peace Plan that allowed for the “unilateral annexation of the Jordan River valley and existing settlements” in the West Bank.

There Are No Licensed COVID-19 Vaccines for Kids Under 12 — But CDC Wants Babies to Get 3 Pfizer Shots by Age 9 Months

By Ray Flores and Dr. Suzanne Burdick, September 04, 2024

The CDC’s updated guidance, issued Aug. 30, states that children — as young as 6 months old — should get either two doses of the 2024-2025 Moderna vaccine or three doses of the 2024-2025 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

You Can Measure the Health of a Society by How It Treats Its Warmongers and Its Peacemongers

By Caitlin Johnstone, September 04, 2024

In a healthy society, those who dedicated themselves to the task of getting as many human beings ripped apart by military explosives as possible would be reviled as monsters and caged for the health of the collective. In our society this is seen as a perfectly legitimate career path, from which someone can earn a very comfortable living.

It’s a “Killer” Vaccine Worldwide: Japanese Researchers Say Side Effects of COVID Vaccines Linked to 201 Types of Diseases

By Lee Harding and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, September 04, 202

The impact on mortality and morbidity of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine has been confirmed by a Pfizer Confidential Report — released and made public under Freedom of Information in October 2021. The confidential Pfizer Report –barely acknowledged by the media– was known to national governments and health authorities Worldwide. It confirms that the so-called Covid Vaccine is a killer.

Nicaragua Takes Germany to the World Court for Facilitating Israel’s Genocide

By Prof. Marjorie Cohn, September 04, 2024

As Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza — which has killed more than 33,000 Gazans — enters its seventh month, Nicaragua sued Germany in the International Court of Justice (ICJ, or World Court) for facilitating genocide.

Nuclear Civilization for Peace Science in a Harmonious Multipolar Future. Hiroshima and Nagasaki

By Prof. Bishnu Pathak, Mairead Maguire, Dr. Leo Semashko, Chaitanya Davé, and Dr. Rudolf Siebert, September 03, 2024

For nearly eight decades, the West and its “nuclear alliance” of 32 NATO countries have perpetuated the threat of global nuclear catastrophe, leading to the potential of a “nuclear winter” that could impact the entire world. In order for humanity to survive in this nuclear age, a paradigm shift for change is necessary.

Nicaragua Takes Germany to the World Court for Facilitating Israel’s Genocide

September 4th, 2024 by Prof. Marjorie Cohn

As Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza — which has killed more than 33,000 Gazans — enters its seventh month, Nicaragua sued Germany in the International Court of Justice (ICJ, or World Court) for facilitating genocide.

Nicaragua charged that,

“Germany has provided political, financial and military support to Israel fully aware at the time of authorization that the military equipment would be used in the commission of great breaches of international law,” adding, “The military equipment provided by Germany enabling Israel to perpetrate genocidal acts and other atrocities, included supplies to the front line and warehouses, and assurances of future supplies such as ammunition, technology and diverse components necessary for the Israeli military.”

Nicaragua also cited Germany’s defunding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which “provides essential support to the civilian population.”

Germany is the second-largest arms supplier to Israel, accounting for 30 percent of imports between 2019 and 2023. The United States, Israel’s chief enabler, provided it with 69 percent of its arms imports during the same period.

On October 12, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated,

At this moment, there is only one place for Germany: the place at the side of Israel. This is what we mean when we say that Israel’s security is a German raison d’État. Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it our perpetual duty to stand up for the existence and security of the State of Israel. This responsibility guides us.

 

Scholz with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, Oct. 17, 2023. (Amos Ben Gershom / Government Press Office of Israel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

In a historic hearing on April 8 and 9, Nicaragua presented its case to the ICJ and Germany denied the charges. Nicaragua asked the World Court to order five provisional measures “as a matter of extreme urgency” for Germany’s alleged

“participation in the ongoing plausible genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law and other peremptory norms of general international law occurring in the Gaza Strip.”

Daniel Müller, a lawyer on Nicaragua’s legal team, reminded the ICJ that 10 days prior, when the court ordered additional provisional measures against Israel in South Africa’s case, it called the living conditions in Gaza “catastrophic” and the recent developments “exceptionally grave.” The court found “an imminent risk of irreparable harm to ‘the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide’.”

“Nicaragua is acting not only on its own behalf on the basis of the rights and obligations conferred by the peremptory norms invoked, but also on behalf of the Palestinian people that is being subjected to one of the most destructive military actions in modern history,” Carlos José Argüello Gómez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, told the court.

Gómez said that although Nicaragua hasn’t been subjected to as much inhuman treatment and destruction as the Palestinians have suffered for more than 75 years, “it has also been subject to intervention and military attacks for most of its existence and feels empathy for the Palestinian people.”

In the 1984 case of Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicar. v. U.S.), the ICJ ruled against U.S. intervention in Nicaragua, which included the mining of ports, the destruction of oil installations, and the training, arming and equipping of the Contras (who were trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan government).

 

Dutch protest against U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s interference in Nicaragua, April 23, 1983. (Rob Croes for Anefo, Wikimedia Commons, CC0)

Gómez stated the Israeli government “should not be confused and equated with the Jewish people,” noting that Jewish victims of the Holocaust “would feel sympathy and empathize with the more than 30,000 civilians, including 25,000 mothers and children massacred so far in Palestine, and the 20,000 children orphaned and the two mothers being killed every hour.”

Germany Increased Military Aid to Israel and Cut Funding to UNRWA as Genocide Unfolded

The Genocide Convention imposes on third parties the obligation to prevent genocide from the time they become aware that genocide might be committed. Gómez told the court “there can be no question” that Germany “was well aware and is well aware of at least the serious risk of genocide being committed, most certainly after your Order of 26 January [for provisional measures].”

Gómez argued that Germany was on notice of Israel’s international lawbreaking, citing 32 statements made from October 9, 2023 to April 5, 2024, by hundreds of highly respected experts, authorities, organizations, legal scholars and practitioners accusing Israel of breaching or plausibly breaching the Genocide Convention.

“With all this undeniable knowledge of the situation,” Gómez declared, “Germany’s reaction was to increase its military assistance to Israel.” He also cited Germany’s announcement that it would intervene in favor of Israel in the case of South Africa v. Israel, which is pending in the ICJ. And, Gómez said, in spite of the ICJ’s January 26 finding that Israel was plausibly committing genocide, “Germany continued, and still continues to this day, to supply weapons and military assistance in general to Israel.”

For the year 2023, the German government authorized 326 million euros for exports of military equipment and weapons of war to Israel, Nicaragua’s attorney Müller told the court. Export licenses for war weapons worth 20 million euros included “3,000 anti-tank weapons — which according to one manufacturer in Germany are ‘a complete toolbox of shoulder-launched infantry weapon[s]’ used against tanks, but also vehicles, structures and buildings, and persons — 500,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition, 44 propellant charges — a key component in artillery ammunition — and 239 ignition charges.”

Müller said these weapons are “built to and aimed at destroying and killing, or to quote from Germany’s own definition, ‘objects [and] substances . . . capable . . . of causing destruction or damage to persons or property and of serving as a means of using force in armed conflicts between States.’”

In spite of the Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Germany continues to provide military assistance to Israel. Germany is facilitating or improving the provision of humanitarian aid in Gaza. But, Müller argued, “It is indeed a pathetic excuse to the Palestinian children, women and men in Gaza to provide humanitarian aid, including through air drops, on the one hand, and to furnish the weapons and military equipment that are used to kill and annihilate them — and to kill also humanitarian aid workers as most recently evidenced by the missile attack against vehicles and workers of World Central Kitchen, on the other hand.”

Gómez noted the involvement of German companies in the military industry which “are directly profiting from the situation as they have seen their share prices rise since October and they have substantially increased the joint development contracts for weapons with their Israeli counterparts.”

Nicaragua also cited Germany’s suspension of funding for UNRWA in Gaza the day after the ICJ’s January 26 order, “based on the sole say-so of the Israeli government,” as evidence of Germany’s facilitation of genocide. “UNRWA is the most important partner for providing assistance to the people in the Gaza Strip,” Germany’s federal minister admitted on November 7, 2023. The suspension of funding deprived UNRWA of $450 million.

Nicaragua Debunked Germany’s Argument That Israel Is Acting in Lawful Self-Defense

Nicaragua argued that Israel was confusing the right to protect its people with the right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, citing the 2004 ICJ’s advisory opinion in Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In that case, the court held that Israel, as an occupying power, cannot claim self-defense in the territory it occupies. “Surprisingly,” Gómez stated, “Germany seems not to be able to differentiate between self-defense and genocide.”

 

ICJ courtroom on the second day of hearings of Nicaragua’s oral arguments against Germany for facilitating Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, April 9. (UN Photo/ICJ-Frank van Beek, courtesy of the ICJ)

Moreover, Nicaragua asserted that “the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination” which includes “the right to take up arms against alien occupation and against racist régimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination as enshrined in the [UN] Charter” and the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States.

Gómez noted that the events of October 7 “did not occur in a void, on the spur of the moment, without any provocation.” He quoted UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who said on October 24, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

“If the actions of Israel continue unrestrained as they have since its birth as a State, and they continue to receive the indiscriminate support of States like Germany, then a new generation of Palestinians will rise up again in the near future,” Gómez predicted.

Nicaragua Is Seeking Five Provisional Measures

Nicaragua asked the ICJ to order that Germany not make the situation in Gaza worse, by “providing or allowing the provision of munitions of war and other direct support for Israel at this juncture and by depriving UNRWA . . . of funding and of the ability to continue working in accordance with its mandate.”

These are the provisional measures that Nicaragua is requesting:

(1) Germany shall immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance including military equipment, in so far as this aid may be used in the violation of the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law or other peremptory norms of general international law such as the Palestinian People’s right to self-determination and to not be subject to a regime of apartheid;

(2) Germany must immediately make every effort to ensure that weapons already delivered to Israel are not used to commit genocide, contribute to acts of genocide or are used in such a way as to violate international humanitarian law;

(3) Germany must immediately do everything possible to comply with its obligations under humanitarian law;

(4) Germany must reverse its decision to suspend the funding of UNRWA as part of the compliance of its obligations to prevent genocide and acts of genocide and the violation of the humanitarian rights of the Palestinian People which also includes the obligation to do everything possible to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the Palestinian people, more particularly in Gaza;

(5) Germany must cooperate to bring to an end the serious breaches of peremptory norms of international law by ceasing its support, including its supply of military equipment to Israel that may be used to commit serious crimes of international law and that it continue the support of the UNRWA on which this Organization has counted and based its activities.

Germany Claims It Can’t be Held Responsible Because Israel Isn’t a Party to the Case

Germany’s legal team raised two main defenses. First, the ICJ has no jurisdiction in the case because Germany’s responsibility is dependent on a finding that Israel is committing genocide and Israel is not a party to this case. Second, Germany has a “robust legal framework” to assess on a case-by-case basis whether export licenses comport with its domestic and international obligations and most of its exports since October 2023 have not been “war weapons.”

Agent Tania von Uslar-Gleichen argued on behalf of Germany that Nicaragua’s accusations “have no basis in fact or law. They are dependent on an assessment of conduct of Israel, not a party to these proceedings.” She said the case was brought to the court “on the basis of the flimsiest of evidence.”

Image: Uslar-Gleichen on April 9 at the World Court. (UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek, courtesy of the ICJ)

Samuel Wordsworth, also representing Germany, told the ICJ it had no jurisdiction to hear this case. He explained that Israel was not before the court and determinations about its conduct were a prerequisite to finding responsibility on the part of Germany. In South Africa v. Israel, the ICJ held it was “plausible” that Israel was committing genocide. A final determination on the merits will take a number of years. Before determining whether Germany is breaching its international obligations, “the Court must first determine that Israel has committed genocide,” Wordsworth maintained. “The responsibility of Germany is alleged, but in complete reliance on asserted wrongful acts of Israel.” Thus, he said, Israel is “an indispensable third party.”

But Anne Peters, another member of Germany’s legal team, admitted that if the court found it “plausible” that Israel is violating international law, it can then determine whether “plausible facts” establish “plausible violations” by Germany.

Germany Claims That Most of Its Exports to Israel Aren’t “War Weapons”

Peters said that Nicaragua hasn’t presented any evidence that “military equipment from Germany could have made a significant contribution to an alleged genocide or to breaches of international humanitarian law” in light of “Germany’s stringent licensing standards.”

 

Members of the German delegation during Nicaragua’s case against Germany for arming Israel as it commits a genocide, April 8, 2024. (UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek, courtesy of the ICJ)

Von Uslar-Gleichen told the court that since October 7, 2023, 98 percent of the licenses granted in Germany for exports to Israel were not for “war weapons,” but rather for “other military equipment.” Eighty percent of the volume approved for export was authorized in October 2023, she said.

Since October 2023, “we see no artillery shells, no munitions. Nearly all exports involve what is known as ‘other military equipment,’ typically of a subordinate or defensive nature,” she stated. This generally includes “defense equipment against chemical hazards, protective gear such as helmets or body protection plates, communication equipment, camouflage paint and components, parts and other equipment of a subordinate character.”

Von Uslar-Gleichen admitted, however, that Germany did license the export of war weapons to Israel four times in the past six months. Two licenses for “training” (not combat) ammunition, including 500,000 pieces of ammunition, were approved in November, and an additional 1,000 pieces were approved in early 2024. A third license was approved for propellant charge in connection with a joint project between German and Israeli industry but they were for test purposes. The fourth license was for the export of 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons “in the immediate context of Hamas massacres,” she said.

In 2023, Israel asked Germany for tank ammunition, but no license has yet been granted. One license has been granted for a submarine, but since it is a “war weapon” it requires two licenses for export so it has not yet been approved, Von Uslar-Gleichen told the ICJ. Nicaragua’s references to artillery shells and munitions to be used in Gaza “simply bear no relation to reality. Germany rejects them,” she stated.

Gómez argued on behalf of Nicaragua that

“it does not matter if an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to an Israeli tank shelling a hospital” or replenishes Israel’s stockpiles. “The fact is that the assurance of supplies and replacement of armaments is crucial to Israel’s pursuit of the attacks in Gaza,” he told the ICJ, adding that Germany is aware of “the serious risk of genocide being committed.”

The ICJ Case Is a Diplomatic and Organizing Tool

Although the United States is by far the largest provider of weapons to Israel, it hasn’t been sued in the ICJ because it won’t accept the court’s jurisdiction except in cases where the U.S. government explicitly consents. Germany has consented to full jurisdiction of the ICJ so it is an easier target than the U.S. for Nicaragua’s lawsuit.

“The ICJ is not going to end the war in Gaza, but it is a diplomatic tool that foreign policy uses to apply additional pressure on Israel,” Brian Finucane, senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, told The New York Times. “In the Nicaragua case, it further applies pressure on Germany.”

Civil society also stepped up the pressure to coincide with the ICJ hearing on Nicaragua’s case against Germany. CODEPINK delegations picketed, rallied and delivered petitions to German missions throughout the U.S. These actions were part of an international campaign of solidarity with Palestinian Germans who risk beatings and arrest when they demonstrate against Germany’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.

The ICJ will issue a ruling on Nicaragua’s request for provisional measures in Nicaragua v. Germany in the next few weeks.

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Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She sits on the national advisory boards of Assange Defense and Veterans For Peace. A member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, she is the U.S. representative to the continental advisory council of the Association of American Jurists. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.

Featured image: Nicaragua’s Carlos Argüello Gómez on April 8 during oral arguments against Germany for facilitating Israel’s genocide in Palestine. (UN Photo/Frank van Beek, Courtesy of the ICJ)

There Are No Licensed COVID-19 Vaccines for Kids Under 12 — But CDC Wants Babies to Get 3 Pfizer Shots by Age 9 Months

September 4th, 2024 by Ray Flores

Nine-month-old babies must receive multiple doses of an unlicensed mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to be considered “up to date” with their COVID-19 vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC’s updated guidance, issued Aug. 30, states that children — as young as 6 months old — should get either two doses of the 2024-2025 Moderna vaccine or three doses of the 2024-2025 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

If getting the new Pfizer shot, the baby is supposed to receive the first dose at 6 months, the second dose three weeks later and the third dose at least eight weeks after the second dose — meaning, that by 9 months old, babies are supposed to have received three Pfizer shots.

If getting the latest Moderna shot, the CDC recommends babies get the first dose at age 6 months and the second dose a month later.

The latest Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 shots for children under 12 are unlicensed in the U.S. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted only emergency use authorization (EUA) for the vaccines.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) CEO Mary Holland told The Defender,

“The earlier COVID shots have been proven unsafe and ineffective. Now we’re asked to believe that newer versions are miraculously safe and effective?”

“This is an insult to people’s intelligence,” she said, “I pray that parents will have the good sense to say no to these dangerous and unnecessary shots for babies.”

As of July 28, 37,814 deaths following COVID-19 vaccination had been reported to VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, run by the FDA and CDC.

Of those, 187 reports were for children and teens under 18. Nearly 13,000 reports listed the age as “unknown.”

VAERS analyst and expert Albert Benavides recently told The Defender he believes VAERS is “throttling” and underreporting deaths of all ages following COVID-19 vaccination.

Meanwhile, the CDC continues to tell the public that COVID-19 vaccines are “safe and effective.”

CDC ‘Absolutely Misleading’ Public on Safety of EUA Vaccines

Holland said the CDC is “absolutely misleading” the public by asserting that COVID-19 EUA vaccines are safe and effective because EUA vaccines are not held to the same safety or efficacy standards as licensed vaccines.

“By law,” she explained, “EUA products ‘may be effective,’ and they have not undergone the safety testing required to permit licensing.”

“This is one more horrific example of the CDC putting profits before people and acting as an unethical arm of Big Pharma’s marketing operation,” Holland added.

CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker agreed.

“It is criminal that these untested vaccines are being recommended to infants and children, especially given the fraudulent tactics to market them to an unsuspecting public,” Hooker told The Defender.

There’s No Licensed COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 12

There are still no licensed COVID-19 vaccines available for children under 12, Hooker said — so all COVID-19 vaccines given to young kids are EUA products.

The FDA’s website on EUA for medical products states that EUA vaccines only have to meet the standard of “may be effective” as long as if, “based on the totality of the scientific evidence, it is reasonable to believe that the product may be effective for the specified use.”

“The ‘may be effective’ standard for EUAs provides for a lower level of evidence than the ‘effectiveness’ standard that FDA uses for product approvals,” the website states.

Before a vaccine can be fully licensed, the vaccine maker typically is required to conduct numerous clinical trials to demonstrate that the product is safe. However, the safety requirements for EUA are more flexible.

According to the FDA:

“The amount and type(s) of safety information that FDA recommends be submitted as part of a request for an EUA will differ depending upon a number of factors, including whether the product is approved for another indication and, in the case of an unapproved product, the product’s stage of development.”

Despite this, the first statement on the CDC’s “6 Things to Know about COVID-19 Vaccination for Children” says, “COVID-19 vaccination for children is safe.”

Risks Outweigh Benefits for Kids

Hooker said the CDC’s actions are especially problematic as, historically, the meaning of “safe” has been interpreted by regulatory authorities as meaning that the benefits of a drug outweigh its risks.

“With the risk to children of dying from a COVID-19 infection being statistically zero, it is unclear if there is any benefit,” he said.

Meanwhile, the CDC still claims that “while adverse reactions are rare, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known risks of COVID-19 and possible severe complications.”

Pfizer Fact Sheet More Forthcoming About Risks

For licensed vaccines, the CDC typically provides an official vaccine information statement (VIS) that describes the vaccine’s risks and potential benefits.

According to the CDC website,

“Federal law requires that healthcare staff provide a VIS to a patient, parent, or legal representative before each dose of certain vaccines.”

However, for EUA COVID-19 vaccines, the CDC directs people to “fact sheets” — produced by the vaccine manufacturer, not the CDC, and authorized by the FDA — which detail the product’s risks and benefits.

There is no federal law requiring healthcare providers to share these fact sheets with patients, or parents of minors, before a COVID-19 vaccination.

“Pfizer’s own ‘fact sheet’ for its latest COVID-19 vaccine appears to give a more accurate picture [of the vaccine’s risks] than the CDC’s own websites,” Hooker said. “Shouldn’t the CDC be more a watchdog than Pfizer?”

For example, Pfizer’s fact sheet states,

“A product authorized for emergency use has not undergone the same type of review by FDA as an FDA-approved product.”

The Pfizer fact sheet also acknowledges that its vaccine “may not protect everyone” and that reported side effects associated with the Pfizer vaccines include myocarditis and pericarditis.

Hooker pointed out that research has shown that vaccine-induced myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, and pericarditis, inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart can be fatal.

He urged parents to “read between the lines” when assessing the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccination recommendation for babies and children.

“Most of all,” he added, “use common sense to decide if the CDC’s and the FDA’s logic is sound.”

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Ray Flores is a health freedom rights attorney. His interest in natural living started in the 1980’s when he began working in the burgeoning natural foods industry.

Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., is a reporter and researcher for The Defender based in Fairfield, Iowa.

Featured image is from CHD

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Judicial Scandal in Germany: The Reiner Fullmich Case

September 4th, 2024 by Wolfgang Jeschke

The political trial against civil rights activist Dr Reiner Fullmich reveals the motives and behaviour of a compromised constitutional state.

Open violation of the law and legal trickery are intended to secure the conviction of Dr Füllmich. The misconduct of the public prosecutor’s office and judges is documented. So is the involvement of malicious third parties. They are part of the conspiracy against the investigator, who has already been illegally deprived of his freedom for over six months.

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The history of the proceedings against civil rights activist Dr Reiner Füllmich is impressive evidence of the erosion of the rule of law in the Federal Republic of Germany.

From the preparations for Füllmich’s arrest to the final statement by the Göttingen district court presided over by judge Carsten Schindler at the end of April, a common thread runs through the trial. At every turn, the proceedings ooze the intention to bring about a conviction of the persecuted man at all costs. Right from the start.

While the conspiracy against the civil rights activist initially appeared to be the work of the public prosecutor’s office, the Federal Criminal Police Office and Füllmich’s former co-partners, it is now clear that the court also wants – or needs – to ensure the persecuted man’s unconditional conviction.

During the trial, some observers still hoped that the court was actually interested in establishing the facts and would soon realise that it had been deliberately misled by the prosecution and the complainants. However, the court’s statement of 26 April 2024 destroyed the last hope of a constitutional trial, even for the greatest optimists. Once again, Schindler and his accomplices fabricated new accusations against the civil rights activist. The contrived trial is now turning into a legal farce.

The Füllmich Thriller: In the Beginning Was the Lie

Even the beginning of Füllmich’s persecution could be the subject of a cheap Hollywood-thriller. The story went like this: the young public prosecutor Simon Philipp John sets up a persecution scenario with former co-partners of the victim. Their holey story: Reiner Füllmich had illegally appropriated money and gold from the Corona Committee and wanted to make off with it. The fact that neither money nor gold were in his possession was irrelevant. For the story to be relevant at all, the complainants (the renegade lawyers Justus Hoffmann, Antonia Fischer and Marcel Templin) and the public prosecutor had to deceive the prosecuting authorities (BKA) and the courts – or co-operate with them.

The grotesque play was initialised by Viviane Fischer, Füllmich’s assessor on the Corona Committee, who in turn is primarily responsible for the prosecution of Füllmich. She had insidiously thrown the head of the Corona Committee out of the committee on 2 September 2022. While she led Füllmich to believe that no committee meeting was taking place, she used the actual meeting to publicly execute Füllmich. Since that day, Fischer has been waging a private war against her mentor and doing everything she can to put him behind bars. As a partner of the people who filed the charges, she plays the most inglorious role in this conspiracy.

Conditions for Prosecution

In order for Dr Füllmich to be prosecuted at all, the public prosecutor’s office had to make up a number of lies. In the end, they had to apply for an arrest warrant. This is where prosecutor John and the renegade lawyers showed their creativity. In order to demonstrate the illegality of Füllmich’s behaviour, they simply claimed, by omitting important information, that Füllmich should never have had access to the committee’s funds. In doing so, they maliciously concealed the fact that all managing directors were exempted from the restrictions of § 181 BGB by a shareholders‘ resolution. Füllmich therefore acted lawfully at all times within the scope of the powers conferred on him when securing the committee’s funds.

The Illegal Deal: Public Prosecutor and Co-prosecutors Working Together

Public prosecutor Simon Philipp John and the renegade lawyers constructed the Füllmich case in close coordination with each other. The very nature of the cooperation between the prosecution and those involved in a civil dispute is remarkable. Antonia Fischer forwarded all negotiation correspondence between the shareholders of the Corona Committee to public prosecutor John and maintained a personal relationship with him in this exchange.

Not only that: they discussed the possibilities of prosecuting and imprisoning Füllmich. This happened while the negotiations between Füllmich and the other committee members about the loan repayment were still ongoing. During the trial, Antonia Fischer admitted that she had never been interested in a negotiated outcome. She only ever wanted to get Füllmich into prison. The other main accomplice in the Füllmich conspiracy, Justus P. Hoffman, made a similar statement. The renegade lawyers, in coordination with the public prosecutor’s office, prevented an agreement in order to maintain the claim that Füllmich had committed misconduct.

Füllmich had already taken the first steps to return secured funds in accordance with the agreement. However, it would have been a disaster for the desired imprisonment and elimination of the civil rights activist if an agreement had been implemented. The lawyer and doctoral supervisor of Justus P. Hoffmann, Professor Martin Schwab, was to receive a power of attorney to make the secured gold – with the joint signature of Viviane Fischer – available to the committee. However, Schwab refused. One can only speculate about the reasons.

Acts Planned Jointly by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Committee Traitors

Not all details of these agreements between public prosecutor John and his accomplices are documented. The construction of the prosecution of Dr Füllmich was largely secret and therefore also formally illegal. John failed to keep a record of the agreements and telephone calls or to make recordings. This is further unlawful behaviour on the part of the public prosecutor. However, the available evidence is sufficient to prove that a case was constructed here and that the illegal abduction of Dr Füllmich from Mexico was jointly prepared.

The Federal Criminal Police Office Abducts Dr Reiner Füllmich

In the course of the abduction of the civil rights activist, the complicity of the Federal Criminal Police Office in the illegal action was also revealed. The public prosecutor’s office and the renegade lawyers set a trap for Reiner Füllmich. He was to be lured to the German consulate in Tijuana under the pretence that a signature was still missing from a document. The subsequent arrest by the Mexican authorities was coordinated by the BKA field office. This is evident from the communication of the service.

Under the pretext of a visa offence, Füllmich was arrested by his Mexican „colleagues“, put on a plane to Germany and arrested there as planned. As agreed, Reiner Füllmich was denied the opportunity to appeal against his deportation. The fact that the „visa offence“ was also part of the plan and an illegal favour is shown by the fact that Dr Füllmich’s wife was not expelled from the country in the same situation as her husband. It was only ever about illegally deporting Füllmich to the FRG in order to bring him to trial there.

The Federal Criminal Police Office and a Ridiculous “Denial”

The involvement of the BKA in the abduction of the civil rights activist has been proven. It is clear from the communication between the BKA and the public prosecutor’s office. However, the BKA also appears elsewhere in this bizarre piece: Dr Füllmich’s co-counsel, the Cologne criminal defence lawyer Christof Miseré, was leaked information which could describe the activities of the services (BKA, BND and/or Verfassungsschutz). It describes Füllmich’s work and defines the aim of preventing him from continuing to be publicly effective or even holding public office.

In order to verify the “truthfulness“ of the dossier, the public prosecutor’s office questioned the Federal Criminal Police Office. Of course, no one seriously expects an authority to confirm that it is involved in the illegal persecution of political dissidents and is being instrumentalised against the investigation. On the contrary, one would expect a clear denial. In the sense of: This paper and its contents do not originate from our authority, either in whole or in part. That would be a denial. However, the office’s answer is different: “It is therefore very unlikely that this is a document written by the BKA.“

Dr Christof Miseré:

“As a public prosecutor, I ask an authority whether they keep a body in the cellar and receive the answer that this is rather unlikely because bodies are usually buried in the attic of history.“

Regardless of the degree of involvement of the Federal Criminal Police Office in the persecution of the civil rights activist, its involvement in the abduction of Füllmich is proven by the available communication. In doing so, the Federal Criminal Police Office has foregone a constitutional way of detaining Dr Füllmich within the framework of internationally valid extradition procedures. This would have involved applying for an international arrest warrant and co-operating with Interpol. The procedure is well known to the BKA. However, the fabricated allegations would never have been sufficient for an international prosecution. So the only remaining option was the illegal route of abduction coordinated with the Mexican authorities.

The Metamorphosis of the Accusations – Conviction at Any Price

Once it was clear that Reiner Füllmich was exempt from the restrictions of Section 181 of the German Civil Code (BGB), it could have been established that the original accusation was unfounded and that there were no unlawful dispositions. The proceedings could have been discontinued and the shareholders could have continued their negotiations, which had been interrupted by the kidnapping, to determine when and how the loan amounts protected from state access should be transferred back to one of the Corona Committee companies. Due to this deliberate deception by the public prosecutor’s office and its accomplices, the court wrongly assumed from September 2022 to November 2023 that Füllmich could already be accused of criminal behaviour solely because of the lack of exemption from Section 181 BGB.

Image: Lawyer Katja Wörmer und Dr. Reiner Füllmich. Photo: Swen Pfortner/dpa

In court, Füllmich’s lawyer Katja Wörmer submitted the following as part of a motion:

“At the time, the first shareholder resolution confirming the exemption from Section 181 BGB and the sole management of all shareholders was not submitted – most likely intentionally, in order to deliberately incriminate the defendant more severely and ensure that a criminal investigation was opened.“

For the court chaired by Carsten Schindler, the tricks and deceptions that constructed the case play no role. Although the public prosecutor and her accomplices had deceived the court in several ways, although the senior public prosecutor Dr Kutzner was not even able to read the email correspondence between Dr Füllmich and Viviane Fischer correctly and gave the impression in her statement that she had either not read the file or was mentally deranged, the judge seemingly went on his way without any irritation at these fatal errors. He enjoys playing the keyboard of arbitrariness and ignores all motions and evidence, as if he had been instructed to ensure a conviction of the civil rights activist at all costs.

Carsten Schindler is leading the proceedings against civil rights activist Dr Reiner Füllmich. While the lawyer initially gave the impression that he was interested in a constitutional trial, his latest „sleight of hand“ (quote from lawyer Dr C. Miseré) shocked trial observers, international human rights activists and lawyers alike. Schindler’s name will be remembered in the future with one of the most curious cases in German legal history: When the FRG illegally abducted a civil rights activist from Mexico in order to put him on a contrived trial.

When it could be proven on the basis of the shareholders‘ resolutions that Füllmich had effective sole power of representation, the court looked for new ways to incriminate the persecuted man. Füllmich’s lawyer Katja Wörmer commented:

“When this argument was no longer possible, the district court simply reinterpreted the justification for the criminal offence as an abuse of power of representation.“

This means nothing other than: First, the court claimed that the persecuted person was not authorised to make his orders. When it then turned out that he was, the court changed its view and said that he was authorised but had abused his power of representation.

The Second Trick Also Fails

However, the questioning of the witnesses by lawyer Katja Wörmer and the persecuted man himself quickly showed that there had been no misuse of the power of representation. Even his former partners on the Corona Committee confirmed Dr Füllmich’s statements. Füllmich and Viviane Fischer wanted to protect the committee’s funds from possible access by the state or make this access more difficult. The donations had to disappear from the current accounts. The state had already frozen the funds of critics too often.

Viviane Fischer and Reiner Füllmich took two steps: firstly, they bought gold, which could retain its value even in the event of an economic crisis. Secondly, Fischer and Füllmich shifted the committee’s funds into their private sphere by granting loans. The loans were recognised in the accounting records and contractually agreed. The parties involved agreed that the loan amounts should be repaid to the committee.

Things went wrong? No problem.

So the second prosecution trick, supported by Judge Carsten Schindler, was also dashed by reality. It was proven that the funds were transferred by way of loan agreements and were to be repaid. The persons involved were authorised to do so on the basis of the existing agreements and had documented the procedure. They adopted the regulations and their legal content as their own. The loan agreements were therefore validly agreed. Everyone agreed on this – which is why the dispute between the shareholders centred on the question of when and how the loans were to be repaid. In Dr Füllmich’s case, this was to take place after the sale of his private property. He had never stated otherwise.

The fact that Dr Füllmich’s loan amounts were not repaid was due to an equally illegal arrangement. In collaboration with the notary who notarised the sale of the Füllmich family’s property, one of the complainants, Marcel Templin, in coordination with the other accomplices (Justus P. Hoffmann and Antonia Fischer), appropriated further parts of the proceeds from the sale of the property without sufficient legal grounds. Piquantly, the public prosecutor’s office blocked the Füllmichs‘ accounts – but did not seize the illegally collected share of the sales proceeds from Templin. No investigations were initiated against Marcel Templin either. He is now suspected of being an employee of the authorities and of ensuring the persecution of the civil rights activist Füllmich on their behalf and making it impossible for him to repay the agreed loan.

The arsenal of obstruction of justice is vast.

After the public prosecutor’s office had failed to substantiate the allegations against Dr Füllmich despite all the illegal machinations and objective misrepresentations, the court now came to the prosecutor’s aid. This was a surprise for the defence and the prosecution: the agreed loan agreements, which had been intended, described and assessed as such by all parties involved, were suddenly – after several weeks of trial – simply reinterpreted by the court.

The court is now constructing a „fiduciary relationship“ in order to ensure that Dr Füllmich is convicted. In the court’s instructions read out by presiding judge Carsten Schindler, the court now prefers to assume that a „fiduciary safekeeping of the funds was agreed in such a way that these funds were to be available at all times in bank accounts on behalf of the pre-company“. The court relied solely on the statements made by Viviane Fischer, who also placed herself at the service of the prosecution.

Schindler achieves two things with this creative volte face. Firstly, Viviane Fischer is released from the previously assumed complicity in the joint offence with Reiner Füllmich. This means that a participant in the persecution of the civil rights activist has been removed from the focus of the prosecution. At the same time, the court will now attempt to construct a claim based on the breach of a duty to look after assets. Remember: up to now, the question was whether the agreed loans could have been repaid by Füllmich and whether he had intended to do so. Since both questions can be answered in the affirmative based on the investigation of the facts and the questioning of witnesses, no damage can be assumed either for the companies of the committee or the co-shareholders.

In the „opinion“ of the court, the arbitrary assumption of a fiduciary relationship should make it possible to construct a criminal offence. Schindler commented: „The defendant was already in breach of his duty to look after his assets by transferring sums of money from the previous company to his private account in the way he did.“

Under this ludicrous construction, it would therefore no longer matter that Füllmich wanted to repay the loan and had done so – the damage would now already lie in the constructed breach of fiduciary duty that Schindler and his comrades and/or clients had devised here. Despite the dramatic change it brings to the trial, the court’s statement causes bitter amusement among lawyers and human rights activists. The presiding judge Carsten Schindler explained:

„The defendant’s argument that he had „parked“ the money in his property and that this was in the interests of the previous company because the bank account could be more easily seized by arbitrary state measures than property assets is misguided in several respects. Firstly, legal protection against unlawful measures is always possible in court and, within the scope of the German Basic Law, it is not the defendant or Mrs Viviane Fischer, but the competent courts alone that decide what is unlawful and what is not.“

In recent years, the hijacked legal system of the FRG has stripped itself to the bone. Right up to the politically appointed head of the Federal Constitutional Court with its chairman, CDU grandee and Merkel friend Stefan Harbarth, who enabled all illegal measures and unconstitutional restrictions of fundamental rights as well as the abolition of parliamentarianism in the FRG, judgements have been handed down that are in every respect not of a constitutional nature. To this day, the unjust system punishes people who stand up for human rights, freedom and health.

And now a judge in a political trial based on illegal machinations of the state apparatus (kidnapping from abroad, falsification or misappropriation of evidence, illegal undocumented agreements between the public prosecutor’s office and accomplices, etc.) points out that „only the competent courts should decide what is unlawful“. The committee’s reserves were also to be kept safe from judges like Schindler. And the scope of the Basic Law could also be discussed.

Lawyer Dr Christof Miseré has clear words to say about the court’s instructions in his application to the court:

„This new, almost absurd construction also documents the fact that in the present case, at our discretion, we are dealing with a trial that is not oriented towards the objectively prescribed standards of law, but towards the final objective of convicting the defendant Dr Füllmich as a political opponent at all costs, and thus with a politicised trial influenced by political guidelines and constructs by various actors. Although I was already aware when I took over the mandate that this was more or less a political trial, including the incomparable empowerment of the accused in Mexico, I could not have imagined the legally untenable constructs that are now being used to try to realise this final objective.“

“The game is not over yet!“

Defence lawyer Dr Miseré remains optimistic. For him, the court’s behaviour is an arrogant violation of the law.

„It is not for the court to make legally binding – retrospective – findings on a contract subject to private autonomy – in this case a validly concluded and intended loan agreement – and, what is more, to replace it with a different construction determined by the court. This could at best be possible if something is declared as a loan, but no repayment of the loan amount was intended. In this case, there is no loan at all, as the gift of the loan amount and the repayment of this loan amount are constitutive elements of a loan.

A fortiori, the court may not interpret the defendant Dr Füllmich’s consistently expressed view that this was a loan that he had to repay and that he would also use it for private purposes to mean that he had in fact wanted to agree a fiduciary agreement. That is precisely not what he wanted!

To then subsequently disregard the defendant’s personal idea and replace his intention to be bound by a contract with a construct that was not agreed – namely a fiduciary agreement – and then to convict him based on the reinterpretation of his clearly expressed idea, is an arbitrary violation of the law par excellence and blatantly contradicts a fair trial.“

Lawyer Katja Wörmer: “The defendant should be sentenced to prison in any case.“

Füllmich’s lawyer Katja Wörmer also finds clear words in her application for a stay of proceedings presented in court:

„It is more than clear that the chamber intends to sentence the accused for better or worse at any cost. The legal references almost give the impression that the accused has already been convicted in the eyes of the Chamber and that the intended judgement is already as good as written in the desk drawer.“

„This is because the chamber expressly assumes that the hearing of evidence can be concluded and that no further witnesses need to be heard. However, on 24 and 25 April 2014, the undersigned was urgently requested by the presiding judge to report possible conflicts of dates for the months of May and June, as further hearing dates were to be scheduled. Just one day later, on 26.04.24, the chamber suddenly sends the legal information, which was only read out on 03.05.24, via be a outside the main hearing, which is actually an anticipated assessment of the evidence, which is also expected to be included in the grounds for the judgement in the same form. The judgement is therefore apparently already written.„

„The defendant will be sentenced to prison in any case.“

Below is Dr. Fullmich’s statement on 01 September 2024:

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Featured image: More than 6 months in prison: the internationally renowned civil rights activist Dr Reiner Füllmich. Photo: Swen Pfortner/dpa

You Can Measure the Health of a Society by How It Treats Its Warmongers and Its Peacemongers

September 4th, 2024 by Caitlin Johnstone

You can tell a lot about the health of a society by how it treats its warmongers and how it treats its peacemongers.

When those who push for war are elevated to positions of prominence in government and media while those who push for peace are smeared as antisemites and Russian agents, you know you are living in a wildly dysfunctional civilization.

When politicians who promote the interests of empire managers and war profiteers rocket to the top echelons of government while those who promote the interests of war victims and ordinary people have their homes raided and their devices seized by police under counter-terrorism laws, you know you are living in a profoundly sick society.

When those who spend their lives promoting mass military slaughter at every opportunity are rewarded with esteemed and lucrative punditry careers while those who call for an end to mass military slaughter have their influence relegated to increasingly marginalized online platforms, you know you are living in dystopia.

War is the most insane thing humans do. The most destructive. The most traumatizing. The most destabilizing. The least sustainable. The least morally defensible. The least conducive to human thriving. It is promoted by the very worst among us, and it is opposed by the very best.

In a healthy society, those who dedicated themselves to the task of getting as many human beings ripped apart by military explosives as possible would be reviled as monsters and caged for the health of the collective. In our society this is seen as a perfectly legitimate career path, from which someone can earn a very comfortable living.

In a healthy society, only those who promote the interests of ordinary human beings and spurn the influence of malign manipulators would ever be elevated to positions of leadership. In our society, it’s the best way to make sure you spend your life in perpetual obscurity.

This is what powerful manipulators have successfully duped us into accepting as normal. This is the insanity that mass media propaganda and mainstream culture-manufacturing have convinced us to regard as okay. But it is not okay. It’s about as far from okay as anything could possibly be.

And now here we are, our eyes full of genocide in the foreground and a looming global conflict between nuclear-armed states in the background, with those who decry this being shouted down and silenced while those who support this become millionaires and presidents.

There is no part of this that is acceptable. Every aspect of this civilization is a freakish abomination. We’ve got to wake up to what’s going on, and we’ve got to find some way to remove the people who have placed us on this trajectory from power.

So long as any part of this nightmare looks fine and normal to most people, we’ve got no chance at a healthy world.

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History: The “Penal Colonies” of Palestine. “The Gaza Strip is the Realization of Israel’s Vision of ‘Separation'” Prof. Tanya Reinhart

September 4th, 2024 by Tanya Reinhart

With tremendous foresight of what is happening now, this article by the late Professor Tanya Reinart was first published by Global Research in 2002 under the title The Penal Colonies.

Our thoughts are with Tanya Reinart. Her legacy will live. 

The Netanyahu government is no longer contemplating “Separation” or “Apartheid”. There is no longer a “Two State Solution”.

The October 7, 2023 Declaration of War against Palestine consists in invading and annexing Gaza and the West Bank, while excluding Palestinians from their homeland. It’s a crime against humanity. 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research. June 22,2024, September 4, 2024

**

Israel’s Vision of Separation

The Gaza strip is a perfect realization of the Israeli vision of “separation”. Surrounded with electric fences and army posts, completely sealed off from the outside world, Gaza has become a huge prison.

About one third of its land was confiscated for the 7,000 Israeli settlers living there (and their defense array), while over a million Palestinians are crowded in the remaining areas of the prison.

With no work or sources of income, about 80% of its residents depend, for their living, on UNRWA, or contributions from Arab states and charity organizations. Now Israel is considering the imprisonment there of families of suicide bombers from the West Bank (1). As a senior Israeli analyst stated, Gaza can now serve as “the penal colony” of Israel its “devils island, Alcatraz”. (Nahum Barnea, Yediot Aharonot June 21, 2002).

This is the future that Sharon and the Israeli army designate for the West Bank as well. While the external fence is presently being built, Israel’s current military operation is set to be the final step in the implementation the IDF plans for reestablishing full military rule (which was abolished in large parts of the West Bank during the Oslo process).

Though Israel describes everything it does as a spontaneous reaction to terror, the plan was fully spelled out in the Israeli media already back in March 2001, soon after Sharon entered office. Alex Fishman, military and strategic analyst of Yediot Aharonot, explained at the time that since Oslo, “the IDF regarded the occupied territories as if they were one territorial cell”, and this placed some constraints on the IDF and enabled a certain amount of freedom for the PA and the Palestinian population. The new plan is a return to the concept of the military administration during the preOslo years: the occupied territories will be divided into tens of isolated “territorial cells”, each of which will be assigned a special military force, “and the local commander will have freedom to use his discretion” as to when and who to shoot. (Yediot Ahronot weekend supplement, March 9.2001).

Operation Defensive Shield

The first stage of this plan the destruction of the institutions of the Palestinian Authority was completed in the previous ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ in April of this year [2002]. In practice, from that time on, the towns and villages of the West Bank have been completely sealed. Even exit by foot, which was possible up to that point, became blocked, and movement between the “territorial cells” now requires formal permits from the Israeli military authorities. Soldiers and snipers prevent any “unauthorized” walking to agricultural fields, to places of work and study, or for medical treatment.

However, unlike the pre Oslo period of Israeli military rule, the army makes it clear that there is no intention to construct any civil administration that will take care of the basic daily needs of the two million Palestinians, such as food supplies, health services, garbage and sewage. For these tasks, some form of a Palestinian Authority will be maintained, though in practice it will not be allowed to function.

As a ‘military source’ told Ha’aretz,

“Internal conclusions of the security echelons, following operation ‘Defensive Shield’, assessed that the functioning of the civil branches of the Palestinian Authority had reached an unprecedented nadir, mainly due to the destruction the IDF operation left behind in Ramallah (including the systematic destruction of computers and databases)… Combined with the severe restrictions on movement, the Palestinian population is becoming, as the military source defined it, ‘poor, dependent, unemployed, rather hungry, and extreme’… The financial reserves of the Palestinian authority are reaching the bottom… In a future not far off, the majority of Palestinians will only be able to maintain a reasonable life through the help of international aid.” (Ha’aretz Hebrew edition, June 23, 2002, Amos Har’el). Thus, the West Bank is being driven to the level of poverty of the Gaza strip.

Nevertheless, at the same time that Israel deprives the Palestinians of their means of income, it also makes a substantial effort to diminish or block international aid, under the pretext that the aid is used to support terrorists or their families. At the outset of its new ‘operation’, Israel “decided to stop the flow of foodaid and medicine from Iran and Iraq to Palestinians in the territories” (Ha’aretz, June 24, 2002, Amos Har’el). Iranian and Iraqi aid is an easy target for Israel, as these countries belong to the “Axis of Evil”. However, Israel started launching a more ambitious campaign: The EU the largest PA donor is under constant pressure from Israel to cut its aid, which is used, inter alia to pay the salaries of teachers and health workers. The tactics are always the same: Israel provides some documents presumably linking the PA to terror. Any aid to the PA is, therefore, aid to terror (2).

UNRWA’s aid is the next target. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA) has become a major source of food for Palestinians in the besieged territories. Its food supplies are now delivered not only to the refugee camps, but also in towns and villages. The amount of food UNRWA supplies has increased fourfold in two years (3). Recently,

“Israel has begun a campaign in the United States and the United Nations to urge a reconsideration of the way the UN Relief and Works Agency, which runs the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, operates. Israel charges that UNRWA workers simply ignored the fact that Palestinian organizations were turning the camps into terrorist bases and it is demanding the agency start reporting all military or terrorist actions within the camps to the UN…. Meanwhile, Jewish and proIsraeli lobbyists in the U.S. are waging a parallel campaign … American Jewish lobbyists are basing their efforts on the fact that the U.S. currently contributes some 30 percent of UNRWA’s $400 million a year budget, and is therefore in a position to influence the agency: A congressional refusal to approve UNRWA’s funding could seriously disrupt its operations. (Ha’aretz June 29, 2002, Nathan Guttman). The campaign is not yet demanding cutting UNRWA’s aid and presence altogether, but raising the impossible demand that UNRWA should serve as an active force in “the war against terror” (“reporting military or terrorist actions”) is the first step towards such a demand.(4)

Since September 11,[2002] Sharon has been constructing an analogy between the occupied territories and Afghanistan (with the PA as Al Qaeda). He keeps declaring that the solution to Palestinian terror, and the required ‘reforms’, should be along the lines set in Afghanistan. The analogy is frighteningly revealing: As it established the ‘reforms’ in Afghanistan, the US forced starvation upon millions of people. This is how Noam Chomsky described it:

“On Sept. 16, the New York Times reported that ‘Washington has also demanded [from Pakistan] a cutoff of fuel supplies…and the elimination of truck convoys that provide much of the food and other supplies to Afghanistan’s civilian population.’ Astonishingly, that report elicited no detectable reaction in the West, a grim reminder of the nature of the Western civilization that leaders and elite commentators claim to uphold. In the following days, those demands were implemented… ‘The country was on a lifeline,’ one evacuated aid worker reports, ‘and we just cut the line’ (NY times Magazine, September 30). According to the world’s leading newspaper, then, Washington demanded that Pakistan ensures the death of enormous numbers of Afghans, millions of them already on the brink of starvation, by cutting off the limited sustenance that was keeping them alive.” (Interview with Michael Albert, reprinted in Noam Chomsky, 911, Seven Stories, 2002). Arundhati Roy, summarized this at the time: “Witness the infinite justice of the new century. Civilians starving to death while they’re waiting to be killed” (Guardian, Sept. 29).

The new stage of Israel’s ‘separation’ can no longer be compared to the Apartheid of South Africa. As Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa’s Minister of Water Affairs, said in an Interview with Al Ahram Weekly, “the South African apartheid regime never engaged in the sort of repression Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians” (Issue of March 28 April 3, 2002). We are witnessing the daily invisible killing of the sick and wounded being deprived of medical care, the weak who cannot survive in the new poverty conditions, and those who are bound to reach starvation.

Nevertheless, the public debate in Israel revolves around questions of efficiency: Is it possible to stop terror in such methods. Let us suppose even that it is. Is it allowed? Is this what we (Israelis) want to be?

One people stole the ‘Lamb of its poor neighbor'(5): Gaza and the West Bank are 22% of the land of Israel Palestine, where the Palestinians lived in the past. On this small piece of land, three million people live, with hopes, needs and dreams, just like ours.

Since Oslo, they have been lured with promises that we are about to evacuate the settlements and give them back their land, at the very same time that we have been imprisoning them in Gaza, stealing more of their land in the West Bank, and leaving them no hope whatsoever. The Palestinian people are fighting for their freedom. The crimes of Palestinian terror do not remove our culpability for our own crimes.

Before Oslo, as well, there was a wave of horrible terror attacks. But at that time, after each such attack, the call was heard get out of the territories! Then it was still understood that when you leave people no hope, there is no way to stop the madness of suicide bombing. It is not too late to get out of the territories.

Notes

(1) In its meeting on Friday, June 21, 2002, the Israeli cabinet “decided in principle in favor both of the expulsion of families of suicide strikers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip… The implementation of this expulsion policy depends upon the outcome of a legal review.” (‘IDF set to expel bombers’ families’ By Aluf Benn, Amos Harel and Gideon Alon, Ha’aretz June 23, 2002).

(2) Here is one example of the pressure on the EU: “The documents seized from PA offices in recent months, some of which were included in the document compiled by minister without portfolio 

Dan Naveh following Operation Defensive Shield, were presented last week to the EC delegation in Israel and representatives of the International Monetary Fund at a meeting with IDF intelligence officers. Naveh claims the documents prove European financial aid has been used to finance terrorism and incitement, and has also found its way into the pockets of senior PA officials.

The head of the EC’s delegation to Israel, Giancarlo Chevallard, told Ha’aretz that at the meeting, the delegation saw evidence that Arafat is financing terrorism, but added Israel had not provided evidence that European financial aid which is designated to pay the salaries of PA employees is being used to finance terrorist attacks. Another senior delegation official said he was extremely skeptical Israel had evidence to prove European aid is being used by the PA to finance terrorism…

Meanwhile, in the shadow of the Israeli accusations, the European Parliament’s budgetary committee last week delayed the transfer of 18.7 million euros in financial aid to the PA until the EC reports how the money is to be distributed…” (Ha’aretz, June 6, 2002, Yair Ettinger) This specific frozen amount was released in the meanwhile, however Israel’s pressure continues.

(3) Amos Har’el, ‘The IDF neutralizes the Palestinian Authority, and humanitarian organizations try to replace it’, Ha’aretz Hebrew edition, June 23, 2002. (Quoted before).

(4). The campaign against UNRWA started earlier: “In letters written to Annan in May, Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter and Democratic U.S. Representative Tom Lantos accused the U.N. agency of allowing and promoting terrorist activity in the camps. Specter said UNRWA schools promoted antiIsraeli and anti Semitic sentiments and Lantos said the agency allowed terrorists to organize in the camps.”(Inter Press Service, June 24, 2002)

(5) Bible, Samuel II, 12:11: “12:1The LORD sent Natan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. 12:2The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 12:3but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter. 12:4A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him.” (http://ebible.org/bible/hnv/2Sam.htm)

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Israel Wanted Disease and Genocide in Gaza, So Why Is It Agreeing to the Polio Vaccine Being Given?

September 4th, 2024 by Sam Husseini

A good tiny step, a public relations ploy given the UN’s failure to stop the carnage — or something even more sinister: “Is Israel engaging in biological warfare against the Palestinians?”

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In October 2023, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared:

“No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.’”

In November 2023, Middle East Eye reported in “Former Israel general says ‘severe epidemics’ in Gaza would help Israel win the war”:

“A retired senior Israeli general has said that Israel should not ‘shy away’ from permitting the outbreak of severe epidemics amongst Palestinians in southern Gaza as it will bring Israel ‘closer to victory.’

“‘The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics,’ retired Major General Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council, wrote Sunday.

“‘We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.’

“Eiland went on to say that the Israeli government must take a ‘harder line’ against the US and rule out discussions about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza until all the hostages held in the besieged enclave are released.

“The opinion article elicited an endorsement from far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said, ‘I agree with every word.’”

Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch, executive director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, told me in November:

“Due to Israel cutting off some of the supply of water and destroying key water infrastructure and storage tanks, people are being forced to drink water from unsafe sources. Dehydration and waterborne diseases are spreading and medicine is running out. There are outbreaks of chickenpox, scabies and diarrhea due to the shortage of water.”

The BBC reported in May that “Half of Gaza water sites damaged or destroyed, BBC satellite data reveals.”

Drop Site News reported in July in “The IDF Just Destroyed a Key Rafah Water Facility Rachel Corrie Spent Her Last Month of Life Defending” about a video showing the “calculated demolition of a chief water facility in Rafah. The video, in three parts, shows Israeli soldiers planting explosives inside and around the water pumps of a facility in the occupied city. The video — which is captioned in Hebrew, ‘Destruction of the Tal Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat’ — ends with footage of the water facility being blown up. The soundtrack is a song produced by soldiers of the 51st Golani Brigade with lyrics like, ‘We will burn Gaza… shake all of Gaza… for every house you destroy we will destroy ten.’ …

“For months, Israeli forces have been targeting vital water resources in the strip leading to starvation and, according to new reports, worsening access to clean water. Last week, the Israeli military and the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Poliovirus has been found in Gaza’s sewage, further intensifying the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the occupied enclave.”

The Daily Mail in August reported on Israelis who had been held captive in Gaza:

“Blood tests also showed they had been exposed to a range of diseases, including typhus and spotted fever, during their 50 days in captivity. Many of them were also experiencing head lice due to poor hygiene conditions, including a lack of running water.”

The Vaccine

So, why is Israel reportedly agreeing to pauses to allow for administration of the polio vaccine? That may be hard to know for sure, but a few things that should be understood:

  • The WHO is not what it seems to many people. There’s lots that can be said about that, but what I have examined is that the group’s chief scientist, Jeremy Farrar, who was a central figure, and perhaps the central figure, in the massive propaganda campaign which claimed in 2020 that Covid could not have a lab origin. It is simply not a credible organization just on that basis. Additionally, this gives a great deal of credence to arguments that the WHO is capable of making critical decisions with the aim of control, manipulation and publicity rather than the health and wellbeing of the global public.
  • The vaccine being given to Palestinian children in Gaza is nOPV2, that is, novel oral polio vaccine, focusing on type 2 polio. Prior oral vaccines have been problematic. They contain attenuated (weakened) polio virus. This can be problematic since, as The Journal of Infectious Diseases noted in 2013: “With prolonged replication, attenuated polioviruses used in oral polio vaccine (OPV) can mutate into vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) and cause poliomyelitis [polio] outbreaks.”
  • OPV was typically given in poorer countries. In rich counties like the US, what has been given is IPV which is made with inactive polio virus and given intramuscularly (an injection), not orally.
  • According to the Polio Global Eradication Initiative (whose partners include the WHO, CDC and the Gates Foundation), the outbreak in Gaza is from Egypt. Curiously, the Initiative claims “the variant poliovirus could have been introduced in Gaza as early as September 2023” — that is, prior to Oct. 7. The Egyptian polio outbreak according to a recent article in BMC Infectious Diseases came from a “vaccine-derived polioviruses”. That is, the outbreak now in Gaza appears, according to these sources, to be the result of the negative effects of polio vaccines given in Egypt which mutated.
  • In 2018, Science reported: “Alarming polio outbreak spreads in Congo, threatening global eradication efforts: Vaccine-derived virus spreads despite emergency response.”
  • Neetu Vashisht and Jacob Puliye in 2012 wrote in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics: “It was hoped that following polio eradication, immunisation could be stopped. However the synthesis of polio virus in 2002, made eradication impossible. It is argued that getting poor countries to expend their scarce resources on an impossible dream over the last 10 years was unethical. … The charade about polio eradication and the great savings it will bring has persisted to date. It is a paradox, that while the director general of WHO, Margret Chan, and Bill Gates are trying to muster support for polio eradication (22) it has been known to the scientific community, for over 10 years, that eradication of polio is impossible.”
  • Nature reported in 2023: “Vaccine-derived polio is undermining the fight to eradicate the virus: Wild polio has almost been eradicated, but vaccine-derived strains retain the potential to paralyse. Better vaccines have arrived — but they are only part of the answer.”
  • nOPV2 is a relatively new vaccine. In March, the WHO noted that nOPV2 has been used since 2021 “under WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) approval”. A report posted on the CDC website notes that there have been cases of it causing polio as in Burundi and DRC, but apparently at a substantially lower rate than previous oral vaccines. But The BMJ reported in August 2023 in “Polio vaccines: hope, hype, and history repeating?” that despite a great deal of positive media spin: “Before it was approved for emergency use, scientists warned that nOPV2 would not solve the problem set for it: to stamp out vaccine-derived polio. So far, it has not done so. Instead there are unanswered questions about the vaccine’s performance, whether the decision to rely on it was right, and whether there’s a viable path to the dream of global eradication even with a full suite of modernised vaccines.”
  • Some prior OPV disasters are outlined in Science from May, largely about the Gates Foundation: “‘Unqualified failure’ in polio vaccine policy left thousands of kids paralyzed”.
  • It seems remarkable that the WHO and company can spot and prioritize a case of polio amid the carnage and devastation that Israel has wrecked on Gaza. It seems driven by ideology, control or interest rather than prioritizing the needs of the Palestinians in Gaza.
  • nOPV2 requires another dose in four weeks. It is not clear to me what happens if someone gets one dose and not the second.
  • While Israeli snipers are targeting children in the head, Israel is being depicted as agreeing to a truce to help save children from polio.
  • Some have argued Israel’s goal is to ensure that there is not a polio outbreak in Gaza since that might threaten it — it’s an example of enlightened self-interest. However, this reasoning might be undermined by the fact that Israel has been giving its soldiers a polio vaccine. And they have been giving them the IPV vaccine, not the oral one given to Palestinians. This would indicate that they would be immune to it and Israel may effectively come off unscathed from a polio outbreak among the Palestinians. Also, IPV deals with all three types of polio. In 2022, Israel had cases of polio and the WHO reports IPA and OPV were used.
  • The vaccines may be seen by some as a minimal help to Palestinians in Gaza, preventing yet another disaster. And the minimal pauses resulting may be seen as baby steps toward permanent ceasefire, but this seems quite optimistic, especially given Israel’s posture. It is quite possible that the nOPV2 vaccine is largely being done for public relations reasons. This was the case for the much hyped pier the US government was allegedly building to help the Palestinians in Gaza. Some thought that there was a diabolical plot around the pier — as a mechanism for mass expulsion for example. But it mostly served as a propaganda talking point to communicate alleged US government benevolence for months on end, giving cover for Israel to continue its genocide.
  • Moreover, this is useful to distract from the failure of the UN to stop Israel’s carnage. Most especially the US-dominated UN Security Council has refused to implement orders from the International Court of Justice and virtually all states — with the notable exceptions of South Africa and Nicaragua — have failed in responsibilities under the Genocide Convention. The General Assembly has failed to take meaningful action using “Uniting for Peace”. So now, the WHO doing a hopefully minimally successful immunization effort is being used in various pronouncements to put a happy face for the UN system on the continuing catastrophe. See recent WHO/UN news conference.
  • Perhaps most ominously however, it may be problematic to give attenuated oral polio vaccine to a population that is immunocompromised — which most certainly includes the Palestinians in Gaza. They desperately need food and clean water and basic medical care. A host of diseases are ravaging Gaza and reportedly, 100,000 people in Gaza have contracted acute jaundice syndrome, or suspected hepatitis A. From Options for Poliomyelitis Vaccination in the United States: “Those in whom OPV is contraindicated include individuals with immunodeficiency disorders…The risk of VAPP [Vaccine-Associated Paralytic Poliomyelitis] in immunodeficient children is 3,000 times that in normal children.”
  • Israel is virtually alone among industrialized countries in not signing the Biological Weapons Convention. Professor Francis Boyle drafted the U.S. Domestic Implementing Legislation for the BWC, the Biological Weapons Anti-terrorism Act of 1989 that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the United States Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush with the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice . He said the emergency authorization provisions “trigger the Nuremberg Code on Medical Experimentation [PDF] requiring that each recipient or their legal guardians be given informed and voluntary consent.. It does not appear that this is being done in Gaza. … They are giving the live polio virus to Gaza kids whose immune systems have been severely compromised already since October 8.” He warns you could have an “entire next generation of Palestinian Children in Gaza wracked and disabled by polio. … This implicitly raises and supports the question whether Israel is engaging in biological warfare against the Palestinians here by means of using the live polio virus.”

  • As the top of this article indicates, Israel is effectively using biological warfare against the Palestinian people by virtue of knocking out the water facilities. The open question is if the polio rollout is part of that or simply a response by international institutions — perhaps following funding incentives and other pressures — unable or unwilling to do their actual jobs to stop the ongoing genocide.

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Featured image: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Bill Gates, during the World Economic Forum in Davos. (Photo by Kobi Gideon / GPO)

Video: The Globalization of War. America’s “Long War” against Humanity. Reveal The Lies. Confront the War Criminals. Michel Chossudovsky

September 4th, 2024 by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

The world is at a dangerous crossroads. The United States and its allies have launched a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity.

This article entitled the The Globalization of War by Michel Chossudovsky was originally published on Global Research  (link)

***

The world is at a dangerous crossroads. The United States and its allies have launched a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity.

The ultimate objective is World conquest under the cloak of “human rights” and “Western democracy”.

America’s hegemonic project in the post 9/11 era is the “Globalization of War” whereby the U.S.-NATO  military machine –coupled with covert intelligence operations, economic sanctions and the thrust of “regime change”— is deployed in all major regions of the world.  The threat of pre-emptive nuclear war is also used to black-mail countries into submission.

This “Long War against Humanity” is carried out at the height of the most serious economic crisis in modern history.

It is intimately related to a process of global financial restructuring, which has resulted in the collapse of national economies and the impoverishment of large sectors of the World population.

Michel Chossudovsky –in a GRTV video interview produced more than 10 years ago– describes with foresight the dangers of a Third World War.

The counter-terrorism narrative is bogus. This is not a war against the Islamic State (ISIL).

This is a War of Conquest sustained by extensive media propaganda.

Reveal the Lies.

We must disable the propaganda apparatus. 

Confront the War Criminals in high office.  

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Video: Michel Chossudovsky on the Globalization of War

click the lower right corner to access full screen  (Global Research, May 2014)


 

Directed and Produced by Julie Vivier and Jorge Zegarra. GRTV 2014

 

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The Globalization of War. America’s Long War against Humanity

The world is at a dangerous crossroads. The United States and its allies have launched a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity.

Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East.

The US military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.

The “Communist threat” of The Cold War era has been replaced by the worldwide threat of “Islamic terrorism”.

Whereas Russia and China have become capitalist “free market” economies, a first strike pre-emptive nuclear attack is nonetheless contemplated.

Ironically, China and Russia are no longer considered to be “a threat to capitalism”. Quite the opposite.

What is at stake is economic and financial rivalry between competing capitalist powers. The China-Russia alliance under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) constitutes a “competing capitalist block” which undermines U.S. economic hegemony.

In Asia, the U.S. has contributed under its “Pivot to Asia” to encouraging its Asia-Pacific allies including Japan, Australia, South Korea, The Philippines and Vietnam to threaten and isolate China as part of a process of “military encirclement” of China, which gained impetus in the late 1990s.

Meanwhile, war propaganda has become increasingly pervasive. War is upheld as a peace-making operation. When war becomes peace, the world is turned upside down. Conceptualization is no longer possible. An inquisitorial social system emerges. The consensus is to wage war. People can longer think for themselves.

They accept the authority and wisdom of the established social order.

The Globalization of War

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Global Research Publishers, Montreal 2015

REVIEWS:

“Professor Michel Chossudovsky is the most realistic of all foreign policy commentators. He is a model of integrity in analysis, his book provides an honest appraisal of the extreme danger that U.S. hegemonic neoconservatism poses to life on earth.” Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury

““The Globalization of War” comprises war on two fronts: those countries that can either be “bought” or destabilized. In other cases, insurrection, riots and wars are used to solicit U.S. military intervention. Michel Chossudovsky’s book is a must read for anyone who prefers peace and hope to perpetual war, death, dislocation and despair.” Hon. Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Minister of National Defence

“Michel Chossudovsky describes globalization as a hegemonic weapon that empowers the financial elites and enslaves 99 percent of the world’s population. “The Globalization of War” is diplomatic dynamite – and the fuse is burning rapidly.” Michael Carmichael, President, the Planetary Movement

 

 

EXCERPT FROM PREFACE

The “globalization of war” is a hegemonic project.  Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East. The U.S. military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.

Under a global military agenda, the actions undertaken by the Western military alliance (U.S.-NATO-Israel) in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Ukraine, Syria and Iraq are coordinated at the highest levels of the military hierarchy. We are not dealing with piecemeal military and intelligence operations. The July-August 2014 attack on Gaza by Israeli forces was undertaken in close consultation with the United States and NATO. The actions in Ukraine and their timing coincided with the onslaught of the attack on Gaza.

In turn, military undertakings are closely coordinated with a process of economic warfare which consists not only in imposing sanctions on sovereign countries but also in deliberate acts of destabilization of financial and currencies markets, with a view to undermining the enemies’ national economies.

The United States and its allies have launched a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity. As we go to press, U.S.and NATO forces have been deployed in Eastern Europe including Ukraine. U.S. military intervention under a humanitarian mandate is proceeding in sub-Saharan Africa. The U.S. and its allies are threatening China under President Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”.

In turn, military maneuvers are being conducted at Russia’s doorstep which could potentially lead to escalation.

The U.S. airstrikes initiated in September 2014 directed against Iraq and Syria under the pretext of going after the Islamic State are part of a scenario of military escalation extending from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to Central and South Asia.

The Western military alliance is in an advanced state of readiness. And so is Russia.

Russia is heralded as the “Aggressor”. U.S.-NATO military confrontation with Russia is contemplated.

Enabling legislation in the U.S. Senate under “The Russian Aggression Prevention Act” (RAPA) has “set the U.S. on a path towards direct military conflict with Russia in Ukraine.”

“Any U.S.-Russian war is likely to quickly escalate into a nuclear war, since neither the U.S. nor Russia would be willing to admit defeat, both have many thousands of nuclear weapons ready for instant use, and both rely upon Counterforce military doctrine that tasks their military, in the event  of war, to pre-emptively destroy the nuclear forces of the enemy.”

The Russian Aggression Prevention Act (RAPA) is the culmination of more than twenty years of U.S.-NATO war preparations,which consist in the military encirclement of both Russia and China:

“From the moment the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States has relentlessly pursued a strategy of encircling Russia, just as it has with other perceived enemies like China and Iran. It has brought 12 countries in central Europe, all of them formerly allied with Moscow, into the NATO alliance. U.S. military power is now directly on Russia’s borders.”

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

September 4th, 2024 by Felicity Arbuthnot

Introduction

Israel has launched an invasion (October 7, 2023) of the Gaza Strip.

As outlined by Felicity Arbuthnot with foresight 10 years ago in a December, 30 2013 article: 

“Israel is set to become a major exporter of gas and some oil, “If All Goes to Plan”.

In the current context, Israel’s “All Goes to Plan” option consists in bypassing Palestine and “Wiping Gaza off the Map”,  as well confiscating ALL Gaza’s maritime offshore gas reserves, worth billions of dollars. 

The ultimate objective is not only to exclude Palestinians from their homeland, it consists in confiscating the multi-billion dollar Gaza offshore Natural Gas reserves, namely those pertaining to the BG (BG Group) in 1999, as well the Levant discoveries of 2013. 

Update. Israel’s Secret Intelligence Memorandum

An official “secret” memorandum authored by Israel’s  Ministry of Intelligence “is recommending the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula”, namely to a refugee camp in Egyptian territory. There are indications of Israel-Egypt negotiations  as well as consultations with the U.S. 

The 10-page document, dated Oct. 13, 2023, bears the logo of the Intelligence Ministry … assesses three options regarding the future of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip … It recommends a full population transfer as its preferred course of action. … The document, whose authenticity was confirmed by the ministry, has been translated into English in full here on +972. See below, click here or below to access complete document (10 pages)

 

First published on October  22, 2023. Video added on October 27, 2023, Update, November 1, 2023

 

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Video: Michel Chossudovsky, Interview with Caroline Mailloux, Lux Media

 

To leave a comment and/or Access Rumble click to lower right hand corner

 

Felicity Arbuthnot’s 2013 Analysis 

“The Giant Leviathan natural gas field, in the eastern Mediterranean, discovered in December 2010, widely described [by governments and media] as “off the coast of Israel.”

These Levant reserves must be distinguished from those discovered in Gaza in 1999 by British Gas, which belong to Palestine. Felicity Arbuthnot’s analysis nonetheless confirms that “Part of the Leviathan Gas fields lie in Gazan territorial waters” (See Map Below). 

Whilst Israel claims them as her very own treasure trove, only a fraction of the sea’s wealth lies in Israel’s bailiwick as maps. Much is still unexplored, but currently Palestine’s Gaza and the West Bank between them show the greatest discoveries… (Felicity Arbuthnot, 2013) 

Flash Forward to October 2023

Netanyahu’s October 2023 declaration of war against 2.3 million people of the Gaza Strip is a continuation of its 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza under “Operation Cast Lead.” 

The underlying objective is the outright military occupation of Gaza by Israel’s IDF forces and the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.

I should however mention that there are powerful financial interests which stand to benefit from Israel’s criminal undertaking (Genocide) directed against Gaza. 

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The ultimate objective is not only to exclude Palestinians from their homeland, it consists in confiscating the multi-billion dollar Gaza offshore Natural Gas reserves, namely those pertaining to the BG (BG Group) in 1999, as well the Levant discoveries of 2013. 

Egypt-Israel “Secret Bilateral Talks” 

In 2021-22, Egypt and Israel were involved in “secret bilateral talks” regarding “the extraction of natural gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip. 

“Egypt succeeded in persuading Israel to start extracting natural gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip, after several months of secret bilateral talks.

This development … comes after years of Israeli objections to extract natural gas off the coast of Gaza on [alleged] security grounds, … 

British Gas (BG Group) has also been dealing with the Tel Aviv government.

What is significant is that the civilian arm of the Hamas Gaza government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields: 

The field, which lies about 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the Gaza coast, was discovered in 2000 by British Gas (currently BG Group) and is estimated to contain more than 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 

The official in the Egyptian intelligence service told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “An Egyptian economic and security delegation discussed with the Israeli side for several months the issue of allowing the extraction of natural gas off the coast of Gaza. …Al-Monitor, October 22, 2022

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Egypt and Israel, which had the rubber-stamp of the Palestinian National Authority (PA):

“The Egyptian official explained that Israel required the start of practical measures to extract gas from the Gaza fields at the beginning of 2024, to ensure its own security. (Al-Monitor, October 22, 2022

Netanyahu’s Timeline: “Before The Beginning of 2024”

The timeline resulting from these bilateral Israel-Egypt “secret talks” i.e. confiscation of Palestine’s offshore Maritime Gas Reserves is “The Beginning of 2024”.

United Nations Assessment

An important United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2019) report describes Palestine’s predicament as follows: 

Geologists and natural resources economists have confirmed that the Occupied Palestinian Territory lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the occupied West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip.

However, occupation continues to prevent Palestinians from developing their energy fields so as to exploit and benefit from such assets. As such, the Palestinian people have been denied the benefits of using this natural resource to finance socioeconomic development and meet their need for energy.

The accumulated losses are estimated in the billions of dollars. The longer Israel prevents Palestinians from exploiting their own oil and natural gas reserves, the greater the opportunity costs and the greater the total costs of the occupation borne by Palestinians become.

This study identifies and assesses existing and potential Palestinian oil and natural gas reserves that could be exploited for the benefit of the Palestinian people, which Israel is either preventing them from exploiting or is exploiting without due regard for international law. (UNCTAD, August 2019, emphasis added, download complete report)

Crimes against Humanity

In the words of Netanyahu who is on Record for Supporting and Financing a faction within Hamas:  

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas … This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

(Benjamin Netanyahu, statement at a March 2019 meeting of his Likud Party’s Knesset members, Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)

“Hamas was treated as a partner to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Abbas from moving towards creating a Palestinian State. Hamas was promoted from a terrorist group to an organization with which Israel conducted negotiations through Egypt, and which was allowed to receive suitcases containing millions of dollars from Qatar through the Gaza crossings.”

(Times of Israel, October 8, 2023, emphasis added)

Crimes against humanity beyond description by the Netanyahu government against the People of Palestine,

Crimes also committed against the People of Israel who are the victims of the Hamas “False Flag Attack” carefully engineered by Mossad-IDF.

There are deep-seated divisions within Hamas. Our “False Flag” analysis pertains to a military-intelligence faction within Hamas which cooperates with Israeli and U.S. intelligence.  See:

Is the Gaza-Israel Fighting “A False Flag”? They Let it Happen? Their Objective Is “to Wipe Gaza Off the Map”?

By Philip Giraldi and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, October 20, 2023

 

Michel Chossudovsky,  Global Research, October 21, 2023

 

Below is the 2013 article by Felicity Arbuthnot

 

 

Israel Gas-Oil and Trouble in the Levant

by Felicity Arbuthnot 

Global Research, 

December 13, 2013

Israel is set to become a major exporter of gas and some oil, if all goes to plan. The giant Leviathan natural gas field, in the eastern Mediterranean, discovered in December 2010, is widely described as “off the coast of Israel.”

 At the time the gas field was:

“ … the most prominent field ever found in the sub-explored area of the Levantine Basin, which covers about 83,000 square kilometres of the eastern Mediterranean region.” (i)

Coupled with Tamar field, in the same location, discovered in 2009, the prospects are for an energy bonanza for Israel, for Houston, Texas based Noble Energy and partners Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and Ratio Oil Exploration.

Also involved is Perth, Australia-based Woodside Petroleum, which has signed a memorandum of understanding for a thirty percent stake in the project, in negotiations which have been described as “up and down.”

There is currently speculation that Woodside might pull out of the deal: “ …since the original plans to refrigerate the gas for export were pursued when relations between Israel and Turkey were strained. That has changed, more recently, which has opened the door for gas to be piped to Turkey.”

The spoils of the Leviathan field has already expanded from an estimated 16.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf ) of gas to nineteen trillion – and counting:

”We’ve discovered nearly 40 tcf of gas, and we have roughly 19 tcf of that gas that’s available for export to both regional and extra-regional markets. We see exports reaching 2 billion cubic feet a day in capacity in the next decade. And we continue to explore.”, stated Noble Vice Chairman Keith Elliot (ii) There are also estimated to be possibly six hundred million barrels of oil, according to Michael Economides of energytribune.com (“Eastern Mediterranean Energy – the next Great Game.”)

 However, even these estimates may prove modest. In their: “Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Levant Basin Province, Eastern Mediterranean”, the US Department of the Interior’s US Geological Survey, wrote in 2010:

“We estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in this province using a geology based assessment methodology.”

Nevertheless, Woodside Petroleum, might also be hesitant to become involved in further disputes, since they are already embroiled, with the Australian government, in a protracted one in East Timor relating to the bonanaza of energy and minerals beneath the Timor Sea, which has even led to East Timor accusing Australia “of bugging East Timorese officials during the negotiations over the agreement.”(iii)

Woodside’s conflict in East Timor however, may well pale against what might well erupt over the Leviathan and Tamar fields. The area is not for nothing called the Levantine Basin.

Whilst Israel claims them as her very own treasure trove, only a fraction of the sea’s wealth lies in Israel’s bailiwick as maps (iv, v, see below) clearly show.

Much is still unexplored, but currently Palestine’s Gaza and the West Bank between them show the greatest discoveries, with anything found in Lebanon and Syria’s territorial waters sure to involve claims from both countries.

 

In a pre-emptive move, on Christmas Day, Syria announced a deal with Russia to explore 2,190 kilometres (850 Sq. miles) for oil and gas off its Mediterranean coast, to be: “… financed by Russia, and should oil and gas be discovered in commercial quantities, Moscow will recover the exploration costs.”

Syrian Oil Minister, Ali Abbas said during the signing ceremony that the contract covers “25 years, over several phases.”

Syria, increasingly crippled by international sanctions, has seen oil production plummet by ninety percent since the largely Western fermented unrest began in March 2011. Gas production has nearly halved, from thirty million cubic metres a day, to 16.7 cubic metres daily.

The agreement is reported to have resulted from “months of long negotiations” between the two countries. Russia, as one of the Syrian government’s main backers, looks set to also become a major player in the Levant Basin’s energy wealth. (vi)

Lebanon disputes Israel’s map of the Israeli-Lebanese maritime border, filing their own map and claims with the UN in 2010. Israel claims Lebanon is in the process of granting oil and gas exploration licenses in what Israel claims as its “exclusive economic zone.”

That the US in the guise of Vice President Joe Biden, as honest broker, acting peace negotiator in the maritime border dispute would be laughable, were it not potential for Israel to attack their neighbour again. In a visit to Israel in March 2010, Biden announced: “There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security- none at all”, also announcing on arrival in Israel:”It’s good to be home.”

Given US decades of  “peace brokering” between Israel and Palestine, this is already a road of pitfalls, one sidedness and duplicity, well traveled. There is trouble ahead.

Oh, and in demonology, Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell.

Notes

i. http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel/

ii. http://m.theage.com.au/business/options-widen-for-woodsides-leviathan-partners-20131219-2znu6.html

iii. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-04/east-timor-offers-funds-for-onshore- gas-processing/4933106

iv. http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel1.html

v. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Leviathan+gas+project+Israel+map&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ntC2UvO7IcPE7Ab7rIDYCQ&ved=0CEQQsAQ&biw=1017&bih=598

vi. http://www.phantomreport.com/syria-inks-oil-gas-deal-with-russia-firm#more-20238

****

 

Michel Chossudovsky’s

Video: War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 25, 2024

 

Almost fifteen years ago in December 2008, Israel invaded Gaza under “Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009)”.

The following article was first published by Global Research in January 2009 at the height of the Israeli bombing and invasion under Operation Cast Lead.

War and Natural Gas:

The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields

by Michel Chossudovsky

January 8, 2009

 

The December 2008 military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. 

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline. 

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21,  2007).

The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).

The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.

The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine’s gas reserves could be much larger.


Map 1

Map 2

Who Owns the Gas Fields

The issue of sovereignty over Gaza’s gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine.

The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza’s offshore gas reserves.

British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields.

The election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 was a major turning point. Palestine’s sovereignty over the offshore gas fields was challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. Sharon stated unequivocally that “Israel would never buy gas from Palestine” intimating that Gaza’s offshore gas reserves belong to Israel.

In 2003, Ariel Sharon, vetoed an initial deal, which would allow British Gas to supply Israel with natural gas from Gaza’s offshore wells. (The Independent, August 19, 2003)

The election victory of Hamas in 2006 was conducive to the demise of the Palestinian Authority, which became confined to the West Bank, under the proxy regime of Mahmoud Abbas.

In 2006, British Gas “was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt.” (Times, May, 23, 2007). According to reports, British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on behalf of Israel with a view to shunting the agreement with Egypt.

The following year, in May 2007, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert  “to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority.” The proposed contract was for $4 billion, with profits of the order of $2 billion of which one billion was to go the Palestinians.

Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An Israeli team of negotiators was set up by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a deal with the BG Group, bypassing both the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority:

“Israeli defence authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and services and insist that no money go to the Hamas-controlled Government.” (Ibid, emphasis added)

The objective was essentially to nullify the contract signed in 1999 between the BG Group and the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat.

Under the proposed 2007 agreement with BG, Palestinian gas from Gaza’s offshore wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon, thereby transferring control over the sale of the natural gas to Israel.

The deal fell through. The negotiations were suspended:

 “Mossad Chief Meir Dagan opposed the transaction on security grounds, that the proceeds would fund terror”. (Member of Knesset Gilad Erdan, Address to the Knesset on “The Intention of Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Purchase Gas from the Palestinians When Payment Will Serve Hamas,” March 1, 2006, quoted in Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, Does the Prospective Purchase of British Gas from Gaza’s Coastal Waters Threaten Israel’s National Security?  Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, October 2007)

Israel’s intent was to foreclose the possibility that royalties be paid to the Palestinians. In December 2007, The BG Group withdrew from the negotiations with Israel and in January 2008 they closed their office in Israel.(BG website).

Invasion Plan on The Drawing Board

The invasion plan of the Gaza Strip under “Operation Cast Lead” was set in motion in June 2008, according to Israeli military sources:

“Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago [June or before June] , even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”(Barak Ravid, Operation “Cast Lead”: Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

That very same month, the Israeli authorities contacted British Gas, with a view to resuming crucial negotiations pertaining to the purchase of Gaza’s natural gas:

“Both Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler agreed to inform BG of Israel’s wish to renew the talks.

The sources added that BG has not yet officially responded to Israel’s request, but that company executives would probably come to Israel in a few weeks to hold talks with government officials.” (Globes online- Israel’s Business Arena, June 23, 2008)

The decision to speed up negotiations with British Gas (BG Group) coincided, chronologically, with the planning of the invasion of Gaza initiated in June. It would appear that Israel was anxious to reach an agreement with the BG Group prior to the invasion, which was already in an advanced planning stage.

Moreover, these negotiations with British Gas were conducted by the Ehud Olmert government with the knowledge that a military invasion was on the drawing board. In all likelihood, a new “post war” political-territorial arrangement for the Gaza strip was also being contemplated by the Israeli government.

In fact, negotiations between British Gas and Israeli officials were ongoing in October 2008, 2-3 months prior to the commencement of the bombings on December 27th.

In November 2008, the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Infrastructures instructed Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to enter into negotiations with British Gas, on the purchase of natural gas from the BG’s offshore concession in Gaza. (Globes, November 13, 2008)

“Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler wrote to IEC CEO Amos Lasker recently, informing him of the government’s decision to allow negotiations to go forward, in line with the framework proposal it approved earlier this year.

The IEC board, headed by chairman Moti Friedman, approved the principles of the framework proposal a few weeks ago. The talks with BG Group will begin once the board approves the exemption from a tender.” (Globes Nov. 13, 2008)

Gaza and Energy Geopolitics 

The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law.

What can we expect in the wake of the invasion?

What is the intent of Israel with regard to Palestine’s Natural Gas reserves?

A new territorial arrangement, with the stationing of Israeli and/or “peacekeeping” troops?

The militarization of the entire Gaza coastline, which is strategic for Israel?

The outright confiscation of Palestinian gas fields and the unilateral declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza’s maritime areas?

If this were to occur, the Gaza gas fields would be integrated into Israel’s offshore installations, which are contiguous to those of the Gaza Strip. (See Map 1 above)

These various offshore installations are also linked up to Israel’s energy transport corridor, extending from the port of Eilat, which is an oil pipeline terminal, on the Red Sea to the seaport – pipeline terminal at Ashkelon, and northwards to Haifa, and eventually linking up through a proposed Israeli-Turkish pipeline with the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Map 3

Ceyhan is the terminal of the Baku, Tblisi Ceyhan Trans Caspian pipeline.

“What is envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel’s Tipline.” (See Michel Chossudovsky, The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil, Global Research, July 23, 2006)

 

Readers’ Thanks to Michel Chossudovsky

  • Thank you for your continued activism and truth-telling. A thankless task but the right thing.

  • You Sir are a Canadian hero. Thank you for your wonderful site and all the fine work you have done over the many years I have followed your work.

  • Michel Chossudovsky, you are a voice of reason and understanding. Thank you for your awareness. I am a Syrian/American. I heard one voice during the bombing of Gaza of a child screaming for his father and his father could not reach him, but he cried out to him, “PUT YOUR HEART ON MY HEART.” Those humans who are putting your Heart on Palestine, thank you.

 
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First, Elon Musk Made Us Pay for ‘Free Speech’. Now He Decides Who’s Allowed It

September 4th, 2024 by Jonathan Cook

Important analysis by

Jonathan Cook: Elon Musk is not a saviour of free speech. Now He Decides Who’s Allowed. (important article, carefully documented scroll down)

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A Note by Global Research 

How Does Elon Musk’s X Affect Global Research Readers and Authors?

You might get the following “Warning” if you share a globalresearch.ca article with friends and colleagues who are committed to free speech and the criminalization of war. 

 

Scroll down to read the insulting and longer abusive text we received from X.  In Annex.

 

Global Research presents “several points of view”

We are not aligned with party politics.

Global Research promotes dialogue among authors and readers committed to the Truth. 

Among our authors are distinguished journalists, award winning authors, scholars and university professors, scientists,  medical doctors, peace activists, Nobel laureates, politicians and members of the military and intelligence communities committed to World peace.

We have high regard for our authors and readers. We thank them for their unbending support. 

On the 9th of September 2024, we will be commemorating our 23d anniversary.

Starting in September 2001, Global Research has published the articles of 16,822 authors (September 3, 2024). The number of  published articles on Global Research is of the order of 100,000. (99,839, September 03 2024). We also publish in French and Spanish on Mondialisation.ca and Globalizacion.ca (as well as on an ad hoc basis in several other languages). Is this archive of articles what X wants to suppress?  

We are funded entirely by our readers to whom we are much indebted. 

I should mention that in course of the last few years, we have been the object of smear campaigns mainly by the Canadian media including CBC and Radio Canada (with which I collaborated for more than 20 years) as well as censorship by “the dominant search engine”.

We are casually accused without a shred of evidence of collaborating with the Russian media. We are also the object of a mountain of smears and lies by Wikipedia.

Dear Readers,

Contact X  and Elon Musk and ask them to support fundamental human rights and the antiwar movement.

When the Lie Becomes the Truth, There is No Moving Backwards

We have politely requested the removal of this hideous advisory directed against Global Research to no avail,

Our thanks to Jonathan Cook for his carefully documented article, 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, September 3, 2024

Michel Chossudovsky: Biography 

One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary  

First, Elon Musk Made Us Pay for ‘Free Speech’.

Now He Decides Who’s Allowed It

by Jonathan Cook

September 2, 2024

The ‘saviour of free speech’ is cracking down on criticism of Israel’s genocide. What he calls the ‘faaaaar left’ is in his crosshairs. It’ll be erased so utterly, you won’t remember it was ever there.

Many users of X, formerly Twitter, seem deeply misguided. They imagine that Elon Musk is the saviour of free speech. He’s not. He is simply the latest pioneer in monetising speech. Which isn’t the same thing at all.

All the blue ticks on X – mine included – are buying access to an audience. Which is why Musk has made it so easy to get a blue tick – and why there are now so many of them on the platform. If you don’t pay Musk, the algorithms make sure you get minimal reach. You are denied your five seconds of fame.

That has particularly infuriated corporate journalists. On what used to be called Twitter, they got access to large audiences as a natural right, along with politicians and celebrities. They never paid a penny. They felt entitled to those big audiences because they already enjoyed similarly big audiences in the so-called “legacy media”. They did not see why they start competing with the rest of us to be heard.

Jonathan Cook, image right

The new media system was rigged, as the old media system has been for centuries, to ensure that it was their voices that counted. Or rather it was the voices of the ultra-wealthy paying their salaries who counted.

Independent journalists, including myself, have been some of the chief beneficiaries of Musk’s X. But I don’t for a minute make the mistake of thinking Musk is really in favour of my free speech – or anyone else’s – compared to his own.

Being able to buy yourself an audience isn’t what most people understand as free speech.

Musk’s X is simply the latest innovation on the traditional “free speech” model from the bad old days. Then, only a handful of very rich men could afford to buy themselves lots of hired hands, known as journalists; own a printing press; and be in a position to attract advertisers.

Billionaires paid a small fortune to buy the privilege of “free speech”. As a result, they managed to secure for themselves a very big voice in a highly exclusive market. You and I can now pay a hundred bucks a year and buy ourselves a very, very small voice in a massively overcrowded, cacophonous marketplace of voices.

The point is this: Speech on X is still a privilege – it’s just one that you can now pay for. And like all privileges, it is on licence from the owner. Musk can withdraw that privilege – and withdraw it selectively – whenever he thinks someone or something is harming his interests, whether directly or indirectly.

Musk is already disappearing opinions, either ones he doesn’t like or ones he cannot afford to be seen supporting – most visibly, anything too critical of Israel.

He has threatened users with suspension for repeating slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – in other words, for calling for an end to what the judges of the World Court recently decreed to be Israel’s apartheid rule over Palestinians. He is also against hosting on X the term “decolonisation” in reference to Israel, claiming perversely that “it implies a Jewish genocide” – itself an implicit admission that Israelis (not Jews) have long been colonising Palestine and ethnically cleansing Palestinians.

The Israel lobby is also pushing hard for a ban on the words “Zionism” and “Zionist”. It won’t be long before X, like Meta, cracks down on these terms too.

Note that banning these words makes it all but impossible to discuss the specific historical forces that led to Israel’s creation at the expense of the Palestinian people, or analyse the ideology that today underpins Israel’s efforts to disappear the Palestinian people, or explain how the West has been complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories for decades and is currently aiding the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

The loss of “Zionist” and “Zionism” from our lexicon would be a serious handicap for anyone trying to explain some of the major events unfolding in the Middle East at the moment. Which is precisely why the establishment, and Musk, are so keen to see such words discredited.

The Egyptian comedian Bassem Yousef, one of the most acute and acid critics of Israel, has suddenly disappeared from X. Many assume he has been banned. The Jerusalem Post highlights that, shortly before he vanished from X, he had written: “Are you still scared to be called an antisemite by those Zionists?”

Whatever the case, you will see Musk’s X getting a lot more censorious over the next months and years, especially against what he is terming the “faaaaaar left” – that is, disparate groups of people he has lumped together who hold opinions either he doesn’t like personally or that can damage his business interests.

Billionaires aren’t there to protect free speech. They got to be billionaires by being very good at making money – by seizing markets, by inflating our appetite for consumption, and by buying politicians to rig the system to protect their empires from competitors.

Musk understands that the only people against a world based on rapacious profit and material greed are the “faaaaaar left”. Which is why the “faaaaaar left” are in the crosshairs of anyone with power in our rigged system, from the centrists to the right wing, from “liberals” to conservatives, from Blue to Red, from Democrats to Republicans.

The right and the centrists disagree only on how best to maintain that rapacious, consumption-driven, environmentally destructive status quo, and on how to normalise it to different segments of the public. They are competing wings of a system designed by a single ruling cabal.

Musk used to see himself as a liberal and now leans towards the Trumpian right. Trump used to see himself as a Clintonian Democrat but now sees himself as… well, fill in the blank, according to taste.

The point is that centrists and the right are, in essence, interchangeable – as should be only too clear from the rapid shift of free-speech liberals towards authoritarian censorship, and the rapid (pretend) reinvention of conservatives from moralising guardians of family values to the embattled defenders of free speech.

Neither’s posturing should be taken at face value. Both are equally authoritarian, when their interests are threatened by “an excess of democracy”. Their apparent differences are simply the competition for dominance within a system that’s been gerrymandered to their mutual benefit. We are their dupes, buying into their games.

The two tribes are there to offer the pretence of a battle of ideas, of competition, of choice at election time, of freedom. They look hostile to each other, but when push comes to shove they are united in their support for oligarchy, and opposition to genuine free speech, to real democracy, to meaningful pluralism, to an open society.

The “faaaaaar left” are the true enemy of both the centrists and the right. Why? Because they are the only group struggling for a society in which money doesn’t buy privilege, where speech isn’t something someone can own.

That’s why, when Musk intensifies his crackdown, it will be the “faaaaar left” that’s erased so completely you won’t notice it’s gone. You won’t remember it was ever there.

One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary  

Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at www.jonathan-cook.net

See also the extensive Archive of Jonathan Cook’s articles on Global Research. He has been contributing to Global Research since 2007.

 

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary  

 

Nuclear Civilization for Peace Science in a Harmonious Multipolar Future. Hiroshima and Nagasaki

September 3rd, 2024 by Prof. Bishnu Pathak

Abstract

This paper, written by co-authors from the Gandhian Global Harmony Association (GGHA), commemorates the 79th anniversary of the tragic actions of civilians that occurred in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (HaN). These cities were the first to experience the devastating and terrifying effects of US nuclear attacks, marking a dark moment in history.

For nearly eight decades, the West and its “nuclear alliance” of 32 NATO countries have perpetuated the threat of global nuclear catastrophe, leading to the potential of a “nuclear winter” that could impact the entire world. In order for humanity to survive in this nuclear age, a paradigm shift for change is necessary.

The launch of an alternative globalization of peace science is crucial to this transformation. This science offers a universal and verifiable framework for the global community, promoting peace, justifiable harmony, prosperity, an equitable society, and sustainable development. By embracing this paradigm, nations can move away from conflict and toward a future of lasting and justifiable peace, as envisioned by Kantian concept of “perpetual peace”, Gandhian “Non-violence movement” and Galtung’s “conflict transformation by peaceful means”. This shift is essential to avoid a cycle of fragile truce amidst ongoing informal-formal wars.

HaN: The Nuclear Criminal Civilization Birth and Its Globalization

HaN is the symbol of a deadly and criminal nuclear civilization. It was born in August 1945 and has since thrived, fueling, and escalating the nuclear arms race with top priority budgets for 79 years It shows no sign of letting go disregarding or suppressing all fundamental peaceful and scientific alternatives. This symbol is presented in Figure 1 showcasing all the objective parameters of this civilization’s emergence: source, process, location, timing, and the scale of historical nuclear terror and genocide.

Image: Fig. 1. Hiroshima/Nagasaki Symbol

The criminal nature of nuclear civilization and the falsehood of so-called “nuclear deterrence” are exposed in the monograph by the famous lawyer Francis Boyle. “The nuclear age was born from the original sins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were crimes against humanity and war crimes…” [1]. The nuclear terror of HaN is the criminal creation of the USA, and the West as a whole, originating from Hitler in 1939 in the “German Nuclear Program“, which was provided with all necessary resources [Wiki] for racist, Nazi purposes. Therefore, the Western nuclear civilization that emerged from it is the criminal Western “nuclear age” and a criminal “suicidal civilization” [2 & 3]. This compelled other countries and civilizations of humanity, to respond with nuclear weapons for self-preservation and security against the existential Western threat, sparking a deadly, suicidal, and ecocidal global race that persists to this day.

Since the time of HaN, nuclear civilization has been marked by the ominous sign of its suicidal globalization, leading to an ongoing and accelerating nuclear arms race. This includes unlimited “modernization” and expansion in both genocidal potential power and the number of countries involved. This trajectory ultimately dooms this criminal civilization and all of humanity to an inevitable nuclear Armageddon and Auschwitz.

The potential for genocide in this civilization has reached an extreme level of risk surpassing 99%, as indicated by the symbolic “Doomsday Clock” set by American nuclear scientists [4]. This is accompanied by an intensification of military, psychological, and spiritual conflicts in areas like Gaza and Ukraine serving as a prelude to nuclear genocide in a new and potential world war. This dangerous situation was amplified by the protest self-immolation of US soldier, Aaron Bushnell, in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington on February 25, 2024, at 13:00 [5].

Image: Self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell (Licensed under Fair Use)

Today, nuclear civilization is at the peak of global genocide, a path first set by Adolf Hitler. The diligent students of genocide from the USA and NATO have followed in his footsteps for nearly 80 years. Their training in genocide of about 40 nations in the years after World War II with conventional weapons resulted in the deaths of 20 to 30 million civilians [6, 7 & 8]. Currently, the US and NATO continue to commit genocide against civilians in the Gaza Strip, Ukraine, and around the world. In 2023, there were 183 armed conflicts worldwide, according to Bloomberg [9]. The frantic nuclear arms race initiated by the US and NATO naturally led to increased production of these weapons in countries that were targeted to be the next victims after HaN in plans to “wipe them off the map” [10]. These countries have done everything to resist Western nuclear terror and avoid becoming victims of its crimes: the USSR, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, India, and Pakistan. One of the latest acts in this criminal race was the suicidal decision of the West to invest 1.2 trillion dollars in the “modernization of nuclear weapons” by 2030, “capable of killing up to 90% of humanity” with the involvement of Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand in the new nuclear bloc AUKUS [11].

The globalization of nuclear civilization and its tool – nuclear weapons – is in complete contradiction to all norms of international law, ultimately destroying and rejecting it. “… Nuclear weapons have never been beneficial instruments of state policy, but rather have always constituted illegitimate instrumentalities of internationally lawless and criminal behavior first of all. » [1]. The design, research, testing, production, manufacture, -, transportation, deployment, installation, maintenance, storage, stockpiling, sale, and purchase of nuclear weapons, along with threat to use them and all their essential components are criminal under well-established principles of international law. Thus, government decision-makers in all nuclear weapons states with command responsibility for their nuclear weapons establishments are subject to personal criminal responsibility under the Nuremberg Principles for this criminal practice of nuclear deterrence and terrorism that they impose on all states and peoples of the international community. Four components of the threat to use nuclear weapons that are particularly reprehensible from an international law perspective: counter-ethnic targeting; counter-city targeting; first-strike weapons and contingency plans; and the first-use of nuclear weapons even to repel a conventional attack.”[1] “… Humankind must abolish nuclear weapons before nuclear weapons abolish humankind… as doctrine known as “nuclear deterrence,” which is truly a euphemism for “nuclear terrorism” [Ibid].

It is crucial to differentiate between Western nuclear aggressors who use nuclear weapons to dictate over objectionable states, and other countries that develop nuclear weapons for defense against nuclear aggressors. If humanity initially allowed one aggressor to create and use nuclear weapons, then what right does it have to deprive other countries of the right to adequate, nuclear defense, as the USSR did, in response to US aggressive plans to “erase it with a map of nuclear weapons” [10]?. It is immoral to equate the aggressor and its victims.

The NATO Washington Declaration on July 10, 2024 once again confirms the criminal nature of this nuclear alliance.

“As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance… NATO remains committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure the credibility, effectiveness, safety, and security of the Alliance’s nuclear deterrence mission, including by modernizing its nuclear capabilities, strengthening its nuclear planning capability, and adapting as necessary” [12].

Our general assessment of the “golden billion” criminal Western civilization is outlined in our “Anti-NATO Manifesto” with colleagues [13].

For almost 80 years, the nuclear civilization, imposed by force and the threat of force by the West on humanity, has become a turning point in its history. Humanity will either end its existence, or radically change its strategic future towards planetary and scientific “perpetual peace” according to Kant [14] in all spheres of society, Gandhi’s nonviolence, and Galtung’s conflict transformation by peaceful means, as well as in all countries and institutions, including international law, as a common normative bridge to it. For this fateful turn, humanity needs to master the fundamental verified Peace Science, which can become its common mental base and a nonviolent instrument acceptable to all nations for the eradication of nuclear weapons as the West’s “Absolute Evil” [15]. The possibility of its eradication on a scientific basis was first considered by the GGHA in its collective “Anti-Nuclear Manifesto” of 46 coauthors from 26 countries with the participation of four Nobel Peace Laureates in 2020 [16].

Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the American Political Kitchen Inside in 1945

The American political kitchen of 1945, where the criminal strategic decision to destroy the civilian population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was made in detailed in various works [8, 17, 18, 19, 20 & 21], from which we will highlight the most important and characteristic attributes.

  1. The first attribute is the lie of the main official motive for the HaN atomic bombing that it was allegedly necessary to “stop the war” and that HaN had “military bases”, the destruction of which allegedly “prevented the death of up to half a million American soldiers”. All sources confirm that Japan was ready to surrender in order to end the war and there were no military bases in HaN, so there was no military need for their atomic bombing [Ibid].
  2. The true reason for the atomic terror of HaN was the USA’s desire to establish its world hegemony. “The intentional targeting of civilian women and children in a highly populated urban area was intended to create the maximum psychological impact on the minds of the Japanese, the Russians, and the world.” [8] “Why did they commit such a crime? Well, more than anything, they wanted to show Russia the new weapon the United States possessed. They not only wanted to show Russia, but also to proclaim to the world that the United States would not hesitate to use any means to protect and guard its interests!” [Ibid].

Another source states, “In fact, the goal was clear: it was not just to destroy buildings but to instantly kill an unprecedented number of people,” in order to “send a message” to the Soviet Union that the United States now had a monopoly on nuclear weapons and would henceforth dominate the postwar world. To achieve this, almost half a million Japanese civilians had to die, including those who later became victims of the effects of the bombs; radiation [18]. This sentiment is echoed in all sources.

  1. The immorality and barbarity of the HaN bombings are truly shocking. “Only the utter inhumanity and brutal ruthlessness of man can commit such crimes against civilians in any country! The crime exceeds all limits of barbarity when one realizes the entire tragedy could have been avoided!” [8].

The immorality of the criminal decision to bomb the innocent inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is revealed by the hypocritical detail of its satanic blasphemy. “It was utter, satanic blasphemy, when the first atomic bomb was called Trinity, the holiest name in all religions… It was blasphemy, when an army chaplain blessed the Hiroshima bomb with holy water. He even blessed the Nagasaki bomb, after he had seen the casualties produced by the Hiroshima bomb, a few days earlier” [21]. Hiroshima and Nagasaki became an atheistic desecration of all religions and of a nuclear civilization doomed by God to nuclear suicide unless an alternative paradigm is born within it.

The only bright and highly spiritual event in this vile political kitchen is when “Theodore Hall, a 19-year-old American Los Alamos scientist, the youngest physicist o­n the Manhattan Project and a Soviet spy, handed complete plans for constructing the “Fat Man” plutonium bomb” to an American spy courier working for the Soviet Union [18].

  1. The extreme cruelty and immorality of America’s militaristic foreign policy are revealed by President Truman’s decision to exterminate hundreds of thousands of civilians in HaN in order to maintain US global dominance and intimidate the USSR. He became the second state-sanctioned mass murderer after Hitler, now known as the “atomic butcher” and a perpetual criminal against humanity in history for ordering the HaN atomic bombings, which had no military justification. His actions will forever tarnish his legacy with a shameful “Herostratus glory” of Western “satanic absolute evil” depicted in a posthumous portrait showing two nuclear explosions and the devastating aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing which instantly killed 80 thousand children, women, and elderly people in Figure 2.

 

Fig. 2. “Atomic butcher” Truman and his fruit

 

Truman continued the legacy of Hitler’s gas ovens in the “death camps” such as Auschwitz with sophistication and brilliance. This was done as means of furthering the racist ideology outlined in “Mein Kampf”, which will mark its 100th anniversary in 2025. This innovative Western policy has been globalizing genocidal HaN practices for 79 years, ultimately in the official policy of the “NATO nuclear alliance” which includes 32 European countries [12].

Globalization of HaN in Numbers for 79 Years: 1945 – 2024

The best illustration of the HaN Western globalization scale over 79 years is the map in Figure 3, created by self-critical Western scientists from the FAS [22].

 

Figure 3. Estimated Global Nuclear Warheads Inventories, 2024

Based on this map and additional sources, we have constructed a table HaN estimating the scale of Western nuclear globalization over 79 years. Why “estimated”? The authors rightly point out,

“The exact number of nuclear weapons in each country’s possession is a closely held national secret, so the estimates presented here come with significant uncertainty. Most nuclear-armed states provide essentially no information about the sizes of their nuclear stockpiles” [Ibid].

Another, important perspective, in contrast to the double standards of mainstream media, is that “the dangers of nuclear war are not a subject of debate and analysis by the mainstream media. Public opinion is carefully misled…  Nuclear weapons are portrayed as peace-making bombs” [17].

Despite the inevitable margin of error, the data from sources provide a general HaN overview of the trend unclear globalization over 79 years and the “constant growth of the number of nuclear warheads  towards the inevitable collapse of nuclear civilization in the global Hiroshima and Nagasaki context. This globalization is illustrated in the table in Figure 4.

 

Fig. 4. Table. HaN Globalization

Abbreviations:

HaN – Hiroshima & Nagasaki; NW – Nuclear Warheads; GG – Growth of HaN Globalization in %

  1. NP – Nuclear Powers Producing Nuclear Weapons;
  2. NNCD NW – Nuclear and Non-nuclear Countries Whose Military Bases May be Deployed NW;
  3. NNW NP – Number of NW at NP;
  4. NWCD – NW on Combat Duty;
  5. HNNWTC – HaN NW Total Capacity 1945;
  6. TCNW24 – Total Capacity of NW 2024;
  7. NVHAN – Number of HaN Victims;
  8. NPPV24 – Number of Population Potential Victims on 2024.

A few strokes on the table.

The modern “modeling results generally confirm the conclusions of simpler models from the 1980s that a full-scale nuclear conflict between Russia and the United States would lead to a “nuclear winter…” The “nuclear winter” hypothesis, which arose in a tense political situation, showed that the consequences of a nuclear war have not been sufficiently studied and are little considered in the decision-making process regarding the use of nuclear weapons… [The] inconsistency of the assertion that “the presence of nuclear weapons by two antagonists increases their restraint in the use of military force” has been proven at the distant approaches to the nuclear threshold.… Narrowing of strategic choice and short-term thinking in crisis situations cannot guarantee rational decision-making on the issue of using nuclear weapons. Justification of such a decision by national rivalry or the ideology of confrontation cannot be justified” [24].

“It has long been known that a major nuclear war could destroy modern ci1ilization and kill most of humanity… This report summarizes the latest scientific work, which shows that a so-called “limited” or “regional” nuclear war would be neither limited nor regional. On the contrary, it would be a planetary-scale event. In fact, it would be far more dangerous than previously understood. A war that detonated less than 1/20th of the world’s nuclear weapons would still crash the climate, global food supply chains and likely public order. Famines and unrest would kill hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions…Using less than 3% of the world’s nuclear weapons, a nuclear war between India and Pakistan could kill up to every third person on earth [~2,7 billions]”[25].

Potentially, there could be almost 10,000 times more victims HaN than in the Holocaust, a 1,000,000% increase. This is the supposed scale of HaN Western globalization today, stemming from only 3% of the world’s nuclear weapons. In more severe scenarios of “regional” nuclear war, considered by the author, the damage to humanity becomes even more devastating [Ibid].

Conclusions

    1.  The nuclear civilization of humanity is Western in its origin, center, and main driving force of the “golden billion” with its “nuclear alliance” NATO. This alliance has ensured the HaN globalization to a potential planetary nuclear winter with its inevitable probability over 99% for the past 79 years [4].
    2. This civilization was imposed on humanity through the use of force and the threat “nuclear weapons absolute evil”. The race for nuclear weapons has involved practically all countries in some way, making the new HaN danger universal for all nations. The nuclear civilization is signing its own death warrant with its global HaN threat, which is more than 99% ready for launch today.
    3. In a global nuclear war with the HaN billion-fold scaling of HaN in this civilization, humanity will be thrown back in its evolution by tens or hundreds of thousands of years to a stage of savagery and paleoanthrope. The remaining survivors will be doomed to radioactive extinction for many centuries, similar to the Chernobyl disaster zone.
    4. The history of nuclear civilization, spinning 79 years has revealed the increasing militarism of the West and NATO, despite some impressive achievements. This militarism has capacity to not only destroy itself and also most of humanity.
    5. Militarism has emerged as the “Achilles heel” of nuclear civilization, particularly for its “founding father” the West and NATO. For the past 79 years, it has failed to foster of a common, positive approach to science, and culture of peace, dismissing such efforts as “madness, crazy, dissidence and chimera”.
    6. The cognitive and ideological limitations imposed by militarism have prevented the West from creating a fundamental and verifiable scientific alternative to the inevitable nuclear suicide of its civilization.
    7. Militarism is a pathological attribute of social nature that is aimed at death rather than life. When combined with humanity’s holistic ignorance and impotence, it becomes an insurmountable source of eternal cognitive and ideological confrontation.
    8. Nuclear civilization will mark the final chapter in humanity’s history, crowning and completing a multi-thousand-year period of violent civilizations. The primary instrument of violence, weapons, has reached a level of self-destruction with nuclear weapons, pushing humanity to its planetary nuclear suicide ceiling. This is incompatible with life and our future.

To be continued…

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary 

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 2 Sep 2024.

Dr. Bishnu Pathak from Nepal, is the Vice-President of GGHA and a former Senior Commissioner at the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) in Nepal. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize from 2013 to 2019 for his discovery of the Peace-Conflict Lifecycle which he compares to an ecosystem. Dr. Pathak is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, Board Member of the TRANSCEND Peace University and holds a Ph.D. in interdsciplinary Conflict Transformation and Human Rights, earned over two decades in 2003. Despite the challenges, Professor Pathak has authored over 100 international books and papers, including “Politics of People’s War and Human Rights in Nepal” (2005), “Generations of Transitional Justice in the World” (2019), “The Nepal Compact: Potential for Cold War II” (2022), “Negotiation by Peaceful Means: Nepo-India Territorial Disputes” (2022), and “The Arts of Eastern Philosophy” (2023). Many of his publications have been used as references in universities in over 100 countries worldwide. Dr. Pathak’s work covers a wide range of topics, including Transitional Justice, Human Rights, Human Security, Peace, and Conflict Transformation. Web: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=910   

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, from Northern Ireland, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment and a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 alongside Betty Williams for their work as co-founders of Women for Peace. This organization later evolved into the Community for Peace People, dedicated to promoting peaceful resolutions to violence in Northern Ireland. Web: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=678

Dr. Leo Semashko, a Russian Orthodox, Philosopher, and Sociologist, is the founder of the Gandhian Global Harmony Association (GGHA) established in 2005. He also serves as the Honorary President representing Peace Science, along with over 700 coauthors, including Indian President Dr. Abdul Kalam and 5 Nobel Peace Laureates, from over 50 countries. Based in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dr. Semashko has been leading this initiative for almost 20 years. Web: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=253

Chaitanya Dave is the Vice-President of GGHA in the USA. He is a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and Hinduism’s Vedanta philosophy. Additionally, he is an entrepreneur based in California. Web: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1205

Dr. Rudolf Siebert, Vice-President of the GGHA in the USA, is a Catholic and Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is a philosopher, antifascist, and a former child soldier in the Wehrmacht from 1943 to1945. Additionally, he is a theologian and the founder of the House of Mir in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Web: https://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=51

Notes

  1. Boyle F. The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence/Terrorism. 2002: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=957
  2. Boyle F. The Criminality Of Nuclear Deterrence. Chapter 2. The Lessons Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki. 2002: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=957
  3. Francis Boyle et al. Nuclear Weapons and International Law. Draft Report. 1987: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1204
  1. Mecklin J. Nuclear Сatastrophe: 90 seconds. 2024: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=924
  2. Semashko L. and Siebert R. Gandhi, Putin and Bushnell: Resisting NATO’s Nazi Genocide with Force and Nonviolence Scientific Mobilization. 19-03-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1175
  3. Lucas J. U.S. Regime Has Killed 20-30 Million People: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=816
  1. Dave C. America Can be a Great Nation If …05-08-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1205
  1. Dave C. America’s Most Criminal Act: The Atomic Bombings of Japan. 08-08-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1207
  2. Hastings M. It’s Not Just Ukraine and Gaza: War Is on the Rise Everywhere. Bloomberg. 10-12-23: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-10/it-s-not-just-ukraine-and-gaza-war-is-on-the-rise-everywhere
  3. Chossudovsky M. The Hiroshima Nagasaki “Dress Rehearsal”…to “Wipe the Soviet Union Off the Map”. 17-04-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1185
  4. Fry S. The Terrifying $1.2 Trillion Plan That Could Kill 90% of Humanity. 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spnJ5WDgZnY and here: https://peacefromharmony.org/plan
  1. NATO. Washington Summit Declaration. July 10 2024: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_227678.htm and here in two languages: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1199
  1. GGHA. Anti-NATO WWIII Manifesto. 21-07-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1201
  2. Kant, I. Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch / I. Kant. – UK ed. : Hackett Publishing Company, 2015. – 64 p.
  3. Avery J. Nuclear Weapons: An Absolute Evil. 2017: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=800
  4. GGHA. Antinuclear Manifesto. 2020: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=908
  5. Chossudovsky M. Hiroshima: A “Military Base” according to President Harry Truman. 10-08-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1208
  6. Lindorff D. Recalling 3 World-Shaking Events of the Last 9 Days of WWII. 10-08-24 https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1210
  1. Pathak, P. B. (2021). The Tokyo Tribunal: Precedent for Victor’s Justice II. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.88.10666
  2. Merlo F. What it means to survive an atomic bomb. Vatican News. 08-08-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1206
  3. Siebert R. It was utter, Satanic blasphemy… 08-08-24: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1206
  4. Hans Kristensen et al. Status of World Nuclear Forces. 29-03-24: https://fas.org/initiative/status-world-nuclear-forces/, and: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=1211
  5. SIPRI Yearbook 2024. Сhapter of SIPRI Yearbook 2024 on world nuclear forces. 17-06-24: https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/YB24%2007%20WNF.pdf
  1. Ginzburg A.S., Samoylovskaya N.A. “Nuclear Winter” Hypothesis Research and Responsibilities in Nuclear Policy. Journal of International Analytics. 2023;14(4):149-160. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.46272/2587-8476-2023-14-4-149-160
  2. Bivens, Matt. Nuclear Famine: Even a “Limited” Nuclear War Would Cause Abrupt Climate Disruption and Global Starvation. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 2022: https://www.ippnw.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ENGLISH-Nuclear-Famine-Report-Final-bleed-marks.pdf.

WWIII Scenario“Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War” 

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-5-3
Year: 2012
Pages: 102

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Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which hosts the critically acclaimed website www.globalresearch.ca . He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Reviews

“This book is a ‘must’ resource – a richly documented and systematic diagnosis of the supremely pathological geo-strategic planning of US wars since ‘9-11’ against non-nuclear countries to seize their oil fields and resources under cover of ‘freedom and democracy’.”
–John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy, Guelph University

“In a world where engineered, pre-emptive, or more fashionably “humanitarian” wars of aggression have become the norm, this challenging book may be our final wake-up call.”
-Denis Halliday, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations

Michel Chossudovsky exposes the insanity of our privatized war machine. Iran is being targeted with nuclear weapons as part of a war agenda built on distortions and lies for the purpose of private profit. The real aims are oil, financial hegemony and global control. The price could be nuclear holocaust. When weapons become the hottest export of the world’s only superpower, and diplomats work as salesmen for the defense industry, the whole world is recklessly endangered. If we must have a military, it belongs entirely in the public sector. No one should profit from mass death and destruction.
–Ellen Brown, author of ‘Web of Debt’ and president of the Public Banking Institute   

Dow Plunges More Than 600 Points as Weak Manufacturing Data Fuel Slowdown Fears

September 3rd, 2024 by The Epoch Times

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Sept. 3 as weak manufacturing reports and a decline in construction spending fanned fears of an economic slowdown.

According to preliminary data at market close, the benchmark S&P 500 lost 118.64 points, or 2.10 percent, to end at 5,529.76 points, while the Nasdaq lost 576.06 points, or 3.25 percent, to 17,137.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 618.72 points, or 1.49 percent, to 40,944.36.

Treasury yields sank, suggesting investors were seeking refuge in the perceived safety of bonds, as factory data released by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and S&P Global showed manufacturing mired in weakness and, as some analysts believe, pointing to sharply slowing economic growth.

“Investors are wondering are we heading into a recession quicker than was thought or does the Fed have this under control with rate cuts going forward,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut. He added that the manufacturing data “certainly didn’t help.”

The U.S. manufacturing sector recorded a decline in production for the first time in seven months, according to the S&P Global report, which noted falling demand, renewed reduction in employment, and strengthening inflationary pressures.

“Slower than expected sales are causing warehouses to fill with unsold stock, and a dearth of new orders has prompted factories to cut production for the first time since January. Producers are also reducing payroll numbers for the first time this year and buying fewer inputs amid concerns about excess capacity,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global, said in a statement.

“The combination of falling orders and rising inventory sends the gloomiest forward-indication of production trends seen for one and a half years, and one of the most worrying signals witnessed since the global financial crisis.”

The ISM report painted a similar picture, noting softening demand, contracting employment, and manufacturing activity remaining in recession territory for the fifth consecutive month in August.

“Demand remains subdued, as companies show an unwillingness to invest in capital and inventory due to current federal monetary policy and election uncertainty,” Timothy Fiore, chair of ISM’s manufacturing business survey committee, said in a statement.

Despite falling demand and a drop in production, factory costs increased, according to the S&P Global report. Rising wages and high shipping rates pushed up input costs, which rose in August at their fastest pace since April 2023, suggesting a possible stagflationary trend.

Analysts at ING said the manufacturing data suggests that economic output is poised for a significant slowdown.

“There is a worrying narrowing of the pockets of strength,” James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, wrote in a note. “Just 22 [percent] of industry is experiencing rising orders and just 17 [percent] are seeing rising production. Historically, this weakness in output and orders points to a sharp slowing in GDP growth.”

Besides the gloomy manufacturing numbers, other data released on Sept. 3 showed that construction spending fell by 0.3 percent month over month in July, compared to market forecasts for a 0.1 rise, Knightley said. Although June’s figures were revised up from a 0.3 percent decline to flat, the overall trend hints at a slowdown.

“The trend is certainly softening,” Knightley wrote. “The outlook for residential construction is not great given the weakness seen in home builders sentiment as a lack of affordability continues to constrain demand.

He said that two consecutive negative monthly prints suggest a “notable cooling” in nonresidential construction.

The ING analyst added that the construction spending report also suggests that support from the Inflation Reduction Act is running out, with construction activity tied to semiconductor manufacturing appearing to wane.

“So with manufacturing languishing and construction cooling, there is going to be an [increasing] reliance on the service sector to provide economic growth,” he said.

Besides Tuesday’s slump on Wall Street, European stocks also fell in their worst session in nearly a month, as the gloomy U.S. manufacturing data fanned concerns about a slowdown in global growth back to the forefront.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended the session down nearly 1 percent, with Germany’s DAX slipping by more than 0.9 percent from record highs touched earlier in the session. Stocks in France, Spain, and Italy dropped by between 0.9 percent and 1.3 percent.

Reuters contributed to this report.

EUA prestes a diminuir ajuda à Ucrânia.

September 3rd, 2024 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

O fornecimento a Ucrânia de armas de longo alcance parece estar ameaçada. De acordo com uma recente reportagem dos meios de comunicação social, citando fontes oficiais familiarizadas com o assunto, Washington deixou claro ao seu proxy que não poderá continuar a fornecer mísseis de longo alcance.

Existem duas explicações para este tipo de atitude americana. Por um lado, os EUA podem estar preocupados com a possibilidade de uma escalada na guerra, dadas as frequentes ações irresponsáveis ​​da Ucrânia. Por outro lado, Washington pode realmente estar numa situação fraca na sua indústria militar, incapaz de abastecer Kiev e continuar a produzir armas para reabastecer o seu arsenal interno.

A CNN publicou recentemente um artigo expondo o problema atual entre a Ucrânia e os EUA no que diz respeito ao fornecimento de armas de longo alcance. Segundo o jornal, os EUA deixaram claro a Kiev que não serão capazes de fornecer um número significativo de Sistemas de Mísseis Táticos do Exército MGM-140 (ATACMS) num futuro próximo. As palavras teriam sido ditas por um alto funcionário não identificado dos EUA durante uma reunião com representantes ucranianos.

O Ministro da Defesa de Kiev, Rustem Umerov, reuniu-se recentemente com o Secretário da Defesa dos EUA, Lloyd Austin, para discutir a possibilidade de a Ucrânia receber assistência adicional para alcançar objetivos militares específicos no conflito. Umerov mostrou a Austin uma lista de alvos de valor estratégico supostamente elevado no “território profundo” da Rússia. Para realizar estas manobras, a Ucrânia precisaria de mais armas dos EUA, bem como do fim de quaisquer restrições às operações do ATACMS.

Como é bem sabido, os EUA “autorizaram” recentemente ataques transfronteiriços ucranianos contra cidades russas. A medida parecia ser meramente simbólica e retórica, uma vez que Kiev tem atacado cidades russas pacíficas desde 2022. No entanto, pelo menos em teoria, Washington continua a proibir que mísseis americanos de longo alcance sejam usados ​​pelo regime neonazista para “ataques profundos”. Kiev implora que esta restrição seja removida, o que permitiria que alvos russos longe da fronteira fossem atingidos com armas altamente letais.

“Já dissemos que os ucranianos podem usar a assistência de segurança dos EUA para se defenderem de ataques transfronteiriços, por outras palavras, contra-ataques. Mas no que se refere a ataques de longo alcance e ataques profundos à Rússia, a nossa política não mudou”, disse o secretário de imprensa do Pentágono, major-general Pat Ryder.

Segundo Umerov, esta restrição deveria ser levantada porque a Rússia alegadamente utiliza bases aéreas no “território profundo” para lançar ataques à Ucrânia. Umerov tenta descrever os ataques ucranianos em território russo indiscutível como uma medida de “autodefesa” para evitar que “civis ucranianos” sejam mortos.

“Explicamos que tipo de equipamento precisamos para proteger os cidadãos contra o terror que os russos nos estão a causar, por isso espero que tenhamos sido ouvidos (…) Estamos a mostrar que os campos de aviação que eles usam para atingir as nossas cidades estão dentro dos territórios profundos (…) Eles estão matando os nossos cidadãos. É por isso que queremos detê-los, queremos detê-los, não queremos permitir que a sua aviação se aproxime das nossas fronteiras”, disse Umerov.

A retórica de Umerov é uma falácia. A Rússia tem obviamente o direito de utilizar qualquer base militar no seu território para qualquer fim legítimo, o que inclui as suas manobras no contexto da operação militar especial. A Ucrânia, estando oficialmente em guerra com a Rússia, tem de fato o direito de tentar atingir alvos militares russos, mas no mesmo sentido, os EUA, como proprietários das armas entregues à Ucrânia, têm o direito de impor quaisquer restrições à uso de seus equipamentos.

Além disso, é preciso ressaltar que a realidade do conflito é muito diferente do cenário descrito por Umerov. As forças armadas russas realizam ataques de alta precisão, evitando ao máximo a morte de civis ucranianos. Por outro lado, Kiev tem uma prática constante de matar civis russos – como se viu recentemente nos ataques a Kursk e Belgorod. Portanto, se os EUA permitirem estes ataques de longo alcance, os mísseis americanos certamente atingirão, não bases militares russas, mas hospitais, escolas e edifícios residenciais.

Washington teme obviamente que as práticas irresponsáveis ​​de Kiev conduzam a uma Terceira Guerra Mundial aberta, uma vez que a Rússia teria o direito de responder de forma decisiva aos ataques ao seu território profundo desmilitarizado. Oficialmente, autoridades dos EUA disseram à CNN que Kiev não receberá mais grandes quantidades de mísseis ATACMS devido ao “longo tempo de produção da arma”. No entanto, o receio de que a paciência russa se esgote é certamente um fator relevante na redução dos fornecimentos americanos à Ucrânia.

Lucas Leiroz De Almeida

Artigo em inglês : US about to decrease Ukraine aid, InfoBrics, 2 de Setembro de 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

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Lucas Leiroz, membro da Associação de Jornalistas do BRICS, pesquisador do Centro de Estudos Geoestratégicos, especialista militar.

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

The CIA Isn’t Responsible for the Upsurge of Terrorism in Pakistan’s Balochistan Region

September 3rd, 2024 by Andrew Korybko

Ignoring the decades-old political roots of the Baloch Conflict, their new economic dimension over the past decade since CPEC, and the latest Taliban connections via its TTP partners leads to inaccurate assessments about its latest manifestations and impedes work on a sustainable solution.

An Outdated Explanation

Top Alt-Media influencer Pepe Escobar speculated in a post on Telegram that last week’s spree of terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan Region, which included the targeted killing of ethnic Punjabis, was the work of “CIA-financed psychopaths disrupting CPEC.” That’s an outdated explanation though since the US no longer needs to rely on proxies to disrupt BRI’s flagship project after the consequences of April 2022’s post-modern coup against former Prime Minister Imran Khan already did that for it.

 

 

The Return of American Influence Over Pakistan

Pakistan shortly thereafter plunged into a major economic-financial crisis that prompted its new American-backed authorities to desperately seek IMF aid, which The Intercept reported last September was only granted in exchange for Pakistan clandestinely arming Ukraine.

It goes without saying that this crisis severely impacted CPEC’s viability, and the People’s Republic has since prioritized alternative connectivity routes through Central Asia and Iran for reaching the Indian Ocean instead.

CPEC is therefore no longer China’s BRI’s flagship project like it initially was in the strategic sense even if it remains one of the largest BRI investments anywhere in the world. The physical infrastructure and power plants that were built during its first phase were supposed to set the stage for unlocking Pakistan’s full economic potential, but the latter hasn’t yet happened and might very well never unfold. The problem is that its post-coup government is now financially indebted to the West with all that entails.

Iranian Chamber of Commerce official Amanollah Kahrazehi recently told local media that “US domination over the government of Pakistan” is responsible for blocking Pakistan’s energy payments to Iran, which observers can intuit also bodes ill for plans to build a long-delayed pipeline between them. This same American influence is also why Pakistan’s reported strategic roadmap for trade with Russia will likely fail to be implemented in full as explained here earlier this summer.

Although Pakistan remains semi-autonomous insofar as it’s refused to vote against Russia at the UN despite American pressure, this is only a superficial expression of sovereignty that shouldn’t mislead observers into ignoring the ways in which American influence has returned to Pakistan since April 2022. There’s also the issue of Pakistan’s deteriorating ties with the Taliban to consider too after its acting Defense Minister accused Pakistan that summer of facilitating US drone activity in Afghanistan.

The Role of Pakistani-Taliban Tensions

Their relations can now be characterized as stuck in a security dilemma that’s seen the Taliban support “Pakistani Taliban” (TTP) terrorists as an asymmetrical response to secretly revived Pakistani-US military cooperation in the aftermath of April 2022’s post-modern coup against its former multipolar premier. To be clear, terrorism can never be justified, but observers should still hear the other side of the story about why the Taliban turned against their decades-long patrons just one year after finally returning to power.

Moving along, it was observed in summer 2023 that “The TTP’s Terrorist Threat To Pakistan Is Metastasizing” after reports that it was allying with terrorist-designated Baloch separatists from the “Baloch Liberation Army” (BLA), who just so happen to be responsible for the latest spree of attacks. Pakistan launched a new counterterrorism operation two months before these tragic events, which this analysis here argued that it likely triggered by Chinese concerns about CPEC’s flagging viability.

BLA terrorist attacks against that megaproject’s terminal port of Gwadar prompted concern from the People’s Republic about whether their Pakistani partners are truly capable of pacifying this restive region, which were further amplified after late July’s large-scale political unrest in that town. Baloch activists marched in defiance of a prohibition on protest activity to draw attention to what they claimed were economic injustices and military abuses against their people.

The authorities implied that this was just a political ploy the BLA, perhaps to distract the security services in order to facilitate more terrorist attacks there or elsewhere in the region, but the fact is that this reminded observers that the decade-long Baloch Conflict is more complex than a simple CIA plot. To oversimplify, its origins relate to the controversial way in which Balochistan joined Pakistan shortly after the latter’s independence, which fueled an insurgency that eventually came to be foreign-backed in part.

The TTP’s Unholy Alliance with the BLA

Pakistan was a US ally during the Old Cold War, which is why there’s no basis to claims that the CIA was responsible for this conflict. Instead, evidence emerged over the years of Afghan, Indian, Iranian, and Soviet support, though all but the first have since ended. Whatever support India and Iran were giving to these groups ended after they revived the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) with Russia in 2022 since neither wants instability in Pakistan to spill over into Iran and endanger this megaproject.

The USSR’s dissolution in 1991 ended Moscow’s support for such groups, while the US picked up where it left off in the mid-2010s in order to sabotage CPEC back during the time that it occupied Afghanistan and Pakistan was still on its multipolar trajectory that ended with April 2022’s post-modern coup. The Taliban’s TTP partners then allied with the BLA and associated groups over the next year as was earlier explained, thus leading to the present predicament that’s greatly worsened Afghan-Pakistani ties.

Just like the BLA doesn’t recognize Balochistan’s incorporation into Pakistan, nor does the TTP’s Pashtun ultra-nationalist base recognize the Durand Line between it and Afghanistan, with their shared territorial revisionist goals serving as yet another impetus behind their unholy alliance. Unholy is an accurate description too since these two ultra-nationalist groups have sharp differences over the presence of Pashtuns in northern Balochistan yet have still informally joined forces regardless.

They presumably agreed to disagree on this issue until after they defeat the Pakistani state, or so they expect will happen even though their foe has proven its resilience time and again despite the perceived odds. In any case, the BLA’s ultra-nationalism accounts for why it targeted ethnic Punjabis during their latest spree of terrorist attacks since this group is seen by them as representative of Pakistan’s de facto military rulers who they detest and blame for committing economic injustices against the Baloch people.

The New Pakistani-American Anti-Terrorist Partnership

It’s here where CPEC comes into play since this terrorist group believes that Balochistan won’t benefit much from this megaproject and will only see a fraction of its rich mineral wealth reinvested in the region after extraction. This “resource nationalism” figures prominently into the political and economic dimensions of the long-running Baloch Conflict, whose latest phase began after CPEC’s announcement. Suffice to say, US propaganda egged these groups on at the time, but now the US stands with Pakistan.

The State Department “strongly condemned” last week’s spree of attacks in a tweet and reaffirmed that “We stand with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism”. It should also be mentioned that the US officially designated the BLA as terrorists in 2019, and talk about those two’s former ties is now taboo in post-coup Pakistan, precisely because it could discredit the new authorities’ patrons. Instead, both Pakistan and the US now talk about the Taliban’s ties to terrorism, which serves their interests.

To be sure, there’s truth to their claims that anti-Pakistani terrorists are at the very least active in Afghanistan, if not patronized by the Taliban as an asymmetrical response to the Pakistani-US military cooperation that was secretly revived after April 2022’s post-modern coup. Nevertheless, this could be exploited by the US to justify making the aforementioned cooperation public, let alone possibly pushing Pakistan into initiating conventional cross-border hostilities that could plunge the region back into war.

Whatever may or may not happen, readers now know that the CIA isn’t responsible for the latest upsurge of terrorism in Pakistan’s Balochistan region like Pepe speculated per the outdated model that he relied upon in his post. Ignoring the decades-old political roots of this conflict, their new economic dimension over the past decade since CPEC, and the latest Taliban connections via its TTP partners leads to inaccurate assessments about its latest manifestations and impedes work on a sustainable solution.

Concluding Thoughts

Terrorist-designated forces need to either be disbanded or convinced to disavow violence in favor of political solutions to their region’s multifaceted problems, but the authorities also need to recognize the extent of such problems, only after which is an honest dialogue possible. Separatism isn’t the solution, but nor is the status quo, though a compromise is still a far way off. Well-intentioned observers can contribute to brainstorming a solution, but only if they truly understand this conflict’s origins and dynamics.

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This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

It’s Irrational and Destructive for European Countries to “Toe the U.S. Line” in the Ukraine War

September 3rd, 2024 by Prof. Ruel F. Pepa

The ongoing war in Ukraine has deeply divided international opinion, and the heavy involvement of European nations under the NATO umbrella has sparked significant debate. It is becoming increasingly clear that Europe’s decision to align itself with the United States’ approach to the conflict is not just questionable but borders on irrationality. This blind adherence to U.S. policy through NATO involvement presents numerous economic, political, and strategic risks for European countries—risks that could outweigh any potential benefits in the long run.

The Economic Impact on Europe

From an economic standpoint, the consequences of Europe’s participation in the war have already been disastrous. Europe is facing inflationary pressures, energy crises, and disruptions in trade, particularly with Russia, one of its key energy suppliers. Many European economies were already struggling to recover from the pandemic, and now, they find themselves plunged into further economic turmoil as a result of the sanctions imposed on Russia.

European energy security has been critically compromised. The war has led to skyrocketing energy prices across the continent, especially in countries heavily reliant on Russian natural gas. For instance, Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, saw significant economic setbacks as it scrambled to find alternative energy sources. The shift to more expensive and less reliable energy solutions, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the United States, has strained industries and households alike.

For many Europeans, the rationale behind this economic self-harm is difficult to justify. Why should Europe sacrifice its economic stability and energy security to toe the line of U.S. policy, particularly when the U.S. faces far fewer immediate consequences of the conflict?

The Strategic Pitfalls of NATO’s Involvement

NATO’s role in the conflict further complicates matters for Europe. Originally formed as a defensive alliance during the Cold War, NATO’s current involvement in Ukraine has taken on a more offensive and interventionist stance, reflecting U.S. geopolitical interests rather than those of Europe. While the U.S. sees Russia as a primary adversary in its quest for global dominance, Europe shares a far more complex and intertwined relationship with its eastern neighbor.

Historically, Europe and Russia have shared deep economic, cultural, and security ties. For many European countries, particularly those in Eastern and Central Europe, Russia has been both a partner and a rival, and maintaining a balance has been crucial for regional stability. However, NATO’s militarization of the Ukrainian conflict risks turning Europe into a front line for U.S.-Russia rivalry, with devastating potential consequences.

Further escalation of the war could drag Europe into a broader conflict, one in which it has little to gain but much to lose. Europe’s close proximity to the conflict zone makes it more vulnerable to military retaliation, refugee crises, and economic disruption. Moreover, escalating tensions between NATO and Russia could lead to the very real danger of a nuclear confrontation—a scenario in which Europe would undoubtedly bear the brunt of the destruction.

The U.S., protected by an ocean and more distant from the conflict, faces far fewer immediate threats from a potential military escalation. Meanwhile, Europe, with its geographic proximity and historical vulnerabilities, is far more exposed to the dangers of this confrontation.

Political Dependency and Loss of Autonomy

In following the U.S.’s lead, Europe also risks undermining its own political autonomy. European leaders have long called for “strategic autonomy,” the idea that Europe should be able to act independently on the global stage, particularly in matters of defense and foreign policy. However, by following the U.S. line on Ukraine, Europe is essentially ceding control over its own security decisions to Washington.

This dependency on U.S. leadership through NATO diminishes Europe’s credibility as an independent global actor. The European Union, in particular, prides itself on being a diplomatic and economic powerhouse capable of mediating global conflicts. Yet, in the case of Ukraine, Europe has taken a backseat to the U.S., allowing NATO to shape the narrative and response to the crisis.

This loss of political autonomy is particularly troubling for countries like France and Germany, which have historically sought to balance relations with both the West and Russia14. These nations now find themselves caught in a geopolitical bind, unable to pursue independent policies that reflect their own national interests because of their commitment to NATO and, by extension, U.S. foreign policy.

A Call for Rationality and Independent Action

The decision to blindly follow the U.S. lead on Ukraine through NATO is increasingly proving to be a misguided one for Europe. While solidarity with Ukraine is important, it should not come at the expense of European economic stability, security, and political autonomy. Europe must recognize that its interests do not always align with those of the U.S. and that it has the right, and indeed the obligation, to pursue a more rational and independent approach to the conflict.

This could involve pushing for renewed diplomatic efforts, promoting negotiations, and seeking a peaceful resolution that prioritizes European security concerns over U.S. geopolitical ambitions. Europe must also reevaluate its dependence on NATO as the sole framework for its security and defense policies. While NATO has historically played a vital role in European defense, the current crisis has highlighted the need for a more flexible and autonomous European defense strategy—one that is less reliant on U.S. leadership and more reflective of Europe’s own unique geopolitical realities.

Conclusion

Europe’s decision to follow the U.S. through NATO into the war in Ukraine is a costly and potentially irrational course of action. The economic fallout, the strategic risks, and the loss of political autonomy are all clear indicators that Europe needs to rethink its approach. By continuing to toe the line of the U.S., European nations are undermining their own interests and exposing themselves to unnecessary risks. A more independent, rational, and Europe-centric approach to the Ukraine conflict is urgently needed—one that safeguards Europe’s long-term security, economic stability, and political autonomy.

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary 

Prof. Ruel F. Pepa is a Filipino philosopher based in Madrid, Spain. A retired academic (Associate Professor IV), he taught Philosophy and Social Sciences for more than fifteen years at Trinity University of Asia, an Anglican university in the Philippines.

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Bozo, F. (2021). France, Germany, and the Balance of Power in Europe. European Council on Foreign Relations.

Carnegie Europe. (2022). NATO’s Influence in European Security Decisions.

European Commission. (2022). EU’s Response to the Energy Crisis Caused by Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.

European External Action Service (EEAS). (2023). Europe’s Role as a Global Diplomatic Power.

European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). (2023). European Gas Markets: Current Trends and Developments.

Institute for the Study of War. (2022). Escalation Risks in the Ukraine Conflict.

Ivanov, A. (2022). The Erosion of European Sovereignty: U.S. Influence in NATO. Foreign Policy.

Kofman, M. (2023). The Militarization of Eastern Europe: NATO and Russia in the Ukraine War. War on the Rocks.

Krickovic, A. (2022). Europe at Risk: Potential Outcomes of NATO’s Involvement in Ukraine. The Atlantic Council.

Macron, E. (2021). Strategic Autonomy for Europe: A Necessity in an Uncertain World. Speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Mearsheimer, J. J. (2022). Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault. Foreign Affairs.

NATO. (2022). NATO’s Role in the Ukraine Conflict.

Reuters. (2023). Germany Faces Economic Slowdown Due to Energy Crisis.

The Guardian. (2023). The Geopolitical Bind of Europe: NATO, Russia, and Autonomy.

Blame Trump for October 7. Mike Whitney

September 3rd, 2024 by Mike Whitney

The person who is most responsible for the attacks on October 7 is Donald Trump. It was Trump who launched the so-called Middle East Peace Plan that allowed for the “unilateral annexation of the Jordan River valley and existing settlements” in the West Bank.

Just as it was Trump who decided to move the US embassy to Jerusalem which effectively recognized the city as Israel’s capital. “Then on March 25, 2019”—according to veteran journalist Joe Lauria—“Trump recognized Israel’s illegal 1981 annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights” in violation of UN Resolution 242. Even Israel’s most ardent supporters, like the New York Times, were aghast at the sheer magnitude of Trump’s giveaway. Here’s what they said in an article in February, 2020:

President Trump on Tuesday unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan with a flourish, releasing a proposal that would give Israel most of what it has sought over decades of conflict while offering the Palestinians the possibility of a state with limited sovereignty. Mr. Trump’s plan would guarantee that Israel would control a unified Jerusalem as its capital and not require it to uproot any of the settlements in the West Bank that have provoked Palestinian outrage and alienated much of the world.…

under the plan, those Palestinians would find themselves virtually encircled by an expanded Israel and living within convoluted borders reminiscent of a gerrymandered congressional district….

the Palestinians…. would not have a standing military and would be required to meet other benchmarks overseen by the Israelis, including a renunciation of violence and the disbandment of militant groups like Hamas…

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority immediately denounced the plan as a “conspiracy deal”unworthy of serious consideration, making the decades-long pursuit of a so-called two-state solution appear more distant than ever. “We say a thousand times over: no, no, no,” Mr. Abbas said on Tuesday in Ramallah, in the West Bank.. Trump Releases Mideast Peace Plan That Strongly Favors Israel, New York Times

Keep in mind, Palestinian leaders were never consulted on the plan that was largely crafted by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his fanatical colleagues. As a result, the final copy is little more than an Israeli wish-list that garners the Trump administration’s blessing while sabotaging any prospect of a two-state solution. As one critic from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said, “Front-loading the annexation (of land in the West Bank) reaffirms the worst fears that this is more an annexation plan than a peace plan.”

Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian Authority spokeswoman, tweeted: “Netanyahu is clear: Trump is the first world leader to say it is alright for Israel to steal land.” NYTimes

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President Donald J. Trump, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan signs the Abraham Accords Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, on the South Lawn of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead) 

But the Peace Plan was just the first of Trump’s attempts to torpedo Palestinian aspirations. The second, was Trump’s Abraham Accords that were designed to normalize relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors while marginalizing the Palestinian cause. Prior to the Abraham Accords, (which were the handiwork of Jared Kushner) Arab countries were expected to eschew diplomatic normalization with Israel until Israel had taken steps to comply with the central tenets of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 which required the following:

1– Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

2– Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

3– The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

(After which, the Arab countries would) Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace…. enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighbourliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity. Arab Peace Initiative 2002

Trump’s Abraham Accords were a way of sidestepping the requirements of the Arab Peace Initiative by consummating bilateral agreements that made no such demands. And the scheme worked, too. From 2000-on, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan all signed the Accords strengthening their economic and diplomatic ties with Israel while gradually integrating Israel into the broader Middle East region. At the same time, Israel continued to settle more Palestinian land on the West Bank while tightening its blockade of Gaza. Bottom line: The Abraham Accords were an effective way to “disappear” the Palestinian issue altogether while exempting Israel of any duty to implement UN resolutions or loosen the grip of its long-term military occupation. Naturally, the Palestinians saw this as an existential threat to their future as a people, a culture and a civilization. This is from an article at Aljazeera:

(The signing of the Abraham Accords) was “a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people”, Ahmad Majdalani, social affairs minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA), told AFP news agency.

In the besieged Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Bahrain’s decision to normalise relations with Israel “represents a grave harm to the Palestinian cause, and it supports the occupation”.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), based in Ramallah, occupied West Bank, called the normalisation “another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause”.

Palestinians fear the moves by the UAE and Bahrain will weaken a long-standing pan-Arab position that calls for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory and acceptance of Palestinian statehood in return for normal relations with Arab countries. ‘Stab in the back’: Palestinians condemn Israel-Bahrain deal, Aljazeera

So—as far back as 2020—we can see that Hamas understood they faced a serious threat to their collective survival that had to be countered. That initial reaction evolved into the expansive military operation that was launched on October 7. Here’s how Hamas reacted at the time (2021). This is from News i24:

Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh says ‘We must have an integrated plan to bring down normalization’…. A senior leader in Hamas’ political wing urged on Thursday that the group must fight against the normalization agreements which neighboring states established with Israel.

Last year’s Abraham Accords brought a series of agreements between Israel and other nations in the region, where states agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with the country.

Hamas Political Bureau Charmain Ismail Haniyeh spoke out against the deals during a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, and called to take action to undermine them….“We must have an integrated plan to bring down normalization, which, unfortunately, has taken the character of military and security alliances with some countries,” he announced, according to a press release on Hamas’ website. Hamas calls for ‘plan’ to undermine Israel’s Abraham Accords, i24 News

Not surprisingly, President Joe Biden blabbed the truth about October 7 in a press conference just days after the attacks. His comments have been largely scrubbed by the media, but they can still be found in an article by Politico posted on October 21, 2023. Here’s what he said:

President Joe Biden said that Hamas’ attacks on Israel were intended in part to scuttle the potential normalization of the U.S. ally’s relations with Saudi Arabia.

“One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel … they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Biden said at a campaign event Friday night, according to pool reports. “Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel,” the president added…. The normalization push began under former President Donald Trump’s administration and was branded as the Abraham Accords. Biden says Hamas attacks aimed to halt Israel-Saudi Arabia agreement, Politico

Is that an admission that Trump’s normalization policy provoked October 7?

It is.

Hamas saw the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as the final nail in the coffin of a two-state solution. They understood that once the Saudis normalized relations with Israel—due to security and economic inducements provided by the US—Israel would be free to expand the settlements, strengthen the occupation or even expel the Palestinians from the country altogether. There would be nothing to stop them from asserting control over all the territory from the river to the sea. In short, Trump’s Abraham Accords forced Hamas to concoct a strategy that would be explosive enough to derail Washington’s normalization project. The plan they settled on was October 7. The rest is history. Here’s a brief recap from an article at The Intercept:

The de facto premise behind the accords, initiated under former President Donald Trump and led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, was to “solve” the Israel–Palestine conflict by simply ignoring the Palestinians and treating their conditions as irrelevant. This weekend’s events show that this approach, premised on Palestinian invisibility, has now collapsed. Indeed, t he expectation that Palestinians would simply resign themselves to a slow death, an assumption evidently carried forth by Biden, was never realistic….

Under Biden, the U.S. has devoted little effort to seeking even tactical détente, let alone peace, between Israel and the Palestinians, preferring instead to continue the Trump administration’s approach of ignoring the Palestinians to seek quid pro quo diplomatic deals between Israel and foreign Arab and Muslim countrieswith whom Israel has no direct conflict.

Even as the massive bloodshed began around Gaza this week, with Hamas militants massacring Israeli civilians and Israel apparently indiscriminately bombing the Gaza Strip, the administration has rushed to try and salvage its approach to the region. The New York Times reported on Sunday that top Biden aides were scrambling to “reaffirm their commitment to the idea of potential normalization of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.” This shoddy simulacrum of real diplomacy — which inevitably requires resolving tough differences between enemies — has now collided with horrifying reality in Gaza and southern Israel. Biden Doubled Down on the Abraham Accords — to “Devastating Consequences”, Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept

It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots linking the Trump Peace Plan, the Abraham Accords and the October 7 attacks. The three are inseparable. Trump’s Zionist-friendly policies have backfired catastrophically triggering a genocide in Gaza and likely plunging the entire Middle East into a regional war.

Trump is every bit as responsible for the ongoing bloodbath as his accomplice, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

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

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

Featured image: President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walk along the Colonnade, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, back to the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Shealah D. Craighead)

Selected Articles: How to Fight Censorship as Globalists Expand their War on Truth

September 3rd, 2024 by Global Research News

On the Arrest of Telegram’s Founder, Pavel Durov: How to Fight Censorship as Globalists Expand their War on Truth

By Timothy Alexander Guzman, September 03, 2024

Any information or opinion on Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, human rights issues around the world, Covid-19 vaccines, the dangers of GMO food, agendas of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and so on, Big Tech is there to censor the story. 

Hezbollah Replies to Israel While Preventing Netanyahu’s Plan for a Regional War

By Steven Sahiounie, September 03, 2024

The Israeli military is attempting to pull Hezbollah into a full-scale regional war, through the massive and continuous airstrikes across the south of Lebanon and into the Bekaa Valley. Only Netanyahu benefits from this plan so that he can remain in power and stay out of jail due to being found guilty of corruption.

Zelensky Faces Backlash in Ukraine After Kursk Raid Weakened Donetsk Frontline

By Ahmed Adel, September 03, 2024

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has faced a barrage of criticism from soldiers, lawmakers, and military analysts over the rapid advances made by the Russian army in Donbass since Kiev launched its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, the Financial Times reported.

Is Russia on the Brink of Reviving the Grain Deal with Ukraine with the Support of Turkey?

By Andrew Korybko, September 03, 2024

Foreign Minister Lavrov revealed on Monday that Russia was on the brink of reviving the grain deal this spring as a result of Turkish mediation until Ukraine suddenly dropped out of the talks. This disclosure is surprising since that same deal was much-maligned by Russia’s supporters at home and abroad after Russia refused to extend it last summer.

Germany Elections and Its Growing Economic and Political Crisis

By Dr. Jack Rasmus, September 03, 2024

The declining condition of Germany’s economy as the ‘economic engine’ of Europe reveals that perhaps the ‘Plan B’ purpose of Biden/US Russia sanctions on Russia has been to make Germany/EU more economically dependent on the USA.

On a Highway to Hell: Nuclear Weapons Offer an Illusion of Security. Scott Ritter

By Scott Ritter, September 03, 2024

Once he became president, Biden was immediately confronted with two major challenges for which he was ill-equipped to handle — the Russian-Ukraine crisis, and China’s assertion of its national interests over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Both involved the potential of military escalation leading up to direct force-on-force conflict between the U.S. military and their Russian and Chinese counterparts, both of which included the possibility of nuclear war.

The National Security State Is Killing Free Speech. Dr. Philip Giraldi

By Philip Giraldi, September 02, 2024

The Biden administration has taken the incestuous relationship with its law enforcement and intelligence agencies even farther. It sought to establish a “Disinformation_Governance_Board” at the Department of Homeland Security which would have been empowered to denounce the credibility of citizens who were complaining about what the government was doing based on the fiction that what was taking place was deliberate disruption of the government using false information.

There Is No Argument for Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical and Moral

September 3rd, 2024 by Caitlin Johnstone

It’s wild when you realize that nobody can actually articulate a reason why Israel should be supported that is both logically coherent and morally defensible.

Westerners grow up being indoctrinated with the understanding that this tiny country in the middle east is super duper important and needs to be supported and defended at all cost, but if you examine the reasons given for why this is so as an adult, you find that none of them really hold water.

“Israel is the only place where Jews can be safe!”

This is clearly false. A Jewish person in New York City is self-evidently much, much safer than a Jewish person in Tel Aviv. Forcefully creating a brand new apartheid ethnostate dropped on top of a pre-existing civilization naturally means that Israel can only ever exist in perpetual violence, which places everyone who lives there in danger.

“The Jews deserve a homeland!”

Why? Why does any religion deserve to have a country of their own where members of that religion are in charge of everyone else and receive preferential treatment? There are more Mormons in the world than Jews, and they don’t have their own country. There are more Sikhs in the world than Jews, and they don’t have their own country. There’s no logically coherent reason why every religion should have its own nation state, and there’s no logically coherent reason why such a principle should apply to Jews but not to Scientologists.

“Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east.”

This one’s just silly. A genocidal apartheid regime which actively disenfranchises and abuses the Palestinian population is the exact opposite of “liberal” and “democratic”. But even if that was not the case, there is no logically coherent and morally defensible reason why any given region should have a representative of a particular political ideology in it, no matter how many people need to be murdered and oppressed to make it so.

“I support Israel’s existence but I oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians.”

This one is quite popular with the liberals, but it’s nonsensical and self-contradictory. Israel has been abusive to Palestinians throughout the entirety of its existence from its very inception; only in the imaginary fairy tales of liberal Zionists has it ever existed without tyranny, theft and murder, and only in their imaginary fairy tales can a Jewish ethno-state be dropped on top of a civilization of non-Jews in a way that could ever be without nonstop tyranny, theft and murder.

The only choices are a two-state solution which Israel is openly doing everything it can to prevent, and a one-state solution where everyone has equal rights which would per definition not be a Jewish state. Liberal Zionists pretend they live in a fairy fantasyland alternate timeline where this is not the reality. This is how liberals try to square the circle of supporting Israel when it’s morally indefensible; they simply invent an imaginary world in which it is moral, and pretend it’s a real possibility.

“Israel is essential for protecting our interests in the region.”

This one is logically coherent from a certain point of view, but it’s certainly not morally defensible.

There’s not even any logically coherent reason for any normal westerner to say that Israel protects “our” interests in the middle east. It is only logically coherent for the managers of the western empire to say that helping Israel wage the nonstop violent force necessary for its existence helps sow the chaos, tyranny, destabilization and division necessary to ensure their geostrategic domination of a resource-rich region and keep middle eastern nations from uniting into a superpower bloc who use their resources to advance their own interests around the world.

Contrary to what some people believe, Israel isn’t responsible for the existence of western warmongering — western warmongering is responsible for the existence of Israel. If there wasn’t an Israel they’d just invent another excuse to maintain a military presence in the middle east and keep sowing violence and chaos. Biden himself has acknowledged this, saying “Were there not an Israel the United States would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”

So from that perspective it does make logical sense to say that the western empire would have a harder time advancing its unipolarist objectives on the world stage without a destabilizing agent whose existence is wholly dependent upon constant western backing. And if you really want to go whole hog in siding with the imperialists’ reasoning for supporting Israel, you can also argue that Israel provides the perfect narrative cover for maintaining a military presence in the middle east.

For many years the final debate-ending argument against western military withdrawal from the middle east has been that it would ensure Israel’s destruction, because Israel’s neighbors would simply eliminate it without the deterrence of the US war machine there to protect it.

And if you take it as a given that Israel must continue to exist in its present iteration, it really is a debate-ending argument. If you take it as a given that Israel must be permitted to exist as an apartheid ethnostate which was artificially forced into existence in the mid-20th century, then of course there is no way it can exist without nonstop violence, and of course there is no way it can come out on the winning side of all that violence without the backing of the US-centralized empire.

What this means is that if you accept that Israel must continue to exist as it presently exists, you are necessarily accepting that the US and its western allies must retain a military stranglehold on the middle east. There is no way to maintain this artificially created astroturf state without nonstop violence, so you have to remain in a position to help inflict that violence at all times.

Which is mighty convenient for the US-centralized power structure, to say the least. But it is, of course, not morally defensible. It is not morally defensible to keep killing middle easterners year after year, decade after decade, in order to rule the world. It might be logically coherent, but it is also profoundly evil.

All arguments for supporting Israel fail either logically, morally, or both. Which is why so much propaganda goes into manipulating us into supporting this murderous regime, and why voices who oppose it are getting increasingly suppressed by establishment power structures. 

It’s why the mass media have been demonstrably wildly biased toward the advancement of Israeli information interests in their reporting, and it’s why critics of Israeli atrocities like Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson and Mary Kostakidis have been outrageously persecuted in the UK and Australia. 

They have no argument, so they are increasingly resorting to the blunt instrument.

When you peel away the layers, the arguments for keeping the Israel project going are all about domination and control, which is why more and more domination and control is being used to protect that project from scrutiny. 

Israel, ultimately, is nothing but a nonstop war. And, like all wars, its existence depends on hiding the truth from the public.

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Is Russia on the Brink of Reviving the Grain Deal with Ukraine with the Support of Turkey?

September 3rd, 2024 by Andrew Korybko

Foreign Minister Lavrov revealed on Monday that Russia was on the brink of reviving the grain deal this spring as a result of Turkish mediation until Ukraine suddenly dropped out of the talks. This disclosure is surprising since that same deal was much-maligned by Russia’s supporters at home and abroad after Russia refused to extend it last summer. Here are Lavrov’s exact words on the matter as reported by TASS:

“This spring Turkey attempted to renew the agreement on the protection of food supplies in a modified format. We were ready. At the last minute, the Ukrainians said: ‘Let’s write a clause – add to the obligations not to touch merchant ships the need to respect the safety of nuclear power plants.’ It seems out of place, but we also said: ‘Let’s do it.’

[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan really convinced us that this would be a step forward, he was completely sincere and tried to be helpful. We agreed, but then the Ukrainians, who proposed it themselves, said they were not happy with it. Apparently, at that time they already had plans to bomb nuclear power plants.

There’s no reason to doubt what he said since he’s Russia’s top diplomat so all that can be done is to try to make sense of this unexpected news. The grain deal’s main criticism was that it was superficial after only around 3% of Ukrainian grain went to the Global South according to Putin himself. He also added that the West never implemented its part of the deal by removing obstacles to Russia’s own agricultural exports.

Russia’s worsening relations with Ukraine and the West since then suggest that neither of them had any intention of making good on their promises if the deal was revived. Moreover, while the nuclear power plant element might have sounded like a promising addition to the practically symbolic grain pact, there wouldn’t have been any guarantee that it too wouldn’t have been violated. Ukraine might have even used that to get Russia’s guard down ahead of a major preplanned drone attack against such facilities.

If that was the case, then it’s a blessing in disguise that this hybrid grain-nuclear deal fell through, but these observations still don’t answer the question of why Russia was even considering it. One possible explanation is that Putin sincerely thought that it could have advanced his diplomatic goal of laying the basis for resuming peace talks modeled off of their draft peace treaty from 2022. The reason why this can’t be ruled out is due to him bringing that up once again on Monday at a separate event.

He conditioned this upon the expulsion of Kiev’s forces from Kursk, but he also added that

“The current authorities are clearly not ready for this, they have little chance of being re-elected. That is why they are not interested in ending the fighting, that is why they tried to carry out this provocation in Kursk Region, and before when they tried to carry out the same operation in Belgorod Region.” He might therefore have been hoping that the West would force Ukraine to do this after more so-called ‘goodwill gestures’.

Time and again, he seems to continue placing faith in the West becoming fatigued with this conflict the longer that it drags on for and the more that Russia continues gradually gaining ground in Donbass, which it’s continued to do since the start of the year and has recently picked up the pace. Putin still won’t radically respond to the spree of provocations against Russia over the past two and a half years out of fear that he’d inadvertently spark the Third World War that he’s thus far worked so hard to avoid.

Agreeing to another grain deal, a hybrid grain-nuclear one, or a reportedly Qatari-mediated partial ceasefire might thus be seen as a costless means to the end of politically resolving this conflict. So long as he remembers what he admitted regarding his naivete about the West and doesn’t let his guard down after more ‘goodwill gestures’, then perhaps this plan will succeed. Russia’s supporters should therefore brace themselves for this just in case so that they’re not disappointed if any such deals are agreed to.

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This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.  

Featured image is from South Front

Zelensky Faces Backlash in Ukraine After Kursk Raid Weakened Donetsk Frontline

September 3rd, 2024 by Ahmed Adel

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has faced a barrage of criticism from soldiers, lawmakers, and military analysts over the rapid advances made by the Russian army in Donbass since Kiev launched its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, the Financial Times reported.

Although many Ukrainians celebrated their army’s invasion of Kursk on August 6, hoping that the gamble would force Moscow to divert resources to the new front and the conflict would change course, according to the London-based outlet, a breach in the frontline in the Donetsk region this week has triggered a backlash against the leadership in Kiev, with critics arguing that Ukraine’s positions have been weakened by the redeployment of thousands of Ukrainian troops experienced in the Kursk operation.

Russian forces are closing in on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk, liberating several nearby towns this week and forcing undermanned Ukrainian units to retreat from prepared defensive positions. Pokrovsk is one of two major rail and road junctions in the Donetsk region, and its loss would threaten the Ukrainian military’s entire logistics in the region, according to Frontelligence Insight, a Ukrainian analytical group cited by the newspaper.

Satellite imagery analysed by open-source researchers at the Finland-based Black Bird Group shows that Russian forces are now just eight kilometres from Pokrovsk. In response, local authorities have ordered residents of the area to evacuate.

Aleksandr Kovalenko, a military analyst with the Kiev-based Information Resistance group, called the situation a “complete defensive failure.”

“It’s not the fault of ordinary soldiers holding positions. The problem lies with those who make decisions for these soldiers,” Kovalenko wrote in a Telegram post, cited by the outlet.

Ukrainian army commander Aleksandr Syrsky said in a statement on August 29 that he had visited the Pokrovsk area and was working “to strengthen the defence of our troops in the most difficult areas of the front, to provide the brigades with a sufficient amount of ammunition and other material and technical means.”

Indeed, Russian forces have advanced more rapidly in Donetsk since August 6 compared to previous months, according to several military analysts, including Deep State, a Ukrainian group with close ties to Ukraine’s Defence Ministry that monitors frontline movements, the FT says.

Over the past three weeks, Moscow’s forces have quickly liberated more than two dozen cities and towns with minimal resistance, including the former stronghold of Niu-York.

“Ukraine committed reserves to Kursk, leaving fewer options to plug gaps elsewhere. Some of the more experienced brigades have been replaced by newer, less experienced units,” Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told the FT.

Soldiers in artillery units near Pokrovsk also highlighted a deficit of shells and a large mismatch in firepower compared to Russian forces.

“Our shells are running out. We just don’t have enough,” said an artillery commander, noting that many resources had been redirected north to Kursk. For about the past month, his unit has had one shell for every six to eight fired by the Russians.

Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian journalist and soldier currently on the eastern front, warned of the possible “destruction of the entire southern group of forces in the region, not just Pokrovsk,” citing “a complex of internal reasons: from the planting of flowers instead of fortifications to the lack of understanding on the part of high command of the problems evident to every soldier in the trenches.”

“What can be done for Pokrovsk?” he asked rhetorically. “Unfortunately, the only option is to evacuate as many people as possible. I think the town will soon cease to exist.”

According to the FT, during a press conference in Kiev on August 27, Zelensky described the situation on the frontline near Pokrovsk as “extremely difficult.” However, the difficulties are not only in Pokrovsk but also in Kursk, with Ukrainian forces being eliminated at an alarming rate.

The Russian Defence Ministry announced on August 30 that more than 7,800 Ukrainian servicemen and 75 tanks were eliminated by Russian forces in the border areas of the Kursk region.

“In total, during the military operations in the Kursk direction, the enemy lost more than 7,800 servicemen, 75 tanks, 36 infantry fighting vehicles, 64 armoured personnel carriers, 507 armoured combat vehicles, 235 vehicles, 53 artillery pieces, 15 multiple launch rocket system launchers,” the ministry said in a statement.

Considering the Ukrainian military is already suffering from major manpower shortages and the Kiev regime continues to plea to its Western partners to send more equipment, soldiers, lawmakers, and military analysts have every right to criticise Zelensky for the Kursk operation since it is effectively nothing more than a PR campaign that has already been exposed just a few weeks after its launch. As previously reported, it is impossible for Ukraine to hold onto the areas captured in Kursk and instead has allowed the Russian army to continue its march to liberate Pokrovsk from Kiev regime forces, therefore bringing Russia’s ultimate victory one step closer.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Featured image: CRIMEA, RUSSIA – FEBRUARY 24, 2022: A column of armoured vehicles approaches the Perekop checkpoint on the Ukrainian border. Early on February 24, President Putin announced a special military operation to be conducted by the Russian Armed Forces in response to appeals for help from the leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Sergei Malgavko/TASS

Hezbollah Replies to Israel While Preventing Netanyahu’s Plan for a Regional War

September 3rd, 2024 by Steven Sahiounie

The Middle East sat on a razor’s edge on August 25, when Israel attacked the south of Lebanon with over 40 airstrikes, and minutes later the Lebanese resistance organization, Hezbollah, struck Israel with 340 missiles and tens of drones.

Israel claimed to have destroyed several thousands of missiles that were ready to be launched on Israel. This exaggerated claim by Israel was made to cover up the Israeli military failure to protect its residents of the north, who have suffered destroyed homes, lost incomes, and general chaos because of the faulty decisions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his right-wing religious extremist cabinet ministers, Ithmar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

The Israeli military is attempting to pull Hezbollah into a full-scale regional war, through the massive and continuous airstrikes across the south of Lebanon and into the Bekaa Valley. Only Netanyahu benefits from this plan so that he can remain in power and stay out of jail due to being found guilty of corruption. This is the same reason why Netanyahu has continued to refuse a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the massive losses of Israeli military personnel, equipment, and the economy.

Netanyahu has ignored the domestic pressure from the families of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, and international pressure to end the war in Gaza, which would end the Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s reply to the Israeli assassination of Foud Shukr, which was carried out by a targeted attack in Beirut on July 30, was calculated and bold. They chose targets specifically designed to prevent Netanyahu from igniting a regional war. Netanyahu was hoping Hezbollah would be so reckless as to hit strategic Israeli infrastructure and civilians, which would allow Netanyahu to be justified in a whole-scale attack on Beirut.

The targets of Hezbollah were military bases and not civilians.

The US had sent to the eastern Mediterranean numerous ships and military assets and had sent Amos Hochstein, a US special envoy, to Lebanon several times to threaten the Lebanese government and the resistance organizations.

Netanyahu knows he can’t fight a regional war alone, and he needs the US military to achieve the military victories he seeks. The US has continued its blind support of the Israeli war in Gaza, despite the UN and others calling it genocide.

Netanyahu cannot be stopped. His citizens, critics, the UN, humanitarian groups, and the US administration have all been unsuccessful in persuading Netanyahu to focus on a ceasefire and hostage release. The US is the only force that can stop Netanyahu, but they will not stop him because the US military complex is benefiting from the Gaza war, and keeping the region in chaos.

The US has sent more than 50,000 tons of weapons and ammunition to Israel since October 7, 2023. Over 500 cargo planes and over 107 ships have delivered the military supplies to keep Netanyahu at war in Gaza, which has pulled in Hezbollah and other allies of the resistance, who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people living under military occupation in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Two possible scenarios could play out in the Middle East. Firstly, a regional war may break out with the axis of resistance united on one side, against Israel and the US on the opposing side. Secondly, the tension will continue in the region as it is currently until after the US election in November.

In my opinion, the US was attempting to end the war in Gaza until the day Biden decided to withdraw his re-election bid. Biden saw delivering a ceasefire in Gaza as a vote boost on Election Day. Netanyahu coordinated with AIPAC to reinforce Biden’s image as old and senile, which resulted in Biden pulling out of the race. Netanyahu is betting on VP Kamala Harris winning, after which she will continue the Netanyahu plan.

The Netanyahu plan is to annex Gaza, the occupied territories in the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. This action would close the book on the two-state solution, and keep the desire for freedom burning as a flame in the hearts of Palestinians, and everyone who rejects colonialism.

The two-state solution remains an internationally recognized solution to the 70 years of Middle Eastern conflict, and the only hope for the freedom of the Palestinian people.

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

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

How the U.S. Enabled Netanyahu to Sabotage a Gaza Ceasefire

September 3rd, 2024 by Jeremy Scahill

After the bodies of six more Israeli hostages of Hamas were found in the Gaza Strip, pressure in Israel is mounting on the government to secure a ceasefire deal and free the remaining hostages and soldiers taken captive on October 7. The announcement Sunday that the captives, including a dual citizen of the U.S., were discovered in a tunnel in Rafah has further fueled the rage toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly from the families of those held in Gaza. They have accused the prime minister of sabotaging deals to free their loved ones, saying “their blood is on his hands.”

Senior Israeli officials, most prominently the defense minister, have joined the public demands for Netanyahu to stop obstructing ceasefire negotiations, while Hamas has said they will not participate in any process until the U.S. convinces Israel to accept a negotiating framework Hamas agreed to in early July. Both Hamas and the families of Israeli captives still held in Gaza have stated that Netanyahu bears responsibility for continuing the war and preventing the exchange of prisoners.

The White House clearly hopes the events of the past 24 hours alter the current course. After being briefed on Saturday evening on the hostages found in Rafah, President Joe Biden, who is vacationing in Delaware, said,

“I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement,” adding, “We think we can close the deal, they’ve all said they agree on the principles.”

By Sunday afternoon, street protests were staged throughout parts of Israel and the mayor of Tel Aviv announced a municipal strike for Monday. “[W]e will allow all employees to go out and support the families’ struggle,” he wrote on Twitter/X.

Following a meeting Sunday with an association of family members of Israeli captives, the head of the Histadrut labor federation, Israel’s largest trade union, announced a general strike. If that action extends beyond a symbolic strike of one or two days, it could cascade into a formidable crisis for Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. This is now a fact,” the family association said in a statement. “We call on the public to prepare. We will bring the country to a halt. The abandonment is over.”

Vice President Kamala Harris released a statement endorsing Israel’s version of events on the captives discovered in Rafah and echoed Netanyahu’s pledge to eliminate Hamas.

“Hamas is an evil terrorist organization. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands,” she said, referring to the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a dual citizen whose parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago earlier this month.

Goldberg-Polin was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7 and lost part of his arm after a grenade exploded in a shelter he was hiding in.

“The threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel—and American citizens in Israel—must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza.”

Hamas has not yet offered a detailed response to Israel’s accusation that Hamas fighters murdered the six captives, but blamed Israel for their deaths.

“We hold the criminal terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu and the biased American administration responsible for the failure of the negotiations to stop the aggression against our people and to release the prisoners in an exchange,” the group said in a statement. “We also hold him fully responsible for the lives of the prisoners who were killed by his army’s bullets.”

The White House has, in recent weeks, portrayed its efforts at achieving a ceasefire as boiling down to resolving a handful of technical details, and Harris has said she is “working tirelessly” with Biden “around the clock” to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza war. But as U.S. negotiators have worked to placate Netanyahu, the Israeli leader has waged a relentless two-month campaign aimed at thwarting a deal and Hamas has denounced the process and asserted that the U.S. framework it agreed to in early July should be respected.

A Hamas official involved with the ceasefire negotiations told Drop Site News that the vice president and other U.S. officials have deliberately misled the public about the process out of concerns that the Gaza war will hurt the Democrats’ chances of victory in November.

“Kamala Harris is now obsessed with how to defeat Trump, how to win the election, and she knows that the genocide in Gaza and these massacres are a crucial element in the campaign,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau. “She wants to create a delusional image that there is something in process, which is not right.”

In an interview, Naim said that while the U.S.—for political purposes—wants to achieve a temporary truce that facilitates the release of Israelis held captive in Gaza and allows aid to reach the besieged Strip, it has given no indication it would insist on Israel ending its war against the Palestinians of Gaza.

“They are looking for a ceasefire, but they are not for ending the war permanently,” Naim said. “There is a tactical discussion how to achieve [Israel’s] goals in a different way which cannot damage the American image internationally while they are supporting genocide, because they know that it is damaging their chances to win the election.” 

He believes that the U.S. also recognizes that Israel’s wars have made it a pariah in the eyes of much of the world, threatening the viability of a nation central to U.S. domination of the region.

“The strategic interests of America to preserve Israel as an advanced base on the front line here are at risk,” Naim said.

Establishing a Framework 

In May, Biden laid out what he characterized as “a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages” that had been proposed by Israel itself.

“This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal,” Biden said on May 31. “Hamas says it wants a ceasefire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it. Hamas needs to take the deal.” 

On June 10, the UN Security Council approved a resolution affirming the framework. On July 2, Hamas announced that it had agreed to restart ceasefire talks based on the framework.

“We are ready for negotiations that achieve a cessation of aggression and a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” said senior negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, a deputy of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. “We are ready for genuine negotiations if Netanyahu adheres to the principles outlined by President Biden.”

At the time, Hamas negotiators indicated they were open to a three-phase deal that would not require an immediate commitment to a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as a precondition to move forward with the process. Prior to this, Hamas had insisted any agreement must include clearly defined steps that ensure an end to Israel’s war.

Drop Site News has reviewed internal documents from the negotiations showing that on July 2 Hamas formally informed international mediators that it had accepted the framework, which Hamas says it was told had been amended by the U.S. and approved by Israel on June 24. This amendment removed language Hamas had previously insisted on that called for negotiations no later than 14 days into the first phase of a deal on the “necessary arrangements for the return of a sustainable calm (permanent ceasefire),” according to a draft seen by Drop Site News. Hamas believed this compromise was strong evidence of their desire to reach a deal.

“If you draw a timeline for the negotiations along the last 10 months, you will observe a consistent pattern of the Israelis: each time we are near to reach an agreement, either they commit new massacres or backtrack from the deal and add new conditions,” said Naim.

The Israeli government did not respond to a request for comment.

Netanyahu’s “Coup” Against His Own Ceasefire Proposal

Since early July, Netanyahu has intensified Israel’s attacks in Gaza, repeatedly added new terms to the framework, and assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader and its lead negotiator, in Tehran. Among the new demands put forward by Netanyahu is the right to continue occupying the Philadelphi corridor along the border with Egypt, to maintain control of the Rafah border crossing and to position Israeli troops in central Gaza along the Netzarim axis where IDF forces would establish checkpoints to search Palestinians seeking to return to their homes in northern Gaza. 

Egypt has objected to Israeli proposals to remain in the Philadelphi corridor. Israel asked Cairo to amend a 2005 agreement, a security annex to the Camp David Treaty signed in 1979, barring Israel from stationing its forces there. Egypt rejected this, saying,

“Opening a discussion about amending the Camp David Treaty may lead to new crises that the treaty may not withstand, especially in light of the growing anger in Egypt over the Israeli practices [in Gaza].”

Meanwhile, the independent Egyptian news site Madr Masr recently published satellite imagery showing Israel has fortified its presence along Netzarim. The IDF began bulldozing areas along that axis five months into the war and insists it wants to maintain a presence there as part of any agreement with Hamas.

“No one in Hamas can accept any form of Israeli presence in the Netzarim corridor and investigating the people while they are returning home. And no one accepts this and accepts the military presence in the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah crossing,” said Naim. “I think the only way to reach a deal is to lift these points from any deal,” otherwise “it means that we are accepting a permanent occupation of the Gaza Strip.”

Naim also said that Israel was insisting on new veto powers over the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which would prevent the release of high value political prisoners, including those from Hamas and other resistance groups serving multi decade prison sentences.

“[Netanyahu] totally changed the terms about the prisoner exchange, which has already been agreed upon and negotiated for months,” said Naim. “I think it would be shameful for any Palestinian to accept such a deal.”

Rather than insisting on upholding what Biden said was Israel’s own proposal in May, the U.S. has appeased Netanyahu’s efforts to allow an indefinite presence of Israeli forces in Gaza and an open-ended campaign of military attacks. Since Haniyeh’s assassination and the selection of Sinwar, the Gaza leader of Hamas, to replace him, Hamas has said it will not participate in what it has described as a rigged process masquerading as negotiations.

“The new conditions [Netanyahu] is adding is a coup against his own proposal,” Naim said.

Blinken’s Loss of Credibility 

In early August, the White House insisted that a ceasefire was within reach and had put forward what it called a “final bridging proposal” to resolve outstanding issues.

“We are closer than we’ve ever been,” Biden said on August 16. Four days later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Tel Aviv meeting with Netanyahu. “He supports it,” Blinken told reporters after their meeting. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”

Within hours of Blinken departing Israel, Netanyahu’s people were leaking stories contesting those assertions and saying the Israeli prime minister had in fact convinced Blinken to accept Israel’s continued occupation of parts of Gaza. The U.S. denied that happened. 

“Blinken has damaged the whole process because he lost all his credibility as a serious mediator,” said Naim. “We see today the worst example of a secretary of state of a superpower. Very weak, very weak. He’s a big failure.”

Naim said that the so-called bridging proposals largely advocated for Hamas to accept some aspects of the new demands Netanyahu inserted after Hamas agreed to the Biden and UN framework. 

“We are ready to sit for negotiations if we are discussing an executive plan to implement what we have agreed upon on July 2,” said Naim. “We are not ready to negotiate a new proposal because [Netanyahu] added new conditions which has nothing to do with the old.”

The White House insists it is making progress.

“Senior level talks in Cairo over recent days have been constructive and were conducted in a spirit on all sides to reach a final and implementable agreement,” said a State Department official in a statement to Drop Site News. “The process continues through working groups to further address remaining issues and details. We underscore the urgency of an agreement for all sides.” 

Hamas maintains it has not directly participated in any negotiations or “working groups,” only receiving updates from Egyptian and Qatari mediators and then offering their responses.

“We weren’t part of the negotiations,” Naim said. “The last round of negotiations, it was only between the mediators, the Americans and [Israel].” 

He added that mediators have told Hamas that the Israeli delegations do not appear empowered by Netanyahu to make any decisions and that often, when progress appears possible, Netanyahu vetoes the suggestions of his own delegation.

“They are not authorized to negotiate seriously [on] any point,” Naim said. “It is only negotiations between the mediators and the Israelis. Or to be more accurate, it is negotiations between the mediators, the Americans and Netanyahu. And in this case, the mediator is the Israeli delegation.”

On Thursday, the Israeli security cabinet voted to support Netanyahu’s insistence that its forces remain entrenched along the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt. According to media reports on the meeting, Netanyahu’s own defense minister Yoav Gallant objected.

“The significance of this is that Hamas won’t agree to it, so there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released,” Gallant reportedly said. “You’re running the negotiations on your own,” he added, “we hear everything after the fact.” Netanyahu’s proposal was approved with only Gallant voting against it.

Naim said that the optimism expressed recently by U.S. officials for a deal that ends the war is an attempt to obfuscate an increasingly dire reality, the stakes of which have been devastatingly punctuated by Israel’s violent invasion of parts of the West Bank, which began Wednesday. 

“What’s happening in Gaza and what’s happening in the West Bank is a clear sign, a clear indication that this conflict needs a political solution. And Palestinians have all the rights to achieve their national goals of dignity, freedom and independence, self sovereignty,” Naim said. “Leaving these fascist leaders in Israel, they will destabilize not only the situation here, but the situation in the whole region. Because day after day, they are converting this political conflict into a religious conflict.”

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On the Arrest of Telegram’s Founder, Pavel Durov: How to Fight Censorship as Globalists Expand their War on Truth

September 3rd, 2024 by Timothy Alexander Guzman

As we all now, Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris-Le Bourget Airport in France based on specific allegations that his platform is being used for “drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images.”  I must say, how convenient to accuse Durov of these charges as censorship on a global scale is out of control. 

Mainly the US, UK, the European Union, and Israel’s political establishment has been at the forefront with Big Tech companies such as YouTube, Vimeo, META (formally Facebook), X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Google are all on a war path against free speech advocates who are considered a threat to the establishment. There are even new platforms and search engines who are following in the same footsteps as Big Tech so that they can become part of the gang such as DuckDuckGo and to no surprise, Microsoft’s Bing which of course is owned by Bill Gates.   

One of the newest members of the Globalist cabal, Elon Musk and his X platform has started to censor articles or opinions that are critical of Israel. 

British writer and a freelance journalist, Jonathan Cook wrote a critical article about the pattern of censorship on X especially when it comes to the so-called “anti-Semitism” online and said that

“Many users of X, formerly Twitter, seem deeply misguided. They imagine that Elon Musk is the saviour of free speech. He’s not.” Cook says beware that those who criticize Israel on X because, “Musk is already disappearing opinions, either ones he doesn’t like or ones he cannot afford to be seen supporting — most visibly, anything too critical of Israel.”

So, any information or opinion on Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, human rights issues around the world, Covid-19 vaccines, the dangers of GMO food, agendas of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and so on, Big Tech is there to censor the story. 

Big Tech is targeting journalists, websites, blogs, anti-war and pro-Palestine activists, anti-vaxx and anti-GMO groups because if their stories expose any globalist agenda, you can bet, it will be censored. 

There are numerous examples of censorship that have taken place by Big Tech companies over the years, and it seems that the situation will get worse as more people are waking up to what is happening around them. 

The globalists are frightened because their project of brainwashing the public for decades through the mainstream media, public education, Hollywood movies and sitcoms is clearly not working anymore, so their last weapon of choice is of course, censorship.

Political Censorship on Steroids

Ben Norton’s ‘Meet the Nicaraguans Facebook Falsely Branded Bots and Censored Days before Elections’ exposed Facebook, Instagram and Twitter’s mass censorship on Sandinista activists during Nicaragua’s elections in 2021.  Norton said that

“Facebook and Instagram – both of which are owned by the newly rebranded Big Tech giant Meta – suspended 1,300 Nicaragua-based accounts run by pro-Sandinista media outlets, journalists, and activists in a large-scale crackdown on October 31.” 

It was a collaborated effort by Big Tech to censor the Sandinista movement, a long-time enemy of the US and right-wing political elites of Latin America:

“On November 1, Sandinista activists whose accounts were suspended by Facebook and Instagram responded by posting videos on Twitter, showing the world that they are indeed real people. But Twitter suspended their accounts as well, seeking to erase all evidence demonstrating that these Nicaraguans are not government bots or part of a coordinated inauthentic operation.”

“Twitter’s follow-up censorship was effectively a double-tap strike on the freedom of speech of Nicaraguans, whose apparent misdeed is expressing political views that challenge Washington’s objectives..”

It is interesting that the Big Tech giants did not censor anyone or group from the right-wing opposition who is supported by Washington, “Zero right-wing opposition supporters in Nicaragua were impacted.”

Another example of Big Tech censorship was against Russia especially since it began its Special Operation in Ukraine which was provoked by the US-NATO alliance to destabilize Russia.  Big Tech companies who have been in the frontline against Russia and have banned it’s state media news channels on cable TV such as RT News and they even went as far as to ban their private media companies that are based in Russia and are labeled as “fake news stories” produced by Russian bots.  Big Tech has also targeted one of the most popular alternative news websites, Global Research on a massive scale:

As you may all know, Global Research has been unduly censored by the search engines, not to mention the recurrent smears by the “fact-checkers” and mainstream media platforms. In the past weeks, we have experienced a significant drop in our daily readership following a coordinated DDoS (“distributed denial of service”) cyber-attack emanating simultaneously from five countries consisting of millions of so-called “malicious requests”

These are just a few examples of how far Big Tech is willing to go to censor independent voices whether from an adversary country like Nicaragua or Russia, or any media network, group or individual journalist that expose their multiple agendas. 

Big Tech Censorship for Big Pharma

When it came to the Covid Pandemic, YouTube was one of the first platforms to censor the anti–Vaxx movements pertaining to the dangers of Covid-19 vaccines brought to you by Big Pharma heavyweights such as Pfizer and Merck.  RT news published ‘YouTube bans ALL anti-vax videos, ramping up Covid-era censorship campaign’ and stated that “YouTube will ban all “harmful vaccine content” from its platform, including claims that vaccines are ineffective at reducing disease transmission. The ban comes after a year of escalating censorship by the Google-owned company.”  In a blog post, YouTube justified its censorship campaign,

“We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we’re now at a point where it’s more important than ever to expand the work we started with Covid-19 to other vaccines.” 

According to Robert F. Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense, Del Bigtree, a Covid vaccine skeptic was banned on YouTube, “On July 29, YouTube terminated Del Bigtree’s “The Highwire” account after he posted a video of Del and me discussing my debate with Alan Dershowitz on vaccine mandates. YouTube also purged hundreds of other truthful videos on vaccines.”  RFK Jr called Google a vaccine company, “YouTube’s owner, Google, is effectively a vaccine company. Two subsidiaries of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, market and manufacture vaccines: Calico and Verily. Arthur Levinson, Genentech’s former CEO, runs Calico, an anti-aging drug company while Verily teams with Pharma to conduct drug and vaccine clinical trials.”

Big Tech is a partner of Big Pharma and censorship has been a weapon to silence vaccine skeptics and the anti-vaxx movement.  Google uses algorithms to censor information about Big Pharma’s vaccines by labeling it as “misinformation.”  Google and Facebook (now META) and other Mainstream media outlets even hired so-called “FactCheckers” to help censor articles and opinions on the dangers of Covid-19 vaccines and other forms of alternative medicines that can actually help cure Covid and other diseases because it was all considered “misinformation.”  

Google was one of the main corporations that orchestrated a censorship campaign by using its search algorithms to change the results on what you are looking for.  In fact, in most cases, you can’t find what you are looking for. 

Google uses an array of weapons against truth tellers which includes blacklisting websites and blogs, using algorithms to place articles, images and opinions at the bottom of a search and even resorted to hiring contractors to be the judge and jury to make decisions on what you see online. 

What We Can Do to Fight Big Tech Censorship?

Regardless of what is happening with Big Tech corporations, Western governments and others who are hellbent on censorship, there is plenty of hope and optimism.

Truth can never be contained no matter how hard they try.  You may ask, how is this possible since they control everything on the internet including social media, newspapers and so on?  Yes, Big Tech is working with special interests’ groups and certain governments whether to hide the truth or to just crush the competition for financial reasons, but I have news for you, there are good people around the world who are fighting back in one way or another and one of them is Telegram’s Founder, Pavel Durov.  One thing that Pavel Durov proved is that there can be alternatives to Big Tech platforms and that’s why he created Telegram.  But there are other platforms worth mentioning that are trying to get the word out. 

Here is a list of alternative social media platforms and search engines that journalists, activists, websites, bloggers, social media personalities and every other truth-teller or truth seeker can use:

Alternatives to X formally known as Twitter:

  • telegram.org – Telegram is described as a “cloud-based, cross-platform, social media and instant messaging service” created by Pavel Durov. 
  • joinmastodon.org – Mastodon is described as a “free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services” which was created by Eugen Rochko and is crowdfunded.  It is currently registered as under the German non-profit Mastodon gGmbH. 

Alternative Search Engines other than Google:

*These search engines are not under the control of Google or Bill Gates ‘Microsoft Bing’

  • yandex.com – Based in Russia, the search engine “provides local search results in more than 1,400 cities. Yandex Search also features “parallel” search that presents results from both main web index and specialized information resources, including news, shopping, blogs, images and videos on a single page.” 
  • search.brave.com – is a search engine developed by Brave Software, Inc., and is the default search engine for its web browser in certain countries, it is a decent search engine so far.

Alternative Video Platforms other than YouTube:

  • rumble.com  – An alternative to YouTube, is an online video platform, web hosting, and cloud services business based in Toronto, Ontario.
  • odysee.com – Created by LBRY, “a blockchain-based file-sharing and payment network that powers decentralized platforms, primarily social networks and video platforms.” LBRY/Odysee is described as a “decentralized, fringe alternatives to YouTube.”
  • bitchute.com – An alt-tech video hosting service launched in January 2017 and it is described as a platform for the freedom of speech.  Although you will find Right-Wing talking points, there is freedom of expression in many of the videos in the past.
  • tiktok.com – an app hated by the US government since they can’t really control it, just ask its CEO, Shou Zi Chew.  TikTok, is described as a short-form video hosting service owned by China’s internet company ByteDance which hosts numerous videos from all sides of the spectrum that can be easily accessed with a smart phone app.

Alternatives to Print Media rather than Time Magazine or book publishers such as Simon & Schuster:

  • newdawnmagazine.com – Since 1991, New Dawn Magazine has been a great alternative to Western print media and newspapers it features many real stories on wars, vaccines, Globalism, the economy, and much more.   
  • claritypress.com – an independent book publisher who “is committed to international legal standards on justice issues, seeing in international human rights law a unique combination of positive law and universal ideals which serve to promote, guide and legitimize the efforts of individuals, groups, peoples and states worldwide on behalf of political freedom, collective justice, global peace, and human-centered development.  All human beings, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, gender or language, have been endowed with these rights, simply by virtue of having been born human.”

Well, you get the picture.  The truth can never be sealed or stored away, it’s sort of like a wild animal that can never be domesticated. 

The list of alternative social media, video platforms and search engines may not be perfect, but they are a start to something bigger and better.  In fact, they are inspiring no matter how you look at it.  There will be other free speech platforms that will be created one way or another.  There will be creators and developers with a conscience who are tired of the relentless lies and propaganda and will help humanity seek the truth.  They will be on the right side of human history just like Julian Assange and now Pavel Durov. 

So, if you are an investor, a web developer, a journalist, a writer, a blogger or anyone else who believes in humanity, who believes in the truth, develop an app, a video platform, an alternative magazine or newspaper, anything that will get the truth out because there is a market of truth seekers who want a better future not only for themselves, but for their children and the future generations that follow. 

Let’s continue the fight against the endless lies and propaganda from these psychotic globalists and help us get the truth out so that we can change the course of this chaotic planet.     

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary  

Timothy Alexander Guzman writes on his own blog site, Silent Crow News, where this article was originally published. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from SCN

“Attack on Food and Farmers and How to Fight Back”

September 3rd, 2024 by Richard C. Cook

I’ll be appearing as a speaker on the upcoming on-line symposium “Attack on Food and Farmers and How to Fight Back” sponsored by Dr. Meryl Nass and her Door to Freedom movement.

My topic is “Food Sovereignty,” focusing on the contemporary Native American experience.

Door to Freedom is promoting a grassroots movement for better food. This means better quality food at a time when the whole trend of international macroeconomics is for worse quality.

Of course the corporations that control much of the food supply have always tried to cut costs and maximize profits.

But today the situation is increasingly worse to the point of becoming catastrophic. This is shown by the precipitous drop in U.S. life expetancy of around three years since 2019. The U.S. now ranks 60th among countries in life expectancy, behind countries like Estonia and Saudi Arabia.

Some of this decline is due to the COVID “pandemic,” but another factor is illness connected with an unhealthy food supply.

There is also a macroeconomic context.

The U.S. is in long-term economic decline due to geopolitical factors—the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, for example—causing a major reduction in dollar hegemony internationally and an increase in the federal debt which now amounts to over $35 trillion.

At the same time, the overall goal of the U.S. economy is to keep the stock market growing at an average rate of 3-5% compounded. Given an economy where economic growth is essentially stagnant; i.e., the only added value is through inflation; every company must cut costs even more. This means lowering wages relative to workers’ cost of living and reducing product quality, including that of food.

Lower food quality means a massive shift to “ultraprocessed food”; lower quality meat, fruits, and vegetables on grocery store shelves; and greater use of fake-food chemicals as substitutes for nutritious ingredients.

In order to get away with all this, big corporations and their captured federal government agencies are waging war on small producers and alternative food suppliers, such as marketers of raw milk.

But people are standing up for their rights to live a healthy lifestyle—producers and consumers alike.

Please join us for the “Attack on Food and Farmers and How to Fight Back” event on September 6-7, 2024, to find out more about how you can support the effort.

Click here for details

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary 

This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Three Sages.

Richard C. Cook is a co-founder and lead investigator for the American Geopolitical Institute.  Mr. Cook is a retired U.S. federal analyst with extensive experience across various government agencies, including the U.S. Civil Service Commission, FDA, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury. As a whistleblower at the time of the Challenger disaster, he exposed the flawed O-ring joints that destroyed the Shuttle, documenting the event in his book “Challenger Revealed.” After serving at Treasury, he became a vocal critic of the private finance-controlled monetary system, detailing his analysis in “We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform.” He served as an advisor to the American Monetary Institute and worked with Congressman Dennis Kucinich to advocate for replacing the Federal Reserve with a genuine national currency. See his new book giving a revisionist view of U.S. history: Our Country, Then and Now, Clarity Press, 2023.

Killing Bazaars: The Land Forces Expo Down Under

September 3rd, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Testimony of Former Israeli PM Adds Urgency to Debate on Foreknowledge of October 7 Attack

September 3rd, 2024 by Bharat Dogra

The testimony of present-day leader of the opposition and former Prime Minister of Israel Yair Lapid has added to the already fierce controversy on whether at the highest levels in the country there was foreknowledge of the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Recently the former PM has testified before an independent commission that has been set up at the initiative of groups representing survivors and victims of the Hamas attack.

Yair Lapid stated before the Commission,

“It is not true that the political system was not alerted to the October 7 disaster. For months the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and Cabinet Ministers received a series of severe and unprecedented warnings, and did nothing.”

He further stated,

“From the middle of 2023 there were more and more voices within the terrorist organizations who said that the moment they had been waiting for has arrived, and these voices appeared in the intelligence assessments, and in discussions in the IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad.”

Of course this important information was also taken to the higher levels, to the PM and others.

The Israeli PM’s office has denied these allegations, as is understandable.

A little earlier Yair Lapid had told The Times of Israel in an interview—“all the signs, all the red flags, all the warnings” were there but Netanyahu “ignored them all”. (see report by Sam Sokol titled  “Lapid says Netanyahu knew for months before that a violent eruption was looming’ , The Times of Israel, August 31).  

This is certainly of great significance.

Commenting on this testimony of the former Prime Minister and present opposition leader, Yossi Vertner wrote in the Haaretz dated August 31, 2024 (see article titled ‘Netanyahu’s lies laid bare: How Israel ignored the roadmap to the October 7 disaster), “It is hard to overstate the importance of opposition leader Lapid’s statement before the civil commission of inquiry investigating the state’s failures on October 7. He lists briefing after briefing he received, piece after piece of intelligence he saw, warning after warning he heard, conversations he had with relevant ‘sources’, all in the relatively brief period of the summer of 2023.”

These statements must be seen together with a lot of other evidence.

Warnings of Surveillance Soldiers

An important role in the Israeli security system is assigned to Israeli women surveillance soldiers who are on duty at the long fence with Gaza. They are called tatzpitaniyot. They use security cameras and sensors to monitor the area on and around the fence carefully to look for any signs of unusual activity on 24X7 basis.

Several of these surveillance soldiers were killed in the October 7 attack, while some were also taken hostage.

Soon after the attack several of them spoke to Israeli media, including TV and print media, such as Kan News, Channel 12, Haaretz and others. What they stated is very important to understand what happened prior to October 7.

For about three months preceding the attack, these surveillance soldiers stated, they had started noticing highly unusual activities near the fence, most particularly relating to training by Hamas or persons similar to them.

They would create a replica of the fence wall, then breach it, then make it again and breach it again.

One of the surveillance soldiers Yael Rotenberg reported concentrated activity at two stretches on the section of the fence she was monitoring. On October 7 the fence was breached at both these places (among others). This shows how important such sightings were for real intelligence. 

Another training activity related to preparing replicas of the observers who guarded the posts, and then attacking them. Observers were attacked in a similar way on October 7.

Replicas of tanks used by Israel were prepared and attacked or captured in the training. Holes were dug and explosives were put in them. Drones were being used and landing quite close to the fence.

One surveillance officer Amit Yerushalmi told Israeli media,

“People went down to the fence and detonated an outrageous amount of explosives, the amount of explosives was crazy.”

She stated,

“The training went from once a week to twice a week, from every day to several times a day.”

Another surveillance soldier Maya Desiatnik told something very similar—the training was first once a week, then once a day, then constantly. She stated her understanding then was that now it is only a matter of time before something big will happen.

These activities being observed by the women surveillance soldiers were being regularly sent to their seniors, which means that these dispatches were being regularly read by their seniors for several weeks almost on daily basis, with more activities or more intense activity being reported with the passage of time.   

In any country this would have led to a state of very high alert and all possible actions would have been taken to go to the depth of what exactly is the implication of all this training activity near the border fence. All possible steps would have been taken to eliminate or minimize any threat posed by such activities. Steps would also have been taken to improve the security for the women surveillance soldiers themselves. While such action would be expected in any country, this would be expected even more in Israel which is known to have a very strong security and intelligence force which is reputed for its high levels of alertness and efficiency. What is more this alertness would have increased further in view of the warning of increased militant training activity coming so close to the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war (6 October 2023).

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Wrecks of Israeli and Egyptian armour stand directly opposed one another in a testament to the ferocity of the combat near the Suez Canal. (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

However from all available evidence, all the high alert dispatches sent by the women surveillance officers were almost entirely ignored as far as taking action on them to strengthen security is concerned. In fact one of the women surveillance soldiers in media reports has been quoted as saying while describing the situation on the day of the attack—half of the force was home for Sukkot (a religious event). This indicates that security was exceedingly weak on the day of the attack, much below what is available in normal times, instead of security being strengthened.

It is important to give careful consideration to these statements as these can help to improve the understanding of what was happening prior to October 7 and also what happened on October 7. These surveillance soldiers are after all in government service and may not be able to speak so freely later, although immediately after the tragedy in their distress they spoke to the media.

Videos of Training

After the October 7 attack on Israel there was a lot of interest of various media organizations in the various videos of military training by Hamas and related organizations, particularly those related to more recent times. Quite a few of these were in fact available on the internet and in social media as these were being rather freely shared. Hence various media organizations including reputed organizations could get a lot of these videos together to analyze these.

One important fact revealed by this analysis is that these videos often show the kind of military training which resembles what happened actually on October 7, or something very close to what happened.

Thus there are videos of breaching the formidable fences and tackling the surveillance systems (in fact three of the surveillance balloons had been sent for maintenance on the day of the attack and hence were not operational anyway) and even of hostages being taken.

As these videos were rather openly available in the weeks before the attack (also keeping in view the fact that several other warnings of planning of such attacks had been received), what would have been the most predictable response and role of the Israeli security forces in this context? As these forces are known to be very alert and aggressive, the most predictable response would have been to search where such trainings are being held and to take a very aggressive position to prevent such trainings. Secondly, even if they could not achieve this, the least they could be expected to do was to widely publicize these videos, such as those which depict hostages being taken, to tell the entire world regarding the dangerous plans of the Hamas as revealed by their own training, as a part of their propaganda against the Palestinian militants. Thirdly, on the side of caution, they should have taken further steps to strengthen the fencing and the surveillance to avoid these getting breached.

However none of this was done, from all available evidence. Amazingly, these videos of military training were simply ignored, as far as any effective action being taken on them is concerned.

When questioned regarding this were asked by journalists of reputed US media organizations whom they cannot ignore entirely, Israeli security officials have generally stated that we will examine all such things after the war is over. This is unlikely to happen anytime soon, and by the time the war is actually over so much more would have happened that it would be relatively easier to ignore such matters. Hence it is important to examine such issues now only, because such understanding would be very helpful in better comprehension of the wider reality that has been evolving in this volatile part of the world in recent weeks, happenings which increasingly have wider and very worrying implications for world peace and stability. It appears that deliberate efforts are being made to widen the conflict by some powerful persons and forces.

Suspicious Profits

The Washington Post reported on December 5, 2023 under the title ‘Traders earned millions anticipating October 7 Hamas attack, study says’—“Investors earned millions of dollars by short-selling Israeli stocks days ahead of Hamas’ October 7 attack, apparently profiting of foreknowledge of the bloody intrusion.” This is based on a study by Prof. Robert J. Jackson of New York University School of Law and Prof. Joshua Mitts of Columbia Law School. This has also been reported by the Economist and other media.

It is important to find out how such profit-making based on foreknowledge could have been possible in the context of an event that has been generally and officially seen as completely a surprise attack.

Some people may say that this could have been a guess based on the fact that 6 October 2023 was the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war but if this explanation is relevant then it would also follow that security should have been extraordinarily strict on and around this date while the reality was that it was found to be extraordinarily lax on and around October 7, with the bulk of the security force missing (diverted to other positions) and three surveillance balloons out of action too.

Egypt’s Warning

Representatives of some Arab countries such as Egypt as well as Michael McCaul, Chairman of US House Foreign Relations Committee, have stated that warnings of the attack were provided to the Israeli government days before the attack.

Hamas Quietly Helped Earlier by Israel

At least in early days creation and growth of Hamas was helped by Israel. Israeli authorities wanted to foster Hamas as a militant religious force to counter the secular Palestinian force of PLO, or the Palestinian Liberation Organization, as PLO had much greater chances of gaining international recognition. The thinking of the more aggressive elements among the Israeli authorities, with Netanyahu as their leader, was that if an organization which can be condemned as a terrorist organization internationally emerges in a leadership role of Palestinians, then it will be easier to keep denying to them equal rights and statehood. Of course today this may be denied by some Israeli spokespersons or Hamas spokespersons or their supporters, but this reality can be seen historically from the help given by Israel for the early form of Hamas to get established as a charity and then to emerge as a much bigger political force. Israel helped with money and also looked the other way as Hamas fought and ultimately ousted PLO and Fatah to become the number one political power in Gaza.

While all this is well-known, what may be more difficult is to try to find till what time precisely this support continued. It is true that Hamas and Israel fought each other many times in recent years, but there were also other instances of collaboration. In particular it has been mentioned in several reports that Israel facilitated the availability of a lot of money from Qatar or elsewhere reaching the Hamas. This would not be surprising as the basic reasoning of the Israeli constituency represented by Netanyahu remained that the two state solution could be best thwarted by ensuring firstly that the Palestinian leadership in Gaza remained in the hands of an organization which could be described in the international community (particularly the USA) and the UN as a terrorist organization, and secondly, a gulf could be maintained between Gaza led by Hamas and the West Bank led by the Palestinian Authority.

Thus there are quotes from as late as 2019 with Netanyahu telling a Likud Party meeting—anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. Further he said that this is part of a strategy to isolate Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank. In the same year a senior officer supportive of Netanyahu stated that the strategy of Netanyahu is to prevent the two states solution and towards this end “openly Hamas is an enemy, covertly Hamas is an ally.”  Finance Minister Smotrich has been quoted to have said that Hamas militancy, and hence its illegitimacy on the world stage, was a boon for the political strategy of his government. 

Now a question that needs to be explored further is that if the support of the Israeli deep establishment for the Hamas in some form had continued in the more recent years too, when apparently it was fighting Hamas, then what form this had taken and what kind of intermediaries were used for this purpose.

In this context also what former PM Yair Lapid, who was Prime Minister for approximately the last six months in 2022, has stated recently is important. He said that suitcases filled with money had been coming in from Qatar but when he was PM he saw to it that these were diverted to the UN and could be used for food vouchers.

However Lapid was PM only for a short time, and so what happened after he went out and Netanyahu came in? 

Facilitation of money from Qatar reaching Hamas till the recent past suggests that some kind of linkage had existed till very recently, and one question worth exploring is to what extent the linkage was between the more aggressive elements (only a few, of course) of the two sides.

 In addition Lapid has also stated that the past efforts of Israel to be helpful to Hamas constitute “the most serious political and security error in the country’s history.”     

NYT Report

The next point of discussion is that about one year before the attack the Israeli authorities came in possession of a document which has been called ‘the Jericho Wall’, as reported in the New York Times (report by Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman titled ‘Israel knew Hamas’s attack plan more than a year back’ in NYT in December 2023). The actual 10/7 attack was very much in accordance with what has been mentioned in this document. So clearly Israel had sufficient advance information about this. Why did they not take adequate actions and precautions based on this? The reason given has been that in the perception of Israeli officials the plan in the document was considered to be too ambitious compared to what the Hamas is capable of. This appears to be a highly unlikely response. Even if Israeli officials considered this to be genuinely overambitious, they could have used it to propagate the high aggressiveness of the Palestinians in general and of the Hamas in particular, instead of entirely ignoring such an important 40 page document.

One must also keep in mind, as mentioned in the NYT article, that in July 2023 an Israeli intelligence analyst had sent one more warning to her seniors that Hamas had organized a very similar type of military exercise recently (similar to what is mentioned in the plan). This too was, at the more apparent level, dismissed without taking the necessary actions and precautions. What is more likely is that both the Jericho Wall document and the July warning were actually known to very high level leaders including Netanyahu.

Weapons and Training

Another important point is that the October 7 or 10/7 attack needed the kind of weapons, equipment and training which were not possible to arrange without getting detected. As Gaza is a very small region where the presence of the Israeli intelligence agencies, generally known for high efficiency , is very high and this is in addition to the presence of other intelligence agencies which are friendly to Israel and share intelligence with it. Hence both keeping in view this factor as well as the prior availability of the Jericho document, it seems highly unlikely that the Israeli intelligence and leadership were not aware of the preparations being made for 10/7 over a fairly long period.

Lax Security

The next point is the one made by leading journalist Seymour Hersh quoting insiders that a significant part of the soldiers guarding Gaza-Israel border were removed just before the attack for providing security for a festival so that the region which was attacked was left with a very small security force around the time of the attack, probably just a third of the regular security force. Was this just a remarkable co-incidence, sudden luck for Hamas and sudden misfortune for Israelis, or was there something more to this?

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Militant abducting a man during the Re’im music festival massacre that left at least 360 people dead and others taken hostage (From the Public Domain)

Strange Response

Finally, we have increasing evidence that several of the Israelis killed in the 10/7 attack were actually killed by Israeli forces, including by tank and helicopter gun firing which caused the kind of damage to cars and buildings that Hamas weapons could not have caused, the official explanation being that these killings took place in the process of crossfire, rescue effort and to prevent hostages being taken (the Hannibal doctrine has also been mentioned in this context). Whatever the explanation, the fact remains that the tragedy of loss of lives of innocent persons became bigger because of some killings caused by Israeli firing (in addition to those killed by Hamas attack). Lastly, there have also been reports of cars crushed and having blood on them being hastily removed or even buried citing religious reasons, while others have alleged that this amounts to removing evidence relating to an attack or a crime.

If we add all these points then the conclusion appears to be different from the official narrative of a very sudden unexpected attack mounted by the Hamas on its own after making long preparations with all this remaining completed undetected from Israel authorities.

Events After October 7

The extremely disproportionate response of Israel first in Gaza and subsequently also in West Bank has raised the question whether Netanyahu, as a highly aggressive leader but also a leader chased by serious corruption charges and attempts of weakening judiciary, facing serious risk of imprisonment, wanted a way out of the mess by launching huge attacks on Palestinians but needed a pretext for this.

If this is a possibility, then two alternative explanations of 10/7 are possible.

One is that Hamas (plus any allied organization) was independently planning an attack. Keeping in view the usefulness of this for a much bigger counter-attack later, Netanyahu and company turned a blind eye to whatever warnings they got so that after the attack they can launch a much, much bigger counter-attack, perhaps aimed at driving out as many Palestinians as possible from their present homes, and creating such terror for them that they agree to leave.

 The second possibility is that there was some sort of understanding between the most aggressive elements on the two sides, known only to very few, that a terror attack at a certain time on Israel up to a certain time limit, say a few hours, would go relatively less defended and there would be lower than normal security arrangements in place.

Rapid Mobilization of Weapons

For its highly disproportionate response Israel quickly needed additional huge imports of many more weapons. In the case of one important supplier Germany it has been reported that weapon supply to Israel increased by as much as about ten times in 2023 compared to 2022, with most increase taking place after 10/7, but some increase even before this. As it is difficult to increase weapon supplies on such a massive scale in so short a period, questions arise regarding whether Israel had sounded the main weapon suppliers well in advance regarding the huge increase, and if this was indeed the case, then this would indicate that there was foreknowledge of the 10/7 attack and the planned counter-attack. Again a question arises whether at least a hint of any such foreknowledge was shared with the most important weapon suppliers and friends.

Hence alternative explanations of 10/7 should also be considered, also in view of the increasing domestic problems of Netanyahu as well as the extremely disproportionate response from Israel resulting in a hugely tragic and distressing situation. In addition, it is also very worrying that possibilities of a widening of the conflict have emerged at a time when the world really needs peace.

Of course only a well-resourced and proper unbiased investigation can provide the most reliable answers but there appears to be adequate reason at least to raise these questions. These issues are worth exploring in detail not just for the sake of it, but because if there is a significant element of truth here, then this can provide a powerful means of strengthening the forces of peace and isolating the forces of extreme aggression. It is sometimes seen that the most aggressive elements on two sides of a conflict feed on each other’s aggression and hence may be maintaining some links to advance their mutual interests, not always of course but in certain stages . It is best that such links, if any, are exposed and forces of peace with justice are strengthened on both sides. 

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image: Yair Lapid (R) with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who recently visited the Middle East. (Image tweeted by Yair Lapid)

On a Highway to Hell: Nuclear Weapons Offer an Illusion of Security. Scott Ritter

September 3rd, 2024 by Scott Ritter

Nuclear weapons offer an illusion of security. By allowing the U.S. nuclear posture to shift from deterrence to employment, there will be a scenario where the U.S. will use nuclear weapons. And then it’s lights out.

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An interesting thing happened on the road to Armageddon.

In January 2017, then-Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, warned about the dangers inherent in expanding funding for, and by extension increasing the importance of, nuclear weapons.

“If future budgets reverse the choices we’ve made, and pour additional money into a nuclear buildup,” said Biden — referring to Obama administration policies that included secured the New START Treaty limiting the size of the U.S. and  Russian nuclear arsenals —  “it hearkens back to the Cold War and will do nothing to increase the day-to-day security of the United States or our allies.”

Later, in 2019, Biden, now a candidate for president, commented on the decision made by President Donald Trump to deploy two missile systems — a cruise missile still under development, and the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile deployed onboard the U.S. Navy’s Ohio-class submarines —armed with a new low-yield nuclear warhead.

“The United States does not need new nuclear weapons,” Biden declared in a written answer to questions posed by the Council for a Livable World. “Our current arsenal of weapons…is sufficient to meet our deterrence and alliance requirements.”

In an article published in the March/April 2020 issue of Foreign Affairs, candidate Biden vowed to “renew our commitment to arms control for a new era,” including a pledge to “pursue an extension of the New START treaty, an anchor of strategic stability between the United States and Russia, and use that as a foundation for new arms control arrangements.”

Biden went on to declare that “that the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal should be deterring—and, if necessary, retaliating against—a nuclear attack. As president, I will work to put that belief into practice, in consultation with the U.S. military and U.S. allies.”

Biden prevailed over Trump in the 2020 Presidential election, and on Jan. 21, 2021, was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

And then…nothing.

Copying Trump’s Pre-Emptive Strike

 

Aerial view of Pentagon at night. (Joe Lauria)

In March 2022, after much speculation about whether or not Biden would follow through with his pledge to implement a “sole purpose” nuclear policy, the Biden administration published the 2022 edition of the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a Congressionally-mandated document which describes United States nuclear strategy, policy, posture, and forces in support of the National Security Strategy (NSS) and National Defense Strategy (NDS).

It was a near carbon-copy of the February 2018 NPR published by the Trump administration, including language which enshrined as doctrine the U.S. ability to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively, even in scenarios that did not involve a nuclear threat.

In December 2022, during a reunion of personnel involved in the negotiation and implementation of the landmark 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty, a senior Biden administration arms control official was asked by a veteran arms controller why Biden had backed away from his pledge regarding the “sole purpose” doctrine.

“The inter-agency wasn’t ready for it,” this official replied.

The “inter-agency” the official was referring to is the amalgam of departments and agencies, staffed by unelected career civil servants and military professionals who serve as the executioners of policy regarding America’s nuclear enterprise.

It was a surprising, and extremely disappointing, admission on the part of an official whose oath of office bound him or her to the bedrock constitutional principle of executive authority and civilian control of the military.

Biden had, even before being sworn in, received push-back regarding any alterations in the nuclear doctrine of the United States.

In September 2020, Admiral Charle Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, responsible for America’s nuclear arsenal, warned that,

“We are on a trajectory, for the first time in our nation’s history, to face two peer nuclear-capable competitors.”

Richard was referring to the nuclear arsenals of Russia and China.

Once he became president, Biden was immediately confronted with two major challenges for which he was ill-equipped to handle — the Russian-Ukraine crisis, and China’s assertion of its national interests over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Both involved the potential of military escalation leading up to direct force-on-force conflict between the U.S. military and their Russian and Chinese counterparts, both of which included the possibility of nuclear war.

The Russian initiation of its “Special Military Operation” against Ukraine, in February 2022, brought with it the inherent risk of escalation with NATO, leading to Russian threats about the potential for nuclear weapons use if NATO decided to directly intervene in Ukraine.

And a November 2022 Pentagon report forecast that China would increase its nuclear arsenal from around 400 weapons to more than 1,500 by 2035.

The New START treaty limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550 each for the U.S. and Russia. The treaty was negotiated on the principle of bilateral reciprocity.

With the U.S. facing a potential Chinese nuclear arsenal of 1,500 weapons, and the existing Russian arsenal of around the same, it was clear that, left unchecked, the U.S. was going to find itself in a disadvantageous position when it came to its strategic nuclear forces.

While the NPR provides a general policy statement regarding the U.S. nuclear arsenal, there are two more documents — the President’s Nuclear Employment Guidance and the Secretary of Defense’s Nuclear Weapons Employment Planning and Posture Guidance — that direct planning for actual employment of nuclear weapons consistent with national policy.

The last Nuclear Employment Guidance document, published in 2019, was responsive to the 2018 NPR. This guidance fully incorporated the new low-yield W-76-2 nuclear warhead into the nuclear employment plans of the United States. It did the same for the new generation of B-61 gravity bombs that constitute NATO’s nuclear deterrence force.

The employment plans, which were based upon the concept of “escalate to de-escalate” (i.e. by using a small nuclear weapon, the U.S. and NATO would deter Russia from escalating out of fear of bringing on a general nuclear exchange.)

In short, America’s nuclear war plans were front loaded for the localized employment of nuclear weapons against both a Russian and Chinese threat.

This U.S. nuclear war plan was premised on the ability to deter Russian nuclear escalation and deter or defeat China’s nuclear force using the number of nuclear warheads permitted under the caps implemented by the New START treaty. 

Facing a Stronger Nuclear China

However, the Biden administration is now confronted with the possibility and or probability of a much larger, capable Chinese strategic nuclear force capable of surviving a limited U.S. first-strike and delivering a nation-killing nuclear payload to U.S. soil in retaliation.

To adjust to this new reality, the U.S. would need to allocate nuclear warheads currently targeted against Russia onto China. This would require that the U.S. not only develop revised target lists for both Russia and China, but also rethink targeting strategies in general, looking to maximum physical destruction over political impact.

More dangerously, the U.S. would have to look at employment strategies that maximized the element of surprise to ensure all targets were hit by their designated weapons. This would require a change in the readiness posture and operational deployment areas of U.S. nuclear forces.

With increased readiness comes the need for vigilance against any preemption efforts by a potential nuclear adversary, meaning that U.S. nuclear forces will be placed on a higher alert status.

In short, the risk of nuclear war, inadvertent or otherwise, has become exponentially greater.

In March the Biden administration reportedly issued a new Nuclear Employment Guidance document reflecting this reality.

Nowhere in this guidance is there consideration for using arms control as a means of managing the nuclear equation, either by extending the New START treaty, or working with China to prevent a Chinese nuclear breakout.

Instead, the U.S. appears to be concerned about the erosion of nuclear deterrence that will be brought about by diverting weapons dedicated to non-Chinese contingencies. When seen in this light, the answer to the problem is more, not fewer, nuclear weapons.

This is why the U.S. is going to let the New START treaty lapse in February 2026 — once the treaty goes away, so, too, does the cap on the number of deployed warheads, and the U.S. nuclear establishment will be able to build up the U.S. operational nuclear arsenal so that there are enough weapons for every designated target.

The world is becoming a very dangerous place.

Nuclear weapons offer the illusion of security.

By allowing the U.S. nuclear posture to shift away from deterrence toward warfighting, all we guarantee is that eventually there will be a warfighting scenario where the U.S. will end up using nuclear weapons.

And then we all die.

We are, literally, on a Highway to Hell.

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Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. His most recent book is Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, published by Clarity Press.

Featured image: A front view of four nuclear free-fall B61s on a bomb rack at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, 1986. (DoD, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons)

WWIII Scenario“Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War” 

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-5-3
Year: 2012
Pages: 102

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Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which hosts the critically acclaimed website www.globalresearch.ca. He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Reviews

“This book is a ‘must’ resource – a richly documented and systematic diagnosis of the supremely pathological geo-strategic planning of US wars since ‘9-11’ against non-nuclear countries to seize their oil fields and resources under cover of ‘freedom and democracy’.”
–John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy, Guelph University

“In a world where engineered, pre-emptive, or more fashionably “humanitarian” wars of aggression have become the norm, this challenging book may be our final wake-up call.”
-Denis Halliday, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations

Michel Chossudovsky exposes the insanity of our privatized war machine. Iran is being targeted with nuclear weapons as part of a war agenda built on distortions and lies for the purpose of private profit. The real aims are oil, financial hegemony and global control. The price could be nuclear holocaust. When weapons become the hottest export of the world’s only superpower, and diplomats work as salesmen for the defense industry, the whole world is recklessly endangered. If we must have a military, it belongs entirely in the public sector. No one should profit from mass death and destruction.
–Ellen Brown, author of ‘Web of Debt’ and president of the Public Banking Institute   

The Decline of Summer Festivals: How the Nuclear Family, Globalisation of Food Production, and International Trade and Travel Has Changed Our Relationship with Nature

September 3rd, 2024 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin

Traditional summer festivals have always revolved around the solstice and bonfires on the feast of St. John (24 June) in many countries.

Maypole dancing was also an important aspect of some rural and agricultural summer events, and other summer festivals like Ferragosto (15 August), involved celebrating the early fruits of the harvest and resting after months of hard work. The summer solstice was seen as the height of the powers of the sun which has been observed since the Neolithic era as many ancient monuments throughout Eurasia and the Americas aligned with sunrise or sunset at this time. In the ancient Roman world, the traditional date of the summer solstice was 24 June, and “Marcus Terentius Varro wrote in the 1st century BCE that Romans saw this as the middle of summer.”

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Saint John’s Fire with festivities in front of a Christian calvary shrine in Brittany, 1893

 

Ferragosto (Feriae Augusti (‘Festivals [Holidays] of the Emperor Augustus’) were celebrated in Roman times on August 1st “with horse racing, parties and lavish floral decorations. Inspired by the pagan festival for Conso [Consus], the Roman god of land and fertility.” 

The pagan Italian deity, Consus, who was a partner of the goddess of abundance, Ops is believed to have come from condere (“to store away”), and so was probably the god of grain storage. The holiday of the Emperor Augustus was celebrated during the month of August with events based around the harvest and the end of agricultural work, and involved the rural community who were able to take a break from the back-breaking work of the previous weeks. In the 7th century, the Catholic Church in Italy adopted the holiday but changed the date of celebration from August 1st to August 15, to coincide with the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary so as “to impose a Christian ideology onto the pre-existing celebration”.

Therefore, historically the midsummer festivities ranged from mid June to mid August as the strength of the sun went into decline and the fruits of the harvest were beginning to come in.

However, compared to the other seasonal festivals, such as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, which have a very strong presence in the media and in the shops, but not the summer festivals. Why is this? Except for commercial music and arts festivals, there are no major commercialised products associated with the historical summer agricultural and fertility rites. For example, Christmas’s rebirth is associated with Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and the giving of presents. Easter’s new life festival is celebrated with dyed eggs, chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies. Halloween’s reminders of death and the departed are celebrated with ‘trick or treating’, pumpkins, and bonfires.

In all these cases the combination of commercialisation and tradition has seen reciprocal relationships as one feeds off the other. The globalised media and cinema indulge in the myths of each season creating updated versions of their traditions that result in new economic and cultural products, for example, the growing of pumpkins in Ireland to replace the original turnip lanterns that the Irish brought to the USA, or new movies based on new twists on the myths of Christmas. These aspects keep nature-based pagan festivals alive in the mind of the public throughout most of the year.

Not so with summer. In general there seems to be no particular object or tradition to exploit or commercialise, or at least not yet. There are various possible reasons.

 

The Feast of Saint John by Jules Breton (1875).

 

In the last 100 years or so we have seen a societal change from the community to the nuclear family.

The general increase in wealth since the 1960s has resulted in mass international travel for summer holidays and tourism. The overall result of these changes in family, lifestyle, and  the growth of non-agricultural occupations has seen people becoming more and more disconnected from the land and the agricultural traditions associated with farming and harvests. This was combined with the monopolisation and globalisation of agricultural production, and the international trade of agricultural goods.

Despite all of this, there are midsummer traditions that are persisting, although with a much lower profile than the other seasonal festivities.

What were the summer pagan traditions? Probably the strongest of the summer traditions is the bonfires of the feast of St. John. In the 13th century CE, a Christian monk of Lilleshall Abbey in England, wrote:

“In the worship of St John, men waken at even, and maken three manner of fires: one is clean bones and no wood, and is called a bonfire; another is of clean wood and no bones, and is called a wakefire, for men sitteth and wake by it; the third is made of bones and wood, and is called St John’s Fire.”

In Ireland, St John’s Eve bonfires are still lit on hilltops in various parts of the country. According to Marion McGarry:

“Since the distant past, bonfires lit by humans at midsummer greeted the sun at the height of its powers in the sky. The accompanying ritual celebrations were primal, restorative, linked with fertility and growth. Midsummer and the time around St John’s Day have been traditionally celebrated throughout Europe.”

 

Midsummer festival bonfire (Mäntsälä, Finland)

 

The bonfires were associated with purification and luck. Every aspect of the fire was important and taken into account: the flames, the smoke, the hot embers, and even the ash:

“Jumping through the bonfire was a common custom. A farmer might do this to ensure a bigger yield for his crops or livestock, while engaged couples would jump together as a sort of pre-wedding purification ritual. Single people jumped through in the hope it would bring them a future spouse. Finally, the fire was raked over and any cattle not yet at the summer pasture were driven through the smouldering smoke and ashes to ensure good luck. The remaining ash was scattered over crops or could be mixed into building materials to encourage good luck in a building. The ash was considered curative too, and some mixed it with water and drank as medicine. Embers were brought into the house as protective talismans.”

It was reported that John Millington Synge (playwright) and his friend, Jack B. Yeats (artist and illustrator) attended a St. John’s Eve celebrationon a visit to County Mayo, Ireland, in 1905. At first, “they had been saddened by the depressed state of the area, but then Synge is quoted as saying: “…the impression one gets of the whole life is not a gloomy one. Last night was St. John’s Eve, and bonfires – a relic of Druidical rites – were lighted all over the country, the largest of all being in the town square of Belmullet, where a crowd of small boys shrieked and cheered and threw up firebrands for hours together.” Yeats remembered a little girl in the crowd, in an ecstasy of pleasure and dread, clutching Synge by the hand and standing close in his shadow until the fiery games were over.”

Bonfires were lit to honor the sun and to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southward again. They were “both a celebration of and devotion to the natural world.”

Maypoles were erected either in May or at midsummer as part of European festivals and usually involved dancing around the maypole by members of the community. It is not known exactly what the symbolism of dancing around the maypole is but most theories revolve around pagan ideas, e.g., Germanic reverence for sacred trees or as an ornament to bring good luck to the community. In England:

“the dance is performed by pairs of boys and girls (or men and women) who stand alternately around the base of the pole, each holding the end of a ribbon. They weave in and around each other, boys going one way and girls going the other and the ribbons are woven together around the pole until they meet at the base.”

 

Dance around the Maypole by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, 16th century

 

In general, the importance of festive holidays lies in their value for reconnecting with family, friends and community. Michele L. Brennan examines the psychological aspects of traditional celebrations:

“Holiday traditions are essentially ritualistic behaviors that nurture us and our relationships. They are primal parts of us, which have survived since the dawn of man. Traditional celebrations of holidays has been around as long as recorded history. Holiday traditions are an important part to building a strong bond between family, and our community. They give us a sense of belonging and a way to express what is important to us. They connect us to our history and help us celebrate generations of family. Children crave the comfort and security that comes with traditions and predictability. This takes away the anxiety of the unknown and unpredictable.”

 

Maypole dance during Victoria Day in Quebec, Canada, 24 May 1934

 

The seasonal festivals were based on the very real fear and anxiety of human survival, focussing on the means of sustenance: agricultural production. The vagaries of weather patterns meant that there was never any guarantee that fruits and crops would survive until successful harvesting.

While much of this anxiety was quelled by changes in the agricultural production methods of the twentieth century. However, now, in the twenty-first century, there is an ever growing recognition that modern agricultural systems are untenable, and that a new emphasis on alternative and sustainable food growing practices is essential:

“Increasingly, food growers around the world are recognizing that modern agricultural systems are unsustainable. Practices such as monocultures and excessive tilling degrade the soil and encourage pests and diseases. The artificial fertilizers and pesticides that farmers use to address these problems pollute the soil and water and harm the many organisms upon which successful agriculture depends, from pollinating bees and butterflies to the farm workers who plant, tend and harvest our crops. As the soil deteriorates, it is able to hold less water, causing farmers to strain already depleted water reservoirs.”

However, this in contrast with technocratic elites who have a very different perspective on the future of food, as Colin Todhunter writes:

“It involves a shift towards a ‘one world agriculture’ under the control of agritech and the data giants, which is to be based on genetically engineered seeds, laboratory created products that resemble food, ‘precision’ and ‘data-driven’ agriculture and farming without farmers, with the entire agrifood chain, from field (or lab) to retail, being governed by monopolistic e-commerce platforms determined by artificial intelligence systems and algorithms.”

While science and education has contributed to the changes in beliefs associated with ancient traditions revolving around purification and fertility, the psychological aspects of traditional holidays remain important. Furthermore, the growing awareness of the importance of good organic food is gradually competing with the monopolistic trends of globalist agritech.

The observance of traditional festivals, with their emphasis on nature and the annual cycle of seasonal changes focus attention on the here-and-now, on living according to our means and resources, and is a far cry from the teleological ideologies of patriarchal religion. The Christian church diverted people’s attention away from a practical, scientific cosmology towards their own heroes and saints who provided individualistic examples of concern for one’s own destiny after death and ‘judgement’ in the far future, as being more important than our present relationship with nature.

Over the centuries this process formed a gradual alienation of people away from nature itself, helped along now by the constant monopolisation of land, and the growth of agritech giants.

Instead of respecting the land, farmers use intensive farming to maximize yields, using more and more fertilizer and pesticides, depleting the nutrients of the soil and causing desertification to spread. When I was growing up, local annual horticultural festivals and competitions emphasised diversity, production over consumption, and quality food produced locally. Traditional festivals, with their focus on sun cycles and the seasons, complemented and structured our relationship with nature, as well as work and rest, life and death.

It is necessary to re-focus our attention back on this life, on how we plan to organise our basic sustenance into the future, and in a sustainable way, before others turn nature into a desert, a dust bowl of gigantic proportions, in their constant, remorseless drive to convert the earth into profit. 

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Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist, lecturer and writer. His artwork consists of paintings based on contemporary geopolitical themes as well as Irish history and cityscapes of Dublin. His blog of critical writing based on cinema, art and politics along with research on a database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world can be viewed country by country here. Caoimhghin has just published his new book – Against Romanticism: From Enlightenment to Enfrightenment and the Culture of Slavery, which looks at philosophy, politics and the history of 10 different art forms arguing that Romanticism is dominating modern culture to the detriment of Enlightenment ideals. It is available on Amazon (amazon.co.uk) and the info page is here. 

Featured image: Bonfire Night, St. John’s Eve by Jack Butler Yeats (Ireland)

Germany Elections and Its Growing Economic and Political Crisis

September 3rd, 2024 by Dr. Jack Rasmus

The German economy had been long hailed as the economic ‘engine’ of Europe. If so, it clearly needs a major ‘valve job’ and is running on only 5, or maybe 4, cylinders.

It is in recession that will no doubt deteriorate further. Politically, it is also becoming more unstable as the right wing Afd party, and the newly formed left party led by Susan Wagenacht, are about to register major gains within days in German regional elections now underway.

The ruling SPD Sholz coalition with Greens–both strong proponents of support of Ukraine with weapons and funding until recently–last week announced it would provide no further funds or weapons for Ukraine. The unpopularity for the SPD support for that war is widespread now, as is public opinion about Sholz’s handling of what can only be called the de-industrialization of Germany.

Recent German public revelations that German police investigations revealed Ukraine special forces, with NATO assistance, were responsible for blowing up Germany’s Nordstream pipeline in September 2022, and the fact Sholz’s government has remained silent about the matter–except to complain to Poland as one of the saboteurs of the pipeline’s destruction, a Ukrainian businessmen, successfully fled to Poland which allowed him to make his way back to Ukraine.

German public opinion is also complaining the Sholz government has also meekly addressed policies of the USA since 2022 responsible for Germany’s continuing economic decline as well. Not just the US direction of the sabotage of the Nordstream pipeline but subsequent economic policies of the USA that have been undermining Germany’s economy as well: in particular the USA’s oil companies’ charging natural gas imports to Germany costing 3X and 4X that formerly charged by Russia; the Biden administration announced tax and trade policies that have been now luring German business investments to the USA that otherwise might have been invested in Germany itself; and US convincing EU supra-elites in the EU Commission to join the US in sanctioning and raising tariffs on China imports to the EU.

The declining condition of Germany’s economy as the ‘economic engine’ of Europe reveals that perhaps the ‘Plan B’ purpose of Biden/US Russia sanctions on Russia has been to make Germany/EU more economically dependent on the USA. Even if those same sanctions haven’t proven successful with regard to ‘Plan A’ which was has been precipitating the economic instability of Russia!

The USA sanctions policy has thus succeeded re. making Europe more dependent on the USA–even if that policy has failed with regard to destabilizing Russia’s economy and the Putin regime.

A recent post by UK economist and political commentator, Michael Roberts, has gathered extensive data with charts revealing the depth and extent of the growing crisis in Germany’s economy and electoral alignments as of today.

My only ‘critique’, if it can even be called that, of Roberts’ data and data that show conclusively the serious condition of Germany as the engine of Europe is he perhaps might have discussed more how US economic policies have seriously contributed to the decline in Germany and the growing economic (and political) dependence of it, and Europe itself, on the USA as a result of those US policies.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blogsite, Jack Rasmus.

Dr. Rasmus is author of the books, ‘Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes’, Clarity Press, 2017 and ‘Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed’, Lexington Books, 2020. Follow his commentary on the emerging banking crisis on his blog, https://jackrasmus.com; on twitter daily @drjackrasmus; and his weekly radio show, Alternative Visions on the Progressive Radio Network every Friday at 2pm eastern and at https://alternativevisions.podbean.com.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed

By Jack Rasmus

Publisher:‎ Lexington Books (February 28, 2019)

Hardcover: ‎146 pages

ISBN-10:‎ 1498582842

ISBN-13:‎ 978-1498582841

Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed describes how US federal governments, often in cooperation with the largest US private banks, introduced and expanded central banking functions from 1781 through the creation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Based on an analysis of the evolution of the US banking system – from pre-1781, through the 1787 US Constitutional Convention, Congressional debates on Hamilton’s reports to Congress, the rise and fall of the 1st and 2nd Banks of the United States, and through the long period of the National Banking System form 1862-1913, the book shows how central banking in the US evolved out of the private banking system, and how following the financial crash of 1907 big New York banks pushed through Congress the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating a central bank which they then managed for their interests.

Click here to purchase.

Israel’s West Bank Attacks Fuel Its Annexation Plans. It’s Genocide

September 2nd, 2024 by Jonah Valdez

During a trip to the West Bank to conduct research and visit her family in Nablus in 2022, Yara Asi remembered the moments when Israel’s military besieged the city, a major economic hub for the region, in an effort to weed out militants living there. 

“Surely the world is going to intervene and they’re not going to let this major city be closed,” Asi recalled thinking. 

The military siege lasted more than three weeks, killing more than 23 Palestinians across the territory. That year, Israeli raids and airstrikes killed more than 150 Palestinians, marking the deadliest year for the West Bank since 2006. The attacks — and the loss of life — continued into 2023 and have only accelerated since then.

While most eyes remain on Gaza, Israeli military attacks on the West Bank killed more than 594 since October 7, including 115 children who were killed by live ammunition, and 1,411 children injured, according to the United Nations. Around a dozen of those deaths can be attributed to violence by extremist Israeli settlers.

“Nobody intervened — nothing happened — and since then we’ve seen military incursions increasing and increasing, and I don’t see any real movement or even critique,” said Asi, a professor at the University of Central Florida and policy member at the think tank Al-Shabaka.

This week, Israel expanded its military campaign in the West Bank with raids and airstrikes on the cities of Tulkarem, Jenin, and Tubas, marking its largest attack in the occupied territory since 2002 during the Second Intifada. In the span of three days, the Israeli military has killed at least 20 Palestinians in preemptive strikes. Footage has shown bulldozers destroying roads and other civilian infrastructure in the area. One strike at the Nur Shams refugee camp left five dead, including two boys, 13 and 15.

INTERACTIVE - Israeli assaults map West Bank Jenin-1725175349

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on the military to “take care of the threat in the exact way terror infrastructure in Gaza is taken care of, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and every other necessary step.”

“This is a war for everything and we must win it,” he wrote in a statement, according to English translations from Hebrew in several reports. The statement prompted concerns from Palestinians who fear the level of destruction seen in Gaza may be imminent in the West Bank.

While the United Nations human rights office said the strikes are in violation of international law, the U.S. reiterated Israel’s right to carry out “very real security needs, which includes countering terrorist activity in the West Bank,” according to a State Department statement to Middle East Eye.

The fear amid this climate, Asi said, is that such strikes could permanently push Palestinians out of the territory. 

“For the first time, I’m really wondering: Will there be a place called Palestine for my kids and grandkids to go to?” said Asi, who was born in Nablus and immigrated to the U.S. in 1989 with her father when she was 4. While growing up, she continued to visit family each summer. 

“I always figured the occupation would last, and it will never be good,” she said. “Now, I’m wondering, will it be at all? And that’s really terrifying.”

For Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, such concerns of continued ethnic cleansing of the region are not unfounded. The nature of Israel’s strikes in the West Bank reveal what he says is Israel’s real motivation: total control of the region.

“This should be seen in the context of an ongoing and decades-long effort to slowly but surely annex as much Palestinian territory as possible,” Parsi said. “There was never an attack from the West Bank, and Hamas is not the dominant force in the West Bank, and it goes to show that this is not as much about Hamas as it is about the Israeli state’s long-term plan to eliminate, wipe Palestine off the map.”

Parsi said the Israeli government is capitalizing on a moment in which it has faced little accountability from the international community, most prominently, the United States.

“The strategy has always been to take advantage of moments in the international community where Israel can get away with as much as possible,” he said.

Evidence of human rights violations continues to mount in Israel’s operations in Gaza, including bombing civilians and civilian infrastructure such as hospitals; blocking aid; and torturing and abusing Palestinian detainees from both Gaza and the West Bank in its prisons. Israel’s leaders face potential war crime charges from the International Criminal Court, along with an ongoing genocide case within the U.N. International Court of Justice. A growing number of Democrats have pushed President Joe Biden to follow U.S. law, which bars the transfer of military aid if there is any evidence of human rights violations. 

Even so, Israel has enjoyed the continued support from the U.S., with Biden’s administration continuing to send weapons.

According to Muhannad Ayyash, a professor of sociology at Mount Royal University and policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, Israel’s logic is simple:

“If we can get away with what we’re doing in Gaza, we can get away with it in the West Bank.”

“The context of the attack on the West Bank is that Israel sees basically an opportunity to continue to build toward its project of Greater Israel,” continued Ayyash, referring to the historical vision of Zionism in the region. 

Yousef Munayyer, a political analyst who heads the Palestine/Israel Program at the D.C.-based Arab Center, called U.S. policy toward Israel, “a completely disjointed policy” with no vision beyond “allowing Israel to dominate.” 

“We shouldn’t be surprised that the Israeli military feels that it has free reign when that’s the message that’s coming from its number one supporter and supplier,” he said.

This level of support, said Quincy Institute’s Parsi, also hurts the standing of the U.S. within the international community, such as in the U.N. Security Council, where America has largely stood isolated from other member nations. Decades of U.S. involvement in other Middle East conflicts have hurt its international standing as well, he said. 

“All of these different things have weakened the U.S.,” he said. “And on top of that, we’re seeing a generation of Americans that will have a lower standard of living than their parents on average, which is to a very large extent, a result of the massive amount of money and treasure and blood that has been wasted on these needless wars.” 

Despite rhetoric from Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris supporting a two-state solution — which the international community has widely backed — the U.S. has shown little effort in actually getting Israel to end its illegal occupation.

Khaled Elgindy, who has served as an adviser to Palestinian leadership in several joint efforts with Israel and the U.S. to create a plan toward Palestinian statehood throughout the 2000s, said he has never felt further from a two-state solution. 

He sees the recent strikes in the West Bank, as well as the exchange of strikes with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as part of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to prompt a regional war to further appease his far-right coalition and to maintain power. 

“Is the endgame for Netanyahu ‘I’m just continuing to fight on as many fronts as we can create to keep everyone off-balance and prolong my stay in power’?” Elgindy said, “while satisfying his extremist flank who would love nothing more than to see evacuations in the West Bank.”

Elgindy, a senior fellow and director at the Middle East Institute, compared the scale of the attacks to strikes carried out by Israel’s military during the Second Intifada in 2002. Those strikes, however, followed a series of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants, which killed dozens of Israeli civilians. Today, in an environment in which the Israeli government has accused UNRWA, the main aid provider for Palestinians in Gaza, of being a front for terrorists, Elgindy worried such loose definitions would lead to further loss of life in the West Bank in what Israel deems counter-terror efforts. (The Israeli government alleged 12 UNRWA aid workers were involved in the October 7 attacks, though an independent review found Israel did not provide evidence to back its claim.)

Each year when Asi would return to Nablus, she would observe living conditions worsening amid the tightening grip of Israeli forces. Although her relatives are carrying on with their lives in the West Bank, she has heard of more young people expressing interest in immigrating to Europe or Kuwait. Military raids, which in the past were usually carried out by night, have been increasing in frequency at all hours, limiting the freedom of movement. Settler violence, often facilitated by Israeli forces, is also worsening.

“Even the elders of the family who have seen it all — lived through ’67, lived through the intifadas, Oslo — they’re like, ‘This is the worst it’s ever been,’” Asi said. 

“People who pride themselves on being resilient and not being afraid as part of their Palestinian identity, they are genuinely afraid,” she continued.

“To leave one’s house, especially if you have a son, is to have a real material fear of death. … If something happens, there’s not going to be an investigation, there’s not going to be a tribunal: It’s going to just be another statistic.”

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Featured image is a screenshot from the video from X above

Close Russian Partner Algeria Wants Wagner to Withdraw from Mali

September 2nd, 2024 by Andrew Korybko

The best scenario is that Algeria candidly explains its interests in this conflict to Russia and pledges not to provide any material support to the Tuaregs as a goodwill gesture for maintaining their strategic partnership.

Algeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ammar Benjamaa told the Security Council last week that “We need to stop the violations committed by private armies employed by some countries” in Mali after a deadly drone attack against the border town of Tinzaouaten where Wagner was ambushed in late July. His words implied that this Russian PMC was to blame for the civilian deaths there, which comes amidst simmering Russian-Algerian tensions over its role in helping Mali defeat terrorist-designated separatists.

Algeria disagreed with Mali’s decision to scrap the 2015 Algiers Agreement in early January that was supposed to give the Tuaregs partial autonomy after the several conflicts that they initiated over the decades to this end. That development sparked the resumption of hostilities that climaxed over the summer with the abovementioned ambush that was reportedly supported by Ukraine and Poland. Readers can learn more about the New Cold War’s latest proxy war here.

The preceding hyperlinked analysis warned that Algeria might align with Western interests in this conflict due to its national security concerns in spite of being dependent on Russian military supplies, which is gradually happening as proven by Benjamaa’s provocative statement to the UNSC. It doesn’t matter that he expressed it “diplomatically” since even casual observers could see that he was referencing Wagner and alleging that it’s responsible for civilian deaths in Mali like the US has previously claimed.

Nevertheless, there are limits to how far Algeria will go in this regard since it’s also simultaneously at odds with the West and especially the US over their support of Morocco with whom Algeria has been feuding for decades over the unresolved Western Sahara Conflict. Whatever material support that it might provide the Tuaregs (or perhaps is already providing) therefore wouldn’t be coordinated with the West, but it might very well coordinate political support for them as well as anti-Wagner propaganda.

From Algeria’s perspective, the Algiers Agreement’s granting of partial autonomy to the Tuaregs is the only way to sustainably resolve this long-running conflict on its doorstep, which is why it opposed Mali’s scrapping of that accord and is also against Wagner’s efforts to help it defeat those separatists. The resultant resumption of hostilities has also reportedly seen the Tuaregs once again align with religious extremists and caused a growing humanitarian crisis that’s spilling into its southern border.

It was this last-mentioned dimension that prompted Benjamaa to air his thinly veiled complaint about Wagner at the UNSC in a sign that Algeria believes that the Algiers Agreement could be restored if only Russia stopped providing military aid to Mali via its famous PMC. From Russia’s perspective, however, Mali is a privileged military-strategic partner that deserves full support after promoting regional multipolar processes through its role as the core of the newly formed Sahelian Alliance/Confederation.

It’s accordingly become the lynchpin of Russia’s “Pivot to Africa” that readers can learn more about here and here so there was no way that Moscow could deny Bamako’s request for military aid against its separatists. The regional Al Qaeda branch’s declaration of war on Russia in summer 2022 also contributed to these calculations too. The end result is that it’s not going to withdraw, neither in response to late July’s ambush nor under Algerian pressure, which could thus worsen ties with Algiers.

While respecting Algeria’s sovereign right to determine its national security interests and act upon them accordingly, it should also respect Mali’s selfsame right and thus do its utmost to avoid being dragged into the New Cold War’s latest proxy war. The extension of political support to the Tuaregs and spewing of anti-Wagner propaganda are one thing, but any material support to them would cross a red line in its ties with Mali and possibly also with Russia too seeing as how they’ve already killed some of its PMCs.

It also wouldn’t sway the West to Algeria’s side in the Western Sahara dispute either since Rabat has been their stalwart ally for decades unlike Algiers so there’s no use in thinking that this is possible. The best scenario is therefore that Algeria candidly explains its interests in this conflict to Russia and pledges not to provide any material support to the Tuaregs as a goodwill gesture for maintaining their strategic partnership. Anything less could worsen the regional security dilemma and turn these two into rivals.

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This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image is from the author

Vaccine-fraud House of Cards Collapsing, and Much More!

September 2nd, 2024 by Dr. Mark Trozzi

Wins of the Week – August 30, 2024

Political

  1. In Australia, Federal MP Russell Broadbent has released a video on the No Jab No Pay legislation. He apologizes for being part of a government that brought in No Jab, No Pay. He states: “I’ve received hundreds of emails from distressed parents who’ve been financially punished for not having their child’s immunizations up-to-date. I will read each email and raise their issues with the PM.”

  1. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook was pressured by the federal government to censor COVID-19 content and that he now regrets bowing to those demands. In an Aug. 26 letter sent to Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg wrote that senior officials from the Biden administration pressured his social media company to censor COVID-19 information. He stated:

    “In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree.”

    According to Zuckerberg, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, he doubts the same decisions would be made today. He claimed the platform was ready to push back if the government tried to interfere again. “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” he said. – More info

  2. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign confirmed Tuesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard are on his presidential transition team. Kennedy said during an interview with Tucker Carlson – “I’ve been asked to go on to the transition team to help pick the people who will be running the government, and I’m looking forward to that.” – More info
  3. An upcoming by-election in Montreal will have the longest ballot in the history of Canadian federal elections. At least 91 candidates will be on the ballot for the Sept. 16 by-election in Montreal. Seventy-nine of them are linked to the Longest Ballot Committee, a group protesting Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system. The group wants a citizens’ assembly to be in charge of electoral reform, because they say political parties are too reluctant to make the government more representative of the diverse views of the electorate. – More info
  1. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has announced she will consider introducing legislation to prohibit regulatory colleges from imposing penalties on individuals for their political beliefs. Smith says the move would prevent people like Jordan Peterson from being reprimanded for speaking out on sensitive issues. “Free speech seems to be constantly under attack in this country,” Smith said. “As Premier, I will continue to fight for free speech here in Alberta, including for the right for people like Dr. Jordan Peterson to say what is on their mind.” “We have to find a way to get the professional colleges, focusing on the real harms that are being caused, as opposed to trying to dictate to members what their thinking should be on any issue.” – More info
  1. Robert Kennedy Jr’s Speech to end his election campaign made strong and clear statements about the need to end the pandemic of chronic illness in children, war, and the censorship and attacks on free speech.

 

Telling It Like It Is 

  1. Canadian female athletes are now expressing their upset with sports organizations for allowing men in women’s competitions. Canadian athletes Julianne Cragg and Maria Barwig spoke to the National Post to voice their concerns with men being allowed to compete against them in women’s weightlifting events. “The status quo (of mixed competition) is unsustainable,” Cragg, an Edmonton-based powerlifter stated. Barwig declared that there must be a universal policy to keep women’s sports fair. – More info
  2. Canadian pastor Henry Hildebrandt, who kept his church open during COVID despite mandates, finished paying off the $339,005 in fines recently, but said the sum was a “small price to pay” to validate his church’s commitment to the principles on which “Canada and the USA were founded.”  “We refused to live a lie and the truth is now becoming common knowledge.” Hildebrandt, who is the lead pastor of the Church of God in Aylmer, Ontario, included a video in his announcement, reiterating that his refusal to go along with provincial COVID mandates was merely his way of doing what “the bible commands us to do, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves.” “It is important in times like these that we stand,” Hildebrandt said. “You know we inspired the truckers, the truckers inspired us, the truckers inspired the farmers, the farmers inspired us, we inspired the farmers. The human family came together, stood together, and the governments, as corrupt as they are, they recognized, they had to see what happens when the human comes together and stands together.” “We were fined for that. But I’ve said often before and I’ll say again this morning, if my faith is not worth dying for, it is not worth living for,” he said. – More info | Church of God in Aylmer Ontario

 

Legal

  1. On Monday, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced a lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over “multiple misleading statements” about the health risks and ineffectiveness of its Covid mRNA shots. According to the 179-page lawsuit  Pzizer marketed the shot as “safe” despite knowing the injections could cause serious illness and death. “Pfizer made multiple misleading statements to deceive the public about its vaccine at a time when Americans needed the truth.” – More info
  2. On August 26, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed the Crown’s appeal against the acquittal of Christine Decaire, who had been charged with mischief during the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. The Crown argued that Decaire’s proximity to vehicles obstructing Nicholas Street was sufficient to establish her guilt as either a principal or a party to mischief. However, the original trial judge, Boxall J., found no evidence that Decaire had engaged in any direct acts of mischief or that she had intended to participate in obstructive activities. As a result, Decaire was acquitted. The Crown appealed the acquittal. In reviewing the appeal, Justice Somji upheld the original acquittal. The court noted that there was no evidence connecting Decaire to any specific acts of mischief or showing that she was involved with the vehicles obstructing the street. Justice Somji emphasized that individuals have the right to assemble and protest peacefully. Justice Somji determined that the Crown’s interpretation of her presence as criminal intent was not adequately supported by the evidence.
 

Citizen Action

  1. In a video this week, Canadian activist, Alex the Comic is in Edenborough raising funds for Pfizer to assist with all their law suits and reduced stock prices.

 

  1. Vaccine Choice Canada sent letters to all Federal and Provincial Ministers of Health, Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and Nurses Associations informing them of the recent admission by Stanley Plotkin that the science to conclude vaccine safety is inadequate. Also the updated 2023 report from Informed Consent Action Network that “none of the vaccine doses the CDC recommends for routine injection into children were licensed by the FDA based on a long-term placebo-controlled trial.”  The letter states that With these critical disclosures, it is no longer responsible or ethical for public health to claim that “vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective”. – Read here

 

Medicine

  1. Jordan Peterson’s latest ordeal of having to undergo mandatory training by his regulatory college in order to keep his psychologist’s licence after the country’s highest court refused to hear his appeal has once again brought him and Canada into the international spotlight. Peterson has thrown down the gauntlet. He is not willing to back down. He will go through the mandatory re-education process but has no intention of giving the regulatory college an easy ride. This is a battle for the very soul of free speech in Canada. – More info
  1. Sarah B. Kotler, acting as Director, Division of Freedom of Information, US Food and Drug Administration officially confessed that the people running the FDA have no records authored by anyone, anywhere:
    1. that scientifically prove/provide evidence of the existence of any alleged “monkeypox virus“, or
    2. that even describe the purification of particles that are alleged to be “monkeypox virus” directly from bodily fluid/tissue/excrement of so-called “hosts”, or
    3. that describe the purported “genome” of any alleged “monkeypox virus” being found intact in the bodily fluid/tissue/excrement of a so-called “host” (as opposed to fabricated in silico, aka a computer model), or
    4. that scientifically demonstrate contagion of the illness / symptoms that are allegedly caused by purported “monkeypox viruses“.
  1. Christine Massey has also filed Freedom of Information requests with more than 200 state agencies with the following request:

A FOIA order was filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for:

All studies in the possession/custody/control of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Department of Agriculture, authored by anyone, anywhere:

1. that scientifically prove/provide evidence of the existence of any alleged “avian influenza virus”(showing that the alleged particles exist, invade and replicate in “host” cells and cause the illness/symptoms that they are alleged to cause), or

2. that describe the purification of particles that are alleged to be “avian influenza virus” directly from bodily fluid/tissue/excrement of so-called “hosts”, with purification confirmed via EM imaging, or

3. wherein the purported “genome” of any alleged “avian influenza virus” was found intact in the bodily fluid/tissue/excrement of a “host” (as opposed to fabricated in silico, aka a computer model), or

4. that scientifically demonstrate contagion of the illness / symptoms that are allegedly caused by purported “avian influenza viruses”.

As usual, the order stipulated that if any records match the above description and are currently available elsewhere, I be provided citations so that I may identify and access them. So far crickets.

  1. The National Toxicology Program published a report this week linking fluoride exposure to neurotoxic effects in children, after public health officials tried for years to block its publication and water down its conclusions. The report, which analyzed published studies on fluoride’s neurotoxicity, concluded that higher levels of fluoride exposure in drinking water are consistently linked to lower IQs in kids. It’s the first government publication to concede what fluoride researchers have long reported: that the chemical added to the drinking water of hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and celebrated as one of the 10 greatest health achievements of the 20th century carries a serious risk of neurological damage, particularly for pregnant women and young children. “The NTP monograph provides more than sufficient evidence against the deliberate exposure of humans to fluoride through intentional fluoridation of drinking water,” said Kathleen Thiessen, Ph.D., who co-authored the 2006 National Resource Council study on fluoride toxicity. Thiessen told The Defender:

    “A conclusion of ‘moderate confidence’ of neurotoxic effects, especially on unborn and newborn children, ought to mean an immediate elimination of water fluoridation and minimization of fluoride exposure to the population.”

  2. Authors Dr. Edward Geehr and Dr. Jeffrey Barke have just published a new book entitled  Fix this link to include the first word “Unavoidably” also  please Unavoidably Unsafe: Childhood Vaccines Reconsidered. Drawing on decades of clinical experience and exhaustive research, the authors challenge conventional wisdom by addressing critical issues. Unavoidably Unsafe is a call to arms for informed decision-making and transparency in healthcare. Geehr and Barke aim to empower parents, guardians, and healthcare providers with the knowledge needed to navigate the complex landscape of childhood immunization responsibly. – More info

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The West Truly Doesn’t See Palestinians As Human

September 2nd, 2024 by Caitlin Johnstone

You never see the dehumanization of Palestinians in western society exhibited so clearly as when something bad happens to Israelis during the genocidal assault on Gaza.

Today western officials are publicly weeping about six dead Israeli hostages, including one Israeli-American, who the IDF says were recently killed by Hamas.

Whoever’s been writing Joe Biden’s press releases for him published a statement about how “devastated and outraged” the president is about the death of the American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. 

The statement says the president knows Goldberg-Polin’s parents, saying “I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express” and that “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.”

“I have worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them and am heartbroken by the news of his death,” the statement reads, which for the record is a lie — the Biden administration has been collaborating with Benjamin Netanyahu to sabotage a hostage deal at every turn. 

Similar sentiments are being expressed in statements by western officials like Vice President Kamala Harris, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

All of these statements frame the deaths of these six Israeli hostages as an earth-shakingly horrific tragedy, and all frame Hamas as a band of evil villains who must be brought to justice for their crimes. 

No similar statements have ever been made by any of these officials about the far, far greater number of innocent Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza by the state of Israel with their assistance. No similar expressions of condolence have ever been uttered by these leaders for the millions of Palestinians who’ve had their lives completely ruined by Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank over the last eleven months, or for the untold thousands of parents who’ve had to bury children who were exterminated in Israel’s genocidal onslaught.

Western government officials are making it clear that they do not see Palestinians as human in the same way they see Israelis as human, as are the mass media propaganda institutions who’ve been covering the deaths of these hostages with an intensity never seen regarding the IDF’s daily massacres of civilians in Gaza. Israeli strikes killed 47 Palestinians in Gaza in one 24-hour period between Saturday and Sunday, receiving not the tiniest fraction of the attention as those six Israeli hostages.

The message is clear: Israelis dying is a terrible tragedy, while Palestinians dying is just the normal way for things to be. An Israeli dying should matter as much to you as your own family or friends dying, while a Palestinian dying should be regarded as a routine and natural event like a drop of rain falling from the sky.

And that’s an important message for westerners to be indoctrinated with. Can you imagine if we all started caring about western bombs being dropped in the middle east as much as we would care if they were being dropped on our own country, or on a country we’ve been conditioned to sympathize with? All their carefully manufactured consent would crumble, and people would cease allowing the western empire to do what it needs to do to dominate the planet.

These people are actively working to subvert our basic sense of human empathy. To twist our psyches into being unable to recognize the same level of humanity among empire-targeted populations as empire-supported ones. To see authorized populations as worthy of care and sympathy, and to see unauthorized populations as vermin in need of extermination.

Yes, our rulers really are that evil, and so are the propagandists who run the mass media.

So today I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the millions of Palestinians who’ve lost loved ones and had their lives thrown to the winds of chaos by Israel’s western-backed campaign of extermination, ethnic cleansing, and terrorism. 

And I would like to remind my readers that Israel has exponentially more hostages than Hamas has, and murders them routinely, and rapes and tortures them constantly.

And it is right that we should care deeply about that. Even if the people who rule over us do not.

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Labor Day 2024: The Condition of the American Working Class. Decline in Real Wages. Household Debt at Record Level. Threat of A.I.

September 2nd, 2024 by Dr. Jack Rasmus

On Labor Day this writer has summed up the condition of the American working class over the past year. This national election year it is perhaps useful to review not only the past year but what has happened since the last election in 2020. How has the American worker fared the past four years—in terms of wages, benefits, inflation and jobs? How have their unions, now a mere 10% of the labor force, also fared during the period of recovery since the deep Covid era recession of 2020, the uneven recovery of 2020-21 that followed, and the past thirty months of what has been a modest economic growth.

A salient feature of the past 30 months after the US economy finally fully reopened after Covid in 2022 is that the growth in US GDP has not been all that impressive given the massive fiscal and monetary stimulus of 2020-22.

That stimulus in fiscal terms included about $4 trillion in government spending programs and tax cuts from the April 2020 ‘Cares Act’ through the early 2021 ‘American Relief Act’. In addition to that $4 Trillion fiscal stimulus, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, provided an additional $4 Trillion of monetary stimulus to banks, investors, and businesses small and large from March 2020 until March 2022. Theoretically, this monetary stimulus in the form of Fed direct purchase of bonds from investors and virtually zero interest rates during that two year period should have provided a massive boost to real investment, production and employment. Another almost $1 trillion was provided by the Fed (and FDIC) to prevent a crash in the regional banking system from March 2023 to the present. That’s a total of around $9 to $10 trillion in fiscal-monetary stimulus.

On top of that amount the Biden administration pushed through Congress in 2022 another approximately $1.7 trillion in mostly subsidies and tax cuts to corporations in the form of the Infrastructure Act, the Chip & Modernization Act, and the (misnamed) Inflation Reduction Act.

In total that’s all more than $10 trillion in economic stimulus during and immediately after the Covid recession in 2020.  The economy began recovering slowly in late 2020 as it reopened in stages, sometimes with false starts and stops. It wasn’t until 2020 that the US economy had fully reopened. Only then can the $10 trillion plus fiscal-monetary stimulus be considered for its effects on growing (not reopening) the US economy. But the 2022-24 economic recovery record, even when measured in GDP terms, has not been all that impressive given the magnitude of the $10 trillion stimulus of 2020-22.

Throughout all of 2022, that is the first full year of recovery (i.e. not counting reopening from the shutdown period that ended in 4th quarter 2021), US GDP adjusted for inflation rose year on year in 2022 by an annual average of only 1.9%. In 2023 it rose by another 2.5%. And so far in the first half of 2024 by an annual average of 2.2%. (These stats source: Bureau of National Affairs ‘National Income and Product Accounts’, Table 1.1.1, revised 8-29-24)

That’s hardly an impressive performance of US economic growth given the more than $10 trillion in fiscal and monetary stimulus injected into the economy by Congress and the Federal Reserve bank since 2020! 

So how did American workers fare during this roughly four year period in the wake of what has been the most massive fiscal and monetary stimulus effort in US economic history? And how have American unions done during the recovery from recession period, during which historically union membership, union jobs and union wages have tended to recover as well?

Wages

The US government defines wages in a number of ways. So it’s important to be clear on the definition. There’s Hourly Wages that are actually wages and salaries of all the roughly 167 million employed in the US labor force. Then there’s Weekly Earnings, which are hourly wages or salaries times the hours worked in a week. A subset of both hourly wages and weekly earnings is estimated for the roughly 110 million or so private sector Production and Non-Supervisory Workers (add about another 20m employed as teachers, state & local and federal government).

It is further important that their hourly wages or weekly earnings are adjusted for inflation, i.e. are real hourly and weekly, keeping in mind that the inflation adjustment using the Consumer Price Index (or Fed’s Personal Consumption Price Index) does not account for price rises associated with interest rates at all (which is just the price of money). Nor does it adjust for taxes and government fees. Or increases in their contributions to their benefit and pension plans. In addition, the two main US inflation indexes contain a host of assumptions and methodologies that can be shown to result in an under-statement of actual inflation. But that’s another story for another article. We’ll assume ‘real’ wages or earnings is adjusted using the government’s CPI or PCE inflation indexes.  But the point is these points mean the wage gains noted below are actually less than reported in government stats.

Nevertheless, the wage data show American workers have not fared very well since 2020 and even over the past year. Which means that $10 trillion plus stimulus went into the bank accounts of others, not American workers as a whole.

So what have been their real wage gains since 2020? As well as during the past year, July 2023 thru July 2024?

The best indicator is Real Median Weekly Earnings. That is adjusted for inflation using government inflation indexes and uses the midpoint of those employed, not the average. Averages skew the number to the to—i.e. those with high earnings get higher wage increases compared to those at the middle or below.

Real Median Weekly Earnings in the 4th quarter of 2020 were $376 per week. As of end of 2nd quarter 2024 last month, they were $368. (Table 1, Median Weekly Earnings of Full Time Workers, Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage & Salary Workers, Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2024). Remember, that’s for Full Time Workers only, which is about 120 million private sector workers in the US civilian labor force of 168 million. So it doesn’t count the 38 million who are part time or independent unincorporated contractors.

Also, that $368 is, as noted, under-adjusted for inflation per the government’s indexes. It’s also not take home pay which means it’s before workers pay for a higher share of benefits costs, higher taxes, and government fees (auto registrations, etc.).

What about the past year, not just the past four years?

Before adjusting for inflation (called nominal wages), Average Weekly Earnings for Full Time Workers rose July 2023 thru July 2024 from $1,160/week to $1,199/week for a gain of only $39 which is about 3.3%. (Source: US Weekly Earnings for Wage & Salary Workers 2nd Quarter 2024, Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2024).

But that’s not adjusted yet for inflation. Plus it’s also an average for all 168 million in the labor force so those with higher pay got more than the Median. Adjust for inflation and Median and it wipes out any gain in weekly earnings over the past year as Table 1 noted in the paragraph above shows: inflation adjusted Median Weekly Earnings for Full Time Workers was $365/week in July 2023 and in July 2024 was still $365/week. Make a further adjustment to include the 38 million part time and contract workers and you get numbers for Weekly Earnings still less.

What about Weekly Earnings for the subset of the 168 million US labor force—i.e. the approximately 119 million US private sector Production and Non-Supervisory Workers. No higher paid managers and higher salaried tech, finance and other professionals in this group. Their real average weekly earnings rose from $972 in July 2023 to only $980 in July 2024. Again, however that’s an ‘average’ and for full time employed not part time or contract. At the Median and below, including part time, it’s less than $8/week gain over the past 12 months.

In summary with regard to wages, the American worker has not benefited at all from the $10 million plus fiscal-monetary stimulus. Real Weekly Earnings are flat to contracting. And take home pay’s even less.

One can’t say the same for shareholders of corporations. Since 2020, the Fortune 500 corporations alone distributed more than $5 trillion in stock buybacks and dividends to their shareholders, according to annual reports in the Wall St. Journal. This year 2024 should be a record of more than $1.5 trillion.

Jobs 

What about the jobs picture? The Biden administration likes to brag it created 15 million jobs. That fiction is perpetrated by most of the mainstream media as well as mainstream economists who should know better (and likely do).

During 2020 about 35 million Americans were unemployed at some point during that year. The economy reopened haltingly in late 2020 and again in 2021. As it did the 12 million who were still jobless at the end of 2021 steadily returned to their jobs in 2022 and beyond. These 12 million jobs were not ‘created’. They existed in February 2020 and most were still there by end 2021. Workers simply returned to jobs that were there, not to net new jobs that were ‘created’.

According to the St. Louis Fed’s FRED database, there were 106.5 million Production & Non-Supervisory Workers in the labor force in February 2020. That 106.5 was not reached again until July 2022.

If one looks at the July 2022 Employment Situation Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics there were 158.2 million workers employed in July 2022, compared to 161.2 employed in the US economy in July 2024. So roughly only 3 million have been actually ‘created’.

It is important to also note that the vast majority of the net new jobs created have been part time, temp, gig and contractor jobs. In the past 12 months full time jobs in the labor force has fallen by 458,000 while part time jobs have risen by 514,000. (Source: Table A-9 Employment Situation Reports, Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2023 and July 2024)

Ever since the end of the Covid recession the US economy has been churning out full time jobs and replacing them with part time, temp, gig and independent contractor jobs.

The jobs reports over the past year are revealing as well. They continually reported monthly job gains of around 240,000.  But the Labor Department just did its annual revisions and found that for the period March 2023 thru March 2024 it over-estimated no fewer than 818,000 jobs! The Wall St. Journal further reported that up to a million workers have left the labor force due to disability from Covid and long Covid related illnesses. Neither of those statistics are factored into the government’s unemployment rate figures.

Which brings us to another convenient mis-reporting of jobs data. The government has two jobs surveys. One is for large establishments (and not really a survey but a partial census of sorts). Another is a true survey. The first is called the Current Establishment Survey (CES). The second The Current Population Survey (CPS).

The media typically picks up the total monthly employment gain figures from the CES; the second CPS is the source of the monthly unemployment rate statistic. The first is an estimate of total employment gains; the second the unemployment rate.

The problem is there are more than just one unemployment rate in the monthly CPS. There’s the rate for full time workers only. Last month that rate called the U-3 was 4.3%. But the unemployment rate that includes involuntary part time workers and workers discouraged from working and haven’t looked in four weeks or a year, called the U-6 rate was 7.8%. Moreover, neither reflect the recently adjusted 818,000 jobs over-reported. Or the millions who were so discouraged they left the labor force altogether. They’re still presumably without a job, at least most. But for purposes of calculating either unemployment rate by the government they don’t exist and their numbers are excluded from the calculation of unemployment. Those numbers are about 5 million since Covid. If they were included, the unemployment rate would be easily more than 10% today.

Last month the government estimated the CES employment number was 114,000. That compares with an average of 240,000 each month over the past year. It shocked even the myopic mainstream economists and the media. It was their favorite cherry picked jobs number and it came in well below healthy levels. There are at least 100,000 new entrants to the labor force every month looking for work, due to population growth, immigration, and elderly returnees to work. The fastest growing age segment of the labor force is those over 65 years old who can’t make it on social security or meager pensions any more.

It will therefore be interesting to see if on September 5 the monthly jobs report for August continues to reflect a weakness in the favored CES employment report. But if one were considering the other CPS jobs report which better catches small business employment trends, it would be clear for some months now that the labor market is quite weak. It’s just that that weakness is now spilling over from small businesses in the CPS to the larger caught by the CES.

Working Class Debt in America 

Another indicator of the state of the working class in America is the level of debt load it is now carrying.  The last quarter century of poor wage increases has been offset to a degree by the availability of cheap credit with which to make consumer purchases in lieu of wage gains and decently paying jobs. Actually, that trend goes back even further to the early 1980s at least.

Household US debt is at a record level. Mortgage debt is about $13 trillion. Total household debt is more than $18 trillion, of which credit card debt is now about $1 trillion, auto debt $1.5 trillion, student debt $1.7 trillion (or more if private loans are counted), medical debt about $.2 trillion, and the rest installment type debt of various kind.

American households carry probably the highest load of any advanced economy, estimated at 54% of median family household disposable income. And that’s rising.

Debt and interest payments have implications for workers’ actual disposable income and purchasing power.  For one thing, interest is not considered in the CPI or PCE inflation indexes and thus their adjustment to real wages. As just one example: median family mortgage costs since 2020 have risen 114%. However, again, that’s not included in the price indexes. Home prices have risen 47% and rents have followed. But workers pay a mortgage to the bank, not an amortized monthly payment to the house builder.

One should perhaps think of workers’ household debt as business claims on future wages not yet paid. Debt payments continue into the future for purchases made in the present, and thus subtract from future wages paid.

The State of Unions in America 

In periods of recovery from recessions, as jobs are restored or created, union membership typically rises some. But not in the 21st century and not since the end of the Covid recession.

Since 2020 union membership has declined. There were 10.8% of the labor force in unions in 2020. There are 10.0% at end of 2023 which is about half of what it was in the early 1980s. Unions have not participated in the recovery since Covid, in other words, at least in terms of membership. Still only 6% or 7.4 million workers of the private sector labor force is unionized, even when polls and surveys in the past four years show a rise from 48% to 70% today  in the non-organized who want a union.

In the past year in absolute numbers union membership has risen by just under 200,000 in private industry which has allowed union membership to remain at 6% of total employment in that sector. In the public sector union membership over the past year has declined by about 50,000.

Some private sector unions have reversed in recent years the decades long dark years of concession bargaining. Recently the Teamsters union under new leadership made significant gains in restoring union contract language, especially in terms of limits on temp work and two tier wage and benefit structures. The Auto workers made some gains as well. But most of the private sector unionization has languished. And over the past year it has not changed much.

About half of all Union members today are in public sector unions. There is has been difficult for Capital and corporations to offshore jobs, displace workers with technology, destroy traditional defined benefit pension plans, or otherwise weaken or get rid of workers’ unions. The same might be said for Transport workers whose employment is also not easily offshored, but is subject to displacement by technology nonetheless.  But overall union membership has clearly continued to stagnate over the past year as it has since 2020.

The Artificial Intelligence Threat to Workers and Unions 

Union membership as a percent of the total labor force will likely start to decline once again, at least in the private sector, as the Artificial Intelligence technology revolution takes hold. Recently Goldman Sachs bank research has estimated 300 million jobs world wide will be lost due to AI. These are mostly simple decision making jobs, in service as well as manufacturing. AI will displace these jobs and probably soon. So available jobs as well as union membership will be severely impacted.

The early trend is already observable for union membership and jobs in the recent Writers and TV-Movie sector union contract negotiations. The unions did not fare well. Workers job in general will be severely impacted by this latest tech trend. Several hundred billion dollars a year is being invested in AI, which is mostly about raising productivity by getting rid of workers. That investment is estimated to rise to nearly $1 trillion before the end of the decade.

Summary 

The foregoing accumulation of data and statistics on wages, jobs, debt and unionization in America this Labor Day 2024 contradicts much of the hype, happy talk, and selective cherry picking of data by mainstream media and economists. That hype is picked up and peddled by politicians and pollsters alike.

But the fact is those selectively chosen statistics are often contradicted by other government stats that are left unmentioned. US statistics are like the bible in a sense. One can find whatever data in it one wants.

But selective referencing—while ignoring other data—is a form of lying. And there’s a lot of it going around this Labor Day 2024 by politicians of both parties, with their media complicit, and their crew of mainstream economists in tow.

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Dr. Rasmus is author of the books, ‘Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes’, Clarity Press, 2017 and ‘Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed’, Lexington Books, 2020. Follow his commentary on the emerging banking crisis on his blog, https://jackrasmus.com; on twitter daily @drjackrasmus; and his weekly radio show, Alternative Visions on the Progressive Radio Network every Friday at 2pm eastern and at https://alternativevisions.podbean.com.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Copyright: Shawn T. Moore / Licensed under Creative Commons

Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed

By Jack Rasmus

Publisher:‎ Lexington Books (February 28, 2019)

Hardcover: ‎146 pages

ISBN-10:‎ 1498582842

ISBN-13:‎ 978-1498582841

Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed describes how US federal governments, often in cooperation with the largest US private banks, introduced and expanded central banking functions from 1781 through the creation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Based on an analysis of the evolution of the US banking system – from pre-1781, through the 1787 US Constitutional Convention, Congressional debates on Hamilton’s reports to Congress, the rise and fall of the 1st and 2nd Banks of the United States, and through the long period of the National Banking System form 1862-1913, the book shows how central banking in the US evolved out of the private banking system, and how following the financial crash of 1907 big New York banks pushed through Congress the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating a central bank which they then managed for their interests.

Click here to purchase.

The National Security State Is Killing Free Speech. Dr. Philip Giraldi

September 2nd, 2024 by Philip Giraldi

It is interesting to hear President Joe Biden claim that democracy is at stake in the upcoming national election when he and his Democratic Party colleagues have done so much to hinder the free discussion of issues that should be considered important by the electorate.

Joe has operated by fiat in his opening of America’s southern border to mass invasion by illegal immigrants and has committed the US to participation in two wars without any declaration of war or credible justification for entering the conflicts in terms of the security of the United States. More to the point, in terms of how it affects every American, Biden and company have run electoral campaigns based on the premise that his opponents were being assisted by the interference of unfriendly governments in the process. In reality, if outside interference in one’s election is a real problem, it is a crime that is more true of Joe’s best friend Israel rather than anything coming from Russia, China or Iran.

But the one subject that is part and parcel of electoral corruption that is not being discussed sufficiently is the cooption of the national police and intelligence agencies to make them de facto operatives of the party in power, most recently the Democrats. After the 2016 election, the use of the so-called deep state to blacken Donald Trump through allegations that surfaced from federal law enforcement acting in collusion with the Hillary Clinton campaign and some in the media was exposed. Due to that revelation, the concept of a deep state that operates independently of elections or elected officials began to take shape in the minds of many observers of the Washington scene.

The Biden administration has taken the incestuous relationship with its law enforcement and intelligence agencies even farther. It sought to establish a “Disinformation_Governance_Board” at the Department of Homeland Security which would have been empowered to denounce the credibility of citizens who were complaining about what the government was doing based on the fiction that what was taking place was deliberate disruption of the government using false information. This even applied to the increasingly heavy hand employed by the Bidens over education, where parents who expressed disagreement with Critical Race Theory and other woke content taught in the schools as well as the aggressive gender bending, were conveniently labeled “domestic terrorists.” In short, anyone who disagrees with government policy has become a “domestic” problem and will be confronted with the full employment of government resources to criminalize or create disincentives to such behavior which some might recall used to be referred to as “free speech.”

Image: Julian Assange was secretly recorded while living at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. (Source: EPV)

Fortunately, people are beginning to take notice of what is going on to create a world where governments actively conspire to eliminate criticism of what they do. It is all reminiscent of the torment of top journalist Julian Assange by the British and US governments over the course of over 12 years, five of which were in a top security prison, for the crime of having revealed details of questionable or even illegal official behavior by US soldiers in Iraq.

Two interesting uses of federal police resources to silence dissenters have occurred recently in the United States, involving politically prominent individuals who are being surveilled and harassed for little more than their expressed contrary views on America’s wars. They are Scott Ritter, a former Marine and weapons inspector, and Tulsi Gabbard, a former congressman from Hawaii and a reserve lieutenant colonel in that state’s National Guard. What has been done to them by the Biden Administration using as its tool of choice the nation’s security services is bizarre and almost unimaginable for those who still believe that the United States is a functioning democracy whose citizens’ rights are protected by a written constitution and a judicial system that enforces the laws without regard for who is in power or the pleading of special interests.

Image: FBI raiding Ritter’s house (Source)

Ritter has had two recent encounters with the FBI. On June 3rd he attempted to fly to Russia to speak at an international conference when he was stopped at the airport and had his passport taken under orders of the State Department. No explanation was given for the action and he was not given either a receipt or a warrant explaining the grounds for the seizure of the document. It has not since been returned. On August 7th, 41 FBI agents arrived unannounced and proceeded to search Ritter’s New York state home. They confiscated documents and electronic communications devices. Interestingly, they had in their possession a thick file that contained copies of many of his email and phone messages, indicating that he had been under surveillance for quite some time. It is independently known that the FBI, NSA and CIA have global surveillance capabilities that enable them to monitor phones and emails for anyone, or, indeed, for everyone, in real time, so one might assume that Ritter was only one of their many victims.

The Gabbard case is even more bewildering because, though an active critic of the Ukraine war, Tulsi is a former Democratic Party congressman and army officer who was and is eminently respectable. She is reportedly being stalked by Transportation Security Administration’s air marshals, part of the agency’s Quiet Skies covert operation targeting suspected threats to aircraft and airports. Those who are under Quiet Skies surveillance have a printed SSSS on their airline boarding tickets, required to be taken aside before boarding for additional screening. Gabbard believes that placing her on the TSA Quiet Skies target list was “clearly an act of political retaliation. It’s no accident that I was placed on the Quiet Skies list the day after I did a prime-time interview warning the American people about… why Kamala Harris would be bad for our country if elected as President.” Gabbard observed that, despite her having served in the US Army for 21 years, “now my government is surveilling me as a potential domestic terrorist… forcing me to be forever looking over my shoulder, wondering if and how I am being watched, what secret terror watch list I’m on, and having no transparency or due process.” A commenter on Twitter noted that “The only thing Tulsi Gabbard blew up was Kamala’s earlier presidential run. That’s why she’s on a list.”

Image: Posted by Congressman Tulsi Gabbard on Facebook

A former TSA agent explained that because of being listed on Quiet Skies Gabbard would have multiple air marshals on “every flight, every leg,” and canine teams will “maneuver over to the [boarding] gate area… floating around to try to pick up a scent of something… When she travels by air there is one or more sky marshals traveling with her. In some cases, she is met by a team of agents with sniffer dogs when she deplanes.” Tulsi believes that she might be targeted by the White House due to her antiwar position but she has also now endorsed Donald Trump for president and the government is therefore using law enforcement as its weapon to intimidate and discredit her.

Europe is also on board the death to free speech bandwagon.

Another recent arrest is that of Pavel Durov in France on charges of permitting the use of his internet service to carry out illegal actions like collusion with organized crime, drug dealing, fraud and distribution of child pornography. He was temporarily released on a 5 million Euro bail on August 28th but cannot leave France. Durov is the Russian-born founder of Telegram, the world’s largest encrypted messenger service with over one billion users. He is a multi-billionaire with a flamboyant lifestyle and also holds the citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates. And there is inevitably an Israeli angle relating to Telegram’s airing of graphic videos of Israeli atrocities taking place in Gaza. The French prosecutors will no doubt say it is about allowing “hate speech,” but Durov’s has had French citizenship and has been traveling in and out of the country for years. The arrest, which can mean twenty years in prison, has only taken place after Israel complained.

For what it’s worth the Chief Rabbi of France Haim Korsia has justified Israeli killing of Palestinians in Gaza during a French television interview and then urged the Israeli government to “finish the job”. He was not arrested for endorsing a war crime nor was he even rebuked by Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron.

Likewise, the United States’ moves to ban Chinese owned TikTok is in large part because it also allows videos from Gaza and Israel’s complaints have aroused a normally dormant US Congress to ban the site. It is all about creating an internet that does not harbor content that Jews dislike, and that rule also applies to individual journalists. On August 14th British independent journalist Richard Medhurst was detained by police at London’s Heathrow Airport and questioned while in solitary confinement for 24 hours. He also had his phone and laptop confiscated over possible violation of section 12 of the UK’s Terrorism Act, which allows a person to be convicted and jailed for up to 14 years for what is a thought crime—“express[ing] an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed [terrorist] organization.”

Medhurst was guilty only of being a regular and outspoken critic of Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinians. Also in the UK, on August 29th, independent journalist Sarah Wilkinson had her home searched by 12 policemen from the counter-terrorism force who took her papers and electronic devices. They told her she was under arrest due to “content that she had posted online” that was highly critical of Israel genocide of the Gazans.

The moves against internet providers have no doubt alerted billionaire Elon Musk and others to the possibility that they might be under attack soon, in the case of Musk over his X (Twitter) site. Referring to Durov’s arrest, Musk has described the current attacks on information sites as “dangerous times.” Retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a Ukrainian Jew by birth, who made waves as a key witness supporting the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, issued a thinly veiled warning after Durov’s arrest, praising the move to require censorship on internet information sources. Vindman attributed the development to “…a growing intolerance for platforming disinfo & malign influence & a growing appetite for accountability. Musk should be nervous.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano, has also been a recent victim of a possible attempt to silence him and the war critics appearing on his interview program by having an internet platform that he has used for years temporarily suspended. YouTube claimed the move was due to misinformation that surfaced in a session with internationally respected journalist Pepe Escobar, who takes a decisively antiwar stance.

But nothing in the interview suggests that there was anything worthy of censure as deliberate disinformation. In reality, Napolitano’s willingness to provide a platform for many experts whose views are unwelcome in mainstream media outlets has led more such individuals to join his roster of guests, which the Biden administration appears to see as a threat.

The media broadly speaking have been the principal targets of illegal government pushback, but the effort to permit only acceptable speech is also advancing in other areas. Schools and colleges are hurrying to create protest-proof campuses for the upcoming academic year, but that all too often has only meant ending demonstrations critical of Israel and its policies. Pro-Israel demonstrators who openly support the genocide against the Palestinians will not be disturbed.

New York University has, for example, declared that students and faculty who discriminate against or harass “Zionists” may be violating New York University’s hate speech policies and could be suspended or expelled. Groups supportive of Israel believe that use of the very word “Zionist” in a derogatory fashion serves as a cover for attacks on Jews or Israelis. Now, NYU, which like many universities became paralyzed by pro-Palestinian unrest during the last school year, appears to be the first college to take a position on the term’s use. “Using code words, like ‘Zionist,’ does not eliminate the possibility that your speech violates the NDAH [Nondiscrimination and Anti-Harassment] Policy” reads NYU’s new student community standards. In other words, if you call someone a “Zionist” you are still likely to be an antisemite! The NYU chapter of Jewish on Campus explained how the new policy “makes it abundantly clear: Zionism is a core component of Jewish identity.” Pro-Palestinian groups on campus, objected, observing how the new code of conduct “criminalizes Palestine solidarity.”

In another move to “protect” vulnerable Zionist students from the alleged surging college antisemitism, Hillel Foundation, the Jewish student support group that is active on numerous American campuses, has launched a campaign called “Operation Secure Our Campuses” at more than 50 US universities. Meetings have been arranged to coordinate with local college administrators, police and FBI to come up with at least ten steps that should be taken to eliminate pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the upcoming academic year. Pro-Israel manifestations will apparently not be affected by the new regulations.

And there’s more, coming this time from the Republicans. Five Senators, Joni Ernst, Kevin Cramer, John Thune, Roger Marshall and Marsha Blackburn signed off on a letter to Daniel Werfe, commissioner of the IRS, about an “insufficient and insulting” response to an “inquiry to review the legal compliance of nonprofit charities that support demonstrations opposing the Jewish state.” Two groups the senators noted as involved with anti-Israel protests were Students for Justice in Palestine and Alliance for Global Justice. “An entity’s tax-exempt status is a privilege, and it is your responsibility to ensure only those who abide by tax laws are granted this privilege,” the senators wrote. The letter concluded with the lawmakers requesting information on the number of post- October 7th organizations involved in pro-Palestinian protests and the identities of the groups that have actually lost their nonprofit status as a consequence. The senators are demanding that the IRS no longer offer special tax breaks to groups or organizations that are critical of Israel.

The fact is that IRS exemptions are usually granted after careful review of the credentials of organizations that fit into various definitions as being religious, educational, or charitable. One such status is called 501(c)(3) and it enables the organization to solicit donations that are in most cases tax deductible, a major incentive when seeking funding. Again, Jewish “charitable” foundations supporting the Israeli army, or the creation of illegal settlements, or even the genocide of Palestinians, will not be subjected to such scrutiny or loss of IRS special status. Groups critical of US foreign policy will, however, be increasingly targeted by the IRS and punished for staking out a political position that differs from that of the White House and Congress, particularly if it relates to Israel. It is just one more step in the death of free speech in America!

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from TUR

Selected Articles: The War on Food and the War on Humanity: Platforms of Control and the Unbreakable Spirit

September 2nd, 2024 by Global Research News

The War on Food and the War on Humanity: Platforms of Control and the Unbreakable Spirit

By Colin Todhunter, September 01, 2024

In the agrifood sector, we are seeing the rollout of data-driven or precision approaches to agriculture by the likes of Microsoft, Syngenta, Bayer and Amazon centred on cloud-based data information services. Data-driven agriculture mines data to be exploited by the agribusiness/big tech giants to instruct farmers what and how much to produce and what type of proprietary inputs they must purchase and from whom.

Mirages…. Strange Alliances: ” Embrace of the Trump Campaign by Robert F. Kennedy Jr”. COVID and “Vaccines” – Trump Is in the Opposite Camp

By Edward Curtin, September 01, 2024

When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a presidential aspirant, folded his cards and conceded the current pot to Donald Trump – what he euphemistically called suspending his campaign for the presidency – he let his justifiable hatred of the Democratic Party, their undermining of his campaign, and their pro-war and genocidal agenda get the best of him. His trust in Trump is naïve in the extreme.

Advancing Locust: The Need to End U.S. Forever Wars

By Nora Fernandez, September 02, 2024

If we are to survive we need to put an end to the US forever wars. Defensive wars have reasons but the US wars of aggression benefit business, the US military and its contractors, think tanks, even universities.

The Unthinkable Is Happening. Genocide Is Being ‘Normalized’

By Bharat Dogra, September 02, 2024

For almost 11 months the world has been seeing documented evidence from Gaza—in the form of videos or ground-based reports—of the most horrible killings of innocent persons including a large number of women and children.

U.K. Starmer Government’s Proposed NHS Gender Clinics and Puberty Blocker Trials on Children. Sign the Petition “Children Are Not Lab Rats to be Experimented On”

By CitizenGO, September 02, 2024

NHS England has confirmed plans to open six new gender clinics and to begin puberty blocker trials on children. The alarming clinical trial will be launched in January 2025 and will see thousands of children mutilated and experimented on for the sake of pushing a trans agenda.

There Never Was a “New Corona Virus”, There Never Was a Pandemic

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, September 02, 2024

The alleged new virus was actively debated at the World Economic Forum (WEF), meeting in Davos Switzerland (January 22, 2020). Proposed by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) an entity financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a 2019-nCoV vaccine program was put forth.  Announced at Davos,  Seattle-based Moderna (with the support of CEPI) was to manufacture an mRNA vaccine to build immunity against 2019-nCoV.

A Return to Form: Expediting US Weapons and Military Supplies to Israel

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, September 01, 2024

Despite much grandstanding in the Biden administration about halting specific arms shipments to Israel over feigned concerns about how they might be used (inflicting death is the expected form), US military supplies have been restored with barely a murmur.  In a report in Haaretz on August 29, a rush of weapons to Israel has been noticed since the end of July.

Advancing Locust: The Need to End U.S. Forever Wars

September 2nd, 2024 by Nora Fernandez

If we are to survive we need to put an end to the US forever wars. Defensive wars have reasons but the US wars of aggression benefit business, the US military and its contractors, think tanks, even universities.

Chung_Joseph H. - Institut d'études internationales de Montréal (IEIM-UQAM)US wars involve the federal government and other governmental institutions in nurturing wars within a war economy that enriches death merchants and costs destruction and millions of lives all over the world. A dominant US war economy limits possibilities for any economy of peace, and brings decadence and impoverishment to US citizens while favoring societal decay. Worse, the US forever wars are expanding to include the biggest investment groups so they make money out of destruction/reconstruction that includes the privatization of entire countries. 

Professor Joseph H. Chung, in America’s Perpetual War published by Global Research reminds us what President Carter said in 2018: the US has been at war for most of its existence. Since WWII US wars of aggression are organized by and for the benefit of specific groups and have strong negative impacts on US society.

Chung argues that wars will continue unless the US is stopped.

Since WWII the US has been involved in 23 invasions, 7 “civil wars” and 2 multi-target wars.

The invasions include:

  • the Korean War (1950-1953),
  • the Vietnam War (1955- 1975),
  • the Cuban Bay of Pigs (1961),
  • Lebanon (1982-1984),
  • Grenada (1983),
  • the bombing of Libya (1984) and
  • the wars against Libya (2011, 2015-2019),
  • the Tanker War-Persian Gulf (1984-1987),
  • Panama (1989-1990),
  • the Gulf War (1989-1991),
  • the Iraq Wars (1991-1993, 2003-2011, 2014-2021),
  • Bosnia (1992-1995),
  • Haiti (1994-1999),
  • Kosovo (1998-1999),
  • Afghanistan (2001-2021),
  • Yemen (2022-now),
  • Pakistan (2004-2018),
  • Somalia (since 2007),
  • Niger (since 2013),
  • Syria (since 2014).

The seven civil wars include:

  • Indo-China (1959-1975),
  • Indonesia (1958-1961),
  • Lebanon (1958),
  • Dominican Republic (1966-1968),
  • Korea DMZ (1966-1969),
  • Cambodia (1967-1975), and
  • Somalia (since 1991).

And the two multi-target wars are

  • Operation Ocean Shield, in the Indian- Ocean (2008-2016) and
  • Operation Observant Compass in Uganda and Central Africa (2011-2017). (1)

US wars, organized by the American Pro-War Community (APWC) includes at its core US war corporations (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics) selling 75% of the weapons used, but also the US federal government (Pentagon, Congress, Senate and other government agencies) and known US universities.

The Boston College works with the Air Force, the University of Massachusetts Lowell with the Army, while Tufts University improves soldiers cognitive and physical performance, MIT is itself a war corporation, and Columbia and Brown develop the DARPA engineering system. 

Princeton produces hardware, Dartmouth sells machine learning, Pennsylvania works in artificial intelligence and Stanford develops technology for chemical warfare. Harvard does educational materials and human resources for war industries but also produced the napalm bomb used in Korea, Vietnam and other wars while John Hopkins makes tools to evaluate offensive capability for battles.

American universities are dependent on war money and have lost their mission. (1)  

Infographic: America's Biggest Defense Contractors | Statista

Under the nazis, Germany grew through a war economy requiring enemies to kill and places to invade. While in a peace economy demand generates supply in a war economy is supply what generates demand. The US war economy makes possible for war corporations to dictate demand by increasing supply and when supply growths it needs to be used. Enemies need to be found or created to use the supply against them. US ideologues work hard at this and come together within the so called “think tanks” that are funded by war corporations. A self-sustaining cycle emerges where think tanks identify/generate enemies and wars, among them the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the Centre for a New American Security, the Hudson Institute, the Atlantic Council. Amanda Yee documents funding connections between war think tanks and military contractors. (2)

Pressure groups and the pro-war Media favor the US cycle of unending wars. Well connected pressure groups (the Aerospace Industrial Association, the National Defence Industrial Association or the political Action Committee) advocate for war. The US corporate Media is unlikely to challenge government and strongly pro-war because of its focus on money-making and limited concern for human rights or collective well being. CNN, MSMBC, Fox News, CBS News, NBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, have strongly favored most US wars. All involved benefit from war, but none more than war corporations getting research grants, tax incentives, and juicy business contracts. Collusion between war corporations and the Pentagon emerges in connection to high contractual prices involved. Worse, the privatization of war favours a culture of corruption and bribes involving politicians and decision makers; the US has well known republican and democrat “money senators” -among the top Jeanne Shaheen, Lindsey Graham, Bill Nelson and departed John McCain. (1) 

Challengers to the American Pro-War Community pay price for questioning argues  Command Master Sargent Dennis Fritz who in 2024, 20 years after the Iraq war, published “Deadly Betrayal: The Truth About Why the United States Invaded Iraq.”

His book documents how that US invaded Iraq on behalf of Israel, taking out the Iraqi government who funded Hamas and Hezbollah. Command Master Fritz decides to write his book concerned that the US is today in a situation similar to the one 20 years ago in Iraq. Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza while Iran supports the Palestinian resistance. In 2004 the reasons adduced for the Iraq war were lies, he said, weapons of mass destruction were never found. At the time Fritz boss, Douglas Faith, was suspected of being a Israeli foreign agent at the heart of the Pentagon. He was the architect of the justification for the war against Iraq.

Fritz knows that peace and negotiation were never given a chance -even when Saddam Hussein offered whatever the US wanted. He explains that Iraq became the “message” to Syria and Libya, Iran and North Korea. But Iraq cost 4500 American military lives and a million or more death and displaced, all based on lies. The lies are proved in the documents of the George W Bush administration. Rumsfeld believed in documenting all so the lies are in paper. The main reason for the war was proving the US strong, a sole power. Faith was probably a foreign agent of Israel but it cannot be proved, still Fritz witnessed Faith daily contacts with Bibi Netanyahu and the presence at the time, in and out of the White House, of many Israeli agents. (3) 

The Cost of War, a project of Brown University, documents the costs of the post 9/11 wars in money, life and future financial obligations. Over 940 000 people died from direct violence and an estimated 3.6 to 3.8 million people died indirectly in post 9/11 war zones. The total deaths, 4.5 to 4.7 million people, include 432 000 civilians.

There were 38 million war refugees and displaced persons in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines. The US federal price tag was U$S 8 trillion. As many as 7050 soldiers died in the wars, and at least 4 times as many active duty personnel and war veterans of post 9/11 conflicts died of suicide, not in combat. Since the wars there has been an erosion of civil liberties and human rights in the US itself and abroad. (4)

In November 2023 Chris Hedges interviews Dennis Kucinich, the 1997-2013 US Representative from Ohio, he said:

“Ingrained into our system is the funding of wars and a perpetuation of conflict because if you’re making all these arms material, you’ve got to use them…a continuous loop…of money pouring in.”

The US is close to $1 trillion in the fiscal year of 2023 for the Pentagon plus the various intelligence services and in addition to a substantial discretionary spending source. We’re spending our national treasure on war: “We’re a war machine as a nation.” The US prefers war over healthcare, housing, education and the economic welfare of its citizens. “People is starting to see, but the last seem to be members of the US Congress.” (5)

Decisions to go or not to go to war, he points, are made at the administration level but there is a

“broad network of public policy groups masquerading as independent voices, think tanks, academic organizations, and people in the media who feed into any narrative that would prompt the country to start to rattle the sabers or determine, well, we need to go here in order to defend our national interest. Once that appropriation process starts…and they have close to $1 trillion in all accounts…That money…enables the US at this very moment to send two aircraft carrier units out into the area near Israel…to send troops anywhere they want in the world or to pay for the ones that are already stationed, and they put the country at the threshold of a war the minute they do that.” (5)

Kucinich argues the US faces an ideological mindset sponsored by the neoconservatives who see the US as a force fighting against “evil” all over the world.

“The struggle they invite is one of their own making, the desire to be able to create wars and to cash in. Some of the war contractors or those who hold them in a portfolio, cite what a great thing it is for the profits resulting of what’s happening in the Middle East right now. We are in this cycle, we have a war-dependent economy and the more we spend on war the more likely we are to go to war. The more people we have in bases around the world, the more likely we are to go to war…This seemingly inexorable march of nuclear folly may pit the US militarily against China, Russia, and their allies.”

In his view, only increased citizen involvement in the US challenging and braking the war-loop could solve it. (5)

For ordinary people nothing is good about war. Once a war its over the human and economic costs of it continues for decades and some, like the financial cost of US veterans’ care will not peak until mid-century. The ripple effects of war on the US economy have been significant, including job loss and interest rate increases. Contrary to the widespread belief that war creates jobs, US federal spending on the wars would have led to at least 1.4 million more jobs if the money been invested instead in education, health care or green energy.  The hundreds of billions of dollars invested in military assets —ships and aircraft— during the first decade of the wars would have led to larger capital improvements had these dollars instead been invested in core public economic infrastructure, such as roads and water systems. The wars have impacted interest rates charged to borrowers by banks and other creditors because war spending was financed entirely by debt, contributing to a higher ratio of national debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and rising long-term interest rates. (6) 

A peace economy would be a far better option for US citizens, but it is not favored because it is not US citizens who current politicians and power brokers represent, and for profit makers wars work. The profits of war are extending, unfortunately, beyond war corporations. Ukraine highlights the possibility that war is used to “privatize” entire countries, this is Michel Chossudovsky. He challenges the understanding that the US has “lost so many wars,” arguing that US wars were never about “winning” but about “destroying” selected enemies.  From this perspective he argues that even Vietnam, a war won by the efforts of the Vietnamese people, was actually lost. Vietnam never received war reparations payments from the US for the massive loss of life and destruction; in 1993 the agreement reached in Paris forced Hanoi to recognize the debts of the Saigon regime of General Thieu; thus, in many ways, forcing Vietnam to compensate Washington for the costs of war. (7)

The neoconservative (Neo-Con) agenda embedded in America’s military and intelligence agenda is to “destroy” countries, a profit-driven goal where destruction leads to reconstruction. An engineered economic and social destruction of sovereign nation states, leaves room for creditors to pick up the pieces while appropriating for themselves of real wealth. This agenda can be pursued through “regime change,” “color revolutions,” or “war.” The goal is the demise and criminalization of the state and the imposition of strong economic medicine and soaring dollar denominated debt. (7)  A predatory agenda that turns states into slaves.

Image: Euromaidan in Kyiv, December 2013. Protesters with OUN-B flag. (Licensed under CC BY 2.0)

The Euromaidan Coup d’ Etat of 2014 in Ukraine was supported by the US as first step to trigger a crisis in commodity trade and dislocation of all sectors of economic activity impoverishing Ukraine.

A broken-down nation, with an external debt of 150 billion in 2023, was “saved” by the Biden administration granting 75 billions in military aid. This increased Ukrainian debt and pushed it to war.  Before Ukraine, the IMF imposed its strong economic medicine through debt conditionalities.

Since 2022 the goal is direct Ukraine privatization (a corporate takeover and appropriation of an entire country).

In Ukraine, Blackrock (the largest portfolio investment company) and JP Morgan work together, playing the “supporting role” in setting the Ukraine Reconstruction Bank -a “tremendous” opportunity for private investors, in their words.

War is good for business and the greater the destruction the greater the profits, also the hold of private investors in Ukraine. (7) 

It is time for the world to open its eyes and deal with the criminal intent and predatory goals of US forever wars. The locust are upon us, their intentions are global, none of us is safe. The US unleashed gigantic predatory forces that believe themselves invincible, and are voracious in their appetite for money, power and control. Returning the evil genie to the bottle will not be an easy task, it requires unity of purpose and lots of courage. Resistance is not futile: resistance is mandatory. Be informed of empire strategies and goals and do all you can to frustrate them. It is our world not theirs.

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Nora Fernandez is a member of the Executive of Canadian Network on Cuba and Nova Scotia Cuba. 

Notes

[1] Joseph H. Chung, America’s Perpetual War: Six Questions. Who are the Beneficiaries of American wars? Global Research, initially published June 12, 2023 and republished this past August 14. 

[2] Amanda Yee, Six War Mongering Think Tanks and the Military Contractors that Fund them, March 7, 2023. Six war mongering think tanks and the military contractors that fund them – Liberation News

[3] Denniz Fritz, Beyond Betrayal: The Truth About why the United States Invaded Iraq.” 2023, Current Affairs, podcast interview (See this)

[4] The Cost of War Project, Summary of Findings. 

[5] Chris Hedges, “We’re a war machine as a nation:” The truth about American politics, November 3, 2023. Interviewing Dennis Kucinich. The Real News Network

[6] The Cost of War Project, The US Economy

[7] Michel Chossudovsky, Substack, Ukraine. What is the end game? The privatization of an entire country.

U.K. Starmer Government’s Proposed NHS Gender Clinics and Puberty Blocker Trials on Children. Sign The Petition “Children are not Lab Rats to be Experimented On”

September 2nd, 2024 by CitizenGO

Thousands of children will be experimented on with “puberty blockers”.

NHS England has confirmed plans to open six new gender clinics and to begin puberty blocker trials on children. The alarming clinical trial will be launched in January 2025 and will see thousands of children mutilated and experimented on for the sake of pushing a trans agenda.

These drugs are designed to pause and alter the physical changes of puberty, permanently affecting the child’s development and causing irreversible harm. This is completely unjustifiable and unethical. The programme should be cancelled straight away!

This is the new wave of supposed ‘gender’ care and is supposed to find out the “potential benefits and harms of puberty suppressing hormones for children and young people”.

However, it is already well-known and proven that:

 These drugs permanently damage a child’s health.

The Cass Review, published in April 2024, demonstrated that these drugs should not be distributed to children for gender care. It also revealed the devastating effects of even less invasive ‘transgender care’ such as social transitioning. The review found that these interventions in a young person’s life cause long-term damage to their mental and physical health.

Yet, now the Labour government is working on bringing puberty blockers back into the mainstream. Instead of expanding gender clinics, the NHS should focus on addressing the root causes of gender dysphoria, such as mental health issues, autism, and family-related problems. This programme is nothing but another way to use vulnerable children as political pawns.

All we need to do is look at the tragic cases of detransitioners who were treated at the Tavistock clinic to prove that a child can never understand what they are agreeing to; they are not capable of consenting to puberty blockers. In any other context, this kind of treatment would be considered mutilation and be illegal. In no other field of medicine is experimentation upon children for the purposes of research considered acceptable. Yet, gender activists have somehow managed to persuade our political leaders that this is medical care.

Now, the government is ready to use thousands of children in this puberty blocker clinical trial l. These trials will see physically healthy teenagers receive drugs that will permanently alter their development, disrupt their hormones and damage their reproductive health.

Along with irreversible physical consequences, the drugs have serious mental health implications.

A legal form of child mutilation

The dramatic changes in hormones and the unnatural changing body cause a great deal of psychological turmoil, which can be permanent.

Effectively, what we are witnessing here is a legal form of child mutilation. This is absolutely unacceptable. We have a moral obligation to stand up for these children and protect them since the NHS is willing to abuse children on taxpayer dime.

How has this happened?

With enough pressure from trans rights activists, the government has decided to bring these harmful policies back.

However, there is good news! If public pressure can bring in the policies, it can also ensure they are kicked out.

That is why I need your help! Only public pressure can stop this. We have the power to make a positive change.

If we fail, we’ll fail to protect society’s most vulnerable. These children need our advocacy against this medical abuse.

We have a duty and moral obligation to safeguard our children’s well-being and future, averting lifelong damage and preserving their childhood.

Our impact can prevent these trials and protect thousands of innocent children.

Let’s send a powerful message to the government.

Sign our petition urging Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting to stop the opening of new gender clinics and cancel the puberty blocker clinical trials on children.

Children are not lab rats to be experimented on by the NHS.

Text of Petition

Stop NHS Gender Clinics and Puberty Blocker Trials on Kids

Dear Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting,

I urge you to reverse plans to open six new gender clinics for children and run clinical trials for puberty blockers on children.

Children are not lab rats for NHS experiments. These drugs have severe, long-term effects on their health and well-being.

The Cass Review has already proven the dangers and damage puberty blockers cause to children.

Are the detransitioners who were harmed by the Tavistock clinics not enough? Must we permanently harm more children under the guise of ‘gender care’?

Instead of expanding gender clinics, address the root causes of body dysmorphia, like mental health issues and family problems.

Don’t use children as political pawns.

This shameful program risks thousands of children’s health. It is a waste of taxpayer money, especially when the NHS is already overburdened.

Stop the reintroduction of puberty blockers. Protect our children from irreversible harm.

Kind regards,

[Your Name]

Sign our petition urging Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting to stop the opening of new gender clinics and cancel the puberty blocker clinical trials on children.

C

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The Unthinkable Is Happening. Genocide Is Being ‘Normalized’

September 2nd, 2024 by Bharat Dogra

For almost 11 months the world has been seeing documented evidence from Gaza—in the form of videos or ground-based reports—of the most horrible killings of innocent persons including a large number of women and children. Nearly 52,000 people have been confirmed by health authorities to have been killed in this violence or are buried in rubble, over 90,000 have been injured or disabled. Most of the houses and essential infrastructure have been destroyed. Traumatized people, grieving the loss of dearest ones ad carrying the injured and the sick with them, exposed to extreme hunger, almost famine like conditions, denied water and sanitation, facing many diseases, exhausted and tired beyond words, are being ordered time and again to move from one place to another on their own, but sometimes have been killed even in shelter places or on way to them, ultimately crammed in a small place in the most difficult conditions. There is also exposure to extreme pollution from shockingly large use of huge bombs and explosives. Medical facilities have been largely destroyed.  

If it is accepted that such conditions can lead to the excess mortality of at least three times compared to the people killed directly in violence, (such assumptions have been made in the past for calculating war and conflict mortality by very credible studies) then it is likely that nearly 208,000 persons have died in this genocidal operation (52,000 plus 156,000) in 11 months, a figure close to the widely quoted number of 186,000 estimated number of dead people in a Lancet report. Hence the mortality per month during the last 11 months is likely to be close to 19000 per month or 600 per day, while the number of those sustaining injuries is about half this number. All this is for a population of nearly 1.9 million. In other words, nearly one tenth of the population has perished due to the direct and indirect impacts of war and conflict in just 11 months.

In normal times if an incident happened of about 100 people, a majority consisting of women and children, getting killed or seriously injured and disabled in any part of world on any single day in very cruel and arbitrary ways by any armed forces, which also imposed very painful conditions on other remaining people such as denial of food, what would be expected is a huge world level outcry against such a massacre, but let us face it, this has been happening time and again in Gaza, has been almost routinized in the course of the actions of the armed forces of Israel, yet has failed to bring forth the kind of response that is needed—for example the world getting together to bring immediate peace , or at the very least, the main suppliers of weapons to Israel like the USA and Germany announcing an immediate stoppage of all weapons and military help to Israel.

This is what a senior journalist dealing on daily basis with the reporting of this extremely tragic and unacceptable situation has to say,

“Genocide, something the world vowed would never happen again after the Holocaust, is being normalized. And this will affect not just our future as Palestinians, but the future of the entire world. 

“Every day for the last 11 months, I have been receiving pictures of dead bodies, smashed heads and parts of bodies being collected in body bags.

“As the region’s bureau chief for Middle East Eye, it is my job to sift through and examine these images. None of the pictures of barbarity appear in the Israeli media or the western world, but an Arab and Muslim audience gets them every day.

“What Israeli soldiers are doing can be done in other countries as well. We seem to sleepwalking into a new age of barbarity.”

(Extended quote from article by Lubna Masarwa, Middle East Eye).

I have read several statements from very senior officials of the UNO, including the Secretary General, rightly emphasizing the need for immediate ceasefire, but I have not yet seen these statements condemning the USA, Germany and other major weapon suppliers for continuing to supply weapons to Israel despite clear evidence of these being used for genocidal actions in Gaza.

This is in keeping with all the double talk that has enabled the so-called international community to go on making some face-saving statements, sometimes completely false ones too, while the genocidal actions in Gaza continue.

Now more recently such attitudes have resulted in Israel, its armed forces and settlers greatly expanding and accentuating their aggression in West Bank too and it is widely feared that here too  intolerably high sufferings may be created as in Gaza.

This should not be acceptable in any world having some reasonable levels of commitment to peace and justice. But it appears—and let us at least accept this—that world leadership, particularly western leadership—lacks any reasonable level of commitment to peace with justice these days. They will daily make a statement of some peace efforts and of their commitment to peace, and then hasten to arm the Israeli forces further.

In these extremely difficult times it is important to re-assert that despite all the great sufferings, the future agenda must be defined not by revenge or blind violence, but only on the basis of uniting more and more people with more and more commitment for a future of peace and justice. If more and more people continue to come forward for an agenda of immediate permanent ceasefire, followed by large-scale community-based rehabilitation, followed by a strong and stable Palestinian state in which people can live peacefully and safely, then there is still hope.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Bearing Witness – Mr. Fish (Source)

The Corporate Agenda Behind Carbon Farming

September 2nd, 2024 by Grain

This article was originally published in February 2023. It is based on a presentation made by GRAIN at an online panel session entitled “The New Business of Carbon Farming and Other ‘Nature Based Solutions’: Panacea or disaster?” at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, on 4 January 2023.

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If you live in Africa and you’ve heard of or experienced a “carbon farming” project, it has likely involved a land grab for a large-scale tree plantation. Across much of the global South, an increasing number of companies are taking over large areas of land to establish tree plantations and claim carbon credits that they can sell on international carbon markets. This is the case in Niger, where the US-based company African Agriculture Inc recently acquired two 50-year leases over a total of two million hectares to plant pine trees for carbon credits. A similar experience is unfolding in the Republic of Congo, where French energy giant Total is planting 40,000 hectares of acacia trees for carbon credits, depriving local communities of their farmland for the next 20 years.

But in countries where industrial agriculture dominates, such as the US, Brazil or Australia, “carbon farming” is about tweaking entrenched practices to claim that carbon is being sequestered in the soil and to then sell carbon credits. This form of “carbon farming” is also now starting to be pushed onto smaller farmers in different parts of the global South, such as India.

A programme promoted by the global seed and pesticide giant Bayer provides a good example of how this entrenched path to “carbon farming” is being used to advance the agendas of agribusiness corporations.

About a decade ago, the notorious pesticide and seed company Monsanto made a controversial take-over of a digital agriculture company called the Climate Corporation. Through that acquisition it developed one of the first major digital agriculture platforms, which is now called Climate FieldView.

FieldView is essentially an app that collects data from satellites and from sensors in farm fields and sensors on tractors and then uses algorithms to advise farmers on their farming practices — when and what to plant, how much pesticide to spray, how much fertiliser to apply, etc. The company says FieldView is already being used on farms covering over 24 million hectares in the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Europe.

In 2020, Bayer (which acquired Monsanto in 2016) launched its Carbon Program in the US. In Europe it’s called the Carbon Initiative, and in Brazil it’s Carbon+.

To be part of Bayer’s Carbon Program, farmers have to be enrolled in Bayer’s FieldView digital agriculture platform. Bayer then uses the FieldView app to instruct farmers on the implementation of just two practices that are said to sequester carbon in the soils: 1) reduced tillage or no-till farming and 2) the planting of cover crops. Through the app, the company monitors the implementation of these two practices and estimates the amount of carbon that the participating farmers have sequestered. Farmers are then supposed to be paid according to Bayer’s calculations and Bayer uses that information to claim carbon credits and sell these in carbon markets.

This past August, Bayer launched a new programme in the US, called ForGround. The main difference with its Carbon Program is that companies can also enrol in ForGround, not just farmers. Upstream companies can use the platform to advertise and offer discounts for tilling equipment, forage seeds and other inputs. But Bayer’s big target is the downstream food companies which can use the platform to claim Scope 3 emissions reductions in their supply chains.

The giant poultry company Purdue Farms was the first such company to announce a collaboration with Bayer’s ForGround in September 2022. Under the collaboration, farmers who supply feed grains to Purdue will be enrolled in ForGround so that Purdue can track their carbon footprints and market its highly polluting chicken as “sustainable”. Although this is not stated by the companies, another advantage for Purdue will be the in-depth information about its farmer suppliers that it will get access to and that it can use to maximise its profits.

It’s not clear if farmers will gain anything from this. The joint press release says only that farmers “may be compensated for tracking their carbon footprint”.  On the other hand, farmers could actually be penalised for not enrolling. Those who do not enrol may find themselves unable to sell soybeans and maize to Purdue, or they may be paid less by Purdue for their crops.

Bayer is the big winner here. It gets increasing control over farmers, dictating exactly how they farm and what inputs they use. Getting more farmers to use reduced tillage or no-till is of huge benefit to Bayer.  The kind of reduced tillage or no-till promoted by Bayer requires dousing fields with tonnes of its RoundUp (glyphosate) herbicide and planting seeds of its genetically-engineered Roundup resistant soybeans or hybrid maize.

Bayer also intends to profit from the promotion of cover crops. The very month that it launched ForGround, it took majority ownership of a seed company developing a gene edited cover crop, called CoverCress. Seeds of CoverCress will be sold to farmers who are enrolled in ForGround and the crop will be sold as a biofuel.

You can see in the evolution of Bayer’s programmes that, for corporations, carbon farming is all about increasing their control within the food system. It’s certainly not about sequestering carbon. Bayer’s programme has a short term focus, as it only requires a 10 year guarantee of sequestration. It also has a very low level of verifiability, as checks will be carried out mainly from a distance, through estimates based on data collected by the FieldView app, not regular soil tests. And it is not about generating a new revenue stream for farmers, either. As we can see with the move to ForGround, any benefits are going to go to Bayer and other corporations.

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Featured image: Monsanto Lasso herbcide to be sprayed on food crops. [Source: Wikimedia Commons/USDA]

Nine High School Football Players Died Suddenly in August 2024

September 2nd, 2024 by Dr. William Makis

Aug. 5, 2024 – Hopewell, Virginia – 15-year-old football player Jayvion Taylor collapsed during football practice on August 5, 2024 and died suddenly. “The student collapsed about 10 feet from a coach. Two coaches were in the vicinity and immediately performed CPR and called 911…AED was used.”

.

.

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Aug. 13, 2024 – Palatka, FL – 15-year-old Robert James Gillon III died suddenly at home from a suspected cardiac arrest

It was a high school gathering no one wanted to see: a memorial for 15-year-old Robert Gillon, a Florida teen who died earlier this month from possible cardiac arrest the morning after he complained of chest pain before going to football practice.

 

 

Aug. 13, 2024 New Brockton, AL – 14-year-old football player Semaj Wilkins, suffered a medical emergency early in football practice and died on Aug. 13, 2024.

 

 

Aug. 14, 2024 – Baltimore – 16-year-old Leslie Noble, football player, collapsed and died on August 14 after a medical emergency on the football field in Reisterstown.

 

 

Aug. 14, 2024 – Houston, TX – 14-year-old Landon Payton, who had done a physical recently to play football, collapsed in the school gym and died suddenly.

 

 

Aug. 16, 2024 – Shawnee, KS – 15-year-old Ovet Gomez Regalado had a medical emergency after an off-season conditioning session on Wed and died on Friday Aug. 16, 2024.

 

 

Aug. 24, 2024 – Selma, AL – Alabama star high school quarterback 16-year-old Caden Tellier died after suffering a head injury during his Friday night football game.

 

 

Aug. 24, 2024 – Hewett, WV – 13-year-old football player Cohen Craddock died after a collision during football practice Friday.

 

 

Aug. 31, 2024 – Columbia, SC – High School football player Troy Moore died suddenly on Aug.31, 2024.

 

 

My Take…

9 High school football players dropped dead in August 2024.

Are we still supposed to pretend to be baffled?

Even after thousands of kids have died after taking Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines? Really?

Notice in the reporting that no one even mentions the possibility of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Injury – which is the top suspect in each of these cases.

This is still happening in 2024 because parents are allowing it to happen.

There will be no investigations.

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

Featured image is from NaturalNews.com

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free Speech in the Crosshairs. A Global Surge in Government Censorship and Digital Control

September 2nd, 2024 by Dr. James Lyons-Weiler

“Individuals – all individuals – must stand up and continue to use their rights to free speech and disempower those who would enslave all of our minds.”

Free speech faces unprecedented challenges in an increasingly digital world. Governments across the globe are ramping up efforts to control, suppress, or outright ban speech that contradicts their narratives or threatens their authority. Recent incidents in Brazil, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, alongside established censorship practices in China, Russia, India, and Turkey, reveal a disturbing trend: the battle for free expression is intensifying, and the digital realm is the new front line.

Recent Crackdowns and Government Overreach

In August 2024, several alarming incidents underscored the vulnerability of free speech:

Brazil Cracks Down on VPN Usage

The Brazilian government recently announced severe penalties for individuals using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Users could face fines of up to $8,874 per day for circumventing government restrictions on internet access, effectively criminalizing the use of tools designed to protect digital privacy and access. This policy represents a significant escalation in government efforts to control the digital landscape and restrict online dissent. (Brazil crackdown on X continues with up to $8.9k daily fine for VPN users (teslarati.com); Brazil Orders X Ban: Why Using A VPN Could Be An Expensive Mistake (slashgear.com))

Germany’s Enforcement of Speech “Norms”

In Germany, the hosts of the podcast “Hoss and Hopf” are facing hefty fines and potential jail time for “misgendering” a transgender individual. This case illustrates a growing trend where governmental enforcement of social norms intersects with legal penalties, raising concerns about freedom of expression and the boundaries of legally mandated language. (German Court Forces Podcasters To Delete Episode Where They Referred To Balding Trans-Identified Male As “He/Him” – Reduxx)

France’s Arrest of Telegram Founder

Image: Pavel Durov at the TechCrunch conference in Berlin, 2013 (Licensed under CC BY 2.0)

French authorities have intensified their crackdown on digital speech by arresting Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, for refusing to censor user content. While we condemn any child pornography or its sharing on any platform, Telegram is known for its strong stance on privacy and resistance to censorship, making Durov’s arrest a significant example of international pressure on digital platforms to align with government censorship demands.

UK’s Misinformation Arrest and Proposed Legislation

In the United Kingdom, a 55-year-old woman was arrested for sharing what was deemed “misinformation” online, a direct intervention by the state to control public discourse. Concurrently, the UK government is pushing for legislation to classify misogyny as a form of extremism, which could expand the scope of regulated speech and criminalize a wide array of expressions under the guise of combating hate speech and extremism. (The UK descends into dystopian levels of censorship, Washington Examiner)

EU’s Pressure on Digital Platforms

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton recently sent a letter to Elon Musk demanding compliance with European censorship laws on X. This move reflects the EU’s aggressive stance on regulating digital content and raises questions about the future of free speech in the European Union, a bloc that prides itself on democratic values.

Rumble CEO Flees Europe Amid Censorship Threats

Image: Chris Pavlovski (Source)

Image

Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble, has fled Europe due to perceived threats from the French government. Rumble, which markets itself as a free-speech alternative to platforms like YouTube, has resisted regulatory pressures to moderate content, underscoring the chilling effect that government threats can have on digital platforms.

Meta and U.S. Government Collaboration

In a recent disclosure, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailed how the Biden-Harris administration and the FBI pressured Meta to censor content during the COVID-19 pandemic. This revelation, part of an ongoing investigation by the House Judiciary Committee, suggests potential overreach by the U.S. government in encouraging platforms to suppress information. (AP News)

Historical Context and Global Patterns

These recent events are part of a broader, ongoing trend. Since 2020, there has been a noticeable increase in government attempts to control digital discourse using both direct and indirect methods:

U.S. Government Influence on Social Media Content Moderation

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government was accused of exerting undue pressure on social media platforms to manage content it deemed misinformation. Critics argue that these actions constituted indirect censorship, compelling platforms to align with government directives under the threat of regulatory action or other repercussions. Ongoing legal battles, such as “Murthy v. Missouri,” have scrutinized these practices, questioning the limits of government influence over private companies and the digital public square. (SCOTUS Blog)

China’s Strict Control Over COVID-19 Information

China has maintained stringent control over COVID-19-related information, silencing whistleblowers and censoring online discussions that challenge the government’s narrative. These actions represent a clear example of direct government censorship to prevent dissent and control public perception.

India’s Use of Internet Shutdowns to Control Speech

India frequently employs internet shutdowns to control information flow and stifle dissent, particularly in politically sensitive regions like Kashmir or during large-scale protests. These shutdowns serve as a blunt instrument to cut off access to information and prevent communication among activists and protestors.

Russia’s Crackdown on Independent Media

Since 2020, Russia has intensified its crackdown on independent media, labeling outlets as “foreign agents” and imposing restrictive regulations designed to suppress dissenting voices. This hostile environment has narrowed the space for free expression and independent journalism.

Turkey’s Social Media Regulation Laws

Turkey’s recent law requiring social media companies to comply with content removal requests and appoint local representatives demonstrates another method of governmental control over digital speech. Non-compliance can result in severe penalties, effectively forcing platforms to adhere to state-imposed speech regulations.

Legislative Approaches in the EU and U.S. States

Laws like the EU’s Digital Services Act and content moderation regulations in U.S. states such as Texas and Florida reflect a growing trend of direct government regulation of digital platforms. These laws have raised concerns about potential overreach and the suppression of free expression under the guise of protecting users from harmful content.

Implications for Democratic Values and Free Expression 

The escalating government encroachment on free speech has profound implications:

Chilling Effect on Free Speech

The various tactics employed—ranging from direct censorship to more subtle forms of coercion—create a chilling effect. Individuals and organizations self-censor out of fear of legal repercussions or other consequences. This self-censorship stifles innovation, debate, and the exchange of ideas, which are essential to a vibrant democratic society. Individuals – all individuals – must stand up and continue to use their rights to free speech and disempower those who would enslave all of our minds.

Erosion of Trust in Digital Platforms

As governments become more involved in content moderation, trust in digital platforms as neutral venues for discourse is eroding. When platforms are perceived as aligning too closely with government interests, their credibility and the authenticity of their content are called into question.

Normalization of Digital Authoritarianism

With more countries adopting stringent measures to control online speech, there is a growing risk of digital authoritarianism becoming normalized. The tools and techniques developed for controlling speech in one context could easily be adapted elsewhere, leading to a global environment where free expression is increasingly rare.

Strategies and Tactics of Government Censorship 

Direct Censorship through Legislation

Governments employ direct legal mechanisms, such as fines, arrests, and restrictive laws, to control speech. These actions are clear examples of overt censorship efforts designed to silence dissent and control the narrative.

Indirect Censorship through Corporate Pressure

Governments often leverage private companies to enforce content moderation policies through veiled threats or regulatory pressures, creating an environment where companies are compelled to comply with state demands to avoid penalties or sanctions.

Digital and Network Controls

Tactics such as internet shutdowns, VPN bans, and social media platform regulation are increasingly used to control digital speech, demonstrating the lengths governments will go to maintain control over online discourse.

Manipulation of Legal and Social Norms

Governments also manipulate legal frameworks and social norms, using policies like “misgendering” penalties to enforce speech norms and expand the scope of regulated speech. This further blurs the lines between legal governance and state overreach.

Case Studies and Comparative Analysis

Comparing various government strategies in different countries reveals similarities and differences in their approaches to censorship. By examining these methods side-by-side, the article illustrates how different regimes, from democracies to authoritarian states, adopt increasingly aggressive tactics to control speech.

Conclusion 

The surge in government efforts to control digital speech is disturbing, with potentially far-reaching consequences. From direct bans and arrests to more subtle forms of coercion and manipulation, governments worldwide are finding new ways to stifle dissent and control the narrative. As these practices continue to evolve and spread, the future of free speech hangs in the balance. The global community must remain vigilant, advocating for transparency and accountability and preserving free expression as a fundamental human right.

The battle over free speech is not just a legal or political issue but a fight for the very soul of democracy. The actions taken today will determine the landscape of public discourse for generations to come.

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My Lost Summer. My Hopes of Building Bridges of Friendship to Russia and Prevent Nuclear War. Scott Ritter

September 2nd, 2024 by Scott Ritter

I had hoped to make the Summer of 2024 a memorable one—building bridges of friendship to Russia, working to develop knowledge and information as an antidote to the poison of Russophobia in America, and trying to prevent a nuclear war between my country and the Russian Federation.

The U.S. government had other plans.

Growing up in a military family, I was immersed in patriotic themes built around the notion of service to one’s country.

On the wall of my bedroom my parents hung two framed posters. The first showed President John F. Kennedy’s face in profile, with the famous words from his inaugural address superimposed over it: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

The second was a poster showing an American prisoner of war behind barbed wire. “The Code of Conduct,” the poster’s title read.

“I am an American fighting man,” the poster read. “I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.”

It was destined that I follow in my father’s footsteps to serve my country as a Marine, and to abide by the code of an American fighting man. When I was commissioned, I took an oath “that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”

While the oath legally applies only while serving in “the office on which I am about to enter,” the adage “once a Marine, always a Marine” means that this oath was, and is, a lifetime commitment.

Service to my country. A cause I am willing to give my life in defense of. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

This is my creed.

This is my mission statement.

I had made trying to prevent a new arms race between Russia and the United States one of my life’s missions. This has been the case since I was selected to be part of the On-Site Inspection Agency (OSIA), a Department of Defense organization created to oversee the implementation of the landmark 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

I am a historian by academic training, and as such I often look to the lessons of the past to guide future actions. Between late April 2023 and mid-January 2024, I had traveled to Russia twice, spending a little more than 50 days during which time I visited 16 cites and met hundreds of Russians in all walks of life, to get a better understanding of the Russian perspective on life.

I took my inspiration from the words of President John F. Kennedy, who in a commencement address to American University delivered on June 10, 1963, implored the American people “not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.”

I traveled to Russia because I wanted to inject hope into the American narrative about Russia.

“No government or social system,” Kennedy said, “is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans…we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements–in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.”

I traveled to Russia to witness firsthand the virtues of the Russian people.

“It is an ironic but accurate fact,” Kennedy noted,

“that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. And even in the cold war, which brings burdens and dangers to so many nations, including this Nation’s closest allies–our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. For we are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty, and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons.”

I traveled to Russia to prevent a Third World War.

“In short,” Kennedy declared,

“both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests of the Soviet Union as well as ours–and even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.”

I traveled to Russia to help prevent a new arms race.

So,

” Kennedy concluded, “let us not be blind to our differences–but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

I traveled to Russia for the sake of my children’s future.

 

The author (right) with Valery Yakovlev, in front of an SS-25 missile produced by the Votkinsk Factory

I returned from my second trip to Russia in mid-January 2024. Within a month, I began to strategize about how best to continue and expand my mission of overcoming Russophobia by countering it with fact-based analysis.

I drafted a paper for my journalist colleagues, where I laid out my thesis in detail. “Relations between Russia and the West have been in a state of gradual deterioration over the course of the past two decades,” I noted. “The reasons for this decline are many, rooted in economic, social, political, and security issues derived from the collapse of the Soviet Union, the chaotic situation that developed in Russia following this collapse, and the West’s negative reaction to the emergence of Vladmir Putin as a Russian leader unwilling to conform to its vision of what post-Soviet Russia should look like.”

This deterioration has led to the politicization of reporting and analysis regarding all matters pertaining to the broad spectrum of issues that, in their totality, define relations with Russia today. As a result, journalistic coverage of Russia has been haphazard at best, and lacking the kind of informed insights that are garnered through more in-depth examination of events that both consider and incorporate a Russian perspective. While there is a need for balance, that cannot be had by deliberately ignoring, downplaying, or misrepresenting the Russian point of view.

An objective review of the western media coverage of Russia since the initiation of the Special Military Operation (SMO) in February 2022, I observed, “suggests a prejudice against the Russian perspective that has clouded editorial judgements and journalistic accuracy, resulting in reporting which fails in its mission of being unfailingly accurate and timely in its predictions,” shortcomings, I concluded, which do not serve the public at large.

“2024 will be a year where Russia can be expected to dominate the global news cycle in a wide range of issues, including economic, social, political, and security, all of which are within the remit of legitimate journalism.”

My goal was to position myself to be able to provide additional journalistic capacity to cover what I called “the Summer of Russia.”

There was, I believed, a deficit of quality reporting about Russian issues that not only accurately reported on events as they occurred, but also provided accurate predictive analysis about events before they happen. This kind of quality predictive analysis is what separates intelligence from simple reporting, and given my background as an intelligence analyst, was something I believed I could accomplish by traveling to Russia and witnessing important events firsthand.

I proposed focusing on three major events—the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), held in early June, the Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS), held in mid-August, and the BRICS summit, scheduled for October.

Unfortunately, my colleagues did not share my assessment regarding the necessity of focusing so strongly on Russia. Undeterred, I decided that I would accomplish the tasks I had set out in the paper on my own.

Well, not really on my own—by this time I had forged not just a solid friendship with the host of my first two trips to Russia—Alexander Zyrianov—but also a common vision on the importance of U.S.-Russian friendship.

I reached out to Alexander in mid-February about two concepts. The first was to capture the experiences we had shared during my two previous visits, and a future third visit, in the form of a documentary film. The second involved bringing my podcast, Ask the Inspector, to Russia, where we would interview Russian officials and citizens for the benefit of Russian and American audiences alike.

In typical fashion, Alexander enthusiastically agreed, and we began a process of collaborative brainstorming that would end up with me traveling to Russia in June along with Judge Andrew Napolitano, the host of the popular podcast Judging Freedom, the co-host of my own podcast, Jeff Norman, and a two-person documentary film team/support crew. The judge and I were scheduled to attend the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), where we were to appear on at least two panels, and conduct interviews with senior Russian government officials. The Judge would then return to the U.S., and Jeff and his crew would arrive to begin a 40-day journey that would take us and the Ask the Inspector podcast “from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea, and everywhere in between.”

 

Alexander Zyrianov (left) and the Author (right) in a Moscow restaurant, January 2024

This trip was extremely ambitious, and with such ambition came increased costs. Whereas the costs of the previous two trips had been fronted by Alexander with the goal being to reimburse at least some of the costs from the royalties from the sale of the Russian language-edition my book, Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika/Gonka Razoruzhennia (Arms Race) and other potential projects, this trip would require me and my team to pay the costs associated with this trip (airfare, hotels, food) upfront. In addition to raising funds through donations and the sale of merchandise, Jeff and I had found a donor who was prepared to underwrite the cost of the trip and documentary film. We prepared a detailed budget, and by early June were in the final stages of arranging for the transfer of funds.

Alexander and I were also coordinating on a follow-on trip I was expecting to make in mid-August. I had received an invitation from the Russian defense attaché in Washington, DC to attend the Moscow International Security Conference (MISC). Alexander and I were planning on filming a second documentary film about the battle of Mariupol once the conference was over. And finally, Alexander had secured an invitation for me to attend the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October.

In short, the plan I had outlined in February that had been rejected by my journalist colleagues had been resurrected in the form of an independent journalism project that would cover SPIEF, MISC, and BRICS, as well as a 40-day independent project combining the Waging Peace documentary project and the “ATI goes to Russia” road show.

This was literally a living, breathing manifestation of the vision set forth by John F. Kennedy in his American University commencement address: to inject hope into the American narrative about Russia, to witness firsthand the virtues of the Russian people, to prevent a Third World War, and to help prevent a new arms race, all for the sake of my children’s future.

And then the U.S. government killed it.

My passport was seized by members of the Customs and Border Protection service on June 3 as I was preparing to board a flight out of JFK airport that would take me to Saint Petersburg.

In one fell swoop, months of detailed planning and preparation were zeroed out by the actions of government officials who, apparently, feared the prospects of peace between the U.S. and Russia.

Two months later, the FBI executed a search warrant against my home under the pretext that the work I was doing with Russia required me to register as an agent of the Russian government.

There is no evidence to sustain such an allegation, because the simple fact of the matter is that I was, am, and will always be the master of my own agenda; everything I did—with Russians and in Russia—was done from a script I wrote, derived from an agenda I created, working toward goals and objectives I defined.

Yes, I worked hand in glove with my Russian host, Alexander Zyrianov. Perhaps the Department of Justice and the FBI are concerned about this aspect of my work, thinking that somehow the Russian government was using Alexander as a front to recruit me for their purposes.

The problem with this theory, besides there being no shred of fact-based truth to sustain it, is that, as I write this, Alexander Zyrianov sits in a Russian jail awaiting trial. He was arrested on June 3 (the same date my passport was seized) on charges of corruption. Since that time, these charges have been set aside as baseless. Now the Russian authorities in Novosibirsk, Alexander’s hometown, are preparing a new set of charges which revolve around his fundraising in support of our U.S.-Russian friendship project.

Alexander’s real “crime”? Trying to challenge the corrupt leadership of Novosibirsk by positioning himself to become the next mayor of Novosibirsk. Our U.S.-Russian friendship project had succeeded in raising his profile within Russia, much to the umbrage of those whom Alexander sought to supplant. In the end, Alexander’s only “crime” was, like Icarus, to dare to fly too close to the sun.

 

The author (right) with Alexander Zyrianov (left) in Novosibirsk, April 2023

The Regional FSB (the Russian version of the FBI), operating on the orders of the Novosibirsk leaders Alexander had challenged, clipped his wings. They tried to do this back in November 2023, when an FSB officer threatened Alexander with arrest if he didn’t resign his position as the Director of the Investment Development Agency of Novosibirsk. Alexander refused to yield to these threats and remained at his job—all the while positioning himself for a run at the mayorship of Novosibirsk.

His stubbornness and ambition proved to be his undoing—the FSB, again operating under instructions from corrupt Novosibirsk officials, arrested Alexander on the morning of June 3 as he was preparing to leave Novosibirsk for Saint Petersburg, where we were scheduled to meet the next day.

If anything, it is I who could be accused of the Russians (if they adopted the paranoid thinking that prevails in the Department of Justice and FBI) of trying to manipulate Russian elections. Alexander often said that the exposure he received through my visits enhanced his political profile. And I made it clear to Alexander that I had no problem with this. Indeed, if the FSB are half as paranoid as the FBI, there is probably a superseding indictment under seal in Russia awaiting my next visit to Russia.

I can’t wait to see how the National Security Division sleuths try to spin this reality into their “Ritter is a Russian agent” narrative.

Peace, it seems, is not a popular theme amongst the powers that be in either Russia or the U.S.

I am hopeful that justice will prevail in Russia, and that Alexander Zyrianov will be exonerated of all charges of wrongdoing and be allowed to return to his family, his livelihood, and his life’s passions.

I am confident that our friendship will endure through thick and thin.

As to whether our joint U.S.-Russian friendship project will be able to continue remains an open question. I know it remains one of my top priorities, given the critical role it plays in empowering my counter-Russophobia efforts and furthering my efforts to promote arms control and prevent a nuclear war.

But civilian diplomacy can only flourish in an environment where the involved parties—Russia and the United States—are open to the prospects of dialogue between their respective populations.

I once believed that the Russian government was so inclined. With Alexander behind bars, I am no longer confident this is the case.

I always knew that the U.S. government, infected as it is with Russophobia, looked askance at the kind of bridgebuilding I was engaged in. But I was also confident that my rights as an American citizen—freedom of speech, freedom of association, and (as a journalist) a free press—would shield me from the prejudices of those in power.

The seizure of my passport and the FBI raid on my home proved me wrong.

And now I’m left pondering my future. It is said that one’s ability to envision the future is strongly influenced by their memory of the past.

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

President Kennedy’s words, embedded in my mind since my childhood, resonate strongly today.

It is my duty as a citizen of the United States to work for the betterment of my nation.

I can best do this by drawing on the experiences in arms control and my knowledge and understanding of Russia to help better inform my fellow citizens about the critical importance of the former and the dangers associated with foregoing the latter.

I was, am, and will always be “an American fighting man.”

 

The Author (left) with Alexander Zyrianov (center) and Alexander Dugin (right), May 2023

My struggle today is not on some distant foreign battlefield, but rather here, at home, on the soil of the country I am charged with guarding, and in defense of which I am prepared to give my life.

My oath as a Marine still resonates. I do not serve the president, the Congress, or any branch of government—they serve me.

They serve we the people.

I am loyal to the Constitution, which I swore to uphold and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

In accusing me of being an unregistered Russian agent, the FBI and the Department of Justice have turned the First Amendment of the Constitution on its head. Free speech, it seems, isn’t free if the U.S. government does not approve of the content of the speech. There appears to be a “Russian exception” in play within the Department of Justice, where First Amendment protections are swept aside when dealing with matters pertaining to Russia.

This does not make America safer. In fact, by shutting down the various projects I had been planning on accomplishing this past summer, the FBI and Department of Justice have made the world a much more dangerous place.

One can make the argument that, by flagrantly violating my First Amendment rights, the greatest domestic threat to the Constitution of the United States is the FBI and the Department of Justice.

I certainly view them in this light.

Which is why I will fight them with every ounce of my moral and physical strength to ensure that I retain my ability to pursue the U.S.-Russian friendship project as I best see fit—not as the government dictates.

Because I believe the greatest existential threat to America today is that of a nuclear war with Russia.

Because I believe that the poison of Russophobia blinds the American people to the reality of this threat and, as such, to the need for forging a new policy path when it comes to Russia.

I believe it is my duty as an American citizen to see this mission through to the end.

And I’ll be damned if the domestic enemies of the U.S. Constitution are going to stop me.

This is the battle for the soul of America.

For the survival of the American dream.

And for the survival of the constitutional republic we call home.

I will be in Kingston, New York, on September 28 with Gerald Celente, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Max Blumenthal, and Anya Parampil for the Peace Freedom Rally/Operation DAWN/Family of Podcasts event, where issues such as preventing nuclear war, free speech, the Gaza crisis, and the state of American democracy will be discussed and debated.

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary   

Featured image: The author (center) with Ilya Volkov (left) and Alexander Zyrianov (right) at Mamayev Kurgan (Volgograd) / All images in this article are from the author

Lo que los medios ocultan sobre las elecciones en Venezuela

September 2nd, 2024 by Marc Vandepitte

Bill Gates Plans for New “Catastrophic Contagion”

September 2nd, 2024 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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***

First posted on Global Research on December 21, 2022

Over time, it’s become clear that the globalist cabal seeking to implement a one world government repeatedly tell us what they’re about to do. Table top pandemic simulations, for example, are a form of dress rehearsal.

In 2017, Johns Hopkins Center of Health Security held a coronavirus pandemic simulation called the SPARS Pandemic 2025-2028 scenario. In October 2019, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with Johns Hopkins and the World Economic Forum hosted Event 201.

As in the SPARS Pandemic scenario, Event 201 involved an outbreak of a highly infectious coronavirus, but the primary (if not sole) focus of the exercise was how to control information and keep “misinformation” in check, not how to effectively discover and share remedies.

October 23, 2022, Gates, Johns Hopkins and the World Health Organization cohosted “a global challenge exercise” dubbed “Catastrophic Contagion,” involving a novel pathogen called “severe epidemic enterovirus respiratory syndrome 2025” (SEERS-25), which primarily affects children and teens

Enterovirus D68 is typically associated with cold and flu-like illness in infants, children and teens. In rare cases, it’s also been known to cause viral meningitis and acute flaccid myelitis, a neurological condition resulting in muscle weakness and loss of reflexes. The virus they modeled in the Catastrophic Contagion simulation appears to be something similar to enterovirus D68, but worse

*

Over time, it’s become clear that the globalist cabal seeking to implement a one world government repeatedly tell us what they’re about to do. They hold dress rehearsals in the form of tabletop exercises, and they’ve revealed their plans in various reports and white papers through the years.

I have been subscribed to the channel that posted the video above for some time now. She only has 10K subscribers but really gets some amazing content. I have no idea how she was able to secure this video as it is not widely circulated. Even more surprising is that her channel is not being taken down.

COVID Dress Rehearsals

For example, in 2017, Johns Hopkins Center of Health Security held a coronavirus pandemic simulation called the SPARS Pandemic 2025-2028 scenario.1 Importantly, the exercise highlighted and stressed “communication dilemmas concerning medical countermeasures that could plausibly emerge” in a pandemic scenario.

In October 2019, less than three months before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with Johns Hopkins and the World Economic Forum hosted Event 201.

As in the SPARS Pandemic scenario, this exercise involved an outbreak of a highly infectious coronavirus, but the primary (if not sole) focus of the exercise was how to control information and keep “misinformation” in check, not how to effectively discover and share remedies.

Social media censorship played prominently in the Event 201 plan, and in the real-world events of 2020 through the present, accurate information about vaccine development, production and injury has indeed been effectively suppressed around the world, thanks to social media companies and Google’s censoring of opposing viewpoints.

We now know this censorship was illegally directed by U.S. government officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was recently deposed2 about his role in the online censoring of COVID information.

Both of these simulations, SPARS and Event 201, foreshadowed what eventually occurred in real life during COVID, so, when Gates hosts yet another pandemic exercise, it’s worth paying attention to the details.

‘Catastrophic Contagion’ Exercise

October 23, 2022, Gates, Johns Hopkins and the World Health Organization cohosted “a global challenge exercise” dubbed “Catastrophic Contagion,”3,4 involving a novel (and as of now fictional) pathogen called “severe epidemic enterovirus respiratory syndrome 2025” or SEERS-25 for short.

Enterovirus D685 is typically associated with cold and flu-like illness in infants, children and teens. In rare cases, it’s also been known to cause viral meningitis and acute flaccid myelitis, a neurological condition resulting in muscle weakness and loss of reflexes in one or more extremities.

Enteroviruses A71 and A6 are known to cause hand, foot and mouth disease,6 while poliovirus, the prototypical enterovirus, causes polio (poliomyelitis), a potentially life-threatening type of paralysis that primarily affects children under age 5. So, the virus they modeled in this simulation appears to be something similar to enterovirus D68, but worse.

Training African Leaders to Go Along With the Narrative

Tellingly, the Catastrophic Contagion exercise focused on getting leadership in African countries involved and trained in following the script. Participants included 10 current and former Health Ministers and senior public health officials from Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Angola, Liberia, Singapore, India and Germany, as well as Gates himself.

African nations just so happened to go “off script” more often than others during the COVID pandemic, and didn’t follow in the footsteps of developed nations when it came to pushing the jabs. As a result, vaccine makers now face the problem of having a huge control group, as the COVID jab uptake on the African continent was only 6%.7

Not surprisingly (for those in the know), Africa has fared far better than developed nations with high COVID jab rates in terms of COVID-19 infections and related deaths.8

Now, the Catastrophic Contagion exercise predicts SEERS-25 will kill 20 million people worldwide, including 15 million children, and many who survive the infection will be left with paralysis and/or brain damage. In other words, the “cue” given is that the next pandemic will likely target children rather than the elderly, as was the case with COVID-19.

This is an interesting coincidence, seeing how rates of toddlers and young children hospitalized with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is already spiking.

COVID Jabs Are Destroying People’s Immune Systems

Coincidentally, over the past year, researchers have been warning that the COVID jabs may be dysregulating and destroying people’s immune systems, leaving them vulnerable to all sorts of infections. According to a study9 posted on the preprint server medRxiv in May 2021, the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID jab “reprograms both adaptive and innate immune responses, causing immune depletion.”

In August 2021, a French group of pediatric infectious disease experts also warned that “immunity debt” caused by a lack of exposure to common viruses and bacteria during COVID lockdowns and school closures might predispose children to suffer more infections in the future.10

They predicted the decrease in viral and bacterial exposure that train your child’s immune system may result in a rebound of a variety of infectious diseases, including influenza and RSV) which is precisely what we’re now seeing. If a modified enterovirus gets added into the mix, it’s not difficult to see how parents might get spooked enough to start lining their kids up for more shots — including parents in African nations.

Why Manufactured Pandemics Will Continue

At this point, it’s quite clear that “biosecurity” is the chosen means by which the globalist cabal intends to seize power over the world. The WHO is working on securing sole power over pandemic response globally through its international pandemic treaty which, if implemented, will eradicate the sovereignty of all member nations.

Ultimately, the WHO intends to dictate all health care. December 13, 2022, the WHO announced Sir Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust — who colluded with Dr. Anthony Fauci to suppress the COVID lab-leak narrative — has been chosen as its new chief scientist.11

The WHO’s pandemic treaty is the gateway to a global, top-down totalitarian regime, a one world government. But to secure that power, they will need more pandemics. COVID-19 alone was not enough to get everyone onboard with a centralized pandemic response unit, and they probably knew that from the start.

So, the reason we can be sure there will be additional pandemics, whether manufactured using either fear and hype alone or an actual bioweapon created for this very purpose, is because the takeover plan, aka The Great Reset, is based on the premise that we need global biosecurity surveillance and centralized response.

Biosecurity, in turn, is the justification for an international vaccine passport, which the G20 just signed on to, and that passport will also be your digital identification. That digital ID, then, will be tied to your social credit score, personal carbon footprint tracker, medical records, educational records, work records, social media presence, purchase records, your bank accounts and a programmable central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Once all these pieces are fully connected, you’ll be in a digital prison, and the ruling cabal — whether officially a one world government by then or not — will have total control over your life from cradle to grave.

COVID Is a Global Propaganda Operation

In the video above,12,13 initially published in August 2021, professor Piers Robinson, Ph.D., an expert on communication, media, world politics and the role of propaganda, spoke to Asia Pacific Today about propaganda in the age of COVID.

As noted by Robinson, COVID-19 is unquestionably the largest, most sophisticated propaganda operation in history. Psychological techniques were extensively used during 2020 to incite fear in the population, while other persuasion strategies were used to get people to support and defend COVID measures such as masking, isolation, social distancing, lockdowns and jab mandates.

Indeed, propaganda is what allowed for draconian and unscientific COVID measures to be implemented. Without propaganda and simultaneous censorship of opposing views, little of what we’ve been through would have been possible.

As noted by Robinson, while the use of state propaganda could initially be justified as a necessary means to achieve a public health objective — protecting people from COVID-related illness and death — it quickly became apparent that this was not the case, and likely never was.

COVID-19 has instead been used to suspend and strip us of Constitutional rights and civil liberties, and is still being exploited to further social, political and financial restructuring objectives, entirely outside democratic processes and public scrutiny. We also know it’s not about public health since:

  • COVID is now nothing more than another endemic respiratory infection, much like the common cold, and
  • The COVID jabs don’t prevent infection or spread of the virus, which negates the entire premise for vaccine passports, yet they’re being pushed anyway

How Did Gates Become the High Priest of the COVID Narrative?

In related news, Politico recently published a special report14 detailing how Gates, who has no medical expertise whatsoever, ended up controlling the global COVID response with no oversight to speak of.

In the earliest days of the pandemic, four nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) banded together to identify vaccine makers and make “targeted investments in the development of tests, treatments and shots,” Politico explains.

These NGOs were the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gavi (a Gates organization that provides vaccines to developing nations), the Wellcome Trust (a British research foundation led by Farrar, now selected to be the WHO’s head scientist) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an international vaccine research and development group cofounded by Gates and Wellcome in 2017.

In collaboration with the WHO, these four NGOs — three of which were founded by Gates — then set out to create a global distribution plan for the tests, drugs and injections they’d invested in.

Incidentally, Gates at that time was also the largest donor to the WHO, as then-President Trump had pulled the U.S. out of the WHO and stopped funding. It’s hard to imagine a situation with greater conflicts of interest. The four groups also greased the wheels of governments.

Collectively, they spent more than $8.3 million to lobby lawmakers and officials in the U.S. and Europe. A number of U.S. and EU officials, as well as WHO representatives, have also been employed by one or more of these NGOs, which helped solidify their political connections.

A number of civil society organizations that are active in developing countries, including Doctors Without Borders, have objected to Western-dominated groups making life-and-death decisions for poorer nations.

“‘What makes Bill Gates qualified to be giving advice and advising the U.S. government on where they should be putting the tremendous resources?’ asked Kate Elder, senior vaccines policy adviser for the Doctors Without Borders’ Access Campaign,” Politico writes.15

Self-Serving Consortium Is Running Our Pandemic Response

Politico’s special report continues:16

“Now, critics are raising significant questions about the equity and effectiveness of the group’s response to the pandemic — and the serious limitations of outsourcing the pandemic response to unelected, privately-funded groups. ‘I think we should be deeply concerned,’ said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor who specializes in public-health law.

‘Putting it in a very crass way, money buys influence. And this is the worst kind of influence. Not just because it’s money — although that’s important, because money shouldn’t dictate policy — but also, because it’s preferential access, behind closed doors.’

Gostin said that such power, even if propelled by good intentions and expertise, is ‘anti-democratic, because it’s extraordinarily non-transparent, and opaque’ and ‘leaves behind ordinary people, communities and civil society’ …

[M]any global health specialists question whether the groups are capable of performing the rigorous post-mortems necessary to build a stronger global response system for the future.

‘No one’s actually holding these actors to account,’ said Sophie Harman, professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London. ‘And they’re the ones that are really shaping our ability to respond to pandemics’ …

Without governments stepping in to take the lead on pandemic preparedness, the four organizations, along with their partners in the global health community, are the only entities that are in a position to lead in the world’s response to a devastating outbreak — again.

‘They’re funded by their own capabilities and or endowments and trusts. But when they step into multilateral affairs, then who keeps watch over them?’ a former senior U.S. official said. ‘I don’t know the answer to that. That’s quite provocative.'”

Final Thoughts

So, in the final analysis, we already have a pseudo-one world government, in the form of Gates’ NGOs. They are making health care decisions that should be left to individual nations and/or states, and they’re making decisions that will line their own pockets, regardless of what happens to the public health-wise.

They coordinate and synchronize pandemic communication during these simulated practice runs, and then, when the real-world situation emerges that fits the bill, the preplanned script is simply played out verbatim.

African nations failed to follow the script during COVID, which is why they’re focusing on African leaders in the latest simulation. They need to get rid of the African control group by getting them onboard with mass injection and all the rest. It’s basically a recruitment effort.

Lastly, between the G20 declaration to implement an international vaccine passport under the auspice of the WHO, and the WHO’s pandemic treaty, everything is lined up to take control of the next pandemic, and in so doing, further securing the foundation for a one world government.

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Notes

1 SPARS Pandemic Scenario

2 Anthony Fauci Deposition Transcript November 23, 2022

3 Catastrophic Contagion

4 Catastrophic Contagion Videos

5 CDC Enterovirus D68

6 CDC Enteroviruses

7 First Post November 19, 2021

8 Yahoo News November 19, 2021

9 medRxiv May 6, 2021

10 Infectious Diseases Now August 2021; 51(5): 418-423

11 Twitter Helen Branswell December 13, 2022

12 Asia Pacific Today August 4, 2022

13 Twitter Robert Malone August 7, 2022

14, 15, 16 Politico September 14, 2022

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

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

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

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

Price: $11.50 Get yours for FREE! Click here to download.

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

Vladimir Putin and Klaus Schwab “Go Way Back”. Does Putin Support the Covid Vaccine?

September 2nd, 2024 by Riley Waggaman

Schwab meets both Putins. In each case, Masonic thumbs get a workout.

Putin is a Rothschild  boy like all world mis-leaders.

Mankind is the victim of a diabolical plot to start WW3.

“Sputnik V” Is the Model Great Reset Drug 

With the Most Obvious Direct Ties to the World Economic Forum

Yet it’s the one “vaccine” that isn’t being linked to it

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putin-swab.pngSource

In January of 2021, Putin gave a keynote (virtual) address before the World Economic Forum. The theme: “The Great Reset.”

Beginning his speech with a warm “dear Klaus,” Putin recalled how he first met Mr. Schwab in 1992 and since then had regularly attended events organized by the Fourth Industrial Revolution visionary.

Putin used his address to urge for “expanding the scale of [COVID] testing and vaccinations” across the globe–policies that have ushered in worldwide medical apartheid.

Echoing the sentiments of western leaders, Putin also argued that the global economy would need to be rebuilt from the ground up by central banks:

[T]he key question today is how to build a program of actions in order to not only quickly restore the global and national economies affected by the pandemic, but to ensure that this recovery is sustainable in the long run, relies on a high-quality structure and helps overcome the burden of social imbalances. Clearly, with the above restrictions and macroeconomic policy in mind, economic growth will largely rely on fiscal incentives with state budgets and central banks playing the key role.

The Russian president has repeatedly stated vaccination should be voluntary—but his personal opinion has had no impact on actual policy. All 85 regions of Russia now have decrees requiring certain segments of the population to get the shot.

On December 17, 2021, Putin voiced support for a nationwide QR code law—one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation in recent Russian history. The introduction of digital health IDs would in essence make vaccination compulsory for those who want to partake in life’s most ordinary activities.

In late November, after the health ministry approved “Sputnik-M”—Russia’s COVID shot for ages 12-17—Putin suggested authorities begin “thinking about” vaccinating children starting from the age of two. 

How many two-year-olds have died from COVID in Russia? (Trick question: the Russian government doesn’t disclose COVID-linked deaths by age group. In fact, the Russian government refuses to publish lots of highly important COVID-related data, including statistics on post-vaccination side effects. Why?)

Time for a Rethink?

In October, RT.com ran a provocative op-ed describing the Great Reset as a “cartoonish fantasy that will hand the global elite even more power.”

The piece lists various world leaders–including Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, and Angela Merkel–as devout followers of Schwab. No mention of Russia anywhere.

The irony, of course, is that Sputnik V is practically the official vaccine of the WEF–and the Russian government is among Schwab’s biggest fans.

ANNEX

Relevant Videos  (Selected by Global Research)

President Putin on the Covid Vaccine, Address to WEF, June 2021

 

Address by President Putin at the World Economic Forum on the Global Economy and the Pandemic

(27 January 2024)

 

 

Transcript of  President Putin’s presentation to WEF

Focussing on the World Economy and the Pandemic

Introductory comments by Klaus Schwab  

0:00

russia is an important global power and this is a long-standing

0:07

tradition of russia’s participation in the world economic forum at this moment in history whereas the

0:14

world has a unique and short window of opportunity to move from an age

0:19

of confrontation to an age of cooperation the ability to hear your voice the voice

0:26

of the president of the russian federation is essential even and especially in

0:33

times characterized by differences disputes and protests constructive on honest

0:41

dialogue to address our common challenges is better than isolation and

0:46

polarization yesterday your phone exchange with president biden

0:52

and the agreement to extend the new start nuclear arms treaty in principle

0:58

i think is a very promising sign in this direction coming 19 mr president has shown

1:06

our global vulnerability and interconnectivity and like any other country

1:13

will russia will certainly also be affected and your

1:20

economic development and prospects for international cooperation of course is

1:26

of interest to all of us mr president we are keen to hear from your

1:33

perspective and from that of russia how you see the situation developing

1:39

in the third decade of the 21st century and what should be done to ensure

1:45

that people everywhere find peace and prosperity mr president the world

1:52

is waiting to hear from you

President Vladimir Putin 

2:03

mr schwab dear uh dear colleagues i’ve visited davos

2:10

many times assisting uh meetings starting from the 90s mr schwartz just mentioned that we met

2:18

each other first in back in 1992. uh in sun peace and when i worked in south

2:26

beach i visited uh this for many times i’d like to thank you uh for this opportunity today uh for me

2:33

to make my statement vis-a-vis the expert community which is participating in this or thanks

2:40

to your efforts mr schwab first of all uh ladies and gentlemen i’d like to welcome welcome all world economic forum

2:47

participants and i’d like to start with the following it’s rather gratifying in spite of the

2:56

pandemics it’s rather gratifying to see that this year despite of the restrictions caused by the coronal eraser in the

3:02

virus the forum continues its work online it has provided an opportunity for the

3:08

participants to engage in an open and free discussion and share their evaluations and

3:13

forecasts and it partially makes up for the lack of direct communication between the leaders of

3:19

states global businesses and the world community that has accumulated over the past months

3:27

all of this is important now that we are when we are facing

3:33

so many complex issues requiring solutions um this foray is the first for in the

3:41

third decade of 21st century and the majority of its topics are dedicated to

3:46

the profound changes which are taking place in our play uh in in the world it is indeed hard to ignore the

3:53

fundamental transformations in global economy politics social life and technology

4:02

the coronavirus pandemic that which you mentioned uh before has become a major

4:09

challenge to the entire mankind has just spurred or accelerated the structural changes

4:15

the preconditions for which have been already in place for many years the pandemic has

4:22

sincere weighted the problems uh and imbalances that accumulated in the world earlier we have every reason to

4:29

believe that the tensions might aggravate even further and such tendencies might emerge in

4:35

almost every area naturally there are no direct

4:40

parallels in history but some experts however and i do respect their opinion they compare

4:48

the current situation to the late uh 20s or early 30s of the last century one can may

4:55

agree or disagree with such opinion such an opinion yet one cannot but draw some parallel

5:02

in terms of many aspects the scale as well as the cross-cutting and systemic nature of challenges and

5:08

potential threats we see the crisis we’re witnessing the crisis of previous

5:13

models and tools of economic development social stratification is increasing both globally and

5:21

in individual countries we mentioned this before but today it causes a sharp polarization in

5:27

public opinions uh populism right and left-wing radicalism

5:32

and other extreme movements are on the rise domestic political processes including

5:39

in leading economies are escalating and becoming more violent all of this cannot but

5:46

impact the nature impact the nature of international relations making them less

5:51

stable and predictable international institution institutions are weakening regional conflicts conflicts are

5:58

multiplying the global security system is degrading and klaus just mentioned my yesterday’s phone uh call

6:06

uh phone talk with the u.s president and we have agreed about the uh

6:12

extending the start uh agreement it’s a correct step but anyway uh the contradictions are

6:20

multiplying and it is well known that in the 20th

6:27

century the failure and inability to essentially resolve such issues resulted in a catastrophic world war of

6:32

course nowadays such a heated conflict is not possible i hope that it’s not possible in principle

6:39

because it will mean the end of our civilization but i’d like to reach rate however that

6:44

the situation might develop unpredictably and uncontrollably if we will sit on our hands doing

6:52

nothing to avoid it and there is a possibility that we may experience an actual

6:57

collapse of global development that might result in a fight of all against all the warring parties

7:05

would attempt to tackle the escalated tensions by searching for internal and external enemies the fight would

7:12

mean the destruction of not only traditional values and we cherish these values in russia such as

7:20

family but also fundamental freedoms including the right of choice and privacy i would like to know that social crisis

7:27

and the crisis of values have already caused negative demographic consequences

7:32

as a result the humankind risks losing the entire civilizations and cultures our common responsibility today

7:41

is to avoid such a future that resembles a grim dystopic dystopia we need to

7:49

ensure development following a different path one that is positive balanced and constructive and in this regard i would

7:57

like to elaborate on the key challenges that in my opinion are facing the world

8:02

community today the first of them the first one of them is of the social

8:09

and economic nature well that’s true we took if we look at the statistics

8:15

despite the severe crisis of 2008 and 2020

8:22

the past 40 years one can call extremely successful for

8:30

the global economy starting from 1980 the global gdp

8:35

had purchasing power parity in real terms per capita has doubled

8:44

and it’s a positive sign globalization and domestic growth have resulted in a boost in developing countries

8:51

more than a billion people have been lifted out of poverty

8:57

for instance if we take an income level of 5.5 u.s dollars per person per

9:03

day at purchasing power parity according to the world bank the number

9:11

of people with lower income in china has reduced from 1.1 billion

9:18

in 1990 to less than 300 million

9:24

in recent years and it’s a success for china in russia this number has been decreased from

9:30

almost 64 million people in 1999 to about five million people as of now

9:37

and we think that uh we are moving in the right direction

9:43

and it’s the most important area but the main question the answer to which gives much insight

9:49

into the current problems is what was the nature of this global growth who benefited most from it

9:58

undoubtedly as i’ve already said developing countries gained much benefit from it

10:05

using the growing demand for their traditional and even new products

10:12

but however this embedding in the global economy resulted not only in new jobs and expert

10:19

earnings for them but also in social costs including significant income gap of the population

10:28

and what is the situation in the developed countries whose level of average well-being is much higher

10:37

paradoxically the problems of stratification here in

10:43

developed countries have proven to be even more profound according to the world bank estimates

10:50

while there were 3.6 million people living on less than 5.5 u.s dollars

10:57

a day in the u.s in the year 2000 in 2016 this figure rose

11:05

up to 5.6 million

11:10

during the same period globalization resulted in a substantial increase in the profits

11:16

of the large multinational companies primarily american and european ones

11:21

and the as to the number of rest of these people in european countries develop

11:28

european countries the tendency tendency is the same like in america but again who gets this revenues talking about

11:35

about companies the answer is obvious those who represent one percent of the

11:40

population and what has happened with the other people

11:46

for the last 30 years

11:52

the income of more than half of the citizens of a number of developed countries in real terms has not increased

12:01

while the cost of education and health services has tripled has increased

12:08

and has tripled actually that has millions of people even in rich

12:15

countries have ceased to see the prospect of increasing their income at the same time they face the

12:21

problems of how to preserve their own health and that of their parents how to provide

12:27

quality education for their children children there is also a large proportion of people who in fact

12:33

turn out to be non-demanded thus according to the international labor organization

12:38

estimates in 2019 21 of young people in the world or

12:44

267 million uh we’re neither studying or working and

12:50

even among those who have work work and it’s an interesting figure even among those who work

12:56

30 percent leave on less than 3.2 us dollars a day at purchasing power

13:03

parity such imbalances in uh global social and economic development

13:10

are the direct results of the targeted policy that has been conducted since the 80s of the last century often

13:18

blatantly and dogmatically based on this so-called

13:23

washington consensus with its unwritten rules that give priority to private

13:28

debt-driven economic growth with deregulation and loud

13:34

low taxes on the bridge and the reach and corporations as i’ve already mentioned the

13:40

coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the problems last year

13:46

they declined the global economy was the worst since the second world war uh labor

13:52

market losses by july were equivalent to almost 500

13:58

million jobs yes half of them have been recovered by the end of the

14:03

year but still almost 250 million jobs lost

14:09

is a very large and boring worrying figure in the first nine months of last year

14:16

alone global labor income losses totaled three and a half and a half three three and a

14:23

half trillion dollars in the world and this figure is still rising which

14:29

means social tensions are on the rise as well at the same time post-crisis recovery

14:34

is not an easy task if 20 or 30 years ago the problem could have been resolved

14:41

through stimulative stimulative macroeconomic policies that’s what we have done and we still

14:49

they’re still doing it so today such mechanisms are no longer working fact

14:55

the result is practically exhausted and it’s not my just my uh st

15:03

evaluation thus according to the imf estimates the level of aggregate public and

15:08

private sector debts is close to 200 of global gdp and in some economies

15:14

it has exceeded 300 percent of national gdp at the same time all developed countries

15:21

now have zero interest rates

15:27

and the main develop developing countries historically historical minimum ones all this leads

15:34

to practically practical impossibility of stimulating the economy with traditional tools by

15:39

increasing private credit quantitative easing the so-called quantitative easing which

15:45

only increases inflates the financial asset bubble leads to further stratification in the

15:52

society and the increasing gap between real and virtual economy

15:58

and quite often representatives of real economy

16:03

sector from many countries keep telling me this and i think that business representative today will uh

16:11

tell me tell me the same so

16:16

and the increased gap between rail and rational economy as i said represents a real threat and it is fraught with serious and

16:23

unpredictable disturbances certain hopes for resetting the previous growth model

16:28

are related to rapid technological development yes the last 20 years have laid the foundation for what is

16:35

known as the fourth industrial revolution which is based on the widespread use of artificial intelligence automated

16:43

and robotic solutions the coronavirus pandemic has greatly

16:48

accelerated such developments and their implementation however this process is also bringing is also

16:56

bringing about new structural changes in the labor market therefore without efficient efforts by

17:02

states many people are risking

17:07

their jobs and this often affects the so-called middle class which continues constitutes the core

17:15

of any modern society and let me turn to the second fundamental challenge for the forthcoming decade uh in other

17:22

words the social and political challenge increasing economic problems and

17:27

inequality are splitting the society they pave the way for social racial

17:33

national intolerance and this pressure shows through even in those countries

17:38

which seem to possess well-established civic and democratic institutions that are designed to smooth over

17:45

mitigate such events and incidents systemic social economic problems

17:54

leads to public discontent and it requires special attention

18:00

uh they should be these problems should be resolved there are dangerous illusions that we

18:08

can adjust don’t deal with it bury them deep

18:16

but in this case the public discontent uh will increase and the society will be

18:23

divided because the reasons of public discontent has to do with real problems

18:28

which affects everybody uh independently uh what political beliefs or

18:36

what political ideas there stick to real problems they lead to discontent i would point

18:44

out one more important aspect modern technology model technological uh first of all

18:51

digital giants have been playing an increasingly significant role in the life of the society

18:58

well we talked a lot about that uh taking into account what had happened in

19:04

the united states and we’re not talking about economic giants uh only in certain areas

19:11

they are compete they are competing with states and their audience include millions millions and

19:18

millions of users which using these ecosystems

19:24

they’re using ecosystems and they spend a lot of time there and the company’s monopoly position

19:31

as they can see it is best suited for running technological and business processes probably it’s

19:36

true but here is the question how well does this monopolism correlate with the public interest

19:42

where is the distinction between successful global businesses

19:48

sought after services and big data consolidation on the one hand and the efforts to rule

19:56

the society in the rude and self-servicing manner by

20:02

substituting for legitimate democratic institutions by encroaching on or restricting the

20:09

natural right of people to decide for themselves how to live and what to choose and what

20:14

you to express freely on the other hand we have seen all of this just recently in the united states

20:22

and everybody understands quite well what i’m talking about and i’m sure that the majority of people share this view

20:30

including those who are participating today at this meeting and finally the third

20:35

challenge or to be more precise the clear threat which we can face in this decade

20:42

i mean the further aggravation of the whole set of international problems

20:53

if states especially major states choose to search for internal enemies they will inevitably

20:58

need an external external enemy the one which they can blame for each and every

21:04

failure and the one to which they can redirect the temper and discontent of

21:09

their own citizens and we see it we can see it already we feel the tension in external

21:15

policy or with their friends grow we may expect practical steps to become more aggressive this might include

21:21

further pressure on countries that do not agree to become docile easy to control satellites

21:29

the use of trade barriers illegitimate sanctions restrictions restrictions in the

21:35

financial technological and information spheres such a game without rules

21:41

is dramatically increasing the risks of the universal use of military force

21:47

which is very dangerous under the under any pretexts invented pretests

21:54

as well as the odds of the emergence of new hot spots on our planets

22:01

that’s cannot but cause the preoccupation for creation among us

22:07

dear participants and dear participants despite this angle of differences and challenges

22:14

it is essential that we keep looking positively into the future and remain committed to

22:20

the constructive agenda it would be naive to offer some universal magic

22:26

solutions for the sad problems but all of us should certainly work to

22:32

develop common approaches narrow down discrepancies as much as

22:38

possible didn’t identify social global tensions i would like to reiterate my message the

22:44

fundamental reason behind the lack of sustainability in global development

22:50

is in many cases the accumulated social and economic problems that’s why the key issue for us today is

22:57

this what logic should we follow in our actions so as not only to quickly restore global and

23:03

national economies affected by the pandemic but to ensure that

23:08

the such restoration is sustainable in the long term and has a quality

23:14

structure enabling it to help overcome the burden

23:19

of social imbalances it is clear that given the above mentioned uh limitations

23:26

of the past macroeconomic policies further development of the economy will be based to a great extent on

23:32

fiscal stimulus which state budgets with state budgets and central banks

23:38

playing the key role in fact we are already witnessing such

23:43

tendencies in the developed and countries as well as as well as in certain developing

23:49

countries the increase the increasing role of the government in the social socioeconomic sphere

23:55

at the national level and not and obviously in matters of the global agenda requires

24:00

greater responsibility and closer interstate cooperation various international fora

24:05

have invariably been calling for inclusive growth for creating conditions to ensure a decent life for everyone

24:12

it is absolutely clear and that’s correct and it’s absolutely clear that

24:22

that the world cannot follow the path of building an economy uh that works for a million

24:29

people or even for the golden billion it’s a destructive type of policy such a

24:35

model is unsustainable by definition and recent developments including the migration crisis uh have once again

24:44

proved that today it is important to move from general statements to actions to putting real efforts and

24:50

resources to both reducing social inequality within individual states

24:57

and step by step to narrow the gap between the levels of economic development of

25:03

different countries and regions of the planet thus we will avoid immigration migration risks

25:09

designed to ensure sustainable harmonious development this policy has clear

25:14

purposes and priorities those include the creation of new opportunities for everybody

25:19

conditions for people to develop and realize their potential regardless of where they were born and

25:25

live and where they live um there there are four key priorities

25:30

how of how i can see them as the priorities

25:35

probably i will not be i will not say nothing new but uh i’m

25:43

expressing the power of the position the position of russia that’s what i’m doing first a person

25:48

should have a comfortable environment to live in which includes housing and accessible infrastructure transport energy and

25:55

utilities and of course ecological well-being we should keep this in mind always second a person must be confident

26:02

that he or she will have a job that provides a steadily increasing income and

26:07

therefore an adequate standard of living people should have access to effective

26:12

mechanisms for lifelong learning which is just necessary today

26:18

allowing them to keep to develop and build their career and receive a decent pension and social

26:24

package after retiring third a person must be confident

26:29

that he or she will receive high quality and effective medical care when needed

26:37

that the healthcare system in any event will guarantee them access to most uh advanced services

26:43

fourth regardless of family income children should have opportunities to

26:49

receive a decent education and fulfill their potential and this kind of potential every kid has

26:58

this is only the only way to guarantee the most effective development of a modern economy an

27:03

economy that does not view people as a mean as means as a mean but places

27:09

them at the center only those countries that can make progress in those in these four areas and

27:16

um i just mentioned uh the most important areas uh so only

27:23

those countries that can make progress here will ensure sustainable inclusive development

27:28

and it is these approaches that underlie the strategy that russia is pursuing my country is pursuing our

27:35

priorities focus on the individual and the family they center on ensuring demographic development and

27:42

safeguarding the people on improving the well-being and protecting the health of our people

27:48

we work to create conditions for decent and efficient work and successful entrepreneurship to

27:54

ensure digital transformation as a basis for a technology driven future for our

28:00

entire country rather than a small group of companies in the coming years we will concentrate

28:05

the efforts of the government business and civil society on these tasks and building a stimulating budget policy

28:14

in achieving our national development goals we’re open to a broad international

28:19

cooperation and we believe that cooperation matters on the global social and economic agenda

28:26

would have a positive impact on the general atmosphere and the world affairs and

28:32

interdependence in solving urgent problems would lead to us to stronger mutual trust

28:40

which is especially irrelevant today it is clear that an

28:46

era associated with attempts to build a centralized unipolar world order is over

28:56

it hasn’t been started even there were attempts to do this in just there

29:01

but it’s over such a monopoly was inherently contrary to the cultural

29:08

and historical diversity of our civilization

29:13

the the reality is that there are truly different studies of development in the

29:20

world with their own distinctive models political systems political models social institutions and

29:27

today it is extremely important to create mechanisms for coordinating their interests so

29:34

so that the diversity and which is natural and the natural

29:39

competition between the poles of development does not turn into anarchy and multiple

29:45

protracted conflicts and we for this we have to strengthen and

29:52

develop the universal institutions which bear special responsibility for ensuring global stability and security and

29:59

uh elaboration of rules of conduct in the world economy and trade i’ve mentioned many times that many universal

30:06

institutions are facing facing hard times today and at different summits i keep telling you

30:11

about that these institutions have been created in uh during different

30:17

uh era and they’re facing today’s challenges it’s not an easy task for them

30:22

objectively but i’d like to to stress that

30:30

we just we shall support them

30:35

they have unique uh experience when it comes to uh using a huge

30:44

potential which have not have has not been implemented it should be adapted to the realities

30:50

but we should use it we shall not make history of them we should use the

30:56

new uh forms of interaction when it comes to

31:06

certainly it can also be understood in different ways it can be seen as a way of promoting one’s own interests

31:12

and making one’s unilateral actions look legitimate while others are left with no other

31:18

choice but to not in approval or it can be an opportunity for sovereign states

31:23

to actually join their efforts to deal with specific problems for the common good in particular this

31:30

may involve the settlement of regional conflicts and creation of

31:35

technological alliances as well as many other areas including the formation of

31:40

cross-border transport and energy corridors etc

31:45

dear friends ladies and gentlemen you you understand that we have here vast opportunities

31:53

for mutual work uh such multilateral approaches actually work

31:58

and the practice the practical work shows that let me remind you that a lot

32:04

has been done by russia iran and turkey within the astana format to stabilize the situation in syria and

32:10

they are currently contributing to the establishment of a political dialogue in that country we are doing this with other countries

32:17

we are doing it together and russia engaged in active mediation efforts to

32:22

put an end to the armed conflict in the nagorni karabakh region a conflict between the nations that are

32:29

our old friends and neighbors azerbaijan and armenia these efforts were guided by the key arrangements made

32:36

by the osce means group particularly by its co-chair russia the u.s and france it’s another

32:44

good uh example of uh cooperation as it is known a trilateral

32:50

statement was signed by russia azerbaijan and armenia in november more importantly most of its provisions

32:56

are constantly put into practice there’s this has helped to end the bloodshed which is

33:02

the most important thing the ending of the bloodshed we establish a complete ceasefire and we

33:07

uh start with the stabilization process right now the task for the international community

33:13

and of course of those countries that have been involved in the resolving the crisis is to provide assistance to the affected

33:19

regions to help them overcome the humanitarian problems associated with the return of refugees

33:25

restoration of the destroyed infrastructure and protection of historical religious and cultural monuments and

33:32

their restoration you also know another

33:39

example i would like to stress the role played by russia saudi arabia and the

33:44

united states in the stabilization of the world energy market this farm it has provided a private

33:51

example of a productive interaction between countries with different and sometimes even opposite assessments of global processes

33:58

with their own views of the world at the same time there are of course issues that affect all states

34:04

without exception a good a good example is the joint work to study and combat the cavite 19

34:11

infection recently several types of this dangerous disease have emerged

34:18

as it is well known and the world community needs to create an environment that enables scientists

34:23

and as specialists to work together in order to understand why and how the chronovirus mutations

34:30

occur what is the difference between its strains and of course there is a need for worldwide coordination

34:36

of efforts and the uh general secretary you and general secretary calls upon it

34:42

we need to coordinate of efforts to distribute and facilitate the accessibility of the much needed covered 19 vaccines

34:48

vaccines help should be provided to states that need it the most including african states such

34:55

health should involve the increase should involve the increase in the

35:01

number of tests and vaccination as we can see a mass vaccination

35:07

is accessible mostly today for those who live in the developed countries at the same time there are hundreds of

35:16

millions of people uh in our world who cannot even hope to get such protection

35:21

and reality such inequality could result in a common thread because the pandemic

35:27

and it is well known the pandemic will drag on uh

35:34

and uncontrolled epicenters who will remain infection and pandemics

35:40

no no no no body that’s why we need to learn the lessons from the current situation

35:46

and to come up with measures to make the system for global monitoring of emergence of such diseases

35:52

more effective and another important area which requires the entire world

35:57

community to coordinate efforts

36:04

it has to do with the preservation of climate and nature of our planet

36:12

it’s nothing new here only together we can achieve progress uh in addressing such

36:19

serious problems as the global warming depletion of forest loss of biodiversity increasing

36:24

waste volumes and marine plastic pollution so on so forth find an optimal balance between the

36:31

interest of economic development and preservation of the environment for the current and future generations

36:38

dear foreign participants dear friends we all know that

36:44

competition rivalry between the countries has never in the world’s history stopped and they

36:51

will not stop and differences clusters of interests are

36:57

all natural for such a complex organism as the today’s of human

37:03

civilization in general however however at critical times

37:08

it was never an obstacle but rather it prompted a concerted effort in dealing

37:14

with the most vital and truly life-changing situations and i believe that now

37:20

is exactly such a period it is crucial to give an honest assessment of the

37:25

situation to focus on uh real global problems rather than perceived ones on remitting

37:33

the imbalances of imbalances which are critical for the entire world community and then i’m sure we will be able to

37:40

achieve success to give a solid response for the challenges of the third decade of the 21st century

37:48

i’d like to stop here and i’d like to thank for your patience and for your attention

37:57

mr president many of the issues erased certainly are part

38:04

also of our discussions here during the davos week we complement the

38:12

speeches also by task forces which address some of the issues you mentioned like

38:19

not leaving the developing world behind taking care of let’s say creating the skills for

38:26

tomorrow and so on so mr president i have we we prepare for

38:34

the discussion afterwards but i have one very short question um how do you see and i

38:42

it’s a question which we discussed when i visited you in saint petersburg

38:49

14 months ago how do you see the future of european russian relations

38:56

just a short answer

39:07

fundamental issues we have common culture

39:23

most important political figures in europe in the recent past mentioned

39:30

the need to keep developing the relations between europe and russia

39:37

stressing the fact that russia is part of europe geographically and what is most

39:43

important from the cultural point of view

39:49

it’s just one civilization in reality french leaders mentioned the need to uh

39:56

create a common space from lisbon to urals and i mentioned

40:03

just the same why adjust to your to your euros we shall extend it to vladivostok

40:10

me personally i had the position of the former distinguished political uh figure

40:18

uh chancellor helmut kaul who uh used to say that if uh the european culture

40:26

would like to preserve itself and to maintain its role as one of the cultural

40:31

centers in the world again taking into account all the problems and tendencies of the

40:38

world civilization development so where western europe and russia should

40:44

be together and we cannot but agree with this we share the same position and the same opinion today’s

40:52

situation is no doubt far from being normal

40:57

we have to come back to the positive agenda

41:02

this is the common interest of russia and european countries no doubt about that

41:08

well deep pandemic has played its negative role our trade to know

41:21

has been affected although uh your european union is one of our main trade partners so we have to come back

41:29

to positive tendencies and we have to

41:34

increase our interaction russia and europe from economic point of view are the

41:40

natural partners and from the point of view of first

41:48

science development technological development uh development from the space point of

41:55

view uh russia is sharing european culture

42:03

but the territory of russia is a little bit bigger than the entire

42:08

europe we have a huge human resources um and

42:13

i will not enumerate all we have but it could be

42:21

used beneficially for russia and europe what is important here is the following we should we should

42:28

approach an honest manner to our dialogue we should get rid of our

42:33

past phobias we shall not use in our internal political processes

42:41

problems which we inherited from the previous centuries

42:48

we shall look into the future to the to the future and if we are able to get rid of this

42:54

phobias and old problems then

43:00

we will create a positive stage of our uh relations we are ready for this we

43:06

would like to get this and we will do our best to get to achieve this but it should not be a uniratal approach

43:16

it should be a common approach

43:31

you

 

 

 

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary 

Ukrainian F-16 Pilot Killed, Fueling Rumors About First Downed ‘Falcon’

September 1st, 2024 by Drago Bosnic

Member of the Kiev regime’s Verkhovna Rada (Parliament), Ihor Polishchuk, posted (and then deleted) an obituary to a Ukrainian pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksii Mes (call sign Moonfish), who was killed on August 26.

Mes was one of the first pilots to complete F-16 training.

He also reportedly participated in the negotiations with the United States on the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to the Kiev government.

Mes served in the 204th Tactical Aviation Brigade, stationed at the Lutsk Air Base, northwestern Ukraine. The 204th uses the Soviet-era MiG-29s (specifically the MU1 variant) and was slated to switch to F-16s once the training was done.

Mes was reportedly one of the few Ukrainian pilots with a good command of English, so he was immediately chosen for training on US-made jets. It’s unclear if he was killed at Lutsk or some other airbase. The exact circumstances of his death are also yet to be disclosed. Currently, there’s speculation that he was either killed in a missile strike or possibly in air-to-air combat.

If the latter is true, it could also mean that he flew an F-16 and was shot down either by Russian long-range SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems or possibly by fighters such as the highly advanced Su-35S air superiority jet or superfast, high-flying MiG-31BM interceptor.

During the recent mass strikes on targets across the territory occupied by the Kiev regime, the Russian military used a plethora of missiles and drones. There are reports that the Kiev regime was forced to keep some of the F-16s in air to avoid their destruction on the ground.

However, this would also expose these jets to air defenses, interceptors and air superiority fighters. As of this writing, the hypothesis is yet to be confirmed, but numerous Russian sources are already reporting on it. Another possibility is that an F-16 was destroyed on the ground, as on August 26, oblasts (regions) with major tactical aviation bases, including Khmelnytsky, Volyn and Ivano-Frankivsk, were targeted by Russian long-range precision strikes.

According to military sources, the Kremlin also targeted the Starokonstantinov Air Base, home of the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade, known for operating the Su-24M/MR tactical strike jets (converted to carry various NATO-sourced weapons, including the stealthy “Storm Shadow”/SCALP-EG air-launched, long-range cruise missiles). Immediately after Russian missiles and drones were detected entering the Kiev regime’s airspace, fighter jets (including F-16s) took off and loitered above the area at low altitude, reportedly for two to three hours. Moscow’s forces then waited for these jets to return to the airbase and then immediately launched another strike, the result of which was the possible destruction of at least one F-16. Although this information is yet to be verified, there are many indicators that it could be true, including the possible triangulation of F-16s through Russian space-based ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) assets such as satellites.

Interestingly,  Volodymyr Zelensky boasted that F-16s were used to allegedly shoot down Russian cruise missiles during the aforementioned long-range precision strikes. If true, this would clearly indicate that the US-made jets were indeed flown during these strikes, exposing them to possible detection and destruction by the Russian military, both in air and on the ground. There have been numerous analyses of the possible effectiveness of F-16s against the Kremlin’s world-class SAM systems and/or aviation. Due to the Kiev regime’s drastically lower technological base, it never stood a chance in matching the Russian military’s capabilities, particularly in air-to-air combat. There have been countless deaths among Ukrainian pilots flying what can only be described as suicide missions against such odds. Local media published numerous reports about this in recent months alone, demonstrating just how catastrophic the losses among pilots are.

On August 12, Captain Oleksandr Myhulia of the Kiev-based 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade was killed. Back in mid-May, it was also reported that the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade, based in Mirgorod, lost Lieutenant Colonel Denys Vasyliuk, one of the best Ukrainian pilots at the time. Vasyliuk was the brigade’s chief of staff and a deputy commander of an aviation squadron, making him one of the highest-ranking losses among pilots for the Neo-Nazi junta. Just two months prior, Major Andrii Tkachenko, a fighter jet pilot, was killed in a combat mission over the Donbass. A month before him, Vladislav Rykov, a pilot in the 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade, as well as one of the most experienced among the Kiev regime forces, was killed in action (KIA). There were instances when the Neo-Nazi junta would lose three pilots in a single day. Namely, in August last year, three Ukrainian pilots, including Andrii Pilshchykov (call sign “Juice”), were killed, which was an unprecedented loss for Kiev.

Thus, even if the reports about the possible destruction of the first NATO-sourced F-16 turn out to be mere rumors, the very loss of pilots capable of flying these overhyped US-made jets is a major setback. It takes years to properly train fighter pilots, particularly if there’s a doctrinal and technological barrier (or even a linguistic one), as is the case between Ukrainian and NATO pilots, as well as their Soviet-era and Western-made fighter jets. The former are far more robust and cost-effective, while also being reliable and easy to maintain. On the other hand, NATO ones are a lot more sensitive.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Featured image: An Air Force F-16 Viper parked just a few hundred feet from the wall of fire at the Fort Worth Alliance Air Show, Oct. 28, 2017 at Fort Worth, Texas. (Courtesy photo by Air Force Viper Demo Team)

Protecting the Widow Maker: The US Marines Exonerate the Osprey

September 1st, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The tiltrotor V-22 Osprey has a plagued, bloodied history.  But blighted as it is, the aircraft remains a cherished feature of the US Marines, regarded as vital in supporting combat assault, logistics and transport, not to mention playing a role in search-and-rescue missions and delivering equipment for the Navy carrier air wings.

In March this year, V-22 flights were again permitted after a three-month pause following a fatal crash on November 29 of an Air Force CV-22B off Yakushima Island, Japan and the grounding of all V-22S aircraft in early December.  Col. Brian Taylor, program manager for the V-22 Joint Program Office, told a media roundtable two days prior to rescinding the grounding order that a “meticulous and data-driven approach” had been used in investigations.

The approach, however, may well have been less meticulous and data-driven than a matter of desperation and self-interest, not to mention the role the aircraft is intended to play in the lighter, more agile forms of conflict envisaged by the “Force Design 2030” strategy.  A feature of that strategy is EABO, known to the military wonks as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations.

Bryan Clark, senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, offers a blunt assessment.  “There’s not a clear backup for the Marines, there’s not a clear backup for the Air Force, and soon there won’t be a backup for the Navy’s [carrier onboard delivery] mission.”

The Osprey’s failures have also left their spatter in Australia.  On August 27, 2023 a V-22B Osprey with 23 US marines crashed to the north of Darwin on Melville Island, leading to three fatalities.  Darwin, having become a vital springboard in projecting US power in the Indo-Pacific, hosts an annual Marine Rotational Force, so-called to avoid suspicions of a permanent garrisoning of the city.

The crash also stirred unwanted memories of a previous Osprey crash in Australia, when a Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 failed to safely land on the flight deck of USS Green Bay on August 5, 2017.  That lethal occasion saw three deaths and 23 injuries.

The Osprey has pride of place in a military force that specialises in lethal aviation mishaps during training and routine operations.  Join the US Armed Forces, and you might just get yourself killed by your own machinery and practices.  The investigation into the Melville Island crash was instructive to that end, showing the aircraft to be, yet again, an object of pious reverence in US defence circles.

The initial investigation into the crash was initially eclectic: the Northern Territory police, fire and emergency services, along with personnel from the Australian Defence Force and the US Marine Corps.  At the time, acting assistant commissioner and incident controller, Matthew Hollamby, expressed his enthusiasm in carrying out a “thorough investigation”. “We are in the recovery phase and working closely with NT Fire and Rescue Service to assist us with a safe and respectful recovery operation of the three deceased US marines.”

Despite such utterances, it soon became clear that any investigation into the matter would ultimately be pared back.  Either the servitors were not considered up to the task, or all too capable in identifying what caused the crash.  In September 2023, the local press reported that territory officials were no longer needed, with NT News going so far as to claim that local agencies had been “ousted from the investigation”.  The Marines had taken full reins over the matter.

The top brass accordingly got the findings they wanted from the US Marines’ official report, which involved sparing the Osprey and chastising the personnel.  There had been no “material or mechanical failure of any component on the aircraft”.  The crash had been “caused by a series of poor decisions and/or miscalculations.”

The squadron’s attitude to procedure had also been less than enviable, marked by a “culture that disregarded safety of flight procedures”.  There had been a “lack of attention to detail and failure to comply with proper pre-flight procedures”.  There had also been a “lackadaisical attitude across the squadron” towards maintenance practices.  Command responsibility in not addressing that particular culture was also acknowledged, while the conduct of the Australian Defence Forces and “local nationals” in responding to the crash were deemed “admirable”.

Such reports are hardly intended as ironic, but the executive summary notes how Australian defence protocols were so developed as to enable the Marines to operate with even greater daring than they otherwise would.  The ADF’s “casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) and mass casualty (MASSCAS) support structure is allowing Marine units to conduct multi-national military training events in the Northern Territories without sacrificing force requirements.  Without these well-established relationships in place this mishap may have been more tragic.”

The findings should have given the then Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler pause for concern.  Squadrons of personnel operating such machinery indifferent to safety would surely stir some searching questions.  But NT officials, under the eagle eye of the Canberra military establishment, aim to please, and Lawler proved no different.  She knew “that the US Marines will do the work that’s needed now to make sure that any recommendations out of any inquiry are implemented in full.”

In a statement of unconvincing worth, the Marines insisted that they remained “unwavering” in their “commitment to the world class training of our aircrews and ensuring their safety”.  And that commitment, not to mention the type of training, is precisely what we should be afraid of.

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

Featured image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Mirages…. Strange Alliances: ” Embrace of The Trump Campaign by Robert F. Kennedy Jr”. Covid and “Vaccines” – Trump is in the Opposite Camp

September 1st, 2024 by Edward Curtin

I am sitting on the beach at the National Seashore, a forty-mile long stretch of the Atlantic Ocean seashore on Outer Cape Cod, established in 1961 by President Kennedy. 

The wind is whipping hard and the waves are running wildly high against the shore, and, to paraphrase Thoreau – the sand is rapidly drinking up the last wave that wets it.  I am looking far out to the horizon where the sun shimmers on what seems to be the world’s watery edge, creating a strange mirage that I wonder at but find hard to describe.  Earlier, I was rereading Thoreau’s Cape Cod in which he mentioned this phenomenon 150 years ago, not just the mirages across the water but those here along the great stretches of sand.  Now I am confused and my mind wanders to other mirages that make me shake my head in wonderment.  It is hard to grasp what one is seeing these days.

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When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a presidential aspirant, folded his cards and conceded the current pot to Donald Trump – what he euphemistically called suspending his campaign for the presidency – he let his justifiable hatred of the Democratic Party, their undermining of his campaign, and their pro-war and genocidal agenda get the best of him.  His trust in Trump is naïve in the extreme.  With the issue that Kennedy has made central to his work in recent years – Covid and the “vaccines” – Trump is in the opposite camp.

The investigative journalist Whitney Webb has said: 

“The inevitable embrace of the Trump campaign by RFK Jr. will see one of the Covid-era’s most prominent (+ promoted) skeptics embrace the man whose administration established the early Covid policies and Military-run Op Warp Speed. What a world and what a disappointment.”

Furthermore, Trump’s campaign is backed by a host of people – Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, and Trump’s vice-president sidekick, JD Vance, among others – who are big promoters and investors in mRNA and DNA vaccine technology.  Thiel and Lonsdale are cofounders of Palantir, a company that collects American’s health data while it also works with the CIA.

Mirages?

And the independent journalist Vanessa Beeley, while being equally scathing of the Democratic Party’s masters of war, has said the following of this odd coupling:

With Trump and Kennedy you have a combination that is 100 times more likely to lead us to Armageddon and idiots are saying Trump supplied less weapons to Israel. Of course he did because he was destroying Syria through unilateral collective punishment economic sanctions, assassinating Resistance leadership and paving the way for greater Israel, Clean Break through Abraham Accords and Jerusalem, giving Golan to Zionist occupation. He didn’t NEED to start wars, he certainly didn’t end them, he increased the hybrid war strategy to pave the way for the final solution and Kennedy is fully on board, whatever his title. It’s astonishing to watch people whitewash the Trump role in the empowerment of the Zionist entity which has led to the genocide we are witnessing. There is no one or the other (Trump or Harris) they work as a tag team, oligarchs and deep dark state create the road map. We are already in WW3 and Trump will go to war with Iran, effectively with Russia and China. Why continue supporting a putrid corpse of a US political system? And, by the way, Kennedy support base is not anti-Zionist. They are generally apathetic and prepared to excuse Kennedy’s criminal genocide denial and defence of Zionist apartheid and ethnosupremacism because “America first”. Genocide is the Red line that Trump and Kennedy will erase and normalisation of genocide is a clandestine policy of this partnership. We are already in WW3. Trump will not end any wars, he never has. Iran and China are in his crosshair.

This too is true, and it runs counter to RFK, Jr.’s pledge to end all foreign wars. One may have noticed that in his speech suspending his campaign Kennedy said that he disagreed with Trump on certain matters, but he did not conveniently mention that they were in accord with each other and the Democrats in supporting the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians and its push for war with Iran and therefore Iran’s ally Russia.  That sounds like one big foreign war to this observer.

While the mainstream media relish ripping Kennedy, they rarely if ever mention his unequivocal support for Israel, for to do so would bind them to him (and Biden/ Harris, and Trump/Vance) in being full-fledged supporters of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.  

Indeed, there is one taboo that the mainstream corporate media, mouthpieces for the warfare state, assiduously maintain: it is to never report the truth about the power Israel maintains over U.S.

Mideast policy through its Israel lobby, and their own complicity in Israel propaganda.  Politicians of both parties are venal reprobates who parade with American flags on their chests as they betray their country.  They can only be described as traitors, as the current Biden/Harris administration’s full-fledged proud military backing for Israel’s ongoing slaughter of the Palestinians substantiates.  The recent Democratic Convention was a Hollywood spectacle directed by an American version of Nazi Germany’s Leni Riefenstahl, replete with shouts for the destruction of Russia as well as the Palestinians.  (The Biden-Harris administration has just approved its 100th arms shipment to Israel since October 7, 2023.)  That they are pushing the world toward nuclear war didn’t disturb them in the least, as they sang and laughed and acted out for a fan base deluded by mirages and auditory delusions produced Tinseltown style.

So American voters are offered a choice of a political alliance of an odd couple in Kennedy and Trump, along with Vance, and a conventional one in Harris and Walz, based on the fallacious assumption that a choice is being offered between the war parties whose raisons d’être are to wage foreign wars for the teetering American empire. 

Hovering over and behind this pathetic travesty lies the controlling power of the national security state and its corporate media propaganda for these endless wars and corrupt politicians.  Only a skeptically acute mental knife, constantly sharpened, can cut through the propaganda campaign aimed, not at a foreign audience, but at the American people by its own government.  Mind control is the name of its game.

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What would Thoreau, a man who didn’t vote and refused to his pay poll tax to support war and slavery, think of these strange alliances hiding behind glittering mirages?  Though written more than 150 years ago, his words are more than apropos today:

Men have an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough all will at length ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for nothing; but a crowd rushes to the depot, and the conductor shouts ‘all aboard’ when the smoke blows away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are run over – and it will be called, and will be, ‘a melancholy accident.’

He made it very clear that one should not lend oneself to the wrongs which one condemns, such as the Israeli genocide of Palestinians or the US/NATO war against Russia through Ukraine that is leading toward nuclear war.  By voting for the so-called “lesser of two evils,” one is voting for evil and lending oneself to the wrongs one condemns.  It is blatant hypocrisy and a vote for the warfare state.

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As synchronicity would have it, down the winding road a short walk from where we are staying, sits tiny Rock Harbor in Orleans where a fleet of fishing boats are docked on Cape Cod Bay.  Directly across the road rises a massive tower and huge stone basilica that is part of the compound for The Church of the Transfiguration.  It describes itself simply as the Community of Jesus and across its front is a long large sign in red, white, and blue emblazoned with a star and the word JOY.

Since I first saw this anomalous place a few of years ago, it struck me as more than strange and out of place, a ritzy “religious” enclave to a capitalist God.  I wondered how it was financed.  Intuition told me it was something more than a community of 275 members who claim to be an ecumenical Christian community in the Benedictine monastic tradition, but I didn’t take time to investigate.  From the little that I did learn, I was reminded of the American Orthodox Catholic Church in the Little Italy section of the northern Bronx.  As Peter Levenda has reported in his trilogy, Sinister Forces, this church was a front for U.S. intelligence agencies in the Cold War with the U.S.S.R.  He says,

As it turns out, the AOCC was a front for American intelligence, specifically anti-communist activities in the United States and abroad. It was created by a Ukrainian Orthodox priest with impeccable credentials who ran anti-communist crusades in the States in the 1940s-1960s. Suspected Kennedy assassination conspirators David Ferrie and Jack Martin were members.

It was not until earlier this year when I was contemplating and mourning the self-immolation of Adam Bushnell, the US airman who burnt himself to death outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. protesting the Israeli genocide in Gaza, that I thought again of The Church of the Transfiguration.  Bushnell, who was once a member of this church, left these words:

Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.

His powerful words and tragic death moved me deeply.  I thought of Roger LaPorte, a former seminarian and a Catholic Worker who in 1965 immolated himself in front of the United Nations building in New York City protesting the U.S. war against Vietnam, while the Catholic Church, led by Cardinal Spellman of New York supported the war with the vigor of John Wayne in The Green Berets.  Ruthless jingoism then and now, the lust for killing “others,” such as Vietnamese and Palestinians over the decades.  Worthless people to the War Party.  And two young men whose consciences drove them to extreme acts of protest.

Yesterday I remembered what I read in The New York Post and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigation in February about Adam Bushnell and The Church of the Transfiguration.  These reports assert that the church is a cult and that Bushnell grew up here in the Rock Harbor community where his parents still live. The reports claim that members are mind-controlled and abused, and they are raised to strictly obey and follow some secret agenda.  The church says it stands with Israel, which is what Bushnell emphatically came to reject, for he stood with the Palestinians, even literally standing as he courageously took his life in flames.  Like all cults, money doesn’t seem a problem for this strange community.  One thinks also of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple and its strange intelligence connections.  As John Judge has documented in “The Black Hole of Guyana”:

The connection of intelligence agencies to cults is nothing new. A simple but revealing example is the Unification Church, tied to both the Korean CIA (i.e., American CIA in Korea), and the international fascist network known as the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The Moonies hosted WACL’s first international conference.[217] What distinguished Jonestown was both the level of control and the openly sinister involvement. It was imperative that they cover their tracks.[218]

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The sky and ocean here on Cape Cod are very restless and constantly changing, even as people come here to rest, to be still for a while.  The movement of the waves and clouds, the shore birds flitting and floating before and above one, the constant breaking of the waves on the shore, and the long looks far out to where the ocean seems to disappear, create dreamy minds, if one allows it.  I am no exception, and this place no doubt increases my tendency to mental vagabonding.  Yet I am one with Thoreau when he says, “I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extra-vagant enough.”  For I began with mirages and will drift back to them.  They come in many forms, but all contain the sense of being deluded.  This is the lesson of Plato’s Cave and Eastern philosophy’s idea of maya, among many ancient warnings. “Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous,” Thoreau said truly.  Yet when we turn to the realm of politics in our times, as we must when vacations cease, we are forced back to contemplate the insidious nature of the scoundrel politicians and leaders of all sorts who capture so many minds with lies and mirages of false hope on the horizon.

Most people don’t like to see the summer end, but another Fall is approaching.  A different reality beckons.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Behind the Curtain.

Edward Curtin is a prominent author, researcher and sociologist based in Western Massachusetts. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

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A Return to Form: Expediting US Weapons and Military Supplies to Israel

September 1st, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Despite much grandstanding in the Biden administration about halting specific arms shipments to Israel over feigned concerns about how they might be used (inflicting death is the expected form), US military supplies have been restored with barely a murmur.  In a report in Haaretz on August 29, a rush of weapons to Israel has been noticed since the end of July.

August proved to be the second busiest month for US arms deliveries to Israel’s Nevatim Airbase since the October 2023 attacks by Hamas.  This has taken place alongside an increased concentration of US forces in the region since Israel’s assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh at the end of last month.  Two aircraft carriers, a guided missile submarine, and deployments of advanced F-22 stealth aircraft in Qatar, have featured in a show intended to deter Tehran from any retaliatory strikes.

After examining open-source aviation data from the end of July, Haaretz concluded that the issue of delayed shipments of US weapons had “been solved.” 

Dozens of flights by US military transport planes, along with civilian and military Israeli cargo planes, mostly from Qatar and the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, had been noted.  Demands by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his July 24 speech to Congress that US military aid be “dramatically” expedited to “end the war in Gaza and help prevent a broader war in the Middle East”, had been heeded.

On August 26, Israel received its 500th aerial shipment of weapons and military supplies from the United States since the latest war’s commencement.  The 500 flights have also been supplemented by 107 sea shipments, altogether facilitating the transfer of 50,000 tons of military equipment in an initiative between the US military, Israel’s Defence Ministry’s Directorate of Production and Procurement and Mission to the United States, the IDF’s planning Directorate and the Israeli Air Force.

During the same month, the Democratic National Convention, which saw no debate about the candidature of Kamala Harris as its choice for presidential candidate, had tepidly promised some agitation on continued arms to Israel.  Ahead of the event, the Uncommitted movement’s 30 delegates, picked by voters alarmed by US support for Israel’s war machine in Gaza, were hoping to convince the 4,000 pledged delegates Harris had captured to add an arms embargo to its campaign in order to induce a ceasefire.

A petition by the group sought two outcomes: the adding of language to both the party and campaign platform “that unequivocally supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a cessation of supplying weapons for Israel’s assault and occupation against Palestinians.”

These wishes proved much too salty for the apparatchiks and party managers.  The Democratic Party’s 2024 national platform ironically enough begins with an effusive “land acknowledgment” to “the ancestors and descendants of Tribal Nations” but plays it safe regarding an ally very much the product of territorial seizure, violence and occupation.  Despite mutterings in the party room about a split between moderate and progressive members on Israel’s conduct of the war, the topic of a ceasefire never made it to the committee hearings when the document was drafted.

In firmly insisting on continued US support for Israel in its war against Hamas, much is made in the platform about US efforts to forge a way that will see a release of the hostages, “a durable ceasefire”, the easing of “humanitarian suffering in Gaza” and the “possible normalization between Israel and key Arab states, together with meaningful progress and a political horizon for the Palestinian people.”  The language is instructive: the Palestinians are objects of pitiful charity, at the mercy of Israel, the US, and various Arab states.  Like toddlers, they are to be managed, steered, guided, their political choices forever mediated through the wishes of other powers.

With Israel remaining Washington’s paramount ally in the Middle East, that process of steering and managing the unruly Palestinians has been, thus far, lethal.  During her first interview given after the convention (she has an aversion to them), Harris scotched any suggestions on going wobbly on Israel.  “I’m unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defence and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change,” she told CNN’s Dana Bush.  In what has become a standard refrain, Harris lamented that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed” while acknowledging Israel’s right to self-defence.

When asked whether she would alter President Biden’s policy on furnishing military assistance to Israel, “No” came the reply.  “We have to get a deal done. The war must end, and we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out.  I’ve met with the families of the American hostages.  Let’s get the hostages out.  Let’s get the ceasefire done.”

This middle-management lingo says much about Harris’s worldview; in wishing to “get the ceasefire done”, she is encouraging a range of factors that will make sure nothing of the sort will be achieved.  The Netanyahu formula has worked its usual black magic.  Hence, the lack of an arms embargo, and the continued, generous supply to the IDF from their largest military benefactor.

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

Featured image: A sculpture of 140 Squadron “Golden Eagle” near a parking area at Nevatim (Licensed under CC BY 2.5)

The War on Food and the War on Humanity: Platforms of Control and the Unbreakable Spirit

September 1st, 2024 by Colin Todhunter

Max Weber (1864-1920) was a prominent German sociologist who developed influential theories on rationality and authority. He examined different types of rationality that underpinned systems of authority. He argued that modern Western societies were based on legal-rational authority and had moved away from systems that were based on traditional authority and charismatic authority.  

Traditional authority derives its power from long-standing customs and traditions, while charismatic authority is based on the exceptional personal qualities or charisma of a leader.  

According to Weber, the legal-rational authority that characterises Western capitalist industrial society is based on instrumental rationality that focuses on the most efficient means to achieve given ends. This type of rationality manifest in bureaucratic power. Weber contrasted this with another form of rationality: value rationality that is based on conscious beliefs in the inherent value of certain behaviour.  

While Weber saw the benefits of instrumental rationality in terms of increased efficiency, he feared that this could lead to a stifling “iron cage” of a rule-based order and rule following (instrumental rationality) as an end in itself. The result would be humanity’s “polar night of icy darkness.”  

Today, technological change is sweeping across the planet and presents many challenges. The danger is of a technological iron cage in the hands of an elite that uses technology for malevolent purposes. 

Lewis Coyne of Exeter University says: 

“We do not — or should not — want to become a society in which things of deeper significance are appreciated only for any instrumental value. The challenge, therefore, is to delimit instrumental rationality and the technologies that embody it by protecting that which we value intrinsically, above and beyond mere utility.” 

He adds that we must decide which technologies we are for, to what ends, and how they can be democratically managed, with a view to the kind of society we wish to be.  

A major change that we have seen in recent years is the increasing dominance of cloud-based services and platforms. In the food and agriculture sector, we are seeing the rollout of these phenomena tied to a techno solutionist ‘data-driven’ or ‘precision’ agriculture legitimised by ‘humanitarian’ notions of ‘helping farmers’, ‘saving the planet’ and ‘feeding the world’ in the face of some kind of impending Malthusian catastrophe.  

A part-fear mongering, part-self-aggrandisement narrative promoted by those who have fuelled ecological devastation, corporate dependency, land dispossession, food insecurity and farmer indebtedness as a result of the global food regime that they helped to create and profited from. Now, with a highly profitable but flawed carbon credit trading scheme and a greenwashed technology-driven eco-modernism, they are going to save humanity from itself.  

The World According to Bayer 

In the agrifood sector, we are seeing the rollout of data-driven or precision approaches to agriculture by the likes of Microsoft, Syngenta, Bayer and Amazon centred on cloud-based data information services. Data-driven agriculture mines data to be exploited by the agribusiness/big tech giants to instruct farmers what and how much to produce and what type of proprietary inputs they must purchase and from whom. 

Data owners (Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet etc.), input suppliers (Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta, Cargill etc.) and retail concerns (Amazon, Walmart etc) aim to secure the commanding heights of the global agrifood economy through their monopolistic platforms.  

But what does this model of agriculture look like in practice? 

Let us use Bayer’s digital platform Climate FieldView as an example. It collects data from satellites and sensors in fields and on tractors and then uses algorithms to advise farmers on their farming practices: when and what to plant, how much pesticide to spray, how much fertiliser to apply etc.  

To be part of Bayer’s Carbon Program, farmers have to be enrolled in FieldView. Bayer then uses the FieldView app to instruct farmers on the implementation of just two practices that are said to sequester carbon in the soils: reduced tillage or no-till farming and the planting of cover crops. 

Through the app, the company monitors these two practices and estimates the amount of carbon that the participating farmers have sequestered. Farmers are then supposed to be paid according to Bayer’s calculations, and Bayer uses that information to claim carbon credits and sell these in carbon markets. 

Bayer also has a programme in the US called ForGround. Upstream companies can use the platform to advertise and offer discounts for equipment, seeds and other inputs.   

For example, getting more farmers to use reduced tillage or no-till is of huge benefit to Bayer (sold on the basis of it being ‘climate friendly’). The kind of reduced tillage or no-till promoted by Bayer requires dousing fields with its RoundUp (toxic glyphosate) herbicide and planting seeds of its genetically engineered Roundup resistant soybeans or hybrid maize.  

And what of the cover crops referred to above? Bayer also intends to profit from the promotion of cover crops. It has taken majority ownership of a seed company developing a gene-edited cover crop, called CoverCress. Seeds of CoverCress will be sold to farmers who are enrolled in ForGround and the crop will be sold as a biofuel. 

But Bayer’s big target is the downstream food companies which can use the platform to claim emissions reductions in their supply chains. 

Agribusiness corporations and the big tech companies are jointly developing carbon farming platforms to influence farmers on their choice of inputs and farming practices (big tech companies, like Microsoft and IBM, are major buyers of carbon credits). 

The non-profit GRAIN says (see the article The corporate agenda behind carbon farming) that Bayer is gaining increasing control over farmers in various countries, dictating exactly how they farm and what inputs they use through its ‘Carbon Program’. 

GRAIN argues that, for corporations, carbon farming is all about increasing their control within the food system and is certainly not about sequestering carbon. 

Digital platforms are intended to be one-stop shops for carbon credits, seeds, pesticides and fertilisers and agronomic advice, all supplied by the company, which gets the added benefit of control over the data harvested from the participating farms. 

Technofeudalism 

Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, argues that what we are seeing is a shift from capitalism to technofeudalism. He argues that tech giants like Apple, Meta and Amazon act as modern-day feudal lords. Users of digital platforms (such as companies or farmers) essentially become ‘cloud serfs’, and ‘rent’ (fees, data etc) is extracted from them for being on a platform. 

In feudalism (land) rent drives the system. In capitalism, profits drive the system. Varoufakis says that markets are being replaced by algorithmic ‘digital fiefdoms’.  

Although digital platforms require some form of capitalist production, as companies like Amazon need manufacturers to produce goods for their platforms, the new system represents a significant shift in power dynamics, favouring those who own and control the platforms.  

Whether this system is technofeudalism, hypercapitalism or something else is open to debate. But we should at least be able to agree on one thing: the changes we are seeing are having profound impacts on economies and populations that are increasingly surveilled as they are compelled to shift their lives online.  

The very corporations that are responsible for the problems of the prevailing food system merely offer more of the same, this time packaged in a  genetically engineered, ecomodernist, fake-green wrapping (see the online article From net zero to glyphosate: agritech’s greenwashed corporate power grab).   

Elected officials are facilitating this by putting the needs of monopolistic global interests ahead of ordinary people’s personal freedoms and workers’ rights, as well as the needs of independent local producers, enterprises and markets.  

For instance, the Indian government has in recent times signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Amazon, Bayer, Microsoft and Syngenta to rollout data-driven, precision agriculture. A ‘one world agriculture’ under their control based on genetically engineered seeds, laboratory created products that resemble food and farming without farmers, with the entire agrifood chain, from field (or lab) to retail in their hands. 

This is part of a broader strategy to shift hundreds of millions out of agriculture, ensure India’s food dependence on foreign corporations and eradicate any semblance of food democracy (or national sovereignty). 

In response, a ‘citizen letter’ (July 2024) was sent to the government. It stated that it is not clear what the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will learn from Bayer that the well-paid public sector scientists of the institution cannot develop themselves. The letter says entities that have been responsible for causing an economic and environmental crisis in Indian agriculture are being partnered by ICAR for so-called solutions when these entities are only interested in their profits and not sustainability (or any other nomenclature they use). 

The letter poses raises some key concerns. Where is the democratic debate on carbon credit markets. Is the ICAR ensuring that the farmers get the best rather than biased advice that boosts the further rollout of proprietary products? Is there a system in place for the ICAR to develop research and education agendas from the farmers it is supposed to serve as opposed to being led by the whims and business ideas of corporations? 

The authors of the letter note that copies of the MoUs are not being shared proactively in the public domain by the ICAR. The letter asks that the ICAR suspends the signed MoUs, shares all details in the public domain and desists from signing any more such MoUs without necessary public debate. 

Valuing Humanity 

Genuine approaches to addressing the challenges humanity faces are being ignored by policymakers or cynically attacked by corporate lobbyists. These solutions involve systemic shifts in agricultural, food and economic systems with a focus on low consumption (energy) lifestyles, localisation and an ecologically sustainable agroecology.  

As activist John Wilson says, this is based on creative solutions, a connection to nature and the land, nurturing people, peaceful transformation and solidarity.  

This is something discussed in the recent article From Agrarianism to Transhumanism: The Long March to Dystopia in which it is argued that co-operative labour, fellowship and our long-standing spiritual connection to the land should inform how as a society we should live. This stands in stark contrast to the values and impacts of capitalism and technology based on instrumental rationality and too often fuelled by revenue streams and the goal to control populations.  

When we hear talk of a ‘spiritual connection’, what is meant by ‘spiritual’? In a broad sense it can be regarded as a concept that refers to thoughts, beliefs and feelings about the meaning of life, rather than just physical existence. A sense of connection to something greater than ourselves. Something akin to Weber’s concept of value rationality. The spiritual, the diverse and the local are juxtaposed with the selfishness of modern urban society, the increasing homogeneity of thought and practice and an instrumental rationality which becomes an end in itself.  

Having a direct link with nature/the land is fundamental to developing an appreciation of a type of ‘being’ and an ‘understanding’ that results in a reality worth living in. 

However, what we are seeing is an agenda based on a different set of values rooted in a lust for power and money and the total subjugation of ordinary people being rammed through under the false promise of techno solutionism (transhumanism, vaccines in food, neural laces to detect moods implanted in the skull, programmable digital money, track and trace technology etc.) and some distant notion of a techno utopia that leave malevolent power relations intact and unchallenged.  

Is this then to be humanity’s never-ending “polar night of icy darkness”? Hopefully not. This vision is being imposed from above. Ordinary people (whether, for example, farmers in India or those being beaten down through austerity policies) find themselves on the receiving end of a class war being waged against them by a mega rich elite.  

Indeed, in 1941, Herbert Marcuse stated that technology could be used as an instrument for control and domination. Precisely the agenda of the likes of Bayer, the Gates Foundation, BlackRock and the World Bank, which are trying to eradicate genuine diversity and impose a one-size-fits-all model of thinking and behaviour.     

A final thought courtesy of civil rights campaigner  Frederick Douglass in a speech from 1857: 

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”  

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary 

Renowned author Colin Todhunter specialises in development, food and agriculture. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).  

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França revela a sua natureza autoritária ao perseguir Pavel Durov.

August 31st, 2024 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

O fundador do Telegram, Pavel Durov, foi formalmente indiciado por um tribunal francês, acusado de ser cúmplice de vários crimes alegadamente cometidos por usuários de seu aplicativo de mensagens. Depois de pagar uma multa de cinco milhões de euros, Durov foi libertado da prisão, mas está proibido de sair de França e poderá ser preso novamente no futuro.

Durov foi preso em Paris depois de chegar ao aeroporto local vindo do Azerbaijão. As acusações contra ele podem levar a uma pena de até dez anos de prisão, mas uma série de pressões diplomáticas parecem estar a dificultar os planos autoritários das autoridades francesas. Durov, apesar de russo de nascimento, possui diversos passaportes e é cidadão de diversos países, inclusive dos Emirados Árabes Unidos (EAU).

Durov viveu em Dubai durante muitos anos e desenvolveu profundos laços econômicos e estratégicos com o governo dos Emirados Árabes Unidos. Por isso, a pressão do país árabe para que a França o libertasse foi enorme. Os EAU ameaçaram pôr fim aos acordos de cooperação militar e econômica, o que certamente suscitou preocupações no governo francês. Na prática, pode-se dizer que os EAU utilizaram a sua posição internacional como um importante centro comercial e diplomático para ajudar Durov a enfrentar a tirania das autoridades francesas.

É preciso dizer que não há argumentos sólidos para condenar Durov. Os criadores de redes sociais não podem ser responsabilizados pelo que outros usuários fazem em suas plataformas. Se Durov fornecesse às autoridades francesas as chaves de acesso aos códigos internos do Telegram, ele não só estaria ajudando a punir os criminosos que utilizam o aplicativo, mas também violando os dados privados de milhões de usuários inocentes – além de dar ao governo francês acesso a dados compartilhados por autoridades estaduais, empresários e militares que usam o Telegram.

Se a França estivesse verdadeiramente comprometida com valores como a liberdade e a democracia, a prisão de Durov nunca teria acontecido. No entanto, a França contemporânea é tudo menos democrática. Paris está a tornar-se uma ditadura sob Emmanuel Macron, que se recusou repetidamente a reconhecer a derrota eleitoral da sua coligação partidária, tomando medidas autoritárias semelhantes às de alguns regimes autocráticos em todo o mundo.

O próprio Durov é cidadão francês. Se a França fosse uma democracia, estaria preocupada em garantir as liberdades individuais dos seus cidadãos. No entanto, mesmo os países islâmicos do Médio Oriente, como os EAU, que são frequentemente descritos como “autocráticos” pelo Ocidente, respeitam mais os valores democráticos do que a França – como se pode ver nos esforços dos EAU para libertar Durov da prisão.

O fato mais interessante sobre o caso de Durov, contudo, é que alguns meios de comunicação ocidentais estão a tentar descrevê-lo como uma espécie de “agente” russo. Há uma narrativa de que o Telegram é uma ferramenta russa de “guerra híbrida”. Os propagandistas ocidentais estão a tentar induzir o público em erro, fazendo-o acreditar na falácia de que Durov se recusa a partilhar dados com as autoridades francesas, a fim de supostamente “proteger os russos”. No entanto, a verdade é bem diferente.

Apesar de ter nascido na Rússia, Durov sempre foi um adversário do governo russo. Ideologicamente libertário, Durov sempre teve uma visão ocidentalizada da política do seu país, vendo Moscou como um inimigo da liberdade individual. Deixou a sua terra natal em busca de maior liberdade no Ocidente – e está agora a ser perseguido pela França, o país onde Durov procurou a cidadania na esperança de encontrar maior liberdade do que na Rússia.

Durov está agora a aprender da pior maneira possível que a “liberdade” defendida pelo Ocidente é apenas retórica. Na França, onde esperava ser “livre”, Durov está a ser perseguido simplesmente por defender os seus valores libertários e por se recusar a partilhar dados sensíveis com as autoridades estatais. Durov nunca enfrentou uma perseguição tão brutal no seu próprio país, o que mostra que o nível de violação das liberdades individuais no Ocidente é mais elevado do que na Rússia.

Ainda não se sabe qual será o futuro de Durov. Ele ainda não está “livre”, pois Paris ordenou que permanecesse em território francês. As autoridades locais estão tentando intimidá-lo, utilizando o terror psicológico para fazê-lo revelar os códigos do Telegram. Proibido de deixar França, a única esperança de Durov poderá ser procurar asilo nas instalações diplomáticas sediadas em França de um país do qual tem cidadania.

Só uma coisa é certa para Durov: ele não está seguro na França, o país onde outrora acreditou que encontraria a liberdade.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

 

Artigo em inglês : France reveals its authoritarian nature by persecuting Pavel Durov, 29 de Agosto de 2024

Imagem : InfoBrics

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Lucas Leiroz, membro da Associação de Jornalistas do BRICS, pesquisador do Centro de Estudos Geoestratégicos, especialista militar.

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

Kiev não conseguiu atingir os seus objetivos com a invasão de Kursk.

August 31st, 2024 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

As autoridades ucranianas admitem o seu fracasso em Kursk. Recentemente, o comandante das forças armadas de Kiev afirmou que o objetivo da operação não foi alcançado, reconhecendo o sucesso da Rússia em evitar que a Ucrânia desviasse a atenção russa de outras frentes. Tais declarações mostram quão errados estão os meios de comunicação ocidentais ao tentar propagandear o caso Kursk como uma “vitória ucraniana”.

O Coronel General Aleksandr Syrsky, o principal comandante militar da Ucrânia, afirmou que Kiev não conseguiu atingir o seu objectivo em Kursk. Segundo ele, a operação teve como objetivo principal desviar a atenção de Moscou, obrigando os russos a retirar as tropas de Donbass e enviá-las para a fronteira norte. Desta forma, os ucranianos esperavam obter ganhos territoriais significativos no Donbass, enfrentando posições russas desprotegidas.

Syrsky reconhece que o resultado real da invasão de Kursk foi diferente: a Rússia expandiu ainda mais as suas posições no Donbass, ganhando novos territórios e destacando ainda mais tropas para a região. O comandante ucraniano acredita que atualmente as principais frentes no Donbass são Pokrovsk e Kurakhovsk, no oeste da República Popular de Donetsk. Estas cidades ocupam posições estratégicas chave para as linhas de abastecimento de Zaporozhye e Dnepropetrovsk. Desde 2014, Kiev tem se preocupado em manter fortificações militares em ambas as cidades, mas os constantes ataques russos ameaçam a estabilidade ucraniana na região.

“Uma das tarefas de conduzir uma operação ofensiva na direção de Kursk era desviar forças inimigas significativas de outras direções, principalmente das direções de Pokrovsk e Kurakhovsk (…) Claro, o inimigo entende isso, então continua a concentrar seus principais esforços na direção de Pokrovsk, onde estão concentradas suas unidades mais prontas para o combate (…) O inimigo está tentando retirar unidades de outras direções, enquanto na direção de Pokrovsk, pelo contrário, está aumentando seus esforços,” ele disse.

Por outras palavras, a manobra de Kiev em Kursk foi uma tentativa desesperada da Ucrânia para impedir – ou pelo menos atrasar – a inevitável vitória russa no Donbass. Kiev esperava uma retirada russa de cidades estratégicas na zona disputada, a fim de fortalecer as posições fronteiriças em Kursk, o que parece um grave erro estratégico por parte dos ucranianos.

O cálculo feito por Kiev baseou-se numa realidade de fraqueza militar, que corresponde à situação atual das forças ucranianas, mas não reflete as condições militares da Rússia. Se a Ucrânia for atacada numa frente diferente, Kiev só poderá retirar tropas de outras direções para proteger esta nova área. A Ucrânia está a operar num regime de plena mobilização, tendo já gasto todos os seus recursos militares e dependendo de uma gestão rigorosa do que resta das suas tropas e equipamento.

Por outro lado, os russos ainda utilizam uma pequena percentagem do seu aparelho de defesa na operação militar especial. Não há necessidade de a Rússia retirar tropas de uma frente para proteger uma nova região atacada. Moscou pode simplesmente enviar tropas da retaguarda para esta nova frente, sem interromper o abastecimento das linhas anteriores. Além disso, a Rússia pode aumentar simultaneamente a sua presença tanto nas novas como nas antigas posições, uma vez que ainda existe um grande exército de reservistas e voluntários prontos para serem mobilizados se necessário.

Em Kursk, a Rússia poupou as tropas já envolvidas nas principais frentes da operação e, em vez de as redistribuir, simplesmente utilizou as suas forças de retaguarda para neutralizar a invasão. A principal contribuição em Kursk veio das tropas do Grupo PMC Wagner que estavam estacionadas na República da Bielorrússia desde Junho do ano passado. Entretanto, vendo que os ucranianos estão desesperados para proteger Pokrovsk e Kurakhovsk, Moscou enviou ainda mais tropas para estas frentes, razão pela qual a vitória final nestas direções é esperada em breve.

Ao admitir o fracasso e revelar os planos ucranianos em Kursk, Syrsky deixou clara a incapacidade estratégica e a inexperiência militar dos tomadores de decisões ucranianos. Kiev simplesmente ignorou o fato de a Rússia ainda ter milhares de tropas e equipamento disponível para proteger qualquer ponto das suas fronteiras sem ter de retirar nenhum dos seus soldados já mobilizados.

É também interessante sublinhar como os meios de comunicação ocidentais se enganaram ao reportar apressadamente a invasão de Kursk como uma “virada de jogo”. Segundo “analistas” ocidentais, Kiev conseguiu “trazer a guerra para a Rússia”, mas o próprio comandante do exército ucraniano admite que este nunca foi o verdadeiro objetivo da operação.

O custo deste erro foi enorme para Kiev. No final, a situação inverteu-se: foram as tropas de Kiev que recuaram de Donbass para invadir Kursk, deixando vulneráveis ​​áreas-chave da principal zona de conflito e permitindo à Rússia avançar ainda mais.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

 

 

Artigo em inglês :Kiev failed to achieve its objectives with Kursk invasion, InfoBrics, 28 de Agosto de 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

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Lucas Leiroz, membro da Associação de Jornalistas do BRICS, pesquisador do Centro de Estudos Geoestratégicos, especialista militar.

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

Late August 2001 in Pakistan. Mysterious September 11, 2001 Breakfast Meeting on Capitol Hill

August 31st, 2024 by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Commemorating The Tragic Events of 9/11. 23 Years Ago

We bring to the attention of our readers Michel Chossudovsky’s article published in 2002 pertaining to the role of Sen Bob Graham and Rep Porter Goss, chairmen of the Joint inquiry on 9/11 of the Senate and House of Representatives.

A mysterious September 11 breakfast meeting hosted by Sen Bob Graham and Rep Porter Goss was held with the head of  Pakistani intelligence on the morning of 9/11.

Author’s Note

While the Joint inquiry (under the helm of Bob Graham and Porter Goss)  had collected mountains of intelligence material, through careful omission, the numerous press and intelligence reports in the public domain (mainstream media, alternative media, etc), which confirm that key members of the Bush Administration were involved in acts of political camouflage, were carefully removed from the Joint inquiry’s hearings.

In retrospect, the mission of Porter Goss and Bob Graham to Islamabad in late August 2001 was part of the preparation of the propaganda campaign, with a view to sustaining the official narrative, i.e  “Al Qaeda was  behind the conspiracy to bring down the WTC towers, Muslims did it”, etc., which essentially sustains the official 9/11 narrative.

It is worth noting that during the visit of the Congressional delegation, they had the opportunity to meet and talk to Afghanistan’s Ambassador  to Pakistan who confirmed that:  

“the Taliban [Government] would never allow bin Laden to use Afghanistan to launch attacks on the US or any other country” (AFP).

As we recall, Afghanistan was identified as a “state sponsor of terror”. The 9/11 attacks were categorized as an act of war, an attack on America by a unnamed foreign power.

On September 12, 2001, less than 24 hours after the attacks, at a meeting of the Atlantic Council in Brussels, NATO invoked for the first time in its history “Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – its collective defence clause” declaring the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon “to be an attack against all NATO members.”

What this decision implied is that the US and its NATO allies accused Afghanistan on orders of the Taliban government of supporting Osama Bin Laden and attacking America.

To my knowledge, the conversation of Porter Goss and Bob Graham with the Ambassador of Afghanistan during their visit to Islamabad was not mentioned at the meeting of the Atlantic Council, nor was it recorded by the 9/11 Inquiry Commission. 

Also of significance, in the wake of 9/11, the Afghan government on two occasions had communicated through diplomatic channels with Washington indicating that they were open to delivering Osama bin Laden to US Justice, if there were preliminary evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

These offers were casually turned down by the Bush Administration. 

The following text published by Global Research in 2002, provides details on the breakfast meeting hosted by Sen Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss on the morning of September 11, 2001 as well as their trip to Pakistan in late August. 

Michel Chossudovsky, September  5, 2023, August 31, 2024

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Mysterious September 11 2001 Breakfast Meeting on Capitol Hill

by Michel Chossudovsky

Was it an ‘intelligence failure’ to give red carpet treatment to the [alleged] ‘money man’ behind the 9-11 terrorists, or was it simply ‘routine’?

On the morning of September 11, Pakistan’s Chief Spy General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged “money-man” behind the 9-11 hijackers, was at  a breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill hosted by Senator Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss, the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence committees:

“When the news [of the attacks on the World Trade Center] came, the two Florida lawmakers who lead the House and Senate intelligence committees were having breakfast with the head of the Pakistani intelligence service. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, Sen. Bob Graham and other members of the House Intelligence Committee were talking about terrorism issues with the Pakistani official when a member of Goss’ staff handed a note to Goss, who handed it to Graham. “We were talking about terrorism, specifically terrorism generated from Afghanistan,” Graham said.

(…)

Mahmoud Ahmad, director general of Pakistan’s intelligence service, was “very empathetic, sympathetic to the people of the United States,” Graham said. (NYT)

***

In late August 2001, barely a couple of weeks before 9/11, Senator Bob Graham, Representative Porter Goss and Senator Jon Kyl were in Islamabad for consultations. Meetings were held with President Musharraf and with Pakistan’s military and intelligence brass including the head of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) General Mahmoud Ahmad. (image right) An AFP report confirms that the US Congressional delegation also met the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef. At this meeting, which was barely mentioned by the US media, 

“Zaeef assured the US delegation [on behalf of the Afghan government] that the Taliban would never allow bin Laden to use Afghanistan to launch attacks on the US or any other country.” (AFP, August 28, 2001)

Note the sequencing of these meetings. Bob Graham and Porter Goss were in Islamabad in late August 2001.

  • The meetings with President Musharraf and the Afghan Ambassador were on the 27th of August 2001,
  • The mission was still in Islamabad on the 30th of August,
  • General Mahmoud Ahmad arrived in Washington on an official visit of consultations barely a few days later (September 4th).
  • During his visit to Washington, General Mahmoud met his counterpart CIA director George Tenet and high ranking officials of the Bush administration.2
  • 9/11 “Follow-up Meeting” on Capitol Hill


On the morning of September 11, the three lawmakers Bob Graham, Porter Goss and Jon Kyl (who were part of the Congressional delegation to Pakistan) were having breakfast on Capitol Hill with General Ahmad, the alleged “money-man” behind the 9-11 hijackers. Also present at this meeting were Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. Maleeha Lodhi and several members of the Senate and House Intelligence committees were also present.

This meeting was described by one press report as a “follow-up meeting” to that held in Pakistan in late August. “On 8/30, Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) “‘was on a mission to learn more about terrorism.’ (…) On 9/11, Graham was back in DC ‘in a follow-up meeting with’ Pakistan intelligence agency chief Mahmud Ahmed and House Intelligence Committee chair Porter Goss (R-FL)” 3 (The Hotline, 1 October 2002):

“When the news [of the attacks on the World Trade Center] came, the two Florida lawmakers who lead the House and Senate intelligence committees were having breakfast with the head of the Pakistani intelligence service. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, Sen. Bob Graham and other members of the House Intelligence Committee were talking about terrorism issues with the Pakistani official when a member of Goss’ staff handed a note to Goss, who handed it to Graham. “We were talking about terrorism, specifically terrorism generated from Afghanistan,” Graham said.

(…)

Mahmood Ahmed, director general of Pakistan’s intelligence service, was “very empathetic, sympathetic to the people of the United States,” Graham said.

Goss could not be reached Tuesday [September 11]. He was whisked away with much of the House leadership to an undisclosed “secure location.” Graham, meanwhile, participated in late-afternoon briefings with top officials from the CIA and FBI.” 4

While trivializing the importance of the 9/11 breakfast meeting, The Miami Herald (16 September 2001) confirms that General Ahmad also met Secretary of State Colin Powell in the wake of the 9/11 attacks:

“Graham said the Pakistani intelligence official with whom he met, a top general in the government, was forced to stay all week in Washington because of the shutdown of air traffic ‘He was marooned here, and I think that gave Secretary of State Powell and others in the administration a chance to really talk with him’. Graham said.”5

Again the political significance of the personal relationship between General Mahmoud (the alleged “money man” behind 9/11) and Secretary of State Colin Powell is casually dismissed. According to The Miami Herald, the high level meeting between the two men was not planned in advance. It took place on the spur of the moment because of the shut down of air traffic, which prevented General Mahmoud from flying back home to Islamabad on a commercial flight, when in all probability the General and his delegation were traveling on a chartered government plane. With the exception of the Florida press (and Salon.com, 14 September, 2001), not a word was mentioned in the US media’s September coverage of 9-11 concerning this mysterious breakfast reunion.

“A Cloak but No Dagger”

Eight months later on the 18th of May 2002, two days after the “BUSH KNEW” headline hit the tabloids, the Washington Post published an article on Porter Goss, entitled: “A Cloak But No Dagger; An Ex-Spy Says He Seeks Solutions, Not Scapegoats for 9/11”.

Focusing on his career as a CIA agent, the article largely served to underscore the integrity and commitment of Porter Goss to waging a “war on terrorism”. Yet in an isolated paragraph, the article acknowledges the mysterious 9/11 breakfast meeting with ISI Chief Mahmoud Ahmad, while also confirming that “Ahmad ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban”:

“Now the main question facing Goss, as he helps steer a joint House-Senate investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, is why nobody in the far-flung intelligence bureaucracy — 13 agencies spending billions of dollars — paid attention to the enemy among us. Until it was too late.”

Goss says he is looking for solutions, not scapegoats. “A lot of nonsense,” he calls this week’s uproar about a CIA briefing that alerted President Bush, five weeks before Sept. 11, that Osama bin Laden’s associates might be planning airline hijackings.

“None of this is news, but it’s all part of the finger-pointing,” Goss declared yesterday in a rare display of pique. “It’s foolishness.” [This statement comes from the man who was having breakfast with the alleged “money-man” behind 9-11 on the morning of September 11]

(…) Goss has repeatedly refused to blame an “intelligence failure” for the terror attacks. As a 10-year veteran of the CIA’s clandestine operations wing, Goss prefers to praise the agency’s “fine work.”

(…)

On the morning of Sept. 11, Goss and Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed — the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan’s intelligence service. Ahmed ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. 6 (Washington Post, 18 May 2002)

“Putting Two and Two together”

While the Washington Post scores in on the “notoriously close” links between General Ahmad and Osama bin Laden, it fails to dwell on the more important question: what were Rep. Porter Goss and Senator Bob Graham and other members of the Senate and House intelligence committees doing together with the alleged 9/11 “money-man” at breakfast on the morning of 9/11. In other words, the Washington Post report does not go one inch further in begging the real question: Was this mysterious breakfast venue a “political lapse”, an intelligence failure or something far more serious? How come the very same individuals (Goss and Graham) who had developed a personal rapport with General Ahmad, had been entrusted under the joint committee inquiry “to reveal the truth on 9-11.”(see p. )

The media trivialises the breakfast meeting, it presents it as a simple fait divers and fails to “put two and two together”. Neither does it acknowledge the fact, amply documented, that “the money-man” behind the hijackers had been entrusted by the Pakistani government to discuss the precise terms of Pakistan’s “collaboration” in the “war on terrorism” in meetings held behind closed doors at the State department on the 12th and 13th of September. 11 7(See Michel Chossudovsky, op cit)

Smoking Gun

When the “foreknowledge” issue hit the street on May 16th 2002, “Chairman Porter Goss said an existing congressional inquiry has so far found ‘no smoking gun’ that would warrant another inquiry.” 8 This statement points to an obvious “cover-up”. The smoking gun was right there sitting in the plush surroundings of the Congressional breakfast venue on Capitol Hill on the morning of September 11.

Notes

1 Agence France Presse (AFP), 28 August 2001.

2. Michel Chossudovsky, Political Deception, The Missing Link behind 9/11, Global Outlook, No. 2, 2002, See also . http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html ; See also Michel Chossudovsky, Cover-up or Complicity of the Bush Administration? The Role of Pakistan’s Military Intelligence (ISI) in the September 11 Attacks, November 2001, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html

3. The Hotline, 1 October 2002.

4 Stuart News Company Press Journal, Vero Beach, FL, 12 September 2001.

5 Miami Herald, 16 September 2001.

6. Washington Post, 18 May 2002.

7. Michel Chossudovsky, op. cit.

8. White House Bulletin, 17 May 2002.

 

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Ucrânia persegue família de deputado que votou contra a proibição da Igreja Ortodoxa.

August 30th, 2024 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

O regime de Kiev não poupa nem mesmo os seus próprios políticos da perseguição religiosa contra a Igreja Ortodoxa. Um membro do parlamento ucraniano foi recentemente alvo das autoridades do país devido à sua posição contra a proibição da Ortodoxia. Até mesmo membros da família do político foram alvo das forças neonazistas, o que mostra a natureza verdadeiramente anti-humanitária das práticas ucranianas.

O deputado Artyom Dmitruk declarou recentemente que está a ser sujeito a perseguições políticas e religiosas devido ao seu apoio à Ortodoxia. Durante a votação do projeto de lei para proibir a Igreja Ortodoxa Ucraniana (que faz parte do Patriarcado de Moscou), Dmitruk manteve uma posição firme e divergente da maioria dos parlamentares. No seu discurso, afirmou que a fé do povo ucraniano não deveria ser proibida, o que encorajou milhares de fiéis a saírem às ruas de Kiev em protesto contra a nova lei.

A sua posição fez dele um inimigo do regime. Foi acusado de vários crimes simplesmente porque é contra a proibição da fé de 80% do povo ucraniano. Ele fugiu do país e afirma que sua família está em perigo. Segundo Dmitruk, agentes especiais e militantes tentaram sequestrar alguns de seus parentes, incluindo sua esposa, mãe e filhos, embora já estivessem fora do território ucraniano.

“Eles tentaram sequestrar minha família. Tentaram sequestrar minha mãe, minha esposa e dois filhos pequenos de um hotel na Europa”, disse ele.

Se houve uma operação para raptar a família de Dmitruk fora da Ucrânia, então Kiev está a usar o seu aparelho de inteligência para ações ilegais no estrangeiro apenas para punir um cidadão ucraniano que votou contra uma lei anti-cristã. Isto mostra o nível de fanatismo da mentalidade criminosa da Junta de Kiev, que está disposta a tudo para “punir” quem não agrada as decisões irracionais do regime.

O paradeiro de Dmitruk ainda é desconhecido, mas fontes afirmam que ele emigrou da Moldávia para um país europeu, para onde teria ido depois de deixar a Ucrânia. Entre as acusações contra ele, o regime incluiu o alegado crime de ter atravessado ilegalmente a fronteira. Ele também é acusado de ter “agredido” um policial, aparentemente resistindo a uma tentativa de detenção ilegal.

Dmitruk está proibido de entrar em território russo, pois, ao contrário do que afirmam as autoridades ucranianas, não é um “agente do Kremlin”, mas sim um militante radical pró-Kiev. Além de ex-levantador de peso e empresário do setor esportivo, Dmitruk foi responsável pela manutenção de campos de treinamento de militantes nacionalistas em Odessa. Ele nunca demonstrou qualquer simpatia pela Rússia na operação militar especial, e o seu único desacordo com o governo ucraniano é sobre a questão da religião. No entanto, Kiev colocou-o na sua lista de mortes, acrescentando o seu nome ao infame site “Myrotvorets”.

É importante enfatizar que Dmitruk definitivamente não está seguro em solo europeu. Os países aliados da Ucrânia poderiam simplesmente sabotá-lo, colaborando na sua prisão, sequestro ou assassinato. Se estivesse em solo húngaro, a sua situação poderia ser um pouco melhor, uma vez que Budapeste mantém uma posição dissidente na Europa sobre a questão ucraniana. Contudo, mesmo assim, agentes infiltrados da OTAN poderiam encontrá-lo e prejudicá-lo.

Talvez a única alternativa real para Dmitruk proteger a si e à sua família seja render-se às autoridades russas, uma vez que, ao contrário das forças do seu próprio país, Moscou nunca demonstrou qualquer interesse em eliminá-lo. A decisão mais racional para ele seria renunciar ao seu apoio a Kiev no conflito, pedir desculpa pelo seu envolvimento no treino de criminosos e procurar um acordo para entrar na Rússia – possivelmente sendo preso pelos seus crimes em troca de asilo humanitário para a sua família. Se isso não for feito, continuará a enfrentar perigos na Europa.

Na verdade, o caso de Dmitruk é apenas mais um exemplo de como Kiev está disposta a matar os seus próprios políticos para implementar medidas de perseguição religiosa. A russofobia ucraniana atingiu níveis absolutamente insanos, com até apoiantes do regime a serem perseguidos simplesmente por acreditarem na religião dos seus antepassados.

Entretanto, fanáticos ultranacionalistas do chamado “Patriarcado de Kiev” – uma pseudo-igreja não reconhecida pela comunidade ortodoxa – têm sido amplamente apoiados e financiados pelo regime. A seita está a agir como uma espécie de “igreja estatal” e é apoiada por Zelensky devido à sua russofobia ideológica, que inclui até atos blasfemos como a veneração dos “heróis nacionais da Ucrânia” – como o soldado SS e colaborador do Holocausto Stephen Bandera .

Todos estes fatos mostram como a vitória de Moscou na operação militar especial é a esperança de liberdade não só para os russos, mas também para o próprio povo ucraniano.

Lucas Leiroz de Leiroz

 

Artigo em inglês : https://infobrics.org/post/42061/

Imagem : Membro do parlamento ucraniano Artyom Dmitruk. InfoBrics

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Lucas Leiroz, membro da Associação de Jornalistas do BRICS, pesquisador do Centro de Estudos Geoestratégicos, especialista militar.

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

Selected Articles: Nuclear War Is “On the Table”. Build Awareness. Say No to a Two Trillion Dollar Nuclear Weapons Program!

August 30th, 2024 by Global Research News

Nuclear War Is “On the Table”. Build Awareness. Say No to a Two Trillion Dollar Nuclear Weapons Program!

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, August 30, 2024

The distinction between tactical nuclear weapons and the conventional battlefield arsenal has been blurred. America’s new nuclear doctrine is based on “a mix of strike capabilities”. The latter, which specifically applies to the Pentagon’s planned aerial bombing of Iran,  envisages the use of nukes in combination with conventional weapons.

Israel-US Plan for Gaza Envisions “Fragmenting Gaza and Isolating It from the World”. Mike Whitney

By Mike Whitney, August 30, 2024

The Israeli government is using its war on Hamas to divert attention from its real objective which is the expansion of the Jewish state on Palestinian land. Not surprisingly, Israel’s activities in the north have resulted in mass evacuations that have intensified the suffering of the traumatized population.

There’s No Good News in the Unfolding of Armageddon

By Caitlin Johnstone, August 30, 2024

Every species eventually hits an adaptation-or-extinction juncture at some point, where it must adapt to changing conditions on this planet or vanish into the fossil records. Humanity is arriving at such a juncture today. We’ll either awaken the potential which rests dormant within all of us to become a truly conscious species, or we will go the way of the dinosaur. We have the freedom to go either direction.

Poland Finally Maxed Out Its Military Support for Ukraine

By Andrew Korybko, August 30, 2024

Polish President Duda revealed on Monday that his country has already spent a whopping 3.3% of its GDP on providing military, humanitarian, and other forms of support to Ukraine over the past two and a half years, which works out to approximately $25 billion thus far.

Japan Declares State of Emergency After ‘Nanobots’ Found in 96 Million Citizens

By Baxter Dmitry, August 30, 2024

Japan has issued an apology to its citizens for the disastrous consequences of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and has launched far-reaching scientific inquiries and criminal investigations to establish the truth and punish the perpetrators.

The 2024 US Presidential Election Has Already Been Stolen

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, August 29, 2024

The DNC has filed a lawsuit against the Georgia Election Board to block the rule that requires counties to ensure the accuracy of the votes prior to certification. If you remember, this was a question in the 2020 election when Georgia and other states’ votes were certified without authentication.

Arrest of Telegram Founder Is Latest Episode of Globalists’ Tyrannical War Against Truth

By Joachim Hagopian, August 29, 2024

The entrepreneurial Russian founder of the internet platform app Telegram, Pavel Durov, who stands out as a stalwart protector of our privacy and freedom, as of August 24th is now locked away in a French jailcell. Upon arrival at Paris-Le Bourget Airport, Durov was detained.

There’s No Good News in the Unfolding of Armageddon

August 30th, 2024 by Caitlin Johnstone

The decay of western civilization is unfolding in real time right in front of our eyes.

Israel has ramped up its assault on the West Bank with an incursion the likes of which has not been seen since 2002, at the same time we learn that the Biden administration has been scrambling to increase its weapons shipments to Israel. Haaretz reports that August has been the second-busiest month for weapons shipments from the US to Israel’s Nevatim Airbase, second only to October 2023.

This is the same Biden administration that Americans have been assured is working “tirelessly” and “around the clock” for a ceasefire in Gaza. They’re committing genocide and lying about it while laughing and grinning and celebrating the “joy” of the Kamala Harris campaign.

Meanwhile in the UK the government is going insane arresting critics of Israel’s western-backed atrocities for speech crimes. Prominent pro-Palestinian voices Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson and Richard Barnard have all been targeted by counter-terrorism police in recent days under the British Terrorism Act on the allegation that they have been too supportive of forbidden groups in their expression of political opinion about recent events in the middle east. They join British journalist Kit Klarenberg and former British ambassador Craig Murray, who came under attack for speech crimes under the same law last year.

Something similar is happening in Australia, where high-profile journalist Mary Kostakidis faces charges of violating the Racial Discrimination Act for two retweets about Israel and Hezbollah which offended the Zionist Federation of Australia. This move came shortly after the Australian government appointed its first “anti-semitism envoy”, a move many feared would lead to crackdowns on speech that is critical of Israel.

And in France President Emmanuel Macron has refused to honor the results of an election, which saw the left-wing New Popular Front alliance win a plurality in July, by appointing a new prime minister. Many have accused the president of orchestrating a coup, and Macron’s actions are being widely cited as proof that the so-called “centrists” of western liberalism will always side with fascists to stop any movement toward socialism. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who leads the largest party in New Popular Front, recently vowed to recognize Palestine “as quickly as possible”.

While all this is happening, the Russians are warning of a third world war as the western empire’s proxy war in Ukraine continues to escalate. Zelenskyites have been citing the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk as evidence that Moscow has been bluffing about all its red lines, saying the largest invasion of Russia since the second world war proves that the only real danger is NATO’s unwillingness to escalate further with more attacks deeper into Russian territory.

Sure, throw all caution to the wind and keep on ramping up brinkmanship with a nuclear superpower. What’s the worst that could possibly happen?

So what’s the good news? 

There is none. 

There is no good news to be found in the unfolding of dystopia and armageddon. Expecting otherwise would not be reasonable.

This doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be happy about, or that there’s no joy or beauty to be found in our world. Joy and beauty can be found everywhere you look. You’re just not going to be made happy by reading the real news stories about the times we are living in.

We live in an unfathomably beautiful world, and happiness is the default position of human consciousness underneath all the madness and egocentricity we’ve heaped on top of it. All it takes is a little inner work and inner clarity and you can experience as much happiness and beauty as you can stand in any moment of your waking life. 

There is stunning beauty to be found on the crest of the wave of the apocalypse. The seagulls and crows fighting over the fast food garbage on the road. The rising smoke from the factories. The smell of the exhaust fumes and the frenzied din of traffic and capitalism. It is all so beautiful.

We’ve each been blessed with the gift of human life, and every human lifetime is an opportunity to experience more enjoyment than we ever would have dreamed possible if we can just learn to pierce through the illusions of ego and duality and start perceiving life as it’s actually showing up in each moment. All it takes is some sincere looking and curiosity about the true nature of mind, the true nature of self, and the true nature of perception.

And if we can open our eyes in this way, as an added bonus we can come to recognize that things aren’t hopeless for humanity after all. That while all the systems of our society are completely locked down to prevent health and change in every meaningful way right now, we all have within us a vast potentiality that we had previously never accounted for. That the human brain can actually transcend the unwholesome relationship with mental narrative which has allowed it to be propagandized and psychologically enslaved to the status quo this entire time, and begin moving with real freedom within our world.

All of humanity has the potential to awaken from its deluded propensity toward imbuing mental narrative with the power of belief. If it can happen to an individual human (and it most assuredly can), then it can happen to humanity as a collective. This potential sleeps within us all, waiting to be awakened.

Every species eventually hits an adaptation-or-extinction juncture at some point, where it must adapt to changing conditions on this planet or vanish into the fossil records. Humanity is arriving at such a juncture today. We’ll either awaken the potential which rests dormant within all of us to become a truly conscious species, or we will go the way of the dinosaur. We have the freedom to go either direction.

In the meantime, life is beautiful, and life is joyful, even on the precipice of the existential abyss. All we need to do is wake up enough to enjoy this fact.

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary

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The War Between Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah: A Path to Israel’s Final Destruction?

August 30th, 2024 by Prof. Ruel F. Pepa

The conflict between Israel and militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah has been a defining struggle in the Middle East for decades. The constant cycle of violence, punctuated by wars, rocket attacks, and incursions, has made Israel’s security one of the most delicate and volatile issues in global geopolitics. As the war intensifies, largely supported and sustained by the United States, the nation of Israel faces a precarious future. The current trajectory suggests that far from achieving a peaceful resolution, this prolonged conflict could lead to Israel’s eventual destruction, driven by both external military pressures and internal socio-political destabilization.

A History of Escalation

The conflict between Israel and Hamas has roots in the broader Israeli-Palestinian struggle. Hamas, an Islamist militant group based in Gaza, has been at war with Israel since its founding in 1987. Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, emerged during the Lebanese Civil War and has been a constant threat along Israel’s northern border. Both groups reject the legitimacy of the Israeli state and have launched numerous attacks aimed at weakening Israel militarily, politically, and morally.

The United States, Israel’s chief ally, has provided billions of dollars in military aid, intelligence, and diplomatic backing to support Israel’s defense efforts. This support has allowed Israel to maintain a qualitative military edge over its adversaries, ensuring its survival amid regional hostilities. However, the reliance on U.S. backing has also tied Israel’s fortunes to broader American geopolitical strategies, sometimes complicating Israel’s pursuit of a stable, peaceful resolution to its conflicts.

The U.S. Role in the Conflict

The United States has long played a central role in shaping Israel’s military posture and regional strategy. Through financial support, arms sales, and diplomatic interventions, the U.S. has ensured that Israel remains a dominant military power in the region. The Iron Dome missile defense system, sophisticated fighter jets, and state-of-the-art intelligence capabilities have all been supplied or co-developed with the United States.

However, this close relationship has also come at a cost. Israel’s dependence on the U.S. means that it is often aligned with American foreign policy objectives, which can sometimes escalate conflicts rather than defuse them. For example, the U.S. policy of maximum pressure on Iran, including sanctions and the targeting of Iranian proxies, has emboldened groups like Hezbollah, which rely on Iranian support. Hezbollah’s increased aggression towards Israel, particularly in southern Lebanon, is a direct consequence of this heightened tension, leading to a growing two-front threat for Israel—one from Gaza in the south and one from Lebanon in the north.

The Ongoing War and the Erosion of Israel’s Security

The war with Hamas and Hezbollah is no longer confined to short, sporadic outbreaks of violence. The growing sophistication of these groups, particularly Hezbollah, which boasts tens of thousands of rockets and a well-trained fighting force, has elevated the threat level to Israel’s very existence. Israel’s airstrikes, incursions, and military campaigns, supported by U.S. intelligence and technology, have been able to suppress these groups but not eliminate them.

Each round of conflict exacts a heavy toll on Israel. Civilian casualties, economic disruptions, and the constant stress on Israeli society have left deep scars. The war has become more than a military issue; it is eroding the fabric of Israeli society. The nation’s democratic institutions are under immense pressure, with increasing polarization over how to handle the conflict. Far-right factions within Israel push for harsher military responses and territorial expansion, while left-wing and centrist groups call for peace negotiations and a two-state solution. This internal division only adds to Israel’s vulnerability.

Moreover, the constant state of war has turned Israel into a fortress state, diverting vast resources into defense at the expense of other critical areas like social welfare, education, and infrastructure. The never-ending cycle of violence also stifles the potential for peace, as young generations grow up in an environment where war is the norm, making reconciliation seem like a distant dream.

The Growing Geopolitical Isolation of Israel

In addition to its military challenges, Israel faces increasing geopolitical isolation. Although it has normalized relations with several Arab states through the Abraham Accords, the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories and the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank continue to draw international condemnation. This growing pressure could undermine Israel’s relationships even with its newfound Arab allies, particularly if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reignites on a larger scale.

Israel’s aggressive military actions, especially in densely populated areas like Gaza, draw sharp criticism from the international community. The United Nations, European Union, and various human rights organizations regularly condemn Israel for what they consider disproportionate use of force and violations of international law. This criticism not only delegitimizes Israel on the global stage but also complicates its alliances, including those with key Western powers.

As the U.S. becomes increasingly involved in its own internal political struggles and shifts its focus towards the rising challenge from China, Israel may find itself with less unequivocal support from Washington. A reduction in U.S. backing, or even a reorientation of U.S. foreign policy away from the Middle East, could leave Israel more isolated and vulnerable than ever.

The Risk of Overstretch and Collapse

The ongoing war, sustained by U.S. support, is pushing Israel towards a state of overreach. The constant need to fight on multiple fronts—against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and potentially other regional actors like Iran—threatens to overstretch the Israeli military and economy. Protracted conflict without a clear path to peace is draining Israel’s resources and morale.

If the war continues without resolution, Israel may eventually face the prospect of collapse—not from a single overwhelming military defeat, but from the cumulative toll of endless conflict. The social divisions within Israel, the economic strain of perpetual war, and the erosion of its international standing all contribute to this dangerous trajectory.

Conclusion: A Warning for Israel’s Future

Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah, sustained and supported by the United States, is heading down a dangerous path. While Israel has so far managed to maintain its military superiority, the costs of this constant war are becoming unsustainable. Without a shift in strategy—one that prioritizes diplomacy, peacebuilding, and regional stability—Israel risks heading towards a final destruction, not from external conquest, but from internal disintegration and geopolitical isolation.

The cycle of violence cannot continue indefinitely without breaking the very foundations of the Israeli state. If the current path persists, Israel may find itself facing a future where its survival is no longer guaranteed, a sobering prospect for a nation built on the promise of security and resilience amidst a hostile region. The urgency for a new approach has never been greater.

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One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary 

Prof. Ruel F. Pepa is a Filipino philosopher based in Madrid, Spain. A retired academic (Associate Professor IV), he taught Philosophy and Social Sciences for more than fifteen years at Trinity University of Asia, an Anglican university in the Philippines.

Sources

Cordesman, Anthony H. “The Israeli-Palestinian War: Escalating to Nowhere.” Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 2005.

Jones, Seth G. “War by Proxy: Iran’s Growing Footprint in the Middle East.” Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), March 2022.

Khalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017. Metropolitan Books, 2020.

Mearsheimer, John J. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Norton, Augustus Richard. Hezbollah: A Short History. Princeton University Press, 2014.

International Crisis Group. “Averting War: U.S. Policy Towards Hezbollah and Lebanon.” ICG Middle East Report, September 2021.

The Economist. “Israel’s Escalating Conflict: The Perils of Fighting Hamas and Hezbollah at the Same Time.” May 2022.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “Occupied Palestinian Territory: Humanitarian Impact of the Conflict.”

United States Department of Defense. “2022 National Defense Strategy.”

Featured image: Statue of the founder of Zionism Theodor Herzl, unveiled in 2012 at the Mikveh Israel synagogue in Tel Aviv. It is called “Herzl meets Emperor Wilhelm II”