Global Research

The Department of Homeland Security has flagged individuals questioning COVID-19 origins, vaccine efficacy, and election integrity as potential domestic terrorism threats.

Is a coup being set in place?

A new Department of Defense directive 5240.01 issued September 27, 2024, just prior to the November presidential election allows the US military to use lethal force against American citizens in assisting police authorities in domestic disturbances.

A report on this development lists these civil liberties concerns:

• Right to protest: There are fears that expanded authority could suppress legitimate protests.
• Privacy rights: Increased military involvement in domestic intelligence gathering could infringe on privacy.
• Due process: The military’s role in law enforcement could bypass standard due process protections.
• Freedom of speech: The broad definition of “national security threats” could target individuals for their political beliefs.
• Civilian control: The expanded military role could erode civilian oversight of the military.

Here are some Constitutional concerns:

• Challenging the Posse Comitatus Act: This Act traditionally limits the powers of the federal government in using military personnel for domestic law enforcement. The new DoD directive, by permitting the use of lethal force through military assistance in civilian law enforcement, may push the boundaries of these limitations.
• Potential First Amendment Concerns: Natural health advocates and others exercising their First Amendment rights, such as questioning the government’s response to COVID-19 or the integrity of elections, have been labeled as potential domestic extremists and/or terrorists by some agencies. This directive could expand those classifications into scenarios involving lethal force interventions, potentially chilling free speech under the guise of national security.
• Fourth Amendment Considerations: This directive also allows intelligence sharing between military and law enforcement under emergency conditions, raising questions about the right to privacy and the potential for expanded surveillance.
• Due Process Implications (Fifth Amendment): The possibility of military use of lethal force in domestic scenarios introduces concerns about how due process protections might be maintained before potentially life-altering decisions are made.

Why these ominous changes one month before the election? Is something in the works? Why is there no reporting and no debate on this change in policy?

Here is the Directive. (Suggest you read Section 1, pp. 3-6)

.

Here is the report.

Ever since the CIA used the Washington Post and the media to cover up the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the term, “conspiracy theory,” introduced by the CIA, has been used by the presstitutes and government to demonize truth and those who speak truth, and to protect official narratives, such as “Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.”

Unless Trump cuts a deal with Democrats not to hold them accountable and also a deal with the Ruling Elite not to interfere with their control, I can see no way that either will permit Trump to be President.

The Biden regime and the Trump Justice (sic) Department and FBI are criminal operations. I can see indictments and arrests for those who have weaponized law enforcement. The Ruling Elite and leading Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and John Kerry can all be arrested, honestly unlike Trump and his supporters, for insurrection as they have openly called for the overthrow of the United States by demanding the overthrow of the First Amendment of the US Constitution. No fooling, this is treason. The US is the Constitution. Advocating the overthrow of the Constitution is advocating the overthrow of the United States.

This is a major issue of our time, and it is not mentioned — which displays the control the elite have over what can be an issue subject to notice and discussion.

That one month prior to the presidential election the corrupt Biden regime issued a directive that permits the US military, purged of its patriotic officers, to use lethal force against American citizens is an indication that something is afoot. Why is such a directive suddenly needed, a directive that goes against all previous policy?

Here is a possible scenario: If despite the media’s assault on Trump and the in-place legalized election theft procedures in the swing states, the Democrats and Ruling Elite conclude that the election can neither be won nor stolen, an orchestrated false flag insurrection is staged that activates Department of Defense directive 5240.01 issued September 27, 2024. Trump, his supporters, the Republican Party, probably sparing the RINOs as a fake opposition party will be needed to carry on the illusion of democracy under one-party rule, will be arrested as insurrectionists. The courts will be helpless as they have no enforcement powers, and any intervention against the coup will be misrepresented as “siding with insurrectionists.”

Absurd! Extreme! Nutcase! No, I am none of these. Just think of all the violations of US law and international law by Democrat officials. They are subject to arrest nationally and internationally. Trump, unless he cuts the deals I mentioned, is a threat to the Ruling Establishment as he can put most of them in prison. How can the Democrats and the Ruling Elite let a man and a movement this dangerous to them become President? They cannot.

Unless Trump sells out, he is in a fight to the death. Elon Musk knows it. Musk wondered on Tucker Carlson how long his prison sentence would be if Trump loses the election. Most Americans, however, are too insouciant to realize that if Trump loses the election, or it is stolen from him, or prevented from happening, there will never again be an election in the United States of America. A Stalin type election, perhaps, where 99.9% of the votes are taken by the ruling personage.

A country whose government, intellectuals, and Ruling Elite do not believe in the Constitution do not believe in the country.

A country whose government, intellectuals, and Ruling Elite do not believe in family, borders, evil, that uses education to indoctrinate white people against themselves as racists, misogynists, domestic terrorists, that uses censorship to prevent the emergence of challenges to official narratives which are lies, has an agenda that it knows the American people will not accept. So the agenda is left unstated and forced on the people by controlling the explanations.

Over the course of my life I have watched the collapse of spiritual life and sexual morality. Female modesty and female chastity no longer exist. Mothers have 12 year old daughters on birth control pills. College girls maintain themselves with porn sites where they copulate for all the world to see. Who wants to marry a public whore?

The Democrats have raised hatred as their banner. The hated are white heterosexuals who have a traditional moral code.

The white heterosexuals are going to lose, because to them it is just a conspiracy theory.

John Kerry calls for a Ministry of Truth: “The First Amendment stands as a major roadblock for us right now.”

John Kerry calls for a Ministry of Truth:

"The 1st Amendment stands as a major roadblock for us right now" pic.twitter.com/1mtpjjxeM7

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 29, 2024

Hillary Says the First Amendment means “We Lose Total Control”

Fearful of the Public, Western Leaders Turn to Censorship

Wall Street Journal Editor Emma Tucker said: “We owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well.”

She added that people are learning that they cannot trust the whore media and that, consequently, the presstitutes are having a difficult time protecting the official narratives, which are lies that permit a handful of corrupt elites to impose their agendas.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was filing a lawsuit against the “State of Virginia, Virginia State Board of Elections and Virginia Commissioner of Elections” over the state’s enforcement of a 2006 law, removing non-citizens from voter lists.

In a press release on Friday, the DOJ wrote that the removal of voters from “election rolls” so close to the upcoming presidential election violated “Section 8(c)(2)” of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, “also known as the Quiet Period Provision.”

.

Screenshot from justice.gov

.

Under Section 8(c)(2) of the NVRA, states are required “to complete systematic programs” in order to remove “the names of ineligible voters from voter registration lists no later than 90 days before federal elections,” the DOJ added:

Section 8(c)(2) of the NVRA, also known as the Quiet Period Provision, requires states to complete systematic programs aimed at removing the names of ineligible voters from voter registration lists no later than 90 days before federal elections. The Quiet Period Provision applies to certain systematic programs carried out by states that are aimed at striking names from voter registration lists based on a perceived failure to meet initial eligibility requirements — including citizenship — at the time of registration.

The DOJ’s lawsuit comes after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued an Executive Order in August, which required “all registrars” to “cancel the registrations of non-citizens who have registered to vote in a local, state, or federal election by falsely claiming that they are a citizen, including the forging of documentation or any other means of improper registration.”

In Youngkin’s announcement of the Executive Order, he revealed that roughly “79,867 deceased voters” had been removed from voter lists in 2023, and that roughly “6,303 non-citizens” had been taken off of voter lists between January 2022 and July 2024.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division explained that “by cancelling voter registrations within 90 days” of an election, “qualified voters” in the state were placed at risk “of being removed from the rolls.”

“As the National Voter Registration Act mandates, officials across the country should take heed of the law’s crystal clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election,” Clarke said in a statement. “By cancelling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate. Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters.”

Youngkin responded to the DOJ’s lawsuit in a press release by labeling it as an “unprecedented lawsuit” against him “and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law” that was signed by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who previously served as the governor of Virginia.

With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls.

Virginians – and Americans – will…

— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 11, 2024

“Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is,” Youngkin added. “A desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy. With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us.”

Youngkin added that the state’s election would be “secure and fair,” and stated he would “not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections.”

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image is licensed under CC BY 2.0

This is a loose transcript of the interview of Daniel Estulin and Peter Koenig.

Daniel Estulin (DE): What are your overall views on the Middle East Crisis?

Peter Koenig (PK): Let me start with a quote from the great late spiritual philosopher and teacher, Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar:

“No movement in this universe is possible without encountering opposition. Wherever there is movement, there is opposition also. The result of struggle against this opposition is called progress.

The more one desires to proceed vigorously to the goal, the more one is to struggle against the opposition. Thus, those who are averse to struggle can never progress. They lag behind, not to speak of progress.

That’s why struggle is the essence of life. Those who abhor struggle, who misconstrue struggle as violence, have no place in this world.”

We both, Daniel – and thanks God many more and ever-more – are of the struggling kind.

If I may, as a prelude to the overall question and before going specifically to the Middle East and the ongoing killer-agenda, please allow me to make some reflections.

It goes into the direction of – who runs the world?

When we know that, it may be easier to assess the Middle East and the rest of the world.

Image source

What I see is the UN Pact for the World of the Future, ratified by non-objection (NOT by vote) on 22 September 2024. All 193 member countries nodded. Again, not by vote, but on a non-objection basis. That is why it is a Pact. Some say it is not really legally binding. But somewhat binding nevertheless, if it is a Pact. Agreements under a Pact are to be respected.

That all 193 UN members, including Russia and China, have gone along with this Pact, without objection, raises a Big Red Flag in my mind.

Are they all committed to the Globalist Agenda? The UN Agenda 2030? The WEF’s Great Reset? 

And their game of adversaries of East against West is just a game?

A wanted deception of the People?

Looks like the thousands of years old axiom of divide to reign and conquer is alive and well in the 21^st century. 

In which case, so would be the atrocious killing in the Middle East, and in Ukraine and Russia – and all the conflicts and wars in the world – currently some 20 to 25. Just a game, mad games, killing games – allowed to happen by those pretending to run the world, and it is not Washington, Moscow, or Beijing.

Killing conflicts as a game to divide the people.

All the industrialists and big corporations – especially the Tech Corporations, Big Finance, Big Pharma, and of course, the Military / War Industrial Complex and others — have already signed up for Agenda 2030 / The WEF’s Great Reset and the WEF’s 4^th Industrial Revolution, an all-digitized slave land or Gulag.

A digitized world – with full electronic money control – where “In 2030 – you own nothing but will be happy”, you might add because if you have survived so far, the Plandemics, mandated Vaxxing, and Climate Change fraud, you have become a trans-human, a robotized “human”.

Because number one objective, or wish, of the Globalist diabolical Cult, is massive population reduction.

How?

By the poisonous vaxxes mandated first after the fake Covid plandemic.

Second, by 5G, with the tens of thousands of Elon Musk’s low flying satellites beaming at the earthly 5G antennas spanning literally the entire globe, having transformed your graphite-charged bloodstream and brain to be remote-controlled.

Third, by famine, drought, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, all caused by geoengineered weaponized weather and climate, falsely presented as man- and industry-made climate change.

All that while, We the People, are sleeping or betting for the BRICS, for Russia and China, to help and save us, or while, alternatively, we are stampeding with the US hegemon to conquer the world. Two different camps, one against the other – divided into a multitude of smaller little camps, called pluralism, fighting, or arguing with each other, deviating from seeing the Big Picture.

This small elite that pretends to control 8 billion people has already agreed that the WHO will be the GESTAPO of the new fascist world under the UN Pact for a New World, the WEF will be the policy gnome, and the UN political body will be the new One World Government.

And behind them all with funding no end, is this huge invisible evil Cult with seemingly mega-power – Big-Big Finance, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and, yes, not least, Big War / Military Industrial Complex. They have the media on their side. They largely act as private entities not answerable to any state, but calling governments to do their bidding, or else…

Image source

The introduction of a one-world digital, all-controlling currency would then be just a matter of time. A digital currency that could be withheld, blocked, canceled in full or partially, would be the endgame of full-enslavement.

But let us pause here – although they may aim at this horrendous future, they will not reach it. Life is not linear, thus not digital, but dynamic. Therefore, an all-digital system will eventually self-destruct.

For me – it is a hard shock, and not easy to believe, that all 193 UN member countries are in cahoots. But when I saw the non-objection to the UN Pact, no matter how much it had been watered-down (once its approved, you can always strengthen it, little by little, – the salami tactic in reverse – to bring it back to the original level, with non, or little consultation of the member countries) – when I saw this Pact waved through, this tremendous Red Flag popped up.

DE: Who are the key players for the current Zionist-Israel led war against Palestine and now Lebanon?

PK: They are the same as those behind the Ukraine-Russia War.

Again, Washington and its European vassal Union (or rather non-union), are just following orders, ruining their economies, committing socioeconomic suicide by depleting their budgets and monetary reserves, sending billions and billions in cash, loans, or weaponry to Ukraine and Israel, to fight futile criminal killer-wars – no end. And killing and killing – destroying families, motherhoods, and fatherhoods – and infrastructure galore.

Those who mandate the killing know it is futile and it is a crime against humanity.

But these fake leaders (sic) execute the orders in Washington and Brussels and Frankfurt, knowing too that these wars are futile. And the same fake leaders hope to get a seat at the table of the Last Supper – and save their skin.

But they will not.

What the inhuman globalists cannot see, is that their digital revolution that is supposed to conquer the world, is not going to work, because, again, life is not linear but dynamic. Everything digital, including artificial intelligence (AI) is LINEAR.

There is our chance.

We unite spiritually – and evoke non-linear dynamism – and what is behind this unseen spiritual force of change is quantum physics. The power of quantum science is unbeatable by the elite, no matter how rich and digitally powerful they think they are.

But we, the People, or a large majority of us, must be prepared.

We must think on a different level, not as partisans for the one or the other, nor with hate and despise, but with love and light.
We can do it.

Together we can.

DE: The big picture: will Israel survive – and if so, how and where?

PK: Given the forces at play – and the run for a One World Order and Government – it is irrelevant whether Israel survives. At present Israel is committing suicide. A slow suicide.

Israel is taking a huge economic beating. Official Israel and western mainstream media do not admit it, but Israelis in the street know it – and clearly say, they have no trust in the future of their country, Israel.

Western mainstream, of course, also obscures these people’s reality.

The logical question is: Those who are behind this – and other wars – they must know it. So, the downfall of Israel is planned. It is part of the unwritten globalist pact – to eliminate the Zionists dream to create a “Greater Israel” for the Chosen People – for themselves.

The Ashkenazi Zionists’ dream of a Greater Israel, with the world at their feet, does not fit into the agenda of the tiny elite – the evil Cult – pretending to run the entire world.

Independent of a potentially deliberate effort to do away with Israel, when dynamics and quantum physics will take over – Israel will be gone; Palestine returns to be Palestine – the historic sovereign Palestine.

Jews and Israelis may peacefully live together with Palestinians, as they have for centuries before the onset of the belligerent, Zionist-Israeli violent domineering of entire Palestine.

This cannot happen if justice – a human justice of light and human rights – is to prevail.

And human justice will prevail – it is the nature of Mother Earth’s system of justice.

DE: How are the Ukraine crisis and the Middle East war connected?

PK: In short, because the same diabolical Cult drives them.

With wars and the constant threat of the war and conflicts running out of control and becoming nuclear – the end of the world – creates fear; and fear is their strongest weapon to control the people.

Fearful people are submissive, and will go along with orders.

Fear of the people is food and energy for the diabolical Cult. They need the people’s fear to thrive on it.

The ruling elite does not want a nuclear conflict – it could hit them too.

Because they see the risk, some of them, especially Tech czars – built already their deep luxury bunkers, many of them in New Zealand, considered safe, yet civilized – and far away from everything.

But there is weapon much stronger, more reliable than a nuclear bon. It is called Weather and climate engineering, creating hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons — floods, droughts, famine, diseases – and more. Plus, these weather phenomena are called “climate change”. And until the bulk of the people catch on to this lie of biblical proportions, they continue with the scam.

Wars are also good for population reduction. Let us not forget, those powers behind the UN, the WEF and WHO, are all eugenists. They are the inventors and the engines of the Club of Rome, the official initiator with their 1972 “Limits to Growth” report – and later with the “First Global Revolution” (1991) – are also behind the fake Climate Change agenda which has been indoctrinated on three generations – so, you tell most people the truth about “climate change”, they won’t believe you, to the contrary they despise you, because you dare attempting breaking down their lie-based believes.

*

In Conclusion

We – a few of us – have been lucky, having had the opportunity to travel the world, meet with so-called officials, and especially with the people of all kinds of cultures and creeds, see the world through the kaleidoscope and variety of people’s eyes, from the inside of the UN system, and otherwise worldly organizations pretending to be on top of the universe.

I am forever thankful for having been given this opportunity. It was and still is a tremendous eye-opener.

It brings with it a moral obligation and commitment – namely that we share this eye-opening experience, with other people, as many as we can reach – as we all share the license to live on this beautiful planet equally – in the hope to bring more people along into a different, non-belligerent, but peaceful thinking – and hopefully help opening the way, leading the world into a dynamism of Peace and Light.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

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

Introduction

One of the most epochal events in entertainment history took place just after the turn of the 21^st century with the release of the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Fellowship of the Ring was released on December 19, 2001. The Two Towers was released on December 18, 2002, and The Return of the King was released on December 17, 2003.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was a British writer and academic, born in South Africa, who spent his teaching career at Oxford University. He was steeped in the ancient languages and folklore of Northern Europe, even inventing his own linguistic recreations of old tongues. Scholars and researchers continue to look to the legendary history of that part of the world as disclosing mysterious cultural elements that recede into the distant past of humanity’s earliest strivings in a world still believed to be populated by mythological creatures like fairies, elves, dwarves, and superhuman sages and wizards. Also emerging from this history are human “culture heroes” whose striving and bravery brought order out of chaos and laid the groundwork for later civilization.

But what is the “civilization” we find today? Clearly it’s a disaster, with nations trying to destroy each other, fabulous wealth interlaced with the most degrading poverty, rampant genocide, and personal morality sliding into an abyss.

Tolkien began his Ring saga with The Hobbit, published in 1937. Besides his own extensive reading and prior publishing, Tolkien had an educated British and American public to work with that was familiar with the legends of a Ring of Power also drawn upon by German composer Richard Wagner’s celebrated and long-performed four-part Ring of the Nibelung.

The basic idea was that somewhere in the world was a golden Ring with magical powers that would allow the bearer to exercise dominion over all life on earth. Competition for control of that Ring became an epic battle.

Lord of the Rings, both the books, and later the films, cast the diminutive Hobbits, just ordinary folk like you and me, in the unlikely role of saviors of the world.

But did the Ring have a deeper significance in the troubled world of the 1930s? Clearly the saga was about good vs. evil, but what is good and what is evil is a topic not entirely settled in our troubled times, to say the least.

It’s reminiscent, in a way, of the Wizard of Oz and the other Oz legends created in an earlier generation by American author L. Frank Baum. Coincidentally, the movie Wizard of Oz came out in 1936, just after The Hobbit was published.

Of course, many commentators in subsequent decades claimed that the evils these master story-tellers were tapping into were such easy targets as Nazi Germany or “communism,” with the “good guys” being, as always, “us.” But that’s hard to believe any more, particularly as “revisionist” history shows “us” as being far from having clean hands in world events, back then, and even more so, today.

So I want to share with readers my own interpretation of The Lord of the Rings. I first published this essay in 2008-2009 in my book We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform See here. I think it’s just as pertinent today as it was fifteen years ago, so here it is again (slightly edited) for today’s generation of readers and seekers.

A Monetary Reformer’s Interpretation of The Lord of the Rings

The film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, produced by Peter Jackson of New Zealand, ranked with Star Wars as one of the most popular cinematic events of all time. Perhaps its appeal derived from its faithfulness to the letter and spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary masterpiece.

Not the least of the fascination of both the books and their film depiction was not only the contrast between the forces of good and evil but also how they were presented.

Image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The disembodied Eye of Sauron, aided by the traitorous wizard Saruman and the legions of cruel and hideous orcs, threatened to destroy Middle Earth. The task of averting catastrophe lay with a gentle hobbit, bearing to the demon’s lair a ridiculously small token of power, a single golden Ring. Of course, men and Hobbits had helpers, including the angel-like elves, plus the incorruptible wizard Gandalf, every-loyal to the forces of light and good.

Tolkien never said exactly what the story was supposed to mean. But such reticence is expected in symbolic art. The force of the genre lies in the use of representation to transmit the psychic energy and racial memories from what Jung called the collective unconscious.

Generations of students and scholars have been guessing at the meaning of The Lord of the Rings. Jackson had too much integrity to try to explain it, except in general terms. Besides, the meaning of art can often be understood with the heart and soul, even where the mind draws a blank. Often the feeling a reader or viewer is left with is nostalgia, though for what defies explanation.

Regardless, everyone senses that The Lord of the Rings is a parable of our times, where the twin forces of creativity and destruction are both extremely powerful. The jury is still out on whether we can harness the forces of science and technology for human good, or whether we will destroy ourselves through warfare, disease, economic collapse, or totalitarian repression.

There have been countless predictions of worldwide catastrophe in recent decades. Many believe that today’s wars in the Middle East prefigure an Armageddon, nuclear or otherwise. Whether or not The Lord of the Rings parallels events of years past or today, it has secured its own place in the “end times” literature of our age.

One thing that is clear about The Lord of the Rings is that among the virtues most highly prized are loyalty toward companions and courage in the face of death. Time and again the cause seems lost. Time and again, men, wizards, elves, dwarves, and Hobbits must summon their courage and choose to move forward in the face of seeming defeat. Time and again, fate intervenes at the last possible moment, until Frodo Baggins succeeds in passing the final test and the golden ring is swallowed up in the cauldron of fire deep within Mount Doom.

Then, deprived of its minuscule but never-explained linchpin of power, the entire world of evil instantly self-destructs and Middle Earth is saved. We see at the end, that life at its core is good, and evil is merely a shadow.

I am a monetary reformer, so I will assert my author’s prerogative, as have so many others, of putting forth a theory of “what it means,” leaving the reader to decide, of course, whether my interpretation is plausible or not. My interpretation of The Lord of the Rings may recall that many believed L. Frank Baum’s masterpiece, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, was a monetary parable.

According to this interpretation, the evil spell over Oz symbolized the control of gold (measured in ounces=oz.) by the world’s banking oligarchy, which they abused to constrict the currency during the depression of the 1890s when many farmers and merchants were forced into foreclosure or bankruptcy.

The Cowardly Lion was viewed as representing William Jennings Bryan. Bryan, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate that year, had made a speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he exclaimed, “You shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold!” But he was criticized for doing little of a practical nature to implement the progressives’ monetary reform agenda.

Later, Baum’s book was made into the most famous motion picture of all time, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. The film appeared in 1939 toward the end of the Great Depression, which was another American tragedy with monetary causes. Due to lack of a circulating medium of exchange, men stood in soup lines unable to find work while the factories that might have employed them had shut down.

Today people are starting to realize that again we have an economy in crisis and that again the causes are monetary. We have stagnating incomes, rapidly increasing control of wealth by the rich [that was exacerbated by the Covid lockdowns], a middle class under severe stress, growing poverty, collapse of our manufacturing job base, a bursting housing bubble, resurgent commodity [and consumer price] inflation, soaring but shaky stock prices, and capital markets dominated by predatory equity and hedge funds. Increasingly, China and other foreign nations are purchasing U.S. business assets.

It’s all capped by a gigantic private and public debt burden that is growing exponentially. Debt is threatening to bring the entire system down in a crash that not only could exceed the Great Depression but has been likened to the downfall of another debt-ridden behemoth—the Roman Empire. Every day it becomes more clear that the trouble stems from a rotten financial system that enriches the financial elite [and other billionaires] at the expense of everyone else.

The crisis has been brewing for decades. After the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gained enough control over money and credit for the U.S. economy to limp along, but he never carried out full-scale monetary reform. It was only World War II that restored employment.

From the 1950s on, the banking system maneuvered to tear itself away from the controls—and low interest rates—imposed on it by FDR’s New Deal. What we have today is the result of that long-term victory of the bankers over the producing economy.

A key event was the 1979-83 recession. The Federal Reserve crashed the economy with interest rates over 20 percent, wrecking our public and private infrastructure. It was to combat inflation, they said. Was it that, or was it the hidden plan of the cabal that today we associate with David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, and other front organizations for the globalists’ New World Order?

By the end of the decade of the 1980s, the Reagan/Bush administrations had left us with a brief “recovery” ending in another recession, an unregulated financial sector, destruction of the savings and loan industry, the era of junk bonds and leveraged buyouts, and the anemic “service” economy which continues today.

The economic story of the Clinton administration which came next was largely one of enormous bank-driven investment and currency attacks on foreign countries and the rise and collapse of the dot.com bubble. [Next, under George W. Bush, came the crash of the housing bubble, Obama’s multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts, the Great Recession, and the temporary rescue of the economy by the Federal Reserve’s purchases of huge amounts of federal government debt and shaky mortgage loans, a practice that continues today.]

Throughout these disasters, we should be looking hard for the footprints and fingerprints of the Federal Reserve which has been the creature of private financial interests since it was created in 1913. It was then that the U.S. Congress ceded its constitutional authority to “coin money and regulate the value therof” to the private financiers who are the real powers behind the monetary throne.

In fact, the whole system of institutionalized debt oppression may be deeply unconstitutional. The preamble to our Constitution stipulates a system of law that will “promote the general welfare.” Banking laws that have the opposite effect—one of promoting the benefit of the few over the well-being of the many—should be subject to court review and overthrown if warranted. [The American Monetary Institute as estimated that 1 percent of loan value is sufficient to pay all the expenses of the financial system.]

So should the presumed authority of the Federal Reserve to destroy property and income values through interest rate policies that enhance bank profits while disrupting commercial activities. Interest rate increases carried out by the Federal Reserve are often implemented to fight the inflation originally created by financier investment bubbles, as with the housing bubble [and today’s stock market bubble]. The last unlucky home purchaser to hold property, before the Fed pulled the carpet from under the economy, was the one stuck with an overpriced asset and an unpayable mortgage.

Moreover, the fifth and fourteenth amendments provide that neither the federal government nor the states may deprive a person of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” This language should also prompt the courts to review legislation that undermines economic democracy, makes it impossible for much of our population to earn a decent living, and subjects debtors to unreasonable conditions, forcing them to declare bankruptcy. The provision in the 2005 bankruptcy “reform” legislation that makes it impossible ever to write off student loan debt, for example, should be declared unconstitutional.

We are now paying the price of neglect as much of our population sinks toward the status of what the Roman Empire institutionalized as debt slavery. We are still looking for a William Jennings Bryan to declare that mankind shall not be destroyed by being cast into the abyss of debt.

Perhaps we are looking in the wrong places. Maybe the one we should be seeking is a hobbit.

Here’s how I see today’s crisis reflected in The Lord of the Rings:

The evil disembodied all-seeing Eye of Sauron: Whatever devils sit atop and rule the international financial system which is profiting from the financial crisis.

Mordor, the realm of Sauron: The international banking and financial system in all its aspects and the world of war, oppression, and economic ruin it has created over the last few centuries, when hundreds of millions have been slain through useless wars and upheavals over power, ideology, money, gratification, and control of resources.

The Ring of power: The ability of credit to grow exponentially when lent at compound interest, aided over time by fractional reserve banking, so that debt now threatens to devour the entire world of the producing economy.

Mount Doom: where the Dark Lord’s Ring of power was forged: Any bank, brokerage house, or other financial institution where money is lent at usury.

Sauron’s ally, the evil wizard Saruman: The talented and highly-educated economists, scholars, authors, journalists, and broadcasters who have sold their souls in the service of the monetary elite.

Isengard, the tower where Sauron resides: The economic departments of many universities, the business and editorial sections of most major newspapers, and the many “think tanks” which favor the dominance of the monetary overseers.

The orcs: The hideous foot soldiers who perpetrate and enforce the power of the monetary controllers, including some of the current leaders of the U.S. government.

King Aragorn: Leader of the humans against evil: unique ability of a man, through self-sacrifice, to act in human life as an impartial combatant in fighting for good.

The dwarves working as miners and craftsmen in the mountains: The owners, managers, and employees of legitimate businesses, the cream of whose labor is skimmed by usury finance.

The elves: The artists and poets of the world who behold, dumbfounded, man’s inhumanity to man through financial oppression.

Gandalf: The small number of enlightened people who have helped mankind evolve toward a higher monetary vision such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and C.H. Douglas (1879-1952), founder o the Social Credit monetary reform movement.

The Hobbits: The ordinary, unknown people (us!) who just want to live and let live and who have guessed the secret of the Ring of compound interest and fractional reserve banking. They realize that once the Ring is dropped into the fire of understanding, the oppressive system that is destroying mankind will collapse, allowing a new age of humanity to begin.

In making these comparisons, I realize that when Tolkien sat down to write he did not necessarily set out to call the world banking system on the carpet. In fact, his own father was a banker. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892, where his family resided because his father Arthur was engaged in starting a branch for the home bank in London.

Still, Britain has been home to a monetary reform movement for over a century. One early figure was the writer G.K. Chesterton, whose brother A.K. published a magazine named Candour to which Tolien subscribed. According to Stephen Goodson, a South African monetary reformer who inherited Tolkien’s copies of Candour from a relative, Tolkien had underlined the following passage in red ink:

There should only be one source of money: one fountainhead from which flows the nation’s blood to vitalize commerce and industry, ensure economic equity and justice, and safeguard the welfare of the people.…In other words, it has always been and still is our contention that the prerogative of creating and issuing the money of the nation should be restored to the State.

Tolkien was a visionary. As a poet and writer he was attuned to the enormous clash of forces of 20^th century history. There has been virtually non-stop war on a worldwide scale since 1914 as nations and ideologies have fought for dominance, with the monetary elite usually financing both sides. But embedded within this history is a deeper struggle for human freedom within all ideological systems where individuals true to themselves have faced the overwhelming organize might that seeks to destroy them.

In my opinion, it is the conflict between economic democracy on the one hand, and the domination of worldwide usury finance enforced by political and military power on the other, that most reflects the struggle for human freedom today, and that will determine the survival of any human civilization that is worth having.

Perhaps the recurring clash of the forces of individual freedom vs. organized repression also had some bearing on producing the psychic atmosphere which became, through Tolkien and Peter Jackson, an epic of men, dwarves, elves, wizards, demons—and Hobbits.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

This article was originally published on Three Sages.

Richard C. Cook is 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. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary. As a whistleblower at the time of the Challenger disaster, he exposed the flawed O-ring joints that destroyed the Space Shuttle, documenting his story in the book “Challenger Revealed.” After serving at Treasury, he became a vocal critic of the private finance-controlled monetary system, detailing his concerns in “We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform.” He served as an adviser 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, Our Country, Then and Now, Clarity Press, 2023. Also see his Three Sages Substack at https://montanarcc.substack.com/publish/posts and his American Geopolitical Institute articles at https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/category/agi/. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

“Every human enterprise must serve life, must seek to enrich existence on earth, lest man become enslaved where he seeks to establish his dominion!” Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, 1876-1943), translation by Posthumus Projects Amsterdam, 2014. Also download the Kober Press edition of The Book on the Living God here.

Featured image is licensed under Fair Use

World War III Is “On” But the Empire Has Already Lost. An American Civil War Looms. Spiritual Transformation Is the Only Way to Prevent Extinction.

By Richard C. Cook

From the assassination of JFK and the meeting between Peccei and Rockefeller, there is a straight line that marks the trajectory of the catastrophe that I characterize in this eBook as the start of World War III and possibly the American Civil War II. 

I have been a close-up witness to that trajectory, including 32 years as a federal government analyst and the years of writing I have done since then. It’s what I have witnessed that this eBook is about. 

Click here to read the eBook.

Israeli defense officials told Haaretz on Sunday that the Israeli government is not seeking to revive ceasefire talks with Hamas and is now pushing for the gradual annexation of large portions of the Gaza Strip.

The report came about a week after Israel ordered Palestinians living in northern Gaza to evacuate to areas south of the Netzarim corridor, a strip of land controlled by the Israeli military. With the evacuation order came a major escalation in Israeli military operations in the north focused on the Jabalia refugee camp, which has been under complete siege.

.

.

.

Screenshot from Haaretz

.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has reported that Israeli forces in Jabalia are carrying out a “scaled-down” version of the “general’s plan,” an outline for the complete ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza and the killing of any Palestinians who choose to stay, whether by military action or starvation. The UN’s World Food Program said Saturday that no food aid has entered northern Gaza since October 1.

Israeli Army commanders told Haaretz that the assault on northern Gaza was ordered without much preparation and that it appeared the primary purpose of the military operations was to pressure Palestinian residents to flee to the south. Many Palestinians have refused to leave northern Gaza since there’s nowhere they can go where their safety can be guaranteed. Israel has bombed so-called “safe zones” repeatedly over the past year.

The Haaretz report said Israeli troops were ordered to launch the assault on Jabalia “even though there was no intelligence to justify the move” and that some members of the Israeli security establishment didn’t support the operation, saying it would endanger the lives of Israeli hostages.

If Israel is successful in cleansing northern Gaza of its Palestinian population, it would pave the way for the establishment of Jewish-only settlements in the area, an idea openly supported by many Israeli ministers and Knesset members. The general’s plan calls for the tactics to be used in other parts of the Strip once the north is cleansed.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image source

America today believes that when it comes to foreign policy, we are possessed with the “Midas Touch”—everything we do turns to gold. But the reality is, just like King Midas of old, everything we touch dies.

King Midas was a Phrygian King believed to rule in the 2^nd Millenium BC, whose territory encompassed the area of what is modern day Anatolian Plateau around the present-day city of Ankara.

Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet better known as Ovid, told the tale of King Midas in volume 11 of his 15-book anthology of Greek logical narrative, Metamorphoses. There, Midas befriended the satyr Silenus who, as a reward for Midas’ hospitality, granted the Phrygian King a wish. Midas wished that everything he touched turned to gold. The wish was granted, and soon Midas was overjoyed by his ability to instantly create wealth. However, the fulfilled wish soon became a curse, for when Midas tried to eat food or drink, he could not do so, because it turned to gold at his touch. When his daughter tried to console him, he touched her, turning her into gold, thereby killing her. Midas finished his life alone, parched and starved.

There is no better analogy for America’s self-anointed role as global hegemon than that of King Midas.

We hold a privileged position, and yet we want more, so much so that our insatiable greed for power and wealth leaves us blind to their consequence.

We call the “American Midas Touch” by many names—we are the exceptional nation, the indispensable nation, the guardian of the rules based international order we ourselves wrote.

Democracy is our “gold,” and we seek to reach out and “touch” as many nations as possible with the wonderful “gift.”

Click here to read the full article on Scott Ritter Extra.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image is from the author

Below is an excerpt from Euronews:

Captain İlçehin Pehlivan died mid-flight from Istanbul to Seattle. He had been with the airline since 2007.

A Turkish Airlines captain died after suddenly falling ill during an Istanbul-Seattle flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in New York, the company’s spokesman said on Wednesday.

“İlçehin Pehlivan, the captain of our Airbus 350 aircraft with TC-LGR tail registration, which was operating the flight number TK204 between Seattle and Istanbul, fainted during the flight,” Yahya Üstün said in a post on X.

Here is an excerpt from a report on CTV News on the death of Captain Pehlivan:

Pehlivan had worked at Turkish Airlines since 2007, Üstün said. A routine health check in March showed no health problems that would have prevented him from working, he said.

“As Turkish Airlines, we deeply feel the loss of our captain and extend our sincerest condolences to his bereaved family, colleagues, and all his loved ones,” Üstün said.

*

Pilot incapacitations inflight in 2024 (nine so far):

Oct. 9, 2024 – Turkish Airlines Flight TK204 (SEA-IST) from Istanbul to Seattle, Captain Ilcehin Pehlivan, age 59, died mid-flight

Aug. 19, 2024 – Wizz Air Flight W6-1451 (WAW-LCA) from Warsaw (Poland) to Larnaca (Cyprus), pilot became incapacitated, plane forced to return to Warsaw, incident identified as serious

Jul. 22, 2024 – Edelweiss Flight WK-5 (TPA-ZRH) from Tampa, FL, USA to Zurich, Switzerland, pilot suffered a medical condition and was incapacitated

Jun. 12, 2024 – Nesma Airlines Flight NE-130 (CAI-TIF) Cairo, Egypt to Taif (Saudi Arabia) – pilot Captain Hassan Youssef Adas in his late 30s collapsed and died from a presumed heart attack

Jun. 4, 2024 – Aeromexico Flight AM-34 (MTY-MAD) from Monterrey (Mexico ) to Madrid (Spain), first officer became unwell, had a medical problem, flight diverted to Mexico City.

Mar. 14, 2024 – British Airways BA-2272 (JFK-LGW) New York to London-Gatwickone of the pilots became incapacitated, plane forced to divert to St.John’s, NL, Canada.

Feb. 17, 2024 – Lufthansa Flight LH-1140 (FRA-SVQ) Frankfurt to Seville on Feb.17, 2024 – First Officer Incapacitated, plane turned around back to Madrid

Feb. 16, 2024 – DELTA – NYC – 58 year old Capt Geoffrey John Brock died unexpectedly on Feb.16, 2024 during a layover in Honolulu, HI

Jan. 16, 2024 – LATAM Brasil Flight LA-3744 (BSB-JPA) Brasilia to Joao Pessoa on Jan.16, 2024 – Pilot Incapacitated, plane diverted to Salvador for safe landing

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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 Turkish Airlines

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. 

The author discusses the challenges and strategies of Nazi Germany’s planned invasion of Britain in 1940, highlighting the logistical difficulties, military preparations, and the potential impact of the campaign amid Britain’s defensive efforts.

*

Britain’s future as a state was in plenty of doubt following the fall of France in June 1940 to the Wehrmacht’s troops. That June on the whole island of Britain, there were only 2 British divisions fully equipped and ready for fighting. The Royal Air Force was outnumbered by the Luftwaffe and, while the Royal Navy was close to full strength, the British admiralty was not confident their warships could prevent the Germans from landing military forces on British soil.

In mid-1940 Italy had somewhat tentatively entered the war on the Germans’ side while, in the Far East, Japan was on the rise and not friendly to the British. Though it would soon change there was no immediate prospect of substantial American aid arriving in Britain. The United States was not prepared to directly enter the conflict in 1940, and its politicians like Joseph Kennedy, the US ambassador to Britain since 1938, believed the Germans had gained an impregnable position by 1940. Kennedy was overlooking the inevitable future conflict between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, of which there was no guarantee the Nazis would win.

By overcoming the French in the middle of 1940 the Germans could establish air and naval bases in northern and western France, a close distance from England. This provided more options for striking at the British, in the waters surrounding Britain, while enabling the Germans when they pleased to enter the nearby Atlantic with U-boats (submarines) and warships.

British Preparations and Diplomatic Efforts

From July 1940, the British hurriedly fortified their country against a Nazi amphibious invasion. They put in place gun batteries, mines, obstacles, and barriers on their coastlines, particularly in southern and eastern England. From mid-June to mid-August 1940, talks took place between British and German representatives with the apparent hope of attaining peace. The Germans thought it possible that politicians like Lloyd George and Lord Halifax would recognize the futility of continuing the war; that they could topple Winston Churchill and form a government prepared to negotiate a peace deal with Nazi Germany.

.

Photographs of King Edward VIII giving a Nazi salute go up at auction on Anglesey (Image: Morgan Evans Antiques Auctions)

.

The previously mentioned peace discussions went nowhere between British and German officials. There is the possibility the British used those talks in order to distract the Germans, and so stall an invasion of Britain while they strengthened their coastal defenses and built up their forces. Time was ticking for the Germans if they were to conquer Britain. Had the Nazi hierarchy made prior preparations, amphibious landings in England could have been launched in July 1940 when the British were badly prepared to meet the threat.

German Strategic Challenges

The English Channel, a body of water that separates southern England from northern France, was always a daunting challenge for the Germans to overcome if they were to ship ground forces to England. Had the English Channel not existed, with land between France and Britain, the Wehrmacht would have defeated the British Army as the recent fighting in France had shown.

German naval commanders viewed with pessimism and dread the launching of an amphibious attack against Britain. They were aware the English Channel’s tides are variable, its waters choppy and unpredictable. Much more serious than this was that the German Navy had suffered heavy losses in the first months of the war, especially in the Wehrmacht’s otherwise successful campaign in Norway during the spring of 1940.

When the offensive in Norway was reaching its end, all that remained of the German warship fleet was 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, and 4 destroyers. Nor could a Nazi landing in Britain receive much assistance from their U-boats. In March 1940 there were 43 U-boats in operation, whereas in September 1939 there had been 50 U-boats. At the time, the Germans were losing U-boats to enemy attack at a rate greater than they were building them.

German admirals like Karl Dönitz were despondent about this. Dönitz believed that a fleet of 300 U-boats in 1939 would have been enough on its own to defeat Britain by 1941, a resource-poor island nation reliant on imports from sea. Years after the war Dönitz, an inmate in Spandau Prison, was still complaining about the German Navy’s inadequate U-boat fleet in 1939, as the former Nazi henchman Albert Speer wrote, himself also a prisoner at Spandau.

Alternative Strategies and Final Preparations

In the early 1940s there was, at least on paper, another option open for the Nazis to finish off Britain. The Wehrmacht could have advanced south through France into the territory of its ally Spain, from there take Gibraltar, then enter North Africa to capture Egypt and the Suez Canal, cut off India, and wipe out all British interests in the Middle East. General Franco of Spain was unwilling to be involved in such a grandiose scheme, which in any event would have stretched German resources to breaking point.

The Royal Air Force tried to bomb the above vessels but their warplanes suffered losses and failed to inflict enough damage. The Germans managed to accumulate enough vessels, however much a mixed bag they were, for landings in Britain to be attempted. The German Army, specifically some of its high command, was confident that a successful invasion of Britain could be achieved. The victory over France had created a sense of infallibility within the German Army, leading to a reckless overconfidence.

The Invasion Plan

The Germans expected to land 100,000 of their troops in the opening phase of the invasion between Dover, on the south-eastern English coast, and Lyme Bay, about 200 miles westward from Dover along the south coast of England. Ominously from a British viewpoint, the town of Dover is just 70 miles from London, and the enemy forces were to be strengthened with another 160,000 soldiers to eventually arrive in the following landings.

The opening wave of German troops sent across the English Channel was to consist of 9 divisions, supported by airborne units. It would have entailed an initial Nazi force entering England which was nearly twice the size of the force which the Western Allies landed initially in Normandy, France, in June 1944.

The next German units to be sent over, on the biggest boats available, were to include 4 heavily equipped panzer divisions. These formations once they had secured their positions on the beaches were expected to advance into England, provide support to the German infantry who had demined the beaches, and inflict severe losses on the British troops.

After a period of 6 weeks following the first landing, the entire German force in England was to amount to 23 divisions. They would be assisted by the Luftwaffe which was expected to gain aerial superiority over the English Channel and coastal areas, crucial for the German invasion to proceed.

Overall Objectives and Potential Outcomes

The 23 divisions earmarked to conquer Britain were to be part of 3 armies, under the overall command of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, one of the Wehrmacht’s most experienced officers. The German 16th Army would set sail from ports located between Rotterdam, in the southern Netherlands, and Boulogne, in northern France, and was to arrive between the towns of Hythe and Eastbourne in south-eastern England.

The German 9th Army was to depart from ports located between Boulogne and Le Havre, both in northern France, and was to land between the towns of Brighton and Worthing in southern England.

The German 6th Army, often considered the Wehrmacht’s strongest fighting force, was to set sail from the Cherbourg peninsula in northern France and would enter an area between Portsmouth and Weymouth, the latter town in south-western England. The 6th Army might have been used partly also to bolster the positions held by the German 16th and 9th armies in southern England.

Conclusion: The Feasibility of the Invasion

In the first week of the invasion, the Germans were to establish a line about 80 miles wide between the towns of Canterbury and Arundel. The next objective was to advance further inland, and create another line stretching around 90 miles south-westward from Gravesend to Reigate to Portsmouth; with Gravesend and Reigate situated only 20 miles from London to the east and south.

The ultimate goal of the Nazi war plan was to advance on London, a vast city containing millions of people, resulting in the expected fall of England’s capital to the invaders. The Germans were not to assail London in a frontal attack with their soldiers penetrating into the city center; but instead they were to encircle and cut off London, which is located close to the sea, from the remainder of England.

If they felt it necessary the Germans would launch air raids and artillery strikes against London, particularly in light of how British warplanes had very recently started bombing German cities including the capital Berlin. The German armies may have attempted an advance deeper into London’s outskirts and suburban areas, possibly with the panzer divisions at the forefront, in an effort to tighten the ring on the English capital.

Despite the British Army being understrength, it would still have ranked as a significant achievement on the part of the German forces to have reached London’s outskirts, as it is for any army that makes it to the edges of a great city wherever it may be. Whether the German forces in southern England, even with the involvement of the 6th Army, were of sufficient strength to compel London to capitulate is doubtful. A siege against a city of London’s size would entail risks and could have taken many months to successfully accomplish. It might have weakened the Wehrmacht to a major extent.

The prolonged absence of the 6th Army in mainland Europe would have been felt by Nazi divisions there. If Britain was defeated it would be necessary to garrison large numbers of German troops on British terrain, when they could have been needed elsewhere. The German admiralty outlined that England’s south coast was the only feasible area to attempt an amphibious landing. The British high command, not aware of how weakened the German Navy was, believed in July 1940 that the east coast of England was the most likely landing point for the Nazis, which would have meant a longer and harder journey for German vessels carrying the troops.

On 10 July 1940, the Germans recommenced U-boat and air attacks on British merchant convoys in the English Channel. The plan for the Nazi invasion of Britain, titled Operation Sea Lion, was formally issued on 16 July 1940, and it stated that all preparations for the landings were to be completed by the next month, in mid-August. Due to further delays in preparations, at the end of July 1940 the invasion date was pushed back to 15 September. A further postponement resulted in a new invasion date of 21 September, because of requests made by the German Navy on 30 August. With the navy not satisfied on 11 September the invasion was postponed again to 24 September.

.

Operations: A German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 bomber flying over Wapping and the Isle of Dogs in the East End of London at the start of the Luftwaffe’s evening raids of 7 September 1940. Copy negative of part of an aerial photograph taken from a German aircraft at 1848 hrs German time. (From the Public Domain)

.

By mid-September 1940 the soldiers that were to defend England had been hastily increased and consisted of 34 British divisions, some of which were not fully equipped. Yet 16 of these divisions, among them 3 armored divisions, would be sent to the beaches in order to meet the initial German assault force of 9 divisions along with airborne personnel. Now into the autumn, the British high command had developed a better understanding of where the Nazis wished to land.

Needing time to secure their positions on the English beaches and lacking resupply, while still without aerial superiority, the German invasion in all likelihood would have failed, had it gone ahead. The plan for Operation Sea Lion was akin to the Schlieffen Plan and the Ludendorff offensives of the First World War, and the later Operation Barbarossa. Each plan was too ambitious to succeed.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

This article was originally published on Global Village Space.

Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image is from History/GVS

A year ago, based on a series of facts that proved the existence of a plan similar to the one that served to unleash the “global war on terrorism”, and led to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by the United States and NATO on September 11, 2001, Grandangolo ran with the headline “The 9/11 of the Middle East”.

The plan carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023 had been known for a year to Israel’s leaders, who were not surprised by the attack but facilitated it. This is confirmed by testimonies published in recent days by the Wall Street Journal of young female Israeli soldiers in charge of the electronic barrier around Gaza. The WSJ reports:

“For months, they had repeatedly warned their superiors that the militant Islamic group Hamas appeared to be preparing a major attack “.

Was the Hamas Attack a “False Flag”? 

“I served in the IDF 25 years ago, in the intelligence forces. There’s no way Israel did not know of what’s coming.

A cat moving alongside the fence is triggering all forces. So this??

What happened to the “strongest army in the world”?

How come border crossings were wide open?? Something is VERY WRONG HERE, something is very strange, this chain of events is very unusual and not typical for the Israeli defense system.

To me this suprise attack seems like a planned operation. On all fronts. 

If I was a conspiracy theorist I would say that this feels like the work of the Deep State.

It feels like the people of Israel and the people of Palestine have been sold, once again, to the higher powers that be. 

(Statement by Efrat Fenigson, former IDF intelligence,  October 7, 2023, emphasis added)

Ironically, the media (NBC) is now contending that the “Hamas attack bears hallmarks of Iranian involvement”

For details 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 14, 2024

Their concerns were ignored. At the time of the attack, the women issued urgent warnings to troops on the ground. They desperately called for help as more than 150 militants entered their base, about half a mile from Gaza. None came. The end result was the death of 15 female soldiers from this base and the transfer of seven to Gaza as hostages. From this and many other pieces of evidence, the “7 October” plan emerges: to make Israel appear surprised and thus forced to retaliate, to present as “defensive” the war of extermination with which Israel is destroying Gaza and the West Bank to wipe out the Palestinian state, with which it is attacking Lebanon, Yemen, Syria.

Indeed, Israel is the spearhead with which the United States and the European powers are trying to maintain their dominance by war in the Middle East, where they are losing ground.

The main target in their sights is Iran, which has become a strategic junction of the North-South transport corridor to India and beyond, with which Russia is thwarting the blockade imposed by NATO and the EU, and at the same time a strategic junction of the New Silk Road from China to Europe.

The consequences of attacking Iran, which Israel is preparing to do with the full military support of the USA and NATO, would be very serious. An attack on Iran’s oil installations would be the cause of a worldwide oil shock. Even more dangerous for the spread of radioactivity would be an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which are under UN control because Iran has joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, has not and is therefore out of control.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image: Photo released by the Israeli military from the events of October 7, 2023. (Photo: Israeli Defense Forces) 

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

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

PDF Edition:  $6.50 (sent directly to your email account!)

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

Reviews

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

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

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

“Há um ano, Grandangolo [Grande Angular] publicou a manchete ‘O 11 de setembro do Oriente Médio’, com base em uma série de fatos que comprovavam a existência de um plano semelhante ao que, em 11 de setembro de 2001, serviu para desencadear a ‘guerra global contra o terror’ que levou à invasão do Afeganistão e do Iraque pelos EUA e pela OTAN. O plano implementado pelo Hamas em 7 de outubro de 2023 era conhecido há um ano pelos líderes de Israel, que não foram pegos de surpresa pelo ataque, mas o facilitaram. Isso é confirmado pelos testemunhos, publicados nos últimos dias pelo Wall Street Journal, de jovens soldados israelenses designados para a vigilância da barreira eletrônica ao redor de Gaza. Durante meses”, relata o WSJ, ”elas avisaram repetidamente seus superiores que o grupo militante islâmico Hamas parecia estar preparando um grande ataque.

Suas preocupações foram ignoradas. No momento do ataque, as mulheres emitiram avisos urgentes para as tropas no local. Quando mais de 150 militantes invadiram sua base, a cerca de 800 metros de Gaza, elas começaram a pedir ajuda freneticamente. Ninguém veio. No final, 15 mulheres soldados dessa base foram mortas e sete foram levadas como reféns para Gaza.” A partir dessa e de várias outras evidências, surge o plano “7 de outubro”: fazer com que Israel pareça ter sido atacado de surpresa e, portanto, forçado a retaliar, fazendo passar como “defensiva” a guerra de extermínio com a qual Israel está destruindo Gaza e a Cisjordânia para acabar com o Estado palestino, com a qual está atacando o Líbano, o Iêmen e a Síria. Israel é, na verdade, a ponta de lança com a qual os Estados Unidos e as potências europeias estão tentando manter seu domínio no Oriente Médio, onde estão perdendo terreno, por meio da guerra.

O principal alvo na mira deles é o Irã, que se tornou um entroncamento estratégico do Corredor de Transporte Norte-Sul para a Índia e além, com o qual a Rússia está frustrando o bloqueio implementado pela OTAN e pela UE e, ao mesmo tempo, um entroncamento estratégico da Nova Rota da Seda da China para a Europa. As consequências do ataque ao Irã que Israel está preparando com o total apoio militar dos EUA e da OTAN seriam muito graves. Um ataque às instalações de petróleo do Irã causaria um choque global de petróleo. Ainda mais perigoso para a disseminação da radioatividade seria um ataque às instalações nucleares do Irã, que estão sob controle da ONU porque o Irã aderiu ao Tratado de Não Proliferação Nuclear, enquanto Israel, a única potência nuclear da região, não o fez e, portanto, está fora de controle.

Manlio Dinucci

Breve resumo da análise da imprensa internacional do Grandangolo na sexta-feira, 11 de Outubro de 2024, no canal de TV italiano Byoblu:

https://www.byoblu.com/2024/10/11/piano-7-ottobre-liran-nel-mirino-grandangolo-pangea/

Tradução : Mondialisation.ca 

VIDEO (em italiano) :

*

Manlio Dinucci é geógrafo e jornalista, e ex-diretor executivo italiano da International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, que recebeu o Prêmio Nobel da Paz em 1985. Porta-voz do Comitato no Guerra no Nato (Itália) e pesquisador associado do Centre de recherche sur la Mondialisation (Canadá). Vencedor do Prêmio Internacional de Jornalismo 2019 para Análise Geoestratégica do Club de Periodistas de México.

After Russia launched the special military operation (SMO) to end the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, it was common for Western politicians and public figures to met up with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev or for him to join video conferences and even travel to the countries of the political West. This was a way to “show support” for the latest “beacon of democracy” fighting the “evil Russian oppressors”.

The mainstream propaganda machine and the so-called “Big Tech” were also engaged in the lionization of Zelensky, with his war propaganda team determined to present him as if he were in the trenches, stopping Russian tanks with his bare hands (hence the fatigues he keeps wearing, but in reality, the Kiev regime frontman had other plans). However, this wasn’t enough, so Zelensky and his overlords needed to create the illusion that the Neo-Nazi junta has “universal support” from the so-called “international community”.

Thus, in the last two and a half years, he pitched a number of “peace” plans, formulas, platforms and whatnot.

Last year, the so-called Crimea Platform was all the rage, with the United States pressuring numerous countries to join this effectively void initiative. Then came the so-called “peace summits” in Switzerland, with Zelensky insisting everyone should come except the one country that actually matters – Russia. Supported by the US/EU/NATO, he kept pushing until many countries started signaling that such events are pointless and a waste of everyone’s time. By mid-July, the Kiev regime realized it would lose even the formal “support” that Washington DC and Brussels gathered through “diplomacy” (i.e. blackmail, coercion and arm-twisting). As the battlefield situation kept deteriorating, Zelensky suddenly became “open to the idea” of Russia attending the next “peace summit”.

However, Moscow barely held its laughter at the very idea of these ludicrous “peace deals” that essentially boil down to its capitulation at a time when the Neo-Nazi junta’s losses are around 10:1 (and that’s the conservative estimate). Not to mention the steady gains of its troops across the frontline, particularly in the Donbass, by far the most heavily contested region in the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict.

In order to shift attention away from its collapsing defenses, the Kiev regime even resorted to its most daring PR stunt yet – the Kursk oblast (region) incursion. Expectedly, this also turned out to be a disaster, with the political West itself frustrated by the way the Neo-Nazi junta forces keep wasting precious resources while their defenses in the Donbass failed to stop Russia’s advance. Zelensky’s PR team was now essentially out of new phrases/tropes and realized there won’t be any “peace summits” with Moscow.

Thus, the Kiev regime finally decided to recycle the old one – “winning the war”. All of a sudden, the word “peace” was replaced and now we got a “victory plan” once again. Obviously, such “grand schemes” require more money, so Zelensky traveled to the US and spent around a week there in late September, formally pitching the latest “victory plan” to the troubled Biden administration. Many pro-Trump Americans were frustrated by this and even argued that he was engaged in election meddling by visiting Pennsylvania, the top swing state. On September 26, Zelensky was in the White House, where Biden happily announced that the Neo-Nazi junta would immediately get $400 million, while the US pledged another $8 billion in so-called “aid”. Apparently, Zelensky was frustrated as Washington DC refused to allow the use of NATO-sourced long-range weapons, so he was given all those billions to “lighten up”.

However, the vaunted “victory plan” failed to impress anyone with two half-functioning brain cells (it’s yet to be publicly revealed, but we can already assume its (in)viability). Still, the PR segment of the Kiev regime’s strategy (by far the most important for Zelensky and his entourage) was still there. Now, remember those “peace summits”? Well, one was supposed to be held just before or around the time of the US presidential election. However, German state-run media reported that the event won’t take place.

According to dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany’s national press agency), the Presidential Office, headed by the infamous Andriy Yermak, which is responsible for preparing such gatherings, confirmed there won’t be a summit, neither this month nor the next. The German outlet’s report quotes an adviser to Yermak, who stated that the plan was simply “no longer feasible”.

“Initially, Ukraine had hoped for the second such conference to be held ahead of the November 5 election in the US, which could see the return of Republican Donald Trump to the White House, but an adviser to Yermak said on Tuesday that the plan was no longer feasible,” dpa outlined.

According to Zero Hedge, it was “tentatively scheduled for October 30 and October 31, or also possibly the start of November, but now the Ukraine presidency’s office has announced that ‘the question of a date for the second peace summit will be decided after the thematic conferences have been concluded,’ in reference to prior smaller conferences”. Other Neo-Nazi junta officials were more direct and bluntly stated that the vaunted “peace summit” was definitely canceled.

“The Second Peace Summit will not take place in November,” senior Ukrainian presidential aide Darya Zarivna separately confirmed.

The countries invited to the summit are certainly aware of its futility, as Russia wasn’t invited, just like in the case of all previous conferences. Perhaps Zelensky was trying to appease Biden, (in)famous for his tendency to interact with invisible (or perhaps “multidimensional”) entities, including by trying to shake hands with them.

However, while Biden’s behavior is largely inconsequential (unless we don’t count opinion polls, that is), it’s impossible to have any kind of “peace deals” with someone who’s just not there. Not to mention the fact that, as previously mentioned, the Kremlin has absolutely no reason to negotiate with the Kiev regime from a position of the losing side, as the latter insists. Quite the contrary, it’s Moscow that can dictate the terms, particularly as the Neo-Nazi junta already broke a signed peace deal back in March 2022. As a result, Russia has zero reasons to trust either NATO or its puppets.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Featured image is from the Public Domain

Below is an excerpt from an article on Le Parisien by Nicolas Berrod, Véronique Hunsinger and Elsa Mari:

“I can continue to do my job.” This is how Didier Raoult reacted to Le Parisien in December 2021, after the simple reprimand inflicted by the disciplinary chamber of the Order of Physicians . The controversial microbiologist will not be able to say the same this time. He is in fact prohibited from practicing medicine for two years from February 1, according to the decision taken on appeal by the national disciplinary chamber, which we reveal this Thursday.

The reprimand imposed at first instance was a sanction “too lenient in view of the failings found”, considered Dr Gilles Munier, representative of the Order of Physicians, during the appeal hearing held last June in Paris. Didier Raoult was himself physically present that day, with his lawyer Me Fabrice Di Vizio.

But what exactly is the former head of the IHU of Marseille accused of? Of having violated numerous articles of the public health code. And first of all, of having promoted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment against Covid… even though the scientific community did not recommend it, due to a lack of solid data.

“Wild” clinical trial

Thus, Didier Raoult “did not base his public positions on confirmed data, did not exercise caution and promoted an insufficiently tested treatment”, we read in the decision that we obtained.

On the other hand, he did not “put any unjustified risk” on the patients to whom he prescribed hydroxychloroquine because he “knowingly excluded from treatment those who presented the highest risk factors”, believes the president of the national disciplinary chamber.

Click here to read the full article in English posted on COVID Intel.

*

My Take… 

The persecutions from corrupt medical boards continue.

There is really only one logical reason why these medical boards are going insane on doctors who dissent:

they intend to force doctors to take new vaccines in the near future and need to ensure 100% compliance, as the doctors who stayed silent, will be expected to push new vaccines on all their patients.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

Featured image is from COVID Intel

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. 

“Un anno fa Grandangolo titolava “L’11 Settembre del Medioriente”, in base a una serie di fatti che dimostravano l’esistenza di un piano analogo a quello che, l’11 Settembre 2001, era servito a scatenare la “guerra globale al terrorismo” che aveva portato all’invasione dell’Afghanistan e dell’Iraq da parte degli Stati Uniti e della NATO. Il piano attuato da Hamas il 7 Ottobre 2023 era noto da un anno ai capi di Israele, che non sono stati colti di sorpresa dall’attacco ma lo hanno agevolato. Lo confermano le testimonianze, pubblicate in questi giorni dal Wall Street Journal, di giovani soldatesse israeliane addette alla sorveglianza della barriera elettronica attorno a Gaza. “Per mesi – riporta il WSJ – esse avevano avvertito i loro superiori ripetutamente che il gruppo militante islamico Hamas sembrava stesse preparando un grande attacco.

Le loro preoccupazioni erano state ignorate. Al momento dell’attacco le donne hanno lanciato avvertimenti urgenti alle truppe sul campo. Quando più di 150 militanti hanno invaso la loro base, a circa mezzo miglio da Gaza, hanno iniziato a chiamare freneticamente aiuto. Nessuno è arrivato. Alla fine, 15 soldatesse di questa base sono state uccise e 7 portate come ostaggi a Gaza.” Da queste e numerose altre prove emerge il Piano “7 Ottobre”: far apparire Israele come aggredito di sorpresa e quindi costretto a reagire, facendo passare come “difensiva” la guerra di sterminio con cui Israele sta distruggendo Gaza e Cisgiordania per cancellare lo Stato Palestinese, con cui sta attaccando il Libano, lo Yemen, la Siria. Israele è in realtà la punta di lancia con cui gli Stati Uniti e le potenze europee cercano di conservare con la guerra il predominio in Medioriente, dove stanno perdendo terreno.

Principale obiettivo nel loro mirino è l’Iran, divenuto snodo strategico del Corridoio di trasporto Nord-Sud fino in India e oltre, con cui la Russia sta vanificando il blocco attuato da NATO e UE, e allo stesso tempo snodo strategico della Nuova Via della Seta dalla Cina all’Europa. Le conseguenze dell’attacco all’Iran che Israele sta preparando col pieno sostegno militare di Stati Uniti e Nato sarebbero gravissime. Un attacco agli impianti petroliferi iraniani provocherebbe uno shock petrolifero globale. Ancora più pericoloso per la diffusione di radioattività sarebbe un attacco agli impianti nucleari iraniani, sotto controllo ONU perché l’Iran ha aderito al Trattato di non-proliferazione nucleare, mentre Israele, unica potenza nucleare della regione, non lo ha fatto ed è quindi fuori controllo.

Manlio Dinucci

VIDEO:

No começo de setembro, as grandes companhias siderúrgicas dos Estados Unidos exigiram de seu governo o retorno de tarifas antidumping sobre a importação de aço laminado plano resistente à corrosão do Brasil.

O governo americano revogou o direito antidumping (de sobretaxa das importações), no início do ano, sobre tubos soldados de aço do Brasil, que vigorava desde 1992.

Uma nova sobretaxa afetaria todos os exportadores brasileiros de aço galvanizado, uma vez que essa é uma das categorias primordiais de aço que nós exportamos e que os EUA são o nosso principal importador desse aço. O produto é usado no setor automotivo, da construção civil e de eletrodomésticos.

Os principais empresários do setor nos EUA citam, no documento entregue ao governo americano, as companhias brasileiras CSN, Usiminas, ArcelorMittal, Aço Cearense, Tuper Indústria Metalúrgica e Armco do Brasil (esta, subsidiária da matriz americana), além da Vale, que não fabrica aço desde 2022. Segundo o jornal O Estado de S. Paulo, a CSN seria a maior afetada, sendo a principal exportadora brasileira de aço galvanizado para os EUA.

No primeiro semestre deste ano, o Brasil exportou 135,6 mil toneladas desse tipo de aço para os EUA, um aumento de 17,7% em comparação ao mesmo período de 2023.

Além do Brasil, os conglomerados do aço estadunidense exigem medidas governamentais contra as importações provenientes do México, Canadá, Holanda, Turquia, África do Sul, Emirados Árabes, Vietnã, Taiwan e Austrália.

Mas os Estados Unidos já impõem sérias ações antidumping contra os produtos brasileiros, independentemente do resultado do pedido das siderúrgicas locais. De acordo com o Valor Econômico, em 2023 os EUA importaram cerca de US$ 233 milhões em produtos brasileiros sujeitos a essas medidas, sendo o país com mais medidas protecionistas contra o Brasil.

Do valor total de importações sujeitas a medidas antidumping e compensatórias, 71% são de produtos da indústria de transformação e 29% da agropecuária. A Fiesp avalia que 83% das exportações afetadas por essa política em 2023 estão concentradas nos produtos de fio máquina carbono e cercas ligadas de aço, mel natural e folhas de alumínio. O setor mais afetado é precisamente a siderurgia, seguida pelo de alumínio.

O caso das medidas antidumping contra o Brasil é apenas um exemplo da política cada vez mais protecionista adotada pelo governo Biden. A China tem sido, de longe, o país mais afetado, mas isso revela a pressão interna dos gigantescos conglomerados industriais dos Estados Unidos por uma mudança de política econômica diante do desastre neoliberal de proporções bíblicas que acometeu a maior parte da indústria americana nas últimas décadas. Donald Trump, que pode ser o próximo presidente, é conhecido justamente por defender uma prática comercial extremamente protecionista.

Aliás, Trump já havia imposto uma tarifa de 25% à importação do aço brasileiro, em 2018, acusando os nossos exportadores de serem uma “ameaça à segurança nacional dos EUA”. Na verdade, parece que a própria existência de alguns países ou empresas é uma “ameaça à segurança nacional”, na visão dos pobres americanos. Barack Obama utilizou essa mesma fraseologia como desculpa para impor as criminosas sanções econômicas contra a Venezuela, em 2015 – causa principal da crise que se abateu em seguida sobre o país caribenho. Na mesma época, os EUA roubaram (essa é a expressão mais exata para a ação dos EUA) a CITGO, subsidiária da PDVSA venezuelana na América do Norte.

Claro que os EUA sempre estão sendo ameaçados, coitadinhos. Eles, por outro lado, são santos que nunca ameaçam ninguém. Invadem países e fazem guerras para se protegerem, ainda que a “ameaça” seja um pequeno país do outro lado do mundo, como a Coreia, o Vietnã, a Palestina ou o Irã.

Os EUA organizaram e patrocinaram o golpe de Estado em 2016, que destruiu as maiores empresas nacionais em áreas chave como petróleo, gás, construção civil e alimentação e abriu o mercado brasileiro para o saque das empresas americanas, concorrentes das brasileiras. Talvez ele também tenha sido descrito em algum documento secreto a ser revelado algum dia como uma defesa contra a “ameaça à segurança nacional dos EUA”.

A destruição da indústria nacional, que hoje representa menos de 10% do nosso PIB (o índice mais baixo em quase 80 anos) proporcionada pela Operação Lava Jato, que tirou mais de R$ 172 bilhões em investimentos do nosso país, foi apenas um episódio corriqueiro, não é? Natural. Afinal, os Estados Unidos nos fazem de colônia há cem anos.

Washington também promoveu o golpe de 2016 para, além de eliminar a concorrência das empresas e produtos brasileiros, minar os seus rivais chineses, que vinham firmando importantíssimas parcerias comerciais com o Brasil, de benefício mútuo. Quem se lembra das pressões sufocantes e desleais para que o Brasil trocasse o 5G da Huawei pelas companhias dos EUA, pouco depois do golpe?

As grandes potências imperialistas sempre foram adeptas da mais profunda hipocrisia. O seu próprio crescimento industrial, que as fez grandes nações imperialistas, só foi possível por meio de intensa política protecionista, ao mesmo tempo em que abriam mercados pela força dos canhões, como na Guerra do Ópio contra a China, para escoar sua produção.

Tais medidas que estão sendo tomadas pelos EUA são extremamente prejudiciais ao Brasil. A guerra na Ucrânia havia feito com que a União Europeia aumentasse em 830% a importação do aço brasileiro. Em 2021, o Brasil representava apenas 2% das importações de aço da UE e em 2022 esse índice subiu para 15%. Agora, ainda segundo a Fiesp, a sobretaxa nas tarifas executada pelos EUA pode forçar a redução dos preços das exportações brasileiras.

Essa é a velha política imperialista, aproveitando-se de seu predomínio sobre o Brasil – graças à imposição a nós do “livre mercado”!

Mas o que fazer, já que os Estados Unidos são o principal importador de aço galvanizado do Brasil? Pois é, a situação de exploração é tal que a semicolônia não tem muito para onde fugir. Uma alternativa seria aprofundar as parcerias com outros países importadores.

Isso teria um importante peso geopolítico. Sete dos 10 países que mais importam esse tipo de aço do Brasil estão na América Latina e no Caribe e um outro (os Emirados Árabes) agora é membro dos BRICS.

Diante de mais uma expressão do jugo ao qual o Brasil está submetido pelos EUA, cabe ao país que pretende se libertar minimamente adotar uma postura soberana e procurar quem tenha interesse em fazer negócios conosco ao invés de nos subjugar. Ou seja, cabe buscar verdadeiros parceiros comerciais, cuja parceria contribua para o desenvolvimento da indústria nacional em vez de significar uma subordinação que causa mais danos do que benefícios.

Eduardo Vasco

The Preposterous Nature of “Reality”: Digital Madness, Spying on Americans, Massive Drug Use, “No Peace Movement as War Rages”. Edward Curtin

By Edward Curtin, October 11, 2024

Weirdness and Chaos are today’s celebrity couple, as people are subjected to, and subject themselves to, smoke and mirrors and mind control through an addiction to cell phones, the perfect propaganda tool. Just put your hand in your pocket wherever you are and “they” are with you, in your hand, in your head, your constant companion, corrupting your mind and soul.

Who Is in Charge of US Foreign Policy?

By Philip Giraldi, October 11, 2024

So what is the truth and what are the lies and who in Washington and/or Tel Aviv is calling the shots in the Middle East? And what do they really intend and how do they see it all ending?

Welcome to Tariff Land: The Retreat of Free Trade

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, October 11, 2024

Under the Biden administration, Trump’s tariff legacy remained in place, though some suspensions were made.  (These were subsequently reimposed.)  This enabled President Joe Biden to sharpen the focus on specific categories: electric vehicles (EVs), semiconductors, lithium ion batteries.   Tariffs on Chinese semiconductors spiked to 50%, while Chinese EVs received a bruising 100% increase.

15 Minutes with Dr. William Makis: Threats Against My Family by the College. Visit to Edmonton Police Service Today

By Dr. William Makis, October 11, 2024

We stand in solidarity with Dr. William Makis in his commitment to humanity. To his commitment to the Truth. Listen carefully to his testimony. The Covid 19 “Vaccine” from the very outset in January 2021 has been conducive to a Worldwide Upward Movement in Mortality.

North Korea Enhancing Strategic Arsenal, Building First Nuclear-powered Submarine, Allied with Russia

By Drago Bosnic, October 10, 2024

There aren’t many countries in the world that have been subjected to as much ridicule as North Korea. The mainstream propaganda machine regularly presents it as a supposedly “backward society”, particularly in terms of technological development. And yet, in reality, Pyongyang is ahead of the entire political West (the United States included) in critical technologies such as hypersonic weapons.

If Tehran Is Turned “Into a Parking Lot”, Israel Will be Soon to Follow

‘By Mike Whitney, October 10, 2024

For Israel to achieve its regional ambitions, it must lure the US into a war with Iran. In order to accomplish that feat, Israel must strike Iran with enough force to provoke a violent and destructive retaliation. As soon as it looks like Israel is in trouble, the US will ride to the rescue with “guns blazing”.

French Troops in Romania to Train for War with Russia. Is “the Troubled Macron Government Risking War with Russia”?

By Drago Bosnic, October 10, 2024

Namely, thousands of French soldiers will be deployed to Romania in May and train for a major war. According to Politico, 2025 will be “crucial for the French army, which has undergone a major transformation in recent years to prepare for a possible conflict with Russia”.

The Medical Council of New Zealand: Facade Crumbling. Reprisals Against Doctors, COVID Vaccine…

By Dr. Emanuel Garcia, October 10, 2024

For quite some time I have been writing and speaking about the witch hunts conducted by the Medical Council of New Zealand against good doctors who spoke out against their upending of foundational medical principles — principles such as informed consent, which they strongly promoted but hypocritically disavowed.

Free markets?  Free trade?  The modern economic world has little time for these erroneous, misdirected terms.  More evident are the feelings of resentment, prejudice and indignant parochialism more accurately called My Country First, and Everyone Else Last.  Back your industries; hobble the competitors.  And everyone is doing it, except certain ideologues who, childishly, cling to the view that there ever was such a thing as a true laissez-faire world.

Free trade remains, in general, a fantasy, dangerous for the naïve who feel that by embracing it, they are somehow enlarging their appeal and standing.  Often, countries extolling its value are only those desiring exclusive or privileged access to a market.  From 2016 onwards, the free traders have been pummeled.  With Donald Trump in the White House, America First meant imposing, among other things, tariffs of 25% on US$50 billion on Chinese goods under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.  More rises followed.

Under the Biden administration, Trump’s tariff legacy remained in place, though some suspensions were made.  (These were subsequently reimposed.)  This enabled President Joe Biden to sharpen the focus on specific categories: electric vehicles (EVs), semiconductors, lithium ion batteries.   Tariffs on Chinese semiconductors spiked to 50%, while Chinese EVs received a bruising 100% increase.

In April last year, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan delivered an address to the Brookings Institution tearing the free-market consensus to shreds with what he called the “new Washington consensus”.  China was the convenient excuse for doing so, a country that had subsidised “at a massive scale both traditional industrial sectors, like steel, as well as key industries in the future, like clean energy, digital infrastructure, and advanced biotechnologies.”  US competitiveness had, as a result, been eroded.

The response from foreign affairs pulpit huggers such as Walter Russell Mead was excoriating. Sullivan’s position represented a wish to “return to the system of relatively closed and highly regulated national economies that characterised the immediate post-Second World War era.”

Even those on the consultancy front are proclaiming the end of free trade. The Boston Consulting Group, for instance, declared in May that global free trade, an era “spanning the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, has ended, and a new geopolitical landscape has emerged: a multipolar world characterized by distinct economic and political blocs.”

Little wonder, then, that the stomp on a forced, generally fictional notion has also appealed to European Union officials who have now made their entry into the thorny undergrowth of Tariff Land.  On October 4, the European Union voted to place tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles after a yearlong investigation into the role played by Chinese subsidies and export dumping practices.  The vote was split: ten EU states agreed to the measure, while five voted against it, with twelve abstentions.

The European Commission had already imposed provisional duties in July.  The move prompted China to file a request with the World Trade Organisation in August requesting consultations with the EU over alleged protectionist measures arising out of the provisional countervailing duties on EVs.

This has left the European Union in an interesting situation.  For one, they are not exactly unflinching on the exercise.  The Commission has more than hinted that a negotiated settlement is tenable.  Were Chinese EV companies to propose an acceptable minimal minimum price for their vehicles, the tariffs would be lifted.

The reasoning on that score is clear enough: the EU has, ideologically and foolishly, imperilled itself to a free trade agenda that has enabled Beijing to make considerable inroads into the European market regarding EV technology.  While the United States huffs and struts in imposing 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs, such a policy can be pursued with assurance.  The US market was only ever going to suffer negligible losses, there being negligible Chinese EV imports to begin with.  For the European Union, up to 25% of all EVs sold this year will have a Chinese origin.

It is little wonder that there is no true European consensus on how to euthanize the free trade patient.  Germany, as one of the countries voting against the imposition of tariffs (a third of new German cars are sold annually in China), failed to exert sufficient influence on the final vote, hardly surprising given disagreements within its own political ranks. “Germany and European industry can no longer convince the Commission to be reasonable,” lamented Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.  “But then again, who can?”

How different it was from 2013, when the country, under the stewardship of Angela Merkel, convinced then European Commission president José Manuel Barroso that China should be exempt from tariffs in favour of a minimum price threshold.

If nothing else, the values of Tariff Land are revealing.  The decarbonising program seen as essential to stay a rise in global temperatures has balkanised.  Disputing trade officials, not technological innovators or scientists, dominate the discussions.  The US government is even chewing over banning the use of Chinese technology in autonomous and connected cars, showing how far this will go.

Joseph Webster, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, expresses the sentiment.  “The EU – as well as other US allies, especially Australia – do not appear to be grappling with the real and uncomfortable tensions between decarbonization objectives on the one hand, and the security risks Chinese-linked connected vehicles pose on the other.”  Yet again, the free trade globalists have been shown up, leaving way for the chest beating patriots to take centre stage over the corpse of an idea.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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]

Below is an article by Simon Hradecky from The Aviation Herald:

An Edelweiss Airbus A340-300, registration HB-JMF performing flight WK-5 from Tampa,FL (USA) to Zurich (Switzerland), was on approach to Zurich when the crew declared emergency reporting pilot incapacitation. The aircraft landed safely on Zurich’s runway 14 and taxied to the apron.

The airline reported one of the three pilots on board suffered a medical condition about 90 minutes prior to landing. The other two pilots performed the landing in Zurich.

*

Pilot incapacitations inflight in 2024 (seven so far): 

Jul. 22, 2024 – Edelweiss Flight WK-5 (TPA-ZRH) from Tampa, FL, USA to Zurich, Switzerland, pilot suffered a medical condition and was incapacitated

Jun. 12, 2024 – Nesma Airlines Flight NE-130 (CAI-TIF) Cairo, Egypt to Taif (Saudi Arabia) – pilot Captain Hassan Youssef Adas in his late 30s collapsed and died from a presumed heart attack

Jun. 4, 2024 – Aeromexico Flight AM-34 (MTY-MAD) from Monterrey (Mexico ) to Madrid (Spain), first officer became unwell, had a medical problem, flight diverted to Mexico City.

Mar. 14, 2024 – British Airways BA-2272 (JFK-LGW) New York to London-Gatwickone of the pilots became incapacitated, plane forced to divert to St.John’s, NL, Canada.

Feb. 17, 2024 – Lufthansa Flight LH-1140 (FRA-SVQ) Frankfurt to Seville on Feb.17, 2024 – First Officer Incapacitated, plane turned around back to Madrid

Feb. 16, 2024 – DELTA – NYC – 58 year old Capt Geoffrey John Brock died unexpectedly on Feb.16, 2024 during a layover in Honolulu, HI

Jan. 16, 2024 – LATAM Brasil Flight LA-3744 (BSB-JPA) Brasilia to Joao Pessoa on Jan.16, 2024 – Pilot Incapacitated, plane diverted to Salvador for safe landing

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

Featured image is from COVID Intel

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. 

It’s important for the public to be more aware of this since it helps explain Russian and Israeli policies towards one another in the context of the Ukrainian Conflict and the regional Israeli-Resistance War.

There’s been grassroots pressure on Turkiye to cut off Azerbaijan’s oil exports to Israel via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline ever since what can now be described as the regional Israeli-Resistance War broke out one year ago. Activists believe that this trade literally fuels Israel’s war machine and thus makes all the involved parties indirectly complicit in its alleged war crimes. Regardless of whatever one thinks about this claim, what’s interesting is that there’s no such pressure upon Russia.

The Guardian cited a report from the UK-based Data Desk, which is a tech consultancy firm investigating the fossil fuel industry, to make the following claims in March:

“The data also suggests that at least 600kt of Kazakh/Russian crude oil has been sent to Israel via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline since October 2023. CPC oil is a blend from major offshore oil fields in the Caspian Sea, as well as smaller onshore fields in southern Russia.

Chevron has the largest stake among international oil majors in the CPC, followed by ExxonMobil and Shell. These fossil fuel companies also partly own the oilfields feeding the pipeline. The majority of the CPC supply is produced in Kazakhstan and has not been sanctioned, unlike Russia’s crude.

Russia appears to have also continued regular shipments of vacuum gas oil (VGO), a low-grade fuel oil mostly upgraded into jet fuel and diesel via hydrocracking. Russian VGO is shipped from ports in the Black Sea.

The data also suggests that four shipments carrying more than 120kt of VGO departed Russia for Israel after the ICJ ordered Israel to take all possible measures to prevent genocide. The flow of Russian VGO has been severely affected by a European Union ban that came into force in February 2023.”

They then followed up on this in August when citing a report from the non-profit Oil Change International, which was exclusively shared with The Guardian, to share the following two graphs:

.

.

As can clearly be seen, Russia sells processed oil products to Israel and facilitates Kazakh oil exports to it through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, yet few paid much attention to The Guardian’s reports. The reason is because the Mainstream Media (MSM) considers Israel to be the ultimate good and Russia to be the ultimate bad while the Alt-Media Community (AMC) reverses their roles. Neither therefore wants to talk too much about their continued energy ties since it goes against their respective narratives.

Nevertheless, it’s important for the public to be more aware of this since it helps explain Russian and Israeli policies towards one another, which are often mis-portrayed by those two media camps. Israel hasn’t sanctioned Russia for its special operation nor has it armed Ukraine, while Russia hasn’t sanctioned Israel for its campaigns in Gaza and now Lebanon nor has it even symbolically designated it as an “unfriendly country”. These policies respectively upset the MSM and the AMC.

Israel’s can be explained by its reluctance to anger Russia and thus risk creating difficulties for its air force in Syria, which has been allowed to bomb Resistance targets there without direct or indirect interference from Russia (such as electronic jamming or letting Syria use the S-300s) for years already. Likewise, Russia’s can be explained by its reluctance to anger Israel and thus risk it passing along high-tech military equipment (including defensive systems) to Ukraine, which Israel hasn’t yet done.

Having clarified that, it can also no longer be denied that their mutual energy interests play a role in their calculations as well, especially given the present importance of this cooperation for both of them. Israel requires reliable imports of processed oil products and crude given the Houthis’ blockade of the Red Sea, while Russia requires reliable budgetary revenue from resource sales given the Western sanctions. Neither Israel’s US partner nor Russia’s Resistance ones could stop them from cooperating in this way.

Moreover, even in the event that Israel decided to sanction Russia and arm Ukraine, it’s very unlikely that Russia would cut Israel off from its processed oil products and Kazakhstan’s crude. To this day, Russia still supplies energy to the EU in spite of that bloc sanctioning it and arming Ukraine, all because it wants to present itself as a reliable partner in the eyes of the world and also because it require the budgetary revenue. The precedent therefore exists for continuing this trade with Israel in a similar such scenario.  

Russia believes that the energy trade should never be politicized, and it’s spoken out against Western pressure on China and India for their large-scale purchase of its oil since 2022. The West claims that those two are financially fueling Russia’s war machine and are thus indirectly complicit in its alleged war crimes, which is similar to what activists claim about Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye, who they accuse of literally fueling Israel’s war machine and thus being indirectly complicit in its alleged war crimes too.

Accordingly, seeing as how Russia rejects Western claims of China and India being indirectly complicit in its alleged war crimes (which it always denies have taken place) just for purchasing its oil, it would also reject activists’ similar such claims against itself for literally fueling Israel’s war machine. The takeaway is that Russia will remain impervious to any such pressure upon it to cut Israel off from its processed oil products and Kazakhstan’s crude, whether this comes from activists, the West, or the Resistance.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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: Russian president Vladimir Putin and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016. The two long-serving leaders have had a close relationship. (Licensed under CC BY 3.0)

After decades of oblivion by the NATO that continues the Cold War mentality, the military bloc is trying to resume its investments in military equipment after the outbreak of the proxy war in Ukraine. According to Bloomberg, Poland and Estonia lead the way in alliance purchases. Slovakia’s president heralded an “emotional moment” when the first newly acquired F-16 fighter jets landed in his country in July, and Bucharest celebrated that US F-35s are being “built for Romania.”

Together, 14 member states have increased defence spending since the start of the Ukrainian conflict to the equivalent of $70 billion this year alone. However, the orders for fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, and missile systems have exposed how much more needs to be done to reach NATO standards at what international observers say is the most dangerous time since the Cold War.

Image: General Daniel Zmeko (Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

“After doing almost nothing in this area for 20 years, it’s basically a jump from first or second-generation machines straight to fourth or fifth generation,” said General Daniel Zmeko, chief of staff for Slovakia’s armed forces. “It’s like going from a 386 processor computer to today’s most advanced multi-core network solutions.”

NATO’s eastern flank was initially spurred by increased military spending during the 2014 Crimean crisis. Estonia, for example, has spent more in the past 18 months than it has in the past 30 years, according to the head of the Baltic nation’s defence procurement agency, Magnus-Valdemar Saar.

Some critics say it’s a sign that Eastern European countries are starting to do what they should have done when they joined the alliance in 1999. According to estimates from the military alliance, Eastern European nations currently account for five of the top seven NATO defence spenders as a percentage of Gross Domestic Production this year, with Poland at No. 1, exceeding 4% of GDP.

Among the military equipment orders are dozens of fighter jets, more than 1,300 tanks from South Korea and the United States, and 100 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters from Boeing Co., which, at $1 billion, is Poland’s largest acquisition ever. In August, the government signed a $1.2 billion deal with Raytheon Technologies Corp. to produce components for Patriot air defence batteries.

According to military authorities interviewed by the media, the investment is not limited to acquiring equipment but also to new storage facilities, personnel training and expansion, and integration between partners.

Poland, for example, has pledged to more than double the number of professional soldiers to 250,000 by 2035. The military has added about 20,000, bringing the total to 134,000 by the end of 2023. In places like Romania, there is pressure to raise starting salaries from about €500 ($650) a month now to attract young soldiers.

“It’s tough to teach a 40- or 45-year-old how to use these new systems,” Zmeko said. “Ideally, you find an 18-year-old who’s already spent hundreds or even thousands of hours using computers.”

When quizzed whether Europe also has the opportunity to scale up its own arms production, the Slovak said:

“The real question is whether Europe has the will to do it. Will it be willing to tighten its belt and tell its citizens that, for the next few years, or even a decade, the standard of living might not improve because we need to prioritise our security?”

It is recalled that a record 23 of NATO’s 32 member nations reached the Western military alliance’s defence spending target in 2023. The estimated figure represents an almost fourfold increase from 2021 when only six member states achieved the target. 

NATO members agreed last year to allocate at least 2% of their GDP to defence, with the surge in spending reflecting concerns about the war in Ukraine. Defence spending across European allies and Canada was up nearly 18% this year alone, the biggest increase in decades, according to NATO’s estimated figures released on June 17.

Many member countries, Poland and Estonia, fear the possible reelection of former President Donald Trump, who has expressed scepticism about the Atlantic Alliance. Trump has previously characterised many NATO allies as freeloading on US military spending and has stated on the campaign trail that he would not defend NATO members failing to meet defence spending targets.

This contributes to another reason why countries bordering or in proximity to Russia are leading defence spenders as a percentage of GDP, as there is a real possibility that Trump could return to the White House.

At the same time, Poland and the Baltic countries have delusional beliefs that they can challenge Russia’s military power and have NATO backing if they cause any deterioration in relations with Moscow. This is frustrating for these states because the Kremlin has expressed numerous times that Russia wants cordial relations with its neighbours and is not interested in being bogged down in reacting to NATO provocations.

For this reason, Poland and the Baltic states want to militarise further in the vain hope of having dogged defences if they are the cause of military confrontation with Russia, which does not fall under the Article 5 collective defence article.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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 is from Al Mayadeen English

It is not uncommon to be doing something seemingly innocuous when one is flooded with wild thoughts, musings that seem randomly meaningless, leading nowhere. Thoughts that think us. To dismiss them, however, is a mistake. For me, these unbidden guests usually visit me when I am out walking or lying in bed right before sleep.

Recently, as I was again walking across the meandering Housatonic River through the covered wooden bridge in Sheffield, Massachusetts, I found myself waylaid by the thought of the word “preposterous,” which is usually understood to mean absurd, very silly, or foolish. Being happily eccentric and language obsessed, I thought of its etymology, which from the Latin means before-behind or before-after, which makes preposterous an absurd, nonsense word itself, which seemed appropriate to thoughts that were approaching me from the other side as I walked ass-backwards (my behind behind me) toward them. I wanted to see ahead to make sure I wasn’t bushwacked by something more absurd than a word.

For when I exited the bridge, I passed a plaque commemorating a reported UFO sighting by 40 people and an alleged abduction on September 1, 1969 by Thomas Reed, who claims that when he was nine years-old he and his family were taken briefly aboard a disk-shaped flying UFO as they were driving down the dirt road between the corn fields and the marshes that I was approaching. While this strange, fascinating story is not the focus of my reflections, if it interests you, you can read about it here.

I mention it because of what the plaque evoked in me and the seemingly preposterous nature of Reed’s claim and the weirdness of those of the many people who said they saw the same UFO. I am not passing judgment on them, for I believe those 40 people saw something, but what they saw I do not know. I must admit I am glad I was not beamed up on my recent walk, for I wasn’t dressed appropriately for such an encounter.

What intrigues me about their stories is that they happened at a time very similar to today when the world seemed to be spinning out of control.

ImageL Richard Nixon celebrates his victory in the 1968 election. Was he helped by the CIA? [Source: theconversation.com]

In 1969, secular black magic was in the air as the U.S. war against Vietnam raged on, led by the “peace candidate” in the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon.

There was the counterculture’s wide use of drugs (the CIA”s introduction of LSD, etc.), its turn to eastern religions and New Age esoterica, and the crisis of traditional religion as pagan practices were revived.

There was the murder of Sharon Tate and others by Charles Manson’s gang (deeply involved with satanism, Nazism, and occultism) in early August that was shortly followed by the Woodstock music mud festival, with both preceded by Apollo 11 to be followed by Seymour Hersh’s revelations about the My Lai massacre.

Throughout the year, and those preceding and following, the FBI’s COINTELPRO, the CIA’s operations CHAOS and MKULTRA were in full force, spying on Americans, creating chaos and mayhem in minds and on the streets, a part of a vast effort at political mind control and disassociation of the personality through the most evil means.

And “ironically,” in December 1969, the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book – its decades long investigation of UFOs – was officially ended with the conclusion that there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as “unidentified” were extraterrestrial vehicles or were in any way beyond the range of modern technological science.

In October, as in before-after, the U.S. Department of Defense’s ARPANET program – Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (now DARPA) – the predecessor of the Internet, made it its first communication between two computers.

Then, as if to culminate a decade of assassinations and absurdity, despite a very vocal peace movement, in December, the Altamont music festival was riven by murder and mayhem, as if to imply, contrary to Don McLean’s 1971 “American Pie,” that this was the day the music died.

The list goes on and on. Let’s just say the times were psychedelic, as if society were on a non-stop bad acid trip and the CIA’s takeover of the country was nearly complete.

Jump ahead a half-century to today.

Now we have the long-planned Internet – ARPANET’s and the Pentagon’s baby –and digital madness with conflicting narratives that are akin to acid-trips. Mental dissociation at its finest.

Nixon is long gone but his successors have carried on his ruthless Vietnam war policies in grand traditional style with the U.S forever wars (El Salvador, Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc.), with war against Russia via Ukraine, its backing of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians and aggressive war against its neighbors, the push for war with China – all leading to the greatest chance of nuclear war since 1962.

The renewed media reports about UFOs (now called “unidentified anomalous phenomena”) and the Pentagon’s denials are kept alive by technologues like Elon Musk in his recent jocular exchange with Tucker Carlson. You know, there are a lot of satellites up there but let’s not discuss Pentagon mind control.

We have Artificial Intelligence (AI) and massive drug use far exceeding that of the 1960s that is officially promoted, as reality evaporates before and behind more and more people’s eyes.

For the massive growth of mental problems, LSD, that old bad-ass standby, is now advocated by the mainstream media as excellent therapy, while the weaponization of disease with Covid propaganda spins along as the world awaits the promulgation of the falling leaf virus and the call to cut down all trees.

Spying on Americans and censorship of free speech is the rule of the day, far deeper and wider than the most inflamed imagination could conjure.

There is an electoral system in shambles that has become a running joke, at least for those who get it.

MKULTRA mind control on a vast scale flourishes, despite all the denials, via the Internet and digital devices meant to confuse, promote doubt, and crazy speculation.

There is the leitmotif that has persisted for 60 years, the continued decline and mockery of traditional religious beliefs together with the promotion of New Age “spirituality” tied to consumerism. Shopping being the real religion now.

And lest I forget, we have the media and educational promotion of sexual and identity confusion under the guise of new definitions, such as the meaning of the word “gender.”

Finally, there is no mass peace movement as wars rage, except for those college students protesting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and a few scattered groups.

You can easily fill in what I have omitted because there is no doubt you feel this disturbing “reality” of living in a society of screen spectacles and scrambled brains.

In other words, social madness, the “after” to  1969’s “before” – absurdity repeating itself, is the rule of the day, or more accurately, has been continuing for the past 55 years.

A preposterous scene.

Weirdness and Chaos are today’s celebrity couple, as people are subjected to, and subject themselves to, smoke and mirrors and mind control through an addiction to cell phones, the perfect propaganda tool. Just put your hand in your pocket wherever you are and “they” are with you, in your hand, in your head, your constant companion, corrupting your mind and soul.

All this juxtaposed history did not occur to me in specifics as I walked down the beautiful dirt road past the UFO plaque; it came to me in more general terms. But in a flash. The particulars here recounted come from my having lived through the 1960s and my knowledge of history, the teaching of which has fallen into desuetude as universities have, in the words of the recently retired Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi,

“For some time now, I have been both disgusted and horrified by the way higher education has developed into a cash register – essentially a money-making, MBA, lawyer-run, hedge fund-cum-real estate operation, with a minor sideline in education, where money has determined everything, where respect for pedagogy is at a minimum.”

In his book, Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World, Jonathan Crary, sums it up nicely:

“One of the foremost achievements of the so-called knowledge economy is the mass production of ignorance, stupidity, and hatefulness. . . . programmed unintelligibility and duplicity.”

A close relative of mine, a brilliant man, highly skeptical, scientifically inclined, and very logical, a guy who scoffs at wild claims that he subjects to careful analyzes, was recently on a flight into LAX airport. He had a window seat, and as the plane was on its long descent, the plane at approximately 15,000 feet, he saw a quivering disk-shaped object about 150 feet beyond the plane’s wing. Startled beyond belief, he regretted not taking a photo of it before it was gone. As soon as he landed, however, he asked the pilot if he had seen it. The pilot said no, but it was probably a drone, which would make it a very high-flying drone indeed. My relative called me immediately to tell me. He said it was the size of a small car and it quivered like a quarter when dropped on a countertop. He said it looked like no drone he had ever seen, and though amazed, characteristically concluded that he didn’t know what it was.

I mention this because such sightings are not just the wild imaginings of people prone to believe anything. They are part of our current “reality,” seen by many people but shrouded in mystery.  Government authorities dismiss these sightings as figments of people’s imagination or weather balloons, drones, etc. Any evidence to the contrary is dismissed, like so much else, as the conspiracy thinking of nutty people. In other words – preposterous, meaning absurd.  This is part of the game of mind control that has been going on for decades, the effort to create social neurosis and confusion throughout society.

I offer these thoughts because I was waylaid by a word – preposterous – that went to my head. If I have not kept to the subject, whatever it might be or whatever you expected, it is because, as the psychologist Adam Philips puts it, “In this picture digression is secular revelation, keeping to the subject is the best way we have of keeping off the subject.” And so I will end with a few words from the great mystical and political poet, Czeslaw Milosz, a former Polish diplomat, who raises a question that cuts to the heart of our current dilemma.

Most people are ashamed, Milosz has written, to ask themselves certain questions that the seething infinity of modern relativity has bequeathed us. Such relativity is at the heart of our modern spiritual crisis, which is also the political one. Space and time have lost all dimensions; the experience of the collapse of hierarchical space and time is widespread. For those who still call themselves religious believers, “when they fold their hands and lift up their eyes, ‘up’ no longer exists,” Milosz rightly says. The map and the territory are one as all metaphysics are almost lost. And with its loss go our ability to see the advancing banner of the king of hell, to grasp the nature of the battle for the soul of the world that is now underway. Or if you prefer, the struggle for political control.

What is before is behind or what is before is after. It is preposterous but it is true.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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).  

Featured image: Flying saucer from the National Archives and Records Administration (From the Public Domain)

A United Nations inquiry said on Thursday it found that Israel carried out a concerted policy of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system in the Gaza war, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.

A statement by former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that accompanied the report accused Israel of “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities” in the war, triggered by Hamas militants’ deadly cross-border attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system,” said Pillay, whose 24-page report covering the first 10 months of the war will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 30.

Israel’s prime minister’s office and its foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Israel says that Gaza’s militants operate from the cover of built-up populated areas including private homes, schools and hospitals and that it will strike them wherever they emerge, while also trying to avoid harming civilians. Hamas denies hiding militants, weapons and command posts among civilians.

Click here to read the full article on Reuters.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Emma Farge reports on the U.N. beat and Swiss news from Geneva since 2019. She has produced a string of exclusives on diplomacy, the environment and global trade and covered Switzerland’s first war crimes trial. Her Reuters career started in 2009 covering oil swaps from London and she has since written about the West African Ebola outbreak, embedded with U.N. troops in north Mali and was the first reporter to enter deposed Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh’s estate. She co-authored a winning story for the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize on Russia’s diplomatic isolation in 2022 and was also part of a team of journalists nominated in 2012 as Pulitzer finalists in the international reporting category for coverage of the Libyan revolution. She holds a BA from Oxford University (First) and an MSc from the LSE in International Relations. She is currently on the board of the press association for UN correspondents in Geneva (ACANU).

Featured image: Some of the wounded at al-Shifa hospital (Gaza Health Ministry)

It probably would surprise no one to learn that there are several viewpoints among critics of the current wars devastating the Middle East regarding who is actually encouraging a growing bloody conflict which might soon involve at least six countries in the region. In simple terms, there is a school of thought that believes that Israel, backed by its various powerful diaspora lobbies, is defying world opinion to continue its slaughter of its indigenous Palestinians and neighboring Lebanese. In other words, it is all about Israel acting maliciously and badly.

However, another viewpoint sees instead a neocon-dominated United States foreign policy exploiting Israeli truculence and its hard right-wing leadership to carry out American national objectives in the region, in a sense using Israel as its proxy and actually encouraging its bad behavior. Meanwhile, a third plausible examination of developments tends to meld the two approaches, suggesting that the US and Israel are in a conspiratorial cooperative relationship and are in full agreement regarding reducing the power of the Jewish state’s neighbors. That would make Israel the preeminent military power dominating the Persia Gulf and beyond to control a large chunk of the world’s energy resources while also benefiting American weapons manufacturers and other political and Wall Street constituencies.

The problem is that there is sufficient carefully selected evidence to support every point of view including an alternative suggestion that American foreign policy is broken, adrift and does not reflect any US national interest at all, witness the recent $8.7 billion aid package sent to a belligerent Israel when Americans were dying in North Carolina in the wake of a devastating hurricane for which FEMA only provided meager assistance because it claimed it had run out of money. The steady flow of money and weapons from the US to Israel suggests that the United States is for some reason supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expansion of the war against Hamas when the White House could have ended the war in a day by cutting off that support. Alternatively, Israel might be seen as continuing its slaughter in spite of perhaps insincere US objections because it presumes that its powerful Lobby in the US will keep Joe Biden in line with an election coming up lest it weigh in heavily to help Donald Trump. And, of course, if the two nations are acting in collusion it could all be Kabuki with Washington and Tel Aviv cynically intending to do whatever it takes reshape the Middle East to Israel’s benefit. Take your choice of which scenario fits best.

One needs to determine what actually justifies the reality of a multiplicity of fronts, to include providing political cover in the UN, where the United States is interacting to support “greatest ally and best friend” Israel while at the same time constantly verbalizing the apparently false claim that it is trying to avoid the conflict’s expanding into a major conflagration that could engulf the entire region and beyond, driving up energy costs dramatically just for starters. Such a managed co-escalation might also increase the risks and costs geometrically as more players get involved, up to and including the possibility that Israel will opt to use its nuclear weapons to “defend” itself or to attack Iran, which is where both Russia and the United States might become involved in a nuclear exchange to defend their respective “friends.”

So what is the truth and what are the lies and who in Washington and/or Tel Aviv is calling the shots in the Middle East? And what do they really intend and how do they see it all ending?

There are four obvious US government players who are on the ground and meeting with the key figures in the nations involved in the fighting as well as with those ostensibly engaged in the what are being called negotiations to put an end to the killing with a ceasefire acceptable to all parties. One must concede that their task is a difficult one at best as all parties to the peace talks recognize that the United States is not an unbiased intermediary given its total commitment to support Israel politically as well as with arms and money while freely labeling the Jewish state’s neighbors and opponents alike as “terrorists” and “autocrats.”

The four would be composed of two obvious officials Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken while a third and fourth are not-so-well-known, consisting of special negotiator for the president Amos Hochstein and the White House Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk. Both Burns and Blinken have made numerous trips to the Middle East and Ukraine to convey the views of the president and make their own assessments of the situation on the ground after meeting with local officials.

Image is from The Unz Review

The role is rather unusual for Burns as a CIA Director normally operates behind the scenes and does not get involved in policy making, but Burns is not a typical director in that he has no background in intelligence. He was a highly regarded State Department officer who wound up as the US Ambassador to Russia. He very carefully worked through the nuances of the US-Russian relationship and was highly praised for explaining things from the Kremlin perspective so US planners would be able to understand very clearly the differing perspectives of the two nations. He described, for example, how very sensitive Russia was over the issue of Ukraine becoming part of NATO, a warning which was subsequently ignored by President Biden.

Image is from the Public Domain

Blinken is, of course, better known as he served as Deputy Secretary of State during the Barack Obama administration and is regarded as a particularly close associate of Joe Biden. As Secretary of State he has been a very active traveler throughout both the Middle East and Ukraine. Blinken is Jewish and is regarded as a protector of Israel, which is, of course, also the President’s frequently enunciated view. After the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah he said that the “World is safer without Nasrallah…” whereas most of the world would quite reasonably prefer to see Benjamin Netanyahu removed. Blinken also appears to favor preemptively attacking Iran to eliminate its nuclear energy program even though there is no evidence that it is weapons-development related. He has recently come under pressure for lying about two State Department reports that indicated very clearly that Israel has been deliberately starving and killing the Gazans by blocking US supplied food and medicine supplies at the border. One large convoy of trucks containing enough food to feed most of the local people who were in danger of dying from starvation was deliberately held up at the border until the food became rotten and had to be destroyed. Blinken lied both to Congress and to the American people about the Israeli policy, saying that blocking food supplies by Israel was not taking place. It was a consequential lie as people died and are continuing to die because of it and Blinken has paid no price for what must surely be considered a major war crime.

Image is from the Public Domain

The third policy planner is an unusual individual Amos Hochstein, who was born in Israel and served in the Israeli Army. He has been designated as Biden’s personal roving ambassador in the Middle East with a particular brief to work to avoid the expansion of the Gaza fighting into Lebanon against Hezbollah. In that effort, he has obviously failed as both Israel and Lebanon now consider themselves to be at war. It is presumed that Hochstein is the “active arm” in the White House campaign to shield Israel from any harm initiated by its much abused neighbors. Why anyone would select an Israeli who is a product of the Israeli Army as a negotiator of some type among the nations that the Israelis have been victimizing for the past seventy-five years has to be considered an enduring mystery. It is perhaps another gimmick move by Biden to pretend that he is neutral in the conflict while doing everything he can to turn Netanyahu free to destroy or subject all his neighbors.

Image is from the Public Domain

Which brings us to the fourth likely top planner National Security Council Coordinator for Africa and the Middle East Brett McGurk. McGurk has been a bipartisan fixture floating around the national security and diplomatic communities for a number of years with the reputation of being a “hardliner” particularly when dealing with Arabs, which is not to say that he has learned anything beyond the fact that if one wants to survive in Washington it pays to love Israel. It is interesting to note that the Biden Administration claims that it is working hard to achieve a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza but it continues to cover for Israel politically and provide it with the weapons and money to continue it genocidal activities as well as in support of its plan to occupy southern Lebanon to create a “buffer zone.” Israeli media is already reporting that real estate agents are offering attractive properties for Jewish buyers in what is still Lebanon, just as Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has been peddling exclusive sea front lots in Gaza. In other words, don’t believe anything coming out of the Biden Administration as evidence for anything as it appears that its “policy makers” and press spokesmen have acquired the Israeli tendency to lie about everything.

Politico has a recent piece on both Hochstein and McGurk and it does not make one feel warm and fuzzy about what the Biden administration is up to. The article is entitled: “US officials quietly backed Israel’s military push against Hezbollah -The officials urged caution and stressed the need for diplomacy. But the timing was right for such a military shift, they concluded”. It seems that the guys who are promoted by the Biden administration as peacemakers are anything but. Politico obtained insider information from a number of anonymous sources in both Washington and Israel and learned that Biden’s team has actually agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad strategy to shift Israel’s military focus to the north against Hezbollah. This tilt, contrary to what the White House has been preaching, produced a reaction from a number of Pentagon, intelligence and State Department officials that such a move would drag the United States into the war, which is really what Netanyahu intended, but the shift in policy was approved anyway. One senior US official noted but dismissed the flaw in a policy of calling for peace while encouraging war as “Both things can be true — the US can want diplomacy and support Israel’s larger goals against Hezbollah. There’s clearly a line that the administration is toeing, it’s just not clear what that line is.”

In spite of concerns from some in the government that a reckless Israel will go too far and ignite a major regional war that could easily spread beyond the Middle East, Politico reports how Hochstein and McGurk worked “behind the scenes” to encourage Israel and they are now describing Israel’s Lebanon operations likely to include a major land invasion as a “history-defining moment” — one that will “reshape the Middle East for the better for years to come.” That would seem to confirm that the United States and Israel are in fact collaborating and the US is fully complicit and de facto supporting the genocidal intention of Netanyahu to make a new Greater Israel largely free of Arabs. For the US, the extra benefit gained from defeating Hezbollah will be that it ultimately weakens Iran, neocon Washington’s perpetual arch enemy, which relies on Hezbollah as a proxy and a resource for projecting power. Of course, it could all go the other way and the joint American-Israeli plan could come to naught. Hezbollah notably routed invading Israeli forces in south Lebanon back in 2006 and it is better trained and equipped now than it was then. And what happens if Israeli army is in trouble and the US is forced to act on its pledge to “defend” the Jewish state, thereby leading a small war to expand and include Iran and Russia? The ball will be in your court Mr. Biden, or possibly Mr. Trump or Ms. Harris. Consider carefully how you will play it but if you really do want a ceasefire, I wouldn’t send Blinken, Hochstein and McGurk around to do the negotiating.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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: The Israeli and American flags displayed on the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem (Photo: Yonatan Sindel)

Israel commands the world’s attention now, as it issues threats about a planned attack on Iran in retaliation of an Iranian attack of Israel, which was a retaliation to the Israeli assassination of Hassan Nasrallah and others.

The tit-for-tat strikes now run the risk of Israel hitting Iranian nuclear and oil facilities.

Should that happen, would Iran strike back and hit the Israeli nuclear arsenal at Dimona?

Would Iran shut the strait of Hormuz, effectively shutting off 25% of the world’s tanker-shipped crude oil?

With China buying 90% of the Iranian crude oil, would an attack bring China into a world war with Israel and the US?

Oil prices spiked recently after US President Joe Biden said he was discussing the possible Israeli attack on Iran’s oil industry. Analysts fear the price of a barrel of oil could hit $300 if Israel, backed by the US militarily, were to strike. Europeans and Americans would feel the effect of a conflict in West Asia in which diplomacy and compromise were thrown out the window by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the past year.

Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse interviewed Suat Delgen, a former Turkish naval officer who focuses on the defense industry and foreign policy issues. He has extensive knowledge of naval warfare systems, NATO, EU security and defense policy, maritime security, new technologies, and Western Asia.

Steven Sahiounie (SS): According to the Wall Street Journal, the Iranian missiles launched against Israel were not all prevented from hitting their targets, despite Israel having spent billions of dollars of the American tax-payer’s money on air defense systems. In your opinion, does this prove the Iron Dome’s failure?

Suat Delgen (SD): Israel has a layered air defense system. In the layered air defense system low, medium, high altitude air defense systems and ballistic missile defense systems are used together. Israel’s multi-layered air defense system consists of four components; Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow-2, Arrow 3. David’s Sling, Arrow-2, Arrow 3 missiles are used in defense against ballistic missiles. However, considering that Iran attacked with about 200 ballistic missiles in the last attack, it is an expected result that the counter-engagement capability of the defense systems reached saturation and some ballistic missiles could not be shot down. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Israeli air defense system is a complete failure, but rather that it is sometimes saturated and inadequate against large-scale missile attacks. I believe that Israel will make some improvements and updates to its layered air defense missile system, especially after the recent attack, in order to increase the effectiveness of its defense against hypersonic missiles.

SS: According to media reports, Russia has sent a new version of the S-400 to help Iran defend against Israel. In your opinion, if Israel strikes Iran, who will win this war, the F-35 or the S-400?

SD: The S-400 air defense system was not very effective against Sculp and Strom Shadow cruise missiles in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In particular, the S-400 air defense system could not provide an effective defense against the headquarters building of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. For this reason, I do not consider the S-400 to be an effective air defense system against the F-35. However, one point should be emphasized here. In the event of a possible Iranian attack, the downing of an F-35 aircraft by the S-400 would give Russia a very serious psychological advantage and prestige. For this reason, I believe that Russia will covertly support Iran against the F-35 fighter jets not only with S-400s, but also with other electronic warfare systems.

SS: Satellite images have shown significant destruction in several Israeli military bases from of the Iranian missiles attack. In your view, was the Iranian attack successful?

SD: The success of a military operation is not measured by the damage it causes. The success of a military operation is measured by the achievement of the political and military goals set during the planning stage. Iran’s goal was not to inflict great damage on Israel. Iran wanted to show Israel that it had the means and capability to inflict damage on itself, if it so chose. Second, Iran had to respond to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. This response should not be so harsh as to draw Iran into an all-out war, but it should be effective enough to show that it can hurt Israel. In this respect, I believe that Iran has achieved its goal.

SS: Israel carried out several assassinations against Hezbollah members, and was behind the attack on pagers and walkie-talkies. In your point of view, what caused this security weakness in Hezbollah?

SD: The Iranian attacks against Hezbollah members and Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon show that Israeli intelligence has a lot of influence within Hezbollah. I think this has led to insecurity within Hezbollah. Without addressing the security weaknesses within Hezbollah, Hezbollah will not be able to make very effective decisions.

SS: Hezbollah has lost a number of military leaders because of the Israeli airstrikes. In your opinion, how much does this weaken Hezbollah?

SD: Hassan Nasrallah was a charismatic leader who analyzed political and military developments very accurately, and ensured that Hezbollah was positioned in the right place. In this regard, thanks to Nasrallah, Hezbollah received support from all segments of Lebanese society. Hezbollah will certainly choose a new leader, but this person will not be able to replace Nasrallah. Moreover, given the influence of Israeli intelligence within Hezbollah, the new leader will not receive the support from all segments of Lebanese society that Nasrallah did, and there will always be suspicions about him.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

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

Featured image is from MD

Climate Instability Worldwide: Does the US Military “Own the Weather”? “Weaponizing the Weather” as an Instrument of Modern Warfare?

Prof Michel Chossudovsky, October 8, 2024

Uncovering World Tyranny and Its War Strategies. Peter Koenig and David Icke

David Icke, October 7, 2024

Hurricane Milton Is So Unusual That It Does Not Seem Natural

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, October 8, 2024

New German Study: All COVID mRNA Vaccinated Children Are at Increased Risk of Cancer

Dr. William Makis, October 7, 2024

The Effects of Pulsed Microwaves And Extra Low Frequency Electromagnetic Waves on Human Brains? Governments Routinely “Classify Information” Pertaining to the Manipulation of the Human Nervous System

Mojmir Babacek, October 4, 2024

Has Iran Just Tested a Nuclear Bomb? Rodney Atkinson

Rodney Atkinson, October 9, 2024

Will Israel Pull Off an “October Surprise” During the Next Month? “A Dirty Trick Before the Elections”? Philip Giraldi

Philip Giraldi, October 5, 2024

Is the Trap Set? Did Israel Accomplish Its Goal to Drag the US Military Into Another Middle East War?

Timothy Alexander Guzman, October 5, 2024

Globalists Revving Up Plans to Engineer Global Famine and Starvation

Leo Hohmann, October 9, 2024

Israel’s Air Defense and the Weakness of the U.S. Navy. “Damage Control Project” of Commander of the U.S. Naval Forces

Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, October 10, 2024

Bomb Cyclones and Atmospheric Rivers: Is Someone Messing with the Weather?

F. William Engdahl, October 9, 2024

Food Production is Causing “Global Warming”, “Farms Must Shut Down”: 13 Nations Sign Agreement to Engineer Global Famine by Destroying Food Supply

Hunter Fielding, October 9, 2024

Did Iran Just Test a Nuclear Weapon?

Drago Bosnic, October 8, 2024

How to Steer Hurricanes, Flood Homes, and Steal Lithium

Greg Reese, October 8, 2024

At This Time in the World There Is Only One Important Decision Waiting to be Made. “In 2007, Washington Declared War on Russia”

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, October 4, 2024

COVID Injections: Unveiling the Mechanisms of Harm

Dr. Mark Trozzi, October 5, 2024

The Covid “Killer Vaccine”. People Are Dying All Over the World. It’s A Criminal Undertaking

Prof Michel Chossudovsky, October 5, 2024

“Empire of Drugs”: Taliban’s Eradication of Opium Reveals Harsh Reality of U.S. Occupation of Afghanistan

The Free Thought Project, October 6, 2024

Bibi Will Bomb Iran. Or Maybe Not

Mike Whitney, October 8, 2024

The Importance of Balanced Intelligence and Knowledge

A Midwestern Doctor, October 5, 2024

Dear Global Research Readers,

We stand in solidarity with Dr. William Makis in his commitment to humanity.

To his commitment to the Truth. Listen carefully to his testimony. 

The Covid 19 “Vaccine” from the very outset in January 2021 has been conducive to a Worldwide Upward Movement in Mortality 

What Dr Makis is describing is “the criminalization of justice”.   

The future of humanity is at stake. And we must support and endorse Dr. William Makis in his endeavours.

Click here to access the extensive archive of his articles regarding the Covid mrNA “Vaccine”.

This is happening all over the world: children and adolescents are dying.

The Global Research Team

.

Click here to watch the video

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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.  

There aren’t many countries in the world that have been subjected to as much ridicule as North Korea. The mainstream propaganda machine regularly presents it as a supposedly “backward society”, particularly in terms of technological development. And yet, in reality, Pyongyang is ahead of the entire political West (the United States included) in critical technologies such as hypersonic weapons.

Namely, unlike the US, North Korea actually fields these missiles, while the former is still struggling to conduct a single successful test of a prototype (to say nothing about inducting such weapons into service). However, there are still certain technologies that require decades to master and this includes nuclear-powered submarines. Only a handful of countries operate these vessels: the US, UK, France, Russia, China and India. Australia is in the process of acquiring them from Washington DC, but this still doesn’t mean it mastered the technologies needed to build them.

Nuclear-powered submarines offer a number of strategic advantages over those with conventional propulsion, primarily the ability to stay underwater for months.

They’re by far the most survivable part of any nuclear triad, as it’s an exceedingly difficult task to track and destroy them in case of a thermonuclear confrontation. Russia and the US both have submarines capable of launching their SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) while underwater, making them effectively untouchable before it’s too late.

Thus, if a military power with a global reach wants to ensure deterrence no matter what, it needs nuclear-powered submarines. Due to its size, North Korea is not a country you’d normally describe as a global military power. However, it seems precisely this is the case. Namely, quoting South Korean reports, military sources indicate that Pyongyang is now building its first nuclear-powered submarine, an unprecedented development for a small country.

North Korea has already accumulated significant experience in operating all sorts of submarine types, including conventionally-powered ones, but armed with nuclear-tipped SLBMs. This alone makes it an extremely dangerous opponent, but the fact that it can now build a nuclear-powered submarine enhances its strategic arsenal exponentially.

It’s still unknown if the vessel will be an SSBN (nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine) or SSGN (nuclear-powered guided missile submarine) (image above), with the latter vessel armed with cruise missiles (both conventional and nuclear-tipped).

However, whichever path Pyongyang chooses for its new capability, it’ll be a strategic game changer. This will allow the North Korean military to strike targets anywhere within the range of the submarine’s weapons, be it SLBMs or SLCMs (submarine-launched cruise missiles). Such developments are particularly alarming for Washington DC and its vassals and satellite states.

Namely, the Pentagon’s ability to threaten North Korea’s strategic arsenal will be effectively nullified with the appearance of the latter’s nuclear-powered submarines. What’s more, this also enhances Pyongyang’s ability to strike high-value targets all across the increasingly contested Asia-Pacific region. Worse yet for America, even if North Korean SLBMs have a relatively limited range, it’ll still be in the thousands of kilometers, meaning they can reach targets within the continental US, particularly the western seaboard. This critically important part of the world’s most aggressive thalassocracy is already threatened by Russian and Chinese nuclear-powered submarines, so having North Korean ones is certainly a strategic setback. However, Washington DC’s unprecedented aggression against the entire world is the main reason why this is the case. Unfortunately, the US never even attempted to keep its unrelenting obsession with wars, death and destruction in check.

On the contrary, America has only become worse in this regard, as evidenced by its new nuclear doctrine of attacking everyone at once. This has left the US facing three nuclear-armed opponents in the Pacific – Russia, China and North Korea. Pyongyang is particularly determined to prevent any unprovoked American attacks.

The gruesome war crimes and atrocities committed by the US military during the Korean War [deaths of up 30 percent of the North Korean Population] are still ingrained in the memory of millions of Koreans.

Indiscriminate American bombing of population centers in North Korea left millions dead and wounded, prompting Pyongyang to ensure this never happens again.

Pyongyang 1953

Pyongyang 21st Century

It is worth noting that Russia is building even closer ties with North Korea.

Thus, it’s highly likely that Moscow is providing support to Pyongyang’s efforts to build nuclear-powered submarines, an area in which Russia is one of the world’s leaders, with its own submarines able to destroy any enemy.

This would certainly explain why Kim Jong Un confidently announced that North Korea is a “nuclear military superpower” during a recent speech.

And indeed, while small, it has all the attributes of one.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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: Simpo-Class Submarine, (Source: KCNA/From the Public Domain)

A balanced diet is important for proper nutrition, but many people fall short on essential micronutrients due to consuming energy-dense but nutrient-poor foods

Micronutrient deficiencies lead to significant health issues like pregnancy complications, weakened immunity and increased risk of diseases

A recent study published in The Lancet Global Health found that over half of the global population is lacking essential micronutrients, with deficiencies varying by age and gender

The researchers found that more than 5 billion people are deficient in iodine (68%), vitamin E (67%) and calcium (66%), while over 4 billion lack iron (65%), riboflavin (55%), folate (54%) and vitamin C (53%)

In the U.S., common nutrient deficiencies include vitamins D, B12, B1, B2, B3, A, C and E, as well as calcium, magnesium and iodine. Tips to address these deficiencies are included below

*

Food goes beyond providing energy — it’s essential for proper nutrition. Yet, many people fail to get the essential micronutrients they need. The problem often lies in food quality rather than quantity. People are consuming energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods, setting them up for an excess of omega-6 fats from seed oils as well as added sugars, while missing out on vital micronutrients.

Micronutrient deficiencies are a prevalent form of malnutrition, leading to serious consequences like pregnancy complications, weakened immunity and increased risk of diseases. While past studies have investigated nutrient deficiencies and supplies, there has been no comprehensive global assessment of micronutrient intake inadequacies until now.

A recent study published in The Lancet Global Health¹ addresses this gap by evaluating whether current intake levels meet recommended health standards, focusing on deficiencies across different ages and genders. Their findings highlight an alarming trend — over half of the global population is deficient in the necessary micronutrients for optimal health.

Global Study Reveals Alarming Widespread Micronutrient Inadequacies

The study,² conducted by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), used data from 31 countries to model global nutrient needs. They applied these models to a dataset from 185 countries, estimating nutrient deficiencies for 99.3% of the world’s population. Fifteen essential nutrients, including calcium, B vitamins and vitamin C, were evaluated across different age and gender groups.

“Our study is a big step forward,” said co-lead author Christopher Free, Ph.D., a research professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), in a news release.³ “Not only because it is the first to estimate inadequate micronutrient intakes for 34 age-sex groups in nearly every country, but also because it makes these methods and results easily accessible to researchers and practitioners.” According to the authors:⁴

“More than 5 billion people do not consume enough iodine (68% of the global population), vitamin E (67%) and calcium (66%). More than 4 billion people do not consume enough iron (65%), riboflavin (55%), folate (54%) and vitamin C (53%).

Within the same country and age groups, estimated inadequate intakes were higher for women than for men for iodine, vitamin B12, iron and selenium and higher for men than for women for magnesium, vitamin B6, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamin and niacin.”

These results underscore the widespread nature of micronutrient deficiencies globally, revealing distinct patterns related to sex and geographic location. “We hope this analysis … improves understanding of global micronutrient inadequacy so that public health interventions can more effectively address deficiencies,” the researchers concluded.

Common Nutrient Deficiencies in the US

According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), an estimated 31% of the U.S. population is at risk of developing one or more micronutrient deficiencies.⁵ The most common nutrient deficiencies include vitamins D, B1, B2, B3 and B12, A, C, E, calcium, magnesium and iodine.

Although the study didn’t include vitamin D since it primarily focused on nutrients obtained through diet, vitamin D deficiency remains a significant concern in the U.S., impacting approximately 35% of the population.⁶ Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is essential for various physiological functions, including calcium absorption, bone health and immune function.

While it’s found naturally in some foods, your body endogenously produces vitamin D when your skin is exposed to ultraviolet rays from the sun.

However, many factors limit this natural production, including living in northern latitudes, having darker skin, spending most time indoors or using sunscreen. Additionally, as people age, their skin becomes less efficient at producing vitamin D from sun exposure.⁷

The ideal way to increase your vitamin D levels is through sensible sun exposure. On a typical sunny day,⁸ your body produces up to 25,000 international units IU of vitamin D. However, it’s important to approach sun exposure with care, especially if your diet is high in seed oils (rich in linoleic acid, or LA).

These oils migrate to your skin and oxidize when exposed to sunlight, causing inflammation and DNA damage, which makes you more prone to sunburn. If you’re on a high-LA diet, I recommend avoiding intense sun exposure until you’ve reduced your seed oil intake for four to six months. As you reduce your LA intake, slowly increase your time outdoors. You’ll eventually be able to enjoy an hour or more during peak sunlight hours.

If you’re unable to get adequate sun exposure, vitamin D3 supplementation is a wise choice. For health and disease prevention, aim for a level between 60 ng/mL and 80 ng/mL. In Europe, the measurements you’re looking for are 150 to 200 nmol/L, respectively.

To determine how much vitamin D3 you need to take, measure your vitamin D level, ideally twice a year. Your ideal dose is whatever it takes to keep you within that 60 ng/mL to 80 ng/mL range. It’s also important to remember that calcium, vitamin D3, magnesium and vitamin K2 must be properly balanced, as these four nutrients work together.

Vitamin B1, B2 and B3

Vitamin B1, also known as thiamine, is used by nearly all your cells and is essential for several functions in the body, including energy production, nerve function, heart health, cognition, digestion and immune function.⁹

While thiamine deficiency is often the result of alcohol misuse, chronic infections, poor nutrition and/or malabsorption, research suggests vitamin B1 availability has dramatically declined throughout the food chain in recent years,¹⁰ and that naturally affects your ability to get sufficient thiamine from your diet.

Adult men and women need 1.2 and 1.1 milligrams (mg), respectively, each day.¹¹ If you have symptoms of thiamine deficiency, you might need higher doses. For tips on how to boost your vitamin B1 levels, I recommend reading my article, “Common Signs of Vitamin B1 Deficiency.”

Similarly, vitamin B2, commonly known as riboflavin, is important for energy production, cellular function and metabolism. As a coenzyme in various redox reactions, riboflavin is essential for converting food into usable energy. It plays a central role in the electron transport chain, where it helps produce ATP, the primary energy source for the body. This makes riboflavin particularly important for overall energy levels and metabolic health.^12,13

To increase your riboflavin levels, consume a diet rich in riboflavin sources. Good dietary sources include grass fed dairy products, lean meats like grass fed beef tenderloin, organic low-PUFA eggs, cremini and portabella mushrooms, and green leafy vegetables like spinach and beet greens.

Vitamin B3 exists in two primary forms — niacin (nicotinic acid) and niacinamide (nicotinamide). Both are essential to human health and play important roles in cellular metabolism, converting the food you eat into energy.

These forms of vitamin B3 also serve as precursors for the coenzymes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP), which are vital for energy production, DNA repair and cell signaling.

For optimal health, I recommend taking 50 mg of niacinamide three times a day. This dosage has been shown to optimize energy metabolism and boost NAD+ levels.

The problem with taking too much vitamin B3, whether in the form of niacin or niacinamide, is that it might backfire and contribute to cardiovascular disease as demonstrated in a study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic.¹⁴ I talked more about this in my article, “Vitamin B3 Boosts Muscle Mass, Improves Glucose Control.” As for food sources, vitamin B3 is found in grass fed beef and beef liver, bananas and mushrooms.¹⁵

Vitamin B12

Also known as cobalamin, vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin that plays a role in numerous biochemical reactions and neurological functions in your body, including DNA synthesis. Your body can’t make vitamin B12 on its own, so it must be obtained via your diet or supplementation.¹⁶

According to NHANES data, about 3.6% of U.S. adults aged 19 and older have a vitamin B12 deficiency, with the rate slightly increasing to 3.7% in those 60 and older. However, vitamin B12 insufficiency is more common, affecting around 12.5% of adults aged 19 and older and 12.3% of those 60 and older. During pregnancy, vitamin B12 levels often decrease, sometimes falling below normal levels.¹⁷

Vitamin B12 is found almost exclusively in animal foods, such as grass fed beef and beef liver, lamb, organic eggs and grass fed dairy products. The few plant foods that are sources of B12 are actually B12 analogs that block the uptake of true B12, so do not make the mistake of thinking you can rely on vegan sources for all your B12 needs.

If you rarely eat the foods listed, consider using nutritional yeast. It’s high in B12 and has a cheesy flavor that works well on any number of dishes. One 16-gram serving (just over 2 tablespoons) provides 24 micrograms of natural vitamin B12.¹⁸ Advancing age diminishes your body’s ability to absorb B12 from food, so you might want to consider supplementation as you get older.¹⁹

Vitamins A and C

An estimated 51% of adults are not consuming enough vitamin A,²⁰ increasing their risk of degenerative diseases like macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the U.S.²¹ Vitamin A is also responsible for immune system function as well as cellular growth and differentiation.²²

Vitamin A is a group of nutrients that falls into two different categories — retinoids found in animal foods and carotenoids found in plant foods. The two are chemically different and provide different health benefits, but both are necessary for optimal health. Plant foods high in beta-carotene include sweet potatoes, carrots, cantaloupe and mangoes. Animal foods rich in vitamin A include liver, egg yolks and grass fed butter.²³

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is known for its potent antioxidant properties and role in numerous bodily functions, including tissue growth and repair, collagen synthesis, iron absorption and immune function.²⁴

A wide variety of foods are high in vitamin C, including red pepper, parsley, broccoli, kiwi, strawberries, guava, tomato and all citrus fruits. You’ll get significant amounts of vitamin C from your diet if you eat these foods on a daily basis.

In addition to dietary sources, I highly recommend keeping liposomal vitamin C in your medicine cabinet, particularly for acute viral illnesses. If I were to become acutely ill, I would take 4 grams of liposomal vitamin C every hour until feeling better, then start decreasing the dosage slowly over a few days once symptoms improve.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin with potent antioxidant properties, protecting your cells from free radical damage. It also supports the production of red blood cells, regulates your body’s use of vitamin K (which is important for heart health) and is involved in your immune function and cell signaling.²⁵ Additionally, it protects your body against damage caused by linoleic acid and estrogen.

In the U.S. alone, approximately 88.5% of the population fails to reach the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of vitamin E.²⁶ To increase vitamin E levels, eat foods rich in this nutrient, including spinach, pumpkin, asparagus, red bell peppers, tomatoes, kiwi and mango.²⁷

Some health authorities recommend vegetable oils, seeds and nuts as good sources,²⁸ but these are actually terrible due to their high LA content. Beans — another good source of vitamin E — are also problematic for many due to their high lectin content.

Supplementation is also an option to increase your levels, but it’s important to look for a real vitamin E supplement and not synthetic. What you’re looking for is “d alpha tocopherol.” I go into detail about this in “Vitamin E Helps Decrease Your Cancer Risk.”

Calcium and Magnesium

Over 40% of the U.S. population fails to meet their calcium needs through diet alone, putting them at increased risk of bone-related issues such as osteoporosis and fractures.²⁹ Calcium is also essential for muscle contraction, nerve transmission and blood clotting.³⁰

A deficiency in calcium coupled with excess phosphorus intake due to phosphate additives in processed food poses additional risk, as it disrupts your calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, which leads to calcification of the vascular system and cardiovascular problems.³¹

Some good dietary sources of calcium to increase your levels include grass fed dairy products like yogurt, milk and cheese made from animal rennet. Some vegetables contain this mineral as well, such as collard greens, spinach, turnip greens, kale, cooked taro root and bok choy.³²

Estimates suggest that over half of the U.S. population also aren’t getting enough magnesium from their diet.³³ While the minimum amount needed to avoid deficiency is about 150 to 180 milligrams per day, optimal levels are closer to 600 milligrams per day. For reference, the RDA ranges from 310 to 420 milligrams per day, depending on age and sex.³⁴

Some good dietary sources of magnesium include dark chocolate, leafy greens, potatoes (peeled and boiled) and plain organic yogurt, to name a few. Avocados are also commonly recommended as a good source of this mineral, but they’re high in monounsaturated fat (MUFAs), which harms your metabolic function if consumed in excess.

Iodine

Iodine is an essential trace mineral that plays a role in the production of thyroid hormones, which regulate metabolism, growth and development. Adequate iodine intake is vital for maintaining healthy thyroid function and reducing the risk of disorders such as goiter and hypothyroidism. In addition, iodine is important for healthy bone and brain development during pregnancy and infancy.³⁵

Foods that contain higher amounts of iodine include sea vegetables, such as kelp, kombu and wakame.³⁶ Kelp has the highest amount of any food and just one serving gives you four times the recommended daily allowance. Organic, grass fed butter is another good source of iodine. Iodized salt also increases your levels if you don’t avoid eating it in the mistaken belief that it’s bad for your heart.

Will Taking a Multivitamin Help with Nutrient Deficiencies?

A diet rich in whole, nutrient-dense foods is key to avoiding nutrient deficiency. However, multivitamins help address gaps if you’re not eating right or if you suspect you have deficiencies. Research³⁷ from Oregon State University found that older men who took multivitamins showed improved nutritional biomarkers compared to those who took a placebo.

In fact, some participants in the placebo group had decreased nutrition markers, indicating that diet alone might not be sufficient, particularly for maintaining vitamin and carotenoid levels.³⁸Multivitamins also benefit memory in older adults. One study³⁹ found that daily use could improve memory performance comparable to reversing about three years of age-related decline compared to a placebo.

If you’re planning to take multivitamins, it’s generally recommended to take half your daily dose in the morning, with breakfast, and the other half with your main meal. Remember, though, that multivitamins should complement, not replace, a healthy diet.

Dietary supplements are meant to support a balanced lifestyle, not substitute for it. Consider consulting with a holistic health professional to identify specific nutrient deficiencies and tailor your supplement and food choices to address them.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Notes

^1, 2, 4 Lancet Glob Health. 2024 Aug 29:S2214-109X(24)00276-6

³ EurekAlert! August 29, 2024

⁵ The Institute of Functional Medicine, The Hidden Hunger: Micronutrient Deficiencies

⁶ StatPearls [Internet]. Vitamin D Deficiency

⁷ Endocrine. 2023; 79(1): 31–44

⁸ Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2019;189

⁹ Biosci Rep. 2023 Oct 31;43(10):BSR20230374

¹⁰ The Science Times January 31, 2021

¹¹ NIH Thiamin, February 9, 2023

¹² NIH ODS, Riboflavin

¹³ StatPearls [Internet]. Biochemistry, Oxidative Phosphorylation

¹⁴ Nature Medicine volume 30, pages 424–434 (2024)

¹⁵ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Niacin – Vitamin B3

¹⁶ StatPearls [Internet]. Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)

¹⁷ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Riboflavin — Vitamin B2

¹⁸ USDA FoodData Central, Nutritional Yeast

¹⁹ The New York Times, Vitamin B12 as Protection for the Aging Brain

²⁰ Oregon State University, Micronutrient Inadequacies, Vitamin A

²¹ Front Nutr. 2022; 9: 914457

^22, 23 NIH ODS, Vitamin A and Carotenoids

²⁴ StatPearls [Internet]. Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)

^25, 28 NIH ODS, Vitamin E

²⁶ USA Today, April 1, 2023

²⁷ HSPH, Vitamin E

²⁹ Oregon State University, Micronutrient Inadequacies in the US Population: an Overview

³⁰ StatPearls [Internet]. Physiology, Calcium

³¹ Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2024 Mar;44(3):584-602

³² Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Food Sources of Calcium

³³ Oregon State University, Micronutrient Inadequacies (Magnesium)

³⁴ National Institutes of Health, Magnesium

^35, 36 NIH ODS, Iodine

³⁷ Nutrients 2023, 15(12), 2691; doi: 10.3390/nu15122691

³⁸ Oregon State University June 14, 2023

³⁹ The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition July 2023, Volume 118, Issue 1, Pages 273-282, Results

Featured image is from Mercola

France is one of the most deeply involved countries in the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, with its special forces present since the very beginning of the special military operation (SMO). For some inexplicable reason, Paris is simply looking for a fight with Russia, instead of focusing on a plethora of burning issues at home. France’s shameful compliance with virtually all NATO policies has effectively turned it into a vassal of the United States, which only keeps creating more problems for it, even resulting in Moscow’s heightened support for sovereigntist movements in Africa, a move that’s effectively dismantling whatever’s left of the old French (neo)colonial empire on the continent. Paris even went as far as to prepare an invasion of Niger, a possibility that prompted Mali and Burkina Faso to announce readiness to fight alongside their neighbor against any attacker.

This has now gone so far that the three countries formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), effectively a confederation that’s not only deterring US/EU/NATO-backed (neo)colonialism, but is also offering an alternative to the ECOWAS, a Western-led “international” organization that seeks to maintain it. The AES also severed diplomatic ties with the Kiev regime over its support for terrorists in these countries, where it provided intelligence on the movement of “Wagner” PMC, the top ally of African sovereigntists.

There’s no doubt NATO itself was also involved as this has been a common trait of the world’s most vile racketeering cartel for decades, be it the support for Albanian narco-terrorists and other Islamic radicals or unrepentant Neo-Nazis. This also includes direct threats to Russia that the political West will support terrorism within the country if it defeats the NATO-backed Kiev regime in Ukraine.

Russian support for AES and numerous other African countries seeking to remove the shackles of (neo)colonial rule is certainly frustrating for the US-led political West, but especially France, as its fledgling economy (particularly the energy system) is highly dependent on exploiting “former” colonies across Africa. The resulting tensions between Paris and Moscow keep escalating and this is driving the former’s determination to provide further support for the Neo-Nazi junta.

France has already provided numerous weapons and even personnel, although Russian long-range weapons keep finding both. The Kremlin’s world-class capabilities in this field are causing massive casualties for all parties involved in the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, but the French seem to be bearing the brunt of it. This year alone, nearly half a dozen precision strikes obliterated hundreds of personnel from France.

InfoBRICS covered some of them, including in Kharkov back in January. However, instead of learning its lesson, Paris keeps sending more of them, resulting in even higher casualties by August. Things got even worse for NATO in September, with multiple hypersonic strikes on their positions, resulting in hundreds of dead and wounded “tourists” on another failed “Ukrainian war safari”.

Whenever things went too far, European leaders would try to toss the hot potato to each other in an attempt to avoid responsibility (and potential retaliation from Moscow). Macron even tried to disguise French personnel as “advisers”, but was promptly notified that no quarter will be given to any of them. However, France doesn’t seem to understand how all this really works, so it keeps sending troops and is now even training them for a direct confrontation with Russia, a country that can obliterate it with a single missile.

Namely, thousands of French soldiers will be deployed to Romania in May and train for a major war. According to Politico, 2025 will be “crucial for the French army, which has undergone a major transformation in recent years to prepare for a possible conflict with Russia”. The large-scale military exercise, dubbed Dacian Spring 2025, will “assess their ability to swiftly move to NATO’s eastern flank”, supposedly a “key competence should Russian President Vladimir Putin decide to attack an alliance member”.

The report also postulates that the French military started a “profound transformation to be ready for a high-intensity conflict similar to the war in Ukraine” and that it also has “new marching orders from NATO: By 2027 it should be able to deploy a war-ready division in 30 days, including ammunition and supplies”. In NATO, a division has anywhere from 10,000 to as many as 25,000 troops.

In comparison, the Russian military can field up to four million soldiers in case of a direct confrontation with the world’s most vile racketeering cartel, making the viability of the latter’s conventional capabilities against it all the more questionable. Thus, the logical conclusion is that NATO is using this as an excuse to escalate its occupation of Eastern Europe.

Namely, the report by Politico suggests that “the key challenge will be to get to Romania in such a short period of time”, quoting General Pierre-Eric Guillot who said that “there’s still no military Schengen” and that NATO “needs to decisively improve military mobility in Europe”. It should be noted that the so-called “military Schengen” is effectively a militarization of the European Union, which exposed itself as a rather pathetic geopolitical pendant of the world’s most vile racketeering cartel, as the deal essentially boils down to its fusion with NATO.

However, countries in Eastern Europe aren’t exactly thrilled to see these developments. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was nearly assassinated back in May, is decidedly against escalation with Russia. The same can be said for Hungary, which is extremely concerned with the prospect of a direct confrontation with Moscow.

Magyar Nemzet warned that 

“Paris is preparing for a world war and that “the pro-war French president has already come up with alarming plans in recent months, which could clearly lead to a war between NATO and Russia”.

The Hungarian news outlet also pointed out that Macron “did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine either”. However, to make matters worse, France is reportedly even sending “Mirage 2000-5” fighter jets to the Neo-Nazi junta.

It’s clear that the troubled Macron government is risking war with Russia, regardless of its true motivation for such moves.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War

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: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets French President Emmanuel Macron during a state visit to France, 17 June 2019. (Source: President.gov.ua)

Israel now has its greatest opportunity in 50 years, to change the face of the Middle East. We must act now to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, its central energy facilities, and to fatally cripple this terrorist regime. We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralyzed, Iran stands exposed. —Naftali Bennett, former Israeli Prime Minister

For Israel to achieve its regional ambitions, it must lure the US into a war with Iran.

In order to accomplish that feat, Israel must strike Iran with enough force to provoke a violent and destructive retaliation.

As soon as it looks like Israel is in trouble, the US will ride to the rescue with “guns blazing”.

But, first, Israel must initiate a provocation big enough to ensure the outcome that it seeks. In short, Israel’s real target is the US because it is the US that must be hoodwinked into fighting Israel’s war.

Regrettably, duping America is what Israel does best.

Americans are under the illusion that the United States will prevail in a war with Iran. But it’s not true. Iran has been preparing for a war with the US for over two decades, and they are ready-to-go. They have developed a missile technology that far exceeds anything currently available in the Pentagon’s arsenal and they are fully prepared to conduct a protracted asymmetrical war that will trigger a cataclysmic disruption of critical supply lines followed by the thundering crash of global markets.

Bottom line: If the US attacks Iran, Washington is going to suffer a withering knockout blow that will end its dominance in the region and perhaps the world.

The top brass in the Pentagon know this as do many in the Intelligence community.

They know that a war with Iran is a bridge too far and a fast-track to the dustbin of history.

That is why Israel has delayed its retaliatory attack on Iran for so long, because Tel Aviv and the Pentagon are not on the same page.

Even so, Netanyahu is charging ahead assuming—quite rightly—that the US will rescue Israel if its survival is seriously threatened by an Iranian missile attack.

But, make no mistake, US generals and military leaders do not want this war, and that is why Israel’s attack on Iran has been delayed.

It’s not merely a matter of selecting the appropriate targets (as the media would like you to believe); it’s a question of whether the United States is prepared to go to war with Iran and (potentially) its allies, Russia and China. (It’s worth noting that Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited Tehran just two days before Iran launched its ballistic missile attack on Israel. This suggests that Iran got the green light from Moscow to take action that meets the legal definition of “self defense.”)

Keep in mind, it’s been 9 days since Iran attacked Israel and inflicted severe damage on military bases and a gas platform off the coast of Gaza. Most analysts expected Israel to respond immediately which was what many of the Israeli leaders (including Netanyahu) had promised. But now, more than a week later, nothing has happened; and the reason nothing has happened is because there’s a split between the gung-ho Israeli-firsters at the State Department and the White House and the sober-minded realists at the Pentagon. (The Pentagon does not want a war with Iran.) And while the matter has not yet been settled, it looks like Bibi is about to pull-the-trigger with or without a formal declaration of US support. Once again, Netanyahu assumes that if Israel gets into trouble—as it undoubtedly will—Uncle Sam will join the fight.

The problem, of course, is that the United States cannot win a conventional war with Iran and, if it tries to do so, it’s going to see its military bases, airfields and a sizable number of its servicemen vanish in a pillar of black smoke. Check out this blurb from Scott Ritter who explains what lies ahead:

Let’s remember that when Trump was president, the Iranians shot down a Global Hawk Drone worth over $100 million dollars. ….which enraged Trump. And, he said we need to strike the air-defense sites that took down the Global Hawk. The Pentagon told him that if ‘we do this’ you are going to set into motion a cycle of escalation that will end with Iran destroying every single one of our (military) bases (in the region) and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. …as well as shutting down the Strait of Hormuz and disrupting global oil supplies triggering a collapse of the global economy. And you are going to order us to invade Iran. But we can’t do that right now. ...It would take us months or years to assemble the forces needed to take the action you are talking about, and, even then, there is no guarantee of victory. “Are you sure you want to do this Mr. President”? And Trump said “No”.

That same calculus exists today. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have already been briefed on this reality. Donald Trump is already familiar with it. We cannot defeat Iran in a conventional fight. And here’s the gamechanger: The IRGC came out with a press release saying….”The Islamic faith allows things to change over time if a threat emerges against the Islamic Republic. And, if this threat does manifest itself, Iran will reconsider its stance on nuclear weapons. Iran is literally days away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon. If the US or Israel wants to play nuclear games, Iran is ready to play that game. And this changes everything because Israel can no longer say, “We can nuke you, but you can’t nuke us”. Iran has put all the pieces together, and it would be a matter of days before they have a functioning nuclear device capable of being mounted on a missile that cannot be shot down and that missile will be fired against Israel or American targets in the region.

This is a gamechanger. The days of the United States intimidating Iran are over, passed, finished. And the same with Israel. Israel can be wiped out tomorrow. Iran is prepared to fire 2,000 missiles at Israel in the span of a few hours. These missiles would destroy the entire infrastructure of Israel including every power plant, every water purification plant, everything that deals with modern civilized society will be eliminated because it can’t be defended and because Israel has nothing to fall back upon. They will literally bombed back to the Stone Age, and that’s without using nuclear weapons. Three to five nuclear weapons will wipe Israel off the face of the earth. There will be no Israel. That is the reality facing Israel today. That is the weakness that Benjamin Netanyahu has brought on the Israeli state and the Israeli people. Scott Ritter and Judge Napolitano: The Middle East One year after October 7th 2023, You Tube; 10:15 min

.

.

While Ritter does an excellent job of explaining the potential pitfalls of any conflagration with Iran, other analysts have focused on the basic geography of the battlefield and how it might impact the outcome of the war. Here’s an excerpt from an article that shows just how vulnerable US bases in the region really are.

Many US servicemembers in the Middle East are stationed at bases along the Persian Gulf in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. Examples include Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Naval Support Activity Bahrain, and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Maintaining a forward military presence in the Persian Gulf is vital to securing American interests, but these bases are squarely within range of Iran’s increasingly formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. Making matters worse, Iran and its proxies have repeatedly demonstrated in recent years that they are able and willing to use all three of these types of weapons systems to target US and partner forces in the region.

Iran has the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the region, with at least eight types of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), all of which are capable of striking US bases along the Persian Gulf from Iranian territory. Ballistic missiles are particularly dangerous, as their high speed makes them more difficult to intercept compared to cruise missiles or drones (once detected). Most of Iran’s SRBMs employ solid propellants, meaning that they require less time to prep prior to launch and can be fueled and stored for longer periods of time….

But that is not enough. Congress should also press the Pentagon to replicate elsewhere vital military capabilities that currently reside solely or primarily at large, vulnerable bases on the Persian Gulf near Iran, especially at Al Udeid. Alternatives should include a number of smaller bases in the region beyond the range of some Iranian capabilities. Don’t over-concentrate US forces in the Middle East, FDD

Does it sound like the authors are advising US powerbrokers to “get outta Dodge pronto” to avoid an unprecedented catastrophe? Does it sound like US bases and personnel are over-exposed and likely to be obliterated by Iran’s state-of-the-art ballistic missiles? Does it sound like Bibi’s vengeful retaliation could cost American lives and compromise American interests?

.

.

In our last article, we focused on many of the same points we’re emphasizing here. At the risk of being redundant, we’ll include a brief clip from an earlier piece that illustrates the risks to American bases in the region:

“These (US) aircraft are largely based at locations along the southern coast of the Arabian Gulf…an artifact of planning against Russian incursions in the 1970s, and the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns of the early decades of this century. They are close to Iran, which means they have a short trip to the fight…but that is also their great vulnerability. They are so close to Iran that it takes but five minutes or less for missiles launched from Iran to reach their bases.”…

Most damagingly of all:

“These bases are all defended by Patriot and other defensive systems. Unfortunately, at such close range to Iran, the ability of the attacker to mass fires [sic] and overwhelm the defense is very real.”…

In closing his roadmap to Tehran’s victory, McKenzie bitterly laments, “it is hard to escape the conclusion that our current basing structure is poorly postured for the most likely fight that will emerge.” The Empire “will not be able to maintain these bases in a full-throated conflict, because they will be rendered unusable by sustained Iranian attack.” Imperial overreach in West Asia has now fallen victim to “the simple tyranny of geography.”….

“The Iranians can see this problem just as clearly as we do, and that is one of the reasons why they have created their large and highly capable missile and drone force.”..

The question of whether the battlefield primacy of the Resistance in West Asia will finally be comprehended by their adversaries, in light of October 1st, remains an open one. As Russian military strategist Igor Korotchenko once observed, “this Anglo-Saxon breed understands nothing but force.” Collapsing Empire: Iran Throws Down Gauntlet, Kit Klarenberg, Global Delinquents

The Biden team needs to think long-and-hard about the move they are about to make. When an expert tells you that “our current basing structure is poorly postured for the…. fight that will emerge.” What he means is that your bases, your people, and your weapons systems cannot be protected and, therefore, they’re doomed. And when that same expert tells you that you “will not be able to maintain these bases in a… conflict, because they will be rendered unusable by sustained Iranian attack.” What he means is that your enemy is going blow your entire operation to smithereens.

Wouldn’t it be wiser to mull these matters over instead of recklessly issuing another blank check to a genocidal madman who is merely using the US to advance his own ethno-lunatic agenda?

Of course, some will argue that if push-comes-to-shove, the US can always draw from its nuclear arsenal and turn Tehran into a parking lot. This is true, but it is also true that Iran has placed its hypersonic ballistic missiles in locations around the country which means that—if Iran is destined to become a parking lot—then Israel will meet the same exact fate.

In fact, some would call that “poetic justice.”

.

.

BREAKING: Iranian parliament is reportedly drafting a bill to create an official military alliance between all parties of the resistance axis which includes Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Hezbollah, and Hamas.

The bill mentions the creation of a joint operation room and a unified military infrastructure, as well as joint military exercises and an obligation to send military and humanitarian aid in case of any act of aggression by the US or Israel against any one of the parties —Tasnim.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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 source

For quite some time I have been writing and speaking about the witch hunts conducted by the Medical Council of New Zealand against good doctors who spoke out against their upending of foundational medical principles — principles such as informed consent, which they strongly promoted but hypocritically disavowed.

I and other colleagues have exposed their connection to the Federation of State Medical Boards and its international arm, the International Association of Medical Regulatory Agencies, which appears to be pulling strings across the globe to extirpate ANY challenge to their inconceivably dangerous policies, such as actively working to prohibit early treatment and to push the covid jab as if it were a panacea.

Doctors around the world who did what good doctors should do, namely, treat the ill, do no harm, tailor treatments to individual needs, provide informed consent, and suggest preventive measures, using whatever means they had at their disposal, which may or may not include various medications or supplements, were targeted for reprisals. Licenses were suspended and/or revoked, and they were subjected to ‘show trials’.

Recently New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science (www.nzdsos.com), of which I am a founding member, brought a High Court case to challenge the Medical Council’s covid-19 guidance statement.

I have many times urged friends and colleagues not to put much, if any, faith into the Establishment’s courts for redress or anything approaching justice, yet I am also aware of the value of doing so whatever the outcome.

The case was presented to the High Court in Wellington on 23-24 September, 2024.

A remarkable development occurred during the proceedings: a former Board member of the Medical Council presented the following evidence, which is now in the public domain given that it was read out in court on 24 September. I am quoting the evidence in full, given its importance:

“In September 2021, the first wave of complaints about doctors, Covid, vaccines, and the prescribing of ivermectin came to MCNZ. I was shocked at the different approach council members had toward these complaints, compared with their normal thorough and fair approach. The complaints ranged from a doctor emailing a colleague with doubts about the vaccine, through to doctors advising some patients (e.g. pregnant women and children) not to take the vaccine, to doctors speaking at public meetings against wholesale vaccination of everyone. There was general agreement among most MCNZ members that the Covid vaccine was a zero risk medication, and that doctors who thought the side effect risks were significant were woefully misinformed. The approach from MCNZ staff and most MCNZ members was to rely on the guidance statement, which indicated doctors should promote vaccine benefits not highlight risks. That meant that a doctor talking about the risks associated with vaccination was a reason to take disciplinary action. With the exception of my contributions (with occasional support from one or two others), there was no engagement by the other members of MCNZ with the nature of informed consent, the doctors’ Code of Ethics, or Human Rights more generally. When I asked one other member what they thought about submissions from one doctor’s lawyer, which focused heavily on the Human Rights aspects, they said they hadn’t bothered to read them. I tried to get engagement with these issues during our Council meetings but it was my impression most members’ minds were closed.

The culture change was unreal and disturbing. The chair would introduce these Covid items with “Here we go -it’s flat earth time, get your tin foil hats on – we’ve got another antivaxxer in front of us”. Or “The Vitamin C brigade has arrived”. The majority of the council went along with this dismissive, ridiculing approach, with maybe three people, including myself, not joining in this prejudgement game.

I was on the MCNZ for ‘Covid cases’ that came through from approximately October 2021 through to January 2022. The complaints came from the general public and the medical profession. In general, the doctors complained about had serious questions about the Covid vaccine from an informed consent angle. Some had questions about the nature of the actual Covid risk to health and some were looking for alternative treatment options that had been banned (e.g. Ivermectin, Vit D, zinc etc). Some complaints were trivial, e.g. a GP simply emailing a practice college with doubts about the vaccine. Others were doctors speaking out in public questioning the pandemic policies. Some doctors were openly cautioning their parents to think carefully before agreeing to a Covid vaccination.

What alarmed me at the time was the majority of MCNZ members were aggressive in their response to all these “anti-vax” doctors, calling for harsh, vindictive even, sanctions for even the most minor of cases. The usual detailed discussion of evidence and high-level legal arguments was abandoned. It was clear that most other members of MCNZ’s council considered that any doctor who so much as doubted any of the Covid pandemic directives should be heavily sanctioned and preferably suspended. Most of our meetings were by now conducted on Zoom due to lockdowns.”

This evidence thoroughly supports my supposition of an active and vindictive assault on doctors here. As I write a number of doctors have been ordered to appear in further Tribunals and Courts and remain under active persecutory ‘investigation’. It is a travesty, representing criminality of a high order. And to whom are the Medical Council accountable?

I have urged those in the crosshairs to tell the public about what they are being put through, rather than submit to these kangaroo inquisitions. One doctor in question, who has recently suffered from physical problems in addition to the emotional duress created by these actions, has asked for a postponement of her Tribunal — with supporting letters from her examining physicians — only to be told ‘no’. This amounts to torture.

I urge all readers to share the above, a direct and clear glimpse into the perverted behaviors of a Council charged, ostensibly, with protecting the public weal from rogue practitioners, but instead directly harming the very public whom good doctors serve.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.  

Here follow links to related essays and articles and interviews pertaining to the MCNZ, a sort of mini-bibliography:

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/doctors-investigation-fsmb-attacks-big-pharma/

https://www.globalresearch.ca/subverting-medicine-role-federation-state-medical-boards/5790759

Dr. Bruce Dooley’s interview with Liz Gunn:

https://rumble.com/v1lbjvd-the-dark-truth-of-americas-federation-of-state-medical-boards.html

https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-pandemic-medical-council-new-zealand-operating-according-mafia-principles-dr-emanuel-garcia/5851205

https://www.globalresearch.ca/quiet-evil-destruction-informed-consent/5846718

https://www.globalresearch.ca/intrepid-new-zealand-lawyer-sue-grey-wins-one-against-empire/5827846

https://newzealanddoc.substack.com/p/dr-peter-canaday-medical-hero

https://newzealanddoc.substack.com/p/the-new-zealand-medical-council-and 

Featured image source / Public Domain

Through litigation, education and advocacy, we aim to protect our health, environment and privacy from the uncontrolled rollout of harmful wireless technology – including cell towers, small cells, smart meters and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Explore our pages to learn all about how and why we are pushing back against the wireless takeover – and how you can too!

Injured by your smart meter? Apply to be a plaintiff in our upcoming litigation.

.

Click here to watch the video

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image source

There’s yet another doctors’ testimony about Israeli forces constantly shooting Palestinian children in the head, this one published in The New York Times.

The report, titled “65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza,” begins as follows:

“I worked as a trauma surgeon in Gaza from March 25 to April 8. I’ve volunteered in Ukraine and Haiti, and I grew up in Flint, Mich. I’ve seen violence and worked in conflict zones. But of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total.

“At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby. But after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. ‘I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,’ I told him. To my surprise, he responded: ‘Yeah, me, too. Every single day.’”

Numerous named medical staff who worked in Gaza then testify in the report about routine encounters with children who’d been shot in the head and chest by Israeli forces, as well as children and infants suffering from severe malnutrition and easily preventable infections.

"I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. 'I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,' I told him. To my surprise, he responded: 'Yeah, me, too. Every single day'."https://t.co/olibMpmCG7 pic.twitter.com/PFXk8Mkciv

— Dr. Genevieve Guenther (@DoctorVive) October 9, 2024

Such reports have been coming out all year. Because Israel has not been allowing foreign press into Gaza, medical staff have in many ways become the de facto western journalists on the ground in the enclave — and they are all saying the same thing.

Back in July a group of 45 doctors and nurses who’d been working in Gaza signed an open letter to President Biden testifying that “every single signatory to this letter treated children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them.”

“Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head and chest,” the letter continues.

Also in July, Politico published an article by two American surgeons named Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa titled “‘Nothing Prepared Us for What We Saw’: Two Weeks Inside a Gaza Hospital,” which contains the following passage:

“We started seeing a series of children, preteens mostly, who’d been shot in the head. They’d go on to slowly die, only to be replaced by new victims who’d also been shot in the head, and who would also go on to slowly die. Their families told us one of two stories: the children were playing inside when they were shot by Israeli forces, or they were playing in the street when they were shot by Israeli forces.”

45 American surgeons, physicians, and nurses who volunteered in Gaza said in a letter to Biden that “every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head.” pic.twitter.com/GgnltT5I2j

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) July 26, 2024

In April an article titled “‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza” was published in The Guardian, citing nine doctors who’d worked in Gaza after October 7 who “reported treating a steady stream of children, elderly people and others who were clearly not combatants with single bullet wounds to the head or chest.”

Forensic pathologists were able to identify bullets used by the Israeli military in these attacks on children:

“The Guardian shared descriptions and images of gunshot wounds suffered by eight children with military experts and forensic pathologists. They said it was difficult to conclusively determine the circumstances of the shootings based on the descriptions and photos alone, although in some of the cases they were able to identify ammunition used by the Israeli military.”

In February the Los Angeles Times published an article titled “I’m an American doctor who went to Gaza. What I saw wasn’t war — it was annihilation”. The author, a reconstructive surgeon named Irfan Galaria, writes as follows:

“On one occasion, a handful of children, all about ages 5 to 8, were carried to the emergency room by their parents. All had single sniper shots to the head. These families were returning to their homes in Khan Yunis, about 2.5 miles away from the hospital, after Israeli tanks had withdrawn. But the snipers apparently stayed behind. None of these children survived.”

According to a US doctor in Gaza, Israeli snipers are executing Palestinian children with single shots to their heads.

Biden's response is to ACTIVELY PREVENT other countries from seeking to stop Israel's massacre.#ceasefire https://t.co/FCDtmxibJX pic.twitter.com/Ot3G6UnQFJ

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) February 17, 2024

So this is happening. The evidence is undeniable, and the sourcing is as solid as it gets. There are mountains upon mountains of rock solid proof that Israeli forces routinely, deliberately shoot Palestinian children in the head in Gaza. 

The only reason this isn’t being treated as an established fact by the western political-media class is because the Israeli military denies it, telling The Guardian in response to the aforementioned report that “The IDF only targets terrorists and military targets. In stark contrast to Hamas’s deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians, including men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

“Doctors say otherwise,” The Guardian wrote.

Indeed, there is no longer any fact-based reason to deny that Israel is deliberately targeting children with sniper fire. The facts are in and the case is closed. The only basis anyone can have for denying this established fact is their own personal loyalty to the state of Israel and its military, and/or their own personal disdain for Palestinian lives.

This fact punches holes in so many of the narratives used to defend Israel over the past year. That Israel is conducting itself in a more ethical way than Hamas. That Israel is waging a war against Hamas and not the Palestinian people. That the IDF are “the most moral army in the world” and are taking extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties. That civilians are being killed in Gaza because Hamas uses them as “human shields”. That this is a war fought for Israel’s self-defense, and not a campaign of extermination driven by racism and hate.

There is simply no way to believe any of these things are true when you acknowledge the extensively-documented fact that Israeli forces are routinely shooting children in the head throughout the Gaza Strip.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image is from The Unz Review

Statistics can’t tell the story of civilian suffering in Gaza. Physical pain defies easy quantification. Emotional trauma is far more than a number on a psychological distress scale. Still, numbers can be enlightening — and damning. The Intercept has assembled a short primer and accompanying infographics to offer a glimpse of what a year of relentless Israeli attacks — and U.S. military support for Israel — has meant to the people of Gaza.

The Uncountable Dead

On the night of October 7, 2023, Israel bombed a home in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Eighteen members of one family, including at least five children and four women, were reportedly killed. At least one survivor, 11-year-old Tala Abu Daqqa, was injured. Al Ghad TV, a local television station, reported that around 150 people had been injured in the Abasan area.

The attack, which Israel launched following raids by Hamas militants that killed Israeli civilians earlier that day, reportedly destroyed five residential buildings. “They hit us with two or three barrels of explosives and brought the entire buildings down,” Mohammad Abu Daqqa, a relative of the family, told CNN.

In the year since that strike, Israeli attacks on Gaza have never ceased. More than 2 million other Palestinian civilians have been killed, wounded, or displaced as a result.

.

Graphic: Fei Liu

.

Israeli attacks have killed almost 42,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others in Gaza since last October, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. More than 10,000 Palestinians are thought to be buried under the rubble littering the Gaza Strip.

A group of 99 American health workers who served in Gaza estimate the death toll is no less than three times higher than that current official count. In the appendix to a recent letter sent to the Biden administration, calling for an arms embargo on Israel, they estimated that the death toll is at least 118,908. “It is highly likely that the real number of deaths in Gaza from this conflict is far higher than this most conservative estimate,” they note.

More deaths are sure to come. Researchers, applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths — from causes like disease outbreaks, a lack of medical care, and shortages of food, water, and shelter — per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths that had been reported as of July, wrote in The Lancet that “it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”

America’s Constant Supply of Weapons

As the death toll has risen, the United States has ramped up its support for Israel.

Late last month, Israel announced it had reached a deal with the U.S. for an $8.7 billion aid package to support its ongoing military efforts. In August, the Biden administration approved five major arms sales to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter aircraft, tank ammunition, tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, and 50,000 mortar rounds, among other equipment totaling more than $20 billion. While technically “sales,” the cost of these weapons is mostly paid by the United States since Israel uses much of the military aid Congress approves to buy U.S.-made weapons.

“Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” said President Joe Biden recently, despite the fact that his administration acknowledged the likelihood that Israel has used U.S. weapons in Gaza in violation of international law.

“In the past year, the United States has sent thousands of bombs to Israel. These are the very same weapons that have killed Palestinian children and wiped out Palestinian families month after month,” John Ramming Chappell, an advocacy and legal fellow at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, also known as CIVIC, told The Intercept. “Israeli military attacks, often using weapons made in the United States, have leveled countless homes, destroyed schools and hospitals, and made Gaza all but unlivable.”

Lost Limbs, Bombed Hospitals

For every person killed by the Israeli military and American bombs, many more are suffering injuries, medical deprivation, and malnutrition. As of July, at least one-quarter of those injured in Gaza were estimated to have life-altering traumatic injuries that will require years of rehabilitation, according to a World Health Organization analysis. The predominant injury, affecting as many as 17,550 people, was severe wounds to limbs.

.

Graphic: Fei Liu

.

Between 3,105 and 4,050 limb amputations have also been performed, according to WHO. There have also been around 2,000 spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries and about the same number of major burn injuries. Only 41 percent — 5,968 out of 14,469 — of critical patients who submitted requests for medical evacuation have been approved.

Gaza’s health care system had already been battered by years of occupation and blockade, but the decimation of medical and public health infrastructure has hit unprecedented levels since last October. There have reportedly been 492 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, killing almost 750 people. Every hospital in Gaza has been affected. Only 17 hospitals are partially functional. Nineteen out of 36 hospitals are completely out of service.

The rate of attacks on health care facilities and personnel in Gaza is higher than in any recent conflict, averaging 73 attacks per month, according to an analysis by Save the Children. (The next highest, since 2018, are Ukraine at 67 attacks per month and the Democratic Republic of Congo with an average of 11 per month.)

In April, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 350,000 people in the Gaza Strip — including 225,000 high blood pressure patients, 71,000 people with diabetes, 45,000 cardiovascular patients, in addition to those suffering from cancer and kidney failure — are unable to access necessary health care. 

Almost all of the people of Gaza have witnessed or directly experienced unprecedented trauma, including direct violence, repeated displacement, and the loss of family and friends, homes, and belongings, according to a report by ACAPS.

Even before the start of the current war, an estimated 800,000 children in Gaza — about 75 percent of its child population — were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support. The conflict has exposed children in Gaza to severe psychosocial distress and, as a result, UNICEF estimates that more than 1 million children, effectively every child in Gaza, now needs such services.

Cities Turned to Rubble

A year of relentless bombing, bulldozing, and ground invasion has pushed most of the people in Gaza out of their homes, many of which have been destroyed in the process.

At least 1.9 million people (about 9 in 10) across the Gaza Strip have been driven from their homes, including those who have been repeatedly displaced (some up to 10 times or more), according to the United Nations. Around 86 percent of Gaza remains under Israeli-issued evacuation orders, as of early last month. About 1.3 million Gazans need emergency shelter and essential household items. Those in shelters have far less space than the accepted minimum emergency requirements.

.

Graphic: Fei Liu

.

Compared with other urban areas attacked in the past 100 years, the Gaza Strip is far more densely populated — easily besting Dresden, Germany, in 1945; Quảng Trị in South Vietnam in 1968; and Mariupol, Ukraine in 2022. “When explosive weapons are used in densely populated areas, the vast majority of victims are civilians and the effects are felt for decades to come,” said CIVIC’s Chappell. “Palestinian civilians in Gaza have now endured a year of constant bombardment and unimaginable loss. The Israeli military has left nowhere safe for civilians in Gaza.”

Relentless Israeli attacks have led to unprecedented destruction. At least 128,187 structures in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed, according to a September U.N. satellite analysis. Add in another 35,591 possibly damaged structures, and it represents 66 percent of all buildings in Gaza. Nearly 228,000 housing units have been damaged.

Huge swaths of Gaza resemble post-apocalyptic hellscapes. Israeli bombardment has created more than 84 billion pounds of rubble, according to the U.N. Clearing it may cost as much as $700 million and take around 15 years — a task sure to be complicated by unexploded ordnance. Beyond rubble clearance, making Gaza livable again will be far more expensive. The price tag could exceed $80 billion, according to Daniel Egel, a senior economist at the RAND Corporation, a U.S. military-sired, California-based think tank who also cited the incalculable costs. “You can rebuild a building, but how do you rebuild the lives of a million children?” he told Bloomberg.

Empty Bellies, Salted Fields, Open Sewers

Most Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of starving. More than 2.1 million, virtually the entire population, now face acute food insecurity, including the two most dire levels under universal standards: 745,000 at “emergency” status and 495,000 facing “catastrophic” or famine levels.

More than 96 percent of women and children aged six months to 2 years old are not meeting minimum nutrient requirements due to lack of diet diversity. During the first half of September, an average of only 67 trucks with humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip per day compared with an average of 500 truckloads of supplies per day prior to last October, according to the U.N. More than 1.4 million people did not receive their monthly food rations last month. 

.

Graphic: Fei Liu

.

The agricultural sector, in particular, has been decimated. Satellite imagery from last month shows that around 68 percent of permanent crop fields in Gaza have seen a “significant decline in health and density,” due to razing, heavy vehicle activity, bombing, and shelling, compared with the average of the previous seven years. In the early spring, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations noted that around 60 to 70 percent of meat and dairy-producing livestock in Gaza had already been either killed or prematurely slaughtered to meet the spiking need for food.

Fishing — which had been a key source of livelihoods and food in Gaza — has also been devastated. Since October 2023, 150 fishermen have been killed and 87 percent of fishing boats have been damaged or destroyed, including 96 motorized boats and 900 unmotorized ones, according to a September report by the Palestinian NGO Network. Gaza’s port and other key fishing infrastructure have also been destroyed.

Since the war began, Gazans have had access to, on average, less than 5 liters of water per day for all uses — drinking, cooking, and washing — according to a July Oxfam report. This represents a 94 percent drop in the amount of water available and falls far below the accepted minimum standard of 15 liters of water per person per day for basic emergency survival. By the end of June, Gaza City had lost nearly all its water production capacity, with 88 percent of its water wells, 100 percent of its brackish water desalination plants, and 100 percent of its seawater desalination plants either damaged or destroyed.

The Palestinian economy is “nearing economic freefall, amidst a historic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip” according to a recent report by the World Bank. Gaza’s economy contracted by 86 percent in the first quarter of 2024, leaving it on “the brink of total collapse” with the overall gross domestic product in the Occupied Palestinian Territories plummeting by 35 percent, “marking its largest economic contraction on record.” Before the current war, 64 percent of Gaza’s population lived in poverty. That number is now functionally 100 percent.  

Even the most basic services have halted. Throughout the Gaza Strip, 395,000 tons of accumulated solid waste are piling up between tents crowded with displaced people and amid the rubble of collapsed buildings. Two central landfills remain inaccessible. By the end of June, the Israeli military had destroyed 70 percent of all sewage pumps and 100 percent of all wastewater treatment plants in Gaza.

The systematic destruction of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has left hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians crowded into tent camps without clean water or proper disposal of sewage and garbage, sparking a public health catastrophe. There has been, for example, a marked increase in cases of Hepatitis A, a contagious liver disease which is transmitted through ingestion of contaminated food and water. By August, UNRWA shelters and clinics had seen 40,000 cases, compared to only 85 in the same period before the beginning of the war.

Sick Children with Nowhere to Go

In August, the aid group Mercy Corps estimated some 50,000 babies bornsince the war began have not been immunized against polio. That month, health officials in Gaza confirmed the first case of the fatal, highly infectious, paralyzing disease — a 10-month-old child who lost the use of both of his legs — in a quarter-century. A vaccination campaign has stemmed the tide of a wider outbreak, but other diseases have run rampant. The World Health Organization has announced outbreaks of scabies, lice, diarrhea, skin rash, and chickenpox. As of July, there were also nearly 1 million cases of acute respiratory infections and close to 600,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea in Gaza, according to WHO. More than half of the cases of diarrhea are in children under age 5, a rate 23 times higher than in 2022.

The youth of Gaza have been affected in myriad other ways, as well. More than 659,000 children have, for instance, been out of school since the beginning of the war. The ongoing crisis in Gaza will set children’s education back by up to five years and risks creating a lost generation of permanently traumatized Palestinians, according to a new study by the University of Cambridge, the Centre for Lebanese Studies, and UNRWA.

Most school buildings in the Gaza Strip — at least 477 of 564, or 85 percent — have been damaged or destroyed since last October. Many of these buildings have been attacked while serving as shelters for Palestinians already displaced by the war. Rehabilitating or rebuilding them will be an expensive, time-intensive process, meaning it could take years before they are usable again. The value of the damaged educational structures, alone, is estimated at more than $340 million.

Last year, images and video of the survivor of the October 7, 2023, strike in Abasan Al-Kabira, 11-year-old Tala Abu Daqqa, circulated online. In a short video, the young girl — her face peppered with tiny cuts — appears glassy-eyed, broken, shattered. That day, the first of the war, she became one of the now 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza who have witnessed or directly experienced conflict trauma and one of the 1 million children in need of mental health and psychosocial support. Since the attack, at least 138,000 fellow Gazans have been killed or wounded. 

هذي الطفله اسمها تالا أبو دقة وعمرها 11 عام، هي الناجي الوحيد الباقي على قيد الحياة من عائلتها المكونة من اب وام و3 اخوات، بعد قصف إسرائيل لمنزلهم في غزة اليوم وتوفى الجميع باستثناءها…

لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله ربي يرحمهم ويصبرها يارب pic.twitter.com/F2CY0imE23

— MOATH | معاذ (@M0ATH) October 8, 2023

Numbers can’t tell the full story of the suffering of children and adults living under a year of Israeli bombardment. No matter how accurate, figures can’t capture the scope of their sorrow or the depth of their distress. An estimate of how many million tons of rubble Israeli attacks have produced can offer a sense of the scale of destruction, but not the impact of each strike on the lives of those who survived, and the effect on the future of Gaza given how many didn’t.

Numbers are wholly insufficient to explain Tala Abu Daqqa’s anguish. Statistics can’t tell us much about how living through such a catastrophe affects an 11-year-old child. Heartache defies calculation. Psychological distress can’t be reduced to the score on a trauma questionnaire. There is no meaningful way to quantify her loss except, perhaps, by offering up two basic, final numbers that will stay with her forever: two parents and three sisters killed.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image source

Unsatisfied with the quantity of abortions currently performed in the Western world, particularly with the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade, Bill Gates’ ex-wife, Melinda Gates, has announced a quarter-billion giveaway to boost numbers.

The world, after all, is not going to depopulate itself.

Via The Guardian (emphasis added):

“Women’s health is being neglected worldwide with “maternity care deserts” more common, millions denied abortions and maternal death rates surging, Melinda French Gates has warned as she launches a $250m (£190m) fund to improve women’s physical and mental health globally.

Despite advances in medicine, women experience “unacceptable” inequities across all aspects of their health, spend more years living with ill health and still face barriers to accessing basic care. Women in rich and poor nations are affected and more than 700 are dying in childbirth each day, French Gates said.

Women have also been suffering with the global consequences of the abortion bans enacted in the US after the overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022. French Gates told the Guardian the US election next month would be critical. “There is so much at stake for women and families,” she added.

Today she will launch Action for Women’s Health through her organisation, Pivotal, and direct what will total $250m in new grants to groups around the world working on improving women’s health.”

Let’s take a quick look-see at all that Melinda, who cares deeply about such issues, has done in the past for women and their health, and their babies’ health.

Via ABC News, 2020 (emphasis added):

“The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new $250 million commitment on Thursday, adding to the foundation’s total investment to $1.75 billion into combating COVID-19 through vaccine development and distribution.

“The plan is coming together to get this vaccine out. So, you know, it’s a tragedy, but there’s a lot of heroes in the process of getting it to end,” said Gates.

Gates, who had invested in the vaccine technology in 2015, emphasized the importance of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines ending this pandemic and potentially ones to come in the future.

“Well, your immune system is kind of magic*. If it sees a foreign shape once, then it says, ‘Wow, if I ever see that again, I am going to react very quickly,’ and so that it doesn’t cause a problem,” said Gates.

“With mRNA, we actually give instructions to your cells to make them build part of the virus,” said Gates, who said that the immune system kicks in to help inoculate against the virus.”

*Correction: your immune system was “kind of magic” until Melinda Gates’ mRNA shot literally turned it off.

Via Food and Chemical Toxicology (emphasis added):

“The mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were brought to market in response to the public health crises of Covid-19. The utilization of mRNA vaccines in the context of infectious disease has no precedent…

The immune response to the vaccine is very different from that to a SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this paper, we present evidence that vaccination induces a profound impairment in type I interferon signaling, which has diverse adverse consequences to human health. Immune cells that have taken up the vaccine nanoparticles release into circulation large numbers of exosomes containing spike protein along with critical microRNAs that induce a signaling response in recipient cells at distant sites. We also identify potential profound disturbances in regulatory control of protein synthesis and cancer surveillance. These disturbances potentially have a causal link to neurodegenerative disease, myocarditis, immune thrombocytopenia, Bell’s palsy, liver disease, impaired adaptive immunity, impaired DNA damage response and tumorigenesis. We show evidence from the VAERS database supporting our hypothesis. We believe a comprehensive risk/benefit assessment of the mRNA vaccines questions them as positive contributors to public health.”

Melinda Gates: “Did we mutilate your immune system and give you cancer and kill your kids in utero? Whoopsie-daisy! Have some cash as a token of my remorse, peasants — well, at least you non-penised ones.”

On video, Melinda makes it clear in 2021 she’s not going to relinquish her death-grip on the economy until all Americans roll up their sleeves for her experimental drug.

Melinda Gates: Economically we're not gonna have a swift recovery in USA or in Europe if we don't make sure that everybody gets vaccinated pic.twitter.com/yOGEcPBc2P

— Camus (@newstart_2024) April 10, 2021

And what did all that coerced drugging produce for women’s health?

Via Evie (emphasis added):

“Naomi Wolf ran a crowd-sourced analysis project to analyze 300,000 Pfizer documents that were released thanks to a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. In January, US District Judge Mark Pittman of the Northern District of Texas ruled that the documents be released, and the results found are stunning…

The research found that 44% of women who participated in the Pfizer trial of the coronavirus vaccine lost their baby…

This data has never been released to the public before and women have been gaslit to believe that their periods were never actually affected by the coronavirus vaccine (even though it was later revealed that the vaccine does in fact affect menstrual cycles).”

And here we have, buried deep in a study that morphed into a propaganda piece by the New England Journal of Medicine, “Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons” robust evidence that Melinda’s COVID shots given to pregnant women triggered an 82% spontaneous abortion rate.

Via Natural News:

“A shocking new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that when pregnant women are given covid vaccinations during their first or second trimesters, they suffer an 82% spontaneous abortion rate, killing 4 out of 5 unborn babies.

This stunning finding, explained below, is self-evident from the data published in a new study entitled, “Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons.” Just as disturbing as the data is the fact that the study authors apparently sought to deliberately obfuscate the truth about vaccines causing spontaneous abortions by obfuscating numbers in their own calculations…

Table 4 from the study, shown below, reveals that a total of 827 pregnant women were studied. Out of the 827 women, 700 of them received their first vaccine in their third trimester of pregnancy. This means 127 women (which is 827 – 700) received a vaccine during their first or second trimesters. (You have to read the fine print below the table to see this disclosure.)

Out of the 127 women receiving vaccines during their first or second trimesters, 104 spontaneous abortions occurred before their pregnancies hit the 20-week mark. These are indicated as “spontaneous abortions” in the table.

In simple math, 104 spontaneous abortions (during the first 20 weeks) out of 127 women who received vaccines in their first or second trimesters calculates to an 82% rate of spontaneous abortions among these pregnant women who were vaccinated.

It is important to note that deaths of unborn babies during the third trimester are known as “stillbirths” and not spontaneous abortions. Thus, the spontaneous abortions could not have possibly occurred in women vaccinated during their third trimester, by definition.”

The essence of my job, as I see it, beyond just reporting whatever is happening out there in the world as best I can discern, is to cut through the noise: those were chemical abortions by the pharmaceutical industry, and Melinda funded and promoted them.

There is no inconsistency here between her stated prioritization and bankrolling of abortion lobbying and her relentless shilling of the COVID shots; it’s the same agenda.

Melinda loves abortion. Just like it is for her ex-husband and his Planned Parenthood father before him, it’s a holy sacrament.

And, however they can get the job done — by needle or vacuum — is how they have to do it.

Killing and maiming the most innocent life imaginable — children and especially babies, and most especially babies in the womb — is what they live for. It nourishes their twisted little mortal souls in this physical realm before they are dispatched back to whatever hell they sprang from.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. Follow his stuff via his Substack where this article was originally published. Also, keep tabs via Twitter.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from BigPharmaNews.com

Yesterday, American journalist Jeremy Loffredo was arrested in Israel two days after publishing an investigative report verifying that Iranian missiles struck near an Israeli Air Force base and less than 1,000 feet from Mossad (Israeli CIA) headquarters.

.

.

.

LOFFREDO: “Iran fired over 200 ballistic missiles in retaliation for the assassinations of Lebanese and Iranian political and military leadership. Since the missile strikes, Israeli authorities have attempted to downplay the significance of the attacks, censor the locations of missile impacts from media publication, and claim that Iran was targeting Israeli civilians.”

The location of Mossad headquarters is no secret but Israel seeks to keep missile impact locations hidden and bans the publication of such information. Times of Israel reports, “The exact locations of such impacts and damage are barred from publication by the IDF censor.” Loffredo’s report states Israel’s intention is “to downplay the significance of the attacks…and claim that Iran was targeting Israeli civilians.”

Two days before his arrest, Loffredo wrote that he pursued the story “despite the Israeli military censor’s official ban on publishing the locations”.

.

.

LOFFREDO: “While on the ground in Israel, I was able to track down the impact sites of Iranian missiles on key Israeli military and intelligence installations, including Nevatim Airbase and Mossad headquarters, despite the Israeli military censor’s official ban on publishing the locations.”

At the end of his last report, Loffredo documents details that suggest his phone was hacked. As Loffredo left the missile impact site near Mossad headquarters, his phone and his cab driver’s phone both lost GPS functionality, went blank, and then placed their geo-locations in another country. See this video.

LOFFREDO: “As we left the area, an unsettling incident occurred. Our cell phones lost GPS functionality, maps went blank, and then both devices, mine and my taxi drivers suddenly showed we were at Amman Airport in Jordan.”

Yesterday, independent journalist Andrey X reported he’d been “beaten, kidnapped, blindfolded”, “held for 11 hours without charges”, and had his phone “confiscated (stolen)” by Israeli forces. Andrey noted he was with 4 other journalists and “one of us is still in custody”. Today, The Grayzone editor, Max Blumenthal, reported that Loffredo was the journalist who remains in an Israeli jail.

.

.

BLUMENTHAL: “I’ve just learned that @loffredojeremy was among the journalists arrested by the Israeli military and is still in jail. His phone has been confiscated. That is all I’m able to say for now.”

The retweet / re-post button on all of Loffredo’s posts is disabled and his posts are “protected”. I don’t know if this occurred before or after his phone was confiscated by Israeli forces.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image is a screenshot from a video above

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

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

Visit and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

First published on May 2, 2022

***

Introduction

The debate on human rights violations is invariably limited to those committed by  governments and other public institutions.

We seldom discuss human rights violations committed by large corporations, especially multinational corporations (MNCs). Moreover, in many cases, the violation of human rights by host country governments is motivated as a means to cover up MNCs’ human rights abuse.

There is another phenomenon which does not help our resolve to acquire a solution to the issue of corporate human rights abuse; it is the biased attitude of the Western media regarding these corporate violations. 

The media seldom report the incidence of corporate human rights violations, most likely due to the fact that they themselves are owned by large corporations.

Public debate on the issues of corporate human rights violations is vitally important not only in relation of global justice but also for the health of the global economy, especially for the survival of the economies of developing countries.

We need also to conduct an ideology-neutral and unbiased debate on the long-run impact of MNCs’ human rights violations on the developing countries.

This article deals with the following issues.

1. First, this paper will show how large, rich and powerful the MNCs are and how they can easily abuse human rights, damage the environment and destroy the economies of developing countries.
2. Second, this paper will discuss the types of human rights violated by MNCs. It will be shown that in many cases, the MNC violates both the economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) and the civil and political rights (CPR).
3. Third, in this section, this paper will discuss how and why the current national and international judiciary regimes are not equipped for dealing effectively human rights violations by MNCs.

Wealth and Power of MNCs

One of the significant phenomena of the last half a century has been the rise of huge global corporations called, multinational corporations (MNCs), which have impacted deeply not only the global economic system but also the global political dynamics.

The financial assets of 200 largest MNCs is larger than the combined assets of all countries of the world excluding 10 largest economies. According to data of the Amnesty International, of 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations, namely MNCs, while 49 are Nation States.

What is more surprising is the fact that, despite their huge size, they grew fast; their profit rose between 1983 and 1999 by 36% as against the profit of the global economy which rose by 25%.

According to UNCTAD data, MNCs account for 70 % of the world trade.

Given the sheer size of MNCs, it is not difficult to imagine the huge impact of their human rights violations on social and economic justice and the well-being of the people.

This is particularly so in developing countries whose economy is tightly integrated into the global value chain (GVC) controlled by the MNCs.

The Global Value Chain (GVC)

The GVC has created a tightly knit global division of labour. Some countries are specialized in the extraction of raw materials; some countries have comparative advantage in labour intensive industries; some countries are excellent producers of knowledge-intensive products.

The following table provides some ideas about the MNCs

Table. Ten Largest MNC in terms of Revenue (USD billion)

There are value chains for agricultural products;

• there are value chains for automobiles;
• there are value chains for IT products;
• there are value chains for textile products.

In fact, every product has a value chain which can be national, regional or global.

The value chains play crucial role in the world economy. The number of workers hired by the GVC increased from 297 million in 1995 to 453 million in 2013 representing 20% of all workers in the world. In short, the GVC is one of the important devises invented by man.

It is true that GVC has been a major factor of the growth of the global economy and job creation. On the other hand, it is also true that they are the significant human rights violators. 

Typology of Human Rights Violations by MNC

There are three generations of human rights recognized by international covenants.

We have the civil and political rights (CPR) which is the first generation of human rights.

We have the economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), called as the second generation human rights.

Then, we have the collective rights (CR) known as the third generation human rights. All these human rights are inspired from the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948 (UDHR).

• The CPR refers to the freedom of thought and actions such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.
• The ESCR refers to the right to a decent and dignified life such as the rights to housing, foods, clothing, education and public health.
• The CR refers to the right to differentiated or specialized care rights of the native people, the elders, the women, the children, the disabled and the immigrants.

Violation of ESCR and CPR by MNCs

MNC’s violation of ESCR may be grouped into the violation of labour rights and the environmental rights abuse. In many cases, MNCs violate both labour rights and environmental rights.

In addition, MNCs may violate the CPR, in an indirect way. Suppose that the MNCs violate ESCR. The victims will protest. The host country government may oppress the movements of protest, which is the violation of CPR.

Labour rights include:

• the right to labour unionization,
• decent wages, reasonable working hours,
• no forced labour,
• absence of discrimination by gender/race and other healthy work conditions needed for decent and dignified living of workers.

Environmental rights include

• the rights to safe environment and,
• the right to use natural resources for the benefit of residents.

The following is a list of the cases of violations of ESCR and CPR:

• According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) report, of fifty GVCs’ employees, 94% is low wage only 6% represents regular jobs.
• As much as 60% of jobs under MNC control represents the informal sector of the economy.
• In 2006, Brazil workers of sugar plants worked 10 to 12 hours a day. More than 10,000 were freed by the Brazilian government from forced labour
• Child labour is frequent in cobalt mines in Haut Katanga and Lualaba Province of the Republic of Congo and other places.

Notorious Cases of ESCR and CPR Violations

Ali Enterprise Textile: On September 11, 2012, there was disastrous fire at the Ali Enterprise Textile factory in Karachi, Pakistan killing 262 due to the inadequate security measures provided by the head Company, in Germany, KiK. (Violation of ESCR)

Rana Plaza Building: In April 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza Building, Dhaka, Bangladesh killed 1,132 and injured 2,500. (Violation of ESCR)

Union Carbide India (UCI): In the Bhopal disaster of 1984, 24,000 died and 16,000 were injured due to the leakage of pesticide. The amount of the settlement was USD 470 million, only USD 40 per victim. The tragedy occurred in Bhopal Madhya Pradesh, India. (Violation of ESCR)

Nestle: In 1970, it introduced a formula of baby food requiring clean water leading to the production of bottled water for which it pumped underground water in many countries. For example, in Serra Da Matiqueira, Brazil, due to the Company’s pumping water, local residents had to suffer from the shortage of water.

Moreover, the Company was accused of hiring children younger than 15 in their Ivory Coast cocoa plantations. (Violation of ESCR)

Screenshot: The Guardian

TTY Corporation Co. Ltd: On January 18, 2012, in Kratie Province, Cambodia, the security guard of the Company shot the protesters. The dispute was about the land use for rubber plantation vs. cassava plantation. The Company wanted to transform the cassava field into rubber plants. The cassava file was the lifeline of the local people. As many as 23 villagers were injured. (Violation of ESCR and CPR)

Timbergreen Co. Ltd (2011.04.26): Chut Wutty, founder/Director of Nature/Resource Protection Group was shot to death, on April 26,2011, in Koh Kong Province, Cambodia, during the protest against the environmental damage caused by the company. (Violation of ESCR and CPR)

Unocal/COSO: The Company was a US gas/oil company operating in partnership with Myanmar military and it was building the Pipeline Yandana in the 1990s, the Myanmar military committed murder, rapes and displacement of a great number of people. (Violation of ESCR and CPR)

Image left: Senior Traditional Owner Yvonne Margarula was “deeply saddened” that uranium from Rio Tinto’s Ranger mine on Mirarr country in the Northern Territory was exported to Japanese nuclear companies including TEPCO. Source: Photo by Dominic O’Brien

Rio Tinto, a mining company: The Company had an agreement with the Papua New Guinea government to operate copper mine in Bougainville Island in East New Guinea. During the Company’s operation in the period, 1972-1988, the Company dumped one billion tons of wastes into the Jaba River causing the environmental damage.

The damage was so bad that the citizens of Bougainville sabotaged the Company’s operation. Huge protest demonstrations took place and 15,000 people were killed and 70,000 people were dislocated. (Violation of ESCR and CPR)

There are numerous unknown cases of human rights violations by MNCs. Nobody knows how widely spread these human rights violations are, because many cases are not reported for various reasons. But, it is possible that the extent of the corporate human rights abuses could be beyond our imagination. 

Framework for the Prosecution of MNCs Which Violate Human Rights

One of the challenges which the world has to devise is a proper judiciary system capable of preventing the MNCs from committing human rights violations and punishing them, when they abuse human rights.

At present, though limited in scope and effectiveness, we have the following mechanisms designed to prevent human rights violations by MNCs and punish them when they do violate human rights.

• The anti-bribery law
• The Court Rulings on human rights violations by MNCs
• The Corporate Social Responsibility Program
• International Efforts to cope with MNCs Human Rights Violations

The Anti-Bribery Law 

It appears that bribery is an integral part of humanity. It is reported that 25% of humanity has had bribe experiences. In 2011, the amount of bribes paid was as much as 5% of global GDP, or USD 2.6 trillion.

It seems that, due to bribery, many honest and competent companies are excluded from business contracts. Don John State of Anti-Corruption survey with 300 major companies showed that 40% of the respondents lost contracts because of bribes; they did not pay bribes.

There can be many complex determinants of human rights violations by MNCs. But, perhaps, the culture of bribes is the most important determinant. Because of bribes paid by MNCs to the host country leaders, MNCs can abuse easily human rights.

The transaction of bribes takes place within the global value chains which closely integrate the economies of national, especially those of developing countries.

The bribe involves the collusion between MNCs and the government of the host country, which leads to a situation where the host country overlooks the violations of the ESCR by MNCs.

As pointed out above, this invites citizens to undertake demonstration of protests which the host country government oppress because of bribe money received. This is the violation of CPR. Thus, bribes are the roots of violation of both ESCR and CPR.

It is scandalous to see that many of the famous MNCs are involved in bribes transactions.

The following is the list of the most notorious bribe donors. I will identify the MNCs their nationality, and the amount of settlement for the bribery.

As we will see it later, it is more than difficult to make MNCs accountable for their violation of human rights through international judiciary system.

However, it is fortunate that some developed countries have anti-bribery laws which punish corporation which are involved in bribery. In this way, MNCs human rights violations can be discouraged to some extent. Here is the list of bribe givers:

• Siemens, Germany, (USD 899 million);
• KBR Halliburton, U.S.A., (USD 539 million);
• BAE, the UK, (USD 400 million);
• Total SA, France, (USD398 million);
• Lucent, France, (USD 137 million);
• Snamprogetti, the Netherlands, (USD 365million);
• JCG, Japan, (USD 136 million);
• Alcatal S.A. France, (USD 95 million).

These MNCs are operating throughout the world.

The amount of court settlement represents the amount of fine imposed on the MNCs which are involved in bribery transactions. The important question is whether or not the host countries which are victims of the corruption are compensated for the social cost caused by the bribery.

The bribery imposes several types of social cost. The bribery may end up with the wrong legislations made for the benefit of MNC at the expense of the interests of the host country. The bribery many produce a situation in which the local citizens suffer from the infrastructure facilities of inferior quality, low wage, long hour of work, misallocation of resources and poor economic development.

It is common sense that the host countries which are targets of bribery should be compensated, but, it is rare that they are compensated. Fortunately, in recent years, there have been some movements for the compensation for the bribery led by the UK, France and the U.S.

For instance, in the past decade, in the UK, Tanzania received €41 million for the damage caused by bribery paid by UK MNCs. The Global Forum for Assets Recovery is promoting the sharing of the court settlement money with the host countries which are the victims of bribery.

In the U.S., under the Foreign Corruption Practice Act (FCPA), Thailand was compensated in 2008 and Haiti in 2009 for corruption practice by American Companies operating in these countries.

I had an occasion of helping a Canadian media agent to solve a case of corruption committed by a Canadian MNC in South Korea. The Canadian MNC had a contract with a suburban town near Seoul City for the construction of light railway connecting the town to Seoul City downtown.

The Canadian company supplied a bribe of millions of dollars to the town mayor and others. One of the conditions of the bribe was, among others, the production of a false project-feasibility study in which the estimation of the demand for the railway-traffic was twice the realistic estimate. It appears that the Company was not punished.

Court Rulings on Violations of Human Rights by MNCs

The great majority of cases of MNC human rights violations do not come from court hearing. Some are ignored; some settle the dispute outside the court. There are reasons for this.

1. First the court litigation is expensive.
2. Second, the host governments tend to avoid court battle, because it is often involved in the corruption. Furthermore, their judiciary systems are underdeveloped to handle the case of MNCs’ human rights violations.
3. Third, the home country of MNCs is also reluctant to bring its MNCs to the court, because it does not want to hurt the profit of its MNCs.
4. Fourth, it is difficult to prove human rights violations. The human rights violations are committed by subsidiaries of MNCs, but the responsibility to protect human rights belongs to MNCs.
5. Fifth, the defendant (MNC) can choose the court by virtue of so-called the Forum of Non-Conveniences (FNC). If it finds itself in unfavourable situation; it can choose another court poorly organized in developing countries which are likely to dismiss the case.

Some of the MNCs have several thousand subsidiaries. For example, the Samsung Group has more than 8,000 subsidiaries spread in 80 countries.

Thus, even if the case is brought to the court, the probability of final ruling is low.

According to the EU Parliament, in 2019, there were 35 cases of MNC human rights violations heard at the courts. Of these 35 cases, 12 were dismissed for lack of evidence, 17 were on-going and 4 had extra-judiciary settlements.

Court Hearings

In fact, the following cases have succeeded in having court hearings, but none has led to legal settlement for lack of evidence or for the use of FNC.

Thor Chemical Holding Ltd. UK Company: The plaintiff, Ngcobo sued on November 10, 1995 the Company for being exposed to hazardous mercury vapour in Kuazulu Natal Province, South Africa. Thor was recognized as responsible for its failure of providing proper safety design for the operation.

The plaintiff appealed to US courts. But, the defendant preferred to have it heard in South Africa, where the case was dismissed.

This is another case of the application of the FNC. Thor chose a South African court which was not equipped to handle the case.

Combior Inc. a Quebec Company: The Company belongs to a Quebec company, Omai Gold Mines Ltd of Guyana. Combior Inc, was sued in 2003 by Guyana residents for spilling toxic water polluting the River Essequibo. The Supreme Court of Canada allowed defendant’s use of FNC saying that the Guyana forum (court) is better suited, which was in a state of collapse.

Cape plc, a UK Company: In 2000, the Company was sued by Lubbe for making the plaintiff to be inhaling to asbestos dust causing cancer. The case was heard at a UK court, which found that the parent company had the duty to compensate the victim by virtue of the Tort Law

But, the parent company has too many subsidiaries and it claimed that it was not easy to verify the safety measures taken by all subsidiaries. The case was dismissed.

The Royal Dutch Petroleum, the Netherlands Company: The Company was sued by Wiwa family for Company’s environmental damage. The citizen of the Ogoni region in Nigeria protested. The Nigeria government in complicity with the Company committed torture, cruel treatment and summary execution of the protesters. Ken Saro-Wiwa, leader of the civic movement was hanged on November 10, 1996.

The case was heard in the US District Court and it was dismissed by virtue of FNC.

BHP: an Australia Company: The Company was sued by Rex Dagi on September 22, 1995 for having ruined a River. Dagi was representing 7,500 villagers. The river was OKTedi Fly River of 200 km long from Fly River to the Gulf of Papua. The company dumped since 1984, 100,000 tons of finely crushed rocks into the river. The River died. The Supreme Court of Victoria ruled guilty and the dispute was settle out of court in 1996

Freeport McMorgan and the Freeport McMorgan Copper and Gold, US company: The defendants were sued by Beanal for environmental damage, human right abuse and cultural genocide through the occupation of an area of 26,400 km². Beanal was representing the community of Tamika Jaya, Indonesia. The case was handled by the District Court of Louisiana. The case was dismissed.

Company Social Responsibility (CSR)

There is one way for the national government to prevent MNCs from violating human rights. It is the system of the Company Social Responsibility (CSR). But, the vast majority of MNCs do not have the CSR program. For instance, by 2014, only 272 out of 80,000 MNCs had social policy as a result of the National Action Plan.

In some countries, large companies are obligated by law or encouraged to undertake Company Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.

For instance, in China, the Government-Owned Enterprises (GOE) and the listed enterprises in the Shanghai stock market have the legal obligation to apply CSR.

In India, by virtue of the Company Act of 2013, major companies have the duty to allocate 2% o profit to CSR projects.

Similarly, Cambodia and Japan also have measures to encourage major enterprises to do something for CSR.

But, as pointed above, CSR is not adopted by most companies, and even if they do, it is not known to what extent these measures have contributed to the prevention of human rights violations.

International Efforts to  Cope with MNCs Human Rights Violations

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were the Sullivan Principles and the MacBride Principles.

The Sullivan Principle was adopted in the 1970 in South Africa in order to protect labour rights under the Apartheid and later, in 1999, it was unveiled by Rev Sullivan and the Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan.

On the other hand, the McBride Principles were proposed by New York City controller and endorsed by 4 religious people including Rev. McBride. The principles were intended to induce the US companies in Northern Ireland to protect labour rights.

In 1976, the established Guidelines for MNC related to labour rights, environment and consumer protection.

In Europe, there is the Council of Europe (COE) which is the principal organization of human rights protection. It has 47 member countries of which 28 are European countries.

The European Court of human rights (ECtHR) handles human rights violations; what it tries to accomplish is a proper balance market freedom and human rights.

In 1977, the ILO made the Tripartite Declaration (government, employer, employee) of Principles concerning MNC’s social policy in accordance with the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (UNDHR), the International Covenant in Civil and Political Rights of 1978 (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1978 (ICESCR)

The principles include conditions regarding employment (no forced labour, no child labour), work conditions (wage, safety) and industrial relations (collective negotiation).

In 1972 the UN Assembly warned the coming conflict between MNCs and national governments.

In 1998, the UN Working Group was created by the Sub-Commission on Human Rights with the function of observing the activities of MNCs and protecting human rights.

In 2005, the UN Human Rights Commission asked the UN Secretary General to appoint a special representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) to study the issues related to human rights. Professor John Ruggie was appointed as SRSG.

Professor Ruggie proposed three pillars:

• The State has the duty to protect human rights abuses by MNCs
• MNCs should avoid violation of human rights
• Both State and businesses should have access to judicial and non-judicial remedies.

In 2011, the SRSG was given the second mandate to further examine the issue. The UN accepted his recommendation as guiding principles.

As a result of these guiding principles, the UNHRC visited various countries and members of the Global Compact.

The Global Compact

The Global Compact was created in 2000 and it is composed of 170 countries and 13,000 enterprises and 5,332 NGOs. It has proposed 10 principles related to human rights and business conducts.

• Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally claimed human rights.
• Business should not become complicit in human rights violations.
• Business should uphold labour organization.
• There should be no forced labour.
• There should be no child labour.
• There should be no discrimination of employment and occupation.
• Business should adopt precautionary approach to environment support.
• Businesses should take initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
• Businesses should promote and diffuse environment-friendly technologies.
• Businesses should work against corruption.

The efforts of the UNHRC has led to the establishment of several initiatives to better handle MNCs human rights violations including the Global Reporting Initiative, the International Finance Corporation Standard and the OECD Due Diligence Guidelines.

Moreover, some countries including France, the UK and the U.S. are enacting Due Diligence Law imposed on the parent companies so that the operation of subsidiaries be better monitored and controlled. 

Despite the efforts of some MNCs, national governments, international institutions and especially the devotion of the UNHRC, the violation of human rights by MNC is continuing without proper punishment. Why?

1. First, there are no international laws. What are called international laws of human rights are just a set of guidelines with no judicial power; there are no real human rights courts.  Laws with no courts to manage, they are not laws.
2. Second, neither the home country nor the host country is really interested in prosecuting MNCs which violate human rights for different reasons. The host country is reluctant to persecute MNCs either due to its collusion with the MNCs or inability to so, or both. The home country is not keen on punishing its MNCs operating in foreign countries.
3. Third, even if MNCs are brought to the courts in the home country or the host country, it is quasi impossible to persecute MNCs due to the lack of proof of human rights violations, because of the complexity of MNC-subsidiaries relations and, especially, due to the use of the bizarre system of Forum of Non-Conveniences (FNC) which allows the defendant to choose the courts which are likely to dismiss the case.

The interesting question is the future prospect of human rights violations of MNCs. It appears that the present state of human rights violations by MNCs is likely to get worse in the future due to the difficulty of establishing binding international law of human rights on the one hand and, on the other, the possibility of increasing power and wealth of MNCs as a result of the pandemic.

What is worrisome is the long-run impact of MNCs’ human rights abuse on the developing economies.

The presence of MNCs in developing countries are supposed to be beneficial in the long run, for they would contribute to the long-run economic development of these countries through FDI, creation of jobs, transfer of technology, promotion of exports, workers training, development of free market and other constructive programs.

However, in many cases, developing countries are caught in the trap of cheap labour and low-cost natural resources partly due to their collusion with MNCs which violate human rights.

But, as long as developing countries remain the victims of MNCs human rights violations and as long as the host country leaders collide with MNCs for their own greed at the expense of the interest of the people, it would be difficult for them to free themselves from poverty and become “developed countries” They may remain “developing countries” forever.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share buttons above or below. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Joseph H. Chung is a professor of economics and member of the Research Center on Integration and Globalization (CEIM) of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).

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

Featured image is from Rainforest Action Network/flickr/cc

Israel’s Air Defense and the Weakness of the U.S. Navy. “Damage Control Project” of Commander of the U.S. Naval Forces

By Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, October 10, 2024

After Iran’s attack on Israel with around 300 missiles and drones on April 14, 2024, the second attack with 180 ballistic missiles on October 1, 2024 revealed the serious vulnerabilities of Israel’s air defense system again.

Ukraine Pressured to Negotiate with Russia by Western Allies and Global South

By Ahmed Adel, October 10, 2024

More than two years into the Ukrainian conflict, the Kiev regime is facing pressure from both Western allies and the Global South to come to the negotiating table to reach a “flexible” peace with Russia, Bloomberg reported. 

Palestine and the People of the World. 124 Nations Endorsed the UN General Assembly Resolution to End the Illegal Israeli Occupation of Palestine

By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, October 10, 2024

On Wednesday, 18^th September 2024, 124 nations voted in favour of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution to end the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in Palestine.  

Globalists Revving Up Plans to Engineer Global Famine and Starvation

By Leo Hohmann, October 09, 2024

The global climate cult is getting ready to kick its war on food into overdrive with 13 nations – many of them major cattle and food-producing states led by the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Spain – signing onto a commitment to place farmers under new restrictions intended to reduce emissions of methane gas.

US Navy Was at Scene of Nord Stream Blasts: Danish Media

By Al Mayadeen, October 10, 2024

Prior to the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, US Navy ships were present at the location, according to a local harbormaster quoted in the Danish newspaper Politiken.

United States Imperialism and the Genocide in Gaza

By Abayomi Azikiwe, October 09, 2024

The Biden administration continues to express its unconditional support for the Zionist entity while the massacres continue. When the primary elections took place in the winter and spring, the movement for an uncommitted protest vote provided a clear signal of the potential political failure of the Biden White House.

October 7, 2001: America’s “Just War” Against Afghanistan: Women’s Rights “Before” and “After” America’s Destructive Wars

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, October 08, 2024

The NeoCons’ agenda is not to “win the war” but to engineer the breakup of sovereign nation states, destroy their culture and national identity, derogate fundamental values and human rights.

Below is an excerpt from The Aviation Herald:

An Aeromexico Boeing 787-9, registration XA-ADL performing flight AM-34 from Monterrey (Mexico) to Madrid, SP (Spain), was enroute at FL370 about 80nm west of Richmond,VA (USA) when the crew decided to divert due to the first officer becoming unwell. The aircraft descended to FL200, initially aimed for a return to Monterrey then turned and overflew New Orleans,LA (USA) before setting course to Mexico City (Mexico) where the aircraft landed safely about 3:45 hours after the decision to turn around.

The aircraft remained on the ground for about 3 hours, then departed again, set course directly to Madrid and landed in Madrid with a delay of about 8:45 hours.

Passengers reported the crew announced the first officer had a medical problem and they were returning to Monterrey, later they were informed they were diverting to Mexico City.

.

.

Pilot incapacitations inflight in 2024 (six so far):

Jun. 12, 2024 – Nesma Airlines Flight NE-130 (CAI-TIF) Cairo, Egypt to Taif (Saudi Arabia) – pilot Captain Hassan Youssef Adas in his late 30s collapsed and died from a presumed heart attack

Jun. 4, 2024 – Aeromexico Flight AM-34 (MTY-MAD) from Monterrey (Mexico ) to Madrid (Spain), first officer became unwell, had a medical problem, flight diverted to Mexico City.

Mar. 14, 2024 – British Airways BA-2272 (JFK-LGW) New York to London-Gatwickone of the pilots became incapacitated, plane forced to divert to St.John’s, NL, Canada.

Feb. 17, 2024 – Lufthansa Flight LH-1140 (FRA-SVQ) Frankfurt to Seville on Feb.17, 2024 – First Officer Incapacitated, plane turned around back to Madrid

Feb. 16, 2024 – DELTA – NYC – 58 year old Capt Geoffrey John Brock died unexpectedly on Feb.16, 2024 during a layover in Honolulu, HI

Jan. 16, 2024 – LATAM Brasil Flight LA-3744 (BSB-JPA) Brasilia to Joao Pessoa on Jan.16, 2024 – Pilot Incapacitated, plane diverted to Salvador for safe landing

My Take…

I have been tracking pilot incapacitations in-flight since the start of 2023.

Fortunately there are fewer incapacitations in 2024 compared to 2023, I’d say about half as many, but a lot of pilot deaths in general.

This would suggest the COVID-19 Vaccine Injury profile is changing from acute cardiac events to more chronic illnesses, especially cancer.

Lots of pilots are dying from cancer.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

Featured image is from COVID Intel

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. 

More than two years into the Ukrainian conflict, the Kiev regime is facing pressure from both Western allies and the Global South to come to the negotiating table to reach a “flexible” peace with Russia, Bloomberg reported. However, this is complicated because, according to a former US official, making any concessions to Russia “would be fatal” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to the Bloomberg article, Ukraine is approaching the third winter of the conflict against the backdrop of reduced Western support. Germany is allocating much less funds in its budget to Ukraine, and “France is grappling with its own ballooning deficit.”

Despite Zelensky’s statements that he is unwilling to negotiate any concessions with Moscow, senior Ukrainian officials admitted to the outlet that “an endgame should come into play.”

“Ukraine’s allies are detecting that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy may be getting ready to adopt a more flexible approach as they look at ways to help bring an end to Russia’s war,” the article quotes its sources close to NATO.

Kiev’s possible membership in NATO has not been confirmed even by US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris who, in turn, had promised support for Ukraine.

The article admits that in addition to the West, another part of the world, the Global South, also wants peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to take place. Unlike the West, countries in the Global South, particularly Brazil and China, have consistently stated that Russia must be included in peace negotiations.

“Zelensky’s blueprint to isolate Moscow by securing the support of countries such as China, India and Brazil has stalled amid an insistence” that the Kremlin has a seat at the negotiating table, the article concludes.

On June 15-16, the so-called “Peace Summit for Ukraine” was held in the Swiss resort of Burgenstock, but Russia was not invited. Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa and other states did not sign the final communiqué. The Kremlin said that it makes no sense to look for options for resolving the situation in the Ukrainian conflict without Russia’s participation.

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s peaceful settlement of the conflict calls for Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the new Russian regions, demands that Kiev renounce its intentions to join NATO and adopt a neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status, carry out the country’s demilitarisation and denazification, and lift anti-Russia sanctions.

Daria Zarivna, the aide to Zelensky’s chief of staff, announced that the second peace summit will not be held in November, as originally planned.

“The second Peace Summit will not take place in November. But everything for its preparation should already be ready. So far, thematic conferences are being held on each item of the Formula, which ends with the adoption of communiqués. The main provisions of these communiqués will form the basis for the future peace plan of the Second Summit,” Zarivna said on October 8.

According to Stephen Bryen, former deputy assistant secretary of the US Department of Defense, Zelensky cancelled the second Ukraine peace summit after realising that almost no one would attend.

Bryen’s beliefs on the summit’s cancellation are based on US presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s statement that she will not talk to Putin about Ukraine without Zelensky.

“Meanwhile Zelensky, who was just forced to cancel a forthcoming ‘peace summit’ (officially postponed to a future time) because no one wanted to come, has made it clear he will not negotiate with Moscow under any circumstances,” he wrote in his Substack article.

Furthermore, as the Ukrainian army begins to disintegrate, Zelensky is relying on “neo-Nazi elite brigades for his protection,” Bryen noted. “Zelensky understands that any concession he might make to Russia would be fatal for him.”

The former deputy assistant secretary to the Department of Defense concluded his article:

“There is growing unease in the United States about the hundreds of billions wasted on Ukraine, with no settlement now possible.  At some point that policy will result in a major walk-back from the NATO alliance, and from any commitment to defend Europe when it really does little to defend itself.”

In effect, Zelensky is facing increased pressure from the West and the Global South to concede on his ridiculous policy of not negotiating with the Kremlin so that the war can be concluded. However, because he has relied on neo-Nazi formations to battle Russian forces and to preserve the regime, it also puts him in a dangerous position as the Ukrainian neo-Nazis want the war to continue.

At the same time, Zelensky is evidently unwilling to relinquish power by his refusal to step down or hold the elections that were due in May, meaning that the war will continue since he relies on neo-Nazis to maintain his power and preserve the regime. These neo-Nazis will kill him, according to Bryen, if he ends the war.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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 is from the Public Domain

Prior to the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, US Navy ships were present at the location, according to a local harbormaster quoted in the Danish newspaper Politiken.

The Nord Stream 2 pipelines, a major infrastructure project aimed at delivering natural gas from Russia to Europe, were targeted in an act of sabotage in September 2022, with Moscow pointing fingers at the West or Ukraine.

In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukrainian businessmen had funded the attack on the project, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had ordered to halt the attack at the CIA’s request. 

Russia, however, insisted that the reports shared by WSJ were a mere tactic to divert attention from the actual perpetrators, saying its findings were improbable. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov affirmed that Russian Intelligence is certain that major states were involved in the sabotage. 

Despite being published on September 26, Politiken’s article received little attention. But on Tuesday, it reappeared on X when Glenn Greenwald and other well-known independent journalists repeated the claims.

According to the story, American warships were operating in the region east of the Danish island of Bornholm with their transponders turned off.

The article included statements from John Anker Nielsen, the harbormaster of the Danish port of Christianso, which lies near Bornholm. He stated that he had opted to publish information on the September 2022 events, despite originally being “not allowed to say a thing” about them.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image: Half a million tons of methane rise from the sabotaged Nord Stream pipeline. Photo: Swedish Coast Guard

These lines were written on CNN, the voice of the Democratic Party close to the US neocons, at a time when US President Biden announced that he had not yet received a guarantee that Israel would not target nuclear facilities in a possible counter-attack on Iran. This is clearly an expression of the US being held hostage by Netanyahu.

In this case, we can say that the world is under Israel’s mortgage until the US presidential elections on November 5, 2024. If Iran’s nuclear facilities are hit, it goes without saying that this crisis will grow very large and humanity will face multi-dimensional crises. It is possible to say that this situation will bring about the collapse of the US faster than the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Iran’s Attack on Selected Targets on October 1

After Iran’s attack on Israel with around 300 missiles and drones on April 14, 2024, the second attack with 180 ballistic missiles on October 1, 2024 revealed the serious vulnerabilities of Israel’s air defense system again. The strategic Nevatim and Hatzerim air bases were hit in this attack. Today, Israel has a progressive air defense system supported by the US. The Iron Dome Low Altitude Air Defense System; the David’s Sling Medium/High-Altitude Ballistic Missile Defense System and the Arrow 2/3 High Altitude Ballistic Missile Defense System operate in conjunction with the central command and control system (IMDO). This system is also supported by the American Patriot and THAAD systems and the high precision and range X-band radars located in the Necef Desert, Keren and Kürecik Malatya.

.

Image shows the Israel’s Nevatim Airbase and the Commanding Officer of the base, Brig. Gen. Yotam Sigler. (Image by Tugce Atmaca/Türkiye Today)

.

US Navy and Israeli Air Defense

The Pentagon announced that 81 UAVs and 6 ballistic missiles were shot down by American air defense efforts in the April 14 attack. Following the October 1 attack, the Pentagon announced that a dozen of the 180 missiles were shot down by two of the three American destroyers in the Mediterranean (USS Bulkeley and USS Cole).

Four of these ships, which have the Arleigh Burke class SM 3 high altitude ballistic missile defense system, are permanently stationed at the US naval base in Cadiz/Rota, Spain. These ships are dynamically assigned and deployed to the crisis region when the ballistic missile threat to US allies and friends increases. When necessary, the ships in question, which serve in the Eastern Mediterranean, receive detection and tracking information for exo-atmospheric prevention from the American X-Band radars located in Malatya/Kürecik and Keren in the Necef Desert. One of the main information inputs and cross-tell stations of the Aegis command and control system of the ships in question, which are connected to the NATO Ballistic Missile Defense System, in Europe and the Mediterranean basin is the “Kürecik Radar” in Malatya. This radar was brought to our country through the NATO Agreement. However, it is completely American property and Turkiye has no discretion regarding its operation. They work online with the American Aegis destroyers serving in the Eastern Mediterranean. With this information, it is possible to shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at Israel at an early stage. Therefore, on the one hand, saying that “Israel’s target is Turkey” and on the other hand, transmitting information to American warships protecting Israel via the Americans’ X Band radar in Kürecik is a very contradictory, even oxymoronic situation.

Decrease in American Naval Support to Israel

In the October 1 attack, we see that the US provided support to Israel with roughly 50% fewer ships compared to the April 14 attack. Most importantly, there was no American aircraft carrier strike group in the Mediterranean when the October 1 attacks took place. The USS Truman aircraft carrier strike group only entered the Mediterranean from Gibraltar on the morning of October 3, 2024. This group also includes an Aegis-class cruiser and 2 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that can support Israeli air defense. On the other hand, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, which was supposed to be in the Pacific theater of operations and was dispatched to the region for Israel, was in the Arabian Sea during the October 1 attack. Keeping this group at the entrance to the Persian Gulf for the purpose of deterring Iran rather than preventing air attacks against Israel is a preference of American decision-makers. However, what is striking is the small number of American ships sent to support the defense of Israel. It was expected that Iran would attack Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Haniyeh. The assassination of Lebanese Shiite leader Nasrallah last week increased this possibility. However, there has been no change in the number of American warships. The arrival of the USS Truman aircraft carrier coup group in the Eastern Mediterranean will only occur as these lines are being read on 6th October, five days after the October 1 attacks.

Let us remind that the record number of ships in terms of military support and assistance to Israel was set in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The US had a presence in the Eastern Mediterranean with 60 ships during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) (From the Public Domain)

.

American Sea Power Is in Weakness

The fact that the US had only three Aegis class (Arleigh Burke) destroyers with air defense capability in the Eastern Mediterranean during the October 1 Iranian attack is not a strategic choice but rather a weakness in its navy. As of September 30, the day before the October 1 attack, the US Navy’s combat force was 297 ships, (237 combat ships and 60 auxiliary ships). Of these ships, 76 combat ships and 30 auxiliary ships (106 ships in total) were deployed. However, 71 of these 106 ships were underway. US sources do not specify how many of these ships were combatants and how many were auxiliary ships. If we assume, as a rough estimate, that 55 ships were combat ships and 16 were auxiliary ships, we understand why there were only 3 Aegis-class destroyers in the Mediterranean when the October 1 attack took place. The fact that 106 ships out of a total of 295 were deployed is an indication of how low the ships’ combat readiness was. In addition to the fact that it will take years to raise the combat readiness of the remaining ships, let us remember that the warships held in the American reserve fleets to be used in mobilization are on average over 40 years old and in poor condition.

Damage Control Project of the Commander of the United States Naval Forces

Image: ADM Lisa M. Franchetti, Chief of Naval Operations (From the Public Domain)

At the end of her one-year term as force commander, US Navy Commander Admiral Lisa Franchetti prepared a road map (navigation plan) titled NAVPLAN 24 in September 2024. This report summarizes the difficult period that the US naval force is in, by its highest-level executive. Franchetti, the 33rd Chief of Naval Forces (CNO), has the following action plan in his sailing plan, which he calls Project 33:

“We cannot create a larger conventional navy in a few years, or focus solely on numbers without the right capabilities to win the struggle for sea control… But even without these resources, we will develop our war readiness, capabilities and capacity. We must understand that the navy faces serious financial and industrial constraints.”

The most important emphasis in the report is that they are preparing to fight China in 2027. This issue is included in the Sailing Plan as follows:

“The President of the People’s Republic of China has ordered his forces to be ready for war by 2027. We will be more ready.’’

Franchetti, who said that they would be more ready with an extremely childish expression, later added:

‘’The defense industry of the People’s Republic of China is currently in a war footing with the largest shipbuilding infrastructure in the world, which is currently under the command of the navy.’’

However, the fact that the US Naval Forces Commander focused on President Xi Jinping’s discourse in such an important document is a serious example of weakness. A naval power that claims to dominate the oceans and seas since 1945 accepts its rival taking the initiative to choose the time of war.

Then let’s ask, for example, what will happen if the US-Iran war starts and China decides to go to war before 2027?

The Problem of Increasing the Level of War Readiness

Another striking issue in the document is that the target is to increase the current force to 80% combat readiness. This means if 106 of the 297 ships currently available are deployed, the combat readiness level is around 35%. If we accept that some of the ships in the port at their home bases will be made ready for combat in a short time, we can accept that the readiness level will be around 50% with the highest optimism. Admiral Franchetti aims to increase this level to 80% in the next three years. We are really faced with a picture that is very contrary to the history of the US Navy. As it is understood from both the document and Franchetti’s statements, the real problem is the maintenance and repair problem of the ships. Warships at the end of deployments and tasking cycle they go through maintenance/ overhaul period and upon completion the combat training cycle starts before the ship totally becomes combat ready. This process, which would take 12-15 months if everything worked normally, no longer works in the US. According to Franchetti’s statement in the navigation plan, the maintenance of surface fleets (cruisers, destroyers, amphibious ships and corvettes) is currently about 2,700 days behind, or almost seven years. This is an incredible delay.

The Role Model of the US Navy: Ukraine and the Houthis

The document very interestingly refers to the asymmetric naval successes of the fleetless Ukraine and the bare foot Houthi fighters in the Black and Red Seas, implying that the weakness of the navy will be offset by unmanned vehicles and robotic systems.

In order to prepare for a conflict with China in the Pacific in 2027, the report emphasizes a new class of unmanned systems to create low-cost, lethal air and surface systems that would disrupt an invasion beyond Taiwan. However, he does not mention that the US is an ocean state and that they will need large-tonnage platforms that can navigate the ocean to move from the CONUS to areas of interest. For example, the foundation of American naval power depends on bases and the support of these bases in wartime. Only in this way can warships in distant areas receive fuel, ammunition and personnel support. This support also needs to be created in the homeland.

However, how that logistical support will be provided from the homeland to these bases? The American merchant fleet is insufficient. They have only 200 ships flying their own flag. The US auxiliary ship fleet, MSC (Military Sealift Command), also has very limited resources. They have 19 offshore logistics support and fuel supply tankers; 14 ammunition transporters; 15 military supply transporters; 21 pre-positioned stockpiling supply ships in overseas bases and around 60 foreign-flagged leased ships. Last month, 17 of these were put into reserve status due to lack of personnel. Half of the rest are not ready for action anyway. This fleet is not even sufficient for their own needs, let alone their allies.

It is clear that these numbers will be extremely insufficient in a two-front war with China and Russia on the Atlantic/European and Asia/Pacific fronts. The combat vehicles of just one mechanized division weigh over 100 thousand tons. According to NATO’s cold war plans, the amount of cargo that needed to be reinforced from the US for supplementary supplies in the first months of a war in Europe was around 25 million tons. The military operation requirement was 100 million barrels of petroleum products.

Now let’s add the Pacific theater of operations to this picture, where the distances are much longer. We are faced with a terribly difficult picture. Because the most important US allies in the Pacific, such as Japan, Australia and South Korea, do not have oil. At least they are dependent on the US for fuel.

Let’s add the war that will continue with Russia in Europe to this situation. I am not even mentioning the sea lift that will last for months in the Pacific and the Atlantic, and therefore the need to protect these convoys against a three-dimensional threat. Except for 11 nuclear aircraft carriers, every ship needs to refuel at sea several times during ocean crossings. However, they do not have enough ships. MSC ships also do not have surface or air defense systems to defend themselves. Under these conditions, it is not clear how the Pacific front will be supported if war breaks out with China tomorrow.

American Sea Power Is Chronically Insufficient

In June 2023, the American Congress approved the naval target of 381 ships. In addition, it is aimed to have 397 ships by 2053. However, today, in order to complete the 381 ship target by 2030, a 20% budget increase is needed, which is not possible under today’s debt stock burden.

Today, the backbone of American naval power is nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN), other than nuclear aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines (SSBN).

However, today, nearly 40% of submarines are under repair and the delays in repair are enormous. If aircraft carriers operate in waters close to the continent – ​​for example, in the South or East China Sea – they are likely to be hit by hypersonic and ballistic missiles. In short, the US is unprepared for a major power conflict which is developing.

If a conflict with China were to break out tomorrow, the American Navy would have very little chance of winning because it is not ready. The logistical difficulties of building and sustaining American naval power in the short and medium terms are incredible. If the problem of replenishing existing weapons and ammunition stocks is added to this, the seriousness of the situation becomes apparent.

Image: This photograph of Seth Cropsey was taken at the Army-Navy Club in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 2024. (Licensed under CC0)

According to former American Undersecretary of the Navy Seth Cropsey, if the US does not increase the production of the weapons it will need in the Indo-Pacific, especially hypersonic cruise and ballistic missiles and short-range anti-ship weapons, it will lose a war for Taiwan in weeks. In its current state, the US Navy cannot maintain its bases and allies in the Indo-Pacific Oceans and its transoceanic logistical support line.

The parameters of the US-USA balance in the Cold War and today’s US-China balance are extremely different. The USSR could not defeat the US because the American Navy’s enormous size of 600 ships confined the Soviets to the continent and weakened them. China, on the other hand, is far more advanced at sea than the US naval power today. China has the advantage in terms of both its geographical location, naval power and number of anti-ship missiles. The conditions are more in its favor than ever to bring this to a dynamic conclusion. The US is weakening its power in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf because of Israel. China, on the other hand, will use every opportunity to protect and develop its own geopolitical interests, especially in Taiwan and the South China Sea, as long as the Israel-Iran crisis continues.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, Writer, Geopolitical Expert, Theorist and creator of the Turkish Bluehomeland (Mavi Vatan) doctrine. He served as the Chief of Strategy Department and then the head of Plans and Policy Division in Turkish Naval Forces Headquarters. As his combat duties, he has served as the commander of Amphibious Ships Group and Mine Fleet between 2007 and 2009. He retired in 2012. He established Hamit Naci Blue Homeland Foundation in 2021. He has published numerous books on geopolitics, maritime strategy, maritime history and maritime culture. He is also a honorary member of ATASAM.  

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: The Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) transits the South China Sea. Reagan is part of Task Force 70/Carrier Strike Group 5, conducting underway operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rawad Madanat)

The Ukrainian population in the United Kingdom has increased from 40,000 to 160,000 people following the start of the Russian special military operation in February 2022, according to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. Using data from the University of Oxford, British media said the rapid increase in these immigrants could pose a problem for the British government.

The Economist said the British government allowed people from Ukraine to enter if Britons offered to house them for six months, unlike asylum seekers from other countries who are usually housed in hotels. According to the report, two-thirds of adult Ukrainians arriving in the UK are women because men can only leave Ukraine if they are outside conscription age, have a health problem or have at least three children.

According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), 80% of migrants are furloughed, and most are employed. UK media reported that a fifth of them work remotely for their former employers, but many are underemployed.

The ONS survey asked Ukrainians where they would prefer to live if they believed their country was safe. In April, 68% gave the UK as their answer, up from 52% the previous year. Almost half have not visited Ukraine since leaving the country.

The Economist noted that while the British government allows Ukrainians to work and receive benefits, including healthcare, they are treated as temporary visitors rather than refugees.

After spending five years in Britain, most foreign workers and refugees can apply for permanent residency, as in the case of Hong Kong citizens who entered under a special visa regime. Ukrainians, however, are only allowed to stay for three years and extend their visas for a further 18 months, the outlet reported.

Policymakers need to be aware of the scale of the illegal migrant problem, said Denis Kierans, senior researcher at Oxford’s COMPAS migration centre, as

“these are people who are living and working in the UK, but who are operating outside the mainstream tax and benefits system. What that means is the state is missing out on their contributions to the public purse while they end up at the fringes of society, at risk of exploitation and destitution.”

The report noted that the UK’s new Labour government faces a “dilemma,” especially if the conflict in Ukraine continues. The state will have to decide on the future of Ukrainians who arrived in the UK and quickly settled there with their children.

“These regulations were created by the last Tory government. They leave a dilemma for the new Labour one, particularly if the war drags on,” The Economist reported.

According to official figures published days ago, the British economy grew less than previously estimated between April and June, expanding by 0.5%, down from an initial reading of 0.6%. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the upcoming Budget will be “painful,” which brings to question how Britain will continue to not only fund the thousands of Ukrainians living in the country, but how to continue supporting the Kiev regime, which insists on an unwinnable war against Russia because of Western backing.

The UK Ministry of Defence recently announced that Ukraine will receive £3.5 billion to purchase British-made weapons.

“The UK’s support for Ukraine is ironclad. We continue to lead the way in providing military aid, but our support is much broader than simply providing equipment. Our flourishing defence industrial relationship symbolises the work happening across Government and the private sector to ramp up and speed up our support. By deepening our ties with Ukraine’s defence industry, we are expanding own industrial capacity, while boosting Ukraine’s own capabilities. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we will provide support for as long as it takes,” British Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard, said on October 6.

Yet, while the UK has been assigning massive resources to Ukraine’s failed war efforts, which now stand at least over £16 billion in contributions, the country continues to be flooded by illegal immigrants, which further strains the economy and contributes to the impoverishment of citizens. According to Oxford University research, migrant numbers to the UK top those of Germany (up to 700,000), Spain (469,000), Italy (458,000), and France (300,000). The number of people crossing the Channel into the UK in 2024 has grown 5% since September 2023, with 26,612 people in 503 boats.

In this context, it appears that London has all its priorities wrong. Rather than contributing to a peaceful resolution in Ukraine so Ukrainians can return home peacefully, and rather than dealing with the massive numbers of illegal immigrants entering the country, the Starmer administration has as a top priority the prolonging of war, which only leads to further death and destruction as well as the continued and persistent impoverishment of British citizens.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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: Ukrainian children are fleeing Russian aggression. (Licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Israel’s wanton aggression against Lebanon has overshadowed an important decision made by the UN General Assembly linked to the violence and wars that mark our present moment in history.

On Wednesday, 18^th September 2024, 124 nations voted in favour of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution to end the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in Palestine.  

The resolution was prompted by a ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world’s highest judicial body, which had ordered Israel to withdraw from Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The ICJ decision of 19^th July 2024 was undoubtedly influenced by Israel’s blatant genocide in Gaza and its massacres in the West Bank. The UN General Assembly gave Tel Aviv 12 months to withdraw from the OPT.

Given Israel’s track record, no one should expect Israel to abide by the UNGA’s resolution. Nonetheless, the 124 nations that endorsed the resolution should go all out to ensure that the resolution is implemented. They represent almost two-thirds of the total membership of the UN. Their vote, viewed collectively, is the voice of the vast majority of the human family. The huge public gatherings held in so many different parts of the world in the course of the last one year against Israel’s genocide and for the right of the Palestinians to establish their own sovereign, independent state in accordance with UN resolutions attest to the overwhelming support that the Palestinian quest for self- determination enjoys among the people of the world. 

The 124 member states of the UN that endorsed the 18^th September resolution should remember that the ICJ decision that underscores the UNGA resolution requires member states not to recognize “the unlawful presence of Israel in the OPT” and not to render aid or assistance to Israel in maintaining its illegal occupation. Translated into tangible action, the 124 states should appeal to the five veto wielding members of the UN Security Council not to use the veto to repudiate the UNGA vote when the issue is brought to the Council for its endorsement. Needless to say, the resolution can only be enforced by the Council. 

If there is any indication that the veto is going to be used to deny the will of the majority of the UN membership, the endorsers of the UNGA resolution should meet and set up a committee that will explore ways and means by which the resolution can be rendered meaningful.

Countries such as South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil can be part of such a committee.

The UN Secretary-General will also be a crucial member of the Committee. Apart from organizing a permanent ceasefire, the Committee can also ensure that food, fuel, medicines and other essentials are readily available to the people of Gaza and other parts of Palestine. The proposed Committee should also facilitate the release of all hostages presently held by Hamas. Most of all, the Committee should lay out a framework for the resolution of all conflicts between Israel and Palestine and Israel and its neighbours. The Committee’s final recommendations should be presented to the UNGA for its approval. 

The UNGA’s approval would signal that the General Assembly —and not the Security Council— is the body within the UN that decides on fundamental issues of war and peace. This is the empowerment of the General Assembly that we should work towards. An empowered GA will give hope to people everywhere.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), Malaysia. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A Eslováquia parece estar cada vez mais firme na sua posição dissidente dentro da OTAN. O país não está disposto a aceitar a Ucrânia como membro, uma vez que o primeiro-ministro eslovaco deixou recentemente claro que fará tudo o que estiver ao seu alcance para impedir que Kiev seja aceita na aliança. Isto mostra como a opinião crítica em relação à Ucrânia está a começar a crescer dentro da OTAN e pode tornar-se uma tendência no futuro.

Robert Fico disse recentemente que o seu país continuará a opor-se à adesão da Ucrânia à OTAN. Segundo ele, só impedindo a adesão da Ucrânia à OTAN será possível evitar uma guerra mundial, tendo em conta a atual situação de conflito entre o país e a Federação Russa – na qual a OTAN já participa quase diretamente através do envio sistemático de dinheiro, armas e mercenários.

Durante uma entrevista a um canal de televisão local, prometeu ao povo eslovaco que, enquanto permanecer no cargo de Primeiro-Ministro, fará tudo o que estiver ao seu alcance para impedir que Kiev seja aceita na OTAN. Na mesma linha, Fico disse que usará a sua influência para fazer com que os legisladores eslovacos sigam o seu exemplo e tomem uma posição contra a Ucrânia, tentando assim criar um consenso entre os políticos do país.

“Enquanto eu for o primeiro-ministro da República Eslovaca, levarei os legisladores, sobre os quais tenho controle como presidente do partido, a nunca concordarem com a adesão da Ucrânia à OTAN (…) a entrada da Ucrânia na OTAN serviria como uma boa base para uma terceira guerra mundial”, disse ele.

Esta postura não surpreende, considerando que Fico é conhecido pela sua abordagem realista do conflito entre a Rússia e a Ucrânia. Ele tem sido um dos críticos mais veementes da guerra, defendendo uma atitude neutra por parte da Eslováquia e de outros países da OTAN. Devido à sua agenda pró-paz, Fico é frequentemente descrito pela propaganda ocidental como um político “pró-Rússia” ou um “fantoche do Kremlin”, quando na verdade tudo o que ele defende é simplesmente a perspectiva mais racional nos interesses do seu próprio país.

Juntamente com Robert Fico, Viktor Orban da Hungria é outro político europeu que critica muito a posição da OTAN na guerra. Juntos, ambos os líderes começam a liderar uma espécie de “grupo dissidente” dentro da OTAN e da UE. Fico e Orban não são “pró-russos” ou “antiocidentais”; estão simplesmente a tentar fazer com que a Europa atue de forma soberana no conflito, evitando participar em planos de guerra que beneficiam apenas os EUA e que parecem verdadeiramente suicidas para os outros membros da OTAN.

Fico também têm criticado veementemente o conluio ocidental com o nazismo ucraniano. Recentemente, fez declarações reconhecendo a presença de símbolos nazistas entre as tropas ucranianas, dizendo que a comunidade internacional deveria assumir uma postura firme contra isto e não permanecer em silêncio apenas para servir os interesses geopolíticos ocidentais.

“Todos falamos de fascismo, de nazismo, enquanto toleramos silenciosamente unidades que se deslocam pela Ucrânia e que têm um rótulo muito claro e estão ligadas a movimentos que hoje consideramos perigosos e proibidos. Por se tratar de uma luta geopolítica, ninguém se importa (…) Quero prestar homenagem às vítimas, não com um discurso patético, mas quero apelar à ação (…) A comunidade internacional deveria reconhecer que as tropas com insígnias nazistas, que muitas vezes parecem agir como tal, não podem lutar na Ucrânia”, disse ele.

Posições como as de Fico e Orbán deverão crescer cada vez mais, como se viu nas recentes eleições europeias, onde partidos de direita obtiveram resultados positivos em vários países. Ao contrário do que dizem os meios de comunicação ocidentais, a ascensão da direita não está relacionada com qualquer tipo de “extremismo” ou “fascismo”, mas com o fato de os partidos de direita serem muitas vezes os mais críticos no apoio à Ucrânia. A tendência é que em breve haja cada vez mais políticos eleitos nos países europeus, tanto direitistas como esquerdistas, criticando a agenda pró-guerra da UE e da OTAN – o que traz esperança para um futuro com maior diálogo entre a UE e a Rússia.

Além disso, deve ser enfatizado que, independentemente da posição de Fico, é improvável que a Ucrânia seja aceite na OTAN a qualquer momento. Kiev foi escolhida pela aliança para servir como proxy na guerra contra a Rússia. A OTAN não está interessada em aceitar como membro um país em guerra, e é muito mais provável que a Ucrânia continue a servir como bucha de canhão até o seu colapso absoluto.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

Artigo em inglês : Slovakia not willing to approve Ukraine’s NATO membership, InfoBrics, le 9 octobre 2024.

Imagem : InfoBrics

*

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

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared that his government “will never stop selling weapons to Israel” during a speech at the House of Commons on 7 October.

His statement came in response to a question by MP Zarah Sultana, who pressed Starmer on whether London would “finally do what’s legally and morally right and end the government’s complicity in Israeli war crimes by banning all arms sales to Israel, including F-35 fighter jets, not just 30 licenses.”

“No,” Starmer replied bluntly. “But it is a really serious point. Banning all sales would mean none for defensive purposes. None for defensive purposes on the anniversary of 7 October and days after a huge attack by Iran into Israel would be a wrong position for this government and I will not take it,” Starmer said.

Zarah Sultana: "Will he do what is morally and legally right and end the government's complicity in war crimes by banning all arms sales to Israel, including F-35 fighter jets, not just 30 licenses? Yes or no?"

Keir Starmer: "No." pic.twitter.com/NjK3DFfa8M

— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) October 7, 2024

His statement came during a solemn session to mark the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, which saw the killing of about 1,200 Israelis – many of them at the hands of their own army under the Hannibal Directive.

Starmer’s assertion came days after French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel. 

“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter on Saturday.

Top officials in the British government were warned in September that they could face criminal liability if they continue to export UK-made components for F-35 fighter jets that Israel is using to carpet bomb Gaza and Lebanon.

The letters, sent by Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), told British ministers that they, along with arms company executives, could be indicted for aiding and abetting war crimes if they continue to transfer the components.

“We know that Israeli air strikes and bombs using F-35 fighter jets have devastated densely populated areas, including shelters for displaced Palestinians … The insurmountable evidence that Israel is committing violations and international crimes means the UK government can’t feign ignorance,” Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s general director, told media.

Last month, London announced the suspension of 30 out of 350 active arms export licenses to Israel. However, the list did not include UK-made F-35 parts.

“The decision means that while ministers apparently accept that Israel may be committing war crimes in Gaza, [the government] is nevertheless continuing to risk complicity in war crimes, apartheid – and possible genocide – by Israeli forces in Gaza,” Amnesty International’s Chief Executive, Sacha Deshmukh, said on 3 September.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War  

Featured image is from Labour Friends of Israel

The global climate cult is getting ready to kick its war on food into overdrive with 13 nations – many of them major cattle and food-producing states led by the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Spain – signing onto a commitment to place farmers under new restrictions intended to reduce emissions of methane gas.

The Global Methane Hub announced in a May 17 press release that agriculture and environmental ministers and ambassadors from 13 countries, including the United States, have signed a commitment that pledges to reduce methane emissions in agriculture. The U.S. was represented by Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry.

What does this mean and why should you care? We’ll break it down.

According to the press release issued by these nations and posted at Global Methane Hub:

“Last month (in April 2023), the Global Methane Hub collaborated with the Ministries of Agriculture of Chile and Spain to convene the first-ever global ministerial on agricultural practices to reduce methane emissions. The ministerial brought together high-ranking government members to share global perspectives on methane reduction and low-emission food systems. The gathering led to a statement in which the nations committed to support efforts to improve the quality and quantity of, and access to, finance for climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in the agriculture and food sectors and to collaborate on efforts aimed at lowering methane emissions in agriculture and food systems.”

Conference participants included the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Climate & Clean Air Coalition, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The World Bank, another creation of the post-World War II, U.S.-led liberal rules-based order, has been talking a lot lately, along with the U.N., about a coming famine. The World Bank issued a white paper just last week, on May 22, titled Food Security Update: World Bank Response to Rising Food Insecurity.

The director of the United Nations World Food Program has also been putting out, starting in September of last year, dire warnings about a coming global famine.

So it’s curious to me that, at the very time the globalists are warning about food shortages and famine, their mouthpieces at the World Bank, the U.N., and within the administrations of the U.S. and its allies (notice China and Russia are nowhere to be found in these preposterous anti-food policies), are talking about converting over to a new and unproven form of “sustainable” farming that’s focused more on reducing methane than it is on producing the highest yields of food.

Modern food production is bad, they tell us, because it produces methane which supposedly harms the environment.

“Food systems are responsible for 60% of methane emissions,” said Marcelo Mena, CEO of Global Methane Hub. “We congratulate countries willing to take the lead in food systems methane mitigation and confirm our commitment to support this type of initiative with programs that explore promising methane mitigation technologies and the underpinning research of methane mitigation mechanisms to create new technologies.”

John Kerry is also very excited about taking valuable, productive farmland offline, reducing the size of cattle herds, and turning our food-production systems over to technocrats and globalists offering vague promises of “new technologies.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. is busy trying to mitigate methane emissions not just in America but worldwide, stating on its website:

“The United States provides key leadership, funding and technical expertise for international methane emission reduction efforts, resulting in more than 1,140 methane mitigation projects through GMI as of 2021.”

See map of EPA methane mitigation activity below:

.

.

In just one example, the Biden administration plans to spend $1.5 million in taxpayer funds on a program aimed at “empowering” female climate change activists in the “patriarchal” society of northern Kenya, documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

John Kerry said in a statement,

“Mitigating methane is the fastest way to reduce warming in the short term. Food and agriculture can contribute to a low-methane future by improving farmer productivity and resilience. We welcome agriculture ministers participating in the implementation of the Global Methane Pledge.”

The May 17 press release further states that,

“The focus of the conference was the deployment of science-based practices, innovation, and technologies in line with sustainable food production…”

The nations signing onto this pledge to transform their farm policies are the United States, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Panama, Peru and Spain.

The government of Spain will organize a second conference in 2024 to monitor and advance implementation efforts related to the statement and encourage more countries to join, according to the May 14 press release.

In order to save the planet from emissions that come from cow farts, they claim it’s necessary to force farmers to change the way they farm, converting their land and livestock to more “innovative” methods and “science-based practices.” These methods will need to be implemented not just on farms but throughout the “food systems.”

They never come out and say what these “innovative” changes are, only that they will be based on “new technologies” and “science-based.”

We can presume from this language that among the practices being considered are replacing a major portion of the beef and dairy cattle, pork and chicken stocks that populations rely on for protein with insect larvae, meal worms, crickets, etc. The U.N., World Economic Forum and other NGOs have been promoting meatless diets and the consumption of insect protein for years, and billionaires have invested in massive insect factories being built in the state of Illinois, in Canada and in the Netherlands, where meal worms, crickets and other bugs will be processed as additives to be inserted into the food supply, often without clear labels that will inform people of exactly what they are eating. Bill Gates is also partnering with other billionaires to invest in the production of lab-grown meat, a process that involves using cancer cells from cows, chickens and pigs to quickly grow artificial meat.

Farmers will be increasingly forced off their land, as is already happening in the Netherlands, which is the world’s second leading net exporter of food after the United States.

All this will add up to a coming famine the likes of which has never been witnessed by the current generation of people on earth. It’s all by design. Globalists like Dennis Meadows, the author of the 1972 Club of Rome-endorsed book The Limits to Growth, informed us of the globalists’ plans to drastically depopulate the earth. His comments in the video below were made I believe in 2017.

“We can have 1 Billion people with freedom, or 9 Billion slaves. We’re at over 7 Billion right now, so we need to bring that down to 1 Billion.
I hope that culling can be peaceful and slow and equal between rich and poor.” -Dennis Meadows (author of Limits to Growth) Club of Rome pic.twitter.com/YEwV2ADF7L

— Global Freedom Movement (@GlobalFreedomM) April 18, 2022

I’ve also reported extensively on the Deagel forecast, which forecasted a nearly 70 percent reduction in the population of America by 2025, with similarly drastic population declines for the U.K., Germany, Canada, Australia and other NATO-aligned countries.

There is no more efficient way to depopulate than through war, famine and plagues. Isn’t it interesting that all three of these time-tested methods of murder are in play right now?

The war on food is very similar to what’s going on in the energy sector, where governments are colluding with big business to transform all transportation from gas-powered to electric-powered, meaning far fewer people will be able to afford electric cars, and even if they can afford them, the use of those cars will be much more tightly monitored and controlled due to the need for charging stations that rely on an already overtaxed power grid. If you can’t charge your car up when you want to, only when you are allowed to, you have now turned over your freedom of movement to the regulators of those charging stations.

In the food industry, Big Agriculture will also collude with the governments of the world to produce much less beef, chicken and pork, replacing that protein with insects and lab-grown fake meat, the health effects of which are largely unknown.

These changes have already been on full display in the Netherlands, where the government has generated intense controversy by launching a plan to reduce livestock herds by up to 50 percent, and reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers by 30 percent. No matter how much they talk about “innovation” and “new technologies,” you can’t reduce your herds and reduce your use of fertilizer and then claim that your farms will be “more productive.” That’s a lie. All of their “innovations” will translate directly into less food on tables throughout the world.

Prepare now for famine. Stocking your pantry up is a short-term easy fix. We also need to be thinking long-term. If you’ve never grown a garden or raised chickens, that’s something you might want to think about in terms of increasing your skills. Maybe you’ve grown a garden for several years and have some experience, and you can share that with a neighbor who has raised chickens but has little or no gardening experience. Networking and cooperating with the people around us will be the key to survival once this global famine intensifies.

It may be that the actual famine never arrives in the wealthiest countries like America. Food may continue to be on the shelves, but I can guarantee that prices will continue to go up, substantially, on staple items like flour, bread, eggs, meat and dairy.

Pray for the best while preparing for the worst. Because we know that the globalists’ plan is to reduce the world population from 7.5 billion down to 1 or 2 billion. Dennis Meadows let the cat out of the bag and he’s a globalist insider at the Club of Rome whose engagement on this topic goes back to the early 1970s.

Stay strong. Stay peaceful. Never comply. Never submit to any unconstitutional or unbiblical law. Tyrants only have power over those who agree to be governed by them.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Leo Hohmann is an independent author, researcher, writer.

Featured image is from the author

In a recent development, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vows to continue selling weapons to Israel and remains complicit in war crimes and genocide in Gaza. 

Zarah Sultana: “Will he do what is morally and legally right and end the government’s complicity in war crimes by banning all arms sales to Israel, including F-35 fighter jets, not just 30 licenses? Yes or no?”

Keir Starmer: “No.”

.

.

Zarah Sultana: "Will he do what is morally and legally right and end the government's complicity in war crimes by banning all arms sales to Israel, including F-35 fighter jets, not just 30 licenses? Yes or no?"

Keir Starmer: "No." pic.twitter.com/NjK3DFfa8M

— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) October 7, 2024

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Has Iran Just Tested a Nuclear Bomb? Rodney Atkinson

By Rodney Atkinson, October 09, 2024

Iran has announced (the Iranian Tasnim agency) it has plans to conclude a “Resistance Pact” with a number of Middle Eastern countries and movements which will guarantee military and economic assistance in the event of an attack by the United States or Israel on one of the signatory parties.

License to Muzzle: Taking Offence at Flag Wavers for Hezbollah

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, October 09, 2024

On October 2, a 19-year-old woman was arrested and charged for publicly displaying the symbol of a prohibited organisation at a Sydney demonstration.  The question, however, is whether did so with the requisite intention, absurdly determined by the hypothetical reasonable person, to incite offence, insult, humiliation and intimidation.

After One Year in Gaza, the Solution Remains the Same. The Genocide Is Endorsed by Washington. Biden Is a Zionist

By Steven Sahiounie, October 09, 2024

Israel is focused on how to make their country safe from terror attacks from the North to the South. However, Israel will never be safe as long as they keep about 6 million persons under lock and key, and without human rights.

Britain Cedes Control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius While Maintaining Pentagon Base

By Abayomi Azikiwe, October 09, 2024

There are numerous reports of Diego Garcia being utilized for the purpose of detaining purported enemies of the U.S. for extraordinary renditions since the beginning of the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Having cleared the island of its inhabitants who had worked on plantations for the British, the territory in recent decades has become an indispensable resource for the expansion of U.S. military influence.

Disinformation Isn’t the Problem. Government Coverups and Censorship Are the Problem

By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead, October 09, 2024

A bipartisan chorus that includes both presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has long clamored to weaken or do away with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which essentially acts as a bulwark against online censorship.

Mind Control Technologies: The Convention on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Does Not Prevent the Abuse of Fundamental Human Rights, Mojmir Babacek

By Mojmir Babacek, October 09, 2024

On September 5th, the European Commission representative signed the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and human rights, democracy, and the rule of law on behalf of the European Union.

Video: COVID-19: Engineered Destruction of Civil Society: Prof Michel Chossudovsky

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Caroline Mailloux, October 09, 2024

Destabilizing the social, political and economic structure of 190 sovereign countries cannot constitute  a “solution” to combating the virus. But that was the imposed “solution” which was implemented in several stages from the very outset of the corona crisis in January 2020.  It’s the destruction of people’s  lives. It is the destabilization of civil society.

Contrary to popular belief, scientific evidence shows that dairy does not increase mucus production or exacerbate respiratory conditions

Dairy products contain milk fat globule membrane (MFGM), which strengthens the gut lining, reduces inflammation, and promotes a healthier microbiome

Raw dairy contains living bacteria that act as natural probiotics, potentially improving digestion and overall gut health. Additionally, lactoferrin, a protein found in dairy, promotes beneficial bacteria growth, maintains gut lining integrity, and helps prevent endotoxins from entering the bloodstream

A2 milk, which lacks the A1 beta-casein protein, is easier to digest for individuals sensitive to conventional dairy

The push towards plant-based dairy alternatives is partly driven by higher profit margins, but these products often lack the nutritional benefits of real dairy

*

In recent years, dairy has found itself at the center of a nutritional controversy. Once hailed as a dietary staple, it now faces skepticism and misconceptions in some diet camps. But the tide is turning, and science and consumers are rediscovering the incredible benefits of dairy, especially for your gut health. Let’s dive into the creamy world of dairy and explore why this ancient superfood can improve microbiome and gut function.

It’s worth noting that the recent push towards plant-based dairy alternatives isn’t just about health or “environmental” concerns. Big food companies have discovered that these alternatives are often more profitable than traditional dairy products.

Plant-based milks typically have lower production costs, longer shelf lives, and higher profit margins. This financial incentive has led to increased marketing and availability of these products, potentially influencing consumer perceptions about dairy.

However, as we’ll explore, the nutritional value of these alternatives often falls short of natural dairy, especially when it comes to gut health. Plant-based dairy alternatives do NOT compare nutritionally to the real deal.

Debunking the Mucus Myth

One of the most persistent myths about dairy is that it increases mucus production. You’ve probably heard someone say, “I can’t drink milk; it makes me phlegmy.” But is there any truth to this claim?

A fascinating Australian study surveyed 345 random shoppers about their views on milk’s health qualities. The results were eye-opening:

• 46% of whole milk drinkers believed milk causes mucus
• 25% of reduced-fat milk drinkers held this belief
• 11% of soy milk drinkers agreed with the mucus myth 

Even more surprising, 20% of whole milk drinkers, 8% of reduced-fat milk drinkers, and 5% of soy milk drinkers believed milk caused asthma.¹ These beliefs aren’t limited to Australia. A U.S. study of 330 parents in a pediatric respiratory clinic² found that:

• 59% believed drinking milk increases mucus production
• 22% thought it did not
• 20% were uncertain

With such widespread beliefs, you might think there must be some truth to the mucus myth. However, there is zero scientific evidence that milk and dairy consumption lead to excess mucus secretion. Multiple studies have debunked this misconception, proving that dairy does not increase mucus production or exacerbate respiratory conditions.^3,4

The Plant-Based Pitfall

In recent years, many people have turned to plant-based “milk” alternatives in an attempt to avoid dairy. While these options can be suitable for those with severe dairy allergies, they often come with their own set of problems:

• Added seed oils — Many plant-based milk alternatives contain added oils, which can be proinflammatory and potentially harmful to gut health.
• Emulsifiers — These additives, used to improve texture and shelf life, have been shown to negatively impact gut health by disrupting the gut microbiome and potentially leading to inflammation.⁵

When compared to the natural, gut-friendly composition of dairy, many plant-based alternatives fall short in terms of nutritional value and potential health benefits.

.

.

Dairy: A 7,000-Year-Old Superfood

Humans have been making and consuming dairy products for over 7,000 years. Our ancestors recognized the value of this nutrient-dense food long before modern nutritional science existed.^6,7,8

Cheese, in particular, has played a crucial role in human history. Historians have documented how milk, dairy, and fermented dairy products like cheese served as a storable, calorie-dense food source. This allowed early explorers to travel safely and expand their communities, leading to significant demographic shifts and the development of diverse farming communities.

But why has dairy stood the test of time? The answer lies in its incredible nutritional profile and its positive impact on our gut health.

The Gut-Loving Goodness of Dairy

Let’s delve into the science behind dairy’s gut health benefits:

The A2 Advantage

Dairy sourcing can play a huge role in determining an individual’s tolerance to dairy products. Many people who experience discomfort with conventional dairy find that they can better tolerate milk, cheese, and other dairy products from specific sources.

For instance, A2 milk, which comes from cows that produce only A2 beta-casein protein, is often easier to digest for those sensitive to A1 protein. A2 casein is the original form of beta-casein that cows produced before a genetic mutation occurred thousands of years ago. Some studies suggest that A2 milk may be easier to digest and less likely to cause gastrointestinal discomfort compared to A1 milk.

If you’ve had trouble with dairy in the past, trying A2 milk or dairy products might be worth a shot! Similarly, raw milk or dairy from grass fed cows may be more easily tolerated due to their different enzymatic profiles and nutrient content. Goat and sheep milk products are also frequently better tolerated than cow’s milk due to their unique protein structures and fat compositions.

The processing method, such as fermentation in yogurt or cheese-making, can also enhance digestibility. By exploring various dairy sources, individuals may discover options that allow them to enjoy dairy without the typical adverse reactions.

Conclusion: Embracing Dairy for Gut Health

As we’ve explored, dairy is far more than just a calcium source — it’s a complex, nutrient-dense food that can significantly benefit your gut health. From the MFGM and lactoferrin in all dairy to the living bacteria and enzymes in raw dairy, these products offer a wealth of gut-friendly compounds.

While it’s important to choose high-quality sources and listen to your body’s individual needs, don’t let unfounded myths scare you away from this nutritional powerhouse. Whether you opt for traditional dairy, raw dairy, or A2 products, you’re tapping into a food source that has nourished humans for thousands of years.

So, the next time you pour a glass of milk, spread some butter on your toast, or indulge in a piece of raw cheese, remember — you’re not just enjoying a tasty treat. You’re providing your gut with a feast of beneficial compounds that support your overall health and well-being.

The Best Cheese Source

Looking for the highest quality cheese you can find to boost your dietary calcium? You can now buy the cheese that Dr. Mercola eats every single day with the Mercola Artisanal Cheese Boxes! Check out what Carol had to say about her recent exclusive Mercola Cheese Box order:

“Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I received my first shipment of your cheese. I have had a severe lactose intolerance for over 20 years. I always got serious cramps and twice fainted before figuring out what was causing it. I listened to your interview with Dr. Mercola and thought maybe cheese wasn’t the real problem, but rather the composition of most commercially sold cheese.

I have been cautious in sampling your cheese. I started with just one small bite. I’ve graduated to cheese sticks. I love the taste! I’m so happy to be able to finally enjoy cheese again. Thanks so much!!!”

How awesome! The SOURCE of dairy can really impact its digestibility! The highest quality cheese you can find is restocked every Sunday evening, delivering dietary calcium, fat soluble vitamins and deliciousness directly to your door! What makes this cheese special?

• Raw cheese with all nutrients and enzymes intact
• Tested A2A2
• 100% grass fed
• Amish produced
• GMO free, animal rennet only (NO use of Pfizer’s microbial rennet)
• Artisan, small-batch cheese

Join the waitlist here to be notified when cheese boxes open up (EVERY SUNDAY EVENING!)

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Ashley Armstrong is the co-founder of Angel Acres Egg Co., which specializes in low-PUFA (polyunsaturated fat) eggs that are shipped to all 50 states (join waitlist here), and Nourish Cooperative, which ships low-PUFA pork, beef, cheese, A2 dairy and traditional sourdough to all 50 states. Waitlists will reopen shortly.

Notes

¹ Appetite. 2003 Apr;40(2):93-100. doi: 10.1016/s0195-6663(03)00004-7

² Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004 Jun;158(6):601-3. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.158.6.601-b

³ Arch Dis Child. 2019;104:91–93. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2018-314896

⁴ Am Rev Respir Dis. 1990 Feb;141(2):352-6. doi: 10.1164/ajrccm/141.2.352

⁵ Microbiome volume 9, Article number: 66 (2021)

⁶ Phys.org, September 5, 2018

⁷ National Geographic, September 6, 2018

⁸ PLoS One. 2018; 13(9): e0202807

⁹ Curr Dev Nutr. 2020 Jul 25;4(9):nzaa130. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzaa130

¹⁰ Pharmaceutics. 2023 May 23;15(6):1569. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15061569

¹¹ Cell Mol Life Sci. 2005 Nov;62(22):2549-59. doi: 10.1007/s00018-005-5370-2

^12, 13 Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Apr; 22(7): 3417

¹⁴ RealMilk.com July 31, 2011 

Featured image is licensed under CC0 Public Domain

It was done for the Viet Cong in numerous countries during the US involvement in Vietnam.  It was done for the African National Congress (ANC). It was done for the Irish Revolutionary Army (IRA).  Across the United States, Europe and Australasia, all three organisations, demonised as terrorist outfits, received tacit, symbolic support from protestors.  In some cases, support was genuine and pecuniary. Now, the Lebanese Shia militant and political group Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organisation in a number of Western states, has inspired flag holders to appear at protests against the expanding conflict in Gaza and Lebanon.

In the previous first three instances, all outfits were integrated into the political fold of their countries, revealing the flimsy nature of badging organisations as terrorist entities.  War makers and practitioners of violence can become peacemakers and creatures of paper pushing officialdom.  Such transformations take time and an acid bath of reality.

That backdrop offers context in understanding, and sternly critiquing, the hysteria of critics keen to press charges against those sporting Hezbollah symbols.  At the very least, it should consider the mockery that is free speech in a country such as Australia, awash with authoritarians concerned about the watery concept of social cohesion.  Down under, the skimpy protections for free speech are being whittled away year by year. The Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Prohibited Hate Symbols and Other Measures) Bill 2023, passed in December last year, makes it an offence to publicly display and trade in prohibited symbols, along with the Nazi salute.  Prohibited symbols are defined as prohibited Nazi symbols or “a prohibited terrorist organisation symbol.”

The Criminal Code Act 1995 as amended, offers a number of glutinous elements that must be made out in such a charge.  They are thickly unclear and, it follows, difficult to apply. To be charged with a prohibited symbol offence, a reasonable person (drafters can never resist this feeble term) would have to consider that any public display would involve dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority, hatred or constitute incitement “to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate”.  That same inscrutable reasonable person would also consider the display to involve “advocacy of hatred of a group of persons distinguished by race, religion or nationality or a member of the targeted group” with the incitement element also present. Thirdly, such conduct must be “likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a reasonable person who is a member of a group distinguished by race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion or national or social origin.”

These elements are nonsensical, attempting to impose unmeasurable standards about feelings that are rarely reasonable and always almost subjective.  Subjectively, people are constantly offended by what they disagree with.  The whole field of political opinion is one lengthy record of taking offence.  It quickly follows that some might also be intimidated, insulted, or humiliated by an opponent’s contrary view, notably when it comes to discrediting a position.  Freedom of speech, axiomatically, requires the exclusion of the offended from consideration.  But the concept is fragile in Australia’s regulation-crazed environment.

Arrests have already been made.  On October 2, a 19-year-old woman was arrested and charged for publicly displaying the symbol of a prohibited organisation at a Sydney demonstration.  The question, however, is whether did so with the requisite intention, absurdly determined by the hypothetical reasonable person, to incite offence, insult, humiliation and intimidation. Ahead of protests scheduled for October 6 and 7, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, not wishing to find himself in a messy quagmire of prosecution and confusion, warned that they should not take place.  “It would not advance any cause.  It would cause a great deal of distress.”  Again, free speech, felled by the concept of hurt feelings.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has created a dedicated task force to investigate nine allegations of prohibited symbols being displayed in Victoria, demonstrating how vagueness in legislation is always good for creating work for idle authorities.  Operation Ardana will consider the display of such symbols “while potentially inciting or advocating violence, or hatred, based on race and religion.”

AFP Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett offers her view about what behaviour would satisfy the test. 

“The context around the conduct is extremely important … If they’re holding the flag, what are they saying?  What are they chanting?  What are they wearing? What sort of physical behaviour are they demonstrating?”

The Home Minister Tony Burke is only too grateful to leave it to Barrett and her colleagues, given his own muddle about how such laws are to apply.  Instead of offering any clarifications, he has warned mischievous Hezbollah flag wavers that they risk losing their visas. 

“We don’t know whether they are actually on visas … [but] we do have a higher standard if you’re on a visa.”

Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, all sledgehammer and no grace, senses room for political exploitation, ostensibly calling for legal improvements to an already shabby law.  “The laws already exist, and if the laws are inadequate then the Australian Federal Commissioner should advise the minister and the parliament should deal with it as a matter of urgency.”

In addition to the Commonwealth law, states laws also exist to layer the prosecution case.  The Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, for instance, is convinced that Victoria police had the relevant powers to deal with those who “may be displaying terrorist flags”.

With the paranoid authoritarians in charge, the very concept of valid protest has been reduced to a hint, a suggestion.  Keep it anodyne and any relevant arguments humbly polite.  Avoid the inherent brutality of a broadening bloody conflict hostile to international law.  Most of all, make social cohesion a license to muzzle.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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 Fair Use

Note: This address was delivered during a public forum organized by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood. Several organizations sent speakers including Donya Hamdan of the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Heather Burnham representing the Coalition Against Genocide, Terri Kay of New Jersey who is an anti-Zionist Jewish American, Nura Sukkar of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Ismail Noor of the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).

***

On April 4, 1967, in an address at the Riverside Church in New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the founder and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), told an audience of several thousand people why he had no other choice than to publicly come out against the United States genocidal war and occupation of Vietnam.

This speech was delivered amid the rising tide of urban rebellions across the U.S. where state governments were compelled to suppress the civil unrest with the deployment of National Guard units and later that summer, federal troops in Detroit.

Dr. King said on this significant day that:

“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government.”

This sermon was just one of many given by Dr. King in opposition to the Vietnam War during his final year prior to his martyrdom on April 4, 1968.

The SCLC leader outlined what he described as the “triple evils” of the U.S. being racism, poverty and militarism. These prophetic words continue to ring true some 57 years later.

Billions of people around the globe have witnessed the daily massacres in Gaza directly resulting from the carpet bombing of this area which is approximately the size of the city of Detroit. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have occupied Gaza where they have shelled residential neighborhoods, religious institutions, marketplaces, health facilities and schools.

Civilians have borne the brunt of the genocidal onslaught over the last year. The majority of those killed have been women and children. Official statistics supplied by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza say that more than 41,000 people have been killed and nearly 100,000 injured.

Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been left insecure, displaced and more severely impoverished. Healthcare workers, scholars, merchants, students and many other ordinary people are deliberately targeted in the Gaza genocide. In addition to the year-long assault on the Gaza Strip, in recent months the IDF, police and armed Zionist settlers, have stepped-up their attacks in the West Bank by evicting, injuring, detaining and killing people in this already contained and deprived area of occupied Palestine.

These actions would not be possible without the funding, coordination and diplomatic cover provided through the taxpayer dollars of the U.S. Despite the fact that the majority people when asked say they are in favor of a ceasefire and the curtailment of military assistance to the settler-colonial state, the administration of President Joe Biden and Congress have continued to transfer the most advanced and deadly weapons to the IDF for the sole purpose of destroying Palestinian communities along with the neighboring states of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In an article published by the Associated Press on October 7, it emphasizes that:

“The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released Monday on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel. An additional $4.86 billion has gone into stepped-up U.S. military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, researchers said in findings first provided to The Associated Press. That includes the costs of a Navy-led campaign to quell strikes on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthis, who are carrying them out in solidarity with the fellow Iranian-backed group Hamas.” 

The deliberate widening of the war will require additional spending for the deployment of IDF and U.S. troops. In August there was an escalation of Pentagon forces in West Asia bringing the total to 50,000.

An increase in the number of U.S. soldiers will make Pentagon personnel even more vulnerable by risking serious injuries and deaths. There has already been the shelling of U.S. military bases in Iraq, Jordan and Syria.

These expenditures have a direct impact on the domestic situation in the U.S. There are serious economic problems involving the lack of affordable housing, an escalation in energy and food prices and the rapid deterioration of infrastructure. The cost of higher education has grown exponentially while the availability of good paying jobs is declining.

International Solidarity Continues to Grow

During the winter and spring over 100 campuses across the U.S. were the scene of mass demonstrations and encampments demanding the full disclosure and disinvestment of all holdings which underwrite the maintenance of the Israeli regime. These solidarity actions surpassed all other protests throughout the years related to the necessity of ending aid to the settler-colonial state and creating an independent existence for the Palestinian people.

As far as public opinions are concerned in the U.S. and around the world, most people are opposed to the policies of Tel Aviv and Washington. Mass demonstrations are ongoing despite the coordinated crackdown against the Palestine solidarity movement which is obviously the result of the White House and the Justice Department.

The Biden administration continues to express its unconditional support for the Zionist entity while the massacres continue. When the primary elections took place in the winter and spring, the movement for an uncommitted protest vote provided a clear signal of the potential political failure of the Biden White House.

As Biden’s rating continued to decline precipitously, the efforts among large-scale donors and officials within the Democratic Party to remove the president from the ticket accelerated. Biden was eventually toppled as the 2024 candidate and replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.

However, Harris is still plagued by the legacy of the pro-Zionist foreign policy. Although there was much enthusiasm for the candidacy of Kamala Harris in the initial weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), as the election final date gets closer to November 5 it appears as if the outcome is too close to call. With ongoing IDF bombing and occupation of Gaza continuing alongside the attacks on neighboring Lebanon, it remains unclear who will be victorious in the race for the White House.

Irrespective of whether the Democrats or Republicans win the national presidential and congressional elections, the propping up of the State of Israel will continue until the masses are able to change the political trajectory of the U.S. By placing the imperialist outpost in Tel Aviv at the center of Washington’s policy towards West Asia, the danger of a protracted regional and world war will remain a threat to the whole of humanity.

At the recently held United Nations General Assembly 79th Session, heads-of-state and foreign ministers from around the world condemned the genocide in Gaza. Prior to the convening of the gathering in New York City, the overwhelming majority of UN missions voted to recognize a State of Palestine while demanding the ending of the occupation within one year.

As has been demonstrated throughout the history of the 20th century, imperialism and racism can be defeated by united action on the part of the oppressed and their allies. This will also be true of Palestine and the entire region of West Asia.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

Featured image source

Israel appears to have begun its long-planned ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, with the IDF dropping bombs, issuing evacuation orders for multiple hospitals, attacking civilians with sniper drones, and besieging civilian populations in order to force tens of thousands of people to either move south or die. Israel has reportedly been dropping leaflets on the Jabalia refugee camp ordering people to leave, and then shooting anyone who tries to.

Since the 7th of October last year, Israel has committed roughly 100 October sevenths in Gaza; scores of American medical workers who volunteered in the enclave signed an open letter to president Biden estimating the real death toll from Israel’s onslaught at over 118,000. Israel has also committed about two October sevenths in Lebanon during that time, with the majority of the 2,100 Israeli killings in that country coming just in the last few weeks.

As Israeli murderousness ramps up in both Gaza and Lebanon, Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a statement addressed to the Lebanese people telling them that they need to somehow defeat Hezbollah in order to “save Lebanon before it plunges into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

So we went from “limited operation” to Israel threatening what they did to Gaza—an ongoing genocide—in Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/6k7cH6np2b

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 8, 2024

Israeli officials have been saying they’re going to destroy Lebanon like they destroyed Gaza for months. Back in December Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said, “Every person in Lebanon can take the map, the aerial photograph of Gaza, place it on an aerial photograph of Beirut, and ask themselves if this is what they want to happen there.” Now Netanyahu himself is saying this.

Notably, Netanyahu’s statement was delivered in English, with English subtitles. This wasn’t actually a plea made to the people of Lebanon, it was propaganda made for western consumption. Netanyahu does not actually believe the Lebanese people are going to take up arms against Hezbollah to stop their country from being destroyed, he’s just creating a narrative to justify what he already plans on doing to Lebanon.

And the US is encouraging Israel to move forward. On Tuesday State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller told the press that the Biden administration no longer supports a ceasefire with Hezbollah, saying “We support Israel’s efforts to degrade Hezbollah’s capability” instead. Two weeks ago CNN reported that the administration has also essentially given up on a ceasefire in Gaza.

.@NBCNews claims US officials have discussed joining Israel in offensive strikes against Iran, and passing them off as “defensive" after the fact.

This should raise alarm bells – Congress has not declared war on Iran, which would be disastrous for the U.S. and the region. pic.twitter.com/tA6r9vGFvS

— NIAC (@NIACouncil) October 8, 2024

And we haven’t even talked about Iran yet. NBC News reports that US military officials have been discussing directly joining in Israel’s planned attack on Iran, potentially launching their own airstrikes on the Iranian military whenever Israel begins its attack. 

Whether the US joins with Israel in its coming attack or not, Iran has already made it clear that it will retaliate against any further aggressions by Israel, and Israel has made it clear that if Iran strikes back it’s going to ramp up its aggressions and perhaps start attacking Iranian energy infrastructure. If this blows up into full-scale war, as looks increasingly likely, it’s inevitable that the US will come to Israel’s defense.

Axios and its Israeli intelligence insider Barak Ravid have a new report out on how super duper frustrated the Biden administration is becoming with Israeli warmongering. In typical Axios fashion the outlet reports that the White House is becoming “increasingly distrustful” of Israel’s planned military operations against Iran and Lebanon, but that, in typical Biden administration fashion, its American sources admit that the US “would very likely help Israel defend itself regardless” of whatever happens.

Vice President Harris Says Iran Is the US’s ‘Greatest Adversary’
The vice president also said the US 'must win the competition for the 21st century with China'
by Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #KamalaHarris #Iran #Israel #China #hawkshttps://t.co/9SNkFzxR9Z pic.twitter.com/eEb8m1fsQv

— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) October 8, 2024

Whoever wins the US election in November appears to be committed to riding with Israel down this path into the depths of hell. 

In an interview with 60 Minutes, Vice President Kamala Harris defended the Biden administration’s genocidal support for Israel, saying the weapons it has been giving them “allow Israel to defend itself.” She also named Iran as the number one enemy of the United States.

In an appearance on The View, Harris was asked what she would have done differently from President Biden, and she said “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” Then later she added, “You asked me what is the difference between Joe Biden and me, that will be one of the differences: I’m going to have a Republican in my Cabinet.”

And lest you make the mistake of thinking Trump would be any better, last week the former president said that Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and criticized the Biden administration for not being sufficiently aggressive on this front.

Trump says Israel should "hit" Iran's nuclear facilities. Yet another bold "anti-war" statement on his part — a terrifying blow to the Deep State and military-industrial complex pic.twitter.com/BXwfCiR46Y

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 5, 2024

“They asked [Biden], what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran?” Trump said at a campaign event on Friday. “And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right? I said I think he’s got that one wrong.”

Anyone who still says Trump is a peacemaker is a damn fool. Statements like this are in full alignment with the absolute worst warmongers in Washington like John Bolton or Lindsey Graham.

Anyway, that’s where we’re at right now. That’s the trajectory the US empire has us on. An active genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the threat of another extermination campaign in Lebanon, and acceleration toward a direct war of unimaginable horror with Iran.

These psychos must be stopped.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

Featured image: Slaughterhouse – by Mr. Fish

Two disturbing news items out of Iran suggest that Iran may already have a nuclear bomb capacity. 

Firstly, an Armenian station recorded a seismic event measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale in Iran on Saturday 5th October and according to Armenian researchers, its characteristics suggest it was more like an explosion than an earthquake.

Secondly, a source in the Islamic republic said in a private conversation with an official close to Khamenei that 

“Allah has already given us everything, everything is far away from the eyes of the Zionists, and we are ready to release this genie in response to any hint of a real threat to the existence of our state”

Iran has announced (the Iranian Tasnim agency) it has plans to conclude a “Resistance Pact” with a number of Middle Eastern countries and movements which will guarantee military and economic assistance in the event of an attack by the United States or Israel on one of the signatory parties. The “movements” will undoubtedly include Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah all dangerous Iranian proxies committed to attacking Israel.

This scenario does not of course come under the above threat of using a nuclear bomb under a “real threat to the existence of our state” but is nevertheless ominous as in April of this year, Iranian authorities suggested that they might revise their nuclear doctrine in the event of aggression from Israel.

(First the USA and then Russia have made similar “revisions” to their nuclear strike doctrines in recent years)

Combined with news of possible Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities (supported by Donald Trump) the war rhetoric has now been made all the more dangerous by these seismic indications of a possible bomb test in Iran.

Iran’s main nuclear facilities are south of Tehran and it was in the desert to the south of Tehran in the area of Kavir that the Armenian sources (published on Tigranes Telegram channel) detected the seismic event on 5th October 2024 .

.

.

Earthquakes normally have an aftershock or seismic “tail” which a nuclear test does not exhibit. These graphs show the difference with examples of past tests and earthquakes in Pakistan, India, Russia and North Korea:

.

.

Iran has been expanding its uranium enrichment programme since 2018, reducing the so-called “breakout time” it would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb to a matter of weeks from at least a year under the (President Trump abandoned) 2015 accord.

“Actually making a bomb with that material would take longer. How long is less clear and the subject of debate.

Iran is now enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, close to the 90% of weapons grade, at two sites, and in theory it has enough material enriched to that level, if enriched further, for almost four bombs, according to a yardstick of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. watchdog” (Reuters)

It is interesting that there is a lack of western press coverage of this possible nuclear test by Iran, nor any attempt to refute the reports.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

This article was originally published on Freenations.

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

by Michel Chossudovsky

Available to order from Global Research! 

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

PDF Edition:  $6.50 (sent directly to your email account!)

Price: $6.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

We encourage you to support our campaign against nuclear war. Spread this news and ask friends to download their own copy from the link above.

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   

October 7, 2024, marks the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. On that day, Palestinian resistance fighters broke down some walls surrounding Gaza and 1,200 Israelis were killed, nearly 250 hostages were taken, with 112 having later come out alive, and the remaining 97 are captives.

.

.

.

The Secretary-General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said on October 24, 2023,

the attack “did not happen in a vacuum.” “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” said Guterres.

Guterres was not justifying the killing of innocent civilians in their homes. He was explaining the facts on the ground. Only Israel complained of Guterres’ comments because the rest of the world is aware that Gaza and the West Bank are under brutal occupation, and there is no peace plan to allow their freedom and independence.

Israel is focused on how to make their country safe from terror attacks from the North to the South. However, Israel will never be safe as long as they keep about 6 million persons under lock and key, and without human rights. The core values of Americans are freedom and independence, which they fought for and died for in 1776. The American resistance used brutal and bloody violence to fight for their freedom, and they won.

The UN has deemed Israel as being an apartheid system. The US supported the fight to end apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was arrested for using violence against the government. He was offered release if he would denounce violence, but he refused. After two decades in prison, he was released and eventually became President of South Africa, and won the Nobel Peace Prize, while remaining on the US list of banned terrorists. The solution in South Africa, championed by the US and Europe, was the collapse of an unjust government, and the development of a free and democratic government.

The solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the two-state solution, which was ratified at the UN decades ago and is still referred to as the only solution offered by the US.

October 7 did not have to happen. The rules-based international order that the US and its allies always refer to does not exist in Israel. When Hamas announced they had taken captives, they were sure those captives would be swapped for the Palestinian men, women, and children held in Israeli prisons without charges, trial, or legal representation.

But, a full prisoner exchange never materialized. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been blamed by his citizens for not making a deal to get the captives released, now after one year underground in Gaza. Some were killed or died of illness, and the remaining 97 hostages are running out of time.

Even on the day of the first anniversary of the attack, the hostage families were still protesting in the streets asking for Netanyahu to change course and make a deal for their release. Netanyahu has a plan for Gaza, and that is why he has refused all attempts by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire. Netanyahu plans to destroy Hamas, remain occupying Gaza, and annex Gaza. The plan ends with the people of Gaza either dead or living in Egypt.

The second part of the Netanyahu plan is to empty the Palestinians from the Occupied West Bank into Jordan and annex the West Bank. Netanyahu’s plan, which is being successfully executed so far, will end the two-state solution once and for all, because all of the original Palestine will be officially Israel.The Israeli public generally does not want a two-state solution. Many are Zionists who believe God gave them the land about 9,000 years ago, and they are the owners of the former Palestine. American Evangelicals are a large cult within the Christian population in the US.

They support the Jewish claim to the former Palestine and follow the ideology of Zionism, which is not based on religion but is a political ideology. Israelis and American Zionists have no qualms with Israel killing over 41,000 people in Gaza, and over 96,700 people injured as of Oct. 3, 2024. The fact that Palestinian Christians are killed, maimed, injured and their ancient churches destroyed by Israel does not bother the American Evangelicals.

They are so sure of their God’s plan, that genocide is justified. They defend their lack of morals as a Biblical promise by a God who does not want justice and equality in Palestine. Biden has stated publically that he is a Zionist. According to the UN, at least 10,000 people are assumed to be buried under the rubble of Gaza. The hospitals have been destroyed, medical workers killed and food and medical supplies have been prevented from delivery by Israel, according to the UN, which has reported on the famine in Gaza that is preventable.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said on Oct. 2 that more than 100,000 metric tons of food is being prevented from delivery because of Israeli restrictions. Netanyahu has now begun a campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon and has successfully eliminated many of the top leadership of the resistance group.

Israeli military claims that the have destroyed 50% of Hezbollah’s weapons but in reality the haven’t according to several military specialist. and the Israeli air force have destroyed the neighborhood in south Beirut , as well as many areas they lived in the south. None of Israel’s military achievements will bring them closer to peace, economic recovery, or security. The ‘cancer’ of the Middle East is the Israeli occupation of Palestine. When facing cancer, some surgeries and treatments can produce healing and good health. Hiding from the diagnosis, and refusing to seek a solution only prolongs the illness, and can eventually lead to death.

Netanyahu is on a path to use band-aides, paid for by the US taxpayer, to treat a potentially incurable disease, because he refuses to recognize the diagnosis and begin the first step towards recovery. The genocide in Gaza was made possible by Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris. They kept the flow of $17.9 billion in cash and weapons to Israel, even breaking US State Department regulations preventing the transfer of weapons to conflict where human rights are abused.

Netanyahu is perfectly positioned to execute his plans in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. The Oval Office is flying on autopilot as Biden is in the last days of his term. Biden has given Netanyahu a brightly lit ‘green light’ to do anything he likes, regardless of what international rules and norms he bulldozes over.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

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

Featured image source

People living in the Chagos Islands archipelago were forcefully removed from their homeland during the late 1960s and early 1970s to make way for a United States military base on one of the territories known as Diego Garcia.

During the first week of October, the British government announced that it was ceding control of the islands, with the exception of Diego Garcia, to the government of Mauritius, a member of the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

This decision by the UK government came after a decades-long campaign on the part of the people of the Chagos Islands to return to their homeland. The advocates for Chagossians emphasized in their comments in the aftermath of the decision to place them under the Mauritian government that they had not been consulted.

Over the years Chagossians have held demonstrations along with initiating legal actions to win the right of return. Although the UK courts have recognized that their removal was illegal, there has never been a mandate for them to return as an independent people.

Maxell Evenor, who is of Chagossian ancestry, was briefly interviewed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on October 4 where he criticized the announcement of the agreement between London and the Mauritian government. Mauritius was granted independence in 1968 from the UK and has advanced its claim to the Chagos islands in recent years.

Evenor recounted how his grandmother exiled to Britain was negatively impacted by the illegal separation from her homeland. Within Britain, the Chagossians like other peoples of African and Asian descent are suffering from national discrimination and institutional racism.

Nonetheless, if what the British government says is true regarding the turning over control of the islands to Mauritius with the understanding that the largest territory which houses at joint U.S.-UK military base will remain in the control of these two imperialist states, illustrates clearly that the decision taken was not in the interests of the people of the Chagos Islands. This decision as well is not in the interest of Mauritius either since it preserves the presence of U.S. and British troops in these Indian Ocean areas where they will be utilized to continue hostile military actions against various geo-political regions within Africa and Asia.

A Colonial Pattern Continues

The plight of the people of this islands-nation is indicative of the process of forced removals and the appropriation of land. This is not a practice which is alien to the history of the U.S. and all European imperialist states.

Looking at the historical development of Britain and other imperialist states, the control over oppressed peoples and their resources provides enormous wealth for the colonizers. With specific reference to the African continent, millions were kidnapped and taken to the Western Hemisphere between the 16th and 19th centuries where they were enslaved and colonized.

In Asia many territories were taken over by the British and various Western European governments where the majority of the indigenous people were subjected to forced labor, land seizures and taxation. The ruling class of these European nations amassed tremendous amounts of wealth which fueled the growth of many of the industries which continue to dominate the world system today such as shipping, mass production and international finance.

Adding to the motivation for such a foreign policy is the expansion of the military-industrial-complex which attempts to ensure that the exploitative and oppressive system perpetuates itself. Therefore, imperialism must conceal the true nature of its crimes while also justifying its existence by claiming they are the purveyor of democracy and progress on a global scale.

The United Nations News Agency wrote on the situation involving the Chagos Islands saying:

“In splitting the islands from Mauritius, the UK expelled between 1,500 and 2,000 islanders so that it could lease Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos islands, to the United States for military use which the two allies have since operated jointly. According to news reports, the UK falsely declared that Chagos had no permanent population so that it would not have to report its colonial rule to the UN. In reality, the Chagossian community had lived on Chagos for centuries. The UK and US governments forcibly displaced the Chagossian population between 1967 and 1973 not only reportedly on Diego Garcia, but also Peros Banhos and Salomon.” 

This time frame for the forced removals of the Chagossians coincided with the U.S. war in Southeast Asia and the efforts to defeat the armed struggles of the African people living then under Portuguese colonial rule and the settler colonial regimes of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), South-West Africa (Namibia) and South Africa. Despite the theft of these islands and the bombings and occupations in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the forces for national liberation were ultimately victorious.

Britain and the U.S. have refused to take responsibility for these actions which continue to have grave implications five decades later. The Chagossians are entitled to not only return to their homeland they are owed reparations for the pain and suffering associated with displacement and the nature of colonial rule.

Many have vowed to press on with their demands for repatriation, self-determination and reparations. Several years ago, many of the Chagossians were granted citizenship by the UK although their principal goal is winning the right of return.

Another section of the article cited above noted that military considerations were paramount in the decision to maintain control over Diego Garcia:

“The UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said the UK government had secured the future of the military base ‘as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner’. However, many Chagossians are still frustrated by the UK government’s lack of consultation with them before Thursday’s announcement, according to news reports. Chagossian Voices, a community organization for Chagossians based in the UK and several other countries where islanders have settled, deplored ‘the exclusion of the Chagossian community from the negotiations’, leaving them ‘powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our homeland. The view of Chagossians, the Indigenous inhabitants of the islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty,’ they added.”

Even though the leading imperialist states such as the U.S., Britain and France foster the notion that the era of colonial rule has ended, the situation prevailing among the Chagossians has proved otherwise. Having been dispersed to other areas in the Indian Ocean including Mauritius and the Seychelles along with Britain, the Chagossians remain a people without a home.

Military Outpost for Western Imperialism

There are numerous reports of Diego Garcia being utilized for the purpose of detaining purported enemies of the U.S. for extraordinary renditions since the beginning of the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Having cleared the island of its inhabitants who had worked on plantations for the British, the territory in recent decades has become an indispensable resource for the expansion of U.S. military influence.

Mauritius’ relations with the People’s Republic of China have become notable since the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in 1972. In recent years Mauritius and China have signed documents establishing a Free Trade Agreement. See this.

Yet the exclusion of Diego Garcia from the other Chagos Islands is a clear indication of its important role within U.S. military strategy in the Indian Ocean. Visits to the island are not allowed as the level of secrecy and monitoring are designed to even keep out journalists.

One BBC journalist, Alice Cuddy, wrote an extensive report during September after being allowed on the island to cover a trial for Sri Lankan Tamils seeking asylum. Cuddy observed the atmosphere on the island which is occupied only by Pentagon personnel and British administrators. Any effort to gain admission to Diego Garcia requires the approval of U.S. military authorities.

According to Cuddy:

“To enter the island you need a permit, only granted to people with connections to the military facility or the British authority that runs the territory. Journalists have historically been barred.

UK government lawyers brought a legal challenge to try to block the BBC from attending the hearing, and even when permission was granted following a ruling by the territory’s Supreme Court, the U.S. later objected, saying it would not provide food, transport or accommodation to all those attempting to reach the island for the case – including the judge and barristers.” 

These developments on the Chagos Islands in recent months could very well be reflective of the U.S. preparations for a renewed war effort in the Asian and African continents. The Israeli genocide perpetuated against the Palestinians in Gaza and the widening of this same military campaign into Lebanon opens the way for the deployment greater numbers of Pentagon troops in West Asia and other geo-political regions.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

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

Featured image: B-2 bomber take off, B-52 bombers on tarmac on Diego Garcia in 2003 (From the Public Domain)

“What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”—Hannah Arendt

In a perfect example of the Nanny State mindset at work, Hillary Clinton insists that the powers-that-be need “total control” in order to make the internet a safer place for users and protect us harm.

Clinton is not alone in her distaste for unregulated, free speech online.

A bipartisan chorus that includes both presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has long clamored to weaken or do away with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which essentially acts as a bulwark against online censorship.

It’s a complicated legal issue that involves debates over immunity, liability, net neutrality and whether or not internet sites are publishers with editorial responsibility for the content posted to their sites, but really, it comes down to the tug-of-war over where censorship (corporate and government) begins and free speech ends.

As Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes for Reason,

“What both the right and left attacks on the provision share is a willingness to use whatever excuses resonate—saving children, stopping bias, preventing terrorism, misogyny, and religious intolerance—to ensure more centralized control of online speech. They may couch these in partisan terms that play well with their respective bases, but their aim is essentially the same.”

In other words, the government will use any excuse to suppress dissent and control the narrative.

The internet may well be the final frontier where free speech still flourishes, especially for politically incorrect speech and disinformation, which test the limits of our so-called egalitarian commitment to the First Amendment’s broad-minded principles.

On the internet, falsehoods and lies abound, misdirection and misinformation dominate, and conspiracy theories go viral.

This is to be expected, and the response should be more speech, not less.

As Justice Brandeis wrote nearly a century ago:

“If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

Yet to the government, these forms of “disinformation” rank right up there with terrorism, drugs, violence, and disease: societal evils so threatening that “we the people” should be willing to relinquish a little of our freedoms for the sake of national security.

Of course, it never works out that way.

The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, the war on COVID-19: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns only to become weapons of compliance and control in the government’s hands.

Indeed, in the face of the government’s own authoritarian power-grabs, coverups, and conspiracies, a relatively unfettered internet may be our sole hope of speaking truth to power.

The right to criticize the government and speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom.

You see, disinformation isn’t the problem. Government coverups and censorship are the problem.

Unfortunately, the government has become increasingly intolerant of speech that challenges its power, reveals its corruption, exposes its lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices. Every day in this country, those who dare to speak their truth to the powers-that-be find themselves censored, silenced or fired.

While there are all kinds of labels being put on so-called “unacceptable” speech today, the real message being conveyed by those in power is that Americans don’t have a right to express themselves if what they are saying is unpopular, controversial or at odds with what the government determines to be acceptable.

Where the problem arises is when you put the power to determine who is a potential danger in the hands of government agencies, the courts and the police.

Remember, this is the same government that uses the words “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” interchangeably.

This is the same government whose agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies to identify potential threats.

This is the same government that keeps re-upping the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the military to detain American citizens with no access to friends, family or the courts if the government believes them to be a threat.

This is the same government that has a growing list—shared with fusion centers and law enforcement agencies—of ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that could flag someone as suspicious and result in their being labeled potential enemies of the state.

For instance, if you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you could be at the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

Thus, no matter how well-meaning the politicians make these encroachments on our rights appear, in the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes.

Even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be—and has been—perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation. For instance, the very same mass surveillance technologies that were supposedly so necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19 are now being used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, harass marginalized communities, and link people’s health information to other surveillance and law enforcement tools.

We are moving fast down that slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts.

The next phase of the government’s war on anti-government speech and so-called thought crimes could well be mental health round-ups and involuntary detentions.

Under the guise of public health and safety, the government could use mental health care as a pretext for targeting and locking up dissidents, activists and anyone unfortunate enough to be placed on a government watch list.

This is how it begins.

In communities across the nation, police are already being empowered to forcibly detain individuals they believe might be mentally ill, based solely on their own judgment, even if those individuals pose no danger to others.

In New York City, for example, you could find yourself forcibly hospitalized for suspected mental illness if you carry “firmly held beliefs not congruent with cultural ideas,” exhibit a “willingness to engage in meaningful discussion,” have “excessive fears of specific stimuli,” or refuse “voluntary treatment recommendations.”

While these programs are ostensibly aimed at getting the homeless off the streets, when combined with advances in mass surveillance technologies, artificial intelligence-powered programs that can track people by their biometrics and behavior, mental health sensor data (tracked by wearable data and monitored by government agencies such as HARPA), threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, precrime initiatives, red flag gun laws, and mental health first-aid programs aimed at training gatekeepers to identify who might pose a threat to public safety, they could well signal a tipping point in the government’s efforts to penalize those engaging in so-called “thought crimes.”

As the Associated Press reports, federal officials are already looking into how to add “‘identifiable patient data,’ such as mental health, substance use and behavioral health information from group homes, shelters, jails, detox facilities and schools,” to its surveillance toolkit.

Make no mistake: these are the building blocks for an American gulag no less sinister than that of the gulags of the Cold War-era Soviet Union.

The word “gulag” refers to a labor or concentration camp where prisoners (oftentimes political prisoners or so-called “enemies of the state,” real or imagined) were imprisoned as punishment for their crimes against the state.

The gulag, according to historian Anne Applebaum, used as a form of “administrative exile—which required no trial and no sentencing procedure—was an ideal punishment not only for troublemakers as such, but also for political opponents of the regime.”

This age-old practice by which despotic regimes eliminate their critics or potential adversaries by making them disappear—or forcing them to flee—or exiling them literally or figuratively or virtually from their fellow citizens—is happening with increasing frequency in America.

Now, through the use of red flag laws, behavioral threat assessments, and pre-crime policing prevention programs, the groundwork is being laid that would allow the government to weaponize the label of mental illness as a means of exiling those whistleblowers, dissidents and freedom fighters who refuse to march in lockstep with its dictates.

Each state has its own set of civil, or involuntary, commitment laws. These laws are extensions of two legal principles: parens patriae Parens patriae (Latin for “parent of the country”), which allows the government to intervene on behalf of citizens who cannot act in their own best interest, and police power, which requires a state to protect the interests of its citizens.

The fusion of these two principles, coupled with a shift towards a dangerousness standard, has resulted in a Nanny State mindset carried out with the militant force of the Police State.

The problem, of course, is that the diagnosis of mental illness, while a legitimate concern for some Americans, has over time become a convenient means by which the government and its corporate partners can penalize certain “unacceptable” social behaviors.

In fact, in recent years, we have witnessed the pathologizing of individuals who resist authority as suffering from oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), defined as “a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures.”

Under such a definition, every activist of note throughout our history—from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. to John Lennon—could be classified as suffering from an ODD mental disorder.

Of course, this is all part of a larger trend in American governance whereby dissent is criminalized and pathologized, and dissenters are censored, silenced, declared unfit for society, labelled dangerous or extremist, or turned into outcasts and exiled.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how you subdue a populace.

The ensuing silence in the face of government-sponsored tyranny, terror, brutality and injustice is deafening.

*

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

Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War 

This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

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

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

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

First published on March 20, 2022. My first interview more than two years ago with Lux Media

***

Video Caroline Mailloux interviews Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

Destabilizing the social, political and economic structure of 190 sovereign countries cannot constitute  a “solution” to combating the virus. But that was the imposed “solution” which was implemented in several stages from the very outset of the corona crisis in January 2020.  It’s the destruction of people’s  lives. It is the destabilization of civil society.

Fake science was supportive of this devastating agenda. The lies were sustained by a massive media disinformation campaign. 24/7, Incessant and Repetitive “Covid alerts” in the course of the last two years.

The  historic March 11, 2020 lockdown triggered economic and social chaos Worldwide. It was an act of “economic warfare”: a war against humanity. 

This diabolical agenda has undermined the sovereignty of nation states. It has contributed  to a wave of bankruptcies. It has impoverished people Worldwide.

It has led to a spiralling dollar denominated global debt. 

In turn it has led to the Covid Vaccine which was launched in December 2020, which has been conducive to an upper trend in vaccine related mortality.

The powerful structures of global capitalism, Big Money coupled with its intelligence and military apparatus are the driving force. 

Using advanced digital and communications technologies, the lockdown and “closure” of the global economy is unprecedented in World history.

Video Interview: Caroline Mailloux and Michel Chossudovsky

Click  here or screen to view video

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

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

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

Spread the Truth, Refer a Friend to Global Research

***

[First published in 2022, with updates on 14 July 2024.]

Trump’s near assassination this weekend represents an incredibly important reminder of the stakes going into the 2024 election amidst a vast systemic collapse and heightened threat of a thermonuclear war. At this stage, despite the cast of compromised characters among Trump’s support network, no one has displayed so consistent a quality of leadership that qualifies them for dealing with the current crisis as Trump has displayed.

I thought it fitting to revisit the recent Canadian Patriot Review film (based upon the essay “Why Assume There Will be a 2024 Election?“) where we are introduced into this dense period of history from the orchestrated demolition of the financial system in 1929, the Wall Street/London fueled “economic miracle solution” of fascism and eugenics between 1930-1934, and the story of FDR’s war with the financier oligarchy’s London and Wall Street tentacles. From this vantage point, we are then thrust into a deep dive into the person of Smedley Butler and his courageous defense of the republic.

Why Assume There Will be a 2024 Election? America’s 1934 “Bankers’ Coup Plot” Revisited

By Matthew Ehret-Kump, July 19, 2022

Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump announced his intention to run in the 2024 elections which is a no-brainer considering his support among potential republican contenders is 49% (compared to a 25% support for DeSantis) and no other candidate earning above 7%.

It didn’t take two days before Defense Authorization Act of 2022 (HR-4350) was passed by the House of Representatives giving the President full controls over the military in all domestic operations and which takes direct aim at all “domestic extremists” in the USA.

Obviously, the senile and politically compromised Biden’s days in power are shaky to say the least and echoes of the 1933 Reichstag fire that provided a newly elected Hitler regime the excuse it needed to impose tyrannical ‘enabling acts’ rings in the memory.

With the perfect storm of crises now converging onto our beleagured world (economic meltdown, energy crisis, food crisis, and general dangers of both civil and global wars), it is worth considering the very real possibility that the days of elections may soon be over. Despite the many talking heads yapping about the 2024 elections as if it were a football game, reality and real history paints a very different picture of bankers’-directed military coups both in the USA and abroad.

In order to best understand this danger and also gain insight into how it might be circumvented, I suggest revisiting the 1932-1934 efforts by the international deep state to impose a fascist dictatorship upon Americans and even overthrow the elected government of Franklin Roosevelt with a JP Morgan-funded military coup d’état.

The Fascist Economic Miracle Solution of 1932

1932-1934 was a period of history that saw the world torn down into a deep depression which the people of Europe and America were told by their media, could only be solved by the “economic miracle solution” of a new system of governance known as “fascism”.

This “fascist economic solution” took hold in Europe with the quick rise of Nazism, Franco and Mussolini’s Corporatism as well what later became Vichy France. In English Canada, the League for Social Reconstruction was ready to take power in 1932 and French-speaking Canada was quickly embracing the Nazi-inspired political party of Adrien Arcand. The British governing class, led by the royal family were fully backing Nazism, and Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists was rising faster than ever. All of these movements came in different flavors but were united under a cold utilitarian philosophy of government, a devout love for eugenics (the racist “science” of population control) and addiction to City of London/Wall Street money.

In the United States however, things weren’t going as smoothly.

The Rise of Franklin Roosevelt

Even though the financial elite of Wall Street had pulled the plug on the system four years earlier, the population had still not been broken sufficiently to accept fascism as the solution which Time magazine told them it was. Instead, the people voted for one of the few anti-fascist presidential candidates available in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected under the theme of taking the money lenders out of power and restoring the constitution.

In his March 4, 1933 inaugural address FDR stated:

“Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.”

During FDR’s famous 100 Days, an all-out war was declared on the “economic royalists” that had taken over the nation. Audits and investigations were conducted on the banks in the form of the Pecora Commission, and the biggest financial houses which had spent billions on fascist parties of Europe were broken up while speculation was reined in under Glass-Steagall. Meanwhile a new form of banking was unveiled more in alignment with America’s constitutional traditions in the form of productive credit and long term public works which created real jobs and increased the national productive powers of labor.

Many people remain totally ignorant that even before his March 4, 1933 inauguration, Franklin Roosevelt narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in Florida which saw 5 people struck by bullets and the mayor of Chicago dying of his wounds 3 weeks later. Within days of the mayor’s death, the assassin Giuseppe Zingara was speedily labelled a “lone gunman” and executed without any serious investigation into his freemasonic connections. This however was just a pre-cursor for an even greater battle which Wall Street financiers would launch in order to overthrow the presidency later that year. This effort would only be stopped by the courageous intervention of a patriotic marine named Smedley Darlington Butler.

Who was General Butler?

Born in 1881 to a family of patriotic Quakers, Smedley Butler quickly rose through the ranks of the military becoming the most decorated military figure of U.S. History- a record he holds to this day with multiple medals of honor, an Army distinguished service medal and Marine Corps Bruvet medal (to name just a few).

By the end of the British-orchestrated meat grinder known as WWI, the General had become an activist patriot giving speeches across America in denunciation of the private financiers steering America’s war-driven economy. Speaking to veterans in August 1933, the general said:

“I have spent 33 years being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism… I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City [Bank] boys to collect revenue in. I helped rape half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street… In China, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested… I had a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotions. I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents…”

In spite of his outspoken criticism of crony capitalism, Wall Street’s elite simply presumed all men had their price, and Butler was probably just indignant because he was never given a big enough piece of pie.

The Wall Street Putsch Is Launched

These financiers needed someone like Butler to channel the rage of the striking veterans of WWI across America who had been fighting for the bonus pay promised them years earlier but which didn’t exist due to the 1929 collapse. A force of hundreds of thousands of disgruntled seasoned soldiers was exactly what was needed to overthrow Roosevelt, but leadership was sorely lacking, and General Butler was their man for the job. He was a war hero who was seen as honest and loved by the veterans. He was perfect.

Under the guiding hand of JP Morgan’s Grayson Prevost Murphy, two representatives of the American Legion (Commander Bill Doyle and bond salesman Gerald MacGuire) approached Butler in July 1933 for the job of rallying the Legion’s veterans and began dropping hints of a larger coup plot. Butler became suspicious, but continued playing along with the plan to see how far this went up the ladder of power[1].

Over the course of the next several months, Butler discovered that America’s financial elite centered around John Pierpont Morgan Jr., the Harrimans, the Melons, Warburgs, Rockefellers and Duponts were at the heart of the plot. These men used their agents such as Gerald MacGuire a Morgan-affiliated bond salesman, Democratic Party controllers John W. Davis and Thomas Lamont (both occupying directorships in the House of Morgan), Robert Sterling Clark (heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune), Grayson Prevost Murphy and Harriman Family investment banker Prescott Bush. All of these characters had become well known “investors” in European fascism, owned the biggest media platforms including Fortune and Time Magazine (both of which promoted Mussolini extensively for years), and controlled the levers of industry.

Luckily, the 1932-1934 Pecora Commission exposed these forces publicly as the architects of the great depression, making their ability to acquire popular support and sympathy more than a little difficult.

Outlining his Committee’s findings Pecora had written publicly:

“Undoubtedly, this small group of highly placed financiers, controlling the very springs of economic activity, holds more real power than any similar group in the U.S.A.”

Butler Blows the Whistle

When the time was right, Butler blew the whistle by approaching the Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the McCormack-Dickstein Committee) which began an investigation on November 20, 1934. Unlike the Committee on Un-American Activities which made its reputation destroying patriotic lives under the communist witch hunt of McCarthyism, this earlier version was aligned to FDR and dedicated solely to identifying Nazi activity in America.

At first sceptical of the general’s claims, the committee soon  substantiated everything over the course of  a month long investigation and made their findings public to FDR and congress on December 29, 1934. An invaluable part of the hearings were the testimonies of journalist Paul Comly French whom Butler recruited to act as the general’s intermediary with the bankers.

Butler told the committee that MacGuire stated it

“wouldn’t take any constitutional change to authorize another cabinet official, somebody to take over the details of the office—to take them off the President’s shoulders” and that “we’d do with him what Mussolini did to the King of Italy”.

When French asked MacGuire how the coup would help solve unemployment, MacGuire responded:

“We need a fascist government to save the nation from the Communists… It was the plan that Hitler had used in putting all of the unemployed in labor camps or barracks—enforced labor. That would solve it overnight.”

Although the full transcripts were not made public, Butler did get the message to the population by giving his story to as many journalists as possible and recorded a message to the people in 1935 which should be listened to in full.

The Aftermath of the Exposure

This exposure, alongside the Pecora Commission findings, and earlier failed assassination attempt gave FDR the ammunition he needed to force America’s deep state into submission (at least for a while). As I outlined in my recent paper, FDR’s fight to stop a central bankers’ dictatorship started from the earliest days of his presidency to his dying breath on April 14, 1945.

Incredibly, after the sanitized and redacted 1934 report was published, the committee was disbanded (to be reformed later under a fascist mandate), and the thousands of pages of transcripts were buried for years- only officially made public in the 21st century- the contents of which can be found here with censored testimony in red.

The coup plotters lost no time forming a new organization on August 22, 1934 called the American Liberty League which spent the next decade sabotaging FDR’s New Deal. This group made every effort to promote an American alliance with Axis powers (until 1941’s Pearl Harbor attack), widely financed eugenics, and after FDR died, acted as the driving force behind the McCarthyite police state in America during the Cold War. Without understanding this fascist deep state operation within the heart of the American establishment, it were impossible to make sense of the manichean Cold War dualism that destroyed FDR’s vision for a world of cooperating sovereign nation states or.

This organization also gave birth to such think tanks as the American Enterprise Association, Heritage Foundation and CATO institute which incrementally made Austrian school economics a part of the American right. Anyone wishing to understand what created the Frankenstein Monster called “neo-conservativism” during the last 60 years would not get very far without understanding the role of the American Liberty League and its hell spawn.

Today, a new systemic meltdown of a $1.5 quadrillion derivatives bubble has similarities to the 1929 crash and other similarities to the 1923 hyperinflation of Weimar. While the coronavirus may or may not be used to trigger this new blowout, one thing is certain: a new fascist coup and general war should be taken more seriously than ever.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on Matthew Ehret’s Insights.

Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review, Senior Fellow at the American University in Moscow, and Director of The Rising Tide Foundation. He has authored three volumes of the Untold History of Canada book series and four volumes of the Clash of the Two Americas. He hosts Connecting the Dots on TNT Radio, Breaking History on Badlands Media, and The Great Game on Rogue News.

Note

[1] The Legion was a very different beast from the benign organization of old veterans it is known as today, as it was originally founded with Wall Street capital in 1919 and was run early on as a fascist machine. Legion Commander Alvin Owsley made this explicit in 1921 when he said: “If need be the American Legion is ready to protect the institutions of this country and its ideals, in the same way as the Fascists have treated the destructive forces threatening Italy. Don’t forget that the Fascists are for today’s Italy what the American Legion is for the United States.”

Featured image source