‘I Will No Longer Be Complicit in Genocide’: Man Sets Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in DC
February 27th, 2024 by Common Dreams
Notre site en Français: mondialisation.ca
Nuestro sitio en español: GlobalizacionFebruary 27th, 2024 by Common Dreams
February 27th, 2024 by Wyatt Reed
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While falsely claiming to have received “independent confirmation” of since-debunked assertions of mass rape by Hamas, the State Department’s spokesman said he “cannot independently verify” allegations by UN human rights experts that Israeli soldiers have sexually abused and systematically slaughtered Palestinian women and girls in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The US State Department has downplayed the findings of UN human rights experts who received “credible allegations” that Israeli soldiers have raped, tortured, and executed Palestinian women and girls amid their siege of Gaza.
US media has similarly overlooked the UN human rights report, focusing instead on yet another dubious report by the Israeli Association of Rape Crisis Centers alleging the deployment of “systematic sexual violence” by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
As The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal reported, the Israeli report was “short on new research, absent of hard evidence, and reliant instead on clips from factually-challenged articles by the same Western outlets promoting its publication.” Its publication was funded by US-based Israel lobby heavyweights involved in a public relations scheme to justify the ongoing siege of Gaza.
The UN’s Office of the High Commission on Human Rights reported receiving testimonies from Palestinian women and girls in Israeli custody of rape and being “subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers.”
The Grayzone has also gathered video testimony from 39-year-old Abier Mohammed Gheben, a Palestinian abducted in Gaza by Israelis during their ongoing siege. She described being subjected to torture, deprivation and humiliation during over 50 days in captivity. “We had to sleep for a night… out in the open” while “blinded and handcuffed,” she told The Grayzone, adding that her interrogator “would call women dogs.”
Asked by journalists about the UN report alleging Israeli sexual abuse of Palestinian female detainees, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists that he “cannot independently verify the reports.”
*Heated exchange* about the State Department's double standard of UN experts' report on sexual violence of Palestinians women: "I have seen those allegations I can't independently confirm those reports"
"Did you ever have [independent] confirmation what Hamas allegedly did to… pic.twitter.com/d7phRxsFhf
— HalalFlow (@halalflow) February 20, 2024
Though he insisted the US “strongly [urges] Israel to thoroughly and transparently investigate credible allegations,” Miller stopped well short of the dramatic denunciations he reserves for Hamas. The State Department flack previously claimed without evidence that Hamas refuses to release female Israeli captives because “they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”
Miller’s latest pronouncement triggered intensive questioning by reporters in the press gallery, who seemed to pick up on the apparent double standard.
“You said you had no independent confirmation of what the UN experts found,” AP journalist Matt Lee noted, “but did you ever have confirmation of what Hamas allegedly did to Israeli women, girls?”
Miller replied that the US had, in fact, received “independent confirmation” of supposed sexual violence against Israelis by Hamas combatants, citing the findings of unspecified “Israeli medical experts.”
Moreover, “it is a well-accepted fact” that Palestinian militants sexually abused Israelis, the spokesman insisted, “because the investigations produced credible evidence that not just the US accepted, but countries around the world accepted.”
“We have no reason at all to doubt those reports,” Miller concluded.
Later in the the exchange, Miller appeared to dismiss the credentials of the UN experts, telling journalists that the US would not treat the allegations of rape by the Israeli military as confirmed until they’re examined by “a credible medical expert.”
“With respect to these new allegations, we want to see an investigation. And we will of course look at the investigation and make our judgments when that investigation has concluded,” Miller stated.
The UN experts’ findings, which are reportedly “based on accounts provided by Palestinian female detainees, as well as information obtained via human rights organizations,” have been almost universally ignored by the Western press. As of publication, less than half a dozen mainstream outlets had reported on the shocking allegations.
Given the US State Department’s role in fast-tracking weapons to Israel, it may have good reason to downplay credible allegations of the mass killing and abuse of Palestinian women in Gaza. While it may not have been accused directly, Foggy Bottom has been a willing accomplice to any and all of Israel’s crimes.
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Wyatt Reed is the managing editor of The Grayzone. As an international correspondent, he’s covered stories in over a dozen countries. Follow him on Twitter at @wyattreed13.
Featured image is from TG
February 27th, 2024 by Ralph Nader
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Last October 27, I suggested subjects the mainstream media needed to cover relating to the saturation bombing of Gaza and its defenseless civilian families and infrastructure. Looking at these topics now, four months later, despite massive reporting, the attention to these subjects is still thin and more deserving of reporting than ever.
1. How did Hamas, with tiny Gaza surrounded by a 17-year Israeli blockade, subjected to unparalleled electronic surveillance, with spies and informants, and augmented by an overwhelming air, sea and land military presence, manage to get the weapons and associated technology for their October 7th surprise raid? Readers still do not know how and from where these weapons entered Gaza year after year.
2. What is the connection between the stunning failure of the Israeli government to protect its people on the border and the policy of P.M. Netanyahu? Recall the New York Times (October 22, 2023) article by prominent journalist, Roger Cohen, to wit: “All means were good to undo the notion of Palestinian statehood. In 2019, Mr. Netanyahu told a meeting of his center-right Likud party: ‘Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy.’” (Note: Israel and the U.S. fostered the rise of Islamic Hamas in 1987 to counter the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)). Readers still need more information about the context of Netanyahu’s declared support for Hamas over the years and his connection to the buildup of Hamas funding and weaponry.
3. Why is Congress preparing to appropriate over $14 billion to Israel in military and other aid without any public hearings and without any demonstrated fiscal need by Israel, a prosperous economic, technological and military superpower with a social safety net superior to that of the U.S.? USDA just reported over 44 million Americans struggled with hunger in 2022. This, in the midst of a childcare crisis. Should U.S. taxpayers be expected to pay for Netanyahu’s colossal intelligence/military collapse? As an elderly Holocaust survivor told the New York Times “It should never have happened” in the first place.
4. Why hasn’t the media reported on President Biden’s statement that the Gaza Health Ministry’s body count (now over 7000 fatalities) is exaggerated? Indications, however, are that it is a large undercount by Hamas to minimize its inability to protect its people. Israel has fired over 8,000 powerful precision munitions and bombs into Gaza so far. These have struck many thousands of inhabited buildings – homes, apartments buildings, over 120 health facilities, ambulances, crowded markets, fleeing refugees, schools, water and sewage systems, and electric networks – implementing Israeli military orders to cut off all food, water, fuel, medicine and electricity to this already impoverished densely packed area the size of Philadelphia. For those not directly slain, the deadly harm caused by no food, water, medicine, medical facilities and fuel will lead to even more deaths and serious injuries.
Note that over three-quarters of Gaza’s population consists of children and women. Soon there will be thousands of babies born to die in the rubble. Other Palestinians will perish from untreated diseases, injuries, dehydration, and from drinking contaminated water. With crumbled sanitation facilities, physicians are fearing a deadly cholera epidemic.
Israel bombed the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border. Only a tiny trickle of trucks are now allowed there by Israel to carry food and water. Fuel for hospital generators still remains blocked.
The undercount of fatalities/injuries is far greater now. The official figure is about 30,000 lives lost, with hundreds dying every day under the rubble. There is too little media interest in more realistic estimates. Undercounting lessens the pressure on Washington officials’ co-belligerents in the White House to call for a permanent ceasefire.
5. Why can’t Biden even persuade Israel to let 600 desperate Americans out of the Gaza firestorm?
6. Why isn’t the mass media making a bigger issue out of Israel’s long-time practice of blocking journalists from entering Gaza, including European, American and Israeli journalists? The only television crews left are Gazan-residing Al Jazeera reporters. Israeli bombs have already killed 26 journalists in the Gaza Strip since October 7th. Is Israel targeting journalists’ families? The Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera, Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday. Israeli commanders now have killed over 100 journalists in addition in some cases to their entire families and continue to block foreign journalists except for a few brief “guided tours” in Israeli armored vehicles.
7. Why isn’t the mainstream U.S. media giving adequate space and voice to groups advocating a ceasefire and humanitarian aid? The message of Israeli peace groups’ peaceful solutions are drowned out by the media’s addiction to interviews with military tacticians. Much time and space are being given to hawks pushing for a war that could flash outside of Gaza big time. Shouldn’t groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the Arab-American Institute, Veterans for Peace and associations of clergy have their views and activities reported? Still being underreported are the activities all over the country of the Veterans for Peace and large labor unions demanding a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid.
8. Why is the coverage of the war overlooking the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations Charter and the many provisions of international law that all the parties, including the U.S., have been violating? (See the October 24, 2023 letter to President Biden). Under international law, Biden has made the U.S. an active “co-belligerent,” of the Israeli government’s vocal demolition of the 2.3 million inhabitants in Gaza, who are mostly descendants of Palestinian refugees driven from their homes in 1948. (See, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide). Coverage has expanded to include the U.S. vetoes on the Security Council and to global reporting on the International Court of Justice proceedings on South Africa’s calling for the Court to address Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
9. What about revealing human-interest stories? For example: How do Israeli F-16 pilots feel about their daily bombing of the completely defenseless Gazan civilian population and its life-sustaining infrastructures? The reporting on the military orders given to Israeli soldiers in Gaza who are slaying indiscriminately thousands of innocents of all ages and snipers attacking people and children in hospitals is inadequate. Why are no Hamas fighters taken as prisoners of war? Is there an order of “take no prisoners” even after capture? What are the courageous Israeli human rights and refuseniks thinking and doing in a climate of serious repression of their views as a result of Netanyahu’s defense collapse on October 7th? The open letter to President Biden on December 13, 2023, by 16 Israeli human rights groups appeared as a paid notice in the New York Times but received very little notice to its clarion call to stop the catastrophe in Gaza. (See the letter here).
10. Where is the media attention on the statements from Israeli military commentators, who, for years have declared high-tech US-backed, nuclear-armed Israel to be more secure than at any time in its history? Israel is reasserting its overwhelming military domination of the Middle East region, fully backed by U.S. militarism. The Israeli government is putting ads in U.S. newspapers wildly exaggerating long-subdued Hamas as an “existential” threat. Without Netanyahu strangely failing to keep the border guarded on October 7, 2023, what followed would not have happened!
Historians remind us that in a grid-locked conflict over time, it is the most powerful party’s responsibility to lead the way to peace.
Establishing a two-state solution has been supported by many Palestinians. All the Arab nations, starting with the Arab League peace proposal in 2002, support this solution as well. It is up to Israel and the U.S., assuming annexation of what is left of Palestine is not Israel’s objective. (See, the March 29, 2002 New York Times article: Mideast Turmoil; Text of the Peace Proposals Backed by the Arab League).
More media attention on this subject matter is much needed.
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Featured image: Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war, 10 October 2023 (Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
February 26th, 2024 by Jerome Irwin
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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“One little, two little, three little Palestinians, three little, two little, one little Palestinian, then no little Palestinians more”. Okay, Boys and Girls! Everyone, All Together, Now! Let’s hear it again from the top, yet one more time.”
The time-honored children’s nursery counting rhyme originally referred to ‘Ten Little Indians’ but, now, for the children in the 21st century, it should be adapted to refer to the rapid rate of the eradication of Palestinian children by the Jewish Zionist hordes that continue to sweep through the former native homelands of the natives of Palestine, like a plague of invasive insects or human ‘Genghis Khan’s’.
The original invading colonists of the New World, in the budding new countries of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and rest of the America’s didn’t originally really care a whit how many native children and their elders had to be eradicated, exterminated or obliterated to make way for their own kind. When it comes down to the nub of it, they don’t really care a whit, anymore than the Jewish Zionists, and all their allies in the New and Old World’s, do about how many human beings, young and old alike, must be eradicated – exterminated – obliterated in Gaza and throughout the occupied territories of Palestine for the sake of yet the new conquers and their offsprings greedily-lusting again for yet whatever more desired ultimate power, money, and control. It doesn’t matter how many horrific accounts are still to be revealed of young Palestinian infants, children and teenagers who have had: all their limbs, and even their heads, blown off; died from starvation, malnutrition; treated for life-threatening injuries and diseases without any anesthetics; or left to wallow in the mud, rain, blistering sun in their own feces from the lack of proper housing and sanitational infrastructure.
Otherwise, if that were not the truth, the world’s human defenders of humanity, decency and the higher purposes of life upon Planet Earth, collectively, have long since cried out so loudly for that a massive army of defenders already would have been invoked to carry out: a world-wide BDS Movement; Arms and Financial Embargos; yet another WWIII, or whatever else it would have to take, to stop all those out-of-control Christian-Jewish-Zionist zealots and aggressors who seek so much financial, political, territorial, spiritual gain at the expense of yet another of the world’s unfortunate indigenous people, who now are the Palestinians.
The mass of humanity has simply been hopelessly brainwashed and brow-beaten to passively accept what is the case on the ground. This is why the Canadian, American, Australian, British citizenry, as well as the majority of all the other humans in the world, continue to look the other way as they, themselves, struggle to cope with the exigencies of life, and passively continue to allow the world’s corporate news and mass media to invoke almost total censorship and management of world news and collective consciousness to suppress what truly is happening everywhere in the world; and, specifically, what is happening to the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, as they and whatever other new indigenous peoples in the future will find themselves being thrown under the Western World’s oppressive, steamrolling juggernaut, crunching and flattening everything and everyone in its wake as it mindlessly rumbles onward towards some nefarious end, the whole movement of the human world inexorably continues on its unknown course to wherever or nowhere.
Nevertheless, what continues to unfold in Gaza, gives one cause to pause and wonder, “What the Hell, in God’s good name, are still even lower depths of human depravity is the human race yet capable of descended to, as modern history already has shown in places like Auschwitz? Will the world’s moviemakers, writers and playwrights now spend the next 50 years and more, fretting, puzzling, wondering how yet such another monstrous, bestial ‘Holocaust’ could have again be committed, this time, ironically, cynically, by the victims of the original Holocaust themselves, who should have already known better by dint of their own personal horrific experiences? It challenges the human brain to endlessly question and wonder about whether or not Humans aren’t just another species of lower primates, not much better than their lesser relatives, somewhere still far down the evolutionary biological ladder?
The legendary pop music band Pink Floyd’s founding bassist, Roger Waters, is one who has bravely chosen to face this conundrum head-on in defiance of it all; for which, in his case, in the world of music, he has been horrendously castigated, vilified and economically persecuted by those sectors of higher-ups around him in the music industry who accuse Waters of being “one of the most widely-known antisemites in the world”.
Because of the famed rocker’s defiant attitude towards Zionist Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians, as well as other related disparaging, comments he has made in the past about America’s involvement in the war in Ukraine, the record giant BMG that once lionized Waters music, has since dropped its contracture plans to do a 50th anniversary release of Pink Floyd’s historic signature album Dark Side of the Moon; that nevertheless was subsequently released by the UK Label Cooking Vinyl.
Waters, in return, has characterized his separation from Bertlesmann (BMG) as the “brutal suppression of my political beliefs. “They’re trying to cancel me like they cancelled Jeremy Corbyn and Julian Assange, and I will not be cancelled.” Waters candidly declares, “War isn’t about ideology. It isn’t about religion, it’s about money.”
As a result of being a longtime supporter of Palestine and critic of Israel, Waters vehemently continues to deny such accusations; while further causing an uproar in 2023 when he wore a “Nazi-style” uniform on stage in Berlin. Many of his concerts continue to be cancelled over his support for an international boycott of Israel.
Yet Water’s words and music continue to salve this writer’s soul at this moment in time when the fate of the Palestinians is in such a grim, dire state, precisely; because of so much propaganda, ignorance, absence of truth and indifferent silence now the norm in place of what everywhere should be honest, real emotions being expressed by humans everywhere who find themselves engulfed and entrapped by so much mute ignorant silence. Waters remains yet one of those many, decent human beings who struggle to speak truth to power for whatever that means and whatever it’s worth.
As one who has attempted to endlessly write about all the madness and depravity that is now afoot in places like Ukraine and Gaza, this writer constantly, daily, has to fight off so much depression’ for the sake of his own conscious awareness.
Such depression is especially keen since having just listened to yet another endless account of many in Gaza of a little innocent, very scared, very terrified 14-year-old girl and her little 4-Year-old sister who recently were machine-gunned to death by IDF forces.
The family’s 14-year-old and her younger sister were in a car with all their family’s adults and relatives attempting to flee the death and destruction they were facing, when their vehicle was sprayed by IDF machine gun fire, and they all were killed save for the teen and her little sister who had been stuffed onto the floorboards of their vehicle for protection, with the adult’s bodies above them used as protective shields.
Their riddled car had come to a halt near a bombed-out tank and, after a time, as pitch black darkness engulfed them, the teenager managed to use one of her dead relatives cell phones and finally was able to connect with Palestine’s Red Crescent ambulance services. They remained in conversation with her, consoling her all the while, while one of their brave paramedic teams was dispatched to drive their ambulance and themselves in harms way, indifferent to their own survival, to attempt to rescue two very scared, very little, terrified girls.
But obviously her transmission had been monitored by the IDF who already had malevolently set up an ambush for them; waiting until the Red Crescent ambulance and its paramedic team had been lured deep into their death trap. While they were enroute, the terrified teenager and her sister were kept on the line,; consoled by a very kind women’s voice who told them not to worry because help would soon arrive..
UNTIL……..That is, when the Red Crescent receptionist next heard the two frightened little girl’s voices suddenly scream in abject terror, abruptly cut off by the sound of machine gun fire, followed by deathly silence.
When investigating authorities finally arrived, they found the burnt-out Red Crescent ambulance, with the two dead paramedics and bullet-riddled car nearby with all the dead family in a bloody heap inside, with the teenager and her 4 year-old sister lying dead atop the pile.
Such abject evilness is beyond the capacity of the human mind to cope with when so few in the world in positions of power, who could make a significant difference, care so little as to allow such evilness and barbarity to continue, unaddressed and unimpeded.
Especially when countries like Canada, and the rest of the United Nation countries leaders, could at once invoke: a total arms and financial embargo; BDS movement against Zionist Israel, or; immediately marshal together an ad hoc armed forces of volunteer peace keepers prepared to immediately put themselves, at the risk of their own lives, between the out-of-control mad men Zionist leaders, IDF forces, settler militias and Jewish citizenry who obviously, themselves, have become murderously insane by it all, and since, apparently, have even been given carte blanche to do whatever heinous actions they will, with few questions ever asked. Yet, instead, look for every legal loophole to continue to ship monies and war materials to the Zionist to continue their macabre killing spree
One has to wonder? Is there no hope, whatsoever, for the human race?
Has it descended so far down into the black pit of oblivion and hate within the human heart?
For all the peoples of the world to decide what personal action each of them now must take in the future, especially all those long-time lovers of Pink Floyd’s music, they should listen to the TRT World interview with Roger Waters, as he speaks truth as he sees it in his life about Gaza, Israel, War, Propaganda, Human Ignorance.
TRI World itself, ironically, constantly is criticized and labeled by the Western corporate press as being a propaganda news outlet because it dares to broadcast, worldwide, 24 hours daily, with studies in Washington D.C. and London, controversial issues pertaining to Turkey, Africa and Southern Asia towards which the Western corporate press is ideologically opposed to or unwilling to air themselves. Such as TRT World being awarded, in 2023, an International Emmy for its documentary Off The Grid; Ukraine Wartime Stories on the war in Ukraine.
“One little, two little, three little Palestinians, three little, two little, one little Palestinian, no little Palestinians more”. Okay, Boys and Girls! Everyone, All Together, now! Let’s hear it again from the top, yet one more time.”
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Jerome Irwin is a Canadian-American writer who, in previous lives, has been involved in a wide range of diverse and varied worlds, including the Criminology profession with an American police department, and later for a brief-time in the capacity of clandestine communications with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. For decades, in various professional capacities as an educator, researcher, geo-political analyst, and writer. Irwin has sought to call attention to a broad spectrum of world problems pertaining to the degradation and unsustainability caused by a host of environmental-ecological-spiritual-ideological issues that exist between the conflicting world philosophies of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.
Irwin is the author of the book, “The Wild Gentle Ones; A Turtle Island Odyssey” (www.turtle-island-odyssey.com), a spiritual odyssey among the native peoples of North America that over the decades has produced numerous articles pertaining to: Ireland’s Fenian Movement; native peoples Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance Movement; AIPAC, Israel & the U.S. Congress anti-BDS Movement; the historic Battle for Palestine & Siege of Gaza, as well as; the many violations constantly being waged by industrial-corporate-military-propaganda interests against the World’s Collective Soul. To examine a portion of the eclectic body of his work goggle: “Jerome Irwin, writer” The author and his wife are long-time residents on the North Shore of British Columbia.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: Displaced Palestinians wait to receive free food from a volunteer-run hospice near Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. Bloomberg
February 26th, 2024 by Sammy Kotwani
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As President of the Indian Business Alliance (IBA) and Founder of The Imperial Tailoring Co., Sammy Kotwani offers comprehensive insights on the evolving dynamics of Indian investment prospects in the Russian Federation. He also discusses, in this interview, aspects of business challenges and roadblocks in the context of geopolitical changes and competition as well as the current economic cooperation between India and Russia. Here are the interview excerpts:
How would you characterize the geopolitical changes on investment prospects for Indians in Russian Federation?
Geopolitical changes have significantly influenced investment prospects for Indians in the Russian Federation. The strategic partnership between the two countries has created favorable conditions for Indian investors, with a renewed focus on economic cooperation and enhanced bilateral relations. This has opened new avenues for Indian businesses to explore investment opportunities in sectors such as energy, technology, pharmaceuticals, and infrastructure.
What are your estimation of the current Russia’s economic presence in India? And how does it look like in the private sector there?
Russia’s economic presence in India is noteworthy, especially within the private sector. There has been a visible upward trajectory in Russian investments and collaborations in key sectors such as defense, nuclear energy, and strategic infrastructure. The private sector in India has increasingly engaged in joint ventures and technology transfers with Russian counterparts, fostering mutually beneficial partnerships.
By the way, do you see an increasing trend, particularly, in trade between the two countries? What are the supporting factors here in the bilateral trade?
The trade between India and Russia has, indeed, been experiencing an upward trend, backed by several prominent factors. Enhanced diplomatic relations, the implementation of preferential trade agreements, and increased cooperation in sectors such as aerospace, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals have been instrumental in fostering robust bilateral trade ties.
Naturally there must be a number of challenges and roadblocks, problems and pitfalls in policy and, of course, business approach in relation to Indian players in the Russian Federation. Is it possible to comment on them?
Challenges and roadblocks are inherent in any international business engagement. An understanding of regulatory frameworks, cultural nuances, and local business practices is crucial for Indian players in the Russian Federation. It is essential to address issues related to bureaucratic hurdles, legal complexities, and market entry barriers. A harmonized approach to policy frameworks and regulatory norms will be pivotal in mitigating these challenges and fostering a conducive business environment.
Do these still persist in the entrepreneurial activities and operations during these few years? What do you suggest, in terms, rules and regulations to facilitate business relations?
Persistent efforts are required to streamline and optimize entrepreneurial activities and operations in the Russian Federation. Clear and transparent regulations, simplified procedures for obtaining permits and licenses, and efforts to minimize bureaucratic red tape will provide a conducive environment for Indian businesses to thrive.
In the context of the current changes, what else could stimulate business innovations and initiatives to attract more Indian investment to Russia?
To stimulate business innovations and initiatives and attract more Indian investment to Russia, proactive measures such as the establishment of special economic zones, investment protection mechanisms, and collaborative research and development efforts can play a transformative role. Additionally, facilitating technology transfers, promoting joint ventures, and encouraging skill development programs will further bolster business prospects for Indian investors in Russia.
And finally, what are your perspectives, for instance, on geopolitical competition in relation to, say, India and China and probably other external players in Russia’s market landscape?
In the context of geopolitical competition, it is imperative to emphasize that India and Russia share a time-tested bilateral relationship based on mutual trust and strategic cooperation.
While geopolitical dynamics in the region continue evolving, India and Russia maintain a strong foundation of partnership and collaboration. The convergence of interests and shared commitment to stability and economic progress underpins the enduring relationship between the two countries. Furthermore, India’s engagement with Russia complements its relations with other external players, including China, through a balanced and pragmatic approach aimed at promoting mutual prosperity and stability in the region.
In conclusion, the evolving landscape of Indo-Russian relations presents a wealth of opportunities for both countries to deepen economic engagement and foster enduring partnerships. By harnessing the potential for collaboration across diverse sectors, India and Russia can pave the way for sustained economic growth and shared prosperity.
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Kester Kenn Klomegah, who worked previously with Inter Press Service (IPS), Weekly Blitz and InDepthNews, is now a regular contributor to Global Research. He researches Eurasia, Russia, Africa and BRICS. His focused interest areas include geopolitical changes, foreign relations and economic development questions relating to Africa. As a versatile researcher, he believes that everyone deserves equal access to quality and trustworthy media reports.
Featured image is from InfoBrics
February 26th, 2024 by Paul Yesse
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Today is the second Sunday in Lent. This is the most sacred period of the Christian calendar: the 40 days leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
Every Sunday the churches feature passages from the Bible that are read from the lectern by a member of the congregation. The first reading today was the story of how God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering, then called it off at the last moment. The purpose, says the church, was to test Abraham’s faith. The story is found in Genesis 22.
In today’s homily, the priest explained that in the days of Abraham, in what became the Holy Land, the local tribes practiced ritual sacrifice of children to appease their pagan gods. He said that the story of Abraham and Isaac showed how the Jews rose above that despicable practice to a more civilized and honorable form of worship.
After the service, I went up to the priest and asked him why, if the Jews no longer practiced ritual sacrifice, has Israel under Netanyahu murdered tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, including civilian women and children?
I will not repeat the priest’s answer, except to say that he found my question quite unexpected and that he gave no satisfying response. He briefly tried to justify the genocide but trailed off, knowing he could not.
To me, any answer must take into account the obvious fact that the god of today’s Israel and its leader, Netanyahu, and by extension, Netanyahu’s enabler, U.S. President Joe Biden, cannot possibly be the god of Abraham and Isaac, or, by extension, that of Jesus Christ and of Jesus’s true followers.
The god of Netanyahu and Biden must be, rather, that of the child-sacrificing pagans the Judeo-Christian religion was founded, at least in part, to displace from power. My own belief is that the god of Netanyahu and Biden is actually Satan. As the heads of their respective governments, they do appear to be, in fact, “priests of Satan”.
I would go further in Biden’s case, and point to several other aspects of his governance that support my contention. One is Biden’s acquiescence in the ongoing genocide of the Covid “pandemic,” where millions of people have died, either from the government’s protocols when hospitalized, or from the deadly government-approved mRNA “vaccine.” Another pandemic appears to be in the planning stages, for “Disease X.”
Another instance is Biden’s war policy, not only in backing Netanyahu’s genocidal actions in Gaza, but also the U.S. proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, which the U.S. began by overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Ukraine in 2014, and where the supplying of unlimited money and weapons to the Zelensky regime has led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and the emigration of millions more Ukrainians out of their homeland.
Another is Biden’s personal corruption and that of his family members which is currently under investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives, with impeachment a possibility.
Yet another is Biden’s “open border” policy that has allowed millions of illegal aliens to enter the country and conceal themselves within our towns and cities with the possible intent to:
a) allow criminal cartels and drug gangs to corrupt our nation with deadly drugs and massive human trafficking;
b) create a uniparty nation by packing the rolls with millions of new Democratic Party voters;
c) generate future indebted victims of the U.S. usury-based banking system;
d) enlist millions of cheap non-union workers for menial jobs; and, worst of all,
e) possibly to infiltrate an army of terrorists to aid the Deep State and its controllers in their likely plans to replace our constitutional system with a totalitarian takeover of the U.S.
So, during the Lenten system, we should reflect on where all this is headed for our nation and the world. Those who are able should take action to prevent these abuses. The rest of us, as individuals, can do our own part by respecting the intent of the Lenten season through improving our lives and following Jesus’s injunction to “take up your cross and follow me.” Most inspiring are the words of the old Christian hymn:
Take Up Your Cross
Take up your cross, the Savior said,
If you would my disciple be;
Deny yourself, the world forsake,
And humbly follow after me.
Take up your cross, be not ashamed!
Let not disgrace your spirit fill!
For God himself endured to die
Upon a cross, on Calvary’s hill.
Take up your cross, which gives you strength,
Which makes your trembling spirit brave;
‘Twill guide you to a better home
And lead to vict’ry o’er the grave.
Take up your cross, and follow Christ,
Nor think till death to lay it down;
For only they who bear the cross
May hope to wear the glorious crown.
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Paul Yesse is a pen name.
February 26th, 2024 by Global Research News
A Global Chorus of Pretence to Halt the Gaza Bloodbath. The New World Order’s “Global Welfare”
By , February 26, 2024
For those who have failed to recognise the true colours of the global institutions charged with acting for world peace, health and human rights, it will surely come as a shock to realise that such international bodies are part of the problem and not the solution.
Dissolving Illusions About Vaccine Safety
By , February 26, 2024
The vaccine industry intentionally deceives us about the risks and benefits of vaccines in order to make a profit, with complete disregard for human suffering and the destruction of public health over time.
A Copper’s Skewed Logic: Politicising Palestinian Visas
By , February 26, 2024
If only we could say that Peter Dutton, Australia’s federal opposition leader and curator of bigoted leanings, was unusual in assuming that granting humanitarian visas to Palestinians might be problematic. But both he, and his skew-eyed spokesman on home affairs, James Patterson, have concluded that votes are in the offing.
The West’s Involvement in the Syrian Conflict. Shane Quinn
By , February 26, 2024
Since 2011 members of British organisations such as MI6 and the Special Air Service (SAS) had been training anti-government forces within Syria, according to the Israeli intelligence outlet Debkafile.
What Does Maternal Mortality Rate Tell Us About Contemporary USA?
By , February 26, 2024
Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) (measured per 100,000 live births) is a widely used human development indicator. In addition this also has a strong emotional connect and any country would normally be very keen to accord very high priority to reducing its maternal mortality.
The Silence of the Guilty. The Death of Alexei Navalny. Manlio Dinucci
By , February 26, 2024
The West in unison accuses Putin of ordering Navalny’s assassination. The timing of his death, however, is more than suspicious: Navalny died on February 16, on the same day the Munich Security Conference opened, a week after Putin’s successful interview with Tucker Carlson, a month before the presidential elections in Russia where Putin is a candidate.
Netanyahu Has Lost Saudi Arabia, and Biden Will Lose Re-election
By , February 25, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in late 2022 that his priority was to sign a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. He called it his number one objective for Israel’s national security. Now, he has lost his dream.
February 26th, 2024 by Duncan Campbell
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Which is the more serious criminal activity: extrajudicial killings, routine torture of prisoners and illegal renditions carried out by a state, or exposing those actions by publishing illegally leaked details of how, where, when and by whom they were committed?
That is essentially the question that was asked this week at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. It has sometimes seemed during the proceedings that the ornate building at the end of Fleet Street, opened by Queen Victoria in 1882, had become more of a theatre than a court. Outside, vast crowds gathered, chanted, listened to speeches, halted traffic and asked passing drivers to hoot their support. Inside, some of the UK’s leading barristers, watched by journalists from all over the world, spelled out the plot to packed public galleries in overflow courts. This drama started more than a decade ago, yet only now are we approaching the final act.
We are talking, of course, about the case of Julian Assange. He has been seeking leave to appeal against the decision to extradite him to the US to face trial under its Espionage Act for his publication of documents, via WikiLeaks, which detailed illegal US actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and which were leaked to him by the former US soldier Chelsea Manning.
The elegant cage in court five, where traditionally those who have been brought from prison have to sit while their appeal is heard, was empty. The lead character was missing. Assange, now in his fifth year in high security Belmarsh prison, despite having been convicted of no crime, was too unwell to attend or even watch the proceedings remotely. But, along with all his supporters, including his wife, Stella, and his father and brother, there were some important ghosts in court.
It is nearly 50 years since the former CIA agent Philip Agee leaked details of his country’s illegal activities on behalf of rightwing dictators in Latin America to the London magazine Time Out – then in its early, radical days – and his case was cited by Assange’s lawyers, Edward Fitzgerald KC and Mark Summers KC. Crucially, despite false claims that his leaks had led to deaths, Agee was never extradited to the US, although he was deported from Britain by a Labour government in 1977. When we met up again in Germany in 2007, not long before his death, I asked what might now happen to someone who acted as he had, leaking information to expose US criminality. “I think it would be much harder,” said Agee. “A person who tried to do what I did would face kidnapping and possibly being put on ice in a secret prison for many years to come.” How right he was.
In court also was the ghost of another heroic truth-teller, Daniel Ellsberg, who died last year and who faced the same charges as Assange in 1973 for exposing US activities in Vietnam – and who had given evidence for him in a previous hearing. The mention in court of those two names was an indication of the vital importance of this week’s hearing. It is a case that will define how seriously our judiciary and our politicians consider the notion of free speech. As Fitzgerald told the court, this is a “legally unprecedented prosecution (that) seeks to criminalise the application of ordinary journalistic practices”.
For the US, Clair Dobbin KC said the charges against Assange were not political but were brought because he went “far beyond the acts of a journalist who was merely gathering information” and “responsible” journalists would not have acted as he did. She said that some of those identified in the leaked material had had to flee their homes. Yet in evidence given at Manning’s sentencing hearing in 2013, it was revealed that a team of 120 counterintelligence officers had been unable to find a single person who could be shown to have died because of WikiLeaks’s revelations.
The Americans have recently been arguing for the release from detention in Russia of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested last year in Yekaterinburg despite having full press credentials from Russia’s foreign ministry. No wonder Vladimir Putin mocks US pleas made on his behalf when they are simultaneously trying to lock away Assange on equally bogus espionage charges.
Some of the “responsible” press in this country have barely covered this case, too busy with stories about tiffs in the royal family or the news that footballer Wayne Rooney had applied to study law – cue jolly pic of Wayne in barrister’s wig – while the real life barristers have been fighting for the life of a journalist who, as things stand, could die in prison. Judgment has been reserved, but what did emerge from this week’s hearings was that, while Assange would avoid the oft-quoted potential sentence of 175 years in the US, he would probably face a sentence of between 30 and 40 years. For a 52-year-old in poor health that almost certainly means dying behind bars.
Politicians in the UK often express their horror at “cancel culture”, but few have so far managed to denounce the US’s attempts to cancel a journalist for the offence of causing shame and embarrassment. So, after this week, the next question is this: does our judiciary and our government have the steel to fight this extradition? Everyone who values the right to free speech undoubtedly should.
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Duncan Campbell is a freelance writer who worked for the Guardian as crime correspondent and Los Angeles correspondent.
February 26th, 2024 by Megan Redshaw
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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It may take more than 10 years for someone injured by a COVID-19 vaccine to receive a decision on whether their claim is eligible for compensation by the government’s vaccine compensation program—if they receive a response at all.
U.S. health officials responded to questions on America’s failing vaccine injury compensation system in a hearing that left the vaccine-injured feeling like addressing the system’s shortcomings is not a priority on Capitol Hill.
As of Jan. 1, there were 12,854 claims filed for injuries caused by COVID-19 countermeasures with the government’s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), including 9,600 related to injuries caused by COVID-19 vaccines. Of the 12,854 claims, 2,214 have been processed, but only 40 claims have been found eligible for compensation.
According to testimony given during a Feb. 15 hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, there’s a backlog of about 10,800 claims. With only 35 employees processing claims at a rate of 2.7 cases per employee per month, it will take about 10 years to process the remaining claims.
“I just don’t think it’s right. I think we need to streamline this process,” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) said during the hearing. “We need to speed up this process by about tenfold in order to do our job for the American people.”
According to CICP data, as of Jan. 1, only 11 people have received compensation for their injuries out of 40 COVID-19 claims found eligible for compensation. The average award was a mere $3,700, whereas the average payout under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) that handles injuries caused by routine vaccines is $490,000.
“If you die or get injured from a COVID-19 vaccine, your average payout is $3,700,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to U.S. health officials during the hearing.
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic met to discuss the federal government’s post-marketing surveillance of COVID-19 vaccine safety and the process for adjudicating compensation claims in the first session of a multi-part hearing titled “Assessing America’s Vaccine Safety Systems, Part 1.”
Witnesses at the hearing included Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Cmdr. George Reed Grimes. Dr. Grimes is the director of the Division of Injury Compensation Programs for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that oversees both the CICP and VICP.
Prior to the hearing, React19 and the COVID-19 vaccine-injured community were looking forward to Drs. Marks, Grimes, and Jernigan answering tough questions about the failings of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System known as VAERS and the CICP, co-chairman of React19 Dr. Joel Wallskog told The Epoch Times in an email.
React19 is a science-based nonprofit offering financial, physical, and emotional support for more than 30,000 individuals suffering from long-term COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
Dr. Wallskog said the vaccine-injured community was “very disappointed” by the hearing stating that most of the U.S. representatives used much of their allotted time during the hearing to “pontificate” instead of asking tough questions. The questions that were asked “failed to go into any needed detail,” with many representatives engaging in what he called nonconstructive partisan banter.
“There were no in-depth discussions of the failures of the vaccine safety monitoring systems and no discussions of remedies. There were no in-depth discussions of the obvious complete failure of the CICP and no discussion of remedies,” Dr. Wallskog added.
“The testimonies of the witnesses were generic, as they have been in the past.” At one point, a representative “suggested that those injured by the COVID-19 shots were false positives,” which was “truly insulting,” he said.
In an online interview, Dr. Wallskog said he was a physically active, successful orthopedic surgeon forced to leave his practice after experiencing transverse myelitis from his one and only Moderna vaccine. Prior to being vaccinated, Dr. Wallskog experienced an asymptomatic case of COVID-19 but followed CDC guidance and got vaccinated three months later, despite having antibodies indicative of natural immunity.
Dr. Wallskog filed a vaccine injury claim with the CICP in May 2021, received a denial in November 2022, and appealed in December 2022. He has yet to receive a response to his appeal.
The CICP and VICP are the U.S. government’s two systems for adjudicating and compensating vaccine-related injuries. However, only the CICP accepts claims related to COVID-19 vaccines.
The CICP was established by the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act to compensate individuals who “sustain a covered serious physical injury or death as a direct result of the administration or use of a covered countermeasure,” including a vaccine, medication, device, or other item used to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, or treat during a pandemic or epidemic, and provides immunity for manufacturers for the harms caused by their products. People injured by a vaccine covered by the PREP Act can only seek compensation through the CICP.
The VICP was established by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, based on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Russell Bruesewitz et al. v. Wyeth et al. that gave vaccine manufacturers, doctors, and other vaccine administrators broad liability protections when a government recommended or mandated vaccine causes permanent injury or death.
The VICP covers injury claims related to 16 common vaccines and involves a unique, no-fault tribunal housed within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Payouts, including attorneys fees and pain and suffering damages up to $250,000, are funded by a 75-cent excise tax per vaccine dose paid for by the pharmaceutical companies. The VICP proceedings are often drawn out into contentious expert battles, and the backlog of cases is substantial. Yet the VICP to date has awarded more than $5 billion for vaccine injuries.
It is much harder to get compensation under the CICP. Of the 13,406 claims filed since the program’s inception in 2010, only 0.3 percent of claims have been compensated. People who go through the CICP do not have the protections afforded by the U.S. legal system and only have one year from the time of their injury to file a claim—even if they don’t recognize they’ve been injured until after the one-year period has passed. There is no court, judge, or right to discovery under the CICP. Unlike the VICP, decisions regarding compensation are administratively made by Dr. Grimes’ team of 35 employees.
In establishing the CICP, Congress defined the threshold that must be met for an individual to receive compensation. To be eligible for compensation, the covered countermeasure, such as a COVID-19 vaccine, must have directly caused the covered injury. It cannot just be “temporally associated” with receiving the countermeasure, and the determination is based on “compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence.”
The CICP only pays unreimbursed medical expenses, a portion of lost employment income, and a death benefit. In essence, it is a payer of last resort, covering only what remains unpaid or unpayable by other third parties, such as other government benefits, workers’ compensation, or private insurance. Under the CICP, there are no damages for pain and suffering or attorney fees.
Brianne Dressen, co-chairman of React19, filed a claim with the CICP for her vaccine injury more than two years ago and, like many others, has never received a response. Even so, with an average payout of only $3,700, this doesn’t go very far in helping with Ms. Dressen’s medical expenses related to her injury, which, according to Ms. Greene, total more than $433,000 a year.
According to Dr. Grimes, for COVID-19 vaccines to be added to the VICP’s list of covered vaccines, they must be recommended by the CDC for routine administration in children and pregnant women, an excise tax must be imposed by Congress, and the secretary of HHS must provide a notice to add the vaccine to the VICP. The CDC currently recommends COVID-19 vaccines for children and pregnant women, but Congress has not taken action to impose the excise tax, nor has HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra issued a notice.
“There is no one who knows the failures of both of these programs better than those who stand to benefit or be harmed by them. That is us, the vaccine injured,” Ms. Dressen told The Epoch Times in an email.
“While the white house earmarks $10 billion for COVID vaccine distribution and vaccine confidence, the COVID vaccine injured have been paid $41,000,” Ms. Dressen said. “The numbers speak louder than any of these officials trying to tell us otherwise. Addressing the failures with vaccine injury compensation is not a priority on The Hill.”
According to the latest VAERS data, 1,626,370 adverse events following COVID-19 vaccines were reported between Dec. 14, 2020, and Jan. 26, 2024. This includes 311,196 reports of serious injuries and 37,100 deaths.
“The COVID-19 vaccine-injured community continues to feel abandoned by our health care providers, health care systems, and our federal regulatory agencies. We are dismissed, censored, and ridiculed. Our federal regulatory agencies are tasked with protecting the public. They have failed thousands of Americans injured by these shots,” Dr. Wallskog told The Epoch Times in an email.
Dr. Wallskog said React19 will continue to advocate for all Americans injured by COVID-19 vaccines, regardless of their political affiliations.
“React19 remains committed to giving the COVID-19 vaccine-injured community hope and healing despite this so-called hearing or investigation,” he added. “Rest assured, the COVID-19 shot-injured community should remain confident that React19 will stand with them until we get acknowledgment, adequate medical care, and just compensation.”
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This article was originally published on The Epoch Times.
Featured image source
February 26th, 2024 by Dr. Joseph Mercola
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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The vaccine industry intentionally deceives us about the risks and benefits of vaccines in order to make a profit, with complete disregard for human suffering and the destruction of public health over time
One of the reasons the polio vaccine doesn’t work is because polio isn’t caused by an infectious virus.
It’s caused by toxins. Poliovirus is a commensal virus that is completely harmless in the absence of toxic onslaught
The changing of definitions is part of the vaccine industry’s playbook.
The definition of a “vaccine” was radically altered to allow for the use of experimental modified RNA gene therapy
Another part of the fraud is using another vaccine as the control in lieu of a true placebo. You simply cannot prove a vaccine is safe by comparing it to another, most likely unsafe, vaccine
According to Dr. Suzanne Humphries, there are no worthwhile vaccines, not even smallpox or tetanus. Tetanus can be successfully treated using high-dose intravenous vitamin C and other essential nutrients
Vitamin C works because tetanus is a bacterial disease caused by an obligate anaerobe that cannot survive in the presence of oxygen. Other oxidative therapies that could be used if the infection is related to a wound include hydrogen peroxide and ozone therapy
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In this interview, Dr. Suzanne Humphries discusses the recent update to her classic book, “Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History,” published in 2013. “Dissolving Illusions” is one of my favorite books on vaccines, so I was honored to write the foreword for this 10th anniversary edition.
That word, “illusions,” is an apt one, because the vaccine industry really is all about promoting illusions. They intentionally deceive us about the risks and benefits of vaccines in order to make a profit, with complete disregard for human suffering.
“What I’ve learned over 15 years of really immersing myself in this is that it’s the same old story over and over and over again,” Humphries says. “Sometimes people ask me, ‘What is the driver? Why do they do this?’ My answer is that I cannot completely answer why. Yes, certainly, there’s greed involved, especially today, but I think there’s probably some more sinister operations at play.
The one thing we can say is that for 225 years, the same story has been repeated over and over again, which is that vaccines come out, and they make previous diseases that were not really very problematic worse. The vaccines cause problems.
The death rates were always coming down for any disease before any therapy came in at all, whether it’s an antibiotic or a vaccine … Trying to help humans live better, longer lives, to strengthen their bodies and their resilience, that’s always been the key.
In the interview, Humphries recounts the impetus behind the book. She first became aware that vaccines might be problematic when she was working as a nephrologist in northern Maine.
After a three-years-long struggle with the hospital administration, who refused to listen to any of her concerns, she finally got out, paid off her student loans and moved into a pop-up camper on a friend’s farm in Virginia, where she wrote the first edition of “Dissolving Illusions,” together with Roman Bystrianyk, who had been researching the history of disease and vaccines since 1998.
She spent the next seven years giving lectures around the world, and got her fair share of death threats. The brake line on her car was sabotaged, someone shot a crossbow arrow into the ground in front of her front door, and an obvious nut job detailed how he intended to torture and kill her in horrible ways. All for speaking out about the hazards of vaccines and the lies that keep the vaccine industry going.
“I think it’s because when you’re someone that has credibility — I was considered a top doctor in Maine, as a nephrologist — and comes out saying what I was saying, it is a big threat. It’s not necessarily that I was some important person, but it was where I came from,” she says.
Humphries also recounts how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been hiding vaccine injuries by deleting reports filed.
“I started reporting these vaccine injuries to the CDC. I would report them because my colleagues around me wouldn’t. But then they started bringing them to me, going ‘Here’s another one, Suzanne. Here’s another one.’ Each time I would report one, I would get a call from the CDC saying, ‘OK, someone else will be calling you,’ and then I’d get another call.
It was just a creepy, weird thing. Then after six months, I get a call from the main representative of the CDC, this doctor, and we had a flat out fight on the phone. He said to me, ‘What happened to you that you think all these vaccines are causing so many problems?’
I’m like, ‘What happened to me is that I’ve been watching it happen, and then you’re giving this live flu vaccine to children when the insert tells you exactly the symptoms you’re going to get, which is the flu.’ He’s like, ‘Well, that’s my specialty and that absolutely doesn’t happen.’ I said, ‘Well, I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that.’ He hung up on me, and that was the last I ever heard of him.
And guess what? They never made it to the VAERS database. They were deleted. I had the actual vaccine lot numbers. Everything was meticulously documented in these reports.”
One of the silver linings of the COVID mass injection campaign is that it has awakened many to the notion that vaccines aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The COVID shots are so toxic, even though the injuries are being swept under the carpet like never before, there are just so many of them that the carnage cannot be hidden. And, because government and health authorities refuse to acknowledge the problem, many are now questioning all vaccines, not just the COVID shot.
“It’s a dark night of the soul when you wake up to it,” Humphries says. “Your whole world does get a bit shattered, because you start to realize that the entire medical system is corrupt and backwards and that there’s probably better ways to do just about everything.
And you know what? For 225 years, doctors have been saying that, and for 225 years, those doctors have been ignored. That’s one of the reasons we wrote the second book, ‘The Dissolving Illusions Companion book.’
It’s another huge book, about 600 pages, with 230-something doctors giving different quotes about what they saw, boots on the ground, for smallpox vaccines to the toxoid vaccines to scarlet fever, typhoid, and the worsening of all diseases that occurred after they gave vaccines.
Some of them basically come out and say, ‘The entire profession of medicine is a complete waste of time. [They’re doing] damage to humanity. It would be better if all the doctors just were taken off the Earth and for humanity to do nothing.’
What we’ve done over the past 10 years is, in my travels, I would have to do more research to present different diseases. I would go one place and they say, ‘We want to hear about tetanus,’ or they want to hear more about whooping cough. More medical literature has also come out. So, we’ve added basically another book to ‘Dissolving Illusions.’
We’ve expanded it by 200 pages. We’ve added on a chapter on tuberculosis, which was called the White Plague. There’s an extra addition to the smallpox chapter. I’ve added about 20 or 30 new pages to the pertussis chapter. There is a chapter on deadly medicine, the practices from the early 1800s through to the 1940s that were provably causing lots of harm.
Roman came up with more charts. There’s a follow-up on the polio chapter. Dr. Jacob Puliyel, who lives in India, wrote the papers on the oral polio vaccines, how they were causing paralysis in children. We added those follow-up papers, as well as a lot of other data that we left out of the original chapter to try to save space, but it’s so important, it really needs to be put out there.”
Based on the available science, Humphries is convinced that one of the reasons the polio vaccine doesn’t work is because polio isn’t caused by an infectious virus. It’s caused by toxins. Poliovirus is a commensal virus that is completely harmless in the absence of toxic onslaught.
“We have to distinguish poliovirus from poliomyelitis,” Humphries explains. “Poliomyelitis is when there’s damage to a certain part of the spinal cord or the brain stem in the gray matter and causes paralysis in one or more muscle groups. It can cause paralysis to nerves that supply the diaphragm, which is why the iron lung was brought in.
[Poliomyelitis] was always attributed to a virus, which is really interesting when you consider that the early researchers were trying to infect monkeys with poliovirus and they couldn’t infect them. They stuck it up their noses. They would inject it into their bodies. They couldn’t cause paralysis in these monkeys until they injected matter from other paralyzed humans or animals into their brains.
That’s what it took to actually paralyze them. It’s a commensal virus. Polio is a commensal virus that has existed from time immemorial. When researchers went down to the Brazilian rainforest and found the Xavante Indians and convinced them to give them some blood samples and fecal samples, they found that just about 100% of these native people were colonized with polio, and there was no history of paralysis anywhere in the tribes.
Nobody talked about people that couldn’t breathe. They were fetchingly healthy. Same happened in the Philippines. When you look at the people living close to the earth, living healthy lives, and then comes the … [Western] lifestyle habits of sugar, tobacco, medicines that contain mercury, lead, arsenic and vaccinations spreading syphilis.
Latent syphilis gives you poliomyelitis. Lead can give you poliomyelitis. Arsenic is probably the most interesting, because not only does it clinically give you the exact scenario of poliomyelitis, but even in the spinal cord, it’s exactly the same. That’s been proven. I’m not a virus denier. There is actual virus that is commensal.”
By now, you’ve probably heard the theory that there are no viruses, period. That the entire field of virology is a hoax, and that what we perceive as viruses are merely a type of cellular debris being shed when your body is trying to detox. Having delved deep into the science of infectious disease, Humphries disagrees with this theory. Viruses do exist. The question is whether they’re as dangerous as they’re made out to be. Humphries comments:
“You get chickenpox one time and you’re immune to it forever. You can be exposed to it over and over again and you don’t get it. Well, if it’s a detox, like they say, why doesn’t it carry on? I’m still as polluted as I probably was 10 years ago. I’m not getting chickenpox over and over again. I got it one time.
Why do these children that are nonimmune get it? … When you look at it that way, it’s like, ‘Come on, people. These viruses are all different. They have different manifestations.’ Influenza virus is a completely different entity.
The measles virus hasn’t really shifted genetically very much over the years. The natural one hasn’t. What’s really shifted it is the vaccines. When you start injecting people with the virus, having it go into the body in an unnatural way so that there is not a full immune response, that’s what causes mutations in the viruses because they’re able to work their way around the vaccine.
It’s happened very slowly with measles. It happened very quickly with the whooping cough bacteria, because of the really inefficient vaccine that was created for that.
The flu shots don’t work at all. Even Anthony Fauci came out with paper in 2023 that was almost a confession; about how poorly they’ve done with these viral vaccines and flu shots, and how if they were compared to all the other vaccines, they wouldn’t even be allowed to be on the market.
He said the COVID vaccines have the same problem. It’s because they’re not getting immunity where immunity is required, which is on the lung and the mucosal surfaces. How crazy to inject into a muscle a vaccine and think that you’re going to get solid immunity on the nasal and upper respiratory mucosa. Absolute insanity.
Same with the polio vaccine … Salk comes along and creates this injectable vaccine. They had to manipulate that data so much. They had to change the definition of what they considered as polio.
That’s what we added to [the polio] chapter. We’re showing the charts and what they would look like in their pure form, without changing the definitions. The rates of polio actually went up hugely after that vaccine was introduced. So, there’s never been a vaccine that’s really worthwhile giving.”
The changing of definitions is part of the vaccine industry’s playbook. They had to do the same for the COVID pandemic. Not only was the definition of “pandemic” changed, but also the definition of a “vaccine,” to allow for the use of experimental modified RNA gene therapy.
“They did the same thing they did with the Salk vaccine,” Humphries says. “See, history just repeats itself. So, the first vaccine that came out, the Salk vaccine, had merthiolate [thimerosal], a mercury compound, in it to kill off unwanteds, but Salk wasn’t happy with the field trials — the results of the antibody response from those children — so they took the merthiolate out.
So, we had one vaccine that was used for the testing and another that was given to the public. The same happened with the COVID vaccine. The mRNA technology, that’s not how the original ones were given.
I did a talk not that long ago in Denver, where I went into this in depth; how the vaccine that was given for the trials was completely different to the one given to the public. It was much more pure for instance … It was a very, very different vaccine that was used on the population. Then of course, that vaccine changed. So, different companies had different ways of manufacturing.”
Another part of the fraud is using another vaccine as the control in lieu of a true placebo. You simply cannot prove a vaccine is safe by comparing it to another, most likely unsafe, vaccine.
Yet that’s how it’s done. By using a toxic “control,” many of the adverse effects are automatically hidden as people in the control group end up suffering similar adverse events, and at a similar rate. This tactic was used in some of the COVID shot trials as well.
According to Humphries, there are no worthwhile vaccines, not even smallpox or tetanus, and certainly not the polio vaccine. She’s treated several cases of tetanus in the last five years, including in at least one fully vaccinated individual, using high-dose intravenous vitamin C and other essential nutrients.
One of the reasons why this works is because tetanus is not a viral disease. It’s a bacterial disease caused by the Clostridium tetani bacterium, an obligate anaerobe. It can reside in soils, but it can also reside in your intestine where there’s no oxygen.
Oxygen is toxic to it. If you expose that organism to oxygen, as you do with vitamin C (because the metabolite of vitamin C is hydrogen peroxide), it’s instantaneously killed. Ozone therapy would likely be even more effective, for this reason.
So, if you get tetanus from a wound, the last thing you need is a tetanus shot or tetanus antibodies. All you need to do is apply ozone to the wound. It’ll instantly destroy the bacteria. Applying hydrogen peroxide would also work. As explained by Humphries, vitamin C is also a neutralizer of toxins, which is another reason it works.
Tetanus is a spore, and it transforms under anaerobic conditions into a toxin-producing organism. If you can neutralize the toxin and kill the microbe, then you’ve won the battle. One hundred percent, we’ve won the battle. Humphries comments:
“In rabbit studies, they got tetanus spores and ground glass and put it under the skin of rabbits, sewed it up. If they gave rabbits vitamin C at the time that they did this, 100% of them survived. If they did it afterwards, the majority of them survived. If they already had high levels of vitamin C, all of them survived.
So, the rabbit study showed us that not only is tetanus preventable, it’s treatable. I don’t necessarily believe that by [injecting] a toxoid, that you’re going to respond …
There are so many case reports of people with paralytic tetanus after having five vaccines … I don’t care what wound I have. There’s no way a tetanus vaccine or a tetanus immune globulin, which is a human pooled blood product, is going into me …
[The tetanus shot] actually changes your T-3 to T-4 ratio. This is all documented. I didn’t put it in the book, but I’ve got a video out there from when I was in Finland, showing that it definitely changes the way your immune system works. All vaccines do.”
What people have to realize is that the schemes used to push the COVID shots is nothing new. “It’s pretty much exactly the same as it’s been for 225 years, where the recipients are not the beneficiaries of this technology and humanity is not getting healthier by any means as a result of it,” Humphries says.
To truly understand the vaccine industry’s modus operandi, be sure to pick up Humphries’ “Dissolving Illusions” 10th anniversary edition. It’s coming out in two forms: a standard hard copy, and a special coffee table edition. The standard hard copy has been translated into 10 languages, with more coming. Kindle and audio book formats are also available.
Also consider picking up a copy of “The Dissolving Illusion’s Companion” book, which features the quotes of hundreds of doctors, stories of vaccination tragedies, the timeline of vaccines, rare documents that have been scrubbed off the internet, a recommended reading list and much more. For more details and free sample chapters, see dissolvingillusions.com. In closing, Humphries comments:
“This is a really important point: It’s not just about not vaccinating. If you’re going to feed your children garbage and if you’re not going to have a healthy lifestyle, I say go vaccinate, because when you get sick and you have to go to the hospital, you’re going to be abused.
But if people follow your recommendations — you’re like the underscore to ‘Dissolving Illusions,’ you’re the solution to how to stay healthy so that the perceived need for these vaccines isn’t there …
Historically, [survival] has not been about vaccines. It’s not been about medications, it’s not been about antibiotics. It’s always been about plumbing, nutrition, fresh air, vitamin D, lifestyle, and keeping poisons out of our bodies. That’s always what it’s been about in terms of survival.
Does that mean we’ll never get sick? No, it doesn’t. But I personally believe it’s good to get sick once in a while and get some of that effusions out of your lungs and your nose. I think that does us some good once in a while.”
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February 26th, 2024 by Zero Hedge
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CBS has seized the confidential files of reporter Catherine Herridge, who was investigating the Hunter Biden laptop scandal before she was fired last week.
Herridge was one of 20 CBS News staffers who were let got as part of a larger layoff – however her firing came as a shock to many given her general popularity as a reporter.
“It’s so extraordinary,” one insider told the NY Post, adding that the files most likely contain confidential materials from Herridge’s time at both Fox and CBS.
According to the source who called the move ‘unprecedented,’ the network boxed up all her stuff and told her they would decide what, if anything, would be returned to her.
“They never seize documents [when you’re let go],” a second source told the outlet. “They want to see what damaging documents she has.”
A network spokesperson pushed back – telling the Post: “We have respected her request to not go through the files, and out of our concern for confidential sources, the office she occupied has remained secure since her departure,” adding “We are prepared to pack up the rest of her files immediately on her behalf – with her representative present as she requested.”
Sources feared the network’s actions could have an impact on Herridge’s First Amendment case because her documents may contain privileged conversations she had with her lawyers or the identities of sources.
Herridge is under fire for not complying with US District Judge Christopher Cooper’s order to reveal how she learned about a federal probe into a Chinese American scientist who operated a graduate program in Virginia. -NY Post
Herridge may also be held in contempt of court for refusing to divulge her source for a Fox News investigative piece in 2017, and could be ordered to pay fines of as much as $5,000 per day.
According to the Post, Herridge clashed with CBS execs over her Hunter Biden coverage – particularly CBS News President Ingrid-Ciprian Matthews who was previously investigated for (and cleared of) hiring discrimination.
The Post‘s second source suggested that Herridge’s files may contain information that could support a wrongful termination lawsuit.
“She was pursuing stories that were unwelcomed by the Biden White House and many Democratic powerhouses,including the Hur report on Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity, the Biden corruption scandal and the Hunter Biden laptop,” legal scholar Jonathan Turley wrote in The Hill.
According to Turley, CBS’ “heavy-handed” approach with Herridge and her files is “dead wrong.”
It’s also ‘deeply concerning’ to SAG-AFTRA, which represents CBS staffers.
“This action is deeply concerning concerning to the union because it sets a dangerous precedent for all media professionals and threatens the very foundation of the First Amendment,” the union told the Post.
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February 26th, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark
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If only we could say that Peter Dutton, Australia’s federal opposition leader and curator of bigoted leanings, was unusual in assuming that granting humanitarian visas to Palestinians might be problematic. But both he, and his skew-eyed spokesman on home affairs, James Patterson, have concluded that votes are in the offing. Refugees may be accepted from the Ukrainian-Russian War, as long as they are Ukrainian, but anything so much as a whiff of a Palestinian fleeing the Israel-Hamas conflict is bound to be concerning. Ukrainians are noble victims; the latter might be terrorist sympathisers or Hamas militants.
This view started being floated in November last year, when Dutton began warning the public that visitor visas for Palestinians could result in a calamity. (At that point, 860 visas had been issued to Palestinians.)
“The inadequacy of these checks could result in a catastrophic outcome in our country,” he foamed. “Taking people out of a war zone without conducting the checks, particularly those that are available to us in the US, is reckless.”
No concern was voiced about the possibility that Israelis, who had also been offered 1,793 visas, might pose a problem to the heavenly idyll of Australian security. It is also worth mentioning that Dutton, when home affairs minister, approved over 500 visas a week to Syrians fleeing the civil war. Ditto the granting of 5,000 visas to Afghans the month the Taliban resumed control of Kabul in the aftermath of retreating Western armies.
Dutton’s arithmetic is that of the typical copper: simple, direct, amateurish. Among the Palestinians, “one person, or could be 10 people, I don’t know” might be of concern. His concerns are feverishly listed:
“Have interviews been conducted, do we know people’s ideologies, do we know their interest in the west, why they want to come to Australia.”
This template would be applicable to every group of visitors or migrants seeking to come to Australia at any one point. No one is likely to say on their visa application: “I come to see your new country and hope to commit atrocities.”
Given the number of conflict zones on Planet Earth, Dutton was offering an obtuse statement calculated to boost flagging popularity. It was also timed within a matter of hours after the declaration of a four-day ceasefire in Gaza. While proving, at times, sketchy in her role as Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil was close to the mark in stating that,
“Dutton is a reckless politician who will do and say anything to score political points – even if it puts the national security of Australians at risk.”
But Dutton did not want to be dismissed as a paranoid former police officer who sees criminals everywhere and innocence as a constipated afterthought.
“The prime minister here needs to hit the pause button – I’m not saying people shouldn’t come at some point – but people should come when all the checks are conducted.”
Again, a strange sentiment, given that visa applicants tend to face a series of tests that are more demanding than most when seeking to visit the Down Under Paradise where perfection is assumed.
“If a visa applicant is assessed as posing a risk to the health, safety or good order of the Australian community, their visa may be considered for refusal,” were the dull words of a government spokesperson.
With the arrival of irregular migrants on the shores of Western Australia this month, cockeyed bigotry again assumed its role on the podium of Australian politics. Seeking to tie the arrivals as connected with shoddy security credentials, the opposition fanned out the implications of granting up to 2,000 visas for Palestinians, a fact seen as particularly galling to the shadow home affairs minister.
“In the middle of an unprecedented antisemitism crisis, the government should be taking much greater care in granting visas to people from a war zone run by a terrorist organisation,” bleated Patterson. “How can they possibly assure themselves there is not one Hamas supporter among them? And how will it help social cohesion if they manage to slip through?”
By this logic, no one should ever leave a war zone, an area of devastation, a territory blighted by terror. You just might be a regime supporter, a sympathiser, despite suffering possible harm, even death. But there is an inadvertent slant coming through in Patterson’s mangled world view: Palestinians, having been maimed, murdered and traumatised, might wish to take out their grievance on a foreign power, possibly one sympathetic to Israel. Ignore the survival imperative, the desire to find, rather than abandon, security; focus, instead, on the motivation for vengeance. Even this view suffers for one obvious point: those wishing to avenge their families and friends are bound to wish to stay in Gaza and the West Bank, rather than flee and plot from afar.
With the current arrivals from Gaza – some 340 or so have managed to drip themselves from the Palestinian territories – the bedwetting fantasies of terror being induced by the opposition seem absurd and callous. But absurdity is a proven calculus for electoral success – at least sometimes.
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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). Email: [email protected]
February 26th, 2024 by Shane Quinn
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Since 2011 members of British organisations such as MI6 and the Special Air Service (SAS) had been training anti-government forces within Syria, according to the Israeli intelligence outlet Debkafile. These British groups were further supplying weapons and ammunition to the insurgents trying to topple Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus, along with providing the opposition forces with SIGINT, that is intelligence accumulated through interception of signals.
In November 2011 the newspapers Le Canard enchaîné (in Paris) and Milliyet (in Istanbul) reported that personnel from the French foreign intelligence agency, DGSE, and the French Special Operations Command (COS) were involved in operations pertaining to Syria. They had been helping to organise the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) and were training anti-government troops and deserters from Syria’s regular army, such as in guerrilla warfare tactics.
The training camps were located along the Turkish-Syrian border, in north-eastern Lebanon which rests on Syria’s western frontier and also in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, after the fall in 2011 of the country’s long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Free Syrian Army consisted of mercenaries and jihadists brought over from Libya, and Islamic fundamentalists from Al-Qaeda and Salafist and Wahhabi fighters, who had entered Syria through Lebanon and Turkey.
Sources in the Pentagon stated that the CIA sent large numbers of drones over Syria’s airspace. The CIA drones were keeping track of the location of Syrian government soldiers, and their battles with the enemy which included many thousands of terrorists from Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda-linked groups and from Islamic State.
British and Qatari special forces were present from 2011 in Homs, Syria’s third biggest city, located less than 100 miles north of the capital Damascus. They were partaking in covert operations as military advisers and communications analysts, assisting the anti-government elements by providing them with arms and recruiting mercenaries.
Islamic jihadists entered Syria who before were living in Scandinavian states like Norway. From October 2012 dozens of men of Muslim origin travelled from Norway to Syria where they fought beside Al-Qaeda members. Kjell Grandhagen, the head of Norway’s military intelligence service (NIS), said he was deeply concerned about this because they routinely chose to join with Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria.
The China Post, a newspaper based in Taiwan, reported that Uyghur radicals from the region of Xinjiang in north-western China were present in Syria since May 2012 fighting alongside Al-Qaeda and other fundamentalists. The Uyghurs were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a terrorist organisation, and the East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association, the latter of which the Chinese government believes has links to the ETIM, which has been called the Turkistan Islamic Party.
Also in 2012 more than 10,000 Libyans were undergoing training in Jordan which has a 230 mile border with Syria. Author Moniz Bandeira outlined that the Libyans were being paid about $1,000 per month by the Saudis and Qataris, to persuade them to partake in the conflict against Assad’s government.
By October 2012 there were 150 soldiers from the US Special Operations Forces (SOF) in Jordan. Part of the task of the American SOF was to prepare Jordanian forces in the event of war spreading beyond Syria’s borders.
Through 2011 and beyond, NATO aircraft flying without insignia or coat of arms were landing in Turkish military facilities in the south of the country close to the region of Iskenderun, near Syria’s border. The NATO planes were transporting weapons that had belonged to Gaddafi’s military, along with mercenaries and jihadists from Libya to join the insurgency.
British special forces continued to co-operate with the opposition, and they were assisted by the CIA and military personnel from the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). The CIA and SOCOM were using telecommunications devices that enabled the co-ordination of attacks on Syrian soldiers.
Near the air base at Incirlik in the far south of Turkey, where thousands of American troops are stationed, the insurgents were receiving advanced training with grenade launchers, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and Stinger missiles. General Nikolai Makarov, a top-level Russian commander, said in October 2012 the opposition forces were using portable anti-aircraft missiles including the US-made Stinger missiles. That same month, in the Bustan al-Qasr district of Aleppo, Syrian government units repelled an attack and four Turkish militants were reportedly among those killed.
In September 2012 around 50 senior intelligence agents from countries like the US, Britain, France and Germany were active along the border between Turkey and Syria. According to Bandeira, American paramilitaries present in the consulate in the southern Turkish city of Adana, and at the Incirlik Air Base in Adana, were conducting covert operations related to Syria with some assistance from Turkey’s intelligence agency (MIT).
By attempting to overthrow the Syrian government, Al-Qaeda was in effect aligned with the liberal “democracies” of the US, Britain, France and Germany, which among the Western powers had participated most heavily in stoking unrest in Syria. During February 2012 the Al-Qaeda boss Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video in which he called for jihadists from countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq to unite on the battlefronts of Syria with the aim of toppling the “anti-Islamic” Assad government. Zawahiri requested that foreign jihadists assist their Syrian brothers with cash and useful information.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged early in 2012 that Zawahiri was supporting the insurrections in Syria. Undeterred by this she promised the Syrian National Council, an anti-Assad coalition force, that the US would continue furnishing logistical and communications support to the insurgents.
Washington was aware from classified analysis that most of the Western weapons sent through Saudi Arabia and Qatar ended up in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. They wanted to recreate the Great Caliphate in Greater Syria, Bilad al-Sham, reaching from the Euphrates river in western Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. The Persian Gulf monarchies, working with the CIA, increased military aid to the insurgents which included dropping weapons from the air.
The intelligence site Debkafile noted in August 2013 that the US, Israel and Jordan were supporting 30 Syrian opposition groups, some of whom had taken command of the Syrian side of the Quneitra Crossing, the only transit point between Israel and the part of the Golan Heights controlled by Damascus.
Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) revealed to the German parliament that, in the six-month period from late December 2011, around 90 terrorist attacks occurred in Syria which were carried out by extremists linked to Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups. The BND itself was involved in aiding the anti-government forces in Syria, through such activities as intelligence gathering and the monitoring of military undertakings on the battlefield.
The methods of terrorism included unprovoked bombing raids and suicide bombings. Among the prominent victims were Syria’s Minister of Defence, Dawoud Rajiha, the country’s former Minister of Defence, Hasan Turkmani, and the Deputy Minister of Defence, Assef Shawkat. They were killed as a result of another unprovoked bomb attack in Damascus on 18 July 2012. Shawkat was also Assad’s brother-in-law.
Groups such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra, associated with Al-Qaeda, were entering northern Syria where they could conceivably move along the coast towards the Syrian port of Latakia. Until September 2013 the jihadists received 400 tons of armaments from Persian Gulf countries in the space of two years, which included machine-guns, automatic anti-aircraft weapons, and ammunition.
In June 2013 the prime minister of Jordan, Abdullah Ensour, said that 900 American troops were in Jordan, which it can be recalled borders Syria. Two hundred of these men were involved in training related to chemical warfare, while the other 700 were operating a Patriot missile defence system and F-16 fighter jets which the Americans had deployed to Jordan in June 2013.
Two months before the US Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, told the Senate Armed Forces Committee regarding Syria that a military intervention in the country was always on the table. He said the US State Department and USAid would assist the “moderate opposition”.
In early 2012 the Obama administration with the CIA’s knowledge had sanctioned a weapons route, which enabled military hardware from post-Gaddafi Libya to be sent eastwards to Syria to bolster the opposition, many of whom were jihadists and terrorists. In February 2013 Washington pledged $60 million in military aid to anti-Assad forces, while France publicly supported the sending of war materiel to Syria.
The NATO attack on Libya in March 2011 had been concerned with strengthening the West’s control over the lucrative Mediterranean region, and gaining authority over Libya’s resources, such as its oil reserves which are the largest in Africa. For similar reasons the Western powers were attempting regime change in Syria which like Libya is a Mediterranean state.
Syria is also of course part of the Middle East, a region rich in raw materials and considered by Western analysts as particularly important. Furthermore, in the waters close to Syria’s western shoreline there is an estimated 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 107 billion barrels of oil.
By August 2013 American, British and French warships were sailing in the Mediterranean Sea with the potential to attack Syria with tomahawk missiles. Among the warships were five destroyers and an American amphibious transport vessel, the USS San Antonio (LPD-17), with 100 US marines on board and equipped with a helicopter platform.
The French president Francois Hollande was prepared to go ahead with an invasion of Syria in 2013 together with the US. Yet president Barack Obama was warned by his former Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, that Syria was a more challenging and complex problem than Libya. Syria’s territory is less accessible to a major ground assault and the Americans, already involved in other large-scale wars like in Afghanistan, would have needed at least as big a military presence in Syria as they had on Afghan territory.
Perhaps most importantly of all, a US-led invasion of Syria would have run the risk of direct armed conflict with Russia, which has had a naval facility at the Syrian city of Tartus since the early 1970s. The Russian military presence in Syria has since expanded to Latakia, a short distance north of Tartus. Launching an attack on Syria could also have destabilised most of the Middle East, following the failed US invasion and occupation of Iraq which shares a 380 mile western border with Syria. Obama was preoccupied too with other regions like the Pacific where the Americans have hoped to contain China.
There were signs that Sunni jihadists fighting against the government in Damascus were co-operating with Sunni jihadists in Iraq, where terrorist atrocities were becoming commonplace. The Israeli military intelligence officer Aviv Kochavi admitted in July 2012 that there was a continuous stream of Al-Qaeda fighters and other radicals entering Syria.
In parts of north-western Syria, close to the city of Idlib, the black flag frequently used by Al-Qaeda and its allies was raised over numerous checkpoints and municipal and public buildings. These were the “moderate forces” that Western governments and the liberal media insisted were in opposition to Syrian government troops.
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This article was originally published on Geopolitica.RU.
Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree and he writes primarily on foreign affairs and historical subjects. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Sources
Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The Second Cold War: Geopolitics and the Strategic Dimensions of the USA (Springer; 1st edition, 23 June 2017)
“Free Syrian Army Fighters killed on Lebanon’s border”, Sputnik, 6 October 2012
“Allaw: Syria’s oil production fell between 20 and 25% because of the sanctions… No company withdraw”, Syrian Oil & Gas News, 1 November 2011
“900 US troops in Jordan”, Dawn, 23 June 2013
Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The World Disorder: US Hegemony, Proxy Wars, Terrorism and Humanitarian Catastrophes (Springer; 1st edition, 4 February 2019)
Gabriel Kolko, World in Crisis: The End of the American Century (Pluto Press, 20 March 2009)
Featured image is from Geopolitica.RU
The “globalization of war” is a hegemonic project. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East. The U.S. military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.
ISBN Number: 978-0-9879389-0-9
Year: 2015
Pages: 240 Pages
February 26th, 2024 by Karsten Riise
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Denmark is Europe’s number 3 spender for war in Ukraine, after UK and Germany.
Danish newspapers boast about it today. Because Denmark with 6 million people has a much smaller economy than Germany with 80 million and the UK with 60 million, Denmark is, relative to GDP, probably Europe‘s number One spender on Ukraine.
To prove their loyalty to the US to the point of Denmark’s own self-destruction, Denmark’s politicians just gave all Denmark’s artillery including ammunition to Ukraine. Lock, stock, and barrel. Imagine that! Denmark has no artillery left. None. And with no equipment for training and exercises, and endless delivery times for new NATO artillery equipment and ammunition, Denmark may have self-destroyed its artillery capability for 5-10 years. For the next 5-10 years, Denmark’s army will be without effective artillery – and as importance of artillery has been demonstrated by the war in Ukraine, without artillery, Denmark’s army will be defenseless in any big war (which Denmark’s own politicians shout up about coming).
Denmark’s politicians are in reality sacrificing Denmark’s own security just to further their personal careers and please the USA.
On the 2 year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, I checked newspapers in Denmark, the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, and of course the US.
No other of the mentioned countries comes even close to the warmongering intensity of the Ukraine war reporting of Denmark’s two leading newspapers.
Denmark’s two leading newspapers “Berlingske Tidende” and “Politiken” are filled to the brim with “experts” and “comments” that Ukraine can go on in the war, that Denmark as part of Europe is about to be overrun by Russia and so on. A demonstration at the Ukrainian embassy to “make Russia pay” is covered as if it was a million people public demonstration – until you down in the text see that only 500 persons (probably all Ukrainian citizens) participated. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also gives a long interview to “Berlingske Tidende” dedicated to support for Ukraine’s continuation of its lost fight. PM Mette Frederiksen’s choice of outlet for her war propaganda is a message in itself. As a Social Democrat leader, it would have been the logical choice for PM Mette Frederiksen to give an interview with Denmark’s biggest “Liberal” newspaper “Politiken” – but having a defense propagandistic intention with the interview, PM Mette Frederiksen instead chose to give her interview with “Berlingske Tidende”, the newspaper which is Denmark’s traditionally conservative supporter of military and defense. Louder than most even EU leaders, PM Mette Frederiksen claims that “Ukraine can still win”, claims that all of the EU is in mortal danger – basically, Denmark’s PM Mette Frederiksen tells the Danes, that they have to give up social benefits to pay for an immense militarization of Denmark.
The level of Denmark’s war-cheering and denial of reality just as NATO is losing its Ukraine war is stunning – but should come as no surprise.
Denmark “delivered” the highest number of dead soldiers relative to its population size in Afghanistan. Denmark participates in the US electronic spying on European allies, incl. Germany. When the US wanted to shelter one of Saddam’s generals, Denmark supplied a village for the purpose. When the CIA wanted a host country for the television activity of an “Arab independence” terror group operating in Iran, Denmark delivered the perfect cover. Denmark has all the underwater surveillance around the island of Bornholm, where the Nordstream was sabotaged close by. Any crab or hering moving is monitored – Denmark was complicit. The critic French analyst Emmanuel Todd regards Denmark as the 6th members of America’s “Five Eyes” spy network.
In spite of being pulled in its strings by Washington’s neoconservative circles, Denmark with its Social Democratic image manages to uphold the lie of its morality image. In the “Global South”, many are still fooled by Denmark’s “do-good” image. But make no mistake.
Denmark is one of the most important and 200% controlled US assets. Not because of Denmark’s size, but precisely because of Denmark’s “moral” image and above all the widely unrecognized role Denmark plays for the USA.
This goes back 80 years when the US wanted an offensive missile base to fire nuclear rockets on Russia (then the Soviet Union), Denmark gladly supplied the territory of Greenland for the purpose – in spite of Denmark officially always having declared itself “nuclear-free”. So much for Denmark’s “talk peace – act war” hypocrisy.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
February 26th, 2024 by Craig Murray
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Reporting on Julian Assange’s extradition hearings has become a vocation that has now stretched over five years. From the very first hearing, when Justice Snow called Assange “a narcissist” before Julian had said anything whatsoever other than to confirm his name, to the last, when Judge Swift had simply in 2.5 pages of glib double-spaced A4 dismissed a tightly worded 152-page appeal from some of the best lawyers on earth, it has been a travesty and charade marked by undisguised institutional hostility.
We were now on last orders in the last chance saloon, as we waited outside the Royal Courts of Justice for the appeal for a right of final appeal.
The architecture of the Royal Courts of Justice was the great last gasp of the Gothic revival; having exhausted the exuberance that gave us the beauty of St Pancras Station and the Palace of Westminster, the movement played out its dreary last efforts at whimsy in shades of grey and brown, valuing scale over proportion and mistaking massive for medieval. As intended, the buildings are a manifestation of the power of the state; as not intended, they are also an indication of the stupidity of large scale power.
Court number 5 had been allocated for this hearing. It is one of the smallest courts in the building. Its largest dimension is its height. It is very high, and lit by heavy mock medieval chandeliers hung by long cast iron chains from a ceiling so high you can’t really see it. You expect Robin Hood to suddenly leap from the gallery and swing across on the chandelier above you. The room is very gloomy; the murky dusk hovers menacingly above the lights like a miasma of despair; below them you peer through the weak light to make out the participants.
A huge tiered walnut dais occupies half the room, with the judges seated at its apex, their clerks at the next level down, and lower lateral wings reaching out, at one side housing journalists and at the other a huge dock for the prisoner or prisoners, with a massy iron cage that looks left over from a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
This is in fact the most modern part of the construction; caging defendants in medieval style is a Blair era introduction to the so-called process of law.
Rather incongruously, the clerks’ tier was replete with computer hardware, with one of the two clerks operating behind three different computer monitors and various bulky desktop computers, with heavy cables twisting in all directions like sea kraits making love. The computer system seems to bring the court into the 1980’s, and the clerk behind it looked uncannily like a member of a synthesiser group of that era, right down to the upwards pointing haircut.
In period keeping, this computer feed to an overflow room did not really work, which led to a number of halts in proceedings.
All the walls are lined with high bookcases, housing thousands of leather bound volumes of old cases. The stone floor peeks out for one yard between the judicial dais and the storied wooden pews, with six tiers of increasingly narrow seating. The barristers occupied the first tier and their instructing solicitors the second, with their respective clients on the third. Up to ten people per line could squeeze in, with no barriers on the bench between opposing parties, so the Assange family was squashed up against the CIA, State Department and UK Home Office representatives.
That left three tiers for media and public, about thirty people. There was however a wooden gallery above which housed perhaps twenty more. With little fuss and with genuine helpfulness and politeness, the court staff – who from the Clerk of Court down were magnificent – had sorted out the hundreds of those trying to get in, and we had the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, we had 16 Members of the European Parliament, we had MPs from several states, we had NGOs including Reporter Without Borders, we had the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, and we had, (checks notes) me, all inside the Court.
I should say this was achieved despite the extreme of official unhelpfulness from the Ministry of Justice, who had refused official admission and recognition to all of the above, including the United Nations. It was pulled together on the day by the police, court staff and the magnificent Assange volunteers led by Jamie. I should also acknowledge Jim, who with others spared me the queue all night in the street which I had undertaken at the International Court of Justice, by volunteering to do it for me.
This sketch captures the tiny non-judicial portion of the court brilliantly. Paranoid and irrational regulations prevent publication of photos or screenshots.
My rough sketch while trying to listen on a difficult audio feed.
At front two Counsels for #Assange, to right behind them Gareth Perice, then from right John Shipton, @GabrielShipton, @Stella_Assange, behind them @ChrisLynnHedges. Also saw @CraigMurrayOrg and @suigenerisjen. pic.twitter.com/pNI2mHMRHW
— Matt Ó Branáin (@MattOBranain) February 20, 2024
The acoustics of the court are simply terrible. We are all behind the barristers as they stood addressing the judges, and their voices were at the same time muffled yet echoing from the bare stone walls.
I did not enter with a great deal of hope. As I have explained in How the Establishment Functions, judges do not have to be told what decision is expected by the Establishment. They inhabit the same social milieu as ministers, belong to the same institutions, attend the same schools, go to the same functions.
The United States’ appeal against the original blocking of Assange’s extradition was granted by a Lord Chief Justice who is the former room-mate, and still best friend, of the minister who organised the removal of Julian from the Ecuadorean Embassy.
The blocking of Assange’s appeal was done by Judge Swift, a judge who used to represent the security services, and said they were his favourite clients. In the subsequent Graham Phillips case, where Mr Phillips was suing the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for sanctions being imposed upon him without any legal case made against him, Swift actually met FCDO officials – one of the parties to the case – and discussed matters relating to it privately with them before giving judgment. He did not tell the defence he had done this. They found out, and Swift was forced to recuse himself.
Personally I am surprised Swift is not in jail, let alone still a High Court judge. But then what do I know of justice?
The Establishment politico-legal nexus was on even more flagrant display today. Presiding was Dame Victoria Sharp, whose brother Richard had arranged an £800,000 loan for then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and immediately been appointed Chairman of the BBC, (the UK’s state propaganda organ). Assisting her was Justice Jeremy Johnson, another former barrister representing MI6.
By an amazing coincidence, Justice Johnson had been brought in seamlessly to replace his fellow ex-MI6 hiree Justice Swift, and find for the FCDO in the Graham Phillips case!
And here these two were now to judge Julian!
What a lovely, cosy club is the Establishment! How ordered and predictable! We must bow down in awe at its majesty and near divine operation. Or go to jail.
Well, Julian is in jail, and we stood ready for his final shot for an appeal. We all stood up and Dame Victoria took her place. In the murky permanent twilight of the courtroom, her face was illuminated from below by the comparatively bright light of a computer monitor. It gave her a grey, spectral appearance, and the texture and colour of her hair merged into the judicial wig seamlessly. She seems to hover over us as a disturbingly ethereal presence.
Her colleague, Justice Johnson, for some reason was positioned as far to her right as physically possible. When they wished to confer he had to get up and walk. The lighting arrangements did not appear to cater for his presence at all, and at times he merged into the wall behind him.
Dame Victoria opened by stating that the court had given Julian permission to attend in person or to follow on video, but he was too unwell to do either. After that disturbing news, Edward Fitzgerald KC rose to open the case for the defence to be allowed an appeal.
There is a crumpled magnificence about Mr Fitzgerald. He speaks with great authority and a moral certainty that compels belief. At the same time he appears so large and well-meaning, so absent of vanity or pretence, that it is like watching Paddington Bear in a legal gown. He is a walking caricature of Edward Fitzgerald.
Barristers’ wigs have tight rolls of horsehair stuck to a mesh that stretches over the head. In Mr Fitzgerald’s case, the mesh has to be stretched so far to cover his enormous brain, that the rolls are pulled apart, and dot his head like hair curlers on a landlady.
Fitzgerald opened with a brief headline summary of what the defence would argue, in identifying legal errors by Judge Swift and Magistrate Baraitser, that meant an appeal was viable and should be heard.
Firstly, extradition for a political offence was explicitly excluded under the UK/US Extradition Treaty which was the basis for the proposed extradition. The charge of espionage was a pure political offence, recognised as such by all legal authorities, and Wikileaks’ publications had been to a political end, and even resulted in political change, so were protected speech.
Baraitser and Swift were wrong to argue that the Extradition Treaty was not incorporated in UK domestic law and therefore “not justiciable”, because extradition against its terms engaged Article V of the European Convention (on Human Rights on Abuse of Process) and Article X (on Freedom of Speech).
The Wikileaks revelations had revealed serious state illegality by the government of the United States, up to and including war crimes. It was therefore protected speech.
Article III and Article VII of the ECHR were also engaged because in 2010 Assange could not possibly have predicted a prosecution under the Espionage Act, as this had never been done before despite a long history in the USA of reporters publishing classified information in national security journalism. The “offence” was therefore unforeseeable. Assange was being “Prosecuted for engaging in the normal journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information”.
The possible punishment in the United States was entirely disproportionate, with a total possible jail sentence of 175 years for those “offences” charged so far.
Assange faced discrimination on grounds of nationality, which would make extradition unlawful. US authorities had declared he would not be entitled to First Amendment protection in the United States because he is not a US citizen.
There was no guarantee further charges would not be brought more serious than those which had already been laid, in particular with regard to the Vault 7 publication of CIA secret technological spying techniques. In this regard, the United States had not provided assurances the death penalty could not be invoked.
The CIA had made plans to kidnap, drug and even to kill Mr Assange. This had been made plain by the testimony of Protected Witness 2 and confirmed by the extensive Yahoo News publication. Therefore Assange would be delivered to authorities who could not be trusted not to take extrajudicial action against him.
Finally, the Home Secretary had failed to take into account all these due factors in approving the extradition.
Fitzgerald then moved into the unfolding of each of these arguments, opening with the fact that the US/UK Extradition Treaty specifically excludes extradition for political offences, at Article IV.
Fitzgerald said that espionage was the “quintessential” political offence, acknowledged as such in every textbook and precedent. The court did have jurisdiction over this point because ignoring the provisions of the treaty rendered the court liable to accusations of abuse of process.
He noted that neither Swift nor Baraitser had made any judgment on whether or not the offences charged were political, relying on the argument the treaty did not apply anyway.
But the entire extradition depended on the treaty. It was made under the treaty. “You cannot rely on the treaty, and then refute it”.
This point brought the first overt reaction from the judges, as they looked at each other to wordlessly communicate what they had made of it. It was a point of which they had felt the force.
Fitzgerald continued that when the 2003 Extradition Act, on which the Treaty depended, had been presented to Parliament, ministers had assured parliament that people would not be extradited for political offences. Baraitser and Swift had said that the 2003 Act had deliberately not had a clause forbidding extradition for political offences. Fitzgerald said you could not draw that inference from an absence. There was nothing in the text permitting extradition for political offences. It was silent on the point.
Nothing in the Act precluded the court from determining that an extradition contrary to the terms of the treaty under which the extradition was taking place, would be a breach of process. In the United States, there had been cases where extradition to the UK under the treaty had been prevented by the courts because of the ‘no political extradition’ clause. That must apply at both ends.
Of the UK’s 158 extradition treaties, 156 contained a ban on extradition for political offences. This was plainly systematic and entrenched policy. It could not be meaningless in all these treaties. Furthermore this was the opposite of a novel argument. There were a great many authoritative cases, stretching back centuries, in the UK, US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and many other countries in which “no political extradition” was firmly established jurisprudence. It could not suddenly be “not justiciable”.
It was not only justiciable, it had been very extensively adjudicated.
All of the offences charged were as “espionage” except for one. That “hacking” charge, of helping Chelsea Manning in receiving classified documents, even if it were true, was plainly a similar allegation of a form of espionage activity.
The indictment describes Wikileaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence agency”. That was plainly an accusation of espionage. This is self-evidently a politically motivated prosecution for a political offence.
Julian Assange is a person in political conflict with the view of the United States, who seeks to affect the policies and operations of the US government.
Section 87 of the Extradition Act 2003 provides that a court must interpret it in the light of the defendant’s human rights as enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights. This definitely brings in the jurisdiction of the court. It means all the issues raised must be viewed through the prism of the ECHR and from no other angle.
To depend on the treaty yet ignore its terms is abuse of process and contrary to the ECHR. The obligation in UK law to respect the terms of the extradition treaty with the USA while administering an extradition under it, was comparable to the obligation courts had found to follow the Modern Slavery Convention and Refugee Convention.
Mark Summers KC then arose to continue the case for Assange. A dark and pugnacious character, he could be well cast as Heathcliff. Summers is as blunt and direct as Fitzgerald is courteous. His points are not so much hammered home, as piledriven.
This prosecution, Summers began, was “intended to prohibit and punish the exposure of state level crime”. The extradition hearing had heard unchallenged evidence of this from many witnesses. The speech in question was thus protected speech. This extradition was not only contrary to the US/UK Extradition Treaty of 2007, it was also plainly contrary to Section 81 of the Extradition Act of 2003.
This prosecution was motivated by a desire to punish and suppress political opinion, contrary to the Act. It could be shown plainly to be a political prosecution. It had not been brought until years after the proposed offence; the initiation of the charges had been motivated by the International Criminal Court stating that they were using the Wikileaks publications as evidence of war crimes. That had been immediately followed by US government denunciation of Wikileaks and Assange, by the designation as a non-state hostile intelligence agency, and even by the official plot to kidnap, poison, rendition or assassinate Assange. That had all been sanctioned by President Trump.
This prosecution therefore plainly bore all of the hallmarks of political persecution.
The magistrates’ court had heard unchallenged evidence that the Wikileaks material from Chelsea Manning contained evidence of assassination, rendition, torture, dark prisons and drone killings by the United States. The leaked material had in fact been relied on with success in legal actions in many foreign courts and in Strasbourg itself.
The disclosures were political because the avowed intention was to effect political change. Indeed they had caused political change, for example in the Rules of Engagement for forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and in ending drone killings in Pakistan. Assange had been highly politically acclaimed at the time of the publications. He had been invited to address both the EU and the UN.
The US government had made no response to any of the extensive evidence of United States state level criminality given in the hearing. Yet Judge Baraitser had totally ignored all of it in her ruling. She had not referred to United States criminality at all.
At this point Judge Sharp interrupted to ask where they would find references to these acts of criminality in the evidence, and Summers gave some very terse pointers, through clenched teeth.
Summers continued that in law it is axiomatic that the exposure of state level criminality is a political act. This was protected speech. There were an enormous number of cases across many jurisdictions which indicate this. The criminality presented in this appeal was tolerated and even approved by the very highest levels of the United States government. Publication of this evidence by Mr Assange, absent any financial motive for him to do so, was the very definition of a political act. He was involved, beyond dispute, in opposition to the machinery of government of the United States.
This extradition had to be barred under Section 81 of the Extradition Act because its entire purpose was to silence those political opinions. Again, there were numerous cases on record of how courts should deal, under the European Convention, with states reacting to people who had revealed official criminality.
In the judgment being appealed Judge Baraitser did not address the protected nature of speech exposing state criminality at all. That was plainly an error in law.
Baraitser had also been in error of fact in stating that it was “Purely conjecture and speculation” that the revelation of US war crimes had led to this prosecution. This ignored almost all of the evidence before the court.
The court had been given evidence of United States interference with judicial procedure over US war crimes in Spain, Poland, Germany and Italy. The United States had insulated its own officials from ICC jurisdiction. It had actively threatened both the institutions and employees, of the ICC and of official bodies of other states. All of this had been explained in detail in expert evidence and had been unchallenged. All of it had been ignored by Baraitser.
Following the publication of the Manning material, there had been six years of non-prosecution of Assange. Why was there then a prosecution after six years? What had changed?
Following the declaration by the International Criminal Court that it would use Wikileaks material to investigate US government officials for war crimes, US officials described Assange as “a political actor”. This period saw the origin of the phrase “non-state hostile intelligence agency”. Assange had been accused of “working with Russia” and “trying to take down the USA”.
Baraitser had acknowledged in her judgment the hostility from the CIA but stated that “the CIA does not speak on behalf of the US administration”.
It was important to note that it was after the Baraitser judgment that Yahoo News had published its investigation into the US government plot against Assange.
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Featured image is from Lawyers for Assange
February 26th, 2024 by Ezili Dantò
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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On November 6, 2023, Èzili Dantò’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and Evel Fanfan’s Actions of Organizations Motivated for a Haiti Ruled by Law (AUMOHD), filed a lawsuit against the unelected Ariel Henry’s defacto Haiti Government for requesting foreign troops to deploy to Haiti in violation of the Haiti Constitution and Haiti sovereignty. See PDF of Press Release, and the original complaint in French, registered in the High Court of Port au Prince, No. I 3970329 (PDF of original filing) and, english translation below. (See also, Kenya Court Delays Troop Deployment To Haiti After U.N. Security Council Resolution.)
Click here to read the English translation.
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Featured image is from Haiti News
February 26th, 2024 by Fatima Hassan
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Israel has been engaged in a campaign of genocide in the Gaza Strip (GS) since 7/10/2023, striving to destroy everything that could sustain human life in the region. This includes targeting Palestinian lives and destroying homes, healthcare facilities, infrastructure, schools, universities, mosques, churches, bakeries, shops and refugee camps.
The genocide perpetrated by Israel necessitates justifications to the international community, achieved through the dehumanization and demonization of victims via false testimonies and allegations against Palestinians. These narratives are extensively propagated in the Western world, persisting without retractions or apologies despite their debunking.
Israel’s objective extends beyond seeking justice, as it claims, rather, it aims to solidify its aggressive settler colonialism in Palestine, prioritizing the Judaization of the land and its inhabitants over the plight of Palestinians.
Israeli allegations against Palestinian resistance forces and GS residents involved in Operation al-Aqsa Flood on 7/10/2023, were diverse. These claims, orchestrated by organized entities within Israel’s government, aimed to justify its assault on GS and globally vilify Palestinian resistance, despite lacking validity.
Despite most of the claims against Palestinians being refuted, Israel launched an international campaign in mid-November 2023 to compile files against Palestinians involved in the events of 7/10/2023, in anticipation of criminal prosecution. Israel disseminated false and fabricated information through sympathetic journalists, accounts and websites to garner global public opinion support for its GS war. This article will address some of these allegations and present evidence to debunk them.
It has been over three months since Operation al-Aqsa Flood led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on 7/10/2023, in which approximately 1,139 people were killed according to the latest and non-final Israeli official statistics. This number has been repeatedly and gradually adjusted by Israel, initially reported as 1,405 killed, then reduced to 1,200, claiming that the difference is due to bodies later identified as belonging to Hamas due to charring. This suggests that Israel initially included around 200 Palestinian fatalities among its killed civilians, leveraging them in its international media campaign to gain sympathy and justify its actions against GS. This is also evidence of the Israeli forces’ use of brutal methods in killing people at the time, to the extent that they did not distinguish between Jewish and Palestinian casualties in their tallies due to body charring. This proves that Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling killed “civilian” Israelis, as the Qassam Brigades do not possess weapons capable of killing and burning such numbers.
As it seems, the majority of civilians killed on that day can be attributed to the implementation of the Israeli military leadership’s Hannibal Directive. This directive operates on the principle of “a dead soldier is better than a kidnapped one,” believing that the abduction of soldiers imposes an exceedingly high cost on Israel, which it must pay to secure their release. The directive allows for indiscriminate fire if a soldier is captured, with the intention of killing both the captors and the captive, as precisely done by the Israeli forces on 7/10/2023. They launched rockets at populated areas to repel the attackers, resulting in the killing and burning of numerous Israeli and Palestinian civilians, as reported by international and Israeli media outlets.
An investigative report published on Ynet website, on 12/1/2024 revealed that the Israeli military high command ordered all units on 7/10/2023 to prevent the abduction of Israeli citizens “at all costs,” “even if this means risking or harming the lives of civilians in the area, including the abductees themselves.” The report disclosed that about 70 vehicles driven by Palestinians returning to GS “were shot by a combat helicopter, an anti-tank missile or a tank,” many of which contained Israeli captives.
The New York Times newspaper extensively detailed, in an investigative report, the deaths of 12 Israeli settlers, when Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, overseeing the Israeli operations aimed at reclaiming the Be’eri settlement and its vicinity, instructed the tank commander, “Break in, even if it means civilian casualties,” thus urging Israeli forces to overpower the Palestinian militants who held 14 captives in one of the houses. Israeli Channel 12 broadcasted footage captured by a military helicopter showing an Israeli tank firing at a civilian house in the Be’eri settlement. Furthermore, at the site of one of the clashes on October 7 at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Col. Golan Vach, the commander of an Israeli search and rescue team, told the press that in one destroyed house, they discovered 15 people dead, including 8 infants, but also admitted, “The destruction is a result of the attack by our tanks. Since these houses were seized by Hamas, we had to reclaim the entire settlement. It wouldn’t have been possible without tanks.” Additionally, during a Channel 12 interview on 24/11/2023, young, inexperienced female tank operators, aged around 20 years old, who were directed to enter the Holit settlement, confessed that they were instructed to fire regardless of the circumstances.
Multiple survivors have provided accounts confirming the sighting of Israeli helicopters and tanks firing at the settlements. These include the testimony of Erez Tidhar, a military veteran who was on October 7 as a rescue and evacuation volunteer for the Eitam unit, as well as the statement of a former Israeli captive Doron Katz-Asher, released during an exchange operation. Katz-Asher recounted the Israeli army’s firing at the tractor transporting her to GS, killing her mother and leaving her and her daughter wounded.
Image: Yasmin Porat
Yasmin Porat, one of only two survivors of the Israeli attack on a house in the Be’eri settlement testified to Israeli State Radio Kan that Palestinian resistance members treated them “very humanely.” However, the Israeli army, ordered by Barak Hiram, ended the confrontation by deliberately shelling the entire house, despite the captives still being inside. Porat reported that among the casualties was 12-year-old Liel Hatsroni, whose image Israeli officials later used in propaganda, falsely claiming that she was burned alive by Hamas. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also alleged that “She was murdered just because she’s Jewish.”
Family members of Israelis killed by Israeli tank fire demanded in a letter to the Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi to conduct a “comprehensive and transparent probe into the decisions and actions that led to this tragic outcome.”
Reports by The Electronic Intifada website confirm that a significant number of Israeli civilians killed on 7/10/2023 were victims of Israeli attacks rather than Palestinian actions. By the end of that day, Israeli drone squadron 161 alone “performed no fewer than 110 attacks on some 1,000 targets, most of which were inside Israel,” following an initial assault, in the first four hours, in which “helicopters and fighter craft attacked about 300 targets, most in Israeli territory.”
On 15/10/2023, Ynet reported that
“28 combat helicopters fired over the course of a day,” with Apache pilots skipping “all the restrictions.” “A large part of the fire direction and receiving the targets from the forces fighting in the field reached the pilots through phone calls or sending pictures on WhatsApp,” leading to the launch of hundreds of 30mm cannon shells as well as Hellfire missiles.
In an article published by Haaretz newspaper on 18/11/2023, and according to Israeli police, 364 people were killed at the Nova festival out of 4,400 were present at the event. The investigation revealed that an Israeli combat helicopter arrived at the scene and fired at resistance forces, also hitting some of the revelers who were there. The Israeli security establishment assessed that Palestinian resistance forces did not know in advance about the festival.
Although the falsehood of a claim has been proven, it sparked widespread outrage upon its publication, with the Israeli side exploiting it to manipulate inaccurate stances. On 10/10/2023, Nicole Zedeck, a correspondent for i24News, alleged that the Palestinian resistance had decapitated babies and that “About 40 babies were taken out on gurneys” in the Kfar Aza settlement. Soon after that, prominent international media outlets, such as sites of FOX News and NBC Montana; the New York Post and The Times newspapers; and site of Mailonline; in addition to CNN news channel, and the Daily Express, The Independent, Metro and The Daily Telegraph newspapers, all echoed this misleading assertion despite the lack of any official Israeli confirmation. Consequently, it created a widespread belief in the Western world that Hamas had perpetrated significant atrocities, influencing political decisions and public sentiment in these countries. This was not only unjust to Palestinian resistance but also harmed the Palestinian people, who endured atrocious attacks based on these inaccurate reports.
'About 40 babies were taken out on gurneys… Cribs overturned, strollers left behind, doors left wide open'
Our correspondent @Nicole_Zedek continues to survey the horror scenes left behind in Kibbutz Kfar Aza where Hamas invaded and murdered dozens of Israelis in their homes pic.twitter.com/ZZCwDGkV8z
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023
It also sparked significant global concern, especially after President Joe Biden asserted that he had seen “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.” However, the White House spokesperson later refuted Biden’s personal viewing of the pictures, clarifying that
“The president based his comments about the alleged atrocities on the claims from Netanyahu’s spokesman and media reports from Israel.”
The investigative news site The Grayzone reported on 11/10/2023 that it has identified a key source of that claim,
“He is David Ben Zion, a Deputy Commander of Unit 71 of the Israeli army who also happens to be an extremist settler leader who incited violent riots against Palestinians,” and demanded a Palestinian town be “wiped out.”
Despite some media outlets retracting the story, the majority of its negative impact had already taken hold. Removing it from the minds of many who had been exposed to it, even from those newspapers and sources that later denied its accuracy, became challenging.
Colonel Golan Vach, a commander of the IDF National Rescue Unit, stated on 17/10/2023 that “he had carried the bodies of decapitated babies” in Kfar Aza settlement. Also, Retired Lt. Col. Yaron Buskila, a member of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), an organization founded by retired army generals that advocates (particularly on the international level) for the idea that peace in Israel can only be achieved through force, stated to The Epoch Times, an extreme right-wing international newspaper, that he spoke to a rabbi who reportedly visited the Kfar Aza settlement and told him that he saw decapitated children.
These allegations have been repeated by well-known Israeli organizations and institutions known for their lack of accuracy and credibility, such as the ZAKA organization and United Hatzalah.
On the other hand, official Israeli institutions have proven these allegations to be false. The National Insurance Institute of Israel (NII) published on its website on 9/11/2023 a list of 695 Israeli civilians who were killed on 7/10/2023 (and in the days that followed), along with their IDs and the circumstances of their deaths. Among them were 36 minors, 20 of whom were under the age of 15, including seven children under the age of ten. Ten were killed as a result of rocket attacks. According to NII, 46 civilians were killed in Kfar Aza, the youngest of whom was 14 years old. Only one infant girl, Mila Cohen (ten months old), along with her father and grandmother, was killed in Be’er Sheva. Her mother survived, and the perpetrator of her murder has not been identified.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz denied, in a report, the allegations of beheaded babies and burnt babies on 7/10/2023, affirming that such a narrative is untrue and lacks evidence. It mentioned that “Most of the other children who were murdered were killed in or near their homes, usually with other family members,” and confirmed that there is no evidence that children from several families were murdered together, rendering inaccurate Netanyahu’s remark to President Biden that Hamas forces “took dozens of children, tied them up, burned them and executed them.” Haaretz stated, after examining each victim’s name individually, that the total number of casualties is 1,219, including 1,105 killed on 7/10/2023; 851 civilians (including 32 children aged between 4-17 years and a 10-month-old infant), and 368 Israeli soldiers.
Therefore, these Israeli claims are false and inaccurate, and several media outlets and journalists have retracted reports they published regarding the allegation of beheaded babies. Among them is CNN channel, whose correspondent Sara Sidner apologized for reporting the news. The White House also retracted the statement made by Biden, and the Israeli army spokesperson to Anadolu Agency stated that the army does “not have any details or confirmation about that.” Israeli journalist Yishai Cohen also deleted an interview he had posted on the X platform, which included claims that dead “Babies and children were hung on a cloth line in a row,” during the attack launched by Palestinian resistance on Israeli settlements in the Gaza envelope on 7/10/2023. Cohen clarified, in tweets he posted on 29/11/2023 on the social media site X, that
“The interview was offered to me by the IDF spokesperson. I did not know the interviewee [Yaron Buskila] before. A representative of DoC was present in all the filming and approved the broadcast.”
Furthermore, Chaim Otmazgin, head of Zaka’s “special forces,” in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP), admitted that the organization’s volunteers “sometimes misinterpreted what they saw.” Whereas Haaretz published a report exposing Zaka’s “cases of negligence, misinformation and a fundraising campaign that used the dead as props,” and that Zaka “was entangled in debts of millions of shekels,” while noting that since October 7, “says a source at Zaka, they have raised over 50 million shekels ($13.7 million).” Additionally, Otmazgin, who “serves in the Home Front Command’s rescue unit” was highlighted for having “played a central role in the association between the organization and the IDF.”
On 24/10/2023, Yossi Landau, head of the Zaka organization in southern Israel, made false claims to various international media outlets, including the German daily newspaper Bild asserting that he found the body of a pregnant woman with a gunshot wound to her head and her abdomen cut open to remove the fetus. Landau specified to Haaretz the location where he purportedly witnessed this incident. However, survivors interviewed by the Israeli newspaper from the same building contradicted Landau’s account, stating that there was no pregnant woman. Despite attempts by CheckNews, a fact-checking website launched by the French newspaper Libération, to contact Landau, no response was received. Nevertheless, Israeli authorities emphasized Landau’s testimony, and the Israeli embassy in the United States shared it on X/Twitter and Instagram on 27/10/2023.
In her article published on 22/11/2023, in Newsweek magazine, Michal Herzog, the wife of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, referred to this testimony and falsely claimed that there is a video showing Palestinians in one of the settlements “torturing a pregnant woman and removing her fetus.” However, it later became apparent that “the images are in reality taken from a video shared in 2018, which allegedly shows the abuse committed by a Mexican cartel.” Asked by CheckNews, the Israeli presidency implicitly acknowledged its mistake and attempted to evade by defending the Zaka organization claiming that its witness “was not able to answer us due to the traumas experienced”! But according to a source within the forensic services involved in the identification of the October 7 casualties, no one corresponding to this description would have been taken care of, and this decisively proves the falsehood of the Israeli claim.
Several other dubious or disproven stories have as their source another non-governmental organization, United Hatzalah, whose manager Eli Beer recounted to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, USA, on 28/10/2023, stories that were later proven to be false. On 15/11/2023, Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the Israeli Prime Minister, wrote to several “first ladies”, including the wife of the President of the United States, Jill Biden, a message containing false and inflammatory content, alleging that “One of the kidnapped women was pregnant. She gave birth to her baby while a Hamas prisoner.” This letter was widely relayed by numerous Israeli and western media. On 18/11/2023, three days later, the British tabloid Daily Mail published an article claiming that a Thai woman, hostage of Hamas, had given birth in captivity. Information denied in the following days by the family of the hostage in question. None of the women released were pregnant or had just given birth.
Channel 13 journalist Raviv Drucker refuted many Israeli claims on 25/1/2024, and asked journalist Micky Rosenthal, who was with him on the program, about the reason behind using these false statements. Rosenthal replied, “to increase the magnitude of hatred for Hamas.” As Rosenthal put it, “The war is not only military, not only political, it’s mainly media.”
On 18/11/2023, CNN aired a report by journalist Jake Tapper. The report claims to provide testimonies on “rape crimes” against Israeli women that allegedly took place on 7/10/2023. The CNN report begins with an interview with Cochav Elkayam-Levy. She is identified as an “expert in human rights law who organized a civil committee to document evidence.” The speaker is indeed an expert, but not of human rights law, according to a report on Mondoweiss website, on 1/12/2023, she had a post for the Israeli government’s Attorney General’s Office in the International Law Department. She has tight connections with the National Security Council for the Israeli Prime Minister. Elkayam-Levy is also the founder and director of the “Dvora Institute,” which works as a close advisory body to the Israeli prime minister’s “National Security Council.” However, in her interview, which opens the CNN report, Elkayam-Levy presents nothing but justifications for the absence of evidence and facts.
A CNN report presented a video of an Israeli soldier, showing his back only, identified by the letter “G,” claiming to be a paramedic of unit “669” – the Israeli Air Force Special Tactics rescue unit. In his testimony, which was later proven false, the soldier says that during a search in the houses of Kibbutz Be’eri, during combat, he opened a door of a bedroom to find the bodies of two girls aged between 13 and 15, both killed, one of them naked with semen remains on her lower back. But according to a report on Mondoweiss website, upon examining the names of all the girls killed in Kibbutz Be’eri on 7/10/2023, to match the facts, no pair of Israeli teenagers meeting that description were found dead together. Furthermore, according to an interview with Channel 13, the leader of the Kibbutz Be’eri battle, Brigadier General Barak Hiram, counted 13 different military units that formed the combat force that were there – Unit 669 was not among them.
The CNN report then brings two witnesses to talk about the conditions of the dead bodies they have seen. The first appears under a pseudonym for an unknown reason, despite showing her face and wearing civilian clothes. The report identified her as a “volunteer” at the morgue of the Shura military base. The witness previously appeared in a written report by Ynet, published on 31/10/2023, that included a photo of her in military uniform, where she was identified as a reservist corporal in the Israeli army, and in which she did not mention any claims of sexual violence. The second witness is Rami Shmuel, identified by the report as one of the organizers of the “Nova” festival. In fact, he is an organizer of the “UNITY” festival – another electronic music festival, held the day before the “Nova” in the same location. CNN fails to mention the fact that Rami Shmuel was not present at the festival location during the attack. According to Shmuel’s Facebook post, published on the afternoon of 7/10/2023, he was “safe” in a villa in Netivot settlement.
Abandoned and damaged cars parked at the festival (12 October) (Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
In her Newsweek article on 22/11/2023, Michal Herzog referred to a video showing Naama Levy, a soldier in the Israeli army and border patrol officer, being captured from the Nahal Oz military base, described as “in bloodied pants held captive at gunpoint.” However, there’s no evidence presented to support this accusation besides the blood, which isn’t enough to prove the claim of rape. It’s possible that the blood on Levy’s pants came from her wounded and tied hands behind her back, or from sitting on the ground stained with someone else’s blood. This is because the video showing Levy’s arrest depicts her standing against a wall with female soldiers in the military barracks when she was captured. She had the blood stain on her pants at that time, and then she was taken away in a military jeep as shown in the video.
Israel has not provided any criminal evidence or testimonies from women it claims were raped. According to The Times of Israel, its investigation “found physical evidence of sexual assault was broadly not collected” from bodies, and the window for gathering conclusive evidence had passed because “rape kits, which have a 48-hour window to be collected after an assault, were not prioritized.” Israeli police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne stated on 14/11/2023, that during the first 48 hours, the Gaza envelope area was still an “active combat zone.” Elsdunne added that “many bodies arriving at Shura were in such bad condition that collecting physical evidence of sexual assault, such as semen or DNA samples, was not possible.” Mirit Ben Mayor, who leads communications for the Israeli police, said much of the state’s case will rest on “circumstantial evidence.” In addition, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said, “Many of the victims who survived the massacres are not ready to speak.” According to May Golan, Israel’s Women’s Empowerment Minister, “the very few ‘victims’ who survived are receiving psychiatric treatment and are therefore, conveniently, unable to talk.” How can Israel prove rape accusations without concrete evidence or testimony from the “victims” alleging sexual assault?
However, the world saw Israel’s detainees from the Palestinian resistance in Gaza saying goodbye warmly to women and children in front of cameras. They exchanged handshakes, jokes and smiles, showing clear evidence of the resistance’s treatment of women.
Despite the majority of detainees not giving public interviews, the media shared the experience of detainee Mia Limberg, who left captivity with her dog Bella. Also, there was a thank-you message from detainee Daniel Aloni to Hamas members for their treatment of her and her daughter Emilia. Additionally, a TV interview of a mother Chen Goldstein-Almog and her released daughter Agam Goldstein-Almog recounted how Hamas members treated them with respect, where one Hamas member, for example, used a towel during arm-wrestling to avoid physical contact. The daughter said, “For them, women are sacred. Women are like queens.” Chen mentioned that “they gave her [daughter] a beautiful name there… Salsabeel, it means water and it is mentioned in the Quran.” Is this the same Palestinian resistance group that Israel alleges, using unfounded fabricated accounts, committed the rape crime on 7/10/2023, in an attempt to convince the world?
It’s important to note that the Hamas movement, amidst numerous false Israeli accusations after Operation al-Aqsa Flood on 7/10/2023, had its media office issue a document in January 2024 to clarify that their operation specifically “targeted the Israeli military sites, and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to pressure on the Israeli authorities to release the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails through a prisoners exchange deal. Therefore, the operation focused on destroying the Israeli army’s Gaza Division, the Israeli military sites stationed near the Israeli settlements around Gaza.” These locations were responsible for bombarding Gaza and its residents.
It also clarified that
“Avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women and elderly people is a religious and moral commitment by all the Al-Qassam Brigades’ fighters. We reiterate that the Palestinian resistance was fully disciplined and committed to the Islamic values during the operation and that the Palestinian fighters only targeted the occupation soldiers and those who carried weapons against our people,” adding, “if there was any case of targeting civilians; it happened accidently.”
Hamas paraglider troops cross into Israel, October 7, 2023 (Source)
The Israeli accusations against the Palestinian resistance and GS residents of brutality and inhumanity in the attack on 7/10/2023 are an attempt to legitimize further Israeli crimes in GS. These accusations do not justify the retaliation against more than 2.3 million Palestinians living there, nor do they justify the commission of more than 2,325 massacres, the killing of more than 27,238, including more than 12,000 children, and more than 8,190 women, 122 journalists, 339 medical staff, and 46 civil defense members. Nor do they justify the loss of more than 7 thousand Palestinians under the rubble (70% of them are children and women), the injury of more than 66,452 Palestinians, the displacement of more than 2 million people in GS, and the destruction of hundreds of thousands of residential units, mosques, churches, health centers and government buildings, all until 3/2/2024, the 120th day of the war.
Israeli crimes in GS are well-documented with audio and visual evidence, and even admitted by Israeli officials, despite their false denials. This is often encouraged by the extreme right-wing settlement movement, which, according to a Haaretz article by Uri Misgav, prohibits criticism of the government and Israel’s “saintly soldiers.” They believe that “it is forbidden to end the fighting; dead soldiers and hostages are a worthy, noble sacrifice on the way to redemption, the silver platter on which the State of Judea will arise. For this camp, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the Messiah’s donkey, a useful idiot. They keep warning him that the day he dares stop the fighting is the day that his government falls.”
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Fatima Hassan is a Researcher in Palestinian Affairs at al-Zaytouna Center for Studies and Consultations.
Featured image is from PIC
February 26th, 2024 by Assange Defense
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could face the death penalty for a prosecution based on ‘state retaliation ordered from the very top’, the High Court heard today.
Assange is accused by the US government of conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak classified military documents online between January and May 2010.
The Australian is seeking permission to appeal a 2021 decision by a UK court to approve his extradition to the US, where he faces charges under the country’s 1917 Espionage Act.
The 52-year-old had initially won his fight against extradition on the grounds he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions.
But in December 2021 judges found the US authorities had given sufficient assurances to the UK that Assange would be treated humanely in an American prison, and overturned the decision.
Assange appealed against that ruling, but last June High Court judges upheld the decision to approve the US extradition order, which was signed by then UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in June 2022.
If he is refused permission to bring a further appeal, Assange is likely to be extradited in the coming weeks to face trial for 18 charges, 17 of which fall under the Espionage Act. The charges include conspiracy to receive, obtain, and disclose classified diplomatic and military documents.
Assange’s lawyers say he faces up to 175 years in jail if convicted, but the US government claimed the sentence would probably be between four and six years. He has spent the last five years at Belmarsh maximum security prison in southeast London.
The charges against Assange relate to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq and secret cables about Guantanamo Bay.
This included the notorious ‘Collateral Murder’ video, which showed the July 2007 killing by an American Apache helicopter crew of eleven civilians, including Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and Saeed Chmagh, 40.
The video, recorded by the helicopter gunsight, showed the helicopter crew firing into a group of Iraqi civilian men in Baghdad after being given permission from a commanding officer, killing 11 men and seriously wounding two children.
Joel Smith, representing the US, disputed the claim from Assange’s legal team that the sentence Assange would face in the US would be ‘disproportionate’ and a breach of his human rights.
He dismissed the 175-year prison sentence Assange’s barristers said he would face if extradited as ‘calculated by simply totting up the maximum sentence for every single offense.’
Mr Smith added that Assange’s barristers had said he would face a sentence of 30-40 years.
He said:
‘Other cases involving unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the media have led to significantly lower sentences.’
He gave three examples where defendants were given sentences of 42, 48, and 63 months, despite the ‘maximum exposure’ in these cases running to as many as 130 years.
The maximum sentence given for the same offenses Assange is facing under the Espionage Act was 63 months.
He added that sentencing would follow guidelines, and would reflect consideration of aggravating and mitigation factors.
Mr Smith said the alleged offences were ‘extremely serious’ and that if the sentence was a lengthy one ‘that would reflect the fact his conduct had been aggravated.’
He added:
‘Looked at through an American lens the offense is grave.
‘Looked at through a UK lens the offence is grave. And entirely unprecedented.’
He gave a list of Assange’s alleged offending, including ‘the accusation of encouraging others to circumvent legal safeguards on information to provide information to WikiLeaks for dissemination.
‘The continuing pattern of illegally procuring and providing protected information to WikiLeaks for distribution to the public.
‘The recruitment of Manning and other hackers, the encouragement of Manning who was subject to the American equivalent of the Official Secrets Act, assisting her to crack a password.
‘The obvious point of naming sources, who were put in danger.’
He added:
‘That’s a sweep of offending. It’s beyond the scope of anything that any of the criminal courts in this country have had to grapple with.’
Mr Smith said that given ‘such grave and unprecedented criminality’ it could not be said that a lengthy sentence would be disproportionate.
Responding to the US case, Edward Fitzgerald, KC, repeated that Assange was being prosecuted on political grounds and that it was not legal to extradite him on this basis.
He said the absence of any mention of the political offense exception in the 2003 Extradition Act did not amount to disapplying it from individual treaties that include it.
He said:
‘The act is silent. You can’t read into that act a deliberate omission. You cannot say the act disapplies a provision that’s in every treaty we sign with other countries.
‘You can’t say the silence means it expressly disapplies its appearance in a treaty.’
He said the political offenses exception was included in almost every treaty the UK had signed, and that US, UN, and Interpol treaties always include this provision.
‘In what sense can it be properly said this [exception] is out of date? It’s not out of date.’
He also said that as a non-US citizen, Assange risked being denied rights available to a US citizen.
He said:
‘Mr [Mike] Pompeo said Assange wouldn’t have these rights because he’s a foreigner, and that’s evidence he might be prejudiced in the USA.’
This included, he said, US constitutional rights, including the First Amendment right which guarantees freedom of the press, which US citizens are entitled to.
He continued:
‘So there is a real risk, said to be 15 percent, he may well be prejudiced by that approach and put in a position where he’s discriminated against because of his status and loses his right that US citizens would have.’
Mark Summers, KC, another member of Assange’s legal team said there had been no reference to the fact the material he published exposed war crimes.
The barrister said this was ‘the exposure of a state-level crime’.
He said the barristers for the US authorities were dodging the issue when they accused Assange of questioning the probity of US prosecutor Gordon Kromberg when they alleged the extradition was politically motivated.
He said:
‘We don’t suggest that Mr Kromberg is a lying individual or that he’s personally not carrying out his prosecutorial duties in good faith.
‘We say that the prosecution and extradition is a decision taken way above his head. You can’t focus on the sheep and ignore the shepherd.
‘What happened is state retaliation ordered from the very top.’
Mr Summers said this was reflected in the fact Assange had been denounced at senior government level, and then-president Trump was drawing up plans to assassinate him.
He said:
‘It was submitted to you that the US government has acted at all times in good faith in bringing this prosecution.
‘We don’t understand how that can be advanced with a straight face in the face of evidence the president was planning on kidnapping and killing him.’
He also reiterated that Assange had gone to ‘extraordinary’ lengths in the year prior to publication to redact names from the documents and that he could not be held responsible for their eventual publication.
The barrister said the eventual publication of the names by third parties who gained access to the encrypted files was ‘Unintended, unforeseen and unwanted.
‘At best Mr Assange could be alleged to have been reckless in the provision of the key to Mr Lee. It would be an absurd allegation to make but that’s the highest anyone could place it.’
He added that there was ‘no proof at all that any harm actually eventuated’ to any of the people named in the leaked documents.
Mr Summers also returned to what he described as the ‘horrendous punishment’ awaiting Assange were he to be extradited to the US.
He said Assange would be imprisoned for the rest of his natural life, a punishment, he said, ‘that would shock the conscience of every journalist around the world.’
He said the courts in the UK should have carried out a balancing exercise on Assange’s actions to determine the public interest in the disclosures.
He noted that the Strasbourg court deemed ‘exposure of state-level crimes as the very highest level of public interest.’
‘The crimes being discussed here were real and ongoing and were happening then to real people. And the disclosures had the capacity and capability of stopping that happening, and they did.
‘Drone killings in Pakistan came to an end, the war in Iraq came to an end’.
He said that in a balancing exercise on whether the disclosures were in the public interest ‘colossal, ongoing, real criminal wrongdoing outweighs the risk of some harm to some of the criminals performing or facilitating the criminality.’
Judge Dame Victoria Sharp challenged him on whether all the people named in the leaked documents were criminals.
Mr Summers replied that ‘their names are in there because they have engaged in the criminality that’s been exposed.
‘The fact is there’s context to these names. They are the names of people who have facilitated America doing what the disclosures reveal them to have been doing.’
He added that even if they were innocent, the fact the disclosures protected people against practices like rendition and war crimes would outweigh the potential harm to them.
Mr Summers said there was no guarantee the US would not subject Assange to the death penalty in the event of his extradition.
He said:
‘We don’t understand why there is no usual death penalty assurance in this case.’
‘The consequences of it are that discharge must follow if they continue to decline to give it.’
The judges have reserved their decision.
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Featured image is from Assange Defense
February 26th, 2024 by Julian Rose
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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For those who have failed to recognise the true colours of the global institutions charged with acting for world peace, health and human rights, it will surely come as a shock to realise that such international bodies are part of the problem and not the solution.
They are complicit in the carefully planned entanglement agenda which obscures truth, strings out discussion and evades taking action, while presenting themselves as ‘the caring face of global welfare’.
These bodies are agents of the elite globalist push for ‘A New World Order’, top down power now going for full spectrum dominance.
Heading this list must be The United Nations, followed closely by The World Health Organisation and the World Economic Forum. These three institutions are in fact, inseparably joined at the hip.
UN-WEF Partnership
There are many more such groupings, of course, but it’s beyond the scope of this article to go into their part in the power game.
It is deeply shocking to witness the UN’s CEO, Antonio Guterres, issuing pleas for a sustained humanitarian break in the Israeli army’s mass murder of men, women and children in Gaza, while simultaneously enforcing the elite cabal’s monstrous Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development programme for a ‘Net Zero’ techno-globalist take over of humanity.
It must be remembered that this is the organisation that backed the Agenda 21 ‘sustainability’ programme which was tied into the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, placing a centralised industrial scale ‘Fake Green Agenda’ at the centre of efforts to disenfranchise the world’s true human scale food producers, energy providers and health practitioners.
A plan specifically geared to put corporate banking institutions in charge of globalising this false green agenda – while casting aside the true wisdom and experience of independent, benign, artisan and local/regional manufacturing and farming enterprises that form the only equitable base for a creative and diverse national and international economy.
All this is, of course, intimately bound up with the dissemination of ‘Global Warming’ scare stories via the manipulated and entirely deficient UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) computer modelling exercises designed to ‘prove’ anthropogenic CO2 to be the ‘Mr Evil of industrial output’.
The UN is funded by nation states and by private ‘elite’ personalities like Bill Gates, determined to exert and maintain their power base within the top-of-the-pyramid status quo.
Given its historical standing, is the UN likely to genuinely push for a permanent cease fire and establishment of a peace keeping force to block the wholesale slaughter of the innocence in Gaza?
Guterres, Schwab (WEF) and Ghebreyesus (WHO) are puppets of the shadow government responsible for fomenting wars, famine and planetary depopulation, all under the guise of offering benign interventions in conflicts they themselves are party to setting in motion.
The Great Reset is the latest name given to this particular phase in the establishment of the long promised totalitarian New World Order.
Ghebreyesus, at the WHO, overseas the ‘health genocide’ side of things. He is hoping to pull-off the great post Covid ‘Emergency Health Treaty’ this May (May 2024), whereby every country in the world is expected to offer itself up in compliance to whatever commands are issued by this latest model of health dictatorship. A substantial gift for Big Pharma and for depopulation fanatics.
‘Rule by dictatorship’ is also heavily promoted by Klaus Schwab at the WEF, a man/organisation completely devoid of sympathy for the human race, but of key significance to the A.I.techno industrial push for a transhuman take over of life on earth.
Further feeble proclamations of intent to save innocent lives in Gaza come from global heads of state, of course. With one wary eye on public opinion and the other on the vindictive power of the Zionist lobby, they attempt to steer a ‘middle path’ which will not unduly upset either side.
Witnessing such duplicity coming from individuals supposed to act with wisdom and responsibility at moments of intense human crisis, is deeply unnerving.
Cowardice barely describes the weak, apologetic vacillations that such individuals spew forth in front of expectant TV cameras and hobbled journalists supplying ‘breaking’ stories for mass media outlets.
The obsession to ‘protect one’s interests’ over making any commitment to finding genuine solutions to urgent crises has become the only instinct left functioning in these sad representatives of modern day ‘political diplomacy’.
A remarkably stark example of this disease was on display amongst Britain’s political milieu in February. Sir Keith Starmer, head of the British Labour Party, was apparently ‘shocked’ when one of his MP’s standing for re-election in local elections – was on the record (recorded) saying that the October 7th Hamas uprising was allowed to happen by Netanyahu as a pretext for preserving his power base and genociding the Palestinian population of Gaza.
Starmer, terrified of the British Zionist lobby accusing his party of being antisemitic, made the unfortunate MP apologise profusely for his ‘terrible error’ and then informed him that he would be ‘deselected’ as a candidate at the forthcoming elections.
So that’s it – anyone falling for the egregious political error of speaking the truth, is immediately consigned to the doghouse. There to become a useful victim of the blame passing exercise designed to save the reputations of such effigies of political vacuity as Sir Keith Starmer.
He is no exception, the political class is schooled in the art of self preservation; mostly through seamless lying and the blatant evasion of duty.
It is abundantly clear that the ruling elite/shadow government regards all human life as simply ‘collateral’ and useful only in so far as it serves their cause of achieving ‘full spectrum dominance’.
It is equally clear – and many degrees more tragic – that billions of planetary citizens accept such behaviour as ‘the new normal’ for world governance, thereby spectacularly failing in their duty to call it out.
It is at this level that we who are aware each have a crucial role to play in preventing our already traumatized world descending further into the abyss.
What role might this be? I hear some asking.
It is quite simply to hold the line of humane decency, moral courage and a determination to act as guardians of the health and welfare of humanity as a whole. And this must always also mean ‘the planet’. Humanity and the planet are inseparable from one another.
We are charged, whether as generals or foot soldiers, with the defence and preservation of that which was gifted to us by the Supreme.
Extraordinary people are doing extraordinary things to save lives in the midst of this pandemic of mindless cruelty. They are the true heroes of the hour. Every one of us has it in us to join that highly esteemed band of courageous souls.
Everyone of us who will now step forward to engage in the pact-less struggle to overcome the agents of darkness, will be enriched beyond measure for taking such a bold stand – and will be held in the highest esteem along with those already engaged.
Those who don’t want to stand defiant in the face of the present calculated destruction of life’s most precious values, will suffer the fate of never knowing what it means to be alive.
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Julian Rose is an organic farmer, writer, broadcaster and international activist. He is author of four books of which the latest ‘Overcoming the Robotic Mind’ is a clarion call to resist the despotic New World Order takeover of our lives. Do visit his website for further information www.julianrose.info
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: Hundreds of people gather in front of the Gare du Nord building to protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza [File: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu]
February 26th, 2024 by Bharat Dogra
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) (measured per 100,000 live births) is a widely used human development indicator. In addition this also has a strong emotional connect and any country would normally be very keen to accord very high priority to reducing its maternal mortality.
Therefore it is surprising to see that the USA with its enormous resources has in recent times persistently recorded one of the highest MMR among all the developed countries, often the highest rate among comparable rich countries.
A Commonwealth Foundation paper titled ‘US Maternal Mortality Crisis Continues to Worsen’ By Munira Gunja, Evan D. Gumas and Reginald Williams (dated December 1, 2022) gives the following comparison with some comparable developed countries regarding MMR:
Further this paper compares different groups within the USA.
Another report with a somewhat similar title ‘US Maternal Mortality Rate Continues to Worsen’ written by Emily Harris and published in JAMA on March 29, 2023 says that MMR in the USA in recent years has continued to rise from 17.4 to 20.1 to 23.8 in 2020. Further, this report says, this has increased to 32.9 in 2021 (note—this may be an abnormally high jump due to exceptional conditions of the pandemic when normal health services were not available to many).
It is also important to look at the trends of the last two decades or so.
The WHO has published the MMR of almost all the countries for the period 2000 to 2020. This table shows that there are very few countries in the entire world where the MMR shows an increasing trend. The USA is one of these few countries and among these countries with such a regrettable record it is one of the leading offenders. There are only three other countries in the entire world which have a worse record than the USA in terms of a higher rate of increase of MMR. These are mostly countries which suffered due to adverse external and economic factors. However the USA recorded a very high rate of increase of MMR despite enjoying conditions of world dominance.
During this period 2000-2020 the MMR of the USA increased from 12 to 21. For comparison, we may look at Russia which despite many adverse factors and obstructions created by powerful outside forces recorded a decline of MMR from 52 to 14 during this same period 2000-2020, according to the same set of WHO data contained in the same table of MMR data for all countries of the world.
This table also has a column on the rate of change of MMR recorded during 2000-2020. The rate of INCREASE of MMR in the USA during this period is 77.9 per cent. For comparison we may look at Russia which has recorded a DECREASE of 73.6 per cent, Vietnam which has recorded a DECREASE of 46% and India which has recorded a DECREASE of 73.5 per cent.
It is important to note that in the course of relentless pursuit of dominance involving one war after another (which have killed millions of people including countless mothers in distant countries), the USA has forgotten to take care of essential welfare needs of its own people and such high MMR is only one manifestation of this. The peace movement in the USA should link the stopping of USA’s never-ending wars to the achievement of significant welfare goals within the USA, particularly those concerning women and children, the poor and the homeless.
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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense
February 26th, 2024 by Manlio Dinucci
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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The West in unison accuses Putin of ordering Navalny’s assassination. The timing of his death, however, is more than suspicious: Navalny died on February 16, on the same day the Munich Security Conference opened, a week after Putin’s successful interview with Tucker Carlson, a month before the presidential elections in Russia where Putin is a candidate. In other words, Putin would have ordered to kill Navalny at the most suitable moment to cause maximum damage to himself.
At the same time, the Western political media mainstream draws a curtain of silence on the fact that Navalny had been trained in a special course at Yale University and that his white supremacist Narod Movement had been financed by the “National Fund for Democracy”, a powerful American “private non-profit foundation” that finances thousands of non-governmental organizations in a hundred countries to “advance democracy”. The Fund is the same one that supported in Ukraine what it defined as “the Maidan Revolution which overthrew a corrupt government that prevented democracy“, i.e. the 2014 coup d’état which triggered a succession of events with an anti-Russia function that led to the current war.
While on the Ukrainian front the Kyiv forces, supported by the USA, NATO, and the EU, are retreating chaotically under the Russian counterattack from areas of Donbas that they had conquered, the United States is widening the war front in the Middle East, continuing to support Israel in its strategy of genocide against the Palestinian people.
The last chapter of the political trial of Julian Assange took place against this background: the London Court has made its decision on the extradition of the Australian journalist to the USA, where he can be sentenced to 175 years in prison for bringing US war crimes to light, but the court has not announced its decision, it will be done next month.
In this episode of Grandangolo, Berenice Galli reported from London her interviews with Jeremy Corbyn (British Labour Party), Kristinn Hrafnsson (co-director of Wikileaks), Gabriel Shipton (Julian Assange’s brother).
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This article was originally published in Italian on Grandangolo, Byoblu TV.
Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
Featured image is from Flickr
February 26th, 2024 by Karsten Riise
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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At the beginning of February 2024, Saudi Arabia demanded a Palestinian State along the 1967 borders, including Gaza, East Jerusalem, and all of the West Bank – with East Jerusalem as its capital. See this.
“The Kingdom is demanding the recognition of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Additionally, it has called for an end to Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and insisted on the withdrawal of all Israeli occupation forces from the enclave as a prerequisite for any future diplomatic engagement with Israel.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Saudi Arabia’s position on the Palestinian issue is steadfast, affirming the necessity for the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights.
This stance is particularly relevant in light of ongoing discussions between Saudi Arabia and the US concerning the Arab-Israeli peace process, further underscored by recent comments from the spokesperson for the US National Security Council.”
—Saudi Gazette, February 7, 2024
That was at the time a clear statement. No misconceptions were possible.
But the Saudi clarity hasn’t lasted for long.
Contrary to the Saudi’s own clear statement earlier in this month in February, Saudi Arabia now states that the borders of a Palestinian State are “still to be defined”.
The 1967-borders are absolutely well-defined. It is impossible to speak of “1967 borders” and at the same maintain that those same borders “need to be defined”.
Saudi Arabia therefore seems, after less than a month, to already backtrack on the extent of a Palestinian State. This way, Saudi Arabia seems to leave open the possibility of a purely symbolic but dysfunctional Palestinian enclave without Gaza or East Jerusalem, a small Bantustan on the West Bank inside a Greater Israel stretching all the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Israeli and US analysts have all the time been convinced, that the leaderships of Saudi Arabia and all the surrounding Arab Muslim states will sacrifice the Palestinians – that Israel doesn’t need to worry about a Palestinian State. Lately, the Israeli war government has with one voice rejected any notion of a Palestinian State at all.
The Israelis and Americans could be right in their cynical view of Arab government callousness relative to the Palestinians. If so, that would be completely in line the pessimistic analysis of Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara.
Marwan Bishara believes that US President Biden – while speaking nicely about a “Palestinian State” – the USA and its President Biden in reality plan to sabotage a full and meaningful Palestinian statehood. This is typical US lies and double-speak. Today, the Americans want to calm down the Arab world with talk of a “Palestinian State”. But when the dust settles, Americans and Israelis are convinced that they can afterwards feed Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states off with a symbolic Palestinian rump state on (less than) half the territory of the West Bank – not even a full state, but an empty puppet-state, a statelet only with the symbols of a state.
Amid Israel’s ongoing genocide, Saudi Arabia as Custodian of two of the Holiest Cities in Islam needs to clarify and repeat in no uncertain terms its unwavering defense of Palestine.
Saudi Arabia today has let a major problem arise involving believability and trust.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
February 26th, 2024 by Peter Koenig
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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“Who Owns the World” is the title of an extraordinary documentary, describing how Big-Big Money controls not only every aspect of your life, but has a stranglehold on every government, the political UN body, as well as every UN agency, and all industries and services of this globe.
These largest investors are BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
These same investment groups also control over 90% of the world’s major media.
Even Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is majority owned by BlackRock / Vanguard. It is therefore no miracle that hardly any news penetrates the walls of secrecy about these major shareholders of every aspect of human life and life-related activities and businesses.
It is a monopoly that can literally not be opposed by traditional means. They have also invented the “rules-based order” — overruling every international and national law at their will.
They know no limits, no ethics and adhere to no human or human rights standard. POWER is them.
The two most powerful investors and investment managers are BlackRock and Vanguard. They are closely linked, to the point where their management is largely interchangeable. Vanguard is BlackRock’s largest shareholder, meaning that they control BlackRock.
Though Vanguard is not transparent about its own shareholders, Vanguard is owned by the richest families on earth.
Vanguard has been created to hide their investments and money transactions.
Through non-profit organizations, like the Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation, Rothschild Foundation, JPMorgan Foundation, Clinton Foundation, Bush Foundation, Albert DuPont Charity Trust and so on, billions of “donation” money is transferred tax-free to Vanguard, a shield for their potentially criminal transactions and funding.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest funder of WHO. It also controls GAVI, the vaxx-alliance – and is therefore the most influential organization over human health and death.
These same people, alias Foundations, also own Blackrock – which is why BlackRock and Vanguard are interchangeable or can act as one, if it is to their advantage.
According to Bloomberg, by 2028, the two will own / manage some 20 trillion dollars – about a fifth of the world’s current GDP.
If joined by State Street, as is often the case, the world’s fourth largest investment manager, you may add another US$ 3 to US$ 4 trillion of managed assets. Sometimes they are joined by Berkshire Hathaway, Citi Bank, Bank of America, Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs… adding another few trillion of managed assets to their pie.
However, these second or third ranking financial institutions, in turn, are also owned by BlackRock and Vanguard. One might call it an omnipotent vicious circle from which it is almost impossible to escape.
See this one-hour Rumble-video for more details and network of ownership that literally rules the world:
With that power they can leverage every country in the world, every institution, and every corporation – as they are the largest shareholders of the industrial, military, service and infrastructure investment machine that makes the world turn.
Please allow just a little detour to Gaza, where the Zionist racist massacre of an entire population has been going on as today for 141 days.
Some 30,000 Palestinian have been killed; 70% children and women. Children and women are the prime targets, because children are the next generation and women are the bearer of the next generation – they must be eliminated by the supremacist Zionists.
The horror and inhumanity have no words, cannot be appropriately described with our human vocabulary: bombs have liquidated an entire family.
The mutilated body of a seven-year-old girl, Sidra, is hanging from a wall. Hind, a six-year-old girl, was mercilessly killed by Israeli armed forces, as she was begging for help from an ambulance, surrounded by the cadavers of her killed family. As illustrated by “Hildebrandt”, a Peruvian, renowned non-mainstream news media (23 February 2024).
Tell me, please, are these all-powerful financial conglomerates not powerful enough to stop this massacre at once?
They hold entire nations hostage to do their bidding, but they cannot stop Israel, the Zionists behind the State of Israel, from their merciless atrocious killing, murder, massacre of an entire population?
Are they powerful enough to prevent the United States, their Anglo-Saxon and European puppet governments from halting their money, weapon, and “moral” support of the Zionist onslaught? Or is their power behind the US veto breaking the UN Security Council’s quest for a ceasefire in Gaza?
In any case, by not using their power to stop the Zionist war against Palestine, to stop any war, any killing in the world, are they not complicit in the mass murders in Gaza and around the world by not ending them?
They could. Why are they not doing it?
They are drunk with Power – and as we know, power and money have been derailing humanity for a long time, but now the extent of shame and barbarism has reached a level, where our civilization risks to disappear; and where there is no way to escape, not the traditional ways.
BlackRock / Vanguard are also major shareholders in the secondary and tertiary asset management and banking institutions. So, they control the managed investments of, say, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, City, Chase, Morgan-Stanley – you name it.
If you invest, for example, in a food conglomerate, like Nestlé, Unilever, PepsiCo, most have no idea that they invest in BlackRock / Vanguard, major shareholders of these food corporations, and by doing so, they also invest in the worldwide military industrial (killing) complex which is too is controlled by BlackRock / Vanguard.
For example, BlackRock has close links with many Central Banks, especially with the Federal Reserve. They lend money to the FED – and are a principal adviser to the FED and most likely to other central banks, including they advise on computer systems they use and which connects them.
BlackRock, is by far the largest influencer and donor, or “partner”, as they prefer to call themselves, therefore, also “commander”, of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the entire UN system, its political arm, as well as its sub-agencies and by proxy, also the World Health Organization (WHO), and not to forget GAVI, the Vaccination Association, physically located just next door to WHO – and by further extension, Big-Pharma, the pharma industry.
Together with their faithful think-alike executer of WEF’s mandates, Mr. Klaus Schwab, as well as the multibillionaires, such as the Gates’s, Rockefeller’s, Soros’s of this world, one can easily deduct, they – BlackRock and Co. – control our lives – health and death.
Through their world-domineering ownership of all that moves, shakes, and produces, they are globalists, eugenists and “green-agenda” eccentrics, pushing the climate change lie – come hell or high water. Costs in money and lives do not matter.
Their agenda – eugenist, destruction of current economic structures to rebuild according to this small elite’s criteria – is clearly spelled out by the Club of Rome’s (CoR) “Limits to Growth” (1972), and the follow-on Report “The First Global Revolution” (1991) which claims early on in its text that annihilation of the current system is a MUST, to rebuild, bringing the fundamental changes in favor of the elite with eugenics and absolute control always in the fore.
Is the CoR at the service of the global financial empire? After all, the same powers are behind both.
Not by coincidence, the Rockefeller Group is the inventor of the Club of Rome, today comfortably seated, tax free and with full diplomatic immunity, in Switzerland.
The fake Covid plandemic is the first building block for this all-destructive mechanism, the “cornerstone” of destruction, so to speak.
The lockdowns, the inhuman, totally invalid PCR tests, the fear-mongering – the invented covid-death rates – were very effective in manipulating people, but also in laying the groundwork for the overall annihilation of our society and even civilization, in shifting assets from the bottom to the top and in abolishing the world economy that carries our civilization.
Once the people were shivering from fear, the deadly “vaxxes” were introduced.
Lo and behold, by now, despite ever-louder opposition – about 5.7 billion people – out of the world’s 8 billion (more than 70%) have received at least one jab and most got 2 or 3 injections.
These poisonous injections are in the human bodies and may most likely react sooner or later. According to Mike Yeadon, former VP and Chief scientist of Pfizer, over the next three to ten years, the death toll will increase probably drastically, but most people will not link it to the “vaxxes” — either because they have been indoctrinated that deaths are due to long or late covid, or because they suffer from and live in cognitive dissonance.
Big Money to own and control it all, must drastically reduce world population. This is propagated by the WEF, and as of this day by the CoR (see this).
WEF’s Chairman, Klaus Schwab’s top advisor, Israeli Professor, Yuval Noah Harari, asks openly what to do with the “useless eaters” when their “raison d’être” has ben replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Giving them a base salary for (temporary) survival, getting them hooked on violent video games to prep them for the future, and to let them gradually “disappear”?
In addition to severe human injuries and death, the vaxxes also reduce male and female fertility, cause miscarriages, highly aggressive and lethal turbo cancers, and if course, myocarditis and sudden deaths.
Overall excess mortality in the west is as high as 20% in some countries. In the UK, where excess deaths are alarming the common public, they have started modifying statistics to erase surplus mortality.
In parallel, mostly funded by the Soros Open Society Foundation, the Woke movement is ravaging the western world, with promotion of sex changes and the infamous “multi-letter” agenda — LGBTQIA+ = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual. WOW! This is promoted in schools, in some countries with strict bans of parents’ interference in their children’s, as young as 11 years, wishes for sex-change.
This agenda reduces birth rates further.
Endless wars create chaos, confusion, desperation and, of course, also deaths.
The Money Masters have succeeded in creating the first building blocks. WHO may soon become the most powerful health (life and death) tyranny on earth, if the infamous Pandemic Treaty and the harshly modified International Health Regulations (IHR) are approved at the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2024.
Knowing who is in possession and control of WHO and the WHA, the world is called upon to exit WHO.
Internationally renowned Dr. Peter McCullough testified in the European Parliament in Strasbourg about the social and economic consequences of covid vaxxes, as well as the potentially impending WHO tyranny – concluding with a call on the EU and the US and the rest of the world to exit WHO. See this.
To retake the world, by We the People, leaving BlackRock, Vanguard & Co. behind, exiting the UN system and WHO – would be the next step. Most important, and possibly the only way defeating this money power, is withdrawing from the current societal system and start afresh.
Small communal economies – as far away as possible from any digitization – with a dynamic cooperation among themselves, evolving naturally and on a higher spiritual level than the low vibrating one which is typical for our material world and the present strive for ever more material goods.
“Only when we are divided, can the elite retain its power over us.”
“The Wound is the Place, where the Light enters You.” — The great Sufi poet, Rumi
Their weapons are blackmail and fear.
WE MUST NOT FEAR.
We are the 99%.
We can do it.
And we MUST do it for survival of humanity.
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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense
February 26th, 2024 by Peter Oborne
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Over the last few months a troubling narrative has steadily been gathering strength in British politics.
It goes: radical Islamists are taking over the streets of London. They are using their muscle to intimidate politicians, and are destroying the authority of parliament. As a result, democracy itself is under threat.
Over the past 24 hours, this narrative that British Muslims are corrupting the British political system has gone viral.
Robert Jenrick, a former cabinet minister, speaking in the Commons on Thursday, said that Britain has “allowed our streets to be dominated by Islamist extremists”.
He spoke of “a pattern of Islamist extremists intimidating those they disagree with, backed by the prospect of violence”. Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, replied that she “could not agree more”.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fanned the flames, warning that “we should never let extremists intimidate us into changing the way in which parliament works.”
These are powerful accusations – and neither Sunak nor Jenrick produced evidence to support them.
It’s important to explain the context of this latest epidemic of Islamophobic rhetoric. It was unleashed in the wake of Wednesday’s chaotic events at Westminster after the Scottish National Party (SNP) tabled a Commons motion supporting a ceasefire in Gaza.
This motion was acutely embarrassing for Labour leader Keir Starmer, many of whose MPs are deeply opposed to his support for the war.
This helps explain why both the SNP and the Conservatives tore into Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle when he over-ruled the advice of his Commons clerks and defied parliamentary convention to allow a Labour Party amendment which got Starmer off the hook.
Amidst furious calls for him to quit, Speaker Hoyle went on the record to say that when making his controversial decision he had been “very, very concerned” about the safety of MPs, their families and members of their staff.
Yesterday, he came back to the Commons to repeat his alarm:
“The details of the things that have been brought to me are absolutely frightening,” adding that “if my mistake is looking after members [of parliament], I am guilty”.
He made clear that he had been influenced in his decision-making by Starmer’s own concern about threats to his MPs.
The Speaker, however, did not explain exactly who it was that threatened the safety of Labour MPs – but nobody at Westminster was in any doubt who he was referring to: Muslims.
As night follows day, the British media supported these claims.
Alicia Fitzgerald, a political reporter, fuelled the sense of panic on Talk TV when she said she’d been talking to Labour MPs, particularly women, who were “absolutely terrified” of leaving the Commons in the face of a pro-Palestinian “mob” outside.
He added:
“We have crossed a line now. We are not a properly functioning democracy if this is a factor in how our elected representatives act.”
Mail on Sunday journalist Dan Hodges tweeted that he had spoken to an MP “who told me he had weighed up his own physical safety when deciding on how to vote on yesterday’s Gaza motion”.
I spoke to an MP yesterday who told me he had weighed up his own physical safety when deciding on how to vote on yesterday’s Gaza motion. We have crossed a line now. We are not a properly functioning democracy if this is a factor in how our elected representatives act.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) February 22, 2024
Far-right commentator Douglas Murray announced on X (formerly Twitter) that “it seems that British MPs are finally waking up. Now that the Islamist threat is coming at them”.
It seems that British MPs are finally waking up. Now that the Islamist threat is coming at them: pic.twitter.com/zBLoDUs5YF
— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) February 22, 2024
Telegraph journalist and prospective Tory MP Nick Timothy accused Starmer of backing down to “Islamist intimidation” and destroying “the impartial institutions that make our system work”.
In the end more important than the Speaker is the reaction of Keir Starmer to Islamist intimidation, which was to back down, reward the unacceptable, and in the process destroy the impartial institutions that make our system work. https://t.co/eSoJqpIqu1
— Nick Timothy (@NJ_Timothy) February 22, 2024
Former home secretary Suella Braverman writes in Friday’s Daily Telegraph that “the Islamists, the extremists, and the anti-semites are in charge now”. According to Thursday’s Sun leader column, MPs faced “violent threats from Islamist thugs”.
Meanwhile, on a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference alongside former Prime Minister Liz Truss, Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, declared that “radical Islam is becoming mainstream in British politics”. Farage predicted that “by the 2029 general election, we will have a radical Islamic party represented in Westminster”, adding that “you can’t be a proper country, unless you control your borders”.
And so on and so on. A narrative has been established in just 24 hours. British democracy is under threat from dangerous Islamists.
This narrative is being peddled by our most powerful politicians and media writers.
It goes without saying that these are very serious allegations. If it is indeed the case that “radical Islamists” (or any other group) are threatening the lives of MPs and others, then drastic action is needed.
But I issue one word of warning.
No evidence has been provided. No evidence from the Speaker, who set the media storm in motion. Nothing from Starmer, who briefed him.
Remember that physical and verbal intimidation are crimes. That includes common assault and even the use of threatening language – including online.
Anyone who physically threatens an MP – or any other politician – can and must be prosecuted.
If such threats have been made, as Starmer and Speaker Hoyle claim, then charges must follow, and then jail sentences. Thus far such claims are not standing up.
Alicia Fitzgerald’s excitable report seems to have been contradicted by another political reporter, Hugo Gye, who reported that he left parliament at 7.30pm “and didn’t see a single protestor”.
Or let’s look at the illuminating case of Scottish MSP Paul Sweeney who said that his Glasgow office had been “stormed” by Gaza protests. They were “terrifying and threatening our staff,” he added.
Yet, according to the National, “Police Scotland has now confirmed it was not aware of anyone storming in or threatening Labour staff.”
The National reports that “Police Scotland also said it was made aware of a ‘peaceful protest’ that officers attended with no issues because the protesters involved left of their own accord.”
This is an important episode because it may explain the basis of the claims made Wednesday that “Islamists” were intimidating Labour MPs.
The MPs may have felt, genuinely, that they were threatened, but to others – including the police – they were obliged to endure no more than peaceful protest. A demonstration outside their office for sure. Chanting no doubt. Perhaps abuse. But all was within the limits of legitimate democratic protest.
If something worse took place, and the protest descended into threats to the personal safety of MPs, then the evidence must be handed to the police and charges pressed.
At present all we have is hearsay. And this brings me to Speaker Hoyle and Starmer.
There are many questions to be asked about the cozy conversation between two of Britain’s most senior politicians on Wednesday.
We know from Gary Gibbon, the respected Channel 4 political editor, that Starmer warned that Labour MPs could face threats in their constituencies unless the Labour motion was heard.
We also know that Hoyle took heed of this remark. Did he ask for evidence supporting Starmer’s allegations? There has been – so far – no suggestion that he did.
Let’s take at face value the accepted account of events. Starmer told Hoyle, face to face, of a serious threat to British democracy. If that had been the case, why didn’t Starmer and Hoyle make a public statement about a threat of such gravity to British politicians?
The government chief whip should have been at the meeting so that he could be told about the threat to parliament. Had he been present – as he should have been – events would have taken a different turn.
Let’s note one other thing: the story of the Islamic threat to parliament suits both the Commons Speaker and the Labour leader down to the ground.
As far as Starmer was concerned, it was enough to avoid a deeply embarrassing vote that would have exposed deep divisions in the Labour Party.
When he told MPs of his concerns about their safety, the narrative changed at once. The story was no longer about a weak Speaker bowing to intimidation from the Labour leader. It became an Islamist threat to parliamentary democracy.
I get more abuse, threats and racism than most MPs. So I don’t say this lightly.
And to be clear: no-one in public life should have their safety threatened, nor be subject to unacceptable abuse.
But I find the debate about public engagement with MPs concerning. Here's why. 1/10
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 23, 2024
A story that has been swallowed without inspection, or a sight of a shred of evidence by Britain’s Islamophobic media.
I am not underestimating the seriousness of the charges.
The physical threat to British MPs is real and it is deadly. Indeed I was one of the first to raise the warning about violence against MPs after George Galloway, then MP for Bradford West, was hospitalised in 2014 following a brutal attack in a London street by a thug apparently enraged by his views on Israel.
Not a single MP expressed sympathy, least of all then-Speaker John Bercow. And aside from my article, there was no press concern. Yet, that Galloway episode was a hideous warning of what was to follow. Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered during the runup to the Brexit referendum by a right wing fascist. Sir David Amess was murdered by a Muslim in 2019.
The threat to MPs is broader than a threat from Islamists. And recent history shows that it should be taken with great seriousness. So far both Starmer and Hoyle have been acting on hearsay or innuendo.
That is reckless and deeply irresponsible.
It means that they are open to the charge, in the words of left-wing commentator Owen Jones, that they were “Trying to portray British Muslims peacefully protesting against the mass slaughter of largely Muslim Palestinians as a dangerous, menacing mob”.
Both Hoyle and Starmer need, as a matter or urgency, to explain exactly what went on in their furtive meeting on Wednesday. What evidence is there that MPs have been physically intimidated? If there is such evidence, why have suspects not been charged? Why was no statement made in the Commons on Wednesday about physical intimidation of MPs?
They need to act because the Speaker’s remarks in the House of Commons, whether deliberately or not, have led to an explosion of Islamophobic hatred against Muslims protesting against Israeli actions in Gaza.
It may be that hard facts do lie behind the Speaker’s remarks. If so he, with the help of Starmer, should make them public. Prosecutions should follow.
If not he should withdraw his comments.
It is important to remember that this is not the first time false aspersions and innuendo have been made about opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza. Remember Home Secretary Braverman’s demonisation of protests as “hate marches”, and her attempt to ban one London march on the Armistice weekend.
Yet Open Democracy reported in early February that arrests at pro-Palestine marches were at a lower rate than at the Glastonbury music festival last year. It estimated that an average of 0.5 demonstrators at Palestine protests were arrested for every 10,000 attendees.
Between October and December – during which time millions protested – there were 153 arrests at the protests. Of those, 117 arrestees were released without charge.
Mainstream British politicians are claiming that British Muslims are a security threat and are subverting British democracy. This is a deadly serious and inflammatory claim. The Speaker of the House of Commons and the leader of the Labour Party now have a duty to substantiate their claims.
If not they have a duty to withdraw them.
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Peter Oborne won best commentary/blogging in both 2022 and 2017, and was also named freelancer of the year in 2016 at the Drum Online Media Awards for articles he wrote for Middle East Eye. He was also named as British Press Awards Columnist of the Year in 2013. He resigned as chief political columnist of the Daily Telegraph in 2015. His latest book is The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam, published in May by Simon & Schuster. His previous books include The Triumph of the Political Class, The Rise of Political Lying, Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran and The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism.
Featured image source
February 26th, 2024 by Archie Mitchell
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Rishi Sunak has been accused of aiding Vladimir Putin’s regime over the government’s plans to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money training up the next generation of Russian leaders.
Britain barred Russians from applying to the Chevening scholarship programme – a fully funded masters degree aimed at “emerging leaders” from all over the world – after Mr Putin invaded Ukraine two years ago.
But, despite the conflict still going on – and Britain ramping up sanctions on Moscow in response to the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny – The Independent can reveal that the scheme has been reopened to applicants from Russia.
The prime minister is now facing calls to reverse the decision, with MPs and campaigners criticising the decision to use foreign aid money in this way. One MP said: “It will only possibly benefit apparatchiks of Putin’s regime.”
Bill Browder, the US anti-corruption campaigner, told The Independent it is “highly inappropriate” to reinstate the scheme.
Click here to read the full article on The Independent.
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February 26th, 2024 by Yosi Zelalem
February 26th, 2024 by Turkiye Newspaper
February 26th, 2024 by Dr. William Makis
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Dec. 17, 2020 – Chattanooga, TN – CHI Memorial – Nurse Manager Tiffany Dover was the first healthcare worker to be COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated. She collapsed seconds after vaccination.
VIDEO 04 – Child collapses as mother screams (posted Nov. 26, 2023)
VIDEO 05 – Vaccine Clinic collapsed on the floor (posted Nov. 26, 2023)
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Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.
by Michel Chossudovsky
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
Reviews
This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon
In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia
In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig
Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac
A reading of Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late. You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin
ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0, Year: 2022, PDF Ebook, Pages: 164, 15 Chapters
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February 26th, 2024 by Junaid S. Ahmad
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Donation Drive: Global Research Is Committed to the “Unspoken Truth”
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[This was first published by GR on February 2.]
As the world, and especially Muslims, correctly has been focused on the Zionist genocide in Gaza, we seem to have forgotten President Biden’s criminality in another part of the world.
Indeed, just as Israel’s savagery has been wholeheartedly supported by the Biden Administration, the regime change operation in March-April of 2022 in Pakistan was also on Biden’s watch. More and more Pakistanis, especially in the largest and politically dominant province of Punjab, have come to recognize the venality of the military establishment. Though the other provinces of Pakistan had no illusion of the nefarious and violent role of the generals in Pakistani social and political life, people in Punjab had to experience the torturous wrath of the military top brass after the removal of former Prime Minister Imran Khan – to realize the cold-bloodedness of the military high command.
Khan has been languishing in prison since August of last year on various trumped up and farcical charges. And now, he and another senior member of Khan’s political party, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, have been sentenced to a ten-year jail sentence because of the ostensible cypher-gate scandal. The ‘cypher,’ a secret diplomatic cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in March of 2022, stated quite explicitly the American desire to oust Khan from power. The task was left to Washington’s old Cold War friends in Pakistan’s praetorian guard to fulfill the mission.
After Khan was removed from power by a military establishment-US embassy.in-Islamabad engineered vote-of-no-confidence in parliament, he made it very clear to Pakistanis that this was a regime change conspiracy involving the US on the one hand, and Pakistan’s generals and kleptocratic politicians on the other. At the time, sadly, those who had historically opposed the role of the military in Pakistan’s politics, refused to believe Khan – essentially considering him a conspiratorial nutcase. After more than a year after Khan’s ouster, the American online publication, The Intercept, confirmed that the official diplomatic cable that Khan referred to was in fact real, and that its content laid out in no uncertain terms the American insistence on removing Khan from power. By now, even the most ardent ‘cypher deniers’ have had to acknowledge the veracity of Khan’s claims at the time of the successful regime change operation in the country. The tragedy was that the big media houses in Pakistan acceded to state pressure to erase the name Imran Khan from any public discourse, and that it took a foreign publication’s stellar investigative journalism to expose the treacherous collaboration between Washington and the generals in Pakistan – in particular, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen. Bajwa – in subjecting Khan and his political party, PTI, to the most totalitarian forms of repression.
After two decades of the ‘War on Terror’ having created some friction between the American and Pakistani military-intelligence apparatuses, both came to realize that, ultimately, they will always be joined at the hip. The Pakistani military is one of the most vicious relics of colonialism. It transitioned quite smoothly in its neo-colonial relationship with Washington throughout the Cold War. Pakistan’s generals never lose sight of the fact that they make billions from American machinations in West and Southwest Asia. Other than excelling as a satrapy of the American empire, the powerful Pakistani armed forces are good for nothing but extreme levels of repression, torture, disappearances, and murdering its own population.
However, throughout the past two years, Pakistanis have been somewhat bewildered at the extent of the vendetta and ferocious repression targeted at Khan and his political party. It seems to be the case that the military establishment has never felt as insecure as it has after Khan’s ouster and the subsequent massive outpouring of support for him and his party. The well-understood arrangement between any civilian government and the COAS and the military-intelligence establishment was that the former agrees to cede full control of ‘national security’ and foreign policy to the latter. The generals increasingly felt that Khan began to violate this ‘code of conduct’ by positioning himself as the one who would carve out the direction of the country on the world stage. In addition, the generals’ Western patron-masters saw Khan as a thorn in their control of Muslim despots in West Asia, most of whom were on the path of normalization with Israel, turning a blind eye to Hindutva fascism in India, and engineering a pro-Empire- friendly Islam. On the contrary, Khan spoke passionately about justice for Palestinians and Kashmiris, rejected the imperial categories of ‘moderate’ or ‘extremist’ Islam, and denounced the rise of Islamophobia and its dreadful social and political impact throughout the world. His popularity among, and keen desire to bring together, nations such as Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, and Qatar was correctly seen as a counter-hegemonic bloc to the Saudi domination of the Muslim world. And finally, Khan’s praise of China’s ability to lift more than 800 million out of poverty and the lessons it offers for developing countries like Pakistan, as well as remaining neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, convinced the US national security state that this man must be eliminated.
It’s important to note that generals’ detestation of Khan was not because he was some revolutionary. But he did help to politicize significant chunks of the population, young and old, and especially in the military establishment’s base of support – the province of Punjab. Punjabis protesting en masse against the military establishment was something unforgivable for the generals. Punjabis were supposed to love or at least respect their military leaders, not despise them as they did following Khan’s ouster.
Comparisons are often made with the popular leader of Pakistan during the 1970s, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – who certainly had a revolutionary character in his rhetoric. But two key differences are often overlooked. Bhutto came to power on the backs of Bengali blood, the genocidal campaign of West Pakistani generals against the population of East Pakistan – which became Bangladesh after winning its war of liberation. Bhutto’s party, the PPP, would have lost to the Awami League political party in East Pakistan had it not been for the merciless military assault on the future nation of Bangladesh. In a cynically transactional manner, Bhutto repaid the favor by effectively rescuing and rehabilitating a humiliated and defeated Pakistani military. In fact, Bhutto would go on to rely on that same military to target political opponents, especially in the provinces of NWFP (now renamed KPK) and Balochistan. Of course, none of this is to deny that Bhutto was a very popular leader.
But secondly, Bhutto’s own shortcomings and political authoritarianism while in power ultimately led to disillusionment within his support base, resulting in a fairly reticent popular response to his ouster by the military dictator, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq – and, as in the case of Khan, a regime change completely supported by Washington.
One can claim that Khan also came on the backs of the military establishment’s very temporary squabble with the other two major dynastic political parties. But like Bhutto, no one can claim that Khan was not immensely popular. The major difference, of course, is the massive outpouring of support for Khan after his ouster, in rallies across the country sustained for more than a year until the barbaric military crackdown began in May of 2023. In fact, the surprise for many was that despite a rather lackluster performance in his period of governance, still Khan was popular as ever, if not more.
The saga of the cases, charges, and convictions against Khan are seen by virtually all of Pakistan’s 240 million people as a politically motivated clown-show. Specifically, the recent convictions in ‘courts’ for which the term ‘kangaroo court’ would be way too generous, deferential, and respectful, are intended to further demoralize and terrorize the population before ‘elections’ to be held on Feb. 8th. Some think that these elections would give Saddam Hussain’s and Hosni Mubarak’s forms of elections good competition.
While Pakistanis in and outside of the country continue to witness one travesty after the next, to see the totalitarianism of the generals and their favored political mafias reach newer and more ruthless heights, the hope remains that, just like in Gaza, the people’s resistance and international solidarity may be able to mount a serious impediment to Biden’s generals’ torture chambers imposed on the country. And the perennial palace intrigues and squabbles of the political and military elite have a tendency to derail all major plans of coordinated and disciplined perpetual punishment of the population.
Nevertheless, one underreported story during the past two years has been of the many officers and overwhelming majority of soldiers who’ve had nothing but revulsion for the shenanigans of the bloodthirsty high command, causing many of them to be ‘disappeared’ or forced to resign, or just resigning on their own, without pension.
Absent the ability of the people to, at this point, initiate an effective and formidable challenge to Washington’s comprador military and political elite, a progressive officers’ coup may not be a bad idea.
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Prof. Junaid S. Ahmad teaches religion, law, and global politics and is the Director of the Center for Islam and Decoloniality, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from Multipolarista
February 25th, 2024 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida
Os países da OTAN parecem interessados em lançar novas manobras provocativas contra a República de Belarus. De acordo com um recente relatório de inteligência publicado pelo governo bielorrusso, há informações que mostram um plano da Polônia para atacar a sua própria população numa operação de bandeira falsa contra Minsk. O objetivo seria usar tal acontecimento como justificativa para escalar o conflito contra a Rússia – que tem aliança com Belarus.
A informação foi exposta pelo presidente bielorrusso, Aleksandr Lukashenko, durante discurso no dia 20 de fevereiro. Afirmou que a inteligência do país identificou várias ameaças terroristas perto das fronteiras nos últimos dias. Algumas destas ameaças visam o próprio povo bielorrusso, o que motivou, por exemplo, a operação antiterrorista em Gomel, perto da fronteira com a Ucrânia. No entanto, perto das fronteiras polacas também existem ameaças de outra natureza, que visam cidadãos não bielorrussos.
Lukashenko disse que há evidências de um plano para realizar um ataque a civis polacos nas regiões fronteiriças com Belarus. O plano visa gerar indignação na opinião pública na Polônia e nos países ocidentais e, assim, justificar a escalada de medidas políticas e militares contra Belarus e a Federação Russa. De acordo com a inteligência bielorrussa, os serviços secretos polacos e americanos estão a participar conjuntamente num tal plano, sendo portanto uma conspiração de Varsóvia contra o seu próprio povo.
O presidente bielorrusso comparou o alegado plano polaco-americano às práticas nazistas na Segunda Guerra Mundial, recordando como Hitler utilizou o território polaco para iniciar as hostilidades. Sublinhou também que os responsáveis da OTAN não se preocupam com a vida dos cidadãos dos países “aliados”, dispostos a lutar “até ao último” polaco ou ucraniano, se necessário, para continuar a atacar a Rússia e Belarus. Por último, Lukashenko pediu prudência e cuidado à Polônia, apelando aos tomadores de decisões polacos para que repensassem as suas ações.
Esta não é a primeira vez que surgem relatórios expondo planos para envolver Belarus em hostilidades armadas. Desde 2022, o país tem sofrido diversas provocações em regiões fronteiriças, incluindo ataques terroristas de radicais da Ucrânia e exercícios militares agressivos de tropas da OTAN na Polônia e nos países bálticos. Minsk tem sido eficiente em evitar um conflito militar, mas o governo do país é constantemente forçado a lançar operações antiterroristas nas fronteiras para neutralizar sabotadores e infiltrados.
Há um sentido estratégico muito simples por trás de tais provocações. O Ocidente quer fazer com que a Bielorrússia reaja militarmente contra a Ucrânia ou contra a Polônia e os países bálticos da OTAN. Desta forma, uma situação de conflito seria justificada e envolveria diretamente a Rússia numa segunda frente, uma vez que Moscou e Minsk têm um pacto de defesa coletiva no âmbito do Tratado do Estado da União.
Como é sabido, a Ucrânia já não tem capacidade para travar uma guerra contra a Rússia durante um período prolongado. O país está devastado pelas consequências do conflito, estando militarmente enfraquecido e incapaz de manter as suas posições. Por isso é “necessário” que a OTAN abra uma nova frente contra a Rússia o mais rapidamente possível, uma vez que Kiev já se revelou ineficiente no “desgaste” de Moscou. Provocações anti-russas têm sido observadas em países como a Moldávia e a Geórgia, onde a OTAN pretende retomar os conflitos contra grupos separatistas pró-russos. No mesmo sentido, também se procurou uma guerra envolvendo a Bielorrússia, pois isso forçaria os russos a envolverem-se diretamente.
Os responsáveis da OTAN parecem não compreender, contudo, que este tipo de manobra seria extremamente arriscado para a aliança e para o mundo inteiro. O governo russo já deixou claro que qualquer ataque à Belarus será visto como um ataque à própria Rússia, o que significa que as manobras da Polônia poderiam levar a uma verdadeira guerra direta entre o Estado da União e a OTAN, o que significaria uma Terceira Guerra Mundial – com possíveis consequências nucleares.
Por outro lado, um cenário também possível é simplesmente o “abandono” da Polônia e dos Bálticos pela OTAN. Em teoria, a aliança atlântica é obrigada a intervir em qualquer conflito em que participe um dos seus membros. Mas, na prática, esta cláusula de defesa coletiva nunca foi testada num conflito relevante. Muitos analistas duvidam que Washington autorize realmente a intervenção da OTAN numa guerra direta entre a Polônia e a Rússia, razão pela qual Varsóvia pode estar inconscientemente a atirar-se para um conflito no qual não terá apoio.
É também necessário lembrar que atualmente Belarus é um país nuclear. Minsk recebeu armas nucleares táticas russas em seu território e o governo local tem autonomia para optar por utilizá-las caso entenda isso como necessário para garantir sua segurança nacional. Por outras palavras, Minsk tem poder de dissuasão nuclear, o que automaticamente a coloca numa posição de vantagem militar contra os seus vizinhos por procuração dos EUA.
Em todos os cenários possíveis, provocar a Bielorrússia parece ser um grande erro.
Lucas Leiroz de Almeida
Artigo em inglês : NATO allegedly planning provocation against Belarus, InfoBrics, 22 de Fevereiro de 2024.
Imagem : InfoBrics
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Lucas Leiroz, jornalista, pesquisador do Center for Geostrategic Studies, consultor geopolítico.
Você pode seguir Lucas Leiroz em: https://t.me/lucasleiroz e https://twitter.com/leiroz_lucas
February 25th, 2024 by Tina Renier
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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As Jamaica gears up for its long overdue, local government elections on February 26, 2024, there are number of critical insights that I would like to share about the overall state of our democracy, based on interpretation and analysis of national poll ratings conducted by (Don Anderson Market Research Limited and Blue Dot), regional studies over the past decade and recent global reports on democracy.
The current efforts of the Jamaica Debates Commission must be highly commended for ensuring that citizens have the opportunity to listen to the policy proposals presented by the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) as well as to ensure a vibrant, democracy at the level of local government and community development. However, the question that still lingers is to what extent will these national debates influence public opinion of the two major political parties, party leaders and voting behaviour especially given the fact that our dominant political culture is heavily predicated on tradition and clientelist attitudes of the two major political parties?
While the Don Anderson Market Research Limited and Blue Dot poll ratings display projections in differences and consistencies in patterns in voting behaviour and political participation, the most profound and consistent poll results from the two national polling agencies illustrate the top concerns of Jamaicans both at the national level and the local government level and these concerns range from rising cost of living, poverty, food insecurity, vulnerability to natural disasters, alarming crime and violence rates, high actual and perceived political corruption, social marginalization and lack of equitable access to social and economic opportunities including jobs, infrastructure and health care.
On the topic of corruption, we are quite aware that corruption significantly hampers social and economic development and is also a threat to national security. This is evident in the 2023 World Justice Project survey which reveals that corruption stifles fair access to opportunities and 78% of respondents in Jamaica believe that hiring, recruitment practices and awarding of contracts in the public sector is based on friends or family ties to political parties rather than on merit and at the regional level, this rate stands at 81% among the 14 Caribbean countries surveyed. Additionally, 66% of respondents in Jamaica also believe that those working for political parties are corrupt. Regional studies such as the 2023 Americas Barometer notes that democracy in Latin American and the Caribbean is under duress whereby public attitudes and support for democracy is significantly lower than other regions of the world. The Latin American and Caribbean region underwent its 8th consecutive decline in support for democracy in 2023. In Jamaica, citizens’ trust in elections is as low as 35% and in addition to this, only 18% of respondents believe that elections are crucial levers in advocating for and driving meaningful social changes.
Public dissatisfaction with the political status quo is becoming more glaring and prevalent. This is due to a combination of factors but primarily, there is pessimism with a lack of good governance and a lack of inclusive economic growth wherein development has not delivered widespread benefits for majority of our population. This is seen where although we have been ranked for high human development by the United Nations Development Programme with a score of 0.709 in 2021, there are still vast inequalities in income and wealth distribution and access to opportunities. One of the most intriguing emerging trends from the region that we should pay attention to as citizens and as political analysts and commentators is the fact that the 2023 Americas Barometer Report notes that younger generations in the Latin America and Caribbean region are increasingly interested in social change and show a higher support for democracy. This underscores the importance of youth development in strengthening democracy and reforms.
I end with the statements for our reflection, “broader national issues need to be localized, this is the central ethos of local government” and “political choices affect policy outcomes”.
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Tina Renier is an independent researcher based in Jamaica. She is a volunteer at Just Peace Advocates and a regular contributor to Global Research. She received a Master of Arts in International Development Studies in Nova Scotia, Canada.
February 25th, 2024 by Steven Sahiounie
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in late 2022 that his priority was to sign a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. He called it his number one objective for Israel’s national security. Now, he has lost his dream.
Saudi Arabia stood up alongside 51 countries, and testified at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel’s attack on Gaza which has been classified as genocide, and apartheid by human rights experts, South Africa and others. The evidence being presented to the ICJ rule is to prove that the occupation of Palestine is illegal, and must be ended.
Saudi Arabia condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, and the Occupied West Bank as legally indefensible. Ziad Al-Atiyah, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, strongly condemned Israel for its actions in Palestine which defy international law.
Al-Atiyah stressed that Israel must be held accountable for ignoring international law in its treatment of civilians in Gaza and its continued impunity.
Saudi Arabia expressed deep sorrow over the killing of 29,000 civilians, who are mainly women and children, and rejected Israel’s argument of self-defense, stating that depriving Palestinians of basic means of survival is unjustifiable.
Al-Atiyah called on the international community to take action against Israel’s genocidal actions against Palestinians, and Israel’s constant dehumanizing rhetoric. He added that the court does indeed have jurisdiction in this case, and urged the court to issue an opinion.
Saudi Arabia condemned Israel’s disregard for ceasefire calls, while expanding illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank, and the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes.
The Kingdom listed Israel’s violations of international obligations, while ignoring UN resolutions condemning its conduct and preventing Palestinians from their right to self-defense.
Israel was also criticized for its 2018 Basic Law declaring Jerusalem as its capital, which is in clear violation of UN resolutions, and the expansion of illegal settlements, and preventing the self-determination of the Palestinian people, which is a universal human right.
The UN General Assembly requested the ICJ for an advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. 51 states will present arguments until Feb. 26.
South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and Belgium also presented preliminary arguments.
This is the largest case ever presented at the ICJ and at least three international organizations are also slated to address the judges at the UN’s top court until next week. A nonbinding legal opinion will follow the judges’ deliberations.
Gaza changed everything: the world is against Israel, except the US.
Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s ambassador to the UN, introduced a ceasefire resolution at the UN on February 20. He said the Council “cannot afford passivity” in the face of what is unfolding in Gaza, and that silence is “not a viable option”.
“This resolution is a stance for truth and humanity, standing against the advocates for murder and hatred,” he said. “Voting against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon them [the Palestinians].”
His words of bitter accusation were directed at one country: The United States of America. The only country to vote against the ceasefire was America. The UN Security Council’s 13 other member countries voted in favor of demanding a halt to the war, while the UK abstained.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, has consistently held her hand up high while voting against every chance to relieve the suffering, injuries and deaths of the people in Gaza.
Thomas-Greenfield’s ancestors were African slaves in the US. Her ancestors were deprived of all human rights for hundreds of years until they were granted freedom, and that freedom came resulting from a bloody four-year war. Her ancestors fought for the freedom that she enjoys, and yet she is defending Israel. She fails to empathize with the Palestinians who should remind her of her ancestors.
The US is isolated as a pariah state because of Gaza.
The moral authority of the US has been ripped from Washington, DC. by the power of the genocide and war crimes in Gaza, carried out by Israel while using weapons sent to Tel Aviv from the US State Department. Biden’s fingerprints are all over the murder weapons.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, reports that 26 out of 27 EU countries call for “immediate humanitarian pause in Gaza, that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire.” The US likes to think of Europe as their sheep, blindly following every dictate issued by the Oval Office. But, Gaza has changed that; now the EU is voicing ethical and moral authority over the US.
Netanyahu took office on December 29, 2022, and he is allied by the most extreme right-wing politicians in Israel’s history. Ben Gvir and Smotrich have both made racist and genocidal statements about Palestinians. Their views vacillate between the need to either kill all the Palestinians, or force them to move to Egypt and Jordan.
But, Netanyahu faces a prison term for corruption, and these radical allies are all that is keeping him safe, and in office. His hands are tied: he has to keep them happy, which means he must refuse any call for a ceasefire.
President Donald Trump had championed the Abraham Accords while in office, and was successful in getting several Arab countries to normalize their relationship with Israel. Trump had done more for Israel than any other US President.
Israel wanted normal ties with Saudi Arabia to benefit the economy, and to discourage Iranian influence in the region.
In 2012, the State of Palestine was accepted as an observer state at the UN. 139 countries at the UN have recognized the State of Palestine, compared with the 165 countries recognizing Israel.
Biden will lose re-election because of Gaza.
Andy Levin, a former Representative of Michigan, and a Democrat, was at a gathering on February 20 demonstrating against Biden. Levin explained that Michigan has a large Arab American population, and they are very angry at Biden’s support of the genocide in Gaza. Levin said a Trump victory is very possible if Biden loses support of Michigan voters.
Especially angry are young voters and progressives who believe in human rights and freedom for all peoples, not just Americans.
“Don’t blame us,” said Mr. Levin, who along with Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan has become one of the most prominent supporters of the Uncommitted movement. Levin said,
“He needs votes from Arab Americans, from people of color, from progressive Jews and from young people. He only won Michigan by 150,000 votes in 2020, so politically we have a moment where we can raise our voices.”
People at the rally expressed their horror at the over 29,000 deaths in Gaza, and the refusal of the US to demand a ceasefire and humanitarian deliveries. With scenes on social media of starving Palestinians being gunned down by Israeli soldiers as they try to reach the aid trucks, the Americans who are informed and caring are deciding to not vote for Biden, and in such a close race, he needs every vote to win.
A poll in October found that more people ages 18-29 sympathized with Palestinians than with Israelis in the Gaza war.
Young people are very well informed with what is happening in Gaza by their almost constant use of social media, where they get all their news. Older people might be still watching TV channels, which in the US are very heavily biased towards Israel.
Biden’s November re-election depends on young voters, but he has lost their vote because of his steadfast support of the slaughter of over 29,000 people in Gaza.
In September, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, declared that normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia was a US “national security interest”.
On September 21, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), told Fox News, “Every day we get closer” to a normalization deal with Israel. Gaza has killed that dream, because Saudi Arabia has stressed that normalization now will only be achieved by a two-state solution under UN resolutions. Netanyahu has totally rejected the two-state solution, the end of occupation, and a ceasefire.
Riyadh wanted a US defense pact; including fewer restrictions on US arms sales to it, and assistance in developing its own civilian nuclear program. Another perk from signing with Israel would be AIPAC, the political lobby group which political experts in Washington, DC. accredit with tremendous control over the Oval Office and Capitol Hill.
In March 2023, China brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Beijing proved their influential role in the Middle East in contrast to the diminishing role of the United States.
That Chinese deal was a major blow to Biden, who had wanted to keep Iran and Saudi Arabia enemies because Israel views Iran as their enemy.
Since then, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been expanding their cooperation in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
Israel is accused of genocide at the ICJ.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the ICJ. The ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
“We have dozens and dozens of statements made by senior Israeli political and military leaders with respect to genocidal intent. So I think, at least the plausibility has been established, and there’s quite possibly genocide itself or a genocide in the making, according to the definition of the Genocide Convention,” said Michael Lynk, former UN special rapporteur.
Lynk also pointed to the role of the US in supporting Israel in its onslaught that has left nearly 30,000 Palestinians dead, noting that Washington, besides replenishing Tel Aviv’s shrinking ammunition stocks with 3.8 billion in military aid, is also providing it diplomatic cover at the UN.
“So, it’s hard to see how this offensive and this coming catastrophe in Rafah is going to stop unless the US pulls to a stop and tells Israel that ‘enough is enough,’” said Lynk, while adding “I don’t see that coming.”
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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from MD
February 25th, 2024 by Karsten Riise
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A Palestinian State will never come without a devastating military defeat of Israel.
Israel is united in rejecting a Palestinian State. This is demonstrated clearly in a very important piece today 24 February 2024.
“In recent weeks, various leaders of Western countries have publicly broached the idea of the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, asserting that the time has come to give the Palestinians independence, even in the absence of a negotiating process. …
But what these esteemed statesmen have apparently failed to grasp is that the very idea of a Palestinian state is no longer geographically viable, morally acceptable, or even politically tolerable to the overwhelming majority of Israelis.
Simply put, the idea of “Palestine” is dead and buried.”
—The Jerusalem Post, February 24, 2024
Israel’s whole war time coalition government including PM Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz unanimously reject Palestinian statehood.
A whopping 74% of all Israelis reject a Palestinian State. It is false to say that only the right of Israeli politics hate the notion of a Palestinian State.
Many Israelis dislike Netanyahu. But don’t fool yourself to believe that those many Jewish Israelis who dislike Netanyahu like Palestinians or are open for a Palestinian State. Don’t even make the error to believe that those Israelis who dislike Netanyahu are against Netanyahu’s policies. The vast majority is not.
The support for Netanyahu from right wing parties doesn’t mean that an other Israeli government or leader like Benny Gantz would follow any other policy. They won’t.
Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank number more then 700,000 Jews. The settlers are not only right wing wingers – they constitute a large and integral part of Israeli society. The settlers are already so many and so deep rooted in Israel that it is already impossible for Israel to retract its settlements
The past 10 years, the number of settlers in the West Bank alone has grown 38%. After 7 October 2023, Israel will speed up many-many more settlements. A qualified guess is that Israel wants to soon achieve some 1.5 million Jews living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. And consequently, more evictions – cleansing – of Palestinians.
It should be added, that hate against Palestinians has exploded in Israel after 7 October 2023 – they want to punish, kill, and destroy Palestinians, not give them anything.
No matter who runs Israel, Netanyahu, Gantz, or any other, Israel is implementing its policies from the Book of Joshua: Removing Palestinians by the most ugly means possible, cementing an Israel “from the River to the Sea”, and perhaps into Lebanon up to the Litani river.
No amount of “protests” or “isolation” of Israel will change Israel or make a Palestinian State possible.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
February 25th, 2024 by Palestine Chronicle
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Israel’s Minister for the Advancement of Women, May Golan, has yet again displayed disregard for Palestinian life by expressing pride in the “ruins” of the besieged Gaza Strip, adding that every Palestinian baby will in future, “tell their grandchildren what the Jews did.”
“I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza,” Golan said in a speech in the Israeli parliament (Knesset) on Wednesday.
“And that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did…,” she added.
Addressing far-left politician Oser Cassif, Golan said,
“You can keep dreaming that we will end the war without victory.”
She went on to say,
“We are not ashamed to say that we want to see the Israeli soldiers, the holy heroes of ours, catching (Yahya) Sinwar and his terrorists by their ears, and dragging them all across the Gaza Strip, on their way to the dungeons of the Prison Authority …Or in the best scenario, to a coffin.”
Denouncing the idea of a Palestinian state, Golan said
“Not a dove and not an olive branch, only a sword to cut off Sinwar’s head, that’s what he will receive from us.”
"I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did."
May Golan, Israeli Minister of Social Equality & Women's Advancement
pic.twitter.com/jOEXBECOLn— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) February 21, 2024
In December, Golan made the headlines for saying she would like to see “dead bodies of terrorists around Gaza.”
“…I don’t care about Gaza, I literally don’t care. For all I care, they can go out and just swim in the sea,” Golan said in an interview with an Israeli TV channel.
“I care about only three things; The first thing is I care about our soldiers, our dear, precious soldiers that danger their lives every day for the state of Israel,” the politician continued.
“I care about the one thing that will have to be and this is killing and destroying Hamas from the face of the earth.”
Golan, 37, is a Likud Party member known for inflammatory statements she made about African refugees in Israel.
Calling the refugees “Muslim infiltrators,” she reportedly said many have Aids, and demanded they be expelled from the country.
Her nomination by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a consul-general to New York early last year was “denounced by Israeli and American former diplomats, as an affront to the US and damaging for Israel,” according to a report in the Guardian.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 29,410 Palestinians have been killed, and 69,465 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7.
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Featured image: Israeli Minister May Golan. (Photo: video grab)
February 25th, 2024 by Dr. William Makis
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Incident: Lufthansa A321 near Madrid on Feb 17th 2024, first officer unwell
By Simon Hradecky, created Saturday, Feb 17th 2024 17:03Z, last updated Saturday, Feb 17th 2024 17:03Z
A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200, registration D-AISO performing flight LH-1140 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Seville,SP (Spain), was enroute at FL350 about 40nm southsouthwest of Madrid,SP (Spain) when the crew requested to urgently divert to Madrid reporting the first officer was feeling unwell. The aircraft turned around and landed safely on Madrid’s runway 32L about 18 minutes later.
The aircraft remained on the ground in Madrid for about 5.5 hours then continued the journey and reached Seville with a delay of about 5.5 hours.
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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
Dec. 11, 2023 – Cathay Pacific Flight CX101 (HKG-SYD) from Hong Kong to Sydney – Captain felt unwell, crew turned around and returned to Hong Kong, landed safely 3 hr later
Dec. 5, 2023 – Ryanair Flight RK-8528 (STN-OZZ) from London Stansted, UK, to Ouarzazate, Morocco – pilot felt unwell, crew diverted to Faro, Portugal, landed safely 30 min
Nov. 29, 2023 – American Airlines Flight AA755 CDG-PHL, from Paris, France, to Philadelphia, PA, pilot had a seizure and collapsed in the cockpit.
Nov. 26, 2023 – Ryanair Flight FR-3472 (LTN-RZE) from London Luton, UK to Rzeszow (Poland) on Nov.26, 2023, one of the pilots became incapacitated, plane diverted to Krakow and landed safely
Nov. 20, 2023 – Air Transat Flight TS-186 (YYZ-PUJ) from Toronto, Canada to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – pilot became incapacitated and was replaced by a pilot passenger
Oct. 30, 2023 – Jet2 Flight LS-1711 (MAN-DLM) Manchester (UK) to Dalaman (Turkey) – First officer became incapacitated, pilot diverted aircraft to Budapest, landed safely
Sep. 24, 2023 – Austrian Airlines Flight OS-188 (STR-VIE) Stuttgart to Vienna The captain became incapacitated, first officer took control of aircraft
Sep. 22, 2023 – Delta Flight DL-291 (CDG-LAX) Paris to Los Angeles – Pilot became incapacitated, was taken to cabin for care, plane diverted to Minneapolis, pilot taken to hospital
Aug. 27, 2023 – Air Canada Flight AC348 (YVR-YOW) Vancouver to Ottawa, one of the pilots felt ill and became incapacitated 50 min before landing in Ottawa.
Aug. 16, 2023 – Qatar Airways Flight QR579 (DEL-DOH) Delhi to Doha, Qatar, 51 year old pilot collapsed as a passenger inflight and died, plane diverted to Dubai.
Aug. 14, 2023 – LATAM Flight LA505 (MIA-SCL) Miami to Santiago, Chile – 2 hours into 8hr flight, 56 year old Captain Ivan Andaur collapsed and died in the lavatory – plane diverted to Panama City!
Aug. 9, 2023 – United Airlines UAL1309 (SRQ-EWR) Sarasota to Newark, pilot had a heart attack and lost consciousness in flight
Aug. 7, 2023 – TigerAIR Flight IT237 (CTS-TPE) Sapporo to Taipei, copilot had a medical emergency after landing plane in Taipei
July 19, 2023 – Eurowings Discover Flight 4Y-1205 (HER-FRA) Heraklion to Frankfurt, pilot incapacitated, first officer took control, landed safely
June 7, 2023 – Air Canada Flight ACA692 (YYZ-YYT) Toronto to St.John’s, First Officer became incapacitated, deadheading Captain assumed duties
May 11, 2023 – HiSKy Flight H4474 (DUB-KIV) Dublin to Chisinau (Moldova), 20 min after liftoff pilot became “unable to act”, plane diverted to Manchester
May 4, 2023 – British Charter TUI Airways Flight BY-1424 (NCL-LPA) Newcastle to Las Palmas Spain pilot became ill, plane diverted back to NCL.
April 21, 2023 – Easyjet Flight U2-6469 (LGW-AGA) London Gatwick to Agadir, Morocco, first offer became incapacitated, diverted to Faro, Portugal.
April 4, 2023 – United Airlines Flight 2102 (BOI-SFO) – captain was incapacitated, first officer was only one in control of the aircraft.
March 25, 2023 – TAROM Flight RO-7673 TSR-HRG diverted to Bucharest as 30 yo pilot had chest pain, then collapsed
March 22, 2023 – Southwest Flight WN6013 LAS-CMH diverted as pilot collapsed shortly after take-off, replaced by non-Southwest pilot
March 18, 2023 – Air Transat Flight TS739 FDF-YUL first officer was incapacitated about 200NM south of Montreal
March 13, 2023 – Emirates Flight EK205 MXP-JFK diverted due to pilot illness hour and a half after take-off
March 11, 2023 – United Airlines Flight UA2007 GUA-ORD diverted due to “incapacitated pilot” who had chest pains
March 3, 2023 – Virgin Australia Flight VA-717 ADL-PER Adelaide to Perth flight was forced to make an emergency landing after First Officer suffered heart attack 30 min after departure.
Sep. 23, 2023 – Alaska Airlines Pilot Death – 37 year old Captain Eric McRae died suddenly in his hotel room during layover, was to fly that morning
Aug. 17, 2023 – IndiGo Flight (NAG-PNQ) Nagpur to Pune, India, 40 year old Pilot Manoj Subramanium died after collapsing at the boarding gate, about to board.
May 3, 2023 – Air Transat and Air Canada Pilot Death – 48 year old Eddy Vorperian, died suddenly during layover in Croatia
March 11, 2023 – British Airways (CAI-LHR) pilot died of heart attack in crew hotel in Cairo before a Cairo to London flight (name & age not released)
Aug. 18, 2023 – US Army Aviation Center (Alabama) student pilot went into cardiac arrest behind the controls midflight (Aug.18, 2023), Instructor landed plane – pilot was dead for 18 minutes!
July 19, 2023 – 37 year old US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Andrew James Lingenfelter, of Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, died on July 19, 2023 after battle with Pancreatic Turbo Cancer
May 9, 2023 – United Airlines and US Air Force Pilot Lt. Col. Michael Fugett, age 46, died unexpectedly at his home
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Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.
Featured image is from COVID Intel
by Michel Chossudovsky
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
Reviews
This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon
In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia
In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig
Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac
A reading of Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late. You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin
ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0, Year: 2022, PDF Ebook, Pages: 164, 15 Chapters
Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.
We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page.
February 25th, 2024 by Scott Ritter
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Deliberate neglect, followed by a blockade and now war have failed to break the resolve of the peninsula’s inhabitants.
As the Russian military operation against Ukraine approaches its third year, the focus on the ongoing conflict has allowed another anniversary to go relatively unnoticed – it’s now around ten years since the violent events in Kiev’s Maidan Square that put in motion the circumstances which precipitated the current conflict.
Over the course of five days, from February 18 to 23, 2014, neo-Nazi provocateurs from the Svoboda (All Ukrainian Union ‘Freedom’) Party and the Right Sector, a coalition of far-right Ukrainian nationalists who follow the political teachings of Stepan Bandera and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, engaged in targeted violence against the government of President Viktor Yanukovich. It was designed to remove him from power and replace him with a new, US-backed government. They were successful; Yanukovich fled to Russia on February 23, 2014.
Soon thereafter, the predominantly Russian-speaking population of Crimea undertook actions to separate from the new Ukrainian nationalist government in Kiev. On March 16, 2014, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, both of which at that time were legally considered to be part of Ukraine, held a referendum on whether to join Russia or remain part of Ukraine. Over 97% of the votes cast were in favor of joining Russia. Five days later, on March 21, Crimea formally became part of the Russian Federation.
The Northern Crimea Canal after Ukraine blocked the water supply.
Shortly afterwards, Ukraine built a concrete dam on the North Crimean Canal, a Soviet-era conduit transporting water from the Dnieper River that provided around 85% of the peninsula’s water supply. In doing so, Ukraine effectively destroyed Crimea’s agricultural industry. Then, in November 2015, Ukrainian nationalists blew up pylons carrying power lines from Ukraine to Crimea, thrusting the peninsula into a blackout that prompted a declaration of emergency by the regional government.
The Ukrainian assault on Crimea’s water and electricity was merely an extension of the lack of regard shown to the Crimean population during the two-plus decades that Kiev ruled the peninsula. The local economy was stagnant, and the pro-Russian locals were subjected to a policy of total Ukrainization. In general, the Gross Regional Product (GRP) of Crimea was well below the average of Ukraine (43.6% less in 2000, and 29.5% less in 2013). In short, the Kiev government made no meaningful attempt to develop Crimea culturally or infrastructurally. The Crimean Peninsula was in a state of decay perpetrated by Ukrainian governments.
The damming of the North Crimean Canal and the destruction of the electrical transmission lines were simply the radical expression of the indifference shown by Kiev.
In the years that followed the return of the peninsula to Russian control, there has been a gradual improvement in the economy of Crimea. The Russian government undertook a $680 million program to bolster water supplies which involved repairing long-neglected infrastructure, drilling wells, adding storage capacity, and building desalination plants. While this effort wasn’t sufficient to save much of Crimea’s agriculture, it did provide for the basic needs of the population. The Russian government also constructed the Crimean ‘Energy Bridge,’ laying down several undersea energy cables across the Kerch Strait that effectively compensated for the loss of power brought on by the destruction of the Ukrainian power lines.
The Crimean Bridge at night.
But the greatest symbol of Russia’s commitment to the people of Crimea was the construction of a $3.7 billion, 19-kilometer-long road-and-rail bridge connecting Krasnodar Region in southern Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. The bridge is the longest in Europe. Construction began in 2016, and it was opened for car traffic in a little more than two years. It has become a symbol of pride for the Russian people and their leadership; President Vladimir Putin personally drove across the bridge during its formal opening ceremony in 2018. The rail line was opened to passenger traffic in 2019, and freight traffic in 2020. The construction of the Crimean Bridge coincided with the building of the Tavrida Highway, a 250-kilometer, $2.5 billion four-lane road connecting the Crimean Bridge with the cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol. Construction of the road began in 2017 and is still ongoing.
From 2014 to 2022, Crimea saw its population grow by more than 200,000 (from 2.28 million to nearly 2.5 million) as families forced to flee from Ukrainian oppression arrived, and other Russians were attracted by the business opportunities that came with Crimea’s economic revival. With the population surge came new investments by the Russian government in schools, roads, hospitals, and power stations. Tourism flourished as Russians flocked to the beaches of the Crimean coast. A modern airport was built in Simferopol to help manage the flow of visitors.
Life in Crimea was looking up.
And then came the war.
The drive across the Crimea Bridge is an awe-inspiring experience. Coming in from the southern Russian region of Krasnodar at night, one is struck by the lights that line the highway leading to the bridge, a seemingly never-ending line of illumination. However, since the twin attacks on the bridge by the Ukrainian government (the first on October 8, 2022, involving a truck bomb, the second on July 17, 2023, involving unmanned sea drones), the transit now involves an element of risk manifested in the heightened security procedures put in place – barges and nets blocking the water approaches, and extensive physical inspections of vehicles entering the bridge.
I was aware of the attacks against the Crimean Bridge when I drove across it on the night on January 14, taking note of the moment when we crossed the sites of the two attacks, which had dropped a span of the highway each time, and scanning the skies for any evidence of an attack by Kiev’s British-made Storm Shadow missiles. I must admit to breathing a slight sigh of relief when we crossed over onto Crimean soil, cognizant for the first time of the daily reality of Crimeans who look to it as their lifeline.
Coming off the bridge, one enters the Tavrida Highway where, after a bit of a drive, the city of Feodosia appears on the horizon. It has a rich history spanning over two millennia, over the course of which it had been an ancient Greek colony, a Genoese trading port, an Ottoman fortress, and part of the Russian Empire. Now, Feodosia is one of the prime destinations for Russian tourists, and its coast is lined with hotels and restaurants. Like much of Crimea, Feodosia bears the scars of the years of neglect at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities – crumbling buildings, abandoned structures painted in graffiti, and roads in need of repair. But it is a vibrant city nonetheless, and the people are getting on with their daily lives.
War has not escaped Feodosia. On December 26, 2023, the Ukrainian air force launched several Storm Shadow cruise missiles at Feodosia, some of which penetrated Russian air defenses, hitting the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, and lighting up the night sky in a dramatic fireball. And anyone driving in and around Feodosia cannot help but notice the presence of Russian defenses.
The Black Sea beachfront at Feodosia.
This reality touches the lives of all who live there. Driving northeast out of Feodosia along the Black Sea coast, one comes to the tiny village of Batalnoye. This was the birthplace of my host, Aleksandr Zyryanov, the director general of the Novosibirsk Region Development Corporation. Aleksandr’s family left Batalnoye in 2007, following a new wave of Ukrainian nationalist oppression brought on by the so-called Orange Revolution of 2004-2005, which saw Viktor Yushchenko installed as Ukraine’s president. When Aleksandr returned to Batalnoye in 2014, after Crimea rejoined Russia, he didn’t know what he would find – his family home had been abandoned. Instead of ruins, however, he found a building painted in immaculate white, its contents preserved intact. Alexander’s neighbors, a Crimean Tatar family whose matriarch, Fatima, had helped raise him as a child, had made it a point every year to paint the house in anticipation of the return of its rightful owners.
The loving bond between Aleksandr and Fatima’s family was evident to anyone who bore witness, as I did, to their reunion. Fatima, her husband, and her two sons were gracious hosts, laying out a table typical of Tatar hospitality. Life was not easy for Fatima and her family – they made a living off the land, and the war had suppressed the demand for the milk Fatima brought forth from her cows, and the vegetables she grew in her garden. Her sons were able to find work helping build the Tavrida Highway, but the construction had moved on closer to Simferopol, making the commute prohibitive.
They had felt their house shake when Ukrainian missiles struck the Novocherkassk, and their nights were often interrupted by the sounds of Ukrainian drones flying overhead, and the launch of Russian air defense missiles in response. It’s a hard life, made even more so by the neglect shown the village during the time of Ukrainian rule.
Gas lines being installed outside Fatima’s home in Batalnoye, January 2024
Since the Russians took over, improvements have been incremental – a new school, and some road work. But when I visited Fatima in May of last year, they had no gas, no sewage, and their water came from the initiative of the villagers, who dug their own well despite a water line existing on the village boundary. Now, in January 2024, Batalnoye had been connected to the water line, and the infrastructure for bringing gas to the homes in the village was being installed.
But still no sewage lines.
There are hundreds of Batalnoyes across Crimea, small villages and towns which lack the priority of the big cities when it comes to infrastructure repair and development. But they have not been forgotten – the work in Batalnoye is evidence of that. It’s just that progress takes time, especially when trying to undo years of Ukrainian neglect and the ongoing consequences of the present conflict. This was one of the many points made to me by the head of the Crimean Republic, Sergey Aksyonov, during our meeting on January 15, 2024.
Sergey Aksyonov, who had been a thorn in the side of Ukrainian authorities during Ukraine’s 22-year rule over the Crimean Peninsula, is a man on a mission. To say that Crimea is his passion would be an understatement – Crimea is his life. Even before he was picked by Putin to serve as the head of the Crimean Republic, Aksyonov worked hard to protect the Russian character of Crimea, working to prevent Ukrainian nationalists from erasing the history, culture, language, and religion.
Sevastopol at night, January 15, 2024.
Today, with Crimea returned to Russia, Aksyonov has turned his attention to the task of improving the lives of the citizens of Crimea – Russian, Tatar, and Ukrainian alike. Undoing two decades of neglect is a tall order. Doing so under a veritable economic siege imposed by Ukraine and the West in the aftermath of 2014 verges on the impossible. But Aksyonov is in the business of doing the impossible, a task made somewhat more bearable given the high priority that the Russian government has placed on restoring Crimea to its rightful status as the jewel of the Black Sea. Aksyonov was proud – rightly so – of all he had accomplished. Before we ended our meeting, he issued an invitation for a group of Americans to come to Crimea, all expenses paid, to see for themselves the miracle that he and the Russian government had created.
Russia is at war with Ukraine and the Collective West, and Crimea has found itself on the front lines of this conflict. As Aleksandr and I drove out of Crimea, north toward Kherson and the New Territories (a collective name used in Russia to denoted the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye after they officially became part of Russia), I was struck by the reality of this conflict, manifested in the form of Russian military vehicles which crowded the highway in both directions. The highway itself was a mess. In 2022, it was freshly paved. But in the two years that have passed since Russia started the military operation, the heavy military traffic has taken its toll, the road buckling under the weight of the trucks, tanks, artillery pieces, and armored fighting vehicles that plied its asphalt surface.
We crossed the Northern Crimean Canal, its channel filled with water in the aftermath of the Russian military blowing up the dam Ukraine had built for the express purpose of choking off the Crimean people and their economy. Now, the life-sustaining liquid flows freely. Crimea is coming back to life. We paused at the border between Crimea and Kherson to make sure our personal protective equipment (flak vests and helmets) fit properly and was readily available. We were about to enter an active war zone and had to be prepared for all eventualities.
But even as Aleksandr adjusted the straps of my flak vest, my mind kept drifting back to Crimea, and the offer Sergey Aksyonov had made. I thought of Fatima, her family, and the citizens of Batalnoye. I thought of the men and women I met on the streets of Feodosia, Sevastopol, and Simferopol, both last May, and in January of this year. I thought of the pride in Sergey’s eyes, a pride that was shared by everyone I met.
Crimea is their home. Crimea is Russian. Crimea is Tatar. Crimea is.
And it was important for all these people to make sure that the rest of the world knew and understood this fact, this reality.
The Russian ‘Path of Redemption’ through Crimea may have some potholes in it, but it exists nonetheless. The people of Crimea have been redeemed from the sin of more than two decades of Ukrainian misrule, and the further sins on the part of the Collective West and the Ukrainian nationalists in trying to violently suppress the desire of the majority of the Crimean people to live as part of the Russian Federation.
I don’t know if I will be able to take advantage of Sergey Aksyonov’s kind offer – the reality of Western sanctions has a chilling effect on initiatives of this sort. But I will never shirk from my status as an eyewitness to the reality of Crimea today, from telling the truth about what I experienced during my visits to the remarkable land. Fatima and all the people I met in Crimea deserve nothing less.
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February 25th, 2024 by Shane Quinn
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Read Part I:
The History of US-NATO Led Wars: “Exporting Democracy” through Acts of Subversion and Infiltration
By , November 28, 2023
Beginning in 1997 the US had been conducting military exercises in former Soviet republics, under the banner of NATO’s so-called Partnership for Peace Program. In 1999 Washington helped to integrate Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova into an organisation (GUUAM) that was a potential step to including those territories in NATO, and which was meant to rival the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) led by Russia.
The Western powers have since overlooked the fact that Russia has recovered significantly as a major power this century, experiencing much improved economic growth and living standards. In 2022 the percentage of the Russian population living below the poverty line was 9.8%. That same year 12.4% of Americans were living below the poverty line. The average yearly salary of a Russian citizen is substantially higher than people living in notable countries like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, China, Iran and Egypt.
America and its European allies have been guilty of underestimating Russia’s military strength and capabilities, which includes the country’s vast arsenals of nuclear and conventional weaponry. Russia had no alternative in the first place but to acquire nuclear bombs, in 1949, which came as a natural response to America’s possession of such weapons and their unnecessary use in 1945 against two Japanese cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), at a time when there was no doubt as to the outcome of the Pacific War.
Top level US military officers, General Dwight Eisenhower and Admiral William Leahy, made it clear afterward that there was no need to drop atomic bombs on Japan because, by August 1945, Tokyo was in a hopeless position and close to surrendering.
Japan counted among its adversaries not only the leading Western states but also the Soviet Union, fresh from victory over Nazi Germany. Hisatsune Sakomizu, the Chief Secretary to prime minister Kantaro Suzuki, estimated that Japan could have held out until October 1945 at the latest before surrendering.
If Washington was prepared to use nuclear bombs against a non-nuclear power that was virtually defeated, then it is likely they would have been prepared to use them against their main international rival, Russia, which prompted the Soviet government to create its own nuclear bombs in what was a necessary defensive measure in order to protect the country. From the 1950s onward Russia’s nuclear weapons have acted as a deterrent.
We can imagine how Washington would respond were a rival power encroaching on its spheres of interest in the Western hemisphere. The Americans in all probability would react with military force. Regardless of realities like these NATO continued with its provocative enlargement, in spite of repeated warnings of the consequences.
Author Moniz Bandeira wrote,
“The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and other authorities had reiterated that Moscow would strongly oppose NATO’s expansion in Eastern Europe, since it perceived it as a potential military threat. Ukraine, in particular, remained ‘an emotional and neuralgic point,’ Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed, adding that underlying strategic considerations and policies further strengthened Russia’s opposition, just as it opposed Georgia joining NATO”.
After 1991 the Soviet Union may have ceased to exist but this was not because Russia had been defeated militarily. The country retained its nuclear arsenal and military and economic potential. Russia could not be overcome by armed force and subjugated, as for example Japan was. Russia is also a resource-rich state and contains more natural gas and oil than the US and China put together.
Japan on the other hand has been lacking in natural resources. It was this weakness of the Japanese that proved a critical factor in their decision to begin hostilities against the Americans on 7 December 1941, when Tokyo launched an aerial bombardment on the large US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Following a direct hit from Japanese war planes, the USS Arizona burns and sinks in Pearl Harbor. [Source: chiff.com]
Just over four months before, on 26 July 1941 Roosevelt’s government, in response to the Japanese Army invading southern French Indochina, enacted a series of crippling economic sanctions on Japan which included freezing all Japanese assets in America. Britain and the Dutch government-in-exile followed suit. The Western sanctions immediately resulted in 90% of Japan’s oil imports being wiped out along with 75% of the country’s foreign trade.
As a result of the sanctions of 26 July 1941, it has been commonly estimated that Japan would have run out of oil at the end of January 1943. Yet by late September 1941, after just two months of sanctions, Japan’s remaining oil reserves had fallen by an alarming 25%, and at that rate of consumption they would have consumed all of their oil in 1942. Tokyo chose direct military confrontation with the US and further expansion to solve their problems.
Japan’s decision to enter the war against the Americans would backfire terribly, and after 1945 the defeated country was coerced into the US-led liberal order. Japan became a peripheral state, whereas Russia remained a player state to borrow a phrase of Halford Mackinder. Russia is located in the centre of Eurasia, a dominant position allowing the country to spread its influence in several directions such as Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and East Asia.
Similar to Japan, the European Union states are short of natural resources and have depended to a considerable extent on fossil fuel supplies from Russia. The Europeans have been much more dependent on Russia than the other way around. NATO and EU membership has deprived many European countries of their independence and from pursuing policies which are within their interests.
Earlier this century the US attempted to expand its influence into Central Asia and the South Caucasus, focusing on states such as Georgia and Azerbaijan. Washington viewed those countries as pawns on a chessboard, enabling them to shift military hardware and NATO troops through the South Caucasus towards Afghanistan to the south-east, during what the White House called the “war on terror”.
Georgia and Azerbaijan were also pipeline corridors, that could allow the West to navigate raw materials without crossing Russian or Iranian territory. A US presence in Azerbaijan was concerned too with a possible invasion of Iran which borders Azerbaijan to the south. After the Iranian revolution of the late 1970s, Iran has been viewed in Washington as a major foe.
One of the factors behind the Bush administration’s decision to attack Iraq in 2003 was to tighten the encirclement of Iran, which shares a 994-mile border with Iraq. As time moved on it was apparent that the US occupation of Iraq was failing disastrously. If the Americans could not subdue a fragile country like Iraq, they would have little hope of conquering a far larger and stronger state like Iran.
The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11) against America enabled the White House to increase the expansionist goals of the country’s foreign policy. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former US National Security Advisor, wrote that Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor had united the American public behind the nation’s entry into the Second World War; just as the 9/11 atrocities led to significant support in America for military action abroad.
U.S. troops guarding an opium poppy field in Afghanistan.
Before Pearl Harbor, the majority of Americans were opposed to military involvement in what they felt was a faraway conflict their country should keep out of. Washington drew comparisons between Pearl Harbor and 9/11, in order to justify what were unprovoked invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Neither country was involved in the terrorist assaults against America.
Regarding the reasons behind the 9/11 attacks, the leader of terrorist group Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, outlined his views on the subject in November 2002. Bin Laden mentioned the hardships of the Palestinian population, who were driven from their homes by the Israelis with the support of America and its allies; US intervention in Somalia under the pretext of “humanitarian action”; the deaths of 1.5 million people in Iraq because of sanctions applied against the country since 1990 by the Western powers; and the US bombing of the people of Afghanistan.
Clearly then, Bin Laden and his cohorts had reasons to be angry, though this does not for a moment condone their terrorist activities which often deliberately targeted civilians. In November 2002 Bin Laden predicted the US would suffer a “military defeat” in Afghanistan and that they would be forced to withdraw from the country, which is what unfolded 10 years after Bin Laden’s death.
Afghanistan withdrawal by the Pentagon portrayed in Global Times
Washington’s intervention in Afghanistan from 7 October 2001 was not principally related to 9/11, and the invasion was planned since mid-July 2001 Niaz Naik had said, a well-known Pakistani politician. He spoke with high-ranking US officials in the middle of July 2001 at a UN-sponsored meeting concerning Afghanistan which was held in Berlin. The American authorities informed Naik that Washington would take military action against Afghanistan before mid-October 2001, that is prior to the arrival of the snowfalls.
Afghanistan is a strategically important state within Eurasia, and shares frontiers with Iran, Pakistan and China along with the Central Asian countries of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In 2001 Uyghur insurgents, from the region of Xinjiang in north-western China, were undergoing training in Afghanistan in the same camps where the CIA had previously trained Islamic terrorists to fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan during the 1980s.
The Uyghur extremists, supported by the CIA, had been waging war on Chinese authorities in Xinjiang which included blowing up vehicles and marketplaces and assassination attempts against Beijing’s officials. Between 1990 and 2001 Uyghur fighters, belonging to the terrorist organisation the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), carried out more than 200 terrorist attacks.
The ultimate goal of the Uyghur fundamentalists is to sow instability in Xinjiang and separate the region from China by creating a Muslim state. Xinjiang has been part of China since the mid-18th century and has close ties to Beijing.
To the west of China, by intervening militarily in Afghanistan in 2001 the US expected to eliminate the rule of Islamic militant group, the Taliban, which had come to power in 1996 with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI. By removing the Taliban it was hoped the required “stability” would be created in Afghanistan to allow the California-based fossil fuel corporation, Unocal, to construct a gas pipeline from Uzbekistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan. Unocal had a history of being advised by the US State Department, the CIA and the ISI.
In addition, the building of two oil pipelines was planned by the West, the first across Afghan terrain through Pakistan to the Indian Ocean and the other, the Central Asia Oil Pipeline Project (CAOPP), which would be 1,050 miles long originating from Chardzhou in Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to an oil terminal at Pakistan’s coastline. According to journalist John Pilger, those involved in the pipeline plans relating to Afghanistan were American politicians like Dick Cheney, vice-president to George W. Bush, and James Baker, a former Secretary of State, and Brent Scowcroft, a former National Security Advisor.
Afghanistan is no ordinary country, however. A landlocked nation, bigger than France, about 80% of Afghanistan’s entire territory consists of either mountains or deserts. The average elevation in Afghanistan is 1,884 metres above sea level, making it the world’s 7th highest country.
Afghanistan’s air is thin and can be difficult to breathe, especially for newly-arrived foreigners. Its mountains are jagged and remote, offering numerous hiding places for wanted men or soldiers who wish to avoid capture. This would be a difficult country for any army to overcome. The local fighters in Afghanistan usually had a good knowledge of the land and were used to the harsh climate.
From late 2001, American soldiers struggled to cope with Afghanistan’s high altitude, lack of oxygen and freezing conditions. Suicides became quite common among US troops, and those caught taking heroin in drug tests increased by more than 11 times over, from 10 in 2002 to 116 in 2010. Perhaps most seriously of all the Americans did not have a real understanding of Afghanistan, where the people are diverse and possess a wide variety of languages and cultural beliefs.
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This article was originally published on Geopolitica.RU.
Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree and he writes primarily on foreign affairs and historical subjects. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Sources
Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The Second Cold War: Geopolitics and the Strategic Dimensions of the USA (Springer; 1st edition, 23 June 2017)
John Pilger, The New Rulers Of The World (Verso Books, 20 February 2003)
Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale University Press, 8 February 2001)
Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The World Disorder: US Hegemony, Proxy Wars, Terrorism and Humanitarian Catastrophes (Springer; 1st edition, 4 February 2019)
Ian Kershaw, Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed The World, 1940-1941 (Penguin Group, 31 May 2007)
Donald J. Goodspeed, The German Wars (Random House Value Publishing, 2nd edition, 3 April 1985)
Featured image is from Geopolitica.RU
The “globalization of war” is a hegemonic project. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East. The U.S. military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.
ISBN Number: 978-0-9879389-0-9
Year: 2015
Pages: 240 Pages
February 25th, 2024 by Mojmir Babacek
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
First published on February 13, 2024
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In December 2021 the Naval postgraduate school in Monterey, California approved for public release the study of its students Joshua D. Gramm and Brian A. Branagan with the title “Neurowar Is Here!“, which gained them a Master of Science degree in Defence Analysis (see this). In the study they stated:
“great power competition has returned to the forefront of international relations, as China and Russia seek to contest America’s global leadership… this contest is ultimately a battle… to manipulate and control both adversaries and domestic populations alike. The battle for influence begins and ends in the human mind, where reality is perceived“ (pg. V) .
They identified neuroweapons as the weapons of this battle, “that specifically target the brain or the central nervous system in order to affect the targeted person’s mental state, mental capacity and ultimately the person’s behavior in a specific and predictable way” (pg.3). Does not it mean that we are living in a world,where mass media are (at the request of governments) is hiding from people the ongoing battle for the control of their minds and thoughts?
In the year 2000 the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) published the study on Crowd Control Technologies, where it admitted that “In October 1999 NATO announced a new policy on non-lethal weapons and their place in allied arsenals” and explained that
“The most controversial non-lethal crowd control and anti-materiel technology proposed by the US are so-called Radio Frequency or Directed Energy Weapons that can allegedly manipulate human behavior in a variety of unusual ways“ and “the greatest concern is with systems which can directly interact with the human nervous system… The research undertaken to date both in the US and in Russia can be divided into two related areas: (i) individual mind control and (ii) crowd control“ (pg. XIV, LIIII).
The fact that the mass media in NATO countries never publicly discussed those weapons proves that the NATO member states signed an agreement that they will classify their existence. Consequently the only way to get those weapons banned is to declassify them by massive support of their ban. If this happens the EU, which is actually working on the legislation on artificial intelligence, will have to include there, in order to remain a democratic power structure in the eyes of the general public, the ban of the use of energies which make it possible to use the artificial intelligence and neurotechnologies for the remote control of the human nervous system.
Actually, the EU is the only big agglomeration of states that does not own technology of mass manipulation of human brains. China, with the help of Russia, recently finished the construction of its system in Sanya in the Hainan province (see this and this), the USA operates the system HAARP and Russia operates the system Sura. All those systems are among others capable of producing strong electric currents in the ionosphere by transmitting there, by systems of terrestrial antennas, pulsed microwaves in brain frequencies. Those alternating currents produce in the ionosphere strong electromagnetic waves in the brain frequencies which reach large areas of the planet and will control the brain activity of their populations (Elon Musk’s system Starlink with 20.000 satellites around the planet could be used for the same purpose, or 5G system of satellites, if they were pulsing their transmissions in the human brain’s frequencies).
At the present time there exists no international agreement banning the use of artificial intelligence and neurotechnologies for the remote control of the human nervous systems, thoughts, emotions, subconscious etc. There is no other explanation for it, than that the great powers are competing to master the world in this way. In 1997 the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College published the book ”Revolution in Military Affairs and Conflict Short of War”, where it wrote:
”Potential or possible supporters of the insurgency around the world were identified using the comprehensive Interagency Integrated Database. These were categorized as ”potential” or ”active”, with sophisticated personality simulations used to develop, tailor, and focus psychological campaigns for each” (pg. 24-25).
This is an American project for global control of the world. There is no doubt that similar projects are being developed in China and Russia as well (though to control an individual brain, directed energy has to be used).
To protect the world history from reaching this end, it is necessary that world governments sign an international agreement banning the use of neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence to control the activity of human brains, the observation of which would be supervised by the United Nations Organization (which eventually should turn to be rather democratic organization instead of an organization, controlled by superpowers, who have veto rights). For now, we can help it only by requiring the European Parliament to ban technologies of remote control of the activity of the human nervous system with the use of energies, invented by physicists. The European Union can set an example and a challenge to the rest of the world in this way.
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Mojmir Babacek was born in 1947 in Prague, Czech Republic. Graduated in 1972 at Charles University in Prague in philosophy and political economy. In 1978 signed the document defending human rights in communist Czechoslovakia „Charter 77“. Since 1981 until 1988 lived in emigration in the USA. Since 1996 he has published articles on different subjects mostly in the Czech and international alternative media.
In 2010, he published a book on the 9/11 attacks in the Czech language. Since the 1990‘s he has been striving to help to achieve the international ban of remote control of the activity of the human nervous system and human minds with the use of neurotechnology.
Featured image: Neurotechnology could help people with disabilities use their thoughts to control devices in the physical world. It may also be useful in weapons systems. Private companies, militaries, and other organizations are funding neurotechnology research. Credit: US Army.
February 25th, 2024 by Amira Hass
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
***
Dr. James Smith saw the same scene several times a day: residents of the Gaza Strip carrying casualties from Israeli bombings, wrapped in blankets, and laying them on the hospital floor. “Until we unwrapped the blankets, we didn’t know if the person inside was wounded or killed,” he said in an interview 10 days after he returned to London. He worked in Gaza as a volunteer in late December and early January.
“People also brought the dead, so their deaths would be recorded and they would be buried,” he said. “And because they are usually found among the rubble, they’re all covered in dust.”
Smith came to Gaza as part of an emergency medical delegation jointly organized by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), based in London, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Dozens of medical personnel like him enter Gaza each week. The volunteers all go back to their countries with the same conclusion. Out of all the war zones where they’ve volunteered, including Syria and Ukraine, it’s in Gaza where their ability to save lives is the most constrained.
Smith, an emergency medicine specialist, has also worked for Doctors Without Borders. But “the catastrophe in Gaza is worsethan anything I’ve seen in the past,” he said. This merely increased his motivation to return to Gaza despite the constant frustration.
“The first thing a doctor wants to do,” he said, “is to ease a person’s pain. But without sufficient personnel, equipment and medication, mainly the pain relievers that Gaza’s sick and wounded need, that’s impossible.”
Treating the wounded at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.Credit: MAP/IRC
The doctors’ helplessness was traumatic for all, he said. “We’re going through a double crisis – the scale of violence itself and our inability to respond and provide for people’s most basic needs,” he said.”
“The global media is fixated about aid, and this creates the false impression that the situation is improving. But inside Gaza, everyone knows that as long as the war continues and there’s no cease-fire, no access to humanitarian aid worthy of the name is possible.”
Smith, 35, is also a lecturer in humanitarian policy and practice at University College London. He spent all his working hours in Gaza in the emergency room at Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
There have been several mass casualty incidents every day near or inside Deir al-Balah. When Smith was there, the hospital was so overcrowded that the wounded could only be treated on the floor.
Many patients were brought to him because the preventive medicine system had completely collapsed. Bombing has destroyed clinics; medical personnel have been displaced, killed, or wounded; and medications are in short supply. The ER was also flooded with people who were ambulatory but complained of some pain or illness.
“We gave all of them very basic first aid, because the staff was swamped with work,” Smith said. “We sent them to hunt for medicine in pharmacies.” But it was never certain that they would find any.
The hospital held 650 patients when he was there, almost triple the number of beds, 250. And because people felt the building was safer than a tent or school, many continued to stay there after treatment. They were joined by their families and people displaced after the military ordered them to leave their homes. The hospital rented several nearby buildings as a result. But those sheltering there found that neither the hospital nor the rented buildings were safe amid the approaching battles and frequent bombing.
The doctor’s first day at the hospital was December 27. “I can’t remember what happened on that day,” he said He did remember, of course, that there was a mass-casualty incident.
During his first few days in Gaza, he was unable to remember what had happened the previous day. “I got angry with myself, because I felt that maybe this forgetting was a kind of disrespect for the patients,” he said. But the initial shock, chaos, and incessant buzzing of drones provide a better explanation for his forgetfulness.
“The disquieting drones’ buzzing was the first thing I noticed, and I quickly understood the threat it represented,” he said. “Sometimes, two drones would circle over a certain area, and my colleagues, who were used to it, speculated that the place would be attacked soon. Adults, like children, knew how to distinguish between the different types of bombs and shells.”
❝What we saw there was unlike anything I have experienced as a medical doctor in my career so far❞
Dr. James Smith, an emergency medical doctor who recently returned to the UK from Gaza, describes the grim reality of Gazan hospitals https://t.co/TSX4ipl0l4 pic.twitter.com/g9znIuZEpY
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) February 6, 2024
His difficulty in remembering probably also stemmed from sleep deprivation during those first few days, as airstrikes shook the entire building. They were especially intense at night and almost incessant. “I remembered this number very well – 374 medical workers had been killed in the Israeli airstrikes,” he said. But in the end, exhaustion won out, and he managed to fall asleep.
Despite these problems, a few incidents are engraved in his memory. There was, for example, the volunteer for UNRWA (the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees) who “lay on the floor, bleeding, and asked for water all the time. His legs were amputated. Amputated limbs due to being hit by a missile or bomb shrapnel are very common.
“I remember that I bent over and held his hand. I think we had a little morphine for him. He lay there for several hours. But they didn’t manage to take him for an operation, and he died. There were others who died because they weren’t brought into the overburdened operating room in time.”
He also remembers a woman who was admitted with open wounds and a compound fracture in her leg. “She was constantly asking, ‘What happened to my leg? What happened to my leg?’ What we were able to do was give her pain relievers and liquids and clean her eyes so she could see.”
He remembers the wounded screaming in pain. “Often, when the wound is especially bad, the patients aren’t completely conscious,” he said. “In particular, children with serious wounds were quiet, because they had lost consciousness. In triage, you learn that you have to pay attention to the quiet patients. The people who scream aren’t necessarily in the worst condition.”
Inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.Credit: MAP/IRC
In one mass-casualty incident, a 6-year-old boy was brought to the hospital, wrapped in a colorful blanket, and placed on the floor. “There were people around him, so I assumed they were his relatives and that he was being cared for,” the doctor said. When a patient’s relatives are with him, Smith said, they’re able to prod and demand treatment. Their intervention is especially welcome when the ER is chaotic because “it’s terribly hard to pay attention to everyone when there are hundreds of people.”
After a while, one of the surgeons entered the ER by chance and suspected that the boy wasn’t getting any care. They went over to him. He suffered from burns on his face and a bubbling wound on the right side of his chest that meant it reached his lung. “The boy was operated on, and when I left the hospital, he was still alive,” Smith said.
His last patient was a 12-year-old boy who had been shot near the Nuseirat refugee camp. “His brother found him and brought him in a cart harnessed to a donkey,” he said. “He had terrible open wounds in his pelvis, on the right side. He had lost a lot of blood and was very pale. We gave him a blood transfusion; he received the necessary first aid and was moved to a bed outside the emergency room. He seemed to be recovering. I knew that he would eventually need grafting”.
“I didn’t see him for a few hours. But shortly before I left the hospital, I examined him again. He was very pale, again. And then I discovered a pool of blood in the depression in the bed underneath his back. His father stood next to him and wept.”
The doctors bandaged the wound (there was no gauze) and searched for more blood to give him. “I told his father, ‘the second we get blood, he’ll be OK.’ His father kissed me.”
Smith also saw many patients who “in any other situation, wouldn’t have been sick, or whose condition wouldn’t have deteriorated so much, because they didn’t see a doctor, didn’t find medicine, didn’t eat enough for days, or drank polluted water … People came with chest pains, others had a heart attack.
“I saw a man of 50 or 60 who was brought to the hospital dead. His family said he simply fell down and died in the middle of the street. I saw two kidney patients who had missed their regular dialysis treatments.” The Israeli military had surrounded the hospital where the treatments were given.
He saw people with diabetes who hadn’t received the necessary medicines or hadn’t received the correct dosage. “In a situation of hunger – and everyone who came to the hospital was hungry – the dosage is completely different,” he said.
“What remains unknown is the sheer scale of indirect morbidity- that has been developing during the war and will erupt afterward – chronic diseases that haven’t been treated, the effects of the hunger and thirst and malnutrition on people’s health,” he added. “This will become clear only in the years to come.” On top of these, there is the phenomenon of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, that we even failed to discuss.
Smith noticed the signs of trauma as soon as he entered Gaza. He saw it in the expressionless faces and in a sort of stillness amidst all the chaos. “This wasn’t acceptance, but collective shock”, he said. “One doctor in the hospital came up to me on the second day after I arrived, a doctor who had worked nonstop for 10 weeks. He asked where I was from, and then asked me, ‘Why does the world hate us Palestinians?’ For me, that summed up the general despondency and draining”.
Additionally, the non-wounded children suffer from incessant anxiety. It was made obvious by the nervous habits they developed. “The child of a member of the local medical staff we lived with in the same compound once helped his mother prepare dough,” Smith said. “He insisted on making it in the shape of a tank. Young as they are, this war will always punctuate these children’s lives.”
Amid all the chaos and the collective shock, the Palestinian doctors were always there, he continued, even though their number had decreased to around a quarter of what it was before the war. “They received some kind of salary, something like $100 a month, worked almost nonstop and didn’t leave the hospital.”
“On the second or third day, we met a doctor who had left the hospital in Khan Yunis where she worked because it was already unsafe. She showed up at Al-Aqsa’s emergency room and volunteered to work with us.
“She said her family had been displaced and was living in a tent. One day she didn’t show up, and she told us later that she had to look for water and food for her family. She told me about her fierce yearning for her previous life and her friends, and said she was afraid that ‘this would be the new normal and we’re the next in line to die.'”
Like every foreign doctor who has volunteered in Gaza, Smith is awed by the Palestinian medical workers. Their dedication to the sick and wounded is phenomenal, he said.
His team had to leave Gaza earlier than planned, to his regret. On January 6, they were informed that the IDF had dropped leaflets ordering everyone living in the buildings around the hospital – many of them already displaced – to leave the area.
The medical volunteers lived in a residential complex in the tiny Al-Mawasi area south of Deir al-Balah, along with the families of the Palestinian employees. They would travel daily to the hospital through neighborhoods that had been tagged for Israeli bombing. Moreover, as in other places, it was clear the next step would be the encirclement of the hospital itself and a demand that everyone staying there leave.
Relatives of other local MAP and IRC staffers were wounded on January 18 when an airstrike hit this very housing complex in Al- Mawasi. The complex was damaged and had to be evacuated. Six foreign employees were forced to leave Gaza, and their mission was shut down for several weeks. After investigating for around two weeks, the organizations issued a press statement stating explicitly that the shrapnel had come from ammunition that only the Israeli military had.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the coordinates of the complex provided by Haaretz (which it received from MAP) were outside Al- Mawasi and were in an active combat zone that the military had asked residents to evacuate.
MAP rejected this claim, saying the complex, which flew the MAP and IRC flags, had gone through “deconflicting” – a process of informing and authorization that is meant to keep humanitarian staff and installations immune from attacks.
The British Foreign Office and the British Parliament were also involved in trying to get answers from the Israeli authorities. However, Israel provided various explanations for the strike on the complex, Haaretz was told. A military source told Haaretz that the building wasn’t struck but that a technical problem led to ammunition landing at the site.
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Featured image: A Red Crescent worker carries a child to the hospital after a bombing in Deir al-Balah, December. Credit: Palestine Red Crescent Society
February 25th, 2024 by Kyle Anzalone
February 25th, 2024 by The New Arab
February 24th, 2024 by Paul Anthony Taylor
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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The most extensive study yet carried out on COVID-19 vaccines has confirmed their links to serious health problems. Examining the vaccination records of over 99 million people, researchers uncovered significant increases in the occurrence of neurological, blood, and heart-related conditions. The findings seem likely to further fuel the ongoing arguments over the vaccines’ supposed safety.
Conducted by the Global Vaccine Data Network and published in the journal Vaccine, the study looked at data on individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 across eight countries. Researchers identified higher-than-expected cases of thirteen medical conditions deemed “adverse events of special interest.”
Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) showed a consistent increase in patients receiving mRNA vaccines, with the Moderna version of the injection demonstrating the highest incidence after second doses were given. Cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a debilitating neurological condition, saw a significant rise following administration of the viral-vector AstraZeneca vaccine.
Increases in transverse myelitis (inflammation of the spinal cord) were also noted with viral-vector vaccines, while cases of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (inflammation and swelling in the brain and spinal cord) were associated with both mRNA and viral-vector vaccines.
Other conditions for which increases were found include pericarditis (inflammation of the lining around the heart) and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (a rare form of stroke).
The study adds to a growing mountain of evidence regarding the risks of COVID-19 vaccines. In a previous analysis published in 2022, for example, researchers found that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA injections are more likely to cause serious adverse events than they are to prevent hospitalization from COVID-19. As such, it is now clear that mRNA vaccines are associated with more serious harms than was originally claimed.
While still essentially ignored by the mainstream media, the full list of adverse effects reported in connection with mRNA vaccines is already long and includes very low platelet counts (thrombocytopenia); high rates of severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis); severe liver damage; and even death.
In November 2021, as their potentially devastating side effects became clear, Dr. Matthias Rath called for the immediate suspension of RNA- and DNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. His intervention followed the publication of game-changing research in the journal Viruses which found that the coronavirus spike protein is able to reach the cell core (nucleus) and significantly inhibit DNA damage repair. The effective repair of DNA – the biological software of each cell – is essential for maintaining a strong immune defense and protecting against a multitude of diseases, including cancer.
While Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has at least made a step in the right direction and openly linked COVID-19 vaccines to cardiovascular deaths, the vast majority of the world’s other political leaders essentially remain in a state of denial. But with the scientific facts becoming increasingly clear, their public statements on this subject will inevitably come under increased scrutiny in future.
The bottom line here is that having previously coerced people into accepting COVID-19 vaccines – and, in some cases, even mandated their use – politicians are beginning to realize that the vaccine injured cannot be silenced. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is acutely aware of this, having recently been confronted by a COVID-19 vaccine injury victim on live television. Following publication of the world’s largest study into COVID-19 vaccines, Sunak’s counterparts in other countries will doubtless now be desperate to avoid such situations themselves.
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This article was originally published on Dr. Rath Health Foundation.
Executive Director of the Dr. Rath Health Foundation and one of the coauthors of our explosive book, “The Nazi Roots of the ‘Brussels EU’”, Paul is also our expert on the Codex Alimentarius Commission and has had eye-witness experience, as an official observer delegate, at its meetings. You can find Paul on Twitter at @paulanthtaylor
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from DHRF
by Michel Chossudovsky
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
Reviews
This is an in-depth resource of great interest if it is the wider perspective you are motivated to understand a little better, the author is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and this comes out in the way Covid is contextualized. —Dr. Mike Yeadon
In this war against humanity in which we find ourselves, in this singular, irregular and massive assault against liberty and the goodness of people, Chossudovsky’s book is a rock upon which to sustain our fight. –Dr. Emanuel Garcia
In fifteen concise science-based chapters, Michel traces the false covid pandemic, explaining how a PCR test, producing up to 97% proven false positives, combined with a relentless 24/7 fear campaign, was able to create a worldwide panic-laden “plandemic”; that this plandemic would never have been possible without the infamous DNA-modifying Polymerase Chain Reaction test – which to this day is being pushed on a majority of innocent people who have no clue. His conclusions are evidenced by renown scientists. —Peter Koenig
Professor Chossudovsky exposes the truth that “there is no causal relationship between the virus and economic variables.” In other words, it was not COVID-19 but, rather, the deliberate implementation of the illogical, scientifically baseless lockdowns that caused the shutdown of the global economy. –David Skripac
A reading of Chossudovsky’s book provides a comprehensive lesson in how there is a global coup d’état under way called “The Great Reset” that if not resisted and defeated by freedom loving people everywhere will result in a dystopian future not yet imagined. Pass on this free gift from Professor Chossudovsky before it’s too late. You will not find so much valuable information and analysis in one place. –Edward Curtin
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February 24th, 2024 by Michael Welch
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People appearing on the show this week:
Dr. Naomi Wolf is a former political consultant and Co-Founder of the DailyClout, a platform that empowers democracy-building. She is the author of the best-selling The Beauty Myth, which launched her reputation as a leading voice within Third Wave feminism, and she authored the 2023 book Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith and Resistance in a New Dark Age (Chelsea Green Publishing.)
John Shipton if the father of Julian Assange, and has traveled abroad to promote his son’s release.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He blew the whistle on the CIA’s use of torture and ended up serving 23 months in prison.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and has been a correspondent for the Boston Globe, The Sunday Times of London, and the Wall Street Journal among other publications.
Tamara Lorincz is a member of Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, a PhD candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, and a fellow with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute .
Michael Connett is the lead attorney for Food & Water Watch, Fluoride Action Network, Moms Against Fluoridation and other advocacy groups and individuals suing the EPA in a bid to force the agency to prohibit water fluoridation in the U.S. due to fluoride’s toxic effects on children’s developing brains.
Khal Shariff is the founder and CEO of Project Whitecard, a company dedicated to using technology for good. They use game technology for education, and the latest project is all about driver training in BC, where Project Whitecard is using AI extensively during development.
Robert J Sawyer is, according to multiple press organizations, the leading science fiction author in Canada. The only Canadian to receive all 3 of the world’s top science fiction awards for best novel of the year, he is also the first writer to receive the Lifetime Achievement Aurora Award. His now fourteen year old series, Wake, Watch and Wonder (WWW), was his in-depth look at Artificial Intelligence and received the Hugo Award and three Aurora Awards.
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February 24th, 2024 by Manlio Dinucci
L’Occidente all’unisono accusa Putin di aver ordinato l’assassinio di Navalny. Il tempismo della sua morte è però più che sospetto: Navalny muore il 16 febbraio, nello stesso giorno in cui apre la Conferenza di Monaco sulla Sicurezza, una settimana dopo il successo della intervista di Putin a Tucker Carlson, un mese prima delle elezioni presidenziali in Russia in cui Putin è candidato. In altre parole, Putin avrebbe ordinato di uccidere Navalny nel momento più adatto a provocare il massimo danno a se stesso.
Allo stesso tempo, il mainstream politico-mediatico dell’Occidente cala una cortina di silenzio sul fatto che Navalny era stato formato in uno speciale corso all’Università di Yale e che il suo movimento Narod di suprematismo bianco era stato finanziato dal “Fondo Nazionale per la Democrazia”, potente “fondazione privata non-profit” statunitense che finanzia migliaia di organizzazioni non-governative in un centinaio di paesi per “far avanzare la democrazia”. Il Fondo è lo stesso che ha sostenuto in Ucraina quella che esso definisce “la Rivoluzione di Maidan che ha abbattuto un governo corrotto che impediva la democrazia”, ossia il colpo di Stato del 2014 che ha innescato la successione di eventi in funzione anti-Russia che ha portato alla guerra attuale.
Mentre sul fronte ucraino le forze di Kiev, sostenute da USA, NATO e UE, si stanno ritirando in modo caotico sotto il contrattacco russo da zone del Donbass che avevano conquistato, gli Stati Uniti stanno allargando il fronte di guerra in Medioriente, continuando a sostenere Israele nella sua strategia di genocidio del popolo palestinese.
Su questo sfondo si colloca l’ultimo capitolo del processo politico a Julian Assange: la Corte di Londra ha preso la sua decisione sull’estradizione del giornalista australiano negli USA, dove può essere condannato a 175 anni di carcere per aver portato alla luce crimini di guerra USA, ma non ha annunciato la decisione, cosa che verrà fatta il prossimo mese. In questa puntata di Grandangolo il servizio di Berenice Galli da Londra con interviste a Jeremy Corbyn, Partito Laburista Britannico; Kristinn Hrafnsson, condirettore di Wikileaks; Gabriel Shipton, fratello di Julian Assange.
Manlio Dinucci
VIDEO :
Youtube :
Byoblu : https://www.byoblu.com/2024/02/23/il-silenzio-dei-colpevoli/
February 24th, 2024 by Prof Michel Chossudovsky
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On the 29th of February 2024, we commemorate in solidarity with the people of Haiti, the 20th anniversary of the coup d’Etat against Haiti’s elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
This is what I wrote 20 years ago:
“Washington seeks to reinstate Haiti as a full-fledged US colony, with all the appearances of a functioning democracy. The objective is to impose a puppet regime in Port-au-Prince and establish a permanent US military presence in Haiti.
The US Administration ultimately seeks to militarize the Caribbean basin.
(Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Haiti, Global Research, February 29, 2004)
The article –written in the last days of February 2004 was published on February 29th, 2004– on the same day as the US- Canada- France sponsored coup d’Etat, which led to the kidnapping and deportation of the country’s elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The Coup d’Etat had been prepared well in advance. Following consultations behind closed doors in Ottawa, the US, with the support of France and Canada took the necessary step including the training of paramilitary unit integrated by former members of Le Front pour l’avancement et le progrès d’Haiti (FRAPH).
Barely two weeks following the February 2004 coup d’Etat, a puppet regime was installed by the “international community”.
In April 2004 , following an agreement between G. W. Bush and Luis (Lula) Inàcio da Silva, a contingent of over 8000 UN “peace-keeping” forces under Brazilian command entered Haiti.
Haiti has been under foreign military occupation for the last twenty years.
Moreover, the January 2010 earthquake provided Washington with a justification to bring in an additional 10,000 foreign forces into the country:
While presidents Obama and Préval spoke on the phone, the deployment of US troops was taken and imposed unilaterally by Washington. The total lack of a functioning government in Haiti was used to legitimize, on humanitarian grounds, the sending in of a powerful military force (Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, February 2010)
This influx of US and allied combat troops into Haiti in 2010 contributed to reinforcing MINUSTAH’s “peacekeeping” contingent bringing total occupation forces to more than 20,000.
In October 2023, pressured by Washington, the United Nations Security Council voted to authorize a so-called “security mission” to Haiti led by Kenya to help “fight heavily armed gangs that have overrun the capital”.
In late January 2024, A Kenyan High court in an action challenging the government of William Ruto prohibited the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti on behalf of the U.S. generously funded by Washington. The Force was declared unconstitutional. The deployment of Kenyan police in Haiti required a bilateral agreement between the two governments.
The deployment of Kenyan military and police forces on behalf of the U.S. is an illegal act tantamount to a de facto invasion of Haiti on behalf of the U.S. the ultimate objective is the militarization of Haiti.
While Haiti is commemorating the 20th anniversary of the February 2004 Coup d’Etat against the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Brazil’s President Luis Inàcio da Silva, acting as a U.S. proxy is slated to lead the implementation of the MSS consisting in the dispatch of both police and military troops to Haiti, on behalf of Uncle Sam.
In a bitter irony, Canada and France (who led the Coup d’Etat together with the US) will be participating in a renewed process of militarization, together with Benin and Guyana.
Lula met President Biden in the Oval Office on February 10, and on February 21, he met up with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken in Brazilia prior to the G-20 Ministerial Meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
On February 20th, on the sideline of the G-20, a closed door session entitled “Meeting the Challenge in Haiti” was held.
While at the time of writing, there has been no public announcement or media coverage of this important meeting. What has been intimated by a senior Biden administration official is that the military mission will be led by Brazil, under the helm of President Luis (Lula) Inacio da Silva.
The Multinational Security Support Force (MSS) will be funded by Washington with a modest budget of $515 million to $600 million over a two year period.
“For now, the mission is expected to include 2,500 troops from Kenya, Jamaica, the Bahamas and other countries in the Caribbean and Africa”.
President Luis Inacio da Silva stated recently at the African Union Summit:
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,”
Lula is a Double Speak and an opportunist: what he fails to acknowledge is that both Palestine and Haiti are impoverished nations, they are in solidarity with one another in fighting for their sovereignty against U.S. aggression.
Lula not only supported the February 2004 Coup d’Etat against the duly elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide, he was instrumental in leading a 13 years military occupation of Haiti by Brazilian troops (2004-2017) on behalf of the U.S. as a means to allegedly “protecting democracy”.
According to the New York Times (August 1, 2004):
“One American administration after another has tried and failed to maintain order and restore democracy in Haiti. Now, with Washington’s enthusiastic support, Brazil has stepped in at the head of a United Nations mission, and is using unconventional diplomacy to complement the usual military show of force.
… Brazil is not sending just troops. The national soccer team is scheduled to play an exhibition match in Port-au-Prince in mid-August against Haiti’s squad, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has promised to attend.
”It is a symbol, a gesture to show that we want the world to live in peace, not at war,” Mr. da Silva, of the left-wing Workers Party, said publicly this month [August 2004] after a meeting with the leader of the Brazilian soccer federation.
Initially, Mr. da Silva had also suggested that the awarding of tickets to the soccer game be linked to surrendering weapons, an important concern in a country where armed bands still exercise power. …
Despite ideological differences with Mr. da Silva, the Bush administration has been quick to express gratitude for Brazil’s willingness to venture into Haiti.
In 1994, the Clinton administration, working with the United Nations, intervened in Haiti to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after he had been toppled in a military coup. But in February, an armed rebellion drove Mr. Aristide into exile, and he now accuses the United States of forcing him to step down.
”Brazil really did take a leadership role at a crucial moment, and that’s a big deal,” ….
The Brazilian government, in contrast, seems more concerned with guaranteeing that a full deployment of 5,000 troops, down from an initial call for 6,500, is achieved in August. …
Dr. Jaguaribe, one of Brazil’s leading foreign policy theorists, said. ”Haiti offers a chance for them [Brazil and the US] to act together in a unified, articulated way in defense of democratic values, multilateralism and the principle of peaceful resolution of conflicts.” (emphasis added. Larry Richter, NYT, August 1, 2004)
What is required at this juncture is to:
1) support the people of Haiti in their longstanding quest for sovereignty and real democracy,
2) demand that the MSS mission be cancelled. Call for the withdrawal of all foreign troops,
3) Confront President Luis Inàcio da Silva –who is leading the process of militarization on behalf of Washington–, as well as the heads of State and heads of government involved in sending troops to Haiti including Canada, France, Kenya, Benin and Jamaica.
4) endorse the peaceful resistance of the Haitian people to foreign military occupation,
5) support genuine reconstruction initiatives at the grassroots level, which bypass the stranglehold of international creditors and foreign investors.
The detailed and lengthy article below largely focusses on the history of the February 2004 US led coup d’Etat.
A summary is provided
Michel Chossudovsky, February 24, 2024
.
Global Research, February 29, 2004
The armed insurrection which contributed to unseating President Aristide on February 29th 2004 was the result of a carefully staged military-intelligence operation.
The Rebel paramilitary army crossed the border from the Dominican Republic in early February.
It constitutes a well armed, trained and equipped paramilitary unit integrated by former members of Le Front pour l’avancement et le progrès d’Haiti (FRAPH), the “plain clothes” death squadrons, involved in mass killings of civilians and political assassinations during the CIA sponsored 1991 military coup, which led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide
The self-proclaimed Front pour la Libération et la reconstruction nationale (FLRN) is led by Guy Philippe, a former member of the Haitian Armed Forces and Police Chief. Philippe had been trained during the 1991 coup years by US Special Forces in Ecuador, together with a dozen other Haitian Army officers.
The two other rebel commanders and associates of Guy Philippe, who led the attacks on Gonaives and Cap Haitien are Emmanuel Constant, nicknamed “Toto” and Jodel Chamblain, both of whom are former Tonton Macoute and leaders of FRAPH.
The FLRN led by Guy Philippe had the support of G-184 (“The Group of 184 Civil Society Organizations”) led by Andy Apaid who was in liaison with Secretary of State Colin Powell in the days prior to the kidnapping and deportation of President Aristide by US forces on February 29, 2004
Apaid’s umbrella organization of elite business organizations and religious NGOs, is supported by the International Republican Institute (IRI).
In the weeks leading up to the Coup d’Etat, the media had largely focused its attention on the pro-Aristide “armed gangs” and “thugs”, without providing an understanding of the role of the U.S. supported FLRN Rebels.
Deafening silence: not a word was mentioned in official statements and UN resolutions regarding the nature of the FLRN.
The FLRN rebels are extremely well equipped and trained forces. The Haitian people know who they are. They are Tonton Macoute of the Duvalier era and former FRAPH assassins covertly supported by the U.S.
The Western media is mute on the issue, blaming the violence on President Aristide. When it acknowledges that the Liberation Army is composed of death squadrons, it fails to examine the broader implications of its statements and that these death squadrons are a creation of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and among the poorest in the world. The World Bank estimates unemployment to be of the order of 60 percent.
More than 75 percent of the Haitian population is engaged in agriculture, producing both food crops for the domestic market as well a number of cash crops for export. With the adoption of the IMF-World Bank sponsored trade reforms, the agricultural system, which previously produced food for the local market, had been destabilized. With the lifting of trade barriers, the local market was opened up to the dumping of US agricultural surpluses including rice, sugar and corn, leading to the destruction of the entire peasant economy. Gonaives, which used to be Haiti’s rice basket region, with extensive paddy fields had been precipitated into bankruptcy.
In matter of a few years, Haiti, a small impoverished country in the Caribbean, had become the World’s fourth largest importer of American rice after Japan, Mexico and Canada.
In turn, the IMF had demanded, despite the dramatic increase in the cost of living, a freeze on wages as a means to “controlling inflationary pressures.” The IMF had pressured the government to lower public sector salaries (including those paid to teachers and health workers). It has also demanded the phasing out of the statutory minimum wage of approximately 25 cents an hour. “Labour market flexibility”, meaning wages paid below the statutory minimum wage would, according to the IMF, contribute to attracting foreign investors. The daily minimum wage was $3.00 in 1994, declining to about $1.50- 1.75 (depending on the gourde-dollar exchange rate) in 2004, shortly before the coup d’Etat.
While the real economy had been driven into bankruptcy under the brunt of the IMF reforms, the narcotics transshipment trade continues to flourish. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Haiti remains [2004] “the major drug trans-shipment country for the entire Caribbean region, funneling huge shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the United States.”
It is estimated that Haiti is now [2004] responsible for 14 percent of all the cocaine entering the United States, representing billions of dollars of revenue for organized crime and US financial institutions, which launder vast amounts of dirty money. The global trade in narcotics is estimated to be of the order of 500 billion dollars.
Much of this transshipment trade goes directly to Miami, which also constitutes a haven for the recycling of dirty money into bona fide investments, e.g. in real estate and other related activities.
The US-Canada-France sponsored coup d’Etat, had been prepared well in advance. Following consultations behind closed doors in Ottawa, the US, with the support of France and Canada took the necessary steps to carry out a Coup d’Etat and forcefully abduct President Aristide.
Barely two weeks following the February 2004 coup d’Etat, a puppet regime was installed by the “international community”.
The U.S. sponsored Coup d’Etat with the support of Canada and France, seeks to reinstate Haiti as a full-fledged US colony, with all the appearances of a functioning democracy.
The objective is to impose a puppet regime in Port-au-Prince and establish a permanent US military presence in Haiti.
The US Administration ultimately seeks to militarize the Caribbean basin.
***
The armed insurrection which contributed to unseating President Aristide on February 29th 2004 was the result of a carefully staged military-intelligence operation.
The Rebel paramilitary army crossed the border from the Dominican Republic in early February.
It constitutes a well armed, trained and equipped paramilitary unit integrated by former members of Le Front pour l’avancement et le progrès d’Haiti (FRAPH), the “plain clothes” death squadrons, involved in mass killings of civilians and political assassinations during the CIA sponsored 1991 military coup, which led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide
The self-proclaimed Front pour la Libération et la reconstruction nationale (FLRN) (National Liberation and Reconstruction Front) is led by Guy Philippe, a former member of the Haitian Armed Forces and Police Chief. Philippe had been trained during the 1991 coup years by US Special Forces in Ecuador, together with a dozen other Haitian Army officers. (See Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, 24 February 2004).
The two other rebel commanders and associates of Guy Philippe, who led the attacks on Gonaives and Cap Haitien are Emmanuel Constant, nicknamed “Toto” and Jodel Chamblain, both of whom are former Tonton Macoute and leaders of FRAPH.
In 1994, Emmanuel Constant led the FRAPH assassination squadron into the village of Raboteau, in what was later identified as “The Raboteau massacre”:
“One of the last of the infamous massacres happened in April 1994 in Raboteau, a seaside slum about 100 miles north of the capital. Raboteau has about 6,000 residents, most fishermen and salt rakers, but it has a reputation as an opposition stronghold where political dissidents often went to hide… On April 18 [1994], 100 soldiers and about 30 paramilitaries arrived in Raboteau for what investigators would later call a “dress rehearsal.” They rousted people from their homes, demanding to know where Amiot “Cubain” Metayer, a well-known Aristide supporter, was hiding. They beat people, inducing a pregnant woman to miscarry, and forced others to drink from open sewers. Soldiers tortured a 65-year-old blind man until he vomited blood. He died the next day.
The soldiers returned before dawn on April 22. They ransacked homes and shot people in the streets, and when the residents fled for the water, other soldiers fired at them from boats they had commandeered. Bodies washed ashore for days; some were never found. The number of victims ranges from two dozen to 30. Hundreds more fled the town, fearing further reprisals.” (St Petersburg Times, Florida, 1 September 2002)
During the military government (1991-1994), FRAPH was (unofficially) under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces, taking orders from Commander in Chief General Raoul Cedras. According to a 1996 UN Human Rights Commission report, FRAPH had been supported by the CIA.
Under the military dictatorship, the narcotics trade, was protected by the military Junta, which in turn was supported by the CIA. The 1991 coup leaders including the FRAPH paramilitary commanders were on the CIA payroll. (See Paul DeRienzo, See also see Jim Lobe, IPS, 11 Oct 1996).
Emmanuel Constant alias “Toto” confirmed, in this regard, in a CBS “60 Minutes” in 1995, that the CIA paid him about $700 a month and that he created FRAPH, while on the CIA payroll. (See Miami Herald, 1 August 2001). According to Constant, the FRAPH had been formed “with encouragement and financial backing from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA.” (Miami New Times, 26 February 2004)
The so-called “Democratic Convergence” (DC) is a group of some 200 political organizations, led by former Port-au-Prince mayor Evans Paul. The “Democratic Convergence” (DC) together with “The Group of 184 Civil Society Organizations” (G-184) has formed a so-called “Democratic Platform of Civil Society Organizations and Opposition Political Parties”.
The Group of 184 (G-184), is headed by Andre (Andy) Apaid, a US citizen of Haitian parents, born in the US. (Haiti Progres, http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng11-12.html) Andy Apaid owns Alpha Industries, one of Haiti’s largest cheap labor export assembly lines established during the Duvalier era.
His sweatshop factories produce textile products and assemble electronic products for a number of US firms including Sperry/Unisys, IBM, Remington and Honeywell. Apaid is the largest industrial employer in Haiti with a workforce of some 4000 workers. Wages paid in Andy Apaid’s factories are as low as 68 cents a day. (Miami Times, 26 Feb 2004). The current minimum wage is of the order of $1.50 a day:
“The U.S.-based National Labor Committee, which first revealed the Kathie Lee Gifford sweat shop scandal, reported several years ago that Apaid’s factories in Haiti’s free trade zone often pay below the minimum wage and that his employees are forced to work 78-hour weeks.” (Daily News, New York, 24 Feb 2004)
Apaid was a firm supporter of the 1991 military coup. Both the Convergence démocratique and the G-184 have links to the FLRN (former FRAPH death squadrons) headed by Guy Philippe. The FLRN is also known to receive funding from the Haitian business community.
In other words, there is no watertight division between the civilian opposition, which claims to be non-violent and the FLRN paramilitary. The FLRN is collaborating with the so-called “Democratic Platform.”
In Haiti, this “civil society opposition” is bankrolled by the National Endowment for Democracy which works hand in glove with the CIA. The Democratic Platform is supported by the International Republican Institute (IRI) , which is an arm of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Senator John McCain is Chairman of IRI’s Board of Directors. (See Laura Flynn, Pierre Labossière and Robert Roth, Hidden from the Headlines: The U.S. War Against Haiti, California-based Haiti Action Committee (HAC), haitiprogres.com/ ).
G-184 leader Andy Apaid was in liaison with Secretary of State Colin Powell in the days prior to the kidnapping and deportation of President Aristide by US forces on February 29. His umbrella organization of elite business organizations and religious NGOs, which is also supported by the International Republican Institute (IRI), receives sizeable amounts of money from the European Union.(haitisupport.gn.apc.org).
It is worth recalling that the NED, (which overseas the IRI) although not formally part of the CIA, performs an important intelligence function within the arena of civilian political parties and NGOs.
It was created in 1983, when the CIA was being accused of covertly bribing politicians and setting up phony civil society front organizations. According to Allen Weinstein, who was responsible for setting up the NED during the Reagan Administration:
“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” (‘Washington Post’, Sept. 21, 1991).
The NED channels congressional funds to the four institutes:
These organizations are said to be “uniquely qualified to provide technical assistance to aspiring democrats worldwide.” (IRI)
In other words, there is a division of tasks between the CIA and the NED. While the CIA provides covert support to armed paramilitary rebel groups and death squadrons, the NED and its four constituent organizations finance “civilian” political parties and non governmental organizations with a view to instating American “democracy” around the World.
The NED constitutes, so to speak, the CIA’s “civilian arm”. CIA-NED interventions in different part of the World are characterized by a consistent pattern, which is applied in numerous countries.
The NED provided funds to the “civil society” organizations in Venezuela, which initiated an attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez. In Venezuela it was the “Democratic Coordination”, which was the recipient of NED support; in Haiti it is the “Democratic Convergence” and G-184.
Similarly, in former Yugoslavia, the CIA channeled support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (since 1995), a paramilitary group involved in terrorist attacks on the Yugoslav police and military. Meanwhile, the NED through the “Center for International Private Enterprise” (CIPE) was backing the DOS opposition coalition in Serbia and Montenegro. More specifically, NED was financing the G-17, an opposition group of economists responsible for formulating (in liaison with the IMF) the DOS coalition’s “free market” reform platform in the 2000 presidential election, which led to the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic.
The IMF and the World Bank are key players in the process of economic and political destabilization. While carried out under the auspices of an intergovernmental body, the IMF reforms tend to support US strategic and foreign policy objectives.
Based on the so-called “Washington consensus”, IMF austerity and restructuring measures through their devastating impacts, often contribute to triggering social and ethnic strife. IMF reforms have often precipitated the downfall of elected governments. In extreme cases of economic and social dislocation, the IMF’s bitter economic medicine has contributed to the destabilization of entire countries, as occurred in Somalia, Rwanda and Yugoslavia. (See Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Second Edition, 2003)
The IMF program is a consistent instrument of economic dislocation. The IMF’s reforms contribute to reshaping and downsizing State institutions through drastic austerity measures. The latter are implemented alongside other forms of intervention and political interference, including CIA covert activities in support of rebel paramilitary groups and opposition political parties.
Moreover, so-called “Emergency Recovery” and “Post-conflict” reforms are often introduced under IMF guidance, in the wake of a civil war, a regime change or “a national emergency”.
In Haiti, the IMF sponsored “free market” reforms have been carried out consistently since the Duvalier era. They have been applied in several stages since the first election of president Aristide in 1990.
The 1991 military coup, which took place 8 months following Jean Bertrand Aristide’s accession to the presidency, was in part intended to reverse the Aristide government’s progressive reforms and reinstate the neoliberal policy agenda of the Duvalier era.
A former World Bank official Mr. Marc Bazin was appointed Prime minister by the Military Junta in June 1992. In fact, it was the US State Department which sought his appointment.
Bazin had a track record of working for the “Washington consensus.” In 1983, he had been appointed Finance Minister under the Duvalier regime, In fact he had been recommended to the Finance portfolio by the IMF: “President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier had agreed to the appointment of an IMF nominee, former World Bank official Marc Bazin, as Minister of Finance”. (Mining Annual Review, June, 1983). Bazin, who was considered Washington’s “favorite”, later ran against Aristide in the 1990 presidential elections.
Bazin, was called in by the Military Junta in 1992 to form a so-called “consensus government”. It is worth noting that it was precisely during Bazin’s term in office as Prime Minister that the political massacres and extra judicial killings by the CIA supported FRAPH death squadrons were unleashed, leading to the killing of more than 4000 civilians.
Some 300,000 people became internal refugees, “thousands more fled across the border to the Dominican Republic, and more than 60,000 took to the high seas” (Statement of Dina Paul Parks, Executive Director, National Coalition for Haitian Rights, Committee on Senate Judiciary, US Senate, Washington DC, 1 October 2002). Meanwhile, the CIA had launched a smear campaign representing Aristide as “mentally unstable” (Boston Globe, 21 Sept 1994).
Following three years of military rule, the US intervened in 1994, sending in 20,000 occupation troops and “peace-keepers” to Haiti. The US military intervention was not intended to restore democracy. Quite the contrary: it was carried out to prevent a popular insurrection against the military Junta and its neoliberal cohorts.
In other words, the US military occupation was implemented to ensure political continuity.
While the members of the military Junta were sent into exile, the return to constitutional government required compliance to IMF diktats, thereby foreclosing the possibility of a progressive “alternative” to the neoliberal agenda. Moreover, US troops remained in the country until 1999. The Haitian armed forces were disbanded and the US State Department hired a mercenary company DynCorp to provide “technical advice” in restructuring the Haitian National Police (HNP).
“DynCorp has always functioned as a cut-out for Pentagon and CIA covert operations.” (See Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch, February 27, 2002) Under DynCorp advice in Haiti, former Tonton Macoute and Haitian military officers involved in the 1991 Coup d’Etat were brought into the HNP. (See Ken Silverstein, Privatizing War, The Nation, July 28, 1997,
In October 1994, Aristide returned from exile and reintegrated the presidency until the end of his mandate in 1996. “Free market” reformers were brought into his Cabinet. A new wave of deadly macro-economic policies was adopted under a so-called Emergency Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) “that sought to achieve rapid macroeconomic stabilization, restore public administration, and attend to the most pressing needs.” (See IMF Approves Three-Year ESAF Loan for Haiti, Washington, 1996
The restoration of Constitutional government had been negotiated behind closed doors with Haiti’s external creditors. Prior to Aristide’s reinstatement as the country’s president, the new government was obliged to clear the country’s debt arrears with its external creditors. In fact the new loans provided by the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the IMF were used to meet Haiti’s obligations with international creditors. Fresh money was used to pay back old debt leading to a spiraling external debt.
Broadly coinciding with the military government, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 30 percent (1992-1994). With a per capita income of $250 per annum, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and among the poorest in the world. (see World Bank, Haiti: The Challenges of Poverty Reduction, Washington, August 1998)
The World Bank estimates unemployment to be of the order of 60 percent. (A 2000 US Congressional Report estimates it to be as high as 80 percent. See US House of Representatives, Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee, FDHC Transcripts, 12 April 2000).
In the wake of three years of military rule and economic decline, there was no “Economic Emergency Recovery” as envisaged under the IMF loan agreement. In fact quite the opposite: The IMF imposed “stabilization” under the “Recovery” program required further budget cuts in almost non-existent social sector programs. A civil service reform program was launched, which consisted in reducing the size of the civil service and the firing of “surplus” State employees. The IMF-World Bank package was in part instrumental in the paralysis of public services, leading to the eventual demise of the entire State system. In a country where health and educational services were virtually nonexistent, the IMF had demanded the lay off of “surplus” teachers and health workers with a view to meeting its target for the budget deficit.
Washington’s foreign policy initiatives were coordinated with the application of the IMF’s deadly economic medicine. The country had been literally pushed to the brink of economic and social disaster.
More than 75 percent of the Haitian population is engaged in agriculture, producing both food crops for the domestic market as well a number of cash crops for export. Already during the Duvalier era, the peasant economy had been undermined. With the adoption of the IMF-World Bank sponsored trade reforms, the agricultural system, which previously produced food for the local market, had been destabilized. With the lifting of trade barriers, the local market was opened up to the dumping of US agricultural surpluses including rice, sugar and corn, leading to the destruction of the entire peasant economy. Gonaives, which used to be Haiti’s rice basket region, with extensive paddy fields had been precipitated into bankruptcy:
“By the end of the 1990s Haiti’s local rice production had been reduced by half and rice imports from the US accounted for over half of local rice sales. The local farming population was devastated, and the price of rice rose drastically ” ( See Rob Lyon, Haiti-There is no solution under Capitalism! Socialist Appeal, 24 Feb. 2004
In matter of a few years, Haiti, a small impoverished country in the Caribbean, had become the World’s fourth largest importer of American rice after Japan, Mexico and Canada.
The presidential elections were scheduled for November 23, 2000. The Clinton Administration had put an embargo on development aid to Haiti in 2000. Barely two weeks prior to the elections, the outgoing administration signed a Letter of Intent with the IMF. Perfect timing: the agreement with the IMF virtually foreclosed from the outset any departure from the neoliberal agenda.
The Minister of Finance had sent the amended budget to the Parliament on December 14th. Donor support was conditional upon its rubber stamp approval by the Legislature. While Aristide had promised to increase the minimum wage, embark on school construction and literacy programs, the hands of the new government were tied. All major decisions regarding the State budget, the management of the public sector, public investment, privatization, trade and monetary policy had already been taken. They were part of the agreement reached with the IMF on November 6, 2000.
In 2003, the IMF imposed the application of a so-called “flexible price system in fuel”, which immediately triggered an inflationary spiral. The currency was devalued. Petroleum prices increased by about 130 percent in January-February 2003, which served to increase popular resentment against the Aristide government, which had supported the implementation of the IMF economic reforms.
The hike in fuel prices contributed to a 40 percent increase in consumer prices (CPI) in 2002-2003 (See Haiti—Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, Port-au-Prince, Haiti June 10, 2003, ).
In turn, the IMF had demanded, despite the dramatic increase in the cost of living, a freeze on wages as a means to “controlling inflationary pressures.” The IMF had in fact pressured the government to lower public sector salaries (including those paid to teachers and health workers). The IMF had also demanded the phasing out of the statutory minimum wage of approximately 25 cents an hour. “Labour market flexibility”, meaning wages paid below the statutory minimum wage would, according to the IMF, contribute to attracting foreign investors. The daily minimum wage was $3.00 in 1994, declining to about $1.50- 1.75 (depending on the gourde-dollar exchange rate) in 2004.
In an utterly twisted logic, Haiti’s abysmally low wages, which have been part of the IMF-World Bank “cheap labor” policy framework since the 1980s, are viewed as a means to improving the standard of living. In other words, sweatshop conditions in the assembly industries (in a totally unregulated labor market) and forced labor conditions in Haiti’s agricultural plantations are considered by the IMF as a key to achieving economic prosperity, because they “attract foreign investment.”
The country was in the straightjacket of a spiraling external debt. In a bitter irony, the IMF-World Bank sponsored austerity measures in the social sectors were imposed in a country which has 1,2 medical doctors for 10,000 inhabitants and where the large majority of the population is illiterate. State social services, which were virtually nonexistent during the Duvalier period, have collapsed.
The result of IMF ministrations was a further collapse in purchasing power, which had also affected middle income groups. Meanwhile, interest rates had skyrocketed. In the Northern and Eastern parts of the country, the hikes in fuel prices had led to a virtual paralysis of transportation and public services including water and electricity.
While a humanitarian catastrophe is looming, the collapse of the economy spearheaded by the IMF, had served to boost the popularity of the Democratic Platform, which had accused Aristide of “economic mismanagement.” Needless to say, the leaders of the Democratic Platform including Andy Apaid –who actually owns the sweatshops– are the main protagonists of the low wage economy.
In February 2003, Washington announced the appointment of James Foley as Ambassador to Haiti . Foley had been a State Department spokesman under the Clinton administration during the war on Kosovo. He previously held a position at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Foley had been sent to Port au Prince in advance of the CIA sponsored operation. He was transferred to Port au Prince in September 2003, from a prestige diplomatic position in Geneva, where he was Deputy Head of Mission to the UN European office.
It is worth recalling Ambassador Foley’s involvement in support of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1999.
Amply documented, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was financed by drug money and supported by the CIA. ( See Michel Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by Organized Crime, Covert Action Quarterly, 1999,
The KLA had been involved in similar targeted political assassinations and killings of civilians, in the months leading up to the 1999 NATO invasion as well as in its aftermath. Following the NATO led invasion and occupation of Kosovo, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Force (KPF) under UN auspices. Rather than being disarmed to prevent the massacres of civilians, a terrorist organization with links to organized crime and the Balkans drug trade, was granted a legitimate political status.
At the time of the Kosovo war, the current ambassador to Haiti James Foley was in charge of State Department briefings, working closely with his NATO counterpart in Brussels, Jamie Shea. Barely two months before the onslaught of the NATO led war on 24 March 1999, James Foley had called for the “transformation” of the KLA into a respectable political organization:
“We want to develop a good relationship with them [the KLA] as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization,’ ..`[W]e believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become… “If we can help them and they want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I think it’s nothing that anybody can argue with..’ (quoted in the New York Times, 2 February 1999)
In the wake of the invasion “a self-proclaimed Kosovar administration was set up composed of the KLA and the Democratic Union Movement (LBD), a coalition of five opposition parties opposed to Rugova’s Democratic League (LDK). In addition to the position of prime minister, the KLA controlled the ministries of finance, public order and defense.” (Michel Chossudovsky, NATO’s War of Aggression against Yugoslavia, 1999)
The US State Department’s position as conveyed in Foley’s statement was that the KLA would “not be allowed to continue as a military force but would have the chance to move forward in their quest for self government under a ‘different context'” meaning the inauguration of a de facto “narco-democracy” under NATO protection. (Ibid).
With regard to the drug trade, Kosovo and Albania occupy a similar position to that of Haiti: they constitute “a hub” in the transit (transshipment) of narcotics from the Golden Crescent, through Iran and Turkey into Western Europe. While supported by the CIA, Germany’s Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND) and NATO, the KLA has links to the Albanian Mafia and criminal syndicates involved in the narcotics trade.( See Michel Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by Organized Crime, Covert Action Quarterly, 1999,
Is this the model for Haiti, as formulated in 1999 by the current US Ambassador to Haiti James Foley?
For the CIA and the State Department the FLRN and Guy Philippe are to Haiti what the KLA and Hashim Thaci are to Kosovo.
In other words, Washington’s design is “regime change”: topple the Lavalas administration and install a compliant US puppet regime, integrated by the Democratic Platform and the self-proclaimed Front pour la libération et la reconstruction nationale (FLRN), whose leaders are former FRAPH and Tonton Macoute terrorists. The latter are slated to integrate a “national unity government” alongside the leaders of the Democratic Convergence and The Group of 184 Civil Society Organizations led by Andy Apaid. More specifically, the FLRN led by Guy Philippe is slated to rebuild the Haitian Armed forces, which were disbanded in 1995.
What is at stake is an eventual power sharing arrangement between the various Opposition groups and the CIA supported Rebels, which have links to the cocaine transit trade from Colombia via Haiti to Florida. The protection of this trade has a bearing on the formation of a new “narco-government”, which will serve US interests.
A bogus (symbolic) disarmament of the Rebels may be contemplated under international supervision, as occurred with the KLA in Kosovo in 2000. The “former terrorists” could then be integrated into the civilian police as well as into the task of “rebuilding” the Haitian Armed forces under US supervision.
What this scenario suggests, is that the Duvalier-era terrorist structures have been restored. A program of civilian killings and political assassinations directed against Lavalas supporter is in fact already underway.
In other words, if Washington were really motivated by humanitarian considerations, why then is it supporting and financing the FRAPH death squadrons? Its objective is not to prevent the massacre of civilians. Modeled on previous CIA led operations (e.g. Guatemala, Indonesia, El Salvador), the FLRN death squadrons have been set loose and are involved in targeted political assassinations of Aristide supporters.
While the real economy had been driven into bankruptcy under the brunt of the IMF reforms, the narcotics transshipment trade continues to flourish. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Haiti remains “the major drug trans-shipment country for the entire Caribbean region, funneling huge shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the United States.” (See US House of Representatives, Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee, FDHC Transcripts, 12 April 2000).
It is estimated that Haiti is now responsible for 14 percent of all the cocaine entering the United States, representing billions of dollars of revenue for organized crime and US financial institutions, which launder vast amounts of dirty money. The global trade in narcotics is estimated to be of the order of 500 billion dollars.
Much of this transshipment trade goes directly to Miami, which also constitutes a haven for the recycling of dirty money into bona fide investments, e.g. in real estate and other related activities.
The evidence confirms that the CIA was protecting this trade during the Duvalier era as well as during the military dictatorship (1991-1994). In 1987, Senator John Kerry as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee was entrusted with a major investigation, which focused on the links between the CIA and the drug trade, including the laundering of drug money to finance armed insurgencies. “The Kerry Report” published in 1989, while centering its attention on the financing of the Nicaraguan Contra, also included a section on Haiti:
“Kerry had developed detailed information on drug trafficking by Haiti’s military rulers that led to the indictment in Miami in 1988, of Lt. Col. Jean Paul. The indictment was a major embarrassment to the Haitian military, especially since Paul defiantly refused to surrender to U.S. authorities.. In November 1989, Col. Paul was found dead after he consumed a traditional Haitian good will gift—a bowel of pumpkin soup…
The U.S. senate also heard testimony in 1988 that then interior minister, Gen. Williams Regala, and his DEA liaison officer, protected and supervised cocaine shipments. The testimony also charged the then Haitian military commander Gen. Henry Namphy with accepting bribes from Colombian traffickers in return for landing rights in the mid 1980’s.
It was in 1989 that yet another military coup brought Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril to power… According to a witness before Senator John Kerry’s subcommittee, Avril is in fact a major player in Haiti’s role as a transit point in the cocaine trade.” ( Paul DeRienzo, Haiti’s Nightmare: The Cocaine Coup & The CIA Connection, Spring 1994,
Jack Blum, who was Kerry’s Special Counsel, points to the complicity of US officials in a 1996 statement to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Drug Trafficking and the Contra War:
“…In Haiti … intelligence “sources” of ours in the Haitian military had turned their facilities over to the drug cartels. Instead of putting pressure on the rotten leadership of the military, we defended them. We held our noses and looked the other way as they and their criminal friends in the United States distributed cocaine in Miami, Philadelphia and New, York.” (totse.com)
Haiti not only remains at the hub of the transshipment cocaine trade, the latter has grown markedly since the 1980s. The current crisis bears a relationship to Haiti’s role in the drug trade. Washington wants a compliant Haitian government which will protect the drug transshipment routes, out of Colombia through Haiti and into Florida.
The inflow of narco-dollars –which remains the major source of the country’s foreign exchange earnings– are used to service Haiti’s spiraling external debt, thereby also serving the interests of the external creditors.
In this regard, the liberalization of the foreign-exchange market imposed by the IMF has provided (despite the authorities pro forma commitment to combating the drug trade) a convenient avenue for the laundering of narco-dollars in the domestic banking system. The inflow of narco-dollars alongside bona fide “remittances” from Haitians living abroad, are deposited in the commercial banking system and exchanged into local currency. The foreign exchange proceeds of these inflows can then be recycled towards the Treasury where they are used to meet debt servicing obligations.
Haiti, however, reaps a very small percentage of the total foreign exchange proceeds of this lucrative contraband. Most of the revenue resulting from the cocaine transshipment trade accrues to criminal intermediaries in the wholesale and retail narcotics trade, to the intelligence agencies which protect the drug trade as well as to the financial and banking institutions where the proceeds of this criminal activity are laundered.
The narco-dollars are also channeled into “private banking” accounts in numerous offshore banking havens. (These havens are controlled by the large Western banks and financial institutions). Drug money is also invested in a number of financial instruments including hedge funds and stock market transactions. The major Wall Street and European banks and stock brokerage firms launder billions of dollars resulting from the trade in narcotics.
Moreover, the expansion of the dollar denominated money supply by the Federal Reserve System , including the printing of billions of dollars of US dollar notes for the purposes of narco-transactions constitutes profit for the Federal Reserve and its constituent private banking institutions of which the most important is the New York Federal Reserve Bank. See (Jeffrey Steinberg, Dope, Inc. Is $600 Billion and Growing, Executive Intelligence Review, 14 Dec 2001)
In other words, the Wall Street financial establishment, which plays a behind the scenes role in the formulation of US foreign policy, has a vested interest in retaining the Haiti transshipment trade, while installing a reliable “narco-democracy” in Port-au-Prince, which will effectively protect the transshipment routes.
It should be noted that since the advent of the Euro as a global currency, a significant share of the narcotics trade is now conducted in Euro rather than US dollars. In other words, the Euro and the dollar are competing narco-currencies.
The Latin American cocaine trade –including the transshipment trade through Haiti– is largely conducted in US dollars. This shift out of dollar denominated narco-transactions, which undermines the hegemony of the US dollar as a global currency, largely pertains to the Middle East, Central Asian and the Southern European drug routes.
In the weeks leading up to the Coup d’Etat, the media has largely focused its attention on the pro-Aristide “armed gangs” and “thugs”, without providing an understanding of the role of the FLRN Rebels.
Deafening silence: not a word was mentioned in official statements and UN resolutions regarding the nature of the FLRN. This should come as no surprise: the US Ambassador to the UN (the man who sits on the UN Security Council) John Negroponte. played a key role in the CIA supported Honduran death squadrons in the 1980s when he was US ambassador to Honduras. (See San Francisco Examiner, 20 Oct 2001
The FLRN rebels are extremely well equipped and trained forces. The Haitian people know who they are. They are Tonton Macoute of the Duvalier era and former FRAPH assassins.
The Western media is mute on the issue, blaming the violence on President Aristide. When it acknowledges that the Liberation Army is composed of death squadrons, it fails to examine the broader implications of its statements and that these death squadrons are a creation of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The New York Times has acknowledged that the “non violent” civil society opposition is in fact collaborating with the death squadrons, “accused of killing thousands”, but all this is described as “accidental”. No historical understanding is provided. Who are these death squadron leaders? All we are told is that they have established an “alliance” with the “non-violent” good guys who belong to the “political opposition”. And it is all for a good and worthy cause, which is to remove the elected president and “restore democracy”:
“As Haiti’s crisis lurches toward civil war, a tangled web of alliances, some of them accidental, has emerged. It has linked the interests of a political opposition movement that has embraced nonviolence to a group of insurgents that includes a former leader of death squads accused of killing thousands, a former police chief accused of plotting a coup and a ruthless gang once aligned with Mr. Aristide that has now turned against him. Given their varied origins, those arrayed against Mr. Aristide are hardly unified, though they all share an ardent wish to see him removed from power.” (New York Times, 26 Feb 2004)
There is nothing spontaneous or “accidental” in the rebel attacks or in the “alliance” between the leader of the death squadrons Guy Philippe and Andy Apaid, owner of the largest industrial sweatshop in Haiti and leader of the G-184.
The armed rebellion was part of a carefully planned military-intelligence operation. The Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic had detected guerilla training camps inside the Dominican Republic on the Northeast Haitian-Dominican border. (El ejército dominicano informó a Aristide sobre los entrenamientos rebeldes en la frontera, El Caribe, 27 Feb. 2004,
Both the armed rebels and their civilian “non-violent” counterparts were involved in the plot to unseat the president. G-184 leader Andre Apaid was in touch with Colin Powell in the weeks leading up to the overthrow of Aristide; Guy Philippe and “Toto” Emmanuel Constant have links to the CIA; there are indications that Rebel Commander Guy Philippe and the political leader of the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front Winter Etienne were in liaison with US officials. (See BBC, 27 Feb 2004).
While the US had repeatedly stated that it will uphold Constitutional government, the replacement of Aristide by a more compliant individual had always been part of the Bush Administration’s agenda.
On Feb 20, US Ambassador James Foley called in a team of four military experts from the U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami. Officially their mandate was “to assess threats to the embassy and its personnel.” (Seattle Times, 20 Feb 2004). US Special Forces are already in the country. Washington had announced that three US naval vessels “have been put on standby to go to Haiti as a precautionary measure”. The Saipan is equipped with Vertical takeoff Harrier fighters and attack helicopters. The other two vessels are the Oak Hill and Trenton. Some 2,200 U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, at Camp Lejeune, N.C. could be deployed to Haiti at short notice, according to Washington.
With the departure of President Aristide, Washington, however, has no intention of disarming its proxy rebel paramilitary army, which is now slated to play a role in the “transition”. In other words, the Bush administration will not act to prevent the occurrence of killings and political assassinations of Lavalas and Aristide supporters in the wake of the president’s kidnapping and deportation.
Needless to say, the Western media has not in the least analyzed the historical background of the Haitian crisis. The role played by the CIA has not been mentioned. The so-called “international community”, which claims to be committed to governance and democracy, has turned a blind eye to the killings of civilians by a US sponsored paramilitary army. The “rebel leaders”, who were commanders in the FRAPH death squadrons in the 1990s, are now being upheld by the US media as bona fide opposition spokesmen. Meanwhile, the legitimacy of the former elected president is questioned because he is said to be responsible for “a worsening economic and social situation.”
The worsening economic and social situation is largely attributable to the devastating economic reforms imposed by the IMF since the 1980s. The restoration of Constitutional government in 1994 was conditional upon the acceptance of the IMF’s deadly economic therapy, which in turn foreclosed the possibility of a meaningful democracy. High ranking government officials respectively within the Andre Preval and Jean Bertrand Aristide governments were indeed compliant with IMF diktats. Despite this compliance, Aristide had been “blacklisted” and demonized by Washington.
Washington seeks to reinstate Haiti as a full-fledged US colony, with all the appearances of a functioning democracy. The objective is to impose a puppet regime in Port-au-Prince and establish a permanent US military presence in Haiti.
The US Administration ultimately seeks to militarize the Caribbean basin.
The island of Hispaniola is a gateway to the Caribbean basin, strategically located between Cuba to the North West and Venezuela to the South. The militarization of the island, with the establishment of US military bases, is not only intended to put political pressure on Cuba and Venezuela, it is also geared towards the protection of the multibillion dollar narcotics transshipment trade through Haiti, from production sites in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
The militarisation of the Caribbean basin is, in some regards, similar to that imposed by Washington on the Andean Region of South America under “Plan Colombia’, renamed “The Andean Initiative”. The latter constitutes the basis for the militarisation of oil and gas wells, as well as pipeline routes and transportation corridors. It also protects the narcotics trade.
February 23rd, 2024 by Dr. William Makis
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Meet Chloe Leanne Brookes: an intelligent and amazingly positive 18-year-old girl in the UK. She is bedridden with many chronic, debilitating conditions, but she wasn’t always this way.
At the age of 12, Chloe was a typical child. She loved hiking, mountain biking, rollerblading and dancing, and she was looking forward to a dancing career. Chloe was healthy, had a busy, active lifestyle and was a straight-A student. That all changed with the HPV vaccine, Cervarix. Chloe says, “I was injured by Cervarix and I’m not scared to tell the world about it.”
The vaccine only lasts 3 years and doesn’t protect against all the strains of cervical cancer. Some teens and now adults have been diagnosed with cervical cancer despite the vaccine.
There were 21,156 total reactions to the drug, 8,599 official filed reports and 8 fatal outcomes as reported from 2006 to 2016. See page 43 of this MedDRA report (HPV-DAP-020616), obtained under FOI: Human Papillomavirus Drug Analysis. [As a side note, much of the time vaccine injury is dismissed by doctors as “coincidence” or “normal” or ignored altogether, and in those instances, usually go unreported.]
Chloe’s diagnoses include:
HPV vaccines can cause dysautonomic issues by attacking the immune system, and affecting the central and autonomic nervous systems, or by the vaccine ingredients (notably aluminum) crossing the blood-brain barrier. [see 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5]
Chloe’s symptoms became noticeable after her second dose of the three-dose course.
“The adverse reaction and the conditions I have developed over the years have had a huge impact on my life. My life is complicated and my future uncertain. Tomorrow is another day but I never know what tomorrow or even the next hour will bring; I can’t predict and I can’t plan ahead.”
For the first three years, Chloe struggled on through worsening symptoms: muscle weakness, tingling and shooting pains, blurred and double vision, a rapid heart rate and chest pains, poor circulation leading to cold muscles and bones, and light and noise sensitivity. Chloe says medical professionals were insensitive and dismissive and they often told her, “It’s all in your head,” or “Your pain’s not real: you need psychological help,” and “You don’t look sick.”
“For me, and thousands of others, the hardest thing of all, ironically, wasn’t and still isn’t the poor situation of our health: it’s fighting, repeatedly for some family, friends, doctors, the public, the media and society in general, to understand and be educated about invisible illnesses.”
However, Chloe’s invisible symptoms didn’t stay invisible for long. Eventually,
“I was wheelchair dependent for over a year before I became completely bed-bound.” By 2015, “I could not sit, stand or walk and spent months bedbound and living life lying down in severe pain and paralysis, with no control over my body.
“After months of just getting worse, with a resting heart rate of 130 beats per minute, palpations, dizziness, blood pooling, poor temperature control, fainting, limited oxygen and blood flow to the brain, bladder retention and gastrointestinal dysfunction, I met a doctor who diagnosed me with POTS, which I knew I had, but no medical professional had believed me.”
In early 2016, “due to [medical] neglect, malnutrition and deterioration of my situation,” Chloe’s heart rate reached 200 bpm and she was raced to hospital by ambulance with arrhythmia and poor vital signs. Chloe says her cardiologist stated she would have died within 24 hours if she stayed home and he was amazed she did not have a heart attack or stroke because Chloe’s sodium, potassium and magnesium levels were non-existent.
Halfway through last year, life became
“Basically, a daily living hell including near death experiences, multiple daily injections, vitamin, iron, and sodium infusions, seven tubes, feeds, allergic reactions, fits, 21 cannulas, burst veins, procedures, scans, daily bloods, fentanyl, ketamine and heavy duty pain relief or medication, infections, odd turns/fits, vomit and a ton of pain. I lost the ability to swallow, therefore I can’t drink or eat anything due to developing a severe form of gastroparesis-paralysis of the gastrointestinal tract, which is common in those who have severe ME. ME destroys the autoimmune system leading to autonomic dysfunction or complete failure and therefore causes more incurable, complex diseases.
“I now have two nasal tubes (one in each nostril): the NJ feeds directly to the small bowel, bypassing the stomach, and the other, NG, drains my stomach content out to relieve and reduce nausea and vomiting. I also have a PICC line, which is a long tube inserted along an artery to the tip of my heart and gives me access to IV fluids and IV vitamins and blood infusions. I can’t even hold a mint or sweet in my mouth without having severe sensitivities or an allergic reactions and saliva pooling out of my mouth because I’m unable to swallow it. I’m now struggling with tube feeds as my stomach and bowel are both giving up on me. Unfortunately, I manage to still puke with my NJ tube; vomiting it up should not happen apparently…”
In October 2016, during the operation to have feeding tubes put into her abdomen, Chloe aspirated vomit into her lungs, her body went into shock, her oxygen sats flat-lined and her heart stopped. She died. It took the medical team four hours to stabilise her.
“I was intubated, ventilated and put in an induced coma to help my internal organs recover. Doctors and my family didn’t know if or how I’d wake up. Forty-eight hours later I was conscious but sedated as I still couldn’t breathe on my own. The ventilator slowly reduced and I began to breathe stably enough with normal oxygen. ICU discharged me with a severe lung infection and a few memory and speech problems but no major damage done. I can’t believe I bounced back that quickly despite the intensity of the trauma. I’m very luck indeed.”
Chloe’s body has become hypersensitive to everything – including medications – and she now reacts to acetaminophen (Tylenol) as though on opioids.
“Recently, the diazepam oral solution I’d had for 10 months was changed to oral suspension. When the diazepam got down the tube, I started having seizures, which the diazepam is meant to prevent or stop. My body continued to be tight and fit for hours, this time it was different to my normal fits. I couldn’t hear my mum speaking to me and I struggled to breathe. I had eight back-to-back seizures: occasionally I had 30-second intervals where I was gasping for breath and going in and out of consciousness due to the amount of pain, movement and total utter exhaustion. I was delusional and hallucinating: I knew who I was but didn’t know where I was or what happened to me. The left side of my face went funny, my speech slurred, I felt trapped in my body and the seizures continued. After 8 hours, it all stopped. We presumed it was just an extreme seizure episode because I hadn’t had a severe one for a while, but then I had another dose of diazepam and the attacks returned… I then read the ingredients and realised it was not the exact same ingredients as my original one. My body is extremely hypersensitive inside and out. The next day, I had more uncontrollable seizures after refusing the diazepam. This time I wasn’t delusional, the fits were just violent, but the jerking of my NG and NJ tubes made it feel like I’d had the [tube] surgery all over again.”
After being in hospital for 11 months because of the HPV vaccine, Chloe is finally home. She has been fully tube-fed for a year. Chloe lives with her mother and her 16-year-old brother and her mother is trained in how to care for her at home.
“My family are incredibly supportive and strong but it has shaken theirs as well as my entire world upside down. My brother would rather be ill so I could have a life. My mum had to stop her full-time work to be my 24/7 carer and she has nobody to take over the night shifts. The whole house is awake if I’m awake struggling with severe pain and the neighbours often hear me screaming, crying and begging the agony to stop. I can’t be left alone, not only because I’m highly dependent for everything and Mum needs to administer my medications, but because the risk of me having an allergic reaction or a seizure is very high and also potentially fatal. It’s as if I’m a newborn baby again needing around the clock care.
“Every inch of my body hurts so bad every day. My stomach cracks and pops: it’s my natural alarm clock meaning ‘Drain that bile now before you explode with vomit and scream for hours on end because it’s built up too much.’ I’m swollen all over, my nerve endings are as hyperactive as someone persistently being tasered by the police, and it feels as if I have barbed wire wrapped around my muscles and it’s tangled so with every move I make it embeds deeper into my lifeless limbs. It’s a tearing sensation, an intense throb all over and this keeps me awake. I feel as if I’ve been left out in the pouring rain with nowhere to go. I can’t hide. I’m a prisoner of my own body. There’s no effective treatment. There’s no cure: I can’t escape from this.
“There’s no antidote for [this] vaccine damage. I’m trying to help parents and their children make the right choice and showing them a strong reason to be wary about the HPV vaccine. I want to help other girls avoid ending up like me.”
Unfortunately, Chloe is not alone. Many, many girls worldwide have been injured by the HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix. For current information and research HPV vaccine adverse reaction statistics, visit www.sanevax.org.
Chloe says,
“I may have a broken body which persistently disobeys me, however I am lucky enough to be a mentally strong individual who’s managed to build up her own coping mechanisms and psychological techniques despite negligence and terrible past experiences. Despite hardship I find happiness. Despite pain I find inner peace. Mindfulness may help others in my situation, and yes it will keep the demons of depression and anxious thoughts away. However, no amount of mindfulness and positivity will change the immense pain I endure and magic the mobility and loss of sensation back into my once healthy, sporty, dancing body of mine.
“I guarantee my future won’t be how I planned it, but it will be full of determination and dedication to continue raising much needed awareness.
“A successful person is a person that can build a firm foundation with the bricks that life has thrown at them.” ~Chloe
Chloe is smart, has a strong spirit and is determined to share her truth with the world. Let’s help her do exactly that: please share this post everywhere you can on social media, and let’s also pray for her healing and wellbeing, and feel free to reach out and post words of encouragement on her Facebook Page dedicated to raising awareness about her HPV vaccine injury, and that of everyone who has had their lives wronged by vaccines.
Chloe’s Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ChloesVaccineInjuryJourney
Chloe’s Blog: www.chloeleanne03.wordpress.com
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO CHLOE To Help Her Fund Alternative Therapies
You can also donate via PayPal: www.paypal.me/ChronicallyChloe
(by Lyn Fattorini, March 10, 2017)
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Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.
Featured image is from COVID Intel
February 23rd, 2024 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Of all art forms the ballad has the benefit of expediency. From event, to composition, to broadcast: no art form can compete with the efficacy and proliferation of a good song. The reach and emotional impact of a ballad, “a form of verse, often a narrative set to music” allows for any event affecting individuals or groups to rapidly become popularised and understood globally. While historically ballads tended to be sentimental, their descendant, the protest song, sits alongside modern ballads with ease.
While both the ballad and the protest song can have as their basis socio/political narratives, their differences are more in the formal qualities of tempo. Ballads still tend to be slower than protest songs, but conveying in emotion what they lose in excitement.
While the ballad may satisfy with its unhurried melody and storytelling, the protest song has an immediacy of lyric and beat that gives vocal power to mass events like concerts and demonstrations.
Ballads have a long history in European culture. They started out as the “medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally ‘dance songs’. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America.” In the nineteenth century they were associated with sentimentality which led to the word ballad “being used for slow love songs from the 1950s onwards.”
In Ireland ballads have been a very important part of the nationalist struggle against British colonialism since the seventeenth century. They reached the zenith of their popularity in the 1960s with the Dubliners, and the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Ballad folk groups are still in demand today in Europe and the USA.
Ballads tend to have a slower tempo that allows the audience to experience the nuances of the lyrics. An early and powerful example of this is ‘Strange Fruit’, a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol (under his pseudonym Lewis Allan) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. A ballad and a protest song, ‘Strange Fruit’ “protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century and the great majority of victims were black.” ‘Strange Fruit’ has been described as a call for freedom and is seen as an important initiator of the civil rights movement. The lyrics are full of horror and bitter irony:
“Southern trees
Bearing strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
And blood at the roots
Black bodies
Swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin’
From the poplar trees
Pastoral scene
Of the gallant south”
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912–1967) was an American singer-songwriter and composer who was one of the most important figures in American folk music. His songs focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. As a young man he migrated to California to look for work and his experiences of the conditions faced by working class people. This led him to produce Dust Bowl Ballads, an album of songs grouped around the theme of the Dust Bowl storms that destroyed crops and intensified the economic impact of the Great Depression in the 1930s. ‘Dust Bowl Ballads’ is thought to be one of the earliest concept albums.
The songs lyrics tell of the storms and their apocalyptic effect on the local farmers:
“On the 14th day of April of 1935
There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky
You could see that dust storm comin’, the cloud looked deathlike black
And through our mighty nation, it left a dreadful track
From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down
We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom
[…]
The storm took place at sundown, it lasted through the night
When we looked out next morning, we saw a terrible sight
We saw outside our window where wheat fields they had grown
Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown”
Peter Seeger (1919–2014) was a popular American folk singer who was regularly heard on the radio in the 1940s, and in the early 1950s had a string of hit records as a member of The Weavers, some of whom were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger became “a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, workers’ rights, and environmental causes.”
‘We Shall Overcome’ is believed to have originated as a gospel song known as ‘I’ll Overcome Some Day’. In 1959, the song began to be associated with the civil rights movement as a protest song, with Seeger’s version focusing on nonviolent civil rights activism. It became popular all over the world in many types of protest activities.
The song is a very understated (both musically and lyrically) declaration of protest and unity in the face of oppression:
“We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day”
In contrast, the lively anti-apartheid song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ written by British musician Jerry Dammers, and performed by the band the Special A.K.A. was a hugely popular song in 1984 that led to the global awareness of the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela by the apartheid South African government:
“Free Nelson Mandela
Twenty-one years in captivity
Shoes too small to fit his feet
His body abused but his mind is still free
Are you so blind that you cannot see?
I said free Nelson Mandela”
Rage Against the Machine was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, “the group consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello, and drummer Brad Wilk.”
The video for ‘Sleep Now in the Fire’ turned a protest song into an actual protest when the band played on Wall Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange:
“The music video for the song, which was directed by Michael Moore with cinematography by Welles Hackett, features the band playing in front of the New York Stock Exchange, intercut with scenes from a satire of the popular television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? which is named Who Wants To Be Filthy Fucking Rich. […] The video starts by saying that on January 24, 2000, the NYSE announced record profits and layoffs, and on the next day New York mayor Rudy Giuliani decreed that Rage Against the Machine “shall not play on Wall Street”. The shoot for the music video on January 26, 2000 caused the doors of the New York Stock Exchange to be closed.”
The lyrics are spartan, yet cover many topics: bible-belt conservatism, the corrupting aspects of wealth and its connection with right-wing politics. The second verse gives a potted history of the USA: ‘I am the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria’ (Columbus’ three ships), ‘The noose and the rapist, the fields overseer’ (the slave system), The agents of orange (the Vietnam war), The priests of Hiroshima’ (Oppenheimer’s fascination with mysticism). Any shorter and these lines could almost be described as a haiku embedded within the song. The third verse deals with the future: ‘For it’s the end of history, It’s caged and frozen still, There is no other pill to take, So swallow the one That makes you ill’ referencing Francis Fukuyama’s argument “that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free-market capitalism of the West and its lifestyle may signal the end point of humanity’s sociocultural evolution and political struggle, and become the final form of human government”, ‘caged’ because there is no alternative, and will continue this way (of making us ‘ill’) with no viable socio/political alternative vision:
“The world is my expense
The cost of my desire
Jesus blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
So raise your fists and march around
Dont dare take what you need
I’ll jail and bury those committed
And smother the rest in greed
Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or i’ll drag you to your grave
I’m deep inside your children
They’ll betray you in my name
Hey!
Hey!
Sleep now in the fire
The lie is my expense
The scope with my desire
The party blessed me with its future
And i protect it with fire
I am the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist, the fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of Hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire
For it’s the end of history
It’s caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one
That makes you ill
The Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist, the fields’ overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of Hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire.”
In Bill Callahan’s (born 1966) song and video ‘America!’ he contrasts the symbols and perception of America globally with its darker past. He mentions legendary American songwriters and performers Mickey Newbury, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones and Johnny Cash and their past roles in the army, showing the deep connection between culture and the military in the USA. Callahan lists countries where the USA has been: Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iran, and ends with Native America, turning its colonialism and imperialism back on itself. There is also an oblique reference to the system of haves and have-nots (‘Others lucky suckle teat’) ending with the slight change ‘Ain’t enough to eat’ emphasizing the growing poverty in the richest country on earth:
“America!
You are so grand and golden
Oh I wish I was deep in America tonight
America!
America!
I watch David Letterman in Australia
America!
You are so grand and golden
I wish I was on the next flight
To America!
Captain Kristofferson!
Buck Sergeant Newbury!
Leatherneck Jones!
Sergeant Cash!
What an Army!
What an Air Force!
What a Marines!
America!
[Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iran, Native America]
Well, everyone’s allowed a past
They don’t care to mention
Well, it’s hard to rouse a hog in Delta
And it can get tense around the Bible Belt
Others lucky suckle teat
Others lucky suckle teat
America!”
In his video, ‘This Is America’, Childish Gambino (Donald Glover, born 1983) shocked his viewers, who were not used to seeing the cinematic realism of gun violence in a music video. Gambino focuses more on the present than the past, while using cars from the 1990s probably as a symbol of poverty. The violence and drugs scene behind pleasure-seeking party-goers is emphasised with an execution at the start and followed up by a mass murder of a gospel choir. His demeanor constantly changes very suddenly, from dancing one moment, to exhorting his clients another, then cold-blooded killing, yet despite it all, running for his life in the end as his life style catches up with him:
“We just wanna party
Party just for you
We just want the money
Money just for you
I know you wanna party
Party just for me
Girl, you got me dancin’ (yeah, girl, you got me dancin’)
Dance and shake the frame
We just wanna party (yeah)
Party just for you (yeah)
We just want the money (yeah)
Money just for you (you)
I know you wanna party (yeah)
Party just for me (yeah)
Girl, you got me dancin’ (yeah, girl, you got me dancin’)
Dance and shake the frame (you)
This is America
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Look what I’m whippin’ up
This is America (woo)
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Look what I’m whippin’ up”
In 2020, Bob Dylan (born 1941) released this seventeen-minute track, “Murder Most Foul”, on his YouTube channel, based on the assassination of President Kennedy. It is a long, slow ballad that intertwines culture and politics, contrasting the optimism of the one with the stark brutality of the other. It is the poetry of America re-examing its past at its best, the detail and condemnation in its lyrics reflecting a political undercurrent that refuses to accept modern myths, a murder ‘most foul’:
“It was a dark day in Dallas, November ’63
A day that will live on in infamy
President Kennedy was a-ridin’ high
Good day to be livin’ and a good day to die
Being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb
He said, “Wait a minute, boys, you know who I am?”
“Of course we do, we know who you are!”
Then they blew off his head while he was still in the car
Shot down like a dog in broad daylight
Was a matter of timing and the timing was right
You got unpaid debts, we’ve come to collect
We’re gonna kill you with hatred, without any respect
We’ll mock you and shock you and we’ll put it in your face
We’ve already got someone here to take your place
The day they blew out the brains of the king
Thousands were watching, no one saw a thing
It happened so quickly, so quick, by surprise
Right there in front of everyone’s eyes
Greatest magic trick ever under the sun
Perfectly executed, skillfully done
Wolfman, oh Wolfman, oh Wolfman, howl
Rub-a-dub-dub, it’s a murder most foul
[…]
Don’t worry, Mr. President, help’s on the way
Your brothers are comin’, there’ll be hell to pay
Brothers? What brothers? What’s this about hell?
Tell them, “We’re waiting, keep coming,” we’ll get them as well
Love Field is where his plane touched down
But it never did get back up off the ground
Was a hard act to follow, second to none
They killed him on the altar of the rising sun
Play “Misty” for me and “That Old Devil Moon”
Play “Anything Goes” and “Memphis in June”
Play “Lonely at the Top” and “Lonely Are the Brave”
Play it for Houdini spinning around in his grave
Play Jelly Roll Morton, play “Lucille”
Play “Deep in a Dream”, and play “Driving Wheel”
Play “Moonlight Sonata” in F-sharp
And “A Key to the Highway” for the king of the harp
Play “Marching Through Georgia” and “Dumbarton’s Drums”
Play darkness and death will come when it comes
Play “Love Me or Leave Me” by the great Bud Powell
Play “The Blood-Stained Banner”, play “Murder Most Foul””
These songs show us that, despite the music industry’s continuing avalanche of industrial pop, composers and bands are still able to produce music that as an art form can combine melody and criticism, that can look behind facades and describe the reality they see – which we hear only as background noise. It shows the way to other art forms that take so much time and energy and money to get up and running, that a fight for more radical content is possible and necessary.
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Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist, lecturer and writer. His artwork consists of paintings based on contemporary geopolitical themes as well as Irish history and cityscapes of Dublin. His blog of critical writing based on cinema, art and politics along with research on a database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world can be viewed country by country here. Caoimhghin has just published his new book – Against Romanticism: From Enlightenment to Enfrightenment and the Culture of Slavery, which looks at philosophy, politics and the history of 10 different art forms arguing that Romanticism is dominating modern culture to the detriment of Enlightenment ideals. It is available on Amazon (amazon.co.uk) and the info page is here.
He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Featured image: Abel Meeropol cited this photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930, as inspiring his poem. Meeropol published the poem under the title “Bitter Fruit” in January 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine of the New York teachers union. Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set “Strange Fruit” to music himself.
February 23rd, 2024 by K. Faksova
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.
Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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The Global COVID Vaccine Safety (GCoVS) Project, established in 2021 under the multinational Global Vaccine Data Network™ (GVDN®), facilitates comprehensive assessment of vaccine safety. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of adverse events of special interest (AESI) following COVID-19 vaccination from 10 sites across eight countries.
Using a common protocol, this observational cohort study compared observed with expected rates of 13 selected AESI across neurological, haematological, and cardiac outcomes. Expected rates were obtained by participating sites using pre-COVID-19 vaccination healthcare data stratified by age and sex. Observed rates were reported from the same healthcare datasets since COVID-19 vaccination program rollout. AESI occurring up to 42 days following vaccination with mRNA (BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273) and adenovirus-vector (ChAdOx1) vaccines were included in the primary analysis. Risks were assessed using observed versus expected (OE) ratios with 95 % confidence intervals. Prioritised potential safety signals were those with lower bound of the 95 % confidence interval (LBCI) greater than 1.5.
Participants included 99,068,901 vaccinated individuals. In total, 183,559,462 doses of BNT162b2, 36,178,442 doses of mRNA-1273, and 23,093,399 doses of ChAdOx1 were administered across participating sites in the study period. Risk periods following homologous vaccination schedules contributed 23,168,335 person-years of follow-up. OE ratios with LBCI > 1.5 were observed for Guillain-Barré syndrome (2.49, 95 % CI: 2.15, 2.87) and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (3.23, 95 % CI: 2.51, 4.09) following the first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine. Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis showed an OE ratio of 3.78 (95 % CI: 1.52, 7.78) following the first dose of mRNA-1273 vaccine. The OE ratios for myocarditis and pericarditis following BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, and ChAdOx1 were significantly increased with LBCIs > 1.5.
Since declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 [1] more than 13.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide [2]. As of November 2023, at least 70.5 % of the world’s population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine [2]. This unparalleled scenario underscores the pressing need for comprehensive vaccine safety monitoring as very rare adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines may only come to light after administration to millions of individuals.
In anticipation of this unprecedented global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, the Safety Platform for Emergency vACcines (SPEAC) initiative formulated a list of potential COVID-19 vaccine adverse events of special interest (AESI) in 2020 [3]. AESI selection was based on their pre-established associations with immunization, specific vaccine platforms or adjuvants, or viral replication during wild-type disease; theoretical concerns related to immunopathogenesis; or supporting evidence from animal models using candidate vaccine platforms [3].
One flexible approach for assessing AESI is the comparison of observed AESI rates following the introduction of a vaccine program with the expected (or background) rates based on historical periods pre-vaccine roll out [4], [5]. Such comparisons can be executed rapidly and can play a key role in early detection of potential vaccine safety signals or when regulatory and public health agencies need rapid assessment of an emerging safety signal [4], [6]. Observed versus (vs.) expected (OE) analysis was integral in identifying thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) as a safety signal, prompting the suspension of use of the ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine) on March 11, 2021, in Denmark and Norway [7], [8].
These evaluations are not only valuable early-on in large-scale vaccine deployment, but also as the vaccination program matures, especially if they can be conducted in a multi-country context. We conducted a global cohort study following the Observed vs. Expected Analyses of COVID-19 Adverse Events of Special Interest Study Protocol [9] with data from 10 sites across eight countries participating in the unique Global COVID Vaccine Safety (GCoVS) Project [10] of the Global Vaccine Data Network™ (GVDN®) [11]. The GCoVS Project, initiated in 2021, is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded global collaboration of investigators and data sources from multiple nations for the purpose of COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring.
This retrospective observational study was designed to estimate the OE ratios of selected AESIs after COVID-19 vaccination in a multi-country population cohort.
The GCoVS Project compiled electronic healthcare data on AESI related to COVID-19 vaccines from participants across multiple sites within the GVDN network, including Argentina, Australia – New South Wales, Australia – Victoria, Canada – British Columbia, Canada – Ontario, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand, and Scotland [10]. The healthcare data comprised of either individual- or population-level data, depending on the availability in the study sites (Supplementary Table 1).
Immunization registers containing individual-level vaccination data were utilized by the majority of study sites. These registers covered the same population and geographic region as the data sets used to calculate background rates. We also examined population-level data on vaccination uptake using regularly updated dashboards from the study sites. If the number of individuals vaccinated in specific age and gender groups was available, we converted those numbers into person-years based on the post-vaccination risk period. Unlike the registers with individual-level data, the age and sex strata used in this approach might not have matched the strata used in the background rates calculations.
Participants were individuals vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines in the populations represented by the sites. To the extent possible, standardized methods were applied across sites. Patient types included hospital inpatients (Australia – New South Wales, France, New Zealand, Scotland), and combinations of inpatient and outpatient emergency department patients (Argentina, Australia – Victoria, Canada, Denmark, Finland). In countries without clearly defined patient types, hospital contact duration was used as a proxy for patient types. As an example, a contact duration of five hours or longer was used as a proxy for inpatients in Denmark. Site-specific characteristics of data sources and data are presented in Supplementary Table 1.
The study periods varied across countries, commencing on the date of the site-specific COVID-19 vaccination program rollout, and concluding at the end of data availability (Table 1). In general, the study periods spanned from December 2020 until August 2023. The shortest study period observed occurred in Australia – New South Wales, including 11 months from February 2021 to December 2021. Argentina had the longest study period, from December 2020 to August 2023, encompassing a total of 32 months.
Table 1. Population summary by site. (Only Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2, Moderna mRNA-1273, and Oxford/Astra Zeneca/Serum Institute of India ChAdOx1 vaccines and doses 1–4 included).
Vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2), Moderna (mRNA-1273), and Oxford/Astra Zeneca/Serum Institute of India (ChAdOx1). Click here for larger view.
The risk intervals used after each dose were 0–7 days, 8–21 days, 22–42 days, and 0–42 days. For each vaccination dose, day 0 was denoted the day of vaccine receipt. For this manuscript, we present results for the risk interval of 0–42 days only. More data are presented on the GVDN dashboard with all latest updates from participating sites [12]. Outcome events that occurred outside the study period were not included. A 365-day washout period for outcome events was used to define incident outcomes. Outcome events were considered incident if there was no record of the same outcome event during the preceding 365-day washout period. An individual may have contributed several outcome events on the condition they were separated in time by at least the washout period of 365 days.
2.4.1. Adverse events of special interest (AESI)
Thirteen conditions representing AESI of specific relevance to the current landscape of real-world vaccine pharmacovigilance were selected from the list compiled by the Brighton Collaboration SPEAC Project [3] and in response to the safety signals of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome [7], [8] (Supplementary Table 2). The conditions chosen matched the AESI for which background rates were recently generated by GVDN sites [13]. AESI were identified using harmonized International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes. Neurological conditions selected included Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis (TM), facial (Bell’s) palsy, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), and convulsions (generalized seizures (GS) and febrile seizures (FS)) as potential safety signals have been identified for some of these conditions [14], [15], [16]. Hematologic conditions included cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE); the unusual site thromboses (CVST and SVT) were selected as markers of potential TTS that could be accurately identified using diagnostic codes [17], [18]. Thrombocytopenia and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) were also included due to their association with TTS and reports of ITP as an independent safety signal [7], [19], [20]. Myocarditis and pericarditis were included as cardiovascular conditions and the OE ratios were evaluated separately for each condition [21], [22], [23].
2.4.2. COVID-19 vaccines
As of November 2023, multiple vaccines against COVID-19 were in use by the GCoVS sites representing multiple platform types such as inactivated, nucleic acid-based (mRNA), protein-based, and non-replicating viral vector platforms (Table 2). For this manuscript, we focused on three vaccines that recorded the highest number of doses administered, Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2, Moderna mRNA-1273, and Oxford/Astra Zeneca/Serum Institute of India ChAdOx1 vaccines. The cumulative number of doses of other vaccines administered (n) across study sites were relatively low, with exceptions for the inactivated Sinopharm (n = 134,550) and Sinovac (n = 31,598) vaccines, the protein-based Novavax (n = 66,856) vaccine, and the adenovirus-vector Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (n = 1,137,505) and Gamaleya Research Institute/Sputnik (n = 84,460) vaccines. The total number of doses of each vaccine brand administered are outlined in Table 2. Exposure to COVID-19 vaccine by platform/type, brand, and dose data were available at the individual level to determine the number of observed cases by vaccine type/brand and dose profile and within the 0–42 days post-vaccination risk interval.
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February 23rd, 2024 by Rick Thomas
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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In my previous article, concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza, I discussed the trajectory of the First Stage of WW3, based on the reactions, rhetoric and sabre-rattling of Israel, USA, Hezbollah, Iran, Yemen and Hamas.
Israel is not bluffing:
“The world must know and Hamas leaders must know: If by Ramadan [March 10] the hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere to include the Rafah area.”
Benny Gantz, a retired Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday, February 18,
“We will do so in a coordinated manner, facilitating the evacuation of civilians in dialogue with American and Egyptian partners and to minimize the civilian casualties as much as possible.”
There is nowhere for the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians in Rafah to go, except to flee into the deserts of Egypt—a death sentence.
The other options that Israel may be considering is allowing aid vessels into the Gaza port to remove the Palestinians, though it is unclear which countries would take them. Or even more sinister, considering Israel has not announced its future plans, the only other option is for the IDF to continue bombing them to ashes.
The casualty count, according to Palestinian sources, is over 29,000 dead and 7800 missing, with a further 69,000 wounded. Repeated attempts to reach the Palestine Ministry of Health website failed—their Twitter account has also disappeared:
Israel has dropped 29,000 shells and bombs on Gaza since October 7, 2023. This greatly exceeds the 3,678 bombs dropped by the United States between 2004 and 2010 during its Invasion of Iraq.
More than half of all buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed as of February 14, according to analysis of satellite imagery by a team of researchers at Oregon State University and the City University of New York. Somewhere between 156,000 and 190,000 buildings were destroyed.
Israel has broadened its theatre of operations and is conducting extensive airstrikes in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah ammunition dumps, according to a recent report in Israel Radar:
“The IDF is amassing troops in the northern sector, while authorities are preparing for severe war scenarios behind closed doors. Intelligence expert Danny Citrinowicz warns that the risk of military escalation is extremely high. The former high-ranking IDF officer wrote that Hezbollah attacks on Israel will persist while the Gaza war continues, and that prospects for a diplomatic resolution are dim. A broader conflict appears almost inevitable as both sides escalate their strikes, he said.”
“On that day, when the shooting stops in Gaza, we will stop the shooting in the south,” he said in a televised address.
Hezbollah has vowed it will retaliate in its own time, and in this conflict, timing is everything. If Hezbollah were to launch a full-scale invasion of Israel, with an adjacent full-scale missile launch, it would trigger an immediate response from Israel’s parter-in-crime, the United States.
It cannot be over stressed the extreme danger of this situation. If the USA responds to Hezbollah’s assault, Iran could be dragged into the conflict which would, in turn, trigger possible nuclear weapons strikes by the USA. China gets 90% of its oil from Iran and any interruption of delivery would shut down the Chinese economy virtually overnight.
Russia has a defence agreement with Iran, signed in 2019, with cooperative military exercises between the two countries and China. In 2016, Russia completed delivery of the S-300 air defence missile system to Iran, concluding an $800 million deal signed between the two states in 2007, state-run Russian press agency RIA Novosti reported. The S-300 mobile surface-to-air missile system can counter multiple aircraft at a range of 195 kilometers and ballistic missiles at a range of up to 50 kilometers.
These weapons are no doubt specifically reserved for defence against US aircraft. The ace in the hole that Iran holds is the potential to shut down the Strait of Hormuz which handles a third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and almost 25% of total global oil consumption passes through the strait, making it essential for global trade. The devastation to the global economy would be unparalleled and increase tensions between East-West relations enormously.
The US military has reported that it is aware that Iran could produce a crude nuclear bomb within 12 days if needed. From a CNN article from February of last year:
“Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl offered one of the most striking US government assessments to date of Iran’s “breakout time” as efforts to try to restore the Iran nuclear agreement remain halted and Tehran continues to breach the restrictions set out by the deal.”
After sorting through the lengthy list of models of how the world system operates, the most basic and plausible one is also the most accurate. In this hyper-complicated world, the simplest explanation to account for the facts is indeed correct. The generally accepted models are interesting, but fail to fully explain what we are experiencing at this moment in history.
However, whether you are religious or not, the world is a global family. Even a scientific atheist will concede that human beings evolved from the same primordial ooze in shallow inland seas. We have the same common biological ancestors in the primate family. Atheists agree we are brothers and sisters, but reject the notion we have a spiritual parent.
The spiritual explanation is that we share the same Creator, mother-father and we are all brothers and sisters. This is the reality of mortal life in a universe of space and time.
Some of the brothers and sisters have been very bad boys and girls.
The heads of the global family preside over 194 sub-families, comprised of nation-states. They are all agreed on a variety of mostly nefarious self-serving goals:
At the last G20 summit, in Delhi, India, The New Delhi Declaration was adopted, according to India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, with “100% consensus on all developmental and geo-political issues.” I don’t know which is worse, when the global leaders are all fighting with each other, or when they are all agreeing.
The only real bone of contention among the G20 leaders was disagreement over Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, which “most leaders” condemned.
The truth is the larger more powerful nations like USA, Israel, Russia, China, Iran are fighting over resources and control of territory. The number one most sought-after and fought-over commodity is oil.
All the nations of the world are very aware that the current major restructuring of the global economic, political and social infrastructure is going to have winners and losers. They all want to guarantee their slice of the New World Order pie.
The Ukraine War and the Gaza War are just two fronts of the same long term project of the Western elites to rule the world, no matter what the consequences. On February 11th, it was announced that Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania will construct an “extensive network of fortifications” along the borders with Russia to deter Putin invading their countries. The total cost of the project is estimated at €60million ($65 million USD). This is a long term project, comparable to Nazi Germany building fortifications in Northern France.
The defence ministers of the three countries also signed a Letter of Intent for HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, aiming to create a framework for the joint use of the weapon system in both peace and wartime. Estonia and Latvia also signed a cooperation agreement to conduct NATO Air Policing from Latvia’s Lielvarde air base. “Air Policing” is a euphemism for invading Russia’s airspace with American F-35 jets.
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Rick Thomas is a musician, activist and the author of How to Defeat the New World Order. For social activism: VictoryCanada.today and for all articles: Substack. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image source; all images in this article are from the author
February 23rd, 2024 by Drago Bosnic
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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It’s long been known that the vast majority of the Kiev regime’s “victories” on the battlefield are pure PR and optics. From the “Ghost of Kiev” and “the last stand of the Snake Island defenders” to pickle jar air defenses and the “Goat of Kiev”, there have been many mindless tropes aiming to present the Russians as supposedly “inferior” or at the very least “incompetent”. By now, it should be more than obvious such claims serve as an IQ test of sorts. And yet, here we are.
The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) are particularly targeted in this massive smear campaign, most likely designed to not only present Moscow as “weak”, but also to hurt its foreign arms sales. Namely, Russian fighter jets have always been a very lucrative business for the Kremlin, as much of the world has been buying them for well over half a century. The United States has been trying to deny Moscow the ability to export its weapons through sanctions, blackmail and other forms of pressure through coercive measures.
So far, this was met with mixed success and it can even be argued that it serves as a sort of litmus test for actual sovereignty. Thus, what Washington DC really needs is some good old war propaganda. Prior to and in the immediate aftermath of its disastrous defeat at Avdeyevka, the Neo-Nazi junta and its mainstream propaganda machine allies launched an effort to discredit the VKS through ludicrous claims such as the one that at least three Russian jets were downed “in a single last shot” at Avdeyevka, supposedly “slowing down” Moscow’s forces. Up until recently, it seems that three was the “magical number” for the Kiev regime, as they made a lot of similar claims last year as well. However, they’ve decided to take it up a notch, so the new one is seven. Namely, the Neo-Nazi junta forces claim to have shot down seven Russian jets in five days only. The supposed “culprit”? Mere three American-made “Patriot” SAM (surface-to-air missile) batteries provided by the US and other NATO member states.
It’s rather peculiar how this air defense system suddenly became “so good” after over 30 years of humiliating failures against far less technologically advanced opponents. Unless someone actually believes that the Iraqi military and Houthis are ahead of the Russian military. After all, it makes “perfect sense” that Iraqi “Scud” knock-offs and Houthi $500 drones are more advanced than Moscow’s hypersonic missiles. Jokes aside, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates learned of the “Patriot’s” capabilities the hard way, as the overhyped American SAM system failed to intercept cheap Houthi drones and missiles, resulting in billions of dollars of damage to companies such as Aramco. And yet, as soon as they were deployed in Ukraine, “Patriots” supposedly started “shooting down” Russian hypersonic missiles such as the now legendary “Kinzhal”. How did this happen? Well, once again, “magic” called war propaganda. When one side in a conflict thinks they control the narrative, “anything’s possible”.
According to Forbes, in just five days, the Kiev regime forces, “likely ‘Patriot’ crews firing 90-mile-range PAC-2 missiles”, allegedly “shot down seven Sukhoi glide-bombers: five twin-seat Su-34s and two single-seat Su-35s”. It should be noted that the Su-35S is not a “glide-bomber”, but a world-class air superiority fighter jet with significant multirole capabilities, while the Su-34 is a fighter-bomber or a tactical strike aircraft. But who am I to ever question Forbes? They certainly know this better than I do. However, in all seriousness, any proof for such claims is sorely lacking. Still, they insist that “in getting more aggressive with its ‘Patriots’, the Ukrainian air force has tipped the air-defense scales in its favor”. Pretty strong claims, given the aforementioned lack of battlefield evidence. And yet, Forbes concludes that “the Russian air force is losing its best fighter-bombers at a rate it cannot sustain”, insisting that “seven shoot-downs in five days points to a monthly loss rate of more than 40 jets”.
Fabulously enough, Forbes even managed to do some math and came to the conclusion that the VKS has “only 250 or so Su-34s and Su-35s left”, meaning that “at this rate, both types could go extinct in six months”. The report then blames the Neo-Nazi junta’s defeat at Avdeyevka on Russian usage of glide bombs, particularly the KABs (without specifying the exact type). According to Forbes, hundreds of these bombs were “instrumental in Russia’s successful conquest of the eastern city”. The obvious question arises, if the Kiev regime is shooting down so many Russian “glide-bombers”, how come they lost Avdeyevka? But, let’s ignore this. After all, it’s way too much logic for the mainstream propaganda machine. Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Russia is losing and its Aerospace Forces will soon go extinct. Forbes says that “losing Avdiivka lit a fire under the Ukrainian air force”, supposedly pushing them to “fight harder” and take “more risks” by deploying at least 26 “Patriot” launchers along the frontline.
The report gives the impression that the Kremlin is “shaking in fear” because it “knows it has a ‘Patriot’ problem”, as Forbes claims. However, there’s a problem preventing the Neo-Nazi junta from achieving “complete victory” – Republicans. According to the report, Washington DC was “the biggest donor of ‘Patriot’ missiles, and Russia-aligned Republicans in the US Congress blocked further aid to Ukraine starting in October”. And indeed, the news about all these supposed “shootdowns” show the timing is perfect for giving more “aid” to the Kiev regime. In reality, so far, there has been evidence for only one loss of a Russian Su-35S and the grossly overhyped “Patriot” can’t even claim that one, as Moscow already established it was lost in a friendly fire incident. Namely, it’s possible that the jet’s IFF (if friend or foe) system malfunctioned, causing Russian air defenses to shoot it down. Still, it can only be expected we will hear much more of the war propaganda, as the Neo-Nazi junta claims it shot down hundreds of Russian jets.
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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from InfoBrics
February 23rd, 2024 by John Perry
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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Why do United Nations human rights bodies focus on some countries, but not others? Why do organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International appear to ignore important evidence presented to them? And why do the media repeat stories of human rights abuses without questioning their veracity?
These issues and more are examined in one of 2023’s most remarkable books: The Human Rights Industry by Alfred de Zayas. It is remarkable for two reasons. One is that it brings together the insights of de Zayas and other experts into the ways in which “human rights” have been distorted to serve the interests of Western governments, principally those of the United States.
But it is also remarkable because it is not the view of an outsider, but that of someone who is perhaps more immersed than anyone of his generation in the whole field of human rights, bringing 50 years of experience to his analysis. His conclusions are damning, but de Zayas is far from pessimistic, offering a multi-point plan as to how questions of human rights could be better addressed globally, with the real interests of ordinary citizens paramount, not subservient to those of Washington, the European Union or other centers of power.
As a reader, one whose work is very briefly referenced, what struck me forcefully is how much of the book rings true for the country where I live, Nicaragua. It does not receive the same attention as countries like Venezuela or Syria, but almost all of the analysis in the de Zayas book applies to the abuse and manipulation of human rights issues in the Nicaraguan context.
This article identifies some of the key insights in The Human Rights Industry, and shows how they fit, in many cases remarkably closely, with experience in Nicaragua, focusing on the period before, during and after the coup attempt against the Sandinista government in 2018. The subject matter ranges from the macro-level of Nicaragua’s treatment by the United Nations and its human rights mechanism, through its treatment by regional bodies, by individual governments and by international human rights organizations, right down to the behavior of the handful of so-called human rights bodies in Nicaragua itself.
The base of the “human rights industry” consists of small, local organizations which, as de Zayas points out, may in some cases do excellent work. However, he qualifies this by saying: “There are few fields that are as penetrated and corrupted by intelligence services as the human rights NGOs.”
De Zayas estimates that perhaps 30% are so penetrated—a remarkable assertion that must be taken seriously given his knowledge of the sector. He goes on to warn specifically against those funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) or George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.
Image: Source: dagobertobelluci.wordpress.com
The NED’s website shows that, between 2016 and 2020, it spent almost $1.2 million in funding “human rights” bodies in Nicaragua, in addition to funding many other activities. In 2018, Nicaragua had three main “human rights” NGOs, known for their initials in Spanish as the CPDH, ANPDH and CENIDH, as well as several smaller organizations, most receiving foreign funding. Both CPDH and ANPDH were financed by the NED. CPDH also received more than $7 million from an offshoot of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The ANPDH was originally set up by the Reagan administration at the time of the Contrawar in Nicaragua, to whitewash Contra atrocities (the funding of these bodies by the NED in the 1980s, through an intermediary called Prodemca, was reported at the time by TheWashington Post). CENIDH is not known to have received NED funding but in the build-up to the coup attempt was awarded a staggering $23 million by various European institutions, some with government connections. Over $10 million of this was allocated for staff salaries alone, an astonishing amount in a low-income country.
De Zayas warns that human rights assessments by such bodies may be compromised and should be treated with skepticism. In Nicaragua’s case, their biased coverage and one-sided assessments, especially in terms of killings and other abuses during the 2018 coup attempt, have been documented in detail. The most extreme example is that of the ANPDH, which actively accompanied violent opposition activists and even attempted to cover up their worst atrocities.
As The Grayzone reported in 2019, when the ANPDH broke up in 2018 and its employees left for Costa Rica, they accused the former director, Álvaro Leiva, of appropriating funds from U.S. bodies such as the NED. Worse, they revealed that Leiva ordered them to inflate ANPDH’s casualty counts during the coup attempt, because he believed padding the death tolls would help secure extra U.S. funding.
One of the enduring myths of the coup attempt was that hundreds of people were killed by the police. Within ten days of the start of the violence, The New York Times was already reporting “…the deaths of dozens of people this month, many at the hands of the police, human rights groups say.” The Guardian later said that “At least 322 people have been killed and 2,000 others injured—mostly by the police and pro-government paramilitary groups.”
According to ANPDH, the figure reached 561, although the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said the “crackdown” led to 325 deaths. Detailed analysis by the Nicaraguan National Assembly’s Truth Commission put the real death toll at 270. Most importantly, a minority were protesters; most were bystanders or people trying to pass through opposition roadblocks, Sandinista supporters or police officers (22 of the latter were killed, and more than 400 injured).
A lawyer and analyst, Enrique Hendrix, showed in detail how the “human rights” NGOs inflated their figures. De Zayas concludes that “foreign-funded NGOs built up a completely distorted picture…in which all violence was blamed on the government.”
The violence of the anti-Ortega protesters during the country’s 2018 U.S.-backed coup attempt was obscured in the U.S. media and by the human rights industry. [Source: ticotimes.net]
Not surprisingly, all three “human rights” bodies were closed down by the government after 2018, having exhausted its patience with their blatant propaganda activities. Similar bodies now operate from Costa Rica: For example, CENIDH was reborn as El Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Nicaragua Nunca Más; it gives no indication of its funding source on its website, but it received a “democracy award” from the NED in 2021. It continues to offer poorly evidenced reports, for example, that, by the end of 2023, one in every nine Nicaraguans had been forced to leave the country.
El Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Nicaragua Nunca Más as featured on NED website. [Source: ned.org]
ANPDH reopened in Costa Rica and received more than $700,000 from USAID in 2020-2021. U.S. agencies such as the NED and USAID are still actively working with many organizations linked to Nicaragua, and the Open Society Foundation has just contracted a prominent opponent of the Sandinista government to administer a $25 million fund to promote women’s political leadership.
“At international level,” Alfred de Zayas writes, referring specifically to Nicaragua, “numerous institutions relied on unverified reports to advance a caricature of a despotic regime that kills its citizens, white-washing opposition violence.” He goes on to name the OAS, the IACHR and even the United Nations as echoing “the same biased narratives.” All of these bodies fed on the information provided by local NGOs and still do so now that many are based abroad. Yet soon after the start of the violence, these bodies were all invited by the Nicaraguan government to visit and conduct their own appraisal of events.
This is where it went wrong. Various human rights experts such as the Chilean lawyer Antonia Urrejola (later foreign minister in Boric’s government) came on such official missions, were presented with detailed evidence by the government and allowed to make a range of visits (e.g., to prisons). However, they then presented extremely biased reports which largely ignored the government’s evidence and omitted accounts by victims of opposition violence, in many cases having refused even to meet them. Understandably, after months of showing considerable patience, in December 2018 the government rescinded its agreement to allow delegations from these international bodies.
Here are two of the worst examples of IACHR bias. One was the result of a group of “experts” visiting the country with the government’s approval during a six-month mission.
The GIEI-Nicaragua (Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes) provided a 468-page report to the IACHR, focused particularly on deaths that occurred on May 30, 2018, when two large marches were held in Managua, one by the opposition and one by Sandinista supporters. The report examined deaths among government opponents, and only briefly referred to Sandinista deaths and injuries to police officers.
Crucially, it was shown to have ignored and manipulated evidence from its own experts. It ignored evidence of the use of firearms by the opposition, manipulated the analysis of its own weapons expert, and omitted any evidence that contradicted its findings. As a result of the report’s gross distortion of the May 30 events, a large number of organizations and individuals wrote to the IACHR and separately to the OAS, but received only a peremptory reply.
In another example from March 2021, the IACHR held an open session on Indigenous people’s rights in Nicaragua, to which no democratically elected representatives of Indigenous communities were invited, only spokespeople from two opposition-oriented NGOs. One was CEJUDHCAN, a recipient of USAID finance. The other, CALPI, has accused the Nicaraguan government of genocide. Four NGOs from outside Nicaragua also spoke, including the Oakland Institute in California, which is funded (inter alia) by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
The U.S.-based Alliance for Global Justice, a supporter of the Nicaraguan revolution, made a submission to the IACHR before the hearing, but this was ignored and no one from AFGJ was called to give evidence. In fact, of several witnesses, the only support for the government’s excellent record in serving Indigenous communities came from Nicaragua’s attorney general. She successfully rebuffed the opposition arguments, and the IACHR pursued them no further, but of course it was the false accusations made at the hearing which received publicity.
Alfred de Zayas specifically notes the tendency for the IACHR to make “politically sensitive petitions disappear.” At the IACHR, he remarks, “politically incorrect” victims have “little or no chance of being heard.” These are just two of the more egregious examples of the IACHR doing exactly that.
De Zayas points out that UN bodies often “capriciously decide to target one country but not another,” especially picking on countries which “oppose the Western unipolar vision.” This can lead to “demonizing a particular country in furtherance of other countries’ foreign policies.” This has repeatedly happened with the OAS and IACHR in relation to Nicaragua, but is now also the regular practice of UN bodies. Typically, the Human Rights Council or the Human Rights Commissioner will issue a report based largely on “evidence” from opposition spokespeople or NGOs, many now based outside of Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan government will oppose the report, but their representations or those of pro-government bodies will be ignored.
Source: youtube.com
Only a year ago, the UN Human Rights Council established a “Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua” (GHREN) which, in February 2023, published a highly biased report. It went so far as to claim that Nicaragua’s government had committed “crimes against humanity.” The “experts” even went beyond their mandate and recommended further economic sanctions. A ”collective” of small opposition NGOs had open access to the GHREN, and clearly had a strong influence on their work. The pro-revolutionary Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition quickly prepared a detailed critique of the report. For example, it showed how the GHREN’s chronology of events in the city of Masaya during the coup attempt omitted almost all opposition violence, including murders, torture and destruction of municipal buildings and Sandinista homes.
Alfred de Zayas joined other human rights specialists in condemning the report as being unprofessional, biased, incomplete and concocted to justify further coercive sanctions to damage Nicaragua’s economy (such unilateral coercive measures have been condemned by the UN General Assembly, most recently in Resolution 77/214 of December 2022 and by the Human Rights Council in Resolution 49/6). Yet when the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition sent the lengthy petition and supporting evidence to the UN Human Rights Council and to the “group of experts,” there was no response. After multiple emails containing further evidence, only a single, one-line reply was received, pointing the Coalition to the material on the GHREN’s website.
In The Human Rights Industry, de Zayas concludes that the real purpose behind such expert groups or commissions is “to denigrate and destabilize the targeted government to facilitate undemocratic ‘regime change’ as desired by one or more powerful countries.” They are part of the “hybrid war arsenal” which such countries employ. He goes on to refer specifically to the GHREN’s report on Nicaragua, labeling it a “political pamphlet” and saying that its accusations of crimes against humanity are undeserving of detailed comment.
Needless to say, the GHREN’s judgment was reported widely in the international media; none investigated the GHREN’s work or how its conclusions were reached.
Since the report was published, opposition figures have often been invited to address the UN. Félix Maradiaga, recipient of U.S. funding via the NED and other bodies, spoke at a UN human rights summit in May 2023. Medardo Mairena, found guilty in Nicaragua of organizing an attack on a police station in 2018 which left five people dead, but released under a 2019 amnesty, spoke at a UN Human Rights Council event in December 2023, decrying Nicaragua’s “grave human rights violations.”
Neither Human Rights Watch (HRW) nor Amnesty International (AI) escapes the attention of The Human Rights Industry. De Zayas points out that HRW can be “instrumentalized as an arm of U.S. pressure against independent states” and that it often “discredits governments seeking socialist alternatives.” On Nicaragua (as on China and Venezuela) HRW “seems to follow the State Department line,” especially in its endorsement of sanctions (known more precisely as “unilateral coercive measures”) and has even taken credit for the new sanctions imposed by Trump in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
De Zayas is critical of AI’s dependence on sources of funding aligned with U.S. foreign policy, its likely penetration by the U.S. security services and its reliance on poorly sourced information from local NGOs. In fact, AI paid particular attention to Nicaragua during and immediately after the 2018 coup attempt, issuing two major reports that were based overwhelmingly on opposition sources—whether local NGOs or so-called “independent” media that were heavily funded by U.S. agencies.
A group of activists working with the Alliance for Global Justice was so alarmed at the obvious bias in AI’s work that it prepared a detailed response to the second report, which AI pejoratively titled Instilling Terror. AFGJ’s Dismissing the Truth showed in detail the bias, omissions and errors in AI’s report. For example, it unraveled the story of a police officer who, according to AI, was killed by his fellow officers. This unlikely explanation had been offered by his estranged mother, an opposition supporter, via a local NGO. In reality there was convincing evidence, including from his partner (also a police officer), that he was killed by an opposition sniper.
Several attempts were made to engage with AI about its report, including a formal complaint via their published procedures and the offer to discuss it at their London headquarters. There was never anything more than a peremptory response.
Alfred de Zayas says of the mainstream media that, when aggressive action is taken against countries like Nicaragua that have governments not favored by Washington, their response is to demonize the leaders of such countries. Nicaragua could hardly be a clearer example, with its elected leader Daniel Ortega regularly referred to as a “dictator” running an “authoritarian regime” and of course—as we saw earlier—committing “crimes against humanity” or even “genocide.”
Nicaragua has suffered from a succession of concocted stories, relating to its alleged “failure” to tackle Covid-19 to the accusation that Nicaraguan migrants are fleeing “repression.” One that originated from a local “human rights” group attempted to label U.S. meat imports from Nicaragua as “conflict beef” because cattle ranches were allegedly displacing Indigenous people protecting Nicaragua’s forests. The story, shown by Revealand the PBS NewsHour and then picked up by other news outlets such as the BBC, was shown to have glaring gaps and falsehoods by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). The NGOs promoting the “conflict beef” story, including the journalists involved, were shown by Rick Sterling, writing in CovertAction Magazine to be linked back to bodies such as USAID and Soros’s Open Society Foundation.
Having tolerated dozens of NGOs that received U.S. money to promote “human rights” and “democracy” in the period before 2018, only to see them play key roles in the attempted coup, it was inevitable that the government would clamp down on their activities. It did so by passing legislation comparable to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which the U.S. has had in place since the 1930s and has since strengthened on various occasions. De Zayas points out the irony: “When Nicaragua passed legislation comparable to FARA, when they started enforcing the law and some U.S. allies and funding recipients…were punished, the US media sent out howls of outrage.”
Nicaragua was in the unusual position, for a small country with only seven million people, of having thousands of NGOs, many set up in the 1980s, of which a proportion were still active but many were redundant. As well as affecting the few dozen NGOs actively engaged in U.S. regime-change activities, the result of applying the new law to all NGOs was that many closed, in some cases because they were already defunct, and in others because they could not meet the new, stringent requirements, or refused to do so. The media labeled this as a “crackdown” which was “laying waste to civic society”; The Washington Post said the country is “a dictatorship laid bare.”
As I pointed out for FAIR, none of the media reports asked basic questions, such as what these non-profits have done that led to the government taking this action, whether other countries follow similar practices, or what international requirements about the regulation of non-profits Nicaragua is required to comply with.
Nicaragua’s reality is that it is the subject of continuing U.S. aggression. The local “human rights” NGOs, rightly closed down after their role in the coup attempt, are like the hydra-headed monster, springing up afresh in Costa Rica and still fostered not only by Washington directly but also by its allies in the international “human rights” industry. If there is less space for dissent in Nicaragua than there was before 2018, this is evidently what Washington wants. Decrying “human rights” abuses, imposing unilateral coercive measures on a country with one of the lowest incomes per head in the continent, refusing to recognize a popularly supported election and expressing alarm about Nicaragua’s ties to Russia and China, all help to sustain the myth that (as claimed by Presidents Trump and Biden) the country is an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. security.
Washington’s regime-change plans failed in 2018, but it has not given up.
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John Perry is based in Masaya, Nicaragua and writes for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, London Review of Books, FAIR and elsewhere. John can be reached at [email protected] or by his twitter handle @johnperry21.
Featured image source
February 23rd, 2024 by Ted Snider
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
***
There were probably many reasons why Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Ukraine’s popular commander in chief of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhny, on February 8, but one of the biggest seems to have been a disagreement over how to go forward in a war that seemed to have overwhelmingly turned against them. Zelensky spoke of a need for “the same vision of the war,” and Zaluzhny said “a decision was made about the need to change approaches and strategy.”
When the war began, Zelensky said that Ukraine “will definitely win” but stressed life over land. “Our land is important, yes, but ultimately it’s just territory.” He said that “Victory is being able to save as many lives as possible. Yes, to save as many lives as possible, because without this nothing would make sense.”
But actions speak louder than words. Zelensky began to define victory as the reclamation, not only of land lost during the war, but of Crimea and all of Ukraine’s pre-2014 territory. Zelensky insisted that Ukraine stay on the offensive. He insisted on moving forward, “Whether it’s by a kilometer or 500 meters, but forward every day.”
Zaluzhny saw Zelensky’s strategy of fighting for Bakhmut and Avdiivka at any cost as a strategic disaster that was costing Ukraine too much in weapons and in lives. Zaluzhny argued for preserving lives over forfeitable territory, lest Ukraine lose its land and its army.
In General Oleksandr Syrsky, Zelensky found the commander who would execute his vision and carry out his orders. Syrsky fought the Battle of Bakhmut. His performance there, and in other battles, gave him the reputation of a commander who is willing to give orders that lead to little real gain and lots of real loss of life. “Some soldiers say his orders are unreasonable, at times sending men to their obvious deaths,” The Washington Post reports. According to The Economist, he “has a reputation for being willing to engage the enemy, even if the cost in men and machines is high.” His reported willingness to put “his men in danger to reach his military goals” has earned him the nicknames “Butcher” and General 200, 200 being the code for a soldier’s corpse. Syrsky is also seen as being a commander who is close to Zelensky and who will not question his orders.
The replacement of Zaluzhny by Syrsky signals Zelensky’s intent to push ahead with the suicidal war of attrition and fight for every inch of land despite the cost in lives.
Aware of the optics of the choice in the public and, perhaps especially in the armed forces, Kiev assuaged the perception of Syrsky as “being indifferent to military casualties.” In his first statement as commander in chief, Syrsky said, “The lives and well-being of our servicemen have always been and remain the main asset of the Ukrainian army.”
But, again, actions speak louder than words. General Syrsky’s first words were about protecting the lives of his men, but his first actions were about fighting for every inch of territory.
On February 11, just three days after the change in command, Syrsky ordered the reinforcement and defence of Avdiivka, a strategic town that faced imminent loss to the Russian army and enormous loss of Ukrainian lives. Zaluzhny would have withdrawn his troops, preserved lives and moved the front to more defensible positions.
Syrsky deployed the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, one of the best armed and trained and most successful brigades in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
It did not go well. It went exactly as Zaluzhny said it would, and Syrsky was forced to respond exactly as Zaluzhny had said they should. But now the response was carried out in disarray instead of in an orderly, planned fashion. Perhaps Zelensky should have stuck with Zaluzhny.
In sending in reinforcements instead of retreating, Syrsky said the “goal of our operation is to exhaust the enemy, inflict maximum losses on him.” The opposite happened.
Less than a week later, on February 17, Syrsky announced the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka. “Based on the operational situation around Avdiyivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen,” he said, “I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defense on more favorable lines…The life of military personnel is the highest value.” That’s exactly what Zaluzhny advised Zelensky to do.
But the situation was worse than at first reported. Zaluzhny would have preplanned the retreat and executed it according to a plan. Zelensky and Skysky’s stubbornness turned the already costly loss into a disaster.
CNN at first reported that “Ukrainian forces are currently conducting a relatively controlled withdrawal from Avdiivka.” There were “indications,” though, “that not all Ukrainian units were able to escape an ever-tightening noose.” Though “the withdrawal was carried out in accordance with the plan that had been developed…a number of Ukrainian servicemen were taken prisoner at the final stage of the operation, under pressure from the enemy’s superior forces.”
Three days later, the situation was becoming clearer. Senior Western officials, The New York Timesreported, now say that “Hundreds of Ukrainian troops may have been captured by advancing Russian units or disappeared during” what they now call, “Ukraine’s chaotic retreat from the eastern city of Avdiivka.” The Times was now calling it “a devastating loss.”
And hundreds may have been an understatement. Further down in the article, the Times reports that “soldiers with knowledge of Ukraine’s retreat estimated that 850 to 1,000 soldiers appear to have been captured or are unaccounted for.” There are unconfirmed reports of even higher numbers of dead and wounded.
That may not have happened under Zaluzhny, who long ago conceded that Avdiivka would fall and would have preplanned the retreat. Some Ukrainian soldiers and Western officials say “the Ukrainian withdrawal was ill-planned and began too late,” according to the Times. They say that “a failure to execute an orderly withdrawal, and the chaos that unfolded Friday and Saturday as the defenses collapsed, was directly responsible for what appears to be a significant number of soldiers captured.”
Suddenly, the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade was not assaulting but desperately trying “to cover the retreat.” The retreat was chaotic: “…some units pulled back before others were aware of the retreat. That put the units left behind at risk of encirclement by the Russians.”
But the true story may be even worse. Military analyst Stephen Bryen reports that the disaster may have begun before the reinforcements even arrived at Avdiivka. Some of the brigades Syrsky brought in gathered and organized in the nearby town of Selydove. Bryen says the Russian military discovered they were there and struck with missiles. Between 1,000 and 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers were reportedly killed.
Bryen says that when the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade arrived in Avdiivka, they found a desperate situation. They reportedly discarded Syrsky’s orders and retreated. Some reportedly surrendered. Syrsky then announced the troop withdrawal and the fall of Avdiivka.
Zelensky’s choice of Syrsky over Zaluzhny was, in part, the choice to maintain the course of a war of attrition to hold and retake all Ukrainian territory. Syrsky’s first orders fulfilled that choice in Avdiivka. It went exactly as Zaluzhny said it would but worse because Zelensky and Syrsky tried to defy the battlefield reality that Zaluzhny recognized. Perhaps Zelensky should have stuck with Zaluzhny.
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Ted Snider is a regular columnist on U.S. foreign policy and history at Antiwar.com and The Libertarian Institute. He is also a frequent contributor to Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative as well as other outlets. To support his work or for media or virtual presentation requests, contact him at [email protected]
Featured image: Bucha, Ukraine. April 4, 2022. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visit Bucha town after liberation it from Russian occupiers during Russian Ukrainian war. (Source: TLI)
February 23rd, 2024 by Michael Jansen
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
***
Last Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Munich Security Conference that the post-Gaza war scenario provides an “extraordinary opportunity” for Arab governments to open relations with Israel. After stressing the “urgent” need for establishing a Palestinian state without spelling out how this could be done, he stated,
“Virtually every Arab country wants to integrate Israel into the region, to normalise relations if they haven’t already done so, to provide security assurances and commitments so that Israel can feel more safe and more secure.”
This was an amazing statement which reflects the Biden administration’s stupendous willful disconnect from reality. “Israel” and its needs were featured in each of his three sentences, but Arab concerns were ignored. He refused to admit Israel had become the aggressor in the Gaza war by employing massively disproportionate force to retaliate for Hamas attack on southern Israel. Blinded by Israel’s losses, Blinken totally ignored the sea change Israel’s deadly and devastating onslaught has wrought among Arabs and citizens of the globe.
Blinkered Blinken clearly did not tune into news of well-organised pro-Palestinian mass protests which erupted in 120 cities across the world on Saturday, including London where 250,000 rallied to demand an immediate ceasefire and freedom for Palestine. Protesters in Madrid, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Jakarta and Stockholm condemned Israel’s threat to invade Rafah where 1.4 million Gazans have taken refuge from Israel’s devastating war.
This is an Israeli war like no other. Israel’s 1948 war of establishment and successor wars have not gripped and traumatised millions of Arabs, Europeans, Africans and Asians as has the ongoing war on Gaza. Newspapers are filled with articles on the gory results of Israeli carpet bombing of Gazan neighbourhoods, refugee camps, hospitals, schools and shelters.
For tens of millions the war has invaded their homes as satellite television channels broadcast real-time images of the suffering of Gazan families digging children from the rubble of destroyed homes. Relatives carry weeping wounded children to besieged hospitals where amputations are performed without anaesthetics. Watchers become witnesses who are both captured and traumatised by horrors unfolding before their eyes and pounding in their ears, by the blood and tears, the body count and fears for the wounded and disappeared.
The war is deeply personal because daily coverage also invades social media with images of suffering, experts’ commentaries, and politicians’ justifications for doing nothing to half the carnage. People cannot escape the war on mobile phones tucked into their pockets.
The latest poll commissioned by the Washington-based Arab Centre reveals how the Gaza war has impacted Arab attitudes toward Israel and the US. The survey of 8,000 respondents was conducted between December 12th, 2023, and January 5th, 2024. The 16 Arab countries included were Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the Palestinian West Bank and Yemen, representing “more than 95 per cent of the population across the Arab region”.
Blinken clearly did not bother to acquaint himself with this survey. If he had he would have learned that 59 per cent of respondents “had become certain there would be no possibility for peace with Israel”, 14 per cent said they had “serious doubts” peace with Israel could be achieved, and 9 per cent did not believe in peace with Israel “in the first place”. This left 13 per cent clinging to the hope that peace with Israel was possible.
The pollsters reported that among those surveyed 59 per cent followed the news daily and 20 per cent several times a week; 54 per cent relied on satellite television, 36 per cent favoured social media. Fifty-one per cent rated the US as the largest threat to the stability of the region, Israel 26 per cent; 76 per cent said their opinion of US policy has “become more negative than before the war”. Forty-two per cent said US policies during the war would “very much” harm US regional interests and 23 per cent “somewhat” harm US interests. Ninety-two per cent believed Palestine is an Arab cause and 89 per cent were against Arab recognition of Israel, up from 84 per cent in 2022.
The latest Gaza war is the culmination of 75 years of near constant warfare with Israel and three-quarters of a century of trauma inflicted upon generations of Palestinians and Arabs. Israel’s 1948 war of establishment, known by Palestinians as Al Naqba (The Debacle), ended with Israel’s conquest of 78 per cent of Palestine. This war inflicted the 20th century’s first major defeat and psychological trauma on the Arabs. The West regarded the emergence of Israel as a triumph at a time the US and Europe were recovering from revelations of the Holocaust. The Arab world refused to recognise Israel and pretended it did not exist. The war was well covered in newspapers and cinema newsreels and on radio in the region and the West.
The 1956 war on Egypt mounted by Britain, France, and Israel in response to Cairo’s nationalization of the Suez Canal was a desperate attempt to overthrow President Gamal Abdel Nasser. He not only survived but was hailed as a hero across the region. This war of aggression was seen in the West as the last gasp of European colonialism and was covered by newspapers, radio, and television, which had emerged as a key media outlet.
Israel’s second successful war of conquest in 1967 dealt another deep psychological shock to the Arab world, which vowed, “No peace with Israel, no relations with Israel and no negotiations with Israel.” The West, including media, celebrated Israel’s victory while the Arabs were embittered and alienated.
The October 1973 war was the first to be initiated by the Arabs — Egypt and Syria — against Israel and provided a boost to the Arab public opinion although Israel — after receiving the usual infusion of US weapons – regained territory recaptured by Egypt and Syria. Since Israel’s military was caught napping, Israelis reeled from the shock of the surprise. Western media coverage was biased in favour of Israel, as usual.
This changed in June 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon while scores of foreign correspondents were based in Beirut and reported on Israel’s blitz on cities and Palestinian camps in the south. Israel’s sustained, indiscriminate bombing of Beirut compelled US President Ronald Reagan to order a halt in August. Mature global public opinion has never recovered from massive media coverage of the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians by Israel’s local Christian proxies while the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps were surrounded by the Israeli forces. Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon was closely covered by Arab media which reflected popular feelings and Western media which no longer adored Israel.
International as well as Arab media were able to report reasonably on Israel’s Gaza wars in 2008-2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021 but only courageous Palestinian reporters have been able to cover the current all-out Israeli onslaught. At least, 126 have lost their lives. For a change we see and hear their war as it unfolds and partake of their trauma despite Israel’s mainly uunconvincing efforts to influence our perceptions in its favour.
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Featured image: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. February 17, 2024 (Source: Iran International)
February 23rd, 2024 by Howell Woltz
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
***
The Conference of Warmongers (a.k.a. Munich Security Conference) is in full-swing next door in Germany, but their sole focus—other than spending billions of our money on war toys—is a dead spy.
For those who’ve never heard of Alexei Navalny, he is the man Britain claimed was poisoned by Putin (in England, somehow) using Novichok, a chemical so deadly one touch kills you, but it made its way somehow into his underpants.
Sounds like an inside job to me, but it did not kill him, strangely enough. Instead, he died in a Russian prison this week while serving a sentence for being a traitor to his country.
“Putin did it”, the High Priests and Priestesses of Globalism are screaming from their war toy bazaar in Munich. “Let’s sanction Russia and say Russia sponsors terrorism!”
That war cry is emanating from Josep Borrell, High Commissioner of the EU, all the way to Joseph Biden, the White House resident in America with Hillary Clinton singing tenor.
This is the undercover tape of Alexei Navalny asking MI6 Officer James William Thomas Ford for $10-20 million to overthrow the Russian government in a U.S. sponsored ‘Colour Revolution’— and you’ll never guess who wrote the book on that topic. [authenticity yet to be confirmed]
Navalny was a traitor to his nation—recruited by then U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul I read just today—who is calling for war against Russia because his spy, Navalny, is dead.
Who killed him? “Putin, of course!,” says his mentor McFaul on Andrea Mitchell’s show.
How do they know that? They don’t, but who needs truth when you have a war to start!
To me, Navalny’s death seems planned to coincide with their European arms bazaar, as his grieving widow was ready in make-up (in Munich) at the convention, with a prepared speech, just hours later.
In other words, this looks like the CIA’s work, cleaning up loose ends, with their spy’s Missus dressed to the nines to take up where hubby left off as his replacement ‘opposition’ to Putin. Coincidence? Not with this crowd of Global Gangsters.
They are in a hurry to kick off their war and needed the theatre.
But let’s slow down for a minute—Color Revolution—who did write the book on that?
The guy who literally wrote the 7-step plan to foment a ‘colour revolution’ in a foreign nation, also recruited Alexei Navalny as a spy in Russia when he was ambassador.
Russia caught Navalny trying to raise “10 to 20 million” from an MI6 operative, Agent Ford, as you saw in the clip above. The money was to be used to overthrow the Russian government on behalf of the CIA and MI6.
But get this—Putin let Navalny go, perhaps because of this. Why keep a known operative trying to overthrow your country inside it?
So Navalny then moves to England, claims he’s poisoned—by the man who let him leave Russia—but voluntarily returns to Russia where he’s tried as a traitor and jailed. None of this makes any sense, until you understand who he works for–the CIA and MI6.
This week, Europe is on fire—though you won’t hear that on Lamestream Media—but I’m here watching it and very happy to report that fact!
From Spain to Czech Republic and everywhere in between, farmers and truckers are shutting things down to force the corrupt EU tyrants and their puppets running member nations to drop the Green Graft that is killing Europe.
We joined the strike today here in Warsaw, Poland and all border crossings from Ukraine are closed down by the farmers to prevent more EU dumping of grain and corn (under EU mandate!)—-which is destroying prices with inferior quality poisoned grain.
The Poles are pissed! Not only is the corrupt EU dumping grain from Ukraine to fund their NATO war—destroying prices and Polish farmers in the process—but the grain was treated with dangerous chemicals not allowed in this nation. They’re poisons.
It occurred to me that this may be part of the EU/WEF depopulation scheme so I’m glad the farmers are dumping and destroying it rather than doing what the Brussels bandits demand.
Meanwhile in Munich, every fibre of every NATO Globalist is screaming for a direct war with Russia because their proxy war in Ukraine is well….out of Ukrainians.
Bleeding out the U.S. Treasury and destroying America with never-ending wars is working, but it is taking too long, so former Ambassador McFaul and crew are calling for the U. S. to unilaterally steal roughly $600 billion in U.S. Treasuries owned by Russia and give that money to Zelenskyy to launder in his Oligarch war in Ukraine.
This nutso idea accomplishes several things like prolonging the war, selling billions more in war toys and giving the Uniparty in the U.S. all the money it needs to rig the 2024 election, but it also acts to destroy the source of U.S. strength abroad–its dollar.
If McFaul and his motley crew get Biden Administration fools and the Congressional idiots to approve such a thing, no other sensible nation on earth would ever buy a U.S. Treasury or finance America’s crippling debt again–ever. Did I mention ‘ever’?
Message to the world? “All it takes is a dispute with us over anything and we’ll steal your money and give it to your enemies.”
In short, this one braindead move by Globalists whose goal is not only ‘our’ depopulation but killing my home nation, would accomplish both things in one move.
And this morning, everyone from former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s wife to Ambassador McFaul on Mitchell’s talking head show were all in on this immediate act of self-destruction because a Russian spy (working for them) died in a Russian prison.
As if Putin needed another excuse besides NATO surrounding Russia with missiles and building 47 illegal bioweapon labs to kill his people (and all of us in the neighbourhood as well)–that just might be the straw that merits a test drive of his new orbiting nuke.
These evil characters just told us last week they want to ‘peacefully’ kill 7 billion of us, and they’ve been tellling us how they intend to do it since 1968 (Limits to Growth, published by The Club of Rome).
Sir Alexander King and Aurelio Peccei were clear. They would use war, disease, and a knowingly false narrative of fear they called Global Warming to scare us into being willing to die without a fight.
None of this has to be.
So wake up. Stand up, and tell the bastards ‘No’.
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February 23rd, 2024 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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In one sense the Ukraine conflict is over. In another sense it is dangerously expanding.
Biden and Putin are taking the path to nuclear war. Biden by providing long range missiles to Ukraine, and Putin by refusing to use sufficient force to bring the conflict to an end before it spins out of control.
To again repeat my warning, by allowing the war to drag on, Putin is inviting more provocations and more dangerous provocations. Putin’s way of fighting the conflict has cost far more lives than a quick and total military victory which would have been over before Western involvement could be organized.
The Kremlin should have seen the Maidan Coup in the works and stopped it. Failing this, the Kremlin should have accepted the request of Donbass in 2014 to be reincorporated into Russia like Crimea. Instead, the Kremlin sat on its hands for 8 years with a totally unrealistic belief in the Minsk Agreement while the US built an army for Ukraine, the Kremlin itself making little, if any, preparation. When the Kremlin finally was forced to intervene in Donbass, the bulk of the fighting was done by a small private military force, the leader of which was disgusted by the Kremlin’s defeatist restraint. Putin broke up this superb fighting force, and its leader died in a suspicious airplane crash.
It seems the Kremlin is always caught off guard and unprepared. This is a certain road to nuclear war. See this.
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Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
February 23rd, 2024 by Dr. Lewis Coleman
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
***
Among the most visible geopolitical controversies of our age is planetary climate. The idea goes that earth’s temperature is rising, that this rise is becoming catastrophic, that its cause is manmade carbon emissions, and that only reductions in those emissions will save the planet and, by extension, humanity. But is any of this true? The American Geopolitical Institute will be exploring these questions through the eyes of our lead investigator, Dr. Lewis Coleman. In his initial article, Dr. Coleman takes a hard look at the much-maligned atmospheric gas, CO2.
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most misunderstood of all atmospheric gases, but also the most interesting. It is benign, beneficial, and essential for both plant and animal life, but it is vociferously vilified as toxic waste, like urine, that must be expelled from the body by breathing, and as a “greenhouse gas” that threatens human existence with excessive heat and melted polar ice.
Given overwhelming evidence to the contrary, these fractured fairy tales are flabbergasting. They can only be explained by prevailing ignorance plus the power, politics, privilege, and persuasion that perpetually prevails and perturbs human endeavor and prevents progress.1
CO2 is essential for life on the earth’s surface. Multicellular plants convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates for food and cellulose for structural support. In multicellular vertebrates, carbon dioxide is as essential as oxygen, because it enables the mechanism of oxygen transport and delivery that captures oxygen from the atmosphere (or water) and delivers it to cells deep within the body.2
CO2 is also the major component of hydroxyapatite, which forms bone. The human body contains some 20 liters of gaseous carbon dioxide that is mostly dissolved in bodily fluids, as compared to 1 L of nitrogen and 1 L of oxygen. The CO2 leaks from the skin and equilibrates with atmospheric CO2, which slowly fluctuates over eons within a narrow range. Respiratory drive mechanisms adapt to this equilibrium and stimulate breathing to sustain it.
If CO2 was a narcotic, we would all be drunk, and if it were toxic, we would all be dead. Instead, CO2 has powerful therapeutic properties that were revealed by medical research at the turn of the 20th century. This is because breathing or bathing in CO2 stimulates respiratory drive, reduces microvascular flow resistance, speeds the transport of oxygenated blood from the lungs to organs and tissues, and releases oxygen from blood into tissues.2
Carbon dioxide is one of the most beneficial substances on planet earth. Why then do the madmen who control society want to get rid of it?
It wasn’t always this way.
A century ago, the nurse-anesthetists who dominated anesthesia service in operating rooms after WWI embraced physician research and supplemented ether anesthesia with morphine analgesia to prevent harmful nervous activity induced by surgery.1 They also supplemented ether with carbon dioxide to speed anesthetic induction and emergence; counteract morphine respiratory depression; optimize cardiorespiratory function, tissue oxygenation, and organ protection; and prevent heart attacks, strokes, atelectasis, pneumonia, nausea, vomiting, and unexpected postoperative respiratory arrest.
The success of these heroic nurses inspired physicians to use Carbogen, a therapeutic mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide in pressurized tanks, to treat strokes, heart attacks, drowning, alcohol inebriation, drug overdose, asthma, pneumonia, smoke inhalation, cardiopulmonary arrest, and bacterial infections, and to assist newborn babies with breathing problems. Soon Carbogen became standard equipment on fire trucks in major cities, and it saved countless lives. All this came close to revolutionizing medicine in the 1930s.3
Carbogen has largely been forgotten, though with today’s modern machines, monitors, and medications it could be more useful than ever. For example, it could cure or facilitate the treatment of interstitial cystitis, ulcerative colitis, regional enteritis, rheumatoid diseases, cancer, heart disease, and life-threatening critical illnesses such as eclampsia and multi-organ failure syndrome. CO2 remains FDA-approved, but its therapeutic properties and even the mechanism of oxygen transport and delivery have been banished from medical literature and awareness, so it is almost never used anymore.
What happened was that, disastrously, organized medicine became envious of the success of the nurse-anesthetists and conspired to control this profitable medical specialty.4 In 1897 Dr. Charles Bardeen, the son of a New York publishing magnate, became the first graduate of Johns Hopkins Medical School. He was immediately appointed as a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, and then elevated to the position of Dean in 1907.
In 1927 he selected Dr. Ralph Waters to be the first chairman of a university department of anesthesia in the world. He later said, “Ralph Waters was the first person the university hired to put people to sleep, but instead he awakened a worldwide interest in anesthesia.”5 This anointed Dr. Waters with priceless prestige, and he knew how to use it. He was a shrewd salesman, who had acquired prominence in medical circles by dunking his anesthetized and intubated pet dog named “Airway” into a tank of water to demonstrate the effectiveness of Arthur Gudel’s endotracheal tubes, which are inserted into the trachea to prevent airway obstruction and support breathing.6,7
Dr. Waters immediately joined forces with Dr. Chauncey Leake, the chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at Wisconsin, whose specialty was war gas research, to devise specious animal experiments that deliberately confused CO2 asphyxiation with anesthesia. Dr. Waters also confabulated clinical reports of anonymous anesthetists that dramatically described fictitious disasters caused by overenthusiastic CO2 supplementation, which he characterized as “CO2 toxicity” instead of asphyxiation.1,8,9 This confusion has been subsequently sustained by rigged research and specious publications.10-13
As chairman, Dr. Waters introduced his practical new anesthetic technique that used intravenous barbiturate induction and paralysis to enable elective endotracheal intubation. This secured the airway against aspiration and obstruction, facilitated breathing, and enabled surgery in the prone position and in the oral cavity. These procedures were impossible with the mask management technique used by the nurses. Furthermore, the paralysis promoted surgical convenience by preventing untoward muscle tension and unexpected movements due to uncontrolled surgical stimulation.
Waters thus had devised a powerful political strategy to wreck the reputation of the nurses, replace them with his MD anesthesiology trainees, and promote the sales of his patented “Waters Canister” that absorbed carbon dioxide from gas mixtures. This created a powerful hoax that frightened physicians into avoiding both CO2 and narcotics that has been abetted ever since by professional medicine, medical corporations, and “climate change” hucksters.4
He also indoctrinated his residents with the notion that carbon dioxide is “toxic waste, like urine,” that must be “rid from the body” to prevent mythical “CO2 toxicity” by using mechanical hyperventilation during anesthesia.9,14 This was cleverly consistent with entrenched orthodox CO2 beliefs, but it is scientific insanity, because hyperventilation is inherently dangerous, confers no benefits, and is incompatible with therapeutic narcotics. It also dangerously depletes CO2 body reserves, which exaggerates narcotic respiratory depression and invites heart attacks, strokes, and unexpected postoperative respiratory arrest.
These effects, however, didn’t become problematic until several years later when defective “closed circuit” anesthesia machines, which were designed to conserve expensive anesthetic gases, were replaced with “open circuit” anesthesia machines that were designed to eliminate any possibility of CO2 accumulation within the machines.15 By that time, the therapeutic and life-sustaining characteristics of carbon dioxide were forgotten, so the consequent postoperative respiratory depression problems were blamed on narcotics.
Why? Because CO2 is cheap, safe, effective, and easy to use, not all that far removed from a “home remedy.” And because the combination of carbon dioxide and narcotics prevented lingering manifestations of the “surgical stress syndrome” including cancer, heart disease, and chronic illnesses, all of which promote professional and corporate profits at the price of public health.
Dr. Waters next took care to place his graduates in prominent positions in hospitals and university medical schools. Having successfully displaced the nurses, founded the anesthesiology profession on false science, and created a deadly hoax that has confused anesthesia practice ever since, he mysteriously retired at the age of 65 and refused further contact with the monstrous profession he had created.4,16-18 Meanwhile, Dr. Chauncey Leake enjoyed prestigious appointments at UC San Francisco, the University of Texas, the Ohio State University, and as chairman of the Board of Science Journal.19
Seldom have so few caused so much harm to so many.1 Their acts of wholesale mischief have reversed medical progress; derailed medical research; and killed and maimed countless patients ever since. Their endeavors are replete with the cloven hoofprints of organized medicine, powerful medical corporations, and the Wellcome Trust.
CO2 is a “trace gas” in the earth’s atmosphere that couldn’t possibly cause “global warming,” which is a cyclical phenomenon that occurs at intervals of hundreds of years. The most recent prior episode occurred during the early 1400s, when a fleet of massive Chinese junks sailed through the melted North Pole passage and mapped the world, soon followed by Western explorers.20 But the ice froze again before Admiral Byrd and his contemporaries searched for the mysterious polar passage. Now it has melted again, and commercial shipping prefers it to the Panama Canal.
What, then, is the source of CO2? The fact is that it is continuously produced by the vast mass of microbial life that thrives in the hellishly hot environment deep beneath the earth’s surface, where the nuclear core provides abundant chemicals that serve as food. This explains the high CO2 concentrations found in caves and why volcanic eruptions belch forth vast quantities of carbon dioxide. Its high molecular weight causes atmospheric CO2 to hover near the earth’s surface, where photosynthetic bacteria and multicellular plants avidly consume it and constrain its concentration to only 0.03% of the atmospheric gas mix, so that plant and animal life on the earth’s surface thrive at the brink of CO2 starvation.
Multicellular life cannot survive at higher altitudes such as the “dead zone” near the top of Mt. Everest where CO2 is virtually absent, which explains why the top of Mt. Everest is littered with lemming-like Darwin Award winners and why their guides suffer hypoxic brain damage.
CO2 is also an ideal refrigerant with a revealing history. It was patented in Britain as a refrigerant in 1850, and in 1870 an American businessman installed CO2 refrigeration in a cargo ship to transport beef from Texas to New York City. It is devoid of toxicity, but its low cost undermines its commercial viability.21 CO2 was soon supplanted by ammonia, but consumers feared ammonia toxicity, and preferred ice deliveries to ammonia refrigerators.
For example, tour guides at California’s Hearst Castle were sickened by ammonia leaking from its damaged antique refrigerators after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The German division of the international General Electric cartel retained Albert Einstein and Moshe Szilard to invent safe refrigeration technologies during the interval between WWI and WWII. They patented several commercially impractical ideas,22 but their efforts were rendered moot by Thomas Midgely, Jr., the infamous inventor of leaded gasoline, who dramatically inhaled Freon, a fluorinated hydrocarbon developed by DuPont, to demonstrate its safety before a crowded engineering convention.23 The DuPont Corporation then promoted Freon, whereupon Freon refrigerators were enthusiastically embraced after WWII.
However, Freon was never safe. When exposed to open flame it degenerates to phosgene gas, which killed more soldiers than any other “war gas” during WWI. This was particularly problematic because refrigeration repairmen routinely used propane torches to detect Freon leaks.24 This explains the fakery of the “Ozone Hole” hysteria, which enabled DuPont to replace dangerous Freon with hydrocarbon alternatives that likewise cannot compare to the safety of carbon dioxide.
Freon also explains the pulmonary illness suffered by firemen and policemen during the 9/11 demolition of the World Trade Center towers, which exposed massive quantities of Freon to thermite flame.24 Thankfully, the European Union has introduced regulations to restrict toxic chemicals, so Mercedes Benz and other European corporations are now developing safe CO2 air conditioning systems for cars and homes.
So, the next time a “climate change” fanatic starts ranting at you about the horrors of CO2 you can tell them to hold on until they hear “the rest of the story.” Meanwhile, must we await the arrival of our great-great grandchildren before the therapeutic blessings of carbon dioxide, surgical narcotics, and stress theory can be realized? Why not us? Why not now?
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Dr. Lewis S. Coleman is Chair of the Science and Education Board of the American Institute of Stress. He is a board-certified anesthesiologist who completed his BS degree in biology at the Ohio State University, obtained his MD degree from New York Medical College, and completed his surgical internship and anesthesiology residency at UCLA, followed by 40 years in private practice. Coleman’s basic sciences instruction at NYMC miraculously coincided with the two-year sojourn of Dr. Johannes Rhodin, who was retained by the school to reform its curriculum. Dr. Rhodin was a famous researcher and expert on the stress theory of Dr. Hans Selye. His lectures devastated the dogma of classical physiology and convinced Coleman that stress theory represented the future of medicine. Many years later, these lectures enabled Coleman to identify Selye’s long-sought stress mechanism. It promises to revolutionize medicine and provide a new era of health, longevity, and freedom from the eternal scourge of disease and premature death. Coleman sets forth his ideas in his important new book, “50 Years Lost in Medical Advance: The Discovery of Hans Selye’s Stress Mechanism.”
Notes
1 Coleman, L. S. Four Forgotten Giants of Anesthesia History. Journal of Anesthesia and Surgery 3, 1-17 (2015). <http://www.ommegaonline.org/article-details/Four-Forgotten-Giants-of-Anesthesia-History/468>.
2 Coleman, L. S. Oxygen Transport and Delivery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efi9v86isSw&t=117s (2022). <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efi9v86isSw&t=117s>.
3 Henderson, Y. Resuscitation with Carbon Dioxide. Science 83, 399-402 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.83.2157.399
4 Coleman, L. S. The Great Medical Hoax of the 20th Century. (2022). <https://www.amazon.com/Great-Medical-Hoax-20th-Century/dp/B09X4BCTWG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8A8KBG2F26D7&keywords=the+great+medical+hoax+of+the+20th+Century&qid=1659205157&sprefix=the+great+medical+hoax+of+the+20th+century%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1>.
5 Morris, L. E., Schroeder, M. E., Warner, M. E. & Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology (Park Ridge Ill.). Ralph Milton Waters, M.D., mentor to a profession : proceedings, the Ralph M. Waters International Symposium on Professionalism in Anesthesia, Madison, Wisconsin, 2002. (Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, 2004).
6 Waters, R. M. Ltr Waters to Guedel Re: intention tremors, ET tube durability. https://calisphere.org/item/784c2d71-bb93-4c73-af85-2ce6faf9f8d6/ (1929, March 19).
7 Waters, R. M. Waters reports one-lung anesthesia with new ET tubes. https://calisphere.org/item/f8195ad6-f577-4a0e-8f9f-aa9dbfaf1ae1/ (1931, June 10).
8 Leake, C. D. W., R.M. The Anesthetic Properties of Carbon Dioxid. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 33 (1928).
9 Waters, R. M. Toxic Effects of Carbon Dioxide. J.A.M.A 100:519, 1933, 219-224 (1933).
10 Eisele, J. H., Eger, E. I., 2nd & Muallem, M. Narcotic properties of carbon dioxide in the dog. Anesthesiology 28, 856-865 (1967).
11 Cullen, D. J. & Eger, E. I., 2nd. Cardiovascular effects of carbon dioxide in man. Anesthesiology 41, 345-349 (1974).
12 Cullen, D. J., Eger, E. I., 2nd & Gregory, G. A. The cardiovascular effects of carbon dioxide in man, conscious and during cyclopropane anesthesia. Anesthesiology 31, 407-413 (1969).
13 Eckenhoff, J. E. Carbon Dioxide and Man. Anesthesiology 21, 585-586 (1960).
14 Waters, R. M. Carbon Dioxide. Can Med Assoc J 38, 240-243 (1938).
15 Jackson, D. E. Anesthesia Equipment From 1914 to 1954 and Experiments Leading To Its Development. Anesthesiology 16, 953-969 (1955).
16 Overdyk, F. J. postoperative Opioids Need System-Wide Overhaul. Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Newsletter (2010). <http://www.apsf.org/newsletters/html/2010/winter/11_opioids.htm>.
17 Coleman, L. S. Intraoperative Hyperventilation May Contribute to Postop Opioid Hypersensitivity. apsf Newsletter Winter 2009-2020 (2010). <https://www.apsf.org/article/intraoperative-hyperventilation-may-contribute-to-postop-opioid-hypersensitivity/>.
18 Coleman, L. S. A call for standards on perioperative CO(2) regulation. Can J Anaesth (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12630-011-9469-7
19 Shimkin, M. B. Chauncey D. Leake, president-elect. Science 129, 468-469 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.129.3347.468
20 Menzies, G. 1421 : the year China discovered the world. (Bantam, 2002).
21 Nguyen, O. a. Carbon Dioxide as a Refrigerant, <https://www.rsi.edu/blog/hvacr/carbon-dioxide-refrigerant/> (2016).
22 Dannen, G. The Einstein-Szilard Refrigerators, <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-einstein-szilard-refrigerators/> (1997).
23 Knight, L. The Fatal Attraction of Lead. BBC News Magazine (2014). <https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29568505>.
24 Shawn. Burning freon can produce phosgene gas, <https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/burning-freon-can-produce-phosphene-gas-229557/> (2002).
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February 23rd, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark
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Big Tech’s Effort to Silence Truth-tellers: Global Research Online Referral Campaign
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On February 21, the Royal Courts of Justice hosted a second day of carnivalesque mockery regarding the appeal by lawyers representing an ill Julian Assange, whose publishing efforts are being impugned by the United States as having compromised the identities of informants while damaging national security. Extradition awaits, only being postponed by rearguard actions such as what has just been concluded at the High Court.
How, then, to justify the 18 charges being levelled against the WikiLeaks founder under the US Espionage Act of 1917, an instrument not just vile but antiquated in its effort to stomp on political discussion and expression?
Justice Jeremy Johnson and Dame Victoria Sharp got the bien pensant treatment of the national security state, dressed in robes, and tediously inclined. Prosaic arguments were recycled like stale, oppressive air. According to Clair Dobbin KC, there was “no immunity for journalists to break the law” and that the US constitutional First Amendment protecting the press would never confer it. This had an undergraduate obviousness to it; no one in this case has ever asserted such cavalierly brutal freedom in releasing classified material, a point that Mark Summers KC, representing Assange, was happy to point out.
Yet again, the Svengali argument, gingered with seduction, was run before a British court. Assange, assuming all the powers of manipulation, cultivated and corrupted the disclosers, “soliciting” them to pilfer classified government materials. With limping repetition, Dobbin insisted that WikiLeaks had been responsible for revealing “the unredacted names of the sources who provided information to the United States,” many of whom “lived in war zones or in repressive regimes”. In exposing the names of Afghans, Iraqis, journalists, religious figures, human rights dissidents and political dissidents, the publisher had “created a grave and immediate risk that innocent people would suffer serious physical harm or arbitrary detention”.
The battering did not stop there. “There were really profound consequences, beyond the real human cost and to the broader ability to the US to gather evidence from human sources as well.” Dobbin’s proof of these contentions is thin, vague and causally absent: the arrest of one Ethiopian journalist following the leak; unspecified “others” disappeared. She even admitted the fact that “it cannot be proven that their disappearance was a result of being outed.” This was certainly a point pounced upon by Summers.
The previous publication by Cryptome of all the documents, or the careless publication of the key to the encrypted file with the unredacted cables by journalists from The Guardian in a book on WikiLeaks, did not convince Dobbin. Assange was “responsible for the publications of the unredacted documents whether published by others or WikiLeaks.” There was no mention, either, that Assange had been alarmed by The Guardian faux pas and had contacted the US State Department of this fact. Summers, in his contribution, duly reminded the court of the publisher’s frantic efforts while also reasoning that the harm caused had been “unintended, unforeseen and unwanted” by him.
With this selective, prejudicial angle made clear, Dobbin’s words became those of a disgruntled empire caught with its pants down when harming and despoiling others. “What the appellant is accused of is really at the upper end of the spectrum of gravity,” she submitted, attracting “no public interest whatsoever”. Conveniently, calculatingly, any reference to the enormous, weighty revelations of WikiLeaks of torture, renditions, war crimes, surveillance, to name but a few, was avoided. Emphasis was placed, instead, upon the “usefulness” of the material WikiLeaks had published: to the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden.
This is a dubious point given the Pentagon’s own assertions to the contrary in a 2011 report dealing with the significance of the disclosure of military and diplomatic documents by WikiLeaks. On the Iraq War logs and State Department cables, the report concluded “with high confidence that disclosure of the Iraq data set will have no direct personal impact on current and former US leadership in Iraq.” On the Afghanistan war log releases, the authors also found that they would not result in “significant impact” to US operations, though did claim that this was potentially damaging to “intelligence sources, informants, and the Afghan population,” and intelligence collection efforts by the US and NATO.
Summers appropriately rebutted the contention about harm by suggesting that Assange had opposed, in the highest traditions of journalism, “war crimes”, a consideration that had to be measured against unverified assertions of harm.
On this point, the prosecution found itself in knots, given that a balancing act of harm and freedom of expression is warranted under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. When asked by Justice Johnson whether prosecuting a journalist in the UK, when in possession of “information of very serious wrongdoing by an intelligence agency [had] incited an employee of that agency to provide information… [which] was then published in a very careful way” was compatible with the right to freedom of expression, Dobbin conceded to there being no “straightforward answer”.
When pressed by Justice Johnson as to whether she accepted the idea that the “statutory offence”, not any “scope for a balancing exercise” was what counted, Dobbin had to concede that a “proportionality assessment” would normally arise when publishers were prosecuted under section 5 of the UK Official Secrets Act. Prosecutions would only take place if one “knowingly published” information known “to be damaging”.
Any half-informed student of the US Espionage Act knows that strict liability under the statute negates any need to undertake a balancing assessment. All that matters is that the individual had “reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the US,” often proved by the mere fact that the information published was classified to begin with.
Dobbin then switched gears. Having initially advertised the view that journalists could never be entirely immune from criminal prosecution, she added more egg to the pudding on the reasons why Assange was not a journalist. Her view of the journalist being a bland, obedient transmitter of received, establishment wisdom was all too clear. Assange had gone “beyond the acts of a journalist who is merely gathering information”. He had, for instance, agreed with Chelsea Manning on March 8, 2010 to attempt cracking a password hash that would have given her access to the secure and classified Department of Defense account. Doing so meant using a false identity to facilitate further pilfering of classified documents.
This was yet another fiction. Manning’s court martial had revealed the redundancy of having to crack a password hash as she already had administrator access to the system. Why then bother with the conspiratorial circus?
The corollary of this is that the prosecution’s reliance on fabricated testimony, notably from former WikiLeaks volunteer, convicted paedophile and FBI tittle-tattler Sigurdur ‘Siggi’ Thordarson. In June 2021, the Icelandic newspaper Stundin, now publishing under the name Heimildin, revealed that Assange had “never asked him to hack or to access phone recordings of [Iceland’s] MPs.” He also had not “received some files from a third party who claimed to have recorded MPs and had offered to share them with Assange without having any idea what they actually contained.” Thordarson never went through the relevant files, nor verified whether they had audio recordings as claimed by the third-party source. The allegation that Assange instructed him to access computers in order to unearth such recordings was roundly rejected.
The legal team representing the US attempted to convince the court that suggestions of “bad faith” by the defence on the part of such figures as lead prosecutor Gordon Kromberg had to be discounted. “The starting position must be, as it always is in these cases, the fundamental assumption of good faith on the part of those states with which the United Kingdom has long-standing extradition relationships,” asserted Dobbin. “The US is one of the most long-standing partners of the UK.”
This had a jarring quality to it, given that nothing in Washington’s approach to Assange – the surveillance sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency via Spanish security firm UC Global, the contemplation of abduction and assassination by intelligence officials, the after-the-fact concoction of assurances to assure easier extradition to the US – has been anything but one of bad faith.
Summers countered by refuting any suggestions that “Mr Kronberg is a lying individual or that he is personally not carrying out his prosecutorial duties in good faith. The prosecution and extradition here is a decision taken way above his head.” This was a matter of “state retaliation ordered from the very top”; one could not “focus on the sheep and ignore the shepherd.”
Things did not get better for the prosecuting side on what would happen once Assange was extradited. Would he, for instance, be protected by the free press amendment under US law? Former CIA director Mike Pompeo had suggested that Assange’s Australian citizenship barred him from protections afforded by the First Amendment. Dobbin was not sure, but insisted that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that nationality would prejudice Assange in any trial. Justice Johnson was sharp: “the test isn’t that he would be prejudiced. It is that he might be prejudiced on the grounds of his nationality.” This was hard to square with the UK Extradition Act prohibiting extradition where a person “might be prejudiced at his trial or punished, detained, or restricted in his personal liberty” on account of nationality.
Given existing US legal practice, Assange also faced the risk of the death penalty, something that extradition arrangements would bar. Ben Watson KC, representing the UK Home Secretary, had to concede to the court that there was nothing preventing any amendment by US prosecutors to the current list of charges that could result in a death sentence.
If he does not succeed in this appeal, Assange may well request an intervention of the European Court of Human Rights for a stay of proceedings under Rule 39. Like many European institutions so loathed by the governments of post-Brexit Britain, it offers the prospect of relief provided that there are “exceptional circumstances” and an instance “where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm.”
The sickening irony of that whole proviso is that irreparable harm is being inflicted on Assange in prison, where the UK prison system fulfills the role of the punishing US gaoler. Speed will be of the essence; and the government of Rishi Sunak may well quickly bundle the publisher onto a transatlantic flight. If so, the founder of WikiLeaks will go the way of other prestigious and wronged political prisoners who sought to expand minds rather than narrow them.
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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). Email: [email protected]
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