Arab Writers: Pain, Perseverance and Prizes. Barbara Nimri Aziz

December 12th, 2024 by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Arab writers have a tough job these days. Here, I’m talking only about those of us in the US. (Although this affects us all.) Whether poets, journalists, novelists or comedians, we have an extra responsibility to record our pain, unite our fractured people, and celebrate our existence and endurance.

We must continue to celebrate while we praise our martyrs; we must struggle to maintain and fortify our budding artistic community while we assist needy families overseas; we must reaffirm our cultural values and noble heritage while being presented with horrifying headlines; we must stand strong and hone our skills to speak for those pained and smothered by unstoppable tears, for those in fresh dug graves, for the unnamed beneath rubble. We must learn to forge genuine, trusted alliances that build on earlier achievements while restoring fractures.

We cannot be victims consoled into silence while our elders and our children need us to speak for them. The books and poems we manage to share must be more than substitutes for action.

Recent months have seen our most esteemed Arab writers honored with life achievement awards and prizes for new endeavors. Most recently two Arab women, both Americans, were among winners of the 75th American National Book awards. This was preceded by Poets and Writers’ 2024 prize to Fady Joudah and American Academy of Poets award to Naomi Shihab Nye. These outstanding individuals join associations of Arab filmmakers, comedians and visual artists. All demonstrate the breadth and depth of our commitment and excellence.

Vibrant Arab literary organizations today include Mizna, RAWI, New Arab American Theater Works in Minneapolis, Silk-Road Rising in Chicago, along with al-Bustan. All build on the legacy of Khalil Gibran’s al-Mahjar movement founded in 1915. Yes, steadily growing for the past century!

.

.

This week, the work of two more Arab writers will be awarded for new writing endeavors. They are winners of a newly established prize for a grade-school level manuscript by Arab Americans. The award is in honor of author Naomi Shihab Nye. A Palestinian American, Nye is a pioneer whose poems and stories for children feature Arab characters.

Naomi Shihab Nye prize winners augment an already expanding body of children’s literature by Arab authors. Hosted by Al-Bustan in Philadelphia Dec 14th, winners of a new competition created stories we expect to see between book covers soon. First prize winner is Alia Yunis, author of The Night Counter, and a journalist and filmmaker. She is joined by Pauline Kaldas, a professor of English and editor whose latest novel is A Measure of Distance.

The importance of books for children is undiminished in schools, homes and libraries. Even while animated phone screens capture the eyes of our infants, children love books. Books fire the imagination of our youth with stories of magical rabbits, dragons and superwomen. Most importantly, today’s books reflect the vast range of cultures and characters in the US. We are now flooded with children’s books on Islam and being Muslim. There’s Shifa Shafadi’s (@Muslimmommyblog) Amina Banana Series. Which reminds me of Kezzeiz’ Fasfoose Mouse series. And, oh yes: Darraj’s Farah Rocks. (I happily can’t keep up.) Stories about Arab American families and heroes – mythical and historical ­– join a welcome stream of Native American, African American, Italian, Vietnamese, Irish, South Asian, Chinese, Nigerian, Caribbean and other global tales. Such richness. Together they represent new interpretations of this country. And the world.

Stories of our grandfather’s secret gardens, our new baby sister, a lost friend, are as appealing to growing minds as fantastic dragons and fairy princesses. Drawing on their specific histories, geographies and religions, Caribbean and Iranian tales introduce us to an entirely new panorama of characters.

Hard to resist. New parents, teachers, and writers in other genres are jumping into the challenge of nourishing hungry young minds with delicious tales.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Barbara Nimri Aziz whose anthropological research has focused on the peoples of the Himalayas is the author of the newly published “Yogmaya and Durga Devi: Rebel Women of Nepal”, available on Amazon

She is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All images in this article are provided by the author

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”

Amnesty International has concluded in a new report that it has found “sufficient basis” to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” she added, following the release of the 296-page report on Thursday, titled ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza’.

“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Callamard.

Nine Months Investigation

Amnesty said the report examines in detail Israel’s violations in Gaza over nine months between October 7, 2023, and early July 2024. A total of 21 people were interviewed, including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, and healthcare workers, conducted fieldwork and analyzed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery.

The report also analyzed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials as well as official Israeli bodies.

.

Read on X

.

On multiple occasions, the organization shared its findings with the Israeli authorities but had received no substantive response at the time of publication, said Amnesty.

“Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza,” said Callarmard. “It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”

‘Genocidal Statements’

Amnesty said that in order to establish Israel’s “specific intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” as such, the organization analyzed the overall pattern of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

It also “reviewed dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials, particularly those at the highest levels, and considered the context of Israel’s system of apartheid, its inhumane blockade of Gaza and the unlawful 57-year-old military occupation of the Palestinian territory.”

.

Read on X

.

Before reaching its conclusion, Amnesty said it “examined Israel’s claims that its military lawfully targeted Hamas and other armed groups throughout Gaza, and that the resulting unprecedented destruction and denial of aid were the outcome of unlawful conduct by Hamas and other armed groups, such as locating fighters among the civilian population or the diversion of aid.

The organization “concluded these claims are not credible.”

It pointed out that many of the unlawful acts documented by the organization were preceded by officials urging their implementation.

Audiovisual ‘Evidence’

The organization “reviewed 102 statements that were issued by Israeli government and military officials and others between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 and dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them.”

Of these, Amnesty identified 22 statements made by senior officials in charge of managing the offensive that “appeared to call for, or justify, genocidal acts, providing direct evidence of genocidal intent.”

“This language was frequently replicated, including by Israeli soldiers on the ground, as evidenced by audiovisual content verified by Amnesty International showing soldiers making calls to ‘erase’ Gaza or to make it uninhabitable, and celebrating the destruction of Palestinian homes, mosques, schools and universities,” the investigation found.

Civilians Deliberately Targeted

Amnesty documented “the genocidal acts of killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm” to Palestinians in Gaza by reviewing the results of investigations it conducted into 15 airstrikes between October 7, 2023, and April 20, 2024, that killed at least 334 civilians, including 141 children, and wounded hundreds of others.

It “found no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.”

In one cited case, on April 20, 2024, an Israeli air strike destroyed the Abdelal family house in the Al-Jneinah neighborhood in eastern Rafah, killing three generations of Palestinians, including 16 children, while they were sleeping.

“While these represent just a fraction of Israel’s aerial attacks, they are indicative of a broader pattern of repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects or deliberately indiscriminate attacks. The attacks were also conducted in ways designed to cause a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population,” said Amnesty.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,580 Palestinians have been killed, and 105,739 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.

‘Devasting Impacts’

The report also documented how Israel “deliberately inflicted conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza intended to lead, over time, to their destruction.”

“These conditions were imposed through three simultaneous patterns that repeatedly compounded the effect of each other’s devastating impacts,” said Amnesty.

These include “damage to and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure and other objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population; the repeated use of sweeping, arbitrary and confusing mass “evacuation” orders to forcibly displace almost all of Gaza’s population; and the denial and obstruction of the delivery of essential services, humanitarian assistance and other life-saving supplies into and within Gaza.”

Humanitarian Crisis

Amnesty noted that Israel’s total siege imposed on Gaza after October 7 last year, cutting off water and fuel “exacerbated an already existing humanitarian crisis.”

Israel “maintained a suffocating, unlawful blockade, tightly controlled access to energy sources, failed to facilitate meaningful humanitarian access within Gaza,  and obstructed the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid,” particularly to areas north of Wadi Gaza.

.

Watch on X

.

Amnesty said the situation, combined with the extensive damage to Gaza’s homes, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and agricultural land, and mass forced displacement, “caused catastrophic levels of hunger and led to the spread of diseases at alarming rates.”

The impact, it said, was especially harsh on young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, with anticipated long-term consequences for their health.

Repeated Evacuation Orders

The report also pointed out that Israel’s repeated evacuation orders “displaced nearly 1.9 million Palestinians – 90% of Gaza’s population – into ever-shrinking, unsafe pockets of land under inhumane conditions, some of them up to 10 times.”

These multiple waves of forced displacement, Amnesty said, “left many jobless and deeply traumatized, especially since some 70% of Gaza’s residents are refugees or descendants of refugees whose towns and villages were ethnically cleansed by Israel during the 1948 Nakba.”

See this.

Amnesty also pointed out that despite conditions quickly becoming unfit for human life, “Israeli authorities refused to consider measures that would have protected displaced civilians and ensured their basic needs were met, showing that their actions were deliberate.”

They also refused to allow those displaced to return to their homes in northern Gaza or relocate temporarily to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory or Israel, “continuing to deny many Palestinians their right to return under international law to areas they were displaced from in 1948.”

“They did so knowing that there was nowhere safe for Palestinians in Gaza to flee to,” said the organization.

Callamard lambasted the international community’s “to return to their homes in northern Gaza or relocate temporarily to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory or Israel, continuing to deny many Palestinians their right to return under international law to areas they were displaced from in 1948.”

Call to World Bodies

In a call to the world’s leaders, Callamard said “Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law.”

“States need to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies,” she stressed.

She said the ICC’s arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued last month “offer real hope of long-overdue justice for victims.”

“States must demonstrate their respect for the court’s decision and for universal international law principles by arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC,” Callamard emphasized.

She also called on the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC “to urgently consider adding genocide to the list of crimes it is investigating and for all states to use every legal avenue to bring perpetrators to justice.”

“No one should be allowed to commit genocide and remain unpunished,” Callamard stated.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Featured image: Amnesty International has concluded in a new report that it has found “sufficient basis” to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. (Photo: Palestine Chronicle, via Amnesty International)

As the world simultaneously teeters on the brink of nuclear war in Central Asia, shatters any remaining sense of ‘international justice’ by taking no effective action to halt the televised genocide in Palestine (let alone the risk of a dramatically expanded war in West Asia), and runs headlong into the rapidly advancing technocracy – to nominate just three of the more pronounced threats – the bulk of the human population yawns while they scroll through the latest entries in the various chat groups on their phone.

Virtually all of these chat groups (and the channels through which they are distributed), like the ‘news’ distributed by the corporate media through television, radio and newspapers, find an endless sequence of inconsequential issues to distract people from reality.

And so our death or transhuman slavery awaits us.

As I have explained many times in the past, it is only a rare person who understands how the world works, who orchestrates and drives events, how they do so, and the purposes of their program. For one account of this, see Historical Analysis of the Global Elite: Ransacking the World Economy Until ‘You’ll Own Nothing.’

Consequently, most analysts misconceive what is taking place and, therefore, what is necessary to resist it effectively.

Inevitably therefore, the human population continues to be victimized by this program, as has been routinely demonstrated throughout history.

Unfortunately, time is now rapidly running out with the Elite program – heavily concealed by this endless barrage of corporate ‘news’, among other techniques (see ‘The Elite’s 5,000-Year War on Your Mind is Climaxing. Can We Defeat it?’) designed to divert attention from the fundamental threats – to depopulate Earth and imprison those left alive in a technocratic ‘smart city’ prison advancing daily.

In the latest, most significant development, NATO-produced and guided weapons were fired from Ukraine to attack Russian territory: On 19 & 20 November, U.S. ATACMS (supersonic tactical ballistic) missiles and British ‘Storm Shadow’ (cruise) missiles were used to destroy targets in Russia.

In response, and immediately following the latest update of Russian nuclear doctrine – English translation here ‘Full Text of Russia’s Updated Nuclear Doctrine’ and briefly and simply explained by Andrew Korybko here ‘Russia’s Updated Nuke Doctrine Aims To Deter Unacceptable Provocations From NATO’ – Russia fired an ‘experimental’ version of the new hypersonic ‘Oreshnik’ (ICBM) missile (equipped with six independently-targetable warheads, each containing six submunitions) which traveled at Mach 10 (that is, ten times the speed of sound) to destroy the Yuzmash missile factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk.

Among a wide range of expert commentaries expressing grave concern, including because of the latest update of NATO strategy – see ‘NATO After the Washington Summit: Future-Proofing the Alliance and Supporting Ukraine until Victory: Resolution 494’ – see Scott Ritter’s ‘On the Brink’,

Drago Bosnic’s ‘Nukes and medium-range missiles for Neo-Nazi junta, perfect recipe for WW3’ and watch Colonel Doug Macgregor’s recent interview ‘How Close Are We to WWIII?’

And geostrategic analyst Drago Bosnic specifically draws attention to the lack of evidence that President Biden has officially authorized the delivery of US nuclear weapons for use by Ukraine despite the fact that prominent media outlets, starting with the New York Times, have indicated, without offering any evidence, that this has taken place.

Watch ‘Say No to Nuclear War! Peace on the Planet’.

So while we can speculate about the identity of the person or persons responsible for such a decision, assuming it has been made, it simply highlights the point that those we believe are in control are not, in fact, in control. The Elite is scripting key world events and simply using the chosen puppets in governments, bureaucracies, international organizations and the media to offer an endlessly disconnected sequence of actions and announcements so that most people are confused and left unable, even if inclined to do so, to act decisively and effectively.

Two factors seriously complicating this conflict are that Russia appears to possess at least one type of weapon and a weapon delivery system that can generate the equivalent damage as the blast impacts of a nuclear weapon but without the massively damaging heat and deadly radioactive fallout of nuclear weapons. This means that the damage can be ‘contained’ to a precise, if very large, target. And delivery of the weapon cannot be intercepted.

The destructive power of this weapon, based on the descriptions offered by Ritter in his articles ‘On the Brink’ cited above and ‘Fahrenheit 7232’ – ‘Each war head in turn contained six separate submunitions, consisting of metal slugs forged from exotic alloys that enabled them to maintain their form during the extreme heat generated by hypersonic re-entry speeds. These slugs are not explosive; rather they use the combined effects of the kinetic impact at high speed and the extreme heat absorbed by the exotic alloy to destroy their intended target on impact.’ – suggests a substantially scaled-down version of the geoengineering weapon known as a ‘Rod from God’. Unlike the original version of this weapon, this Russian weapon was delivered using a hypersonic missile and fired against its target as a cluster of ‘smaller’ weapons.

The geoengineering version of this weapon was fired from a satellite and used to generate the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February 2023. It was thoughtfully described by the head of the Turkish Space Agency, Serdar Hussein Yildirim here, but earlier description of these Hypervelocity Rod Bundles (‘Rods from God’) are available in US military literature and elsewhere. See, for example, the U.S. Air Force ‘Transformation Flight Plan’ with the subject simply discussed in ‘Hypervelocity Rod Bundles’.

Separately from its destructive power, the delivery system for this Russian weapon was the Oreshnik missile, which is hypersonic. It can travel at speeds up to Mach 10 and it cannot be intercepted with any existing technology, as was made clear by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in his official statement following the strike. See ‘Statement by the President of the Russian Federation’ [re firing of the Oreshnik missile on 20 Nov 2024].

So while Russia has recently updated its nuclear doctrine to allow a lower threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, it has already developed, deployed and used a non-nuclear technology that can, by using modest quantities of the weapon, replicate the blast impact of a nuclear weapon and be delivered at breathtaking speed.

The fundamental complication of this state of affairs is that the United States does not have weapons with equivalent capacities so it is more likely to resort to the use of nuclear weapons despite the fact that their impacts are far from ‘clean’, relatively confined or even short-lived.

Consequently, the world stands at a dangerous turning point.

This is particularly because the Elite orchestrating this and other critical conflicts is insane, as I have explained many times previously – see ‘The Global Elite is Insane Revisited’ – and most of their agents throughout governments and key international organizations are likewise insane, with many even holding fundamentalist or otherwise extreme beliefs (as one aspect of their insanity).

One variation of this insanity is those people sometimes labeled ‘Armageddonists’ – people who believe, as indicated by this comment to Professor Bernard Lown by a senior US State Department official in 1998, ‘if there is a nuclear war, we will be the first ones to rise up and meet Jesus in the sky’.

When Lown queried the official about whether anyone else in the US State Department felt the same way, the official replied:

‘Oh yes, many of us do.’ Quotes cited in ‘Iran: The Road to Armageddon? Would the US Administration really endanger the Entire planet?’

If you are unfamiliar with the damage that a nuclear weapon can do, this 18-minute video will make it clear enough: ‘The True Scale of Modern Nuclear Weapons’. And Annie Jacobsen’s latest book makes it clear too: Nuclear War: A Scenario.

But, I want to emphasize yet again, whether or not the war in Central Asia goes nuclear (or the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians and war against its Arab/Persian neighbours in West Asia goes the same way), a wide range of Elite objectives in relation to its genocidal and transhumanist/technocratic program is being fulfilled and no amount of complaining about it, signing petitions or statements, lobbying of Elite agents in governments and international organizations, or demonstrating on the streets can make a difference. For a fuller explanation, see ‘The Elite Coup to Kill or Enslave Us: Why Can’t Governments, Legal Actions and Protests Stop Them?’

So I can only encourage any reader to have a ponder about the dangerous predicament in which we find ourselves and to seriously consider participating in comprehensive grassroots nonviolent strategies to halt the war in Central Asia, end the genocide against the Palestinians and defeat the advancing technocracy.

In the following articles, I have explained the Elite program that drives each of these conflicts. Crucially, I have explained (or linked to) the nonviolent strategies necessary to end each of them.

Strategies to address many other threats have already been elaborated elsewhere or in some cases (including geoengineering and synthetic biology) are being developed.

‘The War in Ukraine: Understanding and Resisting the Global Elite’s Deeper Agenda’ which references a list of Strategic Goals for a Nonviolent Struggle to End a War.

‘Nonviolent Strategy to Halt the Genocide in Gaza, Liberate Palestine and Defeat the Global Technocracy’.

‘Fighting for Our Humanity, Fighting for Our Future’.

Each article also links to the ‘We Are Human We Are Free’ campaign – which identifies the strategic action necessary to defend yourself from the advancing technocracy (explained, most simply, on the ‘We Are Human We Are Free’ one-page flyer, available in 23 languages).

As the title of the last article suggests, there is an monumental amount at stake and it is going to take enormous effort by a substantial number of people to defend human life and a life worth living.

And yet, despite the enormity of these threats, there is no effective resistance to the threat of nuclear war, the rapidly advancing technocracy or even the televised genocide in Gaza.

Why?

The Other Side of the Coin

This is because there is an even bigger hurdle that must be overcome for effective resistance to manifest. Most ‘ordinary’ people are trapped in a childhood version of submissive obedience.

That is, most adults are incapable of doing anything beyond the adult equivalent of the powerless complaining about an injustice that they learned to do as a child.

After all, whether or not it is consciously realized by any adult, the primary purpose of ‘socialization’ generally and punishment specifically is to terrorize the child into submissive obedience of ‘higher authorities’ in the child’s life: parents, teachers and religious figures. This is done so that the future adult will be submissively obedient to employers, the legal system and other state actors as well as (for some) military officers. See ‘Punishment is Violent and Counterproductive’.

Overwhelmed by the deluge of ‘visible’, ‘invisible’ and ‘utterly invisible’ violence inflicted on them during childhood – see ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’ – the child ultimately learns that powerless complaining to their perpetrators is the limit of their permissible ‘action’.

Consequently, the typical adult is submissively obedient and confines their ‘action’ to the adult equivalents of complaining such as signing a petition or letter of complaint to a higher authority (often a government), lobbying a politician or attending a protest gathering. Their fear ensures that the idea of taking strategically powerful action never even occurs to them or, in the case of the person to whom the idea occurs or is presented, is quickly discarded from thought and memory.

In essence, effective resistance requires strategically-oriented action and that is inherently frightening to most people. It is ‘safer’ to do something ineffective (that is, confined within the ‘permissible’ range) rather than to take action that will make a difference but likely incur punishment (such as a fine or prison sentence for civil disobedience).

Conclusion

Major international processes and events are driven by the Global Elite which is insane. While the Elite remains largely hidden from view, their equally insane or submissively obedient agents in international organizations, governments, corporations and non-government organizations carry out their insane will.

At the moment, this includes driving the world to the brink (and possibly over the brink) of nuclear war, against a backdrop of the rapidly advancing technocracy and the genocide in Gaza.

And while there is zero effective resistance to any of these threats – even with much hang-wringing in some quarters – the Elite program proceeds unimpeded.

So if you are not taking action that is going to make a strategic difference, I can only encourage you to do so – perhaps as part of a group so that your fear might be contained – while there is still time to defend a life worth living, both for ourselves and others.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ His email address is [email protected] and his website is here.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Video: A Brief History of the War on Syria. James Corbett

December 11th, 2024 by James Corbett

The foreign-backed terrorist insurgency in Syria has finally accomplished the globalists’ objective: regime change in Syria.

But how did we get here?

Who was behind this decades-long plan for reshaping the Middle East?

And what does it mean for the world?

Today on The Corbett Report podcast, James dives through The Corbett Report’s 13-year archives on the Syrian war to bring these events into focus.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on The Corbett Report.

Featured image source

Since I started “Looking Out at the World From Canada” about a year and a half ago, I have delved into a number of developments in my home province of Alberta. Often my commentaries involve reports on public health as administered by the current Alberta government of Premier Danielle Smith.

I have explained earlier how I participated in a small way to help her become head of the United Conservative Party (UCP). Danielle Smith then won an electoral mandate to become the provincial premier while commanding a UCP majority of seats in the Edmonton-based Legislature.

Danielle Smith remains a vivacious and energetic political leader with many important talents across a wide spectrum of activity. She moves easily and adeptly across a wide array of functions from, say, an effective high-level researcher to a convivial schmoozer who is relaxed, attentive and engaging in a variety of community settings.

Unfortunately, however, Danielle Smith is failing badly in precisely the area of involvement that drew me to become a political supporter in the first place.

Premier Smith was delivered to the job of Alberta Premier in 2022 after she successfully rode an undercurrent of public unrest that permeates most Western countries. The realization is still developing that the medical profession was bribed and intimidated into attacking public health in order to serve nefarious objectives that had nothing to do with countering the spread of a viral respiratory infection.

For those with the capacity for clear-headed critical assessment, the Covid debacle has exposed a huge and urgent need for major alterations in how doctoring should take place in viable systems of health care. The malaise in doctoring is part of a larger societal malady where the wellbeing of a large majority of humans is being ruthlessly ravaged in a variety ways that further enrich the world’s tiny handful of domineering power junkies.

Premier Smith seemed briefly to have had a handle on the hopes and expectations she aroused in helping to articulate Alberta’s version of the “freedom movement.” This grass roots movement seeks to redress and rectify multiple grievances.

Those engaged in the freedom struggle face the challenge of finding envoys willing to participate in the rough and tumble permeating political life in the upper echelons of decision-making in North America and Europe. For a time it seemed that Danielle Smith might be such a person. Hope springs eternal. Maybe Smith can still come back to the principles she once espoused.

As I became aware of her attributes I wondered if Alberta’s Danielle Smith might become a point person in the crucial transnational movement to end the manipulation of public health as a devious device for the seizure of unlimited control over human interactions with bio-digital technology? This agenda showed itself very clearly in the unprecedented and still largely-unexplained scheme to jab the population of the entire world.

In the name of vanquishing COVID-19, humanity was attacked with gene-modifying bioweapons whose malicious intent was to depopulate, injure, enfeeble and ultimately enslave the survivors of the sacrificial injection. The magnitude of the crime is so immense that it is very difficult for most people to wrap their minds around the insidiousness of what is really going on. What we are seeing is a new kind of war waged on humanity as a whole.

It takes time to internalize the reality that we are not dealing merely with the results of mistakes and incompetence. At the highest levels, something much more sinister was and is at play in the ongoing and expanding implementation of Operation COVID-19.

It takes some doing to contemplate the magnitude of what we have already lived through since 2020 and where we are pointed if we continue to mindlessly march along the path that the predators continue to create for us.

At this moment in history, however, many hundreds of millions of people worldwide have connected many of the dots indicating what is really transpiring. The urgency of this realization is motivating tens of millions to work overtime to impress on the larger population the magnitude of the elaborate assaults still being directed at humanity at large.

The organization on December 8, 2024 of the Covid Memorial Day is one of thousands of grass roots efforts on the part of conscientious citizens to mark the diabolical enormity of the continuing assault on the lives, health and wellbeing of humanity. The organizers of the Memorial Day have rightfully asserted,

“What happened during the so-called Covid pandemic is a horrific crime against humanity, unparalleled in modern times.” See this.

.

.

Briefly Danielle Smith seemed willing to follow through on her election promises to help lead the freedom movement when it comes to the rehabilitation of public health. The new premier stepped up to the plate to articulate what was obvious to many, namely that the discrimination directed against the so-called “unvaxxed” had been horrific.

Even this comment, however, was considered much too radical by those engulfed in the hypnotic spell that continues to cripple critical thinking in the face of the ongoing attacks. Moreover, Premier Smith did not take her intervention one step further by explaining that those who refused to take the often-mandatory jabs were in fact proven correct.

We, the so-called “unvaxxed,” experienced individually and collectively far better health outcomes than those who took the clot shots. We flattened the curve by not going along with the lies while those who took the injections have disproportionately put onerous burdens on themselves, their families, and society in general.

Danielle Smith Backs Away from Her Commitments. She Has Become Yet Another Jab Promoter.

That was then but this is now. Danielle Smith did not follow through. She is proving to be a major disappointment to many who supported her ascent to power, or, who even moved to Alberta based on the expectation that the Alberta Premier would continue to give guidance to the movement for medical sanity and ethics.

As demonstrated by the content of the following advertisement for COVID-19 clot shots that is published by her own provincial government, Danielle Smith has quietly abandoned the freedom movement that put her in office. Danielle Smith has herself become a promoter and supplier of gene-modifying mRNA bio-technologies. Danielle Smith has become a big part of the problem by showing contempt for the solutions.

Based on the fictional “success” of the COVID-19 bioweapons, the mRNA/lipid nanoparticle bio-technology continues to be replicated to treat a growing array of illnesses. The new treatments include responses to the fast proliferation of turbo cancers. The growing plague of increasingly menacing varieties of turbo cancers has been set off by the gene-modifying technologies disguised as a remedy for COVID-19.

.

.

This hideous advertisement published above by the Danielle Smith government claims that “COVID-19 immunization can protect and promote the health of Albertans and protect you from getting severely sick from COVID-19 infection.” This statement doesn’t deal with the reality that the injections do not stop or even slow down the spread of COVID-19.

Indeed in many instances is has been noted that those who received the shots were far more likely to demonstrate the flu-like symptoms of COVID-19 than those who did not get the shots. However it remains unclear to me how the presence of COVID-19 is to be determined given that the main PCR test that was supposed to identify the presence of the celebrity virus famously and notoriously does not work.

The inventor of the PCR test, Kary B. Mullis, was absolutely insistent that it was not meant as a means of diagnosing bacterial or viral illness.

Given this history, what is to be made of the claim in the advertisement above that taking the shot might prevent recipients from “getting severely sick from COVID-19 infection”? Is the author of the statement indicating that a supposed benefit of the shot for those who get it, is that they might become slightly less ill than they otherwise would have if they had NOT taken the shot?

There is no science to back up this dubious claim. Imagine being urged to take a polio shot on the understanding that by taking it, one will get only a little bit of polio and one might get a little bit less sick.

Then there is the announcement that the Danielle Smith government is subsidizing COVID shots so they can be made freely available for babies as young as six months old. This advertisement is nothing short of a gross obscenity to my way of thinking. It embodies a clear and present disgrace to be worn by the Danielle Smith government. On what basis did Premier Smith make the decision to promote the jabbing of babies with toxic injections that convey no benefit whatsoever on the recipients but that continue to heap much potential harm on the infant victims and their families?

By now there is a mountain of research that shows that young people have nothing to gain from the clot shots and a great deal to lose including their lives, their health, their longevity, and the full vitality of their natural inheritance of God-given immunity.

The Medicalized Weaponry Still Pointed Our Way

Rather than disciplining AHS, Premier Smith has gone down into the trenches with this jab-obsessed organization to join in the ongoing predations initiated in the name of vanquishing COVID-19. Clearly the Smith-AHS team have opted to keep the COVID-19 scam going because of its strategic role in rolling out so much of the harm being done by the medicalized weaponry still pointed our way.

Premier Smith’s surrender to the jab lobby is especially surprising given the nature of the political process that enabled the current premier to replace the former UCP premier. Because of his compliance with Covidian mandates and restrictions coming from Ottawa, former Premier Jason Kenney was removed by a grass roots movement that included a group called Take Back Alberta.

Take Back Albertan, with David Parker as its point person, helped Danielle Smith to take office. I was encouraged to join the UCP and attend general meetings by Take Back Alberta. As shall be discussed in the next episode, Danielle Smith has lost the confidence of David Parker.

The expanding array of gene-modifying injections falsely labelled as “vaccines” include lipid nanoparticles (LNP), the outgrowth of research at the University of British Columbia. The purpose of LNP is to ease the movement throughout the entire body of the injected concoctions meant to facilitate the genetic alterations of people. One of the genetic modifications facilitated by the injections involves the spread of highly toxic spike proteins to all organs of the body.

The result within the bodies of the injection recipients can be conceived is a meandering form of genetic infection that can cause havoc throughout the body, including in brains and major sites of human fertility in uteruses and testes.

The topic of harms done by the injections is a subject of a vast and growing literature too enormous to be comprehensively considered here. One recent development, however, involved an immense research project undertaken by dozens of experts who together went through hundreds of thousands of pages of Pfizer’s research detailing literally thousands of ailments caused by the toxic injections.

The plan of the US Food and Drug Administration had been keep the records of Pfizer’s research secret from the public for 75 years. Only a very enlightened judge who wrote a very meritorious court order prevented the Biden government from achieving this cover up.

Very recently a succinct summary of the findings of the major research project to asses the Pfizer Papers has appeared. Amy Kelly was the logistical point person in organizing the herculean task of organizing the work of dozens of specialists to go through the huge and highly specialized inquiry by Pfizer.

This big league project has now resulted in the appearance of digestible publication suitable for mass distribution. Much of the final text was written by Dr. Naomi Wolf under the direction of political controversialist, Steve Bannon.

To keep things simple and straightforward I have lifted only a couple of short and representative samples of text from the rich and dense text of The Pfizer Papers. With the passage of time the full significance of this publication and the primary sources behind will become clear. The publication of the Pfizer Papers is a watershed with major implications for the future of politics, law and literature in the West.

.

.

The Alberta Government and the AHS 

The Pfizer Papers and the objectives of the COVID Memorial Day create a contemporary backdrop to evaluate other advertisements below that highlight the extent to which the Danielle Smith government has lost the plot in its current stance on public health. In Alberta most of the COVID harms were imposed on the citizenry by the enormous staff of Alberta Health Services (AHS).

The AHS is the biggest employer in Alberta with a staff of well over 100,000 individuals. It has become notorious for its large number of middle manager of which many have been declared redundant in a study of Ernst and Young. See this.

Along with the hucksters of Big Pharma based at the World Health Organization, the AHS is one of the largest health care entities in the world. Like the WHO, the AHS has become something of a self-contained anomaly secretively serving lobbies whose technique of exercising influence are anything but transparent.

The AHS swallows up almost half of the Alberta government’s total budget. Clearly Premier Smith and her officials, including her Health Minister Ariana LaGrange, take their advice on injection policies from senior officials at Alberta Health Services (AHS).

The AHS is a leviathan that unfortunately has earned itself a dubious reputation among average people in Alberta. As demonstrated by its misleading advertising of an injurious and sometimes lethal product, the AHS as well as the Alberta Ministry of Health continue to promote COVID injections to babies, to older people and everyone in-between.

More Lethal Propaganda from AHS

.

.

This effort to persuade children to fear and despise “COVID-zilla,” the “COVID-19 beast,” is worthy of criticism. All the evidence shows that for children, the so-called COVID-19 beast is no more harmful that colds or the flu also rooted in coronavirus infection.

Children do not die from COVID-19. Some children do die or do get very sick, however, from the beast of COVID-19 injections. It is the injections that are COVID-zilla.

As of June 24, 2024 Danielle Smith’s governments has approved COVID-19 injections in the regular schedule of province-approved immunization.

.

 

.

To call COVID-19 a “vaccine-preventable disease” is an absurdity given the state of the science that is being suppressed by the likes of AHS and the Danielle Smith government. The mRNA/lipid nanoparticle injections absolutely do NOT prevent the spread of, or infection from, COVID-19. In fact the injections have a significant propensity to cause disease and worse.

The clots shots assault the mechanisms of natural immunity. Moreover, the shots increase the propensity of recipients to develop very serious conditions of autoimmunity.

More shots to children stimulate more deterioration of natural immunity at the very time when young people should be developing their ability to fend off disease by exercising their own natural capacities to avoid or overcome infections from micro-organisms.

Generally speaking children get “the best immunity possible” by developing their own natural immune systems. The education system would be better advised to teach young people how to cultivate and elevate their own capacities of natural immunity through good diet, frequent exercise, fresh air, sunshine and such. This approach stands in contrast to socializing young people to become profit producers for drug companies.

.

.

Why does this advertisement above appear on the AHS website? Why is there such a disconnect between the horrific revelations recently published on the Pfizer Papers and the Big Pharma politics adopted by the Danielle Smith government in partnership with the AHS?

Why are the Smith government and AHS identifying themselves with the Pfizer, BIONTECH, and COMIRNATY brand names and brand logos? What do the province’s lawyer have to say about jumping on a corporate bandwagon that is bound to be the object of much hostile litigation.

I find this advertisement to be insidious. Is there a suggestion here that the father should not be permitted to go hiking with his daughter if he hadn’t taken the jab? Is the jab meant to be a means whereby members of a family protect themselves from one another? Is everyone to be treated as a biohazard to everyone else?

.

.

Apparently this document above is available in 27 languages. It must be a very important document. Yet again, we see the seemingly triumphal announcement that everything is in place to inject six-month old babies with the mRNA/lipid nanoparticle shot. This repeated message could be seen as a triumphal signal that the most radical, injection-obsessed fanatics have prevailed in the AHS-Danielle partnership. It seems clear that some sort of coup has taken place within the UCP?

More to come.

It gets worse, much worse.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on Looking out at the World from Canada.

Dr. Anthony Hall is currently Professor of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta Canada. He has been a teacher in the Canadian university system since 1982. Dr. Hall, has recently finished a big two-volume publishing project at McGill-Queen’s University Press entitled “The Bowl with One Spoon”.

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

Featured image is from the author

Good for the Moldovan Goose; Not Good for the Romanian Gander

December 11th, 2024 by Stephen Karganovic

The Romanian presidential election two weeks ago exposed graphically the blatant hypocrisy and total abandonment of even the pretence of moral principle in the collective West.

From a field of half a dozen candidates, the winner by plurality of votes was political unknown Calin Georgescu. On 8 December the electoral process will undergo a second round for voters to decide who the next President of Romania will be. In the runoff, competing against Georgescu will be the candidate favoured by the European Union and NATO, Elena-Valerica Lasconi. An outcome where their candidate comes in second is a humiliation for the powers-that-be. They do not brook their will being challenged because they are accustomed invariably to impose their preferences upon the insouciant and politically naive public. The reasons for their present chagrin are therefore understandable. Notwithstanding ringing endorsements as well as ample financial and media support from the highest places, in the first round establishment candidate Lasconi trailed by several percentage points political newcomer Georgescu, who was running a shoestring campaign with a skeletal staff.

Accordingly, the day after the first round the smear campaign, featuring all the standard epithets, was launched. Energetic measures were promptly undertaken not just to dispute Georgescu’s extraordinary electoral result but if possible to eliminate him from the presidential race altogether. The rationales put forward by the globalist establishment were in part characteristically hypocritical and in part laughably preposterous.

The hypocritical part consisted of the allegation that Georgescu’s victory was obtained unfairly due to the votes overwhelmingly cast for him by the Romanian diaspora in European Union countries. Subsequent polls confirmed that this allegation was spot on. But why should that have been a problem? The diaspora voters are also Romanian citizens.

The preposterous claim, upon which the brazen demand to invalidate Georgescu’s candidacy was based, was that the social media network TikTok, which Georgescu used extensively to broadcast his message to Romanian voters, all other media outlets being closed to him, unfairly favoured his campaign and thus enabled his victory. Miraculously, the Romanian Supreme Court, to which the matter was referred for adjudication, had enough common sense and professional probity to dismiss this unscrupulous lawfare attack.

Image: Elena Lasconi (Licensed under CC BY 3.0)

undefined

The frivolous charge about diaspora support was made with the evident aim of delegitimising Georgescu’s electoral triumph. The establishment operatives who made it clearly hold the public for amnesiac idiots with a serious Attention Deficit Disorder. They thought that everyone had conveniently forgotten that barely three weeks before, in neighbouring Moldova, their favoured candidate Maia Sandu, the Moldovan equivalent of Elena Lasconi, was proclaimed winner in that country’s presidential election, where it was precisely the EU diaspora vote that made the critical difference to her advantage. In fact, the Moldovan election was deliberately rigged to favour Sandu by counting diaspora votes from the European Union, where it was anticipated that she would garner strong support whilst disqualifying Moldovan diaspora votes from Russia, where her opponent was thought to be ahead.

But in contemporary collective West’s outcome-based, utilitarian political thinking, level playing field is an unheard of concept. Whether a political actor is allowed to win, regardless of the degree of popular support he enjoys, depends not on satisfying democratic procedural requirements (such as winning the most votes, for instance) but entirely on his ideological suitability and servile willingness to put the globalist cabal’s objectives ahead of his nation’s interests. Conversely, a non-compliant actor, such as Georgescu appears to be, must at any cost be barred from winning, regardless of how much popular support he may enjoy.

Georgescu’s opponent Elena Lasconi obviously knows how that game is played and she is an avid player. In a soft-ball promotional interview on Romanian television the other day she adroitly hit all the right notes. Dismissing Georgescu’s scepticism about NATO and the European Union, and speaking over the heads of the Romanian electorate, she reassured her foreign handlers of her unswerving support for Romania’s membership in the Western military and political system and fully acceptance of Romania’s obligation to actively participate in NATO’s military preparations. 

Quality of life issues that are of primary interest to the Romanian public have been all but ignored by Lasconi in her campaign pronouncements as she stressed to the voters the only issue that is of interest to her foreign sponsors: “to ensure Romania does not change course.”

And that according to her can mean only one thing, that “we must choose between NATO protection and Putin’s war. We must choose between the EU’s prosperity and freedom of movement, or the sound of tanks coming from the Kremlin.”

With such demagogic platitudes it is not clear how Lasconi managed to qualify even for second place. (Possibly Dominion counting machines were tabulating the votes.) The fact that she managed to achieve only relative success, and even that not without the colossal advantages that the global establishment always confers on its minions, points to the serious degradation of control mechanisms that have been meticulously put in place precisely to prevent the appearance of unvetted upstarts such as Calin Georgescu. The reasons for the globalist Establishment’s consternation are clear and from their standpoint fully justified.

Image: Călin Georgescu (Licensed under CC BY 3.0)

undefined

A brief summary of Georgescu’s political and moral credo demonstrates why it is so. He is an unapologetic “Romania Firster” who, unlike his opponent Lasconi, eschews “internationalist obligations” (many will recall that colourful former East Bloc phrase that has now been resurrected and again put to good use by the collective West) and he insists on applying the litmus test of “Is it good for Romania?” He also demands that his country be treated with dignity and as an equal in the councils of NATO and the EU, should it decide to remain in those structures. As a devout Orthodox Christian, Georgescu let it slip that he views current events in apocalyptic terms, hardly a good recommendation for a reliable team player, and he has denounced the entire range of global elite’s aggressively deployed instruments used as battering rams for the demolition of traditional cultures and societies. He has also committed himself, if elected, to block Ukrainian grain exports through Romanian ports and to stop further military assistance from Romania to the Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev. Need we list more of this man’s grave political sins which make him so obviously unsuitable, or does this suffice to explain his low rating in the relevant corridors of power?

Of course, no one should be taken at face value based on mere rhetoric. Georgescu does have an interesting past, having served as a functionary at the UN where, as an insider, he mingled with the very circles that he is now prepared to repudiate. But so did Viktor Orban; and St Paul comes to mind as another influential figure who experienced a transformative and authentic change of heart.

Calin Georgescu ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. On 8 December, the good people of Romania should be encouraged to vote with wisdom and discernment.  

***

Author’s note: On 2 December it was reported that the Constitutional Court of Romania had rejected challenges to the outcome of the first round of Presidential elections and validated the official result, paving the way for the second round to take place as scheduled on 8 December. That decision should have been final, according to the AP report from Bucharest. However, on Friday, 6 December, the Constitutional Court apparently reversed itself and invalidated the election result, citing declassified intelligence information purportedly showing that the electoral process in the first round was tainted by “Russian interference.” According to the London Guardian, “The momentous move by the court effectively voids the national election, which will have to be re-run.” The Court’s bizarre conduct strongly suggests that the judges were acting under irresistible NATO and European Union pressure, basing their new decision on “intelligence information” that was hastily and specifically concocted to give an appearance of legality and plausibility to crude interference in Romania’s democratic process on the part of collective West interests. It remains to be seen how presidential candidate and first round winner Calin Georgescu and the Romanian public will react to this unprecedented violation of their democratic rights.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Stephen Karganovic is president of “Srebrenica Historical Project,” an NGO registered in the Netherlands to investigate the factual matrix and background of events that took place in Srebrenica in July of 1995. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.  

Featured image source


Rethinking Srebrenica eBook : Karganovic, Stephen, Simic, Ljubisa: Amazon.co.uk: BooksRethinking Srebrenica

By Stephen Karganovic

Rethinking Srebrenica examines the forensic evidence of the alleged Srebrenica “massacre” possessed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Even though the ICTY created more than 3,500 autopsy reports, many of these autopsy reports were based on bone fragments, which do not represent complete bodies. An examination of the matching femur bones found reveals that there were only about 1,900 complete bodies that were exhumed. Of these, some 1,500 autopsy reports indicated a cause of death consistent with battlefield casualties. Only about 400 autopsy reports indicated execution as a cause of death, as revealed by ligatures and blindfolds. This forensic evidence does not warrant the conclusion of a genocide having taken place.

Karganovic examines the events that took place in Srebrenica in July 1995 in a wholistic manner instead of restricting it to a three-day event. The ten chapters cover:

1) Srebrenica: A Critical Overview;

2) Demilitarization of the UN Safe Zone of Srebrenica;

3) Genocide or Blowback?;

4) General Presentation and Interpretation of Srebrenica Forensic Data (Pattern of Injury Breakdown);

5) An Analysis of the Srebrenica Forensic Reports Prepared by the ICTY Prosecution Experts;

6) An Analysis of Muslim Column Losses Attributable to Minefields, Combat Activity, and Other Causes;

7) The Genocide Issue: Was there a Demonstrable Intent to Exterminate All Muslims?;

8) ICTY Radio Intercept Evidence;

9) The Balance Sheet; and

10) Srebrenica: Uses of the Narrative.

  • ASIN:‎ B0992RRJRK
  • Publisher: ‎Unwritten History, Inc.; 2 edition (July 8 2021)
  • Language: ‎English

Click here to purchase

Since the overnight hours Damascus has been under the control of the Islamist militants led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and backed by Turkey. The country’s President Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown, and his whereabouts are unknown, after the extremely rapid insurgent advance out of Idlib, where city after city fell starting with Aleppo in a matter of about a mere week. And just like that 50 years of Assad family rule has ended, and a new extremely unpredictable era of Syria begins. 

Will the country hopelessly fracture as did Iraq and Libya for years after their strongman leaders were overthrown? Will there be mass reprisal killings? Will Christians, Alawites, and Shia be subject to mass persecution and extermination? Will the country, which has already been through over 13 years of horrific proxy war, descend into sectarian and factional chaos and hell? Will Sharia law be enforced by gunpoint? Or will some semblance of a stable transitional government emerge? 

One thing is for sure, a US-designated terrorist has emerged as the current de facto ruler of Damascus and of Syria. At this very moment Washington has a $10 million bounty on his head, given his career as a jihadist began with al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) which was killing American troops in Iraq. 

The jihadist factions entered Damascus overnight without a fight from the Syrian Army, and videos quickly emerged of armed fighters entering both the presidential palace (or office) as well as Assad’s private residence in Malki neighborhood.

State television stations broadcast a message from HTS leaders urging calm and a stable transition of power. New rules for Damascus include a curfew imposed from 4pm to 5am local time, according to the local Al Watan newspaper.

Rule by ‘Al Qaeda in suits’… technocratic jihad:

.

.

While the mood on the streets has been generally jubilant, gunfire has been heard – but more likely this is from anti-Assad fighters firing in celebration into the air. Western mainstream media has also been celebratory, generally ignoring HTS’ obvious Al Qaeda links past and present.

But for every scene the media highlights of a few hundred people celebrating in a central square, there are many more thousands of families huddled and fearful in their homes, not knowing what entity or Islamist faction controls the checkpoint around the block.

So far at least one central building has gone up in flames – the former government’s passport and immigration building. It remains unclear why or what the precise cause was.

.

Source: @danny_makki, an independent journalist on the ground in the Syrian capital.

.

Amid all of this Israel has continued to attack some locations in Syria, also with reports overnight that Israeli tanks pushed further into a strip of southern Syria in the Golan area. Other buildings are on fire elsewhere in the Damascus region.

Al Jazeera writes:

Images show a building on fire in Damascus after a suspected air attack. It’s believed that the Israelis may have struck what is believed to be a munitions depot close to the airport.

The Israeli media reported earlier on Sunday that the Israeli air force has bombed weapons depots in southern Syria and Damascus to prevent opposition groups from seizing them.

Syrian Prime Minister Ghazi al-Jalali might be installed to head of a transitional government amid promises of stability, based on a potential deal or ‘security guarantees’ involving Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the Gulf powers.

See this.

As for Assad’s current whereabouts, The Wall Street Journal speculates as follows:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was in Damascus on Saturday, fled the country early Sunday local time but his current whereabouts were still unknown, according to Syrian security officials and Arab officials. Russia’s foreign ministry said later in the day that he had stepped down and left the country.

Assad had announced he would address the nation at 8 p.m. local time on Saturday, but the speech never occurred. The president’s wife and children left for Russia in late November, while his brothers-in-law left for the United Arab Emirates, Syrian security officials and Arab officials said.

Below: the breaching of the presidential palace, where Assad had conducted daily work in his office…

.

Watch on X

.

Will the transition from Assad to “al-Qaeda in suits” be stable? Will a ‘Taliban-lite’ emerge? Is Sharia law coming… implemented by a terror and Islamist iron fist?

.

Read on X

.

Nothing is certain at this point, and there are likely more dark days ahead

See this.

***

Update: BREAKING: Bashar al-Assad and family are in Moscow: Russian news agencies, via AFP

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

On December 9, Egypt accused Israel of illegally seizing a buffer zone in Syria. The area extends from the Golan Heights almost to the outskirts of Damascus. Israel troops and weaponry are now within hiking distance of the capital of Syria.

Syria is now under the administration of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed opposition group from Idlib, which had been supported prior to 2017 by a covert CIA program. President Trump cut the funding in 2017, but Turkish President Erdogan continued to support the group.

In the chaos after the fall of the Assad regime, Israel wasted no time to take advantage of the security lapse and invaded Syria from the Occupied Golan Heights towards Damascus.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said this was a temporary measure set up for defense of the Israeli border.  

Egypt and the other Arab League member states are nervously watching as Israel takes advantage of the weakness and chaos in Syria to carry out yet another land grab.

Last summer, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is in violation of international law. Now, Israel has added more occupied land in Syria to its long list of stolen territories. 

The Israeli Defense Forces have also carried out airstrikes on December 9 across Syria, taking out air defense systems, missiles and military infrastructure. Currently, there is no national army existing in Syria. All facilities lay vacant as soldiers and officers fled following and during the fall of the Assad regime on December 8.

The Golan Heights were captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The United Nations recognizes the Golan as an Israeli occupied land which should be returned to Syria in a peace agreement between the two countries.

On March 25, 2019 President Donald Trump gave away the Golan to Israel, and officially recognized Israeli sovereignty.  Netanyahu hailed the move by Trump as historic.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the move was not recognized internationally.

Israel invaded Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, and Israeli cabinet ministers have called for annexing Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. On October 1, 2024 Israel invaded the south of Lebanon. 

In the absence of a legitimate government in Syria, and with Trump taking office next month, Israel may try to annex this new land grab in Syria.

Steven Sahiounie at MidEastDiscourse reached out to Andrey Ontikov, a Special Correspondent at Izvestia daily newspaper, in Moscow and a political commentator specializing in the Middle East.

Steven Sahiounie (SS): Recently, Aleppo fell into the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and later Hama and Damascus fell. In your opinion, how could a militia group be so powerful to oust the Syrian Arab Army? 

Andrey Ontikov (AO): It is obvious, that in recent years the Syrian command has missed the opportunity to train the army, equip it with the necessary weapons, and build defensive structures. At the same time, the armed opposition was able to obtain weapons. In addition, Syrian refugees in Turkey, who were ready to fight for little money and were motivated by their negative attitude towards the authorities in Damascus, probably became a good base for replenishing its ranks.

SS: Reports in the media claimed that there were Ukrainian drone specialists in Idlib who were assisting the HTS prior to their attack on Aleppo. In your point of view, why is Ukraine involved in Syria?

AO: It seems to me that if Ukraine sees an opportunity to somehow complicate life for Russia in one or another part of the world, it does so. Syria is the only country in a series of countries where the presence of Ukrainian troops has been recorded. There have also been reports of their activity from Sudan and Mali. So Kyiv’s actions are a direct reflection of the current conflict with Moscow.

SS: In 2015, Russia came into Syria and pushed back the militias which saved the coast of Syria. In your opinion, could Russia done something to save Syria before the fall of Damascus?

AO: Russia tried to help the Syrian army. But it couldn’t do its job for it. The lack of combat-ready ground forces is the main reason for the failure. Aviation can only provide cover, but it will not do all the work for the soldiers on the ground. 

SS: Turkey’s President Erdoğan has been supporting these opposition militias for 15 years. In your opinion, what does President Erdoğan want from supporting these groups?

AO: Erdogan is seeking to expand his influence in Syria. It is no secret that many areas of Syria country are perceived in Turkey as part of the former Ottoman Empire. Accordingly, Ankara is trying to strengthen its position. And it will probably try to strengthen its foothold to prevent the creation of an independent Kurdish state.

SS: The Arab League and the Arab countries, even Saudi Arabia and the UAE, announced their support for Syria and President Assad before he left. In your opinion, what made the Arab countries change their minds and support the Syrian government?

AO: Many Arab countries, in my opinion, have learned from the bitter experience of the so-called Arab Spring. They understand perfectly well that the violent overthrow of power often leads to the destabilization of the country and the surrounding region. It is enough to look at Libya, which has not been able to emerge from the crisis since 2011. As for Syria, now the situation there may well follow the Libyan scenario. At the very least, we see that Israel is already expanding the zone of occupied territories at the expense of Syrian lands. This is the first, but probably not the only negative result of current events.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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

Video: World Leaders Sign WEF Treaty Introducing ‘Age of Death’ Laws in West

By The People’s Voice, December 11, 2024

The World Economic Forum has reportedly instructed world governments to dismantle age of consent laws while introducing something even more sinister: “Age of Death” laws.

Latest ‘Zircon’ Test Reaffirms Russian Hypersonic Dominance

By Drago Bosnic, December 11, 2024

On December 3, the Russian military demonstrated the true design of its 3M22 “Zircon” hypersonic missile for the first time. The footage shows the weapon being launched from the 3S14 UKSK vertical launch system (VLS).

Eyewitness Syria, the Last 12 Days

By Rick Sterling, December 11, 2024

The march and overthrow of Aleppo was done by Syrian and many foreign fighters supplied and backed by Turkish intelligence and military. Syrian military communications were jammed using electronic warfare.

Who the Hell Is In Charge Here? If Trump Submits to Israeli Control Just as Biden Did, We Need a Revolution

By Philip Giraldi, December 10, 2024

A photo popped up on the internet last week which was a bit surprising even for those of us who have been overly obsessed with the seemingly aimless and highly dangerous comedy routine that describes itself as the United States of America’s Foreign Policy.

How to Escape the Federal Debt Trap. U.S. Debt Is Now $36 Trillion!

By Ellen Brown, December 11, 2024

The U.S. national debt just passed $36 trillion, only four months after it passed $35 trillion and up $2 trillion for the year. Third quarter data is not yet available, but interest payments as a percent of tax receipts rose to 37.8% in the third quarter of 2024, the highest since 1996. That means interest is eating up over one-third of our tax revenues.

“Theater Iran Near Term” (TIRANNT). The Ongoing Planning of War Against Iran

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, December 10, 2024

In recent developments, there have been numerous statements to the effect that Israel is at war with Iran. Israel is an instrument of the Pentagon. Netanyahu is a proxy. Israel does not act without the consent of  US-NATO.

Black Flag Over Damascus. Mike Whitney

By Mike Whitney, December 10, 2024

General Mike Flynn, the former head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), warned his colleagues in the Obama administration, that supporting terrorist groups to prosecute proxy wars on Washington’s behalf, was a risky business that would eventually backfire leading to the establishment of ‘a Salafist principality in Syria.’ That warning has now become a reality.

The situation in Syria has reached a critical and tragic juncture, marked by the fall of the Assad government and a dramatic shift in the country’s governance. Recent developments indicate that militant groups, backed by external players—particularly the United States and Israel—have seized control of significant regions and now hold sway over the government itself. These events have amplified concerns about the overarching geopolitical strategy known as the “Greater Israel Project,” which critics argue aims to destabilize and fragment Middle Eastern nations perceived as opposing U.S. and Israeli interests.

The Current Landscape

Over the past months, Syria has experienced a rapid escalation in conflict. Militant factions, many with ties to extremist ideologies, have captured key territories and ultimately taken control of the government. This has culminated in President Bashar al-Assad reportedly fleeing the country as his regime’s power collapsed under the sustained pressure of foreign-backed insurgents.

The resurgence of these militant groups has been fueled by sophisticated weaponry, logistical support, and intelligence allegedly provided by external actors, including the United States and Israel. The timing of this collapse is significant. Russia, a key ally of the Assad government, has been unable to fully commit its military resources to Syria due to its ongoing war in Ukraine. This vacuum has been effectively exploited by militant groups, marking the culmination of efforts to unseat Assad after more than a decade of conflict.

The “Greater Israel Project” Allegations

The notion of a “Greater Israel Project” is often cited in analyses of Middle Eastern geopolitics. Proponents of this theory argue that the long-term goal is to fragment and weaken neighboring states to ensure Israeli regional hegemony. Syria, along with Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran, has been viewed as a target in this alleged strategy. The rapid destabilization and regime collapse in Syria are seen by critics as a step in this broader agenda.

Syria’s descent into chaos has its roots in the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, which spiraled into a devastating civil war. The Assad government managed to hold power for years with support from Russia and Iran, but persistent interference by Western and regional powers prolonged the conflict and eroded Syria’s stability. The fall of Assad signifies a tipping point in the alleged efforts to dismantle opposition to U.S.-Israeli policies in the region.

The Role of the United States and Israel

The United States has long supported opposition groups in Syria, citing the need to promote democracy and combat terrorism. However, many of these groups have demonstrated extremist tendencies and have contributed to the fragmentation of the Syrian state. Israel’s involvement, primarily through airstrikes targeting Syrian and Iranian positions, underscores its strategic interest in neutralizing perceived threats near its borders.

Critics argue that these actions have exacerbated the crisis, facilitating the rise of militant groups and undermining legitimate state institutions. The fall of Assad’s government, they contend, is the culmination of a broader strategy aligned with the “Greater Israel Project” to weaken adversaries by fostering division and chaos.

The Aftermath and the Road Ahead

With Assad’s departure and the militant takeover of the government, Syria’s future hangs in the balance. The country’s infrastructure lies in ruins, millions of its citizens are displaced, and the prospect of peace remains elusive. Regional players like Iran and non-state actors such as Hezbollah face significant challenges in their efforts to counterbalance the influence of U.S.- and Israeli-backed forces. Meanwhile, Russia’s diminished focus on Syria has left Damascus without its most powerful ally during this critical period.

The fall of the Assad government represents a seismic shift not just for Syria but for the broader Middle East. The implications of this development are profound, potentially redrawing alliances and intensifying conflicts throughout the region. The ongoing turmoil serves as a stark reminder of the devastating impact of foreign interventions and the intricate web of geopolitics that defines the modern Middle East.

Conclusion

Syria’s struggle epitomizes the larger battle between regional sovereignty and external manipulation. With the Assad government toppled and militant factions in control, the international community faces a critical test. Without genuine dialogue and respect for national self-determination, the cycle of destruction may persist. Until then, Syria remains at the heart of a geopolitical storm that threatens to reshape the Middle East for generations to come.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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

Sources

Glass, Charles. Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe. Verso Books, 2015.

Ishay, Micheline R. The Levant Express: The Arab Uprisings, Human Rights, and the Future of the Middle East. Yale Books, 2019.

Phillips, Christopher. The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East. Yale University Press, 2020.

Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. War for Eternity: Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle of Global Powerbrokers. HarperCollins B and Blackstone Publishing, 2020.

Van Dam, Nikolaos. The Struggle for Power in Syria: Politics and Society Under Asad and the Ba’th Party. Bloomsbury Academic, 1996.

Featured image source


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

**Voices from Syria**

Author: Mark Taliano

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-9-1

Year: 2017

Product Type: PDF File

List Price: $6.50

Special Offer: $5.00 

Click to order.

The U.S. national debt just passed $36 trillion, only four months after it passed $35 trillion and up $2 trillion for the year. Third quarter data is not yet available, but interest payments as a percent of tax receipts rose to 37.8% in the third quarter of 2024, the highest since 1996. That means interest is eating up over one-third of our tax revenues.

Total interest for the fiscal year hit $1.16 trillion, topping one trillion for the first time ever. That breaks down to $3 billion per day. For comparative purposes, an estimated $11 billion, or less than four days’ federal interest, would pay the median rent for all the homeless people in America for a year. The damage from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina alone is estimated at $53.6 billion, for which the state is expected to receive only $13.6 billion in federal support. The $40 billion funding gap is a sum we pay in less than two weeks in interest on the federal debt.

The current debt trajectory is clearly unsustainable, but what can be done about it? Raising taxes and trimming the budget can slow future growth of the debt, but they are unable to fix the underlying problem — a debt grown so massive that just the interest on it is crowding out expenditures on the public goods that are the primary purpose of government.

Borrowing Is Actually More Inflationary Than Printing

Several financial commentators have suggested that we would be better off if the Treasury issued the money for the budget outright, debt-free. Martin Armstrong, an economic forecaster with a background in computer science and commodities trading, contends that if we had just done that in the first place, the national debt would be only 40% of what it is today. In fact, he argues, debt today is the same as money, except that it comes with interest. Federal securities can be posted in the repo market as collateral for an equivalent in loans, and the collateral can be “rehypothecated” (re-used) several times over, creating new money that augments the money supply just as would happen if it were issued directly.

Chris Martenson, another economic researcher and trend forecaster, asked in a Nov. 21 podcast, “What great harm would happen if the Treasury just issued its own money directly and didn’t borrow it? … You’re still overspending, you still probably have inflation, but now you’re not paying interest on it.”

The argument for borrowing rather than printing is that the government is borrowing existing money, so it will not expand the money supply. That was true when money consisted of gold and silver coins, but it is not true today. In fact borrowing the money is now more inflationary, increasing the money supply more, than if it were just issued directly, due to the way the government borrows. It issues securities (bills, bonds and notes) that are bid on at auction by selected “primary dealers” (mostly very large banks). Quoting from Investopedia:

Because most modern economies rely on fractional reserve banking, when primary dealers purchase government debt in the form of Treasury securities, they are able to increase their reserves and expand the money supply by lending it out. This is known as the money multiplier effect.  

Thus, “the government increases cash reserves in the banking system,” and “the increase in reserves raises the money supply in the economy.” Principal and interest on the securities are paid when due, but they are paid with borrowed money. In effect, the debt is never repaid but just gets rolled over from year to year along with the interest due on it. The interest compounds, an increasing amount of debt-at-interest is generated, and the money supply and inflation go up.

U.S. Currency Should be Issued by the U.S. Government

Well over 90% of the U.S. money supply today is issued not by the government but by private banks when they make loans.  As Thomas Edison argued in 1921, “It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million in bonds and not $30 million in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people.” 

The government could avoid increasing the debt by printing the money for its budget as President Lincoln did, as U.S. Notes or “Greenbacks.” Donald Trump acknowledged in 2016 that the government never has to default “because you print the money,” echoing Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffett and others. So writes Prof. Stephanie Kelton in a Dec. 2, 2024 blog. Alternatively, the Treasury could mint some trillion dollar coins. The Constitution gives Congress the power to coin money and regulate its value, and no limit is put on the value of the coins it creates. In legislation initiated in 1982, Congress chose to impose limits on the amounts and denominations of most coins, but a special provision allowed the platinum coin to be minted in any amount for commemorative purposes. Philip Diehl, former head of the U.S. Mint and co-author of the platinum coin law, confirmed that the coin would be legal tender:

In minting the $1 trillion platinum coin, the Treasury Secretary would be exercising authority which Congress has granted routinely for more than 220 years … under power expressly granted to Congress in the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8).

To prevent congressional overspending, a budget ceiling could be imposed – as it is now, although the terms would probably need to be revised.

Eliminating the Debt

Those maneuvers would prevent the federal debt from growing, but it still would not eliminate the trillion dollar interest tab on the existing $36 trillion debt. The only permanent solution is to eliminate the debt itself. In ancient Mesopotamia, when the king was the creditor, this was done with periodic debt jubilees — just cancel the debt. (See Michael Hudson, And Forgive Them Their Debts.) But that is not possible today because the creditors are private banks and private investors who have a contractual right to be paid, and the U.S. Constitution requires that the government pay its debts as and when due. 

Another possibility is a financial transaction tax, which could replace both income and sales taxes while still generating enough to fund the government and pay off the debt. See Scott Smith,  A Tale of Two Economies: A New Financial Operating System for the American Economy (2023) and my earlier article here. But that solution has been discussed for years without gaining traction in Congress.

Another alternative is to have the Federal Reserve buy the debt as it comes due. For the last few years, the Treasury has been issuing an estimated 30% of its debt as short-term bills rather than 10-year or 30-year bonds. As a result, in 2023 approximately 31% of the outstanding debt came due for renewal. As usual, it was just rolled over into new debt. But the nearly one-third coming due in FY2025 could be bought in the open market by the Federal Reserve, which is required to return its profits to the government after deducting its costs, making the debt virtually interest-free. Interest-free debt carried on the books and rolled over does not raise the federal deficit. If a third of the outstanding debt is too much to monetize in one year to avoid inflation, this maneuver could be spread out over a number of years.

Mandating that action by an “independent” Fed would require an amendment to the Federal Reserve Act, but Congress has the power to amend it and has done so several times over the years. The incoming Administration is proposing more radical moves than that, including eliminating the income tax, ending the Fed, auditing the Fed, or merging it with the Treasury.The federal interest tab nearly doubled after April 2022, when the Fed initiated “Quantitative Tightening.” It reduced its balance sheet by selling over $2 trillion in federal securities into the economy, reducing the money supply, and by hiking the federal funds rate to as high as 5.5%. Arguably the Fed has overtightened and needs to reverse that trend by buying federal securities, injecting new money into the economy.

.

.

How to Avoid Hyperinflation

Alarmed economists contend that a Weimar-style hyperinflation is the inevitable outcome of government-issued money. But as Michael Hudson points out, “Every hyperinflation in history has been caused by foreign debt service collapsing the exchange rate. The problem almost always has resulted from wartime foreign currency strains, not domestic spending.”

Issuing the money directly will not inflate prices if the funds are used to increase the domestic supply of goods and services. Supply and demand will then go up together, keeping prices stable. This has been illustrated historically, perhaps most dramatically in China. The People’s Bank of China manages the money supply by a variety of means including just printing currency. In 28 years, from 1996 to 2024, China’s money supply (M2) grew by 52 times or 5,200%, yet hyperinflation did not result. Prices remained stable because the funds went into increasing GDP, which went up along with the money supply.

Price inflation during the Covid crisis has been blamed on the Fed monetizing Congressional fiscal payments to consumers and businesses, increasing demand (the circulating money supply) without increasing supply (goods and services). But the San Francisco Fed concluded that the surge in global shipping and transportation costs due to COVID, along with delivery delays and backlogs, were a greater contributor than this fiscal stimulus to the runup of headline inflation in 2021 and 2022. The supply of goods could have been increased – producers could have increased production to respond to the increase in demand — were it not for the shutdown of more than 700,000 productive businesses labeled “non-essential,” resulting in the loss of three million jobs.

Swapping Debt for Productive Equity

Money printing is not inflationary if the money is issued for productive purposes, raising GDP in lockstep; but how can we be sure that the new money will be used productively? Today the banks and other large institutions that first receive any newly-issued money are more likely to invest it speculatively, driving up the price of existing assets (homes, stocks, etc.) without creating new goods and services.

Economic blogger Martin Armstrong observes that one solution pursued by debt-ridden countries is to swap the debt for equity in productive assets. This has been done by Mexico, Poland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the United States itself. It was  the solution of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in dealing with the overwhelming debt of the First U.S. Congress. State and federal debt was swapped along with gold for shares in the First U.S. Bank, paying a 6% dividend. The Bank then issued U.S. currency at up to 10 times this capital base, on the fractional reserve model still used by banks today. Both the First and the Second U.S. Banks were designed to support manufacturing and production, according to Hamilton’s Report on Public Credit.

Following the Hamiltonian model is H.R. 4052, the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2023 (NIB) now pending in Congress. The NIB proposal is to swap privately-held federal securities (Treasury bonds) for non-voting preferred stock in the bank. Interest on the bonds would continue to go to the investors, along with a 2% stock dividend. That would not eliminate the debt or the interest, but if the Federal Reserve were to buy federal securities on the open market and swap them for NIB stock, the securities would essentially remain interest-free, since again the Fed is required to return its profits to the Treasury after deducting its costs.

Lending Directly to Productive Businesses

Another possibility for using newly issued money to increase the supply of goods and services is for the Federal Reserve to make loans directly to productive businesses. That was actually the intent of the original Federal Reserve Act. Section 13 of the Act allows Federal Reserve Banks to discount notes, drafts, and bills of exchange arising out of actual commercial transactions, such as those issued for agricultural, industrial or commercial purposes – in other words, lending directly for production and development. “Discounting commercial paper” is a process by which short-term loans are provided to financial institutions using commercial paper as collateral. (Commercial paper is unsecured short-term debt, usually issued at a discount, used to cover payroll, inventory and other short-term liabilities. The “discount” represents the interest to the lender.)According to Prof. Carl Walsh, writing of the Federal Reserve Act in The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Newsletter in 1991:

The preamble sets out very clearly that one purpose of the Federal Reserve Act was to afford a means of discounting commercial loans. In its report on the proposed bill, the House Banking and Currency Committee viewed a fundamental objective of the bill to be the “creation of a joint mechanism for the extension of credit to banks which possess sound assets and which desire to liquidate them for the purpose of meeting legitimate commercial, agricultural, and industrial demands on the part of their clientele.

Cornell Law School Professor Robert Hockett expanded on this design in an article in Forbes in March 2021: 

[T]he founders of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 … designed something akin to a network of regional development finance institutions. … Each of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks was to provide short-term funding directly or indirectly (through local banks) to developing businesses that needed it. This they did by ‘discounting’ – in effect, purchasing – commercial paper from those businesses that needed it … [I]n determining what kinds of commercial paper to discount, the Federal Reserve Act both was – and ironically remains – quite explicit about this: Fed discount lending is solely for “productive,” not “speculative” purposes.

Today discounting commercial paper is big business, but the lenders are private and the borrowers are large institutions issuing commercial paper in denominations of $100,000 or more. Except for its emergency Commercial Paper Funding Facility operated from 2020 to 2021 and from 2008 to 2010, the Fed no longer engages in the commercial loan business. Meanwhile, small businesses are having trouble finding affordable financing.

In a sequel to his March 2021 article, Hockett explained that the drafters of the Federal Reserve Act, notably Carter Glass and Paul Warburg, were essentially following the Real Bills Doctrine (RBD). Previously known as the “commercial loan theory of banking,” it held that banks could create credit-money deposits on their balance sheets without triggering inflation if the money were issued against loans backed by commercial paper. When the borrowing companies repaid their loans from their sales receipts, the newly created money would just void out the debt and be extinguished. Their intent was that banks could sell their commercial loans at a discount at the Fed’s Discount Window, freeing up their balance sheets for more loans. Hockett wrote:

The RBD in its crude formulation held that so long as the lending of endogenous [bank-created] credit-money was kept productive, not speculative, inflation and deflation would be not only less likely, but effectively impossible. And the experience of German banks during Germany’s late 19th century Hamiltonian ‘growth miracle,’ with which the German immigrant Warburg, himself a banker, was intimately familiar, appeared to verify this. So did Glass’s experience with agricultural lending in the American South. 

Prof. Hockett suggested regionalizing the Fed, expanding it from the current 12 Federal Reserve banks to many banks. He wrote in August 2021:

In time, we might even imagine a proliferation of public banks, patterned more or less after the highly successful Bank of North Dakota model, spreading across multiple states. These banks could then both afford nonprofit banking services to all, and assist the Fed Regional Banks in identifying appropriate recipients of Fed liquidity assistance.

The result, he said, will be “a Fed restored to its original purpose, a Fed responsive to varying local conditions in a sprawling continental republic, a Fed no longer over-involved with banks whose principal if not sole activities are in gambling on price movements in secondary and tertiary markets rather than investing in the primary markets that constitute our ‘real’ economy. It will mean, in short, something approaching a true people’s bank, not just a banks’ bank.” 

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of thirteen books including Web of DebtThe Public Bank Solution, and Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. Her 400+ blog articles are posted at EllenBrown.com. She is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source

“Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night: it’s spritely waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull’d, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.” – Shakespeare, Coriolanus

Long ago, but what seems like only yesterday, I didn’t go to the U.S. war against Vietnam but the war came to me. It was when my exile began.

I am telling you this to try to shed some light on today’s wars and alarums since my tale is common for a small subset of Americans of my generation. We learned long ago that the USA was run by ruthless killers who reveled in war. Vietnam, the Phoenix Program, Cambodia, Indonesia, etc. Nothing was beyond them. We sensed that they would never stop and they haven’t. The genocide of Palestinians, the proxy war via Ukraine against Russia, the current US/Israel/Turkey bloodbath in Syria and Lebanon led by our ruthless terrorists – it is all nightmarish, malevolent, utterly evil, and conjures up hell on earth. And it will get worse in the future.

The mainstream media is claiming that the new savior of Syria is the terrorist “rebel” leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the founding leader of Al Qaeda in Syria, al-Nusra, and a former deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

While there is truth in the view that the world has always been a butcher’s bench with wars, hatred, and strife being a common theme, “always” is meaningless to me. For I have never lived in “always.”

I have lived since birth in the United States during a period of time when it has been the world’s number one butcher, starting with the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then continuing waging non-stop wars, assassinating foreign and domestic leaders, including President Kennedy, executing coup d’états, supporting and arming ruthless dictators and terrorists, and creating an economy dependent on war.

All this has been sustained by lies and propaganda that most Americans have swallowed. It is a deeply ingrained Yankee doodle dandy ethos joined with American exceptionalism and a self-induced false innocence.

Just this morning, December 8, 2024, as it did during the Vietnam war, The New York Times spewed out lies about the events in Syria, calling the U.S.-backed jihadist terrorists (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham/Al Qaeda, et al.) “rebels” and the overthrow of the Assad government a “civil war.” In doing so, the paper is just doing what it has always done as an organ for U.S. foreign policy, seemingly forgetting that it was the Obama administration that in 2012 launched Operation Timber Sycamore, a CIA program to, under the guise of a civil war, overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of a larger effort to undercut Iran and Russia for U.S./Israel/Turkey/NATO control of the region.

.

undefined

The port in Aqaba, Jordan was an important route for Timber Sycamore weaponry that entered Syria. (Licensed under CC BY 2.0)

.

It is propaganda about a much larger war well underway, as the presence of Ukrainian forces in Syria and the usual Israeli bombing attest. Like a mountain ridge wildfire, the winds whip wildly now, and whether the fire spreads next to Iran or somewhere else, it is sure to spread.

To paraphrase Thoreau, there is no need to care for a myriad of instances and applications, the only thing you need is to be acquainted with the principle, which in this case is the long-standing demonic nature of U.S. foreign policy which is synchronous with waging perpetual war.

Yet most people don’t want to go past such lying headlines that are repeated by all the mainstream media. They never did, except when the issues concerned them personally, as when there was a military draft.

Yes, government and media propaganda have contributed mightily to it, but so many of the country’s war crimes have been committed out in the open and accompanied by the public’s cheering and flag waving that propaganda is only part of the explanation.

The will to believe and self-delusion are a large part of it. And people seem to like war, if it is far away and the cheerleaders are on this side of the water. It lends excitement to life like a real murder mystery, a sex scandal, or an approaching hurricane.

Furthermore, it provides roots for the national myth, the mythic home, the mythic womb, wherein one can root for the home team as one stands with tens of thousands of team people and sing along with the words “bombs bursting in air” while feeling a stirring of patriotic pride. This desire to be patriotically conventional, to support the national team in war and peace, is very powerful. Why else the creation of the mammoth bureaucracy called Homeland Security, the un-American word homeland taken straight from Hitler’s 1934 Nuremberg rally. Root, root, root for the home team.

I know the patriotic feeling. It left me back in 1967 when my exile began. For the most part, it has not been apparent to outside observers, for there are places difficult to reach, and the one within is the most distant. My youthful “normalcy” received its first body blow with JFK’s assassination in 1963. By 1967 I had joined the Marines and then declared myself a conscientious objector as I realized the evil my country was committing in Vietnam. I was on my way away.

In the years that followed, as Malcom X, MLK, Jr. and RFK, were assassinated and Johnson and Nixon lied and brutalized Vietnam, my understanding of history and politics deepened. Families and friends called me a communist for being a C.O. and opposing the war and a lying government. It was laughable but relentless.

Many years have elapsed, and the charges have risen and fallen as the years have gone by. For years now, the name of abuse is a “conspiracy” theorist or Russian sympathizer for daring to say that Russia Gate was a Democratic conspiracy and the war against Russia in Ukraine has been a U.S. project from the start. There is much more.

But my point about internal exile is that I had to adopt the motions of normalcy in everyday life – to create a pleasant persona – to get through the days. My teaching and writing continued as hard-hitting as before, but family, friends, academic colleagues, and acquaintances didn’t take my courses or read my writing, which they made sure to avoid.

These days, many more people have been forced to discover the twofold life where they can’t talk to the people in their lives about many issues – politics, wars, Covid, etc. Something has broken. Almost everything.

To accept the conclusion that the country is run by a bunch of ruthless warmongering imperialists is a step too far for most people. They must mean well or just make mistakes, for their hearts are in the right place, runs through so many minds. At least they assume that about the leaders they support.

A key way the endless wars roll on is the deadly political game of the lesser of two evils. If it is one’s political party waging the foreign wars, there are always many reasons to still find it better than the other party’s wars. “My leader may be a warmonger but he’s better than your warmonger” is the unspoken implication. This neat trick is supported by a host of mitigating excuses to justify the delusion that one is for peace even as these wars occur non-stop throughout the decades as the Democratic and Republican leaders switch highchairs.

Rather than dismiss the lot of them, the desire to feel that patriot heart-pump, however dim, and to reject the “extremist” conclusion that war is the life blood of the country, remains.

Throughout the sixty years of my adult life, the U.S. has been continuously waging wars, hot and cold, small and large, openly and secretly, all across the world, and its economy has increasingly become a military-industrial-national-security complex so vast and intricately linked to daily life that the country would collapse without it. Simply put: Beneath daily life lies a death cult, a river of blood. If that sounds too strong for you, give me another name for it.

It seems to me very clear that most Americans are today suffering from some sort of traumatic mental sickness, trying desperately to deny it in a multitude of ways. Scratch the surface of an everyday conversation or a greeting on the street and there’s the rolling of the eyes and the looks that say, “Let’s not go there, it’s all too crazy!” Something has broken, and people seem like walking desperadoes with the flag planted like a dagger in their hearts.

Even the alternative media, those writers with whom I share wishes for a peaceful world, have for a good while let their hopes trump reailty by claiming the American empire is doomed, as is Israel and the neo-liberal, neo-con agenda. For many months now, I have noticed something amiss with these claims. Too much wishful thinking. Too little appreciation for the machinations of the CIA, M-16, Mossad, Turkish conspiracies. To think these devils would accept defeat without bringing the world down is naïve.

I don’t relish saying all this. It is depressing. But I think it is true.

Some people who know me call me an extremist and claim I make no room for the middle ground. When it comes to U.S. war-waging, I say there is none. It is endless and integral to U.S. foreign policy no matter which party is in office. And the foreign policy is integral to the domestic policy. Without it, the country would be so different. Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden – to buy their lies is to be a fool.

To realize the difference between power and innocence is to come to understand the demonic nature of America’s Forever Wars.  When in 2014 President Obama stood at West Point and said, “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being,” he was revealing, consciously or not, a hard truth, just as when he received the Nobel Peace Prize and told the world he believed in war.  But he smiled.

For war is the lifeblood of this “exceptional” country.  But if you keep repeating that, don’t expect smiles to come your way.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Behind the Curtain.

Edward Curtin is a prominent author, researcher and sociologist based in Western Massachusetts. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).  

‘Oreshniks’ in Belarus Deter NATO Aggression

December 11th, 2024 by Drago Bosnic

On November 21, the Russian military used the “Oreshnik” for the very first time, a new hypersonic weapon armed with a conventional MIRV/MaRV/HGV payload. Technically an ICBM/IRBM hybrid, the missile offers unparalleled conventional long-range strike capabilities, something President Vladimir Putin announced two years ago. The November 21 strike on the former Soviet “Yuzhmash” plant was a warning shot. However, it wasn’t meant for the NATO-backed Neo-Nazi junta, but the political West, as its policy of constant escalation is pushing the world into a catastrophe. The strategic impact of the “Oreshnik” is similar to that of the formidable RSD-10 “Pioneer” IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile) that the Soviet Union deployed in the 1980s.

However, unlike the “Saber” (NATO reporting name for RSD-10), which was exclusively nuclear-armed, the “Oreshnik” can carry both conventional and nuclear-tipped warheads. This makes it a much more usable platform, as it has no (geo)political and/or moral consequences connected with the use of nuclear weapons. It enables the targeting of underground command centers or any other high-priority targets across NATO-occupied Europe. It should be noted that the deployment of such missiles is the consequence of America’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from the INF Treaty (August 2, 2019). And even then, Russia tried to convince the US to not go ahead with the plans to deploy previously banned missiles, but to no avail.

Worse yet, Washington DC and its vassals and satellite states are now looking to deploy land-based intermediate and medium-range missiles in Europe, pushing the continent back to the 1980s, a dangerous prospect that the INF Treaty was designed to prevent. Moscow is responding to this in several ways, including by increasing the range of existing land-based hypersonic weapons. However, the true strategic response was announced in the last several days, particularly with regard to the upcoming deployment of the “Oreshnik” missiles in Belarus. Namely, on December 6, President Putin revealed that his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, made an official request for the deployment of the new hypersonic missile.

This would be entirely within the framework of existing mutual defense agreements and would significantly enhance Minsk’s ability to deter any potential NATO aggression. Belarus already has nuclear weapons deployed on its territory precisely for this reason, particularly as the neighboring Poland is militarizing. The “Oreshnik” will likely be deployed in the second half of 2025. Putin told Lukashenko that “there are a number of technical matters that must be resolved by specialists, namely, determining the minimum range, taking into account the priorities of ensuring the security of Belarus”. In practice, this means that the missile will likely have a conventional payload and a shorter-range capability to neutralize threats in Eastern Europe.

The “Oreshnik” will certainly give Minsk unparalleled long-range strike options, rivaled only by those of Russia. The Kiev regime thinks that hundreds of these missiles could be deployed in the foreseeable future. According to its infamous GUR, Moscow’s military industry is able to produce up to 25 “Oreshniks” per month, amounting to 300 yearly. Even if only 10% of those are deployed in Belarus and considering that each missile can carry six MIRVs/MaRVs/HGVs, this could give Minsk the ability to strike 180 strategic targets. In addition, each of the six warheads can carry another six advanced kinetic penetrators, meaning that the Belarussian military would be able to neutralize nearly 1,100 individual targets in a radius of up to 6,000 km.

As previously mentioned, this sort of asymmetric conventional power projection is wholly unparalleled, not just in Europe, but virtually anywhere in the world. Military sources essentially confirm that Moscow can achieve such a large production capacity, particularly as the facilities for making the formidable RS-24 “Yars” ICBM can be repurposed to produce the “Oreshnik”, which is based on the RS-26 “Rubezh”, a shortened version of the RS-24 (one stage removed). These missiles have a very peculiar maneuverability, the so-called wobbling movement that confuses NATO ABM (anti-ballistic missile) systems, making it virtually impossible to intercept. Still, it’s only a matter of time before the Neo-Nazi junta claims to have “shot down several at once”.

Jokes aside, the political West seems to have taken the “Oreshnik” threat quite seriously, as military sources report that ATACMS and “Storm Shadow”/SCALP-EG attacks have come to a halt, particularly after the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, called his US counterpart, Charles Q. Brown Jr. We can only speculate what exactly the conversation was about, but it’s safe to assume that the Pentagon got a very clear and concrete warning. Unfortunately, gentlemanly agreements with the world’s most vile racketeering cartel and its warmongering overlords in Washington DC are all but impossible. They only understand the language of raw power and that’s how the actual world will communicate with them from now on.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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

Eyewitness Syria, the Last 12 Days

December 11th, 2024 by Rick Sterling

My friend lives in Damascus. I will call him Qusay to protect his identity. Qusay was born and grew up in Aleppo and still has family there. He is a high-level translator and university professor. From his family he learned what unfolded in Aleppo following the invasion beginning November 27. He personally witnessed events in Damascus where he still is. The following is what Qusay told me about events in Syria over the past 12 days. 

Overthrow of Aleppo

The march and overthrow of Aleppo was done by Syrian and many foreign fighters supplied and backed by Turkish intelligence and military. Syrian military communications were jammed using electronic warfare. The invaders used drones for surveilling and attacking Syria forces. The jihadists were trained in the use of drones by NATO-funded Ukrainians. Turkey and other NATO forces supplied the drones and all sorts of other advanced weaponry. They had tanks in addition to machine gun mounted trucks and other vehicles.  

The jihadists were carefully prepared by Turkish / US forces. They sent individuals to talk with influential people in the Aleppo community, promising payments of hundreds of dollars and other rewards in exchange for complicity or no opposition. Doctors, engineers and public officials were contacted personally. It is highly likely that military officials were also contacted. When the invasion supported by the Turkish military happened starting November 27, the Syrian defense of Aleppo collapsed. 

Qusay thinks the Syrian army was exhausted from 13 years of war plus constant attacks from Israeli jets they have been helpless to stop. They, like all Syrian society, have been impoverished by intense sanctions from the West coupled with the theft of essential national resources. The primary wheat growing and oil and gas producing regions have been occupied by US forces and their Kurdish proxies since 2016.  As a result, most Syrians only have electricity a few hours per day and have trouble putting food on the table. Before the “dirty war” began in 2011, Syria was self sufficient in food and energy. Syria had no national debt and Syrians enjoyed free health care and education.

The invaders in Aleppo tried to assuage the public that they are not like the “rebels” of old who persecuted and killed Christians and Alawi and enforced sharia law. In Aleppo, they provided free bread for families and quickly set up electronic communications hubs so that everyone might have internet and also so they could broadcast their messages. 

Collapse in Damascus 

While the northern invading army went on to central Syria, a different attacking group worked from the south. First they attacked and took over Deraa on the Jordan border, then Suweida. Then they advanced to Damascus. It seems there were agreements in advance because there was little military defense of the capital of Syria. President Assad relinquished power and departed for Moscow. 

On Day One (Sunday) after the collapse of Bashar’s government, looting and chaos erupted immediately. People were terrified and afraid to go out of their homes.  Government other buildings were looted and ransacked. Universities were broken into and computers and lab equipment stolen.The Central Bank of Syria and other institutions was vandalized.

Many people have replaced the flag of Syria with the “revolution” flag out of fear.  

Now, on Day Two, the situation is better. There is more security. Many stores are still closed but they are opening one by one. The former PM and cabinet have urged people to go back to work.  

The titular head of the new government is Abu Mohammed al Jolani. He has publicly stated women are free to wear what they want and there will be no retaliation or revenge attacks. The Syrian Prime Minister has been replaced with Mohamad al Bashir. The Jolani government seems to be in control throughout most of the country, including Latakia. 

A huge concern now is the ongoing Israeli attacks and bombings. Israel has destroyed nearly all military buildings in Damascus area while Israeli drones are constantly overhead. Queneitra in the far south has been occupied by the Zionist army.  Netanyahu and Biden have both taken “credit” for the long dirty war in Syria.  

Qusay says, 

“Suddenly everything is lost…. Syrians are used to relying on the army to defend our country. But there is no more defense. Israel is taking overy Syrian land. Turkey is taking over another part of Syria. ….. We don’t know where Syria is going.” 

Some Syrians think they will have a better life.  Others believe this is an illusion and there are dark days ahead. Last weekend Qusay’s family had their bags packed and were ready to leave. But there is no place to go. Both Jordan and Lebanon have closed their borders. 

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Rick Sterling is an independent journalist based in norther California. He can be reached at [email protected]

On December 3, the Russian military demonstrated the true design of its 3M22 “Zircon” hypersonic missile for the first time. The footage shows the weapon being launched from the 3S14 UKSK vertical launch system (VLS). The launch platform was the Russian Navy’s “Admiral Gorshkov”, a frigate that regularly causes panic in NATO headquarters due to its long-range anti-ship and land-attack capabilities.

The first confirmed combat deployment of the “Zircon” occurred in January last year, although it’s very likely it was already used in 2022. In combination with high maneuverability, the missile’s maximum speed of Mach 9 (approximately 11,000 km/h) makes it effectively impossible to intercept, especially at very low altitudes, giving enemy forces mere seconds to react.

Information on the maximum range varies significantly, but informed military sources speculate it depends on the “Zircon’s” flight profile. According to Army Recognition, when flying low, it can reach up to 500 km, which is in line with basic physics, as the atmosphere is much denser at such altitudes. However, Russian tests have confirmed ranges of up to 1,500-2,000 km, as flying higher greatly extends the missile’s reach.

The “Zircon” is a two-stage weapon, with the first being a solid-fuel booster, while a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine takes over after the missile has accelerated enough to enable its functioning (ramjets and scramjets can usually operate only after a certain velocity has been attained). It’s the world’s first and only operational weapon of this type.

The political West is particularly terrified of the “Zircon’s” multipurpose capabilities, as it can be launched by various platforms, be it submarines, surface combatants and/or land-based platforms. The missile is also nuclear-capable, meaning that it can be used on a strategic level, although its conventional capabilities are no less concerning to NATO, as its sheer speed and kinetic energy are unmatched by anything the world’s most vile racketeering cartel can deploy. As per usual, in order to somehow mask its inferiority (measured in decades at this point) in hypersonic technologies, the political West usually resorts to propaganda to denigrate the “Zircon”, primarily by pushing the laughable narrative that the Neo-Nazi junta shot down a third of all “Zircons” fired by the Russian military.

However, not a single remotely informed military source takes such claims seriously. On the contrary, even Western ones admit that “no known technology has been proven to consistently counter hypersonic threats, meaning adversaries could not intercept the Zircon in real-time, mainly when launched from long distances”, as the aforementioned Army Recognition report posits. The publication also admits that “for the United States and NATO, the Zircon represents a new generation of missile technology that could shift the balance of power, particularly in naval operations”, as its “extreme speed and the variety of launch platforms it can be deployed from increase its threat to naval assets such as aircraft carriers and destroyers” and that this “could severely limit Western operational reach”.

This is certainly true and confirms that NATO militaries are extremely worried about the possibility of such missiles proliferating to sovereigntist nations, a development that could severely limit the political West’s ability to conduct unprovoked aggression against the world. It should be noted that the United States, NATO and its other vassals and satellite states are mostly thalassocracies that focus on naval power projection, particularly on massive capital ships (such as aircraft carriers). These large and slow-moving targets are effectively sitting ducks for the Russian Navy which is focusing on deploying much smaller surface combatants such as frigates and corvettes that could carry the “Zircon”. Such vessels are far more affordable, while the missile itself gives them a strategic reach.

This asymmetric advantage is very difficult to match, particularly as the political West is decades behind in hypersonic propulsion technologies. Worse yet, any large-scale deployment of a land-based variant of the “Zircon” would also greatly diminish NATO’s land warfare capabilities, as the missile could easily target both high-value assets and large troop concentrations.

Its sophisticated guidance systems ensure pinpoint precision even at hypersonic speeds, making such strikes particularly deadly for high-tech opponents. The “Zircon” uses a combination of INS (inertial navigation system) and radar homing to achieve this. As the missile flies at 11,000 km/h, the air pressure in front of it forms a plasma cloud, absorbing radio waves and making it effectively invisible to radar.

This phenomenon, colloquially known as plasma stealth, and its sea-skimming capability, make intercepting an incoming “Zircon” effectively impossible. One downside of plasma stealth is that it greatly diminishes the ability to communicate with the missile, which is one of the many reasons why nobody in the political West has been able to develop a working hypersonic weapon. However, Russian scientists found a way to circumvent this, giving Moscow an unprecedented technological edge, as the “Zircon” is capable of information exchange during flight, allowing it to receive constant updates and adjustments in real-time. This doesn’t only ensure pinpoint precision, but it also enables timely retargeting, confirming the claim that the missile can engage moving targets.

The KRN, a Belgrade-based military think tank that gave several fascinating interviews to InfoBRICS, posited that the “Zircon” can be used by existing land-based platforms of the Russian military, specifically the K300P “Bastion-P” coastal defense system. I’m also a long-time member of this organization and we’ve suggested this was the case years ago. The genius of Russian military specialists becomes all the more apparent when one realizes that the “Zircon” was made to fit not just into the previously mentioned 3S14 VLS, but also the K300P. Back in 2023, along with my KRN colleagues, I had the chance to analyze the size of the P-800 “Oniks” supersonic cruise missile and determined that these missiles fit into identical launchers, both on naval vessels and land-based platforms.

This greatly enhances the “Zircon’s” already impressive versatility, making it a highly flexible weapon with a simultaneous tactical, operational and strategic impact. In addition to the aforementioned naval role, it can also be used in strikes on land-based critical military infrastructure such as command centers, airbases, SAM (surface-to-air missile) and ABM (anti-ballistic missile) systems, army bases and numerous other strategic targets.

It greatly complements Russia’s existing hypersonic weapons arsenal, including the “Iskander-M”, “Kinzhal” and the latest “Oreshnik” missile systems. It fits perfectly into Moscow’s non-nuclear (and nuclear) deterrence policies and has already been used in response to NATO-backed terrorist attacks, giving the perpetrators mere minutes (or seconds in some cases).

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her AHS lawyers have just filed Court Documents: 

  • threatening my Podcast posted on Twitter/X
  • seeking to have me imprisoned for 83 days
  • threatening & extorting my family for ~$56,000
  • threatening me for going to edmontonpolice
  • harassing judges for an earlier Court Date

Three weeks ago I posted on Twitter that I was being threatened by Alberta Premier Smith’s Office and Alberta Health Services lawyers they were working with – threatening they would seek to have me imprisoned for 83 days. 

I received those filed Court documents today and I was informed that Premier Danielle Smith’s Office is going to double down and work very hard with AHS to have me and my family destroyed as soon as they possibly can.

I received that Court paperwork today (they demanded an earlier Court date in mid January but didn’t get it).

Premier Danielle Smith’s Office is also going after my Podcast “15 minutes with Dr. Makis”, which was posted here on X and Twitter, to SILENCE me.

I am including the sworn AHS Affidavit that references one of my Twitter podcasts THREE times, as yet another reason Premier Smith & AHS want me imprisoned.

In this podcast I say:

“UCP government Officials are leaking confidential government documents and emails to corrupt AHS lawyers that are using them to violate the Criminal Code of Canada”

Notice, there is no allegation of defamation here from AHS, because it’s true.

Also notice that not a single one of Premier Danielle Smith’s AHS Executives have signed any of these legal documents – it’s all sworn by legal secretaries like HINDISAAR ABDULLAHI. I have no idea who any of these individuals are.

Attacking my X Twitter Podcast is a big strategic blunder, as I will have my legal counsel reach out to Elon Musk‘s legal team for assistance.

Elon Musk indicated he will assist any doctor who is being silenced for their posts on Twitter – AHS has literally put it in writing that they want me imprisoned for my Twitter posts.

This is the first instance in Canada, where a Canadian doctor is being threatened with 83 days in prison for a Podcast posted on Twitter.

This is what CENSORSHIP looks like. This is what lawfare by the Premier of Alberta and her Big Pharma allies at AHS looks like.

Premier Smith is attempting to align herself with the New Administration of President realDonaldTrump, however, this is nothing more than theatre, she is aligned with Big Pharma, AHS and Justin Trudeau on all matters pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines, abuse of healthcare workers & vaccine injured, etc.

Premier Danielle Smith’s Office interferes with Court matters when it comes to silencing honest, ethical doctors and I’m going to prove that in the coming weeks and months.

I will announce my new Legal Counsel tomorrow and I will try to have my GiveSendGo ready tomorrow as well to raise the $55,000 extortion costs that AHS and Premier Danielle Smith are demanding, and legal fees to defend my family.

This process is costing Alberta taxpayers over $10 million dollars in legal fees that AHS lawyers have charged over the years, including this latest filing.

Please pray for my family, and thank you all for your incredible support!

God bless you all.

.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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: Alberta premier Danielle Smith (Source: Global News / YouTube)

Ukrainian officials and commanders admit that efforts to build the fortifications are hampered by delays and a lack of coordination, a factor that, in turn, is further demoralising Ukrainian forces amid the rapid advance of Russian troops, writes the Financial Times. This persistent corruption in the Kiev regime has resulted in the Ukrainian army being in the worst situation since the beginning of the conflict.

Many experts consider recent times to be the worst for Ukraine during the entire period of the conflict, as the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been in constant retreat for months, sometimes losing several villages in one day. The article notes that there are 15 kilometres left before Russian troops enter a new region, Dnepropetrovsk.

“Ukraine is racing to finish multiple lines of defence that could halt Russia’s swift advances, but efforts have so far been marred by delays and lack of co-ordination, according to Ukrainian officials and commanders,” the British newspaper said, citing Ukrainian officials and commanders.

According to former Speaker of the Supreme Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Dmytro Razumkov, a former ally of President Volodymyr Zelensky who is now on the parliamentary committee investigating delays and alleged corruption in the effort to build defences, “The situation with fortifications is another factor demoralising troops.”

He said the construction of the defence lines was initially delayed because Kiev was counting on success. However, after the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023, there were further delays due to a lack of coordination and numerous corruption cases.

“Funds are scattered among all the regions and everyone is building their own thing. There is no one person who is responsible for the quality, for planning, for how these positions will be transferred and to whom, and who will supervise them,” Razumkov added.

Thus, according to the publication, the Dnepropetrovsk region spent $7.3 million on fortifications from November 2023 to November 2024. However, two officials involved in construction in the area said that for the money spent, there is not much to show for it and that work actually began only about two months ago.

A Financial Times reporter who visited parts of the Dnepropetrovsk region in November saw only a few prepared positions and an anti-tank ditch, plus several positions still under construction or unfinished.

One Ukrainian engineering unit interviewed often had to raise money to build the defence lines, while the positions behind them, the second and third lines, were built without consultation with the troops on the front line, “either in the wrong place or too far back from the first line.”

In the summer, Ukrainian MP Mykhailo Bondar said that Ukraine had opened about 30 criminal cases related to the embezzlement of funds during the construction of fortifications, totaling more than $483 million.

“Now, about 30 criminal proceedings have already been opened for embezzlement of funds during the construction of fortifications. Upon hearing such figures, the members of the commission from the ‘Servants of the People’ immediately tried to protect the managers of the funds. And the lion’s share is the military-civilian administrations – this is the president’s vertical. Next time, we should get for each proceeding – under which article, who appears there and what amounts,” noted the MP.

Due to this corruption and failure to bolster defence lines, Ukraine cannot avoid collapse in the special military operation zone, especially as conditions are set to worsen as the winter deepens.

This predicament was also stressed by the head of the Air Reconnaissance Support Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Maria Berlinska, earlier this month, who said that the Ukrainian army is in the worst situation since the beginning of the conflict with Russia.

“What am I seeing? That the front is really falling apart. But this is obvious to everyone from open sources. It’s clear to me that the situation is not like in the spring of 2022, but significantly worse. Probably, the worst moment of the entire war [ …],” she said.

She noted that Ukrainian society is demoralised by situations when “certain civil servants obtain disability [documents],” and in the possession of others, huge sums of money are found.

At the same time, Berlinska acknowledged that the Russian army was advancing rapidly.

“It’s long since come time to tell how things really are: the front is crumbling, we are fighting one of the strongest armies in the world, a nuclear giant with a unified military-industrial complex, there are fewer and fewer of us, help is coming in little, untimely, and often of poor quality,” she concluded.

With temperatures plummeting, weapon supplies slowing down, military equipment inadequate to deal with Russian forces, and a catastrophic shortage of manpower, corruption has only exacerbated the problems that the Ukrainian military is facing. And yet, even under these conditions, it seems that the Kiev regime is unwilling to advance peace negotiations to conclude the war quickly.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

The Death of Democracy. Paul C. Roberts

December 11th, 2024 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

The electorate in Romania chose Calin Georgescu as their president. But the West said  NO!  You see, Georgescu is opposed to US military bases on Romania’s border with Russia. So a Romanian judge was paid a bagful of money to cancel the election. The current president, whose term expires  December 21, following Zelensky’s lead declared he would stay in office. I have wondered why Biden did not do the same thing.

The judge vacated the will of the Romanian people, because he ruled that Russia using the social media TikTok interfered with the election.  For reasons I don’t understand, when a newspaper endorses a candidate it is not interfering with an election. Neither is it interfering when plutocrats donate millions of dollars, thus purchasing the government to serve their interests. Celebrities can endorse, etc., but it only is interference if it happens in social media and the result is not what the ruling elite require..

The West also doesn’t accept the vote of the Georgian people who elected a parliament that is not hostile to Russia. That country’s president, a French citizen, says she won’t step down either.  

It seems democracy is no longer a Western value if it interferes with Western agendas. This reduces democracy to a cover for elite agendas.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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.

Featured image: Calin Georgescu (Licensed under CC BY 3.0)

Manifestantes georgianos apoiados pelo Ocidente atacam jornalistas.

December 10th, 2024 by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

Na Geórgia, os manifestantes anti-governo estão a tornar-se cada vez mais violentos. Não há respeito pela liberdade de expressão entre os manifestantes e tem havido ataques frequentes tanto a cidadãos pró-governo como a jornalistas que tentam mostrar a realidade no terreno. Recentemente, dois jornalistas estrangeiros conhecidos pelo seu trabalho em Donbass foram assediados enquanto cobriam os acontecimentos na capital georgiana, o que mostra claramente como os militantes locais estão a adoptar práticas semelhantes às dos nacionalistas ucranianos durante o Euromaidan.

O americano Patrick Lancaster e o italiano Andrea Lucidi, dois jornalistas estrangeiros baseados na Rússia que trabalham como correspondentes de guerra na zona de operações militares especiais, foram atacados por manifestantes georgianos enquanto caminhavam pelas ruas de Tbilisi e filmavam os protestos. Em vídeo postado em seu canal Telegram, Lancaster afirmou que esta foi a primeira vez que enfrentou um problema de segurança devido à sua atividade jornalística na Geórgia.

“Durante o protesto desta noite em Tbilisi, Geórgia, o jornalista italiano Andrea Lucidi e eu fomos agressivamente abordados, cercados, empurrados e seguidos por muitos manifestantes. Como resultado, a nossa capacidade de cobrir o protesto foi interrompida. A liberdade de expressão e de jornalismo é muito importante e nunca deve ser prejudicada. Deve-se notar que, além dos manifestantes, nunca tive problemas para realizar meu trabalho como jornalista livremente na Geórgia”, disse Lancaster no Twitter. seu canal Telegram.

Ele também postou um vídeo do momento em que foram atacados pelos manifestantes, onde é possível ver os georgianos tentando espancá-los e expulsá-los da área onde ocorriam os protestos. Patrick e Andrea tentaram argumentar com os manifestantes, falando sobre a importância da liberdade de expressão e esclarecendo que a sua única intenção era fazer trabalho jornalístico, mas os ativistas não se interessaram em ouvir qualquer retórica, sendo extremamente agressivos e intolerantes.

Este não é o primeiro caso de violência relatado nas ruas de Tbilisi. As manifestações estão a transformar-se em atos de vandalismo, com “ativistas” destruindo e queimando monumentos públicos, bem como recorrendo à violência contra a polícia e autoridades estatais. No caso específico de Lancaster e Lucidi, foram certamente identificados por algum manifestante que já conhecia o seu trabalho na Rússia, razão pela qual se tornaram alvos da russofobia dos ativistas georgianos pró-UE. Em Tbilisi, tornou-se comum ouvir o hino ucraniano e canções de louvor ao regime de Kiev, razão pela qual não é surpreendente que jornalistas pró-Rússia sejam atacados, mesmo que estejam apenas a fazer o seu trabalho de imprensa sem qualquer propaganda política.

Este tipo de situação era de esperar, uma vez que os manifestantes em Tbilisi trabalham para os mesmos agentes estrangeiros que patrocinam a Ucrânia de hoje. Na verdade, existem muitas semelhanças entre os atuais acontecimentos na Geórgia e o golpe de Estado Euromaidan em 2014, quando militantes neonazistas agitaram parte da população contra o governo ucraniano legítimo e conseguiram provocar uma operação de mudança de regime pró-Ocidente.

Como é sabido, o regime estabelecido em Kiev após o Euromaidan prosseguiu uma política externa de alinhamento total com a OTAN e a UE e lançou uma campanha russofóbica, iniciando o genocídio em Donbass. Reagindo a estas ações, a Federação Russa lançou a sua operação militar especial em 2022, depois de ter fracassado em várias tentativas de resolver pacificamente a crise ucraniana. Kiev e o Ocidente usaram as medidas militares russas como desculpa para lançar uma guerra por procuração contra Moscou, criando assim um conflito prolongado que é hoje um dos pontos mais críticos da geopolítica mundial, com um grande risco de escalada global e nuclear.

É possível dizer que o Ocidente planeja o mesmo para a Geórgia. Os atuais protestos – que são abertamente apoiados pelo Ocidente e por lobistas pró-Ocidente na Geórgia – visam a mudança de regime e o estabelecimento de uma junta russofóbica, o que tornaria possível retomar a guerra contra as repúblicas separatistas do Norte, protegidas por Moscou. Desta forma, o Ocidente seria capaz de abrir um segundo flanco contra a Rússia utilizando outro proxy não pertencente à OTAN – criando um cenário em que o país é forçado a lutar sozinho, sem receber quaisquer garantias de segurança da aliança atlantista.

Espera-se que os cidadãos georgianos envolvidos nos protestos compreendam de uma vez por todas que estão a ser usados ​​pelo Ocidente num plano de guerra que, se for bem sucedido, trará um futuro terrível para o país. A melhor coisa que os georgianos podem fazer agora é apoiar o seu governo no meio da atual agressão financiada por estrangeiros, evitando que o futuro do país seja arruinado pelos interesses ocidentais.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

Artigo em português : Western-backed Georgian protesters violently confronted journalists, InfoBrics, le 10 décembre 2024.

Imagem :  InfoBrics

*

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

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

Assad Is Out, Woke Al-Qaeda Is In

December 10th, 2024 by Caitlin Johnstone

Well it looks like the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is on its way out, likely to be replaced by one or more US puppet regimes depending on whether the nation maintains its current borders or is carved up into separate states. The empire notches another win.

I am not a military analyst, but analysts who are normally supportive and optimistic in favor of Assad like Elijah Magnier and Pepe Escobar are saying this is the end. Assad’s whereabouts are unknown as Turkish-backed fighters and al-Qaeda-linked forces with a history of western backing have swept through the country with alarming speed, and now Russia and Iran have joined with the governments of US-aligned nations like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey in calling for an end to the fighting in favor of a political solution. CNN reports that opposition forces have entered Damascus in search of Assad, and footage reportedly shows Assad forces retreating from the area where the president’s main residence is located.

The US proxy warfare in Lebanon and Ukraine makes a lot more strategic sense now; by tying up Hezbollah and Russia in other conflicts, the path was opened up for another run on Damascus and a chance to further cut off Hezbollah from supplies. Many pundits on my end of the commentary spectrum had been calling those proxy wars self-defeating and framing them as the desperate flailings of a dying empire which will only accelerate its demise, but now here we are watching the empire score a victory it’s been chasing for years, with the western/Israeli stranglehold on the middle east growing tighter than ever.

.

Read on X

.

Meanwhile the press is falling all over itself to support this regime change by promoting the narrative that al-Qaeda is woke now.

CNN just released a coddling softball interview with Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the former ISIS and al-Qaeda member who leads the Syrian opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is itself a rebranded offshoot of al-Qaeda in Syria. Jolani told CNN that he has reformed from his radical ways of the past, saying,

“Sometimes it’s essential to adjust to reality,” adding, “someone who rigidly clings to certain ideas and principles without flexibility cannot effectively lead societies or navigate complex conflicts like the one happening in Syria.”

Now the imperial press are full of headlines like “How Syria’s rebel leader went from radical jihadist to a blazer-wearing ‘revolutionary’” from CNN, “Syria’s rebel leader Golani: From radical jihadist to ostensible pragmatist” from The Times of Israel, and “How Syria’s ‘diversity-friendly’ jihadists plan on building a state” from The Telegraph.

Only a matter of time before we start seeing former ISIS and al-Qaeda members chatting it up on liberal western talk shows with their preferred gender pronouns listed next to their names.

As luck would have it, these “diversity-friendly jihadists” have been telling the Israeli press that they “love Israel” and won’t do anything to harm its interests, so it’s safe to say that this “revolution” has been about as organically grown as a sheet of crystal meth.

.

Read on X

.

One of the many perks of being the world’s dominant superpower is that it gives you the luxury of time. If one regime change operation fails, don’t worry, you can just move some chess pieces around and take another shot at it. If a coup attempt fails in Latin America, relax, there will be other coup attempts. If your efforts to grab Syria fail, you can just smash it with sanctions and occupy its oil fields to impoverish it while overextending its military allies in proxy conflicts elsewhere and grab it later.

A good kickboxer throws many combinations with the understanding that most strikes will miss or be blocked or cause minimal damage, trusting that eventually the one knockout blow will get through.

No empire lasts forever, but there’s no evidence that this one is going away any time in the immediate future. This ugliness could conceivably drag itself out for generations.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

The End of Pluralism in the Middle East. Craig Murray

December 10th, 2024 by Craig Murray

A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism across the Eastern Arab world.

This also spells the end for Lebanon and Syria’s Christian communities, as witness the tearing down of all Christmas decorations, the smashing of all alcohol and the forced imposition of the veil on women in Aleppo now.

Yesterday US Warthog air-to-ground jets attacked and severely depleted reinforcements which were, at the invitation of the Syrian government, en route to Syria from Iraq. Constant, daily Israeli airstrikes on Syria’s military infrastructure for months have been a major factor in the demoralisation and reduced capacity of the Syrian government’s Syrian Arab Army, which has simply evaporated in Aleppo and Hama.

It is very difficult to see the tide turning in Syria. The Russians now have either to massively reinforce their Syrian bases with ground troops or to evacuate them. Faced with the exigencies of Ukraine, they may do the latter, and it is reported that the Russian navy has already set sail from Tartus.

The speed of collapse of Syria has taken everybody by surprise. If the situation does not stabilise, Damascus could be besieged and ISIS back on the hills above the Bekaa valley within a week, given the speed of their advance and the short distances involved.

A renewed Israeli attack on Southern Lebanon to coincide with a Salafist invasion of the Bekaa Valley would then seem inevitable, as the Israelis would obviously wish their border with their new Taliban-style Greater Syrian neighbour to be as far North as possible. It could be a race for Beirut, unless the Americans have already organised who gets it.

It is no coincidence that the attack on Syria started the day of the Lebanon/Israel ceasefire. The jihadist forces do not want to be seen to be fighting alongside Israel, even though they are fighting forces which have been relentlessly bombed by Israel, and in the case of Hezbollah are exhausted from fighting Israel.

The Times of Israel has no compunction about saying the quiet part out loud, unlike the British media:

.

.

In fact Israeli media is giving a lot more truth about the Syrian rebel forces than British and American media just now. This is another article from the Times of Israel:

While HTS officially seceded from Al Qaeda in 2016, it remains a Salafi jihadi organization designated as a terror organization in the US, the EU and other countries, with tens of thousands of fighters.

Its sudden surge raises concerns that a potential takeover of Syria could transform it into an Islamist, Taliban-like regime – with repercussions for Israel at its south-western border. Others, however, see the offensive as a positive development for Israel and a further blow to the Iranian axis in the region.

Contrast this to the UK media, which from the Telegraph and Express to the Guardian has promoted the official narrative that not just the same organisations, but the same people responsible for mass torture and executions of non-Sunnis, including Western journalists, are now cuddly liberals.

Nowhere is this more obvious than the case of Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, sometimes spelt Al-Julani or Al-Golani, who is now being boosted throughout western media as a moderate leader. He was the deputy leader of ISIS, and the CIA actually has a $10 million bounty on his head! Yes, that is the same CIA which is funding and equipping him and giving him air support.

Supporters of the Syrian rebels still attempt to deny that they have Israeli and US support – despite the fact that almost a decade ago there was open Congressional testimony in the USA that, to that point, over half a billion dollars had been spent on assistance to Syrian rebel forces, and the Israelis have openly been providing medical and other services to the jihadists and effective air support.

One interesting consequence of this joint NATO/Israel support for the jihadist groups in Syria is a further perversion of domestic rule of law. To take the UK as an example, under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act it is illegal to state an opinion that supports, or may lead somebody else to support, a proscribed organisation.

The abuse of this provision by British police to persecute Palestinian supporters for allegedly encouraging support for proscribed organisations Hamas and Hezbollah is notorious, with even tangential alleged references leading to arrest. Sarah Wilkinson, Richard Medhurst, Asa Winstanley, Richard Barnard and myself are all notable victims, and the persecution has been greatly intensified by Keir Starmer.

Yet Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) is also a proscribed group in the UK. But both British mainstream media and British Muslim outlets have been openly promoting and praising HTS for a week – frankly much more openly than I have ever witnessed anyone in the UK support Hamas and Hezbollah – and not a single person has been arrested or even warned by UK police.

.

.

That in itself is the strongest of indications that western security services are fully behind the current attack on Syria.

For the record, I think it is an appalling law, and nobody should be prosecuted for expressing an opinion either way. But the politically biased application of the law is undeniable.

When the entire corporate and state media in the West puts out a unified narrative that Syrians are overjoyed to be released by HTS from the tyranny of the Assad regime – and says nothing whatsoever of the accompanying torture and execution of Shias, and destruction of Christmas decorations and icons – it ought to be obvious to everybody where this is coming from.

Yet – and this is another UK domestic repercussion – a very substantial number of Muslims in the UK support HTS and the Syrian rebels, because of the funding pumped into UK mosques from Saudi and Emirate Salafist sources. This is allied to the UK security service influence also wielded through the mosques, both by sponsorship programmes and “think tanks” benefiting approved religious leaders, and by the execrable coercive Prevent programme.

UK Muslim outlets that have been ostensibly pro-Palestinian – like Middle East Eye and 5 Pillars – enthusiastically back Israel’s Syrian allies in ensuring the destruction of resistance to the genocide of the Palestinians. Al Jazeera alternates between items detailing dreadful massacre in Palestine, and items extolling the Syrian rebels bringing Israel-allied rule to Syria.

Among the mechanisms they employ to reconcile this is a refusal to acknowledge the vital role of Syria in enabling the supply of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. Which supply the jihadists have now cut off, to the absolute delight of Israel, and in conjunction with both Israeli and US air strikes.

In the final analysis, for many Sunni Muslims both in the Middle East and in the West, the pull seems to be stronger of sectarian hatred of the Shia and the imposition of Salafism, than preventing the ultimate destruction of the Palestinian nation.

I am not a Muslim. My Muslim friends happen to be almost entirely Sunni. I personally regard the continuing division over the leadership of the religion over a millennium ago as deeply unhelpful and a source of unnecessary continued hate.

But as a historian I do know that the western colonial powers have consciously and explicitly used the Sunni/Shia split for centuries to divide and rule. In the 1830’s, Alexander Burnes was writing reports on how to use the division in Sind between Shia rulers and Sunni populations to aid British colonial expansion.

On 12 May 1838, in his letter from Simla setting out his decision to launch the first British invasion of Afghanistan, British Governor General Lord Auckland included plans to exploit Shia/Sunni division in both Sind and Afghanistan to aid the British military attack.

The colonial powers have been doing it for centuries, Muslim communities keep falling for it, and the British and Americans are doing it right now to further their remodelling of the Middle East.

Simply put, many Sunni Muslims have been brainwashed into hating Shia Muslims more than they hate those currently committing genocide of an overwhelmingly Sunni population in Gaza.

I refer to the UK because I witnessed this first hand during the election campaign in Blackburn. But the same is true all over the Muslim world. Not one Sunni Muslim-led state has lifted a single finger to prevent the genocide of the Palestinians.

Their leadership is using anti-Shia sectarianism to maintain popular support for a de facto alliance with Israel against the only groups – Iran, Houthi and Hezbollah – which actually did attempt to give the Palestinians practical support in resistance. And against the Syrian government which facilitated supply.

The unspoken but very real bargain is this. The Sunni powers will accept the wiping out of the entire Palestinian nation and formation of Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia communities in Syria and Lebanon by Israel and forces backed by NATO (including Turkey).

There are, of course, contradictions in this grand alliance. The United States’ Kurdish allies in Iraq are unlikely to be happy with Turkey’s destruction of Kurdish groups in Syria, which is what Erdoğan gains from Turkey’s very active military role in toppling Syria – in addition to extending Turkish control of oilfields.

The Iran-friendly Iraqi government will have further difficulty with reconciling US continuing occupation of swathes of its country, as they realise they are the next target.

The Lebanese army is under control of the USA, and Hezbollah must have been greatly weakened to have agreed the disastrous ceasefire with Israel. Christian fascist militias traditionally allied to Israel are increasingly visible in parts of Beirut, though whether they would be stupid enough to make common cause with jihadists from the North may be open to question. But should Syria fall entirely to jihadist rule – which may happen fast – I do not rule out Lebanon following very quickly indeed, and being integrated into a Salafist Greater Syria.

How the Palestinians of Jordan would react to this disastrous turn of events, it is hard to be sure. The British puppet Hashemite Kingdom is the designated destination for ethnically cleansed West Bank Palestinians under the Greater Israel plan.

What this all potentially amounts to is the end of pluralism in the Levant and its replacement by supremacism. An ethno-supremacist Greater Israel and a religio-supremacist Salafist Greater Syria.

Unlike many readers, I have never been a fan of the Assad regime or blind to its human rights violations. But what it did undeniably do was maintain a pluralist state where the most amazing historical religious and community traditions – including Sunni (and many Sunni do support Assad), Shia, Alaouites, descendants of the first Christians, and speakers of Aramaic, the language of Jesus – were all able to co-exist.

The same is true of Lebanon.

What we are witnessing is the destruction of that and imposition of a Saudi-style rule. All the little cultural things that indicate pluralism – from Christmas trees to language classes to winemaking to women going unveiled – have just been destroyed in Aleppo and could be destroyed from Damascus to Beirut.

I do not pretend that there are not genuine liberal democrats among the opposition to Assad. But they have negligible military significance, and the idea that they would be influential in a new government is delusion.

In Israel, which pretended to be a pluralist state, the mask is off. The Muslim call to prayer has just been banned. Arab minority members of the Knesset have been suspended for criticising Netanyahu and genocide. More walls and gates are built every day, not just in unlawfully occupied territories but in the “state of Israel” itself, to enforce apartheid.

I confess I once had the impression that Hezbollah was itself a religio-supremacist organisation; the dress and style of its leadership look theocratic. Then I came here and visited places like Tyre, which has been under Hezbollah elected local government for decades, and found that swimwear and alcohol are allowed on the beach and the veil is optional, while there are completely unmolested Christian communities there.

I will never now see Gaza, but wonder if I might have been similarly surprised by Hamas rule.

It is the United States which is promoting the cause of religious extremism and of the end, all over the Middle East, of a societal pluralism similar to Western norms. That is of course a direct consequence of the United States being allied to both the two religio-supremacist centres of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

It is the USA which is destroying pluralism, and it is Iran and its allies which defend pluralism. I would not have seen this clearly had I not come here. But once seen, it is blindingly obvious.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Featured image source

December 8, 2024, was a sad day for all sovereigntists around the world. After nearly a decade and a half of fighting for survival against simultaneous aggression from virtually all sides, Syria succumbed to its mortal wounds. The ongoing blame game in Russia, Iran and other multipolar powers won’t change anything. There’s a ton of speculation on who sold what and to whom, but the simple fact is that everything has a breaking point.

Since 2011, when NATO effectively invaded the country, Syria wasn’t given a day of break. And yes, it was an invasion, because the so-called “Syrian Civil War” is a ridiculous euphemism coined by the mainstream propaganda machine as a cover-up for this terrorist-infested assault. The political West and its vassals and satellite states launched this truly unprovoked war of aggression not against Assad, but the Syrian people.

Back in 2015, Damascus asked for Russia’s help and its intervention saved the country from a complete terrorist takeover. By 2019, most of the country was liberated from NATO-backed terrorists, leaving several areas under occupation, including the terrorist-infested Al Tanf, where American occupation forces are still stationed, and Idlib, where Turkey maintained and supported an alliance of various Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. Precisely these two areas played a central role in the latest attack on Syria, resulting in the complete takeover. The US-backed, Kurdish-dominated SDF still holds the territory beyond the Euphrates, although it remains to be seen for how long with the expansionist Turkey sending its terrorists to the area. Either way, the actual Syrian Civil War is starting just now and it’ll be a disastrous bloodbath.

The mainstream propaganda machine is already preparing some sort of “Syrian Zelensky” as the leader of the “moderate, democratic Syria”. The so-called “emir” Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a, better known by his Al Qaeda nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is a wanted terrorist, the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, previously known as Al-Nusra Front), with the United States formally offering $10 million for his whereabouts and capture. And yet, that doesn’t prevent CNN from interviewing him, meaning they obviously know where he is, making this “moderate democratic” charade all the most ludicrous. Even more interestingly, he has an extremely lucrative business in Turkey, a major NATO member that somehow “didn’t get the memo” they’re working with a terrorist. Still, Ankara is more honest about its motivation for working with him.

Namely, the two-faced mini-sultan Erdogan doesn’t hide his Neo-Ottoman ambitions. His supporters openly brag about him being the new actual leader of Syria. And indeed, it certainly may seem like it, as his appetites keep growing, supported by Turkish expansionism in the South Caucasus, North Africa, Southeast Europe, and possibly even Central Asia in the foreseeable future.

However, Erdogan’s calculus might end up being way off as the “Syrian Gordian Knot” just became even more entangled and you can’t just cut it, as it’s made of steel. Namely, what the political West kept calling the “Syrian opposition” is effectively non-existent. Nobody really knows what it is, as it’s composed of numerous factions, the most prominent of which are the HTS, SNA and FSA, with the Kurdish-led SDF still in the game.

None of these factions are willing to renounce their spheres of influence without getting the “slice of the cake” (although they’re really left with crumbles at this point). It’s almost impossible to predict in what ways this could escalate. The US-backed SDF is not on good terms (to put it mildly) with any of these factions. There’s also a strong possibility of a direct Turkish invasion of SDF-held areas, although Washington DC is already conducting airstrikes in support of the Kurdish-led group. It remains to be seen if America will sell the SDF to Erdogan or if he will tolerate it as long as he gets the rest of the country. Perhaps Ankara might even go into an indirect confrontation with the US over Kurdish-held areas, although they’ve been coordinating this NATO invasion of Syria quite closely and are likely to continue to do so in most of the country.

What does all this mean for the Syrian people? Well, certainly nothing good. The terrorists are already looting, pillaging and destroying everything in their path. This includes kidnapping women and attacking civilians, as well as handing out weapons to anyone who’d take them, children included. The “moderate democratic” terrorists are already threatening that the historic Umayyad Mosque will be off limits for Shia Muslims, while Christians are being sent a very clear message as not even Christmas trees are tolerated(which is “civilized” in comparison to what’s actually going on in churches and other Christian shrines). In addition, the risk of a regional spillover cannot be overstated, as the terrorists don’t understand the concept of state borders, which is an issue Iraq is already having to contend with as terrorists take border crossings.

The unfortunate Baghdad also hasn’t had a break since the 1980s, all due to US/NATO meddling and aggression. This is now bound to get worse, as the political West will continue the strategic offensive against Iranian influence in the Middle East. And how does the mainstream propaganda machine call all these events in Syria and the region? “Mostly peaceful democratic revolution.” It would certainly make one fall off a chair laughing if the situation wasn’t that tragic.

At the same time, legitimate elections in Romania are being annulled due to “Russian interference” as the “far right” political candidate is now isolated due to his heating and Internet access being cut. Not to mention Georgia which is experiencing a sort of mini-Maidan led by an outgoing president who served as the French ambassador to the country she officially “leads”.

At the same time, the Neo-Nazi junta is also a “democracy”, despite the fact that Zelensky is now effectively a U.S. NATO “proxy dictator”, while Russia is a “dictatorship” despite holding actual elections. All in all, we see that the political West’s definitions of “freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law” are repulsive lies and misnomers for true tyranny and extremism. Whether it’s Wahhabism and other forms of Islamic radicalism, unadulterated Nazism, narco-terrorism, extremely violent criminal groups such as drug cartels, repulsive ideologies (ultra-liberal extremism and moral depravity), etc, NATO is behind it all and stands fully committed to supporting it. The dangers of the extremely malignant influence of the US-led racketeering cartel cannot be overstated, as it’s the main contributing factor to global nuclear proliferation.

The people of Syria are now the hostages of this evil empire of lies, serving as the tragic showcase to all of us what the loss of sovereignty can cost an entire nation. Still, while the multipolar world might’ve lost a battle, the geostrategic counteroffensive against the political West’s global aggression is only starting. Entire nations (and perhaps even continents) will now look for ways to keep the invaders at bay, particularly by building closer ties with BRICS and other sovereigntist organizations.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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: US occupation troops inside Al-Tanf base. (Photo Credit: Karoun Demirjian/The Washington Post)


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

**Voices from Syria**

Author: Mark Taliano

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-9-1

Year: 2017

Product Type: PDF File

List Price: $6.50

Special Offer: $5.00 

Click to order.

Canada Stuck in NATO Penalty Box Through 2030

December 10th, 2024 by Kyle Duggan

Canada is not about to meet its NATO defense spending commitments anytime soon, a long-awaited major defense policy update revealed on Monday.

In 2023 at NATO’s Vilnius summit, Canada committed alongside its allies to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, but Ottawa’s most recent projections have its defense spend-to-GDP ratio hit 1.76 percent in 2029-30, at a ballpark of C$57.8 billion.

The news comes as a record number of NATO’s allies will meet the 2 percent target, and follows months of pressure from allies for Canada to end its free-rider status in the alliance.

It comes days ahead of Canada’s budget, details of which have been revealed in a stream of announcements designed to shore up attention on the governing Liberals as they struggle against Conservatives surging in the polls.

Canada’s Defense Minister Bill Blair nonetheless billed the new spending announced Monday as a “very significant and necessary step towards reaching our NATO commitment” because it sets out billions to advance it from 1.38 percent, according to NATO’s July 2023 estimates.

Click here to read the full article.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

A photo popped up on the internet last week which was a bit surprising even for those of us who have been overly obsessed with the seemingly aimless and highly dangerous comedy routine that describes itself as the United States of America’s Foreign Policy. The US has confronted no real security threats since the Cold War ended but has done so many things that were against its own interests that it now finds itself seconds away from nuclear immolation as registered on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock.

Recently there has been much discussion of what Trump will do re the wars he has inherited from Joe Biden in Ukraine and the Middle East. Bear in mind that The Donald thinks he is a tough guy and believes that by throwing around threats he will inevitably get his way. Concerning Ukraine, he has repeatedly promised to end the war in one day, though he has not exactly provided details on how he expects to accomplish that. Sebastian Gorka, the new Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counter Terrorism, has explained that Trump will use the threat of increasing military aid to Ukraine as a tactic to bring Russia to the negotiating table. Gorka called Putin a “murderous former KGB colonel” and said that Putin must “negotiate now or the aid that we have given to Ukraine thus far will look like peanuts.” The comment is so preposterous that those monitoring the situation are waiting to hear something from President Trump himself to provide some clarity.

Trump’s connection with Israel suggests that he, like Biden, will do whatever Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants. On the campaign trail, he has openly and ostentatiously bonded closely with Israel and its Jewish and Christian Zionist supporters, describing himself as the Jewish state’s best friend. Nevertheless, on at least one occasion he rebuffed Netanyahu when, following the 2020 election, the soon-to-be ex-president lashed out at the prime minister for being, in his words, “the first person that congratulated” Biden.

The internet photo that appeared last week showed a festive gathering at Mar-a-Lago, featuring a beaming Donald Trump seated with Senator Lindsey Graham standing behind him also with a big smile on his face. Seated next to Trump were two grinning apparent guests of Trump whose faces would not be familiar to most Americans. The woman was Sara, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and seated next to her was her son Yair, who reportedly has been living in Miami Florida. The presence of the prime minister’s wife and son at Mar-a-Lago on Friday signaled a clear desire by the Israelis to maintain the much-needed warmth in the personal relationship with the American president.

.

.

The back story to how Sara and Yair arrived at Mar-a-Lago is a bit murky, but it appears that Graham, a passionate and outspoken advocate for all things Israeli, was on one of his frequent trips to that country a few days before the dinner and may have brought Sara back with him to meet personally with the president-elect and to suggest to the incoming administration that the ties that bind the Netanyahus and the Trumps transcend politics.

In that light, it is perhaps no coincidence that so soon after the arrival of Sara Netanyahu, President-elect Donald Trump issued a grave warning to Hamas which is still holding in Gaza something like 100 Israeli hostages “violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire world.” In a Truth Social post Monday afternoon, Trump said that if they [the hostages] are not released by his inauguration – January 20, 2025 – “there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East [for] those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity.” Trump concluded “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”

As the United States used nuclear weapons twice on Japan in 1945, one presumes that Trump intends to outdo that performance, possibly by nuking entire countries or regions or even the world. Or maybe he is just so ignorant of history that he doesn’t know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And his threat comes even though Trump has also promised to “bring peace to the Middle East” on the campaign trail. Since he has never made any attempt to reach a Palestinian audience, it is clear that his call to release the hostages was not intended to include the upwards of 10,000 Palestinian prisoners that Israel is holding without any criminal charges or trials, and subjected to arbitrary killing, torture, rape and starvation. Nor was there any mention of possibly as many as 200,000 dead Arabs, most of whom are still lying under the rubble of their homes in Gaza, who have been on the receiving end of American bombs and artillery shells delivered by Israeli planes and tanks. Indeed, Trump’s failure to understand the whole story relating to what is going on in Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon and now Syria means that he will always be speaking to his Israeli and MAGA American audience and his words will not materially affect developments on the ground in the Middle East, which continue to spiral out of control. Nor does he appreciate, due to his own ignorance and arrogance, how his own utterances only add fuel to the fire, rousing passions among peoples who should be thinking instead of restraint. On Monday, a ceasefire engineered by Washington and signed between Israel and Hezbollah was already on the brink of collapse as it de facto ceded to Israel the right to define what constituted a violation of the understanding, allowing Netanyahu to resume the conflict as he sees fit. Inevitably, Israel began attacking Lebanese targets immediately, enabling a shift to the next target, Syria. It is to be presumed that the final target will be Iran with the United States doing the heavy lifting, paying the costs and absorbing most of the casualties. Will Trump be suckered into such a development? Probably.

The desire to ensure that the United States resumes its status as Israel’s poodle with the new administration makes Sara Netanyahu’s presence at Mar-a-Lago all the more important as her husband is busy coordinating the genocide of the Palestinians and the seizure of all their land and property. If the wars against Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria continue, the Israeli government will actively seek Trump’s full cooperation in the transformation of today’s Israel into the Eretz version stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates and also incorporating southern Lebanon to the Litani River. Luxury villas constructed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and inhabited by Jews only will line the Mediterranean coast on top of the remains of a place that was once referred to as Gaza and the oil and gas deposits offshore as well as in newly occupied territories inland plus the Ben Gurion project pipeline that will bypass the Suez Canal will make every Jewish Israeli rich.

Trump’s proposed cabinet is meanwhile composed nearly completely of Zionists, suggesting that Israel’s friends have had a hand of vetting who should be offered a seat at the table, but of course, by some measures Biden’s group was even more Judeo-friendly, with something like 80% of the key posts being held by Jews or by someone married to a Jew. Pam Bondi, the incoming Attorney General, echoing her new boss’s record for inane comments, urged in a Newsmax interview shortly after Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel, that federal officials get tougher with pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses and revoke the visas of those who are not US citizens. “Frankly, they need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be interviewing them right away,” she said. She also called antisemitism “rampant” in the US and said it’s “heartbreaking to see what’s happening to all of our Jewish friends in this country.”

Trump, sharing Bondi’s view, instituted in his first term a travel ban on people from several majority-Muslim countries. It is a policy which Trump has said he intends to bring back when he returns to the White House. So let’s accept that we Americans will be dominated by Zionists no matter which party we vote for and let’s look forward to the disappearance of free speech, or rather the banning and even criminalizing of the First Amendment by Bondi and her associates if one chooses to criticize a certain foreign country. Americans who dislike what is happening have little recourse since the deck has been cunningly stacked against us, but I will recommend for the umpteenth time that voters put pressure on Congress and the White House to take on the so-called Israel Lobby by forcing it to register on the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA). It would to a large extent compel groups like AIPAC to become transparent and not allow them to get involved in disbursing huge donations to influence US elections, which is the source of much of their control over Congress and the political establishment.

There have in fact been brave American politicians who have spoken up against Zionist domination and their voices have been heard, including William Fullbright, Pat Buchanan, James Traficant, Paul Findley and Cynthia McKinney. Israeli dominance of the corrupt American political system has become so total, so visible and so openly exercised that I keep hearing from associates that the tide is beginning to turn in terms of what ordinary people are willing to put up with. Hopefully a few voices right now will become millions demanding change and the monstrous Netanyahu and his supporters can go to Hell, where they belong.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected]

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

One Reason Why Consuming Animal Fats Is Vital

December 10th, 2024 by Dr. Ashley Armstrong

Vitamin K2, found exclusively in animal fats and fermented foods, is essential for metabolic health, serving as an emergency electron carrier during cellular reductive stress

Unlike plant-based oils, animal fats provide vitamin K2, which helps regulate calcium distribution, ensuring it’s deposited in bones and teeth rather than arteries and kidneys

Research indicates higher dietary vitamin K2 intake reduces the risk of coronary heart disease mortality and severe aortic calcification, unlike vitamin K1 found in plants

While gut bacteria can produce vitamin K2, its absorption is limited due to production location and bacterial binding, making dietary sources crucial for optimal intake

Pasture-raised animal products are superior sources of K2, with pastured chicken eggs containing 3 to 4 times more K2 than conventional eggs

*

Let’s discuss just one of the reasons why regularly consuming animal fats is vital for health. Animal fats contain a metabolism-boosting and heart protective nutrient that is not available in plants: Vitamin K2.

Sorry Harvard, but your ‘Heart Healthy’ fats and oils like olive, canola, soy bean, corn, sunflower, and peanut oils do not contain this vital nutrient.

.

.

There are 2 forms of vitamin K, each supporting different aspects of health and serve unique roles in the body. Both are beneficial to consume daily!

  • Vitamin K1 — Primarily found in plant foods and is abundant in leafy greens and veggies. (My favorite sources are collard greens, Brussels sprouts, parsley, and green beans.)
  • Vitamin K2 — Only found in animal foods and fermented foods. The term ‘vitamin K2’ refers to a collection of forms known as ‘menaquinones’ that are abbreviated with ‘MK’ with a number attached referring to the chain length/structure size. For ex: MK-4 and MK-7.

One of the biggest health benefits of vitamin K2 consumption is that it restores metabolic health since it serves as an emergency electron carrier when cells are in reductive stress (electron build up), helping to restore proper electron flow and metabolism. Most people are not metabolically healthy, and are experiencing reductive stress.

“Mitochondrial dysfunction was rescued by vitamin K(2) that serves as a mitochondrial election carrier, helping to maintain normal ATP production.”1 Since K2 fights reductive stress, it can help reverse insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction.2,3 

Another health benefit of vitamin K2 is that it regulates calcium — K2 prevents calcium from going to the wrong places (like kidney and arteries) and makes sure it goes to the right places (like bones and teeth).

.

k2 regulates calcium

.

Osteocalcin is a vitamin K2 dependent protein that the body needs to pull calcium from the bloodstream to deposit it where we want it: in the bones and teeth. Osteocalcin also stimulates the growth of new dentin, the calcified tissue underneath tooth enamel, reducing cavity risk and slowing tooth degradation.

“The relative risk (RR) of coronary heart disease mortality was reduced in the mid and upper turtles of dietary menaquinone (K2) compared to the lower … Intake of menaquinone was also inversely related to all-cause mortality and severe aortic calcification. Phylloquinone (K1) intake was not related to any of the outcomes.”4

Vitamin K2 can be synthesized by bacteria in the large intestine. However, this bacterially produced K2 has limited bioavailability and absorption for several reasons:

  • Location of production — The large intestine is not the primary site of nutrient absorption in our digestive system5
  • The K2 produced by gut bacteria are bound to bacterial cell membranes, making them less accessible for absorption6
  • An unhealthy gut can further reduce the already inefficient production and absorption of K27

Since absorption of bacterially synthesized K2 is generally poor, dietary sources are the primary source of functionally available K2.

.

foods high in k2

foods high in vitamin k2

.

Fats from pasture-raised animals are going to be one of your best sources and will contain more K2 relative to animals raised in since they consume grass, which is rich in vitamin K1, which is converted to K2 by certain bacteria in the animal’s gut. For example:

  • Pasture-raised chicken yolk — 30 to 40 ug K2/yolk
  • Confinement raised chicken yolk — 10 ug K2/yolk

Since animal fats are rich in K2 (especially food products from pasture-raised animals), you don’t have to go crazy overboard in your fat consumption to consume sufficient amounts. K2 research and understanding is still in its infancy. But 100 to 200 ug daily intake is likely beneficial (ref: Chris Masterjohn, PhD). Here are three examples, in addition to your other food sources for the day of course!

  1. 1 to 2 oz aged cheese, 2 pasture-raised eggs, 3 oz dark chicken meat
  2. 1 to 2 oz aged cheese, 2 pasture-raised eggs, 1 oz beef liver
  3. 1 oz aged cheese, 2 pasture-raised eggs, 3.5 oz ground pork

Aged cheeses and pasture-raised eggs are going to be some of your best sources — and are important to consume daily! (Or at least every other day.)

Summary

Here are some take home points about Vitamin K2:

  • Vitamin K2 is important for metabolic health, bone and dental health, heart and kidney health, hormone production, and cancer prevention.
  • Animal products and natto are the best sources of vitamin K2, but one form (MK-4) is only found in animal products.
  • Eating animal fats is a practical way to consume this vital nutrient (plus, animal fats tend to be lower in PUFA and higher in SFA, further supporting metabolic health).
  • You don’t have to go crazy overboard in your daily fat consumption to consume enough K2, but consuming the most nutrient-rich sources will ensure you regularly consume this vital micronutrient.

Aged Cheese and Egg Sources

Looking for the highest quality cheese you can find to boost your dietary calcium? You can now buy the cheese that Dr. Mercola eats every single day with the Mercola Artisanal Cheese Boxes! Check out what Carol had to say about her recent exclusive Mercola Cheese Box order:

“Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I received my first shipment of your cheese. I have had a severe lactose intolerance for over 20 years. I always got serious cramps and twice fainted before figuring out what was causing it. I listened to your interview with Dr. Mercola and thought maybe cheese wasn’t the real problem, but rather the composition of most commercially sold cheese.

I have been cautious in sampling your cheese. I started with just one small bite. I’ve graduated to cheese sticks. I love the taste! I’m so happy to be able to finally enjoy cheese again. Thanks so much!!!”

How awesome! The SOURCE of dairy can really impact its digestibility! The highest quality cheese you can find is restocked every Sunday evening, delivering dietary calcium, fat soluble vitamins and deliciousness directly to your door!

  • 100% grass fed
  • Raw aged cheese with all nutrients and enzymes intact
  • Tested A2A2
  • Artisan, small-batch
  • GMO free, animal rennet only (NO use of Pfizer’s microbial rennet)

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Ashley Armstrong is the co-founder of Angel Acres Egg Co., which specializes in low-PUFA (polyunsaturated fat) eggs that are shipped to all 50 states (join waitlist here), and Nourish Cooperative, which ships low-PUFA pork, beef, cheese, A2 dairy and traditional sourdough to all 50 states. Waitlists will reopen shortly.

Notes

1 Science. 2012 Jun 8;336(6086):1306-10. doi: 10.1126/science.1218632. Epub 2012 May 10

2 Nutrition. 2022 Jan:93:111412. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2021.111412. Epub 2021 Jul 15

3 Antioxid Redox Signal. 2021 Jan 10;34(2):99-117. doi: 10.1089/ars.2019.7908. Epub 2020 Aug 19

4 J Nutr. 2004 Nov;134(11):3100-5. doi: 10.1093/jn/134.11.3100

5, 6 Front Immunol. 2022 Jan 5:12:791565. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.791565. eCollection 2021

7 Curr Nutr Rep. 2022 Dec;11(4):765-779. doi: 10.1007/s13668-022-00438-9. Epub 2022 Sep 23

Bashar al-Assad is no longer the president of Syria after a shocking coup that has left the world wondering: What deal was made behind closed doors?

As we wait for answers, Rebranded Al-Qaeda (HTS) has pledged to create a transitional government, and Israel is already ramping up strikes against the Syrian military and expanding its occupation of Syrian territory.

Kevork Almassian, Host of Syriana Analysis, noted that the end of the Syrian Government likely means the end of the “Axis of Resistance,” as the new government that takes shape is expected to have the interests of the U.S., Israel and Turkey directly involved, which means cutting off the supply lines to Hezbollah and other groups that support the Palestinian resistance.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Featured image is a screenshot from the video

Black Flag Over Damascus. Mike Whitney

December 10th, 2024 by Mike Whitney

“The black flag of Salafist Islam has been raised over Damascus. ISIS/Al Qaeda has won…. The same terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. Whom we waged war against in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Losing thousands of our servicemen and women. Costing trillions of dollars. They won. And we helped them. America stands for nothing. …” —Scott Ritter@RealScottRitter

General Mike Flynn, the former head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), warned his colleagues in the Obama administration, that supporting terrorist groups to prosecute proxy wars on Washington’s behalf, was a risky business that would eventually backfire leading to the establishment of ‘a Salafist principality in Syria.’ That warning has now become a reality.

Of the 50-or-so mainstream articles on the fall of the Syrian government, not one bothered to mention the fact that the Sunni militia that toppled Bashar al-Assad is currently on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Nor did they mention that the same jihadist group is on the United Nations list of terrorist organizations. Nor did they mention that the leader of the group—Abu Mohammad al-Jolani—has a $10 million bounty on his head offered by the US government. None of this information was reported to the public because the media does not want the American people to know that Washington just helped install a terrorist regime at the center of the Middle East. But that’s what’s really going on.

And it’s even worse than it looks because, ultimately, the 13-year-old Syrian campaign is not really aimed at Syria, but Iran. Syria is just the last obstacle on the path to Tehran, but Tehran is the icing on the cake. Crush Iran and Israel takes the ‘top spot’ in the Middle East; it becomes the regional hegemon overnight. Meanwhile—Uncle Sam gains access to the pipeline corridors it has sought for over 2 decades, corridors that will transport natural gas from Qatar to the Mediterranean and then onward to markets in Europe. The gas will be provided by a US puppet, extracted by western oil companies, sold in US Dollars, and used to maintain a stranglehold on European politics. At the same time, all other competitors will be either sanctioned, sabotaged or excluded entirely. (Nordstream)

Most people are unaware of how pipeline politics have shaped events in Syria making the country a target for US aggression. But from 1949 until today, US intelligence services have tried repeatedly to topple the leader of the Syrian government in order to oversee and control a Trans-Arabian Pipeline “intended to connect the oil fields of Saudi Arabia to the ports of Lebanon via Syria.” Robert F Kennedy summed it up in a brilliant article he wrote more than a decade ago:

The CIA began its active meddling in Syria in 1949—barely a year after the agency’s creation. Syrian patriots had declared war on the Nazis, expelled their Vichy French colonial rulers and crafted a fragile secularist democracy based on the American model. But in March 1949, Syria’s democratically elected president, Shukri-al-Quwatli, hesitated to approve the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, an American project intended to connect the oil fields of Saudi Arabia to the ports of Lebanon via Syria. In his book, Legacy of Ashes, CIA historian Tim Weiner recounts that i n retaliation for Al-Quwatli’s lack of enthusiasm for the U.S. pipeline, the CIA engineered a coup replacing al-Quwatli with the CIA’s handpicked dictator, a convicted swindler named Husni al-Za’im. Al-Za’im barely had time to dissolve parliament and approve the American pipeline before his countrymen deposed him, four and a half months into his regime. Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria,Robert Kennedy, Politico

Washington’s long history of covert action against Syria is well documented in Kennedy’s piece which also pinpoints the precise moment when the US decided it would do ‘whatever it takes’ to topple the regime and replace it with a compliant flunky. Here’s Kennedy:

our war against Bashar Assad did not begin with the peaceful civil protests of the Arab Spring in 2011. Instead it began in 2000, when Qatar proposed to construct a $10 billion, 1,500 kilometer pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Qatar shares with Iran the South Pars/North Dome gas field, the world’s richest natural gas repository. The international trade embargo until recently prohibited Iran from selling gas abroad. Meanwhile, Qatar’s gas can reach European markets only if it is liquefied and shipped by sea, a route that restricts volume and dramatically raises costs. The proposed pipeline would have linked Qatar directly to European energy markets via distribution terminals in Turkey, which would pocket rich transit fees. The Qatar/Turkey pipeline would give the Sunni kingdoms of the Persian Gulf decisive domination of world natural gas markets and strengthen Qatar, America’s closest ally in the Arab world. Qatar hosts two massive American military bases and the U.S. Central Command’s Mideast headquarters. Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria, Robert Kennedy, Politico

This helps to explain why Syria factors so largely in US geopolitical plans to control critical resources as a way to preserve the dominance of the dollar and to contain China’s explosive economic growth. The US is determined to control the vast resources of the Middle East to maintain its privileged position in the global order. Here’s more:

Assad further enraged the Gulf’s Sunni monarchs by endorsing a Russian-approved “Islamic pipeline” running from Iran’s side of the gas field through Syria and to the ports of Lebanon. The Islamic pipeline would make Shiite Iran, not Sunni Qatar, the principal supplier to the European energy market and dramatically increase Tehran’s influence in the Middle East and the world. Israel also was understandably determined to derail the Islamic pipeline, which would enrich Iran and Syria and presumably strengthen their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria. It is important to note that this was well before the Arab Spring-engendered uprising against Assad. Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria, Robert Kennedy, Politico

.

.

So, once Assad agreed to the “Islamic pipeline”, his goose was cooked.Washington was never going to let that happen. As we said earlier, Washington is fully committed to controlling critical resources in the Middle East as a way to contain China and maintain its increasingly tenuous grip on global power. The Abraham Accords also factor into this geopolitical strategy by normalizing relations between Israel and its Islamic neighbors (primarily Saudi Arabia) in order to create an economic corridor that allows for the rapid transport of manufactured goods from India to Europe. Washington sees economic integration in the region as the principle means for preserving its global primacy. That doesn’t mean that Israel’s ambitions to dominate the Middle East wasn’t the driving force behind the war in Syria and the ousting of Assad. It was, but there were other considerations as well, geopolitical considerations.

So, you can see why the US wanted to install a government that was more receptive to Washington’s interests. What’s hard to understand, however, is how this is all supposed to work. Assad is gone and al Qaida won. We know that. Now what?

I can’t imagine that any of the young men who have spent the last decade of their lives galivanting around the dessert in 4x4s blasting anything that moves, know a lot about running a government. So, who’s going to run the agencies, pay the workers and perform the mundane clerical tasks that that are expected of every government? Who’s going to run the schools, fix the roads, and police the streets? Of course, maybe Mr. al-Jawlani has talents we don’t know about and will miraculously rise to the occasion making sure the agencies are fully staffed and the trains run on time, but that seems extremely unlikely. What is more probable is that the architects of this dreadful fiasco plan to run the country and its flailing economy into the ground, greatly intensifying the suffering of ordinary working people, increasing the public dissatisfaction until an attempt is made to violently overthrow the new regime.

We could be wrong. There is a remote chance that the Sunni militants in HTS will address the needs of the people and lead them to a prosperous and secure future. But we all know that is not going to happen. This regime is merely a tool in the hands of foreign interests who want to seize as much of Syria’s natural wealth as possible while eliminating a potential threat to Israel’s relentless expansion. In short, the neocon powerbrokers who fomented this evil strategy did so without the slightest regard for the safety or well-being of any of the 23 million people who currently call Syria home. Their lives just don’t matter.

What does matter (to Tel Aviv and Washington) is having a proxy army that is willing to do its bidding in an upcoming war with Iran. That matters. And that is why the US and Turkey use “contract” soldiers who will do what they are told in exchange for the lavish salaries they receive. HTS is paid for its services, and those services are going to involve the launching of attacks on Iran and Hezbollah. So, this is NOT an experiment in new forms of governance. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham doesn’t have the slightest interest in running the government. Syria is merely a base of operations for launching attacks on Iran and Hezbollah. That’s it. That’s what they’re paid to do, make war.

It’s all about geography, gas, USD and Israel. And of those four, Israel looms largest.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

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

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

Featured image is from TUR

Video: Pentagon “War Games.” Ruebek and Churya Attack America

By Drago Bosnic and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, December 08, 2024

We are featuring this video interview with the option of sub-titles in the following languages: English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Spanish and Russian.

Romania – Coup d’État Instigated by the EU? “Europe is on a fast descent into darkness”,… “A Pact with the Devil.” Peter Koenig

By Peter Koenig, December 10, 2024

Europe is on a fast, very fast descent into darkness, followed by disappearance. Europe, especially the European Union (EU), is a Washington construct. To be sure, the EU never was a European idea. That is a different story. But is a fact.

Western-Supported Al Qaeda Invasion Topples Elected Syrian Government

By Mark Taliano, December 10, 2024

In an ultimate expression of international criminality, Washington and its allies, using al Qaeda and ISIS as proxies, have toppled the elected government in Syria, forcing President al-Assad into exile.

The Road to Tehran Goes Through Damascus: Military Escalation. Towards a Broader Middle East-Central Asian War?

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, December 09, 2024

An extended Middle East Central Asian war has been on the Pentagon’s drawing board since the mid-1990s. As part of this extended war scenario, the US-NATO alliance plans to wage a military campaign against Syria under a UN sponsored “humanitarian mandate”.

Will Damascus Fall? Mike Whitney

By Mike Whitney, December 10, 2024

Erdogan supports the jihadist advance on Damascus and welcomes the ousting of the government. In truth, the war on Syria has been a long-term project for Erdogan dating back more than a decade leading to the splintering of the state into multiple parts controlled by the US, the Kurds (SDF), Israel, and a number of disparate militant groups under the control of Ankara.

Does Russia Have an Intelligence Service? Paul C. Roberts

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, December 10, 2024

I think not. There is a bureaucracy, an office, and someone with a title, but there is no intelligence. Putin did not know that a US-trained and equipped Georgian Army was about to invade South Ossetia and went to the Olympics in China.  

The Dismantling of Syria’s Brand of Socialism and the Agenda of Privatisation

By Philippa Jane Winkler, December 10, 2024

There are plenty of geopolitical reasons for regime change policy against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, pursued by Turkey, Israel and the United States. Less highlighted is another endgame: the dismantling of a state run economy with ideological socialist roots.

Europe is on a fast, very fast descent into darkness, followed by disappearance.

Europe, especially the European Union (EU), is a Washington construct. To be sure, the EU never was a European idea. That is a different story. But is a fact.

Presidential elections were held in Romania on 24 November 2024. A second round was to be held on 8 December 2024, as no candidate achieved an absolute majority. The top runner, Calin Georgescu, made a surprise first round win with almost 23%, compared to the leftist candidate, Elena Lasconi, with about 19.2%, while the current Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu received 19.15%.

A run-off election was planned for Sunday 8 December.

But it did not happen because Romania’s Constitutional Court canceled the elections of 24 November 2024. A specific reason was not given, only that the elections were not fully held by the norms of Romanian legality, and citing the usual “suspected Russian interference.”

Mr. Georgescu, highly popular with the people, is likely to have won the run-off. He is against Romania’s current pro-NATO position and against squandering more money for Ukraine, for more killing in an endless war – Romanian tax-money that Romania could put to much better internal use. Mr. Calin Georgescu’s position was also pro-Russian and against sanctioning Russia. See this.

Obviously, this displeased Brussels, especially the WEF and Washington-mandated unelected Madame Von der Leyen. So, very very likely the EC coerced the Romanian Constitutional Court to annul the first election, ordering them to repeat the full election cycle at a later date. Meaning, there will be time enough to prepare election manipulation (fraud), so that a pro-western, and pro-NATO candidate may win.

This may backfire, as this Constitutional Court decision comes as a slap in the face of most of the Romanian people, even those who did not vote for Georgescu. They may go all out and vote for him in the next elections.

On Friday 7 December, Georgescu is quoted by Realitatea TV as saying,

“The corrupt system in Romania showed its true face by making a pact with the devil.” 

He added that the current Romanian government is afraid of losing power and facing revelations, which were not further elaborated on. But one can only guess in what direction such revelations may have gone.

Of course this was countered by well-prepared western media outlet lies such as, “Declassified information from Romania’s intelligence agencies had alleged that the sudden rise of Georgescu in the first round of the election was “not a natural outcome.”

This was a clear Coup d’État, most likely by the very organization of which Romania is a member – the EU.

*

Understanding Europe’s corrupt and scandalous colonial and exploitational history makes such non-ethical behavior even more understandable.

Europe has never confronted herself with her own history, to the contrary, by their, to this day assumed superiority, most Europeans have not even noticed, how they were being used as a tool for the United States, to eventually dominating Russia. So far it has not worked. And it will never work. Russia and her riches have never been dominated – and will never be dominated.

This goes as far back as the two World Wars, both inspired by Washington with the same objective, overrunning and domineering Russia. WWII, engineered at the orders of Washington, was shamelessly financed by the Federal Reserve via the Bank for International Settlement (BIS), conveniently located in Basle, Switzerland, close to the border with Germany.

The first President of the BIS was Mr. Gates McGarrah. He was a former director of the FED New York, and later was appointed as FED New York Chairman of the Board before he became President of the BIS. In 1924, he was appointed as the American director of the general Council of the German Reichsbank, i.e. German Central Bank.  See this.

BIS, Basle (image)

There are no coincidences.

And again, as usual, Washington always dances on several weddings at once: fighting against Hitler’s Germany as a Russian ally, and simultaneously funding Hitler’s war against Russia.

Today, the Rothschild-controlled BIS is also called the Central Bank of Central Banks, controlling more than 90% of the worldwide monetary flow, and except for some minor central banks, is in control of them all, including the Chinese and the Russian central banks.

The colonial times of Europe have become part of the European culture. Even though African and Latin American colonies have been “liberated” in Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, and in Latin America in the 19th Century – none of those so called “independent countries” is really free. They are all under modern financial and economic colonization, alias, exploitation, predominantly by Europe in Africa, and by the US (the former British Empire having moved across the Atlantic) in Latin America.

Case in point is France with the most shameless exploitation of their 14 former “official” French colonies, through the so-called Franc CFA (Communauté Financière Africaine, i.e. “African Financial Community” in English).

The currency is “guaranteed” (controlled) to the tune of some 80% by the Banque de France. So, these countries still do not have any autonomy of deciding over the economy by adjusting their currencies, as would be normal for most other countries (except for those attached to the Euro).

Many West African governments who have instigated movements for monetary independence did not survive for long. But only mentioned Thomas Sankara, former Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, who was assassinated in 1987 after serious attempts of achieving financial and monetary autonomy for all French colonies.

In some philosophies, the rapid descent of Europe into oblivion would be called “karma.” The faster the EU collapses, the better off will be countries like Romania, Hungary, and many others, who so far do not dare pronouncing themselves, due to potential “consequences.”

Viva Neutrality and Sovereignty!

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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 source

Trump, RFK Meet with Big Pharma

December 10th, 2024 by Dr. Peter McCullough

Axios reported on the December 4, 2024 dinner:

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Lilly CEO David Ricks were at the dinner. Steve Ubl, CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represented the industry at the table. Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, also attended.

You can see the intrigue by MacDonald and so many other media anchors now reporting on the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign.

.

.

Watch here

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

In an ultimate expression of international criminality, Washington and its allies, using al Qaeda and ISIS as proxies, have toppled the elected government in Syria, forcing President al-Assad into exile.

This crime represents the antithesis of “freedom and democracy” and instead displays to the world, yet again, that Empire spreads and embraces terror and destruction, death and misery, in all of its “regime change” operations, especially now with the rebranded “leader” of the opposition being none other than Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of HTS, a United Nations-designated terrorist organization.(1)

With Turkey’s Erdogan proclaiming that he wanted to take Damascus(2) sources indicate that about 80% of the invading terrorists were non-Syrian.

With Qatari funding, the U.S., Israel, Turkey, France and Ukraine led operations. The SAA, hollowed out by 13 years of war and economic devastation, with its allies diverted, offered relatively little resistance, likely a result, too, of a secret deal to save lives.

The West and its agencies will falsely characterize this tragedy in the days and weeks and months to come, but it is what it has always been: an undeclared US/NATO war of aggression against a sovereign state using al Qaeda terrorists as proxies. (3)

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Mark Taliano is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and the author of Voices from Syria, Global Research Publishers, 2017. He writes on his website where this article was originally published.

Notes

  1. Tim Anderson, “Genocide rewarded: US backed al Qaeda takeover of Syria follows Israeli retreat from Lebanon.” Centre For Counter Hegemonic Studies, 8 December, 2024 (Genocide rewarded: US backed al Qaeda takeover of Syria follows Israeli retreat from Lebanon – Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies) Accessed 8 December, 2024.
  2. Akin Nazli, “Erdogan sets Damascus as final target for “rebels” advancing in Syria.” bne INTELLNEWS, 7 December, 2024 (bne IntelliNews – Erdogan sets Damascus as final target for “rebels” advancing in Syria) Accessed 8 December, 2024.
  3. Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, “Syria: Undeclared US-NATO War of Aggression, Using Al Qaeda Terrorism as an Instrument of Death and Destruction.” Global Research, 8 December, 2024 (Updated) (Syria: Undeclared US-NATO War of Aggression, Using Al Qaeda Terrorism as an Instrument of Death and Destruction – Global ResearchGlobal Research – Centre for Research on Globalization) Accessed 8 December, 2024

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

**Voices from Syria**

Author: Mark Taliano

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-9-1

Year: 2017

Product Type: PDF File

List Price: $6.50

Special Offer: $5.00 

Click to order.

Will Damascus Fall? Mike Whitney

December 10th, 2024 by Mike Whitney

#Israel is waiting… for #Homs to fall in order to annex the south of #Syria and call it a “buffer zone to protect against jihadists”, the same thing it has been supporting for many years. @Netanyahu is not hiding his ambition that helps his image domestically by adding more stolen territories to the “greater Israel”.Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai

In a matter of days, a small army of battle-hardened jihadists have swarmed across Syria shattering a fragile truce and threatening the regional balance of power. The surprise Blitz has sent the stunned Syrian Army into full retreat while mostly foreign militants have seized the country’s industrial hub, Aleppo, and its fourth largest city, Hama. The unexpected rout has delivered a knockout blow to the government of Bashar al Assad who must now appeal to Russia, Iran and Hezbollah to deploy troops and weaponry to stave off the devastating offensive and prevent the fall of Damascus. But allies must move quickly if they plan to save the regime and stop the relentless advance of the Turkish-backed invaders. Enemy forces are now gathering just 100 kilometers from the Capital suggesting that their intention is to topple the present government and install a regime that is aligned with its foreign benefactors; Turkey, Israel and the United States.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan tacitly congratulated the terrorist militias that are on the verge of toppling Assad without explicitly admitting his role in the treachery. This is from an article at Reuters:

Erdogan said on Friday he hoped Syrian rebels will continue their advance against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria…. Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers he was closely following the push which he said was heading to the Syrian capital….

“The target is Damascus,” he said. “I would say we hope for this advance to continue without any issues…
“These problematic advances continuing as a whole in the region are not in a manner we desire, our heart does not want these. Unfortunately, the region is in a bind,” he said, without elaborating….

Ankara has for years supported Syrian opposition forces looking to oust... Assad, but also views some regional players as terrorists, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist former Al-Qaeda affiliate that is part of the rebel force. Turkey’s Erdogan Hopes Syrian Rebels Will Advance, but Raises Alarm About Some Fighters, US News and World Report

There it is in plain English; Erdogan supports the jihadist advance on Damascus and welcomes the ousting of the government. In truth, the war on Syria has been a long-term project for Erdogan dating back more than a decade leading to the splintering of the state into multiple parts controlled by the US, the Kurds (SDF), Israel, and a number of disparate militant groups under the control of Ankara. This latest onslaught poses the greatest threat the government has ever faced and it is increasingly likely that it will be unable to withstand a powerful and well-organized assault on the Capital. This, of course, puts Washington and Tel Aviv closer to realizing their dream of a “New Middle East” where the flow of critical resources to rival China is controlled by powerbrokers in the US and where Israel establishes its primacy over a vast area of the Arab world. If Damascus falls, the only obstacle to the long-awaited neocon plan, would be Iran which will be dealt with when Trump takes office.

Spearheading the ongoing rampage across Syria is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which is an offshoot of al Qaida, the shadowy confederation of Sunni terrorists whose origins are linked to the western intelligence agencies. According to antiwar.com:

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) offensive has been backed strongly by the Turkey-backed rebels from the country’s northwest. There have been multiple reports that Turkey is backing the offensive, and indeed that Turkey may even be the driving force in the recent push. HTS fighters seem increasingly well-equipped and confirmed as using tanks in their assault on Hama.

With Hama taken, many analysts say that the next major target would be the city of Homs. That would be an obvious next step, as HTS continues their offensive south along the major M5 highway from Aleppo. Homs is just 25 km south of Hama. If Homs fell too, it is likely the capital city of Damascus would also be under major risk. …

…while HTS is labeled a terrorist organization broadly internationally, countries including Turkey and Israel are showing increased comfort in openly working with them against the Syrian government. The HTS has reportedly offered to open Israeli embassies in Damascus and Beirut if and when they conquer Syria and neighboring Lebanon. Al-Qaeda Linked Militants Seize Major Syrian City of Hama, antiwar.com

Let me get this straight: HTS is supposedly an Islamic militia that would rather devote its energy to overthrowing a secular Arab leader that opposes US and Israeli hegemony in the region, then contribute to the war effort against the genocidal state of Israel and its biggest enabler, the United States?

Is that what we are supposed to believe? Here’s how political analyst Alon Mizrahi summed up Erdogan’s pro-terror policy:

what Turkey is doing, when aligning itself with Israel and the US, and allowing itself to be perceived as the enemy of Palestine and the Syrian people – what Turkey is doing is alienating itself from its neighbours, and antagonizing itself to the powers that will shape the future.

By moving into Syria, Turkey enrages Iran and Iraq, two of its immediate neighbors. It opens a new Syrian front for internal oppression, constant bloodshed and risk of terrorist attacks. But it is also, and most importantly, is working against the interests of both Russia and China – the two regional and global giants, who are becoming more powerful and dominant.

Will Turkey be accepted into BRICS after this? Will it be granted a favourable trade status by China? I have serious doubts about that.

So, what is Turkey set to gain from this? Territory it doesn’t need and won’t be able to control? Severe reputational and diplomatic implications (seriously? Choosing to now stand with Israel’s genocide???) The hate of Muslims the world over, and the eternal rage of its neighbors? More tyranny at home, instead of more freedom? An assured economic disaster? A destabilized population, exposed to terrorism, economic hardship, and loss of young men in a stupid war? …With no possible upsides and a guaranteed huge diplomatic, economic and military drawbacks, Turkey’s Syria move must be the dumbest ever. Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi

If there is some intangible benefit to Turkey, we don’t see it. What we see instead, is a geopolitical gun to Putin’s head forcing him to get more deeply involved in the Syrian campaign to prevent a US-Israeli takeover of the region thereby laying the groundwork for more mischief in the future. One can only wonder, why China—which aspires to a leadership role in the creation of a ‘new global security architecture’—remains on the sidelines while the Middle East is incinerated right below its nose? Why? If Xi Jinping assumes that China’s explosive economic growth is enough to ensure its ‘top spot’ in the world order without providing “rough men with guns” to achieve that objective, he’s got another think coming. The world is not run by clever merchants selling low-price widgets but gruff men with big fists who don’t mind using them. This is from an article at RT:

Beijing is willing to aid Damascus to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian has said.

“China is deeply concerned over the situation in northwestern Syria and supports its effort to uphold national security and stability,” Lin told a press briefing on Monday. “As Syria’s friend, China is willing to make an active effort to avoid further deterioration of the situation in Syria,” the official said…

China’s ties with Syria have been growing closer in recent years. Last September, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad inked a “strategic partnership” deal, pledging to work together in order to “jointly safeguard international fairness and justice” in the face of the “unstable and uncertain international situation.” China vows support for Syria, RT

Okay, so China has agreed to help Syria. What are they waiting for? The wolves are at the door and there’s no time to waste. This is from a post at the Iran Observer:

Timeline before the attack on Aleppo:
November 18, Israel’s Shin Bet Chief met with Turkey’s intelligence agency
November 25, NATO Chief met with Erdogan
November 26, Al Qaeda and ISIS launched an attack against the Syrian state
@IranObserver0

What does it mean?

It means that Erdogan hammered out the details of the attack plan (on Syria) with officials from Israel and NATO. It means that Erdogan got the ‘green light from foreign opponents of Assad. It means that Erdogan is a double-dealing, back-stabbing serpent who cannot be trusted and who disparages Israel in public while doing their bidding behind closed doors. That’s what it means.

.

.

Events on the ground are now moving so fast that this article will probably be obsolete before it ever goes to print. A Friday afternoon report from The Cradle states that panic has overtaken Homs sending thousands of civilians fleeing south for safety. Check it out:

Tens of thousands of people are fleeing in fear from Homs, Syria’s third largest city, as foreign-backed armed extremists continue to advance south from the town of Hama.

The joint operations center for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a UN-designated terrorist organization and offshoot of Al-Qaeda which has long enjoyed US, Qatari, Turkish, and Israeli support, announced its militants have taken two towns, Rastan and Talbisseh, along the strategic M5 highway and are now within five kilometers of Homs.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also reported that militants from HTS had taken the two towns and are threatening Homs. The SOHR said Russian warplanes had bombed a bridge in Rastan to block the extremists’ advance….

Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged his support for the SNA and HTS on Friday, stating that the extremist invasion was in response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s refusal to agree to Turkish demands in the Astana negotiations….

HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who was formerly an Islamic State of Iraq emir, continues to receive positive coverage in the Western and Gulf press – despite the atrocities his previous organization committed in Iraq and Syria, in particular against Christians, Yezidis, and Shia Muslims, but also against fellow Sunni Muslims.

Aaron Y Zelin, a terrorism researcher working for an Israeli-funded think tank, published an article in the UK Telegraph on 3 December describing Jolani’s HTS as “diversity-friendly jihadists” who want to secure the rights of Syria’s minorities.

On Friday, Jolani granted CNN an “exclusive interview” at an undisclosed location in Syria. The extremist leader said that his goal is to topple President Assad and the Syrian government, which has been a long-time US and Israeli goal. Jolani claimed his plan was to create a government based on institutions and a “council chosen by the people.” The Cradle

.

.

These are the people the United States is supporting in the war against Assad; Jolani and his barbarian head-choppers. Bibi and Erdogan are both on-board the program, in fact, each believes that—their ultimate objective of toppling Assad and moving on to Iran—is now within their reach. Fortunately, we think their plan could be derailed by the unexpected involvement of Iran and Russia, but it is too soon to say for sure.

What we do know is that the jihadist blitzkrieg is gaining pace and now just 100 kilometers from Damascus. We know that “Egypt and Jordan have called on Bashar al-Assad to leave Syria and form a government in exile.” (Wall Street Journal) We know that “Israel has informed Iran that it will attack any attempt to send weapons or forces to Syria.” (Israeli i24News Channel) We know that armed jihadists have taken over the southern city of Daraa... after they reached a deal with the army to secure its orderly withdrawal. (Reuters) And we know that officials from the IDF said Friday it was “reinforcing aerial and ground forces” in the occupied Golan Heights in response to sweeping advances by opposition forces in Syria. (Times of Israel) In other words, the IDF is gathering the forces it needs to invade southern Syria if Homs falls.

So, we can assume that the next 24 to 48 hours will be nerve-wracking, chaotic and violent. Either Assad will summon the resources to defend his country from the devastation his enemies have in mind, or we will see the US-Israel-Turkey Axis succeed in their perfidious plan to topple another sovereign government in the Middle East plunging the region deeper into anarchy, ruin and desperation.

It might be a good time to recall what Tom Paine said on a similar occasion:

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.” Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

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

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

All images in this article are from TUR

The Sectarian Risk: Turkey’s Syrian Mission

December 10th, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan must be delighted about what is unfolding in Syria, though it is a feeling bound to be tempered by swiftly changing circumstances.  Iran’s Shia proxies have been weakened by relentless Israeli targeting and bombing.  Russia’s eyes and resources are turned towards war in Ukraine.  With reports that Syrian rebel groups are now fighting on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, the Assad regime looks frail, its leader either in hiding or evacuated.

In the salad mix of jihadis, nationalists, and run of the mill mercenaries, Turkey’s hand looms large.  It’s intervention in Syria’s conflict was motivated by two main goals: the containment, if not elimination of Kurdish militants in northern Syria, seen as indistinguishable from their PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) counterparts in Turkey itself, and creating conditions of stability or “safe zones” that would enable a return of Syrian refugees when feasible.

Since August 2016, Turkey has made three incursions seizing parts of Syria’s north, imposing an occupation using regular troops and auxiliary forces including the Syrian National Army (SNA) and a coalition of groups comprising former Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters.  In 2018, the Military Police was established by both Turkish authorities and the Syrian Interim Government (SIG), a force ostensibly intended to protect the civilian population.  Instead, this period of Turkish rule has been marked by brutality, repression and sheer neglect.

In its February 2024 report, Human Rights Watch documented instances of abductions, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions (these include children), sexual violence and torture.  The perpetrators spanned elements of the SNA, the Military Police, members of the Turkish Armed Forces, the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT), and various military intelligence directorates.  To this colourfully gruesome range of cruelties can be added the abuse of property rights, looting, pillaging, confiscation of property, extortion and the absence of any consistent system of restitution.

The group enduring the heaviest burden of suffering are Kurdish residents, notably those that had received protection from the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) comprising the People’s Protection Unit (Yekineyen Parastina Gel, YPG), and the Women’s Protection Unit (Yekineyen Parastina Jin).  These forces proved crucial in countering the Islamic State (ISIS) group.  In October this year, Erdoğan reiterated the long held view that such Kurdish protective units were merely “the Syrian branch of the PKK terror group, destined to be abandoned, left isolated.”  Arabs and other groups seen as having links to the SDF and the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (AANES), have also been targets of Turkish-led ire.

The SNA is no friend of the headline grabbing Islamist outfit, Hayat Tahrir-al Sham (HTS), the primary spear in the lighting operation against the Assad regime.  HTS has marketed itself as a self-sufficient, modern, more considered group, less fire and brimstone from its al-Qaeda and al-Nusra iterations and supposedly more tolerant to other religions, sects and views.  Its leader, Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, has managed to receive praise and plaudits in the Western media for that change, despite his listing by the US State Department as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” worthy of a $10 million reward to anyone willing to offer information leading to his capture.

Even on the progress of HTS, Turkish influence cannot be discounted, despite Ankara eschewing open support for the group.  As Fuad Shahbazov, writing for the Stimson Center remarks, the recent advances of HTS “would have been unthinkable without Turkey’s military and logistical backing, and provision of advanced weaponry.”  It has also been suggested that Ankara gave a nod of approval to the offensive led by HTS after it failed to secure a rapprochement with Assad.

Erdoğan’s statements on the advance show a slippery mind in operation.  On December 6, he told reporters after Friday prayers that the target of the offensive was evidently Damascus.  “I would say we hope for this advance to continue without any issues.”  But he also expressed the view that these advances were “problematic” and “not in a manner we desire”.  While not elaborating on that point, it could be gleaned from the remarks that he is concerned about various “terrorist organisations” operating in the rebel forces.

The next day, the Turkish President decided to be lofty in his assessment as the rebels entered the suburbs of Homs.  “There is now a new reality in Syria, politically and diplomatically,” he declared in a speech delivered in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep.  “And Syria belongs to Syrians with all its ethnic, sectarian and religious elements.”

In keeping with the views of other leaders responsible for intervening in the affairs of another state, Erdoğan spoke of Syrian independence as viable, the will of its people as inviolable.  “The people of Syria are the ones who will decide the future of their own country.”  He hoped that the country would “quickly regain the peace, stability, and tranquillity it has been longing for 13 years.”  He went on to remark that “responsible actors and all international organisations” should support the preservation of the state’s territorial integrity.

The audacity of such statements does nothing to conceal the sectarian and ethnic dangers unfolding at the end of this Ankara-sponsored mission.  The fall of Bashir al-Assad will imperil Shia communities and do even more harm to the Kurds, leaving the door open for Salafism.  The rebel groups, only united by the common cause of overthrowing Assad, may well find battling each other hard to avoid.  As for the territorial integrity Erdoğan speaks of, Turkish officialdom and policy will never wear it short of any number of guarantees Ankara is bound to extort on hefty terms.  And as for refugees?  Expect many more to gush out in desperation.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University.  He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). Email: [email protected] 

Featured image source

Effects of Magnesium Deficiency on Women’s Health

December 10th, 2024 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

Magnesium deficiency is linked to increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), with studies showing women who have lower magnesium intake face significantly higher risks of developing reproductive health issues

Research demonstrates magnesium supplementation improves quality of life for women with PCOS, helping with physical functioning, emotional well-being and managing common symptoms of the condition

Women with higher magnesium intake had a 32% lower risk of frailty according to the Nurses’ Health Study, which followed 81,524 women aged 60+ over three decades

Low magnesium levels accelerate cellular aging and DNA damage, leading to premature tissue and organ aging

You can increase your magnesium levels through dietary sources (like raw milk, broccoli, seaweed), supplements or alternative methods like Epsom salt baths

*

Magnesium plays an important role in maintaining your body’s essential functions, particularly in women. Not only is it necessary for bone health, muscle function and regulating blood pressure, but magnesium also has a significant impact on inflammatory conditions like pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).

PID is an infection that affects the female reproductive organs, leading to serious complications like infertility, chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancies if left untreated. Research has shown that magnesium deficiency is increasingly common due to poor dietary habits, such as increased consumption of ultraprocessed foods, with many women not meeting the recommended daily intake.1

Further, studies now suggest a direct connection between magnesium levels and the risk of developing conditions like PID. Consuming enough magnesium is key to support your body’s ability to fight inflammation and maintain overall reproductive health.

Magnesium Deficiency Linked to Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

A recent study utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) explored the link between magnesium intake and PID in U.S. women.2 The study included 3,034 women between the ages of 20 and 59 and examined their dietary magnesium intake along with the incidence of PID.

Women with lower magnesium intake had a significantly higher risk of developing PID compared to those who met or exceeded the recommended daily magnesium intake. Magnesium’s anti-inflammatory properties play a role in this connection. It helps regulate immune function and reduces oxidative stress, both of which help in managing infections and preventing conditions like PID from progressing.

Inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), are often elevated in women with low magnesium levels, indicating a higher risk of chronic conditions like PID. Magnesium helps to lower these inflammatory markers, reducing the body’s overall inflammatory response and protecting against infections that lead to conditions like PID.

The NHANES study also found that higher magnesium intake was associated with a reduction in PID severity. Women who consumed more magnesium had fewer symptoms and lower rates of chronic PID, suggesting that magnesium not only helps prevent the onset of PID but also mitigates its impact once it develops.

Women with lower magnesium levels were also more likely to experience irregular periods, suggesting a link between magnesium and overall hormonal balance. This further highlights the power of magnesium as a simple, natural approach to managing reproductive health.

The Role of Magnesium in PCOS

A study conducted in Isfahan, Iran, explored how magnesium supplementation could help alleviate polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).3 PCOS affects millions of women worldwide, presenting a spectrum of symptoms that significantly impact daily life. Those navigating PCOS might experience irregular menstrual cycles, excessive hair growth, acne and even hair loss as some of the frustrating hurdles.

These symptoms stem from hormonal imbalances and the presence of multiple cysts in the ovaries, making fertility and overall well-being a concern for many. By focusing on abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), alopecia, quality of life and acne, the researchers aimed to uncover whether increasing magnesium intake could offer tangible benefits for women dealing with PCOS.

From reducing menstrual pain and cramps to supporting protein formation and cell growth, magnesium’s benefits are extensive. For those with PCOS, magnesium levels tend to be lower compared to healthy individuals, which might contribute to some of the syndrome’s challenging symptoms. The researchers administered 250 milligrams (mg) of magnesium oxide daily to a group of women with PCOS over 10 weeks, comparing their progress to a placebo group.4

One of the standout findings of the study was magnesium’s significant impact on the quality of life for women with PCOS. Quality of life encompasses various dimensions, including physical health, emotional well-being and social functioning — all areas where PCOS takes a toll. Participants who received magnesium supplements reported improvements in physical functioning, general health and emotional and mental health aspects.5

This suggests that magnesium may help mitigate some of the psychological and physical stresses associated with PCOS. The mechanism behind this improvement could be magnesium’s role in neurotransmitter regulation and its ability to alleviate depressive symptoms, which are common in PCOS sufferers.6

By enhancing both physical and mental health, magnesium supplementation could provide a much-needed boost to overall well-being, making daily challenges more manageable and improving the ability to enjoy life despite the hurdles of PCOS.

Unveiling the Link Between Magnesium and Frailty in Women

A comprehensive study using data from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) focused on how magnesium affects the risk of frailty in older women.7 Frailty, a condition marked by decreased strength and resilience, leads to serious health issues like falls, disabilities and even cognitive decline. This study followed 81,524 women aged 60 and above, tracking their magnesium consumption through diet and supplements over nearly three decades.

By meticulously assessing dietary habits and monitoring the onset of frailty using the FRAIL scale, researchers aimed to determine whether adequate magnesium intake could serve as a protective factor against this debilitating syndrome. The findings are particularly relevant for women looking to maintain their independence and quality of life in their golden years, highlighting the role magnesium plays in sustaining muscle function and overall vitality.

Magnesium isn’t just another mineral in your diet — it’s a powerhouse that supports hundreds of enzymatic reactions in your body. From muscle contraction and relaxation to energy production and bone health, magnesium is indispensable for maintaining optimal bodily functions. As you age, your body’s ability to absorb magnesium decreases, and factors like inadequate dietary intake and certain medications further deplete your magnesium levels.

This deficiency may manifest as muscle cramps, fatigue and weakness, all of which contribute to the onset of frailty. The NHS study emphasized that women who consistently consumed higher levels of magnesium through their diet had a significantly lower risk of becoming frail.

Specifically, women in the highest quintile of dietary magnesium intake had a 32% lower risk of developing frailty compared to those in the lowest quintile. Further those who met the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for magnesium intake via their diet had a 14% lower risk of becoming frail.8

This underscores the importance of incorporating magnesium-rich foods, such as leafy greens, into your daily meals. By prioritizing magnesium in your diet, you bolster your muscle strength, enhance energy levels and reduce the likelihood of experiencing the adverse effects associated with frailty.

Low Magnesium Levels Accelerate Cellular Aging

Ensuring you receive sufficient magnesium goes beyond just enhancing your energy levels — it also equips your body with a powerful mechanism to fight chronic inflammation and lower your chances of developing age-related illnesses.

In fact, magnesium levels in your body are closely tied to the integrity of your DNA. Research published in the European Journal of Nutrition highlights this connection.9 The study, which focused on healthy middle-aged Australians, revealed that low magnesium levels — especially when paired with high homocysteine — significantly escalate DNA damage.

As the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, magnesium is integral to numerous enzymatic reactions essential for DNA replication and repair. Without adequate magnesium, your body may struggle to maintain the stability and functionality of your genetic material. Ensuring you consume enough magnesium could be pivotal in protecting your DNA and promoting healthy aging.

Researchers examined various biomarkers of DNA damage and found that magnesium deficiency speeds up cellular aging and heighten the risk of chronic degenerative diseases. This goes beyond magnesium’s well-known benefits for bone health and nerve function, shedding light on its lesser-recognized role in DNA protection.

When your body lacks sufficient magnesium, the process of DNA replication and repair becomes less efficient. This inefficiency leaves your genetic material more susceptible to damage, leading to increased oxidative stress and a higher probability of DNA strand breaks. Over time, these genetic issues accumulate, resulting in premature aging of your tissues and organs.

By maintaining adequate magnesium levels, you provide your body with a powerful tool to fight off chronic inflammation and reduce the risk of age-related diseases. This not only helps in preserving your genetic integrity but also supports overall cellular health, contributing to a longer, healthier life.

Boosting Your Magnesium Levels for Optimal Health

More than half of Americans aren’t meeting their daily magnesium requirements.10 This shortfall is even more pronounced in specific populations. Health conditions like diabetes and regular alcohol consumption accelerate the loss of magnesium from your body, increasing your risk of deficiency.

Additionally, lifestyle factors such as inadequate sleep and high stress levels deplete your magnesium stores. Even short-term stress significantly lowers your magnesium levels. When considering supplements, magnesium threonate is my preference due to its exceptional ability to penetrate cells, including those in your brain and mitochondria.

If you’re new to magnesium supplementation, it’s advisable to start with magnesium citrate, however, to determine the right dosage for your body. This approach, known as “bowel tolerance,” involves gradually increasing your magnesium intake until you experience mild loose stools, indicating that you’ve reached your optimal level. This natural feedback mechanism helps prevent magnesium overdose.

Finding the Right Magnesium Supplement and Dosage

Begin with a daily dose of 200 mg of magnesium and slowly increase it until you notice your stools becoming slightly loose. This change signals that you’ve found your ideal dose. Once comfortable with this dosage, explore other forms of magnesium if desired.

Magnesium threonate can be taken with or without meals, offering flexibility in your supplementation routine. If you’re also supplementing with calcium, it’s beneficial to take them together. For those who engage in regular fitness activities, incorporating calcium and magnesium in a 1:2 ratio before workouts might be advantageous.

While a 1:1 ratio is commonly recommended, most diets already provide ample calcium. Therefore, you may need two to three times more magnesium than calcium in your supplements to achieve a balanced intake.

Prioritizing Dietary Sources of Magnesium

It’s important to note that blood tests aren’t always the most accurate indicators of your magnesium levels, especially within muscles and bones. Instead, tracking your dietary intake is a more practical approach to ensure you’re getting enough magnesium. Incorporate magnesium-rich foods into your meals, such as:

  • Raw milk and homemade yogurt
  • White rice
  • Potato
  • Dried seaweed or agar

Focusing on these nutrient-dense foods not only boosts your magnesium intake but also provides other essential vitamins and minerals that support overall health.

Alternative Methods to Increase Magnesium Levels

In addition to dietary sources and oral supplements, there are other effective ways to enhance your magnesium levels:

  • Epsom salt baths — Soaking in water infused with magnesium sulfate allows your skin to absorb magnesium directly, bypassing your digestive system. This method is especially beneficial for those who experience digestive issues with oral supplements.
  • Topical applications — Create a concentrated Epsom salt solution by following these steps:
    • Heat 6 ounces of water and dissolve 7 tablespoons of Epsom salt.
    • Allow the mixture to cool, then transfer it to a dropper bottle.
    • Apply the solution directly to your skin.
    • For enhanced absorption, follow up with fresh aloe vera gel.

These alternative methods provide additional avenues to ensure your body receives adequate magnesium, supporting your overall health and well-being. Maintaining adequate magnesium levels is essential for protecting against inflammatory conditions like PID, managing PCOS and warding off frailty as you age. By focusing on magnesium-rich foods and considering supplements when necessary, you’re taking proactive steps to enhance your health naturally.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Notes

1, 2 Frontiers in Nutrition August 6, 2024, Volume 11

3, 4, 5, 6 Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2022 Aug 2;20:110. doi: 10.1186/s12958-022-00982-7

7, 8 J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2024 Jun 6;15(4):1275–1282. doi: 10.1002/jcsm.13450

9 European Journal of Nutrition June 12, 2024

10 Oregon State University, “Micronutrient Inadequacies in the US Population: An Overview” Micronutrient Deficiencies and Inadequacies

“Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. That’s all we’ve ever had in this country is a ‘Bill of Temporary Privileges.’ And if you read the news, even badly, you know that the list gets shorter and shorter.”—George Carlin

Disguising its power grabs in the self-righteous fervor of national security, the Deep State has mastered the art of the bait-and-switch.

It works like this: first, the government foments fear about some crisis or threat to national security, then they capitalize on it by seizing greater power and using those powers against the American people.

We’ve seen this play out over and over again.

The government used its so-called War on Terror to transform itself into a police state.

Then the police state used its War on COVID-19 to claim lockdown powers.

All indications are that the government’s promised War on Illegal Immigration will be yet another sleight of hand that allows the powers-that-be to engage in greater power grabs while weakening the Constitution.

Therein lies the danger of the government’s growing addiction to power.

Whatever dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now—whether it’s in the name of national security or protecting America’s borders or making America healthy again—inevitably, these same practices can and will be used against you when the government decides to set its sights on you.

The slippery slope that starts with illegal immigration has all the makings of a thinly veiled plot to empower the government to become the arbiter of who is deserving of rights and who isn’t.

That quickly, we could find ourselves navigating a world in which the rights enshrined in the Constitution for all persons living in the United States are transformed into privileges enjoyed only by those whom the government chooses to recognize as legitimate.

By persuading the public that non-citizens, particularly illegal immigrants, do not enjoy the same inalienable rights as law-abiding citizens (a fact refuted by the Constitution and every credible legal scholar in the country), the Deep State is leading us down a road in which all rights are transitory.

This is how you establish a hierarchy of rights, contingent on whether you belong to a favored political class.

Be warned.

At such a time as the government is emboldened to flip that switch and appoint itself the ultimate authority on which protected class of individuals gets to enjoy the rights enshrined within the Constitution, the dividing line will not be between legal citizens and illegal immigrants.

It will not even be between Republicans and Democrats.

Rather, the purpose of that line of demarcation will be to distinguish the compliant, obedient, subservient vassal of the American police state (the so-called Loyalists) from everyone else.

We’re almost at that point now.

This is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.

Here are some of the inherent dangers in allowing the government to become the arbiter of who is deserving of rights:

It leads to the erosion of universal rights. The Bill of Rights was designed to protect the fundamental rights of all persons within the United States, regardless of their citizenship status, race, religion, or any other factor. When the government starts making distinctions about who is entitled to these rights, it undermines the universality that makes them so powerful. This creates a slippery slope where rights become privileges, subject to the whims of those in power.

It gives rise to authoritarianism. History is replete with examples of governments that consolidated power by first stripping away the rights of marginalized groups. Once the principle of universal rights is breached, it becomes easier to target other groups deemed “undesirable” or “unworthy.” This paves the way for authoritarianism, where the government dictates who enjoys freedom and who does not.

It creates a two-tiered society. A hierarchy of rights inevitably leads to a two-tiered society, where some individuals enjoy full protection under the law while others are relegated to second-class status. This fosters resentment, division, and social unrest. It also creates a vulnerable population that can be easily exploited and abused.

It undermines the rule of law. The rule of law is a fundamental principle of a just society. It means that everyone is subject to the same laws and that no one is above the law. When the government selectively applies the law based on arbitrary criteria, it undermines the rule of law and erodes trust in the legal system.

It chills free speech and dissent, i.e., the right to criticize the government. When people fear that their rights are contingent on their political views or social status, they are less likely to speak out against injustice or challenge the government. This chilling effect on dissent stifles free speech and creates a climate of fear and conformity.

It contributes to the loss of moral authority. A nation that claims to champion liberty and justice for all loses its moral authority when it denies those principles to certain groups within its borders. This undermines its standing in the world and diminishes its ability to promote human rights abroad.

Remember, the erosion of inalienable rights often starts subtly, with the government chipping away at the edges of those rights for specific groups.

The pattern is subtle at first, with government officials exploiting fear and prejudice in order to target groups that are already marginalized or perceived as “outsiders.” Incrementally, the net is cast wider and wider, so that by the time the injustice is widespread enough to inspire outrage in the greater populace, it’s too late to resist.

Historic examples abound of how the government has manufactured a blatantly unjust hierarchy of rights in order to diminish certain segments of society. These run the gamut from slavery and the persecution of Native Americans to the Japanese internment camps and segregation.

More recently, we’ve seen this tactic deployed in order to justify policies that run afoul of the Constitution, ranging from immigration policies and mass surveillance programs to SWAT team raids, voting rights, and the erosion of due process.

Clearly, Martin Niemöller’s warning about the widening net that ensnares us all, a warning issued in response to the threat posed by Nazi Germany’s fascist regime, still applies.

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

This is how the slippery slope to all-out persecution starts.

It doesn’t help that growing numbers of American citizens barely know their rights. Consider that only 5% of the U.S. adults surveyed could correctly name all five rights in the First Amendment, 20% could not correctly name any, and less than one in 10 Americans know they have a right to petition the government.

Such civic illiteracy lays the groundwork for all manner of tyrannies to follow. After all, how can you defend your rights if you don’t know what those rights are?

Then again, civic illiteracy among government officials, who are entrusted with upholding and protecting the Constitution, doesn’t appear to be much better.

It was ten years ago on December 15, National Bill of Rights Day, that the U.S. Supreme Court in its 8-1 ruling in Heien v. State of North Carolina gave police in America one more ready excuse to routinely violate the laws of the land, this time under the guise of ignorance.

The Heien case, which started with an improper traffic stop based on a police officer’s ignorance of the law and ended with an unlawful search, seizure and arrest, was supposed to ensure that ignorance of the law did not become a ready excuse for government officials to routinely violate the law.

It failed to do so.

In failing to enforce the Constitution, the Court gave police the go-ahead to justify a laundry list of misconduct, from police shootings of unarmed citizens to SWAT team raids, roadside strip searches, and the tasering of vulnerable individuals with paltry excuses such as “they looked suspicious” and “she wouldn’t obey our orders.”

Ignorance of the law has become an all-too-convenient cover for all manner of abuses by government officials who should know better.

I’m not sure which is worse: government officials who know nothing about the laws they have sworn to uphold, support and defend, or a constitutionally illiterate citizenry so clueless about their rights that they don’t even know when those rights are being violated.

This much I do know, however: for anyone to advocate terminating or suspending the Constitution is tantamount to a declaration of war against the founding principles of our representative government and the rule of law.

If there is one point on which there should be no political parsing, no legal jockeying, and no disagreement, it is this.

Then again, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, one could well make the case that the Constitution has alreadybeen terminated after years on life support, given the extent to which the safeguards enshrined in the Bill of Rights—adopted 233 years ago as a means of protecting the people against government overreach and abuse—have been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.

History provides chilling examples of how quickly rights can vanish, even in a nation such as ours founded on the principles of freedom. As George Carlin astutely observed:

“If you think you do have rights, next time you’re at the computer, get on the internet, go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia, I want you to type in ‘Japanese Americans 1942’ and you’ll find out all about your precious … rights. In 1942, there were 110,000 Japanese American citizens in good standing, law-abiding people, who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That’s all they did wrong. They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had: ‘right this way’ into the internment camps. Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took them away. And rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away.”

Remember you were warned, folks.

At the point that rights become privileges, then the Constitution and the government’s adherence to the rule of law will become optional.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

There are plenty of geopolitical reasons for regime change policy against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, pursued by Turkey, Israel and the United States.

Less highlighted is another endgame: the dismantling of a state run economy with ideological socialist roots.

Countries that lean towards socialism are anathema to private corporations because they deprive capitalists of cheap resources, labour and consumer markets. In the pursuit of private capital, the West, led by the United States (US) has for decades supported right wing anti-socialist countries and organisations.

This article situates Syria as a state within the global context, where capital continually strives to expand in a way that profits the few over the many.

Arab States: A Tale of Two Contrasting Development Trajectories

  1. Authoritarian monarchies such as Saudi Arabia align with Western interests which favour private enterprise and the transfer of resources from the government to the private sector. Members of ruling families constitute a private capitalist class, in control of the state, oil resources and corporations. The working class consists of low-paid immigrant workers who do not have citizenship and therefore do not benefit from welfare programs. Petrodollars from these countries have kept the United States’ economy in pole position globally.
  2. After decolonisation, republics such as Syria, Iraq and Libya adopted a financial model which rejected privatisation of trade, banks and financial markets. Inspired by pan-Arabism and Marxism, these countries were built on trade unionism, centrally planned economies, state banks and state ownership of oil resources with profits flowing to a welfare state. From the 1970s to 1990s, this economic model made these three oil-rich countries relatively prosperous and independent.

Syria Before and After War and Sanctions

.

Source

.

In 1963 the Syrian Socialist Arab Resurrection (Ba’ath) Party came to power on a platform of socialism, anti imperialism, wealth redistribution, secularism, and modernization. Also active in Iraq, the Ba’ath Party advocated Pan-Arabism, the movement for Arab unification as a way of reversing national divisions imposed by the European powers after World War 1. Under the memorable slogan ‘Unity, Freedom, Socialism,’ the Ba’ath Party in Syria was backed by a mass movement of industrial workers and farm labourers, who had occupied factories and battled landowners in the 1960s. Hafiz al-Assad became President in 1970; Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000.

A key policy of the Ba’ath Party is the nationalization of resources and assets, with profits ploughed back into the state for welfare and development.

There followed years of relative prosperity. By the mid-2000s Syria’s economy remained under state control with 2/3rds of its capital formation in the public sector In 2000, Libya’s poverty incidence was 10.36% which was low by international standards (Lawson, 2019.) By comparison the US’ poverty rate was at 11% this year.

In 2005 the first of a series of harsh sanctions was imposed by the US to deprive the Syrian population of resources. The collective punishment was blamed on al-Assad’s government support of Hamas and Hezbollah. By 2010, sanctions plus a three year drought led to poverty levels rising to 30% of the population.

In 2011, anger at state repression, government corruption and rising poverty levels boiled over in street protests. Counter demonstrations in favour of al-Assad were equally large. Syrian police and security forces carried out a brutal crackdown on dissidents; resulting in an estimated 3000 deaths. From 2012 to 2016 government forces battled with an armed opposition and an influx of ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliates.

.

Pro al-Assad rally in Damascus, October 2011

Anti al-Assad rally in Deraa, October 2011. [Picture source: BBC News]

.

The US funded and trained the armed opposition as part of its regime change policy to overthrow al-Assad. Other regional powers, allies of the US, financed extremist militias. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan famously wrote to Hillary Clinton in 2011, ‘AQ [al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria’.

In 2012, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies reported that the sanctions amounted to an economic blockade that was ‘…aimed at stifling the Syrian economy within a period estimated in months, not years, leading to the collapse of the balance of its former macroeconomic framework.’ (Robicheau, 2014.)

By 2018 the rate of poverty had soared to 80% of Syrians living under the poverty line.

Trump doubled down on the sanctions. In 2019, his administration and the United States Congress passed the extraordinarily brutal Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a package of draconian economic and financial restrictions with a cruel twist: any country that traded with Syria would also be sanctioned.

In 2023, Human Rights Watch reported that a staggering 90% of Syrians had fallen under the poverty line. ‘At least 12 million—more than half the population—could not access or afford enough quality food, and at least 15 million required some form of humanitarian aid to survive. More than 600,000 children were chronically malnourished. ‘

What Happened to Post-war Iraq and Libya Could Happen to Syria

After it invaded Iraq in 2003, the US banned Iraq’s Ba’ath Party, which precipitated social unrest and a civil war. From 2003 to 2011, an estimated 200,000 civilians died as a result of the US invasion, occupation and resultant insurgencies.

In the post war ‘reconstruction period’ the US attempted to open up Iraqi oil industries to private international corporations. This measure was blocked by oil workers trade unions, assertingthe oil wealth of Iraq belonged to its people.’ However Iraqi government neglect and financial corruption mean that profits are yet to trickle down to ordinary citizens.

In 2012 socialist Libya was bombed and defeated by NATO. The country managed to retain its public sector but much of the development initiated by Col Gaddafi, Libya’s former President, was eradicated. The North African country now suffers from deteriorating economic conditions, post-war internal conflicts and the scourge of Islamist terrorist groups.

Syria’s Oil: Smuggling and Theft

The majority of Syria’s oil and gas fields has fallen into the hands of non-government entities in the past few years.

A UK-based public energy company, Gulfsands, reported in 2022 that:

‘Western sanctions placed on the oil sector have caused foreign oil companies to leave the country…The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed coalition, currently controls one-quarter of Syria’s territory, including the area east of the Euphrates. This means that the SDF now dominates 90 percent of the oil and over 50 percent of the gas fields, as well as the infrastructure owned by foreign companies, according to legitimate contracts signed with the Damascus government, including Gulfsands Petroleum, Total, and Shell. Oil wells and facilities were cordoned off and “protected” by the US-led coalition forces and SDF…

‘…Damascus announced that the oil sector’s losses since the beginning of the crisis amounted to USD 91.5 billion. Oil Minister Bassam Tohme revealed that the daily oil production is 89,000 barrels, mainly in Kurdish-controlled areas. Tohme describes this oil as being “stolen” from the Syrian people.

‘Officials talk about networks operating in the shadows to smuggle oil and its derivatives between the east of the Euphrates, controlled by the SDF whose linchpin is the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), and the Euphrates Shield areas or other enclaves controlled by the Syrian opposition factions and the Turkish army.’

The vultures are circling, waiting to seize Syria’s remaining natural assets. Behind the front line of terrorists, smugglers and war profiteers lurk multinational oil and gas corporations, ready to pounce once stability is restored.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on Geopolitics: It’s not Rocket Science.

Sources

BBC News, ‘Syria uprising: UN says protest death toll hits 3,000,’ 14 October, 2011

Lawson, Fred H, ‘Syria’ in Angrist, Michele Penner, ‘Politics and Society in the Contemporary Middle East,’ Boulder, Co: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2019

A Marxist Guide to Understanding the Gulf States’ Political Economy

Mohammad Marandi: Syrian Civil War, Erdogan, Netanyahu, Turkey, Israel, Russia, US, Iran, Palestine. – YouTube

Robicheau, D, ‘Syria, the MENA Region, and International Finance Capitalism,’ International Critical Thought, Vol 4 no 2, June 2014.

United Nations Development Program, ‘Poverty in Syria: 1996-2204,’ June 2005

Featured image is from the author

During the early morning hours of December 9, 1981, cab driver and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was wounded and arrested on charges related to the shooting death of a white Philadelphia police officer.

When it became known who the principal suspect was in the death of Officer Daniel Faulkner, the mainstream corporate media crafted their editorial approach to make it appear as if Mumia was already guilty even prior to a trial.

Since his conviction and initial sentencing to death, it has been an ongoing struggle by Mumia and his supporters to overturn this injustice and to win his release. A years-long international campaign was successful in having the former Panther taken off death row in 2011.

Nonetheless, for decades the judicial system in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has refused to seriously consider the exculpatory evidence which could exonerate Mumia and release him from incarceration. In the latest legal challenge to win a new trial, the judge hearing the case ignored the fact that pertinent information related to efforts to deny Mumia a fair hearing by prosecutors was suppressed.

Abu-Jamal turned 70 years-old in April 2024. Over the last decade his health has been deteriorating as a direct result of the horrendous conditions under which he is being confined in Pennsylvania state prisons.

He has suffered numerous ailments including diabetes, failing eyesight, hepatitis C, heart disease, among others. In every instance of a healthcare emergency, people around the country and the world were compelled to launch legal challenges and letter writing campaigns to secure the necessary medical treatments needed to save his life.

Despite these legal and health crises, Abu-Jamal remains a prolific writer and broadcaster. He has authored and contributed to a dozen books while issuing regular commentaries through Prison Radio on a plethora of topics including racism, militarism, poverty and the plight of the more than two million people incarcerated in the U.S. The most recent book that he edited entitled “Beneath the Mountain: An Anti-Prison Reader” was released in July of this year.

His case has prompted thousands of rallies and demonstrations over the decades. Every year on April 24 (his birthday) and December 9 (his arrest anniversary), there are demonstrations in Philadelphia to demand his immediate release from prison.

His case has become a national and international cause celebre. For people throughout North America and in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, the name of Mumia Abu-Jamal is widely known as millions continue to call for his freedom.

How Did We Get Here?

Mumia had been a founding member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1969 at the height of the United States government’s counter-intelligence program aimed at neutralizing the revolutionary movement. After the demise of the BPP, he continued to work as a journalist and community organizer while eventually becoming a staunch supporter of the MOVE organization which was started in Philadelphia during the early 1970s.

In a biographical entry on the Prison Radio website, it says of Mumia’s legacy:

“In the late 1970s, Abu-Jamal worked as a reporter for radio stations throughout the Delaware Valley. He was a staff reporter for WUHY (now WHYY), the NPR flagship station, and he filed nationally for All Things Considered and the Morning Report. Along with his team at Philadelphia’s WUHY, he won the prestigious Major Armstrong Award (1980) from Columbia University for excellence in broadcasting. In 1981, Abu-Jamal was elected president of the Association of Black Journalists’ Philadelphia chapter…. Currently, he’s serving life without parole at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA. Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial and its resultant first-degree murder conviction have been criticized as unconstitutionally corrupt by legal and activist groups for decades, including by Amnesty International and Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, and Desmond Tutu. Abu-Jamal earned his BA at Goddard College in 1996; his MA from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1999; and an honorary Doctor of Law from the New College of California in 1996. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz.” 

Since the late 1960s, hundreds of activists have been locked up and framed as political prisoners for crimes in which they did not commit. Many of these freedom fighters served decades in prison as some even died behind bars.

Others, such as Dr. Mutulu Shakur and Ruchell Magee were released in their final months suffering from terminal illnesses. This treatment of activists illustrates clearly the social character of the U.S. political system which maintains the nationally oppressed peoples under repressive and exploitative conditions.

Assata Shakur, a veteran member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), was broken out of prison by her comrades in New Jersey 45 years ago in November 1979. Eventually, Shakur was granted political asylum in Cuba.

Leonard Peltier Could by Freed from Federal Prison by Outgoing President Joe Biden

American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Leonard Peltier has languished in federal prisons since being illegally extradited from Canada by the U.S. government in 1976. Peltier was railroaded into prison for the killing of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota during 1975.

Image: Mumia and Leonard

Although many politicians, celebrities and mass organizations have petitioned for a new trial or the release of Peltier, the organizer has remained in prison for 47 years. AIM grew out of the upsurge and spin-offs from the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s. The organization was founded in 1968 to fight for the rights of indigenous people whose land and lives were stolen by European settler-colonialism.

Peltier was denied parole again in June 2024. However, with the imminent departure of President Joe Biden on January 20, 2025, he could be released. Peltier and AIM have been longtime allies with the Black Liberation Movement and other oppressed peoples.

A report published by The Hill points out that a Senate Democrat has called upon Biden to release the AIM leader:

“Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chair Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) called on President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist convicted of murdering two FBI agents in a controversial 1977 trial, before he leaves office. Peltier is ‘among those who deserve grace and mercy,’ Schatz said on the Senate floor Wednesday (Dec. 4). ‘If there was ever a case that merited compassionate release, Leonard Peltier’s is it,’ he continued. ‘This is exactly what that awesome presidential power is for: to right a historic wrong. And if not that, then to show mercy and let an old man die with his family.’” 

Indigenous people have been denied fundamental human rights, civil rights and the right to self-determination for centuries. The release of Peltier would by the least the federal government could do to make partial amends for the genocidal policies enacted by the U.S. since its inception.

Supporters of Peltier are encouraging people to contact the White House to demand the granting of clemency by Biden to this Indigenous leader who has been imprisoned for nearly five decades. An online petition can be signed by logging on to the following URL: click here.

Worsening Prison Conditions Prompting Self-Immolation in Virginia

The cases of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier are representative of the inhumane treatment that is routinely meted out by the U.S. ruling class to oppressed peoples and their organizational representatives. Disproportionately people of color, the poor and working class are the ones who are subjected to the profiling, arrest and prosecution by the judicial system.

As a result of the unbearable conditions of people within the prison-industrial-complex, some inmates have begun to set themselves on fire as a form of protest against their treatment. At the Red Onion State Prison in Virginia there have been numerous cases of self-immolation.

Prison Radio broke this story earlier in the year. In one report the media outlet says that:

“DeAndre Gordon, Demetrius Wallace, Tre’vaughn Brown, and Ekong Eshiet, prisoners at Red Onion, have set themselves on fire while demanding to be taken ‘off the mountain.’ The warden confirmed six men burned themselves in protest. Prisoners report the total is over a dozen men treated for burns. A number were taken for skin grafts, seven hours away, at the Evans-Haynes Burn Center at VCU Hospital in Richmond, VA. ‘These acts of self-immolation are desperate cries for help from at least twelve Black men, since September 15, who allege systemic abuse, neglect, and blatant human rights violations,’ the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus statement reads and continues. ‘People who have been incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison describe being regularly subjected to racial and physical abuse from correctional officers, medical neglect including the withholding of medicine, excessive stays in solitary confinement with one report of 600 consecutive days, inedible food having been covered in maggots and officers’ spit, and violent dog attacks.’”

Although the U.S. praises itself as being the leading democracy in the world, the country has the highest per capita prison population internationally. The overwhelming majority of those incarcerated come from the proletariat and the oppressed. (See this)

Consequently, to bring about justice it is necessary to eliminate the prison-industrial-complex as a key aspect in the overall transformation of the country. Institutional racism and class exploitation must be upended to create just and equal society.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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

“No compromise. No Retreat” is more than a statement — it is a mandate. One we do not take lightly as we clarify and sharpen the contradictions of this colonial empire, irrespective of who occupies the seat within the White Man’s House. The recent presidential election and the electoral frenzy that preceded it, put on full display the shameless opportunism within our communities and the extensive propaganda employed by state actors to keep the masses caged within a system that tosses them between two hands of the same imperialist body.

The re-election of Donald Trump is seen as the ushering in of fascism. However, we know fascism will not suddenly emerge from the shadows in January 2025. Some may call the Democrats an “opposition party,” but many of us live, work, and organize in areas under Democratic leadership. We know all too well that this battle has been ongoing.

In our latest statement, “The Face of the White People’s House May Have Changed but the War on the Oppressed Working Class Hasn’t” we asserted:

“We are clear. The anti-democratic duopoly is made up of representatives of the capitalist class and provides cover for what is, in reality, the dictatorship of capital. In this, the duopoly reveals the class nature of the state. This dictatorship, the true enemy of the people, is the target of our agitation and organizing.”

We are experiencing increasing repression at the hands of this so-called “opposition”. Now is the time to rid ourselves of any doubts or misconceptions about the reality of this system.

“Under Biden-Harris, we saw police, judicial, and media suppression of mobilizations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the student intifada, the Uhuru 3, African Stream media, and many others. And it is no coincidence that so-called “cop cities” are being constructed across the country in those urban areas being managed by Black democrat party functionaries or, what Black Agenda Report refers to as the “Black Misleadership Class…”

As we close out the year and prepare ourselves for what is to come in 2025, we must keep our focus on the true enemy. Our task is to reveal the face of that enemy to the masses and organize a force against it – to continue to resist the pan-European, white supremacist, imperialist, patriarchy without fear. And we will. That is what we commit ourselves to every time we say,

No compromise. No retreat!

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Featured image is from The Unz Review


Annex: The Face of the White People’s House May Have Changed but the War on the Oppressed Working Class Hasn’t

No Matter Who Sits in the White Peoples’ House the War Being Waged by the U.S. Colonial/Capitalist Class Against the Black Colonized Working Class and All Oppressed Peoples and Nations Will Continue

“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories…” (Amilcar Cabral)

It was under the Democrats and the first “Black” president that the Department of Defense 1033 program that militarizes local police forces was expanded by 2,400%; the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) expanded by 1,900%; Libya, the most prosperous African and Pan African nation was attacked and destroyed; the war on Yemen began; the Occupy Wall Street Movement was smashed; the FBI created the “Black Identity Extremist” label; the banks were bailed out from the economic collapse that they created, but not the working class; Black people lost more wealth  than was lost at the end of Reconstruction in 1870s; and, despite police killings across the country, including Mike Brown in Ferguson, the Obama administration only brought Federal charges against one killer-cop.  Yet, with the return of Trump, opportunists in our communities and beyond are telling us that the real culprits in our oppression and the targets for opposition are Trump and republicans. 

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) rejects this kind of ahistorical opportunism.

We are clear. The anti-democratic duopoly is made up of representatives of the capitalist class and provides cover for what is, in reality, the dictatorship of capital. In this, the duopoly reveals the class nature of the state. This dictatorship, the true enemy of the people, is the target of our agitation and organizing.

Focusing attention on the Trumpian wing of the capitalist class as the primary or principal contradiction facing the people in the U.S. or in the world, obscures the reality that the dominant wing of capital, finance capital, along with the U.S. based transnational corporations, have captured and are operating through both parties. However, it is the democratic party wing of the dictatorship of capital that has championed what is popularly referred to as neoliberalism. Neoliberalism, first given coherence under Ronald Reagan, eventually migrated to the democratic party under Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council, whose “third way politics” aligned with both neoliberals and neoconservatives (neocons). Trumpism is the particular (national) manifestation of the global crisis of neoliberal capitalism. The republican party’s capture of the executive and all branches of government will not resolve the structural contradictions of neoliberal capital. What we can expect, then, is the strengthening of the repressive state apparatus and more targeted repression. To be clear, this process would have continued under a Harris administration because Harris promised to maintain the same trajectory of state repression in the name of capital. Because of the bipartisan jettisoning of liberal democratic and human rights in favor of the capitalist order, it does not matter which individual is sitting in the white peoples’ house. Therefore, the correct approach for opposition forces is one that grounds the people’s understanding of the objective structural contradictions of the capitalist order and that builds their capacity to struggle against that order  – regardless of which wing of the duopoly represents it. Focusing on only one part of the duopoly is akin to focusing on only one faction of the capitalist class.

Despite any rhetoric to the contrary, BAP expects Trump will govern as a neoliberal. That is why certain elements of the ruling class turned to him again.  Continued austerity, especially at the state and local levels, will persist, as well as privatization of public assets, tax breaks for the capitalist class, the suppression and repression of labor, fiscal and monetary policies that prop-up capitalist profits and undermine human rights and, of course, the targeted use of military power to advance the interests of the capitalist dictatorship. We believe, however, that Trump will make as his main mission the primary concern of the neoliberal elite:  smashing the movement toward de-dollarization.

We cannot afford to have any illusions or harbor any sentimentality about the nature of this system. As we organize in political spaces controlled by Black democrats, it would be suicidal if we did not understand the role these neocolonial puppets play – primarily against any organized opposition – in the war that capital is waging against the people. Under Biden-Harris, we saw  police, judicial, and media suppression of mobilizations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the student intifada, the Uhuru 3, African Stream media, and many others. And it is no coincidence that so-called “cop cities” are being constructed across the country in those urban areas being managed by Black democrat party functionaries or, what Black Agenda Report refers to as the “Black Misleadership Class.”  

This corrupted Black petit-bourgeois professional/managerial class, positioned in government, corporate and non-profit sectors, provides the buffer and role models for individual material advancement at the expense of the Black working class.

And while we are dealing with cop cities, we also understand what is coming with the mass deportations of non-white migrants and the violent law and order rhetoric that is already emanating from the Trumpian forces. But let us not forget that, under the Biden-Harris regime, mass deportations rose by 250 percent, of which Harris campaigned on being “tough” on the border. Anti-immigrant rhetoric is also bipartisan.

Like all people, we want to live decent, prosperous lives in peace and in harmony with all humanity and nature. But we are going to have to fight for peace. And for that struggle BAP is guided by the principles of the Black radical peace tradition that states clearly: 

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement by popular struggle and self-defense of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament and proliferation, unjust war, and subversion through the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.

That is the task and the responsibility that we take on. We are not afraid of any individual or oppressive system. We gladly take on this fight with the certainty that one day we will defeat the Pan European white supremacist colonial/capitalist patriarchy that is the enemy of collective humanity. 

The struggles and sacrifices being made by the Palestinian peoples to defend their dignity and popular sovereignty is the example we embrace. This is why we say that, no matter the circumstances, no matter the challenge, no matter the intensity of the repression, we are building on the sacrifices of our people and guided by revolutionary principles. Our call will always be:

No Compromise, No Retreat! 

Coordinating Committee, Black Alliance for Peace

Does Russia Have an Intelligence Service? Paul C. Roberts

December 10th, 2024 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

I think not. There is a bureaucracy, an office, and someone with a title, but there is no intelligence. 

Putin did not know that a US-trained and equipped Georgian Army was about to invade South Ossetia and went to the Olympics in China.  

Putin didn’t know that the US was about to overthrow the Ukrainian Government and went to the Sochi Olympics.

Putin didn’t know that the West was deceiving him with the Minsk Agreement. This cost him eight years and left him behind the eight ball and locked into a military conflict now three years old, a conflict that has expanded into US/NATO missile attacks into Russia.  And still Russia stands down.  Has Putin not been informed of the attacks? Lavrov told Carlson that Russia was not at war with the West.

Putin didn’t know that the US was about to overthrow Syria. In his interview with Tucker Carlson, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke as if the renewal of the conflict in Syria allowed plenty of time to find a diplomatic solution. He had no idea that Syria would be overthrown by about the time the interview ended.

Russia had no realization, despite Biden explicitly telling them, that the Nord Stream Pipeline was going to be blown up by the US.

How is it possible that the Russian government never has a clue about imminent events that have adverse consequences for Russia?

Have the fearsome days of the NKVD and KGB convinced Russian liberals like Putin and Lavrov that intelligence services are dangerous and unnecessary in a democracy?

The sudden fall of Syria has completely changed the matrix. The US and Israel have gained tremendously at the expense of Russia and Iran. The Israeli government sees an enormous situational change that has greatly weakened the ability of Iran and Hezbollah to oppose Greater Israel.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel Defense Force Operations Command Chief Major General Israel Ziv said the fall of Syria has weakened the Axis of Resistance to Greater Israel and presents a historic opportunity that Washington and President Trump should capitalize on to remove Iran as an obstacle to US and Israeli interest.

The year 2024 ends with the erasure of Palestine and Syria by Washington and Israel. During 2025 the targets will be Lebanon and Iran.  And Russia, of course.

The rapidity of Syria’s collapse raises the question whether Washington purchased Syria’s collapse with payments to generals and officials. The Syrian military had successfully repelled the previous assault with the aid of Russian airpower.  But this time the army retreated from its positions and refused to fight, leaving the cities open for enemy opposition. Ekaterina Blinova offers some information here.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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.

Featured image source

The Abrams tanks transferred to Ukraine by the United States are undermanned and not the most useful equipment for the Ukrainian military, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. Yet, despite this failure, coupled with many other Western weapon failures in Ukraine, the Biden administration is still burning tens of billions of dollars on Ukraine’s failed war effort against Russia in the knowledge that support will slow down once Donald Trump enters the White House next month.

“Those Abram tanks units are actually undermanned because it’s not the most useful piece of equipment for them in this fight, exactly as our military said,” he said during a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on December 8.

Sullivan also referred to the F-16 fighter jets that US President Joe Biden authorized sending to Ukraine in May last year.

“It’s now December of 2024, and we’ve had a limited number of pilots train not because we’re not prepared to train them — we are, as many as possible — but because the Ukrainians do not have the pilots to be able to build a full F-16 capability in time,” the security adviser said.

On December 2, Sullivan stated that the US would impose more sanctions on Russia before the current president leaves office next month to make way for Donald Trump. However, imposing new sanctions on Moscow is not the only last desperate effort made by the Biden administration to continue its anti-Russia agenda to the very end.

With $2.21 billion remaining in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the Biden administration is pushing to buy weapons for Ukraine for nearly half that amount, Reuters reported. The aid package is expected to include $988 million in new weapons and equipment.

Reuters reported that the Biden administration is pushing to purchase arms from industry rather than drawing directly from US weapons stockpiles. The funds will be used to purchase ammunition for Lockheed Martin’s High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems (HIMARS), drones, and spare parts to maintain artillery equipment.

On the same day as the Reuters article, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin revealed at the Reagan National Defense Forum that the total volume of military support for Ukraine from allies since the start of the Russian special military operation in February 2022 exceeds $119 billion. Austin added that Ukraine had also received more than $57 billion from other allies of Kiev and $62 from Washington.

This astronomical amount was wasted on equipment that did not help the Ukrainian military, such as the aforementioned Abrams tanks. These tanks were heralded as game-changing but were then quietly withdrawn from the battlefield because cheap Russian drones easily destroyed them. In interviews with Western media, Ukrainian military officials expressed dissatisfaction with the US-made tank, citing technical problems, particularly the poor resistance of electronic components to condensation and vulnerability to Russian weapons.

In July, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Abrams had proved incapable of changing the situation on the battlefield. The Russian Ministry of Defence has repeatedly reported the destruction of these vehicles in the area of ​​the special operation.

Nonetheless, it appears that Biden wants one of his last actions as president to be wasting billions more of American taxpayer money on Ukraine’s futile war effort, especially since the winner of the US presidential election in November reaffirmed that military aid under the incoming administration will begin to drop.

In an interview with NBC News on December 8, Trump said that Ukraine “probably” should not expect to receive as much aid as before when he returns to the White House.

At the same time, Trump stressed his commitment to resolving the conflict in Ukraine. Following his meeting with Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron on December 7 at the Elysee Palace, the billionaire Republican stressed that “the world is waiting.”

According to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin “carefully reviewed” Trump’s statement after his meeting in Paris, but “in order to move towards a peaceful path, Zelensky only needs to cancel this decree and give instructions to resume dialogue based on the Istanbul Agreements, taking into account the realities that are taking shape on the ground.”

Trump has continuously chastised Biden for being unable to end the Ukraine War and wasting tens of billions on Ukraine aid. Continuous reports of the failure of US military equipment, such as the Abrams tanks, will only harden Trump’s resolve to reduce spending on Ukraine and seek a quick end to the war once he becomes president.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Featured image source

Western narratives about “democracy” and “electoral transparency” seem to be mere rhetoric – conveniently used against enemies and ignored when Western countries violate such “rules”. Recently, Romania illegally and unjustifiably annulled the results of its presidential elections just to prevent an anti-EU candidate from winning. This case clearly shows how European countries are willing to take any kind of action to prevent political changes that favor multipolarity.

The Romanian Constitutional Court illegally interfered in the country’s electoral process by annulling the results of the first round of the presidential elections. Thus, independent candidate Calin Georgescu, who surprisingly won the race against his EU-backed opponents, was harmed for maintaining a critical stance of opposition against Romania’s alignment with the West.

Georgescu is accused of receiving Russian support in his electoral campaign. He is a well-known critic of NATO and the EU, and is absolutely against Romania’s involvement in the conflict with Russia. He promises to reverse the Romanian government’s aid measures to Ukraine, and maintains a strong position against the EU-sponsored “woke” cultural agenda. As a religious nationalist, he also wants to establish peaceful ties with Russia to pacify relations between the countries with Orthodox Christian majorities, which has made him particularly popular among the Romanian people, who remain largely Christian despite Western cultural pressure.

For this reason, Georgescu is called “pro-Russian” and his opponents invent unsubstantiated narratives against him, claiming that Moscow finances his political projects and his electoral campaign. Russian authorities have already spoken out on the case, denying any connection, but that was not enough to stop Romanian judges from nullifying his first-round election victory, labeling him a “foreign agent.”

Georgescu won nearly 23% of the vote in the first round. He was scheduled to face leftist-liberal candidate Elena Lasconi, who won 19% of the vote, in a runoff election. Instead of respecting the will of the people, the Constitutional Court, which is certainly controlled by pro-NATO and pro-EU judges, simply nullified the electoral process and set a new election day for a later date.

The right-wing candidate reacted to the decision by saying that the judges made a coup d’etat. According to him, democracy and the rule of law have been suspended in Romania, and there is no longer any respect for the country’s legal order. Georgescu described the Romanian judicial system as corrupt, strongly condemning the unfair accusations made against him.

“Essentially, this is a formalized coup d’etat. The rule of law is in an induced coma, and justice subordinated to political orders has practically lost its essence. It is no longer justice, it obeys the orders (…) The corrupt system in Romania showed its true face by making a pact with the devil,” he said.

In fact, no evidence has been provided to justify the claim that Georgescu is supported by Russia. If such support existed, it would certainly be easy to provide personal data to prove it, but nothing has been done, which indicates that the allegations are completely baseless. This shows that for the Romanian electoral legal system, a fair lawsuit is not important, and any maneuver to prevent a dissident candidate from coming to power is valid.

Even if Georgescu did receive support from Moscow, this should not be a problem, since it is common for candidates to be supported by foreign countries – as in Romania itself, where Georgescu’s opponents are largely supported by the EU. In a truly democratic system, all candidates should be free to make their own choices regarding international and diplomatic alliances. However, it seems that Romania is not really a democracy.

To prevent the rise of an anti-NATO political wave, the Atlantic alliance is encouraging the rise of authoritarian regimes in Europe. NATO knows that the war against Russia is unpopular and that ordinary citizens want support for Ukraine to end. Therefore, only dictatorships can sustain the alliance’s war efforts – which is why, for example, Macron recently banned the French parliament and now Romania has annulled its presidential elections.

It is important to emphasize that Romania is an important logistical hub for supporting Ukraine, in addition to exerting direct influence over Moldova, a NATO proxy country with an ethnic Romanian majority. Losing a presence in Romania would be negative for NATO and the EU, which explains their desperation to prevent Georgescu’s victory.

It remains to be seen how long Western countries will continue to be able to violate the will of their own people without suffering serious consequences and deep crises of legitimacy.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

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

Chilling Warnings for Syria: When Foreign Interventions Go Bad

December 10th, 2024 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The reports through Western presses read rather familiarly. Joyful residents taking selfies on abandoned, sullen tanks. Armed men ebullient and shooting into the sky with adventurist stupidity. The removal of statues and vulgar reminders of a regime. Prisoners freed; torture prisons emptied. The tyrant, deposed.

This is the scene in Syria, a war with more external backers and sponsors than causes. The terrain for some years had been rococo in complexity: Russia, Iran and Shia militants in one bolstering camp; Gulf states and Turkey pushing their own mixture of Sunni cause and disruption in another; and the US throwing in its lot behind the Kurdish backed People’s Protection Units (YPG).  Even this schema is simplified.

While there will be an innumerable number of those delighted at the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the end of the Arab socialist Baathist regime provides much rich food for thought.  Already, the whitewash and publicity relations teams are doing the rounds, suggesting that we are seeing a sound, balanced group of combatants that will ensure a smooth transition to stable rule.  Little thought is given to the motley collection of rebels who might, at any moment, seek retribution or turn on each other, be they members of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), or those from the largest, most noted group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

There is little mention, for instance, about the blotted resume of the aspiring usurper, Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, who retains a bounty of US$10 million for information on his whereabouts and capture by US authorities.  Human rights activist and former British diplomat Craig Murray helpfully posted a link from the US embassy in Syria from 2017, with the blood red title “Stop This Terrorist”.  As he acidly notes, “You might want to retweet this before they delete it.”

When foreign powers meddle, particularly in the Middle East, the result is very often a cure worse than the disease. The billowy rhetoric follows a template: evil dictators, oppressors of their people, finally get their just desserts at the hands of a clearly demarcated, popular insurrection, helped along, naturally, by the world’s freedom lovers and democracy hailers.  That those same freedom loving powers tolerated, traded and sponsored those same despots when it was convenient to do so is a matter confined to amnesia and the archives.

A few examples suffice. The scene in Libya in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 NATO intervention that overthrew Muammar al-Gaddafi saw commentary of delight, relief and hope.  New prospects were in the offing, especially with the news of his brutal murder.  “For four decades the Gaddafi regime ruled the Libyan people with an iron fist,” stated US President Barack Obama. “Basic human rights were denied, innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed.”  At the end of the regime, Obama confidently claimed that the new administration was “consolidating their control over the country and one of the world’s longest serving dictators is no more.”

UK Prime Minister David Cameron struck the same note. “Today is a day to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi’s victims.”  Libyans “have an even greater chance, after this news, of building themselves a strong and democratic future.”  French President Nicolas Sarkozy chose to see the overthrow of Gaddafi as the result of a unified, uniform resistance from “the Libyan people” who emancipated “themselves from the dictatorial and violent regime imposed on them for more than 40 years.”

What followed was not stability, consolidation and democratic development.  Jihadi fundamentalism exploded with paroxysms of zeal.  The patchwork of unsupervised and anarchically disposed militia groups, aided by NATO’s intervention, got busy.  Killings, torture, enforced disappearances, forced displacement and abductions became common fare.  The country was nigh dismembered, fragmenting from 2014 onwards between rival coalitions backed by different foreign powers.

The same gruesome pattern could also be seen in the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq of 2003.  It began with a US-led invasion based on sham premises: Weapons of Mass Destruction that were never found.  It also resulted in the overthrow of another Arab socialist Baathist regime.  Statues were toppled.  There was much celebration and looting.  Even before the invasion in March that year, US President George W. Bush was airily declaring that “a new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.”  In November 2004, Bush would dreamily state that the US and Britain “have shown our determination to help Iraqis achieve their liberty and to defend the security of the world.”

The consequences of the invasion: the effective balkanisation of Iraq aided by the banning of the Baath Party and the disbanding of the Iraqi Army; the murderous split between Sunni and Shia groups long held in check by Saddam with Kurdish rebels also staking their claim; the emergence of Iran as a regional power of significance; the continued thriving of al-Qaeda and the emergence of the caliphate-inspired Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) group.

Even as the body count was rising in 2006, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair was still fantasising about the political wishes of a country he had been so instrumental in destroying.  “This is a child of democracy struggling to be born,” he told a gathering at Georgetown University in May that year with evangelical purpose. “The struggle for Iraqis for democracy should unite them.”  The unfolding disasters were mere “setbacks and missteps”.  Blair continued to “strongly believe we did and are doing the right thing.”

And so, we see the same pieties, the same reassurances, the same promises, played on a sedating loop regarding Syria’s fate, the promise of democratic healing, the transfiguration of a traumatised society.  How long will such prisons as Sednaya remain unfilled?  Therein lies the danger, and the pity.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

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]


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

**Voices from Syria**

Author: Mark Taliano

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-9-1

Year: 2017

Product Type: PDF File

List Price: $6.50

Special Offer: $5.00 

Click to order.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s military has taken over a buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established decades ago, after Syrian opposition fighters ended the rule of President Bashar al-Assad’s decades-long reign.

In a statement released by video on Sunday morning, Netanyahu said that the agreement, hashed out in 1974 by Israel and former leader Hafez al-Assad’s regime, “collapsed” on Saturday night because the “Syrian army abandoned its positions.”

.

.

The reason Israel seized the territory is because “we have to take action against possible threats” caused by the power vacuum left by the Assad regime’s collapse, he said.

“We gave the Israeli army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel,” the prime minister added. “This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”

Netanyahu said Assad’s downfall is a “historic day” for the region, adding that the new situation in Syria “offers great opportunity but also is fraught with significant dangers.”

His announcement was delivered in Golan Heights.

Syria’s collapse, he also said, is the result of Israeli action against Iran and the Hezbollah terrorist group, which had been allied with both Iran and Assad for years. Iran and several groups loyal to Tehran had long used military bases in Syria, while Israel at times carried out air strikes against those positions over the years.

“It set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny and its oppression,” Netanyahu said.

Israel is extending “a hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria: to the Druze, to the Kurds, to the Christians, and to the Muslims who want to live in peace with Israel,” Netanyahu said. “We’re going to follow events very carefully. If we can establish neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that’s our desire.”

“But if we do not, we will do whatever it takes to defend the State of Israel and the border of Israel.”

Assad has not released a statement on his government’s collapse, and it’s not clear where he currently is. Russian officials have said that he departed Syria before opposition fighters took over the country, seizing the capital of Damascus on Sunday morning.

On Sunday, rebel groups and militias cooperating with terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments. Thousands of people in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting, witnesses said.

Leading rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, an individual who is currently listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist who carried out “multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria” over the years, said there is no room for turning back.

“The future is ours,” he said in a statement read on Syria’s state TV after his forces took over Damascus.

Underscoring the major changes, Iran’s embassy was stormed by Syrian rebels, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.

Iran’s foreign ministry said Syria’s fate is the sole responsibility of the Syrian people and should be pursued without foreign imposition or destructive intervention.

The Syrian rebel coalition said it is continuing work to complete the transfer of power in the country to a transitional governing body with full executive powers. “The great Syrian revolution has moved from the stage of struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria together that befits the sacrifices of its people,” it added in a statement.

The United States deployed forces in Syria against the ISIS terrorist group about a decade ago,

President-elect Donald Trump said that America should not get involved in the conflict and suggested that Russia’s war in Ukraine was the reason Assad’s regime was toppled. Russia also had positioned troops and military equipment in the country for years.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Reuters contributed to this report.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter who covers a range of topics, including politics, U.S., and health news. A father of two, Jack grew up in California’s Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5

Featured image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Golan Heights on Dec. 8, 2024, in a still from video. GPO via Reuters/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

[We are reposting this incisive article by Timothy Alexander Guzman, first published by GR in August 2023.]

In early May, Syria was welcomed back to the Arab League, a development that was sure to anger the US and European establishments so new tensions between US occupation forces and the Russia-Syria alliance have been escalating quite rapidly in the last few months. 

An article published by Reuters ‘Arab League readmits Syria as relations with Assad normalise’ says that “The reinstatement of Syria does not mean normalisation of relations between Arab countries and Syria,” Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters in Cairo. “This is a sovereign decision for each country to make.”

The Syrian government has called on the Arab League to show mutual respect and so far, they have. However, behind closed doors, Washington’s war machine is still planning to remove Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad. Assad has been trying to end the ongoing conflict, but there is one main problem, and that is the US occupying forces who are stationed in various areas that includes Al-Tanf, which is located close to the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordan border that can be used as a transit hub to bring in newly-equipped terrorists including Takfiri terrorists who are located in areas close to the northwestern Idlib province, in the eastern al-Omar oilfields in Deir Ez-Zor to obviously steal as much oil as possible and in the Hasaka countryside in the Al-Jazeera region:

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Washington shared the goals of Arab partners in Syria, including building security and stability, but remained “sceptical of Assad’s willingness to take the steps necessary to resolve Syria’s crisis”

It is obvious that the US government is not happy about the outcome of the Arab League’s decision,

“We do not believe Syria merits readmission into the Arab League at this time,” the spokesperson said, adding that U.S. sanctions would remain in full effect.” 

Russia on the other hand applauded the decision, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry said that “Moscow welcomes this long-awaited step, the logical result of the process, which has gained momentum, of returning Syria to the ‘Arab family.” Syria and its Arab League partners can cooperate in the political and economic realms that will benefit all sides.  It is also a positive outcome for Arab nations in hopes to finally unite against the US-NATO Alliance and Israel in the Middle East.       

However, there are other issues to deal with including sanctions that hurt the Syrian people imposed by the US and the European Union as punishment for their support of their president, Bashar Al-Assad.

The harsh sanctions imposed by the West includes banning imports of much-needed building materials and machines to rebuild homes, hospitals, schools, and bridges that has been destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) over the years.

The Syrian people need to rebuild important infrastructures to provide clean drinking water. Syrian business owners from small to mid-size companies cannot import goods or machines used in factories to produce products for public consumption. To make matters worse, those same oil fields that the US military occupies prevents the Syrian people from receiving oil which limits the use of energy including electricity for their homes or gas for their cars.  In other words, the illegal US occupation has been a disaster for the Syrian people.     

In the last few months, new tensions between the US and the Russia-Syria alliance have increased. In fact, the US has shipped weapons into its military base in Hasaka. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency(SANA) ‘The US occupation brings in new weapons to its bases in Hasaka countryside’ said that “In order to fortify its illegal presence in Syrian territory, the US occupation intensified its movements, especially in al-Jazeera region, violating international laws and principles, as it brought in during the past 24 hours weapons, ammunition and logistical equipment to its bases in Hasaka countryside.” It seems that the US military is expecting a conflict with Russian and Syrian forces:

A convoy of the occupation consisting of 30 large tankers guarded by armored vehicles raising the flag of the American occupation, and another belonging to QSD militia associated with it, coming from Iraqi territory, entered the city of Al-Shadadi (60 km south of Al-Hasakah) from the east, and its contents were unloaded at the occupation base in the city before heading to the city of Hasakah through the western entrance on the Kharafi road , special sources told SANA.

The sources quoted eyewitnesses belonging to the QSD militia as saying “the load of the convoy that was unloaded at the base included advanced medium weapons, including anti-armored weapons, modern communication and jamming systems, in addition to large quantities of ammunition, including several containers intended to support the QSD militia

The US Military and the Islamic State: Partners in Crime

Last March, US Army General Mark Milley said that having US troops in Syria is “worth the risk” to fight the Islamic state according to a Reuters propaganda piece tiled ‘Syria mission worth the risk, top U.S. general says after rare visit’ claims that “The nearly eight-year-old U.S. deployment to Syria to combat Islamic State is still worth the risk, the top U.S. military officer said on Saturday, after a rare, unannounced visit to a dusty base in the country’s northeast to meet U.S. troops.” Milley went to Syria “to assess efforts to prevent a resurgence of the militant group and review safeguards for American forces against attacks, including from drones flown by Iran-backed militia.” Reuters said that “American officials say that Islamic State could still regenerate into a major threat.”

I agree with that statement, but the problem is that it is the US military who will rearm the Islamic State and other terrorist groups like they did in the past to create a new conflict in a never-ending effort to topple Bashar al-Assad:

While Islamic State is a shadow of the group that ruled over a third of Syria and Iraq in a Caliphate declared in 2014, hundreds of fighters are still camped in desolate areas where neither the U.S.-led coalition nor the Syrian army, with support from Russia and Iranian-backed militias, exert full control

Milley was asked if the mission is worth the risk, his response was “If you think that that’s important, then the answer is ‘Yes.” He continued “I happen to think that’s important,” Milley conveniently mentioned ISIS as the main threat, but the reality is that they are preparing for a future escalation with the Syrian government, Russia, Hezbollah and their main adversary, Iran. “So, I think that an enduring defeat of ISIS and continuing to support our friends and allies in the region … I think those are important tasks that can be done.”

On July 14th, a local news channel in the state of New York, WWNY published a report ‘Soldiers with 2nd BCT leaving Fort Drum for Iraq & Syria’ based on the deployment of the 10th Mountain Division 2nd brigade combat team to Syria and Iraq for up to nine months to fight the reemergence of ISIS “the soldiers will be spending the next nine months in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, an ongoing military operation to defeat the Islamic State.” This is a clear escalation in progress. There are joining another 900 plus US soldiers who are currently stealing Syria’s oil and gas. According to The Syrian Observer, which is described as “Syria’s official press” for “opposition groups, activists and civil society” published ‘HTS and SDF Dialogue Towards a Joint Civil Administration’ mentioned the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the infamous Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a terrorist organization who held several meetings in the last few months to discuss how they will unify their forces to face the Syrian and Russian militaries:

The talks also explored the possibility of establishing a joint civilian administration between HTS and the SDF. This would be contingent on HTS gaining control over areas currently held by the Syrian National Army. The SDF indicated that the United States is supportive of the unification of the northeastern and northwestern regions of Syria

US and Russian forces had several incidents in the last few months. US drones patrolling Syrian skies have faced Russian fighter jets on numerous occasions. Recently, The Associated Press, ‘Russian fighter jet strikes another American drone over Syria in the sixth incident this month’ on the increase of tensions in Syrian airspace:

A Russian fighter jet fired flares and struck another U.S. drone over Syrian airspace on Wednesday, the White House said, in a continued string of harassing maneuvers that have ratcheted up tensions between the global powers.

It’s the sixth reported incident this month, and the second in the past 24 hours, in which the United States has said Russian warplanes have flown dangerously close to American manned and unmanned aircraft, putting crews and the planes at risk and raising questions as to what the U.S. may need to do in response

Apparently, the US already decided what needs to be done in their response to Russia legally flying over Syrian airspace, and I say ‘legally’ because Russia is a close ally of Syria and was invited to help the country fight threats coming from the US, Israel and the rest of their terrorist lapdogs. 

It’s the same old story and the same old lie of the US and its allies supposedly fighting terrorists in an oil producing country who is in the way of Israel’s expansionist plans. But the reality is that the West and Israel has been using terrorists to destroy Syria. The West has always called Syria’s conflict a popular uprising or a revolution against the evil Assad, but its about the permanent destruction of Syria and the rest of the Middle East that will allow the “Jewish State of Israel” to become the only so-called viable “democracy.”

The goal of the West is to turn Syria into another Iraq or Libya because a destabilized Middle East benefits the globalists who will have control over the Arab people and their natural resources. This will also allow Israel, who is part of the globalist cabal to be the undisputed hegemonic power in the region. Just imagine that scenario, it would be an absolute nightmare for the Arab world, yet a dream come true for the globalists. 

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

Timothy Alexander Guzman writes on his own blog site, Silent Crow News, where this article was originally published. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from SCN

As narrativas ocidentais sobre “democracia” e “transparência eleitoral” parecem ser mera retórica – convenientemente usada contra inimigos e ignorada quando os países ocidentais violam tais “regras”. Recentemente, a Romênia anulou ilegal e injustificadamente os resultados das suas eleições presidenciais apenas para impedir a vitória de um candidato anti-UE. Este caso mostra claramente como os países europeus estão dispostos a tomar qualquer tipo de ação para impedir mudanças políticas que favoreçam a multipolaridade.

O Tribunal Constitucional Romeno interferiu ilegalmente no processo eleitoral do país ao anular os resultados da primeira volta das eleições presidenciais. Assim, o candidato independente Calin Georgescu, que surpreendentemente venceu a corrida contra os seus oponentes apoiados pela UE, foi prejudicado por manter uma posição crítica de oposição contra o alinhamento da Romênia com o Ocidente.

Georgescu é acusado de receber apoio russo na sua campanha eleitoral. É um conhecido crítico da OTAN e da UE e é absolutamente contra o envolvimento da Romênia no conflito com a Rússia. Ele promete reverter as medidas de ajuda do governo romeno à Ucrânia e mantém uma posição forte contra a agenda cultural “woke” patrocinada pela UE. Como nacionalista religioso, ele também quer estabelecer laços pacíficos com a Rússia para pacificar as relações entre os países com maiorias cristãs ortodoxas, o que o tornou particularmente popular entre o povo romeno, que permanece em grande parte cristão apesar da pressão cultural ocidental.

Por esta razão, Georgescu é chamado de “pró-Rússia” e os seus oponentes inventam narrativas infundadas contra ele, alegando que Moscou financia os seus projectos políticos e a sua campanha eleitoral. As autoridades russas já se manifestaram sobre o caso, negando qualquer ligação, mas isso não foi suficiente para impedir os juízes romenos de anularem a sua vitória eleitoral na primeira volta, rotulando-o de “agente estrangeiro”.

Georgescu obteve quase 23% dos votos no primeiro turno. Ele estava escalado para enfrentar a candidata liberal de esquerda Elena Lasconi, que obteve 19% dos votos, em um segundo turno. Em vez de respeitar a vontade do povo, o Tribunal Constitucional, que é certamente controlado por juízes pró-OTAN e pró-UE, simplesmente anulou o processo eleitoral e marcou um novo dia eleitoral para uma data posterior.

O candidato da direita reagiu à decisão dizendo que os juízes deram um golpe de Estado. Segundo ele, a democracia e o Estado de direito foram suspensos na Romênia e já não existe qualquer respeito pela ordem jurídica do país. Georgescu descreveu o sistema judicial romeno como corrupto, condenando veementemente as acusações injustas feitas contra ele.

“No fundo, trata-se de um golpe de Estado formalizado. O Estado de Direito está em coma induzido e a justiça subordinada às ordens políticas praticamente perdeu a sua essência. O sistema corrupto na Romênia mostrou a sua verdadeira face ao fazer um pacto com o diabo”, disse ele.

Na verdade, não foram apresentadas quaisquer provas que justifiquem a alegação de que Georgescu é apoiado pela Rússia. Se existisse tal apoio, certamente seria fácil fornecer dados pessoais que o comprovem, mas nada foi feito, o que indica que as alegações são completamente infundadas. Isto mostra que, para o sistema jurídico eleitoral romeno, um processo justo não é importante e que qualquer manobra para impedir que um candidato dissidente chegue ao poder é válida.

Mesmo que Georgescu recebesse apoio de Moscou, isto não deveria ser um problema, uma vez que é comum que os candidatos sejam apoiados por países estrangeiros – como na própria Romênia, onde os adversários de Georgescu são largamente apoiados pela UE. Num sistema verdadeiramente democrático, todos os candidatos devem ser livres de fazer as suas próprias escolhas em relação às alianças internacionais e diplomáticas. Contudo, parece que a Romênia não é realmente uma democracia.

Para evitar o surgimento de uma onda política anti-OTAN, a aliança atlantista está a encorajar o surgimento de regimes autoritários na Europa. A OTAN sabe que a guerra contra a Rússia é impopular e que os cidadãos comuns querem que o apoio à Ucrânia acabe. Portanto, apenas as ditaduras podem sustentar os esforços de guerra da aliança – razão pela qual, por exemplo, Macron reprimiu recentemente o parlamento francês e agora a Romênia anulou as suas eleições presidenciais.

É importante sublinhar que a Romênia é um importante centro logístico de apoio à Ucrânia, além de exercer influência direta sobre a Moldávia, um país proxy da OTAN com uma maioria étnica romena. Perder a presença na Romênia seria negativo para a OTAN e a UE, o que explica o seu desespero em impedir a vitória de Georgescu.

Resta saber até quando os países ocidentais continuarão a ser capazes de violar a vontade do seu próprio povo sem sofrer consequências graves e profundas crises de legitimidade.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

Artigo em inglês : Romania makes dangerous step to prevent victory of anti-war presidential candidate, 9 de dezembro de 2024.

Imagem :  InfoBrics

*

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

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

Syria: Can Turkey be Trusted?

December 9th, 2024 by Drago Bosnic

First published on December 2, 2024

Officially, Turkey’s state ideology is secularism imposed by Ataturk a century ago. However, for all intents and purposes, Ankara’s driving force is an extremely volatile mix of Neo-Ottomanism, political Islam and pan-Turkism. Erdogan is doing everything in his power to spread and implement these all over the place, be it Southeast Europe, the Middle East, North Africa or Central Asia. Turkey is punching way above its weight in doing so, but its geostrategic position allows this (at least for the time being). Namely, Ankara is trying to play all sides it’s engaged with in order to achieve its megalomaniacal expansionist goals, but its NATO membership still makes it an asset of the political West.

For years, I’ve been arguing that all the evidence suggests that Turkey is one of NATO’s “Trojan horses” and that its policies undermine regional stability, particularly in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, where Ankara is using its resources to radicalize young populations, resulting in a massive increase in the number of terrorists who join ISIS and other similar NATO-backed terrorist organizations operating all over the world. The latest events in Syria serve as a testament to that. Namely, yet another US/NATO invasion that started in 2011 (ever so euphemistically dubbed the “Syrian Civil War”) is now escalating once again, resulting in hundreds of casualties on all sides, as Turkish and NATO-backed “democratic opposition” terrorists are attacking the Aleppo Governorate.

Based in the occupied Idlib province, where the CIA and other Western intelligence services are working closely with the Turkish military, the terrorists seem to have been gathering troops and equipment to break the ceasefire established around half a decade ago. It should be noted that the occupation forces are also composed of Jabhat Al Nusra, now known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group that has been infesting the area for nearly a decade and a half. To make matters worse, the Neo-Nazi junta in Kiev is also closely linked with the HTS and similar terrorist organizations operating under NATO support in Syria. Turkey supplies everything these terrorists need, including M113 APCs (armored personnel carriers) that were recently filmed advancing in the area.

Military sources report that factions such as the Turkestan Islamic Party have also been involved in the terrorist offensive that started on November 27. The Kiev regime’s propaganda also brags about the involvement of its intelligence services, confirming reports about their involvement that InfoBRICS published in recent months. These intelligence assets were sent to Idlib through Turkey to train terrorists in new tactics with a particular focus on drone warfare. This includes the infamous GUR’s Khimik Group, which launched an attack on a Russian military outpost in Aleppo on September 15. There’s strong evidence, including footage that shows the direct involvement of the United States. All this suggests that Washington DC and the Kiev regime are trying to overstretch Moscow in order to disrupt the SMO.

Namely, the political West has been trying to stop the steady advance of the Russian military by authorizing long-range strikes deeper within Russia and is even contemplating the possibility of delivering previously banned medium-range missiles, along with nuclear weapons to the Kiev regime. The Kremlin has already said it will have zero tolerance for such actions and that it will respond to NATO directly. This leaves the political West with one option – (re)activate other global hotspots in order to shift Moscow’s focus away from Ukraine. Unsurprisingly, Turkey is directly supporting this by pushing its terrorists in Idlib to resume fighting. It should be noted that Ankara also recently stated that it fully supports the Neo-Nazi junta in the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, proving that the latest escalation in Syria is very well planned and coordinated.

Another interesting development is Turkey’s likely return to the F-35 program, with military sources indicating that it could acquire up to 40 of the troubled fighter jets. What this means is that Ankara effectively jeopardizing its future in return for one of the worst military aircraft in recent history. It should be noted this is not a new development, as I’ve already argued back in April that this would happen. For their part, Russia and Syria are responding to the new crisis with airstrikes on NATO-backed terrorists, with hundreds eliminated since last week. However, it will take some time for Damascus to fully mobilize the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and push back. Syrian special forces are already responding, but their actions are aimed at coordinating defenses and preventing further gains by terrorists.

The latest developments in Syria are yet another undeniable proof that the political West is obsessed with war, death and destruction and that it’s simply incapable of peaceful coexistence with the actual world. It also demonstrates why it’s so important for the planet to unite and form an indivisible security architecture that would isolate the US/NATO and its vassals and satellite states. This is the only way to prevent their aggression against the entire world. As for Turkey, it needs to change its expansionist policies in order to build better relations with BRICS. Ankara will need to make a far more convincing commitment, first by leaving NATO and then by rejecting Neo-Ottomanism, pan-Turkism and Islamic radicalism as tools of its power projection.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser

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: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has his sights on Syria. Photo: Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik

Author’s Note

This article was first published in August 2011 at the outset of the US-NATO-Israel sponsored insurgency. The objective at the outset in March 2011 was to destroy Syria, implement regime change and install a proxy Islamist government Damascus. 

This was implemented by unleashing a terrorist insurgency which was portrayed by the media as a “protest movement”. The role of Turkey and NATO were clearly defined from the very outset of the “insurgency”: recruitment and paramilitary training of mercenaries,  support to to the influx of fighters into Syria (with the support of the Turkish authorities), delivery of weapons to the terrorists, logistics, etc.

While the US and its allies have “unofficially” supported the terrorist insurgency for more than five years, what is now contemplated is an air campaign coupled with deployment of ground forces which would be “officially” directed against Syrian government forces and their allies (Russia, Iran and Hezbollah).

This escalation scenario is on the drawing board of both the State Department and the Pentagon. It has broad implications. Unquestionably we are at a dangerous crossroads.  I repeat what I stated in August 2011:

“The road to Tehran goes through Damascus. A US-NATO war on Iran would involve, as a first step, a destabilization campaign (“regime change”) directed against Syria.

Were a military operation to be launched against Syria, the broader Middle East Central Asian region extending from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with China would be engulfed in the turmoil of an extended war. A war on Syria could evolve towards a US-NATO military campaign directed against Iran, in which Turkey and Israel would be directly involved.

…The process of military planning within NATO’s extended alliance involves coordination between the Pentagon, NATO, Israel’s Defense Force (IDF), as well as the active military involvement of the frontline Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Egypt: all in all ten Arab countries plus Israel are members of The Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.

It is crucial to spread the word and break the channels of media disinformation.  

A critical and unbiased understanding of what is happening in Syria is of crucial importance in reversing the tide of military escalation towards a broader regional war.

A critical and unbiased understanding of what is happening in Syria is of crucial importance in reversing the tide of military escalation towards a broader regional war.”

Michel Chossudovsky. July 3, 2016

*      *     *

The following article is Part II of a two part series.

Part I of this research focusses on the broad implications of a US-NATO “humanitarian” military campaign against Syria.

A “Humanitarian War” on Syria? Military Escalation. Towards a Broader Middle East-Central Asian War?
– by Michel Chossudovsky – 2011-08-09 (Part I)

The road to Tehran goes through Damascus. A US-NATO war on Iran would involve, as a first step, a destabilization campaign (“regime change”) directed against Syria.

An extended Middle East Central Asian war has been on the Pentagon’s drawing board since the mid-1990s. 

As part of this extended war scenario, the US-NATO alliance plans to wage a military campaign against Syria under a UN sponsored “humanitarian mandate”.

Escalation is an integral part of the military agenda. Destabilization of sovereign states through “regime change” is closely coordinated with military planning.

There is a military roadmap characterised by a sequence of US-NATO war theaters.

This present essay (Part II below) focusses on the history of the Pentagon’s “Salvador Option” in Iraq and its relevance to Syria.

The program was implemented under the tenure of John D. Negroponte, who served as US ambassador to Iraq (June 2004-April 2005). The current ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford was part of Negroponte’s team in Baghdad in 2004-2005.  

Syria: Overview and Recent Developments

The Western media has played a central role in obfuscating the nature of foreign interference in Syria including outside support to armed insurgents. In chorus they have described recent events in Syria as a “peaceful protest movement” directed against the government of Bashar Al Assad, when the evidence amply confirms that Islamic paramilitary groups have infiltrated the rallies.

Israel’s Debka Intelligence news, while avoiding the issue of an armed insurgency, tacitly acknowledges that Syrian forces are being confronted by an organized paramilitary:

“[Syrian forces] are now running into heavy resistance: Awaiting them are anti-tank traps and fortified barriers manned by protesters armed with heavy machine guns.DEBKAfile,

Since when are peaceful civilian protesters armed with “heavy machine guns” and “anti-tank traps”? 

Recent developments in Syria point to a full-fledged armed insurgency, integrated by Islamist “freedom fighters” covertly supported, trained and equipped by foreign powers. According to Israeli intelligence sources:

NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish high command are meanwhile drawing up plans for their first military step in Syria, which is to arm the rebels with weapons for combating the tanks and helicopters spearheading the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent. Instead of repeating the Libyan model of air strikes, NATO strategists are thinking more in terms of pouring large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns into the protest centers for beating back the government armored forces. (DEBKAfile, NATO to give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14, 2011, emphasis added)

The delivery of weapons to the rebels is to be implemented “overland, namely through Turkey and under Turkish army protection….Alternatively, the arms would be trucked into Syria under Turkish military guard and transferred to rebel leaders at pre-arranged rendez-vous.” (Ibid, emphasis added)

According to Israeli sources, which remain to be verified, NATO and the Turkish High command, also contemplate the development of a “jihad” involving the recruitment of thousands of Islamist “freedom fighters”, reminiscent of  the enlistment of  Mujahideen to wage the CIA’s jihad (holy war) in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war:

Also discussed in Brussels and Ankara, our sources report, is a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house these volunteers, train them and secure their passage into Syria. (Ibid, emphasis added)

These various developments point towards the possible involvement of Turkish troops inside Syria, which could potentially lead to a broader military confrontation between Syria and Turkey as well as a full-fledged “humanitarian” military intervention by NATO.  

In recent developments, Islamist death squads have penetrated the port city of Latakia’s Ramleh district, which includes a Palestinian refugee camp of some 10,000 residents. These armed gunmen which include rooftop snipers are terrorizing the local population.

In a cynical twist, the Western media has presented the Islamist paramilitary groups in Latakia as “Palestinian dissidents” and “activists” defending themselves against the Syrian armed forces. In this regard, the actions of armed gangs directed against the Palestinian community in Ramleh  visibly seeks to foment political conflict between Palestine and Syria. Several Palestinian personalities have sided with the Syrian “protest movement”, while casually ignoring the fact that the “pro-democracy” death squads are covertly supported by Israel and Turkey. 

Turkey’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu has intimated that Ankara could consider military action against Syria if the Al Assad government doesn’t cease “immediately and unconditionally” its actions against “protesters”. In a bitter irony, the Islamist fighters operating inside Syria who are terrorizing the civilian population, are trained and financed by the Turkish Erdogan government.

Meanwhile, US, NATO and Israeli military planners have outlined the contours of a humanitarian military campaign, in which Turkey (the second largest military force inside NATO)  would play a central role.

On August  15, Tehran reacted to the unfolding crisis in Syria, stating that “events in Syria should be considered only as internal affairs of that country and accused the West and its allies with trying to destabilize Syria, in order to make the case for its eventual occupation”. (Iran Foreign Ministry Statement, quoted in  Iran urges West to stay out of Syria’s ‘internal matters’  Todayszaman.com, August 15, 2011)

We are at dangerous crossroads:

Were a military operation to be launched against Syria, the broader Middle East Central Asian region extending from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with China would be engulfed in the turmoil of an extended war. A war on Syria could evolve towards a US-NATO military campaign directed against Iran, in which Turkey and Israel would be directly involved.

It is crucial to spread the word and break the channels of media disinformation. 

A critical and unbiased understanding of what is happening in Syria is of crucial importance in reversing the tide of military escalation towards a broader regional war.

Michel Chossudovsky, August 16, 2011


Background: America’s Ambassador Robert S. Ford Arrives in Damascus (January 2011)

US Ambassador Robert Ford arrived in Damascus in late January 2011 at the height of the protest movement in Egypt. 

America’s previous Ambassador to Syria was recalled by Washington following the 2005 assassination of former Prime minister Rafick Hariri, which was blamed, without evidence, on the government of Bashar Al Assad.

The author was in Damascus on January 27, 2011 when Washington’s Envoy presented his credentials to the Al Assad government. (See photo below).

At the outset of my visit to Syria in January 2011,  I reflected on the significance of this diplomatic appointment and the role it might play in a covert process of political destabilization. I did not, however, foresee that this process would be implemented within less than two months  following the instatement of Robert S. Ford as US Ambassador to Syria.

The reinstatement of a US ambassador in Damascus, but more specifically the choice of Robert S. Ford as US ambassador, bears a direct relationship to the onset of the protest movement in mid-March against the government of Bashar al Assad.

Robert S. Ford was the man for the job. As “Number Two” at the US embassy in Baghdad (2004-2005) under the helm of Ambassador John D. Negroponte, he played a key role in implementing the Pentagon’s “Iraq Salvador Option”. The latter consisted in supporting Iraqi death squadrons and paramilitary forces modelled on the experience of  Central America.

The Western media has misled public opinion on the nature of the Arab protest movement by failing to address the support provided by the US State Department as well as US foundations (including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)) to selected pro-US opposition groups. Known and documented, the U.S. State Department “has been been funding opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, since 2006. (U.S. admits funding Syrian opposition – World – CBC News April 18, 2011)

The protest movement in Syria was upheld by the media as part of the “Arab Spring”, presented to public opinion as a pro-democracy protest movement which spread spontaneously from Egypt and the Maghreb to the Mashriq. The fact of the matter is that these various country initiatives were closely timed and coordinated. Michel Chossudovsky, The Protest Movement in Egypt: “Dictators” do not Dictate, They Obey Orders, Global Research, January 29, 2011)

There is reason to believe that events in Syria, however, were planned well in advance in coordination with the process of regime change in other Arab countries including Egypt and Tunisia.

The outbreak of the protest movement in the southern border city of Daraa was carefully timed to follow the events in Tunisia and Egypt.

It is worth noting that the US Embassy in various countries has played a central role in supporting opposition groups. In Egypt, for instance, the April 6 Youth Movement was supported directly by the US embassy in Cairo

Who is Ambassador Robert Stephen Ford?

Since his arrival in Damascus in late January 2011, Ambassador Robert S. Ford played a central role in laying the groundwork as well as establishing contacts with opposition groups.

A functioning US embassy in Damascus was seen as a precondition for carrying out a process of political destabilization leading to “regime change”.

Ambassador Robert S., Ford is no ordinary diplomat. He was U.S. representative in January 2004 to the Shiite city of Najaf in Iraq. Najaf was the stronghold of the Mahdi army

A few months later he was appointed “Number Two Man” (Minister Counsellor for Political Affairs), at the US embassy in Baghdad at the outset of John Negroponte’s tenure as US Ambassador to Iraq (June 2004- April 2005). Ford subsequently served under Negroponte’s successor Zalmay Khalilzad prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Algeria in 2006.

Negroponte’s mandate as US ambassador to Iraq (together with Robert S. Ford) was to coordinate out of the US embassy, the covert support to death squads and paramilitary groups in Iraq with a view to fomenting sectarian violence and weakening the resistance movement. Robert S. Ford as “Number Two” (Minister Counsellor for Political Affairs) at the US Embassy played a central role in this endeavor.

To understand Robert Ford’s mandate in both Baghdad and subsequently in Damascus, it is important to reflect briefly on the history of US covert operations and the central role played by John D. Negroponte.

Negroponte and the “Salvador Option”

John Negroponte had served as US ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. As Ambassador in Tegucigalpa, he played a key role in supporting and supervising the Nicaraguan Contra mercenaries who were based in Honduras. The cross border Contra attacks into Nicaragua claimed some 50 000 civilian lives.

During the same period, Negroponte was instrumental in setting up the Honduran military death squads, “operating with Washington support’s, [they] assassinated hundreds of opponents of the US-backed regime.” (See Bill Vann, Bush Nominee linked to Latin American Terrorism, by Bill Vann, Global Research, November 2001, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/VAN111A.html)

“Under the rule of General Gustavo Alvarez Martnez, Honduras’s military government was both a close ally of the Reagan administration and was “disappearing” dozens of political opponents in classic death squad fashion.

In a 1982 letter to The Economist, Negroponte wrote that it was “simply untrue to state that death squads have made their appearance in Honduras.” The Country Report on Human Rights Practices that his embassy sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took the same line, insisting that there were “no political prisoners in Honduras” and that the “Honduran government neither condones nor knowingly permits killings of a political or nonpolitical nature.”

Yet according to a four-part series in the Baltimore Sun in 1995, in 1982 alone the Honduran press ran 318 stories of murders and kidnappings by the Honduran military. The Sun described the activities of a secret CIA-trained Honduran army unit, Battalion 316, that used “shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves.”

On August 27, 1997, CIA Inspector General Frederick P. Hitz released a 211-page classified report entitled “Selected Issues Relating to CIA Activities in Honduras in the 1980’s.” This report was partly declassified on Oct. 22, 1998, in response to demands by the Honduran human rights ombudsman. Opponents of Negroponte are demanding that all Senators read the full report before voting on his nomination. to the position of US Permanent Representative to the UN}” (Peter Roff and James Chapin, Face-off: Bush’s Foreign Policy Warriors, Global Research November 2001, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ROF111A.html

John Negroponte- Robert S. Ford. The Iraq “Salvador Option”

In January 2005, following Negroponte’s appointment as US ambassador to Iraq, the Pentagon confirmed in a story leaked to Newsweek  that it was “considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago”. (El Salvador-style ‘death squads’ to be deployed by US against Iraq militants – Times Online, January 10, 2005)

John Negroponte and Robert S. Ford at the US Embassy worked closely together on the Pentagon’s project. Two other embassy officials, namely Henry Ensher (Ford’s Deputy) and a younger official in the political section, Jeffrey Beals, played an important role in the team “talking to a range of Iraqis, including extremists”. (See The New Yorker, March 26, 2007).  Another key individual in Negroponte’s team was James Franklin Jeffrey, America’s ambassador to Albania (2002-2004). Jeffrey is currently the US Ambassador to Iraq.

Negroponte also brought into the team one of his former collaborators Colonel James Steele (ret) from his Honduras heyday:

Under the “Salvador Option,” “Negroponte had assistance from his colleague from his days in Central America during the 1980’s, Ret. Col James Steele. Steele, whose title in Baghdad was Counselor for Iraqi Security Forces supervised the selection and training of members of the Badr Organization and Mehdi Army, the two largest Shi’ite militias in Iraq, in order to target the leadership and support networks of a primarily Sunni resistance. Planned or not, these death squads promptly spiralled out of control to become the leading cause of death in Iraq.

Intentional or not, the scores of tortured, mutilated bodies which turn up on the streets of Baghdad each day are generated by the death squads whose impetus was John Negroponte. And it is this U.S.-backed sectarian violence which largely led to the hell-disaster that Iraq is today. (Dahr Jamail, Managing Escalation: Negroponte and Bush’s New Iraq Team,. Antiwar.com, January 7, 2007)

John Negroponte described Robert Ford while at the embassy in Baghdad, as “one of these very tireless people … who didn’t mind putting on his flak jacket and helmet and going out of the Green Zone to meet contacts.”  Robert S. Ford is fluent in both Arabic and Turkish. He was dispatched by Negroponte to undertake strategic contacts:

[O]ne Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called “snatch” operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries. (Newsweek, January 8, 2005, emphasis added)

The plan had the support of the US appointed Iraqi government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi:

The Pentagon declined to comment, but one insider told Newsweek: “What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are. We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defence. And we are losing.”

Hit squads would be controversial and would probably be kept secret.

The experience of the so-called “death squads” in Central America remains raw for many even now and helped to sully the image of the United States in the region.

…. John Negroponte, the US Ambassador in Baghdad, had a front-row seat at the time as Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85.

Death squads were a brutal feature of Latin American politics of the time. In Argentina in the 1970s and Guatemala in the 1980s, soldiers wore uniform by day but used unmarked cars by night to kidnap and kill those hostile to the regime or their suspected sympathisers.

In the early 1980s President Reagan’s Administration funded and helped to train Nicaraguan contras based in Honduras with the aim of ousting Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime. The Contras were equipped using money from illegal American arms sales to Iran, a scandal that could have toppled Mr Reagan.

It was in El Salvador that the United States trained small units of local forces specifically to target rebels.

The thrust of the Pentagon proposal in Iraq, according to Newsweek, is to follow that model and direct US special forces teams to advise, support and train Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shia militiamen to target leaders of the Sunni insurgency.

It is unclear whether the main aim of the missions would be to assassinate the rebels or kidnap them and take them away for interrogation. Any mission in Syria would probably be undertaken by US Special Forces.

Nor is it clear who would take responsibility for such a programme — the Pentagon or the Central Intelligence Agency. Such covert operations have traditionally been run by the CIA at arm’s length from the administration in power, giving US officials the ability to deny knowledge of it. (Times Online, op cit, emphasis added)

Under Negroponte’s helm at the US Embassy in Baghdad, a  wave of covert civilian killings and targeted assassinations was unleashed. Engineers, medical  doctors, scientists and intellectuals were also targeted. The objective was to create factional divisions between Sunni, Shiite, Kurds and Christians, as well as weed out civilian support for the Iraqi resistance. The Christian community was one of the main targets of the assassination program.

The Pentagon’s objective also consisted in training an Iraqi Army, Police and Security Forces, which would carry out a homegrown “counterinsurgency” program (unofficially) on behalf of the U.S.

The Role of General David Petraeus

A “Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq” (MNSTC) was established under the command of General David Petraeus with the mandate to train and equip a local Iraqi Army, Police and Security forces. General David Petraeus’s (who was appointed by Obama to head the CIA in July 2011), assumed the command of the MNSTC in June 2004 at the very outset of Negroponte’s tenure as ambassador.

The  MNSTC was an integral part of the Pentagon’s “Operation Salvador Iraq” under the helm of Ambassador John Negroponte. It was categorized as an exercise in counterinsurgency. At the end of Petraeus’ term, the MNSTC had trained some 100,000 Iraqi Security Forces, police, etc., which constituted a body of local military personnel to be used to target the Iraqi resistance as well as its civilian supporters.

From Baghdad to Damascus: The Syria “Salvador Option”

While conditions in Syria are markedly different to those in Iraq, Robert S. Ford’s stint as “Number Two Man” at the US Embassy in Baghdad has a direct bearing on the nature of his activities in Syria including his contacts with opposition groups.

In early July, US Ambassador Robert Ford travelled to Hama and had meetings with members of the protest movement (Low-key U.S. diplomat transforms Syria policy – The Washington Post, July 12, 2011). Reports confirm that Robert Ford had numerous contacts with opposition groups both before and after his July trip to Hama. In a recent statement (August 4), he confirmed that the embassy will continue “reaching out” to opposition groups in defiance of the Syrian authorities.

Ambassador Ford in Hama in early July

General David Petraeus: President Obama’s New Head of the CIA

Obama’s newly appointed CIA head, David Petraeus who led the MNSTC  “Counterinsurgency” program in Baghdad in 2004 in coordination with Ambassador John Negroponte, is slated to play a key intelligence role in relation to Syria –including covert support to opposition forces and “freedom fighters”, the infiltration of Syrian intelligence and armed forces, etc.  These tasks would be carried out in liaison with Ambassador Robert S. Ford.  Both men worked together in Iraq; they were part of  Negroponte’s extended team in Baghdad in 2004-2005.

PART III 

Syria’s Death Squads and Islamist “Freedom Fighters”

(forthcoming)

Related articles 

A “Humanitarian War” on Syria? Military Escalation. Towards a Broader Middle East-Central Asian War?
– by Michel Chossudovsky – 2011-08-09

The road to Tehran goes through Damascus. A US-NATO war on Iran would involve, as a first step, a destabilization campaign (“regime change”) directed against Syria.

VIDEO: Military Intervention in Syria Will Lead to Extended War
Watch now on GRTV
– by Michel Chossudovsky – 2011-08-04

The Destabilization of Syria and the Broader Middle East War
– by Michel Chossudovsky – 2011-06-17

If a military operation were to be launched against Syria, Israel would in all likelihood also be involved, leading to a process of escalation

SYRIA: Who is Behind The Protest Movement? Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO “Humanitarian Intervention”
– by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – 2011-05-03

The ultimate purpose is to trigger sectarian violence and political chaos within Syria by covertly supporting Islamic terrorist organizations.

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is the author of The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003) and America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005). His latest book is entitled Towards a World War Three Scenario, The Dangers of Nuclear War (2011). Michel Chossudovsky spent over a month in Syria in January-February 2011.

Michel Chossudovsky’s most recent book (2011)

Towards a World War Three Scenario, The Dangers of Nuclear War
Michel Chossudovsky 

E-Book Series No. 1.0
Global Research Publishers
Montreal, 2011,
ISBN 978-0-9737147-3-9

76 pages (8.5×11)
Tables, color photographs, maps, text boxes.
Active hyperlinks to major references in the text, hyperlinked footnotes.

For further details click here

Order your pdf of this important new book from Global Research here

Introductory offer: $5.00 (plus $1.50 processing fee. Sent directly to your email!)
OR receive this book FREE with your Global Research Annual Membership! Click to learn more.

DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

A New War Theater in North Africa
Operation Odyssey Dawn
Nuclear Weapons against Libya? How Real is the Threat?
America’s Long War: The Global Military Agenda
How to Reverse the Tide of War
World War III Scenario
Acknowledgments

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

The Cult of Killing and Destruction
America’s Mini-nukes
War and the Economic Crisis
Real versus Fake Crises

CHAPTER II: THE DANGERS OF NUCLEAR WAR

Hiroshima Day 2003: Secret Meeting at Strategic Command Headquarters
The Privatization of Nuclear War: US Military Contractors Set the Stage
9/11 Military Doctrine: Nuclear Weapons and the “Global War on Terrorism”
Al Qaeda: “Upcoming Nuclear Power”
Obama’s Nuclear Doctrine: The 2010 Nuclear Posture Review
Post 9/11 Nuclear Doctrine
“Defensive” and “Offensive” Actions
“Integration” of Nuclear and Conventional Weapons Plans
Theater Nuclear Operations (TNO)
Planned Aerial Attacks on Iran
Global Warfare: The Role of US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM)
Nuclear Weapons Deployment Authorization
Israel’s Stockpiling of Conventional and Nuclear Weapons
The Role of Western Europe
Germany: De Facto Nuclear Power
Pre-emptive Nuclear War: NATO’s 2010 Strategic Concept
The World is at a Critical Crossroads

CHAPTER III: AMERICA’S HOLY CRUSADE AND THE BATTLE FOR OIL

America’s Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East
“Homegrown Terrorists”
The American Inquisition
Washington’s Extrajudicial Assassination Program
The Battle for Oil
The Oil Lies in Muslim Lands
Globalization and the Conquest of the World’s Energy Resources

CHAPTER IV: PREPARING FOR WORLD WAR THREE

Media Disinformation
A “Pre-emptive” Aerial Attack Directed Against Iran would Lead to Escalation
Global Warfare
US “Military Aid”
The Timetable of Military Stockpiling and Deployment
World War III Scenario
The United Nations Security Council
The American Inquisition: Building a Political Consensus for War

CHAPTER V: TARGETING IRAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Building a Pretext for a Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack
“Theater Iran Near Term”
The Military Road Map: “First Iraq, then Iran”
Simulated Scenarios of a Global War: The Vigilant Shield 07 War Games
The Role of Israel
Cheney: “Israel Might Do it Without Being Asked”
US Israel Military Coordination
Tactical Nuclear Weapons directed against Iran
Radioactive Fallout
“The Mother of All Bombs” (MOAB) Slated to be Used Against Iran
Extensive Destruction of Iran’s Infrastructure
State of the Art Weaponry: “War Made Possible Through New Technologies”
Electromagnetic Weapons
Iran’s Military Capabilities: Medium and Long Range Missiles
Iran’s Ground Forces
US Military and Allied Facilities Surrounding Iran

CHAPTER VI: REVERSING THE TIDE OF WAR

Revealing the Lie
The Existing Anti-War Movement
Manufacturing Dissent
Jus ad Bellum: 9/11 and the Invasions of Yugoslavia and Afghanistan
Fake Antiwar Activism: Heralding Iran as a Nuclear Threat
The Road Ahead
The Antiwar Movement within the State Structure and the Military
Abandon the Battlefield: Refuse to Fight
The Broader Peace Process
What has to be Achieved

Order your pdf of this important new book from Global Research here

Introductory offer: $5.00 (plus $1.50 processing fee. Sent directly to your email!)
OR receive this book FREE with your Global Research Annual Membership! Click to learn more.

 

Ukraine: US Launches a Fascist Government, and World War Three?

December 9th, 2024 by Felicity Arbuthnot

It all started on March 5, 2014: a US sponsored fascist coalition government under the disguise of democracy was installed in Ukraine.

With historical foresight pertaining to the dangers of a Third World War, this article by Felicity Arbuthnot was first published on March 15, 2014 in the immediate wake of the US sponsored EuroMaidan Coup d’état. 

***

On March 5, Ukraine’s Putsch “Prime Minister” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, arbitrarily sacked three senior Defence Ministry politicians, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Oleynik, with Deputy Defense Ministers Vladimir Mozharovskiy and Arturo Francisco Babenko.

According to Itar-Tass (6th March 2014) they had drawn Yatsenyuk’s ire by expressing:

“sharp criticism over giving the Right Sector militants the status of regular military units.”

A contact of the publication stated that one of the three had also:

“told Yatsenyuk that actions of today’s Kiev authorities in overtures with radical nationalist organizations would destroy national unity” and that it was simply: “harmful to involve the state military agency in such dangerous games.”

Their stand resulted in “management reshuffles” – in the country in which Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has stated that the US has invested $5 Billion: “in the development of democratic institutions and skills in promoting civil society and a good form of government.”(1)

2014; Arseniy Yatsenyuk (right), Nuland (centre) leader of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda party. Oleh Tyahnybok (left)

So far US multi-billion democracy-building via the man of whom Nuland opined to the US Ambassador to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt: “I think Yats is the guy …”(2) has all the hallmarks of becoming a mirror of the historic tragedies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and being plotted via further humanitarian horrors committed by their proxies in Syria.

Additionally the Nobel Peace Laureate American President appears to have reignited the Cold War, laid to rest with such joy across the world as the Berlin Wall fell just over twenty four years ago, on the 9th November 1989.

However, if the US Administration’s choice as a democratic Prime Minister is scarily woeful, the man who would be President, Dmitry Yarosh, is nothing short of astonishing. As Julie Levesque has written in a meticulous, jaw dropping article: “Dmitry Yarosh, leader of the Maidan Brown Shirts (is) on an international wanted list and charged with inciting terrorism.

“Under the new government, Yarosh is leader of the Neo-Nazi Right Sector delegation to the Ukraine Parliament. His close friend and political partner Andriy Parubiy co-founder of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (subsequently renamed Svoboda) was appointed by the new government to the position of Secretary of the National Security and National Defense Committee (RNBOU), a key position which overseas the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, Law Enforcement, National Security and Intelligence. Right Sektor leaders Yarosh was appointed to the number two position at RNBOU.”

Yarosh (centre), leader of Right Sektor

Levesque asks: “Have the Neo-Nazis cornered Ukraine’s National Security agenda?”.

The answer would appear to be a rapidly accelerating affirmative, with Robert Parry stating that Neo-Nazis are now in charge of four Ministries and:

“some ten ‘oligarchs’ mostly run the show in shifting alliances, buying up media outlets and politicians, while the vast majority of the population faces a bleak future, which now includes more European-demanded ‘austerity’ …”(4)

Meanwhile the stand-off over the Crimea continues. Train tickets between Kiev and Crimea have been suspended by the latest government shoehorned in to the latest “new democracy.”
 .
In neighbouring Russia, as the Sochi Paralympics opened with a spectacular ceremony, President Obama, Prime Minister Cameron, Chancellor Angela Merkel and their parties hurled their collective toys from their prams and failed to attend. Another chance to make peace not war in what should be the Olympic spirit, also willfully thrown away.
 .
The opening theme was “Breaking The Ice,” and “the importance of breaking down barriers and stereotypes …” a popular 1990’s Russian song called “Good-bye America” played as the Russian team closed the parade.
 .
However for all the US posturing, Gallop shows President Putin’s popularity rating at a consistent 67.8% an endorsement of which his American counterpart could only dream, fluctuating between 38% to 42%.
.

As this ends news comes through that the US is to send fighter jets and personnel to Poland and Lithuania by Thursday, the US Navy destroyer, the USS Truxton, one of the largest destroyers ever built for the US Navy, has crossed in to the Black Sea for “exercises” with the Bulgarian and Romanian navies (5) there are mass protests in the south and east of Ukraine about the “self proclaimed” government in Kiev and America has unleashed a possible World War Three.

.

Somebody in the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, please demand the return of that ill awarded Peace Prize.

Notes

1. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37599.htm

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26079957

3.http://www.globalresearch.ca/democratization-and-anti-semitism-in-ukraine-neo-nazi-symbols-become-the-new-normal/5371919 

4. http://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/09/crimeas-case-for-leaving-ukraine/

5. http://rt.com/news/us-fighter-jets-poland-830/

 

Author’s Update

In recent developments, in response to Israel’s bombing of Iran’s Consulate in Damascus, according to media reports:

Iran has launched more than 300 cruise and ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, IDF officials said, a retaliatory attack weeks after an Israeli strike on the Iranian consular building in Syria killed two of Tehran’s top commanders.

“There were explosions visible in the air over Jerusalem as air sirens rang throughout the country.”

“Iran said that after tonight’s attack, the “matter can be deemed concluded” unless there is more violence.”

“Doing the Dirty Work For Us”

The fundamental question is whether this retaliatory attack will lead to escalation, including an Israeli counter-attack on Iran.

In this regard, Israel is largely serving the strategic interests of  the U.S. acting on behalf of Washington. 

The dirty work concept is embedded in U.S foreign policy.

Let your allies do the Dirty Work for You. The Israeli attack against the Iran Consulate in Damas was conducted in consultation with Washington. 

The geopolitical and strategic implications as well as the probability of a retaliation by Iran had been carefully analyzed. 

Let’s be under no illusions. The use of nuclear weapons by Israel in response to Iran’s retaliation is being discussed behind closed doors both in Tel Aviv and in Washington. That does not mean that it is contemplated as an option. 

 

Déjà Vu

It is worth noting that at the outset of Bush’s Second Term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell, hinting, that Israel would, so to speak: be doing the dirty work for us (paraphrase) without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”.

According to Cheney

“The Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards,” 

“Israel would not be able to act unilaterally against Iran, without a green light from the Pentagon which controls key components of Israel’s air defense system.

In practice, a war on Iran, were it to occur would be a joint US-Israeli endeavor, coordinated by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with America’s allies playing a key (subordinate) role.” (quoted from 2018 article)

Source: Council on Foreign Relations

Israel and the US-NATO Alliance

It is a complex military-intelligence undertaking, carefully planned over several years, in liaison and  coordination with US intelligence, the Pentagon, US Strategic Command and NATO. (See article below).

Israel’s  War ongoing against Palestine is currently conducive to a process of military escalation which potentially could engulf a large part of Middle East. 

Video Interview

 

Israeli Military Cooperation with the Pentagon and NATO

Military cooperation with both the Pentagon and NATO is viewed by Israel’s Defence Force (IDF) as a means to “enhance Israel’s deterrence capability regarding potential enemies threatening it, mainly Iran and Syria.”

Israel is a de facto member of NATO (with a special status) since 2004, involving active military and intelligence coordination as well as consultations pertaining to the occupied territories.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed (Press Conference, Brussels, October 12, 2023) that Israel is under attack and that U.S. military deployments in the Middle East are ongoing allegedly to avoid escalation:

There is always the risk that nations and/or organisations hostile to Israel will take try to take advantage. And that includes, for instance, organisations like Hezbollah or a country like Iran. So this is a message to countries and organisations hostile to Israel that they should not try to utilise the situation. And the United States have deployed, or has deployed more military forces in the region, not least to deter any escalation or prevent any escalation of the situation. (NATO Press Conference, Brussels, October 12, 2023, emphasis added)

Barely three days following the commencement of IDF’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, America’s largest Aircraft Carrier The USS Gerald R. Ford has come to the rescue of Israel, positioned itself in Israel’s territorial waters.

According is the CBS Report, The USS Gerald Ford is presented as a “show of force and a warning to bad actors”. It also points to escalation. The hideous crimes committed by the IDF against 2.3 million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip are not mentioned.

According to media report: 

“[this] is part of the United States’ show of support after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on the Jewish state”.

“CBS News national security correspondent David Martin says the aircraft’s presence is meant to signal a warning to bad actors in the region.”

The War on Iran is no longer on Hold? 

Below is the text of my January 2018 article focussing initially on the 2003 “Iran Theatre Near Term” (TIRANNT) project and the history of military alliances. An earlier version of this text was published on August 22, 2010

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, June 30, 2024

 

 

US Winks, Israel Bites?

Shifting Middle East Alliances.

The War on Iran is “On Hold”?

By Michel Chossudovsky 

January 2, 2018

 

In 2003, the war on Iran project was already Déjà Vu. It had been on the drawing board of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties. 

Since the launching of the Theater Iran Near Term (TIRANNT) war games scenario in May 2003 (leaked classified document), an escalation scenario involving military action directed against Iran and Syria had been envisaged, of which Syria was the first stage in 2011.  

The initial invasion of Iraq under “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was launched on March 20, 2003, April 9 marks the Fall of Baghdad;  officially the invasion was completed on May 1st, 2003.

In May 2003, immediately following the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the TIRANNT (Theater Iran Near Term) war games scenario were carried out as revealed by William Arkin, a former US intelligence analyst:

“In early 2003, even as U.S. forces were on the brink of war with Iraq, the Army had already begun conducting an analysis for a full-scale war with Iran. The analysis, called TIRANNT, for “theater Iran near term,” was coupled with a mock scenario for a Marine Corps invasion and a simulation of the Iranian missile force. U.S. and British planners conducted a Caspian Sea war game around the same time. And Bush directed the U.S. Strategic Command to draw up a global strike war plan for an attack against Iranian weapons of mass destruction. All of this will ultimately feed into a new war plan for “major combat operations” against Iran that military sources confirm now exists in draft form. [This contingency plan entitled CONPLAN 8022 would be activated in the eventuality of a Second 9/11, on the presumption that Iran would be behind it]  (William Arkin, Washington Post, 16 April 2006)

Screenshot of WPo article, opinion section

“Theater Iran Near Term”, a scenario of waging a war against Iran following the defeat of Iraq was the unspoken concept. Under the auspices of US Central Command, TIRANNT focussed on both “Near Term” (i.e. following the Iraq war) as well “Out-Year” (signifying the subsequent year) scenarios for war with Iran ” …including all aspects of a major combat operation, from mobilization and deployment of forces through postwar stability operations after regime change.” (Ibid)

The core TIRANNT effort began in May 2003, when modelers and intelligence specialists pulled together the data needed for theater-level (meaning large-scale) scenario analysis for Iran. TIRANNT has since been updated using post-Iraq war information on the performance of U.S. forces. Meanwhile, Air Force planners have modeled attacks against existing Iranian air defenses and targets, while Navy planners have evaluated coastal defenses and drawn up scenarios for keeping control of the Strait of Hormuz at the base of the Persian Gulf.

A follow-on TIRANNT Campaign Analysis, which began in October 2003, calculated the results of different scenarios for action against Iran to provide options for analyzing courses of action in an updated Iran war plan. (Ibid)

Needless to say, the “Near Term” plans formulated in 2003 had been postponed.

USCENTCOM’s “Dual Containment”. First Iraq, then Iran

The 2003 decision to target Iran under TIRANNT  as well as all subsequent endeavors and “secret plans” were part of the broader Middle East military roadmap. Already during the Clinton administration, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) had formulated in 1995 under the doctrine of “Dual Containment” “in war theater plans” to invade first Iraq and then Iran:

“The broad national security interests and objectives expressed in the President’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Chairman’s National Military Strategy (NMS) form the foundation of the United States Central Command’s theater strategy. The NSS directs implementation of a strategy of dual containment of the rogue states of Iraq and Iran as long as those states pose a threat to U.S. interests, to other states in the region, and to their own citizens. Dual containment is designed to maintain the balance of power in the region without depending on either Iraq or Iran. USCENTCOM’s theater strategy is interest-based and threat-focused. The purpose of U.S. engagement, as espoused in the NSS, is to protect the United States’ vital interest in the region – uninterrupted, secure U.S./Allied access to Gulf oil.”

USCENTCOM, http://www.milnet.com/milnet/pentagon/centcom/chap1/stratgic.htm#USPolicy

emphasis  added, the original document of USCENTCOM is no longer available)

The Role of Israel. Doing the Bombing For Us?

The TIRANNT (2003) scenario was followed by a series of military plans pertaining to Iran. Numerous post 9/11 official statements and US military documents had pointed to an expanded Middle East war, involving the active participation of Israel.

Broadly, what characterizes U.S. foreign policy is to encourage America’s allies “to do the dirty work on our behalf”.

At the outset of Bush’s Second Term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell, hinting, in no uncertain terms, that Iran was “right at the top of the list” of the rogue enemies of America, and that Israel would, so to speak, “be doing the bombing for us” (paraphrase), without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”.

In contrast, under the Trump administration, according to Professor James Petras, Israel and the Zionist Lobby are playing an active role, pressuring President Trump to take the first step:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Presidents of the 52 Major Jewish American Organizations are leading President Trump, like a puppy on a leash, into a major war with Iran. The hysterical ’52 Presidents’ and ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu are busy manufacturing Holocaust-level predictions that a non-nuclear Iran is preparing to ‘vaporize’ Israel, ,  The buffoonish US President Trump has swallowed this fantasy wholesale and is pushing our nation toward war for the sake of Israel and its US-based supporters and agents. (James Petras, Global Research, October 27, 2017)

Who are the Main Actors?

Political rhetoric is often misleading. Israel is America’s ally. Military operations are closely coordinated. Tel Aviv is however subordinate to Washington. In major military operations, Israel does not act without the Pentagon’s approval.

Barely acknowledged by the media, the US and Israel have an integrated air defense system, which was set up in early 2009, shortly after the Israel invasion of Gaza under “Operation Cast Led”.

The X-band radar air defense system set up by the US in Israel in 2009 would “integrate Israel’s missile defenses with the U.S. global missile detection network, which includes satellites, Aegis ships on the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Red Sea, and land-based Patriot radars and interceptors.”  (Sen. Joseph Azzolina, Protecting Israel from Iran’s missiles, Bayshore News, December 26, 2008). )

What this means is that Washington calls the shots. Confirmed by the Pentagon, the US military controls Israel’s Air Defense:

”This is and will remain a U.S. radar system,’ Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. ‘So this is not something we are giving or selling to the Israelis and it is something that will likely require U.S. personnel on-site to operate.’” (Quoted in Israel National News, January 9, 2009, emphasis added).

At the outset of  Obama’s Second Term, the US and Israel initiated discussions pertaining to a “US personnel on site” presence in Israel, namely the establishment of a “permanent” and “official” military base inside Israel. And on September 17, 2017, a US Air Defense base located in the Negev desert was inaugurated. According to the Israeli IDF spokesperson, the objective is to send a “message to the region, ” including Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.

Israel would not be able to act unilaterally against Iran, without a green light from the Pentagon which controls key components of Israel’s air defense system.

In practice, a war on Iran, were it to occur would be a joint US-Israeli endeavor, coordinated by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with America’s allies playing a key (subordinate) role.

The Evolving Structure of Military Alliances

Since the formulation of USCENTCOM’s “in war theater” plans in the mid-nineties, and more specifically since the onslaught of the war on Syria in 2011, the geopolitics of the broader Middle East Central Asian region has evolved dramatically with Russia and  China taking on a major role.

In this regard, the shift in the structure of military alliances has served to weaken US influence. Iran is now supported by a powerful China-Russia block. In turn, Pakistan and India have joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which has contributed to undermining US-Pakistani relations.

In turn, Iran’s bilateral relations with China including strategic oil, gas and pipeline deals (as well as military cooperation) have developed since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012.

Moreover, while Tehran has reached a “pact of convenience” with Ankara, the unity of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States is now in jeopardy, with Qatar, Oman and Kuwait building an alliance with Iran, to the detriment of  Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Since the war on Syria, Iran has not only established a strong bilateral relationship with Syria, it has also reinforced its ties with Lebanon and Yemen.

In other words, US hegemony is threatened in the broader Middle East Central Asian region. The structure of alliances and “cross-cutting coalitions” in 2018 does not favor a US-led military operation against Iran.

  • The Atlantic Alliance is in crisis and so is the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
  • The US and Turkey are clashing in Northern Syria, where Turkey is fighting US sponsored Kurdish rebels.
  • Turkey, which constitutes NATO’s heavyweight (in terms of conventional forces) has acquired Russia’s S400 air defense system. Does this signify that Turkey (as a member state of the Atlantic Alliance) no longer fully shares the US-NATO-Israel defense system?
  • Another consideration is Turkey’s rapprochement with both Russia and Iran.

presidents Putin and Erdogan (right)

Demise of the “Triple Alliance”: US, Israel, Turkey

How does Turkey’s “pact of convenience” with Iran affect the Israel-Turkey  Security and Secrecy Agreement (SSA) launched by the Tansu Çiller government in 1994?

The SSA agreement was a carefully designed instrument of US foreign policy (sponsored by the Clinton administration) which set the stage for a firm and close Israel-Turkey relationship in military and intelligence cooperation, joint military exercises, weapons production and training.

The SSA largely served US strategic interests in the Middle East. The intent of the SSA Israel-Turkey bilateral military-intelligence agreement was to create a triangular relationship between the US, Israel and Turkey. This de facto (rather than de jure) “triple alliance”, under the helm of the Pentagon, was intended to integrate and coordinate military command decisions (as well as intelligence) between the three countries pertaining to the broader Middle East.

From a strategic standpoint, the Pentagon was intent upon “using” both Israel and Turkey in Middle East military operations (i.e to act on our behalf).

The “Triple alliance” was based on close (bilateral) military ties respectively between Israel and Turkey with the US, coupled with a strong bilateral military relationship between Tel Aviv and Ankara.

In turn, Israel signed a far-reaching military cooperation protocol with NATO in March 2005 in Jerusalem.  Under this agreement, Israel had become a de facto member of NATO. The 2005 Israel-NATO bilateral military cooperation agreement was viewed by the Israeli military as a means to “enhance Israel’s deterrence capability” against Iran, which has recently entered into an alliance of convenience with Turkey, a NATO member state.  Sounds contradictory?

It is also worth noting Israel’s longstanding membership in NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue together with six other non-NATO member states: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. Recently, these six countries have taken a stance against Israel in the wake of Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

It was no coincidence that the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) was launched in the same year as the Israel-Turkey SSA agreement (1994).

  • Is the Israel-Turkey SSA agreement currently in jeopardy?
  • Following Trump’s Jerusalem Statement, the Mediterranean Dialogue is also in crisis, to the detriment of Washington.
  • How can joint military and intelligence operations directed against Iran be carried out when Turkey (a NATO member state and an ally of Israel) is  “in bed with the enemy”?
  • Another consideration is the de facto demise of GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova), a loose US-NATO sponsored military alliance of five former Soviet republics created in 1999, slated to be used against Russia and Iran.

For the above reasons, the Pentagon’s TIRANNT “Near Term” scenario of a conventional war against Iran at this juncture is unlikely.

While a conventional war on Iran is currently on hold, the US has indelibly opted for nonconventional warfare including destabilization, economic sanctions, infiltration, cooptation and regime change.

The Pentagon, nonetheless retains its longtime strategic option of inducing its closest allies including Saudi Arabia and Israel to “wage war on its behalf”.

We are nonetheless at a dangerous crossroads in our history. While Pentagon analysts are fully aware that the US cannot win a conventional war against Iran, a first strike tactical nuclear weapons attack is still “on the table”. So are intelligence ops, the recruitment of hired “jihadist” terrorists, the funding of insurgencies, etc. (not to mention the use of a panoply of nonconventional weapons systems including electromagnetic, chemical and biological weapons).

***

War is a criminal undertaking which is supported by the US media.

Global Research is committed to revealing the nature of this military agenda as well as fostering a broad counter-propaganda campaign which serves to undermine the fake legitimacy of Washington’s “humanitarian” wars.

Spread this article far and wide.

We Need Your Support.  To Donate to Global Research Click Here  

Video (2007)

 


Order Directly from Global Research Publishers

 

Michel Chossudovsky

The US has embarked on a military adventure, “a long war”, which threatens the future of humanity. US-NATO weapons of mass destruction are portrayed as instruments of peace. Mini-nukes are said to be “harmless to the surrounding civilian population”. Pre-emptive nuclear war is portrayed as a “humanitarian undertaking”.

While one can conceptualize the loss of life and destruction resulting from present-day wars including Iraq and Afghanistan, it is impossible to fully comprehend the devastation which might result from a Third World War, using “new technologies” and advanced weapons, until it occurs and becomes a reality.

The international community has endorsed nuclear war in the name of world peace. “Making the world safer” is the justification for launching a military operation which could potentially result in a nuclear holocaust.

.

.

.

.

.

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

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

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

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

Please Note: These Titles are currently available in pdf format. 
 
.
.
  • Posted in English, NO READ MORE LINK
  • Comments Off on Video: Will Israel “Do the Dirty Work for Us”? Towards Military Escalation? “Theater Iran Near Term (TIRANNT)”? The War on Iran is No Longer On Hold?
  • Tags:

Important article first published on June 2, 2017

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, died Friday at a hospital in Virginia at the age of 89. Though the New York Times acknowledged that the former government advisor was a “hawkish strategic theorist,” misrepresenting his legacy as one of otherwise infinite positivity may not be as easy as the establishment might like to think.

As the United Kingdom plays around with levels of the so-called “terror threat” following a devastating attack by an ISIS-inspired individual — and as the Philippines goes into an almost complete state of martial law following ISIS-inspired destruction — Brzezinski’s timely death serves as a reminder to seek a deeper understanding of where modern terrorism originated in the first place.

As the New York Times explains, Brzezinski’s “rigid hatred of the Soviet Union” guided much of America’s foreign policy “for better or worse.” From the Times:

“He supported billions in military aid for Islamic militants fighting invading Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He tacitly encouraged China to continue backing the murderous regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia, lest the Soviet-backed Vietnamese take over that country.[emphasis added]

While it is progressive of the New York Times to note Brzezinski’s support for Islamic militants, downplaying the effect of his vindictive foreign policy agenda with a mere sentence does an injustice to the true horror behind Brzezinski’s policies.

Because a 1973 coup in Afghanistan had installed a new secular government that was leaning towards the Soviets, the U.S. endeavored to undermine this new government by organizing multiple coup attempts through America’s lackey states, Pakistan and Iran (the latter was under the control of the U.S.-backed Shah at the time.) In July 1979, Brzezinski officially authorized aid to the mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan to be delivered through the CIA’s program “Operation Cyclone.”

President Reagan and Mujahideen leaders from Afghanistan 

Many people defend America’s decision to arm the mujahideen in Afghanistan because they believe it was necessary to defend the country and the wider region from Soviet aggression. However, Brzesinski’s own statements directly contradict this rationale. In a 1998 interview, Brzezinski admitted that in conducting this operation, the Carter administration had “knowingly increased the probability” that the Soviets would intervene militarily (suggesting they began arming the Islamist factions before the Soviets invaded, making the rationale redundant since there was no invasion Afghanistan freedom fighters needed to repel at the time). Brzezinski then stated:

Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.”

This statement went further than merely boasting at the instigation of war and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. In his memoir, entitled “From the Shadows,” Robert Gates — former CIA director under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and secretary of defense under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama — directly confirmed this covert operation began six months prior to the Soviet invasion with the actual intention of luring the Soviets into a Vietnam-style quagmire.

Brzezinski knew exactly what he was doing. The Soviets were then bogged down in Afghanistan for approximately ten years, fighting an endless supply of American-supplied weapons and trained fighters. At the time, the media even went so far as to laud Osama bin Laden — one of the most influential figures in Brzezinski’s covert operation. We all know how that story ended.

Even with full knowledge of what his CIA-funded creation had become, in 1998 Brzezinski stated the following to his interviewers:

“What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”

The interviewer at the time, refusing to allow this answer to pass, retorted:

“Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.”

Brzezinski dismissed this statement outright, replying:

“Nonsense!”

This occurred back when the journalists asked government officials pressing questions, a rare occurrence today.

Brzezinski’s support for these radical elements led directly to the formation of al-Qaeda, which literally translates to “the base,” as it was the base in which to launch the repulsion of the anticipated Soviet invasion. It also led to the creation of the Taliban, a deadly entity currently deadlocked in an endless battle with NATO forces.

Further, despite Brzezinski’s statements, which attempt to depict a lasting defeat of the Russian empire, the truth is that for Brzezinski, the cold war never ended. Though he was a critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Brzezinski’s stranglehold over American foreign policy continued right up until his death.

It is no coincidence that in Syria, the Obama administration deployed an Afghanistan-quagmire-type strategy toward another Russian ally — Assad in Syria. A cable leaked by Wikileaks dated December 2006 — authored by William Roebuck, who was chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Damascus at the time — stated:

“We believe Bashar’s weaknesses are in how he chooses to react to looming issues, both perceived and real, such as the conflict between economic reform steps (however limited) and entrenched, corrupt forces, the Kurdish question, and the potential threat to the regime from the increasing presence of transiting Islamist extremists. This cable summarizes our assessment of these vulnerabilities and suggests that there may be actions, statements, and signals that the USG can send that will improve the likelihood of such opportunities arising.” [emphasis added]

Much like Operation Cyclone, under Barack Obama, the CIA was spending approximately $1 billion a year training Syrian rebels (to engage in terrorist tactics, nonetheless). The majority of these rebels share ISIS’ core ideology and have the express aim of establishing Sharia law in Syria.

Just like in Afghanistan, the Syrian war formally drew in Russia in 2015, and Brzezinski’s legacy was kept alive through Obama’s direct warning to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that he was leading Russia into another Afghanistan-style quagmire.

So where might Obama have gotten this Brzezinski-authored playbook from, plunging Syria further into a horrifying six-year-long war that has, again, drawn in a major nuclear power in a conflict rife with war crimes and crimes against humanity?

The answer: from Brzezinski himself. According to Obama, Brzezinski is a personal mentor of his, an “outstanding friend” from whom he has learned immensely. In light of this knowledge, is it any surprise that we saw so many conflicts erupt out of nowhere during Obama’s presidency?

On  February 7, 2014, the BBC published a transcript of a bugged phone conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. In that phone call, the representatives were discussing who they wanted to place in the Ukrainian government following a coup that ousted Russian-aligned president Viktor Yanukovych.

Image result for The Grand Chessboard

Lo and behold, Brzezinski himself advocated taking over Ukraine in his 1998 book, The Grand Chessboard, stating Ukraine was

“a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard…a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country (means) Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.”

Brzezinski warned against allowing Russia to control Ukraine because

“Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia.”

Following Obama, Donald Trump came into office with a completely different mentality, willing to work with Russia and the Syrian government in combatting ISIS. Unsurprisingly, Brzezinski did not support Trump’s bid for the presidency and believed Trump’s foreign policy ideas lacked coherence.

All that being said, just last year Brzezinski appeared to have changed his stance on global affairs and instead began to advocate a “global realignment” — a redistribution of global power — in light of the fact that the U.S. is no longer the global imperial power it once was. However, he still seemed to indicate that without America’s global leadership role, the result would be “global chaos,” so it seemed unlikely his change in perception was rooted in any actual meaningful change on the geopolitical chessboard.

Further, the CIA’s very existence relies on the idea of a Russian threat, as has been evidenced by the agency’s complete assault on the Trump administration whenever it appears détente is possible with the former Soviet Union.

Brzezinski died safely in a hospital bed, unlike the millions of displaced and murdered civilians who were pawns in Brzezinski’s twisted, geopolitical chess games of blood and lunacy. His legacy is one of militant jihadism, the formation of al-Qaeda, the most devastating attack on U.S. soil by a foreign entity in our recent history, and the complete denigration of Russia as an everlasting adversary with which peace cannot — and should not — ever be attained.

Featured image: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

  • Posted in English
  • Comments Off on The Real Story of Zbigniew Brzezinski That the Media Isn’t Telling. “Where Modern Terrorism Originated”

[In view of the recent developments in Syria, we are reposting this video, produced by Mark Taliano in 2023.]

.

.

.

Trailer to the documentary, “Crimes Against Syria”, featuring Global Research, One America News Network, Eva K. Bartlett, and Syrian performer, Treka.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser

Mark Taliano is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and the author of Voices from Syria, Global Research Publishers, 2017. He writes on his website where this article was originally published.

Featured image is from Mideast Discourse


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

**Voices from Syria**

Author: Mark Taliano

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-9-1

Year: 2017

Product Type: PDF File

List Price: $6.50

Special Offer: $5.00 

Click to order.

  • Posted in English
  • Comments Off on Video: “Crimes Against Syria” Produced by Mark Taliano

The world is trying to make sense of South Korea’s six-hour-long period of martial law that was imposed on Tuesday night until early Wednesday morning local time. It was the first time that the country experienced such since 1980. President Yoon Suk Yeol claimed that the opposition was conniving to overthrow him as part of an anti-state plot that he connected to North Korea. They control parliament, had tried to impeach him multiple times already, and were obstructing his legislative efforts.

This same opposition then raced to the National Assembly and voted to lift martial law. The military then stopped trying to storm the premises once that motion passed, and Yoon relented after he and his Cabinet complied with their demand. While it was still in effect, some on social media lent credence to his claims of an anti-state plot, while others speculated that the US had something to do with this even though a National Security Council spokesperson told Axios that they didn’t receive any advance notice.

There are now calls for his resignation and to even charge him with treason. His political career is likely over. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, might also go down with him due to her numerous scandals that he refused to investigate. Readers can learn more about them here and here. In hindsight, it compellingly appears as though Yoon wanted to stage a self-coup on predictable national security pretexts connected to North Korea out of desperation to keep himself in power and his wife out of trouble.

The implications of this hypothesis are many but what follows are the most immediate:

1. Even Traditional Allies Aren’t Fully Under America’s Control

It’s understandable why some speculated during the height of this crisis that the US had something to do with it since South Korea is one of the US’ longest allies over which it wields enormous influence, but Yoon’s arguably rogue actions show that even traditional allies aren’t fully under America’s control.

2. The World Is Reminded Of South Korea’s Elite Political Corruption

Few outside the country know that “half of all living former South Korean presidents are now in prison” since South Korea’s international reputation prioritizes its economic strength and cultural appeal, but it’s six-hour-long period of martial law reminded the world of its elite political corruption.

3. The Defense Minister Is Either Equally Corrupt Or Knows Something

It’s now confirmed that Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun personally proposed martial law to his former schoolmate Yoon, so either he’s equally corrupt or perhaps there’s more than meets the eye to Yoon’s accusation of North Korean influence over the opposition, even if that doesn’t justify what he did.

4. The New Cold War Isn’t Really About Democracy vs. Dictatorship

What happened also debunks the false narrative pushed by the US about the New Cold War being about democracy vs. dictatorship since the unsuccessful self-coup in one of America’s traditional allies shows that anti-democratic and pro-dictatorship tendencies are alive and well in the US’ sphere of influence.

5. Yoon’s Fall Might Complicate The US’ “Pivot (Back) To Asia”

Yoon is hawkish on North Korea, is considering arming Ukraine, and went along with the US’ plans to organize a trilateral alliance between them and Japan, but all this might change if he’s impeached and the opposition replaces him after early elections, thus complicating the US’ “Pivot (back) to Asia”.

*

More clarity will be forthcoming, but for now, it does indeed appear as though Yoon cooked up an unsuccessful self-coup in cahoots with the Defense Minister. The most important consequence of their actions is that the US might now be forced to change aspects of its “Pivot (back) to Asia” if the opposition soon comes to power as expected and reforms South Korea’s foreign policy. This, much more than the ignominy that those two now face at home, might therefore be their longest-lasting legacy.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser

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

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

Featured image is taken from the author

Author’s note

Today, December 8, 2024, our thoughts are with the people of Syria.The coup d’Etat in Damascus, was led by Jihadist terrorists supported by US-NATO-Israel.

President Bashar Al Assad has left the country.

We must understand  the history behind the December 2024 Damascus Coup d’Etat. The objective of thirteen years of war led by jihadist terrorists sponsored by US-NATO-Israel was to destroy and impoverish an entire country, and install an Islamic State controlled by Washington.

And today, the media in chorus is applauding the Al Qaeda affiliated entities which have been used to  destabilize Syria’s secular government and institutions.

There are no pro-jihadist demonstrations in the streets of Damascus.

At the outset of the US-NATO-Israel war on Syria in March 2011,  the so-called “opposition”, was largely made up of Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists.   

A US-NATO led war of aggression was portrayed as a “civil war”. 

President Bashar Al Assad was casually described as a dictator who is killing his own people. The millions of deaths resulting from US-NATO led wars are not an object of concern.

The anti-war movement died in the wake of the Iraq war (April 2003). Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and counterterrorism prevail, which consists in supporting and financing terrorist mercenaries. 

The war on Syria started 13 years ago in Daraa  on the 17th of March 2011.

I was in Syria in early 2011 studying Arabic. I left the country in early March barely two weeks before the outbreak in Daraa. 

The following article first published more than 13 years ago in May 2011 examines the inception of the jihadist terrorist insurgency.

It recounts the events of March 17-18, 2011 in Daraa, a small border town with Jordan. 

It was not a protest movement, it was an armed insurgency integrated by US-Israeli and allied supported “jihadist” death squads 

From Day One, the Islamist “freedom fighters” were supported, trained and equipped by NATO and Turkey’s High Command. According to Israeli intelligence sources (Debka, August 14, 2011): 

NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish high command are meanwhile drawing up plans for their first military step in Syria, which is to arm the rebels with weapons for combating the tanks and helicopters spearheading the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent. … NATO strategists are thinking more in terms of pouring large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns into the protest centers for beating back the government armored forces. (DEBKAfile, NATO to give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14, 2011) 

This initiative, which was also supported by Saudi Arabia the UAE and Qatar, involved a process of organized recruitment of thousands of jihadist “freedom fighters”, reminiscent of  the enlistment of  Mujahideen to wage the CIA’s jihad (holy war) in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war: 

Also discussed in Brussels and Ankara, our sources report, is a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house these volunteers, train them and secure their passage into Syria. (Ibid, emphasis added)

These mercenaries were subsequently integrated into US and allied sponsored terrorist organizations including Al Nusrah and ISIS. 

The Daraa “protest movement” on March 17-18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving covert support to Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence.

Government sources pointed to the role of radical Salafist groups (supported by Israel).

In chorus, the Western media described the events in Daraa as a protest movement against Bashar Al Assad.

In a bitter irony, the deaths of policemen were higher than those of “demonstrators”.

In Daraa, roof top snipers were targeting both police and demonstrators.

Reading between the lines of Israeli and Lebanese news reports (which acknowledge the police deaths) a clearer picture of what happened in Daraa on March 17-18 had emerged. The Israel National News Report (which can not be accused of being biased in favor of Bashar al Assad) confirmed that:

“Seven police officers and at least four demonstrators in Syria have been killed in continuing violent clashes that erupted in the southern town of Daraa last Thursday. … and the Baath Party Headquarters and courthouse were torched, in renewed violence on Sunday. (Gavriel Queenann, Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests, Israel National News, Arutz Sheva, March 21, 2011, emphasis added)

The Lebanese news report also acknowledged the killings of seven policemen in Daraa.

[They were killed] “during clashes between the security forces and protesters… They got killed trying to drive away protesters during demonstration in Dara’a”

The Lebanese Ya Libnan report quoting Al Jazeera also acknowledged that protesters had “burned the headquarters of the Baath Party and the court house in Dara’a” (emphasis added)

These news reports of the events in Daraa confirmed that from the very outset this was not a “peaceful protest” as claimed by the Western media.

Moreover, from an assessment of the initial casualty figures (Israel News), there were more policemen than “demonstrators” who were killed.

This is significant because it suggests that the police force may have initially been outnumbered by a well organized armed gang of professional killers.

What was clear from these initial reports is that many of the demonstrators were not demonstrators but terrorists involved in premeditated acts of killing and arson.

The title of the Israeli news report summarized what happened: Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protest

The US-NATO-Israel agenda consisted in supporting an Al Qaeda affiliated insurgency integrated by death squads and professional snipers. President Bashar al Assad was then blamed for killing his own people. 

It is worth noting, that three years later, a similar “false flag” strategy of killing innocent civilians was used during the Ukraine Maidan “protest movement”.  On February 20th, 2014, professional snipers were shooting at both demonstrators and policemen with a view to accusing president Viktor Yanukovych of “mass murder.” This was a coup d’Etat sponsored by the U.S. 

The “humanitarian mandate” of the US and its allies is sustained by diabolical “false flag” attacks which consist in killing civilians with a view to breaking the legitimacy of governments which refuse to abide by the diktats of Washington and its allies.

The author spent more than a month in Syria in early 2011. This article was first published in May 2011.

Michel Chossudovsky,  March 22, 2024, December 8, 2024

 

Syria: Who is Behind “The Protest Movement”?

Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO “Humanitarian Intervention”

by Michel Chossudovsky

 

Global Research, May 3, 2011

 

There is evidence of gross media manipulation and falsification from the outset of the protest movement in southern Syria on March 17th [2011].

The Western media has presented the events in Syria as part of the broader Arab pro-democracy protest movement, spreading spontaneously from Tunisia, to Egypt, and from Libya to Syria.

Media coverage has focussed on the Syrian police and armed forces, which are accused of indiscriminately shooting and killing unarmed “pro-democracy” demonstrators. While these police shootings did indeed occur, what the media failed to mention is that among the demonstrators there were armed gunmen as well as snipers who were shooting at both the security forces and the protesters.

The death figures presented in the reports are often unsubstantiated. Many of the reports are “according to witnesses”. The images and video footages aired on Al Jazeera and CNN do not always correspond to the events which are being covered by the news reports.

Alawite Map

There is certainly cause for social unrest and mass protest in Syria: unemployment has increased in recent year, social conditions have deteriorated, particularly since the adoption in 2006 of sweeping economic reforms under IMF guidance. The IMF’s “economic medicine” includes austerity measures, a freeze on wages, the deregulation of the financial system, trade reform and privatization.

(See IMF  Syrian Arab Republic — IMF Article IV Consultation Mission’s Concluding Statement,  2006)

While Syria is [2011] no “model society” with regard to civil rights and freedom of expression, it nonetheless constitutes the only (remaining) independent secular state in the Arab world. Its populist, anti-Imperialist and secular base is inherited from the dominant Baath party, which integrates Muslims, Christians and Druze.

Moreover, in contrast to Egypt and Tunisia, in Syria there is considerable popular support for President Bashar Al Assad. The large rally in Damascus on March 29, “with tens of thousands of supporters” (Reuters) of President Al Assad is barely mentioned. Yet in an unusual twist, the images and video footage of several pro-government events were used by the Western media to convince international public opinion that the President was being confronted by mass anti-government rallies.

(Al Jazeera March 2011)

The “Epicenter” of the Protest Movement. Daraa: A Small Border Town in southern Syria

What is the nature of the protest movement? From what sectors of Syrian society does it emanate? What triggered the violence?

What is the cause of the deaths?

The existence of an organized insurrection composed of armed gangs involved in acts of killing and arson has been dismissed by the Western media, despite evidence to the contrary.

The demonstrations  did not start in Damascus, the nation’s capital. At the outset, the protests were not integrated by a mass movement of citizens in Syria’s capital.

The demonstrations started in Daraa, a small border town of 75,000 inhabitants, on the Syrian Jordanian border, rather than in Damascus or Aleppo, where the mainstay of organized political opposition and social movements are located. (Daraa is a small border town comparable e.g. to Plattsburgh, NY on the US-Canadian border).

The Associated Press report (quoting unnamed “witnesses” and “activists”) describes the early protests in Daraa as follows:

The violence in Daraa, a city of about 300,000 near the border with Jordan, was fast becoming a major challenge for President Bashar Assad, …. Syrian police launched a relentless assault Wednesday on a neighborhood sheltering anti-government protesters [Daraa], fatally shooting at least 15 in an operation that began before dawn, witnesses said.

At least six were killed in the early morning attack on the al-Omari mosque in the southern agricultural city of Daraa, where protesters have taken to the streets in calls for reforms and political freedoms, witnesses said. An activist in contact with people in Daraa said police shot another three people protesting in its Roman-era city center after dusk. Six more bodies were found later in the day, the activist said.

As the casualties mounted, people from the nearby villages of Inkhil, Jasim, Khirbet Ghazaleh and al-Harrah tried to march on Daraa Wednesday night but security forces opened fire as they approached, the activist said. It was not immediately clear if there were more deaths or injuries. (AP, March 23, 2011, emphasis added)

The AP report inflates the numbers: Daraa is presented as a city of 300,000 when in fact its population is 75,000;  “protesters gathered by the thousands”, “casualties mounted”.

The report is silent on the death of policemen which in the West invariably makes the front page of the tabloids.

The deaths of the policemen are important in assessing what actually happened. When there are police casualties, this means that there is an exchange of gunfire between opposing sides, between policemen and “demonstrators”.

Who are these “demonstrators” including roof top snipers who were targeting the police.

Israeli and Lebanese news reports (which acknowledge the police deaths) provide a clearer picture of what happened in Daraa on March 17-18. The Israel National News Report (which cannot be accused of being biased in favor of Damascus) reviews these same events as follows:

Seven police officers and at least four demonstrators in Syria have been killed in continuing violent clashes that erupted in the southern town of Daraa last Thursday.

…. On Friday police opened fire on armed protesters killing four and injuring as many as 100 others. According to one witness, who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity, “They used live ammunition immediately — no tear gas or anything else.”

…. In an uncharacteristic gesture intended to ease tensions the government offered to release the detained students, but seven police officers were killed, and the Baath Party Headquarters and courthouse were torched, in renewed violence on Sunday. (Gavriel Queenann, Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests, Israel National News, Arutz Sheva, March 21, 2011, emphasis added)

The Lebanese news report, quoting various sources, also acknowledges the killings of seven policemen in Daraa: They were killed  “during clashes between the security forces and protesters… They got killed trying to drive away protesters during demonstration in Dara’a” 

The Lebanese Ya Libnan report quoting Al Jazeera also acknowledged that protesters had “burned the headquarters of the Baath Party and the court house in Dara’a”  (emphasis added)

These news reports of the events in Daraa confirm the following:

1. This was not a “peaceful protest” as claimed by the Western media. Several of the “demonstrators” had fire arms and were using them against the police:  “The police opened fire on armed protesters killing four”.

2. From the initial casualty figures (Israel News), there were more policemen than demonstrators who were killed:  7 policemen killed versus 4 demonstrators. This is significant because it suggests that the police force might have been initially outnumbered by a well organized armed gang. According to Syrian media sources, there were also snipers on rooftops which were shooting at both the police and the protesters.

What is clear from these initial reports is that many of the demonstrators were not demonstrators but terrorists involved in premeditated acts of killing and arson. The title of the Israeli news report summarizes what happened:  Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests.  The title suggests that the “demonstrators” rather than the police had the upper hand.

The Daraa “protest movement” on March 18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving, in all likelihood, covert support to Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence. Government sources point to the role of radical Salafist groups (supported by Israel)

Other reports have pointed to the role of Saudi Arabia in financing the protest movement.

What has unfolded in Daraa in the weeks following the initial violent clashes on 17-18 March, is the confrontation between the police and the armed forces on the one hand and armed units of terrorists and snipers on the other which had infiltrated the protest movement.

Reports suggest that these terrorists are integrated by Islamists. There is no concrete evidence as to which Islamic organizations are behind the terrorists and the government has not released corroborating information as to who these groups are.

Both the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (whose leadership is in exile in the UK) and the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation), among others have paid lip service to the protest movement. Hizb ut Tahir (led in the 1980s by Syrian born Omar Bakri Muhammad) tends to “dominate the British Islamist scene” according to Foreign Affairs. Hizb ut Tahir is also considered to be of strategic importance to Britain’s Secret Service MI6. in the pursuit of Anglo-American interests in the Middle East and Central Asia. (Is Hizb-ut-Tahrir another project of British MI6? | State of Pakistan).

Syria is a secular Arab country, a society of religious tolerance, where Muslims and Christians have for several centuries lived in peace. Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation) is a radical political movement committed to the creation of an Islamic caliphate. In Syria, its avowed objective is to destabilize the secular state.

Since the Soviet-Afghan war, Western intelligence agencies as well as Israel’s Mossad have consistently used various Islamic terrorist organizations as “intelligence assets”. Both Washington and its indefectible British ally have provided covert support to “Islamic terrorists” in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Libya, etc. as a means to triggering ethnic strife, sectarian violence and political instability.

The staged protest movement in Syria is modelled on Libya. The insurrection in Eastern Libya is integrated by the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) which is supported by MI6 and the CIA. The ultimate objective of the Syria protest movement, through media lies and fabrications, is to create divisions within Syrian society as well as justify an eventual “humanitarian intervention”.

Armed Insurrection in Syria

An armed insurrection integrated by Islamists and supported covertly by Western intelligence is central to an understanding of what is occurring on the ground.

The existence of an armed insurrection is not mentioned by the Western media. If it were to be acknowledged and analysed, our understanding of unfolding events would be entirely different.

What is mentioned profusely is that the armed forces and the police are involved in the indiscriminate killing of protesters.

The deployment of the armed forces including tanks in Daraa is directed against an organized armed insurrection, which has been active in the border city since March 17-18.

Casualties are being reported which also include the death of policemen and soldiers.

In a bitter irony, the Western media acknowledges the police/soldier deaths while denying the existence of an armed insurrection.

The key question is how does the media explain these deaths of soldiers and police?

Without evidence, the reports suggest authoritatively that the police is shooting at the soldiers and vice versa the soldiers are shooting on the police. In a April 29 Al Jazeera report, Daraa is described as “a city under siege”.

“Tanks and troops control all roads in and out. Inside the city, shops are shuttered and nobody dare walk the once bustling market streets, today transformed into the kill zone of rooftop snipers.

Unable to crush the people who first dared rise up against him – neither with the secret police,  paid thugs or the special forces of his brother’s military division – President Bashar al-Assad has sent thousands of Syrian soldiers and their heavy weaponry into Deraa for an operation the regime wants nobody in the world to see.

Though almost all communication channels with Deraa have been cut, including the Jordanian mobile service that reaches into the city from just across the border, Al Jazeera has gathered firsthand accounts of life inside the city from residents who just left or from eyewitnesses inside who were able to get outside the blackout area.

The picture that emerges is of a dark and deadly security arena, one driven by the actions of the secret police and their rooftop snipers, in which soldiers and protestors alike are being killed or wounded, in which cracks are emerging in the military itself, and in which is created the very chaos which the regime uses to justify its escalating crackdown. (Daraa, a City under Siege, IPS / Al Jazeera, April 29, 2011)

The Al Jazeera report borders on the absurd. Read carefully.

“Tanks and troops control all roads in and out”,  “thousands of Syrian soldiers and their heavy weaponry into Daraa”

This situation has prevailed for several weeks. This means that bona fide protesters who are not already inside Daraa cannot enter Daraa.

People who live in the city are in their homes: “nobody dares walk … the streets”. If nobody dares walk the streets where are the protesters?

Who is in the streets? According to Al Jazeera, the protesters are in the streets together with the soldiers, and both the protesters and the soldiers are being shot at by “plain clothes secret police”, by “paid thugs” and government sponsored snipers.

The impression conveyed in the report is that these casualties are attributed to infighting between the police and the military.

But the report also says that the soldiers (in the “thousands”) control all roads in and out of the city, but they are being shot upon by the plain clothed secret police.

The purpose of this web of media deceit, namely outright fabrications  –where soldiers are being killed by police and  “government snipers”– is to deny the existence of armed terrorist groups. The later are integrated by snipers and “plain clothed terrorists” who are shooting at the police, the Syrian armed forces and local residents.

These are not spontaneous acts of terror; they are carefully planned and coordinated attacks. In recent developments, according to a Xinhua report (April 30, 2011), armed “terrorist groups” “attacked the housing areas for servicemen” in Daraa province, “killing a sergeant and wounding two”.

While the government bears heavy responsibility for its mishandling of the military-police operation, including the deaths of civilians, the reports confirm that the armed terrorist groups had also opened fire on protesters and local residents. The casualties are then blamed on the armed forces and the police and the Bashar Al Assad government is portrayed by “the international community” as having ordered countless atrocities.

The fact of the matter is that foreign journalists are banned from reporting inside Syria, to the extent that much of the information including the number of casualties is obtained from the unverified accounts of “witnesses”.

It is in the interest of the US-NATO alliance to portray the events in Syria as a peaceful protest movement which is being brutally repressed by a “dictatorial regime”.

The Syrian government may be autocratic. It is certainly not a model of democracy but neither is the US administration, which is characterized by rampant corruption, the derogation of civil liberties under the Patriot legislation, the legalisation of torture, not to mention its “bloodless” “humanitarian wars”:

“The U.S. and its NATO allies have, in addition to U.S. Sixth Fleet and NATO Active Endeavor military assets permanently deployed in the Mediterranean, warplanes, warships and submarines engaged in the assault against Libya that can be used against Syria at a moment’s notice.

On April 27 Russia and China evidently prevented the U.S. and its NATO allies from pushing through an equivalent of Resolution 1973 against Syria in the Security Council, with Russian deputy ambassador to the UN Alexander Pankin stating that the current situation in Syria “does not present a threat to international peace and security.” Syria is Russia’s last true partner in the Mediterranean and the Arab world and hosts one of only two Russian overseas naval bases, that at Tartus. (The other being in Ukraine’s Crimea.)” (Rick Rozoff,   Libyan Scenario For Syria: Towards A US-NATO “Humanitarian Intervention” directed against Syria? Global Research, April 30, 2011)

The ultimate purpose is to trigger sectarian violence and political chaos within Syria by covertly supporting Islamic terrorist organizations.

What lies ahead?

The longer term US foreign policy perspective is “regime change” and the destabilization of Syria as an independent nation-state, through a covert process of “democratization” or through military means.

Syria is on the list of “rogue states”, which are targeted for a US military intervention. As confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark the “[The] Five-year campaign plan [includes]… a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan” (Pentagon official quoted by General Wesley Clark).

The objective is to weaken the structures of the secular State while justifying an eventual  UN sponsored “humanitarian intervention”. The latter, in the first instance, could take the form of a reinforced embargo on the country (including sanctions) as well as the freezing of Syrian bank assets in overseas foreign financial institutions.

While a US-NATO military intervention in the immediate future seems highly unlikely, Syria is nonetheless on the Pentagon’s military roadmap, namely an eventual war on Syria has been contemplated both by Washington and Tel Aviv.

If it were to occur, at some future date, it would lead to escalation. Israel would inevitably be involved. The entire Middle East Central Asian region from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Chinese-Afghan border would flare up.

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and Editor of globalresearch.ca. He is the author of The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003) and America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005). He is also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages.  He spent a month in Syria in early 2011.


The Globalization of War: America’s “Long War” against Humanity

Michel Chossudovsky

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
Product Type: PDF File

Price: $9.40 (sent directly to your email)

Click here to order.

Syria is an indispensable part of Israel’s ambitious plan to remake the Middle East. The country sits at the heart of the region and serves as both a critical landbridge for the transport of weaponry and foot-soldiers from Iran to its allies, as well as the geopolitical center of the armed resistance to Israeli expansion.

In order to truly dominate the region, Israel must topple the government in Damascus and install a puppet regime similar to Jordan and Egypt. Now that Washington has been persuaded to ‘unconditionally’ support Israel’s interests (over its own), there is no better time to affect the changes that are most likely to achieve Tel Aviv’s overarching plan. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is thus prepared to launch a ground war from the South to create a two-front war that will split Syrian forces in half greatly improving his prospects for success. At the same time, US-backed jihadis will continue their rampage in the North gradually eroding Syria’s tattered defenses while further securing Syria’s industrial capital, Aleppo. If Damascus falls and Assad is removed from power, Israel’s dream of regional hegemony will be within reach and likely attainable if—as we assume—President Trump has committed to initiating a war with Iran as part of a quid pro quo with powerful Lobbyists who shoehorned back him into the White House. But, first, Syria must be pacified, its army defeated, and its present ruler ousted. That is the only way that Iran can be effectively cut off from its allies and partners and thus prepared for the dreadful onslaught ahead.

At present, there is only one man on earth who can put an end to Israel’s bloodthirsty crusade:

If Putin does not act fast and provide emergency assistance to Assad, then the current course of events is likely to be irreversible. This could even mean the deploying of Russian combat troops to stave off the US-backed terrorist offensive or (the soon-to-be) provocations in the South. In short, the sovereign state of Syria now faces an existential crisis which will negatively impact the entire region and the world if Putin does not abandon his typically cautious approach and provide the tools Syria needs to fend off the barbarians.

In Sunday’s edition of the Times of Israel, we see that Israeli war-planners have already settled on a pretext for invading Syria from the South. Check out this excerpt from an article titled Rebels’ advances in Syria spell short-term benefits, potential trouble for Israel, intel chiefs said to tell PM

Israel is watching the jihadist rebels’ advances in Syria with considerable wariness, with intelligence chiefs telling the political echelon developments in Syria could ultimately spell trouble for Israel, Channel 12 reports…. Netanyahu was reportedly told that Hezbollah’s attention will now be shifted to Syria, and “so will its forces, in order to defend the Assad regime.”….

The intelligence chiefs ….have warned, “the collapse of the Assad regime would likely create chaos in which military threats against Israel would develop.”

Channel 12 further reports that concerns were raised at Friday’s security consultation that “strategic capabilities” of the Assad regime could fall into the jihadists’ hands. The prime concern relates to “the remnants of chemical weapons,” the report says.

The IDF is said to be preparing for a scenario where Israel would be required to act, the report says without elaboration.

There is also an assessment that Syria might open its gates to a significant number of Iranian forces in order to try to stabilize the country, the report says.Rebels’ advances in Syria spell short-term benefits, potential trouble for Israel, intel chiefs said to tell PM, Times of Israel

There it is in black and white, the justification for invading Syria. Israel has a number of excuses from which to choose; everything from “chemical weapons” to “Iranian forces” to post regime change “chaos” to Hezbollah forces “defending the Assad regime.” At every step, you can see how well-prepared Israel is for any eventuality. This plan has been in the works for years if not longer. And, of course, the strategy needs to be executed quickly to prepare the battlefield for the Grand Finale, the January inauguration, when the most pro-Zionist president in US history will ascend the throne and reward Israel with the war on Iran it so ardently seeks. Nothing is left to chance.

.

.

Video—Syrian President Assad explains that “Terrorists are the new armies of the West” 3 minutes

.

Watch on X

.

Surprisingly, the folks at the Jerusalem Post are more straightforward about their views on the developments in Aleppo. In fact, one astute analyst candidly admits that the capitulation of the nation’s industrial Capital at the hands of fanatical throat-cutters is “good news”. Say what?? Her’s an excerpt from the article:

The Islamist attack on Aleppo is “ostensibly good news for Israel,” Daniel Rakov, a senior research fellow for the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said in a Saturday post to X/Twitter….. he said that “the fall of northern Syria to the rebels damages the infrastructure of the Iranians and Hezbollah there and will make it difficult for them to work to restore Hezbollah.”……

The Israeli researcher also stated that Russian state media is largely ignoring the conflict in Aleppo while claiming that Russian commentators on global conflicts said that Moscow is not responsible for the defense failure of the Syrian city, saying that Russia had very few forces there and the incident was a huge failure for the Assad regime….

An opportunity for Israel to strike Syria?

Rakov then entertains the idea of Israel having the opportunity to attack Syria due to the weakness demonstrated by the Assad regime….

“Assad’s loss of Aleppo damages Russia’s image as a power capable of projecting influence outside the post-Soviet space and threatens an important strategic asset of Putin’s, which is the bases in Syria,” he wrote. “This also reflects negatively on Russia’s image in the region.

“The Russians, as we can learn from the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk, are in no hurry to get hysterical, but the speed with which Aleppo fell will require them to respond quickly,” he wrote.

The JISS researcher concluded his post by saying that while the unstable situation in Syria may cause Assad and the Russians to open the gates more strongly for the entry of Iranian military forces, the collapse of the Assad regime may create a scenario for the growth of significant military threats against Israel. Attacks in Aleppo ‘ostensibly good news for Israel,’ JISS researcher says, Jerusalem Post

Repeat: “An opportunity for Israel to strike Syria”?

It is, but it is equally interesting to see that ‘driving Russia out of the Middle East” is nearly as important as toppling Assad. (from Israel’s point of view.) And it’s also clear that Mr. Rakov thinks Putin is ‘on the ropes’ and will fail to respond in a timely manner and that this could be greatly to Israel’s advantage. But, of course, what is most shocking about Rakov’s overall assessment, is the sheer joy he derives from the destruction of a thriving city at the hands of deranged savages bent on replacing a stable, rational system with a despotic religious autocracy. But, I suppose, if genocide is your benchmark for success, nothing should surprise us.

This is a Sunday update on the extremely volatile situation on the ground in Syria:

Russian and Syrian government air strikes pounded central Aleppo on Saturday as rebels claimed control of the city’s international airport and advanced towards Hama… It was the first time air strikes had targeted Aleppo since 2016, when the Syrian opposition was driven out of the city.

However, rebels led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied groups, including some backed by Turkey, claimed stunning gains on Saturday. They claimed to have seized Aleppo International Airport and the strategic city of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib. The administrative borders of Idlib Governorate were fully under their control, they added.

They also claimed to have begun marching towards Hama, successfully capturing six towns and villages in the countryside, including Morek, which lies along an important highway connecting central Syria to the north.

The offensive began on Wednesday when rebels broke out from opposition-held territory in northwest Syria towards Aleppo. Within two days, they had seized dozens of towns and villages, as well as a section of the strategic M5 highway, cutting off supply routes to Damascus. They have taken several military bases and fortified positions since, often meeting little resistance.

Collapse of government forces

According to SOHR, government forces have collapsed in Idlib and Aleppo. This has left Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, outside government control for the first time since the country’s independence in 1946, the monitoring group said….

Amid fast-moving developments, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia – both major stakeholders in Syria – spoke by phone on Saturday and agreed to coordinate efforts to stabilise Syria, according to Moscow.

“Both sides expressed serious concerns at the dangerous development of the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic in connection with the military escalation in the Aleppo and Idlib provinces,” the Russian ministry said….

Most of Idlib province has since been held by HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, which has established a civilian administration. Turkey-backed rebel groups in the Syrian National Army coalition have held sway in other areas of the north.

However, despite Russia being distracted by the war in Ukraine and Assad’s forces weakened by frequent Israeli attacks, Syrian and Russian warplanes have stepped up air strikes on opposition-held areas since August 2023. Syria: Deadly strikes hit Aleppo as rebels seize airport, push towards Hama, Middle East Eye

Video: Turkish-backed terrorists enter the president’s villa in Aleppo

.

Watch on X

.

Readers should be aware that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the other so-called “rebel groups”, are mainly Al Qaida affiliates that have been recruited, armed and trained by the US, Qatar and Turkey to pursue a proxy war against the opponents to Israeli expansion and the remaking of the Middle East. Author and analyst Max Blumenthal has done considerable research on the origins of these groups and presented his findings in a recent article titled The US has backed 21 of the 28 ‘crazy’ militias leading Turkey’s brutal invasion of northern Syria. Here’s a short blurb from his article:

Former and current US officials have slammed the Turkish mercenary force of “Arab militias” for executing and beheading Kurds in northern Syria. New data from Turkey reveals that almost all of these militias were armed and trained in the past by the CIA and Pentagon…..

According to a research paper published this October by the pro-government Turkish think tank SETA, “Out of the 28 factions [in the Turkish mercenary force], 21 were previously supported by the United States, three of them via the Pentagon’s program to combat DAESH. Eighteen of these factions were supplied by the CIA via the MOM Operations Room in Turkey, a joint intelligence operation room of the ‘Friends of Syria’ to support the armed opposition. Fourteen factions of the 28 were also recipients of the U.S.-supplied TOW anti-tank guided missiles.”…

In other words, virtually the entire apparatus of anti-Assad insurgents armed and equipped under the Obama administration has been repurposed by the Turkish military to serve as the spearhead of its brutal invasion of northern Syria. The leader of this force is Salim Idriss, now the “Defense Minister” of Syria’s Turkish-backed “interim government.” He’s the same figure who hosted John McCain when the late senator made his infamous 2013 incursion into Syria…..

This band of hacks (The media) is now fully exposed for foisting a bloody scam on the public, marketing some of the most brutal fanatics on the planet as revolutionaries and “moderate rebels” while they destabilized an entire region. Like the extremists they once promoted, most have somehow managed to evade accountability and remain employed. The US has backed 21 of the 28 ‘crazy’ militias leading Turkey’s brutal invasion of northern Syria, Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone

So, who is the world’s biggest supporter of terrorism?

You guessed it: Uncle Sam.

Finally, I’ll finish with a quote from a blogger who I just discovered but with whom I agree on nearly every point she makes. I would be interested to know if other readers feel the same:

This US-Israel-Al Qaeda-Turkey backed operation against Syria, using various proxies and terrorist groups, was long planned in order to divert the Syrian Army’s forces, destabilize & overextend them, allowing Israel to come in from the south, preventing the flow of weapons to Hezbollah from Iran into Iraq, Syria & then Lebanon. The war continues, they merely shifted the theater slightly.

That’s why moments before this “ceasefire” Israel was attacking the border between Syria and Lebanon and continued after. The ceasefire gives Israel time to recover because it’s weak, and time to strategize with Washington until the most Zionist administration comes in. Make no mistake Trump will do what Bibi wants regarding Syria which will now be the focus, as it’s a huge resistance block standing in the way of the greater Israel project. …

Turkey & the two-faced conman Erdogan want control of the North (Syria) and will sell themselves to Israel and the West while condemning Bibi on Gaza. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte went to Turkey & worked out a deal with Washington giving F35s to Turkey right before this attack. He also met with Trump in DC days prior on 11/23.

None of this is coincidence. Essentially Israel isn’t going to follow through with this ceasefire. It’s in essence moot. The collective West including Tel Aviv are already at war against those fighting them to hold onto their national sovereignty. They want to stop Iran, Russia, & Syria, from cooperating to halt their expansionist, warmongering ambitions. Fiorella Isabel @FiorellaIsabelM

First-rate analysis. It helps to explain what’s going behind the fog of media coverage.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser

This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

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

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

Featured image is from TUR


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

**Voices from Syria**

Author: Mark Taliano

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-9-1

Year: 2017

Product Type: PDF File

List Price: $6.50

Special Offer: $5.00 

Click to order.

“Al Qaeda Terrorism” to Wage a Coup d’Etat against an Elected Secular Government

The Damascus December 8 Coup d’Etat was led by Jihadist terrorists supported by US-NATO-Israel.

President Bashar Al Assad has left the country. The coup d’Etat in Syria bears similarities to the  March 2014 Ukraine Euro-Maidan, which was marked by a U.S sponsored coup d’Etat supported by two terrorist Nazi parties, Right Sector and Svoboda.

The main actors in the December 8, 2024 coup d’Etat who were described by the media as “rebels” are Al Qaeda affiliated mercenaries, all of whom are supported by Western and Israeli intelligence. 

According to the the BBC “democracy” is to be reinstated under the leadership of rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani.  What the media fails to mention is that Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is the leader of an Islamist terrorist entity entitled Tahrir al-Sham which was previously affiliated to Al  Qaeda. 

Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is said to have served as:  “the second emir of Tahrir al-Sham since 2017. Before cutting ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016, Julani had served as the emir of the now-defunct al-Nusra Front, the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.

And the West applauds, celebrating the victory of  Tahir Al Sham. Their unspoken objective is to install an Islamist State led by terrorist proxies.

There is no evidence of  mass popular support for the terrorists. (See image below)

People stand atop a tank celebrating at Umayyad Square in Damascus

Umayyad Square in Damascus

Western politicians including (corrupt) EC President von Der Leyen applaud  “the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s “cruel dictatorship”.

The secular Al Assad government has waged in the course of the last 13 years a war against US-NATO-Israel sponsored terrorists. It’s amply documented.  He has massive popular support. He was reelected in May 2021

Today our heart and our mind are with the people of Syria who have fought the US-NATO-Israel sponsored terrorists in the course of the last 13 years. .

Michel Chossudovsky, December 8, 2024

The following article was published  in September 2017. The author was in Damascus in the month leading up the commencement of the war in March 17-18 2011.

Undeclared US-NATO-Israel War against Syria

 

by

Michel Chossudovsky

September 2017

 

Introduction

From Day One in March 2011, the Islamist “freedom fighters” were supported, trained and equipped by NATO and Turkey’s High Command.

The following eight concepts are intended to clarify the nature of the war on Syria, which started more than 13  years ago on March 17-18, 2011. 

It was never “a civil war”. It was an undeclared  war of aggression using Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists as the foot-soldiers of US-NATO and their Middle East allies.  

From day one, terrorists were involved in the killing of civilians. 

It started in Daraa as an insurgency integrated by Salafist mercenaries. 

Most of what is presented below is backed up by mainstream and official sources of information.  

1. The Daraa “Protest Movement” on March 17-18 2011

Daraa is a small border town.  National protest movements are invariably initiated in large urban areas.

The Daraa “Protests” had all the appearances of a staged event involving covert support to “Islamic terrorists”.

Government sources pointed to the role of radical Salafist groups.  In chorus, the Western media described the events in Daraa as a protest movement against Bashar Al Assad. Tacitly acknowledged by the media, many of the alleged “demonstrators” were professional killers.

In a bitter irony, the deaths of policemen were higher than those of “demonstrators”. It was not a protest movement, it was an armed insurgency.

In Daraa, roof top snipers were targeting both police and protesters.

Reading between the lines of Israeli and Lebanese news reports (which acknowledge the police deaths) a clearer picture of what happened in Daraa on March 17-18 had emerged. The Israel National News Report (which can not be accused of being biased in favor of Bashar al Assad) confirmed that:

“Seven police officers and at least four demonstrators in Syria have been killed in continuing violent clashes that erupted in the southern town of Daraa last Thursday. … and the Baath Party Headquarters and courthouse were torched, in renewed violence on Sunday. (Gavriel Queenann, Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests, Israel National News, Arutz Sheva, March 21, 2011, emphasis added)

The Lebanese news report also acknowledged the killings of seven policemen in Daraa.

[They were killed] “during clashes between the security forces and protesters… They got killed trying to drive away protesters during demonstration in Dara’a” 

The Lebanese Ya Libnan report quoting Al Jazeera also acknowledged that protesters had “burned the headquarters of the Baath Party and the court house in Dara’a” (emphasis added)

These news reports of the events in Daraa confirmed that from the very outset this was not a “peaceful protest” as claimed by the Western media.

Moreover, from an assessment of the initial casualty figures (Israel News), there were more policemen than “demonstrators” who were killed.

This is significant because it suggests that the police force may have initially been outnumbered by a well organized armed gang of professional killers.

2. Recruitment and Training of Terrorists From the Very Outset in 2011

Image on the right is from Massoud Nayeri

From Day One, the Islamist “freedom fighters” were supported, trained and equipped by NATO and Turkey’s High Command. According to Israeli intelligence sources:

NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish high command are meanwhile drawing up plans for their first military step in Syria, which is to arm the rebels with weapons for combating the tanks and helicopters spearheading the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent. … NATO strategists are thinking more in terms of pouring large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns into the protest centers for beating back the government armored forces. (DEBKAfile, NATO to give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14, 2011)

This initiative, which was also supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, involved a process of organized recruitment of thousands of jihadist “freedom fighters”, reminiscent of  the enlistment of  Mujahideen to wage the CIA’s jihad (holy war) in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war:

Also discussed in Brussels and Ankara, our sources report, is a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house these volunteers, train them and secure their passage into Syria. (Ibid, emphasis added)

These mercenaries were subsequently integrated into US and allied sponsored terrorist organizations including Al Nusrah and ISIS.

3. June 2014. The Staged ISIS “Invasion” of Iraq

The Islamic State is protected by the US and its allies.

If they had wanted to eliminate the Islamic State brigades, they could have “carpet” bombed their convoys of Toyota pickup trucks when they crossed the desert from Syria into Iraq in June 2014.

.

.

The  Syro-Arabian Desert is open territory (see map below). With state of the art jet fighter aircraft (F15, F22 Raptor, CF-18) it would have been  -from a military standpoint-  a rapid and expedient surgical operation  

But the objective was not to eliminate them, the objective was to support them.

.

.

4. September 2014. Obama’s “Counter-Terrorism Campaign”. US-NATO and Coalition “Humanitarian” Airstrikes “Directed Against ISIS”

In September 2014, Obama ordered a “counter-terrorism” bombing campaign against the ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.  This major bombing campaign was initiated two months months after the entry of the ISIS convoy of Toyota pickup trucks into Iraq in June 2014. The bombing campaign has now entered into its third year. Its objective was NOT to go after the Islamic State (ISIS-Daesh). The coalition consisted of some 4o countries five allied Arab monarchies, which are known to provide support to both ISIS and al Qaeda.  The “40-nation coalition that unleashed more than 200 airstrikes in Syria on a single night with state-of-the-art U.S. fighter planes and help from five allied Arab monarchies” Among the advanced weapons system allegedly used against the ISIS was the F-22 Raptor.

.

.

The total number of US and coalition sorties against Syria and Iraq is of the order of 111,410. This translates into an average of 147 sorties a day (over a period of 755 days).

  • More than 8,300 strike sorties have been carried out against Syria according to US Department of Defense sources.
  • The non-strike sorties have been used for the purposes of reconnaissance, logistics and coordination with terrorist commandos on the ground. 
  • 31,900 targets in Syria and Iraq have been hit by US war planes (see table below) including public buildings, residential areas, economic infrastructure (all of which was waged under a fake campaign against ISIS- Daesh).

Over a two year period (September 2014- September 2016)

Its all for a good cause. None of these strikes were directed at the Syrian people, according to official statements.

And these humanitarian statements have never been challenged by the Western media.

The initiative was part of the “Global War on Terrorism”. It was in violation of  international law. What we are dealing with are extensive war crimes directed against the people of Syria and Iraq. 

5. 2014-2016: 31,900 “Targets Damaged/Destroyed” by US and Coalition Air Raids

.

Source of Tables US Department of Defense, copyright US DoD, 2016

.

6. The Cost of Obama’s Air Campaign: 9.3 Billion Dollars 

755 days, 12.3 million dollars a day since August 2014

These are the costs of destroying Iraq and Syria. killing tens of thousands of Syrians, triggering a refugee crisis. These costs are ultimately financed by tax dollars. We are dealing with the conduct of extensive war crimes. The mainstream media remains on silent this issue. 

These 12.3 million dollars a day are the cost of destroying Syria and Iraq and killing their people.

In the table above the “official” breakdown is provided, the figures refer to US strikes against Syria and Iraq.

31,900 targets as part of a war on terrorism. Ironically, the number of terrorists has increased dramatically as a result of the “counter-terrorism” campaign, not to mention the NATO sponsored international campaign of recruitment of terrorists.

7. U.S. Weapons to Al Qaeda and ISIS 

According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, quoting documents released by the U.S. Government’s Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), the US –as part of its “counterterrorism campaign”– has provided Syrian rebels [aka moderate Al Qaeda] with large amounts of weapons and ammunition.

.

.

The US and its allies (including Turkey and Saudi Arabia) have relied on the illicit trade in light weaponry produced in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, China, etc. for delivery to rebel groups inside Syria, including ISIS-Daesh and Al Nusra. In turn, operating out of the occupied Golan Heights, Israel’s IDF has provided weapons, ammunition, logistical support to Al Qaeda rebels operating in Southern Syria.

While Washington’s Middle East allies undertake shady transactions in a buoyant market for light weapons, a significant part of these illicit weapons shipments is nonetheless directly commissioned by the US government.

These shipments of weapons are not conducted through internationally approved weapons transfers. While they are the result of  a Pentagon (or US government) procurement, they are not recorded as “official” military aid. They use private traders and shipping companies within the realm of a thriving illicit trade in light weapons.

Based on the examination of a single December 2015 Pentagon sponsored shipment of more than 990 tons, one can reasonably conclude that the amounts of light weapons in the hands of  ”opposition” rebels inside Syria is substantial and exceedingly large.

.

Screenshot from Jane’s Defense Report

.

For further details click here

 

8. Weapons “Made in Canada” Delivered to Saudi Arabia, A State Sponsor of Terrorism  

Ottawa’s deal with Saudi Arabia is coordinated with Washington. It essentially serves the Pentagon’s military agenda in the Middle East, it channels billions of dollars to the US military industrial complex.

Amply documented, Saudi Arabia is the state sponsor of Al Qaeda affiliated “opposition groups” in Syria including the Islamic State (ISIS). Riyadh –acting in liaison and on behalf of Washington– plays a central role in the financing of the Islamic State (ISIS) as well as the recruitment, training and religious indoctrination of terrorist mercenary forces deployed in Syria and Iraq.

What this signifies is that Canada is selling weapons to a country which is supporting and sponsoring terrorist organizations.  Moreover Saudi Arabia is currently involved in a war of aggression against Yemen in blatant derogation of international law.

The weapons are “Made in Canada” produced by General Dynamics Land Systems, London, Ontario., a subsidiary of US defense contractor General Dynamics.

General Dynamics has subsidiaries in 43 countries including Canada.

.

.

Ottawa’s official stance is that these weapons which include “combat vehicles with machine guns and anti-tank cannons” are to be used by Saudi Arabia solely for purposes of national defense. They are not be used against civilians.

Opponents of Canada’s $15-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia took Ottawa to court. The action was led by law Professor Daniel Turp together with students of the University of Montreal. In a recent judgment (January 23) by Federal Court in Montreal, the case was dismissed: “Justice Daniele Tremblay-Lamer ruled that the court’s role was not to “pass moral judgment” on the decision by then-foreign affairs minister Stéphane Dion to issue export permits allowing the deal.”

9. The Liberation of Aleppo

While Aleppo has been liberated against the scourge of US-NATO supported terrorism, most mainstream media are accusing Syrian government forces of committing atrocities against civilians, describing Aleppo as a humanitarian crisis. What they fail to mention is that for the last four years the Eastern part of  Aleppo has been occupied by Al Qaeda terrorists who are now upheld as “opposition” rebels.

The terrorists are described as the victims of Syrian government aggression. From the very outset, the atrocities committed by the terrorists are casually blamed on Syrian government forces and their allies.

*

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

Global Research’s Holiday Fundraiser 

  • Posted in English
  • Comments Off on Undeclared US-NATO-Israel War of Aggression against Syria: “Al Qaeda Terrorism” to Wage a Coup d’Etat against an Elected Secular Government

Our thanks to Lux Media for this production

To contribute to Lux Media click here and then Click: Faire un don

To Contribute to Global Research Click here

First published on December 6,  2024

We are featuring this video interview. with the option of sub-titles in the following languages: English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Spanish and Russian

Video: Say No to Nuclear War.  Pentagon War Games.  Ruebek and Churya Attack America

Drago Bosnic and  Michel Chossudovsky

English

To Access Video in Rumble click Here (English without subtitles) :

Vidéo : Dites non à la guerre nucléaire.  Jeux de guerre du Pentagone. Ruebek et Churya attaquent l’Amérique

Drago Bosnic et Michel Chossudovsky

Français

Cliquez ici pour la version sur X.com  sous titres en français

Arabic, عربي

Español 

Farsi   للقيام بذلك

.
 .

Russian Русский

.

Is World War III About to Start or Has It Already?

December 8th, 2024 by Richard C. Cook

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

First published on February 22, 2024

 

***

Let me start by pointing out that the above was the topic of a three-part article I wrote that was published on the VT Foreign Policy website on December 31, 2023, entitled: “Is World War III About to Start?”

In this article I did not postulate a definitive answer. Of course, some would say that WWIII has already begun. But let’s explore further.

We know that the U.S. has been in a continuous state of some level of war mobilization since at least 1940. That’s coming up on a century ago. Of course, some would say that when WWII began, it was really just a continuation of WWI, when the U.S. had troops fighting in Europe from 1917-1918. So that takes us to well over a century ago.

But why another world war now? Let’s explore some history.

When Germany invaded Poland at the start of WWII in September, 1939, it was more than a year before the U.S. was formally at war, after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

But well before, in 1940, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration began to use Lend-Lease to supply military assistance to the Western Allies, acquisitions that they were allowed to purchase on credit.

To this day, however, few are aware of how much by way of armaments was also provided to the Soviet Union via Lend-Lease. This included tanks, artillery, and whole factories to help build the Soviet war machine. It also included equipment needed to eventually build atomic weapons.

All of these transfers to the Soviets were concealed from Congress and the public but originated with actions by actors/agents within the Roosevelt government. U.S./Soviet collaboration was also concealed from Hitler, who said he would not have invaded the Soviet Union had he known of its vast hidden stores of war materiel. This was part of the U.S./British plan to trap Hitler into action that would complete the destruction of Germany begun during World War I.

It wasn’t until after World War II had ended when, under President Harry Truman, the U.S. broke away from its Soviet wartime ally, which now became our enemy when the “Cold War” was engineered into existence.

Few are aware that the impetus for U.S. policy during and after WWII came from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Always the most prominent American “think tank” since its inception at the end of WWI, the CFR was/is a U.S.-situated creation of the London/New York-based “Money Power.” The leading U.S. figure in the CFR’s scheming is believed to have been Bernard Baruch. Members of the Rockefeller family and their associates have also been heavily involved in the CFR and have provided funding for much of its program.

Before the CFR came into existence, the U.S. branch of the Money Power had been headed by J.P. Morgan and was concentrated then, as now, in New York City. Allied with Morgan was the newly-minted fortune of John D. Rockefeller. Under the stage-managing of the European Rothschilds, both Morgan and Rockefeller connived in setting up the Federal Reserve in 1913. Col. House was tasked with getting U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to go along and sign the legislation.

The immediate purpose of the Federal Reserve was to provide Great Britain and France with the money to fight Germany in WWI. But France was, and remains, secondary. The Federal Reserve was, above all, central to an Anglo-American objective to take over the world.

The purpose of this takeover was to expand the grip over the world economy of the empire of usury. It was through usury, which had been prohibited in Europe during the Middle Ages and by the Islamic religion since its founding, that the world’s bankers have confiscated the wealth of every nation in which they have been allowed to dominate. Usury requires the constant generation of surplus profits to feed the bankers’ greed. Military force is the means by which the proceeds of usury are secured.

By means of WWI, the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires, along with their ancient aristocratic cultures whose wealth was in land, were destroyed. The main reason these empires were obliterated and their kings removed or, in Russia’s case, killed, was the vast amount of debt they had incurred by borrowing from Europe’s bankers. After the war, their property was forfeited as bankers’ collateral.

Thus much of central and eastern Europe was obliterated during the war, with Turkish control of the Middle East terminated.

Britain and the U.S. were the two powers most united with the Money Power, whose wealth has been based on private banking and usury for the last 400 years, since the time of Cromwell. By the early 19th century it’s been the Rothschilds at center stage, even in the U.S., with the Rockefellers in league.

Now Russia was turned over to the Bolsheviks, who were hidden agents of the Money Power and collectors on the usurers’ debt claims. Britain took control of Palestine as a League of Nations mandate, having issued the Balfour Declaration as the first step in creation of a Jewish national state.

The Rothschilds provided the funds for Jewish conquest of Palestine and for building the Israeli Zionist entity.

Back to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Its purpose was/is to assure that in all future wars, the U.S. government would be controlled by the Money Power, which is exactly what has happened. Britain has a corresponding organization, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, or Chatham House.

This was a branch of the Round Table, set up by Nathaniel Rothschild and Alfred Lord Milner, using the legacy of Cecil Rhodes from his diamond and gold mining enterprises in South Africa.

In 1939-1940, as WWII was beginning in Europe, the CFR commenced writing a series of reports that it imposed on the Roosevelt Administration, laying out a future program whereby the U.S. would assume military dominance over the entire world. The Rockefeller Foundation paid for these studies.

The CFR program for global military dominance has been the overriding U.S. geopolitical objective ever since; always, of course, on behalf of the Money Power, with the U.S. providing the military might. It’s said that “all wars are economic.”

The U.S. has chosen to attain its economic goals by brute force, no longer by means of hard work, diplomacy, or cooperative venture. It has seen most of the other nations of the world as its enemies or subjects, but above all, as debtors to its banks. In response, the U.S. is viewed increasingly by the rest of the world as a schoolyard bully, or as a harsh debt collector.

The U.S. has been engaged in “endless wars” since 1941: WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, you name it.

This is why the U.S. generated the “War on Terror” and is now engaged in a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine to control Europe and Eurasia.

It’s why the U.S. is engaged in another proxy war on the side of genocidal Israel in the Middle East in order to keep control the oil resources of the Islamic world.

It’s the purpose of the U.S. military doctrine of “Full-Spectrum Dominance,” meant to put a stop to competition anywhere on the planet or even in cyberspace or outer space.

Always Britain has been at America’s side with its “special relationship,” egging us on, seeming to play the role of “America’s poodle.” The action arm for endless war has been the faction known as “Neocons.”

But even behind control of oil has been control of banking and collection of the profits from usury. Whenever the U.S. takes over a country, it’s the banks that move in first, often with the International Monetary Fund as the leading edge of the takeover. This control is executed by the “jackals” who work for the intelligence agencies.

Meanwhile, the military establishment of both the U.S. and Britain employ many thousands of highly-educated individuals in researching the most ingenious methods possible of killing their fellow human beings. In a technological age there is no limit to how gruesome and unconscionable these methods can be. It’s these military researchers who have been at the forefront of bioweapons development using gain-of-function research.

This is the context in which we can ask the question, “Is World War III About to Start?”

We mean by this, of course, is the U.S. about to engage in all-out nuclear war against the nations identified as its “adversaries”?

At present, these are Russia and China, the only nations appearing to be seriously challenging Full-Spectrum Dominance. Also identified as a near-term enemy is Iran. Israel and Ukraine, both U.S. proxies, appear to have been assigned the role of instigators.

But don’t forget, it’s always been on behalf of the Money Power and its usury, which began its takeover of America more than two centuries ago, even before the U.S. Constitution was written.

It was through this takeover that the wealth accruing to Americans from their work and from the resources of the land began to flow upwards into the hands of those in charge of the monetary system, with a portion of it being used to pay for the military machine that would gradually put the entire world under its control—or so they think.

We can reasonably ask whether this is how people are meant to live, so obviously filled with greed, hate, and hubris. Is this what American religious fundamentalists intend to help bring about?

The American Geopolitical Institute will be studying these matters in the weeks and months ahead.

Every human enterprise must serve life, must seek to enrich existence on earth, lest man become enslaved where he seeks to establish his dominion!” —Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, 1876-1943), Translation by Posthumus Projects Amsterdam, 2014.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on VT Foreign Policy.

Featured image source


Our Country, Then and Now

by Richard C. Cook

ISBN: 9781949762853

E-book ISBN: 978-1-949762-86-0

Year: 2023

Our Country Then and Now takes us on a 400-year journey through America’s history, providing unique snapshots from African enslavement, native dispossession, financial scandals, and wars of expansion and aggression, interspersed with tales from author Richard C. Cook’s ancestry—from Puritan forebears to fighters in the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War, to Midwest Pioneer farmers and their relations with native nations.

Click here to order.