CEIMSA/Bulletin 1090: More geopolitical laboratories for the arms industry, and other capitalist experiments in the absence of working-class consciousness.

Bulletin N° 1090

Nine To Five

https://123-movies.shop/9-to-5-1980/

https://movies2watch.ru/movie/nine-to-five-vo96/1-full

(1:49:23)

directed by Colin Higgins and staring Lily Tomlin, Dabney Coleman, Marian Mercer, Colin Higgins, Peggy Pope, Elizabeth Wilson, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton

Three female office workers become friends and get revenge against their boss, a sexist egotistical lying hypocritical bigot, and in so doing create a more efficient and pleasant work environment.

Subject: More geopolitical laboratories for the arms industry, and other capitalist experiments in the absence of working-class consciousness.

Grenoble

February 25, 2023

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

The CENTRE D'ÉTUDES DES INSTITUTIONS ET DES MOUVEMENTS SOCIAUX AMÉRICAINS has been active for more than twenty years, and today we are presenting the ten-hundred-and-ninetieth Ceimsa bulletin, sharing Anglophone social media communications with our community since 2001. (See Ceimsa archives for more detail at: http://www.ceimsa.org/archives/.)

The information in these articles and essays is uncensored and sometimes contradictory, representing our effort to convey important topics that are currently being discussed in the Anglophone world - independent of corporate media propaganda – and require “sifting-and-winnowing” instead of simply the distribution of predigested opinions to be swallowed on command.

Learning to think clearly has remained our principle priority, and for this we need rigorous dialogue and debate, instead of servile obedience.

Ceimsa has been much influenced over the years by NYU Professor Mark Crispin Miller, and his work on defining and analyzing the role propaganda has played (and continues to play) in our political economy: i.e. creating shills to perpetuate non-critical thinking and opportunistic obedience to “magical” high priests of sophistry.

An excellent example of Professor Miller’s work is found in his critical essay:

“2020: A Propaganda Masterpiece,” which came out in mid-2021, as part of Perspectives on the Pandemic

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/so-the-next-big-scare-will-be-an?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

So the Next Big Scare will be an alien invasion (not by Mexicans, but as foretold by H.G. Wells)? We saw this one coming in the spring of 2021, and warned that it (too) would be wholly BOGUS

As things get ever more spectacularly worse, they HAVE to keep on scaring us—this time, it seems, with "UFOs." Can that hoax work the same black magic as "the virus"? Or will THIS trick flop?

See, also: “2020 A Propaganda Masterpiece Perspectives on The Pandemic,” by Mark Crispin Miller

"Propaganda Masterpiece" - Parts 1 & 2:

https://www.extremelyamerican.com/post/mark-crispin-miller-2020-a-propaganda-masterpiece

"Propaganda Masterpiece" - Part 3:

https://odysee.com/@alltheworldsastage:0/2020-A-Propaganda-Masterpiece-Perspectives-on-The-Pandemic-Mark-Crispin-Miller-Episode-23:f

(55:49)

The 26+ items below represent several discourses found in the Anglophone social media today, discourses which reflect popular concern over important events that intrude into our lives. Aware of the practice of belief-based “Science” and propaganda, we encourage Ceimsa readers to seek out those facts which can enhance our scientific contextual understanding of these events, and empower us to act in a way that will improve our lives and correspond to our collective interests.

Sincerely,

Francis McCollum Feeley

___________

Professeur honoraire de l'Université Grenoble-Alpes
Ancien Directeur des Researches
Université de Paris-Nanterre
Director of The Center for the Advanced Study
of American Institutions and Social Movements
(CEIMSA-in-Exile)
The University of California-San Diego
http://www.ceimsa.org

RAGE AGAINST THE WAR MACHINE - DC RALLY LIVE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ-X6Otu05Y

with Sabrina Salvati

(5:08:15)

Streamed live on Feb 19, 2023

Rage Against The War Machine Speech

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/19/chris-hedges-rage-against-the-war-machine-speech/

by Chris Hedges

Jimmy Dore RAGES Against War Machine At DC Peace Rally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4abLKf4p5U

with Jimmy Dore

(16:35)

Why The Rage Against The War Machine Rally Is #AntiWarSoWhite

https://www.blackagendareport.com/why-rage-against-war-machine-rally-antiwarsowhite

by Jacqueline Luqman

Leftists, especially the Black left, do not share common cause with everyone who wants to end U.S involvement in Ukraine. The politics of some who call themselves anti-war cannot be ignored.

I’m looking at this Rage Against The War Machine rally that is being organized by the Libertarian Party and I am genuinely confused about how folks on the left are involved in this at all. Oh, I understand the need to revive and mobilize a strong not just anti-war movement, but an anti–imperialist and people-centered human rights movement, so sure, sometimes we’re going to have to organize with people we don’t agree 100% on everything with. But THESE people?

And look, on the surface, if one would look at the list of demands on the Rage Against The War Machine webpage - and I do take offense at their play on the name of the band Rage Against The Machine - one easily agrees with not sending one more penny to Ukraine, to slashing the Pentagon budget, to abolishing war and empire, to disbanding NATO, and to freeing Julian Assange, among others reasonable sounding demands and think, “Well this is great, I agree with all of these things, so of course I’ll support/align with them!”

But, if you compare those nice-sounding words to the actual ideology of today’s Libertarian Party, and particularly of the Mises Caucus that has gained control of it, something starts to smell funny. So let me hip you to who these people are and why I’m now calling this and the support from too many white so-called leftists in the anti-war movement, #AntiWarSoWhite.

Back in May of 2022 Reason Magazine published an article examining the takeover of the Libertarian Party by the Mises Caucus which happened when the Caucus got their candidate Angela McCardle elected to chair the national party with 69% of the voting delegates. The article points out that while McArdle was the Mises Caucus candidate, the behind-the-scenes mastermind of its victory was caucus founder and leader Michael Heise.

The caucus's official platform is typical libertarian stuff - personal liberty, little to no federal government oversight or no federal government for that matter, no “unconstitutional” war, no federal regulation on guns, the primacy of private property - which has always screamed capitalist greed and a host of other problems including racism, since racists have taken the libertarian creed of freedom to associate with no federal oversight on freedom to exclude people of color. But the key to understanding the danger of the Mises Caucus isn’t in what their platform says; it is in what their members have said and have done. Because even old-guard libertarians say that too many of the Caucus members are obnoxious bullies, and are also often racist.

The Reason Magazine article cites the example of the New Hampshire L.P., a powerful vector of Mises Caucus messaging, tweeting on Martin Luther King Day that "Black people in America get special access to essential drugs, receive special federal funding due to race, and are first-in-line for every college and every job. America isn't in debt to black people. If anything it's the other way around."

Aside from the assertions that Black people get preferential anything in this country being typical racist drivel and patently false, the racist imaginary grievances were a response to Nicole Hannah Jones tweeting not her sentiments, but the words of Dr. Martin Luthe King, Jr. when he said in the oft miscontextualized “I Have A Dream” speech: “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds…” But sure, we get preferential essential drug and job and college admittance treatment at a time when economic inequality between Black and white persists , with whatever meager gains the so-called Black middle class has achieved not translating to increased economic stability for the Black masses, and all Black households are far behind white households in income and assets, including the much-celebrated Black petit bourgeoisie.

Biden in Ukraine: Matt Duss, Medea Benjamin Debate U.S. Involvement, Hopes for Peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3dkHzzavTs

with Amy Goodman, Matt Duss, and Code Pink

(19:13)

President Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine ahead of this week's first anniversary of Russia's invasion and announced another $500 million in military aid to Ukraine and more sanctions on Russia. The visit underlines what Biden called his "unwavering support" for Ukrainian independence at a time when growing numbers of people in the United States and other countries are pushing for a negotiated end to the fighting. "For an American president to make a trip like this is enormously symbolic," says Matt Duss, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Bernie Sanders adviser. "I feel this is a propaganda move to shore up support for a senseless war that the American public are starting to realize has no end in sight except for more senseless waste of lives," says CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin.

Date: February 27, 2023

Teach-in Webinar: How the War Industry Shapes U.S. Foreign Policy

https://covertactionmagazine.com/teach-in-webinar-how-the-war-industry-shapes-u-s-foreign-policy/

by CovertAction Magazine

With tensions rising between the U.S. and China, and intervention escalating in Ukraine, it’s urgent that we understand the hidden interests behind these and other developments.

On Monday, February 27th, at 7 PM ET, join CAM for an investigative webinar on how the military-industrial complex is driving U.S. foreign policy toward a potential world war while wasting much-needed resources on the rich.

Register now for the Webinar: To be held on: February 27, 2023 / Time: 7:00 PM EST

Distract, Divide and Conquer: The REAL State of Our Union

https://off-guardian.org/2023/02/11/distract-divide-and-conquer-the-real-state-of-our-union/

by John Whitehead

Step away from the blinders that partisan politics uses to distract, divide and conquer, and you will find that we are drowning in a cesspool of problems that individually and collectively threaten our lives, liberties, prosperity and happiness.

These are not problems the politicians want to talk about, let alone address, yet we cannot afford to ignore them much longer.

Foreign interests are buying up our farmland and holding our national debt. As of 2021, foreign persons and entities owned 40.8 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, 47% of which was forestland, 29% in cropland, and 22% in pastureland. Foreign land holdings have increased by an average of 2.2 million acres per year since 2015.

Foreign countries also own $7.4 trillion worth of U.S. national debt, with Japan and China ranked as our two largest foreign holders of our debt.

Corporate and governmental censorship have created digital dictators. While the “Twitter files” revealed the lengths to which the FBI has gone to monitor and censor social media content, the government has been colluding with the tech sector for some time now in order to silence its critics and target “dangerous” speech in the name of fighting so-called disinformation.

The threat of being labelled “disinformation” is being used to undermine anyone who asks questions, challenges the status quo, and engages in critical thinking.

Middle- and lower-income Americans are barely keeping up. Rising costs of housing, food, gas and other necessities are presenting nearly insurmountable hurdles towards financial independence for the majority of households who are scrambling to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, mounting layoffs in the tens of thousands are adding to the fiscal pain.

The government is attempting to weaponize mental health care. Increasingly, in communities across the nation, police are being empowered to forcibly detain individuals they believe might be mentally ill, even if they pose no danger to others.

While these programs are ostensibly aimed at getting the homeless off the streets, when combined with the government’s ongoing efforts to predict who might pose a threat to public safety based on mental health sensor data (tracked by wearable data and monitored by government agencies such as HARPA), the specter of mental health round-ups begins to sound less far-fetched.

The military’s global occupation is spreading our resources thin and endangering us at home. America’s war spending and commitment to policing the rest of the world are bankrupting the nation and spreading our troops dangerously thin. In 2022 alone, the U.S. approved more than $50 billion in aid for Ukraine, half of which went towards military spending, with more on the way. The U.S. also maintains some 750 military bases in 80 countries around the world.

Deepfakes, AI and virtual reality are blurring the line between reality and a computer-generated illusion. Powered by AI software, deepfake audio and video move us into an age where it is almost impossible to discern what is real, especially as it relates to truth and disinformation.

At the same time, the technology sector continues to use virtual reality to develop a digital universe—the metaverse—that is envisioned as being the next step in our evolutionary transformation from a human-driven society to a technological one.

Advances in technology are outstripping our ability to protect ourselves from its menacing side, both in times of rights, humanity and workforce. In the absence of constitutional protections in place to guard against encroachments on our rights in the electronic realm, we desperately need an Electronic Bill of Rights that protects “we the people” from predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices.

The courts have aligned themselves with the police state. In one ruling after another, the courts have used the doctrine of qualified immunity to shield police officers from accountability for misconduct, tacitly giving them a green light to act as judge, jury and executioner on the populace.

All the while, police violence, the result of training that emphasizes brute force over constitutional restraints, continues to endanger the public.

The nation’s dependence on foreign imports has fueled a $1 trillion trade deficit. While analysts have pointed to the burgeoning trade deficit as a sign that the U.S. economy is growing, it underscores the extent to which very little is actually made in America anymore.

World governments, including the U.S., continue to use national crises such as COVID-19 to expand their emergency powers. None are willing to relinquish these powers when the crisis passes. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the U.S. government still has 42 declared national emergencies in effect, allowing it to sidestep constitutional protocols that maintain a system of checks and balances. For instance, the emergency declared after the 9/11 has yet to be withdrawn.

The nation’s infrastructure is rapidly falling apart. Many of the country’s roads, bridges, airports, dams, levees and water systems are woefully outdated and in dire need of overhauling, and have fallen behind that of other developed countries in recent years.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that crumbling infrastructure costs every American household $3,300 in hidden costs a year due to lost time, increased fuel consumption while sitting in traffic jams, and extra car repairs due to poor road conditions.

The nation is about to hit a healthcare crisis. Despite the fact that the U.S. spends more on health care than any other high-income country, it has the worst health outcomes than its peer nations. Experts are also predicting a collapse in the U.S. health care system as the medical community deals with growing staff shortages and shuttered facilities.

These are just a small sampling of the many looming problems that threaten to overwhelm us in the near future.

The Ukraine Crisis: What You Need to Know

https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/the-ukraine-crisis-what-you-need

by James Corbett

First, let's just get up to speed with the bare facts of the mainstream 2D narrative.

As you'll already know from my recent work on the topic (see here and here and here), Ukraine/Russia tensions ramped up considerably over the past few weeks. A series of cyberattacks on Ukrainian government websites, a White House-endorsed conspiracy theory that Russia was planning a false flag event to justify an invasion and a series of bold proclamations that Russia was going to invade Ukraine by such-and-such a date all added to the tensions.

The final straws prompting this military assault appear to have been:

· An increase in NATO threats and provocations in recent months, including joint NATO-Ukrainian drills and an unprecedented $200 million airlift of weapons and ammunition to Kiev in January.

· The US/NATO rejection of Russia's demands for a guarantee that NATO would not offer membership to Ukraine.

· An increase in fighting in the Donbas region between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists, leading to the latter asking Russia for military support.

“Moldova tensions rise, new Prime Minister wants Transnistria demilitarized”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sliXoMOBQfE&feature=youtu.be

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(22:17)

International People's Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism

https://www.blackagendareport.com/international-peoples-tribunal-us-imperialism

by Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley

(audio, 16:28)

===========

ESSAY: Black Studies in the Age of Obama: John H. Bracey, Jr. 2011

https://www.blackagendareport.com/essay-black-studies-age-obama-john-h-bracey-jr-2011

by The Black Agenda Review editors

“Black Studies in the Age of Obama”

by John H. Bracey, Jr.

In assessing the state of African American Studies from its origins as the academic wing of the Black liberation movements of the 1960s to the onset of the presidency of Barack Obama, it may be helpful to consider Max Weber’s classic analyses of bureaucracy and also the insights of C.L.R. James on the relationship of intellectuals to mass social movements.

Routinization of charisma/bureaucratization

War Certainly Is A Racket

https://off-guardian.org/2023/02/13/war-certainly-is-a-racket/

by Iain Davis

In 1935, Major General Smedley Butler’s seminal book “War Is A Racket” warned of the dangers of the US military-industrial complex, more than 25 years before the outgoing US President Eisenhower implored the world to “guard against” the same thing.

One of the most decorated soldiers in US military history, Butler knew what he was talking about, famously writing that war is “…conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.”

While he lamented the loss of his fallen comrades and despite the gongs he received for defending his country, Butler came to understand that he was actually a “high class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers.” Later, the historian Antony C. Sutton proved that Butler was right.

When the US administration of George Bush passed its Foreign Operations Appropriation Law in 1991, it ended all US credit to the former, thriving socialist republic of Yugoslavia. At the time the perception on the Hill was that Yugoslavia was no longer required as a buffer zone between the NATO states and their former Warsaw Pact adversaries, so its independent socialism was no longer tolerated.

The US military industrial complex, that Butler and Eisenhower told everyone to tackle, effectively destabilised the entire Balkan region, destroyed hitherto relatively peaceful countries and then fuelled the resultant wars with its pet Islamist terrorists.

Ably assisted by the World Bank and the IMF.

So-called “assistance,” via the Train and Equip Program, gave US taxpayers the opportunity to funnel $500M to private security contractors like DynCorp. DynCorp put taxpayer’s money to use, seemingly by training terrorists and child trafficking to paedophiles.

The US and its Western allies’ military industrial complex pulled off more or less the same trick in Iraq, Libya and nearly in Syria. In hindsight this doesn’t appear to have been a very good idea. That is, if you think wars are fought for the reasons we are told.

Having bombed Iraq into the stone age, to stop its regime producing the WMDs it didn’t have, the US then “rescued” the country, from the horrific violence and starvation sanctions the US government itself visited upon the Iraqi people, by establishing the US led coalition’s puppet Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) government. Once installed, the CPA did things like award US engineering firm Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) a ‘sole source contract’ to fix and operate all of Iraq’s oil wells.

That US Vice President Dick Cheney, who lied passionately about Iraqi WMD, was also in receipt of an annual $2M stipend from KBR was just a coincidence. As was the massive boost to the value of his Halliburton shareholdings as a direct result of the war he was instrumental in starting.

When the former UK Prime Minister Teresa May OK’d missile trikes upon Syrian civilians, the fact that her husband made millions out of it, as his investments in missile manufactures went through the roof, was also just a coincidence. In no way did she personally profit from killing children and the fact that her family continues to make a fortune by killing more children in Yemen does not undermine Theresa’s very public profile as a champion of good causes. Although, it appears, not killing children isn’t one of them.

So we shouldn’t be surprised when, once again, we discover that war, far from an impediment to business, actually improves operational margins, increases production, boosts markets and offers white collar criminal enterprises industrial scale profits.

Sure, people, including children, die in huge numbers but so what? Where there’s muck there’s brass. War certainly is a racket.

It turns out that Ukraine has been buying Russian fuel from the EU member state Bulgaria throughout the Ukraine War. An odd oversight for alleged combatants in a war. It is similar to the Ukrainian government’s decision to allow the continuing transit of Russian gas from Gazprom to EU markets through its resident pipelines.

The Russian energy giant Lukoil, whose former CEO Ravil Maganov accidentally fell out of a window a few months ago—a common problem for the wrong Russian executives—has been shipping Russian oil to its refinery in the Bulgarian port city of Burgas. The Burgas refinery is the only one in Bulgaria and the largest in the Balkans. From there the refined gas-oil (red diesel) is exported to Russia’s supposed enemy, Ukraine.

This was all being done in secret, says the Russian MSM, although this is just perception management, pro-war propaganda. There has also been a lot of nonsense written by the Western MSM, alleging that Bulgaria has been illicitly circumnavigating EU “sanctions.” Regardless of the fact that this too is monumental tripe.

There isn’t anything “secret” about it. In truth, the door was left open for Russia and Bulgaria to continue this trade, at least until the end of 2024, because the EU inserted a loophole to ensure that they could. Presumably, the Russian government knew nothing about the massive oil shipments, which is why it remained a “secret,” according to Russian MSM.

Given that the “secrecy” narrative is total claptrap, why would both the Western and the Russian MSM want to peddle essentially the same disinformation? Let’s spend a moment to reflect upon the EU’s non-sanction sanctions shall we?

It means that third party non-EU trading nations, like Kazakhstan for instance, can ship Russian oil to the EU unhindered by the inconvenience of alleged sanctions. The sanctions are for reordering global energy flows, not ending them.

While the switch-over has plunged European citizens into an energy crisis, that’s OK. It is essential for the future of the planet that Europeans are convinced to accept ever increasing energy prices. Otherwise they might not welcome the transition to the “sustainable energy” that will make their lives much worse.

Red diesel in Ukraine is used for industrial and heavy machinery, in agriculture and manufacturing for example. It is also used for, oh I don’t know, fuelling tanks and armoured personnel carriers, mobile artillery units and stuff like that.

Stories from European news outlets that Bulgaria provides nearly 40% of Ukrainian military fuel are all nonsense because reasons. Officials have denied the evidence, such as confirmation from the former Bulgarian President, so it isn’t “officially approved” evidence. Consequently, it can safely be discounted by anyone gullible enough to do so.

Don’t forget, according to Western and Russian MSM outlets, it’s all a secret. Which may come as a relief to some, because otherwise the Russian government would have been colluding with the EU to ensure that the Ukrainian military could stay in the fight wouldn’t it?

Recently, despite apparently running out of weaponry, if you believe Western propaganda that is, Russia has launched a massive missile strike on Ukraine, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to Russian MSM this is part of the Russian governments efforts to undermine Ukraine’s “military capabilities.”

The fact that it ensures that Ukraine will need to be rebuilt by borrowing enormous sums from international financiers, with the diligent assistance of Gazprom investors BlackRock, is not relevant. So ignore this too please.

Gazprom sells gas to Moldova which is now going to provide gas to Ukraine via the Ukrainian transit gas pipelines that Russian bombing has accidentally missed entirely. The Moldovan government is keen to stress that this is not the gas it buys from Gazprom but is rather the gas it buys from somewhere else it hasn’t specified despite admitting that it is completely reliant upon Russian energy.

“Running out of ammo”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckX76lHiMDQ&feature=youtu.be

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(32:30)

A Nano-Second to Midnight

https://www.globalresearch.ca/nano-second-midnight/5809546

by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

The main focus of the incompetent Biden Regime is on demonizing white Americans who are not “Woke Democrats” and on raising tensions with Russia which are already more dangerous than during the Cuban missile crisis. The crazed warmonger, Victoria Nuland, who Biden appointed and the Senate confirmed Undersecretary of State, announced that Washington considers Russian installations in Crimea “legitimate targets” and the US government supports Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.

Yesterday Putin announced that Russia is suspending participation in the last remaining nuclear arms agreement (START) as Washington insists on Russia’s compliance in the absence of its own.

The US Ambassador in Moscow was summoned to account for Washington’s participation in the Ukrainian conflict with Russia. The US Ambassador was told that the money, weapons, targeting information, support personnel all prove the falsity of Washington’s claim not to be a party to the conflict. The ambassador was told that the US is actively at war with Russia and actively engaged in hostile actions against Russia, and that this would have consequences.

Putin has put Russian nuclear missiles on Combat Alert status.

See, also: Why Nuclear War Is Planetary Death. Stephen Star Explains….

Russia Summoned US Ambassador Due to Growing Military Involvement of U.S. in Ukrainian Conflict

https://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-summoned-us-ambassador-due-military-involvement-ukrainian-conflict/5809541

by South Front

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy to make a demarche due to the growing involvement of the United States in the fighting on the side of the Kiev regime. The diplomatic measure was taken almost immediately after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his annual address to the Russian Federal Assembly, claiming among other things that Russia suspended implementation of START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty).

The protest note transmitted to the Ambassador emphasizes that the pumping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with weapons, as well as the target designation for striking Russian military and civilian infrastructure facilities clearly prove the inconsistency and falsity of the claims of the American side that the United States is not a party to the conflict. It is also indicated that the weapons supplied to Kiev, as well as the service personnel, including American citizens, confirm U.S military involvement, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned.

See, also: US Announces Plans to Expand “Industrial Base” for War with Russia….

Watch “Putin delivers confident Federal Assembly speech, suspends START nuclear treaty”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGQF_tvIhb0

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(34:26)

“Munich as Propaganda Fest”

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/19/patrick-lawrence-munich-as-propaganda-fest/

by Patrick Lawrence

Eyewitness to War: Escaping the Meat Grinder—My Encounters with Refugees from Soledar in Eastern Ukraine

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/02/19/eyewitness-to-war-escaping-the-meat-grinder-my-encounters-with-refugees-from-soledar-in-eastern-ukraine/?mc_cid=b385b3192b&mc_eid=7ddd08c64d

by Arnaud Develay

Declassified intelligence files expose inconvenient truths of Bosnian war

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/30/declassified-intelligence-files-bosnian-war/

by Kit Klarenberg and Tom Secker

A trove of intelligence files sent by Canadian peacekeepers expose CIA black ops, illegal weapon shipments, imported jihadist fighters, potential false flags, and stage-managed atrocities.

The established mythos of the Bosnian War is that Serb separatists, encouraged and directed by Slobodan Milošević and his acolytes in Belgrade, sought to forcibly seize Croat and Bosniak territory in service of creating an irredentist “Greater Serbia.” Every step of the way, they purged indigenous Muslims in a concerted, deliberate genocide, while refusing to engage in constructive peace talks.

This narrative was aggressively perpetuated by the mainstream media at the time, and further legitimized by the UN-created International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) once the conflict ended. It has become axiomatic and unquestionable in Western consciousness ever since, enforcing the sense that negotiation invariably amounts to appeasement, a mentality that has enabled NATO war hawks to justify multiple military interventions over subsequent years.

However, a vast trove of intelligence cables sent by Canadian peacekeeping troops in Bosnia to Ottawa’s National Defence Headquarters, first published by Canada Declassified at the start of 2022, exposes this narrative as cynical farce.

The documents offer an unparalleled, first-hand, real-time view of the war as it developed, with the prospect of peace rapidly degrading into grinding bloodshed that ultimately caused the painful death of the multi-faith, multi-ethnic Yugoslavia.

The Canadian soldiers were part of a wider UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) dispatched to former Yugoslavia in 1992, in the vain hope tensions wouldn’t escalate to all-out-war, and an amicable settlement could be reached by all sides. They stayed until the bitter end, long past the point their mission was reduced to miserable, life-threatening failure.

The peacekeepers’ increasingly bleak analysis of the reality on the ground provides a candid perspective of the war’s history that has been largely concealed from the public. It is a story of CIA black ops, literally explosive provocations, illegal weapon shipments, imported jihadist fighters, potential false flags, and stage-managed atrocities.

Read the complete Canadian UNPROFOR cables here.

===========

“‘Deja Vu!’ They did the SAME thing to get us into WW2 and WW1”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvt4HpLa0ug&feature=youtu.be

with Clayton Morris

(31:09)

Evidence Emerges: United States is Planning to Interfere in 2023 Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/02/14/evidence-emerges-united-states-is-planning-to-interfere-in-2023-parliamentary-elections-in-ukraine/?mc_cid=58ead33bce&mc_eid=7ddd08c64d

by Valeriy Krylko

In October 2023, Ukraine will hold elections for the Verkhovna Rada, the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. In the previous elections Vladimir Zelensky’s party “Servant of the People” received 43.16% of the vote. Since then the popularity of the party and Zelensky himself has been gradually declining, but in 2022 it rose again.

However, the U.S. has already begun active preparations for these elections. In particular, the U.S. has allocated^[1] more than 1 million dollars to the NGO Civil Network Opora through the United States Agency of International Development (USAID).

Setting the Record Straight; Stuff You Should Know About Ukraine

https://www.globalresearch.ca/setting-the-record-straight-stuff-you-should-know-about-ukraine/5807548

by Mike Whitney

On February 16, 2022, a full week before Putin sent combat troops into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army began the heavy bombardment of the area (in east Ukraine) occupied by mainly ethnic Russians. Officials from the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were located in the vicinity at the time and kept a record of the shelling as it took place. What the OSCE discovered was that the bombardment dramatically intensified as the week went on until it reached a peak on February 19, when a total of 2,026 artillery strikes were recorded. Keep in mind, the Ukrainian Army was, in fact, shelling civilian areas along the Line of Contact that were occupied by other Ukrainians.

We want to emphasize that the officials from the OSCE were operating in their professional capacity gathering first-hand evidence of shelling in the area. What their data shows is that Ukrainian Forces were bombing and killing their own people. This has all been documented and has not been challenged.

So, the question we must all ask ourselves is this: Is the bombardment and slaughter of one’s own people an ‘act of war’?

We think it is.

And if we are right, then we must logically assume that the war began before the Russian invasion (which was launched a full week later).

“HERE WE GO!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtOsKvFdhjg

with Russell Brand

(17:19)

Digital passports, CBDCs, social credit scores - it’s the future that none of us – apart from attendees at Davos – want. But the establishment certainly do. So, can you think of any country in the world at the moment that is in a position to act as a testing lab for a digital society? Hmmm . . . !

Watch “Q & A: Neocon failures”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbX4ggxTTi0&feature=youtu.be

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(1:01:32)

Watch "Q & A: Preventing a long war

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SXfPsKbxe8&feature=youtu.be

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(1:10:16)

“On the Legal Question of Russia’s Military Intervention”

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/10/on-the-legal-question-of-russias-military-intervention/

by Joe Lauria

“The Next Few Weeks Will Be DEVASTATING For Ukraine”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XorthOKgIx8

with Aaron Maté and Col. Douglas Macgregor

(8:15)

===========

Did US Build Bioweapons in Ukraine?

by Dr. Joseph Mercola

February 16, 2023Download PDF

Bottom of Form

Story at-a-glance

Ukraine is slated to be the largest, most comprehensive test lab for globalist takeover tools such as digital ID, central bank digital currency (CBDC), a social credit system and even an AI-aided judicial system. American citizens are helping to pay for the implementation of this Orwellian techno-dystopia through U.S. “security assistance,” which as of October 20, 2022, had surpassed $98 billion
Ukraine is also a “testbed for Western weapons and battlefield innovation”
The CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) have also been funding a company called Metabiota to aid in the development of biological weapons in Ukraine
The U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine are in violation of Article 1 of the Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition or retaining of biological weapons, and this illegal weapons development is paid for by U.S. taxpayers through the DTRA
Powerful interests are profiting from the Ukraine conflict and want it to continue, and one of those interested parties appears to be the Biden family. It’s time to end the United States’ involvement in the Ukraine conflict. February 19, 2023, an anti-interventionist coalition will be holding an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. The lead demand: “Not one more penny for war in Ukraine”

Is the United States' meddling in the Russia-Ukraine war really as altruistic as the Biden administration claims? Perhaps not. A number of revelations have come to light that raises questions about our involvement.

For starters, as detailed by Russell Brand in the video above, Ukraine is slated to be the largest, most comprehensive test lab for globalist takeover tools such as digital ID, central bank digital currency (CBDC), a social credit system¹ and even an AI-aided judicial system² — all under the guise of "humanitarianism."

And who is helping to pay for the implementation of this Orwellian techno-dystopia? That's right: United States taxpayers, through their "security assistance," which as of October 20, 2022, had surpassed $98 billion.^3,4

As reported by Reclaim the Net,⁵ "The general promise is that in the future, the Ukrainian government and Big Tech will be 'closely interlinked.'" Well, it would have to be, wouldn't it, in order to be 100% digital? This also means that government will be privatized, as tech companies will own and operate every last aspect of society and government.

All government services will be online, society will be completely paperless and cashless, government will be 100% digital, AI will run the court system, education will be 100% digital, as will the health care system and customs.

At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "has imposed some of the world's most aggressive anti-worker policies, passing legislation that deprives around 73% of workers of their right to union protection and collective bargaining."⁶

Ukraine Is a Testbed for New Weapons

According to a January 16, 2023, CNN report, Ukraine is also a "testbed for Western weapons and battlefield innovation."⁷ Examples of such innovations include a cell phone app that allows front line soldiers to accurately direct fire onto specific targets, inexpensive grenade-dropping drones, 3D printers that allow soldiers to repair heavy field equipment on site and other MacGyver-like battlefield solutions.

The U.S. and Western allied militaries are also studying how their own weapons systems are performing in the field. One alleged "source familiar with Western intelligence" told CNN:⁸

"Ukraine is absolutely a weapons lab in every sense because none of this equipment has ever actually been used in a war between two industrially developed nations. This is real-world battle testing."

Powerful Interests Are Profiting From the Conflict

Summarizing the situation, Brand says:

"What we're suggesting to you now, is that not only is Ukraine being used as a testing ground for weapons and an opportunity to create profit for the American military-industrial complex, but subsequent to the war — where they're also creating privatization opportunities for companies like BlackRock — they also use it as a testing ground for favored globalist modalities such as mass surveillance, digital IDs and CBDCs.

Everybody wins — except for Ukrainian people, of course … The initiative, the plan, the vision, the scheme — while we're continually told … that Russia attacked unprovoked … — is that some of the most powerful interests in the world are benefiting from and profiting from this conflict.

My concern is that Ukrainian people will not benefit in the short term, there's potential for nuclear conflagration, and it looks like now, even for the rest of us, [there's] and opportunity to pilot ideas and schemes … that will ultimately lead to more and more centralized authority that cannot help but lead to less individual and community freedom for you and your family."

In short, a globalist cabal is carrying out a long-ranging plan that involves the use of endless wars and pandemics to legitimize centralization, digitization, dystopian mass surveillance and other totalitarian controls.

Download this Article Before it Disappears

Download PDF

US Biolabs in Ukraine See Russell Brand video (17:19)

Video Link (censored)

In addition to all of that, we also have the CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense's Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) funding biological weapons research in Ukraine, even though at the time that the contracts were issued, Ukraine was recognized as the most corrupt country in the world.

It was a bizarre decision to say the least — unless, of course, there was some benefit to having hazardous research done in a country where corruption is the norm. The Reese Report video above reviews the connections between the U.S. government, Hunter Biden, World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab and the Ukraine biolabs. Here's a quick summary of the key points:

According to China, the U.S. is operating 336 biolabs in 30 different countries. Russia claims the U.S. has more than 30 biolabs in Ukraine alone.

After Russia secured biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine, the U.S. embassy removed all evidence of connecting the U.S. to the biolabs in Ukraine from its website.

In a Senate hearing, undersecretary of state for political affairs, Victoria Nuland, confirmed the presence of biolabs in Ukraine, and that they contained weaponized biological agents the State Department feared may be used by Russia to start World War III.

The U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine are in violation of Article 1 of the Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition or retaining of biological weapons.

The illegal biological weapons development is paid for by U.S. taxpayers through the DTRA.

A U.S. company called Black & Veatch has built bioweapons labs with the DTRA 2003. In the city of Kiev, Black & Veatch share an office with a company called Metabiota.

Metabiota Is a Key Player

Metabiota is a key player in this scheme, as it provides scientific and technical consulting services to the DTRA's biolabs in Ukraine and Georgia.⁹

It's also a core partner in the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) PREDICT program (a pandemic threat program that sought to identify viruses with pandemic potential), and has worked in close collaboration with the EcoHealth Alliance. In fact, Metabiota founder Nathan Wolfe has served on the EcoHealth Alliance's editorial board since 2004.

EcoHealth Alliance, of course, is the research company Dr. Anthony Fauci used to funnel money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), long suspected of being the source of SARS-CoV-2. While Fauci has denied funding gain of function research at the WIV, the National Institutes of Health has confirmed it.¹⁰

According to its mission statement, Metabiota seeks to make the world more resilient to epidemics by providing "data, analytics, advice and training to prepare for global health threats and mitigate their impacts."¹¹ Through data analysis, they help "decision makers across government and industry" to estimate and mitigate pandemic risks.

But they also claim to support "sustainable development," which seems to have little to do with pandemic risk management. That term, "sustainable development," is one promoted by Schwab, founder of the WEF, and is part of Schwab's plan for a global Great Reset and transhumanist revolution (aka, the Fourth Industrial Revolution).

Metabiota's Founder Is a Deep State Insider

It's not surprising, then, to find out that Wolfe not only has close ties to the WEF, but is also a rising star there. He's a WEF Young Global Leader graduate and was awarded the WEF's Technology Pioneer award in 2021.

Wolfe is also a member of DARPA's Defense Science Research Council, and was a personal friend of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In his 2012 book, "The Viral Storm," Wolfe thanked friends for their support, including Epstein and Dr. Boris Nikolic. Nikolic, a biotech venture capitalist, was named "back-up executor" in Epstein's will.

On a side note, Epstein, who besides being a convicted pedophile and accused child sex trafficker, also had a robust interest in eugenics. It's now well-known that he dreamed of creating a "superhuman" race of his own by impregnating dozens of women over a period of time at his New Mexico ranch.¹² Epstein also secured meetings with Bill Gates,¹³ whose family history is also marked by an interest in eugenics and population control.

Metabiota Funding Sources

Metabiota receives funding from several interconnected organizations and agencies, including:¹⁴

In-Q-Tel, a CIA venture capital firm that specializes in high-tech investments that support or benefit the intelligence capacity of U.S. intelligence agencies

The DTRA.¹⁵ By outsourcing work to private companies, DTRA is able to circumvent Congressional oversight. Russia is now accusing the U.S. of funding secret and illegal bioweapons research in these Ukraine labs, and claims this was the real reason behind its invasion

Rosemont Seneca,¹⁶ an investment fund co-managed by Hunter Biden.¹⁷ This tie may prove deeply problematic for the White House, as the Biden family appears to have been more or less directly involved in the funding of illegal biological weapons research¹⁸

The NIH, Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Pilot Growth Management, cofounded by Neil Callahan. Callahan is also a cofounder of Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, and he sits on Metabiota's board of advisers

The Global Virome Project, which was set up with the intention to collect, identify and catalogue 1 million viruses from wildlife in an effort to predict which ones might cause a human epidemic¹⁹

The Global Virome Project was founded by Dennis Carroll, while he was still director of the the USAID PREDICT program. According to an investigation by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK),²⁰ Carroll appears to have diverted government funds from the PREDICT program while he was running it, to fund this personal side project.

Metabiota and the DTRA

In late May 2016, Metabiota hired Andrew C. Weber,²¹ a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, to head up its global partnerships.²² Between 2009 and 2014, Weber served as assistant secretary of defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense under then-president Obama.

Weber is credited with creating the DTRA (U.S. Department of Defense's Threat Reduction Agency) — a combat support agency within the DOD, specializing in countering weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons^23,24 — and as mentioned earlier, the DTRA has reportedly funded Metabiota to operate U.S.-funded biological research labs in Ukraine.

The DTRA has also issued a number of grants to the EcoHealth Alliance, totaling at least $37.5 million,^25,26 including a 2017 grant for $6.5 million to "understand the risk of bat-borne zoonotic disease emergence in Western Asia."²⁷

According to a December 2020 report by The Defender,²⁸ EcoHealth Alliance had tried to hide most of the Pentagon funding that it had received between 2013 and 2020, most of which came from the DTRA.

Metabiota and Rosemont

In a January 31, 2023, Twitter thread,²⁹ Rogan O'Handley, a lawyer and civil rights activist, reviewed newly obtained documents showing that two months after receiving a $500,000 investment from Rosemont Seneca in 2014, Metabiota received contracts to the tune of $23.9 million directly from the DOD.

Curiously, in a February 24, 2022, letter, Zelensky ordered the destruction of all government files relating to Metabiota, including the personal files of servicemen, employees and staff of the Center for Public Health and the Research Anti-Plague Institute of Ukraine who worked with Metabiota scientists.

Did Zelensky order the destruction of these documents to hide what Metabiota was doing under that DOD contract? And/or was he destroying evidence linking bioweapons research in Ukraine to the Biden family?

We don't have the answers to those questions. But what we do know, and what makes this scheme even more mindboggling, is that Metabiota — which produces biological agents for the DOD — is also selling pandemic insurance and pandemic tracking programs to help countries prepare for pandemic outbreaks.

Following this thread to its logical conclusion, it would appear Metabiota is getting paid by the DOD to develop biological weapons, and profiting from countries paying to "get ahead" of the biological agents created by the very same company selling them the trackers and insurance.

And, as an investor, Rosemont Seneca, co-managed by the son of the sitting president of the United States, is profiting from this devilish scheme as well. It's not a good look.

Was FTX Laundering Money for the US and Ukraine?

Making matters even stickier for the Biden administration, we also have what looks like a money laundering scheme through the now-bankrupt FTX. As detailed in "Is the Ukraine War a Money Laundering Scheme?" the ill-fated crypto exchange is heavily linked to the Democratic Party, Ukraine, the WEF and even the suppression of COVID-19 treatments through the funding of fake science.

FTX's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried — suspected of having absconded with $1 billion to $2 billion of client funds as the exchange went belly-up in mid-November 2022 — was a top donor to the Democratic Party, second only to George Soros.³⁰

During the 2022 midterms, Democrats received nearly $38 million from the crypto billionaire,³¹ and in May 2022, he said he was planning on contributing anywhere from $100 million to $1 billion in support to the Democrat nominee in the 2024 presidential election.³²

Bankman-Fried reportedly visited the White House on several occasions and is said to have consulted with the Biden administration on crypto regulation. FTX is also a partner of the WEF. The WEF has now scrubbed FTX from its partner list,³³ but an archived link³⁴ confirms the relationship.

An anti-interventionist coalition will be holding an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. February 19, 2023. The lead demand is simple: 'Not One More Penny for war in Ukraine.'

FTX also partnered with Ukraine to help them raise funds for the war effort.^35,36,37,38 An estimated $200 million were raised for Ukraine and distributed through FTX to a bank in Ukraine, but records show the Ukrainian government only used $22 million of that money. The remaining $178 million appears to have vanished, leading people to suspect it was laundered back to Democratic candidates.

End the War in Ukraine

Video Link

It's time to end the United States' involvement in the Ukraine conflict. To that end, an anti-interventionist coalition will be holding an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., February 19, 2023. As reported by Modern Diplomacy:³⁹

"The lead demand is simple and direct, 'Not One More Penny for war in Ukraine.' It is a demand that emphasizes what we in the US can do to end the war, not what others can do. After all, the only government we have the power to influence is our own.

The potential power of this unique and promising movement arises from the nature of the sponsoring organizations – The Peoples Party, a progressive new Party, and the Libertarian Party. It is in fact what much of the press would term a 'Right-Left Coalition,' spanning a spectrum broad enough to actually bring the proxy war in Ukraine to an end.

Fittingly, the organizers are calling the protest 'Rage Against the War Machine.' With the war in Ukraine putting us the precipice of nuclear Armageddon, 'rage' might be considered a mild reaction."

Demonstrators will meet at the Lincoln Memorial and then march to the White House. In addition to putting a firm freeze on any additional funding of the Ukraine conflict, other demands of the demonstration include the pursuit of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the end to war inflation, as the conflict is accelerating inflation on food, gas and energy and, lastly, the disbanding of NATO, as NATO expansion to Russia's border is what provoked Russia's invasion.

Sources and References

Who Are the Americans Running Bioweapons Research in Ukraine?

https://geopolitics.co/2022/04/02/who-are-the-americans-running-bioweapons-research-in-ukraine/

by Covert Geopolitics, (beyond the Smoke & Mirrors)

“What is the World Economic Forum?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za4Q8WXI4vQ&feature=youtu.be

with Whitney Webb |

(29:52)

The World Economic Forum (WEF) plays a significant role in guiding international developments in the interests of the business community. They invite the most powerful people in the world to an annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss their dreams of the future. These are dreams where the powerful stay powerful, and the underclasses continue to toil and suffer. Even when they invite a dissenting voice such as climate activist Greta Thunberg, or historian Rutger Bregman, their criticisms are heavily publicized without changing the core of WEF's mission — to solidify corporate control over the governments' of the world. Investigative journalist Whitney Webb joins MintPress for this special report explaining the internal workings and goals of the shady corporatist WEF institution.

Are They Telling Us What Is Coming Next?

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/are-they-telling-us-what-coming-next

by Michael Snyder

Why are global authorities suddenly so concerned that the bird flu might start spreading widely among humans? And why is the mainstream media suddenly filled with extremely alarming stories about the disease? Just a few days ago, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, made headlines all over the globe when he ominously warned that “we must prepare” for the possibility of a bird flu pandemic among humans. Why is he issuing such a warning now? Does he know something that the rest of us do not? If such a pandemic were to erupt, the consequences could potentially be catastrophic. The COVID pandemic paralyzed the planet for a couple of years even though the death rate was very low. Well, the death rate for bird flu in humans can be around 50 percent depending on the strain, and so just imagine the panic that would ensue if it were to start spreading widely.

===========

Media Ignore Seymour Hersh Bombshell Report of US Destroying Nord Stream

https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-ignore-seymour-hersh-bombshell-report-of-us-destroying-nord-stream-ii/283677/

by Alan Macleod

Huge profits from Nord Stream sabotage

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202302/1285924.shtml

cartoon by Carlos Latuff

Nord Stream Attack an ‘Act of War’

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/13/ray-mcgovern-nord-stream-attack-an-act-of-war/

by Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern discusses Seymour Hersh’s story, “How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline” on Garland Nixon and Wilmer Leon’s radio show, The Critical Hour. (With transcript).

U.S. Blew Up Nord Stream Pipeline – Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Confirms!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehwrw-r2GsA&feature=youtu.be

with Aaron Maté

(10:50)

“Silencing Nord Stream”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Ed4Ae0iHE

with Alex Christoforou, Alexander Mercouris, and Dr. Wilmer Leon

(1:32:31)

China Balloon is Pretext for US Provocation

https://www.blackagendareport.com/china-balloon-pretext-us-provocation

by Margaret Kimberley

An errant balloon from China sent the U.S. into a frenzy of fear and hatred. The president, congress, and corporate media all made sure that a harmless incident was viewed in the worst light possible.

The People's Republic of China has a space program. They have a space station where they deploy their taikonauts. China has satellites orbiting the earth. Yet despite these advances, we are told that this same country would send a balloon, visible to the naked eye, to spy on the United States. The more logical explanation is just what the Chinese said: a balloon conducting meteorological research was blown off course. There have been several previous instances of such equipment flying in or near U.S. territory .

The mixture of hysteria whipped up by the Biden administration and their mouthpieces in corporate media were fodder for jokes and internet memes. However, U.S. actions which created this incident are part of a pattern of provocations and dangerously amateurish diplomacy.

Joe Biden began his term in office by attempting to bully Beijing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with their Chinese counterparts in early 2021 and proceeded to insult them very publicly . The interaction was so bad that Yang Jiechie, Director of the Central Commission on Foreign Affairs, felt compelled to say, “Well, I think we thought too well of the United States. We thought that the U.S. side will follow the necessary diplomatic protocols.” Relations between the two nations have gone steadily downhill ever since.

The Biden administration is now using the same failed playbook it used against Russia and hoping to somehow snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with China. They hope to find or create a provocation that will result in congressional and public support for sanctions or even military action. But their Ukraine policy should be jettisoned instead of copied elsewhere. In instigating Russia to act in Ukraine, Biden succeeded in severing relations between Russia and EU nations, and ended their natural gas sales, to the detriment of Europe. But Russia prepared for sanctions while the Biden team engaged in wishful thinking. Remember when he said the sanctions would, “turn the ruble to rubble?” Ukraine suffers from this miscalculation more than any other country and the U.S. is left to commit desperate acts, such as its probable involvement in the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines. Their fantasy foreign policy consists of escalating tensions for the sake of doing so.

The same people who fanatically believe that the U.S. can subjugate the whole world look for every opportunity to worsen an already bad relationship with China. Even a weather balloon can become a pretext for war with another nuclear armed nation. Turning Taiwan into the new Ukraine, a weapon to be used against a country which has been declared an adversary, is still part of their plans. That is why former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was given support for a Taiwan trip, despite the fact that the U.S. claims to continue following the one China policy.

There is no logical explanation for such a frenzy of speculation about a balloon with scientific equipment attached. Well, there is a twisted logic in the decision to shoot down a balloon that was on its way out to sea. China must be seen as the enemy, and the administration wouldn’t let a small thing like a balloon straying off course go to waste.

Pentagon memo says object shot down over Canada was a 'small, metallic balloon'

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/13/politics/pentagon-memo-canada-small-balloon/index.htmly

by Zachary Cohen and Jeremy Herb, CNN

Hi-Tech Military Weapons Breed New Danger

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/08/hi-tech-military-weapons-breed-new-danger/

by Brett Wilkins

Artificial intelligence, lethal autonomous weapons, hypersonic missiles, cyber battles: The Arms Control Association rings alarm bells over the rush to develop these and other advanced military technologies.

You're Being Lied To About China – Lee Camp

https://www.mintpressnews.com/youre-lied-china-lee-camp-talks-li-jingjing/283579/

with Lee Camp and Jingjing Li

(1:01:09)

China's Goal in Economic War Against the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyQ4jYTKNS0

with Richard Wolff

(4:00)

While the U.S. has the goal to maintain themselves as the dominant world power, China is working towards their goal of shaping a new global system with multiple power blocs, such as the BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). The military war in Ukraine exposes how far along we are in this global shift, in this second economic war. The U.S. tried to bring the conflict to a quick end by crippling Russia economically, but it has not worked, thanks to the support of China and other countries. “China offers the world an alternative. You can disagree with the United States. You can fashion your own economic strategic plan.” - Richard Wolff

China Set To Sign Another Massive LNG Deal With Qatar

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/china-set-sign-another-massive-lng-deal-qatar

by Tyler Durden

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest gas importer in the country, is in the late stages of finalizing a huge long-term LNG import deal with Qatar, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Putin’s war sparks full-blown China vs Germany fight at UN; ‘Time To Tell Russia…’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI5Zj0UQ8Wk

by Hindustan News

(5:06)

Germany and China sparred at the United Nations General Assembly over the West's supply of weapons to Ukraine. The Chinese diplomat accused the West of 'adding fuel to fire' by sending arms to Ukraine. Rejecting China's claims, the German foreign minister issued a strong rebuttal at the UNGA. Annalena Baerbock said it was time for China to tell Russia to stop its aggression.

===========

Pentagon Wants To Return Special Ops Propagandists To Ukraine

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/12/pentagon-wants-to-return-special-ops-propagandists-to-ukraine/

by Caitlin Johnstone

An article by The Washington Post titled “Pentagon looks to restart top-secret programs in Ukraine” contains some interesting information about what US special ops forces were doing in Ukraine in the lead-up to the Russian invasion last year, and what they are slated to be doing there in the future.

“The Pentagon is urging Congress to resume funding a pair of top-secret programs in Ukraine suspended ahead of Russia’s invasion last year, according to current and former U.S. officials,” writes the Post’s Wesley Morgan. “If approved, the move would allow American Special Operations troops to employ Ukrainian operatives to observe Russian military movements and counter disinformation.”

Much further down in the article we learn the specifics of what those two top-secret programs were. One of them entailed US commandos sending Ukrainian operatives “on surreptitious reconnaissance missions in Ukraine’s east” to collect intelligence on Russia. The other entailed secretly administering online propaganda, though of course The Washington Post does not describe it as such.

The US Continues Escalating in Ukraine

^{Victoria Nuland
testifying at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing January 26, 2023
(Image: C-Span)}

https://www.blackagendareport.com/us-continues-escalating-ukraine

by Black Agenda Report

Nuland’s bravado is yet another sign of the mess that the Biden administration made for itself in instigating the conflict with Russia. Nothing has gone according to its plans. Biden said that sanctions would, “Turn the ruble to rubble.” Russia has survived relatively unscathed and the only people suffering from U.S. interference are the EU nations who are supposed to be allies but who are in fact underlings who will never step out of line, even in favor of their own interests.

After nearly a year of conflict, European nations have literally given their all militarily, with very little left in the way of materiel to provide to Ukraine. They have given up cheap Russian natural gas and now purchase US liquified natural gas, which costs more and creates more environmental damage. Now even the Rand Corporation, which is funded by the military industrial complex and fossil fuel companies, and pushed for war with Russia in 2019 , is waving red flags about the overreach. In an article entitled Avoiding a Long War , Rand concludes, “In short, the consequences of a long war - ranging from persistent elevated escalation risks to economic damage - far outweigh the possible benefits.” Rand is no peacemaker, believing that challenging China should be the focus and not the Ukraine stalemate. Warnings from a friendly party show that the best laid plans for hegemonic regime change have gone wrong once again.

The U.S. has pumped more than $113 billion into Ukraine, that is to say into the hands of the defense contractors who run Washington. Russian forces continue to advance, and the Ukrainian people who everyone claims to want to help are suffering, as middle aged men are dragooned from their homes , trained for a few weeks, and then sent to the front lines where they face death from well armed Russian forces.

Zelensky's diaspora delegation led by economic hit-woman who led plunder of Ukraine

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/23/zelenskys-diaspora-hit-woman-ukraine/

by Max Blumenthal

Zelensky’s diaspora delegation led by economic hit-woman who led plunder of Ukraine

Making Taiwan the Ukraine of the East

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/09/making-taiwan-the-ukraine-of-the-east/

by Vijay Prashad

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at Malacañang Palace in Manila on Feb. 2, where they agreed to expand the U.S. military presence in the country.

In a joint statement, the two governments agreed to “announce their plans to accelerate the full implementation of the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement” (EDCA) and “designate four new Agreed Locations in strategic areas of the country.”

The EDCA, which was agreed upon in 2014, allows the U.S. to use land in the Philippines for its military activities. It was formulated almost a quarter of a century after U.S. troops vacated their bases in the Philippines — including a massive base at Subic Bay — during the collapse of the U.S.S.R.

At that time, the U.S. operated on the assumption that it had triumphed and no longer required the vast structure of military bases it had built up during the Cold War.

From the 1990s, the U.S. assembled a new kind of global footprint by integrating the militaries of allied countries as subordinate forces to U.S. military control and building smaller bases to create a much greater reach for its technologically superior airpower.

In recent years, the U.S. has been faced with the reality that its apparent singular power is being challenged economically by several countries, especially China. To contest these challenges, the U.S. began to rebuild its military force structure through its allies with more of these smaller, but no less lethal, bases.

It’s likely that three of the four new bases in the Philippines will be on Luzon Island, at the north of the archipelago, which would place the U.S. military within striking distance of Taiwan.

Global Economic Forecast Reveals the Perils of U.S. Addiction to War

https://www.blackagendareport.com/global-economic-forecast-reveals-perils-us-addiction-war

by Danny Haiphong

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has updated its global economic outlook for the current year and the predictions for the West remain grim. U.S. economic growth is set to slow to just 1.4 percent in 2023. The situation is worse in Europe, where leading EU countries will experience near zero growth. The IMF cited high interest rates in the U.S., as well as the economic shocks of the Ukraine crisis as reasons for the West's economic slowdown. Nonetheless, this only tells a part of the story.

Economic growth is determined by much more than momentary shifts in the world situation. Inflation, wage stagnation and slow growth are not givens, even in difficult times. If this were the case, the IMF's projected growth rates for China and the U.S. would be the same or similar. Yet, China is predicted to grow about four to five times faster than the U.S. in 2023.

What would explain the difference in projected economic growth between the two countries? An often-overlooked reason is their divergent approaches to world affairs. China's global vision is undergirded by the principles of win-win cooperation and non-interference in the affairs of other nations.

Trade between China and Russia has risen by the month despite the windfall of the Ukraine crisis. Arab nations have also reaffirmed their commitment to economic cooperation with China during the historic China-Arab States Summit held in Riyadh in December 2022.

===========

The Incredible Power Of Pfizer Is Horrifying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_lMvkwf028&feature=youtu.be

with Dr. Robert Malone

(10:27)

The Global Tide Is Turning: Justice Sought in Two Legal Cases Against Pfizer and Swiss President

https://www.globalresearch.ca/global-tide-turning-justice-sought-two-legal-cases-against-pfizer-swiss-president/5808268

by Joachim Hagopian

Whitney Webb Exposes Scary Truths About WHO's New Chief Scientist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TkHTXNqFek&feature=youtu.be

with Kim Iversen

(25:45)

In this video, investigative journalist Whitney Webb discusses the World Health Organization's (WHO) recent appointment of Jeremy Farrar as its new chief scientist. Webb raises concerns about the WHO's plans to expand its power by forcing member states to adhere to its guidelines and the potential consequences of this power grab. She also delves into Farrar's background as the director of the Wellcome Trust, a major funder of medical research in the UK with ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Webb suggests that the Wellcome Trust's influence on public health policy has been largely overlooked and warns of the potential implications of Farrar's new role at the WHO.

Deep State Health Control

https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1785-james-corbett-on-deep-state-health-control/

with James Corbett

(55:25)

Pandemic unnecessary deaths, the data

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEwktv-AGEw&feature=youtu.be

with Dr. John Campbell

(20:32)

Deaths in the pandemic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BqbVo2sQi0&feature=youtu.be

with Dr. John Campbell

(7:50)

Excess Deaths in Alberta Surge Past 10,000 — Evidence of Government Cover-up

https://www.globalresearch.ca/excess-deaths-alberta-surge-past-10000-evidence-government-cover-up-2/5808355

by Dr. William Makis

International concern, excess deaths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNT-YNLhprw&feature=youtu.be

with Dr.John Campbell

(13:29)

===========

Profiteering from Death

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/09/craig-murray-profiteering-from-death/

by Craig Murray

Murray says energy giants such as Shell are not alone in profiting from the war in Ukraine. Everybody with a finger in the pie is clamoring to send more tanks and planes.

Tanks for Nuttin'

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/13/tanks-for-nuttin/

by Andrew Bacevich

Is Civilization at Stake in Ukraine?

The West’s Last Or Penultimate War?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/danish-government-last-visit-ukraine-west-last-penultimate-war/5808331

by Jan Oberg

The West/NATO has always lacked a long-term strategy. After all, it was militarily, economically and politically superior and could impose its will. Didn’t have to think.

Hoping Ukraine would join NATO without fuss was hubris-ridden wishful thinking, and stupid to boot, in that it’s been convincingly documented that Russia’s leaders, from Gorbachev to Putin for the past 30 years, have said that NATO expansion was: a) a clear violation of the promises made by all important Western leaders to Gorbachev – and it’s true; b) a humiliation and counterproductive if you want common security; and c) that if it could be no other way, then Ukraine would be Russia’s definitive red line.

No one listened. Because, as former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen so aptly put it: Putin knows NATO can beat him to a pulp because we spend ten times more on weapons than he does.

So, as some of us have predicted, it went wrong – which is not a sign of support for Russia’s invasion. I distanced myself from that the next day. But neither do I support the West’s response to this invasion, the rearmament of Ukraine, and the anti-intellectual narrative NATO countries are running, including the claim that NATO is not responsible for anything and that Russia’s invasion was ‘unprovoked.’

Then, on 30 January 2023, the heads of the Danish government visited Ukraine. One understands from the Danish Broadcasting’s (Danmarks Radio) report that there was no attempt to push President Zelensky towards a negotiating table. No, Denmark comes with promises of more weapons and aid to its twin city. To that I wrote immediately on my Facebook page:

“Holy simplicity!

Surely it makes an impression to see the horror of war. Some of us have done that more times than these three put together.

But then Denmark will have to supply even more weapons so that there can be even more suffering, death and destruction.

The conflict between NATO and Russia in Ukraine must be settled on the battlefield and not at a table. More than usually short-sighted and, well, foolish…

It’s almost unbearable to watch Løkke Rasmussen bombing in Syria. Today 12 million – half the population – are starving there, over 300 000 have died and 12 million are refugees and internally displaced persons, IDPs.

But that war – the war of the West – is not to be talked about.

And no government delegation will visit Syria and see the results of the West’s – failed – war of regime change there from 2011-2016. With Denmark’s full political support and military contribution.

The absence of any moral thought is palpable. Far into the heart. In some of us, but not in these people for whom sacrifice can apparently be categorized in two:

The worthy – victims of Russia’s wars – Christians

in contrast to:

The unworthy – victims of NATO countries’ wars – Muslims.”

“Seymour Hersh Details Explosive Story on Bin Laden Killing & Responds to White House, Media Backlash”

Part 1 : https://www.youtube.com/live/UZ-X6Otu05Y?feature=share

(21:05)

Part 2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hh0sVRl4G4&feature=youtu.be

(18:02)

===========

Iran's unrest triggers explosion of fake news

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/01/19/irans-unrest-fake-news/

by Setareh Sadeqi and Christopher Weaver

Some of the most incendiary accusations made against Iran’s government by corporate media, celebrity influencers and Western leaders in the past months are little more than fabrications. And most remain uncorrected.

Protests in Iran that ostensibly began as a reaction to the death of a woman in police custody in September 2022 have prompted unprecedented international opposition to its government, not only from the usual Western, Israeli and Saudi suspects, but from celebrity social media influencers with no previous record of commenting on Iranian affairs.

Iran is now the target of a carefully coordinated information war with a single goal to drive international support for regime change by any means – whether through sanctions, armed insurrection, military intervention, or some combination of the three.

Before a largely uncritical audience of billions of admiring Instagram followers who do not speak Farsi and have little to no understanding of Iranian politics or culture, a collection of Hollywood actors, washed-up rockers and top models have pumped out viral posts depicting ghastly abuses of protesters by Iran’s security forces, including retaliatory home demolitions and outright massacres.

While Western media outlets from the BBC to the New York Post have spun out a series of reports accusing Iran of killing more protesters than civilians killed by Russia in Ukraine, think tank pundits and leaders of NATO governments have claimed that Tehran has sentenced 15,000 people to death simply for participating in anti-government demonstrations.

These horrific stories would certainly seem to legitimize the calls for regime change, but there’s just one problem: they are just stories.

Indeed, some of the most incendiary accusations leveled against Iran’s government by legacy media outlets, celebrities and Western leaders in the past months are simply fabrications, while others lack critical context that deadens their impact. And as we will see, few, if any, of the bogus reports and phony social media posts have been retracted or corrected by official fact-checkers.

How Elon Musk Is Aiding the US Empire's Regime Change Operation in Iran

https://www.mintpressnews.com/elon-musk-starlink-helping-us-iran-regime-change-operation/283293/

by Alan Macleod

That Musk is involved in Washington’s attempts to weaken or overthrow the administration in Tehran has been clear for some months now. In September – at the height of the demonstrations following the suspicious death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini – Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that the U.S. was “taking action” “to advance Internet freedom and the free flow of information for the Iranian people” and “to counter the Iranian government’s censorship,” to which Musk replied, “Activating Starlink…”

Earthquake Sets Off Criticism of US Sanctions on Syria

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/08/earthquake-sets-off-criticism-of-us-sanctions-on-syria/

by Peoples Dispatch

The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Khaled Hboubati, has demanded that Western countries, specifically the U.S. and its allies, lift their siege and sanctions on Syria so that rescue and relief work can proceed unimpeded after the country was devastated by a powerful earthquake on Monday.

“We need heavy equipment, ambulances and fire fighting vehicles to continue to rescue and remove the rubble, and this entails lifting sanctions on Syria as soon as possible,” Hboubati said at a press conference on Tuesday, as reported by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

A powerful earthquake registering a magnitude of 7.8 struck Turkey and Syria on Monday. [As of news reports on Wednesday, the death toll had exceeded 11,000.]

Kahramanmaras, a city in Turkey, was reported to be the epicenter of the earthquake, and the nearby city of Gaziantep — home to millions of Syrian refugees — was reportedly hit the hardest.

Relief and rescue operations in Turkey have been affected by bad weather as several of the affected areas have received heavy rain and snowfall on Monday and Tuesday.

Syria’s northern provinces such as Idlib, Latakia, Hama and Aleppo have also been badly affected by the earthquake. Some of the affected areas in Idlib and Aleppo are under rebel control and densely populated by refugees from other parts of the country.

Though several countries including the U.S. and its allies have extended their support to Turkey in its relief and rescue work, they have refused to extend similar assistance to Syria.

The U.S. State Department made it clear on Monday that it was only willing to support some work carried out in Syria by NGOs, but that it would have no dealings with the Bashar al-Assad government.

“It would be quite ironic — if not even counterproductive — for us to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people over the course of a dozen years now,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Cuba, Venezuela, China rush aid to earthquake-stricken Syria as US makes half-measures on sanctions

https://therealnews.com/cuba-venezuela-china-rush-aid-to-earthquake-stricken-syria-as-us-makes-half-measures-on-sanctions

by Peoples Dispatch

On Thursday, February 9, the United States Treasury Department announced a temporary waiver of certain sanctions imposed on Syria to facilitate relief and recovery efforts in the earthquake-hit country. The move follows growing international outrage and public appeals, including by the Syrian government and countries such as Venezuela and China, to remove the brutal and illegal sanctions that the US has imposed on Damascus. At least 21,719 people have died—as of February 10—after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6 devastated large parts of southern and central Turkey as well as northern and western Syria. Over 79,000 people have been injured and over 3.7 million have been displaced since then, with rescue operations still underway in search of survivors in the midst of aftershocks.

US Africa Leaders Summit promises more exploitation for Africa, record profits for US mining firms

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/01/23/us-africa-summit-profits-mining/

by Jeremy Loffredo

Recent deals between US Secretary of State Tony Blinken and African heads of state promise eye-popping profits for US mining multinationals and fewer protections for African laborers “toiling in subhuman conditions” to drive the digital revolution.

The US Africa Leaders Summit held this December in Washington DC provided a platform for the Biden administration to advance its agenda across the African continent. With topics ranging from COVID-19 to climate change to “closing the digital divide,” to “strengthening democracy,” Washington’s agenda united around the belief that African collaboration with US multinational corporations would prove mutually beneficial, and advance long-term “progress.”

The weekend of discussions was conducted Davos-style, with heads of US industry seated directly beside African heads of state and members of the Biden administration. At the top of the corporate titans’ agenda was the relaxation of regulatory requirements, which they argued would make the continent more “inviting” for outside investment.

One set of regulations that the US would especially like to loosen are those relating to the mining sector. This includes miners’ rights, child labor laws, slavery laws, environmental regulations and mineral tariffs.

A Month's Notice: Why Burkina Faso Ordered French Troops out of the Country

https://www.mintpressnews.com/a-months-notice-why-burkina-faso-ordered-french-troops-out-of-the-country/283641/

by Ramzy Baroud

Though it was clear that Burkina Faso was eventually going to follow in the footsteps of Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR), Ouagadougou’s decision to break military ties with France was not as simple as media sound bites want us to believe.

The conventional wisdom is that these countries are walking away from their former colonial master, France, to forge alternative alliances with a new ally, Russia. These convenient analyses are largely shaped by the geopolitical tug-of-war between old and new superpowers: The US and its NATO allies on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other.

Though global rivalry, especially on the resource-rich African continent, is an important component in understanding Burkina Faso’s decision – and earlier, similar decisions by Mali in April, and CAR in December – more attention needs to be paid to the logic of these African countries’ own political discourse.

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“Bomb Train” in Ohio Sickens Residents: Railroad Cutbacks, Corporate Greed Led to Toxic Disaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGN81SEmoPU

with Amy Goodman

(18:16)

Fears of a wider health and environmental disaster are growing, after a 150-car freight train operated by Norfolk Southern derailed and a so-called controlled burn released toxic chemicals last week in East Palestine, Ohio. Residents reported seeing a fireball and mushroom cloud of smoke fill the skyline. Data released by the Environmental Protection Agency shows the train contained more toxic and carcinogenic chemicals than initially reported, including phosgene, a poisonous gas that has been used as a chemical weapon in war. Officials lifted an evacuation order for residents last Wednesday, saying the air and water were safe, but residents have reported sore throats, burning eyes and respiratory problems, and wildlife has been found dead. Meanwhile, scrutiny has turned onto Norfolk Southern, which in recent years has challenged regulatory laws aimed at making the rail industry safer and made mass cuts to railroad staffing while spending billions on stock buybacks and executive compensation. We get an update from Emily Wright, community organizer based near the site of the derailment; Ross Grooters, a locomotive engineer and co-chair of Railroad Workers United; and Julia Rock, an investigative reporter with The Lever.

Watch "DEVASTATING Chemical Explosion In Palestine Ohio After Train Derailment"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JiqBNqH3rA&feature=youtu.be

with Aaron Maté

(10:24)

“Ohio COVERUP - The Truth THAT NOBODY’s TALKING ABOUT”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IHkyjhMYuk&feature=youtu.be

with Russell Brand

(15:38)

Ohio Train Disaster Exposes Dark Side of Plastics

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ohio-train-disaster-toxic-chemicals-pvc-plastic/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=f18a65ce-ef68-469a-8320-7cd6ea74f0d2

by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

When officials decided on Feb. 6 to burn off the hazardous chemicals in Norfolk Southern’s derailed freight train in a “controlled burn” in East Palestine, Ohio, the fire released a plume of highly toxic chemicals — many of which are key elements in plastics production.

What's happening in Ohio “is so much worse than what the media is telling us!” (Sound familiar?)

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/whats-happening-in-ohio-is-so-much?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

by Mark Crispin Miller

A girl who lives there tells us what the government and "our free press" are blacking out, a la Chernobyl (and/or "vaccination")

“Get The Hell Out Of There” - Ohio's Apocalyptic Chemical Disaster Rages On

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ohios-apocalyptic-chemical-disaster-rages

by Tyler Durden

While the US government is dispensing millions of dollars in resources to treat balloons as an existential crisis, a small town in Ohio finds itself engulfed in what actually looks like the apocalypse. Perhaps by design, all of the drama surrounding violations of US airspace by Chinese spy initiatives has done well to keep what is becoming one of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory from getting any headlines.

The chaos began early last week when a train of more than 100 cars derailed in East Palestine, Ohio near the state’s border with Pennsylvania with roughly 5,000 residents. The accident launched fifty of those hundred freight cars from the tracks. Twenty of the freight cars on the train were carrying hazardous materials, ten of which were detailed. While the accident had no fatalities, of those ten cars, five contained pressurized vinyl chloride, a highly flammable carcinogenic gas.

Outbreak Of Train Derailments: Ohio Reporting Catastrophic Effects On Air, Water, Soil, Fish, Frogs and Animals Dying, Amidst Near Total Media Blackout

https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/outbreak-of-train-derailments-ohio?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

by Celia Farber

There have apparently been THREE train derailments recently. Coordinated attacks, clearly. First Ohio, then South Carolina, and now Texas.

CovertAction Bulletin: “On the Ground Report from East Palestine Train Derailment”

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/02/15/covertaction-bulletin-on-the-ground-report-from-east-palestine-train-derailment/?mc_cid=54ea2cc546&mc_eid=7ddd08c64d

by Rachel Hu and Chris Garaffa

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Global Africa’s Mission: “Expose the CIA’s Shameless, Continuing Crimes”

https://www.blackagendareport.com/global-africas-mission-expose-cias-shameless-continuing-crimes

by Mark P. Fancher

CIA Director William Burns began 2023 by visiting Libya on a mission to stabilize and sustain imperialism in that country. Libya collapsed after Moammar Gadhafi was hunted down in 2011 by a mob that violently disemboweled him with a bayonet. The CIA had assisted anti-Gadhafi thugs, many of whom were angry at the Libyan leader for, among other things, providing work opportunities to Black immigrants from neighboring countries. The violent aggression faced by Gadhafi was also directed at these Black immigrants, pathetically on the watch of the first Black U.S. president. At the time, Zimbabwean journalist Farai Sevenzo reported:

“Because mercenaries from Chad and Mali are presumed to be fighting for him [Gadhafi], the lives of a million African refugees and thousands of African migrants are at risk. A Turkish construction worker told the British radio station BBC: ‘We had seventy to eighty people from Chad working for our company. They were massacred with pruning shears and axes, accused by the attackers of being Gadhafi’s troops. The Sudanese people were massacred. We saw it for ourselves.’”

Since Gadhafi’s death, Libya has remained in a state of perpetual chaos, even to the point of factional war that broke out in 2014. According to Reuters : “The United States has previously said it is worried about the role played by Russia in Libya's conflict, and fears continued instability in the OPEC member could impact global energy supply and give space to Islamist militant groups.”

Dr. Mustafa Fetouri, a Libyan scholar and journalist, explained: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine last year… changed many things both internationally and regionally, giving room for countries like Libya to play a role, however small. After all, the country is located strategically in the middle of North Africa; it is Africa's third largest oil producer; and it has a sizeable force of Wagner [a Russian-based company] mercenaries stationed near its oil producing region. In America's wider global energy strategy, Libya is becoming important in order to sustain some kind of stability.”

Fetouri said Burns’ mission was to arrange for Khalifa Haftar, leader of the eastern warring faction, to guard Libya’s oil fields and ensure the continuing flow of oil. That’s what imperialism’s interest in Libya has always been about. It has not mattered that a stable, prosperous African country has been destroyed and countless Africans died because of a campaign of anti-Black genocide. All that matters is that imperialists are able to rip off Africa’s oil. An April 2, 2011 e-mail to then U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton explains frankly and bluntly that France wanted NATO to eliminate Gadhafi not only because of his plans to establish a gold-backed pan-African currency that would effectively devalue the French franc, but also because of concerns that included: “… a desire to gain a greater share of Libya oil production…”

Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return - Part 2

https://www.blackagendareport.com/cuba-africa-and-apartheids-end-africas-children-return-part-2

with Margaret Kimberley

(audio, 9:56)

Afghanistan News Update #16

https://www.blackagendareport.com/afghanistan-news-update-16

by Black Alliance For Peace

Propaganda continues to justify the U.S./EU-backed economic war on Afghanistan, which the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has argued constitutes a crime against humanity . That is why the BAP Solidarity Network’s Afghanistan Committee has steadfastly shone a light on the invasion and 20-year war, its devastating consequences, and its punishing lawfare and sanctions. In this newsletter, we focus on the ideological gender and sexual “empowerment” stories that underlie the war.

In December, Marya Hannun addressed questions about women and gender in Afghanistan. Hannun completed a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University and is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, where she serves as the Managing Editor of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP). Her current research examines women’s movements and legal reform in early 20th-century Afghanistan.

The views expressed below do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Would you give us a sense of your biographical background as well as intellectual and activist interests?

I became interested in Afghanistan’s history in my early years of graduate school in the 2010s. Like many in the United States with Arab or Muslim backgrounds, I devoted a lot of energy to combatting damaging stereotypes about Muslims, particularly Afghan women. These concerns formed the backdrop of so much intellectual engagement in Middle East Studies in the decade after 9/11. This work, while crucial, was often superficial. Many of us only knew Afghanistan’s history through the lenses of invasion and war. Moreover, intellectual study of Afghanistan was not part of our training as gender scholars in Middle East Studies.

What are the problems with the concept “Afghan women and girls” so frequently and effectively deployed by imperialist and colonial forces like the U.S. State Department and mainstream media outlets?

By creating this monolithic category, and then using it to justify a war that, as Shah Mahmoud Hanifi described , was really “an imperial punishment exercise” for 9/11, the U.S. occupying forces had a rhetorical frame to deflect accountability. They sold the war to U.S. and Western audiences by pointing to some women who were going to school or imperialist programs costing billions of dollars that purportedly built an “inclusive civil society.” But by subsuming all women under the technical term “Afghan women and girls,” they flattened out the gendered, classed, and regional experiences of war and tried to erase their own production of massive levels of violence and poverty. The more it was reproduced the more ingrained (and meaningless) it became as a category. It left no room for the women who never gained access to these international streams of funding and education during the war, or who experienced violence under the U.S.-NATO occupation—including dead and injured spouses or children—in battles, drone attacks, and night raids by the same NATO-backed forces purporting to save them.

How does the category work when deployed by the Taliban, especially since the occupation has technically ended?

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The Calamity of America’s ‘Divine Mission’

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/10/the-calamity-of-americas-divine-mission/

by Bruce Fein

Robert Kagan’s monumental error is his failure to acknowledge that Americans, like the rest of mankind, are made of crooked timber craving power for its own sake, writes Bruce Fein.

The gist of Kagan’s intellectually stimulating and imaginative argument goes something like this: Americans are endowed with a disproportionate percentage of angelic, altruistic DNA compared with non-chosen others. Uniquely among nations, the United States wishes to make other people happier, freer, and wealthier by fighting against corruption and tyranny abroad.

The United States is capable of engineering those wonderful results if supported by sufficient money, staying power, and military force. Thus, the United States, among other wonderful things, could have brought a prosperous peace to Europe and prevented World War II if only it had brandished its military and financial might to compel Germany, Italy, Japan, France, and Great Britain to follow its design for a new world order under the auspices of the League of Nations, which the U.S. should have joined. No Hitler, no Anschluss, no Munich, no Pearl Harbor.

Fear Of Death, PTSD Are Army Recruiters' Biggest Hurdles: Govt Survey

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/fear-death-ptsd-are-army-recruiters-biggest-hurdles-govt-survey

by Tyler Durden

Tuesday, Feb 14, 2023 - 04:55 AM

The U.S. Army is coming off its worst recruiting performance in decades, and says young Americans' fear of death and mental illness are the biggest reasons they won't sign up.

That conclusion comes from surveys of 16- to 28-year-olds conducted last spring and summer, officials say. The Army shared general findings with the Associated Press, but not the full details of the survey results, methodology or questions posed.

============

On the Legal Question of Russia’s Military Intervention

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/10/on-the-legal-question-of-russias-military-intervention/

by Joe Lauria

According to the U.N. Charter Russia’s military action was illegal, but the Kosovo case raises questions about Donbass’ right to independence, writes Joe Lauria.

The West’s Sabotage of Peace in Ukraine

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/13/caitlin-johnstone-the-wests-sabotage-of-peace-in-ukraine/

by Caitlin Johnstone

Former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett’s recent comments about getting his mediation efforts squashed in the early days of the war adds more to the growing pile of evidence that Western powers are intent on regime change in Russia.

British-run spy tech powers Ukraine proxy war, putting civilians at risk

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/01/03/british-spy-tech-ukraine-war/

by Kit Klarenberg

British-run spy tech powers Ukraine proxy war, putting civilians at risk

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The illusion of Israeli democracy has been shattered

https://electronicintifada.net/content/illusion-israeli-democracy-has-been-shattered/37211

by Haim Bresheeth-Žabner

Israeli Security Forces Carry Out Massacre in Jenin, Palestine

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/02/13/israeli-security-forces-carry-out-massacre-in-jenin-palestine/?mc_cid=461ac652e4&mc_eid=7ddd08c64d

by Richard S. Dunn

On the morning of January 26, 2023, Israeli security forces massacred at least nine Palestinians in Jenin, among them a 61-year-old woman; Jenin is located in the north hills of the West Bank, Occupied Palestine. Medical attention was severely delayed because of the presence of security force snipers, and the targeting of hospitals and makeshift clinics with tear gas.

These occupying forces paraded through the streets of Jenin attacking civilian homes with rocket-propelled grenades (RPG’s), live bullets and the use of bulldozers to damage residents’ cars. The people of Jenin have taken to the streets in protest amid mourning for their loved ones, and a general strike has been called for the entire West Bank and the Occupied Territories of Palestine.

It has been reported that, since the beginning of this year, a total of 29 Palestinians have been killed, including five children. Where is the attack on Israel? What are the Zionists and their supporters in the United States government, from Chuck Schumer to Joe Biden, saying about this unprovoked and disproportionate use of force against the Palestinians. Will they use the old self-serving and national chauvinist cliché “Israel has a right to defend itself”? The corollary of that statement is “Palestine also has a right to defend itself.”

Palestine in Pictures: January 2023

https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-pictures-january-2023/37116

by The Electronic Intifada

Palestinian man, child latest victims of Israeli violence

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-man-child-latest-victims-israeli-violence

by Tamara Nassar

Reclaiming Holocaust memory from Zionism

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/reclaiming-holocaust-memory-zionism

by Ali Abunimah

A survivor of the German-led European genocide during World War II resigned from the British Labour Party following a threat of expulsion because he was to speak at an online Holocaust memorial event organized by a left-wing group.

I also spoke at that event along with Stephen Kapos – “Reclaiming the memory of all those who died in the Nazi Holocaust” – which was hosted by the Socialist Labour Network on 27 January.

The other speakers were Suzanne Weiss, who survived the Holocaust because she was hidden from the Nazis and their French collaborators by farmers in the French countryside. Weiss’ mother, however, did not survive. She was murdered at Auschwitz.

Also among the speakers and organizers was Tony Greenstein, who recently spoke to The Electronic Intifada Podcast about his new book Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponization of Memory in the Service of State and Nation.

Adrian Richard Marsh provided a presentation about Roma and Sinti victims of Nazi extermination.

You can watch the entire discussion, moderated by Esther Giles and starting with my 10-minute talk, in the video at the top of this page. At the request of several participants, I’ve included the lightly edited text of my talk below.

The key theme of my own comments is that the Holocaust has been cast – ahistorically and retroactively – as a foundation stone of the European Union.

This re-writing of EU history is happening in parallel with the abduction of the memory of all those who were murdered as the justification for the establishment of the Zionist settler-colony in Palestine, the expulsion of the indigenous Palestinians and ongoing perpetration of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid by Israel with the full support of Europe.

I argue that this equation has to be rejected.

Zionist collaboration with the Nazis

New Israeli Regime Moves Toward “Cleansing” All Palestinians From Palestine

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/13/new-israeli-regime-moves-toward-cleansing-all-palestinians-from-palestine/

by Marjorie Cohn

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious Zionist coalition, which was sworn in on December 29, 2022, declared in its manifesto that Jews have the “exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.” To that end, in a little over a month, the Israeli regime has killed Palestinians, demolished their homes, mounted incursions into occupied Palestinian territory and endeavored to change laws and policies to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Palestine.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba — the Arabic word for “catastrophe.” In 1948, Israel assumed control over more than three-quarters of Palestine. Upwards of 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes or forced to flee and Israel confiscated much of their land.

Israel widens reach of its racist collective punishment

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-widens-reach-its-racist-collective-punishment

by Maureen Clare Murphy

Facebook’s Jordana Cutler Appointed Head of Controversial Israeli Ministry, Sparking Censorship Fears

https://www.mintpressnews.com/facebook-jordana-cutler-israel-ministry-sparking-censorship-fear/283445/

by Jessica Buxbaum

On Jan. 11, Israel’s new minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, named Facebook senior employee, Jordana Cutler, as the ministry’s director general. The ministry is notorious for combatting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and promoting a positive image of Israel abroad. Yet with Cutler’s biography and Facebook’s history of censoring Palestinian content, experts and activists are sounding the alarm over the appointment.

Cutler worked as Facebook’s public policy director for Israel and the Jewish diaspora since 2016. During her time there, the social media giant was consistently accused of restricting Palestinian content on its site — a problem that persists today.

Palestinian digital rights organization SadaSocial said in a statement to MintPress News:

We believe that Jordana Cutler’s appointment as director general of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs underscores the mutual relationship between the two parties, Israel’s official level and social media platforms, which translates on the ground into the suppression of Palestinian content.”

Openly Pro-Israel Tech Group Now Has Control over UK’s Most Sensitive National Security Data

https://www.mintpressnews.com/pro-israel-oracle-larry-ellison-control-uk-sensitive-national-security-data/283555/

by Alan Macleod

The US is Legitimizing Jewish Terrorism Against Palestinians

https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-legitimizing-jewish-terrorism-palestinians/283542/

by Miko Peled

Israel kills five in Jericho raid

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-kills-five-jericho-raid

by Maureen Clare Murphy

Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinians during a raid in Aqabat Jabr refugee camp outside of the West Bank city of Jericho on Monday.

The raid comes less than two weeks after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians during a similar operation targeting armed resistance activists in Jenin refugee camp. A tenth Palestinian died from his injuries days later.

The Jericho area of the West Bank’s Jordan Valley has been under siege for more than a week following an attempted shooting attack at a restaurant near Jericho frequented by settlers in late January.

Barcelona freezes ties with Israel

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/barcelona-freezes-ties-israel

by Ali Abunimah

The mayor of Barcelona announced Wednesday that her city was suspending all institutional ties with Israel.

This includes freezing a twinning agreement between the Catalonian city and Tel Aviv.

In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau wrote that the agreements would remain suspended “until Israeli authorities put an end to the systematic violation of the people of Palestine’s human rights.”

In what is now their standard response to any action to hold Tel Aviv accountable, Israel lobbyists in Spain immediately accused Colau of “anti-Semitism.”

Palestinians by contrast have warmly welcomed the move.

Internal paper shows EU is easily seduced by Israel

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/internal-paper-shows-eu-easily-seduced-israel

by David Cronin

It is easy for Israel’s representatives to seduce the European Union’s elite. Mouthing a platitude or two can do the trick.

Yair Lapid is the kind of politician who knows how to seduce. He comes across as suave and affable, so Western liberals overlook – or at least downplay – his solid commitment to violence and oppression.

An internal paper illustrates that Lapid, then Israel’s foreign minister, pressed the right buttons when he visited Brussels in July 2021. Lapid breezed into town, promising a “fresh start” to relations that had supposedly turned sour while Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister.

Lapid’s comments during that trip – together with Netanyahu’s removal from government – “opened a new window of opportunity” for resuming a high-level annual forum known as the EU-Israel Association Council, according to the paper.

The paper gives an insight into how the EU is prepared to clasp Israel ever tighter, based on the tiniest of concessions.

It was prepared as a briefing note for Margaritis Schinas, a vice-president of the European Commission, when he met Haim Regev, Israel’s ambassador to the EU, in November 2021.

The paper describes reconvening the Association Council – mothballed since 2012 – as a “shared objective” for the EU and Israel, while contending that “it is important to see some concrete progress on the Middle East peace process.”

The first part of the objective was later realized. An Association Council meeting was held in October last year – less than a month before an Israeli election which brought the dreaded Netanyahu back to power.

New generation of resistance does not fear Israel

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-72-new-generation-resistance-does-not-fear-israel

by Nora Barrows-Friedman

In January alone, Israeli police, soldiers and settlers killed at least 35 Palestinians, including seven children, in the West Bank, as the violent repression in the territory that escalated throughout 2022 carried into the new year.

Those deaths include 10 Palestinians who were fatally injured during a raid in Jenin refugee camp – the single deadliest operation in the West Bank since at least 2005, according to a UN official.

Israel’s escalation of violence and collective punishment is targeted against a new generation of Palestinian fighters who, Omar explains, are rising to challenge Israel’s power in the West Bank.

“There’s a rise of new spaces of resistance, if you want to call them – they have made life harder for the Israeli military to enter and arrest and exercise the power of arrest, which has been going on for the past decade or so without much resistance,” he says.

He explains that in addition to Israel’s usual raids and arrest campaigns, the army is using its full force to quell this new generation of Palestinians.

“We’re seeing self-defense zones defending themselves against an Israeli military that is attempting to kill them,” he says.

We also talk about the role of the Palestinian Authority, and its role as subcontractor to Israel’s occupation in the context of its diminishing economic and political power amongst Palestinians.

There is a “form of ideological power that maintains the PA,” he says, “but still, there’s a process of unbinding happening, a process where people are rejecting that.”

The fight to Boycott is not over

https://electronicintifada.net/content/fight-boycott-not-over/37101

by Selma Dabbagh

New restrictions on the right to boycott Israel are being rolled out globally. Since 2019, 34 US states have passed laws penalizing companies that use boycotts and other nonviolent methods to pressure Israel on its human rights record and apartheid governance.

Julia Bacha’s 2022 documentary Boycott tells the story of just how these efforts to stifle dissent work.

She follows three American citizens who chose not to sign the standard clauses, or “certifications,” that they do not support BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions), as required by their employers (or, in one case, an advertiser).

What results is a compelling, uplifting and powerful documentary and an excellent example of activist filmmaking.

Openly Pro-Israel Tech Group Now Has Control over UK’s Most Sensitive National Security Data

https://www.mintpressnews.com/pro-israel-oracle-larry-ellison-control-uk-sensitive-national-security-data/283555/

by Alan Macleod

This is the story of how a multibillionaire who has dedicated his life to advancing the cause of the Israeli national security state is now in control of Great Britain’s most sensitive public and military data.

In 2020, software giant Oracle won a gigantic contract with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) to provide it with cloud infrastructure, digital assistance, data visualization software, mobile hub and development tools. The military is far from the only British institution entrusting its most sensitive data to the Texas-based firm, however. The Home Office, Office of National Statistics and National Health Service, among others, also rely on Oracle databases to function.

For years before signing the MoD agreement, Oracle founder Larry Ellison had been ingratiating himself with the British establishment, employing all manner of well-connected individuals at his foundation. Among these included media executive and father-in-law of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Matthew Symonds, who earned over $600,000 per year as the executive director of the Larry Ellison Foundation. Richard Meredith, a longtime director of the U.K.’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was also snapped up at a similar salary to become deputy executive director.

Many other well-connected British government officials, including Vel Gnanendran, went straight from the Larry Ellison Foundation into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and worked there at the time that the body signed off on the lucrative Oracle contracts. For years, the Larry Ellison Foundation also bankrolled the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the former U.K. prime minister’s new political project.

Yet, just after as the partnership with the Ministry of Defence was secured, Ellison abruptly shut down his foundation, prompting speculation that it had fulfilled its purpose.

Israel's War on Gaza: From Inhuman Weapon Experiments to Political Experiments on Palestinians

https://www.mintpressnews.com/israels-war-gaza-inhuman-weapon-experiments-political-experiments-palestinians/283623/

by Ramzy Baroud

Though Israel’s past wars on Gaza have often been justified by Tel Aviv as a response to Palestinian rockets or, generally, as acts of self-defense, the truth is different. Historically, Israel’s relationship with Gaza has been defined by Tel Aviv’s need to create distractions from its own fractious politics, to flex its muscles against its regional enemies and to test its new weapons technology.

Though the Occupied West Bank – in fact, other Arab countries, too – has been used as a testing ground for Israel’s war machine, no other place has allowed Israel to sustain its weapon experimentation for as long as Gaza, making Israel, as of 2022, the world’s tenth largest weapons exporter.

There is a reason why Gaza is ideal for such grand, albeit tragic, experiments.

Gaza is a perfect place for gathering information once new weapons have been deployed and used on the battlefield. The Strip is home to two million Palestinians who live squalid lives with virtually no clean water and little food, all of them confined within 365 km² (approx. 181 mi²). In fact, due to Israel’s so-called safety belts, much of Gaza’s arable lands which border Israel are off limits. Farmers are often shot by Israeli snipers, almost at the same frequency as Gaza’s fishermen are also targeted, should they dare venture beyond the three nautical miles allocated to them by the Israeli navy.

“The Lab,” an Israeli award-winning documentary released in 2013, discussed in painful detail how Israel has turned millions of Palestinians into actual human laboratories for testing new weapons. Gaza, even before, but especially since then, has been the main testing ground for these weapons.

New Report Charges Major Corporations as Complicit in Israel's Water Apartheid

Israel Water Apartheid Feature photo

https://www.mintpressnews.com/new-report-major-corporations-complicit-israel-water-apartheid/283271/

by Jessica Buxbaum

In December, the Palestinian human rights organization, Al-Haq, released a report accusing major corporations of maintaining Israel’s water apartheid on Palestinians living in the occupied territories.

According to Al-Haq, businesses are instrumental in helping Israel restrict water access to Palestinians and destroy Palestinian water infrastructure. Additionally, foreign companies profit from Israel’s system of water discrimination.

Al-Haq’s paper named both Israeli and international companies as:

Complicit in the violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination and permanent sovereignty over natural resources, as well as the war crime of pillage and inhumane acts of expropriation of natural resources amounting to the crime of apartheid.”

The report detailed the actions of Israeli water companies Mekorot and Hagihon but also included outside firms TAHAL Group International B.V., Hyundai, Caterpillar Inc., JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. (JCB), and Volvo Car Group.

International companies complicit in apartheid

Revealed: British government spied on Palestinian refugees

https://electronicintifada.net/content/revealed-british-government-spied-palestinian-refugees/37111

by Asa Winstanley and Kit Klarenberg

A cache of leaked documents obtained by The Electronic Intifada reveals the existence of a secret British intelligence project targeting Palestinian refugees.

Under the pretext of “academic purpose,” a consortium of shadowy intelligence contractors agreed to conceal their ties to the British Foreign Office, for the apparent purpose of surveilling and manipulating Palestinians.

The group masquerading as researchers planned to interview residents of Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and the occupied West Bank as part of a British government initiative that was to be run out of the UK consulate in occupied East Jerusalem.

The project aimed to monitor “criticism of Western and Israeli foreign policy.”

In a leaked risk assessment, the contractors emphasized “the importance of ensuring confidentiality around the sources of funding and the aims of the program.”

They did so to mitigate the risk Palestinians in the refugee camps would “become suspicious,” or camp leaders would “obstruct and hamper” the project, the risk assessment states.

You can read extracts from the leaked cache throughout this article, and in PDFs attached at the end.

Israel promotes ‘Iron Fist’ weapons in London

^{Technology
known as Iron Fist is being installed in the D9 bulldozers, with which Israel
often demolishes Palestinian homes.}

^{Debbie Hill
UPI}

https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-promotes-iron-fist-weapons-london/37046

by Kit Klarenberg

The warm relationship between the UK elite and Israel’s arms industry has been on display in London this week.

Twickenham Stadium – a location normally associated with the sport of rugby – is hosting the International Armoured Vehicles fair.

Alongside high-ranking figures from the British Army and the country’s defense ministry, the event featured two of Israel’s leading weapons manufacturers, Rafael and Elbit Systems.

For Elbit, the fair was an occasion to promote technology known as Iron Fist. A range of sensors and interceptors, Iron Fist is being installed in the D9 bulldozers, with which the Israeli military often demolishes Palestinian homes.

The description of Elbit in the official brochure for this week’s fair does not mention it is Israeli owned. Instead, the emphasis is all on Elbit’s operations in Britain.

According to the brochure – see below – Elbit’s activities in the UK are now stretched across 16 sites and employ more than 600 people.

‘Cleansing’ Palestinians from Palestine

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/13/cleansing-palestinians-from-palestine/

by Marjorie Cohn

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious Zionist coalition, which was sworn in on Dec. 29, 2022, declared in its manifesto that Jews have the “exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.”

To that end, in a little over a month, the Israeli regime has killed Palestinians, demolished their homes, mounted incursions into occupied Palestinian territory and endeavored to change laws and policies to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Palestine.

Now, Israel’s new extremist regime — the most anti-Palestinian in Israeli history — appears aimed at finishing the jobby incorporating all of the occupied Palestinian territories into Israel.

Many people in the new government want an “out-of-state solution” in which Palestinians would be forcibly transferred (or in desperation, leave) to nearby Arab countries, “dispossessing them of their homeland,” Michel Moushabeck, a Palestinian American writer and publisher, wrote at Truthout.

Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism Party, is the new minister of finance. In 2021, he told Arab members of the Israeli Knesset that they were “here by mistake because Ben Gurion didn’t finish the job and throw you out in 1948.”

In its effort to “Judaize” the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel may be trying to cleanse the Palestinians from them.

“The new Israeli government is the culmination of decades of apartheid subjugation of the Palestinian people in their own homeland,” Richard Falk, former U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, wrote in an email to Truthout. “The long game of the Zionist Project was openly proclaimed in the 2018 Basic Law of Israel confirming the intention of maintaining Jewish supremacy and exclusive rights of self-determination in the entire territory stretching from ‘the river to the sea.’”

Israel Wants to Take Over Occupied Palestine

Deadliest Israeli Attack Against Syria In Years – A Failed Assassination Attempt

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/deadliest-israeli-attack-against-syria-in-years-a-failed-assassination-attempt/

by Robert Inlakesh

At least five Syrians were killed in a series of unprovoked Israeli airstrikes against Damascus, Syria, at a time when rescue teams are still digging victims of the recent Syria-Turkey earthquake out of the rubble. Despite this being such a major attack on a defenseless country, suffering the aftermath of a natural disaster, no major response came from the International Community.

As the death toll from the horrifying earthquake that took place earlier this month rose to roughly 6,000 inside Syria alone, a series of Israeli airstrikes caused major destruction in a civilian neighborhood in the nation’s capital city, Damascus. The area struck is called Kafr Sousa, known as the area in which Hezbollah leader, Imad Moghniyeh, was assassinated in 2008 and is known for having an Iranian and Hezbollah presence in the area. Initially, the Syrian ministry of health’s death toll was set at 5, including 15 injuries, adding that some of those injured were in critical condition. One of the five Syrians killed held a position in the Syrian Arab Army. The strikes were the deadliest in years and some news outlets in Damascus reported that the civilian death toll was as high as 15.

Context, Distortions, and What Really Happened

===========

Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces

^{Memphis
Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis (Photo:
Gerald Herbert / AP)}

https://www.blackagendareport.com/memphis-police-chief-trained-israel-security-forces

by Alice Speri

Colonial-Capitalist Fascism and Its Deadly Outcome: The State Murder of Tortuguita in Atlanta and Tyre Nichols in Memphis Are Inextricably Linked

https://www.blackagendareport.com/colonial-capitalist-fascism-and-its-deadly-outcome-state-murder-tortuguita-atlanta-and-tyre-nichols

by Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta City-Wide Alliance

All acts of police violence in the US are linked to the colonial capitalist state.

This statement originally appeared on the Black Alliance for Peace website.

The cold-blooded assassination of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, Spanish for “Little Turtle,” is a reminder that fascism in the United States cannot be reduced to the political intentions of avowed white nationalists. African/Black and Indigenous people residing in the settler-colonial project known as the United States continue to be subjected to a cycle of state-sanctioned violence and political repression with bipartisan consensus. People of the global majority and their allies must not allow these latest episodes of injustice to go unanswered.

The Atlanta City-Wide Alliance of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP-Atlanta) has been working with a coalition of Indigenous people, African/Black people, other people of color, and Euro-Americans to prevent the construction of “Cop City,” as BAP-Atlanta expressed in a recent statement.The statement highlighted the obvious nexus between the proposed $90 million police-training facility site, where Tortuguita was killed on January 18, and the white supremacy-fueled genocide, militarism, and oppression the U.S. empire exercises both outside and within. Both domestically and internationally (including within sovereign Indigenous nations), the United States continues to carry out wanton abuses of human rights with impunity via the illegal use of militarized force. Tortuguita’s execution, and the obvious attempts by law enforcement to cover it up and suppress the truth, are yet another example of the abject malfeasance of this state’s law-enforcement apparatus.

That Tortuguita was standing in defiance of an urban-warfare training facility which has now perpetuated their brutal execution should be lost on no one. Given the function of policing in this settler colony, the race of the perpetrators who brutalize protestors and commit other forms of state sanctioned violence should surprise no one. The brutal execution of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee is the most recent evidence highlighting this obvious point.

Proponents of increasing military and police budgets also rally behind gentrification, deforestation, further extraction and use of fossil fuels, as well as other drivers of the racialized climate crisis. The root causes of the cataclysms, including the state murders of Tortuguita and Tyre Nichols can no longer be ignored: White supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonization.

BAP asserts the inexorable link of liberation African/Black and Indigenous people share, just as we proclaim the need for a set of intersectional solutions to the interlinked forms of oppression subjecting Indigenous and African/Black people to the irrefutable war crimes the United States and local law-enforcement regimes have committed. To this end, we call on all social-justice movements, including the larger environmental community, to demonstrate solidarity and support for Tortuguita, their family, other justice seekers working to shut down “Cop City,” and African/Black people and Indigenous people writ large.

The Birthplace of American Dystopia: Cop City, Atlanta

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/08/the-birthplace-of-american-dystopia/

by Robert Scheer

Cop City Atlanta is a privately funded, local community surveillance campus that has already taken the life of one protestor as a harbinger of the police state on the horizon.

‘Broken Windows Policing’ & the Killing of Tyre Nichols

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/07/broken-windows-policing-the-killing-of-tyre-nichols/

by Marjorie Cohn

The Memphis police officers who killed Tyre Nichols were members of a unit called SCORPION — the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods. But far from “restoring peace,” these officers turned the streets of Memphis into a violent scene of torture that led to the death of Nichols.

SCORPION was modeled after the bogus theory of “broken windows policing ”: the thoroughly debunked idea that if cops make arrests for minor offenses, it will prevent the commission of serious ones. But it didn’t work out that way. Under the guise of enforcing a traffic law, the officers who have been charged with murdering Nichols committed much more serious crimes [than any traffic infraction]. After Nichols was killed, SCORPION was disbanded.

On Jan. 7, five officers stopped Nichols for reckless driving (although the police chief admitted they had no legal basis for the stop). They yanked him from his car and beat him brutally. For 13 minutes until they reported it on the radio, the officers shouted at least 71 contradictory commands, many of them physically impossible for the battered Nichols to follow.

They repeatedly beat, kicked and punched him, using fists, feet and a baton. They sprayed pepper spray into his eyes and a sixth officer tased him.

Two emergency workers watched the beating but rendered almost no assistance to Nichols and left after seven minutes. The ambulance didn’t arrive for more than 25 minutes after the officers stopped beating Nichols.

Tyre Nichols died in the hospital three days later. He was 29 years-old and the father of a 4-year-old boy. An autopsy determined that Nichols “suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”

Preemptive Police Force

===========

Moldova's Pro-EU President Claims Russia Plotting To Overthrow Govt

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/moldovas-pro-eu-president-claims-russia-planning-overthrow-her

by Tyler Durden

Moldova’s president has made some astounding accusations directed at Moscow, alleging that a moment the tiny nation is at its most vulnerable due to an energy supply crisis and nearby war, Russia is seeking to overthrow her government.

President Maia Sandu spoke days after pro-EU prime minister Natalia Gavrilita resigned under intense pressure, and following Friday's Russian missile breach of Moldovan airspace after it was launched from a Black Sea warship toward Ukraine. All this comes at a moment that Europe's poorest country is already enduring "multiple crises".

Seven EU Countries Oppose 'Radical' Changes To The Energy Market

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/seven-eu-countries-oppose-radical-changes-energy-market

by Tsvetana Paraskova

A group of seven EU member states is calling on the European Commission to think twice before proposing a major overhaul in the EU energy and power market systems, citing concerns that “crisis mode” changes could weaken the single market and deter investments in renewables.

“Any reform going beyond targeted adjustments to the existing framework should be underpinned by an in-depth impact assessment and should not be adopted in crisis mode,” Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg, and Latvia wrote in a letter to the European Commission seen by Reuters.

===========

“CRIMES of the ELITE”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTZ5xLg1-yE

with Ralph Nader

(14:22)

“EUROPE is DOOMED”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBbpXMz0Kx8&feature=youtu.be

with Jeffery Sachs

(7:47)

“Why the Left Lost the Thread”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ElfaRKMw4

with RJ Eskow and Thomas Frank

(1:10:10)

There Are No Permanent Allies, Only Permanent Power

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/12/chris-hedges-there-are-no-permanent-allies-only-permanent-power/

by Chris Hedges

If we do not build left-right coalitions on issues such as militarism, health care, a living wage and union organizing, we will be impotent in the face of corporate power and the war machine.

============

Capitalism in Black and Blue

https://www.blackagendareport.com/capitalism-black-and-blue

by John Parker

There are two very frightening realities faced by the capitalist ruling class - their smaller numbers in relation to the majority, and their inability to derive profit without exploited human labor. Since they are the sole owners of the means of production (the factories, land and machines) – with an essential armed force to protect that ownership – they have irreconcilable differences with the majority of people who, instead of owning those means, are exploited by them. We can’t even decide how the profits created by our labor, which turns into the wealth of the nation, gets used. Only the capitalist class gets to decide that with their bought and paid for politicians in Washington.

So, the problem for the ruling class is how to hide that reality from the human labor they depend on for profit. How do you keep the majority from understanding that their misery is based on their not owning the means of production and having no role in how the wealth produced from those means is spent? Should it go towards endless wars, WWIII, more police, joyrides to space? Or, for healthcare, jobs and housing?

And, more importantly, how do you hide from this class of people that they reside in the same boat sharing a reality of economic exploitation, increasing with every utility gas hike, deteriorating social services or diminishing wages?

===========

UK postal workers strike against Tory government's handling of cost of living crisis

https://therealnews.com/uk-postal-workers-strike-against-tory-governments-handling-of-cost-of-living-crisis

with Alexander Morris and Julia Schönheit

(11:48)

Sharpening inflation spurred by the Ukraine War is driving the UK’s ‘posties’ to strike, but this latest showdown has its roots in the privatization of the mail service from a decade prior.

Starbucks is trying to wear workers down through relentless "soft" union busting

https://therealnews.com/starbucks-is-trying-to-wear-workers-down-through-relentless-soft-union-busting

by Isabela Escalona

Starbucks workers in St. Anthony, Minnesota, join fellow Starbucks workers across the country in strikes to protest unfair labor practices and union busting going on at the company on Dec. 17, 2022. Photo by Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.

This story originally appeared in Workday Magazine on Jan. 24, 2023. It is shared here with permission.

“A lot of the union busting that we’re seeing is very quiet. It’s very mellow,” says Ethan Tinklenberg, a Starbucks worker, or “partner” as the company likes to refer employees. “It’s not them making us take off our union pins or our union hats. It’s cutting our hours slowly but surely, while not promoting union leaders, and spreading misinformation about the union in conversation—but not directly, but just sort of slipping it in there with everything they say.”

Tinklenberg is a leader in the unionization effort at the 4712 Cedar Ave. location in Minneapolis, one of the top earning stores in the area. While he is energized and optimistic about the Starbucks union, he admits that union busting has been demoralizing, describing the company’s tactics as making the unionized stores miserable to work at, driving away union leaders, and draining workers of energy and enthusiasm.

Minnesota Starbucks workers interviewed by Workday Magazine attest to “soft” union-busting tactics that are on par with trends across the country: not giving unionized stores the same wage increases as non-unionized stores, not installing credit card tip readers in unionized shops, cracking down on dress code violations that never used to be enforced, cutting hours, denying promotions, and spreading confusion about the union.

OVER 270 UNIONS, NOT A SINGLE CONTRACT

French national strikes against pension reforms continue despite police repression

https://therealnews.com/french-national-strikes-against-pension-reforms-continue-despite-police-repression

by T. Kelly

(9:20)

Dozens of Texas prisoners are hunger striking against solitary confinement

https://therealnews.com/dozens-of-texas-prisoners-are-hunger-striking-against-solitary-confinement

by Mansa Musa

(34:50)

R.E.A.L. Youth Initiative Works for Prison Abolition

https://www.blackagendareport.com/real-youth-initiative-works-prison-abolition

with Margaret Kimberley

(audio, 18:11)

How to Rescue Our Democratic Society: Constitutionally Render Corporations Unequal to Humans

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/11/how-to-rescue-our-democratic-society-constitutionally-render-corporations-unequal-to-humans/

by Ralph Nader

Suspicions of state security set-up in Germany's far-right ‘coup’

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/02/02/state-security-germanys-far-right-coup/

by Kit Klarenberg

A massive police raid foiled extremist plans to topple Germany’s government. But the timing of the plot and its absurdity raised questions about a state security role in instigating it – something seen many times in Germany’s past.

On the morning of December 7th, 2022, Germany’s security services conducted the largest police raid in their history, as 3,000 officers stormed 130 properties spanning almost the entire country, as well as Austria and Italy.

When the police sweep was over, 25 individuals had been arrested for plotting to overthrow the German government. They stood accused of plotting to storm parliament, arrest lawmakers, and declare the restoration of the country’s monarchy by force, led by aristocrat Heinrich XIII Reuss.

However, a closer examination of the police action and its timing raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the alleged coup, and whether the German security state played a role in instigating it. If so, it would fit within the historical pattern of the government’s infiltration of extremist movements since the post-war period. In 2003, a German court was forced to abandon a case against a notorious neo-Nazi group when it determined the organization was at least partially, if not wholly, controlled by state assets.

The suspects accused of plotting to overthrow Germany’s government are part of a movement known as Reichsbürger, or Citizens of the Reich. This group is said to reject the legitimacy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and contends the country is not in fact a sovereign state, but a corporation created by the US and Britain after World War II.

US Lawfare and the Destabilization of Latin America

https://www.blackagendareport.com/us-lawfare-and-destabilization-latin-america

by Brian Mier

“Lawfare is the use of the law as a weapon of war, and it is the newest characteristic of 21st Century Combat,” Colonel Charles Dunlap

Lawfare is the weaponized use of the law to annihilate a political or business enemy. Common tactics used in Lawfare include: forum shopping – when public prosecutors transfer a case to a jurisdiction with a friendly judge; excessive use and abuse of coerced plea bargain testimonies which are often the only evidence presented; suppressing evidence beneficial to the defense; and close collaboration with the media to create a public spectacle. One example of the later tactic is the time Brazilian Java Jato judge Sergio Moro ordered former Economy Minister Guido Mantega to be forcibly removed from his wife’s chemotherapy session and tipped the press off in advance , to create a media circus around his arbitrary arrest on charges he was later ruled innocent of.

There are indications that US DOJ use of Lawfare was piloted in the US before being rolled out through Latin America. In July, 2008, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it was filing corruption charges against Senator Ted Stevens (R/AK) for allegedly receiving illegal reforms on a vacation property, damaging his reputation and causing him to lose his first election in over 36 years. Like future cases in Latin America, there was no material evidence presented, just a coerced plea bargain testimony made by a man who was trying to get out of jail. Months after the election, Stevens was ruled innocent, and in 2012 Judge Emmett Sullivan ruled two DOJ officials guilty of proprietorial misconduct. Nearly all of the tactics cited in the kangaroo court persecution of Ted Stevens would go on to be used against Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva within the ambit of the the US DOJ-backed Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation. Coincidence or not, it is clear that these tactics would soon be exported throughout the Americas and the World, especially through partnerships with local law enforcement officials within the ambit of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

What is Lawfare?

As two members of Lula’s defense team, Cristiano Zanin and Valeska Martins wrote with legal scholar Rafael Valim in their 2021 book Lawfare: Waging War through Law it first appeared as a military term in the 1970s, but gained popularity in a series of texts by US Air force Colonel Charles Dunlap starting in 2001, when he wrote, “Lawfare is the use of the law as a weapon of war, and it is the newest characteristic of 21st Century Combat.”

Originally described as a weaponized use of international human rights law to criticize military campaigns by the US and Israeli governments on human rights issues and to weaken support for things like the war in Iraq, it was alluded to in the in the Pentagon’s March, 2005 National Defense Strategy , which refers to law as “the weapon of the weak who use international legal cases and terrorism to usurp America.”

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“Follow the Leader”

https://off-guardian.org/2023/02/11/follow-the-leader/

by Tod Hayen

Yet another quirk of human behaviour is this propensity to follow leaders without much scrutiny as to who that leader is. This is not only to be observed in following political leaders, but in infatuations with any sort of authority (doctors) or even celebrity.

This could be attributed to the loss of the true God figure in our current contemporary culture. When God was king He really was king, even over the earthly kings who had been appointed by genealogy. There was no way, at the time, to really understand what God could possibly BE so they made up stuff, starting with God being imagined as an old white-bearded man sitting on a throne. Positioned on a cloud no less.

Now, I am certain there were many that at the time saw this as a metaphor, but there were probably many more who saw it quite literally. The uneducated and less informed had to see things in material forms, it was just too much to assimilate (and I am not being fair to those “uneducated and uninformed” that actually COULD assimilate the true ineffable God).

So then there was God in heaven, the pope and The Universal Church on the ground, and then the kings and queens who were divinely appointed beneath the church (referring only to the Euro-Christian culture).

“Shakespeare and the politics of the 21st Century”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNaSweNb9Co&feature=youtu.be

with Chris Hedges, David Herskovits, and EuniceWong

(36:45)

Nearly five centuries later, the social and political considerations of Shakespeare's oeuvre continue to offer insights pertinent to our times. David Herskovits, the founder and artistic director of Target Margin Theatre, and the actor Eunice Wong join The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the works of Shakespeare and what they might still teach us about navigating the storm of slings and arrows of our 21st Century.

10 Ways The US Is Out Of Line With The Entire World

https://www.mintpressnews.com/10-us-ranked-human-rights-last-entire-world/283650/

with Lee Camp

(14:03)

Out of the nearly 200 countries in the world, there is one country that does not behave like the others, even remotely. There is one country that is outside the norm in almost every regard. It’s a rogue nation – and it’s about time we called it to account!

The agents of the United States used to refer to any country that wasn’t acting in the interests of the empire as a “rogue state.” Countries like Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Russia, and Nauru were all labelled as such at various times. Nowadays, the U.S. government has a new expression that seems to mean the same thing. U.S. officials say, “That country is not abiding by the rules-based international order.”

When it comes to the way we’re approaching the relationship with China … we’re not seeking to hold China back. We are seeking, resolutely so, to uphold the rules-based international order. And in a practical way, that means insisting that countries make good on their commitments and play by the rules we’ve all agreed to.” – Secretary of State Antony Blinken, May 2021.

That’s right. China needs to play by the rules we’ve all agreed to! Otherwise, it’s unfair. There’s only one problem: every country has agreed to these rules except the United States.

MintPress Senior Staff Writer Alan McLeod made some nifty maps to help us out.

How British Intelligence Sabotaged Cambridge Analytica Scandal

https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-british-intelligence-sabotaged-cambridge-analytica-scandal/283366/

by Kit Klarenberg

Watch "Reporter Seymour Hersh on "How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline": Exclusive TV Interview"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4BuMaGlKp0&feature=youtu.be

with Amie Goodman and Seymour Hersh

(33:22)

UPDATE: We have blurred some imagery about 30 seconds into the video in response to a content warning from YouTube that severely limited the reach of this interview. What you see now is an edited version. For the uncensored version of this interview that aired on our show, visit democracynow.org.

When the Nord Stream pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged last September, U.S. officials were quick to suggest Russia had bombed its own pipelines. But according to a new report by the legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, it was the U.S. Navy that carried out the sabotage, with help from Norway. Citing a source "with direct knowledge of the operational planning," Hersh writes on his Substack blog that planning for the mission began in December of 2021. The White House and the Norwegian government have since denied the claims. Hersh joins us for an in-depth interview to discuss his report and says the U.S. decision to bomb the pipelines was meant to lock allies into support for Ukraine at a time when some were wavering. "The fear was Europe would walk away from the war," he says. Hersh won a Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for his reporting on the My Lai massacre. His reporting on CIA spying on antiwar activists during the Vietnam War era helped lead to the formation of the Church Committee, which led to major reforms of the intelligence community, and in 2004, he exposed the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.

The War of Terror of a Rogue Superpower: Cui Bono?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-terror-rogue-superpower-cui-bono/5808271

by Pepe Escobar

Everyone with a brain already knew the Empire did it. Now Seymour Hersh’s bombshell report not only details how Nord Stream 1 and 2 were attacked, but also names names: from the toxic Straussian neoliberal-con trio Sullivan, Blinken and Nuland all the way to the Teleprompter Reader-in-Chief.

Arguably the most incandescent nugget in Hersh’s narrative is to point ultimate responsibility directly at the White House. The CIA, for its part, gets away with it. The whole report may be read as the framing of a scapegoat. A very fragile, shoddy scapegoat – what with those classified documents in the garage, the endless stares into the void, the cornucopia of incomprehensible mumbling, and of course the whole, ghastly, years-long family corruption carousel in and around Ukraine, still to be completely unveiled.

Hersh’s report happened to pop up immediately after the deadly earthquakes in Turkey/Syria. This is an investigative journalism earthquake in itself, straddling over fault lines and revealing countless open air fissures, nuggets of truth gasping for air amidst the rubble.

But is that all there is? Does the narrative hold from start to finish? Yes and no. First of all, why now? This is a leak – essentially from one Deep State insider, Hersh’s key source. This 21^stcentury “Deep Throat” remix may be appalled at the toxicity of the system, but at the same time he knows that whatever he says, there will be no consequences.

Cowardly Berlin – ignoring the nuts and bolts of the scheme all along – will not even squeak. After all the Green gang has been ecstatic, because the terror attack has thoroughly advanced their medieval de-industrialization agenda. In parallel, as an extra bonus, all the other European vassals receive further confirmation this is the fate that awaits them if they don’t follow His Master’s Voice.

Hersh’s narrative frames the Norwegians as the essential accessory to terror. Hardly surprising: NATO’s Jens “Peace is War” Stoltenberg has been a CIA asset for perhaps half a century. And Oslo of course had its own motives to be part of the deal; to collect loads of extra cash selling whatever spare energy it had for desperate European customers.

See, also: Ukraine War: Russia was “Running out of Missiles.” Russian Reports vs. US Media

Watch “Let's talk about the news”

https://www.youtube.com/live/hfFLsW1FI6k?feature=share

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(2:48:43)

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5G Dangers, 5th Generation Wireless Technology. Health and Environmental Impacts

https://www.globalresearch.ca/5g-dangers-5th-generation-wireless-technology-health-and-environmental-impacts/5663264

by Electromagnetic Sense Ireland

This first EU 5G Appeal was initially submitted in September 2017 to the European Commission demanding a moratorium on the increase of cell antennas for planned 5G expansion. Concerns over health effects from higher radiation exposure include potential neurological impacts, infertility, and cancer.

“We the undersigned scientists and doctors recommend a moratorium on the roll-out of the fifth generation, 5G, for telecommunication until potential hazards for human health and the environment have been fully investigated by scientists independent from industry. 5G will substantially increase exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) on top of the 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, etc. for telecommunications already in place. RF-EMF has been proven to be harmful for humans and the environment…”

READ EU APPEAL HERE

5G is the next generation of mobile and wireless communication.

It will provide faster speeds (up to 100 times) and higher capacity transmissions to carry the massive amount of data that will be generated from the Internet of Things (IoT), driverless cars, smart cities and towns, drones, and for faster video streaming. There are even plans to provide 5G from space, meaning thousands of satellites to cover every square inch of the earth with wireless radiation.

5G will include the higher millimeter wave frequencies never before used for internet and communications technology. The 5G deployment proposes to add frequencies in the microwave spectrum in the low- (0.6 GHz – 3.7 GHz), mid- (3.7GHz – 24 GHz), and high-band frequencies (24 GHz and higher) for faster communications. As these higher frequencies do not travel far and are blocked by buildings, this system will have to use a dense network of fixed antennae outdoors every 300 meters as well as indoor systems. This radiation, like the 2G, 3G, 4G telecommunications systems, has not had pre market testing for long term health effects despite the fact that people will be exposed continuously to this microwave radiation.

It is argued that the addition of this added high frequency 5G radiation to an already complex mix of lower frequencies, will contribute to a negative public health outcome both from both physical and mental health perspectives.

Environmental effects of existing RF radiation have also been ignored. 5G will massively increase the microwave and millimeter wave radiation in our environment, and will have a detrimental effect on wildlife and trees. 5G will substantially increase exposure to radio–frequency electromagnetic fields RF-EMF, that has already been proven to be harmful for humans, animals and the environment.

See, also:The Dangers of 5G to Children’s Health

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News from Underground by Mark Crispin Miller